Unexpected Visitor

Heidi and I met an unexpected visitor on her morning walk. A cute little yellow lab pup peered back at us from under the restaurant/office building of the RV park. He tentatively watched us, but when I gave him a tiny encouragement, he came running up to us tail wagging and wanting to be petted and to play with Heidi. It was funny to see the tables turned on her. Not so long ago, she was the pesky pup who nipped at every dog she met. This time she made the little growly noises that taught the little guy when to quit. He stayed with us for the whole walk and I kept my eyes open for anyone looking for him, but since I didn't see anyone, I brought him back to our campspot. Since we are on a pretty busy road, I really didn't want to see him get hit.

There was definitive evidence that he had worms (yuck) and a little patch with no hair on one ear so I wasn't sure just how healthy he was, but he looked pretty vibrant and was definitely very sweet and friendly. I gave him a little bit of Heidi's dog food and let him play with one of her racquetballs and tied him up, but when I went in the trailer to try to figure out what to do, he started barking so I sent Bri out with his school books so he could keep the little guy company. The puppy was fairly content with having someone near him and ended up curling up to sleep in a little depression in the grass and then he got up and slept pretty much right on Bri's feet. I felt bad calling animal control, but hoped at least he would get de-wormed and he wouldn't get hit by a car. I was kind of the bad guy around here though because all the kids would have liked to keep him. He sure was cute!

Yummy BBQ

We got the majority of our school work done and then we all hopped in the car to make the same drive we've made the last two days into the city so that we could meet Mark, Brock's business colleague who used to be an HTG member and IT business owner and is still in the IT field. The six of us invaded his office for a few minutes and picked him to go to lunch. He suggested we try some authentic Texas Barbecue so we drove to a place called Luling City Market. We got a bit of a variety of meats (brisket, sausage, smoked turkey) and a couple of sides to share between the kids and Brock and I. The brisket was really good and the BBQ sauce was too. We chatted with Mark for a little while until we finished eating and then we got back into the car and Brock dropped the kids and I off at the Waterwall which was not very far from there. It is kind of a Houston landmark and was very close to the Galleria Mall so the kids and I headed there to walk around and explore for the rest of the afternoon while Brock headed back to Mark's office to be able to talk shop with him and also have a quiet place to conduct a meeting with his team back home.

At the mall, we pretty much just window shopped, but I did find a new lotion at Bath and Body Works. We spent time in the Lego store, but didn't buy anything. Brighton did some research at the Microsoft store ;o), we bought some candy, the kids bought themselves some smoothies (thanks, Grams and Gramps) and I paid $5 for a bang trim to even up my bangs which I have been trimming myself ever since we left home. It is a really huge mall, but still, we were really done by about 4 and kind of wandered aimlessly for awhile and found some comfy chairs to sit in for awhile.

Water feature dropped water from 3 stories up

In front of his store

Smoothies and comfy chairs are a good way to pass time.

A little grumpy, feeling sore-throated - possibly just getting Bryn's cold that she just recovered from

Right about 5:30, Brock came to pick us up which was a challenge because I didn't know where to tell him to meet us. We didn't want him to have to come into a parking garage because then you have to pay for a half hour minimum. We were talking on the phone about what we each saw and eventually we were able to find each other. Brock had to drive under a too short warning sign at a parking garage entrance that was also a hotel lobby entrance so that the kids and I could run and hop into the car and our luggage rack was bonked on the sign. (Poor Yukon has had it alittle rough here in Houston!)

It took us almost an hour and half to get back to the trailer in the 5 o'clock traffic and Sky even fell asleep on the way for awhile.We finally made it and had a quick dinner and some ice cream and got the kids in bed. Tomorrow, we head for San Antonio.