My mom’s mom and older sister live in Texas, so FIELD TRIP!
Aunt Dorane rented a Dodge Charger, which is like my Mustang, but with four doors and legroom in the back seat.
Friday evening we arrived in Perryton, which in 2010 was home to 8,802 people.
Aunt Charlene and Uncle Bill have a dog-shaped affection sponge in the backyard. When he’s not chasing rabbits he likes to lean against your legs and soak up pets.
Aunt Charlene fed us all weekend, and it was phenomenal. Burgers with three kinds of salad (the potato salad was especially amazing), haystacks the way they’re supposed to be with Fritos, homemade gluten, sandwiches, banana muffins, cookies, apple crisp, fruit salad, a three-tier crunchy vegetable plate, and fruit pizza. She also introduced us to Hidden Valley’s plant-powered, diary-free ranch dressing and the “salted caramel cluster” cashew milk ice cream from So Delicious.
Sabbath morning we drove across the state line, through the Oklahoma panhandle, to Liberal, Kansas, for church. Liberal in this case means generous, since the town’s founder was so kind. (I didn’t realize this until later, but Wizard of Oz fans have decided that Liberal is where Dorothy’s home was.) After church the head deacon gave us a tour of their new building, which used to be a bank and still has the vault and vault door.
Aunt Dorane let me drive the Charger home from church!
Looking at family heirlooms. My grandma’s war ration book (and a shot of the stamps inside), and a quilt made by Aunt Charlene’s cousin Julie.
Saturday night we ended up talking to three truck drivers outside our hotel (we think these are their trucks). They run cattle north and south from Texas (where it’s cheaper to feed/raise cows) to wherever they need to be slaughtered. Since they own the trucks, the gasoline comes out of their paychecks, and they weren’t thrilled with the rising cost of diesel (or with the idea of Californians coming in and turning Texas blue). But they were so classy and charming during the whole interaction that it didn’t seem to matter that we’re representative of the Californians they’re worried about. (And vegetarians, too.)
Our hotel was separated from the golf course by a field.
So Sunday morning I took a walk around the field to look for typical Texas scenery.
Sunday afternoon (after he got back from a flight to Aspen) Uncle Bill took us to see the plane that he flies.
It’s a Beechcraft twin-turboprop aircraft, the King Air B200.
Uncle Bill jumped into the pilot’s seat and walked me through some of the controls, how to steer, and how to input a flight plan. It was SO COOL.
The Fisher family! We took a moment in the hangar for formal photos.
On the way home we found a corn field!
And on Monday we were back in Amarillo to fly home.
When I looked up “Amarillo airport vegan,” the Internet said, “Did you mean cheap flights from Newark to Amarillo?” So we figured we’d be eating potato chips, especially since the airport has one restaurant. But Amarillo came through! The Ranch Kitchen has a vegan-friendly Baja Burger with roasted red peppers, lettuce, tomato, onion, and avocado on grilled wheatberry bread. It’s served with fries, tots, onion rings, or slaw.
Flying home after escaping a thunderstorm in Amarillo. It was a great weekend, the first time in years I’ve hung out with extended family, and it was amazing to spend time with four generations of awesome people.