Day Twenty-three - Lubbock to Georgetown, Texas

West Texas, Friday-Saturday, June 20-21.


From Lubbock, a modern city built in one of the flattest places on earth, we headed south toward Austin to visit our friends Ronnee and Steve Bienstock.

Seventeen miles longer than Albuquerque to Lubbock, but not nearly as boring.

It's not the Garden of the Gods, but at least there is some three-dimensionality to Routes 84 and 183.  We saw lots and lots of oil/natural gas rigs along the way:

And windmills--lots and lots of windmills:

Close up, these things are huge.

Windmill fields, where cotton fields used to be--as far as the eye can see.

We stopped at a McDonald's for lunch in Brownwood.  (OK, my political friends, I don't like their employment policies either, but it's hard to avoid them, and they make a great caramel-flavored iced coffee.)  This McD's, however, was neither convenient nor was their coffee worth a damn.  The girl at the register had the brain of an armadillo, and completely screwed up the order, which we didn't find out until we were underway.  To make matters worse, we had gone inside to save time because the drive-up windows had a long line.  It took twenty minutes to get our incorrect order.  So we hereby grant McDonald's on Route 84 in Brownwood, Texas, as the dumbest fast-food restaurant in the United States.

Then we got to see more windmills.

Texas has more windmills and more oil rigs than anyplace.

Sun City, Georgetown, Texas.  Eight years ago our friends Ronnee and Steve retired, left Massachusetts, and settled in at their new home in Del Webb's Sun City.  It's a beautiful and busy place where senior citizens can drive golf carts to on-site activity areas, a local supermarket or restaurant.

Steve Bienstock

 Yes, it has been known to get hot in west Texas.  But in the dog-days of August, the air-conditioning works thanks to all those windmills and oil rigs.  And we suspect our friends' blood has thinned out a bit in their years here, and when it's 91 degrees are apt to say, "Hey, nice and cool today!"

Ronnee Bienstock.

Ronnee and Steve's home is beautifully decorated and a recent lanai addition on the back of the house makes a very comfortable sitting area, where we can listen to each other, the birds and the tree frogs screaming for tree-frogettes.

Lila, a cross between Chou-Chou and Border Terrier.  Eternally curious
with the fastest butt-tail combination in captivity.

We always enjoy our time with Ronnee and Steve, and wish there was more of it.  But, like Robert Frost and his horse, we have miles to go before we sleep.

"You can stop your blogging now," says Mary Frances.

After twisting Steve's arm to make us a lunch of barbecued turkey burgers, it's time to head north for Fort Worth.