The Great Vacation of Hilarious Awesomeness
Okay, here I am again. First of all, holy fuck, flist go boom. Even setting it on Journals Only I had to scroll through three pages, you nutcases. XD
So I left on Friday morning around 4:30 AM, heading east toward Dallas. It's obnoxiously flat out there. I was half expecting to get hit by a tornado, since it was raining a bit. We get a little ways past Abilene and the religous asshatery starts with the "God loves you" and "Jesus saves" billboards. This is why I live in a liberal city. This stuff can either crack me up or piss me off depending on my mood. On the way down I-45 through Corsicana (Yes, the one in the Johnny Cash song!) I saw something that brightened my spirits - a "Jesus loves," billboard, but under that an "Adult Movies" billboard. I wonder what his kink is. Hum....
The wedding was...well, horrible. It was very pretty and all, but the blatant misogyny in it was enough that I quite nearly walked out half-way through, only staying out of respect for my sister. One of the lines that really made me fume was "Submit to your husband as he submits to God." Seriously, God-freak, GTFO. I hate weddings. I've always hated weddings. But this just went way too far.
The next day, it was on the road to Fredericksburg, though we stopped in a little town of about 12 people called Star to go to the bathroom. It was disgusting. Anyway. We got to Fredericksburg and conked out for the rest of the afternoon. Did some exploring the next day, went to the National Museum of the Pacific War, which I highly recommend. We also went to Enchantment Rock State Natural Area, which you really have to see for yourself. If you've heard of Glen Rock in Australia, it was like that. We saw a herd of deer on the trail there, but turned back halfway through because it was around 104 degrees out.
In Fredericksburg the night before we left we ate at a very nice German restaurant called Der Lindenbaum (if my rather limited knowledge of basic German is correct, this means something along the lines of The Linden Tree) and had some really great German sausage.
The next day, we set off to Big Bend National Park. Big Bend is....remote. Really fucking remote. The closest town we drove through before getting there was about 60 miles from the entrance. Our lodge was in the mountains in the park, and it was gorgeous. I really wasn't expecting to like Big Bend as much as I did, but now I think it may be one of my favorite parks. It actually looks a lot like where I live, but civilization is nowhere to be found, massive mountains and canyons rise into the air, and wildlife is around every turn. Yesterday we conquered Lost Mine Peak, which is at about 7,100 feet off the desert floor, and, holy shit, what a rush. You get up on top and have to walk across a rocky ridge with a 1000 foot fall on either side of you, and you get to the peak and see the entire park. A popular saying among climbers is "To conquer a mountain is to find yourself," and they couldn't be more right. There's really nothing quite like sitting at the top of the world and catching your breath after climbing for three straight hours.
Wildlife we saw...let's see...deer, roadrunners, squirrels, javelinas (wild desert hogs), tons of different birds, a bunch of turtles....no mountain lions or bears, but mark my words, one day, one day!
And then there was the rafting.
.....HOLY FUCK ASDFJKL AWESOME I'VE FOUND THE SECRET TO LIFE THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING HOLY FUCK.
You get in the boat, and at first it's kind of freaky because on a river raft you sit on the sides, not inside, but then you get your....well, river legs, and it's very relaxing. Then you come up on the rapids. Okay, I'll admit, when you're floating towards a small waterfall which is liable to have sharp rocks in it, it's batshit terrifying. Then you're suddenly on it and it's like "WHOA AWESOME LET'S DO IT AGAIN!" And then by the time you come up on another set of rapids, it's like a rollercoaster ride and you're like "WHOOHOO, COWABUNGA, YEEHAW!"
So. Yes. I'm so definitely doing that again, and trying an even harder route that has even rougher rapids, because, seriously? Those things are like a drug. Once you've had it once, you can't get enough of it.
And now I'm going to sleep for a week and hope I'm not as sore tomorrow as I am right now. From what I can see, there's nothing absolutely essential to get to on my flist, but I'll browse some more and try to at least catch up a little. XD
So I left on Friday morning around 4:30 AM, heading east toward Dallas. It's obnoxiously flat out there. I was half expecting to get hit by a tornado, since it was raining a bit. We get a little ways past Abilene and the religous asshatery starts with the "God loves you" and "Jesus saves" billboards. This is why I live in a liberal city. This stuff can either crack me up or piss me off depending on my mood. On the way down I-45 through Corsicana (Yes, the one in the Johnny Cash song!) I saw something that brightened my spirits - a "Jesus loves," billboard, but under that an "Adult Movies" billboard. I wonder what his kink is. Hum....
The wedding was...well, horrible. It was very pretty and all, but the blatant misogyny in it was enough that I quite nearly walked out half-way through, only staying out of respect for my sister. One of the lines that really made me fume was "Submit to your husband as he submits to God." Seriously, God-freak, GTFO. I hate weddings. I've always hated weddings. But this just went way too far.
The next day, it was on the road to Fredericksburg, though we stopped in a little town of about 12 people called Star to go to the bathroom. It was disgusting. Anyway. We got to Fredericksburg and conked out for the rest of the afternoon. Did some exploring the next day, went to the National Museum of the Pacific War, which I highly recommend. We also went to Enchantment Rock State Natural Area, which you really have to see for yourself. If you've heard of Glen Rock in Australia, it was like that. We saw a herd of deer on the trail there, but turned back halfway through because it was around 104 degrees out.
In Fredericksburg the night before we left we ate at a very nice German restaurant called Der Lindenbaum (if my rather limited knowledge of basic German is correct, this means something along the lines of The Linden Tree) and had some really great German sausage.
The next day, we set off to Big Bend National Park. Big Bend is....remote. Really fucking remote. The closest town we drove through before getting there was about 60 miles from the entrance. Our lodge was in the mountains in the park, and it was gorgeous. I really wasn't expecting to like Big Bend as much as I did, but now I think it may be one of my favorite parks. It actually looks a lot like where I live, but civilization is nowhere to be found, massive mountains and canyons rise into the air, and wildlife is around every turn. Yesterday we conquered Lost Mine Peak, which is at about 7,100 feet off the desert floor, and, holy shit, what a rush. You get up on top and have to walk across a rocky ridge with a 1000 foot fall on either side of you, and you get to the peak and see the entire park. A popular saying among climbers is "To conquer a mountain is to find yourself," and they couldn't be more right. There's really nothing quite like sitting at the top of the world and catching your breath after climbing for three straight hours.
Wildlife we saw...let's see...deer, roadrunners, squirrels, javelinas (wild desert hogs), tons of different birds, a bunch of turtles....no mountain lions or bears, but mark my words, one day, one day!
And then there was the rafting.
.....HOLY FUCK ASDFJKL AWESOME I'VE FOUND THE SECRET TO LIFE THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING HOLY FUCK.
You get in the boat, and at first it's kind of freaky because on a river raft you sit on the sides, not inside, but then you get your....well, river legs, and it's very relaxing. Then you come up on the rapids. Okay, I'll admit, when you're floating towards a small waterfall which is liable to have sharp rocks in it, it's batshit terrifying. Then you're suddenly on it and it's like "WHOA AWESOME LET'S DO IT AGAIN!" And then by the time you come up on another set of rapids, it's like a rollercoaster ride and you're like "WHOOHOO, COWABUNGA, YEEHAW!"
So. Yes. I'm so definitely doing that again, and trying an even harder route that has even rougher rapids, because, seriously? Those things are like a drug. Once you've had it once, you can't get enough of it.
And now I'm going to sleep for a week and hope I'm not as sore tomorrow as I am right now. From what I can see, there's nothing absolutely essential to get to on my flist, but I'll browse some more and try to at least catch up a little. XD