NOTE: This is Part One of a two part travelogue from travels back in late June. This also means that chronologically, I should have posted this before the Graham and Oklahoma entry. I think y'all can handle it, eh.
Alright, I’m on the road again so time for another
travelogue. This one’s a twofer: our
annual drive down to Port Aransas and then a business trip to Dresden,
Germany. The original plan was to have
the fam drop me off at Austin-Bergstrom on the way back from Port A. However, we made such good time we went home
first (past the airport) so I could help unpack the car and take care of a
couple of things before Varmint Taxi Service (not drowsiness nor crankiness nor
hunger nor the Cars Soundtrack can stop the...) would drop me off at the
airport. I’m in Terminal Five in
London’s Heathrow Airport right now, slightly jet-lagged after Ambien-addled
sleep on the flight from Austin, but am ready, willing and able to start cranking
out this travelogue. Also, I just
realized my cell phone gets coverage here; I’m not sure whether to be happy
about that or not.
Let’s start with Port A.
For the third year in a row, we made the trip down there to hang out at
the beach for a few days with my in-laws.
The plan was to leave on Saturday and return on Tuesday (in time for my
6:10pm flight from Austin-Bergstrom).
This meant a lot of packing on Thursday and Friday. Actually, Jennifer did just about all of the
packing for Port A, leaving me to my packing for Germany and the normal tidying
up of issues prior to departure. Since
it’s summer and we’ve had a decent amount of rain, I had to make sure the lawn
was mowed and also that we had a neighbor looking after the garden (i.e.
picking the 9,000 lbs of tomatoes, cucumbers and bell peppers that are ripening
right now). It’s nice to be away in the
summer to get away from the heat but it’s also primo garden time. I LOVE homegrown tomatoes, cucumbers and
carrots (just finished pulling those out of the garden); in fact, I have a bag
of them sitting at my feet since I’ve given up on airplane and airport food
(though I may try to find some kidney pie in Heathrow before my next
flight). But I’m happy to share the
bounty with others. In fact, they BETTER
pick them all! I’ve worked too hard on
that garden to let anything go to waste!
Uh oh, maybe that’s the jet lag talking. Ok, time to calm down.
I’ve probably written before but having the space available
in a minivan to pack stuff is just awesome.
My skills at packing things into tight spaces (i.e. my Camry Hybrid) are
getting rusty because with the Sienna we can just throw stuff in. As long as you don’t crush anything, you’re
good. And with the Squirt getting older
all the time (21 months), there is less infrastructure to pack for him. Even throwing in the dog doesn’t cause a
problem.
We left bright and early Saturday around 9:30. We had originally entertained thoughts of
leaving before breakfast. Ha ha, ha ha
ha. Yeah, we were deluding
ourselves. There are just too many things
to do around the house to make sure you’re ready to go. Last-minute garden watering, last-minute
clean-up, loading of the car (because I never do it the night before),
breakfast for the kids and ourselves (because the last minute chores pushed us
back), etc. What’s our hurry,
anyway? No hurry actually as it takes
about six hours or so to get down there with plenty of breaks for the kids.
We were joined in a caravan by my brother-in-law who had
come down the day before to spend the night.
Caravanning is always interesting because you theoretically have to
watch the road in front of you as well as the people in your caravan. Well, the good thing about our route was it
involved taking US Highway 183 the whole way down with some minor turnoffs past
Refugio (pronounced, for no reason other than to confuse out-of-towners,
‘reh-fear-ee-oh’) so there was little worry of losing him. Plus in this day and age of cell phones, it’s
not a big deal. I guess I am still used
to the caravanning concept of the college days before cell phones and with, um,
college-aged drivers (Jennifer and any old college friends reading this excluded,
of course).
As I’ve probably written before, road trips are all about
the kids. When the kids are hungry, you
stop for food (or throw them snacks like feeding chum to sharks). When the kids need to go the bathroom, at
least, those who don’t use diapers anymore, you stop. When the kids are asleep, you do not stop for
anything lest you wake them up. Squirt
was out before we hit Lockhart and slept through Luling and Gonzalez (Come and
Take It!™)
to boot. That meant stopping for lunch
in Cuero (pronounced ‘cwhere-oh’).
Usually I do a lot of research for the trip regarding a) possible lunch
stops and b) parks to eat at or let the kids play to let off steam. I slacked off on the latter but I decided to
use the ‘Legends of Texas BBQ Book’ for tips.
