Outside of Dumas, there is a small town called Cactus. When ever you go to Cactus, it feels like you are no longer in America. Everything there is written in Spanish, and the houses are completely different. They have an elementary school there, but all the kids who continue with their education have to go to Dumas to go to school because they don’t have any thing else. Cactus has some of the best Mexican food that I have ever had. Most of the places are hard to find, because they are in houses or connected to gas stations or something like that, but once you find a good one you are sure to find some excellent home cooked food. My mom and I head that way when ever we want to eat lunch and have a little more time on our hands. My favorite one is right off the high way, connected to a gas station. Neither of us even know what it’s called, but we know where it is and that’s all that matters. There’s another on in town called El Rancho that someone from Dumas owns that we go to a lot, but they also own a restaurant in Dumas that is close to the same. It seems like every time we go, one of them has closed down and something different is in it’s place, but it never matters because it’s always good food that we couldn’t cook at home. So, if you happen to be heading north out of Texas, you just might run through there. Just give a little look around and maybe you’ll find your favorite new restaurant.

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Today was the first snow of the season in Lubbock! I’m not the biggest fan of cold weather unless the activities I’m interested in for the day need it, like building a snow man or snow boarding, but it’s still exciting to see the first snow of the season. And, it being December 1st, it just make it even more exciting. In Dumas it snows a lot more than in Lubbock, so I’m used to seeing it, but it’s funny to see how excited people get that don’t have it in their towns very often. When I lived in the dorms and the first snow came, the girls were freaking out. It probably wasn’t even an inch of snow and they were out side trying to make snow men and laying in it. You could still see the pavement through the snow and Tech decided that it was too dangerous to have school and cancelled it at half day. It’s cold and wet and makes it hard to drive, but I’m still excited about it coming today. Christmas time is finally near, and the snow is more proof that I don’t have to wait much longer to get to be home with the family and buying all the presents in the world! Just hearing that the month is finally December makes it okay for me to start singing Christmas songs and decorating!

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There’s a pretty small chain of restaurants that I’ve noticed in a couple small town up in the panhandle of Texas called “K-Bobs”. I’ve only actually eaten at two of them, but when ever I noticed one I get really excited. Now, the food is alright, and the atmosphere and decor haven’t chanced since I was born… but they have this awesome creation they call a salad wagon at the one in Dumas. It’s a giant old school wagon that’s been taken apart and turned into their salad bar. It’s huge, and always stocked with the absolute best salad stuff. They also have a different soup of the day at the end that is great. We always call ahead, because my entire family loves the potato soup and, sometimes, whether or not that is the soup fo the day can effect whether we go that night or the next. It’s like two bucks to add on the salad wagon to any meal, and around six bucks to just get the salad wagon, so every time I go I get the kids meal which is like four bucks and then add the salad wagon, so I can have some French fries and shrimp to take home for lunch the next day. I can make three trips to that wagon and totally stock up and call that my meal, then have another meal for later. So, if you are ever cruising around the panhandle and make a trip through Dumas, I would suggest you stop and get something to eat, because the salad wagon there is one of a kind.

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This morning I woke up around seven. I wasn’t ready to get up, but since I had gone to bed so early it was hard for me to get tired enough to go back to sleep. I just laid there for a bit, and eventually drifted off to sleep. That’s always the worst sleep, and I don’t know why I make myself do it. When you’ve gotten enough rest, and then you try to add on to it, when you wake up for the second time you always feel like crap. It feels like you just went to sleep the second time and that you have just gotten a few hours of sleep. So, when I woke up the second time around nine all I wanted was something to eat and I could smell the coffee in the kitchen from my room. So, I got up and told my mom I was going to go to the best donut place in the entire world, Kountry Donuts, which is in Dumas. And, to my excitement, my mom had a coupon for a free dozen. Which is a little too much, but who cares we can save them. These donuts are one of the best parts of coming home, and most of the trips I make home I don’t get to have them. They are closed on Sundays, and usually when I come home it’s Friday in the evening and on Saturday we have things planned in the morning. So, I’ve got my fix, and I’m wide awake and sugared out right now. Good morning for me!

