Day 8: Austin to Lubbock

Week Two begins! Today is going to be pretty tough to beat, too. We left Michelle's house in Georgetown around 11:30 and headed for Lubbock. Right outside her neighborhood, we saw this:


If I'm not mistaken, this is one of those super-churches that takes place rodeo-style in a huge arena.

After that, we began our day by having a discussion of Texas' cult of personality. We see so much hype about Texas and so many people touting their love for Texas, but we weren't seeing anything that was worth the Texas-worship we were swimming in. Not until today, that is. Once we got past that little bit of Rodeo Jesus weirdness, we got out into the open country and saw some of the most beautiful land I've ever seen. One feature had Dave and I debating over mesa or plateau, so I texted my geologist friend Julie and she told us it was a mesa:


Here are some of the other scenes we saw:





About an hour outside of Abilene, we came across a wind farm that was quite impressive. It seemed like we were driving by it for a hundred miles or so.





That bizarre scene was soon followed up by sporadic oil pumps. First, we saw a tiny one. Then, 30 miles later, a slightly larger one. Then, two. Then, a whole field of them.



Finally, Dave decided to pull over and investigate one of these pumps.


Luckily, he picked the one pumping POISONOUS GAS.


That sign reads "H2S Poisonous Gas." Yes, I looked it up; it's hydrogen sulfide: the chemical that makes your farts stink. Toxic.


When we reached Lubbock, we headed directly for Prairie Dog Town, which is a piece of land set aside by a lunatic so that prairie dogs can romp in peace.




Weird enough, but then we looked out on this huge piece of land and saw a hundred of these funny little animals scurrying about. Hilarious!




Then we saw some chipmunks eating tortillas someone had thrown out for them.


The chipmunks were the best because they were only about 6 or 7 inches long and they would scurry really quickly. Then, one chipmunk would find another chipmunk and they would start wrestling in double time. It was like watching a video in fast forward. They would also jump really high in the air while they were wrestling. It was hysterical.

Then, all of a sudden, for no obvious reason, one of the big fat prairie dogs would sit up and start barking in this super-cute high-pitched prairie dog voice.



All of the other prairie dog adults would sit up at attention, and they would all be facing in the same direction. They would just stand there for a few minutes. It was fascinating.

Well, we got our fill of the prairie dogs, noted how high in the sky the sun still was at 7:00 pm, and checked into our hotel room across town. In looking for something to do this evening, we found out that there are no rock clubs left in Lubbock that we could find, but, surprisingly, there are TWO gay dance clubs. What we DID find was a double feature drive-in movie theater. We both wanted to see the movie "UP," but the show before it was "The Proposal." Don't waste your money. Both movies were only $6 per person, so it was no big loss for us. Dave had never been to a drive-in movie, so it was fun. We arrived at 8:30, and we were able to see the sun set at about 9:15.



The weather was perfect for a drive-in. It was about 78 degrees with no humidity, no bugs, slight breeze. It was terrific. And "UP" was quite good.

What a wonderful day in Texas! We hope tomorrow will be just as good.