I like that the Best Western in Clute, Texas offers suites that function like two-bedroom apartments--a common area with its own television, separate bedrooms with separate televisions, and a little kitchenette. Last night I stayed up late watching the movie "Juno", which I really enjoy each time I see it, except that Jason Bateman's character is so repugnant as to be hard to watch. Prior to "Juno", I watched an episode of Dr. Who in which various Daleks were rejunvenated, with Winston Churchill somehow entangled in the action.
I did not bring my e-reader to south Texas, so I used the Nook application on my laptop computer to continue reading "The Three Clerks" by Anthony Trollope. This confirmed my belief that a laptop-and-Nook app arrangement actually works pretty well for e-reading, and that one need not have a touch screen to have a "book" experience with a text.
This morning at 7:20 a.m. my young friend and I set out to find kolaches. We succeeded, though in the fact I had a cinnamon roll rather than a kolache. Then we hit the road north. We drove to Huntsville, Texas, where we stopped at Huntsville State Park. This part is lovely--heavily wooded, with Raven Lake in its center. I liked the great egret, the great blue heron, the green heron and the abundant water lily blooms. My young friend liked the green snake he saw. We did not see any of the alligators that live there, but we did take a fun pedal boat ride and caught five sunfish while fishing from the fishing dock. Here's the view from a pedal boat and
the large sunfish my friend caught:
I enjoyed watching other park visitors paddle canoes. Pedal boats (or paddle boats, if one prefers) are louder than canoes, but there is much less chance of error.
We stopped in Madisonville at a place called Texas Burger. It was filled with people, though the man who stays in my memory best was a large, husky man with a huge ten gallon hat who stood by the Bluebell ice cream stand and waved at some other people. I had a grilled chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries.
We stopped in Corsicana at an outlet of the Main Street Bakery, whose main claim is fame is for shipping fruitcakes world-wide. The purpose of our stop was to get my young friend something to take home as a gift. We chose a huge loaf of raisin bread, for which the bakery charge the small sum of three dollars.
We stopped at my house to pick up my young friend's PSP user manual. I had shown him how to connect his PSP to a wi-fi network. I thought it was cool that one can use a Play Station Portable to do internet browsing and youtube watching, rendering it another good alternative to the tablet computer.
We stopped at a little sno-cone mom and pop operation near my friend's home. I had grape. He had cinnamon. My sno-cone was great. Then I dropped him at his house, and drove home. It was good to relax and read.
My wife grilled us burgers tonight, which we ate with corn on the cob and carrots. I had a great weekend, but I'm very glad to be home.