The Blue Dog Family Tree

By: Dave

If you are trying to keep up with what is going on nationally with health care, you may have encountered an animal called a blue dog. Are you asking yourself, what in the world is this? Well, let me help you out. A blue dog is a Democrat that primarily comes from the South and politically sits to the right of the rest of the Democrat Party, but left of the Republicans, except those Republicans from the Northeast. But this is about blue dogs, not rinos, that is for another day. The blue dog has just turned 15 years old and is acting like a true teen-ager and is rebelling against Mama Pelosi. Now, to really understand the blue dog, you have to examine its family tree.

The lineage gets lost before the 1920’s, but in the 1928 presidential election, a group of Southern Democrats, mainly from the old Confederacy border states of Kentucky and Tennessee, were in a real bind on whom to support for President. Al Smith, the Governor of New York and a Roman Catholic, was the Democrat nominee. When pressed, a prominent Southern Democrat stated he would rather vote for a yellow dog before he would vote for a Republican, even if the democrat was a Northern Catholic. Thus the breed was born.

You have to remember that prior to the 1930 Congressional elections; US politics was fractured into several political movements and multiple political parties. The Democrats and the Republicans were the two largest, but you had socialists, the American Communists, the Grange, and others. The Democrats were the home for the labor movement and university elites, at least those elites who were not socialists or communists. The Republicans were generally the business and industry leaders. The Grange was a Midwestern farm movement. And there were others. But with the collapse of the stock market in 1929, it turned out to be really fortunate for the democrats that their yellow dog lost to Mr. Hoover, the democrats first rode a electoral wave in 1930 and then again in 1932 that generally kept them in power until the 1990’s. During the 1930’s, as the Great Depression worsened and the Dust Bowl hit the Great Plains, businesses, industry and agriculture all collapsed. Seizing on this, the democrats successfully pulled all of the stray dogs from the various political movements, except the Republicans, into their party and ruled the country until the end of WWII.

With the war over and veterans returning home, people started to drift back to their old ways. The democrat coalition that had dominated the country for 16 years began to fracture. In the South, a group of democrats known as the Dixiecrats broke away from the party. All the talk of Civil Rights was too much for the Dixiecrats to bear. So in 1948 they nominated Strom Thurman of South Carolina for President. Yes, the same Strom Thurman who celebrated his 100^th birthday as a Republican Senator. Lloyd Bentsen may have known JFK as he so eloquently told the nation in the 1988 VP debate with Dan Quayle, but ole’ Strom new FDR, heck he knew Teddy Roosevelt, but that again is another story. This second generation of dogs stayed together through the George Wallace days of the 1960’s before quietly wandering off. When the main reason to stay together is to keep the south white, your days really are numbered.

The 3^rd generation of yellow dogs became known not as a dog but as an agricultural insect, the boll weevil. As the social activists of the 1960’s began to rise in power within the democrat party in the 1970’s, especially in 1974 after Watergate, the Southern Democrat once again felt the need to organize. With the great migration to the suburbs by Anglos in the 1970’s and the redistricting that followed after the 1980 Census, most southern cities began to hold large numbers of black democrats and most of their suburbs went Republican. That left only a few rural districts for the traditional Southern Democrat. It was in these rural southern districts that you could find the remaining boll weevils. When Ronald Reagan began building the largest Republican Coalition of the 20^th century, he successfully applied pesticide on the Democrats and picked off sizeable numbers in the South and Midwest. These people became known as Reagan democrats. Trying to survive during the Reagan years, boll weevils generally voted with the Republicans. Their peak of influence, which never was very much, was during the Bush 41 Presidency and the first two years of Clinton. However, when Newt Gingrich made his Contract with America in 1994, the boll weevils were finally eradicated.

So now we make it to the Blue Dogs. Basically, any southern democrat who survived in 1994, quietly reorganized as a blue dog. The blue comes from the color the television news gave the democrats and the dog is a reference to it being a 4^th generation yellow dog. Unlike previous attempts, this time they built an organization. The alpha dogs run this pack. The kennel now holds 52 dogs and has picked up some new breeds from rural New York, the Midwest and even Cal-ee-fornia. And as the War in Iraq became less popular, they were able to attract a few of their stray cousin Reagan Democrats back.

