I got home Sunday night on a Delta/SkyWest flt. from Salt Lake. I picked up a rental from Enterprise (who had the cutest girl working for them...I wanted to take her with me...LOL) and made the trek home to Gainesville. Enroute, I made the traditional stop at the QuikTrip on 121 Business and picked up the usual Sugar-Free Red Bull. I've not made the trek from DFW to G'Ville without that stop...or without that Red Bull. I'm not sure I could make it without.
On the way home, I called Cody and we decided I would stop in and visit (he was at the sheriff's house, and I hadn't seen Cody's parents in a long time either). the sheriff was super excited to see me and we determined that his buddy from one of his tours of Vietnam lives down the road from me. Small world, right?
From there, I went to Shaun's house to crash on his couch. It was too late to bother my parents and I was about to pass out...so that couch was a welsome sight. I don't remember falling asleep. Got up next morning and drove around to make the rounds. I went and saw mom at school, my aunts, Barry & Laura, and numerous others. Part of me loves to stop in here and there just to remind people I'm still alive.
I only got the rental for one day...because the next day was going to be more than triple what I payed the previous day...so I came up with a pretty solid plan to get rid of it and get home. I conned Shaun into going with me...and it turned out to be kinda fun.
We took the car back, caught a shuttle to the Trinity Rail station, then the train to Ft. Worth. From there we caught Amtrak from Ft. Worth to Gainesville. It was actually kinda fun...Amtrak turned out to be a pretty solid, inexpensive option for getting to Gainesville in the future.
Got to see my grandparents after we got back to G'ville...it had been a couple of months since I had seen them. We got caught up on the post-election stuff and everything going on with them and trhe family. Of course, we respectfully disagreed with one another on most of it but we always do.
My plan was to catch Amtrak back to FTW and backtrack the way I came up the day before...but I discovered at the last minute that the Gainesville Depot doesn't have ticketing capabilities and I couldn't even buy a ticket from the conductor...thus screwing the plan. I wound up catching up with Ben Smith (yes, THE Ben Smith) and we grabbed a pretty excellent lunch at Smokehouse in Lindsay. I was a good boy and got a pretty farkin' awesome salad...I was also a really bad boy and had a chopped BBQ beef sandwich & Shiner Bock draft. Oh well, one outta 3 ain't bad, right? I mean, how often do I have an opportunity to get Smokehouse?
We talked at length about Ben's music career and both agreed that we had figured he would be further along than he is. I've been feeling a draw to get back into the Texas music scene...and am thinking perhaps I should lend my promotions talents to getting Ben on track again. He's a solid artist and deserves to be promoted to the point of a good launching point. We shall see.
Ben and I continued our conversation while I caught a ride with him to Denton. Enroute, keeping with the theme of the day ("Go Wherever The Winds Take Me"), Lorenzo texted and I had Ben drop me off on the UNT campus where Lo works.
It was cool to catch up with Lo...even cooler was the added perk of Lo randomly giving me a new pair of Doc's boots that didn't fit him. Score! I love a good freebie. Lo had to get back to work...so, I waited for Cody to get out of his Psych final. We grabbed some beers at Riprock's...then back to his place where we both passed out (and his dog proceeded to eat one of my Justin Boots...little bastard).
I woke up just moments before my phone rang...I was surprised to see it was SJ. We hadn't really had a chance to talk since we went to dinner last week...for a bit there, I was stressing that I had run her off after sending her flowers. Luckily, I guess I hadn't... ;). We talked for a bit...and decided we'd try to get together Wed. night or.next week. Either way...it was great to hear her voice. She's got to be the sweetest girl on the planet...a total keeper...I guess we'll see where it goes. No rushing anything....
I'm hanging out in SLC 'til I hear from her...we might grab dinner or coffee before I head back to St. George. I'm killing time by hanging in the gate for the SLC-Paris flight. Few things in life are more entertaining that watching passengers....especially for international flights. So far, I've seen "Elitist Frenchman" (typically an older man in clothes that you find only in the first 45 pages of GQ and a really douche-y scarf, and speaks loudly in French. This one in particular looks a lot like Fidel Castro), "First-time International Traveler" (also usually older...they check in with the gate agent 47 times prior to scheduled boarding time to ask a million questions that have obvious answers like 'is this the right gate?' and 'do I need my passport out right now?'), and "Backpacker Couple" that appear like they stepped out of a North Face ad. I wasn't banking on "Asian Girl in Catholic Schoolgirl Uniform", but she's here, too.
I could sit in aiports for hours and just document the funny things I see...perhaps I should. TMiller and I have toyed with the idea of a blog about the funny things that happen on our day to day in this business...maybe we should get on that. Anyway...that's enough from me. Gonna go wander for a bit.
Down the road...
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