We finally rolled into our new RV park around 10 that evening. Although it was already dark, we all pitched in and were completely set up by 10:45. This park is a wonderful little place with lots of trees. It's also gated, which is great since we can let the kids ride their bikes and scooters without worrying about them. Best of all, it's only about eight minutes south of downtown Austin, which was convenient for me since I had business meetings to attend. After getting settled in, I can't tell you how happy I was to crawl into bed after that long day.
Monday morning I had to be at my client's office at 8:30 and was scheduled to be there until 5:30. That's important info because when we're on the road, we only have one vehicle. Fortunately, the park has a pool and nice play area, so the kids were just fine. Unfortunately, we hadn't had time to buy groceries Sunday evening, so Molly had to scrounge our very tiny pantry to keep the kid's hunger quelled until I got back home. Since groceries were at the top of the to-do list, we immediately went to the grocery store and stocked up, then came back to the trailer so Molly could fix dinner, which we ate outside because the weather was perfect. The next morning, I had to be at my client's office early again, and was there until 4pm. Even though the park is nice (and there was now plenty of food), by this time, just the thought of not being able to go anywhere was stressing Molly out, so we decided to get out for the evening. Over the past few years, I've come to love Moonshine, a great little restaurant at the corner of 3rd and Red River, so we went there for dinner. (Get the Green Chile Macaroni if you ever get to go!) Afterwards we drove around and showed the kids the capitol, then ended up at the Congress Avenue Bridge to watch the Mexico free-tailed bats come out for the night. It was almost impossible to get a picture of them, but it was definitely fascinating.
On the way home, we just happened to pass by a Krispy Kreme that just happened to have the light on, so of course I had to stop! The picture below only shows four in the box because two never made it past the checkout line...
Wednesday I wrapped up the last of our meetings at noon. However, a couple of months ago I had committed to helping our praise team for the Wednesday night service at Texas District Campmeeting, so as soon as I left the office, I was headed straight to Lufkin for our 5PM soundcheck, and barely made it with 5 minutes to spare. Unfortunately, this left Molly without a vehicle for yet another full day, but I think she managed to keep her sanity. After a fantastic service, I grabbed a quad-shot Americano from Starbucks to stay awake, a quick dinner to go at Whataburger, filled up at the gas station, then I headed back to Austin. Four hours later, around 2:45am, I finally made it home. Needless to say, I slept in this morning.
After spending a couple of hours here, we were off to catch the Alamo before it closed. Fighting San Antonio rush hour traffic felt like my own personal Alamo for a while there (and just in case you don't know me, I absolutely mean no disrespect to those who actually fought). We finally made it and ended up having to squeeze our giant truck into a very small parking garage. I have to tell you, I was a little nervous there for a bit. Not only was it narrow, but the ceiling almost touched my running lights on the roof. After squinching my way through five levels, we finally found a spot and raced down to the Alamo, thirty minutes before it closed. Being able to walk our kids through this historic site, something I'm proud of as a Texan, made me realize just how awesome this journey is going to be for our kids. They won't only be able to see historic Texas landmarks, but they'll be able to experience places similar to this all across America. In a time where freedoms are in question and history seems set on repeating itself, I'm glad I'll be able to share memorials like this with my kids, places I can point to and tell them of men who sacrificed for a cause they believed in, who gave their lives so that we could live ours freely.    |
Since we had such a hard time finding a parking spot, we went ahead and walked down to the Riverwalk to grab some dinner. On the way to San Antonio, Grey had seen a Buc-ee's, so of course we had to stop on the way back. I've seen big Buc-ee's before, but this one was massive. It had sixty gas pumps and the same square footage as some small supermarkets. With that last pit stop, we finally made our way back to the house. As I laid down this evening, my fatherly frugality reared it's head, thinking about how much money I had spent on our excursion today with the attractions, souvenirs, lunch and dinner, gas, and snacks. But then I looked over all the pictures we had taken and remembered a quote I read recently: "Memories are priceless so you should buy them." Today was a good investment.
~Jonathan
No comments:
Post a Comment