Anthony J. Garot

Summary
Texas w/ Mark & Dick 2006

Mark and Dick came to visit me in Texas.

The trip started off with a few minor issues. My brother called me from Chicago where he said their first plane was late, so they missed their connecting flight. Mark and Dick were able to switch to a United flight scheduled 90 minutes later. I was to pick them up in San Antonio which is about a 75 minute drive from my place in Austin. As I watched online, their new flight was also delayed. I timed my arrival pretty close, i.e. about six miles from the airport, I received a call that the plane had landed and was on the runway. I parked the car then went to the baggage carousel to greet them. The next minor issue was that their luggage wasn't there. Great. Just great.

The three of us were planning to see some of San Antonio anyway, so we commenced our investigation while calling back from time to time to discern the status of the luggage. First we saw the Alamo, which is a famous battle ground. After this, we investigated the San Antonio River Walk which is a small river with shops and restaurants on either side. It just so happened that the water was drained for maintenance and cleaning. Although sparsely populated with people, it was still interesting to see. We stayed in San Antonio that night, and eventually their luggage arrived.

The next day we headed south to Corpus Christie. There we toured the Texas State Aquarium and the USS Lexington. I had seen these before and knew that they would be interesting diversions for my companions. We stayed in Kingsville that night at a La Quinta.

Third day we headed further south to South Padre Island which was the original intent and destination of my brother's visit. South Padre Island is a resort town with fabulous beaches along the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, the wind was 30 to 35 m.p.h., so we took our token photographs, collected a few shells, then headed out. There wasn't much else around that area that caught our interest, so after a nice lunch in Brownsville, we headed back to San Antonio—a six hour drive. That night, the River Walk was filled with water, so we sampled the area the way it was intended.

The next morning, I found that my cell phone had died. We went to two Sprint stores, but neither had a technician or a battery of that type to troubleshoot the problem, so I decided to just buy a new phone. Afterward, we drove the 75 minutes to Austin to sample the downtown area. After walking around for a few hours, we had a few drinks, then headed to Ruth's Chris restaurant for a meal that couldn't be beat. Each of the three of us dropped a C-note. What a meal!

Next morning, I drove Mark and Dick to the San Antonio airport, dropped them off, and headed back to Austin.

Now that the trip is done, I am trying to get my pictures and thoughts of the trip organized for my website, but I have been busy with work, meeting a friend just back from out of country, and hauling concrete into Blowing Sink cave.

See some images of the trip.