Houston

We left the Brown Ranch and stopped at Mi Casita again for a quick breakfast taco on our drive up to Houston where we planned on spending some time with Keenan. This time we stayed at Lakeview RV Resort and got a nice pull through spot.

We were about 20 minutes away from Keenan and he was able to swing by for dinner and a few games of Yahtzee and some beer. Nice catching up with him.

As Keenan was working, Katrina and I got some needed things (laundry and blog posts) done around the coach. In the late afternoon, we drove over to to see Keenan’s new apartment in downtown Houston. He has a nice place! Afterwards, we went to watch Keenan play soccer on a local team that he is on.

It was great watching him play again! George, whom we met last year, is on his team as the keeper. His friends, Alexx and Matthew, who were Keenan’s roommates before he got his apartment, also came by to watch him play. His team won and he scored four goals! Still proud of him.

After his game, we headed over to Rodeo Goat

to grab a beer and burger.

Outstanding burger!

The following day we were able to catch up on going to stores. Shopping is Katrina’s forte so I stayed back at the Busse Bus and slow smoked some ribs. Keenan was coming by for dinner and we wanted to make something that he may not make on his own. I have to say that they were outstanding!

The next day we lounged around during the day before heading over to Alan and Becky Gardipee’s house up in Spring. We had met the Gardipees at the Newmar Fulltimers Rally in New York last year. We reconnected at the AIM Rally in South Dakota, spending quality time with them at “Z Bar” after dinner one night.

It was great seeing their house and having a home cooked meal. The dinner was fantastic! Steaks on the grill, veggies, salad, fruit, baked potato and even a pie for dessert. So fun catching up! Thank you!

The next day we met up with Keenan and his friends, Kendall (from the University of Illinois), her boyfriend, Dino, Kendall’s sister, Kiersten and her husband Ian for Happy Hour at the Buffalo Brewery (Buff Brew).

Buff Brew allows dogs on their patio so Bear was able to join us as well.

The beers were very good. We also ordered some appetizers that tasted great! Great place!

As we were leaving there was an outdoor movie (Jurassic Park) being projected onto nearby grain silos and people were parked in their cars in the empty field watching. Outdoor “theaters” are making a comeback during the COVID crisis.

Reminded me of my childhood and when Katrina and I used to take the kids in our van with the kids watching a kids show on the TV and Katrina and I watching an adult show laying on the bed with the back doors opened.

Afterwards, we went to Torchy’s to get some tacos.

Love Torchy’s!

The following day we met Keenan at his apartment and headed out to a shooting range where we met up with everyone else from the prior night plus Nick, a friend of the group and a friend of Kiersten’s, Kelly, who drove down from Austin. What fun trying to hit those clay pigeons!

There were ten different stations with various configurations set up – left to right, front to back, low and high, etc. I gotta say that I did much better this time then the last time we went back in Myakka. Hit 50%! Katrina did much better as well. We had to rent shotguns and they only had ammo for a 12 gauge which has a greater recoil than a 20 gauge. I got to tell you that both Katrina and my shoulders were sore afterwards.

We headed back to Keenan’s apartment and found Bear a local dog park that was built over a parking garage. It was fun for Bear to run around.

Keenan got us reservations at Uchi, an inspired Japanese Dining experience. We got there for Happy Hour, which significantly lowered the costs for this expensive place. Our server, Jay, was phenomenal and the food was first-rate. The best part of the dinner was having the rest of the shooters sitting at the table next to us as we both booked reservations for the same time.

We were able to inform each other on what dishes to try.

After dinner we headed to 77 Degrees for a rooftop drink. Fun location overlooking parts of the city. Seems like a place to see and be seen.

Keenan called it an “Instagram” bar – whatever that means.

After taking some pictures, we headed off to The Spotlight Karaoke Midtown club for some singalongs. There was a $10 each cover charge that we thought was a bit much as there were nine of us, so Kendall talked to one of the managers and got us in for free. Apparently, the Spotlight is a regular stop for this group.

What fun! We stayed there singing (not me as I don’t have a singing voice) until the place closed at 2am.

After a few hours of sleep, we headed to watch Keenan play soccer on a team that included some Illinois players from his soccer club association. Nick even came up to watch him play as well. Great watching him play again, especially on a full size field with eleven players!

I’m not sure how he did it with a hang over – he was probably practiced at that from his college playing days.

Afterwards, the four of us went to Pinkerton’s Barbecue Restaurant located in North Houston because it was supposed to be one of the top three in Texas. It did not disappoint! We ordered way too much (ribs, jalapeño sausage, boudin, smoked turkey, brisket, jalapeño rice, jambalaya, and Mac-n-cheese) no problem there as we took home the leftovers. Nick went and got us “ranch water”, which is a concoction of Topo Chico mineral water, tequila, lime and candied jalapeños.

Very tasty!

The we headed over to the Karbach Brewery to watch a little football and sample a couple of their beers.

Great brews! Bear enjoyed tagging along as he got to watch people and other dogs.

From there we headed back to Keenan’s apartment to watch the launching of the Crew 1 Dragon rocket. It was so much fun watching a launch with someone in the know as Keenan works at NASA.

This was the first fully manned Space X launch and it was commanded by Mike Hopkins from the University of Illinois

and the astronaut that we took pictures with last time we were in town. That picture was from February 22, 2019.

Since we were all very tired and Keenan had to be at work the next morning, Katrina and I headed back to the Busse Bus.

The next day we accomplished some chores around the coach before meeting up with Keenan at REI to get some hiking shoes for him prior to our planned trip to Jackson, WY over Thanksgiving. After a little shopping, we headed over to Lindsay’s and George’s house for dinner. You may remember them as they drove with Keenan for the NCAA Women’s Beach Volleyball Championship a year ago last May. Since that time, they got married and bought a house. Beautiful 1960’s California Ranch near NASA where Lindsey also works. Thank you for dinner! It was great seeing you both again.

On our final evening in Houston, Keenan dropped by the Busse Bus for some homemade burgers and salad. We ended up watching a couple of Christmas movies, getting ready for our Thanksgiving trip with the kids later in the week. Since Ari and Matt would be spending the Christmas holidays with Matt’s family this year, we got to have the Thanksgiving holidays. We decided to head to Jackson, Wyoming to do some hiking and snow skiing. Yikes! We are not used to the snow and cold anymore. Therefore, saying goodbye to Keenan was easy this time as we would see him again in five days.

The next morning we packed up and headed up to Dallas to stop at National Indoor RV Centers to have the full wall side fixed from when it “popped” during closing in Kanab a while back.