Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Jukin' Fools

When we have a day off, we like to drive. This, according to Noel (and corroborated by others), is called Jukin'.

Basically, to Juke properly, you have to obey the following Jukin' Commandments:

(1) Y'all Shalt Have Mountain Dew and Doritos Aplenty For Snakin'

(2) Y'all Shalt Plan No More Than Only A General Direction To Drive

(3) Y'all Shalt Stop To Pee At Skanky Truck Stops

I always add my own:

(4) Kelli Shalt Bring Her Knitting Bag. And Camera. (Like I go anywhere without either of those things anyway!)

Today we decided to juke east of I-45, since we've stayed west of that road since coming to Livingston. We went to Bryan (Texas A&M is there). (Also, what is an Aggie?) From there, we drove south to a town called Navasota. Such a cute town, and so many gorgeous homes! There were multiple jaw-droppers there - behemoth mansions with frilly frou-frou on them. This one was such a stunner I made Noel stop the truck so I could get out and snap a few pictures.



This is the side:


And here's a detail shot. I didn't notice til I got home that you can't really tell, but these were stained glass windows. GORGEOUS.


So many of the houses in that town had stained glass. Interesting, since we haven't seen that a lot anywhere else. My Aunt Shirley used to make lovely stained glass. Maybe she'll teach me someday. Because I really need a hobby. HA.

Oh, one fun thing about that house? The walkway was bricked. I didn't think anything about it until I took the front photo (above), looked down, and realized (yet again) how proud many Texas are of their...Texan-ness. Check out these Lone Star bricks!



They each had little stars in them. Fun stuff.

We came back to Livingston (after fighting traffic an hour outside of Houston that was still technically Houston Traffic), had dinner at a Cajun restaurant (and learned that apparently Cajun types use powdered Sassafrass leaves to thicken their gumbo - huh) and then crashed on the sofa, full of Cajun seafood and Jukin' adventure.

At Noel's urging, I started a book. We had been discussing it at dinner and...well...why not? So I sat down with the computer and knocked out about 2400 words of my first novel. So far Noel really likes it. I've never written something quite so long as a book. We'll see!

5 comments:

Rachel said...

Just know that if you write something about the heroine's cold and calculating shrew of a sister, I WILL sue you for defamation. Or worse, write my own novel. Heh.

Gorgeous house. I wonder where the name of that town originated. Interesting stuff.

Unknown said...

We used to take entire weeks' vacations that way...general direction, wake up, open map, drive. Discovered some cool places that way!

Unknown said...

R, I think we should just write our own book...truth, well, you know what they say...
(but Kelli, you can include stories about your shrewish sister's gorgeous friends...)

Rachel said...

I just can't imagine Scott ever agreeing to a jukin' vacation. He's mellowed alot since he's been hanging out with me, but I'm afraid on the vacation front, he's influenced me more than I have influenced him. I have the spreadsheets to prove it.

There's our novel, LF, two wacky friends decide to throw caution to the wind, jump in the car and head west to visit one friend's fabulously free-spirited artist sister. Deep conversations and hilarious misadventures ensue.

Unknown said...

Can we leave today? Oh yeah, right, we're snow in...tomorrow?