Turns out 183 is a good road to take for hitting Texas barbecue. Not only does it roll through Lockhart
(Smitty’s) and Luling (City Market), both of which were well-known to me, but
also the Gonzalez Family Market in Gonzalez and Smolik’s in Cuero. Goliad doesn’t have a recommended old-time
Texas bbq joint but it does have the Blue Quail, a high-falutin’ little
sandwich shop that seems a little misplaced in small-town Texas (not that the
Goliadians or whatever they’re called are complaining).
So anyway, we stopped for lunch in Cuero at Smolik’s. We’d driven by Smolik’s before and, not
knowing its history of being run by old-time Czechs, I was always turned off by
the fact that it looked like a complete dump.
I should know better. The place
was perfect. BBQ in general is good for
us with the kids because it allows us to get the food quickly without waiting
to be served by waitstaff. But a
small-town bbq joint with good barbecue and not one, not two but three old
ladies fussing over our two little boys: awesome. They gave us directions to the local park and,
after stocking up on dried sausage (seriously, if you’re ever in Cuero get some
of their dried sausage, that stuff is addictive) we waved goodbye and drove
over to the park.
Small-town parks are the best. I’m going to miss it when the kids are too
old to play on playgrounds and we just end up eating on benches watching other
kids play while our teens are fiddling around on their iPhone 17s. Oh well, better enjoy it while we can! Cuero’s park was perfect in that it had
parking in the shade, easily-accessible shaded picnic tables (we ate actually
in the group eating area which looked like it could hold 200) and a shaded
playground. Yeah, shade in the Texas
summer is kind of important. We wolfed
down our food before the 9,000,000 or so flies could get to it and let the kids
loose on the playground. Maisy the
Psychopooch was left tied to a picnic table, again, in the shade, and kept
barking at us so much that Jennifer felt compelled to go sit with her. I guess I’m a bit more heartless on that
score. Anything for her on these trips
is better than doggie day care or, as I love to refer to it, Pooch Prison. Of course, she had a little fan club of kids
who wanted to go over and pet her (though their parents wouldn’t let them, a prudent
move).
We got back on the road and cruised down through Goliad and
then stopped in Refugio for a potty break and some caffeine for me. I’ve given up mostly on soda and have moved
up (or down) to Starbucks frappucinos.
They may not be any healthier but it helps keep me off soda so I’m good
with it. Graham negotiated getting an
ice cream sandwich which, magically, he managed to eat without making a
colossal mess of in the van.
We crisscrossed over backroads for a while until we got to
our first view of the ocean! Back when I
was growing up in Houston seeing the ocean wasn’t as big a deal since we were
reasonably close. But I think now, for
our kids, growing up so far away and usually only seeing it once a year, it’s a
much bigger deal. Actually, it’s kind of
a big deal for me too. The ocean is
always just, well, cool, regardless of where you are. There’s something mystical about the endless
expanse of water and the relaxing sound of the waves constantly breaking on the
shore. Plus there’s the nostalgia factor
going for it; day trips to the beach were the best as a kid.
OK, I’d gotten tired of typing in London Heathrow and am now
holed up in a hotel in tiny Oybin, Germany, within walking distance from the
Czech Republic border. Seriously, I
walked across the Czech Republic border today.
And made it back! My calves and
hips (Hips?!! Is that a sign of getting
old?) are sore as all get-out so sitting here and typing this with the
Colombia-Uruguay World Cup second round game on mute is just the ticket. On with the blog!
Rather than write a few paragraphs about Port A and Corpus,
I’ll use a list:
-
- Tons and tons of seaweed at the beach this year. In some places it was piled up in 10’+ tall piles. Didn’t overly detract from the ocean experience though.
- No jellyfish this year. Maybe they’re allergic to seaweed. Jennifer, the super packer, brought the meat tenderizer, just in case (and for good reason as my brother-in-law got stung last year).
- Went to the State Aquarium again this year. Seems wrong that the State Aquarium is in an out-of-the-way place like Corpus. Shouldn’t all ‘State’ things be in Austin? Then again, Corpus will forever be stung by Selena being shot there so maybe they need as much help as possible.
- Whataburger was founded in Corpus in 1950. We ate lunch at the one near the Aquarium and pretended it was the original one.
- Little boys who are overtired are horrible eating-out companions. At least I didn’t have to spend any time this year driving one or both of them around to get them to go to sleep.
