Goodbye, Texas!

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!