Can't Stop, Won't Stop

Now I can say that I’ve run down the highway in San Antonio.

It all started with a trip to Sea World with my future in-laws. Our hotel was about 30 minutes away from Sea World, so we left in just enough time to arrive just a few seconds before Sea World opened. But, along the way, a dump truck apparently decided it was a good morning to flip in the middle of the highway and spill all of its contents across three lanes, confined within concrete walls.

Meanwhile, anticipating a warm day at an amusement park, I had gulped a ton of water before departing, thinking I could make it at least an hour until we arrived at the park. After driving twenty minutes, then sitting in traffic for ten minutes, I began to feel the call of nature. I didn’t worry, thinking traffic never stand stills for long.

After sitting for about twenty more minutes, it began to hurt. Once we had stood still for an hour, I was getting desperate (especially knowing that we still had sea world traffic to battle through, then a long walk from the parking lot).

I wasn’t the only one needing to go; it was apparently a backseat condition. So, Tim’s father and sister and I spotted a portapotty for the construction workers just to the side of the road. We decided to investigate.

We scaled the concrete barriers on the side of the road, but unfortunately, a 12 foot cliff separated us from the potty. But now we were on a mission. There was an Olive Garden about three-tenths of a mile away, off of an access road by the mall, so we scurried towards it. Along the way, people kept asking us how long we had been waiting (an hour), and what was wrong up there (we didn’t know at that point).

Once we had done our business at Olive Garden, David called Tim to tell him we were heading up. We jogged back up to the freeway, jumped over the concrete barrier, and ran past the stopped cars. If someone would have opened their passenger door, one of us would have been knocked out.

But alas, by the time we got ahold of Tim on the phone and returned to the spot where our car once was, Tim informed us that traffic was moving quickly and that it was impossible to reach us. We had run to catch up for nothing.

So we trudged back to the mall parking lot and waited to be picked up, and then went to Sea World the back way, along with the 10,000 other people who had all gotten caught up in the dump truck disaster, thus making it impossible to get tickets or lunch without waiting in line for an hour and a half. So goes the life of a tourist!