What I Got on My Vacation

Here's something of a throwback post, a few of the shirts I picked up on the last couple of vacations!!!

First up is a couple of shirts I got from last year, while we were in Tennessee. Pigeon Forge, in addition to all the arcades and mini golf and go carts, has several gift shops competing for your business. One we stopped into had 3 for $10 tee shirts advertised. Not all of them were, the better ones went for more.

I'd done an inventory of my shirts not long before we'd gone, and discovered I didn't have any red shirts. Found this one with the Smokies memorialized on it.

The rest of these are all from this year's trip to Texas. First up is also the highest price tag on this whole post from the Johnson Space Center.

The next three all came from our final stop in Galveston. One of the things we kind of look for while vacationing is restaurant chains we like that you just don't find here. One of these is Cici's Pizza buffet. Looking on the map, discovered one of those there, and just a bit over from it was a Goodwill. My wife had taken a little joke of a purse that kept spilling stuff out, so she wanted to go in to see if she could find anything. Shockingly, she did!!! I had the thought of looking for another shirt while we were there, but I ended up with three!!! First up has nothing to do with Texas, except for the fact that it is Sheldon's state of origin. It's a little small on me, but I couldn't resist!!!

The next couple are quite retro, but both in excellent condition. The one from 2009 is about as quintessential Texas as you can get, and also a color of shirt I don't have much of in my wardrobe!!!

The last one has two sides to it, and is also pretty Texas, with the longhorn skull on the front.

The back has what is now my only Harley Davidson branded shirt, along with Walker, Texas Lawyer, whatever that is!!!

In other news, I really have far too many tee shirts...

Texas Flood

I could do a post about the torrential downpours we experienced....

While that may happen in the future, instead I'm doing the overflow of the top pictures I took!!! First up is another good shot of Coral the tiger, getting excited to see the keeper coming up to corridor.

The next three are from the hotel we stayed at in Austin, the Hyatt Regency.

I think it had the least floor space of the three places we stayed, as it had two actual beds and the other two places had pull out sofas, but it was far and away the nicest!!! Got some good pictures inside the room.

The next three shots are from the place we had in Galveston, overlooking the beach. Probably the best view we had of the three.

Sunsets of the gulf come out even better in pictures than in real life!!!

Second to last was the gray morning from inside our room, looking out. That one, and the last from the original 13 Shots post, plus one more, will likely be converted to black and white, and printed out to mount on the bathroom wall!!!

And the final shot, a selfie in the sphere atop the luggage cart on the last day!!!

Thirteen Shots from Texas

OK, here they are, a few more shots from this year's vacation trip.

I selected 20 of the best, and pared it down to 13. We flew into Houston. Our first day, we visited the aquarium. They have four white tigers there, seemed like an odd place to have tigers.

The second day we went to the Kemah Boardwalk. It was fun, but the roller coaster was shut down. Looking through the selected 20 I realized not one from there made the cut!!!

Day three we visited the Johnson space center. I have more shots from there, but only one made it here, the shot of some various mission logos.

Day four we drove over to Austin. Austin was far more photogenic than the places we were in Houston!!!

Unbeknownst to me, the lodging I'd selected in Austin were right next to a bridge that is home to the largest urban bat population in North America!!! Unfortunately, the first night we were out scouring the area for Texas Barbecue at dusk, and the next it was driving rain... and we were driving!!!

Part of the reason we'd headed to Austin was it's a lot closer from there to San Antonio, to visit the Alamo!!! Spoiler alert, there IS a basement in the Alamo!!!

The next day, the boy and I went stand up paddle boarding on Lady Bird Lake, then we were on our way again.

We also, as previously mentioned, we visited the Texas capitol building.

Another travel day, off to our final lodging for this vacation, Galveston on the Gulf Coast!!!

Doesn't seem like we actually DID much in Galveston, but we did finally get to go in the pool of one of the places we stayed.

The boy learned to do a full flip into the water there, more amazing because the water only hit 5 feet deep!!!

The water off the coast was incredibly choppy, due to a tropical storm that had blown through the week before. Also made for on and off rain and humidity the whole time we were there. When we were checking out, the rain was driving down hard again!!!

