Drive from Texas

July 7-9
Prior to leaving I searched the weather apps and found that we could go any direction we wanted. There were clear skies everywhere. I also looked for every location of Red Lobster, Skippers, and Long John Silver's I could find along our proposed routes. No luck except if we wanted to stop in Denver. I find it very strange that fish restaurants are mostly gone.

Day 1: Italy TX to Raton NM
We left before the crack of dawn so that we could get through Dallas before traffic really hit. Once we were north of that tangle of traffic we stopped for breakfast at a McDonald's and were carefully watched by a greedy gang of grackles.

We did not stop at the best donut shop ever in Wichita Falls, and the gift shops we used to visit on 287 are now out of business. So it was all about drive and drive and drive. We did find a really cool new one and of course I didn't write down either its the name or location. Ah well, I know it's on 287 somewhere in west Texas.

Day 2: Raton NM to Rock Springs WY
Raton is a lovely town, could be fun to spend a weekend. The morning drive was lovely. We went took the toll road around Denver and stopped at a couple of shops in Fort Collins to stretch our legs. I will admit to looking for western themed items to go with the new bedroom décor I was planning. No real luck but it was still nice to get out and move.

We were about 10 miles outside of Rock Springs when we drove through this huge dust cloud. Shortly after that my car had a panic attack. It had all the bells and whistles going off telling me to pull over. Flashing lights and warning notes on the screens and argh. Traffic was super heavy and the freeway was packed because of construction. I eventually pulled over. Shanna had pulled out the manuals and was reading. I figured I was driving a computer so the thing to do was restart. I restarted and we still had warnings but not as many. The car thought it was having a heart attack from what we could tell.

I made the executive decision to get back on the road and drive the remaining 5 miles to Rock Springs. After all, the check engine light was flashing, not solid. The car wasn't driving any differently than normal and there were no weird sounds. We managed to get back on the freeway and into Rock Springs where we checked into our motel and called the dealer.

They said to call back in the morning when their expert was there, but that I might want to take it through a car wash. WTF? I called my dealer back home and they said it might be the air filter. The manual was no help at all. We decided to drive it to a restaurant. Of course the Applebee's was now out of business but a local Mexican place was pretty good. When we got back in the car the lights and warnings were still on though the alarms had stopped.

We stopped to put gas in the car, got back in and everything was fine. WTF part 2.

My drama queen vehicle

Day 3: Rock Springs to Pocatello
We got up late since the dealer didn't open early. Called in and got the 'too busy but if you show up you might be fitted in' answer. Called my Pocatello dealer. They told me to go to any car parts store. These stores have the magic device that can read the codes and tell what is really wrong.

YAY that worked. The air filter was icky. Probably from driving through that big dust cloud. I would have bought a new one but they didn't have it in stock so we knocked the dirt off and put it back in. Problem solved. The car clearly had a panic attack. We headed for home. No more car problems.

In Kemmerer we stopped to check out another rock shop In Stone Fossils: https://instonefossils.com/.

A little side story... I love the books by Patricia C. Wrede where she reimagined the world and made magic part of it. Unfortunately she made the Americas devoid of native populations in order to make it a wild and magic place (there be dragons). I love the books despite this because of the humor and the characters it is set in the late 1800s/early 1900s Book 1: Thirteenth Child, Book 2: Across the Great Barrier, and Book 3: The Far West. We listened to these books while we were driving in the car. One of the books lists some of the wildlife beyond the great barrier. This list included a wooly rhinoceros. I had never heard of this creature till I read the books. I looked it up and they really did exist. I'm so bummed that like the wooly mammoth we no longer have them on the planet.

So when we stopped at the fossil store and there was a complete wooly rhinoceros skeleton I could hardly contain my glee.

 

Using Shanna for scale

 

My new fossil (Knightia eocaena) from this shop

 

Super cool to find these rock shops in Kemmerer. We finished our drive to Pocatello noticing the darkening of the skies. It would be strange to have it be mist or fog with such hot weather. *sigh* It was smoke. What we later learned and experienced is that smoke from the huge fires in California were drifting all over the west.

Glad to be home. - Jenny

Downstairs Bathroom: Before

From the doorway, this is a very small bathroom. The mirror is not a medicine cabinet but a wall mirror we hung up over the hole cut into the wall that went into the adjoining room.

Tiny shower with contact paper covered tin walls and an unsupported tin floor which flexed if you were standing in it. This was a shower to be avoided if at all possible. There is a piece of the large built-in linen closet on the left.

Another look at the bottom of the linen closet and the okay linoleum which replaced the ratty carpet years ago. The rug is not doing us any favors here.

You can't see the small table functioning as additional shelf/vanity surface on the right but you can see the stuff on it.

Okay here's a better picture of the table and yeah, this was due for a serious cleaning. We just gave up. After all we knew that the whole place was going to be stripped shortly, so why bother.