So now that you know them, let’s ask; are they an effective political group? History will say that their signature moment will be health care reform. Only time will tell us what their impact was, but to date they have been more bark than bite. However, we are in the dog days of summer, so if they ever do exert any influence, you would think this would be their season. But then again, most people try to go on vacation during these doggy summer days. So they may just wind up barking to themselves.

Summer Reading Recommendation: "Lone Survivor"

Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10

Dehydration was the least of his concerns, the Navy SEAL knew if he didn’t find a secure place he would be captured and eventually killed by the fast approaching Taliban warriors. He had just been catapulted 30 yards over a ravine by a Russian-made RPG, stolen by the Taliban. His pants had been ripped off by the blast and his legs were covered with shrapnel. Blood was flowing profusely from his legs. He could not manage the strength to stand. His only option was to crawl. The next few minutes were a blur but somehow, with the help of his Creator, he managed to snake his way to cover and for now, he was out of sight from the enemies’ bullets.

Marcus Luttrell, a 6’5” son of an East Texas rancher, did not know how he had just survived the onslaught from the Taliban warriors. All that mattered was that he was alive. His SEAL training would keep him alive until the American forces came in search for him; at least that’s what he thought.

It was June 28th, 2005. The United States Military had just suffered the worst loss of Special Operations Forces since the invasion of Afghanistan had begun in 2001. Taliban forces had attacked Luttrell's four-man team on a remote ridge shortly after 1 p.m. on June 28. By day's end, 19 Americans had died.

Out of the darkness of this horrific day comes this vivacity of a story: a tale of moral choices and brut strength. It reflects the courage and intelligence it takes to become one of the America’s elite warriors, a United States Navy SEAL.

This is one of the best books about the struggles of War that you'll ever read. I highly, highly recommend it!

Can You See Tomorrow?

By: Dave Roberson and John Roberson

Some people spend their entire lives trying to see tomorrow. Weather forecasters concentrate their careers predicting what tomorrow’s weather will bring. Gamblers hedge their bets in belief that tomorrow will bring them a self-fulfilling, extravagant lifestyle. Insurance companies accept or deny candidates based on computer models that predict future outcomes. Nevertheless, in spite of the best models that the most up-to-date computers can run, we seem no closer today of knowing what will happen tomorrow than a generation or two ago. I will admit, the graphics today are a little more accurate and a lot prettier, but it is still several hundred miles from Port O’Conner to Sabine Pass when the eye of the hurricane is 100 miles off shore.

If you were to ask people what they want tomorrow to look like, what do you think they would say? My guess is that they would want it to look a lot like yesterday. Granted, the unemployed sure would like to get a job. The person in the troubled relationship might want to be set free. And without question, the family of the heroic soldier would like the call, email, or text notifying them of the trip home. But my read on most people is that predictability is a preference to uncertainty. Some will call this boring, but I think it reflects reality. So if the theory is accurate, why is it then that the current administration is running wide-open pushing major environmental (Cap and Trade) and social (Health Care) legislation with an extreme sense of urgency? I think the answer can be found in history.

When a new President is elected, there is generally a two-year shelf life on implementing an agenda. Going back as far back as Eisenhower, think of some of the signature moments in their administrations and when it occurred. Eisenhower – Interstate Highway Act – began in ‘54 signed in ‘56; Kennedy – Space Program – ‘61,’62; Johnson – Civil Rights – ‘65,’66; Carter – Airline Deregulation – ‘78; Reagan – eliminate price controls and windfall profit tax – ‘81 and after a landslide in ‘84 – lower income tax brackets –‘86; George H.W. Bush – American with Disabilities Act - ’90; Clinton – NAFTA – ‘93; George W Bush – No Child Left Behind – ‘02. The reason that a new administration has to act quickly is because toward the end of the first two years, all of the House and 1/3 of the Senate is worried about re-election and the President’s re-election campaign starts soon thereafter in the 3^rd year. So naturally, Obama is shaping his right now.

