Day 35 – Austin, TX, Day 2

Miles traveled: 50
Hours on Road: It’s hard to tell since we stopped at several places
States covered: 1 – Texas

I slept like a log at Chrissy’s and took a nice hot shower to start my day. I shaved my legs for the first time since Jeff left. He must have taken the razor, and every time I was in a store I forget to get a new one. I was getting quite hairy, to the point that the hair was turning soft rather than prickly.

The plan for starting the day was for Parker and me to go with John to the shooting range. All the boys were dying to shoot a pistol, but the Littles were… too little. At the club to which John belongs, a member may have two visitors with him who are over the age of 13. If a visitor is under 13, the member must be with that person one-on-one. That wouldn’t work, so the Littles didn’t get to go. They weren’t happy, let me tell you.

Parker and I had a blast. John told us the ins and outs of shooting, and he had Parker load one of the magazines with bullets. It’s not easy to do until you get the hang of it. We all had to put on ear protection and protective glasses, and we set up the target out in the range. We were the only ones using the range, so we didn’t have to wait for others to “go cold,” as the saying goes. Before anyone can walk out onto the range, they have to make sure the area is cold, meaning everyone has put down their weapons. Once you’re off the range, everyone can “go hot.” Safety is the number one concern.

John shot first to show us the proper way to hold the pistol and to stand while shooting. The first gun we used was a 6-hour 9-millimeter, the same kind Navy Seals use. This made Parker very happy. The recoil of the gun is pretty massive, and the noise is loud, even with the ear protection on. Parker did OK with his first round of shooting, but I did really well. My first shot hit the edge of the bullseye. But I got worse each time I shot. John said that it’s typical for that to happen because the body becomes sensitive to the loud popping sound the gun makes, and people tend to start jerking their bodies in anticipation of the noise. I guess the more you do it, the more used to it you get, but I didn’t have that long, so I just continued to get worse. It was exhausting holding the gun steady while aiming, and then dealing with the recoil. It gave me a great appreciation for people who are good at shooting.

The second gun we used was a small .38 pocket revolver. It had a very short grip to hold, and it was really hard to pull the trigger. I was shocked at how hard it was. I guess part of the difficulty is that as you pull the trigger, the bullet not only fires, but the chamber has to move allowing the hole that contains the bullet to move into the right position for shooting. After one time of shooting the whole round each, we opted to go back to the 9-millimeter.

Parker improved immensely on his final round of shooting. I had taken photos and was able to show him that he wasn’t standing like John had shown us. While John leaned forward quite a bit, Parker and I were both leaning back to shoot. Once he straightened out his stance, he was near the bullseye every time. I just kept getting worse and worse, jumping each time I pulled the trigger. It was such an intense action, I could hear my heart beating inside the ear protector, and we were all sweating like crazy.

After our shooting spree, we went back to John’s house to get everyone else, and we did some driving around. Our first stop was Mt. Bonnell, which is the highest point in Austin. It overlooks Lake Austin, one of the seven highland lakes created by the Lower Colorado River Authority. The lakes were created for flood control, recreation, and power generation. The view was beautiful. The houses along the river are incredible: huge, unique, and expensive.

It was so hot – over 100 – that we decided our outdoor activities were done for the day. We went to lunch at Chuy’s. The food was great: I got a chicken-filled fried avocado; Parker got a burrito “as big as yo’ face”; Cal got three mini tacos; and Trey got french-fries. John ordered enchaladas and Paige ordered a salad, but Jack started to feel ill (a result of car-sickness they figured), so neither really enjoyed their meal. John took Jack out to the car first, then Paige went out to relieve him. Trey never ate his French-fries, either, but the rest of us thoroughly enjoyed our food.

After lunch we took a tour of downtown Austin. John pointed out where the guy flew the plane into the IRS building and where another guy blew up the Governor’s Mansion, and then we drove by the clock tower on the University of Texas campus from which someone shot several people back in the 60s. I asked John if the people of Austin are unusually angry. He just laughed.

We drove through the UT campus and stopped at a store for Parker to get a hat and a T-shirt. He’s a big Longhorns football fan. We were near the stadium, but it was too hot to look around, so we just drove by it. Sometimes that’s enough.

John and Jack had me cracking up on the ride home. Jack kept rolling his window down, which he evidently does when driving with his Grampa (Tobin), only Grampa simply locks the window so he has to stop. When his dad told him to stop, he said, “Lock it, Dad.” To which John replied, “Get some self-control.”

We hung out at John and Paige’s for a while before going to Chris and John Senior’s for swimming and dinner. Parker had been bugging me the entire trip to go see “Predators.” I wasn’t too enthusiastic about spending the money, so John set up his computer to record it while we were gone so we could watch it when we returned from Chris’s.

While at Chris and John’s, Chris, Paige, and I took the boys swimming at the club Chris and John belong to. The main pool is shaped like a tennis racket and the kids’ pool looks like a tennis ball. My boys got Jack to go out deeper in the big pool than he’d gone before. After swimming, we had a tour of the workout room and were then treated to the most magnificent, bright red setting sun.

We had pizza, then we headed back to John and Paige’s. John’s download of “Predators” was successful, so he set up the TV to play it, and the boys and I sat down to enjoy it. When it first came on, it was obvious it had been illegally recorded by someone sitting in a theater; you could see the two seats right in front of the recorder. The guy filming it must have noticed, because he fixed that issue. The only problems after that were the several people in the front of the theater who, throughout the movie, got up to leave and the fact that, according to Parker, the pixels were as big as his fist so he couldn’t tell who anyone was. It was late by the time we got the movie on, so Trey and I didn’t make it through the whole thing. We headed off to bed long before the movie was over. At least Parker saw it; I never promised he’d see a clear version of it.

For corresponding photos, go to:
http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1965311027/a=2740108027_2740108027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/