- Watched Portugal tie the US in the 95th minute to remind me why I gave up sports. I refuse to give up on US Men’s Soccer though. USA USA USA!
- Graham wanted to get out in the waves bigtime this year, a marked change for him. Trevor, our little daredevil, wanted to as well. Problem is they both have tubes in their ears which means putting wax in and then having the wax fall out constantly. Graham woke up with an earache one night but it might have been discomfort from a blister on his ear. Just because he can talk doesn’t mean he always clues us in on what’s really going on.
- The weather was actually in the mid-80s until the day we left which was really weird but not unwelcome. It’s been a weird year weather-wise.
We hoofed it for the drive back as we realized that we had a
chance of being able to drive home (past the airport), unpack, have me take a
quick shower and some other stuff to help around the house and then be dropped
off at the airport. So it became a bit
of a rush to, in a weird way, just to get home and not to have me at the
airport on time. Weird. I knew that I’d be worried about something
happening on the drive back but I only had to be in Germany on Thursday;
leaving from Austin on Tuesday night was more desirable than leaving from
Corpus on Tuesday morning (and involved one fewer flight). This meant a double whammy when we drove
through a hard rain for about five minutes south of Rehfeerio (I’m going to
start writing it how it should be written); not only did it slow us down but it
brought visions of shaky flights into my head.
Oh great. Luckily it ended and we
didn’t deal with rain after that.
We were in such a hurry that we skipped the now mandatory
stop at Smolik’s to stock up on dried sausage.
We actually didn’t stop until Gonzalez (Come and Take It!™)
but oh boy did we stop. The Legends of Texas
Barbecue book (seriously, buy it for any Texan or displaced Texan who does any
grilling whatsoever) had mentioned the Gonzalez Food Market as another
old-timey barbecue place to check out. I
parked the minivan under a tree just as the tornado siren was being
tested. That freaked us out but once we
saw no one was doing anything in response Jennifer realized that it was noon,
the normal testing time. But man, it was
loud. Anyway, the Food Market lived up
to its billing; their sausage was super-duper tasty! Good thing I got eight links, ha! It was so authentic we even had two cowboys,
with spurs on and everything, in line in front of us.
Our only other stop on the way home was at Buc-ee’s. Yes, Buc-ee’s. It was the first time I’d been to the one on
I-10; the only other one I’d visited was the one in Giddings probably ten years
ago, long before I learned how much of a cult Buc-ee’s has (and only about a
year before their inane billboard slogans outlived their welcome). I needed to get some Texas schlock for the
German office so I got them a ‘Don’t Mess With Texas’ coffee mug and a bag of
beaver nuggets (basically Corn Pops but with more sugar if that’s
possible). I avoided buying Buc-ee’s
shirts, copies of their billboard ads, any of the 9,000 different types of
candies, nuts and other snacks on the wall or any of the ready-to-go barbecue
sandwiches. Actually, I poke fun at
Buc-ee’s but I can see why people stop. It’s
got something for everybody.
Oh, we did stop in Lockhart at Walgreen’s so that a)
Jennifer could get some more wax for the kid’s ears and b) I could check my
flight schedule to make sure that the flight indeed took off at 6pm. I was wrong; it was supposed to take off at
6:10! Good old paranoia.
It was weird driving past the airport on 183 knowing that
we’d have to be back in a couple of hours but boy was it worth it. I got to be the good husband for a couple of
hours by unpacking the car and had a chance to shower, an important action
since it would help make me less stinky at the end of nineteen hours or so of
travel. I also got to check the rain
gauge (2”!!!!) and package the extra Gonzalez sausage for storage until I got
back.
We had a minor emergency on the drive down as Squirt fell
asleep for a few seconds. No Squirt!!! If you fall asleep now you’re never go to
sleep tonight!
Oops, Colombia just scored.
Uruguay are sure missing Captain Dientes, Luis Suarez.
So anyway, Jennifer had to hop back into the middle row to keep Squirt awake. I had give him and the Kid some of my trail mix to keep Squirt awake for the drive back when Jennifer would be unable to do anything. She informed me later that he indeed stayed awake the whole way home, yay! The boys also got two bonuses as a) an ambulance and fire truck both pulled up with lights flashing as I was being dropped off and b) the British Airways 787 was in full view at the end of the drive.
OK, that's enough for Part 1. Part 2 will be tomorrow night (Friday). Thanks for reading!
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