Well we have had a fun couple of days around here which is why I didn’t write anything yesterday. I fell into bed at midnight last night and wanted to cry when the alarm went off this morning. And by alarm, I mean when P came in the bedroom to tell me it was time to get up. Normally, I lay there another five minutes and then get out of bed, but he had to come back in and check on me twenty minutes later because I’d fallen completely back asleep.
My friends Kelly and April flew in from Nashville on Sunday afternoon. Kelly had a speaking engagement here on Monday and so they decided to make a mini-vacation out of it. And here’s where I have to stop this story for a minute to tell you Kelly wrote one of my favorite books I read last year called Wherever the River Runs. I can’t recommend it enough.
Anyway, they got in on Sunday afternoon and we spent some time catching up on life before we took them to eat Mexican food because that’s what people expect when they come to San Antonio and I would never want to disappoint. And then we all went to bed fairly early that night because Kelly had her speaking thing and wanted to get a good night’s sleep.
On Monday I went to her event with all intentions of just slipping in the back and listening. Which is why I wore jeans. But they’d saved a place for me right up front and so my jeans and I did our best to blend in to the festive crowd.
After the luncheon was over, I picked Caroline up from school early and met Kelly and April back at the house. P loaded up his truck with all manner of guns and snacks and we headed to the ranch for the afternoon. This was their request. I might have chosen an afternoon of shopping followed by chips and salsa but they’d never seen a Texas ranch and so we felt it was our duty to show them. It’s safe to say they got a quick lesson in Texas ranching when we were barely on the property and saw a dead, bloated cow lying off to the side of the road. With a vulture on top.
Welcome to Texas.
And, no, we don’t know what happened to the cow. But whatever it was it was clearly not good.
However, that was the low point it what turned out to be a delightful day at the ranch. The wildflowers are blooming and South Texas is never prettier than it is in the spring. We all loaded into the Polaris and P took us all on a ranch cruise where we hoped to spy some deer or pigs or other assorted wildlife.
Meanwhile, this was the view out in front of us.
I’d never seen Piper and Mabel at the ranch and I couldn’t believe how fast they can run. P was driving the Polaris at about twenty miles an hour and they stayed well ahead of us for about seven miles. No wonder they tend to act like Tasmanian devils when they’ve spent a few days in the backyard with limited space. Every now and then they’d see a rabbit and take off running even faster. And since it was hot, they felt the need to stop for a swim every now and then along the way.
We drove back to the house and P gave April and Kelly lessons how to shoot a gun because we felt they needed the full experience.
And then Caroline shot her pistol before she posed for a picture for me.
She has grown approximately two feet in the last month, she’s lost three teeth in the last three days and she is a heck of a good shot.
We sat outside and ate barbecue for dinner and snacked on tortilla chips shaped like Texas because Kelly always marvels how everything in Texas is shaped like Texas and I knew she would appreciate the chips. And then we did one last drive around the ranch and saw a few more rabbits and some deer. The girls had really hoped for a bobcat sighting but that’s a pretty rare find, although we did see a mama pig and her piglets right as we drove back by the dead cow on the way back to the main road.
It was just about the perfect day spent laughing with friends and enjoying being outside in the sunshine.
We got home about 9 p.m. and Gulley came by to hang out for a while and we all stayed up way too late talking which is why I fell back asleep this morning. But we spent a lazy morning around the house drinking coffee and talking some more before we finally made one last stop for Mexican food and then I took the girls by the house where P is working so they could say goodbye.
And then it was time for them to head to the airport and fly home.
I ran a few errands before I picked up Caroline from school and then she worked on homework while I answered a some emails and cleaned up the house a little. And then P got home from work a little while later and mentioned he’d seen an armadillo next to our garage that morning.
Well. Of course.
So he and Caroline went in the backyard for a little impromptu armadillo hunt and Caroline came running back in a few minutes later exclaiming, “We found the armadillo and trapped him in a garbage can.”
You know? Like most people do on a Tuesday afternoon.
They loaded him up and took him down to the nearby woods as part of our unofficial armadillo witness protection program. I hope he’ll be very happy there and decides to never take his life in his own hands again by venturing into our yard with our dogs because let’s have a moment of silence for all the freaks I will freak out if I run across that guy in my personal space.
But I was so happy to text April and Kelly to let them know that if they’d only stayed a little bit longer they could have had the ultimate Texas wildlife experience up close and personal.