First Hiking Meetup

This was the first one I attended anyway. It was a moonlight hike, which I'd never done before. We were all to bring flashlights, although there was a 90% full moon. Clear sky. Kinda cold, but really, it was warmer than the night before, and anyway this is San Antonio. Not exactly known for having real freezes in the wintertime. So we all bundled up and were fine. It was this park called Walker Ranch that I'd never been to before. We all met up in the parking lot of Incredible Pizza to carpool, as we'd been told there wasn't enough parking for everyone. There were supposed to be about 50 or 60 people. So a bunch of us crammed into a truck and I think there was another truck or two with us. When we got there, there were a couple of other vehicles there, but that was it. So as it turned out only about 16 people showed up! So there was plenty of parking after all. Still, we waited for a while, then decided to head out. There were a few trails, and we took one that would probably have some wildlife for us to see. A few deer, who didn't seem to be very afraid of us. They just kind of stared at us, like "What are you doing here so late?" or something. We kept following the trail and headed up on top of the dam, then, came down the side, where we ran into a barbed wire fence. We went through the fence for some reason, and kept going as there seemed to be a trail still. Ended up going through another fence. Kept following the trail. Then came to a sign that said "No Trespassing". Well, we were confused by that as we'd stayed on the trail. But then the other side of the fence said it was the park, so I guess we'd been trespassing before, so we crossed back into the park (?). Someone joked "Who said this wouldn't be a wild night?" in comment for our trespassing earlier. We were all pretty goofy by that point. We saw more deer and some thing that I thought looked like a cat, but someone else said looked like a squirrel (I thought it was too big to be a squirrel, though). Then, since we'd had a good time, we decided to head over to the Lion and Rose pub as the organizers had a room reserved for us. That sounded nice, so we all headed over there. When we got there the room wasn't ready as there were people in there that wouldn't leave. The staff were trying to persuade them, but they were really stubborn and were arguing, etc. It ended up being a half hour past our reservation before we were let in. And it wasn't even a room after all, but an "area". A bit of a let-down. Then we waited there for about 45 minutes for them to come take our drink order. Some people hadn't had a chance to eat before the hike and were hungry, but the staff wouldn't take food orders until later. That made some of us pretty mad. Then, we waited nearly an hour for the drinks to come. No explanation or apology or anything. Some people left. One guy complained, but got a story about the bartender being taken away by EMS. Well, if we'd known that we would have been a little more patient, but they didn't tell us anything. Then, waited another 30 minutes or so for them to come take food orders. It took so long to get the food orders, that some people were getting ready to leave right as the food arrived. By then, it was midnight, so I just ate a little and took the rest home. Really, it was disappointing. But that particular pub has more than one location, and someone said the other locations were better staffed. So maybe we'll go to a different one. Everyone said the food was good, though. I just got a dessert, but I'll admit it was good. I'd just rather go somewhere else, maybe the one off 1604 next time.

Anyway the next meetup is at O.P. Schnabel, which is a park we go to all the time in my family as it's nearby. It will be a daytime hike. They want to go to Hill's and Dale's afterward, which is not really my style. It's a place right by the UTSA campus, so everyone went there all the time, but it looked kinda like a biker bar, so I never wanted to go there. I still don't.

N got laid off from his job, so I'm hoping he finds something soon and something in SA. He's afraid he may have to move, as he hasn't found many jobs here and the ones he's been interviewed for are out of town. So I'm pretty bummed about that. But hopefully he'll be here long enough to go on the hike with me and we can spend some time together afterward. At least we could do something during the week maybe. Something. I hope he doesn't have to leave, though. I mean, it would just be my luck to meet someone and have this happen, wouldn't it? Maybe he'll just move back to Austin and we can still see each other. I don't know. I can hope.

Anyway, I guess that's it. I have a job interview tomorrow, but I'm not 100% sure about it. I'm really checking them out as much as they're checking me out. I just wonder about the place and if it's legit, you know? Plus, it's not a creative position, which is a drawback for me. But you never know. Really, I applied for other jobs that I'd rather get interviewed for and I'm hoping I hear from them this week. Please, please, please.