Fly to Eat

or, The Week of No Vegetables

Jerry and I are finally back from East Texas. The flight back seemed to take forever, because, in part, it did. We were facing a fierce headwind, so the trip home was, in reality, longer than the trip out.

Our time in Texas certainly had its moments. I was glad we had our tandem, though we did not have a lot of time to ride it. When we did, we got out early in the morning before the days humidity settled in. I'm sure those who saw us on the road were fascinated. We were the only cyclists, and certainly the only tandem riders. But the country, if you could ignore the amazing amount of litter on the side of the road, was quite lovely, with lots of trees. East Texas is lush-- lots of green, lots of water. The house Jerry's mother rented for us and his cousins was on the same lake they live on, just on the other side. The ride to their house was very pleasant.

As soon as we'd arrive in the morning eating began. Breakfast, thank God, started with fruit, because it was downhill from there on out. There were overly sweetened cereals for breakfast if you didn't want to eat the WalMart version of an egg McMuffin (I didn't.) There were potato chips, cheese puffs, pretzels, cookies, cakes, doughnuts... the list goes on. Dinner was ham or beef and potatoes. As I don't eat either, I had vegetarian soups. The first might have been good had it not been laden with enough cheese to block the healthiest person's arteries, and the second was pea soup that must have been cooked peas and water. I dumped salsa in it to give it some flavor.

Bad food and Republicans can make for a difficult stay, but we made the best of it. And visiting with Jerry's cousins and aunt from Arkansas was great. Besides being Democrats, they are bright, funny, wonderful women. It seems that his cousin, Sunny, is finally out to her family, because people were asking about her significant other, so that's a relief to her, I'm sure.

We rode out and back in our "new" little Mooney. A four (but really two) seater that Jerry is buying from his friend Art. Now that Art is 87 he realizes he should stop flying, so he is giving Jerry, his flying buddy, amazing terms to buy the plane and hangar. It's a cozy little plane and we enjoyed ourselves on the flights. We stopped around every three hours to refuel and relieve ourselves. On the way out we stopped in Tucson. It was the night of the VP debates. I'll say no more. After all, everything that needs to be said about Caribou Barbie has been said.

The way back, we stayed in Deming New Mexico. Not exactly the garden spot of the nation, but the sheets and towels were clean and the bed relatively comfortable.

As I said earlier, the ride home was long, but now I'm here and my geriatric calico Jamie, is sitting on my lap, so all's right with the world.
I do have some work to do, and I'm thankful for that, so time to get to it.