Texas and its wide open spaces

 I know in my mind that Texas is a really big place. I bet you know that too. Well, yesterday I drove out into the great wide open to collect my Big Brunhilda the Bernina 820 from a quilt shop in Brady, Tx. The shop owner (Joann) was so sweet to go down to Killeen, TX to pick up my machine (and several other of her customers machines) so I only had to drive half the distance.  Well, I was excited about having my machine back, so I set out early...too early in fact so I got my oil changed and my van washed (in hindsight I should have held off on the car wash until after I got back to San Angelo) and then hit the road. Some of the drama began in Eden. Yep Eden Texas. You get to drive hell bent for leather on the wide open flat roads, but when you get to the tiny towns you have to slow down to about 5 miles an hour. So you have to be alert to sudden speed changes, right? There were a lot of big tanker trucks on the road yesterday....I do wonder what was in their tanks. Maybe milk? Water for the parched land? Oil? Toxic waste? Who knows? Well one of the tankers and I got into a scuffle. It is true. I was just happily driving along looking at the prison that was RIGHT ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD...and wondering what crimes someone does to be incarcerated in Eden? Eat too many apples? Talk to snakes? Mislead mankind? Who knows right? (I was having some great mental conversations with myself wasn't I?)

Well, the tanker behind me decided to initiate his turbo booster and blasted past me. I looked up and noticed that the speed limit was indeed going to increase back up to 70, so I began accelerating as well. At this point it is only the two of us on the road. He is going a normal speed, I am too...driving along hoping he will hit all the deer in the way instead of me,  going back to my curious imagination...then tanker in front of me slows down and mud and stones begin flying up into my windshield. Damnit! I just had my van washed. Well, if you are going to be a wimp I am going to pass you. So I pull out to pass him. Not a soul in sight, the road was as flat as it could be, so off I go. Well the tanker starts to speed up and tries not to let me pass. Oh no....he is playing with me. Well, I don't have time for games. My sewing machine is waiting for me! So I gun it and we are drag racing along side one another for a bit (I bet he thinks I am just a regular mom in a regular mom mobile, right? Poor fella, he has no idea what he is dealing with!). You see my husband selected our van because it has something special about it's fuel injection or motor or something or other that I was not paying attention to, but I know in my mind that it goes fast. Now I know in real life it goes fast! Not only did I pass him, I also wanted to get well out of his way. I looked down at my speed thing and saw 110 mph. Not bad for a mom van? Oh and the engine was not miserable at all! I am pretty sure it could have given me more, but the trucker was well in the distance by this time, and I would have died if a deer (or a cow, or a sheep or a goat or a cowboy) wondered out in front of me so I slowed down. I am not ready to die yet. Too many things still to do and see. Too many quilts to make and bags to sew and kids to raise.

 No drama with the machine pick up. On the way back through Eden, I decide to take a little brak and explore the Wool and Mohair Gift shop. Did you know that west Texas is the Wool and Mohair capital of the world? I bet you didn't. I sure didn't. But there are signs all over the place that announce this fact. So I decide to stop. My imagination is full of the fantasies that await in the form of hand spun and hand dyed yarn, right? Yeah! nope. Plenty of castration tools and shearing scissors, bags of feed,  but no yarn to be found. Surely they have something like that? I must not be looking in the right place. A little old lady comes out of the back and asks if I need some help. I ask where all the hand spun wool yarn is (OK, there is no sign or outside indication of the existence of my mythical yarn, but if I was in charge of a Wool and Mohair GIFT shop, I would have some!) She looks at me like I am daft, and says "oh honey, no. We don't have anything like that here." "We do have some blankets." I look over my shoulder at these horrible fake polyester fleecy things and I guess my horror was evident. Needless to say I left without spending any money. That is what Sharon and I call a "Texas Moment" when you go somewhere and expect something wonderful and things fall so short of your expectations that it is funny.

My sweet sewing machine is back and waiting for me to go to work on it. It is making a new noise...and that kinda freaks me out a bit. I don't want to have to go back and have it fixed again. It is just too much drama.