Tag Archive: entertainment


First Friday

On Friday evening Teresa and I walked over to downtown Bryan for their First Friday event. They have live music, restaurants have special things going on, and the streets are busy with many local people. We started off the evening by going to the Village Cafe for a drink and to cool off. It was a little loud in there, so we moseyed on over to Los Norteños Cafe for some dinner. We had passed by this place a couple weeks ago and liked the looks of the outside, we liked the inside even better. And with $3.99 breakfast tacos, how can one go wrong? Just a tip, two people can share one, these tacos are huge, and kind of like burritos. After getting stuffed on tacos, we waddled a short distance to the Revolution Cafe (there are a lot of  cafe’s in Bryan it seems) to listen to some bluegrass. I was wondering if the bluegrass in Texas was different than that of the bluegrass in Asheville. The answer is no. They are pretty much the same. We stayed for a little bit, but being stuffed on tacos, and at the tail end of a work week, we were tuckered out so left after only several songs. You can hear one of the songs they played below.

It was good to check out the First Friday and I am sure we will check out some of the others that go on during our year in Texas.

[wpaudio url="http://www.10gallonhat.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/The-Devils-Bluegrass-Band-Amber-Alert.mp3"]

I <3 Gumby’s Pizza…And my Cohort!

Hooray! Today was an exciting day in Texas because I met most of my intern cohort! And ate some pretty super pizza with Wylie! I met 2 of the other 3 kids who will be interning with me at the TAMU counseling center, and they were super fun and nice, so I am looking forward to getting to know them more and having some giggles and learning with them. We met at a local burger joint–The Chicken Oil Company–which was full to the brim with local color and charm…and crinkly fries. Which are pretty fabulous. (Crinkly sweet potato fries are even better, but you usually have to make those at home, or at least unfreeze them at home. Wylie and I did that last night, and in the process burned up a silicon cookie sheet that was being stored in the drawer under the oven…that smelled bad…but the sweet potato fries were delicious!)

Then this evening Wylie and I did some spontaneous errands…about which there is a rant coming at the end of this post…and tried Gumby’s Pizza, which was ALSO full to the brim with local color and charm. It was super yummy (don’t tell Mr. G though) and super cheap, and pretty much the definition of “no frills.” It seems like lots of college kids go there and they have a dining room that is a haphazard collection of various kinds of tables and posters that a 15 year old boy would like (i.e. a Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks, a Mullet Guide (hairdos, not fish), a monkey drinking beer, etc…). The tables and posters are unattended, and there are no plates in the whole place. They called my name, gave us the pizza, and we ate it straight from the box. So, it’s kind of like being at home, only in a restaurant. I liked it. It is my new favorite place…the only negative was that they have Pepsi products, but even that was forgivable in such a relaxed atmosphere…Everyone seemed to be eating these little pizza roll things, so we will try those next time.

I have also been busy with dissertation stuff, which is good. I had to buy a subscription to Zoomerang for a year, so it is quite possible that you will start seeing random surveys around 10gallonhat.com because I want to get my money’s worth.

In other news…WARNING, A RANT COMING…I got my Texas vehicle registration yesterday, and it turns out that TX requires front and rear plates, which I do not now nor have I ever had on Atom, and it seems that getting a front license plate mount is more of a hassle than it should be. Here is my opinion: There should be a standardized rule for all 50 states–one plate or two–and cars should come at least with the holes so that you can easily attach a cheap mount. The Scion dealer wants $35 just for the mount, then who knows how much to drill the holes…I am going to try to sweet talk them into putting on my cheap $5 mount from Auto Zone tomorrow…we shall see. For some reason this particular detail of moving has made me more annoyed and upset than it should, and for that, I apologize to Wylie because he has had to deal with it. A couple of naps helped. Also, the memory foam for the bed came yesterday, so sleeping like a baby angel tonight will help too…

GUMBY!!!

Sooooo…was Hitchcock from Bryan?

