Isn't 80 mph enough?

It's December 17th and N and I are in Alpine, Texas. We're here to do some Real Estate business--more about that later. It's Monday and we began our day by delivering bikes, groceries and WalMart cards to our "secret Santa family" living near Bwd lake. After delivering and returning home to pack for the trip, we were on the road by 9:30. A second stop at sister-in-law's work to leave a bag of gifts for her sons and families. As N drove, I began addressing Christmas cards--might as well do something for the 6 hours the trip will probably take.

We stopped in Ballinger at an Allsups to get N some coffee and snacks. And we discovered a NEW (to us,) Dr. Pepper. Who out there has tried Chocolate Cherry Dr Pepper? It is definitely for those who have a thing for chocolate covered cherries which we see everywhere during the Christmas season. If you aren't a fan of choc. covered cherries, don't try one, you won't like it. Did I like it? Yes, as a special treat, but it is not an everyday thing.

Who out there has been thru Rowena?

Or seen cotton growing in December?

In San Angelo a crucial turn we needed to make to get onto the road we needed was just off the edge of our map. Do I need to say more? We got a scenic tour of part of San Angelo, trying to find our way back to the road to Mertzen. We did notice the cost of gas there was considerably less expensive there @ $2.779. Not cheap by any stretch, but better than where we actually filled up later @$3.059.

We saw lots of wind farms between Big Lake and McCamey--I am hoping there are some in Alpine, so someone will want my mountain lots. (But no such luck)

When we pulled onto the freeway ( I-10) we noticed that speed limits are 80 mph. Wouldn't you think that would be fast enough? We saw two different cars pulled over by highway patrol on this stretch of road--not knowing why, but guessing that it was for speeding. YIKES!

Fort Stockton's Burger King and gas stop had its own charm. Food was okay- gas expensive--but the entertainment was exceptional. As we were getting back to the car after noshing, we noticed a man in a "uniform" looking under our car. Then he went over and looked under another car. Finally someone on the other side of the other vehicle made noises and out ran a rooster. The uniform guy went off across the parking lot chasing the chicken. Not sure what was going on w/ the roundup, but we left it to him.

Alpine has changed- buildings I remember from when I was a kid ---and then back to work on my masters--- may still be there, but their function has changed, they have different names, have had face lifts (or need them). We drove by my folks house that was a medium sized white adobe one story and is now a large bright blue trimmed two story. My grandmother's house has a really pretty red metal roof now and a huge car/boat/r v shed beside it--but her tiny antique metal garage where she kept her old car was still there. We looked for specific places and found some of them. The post office is no longer the post office, but offices for some agency. We'll do more looking around tomorrow, we found the court house and that is our first stop for tomorrow.