The one state that is probably less likely to have gun control laws than Idaho is Texas. Today we went out to a public shooting range. It was packed. I saw tons of guns and big shiny belt buckles, just like you would expect. I got to shoot an M4 (.223 rounds), a .270 Winchester, and a 12 gauge shotgun (trap shooting). We had a great time, and my shoulder is a bit sore now.
I would say I did the best with the M4, it had a pistol grip and was almost easier to shoot standing up than it was to try to brace it on something at the bench. I put a bunch of rounds in the target at 50 yards. I did okay with the .270 at 100 yards, but the sights are off and it’s kind of hard to compensate, especially when you only have about 8 rounds left to fire.
I’ve also never gone trap shooting, and that was pretty fun. Makes me want to get a shotgun. I hit about 6 or 7 targets out of 20. Not the best, but not bad for a beginner, either.
We went to the Waffle House this morning (mainly out of nostalgia from watching Dead Like Me), it wasn’t very good, although the service was quick. They only had two types of waffles, but you could add chocolate chips if you wanted. The hash browns were pretty decent. The booth was so small I had to pick my plate up to eat off it with my wife sitting next to me, there wasn’t enough elbow room for two people in their booths. They are most certainly not bigger in Texas.
On our way back from the Beermans, driving along Farm Road 1960 in Humble TX we hit some bad traffic, with tons of police cruisers with their lights on blocking the road. Turns out there was a really bad accident, some poor dude on a motorcycle bought the farm. Other than that, I have no details about what happened. I just saw the body covered in a white sheet.
It’s a terrible thing to joke about, but that’s how some people (like me) deal with things like this. I said something to the effect of That’s something nobody wants to do just before Christmas. At least on accident.”
Tonight we drove almost an hour to get to the Pizza Factory (there’s one that’s no more than a 2 minute drive from our home in Idaho), to take the whole family to pizza and play in the arcade. We had a great time playing ski-ball and collecting enough tickets to get a plush toy for one of the kids. The arcade wasn’t big, but we had a blast.
We went to Whataburger, which I’d never heard of. It’s something like Texas’ version of the In’n'Out Burger. I guess. The burgers were pretty big, and reasonably priced. The onion rings were quite good, but not as good as the Charburger back in Hood River OR.
The hotel we’re staying at is in Greensville*, also known to locals as Gunsville. This further supports my theory that someone was shot in the bed I’m sleeping in. There’s a gunshot-sized hole in the comforter on the bed. Lorien keeps trying to convince me that it’s a cigarette burn, but I’d rather believe that someone was shot than think of someone laying there smoking.
Today we went to play 9 holes of golf, my first game in 17 years. It’s been a long time. It was fun, though we had a big group, 9 people. We split into two groups, but it was still slow going despite the fact that we were playing best ball. It was also extremely muddy. My brother-in-law Jason did a sweet 180° turn in his cart through the muddy grass. My sister-in-law Cami got her cart stuck and we had to push it out of the bog, my shoes are totally soaked and muddy.
Anyway, we’re having a good time and about to get in to a Settlers of Catan game, so I have to go.
* I’ve since found out it’s Greenspoint, which is actually funnier when you s/Greens/Gun/
I had an epiphany today, each day I’m going to try to post about something that isn’t bigger in Texas. Today, in the EHB grocery store, we bought egg nog. We bought 4 half-gallon containers because they don’t have gallon containers like they do back home. So egg nog is not bigger in Texas.
I have to tell you about this place we’re staying. I’ve been here about a half hour and I couldn’t go to bed without iterating through them.
First impressions are: not so bad. It wasn’t too hard to find (it’s quite close to the freeway, actually). Second impression: the night clerk was really helpful and nice.
The room was on the second floor. I attempted to commandeer a luggage cart, but the night clerk told me it wouldn’t roll up the stairs—the elevator was out of service. This would have been an easy trip with a working elevator.
When I opened the room, the first thing that caught my attention was the smell of paint. It’s quite strong in here. Probably covering up some bloodstains was my first thought about the smell.
The door doesn’t close all the way by itself, you have to push on it heavily to get it to latch. I’m going to have to tell my wife that when she gets back from picking up her parents at the airport.
There is no closet, but I found a short bar near the window that someone imagined would be good enough to hang stuff on.
When I turned the shower on, I got cold water (that’s a good thing when it’s 75°F outside and you’re used to 25°F at this point. But, when I turned the sink on I saw very brown water come out of it. Just for a few seconds, though, then it turned clear. I bought two sodas from the vending machine down the hall because I was thirsty. Water would have been fine, but the machine doesn’t have any, and I’m not drinking from that sink.
The shower was nice, the towels were small (what hotel doesn’t have small towels??). I brought my own shampoo as I’ve come to realize you can never count on it being there for you. There is, actually, a shampoo container on the sink (”sunflower and grapefruit essences”, in case you were wondering), but I have my doubts whether it will be replaced during our 9-night stay.
The Internet connection here is secured, but I didn’t check us in and my wife doesn’t think to ask about such things, so until I get the WEP key I’m writing this in notepad.
The air conditioner works pretty good, it’s been on about 15 minutes and has cooled the room significantly from what it was at when I arrived. I did, however, have to yank the housing off it to get to the controls and switch it on. It looks like it’s going to fall off, and yet it remains hanging there, as if to say “I’m going to wait until you fall asleep before clanging loudly to the ground.”
There is a seam in the flooring right down the main walkway of the room, between the beds and TV. I know this because I have to walk along it, and it is most woefully un-level. They say everything is bigger in Texas, and I can certainly testify that the difference in heights of their floorboards certainly are bigger than anywhere else I’ve stayed.
And now for the good news! Fortunately, I’m not really having to pay for any of this. Just the tax on the two rooms: one for Lorien and I, one for her parents. They are members of some kind of business barter system called Itex, and are using some of their “Itex money” so all of us can stay here and not be exposed to 9 children at 7am (or 5am on Christmas!). So for about $160 we’ve got two rooms for 9 nights. I love my wife’s family, but I’m very glad to have a private place to return to every evening now.
The time change (from GMT-8 to GMT-6) isn’t too bad, and surprisingly enough I got up real early this morning, so I’m trying to keep myself awake by writing this and so I can let my wife kDnow about the non-latching door issue. Local time right now is 1:45am, but the Coca-cola in me says that’s just fine.
Welcome to Texas. It’s a foreign country. As evidence, I present to you the space cow I saw in the airport:
I knew I wouldn’t need it, so I left my coat at home. We flew in last night at 11:30pm local time, and the temperature was in the 70s. And it’s humid. The trip wasn’t too bad, despite the 4 hour layover in Salt Lake City. It would have been a longer layover, but we left almost 45 minutes late out of Spokane because the plane was covered in snow.
I’ve been up since 6am local time, which is 4am back home. I’m beginning to wonder how much sleep I’m going to get on this “vacation”…
We’re off to Houston, Texico tomorrow. We will be there for ten days, and not back until the 28th. I don’t know how much Internet access I’ll have, so I can’t promise I’ll write much between now and then.