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The Longest Weekend of My Life
or
A Concert, a Funeral, a Cave, a Hiking Trip, and a Speeding Ticket
by Tim Kreitz
or
A Concert, a Funeral, a Cave, a Hiking Trip, and a Speeding Ticket
by Tim Kreitz
As many of you know, I lost my Gramma Kreitz last week and we buried her in Pin Oak on Saturday morning. What I didn't explain in the prayer thread was what it was going to take for me to be there on time. You see, Tim Kreitz & Dingo Sanctuary had a big Halloween show to play in Midland the night before the funeral which was scheduled to end at midnight. That gave me 10 hours to strike and store the stage gear, get on the road, make it to my parents' hotel room in Bastrop, shower and shave, put on a suit, and follow them to our family land in Pin Oak.
The show itself was totally awesome, though we didn't get to play our full show because of the costume contest. No problem though, because the plethora of hot Halloween chicks made it more than worth standing offstage for 45 minutes:
This is Xena. She won:
Oh, and somehow or another, I'm in none of the pics clearly. You can see my leg and the neck of my Les Paul in this one:
And you can kinda see me in the back to the left in this one:
At any rate, we had a great time playing the show, though my moments standing around during the costume contest gave me time to think about how much it was gonna suck to drive through Texas deer country in the middle of the night. I thought about my gramma, too -- and how much it was gonna suck to carry her to her grave.
Sharon and I were on the road at 1:45 a.m., having consumed half a pot of coffee and about six Red Bulls. To help us further stay alert, we decided we'd seek out and count the total number of deer we'd see throughout the night. The total count was 78 live deer between Garden City and Austin, 4 roadkill. Thankfully, we didn't hit any of them.
We arrived at my parent's hotel room in Bastrop at 7:30 a.m. Not bad time considering that I went really slow at times. We also made more stops than usual to stretch (and evacuate all that high-caffeine liquid). Anyhow, we cleaned up in Bastrop, drank more coffee, and headed to Pin Oak.
My family, the Friebes and the Kreitzes, settled much of Pin Oak in the 1800s and we still own a lot of the land there. At the end of the Civil War in 1864, we donated part of the family land to the Catholic Church for a graveyard and mission. The church, school, and cemetery that my family helped build on the donated land is still there -- St. Mary's. The church is almost 145 years old and is where we eulogized and buried my gramma:
After some time catching up with my aunts, uncles and cousins, we headed for my mom's brother's house in Georgetown, where I arrived absolutely exhausted -- both physically and mentally. As I settled in with a diet soda on the back porch, it hit me that I hadn't had a real meal since lunch the day before. My uncle must've heard my stomach growling, because he immediately suggested getting some takeout for dinner, which we did.
I felt better thereafter, and headed over to Bar None Coffee in Georgetown, where I met Kurt (kurt), Rusty (WoodButcher), and Paul (buck000) for lattes. These are three super-cool guys and I had tons of fun visiting and watching the Tech-UT game with them while talking about how Obama and his leftist congress are going to ****-up this nation like we've never seen before.
By a little after 9 p.m., I was seriously starting to fade, so we broke things off and I headed back to my uncle's house, where I consumed Scotch whisky and finished watching the game. Completely out of gas, I finally turned in, but for some reason, didn't sleep worth a darn -- even after some 40-odd hours without shut-eye.
I woke up Sunday morning with big plans to wonder around the hill country all day, which Sharon and I did. We found some great roads near Marble Falls (a big "woot" for 1174) which I have made mental note of for my next motorcycle trip down there. West of Marble Falls, we found this scenic outlook:
But the coolest thing we found as we traversed through that area was Longhorn Caverns State Park, south of Llano. We decided to stop in and take a guided tour which was way cool. I'd recommend this park to anyone:
After the tour was over, the sun was going down and we decided to find a hotel, a bottle of wine, and some dinner. So we headed to Llano for the night. Thankfully, I found an incredibly comfortable bed at the Lone Star Inn, and slept like a baby for the first time since three nights before.
The next morning, we woke up refreshed and decided to go hiking. So it was off to Enchanted Rock, where we went all the way to the top, over, behind, and around the landmark. This is also something everyone who is in good physical shape should go and do. Enchanted Rock Park is very pretty, and Enchanted Rock itself is a true wonder of nature:
After a great Monday morning hike, we headed to San Angelo to visit with my maternal gramma, who is now my only living grandparent. But on the way, I got raped by the man, managing my first speeding ticket in almost six years. Just outside of Brady, I got popped by a McCulloch County Sheriff's Deputy for 90 in a 70.
It was a stupid mistake on my part, and one I normally don't make. I had been staying at around 100 between Llano and Brady on Highway 17, but would always slow to 75 or so at the crest of a hill, or whenever I saw any oncoming traffic. But being Monday morning, I kept seeing nothing but various work trucks on the road. After a while I got tired of slowing every time I saw one and decided to roll the dice as two approached. I backed off to 90 just in case and Snakeyes! Sure enough, the second truck was Johnny Law.
No lights, but I saw him turn around, so I punched the accelerator. I figured if I could get up to 110 or so and stay there for long enough, he might not be able to catch up and contact me, but that big Ford pickup was faster than I ever would've imagined. As soon as he crested a hill behind me and I could see his dim little grill lights, I got in the brakes and pulled over.
Man, was Johnny ever pissed off. LOL. I could see him breathing heavily, and he was shaking like a leaf as he approached the passenger side of my car. I just put my right hand on the back of Sharon's headrest, powered the window down, and chilled into my seat -- totally relaxed. As he stuck his head in the window, teeth practically grinding, I simply pulled my shades halfway down my nose and gave him a big, knowing smile. This seemed to diffuse him considerably.
"Sir, I guess you know why I pulled you over," he said, his voice still trembling a little.
"Uh, yeah," I replied, and said something about staying in the gas after having passed a car, which was technically true.
So without further adieu, he wrote out my thievery note and sent me on my way. I called my attorney this morning. He said he can make it go away, just like he always does.
After a nice visit in San Angelo, we arrived to Midland last night around 5 p.m. or so.
Tired again after hiking, driving, and toying with the police, I went to sleep early, dreaming of little moments I had experienced over the past few days. Aside from being robbed by the state, the weekend couldn't have gone better, and I thanked the Lord for 900-plus miles of safe travel with little rest.
My "Mimi" made homemade play-doh. It smelled REAL good when we were cooking it up. I always ate some of it while we were playing with it. She was a good cook too. I have a lot of good memories at her home from when we were little kids. We lost her a long time before her body finally decided it was time to go... Alzheimer's disease. She was right at 88 when she died. I really never got the chance to know my Mom's mother. She had a stroke when I was pretty young and it left her unable to form ANY new memories. She could remember things from prior to the stroke, but that was it. It is a shame that many kids never really get a chance to spend time with grandparents and get to establish good relationships.
You had to be careful about the piece you got on your plate though. If you got the head she made you crack it open and eat the brain.