CHICK TRIP TO THE GULF COAST
(And bonus excursion to Orlando to see MG at Seaworld)
Wow these things are taking longer and longer to get to. It’s almost time for my next outing, Donna will be arriving on my
island in just 19 days, well, at the time I started writing this anyhow. It is now down to four days. Shoot. I’m excited to see
her, but I’m a bad girl for not having this done already.
Our itinerary for our week on the Gulf Coast:
TUESDAY Arrive in Houston at night
WEDNESDAY Houston Rodeo with KC performing
THURSDAY drive to Lafayette, LA for opening of KC’s new tour
FRIDAY drive to New Orleans, spend the day there
SATURDAY drive to Biloxi for KC’s show
SUNDAY fly to Orlando to see MG at Seaworld
Jen and I both worked the day we departed for Houston. Most people get really nervous when they fly. I don’t think I get
nervous about flying, but it is very stressful getting everything together to fly all while trying not to miss your flight. I only
worked three hours that day but had a few errands to do before I got back home to meet up with Jen and begin our trip to the
airport. One of those errands was to get a manicure and pedicure. As it turns out, I would have been better off getting the
pedicure after work on Monday, since it was a nice, somewhat warm, sunny day. On Tuesday, we were enjoying the last snowfall
that we would see for the year.
As soon as Jen and I reached the airport, we found out that our first flight had been re-routed from Atlanta to Cincinnati/Northern
Kentucky. If you’re keeping track, this is the second time in a row that I was having weather related problems flying into
Atlanta. My first reaction was of bewilderment, Atlanta’s having bad weather. It’s snowing here, how much worse does
it get? Our flight got off pretty easily after the de-icing process. We were only running a little bit behind, but unfortunately, we
didn’t have much of a layover in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky. The Cincinnati airport is huge, and we arrived at one terminal
and needed to take the bus service to our departing terminal. It caused me a bit of stress, but we did make it to our connection.
After arriving at our final destination, Bush International Airport in Houston, we claimed our luggage, picked up our car rental and
then we dashed off to Hobby Airport, which was Sylvia’s airport of arrival. She did try to fly into the same airport as us, but
they told her that if you fly from the West Coast, you fly into Hobby, and if you fly from the East Coast, you fly into Bush.
Before leaving the car rental place, I asked the clerk for directions to Hobby even though Sylvia was very thorough in her plans for
this trip. She sent me directions from Bush to Hobby. There were 17 different steps in those directions she gave me. The Alamo
guy gave me directions that had just two different roads in them, with a total of three turns. The Texas road signs not included, we
made it to Hobby quickly and easily.
Once there, at Hobby Airport, things got weird due to all the increased security at all airports. You are not permitted to wait in
front of the terminal. Even if you know your friend has already claimed her luggage and is just about to walk out the door. We had
to keep circulating around. We weren’t alone in this either. There were about 20 other cars doing the same, no joke.
Naturally, we were in constant contact with Sylvia via our cellphones, who as it turns out was running into a slight problem
leaving the terminal. She was on a long line of travelers that were having their luggage checked to their claim tickets as they exited
the building. Jen and I were laughing so hard as we kept circling the airport. After a few times around, we noticed several cars that
were stopped on the shoulder just past the arrival terminal. When I finally realized what they were doing and knowing that Sylvia
was still on that line, we decided to join those folks on the shoulder. No more circling, now just waiting for Sylvia to say that â
€˜SHE HAS LEFT THE BUILDING’. Eventually we got our call, just like those before us, and we got to leave the shoulder.
The three of us got a good nights sleep before we needed to head back to Bush Airport to claim Nikki. With the four of us now
altogether, it was time to stock the cooler with all kinds of goodies for the week. Our plans after that were to do some shopping
for cowboy boots and hats. Shopping for Cowboy stuff was the real selling point for our trip to Houston. I always wanted to
buy real western boots. This silly Long Island girl thought that Houston, Texas would be a good place. Jen did thorough research
on-line before our trip. She came to Houston armed with a list of stores and directions to all of them from our hotel. We picked a
store and started our journey. When we get there, we found the place was closed. So no boots or hats for anyone.
