Texas Day 1

I woke up at 2:45AM to get to the Buffalo Airport in time for my flight. Imagine my surprise when there were 20 cars in front of me at the Queenston-Lewiston bridge at 4:30AM!

The first leg of my trip was to Charlotte. Not too eventful. I passed up the chance to fly First Class and lucky for me there was no one in my whole aisle! Perfect! Charlotte was interesting. I was famished but the line at all four Starbucks I passed (I have no idea how many are in the airport but in two terminals there are FOUR!) there must have been 20-30 people. Nothing else was open for breakfast. Just down from my gate there was a bar. I was surprised to see two ladies having a beer - at 8AM. I had to walk over a young woman lying on the floor, sound asleep, while her partner was lying on the seat with his feet propped over the carry-on suitcase. Beside him was a gown, clearly meant for a wedding. I'm not sure if they were coming or going but I am glad she woke up in time for the flight. Then there was the southern gentleman, in his late 60s, in a very gravelly and loud voice on the phone with his lawyer. It turns out he has been pulled over the night previously for having "indulged overly much". Apparently the gun they found on him was not the gun for which he has a permit. I'm thinking he's in deep do-do. That morning Charlotte had become the twilight zone!

The flight to Dallas was pretty uneventful. Well, uneventful if you don't count the aborted first landing attempt. Though I don't know the technical term, the brakes were applied - liberally - as we were coming in too fast behind the plane in front of us. Turns out we had to circle the airport again and landed a very long, nerve-wracking 20 minutes later. You can't imagine what a joy it was to see Stacy at baggage claim!

We met Kristi outside with the big slip-n-slide Suburban (can you say Armour-All?) and we were off to pick up Sarah and Melissa who were flying in from Boston. Desi wasn't expected to arrive until after 2PM. What to do with our time? Off to Fuzzy's for Mexican Food. A quick bite, a trip to Stacy's, we collected Cara at some point - I'm getting fuzzy myself ;) - and Desi called. We were on our way back to the airport.

We picked up Des. The poor thing was starving, but relieved to get the party started! I do recall that we stopped at some point to feed her! From the airport we we took a drive to Waxahatchie to visit the most amazing Scrapbook store I have ever been in: The Crafty Scrapper. WOW! Was that ever worth the hour in the car - and the other hour on the way back. Well, Melissa may disagree (motion sick - truly green) but it was an AMAZING place. I contributed generously to the local economy, of course!

On the way back to Fort Worth, we stopped at Fortress. This is where Cara, Kristi and Stacy dedicate much of their time and boundless energy. What a tremendous place. Really special. There are no words I could use to do it justice. Let me simply say it was inspiring.

We eventually made our way down to the famous Fort Worth Stockyards. When in Texas, what do you eat ... if you don't eat Tex-Mex? You eat BEEF. By the time dinner was over I was running on fumes, and I suspect Melissa and Sarah were equally pooped.

Day 1 was done (as far as I can remember!)