The trip to Houston over this last weekend was much too short and fully filled with activity. I was in five states in a 54 hour period with the flight itinerary I had, and returned home quite fatigued from the busy exciting two plus days. But the experience and fun are ones I will always treasure and remember, and it was really beautiful to spend time with family.Friday was the fly out day as I left the home unit very early around 2:30 am for the two hour drive to Denver International Airport. My friend of over 20 years Brant was kind and generous enough to help me out for the ground travel opening up the trip and he brought his daughter Claire along who is about age 11. The trip was blessed with good weather and we made a pit stop at the truck stop on the south edge of town before heading further south along I-25 to the E-470 tollway that took us to the western edge of the airport with an uneventful arrival at DIA around 4:45 pm. Brant dropped me off on the east side of the airport where Southwest Airlines customer services is located.
Check in was simple as I put one of my two bags into the system and then went through the inane superfluous process of security. It took about 25 minutes to complete the process which was largely spent standing in line until having to take off my boots, empty my pockets, and take my computer out of its bag. Following that, I got on the underground train to take me to embarkation buildings east of the main terminal. Then there was about a two hour wait until my flight which I spent reading the paper, doing the puzzles, and briefly surfing the net to check my email and headlines from the East Coast before boarding the flight at around 7:35 am MDT.
The first leg of my flight took me to Oklahoma City with about an hour and a half flight with another hour lost due to the time zone change. Skies were clear and sunny; I sat in the middle portion of the plane about 1-2 rows behind the wing and emergency exit rows. I had some peanuts and pretzels along with a coke on the flight. I killed the time further reading the papers. We arrive at Oklahoma City at 10:20 CDT.
I had an hour and a half layover until the connecting flight to Houston, so I got a burger and some fries to calm down my hunger from a Sonic inside the airport which cost me about $6.50
Oklahoma City's Will Rogers Airport is real nice and quaint and not too bustling at that time of the day. I spent about 15 minutes making avail of their free wireless Internet service before preparing for boarding which occurred at 11:40 am.
Both flights down were not too packed. I would estimate the first flight was about 75 % full, and the second flight was about 65 % full. The steward crew was very light and willing to joke and relax on the first flight, while the second flight saw the crew serious and all business. The second flight was about the same as the first, spent reading and doing puzzles in the airplane magazine. I had my little three seat all to myself on the second flight after sharing it with a woman on the first leg. Once again, on the second flight I got to enjoy some peanuts, pretzels, and a modest cup of coke.
We landed at Houston at 1 pm. The hard part of the day was starting now as I had to wait over 3 hours for my sister's flight. I also had to wait 35 minutes for my bad to show up in baggage claim which had me concerned the bag was going to be on its way to somewhere else, an experience I had in 1990 when I went to Phoenix and my bags ended up in Anaheim. But the worst case fear was fortunately unrealized and I gathered my bag up to wait the time out in a little so-so pricey watering hole.
There was no free wireless Internet at Hobby unlike in Denver and Oklahoma City, so the time dragged with no activity for the most part. There nothing on the TV in the bar except for golf. I did get to talk to a couple of people for about a half-hour including a 29 year old young man in from Fort Polk, LA, to pick up his girlfriend from New York where he was also from originally. We had a good conversation about the military, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, where he has already done two 15 month tours and is scheduled to go back next summer for a third time. It is nice to talk to a serviceman like that and get his perspective on things since he in the middle of it all, and one's respect for our military men and women and the difficult challenging jobs and responsibilities in the face of constant danger is only reinforced and increased.
Finally the sister and her son and daughter arrived. After baggage claim, processing the rental car acquisition, and getting the car, we were on our way. We took the scenic route instead of the tollway but it was not bad at all. We got to see some of the older parts of Houston south of and in downtown. Traffic could have worse and fortunately there was no rain. It took about an hour and 15 minutes to get to the hotel in NW Houston. My impression of Houston was largely strongly negative for the parts we were driving in and seeing. The Houston transportation infrastructure is quite poor, antiquated, inadequate, and in need of major, serious, and extensive work and improvements.
