Posts Tagged ‘ travel ’

On our 3rd day of Christmas, we

• woke up early enough to get on the road before most traffic
• left Paris at 9:30 and and made it to Austin by 2pm
• settled in and had our own Christmas exchange and then relaxed for the rest of the evening

On our second day of Christmas, we:

• sleep in just a little (until about 9am),
  and then
• Mom finished a few meal and gift preparations
  while
• Emil ran all the virus and software updates on her computer and got the printer working, again,
  before we headed “over the river and through the woods” (not really) for a
• noon meal for the five of us (Lori & Emil, Lori’s mom, and her parents) at the grandparents’ home, at the dining table, with the fancy dishes,
  and then we shared
• gifts with the grands,
  and then went
• back to Lori’s mom’s for our nuclear gift exchange, playing with Roxi,
  and a bit of recovering from a busy day

Our first day of Christmas (and our first major holiday since the move to Austin ) was jam packed.

9am – leave Austin for Bryan
11am – 2nd group to arrive on scene at Luza Christmas
12noon – giant family lunch, 65 in attendance, paper plates and a seat on the deck
1pm – visit with family, watch Mom and the kids open gifts
4pm – after the mass exodus of her home, we visited with Mom and the remaining family
5pm – leave Bryan for Paris
10pm – arrive in Paris

What a day!

Thanksgiving would have been our first try at this travel pattern, but Lori came down with a cold bug. She too sick to travel, but more importantly, we didn’t want to infect anyone else.

When Sosta first adopted me, we did a bit of traveling to see friends. We went to Tampa and Miami. Luckily for me, she was in the car often enough to be comfortable with our short trips. It was nice to have a car-friendly cat. While she wasn’t as happy as a dog with its head out the window, she did tolerate the trips quite well.

In early 1997, I got a job offer from Texas A&M (from what turned out to be the worst boss I’ve ever had ). I had about a week to pack up my apartment in Orlando and move half way across the country. I rented a U-haul and the little car dolly thing for the back. Daddy made plans to fly to Orlando and make the drive with me. In the mean time, he and Mom had been to College Station and picked out an apartment for me.

I picked Daddy up from the airport on a Friday night. I think I spent the entire ride telling him about Sosta. We were a dog family, and Daddy had never liked cats. I wanted so badly for him to not hate her.

At the apartment, I was excited by how much packing I had done; Daddy was disappointed at how much there was left to do. But that was secondary to Daddy meeting Sosta.

Since my parents never understood why I had a futon instead of a bed, and since on their only other visit to Orlando, they bought me a bed, I made the bed for Daddy and made the futon for me. I didn’t think Sosta would have trouble with it since she was used to sleeping on either/both. She and I had a nightly routine. We watched tv and snuggled on the futon…and then went to sleep in the bed.

Well, she took straight to Daddy. He’d traveled for hours to get to Orlando. I’d been packing for days. We were exhausted. From the minute we got to the apartment, we were getting ready to go to sleep. Even without our tv routine, she hopped up on the bed and waited for him to join her. She spent the first night they met curled up on his feet. For her, it was love at first sight. For him, it was meeting the coolest cat any of us had ever known.

From that day, he was her man. She met other men in her life but no one else was worthy of so much affection from her…until she met Emil, of course.

The next day, Daddy and I did got up super early and some lightening-fast packing and loading. Once it was all done, we gave Sosta her drugs and made a spot for her in the moving truck. She was a very funny “drunk” kitty. We got her settled in and pulled away from the complex just before noon.

While taking a break somewhere in the middle of our trip, I lost Sosta. I looked all through the cab of the truck and couldn’t find her anywhere. I was just “this side” of panicked when Daddy found her crouched behind my seat. She just about gave me a heart attack.

In College Station, I felt it important that she have a little more space to move around and wouldn’t let Mom put her in the bathroom (she’d been in such a tiny space for 2 whole days). Well, in the course of moving furniture and boxes into the apartment, she sneaked out. We looked everywhere for her. We put food out on the patio, went to dinner and came back, and looked again unsuccessfully. I cried myself to sleep that night and dreamed of her return. Waking up to the reality that she was still gone was harsh. After breakfast, I was standing at the patio door looking out and feeling very alone in my new town when I saw her wander up. I cried all over again, but this time tears of joy. Her little night out in her new town almost broke my heart. She did what always did whenever I was upset and licked the tears off my face.

