Buffalo Gap and other things

I may move to Buffao Gap, Texas. It's a small and, I use the term hesitatingly, quaint town outside Abilene. It has two main attracttions--the Perini Steak House, which I mentioned before and where, after all, I never got to eat, and the Buffalo Gap Historic Village. I spent a lot of time at the villae and found it fascinating. It's a recreated village which reflects the history of that part of Texas (the Big Country) from 1875 to 1925--barns and a blacksmith shop, a school and a railroad station, a lovely garden with fresh tomatoes among other things, chickens, and odd relics stuck here and there--a permanent wave machine, of all thngs, in the barn. Plus a wonderful "Texas history store" for browsing and spending too much money as I did (but it was such a neat T-shirt!). We had a day and a half of sales meetings there, and the meetings were lively and enthusiastic, with new ideas for selling books popping up. I came away feeling energized, looking forward to digging into all the suggestions and ideas.
Three friends and I stayed in "the parsonage," as guest house owned by the village. Reflective of its name, there are crosses on the walls, and one room is the "faith" room. A charming house--three bedrooms, living room, dining, and fully equipped new kitchen, well stocked. Tuesday night we had a wonderful dinner in Abilene--best steak I've had in forever--and then a small party at "our" house. Stayed up too late of course and probably drank one extra glass of wine, but it was all fun.
On the way home, I headed us the wrong way, and we went twenty miles south before I realized something was wrong, So we turned on little country roads and finally made our way back to the highway that leads to Fort Worth. Even that was fun and funny.
Tuesday night on the way home my friends Fran and Gayla got the giggles. Anything that was said just spurred them on more, and Gayla laughed so hard she couldn't answer the phone when her boss called to ask if we were lost. Somehow it didn't strike me as funny, and I could feel myself being the sourpuss in the group--but here we were wandering around Abilene, having lost the people who thought we were following them. Giggles I decided are like a lot of other things--funny if you're on the same train and not very amusing if you're not. I tried extra hard to be pleasant the rest of the night, and they did calm down. We're still friends.
Home now and plan to stay here for a while. I've got lots of work, including that manuscript due September 7, projects for the office, a mystery I want to finish reading, a column to write--yikes! I gotta go get to work!