Clear Eyes, Full Hearts

First, a programming note: We were a bit light with the blogging today, due to technical difficulties (by 'technical difficulties', I mean the computer was on and unplugged all night, and had no juice left). We'll try to be better the rest of the way.

And be sure to check out the edited version of the last post for the obligatory Andy's Facial Hair shot of the day!

Andy's already covered football, beer and women (what else is there, really?), so just a couple of notes on how we spent the rest of our time in Dallas ...

After sleeping in a bit yesterday morning, we headed to Cuba Libre for chips and drinks for lunch. As A promised, the plantain chips were delicious. I wouldn't have guessed that something dusted with cinnamon and sugar would taste good with avocado ranch, but I would have been wrong!

Next, we headed out to Fort Worth, to visit the Stockyard. Let's just say that Fort Worth is a bit further away than it looks on the map ...

About the only landmark of note along the drive was Texas Stadium (unimpressive). Alas, we missed the Stockyards cattle drive, but we did sneak around back to check out the long horns, and caught a couple of them locking horns.

All cowboyed out (it doesn't take much), we rushed back to Dallas proper for dinner at Javier's, A's favorite restaurant anywhere. To be honest, I can't tell you anymore what Andy or his dad had for dinner -- I was too distracted by my mole poblano. Not terribly spicy (darn), but a lovely dark red sauce over tender bone-in skinless chicken. Good stuff all around! (And thank you for dinner, Mr. Radford!)

Most of the day today was spent driving through west Texas, and it was about as exciting as you might expect. I took the first shift, then dozed while Andy rolled us through Amarillo. Only thing worth commenting on were the cotton fields. I've never seen them before. The harvested fields are dotted with gigantic cubes of cotton, similar to hay bails (I'm a midwesterner, after all, that is my nearest point of reference). Anyone know how they're made?

We're in Albuquerque now, settling in to the hotel and getting ready for dinner. Tomorrow morning will be a bit of site seeing in Albuquerque before we head for Flagstaff, snow, and the Clarks, who have generously agreed to host us.

Have a good night, y'all!