Roadtrip #3 – Day Eight – Lake Charles -Home

Well we made it back in one piece.  The last day started pretty misty but cleared up pretty quick.

We stayed overnight in in Lake Charles and it was a lovely wee place with perhaps a bit more confederate memorabilia and statues than we would like but the history of the place shone through.  Interestingly they had US flags around the bottom of the CSA monument which was interesting and shows the confusion that still exists I think in some of these little places in the Deep South.

Sitting on a lake (hence the name) it had some nice little eateries and a quirky art gallery which had a live chicken wandering about in it.  We had lunch and tried the Boudin balls in Tia Juanita’s Fish Camp for lunch.  Food was great and decent service too.

After a walk around and checking out the lake we got on the road for our final stint.

Once across the Texas border we stopped for our obligatory selfie with the state welcome sign and this rest stop was a wee bit different as it had a walkway out onto the swamp at the back so you could go out and try to see the gators or snakes.  We spotted a small turtle and nothing else but we’re sure these other things are in there.

After 2600 miles and 5 states over 7 nights we got back to Round Rock about 7pm on the Saturday night.  A good roadtrip and we saw so much of the country.  We may need to go South or West next time!

 

Roadtrip #3 – Day Five – Islands of Adventure

Ben is the Author today.

Day Five – Islands of Adventure

At the start of the day we found an all you can eat breakfast near the hotel and from there made our way back to Universal after eating our first bit of fuel for the day.

As we entered Universals Islands of Adventure we soon made our way round to Marvel Superhero Island to start. While there we went into a comic bookshop and got our pictures taken with the Green Goblin and Doctor Doom.

Soon after this we went to the Jurrassic park section of the park. There was only one ride there for adults which was the River Adventure. Shortly after this we got lunch in the discovery center made to look like the main building from the Jurrassic Park movies.  We even hatched a dinosaur egg.

This lunch stop was much to dad’s dismay as we soon found a kebab place in another area of the park!

From here we headed over to Hogsmead, where we explored all of our favourite sites from the books and movies.

In the same area we could see Hogwarts castle and went on the ride just below it, which was one of the best rides in the entire park.

Afterwards we went through the lost continent section of the park where we stopped and went into a special effects presentation called “Posideons Fury”.  We passed through the Doctor Seuss area of the park which we did not stay in very long as we were making our way over to the Hulk Rollercoaster (only Dad and Sophie went on) and for some pretzels.

Finally we went back to Hogmead and admired the Hogwarts Christmas lightshow and onto the last ride of the day  –  the flight of the hippogriff.

Finally we topped of the night with some Butterbeer for me, Sophie and Mum, and Dad with Dragonscale beer in the Hogshead.

Back to the hotel after that with 25k steps for the day and some very sore legs.

 

 

Roadtrip 2 (Day Two) Odessa

Day Two.

Still in Odessa

Unlike our previous roadtrip we tried not to go too far each day (we had a deadline last time) so we stayed in Odessa for an extra day to explore the area.  We are glad we did though.  We got to do a lot of things that were great fun.

Morning

After breakfast we headed to Sandhills state park in Monaghans.  This is an amazing area of the world.  Like being on Tatooine with all the sand dunes etc. For a couple of dollars you can hire sand sledges for sledging down the dunes…and slide we did!  Great fun and well worth the effort.  The place itself is beautiful also.  We also bought some excellent walking sticks from the shop.  I got a Moose (Our Boy Scout troop adult troop is called the Moose Patrol), Ben got a Wolf and Sophie got a paw print one. 

‘Talk softly and carry a big stick’ is my new policy.

 

Afternoon.

After grabbing some lunch at a highly rated Chinese buffet in Monaghans (it looked terrible from the outside but the food was good).  We headed to the 2^nd or 3^rd largest Meteor crater in the US (6^th largest in the world) – one sign says it’s the 3rd and the leaflet says the 2nd – the Odessa meteor crater..  We had tried going there first but it was closed till 1pm on a Sunday so it became our afternoon thing.  It looked great but unfortunately we didn’t get to go down into the crater as there had been a rain storm the night before and the clay floor was too slippy.  Cool place though.  Whilst there the leaflet for the place mentioned other things in Odessa to do…so 15 mins later we found ourselves taking pictures next to the largest Jackrabbit in the world!  We’ve seen a ton of Jackrabbits this trip (especially on the road to the meteor crater).  The roadside attractions are one of my favourite bits about roadtrips!