We hit another Texas Barbecue spot on the way out, and finally made it to the beach!!! Got my right foot soaked by the Gulf of Mexico!!!

Don't Mess

Coming soon...

Our vacation stories from this year's trip, but for now:

This was in the state, former Republic of Texas capitol building. Check out his firepower!!! I've been in many government buildings here in California, and the most I ever see is sidearm pistols.

Don't Mess with Texas.

The Blog Backlog

I've been wanting to update the happenings before any more of 'em get to happening for a while now!!! Here's a little update from Mother's Day, near to a month later.

Since I'd found a Texas Loosey's restaurant that was still in business, I took my wife there for Mother's day!!! They were having a "Moms Eat Free" promo that day. Caveat was, there was a two drink minimum. Of course, she was fine with that!!! She really liked the food and atmosphere of the place.


This was cool, they had the outline of Texas made of license plates. I took a picture, and the flash made 'em all reflect!!!

From there we went to my parents' place to visit for a while, but didn't get to stay long because we had tickets to Phil Lesh & Friends. That was at the Greek Theatre, which was a new venue for me. Our seats were within around 10 rows, but it looked like just about anywhere in the place wouldn't be too far from the stage. The place was filled with old hippies and dead heads, which was pretty cool to see. Security kept getting on this one lady for doing her gypsy dance in the middle of the aisle, and there was plenty of smoke around. Bunch of bogarts all those old hippies are!!! I don't know how many songs they did that I didn't know, but there was only one that I knew, "Friend of the Devil", which I swear they added a few lines to. Even not knowing the music, it was pretty enjoyable. As I mentioned, the volume at the concert was nice, too, not loud to where you can't hear yourself think. My wife found the guitarist to be quite sexy. They did an intermission halfway through their set, and we left at that point. My wife hadn't dressed warmly enough, and we had to get the boys before it got too late, and it was a work day the next day. I would have liked to stay to see what other songs they did that I knew, but it didn't happen.

The Bachelor Bus

OK, this post isn't going to be all about the ride, but it has a nice rhythm to it, don't you think??? It was nice, thought. A great way to party and not have to worry about driving home. I was the last guy they picked up.


I did tell my wife that we were in a "party bus" instead of telling her it was a nice stretch limo with open bar. I'm pretty sure she would have had more of a problem with not having gotten to ride in a limo than with me going to a strip club with the guys, but more on that part later.

Our first stop was for dinner at Texas Loosey's, a restaurant I used to love YEARS ago, but thought they had all gone out of business. If memory serves, they used to serve traditional steaks and many varieties of burger, along with some great Texas red chili. The menu hasn't changed much, still great food. The other attraction is the waitresses. Know how a lot of times girls will dress up for Halloween, but whatever the costume choice is, you can usually put the modifier "slutty" in front of it??? Picture slutty cow girl costumes, that's pretty much it. Seems to me that they used to have suede push up vests with tons of cleavage, but these days its more like a halter top with an open leather vest over it. Short shorts with leather chaps round out the costume. My nephew was duly impressed, especially with the barkeeper gal. The waitresses tried their best to talk him out of marriage, and when unsuccessful, posed with him for a Polaroid. We finished up by telling the barkeeper to give us some kind of shot, her best choice. I don't remember what it was called, but it was a variant of the red headed slut.

Back in the party bus, we took one guy (father of the bride, ha!!!) home, it was already getting late for him. A quick stop at the liquor store to replenish the bar, where one of the guys picked up a copy of Club magazine that came with a DVD for my nephew. The bus had a DVD player, but in our state none of us could get it to work.

The final stop of the evening was Larry Flynt's Hustler Club. Nice place. If you're not familiar with the local regulations on such establishments, I shall enlighten you, an it is pertinent to later happenings. If you serve alcohol, the poonanny must remain hidden. Ergo, if you want to see a full nude show, you will be drinking apple juice or Perrier. Nope, we were drinking beer and seeing nothing but boobies. Life is good. Something I found interesting, at both this club and the concert the following evening, the music was loud, but not deafening to a point where normal conversation is difficult.

