STARS & STRIPES DRIVE-IN THEATRE

Last Friday - leaving Big Springs about noon - we had a short drive to our next destination, the town of Lamesa.

Nothing particularly interesting about Lamesa except I had found another free camping municipal park - with water, electric and a dump station. Just what we needed after boondocking for several nights.

For a Friday night, of the long Easter weekend and with snowbirds making their way up, we were surprised to find the park empty. Good for us - we like having an area to ourselves.

The sites actually run perpendicular to the way we are parked but we figured that since we were small enough to fit between the lines this way it was a much better option. Not quite sure how a long rig would get level without some serious work.

The biggest bonus - for Cassia anyway - was that there was a large playground right across the street. The not so great thing about this spot is that a very busy road runs right by and this road here is used as a cut through route. 

Saturday morning we headed back out - we had a really good destination planned for Saturday night. Ahhh Texas we love you but we can't really say we love driving through the Panhandle. 

We did some serious errand running in Lubbock Texas when we arrived. Nice that they have a huge loop - highway 289 - around the city. It was pretty fast paced but we were able to get ourselves to Best Buy - for auto speakers, over to Home Depot for wifi (and for Derek to install the speakers) and lastly to Walmart to pick up some groceries and other supplies.

From there we took the back route to highway 84 - we were still early so we went over to Lubbock Lake Historic Landmark - it was so hot we were looking for shade. While we were turning around in a parking lot, Derek jumped out and took these two pictures.

No real shade so instead we went further down the 84 and stopped near the town of Shallowater. We finally found a bit of shade under a tree outside of a Bank, just of the highway. Since it was Saturday it was closed. Ahhhh relief.

Just before 6:00 pm we headed back to our destination. Not really a surprise with the title of the blog post - and now the speakers make sense also. Derek was missing his in the driver side door - couldn't really go to a drive-in with only one front speaker.

We had our visit to the drive-in planned way back in New Braunfels. Derek was googling drive ins to see if any were on route. We were in luck - there were a few - we chose to visit Stars & Stripes in Lubbock. We were pretty excited to arrive - it had been five years since Derek and I were at our last drive-in -  in Carlsbad, New Mexico. We were staying at the Brantley Lake State Park for a few days while we visited Carlsbad Caverns. 

We had decided to see GI Joe and Jack the Giant Slayer - mainly for the latter rather than the former. 

Hmmm - well - we were still a bit early. 

We walked in and looked around. There is also a 50's style dinner on site - our plan for dinner.

And - a really good - and very clean - playground. 

Derek choosing our parking spot.

Since we were early we had about an hour to kill. Ryan Smith, the Owner, was very nice about letting us hang out and look around. We actually emailed Stars & Stripes about a week before we arrived to see if we could stay the night. We knew that Cassia would be asleep up in the bunk by the end of the movies - around 1:00 am.

Ryan wrote back to say that it wouldn't be a problem. How nice - we were thrilled. Our BEST boondocking overnight spot to date.

Oh, and this is the inside of the restaurant - you name it - they've got it! We really had to have some will power here.

Another electric ride for Cassia - one day a cowgirl, the next a race car driver.

We just can't get over the big portions in the USA - we ended up having enough for dinner and lunch the next day. Derek's burger was great. Actually, all the food was great! I had chicken fingers with fries, corn fritter, pickle and toast. 

We also shared a hand dipped chocolate milk shake - yum.

Ryan was also nice enough to give us a coupon for a free Chihuahua Sandwich - created by Ryan's great grandfather for his grandfather. Ryan's grandfather owned the drive-in in Lamesa. It was nice that we were able to talk with Ryan about his family and history. We enjoy meetings like that, learning about people and their stories.

And here's Ryan with Derek and Cassia. 

By the time the movies were starting the place was very busy. Good thing that Cassia got the playground to herself for a while - by the time we were finished our dinner it was a crazy place.

It was a bit odd watching everyone leave after the movies while we stayed behind. Even stranger waking up to a once again deserted drive in movie parking lot. We let ourselves out in the morning and continued on.

We highly recommend the Stars & Stripes Drive - In - it was VERY clean, VERY organized and the food was VERY good! Stop in as you are going by Croft and Norma!

Thanks Ryan for such a great night - so glad we stopped! 

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: I only did a quick search - so hope this site is ok. It is the Drive In Theater website with a listing of all the drive in movie theaters in the USA, Canada and the Australia. Just in case you were thinking to find one near you. We LOVE drive ins - sure wish we lived near one.

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