Whoosh....

...we just made a big ole triangle around the center of Texas.

Monday morning Jolea and I took off from home around 7.  We were southbound on I-35. 
Checked in at Gruene Hall in Gruene, Texas around noon. 
Boy, was that Lone Star Long-neck good.  Something about the beer in that old dance hall....

Too bad Jack Ingram wasn't there doing a sound check, he could have sung the Barbie Doll song to Jolea, again!

After a little browsing in our favorite Gruene shops, picked up my favorite hand cream and Jolea needed a new Gruene Hall t-shirt, we scooted on over to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  They were doing quiet well, had a nice calm Christmas with only Jody's twin sister and close friends in for the holidays.   We visited, watched our fair share of Judge Judy, People's Court and those other court room dramas, Grandpa even has his own gavel that he can rap when everyone is out of order or in contempt. 

Then the next morning we were up and on the road again.  This time winding our way down the back roads heading East. 

We were working our way, small town to small town in search of a DPS office that didn't have 57 people standing in line for driver's license renewal.  Jolea's had expired on her last birthday so it was her only chance to renew.  First to Seguine, no luck.  So on to Shiner. 

Well Shiner didn't have an office so we went to the brewery instead.  What???? Isn't that what you do when you can't get your license renewed?  Not just any brewery, the Spoetzl Brewery, famous for Shiner Bock beer. 

We went in to the gift shop to check on the tour schedule and learned that we'd just missed the 11am tour.  They gave us 4 wooden tokens so that we could get 4 little 4oz samples of the different brews.  I found that I prefer the Shiner 101 to the others, we also learned that Shiner Blond was the original Shiner Bock beer.  Very interesting, and tasty. I'm sure the tour would have been very interesting, oh well...

We were on a schedule, couldn't wait for the 1pm tour.  So what do we do when time limits us?  Jolea does her own tour... it wasn't the first time.  We had people follow us all over Savannah for her walking tours.  She is practicing to be the next Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel you know.

Up a flight of stairs and into a glowing Mecca for a beer drinker.

I had my story planned... "Officer, I was taking pictures for proof that there was indeed a break-in, I have no idea who that crazy looking red-head is.  Frisk her, she probably doesn't even have I.D."

Once back down,  I had the brilliant idea that we should have had someone down in the parking lot taking pictures of her...
Not a problem!  There she goes again...


"Put your drinks up!!!"

Our motto is "let's give them something to talk about."  And I believe they were, we got several looks from people as we walked through the parking lot, could have been because we were laughing and making funny remarks.  There were even two girls (Jolea's age) watching us with that look in their eye as if saying "if only I wasn't with my parents." 

We'd worked up an appetite and needed to move on to the next town that may have a DPS office, so off we went to Halletsville.  You know the town in that song Armadillo Jackal by  Robert Earl Keene Jr.   No, we didn't eat armadillo, well at least I don't think we did.  We had Mexican food, tacos al carbon, OMG... they were awesome.  

After lunch we went to the opposite side of the square, behind the courthouse to the DPS office where Jolea was told by the clerk, in a honest to goodness deep Texas twang "oooh we don't do that here anymore.  We just didn't have enough peeeeple comin' in for renewals.  We quit a cupple of months ago.  You could just drive on pronounced own down to Victoria or over to Columbus to git that done." 

Uh, Victoria?  No, Columbus... it's on the way to Houston... OK.  So around 3:30 after I got a tan and knitted 10 rows on a sweater Jolea comes walking out of the DPS office in Columbus, TX with photo copy of her new license, mission accomplished, we hit the road again.  East bound on I-10.

When we arrived at Nita's Jolea got a quick tour of the house, we unloaded our stuff and we were out the door to La Hacienda.  Yeah, we can do Mexican food twice a day... it's who we are. 

Early the next morning we headed  toward home.  Winding our way down the back roads again.

With a stop at Buc-ee's in Madisonville.  Jolea had never been to a Buc-ee's.  She had to model one of those bald-man hair hats and tour the most unbelievable restrooms in the world, in a truck-stop that is. 

We rolled in to Dallas around noon, and pulled into the driveway shortly before 1pm.
Bright and early this morning we drove back into Dallas to put Jolea on a flight to Ft. Lauderdale.  Her friend Judy was picking her up to drive her on down to Key West.  She had a bag full of goodies for her apartment, her need for Taco Bell, Whataburger, home cooking and Tex-Mex food met, and many good visits with old friends in the memory bank.  It was a good visit. 

Now she's going to want to top it the next time she comes home.

 Yee haw... I can't wait!