Cold and Breezy in Buda

Yesterday was fantastic - near 80 and somewhat sunny. It was so nice, Mike and I sat in Gail's hot tub. Today is another story. It dropped back down to about 40 degrees. Brrrr, who brought winter?

We met up with cousin Gina, her son Robert, and cousin Hunter in Buda. Aunt Kathy and Uncle Robert drove up from San Antonio to join us for dinner at Cracker Barrel. Buda is about 30 minutes south of Gail's house and it's known for its Cabela's - right off I-35 (next to the Walmart). Cabela's is a massive outdoor store and people come from miles around to shop there. Here's a pic of the Cabela's tower (not from today! I found it on flickr).

It was a nice visit. Hunter got a 35 ft. RV this summer so we took a tour of it. It's very luxurious. I could definitely live in it for a while! His family's going to Gatlinburg, TN after Christmas to go skiing for a week. Mike also wanted to see Hunter's boat since we hadn't seen it yet. Gina brought Macho, her Jack Russell, who is the coolest Jack I've ever met. When we drove up this afternoon, Robert and his friend, Colton, were outside playing with his RV car and Macho was tied to the truck hitch. He wagged his tail when we walked over to pet him. Macho is one cool dude and the quickest mouser I've ever seen. He definitely has a great time catching mice on Gina's ranch.

We hung out for a while and Hunter showed off his gun collection. He's got quite a few of them. Hunter loves to hunt and was in a couple of bow-hunting videos years ago when he was younger. Mike and the guys went off to Cabela's (see, you just have to go if you're in Buda!) while Gina and I stayed back to wait for her parents to arrive. She's doing better these days since her health scare last week. I can't remember what her illness was, but she can't absorb iron like most people so she had an iron injection last year and takes a lot of iron supplements every day. Next time she's ready for treatment, she'll have an iron IV infusion. I'm glad she's doing better. At one point, we were in the hospital the same week.

Robert & Kathy met us at the Cracker Barrel for dinner and we talked about the economy (it sucks), the oil industry, the auto bailout... Uncle Robert loooooves talking about this stuff. It's always interesting talking to him to get the "outside DC" perspective on things. Living in DC, I think one way about things and forget about how things are viewed in other parts of the country. Robert was a ranch manager for years and years and after things didn't work out with the new owner (the new owner is a jerk, to put it politely), he now builds houses for a living. Things were good for a while, but now it's a lot slower. Aunt Kathy works for a fancy furniture store in San Antonio (after years of raising seven kids, running the ranch house, and ferrying kids to rodeos all around the state) and her job is slow now too. They lived on a 35,000 acre ranch for years and now they're in a 2 bedroom apartment. Times are tough for everyone.

We're back at Gail's in Austin relaxing and watching TV. I hope it's going to be warmer tomorrow, especially since I'm running 2-3 miles with Mike in the morning.