Travel Diary

I hadn’t planned on this trip.

I figured I would just have the closing papers sent to Seattle and I could sign them there, but that would still cost me about $150 for a notary, so I decided to just put that money towards a trip to Fort Worth. That way, I could actually see the downtown this time around. No more house work for me in the boiling summer heat.

The flight total was about $400, so it wasn't cheap – especially for such a short time in the city; however, it was also a tax write off. I suppose I could use all of those that I could get.

I had gone to bed at 12am and got up at 3am. Yeah, not fun, but I wasn’t as tired as usual. I guess my sleep patterns were better that week.

I drove to the airport this time since I wouldn't be at the parking garage very long, and left well before the sun came up. After parking, I headed over to the Link station and then into the airport. There was no bag to check so security went very fast and I was soon on my flight to Dallas.

I had been upgraded to First Class. Since it was an early flight, we got a nice breakfast. I had some type of eggs and pork, which was a pretty tasty meal. Then I rested some and enjoyed the flight. This was actually one of the first times I'd ever taken a flight both ways with no booze. Well, at six in the morning, I usually don't order drink anyway, but I was doing this full trip entirely sober.

Once I landed at Dallas, my friend Shawnel picked me up and we headed back to my house to see it one last time. We walked through the backyard and I saw the pool was nice and blue, which was the first time I've ever seen it since I bought the house. I mean it's been blue in the past. I just never saw it blue in person. It was nice.

Once inside the house, I could see all of the work that was done and how nicely it turned out. I did miss the staging experience, but there was no way I could make it up for that. Everything looked very pristine, especially the floors and the brand new carpet. Almost a pity that it was being sold, but if more renters came, then it would deteriorate again, and there was no way I was going to keep it after all of the work that was done and the countless expenses for that work. Plus, so many emails about so many issues from renters.

We then left and drove to downtown Fort Worth – where I've never been before.

Our first stop was the Water Gardens and those were pretty nice although I skinned my knee climbing up on a rock. One thing about having your hands in your pockets when it's so cold is that you can't stop yourself from taking a spill should you miss a step. Normally, I have a Band-Aid in my wallet or backpack, but alas, I guess I never replaced it after it was used the last time, so my “Band-Aid” was a medical mask and a napkin inside of it, all wrapped around my knee. It actually worked pretty well and kept any blood from getting on my pants which I was greatly trying to avoid. They were expensive pants.

We saw the Fort Worth Downtown Christmas tree being put up which looked pretty awful, but I guess they do a lot of work on it and fix it up, so I suppose it's like the Charlie Brown Christmas, where it starts out really poorly, but suddenly becomes much better in the end.

After that, we headed over the Stockyards which is a big part of Fort Worth. Shawnel dropped me and her daughter off, so we could catch the cattle run before it ended, and I was able to snap a few pictures right before the last set of cows and Cowboys went by. It's a pretty neat event. Definitely recommend.

Then we checked out the empty indoor rodeo stands, and I thought that would be something fun to attend one of these days. We walked around some of the nice parts of the area, and went through a very fancy hotel, which was kind of fun to see, mainly as it was all free. After that, we headed to some markets where they sold all sorts of interesting things like stuffed animals of every exotic kind, and cowhides, and small foxes, and pretty much just everything you would expect in Texas.

Then we went into a candy store, which is one of my favorite things to do of course. Since I'm not buying candy this year, Shawnel was kind enough to get me some that I picked out, which was mainly a lot of salt water taffy. After that was nice and relaxing moment in a small diner where I could warm up. Yeah, the cold was just awful out there and it was windy. I definitely did not bring the right clothes for being so cold, even though I did have my bubble jacket. After that we headed back to my house.

It was now dark, but we had to move out one last item – a refrigerator, which wasn't terribly fun, but Mike came along with the truck and we were able to get it moved to someone else's house, so that was the last thing to be done on my property. I took a photo and said goodbye to it one last time.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner to some place called Jason’s Deli, that was supposed to be restaurant but really was more of a fast food place. I tried to go light on food, and just had a chicken wrap, which was pretty darn good. Then it was back to Shawnel and Mike's place to relax and watch some sports for a while. We chatted until late, and I headed over to Shawnel’s sister's house which was next-door. I crashed in a room there for the night.

Next Entry