We're On The Road! Sept 2010

We pulled out of Dallas on Friday, Sept. 24th 2010, and headed West towards Carlsbad, New Mexico, home of John and Virginia Hays, Mary Ann's parents. Our stopover for the first night was Lamesa (pronounced La Meesa), Texas. Why? Well, two reasons really. One, they have FREE motorcoach hookups in their very pretty city park...can't beat that for a one night stopover. And two, they boast one of Texas' last remaining real drive-in movie theaters, The Sky-Vue! Wow, how fun can it get in a small town? What are you going to think next? Marty and Mary Ann are really cheap dates. Next thing, they'll stop over for a good bowling alley! Don't laugh, we might!). Anyway, The Sky-Vue (http://www.skyvuelamesa.com/) has been in operation since 1948, and has been owned by Sam Kirkland for the past 30 years or so. Sam, with whom we had the great pleasure to visit with, takes his theater very seriously, in the best possible way. He is the on site manager of all phases of the place, and it's wonderful to see the results. The BIG attraction is the concession stand. The place is so popular that area folks come for dinner without even so much as thinking about what movie's showing. In fact, Sam has a separate entrance for those who are just coming in to eat! Fresh food is all you get here. Well prepared and delicious. Nothing fancy, unless you're looking down the long menu and stop at The Chihuahua, Sam's original invention. It's basically two tortillas, stuffed with homemade chili meat, pimento cheese, diced sweet onions, and shredded cabbage for extra slaw-like crunch, then topped off with a jalapeno pepper. Never had anything even close to that! Sam told us about it's history...being a Texas State Fair item and that the Dairy Queen people wanted it at one time, but he decided to keep it simple and only offer it at his two drive-ins (the new one's in Midland, Texas). Another unique factoid about this place is that a very young Buddy Holly performed here, just as his star was beginning to rise. he did a show from the roof of the building near the concession stand that Sam pointed out to us. Lamesa's only a short drive down the road (anything less than a hundred miles is considered short out in West Texas!!) from Lubbock, Holly's home town (and home to his pretty amazing museum, by the way). So after chowing down and leaving Sam and the Sky-Vue, we headed back to Harvey and a good night's sleep (Burpppp!!), and ready to head over to Carlsbad...