Cindy and Dave's Adventures

I was so excited to have a chance to see Cherie where she is doing her final clinical rotation – Midland Texas. Since there is very little to do in Midland itself, we decided to drive the 4+ hours to Dallas instead. I think that was a good plan. Being on a plane was very weird and unfortunately this was not a calm trip. I went from Sac to Houston first and we bounced quite a bit in between. I didn’t take off my KN95 mask but I didn’t notice any discomfort from that other than it is a bit warmer. Then in Houston we were delayed over an hour because Southwest airlines was having a crazy cancellation etc weekend. I feel fortunate since I wasn’t canceled but it made for a long day. I did meet some interesting folks (oilmen and the 20’s girls who were flirting with them) while we waited. The difficult part was trying to find any food since the fast food was all closed by 6:30pm. I did eventually find a VERY overpriced enchilada and a quiet corner to go and eat. Then off to Midland where we were 5 minutes after the airport closed at 10 pm, but at least the rental car people were still there. So strange though – you walk quite a ways (in the dark) to just hit the key fob until your car lights up. It was so dark I was having trouble seeing the parking space numbers, my phone battery was dying so I was trying to minimally use the flashlight…ugh. But eventually I got the car, found my way to Midland College and stayed in the dorm with Cherie!!

As with many of our family trips, this was all about the food! We ate ourselves across Dallas. Started off with a Whattaburger in Arlington (I think), which was OK but nowhere as good as say a Habit burger here. We did not try the shakes which seemed to be quite a draw with the customers. Even In-and-Out is a better burger. We ended up staying in Plano, Tx which I had spent some weeks in with my friend Kirsten in high school. It is MUCH bigger and very prosperous now. From there, we ventured out. As per usual, Cherie used the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (triple D) locations as a base for where we were going to eat our BBQ!

On Saturday, we went to the zoo. It was crowded (we later remembered this was Fall break so people had traveled a bit) bt since it was outdoors we didn’t have to mask the whole time. Cherie got to see a couple Okapis and we really enjoyed watching the hippos have “zoomies” and wrestle with each other in the water. It was a nice zoo with quite a few big animals (giraffes, gorillas and elephants) and a good reptile house. It was quite hot so we naturally needed food after that…but Pecan Lodge was busy so we went to hot chicken instead – and the eating continued! We finished the day at a Super Target – full grocery store and an expanded health and beauty section. Since we had a full kitchen at the hotel, we did stock up on ice cream for dessert! We went through the wedding planner that Jenny got Cherie so I could be caught up on where things are in the cycle.

Sunday morning we tried to go to the Sixth Floor museum (a JFK museum) but it was far too crowded and we would have had to wait 2 hours, so we just visited the outside area instead. We were quite disappointed in how little there is marking the JFK assignation. A plaque on the “grassy knoll”, some of the speech he was supposed to give that afternoon, and a simple X on the road where he was hit. We ended up driving over it later which Cherie did not appreciate. There were other statues commemorating important people in Dallas history at the site but I guess you don’t want to commemorate the killing of the president. We then decided to go outdoors again, and went to the Dallas Arboretum. It was packed but very nice. We couldn’t get over the crowds everywhere we went in Dallas though. Luckily for us, the Arboretum is quite large so you could get away from people and take off the masks because it was mid90s and humid. UGH! That night we ate at Whistle Britches – I cannot recommend that place enough! The food was great (the biscuits!!) and the staff was super friendly. We ended up taking some chicken home and Cherie made a Texas shaped waffle at the hotel the next morning so she could have chicken and waffles again!

Monday was “serious” business – trying on wedding dresses. It was a bit overwhelming for Cherie who seemed to suddenly realize she was gong to be the center of attention on September 3rd. Being so tall, she looks great in the dresses. The sales woman was less than helpful however, and we mostly eliminated styles rather than finding what she liked. Cherie managed to get her arm all scratched up by some beading on the fancy dress – beading is out of the running for the wedding dress. Open shoulders are in. Then we went to look at Michaels for the DIY table piece materials she liked and spent quite a bit of time there. We ate a really great lunch (Triple D of course) at Pecan Lodge and Velvet Tacos (One of these needs to come to Folsom!) for dinner. Yummy!!!

