Texas was the place I most dreaded for our road trip. I think of long stretches of straight, flat road under an endless sunny blue sky. No animals, no trees, just fellow travelers on the interstate. This was fueled by memories from past roadtrips, such as when several of my college friends piled in a van and drove from Nashville to the Grand Canyon. And when Clayton and I drove to San Antonio so he could ask for my parents’ permission to marry me. Those trips were fun because of the people and purpose, not the scenery.

We started by cruising through North Texas, specifically Amarillo (the “armpit of America” as one of my college friends dubbed it), then dipped down just skirting below the border with Oklahoma. We ended that first Texas day in Wichita Falls, a suburb without the burb. We will always think highly of that little place because we stumbled upon good shave ice and because of the Texas-shaped waffles we ate for breakfast the next morning. But not because of the scenery.

This all changed when we hit the town of Montgomery just north of Houston. We were meeting our friend’s Mike and Tami and staying at his parent’s house. I’m not sure what I imagined the house to be like, but it ended up being a little oasis. Off a back road in the middle of the woods, within sight of a lake, we were treated to some amazing hospitality and lovely scenery. They are both master gardeners so have an extensive green garden in their wooded backyard, complete with tall flowering arugula and red and yellow Swiss chard. Just one lot down was a horse that we could feed carrots to. We could view woodpeckers and chickadees on the bird feeder from the kitchen window as we ate a breakfast of baked oatmeal and thick cut bacon. Autumn followed the path in their backyard to the tire swing or on bug hunts for roly polies. It was a wonderful respite to see so much greenery and enjoy the company of laid back people.