A travel day today into a new timezone and also new climate. We were heading from the warmth of Texas to the frigid temperatures of Colorado.

 

There was no easy way to the airport with all roads around Austin in grid lock but we finally got there with an hour to spare. Time for the suitcase shuffle. It ended up that we only had to move stuff from one bag to another to get them all under 50 lbs and it was not from the suitcase we thought it would be.

 

Just after takeoff there was a “moment”. We took off at the usual angle but we were only at about 3000 feet when the plane leveled off and the engines were dropped right back. It appeared to be only just enough thrust to keep us moving forward. Another couple of minutes at this altitude then the engines spun up again and up we went to the usual cruising altitude. All I can think is that there may have been a near miss with another aircraft. I guess we will never know.

There were no more mishaps and we were soon landing in Denver, however there was no gates free so we waited out on the tarmac until one came free.

 

It certainly was a lot cooler here than in Austin with both of us soon grabbing jumpers.

 

Picked up the car then picked up some supplies and motored down the 70 towards the mountains. The highway was 2 to 3 lanes in each direction for most of the trip but the amazing thing was the rapidly reducing outside temperature.

It was novel when it reached 0C but then it kept going down … -1C … -2C … -3C … -4C … -5C … -6C … -7C … -8C … -9C, when was it going to stop. When we arrived in Breckenridge it had dropped to -12C and the sun was still out. We were not ready for this.

 

It was interesting driving a rental car not really set up for snow and ice on the road but the rules are not as strict here as in Australia. Stopping and starting on ice is fun.

 

We found our accommodation OK and it is very nice. We booked it through Air BnB. It is a two bedroom condo (with 2 bathrooms) of which we have one bedroom and share the rest of the condo with the owners Anna and Dustin as well as Indy the Golden Retriever. It was still -12C so it was a quick emptying out of the car without slipping on the ice and snow.

 

An old school mate, Paul was also in town with his wife Sophie so we headed out to meet up at Mi Casa Mexican to catch up and have a meal. It was good night and we made plans to meet up tomorrow and spend the day skiing. Of course the meals were huge so looks like leftovers for another night.

 

On returning to the condo we chatted with Anna and Dustin (our hosts) before hitting the hay.

Tomorrow is going to be our first day on the slopes.

There is not a lot to say about today, it was a bit of a lazy day to recharge. Jenny needed to do some shopping, Rachael wanted to do some shopping so we drove her around after her classes which made it easy as she didn’t need to take buses all over the place.

 

For dinner tonight, we met up with the Huttons for an Italian meal at Winflo Osteria on 6th Street. As usual for Aussies, we were the last ones left but it was a good night to finish our stay in Austin.

It was time for a day of rest and with Rachael needing to get some study and assignments done, we slept in and left her alone.

 

Once we arose, it was time to do another visit to Wallyworld (Walmart) to pick up a few things including another suitcase.

 

Rather than eat out, we had a home put together meal of chicken and salad. 

 

A very quiet day and well deserved rest day.

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.

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.

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. 🙂

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.

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.

 

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.