Our Road Trip!

Our Fort Worth NASCAR trip was a lot of fun. Thursday morning after I did the Harley Show and his Tony and I started the last of our packing for our adventure up to the Texas Motor Speedway.

We had our dear friend Maribeth baby sit our rescue ranch for us. When she arrived, and a few minutes later Chet arrived, Tony had just finished doing his morning chores outside. So, I suggested making healthy fruit smoothies for all of us, so it would hold us until lunch time. But that didn't happen.

After we had parked Trigger, behind Wolfmueller's Books, we took off in the rented, black, Nissan Altima, to go meet Kris & Jim, in the Y.O. parking lot. When we pulled up, as Jim & Kris were getting out of Buddy, Kris' Toyota truck, Tony and Chet told me that they were starving. So when Tony lowered the window, to greet our friends, Tony said, "Chet and I are starving." After Kris & Jim and I had quit laughing, we took off to go eat breakfast, at Randy's & Lisa's Save Inn Restaurant. And it was delicious and Tony and I ordered the exact same thing—Sinker Omelet, whole wheat toast and hash browns.

Forty-five minutes later, after eating a delicious breakfast, we took off, following Kris & Jim to Ft. Worth, Azle to be exact by Lake Worth.

Our trip was fun, because we were back and forth on our phones with Kris & Jim. But, it seemed like every county that we entered had some kind of weather warning, such as flooding, flash flooding or tornado alerts.

When we arrived at the La Quinta Inn, in Lake Worth, we went to our rooms to unpack. Our room was 309, Chet's was 307 and Jim & Kris' was 302. Then Tony & I did the dumbest thing, which didn't seem to surprise our friends.

A few minutes later we had to go downstairs, to meet everyone for Happy Hour. And when we got on the elevator I pushed the 1st floor button and stood back. When we arrived on the 1st floor, Tony and I took off in the wrong direction and we could not find the lobby. So we went back to the elevator to see if we had gotten off on the wrong floor, but we hadn't.

So, Tony pushed the 3rd floor button. When the elevator door opened Kris & Jim were standing there. So I immediately confessed that we could not find the lobby, which made them chuckle. Then we got back on the elevator and went back down to the 1st floor with "our troops." "Nancy," Kris said. "The lobby is this way. Y'all went the wrong direction..." And while we were having fun visiting with our friends, we found out that a tornado had just touched down, in Fort Worth and it was starting to rain outside. Needless to say, I was a little more than nervous.

After a fun happy hour, we went back up to our rooms to get ready, to go over to Adina & Butch's house, to eat a delicious BBQ dinner. It was fun and the food was delicious.

When we got back to the La Quinta Inns & Suites, the cold front had blown in and it was raining, thundering and lightning outside—once again, not my kind of weather. Then Kris & Jim invited us to come down to their suite for a drink and that was a lot of fun, because we laughed and joked about things we had done when we were young.

Then when Kris & Jim highly suggested that we stay over another night and go to the Friday night truck races, at the Texas Motor Speedway, with them Chet, Tony and I took a vote. Then I told everyone that I was going downstairs to get us rooms, for Friday night. "Y'all, if I am not back, in ten minutes, send out a search party, because I will probably get lost trying to find the lobby." Then I adios-ed everyone and a few minutes later returned safely to room 302.

A little while later, we returned to our rooms. I opened our curtains and there was a distant lightning storm, lighting up the entire sky, so I grabbed my iPhone, Tony grabbed his camera and then we started trying to take pictures—in hopes of capturing the lightning. Here's the best one that I took of the lightning, over downtown Ft. Worth, which was miles away from us.

Friday morning, we met for breakfast downstairs and Tony and I were very impressed with La Quinta's Continental Breakfast, which included a cool, waffle making machine, yogurt, juices, eggs, sausage, toast, biscuits and gravy, cereal, fruit, coffee, tea, etc. When I told our friends about how impressed I was, I immediately started laughing, and said, "But then again, Tony and I don't really have anything to compare it to, because the last time that we stayed at a motel or hotel, was March 10, 1999, the day that we got married...."

We decided to spend the morning and early afternoon, at La Quinta, because Adina was at home anxiously waiting for their Friday mail to arrive, because she was waiting to receive our NASCAR ticket packets and the check, for our rescue ranch, to arrive.

Around 1:00, we called Adina to tell her that we were going to go eat lunch somewhere and she suggested that we go eat, at Ginger Brown's Restaurant. "It's close to La Quinta and it is down home cooking. The food is absolutely delicious..." 

And we were glad that we took Adina's advice. It was the coolest restaurant, with the best of vibes. The walls were lined with hundreds of assorted cookie jars, pictures and paintings. The waitresses were all upbeat and laughing and everyone in the place was happy. And all of the booths had those  small, table jukeboxes, like they use to have in the 60's and 70's. Here are a couple of pictures that I took with my phone.

The food was totally delicious! Before we were served our meals, the waitress brought us some fresh, homemade, hot-out-of-the-oven biscuits to munch on and they were the best biscuits we've ever eaten. 

Of course, Tony and I ordered the exact same thing: chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes and green beans. Kris ordered "Something Effe Mae Threw Together" and Chet ordered five vegetables. Unfortunately, I can't remember what Jim ordered, but I remember him telling us it was the best he had ever eaten. If you click here you can check out Ginger Brown's Restaurant and see what Tony and I ate, because it is at the top of the page.

While we were eating lunch Adina called me. She was disappointed and apologized, because their mail had come, but not the tickets and our check. I told her not to worry about it, because things like that do happen, especially when it comes to the mail. "I am going to go ahead and buy y'all some tickets for tonight's truck race and as soon as I print them out I will come over to the restaurant and give them to y'all. And ten minutes later, Adina arrived with tickets in hand.

