I orchestrated a schedule that included the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco, and Joey and I hopped in the car and began our expedition at 9:40 a.m. (We only left 40 minutes late, too, which I thought was a lovely thing.)
We ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the car (seminary wives are always economical!) and headed to Crawford first. Gramps and Grandma had been there three weeks ago and Grandpa had described it as "a wide spot in the road".
I did not believe him. We did, however, realize that things were going to be interesting when we saw this sign driving into town.
It also turns out that Gramps was not exaggerating about the size of the town (population 691), as you can see from this photo.
We went to the restaurant that George W. Bush holds interviews at when he's in town. (It's just to the right of the flashing red light in the background of the picture.) Oh wait, I should emphasize that it's the only restaurant in town. (Only traffic light, too.) We got a milkshake and bacon cheddar fries (Joey's idea) to split.
I figure that the food at that restaurant is probably not going to be a positive contribution to the President's overall health. There's some serious grease in that stuff. I can recommend that cafe for the best strawberry shakes ever, though. Mine was phenomenal.
We did notice a rather large press contingent, three pilots wearing very unflattering green jumpsuits (Joey pointed it out, not me) and one guy who I figure is probably a Secret Service agent.
I mean, come on, he was sitting all by himself at a table and facing the door. Total Secret Service material if you ask me, especially with the Prez in town.
Joey disagrees, but I saw him giving us weird looks a lot. (This could be due predominantly to the fact that I kept throwing glances over my shoulder at him to see what he was doing and if it looked "secrety". Joey was getting embarrassed by me, but that's not really new.)
From there, we walked around the town a bit, stopped in a couple junk shops (oh, I mean "curio" shops) and decided we'd best head it out to get as close to the ranch as we could.
(We had directions from Gramps' recent trip. They don't exactly publicize how to there.)
The directions were really good. We were doing great, finding all the landmarks and making really good time. There were two white Dodge Caravans following us. Joey glanced back and said, "Oh, looks like some other tourists are out trying to spy on the ranch too."
Suddenly, we came upon three bright orange roadblocks that proclaimed "100% ID Checks", a very official police car, and an even more official enormous guy wearing a bulletproof vest that read "Secret Service" was sitting inside it. When he saw our car he exploded from his vehicle and barreled over to us.
I unrolled my window, already shivering in my tennis shoes.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" He barked at us.
"Leaving!" I squeaked at the same time Joey said, "Out touristing, we're turning around now."
He leaned toward the window in a very intimidating and official manner. Joey turned the car around faster than I've ever seen him do before and we were back on our way.
All the vans that had been following us flashed their ID to the Secret Service dude and he waved them through the checkpoint.
"I thought it was odd that so many cars were following us," Joey said.
I'd noticed a field full of bluebonnets on the way to get in trouble with the Secret Service, and asked Joey if we could stop so I could take some pictures of them. There had been a little gravel road we could pull off in so that we wouldn't block the road.
We got to the gravel road and pulled off.
Suddenly, I noticed a house.
"Joey, this is someone's driveway! We're in their front yard; we have to leave!" I was getting nervous.
He tried to back up. Nothin'. Our wheels were spinning and spinning...things did not look good for the Woestmans.
"Well, we're stuck," Joey proclaimed after a few minutes.
Joey got out and walked around the car. I sat inside and noticed that it smelled like an engine belt was getting a little bit hot and wondered if we were going to die.
"Well, if I push and you crank the wheel to the left, I think we can get out of this," was Joey's analysis.
I wimpered. I hate being in vehicles in perilous situations and this, to me, qualified as "perilous". "OK...."
And it was then that I noticed the person walking toward us. The landowner. I prayed they wouldn't be mad.
"Apologize profusely!" I hissed to Joey as he walked toward the man.
In manly terms, Joey explained that we'd pretty much gotten ourselves stuck in his yard. The dude who lived there said it was fine and that he'd done the same thing last week. He then pointed out his tracks through the yard.
He volunteered to help Joey push the car out, which left me in the driver's seat. Oh joy.
Somehow the guys pushed the car out of the mud (the guy who lived there got sprayed with mud, poor thing) and we were home free.
The car's a little worse for wear, but at least we're not still stuck in the yard in Crawford.
We took some really quick pictures of the bluebonnets, Joey got a cactus in his foot, and we decided it was time to get out of Crawford before the Secret Service guy came and found us loitering.
Can't say as I've ever had such an interesting two hours in my entire life.
1 comment:
I like the photos, they add a certain flavor to the story.
Too bad you did not see Bush. He needs encouragment:):)
Dad
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