Sometimes the journey is more than the destination, but that was not the case when two friends journey together for the inaugural PAX South in San Antonio.
Pete (Ackote from previous post) lives a little over an hour southwest of me, which is in the general direction of New Orleans; therefore, we decided that I would swoop down and pick him up in Houma, LA. It would add negligible time in getting into San Antonio.
Our first major stop was Buc-ee's. What is a Buc-ee's? It is a giant, nay ginormous chain of gas stations that are growing like fungus in the triangle of Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas. It takes the simple idea of a gas station/convenient store and pumps steroids to a ridiculous level. With that said, their gas was $1.59 in Baytown, and I bought some homemade beef jerky for convention days. I might sound like a hypocrite with my seemingly derisive description, but there is a love/hate relationship with Buc-ee's. I like to the think the the apostrophizing of "Buc-ee" is showing ownership of me, since it doesn't clarify what Buc-ee actually owns. They have large bronze beavers at the two side entrances. Here is Pete getting friendly with one of them. This was his first time experiencing Buc-ee's, and it wouldn't be his last.
A quick rant: I have driven in Houston a fair amount, and decided that 7pm on Friday might not be a good day to travel through the heart of Houston because of all the elements that create gridlock traffic. Also, with the construction on I-610, I thought our most prudent coarse of action was to take Tollway 8. There are signs that state 'No Cash' above the EZ Tag sign along the road once you get on Tollway 8 from I-10, but I figured those were the EZ Tag lanes only as I have experienced in the northern section of Highway 8. So, if you want to take Tollway 8 North from I-10 East, you CANNOT without an electronic Tag. I realized this as I was passing through an area with cameras going off as each car passed through. What the f@*k, Houston. Trying to circumvent the horrible traffic put me in a violation. Here is what you do Houston, you put a big sign that reads verbatim, "Do not enter on this part of the Tollway unless you have a toll tag. I don't care if Google is telling you to go that direction because it doesn't understand that although you are O.K. with paying a toll to avoid sitting in mind-numbing traffic due to our inefficiency with road construction, you have to have a special toll tag to enter here. Trust us you don't want to enter here because we like to create arbitrary violation fine amounts." See what I did there? It is very clear, concise message, and you could get Google to sponsor the signs in exchange for product placement.
Once we got on the other side of Houston, it was soothe sailing. It was so soothing that Pete was snoring in no time. That man can fall asleep at the drop of a head, and he doesn't need to be reclined. No worries, I had Dan Carlin's Hardcore History cued up to learn about Genghis Khan. At the time of this writing, I have finished parts 1-3 of the Wrath of Khan series. Dan's ability to weave a narrative is confounding, bewildering, but mostly entertaining. He is a gifted story teller, and pulls from many sources to construct a vivid story that feels compelling. He offers information and a doorway into my academic prose on the subject matter. I have not listen to anything else, but the three (so far) of Wrath of Khans, and can't speak to quality of the other ones. Keep in mind he is an entertainer doing history not the other way around.
We arrived to our destination in San Antonio around 10:00 PM. As this is my first experience with an AirBnB, I was really delighted. The owners of the home, which was a large home, had several rooms for guest. We had two rooms with a total of three beds. The house is older with lots of character. Harvey and Sylvia were very kind and generous host. We did not interact with them much as they kept to their side of the house, and we were just there to relax. I don't think these pictures do justice of the rooms, but you get the idea. With a quick bite to eat and a couple of celebratory beers, we soon found ourselves in a deep sleep hoping that tomorrow would come sooner.
Part 3
Until I ramble on again. . .
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