The truck races were great and Chet, Tony and I were so grateful that Jim had brought along earplugs for us to use. Good grief, I could not believe how loud the trucks were when they flew past us, on the track below. And here is a photo that Jim took of Kris, Tony and me during the truck race.

We got back home yesterday afternoon, around 2:00 and we were tired, but we were so glad to be back home and with our dogs. Roy, Belle, Beau, Alice and Little Debbie were more than happy to see us and Chet's dog Willy howled and howled, with delight when he saw Chet.

Today, I caught up with rescue ranch business and then I spent a few hours outside, working on my RV, the Mother Ship and I am thrilled with the results. 

Our dear friend Rick is having heart surgery tomorrow. The doctors are going to replace one of his heart valves, so please include him in your prayers. And that's about it for tonight.

P.S. I forgot to tell you about what happened to Maribeth while we were gone. I will write about it tomorrow.

Y'all have a great evening!

Craig Johnson! or Robert Earl Keen Beer!

Today has been great! This morning after doing our chores outside, I came inside The Cabin and checked my e-mail and Fay's made me smile. She wrote me a note telling me that a co-worker friend of hers was interested in Big Mama, but she needed to know if Big Mama was good with friends.

So, I immediately called the sweet, recently widowed woman. When I told her what was going on, she said, "Big Mama was great with my grand children." When I asked there ages, she said, "Two, seven and twelve..." When I told the nice lady that I hope Big Mama gets adopted by Fay's friend, because Toronto, Canada, would be a perfect climate for her—she totally agreed with me. Then we adios-ed each other and I immediately shot back a "good news" e-mail to Fay.

After I told Tone about the possibility of Big Mama getting adopted, he was thrilled, too. Then I called Kinky. "Kink, do you want to meet us for lunch?"

"Yes," Kinky said. "Let's eat at Randy & Lisa's Save Inn. How about 1:15?"

Tony and I arrived, at the Save Inn, five minutes before Kinky arrived and our lunch was delicious and we did a lot of laughing. After we had finished eating the super nice waitress removed our plates and handed us our tickets. "Hey Kinky," Tony said. "Since your birthday is this Saturday, we'll treat you to lunch today."

"Thank you very much," he said, as he handed his ticket to Tony.

Our next stop was at Wolfmueller's Books, so I could pick up the latest Longmire book that Sandy & Jon bought for me, at the Texas Book Festival, they attended this past weekend. When we walked inside their fabulous bookstore our friend, Robert Earl Keen, was standing by the checkout counter, visiting with Sandy & Jon.

After greetings, Sandy told us, "Robert Earl has brought us some of his new signature beer to try. It's just come out and it is made with Texas honey and it is brewed by the Pedernales Brewing Company, in Fredericksburg." Then Jon showed us a can and then gave it to Tony to try tonight. We had a fun, but short visit with Robert Earl before he adios-ed us.

As soon as Robert Earl had left their store, Sandy & Jon handed me the book Wait For Signs: Twelve Longmire Stores by Craig Johnson. Then Sandy says, "We met Craig Johnson and we had a fun visit with him. He is the nicest man and he signed your book to you, Cousin Nancy!" Her exciting words gave me instant goose bumps, because I am such a big fan of Longmire and now I can actually brag that I own an autographed Longmire book. "Did you check out Craig Johnson's website last night?"

"Oh my goodness! Yes I did," I said. "I loved looking at all of the Longmire merchandise for sale and I wanted to buy all of it." That made them laugh and then they agreed with me. "I especially loved the beautiful buckled cuff, the pink Sheriff coffee mug and the pink Longmire t-shirt. As soon as I pay down my credit card a little bit more, I plan to buy those items and a cap or two. And he is good-looking too."

Sandy agreed with me and then Jon said, "He's a down-to-earth man and very easy to talk to. We felt like we had known him all of our lives..."

After we had talked about loving Craig Johnson's Longmire books and the A&E Longmire series, Tony and I adios-ed them. Then we went down the street to early vote and then we went to the big H-E-B, to pick up a few more groceries.

Our last stop was, at Hoegemeyer Animal Clinic, to pick up Ginger, the sweet, four-year-old, overweight Boxer that we rescued last week. When we arrived at the clinic Susan, Kathy and the vet techs raved about what a sweet dog Ginger is and what a cool dog she is before they went to get her for us.

When Ginger entered the lobby her stubby tail was wagging wildly and that instantly confirmed everything nice the staff had just told us about her.

On our way home, I rode in the backseat with Ginger and she was great and seemed very comfortable riding in cars, as she constantly kissed my face or tried to sit in my lap. When we got home Tony put Ginger in my pink writing cabin's front yard. Then we went and got our cameras so we could take pictures of her to post. Here are two of the best ones I took of Ginger.

After I shot Ginger with my camera, I came back inside and took pictures of the Robert Earl Keen Beer can, before Tony put it into the freezer, so it wouldn't take long for him to taste it. Then I took pictures of my treasured Craig Johnson autographed book, so I can prove to all that I really do have a signed book by him.

Then I started writing this for my blog. Kinky called me around 6:30 to ask me what time and what channel the Cowboys are playing on. I told him that I didn't know, but I would find out. Then I asked Tony and he said, "7:00 on channel 206." So then I called Kinky back and told him and then we talked for over twenty minutes. And that is about it, because I'm fixin' to watch the Dallas Cowboys RedSkins game.

Y'all have a great evening! (And Carol, I am glad that you're back home and I will call you in the morning after we do our chores.)