Friday, March 19, 2010

I've Got Sunshine....Before a Cloudy Day

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Morning came all too soon Friday. However, my stomach was awake long before I was...growling the whole time. I'll admit that it was nice to hear the wind blowing around me and the trees swaying. The lake was gorgeous at sunrise, and the air felt nice after curling up in a tight ball all night trying to stay warm. I zipped the tent shut as Mr. Upandaround headed out to help some guys unload trucks off of trailers.

After slipping on my jeans and a t-shirt, I threw my hair into a bump-it & pony and stepped outside. Using a water bottle from the nearby cooler, I wet my toothbrush and enjoyed the minty clean feeling from my favorite toothpaste. I was ready to go.

I met up with Mr. Let'sgetyousomething to eat and we hopped into the truck to head to the closest McDonald's for breakfast. Where's that you ask? Brenham, TX was the verdict. Therefore, I plugged it into our handy-dandy GPS, Jane, and waited for her to locate us. "No valid GPS signal"-great.

We browsed the iphone to see if we could find it. Driving around in the historical part of Brenham, we ran into a mailman an hour later on a oneway street and asked for directions. His response was, "You are a long ways from McDonald's." The sweet blue-eyed, white-haired man gave us turn-by-turn directions that led us straight into the parking lot. On the way there, I got to see places like this:
Food...ymmm.

Once we pulled through the drive-thru, we made it back into Somerville to stop at a grocery store for lunch meat and drinks. Ham=$5, Cheese=$4, Bread=$2.50, Chips x 2= $8, Fruit snacks= $4...Seriously, it came up to $60 when we added in ice, drinks, and lysol to clean the porta-potty prior to using!

Back at the campgrounds the rest of our crew was starting to get hungry. With that being said, we offerred to take them back into town (since we knew the way there this time) so they wouldn't have to pile into a tiny truck one of their friends had driven. This time, we went straight to Walmart (which was apparently across the bridge from McDonalds). Man, we could have saved a fortune!

After they checked out, we stopped by Jack-in-the-box so they could get "cat food tacos"...don't ask. Then, we drove back to the campgrounds, again.

Warm and sunny...a perfect springtime day. Only, it was the last day of winter, and we were due for a blizzard the following day. We walked (and walked) the show, looking each and every truck over...twice. Then, we were bored. We sat in the pickup and ate our sandwiches with the windows rolled down, contemplating what to do about our current situation. After a day at the show, we were ready to go...already.

We pulled the truck down by the lake and I kicked off my boots to let my toes see the sunshine. It's been a while! We watched the people around us and talked to each other while sitting on the tailgate. Then, we drove around to the other side of the campgrounds to see the other cars that were there. Not too long after, the wind started to change and the sky turned gray.

Clouds.

Growing up in Oklahoma, we were both used to the wind. However, we had never experienced weather quite like we had back in December. So, when the weatherman said a storm was moving in, we wanted to get out.

We asked some of the people around us that knew the passengers we brought down if they could find someone else to pull the trailer back. Immediately they said that they would do it. One of the guys said his Avalanche had a trailer hitch on it and he wouldn't mind at all. Plus, he could give one of the guys a ride home and would find a way to get the others back with the rest of their friends. Man were we relieved! We called the guy that had told us to go pick up the trailer in the first place and let him know that we weren't planning on staying the whole time when we started out. He told us, "Man, it's not your responsibility. You've got other plans. I'll find them a ride home. Thanks for helping out!" We left him with the trailer hitch and headed out 90miles to Austin, TX.

The ride there was definitely one of worry. We didn't want to leave the guys hanging, but we hadn't planned on driving a trailer back to town either. Besides, the main reason we had made the trip was to check on getting our flooring from a manufacturer down in Austin. We couldn't really afford the extra gas of hauling a trailer AND driving back 90miles to pick them up and go back home.

After speaking with Jake (the guy we left the hitch with), we felt much better and decided to let it go. So, we followed Jane's voice to get to the city. Little did we know, it was some rock week down there and everyone and their dogs decided to come. Hotel after hotel, we received the same response, "Austin is booked." This left us searching...for 3 hours...for a place to sleep.

Literally, we were looking up nearby hotels, calling the ones that were up ahead of us so we could make it in time, and continuing to drive after we were rejected. Hungry and sleepy, we kept on going until we heard the yes...

We finally found a place to stay in Temple, TX. Too bad this was over an hour and a half north from where we needed to be the next day. Again, no dinner. Oh well, at least we were blessed enough to find a place. (And the bathroom sure beat the porta-potty)




Until tomorrow...sleep.

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