robbo and leeazaa’s travel adventures

Sadly it is time to say goodbye to Chicago and the family connection here. I wish we had a few more days here but I could easily say that about every place we’ve been too. On the upside our next destination is Rochester NY and Niagara Falls which should be a corker, the place is loaded with family history and we are actually staying in the original ‘Miller’ family farm. Furthermore, there’s talk that it might be haunted so its a good thing I brought my ghost-busters shirt to the states with me!

The past few days since the last blog post have been swollen with fun, much like my foot when I got gout after the weekend. In that case ‘fun’ was more akin to ‘agony’. Oh yeah!

The Natural history museum of Chicago looks like it could well be the main rival to the New York equivalent we are yet to visit. It is MASSIVE, we spent the best part of an afternoon there and still only managed to see about 50% of the exhibits before succumbing to muscle fatigue.

Natural History Museum

Much to the museum’s credit, the amount of ‘kiddy-fication’ is minimal and the exhibit presentations are unreal.

Animal Pic 1

Animal Pic 2

spot the monkey...

The artic is now in Chicago apparently...

Leeane and me

sue the t-rex

Even the view from the museum window kicks ass….

view from the museum window

That night we stayed in downtown Chicago so we could have a full day to explore the city and the sights.

Navy Pier is just down the road from the hotel, on the downside a thunderstorm was brewing so it started to rain as we were walking to the pier. On the plus side the rain scared off most of the people so we had the place to ourselves.

Navy Pier Ferris Wheel

Using all my sensibility, I figured the safest place to be with a thunderstorm warning looming was 30m (100 ft) in the air, in a super-massive metal structure. Good view though…

view from the "lightning rod" wheel

Leels on the pier

I had it in my head that the Planetarium that we didn’t have time to see yesterday would be the best thing in the world….WRONG! Well, to be fair I’m sure it is for anyone aged between 8 and 12, unfortunately that wasn’t mentioned in the brochure. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for the 5km (3 mile) walk to get there, that wouldn’t have been so bad either had it not been for the gout that I was still going through.

It did give us an ample oppurtunity to see the cool sites of Chicago on the way though…

Riverwalk

In Grant park we saw what looks like a giant liquid-metal terminator re-forming – The uber T-1000!

Shiny metal thing

About half way down to the Planetarium is Buckingham Fountain.

Buckingham Fountain

The following day Uncle Bob picked us up from downtown and we visited another nice pub.

From L-R: Windmill, Uncle Bob, moi

That night we chilled with Aunt Jackie for a bit at her bar and introduced her to something uniquely Australian…

Vegemite on Toast, Honey!

… and she liked it!

From L-R: Vodka, Aunt Jacky, Miller Beer, Beer drinking Miller

We loved Chicago and the family we have here and thank everyone heaps for their extremely generous hospitality and all the good times we had. Hopefully we can come back soon or perhaps some of the Chicago mob can come to Perth one day and have someone laugh at your accent for a change!

Rob

PS – might be out of internet range for a few days whilst in Rochester.

PPS – what the hell happened to the Wallabies on Saturday!!! Christ!

Tags: chicago, family

We spent the weekend on a family reunion BBQ marathon.

First up was cousin Amy and her husband Steve’s house where the food was incredible and there were laughs-a-plenty. Aunt Luci printed out name tags for the gaggle of kids that we had to meet – but in the end we actually had everyone’s names down-pat… more or less.

Here are some photos from the day:

The back of Amy and Steve's house

The boys played Bocce - here is a family rated snapshot. Left to Right: Bill, Steve (Amys husband), Rob & Uncle Bob

Left to Right: Aunt Luci, Aunt Jackie, Miranda (Kims daughter)

Amy and Steves daughter Hunter

Left to Right: Tatum, Emma (Heidi and Ians daughters), Aly (Amy and Steves daughter)

Heidi

Amy

Kickboxer Amy gives Rob what he deserves

The next day we were at Gram’s house (Aunt Jackie) for some more laughs and being introduced to a few more members of the family.

