My job at Biltmore ended and I started the search for a job. Sadly none really showed themselves for a while. I have been hemorrhaging money like crazy, and applying to jobs like mad. I eventually found one job, but the hours are not proving to be very helpful, so I started looking for another job and found it at Target. That job only lasted two days though because the job caused my forearms to hurt like crazy, putting me out of commission for just under a week. I have since found another job at a local movie theater, Cinemark. This job is fine, it just has low pay, and I am one of the oldest people working as an usher. It’s kind of sad really.

Now we are starting to think about where we will be off to next. Teresa has been applying to jobs all over the country, and has had several interviews. So far we have three prospects: Georgia, Rhode Island, and Washington state. Once we know where we are heading I will start bombarding the locals with resumes, and we will make plans for the move. All of that is exciting.  I know that I will be happy to get out of Texas. It isn’t a bad place, just not my place.

I hope to be updating here more, I just need to give myself more time to do it, and that is one of my plans, better time management. So, check back here a little more often for more updates on us.

We here at 10 Gallon Hat would like to make a recommendation. If you are going to be taking a road trip with multiple people in multiple vehicles, we suggest you use these Motorola Walkie-Talkies. They work wonderfully while on the road.

Before we were on the road I mentioned to Teresa that I wanted to get us some walkie-talkies just for communicating back and forth. She didn’t understand why since we both have cell phones and could just talk back and forth that way. I insisted that we were on a road trip, and in a kind of caravan. Walkie-talkies were a must. We found these for the right price and purchased them.

Once on the road they were great. They worked at far distances, and were much easier than using cell phones. Who wants to pick up the phone and male a call just to say “I need to take this exit so I can pee”? Nobody, thats who! With just the push of a button you could send a quick message. It was a lot like IM’ing, but over the airwaves.

Next time you travel, pick some of these up. At under $10 each, how can you go wrong?

The drive out here seemed long (partly, I’m sure, because both of us were running on less sleep and more adrenaline than usual) but with the help of walkie-talkies we made it! Bryan/College Station seems like it will be an interesting place to spend a year. We have already been having all kinds of explorations–grocery stores and Target and a few restaurants already. There seems to be an abundance of Taquiera-type Mexican places around, which is something I have been missing for the last 4 years, so hooray for that!

The trip to Austin was good too. I am pretty much thrilled to be so close and get to do some exploring there as well. The drive from here to there is mostly through farms and ranches. There were fields and fields of what appeared to be dead corn, and it looked kind of eerie…so if anyone can shed some light on what that is all about, please do!

Tomorrow Wylie will start working from home, so he got the office all set up for us today, and it is quite nice (see photo below)…although I will be sad to not have an exploring partner tomorrow afternoon…

Anyway…it’s old news now, but we made it! It doesn’t suck! Hooray!

Enjoy the pictures!

And here is a video of our new place.

and all through the house…

All the boxes were waiting,

they’ll quite soon be roused!

That’s right, folks! Move day is upon us! Wylie will get the truck in the morning and we will fill it up and be on our way (in 2 shifts—Ahseville to Auburn; Auburn to College Station, with a night somewhere in between…)!!! We will be on the lookout for interesting things along the way, so check back often!

I guess I better try to get some sleep or something…

I have mostly been busy doing schoolish type things, but today was an important day in the business of moving to CS…we will have a roof and we will have a way to get all our crap there (well, I have a lot of crap, Wylie has mostly treasures, I think…I’m a bit of a packrat…and a bit nostalgic….oh well)…But it is exciting! Things are happening!

Thinking along those lines also makes me start thinking about kayaking in College Station. I have done a little research online, trying to find rivers to run in, and near, College Station. There seem to be a few, but one that runs right near town by the name Brazos. Not much of a white water river it seems. Mostly level 1 according to riverfacts.com. The closest seems to be a play-hole about 30 minutes outside of College Station (see the photo) called Hidalgo Falls. I am not getting my hopes up too much for the Brazos or Hidalgo Falls, but at least it will be something. And with the weather being what it is down there, I should be able to boat year round. I do like that.

So, I just took a break from writing that bit up top and remembered to search on americanwhitewater.org for texas river info. Found out a bunch more information regarding rivers. Listed below are some useful links:

• American Whitewater’s list of Texas rivers
• River Facts list of rivers nearby College Station
• More information about the Hidalgo Falls section of the Brazos
• American Whitewater’s page on Hidalgo Falls