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<\/a><\/p>\nAs we left Billy Bobs, we stumbled upon a daily (actually, 2x\/day)\u00a0event that happens in the stockyards-a short cattle drive down main street. Several Texas longhorns are led down the street by cowboys, passing very close to\u00a0BMWs and minivans that are\u00a0parked along side. We got a chuckle at one point when one of the cowboys shouted to another that “Chet,” a large-horned cow\u00a0in the back of the herd, was slowing all the rest of them down, and Chet needed to pick up the pace. We watched Chet closely\u00a0after the\u00a0dressed cowpoke hollered, and we think he actually smirked, and slowed down even more, just to piss the riders off a bit. Chet did speed up a little when another cowboy rode back and showed him the steakhouse they were all trotting by!<\/p>\n
After leaving Fort Worth, we began our long\u00a0trek across West Texas. If you’ve ever been to West Texas, you know the landscape is not very exciting to look at. I know that every environment has its own natural beauty, but today, the last day of January, in dreary, rainy weather, we did not witness much of that beauty. Yes, we saw an occasional kestrel perched on a wire, and a raven or two, but that was about it for 5 hours. What we did see\u00a0were oil and gas wells. Hundreds and hundreds of them dotted the landscape for a hundred miles on both sides of the highway. We didn’t even see a roadkill of any kind! We did catch sight of a single Eurasian Collared Dove in Big Spring. We think it was a Lonesome Dove!<\/p>\n Our last stop of the day may have been the most interesting. We learned that there was a replica of the Worlds Largest Paper Airplane in Abilene, and we\u00a0HAD to go and see that! We finally found it in the backyard of a small art gallery, except the gallery was closed with a locked gate. So, we noticed a gas station right next door where we could park and sneak a look\/photo over the broken down fence. I did notice the No Trespassing signs and respected them. Tyler had ran in to the mini-mart to quickly use the restroom, while I used my stealth skills to sneak a picture. After snapping a quick pic, I noticed a man walking straight toward me, from\u00a0the direction of the closed art gallery. Uh Oh! Was I busted? The man came right up to me, as Tyler came walking over. I asked him if the gallery was going to open. He walked within three feet of me, stopped and said, “I don’t know, are you supposed to be meeting me?” I looked at him, then at\u00a0Tyler, then back at him, with a puzzled look on my face. I noticed he was holding a wad of cash in his hand. When he spotted my camera, he quickly turned,\u00a0 and walked away to a waiting car. Tyler looked at me with a weird smile and asked, “Was he trying to by drugs from you?”\u00a0 “Dad, I think you just broke up his drug deal-you obviously weren’t the one he was hoping to see!” Tyler said, half laughing. We jumped in the Prius and left Abilene and\u00a0Texas in the rear view mirror, heading for NM border. What a day!<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Texas. It’s big, really big. Day\u00a03 was all about Texas. Since 3pm on day two, we had been crossing the Lone Star State. Although we had several stops and did not cross it at its widest point, we still put in over 8 hours of driving time, just in Texas! That’s the equivalent of driving … Continue reading Big West Trip-Day 3 Texas, Straight Up<\/span> <\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>