Boy's Trip

One of my most memorable summer trips I ever took was with my dad and brother Will. My dad's brother lives in Kingwood, Texas, a suburb outside of Houston, and we had all planned a week long trip to visit them and see as much of the Lonestar State as possible. We piled into the black Ford Areostar mini-van and set our sites west. Now we truly made our van bachelor-proof because we removed the back seat and not only created a place for luggage, but an entire entertainment area as well. While one of us rode in the front seat, the other could sprawl out and play with the game boy, read books, or in my little brother's case, play with the millions of micro machines that I bet are still in the deep crevasses of the van. Obviously we didn't have the child restraint laws we have today. Another bachelor move we initiated was Craig's BBQ sauce. Dad had discovered a little gas station in Arkansas that carried this particular sauce and it was a Childress family favorite. We picked up a couple of bottles and literally drank them all the way to Texas.

Once we had settled in with my Uncle David, Aunt Cindy, and cousins Shane and Kelly, we planned out our week with our first stop being NASA Space Center and then on to Galveston for some beach time. If you remember one of my previous articles regarding our massive video camera we used in Disney World, the very same camera made its journey with us to Texas. Dad walked up and down the Galveston beach with that Action News 5 style camera on his shoulders filming us kids playing in the Gulf.

Our next excursion we took was, by far, my favorite. We loaded up and headed west towards San Antonio. Instead of staying in a hotel, we decided to pitch tents at a camp site along the Guadalupe River. Once we had settled in, we made our way to San Antonio to see as much as we could in the limited time that we had. We first visited the famous River Walk Mall. There we dined at a local hot wing restaurant where we requested the hottest wings that were offered on the menu. Afterward we walked over to the historic Alamo where it was all beautifully lit up in the night sky. We finally made our way back to the campsite, tired, and with a take-home box of hot wings.

I woke up the next morning, peeked out my tent, and saw a deer drinking by the river. I also noticed several paw prints all over the picnic table where we had left the now open box of hot wings. I followed the tracks to the bank of the river where I found a dead raccoon. I'm telling you--those were some deadly hot wings. We rented canoes and set out down the Guadadalupe River. Shane and I were in one canoe and the rest were in a bigger, safer canoe. We stuck together for the most part, except for when the river split and was clearly marked "safe route" and "professional rafter route." The men and kids obviously took the safer route where Shane and I took the professional route. By the way, this was the first time either one of us had set foot in a raft. Needless to say, the dads were a little scared. We held our own, except for one turn that caught us off guard where the canoe went one way and Shane went the other. I grabbed on to his vest and was able to hold him in until we moved past that one rapid.

The next morning after leaving the camp, we made one more stop at a paintball site. This was the first time any of us had played and it was a blast. We joined other players, were divided up in teams, and the game began. Dad wanted to film the battle instead of play, so he was given a bright orange vest so he would "not be shot." Dad was hiding behind fallen trees, filming every move he could, as well as narrating the battle. I'm sure he thought he was Geraldo Rivera filming behind the lines until he was caught in a crossfire and sustained several gunshot wounds to the chest and back.

We had the absolute best trip to Texas. My uncle and aunt were excellent hosts to us, we were able to see parts of this country we had never seen before, and experience things we had never experienced. The best part about this trip was the bonding of father and sons. I'm not saying that if mom had been there we wouldn't have had less fun, but it's always good for men to bond. Besides, we didn't forget about mom--we picked up her very own bottle of Craig's BBQ sauce on the way home, give or take a few sips, of course.