"Hi Uncle Bobs" I said as Ashleigh munched on a Whole Foods salad concoction, "What are you up to?". "Trying to stay cool," he laughed. "This is day seventeen of triple-digit weather here".At that point, I realized that even with the mini cooper's air conditioning turned up all the way, the sweat in between my back the seat wasn't going anywhere without a fight. Looking back now, my hope is that they got the cool front that stormed through Tulsa (literally). Despite the strange rivalry Texas and Oklahoma have, the meteorologists probably get together to go bowling once a week. They basically report the same things. I can picture it now : "Well Chuck, you have a 30% chance to get that 7/10 split, with chances of cursing."
My uncle Bobby took off of work early to come meet us at his house, which was much easier to find with the computer in the car. Last time we drove in, we accidentally ended up on the runway of DFW airport. I grabbed a few bags of peanuts, and we were on our way. But that's neither here nor there.
We got a chance to visit with my uncle and my cousins Zach and Hannah, who are awesome. After the question of where to eat, the big question for them was whether or not they wanted to pull a late night to go check out the new Harry Potter movie, starting at midnight. I think the first showing they could have gotten tickets to was the 3 a.m. show. Later, they decided that despite their love of HP, they would take a rain check.
After my aunt Kathy arrived home from work, she asked us if we wanted any iced tea. After I took a sip of the glass that she prepared, there was an expectant gleam on her face, like she was holding back a secret. "What do you think?" she asked. "It's good, I replied", but then, noticed a familiar flavor in the aftertaste. Alchohol: the cause of and solution to all of life's problems. Homer Simpson said that before I did, so I won't take credit. It ended up being an iced tea flavored vodka, and it was sufficiently deceiving, disguised as an ordinary iced tea.
We went to a restaurant in downtown Grapevine, and I must say, it is nice to be back in the land of REAL Mexican food. After the delicious dinner, and margaritas, Uncle Bob drove all of us around. We saw the new gigantic Gaylord hotel, which by the way it was described, is very similar as the one in Nashville. We drove by Silver Lake as well, which looked beautiful as the evening sun began to set. We went into a neighborhood near theirs, where a couple owns a farm of exotic animals. A llama was stoically standing in the lawn sprinkler, and we tried our best to attract the attention of a zebra.
Afterwards, we relaxed in the backyard patio garden that my aunt and uncle have been growing for a while. When the sun was down, it was really nice out there. The plants that surrounded us almost made it feel lagoon-like. Especially the banana trees, which my uncle offered a stock of, but apart from strapping it to the top of the mini, we just didn't have room for.
Inside, we just relaxed and watched part of the All Star baseball game. They have three doxen, and they are awesome. Ashleigh kept asking them if they wanted to come to California with us, but they would whimper when she did, because they saw how much room there was in the mini.
The next morning, they made us a killer breakfast, and Ashleigh took Hannah out to teach her how to drive a stick in the mini, which she apparently did really well.
On up 75 to Tulsa...
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