Until "I Do": Weekend Road Trip...to Texas

At the beginning of the month, my dad asked us if we would be interested in road tripping with him to Texas for my Grandmama's 96th birthday. Josh and I have been dying to travel, and he was interested in seeing Texas so we readily agreed. We had 4 days to make a 2,000 mile roundtrip vacation worthwhile. While I would not recommend speed vacationing, we took it for what it was worth and had a really great time.

The drive was long (15 hours) but we decided to do there and back in one day apiece. That way, we had two full days in Texas rather than two half days. I am very glad we did it this way. For the amount of time we had, we actually accomplished a lot and saw a lot! Between the three of us, and my Mazda (which we lovingly call Car-Car or Zoom-Zoom) it was a piece of cake. Dang, do I love that car. We only filled up 3 times each way. And had the air conditioner pretty much running the whole time. Ah-mazing.

I don't know why, but the South has always held a kind of magic for me. I was born in Texas and lived there only as a toddler...so honestly, I am sure it is not some latent memory coming out. I just love it. Maybe it's in my blood? I don't know. There is just such a charm about anywhere in the South. I am dying to live there one day, and secretly (or ya know, not so secretly) I was campaigning for this the entire time we were there. I am competely enamored with it all. The trees. The smell. The Cicadas singing. Its just everything is sweet in the South: the people, the music, the tea. Love.

I will say, there are some parts of TX I hope to never see again. When it was my turn to drive, I was bookin' through West Texas....land of the flat and the ugly. And cows. Lots of cows. We were amazed at all the wind turbines out there! Josh realized that would be a lucrative business. We stopped for lunch on the way down in a little town of a two lane highway in west Texas, and already I could see Josh's eyebrows raising. The Dairy Queen we had stopped at was decked out: all the bench seat cushions were Texas flags, all the chairs had a lonestar carved into the back. There was a guy sitting next to us wearing spurs, people. We were in Texas alright. I love watching Josh's reactions to things he had never seen before. I remembered feeling the same awe at it all on my first trip there when I was about 15.

Slowly, we crept into East/Central Texas. It was late at night by this point and you could feel the (glorious!) humidity pressing down on the car. Josh immediately asked us if it was hard to breathe. Poor guy caught a cold somehow the day before we left, so he was pretty miserable for awhile there, sad! I <3 humidity. LOVE. love. love. For an allergy sufferer like me, I cannot even express how good that moisture in my lungs and sinuses feels. I.did.not.sneeze.once.while.we.were.there! From a girl who usually sneezes the majority of every day, that is a big.flipping.deal.

We hopped straight into bed on that first night in New Braunfels. When we woke, we stepped into the humidity in daylight. For Josh, with a cold...it worked wonders. Like a giant humidifier. We had the family dinner that evening so we couldn't go far, but we did drive to neighboring towns Gruene (pronounced Green...crazy southerners) and San Marcos. Texas State University is in San Marcos, and they have an awesome marine biology program there called Aquarena. We decided to do a tour and that included a ride around in a glass bottom boat! The water in this particular lake was pristinely clear since it was filtered through a limestone aquifer through natural springs. There was lots to see! Fish, salamanders, turtles, birds....very cool stuff.

(One of the glass bottom boats on the lake. I told Josh it felt like being in Huck Finn)

For lunch, we stopped and ate at Rudy's Bar-B-Que. OMG. yum. You eat at community picnic tables over red checkered table clothes. Your food is delivered to you in a flat that soda comes in. Piles of tender, juicy meat and a stack of Wonder Bread. God Bless Texas. We ordered beef brisket, smoked turkey (which was my favorite and the.flipping.bomb) and pulled pork. They accent this deliciousness with sliced dill pickles and their special sauce. I of course had to also have sweet tea and banana pudding. I don't think I have ever been so full.

I will say, my big fancy Canon...HATED the humidity. I did not get very many photos because everytime we stepped out of the car, my lens would fog inside and out and it took the majority of the time we were there to get it into working condition. poo. Spoiled mountain air camera.

Dinner with the family was lovely. Of all the places we could have eaten in Texas, my dear sweet Grandmama wanted Olive Garden! Haha. It was so nice to catch up with family I had not seen in years. Although the wedding guest list did grow exponentially from this trip. :) Josh was enamored with my southern fam. And that made me smile. lots.

The next day, we road tripped it out a couple miles to San Antonio. We kept joking that Josh was going back to reclaim it for "his people." That was awesome. We took a super hot hour long boat ride along the river walk. I remember that being a lot more awesome when I was younger. We kinda wished we were in downtown San An at night, because the river walk looked like a super fun place to drink margaritas and hang out. Oh well! We also drove to Seguin, TX to see "The World's Largest Pecan" hahaha! It was about 2 feet long. I died laughing when we saw it. I was expecting something epic. Guess not everything is bigger in Texas.

We did *really* enjoy a scoop of Blue Bell ice cream. It melted super fast in the humidity, but the sticky sweet mess running down my fingers made me feel like a kid again. And seriously? If you've never experienced Texas' Blue Bell ice cream...you need to. Now.

(Beautiful building in San Antonio. Complete with flag-age)

(Josh...remembering the Alamo)

On our ~~mission to become the fattest people ever~~ adventure, we also decided Josh needed to experience down home cookin the right way. We took him to Clear Springs Cafe. Which is a glorified tin shed in the middle of New Braunfels. Again with the checkered table clothes and TX flags aplenty. They had a live bluegrass band playing and we soon found out they are world famous for their...onion rings...! We ordered some and they were delicious. Especially with ketchup as my dad taught me. We watched lizards crawl on the windows and got greasy up to our elbows eating fried catfish, hush puppies and green beans cooked in bacon. *heaven* Josh is still talking about it. And I am the foody in this relationship.

I think we successfully ate our way through Texas and by the time we got home we were all tired, tanned and ten pounds (it seemed) heavier. We even made Josh experience the joy (gag) that is a peanut patty. You know, those pinkish red hockey pucks dotted with peanuts? Yep. All Josh wanted at the end of the trip was to go back...this time with a fishing pole. :)

Our trip in photos: