To Dallas, Texas!

April 20, 2001. I must admit: The trip to Dallas was not one of my better travels. For starters, my wife and I didn't leave Clarksdale until the sun went down - we couldn't get up with the babysitter, and I wasn't about to take a baby girl and a 5-year old boy with us this time! Luckily, Mom filled in.
Thank you Mom! You're the Best!
After we left (around 8pm; 20:00 hours for you military people), everything was cool until we got on the west side of Little Rock, Arkansas on I-30: nothing but highway construction and one open lane for at least 100 miles! Goodness! I was already tired because I worked a hard week at the job, and was stressing myself because we couldn't find the babysitter. And now I gotta put up with this. You know we always ended up behind a slow transport truck every time a lane closed, and when a lane was closed, it was closed for a long, long distance. By the time we got to Texarkana, I was so stressed that I was too tired to think straight. It was time to fill up the car anyway, so I stopped at a gas station to take a break from the mayhem. But there's no rest for the weary. I picked the gas station where only one pump worked - the high priced pump (I use 87-octane: I'm on a budget!). Lucky me. I shook it off this time. Then I had to use the bathroom, and I bumped into this butthole!!! I should've snatched his eyebrow ring right off his face, but I was so tired, I wasn't thinking straight. Lucky him.

Anyways, I took the Bird to Greenville, Texas, and my wife took it the rest of the way into Dallas. We got to the hotel in Las Colinas at 3:30am and didn't fall asleep until 4:30am. My wife had to attend a seminar in the West End which started at 8am, so she was jacked up. Of course she took the Bird to the seminar, which, of course, lasted all day. And me? It was cool because all I did was SLEEP. Then around 11am, my hotel phone rang. It was my wife. She said when she parked the Bird at the West End, green stuff was running all out the front of the car. I just got sick. Great. Now we're stuck. Lucky for me, I got an old college friend who lives in Garland. Around 4pm, Les, my college buddy, came over and took me to the West End. We met up with my wife and we went to check the Bird. Sure enough, there was a puddle of green stuff by the front passenger-side tire. I checked the engine coolant and the level looked normal. I looked at the radiator and didn't notice any holes in it. Relieved but puzzled, I started up the car. No problem. The engine didn't overheat, and nothing was flowing out. It turned out that when I was doing the pre-trip car check, I didn't put the cap on the engine coolant reservoir good, which caused the coolant to come up through the cap. Talk about relief. That was the turning point of the trip. Relaxed from a good sleep, and now worry-free, Les and I went to Chili's and my wife took the Bird back to the hotel. Later on, Les and his wife and my wife and I went out to eat at Tony Roma's. If you haven't eaten there, go. Go today. They have some good barbeque ribs! We had a very good time.
Thanks Big Les for the hospitality mane!
Now the trip back home that Sunday afternoon was great! My wife drove from Dallas to Texarkana. We stopped at the mall, and this couple complimented us on how nice the Bird looked. They love the blue paint. Now I'm feeling real good. We did a little shopping, ate some pizza, then I drove my good-lookin' Bird the rest of the way to Clarksdale, picked up the kids from Mom's house, and everything was back to normal.


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September 8, 2001