Joe's Roadtrip

Location: Dallas, TX

Miles Driven: 502

Total Miles: 22,667

I woke up before the sun rose on Friday morning, unable to get back to sleep.  It wasn’t anything terrible, my body has been used to waking up early on this trip.  And it was a good feeling to know that it was one of the last few nights I would be sleeping in the car – I knew in Texas I had a bed to sleep in, as well as points back east.

I made my way towards Oklahoma City.  On the way I hit up a Flying J truckstop for a shower (probably another “last time” thing for this trip), worked on the site a bit, then afterwards I continued towards the city.  If you recall, I drove through the city before (earlier in the trip enroute to Texas), but I didn’t stop because it was pretty rainy.  This time the weather was clear and I wanted to visit the OK City Memorial.

I think the memorial here was incredibly beautiful and well thought-out.  It’s a very peaceful place.  From the vantage point in the above photo, you can see stone chairs on the left-hand side.  These were organized in nine rows, symbolizing the nine floors of the Alfred P. Murrah building, with each chair representing a person who died on their respective floor – 168 chairs in total.

Each chair is marked with a person’s name, and you’ll notice there are some smaller chairs that represent children who died in the bombing.  Very sad.

I feel the memorial here did a good job in helping people remember what happened 15 years ago, and recognizing all the innocent life lost.  I’m thinking if the Sept. 11 memorial at Ground Zero can be approached with the same mindset as the OK City Memorial, it will be a serene place.

From Oklahoma City I continued my journey south towards the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) area.  I arrived just around 1PM when I planned to meet up with my friend Ame for lunch.  She brought her cute kid, Aidan.

Enjoyed a nice lunch with these two, and then I was back in the car to drive the short distance to my friend Rich’s house.  Rich offered me a place to stay in his gorgeous new home (and, like two times earlier in this trip, I got to be the first-ever houseguest).  I dropped off my things and eventually headed over to Kelly’s home, 10 minutes away, and met the puppy she just got, Bella.

Rich, Kelly, and I later headed downtown to a happy hour and I got the chance to meet up with some Lockheed friends.  I ran into a few faces I hadn’t seen in several months, and some probably in over a year’s time.  One big surprise was meeting up with a buddy, Vic, who took over a job from me back in Maryland.  I couldn’t recall if I knew he moved down here, but it was pretty funny to look up at one moment and then you say “Holy crap, what are you doing here?”  Fun times.

From there we went to get a bite to eat at Jake’s Burgers.  It’s been a while since I had a burger and this one didn’t disappoint.

Great night being back here in Texas with friends.  The next day, Saturday, was devoted to meeting up with more friends in the area.  But earlier in the day, Rich volunteered to help with the car and see if he could figure out the headlight issue.  Turns out, the wiring wasn’t bad, but the bulb on the driver’s side was, so Rich easily replaced the bulb and helped save me a lot of money in the process.  Thanks a lot, Rich.

In the afternoon Kelly brought Bella over to Rich’s house to play for a bit and I was able to grab a nice shot of this cute 2-month old puppy.

What a good dog

Later that night we got a bunch of friends together at a mexican place in Fort Worth for dinner.  I was fortunate to have friends come down from all over and we had a pretty big group for dinner.  Some friends I had seen on the last swing through the area back in early-July, and others I hadn’t seen in a long time.  Great to get everybody together.

Samir aka "color me green" poses for the shot with me

Rich takes a sip from his goblet

Dan takes a sip. Look at how huge that glass is

Thais and me. Nevermind my crazy eyes

Rich and Brian, about to eat his fingers?

Chan and Kenneth

hanging with Dallas' finest, Brian

Kenneth and me

Me with Rich, my host in Fort Worth

Rich and I met Dan and his girlfriend, Andie, downtown at a rooftop bar that had some nice views of the city.  Although the temperature was probably in the 90s, a nice breeze up high helped keep us cool.  It was a great night.

My last full day in the area was Sunday, and I spent some time hanging out with Kelly and then Rich one last time before hitting the road.  Thanks again to Rich for letting me crash at his place.

I drove to Dallas to hang with Thais for a while, and Monday morning I will hit the road and head east.  It’s about 13 hours or so to the Atlanta area, so I’ll take my time driving over the next two days.  Had a good reunion with friends down here in Texas, and looking forward to the same back in another one of my “second homes” in this beautiful country.

joe