Here it is on Christmas Day, a recap of what I've done since Monday the 16th. This will be a different recap than usual, given that during the time period I went on a road trip with family, all the way to Kansas and back. The 16th and 17th were dull aside from getting prepared for the trip (and that is when we opened presents; I got money, clothes, and gift cards; worked for me. I was even happy to get socks), so let me skip ahead to the 18th.
On the 18th real early in the morning, my parents and I left for the drive from Florida to the area of Wichita, Kansas to see my sister, brother in law, and my twin nephews, who have just turned one year old. We drove from Clermont to Longview, Texas; that's in the northeast corner of the state. Up to Louisiana things weren't too exciting. Then, we had to deal with the traffic on Interstate 10 and 12. It was pretty bad in terms of number of cars on the road and also, number of rude drivers. Really, while the drivers weren't as bad as those in Florida, there were still plenty of rude ignorant people and that was disappointing. Then, there was some sort of event that closed I-12. We had to take a detour on rural roads to get around it and at times I was reminded of the Louisiana setting in the recent film Homefront.
Things were dull until we got to Longview. My parents had stayed there before and the last time, they stumbled upon a local redneck bar/restaurant sort of place known as Leon's Steakhouse & Saloon. While it wasn't like the joint you saw in the beginning of Roadhouse, you can still probably imagine the type of people that would frequent such a joint. There were many people with the stereotypical Texas twang AND I saw quite the sight in the parking lot: the front of someone's pickup truck had longhorns & a Christmas wreath on the front. Amazing. The food was really good, at least.
Thursday, we did the second part of the journey to the area of Wichita, Kansas. That was pretty dull... except for just north of Dallas, where there was a huge delay on the highway... to fix some potholes. It backed up traffic real bad, just to do such a thing. If it would have been at 9 PM when not a lot of traffic was out that's one thing, but it was 9 AM and it was at least a 45 minute delay. Everyone got mad at that and that's why on the way back, a route was decided upon that would skip Texas altogether. Finally we made it there and it was great finally getting to meet my nephews (Connor & Blake) in person. It was nice interacting with them and that provided plenty of entertainment. Dealing with them and two Labrador Retrievers at the same time... I don't know how my sister and her husband do it.
Friday, everyone went out to dinner at a local bar/restaurant known as the River City Brewing Co. Yep they make their own beer. I do know that their food is real good and they offer plenty of it for the price. As you might expect, that is the one time that everyone went out and about. That is OK with me of course, as I understand with having one year olds and all and like I mentioned already, Blake & Connor provided plenty of entertainment on their own. That night it started to get real cold and that brought in the crappy weather, which I wish would have come a day later. Freezing rain was in the afternoon and it turned into a few inches of snow by nightfall. It reminded me of how I had to deal with such things back when I used to live in Illinois way back when. It did help make things seem more like Christmastime, though.
Sunday, we drove back home and it was decided it would be done all in one day instead of stopping somewhere for the night. It wasn't my decision to have it done that way. The drive “only” took 22 hours and by the time we finally got home, oh boy was I exhausted and barely able to function. All that said it was still a great trip as it was awesome to hang out with family I rarely get to see and meeting the twins... even the ridiculous Sunday drive was worth it.
It started off with driving through the snow (not in a one horse open sleigh) and it cleared up in northern Oklahoma which was good as the roads weren't always in good condition. It was great in Arkansas seeing a 90's Mustang blow by us after some tailgating and they had to be going at least 100 MPH... and moments after the pass, a local cop was hiding behind a bridge and he pulled them over. We literally lol'ed. A few hours were spent driving through southeastern Arkansas (it was a shortcut) and was that a depressing area to be in. A lot of small time where there were plenty of fallen-down buildings & businesses that clearly hadn't been operating in years. Later, another shortcut was going through middle of nowhere Mississippi leading to the boonies of Alabama.
It was starting to get late and yet on that road there was no restaurants or gas stations of note until you got to the town of Citronelle, Alabama. We found a Hardee's and wow at most of the people there; trashy people, whiny brat kids that weren't controlled by their trashy parents, dumb rednecks... amazing. At least the burger and fries were good. Once we hit the panhandle area of Florida, there was a few hours of pounding rain. All that washed the salt off of the vehicle, but otherwise that was no fun. If anyone was wondering, I only listened to a few minutes of the Chicago Bears game vs. the Philadelphia Eagles game on the radio. The Bears got humiliated and lost 54-11, so that's why I only listened to a few minutes of it. I couldn't believe they got destroyed so badly. We got home around 5:30 AM ET and being home was such a welcomed sight.
I won't get into the particulars but my mom is staying in Kansas until New Years Eve. That is why later today me and my dad are going to some restaurant in town for dinner. Which one it is, I do not know yet. Monday and Tuesday of this week are uneventful aside from me catching up on online stuff and on Monday night having a 10 dollar box from Pizza Hut, which is a medium rectangle pizza, breadsticks and cinnamon sticks. A quality deal it is.
I will be back on New Years Eve this upcoming Tuesday. I do have some things in mind for what I'll be doing between now and then.
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