Summer Bedroom 2021

Bedroom Revision: Romantic Cowgirl
July 2021

Over the 4th of July weekend Shanna and I went to Texas to visit, to bird, and to pick up an antique washstand, bowl and pitcher that my mother left me. I remember her refinishing furniture in the 60's and 70's. I think she refinished this washstand when we lived in Taylor Idaho in the early 1970s. The pitcher and bowl were my great aunt Jenny's. Mom wore the boots when she was on the stage playing Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun back in the 60s. She was very talented.

Here's the washstand with pitcher, bowl, and mirror

Since the divorce I've been thinking about swapping out my king size bed for something smaller. Something that would give me more room in my bedroom. Now I had a substantial reason to do so. I wanted to make room for the washstand. It was also time for my bedroom to have a new look. You know that I like to change the look of my bedroom every 6 months or less so this is no huge surprise. This time I took a new cowgirl direction. I call it Romantic Cowgirl.

I picked up the hide now mounted on the wall in Texas too.

The team delivering my new mattress looked at my california king bed and asked in worried tones if I knew the size of the delivery. I reassured them that yes, I knew I was getting a double bed and yes I had a frame already. They were super sweet about removing the old matress and breaking down my large frame. I stored it in my garage for future use or gifting.

Some of the bedding from the king bed still works like this poppy covered quilt, but there are others that are going to be shared out. I took this opportunity to add another layer of details such as changing all finials to faceted faux crystals

My sister Nanette is a gifted knitter/crochet artist and she gave me this amazing afghan while I was visiting. I found this marvelous chair at a thrift store then had it recovered in the green plush. It's a good chair for reading.

This crystal lamp came from my mother and she is also responsible for the wooden fruit box. She bequeathed me a love of boxes and I have to fight the urge to buy ALL THE BOXES. The lamp is sitting on an old fashioned record cabinet where I keep my guitar music. Mom refinished this piece also.

My two dressers (super cheap black ones from Walmart to go with all of the solid pieces and antiques). The ring box is sitting on another refinished fruit box from my mom.

Here's my contribution to refinished furniture. Mom did a number of pieces in a blue with black glaze back in the 60s. I did this one in red with a black glaze. I found the dresser at a thrift store back in the 90s.

A last look, notice the double curtains. Shanna helped me hang these fancy rods. The embroidered flower sheers I picked up at a thrift store in Utah and the green drapes used to hang on the four poster king size bed. I picked up the Navajo rug just south of Cortez CO at Thunderbird Trading and I can't remember where the roses rug came from. I'm very happy with this romantic, joyful, nostalgic room.

- Jenny

Texas Summer Visit

June 28 - July 6
Yes of course we went birding. See the July posts on BlueRaven https://blueravenbirders.com/2021/07/. But we also hung out with family.

Nan's cat lurking up high

We finally did it. Went to a Buccees. Shanna's online friends insisted that since they couldn't go she had to. We did look for them on the way to and from Corpus Christie. In the end we had to make a targeted trip to the one near Italy TX. Super entertaining. It's a chain of oversized stop and go's selling everything from food and souvenirs to gas and clothing.

Shanna trying on hat at Buccees

And we got to spend the 4th of July with the family. Mike hosts a barbque picnic and pool party then he and his kids set off super high quality fireworks.

I loved the safety measures and watching teenagers run back and forth to set off the rockets safely was super entertaining. I don't have any pictures of that since it was complete dark. Here are a few images of the sparklers that started the party.

Lumos

Sparkler interpretive dance

Drive to Texas

June 25-27, 2012 

 I plotted out several routes to get to Texas. The plan was to take our time and take lots of breaks to stretch our legs. I was also hoping to avoid any of the seriously bad weather that had been plaguing Texas. Every evening I would work with my weather apps to determine where we'd go next.

On Friday we left work early and headed for Wyoming. We were only going to drive for 3 hours to get to Kemmerer. I've never stopped there before and it was a great little town. We stopped at a rock shop cause I'm always interested in new rocks

This shop was all kinds of amazing: https://wyomingfossils.com/ 

The next day we headed for the outskirts of Denver. And there we found out that locating a Red Lobster was going to be harder than we though. This was during the lull in Covid so we thought it would be okay (and time proved it was) to eat in the restaurant. We circled one location a number of times before realizing that it had not only closed but had already been taken over by another restaurant. Eventually we found one further away and YUM fish.

That evening while looking at the weather I could see a line of severe storms lining up to get us if we took 2 more days to get there. Our only hope was a brief break in storms the next evening. We got up early and skedaddled. We got into Texas on 287 and drove right between large storm clouds with lightning and rain in the near distance on both the left and right sides of the car. Phew, made it. 

 Shanna's travel companion

 

The funniest thing about this trip is that Idaho was about to get slammed with a monster 102 degree heatwave. Texas rarely got above 80 something. In July. Crazy.