On The Road Again

I feel like I've seen quite a bit of the great state of Texas this past week.

First, the trip to Longview on Tuesday - a nice 6 hour drive.

Then, the trip to Amarillo on Saturday - a nice 8 1/2 hour drive.

Of course, if I had to pick a favorite between the two, I'd have to go with Amarillo.

It had an unexpected element of surprise.

Skunk Sightings.

Not live skunks, mind you.  These skunks displayed the various stages of roadkill.

Ryan noticed that while it's not unusual to see a few dead animals on the roadside, we were seeing a very large number of skunks.

To help pass the time, he started counting them.

Now, I know what you're thinking.  You really wish I would dedicate an entire blog post on ways to keep the family entertained in the car - Count the Roadkill, Kids!  There's something you're not likely to see in Family Fun magazine.

Anyway... what started out as a mindless activity soon became the entire focus of the drive.

Ryan would yell out the next consecutive number every time he spotted a dead skunk.

I put my magazine down and joined in the fun, scanning ahead as far as I could see for the tell-tale lump on the roadside.

I would shout, "Oh, I see something!  Right shoulder!"

Then we waited with breathless anticipation to see if the lump was actually a skunk.

We weren't going to count it unless we were 100% sure.

We are people of integrity.

About 4 hours into the trip, Ryan looked at me with pure excitement on his face and said, "We're going to get to 100, Lana!  I just know it!"

At this point, I feel like I should let those of you who have never been to West Texas and the Panhandle in on a little something.

It's flat.  I mean, really flat.  And there's not much to look at.  It can get a tad bit boring.

So the fact that we were genuinely excited about the prospect of reaching our goal of 100 skunk sightings tells you a little something about the boredom level in our vehicle.

By the time we arrived in Amarillo, we had spotted a grand total of 93 skunks.  It was a bit of a letdown to not reach our goal of 100.

I guess you can't have it all.

And speaking of that, Ryley's basketball team played their hearts out and while it was close throughout the game, they did end up losing.  It was truly disappointing.  They've come a long way and should be amazing next year.

It'll be fun to see how they do but I hope we don't have to drive to Amarillo again.

But if we do, we better win the game.

Or see 100 skunks.

I don't think I can take the disappointment two years in a row.