DriversEd.com Does Texas ... Deux

The TASA/TASB Conference took place just last weekend in Houston, Texas. It was awesome. I've got a feeling we'll do great things there because the administrators are as committed to a quality education as we are. (I'd like to think you can toss in a bit of entertainment too.) At some point I crossed a busy highway and nailed myself a Casio Exilim 6.0 MP digicam at the Galleria, and what follows is my photographic account of the trip:

The first photo I took with my handy-dandy new digicam

Our hotel in Houston

Isaak the CEO and GT the COO over breakfast, discussing Very Serious Matters



My chocolat chaud



Terry, our TX representative and magic-maker, being a good sport



GT eating tomatoes on toast and demanding to know why that's so strange



Isaak austerely examines the morning paper while I hover over his shoulder



Houston. A pretty lady, yeah?



The lot of us, working the booth. Click, learn, drive, guys



That charming SWAG that's so well-loved - air fresheners, keychains and wristbands, oh my



Terry making a bunny of GT, me with a hog that I found quite horrifying



Our table at the Grotto, dinnertime; IT and Terry laugh and ponder over driver education policy (what else?)



Terry making an odd face before a most bizarre restaurant mural



GT finally gets sick of my shenanigans, takes the camera from me, and turns the tables. I was withdrawn and sullen after this



A large bus and more conference fun. At some point they fed us pretzels and chips



The moon from a convertible, and a sign for duck crossing!



The beach at Galveston, where Terry and I made a twilight visit



A straw flower that a transient at the gas staton made, 2:00 AM: "You go into these here small towns and you always find a native messin' with some grass," he said

Things I couldn't photograph but that are important anyway:

• The size of those genuine ten-gallon hats
• The fact that people really say howdy
• The stripper pole exhibit that went up - literally - right beside the evangelical vendor
• The mecca to football that materialized right in the middle of the conference hall: suddenly everybody's in a rocking chair, facing flat screens
• The morning shuttle rides among superintendents who waxed poetic about both education and calfskin

As a native Texan said to me just last week, "Y'all come back now, y'hear!" (I can't believe they actually SAY that!)

-Contributed by Angela Natividad - the Clever Cat behind Marketing