wide open spaces

Revisiting the Texas trip…

Each time we cross the border, I begin to feel things falling away:  lists, chores, things-to-remember. Of course some of this must be attributed to the simple timing of this trip, every year, right after Christmas with all its stresses.  And I’m sure it’s partly that whatever I haven’t taken care of or packed into the car is by that point two and a half hours behind us.  Nothing I can do about it!

But a good bit of that big sky open road deep breath feeling has to come from the fact that I spent 6 years of my life in Texas, in and around college.  Baylor University.  Sic ‘em Bears!

I don’t want to get all glory days on you, but those were great years.  Baylor is where I learned the simple, sweet circle of a Texas two-step; it is the place where I learned to balance and spin on my own. I still remember clearly the sudden, shocking reality that I was on my own, seven hours away from the only place I had ever lived.

And in the midst of that incredible aloneness I was able to find myself, find God, find wonderful friends.  Even a husband.  I know, it’s all so terribly clichéd…

I have always LOVED the fact that this place where I had such a wonderful college experience and then lived with Bryan for the first couple of years we were married is so conveniently located right on the side of the highway on our way to Kerrville.  We always stop with the kids, and for years, the big attraction has been the bears.  Mostly because there’s no one else on campus.  And because, hello, BEARS.  Right there in their own little habitat setup.

Some years they are more exciting than others; this year they were asleep.  No matter how much we tapped on the glass, they were NOT GETTING UP FROM THEIR NAP.  I have to respect that, being a serious fan of napping myself.

Actually, not all of us had been waiting a whole year to see those bears; Elizabeth got to go to her first Baylor Homecoming last October with dear friends who have a son at Baylor right now. I didn’t realize how skewed her view of one of my favorite places had become until we pulled up this year, like every year, and with a typical middle-school sigh she opened the car door and said, “This place is a LOT more exciting when there are PEOPLE here.”

Indeed.  Here’s hoping that all of them will end up someplace as wonderful – with people there, of course – some shining day.

Wanna see the rest of the pics?  Come on over.