We traveled to Texas for a week so my two oldest daughters could become full-blown Wizards. (no, this was not in response to receiving messages via Owl.)

One of the things we noticed on the trip was that as you head into the Bible Belt, the number of Adult Video Superstores increases at about the same rate as churches. What’s up with that?

We did our share of tourist activities with stops at The Alamo, Schlitterbahn, Outlet Stores and the like and totally stuffed ourselves not once, but twice at The Salt Lick in Driftwood.

We borrowed a friend‘s Magellan RoadMate 700 GPS computer and it was useful and provided us with some comic relief at times. We nicknamed it “Maggie” because it rhymes with naggie. Overall, she provided very good instructions for getting anywhere we wanted to go, but when you leave your assigned route she becomes a bit of a nag telling you to make a u-turn and then recalculating your route. All in a humorous way. If you were really lost, she’d be a godsend. An AMAZING device, really.

On the CD player we had Nellie McKay, Peter Nevland, Paul Finley and a host of classic rock collections.

Other than my near-2nd-degree sunburn (I think my kids handed me bbq sauce instead of sunblock) it was a near perfect vacation.

Here’s a note to hotels:

If you don’t offer anything other than dial-up internet access, don’t even bother saying you offer internet because in my book, you don’t. And to the Holiday Inn in Wichita; How do you get your wireless signal to stay inside a 12×12 glassed-in room? Amazing. I couldn’t get access 20 feet away in the air conditioned lobby and instead had to sit in the “business center” sweatbox to download some email.