The
Short Cut has officially accomplished its purpose. We made it to Waco. Simple trip, right? Just up the road a piece, right? Absolutely.
Just the one short cut.
So
what wonders befell us this fine short cutted day? Well, we decided to tie up some loose
ends. We have been to this area before,
but there were some things we didn’t get to do.
We were first considering going on a hike up to some enchanted rock, but
the weather was absolutely out of control.
It was 40 degrees when we woke up, but by noon it was over 80. Just crazy.
Since we didn’t know how to dress for a hike in coldish/sweltering
weather, we chose to bypass the hike this time.
Next
on the list was the LBJ Ranch. What was
such the appeal there? Well, it is a
national landmark, so that means they have stamps for our national parks
book. Gotta get the stamps. The thing we missed last time was the tour of
the White House of the West. The place
LBJ spent more than a third of his time while he was president. It was a pretty cool place, too. Everything has been restored to what it was
like when LBJ was in residence.
History. Always a plus. Of course Chris took a boatload of
pictures. So many that the card on the
camera got filled up and she had to switch to her phone. Oh, and we met Bart and Bo. Bartholomew Bison (Bart, the buffalo. We saw some
buffalo right before turning into the park) and Little Bovine Johnson (Bo, the Hereford cow. We had to stop several times inside the park,
either to take a picture of them or to let one cross the road in front of us). They both enjoyed our company so much that
they decided to come on the rest of our trip with us.
The
second half of the tour was in a totally different site. We had to drive into downtown Johnson City (named after LBJ’s great grandpa or uncle or
somebody else, not him) to see the house he was brought up in (different stamp involved for the book). But, the tours were shut down until after lunch. Now, there was one other matter of unfinished
business. We never ate at the Bluebonnet
Café in Marble Falls. And Marble Falls was
only 22 miles away. So off we flew. There was a line out the door when we
arrived, but they let us cut because there were just two of us and we didn’t mind
sitting at “The Counter” (Whatever that
meant). The Café was like entering
into a time warp. The place was packed
with people. We were indeed seated at an
actual counter like you see in old pictures.
The waitress took our order, and we didn’t even have to wait long. Chris had chicken fried steak. I had fried chicken livers, fried okra, corn
on the cob and a salad. Had to go
healthy, right? The portions were
huge. And the place is also known for
its pies, so we ordered a slice of chocolate cream. Nice. We
also bought a whole apple pie to take with us to Josh’s. It is his favorite.
After
lunch we backtracked to Johnson City for the next stamp at the extended campus. The boyhood home tour was more about LBJ’s
Mom than anything else. Apparently she
was quite the strong personality. Oh,
and in the gift shop, who should we find waiting for us but Him. Well, I guess maybe it was an extension of
Him. Or maybe Her. Confused yet?
Those were the names of LBJ’s dogs.
He wasn’t very creative in that realm.
Actually, when we decided to adopt our little guy we found out that he
already had a name beyond “Him.” Little
Beagle Johnson. Sensing a pattern
here? LBJ? Anyway, no one wants to be called Lil Beagle,
so we shortened it to Beeg.
After
the make-up tours were completed we were finally ready to reap the benefits of
the trip. We headed on towards Waco. After a lengthy texting conversation with
Nathan in Chris’ name (She was driving,
so she told me what to say. She started
the whole thing off by stunning us all.
Something about her thinking about getting a tattoo of a bluebonnet?),
and a secondary short cut to track down a possible tour of a winery (Nathan sent us a location not ten miles from
where we were. Ain’t technology
grand? No tours there, though. Just tasting), we had to stop in a random
parking lot because the brake light in the car suddenly came on. After we restarted the car, it went off
again, but lo and behold, what should be the absolute centerpiece of this
otherwise empty lot? None other than the
World’s Largest Spur. I don’t know how
to wear a spur, much less use one. But
this one was bigger than a house.
OK. I’m good now. Great vacation.
On
a different note, we went through such booming metropolises as Pidcoke and
Topsey. Topsey was my favorite,
though. We got behind the school bus. When it finally stopped, one child got
off. Just one. Poor Topsey.
But then it must be tough living in a town named for a bunny
rabbit. And not even the main character
bunny rabbit. But I guess Topsey sounds
more intriguing than Peter Rabbit-ville.
We
arrived in time to see some of Zakary’s track practice. Christi had a great Mexican food dinner
prepared for us, and by nine o’clock I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The Astros game didn’t even start until nine
(Seattle), so I left them to their
own devices and went to sleep. Kind of
glad I missed that game, to tell you the truth.
Lost. Now Keuchel is 0-3. He’s not pitching bad, but they only scored
one run for him. The world champion
offense is still on vacation.
Psalms
50:1 says, “The Mighty One, God, the
Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place
where it sets.”
Father,
thank you for our short cut mini-vacation.
Educational. And a little bit
fun. Amen.
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