Last when I left you I was at the airport in Austin Texas awaiting my nephew to pick me up. I didn’t find out until I got there that this nephew has never been to the Austin Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA) before. He and his wife got a little lost on the way and they under estimated the amount of traffic in Austin. That means they were running late. I had to wait close to an hour before they finally arrived. I was able to contact them via Facebook Messenger but even that turned out to be a task. The free internet at the airport is sketchy.
After asking someone there, it turns out that if I’m inside the building, the internet works, but when I step out front, it doesn’t. I’m talking not even 2 steps out of the front door. I wanted to be out front so they could see me, especially since they’ve never been there before. I was able to give them an approximate location to where I was and I kept watch from inside the building. I didn’t know exactly what type of vehicle they were in either, so that slightly complicated things. I did know it was a black SUV so it turned out that I only had to wait for 2 black SUVs before it was them. They parked out front and I got out there as fast as I could. I was so ready to get out of there.
Also in the vehicle was one of my grand nephews. It was my first time seeing him ever. I did find out beforehand that he liked trucks and dinosaurs so I bought him some trucks that have the heads of dinosaurs on them. There were 6 to a package and his dad gave him 3 of them right away. He played with them a lot, but maybe it was because they were new to him. I guess I’ll have to ask if he still plays with them now after all this time.
On the way to Belton (my hometown) we stopped to eat someplace that I have never been before, Chick-Fil-A. I’m not even sure I did that correctly because never really paid attention to that restaurant. I ordered a spicy chicken sandwich and some waffle fries. The chicken was tasty, but not spicy and the waffle fries were decent enough, not great. Naturally, being back in Texas after so long, my drink was a Dr. Pepper (no Big Red served there). They would not let me pay so, in addition to the gas money I gave them, I also, in secret, put a few dollars in their console. I’m sure they found it by now.
I checked out the landscape on the way to my parents place, but not very much had changed since my last visit 7 years before. I was told that so many things had changed, but that just wasn’t the case. Very few things were different.
Upon arrival at my parents place, I got the reactions I was expecting. My mother stood there wide-eyed and mouth gaping while my father glanced up and said, “Oh, you’re here”. They got special permission from the apartment management to allow me to stay the entire 5-week visit. Normally you are only allow a few days, although the old policy there allowed up to 2 weeks. That’s something that changed.
So, I’m there. I have 5 weeks to do as I please. I’m alone because my wife didn’t feel like making the long trip. I plan to spend a lot of time with my parents, hopefully see my son and grandsons, visit my sister and grandparents at the cemetery and have some real Tex-Mex food. I remember my last visit, I craved pizza and hamburgers also. Not so this time. We can get decent enough pizza and great hamburgers in Calbayog now (Shakey’s and Mango Lounge). I still wanted to find some good tamales though and I had a few things I need to accomplish, like getting a new military ID, Texas driver’s license, prescription glasses and to check my legs to make sure there were no major issues.
Visiting Walmart, my favorite grocery store (HEB) and the Philippines store were also on my “To Do” list. I wanted to buy a box to send back to myself in the Philippines, aka a balikbayan box. Those things are great. You can put anything ‘legal’ in there and they do not charge by weight. All boxes, no matter the weight, are the same price to send, depending on the area of the Philippines you are sending it. Going to different Mexican restaurants was also a goal I wanted to achieve while I had a chance and at least 1 bar-b-que restaurant (since BBQ is so expensive I can’t afford it too many times).
I didn’t have enough money to rent a car, which I couldn’t do anyway because my driver’s license had long expired. One of the reasons I was there was to get a new license. Lucky for me my brother didn’t mind taking me places. I just paid for his gas and bought him lunch. He brought me to the Philippines store (twice) and to the VA Hospital (twice). A friend of mine here in the Philippines, Pete Frederickson, had his nephew in Texas to take me a couple of places also. He took me to get my new military ID and to get my new driver’s license (which didn’t turn out so well, but more on that later). Every place else I went I just walked. Walmart and HEB are not very far from where my parents live. Walmart about .5 mile and HEB about .75 mile. I did walk 1 other place that was closer to 2 miles away, but I only had to do that 1 time.
As I mentioned, no car to use. My parents are so old they no longer are able to drive. They do have scooters that they get around on. They take their scooters to many places around the area, including Walmart & HEB. My mom can still walk well and we both walked to Walmart a couple of times. Dad doesn’t walk so well anymore so he only takes the scooter to go places, but he does go quite often. He’s got the habit of buying things at Walmart that is on sale and he takes a liking to. About half the time, after he gets it home, it turns out that it doesn’t fit or not really necessary to have. He did buy me a pair of shoes at Walmart though. I told you that I blew out my shoes on the trip there, so I needed some more. He bought the last pair of shoes at our Walmart that would fit me, size 14 wide. I liked the shoes and tried to go back several times after to get another pair, but they never got anymore while I was there. I guess I should have stopped at one of the other Walmart’s in Temple TX. My brother and I went by it several times, but just never bothered to stop. I know he would have if I asked him to. I just didn’t think about it.
I had no problem obtaining my new military ID, but my Texas driver’s license was another issue. I will walk you through the problems I had with that in my next post. I hope you will be there to read it.
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Salamat Y’all