One thing we were intrigued about was the promise of being served raw hamburger meat. Yes.. raw hamburger meat. It is a bit of a family tradition to eat it and Aunt Luci assured us it was safe to eat. It is actually called Steak Tartare and is even served in restaurants. We both had some although Rob seemed to like it a bit more than me. In case your wondering, it tasted like raw bread dough. Yummy!

The raw meat delicacy

Mmmmmm no salmonella here Mum!

After making sure we had quick access to a toilet (just in case the hamburger meat didn’t agree with us) we continued on our way and met more members of the family. Here are some more photos of the shenanigans.

Bill The Chef

Kelly

Left to Right: Kelly, Kim, Aunt Luci

After the party, we went out to Amy’s local bar where we got schooled at darts and met some interesting characters. Amy also seemed to know just about everyone in the bar so we were made very welcome.

Meeting the family was great – all really good people and very good to chat to.

Leeane

Tags: chicago, family

It was hard leaving Texas after so long but at least Uncle Bob is coming with us to Chicago for the second round of family reunions. Glancing at the family tree, the Chicago mob outnumber the Australian tree by about 5 to 1 so the catching up with everyone should be quite an experience.

One of the first things I thought as Aunt Luci drove us from the airport is that Chicago must be latin for ‘Endless road work and traffic jams’ and according to Aunt Luci the city has two seasons, Winter and Construction. The next thing we noticed is that the vegetation everywhere is so much more lush than Texas and surprise, surprise Las Vegas. It seems Chicago has no problem with rainfall and it really shows.

The third thing we noticed is that the pizza’s in Chicago are massive and seemingly bottomless. In just two days we’ve attempted to devour four but to no avail.

So far we have caught up with Aunt Luci, Aunt Jackie and the cousins Heidi, Kim and Kelly which has been good fun. Aunt Jackie in particular hasn’t changed a bit since I last saw her 15 years ago, it’s quite incredible really. I’m going to snoop around and see if I can find her fountain of youth a bit later on and hide it in my suitcase.

Pizza aside, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry yesterday which was a hoot. The standout feature has to be the German U-505 submarine. The story behind it is worthy of another blog post but wikipedia has a nice write up for those interested here.

das boot!

One of the really cool things about the sub exhibit is that they have enclosed it in a sub pen which makes it look really authentic. Naturally Uncle Bob stayed in the exhibit most of the afternoon with a huge grin on his face. Unfortunately the sub has largely been gutted to accommodate the large throughput of visitors each day and discourage potential lawsuits from concussed heads on the hefty bulkheads. On top of that they have dramatised the tour by hiring local drama majors to ‘immerse’ you in the life of the German submariner. That’s all well and good for the kiddies, but you can see the adults in the tour just want to be able to check out the gear for themselves rather than take part in a Nazi soapie.

The museum is huge, but alot of it is more tailored towards kids however there is still plenty of cool stuff for us big kids.

die stuka!

spitfire

The space exhibit is kind of cool as well, they have one of the original Apollo re-entry modules on display and a whole bunch of stuff on Mars and the usual photo opportunities.

one small step for a Scot

one giant leap for a dual citizen

big tractor wheel in the farm exhibit

ahoy matey

After the museum Uncle Bob took us on a little family history tour, first stop the American School building in the heart of the Chicago University campus. My great Uncle R.T. Miller built the school American Correspondence School and became a multi-millionaire then in great Miller fashion, gave it away to the people of Chicago. I can’t argue with the nobility of that and in respect the building has been kept in it’s original state, surrounded by modern campus buildings.

American school building

Next stop was Aunt Luci’s original house in South Chicago. From the stories we heard, it sounds like Aunt Luci has some great memories of this place.

Aunt Luci"s old house

More to come soon, we have some bbq’s this weekend so expect more photos.

