There and back again

I'm back after a weekend of travelling around Central Texas.

I left from work around 11am on Thursday, headed to San Antonio. Took the beltway and made good time, making it to SA by around 2:15. I was early enough that there was no significant line at the will-call window and picked up my tickets for the NCAA Sweet 16 in short order.

The big deal accomplished, it was time for lunch across the freeway in the touristy section of town. Fuddrucker's. Not bad, but it gave me indigestion later on.

Still lots of time before the game, so I hung out in the parking lot watching the world go by.

Time passes and the doors to the arena open up. I climb stairs. And more stairs. I end up about 10 rows from the top of the arena, stuck up against the wall.

The game. We played well, but not well enough to overcome officiating that I feel was biased against us. Still, we had it in our power to win in the last seconds and failed.

I stuck around for the first half of the second game (OSU/Tennessee). The shooting at the beginning was amazing. I think the teams hit their first 9 3-point shots, combined. I was certain Tennessee would go cold at some point, and they did just before I left for Flatonia.

The drive to Flatonia was uneventful. I lost radio reception of the game with about 12 minutes to go, so I didn't find out who won until Friday.

The Carefree Inn in Flatonia was a little overpriced at $50/night. It "felt" cheap. Weird chairs for the sitting table and the fact that it was a motel with open fields nearby were probably factors. As were the lack of kleenex and just two pillows on the bed.

Off early Friday to go to College Station. I wanted to take my time, avoid the main thoroughfares and take pictures of wildflowers. The sky was overcast, and would be all weekend, so the light was not great for picture taking. Even so, I found some opportunities and should have some up soon.

I stopped for breakfast in La Grange at Frank's on the square. A nice little cafe.

I arrived in CS and got my badge for the convention. Checking the schedule, I saw that it was going to be a very light weekend for panels I wanted to see. The Author and Artist guests of honor had both cancelled, so the schedule was in flux, constantly as well as being light.

I met up with Chuck and Willie of Adventures in Crime and Space and sat behind their tables for most of the weekend. I went to Jose's for dinner on Friday with a bunch of folks and Los Nortenos by myself on Saturday.

I grabbed a number of pictures during the con and hope to post those soon.

Sunday, I was up and away early. The schedule held nothing of interest for me and I wanted to get home. I arrived around 10am to an empty house (except for the animals). When Kim returned a couple of hours later, it turned out I'd missed her and her parents by mere minutes as they left to go to Vargo's for lunch.

The rest of Sunday was spent bumming. I should have finished some of the tasks I have to do, but that will apparently occur this week some time.