Day Twenty-Six Austin (TX) and Toodling About

Long, arduous toodling, but still toodling. And taxing, for both me and mom. Which is why I have made the unilateral decision to have an extra day of rest here in Austin. Sure it will put us back in Geneva a day later, but I think we can both use the time to recoup our energies before the final push. Oh, and a good friend here in Austin is having a BBQ at their place on Wednesday and I don't want to miss it. Other than that, rest! Oh, and I need to buy some duct tape. Which might actually be used to fix a duct. How weird is that??

So back to the day behind. Enough of this looking ahead stuff! :) Since I am in Texas, I was determined to go to the most recently opened Saucer, in Sugar Land (near Houston). It was a long drive, but shorter because of my clever, clever, GPS. It took less than three hours! Yay! A short, hop and a skip sort of drive. Wow, it is weird that I think that three hours is a short drive. Almost like when I lived in Texas. Anyway, we got out and got down there at lunch time.

Mom noticed the Saucer first! What a great location they have. Right at the entrance to City Walk! It is a decent sized Saucer - not as large as the Saucers in Memphis or Little Rock, but still a good size. It wasn't all that busy when we got there. Joe, a key employee, took the time to chat a little right off the bat. Actually, over the next couple of hours, most of the management said hello! And I had met most of them at other times in other places. What a small world, the Saucer world really is. Our server, Chelsea, took really good care of us. She even brought me an extra cup of ice! And made a fresh pot of coffee for mom. I hope I remembered to tip her...Mom and I shared a Reuben-esque for lunch. I also had two beers - Pecan Porter on Nitro - yummy! And an IPA from someone around here. It was good, not great. Otherwise I might actually remember its name. I only had two because I had intended to stop at the San Antonio Saucer to get the straight poop on just how far along Frank is on his plates. I am guessing he has hit thirty by this point. Or maybe not quite yet. Anyway, we took a great group picture! Thank you Sugar Land Saucer for a lovely visit! Next time I am in the area, I will definitely stop in again!

Next stop, the Alamo. I hadn't realized it was so far from San Antonio to Houston. Wow, right triangles are amazing...We did eventually get there, after half a bag of sunflower seeds on my part. Sadly, there is no parking really close to the site. Which meant that mom and I had to walk from where I did eventually find parking, to the attraction. Joy. After some time, we managed to get inside, where it was way cooler! Those old time architects sure could build them! Oh, wait, they had installed air conditioning. Never mind... The actual building is teeny. Weeny even. But we were there. I only hope that mom actually remembers The Alamo...

Something I thought mom might enjoy was a river cruise along the river walk. Walking, obviously, was not an option. It actually wasn't too hard to get to the boat. And the boats were loading and leaving at a rapid pace. Luckily, it was really easy for mom to get on and get seated. The tour was a little canned, but mom seemed to enjoy it. Well, she liked it a lot more than I did. Don't get me wrong, I had a nice time, but it was not great. She mentioned how good the tour guide was at least five times. Maybe she will mention it again today. Anything that makes her that content, can't have been a bad thing!

After the tour, I stood her in the lobby of a hotel while I went in search of the car. It was right where I left it, fortunately, and I got back before she got anxious enough to wander off on her own looking for me. That is one of the troubles of traveling with her - leaving her someplace alone is a smidge worrifying.

The drive to Austin wasn't too long. We opted for dinner back here, rather than in San Antonio. One of my Daily Challenge friends suggested a restaurant partly owned by her nephew. "Bacon" was an intriguing name, so that is where we dined.

Interesting place - very Austin-like. Small, straightforward, laid-back. Mom and I split a hamburger - that had bacon in the burger! I added a couple of slices of bacon to it. And they had a bacon aoli for me to dip my delicious french fries in - they were almost shoe string potatoes. And they gave us a lot of them! Great dinner choice!

Back at Sam's we crashed pretty quickly. I watched a couple of episodes of Stargate Atlantis before setting my head to pillow for the night.

Sugar Land Saucer daytime staff!

The Alamo!

River Walk Boat Tour

Yummy burger and fries at Bacon in Austin!