Pixies Place Forums - \\\\ Gotta Practice My Bestest Texas Accent ///

Im' Back! Yee Haw!

Oh my...where to start?

First off...we had a long lost friend visit us the evening before we left on our trip. He lives in West Virginia and told us he "might" be able to swing in for a quick visit while up to see his grandma here in Pa. Turns out he had more time to visit than he originally thought and ended up staying the night. That was no problem though. The problem was that Mr. Lixy and I didn't get to bed till 3:30ish AM and musta did something wrong when setting the alarm. We got a wakeup call from his boss at 8:45 AM (the time we were suppose to leave for the airport). I checked the clock and couldn't figure out the reason it didn't go off...but that was neither here nor there cause we were now running late!

Luckily, I had packed most everything we needed the night before so we just had to shower and throw all the stuff in the bag that stays out for last minute prep. We would ride right past the hotel that our friend and his family was staying, so we slowed down to 10mph and threw him out on the way to the airport...See ya, Love ya, Bye...lmfao!

We made it to Philly International in record time (35 minutes...and that's unheard of!) and tried to check-in with our e-ticket at the skycap station outside. As per our luck we were 5 minutes late for check-in and the flight was closed. Mr. Lixy went to park in the long term-economy parking lot (fancy name for WE CHARGE AN ARM AND A LEG FOR THIS PRIVILEDGE YOU SUCKER) and I went inside to the self check-in kiosk's. WI was right...the flight was delayed (for some mechanical reason) and I thought there still might be hope. There are attendants at these kiosk's, but ya think anyone would help me? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! As soon as Mr. Lixy got back from parking the attendants were all, "Is there something I can help you with sir"? I said, out loud, "I know I'M here...I saw myself come in"! Oh...I need to work on my patience!

Turns out our plane was still on the tarmack <sp?> but had moved to make room for another plane to load...and the sumnabitches wouldn't back it up for us to get on!!!! LOL! Oh...I've gotta laugh at it now, but I nearly puked from nerves when it was happening. I should'a puked on the shoes of those ignorant attendants...but that's another story. We got booked on the next flight to DFW...which left us 2+ hours to kill. Where do you think we went? Yep...where's the bar?

Anyway...we arrived at DFW a bit after 5 PM, got a taxi to the resort, and the pictures we saw on the website didn't do this place justice at all! The Gaylord Texan Resort is a 5 star hotel and the room prices prove it. A sign in the closet in the room's reads...Daily Room Rates - Standard Guestroom $500...Deluxe Suite $1000...Presidential Suite $10,000 :eek: :eek: The I.S.E.E. had reserved rooms for individual companies in the blasting industry at a special rate ($149.00 daily) even before the completion of the hotel in April of 2004. Our company and an affiliate company from Ohio had 8 rooms reserved for the bosses and family members. They paid for everything but my airfare...WHEW!

I truely don't know how to put in words just how incredible this hotel is! Everywhere you look and walk there is something to see. The landscaping inside the atrium and outside on the grounds is breathtaking! The waterfalls, the architecture, the pools, the spa, the complimentary gym, the restaurants, the entertainment, the food...etc., just amazing! We went to a sports bar that had a 53' TV screen, showing 5 different sporting events simultaneously...but could show one event (the Superbowl, for example) over the entire width and height of the screen when necessary. Smaller TV's were all around the ceiling of the bar as well. Even though I am not a sports nut, I chose to hang out at this bar more than the others for the mere fact that it's one of the only two places I could smoke inside the resort. Mr. Lixy quit smoking on New Year's day, but wasn't put off by the environment because they had a fantastic filtering system.

We attended a private party at Dealy Plaza/Book Depository one evening. A select few friends of a certain blasting related company held a reception on the 7th floor of the Depository. We took a bus from Grapevine (the actual town that the Gaylord Texan is in) to Dallas and got a chance to see the museum at our own pace without a guide to hurry us along. I didn't know were weren't supposed to take pics inside the museum, so I took two before I was stopped. It felt kind of disrespectful to be partying in such a historical place...but I was just glad for the chance to visit and didn't think I'd have the time any other day. To stand on the exact spot where Oswald stood was eerie! They have the window where the shots were fired from out of it's place and encased in plexi-glass so as not to destroy the paint and such. You can stand at the replacement window and look down to x's on the street where the bullets hit Kennedy in his limo. I'm telling you peeps...it's a weird, weird feeling!

I took lotsa pics of everything but haven't had the chance to sort through them just yet. This post is getting a bit long so I'll just wait to blab more when I post some of the pics.

Had a wonderful time but it's nice to be back home! TY for all the advice and well wishes!

Love ya! XXXOOO

P.S. maddy...I got to talking to a local who raises sheep. He told me he had some new lambs and was afraid they'd get hurt or killed due to the large crevices in his pastures fore the lack of rain (hadn't seen rain in about 9 months). We woke on Saturday morning to a nice steady rain. It rained all day and the local weather channel told us to enjoy it. The funny thing was, we left Pa. and such a rainy season. I didn't mind really. It seemed to please the Texan's to no end. I saw the local guy later in our trip and he told me that the rain from Saturday had helped immensely. His crevices had all but closed. He thanked us for bringing some of our Pa. water! He asked us to send some more when we got back home...lol! The rest of the time we were in Texas it started out cool and got unseasonably warmer throughout the day. It was sunny and 70 one day and sunny and 72ish the next. Nice weather all in all. I sure hope they get more rain soon though. As we flew out we could see some of the wildfires from the plane. Got pics of them too. Will post later!