So what did tomorrow look like after each of these notable events? The Interstate Highway Act of 1956 not only paved our countries roads and bridges but stimulated a new lifestyle known as “suburbia”. I believe most folks will say that the Space Program has worked out really well and does anybody want to object to Civil Rights for all Americans? Some will say that the courts overstepped in many of the areas, but that was not Johnson’s fault. Lot’s of people have benefited from reduced airfares, but smaller airports have struggled to keep air service. Reaganomics created a tremendous economic boom, but lack of spending restraint by Congress created massive deficits. NAFTA kept inflation in check for over a decade, but many say it destroyed millions of jobs for Americans. Reading skills for all children is great, but others say the testing that came with it narrows our educational objectives. So what will Obama’s tomorrow bring? You need to really consider this question before you get too excited one way or the other.

So now that you are in the proper mindset, let’s look at the two signature agendas for Obama. First, Cap and Trade. If you are not following the national agenda closely, this is the save the Polar Bear Act, also known as man-made global warming. Since ‘global cooling’ didn’t scare enough people during the Carter Administration of the 1970’s and ‘we are all going to die because of the hole in the ozone’ faded fast during the Clinton years, liberal minded politicians decided that this decade’s environmental scare tactic would be ‘man-made global warming’. Apparently there is some great video out now of polar bears floating around on icebergs. Ten year olds and Al Gore really eat this up. Now, do not get me wrong, I am a firm believer in global warming. By my read, it has been going on since the Last Glacial Maximum about 20,000 years ago. Have you ever thought about how the Great Lakes got scooped out and filled with billions and billions of gallons of water? Some pretty smart people have convinced me that Kansas was once covered by ice. I still think it is pretty cold there in the winter, think KU basketball, but one of the reasons you can drive I-70 from Kansas City to Denver is that all of that ice is now gone. Sounds like global warming to me. And it all started a long time before George W Bush. Plus, who is to say what “normal” is anyways?

So now let’s look at Health Care. First we hear about a problem; so many tens of millions of uninsured people. Then we hear a solution; the government needs to run the health care industry. All I can say is that the next time you are in the line at the Post Office or the DPS, ask yourself about how government run health care would work out.

Now you have to ask yourself why. Why does the administration want to push these two agendas? My response is religion and control. Say what, you ask? Yeah that’s right, religion, and control. See, your hard-core environmentalist does not hang out at your local church, mosque, temple, or synagogue. But just because they do not worship in what most folks would consider a conventional manner, they do have spiritual needs and beliefs. They worship the creation, not the Creator. So when they see “harm” coming to the earth they respond with the same passion for jihad as an extremist Muslim would. And since the hard-core environmentalist voted overwhelming for Obama, he tosses them a bone. Or what if he believes this? The control comes with Health Care. Under the current draft of the Democratic Legislation, members of Congress are currently exempt from the government-run health care option, keeping their private-run health care plan intact. Now, if Obama and his persnickety friends in Washington D.C. are so distraught with how privatized health care is, why don’t they include themselves in this new government-run legislation? The answer is control and power. One of the key components lost in the hubris of this debate is the fact that the administration desperately wants a national database of everyone’s health records. Why? Think about it. The upside is if you are on vacation and have an accident, it would be really nice for the ER physician to know that you are allergic to certain drugs. But what if you are not particularly supportive of the current administration’s policies and a little too outspoken about it, a little medication from the government doctor could fix that. If you want to control a population, but do not want to use the military, then controlling the health care system can be pretty effective. Look, if it is really an insurance issue, I think we can solve that. We seemed to figure out how to insure homes and cars without the government running the home and auto industry. Oh wait, Fannie Mae, AIG and Government Motors are run by the government. Well, a few yesterdays ago we had a pretty good system, but today I do not know.

So how do you want tomorrow to look? Do you want your health care to look a lot like it did yesterday or would you rather roll the dice and see if that government clinic is a little more efficient than the Social Security office? Do you want to try to stop climate change and kill millions of jobs or accept that climate is dynamic and is far beyond our control?

My tomorrow says let’s tackle the insurance issue and talk the Canadians into setting aside a giant nature reserve in the Yukon Territory. They can put in some wind turbines to generate the electricity needed to air condition the polar bear dens. Build an airport to bring in tourists to pay for it. That’s my tomorrow; what is yours?

Is There Such Thing As a Weather Machine?

Day after day, since the weather pattern changed late last week we have seen rain develop north, south, east and west of Austin, but still very little in and around the metro area.

Need proof? The chart below shows where precipitation has fallen the last 7 days.

Note the "hole" centered right over the Austin area.

