Monday, October 23, 2006

Mountain City

The weekend in Mountain City was quite memorable. We left Saturday around noon or so and got to the Cabela’s sporting goods humongo-store around 1:00pm. We didn’t buy anything, but we did eat and check out just about everything in the store. There was a nice 10 gauge shotgun I almost bought.

We rolled into Mountain City just about 3:00pm and were greeted by our nephew, his wife Stephanie, two of their three kids (the third was at a sleepover), and Steph’s dad Don. Oh…can’t forget the Chihuahua and the miniature wiener dog.

We chatted and had a few beers (I drank rum) while we plotted our evening. We thought about going to Antone’s to see Lou Ann Barton, Pinetop Perkins, and Carolyn Wonderland, but we decided we’d never get into the place with three names like that playing. Besides, last time we were there we did the 6th Street thing. This time we decided to do the family thing.

So we loaded up everyone into two vehicles and headed to Austin. The Warden, The Boy, and Steph’s dad Don were in our truck, the rest were in our nephew David’s. We’d decided to go for dinner and drinks at The Oasis, a restaurant that overlooks Lake Travis. The wait, which was originally estimated by the hostess to be 1-2 hours, turned out to be more like 5 minutes! We ordered drinks and munchies and commenced to having fun.

Elvis T. Busboy and The Blues Butchers were playing so the night was perfect. Actually none of us had ever heard of Elvis T. Busboy, but they were pretty good. Took ‘em a few songs to get into the groove, but once they did they weren’t too bad. The lead singer sounded like Isaac Hayes, which meant he sounded like

Chef from South Park, which was good for a few laughs. The little girl, Sarah, enjoyed the music so much she started doing a little pole dancing routine by the table. Talk about a laugh!

After dinner we saddled up and headed back down south to Mountain City, passing a couple of accidents and cops guarding a deer that had just been struck by a car. The three of us (Don, The Warden & The Boy) had so much fun on the way south. I can’t recall laughing so continuously in a long time. Don is quite a character. The drive back to Mountain City was a blast. We got there about 10:00pm.

The rest of the evening was spent sitting outside drinking around a fire David built (with much effort because of the wind) in a cast iron fire dish (or whatever the hell it’s called). The kids played (except for The Boy who, bored witless, watched TV). The three girls (The Girl, Alicia and Sugar) played on the trampoline and carried on.

Oh….the first time I walked down the steps into the back yard, I stepped smack in the middle of a sizeable hole their little wiener dog had dug conveniently centered below the last rung of stairs. My ankle (the one I’ve sprained numerous times and torn ligaments in once) rolled over and, being an experience ankle-roller, I purposely collapsed into the grass. I didn’t spill my drink, I didn’t doink my camera, and I didn’t fuck up my ankle. Whew!

Don ended up hitting the hay around 11:30. Steph, under the guise of putting Sugar to bed, followed shortly thereafter. The Warden, in prime form, went in and woke her ass up after a little prodding by me and David. She came out like a sport and kept us company. Trouble was that The Warden didn’t come back out! Now wasn’t that a bitch that she woke Steph (and dogged her for going to bed early) and then disappeared herself? About the time the four of us were ready to storm the house, we saw The Warden through the window. All we could see was her head because of the way the Venetian blinds were situated. She walked back and forth enough times that we started joking about a “Hair Shark” because that’s all you could see was her head and her hair!

After way too many laughs and drinks, we hit the hay around 2:00am.

Being cursed such as I am, I was up before sunrise. Mercifully, I was able to doze until around 7:30am.

At about 10:00am we all headed out for breakfast. It was a little Mexican place in old town Buda. It was a converted house with no signs, and the food kicked ass.

After Breakfast it was back to Mountain City. We packed up, said our goodbyes, panicked about my lost wallet which was really just stuffed in one of my shoes, and hit the road around 1:30pm. I made the drive like a champ – Headache, hangover and all. It was a fun ride back. We stopped at the brand-spanking-new Bass Pro Shops on the way back and looked around. We looked a lot at boats. We’re thinking about either a 21ft Mako or a FunTracker pontoon boat. I’m leaning toward the pontoon boat because it can take more passengers, and more passengers = more fun!
All in all, I rate this weekend in my top five weekends in recent memory. It was a fantastic time.

Sunday was spent (by me anyway) nursing a hangover!

PS
Is it just me that sucks at aligning photographs on blogger? Is there a trick?

That being said, I'll identify people here:
Green shirt: The Boy
Red shirt: David
Brown Tank: Steph
Brown pullover sweat: Alicia
White Tee: Don
Purplish blouse: The Warden
Brown blouse: The Girl
Black Tee: Yours Truly
Toddler clothes: Sarah the star!

9 comments:

The_Gator said...

The secret is....idk...but it adds more excitement to the readings.


Glad you had such a good time.

Anonymous said...

lmao at the little pole dancer!

Margaret said...

If I ever find myself in Austin, I know who I'm looking up to show us a great night out on the town.

Anonymous said...

What a great looking group of people! Sounds like everyone had lots of fun.

I've listened to Elvis T lots of times. He used to play in Lubbock at The Spoon (Texas Cafe). He always drew a big crowd and everyone had fun. He doesn't play locally as much as he used to.

Glad you saved your ankle!

jules said...

I have the same problem with photos and blogger. And I HATE that panicky feeling when you lose (or misplace) your wallet. Ugh.

Miss Cellania said...

It sounds like a good time! But I would've at least TRIED to see Pinetop Perkins.

Blogger pictures are a pain. You got to check through Preview a lot, and adjust. I often also had to re-adjust after publishing.

Carlos said...

Gator: idk...hmmm...I'm gonna look for it ;-)

WebMiz: Oh man, it was really funny!

Margie: Make sure you do!

Sheila: You're too kind. It really was a lot of fun. And you've heard of ETBB? Cool. I never had. I didn't listen too much to the music, but from what I did hear, they sound like they'd be a fun band in a small joint.

Jules: Panicky is a good word. You upload, organize, rearrange, only to be smacked in the face by some thick-lensed computer dweeb who decided that'd be a cool way to post pictures. How's your new little "friend?"

Miss Cellania: I know. I was kinda sick over it. We saw Pinetop here in San Antonio at a tiny place and he was awesome. We hung out around his table, shook his hand, took pictures, talked ho him, etc. Quite an honor. But...I'm glad we got to take the kids with us. They had a lot of fun.

jules said...

Okay, tried to leave a message on the podcast one, but it wouldn't let me. Nice stuff.

We sing we dance we steal things said...

Sounds like a wonderful weekend. Glad you survived the hangover and close call on the ankle. I used to know a chick that could fall from great heights and never spill a drop. Does the name NEY sound familiar? I never hear from her, have you? I may have made her up. Did she teach you or did you teach her? Tell the Warden Shame on her for waking poor Steph!