Roadtrip2011: Thursday 2/24/11

We had a wonderful day with Shirley and Marshal. Karen and I began with a run around the Abilene Christian University (Marshal's alma mater) campus which has a 2 mile walking/running path on the perimeter. The walkway is adorned with pavers and monuments and sculptures depicting various Bible verses and scenes from the Bible. And the campus itself is beautiful. The most striking exhibit is "Jacob's Ladder". The stones surrounding the sculpture are emblazoned with words that can be combined to form various Bible verses. The cross created by the spaces between the stones is an illusion which only becomes visible when standing at just the right angle so that the independent columns align to form the outline of the cross. "Jacob's Dream" was commissioned to honor Grace Woodward of Kerrville, Texas, who donated $26.5 million to ACU. According to the artist, Jack Maxwell: "The basic elements of creation - water, rock, and plants - speak to the nature of God, His son, and His promises. The bronze angels, four in number, suggest God's continual presence "wither thou goest" to the four corners of the earth. It is my hope and prayer that this will be a place of meditation and worship, a place where new births in Christ might occur, hearts might be renewed, and above all else, where the God above all gods might be glorified."

Marshal baptized Karen's niece (Rachel) at Jacob's Dream. He also baptized our daughter, Caroline, at his church in Abilene.

While at ACU, we also took the opportunity to stop at the campus library to visit Marshal's daughter-in-law, Beth, who works in the library. We were sorry to miss seeing the rest of Beth's family, but we enjoyed our brief visit with her.

After a quick lunch, Marshal and Shirley took us to a couple of favorite shops downtown, and showed us the frontier museum (see Karen at the buffalo sculpture), although we didn't have time to see the museum this trip. We did a little shopping for the dressy western duds to wear to a blue-jeans wedding Karen and Cam will attend in September.

Then, we visited the building that Shirley drove her car through a few months ago. The wall has a temporary repair of particle board, and somebody had parked their car in front of the hole, but it was not hard to imagine the terror Gigi must have felt as her vehicle plowed through this wall and totaled 4 more classic collector cars that were housed inside this building, as well as destroying her own car. We are fortunate to have Shirley still with us today.

Our next stop was Buffalo Gap, population 465. To reach Buffalo Gap, you drive 3 hours from the nearest significant city in order to reach Abilene, then you drive an additional 35 minutes to Buffalo Gap.

Nobody visits Buffalo Gap unless they have a mighty good reason to go there. For most folks, that reason is the Perini Steak House which draws people from all over the state and beyond - Perini's is packed to capacity 7 days a week for lunch and dinner despite the difficulty in getting to the Perini Ranch. We ate steaks, jalopeno poppers (peppers stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon), cowboy potatoes, salad, garlic bread, zuccini chili, and whiskey bread pudding. It was an incredible meal.

Cam rides the Texas-size armadillo at Perini's

Relaxing after a great meal. Shirley is recovering from a successful surgery on her right eye.

The infamous Texas Jackalope!

We also stopped to see the local potter, George. He is quite an artist, and every time we come to Buffalo Gap, we make a point of stopping to see his latest creations. George has been featured on national TV for his work, and he made poached eggs for us in a microwave dish of his design and construction. It is worth the drive to Buffalo Gap just to see George.