catching up

so... again, it's been a while since I last posted... I can get lazy about updating my blog [as you may have already noticed.]

The main point of this entry is to recap the road trip I took with my travel group back on Feb 6-8.

Friday night we get picked up in our carpools and meet in downtown Fort Worth at a Chipotle there. I had already eaten before I got picked up, so I was just hanging out. One other car had arrived before the car I was riding in and when we got there they were already proposing a little detour to the carnival that was going on just down the street. Well, after we got the message that one of the other cars had gotten a flat en route and they would be delayed about an hour, Brian, Andrew, Angela, Misty, and I all headed over to the carnival. It was free to get in - so bonus there. Brian paid for a ride called "the Kamikaze" for all of us. It was crazy fun. After that we wandered around and then ended up getting a funnel cake. I had never had one before. Sure, I had seen them around, but never sampled one myself. As we were finishing up our funnel cakes and walking back toward the car we got texts and calls that we'd better get our butts back to Chipotle, since the other car had arrived and the group was ready to go. When we got out to Abilene the owner of the guest houses gave us a guided tour. They were VERY nice. If you ever have occasion to go to Abilene with a group [I know, why would you?] I would HIGHLY recommend these guest houses. Our group occupied all 3 of the houses. That night we all ended up in house #3 [we referred to them based on the order they were shown to us on the tour] and ended up playing a rather rousing game of taboo. The most fun part of that was yelling out fake 'funny' answers when it was the other team's turn - to throw them off their game. Ahh, good times.

Saturday was our 'photo scavenger hunt.' The goal was to take pictures of Texas redneck/country things such as: a dead animal, cactus, windmill, historical marker, sign with the word "gun" on it, etc. The list had at least 30 or 40 items. We divided into 4 groups of 4 and went separate ways. We all met up in San Angelo for lunch, and then went back out for more photos. We met again at a steakhouse for dinner in "Buffalo Gap." That evening we reviewed and had some good laughs at the photos - and counted up all the points - with some hotly debated items... After the photo sharing there was fun of all kinds in all places. One group member brought the whole Rock Band package with the X-box, so there was always that going on [with certain instances of horrible singing.] There was a lot of sitting around socializing, and just before midnight I instigated a polar bear swim in the pool at house #1, and got a few other willing participants to join me. And of course, there was also a "throwing in fully clothed" incident or two... or three... Good times.

Sunday was kind of a "take it easy" day. We got IHOP takeout for breakfast and played RockBand some more, then drove home in the afternoon. Definitely a fun and VERY memorable trip. Photos can be seen here.