Road Trip!!

My buddy Mike from UT got married this weekend in Albuquerque, NM.

We arranged from some friends to take care of them during the day and Nana to stay with them overnight so we could carpool with the Taps and my buddy Chris. We left at 6AM in the Tap's Odyssey and drove straight through with only a stop in the left armpit of Texas (a.k.a. Lubbock). While in the Quizno's, we hear "Yellow Submarine" over the speakers. At the outset Chris was adamant about the car-ride being the vacation and the time spent in NM was the break from the vacation. Well, I couldn't resist putting it to words: "We all live in a silver Odyssey...a silver Odyssey...a silver Odyssey."

Tap's van came with a TV screen and Chris brought his PS2 and Guitar Hero paraphenalia. Now, when you have 22 hours to kill in van, you can get pretty good at something, and that's just what I did. Now I can't listen to a song without thinking "Man, this would be sweet to play on Guitar Hero." That's just what I do. In college I used to play Freecell and Minesweeper in my head.

We enjoyed hanging out with Mike and his Army buddies on Friday night. We played pool for 2.5 hours or so in this bar that was non-smoking. NON-SMOKING!! YOU HEAR THA T AUSTIN? It's so refreshing to go play pool for a few hours and not come home smelling like an ashtray. I even brought an extra change of clothes specifically for replacing the togs worn to the bar. Needless to say, it was like riding a bike and my partner and I ran the tables for a great deal of the evening.

The wedding was a Catholic wedding, which was a new experience for me since I'd never been to a Catholic service before. At the end they left to a bag-piper leading them through three pairs of sword-wielding Army buddies in their dress blues.

Mike and his bride were to leave the church and go to the reception in his Hummer. A real Army Hummer. The take-up-two-parking-spaces Hummer. The camo Hummer. Well, he needed someone to move said Hummer from across the street to in front of the church. I bet by now you've guessed who he asked to do this most noble of tasks. Yep. Moi. Mike and his bro gave me the instructions on how to start the Beast and I went nice and slow so as not to come within several yards of other cars. After the pictures were done and me and the guys went to the reception, we had to wait for a line of cars to go by. And wouldn't you know, but an H3 Hummer happened to cross in front of us. With indignation and pride befitting such an occasion, I yelled forth "LOSER! I drove the real thing!" Ha. (That gagging sound you hear is my bride after hearing this story the umpteenth time in the past 48 hours.)

After cleaning up from the reception, we headed out to the van to start the trek home. We received several updates about The Game. 14-0. 21-0. 35-0. And on we went. Through construction traffic and Checkpoint Charlie and into the great state of Texas. But we hadn't heard the final score. Luckily, my buddy Knight Rider had left me a voicemail in response to my earlier call with the news: 56-31. Another foe vanquished! We made it home at 8AM Sunday morning, all very tired and ready for some rest. I slept from 9 to noon and then 2 to 4. Then I was able to be a decent Daddy to my very daddy-starved girls. I missed you two. And I can say I love you even more now than I did before the trip.

Thanks to the Fens, Nana and LY & friend for taking such good care of our girls and for the Almighty for keeping us safe especially on the drive home. Thanks to Chris for Guitar Hero and the Taps for their buggy. And thanks to those pesky charlatans of OPEC for allowing the price of oil to go down enough that it didn't add another digit to the national debt for us just to make the 1500-mile journey.

Coming soon, my college football column.