What I'm Loving Wednesday and AVERT2015 Recap Part 1

I'm back after an AMAZING road trip last week. I had a blast. There is too much to put into one post, so I'll break it up into several posts (you'll get a sneak peak today). Be sure to check back for more updates on it. I always post on Twitter when I update my blog, so feel free to follow me there. We used the hashtag #AVERT2015 on Twitter and Instagram for our trip (feel free to search it if you want). It stands for "A Very Epic Road Trip". :)

My wonderful co-host Jodi is on a blogging sabbatical this week, but I would still love it you linked up with me today! 

I'm loving...

That I visited 11 states in a span of 10 days. And seven of those states were ones I had never visited before (I'm slowly working my way to all 50 states). 

I'm loving...

That my former college roommate Mel went on this road trip with me. We went on road trips when we were in college, and we had been talking about taking another one for a few years now. We finally did it! We even had a playlist on my iPod of songs we listened to in college. Ah, memories!

Before the start of our 11 state journey...

I'm loving...

That we weren't even out of Texas before our first unplanned stop took place. Road trips are all about making unexpected stops along the way (at least with us). We stopped in Denison to visit the birthplace of Dwight Eisenhower (it made sense to stop, since we were going to his presidential library in Kansas). This was also something I can cross of my 101 in 1001 list (#3 Places in Texas I've never been to before).

I'm loving...

This personalized autograph from Dick Van Dyke. As you know, he's my favorite actor of ALL time. Last month he and his wife mentioned on Twitter they had extra copies of his autobiography (which I already owned), but if you bought a copy through them, and told him what to write, he would personalize an autograph for you. How could I pass that up? I'll just own two copies of his book. But I'll treasure this copy for the rest of my life. And yes, I did ask him to write that. :)

I'm loving...

That I made the latest issue of the Texas Rangers Magazine (which is the souvenir program they sell at the games). They had a social media contest where you submitted a picture of you cheering on the Rangers at another ballpark (it's a segment called "Rangers Roadtrip"). I sent in a picture of me when I went to see the Rangers play at Fenway Park in Boston. They selected my picture for an issue and mailed me a copy of the magazine. I feel kind of famous. :) 

I decided to end my post today with a quick recap of the first two days of our trip. Like I said, we stopped at the Eisenhower birthplace before we got out of Texas. The first state of our trip was Oklahoma.

Why yes, we did sing the theme song from the musical Oklahoma as we crossed the border. And we realized we only knew the first few lines. Lol.

After driving almost 100 miles into Oklahoma (give or take a few miles), we finally found a place to stop and eat. We spend the night in Tulsa and the next day we went to the Hard Rock Casino...and discovered that gambling was NOT for us. We maybe spent an hour in there, but we spent most of that time taking pictures of the memorabilia. We both spent a dollar on the penny slots, and we both lost a dollar. I found gambling to be somewhat boring (I guess that's a good thing, right?) It was a cool place to visit though.

An Elvis jumpsuit. You know me, if it's Elvis related, I'm taking a picture

They told us not to take pictures of the slot machines (what can I say, I live life on the edge). Although you really can't tell there are slot machines in this picture. Oh well, I tried. Lol. 

We didn't eat here, but I did pose for a picture

After that, we visited the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum. Mel's cousin works there and gave us a behind the scenes tour. As a museum nerd aficionado, I really enjoyed it. I've been to many museums, but it was so cool to see what goes on in preparing the exhibits and how they catalog everything. If you are ever in Tulsa, be sure to check out this museum (click here for the address). I think it's one of Tulsa's best kept secrets. They have so many exhibits that include the first ever traffic Yield sign, the first Barbie doll, classic cars, old soda shop benches, and a death mask of Pretty Boy Floyd (the only other death masks of Floyd are owned by the FBI and the Ohio Historical Society).

1958 Ford Edsel

Cool like James Dean..

Thanks to Mel's cousin Ian for the tour of his awesome museum, we had a blast!

We ended our first (full) day with a stop in Abilene, Kansas. I'll talk more about our adventures there in my next post (I would love to say that would be tomorrow, but we all know my track record of updating my blog on a regular basis. It will be soon, I promise!) :)

I was singing "Carry On My Wayward Son" as we crossed the Kansas border (for someone who is tone deaf, I sure did do a lot of singing on this trip). Lol.

XOXO!!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

Grab the button on the sidebar and link up for What I'm Loving Wednesday!! :)

I'm loving...

That I got to have dinner with my sweet Twitter friends Rachel and Kelsey last week. Well, we've met in person now, so we are no longer just Twitter friends. I'm so glad they were in town visiting! :) It was a lot of fun hanging out with them!

I'm loving...

The Girls Weekend I had with my nieces Alice and Stephanie last weekend (Stephanie's husband Kevin was an honorary invitee to some of the weekend events). We had a lot of fun (despite the fact the weather did NOT want to cooperate for some of it). 

So the picture in the bottom right corner is one I took as we were being driven home from dinner on Friday (thank you Uber for your wonderful service). It was raining so hard that the streets were flooding. Yeah, the water was almost at the same level as the car window. SO thankful we didn't get stuck. Or washed away.

My nieces and I went to Galveston for some girl time on Saturday. We ate at this wonderful place called the Mosquito Cafe. If you go to Galveston, you must stop there. The picture at the bottom right shows where the water level was after Hurricane Ike flooded Galveston in 2008. I'm about 5'8 and that line was a good six to seven inches higher than me. 

