After three long days of driving I FINALLY made it home!
Here is what happened my last couple weeks in Texas (my last blog post for the
summer).
So right after my last post I BECAME AN AUNT!! This would
have been in my last post as another first, but my niece was a little late to
her own party. I was the last immediate family member to meet her, but I did,
and she is adorable!
Same day that my niece finally arrived I went to Blues on
the Green again, this time with Andrew. We got to experience our first
Whataburger, I introduced him to the beer cave at Whole Foods (which Liz and
Joey showed me last time), and then we made the trek over to the park and set
up our little spot. It was a fun night just enjoying music and being around
other people. Gross part: some guy puked on the lawn right behind our blanket,
so we scooted our blanket practically on top of the people in front of us to
get away from it. SUPER gross part: puke was gone by the end of the night
because so many people stepped in it and tracked it elsewhere. MOST gross part:
not all of those people were wearing shoes. Listen up – if you ever go to a
free music concert, or anything anywhere where alcohol is involved, wear your
freakin’ shoes!
The next day (7/11) I flew to
Washington, D.C. to visit my Mudder friend, Richard! After several flight
delays, lots of texting, and a crazy expensive cab ride (thanks, Doreen!), I
managed to meet up with my cousin, Margaux, and her boyfriend, Ryan! Margaux,
Ryan, Richard, and I all went out for drinks and snacks at this pub around the
corner – I tried mead for the first time (really good!), and then Richard and I
split off to drop my stuff at his place and go to a hipster bar nearby. It was
a fantastic first night and so nice to see everyone after such a long time!
Friday Richard played tour guide
and showed me a few things around the city. We went to the Old Post Office
Tower, walked by the National Archives (the line was around the building so we
didn’t stop), the Museum of Natural History (pretty cool to recognize animals
that I saw in South America!), and the White House. He also pointed out all
kinds of interesting things, like the GIANT concrete planters in front of
important buildings which double as a protection against car bombs. Pretty
nifty! I wasn’t used to being in a city, so I kept seeing awesome things
(usually food) and shouting that we needed to stop there. Ben & Jerry’s, pretzels…
you name it. We met up with another friend, Trystan, for dinner and drinks at
some crazy delicious pizza place, and after that we all went to a drinking
spelling bee at some bar – very entertaining night! Trystan gave me a ride to
the airport the next day, and so ended my wonderful (and hard-earned) weekend
in D.C.!
That week a huge storm moved in
and messed up our field work. Monday was for sure a data day – woke up, looked
at the radar, and went right back to bed until 8am. After doing data proofing
for an hour, it started raining HARD, and I convinced Chelsea and Michaela that
it would be a good idea to take a break and go outside. These are the things
you need to do to make data days more exciting! Tuesday we went out in the
field, but it rained on and off and so we got non-detections in most of our
territories – pretty lame day. That afternoon I decided to use up all of the
leftover ingredients from past key lime pies, but it wasn’t enough for an
entire pie, so instead I made MINI key lime pies! These are fantastic,
especially if you like having more crust to filling. Wednesday Marisa and I
made the 30-minute drive out to Rogers just as a little storm blob was moving
over us. We sat in the Jeep for an hour waiting for it to clear up, but
eventually she called it and we went home to do more data proofing.
Wednesday evening we went over to the bunkhouse to have
breakfast for dinner with the refuge interns. Liz and Joey made frittata with
pork sausage (from the hogs we gutted!), Michaela made cinnamon rolls (and only
set a small fire in their oven), Andrew made pancakes (April made me one in the shape of a giraffe!), Jeremy made oatmeal with
strawberries, Chelsea made hash browns, and I brought over my mini key lime
pies and stuff for mimosas. We FEASTED! And if that wasn’t enough, we had shots
of moonshine (real moonshine, like stuff made in someone’s basement) and played
pong on the porch. Very fun and DELICIOUS night! I’m also pretty happy that I
got to try some of that hog :)
Thursday wasn’t a great day – I had had a sore throat for
a few days, but that morning was the worst it had been. I could barely swallow
a glass of orange juice, and just eating a hardboiled egg was excruciating. My
tonsils were a bit swollen the day before, but that morning they were huge and
they had white spots on them, which the other girls were convinced meant I had
strep. Ugh. I struggled through that day – couldn’t really swallow water or eat
food, but was still running around doing physical work so ended up dehydrated.
After work I went to get my throat checked out. That was fun, particularly when
the doctor looked in my mouth and said, “Oh my GOD that is disgusting!” Always
a good sign. It turned out not to be strep, so I just got general antibiotics.
