west texas here we come

Christmas is a time of giving. Fortunately, our employers give us a break from Christmas to the new year. We decided to forgo traditional gifts and gave ourselves the gift of each other. That's not the cop-out it seems. We're talking road trip people! We were going to make memories or make each other crazy. Spoiler alert, we did a little of both.

First things first. Where? We each listed five places we had never been before. The only rule s that it had to be within driving distance. What is considered driving distance? Turns out, a little further than originally considered.

Comparing our lists, we found one spot where our lists overlapped: San Antonio, Texas.  Eric also had listed Big Bend as another one of his picks. After a quick internet search, and asking a few coworkers with previous trips to Big Bend under their belts, I was on board. We could spend a day in San Antonio, then on to Big Bend, and another stop in San Antonio on the way back. 

You know what is pretty popular between Christmas and the new year? Big Bend. The decision was made about a month ahead of time. Helpful tip, plan earlier that. Places were already booked pretty solid. Out of necessity, we were going to see a little more of west Texas than originally planned. Thanks to Airbnb we were able to secure 3 places to stay between the San Antonio bookends. Yep, we were booked for five places over six nights. As our blog about the trip unfolds we’ll share each of these unique places with you.  We also used Priceline to book our hotels in San Antonio and in New Braunfels (just northeast of San Antonio). 

The day after Christmas at 6:30 am we were on our way. A quick stop at Starbucks and we were officially off.  This is where we skip over things. The first thing of note happened in Baytown, Tx. There was a place that we heard about from others who had been, so when we saw the sign we made the stop. We didn't realize at the time, but we were about to find Eric's happy place. Buc-ee’s.  

Buc-ee (pictured center)

When we pulled into the Buc-ee’s parking lot and were greeted by what was literally about one hundred gas pumps. What bizarre world was this? And the large bronze beaver out front?  Obviously we took a selfie with the bronze beaver because it seemed to be the thing to do. I mean, it's a bronze freaking beaver.

Stepping inside Buc-ee’s, when I'm pretty sure Eric heard angel's sing from on high, we were both drawn to very different directions of the store.  I gravitated toward the never-ending choices of snacks, drinks, and made to order food.  Eric on the other hand was smitten with the beaver t-shirts with his new hero Buc-ee plastered on them.  Buc-ee’s is HUGE. In our excitement we lost each other and had to call to regroup.  Having snacks for days, a fully stocked Yeti, and Eric's new Buc-ee’s Beaver t-shirt, we began to make our way from Baytown to San Antonio.Pro tip:  Every road trip needs an ice chest. Use frozen bottles of water and continue to freeze them no ice mess. If you can have it at arms reach in the seat behind you then you're golden.  

It was chilly.

We finally pulled into San Antonio around 3 pm and checked into our steal-of-a-Priceline.com-deal Residence Inn. We fancy like that. It was then back in the car and to the Riverwalk. We stumbled upon a pep rally for The Alamo Bowl (TCU vs. Stanford) as soon as we hit the Riverwalk. School bands and cheerleaders. Who knew? We then strolled along the Riverwalk taking photos and found ourselves at The Briscoe Western Art Museum. If you’re in the area then know it's free after 4 pm on Tuesdays. As luck would have it, that's exactly when we happen to be strolling by. Two please.

Things are getting peppy.

We returned to the Riverwalk in search of food. A nice TCU fan heard us talking about restaurants and recommended a Mexican place. Eric's memory isn't exactly the greatest, but that's why he's lucky to have me. that being said, the Riverwalk can be a little tricky to navigate when hangry. We are not sure if we ended up at his recommendation or just lucked out on finding Rosario's. We both enjoyed our dishes and requested more of the fire-roasted salsa. Luck would be on our side when it came to restaurants. There were a lot of delicious discoveries made on this trip.

Don't mind if I do.

We ended our evening in San Antonio walking through Hemisfair Park. It was fun watching people play table tennis, and other games that were free for the public. We walked through the houses and later learned after a Google search, “It will be an urban district with multiple parks, residences, and local businesses.” 

So that brings us to the end of day one. You can find more pics of our trip on Instagram. Please check back as we add more posts. We still have javelina, Big Bend, Prada Marfa and the best breakfast burritos ever.