Don't Mess With Texas

If Congress decided to outlaw diesel trucks Texas could secede because its state constitution reserves the right to leave the Union whenever it wants to. And it probably would if Obama decided to sign that law into effect.

Texas law says the state flag can fly as high as the national flag.

In Texas there is a radio station that only plays songs about Texas.

If Texas was its own country, it would have the 3rd largest incarcerated population in the world (the whole world!!).

In Texas you can go to jail for skipping school.

In Texas, at the time a gang-related the crime is committed all the present members of a gang are charged for the same crime...so if you're hangin with your buddy and he decides to get caught after he shoots someone, you get the same sentence as he does.

Don't mess with Texas.

Additionally, Texas has some of our wonderful family members and some wonderful people we met that could quickly feel like family members. For this we were roped into a longer Dallas stay than expected, and were able to witness the rapidly-growing Cafe Momentum in full swing. This non-profit cafe that works with incarcerated young men impressed us with their efficiency, effectiveness in tracking results, and their big dreams for the future (which shouldn't have surprised us... everything is BIG in TEXAS).

And, well, lets face it -- we're utterly behind on our blogging. We left Dallas for the longest, flattest drive, camped in New Mexico, and hiked it up to Denver (making sure to stop by the great White Sands on the way). More to come...