Duede Seriously

So what do you do when your friend comes to visit Texas for the first time? You force him to spend as much time as possible in the car. Well that wasn’t the original plan but heck it ended up being a car-happy type trip (sorry again Steve).

But seriously folks, nothing is better than having a willing participant in all things Texas. I should have known that Steve would not only jump at the chance to experience Texas-specific things but he would fully embrace them.

In fact, he embraced it a bit more than us real Texans did.

Now I will tell you that you can easily go Texan by just wearing boots with normal clothes or a western-looking shirt, but oh no, there was none of that. You may notice the shirt, and yes it has a name – Pistoles Grande – in fact it has an identity all its own, add to that a pair of snakeskin boots, a Stetson hat (that somehow seemed made for this non-western man) and an official Texas belt buckle and you have Cowboy Steve.

Now you may get some double (or up to quadruple) coverage of events here because well between Jes, JCol, Eddie, and Steve we are all talking about the same weekend. Sorry but read on and maybe I’ll say something new.

Friday

So the weekend started out with Steve fresh off the plane, cowboy hat and all. You gotta have respect for an Oregonian who wears a cowboy hat all the way to Texas. He fit right in immediately. So to appease his request for “meat on the bone” we were off to Sammy’s for some good ol bar-b-que.

Then to Jes’s for some down time, the poor guy had been up since the crack of dawn. A little chatty time and a jam session (not rapping jeff, not rapping) later and we the gang was forming for our night out on the western town. One of my favorite comments of the night came from Roger when he saw Steve’s “outfit” in all it’s glory.

Roger: “You’re going to wear that?”
“Do you always wear clothes like that?”

Classic Roger, and yet oh so funny because Steve was more countrified (oh my word that is a real word and spell check just corrected my misspelling of it) than the rest of us. So we piled into cars and were off, well we were in the car and moving but getting there was a bit troublesome. The good thing is that since we got lost a few times (just a few) we didn’t have to wait in line very long to get seated (sorry JCol and Brian – you were troopers).

Joe T’s was AMAZING, as it always is and we got to show Steve a little bit of greenery in the otherwise bland, flat, cemented landscape of Texas.

Then we were off to Billy Bob’s. After a little bull riding watching, we hit the dance floor. Now I will take a moment here and give props to Eddo the dancing master. He is skilled people, skilled. I was also very impressed with the two-steppin and pretzeling newcomer Steve. After a few lessons and some trial runs he was burning up the dance floor. I do want to give him big props because it is not easy to become a good country dancer on your first try and he was leading and twirling and spinning with the best of them by the end of the evening.

Since the bands were pretty bad we spent most of the time watching some of the most interesting people in Texas dance. There was bouncy, tippy toes guy and then these two couples that decided to group dance right in front of us (awkward), and there were a few really good couples out there who could tear it up. People watching in Texas is always a good time.

So after a long night of eating and dancing we made our way home. Eddie has spoken of the car crash incident so check out his site for more information. I will say that it was SCARY and I think I may have cracked one of Steve’s ribs with my protective arm block that I threw out when I slammed on the brakes. Unfortunately, after all that excitement I got lost on the way back so Steve got an unexpected little guided tour of downtown as we made our way back.

Saturday

Eddie was performing at a mall opening on Friday. Jes and I were supposed to meet up with him and Steve but Jessica had to do “some things for an out of town friend” – more on that later. So I ventured out to meet up with the guys and missed Eddie’s performance (sad) but got to be entertained by this guy in a blow up suit scaring the pants off of innocent passer-byers (Steve has video of this – I think). Then we headed to Tin Star (LOVE IT) and then to Eddie’s to chill before game night. Chill quickly turned into nappy time but not before watching two episodes of Scrubs and laughing our heads off. GIVE ME SOME HUNGRY CHICKEN. I guess the three of us were beat up from the night before because we all crashed. In fact I am amazed at Steve’s ability to fall asleep so quickly, one minute he’s there and the next you hear him snoring. Ha Ha.

So then we were off again (yes more driving) to Denton. I needed to make a few stops so I booked it before the boys and headed north to D-town. Unfortunately my driving instinct was off all weekend and I completely passed my exit. Twenty minutes later (where was my head this weekend?) I realized and made a u-turn and put in an emergency call to JCol and Brian. Brian, my hero, volunteered to run to the store and grab all the stuff I was to bring for dinner that night. What a guy.

