We're in Texas for our annual "escape from that godforsaken frozen wasteland".
In the time leading up to our departure we typically watch the weather fairly closely to see if there's something inbound that will affect us on the drive. We planned on leaving on 27 December and taking our usual 3 days to drive down but it looked like there was a good chance of freezing rain/snow on the 27th so we decided to leave half day earlier and make a 4 day trip of it.
Our first overnight was in Ankeny, about 4.5 hours driving. Our second stop was our usual first overnight in Emporia, KS, third stop was in Stephenville, TX then the rest of the way the next day. We have our "usuals" on the way down - Radius brewing in Emporia and the Hard Eight BBq in Stephenville.
It worked out that our 46th wedding anniversary was in Stephenville so our "romantic" anniversary dinner was at the Hard 8. After dinner we went to the only place in town where you can get a somewhat decent beer, The Purple Goat, and had one beer each. The Purple Goat is really odd and I'll be surprised if it lasts. You have to become a "member" in order to buy a beer and in order to become a member you have to give two pieces of ID (drivers license and credit card) which they enter into their system. We went there last year as well and I'd have thought they'd have the data from then but you apparently have to give it every time. I subsequently found out this is because the county (Erath) is a dry county.
I actually preferred taking a bit more time for the trip. This allowed us to take care of all the last minute things (packing those last few items, buttoning up the house, etc) at a leisurely pace on the day we left and made for some shorter driving days. The drive from Wisconsin to Emporia was a really long day and the drive to Stephenville from there is also a long one so it was nice to make one of those days shorter. I think we'll probably do the same thing in the future.
The drive down was uneventful and we got to Fredericksburg on the 30th early enough in the day to frantically unpack enough bike stuff to go for a short ride. The weather was really nice (relatively speaking) and high temperatures have range from the mid-50's to upper 70's. I know without even looking that it's warmer than in Wisconsin.
Now I'm trying to work off the weight I accumulated over the holidays and drive down. I sure wish I took weight off as easily as I put it on.
