Tony and I had a blast on our thirty-one-hour vacation to Port Aransas. We left here at seven o'clock in the morning with Frank babysitting the rescue ranch until Ben arrived from Austin.
Our drive down there was pretty weird though. We ate breakfast in Pleasanton and it took us over an hour because of the waitress. We waited five minutes to get our menus, then four minutes to get our iced teas, twenty-two minutes until she put our plates down on our table and three minutes before she brought us our aluminum ware so we could eat our cooled eggs, bacon and toast. And the whole time we were in the establishment—several men kept coming in the front door, in five minute intervals, and go into the Office and close the door behind them and then, in less than a minute, they would come back out and leave the restaurant real quickly. I think it had something to do with illegal drugs or gambling, but who knows.
Further on down the road, on Highway 37, when we were close to the Poth exit ramp the strangest thing happened to us—we got zapped! I don't know if it was from a UFO or a microwave, but it freaked us out, because the radio and my iPod that was connected to it, stopped playing for a couple of seconds, when it hit us with a nanosecond bright flash and then the radio and iPod lit back up and started playing my favorite music.
"What the heck was that?" I asked Tony. "What just happened?"
"I don't know. It didn't affect the engine."
"It happened right before the Poth exit." I said, as Tony began chuckling. "Why are you laughing? That was scary, Tone."
"I know. Nance. But it's pronounced Poth—like both. Not Poth—like Goth." So we argued about the correct pronunciation until I spotted a tall, gigantic, iron bridge sitting way off, in the middle of a pasture with cows, and the sign on it read: "Bridge For Sale" with a phone number and we laughed about it and our weird trip, all of the way to Port Aransas.
While we waited on the ferry to take us to Port A., I noticed that every ferry was named after a person. "I wonder what ferry we're on?" I said, as I leaned to find the name and then I started laughing. "Tony, we're on the Goode ferry! How cool is that?" Then I grabbed my camera and snapped this picture to prove that a good ferry took us to Port A.
As Tony drove us to the What-A-Burger parking lot, so we could meet up with our friends Denise and Mark, I called Rick to let him know that we had arrived and would meet him at the What-A-Burger. A few minutes later Rick pulled up on his pretty Triumph motorcycle. "Nance, you're in the Dairy Queen parking lot," Rick teased, "not What-A-Burger's."
After introducing our friends to Rick, he called Leisa to tell her we had arrived, but she had a couple of things to do before she could meet up with us and go over to the island, so Rick suggested that we meet her at a bar and drink a beer while we waited for her. So, to T.'s surprise—I made several clumsy attempts and then finally climbed onto the back of Rick's Triumph and he and I took off, followed closely by Tony and Denise and Mark.
Before we had finished drinking a cold beer out on the patio deck, Leisa showed up with Squirt, her two-times-in-a-row winner of being "The Fastest Dog In Port Aransas." After howdies and hugs we took off and island hopped over to the lighthouse island where Rick lives and is known as the, "The Friendly Lighthouse Keeper."
OMG! We had the best time on the island. After we had unpacked our bags and put up our groceries the party began. We went out on the front porch and started visiting and filled the air with laughter as we snacked on some delicious appetizers that Denise and Mark had brought along for this special occasion. And because of the fun time that I was having, I laughed so much—I had wished that I had brought along Mari's pink-dyed sheepskin to sit on because my back was starting to ache.
As we sat in the comfortable Adirondack chairs on the front porch, looking out towards the sea and watching the many colorful birds flying overhead—another weird thing happened. A tugboat pushing two huge barges towards Port A. started drifting closer and closer to the island that we were on. "I bet that tugboat is going to get stuck in shallow waters if it gets much closer," I remarked, and as soon as Rick had agreed with me and explained to us that it had intentionally gotten stuck so it could make a shift change—it got stuck and quit moving just as I had predicted and then we watched as they lowered a small boat and some men got into it and took off for Port A.
Around six-forty Rick took off in the boat to go pick up our dear friends Kelly and Pete and their three dogs, in Port Aransas, because they were going to eat dinner with us. When they arrived it was howdies and hugs and then Smilin' Jack raced up the steps and greeted all of us. He is the giant Newfoundland/Lab mix that we had rescued and they had adopted from us in 2010. Then "The Girls" Fiona and Daphne, their precious Bulldogs, climbed up the stairs and greeted everyone and stole the show away from Jack.
After we ate fajitas for dinner Leisa surprised us with a delicious Blackberry cobbler that she had made from scratch and then we went back out on the porch and laughed the night away, as two barges and a tugboat lit up the night sky for us.
The next morning, while we ate breakfast, we figured out that the barges left some time between four and five-thirty in the morning, because I had checked at four and they were still out there, but were gone when Tony got up to go fishing at five-thirty. After Rick and Tony had teased me about being from Fort Worth and mispronouncing Poth we laughed about the bridge for sale and talked about what a fun time we had had on the island. After Denise and I cleaned up the breakfast dishes we packed our bags and then Rick took us to Port Aransas, so we could go home.
Tone and I were thrilled when we boarded the Goode ferry once again, as it took us to shore and our trip home was uneventful, because we did not get zapped and the bridge for sale that we had seen must have been sold because it was gone and we didn't eat at that restaurant.
When we arrived back home safely we had a few unexpected surprises waiting for us—a sweet mama dog and her two, adorable puppies occupying our big puppy pen. Then we drove up to the barn and saw Ben working and after he had told us their story we invited him to come up to the trailer, so we could visit with him and our dear friend Maribeth Couch, who had come in Thursday evening to spend the night and baby-sit our dogs for us until we got back.
After a fun two-hour visit with them we thanked them for letting us go on a thirty-one hour vacation and then we adios-ed them and they went home.
There is so much more to tell about our fun adventure to the coast, but I am so tired that I must call it a night and go to bed. I want to thank our dear friends Rick & Leisa, Denise & Mark and Kelly & Pete for another wonderful time in Port Aransas and Maribeth and Ben for doing a great job and "holding down the fort" for us.
Tomorrow night, I will share some wonderful and exciting news about our dear musician and animal lover friend—Joe King Carrasco. Until then "Goode Night!"
Y'all have a great evening!
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