So much for the road trip!

Instead of driving to Houston this weekend, I flew. The story of that change in plans, and of what I did in Houston, is found here, on my other blog. Here is a picture from the trip to tantalize you:



In case you are wondering what I think of Houston as compared to Dallas, I'll just say you would never find this fun and funky kind of place in Dallas.

UPDATE:

Incidentally, I forgot to include in my travel post regarding this trip a description of two interesting passengers on my return flight. One of them, a very early 20-something girl with unnaturally blonde hair, sorority letters on her canvas tote bag and a petite figure clad in, among other things, skin-tight jeans and heels, came dashing up to the gate just after her group had boarded. As she came running up, our young friend took a pull from a freshly opened bottle of beer. She was ready to throw her drink away at the gate when the flight attendant told her she couldn't take it on the plane, but received a reprieve to take it as far as the other end of the jetway. So our maiden swigged indelicately from the bottle as she speed walked toward the plane, so rapidly that it was nearly empty by the time she reached the door of the plane. Having successfully run the "beer gauntlet," our heroine settled into a seat next to a similarly-aged friend with a large Louis Vuitton purse and matching tote.

Each of them ordered "Wine. White." when the flight attendant took drink orders before takeoff, courteously letting her know in advance that they would also expect refills before the plane landed. The pair chatted enthusiastically and nonstop (with one exception I will describe below) throughout the entire hour-long flight in voices strangely reminiscent of the "valley girl" talk popularized in the 80's, covering such wide-ranging topics as shopping, travel to Mexico for spring break, shopping, their Moms and shopping. When those topics ran dry (who thought that was possible?), they compared aloud the prices paid for the various items of clothing they were wearing. I can only wonder what the normal-looking 40-ish African-American woman sitting next to them thought of this scintillating and soul-wrenching conversation.

At one point, the beer-swigger trotted off to use the facilities; more than a few heads followed, then exchanged confused looks, as her seatmate sprang up and joined her in the tiny airplane bathroom. They stayed in there for several minutes before returning to their seats. Just when one thought additional entertainment from these two would be too much to ask, they launched into the topic of comparing their respective family histories of poverty, with the beer swigger declaring that her mother "grew up poor, just like Johnny Cash," and the seatmate countering with, "My Mom came from money, but they still shopped at Wal-Mart. She was smart like that, like my Grandma." Not to be outdone, the beer swigger described with pride her mother's recent purchase of pants that were originally $450, but were marked down to only $45 . . . "on a half price sale!"

And with that, I was ushered back into the Dallas city limits. Hope you had a great weekend!