The Amazing Pudding: ROAD TRIP

Opening Location: Austin, TX

Closing Location: Carlsbad, NM

Miles on the Road: 546

So when Don and Lisa finally decided to pull out from behind my truck Road Trip: Southwest could finally begin. I of course picked up Colin a few minutes late at the Austin Airport, but his plane got in early so he would have had to wait anyway. Realized C and I never discussed whether I was coming in to the airport to meet him or driving the little pick-up loop and I thought I would nice if I could call C on my cell phone … but hey, he doesn’t have one. I wonder if that will be an issue on the trip. Why is that all my friends seem to be the last ones on Earth to have the basic necessities like a cell phone?

We made good time to San Antonio, than lost a bunch of time when we entered the Riverwalk and turned the wrong way, and ended up by a little waterfall that I had never seen before and no restaurants. Unfortunately, Alison was on the real Riverwalk at the tex-mex restaurant and we had to walk like a mile and a half back to her. After lunch of fajitas (R) and enchiladas (C) we went to the Alamo which C remarked was ‘very small.’ Even though Alison and I both said it like three times before. We completed our tour of the Alamo in about 7 minutes, spending a little time by the big tree outside. Then we snuck into the Menger Bar (where Teddy Roosevelt recruited the roughriders) to use the bathroom. Then Alison drove us back to our car … since we were fricking tired of walking in the hot sun.

Then the first long drive. The rolling hills of San Antonio gave way to the awesome Mesas of Sonora gave way to the dull flat lands of Fort Stockton. By the way, we filled up the tank in Sonora at $3.19 a gallon… that set me back $60 – the most I have ever paid for Gas in my life. We at dinner at the “Steak House Restaurant” in Fort Stockton which featured a ‘stirring’ mural of horseys and cowboys across the entire fall. Aw… Filet Mignon… at least that’s what they called it. And damn fine chicken noodle soup.

The final drive to Carlsbad was in the dark, which was just as well because it looked like absolutely nothing to see. Flat flat flat. We then spent a few extra minutes finding our hotel because they had changed the name since we made the reservations.