Rainy morning in Lake Charles at the Golden Nugget Parking lot. Woke up at 6:45am and left by 7am with the kids still up top snoozing in the bunk for a quick getaway. The sun was just starting to rise and it was quite dark out still. Drove over two more low bridges (raised highways?) over Prien Lake and joined the I-10 again further up. By 7:30am we crossed the state line and the WELCOME TO TEXAS sign "Drive Safe, The Texas Way". By this time the kids were awake but enjoying being balled up in their blankets for a little longer.
This Welcome to Texas sign: Drive Safe, the Texas Way
Not long after we took a detour to the 62S and onto the Hwy 73 (there was a crash on the I-10 ahead). We passed by SO MANY WAFFLE HOUSES. We also noticed diesel prices were lower here in Texas. Drove by Donut Nation (?) and up a super mega steep bridge (twinned with the opposite lanes on the parallel bridge). Passed a huge industrial facility - Colonial Pipeline Company.... transports underground fuel.
Around 8:30am we arrived in Winnie, TX and decided that we could no longer resist the temptation to see what these WAFFLE HOUSE restaurants were all about. I gotta say, their signs are not appealing in the least. This one we pulled up to in Winnie was packed with cowboys, seniors and locals. It was tiny (maybe 6-8 tiny tables of 4 and a few seats around the "bar". As we entered the front door, we got a very warm drawled, "Welcome In!" shouted in our direction by a guy behind the counter. Everything was served from behind the counters... the mini "booth" tables were all snugged up beside the counter between the customer side and the kitchen, so the servers didn't have to walk around the restaurant. They just took your order and reached across the half wall to give you your plates, pour coffee, etc. All the staff, save the big guy who welcomed us in, appeared to be well-tattooed middle aged lesbian women with lots of piercings. Everyone was friendly but also on a mission to serve quickly and efficiently to keep the machine rolling... shouting out orders and keeping things turning over quickly. We managed to navigate the menu where everything comes with meat and it seemed like our waitress wasn't offering any help with substitutes in the matter. It was quite the experience - we loved it. The food was what to be expected - except the waffles only came with syrup (and choice of having chocolate chips in the batter). No fruit or whip cream of the sorts... which, I mean -- WAFFLE house... hmmmmmm. We anticipated SOME kind of fanfare about the waffles, haha. A fun, old school diner experience, and one we wouldn't replace.
After the awesome Waffle House experience, we hopped back on the highway and before we knew it we were driving into Houston past the Minute Maid stadium and into downtown! Yikes! slightly intimidating to say the least. I had looked up a Goodwill store for us to have a good look for Halloween costume accessories and final touches and it was WAAAAAAAAY more off track that I thought. Google led us to it via winding highways and overpasses and through back streets. Jonathan drove our home through the city like a champ and I commented on how "maybe this goodwill will be super awesome and we'll be so glad we came here"... haha.
We got to the Goodwill Houston around 11am and found some Ah-mazing stuff. Meems picked out a black dress with gold stars on it for me for $8 (with an original price tag still on it for $108, I noticed later) and I got a turquoise sequin flapper dress too as another option. We looked around to try and find Oliver some kind of unique clothing to wear with his scary mask he picked out at the spirit store before. He didn't want drapey clothing or cloaks. We were almost going to leave when Jonathan pointed out a girls orange dress with pumpkins on it in the kids section. "What about that?" he giggled, trying to get a smile out of an increasingly discouraged Oliver. Just behind it on the rack was another orange garment... I pulled it off the rack...it was a kid sized tailcoat in bright orange. It was rad. I showed Oliver with much enthusiasm and he tried it on... it was a HIT! with his black sweatpants and black shirt underneath, it would be a perfect accessory to add some pizazz to his costume and give him a real "look"... it looked kinda creepy like the old school evil villains in Batman comics. Yay! Then he also found a pair of rubber nunchucks as his weapon of choice. I found a cool taupe coloured sheer curtain that could be used with our decor, and added it to our stash. Before we went to the cashier, we noticed some books and got a handful for the kids... found one old school Choose Your Own Adventure book that we'd been trying to find for Oliver over the past few months. Our cashier, Latricia, was super nice and chatty as she rang in our purchases. Once in the rig again, the kids wasted no time getting into their new books.
Just before noon we were back onto Hwy 69/59 South out of the city (SEVEN lanes each way!!) and drove through Sugar Land where things got very rainy again. Like REALLY rainy... massive downpour and it was dangerous to keep driving so we pulled over at the Chevron and JR's Texas Best Smokehouse. What a fun stop. The kids wanted to go inside while Jonathan fueled up, so I ran across the parking lot with them into the store... unsuccessfully trying to dodge raindrops as big as marbles as we ran. Juniors was a neat store... full of taxidermied animal heads (they had a game processor there and his buddy did the taxidermy - good combo). They had a deli section complete with home-made gator sausages. (we didn't buy any) and lots of treats. Kids spent some of their money on novelty candies - a little pac-man arcade game that they thought Mr. Nibbles, our hamster, would enjoy pretending to play, along with a little miniature gumball machine they wanted to use for hamster treats. What a lucky little guy Mr. Nibs is. Jonathan joined us inside after fueling up and we all waited out the rainstorm, chatting with the very nice cashier, until it was safe to hit the road again.
1:40pm : Back onto Hwy 59 West and the storm had passed and left sunshine in its wake. By 2pm we exited at Ganado onto Hwy 172 South (passed their post office, haha) and into farmland and ranchland where we saw our first two longhorn bulls in a pasture! Very Texan.
Within another half hour we were in the mildly remote Port Lavaca KOA campground. We had booked it for one night and when Jonathan came back out from the office, he said she upgraded us at no extra charge to a patio waterfront site #140 because we were members and why not since no one else booked in them! Sweet!
We all showered (it's been awhile!) and then hit the swimming pool, which we had to ourselves, and the hot tub (the hot tub was less desirable... the filter not working properly and lots of floaty bugs, ick). More swimming, then more showers with hair-wash and conditioner. Ordered pizza at the little commons area where the big screen had the Astros vs Phillies World Cup game on. Ollie shuffled back and forth from the arcade where they had one game system that was free to use. The KOA staff also had s'mores set up for cooking outside on the patio, so I took the kids out to roast one on the fire. Super, super friendly and sweet staff. We left Jonathan to watch some of the baseball game and hang with Oliver in the arcade, and Amelia and I walked back to our luxury campsite to do some art, catch up on blogging, and play her "dungeon" game she had been working so hard on.
We were all so full from the pizza. Hung out a bit when J and O got back, then it was off to bed with a chapter of Anne of Green Gables. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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