The girl doing her stage routine when we came in was a tall, tattooed blond, looked like a rocker type. After she finished her set and put her top back on, she came right to me. Guess she caught me lookin'!!! "Would you like to have a dance???" "No, not for me, but you know what??? It's my nephew's bachelor party, why don't you do a little number for him???" Money changed hands, and I bought him his first lap dance of the evening.

It has been quite some time since I've been to such an establishment. On my last visit, it seemed to be dominated my massive synthetic breasts. Not so much this time, there were a few, but the fakes that were there were mostly subtle, and several of the girls looked completely natural. Around the other side, though, I was seeing a LOT of cottage cheese!!! Hard times for such clubs, or just low standards??? Who knows???

One of the girls comes out, a light redhead with pale skin that makes you think the red is natural. Flexible!!! Amazingly flexible!!! And athletic and talented!!! After making a show of wrapping her legs around her head, she proceeded to climb to the top of the pole (must be at least 15 feet up), I swear she didn't use her hands at all!!! I was in awe. The arrangement of the stage has one main stage, then a side stage that the girls would do a second song on after their appearance on the main stage. I followed her to that stage to watch up close, and threw her a few ones. After she finished she came up to me and thanked me. I asked if that was her natural hair color (yes, I knew it!!!) and complimented her on her flexibility and pole prowess. She thanked me again, then asked, "So, do you wanna hang out???" I reply, "You know, I'm all outta cash..." "Bye." And she was gone like that. Nice thing about strippers, you always know where you stand with 'em!!!

But I keep getting out of sequence here. Prior to that, and a good part of the reason I was down on money: As I was sitting there enjoying the show and my beer, a brunette with a kinda long face and noticeably more clothing on than all the other girls comes up to me. She starts running her hands over my shoulders and neck, and whispers in my ear, "I've got the best deal going in this place, baby, all these other girls charge $20 a song for a dance, I'm only $6 a dance to do this" and she proceeds to start giving a deep neck rub. Duh, OK boss!!! Lets go!!! She applies some lotion to her hands and goes at it, unbuttoning a couple buttons on my shirt, running down my back, working my neck. OH YES!!! She stands in front of me and tells me, "Look down". I do so, and for a moment am looking straight down her scant cleavage before realizing she's having me do this to better rub my lower back. She stayed with me for several songs. It was the next day before it occurred to me what else she could be rubbing down with her lotion!!!

Another girl comes up to me and crouches down next to my chair. She's wearing skimpy boy shorts, and she tells me, "This is so embarrassing. I forgot to put on any panties under these shorts an' when I dance or move around they slip to the side an' my pussy shows." In my head, I'm laughing my ass off!!! She's embarrassed about this, so she calls attention to it??? Or was she worried that her lady bits would be seen in the presence of alcohol??? The only thing I could think to say, "O'rlly???"
She didn't miss a beat, "Yea, its so embarrassing, wanna go for a dance???" Thanks but no thanks.

Near the end of our time there, another girl comes up to me. Petite, black and with what I think was a Haitian or Caribbean accent. Nice enough, but not the kind I would go looking for personally. "Wanna dance, me sucky-sucky you long time???" I stare in disbelief, you can't do that kind of thing in a place like this, perhaps I misheard because of the accent??? She pantomimes the act so there could be no question. I'm starting to like her style. "I'm sorry, I'm low on cash." She replies, "There's the ATM, right over there." Then she reaches into my shirt pocket and pulls out my money clip, which looks fairly fat but is really just a few ones left over from the back rub girl. Hindsight, I should have told her she could have it all for a dance, I think it was only about $8. She goes on to one of the other guys in our party, and they go off for a private dance. She comes back some time later and tells me, "See that one girl??? The one with the long tank top on???" I say, just as she's saying, "Yea, covering her kinda big gut" She laughs. "She was staring at me while I was giving your friend a lotta dance. She jealous." I know there was more, but that's all I remember. I wasn't into her at all at first, but there was something engaging about her that made her my favorite of all. Perhaps it was that she didn't take a single dollar from me but still kept coming around and amusing me.

After last call, we all piled back into the bus for the ride home. Chauffeur Fred had gotten the DVD working for us, and it distracted us on the ride back. First time in a long time for any such hijinks, and it was a good time!!!