Thursday Highlights (and more Dairy Queen)

Long day in the car. We spanned the width of Texas (which oddly enough, looks similar to Wisconsin, until you get to the dusty oil-derrick regions). Some titillating tidbits to tide you over:

~ It's not nice to force your fiancee to hold two cups of coffee in his bladder for 45 minutes, because you don't want to pull off the highway until you reach an exit with at least three different gas station options (in case the bathroom in one is gucky).

~ Guess which state has the largest number of Dairy Queen restaurants in the U.S.? And today, I saw about 90% of them. Because someone hates me though, the ice cream machine was broken at the first one we tried to stop at for our afternoon snack. No crap - you can't make this stuff up. The freakin' ice cream machine at an establishment KNOWN FOR THEIR ICE CREAM was broken. God help me. Also - did you know that in Texas, the DQ label is also known as the "Texas Stop Sign"? (They also offer a countri-fied version of the regular menu down here, complete with something called a "Hungr-Bustr" burger...)

~ For dinner, we went to an awesome steak place, famous in these here parts - The Cattleman's Steakhouse in Fabens, TX. There is a working cattle ranch on the property, plus a small petting zoo, kiddie tours, and peacocks! Peacocks I tell you! It's on top of a ridge overlooking a cool bit of nature scenery, and I felt very manly eating my "Little Wrangler" 7oz sirloin. NavyGuy opted for the Filet Mignon, but I think he should have masticated on "The Cowboy" - a 2 lb T-bone that probably would moo for you at the table if you asked it nicely. The food was fabulous, and we were able to meet up with one of NavyGuy's flight school classmates who was also on his way west for survival training.

Tomorrow is going to be another 10-11 hour day in the car, so I'm off to bed once McCain stops jabbering. I'm in mountain time now, so if I call you at a random time, forgive me - I don't deal with change well :)