Click here to see Set 2 of our Road Trip 2007 photo gallery.
Monday, May 14, 2007
At 9:22 AM, while I (Big D) was “comfortably” asleep on my unforgiving excuse for a hotel bed at the luxurious Motel 6, conveniently located under the I-35 bridge, and 40 feet from the Golden Arches drive through, the room phone rang. I groggily groped for the receiver and answered the phone, “Get up!” two cryptic voices assailed me; the first directly into my ear and the other from across the room, Papa G, it seemed, was ready to leave. Good morning!
Last night in San Antonio we decided to hit the ever so popular River Walk for some well-advised margaritas. Memory serves me (Daniel) that the River Walk is a pretty hoppin’ joint, but being Mother’s Day and Sunday there were all of 14 people around. Three waters on the rocks later we called it a night.
On the corner of N Main St., just across from Luby’s, there’s a nice little café by the name of Lulu’s Bakery. They are famous for the world’s largest cinnamon buns are. I (Big D) entered with the sole purpose of acquiring this delectable pastry of lore. After asking the waitress how much and how big, she proceeded to tell me $4.97 for one of those, pointing to a nearby display. I typically refuse to believe the “everything is bigger in Texas” mantra, but this cinnamon bun was the size of a freakin’ Thanksgiving turkey; six pounds of buttery fresh baked goodness topped with sweet delicious icing. As I returned to the car, everyone gazed upon the gargantuan pastry. I set it on the roof of the car and it made a substantial thump. We haven’t tried it as of yet, but when we do we’ll be sure to tell you how it’s better than anything you’ve ever had…ever.
We also stopped at this gas station in the middle of nowhere and they had spices for sale from 1977! These things clearly hadn’t been touched at all in 30 years.
We drove the whole afternoon to Carlsbad, NM so we can go to Carlsbad Caverns in the morning. This place is clearly one of those tourist only kinds of places where 90% of the businesses and restaurants are open for three months out of the year. In response to my (Garrison’s), “Are there any good Mexican restaurants around?” question, I received, “It’s Monday.” Come to find out, that means that nothing is open except for a lone Chinese buffet. We did managed to find a Pizza Inn though, and had some fantastic chocolate chip pizza, of which we took all but one piece. On the way out we had an interesting tête-à-tête with the naïve cashier girl, who was very intrigued when Big D told her we were from 1900 hundred miles away! The distance we had traveled to partake of the wonderful chocolate chip pie duly impressed her. She then asked if we were driving back tonight.
We also needed to pick up some orange juice for our huge cinnamon bun, so we went to Wal-Mart on the way back to the hotel. We were being our typical selves; Joel had a balloon from Pizza Inn, we were playing catch with the roll of paper towels, the usual. So we check out and while waiting on Joel to finish getting his deodorant, the teen in charge of supervising the self-checkout asked us if we were over 16. I (Garrison) was like…yeah…I’m almost 25…why? “You don’t act like it,” he arrogantly replied, “I’m 16 and I act better than you guys.” Thanks Mr. Self-Righteous, but we don’t work at Wal-Mart.