Rob

Tags: chicago, family

We spent the last few days up at Lake Buchanan at Aunt Chris and her husband Martin’s place. It is a good couple hours North East of Kerrville but the trip was well worth it – we all had an absolute ball!

So first of all we have to show off the trailer/caravan – no camping here – this thing is all luxury inside with air-conditioning, shower, toilet and a fully equipped kitchen. The mid-section of the trailer also slides out which gives you a good meter or two of extra room in the middle. You will be glad to know that Uncle Bob has had this trailer for years and years and this is the first time he has actually taken it away and used it himself.

On the road again...

After a few false starts we eventually got on the road and arrived at Lake Buchanan in the early evening. Just enough time to set up and level the trailer and head down to the balcony by the lake to kick off what was to become a drinking marathon of a weekend. This is about where an unusual obsession with saying the Aussie word “dodgy” arose – something Martin in particular just couldn’t say quite right no matter how hard he tried – or how much beer he consumed.

Here are some photos of Aunt Chris’ place – it is really beautiful.

The balcony and the boat. The lake level is quite low at the moment.

View of the lake from the back room

Inside the house, looking down towards the lake

View of the front of the house

The next day we headed out on the boat for a day of swimming and sunshine. The lake is absolutely huge and there are lots of little islands spread around which have some good swimming beaches.

Cap'n Chris Daenzer

Rob on the tag-along

Robinson Crusoe

Left to right: Duffy, Uncle Bob, Leeane, Rob, Aunt Chris, Martin

The Daenzers also have two Gold Retrievers just like Duffy so the dogs had an absolute ball playing in the water. Although, all the excitement proved a bit too much for Duffy eventually.

Too tired to swim anymore

"I'm SO tired Dad"

Martin’s son (Matt) and his wife (Lauren) rocked up to join in the drinking marathon. They are about the same ages as us and we had a great time getting to know them. If we have a spare week at the end of our USA trip we will try to come back to Austin to hang out with them a bit more.

Posing up a storm..

That night while trying to sleep in the trailer, we were woken at an ungodly hour by the gas alarm in the trailer. It was pretty much the most annoying and loud noise ever. After eventually finding the mute button and going back to our beds the alarm went on again and again and again. After double checking the gas tank was turned off and that we weren’t about to die of gas poisoning, we concluded that the alarm must be faulty and in the absence of a hammer to destroy the alarm then set about some MacGyver style fix where we sticky taped the mute button down. Thankfully we didn’t hear a peep from the alarm for the rest of the night. And by the next morning we almost started to find it funny…

On our final day after a healthy breakfast of breakfast tacos (yum yum) and tamales we headed out on the boat again with Matt and Lauren where the boys did some cliff diving, rope swinging and fire-fighting (yes.. fire fighting). We also managed to sail by a wedding and then later a family spreading the ashes of someone into the lake – we had to speed up to get out of the down-wind ash storm heading our way.

Contemplating the plunge

Rob plunging to the water

Matt on the rope-swing of death

Of course, being the Aussie ambassadors that we are, we tried to teach these folks a few things about Australia (besides the word “dodgy”). So we also taught them that Aboriginals are black, “Shrimp on the barbie” is not something we say – we have prawns instead, that we DO have satellites in Australia and that we have the Queen on our money. I am sure you will agree these are important lessons to learn.

The only sad news to report is that we left Duffy there. Uncle Bob has been trying to find a good place to leave Duffy while he goes to Chicago with us (leave on Wednesday). After seeing how well he gets along with the other dogs it was quite obvious that Aunt Chris’ place would be doggie heaven for him. But it meant we had to say goodbye to him a few days earlier than expected.

In case Aunt Chris or Martin are reading this post, thank you so much for having us for the weekend. We had a great time and really enjoyed getting to know y’all.

