Yesterday, with Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos swiftly approaching, the time was ripe to make a road trip to the Texas/Oklahoma border. Juanuno, P. S. I Love You, and I piled into Juanuno's newly acquired Honda CRV, heading for Sherman, TX, McKinney, TX, and Durant, OK in search of small town gazebos and iconic bike racks. P. S. I Love You had feverishly researched potential locations with the help of Dr. Googlie. She made a list and a picnic lunch and we were off.
You may or may not know that I am moderately obsessed with these things and that I post photos of them online almost daily. I guess you can edit the word "moderately." Truth is, I am unduly, inexplicably, and doggedly obsessed with tracking down and photographing gazebos and bike racks anywhere in the country.
Sherman, TX was the first stop. It turned out to be a gazebo goldmine, yielding six worthy nuggets plus a couple of ordinary, but good racks. The public-art-quality bike racks are hard to find, but even "normal" ones are kinda sorta thrilling when you score. That's right, I said thrilling.
Also in Sherman, quite by accident, we found the weirdest, most elaborate, semi-disturbing Halloween zombie yard riot ever. These Sherman spook freaks go all out. I almost wanted to meet the homeowners, but not quite.
My brother, who up until yesterday I had always considered fairly normal, jumped right in there and hammed it up. I think he was a tad too convincing.
Next it was time to head north to Durant, OK. A light, cold rain messed with our picnic plans, but we bundled up under a nice, clean pavillion in a local park anyway. Picnic unthwarted, in town we found a really fresh 'zebo and a few plain, but functional bike racks next to some down home "Durant" benches. They also had horse statues and sculptures all around downtown. Pretty cool.
Re-crossing the Red River, we headed for McKinney, TX, but not before stopping in Melissa at Buc-ee's, a roadside phenomenon that is part truck stop, part amusement park, and part box store. Buc-ee's is HUGE and swarming with shopper-travelers. I was thoroughly stunned. You really should read about it if you can (you can thank me later).
McKinney provided a couple more gazebos to top off our six-hour, madcap, GPS-aided adventure. I would like to publicly thank P. S. I Love You and Juanuno for humoring me and for feeding my obsession -and for shivering in the cold while we scarfed up yummy P. S. I Love You Trademark Health Wraps. It was not a perfect day for a North Texas/South Oklahoma field trip picnic, but we persevered.
After that, scooting home to get warm and cozy was number one on everyone's agenda. Jigsaw challenges must be faced. Time to stare down this thousand-piece beast and make it behave once and for all.
Peace, Love, and Hobbies,
Jim
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