After the accident, we were back on the road, but this time the road was just a short walk up to Nathan’s apartment. We got inside and were rather blown away by two factors. First, it was relatively clean and he was still in the process of cleaning it. Second, it was nice. When he lived in Albert Lea he rented a really nice house, but it was rather messy. His roomate and all of their friends were not very, umm, how do you say, sanitary. No, organized, they were not very organized, unless you call it organized chaos.
We chatted for about a half hour. I complained about how badly my leg hurt from driving and Jessica complained about her leg and all the blood. Nathan complained about his car. It was a good therapy session. After a nap and a shower, it was time to go. At least that’s what Jessica and I thought.
Nathan still had to load up the U-Haul. I had kind of figured everything was already packed; no, it was just hiding in other rooms. We spent about an hour and a half loading up the rest of his stuff and then we were ready to go-except first I had to get a ball for my trailer hitch. So after I ran to O'Reilly's up the street we were finally ready to go-until we had plans to go out to eat with Christian (Nathan’s father). Another surprise. You might think we were getting used to them at this point.
On the way to Christian’s house, Jessica and I pondered whether we should just get going or stop to say goodbye. Then we arrived. I’ve met Christian before, but honestly, I really had no memory of him other than what I had seen in pictures. He was awesome. After five minutes I was ready to stay the night, heck, the week. But unfortunately we didn’t have that kind of time at our disposal.
We went out for dinner at this little Mexican restaurant, Chacho’s in Leon Valley Texas, and when we walked in, I was told I wasn’t ordering. Christian ordered everyone’s food. I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t eaten since Mcdonald’s that morning, but everything was awesome. I think Christian ordered everything on the menu, or it at least felt like it, because I had three plates in front of me when the food showed up. There was no way I was gonna eat it all, but I ate a lot of everything.
When we were done we went back to Christian’s to pick up Nathan’s tools. It was time for the goodbyes. The heartfelt speeches and pictures-oh wait, Nathan forgot something again. We knew we had to go back to pick up his cat, Chip, but we also had to get his toolbox and he still had to finish cleaning and doing God knows what else.
While he was running the last of his errands, Jessica and I visited with Christian. He gave us a tour of his house and I really started to feel bad that Nathan had to leave him. The two of them really seemed to bond. And by bonding, I mean Christian whipping Nathan into shape. I didn’t hear my brother argue with one thing Christian had to say; he just listened. That in and of itself was a feat I didn’t know was possible.
During the tour of his home we were shown all this art. I hadn’t pegged him for the artistic type, but here it was. All of it was done by his family, and it was beautiful. He showed us his backyard, which looked like something out of a TV show. There was a smoker and a grill-a must if you live in Texas according to Christian, and then there was a frog. Not a real frog, but a pond with a frog in the middle spouting water out into smaller pools all the way into the larger pond. It was full of little fishies and it was rather pretty. When we were done with the tour he made us some coffee and opened his fridge.
He gave us a care package for the road. There were three kinds of homemade salsa and apple juice in these jars that were the best juice I had ever had. Then he brought us to one of his closets with some old, but nice, jackets. He had me try them on. They were really nice and I assumed he was just showing us what he used to wear. After he saw they fit he said, “They’re yours. They don’t fit me anymore and I know you need a good jacket. I live in Texas, we don’t need jackets here.”
It was about two hours from when Nathan dropped us off and when we were finally ready to leave. Christian tried to get us to stay, but Jessica was already getting homesick, and I could tell the heat was not agreeing well with her and she looked exhausted. We took a picture and after a difficult goodbye, we were ready to go. Christian directed us how to leave his cul-de-sac (growing up watching Ed, Edd, and Eddy, I always dreamed of living in one those cul-de-sacs, but came to believe they just didn’t exist.) With his direction and the help of our GPS, we were headed home.