Texas

My cold cleared up pretty quickly after we got back. I was using Zicam, so I think that helped.

We flew to Texas on Friday, which was the start of spring break here. Our flight was oversold, so we volunteered to take a bump. We ended up getting to Houston earlier, and we each earned $300 towards a future flight. We had a weird experience when we picked up our rental car where we were told to pick any car we wanted (huh?). Unfortunately Duane was a deer in the headlights, so we ended up with a stinky Nissan (it was ok).

We thought we would try to eat at a bbq place near the airport. As we drove there, a huge cloud of fire burst into the air. We determined that it may have been a transformer blowing up, but we didn't see anything in the news. The traffic was nuts. We found the restaurant (shack), but it wasn't open. The area surrounding downtown Houston seemed to be a giant strip mall with a lot of traffic. We left Houston and went from the strip mall to the middle of nowhere.

We got to our hotel in College Station (Courtyard Marriot). It is definitely on the low end of the Marriot chain. It was also overrun with tweens in town for a state basketball tournament. The in-room wireless did not work, but the tv had a lot of channels! We looked on Chowhound to find a place to eat. We went to the Chicken Oil Company. It was food anyway. It was also spring break in College Station which means everyone who can leave, does.

The next day we went to the Bush Museum and Library. It was interesting. The weather was nice (80s) and we were in shorts. We had a friend that was coming in from Tucson for the wedding and picked a different hotel to stay at. He called us from the motel and asked if he could stay with us (his motel was a nasty, filthy place). The wedding turned out to be pretty nice. We didn't know anyone though so we didn't stay too long. It was kind of disappointing to travel that far and spend 10 minutes talking to a friend you haven't seen in 3 years.

We were on another oversold flight on the way back and took another voluntary bump. We thought we were going to have to stay overnight in Minneapolis, but we ended up making our connection. We earned another $300 each. Duane is already thinking of places to fly to.

The weather has been ok, but there is a chance of snow in the forecast. No more snow please!!