The nature and sightseeing portion of the trip had ended. With only a few days to hangout I wanted to make sure I got some good photo-ops and learned a few things so I had something substantial to write about. Thanks to Ty Stonecipher, we had all that and then some. Now, it was time to wind down and spend the last night just hanging out, and of course — drinking.
What sucks about getting away on vacation and enjoying yourself is that there is usually a limited time you can stay. I could have hung out for a month if I had the choice — maybe even longer if I had the money and the mental fortitude.
At that point I had resigned to leaving on Thursday morning, but I woke up to a message from my mother that said my flight had been canceled. I was supposed to work a 10-hour shift the next day and was worried about having to call out. They knew I was away on vacation and I felt like they weren’t going to believe me when I told them what happened.
I wasn’t even totally sure why they canceled the flight. The weather seemed fine except for the fact that it was oppressively hot. Apparently it had something to do with air traffic — which I didn’t even realize was a thing.
My flight had been the last one for the day and the earliest I could leave was around five in the afternoon the next day. At first I was annoyed at how this messed with my schedule, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that this was a blessing in disguise.
I tentatively called my job to let them know I wouldn’t be in the next day and I could feel the disappointment over the phone. Working part-time anywhere is always that way. They need people so desperately that you could have a leg amputated and they might call anyway to make extra sure that you can’t make it in for a couple hours that day.
In fairness, they were as gracious as they could be considering the circumstances. I wasn’t happy about missing such a long shift because I knew it would leave them shorthanded. But, I was stranded in Texas for an extra night and now was not the time to feel down.
I squared away everything with the airline and rescheduled the flight for the following day — then we went out on the town. Fernando tried to take me to another touristy spot in Austin, Texas that he knew about. We made it all the way out there before we realized it was closed and we couldn’t go see the historic well, or whatever it was.
Instead of googling random spots around Austin, our group of wanderers decided to head back to town in San Marcus and get drinks there. We stopped at a restaurant that I can’t remember the name of and got some strawberry margaritas and fries. This was the first outdoor patio area that we sat in all week that was non-smoking, but I could live without a cigarette for an hour or two.
The heat really bears down on you even late in the day — it is exhausting. That, plus a few drinks and you will be ready for a nap even if you haven’t really done much. We walked back from the restaurant to Fernando’s apartment and the girls drove back to their place so we could get ready to go out again. I got changed and laid back on the couch, nodding off until we were ready to leave.
I don’t remember much of the rest of that night. I’m sure we just drank and got food somewhere nearby before heading back to Fernando’s apartment to wind down and pass out again. We might have even went back to the girls’ apartment and watched “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” Either that or “30 Rock.”
I said some drowsy goodbyes to everyone and packed up my stuff for the next day. I got up before Fernando, like I did everyday of the trip, and we decided to go and get food before I shipped off for the airport.
We went to a local wing place that I was told about a few times during my stay and had a nice meal before it was time to officially leave. Fernando’s friend John joined us and I said goodbye one more time before we got ready to leave.
On the way out to the car in the parking lot I got another call from my mother.
“No way,” I said incredulously. “Seriously?”
Fernando could tell what was up right away.
“It happened again?” He said as I hung up the phone.
“Yeah looks like I’m here for another day,” I said. “Guess I’ll have to call my job and let them know I won’t be there tomorrow.”
This time they seemed more sympathetic when I told them the situation. Flights never get canceled like this. I fly all the time and I’ve never had it happen — especially not twice in a row.
Naturally, we had to celebrate being stranded for an extra night. At this point I was out of clean clothes so we went to use the washer and dryer in the girls’ apartment and got ready to head back out to the bars.
Normally, I am not the type of person to go to anything vaguely resembling a dance club. But my motto for this trip had been, “I’m up for whatever,” if only because I didn’t know enough about the area to make a call on where we could go.
Although I might have otherwise been adamantly opposed to stepping inside an establishment where drunk college students would be dancing, I was ready to go out and do whatever and have a good time.
We hit a few different clubs and danced with drinks in our hands. One of the bars was clammy from all the people and the floor was pretty sticky — hopefully from spilled drinks.
We made it to about three bars before the lights went up and the employees shoved everyone out the door.
I wasn’t confident the staff could force everyone out so quickly, but sure enough these people were professionals with a desperate desire to get home. Nothing beats the motivation of a man or a woman working the closing shift.
By three or four in the morning we made it back to Fernando’s and hung around watching TV — trying to sober up enough to actually make it to the airport in a few hours. Thankfully I wasn’t the one who had to drive.
Finally we crashed around five or six and slept for an hour before we dragged ourselves out of bed and trudged over to the airport where the flight was unfortunately on time.
I hugged my oldest friend goodbye at the curb and thanked him for having me before he drove off and left me to stumble my way through security and back home.
I had an amazing time meeting everyone and getting to experience San Marcos. From floating on the river, to the food, to the people and the cheap cigarettes — it was everything a vacation was supposed to be — as relaxing as it was exhausting, and not to mention, fun.
Thanks to my missed flights, I managed to get a credit from the airline and it looks like I am going to use that to head back the next chance I get. If you have brains in your head you should take a trip to San Marcos — float down the river, have a few drinks and head over to the Texas State University Meadows Center and ask for Ty Stonecipher. I promise that you will not be disappointed.