Evening.

Swimming, Hot tub and Sauna followed by a free bar for 1.5 hrs…that’ll do…

 

Roadtrip 2 (Day One) Round Rock – Odessa

RoadTrip 2

Been a while since I blogged about our travels but the advent of our second big US road trip felt like something I’d like to do.  This time we have a visitor (Carol’s mum from Scotland) and we decided to go West instead of east.  We learned from our last road trip that 6-8 hrs driving each day meant we got to see less of the country so we kept it shorter distances.  We are going in a big circle from our house out to Roswell, Albuquerque, Amarillo and back home.

Day One. 

Mainly a travelling day as we head out to New Mexico.  As I said we don’t want to travel 6-8 hours a day like we did on Trip one to DC.  Not a lot happened till we hit just before Odessa when we got caught in a dust/Sandstorm.  Interesting driving through that.  We stayed in MCM Grande which looked on paper to be a good place for kids.  It kinda was and it kinda wasn’t.  It had a pool which was smaller than we thought and a soft play area but later on on Saturday night was like Lord of the Flies as kids ran amok!

Brady, Texas

Day One travel

It was obviously a place for folks to dump their kids whilst they drank.  It’s a way station rather than a destination so we’ll keep going.

We did see Jim Reeves’ tour bus on the way over here though so that was a highlight ;-).

We also marveled at the very literal names which Texas has for it’s places like 9 mile creek (a creek 9 miles long), Wall, Garden City – we did have our first rest stop West of Eden so there was that!

First rest stop West of Eden, Texas

We ended up playing cards in the room (bar was actually charging to get in!!  A hotel bar!) so we got to find out that Gran is a master at the card game ‘Cheat!’ (also known in local parlance as BS).

Inner Space caverns

We had purchased some tickets for inner Space caverns which the caverns had donated to Sophie’s Schools silent auction earlier in the summer and they had lain in a drawer with a busy summer of other things going on.

We were very glad that we found them again as it was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon!  The caves were discovered when they were building the I35 in 1963 and they are a large network of tunnels stretching under the highway.  There are three options for tours through the caves and we had purchased the adventure tour which is the basic tour.  there are other options for hidden passage tours (which requires a torch) and then a tour of the undiscovered places which requires climbing throuhg small tunnels and crawling in areas.  

Our basic tour was excellent though.  Lasted about 1hr and 15 minutes and ran for about 1.5 miles underground.  Fascinating look at how the world has changed over the years and there were bones down there from sabre toothed cat to Mammoth which are huge!  

There have been some changes to the caves to help preserve them whilst opening them to tourists and one wall which was erected to help make them less rough was interesting as an artist had painted a bunch of cave painting depicting the animal bones which have been found in the caves over the years.  

You start the tour by walking down a long passage way to get to the main entrance which is a hike if you are not the fittest but not a major difficulty. You are not allowed to touch the walls to preserve the integrity of the walls and the tour guide talks you through how the various different types of rock came to be formed over the millenia.

The bottom of the adventure tour has a lovely pool area where water has formed and we get to about 70 ft down and we’re on the opposite side of the highway from the visitors center.     Funny to think of all the traffic going on above your head whilst you are in the tranquil atmosphere below ground.  The guide will also let you experience total darkness which it is difficult to get above the ground and is a little disconcerting. There is a gift shop and little cafe area for afterwards which was pretty reasonable.

We could certainly not go every weekend but we did enjoy the glimpse of pre history Texas.  Well worth a visit.

Schlitterbahn July 2015

Fantastic day out at Schlitterbahn with some friends from Scotland.  Great fun at a reasonable price at this place.  Unfortunately on the day my dry sack split and my iPhone went for an unexpected bath which made the day much more expensive than it should have.

Schlitterbahn is a huge waterpark which has bases around Texas.  We went to the original site in New Braunfels.

