Our vacation to the COUNTRY

Have I ever mentioned that my parents live in the country? No, really, it's the country. There are more animals than people in their neck of the woods. In fact, our very first adventure on our Summer Tour involved some of those animals.

Since Mr. at Home got off early on July 3rd, we decided to leave then and surprise the girls by showing up a few hours before they were expecting us. We almost didn't make it, though. Remember how they say most accidents happen within two miles of home? Maybe your parents' home counts, too. Our GPS (bless her heart) had us take this tiny dirt road out to my parents' area where the tiny bridge made of old boards almost stopped my heart, but it was the least of our problems. As we turned a corner, I saw something black in the ditch.

Pigs.

It was a group of several adults and piglets and Mr. at Home didn't see them until we were right on them when (naturally) they decided that was the perfect time to cross the road. We skidded and swerved and had both us and those pigs scared witless. We managed to avoid them all, even the one who decided to run a race with us for awhile. We even managed to stay on the tiny dirt road.

We did make it safely to my parents' house, where we, over the next four days, encountered cows, frogs, and guineas all blocking the road or bounding through the ditch straight for us.

Exciting times, my friends.

It's a regular menagerie around my parents' house. On one side are the horses, on the other side is the donkey that brays and causes the dogs across the street to bark like crazy. The bull frogs in the pond sound like the Sand People from Star Wars and they compete with the cicadas to keep you up at night. The girls watched a turtle walk up near the house, dig a hole, and lay her eggs before plodding back to the pond. Driving down those country roads, you'll see llamas and goats and tiny ponies. The rabbits will go bounding out of sight while the clueless deer that hangs out near the gun and rifle club stands and watches you. While we were down, a strange hybrid goose/swan moved into their pond. But that's better than the alligator that took up residence there a couple of years ago. Thankfully, he mysteriously disappeared after several attempts by the game warden to trap a 6-foot alligator in a 4-foot cage. The poor man couldn't figure out how the bologna kept disappearing.

After we left Texas for stop number 2 of our Summer Tour, we figured we'd left the animal excitement behind.

We were wrong.