Day 40 on the road – In San Antonio

Today marks the two-thirds point on our trip.  We’ll be home in three weeks. We still have a week left in San Antonio, a week in Bandera and a few days in the DFW area before we head back, though, so it’s not over yet!

I woke up early today and started cooking.  The build-a-taco party started at 1 p.m., and I had a lot to do in just four or five hours.  I managed to make two pounds of picadillo, half a pound of shredded chicken, and a whole heck of a lot of salsa.  I made both pico de gallo and a jicama/peach/cucumber salsa.  I also made a gallon of my passion tea lemonade and filled up an ice chest with beer, wine, water, and ice. The morning was not without incident, however.  I did manage to sustain a cooking-related injury when the citrus squeezer I was using and broke in half, pinching my middle finger in between.  It hurt like hell, but the skin wasn’t broken.  I just have a big bruise and a sore finger now.

We loaded up all the chow and drove into San Antonio to Steph and Mari’s house.   They had been cooking and shopping, too, and had the tortillas and shells, sour cream, rice, fruit salad.  Drea brought a huge container of five-cheese pasta salad, and foodie Alex brought two or three types of salsa, queso, and beef fajitas. Other friends brought cookies and cake.We had food enough to make the table groan!  There were fourteen of us, and we still couldn’t get it all down!  I’m lucky to have so many great cooks among my group of friends here.

Plenty of drinks were flowing, too.  I made capirinhas for everyone.  For most, it was their first time drinking them, and most folks agreed that it was a delicious if deadly beverage.  The Brazilian rum is smooth, too smooth.  You don’t realize how much you’ve had until it’s too late!  Fortunately, I only brought one bottle of rum, so there was really only enough for everybody to have maybe one or two cocktails.  Of course, Alex arrived a little later and started making margaritas!  And then karaoke started.  Oh boy!  Shenanigans ensued.

Party at Chez Barbara: Jason, Alex, Drea, Norma, and Rachel

I didn’t imbibe very much because I was the designated driver.  In fact, I stopped drinking early because I knew I would have to drive back home to let the dogs out for a walk and them go back to SA.  Parties on Barbara Street tend to last all day and half the night.  When I went home, I brought our friend, Chris, with us so he could see the RV.  Chris is extraordinarily tall at (I think) 7’3″, so he was only comfortable in the living area of the fiver.  Still, he was impressed by the use of space.

We took care of the pups and then drove back to the party where the  raucous karaoke session was still in full swing.  By this time, I had a headache, so I was happy when they stopped singing  half an hour later.  Folks slowly started to filter out, and we left around 10:30 or so.  We brought tons of food home with us, so at least I don’t have to cook tomorrow.

By the time we got home, we were ready for bed but had thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of our crazy misfit San Antonio crew.  Lex really needed a chance to blow off, so I’m happy she had some fun.  It’s a good thing she’d thought to take Monday off!  She’ll need the day to recover before going back to work on Tuesday.

Thank you to Steph and Mari for being such gracious hostesses, and thanks to Jason, Chris, Drea, Lupe, Kelli, Alex, Donald, Matty, Rachel, and Norma for showing up and being the magnificent human beings they are!  Being with all of them has helped to alleviate my homesickness.

Tags: cooking, friends, party, San Antonio, Texas, Travel