Leaving Dallas

Appreciated staying at Sue's and so did Fletch; he helped himself to some of the cat furniture before we left.

I promised him I would buy him some more of those when we got to SD...

Left Sue's house on Monday morning to have lunch with another old friend, before heading west. I've known Jamie since Miami but we have only seen each other once or twice since then. Still, we keep in touch and are somewhat soul sisters. See, Jamie and I share an ex (of the husband type). I think the new word is "Wasband". We are a lot alike, which is probably why he is a wasband to both of us...

Anyway, Jamie had me meet her at Eatzie's, a place in downtown Dallas with which I was not familiar. At first I thought I was in the wrong place - it's a gourmet grocery store with so many items already made. But I eventually found the cafe in the back. Let me tell you, the food was delicious and options plentiful (too plentiful for a one-time visit) and the gal working the back cafe was wonderful. I almost thought I knew her from somewhere, she was so friendly and warm. I highly recommend this place to anyone in the area, or even not in the area. But beware: it gets busy fast around mealtime and there's little standing or roaming room when that happens. Get there a little early like we did! Jamie and I had a blast talking about our exploits since we last saw each other, and about our kids!

I had planned to stop twice before we got to SD, but ended up stopping only once, in Van Horn, TX. We stayed at a very cheap ($33 for room, taxes, etc) motel that was the crappiest we've seen yet: different sections of (not matching) carpeting and linoleum; a section of empty space in the bathroom where God-only-knows use to be set up there; an odor that was quite undecypherable; and a wayward roach that apparently wanted to make a call on my cell phone! Did I mention it was cheap? And the older gal who ran the place was a peach! As Rex used to say, "Oh comma well."

We got an (relatively) early start on Tuesday morning and I was going to gain 2 hours during the day, so we ended up driving straight through to SD and my mom's house. We did stop a few times of course for gas, potty breaks, DP & sunflower seed purchases, and a walk for Fletch. The rest of the day, he pretty much looked like this:

I'm always amazed how they can start out rolled up in a tight ball, in a very small space, and eventually end up taking most of the front seat of the car, in a position that would leave you or me in traction for the next week!

We arrived at mom's around 7pm that night and surprised her, but it had been almost 12 hours in the car for us, so I was beat and wired (from the DP) and Fletch was his usual I-have-to-check-this-entire-place-out-now self. My mother's dog (and I use that term loosely) does not get why the cat won't play with him EVERY TIME she wants to PLAY with him. The fact that Fletch is at least twice the size of Brandy doesn't seem to bother the dog, until that Ewok face gets a Fletch bitch-slap across the snout! And the fact that the dog is annoying does not seem to bother Fletch at all. He still climbs up to whereever he wishes even if it's practically right next to the dog. Hey boys and girls, can we say the word "taunting" today? Hahahaha.

(And yes, that is a pink dress on the dog...)

We will be staying here through Christmas, but I promised to go see things around SoCal and share them with you all. Now, I think I'm going to sleep for about 3 days in my old room!