Monday, December 06, 2004

Orlando, Florida—Dallas, Texas—Day 310

Today I flew from Orlando to Dallas. First I had to get Lyda up and ready for her flight back to Tucson (via Chicago) that left at the lovely time of 7am. This meant waking up at 4:45am and getting ourselves to the airport before the sun rose. We made it, turned in the rental car and checked both of us in at the first class desk—a little AAdvantage perk.

I saw Lyda off at her gate and literally signed her away—signing her unaccompanied minor sheet. We said goodbye and I waited for an hour and half until my own flight to Dallas. The flight to Dallas was fine—uneventful really—and I got into Dallas on time.

I have never actually been to Dallas, or Fort Worth, but have landed at the airport countless times. Whether it be going home from college, or really anywhere, I always seem to end up in the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport. I practically have the whole layout memorized. But this was really the first time that I would leave the vicinity of the airport.

I decided to get a rental car and headed to the rental car location via shuttle then rented a car from a company who would gladly rent to a person under the age of 24 and gladly slapped on a young renters fee and was soon on my way to the hotel. I found the hotel just fine—and found it to be RIGHT across the street from the 6 Flags amusement park! Ahh! No more amusement parks!

I checked into the hotel and spent the rest of the day biding my time catching up on things regarding work and eventually venturing out to a local mall to catch a movie. Driving there was a bit of an adventure—what started as a nice sprinkle turned into a huge flash flood warning in the entire area and I was stuck on the freeway going 5 mph in gusty, torrential rain.

Ohmigod. I was going to die.

Amazingly I made it of the mall in one piece (thank god) and parked under a sheltered parking lot away from the storm. I perused around the mall until my movie started and kept my hopes up that the rain would pass once I had to leave the sanctuary of the mall. Luckily it did and I made it back to the hotel safely and much quicker than when I came.

Tomorrow I am heading to the Fort Worth Zoo to see two hippos there. I’m expecting to see them in full cowboy get up and to chew their hay like real Texans.

I’ll keep you posted.