Day 3 (2018) - Everything is Bigger in Texas

Today was a travel day, leaving San Antonio and ending in Houston, with a stop in Austin in the middle. We started out with another boring, overpriced breakfast at the hotel and packed up and piled back into the minivan around 11:00. First stop along the route from San Antonio to Austin was The World's Largest Armadillo. I know what you are thinking - "Wow, that sounds amazing!" And you would be correct, or not. The armadillo in question is part of a flea market along the highway, and unfortunately, the flea market was closed (or fortunately, since parking would have cost $2.00 just to see this thing).

Can you sense the excitement?

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it

After the thrill of the giant armadillo had started to fade, we got back on the highway to the next "world's largest" of the day - Buc-ee's, the world's largest convenience store! And they weren't kidding, the place was huge, with what had to be over 50 gas pumps (I did not count them) and a massive store with all kinds of items. However, while they did carry a large supply of bacon grease, they did not have any gluten-free pretzels.

You thought I was kidding?

The boys did not get motivated early enough to have breakfast at the hotel, so they each grabbed a brisket sandwich to go, passing on the WIDE selection of jerky.

Choose a jerky, any jerky

We got back on the road and headed to Austin. The plan was to head to lunch at a diner that I knew was open on Christmas then check out some sites around town before heading to Houston. But when we got to the 24 Diner we found that I was not the only one with the idea to eat there, and the wait was estimated at 1-1.5 hours. We put our names on the list and gave them my cell number then headed to the UT football stadium to see if we could get in to check it out. Sadly, we could not get in, even though I tried to find some entrance that was open (much to the mild embarrassment of the kids).

Hook 'em

We then drove to the ZBT fraternity house, as evidently every Jewish kid the boys know that goes to UT is a member there - and they have a pool. Again, no one was there but the fraternity guys left their back gate open so we did a little trespassing and checked out the infamous pool and party area.

We then headed towards the UT clock tower area, parked and walked onto campus. The highlight was the turtle pond, which seemed to be populated by some pretty angry turtles who kept jockeying for position on a rock and knocking any interlopers off the rock.

He ain't heavy, he's my turtle buddy

A Capitol View

We had stalled for about an hour, so we headed back to the diner and the timing we excellent as we were seated within about 5 minutes of returning. The food was good, nothing noteworthy, and when we were done we got back on the road.

We had already seen the world's largest armadillo and the world's largest convenience store, but we weren't done. About an hour between Austin and Houston lies, wait for it, the world's largest gingerbread man! The kids were so mentally drained from the other excitement of the day that they could not muster the energy to check out the gingerbread man, so Debbie and I represented the family.

Yeah, that's big

Before we left town, we needed a bathroom break so we went towards a cafe that looked open. Turned out the cafe wasn't actually open, but there were a lot of people just hanging around. Before we left we asked what was going on, and it turns out that the place, called Comfort Cafe, is run entirely by former addicts, of all kinds, and the cafe is open on the weekends with no prices for the food, only donations. They also have a large home where they live and try and get back on track. We made a small donation and got back on the road, driving through a very cute town called Smithville (hence the name "Smitty" for the gingerbread man).

After exhausting the "world's largest" sites for the day, we headed to Houston, where we arrived around 6:00. Dinner was scheduled for 7:30, so we all relaxed a bit and got ready for dinner. When making reservations before the trip, the hardest part was finding places that would be open Christmas night. I had found one that was mentioned on a few lists and booked it. Up until now, my dinner or lunch recommendations were all winners. I would call tonight's dinner average at best. The first problem was that when we checked in they said that parties of 5 had to sit outside. Besides the fact that it was chilly, they put us at a high table with stools instead of chairs. And not cool, new stools. These were old rusty ones. The menu was a tapas-style menu, with lots of smaller plates meant to share. There wasn't a lot that Amanda liked, and the one thing Debbie was looking forward to (lamb chops) was sold out. We ordered a whole bunch of plates and slowly they started coming out. After the first dish, they came to us and asked if we wanted to eat inside instead, as a table had opened up. We were all cold so we were glad to move inside - until we realized that it might have been colder inside with the air conditioner set at freezing. The plates kept coming, and while the food was good, it wasn't all that filling.

We ripped through all of the plates and paid and left, and headed to a dessert place I had noted called The House of Pies. We should have just gone there first. It wasn't just a pie place, as it had a full comfort food type menu, and we decided that in addition to pie we would also get chicken-n-waffles since we heard this was a popular Texas thing. The only issue was that they didn't really have chicken-n-waffles, so we ended up with chicken (fingers) AND waffles - not really the same thing at all.

Nonetheless, the pies were great, and Amanda recreated her "I like pie" photo from the last road trip in South Dakota:

2018

2014

Possibly the only person who loves key lime pie

Is it "PEE-can" or "pe-CAHN" pie?

Don't judge us

Not gonna say who ate most of this,
but she gave birth to three of the people on this trip

We rolled out of the House of Pies and headed back to the hotel, where the kids went to their room and Debbie and I decided to try and walk off the evening's food. However, to really walk it off we would have had to walk to Seattle, and back, so we just walked around for about 15 minutes. We ended up going through a park that was decorated by a whole lane of pinwheels with a nice message.

Finally, we headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow's plan is to go to NASA in the morning, then play it by ear in the afternoon, depending on how long we are at NASA. Maybe we can find the world's largest pie.