Ok. Well maybe not so far beyond but it sure as heck felt like it! I don't remember it taking that long to go to Ft. Davis when I was a kid but then again I did live closer at the time.
We had a wonderful time in west Texas!
Mom and dad drove in to Austin last Thursday and we met up at a friends place of business where mom and dad left their truck and we headed on our merry way.
The trip was a 6 1/2 hour trip so our plan was to get a good deal of traveling done Thursday evening, stop off and stay the night somewhere and then get up Friday morning and get back on the road. Mom really likes Fredericksburg and wanted to stay there but we quickly talked her out of it because that was only 1 1/2 hours outside of Austin. ;-) (love ya mom!)
But we did stop off in Fredericksburg and have dinner at some German restaurant. Mom and dad had been there before and really liked it. It was pretty good!
We had dinner and got back on the road. Usually I don't like a long drive but having mom and dad there to visit with made the trip great. I can't remember the last time I took a road trip with my parents.
We decided to drive half way, which was Junction, TX and stayed over night in a Days Inn. Early Friday morning we got up, had breakfast and got back on the road. Now, for those of you that know west Texas, the scenery gets a little boring at times but this part of west Texas is very pretty.... most of it anyways.
We stopped off in Bakersfield, TX to take a look at where we lived when I was in the First grade. I was so bummed out when we discovered they had since torn down the house we lived in. I was really hoping that it would be there and I could reminisce on the good ol' days. But it was gone and so I relied on the memories of mom and dad. But I'll write about the Bakersfield part of my life in another blog. ;)
We toodled on down the road heading to Ft. Davis and made many stops along the way. Once at a roadside park to eat lunch and use the restroom, another stop at a roadside Beef Jerky stand to get some nourishment. :-) Ok, so beef jerky isn't that nourishing but it sure is yummy!
We finally made it to Ft. Davis around 2 or so. Dad and I wanted to tour the Fort and mom graciously allowed us to take our sweet time. We watched a video on the Fort and then took a self-guided tour of the Fort, discovering many things that I had since forgotten as a child. History is so much more interesting when you are an adult! At least for me.
I told mom and dad that it seemed different than when I was a kid. But I think the difference was that we went in the summertime as a kid and so they had guided tours. Plus the place was crowded then where as this time I think we had one other couple walking around on the grounds while we were there. But all in all I thoroughly enjoyed walking the Fort with dad. Texas history is so interesting.
We finished up the tour around 4 or a little after and got back on the road heading to Alpine, TX. Once in Alpine we drove around trying to find our Hotel. The website said that they were the tallest downtown building and that you couldn’t miss it but we did. Alpine is not big by any means. It has a population of around 6,000 ppl and yet we were constantly running into one-way streets and having problems finding out Hotel. But we finally figured out the big city of Alpine and found our way. ;-)
Holland Hotel - Our home away from home for the next two days...or so we thought...
This was a great place to stay. The people were friendly and the hotel was an old renovated hotel nearing 100 years old.
The best part about staying here was that we were right across the street from the train station. ;-) One thing that the hotel provided was a complimentary set of earplugs. I guess they don't want them back after we use them? I used them and boy did they work! I hardly hear a peep the entire night!
Saturday morning we got up and enjoyed a complimentary breakfast in the hotel restaurant then drove around town doing some sight seeing. The sightseeing didn't take long and we were done before lunchtime. Mom came up with a brilliant idea that, since we had seen all there was to see in Alpine, we should get on the road and enjoy a leisurely drive back toward Austin, staying the night wherever we felt like. This would help from having to put mom through the pain of sitting in a car for 6 1/2 hours on Sunday. And we got to see some more sights! So we packed up and were out of Alpine around 3 or so Saturday afternoon.
Dad pulled out the trusty ol' map (believe it or not some people still use those instead of mapsco!) and picked out a route for us to take. I wish I could tell ya'll what that drive was like but there is absolutely no way to describe the splendor and beauty of God's creation in this part of Texas. Mountains surrounded us as far as the eye could see. This was way better than the hill country of central Texas.
We got to a part of the trip where the roads looked like a roller coaster. At this point of the trip mom was laying down in the back seat and we used her for some fun. See- dad gets carsick and can't close his eyes or he will throw up and I was the driver and, for those of you who don't know this, the drivers can't drive with their eyes closed! So, we would tell mom when to close her eyes and we'd have fun when she would get that roller coaster, throat in the pit of your stomach, flapping your arms to make yourself fly feeling. ;-)
(Yep- we are a strange family...don't you wish you were just like us?)
So we did this for about a half hour or so until we ran out of roller coaster roads and then we went back to watching the scenery.
At one point during our return trip home dad decided to try his luck at becoming a felon.....but you will have to read more about that in October's newsletter. (No- he didn't try killing us although I'm sure after a while he wanted to. hehehehe)
We planned on staying overnight in Sonora, TX. Sonora is home to the Sonora caverns. You should check those out sometime as well. Well we got there and the first motel was booked solid. We drove across the street to the Best Western and dad fortunately got there in front of one person and got the last room. He found out that there was a rodeo in town. We figured we had a night of rowdy partying ahead of us (no, not us! The cowboys and girls! Sheesh- do we look like partiers?) I was glad I kept my earplugs from the Holland Hotel. We knew from experience how people got from rodeos and we figured that everyone would come back to the hotel drunk off their rumps and playing in the pool (that was closed but wouldn't stop them!). Oddly enough we woke up the next morning and there were just a couple of more cars in the parking lot...not sure what happened to all the rodeoers? I said that perhaps they were all passed out drunk at the rodeo and dad said that they probably just finished that rodeo and drove on to the next one.... I like mine better. :)
From here we went to get a yummy and nutritious breakfast at the only place known for nutritious breakfast's.... Sonic.
We placed our order and the next thing you know people start walking up to the kitchen entrance like they are looking for a bathroom. I figured that they all just lived in cities like Austin where they had public restrooms at their sonic or maybe they had a dining room like some I've seen. Nope- turns out everyone was trying to find out where the heck their food was. Apparently, from what mom could see, the cook was the same person taking the order and they had one waitress.
At one point people started leaving without their food.
We weren't too concerned as we had the whole day to get back home and only a couple of hundred miles to go.
The best part about waiting for our food was we got to watch a show! Ok- so it wasn't an actual show but some of the hung over cowboys moseying up to the sonic walk-in to get some drinks. I would bet that they had cottonmouth out the wazoo.
What do ya'll think? ;) I tell you- those poor guys looked like they were hurting. But I didn't feel sorry for them! That was what they get for not inviting us to the party! Don't they know that we know how to party!? Ok- you can stop laughing now....
Our food comes out and of course the order wasn't right so we had to wait longer for the remainder of the order. During our wait we battle bees that kept flying in and out of the car. But nobody got stung; we got our order and got on our way.
We made it to Fredericksburg around noon and decided to do some shopping at the Christmas store. Bought a few items and then got back on the road. We weren't really hungry for lunch so decided to hold off until Austin and see what we thought.
Once we got back to Austin we made our way back to mom and dad's truck, loaded them up, then went to have lunch. From there our trip ended and mom and dad got back on the road and headed home to Hico. I'm not sure but I thought I heard them say something about going back and seeing if those cowboys were ready to party.... maybe I was just hearing things.
(For those of you who doubt this story- it is all true! I can't make this stuff up!!)
;-)
