I was impressed with the amount of traffic ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FREEWAY and the lack of traffic on my side. I was concerned that 7am might be a bad time to try to navigate, but not so.
The travel was uneventful, thankfully. I was able to get phone signal every place I stopped. The rest area west of Weatherford, Abilene service station, rest area out of Colorado City and a Love's near Odessa all were good places to stretch my legs and to top off my tank. I knew once I got off I-20 gas stations would be few and far between. I could have found one in Ft. Stockton, but I would have had to back track some. Not much else to say about the trip, except that I am incredibly stiff. Guess I'm not used to sitting that long. I got into Alpine about 3:30 this afternoon.
When I made the arrangements for the trip, I decided to stay at the "Holland Hotel" which has been here FOREVER. It was really fancy when first built (I'm guessing turn of the century, but I'll do some research--Oops, I was wrong- 1928- and it's an official historic landmark) It was rather seedy during my high school days and after, but now it is spiffed up beautifully.
Two floors of guest rooms is not a huge hotel but it is rather charming. My room is freshly painted, and simply decorated and looks out onto the main street--for those who know Alpine, that is Holland Avenue, of course. I was interested to see a small bottle in the bathroom with the label "rain kissed leaves" body lotion. I'll let you know if it really smells like wet leaves.
The bed has a European style duvet and was VERY comfy. The bedside clock has an iPod/iPhone dock for charging your equipment. Way cool and really more techno than I expected.
Not sure how many folks are here for the reunion, but my class is really lacking. The class celebrating their 50th anniversary has the most--there may be 3 from my class (61), the class just younger (62) has several and there are several from classes who have already celebrated 50 years. But in a town the size of Alpine, that really doesn't matter, we knew most everyone or if we didn't know them, we knew their parents, or little brothers/sisters. One gentleman at supper tonight whom I vaguely know-- when he found out my name, said "I loved your Dad" to me. Then he began to regale the table with Earl Anderau stories, of which there are MANY.
The college (Sul Ross) cafeteria folks catered the supper and it was very Italian with shrimp fettuccine, lasagna, chicken Parmesan, veggies, salad and cake. A very good meal. Breakfast is provided by the hotel and I expect pastries, sausage, biscuits and eggs.
I sat and listened to my brother's class talk awhile and they too were playing the "now, who is she?" game and the "what was the name of the people who lived in that house?" quiz. Most of us have moved on and rarely get back to the town where we grew up, although there are a few who came back to retire or to care for elderly parents, or who established careers here and never left.
More about Alpine tomorrow. Buenas noches a todos
No comments:
Post a Comment