Story of Us Blog Post 5: Our Adventures Number 1 Part 1
Our Adventures Number 1
Part 1
While visiting Les this
past weekend, we were met with a series of 'adventures' as we call them, and
Les mentioned that maybe we should start documenting our 'adventures'.
So, here we are, or so, here I am documenting our eventful weekend together.
Anyone familiar with our
story is aware of our living arrangements. Les is on the road around 330
days a year living his long-haul trucker dream. That leaves 35 days more
or less that he's at home or off the road in an official capacity. We
balance the 2 days a month with planned and impromptu visits throughout the
state of Texas while he is technically still on the road. Les is working
on a dedicated project, and he spends the unloaded hours away from home at our
property in Hico.
Planning our weekend
together started like it normally does. We frequently talk throughout our
days apart and discuss what activities we each do or have in the works.
We often talk finances, politics, or any myriad of topics. We mostly
discuss missing one another and when we can steal a day or two for time
together. Around Wednesday December 14, we started discussing the
possibility of spending the weekend together. Such activities are
delicately maneuvered as Les checks in with the project manager for the
dedicated route he is working to find out when he will be needed again.
When it looked like the weekend was free, he presented the idea to the project
manager and stressed the importance of having a few days off to prevent
"my wife from divorcing me!", as Les puts it. That is far from
the truth, but in the big scope of our life together, we desperately needed
time together without pets and without interruptions.
Les was 44 and I was 42
when we met in September 2006. We were not OLD by any means, but at that
age, we were always on borrowed time. Pile on the life of an
over-the-road truck driver with our current age and we never feel like we have
enough time together. We do an excellent job at staying connected.
Communication and discussion quality comes and goes, and we often find
ourselves talking about our pets or the shows we watch on TV way too
much. Our married life reaches points in time where we need to spend a
couple of days together in the same room to see each other's face, in the same
space to hold hands, and in the same bed to reconnect. We needed to
reconnect in as literal of a way as you, the reader, wants to imagine.
By Thursday we had a
plan going. Les is quite the romantic and will take over planning date
nights. There are usually surprises awaiting my arrival. I stayed
up late Thursday night packing and trying to get my invoicing completed so that
I could have a paycheck for the week. Friday morning still found me
working away to get the invoicing finished. I think I finally wrapped up
my workday about 1pm Friday. I arrived at our farm at 5pm and after
some Dodge Dakota pickup truck drama (to be detailed in another blog post), we
were off to Hico to enjoy our weekend.
Hico has two
hotels. One that the hunters use, which averages $50 per night, and another
that is a fully restored historic building in downtown Hico that everyone else
uses, which averages $169 per night. Les had already booked and paid for
our stay at the Midland Hotel for Friday night (surprise one). I don't
think we have ever paid that much for a night at a hotel before. The
Midland Hotel is luxurious, quiet, and just what a mature married couple like
the two of us needed. We had 7:30 dinner reservations in the hotel
restaurant (The Chop House). We both got ready, and Les enjoyed the last
of the Basil Hayden's that I had brought from home. There were probably
two decent pours left in the bottle, so Les drank it all while relaxing and
getting ready for dinner. Les tried to surprise me with flowers (surprise
two), but found the local florist closed. I did say that Les is a true
romantic!!
I was ready first, so I
went down to the bar. Christie fixed me up with an excellent very dirty
and very wet martini, just like I like it. I was about half-way through
my drink when my husband collected me and led me to our table. We started
with the liver pâté, we each had a salad (Les had the chop and I had the beet),
and we shared the lamb shank. The lamb shank was prepared with green
olives and eggplant that had the texture of well-cooked mushrooms. It was
utterly excellent. We drank an inexpensive pinot noir with our dinner and
slowly found our way back to our room. The bed was probably one of the
most comfortable beds we've ever slept in. The sheets were so soft that
one just melted into them. It was truly amazing.
