SUMMARY

Texas is hot, hot, hot! If you think that you like the heat, then check it out and you'll come back reformed. Does anyone actually like TX that isn't from Texas? No, they do not. That being said, I still had a lot of fun! Even in the desert, the blazing sun (oh my lord), lots of cow eating and more southern accent than I can handle.

Its totally different from the northeast. Texas is really flat, there really aren't mountains. The only thing they have are these like mini ditches/hills. And God forbid someone drive up or down a bump in the road, so lets just build a giant bridge to go over top of it. This makes a lot of sense if you are in Texas! After a week of drinking the kool-aid, I almost get it. Its true what they say - EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED FOR YOUR TRIP

1. A purse the size of your hand for NFL games
2. A cowgirl hat (it's insanely intense under the sun)
3. Hair ties... Just plan on having your hair up the whole time... otherwise it will stick to you, and well.. Yuck.
4. No jeans... Think cotton and loose fitting and white
5. Cowgirl boots look cute as heck and a lot of girls wear them at games, but unless those boots are air conditioned I'd say just wear the flip flops or sandals
6. Insert a lot of extra nice phrases in your vocabulary... because people here like to say hello and are just really nice in general. I have to remind myself not to be a cold northeastern-er. Our waiter was talking and part of me was trying to be nice and converse... the other part of me wanted to be like, ok leave me alone I'm trying to eat my nachos!!!
7. Leave the makeup at home. It just melts off anyway
8. Sunscreen. Get the most powerful stuff you can find. If you are hesitating, just picture yourself sun burnt to a crisp and unable to move. That should be motivation enough!
9. Also getting burnt means wearing more clothes so definitely take some loose pants and shirts that are long incase you do burn or get close. It might be crazy hot but its better than feeling sun on sunburn!!!

CRACKER BARREL (Waco)

Yummy breakfast at Cracker Barrel ( except meat... It's always terrible! )

FLOYD CASEY STADIUM (Waco) Baylor vs. Buffalo

Baylor game was somewhat torture. It was extremely hot (102?) and then the sun shone on you like fire. I actually put ice cubes on my head just to try to stay cool. It did help! Did I look ridiculous? Probably. I was too hot to care.

We actually got here pretty early, so we hung out in the athletic center building because it was air conditioned. We stood around and tried to look like we belonged there so they wouldn't kick us out. How did people survive TX without air conditioning?

We finally made our way into the stadium... they are so much stricter with security these days. There was a woman in front of us that tried to bring in an entire cooler with ice to the game. Not sure what century she was from, obviously not this one!

Baylor destroyed Buffalo, we actually left a little after half time because I am pretty sure I got some sort of sun poisoning! The disappointing thing was that the stadium was so far off of campus that we didn't actually get to see the campus library. I found pictures of it on Pinterest and it sort of reminds me of a Barnes and Noble heaven... its so old though, Greg says its good they are tearing it down and building a new one.

I should have probably worn sunscreen. Although, part of me thinks is useless. I'm surprised the sun has not melted TX off the face of the planet. We left the game and I was burnt to a crisp!

FOOD - HACIENDA SAN MIGUEL (Fort Worth)
It's Mexican food and its yummy! The atmosphere is not the greatest... loud music and no crowd on a sat. The lobster enchiladas were good and they have fresh guacamole made to order (yummmmm).

COWTOWN SEGWAY (Fort Worth)

Our first Segway tour! Greg was convinced it was a bad idea because he seems to think I have a tendency to get distracted and crash into things. What a ridiculous notion. (no I' not laughing right now). This was the MOST FUN tour yet! I may have almost run into something in the beginning, but towards the end I was master of the Segway. Its the best way to see everything, so much better than being stuck on a bus taking pictures as the driver yaps on and on and on...

They give you headsets, which are great because the guide talks and you can hear everything even if you decide to go speeding off in another direction (not that I would know). We got to see the Forth Worth Water Gardens. Its one of the few places with water! It reminds me of a drinking fountain that someone built for a giant size monster in the middle of a park. Apparently the current was a little too strong and some people died from it, so they've toned it down a bit. Texas is all about the 'go big or go home' thing.

