Day 12 - Monday 21st September 2015
Written by Kev
We awake fairly
early, have breakfast and are packed and into The Beast by
9.00am.
Today we are driving to San Antonio to see our friends Sharon and
Keith and Sharon’s son, Evan. It’s around 450 miles, so
Matt and I are splitting the driving.
It’s a
long drive and takes over 8 hours, although we do stop for lunch
at a particularly fine establishment called Twin Peaks. This is a
restaurant chain similar to Hooters, but with a backwoods theme.
The servers are dressed like mini lumberjacks with tiny checked
shirts and shorts. Without going in to graphic detail, I reckon
the sales of push up bras around these restaurants must be above
the national average. I do like to keep abreast of the latest
dining trends. This place might have it’s knockers, but
I’m not one of them, I don’t want to make a boob.
I think I’ve finally got that off my chest.
The food is reasonable, but no more. Tam and I share the chicken
fried chicken and beef salad. The chicken is good, but the salad
is swimming in vinaigrette. The beer is served at 29°F and has
ice forming in it – lovely on a hot day, which this
certainly is. It’s 97°F outside.
We fill up with
fuel and continue on our journey, finally arriving on the
outskirts of San Antonio at 5.00pm.
Sharon is there to meet us. After hugs and greetings she shows us
her lovely house. It’s beautiful, especially the swimming
pool. Sharon’s husband, Keith, arrives shortly afterwards
and a little later her son, Evan. Sharon, Keith and Evan came to
the UK and spent a few days with us in July, so it’s not
long since we last saw them.
Keith makes
margaritas and we sit outside by the pool and catch up.
Sharon gives both Deb and Matt and me and Tam a Texas flag in a
presentation case and a certificate to show that it’s been
flown over the Capitol Building. It’s a wonderful gift and
we’ll find a suitably prominent place to display it when we
get home.
Sharon, Keith
and Evan are taking us out to Top Golf for the evening. The 8 of
us can fit in The Beast, so I volunteer to drive.
Top Golf is an enormous driving range with targets. There are
many booths over 3 levels where you sit and eat and drink while
taking it in turns to hit balls. It’s very clever as you
touch the screen to bring up your name, it then knows which is
your ball and you aim at the targets at varying distances,
scoring points depending on how close to the pin you are.
I start off slowly as I haven’t hit a golf ball for nearly
two years, but I gradually improve and manage to win at the end.
This could be due to the fact that I’m the only one not
drinking. Sharon particularly has problems. No matter where she
aims the ball slices off to the right. We sympathise with her and
offer advice. At least we do after we’ve stopped laughing.
We have several rounds of drinks (Pepsi for me) and food brought
to the booth. I have a tuna sandwich and fries. We all agree that
this was a really good night. Not only do we have fun playing
golf, but we also get to hang out with old friends and enjoy
their company.
At the end Keith insists on paying for everything. It turns out
that Texans are every bit as generous as Oklahomans.
We drive back
to Sharon and Keith’s house. I forgot to mention we are
staying there tonight before we move to a hotel tomorrow. We sit
outside in the garden and I get to enjoy a couple of beers. Deb
is particularly impressed in the large bug zapper they have that
fries any insects that fly into it. She giggles with ghoulish
delight every time there is a ‘Fzzztt’ noise as one of
the little creatures meets its end.
We’re pretty tired after the long drive, so it’s off to
bed at midnight.