Now, it’s the moment I’d been waiting for, my first RODEO. We were all very surprised to learn that the rodeo didnâ
€™t start until the evening. We did manage to keep ourselves busy until then. Once we arrived at our parking spot for the night,
Jen saw some hawtie. He was on a bicycle. Actually, he was working. He was giving Rodeo attendees a ride on his bike from the
parking area to the stadium. Nikki quickly named him EYEZ. He wanted to give the four of us a ride on his bike, but we had just
gotten there and weren’t ready to go in. Nikki told him to come back. He insisted that we call him when we were ready.
When we were ready, that’s just what she did.
I don’t think I have ever laughed so hard. He had a two-seater coach attached to the back of his bike. I was quite surprised
that he wasn’t the least bit skeered at pedaling the four of us all the way to the stadium. Jen and Sylvia got in first. I sat on
Sylvia’s lap and Nikki sat on Jen’s. He had us laughing the whole time. As you can imagine, someone who does a lot of
bike riding tends to have well-developed calves and glutes. Jen and Sylvia couldn’t take their eyes off of his glutes. They
somehow managed to snap some pics of his finely shaped butt during the course of the ride. Sylvia even did an impromptu video
of the ride on her digital camera. Needless to say, we tipped him well once we reached our destination.
We were sixth row for the rodeo. The first event was right in front of us. Cowboys, Wranglers, hats, boots, oh boy. I really
enjoyed watching the rodeo. Although, I didn’t understand most of what was going on, but boy it looked good. When the
rodeo was over, the folks that be had GENE HUBBELL (name and spelling not quite sure) escorted around the stadium on horse
and buggy. He was the guy at the mission control helm during the Apollo 13 flight. While he was escorted around, some other
folks were bringing out the stage for Kenny’s how. All of the house lights were on while they did this and Kenny’s band
was on stage and getting their instruments ready to go. At it turns out, this would be the best pictures I got of them all week.
A big deal was made about how the performance at the Rodeo was not part of the NEW TOUR. Naturally, I figured that what he
would do at the rodeo would be completely different the following night when the tour started in Lafayette, Louisiana. The new
songs he performed at the rodeo were I GO BACK, WHEN TH SUN GOES DOWN, and THERE GOES MY LIFE. Plus he did
YOUNG, NO SHOES, TRACTOR SONG, ORANGE BALL SONG, ETC. Same show as in the past few years, three new
songs, left out the medley of slow songs and the Conway Twitty song, you know the drill.
While performing at the rodeo this year, which by the way was the third year in a row that he performed there, Kenny managed to
do something that was never done before. He helped to sell 70,668 tickets to the rodeo that night, which was the most ever sold
for the Houston Rodeo. He even out sold native Texan George Strait.
After the show, we weren’t able to get a return trip from EYEZ. Actually, we never saw him again. Once we got back to our
car, we did some post-show tailgating. That traffic was a nightmare and we planned on avoiding it for as long as we could, and
why not we still had a full cooler and our port-a-potty. We didn’t need to leave right away. We never seem to be at a lost for
ways to entertain ourselves. We popped a CD in the boombox I brought from home and did some dancing in the parking lot. We
felt like reminiscing back to the fun we had after the Jacksonville, FL show last year when we wound up in some bar. This one
song definitely brings those memories alive. We needed to share this dance with Sylvia. We were enjoying ourselves right there in
the parking lot, hanging out by our rental, which had Illinois plates on it. Someone took exception to the site of us, dancing in the
parking lot and out-of-state plates, and they were so moved that they just had to yell out the window telling us to ‘GO HOMEâ
€™. How rude? Yeah, we weren’t loving Houston, boot store was closed and then we have someone yelling at us telling us
to leave.
Yikes. No worries though, I’ve had a few peeps tell me that the rest of Texas is quite different from Houston, and I will be
giving Texas another chance, just not sure when.
The next morning, we left the hotel, sometime after checkout was over; it seemed to be the trend for the week. While trying to
leave Houston, we ran into some of the same problems that Jen and I experienced on Tuesday night. The Texas highway signs
were not thoroughly planned. Most of the exit signs were after you had already passed the exit. We had actually never even
mentioned this to Nikki, but she learned it first hand for herself since she was the day’s driver. We completely blew the sign
for I-10. No big deal just turn around and catch in on the way back. Nope, that didn’t work either. We had to go back a bit
more and then get back on the highway to where we were originally when she blew the original exit for I-10. Now that we finally
made it onto I-10 we were on the lookout for the first CRACKER BARREL.