Carlsbad to Lubbock

Thursday, March 25, 2010

We left Carlsbad, New Mexico just after 10:00 AM.  We drove past lots of oil wells in eastern New Mexico, that I would guess is the western edge of the Permian Basin which includes the Texas oil cities of Odessa and Midland. As we travelled further east into Texas around Seminole, the soil changed to a brick red colour.  The scrub lands of New Mexico gave way to tilled, irrigated fields and the farms and houses appeared to be quite prosperous, with fields of harvested cotton. There were dozens of peanut processing plants and peanut storage buildings and pecan orchards were scattered along the route.  We arrived in Lubbock around 2:30 and just took it easy for the rest of the afternoon.  Lubbock has a population of about 200,000 and is home to Texas Tech University.  The Red Raiders football team held their first scrimmage today for the 2010 season.  Big News around here!  Their sports cast is entitled “Red Raider Nation” – this is university football not professional!                                               

We had a very strong Wi-Fi signal so we called the boys on the Magic Jack phone this afternoon.  We found out that David has received his next placement with Hydro.  He will be posted in Point Du Bois to complete the Electrical generation  part of his apprenticeship.  So it seems that both David and Kevin will be away for the summer; Kevin at the Ash Rapids Lodge near the Lake of the Woods, as sous-chef and David in Pointe De Bois. 

Odds And Ends – Some of the things that I’ve intended/wanted to talk about in no particular order and for no particular reason.

• Spring Break – In the states it starts in the first week of March and extends throughout the month for various locations. We heard one news report that said, South Padre Island expects to make 1/3 of its profit during spring break month.  This is like their Christmas.  Anyone that we spoke to told us that “last week was just crazy”.  We learned early in the month that we should make reservations when we travel in Texas in March.
• Farming and Urban Sprawl – South Texas is an irrigated oasis.  Citrus crops predominate, but it would appear as if huge homes/ mansions in large, gated communities are spreading through the area and taking over the farm lands.  It just seems to me that some of these large housing developments should be going into more marginal areas rather than taking over the rich farm lands.
• American Politics – strange and interesting.  Strange – Texas State Representatives have a term of two years and they only sit 140 days every other year (I’m not that imaginative – I couldn’t make this up!)  Primaries,- I thought from all the TV ads that Governor Richard Perry (Republican) was in a fight against US Senator Kay Hutchison (also a Republican) . lots of negative ads between these two.  But, there was also an election among the Democrats for governor between Farouk Shami and Bill White. (Guess who won that one in Texas!!)  This is sort of like electing a party leader in Canadian politics.  Now, if someone does not win by at least 50% of the vote then there is a Run-off election in May.  After that they start the real election campaign that ends in the vote in November.  It seems that they are perpetually in campaign mode.  They also elect Sheriffs and Judges – but not dog catchers.  And this happens in every county in the state.  There are 254 counties in Texas.