So Much for Blue Skies

But of course, if we are in vacation mode, the Weather Curse becomes highly sensitized to our location and finds us! We had a beautiful, gorgeous first day on the lake, and then awoke to this weather:

I just love road trips with Robert and Barb! I swear: we could look at crickets in a gutter for hours on end with these two and have a great time! Just being around them is a total treat, and it doesn't take much for us to have a great time with them.

We have only one minimum, measly, requirement: that Robert not sink the boat.

This was not the best weather for our planned trip to the zoo, but we decided to head for Austin, TX anyway, and make the best of it. And make the best of it, we did! We thought we'd zigzag a little and avoid the storm, but Tropical Storm Hermine zeroed in on us, and turned toward us. Barb valiantly did all of the driving, and safely got us to Austin, TX.

There were a few moments of respite in the rain, allowing us to partake of some wonderful detours through the Beer Barn, a stop at a Texas barbeque where Robert doused his ice cream cone with Tabasco sauce (and yes, I have the photos to prove it!), a scenic drive through Forney, TX, and its antique stores, and a tour of the Shiner Brewery.

By the time we got to Austin, we felt somewhat drowned.

Now, here's a digression: I'm reading a most wonderful book, "Little Bee." This book highlights the challenges we face in our lives, asking us to step out of our own little worlds and reach out to other people. We often don't really know how we'll actually react until we're really faced with a situation, and sometimes how we react is not what we had hoped for of ourselves; we might wish we'd reached to be better people than we proved to be.

That's how I feel about what happened to us in Austin.

Two people told us about their car troubles, and Robert graciously gave them a ride to another part of Austin. Robert and Barb have hearts of gold, and readily extended help to these two. I truly wish I had done the same thing; I admit that I felt some suspicion about what they had to say, and wish that I had just taken what they said at face value, and offered more to them. But I feel honored to know Robert and Barb, and how they are in the world.

(Even if Robert does put Tabasco Sauce on his ice cream cone, and eats it, and yes. . . I will show you the photos tomorrow!)

This last photo is the four of us, post-drowning and seeking food at Sullivan's, in Austin, TX