Archive for December, 2009
Posted on December 16, 2009 by angela
My oldest nephew, Andrew is now in his first year at the University of Texas, our old alma mater. So, we picked him up at his dorm to take him to lunch. Nothing like your aunt hopping out of a VW bus to hug and embarrass you when you’re away at school. But that wasn’t the worst. Apparently, there is a short in the warning lights, so after a few minutes of them flashing while we waited for Andrew to come down, it killed the battery. So to top off his aunt hugging him (and later losing my cell phone, which ended up being in my pocket), his uncle was under the back of the van in the dorm parking lot. We have 2 batteries, so Jason was able to jump the battery with our spare.
Our lunch improved things with a celebrity sighting. Well, Texas celebrities. Texas football legends Darrell Royal and Marty Akins sat behind us. I’m not sure if Andrew was impressed or not, but we made him get in the photo anyway. I mean come on, how often does Coach Royal get to pose for a photo with Red Beard?
And so, life is good in Austin and we’ll be staying a few more days.
Posted on December 11, 2009 by angela
We stopped for lunch in Giddings, about half-way between Spring and Austin and Jason checked the engine. The van had been running great since we visited Mark in Virgina, but seemed to be having a bit of trouble since we got to Texas.
There wasn’t anything noticeably wrong, so he decided to get to Austin where he’d tune it up. Just as he’s about to pull back onto the highway, his foot went all the way to the floor. The accelerator cable had broken. Lucky for us, he carries a spare. It was raining and muddy, but at least we were in a parking lot instead of the side of the road. Within a half an hour we were back on our way… and Bode got to experience the wonder of Whataburger.
Barely 15 minutes into Austin, our old hometown, a guy in a pickup truck passes us and yells expletives with ‘Go back to California!’ Ah, good times.
Jason and I each lived in Austin for 10 years before we moved to California. We have lots of friends and family here, so we always have fun when we visit.
It was still raining, so we made a quick trip around our old neighborhood before heading over to pick up our friend Mear and go see the Judd family. Hootie entertained Bode, and we got to catch up with some great friends.
Posted on December 10, 2009 by jason
On a few occasions over the past few months Bode has mentioned that he missed our old dog, Karma. She was a great pup over the past 13 years and Bode got to enjoy her final four years with us. Older dogs have a special quality that blends well with kids. They are patient. Grateful. Content.
An older dog is well-matched with a four-year old boy.
He’s seen and petted many dogs (every one of them) recently and Angela’s parents have a dog, Buster, who is graying in all the usual places and will wait patiently for a pet or scratch. So, it eventually came… “Dad, I miss Karma. I wish she didn’t die.”
Ouch.
“I miss her too.”
Observing the process of death being understood by a four year old kid is enlightening. We’ve been pretty straightforward with him about every subject, and death is no different.
It’s part of Life. It’s The End. Kafka said it’s the meaning of Life.
He’s processed it all and seems to have a surprisingly mature and realistic grasp of everything. He’s often more fearless in talking about death and his own mortality than any adult I know.
Not being a “kid guy” until I had my own, I find it astounding.
Within seconds he’s thinking about getting a snack and we are playing Batman and racing Matchbox cars. A day in the life.
Posted on December 9, 2009 by jason
Bode just got a great new toy – a 1970 VW bus. Pretty accurate, except for the lack of back-up lights. We raced with some other cars, but he insisted that this one went really slow and there was no way it could win a race. I tried to convince him that this particular bus had a bigger engine in it and could go really fast, but he wasn’t buying it.
We’ve met lots of folks that collect VW toys and are curators of astonishing collections – all in the original boxes an safely stored away. A few folks have said that they stopped collecting, but people just keep giving them VW toys. We can relate. Of all the generous gifts people have given Bode over the past few months, about 90% have been VW’s. We appreciate the gifts greatly, of course, but we also don’t want to force the kid into VW nerdville at age 4.
Naturally, we remove the packaging and drive them in the dirt. Like the real thing, they’re the most fun when played with.
Posted on December 8, 2009 by jason
We got an early start out of New Orleans, expecting a long day of driving. Only 6 or so hours to Houston on the interstate. Big fun. We generally add a few hours to whatever the normal estimate so we figured we could do it in 8 hours – a good day’s work. I checked the valves in the parking lot just before pulling out at 7 am and the bus was running great.
It was the day before Thanksgiving – the busiest travel day in the U.S. – so on to the interstate. I’m not sure how the long-distance truckers can do this every day – it’s tiring monotony. At least we’ve got the added benefit of Bode providing entertainment, so one of us can sit in the back and work on art projects (we made elaborate airplanes and snowflakes today) and play games.