I'm loving...

That I got to see my nieces compete in the Run Like A Diva 5K in Galveston on Sunday. I'm so proud of them! Maybe next time I'll run with them. Maybe. I'm not a runner. Lol.

I'm loving...

That even though we only got to put our feet in the water, we still had a nice time at the Galveston beach on Sunday. And I'm loving that the sun was actually out. When we were there on Saturday it was cloudy and rainy most of the time. There is something so peaceful about the ocean. If I lived closer, I would go there to "de-stress" after a rough week.

I met a cute Corgi who was experiencing her first beach trip. She was a little nervous about the water and the waves.

I'm loving...

That I get to update my 101 in 1001 list! (2. Visit 7 places in Texas that I have never been to before). On our way back from Galveston, we made a quick side trip to the San Jacinto Monument and Memorial in La Porte. This is the location where Texas won its independence from Mexico. You can read more about it in my post here. We were only there for a little bit so I definitely want to go back when I can spend more time exploring the battle ground. We only visited the monument and museum portion (thank you Kevin for riding the elevator to the top of the monument with me). 

You can't tell, but in the picture on the top left, I'm standing in front of the monument. Lol. I'm the dot in front of the steps. :) 

I'm loving...

This picture I took at the beach. We walked for a while in our bare feet and the picture made me think of this poem. It was just a little reminder to me that even though I'm struggling with different issues right now, God is walking beside me.

I'm loving...

That I get to have dinner with three different friends this week (on three different nights). I love being able to get some one-on-one time with friends to just catch up on life. 

What are YOU loving today??

XOXO!!

Thursday 13 (times two)

Last week my friend Katie made her first trip to Texas, so I took a mini "staycation" from work. We had so much fun! It was cool to be able to go local places that I don't normally go to. I was also able to mark some stuff off of my 101 in 1001 list! For my Thursday 13, I thought I would post pictures of our adventures (I'm actually posting two Thursday 13 worth of pictures!) :)

The 6th Floor Museum, also known as the JFK museum. We were unable to solve the JFK assassination mystery, BUT, we came up with our own theories. I might share mine one day. The second window from the top on the right hand side is the window Lee Harvey Oswald was supposedly at.

This is actually a view from the 7th floor window (we couldn't sneak a picture on the 6th floor), but it is one floor above the window Oswald was supposedly at.

New friends having lunch at Hoffbrau Steaks in the Dallas West End. This is a restaurant I had never been to (mark that off my list!)

A group of Marines were sitting next to us at Hoffbrau Steaks. They posed for a group picture before we left (honestly, we didn't have to twist their arms to join us). :) God bless our troops! Thanks for all you do!

We visited Southfork Ranch (the house from the TV show Dallas). I actually have never seen an episode of the show, but it was still cool to see it. I've seen the intro of the show and the house does look smaller in person.

They said they made the pool look bigger by placing mirrors on either side of it. All outside scenes were filmed on location here. The inside scenes were filmed in Hollywood.

Me and Katie hanging out on the deck of Southfork

We headed to the Fort Worth Stock Yards on Saturday night for the rodeo.

Me and Katie bought cowboy hats at Southfork to wear to the rodeo.

New friends!! My friend Donny joined us for the rodeo.

Group shot- aren't we cute? And for the record, that is a Brooklyn Dodgers cap, not a Boston cap (I promised Donny I would make note of that!) :)

I love the bull riding!

Getting ready to head to Billy Bob's for some post-rodeo dancing.

On Sunday Katie and I got to hear the great Chuck Swindoll preach at Stonebriar Community Church

After church, we made a two hour drive north to visit Paris, TX. Why, YES, that IS a cowboy hat on top of an Eiffel Tower! 

There is statue in a Paris cemetery of Jesus wearing cowboy boots. Not sure how I feel about it, but I took a picture.

Paris was only about 20 minutes from the Oklahoma border, and since I've never been there, we made the side trip north. Now I can mark Oklahoma off my 101 in 1001 list. I know, kinda sad I live so close and have never been to Oklahoma!

We took a tour of Cowboys Stadium on Monday.

Standing by Tony Romo's locker.

Posing on the star on the 50 yard line.

Me and Katie in the end zone.

We went to the Rangers game on my birthday (I know, you are shocked I would want to go to a baseball game on my birthday!) ;) THIS is what a 33 year old Rangers fan looks like! Side note: Thank you PlayerTees for the Hamilton tank top! Rangers won 4-0. AND Josh Hamilton hit his first home run of the season that night (I would like to think he did that for me for my birthday!) :)

My baseball home girls!

My fellow Rangers Twitter buddy Wes stopped by to say hi!

Donny needs a Rangers cap! ;)

On Katie's last day we went to the Old Red Museum, which is in the old Dallas courthouse (it's the castle looking building). It tells the history of the city of Dallas. I had never been, it was really interesting! :)

Again, my friends and I really enjoyed Katie's visit. I joked with her that now we are "real" friends instead of "blogging" friends. I believe my friends and I are planning a road trip (or perhaps we will fly, we can't decide) to North Carolina to visit her!! I smell a beach trip in the near future!

Don't forget to stop by For the Love of Blogs for Thirsty Thursday!

My Thirsty Thursday drink- a Chick Fil A milkshake!

XOXO!!