this is long so bare with me July 27, 2008

Texas Day One

We left from Spartanburg at 4 am Thursday morning.  We had to be at the airport in Charlotte early because our plane was leaving at 7:05.  We stopped at Waffle house to get a drink on the way out.  Could you imagine working at 4 in the morning?  There was no one there but us.  It took us an hour to get to Charlotte…pretty good timing with no traffic.  I got a little lost trying to find the long term parking lot…if I would have read the signs it would have been easy but the first turn I took was the employee parking lot.  We finally got to the parking lot and had to run to get on the trolley bus.  After picking up a few more people it was pretty packed.  It was a short trip to the drop off and we got in line to check in.  They have a really cool thing to check yourself in now.  You just scan your little barcode and they call you up to the desk.  Give them your luggage and you are done.  Two guys in front of us weighed their luggage and the one guys was over 50 pounds so they opened up the suitcases and moved stuff from one bag to the other.  Good thing their underwear was not on top!  We went through the security check quicker than most.  You have to take your shoe off which is weird.  Some people got stopped.  They do these random checks and they pretty much strip search you.  We passed our carryon bags through the x-ray screen.  Blake asked the lady what the weirdest thing was that she had ever seen anyone put in their carryon bag and she said that someone tried to carry a dog through in their bag. 

I had to stop to get a starbucks…grande nonfat caramel macchiato and a chocolate muffin.  Blake is not really a coffee drinker but he got a caramel café latte and he really liked it…of course he had to put three sugars in it.  After eating a bite we went into a little store to get me a magazine for the plane and water.  There was a pretty good line so I had to wait a few minutes.  There were some girl scouts in line ahead of me.  They were going to Mexico City for something.  The funniest thing was when the one girl said “chill out girl scout”.  Then their “leader” came over and was rushing them.  I think she might have been a Yankee.  She was really rude.  She kept saying that the plane was boarding in five minutes and rushing them.  Then she goes and picks up two waters and breaks in front of me in line.  I was so mad.  Yes I said something…then they ended up being on our plane.  We went down to the terminal to wait to board the plane.  Blake thought he could go stand at the door so we could get on first but he did not understand that they either call you by alphabetical order or by seat number.  They called first class first.  I really don’t know why these people pay so much extra money for first class tickets.  They don’t have that much extra room and they don’t get fed a meal or anything.  Kind of silly.  Now if it was for a twelve hour flight I could understand but this one was only about 2 hours. 

After finding our seat on the plan we were kind of cramped.  There ended up not being anyone sitting in the emergency exit seat so we got to sit there.  We had so much more leg room.  It was awesome!  I am not really good with taking off in the plane so I kind of have to just lay my head back and close my eyes and wait for the plane to level out.  I get sort of nauseated.  About fifteen minutes after we took off the pilot said that we were already flying over Atlanta Georgia.  That was crazy that we got there that quickly.  I got caught up on my celebrity gossip and read my US Weekly.  Then I finished my book The Graduation of Jake Moon just as we were landing in Dallas.  All we got for free on this plane ride was a soft drink.  Oh yeah…the girl scouts were sitting right in front of us and they were really annoying at the beginning but they finally shut up and we got some peace and quiet.

We got to Dallas airport and had to figure out where to get on the next plane.  We were running a little late and only had about twenty minutes to find the next flight.  I was really nervous about that but we got lucky and the next flight was in the same terminal so we did not have far to walk.  We sat for a little bit to wait and watched the news about the tornados and hurricane Dolly that almost ruined our trip.  Luckily it stayed mostly south and there was just some rain from it.  This plane ride was crazy quick.  As soon as I got used to the nausea feeling the pilot said we were ready for our decent.  Seriously it was about thirty minutes.  I got started in reading my next book Plantation.  We got some apple juice on this flight. I know you are so interested in that little detail.  We got to the Austin airport and quickly went to get our bags.  It was surprisingly quick.  My aunt, uncle, and cousin made it in perfect timing.  As soon as we went outside to look for them they pulled up to pick us up.  I was so glad to see them.  I had not seen my aunt in a year and a half.  I had just seen my uncle and cousin a couple weeks ago when they came to visit in Spartanburg, 

                Aunt – Shay (real name Sharon) my mom’s sister – she grew up in Spartanburg and got married to my uncle.  They moved to NC for his job and had Jami.  They lived there for about fourteen years and then moved to Texas because of his job again.  They have been here for five years.

