Read this almost a month after it was started--fun to read.
I grew up on the South Plains of West Texas, near the Panhandle. My parents are from Muleshoe, Texas, where we lived when I was born (in Littlefield, Texas). I've lived in Plainview, Texas twice and driving from Plainview to Muleshoe you go through Halfway, Texas and then Earth, Texas. Hale Center, Texas is just south of there.