ride it like you stole it
A few Wednesdays ago, heading out of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico with Karen, we drove to Las Cruces to the wonderful Nellie’s Cafe.
One of the rules of the road is to eat breakfast, and there is a happy energy at Nellie’s that translates to the food.
I ordered my pork and eggs with both red and green chile (ask for “Christmas” when asked which chile you prefer), and then we set out for the long, straight road through West Texas to Karen’s uncle’s place in San Antonio.
I have been to Austin many times, but this was my first time in San Antonio, and it was like stepping into a dream—the horse Karen’s aunt had showed that day (this is a friend walking her) had braids and matching socks,
and we went to go see the bull, our shadows tall in the intense heat of the late afternoon.
The animals weren’t overly excited to see us, but I could see why Karen loves visiting her aunt and uncle here.
One of my favorite parts of the house is the shower handle in the guest bathroom. Yes, that’s a pair of pliers (Dave, this deserves to be in your shower handle research collection), and it’s in keeping with the way Karen’s uncle and aunt roll.
Earlier, as we updated them on our driving progress in the afternoon, Karen’s uncle paraphrased a rodeo line and told us to “drive it [the highway] like we stole it.”
It’s my new mantra.
And so, when Karen related my story about learning to gator rope as a teenager, somehow, her uncle loosened up his best rope, gave me a quick refresher course, and trusted me with trying to rope his dummy steer,
helping me turn my wrist,
and finally, I roped that dummy steer, determined to drive it like I stole it from here on out…
Last three images courtesy of the lovely Karen Barbarossa.
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Posted by Kristen Taylor on Sunday, August 22nd, 2010, 6:58 pm * Filed in Food, Travel. * . Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 25th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
I.love.these.photos. K.Taylor, roping a dummy steer. This has truly made my day. You make this look so cool, in a sophisticated and awesome way that I can only hope to replicate.
I started teaching this week (academic writing for international TAs). Though it’s a different course than the one you taught me five (!!!) years ago, I will try to live up to the example that you set. :)
August 26th, 2010 at 7:52 am
Mica, congrats! So happy to hear that your teaching career begins this week—you will be wonderful, funny and true at the front of the classroom.
I begin teaching again in a few weeks at NYU, and I was just thinking about how much has changed since all of us were validating web pages and editing wiki sections together all those years ago…