Long Hollow

Tom and I ventured into enemy territory Friday night: we went dancing in College Station.

Considering we have one University of Texas graduate and one still in attendance, that's tantamount to treason around here. (College Station is the home of Texas A&M… UT's arch-rival.)

But we had a good reason to go there! We went to hear our friends' son play… he's the drummer in the Jake Carr Band, an up-and-coming country-ish musical group full of talented kids. They opened for another band (JB and the Moonshine Band) at a Bryan/College Station landmark: the Texas Hall of Fame. 

I call it a landmark because it's been there since 1978. It only took a few minutes for Tom to realize he had been there before.

"Did you come here with Debbie?"

"Yep."

Hmmm.

I know all about Debbie. Tom even called me "Debbie" once when we first started dating.

Needless to say, I made sure we got out on that dancefloor. He owed me! Plus, the Hall has one of the best dancefloors I've ever seen – I think the best since Gilley's in the days of our youth. Huge! No danger of bumping into anyone else, no matter how wild they get with their elbows and their twirling.

But back to why we were there…

The Jake Carr Band is really good. Sam Duncan, on the drums, is really, really good. Remember that name!

Plus he's so dang cute! Here he is with his beautiful Momma, Shari…

And here are some shots of the band… I bet we'll be hearing them on the radio before too long.

College Station was just the first stop on our weekend away. The true destination was our friends' place, nestled in the tall pines northwest of Houston.

Did you know that when the wind plays in those giant trees, its laughter sounds like rushing water? I had never noticed it before – perhaps it's because I miss the sound of our little waterfall so much.

That's the kind of weekend we had – slow and relaxing, where you have time to listen to the wind playing in the trees. Just the kind of weekend we needed.

We went for walks in nearby Tomball, full of great antique shops, where I was very, very tempted to buy this…

…because I've always wanted one and it was a great price.

But even a great price is too much these days, especially when I have no idea where I'd put it or what I'd do with it. That used to never stop me, but in these days when I'm dying to de-clutter, function trumps everything else.

We also took a long walk beside a nearby river, where my drought-weary eyes found colorful relief in the form of purple morning glories, clumps of red, white and yellow wildflowers, and even the butterflies I've missed so much this year, like this beauty… 

An old stable, buried under vines by the side of the road, caught our eye. We stopped to explore, not realizing until we were telling it goodbye that some of the vines were poison ivy… (Yikes! Where's the Benadryl?)

But we still used it as a "couples" photo backdrop before leaving (stepping up a few feet, of course!) 

Our sweet hosts, Robert and Shari…Thank you both for such a wonderful weekend!!