Uncle Dave and Aunt Christine Get Five Stars!!!

OK, for real. This is the last last blog on the road trip. Thank you to all that have followed us!

Uncle Dave has religiously followed our blog and I have done a poor job wrapping things up. He has been sitting on pins and needles waiting for his review... and the verdict is five stars! OK, it may not have been the absolute most amazing stop of our destination, but spending time with family (especially Aunt Christine and Uncle Dave) warrants the addition of more stars.

We arrived that afternoon in Stephenville, The Cowboy Capitol of Texas (and the home of Aunt Christine and Uncle Dave). After getting turned around one last time by Lori, we reached our destination. The ranch (their home) is situated on the top of a hill and overlooks a lot of the county. There is a train track down below where we used to deface pennies as kids, and there are cows that roam the property, and occasionally and emu (ok, that only happened once, and man was it fun to chase). I hadn't been to the ranch in probably five years, due to all of the "living out of state" stuff I was doing. Aunt Christine and Uncle Dave weren't living out there full-time yet, and I had heard that they put in a few upgrades. Well, the house looks totally different, and in a good way. There are beautiful hardwood floors, color on the walls, new countertops, and a state of the art "man shed" in the back for all of Uncle Dave's hobbies. After touring that, I think Tim has plans in mind for his own... It is a very nice home and I'm glad that Uncle Dave (and soon to be Aunt Christine) gets to enjoy his retirement out there. We enjoyed a wonderful meal, good conversation, and Roy Orbison on Uncle Dave's new HD TV. It was quite the treat.

We have really enjoyed the drives through the countryside. There is something very peaceful and simple about it. One of my favorite things about home is round hay bales in a field. I remember playing on them as a kid.. and all of the simple things that could keep us entertained for hours. I think Tim and I are hoping to have those simple joys when we settle into our next home.

Texas Our Texas.

Well, as most of you have guessed, we've been in Texas for quite some time now... not eternally stalled in New Orleans as our blog would suggest. This is the final post to wrap up our trip.

We left Ruston around lunchtime, said goodbye to our friends, and made for the Texas border. We knew we were getting close when we saw the biggest tires ever (everything's bigger in Texas, remember?:)). Not on a truck, as some might think, but being carried by a semi. Seriously, two people could have lived in one of these tires and been perfectly cozy. Shortly after the tire spotting, we reached the Texas border. We had to get out for a picture (above) and some maps. It was a very big and nice visitor center. We expected the ladies at the counter to be the darned nicest people in Texas, but they weren't. They were nice enough I suppose, and gave us maps, and welcomed us to Texas. Maybe we were expecting a party?:)

Oh well, it was back to the road and on to Burleson to stay with my cousin Anna, her husband Steve, and boys Owen and Ben. We pulled in a little before dinner and got to meet my newest little cousin Ben. This kid has HUGE brown hair. He's only six months old, and they've had to cut his hair twice. He's got the biggest eyes and these little chubby cheeks - I dubbed him the Precious Moments doll. We spent the evening talking and playing with Owen, who loves his truck! He's very cute. I'm excited about being here to get to see my cousins and aunts and uncles more. Unfortunately when you live out of state and the extended family is spread out, you rarely get to see them. That's one thing that's nice about Tim's family, they all live close to each other, for the most part. After our enchilada dinner, we turned in for a night on the comfiest pull-out sofa I've ever slept on.

We began the next day with a nice breakfast and some play time outside with Owen. Around 11, we hit the road for Grandma's. We arrived at 11:30, just in time for lunch at "the home". Now when you think of a retirement home, I know cute doesn't come to mind, but my grandma's place is cute, seriously! It is a gated community with little red brick houses. Grandma lives there and has everything one person could need, and then some. She eats all of her meals up at "the building", which is a restaurant and community center type place. This is the place where I played bingo and went swimming as a kid. The food was tasty. We had a lot to choose from and it all was great. We visited a bit more with Grandma and then it was off to... Stephenville!

Almost there!

We deviated from the logical path to Houston to visit friends in Ruston, LA and family in Ft. Worth, TX. It was well worth it! From New Orleans, we headed north to Ruston where our friends Paul and Emily live. Tim and Paul grew up together and went on their first road trip together, where Tim and I met! So it was special to meet up with Paul near the end of our trip and the guys could compare stories. It think our trip was a little cushier than the guys first trip. Hey, I'm not complaining:).

