Summer Plans

For vacation this summer Husby and I are going to west Texas. Yee haw! Our vacation last year to Europe was a definitely a splurge. Being the planner that I am, tonight I decided to research a few destinations to hit. Our trip is inspired by a class trip I took in middle school.

When I was in eighth grade our science teacher took three dozen students to west Texas for a week. Can you EVEN IMAGINE taking that many middle schoolers that far away?! We traveled by Amtrak train from Dallas to Alpine, Texas, and then ventured to places including: Carlsbad Caverns, the Marfa lights, Big Bend, El Paso, and rafting down the Rio Grande for a picnic on the Mexico side (something not advised these days). We stayed at Prude Ranch--a dude ranch where they warned us not to venture from our cabins after bedtime for fear of javelinas. Amazingly, it worked, even though we were pretty sure it was a fictional animal. Turns out--they're real. (And now a HUGE problem in Texas.) They also told us ghost stories about the ranch. I realize now that was probably in an attempt to scare us into not leaving our cabins at night. Smart people.

As a side note of very little importance, I came to loathe pimiento cheese after this trip and didn't eat it for at least 15 years after. For three lunches we had a very simple pimiento cheese--grated cheese mixed with mayonnaise--on white bread. But then I somehow convinced myself to take a tiny bite of pimiento cheese from Central Market, and I liked it. They use fine grated cheese, mayonnaise, pimientos, garlic powder and dill. It's yummy on crackers. Plus it hasn't been sitting in the bottom of a chartered bus for five hours. It really makes a difference.

Now back to our trip. We've talked about visiting each of the places I did on our trip, including McDonald Observatory and Fort Davis. As well as a couple of other sites like Monahans Sandhills and Balmorhea Springs. Although it will be a lot of driving, I think it'll be fun. Plus, we can listen to some books on tape. Like every other cool couple I know. Right?

We thought it'd be super fun, as well, to camp at Big Bend National Park. So I pulled up that information to read about reservations and such. I thought it'd be wise to read about safety at Big Bend. Of course, I realize it's in the desert, so water is essential. I also realize that snakes are in the wild. And we're going into the wild. I wasn't prepared for the sentence that read: inspect your shoes and sleeping bag before use. At which point I announced to Husby that we would not be camping in a tent at Big Bend. This girl does not do rattlesnakes. (Or any other kind of snake, really.) Instead, I'll find a cute little cabin that will keep us from  lions and snakes and bears. They're all out there in the wild of west Texas.