After a small break at the hotel near the intersection of the 290 freeway and the 6/1960 Parkway/Beltway, we went about 5 miles west and south over to my sister's home for a great meal of fajitas and a variety of beverages. Surprisingly the weather was quite good: cooler as temps were in the low to mid 70s with less humidity and a nice cooling breeze as well. We all got to visit and converse for a couple of hours. My brother in law and sister have a beautiful and nicely furnished home that is quite warm and comfortable with a pleasingly attractive back and front yard. Fourteen of the twenty members of my generation and the offspring were there on Friday night, and the star of the weekend and the reason for the gathering, my oldest niece Lindsey would make it 15 on Saturday as she spent her Friday in San Marcos celebrating with her college friends and peers. We went back to the hotel around 10:30 pm.
Saturday was a long and festive day with a few snap backs thrown in. The weather forecast was for only a small chance for rain, but as the day got along that was proven to be an enormous error. We left the Houston area before 6:30 am after rendezvousing at the W residence for a light breakfast of English muffins and juice. The drive over to San Marcos took about three hours with a couple of stops along the way for beverages and breaks, primarily on I-10 and then TX Hwy 183 diagonally to San Marcos. But the clouds thickened and grew more ominous the further west we got. One small town, Luling, and the surrounding area nearly suffocated us with the stench of methane from oil refineries.
Upon arriving in San Marcos, which is midway along I-35 between Austin and San Antonio, we parked the car in the football stadium lot and took a shuttle bus over to arena which was about a mile a way. I was a passenger on both trips in and out with my youngest brother H and his two daughters, and while there were a few moments of flareups and conflicts, for the vast majority part the two young ladies were quite well behaved. We made our way into the area upon exiting the bus and after having to wait for about 10 minutes for the graduate processional to make their way in, we joined the others in our party on the north side of the arena behind the seating where the approximately 1500 graduates were.
The ceremony was a typical college graduation with both light and serious moments, a couple of speeches from the university and student body presidents, and the commencement address from Texas US Senator Hutchinson. Then came the long process of degrees conferment and the reading off of all the names of the graduates. My niece with her last name beginning with a "W" was nearly at the end, among the last two dozen names read off.
Immediately afterwards we all gathered outside and had a lengthy photography session as well as congratulatory words and hugs with both family, friends, and others peers of Lindsey. We then gathered for the bus ride back to the football stadium parking lot, and no sooner did we get on the bus did the skies open up and pour. My brother H got a good soaking gathering the car back at the lot and getting his girls secured in their car seats.
H, his daughters, and I opted to have lunch in San Marcos and we found a Cici's Pizza which hit the spot and filled us up with some good tasty food. The girls won a prize each from one of the concessionaire game machines, an orange monkey and a shark, whose size and huggability disparities resulted in some friction and tears until my brother came up with a reasonable solution of sharing and trading the toys which the the girls accepted and understood.
We got out of San Marcos before 2pm, the ceremony lasting about 2 1/2 hours. The drive back to Houston along I-10 was almost all rain the whole way and I figured about 2" - 3" fell all along the route. It was quite heavy limiting visibility for much of the trip. We made it back to city and our hotel by around 5:30 pm
After about a 45 minute break to take a shower and unwind a little, we made our way back over to the W home for the evening celebratory festivities. There was a great Southwestern BBQ dinner catered in with a great selection of tasty meats, vegetables, salads, fruit, and beverages; and a huge cake on a sheet that was about 4' x 3' in size. Although the continuing rain brought the entire celebration indoors, there was plenty of room for all the visitors which I estimate numbered over 50 through the course of the evening. We all go to converse and visit more and really celebrate the college graduation of Lindsey, who unlike many graduates this year, has a job already which she will start to work at full time in a matter of weeks.
