Texas, Dallas: Friends and Meals, Meals and Friends

The drive from Amarillo, Texas, to Dallas (also in Texas) was long, but it was not too boring, even though the land was flat and uninteresting. It ended up taking over seven hours, with a rest stop along the way, to sort out our car rental reservation from Avis. We were due to exchange the economy sized car that we were driving for a sport-utility vehicle (SUV) in Dallas, but we wanted to change the pick-up location to Austin, Texas, because the rental rates were cheaper there.

One of the coolest things we found whilst being in Texas was that the rest stops had free wireless internet, something that amazed us, since the rest stops we passed were in the middle of nowhere, literally, with hardly any towns for miles in any direction. We made the most of the free internet connection and rearranged the reservation with Avis. There was another stop along the way that also slowed us down a bit; we bought a hot dog and a torpedo (a tube shaped crispy food article that was filled with pepperoni pizza sauce) to keep us going during the journey; both of them tasted really good, especially with a 59 cent (that's about 30p) 32-ounce Cherry Coke.

In addition to catching up with people, we managed to find a gem of a movie theatre called The Angelika

One strange thing that we didn't expect to see in the middle of Texas was a herd of camels in a large field just off the highway. There must have been around 10 camels, each of which was unlike the ones that we saw in Mongolia at the start of June this year; the Texas ones had single humps whilst the Mongolian ones had two.

During the long drive, we made good use of our time by planning our road trip route through the next state we would visit in the southwest United States. Dan had written down all of the sights that we needed to discuss and we spent a few hours reviewing them to see what needed including in our itinerary. As Dan mentioned a place to Kyle, Kyle wanted more background information before we could come to an agreement on it, and this sometimes involved Dan holding onto the steering wheel from the passenger seat, for miles at a time, whilst Kyle, in the driver seat, could read sections of our trusty Lonely Planet travel guide. Luckily, the roads we were on were generally straight with very little traffic; this was very achievable when the car's cruise control was set. For anyone reading this who thinks that it was quite dangerous, well, we are writing this entry a month after this occurred, so you can assume that we made it through alive.

Finally, we arrived at Julie and Evan's house in Arlington, a city that was located between the two sprawling metropolises of Fort Worth and Dallas. Julie and Evan attended Southwest Missouri State University (SMSU) in Missouri, where they met Kyle during his first and only year there (he transferred to the University of Oklahoma - OU - his second year, and completed his degree there). Dan had also met Julie one time before, at a friend's wedding, Karen from Springfield. Since we arrived at their house a little late - 9:00pm - we had dinner immediately; it was delicious. Evan cooked steaks, corn on the cob and shrimp on their barbecue grill, and Julie had made a salad to go along with the food. Yum - thanks for everything, Julie and Evan!

Julie and Evan had two children: the oldest was Brennan, 6 years old, and the second child was named Mackenna, 1-1/2 years old. Julie and Evan also had a very cute Sheltie (similar to a border collie) named Murphy, who just loved to lick people on any part of their body (our feet were really clean by the time we went to bed that evening). We felt a little bad as it was getting late and both Julie and Evan had been waiting for our arrival for a couple of hours so we could all have dinner together, but we still managed to chat and catch up with them. It was 1:00am when we all grew too tired to continue any conversation, so everyone went to bed then.

The next day, Evan had left early to go to work, but we talked with Julie and played with the kids for a little while, which was fun. We then had to bid farewell to them so we could get to Dallas in time to meet a friend of Kyle's for lunch. We had arranged to stay at Diana's house in Dallas for the next two nights; Diana was a friend of Kyle's whom he had worked with in the past, both in the United States and London, on a couple of his first projects at the company where he works.

Driving from Arlington to Dallas was easy, since the two cities were not that far apart and the area had great highways to drive on. We were lucky that we didn't get caught in rush hour traffic, since the roads got pretty congested with cars and trucks during that time. As we were driving into Dallas around mid-morning, we avoided such issues, but that's not to say we didn't get caught up in any traffic; there was a little bit.

Diana's house had a pool, which was a luxury we hadn't experienced in a while, so we were looking forward to taking a swim in the hot Dallas sunshine. Unfortunately, the first night that we stayed at her house, Diana wasn't able to be there with us due to a meeting she had in Chicago; however, she met up with us the next day. As for us using the pool, we never managed to swim in the sunshine, but we did swim that first evening in Dallas, which was very nice since it was still quite warm outside.

Since Kyle had lived in Dallas just after graduating from OU, to start work there, and since Dan had previously visited the big Texan city, there was no need for either of us to do any sightseeing. That made the trip easy and helped us focus on meeting up with people who hadn't been seen in a long time. In addition to catching up with people, we managed to find a gem of a movie theatre called The Angelika; we saw a couple of really good films there, "Becoming Jane" and "Rescue Dawn".