                Uncle 0 BooBoo (real name Randy) ironically grew up with my dad so everyone kind of new each other. 

                Cousin – Jami – real name Jami – she is going to school at Texas Tech in Lubbock Texas.  As I am typing she is packing up her little Volkswagen bug to head back to school.  She is going a little early to go back to work at the grocery store to make her some spending money. 

As soon as we left the airport we headed to shop….Shay’s favorite thing to do.  We went to Anna linen’s to look for some new things to fix up Jami’s bedroom.  She is wanted to change it up since Jami does not live there anymore.  Then we went to Stein Mart. They had a really good sale but I did not find anything.  Boo and Blake went to the sports shop and looked at guns.  BooBoo is a hunter and fisher…actually he does a lot of stuff…he is a pretty good pool player too.  Anyway…we went to lunch at gattiland.  It was a lot bigger than ours.  Shay works at Sysco which is a food supplier to different restaurants and hotels so she gets a discount at the places that they serve to.  This place actually had sweet tea.  They only serve unsweetened tea in most places in Texas and you have to use sweetener.  We sat in the sports room.  The other room was plying the movie Ice Age.  After leaving lunch we went to take a picture in front of a longhorn…it had rained a lot there and I stepped in a load of mud.  Blake asked if I stepped in dog you know what but it was defiantly only mud.  If it was doodoo I would have left the shoes there.  Then we had to go get Sugar the cat.  She was at the beauty parlor getting a bath and a shave.  She looks s cute.  She was a little drugged up so that she would not pitch such a fit.  We rode through the neighborhood to look t some million dollars.  Homes.  It was the rich side of their neighborhood.  We took a tour of their house and ended up in the game room playing pool and eating round rock donuts.  I won two rounds.  By then it was raining and it was time for a quick nap.  We were heading to the Round Rock express minor league baseball game that night.  The weather was awesome…an unusual 80 degrees but mainly because of the storm and the rain that we had.  It is usually about 95 at this time. 

The Round Rock minor league baseball team is owned by Nolan Ryan’s son Reese Ryan.  I got a picture of him.  You do know who Nolan Ryan is don’t you.  We also saw a guy that we swore was Cal Ripken Jr.  We finally decided it wasn’t but kept second guessing ourselves.  It was a really great game…we sang the chicken dance and take me out to the ballgame.   The baseball players got to chose a song that played each time they went up to bat.  It was neat.  They also played a bunch of movie clips that related to whatever was happening in the game.  We headed home to have hotdogs for dinner and then got in the bed.  I was whooped!  We were getting up the next morning to go yard saling. 

730 up and attum the yard sale train was departing.  We found a few good things.  I got a batman toy for Blaine, Mrs. Fowler’s son at the first stop.  The second stop I got Ms. Cooper a blow up palm tree, some books for my classroom and Blake a Round Rock hat.  Then we found a few more but it was mostly junk.  We went to this place called the Caring Place.  It is sort of like the goodwill where people drop off things they don’t want anymore.  Then whatever they sell goes to help the needy.  They had some really old things that could potentially be worth a lot of money.  I got some cute saucer plates, some casserole dishes and can’t remember the other thing right now…I will have to update you in that later. 