Friday may have been
dreary with intermittent rain, but Saturday was met with clear blue
skies. After pastries and coffee from one of the many local restaurants
with sweets (surprise three), we drove to Comanche to make a deposit and found
ourselves finding a mechanic (Bill Ellis Tire Station) to figure out what the
truck drama was about. We ate a late lunch at a local diner (Star Beau's)
after walking through the square and a small antique shop. After a stop
at the local hardware store, we limped our way back to Dublin where we stayed
for the night at a local inn (Relax Inn). We made one quick detour before
checking into the hotel. Our detour took us to Veldhuizen Cheese
Shop. We've had their cheese before at French Connection Wines in
Hye. We bought a wedge each of about 6-7 varieties and were given a
complimentary wedge of unmarked cheese. This shop is a mandatory stop for
cheese lovers when near Dublin.
We opened a bottle of
rosé from Inwood Estates and devoured some of the cheese we purchased.
After a nap, we ate a burger at a local bar (The Deer Lease Bar and Grill),
which had live music. A male/female duo played on a 2nd floor balcony that
overlooked the main floor. He (Brandon Scott, I think) played an acoustic
guitar, while she played the fiddle. Their voices harmonized well while
they sang to current and older country favorites. Her voice had that
tortured tone that makes country music so great and his was clean and
soothing. The burgers were decent tasting, though a little overdone for
game meat. We mentioned a few of our favorite songs to the duo while they
took a break, and they honored us by playing Faded Love and singing a hit from the
Randy Rogers Band.
We got up Sunday and ate at a local spot known for its buffet. Granny's Clarks satisfied our carb need for working at the farm and off we went, bound for Hico. Sunday also served up clear blue skies, but it was colder with plenty of wind. After arriving at the farm and imagining our dream, we started working on Les’ shed project. It was roughly 3:30-4pm and the wind was picking up. We decided to call it a day and headed into town to get something to eat. We ate at the wonderful Eis Sandwich Shop in Hico, which also has an excellent selection of ice cream, but more importantly, it serves alcohol, beer, and wine.
We made it to Hico's
alternate hotel, the Hico Hills Inn, where we usually stay when I come into
town. We both took hot baths to warm up and enjoyed a bottle of pinot
noir from Oregon's Ken Wright Winery (Bryce Vineyard) that we purchased on our
2021 birthday trip. More cheese was devoured, of course! I
think we were settling in by 6pm and we were both in bed by 8pm.
Monday morning was met
with bitter cold and more rain. We clearly were not going to get much
done Monday. The Dodge drama dictated leaving our Dakota at the mechanic
in Hico and we called my son Daniel to drive from Bryan to pick me up. We
ran to the farm to secure all of the wood and supplies that Les uses while at
the farm. We tried to use the Dodge to jumpstart our semi-truck which
failed to work. All we ended up doing was draining all the oil she had.
Les found one quart in his truck, so at least she wasn't fully void of
oil. All that was left to do was wait for Daniel to arrive at the farm.
Les mentioned during our
wait that we needed to start documenting what we refer to as our
adventures. You know what we're talking about. You make plans for
the day, or the weekend, and all sorts of things come up or go awry to deter
you from those plans. That's what our adventures are about.
Sometimes our adventures are truly that. They are an event or activity
that involves something new or different from what we normally do. Most
of the time it involves life in general. I decided to take Les up on his
suggestion to document these moments in time that we spend together. One
day we can literally look back, read, and remember the craziness of it
all.
Daniel found his way to
our property in Hico about 2:15. I took Daniel to the Koffee Kup, which is a
moderately well-known diner in Hico, because they server 17 varieties of
pie. Let's face it, the pie is amazing. Daniel ordered two meals,
an appetizer and, of course, pie. I had a portion of one meal and a
little bit of pie plus coffee! I needed warmth! With my leftovers
in hand, we bought more oil and collected our little truck back at the
farm. We drove back into Hico for gas and left the truck with a local
mechanic (Full Throttle).
Life is short - eat, drink, and hold the one you love! There's nothing more important in life!!
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