Back in high school we used to joke that Coach Willig created a weather machine behind The Woodlands High School that placed a "bubble" over the practice field in order to keep the rain away, now I'm starting to wonder if such a machine does exist!

So, why hasn't rain fallen here? Well, there are several reasons (timing, our latitude and position to the coast all play factors), but bad luck is more to blame than anything else.

Big XII Schedule

50 Days till Kickoff!!

The “We The People” Stimulus Package & The 2nd American Revolution - “Common Sense” From A Modern Day Thomas Paine

In 1776 one of our founding fathers Thomas Paine, anonymously published a pamphlet entitled “Common Sense” (http://www.constitution.org/civ/comsense.htm) which challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. The plain language that Paine used resonated with the common man and was the first publication to openly push for independence from Great Britain.

Maintaining “the cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind,” Paine passionately argued for independence from Great Britain, and painted the picture of a prosperous future, if freed from the oppressive and economically draining English government.

Now two hundred and thirty three years later, America once again finds itself being taxed without representation, and being drained economically by an oppressive government. This time, it’s own government run amuck.

What would Thomas Paine say about America’s plight today?

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=jeYscnFpEyA

An Aggie, a Sooner and a Longhorn Walk Into a Bar

By Geoff Lou

An Aggie, a Sooner and a Longhorn Walk Into a Bar
“What does an A&M graduate say to a Longhorn?” Stewart Noll asks, grinning from cheek to cheek. As he says this, his smile frantically attempts to suppress his tongue’s relentless urge to scream the punch line. The smell of whiskey on his breath and in the air of the dark, loud Austin, Texas bar make the difficulty of telling a good joke even more apparent. “I give up,” says Ryan Carnes, a fellow UT student, while determinedly holding back his own drunken laughter.

Meanwhile, 90 miles to the east, a tall, proud sign reads, “Welcome to Aggieland.” And if the sign posted along Highway 21 didn’t warn you, this is College Station, Texas — the Mecca for all things maroon. It’s a place where the color burnt orange is so heavily despised, that even the similarly orange shade garnishing Whataburger’s famous “W” has been replaced by a much more Aggie-friendly hue of maroon. A place where it’s practically a city regulation that, in order to pass inspection, all cars must sacrifice rear-window visibility for an oversized sticker, proudly declaring an eagerness to “Saw ‘Em Off.” For its former students, College Station is a place filled with memories of tradition and majesty, a place where their lives of “Gig ‘Em, Aggies!” began, and, thanks to an alumni-exclusive on-campus cemetery, can ultimately come to a “t.u.”-hating end.

North of the heavenly grounds of College Station and sandwiched somewhere between the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and the armpit of Oklahoma, sits the city of Norman — home to the University of Oklahoma and the Sooners. Blink when passing through city limits, and the abundance of disfigured, altered and distorted Bevo stickers will leave visitors wondering if they’re in Aggieland. However, a keen eye will notice that the Aggies and Sooners differ in their message, as Sooners prefer simply to “Beat Texas.”

Regardless of the verbiage, when you’re clad in maroon or crimson, one thing is clear: whether you’re 90 miles away in College Station or 400 miles away in Norman, you will never consider yourself far enough away from The University of Texas.

While the Sooners and Aggies have given us the honor of reserving their hatred exclusively for our beloved Longhorns, we face the unique burden of fighting a two-fronted war. With A&M establishing itself as the first institution of higher learning in Texas and OU opening its doors seven years after UT, we are truly the middle-child in a trio of major southern colleges. And as any middle-child will attest, being stuck between a barrage of insults and threats from your older brother to the east and the gluttonous smirk your spoiled, suck-up of a younger brother to the north means that we, as Longhorns, have to learn to pick our battles.

Yet, lately it has become impossible not to get caught up in the overwhelming frenzy of hype surrounding Texas’ rivalry with OU. In an article dated July 2 posted on ESPN.com, Pat Forde declares the Red River Rivalry the number one rivalry in all of college football and says that the “Sooners and Longhorns are at each other’s throats.” Poll any number of students on campus, and they’ll all say the same thing — it’s OU. So it’s no surprise then, after what happened between UT and OU in last year’s Big 12 South tiebreaker, that we would forget that a place such as College Station exists — much less, that they’re our rivals.