Rob and Leeane

Tags: lake buchanan

Uncle Bob was kind enough to pick us up from Austin and spare us a seat-kicking, greyhound bus journey. This had an added bonus that he could take us on a more scenic route on the way back to Kerrville and as an extra super bonus he mentioned that he had recently discovered that a international bar called, ‘The Tap Room’ with scores of different tap beers was ‘mostly’ on the route back .

Unfortunately our thirsts were open for business but the bar wasn’t– at least for another hour. Instead, we kicked around the Texas State University campus and watched Duffy chase after squirrels . We were really hoping that the Tap Room would be everything that we hoped it would and like almost everything in America, it didn’t disappoint. The bar had over 40 international beers on tap, including a nice Scottish beer and a couple of nice imported German beers, which we of course consumed. There was notably no Australian beers on tap, which was kind of a good thing since all we ever see here is Fosters and as the bar tender said, ‘It’s not very good’. Well put I thought, especially since there are 40 infinitely better beers on tap.

The Wall Of Beer

Of course, we had a few and Uncle Bob wanted to strike a few poses…

After settling in back at the ranch, I was put to work doing hard yakka. Of course, physical labour always looks manliest when shirtless so naturally….

The Hulk of Hunk

The photo is actually quite a nice one, the dead oak tree in the background makes it look really cool. Well done Leels!

As a reward we were treated to a little chunk of Vegas right in downtown Kerrville, a Mexican joint called, ‘Mama Citas’ ( pronounced: mama see tahs). It has the old “outside-in” feel with a starry night in the roof and a life-size replica of the Alamo and David Crockett. Ofcourse, the food is pretty good as well.

Mama Cita's spectacular

Next we went into the local hardware/everything store called Gibson’s. The motto for the store is “If Gibson’s don’t have it, you don’t need it” and I reckon that’s about true. Naturally we headed straight to the gun area where we found a rather scary but incredibly friendly gun mad Texan salesman. He was telling us all about his time as a paratrooper and how if the USA tried to implement similar gun laws that we have in Australia, that they would have to pry his guns out of his “cold dead hands”. He also was bringing out lots of guns (including pink guns – for the girls of course) and kept asking if we wanted to hold them for some photos. We politely declined as we didn’t want our prints on anything handled by that guy. Another thing which was a bit crazy was 20″ long machetes for sale for $6 – all in a rubbish bin type thing on the floor of the store – and packaged with just cable ties holding them to a thin cardboard backing.

We are heading up to Lake Buchannan to see Aunt Chris and co tomorrow so we will be sure to get plenty of photos and will report back on the weekend.

Over and out,

Rob

Tags: texas

We decided to take a Greyhound bus to get to Austin from San Antonio which was a 2 hour bus ride of kids kicking the back of our seats and people talking overly loud on cell phones. For 2 hours though, it was easily bearable and gave us a chance to see the intercity landscape. Turns out there wasn’t that much ‘landscape’ as there’s always a fast food outlet in sight.

After arriving in Austin and catching a taxi to our hotel, we went for a bite to eat down the infamous 6th Street area. The street is lined with pubs and eateries and has a young, alternative feel to it which is not surprising considering the University of Texas in the vicinity. I had the pleasure of trying a local burger called ‘The Coronary’ which lived up its name with its deep-fried pickle filling and general artery clogging goodness.

The following day after doubling my cholesterol medication we took a tour through the Capitol Building

Capitol Couple

It’s a deceptively big building that also contains an extensive underground section.

View from outside

Looking up at the dome

Looking down from the top of the dome

After checking out the capitol building we moved onto the University of Texas campus and the main drag of shops that line the campus perimeter. The campus itself is more like a smallish city and although we spent about an hour within the campus we only saw about a quarter of it.

UT Tower and me

Leeane pointing to where the tower is in case you don't see it

We also checked out the UT Coop shop which is basically a shop that has everything branded with the ‘Longhorns’ logo. Garden gnomes, ashtrays, wedding bands, hammers (yes, longhorn hammers!) and even shoes. It’s crazy, but for some reason I would really like a Longhorns hammer!