We also saw a Kennedy memorial. So sad that we would lose a President like that. Kennedy was in Fort Worth before heading off to Dallas for his final days. We finally headed back. If you go upstairs (just ask to use the restroom) in the Cowtown Segway office, they have a room piled high with books. The building owner is the same person who owns the bookstore in the building next to the Segway place, so they use the room as storage for these books. I didn't get to see the cool library at the Baylor campus, but I loved the book pile room!

My heaven would look something like Barnes and Nobles and the Cowtown Segway book storage area. Highly recommend checking out the Cowtown Segway. You can see way more than with any other type of tour, plus it so much easier to take pictures. Definitely a must see and must do!

AIRWAY BURGER (Arlington)

We met some of Greg's work friends here. The inside looks like it was hit by one of the many mini tornados. The ceiling is patched with tarps or something ridiculous...but don't let this fool you. The food is still pretty decent, and its super, super cheap! Corn dogs are everywhere in TX, and I'm liking it!

BLUE MESA - FOOD! (Arlington)

We parked here and ate dinner before the Cowboys game. This is where the waiter rambled on about the air conditioning in the stadium and at some point I just stopped listening. Too much friendliness for me. Why do people feel the need to have long conversations with complete strangers? Sheesh.

COWBOYS STADIUM (Arlington) Dallas Cowboys vs New York Giants

WOW. Its the biggest stadium.. or seems like the biggest stadium I've ever been it. Its definitely got the biggest screen / board thing I've ever seen. Its literally the size of the field. I took pictures of it when they were showing an areal view of the stadium, and it looks like I'm taking a picture of the stadium from a chopper! That's how big, and how incredibly awesome this big board is! Half the time I watched the big board though instead of the actual game. Its just SO big and we were sitting up so high. Super cool but at the same time a bit much. It felt like I was watching the game on TV and wanted to just watch the actual game.

The Flyers have this guy that attends all the games and does crazy dances to songs, and they show him on the big board every game. Its like this tradition. He's "the fat guy" that does really funny dances, everyone knows him. Well you know Texas - go big or go home! They have FIVE guys that all do coordinated dances to the songs. One of the funniest things I've ever seen. They play a song and put these old crazy guys on the board doing these crazy dances... its one of the coolest things in the way of traditions I've seen. Much love for the five cowboys that love to dance!

Best things about the Cowboys team - this is the 2nd time I've seen them play, and both times I have loved the insanely contagious spirit that makes it impossible not to have fun. I wanted them to win even though I'm a "Yankee". They love Texas, they have tons of Texas pride, and they love their Cowboys. Cowboys won, of course. Seeing this stadium and seeing the Cowboys fans in general - definitely a memorable experience.

IHOPS across the nation! (Fort Worth)

Waking up super late is nice. Breakfast all day is ingenious.

BOTANICAL GARDENS (Fort Worth)

I didn't realize things could actually live in Texas. I thought they only had cactuses and sandy dirt everywhere. It was actually really beautiful though, and I wasn't expecting that. They had this gorgeous green water pond with a man made waterfall. We walked all around admiring the scenery. They even had these stone made rock things that you could hop across the pond on. I went across a few of them, then realized I was standing in the middle of a deep pond and had a moment of panic. Then Greg laughed at me and I had to pull myself together and get all the way across. I made it, but I refused to admit I was semi-freaking out...

It was extremely hot, as always. The nice thing is they had sprinklers going to keep the plants happy. Every time I saw one I stood in it. That was super fun. I tried to get Greg to join me but then his glasses got wet and it was game-over! We had a lot of fun walking around and seeing everything. Its definitely worth coming to see once.

CAPITAL GRILLE (Downtown Fort Worth)

I remember the first time I ever went to one of these! It was with my class in college when we were staying in DC. Memories!!

