Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 23384 – 1191
First, let me wish any celebrants who may follow this blog, have a Happy Valentine’s Day! To those who don’t celebrate it, have a happy. I notice that it is also the beginning of Lent, a season of fasting celebrated mostly by Catholics where they give something up. I hope you didn’t give up chocolate, lol. I will stock up on chocolate on the 15th when all the candy is half-price. Anyway
Here’s The Haps:
Thank you all for your kind wishes for our vacation, we had a good time. TNT went on the cruise I had mentioned last April in the A-Z challenge and enjoyed herself at the same time as we were gone. Hey-Boy didn’t have to be boarded because Other Daughter and kids were here so he wasn’t as sad as he normally would be but he is TNT’s dog above all else and gets mopey when she’s away.
Anyway, while TNT was swimming with dolphins and sharing a trail with a six-foot lizard, we were having our own adventure. I was finally able to take Mrs. Herb to Paris and see the Eiffel Tower.
Yes, it was beautiful. I thought the top was particularly stunning. Perhaps Jaunty is a better word. I mean, not everyone can pull off wearing a red cowboy hat but on the Eiffel Tower, it looked great.
Yes, we visited the second largest Paris in the world, Paris, Texas.
For our vacation, we went on a driving tour of the great state of Texas. My wife had a conference to attend in the Houston area toward the end of the week and instead of flying, we decided to rent a car instead and see some of this giant state. We came through Amarillo and purposely detoured to Paris, just because I wanted to say I took my wife to Paris. There wasn’t a whole lot for us to do there besides the Eiffel Tower but there was a Mom & Pop Italian restaurant that we enjoyed and would consider making a detour just to see again. Capizzi’s. They don’t have a regular website but their page on Tripadvisor has a link to their Facebook page. Since we don’t do FB I don’t know how well the link works. Anyway, it might be worth driving 12 hours to visit again.
I don’t do the marathon drives that I used to, though. I am finding as I get older that 4 to 6 hours is about what I can handle comfortably. I still could, but I don’t want to. The Lord has blessed our family and we don’t have to drive like crazy, stop at a wayside, lock the doors, snooze a few hours, eat a couple of stale sandwiches, and move on. We have and in a pinch, we would again, but it’s not as easy in our sixties as it was in our thirties, lol.
I’ll post more about the trip in the next couple of days. The one regret I have is that I didn’t get to stop in Granbury, TX, and have lunch with world-famous, often-truthful, occasional tall-tale teller, blogger, and all-around good guy, Phil Strawn at Notes From the Cactus Patch and his wife. Granbury is full of Texas history and I think we will try to make it a destination next time. I mean, for us, anyway, once you’ve seen Paris, you’ve seen Paris. Anyway, He’s a blogger I’d enjoy having lunch with just to listen to some of his stories. Some of them are even true. When I was looking at the Granbury website I did see that the total eclipse will be visible from there for 2 minutes and 38 seconds on Monday, April 8th, 2024. Hmmm… Stay tuned to this station for further announcements. Being semi-retired does have its advantages.
This was actually our second stop but it felt like a more dramatic way to start. Woo-hoo, Herb. Shades of excitement. More about our trip in the next post.
Great photo! At first I thought you WERE in Paris, France… then saw the red cowboy hat. Assuming this is a lovely photo of your wife in Paris, Texas. Very nice!! Glad you had fun.
You guessed right, lol. Thanks for stopping by!
Glad your trip went well. We still like long road trips (with my kids), but we share the driving and read to each other!
Paris–don’t forget Perris, CA in your list. That’s where I got my wonderful puppy.
Perris, CA? Never thought of it. Wow. Hmmm…
I’m the only driver in our family.
Thank your trip was a happy one. Have a great day.
I know what you mean about long drives! We still do 8 or 9 hour drives on our south/north snowbird migration, but we stop lots for ice cream… Hubby does all the driving because he likes to, but he knows I have bonded enough with the Durango to spell him if he wanted a break! He also loves the almost self-driving functions on the Durango – they make driving less stressful, particularly when you come into fog so thick that you can’t see well enough to even pull off the road!
Wow. My brother-in-law had a Durango and loved it!
Pretty good idea about getting chocolate tomorrow! Hilarious about visiting Paris, TX, just so you could say you took your wife to Paris. I was so confused by that picture at first. I was like, “I thought the tower would be bigger… That background seems off.” Hahaha. And, I appreciate the anti-Biden stuff on here. 🙂
Thank you very much. No, I’m no Biden fan at all. I haven’t been writing about politics much lately but I haven’t changed my mind.
I’m not a fan of people writing about politics, in general. It would certainly be a change of pace to see someone ranting against Democrats for a change, though. 😛
Oh, I do it but just not as often as I used to.
Aw man, I haven’t even been to Paris, TX. I have been to the one in Idaho; does that count? They ought to build Le Tour Eiffel out of potatoes or hash browns, up there.
If it was hash browns I’d eat up all the profits, lol.
Yes, well, they might have to use artificial ones … and serve real ones at a nearby restaurant.
It would last longer…
The best way to understand how BIG Texas is…..drive through it. Congratulations!!
Yes, sir. And it also gives an idea of how big this country really is. there’s a lot to see everywhere.
I wish you had an opportunity to visit the Eiffle Tower at Kings Island amusement park near Mason, Ohio — it is an exact replica almost and stands more than a hundred feet tall and has elevators to take visitors up and down….
That sounds like fun but it isn’t Paris, lol.
Haven’t gotten around to visiting Texas. I missed my clearest opportunity when my sister was doing her basic training and formative Air Force years there.
It’s a bit self-serving to say I like long trips, as I don’t drive (although during the period where I almost did the easiest driving by far was on highways and such, and I really wouldn’t mind having a license just to do that again). Anyway I like traveling as it’s completely different from normal life, which is always nice, even when it’s hot chaos like two years ago when I traveled by bus on Memorial Day weekend (back when there were still bus driver shortages, although maybe there still are? so there ended up being long delays at every stop, with “long” being equivalent to saying Babe Ruth hit a few home runs).
I used to travel by bus a lot and actually kind of enjoyed it. I don’t mind scenic country drives but going through metro areas…Not for me anymore.
It looks like you beat the crowds on the day you went to Paris!
😂😉
Sometime y’all oughta come visit Buddy Holly and Mac Davis’ hometown – Lubbock! 🙂
My compulsive nature ‘forced’ me to check on how many Parises there are in the USA. Had to do it. The voices wouldn’t shut up. I lived in Illinois for about six years when I was a kid; knew there is a Paris, IL. Turns out there’re 18 Parises in different states, plus St. Paris, OH, and two (2) Paris Mountains (VA and SC). Now you know. You are welcome, and I apologize (despite Gibbs’ rule). ~Ed.
If you ever want to visit Versailles, we have one in Indiana. There is no palace thought. And we pronounce it Ver-SAY-uls.
Now that I drive for my supper, long recreational car trips lack the appeal they used to have.
I imagine they don’t. Ver-SAY-uls? I like the sound of it already.