Road Trip

Yesterday I got an e-mail from my favorite on-line quilt store that they were having a big sale on Boxing Day, the 26th. Stitchin' Heaven is in Quitman Texas, about four hours from here. Feeling a littIe out of sorts, I decided that I needed a road trip, so I headed out at about 5:30 this morning to drive to Quitman. In case you were wondering, Paul took the dogs home with him yesterday so I didn't need to worry about them.

The drive up was done mostly in the dark with rain and fog vying with mad truck drivers to make the drive a little exciting. The store is huge, the staff knowledgeable, the savings substantial and the other shoppers very funny. One woman kept asking me if I was really going to take the rest of a bolt of fabric. I offered her a yard of some womderful wool for the origianl price rather than the $2.99 a yard I was paying. She decided to pass.

I haven't felt as energized by a quilt store in a long time. I didn't spend all that much but ended up with some lovely fabric, a bunch of embroidery designs and other bits and pieces for 66 - 75% off the original prices. Now all I need is to get focused and use some of these goodies. If you are in the neighborhood or looking for a good on-line quilt store, try Stitchin' Heaven. I don't think you will be disappointed.

On the way back I noticed several things that I had missed in the bad weather earlier in the day. In no particular order, some of the oddest things I saw today...

You can take an Amtrak train to Mineola Texas but not to Houston. To take a train to Houston you need to go to San Antonio and be bussed to Houston.

All of the little cafes and dives that used to line the streets of our small towns have mostly closed to have their business now handled by the big chain junk food restaurants. Truly sad as I really needed a blue plate special for lunch today.

Why isn't there a visible beauty shop on Beauty Shop Road? I checked and couldn't see one.

Is Texas the only state in the union where many roads seem to be just very long driveways? Hall & Mark Road is barely a lane wide, unpaved, ungravelled, with a mail box on the highway. Seems to me that one mail box means one address but the driveway is a named road... go figure!

Tyler, Texas has a beautiful historical district of fine old homes. I saw at least six I could easily move into tomorrow... if I had the money and the energy! However, it was right next to an incredibly run down area of little shotgun shacks... maybe for the help? Such poverty in the midst of such wealth was sobering.

The Piney Woods of East Texas seemed to go on forever... or at least from here to Quitman. There was cleared land for cattle but the woods seemed to be the major road side feature for most of the trip.

And, finally, at one point during the drive I could only get six religious and two spanish language stations on the radio. Don't get me wrong, religious stations have their place but why do they have such bad music and sophomoric talk shows? You would think that with such an apparently large audience these stations would rise to a higher standard. I have no idea what was going on at the spanish stations. I think I need a new car so I can play CD's if I am faced with this choice on a future drive.