For the next several months, Sosta and I would make a trip to Paris every 4-5 weeks. She’d ride in the car like she had in Florida and even learned to tell time. She always knew when we were getting close to home. She’d start stirring and getting antsy about 20 minutes from home.

Over the years, and especially as Mom/Daddy’s dog Randi Cae gold older, Sosta didn’t travel to Paris quite as often. Her last big car trip was the move to Austin.

In her last few months, she knew that when the carrier came out, she was going to the vet. She was always a very good patient and completely trusted everyone who ever examined her.

.

.

David “Poppy” Capehart truly ruined so much for so many. He’s one of the most evil and cruel people I’ve ever known. Sosta is a big reason I survived the year of working for/with him and didn’t abandon Aggieland altogether.

Later, when I was still using the futon for a couch, they bought me a sleeper sofa. I kept both it and the futon in my living room for a very long time. I finally got rid of it in 1998 after using it for 5+ years. This year, Emil and I bought a futon when we moved into our apartment in Austin. I had forgotten how much I like them. They make great couches since they aren’t too squishy. It’s great for my late-night tv watching.

Now that we neither one work for a university, our holiday cycles have shifted. For example, Emil had to work late for this year’s election day (He works for the County Clerk), but Veterans’ Day was a county holiday. So, he planned a wonderful little mid-November mini-vacay for us…to Fredericksburg.

Wednesday morning, we slept in, loaded the car, took a scenic drive, and were in town by 2pm. We found the headquarters for the B&B and checked in. Our cabin was ~15 minutes out of town on 21 acres. It was peaceful bliss.

The outdoor shower is amazing, even in November.

As soon as we had the car unloaded, we sat in the rockers on the front porch and watched the birds and butterflies. The weather was just perfect—~70 degrees and a gorgeous day—so there was much to see.

We made a few little and tentative plans for the evening. We hadn’t had a vacation in a long time and have rarely had one that didn’t have an agenda of events to attend and sights to see. It was nice to have four days with nothing particular to do. We’ve been to Fredericksburg several times. We’ve seen the shops and toured the wineries. This time, we were here without much new to see.

We headed into town for dinner at the Rathskeller. Lori had a glass of Columbia Crest Shiraz and the avocado crab dip, which turned out to be our server’s favorite menu item. Emil had the Weiner Schnitzel with buttered noodles (shocker, huh?). Our meal was fabulous! There were six desserts on the menu that all sounded wonderful as well. So, when we are craving sweets, that will be one of the first places we think of.

We returned to our cabin to take advantage of the amenities. The dew had already begun to settle, so without dry wood, we had to postpone a fire, but the sky was 100% clear and the stars were the brightest we’d seen in a very long time. We stargazed on the front porch and had a little mini-scrabble tournament with our own flex on the rules and no scoring. We determined the winner by who went out first. Lori won both matches. Once we crawled into bed, we were both goners. The bed had one of those Tempurdepic mattress toppers. The only way to describe this bed is to say that it “eats” you. At 5am Lori awoke to the cold (it was probably ~40 degrees outside and we slept with the windows open), so we watched dawn creep up and watched the sunrise all while still bundled under the covers.

We went for an early breakfast at Taqueria Altos de Jalisco’s. It was fabulous. Then, we drove to the Old Tunnel where we saw our first bat emergence a few years ago. The sign said they had emerged the night before, but only took ~10 minutes to leave the tunnel; the season had, technically, passed. We decided it probably wasn’t worth a visit at night. We walked down to the tunnel viewing area, saw the few bats that haven’t migrated, yet, and then took a scenic drive back to our cabin with a little stop at the visitor’s center for more information about the Nimitz museum (and the new part that is supposed to open in December) and other area attractions.