Well. Here we are at the start of our second full week in Texas. The weekend was pretty nice–there was some relaxing done, some major progress towards getting my dissertation survey online, and a $3.50 matinee of Public Enemies seen. I am sort of obsessed with the fact that you can see a movie here for $3.50. The movie itself was OK…more violent than I had expected, but good story. We also checked out the Farmer’s Market that happens on Sat mornings. We got some major cucumbers and some squash that look like UFO’s and a watermelon that ended up being too ripe…I was sad about that. It seemed like they had some local honey and coffee as well, but we didn’t need any of that stuff. I had been spoiled by the farmer’s market in Auburn, so while I am glad that there is one nearby, it will take some getting used to…

Yesterday we tried out the local burrito shop Freebird’s World Burritos. It was pretty tasty…and you can get the hugest burritos that I have ever seen in my life. Wylie got one–but you can get one that is 2x as big as that if you wanted. You can see in the photo that it is really big. Burritos are pretty high on my list of favorite things to eat, so I am happy that there is a place in town creating some for my eating pleasure. Something that I liked about this place was that people made art out of their foil burrito wrappers and put it up all over…and also that even though they have Pepsi products and not Coke, they included Diet Dr. Pepper, so it is not a soda bust, which is something that is important when you are eating burritos.

Then we headed over to Kroger for some grocery shopping…and there was a bird in there. What in the world is going on with all of the birds in TX doing crazy things? Are they just messing with us? It’s very interesting…hmmmm……

Today Wylie is working and I am headed out to get my vehicle inspected so that I can register it in TX. I can’t say that I am thrilled about that, but, as my parents told me yesterday while I was whining, I do like driving on paved, pothole-free roads…so I guess I need to get over it.

The good news: One week untill internship!!!

After Merlefest

Merlefest 2009 has come and gone. Fun times were had by the Blevins sisters and their pale sidekick, Wylie. It all started on Thursday with a drive out to Wilkesboro, NC. We had reserved a space in the VFW filed for Thursday and Friday night. It was a good campground, tons of space, tons of firewood, and a nice baseball diamond to drive on.

Friday began our Merlefest adventure. We spent the day avoiding the blaring sun, and listening to some pretty darn good bluegrass. There was plenty of water drinking and lounging in the shade. We also enjoyed some snow cone and funnel cake action. It was my first music festival, and the Blevins sisters first funnel cake and not the Blevins sisters first funnel cake. New things for all me! Friday ended with a performance by Donna the Buffalo, followed by some contra dancing, and then some more Donna the Buffalo at the Donna the Buffalo Dance Party.

Saturday we left for Brevard, NC to visit one of Maria’s old guiding buddies, Tolly. During the drive there was a stop at birdhouse man (unfortunately I did not take photos), some windy roads, some Sonic and some Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me going on, a stop in Asheville at Green Life, some loitering at Ingles in Brevard, and almost some car sickness. Our drive ended in Glenville, NC where we spent the evening with Tolly and Lori. Pizza, cocktails, jam sessions, and campfires by the lake were on the agenda. It was a short visit, but we checked all that off our list before getting back on the road to Asheville on Sunday.

It was a fantastic weekend. It was a good first music festival for me, no sunburn, and no dehydration happened. And it was great meeting Maria, Tolly, and Lori.

Now, enjoy some photos from the weekend.

One Of The StagesFunnel CakeSnow Cone ActionDonna The BuffaloSitting On The HillContra DancingDonna The Dance PartyDrivingNot A Bad BackyardNot A Bad BackyardCocktail TimeTolly & Laura Laughing It UpJam SessionJammingGetting FunkyEating & ListeningWish I Had 20 Million Dollars

Local Doings


View College Station in a larger map

I’ve been putting together a map of things to do, places to eat and other things of interest in and around College Station/Bryan, Texas. Seems like there is way more to do than I originally thought that there might be.

Powered by WordPress | Theme: Motion by 85ideas.