Day 3: Hello, San Antonio!


I’m writing this on Day 4 actually.  I never got around it to yesterday.  Needless to say, we arrived in San Antonio with only one incident on record.

We followed our usual on the road routine.  We got up, got ready, had breakfast, and made a quick exit out of town.  The weather was really nice.  The temperatures were mild enough to have the windows down as we drove down the road.  This meant I could take advantage of the sun for some tanning.

I get my tan for the year by working in the yard and the gardens and while driving on vacation.  Probably explains why my legs don’t get that tan.  It’s hard to tan your legs sitting in the car.  I tend to cast a shadow on my extremities as I work in the yard.

We headed into Dallas to catch 35 heading to San Antonio.  Wow, Dallas has grown since I was last here.  The roads were once again confusing.  We had to catch the next exit and come back to hit 35.  Don’t worry, it wasn’t just us.  I bet three or four of the cars behind did the same thing.

We stopped off just south of Dallas to eat.  Rich found a southern restaurant that he wanted to try, but it turned out to be closed.  Our second choice worked out better.  Dickie’s BBQ was just up the road a piece.  The food turned out to be pretty good with a wide choice of sides.  I like that in a restaurant.  I’m not in the fries thing too much.

Back on the highway, we dodged the slow cars and the semis.  We were only 3 hours out of San Antonio at this point.  We reached Austin good time.  This is another city that has grown.  I told Rich we should find out if the Peterson Brothers were playing anywhere.  This is their stomping ground.  Then I remembered they were Louisiana for a festival.  Too bad, it would have been fun to see them at their regular gig.

We got the outer limits of San Antonio and prepared to wind our way into Rose’s house.  I punched the gas to get by one particularly slow vehicle in preparation for our turn.  Just then the air conditioner stopped for a second and then the fan came back on.  However, there was no cold air blowing out.  Rich messed with it a while and finally declared it dead.  Now we had to find a shop to fix it while we were here since the 90 degree weather would bake us.

We navigated the frontage road system to Rose’s house.  Sorry, JP, your house, too.  Rose and JP live in a gated community.  I had gotten the gate code from Rose while she was at our house a week or so back.  Rich dug out my phone and opened the Evernote with the code.  The gate slid back and I felt like I was welcomed.

We arrived!  Rose came out to greet us.  The house is very nice and very chilly.  Just what you need after driving in 90 degree weather with the windows all down.  Stephanie, Rose’s friend from Seattle, was in for vacation.  We got reacquainted.  Stephanie was just in to work on her tan since Seattle see so little sun.  She was doing a nice job on her tan.

George and his wife, Michelle, were here to enjoy the day.  Some other friends had stopped by for a few moments to see the house.  I think the young couple was looking to buy in the area and it was a chance to see what one of the properties looked like.  George and JP know each other from one of the companies they had worked at together.  George and Michelle are expecting twins in October.  She looked so small for twins, but I’m sure the best is yet to come as time gets closer.

The previous owner of the house had installed a smoker in an alcove in the garden.  It was handcrafted and very cool.  Needless to say, JP is doing the time honored practice of experimenting with smoking dinner.  He was trying a version of brisket and pork roast.  This, of course, got Rich going on his experiences with learning to smoke.  I think this is just something guys like to do.  If they can’t kill it, they can at least smoke it.

The brisket was very nice.  The pork was taking a lot longer because the heat of the smoker was fluctuating.  When it came up about 12:00 midnight, it was very tasty.  Yep, midnight.  And I was still up for the festivities, which is very unusual for me.  We had a snack of pork before bedtime.

Stephanie needed some things and I volunteered to take her to the store.  I hadn’t been drinking and it seemed like the safe thing to do.  We borrowed JP’s truck and headed out.  Getting out of the neighborhood was easy.  We went to the local Walgreen’s.  We talked as we gathered up the goodies we came for.  We checked on fireworks, like sparklers, but apparently they never got any for the season.  Too bad.  At the checkout, Stephanie attempted to buy a carton of cigarettes.  She was informed that they didn’t have any cartons.  Turned out, they were robbed of all the cartons under the front counter the previous evening.  Then the clerk points to one of the front doors, which was covered with a board.  At about 3:00 AM, someone broke in and took what they could. Luckily, the store was closed.

On the way back to the house, we had a little trouble with the gate.  Stephanie said there was a button to open it.  I took a chance I could find it and pulled past the panel to enter the code.  I couldn’t find it!  There was truck behind me, who eventually opened the gate just to get me out of the way.  We waved a really big thanks.

As it had started to get dark, the women walked down to the block party taking place in one of the cul-de-sacs.  Everyone was very friendly.  We introduced ourselves and talking for a few minutes before the fireworks from the next neighborhood over started.  We decided to walk back to the house and see what fireworks appeared from the top deck.  This meant walking back up hill.  I thought it was easier going down.

From the top deck, we could see maybe 5 or 6 different sets of fireworks going off.  This included downtown San Antonio and Six Flags.  Interestingly enough, they looked pretty much the same.  I didn’t see too many differences in the patterns and colors.  Fireworks never last too long and after 20 or 30 minutes, most were over.  It was just the illegal fireworks that we saw on occasion after that.

We sat out on the deck talking for a long time.  The breeze was blowing and the temperature was pretty moderate.  Rich, Rose, and Stephanie were drinking.  I just couldn’t feel like I needed to have any alcohol at that time.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel the need for something.  We had our pork snacks and drifted off to bed.  Man, was I tired.

Tomorrow morning, we’ll find a place to fix the Honda.  Then we can enjoy our stay in San Antonio without further worth.

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