After 5 hours or so, we were able to cut down off the interstate and take the route through Port Arthur, TX to Winnie and then down to the coast and the Bolivar peninsula. If you recall, Hurricane Ike leveled this peninsula a year ago and the town of Gilchrest has pretty much been removed from the map. You occasionally see a new home poking up on the horizon – maybe one half-destroyed home yet to be demolished – but otherwise it’s barren with only minor evidence that something used to be there. Despite the previous destruction in the back of our minds, it’s strangely pretty – a wide open sandy coastline recovered by Mother Nature. I hesitate to say the hurricane made some improvements.
At the end of the peninsula is a free ferry with service to Galveston – almost there! Signs remind the passengers to not abuse the employees and the pre-departure ferry P.A. reminds everyone to feed the seagulls at the back the boat. We obliged.
Posted on December 7, 2009 by angela
Last week we were lucky enough to spend a couple days in The Big Easy. While there are abundant tour companies happy to take your money for a ‘Katrina Tour’ or ‘Swamp Tour,’ we were happy just to walk around town and see the sights. And we did a lot of walking… and eating.
The food in this city is pretty amazing. Menu items often include frog legs, alligator, and ingredients like ‘debris.’ We ate well, but no fried gator.
The Big Easy is one of the only towns we know of where it’s perfectly normal to see someone walking down the street carrying a tuba.
Day Two began with a trolley ride around town and a visit to the aquarium. It’s expensive but it was one of the better fish houses I’ve seen. We got to pet a nurse shark and a sting ray. Unfortunately, the rays weren’t coming to the surface much (where Bode’s little arms could reach.) Then a school group came to the tank and the workers were a little quick to rush us along.
Lunch was a po’boy at the recommended Mother’s Restaurant. They claim to have the world’s best baked ham. I’m not a ham lover, but it was great.
Despite Bode’s food allergies, he got to sample the beignets from Cafe du Monde. I just couldn’t say no. They are covered in powdered sugar and after they put your order into a bag, they dump another cup of sugar on them in the bag. You can’t eat them without being completely covered.
Of course, there are street performers on every corner. Bode helped earn tips for one particular puppeteer. He had quite a crowd gathered.
I can’t decide if New Orleans is more beautiful in the daylight or at night.
Both Jason and I have been to New Orleans a few times. We both went as children, and walking down Bourbon Street at night with a child brought back Jason’s memory of doing the same with his parents. He was 8 and really excited because he saw boobs. He didn’t see any this night.
A few months after we started dating, we drove with a van full of friends to Mardi Gras. We stayed with someone’s brother and slept on the floor of an efficiency apartment with 12 others. That was a good time, but nothing like this trip. Traveling with a kid puts a whole new perspective on everything, and I love it.
With the early sunset, evening walks were pretty exciting with Bode. The old buildings and voodoo shops gave a fun and eerie feel. Live music blared from the bars and street corners. Bode loved New Orleans; and this was my favorite trip there yet.
Posted on December 4, 2009 by jason
We drove over to Pensacola and wandered around aimlessly for a bit and then unsuccessful tried to go to an oyster festival. It was still going on, but the bad weather meant that there were only about 40 people there and all the rides were gone. Bode was promised rides, and a smattering of people sitting at picnic tables shucking oysters under a shelter does not make a festival. We drove some more and saw a sign for a greyhound track and figured that it might possibly entertain a 4 year old (don’t judge), but it was an even sadder sight. A bit dejected, we headed over to the beach to camp, but then we got a call from Wild Bill.
The unofficial Pensacola welcome-wagon featuring Wild Bill, the non-consecutive nine-time president of the local VW club – Rare AIR VW – came out to meet us at the Big Lagoon campground. Bill’s a really nice guy and we chatted for a while about our trip, the local VW scene, and all sorts of other random stuff. And, he came bearing gifts! We all went away with some awesome new VW T-shirts and Bode got a new flashlight! Thanks Bill!
Wild Bill has a Champagne Edition ’78 bus that was given to him, and he’s since transformed it into a weekender with drop-down DVD player and surround sound (solar powered, of course.) We tested it out and it was impressive. Far more entertainment than we can muster from our bus. He’s got 220,000 original miles on the engine and the only problem with the thing, Rusty, is that it lives up to it’s name. Gulf Coast rust is not pretty. I’m quite sure the windshield isn’t touching any metal at all and is just floating in a bed of caulk. He’s got all the replacement panels needed to weld it back up one day, so I’m sure it will be a show car before long.
Bill recommended we take a trip over to the National Naval Aviation Museum the following day. A great suggestion and maybe the only time we’ll drive on a military base in the near future.
Pretty much everything in U.S. military aviation history that you would want to see is here and they even had a pretty cool indoor playground as well. The place is huge and there are planes everywhere. We got to play in helicopter and Blue Angels cockpits. Bode had a blast.
Another day, another Shorty. This one in front of a pawn shop.
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