Talking Texan

A few years back the family went on a road trip to Texas to visit friends and family on the way to a  week on the coast on North Padre Island.

This was back before the days of Google Maps and having directions at your fingertips via your cellphone.

No, we traveled with a huge Road Atlas book along with printed out Mapquest directions I had in a Trip Binder.  We were the advanced travelers of the day, the day being in 2003.

One evening, somewhere on the northeast-ish side of Ft Worth, I got a hankering for a DQ chocolate shake. 

For those of you that don't know, before Chick-Fil-A, the best chocolate shakes came from Dairy Queen. DQ's are a bit of an Institution in Texas, and every one-stoplight town had one. In major cities you could pretty much find one within a mile or two from where you lived. The outskirts were a different story.

I had recalled on an earlier trip from our motel we had passed one, but we had gone in so many different directions I wasn't sure WHERE I had seen it. We got out the phone book and found that there was on the road where we were staying, so we loaded in the car and off we went.  The thing was, we weren't sure how far away it was.

Several miles down the road I felt sure we should have come across it, as we were starting to leave civilization and drive into farm and ranch country. A few miles later we came up on a 7-11, and my hubby went in to ask the cashier if there truly was one closeby.

He comes back to the car and says yes, we're on the right road, we hadn't gone far enough. We keep driving, and ten minutes later we had yet to come upon it.

I asked my husband exactly what the guy said.

Mike says "He says it's a ways down this road".

"Oh," I said, "We haven't gone far enough"

"What do you mean, we haven't gone far enough? We've been on this road a while!"

"Yes, but there is a distance hierarchy. Down the block, which is a short walk, not worth getting in the car for.  Down the street, which most likely is in walking distance unless the weather is bad, in which case you drive. Down the road, means it's maybe a 5 minute drive. Down the road a ways means it's within an hour. Way on down the road a ways means to pack a lunch, it's gonna take some time to get there."

"But the cashier was Indian! With a turban!" Mike exclaimed.

"Doesn't matter.  Being out in the middle of nowhere as he is, he has learned the skill of Talking Texan."

"We haven't gone far enough," I said.

Sure enough, another mile or two down the road, is the DQ.  We could see the stadium where the Rangers play from the DQ's parking lot, which was 30 minutes from where we were staying.