Day#189

Yesterday's post was messed up by me accidentally hitting send on it while I was still editing the text (I'm sure Gary's class will be great but don't know I'd exactly call it a "stunner class"), plus, no pictures attached. So now I've learned not to put the sending address in until I'm totally ready, but I'm fairly confident I will find ways to still goof up posts.

Vacation Day 2

After an actually good breakfast at our pretty cheap motel, we were on the road by 8:30am and headed toward Texas. The temp has been really comfortable and mild. I had told the kids not to bring any jeans because I expected Texas to be blazing hot but so far it's definitely not.  I've noticed the natives are not wearing shorts even though it's in the 60s and 70s and I wonder if it's because that is cool weather for them or if maybe they try to limit the skin exposure or they just like their jeans. 

So I started the day's drive and I'd been driving maybe three hours and thought I was feeling fine until we hit the Dallas metro area which seems to go on and on.  Tie in that it was raining some, along with being amongst high speed traffic through a constant construction zone of two narrow lanes bounded by concrete barriers and some very elevated roadways.  Halfway through, I took an exit to pull over and let Gary take his turn;  I was so mentally worn out from the drive. The highway interchanges in Dallas seemed to be stacked; it was wild.  I counted five levels of roadway on top of one another in just one view. It was a cross between feeling like we were on a kid's ramped up matchbox car track placed a scene from the Jetson"s intro. I took some pictures then while we continued on through Dallas but they are on the real camera, not phone, and there's no way to download those until home. I did not get a picture of the water tower at McKinney, my mom's maiden name, since I was busy gripping the wheel at that time. Ha

Gotta say the kids have traveled really well, at least through Day 2 and 900 miles. They sit pretty quietly and keep self-entertained in their own ways with no whines/requests for bathroom or drinks, etc. That may be attributed to us having developed a pretty predictable pattern over the years of alternating stops for gas and food that don't push the time between stops too far. Anyway, we are finding it works, plus it probably helps they're all practically grown adults these days, dang it.  Waaaah.

We stopped for lunch in West, Texas and that was different. Apparently West was settled by Czechs as that was the restaurant choices popping up. We had the Czech Stop, the Czech-American, Pichas Czech-American Cafe, Gerik's Ole Czech Smokehouse, and Sloveceks to choose from.  Sloveceks was a cool place, kind of an expanded style Cracker Barrel just with fewer sit down tables.  The family all had kolaches for the first time, well, a first except for Gary. He'd recently tried kolaches at a breakfast at work and he knew we'd all like them.  They are basically a dough baked with a filling of meat or cheese or fruit in them.  For example, I had a pulled pork one followed by a coconut cream one. Very yum and I think we ordered a total of ten before it was over, plus six dessert ones to go.  And then Grant also needed a platter of ribs.  One of Gary's kolaches had sausage, rice and jalapenos in it and Caroline didn't exactly appreciate his breath after that.

The sun had been in and out of a bright blue sky with some fluff clouds, but once we came out from eating, it was pretty much cloudy. Did not rain, though. We saw two highway signs that were twisted, assumingly by wind, but so far that has been the extent of weather damage seen other than rivers out their banks.

We passed through Waco and down the line a little further, stopped for gasoline at a small place that I don't think I noticed the name. Gas costs less everywhere so far compared to back home, $2.30 ish.

Not long after that we entered Austin. From the highway, it looks like any other place with malls and chain restaurants and an Ikea but we are excited to see the rest.  We arrived a bit before our check-in time so of course Gary found us a few yardsales.  No big finds, but one was a very interesting estate sale with nice antique furniture and artwork. Everything was half price at the time we walked in as they were ready to clear out at 4 pm. I would have probably came home with a tri-fold antique wooden room divider if we had a way of getting it home. It would have been perfect for the dining room.

We found our rent house easily and took a little time working out room assignments since it was complicated by six beds in four rooms and these kids are spoiled I mean used to a room of their own. Jack was the man and took the hideaway bed as his space so everyone else ended up happy. He will be rewarded with first choice of bed at the next house.

Gary and I went to a truly Texas-sized grocery store to stock our kitchen and we grabbed a Redbox movie too. Cooking supper went off without a hitch, but they never could get the BluRay player to work so we watched a show about a NYC cupcake store renovation. I think we were so tired we didn't really care.