Lubbock to Abilene

 Oil pumps on Texan farm

 Progress so far.
Thursday 19^th

While surveying the breakfast offerings I came across some white paste.  I stood trying to work out whether it was waffle batter or porridge (seemed unlikely in Texas but it did have little flecks in it).  The breakfast boss came along and I asked her what it was. “Gravy’ she said, beaming with pride. “Er, gravy for what?” I asked.  “Gravy for them there biscuits” she said pointing to some scones. “Ain’t you never had biscuits and gravy?”  “Would you like to try some? They’s delicious.”  And so I was trapped into one of the most disgusting breakfasts I’ve ever eaten.  Lots of wet flour.  Give me a crisp cornflake floating in milk, any day.

Before we left Lubbock, we visited the windmill museum in the north part of the town.  Texas appears to have two major problems – the wind and the lack of water but the soil here is very fertile (or fertl as they say here – rhymes with turtle) . We were given a tour by the enthusiastic proprietor who ran us through the history of windmills – from the flour grinding sort that need constant adjustment by the miller to those used on the Australian ranches for pumping water that turned themselves into the wind and turn away from the wind when too windy to those used for pumping oil and later generating electricity.

Some farms don’t appear to grow anything but are just covered with nodding oil pumps that creak away on their own.  The oil is collected into tanks and then taken away to the refinery, just like a milk tanker collecting the milk on a dairy farm.

Those who don’t have oil grow cotton and sweet corn but mainly cotton.  Texas is a young state, having only been settled in the 1880s.  It feels very wealthy and spacious with lots of new buildings and gigantic carparks.  People tend to drive utes and have difficulty in understanding us so we have to speak slowly like they do.

In the evening we surveyed to local shopping mall and found a stall selling “ice-cream of the future” which sounded interesting.  We didn’t recognise it at first as it was in little balls about 3-6 mm across like ball bearings.  The guy poured it into a container for us.  I asked him what the advantages are of ice cream in this form and he said he didn’t know, he just worked there.  It was OK.  I suspect it won’t catch on. (Market research of 2).