So, David and I decided to go out and explore the hotel. You can really tell this was office space, because the floor had this little break area that screamed "employee lunch room."
Down to the lobby area...
We started first in the Teller Lounge and got a few drinks....and I guess it wasn't very interesting in there, because this is my only pic!
Really nice staff and pretty talented/creative, but we decided to eventually go out and do some people watching in an upper area of the lobby.
I guess I haven't explained the hotel. If you couldn't tell, it's an old bank building...back from the days when banks were big elegant structures where important people do business. Yeah, I'm pretty sure our massive room was probably some executive's old corner office.
After our lobby time, we decided to head up to the roof to check out the view and the pool area. That's where I started getting the dirty trashy feeling again. We were on the elevator with a couple of guys who appeared to have gang tattoos...ya know, tears and such. So, that was fun. The view from the top was neat, but the pool up there was wall to wall people. Seriously, it looked like a crowded dance floor, but in the pool and I'm pretty sure there were some "adult" things going on in there. Needless to say, we left and went back to the room.
David and Sam walked around a little after that and I stayed with K, who was feeling much better, but we all did our final pack up for the trip and went to bed after that. I just took a few pics of the night view...and that was pretty much it for the day.
Actually, us relaxing and watching the Olympics was it for the night...
August 1st
The next morning, we got up for breakfast. We must have waited close to 10 minutes for an elevator before giving up. We took the stairs and eventually found a spot to eat. It was then back up to the room to get all of our stuff together to make our way home. We got our stuff out of the room, but the rest of the process of getting out of San Antonio was a bit of a disaster.
It was close to 25 minutes to get an elevator. When we first got to the elevator bank, there was a guy there with his dog. He was worried about her making a mess, so I suggested that walking down might be his best option. We had too much luggage for that to work. When we finally got downstairs, checkout was easy enough, but there was this whole QR code digital valet thing to get our vehicle. They had a digital board, similar to the newer ones about Disney buses, so we could track our progress. We were at about 35 minutes when they finally had our car. We waited in the lobby during all of this, because who wants to sit in an exhaust filled garage drive thru area...right?!!? When we got out there, it was wall to wall people...most of which didn't follow procedure, but were still being accommodated. On top of that, you had gridlock because one family was taking forever loading stuff up. In the short time we were out there, I saw them rearrange bags at least twice and start moving around car seats. When I saw my vehicle pulled in, they kept it right on the entry point to the garage...so my plan was to back out as soon as we had things loaded up. After all, we're pros at this!
My joy over the vehicle arriving and being in one piece was destroyed by the coating of bird poop on the car. Not a single other vehicle in there had this happen, but mine had several areas where it was crusted in thick layers on there, to the point that you couldn't see the paint. I took pics, but they make me gag just looking at them...so I'll spare you. The passenger door was so bad that David literally had to grip a poop encrusted handle to get in. Thankfully, I had plenty of wipes, hand sanitizer and bags for garbage inside the car. Like I said...I have pics, but no need to share.
We hoped we could get it washed before driving back to Houston, so after getting out of downtown, we went in search of a place along I-10 that also had a wash. We ended up driving close to 15 miles before there was even a gas station that was easy access. Of course, they also had no wash (second one we tried). So we resorted to the window washing squeegees and paper towels to try and at least remedy the handle situation. It was so bad that the car pumping gas next to us stopped to ask about it. You know when you think it looks bad, but everyone else says it's no big deal...well, this wasn't one of those cases.
We kept hitting backups from accidents and construction along the way home. We wound up having to stop in Katy, TX, just outside of Houston for a potty break, just because it took so long. We eventually got home, got the dog...and I got the car washed...although, I had to get the guy go back to it multiple times for everything he missed. He still did a cruddy job with the bugs.
Once she was cleaned up...I found the one piece of damage from the trip.
It still works and I managed to not get any windshield damage, so I'd say we made out pretty well!
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CLOSING THOUGHTS
I usually do some long drawn out closing thoughts, but we've been home for nearly 2 months and it's time to be done with the TR. LOL So, here are my thoughts...
1. While I appreciated not having to pay pricey airfare costs to get us to a small airport in the middle of Montana as well as not paying insane prices for 2 weeks of rental car fees, the time it took to get from Houston to Medora and from Carlsbad to Houston definitely took its toll. I think it's clear from our crankiness that we hit several points where being on the road like this was just too much. The goal was originally to get to Glacier and build in a big road trip around it...which I did...but it became so much more about the length of the trip and getting everywhere. That's not to say that I wouldn't do something like this again, but for as long as we were gone, it felt rushed.
2. Before leaving on this trip, I had a goal of getting to Alaska in 2023 as well as several other national parks in the continental US. Everyone has asked for a break from national parks. No matter how I spin it...even devoting lots of time to San Francisco, Portland and/or Seattle...nobody else is onboard. We also aren't sure we want to bring the kids with us to Alaska, so we may just push it off some more. The kids have since come to their senses and don't see staying with Grandma and Grandpa as a better alternative to vacations with us, but their still a bit flat on anything with future travel in general.
3. I think it's safe to say that the new vehicle that replaced my lemon VW Atlas did a very good job on the road trip. I worried about cargo space, but it wasn't an issue. I've decided that any reservations I still have about the vehicle are really just that it wasn't my first choice. So, at least I know going forward that we're set with a road trip vehicle if anyone wants to drive anywhere. I am considering a different tire at some point so we're better equipped for more rugged roads and winter weather.
4. Yellowstone is still our favorite! No regrets about visiting, but if we took it out of the trip, we could have added Washington and Oregon into our list of states visited. We would have just gone to Spokane after Glacier and then traveled through part of Oregon to get to Shoshone falls in ID. I'm still questioning if I should have skipped adding states by going the eastern route vs. going through Rapid City on the way to Medora, so it's probably for the best that I left Yellowstone in the mix.
5. I still feel crazy insane for going through with all of this. I really thought David would say no when I first showed him my huge road trip travel map. I really never dreamed we'd actually do this. I know it's not all that uncommon to see people on cross country trips, but it's still pretty wild to look at the map...when you're at your "farthest from home" point of the trip and think, I drove over 2300 miles to get here, and the path home is going to be even longer. Just wrapping my head around going from Gulf of Mexico area to almost the Canadian border...just still is wild to me.
So, what are we up to next? Different stuff. We're still looking at DC for February, but with the travel involved during the year for softball and costs of Kendall becoming a licensed driver in the next year, we may scrap it. David is still pushing for it, but I just haven't had any time to research it. We have booked a cruise for late July out of Port Canaveral. Houston/Galveston has its own cruise port, but my dad wanted to do something as a family for their upcoming milestone anniversary and the kids wanted Universal. So, now 10 of us will be on the same ship...a big ship. LOL I know many on this site are all about cruising DCL, but it's just never appealed to me. Actually, cruising has never really appealed to me, but my brother has gone a number of times and up until Covid, my parents were going on something like 4-5 per year...sometimes more! I think they achieved Pinnacle Club of Royal Caribbean's Crown and Anchor society a few years ago. In light of that, we'll be sailing with RCCL. We're supposed to stop in the Bahamas, St. Thomas, and St. Kitts/Nevis. I'm really not a beach person, but I love pretty blue water and things involving sea life. After the cruise, we plan to go to Universal for a couple of days. We'll see how it goes, but we may pop into Disney on our first day. David and I wouldn't mind an evening in Epcot going around the WS and we could get Genie+ for the kids so they could do attractions. We'll see.
Thanks for following along!!!
