You know the saying, "Everything's bigger in Texas," right? Well, it's true. I've lived in Texas before. It's true of the bugs, of the rain, of the wind, the people, the smiles, the trees (sort of), the amount of roads and people, for sure.
San Antonio is the country's 7th largest city. It's a "sprawler," as you might imagine. There's not a huge concentration of high-rises in the downtown area, but there are plenty of suburbs and surrounding towns. I did notice when looking at San Antonio on a road map when Damian and Tandy first moved here that there are
two freeway loops around the city, not just one; an inner and an outer--soon to be a third, I hear. It's really big. And they have to drive everywhere. There's not a metro system, though they do have busses. Just drive. And drive. And drive.
And they do drive. Damian has to drive a "fur piece" to get to his jobs. He will be changing hospitals again soon. Still a far way away on the other side of town.
Tandy has to do the carpool thing and she drives a lot. And it's not just "Drop the kid off at school and pick them up afterwards." She does share in a carpool with others, and this is why:
Lexi has to be dropped off at Seminary; Lexi has to be taken from Seminary to School. Lexi has to be picked up from Band AFTER school (no bus).
Braeden actually catches a school bus in front of his house, on his own and quite early. But he's always out there on time. But he usually has football practice after school so he has to be picked up from that and brought home. If there's a game, he has to be brought home from the school after the game, unless it was like Tuesday when they were able to take him home from the game themselves so we could all go to dinner together.
Braeden also plays soccer and there are those games AND PRACTICES to consider. I think that does not go on during football season, however.
Ella goes to 5th grade elementary school very nearby, but the roads and traffic between their home and the school make it rather unsafe to walk there, so Tandy Drives Ella and one neighbor boy there and back. Some days this week they were out early for parent/teacher conferences, so that breaks into the schedule.
Ella also plays soccer, so there are practices and games to drive her to and from. This week, the fields have been soaked and under water, so there were not practices this week. I do believe they have a game on Saturday, however.
Yowza. I'd go crazy with a schedule like that. And like I said, they are car POOLS, meaning there's other folks participating. The only problem is, one of the other mothers just had her baby on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, so that pulled her out of the pool. Another lady wasn't available since her tooth was requiring some major attention by a dentist at one point when Tandy needed a backup because she was playing tour guide for us. And Tandy picks up the slack. Well, she picks up her kid. And other kids. Stinky football players, grouchy tired band kids.
Speaking of pools, we've been monitoring the pool temperature at Damian and Tandy's house. Our best bet to use their outdoor pool would have been the day we got here. It's been getting colder in temp by the day. Now it's in the low 60's. No swimming for us! I don't know that we have seen the sun since we've been here. Rain and clouds the whole time.
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Friday, we slept in (Like we usually do on vacation!), Damian had some work to do briefly in the morning, Tandy
really slept in, and us old folks kind of sat around and snoozed and read and relaxed all morning. I started another Josi Kilpack audio book. Kids were in school. Damian and Tandy took all of us (because Eric is here, too) to another Texas institution supporting that adage about everything being BIGGER in Texas. Buc -ee's is a gas station. Only it is ONE BIG gas station. It was hilarious. I smiled all the way through it. Mike called it the ultimate truck stops without trucks. Stuckey's on steroids. It was something, that's for sure. It has 140 gas pumps, a double row of them...and food and clothes and kitch galore. We had lunch there, but had to eat it in the car. ha ha. Really. That's what you do at most gas stations, right? Grab and go? No exception here. It's truly something to behold. And the barbeque sandwich I had was superb! Yum. I bought some postcards to send to grandkids away from Texas, and some peanut patties to bring home to my staff. Wow.
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I'm holding a squawking rubber chicken (the clerk at checkout said, "Please. Buy them all." An indication of how irritating they all are. ha) AND a bag of something called, "Slap ya MAMA" . I don't even know what it was, and I didn't buy it. I did buy the chicken. Well, Tandy did. Somehow it ended up in her basket. Thanks, Tandy.
