High School Graduation - Texas style!

On June 2^nd, Claudia and I walked across the street at 7:45 in the morning and boarded the Coaster, our local commuter train. After a 45 minute trip to downtown San Diego, we transferred to the city bus for the short trip to Lindberg Field. The entire trip took one hour and five minutes and lightened my wallet by $7.70…for BOTH of us! Nice! We soon boarded a Southwest Airlines plane and arrived in Houston after a nondescript three hour flight. Jeff, our son-in-law, met us and brought us to our temporary home in League City…in 100-degree heat and 85% humidity. We were soon joined by daughter Jacque, granddaughters Rachael and Kyndallyn and their dog, Marley. The two cats remained aloof and out of sight. We unpacked and, at Kyndallyn’s incessant urging, jumped into the Expedition for a trip to a great Greek restaurant.

Day 2 started out with trips to various and sundry stores for graduation party supplies and other necessary “stuff”. The girls went in one direction and Jeff and I in another. Jeff and I got a propane tank filled and then checked to make sure the “guests of honor”, about 70 pounds of mudbugs (crawdads or crayfish to you heathens) would be ready for the party. After being assured that they would be ready for us in the morning, we headed home to drop off our supplies. Jeff needed a second propane burner so we headed for my second most favorite outdoors store, Academy Sports. Jeff got his burner and I picked up a rifle case for my latest acquisition, a Remington 788 in .222 caliber, which is a varmint rifle, for the rest of you uninformed heathens. I also got a sling and bipod for the rifle and danced out of the store. Happy was I! We then returned home to find that the girls had also scored on clothes and supplies. We went to bed early.

Day 3 was “Prep Day” as we got ready for Rachael’s graduation at 7:30 that night and the party on Saturday. The party was a dual graduation party for Rachael and her best friend, Kylee. Rachael opened her graduation present, a new Toshiba laptop

and we all got cleaned up for the evening’s festivities.

We were perched in the nosebleed section of the Clear Creek High School bleachers and had a great view of the festivities.

The ceremony went off without a hitch and we soon welcomed a new graduate.

Rachael earned a Certified Nursing Assistant license in addition to her high school diploma and will soon be heading to one of three nursing schools that are still on her short list of “Rachael-approved” institutes of higher learning.

Day 4 – “Party Day” – Jeff, I and John Sikora headed for Alan’s Seafood Market,

picked up two bags of “bugs”

and returned to the house to let them play in a salt water solution to purge any impurities from their bodies. As the girls prepared the food in the kitchen,

Jeff, John and I started getting the cooking area ready

and the cooking process going. The seasonings were readied

and the bugs loaded into the cookers.

The end result was visually and aromatically magnificent.

The dinner was loaded into an ice chest and the feast began. Crawdads, corn, potatoes, hard boiled eggs, onions and mushrooms were loaded into the finest redneck plates available (cardboard beer case trays).

In addition to the aforementioned goodies, Kylee's father, Kelly, provided three of THE BEST smoked briskets I have ever eaten.

They were amazing, at least a “15” on a 10-point scale! He also had a pot of baked beans seasoned with the same rub that was on the briskets. Delicious! He gets the seasoning from a professional redneck barbecue chef friend of his and has absolutely no idea what’s in it. The chef competes on a barbecue team and it’s their very special secret rub. The recipe is definitely NOT available. Damn! Everyone got their fill…and then some!

One guest did double-duty

as she sat at the edge of the pool. The party was magnificent and a complete success. It was a tribute to the proper way to host a redneck barbecue. We cleaned up and went to bed.

The next day, John left for Sacramento, Jacque and Jeff went to work, Claudia and I just “chilled” with Rachael and Kyndi, did laundry and got ready to leave for home the next day. I was wondering how my new carry-on bag (the rifle case) would excite the TSA folks at the airport. As it turned out, I only was stopped two additional times for a couple of quick questions about the contents. The TSA was quickly satisfied and our trip home was without further incident.

We caught the city bus at the airport and ran for our Coaster connection back to Encinitas. We made it with 30 seconds to spare. The conductor wouldn’t even let me buy tickets, telling me to buy them when I got off the train. I did!