A.k.a. The first day in the best state ever!! -Meredith Petry
We woke up in Texas to the sad realization that no one had clean underwear and we all smelled pretty bad after a weekend in the bayou. So after two loads of laundry and 20 minute showers we ventured out into the state that we learned is approximately 850 miles long (according to Meredith’s dad.)
We spent the morning boot shopping (see Katie’s post below) and exploring Teacher Heaven, we just couldn’t stay away!! Then it was time for burritos at which point Randi discovered her new favorite food-queso. “They have diet dr pepper fountain soda and queso, I’m moving to Texas!”
For dessert we hit up the BlueBell factory to learn about ice cream assembly lines and get our free scoop!
Finally we arrived in Austin and checked into our homotel (no its not gay, it just doesn’t know if it wants to be a hotel or a motel. After operation “sneak a fifth person and an air mattress into the room” (success!) we went out for fancy pizza and music. On account of the torrential rains- apparently we were wrong in believing we could learn everything about Texas from watching Friday Night Lights and were sorely disappointed when it wasn’t sunny, dry and filled Tim Riggins look alikes- we only made it to one “after dinner” spot but luckily there was enough going on to keep us entertained until 2 in the morning.
Meredith obviously found Pete’s Dueling Piano bar within minutes and we settled down to listen to covers of what are quickly becoming the two mascots of our trip-Billy Joel and the Boss. The bar was being sponsored by Tito’s Vodka to raise money for special needs foster kids so we deemed it a worthy cause and decided to stay While we were a little nervous about being northerners in a Texan bar, we were happy when 30 college boys from NYC walked in to join the festivities. The pianists tried to appease us by playing “something from NYC-Bon Jovi” but we quickly corrected him by screaming “they’re from Jersey.” Our pianist replied “if it’s north of Dallas then we don’t give a shit!” Sad.
After some riveting covers of Snoop Dog’s “Gin and Juice” and “Family Tradition” (why do we drink? TO GET DRUNK!) we started to dominate the requests with songs about our beloved big apple. This resulted in about 50 New Yorkers and 5 very drunk Norwegians doing a kick line to old blue eyes’ “New York, New York.”
The pianists decided we were such a good crowd that they continued playing even after the bar was supposed to close. This was great news for us, but bad news for the three people we saw face plant onto the stage. Nonetheless the whole night was a success and now the special needs foster kids can have accessibility ramps installed in their homes-yeah!
Until the next state,
-the Gringo Gaucho
Update! We now have the picture and video of our New York kick line. Enjoy!
Teacher Road Trip 
We had blue bell in the office mike had it flown in yum no hats though
This I’d dad on moms computer
Dad again any good blues last night?