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Prologue: The Quest

Last week, the braver half the TM crew left our protective Austin bubble to venture out to North Texas to meet our new clients, Party Club of America. Here is the chronicle of our excellent adventures in and around Ennis, TX.

Episode I: The Journey Begins

After meeting up at Conover Casa (more like Conover Castle since the remodel), Nick, Jean, Caroling and I loaded up our mighty steed (Jean's Nissan) and set our sights on our first desination: Chik-Fil-A in North Austin. At Caroling's insistence, we loaded up on chicken burritos and slow-jammed to the Chik-Fil-A-provided Toni Braxton anthem "Unbreak My Heart" at an hour unfit for either of these activities.

Episode II: Alien Invasion!

Our dear readers familiar with the drive to Dallas may already be acquainted with the out-of-this-world attraction off I-35 in Italy, TX, but for the TradeMark road-trippers, Starship Pegasus was a complete and pleasant surprise.

This used to be a pretty sweet nerdy hangout, but the two-hole minigolf course apparently was not enough to keep the Texan-Italians entertained enough for Starship Pegasus to stay in business.

Episode III: Meet the Clients

Bravely defeating the aliens and saving the world (you're welcome) really worked up our appetites, so we were relieved to arrive at our defining destination: Party Club of America. We met with their awesome staff, incuding Walter, Don, Brenda, Michael, Jonathan and Marc to discuss a new Web site for their members.

PCA's purpose is to band together independent and smaller-chain party stores to give them the edge they need to compete with larger corporate party store chains. We're going to build them a swanky new site over the next few months and we're looking forward to working with them. Who wouldn't want to work with this fun-loving fella? Is it his real hair? I'll never tell.

Episode IV: TradeMark vs. Uncle Dan's

Despite my begging for Rudy's on the way home, we decided to put the fate of our dinner in the hands of Waco Yelp. Big mistake. If Uncle Dan's Rib House is 4.5/5 star quality in Waco, I feel really bad for Waco. Nick's rating dropped from a 6.5 to a 3.5/10. I gave it 1.5/10 - that's .5 for having a tin ceiling (what? I think they're neat) and 1 point for hosting a concealed handgun class:

Epilogue: The Return

I didn't realize just how much I could miss Austin after only being away a few hours. Ennis was fun, but I think I'll drive out of my way to avoid Waco next time I head north. Party Club of America, thanks so much for your hospitality and the opportunity for us to see a little more of our beautiful state.