Flat Randy's First Trip, Without Me

Now I ask you was that nice of him? In February ,2003, when Flat Randy came to be, he went of his very first trip with his creator, my daughter Penny and her husband Randy. They went to California via, Oklahoma and Texas. This is what he told me about the trip.

I’m just a young fellow and was “born” in February 2004 in Waterloo Iowa.*. Audrey’s daughter Penny created me and wouldn’t you know she named me after her husband Randy. That’s how I was christened Flat Randy. I was only a few days old when I went out in the snow and helped Randy clear the driveway so they could begin their trip to California. The snow was as deep as I am tall and it was so cold.

We started out on our trip a little later that day and drove all the way to Oklahoma where we stayed in Lawton** for a day or two. While we were their Penny and Randy and I took a drive up into the Wichita Mountains where there is a wildlife refuge.*** Penny told me there were real buffalo and longhorn cattle and other wild animals roaming around so we would have to stay in the car. When we got to the Buffalo in a field near the road I could see that there weren’t any fences. Randy stopped the car so we could take pictures from inside the car. Penny stuck me to the rearview mirror with tape so she could get my picture with the buffalo without getting out of the car. The only thing is the pictures don't  publish well here so I will show you pictures without me in them.  Do you think I wasn't very photogenic when I was real young?  We had seen this sign on the entrance to the wildlife refuge.

“These animals are not tame. You are a visitor in their pasture. Do not venture afoot into open pastures close to buffalo. Although they may look clumsy, they are extremely agile and fast. THEY CAN AND WILL CHARGE WITH LITTLE OR NO WARNING!”

I didn’t like the tape on my back but it was better than getting eaten by a buffalo. I found out the real name for the buffalo in American Bison.

From Lawton, we went to Lubbock Texas. **** There were lots of interesting things to see in Lubbock.

One of the first things we went to was the Buddy Holly Museum, opened in 1995. *****  You see Buddy Holly hailed from Lubbock and they were awfully proud of him. How Proud? Well. a boulder dropped into a pond is similar to the impact that Lubbock native Buddy Holly made in music. The musician hit the charts in the 1950's with hits such as "Peggy Sue", "Maybe Baby" "True Love Ways," and "Oh Boy." Lubbock honors Buddy Holly with a larger than life-sized statue, a park bearing his name and a Buddy Holly Walk of Fame.

After we had finished looking at things there we went to the Lubbock Windmill Museum that opened .in 1998. ****** The museum has over 40 different windmills that have been restored. Some are rare, some date back into the late 1800s and early 1900s.

I slept a lot on the rest of the trip to California to visit Randy’s brother Tom in San Diego. When we got to San Diego, we called some of Audrey’s friends, Cecil and Syd, who lived in a town nearby called San Marcos. ******* The next day we drove to their house to visit them. I was introduced, but the grown-ups were all talking a lot and Penny Didn't get any pictures taken.  It wasn’t long after those photos that something happened to the camera and Penny couldn’t take any more photos. We visited in California and then started our trip back to Iowa. On the was we stopped to visit Penny’s sister and family in Shawnee KS. Her niece Kayla and Nephew Kyle were the ones that taught Audrey all about Flat People to begin with.

After we got back to Iowa, I went to stay with Audrey and I have been her travel buddy since that time.

*Waterloo Iowa

http://www.waterloocvb.org/

**Lawton OK

http://www.cityof.lawton.ok.us/

***Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge

http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/wichitamountains/wildlife.html

****Lubbock TX

http://interoz.com/lubbock/

*****Buddy Holly Museum

http://interoz.com/LUBBOCK/bhmuseum.htm

******Lubbock Windmill Museum

http://www.lubbockhospitality.net/museums/lubbock_texas_windmill_museum.htm

*******San Marcos CA

http://www.sanmarcoschamber.com/