Colorado City, TX

After our stay at the Southwest Vipassana Center, we headed into West Texas to rest for a night in a little town called Colorado City. There we stayed with Ava, our couchsurfing host. When we arrived, she whipped up some guacamole as well as cucumbers flavored with lime juice, and it took us no time to dig in. Then she sautéed some squash with her favorite sauces and seasonings. Before eating, she had to sneak out to make a shift change since she’s a paramedic and was on call.

Dhamma Siri

One of our goals for this trip is to visit and serve (volunteer to help) at a few different Vipassana centers around the country. We had both been to the center in Massachusetts a few years back and just sat a 10 course at the new Southeast Center in Jesup, GA during our current venture. We made arrangements to come to Dhamma Siri in Kaufman, TX at the conclusion of a 10 day course to help out in-between courses. After our horseback ride with Paula, we only had about a half hour ride to Kaufman, and, when we arrived, Randy and his wife Luz who are the center managers warmly greeted us.

Terrell, TX

We arrived at Paula’s in the afternoon and were greeted by her, five or six children and two horses talking a leisurely walk. Smiles and hellos encouraged us to feel welcomed and right at home. We were given a cozy bedroom and lots and lots of hospitality. It was such a great place surrounded by gorgeous land and sky.

Vinh Binh

Let’s talk truck!!! We devoted chunks of time in Fort Worth searching for a pot of gold, for a sweet waste oil find. No discoveries yet, though we did learn that the chain “Pei Wei Asian Diner” has a secret dungeon where the oil is mysteriously dropped and later extracted by what sounded like a super futuristic machine, possibly the Terminator’s only source of work nowadays. I did say “I’ll be back” to the lady since the menu looked pretty good.

The Spiral Diner

It only seems appropriate that we mention the all vegan diner where Angie was working. A description from a review was posted on the wall that named it “the best veg restaurant in north America”! We tried a range of menu items from amazing nachos with (cashew based) cheese to the Jamaican Jerk BBQ sandwich with tempeh. They even had agave based sodas instead of Coke (a company we should all probably learn a bit more about). Other dishes we enjoyed included the taco platter, a penne with creamy lemon sauce and veggies, the “Philly cheesestake” (made Texas style with BBQ sauce), a VLT with a side of awesome potato salad and freshly made tiramisu.

Fort Worth

We trucked over to Fort Worth from Tyler, ready to spend a couple days not traveling. We had arranged to stay with our next couchsurfing host, Angie, from Thursday to Sunday. Driving past her place, it was like we were back home in a West Philly neighborhood. The streets were lined with trees, quite a relief to find some shade from the hot Texas sun, and we drove on to meet Angie where she was working.

Tyler, Texas and the Rosevine Inn

So, we had been out of grease for a while and it has been raining which hinders us from collecting. We have to be very cautious about getting water in our grease supply! We woke in Shreveport, LA and the plan was to score some grease to get the truck running back on veggie. It was a nice and sunny day for a change as we set out using the GPS to find all the Asian restaurants in Shreveport. Not having much luck, most of the places we visited were empty. Finally we happen upon a place with lovely amber colored grease, but, even after some pleading, we were told the manager wasn’t there to make the decision that we could have the waste. We did gain a mere 5 gallons down the road- at least it was something. So we left Shreveport still very short. We headed west toward Fort Worth but were planning to spend the night in a hotel somewhere in between (on Beck!). We decide to stop in Tyler, TX to look for a place to crash and for more grease. We did stop at a couple of small towns along I20 for oil, but still no luck, and when arrived in Tyler, about half a dozen Asian restaurants later… still no luck. Booooooo…