Day XII: TX

July 26, 2008

The good ‘ol Mango alarm woke us up bright and early. I showered; we packed up the car, and in doing so found a sweet little note on our car saying that we didn’t check in. I guess the camping permit for the bungalow was $24 a night. $30 a night was just too good to be true. Still, $30 for a safe and comfortable night in the beautiful woods is a steal. Last night the sky was clear, and if you found a hole in the forest canopy the stars would have taken your breath away. Sometimes, living in Philly I forget that skies chock full of stars still exist. Oh light pollution.

After we paid the monies, the park ranger gave us a map and showed us where to go swimming. It was still early, so we went to the lake in the middle of the park and jumped in. Of course it took a little pretend drowning to get Mango in the water, but once he was in, he was in.

I swam out pretty far with Mango, to the point where I was a good five strokes from being where I could reach the bottom. He’d get all antsy and climb up my torso until he had perched his body on my shoulder. It was like treading water with a little 10 pound weight on your shoulder. We took videos.

Bea got out and lay down on the grass on a towel, soaking up the sun. I guess she migrated to lying just on the grass. In Texas most of the ground is home to fire ants. 40% of the population are allergic to their bite.. well, allergic to the poison they zap into their system when they bite. Bea started developing a rash and strange parts of her body began swelling up immediately- mainly her earlobes. She called mama bear when we got into the car and took two Benadryl pills. I took the wheel and drove the leg to Plano while she passed out in a Benadryl coma.

We got to Jake’s house in the middle of commercialized suburbia. Bea continued her coma in Jake’s bed. Jake and I caught up for hours while Bea slept. It was great. We hadn’t seen each other for about 3 years (since the Alaskan cruise). He has two Yorkshire terriers. Gabby is about three and tiny, Jellybean is about ten and is allergic to just about everything. She’s pretty big for a Yorkie and has warts all over, the poor thing. Gabby was definitely the spoiled one. Mango of course just wanted to hump. Jake didn’t take too kindly to that. Personally, I enjoyed watching him protect his timid little dog from my horny Mango.

Mango helped me wake up Bea and we all went to dinner in one of the Mexican restaurants in the commercial Plano. Seriously, Plano and most of Dallas are absurdly spread out. The homes are huge since land is so cheap and labor is mostly done by illegal immigrants, as Jake told us. The whole area strikes me as weird. It’s a weird I don’t like. In my opinion, don’t go to Texas unless you’re looking for a corporate haven, suburbia, or wide open plains full of cacti and flash thunderstorms. Our only pluses were seeing Jake and cheap gas. good old Bush knows how to take care of his state. Cheapest gas seen? $3,72 per gallon. I know!

Dinner was pretty good- I had rice and beans and corn tortillas. I love corn tortillas. I love most Mexican foods. The only problem is that their food usually has meats or cheese in them. Oh well, I was satisfied with my simple meal. We sat outside so that Mango could sit with us. The manager kept coming around asking if everything was okay. He also gave Mango some water, so he’s alright in my book. Dinner consisted of a lot of talking and a lot of people-watching. Most of the middle-aged couples tended to dress and look the same. The man usually sports some Dockers shorts and a polo or hideous Hawaiian shirt, and their woman is usually in a cute top with floods and low heels. Her hair, nails, and makeup are most likely immaculate, and she looks real put together. I’m not stereotyping, trust me, I’m just noting my observations.

We drove around a little bit looking at the insanely large mansions of Plano. We watched “Team America” as part of the Texas/America tour. I had never seen it before.. it’s hilarious! Jake’s younger sister- the older of the two- was home when we got back and we convinced her to play board games with us. I had never played Taboo and Bea was really into it, so we played. The first round Bea and I lost horribly (by 40 points). By the second round Bea and I had caught on and kicked butt! I mean, we still lost, but only by one point. I highly recommend buying Taboo for every home. It’s going to be a must in our house in Philly. Most def. After Taboo we played Pictionary- which is essentially the same thing, but your partner ahs to guess the word through pictures and not a verbal description. Bea and I were amazing at Pictionary, btw. After Pictionary was Charades.

I’m being very factual in my description of tonight’s festivities, but it was a night full of laughter and good, wholesome fun. See kids? You don’t need to go consume unreal amounts of alcohol and narcotics to have a great time. J Board games are the new fad in my book. I’m not even that competitive anymore; I really just enjoy guessing/describing/teamwork oriented games. Kind of. Anyways, we went to sleep on the L couch where we were playing board games. I slept great.

-S and M