Area I- Part II

I had been counting down the days, and the time had finally come. That’s right! It was time for another girl to be in the truck. Katie and I only get a few opportunities to out-number the boys, and this was one of them! Needless to say, we were quite stoked to be back in Area I; don’t worry though, we didn’t make Kaleb listen to Taylor Swift…not too often anyway.

We started our journey in Childress, Texas, with a FANTASTIC dinner (a failed attempt at starting a diet) and some tunes from Ty and the guys. Needless to say, we had a blast listening to the soon-to-be-famous musicians! Before long, we were making our way to Fort Elliot, home of Tommy Meek. We had quite a feast ready for us to eat at the Meek’s house: everything from shrimp to steak to tator tots to beans…and even some cereal (another failed attempt at starting a diet). At least we worked it off with some intense games of pool!

The next day, we stopped by to see our friends in Wheeler and to munch on some tasty food at Maxi’s. Thanks for lunch, guys! With full bellies and a decision to nix all ideas of starting a diet, we made our way to Miami to chit chat with their FFA members. It was about that time that Kaleb solicited Katie’s advice on directions…BAD DECISION. We figured we were going in the wrong direction when we turned around and saw “Welcome to Texas” in big letters. Oops. After a few games of Wii with Lynlee and Lane, a presentation in Follet, and a meal at The Cattle Exchange (the BEST RESTAURANT EVER!) in Canadian, we decided to leave the state again…this time, on purpose. In a matter of minutes, we had passed the “Welcome to Oklahoma” sign AND the “Welcome to Kansas” sign. It was quite the trip, if I do say so myself.

Of course, our stop in Liberal, Kansas had nothing on the breakfast that the Lefors FFA members cooked up or the hamburgers that the Pampa FFA members prepared. We certainly did NOT go hungry on that day! It was amazing that we had already completed one week in the Panhandle. No worries, though, we still had a good 5 days of power over Kaleb!

We began our second week in the Panhandle with a few classroom presentations in Claude, a stop by Highland Park, and a visit with the freshmen in Vega. That night, the Underwoods fed us a TON of delicious food (it’s a good thing we gave up on that diet), while we listened to David, Dennis, Tommy, and Kaley tell stories. After our presentation in Dimmit, we headed down the road to Springlake-Earth and then to our last stop of the day in Cotton Center; we had an amazing time hanging out with Mr. Howe and all of the students there.

In the blink of an eye, we were already in Idalou for a home-town baseball game, a bite of Mexican food, and a ride in “The Little Red Truck”. Next, we made our way to Petersburg, where Tracey announced that given a choice of any animal, he’d be a tiger. Good choice, Tracey! After an Oreo blizzard from Dairy Queen, we headed to Floydada High School and then to Kaleb’s aunt and uncle’s house. They had the most comfortable chair in the whole, wide world. I didn’t even realize that I had fallen asleep until Kaleb woke me up…3 hours later.

That night, we ate a delicious steak dinner at the Burson’s house in Silverton. After hearing the crazy stories of their boys growing up, I have come to a conclusion: I’m glad I grew up with a sister. Ha ha. Just kidding…well, kind of. The next morning, we traveled to Valley for the most delicious homemade cinnamon rolls ever created and a long conversation with their chapter members. We even found out why they call Blake “little pig”: his last name is pig. Who would have guessed? Before long, we were eating pizza in Tulia and finishing up the day in Plainview.

Before we knew it, we had reached our final moments of out-numbering Kaleb. It was okay, though. Our breakfast with the Frenship FFA officers certainly made up for it. After those pancakes, even the rain couldn’t get us down! We may have looked like drowned rats during our presentation, but we didn’t mind. We left Frenship for our last presentation of Area I at Lubbock-Cooper High School, home of Miss Katie Heinrich. I must say, it was a great ending to a fun-filled journey through the top of Texas.

Those two weeks of girl power may be over, but our travels through Texas are not. We only have a few days left, but there is no doubt that they will be filled with a lifetime of memories.