Old Neighborhood, Elks, C.R. Smith Museum, Dallas

HAPPY ST.  PATRICK’S DAY

I mentioned in my previous blog all the changes in the freeway system.  We had to be careful to follow the signs so we’d be in the right lanes.  The GPS had no idea what we were doing.  We were told it had just been completed about 6 months ago.  When we lived in the area there were 2 or 3 lanes in each direction but no express lanes, no double deckers and no underpasses.  Now in some areas there are 14 total lanes plus overpasses and underpasses.

After we got settled in at the Irving Elks, we decided to check the old neighborhood out.    There were more shopping centers and new businesses.  Some of the old places were still open and others had closed down.  We even drove by our old houses.  Lee’s and Tammi’s houses looked really well kept.  Ours was a dump.  Nothing had been maintained.  Ugh!  So much for that, we thought. 

 

We also drove by the school Tammi graduated from and the elementary and mid-schools our grandchildren attended. 

We had been told that a few of our favorite restaurants had closed.  We discovered that wasn’t true.  Black-Eyed Pea and Catfish & Company were still where they used to be.  Colters BBQ had moved.

We ate at the Black-Eyed Pea Restaurant.  My mouth watered over fried pickles, fried green tomatoes and numerous other southern fare.  However, I’m on another stupid diet.  These diets come way too often because I love food and I run into too many other RVers who love food too!!  Fat seems to find me.  I did sneak a little bit of Terry’s meal in addition to my cup of fabulous chicken with rice soup.  We love that place! 

Spring is almost here.

We found an at home.  We discovered the first one of these in Arizona.    It would sure be nice to find one in Portland.  I found many things I’d like to have for the cabin but no way are we carrying anything with us.

We were hoping we wouldn’t have to put our RV in regular storage. We don't.  We found the Dallas Elks.  That would have meant everything in our refrigerator and freezer had to be tossed.  That will come in June when we head back to the Pacific NW for a couple months or so.

Dallas Elks – gated RV parking and private pool with hot tub!       Well, not quite.  The pool still has the winter leaves in it.  Eventually it will be ready for other Elks.  Park was lacking a dump … oh oh.

The Garland Elks was about 5 1/2 miles away and it had a dump.  Once verified the Elks really had a dump we decided to move from Irving to East Dallas in the afternoon.   First, we had a few stops to make.

Garland Elk    

There are many places to visit in the Fort Worth-Dallas area but living here previously, we had visited most of them.  There was one I wanted to see AGAIN and that was the C.R. Smith Museum.   Why? because there were several trinkets I wanted to buy.  I was on a mission.

1) A hat was needed to keep the sun out of my eyes.  Sharon always looked so cute in them so I wanted to have one too. Maybe I'll wear it. 2) I used to have this cup and it broke.  I wanted another one.

It’s all about the history of flight with American Airlines.  We also had to drive by their headquarters. I was looking for changes.

I worked on the 6th floor of the corporate headquarters.  There were 6 flight of stairs and I walked them several times a day.  Look what happened when I stopped walking those stairs!

The whole campus has changed.  The trees have grown and new businesses are all around.  The landscape is no longer the same.

Now it was time to move.  We figured we might as well get that behind us.  We dreaded the construction and traffic back up but had to do it.  We gritted our teeth and went for it.   It was just as bad as we expected but at least now we’re on the east side of the city and glad it’s not in front of us anymore.  We even stopped to fill up so we wouldn’t have to do that when we head on east.

Next on the agenda was a stop at the bank.  Our pockets were empty.  After that we had laundry to do.   The dryers at the laundry were free!  Have you ever seen this on dryers?  It was the first for us and we sure took advantage of it.

Terry had promised his mom he would come to Phoenix for a couple days before we head east.  We are still trying to work that in.  People think because we’re retired we have a lot of time and so scheduling should be easy. Sometimes it’s easy and at other times it’s really difficult to work with schedules and finding a place for the RV.  We were very lucky to find the Dallas Elks that will let us leave our RV there and hooked up for as long as we’re willing to pay for it. 

Now we need to figure out the trip to Phoenix and the trip back to Portland.  Terry has 4 appointments scheduled in a 2-day period at the end of this month.  Plus, it’s time to see the kids and set up the cabin for summer.  Driving to DFW with all the construction has made us re-think our original departure times though.  There’s no way we’re going to try to catch a 6 AM flight with all that construction going on.  I have a feeling stress will be coming. 

One last thing.   Jerry and Janice may take a mini vacation from working on the house and meet us in Shreveport.  We hope it works out for them …. and, for us. 

We also are hoping to see Linda and Ed down the road.  After all, they are right down the road from Justin.  We get a double treat seeing all three.


‘Tis life on the road.