Vacation #1: April 8 - 14

Since I am in a somewhat reflective mood, let's talk about what has been happening in my life, so far, in 2007. I work TOO DAMN MUCH!! That's the bottom line! However, in saying that, there have been some high points this year.

First off was seeing one of my all-time favorite bands at Alltel Arena in Little Rock - I saw THE WHO! Musically speaking, those guys can still play, and Zac Starkey is the closest thing the Who has gotten to remotely replacing Keith Moon. They played a lot of the classics, but there were so many songs that were left out: "I Can See for Miles", "Squeeze Box", "Magic Bus", & "Long Live Rock", just to name a few. But what shocked me the most? Brace yourself for this:

They played nothing, and I mean NOTHING, from "Quadrophenia"! You would think maybe "5:15", or "Love, Reign O'er Me", or "I'm One", but NOOOOOOOOO! How shocking is that?

Anyway, on April 8, I finally started my first weeks' vacation. On Easter Sunday, I spent some time over at JLo parents' house. When we got home, we had no idea how late it was - it was after 10:00 p.m. We still had to pack for our trip, and we also had to finalize hotel arrangements. We then got up Monday morning & drove all day to South Padre Island, Texas. We got there after midnight, and we slept until around 9 a.m. Tuesday morning. We got up and saw the sights, did some shopping, and spent the end of the afternoon doing some dolphin watching. It was so much fun. We also had one rule on this trip: we would strictly eat at places that we have never eaten at. No McDonalds, no Sonic, no Burger King - not even a Chili's or an Applebee's. We ate entirely too much while we were on vacation, but it didn't matter - we had a lot of fun.

On Thursday, we left the Island heading for Austin. We saw a HUGE outlet mall in San Marcos, and we drove around there, looking for places that caught our eye. I saw a Rockport place, & I told JLo that we are definitely stopping there. I bought two pairs of Rockport work shoes for $85. I was so happy, because I can not get Rockports in either Hot Springs or Little Rock. Amazing, huh? I found the number of Miss Caroline, she of "Candidly Caroline" notoriety, and I almost started to call & see if she wanted to join us for lunch, but I held off on it. Maybe next time...

On Friday, we checked out of our hotel room & went to a huge music place in Austin - Waterloo Records. Unfortunately, they didn't have that many records left, but they had a ton of CDs - I bought about $200 worth. Then we went to a place called "The Salt Lick" in Driftwood. JLo had seen something on the Rachael Ray show about it, so we thought we would try it out. The bottom line: this is the best BBQ I have ever eaten. Up until then, I always thought Memphis had the best BBQ, and Memphis is still one of the best, but this BBQ we had totally blew us away. Peeled off of the bone - melt in your mouth - oh, man - this was so good. When we come back to the area, we are stopping there again. Awesome BBQ - the best.

Anyway, on to Dallas, and Forever Young Records. I first went to this place back in 1990, but did not return until 2002. So much had changed in those 12 years. They had gotten BIGGER! I spent about $500 when I went in 2002 - I only spent about $200 this time, but got some really cool stuff - Herbie Hancock, Al Kooper, Elton John, just to name a few. I made it there just in time, because it was really storming outside. When the storms flew over, we discovered that 5 tornados had touched down in the Fort Worth area. They just missed us - thank God! Anyway, it was almost 10:00 p.m. when we left, and I knew we would be pushing it heading back to Hot Springs. I decided that I would drive until I couldn't drive anymore. We stopped at Sulphur Springs, Texas, and spent the night at a hotel there.

We got up Saturday morning, had breakfast, & headed home, but we stopped at a Best Buy in Texarkana, & I bought the new Sly and the Family Stone boxed set before doing that. We got home about 4 p.m. We weren't home 30 minutes before Spacely called & said that he was in Hot Springs & wanted to meet us at Jason's for dinner. We did that, then I went to Kroger to check next week's schedule, & then we went home & went to bed. I think we were in bed at 9 o'clock that night - we were so tired!!

This was the first vacation JLo and I had ever taken together, and we had so much fun. Truth be known, I don't think I had as much fun on any vacation my ex-wife and I took. My ex-wife certainly wasn't considerate. Here is a good example: when we were driving to South Padre Island, JLo saw that I was tiring out pretty quick. We went to a town (don't remember the town), and we stopped at a Supercenter because JLo wanted to get a few things. We pulled in, I started to get out of the car, and JLo tells me to stay in the car & take a power nap while she was in Wal-Mart. She was there for 30 minutes, and I took a nap. When she came back to the car, I was rested up pretty well. I helped so much. My ex-wife would have NEVER done that for me.

We have talked about vacation plans for 2008, and right now, the front runner seems to be Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Nettiemac, what do you think? Good choice?

That does it for this post. More to come - wow!! This is 2 posts in one day! Especially since I haven't put in a post since February! Strange...

Later, Bolivar