Saturday, February 28, 2009

Take me home, country roads (back to the city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty)

As our little family was advancing into Dante's sixth circle of Hades west Texas today, Micah pondered, "Are we in the city or the country?" Blankly, the best I could come up with was, "Neither. We're in west Texas." Boondock territory.

If you've never been to west Texas (NOT to be confused with West, Texas), I'm not sure I can adequately describe the "landscape." It's not what the average person might picture when they hear the word, "country." Which usually conjures the image of a pastoral expanse with rolling hills and wildflowers. In west Texas the highways are dotted with stumpy bushes, cacti bunches, and dirt. It's a very brown region, at least this time of year.

And there's always the roadkill. Lots and lots of roadkill.

In order to pass the time and save our sanity, Jason and I decided to play a little roadkill game. I'll share the details here, but I fully expect this game to be copyrighted before the end of the week, so don't even try to take credit for it when you play sometime.

The rules are simple:
*If you see roadkill and shout the word, "Roadkill!" before your opponent does: +1 pt.

*If you correctly identify the type of animal it is: +1 pt.

*If you mistakenly identify trash bags, pieces of shredded tire, or anything besides roadkill as roadkill, get some glasses (or in my case better glasses): -1 pt.

Jason beat me 11 to 7. He was much more proficient at identifying dead animals than I was. I'm a city girl at heart, anyway.

One of the most curious observations I noticed was that the "wester" we got in TX, the less and less roadkill we saw, which speaks volumes to me. Apparently even the critters don't head to west Texas. We could all stand to learn a lesson from our animal friends.

**Minor disclaimer b/c I know I have family reading this: To my family- your home is lovely and we had great fun seeing all of you!! Even though I'm just not in love with the middle of nowhere, this is in no way a slight against you. You are all wonderful people and I'm glad to be a part of your family!!**

6 comments:

  1. Hmmm. What's the difference between west Texas and West Texas? LOL!

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  2. I love the idea of the road kill game!! I think for extra bonus points you could come up with recipes in which you could cook the roadkill! Possum Surprise! Raccoon Pie! :p

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  3. Love the game but please tell me y'all didn't get out of the car to check if you identified it correctly!! :) :) EWWW!!!

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  4. Although really quite disgusting, it's sure a good way to kill time! I especially like the disclaimer at the end ; )

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  5. Awww, I love west Texas. It has a "rustic beauty" to it. And they still have Taco Villa out there! Yummm.
    I will say that one time when I was in college (yay, Tech) my roommate and I almost got run over by a tumbleweed as big as her VW SuperBeetle.

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