However…the Masterblaster, the Wolf Pack, the Falls and the other rides made the day perfect.  Why trust me though.  take a look at some of the day in the video below.

The Big American Road trip – Final day New Orleans – Round Rock

Our final day did not start off very well with Hertz informing us that we had to go 30 mins out of our way driving to get a new car after our Air conditioning went in the Optima we had hired.  Their office was right across the road from our hotel and after being rude letting me stand at a door which was not unlocked and just watching me the staff were even less helpful when I got inside.  The previous day they had told me that if I went to their office in the morning they would have a car for me.  I turned up to be told that they might have one but there were 40 cars due out that day and frankly they were too busy to help me so i needed to go to the airport.  We were in no rush so i asked if we just waited would they have one and the girl behind the counter just said – ‘Look if you want a car you need to go to the airport chances are we will be too busy to help you all day’.  85 degrees and no air con with two children in the car.  Guess who will not be getting my business in the future?

I complained on facebook, twitter and online and they did apologize on Facebook but nothing more…rude to say the least.  Anyway we drove to the airport and swapped out the Optima for a Nissan which was nicer and more roomy than the Optima but they had hooked up the sat nav to the front electrics and that meant the front charger did not work!!  Anyway enough moaning as the day started off poorly but got better!!

We now had only about 530 miles left in the big trip and after taking a wrong turning on a New Orleans bridge (don’t do that it put us 22 miles!!!  out of our way – those bridges are huge) we were on our way.  New Orleans still had some fascinating scenery for us on out way out including the dead trees which lined the highway  which were an eerie and interesting sight to say the least.  We travelled for quite a while through Louisiana and encountered some cool things along the way like the huge bridge in Baton Rouge which looked like it was a ramp to nowhere.  The kids are too old now to fall for the tail about it being a ramp we needed to jump in the car…’aye aye Dad very good’.  The wee ones are growing up!

Before we left Louisiana we wanted to grab some souvenirs for our neighbours who had generously looked after our fish whilst we were away but out hertz mess meant that out time in New Orleans was cut a little short and we didn’t have time to pop back in for a present.  Carol noticed a sign along the way for the Swamp Shop which is a souvenir place along the road.  It was a fascinating wee place as it was obviously previously a house and sat next to the Tourist information office.

The staff were uber friendly and even took our picture (being token Scots) for their Facebook page (although we are not up there yet!).  The shop sold all sorts from Man Cave stuff to Alligator eggs (fake ones obviously but nice toys).  After we had procurred our presents we walked over to the Tourist info to use the facilities and found two baby alligators in their tank.  Not what we’d expect to see in Fort William that’s for sure!

It took a very long time to get out of Louisiana and we were driving for at least 3-4 hours before the texas border came upon us but it felt good to be in our home state even if we did have 280 miles to drive at that point!  We were welcomed to the state with a sign about watching out for snakes (better than Alligators??) and Ben took his obligatory photo with the welcome sign!  Although it was chucking it down so we had to take the picture quick and retreat back to the car.

Each state had these welcome centers as you went in and for giving them your zip code you got a good quality map of the state which is useful even when using Sat Nav.  We actually snagged two in Texas so we can start a board here to document our travels!

We have tried to eat local as much as we can (although on the road it’s unfortunate but the locals have been drowned out by the chains like McDonalds etc) and we had our last meal on the road at a place called Al-T’s which was a Cajun place just outside of Louisiana ironically.  The place had a smoking and non smoking area (smoking was bigger which tells me something) and when we arrived we were actually the only folks in the non smoking area!  Anyway the food was pretty good and there was plenty of eating in the portions.  Ben went with the huge burger because (he was hungry Dad…) and despite the waitress warning him off he actually managed to eat the whole one pound of meat in a big bun!  Anyway the place had been frequented by lots of famous folks over the years such as Percy Sledge and Jerry Reid, the country singer who is most famous in the UK for being in the Smokey and the Bandit movies!

After that it was just a dash to get home ahead of the rain which was lashing down.  Just to be clear Texans cannot drive in the rain!!  Either too slow or much much too fast.  We arrived back at 10pm which when we left the hotel at 10am meant we were on the road for 12 hours for a 7 hour journey…Carol liked to make her stops along the way!!