My AMAZING friend Jessica (with the help of her great husband Roger) made me the most awesome birthday cake and surprised me. I love my friends. It was beautiful and scrumptious and everyone snacked on it all night.

So game night was fun, crazy, and wild. Isn’t it always? Steve got edumacated on the ins and outs of Settlers. He picked it up quickly but we were bested by somewhat newcomber Brian. The quiet ones always win. In the words of Jessica, “Settlers is a game where your goal is to screw each other.” And that is pretty much what happened, we got screwed by Big Eddie and his golden gate. I’m not bitter Eddie, you beat us at our own game. We lost with grace here people.

Then some catch phrase, a little Cranium. And yes the girls did dominate in catch phrase – although I question some of our tactics – especially when Jessica started singing Tiffany’s “I think we’re ______ now” to get us to say alone. Hahahhahahahaha, classic game night. Or Roger saying something like “it swims in the ocean, it has a fin” and Steve and Eddie yelled out “fish, dolphin” so Roger passed it then said “Someone said shark right?” Ahahahahahaha.

Then a little cranium. Man I was lucky to be on a team with two guys who can hum, draw, act, and are pretty crafty with the spelling and data questions. I’m not even sure I brought anything to the table (other than cookies).

Next was a bit of Texas Hold Em and I was outmatched from the get go. Eddie made an amazing come back after loosing a lot of chips, poor Brian went out first, bought his way back in and went out again (not sure his head was in the game though because it was 3 a.m. by this point). Well Steve and I ended up in heads up action and he stomped me. I bow in the presence of your Hold Em skills Mr. Sporre. I am no match for this master of cards.

Sunday

Lazy Sunday morning, oh wait, not so lazy. It took us a while to get going that morning, lots of laying around, sitting around, hanging around. JCol, the PERFECT hostess, cooked up some breakfast and we ate and just hung around waiting to leave for Eddie’s Mav’s performance. Another jam session (again no rapping, oh wait Steve did rap so I take that back) and we were off to the American Airlines Center. Poor steve, he must not have slept at all on Saturday night because he crashed on the way to Dallas – that or my passenger seat is just that comfortable.

We made it to the AAC just in time to see Eddie shake his grove thang – and I will say that I think Eddo was the best dancer out there. He was tearing it up. We stuck around to see the last part of the game and then headed out to the fair.

And then the consumption of all things unhealthy began. Our first stop was the Corny Dog stand. Oh my word, the heavenly taste of a freshly fried corny dog. There really isn’t anything like it. A little walking later and we stumbled upon the Fried Snickers stand. Seriously, just watching people batter and then deep fry marshmallows, snickers, and oreo cookies was enough to make me gain 10 lbs and I didn’t even eat any of them. Next we headed to the Ferris Wheel. Eddo got the crowd going in line with a bit of dancing and we all packed into the car – hmmm it says it holds six and well, we were all in there but it was one of those up close and personal type rides.

Next we braved this ride that was AWESOME. We turned, we twisted, we rolled, we flipped. I screamed and laughed and Steve kept yelling out what he had just inhaled. I will say that there were a few moments I was scared his fried snickers was going to be seen for a second time that day but not in its original state and that I might be wearing it. But luckily that was not the case.

Our final quest was in search of the fried peanut butter, jelly, and banana sandwich. This was the last stop on the fried food train and Steve was riding it all the way to the end. Unfortunately after this culinary delight we had to head to the airport, so goodbyes were said and we were off in search of the car. Now I am not too proud to say that once again my go-go gadget direction skills failed me and we ended up in some random parking lot on the other side of the highway and hiked our way back to the car. (Gosh you would think that I am a directionless fool but people I’m usually really good at stuff like that – Sad).

So another car trip later (and a fried food induced nap for Steve) we were at the airport and dropping him off after a marathon Texas weekend.

Sorry that this is more just a recap. I know I am leaving out tons of stuff. Check out the other bloggers for more information or their take on stuff.

I will say that this weekend was so much fun. Like old friends getting together for good times all around. Steve is always welcomed back for a return visit. There are parts of north Texas that I’m not sure you’ve seen yet, so hey more car tripping, more fried foods, and more good times.

Ok I'll post some pics next from all my photographer friends (who needs a camera with this crew around?)