Midland, Tx (Pop. 138,397)

Several days ago, while waiting for me, Dana met a couple from Minnesota. They hit it off and talked for several hours. Paul was retired from construction. Denise worked in finance, specializing in financial fraud. Yesterday, Dana texted them to see if they would like to meet us for dinner last evening or coffee this morning. We scheduled a coffee meetup for 9:00 this morning. I hadn’t met either of them yet, so I felt like the odd man out. Let’s just say that for the next several hours, we didn’t struggle to find things to talk about. I was fascinated by her explanation of how real estate fraud happens and how easy it is to sell someone else’s property. If I had known it was that easy, I’d probably still have stuck with the coffee business! We talked about our kids, retirement plans, hobbies, and a dozen other topics. Before we knew it, 11:00 was approaching, and we called it a morning. Denise and Paul were fun to meet, and we had a great time getting to know them. They plan to spend the next day or so in Fredericksburg, but we left town after wrapping up at the coffee shop.

We are now headed to Roswell, hoping to catch a glimpse of some three-headed aliens. I mean, why not us? The morning started off cool, but soon the temperatures began to rise, reaching the lower 90s by afternoon. I can almost hear your brain saying, “Yes, but it’s a dry heat.” My response? A hair dryer is dry heat as well! Sure, dry heat is better than humidity mixed with heat, but it still felt hot. One challenge is that our PLUM gets hot and stays hot—but more on that later.

Heading north and west, we soon left the hills behind and entered the flat, empty lands of western Texas. This is the image that comes to mind when I think of Texas. I know there are parts of Texas that are very scenic, but this terrain felt straight out of a western movie—desolate and God-forsaken. To be honest, we didn’t see many homes, so it also felt quite man-forsaken.

As we approached Midland, the landscape was dominated by oil rigs and processing plants. In my opinion, the entire area was unattractive. We did discover that Midland is home to the Bush family. We drove past the home of George H. W. Bush. He and Barbara moved there in 1948 with their young son, George W. Bush. I was impressed by the simplicity of the home. I suppose that back then it was probably a nice house in a nice neighborhood, but now it’s quite nondescript. When I hear people oohing and awwing over celebrities, I often think, “Yeah, but they were just punk neighbor kids to someone at some point in the past.” Back then, I’m sure no one imagined that two future presidents were living in that house. Who knows who might be living in your home?

We originally planned to stay overnight at a Walmart parking lot, but the heat was unbearable and wasn’t dropping quickly enough. So, we decided to spend some of our kids’ inheritance money and check into a hotel. I think it was money well spent. The showers were amazing, and cooling off felt heavenly. I had no idea it would get this hot this early in the year in this part of the world—it just shows how little I really know about Texas.

At the moment, we’re literally chilling, and after checking the weather forecast, I suspect we might be opting for a few more hotel stays over the next several days, as as tomorrow is expected to be even hotter.

“Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.” —Jackie ChanLeia mais