Azalea Trail Fake Out

Last week Mom, Dad and I headed out East for a little road trip to visit my brother, Colin.  He lives in east Texas in a town called Nacogdoches or, as we like to call it, Naca-nowhere. 

We started driving on a gorgeous Saturday and I’m here to tell you that I’ve never been more proud to be Texan.  Beautiful weather and incredible scenery! 

First of all the hallmark of any good road trip: the Dairy Queen Blizzard.

When we got to Nacogdoches we headed over to my brother’s new job so he could give us a tour.  Directly across from his plant is this:

It’s really difficult to tell from this picture but this is a TON of logs piled up way high (and yes, you are welcome for all the exact details like “a TON of logs” and “piled up way high”.  I’m here to serve).  It really boggled my mind, and was a nice little reminder that we were in East Texas.

Colin is the plant manager for a fertilizer company and this doodad pours the fertilizer out into trucks.

Here is my camera-shy brother at work:

Explaining something I’ll never understand:

Here are some chemicals that go in the fertilizer:

Here is a machine called the whatchamacallit which connects to the doohickey and does very important things that, once again- I do not understand.

It’s never been more clear how different Colin and I are.  He wanted me to climb to the top of the tower and I kept slipping around on my Sperry’s (Note to self: top-siders are not appropriate for ALL occasions.  No matter how badly I want them to be).  I felt really nervous around all the heavy equipment.  Clearly, I belong on a dark room in front of a spotlight.

Here I am, appropriately dressed and accessorized for a plant tour:

The next day we visited the infamous Nacogdoches Azalea Trail.  There were signs all over town advertising the wonders of the trail.  So, we showed up prepared to be awed by the beauty of the azalea, only to find out that none of the azalea’s were in bloom. 

Epic Fail.

But, in the meantime, we got to look at some pretty big trees…

Some gorgeous flowers…

And I got to enjoy these folks:

My Dad has never mastered the art of standing still long enough to take a photo.

Finally, as we were leaving, my Mom got attacked by a tree.  Proving that not only the azalea’s hated us. 

Thanks a lot Nacogdoches.  A great time was had by all.  Except for the azaleas, of course.