Paul and Emily live in a cute little apartment close to where Paul is finishing up his doctorate. Emily is working for a church nearby and her friends there had been asking her to come to a high school football game for some time. This was the last of the season, so we all headed out to the last football game of the season for West Oachita High School. While the game was less-than-victorious, the fans were great, and I was quickly reminded of what a Southern accent should sound like. We rounded out our evening with a bite at Bennigan's and a great night's sleep.

New Orleans

After our day in Destin we packed up, assessed our sunburns, and headed towards New Orleans. It got cloudier as we got there, so we decided to stay in a hotel for the night. The problem was, our laptop had been acting up (read: randomly freezing), so we weren't sure if it'd behave long enough for us to get a room booked. Thankfully on our way we found some free wifi (thank you Mississippi rest stop!) and the laptop behaved for long enough for us to get a room booked for the evening. That secured, we made our way to the Bon Ton Cafe in downtown New Orleans for some dinner. Again, it was recommended by our Road Food book and marked as a deal with entrees under $10 (this is important for later). So we got there and parked downtown without much incident and made our way to the restaurant with me in shorts and a tshirt and Katherine in capris and a tank top. When we arrived at the restaurant, we noticed cloth napkins on the tables and a dark quiet atmosphere and a sign on the door that said "Proper dress required". Uh oh. So we went in anyways and were greeted by what we figured was the manager. Katherine asked, "So, what sort of dress is required?". "Oh, business casual", the manager answered, then stated, "I'd say you're casual, so come on in". The restaurant was fairly empty at this point, and the current patrons were mostly in khakis and button down shirt attire. We looked at the menu and found that while perhaps you could order an appetizer for under $10, there was no way that entrees were that inexpensive. I felt a bit uncomfortable in my blue tshirt with Texas logos and tried to scoot under the table to hide the fact that I was wearing shorts. I sat up extra straight and put on my best manners to try to pull off the "well cultured person who is too cool for dress codes" look. The staff was all very kind, though I did hear someone talk to the manager and heard something like him defending us saying "Well, the dress code is business casual and they are dressed casually", heh. Our waitress came and took our order, with Katherine ordering Red Fish Bon Ton and me ordering the Crawfish dinner. It was all excellent, and I got to try 4 new dishes in a night with my order. All dress-related awkwardness aside, I'd have to say it was the best restaurant-cooked meal of the trip. We finished dinner with their excellent bread pudding with whiskey sauce then conspicuously made our way out of the restaurant and to our car. With no ticket on the car, we were happy campers and made our way to the hotel for the night.

Destin, FL

We packed up the car from our four day Disney vacation and hit the road for Key West, the next trip destination. When we programmed the GPS, it said Key West was like 7.5 hours away! Earlier in the trip, we had done some calculating and thought it was like 4.5 hours. We did some quick math and determined that if we went to Key West, we'd only be able to go for one day, then we'd be driving 8-10 hour days to make sure we made it into Houston on time.

We nixed our original plan and immediately headed to Destin, our next trip stop. It took about 4-5 hours, but we made it in to Destin with 15 minutes to spare to check in to our campsite. We had the nicest park ranger ever there, and he hooked us up with a sweet spot right by a lake. We sure hoped this wouldn't turn out like our last lakefront campsite... a tent full of water and a night at a motel. Well, everything was just fine. We hit the road by 7:30 and were on the beach by 9.

Destin is a beautiful little beachside community. There are lots of neighborhoods and shops... really anything you could possibly be looking for. I was really scoping it out because my friend Stacey and her husband Trae are being stationed there in the spring. I think they lucked out and will have a ton of visitors, us included! We made our way to the beach with all of our beach garb. It was warm enough, so we put on our swimsuits. We staked our claim with beach towels on a 10 foot square of beach, and I immediately lay down to work on the pasty-factor. My poor body hasn't seen sun in 4 years - it practically glows! Well, I set out to get a lot of reading done, which was great, but I got a burn that was no fun. I'm still itching a week later!

Tim had a great time. He actually went all the way in the water and swam a bit. I was a pansy and only got in to my ankles. Hey, if it was 90 out, it would be a different story! He also flew his new kite a bit. He still hasn't watched the stunt instruction video, but he was improvising pretty well with some of his own tricks. We wrapped up the morning with some PBJ's and made our way to the next stop - New Orleans.

Day 4 - Epcot again

Well, we love Epcot, what can I say. On our last day it looked cloudy out, so Tim checked the weather, with it saying it would be clear with a high of 80. So I decided to brave the misty weather in shorts, knowing it would warm up soon. Well, it never did! I was pretty chilly all day. Oh well, we mustered through:).