Tuesday we realized that all the museums, and many restaurants are closed in Dallas. Like everything including the farmer’s market (only day they are closed!)! So we checked out the silk flower company Cherie liked and I really liked the quality of the settings. The samples were in a really high end dress shop so we did not look at the dresses there! Cherie needs someone besides me there when she looks at dresses. I am not an enthusiastic clothes shopper and am not encouraging enough for the girl who doesn’t particularly like dresses to start with! But we got that part checked off and headed back to Super Target to get materials for a spa day. We soaked our feet and faces and took long naps! And watched a documentary. And then went to an amazing dinner at High Eight BBQ place. Wow, Texas through and through. 4 giant smokers in the front and 2 grills that had to be 10 x 8 at least. Stuffed again! Tuesday night had a tornado watch (UGH) and a lot of rain. It was nice to be holed up in our room by then.

Wednesday we went to Ellen’s for breakfast in downtown Dallas. Yes, traffic is not great there either. But the food! Every place we went in Dallas, the servers/cashiers/workers wore masks, although maybe 1/3 of the customers did. We always do. But this place was hysterical – they had posters everywhere explaining just how fast you can leave if you don’t like wearing a mask. And answers to all of the rude things people say about mask wearers. We were cracking up. Cherie had a pancake pot pie (lasagna might have been a better descriptor) and I had awesome French toast. We tried to get to the Sixth Floor museum again but there was a 2 hour wait because field trips were going on. So we decided to start back to Midland via a stop in Fort Worth to watch a cattle drive. It was clear as we left but crazy rain was coming. We got sprinkled on watching the drive and then headed back to Midland. It took 6 hours! We got stuck for an hour behind a jackknifed truck and it rained like I have never seen before! 30 mph is pretty slow when you have hours of driving a head of you! But, we made it back to Midland safe and sound and Cherie stayed in a hotel with me rather than going back to the “not quite nice” dorm room. We went grocery shopping and watched TV. Another relaxing evening after the crazy drive.

I took Cherie back to the dorm in the morning and headed to the Midland airport. You simply drop-off the rental car in the lot (no customer service people what so ever) and drop off the keys at a counter – also with no one there. At 10:30 am! No check out, no nothing. Then the TSA line – it was so crazy. It is only a 6 terminal airport but they had only 1 x-ray machine. One person checking ID. One person directing you through the metal detectors. Even though I have TSA pre-check, I was in line for 45 minutes. The no-precheck line was over an hour long. Then my purse triggers for explosives!!! They pull me aside and completely dump out my purse. They ran a wipe across 9 or 10 things, opened my kindle, and phone, checked my Jackery battery and my glucometer – luckily nothing came back with explosives. Then they hand you a bin with all the crap in it and say Thanks! You can pack up and go now. Sheesh…luckily, my flight was over an hour late so I got there in plenty of time. The flight to Las Vegas was very rough and bouncy. The plane was pretty open in front of me, as there were 4 Air Marshals, another person, and a beautiful German Shepard in the first 12 rows. One of the marshals knew me from UCD so that was kinda weird. I wore my KN95 mask again but I was worried I might get sick. Yuck. The flight in Vegas was also delayed a bit so no problem making it back to San Jose.

Finally, I get back to San Jose, just in time to take a shower and go see Hamilton with Dave, Jenny and Matt. We ate at an outdoor market pretty close to the arts theater (really good halibut and chips!!) and the musical was awesome. Dave and I had gotten Jenny those tickets for her birthday. Then we went to Santa Cruz on Friday. Dave and I headed home Saturday to go to a really good friend’s Celebration of Life in Citrus Heights. It was sad and yet fairly uplifting. His widow Betty is doing OK, and I got to talk to some of the Barrett teachers. He had taught at Barrett for 10 years before he retired 4 years ago. All in all a good way to come back home, remembering what is truly important and more determined to get out and experience life while I can.