700 miles (almost)
...and we're still in Texas
If we'd come straight west when we crossed from Louisiana, we'd only have 70-odd miles to go before we'd reached the far border (at the state's widest point). Understatement alert: Texas is a big state. It's my first time to be in it beyond flying in and out. From what I've seen through the windshield, it both lives up to all the hype and is similar to many other places we've seen this fall and winter. It's populated with folks just trying to make a living as the land and the economy allows them - and that's not so different from other places, is it?
We found a quiet spot under the pecan trees at an old United Confederate Veterans camp near Wichita Falls. This Stonewall Jackson Camp #249 is now maintained by the city of Holliday; the last UCV camp meeting held here was 1940.
Ballfields and cow pastures surround us. At a pleasantly unobtrusive distance from camp, a set of windchimes hang in a tree. We're right on the edge of an owl's hunting ground and smack dab in the middle of a skunk's! Thankfully, a mutual avoidance policy is in place and holding.
Super Bowl LI
...and the end of the Falcons' run.
You won't get any sports analysis here. I just have a couple reactions: I've learned I like watching football games more when I don't care who wins! When it was over I felt like I'd been on a rollercoaster with one hill: a 3-quarters-long climb and a 4th-quarter sudden drop. Whew.
Dennis and I have enjoyed the NFL post-season in true 78 square feet style - which means the barbecue grill got lots of sun and Mr 78sqft got creative with the chip dip concocting. The week before the NFC championship game, we scored these bacon-wrapped shrimp and cheese jalepeño poppers for half-price at Brookshire's.
They were scrump-diddly-umptious, let me tell you.
We turned these $1/bag tomatoes...
...into fresh salsa (with the help of a flavor pack and onions we already had on hand):
The afternoon of the Super Bowl, I womanned the grill. First up, deboned chicken legs marinated in one of Dennis's never-to-be duplicated creations:
We found some shrimp, and shrimp just begs for garlic sautéed in butter:
Mr 78sqft put it all together, and here's the smorgasboard we ended up with:
We're still working on leftovers!
Update, and looking ahead
Since I wrote the first two sections of this article we've traveled to Floydada (Dennis calls it "Flo-daddy") by way of Crosbyton. We made good use of the two-nights-free city RV parks in both towns during the cold, rainy weather the past four days. Strong winds rocked our little Casita, but no tornados for us in the panhandle!
We have several more pictures to share of our time here, and enough experiences to post one more Texas-themed article. Also, we have an exciting project in the works: assembling, wiring, plumbing, and installing a new heating system in our camper. We hope to document and publish that process. In theory, it works awesomely! We don't know why it shouldn't work in real life, but you know how these things go. Sometimes, tweakage is required.
Stay warm, stay free. Till next time!