We are setting our schedule and structured school lessons aside for about three weeks. The kids and I traveled from our Dallas-Fort Worth home to Lubbock last week. It was a good trip. We skipped the highways in favor of the more scenic route through the beautiful West Texas landscapes and small towns to make the five-hour drive more pleasant and interesting. We stopped to get out of the van to hear and watch several flocks of geese pass overhead and eventually disappear over the plateaus in the distant horizon. Along with many horses and cows, we also saw a beautiful bobcat, two white-tailed deer, two roadrunners, and several hawks and other birds. They disappeared too quickly for pictures, although one lovely horse seemed flattered by our interest in him and was happy to pose for us. As always, I also had to scoop up a bit of raw cotton that remained along the roadside after harvest. We played traveling games most of the way home...finding the letters of the alphabet in order (or something starting with each letter.)  This is really fun and challenging driving through West Texas in the middle of winter during a drought. Allowing adjectives helps. "G" for grass...."P" for parched grass. Eye-Spy was challenging, too, providing plenty of laughter and fond memories.