Texas Trip - Day 1

Howdy, folks! I hope everyone on the east coast is doing well. We just finished our second day in Texas, which was exponentially more pleasant than the first. Let me recap.

We had a 2:40 flight out of Richmond, going direct to Houston. We were scheduled to arrive in Houston right at 5:00 pm. About 30 min out, the captain came on to tell us Houston airport was closed due to weather, and we'd be circling around for a few minutes. Well, a "few minutes" turned into a long time, and eventually they diverted us to Corpus Cristi to refuel. Now, keep in mind...our plans were to land in Houston, pick up the rental cars, and make the 4-hr drive to Dallas (which is where we had reserved hotel rooms for the night). We sat on the tarmac in Corpus Cristi for at least an hour and a half, in a BLAZING hot plane, before they finally let us off to go into the airport. Forty-five min later, we were reboarding to fly to Houston. I was not thrilled with this, as I hate flying, especially when there is turbulence. And anyone who has flown through a thunderstorm knows that turbulence is pretty bad. Kind of like being blindfolded on a rollercoaster. I hate rollercoasters. My handprints are permanently embedded in the armrests of that plane.

We finally landed about 9:30pm in Houston, and by the time we got our baggage and the rental cars, it was pretty late. Keep in mind we STILL had to drive 4 hour to Dallas, and it was pouring down rain like I've never seen. Who knew that much water could come out of the sky? We drove until about 1AM, and finally gave up and got rooms at a Days Inn about halfway between Houston & Dallas. We were all so exhausted from the day.

This morning, it was still torrential downpours when we left the hotel and continued on our way to Dallas. We arrived at the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealy Plaza around 10:30 this morning. JFK and I had a chat.

Seeing the museum and where JFK was shot was really interesting. They have marked on the street where the shots took place, and you can stand from where Lee Harvey Oswald would have been to see his viewpoint. (Pictures were not allowed inside the museum, though).

For lunch, we went to Cyndi's NY Deli, and my cousin Cindy and her son Jamie met us there. After eating, we went to the Bronze Cattle Drive Statues in Pioneer Plaza (where a bronze horn jumped out and smacked me in the head). Then we headed over the Wild Bill's Western Store to check out the boots and cowboy hats. I saw a really cute pair of boots I wanted. They were $499.00.

Tonight we went to the Mesquite Rodeo, which is the first rodeo I've ever been to (closest thing was the Dixie Stampede in Myrtle Beach). It was so fun! There was bull riding, bucking broncos, little kids riding sheep (more awesome than it sounds), and all kinds of other stuff. We had a great time. Now its time for bed.