Garden City, Kansas, Here We Are - Thursday, April 29, 2021

Well, last night was exciting at our home in San Antonio. Around 7:30 p.m., we had a tornado warning. The weatherman on TV was very animated, emphasizing that people in the path of the tornado warning needed to take shelter NOW. We went to our park's office building which is a designated shelter.

The office building is quite large and accommodated everyone and their pets nicely. The TVs were tuned to the weather news. After waiting about 45 minutes, we were given the all-clear to go back home. Thankfully, we did not receive any hail or tornadoes. Only a few sprinkles of rain fell, but we saw a lot of lightning!

About 2:30 a.m., we had a big downpour with thunder and lightning. It poured for a while.

At 3:30 a.m., I got up for the day. Bob, Susan Medlin, and I are driving to Garden City, Kansas, for a walking weekend spanning five counties in southwest Kansas. We picked Susan up at 5:00 a.m. 

As we headed west and north to Fredericksburg, Texas, the rain kept on falling. All of us thought we'd be out of the storms in an hour or two. Nope. Wrong. We had storms until 11:30 a.m. Not only that, it was cold outside.

It was lunchtime and we had planned to make sandwiches and have lunch at a picnic area. I pulled into a scenic picnic area. We all piled out of the Jeep. Brr! It was still cold even though the rain had stopped and the gloom was lifting. There was a stiff wind and we had to hold down the paper plates, the bread for the sandwiches, the napkins, etc. After the sandwiches were put together, we piled back into the Jeep to eat. We were overly optimistic about eating outside.

A scenic picnic area in the Texas panhandle.

A bonus to being farther north is that the bluebonnets and wildflowers are still in bloom. The dark blue of the bluebonnets in contrast with the butter-yellow flowers gave us a beautiful natural bouquet on the hillside next to the picnic table.

Bluebonnets.

Yellow and white wildflowers.

The view from our picnic "shelter."

The rest of our drive was sunny and the temperature warmed from 55 degrees this morning to 70 degrees by the time we got to Garden City, Kansas. After we checked into our hotel, we met about 14 other walkers at Casa Mariachi Mexican Restaurant. 

Lucy and Wes modeling with the
margaritas (small, medium, large).

I had a hard time choosing what to have for dinner because they had such a unique menu. I've never been to a Mexican restaurant that had so much pineapple on the menu! For example, Pollo Hawaiane was a chicken breast with ham and pineapple. I chose Pollo de Cazadores (Chicken of the Hunter) and it was yummy. It was chicken breast covered in melted cheese; a guacamole salad, refried beans, sauteed mushrooms, onions and green peppers, and warm flour tortillas. Bob had Enchiladas Elenas (three enchiladas topped with green sauce, cheese, and sour cream) served with guacamole salad and refried beans.

The Margaritas came in four sizes: small, medium, large, and jumbo. Wow!

Art in the restaurant.

A great benefit to being in AVA: America's Walking Club is getting to know people. Our dinner conversation was lively and we will enjoy spending more time with our new friends on the trails this weekend!

Dave, Ray, Gretchen.

For the next four days, our weather forecast shows lows overnight in the low 40s to highs in the high 70s-80. We now have rain in the forecast for Sunday and Monday. We'll see what develops.

Thank you to the Sunflower Sod Stompers Volksmarch walking club for organizing the "Huffin' and Puffin' on the Plains of Kansas" walks this weekend. We will walk in five different counties. Who knows what we might see!?