San Antonio - Day 2

Day 2 of San Antonio started bright and early with a trip to the Alamo. It was perfect weather to go see the Missions. We learned at the Alamo that Davy Crockett wore a coon skin cap and that if the Tennessee and Kentucky men with their long rifles were not at the Alamo that the men would not have been able to hold out for 13 days as it was the long rifles that held the Mexican army at bay.

From the Alamo, we headed to Mission San Jose. We made a quick stop at Monarch collectibles, a two story house full of dolls - could it get any better? After doll shopping we drove down the street to the Mission. Wow, what a huge mission. We had a great time looking at all the cooking ovens, water wells, the beautiful church with the Rose window and of course, we had to stick hands and other body parts out the holes in the wall. After the mission was a quick trip to Sonic for lunch.

Back to the hotel to drop off our "stash of goodies" and then we started our walking tour on the riverwalk. We stopped in the house of mirrors, thank goodness for Katie and Jessica or Aunt Amy and I would never have made it out of there alive! Then to fight off evil at the Indiana Jones ride and to the Guiness Book of World Records Museum - shew, we were bushed! But we were not to be detered from getting the famous chicken salad sandwich (except Katie who had a papaya smoothie), our river ride and an ice cream treat all before shopping for one last doll. We enjoyed all of this before returning to the hotel after 9:00.

We areTexas sized tired tonight so it is off to bed for us. To all our loyal Brown Girls followers, good-night, see you in the morning.

San Antonio - Day 1

Hello Brown Girl Followers,

It is another exciting day on the Texas trail. On the way to San Antonio, we stopped in a small town to use the restroom and found a great statue of Davy Crockett. We had to, of course, take a few photo opportunities. Another hour down the road and we reached our first destination of Enchanted Springs where we spent the afternoon an Old West town where a few "B" movies and some western commercials were filmed. We watched Two Pistol Paula save the day after a hardware store robbery - even though Katie tried to help out the man in the black hat by calling for Two Pistol Paula - by the way, Aunt Karyn, he is single 867-5309. We went for a ride through the 80 acre ranch where we saw longhorn cattle, reindeer, antelope and even some zebras! Katie and Jessica even had a chance to ride a pony and sit on a long horn steer for a picture. It was a great trip into the old west!

After arriving at San Antonio, we walked quickly to the local movie theater to watch Marmaduke - it was a funny movie! Dinner was next on the agenda where Aunt Amy had some fabulous chicken salad, so fabulous that we are planning on eating there for lunch tomorrow! After walking around on the riverwalk and going into a couple of souvenier shops, we headed back to the hotel for a swim where we were eaten alive by mosquitos! We have placed purchasing a can of OFF! on the top of our priority list for tomorrow.

It is time now, loyal Brown Girl followers for a big Texas sized bedtime as it is a bright and early visit to the Alamo in the morning.

Fort Stockton

We started our morning a little later than normal today, up at 7:30 and down to breakfast. This morning we feasted on Texas sized waffles that were Texas shaped!

Then we were off to the meteor site in Odessa, just a few miles from where we were sleeping the night before - should we be afraid? No, the meteor hit the earth over 50,000 years ago. It was amazing that it wasn't discovered until the 1930s. As we walked around, we assumed our usual positions, Jessica - the Scout; Katie - the great white leader; Aunt Amy - the navigator and I am the crumb dropper (really, the most important position). Our most important mission besides looking at the meteor crater was to watch for rattlesnakes, thankfully, the scout steered us clear of any rattlers! However, our scout did miss the cactus that could have left a few points in her butte. On our way out of the site we had our second Chinese fire drill of the trip.

Next was Monohan state park. Home of the sandhills. After visiting the vistor center and learning about the sand hills, it's vegetation and wildlife (and the gift shop, of course) we headed to the sand hills. On the short walking trail we did discover some good animal poop so we have added a picture for all of you to see. We were unsuccessful in our attempts at sandboarding but we had a good time trying. One of the really funny moments was when Aunt Amy was chased by some wasps, if only we had Jessica's video camera ready...

On our way to Fort Stockton, we stopped at Pappy's for some great local barbeque. Once our bellys were full, we headed towards Fort Stockton. One of the differences I am enjoying as the driver is the 80 mile and hour speed limit - Woo Hoo, we get anywhere in a flash! I hope I will be able to revert to the slow speed limits of KY when I return.

