Everything is Bigger in Texas

Homer, LA/ Arlington, TX/ Oklahoma City, OK

I woke up much earlier than I had planned and ended up auditing the exercise class that Carolyn holds in the living room at 5:30am(!!) for a few cousins, friends and coworkers. They were already in session and I didn't want to interrupt them but I felt exercise made sense after all the rich foods I've been eating. I positioned myself in the hallway between the living room and dining room where I couldn't be seen but I could see the tv Carolyn had some young man bring over the day before specifically for this purpose. And I exercised along with them until they started doing stomach crunches and twists then I reverted to my pre-natal yoga exercises. Afterwards I came in and said hello while they sat down and chatted about nutrition and their progress. When they left they used the front door - which I had never ever seen anyone use - rather than the back door which would be more likely to disturb everyone still sleeping.

I asked Carolyn how she knew the folks I didn't recognize and she told me she went to high school with two of the ladies and that together they had integrated Homer High and the cheerleading squad in the 70s. One of them was the first black person to graduate from Homer High and be hired as a teacher there. Another was Homer's first black civil deputy.  Carolyn headed to the kitchen to make breakfast and since my body told me it was a mistake for me to be up that early I went back to bed. 

When I woke up again it was gray and drizzly and it seemed like everyone in the house - except Carolyn - was moving slowly and waking up slowly. We heard the news that Hurricane Isaac had turned east and would only affect the next leg of our trip minimally so we planned to stick to our schedule though we delayed our leave as long as we could. After eating, Clay and I packed our things - which Aunt LaFaye made sure included not one, not two, but three jars of pickled pears - and Junior, Carolyn and Aunt LaFaye walked us out to the car, bade us safe travels and told us to give hugs and kisses to the California branch of the family, and waved until we hit the end of the driveway and couldn't see them anymore.

We drove in the spitting rain halfway to Dallas and then all of a sudden the sun appeared bright and hot. We passed by Terrell, Texas where Jamie Foxx is from and a billboard is erected in his honor. Everything we saw in Texas was bigger - the car lots, the cars on the lots, the food portions, and the buildings.

We stopped at Cowboys Stadium, a huge hulking spaceship-looking behemoth that couldn't fully be captured without a wide lens. We couldn't resist this fun pic. Enjoy! ESPNZone was all set up for GameDay Alabama vs. Michigan. 

Throughout Texas we saw quite a few large stadiums for relatively unknown universities and huge high school football fields. Yes in Texas football is king!

We kept driving and saw Dale Earnhardt Drive - the site of a massive NASCAR track, read the signs for bans on burning anything outdoors due to the risk of a wildfire, saw more evidence of drought - bridges spanning dry creek beds spotted only with small rain puddles, and a BMX racing track with a competition in progress. Late at night we pulled into Oklahoma City which continued forever. (It is 30% larger than the land mass of Los Angeles.)