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Dumas is a total small town. Everything about it, down to the people, can only be described as small town. Tonight, just like every other year, they did the annual lighting of Candy Cane Lane, other wise known during the regular months of the year as Main Street, or Dumas Avenue. They blocked off the road to stop all the traffic (we do actually have a lot of semis that go through the city to get where they’re going), and they set up for the celebration. The fire department was out there serving food for all the people that went, and there were bunches of people out there with booths set up selling Christmas decorations. The whole festivity goes down to celebrate lighting all the Christmas lights in town. All down the entire Main Street there are candy canes hanging on the telephone poles, and at the court house there are tons of giant santas and more candy canes all over the place that they all light up at 7 pm. There’s live music, a horse and carriage you can ride around, and tons of local people just out there having fun. I didn’t actually go to the lighting, it is pretty cold outside here, but I was at a restaurant across the street and heard everything and saw the lights. I’m glad that I moved away and went to Lubbock, but I love that I can still come back here and experience all the small town things as though I never left.

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Every time I pull into my little home town, the minor changes are obvious to me. When you are headed to Dumas, you drive in the north part of Amarillo by Wonder Land, which is a small theme park. I noticed that they had painted everything in there with new colors. It’s impossible to ignore the changes when you know the place so well. I can tell that they have added new giant wind mills outside of town before you pull in from the south. I can see new restaurants that are trying to make it in town, although most of them close before I even get the chance to eat there. When I get into my house, I can see all the different things that my parents have done. Some of the things just seem like bigger deals than they are, and that I should already know about them. Like, the last time I came home my parents got a new shower head in their master bathroom. No one told me. I don’t know why this bothers me, but it just seems like I still live here, but when I think about it I’m only here once every few months. And these changes just let it be more known that I’m not here as often as I feel I am. I’ll notice something, mention it, and it was changed months ago. I guess I’m just out of the loop when it comes to Dumas!

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I am so ready for it to snow here! I love this time of the year, I have always lived in a town where it snows around this time of the year, and here in Lubbock it doesn’t really do the same thing. Although my home town is only 170 miles north of here, the weather is completely different during this time of year. They have already gotten snow a few times this season, and we have yet to see one little flurry. When I was in school there, we had actual snow days because we couldn’t leave the house to get to work, here they will have them when it starts to snow a little beause they are scared of the drivers. There are a lot of people living in Lubbock from Southern Texas to go to college, and none of them really know how to drive on the ice. I’ve been driving on ice my whole life so I usually feel pretty safe behind the wheel, but it’s the others out there that don’t really know what they are doing that makes it dangerous. It’s not their fault, they just haven’t had to deal with it and sometimes do dangerous things while out on the road that puts themselves and others in danger. I have yet to built a snow man in Lubbock, while in Dumas we sometimes build entire igloos just for fun with the snow. I’ve never had an issue getting my car out, while sometimes in Dumas I wasn’t able to leave the driveway beause of the snow behind my car. I hope we get a good snow this year while I am in town visiting, or we get a decent one here in Lubbock!

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Tomorrow night in Lubbock, my hometown foot ball team, the Dumas Demons, will be playing in their first playoff game. They are ranked second right now in their district, right behind Canyon High. Last year they made it to the first game of playoffs as well, but lost that first game to San Angelo Lake View and were eliminated. It’s pretty exciting they are back in it this year, I’m going to try and make it out there to watch them play. My little cousin plays for them, and I haven’t been to a high school football game for my home town since I was still in high school. I would love to see him play, he is the last person that I even know that goes to high school in Dumas, and I’ve never gone to a game that he’s played in. The beginning of their season didn’t look too good, they lost four out of five of their non-district games. But, when district started up, they ended the season winning three out of five games and getting to go into the playoffs. They are going to be playing Abilene Cooper tomorrow and I really want them to win! If I feel up to it I am going to go out there with a few friends of mine and support the Dumas Demons in their efforts to win!

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Each year in June my hometown has a huge parade and midway come to town. Dumas is a pretty small town where nothing ever happens, so when the carnival comes it’s a big deal. We call it “Dogie Days”, and the fair that comes into town is called the Pride of Texas. Most cities have this moving fair come to them, but when ever it comes here our Lions Club does a lot of extra things to make it even better. We have a big bar-b-q one of the days at lunch, they give away tickets for a chance to win a car, and set up their own food and came stands at the midway. Every yeah when this is all going on at the beginning of June, they also have all the high school reunions. It seems like every year that you go, even if it isn’t your classes year to have a reunion, that you are at another one. Everyone that is from Dumas now or was from Dumas at some point comes back to town, and tons of other people that are from other small towns around us. It’s always a blast to get to see all my friends, and most of my family comes to town as well. The food is unbelievable, the games and rides are fun, and every year I look forward to getting to go back to my home town and seeing everyone again. I can’t wait for next June to come around for the next Dogie Days!

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