Tuesday night we met a dear friend of mine for dinner. I’ve
known her since I was just a young girl and started babysitting her and her
sister. So cool to meet up with her and her sweet kiddos. We laughed, ate, and
let the kids catch a quick swim in our motel pool before we had to hug goodbye.
A visit that went by so quickly.
Wednesday we decided to drive around Allen a little bit and
I think we saw the biggest high school we’ve ever seen. Their football field
alone looked like a college field! We were all “wowed.” We then drove to Forth
Worth to go to the Stockyards. What a drive that was! Our GPS was struggling a
little bit with all the freeway changes and as she made a last minute change
that we couldn’t keep up with, lest we get creamed by other cars – we ended up
at the airport. HA HA So we had go to through a toll booth and do a u-turn and
end up back onto the freeway to which we were still a little confused as to
where to go. So the GPS gave us a choice of going the fastest or shortest way
to Forth Worth. There was only 2 minutes difference in the time and we wanted
to try and get there by 11:30 to see the cowboys and steer come down the street
on a cattle drive. Well, we chose
the shortest route since it would get us off the confusing freeway. Big
mistake. It took us through all
these lights and major construction and traffic. We should have arrived in
Forth Worth around 11 but instead got there at exactly 11:30 and with fried
nerves from all the “mess” we had to drive through.
My husband dropped us off and I took off running down the
street as I saw the cattle turn the corner and wanted to get them on video. I
had no idea how long it would last, how big it was or anything. My girls were
laughing at me later saying they’d never seen me run so fast! Needless to say,
I got them on video – but it wasn’t a huge ordeal like I thought it might be.
Maybe 20-50 cattle? It was over in the span of about 5 minutes. But it made for a good story.
So we decided to go eat lunch at Freebirds nearby and then
come back to shop. We fell in love with Freebirds on our previous road trip. It
was still delicious and I’m so glad I got the small burrito this time!
Then we went back to the Stockyards for a “shopportunity.”
What stunned me was that after a couple hours roaming through the shops, when
we left not one of us had purchased anything! Wow.
Before heading back to our motel in Dallas, we decided to
also go to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It’s the only place outside of
DC that prints our money and they gave free tours. I felt so lost as you can’t
bring any cameras, cell phones, etc inside! It was very interesting. You go through a little museum at your
own pace and then a self-guided tour where you can watch the actual printing of
the money. The workers there were super friendly and many of them would look up
at you, smile and wave. I liked that.
I also really enjoyed talking to the woman who pieces back
together damaged money. She only comes to that facility occasionally but happened
to be there on our visit. I didn’t even know that you could send your torn or
damaged money away to be fixed and reimbursed!
By the time we were done, it was 5pm. Yikes. Not a good time
to have to make the hour and a half trip back to Allen. We tried to take a
route that took us outside Dallas as much as possible, but we still hit major,
major traffic. Seems to be a theme for us this trip so far! Huge kudos to my
husband for keeping us alive and dealing with that mess as well as dealing with
me as I cringed, yelped in fear, and generally gripped my car door in terror. I
don’t see how people drive in that. NOT FUN.
We made it back (alive) to our motel. Grabbed some In N Out
food for us, Chick Fil A for our girls (the best of both worlds!) and took it
up to our room to crash, eat, pull all our gear together and get ready for our
early start in the morning.
So now it’s Thursday and we are making another really long
journey to Georgia to briefly see some more dear friends. I got up at 3 and I’m either going to
be a zombie later or giggling uncontrollably from lack of sleep. HA HA
Tomorrow will mark 1 week since we’ve been gone. And so much
more to see and do.
~~~~~~
Yesterday was a loooong day. We left Dallas at 5am so as to
avoid bad traffic. We drove until about 8pm when we arrived in Georgia for a
quick hello and visit with some friends that have become more like family. We were treated to homemade ice cream
and crammed as much visiting in as we could. About midnight, I headed to
bed.
With some photo shoots together, a haircut , and a last
lunch together, we were again off on the road.
Traffic seems to be our theme for this road trip and I sure
wish we could change that! We once again had awful, awful traffic as we drove
around Atlanta. It lasted from about 3 – 4:30 before we were finally able to
get some speed going. Ugg!!
Tonight, we spend it in North Carolina. Are we staying long?
No! This is a road trip after all – we spend a great deal of our time on the
road!
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