While we were checking out some largely abandoned foodhalls on the strip of UT, we passed by an Army Recruiting office, when we passed by again on the way out I told Leeane that if we loiter around long enough then I guy will come out and try to recruit us. Sure enough, within about 5 seconds a grunt came out of the door and introduced himself and tried to persuade me to enlist. Attempting to get out of it I mentioned that we were Australian and he shouldn’t waste his time, instead he said that we could enlist as ‘registered aliens’ if we wished. The guy was pretty persistent but we were able to get away with just a business card that we promised to pass onto someone that looked like a promising recruit. Although I didn’t enlist, I passed on Braden’s details and signed some blank document on his behalf which the recruiter said he would type up later…. don’t know what that is all about.

We met some local friends at the park behind the Capital and we managed to snap a few shots. This is the first time we’ve seen squirrels up close since we’ve been here, we should have seen some at Uncle Bobs but apparently Duffy has chased them all away.

peek a boo!

scratching his butt against a tree....

We also finally got around to trying out the Subway alternative Quiznos and just like Uncle Bob said, it is loads better than Subway. We’ll definitely be hitting that up again a couple times before we leave.

Also we bumped into some Aussies staying at our hotel, they are the first Australians we’ve seen so far and likewise for them. They told us that they came over from Iceland flying Iceland Air and they had an engine explode and catch fire just after take off! Note to self, don’t fly Iceland Air!

Rob

Tags: austin

We have spent the last couple days in San Antonio – to get out of Uncle Bob’s hair a bit 🙂 And tomorrow we will be heading up to Austin for another few days before joining Uncle Bob again in Kerrville for some more Texas fun.

Our hotel here in San Antonio is in a great location – walking distance to all the attractions. But it is on the wrong side of the tracks – literally. They supply earplugs next to the bible in the top bedside drawer because people often complain about the noise from the Amtrak station (train provider) across the street. Rob and I haven’t heard a peep from the trains though – must be because we are exhausted from walking around all day or perhaps it is from the hearing damage we suffered from the Wiley House Jam!

Texas is feeling the aftermath of Hurricane Eduardo at the moment, which makes for very hot/cloudy/humid conditions. Give us the dry heat of Las Vegas anyday!

The main attractions in San Antonio seem to be the Alamo and the RiverWalk. We spent today doing both.

The Alamo is an old building from the 1700’s which was part of a fortification during a last stand battle with the Mexicans in the 1800’s. After being outnumbered 200 Texans to an eventual 6000 Mexicans, the Texans were eventually overpowered and after a 13 day struggle and final 2 hour hand to hand battle everyone inside was either killed or executed. So, it is a bit of a shrine to American history and the bravery of some of the soldiers (Davy Crockett and co). They don’t allow photo’s inside…. but I managed to snap a few whilst the armed guards weren’t looking. Yes… armed guards called ‘Alamo Rangers’  guarding the shrine of liberty… only in Texas.

Rob out the front of the Alamo building

Me out the front of the Alamo

inside the fort is a big garden area

Next up was the River Walk which is right next door. It is a long river system – which is lined by overpriced restaurants ofcourse! It is actually quite picturesque and we opted to jump on one of the little tourist boat cruises to save some walking around.

rob on the river boat cruise

i am trying to copy the pose of the hooters girls (at rob's request)... i think i have to do more practice.

After that we headed up to Market Square – which we heard was a bit of a Mexican shopping area. After making the long walk in the sweltering sun, it wasn’t worth the effort at all. But we did stop in a little cafe where we grabbed a quick bite to eat.

rob eating his manly ceasar salad. this is about the 100th ceasar salad he has had in america.

my chicken sandwhich.. in croissant bread. when she asked if i wanted chips.. i didnt think she meant chips of this type :S

Leeane

Tags: texas

The other night ( after the Wallabies game ) we went over to Wiley’s again to gorge ourselves silly on gen-u-ine Texan food such as baked beans, pork brisket, beef butt, beef / pork / veal sausage and bread rolls – possibly with meat in it, I can’t remember for sure. Of course all of this is done Wiley style, that is to say, from scratch and in Texas proportions. Needless to say I was again uncomfortably full for a few hours and not much good for anything, apart from hydrating myself in true Texas style.

