A Project for Lindsey

Yesterday afternoon, on our trip back from a party in Abilene, I began to really look at the side of the road (the south side of I-20), read the signs, look at the closed down gas stations and numerous other failed businesses, see what was for sale on the side of the road, etc. It was an amazing thing to look at and really pay attention to - even at 75 m.p.h. I suppose I've just sort of ignored most of that stuff on the trips back and forth to Abilene over the last xx (undisclosed number) years of my life. I notice the big things - the smoke stack in Thurber, the castle in Thurber (Thurber is such a hot bed for excitement), the increase in number of police/sheriff/hiway patrol between Ranger and Abilene as compared to between Ranger and Fort Worth, the diorama of the cross on a hill in the middle of nowhere (I saw it one time when several of the characters were either missing or had fallen over - it just wasn't the same), the lingerie outlet (when I think of lingerie, I always think of Eastland, Texas), the rattlesnake museum, the old Stuckey's at the bottom of Ranger hill, the blessed HILL itself...you know...BIG important points of interest.

Yesterday, as we approached Baird, I saw a sign that said in huge letters - "Baird - Antique Capital of West Texas" and then in smaller letters above it - it said "official" antique capital. The "official" part really made me want to stop, but we needed to get home. Just think, I might have stopped to look at antiques in Cisco and shopped at an unofficial place. Oh...the horror! For the next 5 minutes, I pondered the officialness of this great claim to fame. It just made me laugh.

So...it just occurred to me how fun it would be to hop over on to the service road and go slow enough to really look and read at everything flying by. Fast enough not to make the trip incredibly long, but slow enough were you could throw on your brakes at a moment's notice and hop out to investigate/photograph an important site. So...I'm looking to finance this project for Lindsey over the next year on her trips back and forth between here and there. I'm thinking she could take it in 20 mile increments - so as not to have ALL the fun in one day! I'd really say the fun starts west of Weatherford, so no need to stick with it all the way to Fort Worth. I'm thinking it would be good to document this project in pictures, so I'm willing to buy ALL the film for her digital camera and underwrite this portion of the project. I know that's a sacrifice, but I think we would all benefit from it, so it's worth the cost.

How 'bout it, Lindsey? You seem to have a discriminating eye for the beautiful and unusual. I think we would all benefit from the lessons being taught along the roadside every day.

I'll supply all the mountain dew and moonpies you can stand for the trips.

Stuckey's pecan logs always scared me a bit,
Joanie