wedding road trip

Day 12: Houston, We Have No Problems

After Dallas we thought we were getting the hang of Texas, but Houston is a very different place – more casual, more humid, but still friendly. My next door neighbor from growing up, Chad, and his wife Kristine and their two kids live on the far northwest edge of the city. They headed to Houston “kicking and screaming” from Michigan almost ten years ago and expected a short trip, but they’ve never looked back.

They rolled out the full Houston hospitality, which included:

• Mesquite-smoked BBQ chicken that Chad left work early to prepare. (It was incredible and I got my Texas BBQ.)
• A tour of Chad’s man cave with his sports TV, beer selection, and kegerator featuring his own homebrew.
• A game of Washers in the front yard – for those of you not from the Nation of Texas, Washers is a lot like Horseshoes.
• Watching Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals, with our Detroit Red Wings falling to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Chad said some bad words, but he probably said more after they lost Game 7 as well.
• Sharing stories of childhood highlights, such as working together in a bakery for two years and our infamous all-day session of Gauntlet on the Nintendo.

We responded to their generosity by subjecting them to our longest interview yet. It was a wide-ranging discussion, which I could recap in a 12,000 word post, but I’ll summarize and say it’s clear their relationship has been influenced by two significant events: becoming very involved in their church, and Kris’ diagnosis with an aggressive form of leukemia two years ago. The former was a huge help in battling the latter, as their community rallied to help support the family in all kinds of ways.

Kris is in remission now and feels pretty much 100%, so the story has a happy ending. But their experience served as a great reminder of the importance of having family and friends near where you live and of making every day count. As for the future, Chad’s parents still live next door to mine, so we hope to see them on our next Christmas back in Michigan. Maybe we’ll have the chance to finally beat Gauntlet.

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