Poshdeluxe

betty hutton: hit the road to dreamland 

HALLOOOO PANTS WORLD IN 2008!!!

i’m back in austin! yay!

and i’m back at work! eh.

and i have a cold. double eh.

but that’s ok, cos i’m still riding high on the adventures and food and friends that made up my NYE road trip. and now i finally get to tell you about it! in delicious detail! and then i’ll kinda feel like i’m back on the road instead of sitting at my desk and devouring kleenex. so that’s good.

today’s entry will be short, a) cos our first day was mostly just driving b) work is bus-ayyyy.

let me start by saying that henri and i decided to set the planner pants threat level at green, which according to the u.s. government means “low.” or maybe it was more of a blue-ish green, cos blue means “guarded.” anyway, the point is that we wanted to be free to ROAM, rooooam if we want to! all around the wooooorld. or, ok, more like new mexico and texas. still, it felt AMAZING to have NO plans for most of our days… we could drive anywhere and stop wherever our fancy took us. although we did not stop at any historical markers, we DID stop at plenty of convenience stores, truck stops, christmas displays and local “fine dining” establishments. just cos we FELT like it. i would say it was like being in a kerouac novel, but honestly, i’ve never read any of his books, and i try not to assume things.

one of the reasons we could live so planner pants free is cos of our new friend, tom tom.

tom tom is a GPS navigational system. you type in where you want to go (a city, a restaurant, etc.), and then tom tom makes a map for you. you can even tell him that you want to stay off of highways, which tomtom dislikes but will do for you anyway (seriously. tomtom LOVES interstates. he wants to marry them!!).  having tom tom in the car meant that we didn’t need to unfold lots of maps or worry about getting lost or wonder how long it would take us to get somewhere. tom tom knew everything!

well, kind of.

sometimes tom tom got us into trouble. but more on that later.

our reliance on tom tom was so significant that he became like a third member of our party (henri actually made an Official Rule that we HAD to go wherever tom tom took us, which, again, led to a few pickles). i often joked that he was trying to get with henri, cos tom tom seemed determined to alienate me and/or banish me from blackie (henri’s car). maybe it’s cos henri had a lot more faith in tom tom than i did. i mean, we’d pass by a billion gas stations, and tom tom would keep saying that the next one wasn’t for 15 miles. here is a typical conversation between tom tom and me:

me: tom tom, what sorts of restaurants are around here?

tom tom: dairy queen. mcdonald’s.

me: tom tom, but what about that diner we just passed? did you even see that?

tom tom: shut up, dumbhead. I MAKE THE RULES! I AM THE MAP!

me: tom tom, i hate you.

so, yeah.

overall, though, tom tom was pretty great. he allowed us to find roads that we never would have chosen from a map, so we got to see lots of gorgeous countryside and little tiny towns.

our first picture stop was in lampasas, where they had the best christmas display, ever. you’ve already seen this pic from my panstcard:

in case you didn’t see the pantscard, the display was all about the north pole. in addition to a wal-mart, the north pole also has a church:

and a post office!

i was incredibly excited to be in the post office.

after a few hours, we spotted our first allsup’s. this is henri’s favorite convenience store, although, i have to say, their hand dryers don’t hold a CANDLE to the power of the dryers at town & country bathrooms. sorry, but it’s true.

we drove through a little town called rising star, and i kept repeating the name, cos it made me happy. i also thought of slogans for the town, like:

“you’re a STAR in rising star!”

“rising star: this star is RISING!”

“rising star: where britney doesn’t live”

the chamber of commerce should totally read this blog. maybe then the population would hit, say, a thousand.

we decided to eat dinner in snyder, texas, cos tom tom told us it had non-chain restaurants (henri’s other rule: no chain restaurants. and we made it… until the last night. you’ll see). i do have to give tom tom major props for leading us to the snyder town square. it was absolutely perfect.

so many glittery lights! la la la!

snyder even has a ritz theater, just like the alamo! i told henri that maybe his future lies in snyder. he wasn’t so sure.

one of my favorite things about seeing different cities right after the holiday was observing their street light decor. you know, street light decor is one of those things that people don’t really appreciate, and they should. it’s fun! it’s festive! and it’s like, a remnant from pleasantville that has inexplicably survived.

tom tom took us to dinner at a place called mo-malee’s. and it was exactly what we wanted.

a small town, family restaurant with high school waitresses in too much make-up and a menu with a “train” theme. this is where you go when you want a “nice” meal. you now, like how suburban people go to the olive garden.

of course, we had to get steak.

it was actually not bad, considering that we were, you know, in snyder, texas.

we stayed the night in plainview at a comfort inn suites, which had an INDOOR JACUZZI. i could not BELIEVE i hadn’t packed my bathing suit. i mean, obviously, i would need one for a road trip in december. right? gah.

that’s ok, though, cos henri gave me my christmas presents that night, and guess what? i got a new camera!!!!! she is pink and shiny and beautiful and her name is flossy.

isn’t she pretty?!!

thanks to flossy and tom tom and the blue-green planner pants level, i’ve got LOTS more pictures to show you.

i’m excited!!!

tomorrow: las vegas, NM, a gas scare and real, live SNOW!

p.s. i missed you guys!