Category Archives: Family Life

Family Life, Holidays, USA 2016

See you later Bradley …

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That ends Bradley’s visit with us and we dropped him off at the airport in time for him to return to Chicago.
I then made a big mistake by agreeing to take Jenny and Rachael to the outlet stores at Round Rock – what could possibly go wrong with that.
 
I dropped them off at around 2:30 and luckily there was a Bass Pro shop nearby so I had a chance to wander through it. To kill some more time, I went Geocaching and chasing Munzee’s. A phone call to the girls and they were only half way around the shops and hadn’t found anything yet.
 
At 4:30 I wandered into the mall area to find them and what a sight. There were blokes standing around everywhere looking down at their phones occasionally looking up to where there other half were. I became one of them for another half an hour.
 
We started to drive back to Austin when some more shops were spotted and again I was left to go geocaching to fill in another hour.
 
At the end of all this, we were getting hungry and luckily there were a heap of restaurants nearby with the lucky one tonight being the Salt Grass Steakhouse. It was a good meal and of course big so doggie bags were required.
Rachael was dropped back at her apartment and we ended another day.
Family Life, Holidays, USA 2016

Its Friday Night Football …

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Football, Football, Football – we had a three hour drive today to get back to Austin for the last season game of the Texas Longhorns. The weather was not looking good for the game as we drove through heavy rain around Houston and then rain on and off as we got closer to Austin.
 
We had a way to fix that – buy some poncho’s and we will never need to use them. It worked as the rain held off for the game.
 
After parking at Rachaels apartment and grabbing a sandwich on the walk to the stadium, we joined 99000 other fans (mostly in burnt orange longhorn fans with some purple horned frog fans mixed in) to watch our first live American Football game. It took a while to get to our seats as they were in the nose bleed section (one row down from the very top). But what a view we got from there. We could see all of the stadium, the big screen, Downtown Austin and even wave to passengers in passing planes.
 
The first half was a close game with only one touchdown by the opposing team. The second half was the horned frogs game to the end even with a few good plays by the Longhorns. In the end the Longhorns went down 31 – 9. Most of the stadium had emptied half way through the 4th quarter when the score was 24 – 9.
 
Bradley and Rachael left early back to the apartment but we stayed to the end – after-all I paid good money for these seats.
 
Back at the apartment, it was Xmas Day a month early with presents for the kids and us as we wont see each other for Xmas this year (end of an era). Maybe next Xmas we will be all back together again.
 
After a card game of May I, it was time for Bradley to say goodbye to Rachael for 8 months as he was staying with us in the motel tonight. We have another 5 days here in Austin still.
Family Life, Holidays, USA 2016

Houston we have a problem – what is Thanksgiving …

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Happy Thanksgiving. This doesn’t mean a great deal to us as Australians but I guess we were thankful to be together as a family for a short time again this year. We wont be together again until July next year when both kids should be home again in Australia.
 
Today was time to get our space jam on with a visit to the Johnson Space Centre. Jenny and I have been here back in 1992 but this is the first visit for the kids. We did take Rachael to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida last year.
This Centre is a little different to the Kennedy Centre but there are some unique things to see and do here that do not occur in Florida.
 
Here you get to see the Mission Control that looked after the lunar missions (did they really land on the moon) and the early shuttle missions. You can also get inside a Space Shuttle as well as the 747 Shuttle Transporter which were both very interesting.
 
The other difference is the astronaut training facility which has all sorts of modules where the astronauts train in but it was very quiet today due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
 
We did our bit for the slaughter of turkeys with turkey burgers and sandwiches for lunch. 🙂
Family Life, Holidays, USA 2016

From Toilet Seats to Caves …

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It took a while to get everyone out of bed but we had one more attraction to visit before leaving San Antonio – Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Museum. I first visited Barney, 3 years ago and he was a sprightly 92 years old. His wife was still alive back then but passed not long after my visit.
 
3 years on and Barney is now 95 and although he is slowing down a little in his movements, he amazes with his memory and thought processes.
 
The kids did not know what to expect but once there and listening to Barney, they were enthralled. Barney even enlisted Rachael to help out on some restoration on one of the Geocaching seats.
 
Both the kids signed the seats from their respective Universities – Rachael on the University of Texas one and Bradley on the University of Illinois one. Barney made me sign the latest Geocaching seat (#9). I last signed the Geocaching #6 seat on 8th April in 2013 (Bradley’s birthday).
 
After an hour looking around the 1200 odd seats, we bid Barney farewell and hit the road to Houston – a 330 kilometre journey.
 
There was one more stop along the way to the Natural Bridge Caverns. We always like to visit caves when we travel and there was not a lot of fanfare with this one but it would have to be one of the best that we have visited. There were so many great formations which you could get up and personal with and they were in excellent condition despite being able to get very close to them. It involved a lot of walking up and down with minimal special effect lighting. Certainly worthwhile making the diversion.
 
