![\"snowy-iris\"](\"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/snowy-iris.jpg\" "\\"snowy-iris\\"")
<\/p>\nI\u2019m a native Texan and have lived here all my life. Seems like I\u2019d be a little wary about venturing out on the highway in the face of an ice storm, on a journey of 440 miles. Unfortunately not<\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t get started from Houston until 1:00 p.m. The temperature stood at 50 degrees. I\u2019ve been making that trip to our old family farm every six to eight weeks for over fifty years (a round trip of almost a thousand miles). I thought I\u2019d seen it all. <\/p>\n
I usually go with my brother Bob. He has an Agri-business out there that demands constant attention. When he called and said he had to make an unexpected trip home, and invited me, I said I\u2019d love to go. I go home every chance I get, riding with him or one of my grown kids and having the most fun. We play and work hard while we\u2019re there. I write and the hunters hunt.<\/p>\n
We are into blood sports in our family. The kids, grandkids, and various friends are in the stands at dawn and dusk, when the game may be legally taken. We vacuum pack family-sized portions with a handy little gismo that takes all the air from around the meat, freezing it until we get it to our home freezers. In season, we take deer, feral sows and piglets, and turkey, quail and dove. That\u2019s good eating.<\/p>\n
One of my daughters, when I phoned to say I was going, had a hissy fit. \u201cNo, Mom,\u201d Linda exclaimed. \u201cThe weather report says there is an ice storm across northern Texas. Please don\u2019t go.\u201d I also got calls from daughter Anne Marie and son John. All three of my children begged me not to go. They called their Uncle Bob to protest, but he is fifteen years younger than I and always defers to what he considers my superior judgment. Ha!<\/p>\n
His huge pickup truck has sensors and read-outs that got scarier the farther north-west we traveled. The sky was clear until we got to Brenham, then sleet began to fall. So did the temperature. Drastically. A skid into one of the deep \u201cbar\u201d ditches would mean calling an ambulance for me and a tow truck for him. The bridges were treacherous. The road was sheathed in ice. At times, we drove five miles an hour. We made only necessary rest stops and ate inside the truck. We stayed cozy and warm but by the time we reached Abilene, it was a bitter eleven degrees outside.<\/p>\n
<\/ins> I\u2019m a native Texan and have lived here all my life. Seems like I\u2019d be a little wary about venturing out on the highway in the face of an ice storm, on a journey of 440 miles. Unfortunately not We didn\u2019t get started from Houston until 1:00 p.m. The temperature stood at 50 degrees. I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=177"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"snowybarn\"](\"https:\/\/www.bkreeves.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/snowybarn.jpg\" "\\"snowybarn\\"")
We got to the farm at three in the morning and I put messages of our safe arrival on my kid\u2019s phones. Bob lit the heaters in every room but it was hours before the house was warm. The next day Linda called for details, then said it for everyone. \u201cWe told you not to go, Mom.\u201d I do wish I\u2019d listened. #<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"