A Tangle Of Dallas Traffic , A Brief Road Trip To The Country

Visiting Jennifer Kent And Her Boys

Cow Country at the Kent Ranch

It's overcast, our first gray day so far here in Texas, and it looks like we will have wet weather over the next couple of days.  We enjoyed the good weather while it lasted, however, taking advantage of it to get out and do things.  Today, we will probably hang out, as Tyler flies in from Dartmouth College later this afternoon, and tonight, we are going down town to The Prophet Bar to hear a Jam Session with Snarky Puppy, RC And The Glitz, and Shaun Martin. Clearly, Tyler, not us, is familiar with the groups and was interested in hearing.  It should be fun.

Jennifer, With Her Oldest Son, Henry, The Charmer

James, Three Years

Will, 18 Months

Our niece Jennifer Kent and her family live in Weatherford, Texas, about 70 miles west of Dallas, on a five acre farm.  We were invited over for lunch, to see her boys, three of them, and their house and farm. Our drive through the tangle of Dallas overpasses was mind boggling.  How anyone could have planned these in advance is amazing but then, Dallas is a town meant for automobiles..  The first forty minutes, until we were beyond Fort Worth, was nail biting even at 11:00 in the morning, even with a GPS to tell me which lane to be in. There is no dearth of cars in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, nor highways.  We got to Jennifer's just before lunch, got a tour of their home, and then spent the next hour, until lunch, playing with the boys.  They are active little guys. Unfortunately, her husband, Robert, was working so we did not get to see him.

Lunch was pork chops, from the pigs the Kent's raised.  Yum.  Later, we all went outside to see their new batch of pigs, six of them, about ready to be butchered, and there two steers, which they are also raising for its meat and a coop full of chickens.  The boys took us around and seemed to love being outside with the animals.  Lots of wide open spaces for them to run around in.

                                       JAMES AND WILL OUT AND ABOUT:

We left around 2:30 and took another route home compliments of the GPS, through downtown Dallas but it ended up being shorter time wise than our drive out to Weatherford.  Three hours of driving is enough for a couple of more days.  We relaxed until Cody came by, made both Evie and me feel guilty, so we took him our for a late afternoon walk in the neighborhood.  We love looking at all the homes, all so different, mostly stone or brick, old and new, with a few older cottages thrown in. And since it was starting to get dark, lots of Christmas tree lights were on, a big thing here in University Park.

For dinner, we hoped to go Hop Doddy's Burger Bar, a short five minute walk from the Albarrans home.  However, there was a sign on the door warning customers that their fryer was down, so there would be no french fries.  That was enough to send all of us, especially Evie, to Twisted Root Burger Company, a neat burger joint just past the George Bush Library, on SMU Avenue.  We stood in line, ordered our burgers and fries from a varied menu, then went into the bar area where we sat down and waited for them to call our name.  A neat way to set up a burger joint and bar.  By the time we got our beers and sodas, our name was called and we sat down and devoured our burgers, mine the Texan, with onion rings, avocado, tomatoes, chipotle sauce, and cheese.  It didn't take any of us long to finish.  We were home by 8:30, and sat around talking, playing games on our iPads, watching junk TV while Marisa continued to work at water marbling her nails, tyring to get the patterns just right.

We all went to bed by 10:30, tired from our drive I suppose and fun times both in Weatherford and at the Twisted Root.  Another great day in Texas. I am thinking of becoming a fan of Texas.