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Trip and such
Jan. 24th, 2009 08:40 pmOK, I guess it's about time to get this down.
Sunday, we got a late start. As in probably about 3 hours later than we were originally planning on. I would have been happy with a Hotzi from QT, but Jos wanted a real breakfast, so we stopped at the Denny's by my job. (Denny's now has Breakfast Burritos! They are GOOD!)
I had done a trip planner on the local Gasbuddy.com website, and we followed it fairly well on the way out to San Antonio. Filled up in Tuscon AZ, Las Cruces NM, Kent TX, then we basically skipped the last one, and arrived at the hotel pretty much on fumes. (As mentioned in my/his posts, I drove to Tuscon, Jos drove to Las Cruces, I drove to Kent (exit 176) (I've stopped at that gas station before, on the trips we've done across Texas so many times... and I really have no idea exactly WHY there is a gas station there, unless it's far enough down to McDonald observatory that they need to fill up for the drive?) then Jos drove for awhile, but he was so tired that we switched fairly soon, and I drove the rest of the way to SA. We called the hotel to let them know we were going to be a late check-in.
the hotel we stayed at was the Comfort Suites Near Seaworld, that we found through hotels.com. (I'm sure most of you who do much traveling already have your favorite site like that, but I definitely have to recommend hotels.com if you don't! We got a very nice rate for the hotel through them, and it was an excellent hotel! We don't do a lot of traveling, but Comfort Suites is at the top of our list when we do in the future!)
Jos's uncle, who we went out there for, actually lives about a mile from the hotel.
Monday, I wore my kilt (basically for the first time, other than a couple hours around the apartment) and I think I surprised Uncle Peter. I've only met him twice before, when his band played here in Phoenix (the second link is one of the official band photos. Peter is keyboardist, on left side), and both were for short periods of time. So the first time he really meets me for much time, I'm wearing a kilt. ;) I did get a compliment from a waitress at the Denny's we ate breakfast at Monday (got up too late for the hotel's breakfast.)
Got the pass so we could get on base ourselves. Went to The Alamo and the RiverWalk. Took the boatride on the RiverWalk which was very interesting. I did pick up a new bolo tie there, since I could not find mine before we left. Ate at one of the Mexican restaruants, and then headed back to the hotel. crashed faily early, because we were both fairly tired after the late night before. Watched some of the news regarding Obama's inauguration.
Tuesday was the actual retirement ceremony. Met Uncle Peter's commander, and his cousin (John Conn), who was the only other family member able to make it. (Jos was the only blood relative.) Jos got to participate in the ceremony a bit, pinning one of the pin's on Peter's lapel.
After the ceremony, we went back to the hotel for a bit, then Peter picked us up, picked up John, and headed back downtown. Swung by the Alamo again, and back down to the RiverWalk. Ate at another Mexican restaurant, and basically talked for probably about 4 hours. (Actually, the others did the vast majority of the talking. I did my wallflower thing again. but after all, they're family and most of the talk was about family members...) Then back to the hotel, where I watched some of the Inaugural Balls, while Jos did some computing.
Wednesday, we decided to not get onto I10 for awhile, rather Jos drove on smaller state routes to Kerrville. Like I said at that time, the area is beautiful, even this time of year. (I did the trip planner again on GasBuddies, but that was pretty much useless. Most of the stations it gave us that time were CostCo and Sam's Club, neither of which we belong to... They need to have a way to block those from the trip planners.)
Jos drove all the way through Texas, and to Deming NM, where we ate supper. I drove for awhile, but switched not all that far into Arizona, I was close to falling asleep while driving (NOT a good thing!) and having trouble keeping my eyes focused.
Sunday, we got a late start. As in probably about 3 hours later than we were originally planning on. I would have been happy with a Hotzi from QT, but Jos wanted a real breakfast, so we stopped at the Denny's by my job. (Denny's now has Breakfast Burritos! They are GOOD!)
I had done a trip planner on the local Gasbuddy.com website, and we followed it fairly well on the way out to San Antonio. Filled up in Tuscon AZ, Las Cruces NM, Kent TX, then we basically skipped the last one, and arrived at the hotel pretty much on fumes. (As mentioned in my/his posts, I drove to Tuscon, Jos drove to Las Cruces, I drove to Kent (exit 176) (I've stopped at that gas station before, on the trips we've done across Texas so many times... and I really have no idea exactly WHY there is a gas station there, unless it's far enough down to McDonald observatory that they need to fill up for the drive?) then Jos drove for awhile, but he was so tired that we switched fairly soon, and I drove the rest of the way to SA. We called the hotel to let them know we were going to be a late check-in.
the hotel we stayed at was the Comfort Suites Near Seaworld, that we found through hotels.com. (I'm sure most of you who do much traveling already have your favorite site like that, but I definitely have to recommend hotels.com if you don't! We got a very nice rate for the hotel through them, and it was an excellent hotel! We don't do a lot of traveling, but Comfort Suites is at the top of our list when we do in the future!)
Jos's uncle, who we went out there for, actually lives about a mile from the hotel.
Monday, I wore my kilt (basically for the first time, other than a couple hours around the apartment) and I think I surprised Uncle Peter. I've only met him twice before, when his band played here in Phoenix (the second link is one of the official band photos. Peter is keyboardist, on left side), and both were for short periods of time. So the first time he really meets me for much time, I'm wearing a kilt. ;) I did get a compliment from a waitress at the Denny's we ate breakfast at Monday (got up too late for the hotel's breakfast.)
Got the pass so we could get on base ourselves. Went to The Alamo and the RiverWalk. Took the boatride on the RiverWalk which was very interesting. I did pick up a new bolo tie there, since I could not find mine before we left. Ate at one of the Mexican restaruants, and then headed back to the hotel. crashed faily early, because we were both fairly tired after the late night before. Watched some of the news regarding Obama's inauguration.
Tuesday was the actual retirement ceremony. Met Uncle Peter's commander, and his cousin (John Conn), who was the only other family member able to make it. (Jos was the only blood relative.) Jos got to participate in the ceremony a bit, pinning one of the pin's on Peter's lapel.
After the ceremony, we went back to the hotel for a bit, then Peter picked us up, picked up John, and headed back downtown. Swung by the Alamo again, and back down to the RiverWalk. Ate at another Mexican restaurant, and basically talked for probably about 4 hours. (Actually, the others did the vast majority of the talking. I did my wallflower thing again. but after all, they're family and most of the talk was about family members...) Then back to the hotel, where I watched some of the Inaugural Balls, while Jos did some computing.
Wednesday, we decided to not get onto I10 for awhile, rather Jos drove on smaller state routes to Kerrville. Like I said at that time, the area is beautiful, even this time of year. (I did the trip planner again on GasBuddies, but that was pretty much useless. Most of the stations it gave us that time were CostCo and Sam's Club, neither of which we belong to... They need to have a way to block those from the trip planners.)
Jos drove all the way through Texas, and to Deming NM, where we ate supper. I drove for awhile, but switched not all that far into Arizona, I was close to falling asleep while driving (NOT a good thing!) and having trouble keeping my eyes focused.
