And then there were 4!

On April 18, we were camped in Houston, which is, by-the-way, the most sprawled out city I have ever seen!  The 2 days we were there, it was beautiful: (the weather, not the city): clear skies, warm temp, slight breeze, no humidity.  It is probably the only 2 days in the year it is that nice.

We had a yummy, Tim-cooked meal that night.  Mar made the salads.

Tim grilled Caribbean Jerk chicken, potatoes, and zucchini.

Yummy food eaten outside by our RV.

Then by a unanimous vote, Abe was elected to do the dishes.  He put up a little bit of a fuss, but did them anyway.  It was awesome:  We had used real plates and salad bowls for each one of us so there were lots of them to wash! :)

Marci reading in bed the night before she flew home.

We dropped Marci off at the Houston airport.  Sorry she had to go back home, but glad we had her for a week, and look forward to her re-joining us later in CA.

Then we headed back across the gi-normous city of Houston to the NW part to go see Tim's aunt.  She is Phyllis' sister - almost 80 years old, and Tim hadn't seen her in about 30 years.  I had never met her.  She fixed us lunch and we had a couple of hours together.

I asked Conni later if she thought Aunt Marilyn looked like Grandmommy.  She replied, "No, but her house looks like Grandmommy's.  All the pretty breakables, the doilies, the dishes."  It was a blessing to meet Marilyn - I look forward to seeing her again, some day.

From Houston, we headed to San Antonio.  We found a nice RV park 3 miles from downtown.  As soon as we got set up, we took a bus into the middle of town and got dropped off at the Riverwalk. Tim and I have been here before, and we loved it.  Now the kids know what the Riverwalk is!  Here they are overlooking it.

We took a vote on what to eat for dinner - it was either BBQ (County Line) or Mexican.  Mexican won out...probably because Abe was the loudest.  We ate at the Original Mexican Restaurant.  Yummy!  Tim's enchilada was the best.  Of course, there was live entertainment.  (And I'm not talking about Conni feeding the ducks under our table, or dumping an entire cup of water in Abe's lap.)  Three guys came up to our table and asked if we would like them to sing us a song.  They suggested a couple.  One of them was La Cucaracha.  I said, "Oh yeah!  I know that one.  Please do!"  They strummed a couple of chords warming up then told me they would charge me $10 to sing it!  I floundered around trying to take back my request.  $10 to sing me a song?  In a language I can only understand about 12 words?  Not so much.  I smiled very sweetly at them, said no in two different languages, then turned to talk to Abe.  I believe they got the point, but I felt a little stupid.

As we were leaving the restaurant, the musicians were at another table.  They played while this guy stood up and sang to his wife.  They were celebrating 52 years together.  It was really neat and he could really sing.  Of course, we couldn't understand a word, but we still enjoyed his voice and the way he looked at his wife.

We needed to catch the 9:30 bus back to the campground, so after dinner, we headed up to find our pick-up spot.  We stopped and asked a policeman.  He sent us to a stop about 4 blocks away and we only had a few minutes to make it.  So here we are: Full bellies, all in flip-flops, me with a camera hanging off my shoulder, Tim trying to look at a map, and all of us running.  Obvious tourists?  I bet so.  As we arrived at the bus stop, it went flying by with a cloud of obnoxious diesel exhaust.  Bummer.  We missed it.  Tim called the number on the bus stop sign to find out how long before the next bus came by.  Only a 20 minute wait.  While he was on the phone, a drunken pedestrian came up to Abe, Conni and me.  He wanted to know why we were in San Antonio. We ignored him.  He then told us NOT to ask him what he was doing in San Antonio.  I told him we wouldn't.  He kept walking up closer and closer to us.  Then Tim, who was still on the phone, stepped in between us and asked him to leave us alone and go away.  He hung his head, grumbled, and walked away.  I admit, I was a bit disappointed.  It could've been interesting!  It's not every day in Charlottesville that I run into that type of thing.  :)
So there we are at the bus stop.  Tim and I can happily sit there and visit (and people watch) for 20 minutes.  Pretty soon, Abe and Conni start finding things to do.

The next time you are hung out at a bus stop, you might try this to help pass the time. :)

We made it back to the RV just fine.  Today, which is my birthday, we've just hung around here.  I did laundry, Conni rollerbladed several miles around the campground.  Tim has run to the store to get a few groceries...grilling burgers for dinner tonight!
Then for a special birthday surprise, (for Abe, not me.)Tim is taking Abe to the Spurs/Lakers game tonight.  Yeah, I know.  Seems a little backwards, but this opportunity doesn't come along very often. We can always celebrate my bday tomorrow or some other sunny day.

We plan on being here through Saturday night.  Tomorrow we'll be hitting the Riverwalk (and some good BBQ), the Alalmo, and Imax.
Love my family, love my RV, love my life! :)
Until next time!