Tonight was the night I was going to meet a bass player named Randy who used to play for Willy Nelson’s band a while back. My plan was to pick his brain about where to buy a bass in Texas since I am currently in the market and I can save thousands by buying it over here and then lugging it around with me. Unfortunately for me, Randy called in sick tonight!! And tonight is jam night!!!

Word got around pretty fast that I am a bass player ( thanks to Uncle Bob ) and despite mustering up all my weaseling powers, they madly phoned around and got a replacement bass delivered for me. No escape.

The guitarist, Ron led me over to the jam room to warm up and I have to say, this jam room is probably one of the nicest I’ve been in. Plenty of space, a nice P.A , 5 foot tall amps and pornographic artwork tell me that this jam room is home to one style of music – Rock! Sadly Chuck Berry is not in my repitoire but I soon noticed that most of the old time songs are standard 12 bar blues patterns so I was able to wing it enough, that and Ron likes his guitar ‘beyond loud’ so I don’t think anyone could really hear me anyway.

Me and Rockin' Ron

Ron and his can of liquid rock

Ron is quite the showman and loves a good solo or two during a song and the lighting in the room makes for some interesting photos…

Rock on!

Rockin' so hard you can see the blues

Wiley suppied the tambourine for most of the songs and lended very authentic vocals for ‘Old Time Rock and Roll’  – complete with ciggy in hand.

sharing a laugh with Wiley (left)

The Wiley House Band.... and Duff's head

Steve, the drummer

All in all It was actually a really enjoyable jam and well worth the ear damage and second hand smoke. The only real blemish on the night was that the Wallabies lost in a game laden with reffing errors making it really unbearable to watch and not the most ideal game for Uncle Bob’s introduction to world of rugby… ah well, there is always next weekend!

Rob

Tags: food, music

Yesterday Uncle Bob had a business meeting down in Del Rio. It is a good 3 hour drive away and is the bordertown on the USA side of the USA/Mexico border.

Ofcourse, Rob and I insisted that we tag along as it would probably be our one opportunity to go into Mexico.

So after a 3 hour drive littered with a ridiculous amount of roadworks, Uncle Bob made it to his business meeting with literally 30 seconds to spare. Rob and I then walked around Del Rio for a little bit before deciding it was a bit of a dump and decided to head for the International Bridge to go to Mexico.

After getting ripped off by a cab driver to take us over the border, we were in Mexico – a town called Acuna! The cab driver left us with some words of wisdom – “Remember, what happens in Mexico, stays in Mexico”.

Once over the border, we were pretty starving so made a beeline for the closest restaurant. After bathing our hands in antibacterial hand wash, we tucked into some nice enchiladas and all things Mexican (all indistinguishable under a mountain of melted cheese on top). Mmmm – and if you can believe it, the beer over there is even cheaper!

Once out of the restaurant, we were rounded up by a local called Romero who insisted on driving us back over the border in his taxi. Rather than arguing and trying to decipher his Spanglish, we said we would come back to him when we were ready but that we wanted to have a wander around first. Ofcourse, being the devious Aussies that we are, we just went round the block and headed back over the bridge by foot.

in case we forgot...

rob in mexico

me in mexico

Once we made it through U.S. Customs and Border Patrol we were met by Uncle Bob and took a scenic but bumpy drive back to Kerville.

In the end we were in Mexico for only an hour or so – but what an hour!! And I hope Romero isn’t still waiting for us….

