Houston, oh Houston, We Can't Stay Away

Soooooo, we're still in Austin (Greg'll explain why later).  And while we'd love to be back on the road, being here has given us the chance to attend some events that we would've otherwise missed, like our nephew's birthday party (masquerading as a crawfish boil)!  So we drove to Houston again (this was my 3rd trip and Greg's 4th since January!) and chowed down.....

(Disclaimer: this post will be 100% comprised of family pictures and mud bugs, so avert your eyes if that bores you and/or if you're hungry)

My bro, Jeremy.

Greg likes him too.

The 3-year old reason for the festivities, Jax!!  He didn't quite know what to make of the crawfish, 

so his big brother, Jett, helped him out.  That's my sis-in-law, Jackie (from Louisiana!), in the background.  They like the letter "J."

 And, soon, the lil critters were put out of their misery.

 Chef Dougie

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

Dig in!  They ain't gonna peel themselves!!

very tiny action shot

Sis' in-law Holly and Olivia, a few more years, she'll be peeling like a pro

After all the bugs were gone, we went to a local bar for a few games of pool.  Fortunately, the bar is right next door to an ER.  That was some good planning!

We probably won't be going back through Houston for a while.  Our trip (which WILL happen!!!) will take us north and east, so I'm glad we got to see some of my Houston peeps while we had the chance.  Love y'all!

P.S.  Like a good aunt, I made sure Jax has some UT garb in his closet.  The hat's a bit big, but provides plenty of sun protection!  Happy birthday, Jax!!

Austin Fun!

Still in Austin!

We've been pretty busy dealing with some real estate stuff... more on that in a future post.

In the meantime, this is what we've been up to....

"Ima Wanderer" (vintage '66 Airstream Globetrotter) with Nancy and Jason.

This photo actually took place in Houston but the trailer now resides in Austin.  Ima could have a blog all to herself because she's got stories.  Our good friend and surrogate mom, Nancy, has owned Ima forever and was reluctantly looking for a new home for her.  Angie and I were about to take custody of Ima and mothball her until we were re-settled and had time (and funds...) for a project.  But then Scott introduced us to Jason, a photographer, who was looking for a small vintage Airstream to convert into a photo booth for weddings.  (Jason and Scott met at "The Gingerman" an awesome local pub ...check it out!).  Jason was about to purchase another trailer for his photo booth but discovered it was too rough, so rather than let Ima sit idle any longer we put Jason together with Nancy!

Ima should be prowling the streets of Austin soon and attending weddings all over town!

Between helping find homes for old Airstreams, we've been catching up with friends and family.

Dinner at Enoteca with Lee, visiting from Colorado, and my mom.  

Lee came to Austin to visit and discuss options for getting a computer so we went ahead and just ambushed her with one.  Poor thing spent three days getting a crash course in MS Word, email, and internet!  She's getting the hang of it quickly though.  After all, she was a programmer before she retired!

Heeyyy Ladies!

Debra was in town unexpectedly, from Flagstaff, and we got to hang out with Heather too!

Heather introduced us to probably our favorite new bar, "The White Horse", a honky tonkish place that reminds us of our nights working at "The Black Cat Lounge" (R.I.P.).

Incidentally, I met Angie at the Black Cat...

Sweet choppers parked out front, just like the Cat.

Inside "The White Horse".

Fill this room with a cloud of cigarette smoke and you'd think you were back at the Black Cat.

There was even an ice-filled trough in the men's room!

Angie's theory is it's a color + animal name thing... time warp... bar reincarnation... maybe both?

Under the big top with Scott and Amy at "Cheer-Up Charlies"...

...where we went to see "New Roman Times," one of our favorite local bands.

Josie doing her thing!

Another great Austin band, "The White White Lights"

I would totally make this into an RV...

Stefon and Ali at the new "Corner Bar."  (no website yet, but pretty cool and the beer's CHEAP!)

Sheesh, someone should really bus that table...

Don't worry, we're not spending all our time in bars.... can't afford to!

We're definitely not starving either as this plate at Eric and Cari's dinner party illustrates.

Chloe

This girl is gonna break some hearts...

A bunch of our favorite people all in the same place!

(Eric's behind the camera)

I look at this photo and it reminds me how rich we are... with friends.

Thanks everyone

LeTigre... Back in Action!

Before we decided to drive Angie's little car to Key West, I had been working on several LeTigre projects to get it ready for the next leg of the trip.  Since we've been back in Austin, I picked up where I left off and got some stuff done...

Replaced the broken fridge.

Figured out a better bike rack.

Mechanical stuff (distributor and fuel filter replacement).

LeTigre, back in action!

The original fridge went kaput about halfway thru the first leg of the trip.  "Absorption" refrigerators can only cool about 40 degrees below ambient temperature so it was never that reliable to begin with and really too big for our purposes anyway.  We got along fine with a cooler after it quit but the ice was a hassle and messy.

Once I removed it I was left with this huge space!  I built a box at the bottom... 

...that's accessible outside from the old fridge's service door and made the space into a storage box for tools, extension cord, etc.

Once again, Craigslist to the rescue.  Found this little chest fridge/freezer to replace the original.  I made a drawer so it slides out with some 100lb drawer slides and scrap lumber.  Crude but effective.

Cleaned it up and painted it black.  This smaller fridge will hopefully work better for us since it's a smaller chest design and features much more insulation.  Unfortunately, there's no option to run it on propane because it's a compressor fridge, but it will run on 12-volt or 110-volt.

We gained a lot of storage too, there's another cubby right under the fridge drawer.

The distributor distributes the spark to each of the engine's six spark plugs and this one was no longer doing that very well.

If I wasn't convinced before, this pretty much proves that LeTigre runs on love and good vibes.  This is the old distributor, which was fried, but the van still ran!  She was a little hick-upy on occasion and it was suggested by a mechanic friend in Canada (Hey Brad!!) that a new distributor would be a good idea.  When I took off the cap, a bunch of metallic dust... and a spring.... fell out.  You can't see it in this photo but the center electrode (for the coil) inside the distributor cap was gone!

In with the new!

It's so pretty, shame to cover it up...

I called all over town and had no problem finding a replacement but they were all re-manufactured (not new) and didn't include the distributor cap and rotor.  I found this brand new one on the webernet for $108, with cap and rotor and no charge for shipping!

Car Parts Warehouse

Down the hatch!

Success!

LeTigre is tuned up and running smoother than ever!

Last project was to re-configure our bike rack.  It also secures the spare tire, which was held on with a cable lock for most of the trip since the original mount broke back in Glacier N.P.

That's another story...

It holds two bikes and there's no longer a need to remove the front wheel to mount them which will save some hassle and hopefully we'll use them more.  I also picked up a couple of cheap 7-speed cruiser bikes off Craigslist.  Nothing fancy since they'll spend all their time in the elements.

A few more minor tweaks and we're ready to go!