Just a quick blurb.

Being in Livingston, TX puts us close to several of John's cousins.  Of course close is a relative term when your talking about Texas.  One was two hours away in Sugarland, another one an hour away in Conroe and the third an hour away in Montgomery.  By the way, did you know that you could always tell if you were talking to a Texan if they spoke in terms of travel time instead of distance?  When we were in high school we made a few trips from our hometown of Borger, TX (up in the panhandle, north of Amarillo) to Galveston Island, TX.  To this day I have no idea how many miles that drive was but I know it was a 14 hour trip with 70 mph speed limits.  During the oil crisis when speed limits were dropped to 55 mph we quit making long-distance weekend drives.  There just was not enough hours in the weekend to do more than make the drive, with no time to spend at the destination.

Before our stay in Livingston was finished we had managed to meet with all three for dinner at restaurants approximately mid-way between us and them.  These are some pretty special people in my book and we loved spending time with them.  Although Cyndee did miss one dinner due to her strep throat infection. So, where does one meet for a special dinner with family when in Texas, why at BBQ or Mexican food restaurants of course.

One dinner Cyndee didn't miss was a trip to the Humble, TX location of Spring Creek BBQ.  This is a chain of restaurants scattered around the Houston area and east Texas.  But don't let the chain thing put you off, this is some good BBQ.  I got what I call a dinosaur bone (a big ol' beef rib) and was thoroughly satisfied with it and the endless sides that come with it.  Plus, the wait staff walks around with a large basket of fresh, hot rolls that just keep coming.  Our next stop was on a farm to market road just outside of Conroe, at the foot of the dam of Lake Conroe.  El Bosque has two locations, one in Conroe and this one at the lake.  They had an extensive menu with several unique offerings.  Everything we had was really good.  And lastly, the one Cyndee was down and out for, was Los Pericos in Huntsville.  Again, a huge menu with many unique house specialties.  I did take a desert home for Cyndee.

We'll be getting ready to head north now.  We are going to go to Waco and be tourists for a few days and then work our way up to my brother's place near Dallas and then to both my and Cyndee's home town of Borger.