Tags: mexico

Question. What is the most American thing that we could do coming to America? Buy a gun! So guess what we did yesterday? Well, you have to wait for the answer to that since I need to tell you about something bigger than the American Dream….. Walmart.

We’ve been telling Uncle Bob since we got here that one of the big attractions of coming to the states was to visit a Walmart. Yesterday he dropped us at one whilst he went to run some errands but not before we saw something utterly strange to our Australian eyes, a drive through bank. I’m not sure if we were meant to take photos of this attraction but it sure was taking photos of us so I guess fair’s fair.

 

Then it was onto the big-boy. Walmart is like our equivalent in size to Bunnings but it in terms of content it’s like Coles, K-mart, Big W and Maccas all smooshed together. It’s awesome!

Straight away, after checking the vending machines out front for any bizarre drinks ( cherry coke-zero anyone? ) we headed straight for the gun section. Alarm bells are probably ringing at the moment so you’ll be happy to know they are only air rifles, potentially lethal none-the-less and suitably labelled with a 16+ age restriction. Ours was only $30 too! Bargain!

After picking out a suitable firearm and some booze amongst other supplies, we took our cart to the checkout. I laid out the items on the checkout and the lady behind the counter asked me for ID, at first I thought it was because of the air-rifle but after quizzing her it was because of the 12-pack of Miller Genuine Draft – makes sense to me!

I have to admit I felt a little uneasy pushing a shopping trolley through the car park with a scoped air-rifle jutting out of it, however no one seemed to bat an eye lid so we just rolled with it.

Uncle Bob took us to a pub on the way back called, ‘The Back Porch’. This was a more ‘standard’ pub in terms of layout, however it had a view to match Ol’ Dave’s.

View from the back porch

Two times the view

Here we got to meet Uncle Bob’s ex, Kathy Lou – Kat for short. Let me tell you she is an utter crack up and has the best authentic Texas accent. She says all the things we came to Texas for like ‘Gol Leeeee’ and ‘Sweet Mary Jane’. She’s a fun lady and loved hearing our accents just as much as we loved hearing hers.

Gol-Lee!

We sat around at the Back Porch for a few hours enjoying the view and the suds and thinking this is a great place to kill some time and brain cells. Uncle Bob told us previously that he hates posing for photos, it turns out after about two or three beers he loves it as we managed to snap this one – which he initiated.

Four Millers

After a couple hours at the Back Porch, Uncle Bob told us we were ready to go see his good friend ( and Kat’s brother ) Wiley for a real Texas experience. We’ve heard he and his wife are great cooks and they certainly lived up to their reputation and were very hospitable which seems to be great Texas trait.

Their hospitality also extends to animals it seems as they have a pet racoon that they rescued three months ago when it was just born. They’ve been bottle feeding it ever since and it seems to be quite a handful, especially when it burrows through the furniture!

The Coon

We ate and drank for a few hours more with Wiley and his kids and their friends and they quizzed us about Australia and we quizzed them about America, in particular guns. Turns out some of the kids here own thirty plus firearms for both hunting and protection. I think we’ll just stick to our air-rifle for the time being.

Speaking of which, the next morning after a big breakfast we started setting up cans around the ranch and testing our aim. The scope needed to be bore-sited so we spent most of the day zeroing it in and now it’s pretty accurate.

Bore-siting the rifle

The target

The plan is to use the air-rifle to scare off wild deer that feed on the horse’s feed. We’ve tested it out a bit so far, when they get close you can send a round into the feed tin and the ‘PITANG!’ sound is enough to startle them and send them bounding away. Uncle Bob should be able to patrol his property more effectively now and keep Clyde’s food safe.

Crack Shot Robinson

Good ol' boy

Redneck Rob

Our parents are probably pretty worried about seeing us holding firearms ( apart from Dad who probably thinks it’s neat) so let me end this post with a nice calming picture of Bert the puppy who lives up the road and looks to be the same breed as Lilly.

Shooo Cute

Rob

Tags: texas