Road Trip Day 2: Why is Texas so BIG?

Day 2: Still in Texas. C being silly at the hotel:
Our goal today was to make it from Houston to Fort Stockton. With my sanity still in tact. Maybe. The drive started off much like yesterday:Apparently the people in Houston have problems:

Hey, ever wonder where your Igloo cooler is made? Now you know, just outside of Houston:

Where are we? Texas or Germany?

About 30 minutes outside of Houston I started seeing a series of signs that intrigued me. What is this all about?

Unfortunately it was raining too hard to get a pic of my favorite signs. They read: "Eat Jerky, don't drive like one" Amen! "Bathrooms so clean you've got to Pee to believe." Well how can you resist advertising like that? Huh? I couldn't! I had to know more!!!!! So, we stopped (and thankfully the rain did too):

The signs must work because the place was packed. I mean packed. It was huge but you could barely move for all the people. I have to say the bathrooms were ridiculously clean. There were 22 individual room like stalls in the ladies, along with 10 sinks, 6 chairs, 2 benches (one covered with a buffalo hide) and several lovely western themed vignettes. I peed. I believed!

The shop had a jerky bar. You read that right. Jerky. Bar. Who knew there were so many kinds of jerky? Being a non-meat eater I wasn't all that impressed, but still. They also had a deli, a standard snack shop, a pottery store, leather wear, cowboy hats of all shapes and sizes, and fudge. Oh, sweet, sweet, delicious, evil, thigh enlarging fudge. By 4 pieces, get 2 free. Gah! C had to have it, so we got 2 pieces of chocolate for him, 2 pieces of choclate pecan for me and my ever expanding thighs, and 2 (Free) pieces of Rocky Road for M. It's so rich you can only eat a sliver at a time, but oh my is it good!

C picked what is probably the only flower in Texas. Isn't it pretty?


After we left we found a whole lot of nothing. Want proof? Here you go. See the serious lack of roads on the GPS?:



I did however find something to like about Texas:



When the speed limit is 80mph, that really means you can do this because really, no one cares:



And even this (but don't tell my mom):


Apparently I'm the only one awake:



It's amazing what you can find to amuse yourself. Do you see the viking long boat in this cloud?


Oh, hey, look! An old style oil well! This of course popped the phrase "Up through the ground came a bubbling crude. Oil that is. Black gold. Texas T." Then I sang the theme to the Beverley Hillbillies in my head for at least an hour. If you're now singing it, you're welcome.
Civilization? Nope, just a display of Texas pride and an overpriced gas station:

Finally, Fort Stockton! Oh, yes, I will!