My daughter and I love to travel together. We hadn’t been able to take a trip in a couple of years though. Both of us had some extra vacation time to use, so we managed to fit in a super economical trip to visit my son in College Station Texas. My daughter hadn’t been to Texas yet, so this would be an adventure.
Follow up to Posts: The next Year of Long Weekends and Mini Vacations and Markies Big Adventure
Wow! A very early 5 am at DTW airport heading out for our Tex-Adventure. This girl is not the bubbly morning person I am (Underneath that sweet smile she is thinking “stop taking my picture already Mom!”) Oh yeah, she ACTUALLY said that.
My daughter had only flown once before and it had been a very long time ago, so a sunrise flight was an awesome treat. We had a Delta CRJ-900 aircraft that was pretty small, but it zipped us along pretty smoothly. Good morning Texas!
This was my first time flying into DFW, so I wasn’t sure how easy to navigate the airport would be. Not too bad. I had reserved a car from Alamo. All the car Rental Desks are located in a central Rental Car Hub, which made it easy for us. We Picked out this awesome Nissan and headed South through Texas. It was a pretty nice car with plenty of space for us, and still got good gas mileage.
I recently wrote Car Rental Dilemma about my crazy stress over booking a Rental car. But everything turned out great. We caught a Shuttle from the Terminal to the Rental Car Hub and the young man who checked us in was friendly and very helpful. We picked out a great car that served us well and had no issues upon returning it! Thank you Alamo! This was exactly what we hoped for.
We had plenty of time to stop in Waco for at the Magnolia Marketplace & Silos from one of my daughter’s favorite shows, “Fixer Upper.” Sadly, it was so busy that it was hard to enjoy so we cut our visit there short and continued on to College Station. We met up with my son and had a nice dinner at Cafe Eccell near Bryan that evening. Their food was pretty good. Although there was a lot to do in Bryan that evening, we were pretty wiped out from our travels, so we called it an early night. Game day tomorrow!
After a good nights sleep, Mags and I shopped for some Tailgate supplies and grabbed some sunscreen and bottled water. The forecast had called for Rain all weekend and it turned out sunny and 90. This was great for game day, but not so good from a packing perspective. The clothes I packed were a little heavier than I would have liked for our very warm visit. That will be the last time I bank on the weather report for packing. I would have taken shorts and sunscreen instead of rain ponchos and sweatshirts. But we made do.
My son was a great host getting us warm Shipley Do-Nuts and Starbucks for breakfast. He had to prepare for the game so he dropped us off nearby before heading into work. My daughter and I had plenty of time to explore the campus before finding our way to the stadium. Texas A&M and Kyle Field are pretty impressive.
We got to the site where the families from the production team set up their tailgate for all the home games. It is like a little island in an area that is away from the main tailgaters. Kind of a neat spot really. They are always so welcoming when we come. We sat up our camp chairs and visited with the gang for a bit.
When it was time for the Spirit Walk, they knew the best place to be to see the guys come through. It was very cool having all the Players and Coaches walk through dressed in their best suits, shades and of course headphones. Afterwards, she and I explored all the activities and booths set up in the Fan Zone. It’s like a Circus out there! We got back to the Tailgate just in time to have a plate and a Jimbo Fire shot (Jim Beam Fire renamed in honor of Coach Jimbo Fisher) before heading into the stadium for the game.
My daughter is not usually a big Football fan, so I wasn’t sure how much she would enjoy the game. But I think the supercharged environment, watching her brother on the field and our great seats helped. Not to mention it was a great game that went into Overtime and the Aggies Won!!!
Sunday, we told my son that we wanted to eat Texas BBQ. So we got up early to make the 40 minute drive to Truth BBQ in Brenham. It was named one of Texas Monthly’s “50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas!”
Truth is just a little building. Only 8 people can be inside placing their order at a time. Although our timing was good this day, Mason says the line to get in can reach all the way out to the road. He suggested that us girls share a plate because it would be a lot of food. That was an understatement! We ordered a 3 Meat plate (brisket, ribs and spicy smoked sausage) with Tater Tot Casserole, Mac and Cheese and an extra side of Collard Greens. They asked if we wanted a slice of one of their delicious looking 3 layer cakes, and we just chuckled knowing we would never be able to eat it. This place was definitely worth the drive. Of course, we did not finish our food and later we all took food coma naps while watching foodball! That is a good family Sunday.
I just want to say how much I really love spending quality time with both of my kids. Since my son has been living in Texas for a few years, it is harder to get us all together. They are amazing people, very different from one another and a ton of fun to be around. The two of them together keeps me laughing and smiling all the time.
Monday morning was time to pack up our stuff and head back to Dallas. We were on a pretty easy time schedule, so their was no urgency to get to the airport. My daughter and I decided to stop for Kolaches at the Czech Stop near Waco.
Kolaches are Czech-born, Texas-favorite soft rolls with a satisfyingly sunken patch of filling. The Czech Stop has a ton of different fillings to choose from.
Many Czech and German immigrants came to the central and eastern parts of Texas in the 19th century bringing their traditions with them.
About this time we started receiving flight delay notices from Delta. When we got to the airport and I inquired about the delay, I was informed it was a “catering delay” for the inbound flight (hmmm…a Catering delay?) We found a Tequila bar to pass the time with a drink and a snack while we waited. Those delays pushed us out enough that we then ran into some weather delays (we would have missed them if we left on time). It made for a little later arrival than we would have liked into DTW getting us home around 11 pm. Not much time to reorganize before starting back to work Tuesday.
Fun Fact: we got to watch a pretty cool lightning cloud as we were coming into DTW. It was super cool to watch the whole cloud light up…but also a little scary.
All in all this was a pretty awesome trip. The weather held out, I got to watch a great game, I ate way too much yummy food AND spent quality time with both of my kids. Life doesn’t get much better than that my friends! Happy Mamma!
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