Day 85 - 23 Mar - South Padre Isl, TX to Houston, TX

Photo: One of my friends at the pier. Not sure which type this is but I love the colours in his neck. The Gray Pelicans have no colour at all.

We woke up and after peeking out the curtain and seeing only cloud, we figured the 'weather Gods' were telling us that we can no longer ignore the fact that we have to start heading home, so we packed up and left. It's better to be on the road going anywhere, than sitting in the LuvMasheen. We hate to leave...we've decided we really enjoy Texas however every day isn't 75 degrees & sunny and we've got to make the break!

The drive North up Hwy 77 was probably the least appealing of our time on the road so far..not really much to see at all. I'm surprised though at how quickly the landscape changes, especially when you are in that semi-hypnotic state and suddenly notice...the scrubby trees are gone, and now it's farmland with fields stretching for miles on either side of the highway. After a while you notice the pancake flat land is gone and you've been going up and down small hills with large trees. It's a very diverse country.

Some of the wildflowers are out and the medians and sides of the highway are covered in pink, mauve, red, and yellow flowers of different varieties. When we stopped for a break, I went out to have a look and the red appear to be a type of wild geranium...same type of flower and leaf. It's all very pretty and it's nice to be experiencing 'Spring', even if it's not at home.

We found an RV park off the beaten track and it's supposedly near a huge mall so Wayne is going to let me loose for a bit tomorrow morning. Other than souvenier shopping, I really haven't been in a mall for a long, long time. I was amazed to see a few Walmart & Home Depot stores open as we drove by....don't Baptists believe in Easter?

We didn't have turkey or ham today but perhaps we'll have a "It's Not Really Easter" Easter dinner when we get home. We did have comfort food though, my favourite macaroni, hamburg & tomato with real cheese in it. When we were kids we thought this was the best dinner EVER but little did we know that when it was a few days before payday and all the budget could handle was a pound of hamburger, this is what we had. My Aunt Mary (Carol & Sandra's Mom) made it the best and my Mom came a close second. Even after we were grown up, if either of them asked what special meal they could make for us, we all ask for the same thing....mac, hamburg & tomato. In later years they got fa little fancy with bread crumb topping but it was the underneith part we loved best.

Until next time, we love and miss you all. Perhaps you could all get together and arrange to have the snow scrapped off our front lawn as a welcome home present? That would be nice. xx