Hello follower(s) (Mamacita – my one and only favorite follower).  My brother is in town helping me out this week to finish the outdoor shower and run electricity from the meter pole to the container.  Tomorrow is a critical day, which may be tough since I am headed into Austin to hang out with my old roommate and good friends from NY.  They are relatively social and tend to pressure me into exceeding my limits.  I will have to watch myself this evening if I want to be productive tomorrow.

Today was amazing.  My brother, old roommate, a very good friend, and some buddies and I went to the UT vs. Iowa State game at DKR Stadium.  With the passing of DKR earlier this week and the fact today is Veteran’s Day (thank you to all of the men and women who serve our country), the game was special.  They had an amazing tribute with a jet flyover and other spectacles.  Unfortunately, we were a few minutes late to the game because I slept in trying to recover from yesterday evening’s events.  This caused us to miss a few of the pre-game events.  However, we did get to see the Wishbone opening formation that helped propel UT to three (3) national titles under Coach Royal’s guidance.  It was really neat, and the play was a great success!  I think my favorite part was the halftime band formations.  The UT band did a great job honoring our service men and women as well as the late Coach Royal.  I made an attempt to capture the moment with my Mamacita’s camera – thanks for letting me borrow your camera, Mamacita.

This evening some very dear friends/family came out to check out Camp Wanderlust and hit up the local wineries.  Sarah and Emily, thank you for your visit.  My brother and I drove to Driftwood Estate Winery and the Duchman Family Winery, where the four (4) of us enjoyed tastings.  Both venues were hosting beautiful weddings.

At Driftwood Estate Winery, the associates greeted us with bright smiles and wonderful wine.  They also gave me some recycled wine bottles, which I will use for landscaping and decorative accent/conversation pieces.  Thank you to my friends at Driftwood for the bottles.  I hope to get more during other weekday visits.  As a special bonus while at Driftwood, I met six (6) beautiful ladies from the greater Houston and Austin areas.  They were very sweet.  Lauren (sp?), a Texas Tech grad, was there with her dear friends and wedding party for her bachelorette weekend.  I later discovered, while coincidently running into them again at Duchman Family Winery, they had rented a limo and were doing a tour before heading out to Canyon Lake to stay the evening.  If you ladies are reading this post, I really enjoyed meeting you.  Lauren, I wish you and the lucky guy that gets to call you his wife a blissful life together.

The bride-to-be’s future sister-in-law, also named Lauren, was a fellow UT grad.  We had a nice conversation about her non-profit social work, the UT football game (I still had my burnt orange shirt and sneakers on, which served as a catalyst for speaking about the game), and the fact A&M had just moments before taken down the titan ‘Bama program.  I am upset for my cousin Jon who attends Alabama, but thrilled for my good friends who attended A&M and myself who is still hung up over UT’s loss to Alabama in the 2009 title game.  Alabama has a great program, but I am ready to see another conference win the title.  Perhaps my late grandfather’s Kansas State Wildcats or the thrilling to watch Oregon Ducks will be hoisting the title trophy in January.

Upon arriving at Duchman Family Winery, we weaved through the full parking lot before slowly making our way up their elegantly lit walkway to the tasting room.  With the wedding reception underway, we wrangled through the crowd and got to the bar.  The associates there are also extremely pleasant and greet you with glowing smiles.  Sarah and Emily enjoyed tastings while my brother and I admired the venue and its wine processing and bottling areas.  It is really remarkable to see the entire process that goes into making the wines we ultimately enjoy.  I also had nice conversations with the associates and the bachelorette party.

Well, I need to go for now.  I am headed back into Austin for the evening and my old roommate gave me strict instructions that pre-game at his hotel suite starts promptly at 9:00.

Thanks for following our progress and adventures here at Camp Wanderlust.  I should be posting some new pictures of the outdoor shower and corn hole boards in the next few days.