I have covered the wide open spaces in 9 days this month…Oklahoma…Nebraska…Texas. I have seen vast open space, lots of corn and straw, a plethora of cacti, cows, goats, and horses. I have been in two towns without a hotel, or a restaurant.
My first stop was in Depew, OK….now I pronounced the town phonetically Dě Pew and was quickly told that it was DēēPew by the teachers that grew up there….this was one of the smallest towns I have been in…no hotel, no restaurant, one gas station and two schools was all that I saw and I was greeted every morning by the big boy in the photo!
Because there was no hotel in the town, I stayed in Stroud which had a McDonald’s, Sonic, a Pizza Hut, and several Mexican restaurants…as well as the hotel restaurant “The Ranch House Restaurant”. The first morning of my trip, I decided to try the hotel food and was surprised to see a full house when I entered the doors. Apparently, the men in town ate breakfast there every morning…
…lots of chatter and laughter as well as lots of food. There is nothing small about portions in Oklahoma… one morning I ordered 2 pancakes thinking about the size I usually get when in the city….but that’s not what you’ll get at the “Ranch House”…I have never seen such a serving….the pancakes were great…just too much for me to eat.
Nebraska was the next stop…getting to the site was no picnic…once I landed in Omaha I had to drive over 3 hours to get to the town. Lots of corn and straw in Nebraska…not many places to stay or eat….but the teachers were great and I got to work with one of my favorite colleagues who taught me more about straw and hay than I thought there was to know.
To round out the trip, I ended up in Comstock, Texas…..
Now to get to Comstock you can fly into Del Rio on a puddle jumper with no air or you can fly into San Antonio and drive three and a half hours…I did the former once in 100 degree heat and have driven the three hours ever since! Del Rio is where I stay, but I couldn’t quite remember how to get to the hotel. I knew that things didn’t look familiar, but the dead give away was when I saw a large sign directly in front of me “Last chance to turn around or you will be entering Mexico!”
The Border Crossing was ahead and I knew I had missed my turn….I was the only one making the U-Turn!
Each day I drove from Del Rio to Comstock… a drive with brush, tumbleweeds and cacti growing on hills dotted with huts on stilts for the border patrol to watch for illegals crossing into Texas.
I had to stop at the border patrol where the dog sniffed my car and I was asked several questions (I was on my best behavior!) and then allowed to proceed on to the school which was tucked back from the road
right on the border of Mexico and Texas.
The nine days was rigorous with the travel and there is indeed no place like home for me…but I am feel very fortunate to have the opportunity so see so much of the country and meet some terrific people in the off the road places in which I work.