Let's introduce the other people we caught up with in Dallas, so you know who we managed to see. The first night that we were actually in Dallas, we met up with some friends of Kyle's whom he had known during his time living in the city. Our plans were to meet up with them after we had dinner with another friend of ours, Katie, but we couldn't get in touch with her, so we were able to meet Tim, Joanna and Jennifer at Mia's Mexican Restaurant near the Uptown area of the city. We were really happy to meet Katrina and Aric, who also joined us for dinner, and we had a wonderful time talking with everyone over (very strong) Swirls and the food.

Swirls were frozen drinks, blended margarita and sangria, commonly found at Mexican restaurants in Dallas. They were great and went down really well with the chips and salsa, and the beef enchiladas that we decided to share, since the main courses were so large. Also, we were not too hungry after filling up on Swirls and a lot of chips and salsa. Everyone was quite happy to go for more drinks after dinner, so we went to a nearby bar for more fun. Kyle thought it was great seeing his friends again and Dan enjoyed catching up a second time with Tim, whom he had met previously in London when he was there on holiday.

For lunch on our second day in Dallas, we met up with Kim, who was Kyle's neighbour growing up in Fort Smith, Arkansas. She met us during her lunch break at an Italian restaurant named Antonio's, located in Addison Circle. The lunch was very good, much better than expected, and it was great meeting up with her during her break. Kyle had not seen her since he left Fort Smith to attend university, so they had a lot of catching up to do; it was only a shame that her husband (Greg) and son (Carter) couldn't have joined us. Dan thought she was very friendly and he enjoyed the conversation, too. For our meal that afternoon, we decided to share a main course, the special of the day, which was grilled salmon covered with a caper sauce, served with salad. Our lunch was paid for, which was another treat - thanks, Kim!

That morning we had felt a little bit ropey from the previous evening's drinks with everyone, so we had eaten breakfast at Diana's, using the food she had kindly left for us in her refrigerator. The bananas, strawberries, grapes, bagels and Eggo waffles were a treat, but it wasn't until we had lunch with Kim that we felt back at 100%. Dan had also taken a dip in Diana's pool that morning to make the most of it before we had to leave for Austin the next day; Kyle thought it was just a lazy way for him to take a shower.

After having lunch with Kim, we tried to meet up with some other friends of Kyle, previous cheerleaders who worked in the National Cheerleaders Association head office in Dallas. We drove out on interstate 635 after saying goodbye to Kim, but we didn't have any luck finding the office so we could visit with Justin and Karen, as well as many other people working there. Kyle thought he remembered the way there and he hadn't written down the address, which was a bad move. However, the fact that he had forgotten to charge his mobile phone was an even worse move, because we couldn't make a call to anyone with a dead battery! After over half an hour trying to find the right exit on the interstate, we called it quits and went to The Angelika to relax from the stress of trying to find the place. After we saw a movie there, we headed back to Diana's house to relax before she arrived home from Chicago.

That evening, we went out to eat with Diana at a local Indian restaurant called The Clay Pit. Since being on our travels this year, we have both missed eating Indian food regularly, so we made sure we didn't waste the opportunity when it was presented to us. Diana was also very keen to eat there and, that night, we were not disappointed with what we were served. It was actually one of the tastiest Indian meals that we have had in a while and we had shared a few plates of food: a Vindaloo curry, a mixed platter of various chicken curries, naan bread and cheese pakoras. With mouthwatering food and a couple of bottles of really smooth white wine, the three of us went home very content. Thanks, Diana, for treating us to a great meal that evening, and for letting us stay at your place!

The next morning it was time for more food, no surprise there, as that was definitely something we seemed to do a lot of in the United States - EAT! We met up with a couple more people for breakfast at a small local diner called Pete's Cafe. We finally managed to catch up with a friend of ours whom we had met in London when she was studying there one summer, Katie; we also met up with one of Kyle's fraternity brothers from OU, Jeremy. It was nice talking to them about our trip and also finding out what they have been up to over the past few years. Katie snapped up our bill for breakfast before we had a chance, so thanks to her for buying our food that morning!

After saying our goodbyes to them, we embarked on our drive to Austin, Texas, to meet a very good friend of ours, Brady, and another friend whom we met whilst travelling in Vietnam earlier in the year, Jennifer. Besides the two of them, Kyle's previous flatmate from Dallas, Lindsay, and his aunt, Jeane, both lived in the city and were on our list of people to see. Meeting up with all of the people in Austin would be our last reunion for a little while, which we were actually pretty excited about, because it meant that we would be embarking on a part of our journey in the US that would present many new experiences for both of us.