Feeling my age is no problem tonight. We had a great trip to Austin but it was a long adventure as well. My six kids behaved very well while we were gone. Being lucky includes knowing you are in charge of wonderful young people. Our trip almost became an endurance test while we traveled all around the Austin area. It's a good thing that I decided to go to sleep early Friday night or my body might feel even more ancient. I said the other day that there is no direct or easy path from my town to the state capitol. Another problem of our route is much of it is still two lane highway. All it takes is one person with no sense of urgency to slow down the drive. This was a bigger problem on the trip down than coming back. But it can be reported that all returned home safe but perhaps a little less sound.

Our guys won one game but lost in the finals. Sadness abounded as we retreated from the arena. They played a great game Friday morning but could not duplicate the effort in the final contest. Any trip to the final four in high school basketball is an accomplishment. Our kids are great athletes who can make any game exciting. Someone said there were far more students out of class on Friday than remained behind. At least two school buses plus other charters made the trip on both days. My best guess is we had around 500 or so make the trip to support the team. I do feel for our seniors who came so close to the gold medal yesterday. They played and cheered their hearts out so we are all proud of that.

Austin is a fun city. We traveled along the famous sixth street area after Friday's game. One of my crew located a terrific Mexican food place to eat. Orders were made off the lunch menu which turned out to be huge portions of food. Mine looked like a foot long burrito. Some of the rice and beans were eaten but the main course was more than enough for me. This was also the beginning weekend of a large festival downtown. Traffic was one definite symptom of that fact. Another sign would be all of the interesting looking people we noticed there. Let's just say it was a much more diverse group in appearance than one sees here. Education happens even when just driving around. Some sights are just worth seeing.

We shall try to return to more spiritual ideas for the blog tomorrow. Perhaps my recovery will be better than it is today. Time changing this morning was no help to that process. One good thing is my body really didn't know what time it was yesterday so today was not as much of a shock. A good night of rest should do the trick. Getting back to some exercise will also be a huge help. Traveling is fun but let me confess to being a bit of a homebody. I am a better person for spending those three days with my students. The memories will last far longer than the weariness.

Bro. Trey