I trust there are still a few of you around to watch the culmination of this trip.
We made it to our hotel late evening on the Monday, tired, really not in the mood for checking in with hassles and had to pay $100.00 deposit on our room at the Best Western outside Austin. This was the first and only time we had to pay a deposit on a room. Guess being foreigners was being held against us by the check in lady who was "American" with a heavy accent and no sense of humour.
Unpacked the car, crashed and had a good night compared to some of the nights to date.
Next morning it was breakfast and then we were off to Leander, outside of Austin to meet up with Bret Johnston another Chevy truck and multiple multi skilled guy.
He had made Nicola the most awesome turned wood rocket for Christmas last year.
Despite being a long way out of our way, Bret and wife Jennifer along with their kids were on our list of "Must do's" due to multiple shared hobbies and just because they are amazingly nice people. We had a load of Lego stuff to deliver as well.......
Before we left the hotel, I photographed a transporter with amongst other a Datsun 240Z and an early Trans Am.
I also saw this train and had to get a photo, to me it is quintessentially Texan.
We drove off through late morning traffic and both commented on how nice it would be to live around here. If only we had a job and prospects.
When we got to Bret's dads place where the family were living until their new home is completed, the first thing was swapping out prezzies, T-Shirts and Lego for Bret and his family, truck models and some super cool Hotwheels toys for Martin and I.
Then we had a cuppa English Tetleys tea, something we missed most days, seems we got Bret hooked on it as well.
His dad is an amazing engineer and artisan, so we looked at and were amazed at some of his engineering, the way his workshop was put together , clearly where Bret learned his skills from.
Then the first highlight of the day......... His dad's old truck that his sister had used to university till she got tired of it, now it had Bret's name on it.
Spotless, original...... Just gorgeous.
At this point my $100.00 indicator switchgear came out too, remember the part I ordered after buying the steering column from Clem?
And this reminded us that we needed to use some of Bret's dads tools, including the band saw to trim the packaging of the bed strips and side mouldings down to as close as possible to 2.0 meters. As that was the size of oversized baggage that was permitted on the plane.
So we proceeded to dismantle and cut down to size all the packaging and bracing.
Amazing how a Sawzall will make quick work of stuff.
once all that was done, we locked up and left for his mum in law Gladys' place some distance away.
There was more to do and see, seems this day was turning into yet another highlight.
So we drove out to where she lives. Love the entrances to American housing estates, where space is just not a problem.
This was parked on the same estate as his mum in law, Gladys lives.
Patina look on the outside, but all modern brutal business on the underside. Seems the owner has some other toys too.
That's a hood ornament.
Notice also the flying pig hanging from the rear view mirror.
We drove past many estates like this one with impressive entrances and open blue skies.
Anyway, we eventually made it to Bret's mum I laws home where Bret owns some of the garages. The main house had two massive garages, and then there was this bank of garages to the side that housed a load of cars, tools and some storage space.
Did I mention I would love to live in the USA successfully?
More in a while.