Day 30: New Orleans to San Antonio

Jon, Jim, and Joey in San Antonio!

My day yesterday was once again full of driving, but I will try to make it interesting. I say bye to Vil, Boston the dog, and New Orleans and got on the road around 8:30am. This day of travel made me a little nervous, because Hurricane/Tropical Storm Alex was coming in that night and bringing a lot of rain and wind to the entire Gulf Coast area. All my fears proved unfounded, as the entire trip just basically had some light rain and not much else. Maybe I should be paranoid more often!

The day before, I had talked with Jack (my friend in Corpus Christi) and had decided that I would be going to San Antonio instead of Corpus Christi. San Antonio is further inland and would get less of the intense weather from the hurricane/tropical storm, so it made more sense.

The route I took was fairly easy- I-10 west from New Orleans to San Antonio. I still turned my GPS on though (and got annoyed the whole way by it). Went through southwestern Louisiana and over some beautiful swamplands and rivers and bayous. Also drove through Baton Rouge and other small towns.

Then I got to Texas. Oh, Texas. For some reason, I have been predispositioned to dislike the state my whole life. Maybe it's because the dallas cowboys are the 49ers main rivals, or because my mom didn't want to take a job there, or because it's filled with republicans (sorry for bringing politics into it). Anyway, I tried not to let my irrational annoyance at Texas get in the way of the drive.

Texas is big- real big. The sign right at the entrance to east Texas said "El Paso- 858 mi" and I thought to myself, I'll be there in a few days! Oh dang. From what I saw of Texas, it looked pretty boring and flat. But isn't that basically how most of our country looks? Central CA, eastern WA, IA, NE, OH- you name it, and I almost guarantee it's got at least one flat and boring stretch.

Went through Houston at around rush hour but didn't hit much traffic. Finally arrived in San Antonio at around 7:30pm (after seeing all the signs for Buc-ee's and not going in- I am a little disappointed in myself for that). Found my way to Clare's apt where Jim and Jon were already there and waiting.

Let's see, how do i describe these people? Clare went to grad school at UD too. She got her masters in pastoral ministry and now works in San Antonio at College of the Incarnate Word organizing missions trips. Jon and I worked at grad assistants together at UD where he got his masters in public administration (and will be getting his Ph.D. in political science at Kent State starting this fall). And Jim is a campus minister at UD (he may be old, but he's our friend!). They had all been waiting on me, so we went to dinner at Broadway 5050 (conveniently located at 5050 Broadway Ave) and had some burgers and shakes and caught up on everything going on in our lives (or I just made a lot of jokes and they politely listened).

The living arrangements are kind of hysterical, as the three of us are staying with Clare in her studio apartment. We actually fit rather comfortably! One more night of staying at Clare's, and then on Friday we will all be driving down to Corpus Christi for the weekend, where 6 people will be sharing a 1-bedroom apartment (it's gonna be cozy!).