So this weekend Amanda and I had a pretty long and eventful road trip to Marfa, TX. Where is Marfa you ask? It's in West Texas... and by West Texas I mean 3.5 hours past Odessa... yeah... that West Texas. I will say that after we got past Odessa the drive was not too bad, but that was after a good 5 hours on the road. After Odessa the rest of the drive looked like this...
Along the way we passed this town and Amanda and I laughed for a good 20 minutes while we made up sentences with the word "Merkel" in it. Some of my favorites were "Do you believe He still performs MERKELS today church?!?!" (best Southern Baptist preacher voice) and "If we get there on time it will be a MERKEL!!" This was a fun game so we played it on the way back as well! Please ignore the bug guts in the next picture.
After we got off of I-20 and on to Hwy 17 at Pecos the speed limit changed like every 3 miles. Because I am a man and have no use for such trivial things as speed limits I just set the cruise at 83 (most limits were 80) and away we went.
"Mr. Richardson I stopped you because I got you going 83 in a 70. Can I have your drivers license and insurance please?" Dang it! Yes, I got pulled over. (My first draft of this blog had the word "we" in it, as in "We got pulled over." I have since changed that under my own will and under no duress, because I am a man and have no use for... OH NEVERMIND! Yes I got pulled over!!!) One of the first things my sweet wife said to me after we pulled over was "I love you." It was like this guy was going to take me away. More on the conversation that followed later. Long story short, he asked why I was speeding, I said "Because I'm not from around here and the speed limits change every 3 miles it seems like." He agrees, tells me to slow down, and sends me on my way. Really nice guy!
Once we finally made it to Marfa, we had just enough time to check in, change and head to the rehearsal. Amanda did splendidly, standing there like a statue of a Greek goddess. Then we went to the rehearsal dinner and had a great time and some great food. After the dinner, some of the guys went back to the grooms suite to have an after party so I joined them but Amanda went back to the room because she was pretty tired by this point. It had been a long day!
When I got back to the room and got ready for bed I asked Amanda why the first thing she said to me was "I love you." when we got pulled over. She said, "Because I was trying to not be mad at you." At first I laughed and accepted it as just one of the many cute things my wife tends to say. But as I laid there thinking about it I realized how lucky I was to have a wife that made a conscious effort to die to herself, put her anger or frustration aside (of which she had every reason to be angry, she had reminded me of the speed limit several... dozen times this trip) and just show me love! I went to sleep that night thanking God for such a gift!
In an effort not to make this blog post the longest ever... I'll sum up Saturday and just touch on the things we did that day. First, skeet shoot at a beautiful ranch, then a chuck wagon BBQ, back to the hotel and Amanda went with the girls to get ready and I stayed in the room until the wedding. Wedding ceremony then a night of dancing and fun with our new friends and a ROCKIN country band from San Antone! All in all it was a great week. Feast your eyes on the West Texas scenery below!!!
Me killing those clay pigeons!
Just wow!!!
Me and my gal... and a gun... can't get much better!!
