Rabbits Rabbits Rabbits

Sorry for the delay in writing, we have been a little under the weather. I think we have had the flu. At first we thought it was the water we have been drinking. My husband and I have tried to be careful with our drinking water, and only drink bottled water. We have been getting our water from Walmart, filling bottles at the Culligan station or purchasing 1 gallon pre-filled containers of drinking water. That was all fine and good as long as the Culligan machine was available. But in Carlsbad the machine was broken. We were told to use the "windmill" down the street. There are water depots in store parking lots that sell drinking water even cheaper than Walmart, at 25 cents per gallon (Walmart gets as low as 39 cents per gallon). We never really paid much attention to the quality of water coming from bottles purchased or machines dispensing it. Well, not until a few days ago. Ward got really bad cramps in his stomach and got sick. That got us thinking, and fast. He just drank some water we purchased from Lowe's Market. It was marked drinking water, but how good was it. I mean really. Was it charcoal filtered? Or was it distilled? No, but it mentioned reverse osmosis. So, what water is really best for drinking? Are you ok if you grew up on the water, or is some water better or worse for you than other water?

We never really worried about water before. Every other time we travelled through the USA we drank local water, and we were never sick. So, what was up with us this time.

Thinking back, we did feel a bit off in Amarillo. Was it the pork? Or was it the water we drank from a drinking fountain at Palo Duro Canyon? A few other times we were feeling a bit off. Again, the food, the water, or what?

Well, I started feeling sick the next day after Ward. We both had stomach cramps and other unpleasant flu like symptoms. I bought a case of bottled Nestle water, and we have been sticking with that until we are feeling better.

We did manage to do some tourist stuff in and around Odessa. We visited the meteor crater, 2nd largest in USA. It is located just a few miles west of town. The crater doesn't have the classic tell tale look of a crater, but was still pretty cool to see. We got to walk through the crater on a path that wound from the North side, down into the bottom and up the West bank.

On the way back to town we saw a few longhorn cattle in a field. They were a ways away from the fence, and I chose not to jump the fence for a closer shot. Sorry.

The University in Odessa built a replica of Stonehenge and have it displayed on campus. The circle itself was made the same size as the actual Stonehenge, but the height of the stones was scaled down slightly. When we were visiting the site, some guy was practicing parkour on and around the stones.

George Bush lived in Odessa at one time, and his house is listed as one of the tourist destinations and is located behind the Presidential Museum in Town. Bush actually only lived in Odessa for about 6 months as a child. His parents, George Sr and Barbara moved the family to California for a year, then back to Midland (10 miles east of Odessa, and it's sister city).

There are also rabbits in Odessa, actually Jackrabbits. It turns out they used to have jackrabbit ropings at the rodeo here. But, the humane society got active on it, and shut that down. So, the town put up a 7 foot sculpture of the Jack Rabbit, and several businesses in town have Jack Rabbit statues in front of their businesses.

 

 

We found the original Jack Rabbit, and I managed to get pictures of 9 of the 30 or so smaller statues that have been painted and placed throughout Odessa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for the tourist stuff around Odessa. We are leaving this oil rich area for air quality that does not smell as much like money (oil). Odessa is in the middle of an oil boom right now, with oil derricks everywhere you turn.

That's it for now. Still a little under the weather but still enjoying ourselves here in Texas!