It was a good drive until we hit the traffic of Houston, arriving at our motel around 8:00 pm. Our meal for the night was pizza’s from Pizza Hut where you could choose whatever you wanted for toppings and the kids certainly did.
 
Another big day is planned tomorrow at the Johnson Space Centre.
Family Life, Holidays, USA 2016

Its Roller Coaster time …

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The kids wanted to spend the day at Six Flags Fiesta today but they didn’t open til 2:00pm so it gave us a chance to head into Downtown San Antonio to have a look around.
 
First stop was the River Cruise which gives a good look at the history and restaurants of the City with a good guide and driver of the boat.
 
No visit to San Antonio is complete without visiting the Alamo and this was our next stop. It is amazing the large numbers of Mexicans visiting the site but I guess this is where they beat the Americans so it is probably a pilgrimage site for them, particularly with the new President coming in.
 
After wandering around for a while and taking in sites around Downtown it was roller coaster time so onto the Interstate to Six Flags Fiesta.
 
Whether it was the weather with threatening clouds or just because people had headed away for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, the park was very empty which meant very short waits for each ride.
 
I must be getting old or the blood thinners are affecting what I can do. I only managed 2 rides before I called it quits on the roller coasters – this getting old is crap. In days gone by, spending the whole day riding roller coasters never affected me. 
 
That’s OK – the kids were having a hoot, riding coasters that were only dreams back in the day. It is amazing how they have evolved over time and it was a shame I couldn’t ride them. If I did there was definitely a chance I would have been hauled out in a back of an ambulance.
 
They ended up kicking us out so they day ended well and all slept well.
 
Family Life, Holidays, USA 2016

What about a good BBQ …

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There was a plan for the day but it didn’t quite go to plan. Rachael had classes in the afternoon so the plan was to have lunch together and drop Rachael at Uni in the afternoon then go exploring until she finished then head to San Antonio for the night.
 
The lunch went well with a good Texan BBQ at the County Line BBQ. The waitress suggested the view at the top of Mount Bonnell on the way home which we did. You get some good views of Downtown Austin and the Colorado River.
Rachael then decided that she would skip her classes so we managed to hit the road to San Antonio a few hours early which was great but traffic was fairly heavy with us not arriving at the motel until after sunset.
 
Rather than eat out tonight, we grabbed some groceries from Walmart over the back fence and ate in, although after the big lunch at County Line, we didn’t really need to eat anything.
Family Life, Holidays, USA 2016

Texas – here we come …

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After a great week in Utah it is time to move onto our next adventure – catch up with the kids after not seeing them for 3 1/2 months. We are flying into Austin via Denver and Bradley is flying from Chicago into Austin.
 
Cindy and Allen drove us to the Salt Lake City airport and after the check in, baggage drop and TSA security check which went all too easy, we bid farewell to our Utah hosts and took the Southwest scramble for seats. 
 
With Southwest flights, you are not allocated a seat but you do get an allowance for 2 checked bags. We were lucky the first leg was about half full so managed seats next to each other but on the second leg it was full so we were in separate seats.
 
Both flights went well and we flew into Austin just after sunset, however there was still a couple of hours before Bradley flew in.
 
The car rental almost went well with getting the choice of any car in the Full size row, choosing a white Nissan Altima, but when we tried to get out they said there was a flag for some maintenance on that one so take out all the luggage and into another Nissan Altima (black this time) at the exit gate.
 
A quick drive into town and we picked up Rachael from her apartment before heading to our motel in Austin North to drop off the baggage.
 
We just had time to do this before heading back to the airport to pick up Bradley. Jenny and the kids have been hanging out for a Olive Garden meal on my dime so a late dinner was in order. Of course the meals were too big so doggie bags were in order.
 
The kids were dropped off at Rachaels apartment – Bradley was to sleep on a mattress in the closet for the night, and we headed back to our motel for the night.
Family Life, Holidays, USA 2016

Election Day USA …

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After 10 hours I decided to get up but Jenny managed 14 hours (she did go to bed a little earlier).
 
It was a little late for breakfast so some turkey sandwiches for brunch was a good idea.
 
Today we were headed to Newcastle for a couple of days and Joanna offered one of her cars for transport. The journey was supposed to take an hour and a half but after taking a couple of diversions due to taking the wrong exit we arrived to Dave and Lyn’s around an hour and three quarters later.
 
Dave and Lyn were originally in Forest Hills when we first met and last time we were over but moved to this new property 5 months ago. It was 7 acres with two homes, the smaller one for them and the larger one for Cara (their daughter) and her family.
 
After catching up with a few beers it was off to the local Italian restaurant (La Fornaretta) for a great meal. It was obviously our first time here but also Dave and Lyn’s first time here and the meal and service was well worth it.
 
