Abilene, Texas - January 17-20, 2015

On Friday, we spent a night with our good friends Connie and Steven and gave them the 3-minute tour of our new home.  They sent us off the next morning with breakfast and enough chocolate chip cookies to get us all the way to our first camping spot at Abilene State Park.  As you can tell from the picture, it was very windy for our trip south.  That cold north wind blew us south and we averaged 10.6 miles per gallon!

Mark spent much of that first day flushing out the pink antifreeze and sanitizing all the water lines on the motorhome.  We feel pretty up-town now that we have running water in our home!

We were blessed with the most perfect weather while in Abilene—70 degrees and no wind in January!  We would recommend the wide camping spots in the Brushy Trail (not to be confused with Bushy Tail) campground.  We spent one whole day biking the roads, then hiking the trails in the state park.

 

  Lake Abilene is completely dry, so one hike included walking clear across the dry lake bed.  Jesus can walk on the water; we can only walk where the water used to be.

Sunday was spent in the city of Abilene, dividing our Sabbath between several denominations.  We worshipped at Zion Lutheran Church, then spent the afternoon walking around Abilene Christian University (Church of Christ) and Hardin Simmons University (Baptist).  From spending almost 30 years working at a college, we have always enjoyed “touring” universities while on vacation.  ACU has an especially nice campus with beautiful outdoor sculptures.  Mark attempted to climb Jacob’s ladder with the other angels.

Abilene is a western city with cowboys and buffalo, and the state park is right outside the quaint little town of Buffalo Gap.  So we had to take pictures of the world’s largest buffalo skull. 

But our favorite must be Denisa riding a giant buffalo while drinking a slurpee.  Who knew retirement would be this much fun?

The main reason for stopping in Abilene was to see our relatives—Jennifer, James, and Colin.  It was so good to spend time at their beautiful home meeting the four-legged members of their family on Tuesday.

Then we ate at Perini’s Ranch Steak House—home of the Barbadillo.

At the invitation of George W. Bush, Mr. Perini was invited to cater the Congressional Picnic in Washington DC on 9-11-2001.  Because of the historic tragedy of that day, they would have to return in 2002 to actually serve the Congressional picnic.  In 2009 the Perini’s were honored as preparing the “best burger” on the Today Show in NYC.  So Mark ordered the steak, and Denisa ordered the burger so we could split both.  They were amazing!  Denisa had to use her best manners to keep from licking the last of the rum sauce out of the bread pudding bowl!

The only Abilene area disappointment was when we traveled to Ovala on a road trip.  Mark’s mother remembered climbing the “mountain” behind her aunt and uncle’s house in Ovala around 80 years ago.  We had hoped to recreate that.  But the double barbed wire fence and “NO trespassing” signs persuaded even Mark that we would have to include a picture taken from the bottom (instead of the top) of the “mountain.”

After four perfect weather days, Abilene is forecasted for rain and possible snow on Wednesday.  So we are wandering south for warmer weather!