Texas or BUST!

“You Can All Go To Hell, I Will Go To Texas.”

-Davy Crockett

One of my goals in life is to visit all of the States. It’s a common enough goal and I think all in all, I’m doing a pretty good job of it. This past weekend, Texas became #35. I was flying into San Antonio to meet up with Tiffany, one of my travel buddies. We have been taking trips with each other for over ten years; it all started back in the University of Wales Swansea days. But before we met up in the San Antonio International Airport, I had to catch my flight.

Day 1

Remember that scene from Home Alone when the family is running through the airport, trying to make their flight? I’m usually the one that pipes in and says ‘they’d never let them on the flight nowadays’. Well it wasn’t as cinematic, but that was me early Thursday morning. I awoke (at an ungodly hour) to a light dusting of snow, which in Maryland means ‘let’s freak out about it and drive like infants’. Two hours, and a mild panic attack, later Nicole, my best friend and other travel buddy, dropped me off at the airport. It was about 8:40am as I rushed into the building; my flight was at 9:20am. YEAH. I rushed into the security line, doing the limbo under the barriers. I’m sure I looked suspicious- all twitchy and ready to karate chop anyone who took too long filling their little buckets. Fresh out of the body scan, I didn’t waste time putting my shoes on. That was a bad move. In an effort to share important travel tips, here is what I have learned: bare feet on the escalator = no problem; bare feet on a moving sidewalk = painful! My gate wasn’t too far off so I paused to slip on my shoes and as I was, the PA announced that the San Antonio flight was fully boarded and just waiting for two people. I sped walked, trust me…it was kinder than running to the innocent bystanders in the terminal, to the gate. “I’m here!”

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

Sigh…I thought it was beyond a lost cause but I made the flight. Of course, now came the fun part of finding a seat. I have nothing against open seating on flights, it just isn’t fun when you are the last person on the flight. Add to that that you take up your fair share of space and you KNOW everyone is looking at you like ‘oh crap, she better not sit next to me.’ Nothing like a slap to the self-esteem first thing in the morning! But I got a window seat and hunkered down for the flight. Since I didn’t have time to grab food in my dash to the gate, I needed sustenance.  Well Ritz crackers were all they were offering but I did discover another VERY helpful travel tip. If you fly a certain airline, named after two compass directions, on a holiday you get a free drink…AKA free booze. Valentine’s Day finally does something for me! Now, maybe you are thinking ‘it’s before 10am…that’s a bit early’ or ‘you just said, you haven’t eaten yet today’ but to that, I say “whatever.” It’s free! And I’ve got nothing else to do for the next four hours. AND I wasn’t the only one partaking so that totally makes it okay. After all, it’s Always Happy Hour at 39,000ft (trademarked!).

Flying over the Appalachian Mts. (I think)

The rest of the day was uneventful. I landed in San Anton and waited for Tiffany to arrive. We picked up our rental car, which was the Chevy equivalent to a windup toy, and headed to the hotel. It didn’t take long to discover that driving in Texas was…unique. Not only do they seem to frown on proper signage but they also like to make things way more difficult than necessary.  Instead of two way access roads off of highways, they prefer one way access roads and then make you go out of your way to U turn. On the up side, even some of the secondary roads are 70 MPH. Of course, that sounds less fun when you factor in the insanity that is Texas driving.  They seem to have no problem proving the Wild West-stereotype correct. Cars veered into other lanes with no concept of signals or checking; there was passing on hilly dirt shoulders; medians were turned into express exit ramps. It was so bizarre you almost couldn’t get angry; it was like being in a game of Mario Car Racing with a five year old.

Somehow we survived and checked into our La Quinta room. I will have plenty more to say about the hotel later on, but I’ll just say now that when the front desk person asks if you want a quiet room and you say ‘yeah that sounds good,’ you kind of expect a little quiet. Instead, they gave us the room right across from the elevator. Thankfully, I sleep through most things but why ask if you end up doing to exact opposite of what you said? Maybe that’s how they roll in Texas.

Evening fell and it was time to go get some Tex Mex. Tiffany would definitely fall into the ‘foodie’ category so she always comes prepared with a list of places to try out. And she’s got standards too; if it’s not above an 80% on Urban Spoon it’s a no go. Our first dinner was at Papa Nachos. The food was pretty good, the standard Tex Mex, and all in all it was a good start to the trip. The highlight of the night was dessert at Brindles Ice Cream. We both couldn’t turn down the Red Velvet ice cream and it was delicious. Though we hadn’t had much of a chance to see Texas yet, the trip was off to a good start.

Tomorrow we would head off and see all that San Antonio had to offer.