Easter vacation

Finally.

I haven't spent any significant time in Lubbock for four years. So, after giving my wife a serious guilt trip when we couldn't make it back for Christmas, I wrangled a promise that we'd go to my hometown for Easter.

That's what we've been doing for the last five days. I don't like to maintain radio silence here for so long. I wanted to blog in Lubbock, but Mom's computer decided to die -- and to not get into te Easter spirit and come back.

Anyway. No real stories to tell. It was a family vacation with no disasters. I noticed that I started off taking a lot of pictures, and then got bored. So, here's a few shots of the Lubbock trip.

Seymour road and buildings and plant life.

We stayed off the Interstates for the trip and took Route 114 instead, one of the great West Texas roads. Great because you go through Seymour, which has a Subway.

And great because you drive by some legendary Texas ranches. Route 114 goes through Guthrie, which is basically the town of the Four 6's ranch.

This week's saddle soap: Wildflower jubilee!

We stopped in Guthrie for a Coke and Feed Sam break. The town has one service station, est. 1939. I got a big kick out of a recent expansion project, which added some room in the back, plywood serving as the walls.

Meredith noticed they used whiskey and coke bottles and coffee cans to fill in the gaps on the rock wall.

Sam cried about the last hour of the trip. We got in about 4:30 and spent the rest of the day talking to my brothers and sister and letting Sam play with everyone.

The trip did a world of good for Sam. Being around all those people seemed to switch on a light for him and his personality bubbled up.

Prairie Dog Town

No one can say they've experienced Lubbock without a visit to Prairie Dog Town. It's our version on whatever cheesy thing every one else takes everyone to see when they have visitors. While we were there, an Indian (of India) family arrived -- one girl was dressed in full traditional Indian garb, and they proceeded to take many pictures of her with the prairie dogs.

Meredith and Sam, and vital history.
We saw some other stuff that day: The wineries, Texas Tech, but see above statement about taking pictures.

Baseball and George

The next day, Sam got to see his first Texas Tech sporting event. The Raiders of Red fell 3-4 after a pretty good effort against a Longhorn team that had many more grande hombres.

Sam with Grandad and mom.

And, for those who either worked at the Avalanche-Journal or lived in West Hall, yes, that's George Watson just above Meredith's head.

I keep forgetting that he has a beard and didn't recognize him until he got on the field for post-game interviews.

So we had a good trip. Kept reminding myself on the way home that we needed to do this again soon. Sometime. Within the foreseeable future. Who knows.

The broken-legged cat says goodbye.