After 3200 miles, 10 states, 7 days, 2 cars, snow, floods, 85 degree heat, sun, mountains, plains, Graceland and the White house we were back home with lots of stories to bore everyone about afterwards!!  Oh and I bought a new hat on the last day to remind me of our trip.

We got back to Round Rock tired and ready for bed but it was worth the time and effort and despite the flu hampering both of us in the first few days (Ben and Sophie were not affected thankfully) we got a true taste of life on the road and would do it again…but maybe next year.  Grand Canyon anyone??

Our final map!

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San Antonio Zoo, Texas

With the Mother in Law’s time in town coming to an end we decided to use the last day of my holiday to go on a little Road Trip down to San Antonio.  Stopping half way down to jump in for some lunch at iHop (we all ate lunch for less than $50 which is always nice!).

Our destination for the day was San Antonio Zoo.  I had read some reviews which were not flattering of the zoo but it’s relatively high rating on Yelp and some of the really nice stuff people wrote about it meant we wanted to see it for ourselves.  I have to say I understand peoples objections to Zoo’s but I do feel they have a place today especially for conservation purposes.  So i’ll stay away from the politics and stick to the day out and how it was for the kids.

We got there early afternoon (around 1.30pm) and it was a pleasant (if not warm) afternoon.  The first thing that struck me was the price – We were used to visiting Edinburgh Zoo (Calderpark being my first zoo experience but it’s been closed for decades) which charges around 16.50 GBP for entrance for an adult so it can be a pricey day out.  San Antonio Zoo prices are $12.00 for adults (Significantly cheaper).  It is smaller than Edinburgh but it did have a bunch of animals which were new to us.  North American and European zoo’s are going to be different but it was interesting to see the differences up close.

Anyway – We got a map as we went in and planned out what we wanted to see and the best route to do this…then ignored that completely and jumped from animal to animal and reptile house to aquarium as the fancy took us!  We were in till it closed at 6pm so it was a long day but we were kept busy and interested the whole time.

Starting out at the fabulously colored Flamingos was a great start although finding out that they are no longer native to the US was disappointing…I have been lied to by my Miami Vice titles.

Next up were the bears which they had a few of…the American Black bear was not for coming out see us but still pretty cool.  travelling round the Hippos, White Rhino and Tigers was pretty cool.  The Lions though were a highlight as they were just sitting around their cages when we arrived but after we got there they started playing about then the male lion decided that he would have a bit of a roar…it was pretty damn impressive to see!

They had some excellent injection molding machines to create your own souvenirs which were pretty nice and cheap and the kids liked the early 3D printers!  At $2 they were a pretty cheap little keepsake.

As we left for the day we stopped in at the Aquarium almost as an afterthought.  I am so glad we did.  there were some pretty amazing looking fish in there but they also hit all the kids ‘food groups’ when it came to cool things that live in the sea – Jellyfish, Sharks, Piranhas and electric eels!  All very impressive.

This was worth the visit and a good low price day out for the kids.

We finished off the day with a quick trip into San Antonio (10 mins drive) to see the Alamo (so that my mother in law could say she had been there!) and then the 1.5 hr journey back to Round Rock.  A pretty long day all in all as we arrived back about 10pm but a great day out and at a pretty low cost too!

Mount Bonnell and in and around Austin

One of our favourite places to visit for a quick day trip is Mount Bonnell.  This is the highest place in Austin and is just a very short trip from the city centre or from our house in Round Rock it is a 15 min drive.  The views are spectacular when you get up there right across to Austin and further up the river.  It’s a wee (and I mean wee) hike to get up there (about 70 steps we counted).

There is not a lot to do up there once you get up there other than take in the spectacular view but this was where General George Armstrong Custer (yep that one!) use to bring his wife for romantic picnics before he met his fate at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Well worth a visit and on a clear day (most days are clear here in Austin) you get such an impressive view of the surrounding countryside!

Afterwards we headed down to the Hula Hut for dinner which is only about a 5-10 minute drive down the hill and sits on the Lake.  It’s usually busy because of the impressive location and we did have to wait about 10 minutes for a table but they do have a nice system where you can access an app whilst you wait and see what you want and when your table is ready the app tells you it is ready and you can be seated at that point.

