A family of three drives an old VW bus from San Francisco to the tip of South America.
Posted on June 19, 2014 by jason2 Comments
Houston is home to the ‘largest art car parade in the world.’ A few weeks ago we dropped in to have a look.
I don’t think Houstonians have enough opportunities to let their Freak Flags fly, so this was as good of an excuse as any. What else can you say… it’s art.
Posted on June 10, 2014 by jason10 Comments
I have exactly one suit. Probably, the only one I’ll ever own.
It mostly just hangs in closets. Currently, in an upstairs bedroom at Angela’s mom’s house.
I believe we’ve successfully dated it to 1998. I must have bought it for a job interview, but I don’t remember wearing it to one.
It’s not particularly stylish and not particularly comfortable. It’s sort of an olive color and the fabric isn’t very inviting to touch. I’m sure I got a good deal on it.
There’s one shirt, one tie, one belt, and one pair of shoes to go with it. They all reside in that closet full time.
There is a small hole on the right shoulder on the jacket. I really don’t feel compelled to have it fixed. If anyone ever mentions it, I’ll just act surprised.
Any time I’ve worn it, people tell me how nice I look. But, I think it’s just such an uncommon sight that they’re compelled to comment. I don’t feel good in it. Besides, it’s rare that I would have reason to wear it.
Monday, I wore it.
Posted on January 30, 2012 by jason15 Comments
Before we knew it, we were all on a midnight flight to Mexico City.
I often give the Random Tuesday explanation whenever someone asks about what we’re doing next. Of course, even that explanation can’t be correct.
We called Angela’s mother to check-in and were hit some some shocking news. Only hours removed.
Unexpectedly, Angela’s father passed away.
We flew to Houston as quickly as possible and have now been here several days. It been tough, but it’s also good to be back. We’ll stay here a while and spend time with family and try to be useful. Bode has already claimed that he will move in with his cousins and we can return to South America without him (he’s serious).
Just last week I was joking that nothing has changed in years. Now, so much changed in just a few days.
Posted on November 3, 2011 by jason1 Comment
We’re taking a little break from the South American traveling, but loading up on Texas traveling. Our trademarked family loop around Texas begins….
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And, if anyone around Austin wants to meet up for a cold Lone Star, we’ll be there Thursday and Friday. Look for us somewhere on S. Congress for First Thursday, or come have a margarita under the oak trees at Freddie’s Place on Friday 5:30-8:30. See you there!
Houston folks – come meet us for a cold one at the West Alabama Ice House at 5 o’clock on Sunday!
Posted on November 1, 2011 by jason3 Comments
The Kleinbus camp out was the perfect way to wrap up our final few days in Chile before our heading back to the US. And, now that we’d made lots of new friends near Santiago, we were spoiled for choice with options on where to park the bus while we’re gone, BBQ’s to attend when we return, and people to visit when we point south again. Nice!
We headed up to Santiago and found that all the highways are toll roads with cameras and electronic tags required. We drove right through every one of the them. I’m guessing we’ll have some explaining to do when we check out of the country later.
We left Red Beard with our new amiga Mirasol and proceeded to spend the day lingering in Santiago before hopping our plane home. Santiago is a modern city and maybe the most US-looking place we’ve been in a very long time. Not a particularly interesting town, but nice enough.
Then, a 10 hour overnight flight, a 3 hour layover in Dallas, and another hour flight to Houston. Easy peasy… Just like that and we’re “home.”
Only minor culture shock, so far.
Posted on January 5, 2011 by angelaNo Comments
We wound down our last few days in the U.S. recovering from colds and doing some of the most important things on our list… namely, hanging out with our friends. It was a nice sunny day in Texas, so we all went… ice skating?
You would never know it (I didn’t), but Houston has a pretty nice downtown skating rink in the winter. Bode has been jonesing to go skiing. Since we couldn’t supply snow, we figured ice was the next best thing. He had a blast and picked it up really quickly – quick enough to ditch us and head for the girls.
As always, there is never enough time. We still didn’t manage to see all the folks we were hoping to visit on this trip – sorry about that – until next year?
Posted on December 3, 2010 by jason7 Comments
One of the the things that continually amazes us is the generosity of the people we meet and the global connections we are making on this trip.
Cristian is a VW guy we ‘met’ online, and he offered up his family’s garage for our bus while we return to Texas for the holidays. Not only that, but he and his mother met us downtown, took us back to their house outside of Quito and even made us homemade empanadas. Awesome! Thanks Cristian!
Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, so no photos.
The next morning, we carried a sleeping Bode to the taxi at 4 am. Despite being half-asleep, we did not fall for the plastic-wrap scam at the airport. Guys approach you with an official security-type looking uniform and tell you you need to have your bags wrapped. Sometimes in Spanish an sometimes not. Some of the weary travelers around us gave in and assumed it was required… and ended up paying $10 USD for each bag!
The next ‘scam’ is a required one, though. An “airport tax” of $40 USD per passenger. They are building a new airport north of here and apparently we are helping to pay for it.
We had no problems in Customs or Security on the way out. In fact, we didn’t even have to take off our shoes or remove the laptop from our bag. We passed at least 6 gates on the way to ours, all normal. Then, we get to our gate – a direct flight to Houston, TX. Here is where the security is concentrated, and they go every person’s carry on bags. Once you are allowed into the gate, they take your boarding pass if you want to leave to go the bathroom. Upon re-entry (with no bags), I got the full pat-down.
We got to see Volcan Cotopaxi on the way up – we’ll see it up close when we return. After, a 5.5 hour flight,we were back in the good ‘ole U.S of A
Going through customs, the security guy asked us how long we were outside of the U.S. We guessed “9 months” and after looking us over he replied “That’s what I thought.” We’re still wondering what it was about us that tipped him off.
We’re glad to be home for the holidays and were greeted by some happy grandparents.
