"I finally got some time with a cute drummer."
After church Sunday, I got a call from my bro. He decided to take the whole family down to Dallas to surprise my niece and take her to dinner. He invited me to tag along. I thought the trip sounded fun, but didn't really want to ride in the back seat of a mini van with the kids for a total of seven hours. Besides I wanted to be back today. So I drove my own car.
And it turned out to be a great day. I had seven hours of quiet road time. I didn't even turn on the radio. The weather wasn't too hot until just north of Dallas, I drove back at night, and it was cool enough to open the sunroof, turn off the AC and get some fresh air.
We had dinner at Gloria's, my favorite place in Dallas. Funny thing about favorite out of town restaurants. Once you have a favorite, it's hard for another place to top it because you always go to your favorite. Anyway, it may not be the best place to eat in Dallas, but it's my favorite, and I really enjoyed it.
The location we went to was at someplace called The Harbor. There are a bunch of restaurants, shops, a cool cigar bar and a bunch of other things I would have liked to explore, but it didn't work out. Maybe I'll go back there someday and poke around by myself.
But there was a huge water fountain for the kids to play in, and they did. Nearby, there were some sidewalk musicians. A group of drummers was playing. So I finally got some time with a cute drummer. He gave me a lesson in playing the African drums like my nephew brought back from Zambia. Turns out, he's a pretty cool guy all around. I'll write more about him when I get his pic from my sister in law.
The drive back was just wonderful. At night, cool, quiet, no traffic and uneventful. It's hard to believe that I used to live like this, driving all night, working all day, etc. It's been a while since I spent that much time in a car in one day, but I did fine.
The world has developed two things in particular since my driving days that really make a hell of a difference. The first is a GPS. Man, my life would have been so much better with one of those back in the day. That sucker worked perfectly, got me where I was going and home with zero stress. The second is Red Bull. I didn't get home until 2:30 AM, and it would have been harder without an energy drink.
You gotta love progress. And nothing tops a spontaneous road trip once in a while.