rockover

Our final Christmas vacation journey led us through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma before finishing up in Round Rock.
As you might have guessed, this path was along Route 66. We visited, slept and ate at many great places. Many of them you can see resemblances in Cars.
The Wagon Wheel was our smallest place we have ever spent the night. I think our dining room is bigger that the complete room (including bath area). We ate at the Rock Cafe (whose owner is portrayed as Sally). Great food, by the way.

We finished our trip in Chicago by going to the Museum of Science and Industry. We all had a pretty good time there. Can't say we enjoyed more areas that others, but near the end, Thiago got on the Hampster Wheel and raced too hard. So exhausted he missed the last exhibit Azucena and I looked at.

Yep, we are in Chicago. Windy city. 33 temp with 23 wind chill. Good thing it's warm right now. No possibility of snow  :(  .

We are taking about 2 weeks off to visit my dad in Ohio.
Yesterday was a day of travel from Austin to just outside Memphis. Nothing special happened so nothing was reported.

Today, the adventure began.
We started the morning by driving west instead of east. Don't know how this came about and with the overcast, we could have been heading north or south. Anyway we went about 45 or so miles out of our way. This wasn't a case of not asking directions. It was a case of following street signs, but when getting ON the freeway, it was one entrance too early.

We've been to a few football games and watched Taylor ISD get into the playoffs only to lose at the very end against a team that was way superior. In the middle of the season, Thiago was able to take the field for halftime marching, but soon after he broke his left ring finger. So he had to sit out marching for the rest of the football season. We still have a few more weeks until it gets totally healed.

Ok, one month has passed. He's still here. I guess that's a good thing.

We finish our first week with a sort of party. We invited friends, family and educators. Thiago got introduced all around and he introduced his family's version of the hot dog. Mashed potatoes, mashed potato chips (redundant?), ketchup/mustard/mayo/whatever, Oh, bread and hot dog. I added queso, mixed it all together and ate. Not too bad (I had two).  I conned Azucena into making Chili (with 100 degrees, I'm not sure I was in my right mind with this request), I did my queso (used Italian sausage instead of regular sausage, but I was able to pull it off).

Thiago has been here almost a week and so far is still here.
He's going to Taylor HS. He's in the percussion section of the band. He's not playing yet, but soon will be. He has to be at band practice around 6:30 in the AM on Mon - Fri, then stay late till 7pm on Monday and Wednesday and the football games on Friday. So Friday is a long, long day. Long for Azucena too since she drops him off.

You may or may not have read an earlier post that we are hosting a teenager from Brazil. Thiago just turned 16 and although it's only been 1 day, he seems to be adapting quite well.

Well, no. Mine is actually the guest bedroom with a decent TV, PS3, PS2, Wii, GameCube, movies, etc. Oh, a racing chair so I can sit and race GT4. But, it's going to turn back into a guest bedroom in another day or two and I'll have to modify the master bedroom to fit my needs now.