On our way to "weird"!
As I mentioned in my post the other day, my wife and I took a trip this past weekend. We had wanted to go somewhere earlier in the year when my sister in law and I both turned 50, but at the time she wasn't interested in going anywhere. Then, a few months later she decided that it might be cool to take a quick weekend trip. We kicked around a few ideas, and it just so happened that we settled on Austin Texas as our destination. It just so happened to fall on the same weekend that @mrsbozz and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary, so it all worked out really well.
We worked a half day on Thursday, then made the four hour drive down to Columbus, Ohio so we could all fly together down to Austin. Of course, things don't always go as planned, and while we felt we had plenty of time to get down there, we got stuck in traffic and it ended up being cut pretty close. It turned out a person driving a backhoe in a construction area had accidentally hit the power lines and they had to close down the whole interstate in one section. This backed up traffic for miles. Obviously, we made it in time, but as soon as we got to our relatives, we had to load up into the car and head for the airport. Needless to say it was hectic!
We ended up getting through security a lot quicker than we had anticipated, so we decided to kick the celebratory weekend off with some massively overpriced drinks at the Chili's in the airport. If you have a sharp eye, you might notice there are five drinks in the photo above. That was my mistake. It was one of those use the QR code things to order your food and drinks and I accidentally ordered one too many Modelos. We ended up splitting it between my brother in law and I.
We flew from Columbus to Dallas, then we had a short layover before we made the half hour flight from Dallas to Austin. It ended up being a longer layover than we expected as bad weather was moving through the Austin area and they had to push the flight back a bit.
Which means we didn't arrive in Austin until about 1 in the morning central time. My brother in law was worried about our rental car not being available, so the first thing he did after we got our luggage was head to the counter.
They had some bad news and good news for us. The bad news was, the car that our brother in law had rented was no longer available. The good news was, they were going to upgrade us to make up for it.
We ended up in this pretty sweet Mercedes GLE 350. It was comfortable and it got us everywhere we needed to go while we were in Austin. The only drawback was, with a ride this sweet, we didn't get to take advantage of the self driving cars while we were there!
While my brother in law was in charge of the flights and rental car, I got put in charge of the accommodations while we were down in Austin. I jumped on Air BnB for the first time in my life, and after a lot of hemming and hawing over price, location, and amenities, I ended up selecting this cool little Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) in the East Austin area.
It was tucked in an alley back behind the owners main house, but it was still pretty private and the fact that it was an ADU wasn't really such a big deal. The property managers were very nice and responsive to us, and besides the water pressure being really low (something they said they are working on), it was a great place to stay.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I don't have an photos to prove it, but while we had our longer than expected layover in Dallas, I got to try Whataburger for the first time in the airport. It was actually quite good and I honestly enjoyed it more than In and Out the one time I had that chain. I just got the basic cheeseburger, but it was put together really well and it did the trick to fill my empty stomach after a long night of travelling.
Trust me when I say I have a ton of content to share with you, so I am going to close this post out for now, and let the excitement build for you just a bit more!
My Sports Account - @bozz.sports
Come hang out in The Pub
Happy 18th wedding anniversary..
Thank you!
I recognize that stretch of highway down to Columbus. That's the exact route we take when we bring my Mom to my brother's house in Canfield. I can never believe how short the wait is getting through TSA at CMH. Most of the time there's no one else in line. That looks like a really nice Airbnb. I stayed in an airport hotel when I was in Austin last year. I'll never make that mistake again, I had to catch an Uber if I wanted to go anywhere. I'm so glad you all enjoyed the trip!
P.S. I'm in the lottery again for Shareholder tickets. If I win I might be going back to Austin for the 12/3 meeting.
Yeah, this was right at the main Marion exit, so they had to basically get us off the expressway, then across Marion-Mt. Gilead road between the traffic and then back on the expressway. It was pretty annoying. Mostly because we knew we were in a time crunch to get check in at the airport! The Air BnB wasn't perfect, but it fit most of the needs we had. There were a lot nicer ones, but they were more expensive or they didn't have two queen beds which we needed.
It seems strange to me to drive 4 hours and then take 2 flights to stay in the same country, but that shows how big the US is. Flying can be a hassle, but sometimes it's the easiest option. I know your rail network is not so great.
It's nuts right?! Yeah, our railroads suck. Probably okay for freight and cargo, but for passengers it just isn't an option. I really hate flying, but in this case it would have been a multi-day trip to get down to Texas.
My parents did a rail trip across the US and some Americans on that had never been on a train. We took one from Providence to NYC and it was pretty slow. The trains are fairly good here and better in other parts of Europe. But then I saw @revisesociology write about people taking day trips by air as it's so cheap.
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Happy 18th Wedding Anniversary
Thank you!
!GLYPH