Chicken Fried Bacon Strips

I'm back! It has been over a year since my last post. My first order of business will be to catch up on a couple of trips that I've been on in the last year, and then start posting new trips as they happen. I spent Thanksgiving 2008 in College Station, Texas, with the extended family of my owners, Paul and Susan O'Rear.

On Friday, November 28 (the day after Thanksgiving), the O'Rear clan traveled about 15 miles from College Station to the town of Snook, population 568, for lunch. Snook is home to Sodolak's Original Country Inn, a steak house famed for its Chicken Fried Bacon Strips. Some of the O'Rear boys had seen a video about Sodolak's, and decided they needed to make a post-Thanksgiving pilgrimage to sample the bacon delicacy for themselves.

The restaurant was cigarette-smoke-filled, but the food was good. As we were leaving the restaurant, there were three guys on motorcycles, all decked out in black leather, about to pull out of the parking lot at the same time we were. They graciously agreed to have their picture taken with Yours Truly, and were very friendly. It was a fitting ending to a memorable outing. You can see photos from the trip to Snook over at my online photo album.

Don't Taze Me, Bro!

Dum - da - dum -dum.

The story you are about to read is true.

Dum - da - dum - dum - duuuuum.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Actually, since everyone involved in this story is probably guilty, I think we'll just leave the names the same.

OK, so last Friday night, November 14, 2008, I went on a ride-along with Sergeant David O'Rear of the Huntsville (Texas) Police Department. He has a really cool Ford Explorer for a police car, and I got to ride "shotgun"!

I got to "run emergency traffic" (a little police lingo, there) with Sergeant O'Rear on a call where a guy on PCP had barricaded himself inside a house. The police officers kicked in the doors, just like on TV! When they got inside, they found that the guy had a 10" butcher knife and was about to cut himself. He quickly complied with the officers' commands to drop the knife, thereby avoiding being Tazed. Probably a smart move on his part. It made for a pretty exciting night.

After that, we hung out at the police station. I've got lots of pictures of my adventure in my photo albums. Sergeant O'Rear and his buddies made me a little fake shirt that said "Don't Taze Me, Bro!" It was hilarious. I posed while one of the officers pointed his Taser Gun at my head. He even pulled the trigger just enough to shine the little red aiming light right in the middle of my forehead! It was kind of scary!

Thanks to Sergeant O'Rear and the Huntsville Police Department for a memorable experience.

One Adam Twelve

Just a quick update: I am currently in College Station, Texas -- home of Texas A&M University (whoop!) -- awaiting transportation to nearby Huntsville, Texas, where I will participate in a police ride-along program (hence the title of this blog post). I'm excited!

(It occurs to me that life would be much simpler if I could just drive myself, instead of having to "await transportation". But, I'm pretty sure they don't give driver's licenses to seven-year-old stuffed bears.)

I will post photos and a recap of my experience as a Police Bear in the near future! Stay tuned.

Georgia on My Mind

My first trip out of Texas took me to Georgia. Mandy Poynor (who took me to work at Target in the previous post) took a trip to the Peach State to visit her old high school friend Ginger. Ginger got married earlier this year and moved to the country just outside of the small town of Hillsboro, Georgia, where her husband's family owns a farm.

Mandy and I hung out with Dan and Ginger for a few days doing farm stuff. At one point, Ginger and Mandy and I got stuck in the mud in Ginger's SUV, and Mandy had to get out and dig mud out of the tires with her bare hands, and then put hay and grass under the tires. We finally got unstuck, thanks to Mandy's prowess and ingenuity. I think she would make a pretty good "country girl" herself.

To wrap up the trip, we took a sightseeing jaunt into the big city of Atlanta, Georgia -- home of CNN and the Atlanta Braves, among other things. I helped drive (see photo album). At one point, we got lost and had to refer to Ginger's Tom-Tom GPS to get back on track. (Just for the record, I wasn't driving when we got lost.) One of our sightseeing stops was Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves professional baseball team.

It was a wonderfully enjoyable trip. Thanks to Dan and Ginger for being such gracious hosts. And thanks to Mandy for letting me tag along.

[Fred looks off into the distance, humming "just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind".]

Target Store #1514

On Wednesday, October 15, 2008, Mandy Poynor took me to work with her at the Target Store in North Richland Hills, Texas.