Texas Times

Howdy y'all...
We are in Richardson, TX with Doug, Gina & Sushi (an 11 year old Shih-tzu who is allowing Mr. Cubby to share all of her toys...although grudgingly). We had a nice drive to Amarillo, TX after leaving Susanne and Andy's in Albuquerque. We stayed overnight in Amarillo and took a drive thru the Palo Duro Canyon area, which is a beautiful state park where you can take a 16 mile drive to the bottom of the canyon and back up. We were afraid that we'd get really rained upon because we saw some very dark clouds and lightning on the way to the canyon, but we enjoyed a nice drive with great canyon scenery and just a little bit of rain.

Driving from Amarillo to the Dallas area was not what we expected. We thought we'd have flat dry (and a rather boring) trip. Instead, we saw green rolling hills, lots of wildflowers and fields with cattle (including some Texas longhorn steers), sheep, horses and camels. Yes, we saw a field full of camels. There were probably 15-20 of them....not at all what we expected to see. It was a treat!

We also saw some cute small towns and a couple of very cute little stores including the "Fish and Chirps" pet store and the "It'll Do" Motel. Even McDonald's had a very Texas theme, with a sink in the Ladies Room that was in the shape of the "great state of Texas"....these Texans are quite the proud folk.

In Richardson, we've enjoyed spending time with Doug, Gina, Nikki and Kayce (Gina's Mom). They are making us feel wanted and very much at home. We hope to see Missy this weekend.

Gina took us to the Dallas Arboretum and it was a gorgeous sunny day...not too hot, especially with the hats that Gina had us all wear. We sunscreened up, down and all over, then walked through lovely gardens, looking at some of the most beautiful flowers ever. We "lunched" at the Arboretum near a group of Dallas ladies who were all decked out in their colorful clothes and hats (we asked a couple of the ladies for a picture.....They were the dearest ladies with the greatest accents. The one in the black dress, with the lime green tights, the big lime green hat and the bigger lime green purse was especially fun to see.)

Yesterday we drove around the area a bit and admired all of the wonderful brick houses that are a big part of the Dallas area. Doug took us to a large antique mall where the 2 older folk (Mom W and Dad R), Doug and I wandered around looking at some really great stuff....but Dad said (correctly) that we don't have any more room in our car for anything bigger than a peanut...so, I did lots of looking but no buying (which will make Jack happy, too.)

Speaking of Jack...his flight arrives tonight and Doug will be picking him up from the airport while we enjoy another of Gina's delicious dinners. She's a really good cook as I'm sure some of you already know. So, yee haw to y'all.... we are having a big ol' Texas good time.