We finally made it home to make some breakfast which I called brunch because we were eating at 11.  Then it was nap time again while Jami worked on some homework for her class.  It ended up being a pretty long nap until 2:30.  We got up and went shopping again.  There was a new Ross that just opened.  I got Blake two shirts and some shorts, and bowl for my bathroom, a lighthouse for my classroom, and a nice piece of luggage.  We were going to have to have something to bring back all the stuff that we bought while we are here.  Then we went to JCPenneys…my favorite store.  This one was huge.  I could have spent days in there.  I got a brown shirt and some new earrings.  My aunt bought it for my belated birthday gift.  We had to hurry because Jami’s “boyfriend” was meeting us at the house to go to dinner and to a play and BooBoo did not want to be late.  We all piled up in the truck…four in the backseat and headed for La Margarita.  Delicious Mexican food.  Then we went to Zilker Park.  This place was awesome.  They had a pool that was actually river water.  They had a diving board and everything.  It is called Barton Springs.  The water stays 68 degrees year round.  It was definitley pretty cold.  We headed back up the hill to set out our blanket to watch the outdoor play Beauty and the Beast.  It was hotter than hot.      We were rubbing ice on our arms and necks to stay cool.  The play was awesome.  My favorite part was the be my guest song.  The costumes were awesome.  At intermission after and hour and a half…we decided we had enough and left.  Shays comment was that it was not fast enough.  Belle’s comment was that everything was happening so fast.  Haha. 

We went to downtown Austin.  The motto for Austin is to keep Austin weird.  Some of them were definite weird.  One guy just walked down the sidewalk talking and yelling to himself.  There are a lot of places to hang out on 6^th street.  We rode by the capital building and Texas stadium.home of the longhorns.  I was pooped yet again after a long day of busyness.  I had a bath and went to bed while everyone else went to play pool.  I could not hang. 

We are finally to today, Saturday.  We got up to go to San Antonio Texas.  We stopped at a place called Ruby’s that has some awesome breakfast burritos and excellent salsa.  It was yummy.  Next stop was the flea market to get faux Chanel and coach purses.  Then to the Alamo.  It was hotter than hotter that hot today.  We had to wait in line about 20 to 30 minutes just to get in.  They were having a street fair with music and vendors so it was a little more busy than usual.  We got in the Alamo to learn a little history.  Davey Crocket fought there along with two people from South Carolina.  The grounds were beautiful there.  The River Walk was next.  There are lots of restaurants and shops down the river walk.  This is where I sweated my you know what off.  We finally found somewhere to eat…Landry’s seafood.  Decent food.  We sweated al little more on the way out and stopped to get some ice cream and walk around the shops a little bit.  We made it back to the car around four…we were going to Cabela’s.  We got a short nap on the way there.  This was the biggest store I had ever been in.  It went on for days.  You can just go there and hang out.  They have all kinds of mounted and stuffed animals.  Huge moose, zebras, elephant, deer.  All kinds of animals.  We bought Blake two hats.  There were also fish aquariums with largemouth bass and rainbow trout.  We spent almost two hours in there.  It did not seem like that long.  Mack in the truck stuffed like sardines…Jami’s fried Kendra went with us.  She is going to school to become a math teacher.  Bless her.  We drove home and did a little more window-seeing through Austin.  We rode by the lake over at their house. 

Oh yeah…o the way to San Antonio they have this water ski park…they put you on the chain that goes around in the water so you can practice skiing.  You don’t even have to have a boat.  It was awesome…I will definilety do that if I ever come back.  There are also parks everywhere in Texas…all kinds of things to do.  An underground cave that I will visit when I go back too…bats that live under bridges…all kinds of neat things.  Oh and there are real deer that just hang out in people’s front yards.  I have not gotten a pic yet but I hope to.  We saw an armadillo Thursday night and jack rabbits Friday night just walking around in the neighborhood or down the roads. 

Back out to Wal-Mart to get Jami some stuff to take back to Lubbock with her.  Then to HEB…the grocery store chain down here.  They\y are everywhere.  It stands for someone’s name but I can’t remember…and here I am now with my wet hair and typing out the itinerary of our trip.  It has taken me about an hour.  I know it is pretty long but I want to document our trip and share it with those of you who are tough enough to hang out and read this whole thing.  I will add pics as soon as I get home but I wanted to get this much done so I could remember all the details.