The Last Trip, POSSIBLY in a While

I do my very best when I teach. When I'm off, I like to reward myself accordingly. This coronavirus had me postpone my trip to Japan for this past Spring Break. Not knowing how severe this thing was going to get I decided to drive to St. Louis Missouri, stopping in several places along the way and on my way back. On Friday, March 6 I drove from Odessa Texas to Oklahoma City and this is part of what I saw when I got there:

The Capitol was under renovation. I might come back one day to see it when it's fully renovated. On Saturday, March 7 I began my tour at the Henry Overholser Mansion, followed by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the Myriad Gardens, The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, and finally the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help:

On Sunday March 8 I drove to Tulsa, stopping at this Soda-Pop-Coke store right outside of OKC:

Once I got to Tulsa I visited the Philbrook Museum of Art and the Oklahoma Aquarium:

On Monday, March 9 I visited the Tulsa Art Deco Museum and the Cathedral of the Holy Family before driving to Jefferson City:

On my way to Jefferson City, I took a short detour to see this tri-state area:

After driving for a while in Missouri I found this Candy Store in Phillipsburg (Redmon's Candy Factory) and the largest gift store in the world, so I thought I'd take a look:

On Tuesday, March 10 I visited the Missouri State Capitol, the Governor's Mansion, and Saint Peter's Catholic Church. All of these places were at a walking distance from each other and from my hotel:

I drove to Saint Louis right after that, checked in to my hotel and visited the place that made me drive all the way up there. This is probably the most beautiful church in the US, and surely among the most beautiful churches in the world, the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis:

As there's no Whataburger and there was only one Shake Shack nearby, I decided to try Culver's before getting an oil change:

On Wednesday, March 11 I visited the Arch and the Saint Louis Art Museum:

On Thursday, March 12 I visited the Fox Theatre in the morning:

In the afternoon I drove to Little Rock on my way back to Texas and this was my view from the hotel window:

Everything had been going fine until I decided to visit the Arkansas State Capitol on Friday, March 13. The guard told me that the capitol was closed for visits until further notice, he did not seem to know if or when it would be open again so I left:

Before driving to Fort Worth, I was allowed to visit the Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Little Rock:

As I drove to Fort Worth I stopped at the Texas Visitors Center in Texarkana:

My first unpleasant surprise came when I saw this sign at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth:

On Saturday March 14 I visited Saint Patrick's Cathedral before driving to Austin:

Based on what I saw online, I knew that art museums in Austin and San Antonio were closed, so I considered skipping those two cities and heading back to Odessa based on what I saw online. I still decided to go to Austin as my parents (who live in Mexico) were at a meeting in Austin. Saint Mary Catholic Cathedral in Austin was still open. It was the last place where I was able to go to mass before churches started masses online:

On that day I also found out that school would be cancelled at least until March 27. 

As I was sharing a hotel room with my parents, we went out for dinner that night

On Sunday March 15 I said goodbye to my parents, not surely knowing if I will see them again or not, at least for a while. As I drove back to Odessa, these are some of the pictures that I took:

Going to Germany at the end of May and then going home to Mexico at the end of June is looking increasingly unlikely (still not impossible, especially going home to Mexico for a month or so). I'm not sure when this health crisis will end, but I hope that we get to end this sooner rather than later. It was not the trip that I had originally planned, but despite some museum closures in the last two days, this was an awesome trip. My thoughts an prayers for those most affected by this.

Siguiendo los Viajes de los Abuelos

Fue poco el tiempo que me tocó conocer a mis abuelos paternos. Nunca supe de sus viajes, y mi papá nunca me platicó de sus viajes, fuera de un video que llegué a ver de cuando mis abuelos fueron a Argentina. Hace poco me topé con estas fotos que me dicen de algunos lugares en los que estuvieron ellos, que yo no supe que habían visitado hasta que reconocí las fotos, después de haber visitado esos lugares yo mismo:

Moscú:

París:

Londres:

Lourdes:

Barcelona:

Granada:

Atotonilco:

También fuimos a Roma, pero ese viaje fue el único viaje fuera de México y Estados Unidos que no pagué con mi propio esfuerzo. Puedo decir entonces que mis abuelos tenían buen gusto.

3 Days at the MCM FunDome

You don't get to value what you have until you lose it. This includes running water. It was Monday night, February 3rd, when I noticed that there was little to no running water in my apartment. I prayed that water would come back in the morning. This apartment complex has been known to shut the water down during the day without warning if there's a leak out somewhere, but why would they do this in the middle of the night? I woke up on Tuesday morning, and after I realized that there was no running water in the restroom I checked downstairs and noticed that there was a little water running from the kitchen zinc. I brought liquid soap and deodorant to wash the most important parts. I counted the last water drops while I tried to finish rinsing. I took my toothbrush, mouthwash, and toothpaste to school, washed my face there and tried to act normal. As I was about to leave the parking lot from my apartment complex, one of the apartment ladies who works in the office told me that there was a huge leak and they did not know where it was coming from, so they had to shut the water off. 

I called my apartment office during lunch, and after being told that we still had no water I remembered that I still had a gift card that Mr. Bushman, the owner of the MCM Hotels (and a bunch of other places) generously gave us, so I booked my first night at the MCM FunDome. While I could've also chosen the MCM Elegante, the FunDome is only a block away from where I live. At around 5:30 PM I confirmed what I was predicting: due to the upcoming snowstorm, no school the next day. At 8:05 PM, I was parking outside the hotel and I noticed that a little snow had started to mix in with the rain. After checking into my room I realized that I forgot something at home. It was 8:25 when I went back and snow was already accumulating on the street. Luckily I made it back to the hotel in 3 minutes, as I watched HEAVY snow falling down quickly. I don't think I've ever seen that much snow falling from the sky. 

I called the apartment office the next day. After being told that the plumbers had left the day before without knowing where the leak was and that due to the weather they would not be coming back until the next day, I booked a second night. As snow did not taper off until the afternoon of Wednesday, February 5th, I was expecting a second day off, as any melted snow would re-freeze at night. I was able to run a quick errand, which was to document how beautiful east Odessa looks under the snow:

Plumbers had not arrived by mid-morning on Thursday, February 6th, so I used my remaining balance on that gift card to book a third and final night. I ended up paying about 24 dollars out of my own pocket, and I'm glad I did. After most of the snow had melted, I saw a note outside the apartment office stating that water would be back at 6:00 PM that day. When I got there, there was no water, so I went back to my hotel room after dinner. Luckily we had water on Friday, February 7 in the afternoon. I learned from the office that after fixing the leak the day before, plumbers did not wait for the seal to dry out, so when they came back for the third time that week, they had to wait until it dried up completely.

I came back home from work that Friday and noticed that we had running water. Despite not resting as I had wanted on these two snow days, I was thankful for having a comfortable bed and running water. This just made me wonder how life was like before we had running water. The hotel itself is not a luxurious place but I would stay there again as I slept really well. I would definitely recommend that place.