Back to the house to watch the election results and even though we were staying in a Republican house, they were not all that happy with the way the result for President ended up. It was pretty interesting with the response we were seeing on Facebook from Australia.
Family Life, Holidays, USA 2016

Time for another trip to the USA …

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The kids have been in the US now for 90 days at their respective Colleges, Bradley at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and Rachael at the University of Texas in Austin, so it was time to go visit them.
 
On top of that, I have been working up to 40 hours overtime for the last 2 months so it was time for a break.
After taking my last night shift off, we headed to the airport at 6:30 am with Jenny’s brother acting as the taxi. With a bit of time to spare, it was into the Qantas Club for some breakfast before travelling Business class to Sydney. We tried for an upgrade to the big leg to San Francisco but no luck.
 
We also had no luck getting into the Qantas Club in Sydney International but did get into the little known American Express lounge which I think is better than the Qantas Club and only need an AMEX to get in.
 
The flight to San Francisco was on a Boeing 747 (I prefer the Airbus A380), but we were lucky to have a spare seat next to us so we could spread out.
 
The flight was pretty good and only 13 hours arriving at 9:30 am (7th November) after leaving from Sydney at 3:00 pm (7th November).
 
The advantage of coming through San Francisco was that there was only one other plane so getting through Immigration and Customs was a breeze and we were in the USA.
 
Only another hour travel to go on the BART to Martinez Station where Joanna picked us up. A 3 mile journey and we were sitting on the deck overlooking the Sacramento River towards the northern Bay Area.
 
I didn’t feel too bad after getting a few hours rest on the flight across but I layer down on the bed to rest the back and two hours later I woke up to a spectacular sunset.
 
Joanna had organised a “Thanksgiving” dinner for us which was great and then it was time for a big sleep.
Family Life, Geocaching, WA NT Trip 2016

Long time between Geocache stops …

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Once again we awoke and the caravan was fairly deserted as most of the grey nomads had already hit the road, gee the sound deadening qualities of this caravan are good.

Just as we left the caravan park, I received a text from the bike riders and they had just arrived at Tennant Creek and we having a rest and refuelling so we continued on our way south – they would catch us soon enough.

It wasn’t until Devils Marbles that they caught us and overtook us. We caught up with them again at around the 200 km mark as they stopped to do a “splash and dash refuel” in a rest area.

At Ti Tree, we all met up again for lunch with the bikes refuelling. I didn’t bother as there should be enough fuel to get us to Alice Springs, besides I wasn’t going to pay $1.75 a litre for diesel.

This would have been the longest distance I have driven without stopping for a Geocache. I have been up and down this road quite a few times in the last 5 years and have found all the caches in this stretch. For the record, it was 500 kilometres without a cache find this trip.

We all arrived in Alice Springs at 3:30 pm. After we all refuelled (we ended up with 10 litres of my 125 litres left in the tank), the bikes went to Alice Springs Harley for bike bits and we went across the road from them to Alice Springs Hydraulic Service for caravan bits.

When we left Jayco Darwin on Monday, they were organising for a part for the bed slideout to be shipped to Alice Springs to be ready for Alice Springs Hydraulic Service to do the work. I walked in and they looked blankly at me. It appears that they hadn’t been told the work would be carried out by their workers and also the part hadn’t arrived. After a few phone calls it appears that the part had only just left Melbourne so it will arrive after we have left Alice Springs. Looks like we will be getting it fixed in Adelaide. Hopefully Jayco extend our warranty until it is fixed.

The fun continued when we arrived at the Big 4 Caravan Park. I had booked our site for 4 days online from Tennant Creek last night and included the length of the van as requested. Apparently the online site takes no notice of the length added and just allocates the next available site. The site we had been allocated was way too small for our van.

The woman behind the desk was doing her hardest to get us onto an appropriate site with some chess moves over the 4 days when her supervisor came across and grabbed to site we were being put onto for someone else. A woman that had been here for 11 days was not happy that she was opposite where all the school tours were camping and wanted to move, so she grabbed the site that was being made ready for us and we took her site. The only problem is that she had to pack up here van to move.

We went and parked next to the site and waited for them to move, it looked like the husband was about to have a heart attack doing all the packing up while she talked with the neighbours. I know who wears the pant in that relationship. While we moved in another 2 school tour buses arrived and camped across the road from us – this could be interesting. After they were all set up, the drivers parked the buses between us and them and we didn’t hear any noise from the school kids at all.

It was $10 schnitzel night at the Todd Tavern and it was organised to meet up with the bike crew for tea and a few drinks. It was very busy but we availed ourselves to some tables outside. This will probably one of the few nights left where we can enjoy a meal outside as we are headed back to winter with a passion down south.