We spent the afternoon riding our bikes around the property, viewing the other cabin still under construction, and seeing the new bridge that the neighbor is building to cross a creek. We also spent another chunk of time watching the birds and butterflies. Again, it was great to have nothing to do!

bike trail

Thursday evening, we went into town for dinner and some German beer and then came back to the cabin. Emil was victorious in 3-out-of-4 games: Scrabble (with scores this time), Ticket to Ride, and the first of two rounds of dominos.

Friday the 13th started off true to fame. We were going to have breakfast at Andy’s, but it wasn’t in the cards. The place was crowded with only two servers. Of course, as luck would have it on this day, we got the much slower, weaker, forgetful server. She wanted us to want coffee and juice and was befuddled that we did not. Then, she was ready to take our order before we had read the menu. We asked for just one minute, but she never returned. We watched her take the order of several other tables, skipping us every time. We looked around, held our menus over to the side, and made eye contact with the other server. It felt like she couldn’t serve us because we didn’t fit the mold of coffee-drinking breakfast diners—-and we weren’t even the youngest people in the place! Emil’s comment was, “Clearly, she’s never played Diner Dash!” So, we headed back to Taqueria Altos de Jalisco’s where we knew we’d get good food and good service.

And then came the massages from Above and Beyond Day Spa. Emil signed us up for massages (a first for both of us) at our cabin. Mmmmmm.

The massage therapists had gotten lost on the way to our cabin and said there were some buffalo about three miles north of us. So, after the “massage-hangover” subsided a bit, we hoped in the car to go see them. They weren’t near the fence along the road, though, and we never found them. Instead we made the loop around to Enchanted Rock. Emil hadn’t been since he was a kid and Lori had never seen it. Eventhough we weren’t dressed for it, we made the short-but-not-easy hike to the summit. From the parking lot it was a 465’ climb over .6 miles. The top is at 1800’ and offers some fantastic views of the Hill Country.

The way back from Enchanted Rock led us back into town too early for supper, so we headed out to Luckenbach. It felt a little like a petting zoo this time. A guy with a longhorn and saddle was loading up his prop photo business as we arrived. One of the resident cats, Miss Kitty, let us love on her for at least a minute or two. And, the chickens and roosters were very active and quite entertaining to watch. It was nearing sunset, and they were getting ready to roost. It was funny to watch them go from the ground to a table to a roof to the limbs of the tree. Some of them even preferred to be way up in the tree and not just on the first branch they could reach.

When it started to get chilly, we headed back to town for supper. Dinner at Kelly’s Café was amazing.

After such an active afternoon, we were both ready to go back to our cabin for more of the R&R part of our trip. We each won one game of Ticket to Ride and then Lori beat Emil in two dominos matches.

We sank into bed early and then slept in on Saturday morning. We got up just in time to pack up, check out, have a leisurely breakfast, and get on the road to Austin for a big game day: a Miami watch party at the Daily Grill and the Settlers of Catan board game group at Dragon’s Lair.

This is a funny little example of the way our world works.

As we were leaving the house for Easter…
Emil: Turtleor is upset that we’re leaving. She thinks we are going to bring her a baby brother or sister.

As we were driving into Dime Box…
Lori: I hope we don’t find another turtle. Two might be a lot more work, but I won’t be able to leave it there.

As Emil was reaching into the water cutoff to make sure the water was turned on…
Emil: “Baby, you aren’t going to believe this.” Then he hands me the tiniest Red Eared Slider I’ve ever seen. She had been stuck in the valve area for a while, was emaciated, and was so dehydrated she could not open her eyes.

As we battled getting the water turned on at Dime Box, I checked on her from time to time. I also texted a picture of her to Twitxr, which showed up on facebook. Name suggestions included Dribble and Speed Bump. Emil suggested Valvet since we found her in the valve. I suggested Turtleand and Turtlebut to go with Turtleor….but ultimately Valvet is the most telling/descriptive name for our new addition.

Turtleor has made it abundantly clear that she is the alpha with the fluttering of her front feet. At the same time, she seems to “cuddle” Valvet under her belly in a protective way. Valvet hasn’t eaten, yet, but it took Turtleor ~3 days to eat when we brought her home, so I’m not too concerned about that, yet.

Pictures to follow, of course.