The Countdown....

I feel like I should be shouting from the rooftops.
"I'm leaving for TEXAS in only 11 days!!"
Leaving for Texas, leaving for GOOD!
To many people, that might not seem like a big deal.  To me, it is everything.
Let me explain....
I was 17.  I fell in love with Jerry Jeff Walker. Then Guy Clark. We were inseparable.
I took to wearing Western boots and a cowboy hat.  Peers crooked an eyebrow at me. This was nothing new.

"I don't know no other way
Got to live it day to day
if I die before my time
When I leave I'm leaving nothing behind
no,no, but tasting every single grape on the vine
I got a feeling
Something that I can't explain
It's like dancing naked
In that high Hill Country rain, alright
I ain't worried 'bout tomorrow, no
I'll get by best I can
Lovin' is my will to live
It makes me laugh
Want to sing and dance
Clap your hands, take a chance
come on and dance
I got a feeling
Something that I can't explain
It's like dancing naked
In that high Hill Country rain"
(From Hill Country Rain, by Jerry Jeff Walker)

I heard songs like THAT, and somehow I just KNEW that Texas was my place. When I finally got there, I found out I was right.  Texas, especially the Hill Country, took me in, embraced me, made me more ME than I was back home in Minnesota.  I loved the landscape, and the people and the swimming holes, so cold and blue and deep.  I loved the BBQ and the cowboys and the rolling miles. But most of all I loved the music.