Thursday, March 18, 2010

A Great Spring Break

I love the energy created when loved ones come together and my sister Diane's trip during Spring break week has confirmed it.


Just the excitement of planning the trip promotes feelings of joy and enthusiasm. I phoned Diane the night before she was leaving to fly to DFW. All we have to do is our funny laughs and this goes on for a couple of minutes. Her daughter, Emily, hears one end of the conversation and remarks that we don't even need to speak words. No, our bond is so great, our laughs are stronger than words. When she arrived we hugged and held each other which fills our hearts with joy.


Our trip was planned to tour the Texas Military Forces Museum in Austin, TX. The memorial for World War II is for the 36th Division (Texas National Guard) which is the outfit our dad was in. We have several items of my dad's that we are donating to help provide more history for others viewing the museum. Our younger brother, Bob, was driving up from Houston to join us. His wife Kathy and son Andrew also joined us. We regret that the youngest sister could not attend, but a much needed family retreat with her daughter and husband called her to Florida. But she was there in spirit (and cell phone).


Any time we get together, nothing goes how we anticipate. Some find this frustrating, we find it adventurous and typical. We of course got lost about three times before we found the museum. Then at the security gate, the guard checks our trunk. He asked if we were drinking the 5-6 bottles of wine we had stashed, and we had to explain that those were to last our whole trip... besides, wine is not sold in Breckenridge.


The museum is held in a hangar on Camp Mabry. Very few were visiting so we had the place almost to ourselves. We told the curator that we were first interested in the 36th Division section and he told us to go to the office and ask one of the volunteers, Vernon Barker, to give us a tour. Vern also served in the 36th Division. Here was this little old man sitting off to the corner and when he realized that these two women were asking for him, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. He was so happy to give us a tour. Vern was 16 years old when he joined the 36th in 1941. We heard his entire life story. Although I got antsy to look at the artifacts, I realized that my purpose was to allow this hero to divulge his incredible experience to us. We were in one room that held photos of soldiers from the 36th and thought that was all there was to it because we listened to Vern's stories for about 45 minutes. Once our little brother arrived, we discovered a great big room that held dioramas, film footage of actual battles, and lots more history! We all left that museum with renewed gratitude of the courage and sacrifices our dad and his buddies did for our country. I highly recommend this museum as it imparts a lot of knowledge and history.


Of course we were starving after our tour and were talking to the curator about a good place to go eat. He informed us that this was the SxSW music/film festival weekend (which was verified by the gigantic traffic jam once we left the Camp). So, my plan of finding the perfect spot on the river next to the old armadillo headquarters was nixed. There would be NO WAY to get there within 4 hours. So, I got us lost only two or three times before I found Chuy's on Hwy 71. I told everyone that this place came highly recommended. And it did not disappoint us. But hunger is not too choosy. I asked for directions to a nearby park so that my brother, sister and I could look through my dad's foot locker once again and become nostalgic. So I drove and got us lost for another 30 minutes just to find a park. We could of just found a shady part of any old parking lot because we never left the parking lot of the park! Oh well, it is still an adventure!


My brother and family had to get back to Houston, so we sent them off and Diane and I made our way to downtown Austin. Forgot about the traffic though. I only got lost once or twice. We were looking for the statue of Stevie Ray Vaughn. We drove by it only twice before we found Waterloo Records and asked them for directions (which was go back to where we just were 30 minutes earlier). By this time, the sun was setting so our pic of SRV is not too bright or clear.


Diane had not been to Austin for about 35 years and did not know about 6th Street. She was very impressed! There were so many people (and it was only 8:00 p.m.). We looked like two old hags cruising in my town car gazing at the rif raff. Diane's frustration level was high because of my driving skills (or lack thereof). It is not easy being only 5 foot tall and try to see over the steering wheel of my gigantic vehicle. So, finally we thought it would be easy to get a nice motel room off highway 183. Have you ever had trouble going to a motel that is right by a razzle dazzle? (You know, a razzle dazzle is where there are about 8 - 20 freeway levels all crossing at the same spot.) So, add another 40 minutes of getting lost trying to get to our motel. West Texas is so much simpler with flat square blocks. You miss one turn, just turn at the next and make the block. But no, life can't be that simple at the state's capital.


By the time we checked into our room, we needed to eat again. Not wanting to waste another hour driving around the razzle dazzle, we walked over to Applebees for a quick bite. When I spoke with my little sister later that we just got back from eating there, she says, "With all the great restaurants in Austin, you picked Appelbees?" If there was a slap feature on the telephone, I would have used it. But the highlight was when we walked out of the restaurant, Diane says, "Why did they change the name of our motel?" She was looking to the north and our motel was to the west. She can get lost in her driveway.


We realized early Monday that the SxSW festival would be minimal since a few people still work in this country. The weather was cloudy and we enjoyed walking the grounds of the old American Legion building overlooking Barton Springs. I had told Diane about the train car that had been donated to the Legion and it was still there, donated by France to the US soldiers for their effort in WW2. The train car was called the 40 and 8 meaning it was big enough to hold 40 soldiers and 8 horses. Kinda cool. Then a tour of the State Capitol was in store. The guard wouldn't let me stand in a certain driveway to take a picture (which was totally blocked by barriers anyway) but no security searching us or looking through our purses inside the Capitol. Go figure.

We drove around the UT campus looking for landmarks we would recognize when we were partying in Austin in 1974. It was hard to find something! Except for the UT campus -- and even that looks different! Diane wanted to see the new stadium, so we only got lost about 2 times before we found it. We were able to look through the athletic offices of the stadium and look at football history. Really cool stuff!

I don't know why Diane thought we would find the Rusty Nail (a really cool bar in 1974).... I had a hard time finding it back then! But someone told us that the Taco Flats was still there! Not that it was open, but they still displayed the old sign out in front of the new establishment. So we traveled to that very spot and the old sign says: Fajita Flats.
Not the same I think. I don't even think they HAD fajitas back in 1974. But we found an old beer garden over by the campus and enjoyed a burger and some Lone Star Beer before we departed.

I thought it would be easy to get to Breckenridge from Austin. I got a bill from the TX Highways for 60 cents for being on a toll road. I don't even remember getting on a toll road! But for about a mile (60 cents worth) I got on this road to get over to the old highway I remember traveling on back in 1974. After that we had a nice visit, stopped and got peanut patties and enjoyed our time talking about everybody.

Once we got to Tommy's lake house, the town was closing up for the night. It was about 6:00 p.m. We thought we would treat Diane to a local Italian place (the only one) but it was closed on Monday. So, the other Mexican restaurant was our treat. We would have had some more wine, but they don't sell any in Stephens County. But they do know how to re-fry beans.

So we showed Diane around the town and all the old historic landmarks - his grandpa's old rock house, the Buckaroo stadium, the Buckaroo florist, Buckaroo mural, etc. So that took about 10 minutes.

The rainy and cold weather prevented us from enjoying the sights at the lake, but Diane seemed to enjoy seeing Tommy's old and new stomping grounds. We made our trip back to Fort Worth talking about the old times (before Interstate 20) going through the small towns to get to the big city.

I invited a couple of ladies that I work with to my house for drinks and snacks and lots of chatting. The enjoyed it immensely and can't tell who is crazier - me or Diane. I vote Diane. She was crazy first.

We got a lot of things done, however. We looked through lots of boxes of music and memorabilia that my mother had saved. We had a new appreciation of her keeping all of these things. It was a wonderful to relive those memories.

As all good things come to an end, Diane had to go back home on St. Patty's day. Just getting to be with my sister was another treasured memory I truly grateful for.