Texas...the never ending state

(I have internet! So I've put all of our pictures together and added more photos to older posts, go back and check it out!)

Ok, ok, so we did actually make it to Austin. On our way to Austin we stopped in Houston to have lunch with Jasmine's Aunt Teresa! She gave us a tour of her house and she showed us her train room. She has the whole room decorated as a train station. The bed comforter was painted as a train with a cow pusher on the front and there was a ticket counter she created in the room that had a painting on the wall that looked like a window looking out into the city. There was a cd player that played train sounds and the bed even shook along with the sound! Very artistic!

We ate dinner at the second original Carrabbas, started by the mother of the Carrabba's family! The food was excellent and we were all glad we went.




Then we were off to Austin! We dropped off our things, picked up Alex (Daniel and Stef's mom's cousin's son) and went to The Broken Spoke, a true Texas honky tonk dance hall. It was everything I could have every wanted, old cowboys with huge belt buckles and long thick mustaches and boots, huge juicy steaks and a live Texas country band.


Daniel and I watched a couple dance and eventually tried two stepping... it wasn't pretty, more like really slow sloppy meringue, but I think we pulled it off. Stef taped it on Daniel's phone...not sure how it will come out.






At the honky tonk







Alex took us on a turn of Austin, including the UT campus and stadium. This is for Evan.



Alex took us to the Whole Foods where all the hipsters shop, and they have charging stations for electric cars... my little red car doesn;t quite work on electricity




More Austin...


After that we went to Alex's house and talked and looked at his roommates pet rats, who were strangely cute for rats.


We went back to the hotel and passed out. We then dragged ourselves out of bed and ate the hotel breakfast...with TEXAS SHAPED WAFFLES!!!



While Stef and Daniel got ready I went walking down 6th st, which is dead during the day but still interesting to look at. Then we went to Alex's apartment to see his mother Ines.


Then we were on the road again.

Today was a strange drive, western Texas hill country. I drove for the first 4 hours, and it was a refreshing change from I-10. Out there around every turn and hill there was a new farm to look at, or jagged huge rock or creek. Stef sat in the front to keep we company and I kept making references to massacre movies that the area reminded me of, including The Hills Have Eyes and No Country For Old Men. Stef politely asked me to stop.Anyway, it's beautiful, but the type of place you wouldn't want to break down. After several long hours of driving we have finally made it to Amarillo, thank goodness, we were all getting sick of the car.

Daniel, doing our new favorite thing, laying in the hotel with a cold washcloth on our heads, recovering from long hours in the car.



Tomorrow we are off to Denver! Almost there!!!