Area II

When we first started in Area II, I wasn’t sure what to expect. In the past week, I have seen more wind mills, stars, and historical buildings than I ever thought possible. West Texas, unlike most other areas of the state, still hasn’t lost that quaint, small town atmosphere. It is also home to some of the friendliest folks in the entire world.


We started our adventures in the big town of Wellmann, home of our two favorite FFA friends: Miles Vann and Blaze Currie. After a few presentations for the Loop FFA and Dawson FFA chapters, we headed to Lubbock to grab a bite to eat with Mr. Ellison. We had some time to relax after our FANTASTIC meal at the Cap Rock Café, so we headed to the Verizon store to buy Kaleb a new cell phone. I guess Aron got a little bit bored in the store, because he set the alarms for EVERY phone in the entire store for the exact same time. When all of the phones went off, the look on the salesman’s face was priceless. I have never laughed so hard in my life. In Southland, we got to see Mr. McCollister’s collection of manuals and rings from the early days of the FFA; they even had an old NFA jacket in their classroom! It wasn’t long before we made our way to Colorado City, Snyder, and Hermleigh. At some point, you should ask Kaleb about his experience in Hermleigh…it was definitely one for the books.


We saw Daisy, the two headed calf in the Rotan ag classroom. That was creepy. I also went to my very first bonfire in Rotan, Texas. It was the coolest thing ever! Well, almost. The COOLEST thing was the full service gas station. I had no idea that there were still places where guys came out and pumped your gas for you! In Hamlin, we ate the greatest chicken tenders in the entire world. They were fried right in the middle of their gas station…who would have known?


The Grape Creek officers reminded us of why we ran for state office; it is such a blessing to work with students like that. They also taught us a few card tricks and let us ride in their sweet ’55 Thunderbird. Of course, nothing compares to listening to the song “Fireflies” on repeat all week long. It is a miracle that I didn’t KILL Kaleb and Aron for making me listen to that over and over and over and over again…


Now that we all survived, though, we are headed to Indianapolis for the National FFA Convention! Good luck to Anson FFA as they compete in the national Ag Communications contest (they told us about their state title this week when we visited them!) Best of luck to all of our Texas teams! We look forward to Texas FFA members bringing home some national banners, Riley Branch speaking about his AMAZING year of service, and Randa Braune representing the state of Texas as our next National FFA officer!