We arrived back in Maryland this afternoon and stopped by the hospital to see Grandma E. before we went home. She's doing much better today after being unable to talk or eat food for the past week. Yesterday the lady in the same room passed away and no one removed her body for several hours. When someone could find a nurse to ask the hospital to please remove the body, they were unresponsive. Finally, Aunt Carol called some patient care hotline and someone showed up to move the lady. It was a very uncomfortable situation that the hospital will definitely hear about (plus the nurses didn't check on Grandma for at least 4 hours.
Our final day in Austin yesterday was nice. Mike's seriously contemplating doing the Longhorn Half Ironman next October so we grabbed his cousin Jason and drove out to Decker Lake to see the course. Unfortunately, the park service charges $8 a vehicle to get into the lake and from what I could see, it wasn't worth an $8 admission fee - especially to be there for less than an hour! We called Gail and she listed the bike course over the phone (we forgot to print out the map) so we drove the 56 mile bike course. It's got some pretty steep hills and some pretty bumpy roads. Mike's going to have to do some research to find out what kind of tires other racers typically use on this course or his thin tires will most definitely pop. We tried to capture the route by taking pictures with our camera, but I don't know if the steepness of the hills will be that obvious in the pictures. It was a picturesque drive through the countryside. We saw longhorn cattle, horses, goats, and a Brahma bull. Mike and Jason had never seen a bull that big before - they can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. Miraculously, out in the middle of nowhere, we found a professional-looking sand volleyball court with seven nets, lights, showers, and nice (is there such a thing?) port-a-johns. We almost drove right by, but I spotted it and so we stopped to take a look.
That's a picture of the course - notice the ruts in the road and the long hill...
Our final day in Austin yesterday was nice. Mike's seriously contemplating doing the Longhorn Half Ironman next October so we grabbed his cousin Jason and drove out to Decker Lake to see the course. Unfortunately, the park service charges $8 a vehicle to get into the lake and from what I could see, it wasn't worth an $8 admission fee - especially to be there for less than an hour! We called Gail and she listed the bike course over the phone (we forgot to print out the map) so we drove the 56 mile bike course. It's got some pretty steep hills and some pretty bumpy roads. Mike's going to have to do some research to find out what kind of tires other racers typically use on this course or his thin tires will most definitely pop. We tried to capture the route by taking pictures with our camera, but I don't know if the steepness of the hills will be that obvious in the pictures. It was a picturesque drive through the countryside. We saw longhorn cattle, horses, goats, and a Brahma bull. Mike and Jason had never seen a bull that big before - they can weigh up to 2,000 pounds. Miraculously, out in the middle of nowhere, we found a professional-looking sand volleyball court with seven nets, lights, showers, and nice (is there such a thing?) port-a-johns. We almost drove right by, but I spotted it and so we stopped to take a look.
That's a picture of the course - notice the ruts in the road and the long hill...
When we got home, we soaked in Gail's hot tub for a while (until I broke out in hives from the hot water - this happens to me now post-chemo). We also went to dinner with Gail and Michael and enjoyed some really tasty ribs at Cheddar's. MMMM, they were good.
1 comment:
That's rough about your grandma. Luckily she has family that will make noise for her. Can you imagine what happens to folks who don't?
Glad you had a good trip out. We'll see what we can do about getting some better weather for you next time you're in TX.
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