Sunday morning at midnight, we all gathered at the Circle K on the corner of First and Green to depart for Austin, Texas. We had a total of 18 GLCM students gathered to catch up, split up luggage, fill up gas, and mingle before our 17-hour drive. We were all split between four cars.
Once we departed, of course, most of the people in our cars went to bed, which left the drivers and passenger side people to talk, get to know each other a little better, and mingle a little more. We listened to some bangers through the night, some podcasts, and the snores of our comrades. We had multiple stops to fill up gas, although the first stop was the only one we ended up going to all together. After our first stop, some people had taken wrong turns or started going a little faster. We passed through Missouri, Arkansas, and then straight into Texas. Most of the drive was at night until we ended up across the Texas border. Once the sun rose, we stopped to get food and then reached our first-ever Texas staple gas station, Buc-ee’s.
We were lucky enough to run into the mascot while we were there, and we took a picture with him! We tried out some of the food that they had, such as pulled pork shoulder burgers. Some of us got souvenirs like matching pajamas and T-shirts. And then we made our final sprint to the Airbnb, although the traffic was so horrible that it added an extra two hours to our drive.
Upon arrival, we discussed the rooming situation and the rooms we would stay in for the rest of the trip. After that, we rested up, changed, showered, and laughed a little about all of the hilarious pictures we got of each other sleeping. We then went out as a group on the search of food, and we went to a pizza place we were recommended down the road from us.
Most of us were there and were able to order, but a small group wasn’t able to order and went further down the street to a cool restaurant that also served pizza. The restaurant is located in a pretty house where the floor plan was remade to accommodate sitting people and having a bar. We walked in fifteen minutes before close, but the waiter let us sit and eat anyway! We all ordered our own personal pizza and just relaxed and enjoyed each other’s company.
We finished up around 10:00 PM and returned to the Airbnb. When we got home, we checked out some of the Airbnb facilities and hopped into the hot tub outside. The hot tub was slightly underfilled, so some of us had to cover the jets with our bodies so that they would squirt water directly into our faces while we were sitting. Finally, we went inside, dried off, and went to sleep.
Blog by Sam Vargas