My sister M and her husband D did a superb and beautiful job of opening up their home to all the visitors and a great time was held by all in a warm and relaxing environment. And the rain did not turn out to be an inconvenience as it finally stopped around 10:30 pm
This was the first time I had been back to Houston in over 15 years, so it was nice to spend time with people that I don't get an opportunity to do so nearly often enough. My other two sisters had been to Houston in the last year or so, and my brother had not been there in close to a decade if not longer. This was the first opportunity for the Houston nieces of mine to meet for the first time my young nieces from Castle Rock.
As would be expected it took awhile for all of us to break away to end the evening, but we finally all did shortly after midnight.
Upon returning to our La Quinta motel, we did experience an unfortunate and painful incident. After getting out of the car and stepping on to break with a tree and other vegetation separating parking places, unbeknown st to us in the dark me and my young niece J stepped on some fire ants in the area and the critters proceeded to assault us on our feet only shod in sandals. J received at least several bites on her foot and I suffered close to 20 on both my left foot and toes.
The pain was uncomfortable and stinging, and I washed my foot in soapy water to try to minimize the impact.
Sunday morning came a little later than Saturday but not later enough. My brother in law M, and my sisters L & K were in the car for the nearly 40 mile trip back to the airport for a 9:50 am flight to Albuquerque on Southwest for me and brother in law M, with my two sisters and their kids having return flights that evening. Youngest brother Hank and his daughters flew back to Denver on United from the airport on the north side of Houston, Intercontinental Airport. His flight was at about the same time as M and mine.
After a brief respite of about 40 minutes following check in and security hoop jumping, we boarded our flight before 10 am under fully heavy dark cloudy skies which dripped some rain on us on the way to the airport. But once we were airborne, the skies cleared west of San Antonio and clear skies greeted us in New Mexico upon arrival at the Sunport at 10:55 am, having regained back that lost hour from Friday. The layover in Albuquerque was short, and after saying so long to my brother in law, I only waited about 15 minutes before boarding onto the plane to Denver for the second leg of the Sunday flight.
The flight to Denver was packed with virtually no empty seats, unlike the first flight of the day out of Hobby which was about 70 % full. I had two seatmates on the way up for the shortest duration of the four flights I was on this weekend. I arrived in Denver around 1pm and got my baggage very quickly unlike the Houston experience
Brant was there virtually at the moment I was ready to be picked up, and his wife Sara, and once again daughter Claire joined us for the trip back to Wyoming. We stopped for about an hour at the Pro Bass Outdoor store near the junction of I-70 and I-270 in NE Denver where Brant and I spent some time looking while the ladies went next door to the SuperTarget for the time. We all then headed out back to WY making a pit stop at a Walgreens off 120th in Thornton for a beverage. The weather in Colorado was sunny and warm with temps into the low 80s. Once in Cheyenne, we made a stop at Safeway for some milk and potatoes 10 # bag for 99 cents !) and some dinner groceries for the Chesbros. I was dropped at home around 4:45 pm. The unit was actually comfortable and not stuffy as I feared it would be.
I put away most everything I brought with me, and read the paper before dozing off around 7 pm, quite fatigued from the trip and three nights of very limited sleep (maybe 13-14 hours for the previous three nights at best). I slept for about 6 hours before waking up hungry -- all I had Sunday was peanuts on each of the two flights -- and stayed up for a couple of hours before dozing back off around 3:30 am and sleeping until around 11:30 am, catching me up on my sleep from the three lacking prior days. But the fire ants sure did a nice number on my left foot as it feels and looks quite unsatisfactory.
I very grateful and glad to have been able to make this trip, and particularly for those who made this possible and helped me out in a wide number of important ways.
But most of all I was very happy and proud to be able to share in the experience of witnessing my oldest niece graduate from university, with magna cum laude academic honors and achievement, and be able to see her joy and deep appreciation for successfully completing this long difficult challenge with a broad smile and deep sparkles in her eyes, as well in those of her parents, sister, relatives, friends, neighbors and others, on this most special day of hers honoring and celebrating this extraordinary wonderful landmark and fantastic day.
The best is yet to come for her especially as well as for all those reveling in this magnificent moment and the following celebration, both there in person and in spirit.
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