Corpus Christi - The Gulf Coast

From New Orleans we began to realize how BIG Texas is.  Many of you who have driven through it are surely laughing, but we've logged twenty or so hours in the car just between two cities of Texas.  We also drove through or near every large city in Texas.  Furthermore, I'm extremely glad that we decided to skip West Texas in this trip.  :)  That means we don't have too much more empty wasteland to cover.  Or perhaps it just means that we'll be covering the empty wasteland in Kansas and Eastern Colorado instead of in Texas.  Oh well.

From the Mississippi's bottom we continued ever further West.  We felt called in that direction, being young men.  This trek brought us ten hours down to our southernmost point of the trip.  We're nearing the halfway mark in terms of time and have clocked 8,233 miles.  Towards the end of those eight-thousand, we rolled into Corpus Christi, Texas on the Gulf Coast just a few hours North of Mexico (nearly on the same latitude line as Miami).  The South doesn't get any deeper--but then, Texas isn't completely the South, it is its own mixed breed of midwestern, independent, and southern values.  We stayed with Pastor Ken Jennings and his wonderful and hilarious wife at their parsonage.  We arrived after ten hours of driving, warmed up, and sang.  We haven't done that often, but it didn't work out too badly.  The concert actually sounded pretty good and the church rang well in addition to being a beautiful space to sing in.  Afterwards they generously took us out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and I had a good taste of Tex-Mex (good, if you're not setting your hopes on straight Mexican food).  We sang a bit in the restaurant, which people enjoyed and some mistook for the radio!  :)  We also got to sample the local brews, which included one of my favorite beers: Shiner Bock!  Nathan and I have been enjoying our Shiners here in Texas; we found a place last night in Dallas that had Shiner on tap for 2.50.  Pretty sweet.  From there we returned home, practiced a bit of music, unpacked and went to sleep.  The next day, I woke up and Nathan and Mrs. Jennings were watching the latest Star Trek.  I joined for the last half; it is a fun space adventure film and gives some sweet backstory (or alternate story) to the roots of the Star Trek saga.  We lazed around (the only proper thing to do) until the other guys woke up and then headed out to the beach.  Grabbing a bite to eat at Pier 99, we couldn't help but get excited at the sight of the Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Lexington.  Unfortunately, it was $15 per person to explore that, so after wringing every bit of free information off the signs in the front (including noticing the spot where a KamiKaze plane had hit the side and killed a hundred and fifty... but the Lexington carried on.  The Japanese eventually nicknamed it the Blue Ghost because it had been reported sunk so often but had returned!).  Then we went and swam on North Beach.  The water was a smidge murky, which prevented Allen and Keaton from seeing the jellyfish in the water which later stung them.  That did not flag our courage or vim.  We continued to attack the water, regardless of the dangers it threw at us.  Bring it on, Neptune!  At any rate, Allen had the worst welt on his arm, but he said after his arm fell off he didn't feel any pain at all.  We then came home pretty dang tired and chilled with Pastor and his wife that evening.  He sang us a couple hilarious songs on the guitar and we had hickory-smoked brisket with delicious (and spicy) BBQ sauce.  We hit the sack knowing we had a large chunk of Texas to cover the next day on our way to Dallas.  We went close to San Antonio, stopped in Austin to check out the State Capitol building, and eventually ended in Dallas where I got to spend some quality time with my sister!  :)  And so it rolls; again, I can promise to try to update more often, but we're finding ourselves pretty busy.  We're also only about a week from getting the camera back.  :)