Childress to Grand Prairie

The lack of a working air conditioner in Childress drove Cooper and me out of the motel room before dawn on Friday morning. There was not a window in the motel that opened; had there been we could have gotten some nice cool air, but that was not to be.  Besides, I like hitting the road when it is still dark, it seems as if one is setting off into the great unknown.  When it is Texas, out in the middle of nowhere, it is indeed the unknown, so even better.

As always when driving through America, I spotted many billboards that were of the religious nature.  I wonder if Jesus knows how much he saves out here.  "Jesus Saves" is a phrase oft repeated but they never tell you what he saves.  String?  Pennies?  Plastic containers?  I just don't know.  At one point there were two billboards, one above the other.  The top one had a photo of a large house and said "The Blade House" and it was for the world's largest knife store.  Gosh.  Below it, on a second billboard, was a photo of a man's anguished face (maybe he was worried about those knives) and the words "Nothing is too hard for God."  Maybe I'm crazy but if that is the case, maybe God could do something about that knife store.  Like get rid of it?

We were at Jenn's by 11:00 Friday morning and is nice to be here.  Cooper is a bit daunted by the size and energy of Jenn's dog but I think they will end up getting along.  If they don't, too bad.  Today we hit the Farmers Market in Grand Prairie, which is sort of like saying we bought some produce out of the back of someone's VW bug.  The photos show the extent of the produce and the Church Lady's baked goods.  These are the largest vendors at the market.  There is a guy selling flavored peanuts, a really good (and cheap) honey vendor, a candle lady and a couple of other small tables of food, oil, plants and literature.

In the corner of the Church Lady's table, on the left, you can see a little container of what are CD's.  They are free recordings of sermons from the Bible. Free!  Like the loaves and fishes!  Jenn and I thumbed through them, looking for a "Greatest Hits" recording but we didn't find one.  (Had we arrived at the market earlier, perhaps we would have been luckier.)  The sermons were not ones we wanted to listen to (no Sodom and Gomorrah) so we didn't get any.  In retrospect we should have picked some up for stocking stuffers for next Christmas.  What a great gift!

We did buy some overpriced yet delicious cashews with pepper and parmesan and a Church Lady fried apple pie.  One must do what one can to support the local economy.

We are going to Fort Worth today to visit the art museum and out to late lunch.  The weather is in the 70's, a little cloudy, just fine.  It will be a good day.

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