Friday the girls had me relax and stay home to do data
proofing. All summer long Chelsea and I would look at the radar and hope that
any little smudge of green would be enough of a storm to force us to stay home
and do data entry. All of a sudden I had three data days in one week. Data days
are nice to have once in a while, but three in a week was exhausting. It’s very
tedious work having to look over every single number and check mark on every
sheet of paper to make sure it completely matches what is entered in the
database, and then cross-checking the information with the GIS data points.
Lots of steps where things can get messed up. But I suppose it was nice to have
that day to relax and drink lots of tea.
Saturday after work we all packed up to go on a
camping/tubing adventure in San Marcos! Andrew came over with a TON of camping
stuff – a huge cooler of food, a couple of grills, etc. – because he wanted to
cook us a fancy pants breakfast! Chelsea and I went in Andrew’s car, and Marisa
went with Michaela. Ronnisha drove up from the Kerr to meet us as well. Unfortunately
there is no cheap lodging anywhere in the San Marcos / New Braunfels area. We
thought camping would be better, but even then everything was ridiculously
expensive – $15 PER PERSON to pitch a tent?? No thanks. Chelsea found a relatively
cheap place for us to go, but it turned out to be a party campground, which was
pretty funny for one night. Tents were pushed up against each other, three
groups within sight of ours set up beer pong tables, music was blaring
everywhere… craziest camping I’ve ever done. After pitching our tents we drove
into downtown New Braunfels for dinner. Of course everywhere is packed at 8pm
on a Saturday, but we found a little Mexican restaurant at the end of the street
to eat at. After that we went to Gruene Hall, which is the oldest dance hall in
Texas. That was a ton of fun – I learned the Texas two-step, we all took turns
dancing with each other, and then a 60-year-old man spun me like a dreidel. He
had some serious moves! At the end of the song, he patted my leg and said, “now
throw your leg up!” and dipped me low. He asked if I was from Texas and I said
no, so he said that I was now an honorary Texan! Woohoo! He danced with some of
the other girls in our group, too. What a player.
Later that night we discovered a few more gems of staying
at a party campground – there was the man who started yelling at 2am and then
burst out crying and continued to sob near our tent for a good 10 minutes, and
the woman who let out blood curdling screams an hour after that. There was also
a fist fight in the morning! Not long after that Andrew, Michaela, and I went
for a swim in the river. There was a perfect spot for cliff diving, so I did
that for the first time! It had to be about a 20 foot drop. Awesome!! Then
Andrew made breakfast – juevos rancheros and bacon – it was DELICIOUS and super
filling. After breakfast we packed up and went up to San Marcos for a
glass-bottom boat tour at the Aquarena Center, and then we went tubing down the
river! That was a lot of fun, even though it started raining halfway down the
river. After that we went to Five Guys for a quick lunch, and then we made the
trek back home. It was a fun last weekend!
Monday (now at 7/22) had some really random stuff in it.
Chelsea and I walked transects at Eckert looking for fledglings (which was
semi-awful because it was like walking through a bog after all the rain from
the week before). As we were driving off the property we saw at least 20
vultures all hanging out next to the road, and we saw this massive head that
they were pecking at on the ground. We both screamed to “GO BACK!”, so I threw
it in reverse and we went over to investigate. From a distance it seemed like a
cow’s head because it was so massive, but when we got up close it was
definitely a hog – a GIGANTIC hog. Well, his head, skin, hooves, and spinal
column anyways. If the hog we gutted was about 35 pounds, this one was at least
100, probably over 150. I could’ve worn his skin like a cape, and was very
tempted to do so, but figured the smell would be with me a while like last time
(and also that would probably be ridiculously creepy (Silence of the Lambs??)).
After that, Chelsea and I had our last day of backyard boozin’. That was a nice
bonding experience, and we also cleaned out the rest of our alcohol from the
fridge. All part of the packing process. I took my inflatable raft on its
maiden voyage… in our fish pond. Considering we’d been talking about it for a
while, it seemed right to finally do it. Plus, we’d heard tell from one of the
older refuge volunteers that one time he showed up at the house and the
researchers were in the pond in a kayak, so I figured a little raft wasn’t a
problem.
Wednesday I went to a shooting range with Chelsea and
Andrew! I don’t think I’ve ever even held a real gun, so this was exciting.