Meera Rajagopalan, former director of special events and rallies for the Texas Exes Student Chapter, agrees that the Longhorns’ rivalry with OU has, in recent years, overshadowed the rivalry with A&M. “From A&M’s standpoint, we’re their biggest rivals, but from our standpoint, I definitely think it’s OU,” she says. However, Rajagopalan says that student participation and attendance at Texas Exes sponsored rallies has remained strong, despite the trend. “We have the Torchlight Parade every year before OU and always have a strong following,” she says. “But the same goes for the Hex Rally — especially the past couple of years when A&M beat us.”

“I think there has been a shift in the rivalries because the talent level of A&M has fallen off,” says Jimmy Fraser, an OU alumnus. “I think it's because [OU and Texas] have both been the better two teams in the Big 12 South and are always competing for representation in the Big 12 Championship. That is where the rivalry has spiced up a bit, and why [The Red River Shootout] matters more than our in-state rivals.”

The strength of OU’s football team has undoubtedly caused Longhorns to concentrate focus on the Sooners, but as in any two-fronted war, it’s important to distribute your troops appropriately. So when it comes to the Aggies, Longhorns must remember that no matter how much we may hate our neighbors to the north, historically, we hated the Aggies first. “For [Aggies], the rivalry between [A&M] and UT dates all the way back to the 1894 football season, when UT beat A&M 38-0,” says Larry Cooper, Director of Marketing for the Association of Former Students, A&M’s alumni association. “It was [A&M’s] first football game ever, so we didn’t take being beaten lightly.”

Cooper says that sports weren’t the only reason the Aggies and Longhorns bicker. “While football plays a major role, the roots of the rivalry extend way back and weren’t exclusive to sports,” he says. He believes that geography and state allocated funding also contributed. “The geography aspect of it is obvious. Any time you have two major schools pooling from the same area, there’s going to be some tension,” he says. “But another factor was funding. In 1912, the state came really close to closing A&M and merging it with UT.”

You can call it a sibling-rivalry, hatred at its finest, envy, or you could even call it a misunderstanding, but Jay Steider, an A&M former student, says that no matter what you call it or what the stakes are, the UT/A&M rivalry is always thrilling. “To really make sense of it, you have to define rivalry. You’re always going to have your in-state battles. And Texas and A&M are always going to be big in that respect. But, right now, in the grand scheme of things, the OU and UT rivalry is definitely going to take the spotlight,” he says. “That being said, the Aggies know for a fact that no matter how good UT is, there’s always some extra element there that can help them beat the Longhorns — and if they don’t, it always comes down to wire.”

Then why has our once-passionate, thrilling and storied rivalry with A&M been flat lined to a slow beating pulse, in recent years? “Personally, I think it all goes back to bonfire,” says Robert Hunter, an A&M graduate from the class of ’92. He believes that with Texas Governor Rick Perry’s decision to put an end to university-sponsored bonfires, an annual tradition held by A&M before every game against UT, the rivalry took a major hit. “I think he was scared his hair would ignite,” he jokes. “But then again, his mansion in Austin burned down, so maybe he and fire have a long history of trading punches.”

“Who says it’s dead?” asks John Roberson, a UT graduate and member of Texas Exes. “With OU, the rivalry is always flared up because it’s state versus state — no holds barred. It’s taking the stage right now because it has national impact. With A&M, the reason it’s on the backburner right now is because A&M is an in-state school. It’s where our brothers and sisters go; it’s where our friends and neighbors from high school go. So when they’re not beating us at football, we share that Texas connection. But no matter how bad either school gets at football, we’ll always be rivals.”

Perhaps Roberson is right; maybe the Lone Star State’s oldest rivalry doesn’t need reviving. Maybe the blinding scale of the OU rivalry has caused Longhorns to simply lose sight of the 300,000 Border-Collie-loving Aggies who find UT utterly disgusting. And, because of this, maybe the revitalization requires nothing more than a reminder of why we’re not Aggies — because no matter how determined they are to “Saw ‘Em Off,” how many push-ups their Corps of Cadets can do, or how many times they so cleverly refer to us as “t.u.” — we’re Texas.