AND THEN, we drove way out in the country in the far north east areas around San Antonio and saw wonderful country roads and lands where my ancesters settled from Germany. The Wetz and Koehler families are familiar names in the New Braunfels area are replete with those two names. Well, maybe not replete, but at least there are street names and a welding shop was named "Koehler Welding" that we drove by. Damian was so sweet to take us there to see that! It was raining, the roads were rough (and exciting-- Eric and I were in the back-back of the van and we said "WHEEEE!" several times!!), and Tandy needed to return to -- guess what? -- Pick up Ella from school! I think that is an everyday thing for her, as in no-one to share it with? That means it's not a pool. I guess. It's just a big responsibility, that's for sure! So we hurried back (a forty minute drive from where we were), they dropped everyone off, and off she went again to
get in line to pick Ella up. It's a procedure. She has to have a NUMBER (in her case, two, since she's picking up 2 kids) tag on her front dash, drives into the bottom of the lot area, a monitor sees the number, passes it up via an app (like texting it, but not) to the office area, they call the number, the kid with that number (Ella and her neighbor) come from their class or somewhere to the waiting area, wait for 10 minutes until thier ride finally snakes along the long line of cars and arrives at the pick up spot. And, yes, Ella did have to wait extra long. The line of cars snakes down the drive, down the hill, onto the street; the wait is long for parents and kids alike. T'would be way easier to walk, were it not for crazy traffic and construction blocking the safe(er) sidewalks. Crazy.
After lunch and treats at Buc-ee's (Bucky the Beaver is the mascot), we wanted to go hear Lexi play in the band at the Johnson High School football game. It started at 7:30 and was a long drive away. Lexi never came home from school. Band suported provide dinners the band kids can order and purchase in advance, so they are fed for the evening. The only people who ended up going to the away game were me, Tandy and Pam. Eric made arrangements to attend a play his friend was in ("Avenue Q"), Ella went to a friend's house, Braeden and Damian opted out because it was just rainey and icky. Mike needed to take Eric to the play, which was kind of on the way to the footbal game, but not really on the way. Kind of would have been out of the way since Tandy had never even been to this high school in South San Antonio... it was quite a ways away. So the boys stayed in at watched a movie together.
BUT
It was not raining there! It
had rained, but we had stadium seats to sit on instead of wet aluminum bleachers (thanks, Tandy!), so it ended up being a beautiful night for the traditional "Friday Night Lights" of all Texas towns and cities. Football. We sat in the midst of the Football parents and felt a little conspicuous because we (Pam and I, at least) were there to see and hear the band, really. We were not able to see Alexa until they went out on the field. 320 members makes for a very big band. They play well, but there's so much movement and from the "back" where we were on the visitor side of the field, I couldn't tell if they were making shapes or what. But they sound good and look good. The home team also had a good-looking, though much smaller, band and they marched and played well, too.
Lexi (top left) with some friends and their Jaguar mascot.
I caught a t-shirt thrown into the audience during the game.
Tandy, Me and Pam at the game.
Woodwinds were going home at half-time, leaving the brass and percussion behind in the stands (cutting the band's size in half, basically), so we left after half-time, too, as Tandy had to pick up Lexi from their high school and take her home. So we did that, after stopping at McDonalds for a snack on the way home. We'd not had dinner. I didn't need much, after that nice big lunch sandwich and snacking on goodies after lunch at home.
we were home by 9:30 or ten pm, stayed up talking to Pam and Tandy till way too late.
But Friday was another fun-filled day in Texas!
Mike standing in front of a display of the Buc-ee's mascot, Buc-ee the Beaver.
Meandering down country roads in New Braunfels, Texas, where the Koehler and Wetz families are from.
There are farms and meadows and pastures.
Koehler Rd.
And lots of rain on this particular day.
We stopped at the end of "Wetz Road" to take this photo. The street sign didn't exist at the beginning of the street...so it is good that we found this. It is also good that Tandy and Damian know how to use the Google Map and GPS things better than I do, as they were actually able to find these streets.
Damian has also found the New Braunfels cemetery where some of these people are buried (the Autrey relatives).
I will share those photos and more when Damian and Tandy share them with me. Hopefully soon. :-)