Andrew turned into Mr. Responsibility when we got there (which was good) – he
whipped out a wallet-sized list of the 10 Commandments of Gun Handling. The
only thing I remember is to not jump up and down while holding a loaded gun.
There was probably something about not pointing it at anything other than your
target, but the jumping one is what stuck with me. Unfortunately the trap
shooters were broken (they shoot clays straight out in front of you, so
apparently it’s a lot easier, especially for beginners). Instead we went to the
skeet shooters, which shoot clays sideways at unpredictable angles and heights.
Andrew started showing me all the parts of a shotgun and how to hold them, load
them, what a proper stance was, etc. I learned on his 12 gauge, which was
somewhat difficult because it was pretty heavy and a bit too long for me, so he
kept telling me to stop leaning backward but then I could barely keep the gun
pointed at the sky. I switched to Chelsea’s 20 gauge which was a lot easier. I
even hit a clay! That was a ton of fun and I’m glad I got to do that before
leaving. I was thinking about it later and I realized that, at least at that
shooting range, they totally just let you loose to go shoot stuff without any
idea if you know what you’re doing. I had Andrew and Chelsea around to help me
out and to lend me their guns, but if I had my own gun I could’ve just walked
in and started figuring things out, which is a terrifying thought. Anyways, we
went home, showed off our bruised shoulders (strawberry bruising, not black and
blue), I bragged of my victory with that one clay, and then Chelsea and I went
to bed at like 9 – shooting is exhausting, especially at the hottest part of
the day! The ridiculous part was that it was still light outside.
The next morning I was SO SORE! My left arm hurt from
working unused muscles to hold up the guns, my right arm hurt from the kickback
(turns out I had a huge bruise (a real one) on my arm), my face hurt a little
from pushing into the gun, and my back was sore! Nothing like shooting a gun to
make you feel old. That day I went to Hickory Ridge by myself. Unfortunately
there was not much going on – no fledglings, only a couple of male BCVIs, and
not even cows! I found out that afternoon that I wouldn’t be going into the
field on my last day but would instead stay home to do more data proofing. I
was a little sad about that because it meant I had my last day in the field
without even realizing it! But before that, Thursday afternoon we met the
refuge interns at a beach for one last hangout. I didn’t think it was as nice
of a beach as the last one we went to (very rocky and no sand, plus the fish
were BITING, not nibbling), but we still had a good time. Liz and Joey cooked
up some jalapeno sausages and beans, Michaela made cookies, and Marisa made a dip
to have with chips, so we ate dinner there on the beach. It was delicious! I’m
glad I got to hang out with those guys one last time.
Friday (my last day of work) I stayed home doing data
proofing. I took advantage of being home and did laundry and cleaned a bit
during the day, but other than that it was pretty uneventful. After data
proofing I wanted to get last minute things done, so I went back to the Flat
Creek Winery that I went to a few weeks earlier to get a couple bottles of
wine, and then I drove into Marble falls for my last piece of German chocolate
pie. I drove 65 miles for wine and pie. The things you do when you live in
small town Texas. That evening Chelsea and I had our last wine night – great way
to say goodbye.
 |
| My last sunrise in Texas. |
Saturday I got up with the others at normal work time,
said my goodbyes, packed up my car, and drove into Austin to pick my mom up at
her hotel (she flew in late the night before). We hit the road around 9:30ish
but made several stops along the way. Our first stop was for brunch on South
Congress Street – I had some kind of fancy pants omelet – bacon, mushroom, and
goat cheese. The next stop was kind of unplanned – I had a list of the Top 50
Barbecue Joints in Texas (http://www.texasmonthly.com/eat-my-words/list-top-50-barbecue-joints)
and wanted to go to one of them before leaving (I hadn’t had any Texas Barbecue
all summer!). I knew we were passing through Sweetwater, so we made plans to
stop at Big Boy’s Bar-B-Que. However, I didn’t realize we were also passing
through Llano, which has Cooper’s Old Time Pit Bar-B-Que (also on the list and
highly recommended by Andrew). Now, we had heard of the good BBQ places running
out of food by early afternoon because of high demand, and we weren’t going to
be getting into Sweetwater until about 3pm, so we were nervous that if we
passed up Cooper’s, then Big Boy’s would be out of food and we’d have no more
opportunities for GOOD Texas BBQ. So we did the only thing that made sense – we
stopped at Coopers… at 11:30… an hour and a half after eating brunch.