“I give up! What does he say?” shouts Carnes. After battling to maintain the suspense of his cliffhanger, Noll finally submits and forfeits a punch line. “’Welcome to McDonalds, may I take your order?’” he blurts in his best impersonation of an exaggeratedly slow southern draw. Almost instinctively, Carnes’ head rears backwards in amusement. As the duo walk out the door of the bar, their tattered and faded burnt orange hats, which don the sacred Bevo logo, cling desperately to the devoted, loyal Longhorn crowns they adorn.

A loud, nearly incomprehensible chorus of drunken cheers follows them out the door and rolls down what sounds like the entire stretch of 6th Street. It’s a sound loathed by Sooners and Aggies alike. It’s a sound familiar to Longhorns everywhere. It’s the sound of college rivalry. It’s “The Eyes of Texas,” and it’s the way all, good Aggie jokes end.

Magazines that may be interested:
Burnt Orange Magazine: Written from a UT angle. Deals with UT related topics.
Writer’s Guidelines:
Burnt Orange Magazine – See attached.
Lexis Nexis:
Larry Cooper would be the only possible hit returned by LexisNexis, but none seem to be the same Larry Cooper.

Sources:
Stewart Noll
Ryan Carnes
Meera Rajagopalan
Jimmy Fraser
Larry Cooper
Jay Steider
John Roberson

Web sites:
http://www.aggienetwork.com/Default.aspx
http://www.barkingcarnival.com/eyesoftx/on-this-independence-day-thank-god-youre-not-an-aggie
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=4297677&sportCat=ncf
http://www.texasexes.org/tesc/
http://www.texasexes.org/
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/if-you-love-your-alma-mater-to-death/

Trip Report Part II: San Francisco

The weekend in San Francisco was exactly what I needed. The cool temperatures coupled with the disconnect from the day-day grind of the past few months was a welcomed relief. The oppressive heat in Texas this summer has really put a damper on a lot of outdoor activities. Afternoon/evening golf is brutal, more than a mile or two at Town Lake is all I can handle, and the worst part of all is that Lake Travis is so low only one boat ramp is open — The Strickland’s place has been unnavigable since May. (As of July 9^th, Lake Travis is at 614’, 27’ below normal for July).

The ability to walk around San Francisco with a sweatshirt on and marvel at the awe-inspiring views was without a doubt the most enjoyable part of the trip. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the visit to Sonoma County. I am now a self-proclaimed wine connoisseur due to the fact I can affectively articulate why 2007 was a much better year for California wine than 2008. I also enjoyed the Astros/Giants game, even though the Astros failed to show up for the second day in a row. However, the faint autumnal chill in the San Francisco air makes you suffer a moment of vertigo, a feeling that you are intimately involved with the turning of the Earth, the orbiting of the moon and of the planets. It is almost too beautiful to bear. It almost makes you want to stay forever.

Almost all the people you meet in San Francisco, it seems, have come from somewhere else. They are the seekers, the adventurers, the people dissatisfied with things as they are. Most have brought with them something of the '49ers' spirit, the crazy optimism of the men and women who traversed a continent in covered wagons questing for gold, then kept going west to transform a small, rough seaport town into a fantasy of elegance, opulence, and eccentricity. All the clichés—the cable cars, the foghorns, the celebrated restaurants—are here for the taking. But this jewel of a city is also a place of exuberant rebelliousness where nothing is accepted merely because it has been in the past. It is a place where the inhabitants keep trying out new ideas about health and nutrition, hidden human potentials, spirituality, and sexuality in the laboratories of their lives, then spread these ideas to the nation and the world. The results are a wee bit o' heaven for everyone: But in a city that is so beautiful, exciting, and cosmopolitan you’ll always find something that fits your taste. My advice: Just go!

Trip Report Part 1: AUS-IAH-SAN-SFO

Originally, my plans were to fly straight to San Francisco after work on Thursday. However, after a slow week of work, coupled with a sudden influx of victories from the Astros, lead to a last minute change in my itinerary. My new plans entailed a pre-dawn departure to San Diego, in order to catch the 12:35 p.m. PDT Astros-Padres start, then on to San Francisco after the game to meet up with my parents. Since I was now flying Continental out of Austin, I had to hop over to IAH to change planes.

