The trek to Texas

Driving through a terrible blizzard, with ice accumulating three inches thick on the front of the car.

No, it's not the inside of a deer blind, it's the Big Texan Steak Ranch Motel, which was ugly, weird, and almost as crappy as the food.

The day before graduation we shipped all our stuff to Texas so that it would be there within the week we arrived. Daniel (my brother in-law) and I drove my truck out and towed CheyAnn's car behind it, then she flew out later with Brooke. As far as road-trips go, it was pretty sweet, but it did have its fair share of unexpected twists and turns.

1) We left really late. 2pm isn't the ideal time to leave for a 24 hour road trip. But I wasn't in the mood to be extremely worried about time. So that's when we left. We ended up doing the majority of our driving at night, which was crazy.

2) Blizzard. While driving east through Wyoming and south through Colorado, we spent hours driving through a serious blizzard, mostly at elevations over 8000 feet. That's pretty high, and the weather was really nasty. We drove at about 30 mph for several hours at night. No fun.

3) Early the next morning, we pulled over to take a nap at a gas station. But the battery died, and it was freezing cold. So that sucked. We got a jump and were on our way. Not too bad.

4) The Big Disappointment. We went well out of our way to go to Amarillo, to take on the 72oz Big Texan Steak Challenge. For various reasons, mostly because we just didn't feel like it, neither one of us attempted to eat the 4.5 pound steak, and we're very glad we didn't, because the food that we did have sucked. Awful steak, awful burger, even the Dr. Pepper sucked. For a famous restaurant that prides itself on meat, it deserved the title, the Big Disappointment. (Which is the same nickname I've given to Spurs player Richard Jefferson.)

5) So, we had a decent drive, and as we drove the last hour through my old stomping grounds, the beautiful Texas Hill Country with bright flowers everywhere, I was feeling pretty good until BAM! I looked back and the tire of the trailer was smoking... I pulled over thinking it was a blowout, but as we examined it, there was no blowout, but a significant impact with something. Daniel walked back to see what debris we might have hit, and we were both shocked to find that it was... an African Impala. Like, the little antelope, from Africa. In Texas, on the last hour of a 30 hour drive. What are the odds?

After a while, we got one of its horns, bent the trailer piece back into place, and were shortly at our destination. It was a successful, fun, adventurous road trip.

But seriously, an impala?