Happy Texas

Back from Texas a week ago and feeling really good about the trip. We drove over 3700 miles from Oxnard to ElPaso Texas, stopped and slept in Paso to sleep. Woke up early the next morning to head eastward towards Houston via San Antonio and ended up 12 hours after we departed in Houston, a few hours before we had to make it to Minutemaid park to attend the Astros/Pirates game. The game was great , the ballpark was really nice and truly enjoyed the Houston experience and a very good ballgame. Following the Ballgame we headed back to the Hotel for some much needed rest for the following days 4 hour drive to Dallas. Dallas was very much on my mind as it was a focal point of our trip, I was really enthralled with the city and the history of the reason I wanted to go to Dallas...Dealey Plaza! We drove through Dallas on Friday and headed towards Irving Texas and found our Hotel and rested before we had to high tail it to the Rangers game in nearby Arlington by 7 pm. The heat was high at 103 but the ballpark was amazing and we enjoyed the game and a 2 foot long hotdog called the Boomstick...too damn good. The game ended and we headed to the room to try to get some rest for the following day of an early breakfast with a friend of Terria's and a trip to Dealey Plaza to do my own JFK investigation. As we approached the Plaza with the assistance of Gladys the Navigator from our phones we closed in upon the famed site of the assassination of JFK. In awe and amazed at the first sight of it I thought it was smaller than I though, the streets seemed shorter, smaller, tighter and less spectacular than it appears on all of the films. But as we parked and walked towards the book depository the Awe returned and history was jumping out at me, mesmorized and stunned at the spot where JFK was killed and formulating my own theories on who, how and why the President was assassinated. I took numerous pictures and video clips and felt really satisfied that I was able to make the trip while I'm young enough to traverse the areas and see what I wanted to see...well sort of! Sunday was upon us and a second trip to meet a college friend Of Terrias at a great local dive where we had amazingly tasty food and some catching up for Terria with her friend. I then decided that my JFK history lesson was not yet complete as I wanted to make one more trip to Dealey and a trip to PArkland Hospital where they took the essentially mortally wounded President after the assassination and then the Texas theater where they found the ALLEGED killer Oswald inside the theater. Many pictures and many thoughts of the coverup of the jfk murder really have me irritated to this day. So we stopped by and took pictures of the Dallas police station where Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby and the entire coverup just gets bigger and bigger! Sunday night was a dinner and rest night for us as we were Austin Bound on Monday and resting up for the 4 hour drive through Waco and into Austin for a stop and a picture opp of "UT ,University of Texas and the surrounding badass city of Austin. We enjoyed the ambiance of this quaint town and wish I had more time to enjoy it, another trip maybe for sure. The drive through many really cool towns where history bubbled outward, through he town of JohnsonCity where LBJ was born and raised and some really cool old fashioned Mayberry-esque small towns where everybody knows your name. Continuing on the route towards El Paso on the Interstate 10 we stopped for dinner after 12 hours on the road, tired, hungry and wearing down I had every intention of driving straight through to Oxnard in one night. As we finished dinner in ElPaso Terria took the the wheel and drove for 2 1/2 more hours into New Mexico where we ran into a thunder and lightning storm and pulled over to call it a night, We were done for the evening and smarter minds prevailed as we rested and took up the drive the next day. The final push home was an easy one and we managed to be home by 8 pm and all unloaded and rested after a good shower. The trip was 3700 miles driving through all sorts of cool towns and some dog shit towns, Texas is a huge and interesting state to travel by car and the only was to do it is by car. Home and a rest day on Wednesday then back to work for me on Thursday and Friday and well rested and anxiuous to get back to a regular schedule of work gym, and home.We were able to use the Hotelpools and gyms for some exercise and kept the fitness levels up and ate really well and healthy foods to try to maintain the ongoing battle of the bulge...great trip with Terria and a good time for sure, next trip awaits us soon!