I always enjoy early morning flights out of Austin because this is the one time of day that Bergstrom’s gates are at capacity. American and Continental have super-hubs in Dallas and Houston respectively and have a lot of flights scheduled for the morning commute. The high volume of flights between 5:30 a.m.-8:00 a.m. results in more aircraft parked overnight than gate space available so there are always aircraft parked in random places on the tarmac. Leaving AUS, we taxied all the way around the terminal to line up for a departure on 17L. As we made our way to the end of the runway, the captain pulled over to one of the holding spots short of the runway and informed us ATC had placed a 15-20 minute delay on our flight. As you can expect, there were passengers on the flight who were not happy at all and wanted an explanation for why we weren’t taking off. Luckily for those passengers (mainly one lady) sitting in vicinity of me, I successfully translated pilot lingo into Basic English. The conversation went something like this: “Well Ma’am, we can’t take off till those guys up that tower say we can and they obviously want us to wait for the flight pattern to clear. Safety is their number one concern, I’m sure we’ll make it to Houston sometime this morning”. Twenty-one minutes later, we took off on runway 17L and immediately banked left for IAH. The flight was very short and the next thing I knew we were circling over Lake Houston preparing for a landing on 26L. Following a smooth landing and quick taxi to gate C-26, I disembarked and headed to the Presidents Club to meet up with David.

After a much needed breakfast in the Presidents Club, I made my way over to gate C-20 for the 10:20 a.m. departure to SAN. Like the other 99 percent of the time that I fly, I headed straight for my window seat; 20A was the seat of choice for this flight. As we taxied for our takeoff on runway 15R, I realized that my pure excitement for flying had successfully suppressed the lack of sleep from the night before and the early 5:30 a.m. wake up call from Sara. My extended weekend trip that would include two Astros games in two different cities, along with my first trip to wine country, was about to begin.

Juarez, Mexico

Yuma, AZ

My window seat on the B737-800 had an unobstructed view of the landscape below. Our route took us right over Austin, Texas; El Paso, Texas; Tucson, AZ; Yuma, AZ; and over The Peninsular Ranges before our decent into San Diego, CA. I had never flown into San Diego before, but I had remembered from my previous visit to San Diego that the flight pattern usually brought aircraft in right over downtown. That was indeed the case for my flight as well. For aviation enthusiasts, landing on runway 27 at San Diego International has to be ranked as one of the most picturesque landings in the country.

Upon arrival in San Diego, I needed to do something with my bag while I ventured around the city for the next 9 hours. So I hopped into a cab and headed downtown to the Manchester Grand Hyatt. My plan was to convince the bellhop that I had checked out and I needed a place to store my luggage while I went to the baseball game before my flight left. Well, I didn’t even have a chance to put that plan into action because as soon as I got out of the cab I was bombarded by two bellhops — “checking-in Sir?” As calm as that feeling you get when you first listen to Bob Marley, I responded — “actually, I’m headed to the baseball game right now, is there a place to store my bag while I’m gone?” Without hesitation, the bellhop took my bag and stored it away. The toughest obstacle of the day had been executed. I could now enjoy the perfect weather and venture around San Diego without the hassle of dragging my bag along with me…Only one problem, I forgot to get my camera out of my bag so I didn’t take any pictures at the Astros game. O well, the Astros won 7-2 in one of the oddest games I’ve ever been to. There was a 52-minute delay because bees had taken over left field which caused the centerfielder and leftfielder to run for the dugout. At first it was quite comical, but after about 20-minutes of no activity from the Padres grounds crew in trying to contain/kill the bees, the stands emptied. After the game resumed, there were approximately 100 Astros fans and 95 Padres fans left for the ninth inning. It made for one of the oddest (but coolest) setting for a professional game I have ever been in. You could literally hear everything the players, coaches, and umpires were saying on the field. After the Astros recorded the final out, I was ready to stand up and sing the “Eyes of Texas”, but then I realized I was at a professional game, not a college game.

I made my way back to the hotel to get my bags and walked around to take a few pictures before heading back to the airport for my final leg up to San Francisco.

Top Gun Bar

Waking up at 5:30 a.m. CDT is hard enough as it is, but adding a trip to the west coast really takes a toll on your sleep schedule. I finally arrived at San Francisco International at 10:15 p.m. PDT, but I still had a 30-minute BART ride into the city. My twenty-one hour day didn’t conclude until after midnight San Francisco time, but it was worth it!

Part II still to come...