Since we spent our first day at Epcot at the World Showcase, for the most part, this time we explored all of the rides and other exhibits. We did the GM Test Track where we sit in a car and experience all of the road tests a new car goes through before it is put on the market. OK, so I think it was dumbed down quite a bit from the real thing, but it was still fun and educational. The last test we went through was a crash test, where they slam the car into a wall. They shot us off and just as we were about to hit the wall, it opened, and we shot out onto a test track instead. We flew around this track at over 60 mph... without a roof! It was pretty exhilarating, and well worth the wait just for the speed. What can I say, I like fast cars:) We also picked out our new vehicle... you like?:)

We also went on a "Living with the Land" tour where we learned about different initiatives to harness energy, grow food, and live well with the earth. It was pretty neat -- not too hippy:). We got to tour through some of the Disney vegetable gardens too where they use a lot of cool techniques to grow food. It made me want to have a greenhouse. I'll have to get one of those after I get my courtyard:)

We also went to a center where they have Segway demonstrations. The times I have seen Segways, my impression has been, "man those things look dorky". After the demonstration, I feel the same way, but am much more impressed with the technology. These scooter type machines are ultra sensitive to your movement, and the slightest pressure on your toes triggers it to go forward, and conversely, the slightest pressure on your heals causes it to stop. These things can also literally turn on a dime. They really are a great way to get places, travelling at 4 times the speed a human walks (12 mph). All in all, a cool thing, but I still think walking is the better option for me.

The last ride of our day was Soarin'. We had been a couple of years ago, and I didn't think I was too impressed, so I had low expectations going in. The ride was a very pleasant surprise.. I'm not sure why I didn't like it the first time. You sit in these gliders that have about 10 seats each, then when the ride begins, you are raised over a huge IMAX screen, slightly tilted forward. That way, when they rush you over mountain tops and through canyons, you really do feel like you're soaring. They even pump orange scent into the room as you fly over an orange grove.. oh Disney:) I have decided this is a pretty cool ride. It was my least favorite line to wait in though... man was it long!

Day 3 - Animal Kingdom

Today we went to Animal Kingdom. This park was built in 1998, and we did not go on our last trip, so this was our first time. Walking into the park, it was not at all showy like the others. There was no huge globe or hat to make a statement, but instead, you walked in through a forested area. It really felt like you were walking on a rain forest path. The park was divided into several countries that each had different rides and exhibits.

I would say Animal Kingdom is a cross between an amusement park and a zoo. We walked through a zoo-type area that had tigers. They were lounging about as tigers do. We also saw a hippo, from the top in this picture. You can walk down below the hippo pond and see into the water from the side. It was amazing to see this gigantic animal bobbing around in the water. Also, we found out that hippos don't swim, they walk around on the bottom of the lake. They're such cute animals... but in reality, they are super territorial and aggressive. So no cuddling with hippos, ok?:)

There was another part of the park called Disney Animal Safari. I have never been on a safari in a wild animal park and was way psyched to do one. You wait in a line, like most Disney attractions, then board a large truck with about 10 rows of seats. There is a safari guide, and he is pointing out all of the animals along the way. From the start we saw some crazy animals I'd never seen before - an okapi. It looks like a cross between a zebra and giraffe. They are pretty cute. Then we saw giraffes, wildebeests, funky cows, funky deer, rhinos, lions, ostriches, warthogs... the works. There was a path we drove on, and the driver made every discovery of a new animal seem like the first time he'd ever seen them. It was funny.. One thing I wondered, but realized later, was that there were a ton of animals all in one place, and many of them eat each other. In order for this not to happen at Disney, they have cattle guards and chains between each section. These are things that aren't very obvious as you're driving, but all part of the master plan of Disney.. pretty clever.

From the Safari, we went on to Expedition Everest, a roller coaster that went through Mount Everest. The story behind the ride is that you're on a train up Mount Everest as an explorer, but you have not honored the yeti of the mountain. He is very angry and has ripped up the tracks, and you go on this death ride all through the mountain, mostly in the dark. Near the end of the ride, you come face to face with the yeti... in the dark. I'll have to admit, it's pretty scary. I wasn't feeling the best when I got off the ride. Not because of the scary factor, but because of the queasy factor. We went and ate some barbecue and I quickly felt better:).

We ended the day with the Jammin' Jungle Parade and hit the sack.