Finally A Clean House: Before Movers

Front door entrance and fireplace. 

This is one large room which we will separate from a dinning table on the opposite side of the room.

                      

Back Door and area where we will put or dinning table.

My husband's office.

To show how big our canopy chair is see photo below from an Eagles youth football game.





2011 photo: Referees are Jan Bissel and Art Cortez

                                                       

Kitchen with open bar area which looks into open front room. To left of stove is doorway to hall and bedrooms. Okay, kitchen isn't so clean, but it shows the pantry to the right, laundry room to the left, and doorway to hall and bedrooms to the left of the stove. 

 Master Bedroom 

Tex-Mex is not the Mex I'm Used To: June 3rd

Enchallidas a'la Tex-Mex

After stretching our legs while admiring our new home, our stomachs’ growling became audible to the neighbors, so we decided to go out for Mexican food. We headed to Red Oak, a nearby town, and ate at a restaurant called Cancun’s.

I ordered cheese enchiladas, and the waitress asked, “Con carne or Queso?”

I replied, “Queso,” proudly thinking to myself how cool I was for knowing queso is Spanish for cheese. 

  

When the food arrived, I was shocked to see what looked like nacho cheese sauce on top of my enchiladas.

When the waitress returned, I tried hard not to squench my nose at the gloppy, yellow puddle covering the rolled tortillas on my plate, and asked, “Don’t you have the red pepper-based enchilada sauce?”

She looked at me like I was crazy, and I realized Tex-Mex isn't the Mexican I'm used to... so, I will now plagiarize L. Frank Baum and admit, " Toto, I've a feeling we're not in California [poetic license allows for substitution] anymore." 

Texas Migration - Destination Arrival: June 4rd

We finally arrived at our destination around 5 p.m.

Our Front Porch




 View from our porch.

Front view of our new home.

Texas Migration - Rocky Mountain Oysters: June 3rd

We arrived in Amarillo about five o'clock and decided to go to dinner at a restaurant featured on the Food Channel's show Man Vs. Food. The helpings were huge, food was fantastic, waitress was wonderful, and the ambiance was awesome. We couldn't have had a better time.

Big Texan Stake Ranch: Home of the famous free 72 ounce steak (if you can eat it within a hour)

http://www.bigtexan.com/

Rocky Mountain Oysters, aka bull testicles. May sound gross, but when served fried with a little ranch dressing they taste just like chicken tenders.

Inside the Big Texan 

The stage for the 60 minute challenge is below the long horn skull.

Check out the website above so you can see the size of the steak. 

Texas Migration - Albuquerque, NM: June 2nd

We reached Albuquerque with no major setbacks. Truck's air conditioning decided it was our friend again and cooperated by working properly.

We stayed in a nice trailer park that offered a free continental breakfast, which we were grateful to save a few bucks, and I was able to do some laundry. All our clothes were in the moving van, except for a few pairs of undies, three towels, and two change of clothes.

We hit the open road around eleven for our next night's stop in Amarillo, TX and our adventure at Big Tex for an interesting appetizer.

Texas Migration – June 1st: Three-thirtyish

Relying on my pioneer ancestry, we persevered. Just as before, the two hour tide rolled in another crashing wave: our second blow-out.

This time, I was close enough behind the trailer to see the tread separate and roll off the tire. Amazingly, the treadless tire held as I drove like a mad woman, flashing my lights and honking my horn as I passed my husband, waiving my arms to get him to pull over.

Being godfather to a nephew who’s an Eagle Scout, my husband’s preparedness paid off because we had a second spare.

We prayed, crossed fingers, and rubbed chinchilla feet (since no rabbits were available) the final two hours to Flagstaff, AZ, and arrived around five-thirty in the afternoon. Never before had I been so happy to pull into a Walmart parking lot. There we replenished our stores with two new tires, a heavy duty tire jack, and two trailer batteries.

When we arrived at our campground, I was too exhausted to go to the steak house/dinner theater which resided inside the campground. However, Lucy and Lorne had a blast. (http://www.blackbartssteakhouse.com/)

Texas The Migration – June 1st: Oneish

Trouble flowed in two hour intervals because right before we stopped for gas in Lake Havasu City, the driver’s side vent of our Chev 2500 Silverado’s air conditioning decided to blow hot air, forcing the passenger side vent to work double duty to keep our chinchilla’s cool—in case you aren't aware, chinchillas can die in temperatures above 80 degrees.

We thought that maybe we could have the chinchilla’s ride in the trailer with the a/c cranked up, but discovered the trailer batteries were not strong enough to run the a/c without a generator or electrical source. 

My husband made a deal with our little rodents. If they’d stay alive, he’d give them lots of treats when we reached Flagstaff. 

SPOILER ALLERT: Not only did they kept their end of the bargain, they increased their number by one the next morning.

Baby and Mama  Chins are born with eyes open, all their fur and the ability to hop around. This photo is was taken the day after he was born. We named him Flagstaff. Can you guess why?

Photo taken one hour after birth.

Lorne and Flagstaff: June 19th, 2013

Because we handle the babies shortly after birth, they are used to people and being held.