Fort Stockton was a bust. It was a fort that was closed up. We drove the historical Fort Stockton tour which landed us at the large roadrunner which we took many photo ops at! From there we spotted a DQ and it was off to cool ourselves down with a blizzard - two chocolate lovers, a fruit lover and a candy lover - can you guess who was who?

Fort Stockton boasts a bowling alley where we could walk to from our hotel so off we went to bowl a few frames. Katie and Jessica blew Aunt Amy and I out of the water in both games of bowling - they were the Roger Staubachs of bowling (surely you expected a Texas reference??) We had bowling alley pizza - probably in the top two of the worse pizza I have ever had - and then back to the hotel for swiming. Unfortunately, a storm with lightning kicked up so no swiming for us, it is off to bed with a good Disney movie.

A big Texas-sized good night to all the Brown Girl followers.

PS- Karyn, how much credit on the scavenger hunt do we get??

Odessa Pictures

Here are our pictures from Odessa

Odessa

Howdy to all the Brown Girl followers! It was another exciting day in the life of the Brown Girls. We now know what the WalMart in Amarillo looks like :) Our first stop was at the WalMart to get two nails removed from our tires. While the removal was taking place, Katie and Jessica stocked up on fruits and veggies for road trip snacks.

We were able to introduce the infamous WhatABurger to Katie and Jessica for lunch. Before the first bite, they were unsure why it was called WhatABurger but after that first bite, they were hooked! Jessica even ate her WHOLE burger which disappointed Katie as she was hoping to finish the burger for her sister. From WhatABurger, we tried to find the "hidden" statue of Buddy Holly. However, before we could locate it, we became distracted by the beautiful 7 11 sign that was calling our names. Funny, it was right across the street. After touring the outdoor dedication to Buddy Holly, we went across the street to the 7 11 and had a fabulous cherry slurpee. A slurpee and a WhatABurger, life is good!

We continued on our way to Odessa and Jessica entertained us with 4 different stories about Bob and Weave and one story about cats, which included Ripley as a main character - for the entire 2 hour trip. We were able to see a replica of Stonehenge at the University of Texas and the world largest jackrabbit then off to the pool for the evening. All in all a great day.

Big Texas sized hugs and kisses to all the Brown Girl followers.

Amarillo

We started our first full day in Texas eating a cowboy breakfast - yum! Cooked over an open flame and plenty of it. After breakfast we were entertained with cowboy tunes and cowboy stories. I know that many of our loyal followers might be suprised, but when the cowboys wanted a female voice to sing along, alas, they did not pick me but Amy. She did, however, represent the Brown family well! After safely navigating back up the canyon (it was "ify" at a couple of points) we headed on towards Cadillac Ranch where we now have photographic evidence of Katie and Jessica vandalizing public property - they even spray painted their own names - geez, haven't we taught them anything??

After a DQ snack - thanks, Grandma - we headed towards the Botanical Gardens, it was difficult to find but well worth the struggle, it was beautiful. The Amarillo Botanical Gardens will always have a rememberance of the Brown Girls since Aunt Becky's camera lens cover is now floating with the fish, oh well...

Finally we went to the long awaited Quarter Horse Museum. The funny thing is though, Katie and Jessica thought the museum was going to be full of the mechanical horses you pay a quarter to ride, a slight disappointment but at least we all know why they are called quarter horses!

A late mexican lunch/early dinner and swiming at the pool filled the rest of our day. All in All, our first day in Texas was worth all the planning. To all our loyal followers, a big goodnight because you know, everything is bigger in Texas....

PS - Karyn, the single cowboy in the picture, his name is Clyde and his number is 867-5309, he said to give him a call.

Monday, June 7

We started out early this morning, bright eyed and bushy-tailed ready to get to Texas! We started with some yummy, very large waffles and then got in the car and headed to Oklahoma City, our first stop for the day. After eating at the Spaghetti Factory, we went to the Oklahoma City Memorial, it was a very moving experience for all of us.

At 5:29 PM we finally reached Texas - Yee Haw!! We saw the largest cross in the western hemisphere and then got back to the scavenger hunt where we saw...

Tomorrow it is off to the cowboy breakfast. To all our loyal followers, goodnight for now!

Brown Girls