I Can't Go - Vacation Day 1

I can’t take a vacation now. First of all, Marty and I don’t have the funds. We are on a tight budget this year. Secondly, I hate to burn up more vacation time. I’ve taken more vacation days this year than I did by this same time last year. Thirdly, I’ve been feeling very irritable lately. I hate to subject Marty to four days of being locked in a car with me.

So, why am I on vacation? We found a way to do it cheaply. Marty has lots of hotel points, so we get to stay for free. We are visiting the Lost Maples in Texas, so we aren’t spending much money on travel. We have set ourselves a food budget of $25 per day. The hotel provides free breakfast. We brought groceries for a picnic at one meal per day. That leaves $25 for the entrée that we share at lunch. That takes care of the first excuse.

I have used 10 vacation days this year. That may be more than last year, but I still have 18 days of vacation left. I could save it for later, but I have been under a lot of stress lately. I need to get away. Excuse #2 is gone. Marty says he wants to go on vacation with me. If he is willing to take his chances with a fussy wife, who am I to stop him? Marty overrules excuse #3.

So, on Saturday we drove from Arlington to San Antonio. Our first desire on our vacation was to enjoy some delicious kolaches in West, Texas. I consulted the GPS on my phone to see how far it was to West. The GPS could not understand my request. “Please fill in all required fields.” It seemed to be asking, “West what?” I decided to try entering the name of the restaurant. I knew phonetically the name was the Check Stop. How do you spell that? Is it C-h-Z-ech? C-z-H-ech? Neither of those seemed to work. The GPS is no good at guessing what I mean. Then I remembered I could use the web connection on my phone and do a Google search. I found it. The restaurant was the Czech Stop and it was 44 miles away. When we arrived, I chose a sausage and cheese kolache and a strawberry cream cheese kolache. Marty paid for it all out of his spending money.

The drive to San Antonio took about 5 ½ hours. Marty drove. He has a herniated disc in his back and it often causes a nerve in his knee to react. Several times while driving, he winced as it sent a shock through his leg. He also had pain in his shoulders from gripping the steering wheel. Once or twice I was startled by a loud noise. “What was that?” I asked Marty. “You were snoring,” he said.

Driving to our hotel in San Antonio I noticed the Magic Time Machine. It’s a restaurant where all of the wait staff dress up in costume and pretend to take on the character they are dressed as. I remember having a great meal there almost 30 years ago. I told Marty that I really wanted to go. We decided to check into our hotel and come back.

We returned to the Magic Time Machine about 3 pm. The restaurant was almost deserted. Pocahontas, in an outfit that was too short and too tight to be authentic, showed us to our table. There we were greeted by Robin Hood in a pair of green tights.

Marty shared the filet mignon that I begged for and even agreed to bread pudding for dessert. (He hates it.) He was very good natured as the waiter returned frequently and made bad jokes in an effort to flirt with me. (I’m sure that flirting with middle aged women is part of Robin Hood’s job description.) Marty only flinched a little when the bill was $15 over our entire daily food budget.

Taking a vacation was a good idea. Excuse #3 turned out not to be a problem and Marty gets an A+ in grouchy wife handling.