We got
brisket and over a foot of sausage (and that was half the sausage). The guy
wrapping it up for us asked if we’d be eating it in the next hour, because if
not then it would be better if he didn’t cut it up to prevent it from drying
out. Knowing that we had just eaten not long before, my mom and I looked at
each other and said, “no, probably not”. I kid you not – THREE MINUTES LATER my
mom was opening up the package and hand-feeding me brisket in the car. I’ve
eaten a lot of random things while driving (I don’t recommend cheerios – they tend
to get away from you), but brisket is probably the best. True to the list,
Cooper’s was PHENOMENAL. The brisket just melted in your mouth – you didn’t
need utensils at all. And the sausage was fantastic, too – jalapeno sausage! We
were in heaven. My mom packaged up the rest of the food to eat later, and then
we kept on driving. We rolled into Sweetwater around 3pm and decided that 3.5
hours was too long without good BBQ, so we stopped at Big Boy’s for an
afternoon snack… despite the fact that we still had BBQ in our backseat. It was
true – they were starting to run out of food, so we were glad that we stopped
at Cooper’s. We both got brisket with beans, cole slaw, and cornbread. This
brisket was just as good – melt in your mouth deliciousness that we couldn’t
get enough of. Mmmmmmm. The rest of the afternoon we checked if any town we
passed had a BBQ joint on that list. Thankfully it was just the two.
After that we headed for our hotel, which was about 8
miles across the border in Clovis, NM. I was getting ready to say goodbye to
Texas, but we never saw the state line! I noticed that the junction signs
changed from the outline of Texas to the New Mexico sun, but there was nothing
that said “New Mexico” anywhere! We just kept looking around wondering which
state we were actually in with nothing to confirm our suspicions. The New
Mexico sun on the junction signs was somewhat telling, but we knew for sure
that we had left Texas when we saw a business flying ONLY the American flag. I
discovered that flags in Texas either come in twos or threes – if you’re going
to fly a flag then you’re going to fly at least two flags: the American flag
and the Texas flag, and if you’re really dedicated then you’re going to fly
your alma mater’s flag, which is only ever Texas A&M or Texas State. Anyways,
just to be sure, we asked the woman at our hotel if we were really in New
Mexico. We weren’t exactly starving for dinner, but fortunately we still had
leftovers from Cooper’s, so we scarfed the remains of that in our hotel room. I
have never been so satisfied with delicious BBQ in my life.
The next morning we hit the road again and immediately
got another reminder that we were not in Texas anymore. Remember in one of my
first posts when I described the “Texas pass”, where people getting passed
drive off onto the shoulder to make it easier for someone to pass them? Well
for the next 100 miles we kept seeing signs along the highway that said “DO NOT
DRIVE ON SHOULDER”. Apparently New Mexico has no patience for Texans. Later in
the day we made a “quick” stop at the Petrified Forest National Park. There had
to be over a dozen pullouts along a 30 mile road, and my mom had to stop at
every one of them. Granted, there were some really nice views… until it started
raining. And it was cold rain! After that we kept driving until Williams, AZ,
where we spent the night. It was just a Best Western, but it was in a beautiful
location tucked away next to a little forest. Unfortunately the fire alarms at
3am and 3:20am kind of ruined everything about that hotel.
Monday was our last day of driving, and it was a long one.
We left sometime around 8 or so, stopped for lunch in Barstow, CA around 12, we
opted to driving up 99 instead of 5 so that we could get Coldstone (yep, chose
an entirely different route just to get ice cream), and didn’t get home until
about 7:30pm. We didn’t really do anything that last day other than drive, but
we made it home in time to enjoy a bottle of wine from the Flat Creek Winery
while watching The Bachelorette. It was definitely a much faster trip than the
one TO Texas, but it was still fun.
Some memorable quotes from the drive home:
Me: We gained an hour by changing time zones and we lost
an hour when I let you (my mom) drive… how can this be happening?!?”
Mom: Speed reduced ahead.
Me: DON’T SLOW DOWN – you’re already going that slow!
Me: I drove for 7 hours and you drove for 3 hours… and
that was 3 hours too long.
(I feel like there were others, but for some reason the
only ones that stuck in our heads were ones about driving!)
Well, this is it for my Texas updates. My next adventure
starts in less than a week – I leave for Peru on Tuesday! With any luck the
internet will be somewhat reliable at my field station, so I hope to keep
blogging from there. No guarantee about my ability to post pictures, but we’ll
see. I’m also not sure if I’ll be posting to this blog, or the South America
blog that I started when I went abroad last year. I’m guessing it’ll be the
other one, but no promises.
Thanks for reading!