We were not feeling adventurous that day and all 5 of us had a burger of some description but they were all a little different.  I went with the Hawaiian and it was pretty tasty.  The place itself has an indoor and outdoor area and we sat outdoors (despite it being January) and enjoyed it.

After that we headed to downtown to get a photo with the very famous Austin mural…this is a tourist must see and we got there as a bunch of other tourists arrived…bad timing but we waited for 5 mins then got the shot we came for!

That was a quick trip though and it was such a nice day that our next stop was Barton Springs pool.  In the summer time it’s a superb place to go swimming and the temperature year round is around 63 degrees so people were in swimming even in January!

It was free to wander round (although there is a small fee in the summer time) and it really is nice.  In the summer time coming down just to watch the people jumping off the diving board is worth the admission.  

The area around the pool is worth wandering round and they have a train which goes round the park plus a small kiosk for sno-cones or light food. In the summer time very close to here they have shows in the auditorium area and they have been great when we’ve gone along.

A lot shoe horned into a shorter day for today but we really enjoyed ourselves and if you only have an afternoon to spend in Austin this is one way to spend it.

Roadtrip – Ingram, Leakey, Castroville and Round Rock

Last day of our mini vacation and we were eating breakfast in our hotel and noticed an unusual site right next to where we were staying and we decided to check it out.  Stonehenge II is a superb example of a folly which was done as something to do rather than a great noble purpose.

Built in the early 90’s they were originally up the road in Hunt, Texas but were moved recently to their current site and reconstructed in 2012 to their current glory.  The site is largely a 2/3 scale model of Stonehenge.  It is not meant as a replica but more of a homage and is not set to the cycles of the sun or anything like that.

Beside the Stonehenge are two Easter Island head or Moai.  The fact that two guys just decided to build something like this is terrific and a real legacy for folks to leave behind.

After that visit we pull out of the car park and decided on a whim to go left instead of right and see where it took us.  It was a stunning drive on that road but we didn’t realise that the next town was a pretty considerable distance away.  We drove through the Texas hills for quite some time and the vistas were incredible.

Along the way we stopped off at a tiny little spot called Mystic Crossing which had an impressive stone boulder which we went and took some pictures of.  The views were superb and it was nice to stop on a whim to see the countryside.  We know very little about this spot but it was gorgeous as a spot to visit and there was no-one else around as we took the pictures.

Carrying on along the road the next town was not for another 48 miles and as our GPS and phones could get no signal we had no idea if we were headed in the direction of home or not (to be clear – we weren’t).  We drove on and came across the town of Leaky which is deep in the Hill country and has a real biker feel to it.  The Lone Star motorcycle museum (which was closed when we were there) is just along the way in Vanderpool so it looks like this is a spot for the bikers.  This was fine and we needed fuel so we stopped in and fuelled the car and ourselves at a biker bar called the Hog Pen.  It was a little rough and ready looking but it was clean and the guys there were very friendly.  It had loads of Biking memorabilia and a fair share of bikes including a Harley in the middle of the bar.

We had  Brisket plate and a Brisket sandwich with drinks and were about $24 with tip so not too bad.  we also got advice on how to get back.  We had a fair journey ahead of us though.  Leaky was a nice little town with a real ye olde feel to some of the buildings as you’ll see in teh gallery below.

Having refueled we headed out south in order to make our way home.  We were 18 miles till the main highway then when we eventually got signal back we were still 74 miles from San Antonio!!  So a detour of almost 150 miles because we decided to turn left instead of right but ultimately worth it as it was a spectacular drive through the Texas Hill Country.

On the way back we stopped off in Castroville which was an interesting change as it was an Alsace town after our German exploits it was a little strange.  We stopped off in a Bakery called Haby’s for some pastries and donuts to take home to the kids.  It was very Alsatian in it’s feel and the food was nice.

Then is was just the small matter of the 100 odd mile journey from San Antonio to Round Rock.  A big round trip (250-275 miles in one day) but great fun and we got to see so much of Texas without our young ones asking – Are we there yet?  Constantly.

We may do more of these trips!