Dinner at Capital Grille downtown where the road was closed on our first ever Segway tour! Saw the convention center and downtown too!

FORT WORTH ZOO

Baby elephants are so cute!!! Even when they are little they are big! Its the first time we've ever seen a baby before. The zoo keepers come in and use this big broom to brush the elephants down. I'm not sure why they do it, maybe to clean them off or something. The zoo keeper came in and was trying to brush down the big momma elephant and the baby kept backing up into the zoo keeper and sticking its butt into him to push him away. It was the cutest thing, and really funny to watch. I think the baby was playing, either than or it didn't like the zoo keeper. Either way, it was comical!!

They also had a white tiger. They have snowy white fur from a gene mutation. It makes it really hard for them to hide in the wild, and they have more trouble hunting prey because of their color too. Every tiger in captivity today is the descendant of one tiger! Its name was Mohan. Mohan was rescued in the 50's. He left behind him a legend of "ghostly" tiger sightings!

Vultures scare me. They had "King" Vultures at the zoo. They have insanely good eye sight. Its suppose to be like 10x's better than human site. And they look at you with these beady eyes and you just know they see, in these creepy "I'm watching you" type of way. Some poor squirrel ventured into their gigantic cage.. (if you can call it that, its like as big as a bedroom) and it did not end well. They've been effected by people destroying their habitats, so they have more trouble surviving in the wild.

Some people look at zoos like they are bad things, like they capture wild animals and cage them so people can come see them for cruel reasons. But that's just not informed, and almost totally untrue. Most of these zoo keepers you'll find really love animals. Its really no different from having a pet in your house. You have a pet, you love it and take care of it. Plus, they have a safe habitat designed for them and are well fed. Most of the time when you look at their life span, its almost double what it would be if they were in the wild.

Many times these animals that are in the zoo are actually being protected from the cruelty of people destroying their natural habitats. Not just that, but sometimes they are rescued from injuries they wouldn't survive, and they are also protected from terrible things like extinctions, etc. How sad would it be to tell a future generation that there used to be these things called eagles and King Vultures but people destroyed their habitats.. so here are some pictures to look at. Or, there used to being these incredible creatures called elephants, but people killed them for their ivory tusks and now they no longer exist. Or, there used to be cheetahs but because of people destroying their habitats they don't exist. Its almost true, cheetahs habitats have been so destroyed that they have really severe inbreeding and can barely survive in the wild. So, the point of all this is, take care of the earth and support your zoo by visiting it! Also, don't kill anything that you don't plan on eating.

TEXAS RANGERS (Arlington)

One of the few stadiums where Greg actually drank the beer. Oh! And we saw President Bush & Barbara in person. Well, mostly the back of his head. It would have been nice to go down and see him but I think the secret service would likely tackle you first. The stadium has this old fashioned look to it, and you could see it anywhere and know that it is the TX Rangers stadium because it looks like how stadiums used to look "back in the day." Greg recognized Nolan Ryan too. He was one of the best pitchers ever and he's one of the owners! We always route for the home teams, so we were routing for the Rangers. Have to say that there is no place like Philadelphia... <3 Phillies.

DRIVING (from Fort Worth/Waco to Lubbock)

This was a five hour drive. Its kind of like driving from Reading to Pittsburgh, although Texas is a lot bigger of a state. Its a really amazing way to see rural Texas... just think about it, when the heck else are you going to drive across a state like Texas?? Just seeing the sites and how incredibly different everything is, its totally amazing.

Its definitely incredibly flat. I mean flat, super flat. The biggest thing that stood out on this drive were how there were incredible wind mill farms. We drove for HOURS and the wind mill farms just never stopped, we were driving and they were next to us the whole time. Sometimes they were right next to the road, other times we were looking at them off in a distance. Either way, it was continuous across a HUGE area. There's no way we'd ever see something like this in the northeast, we just don't have the land space for it. Texas is just wide open spaces! They have more land than I think they know what to do with.

General thoughts about Lubbock... sadly the small town did not start off on our good side. We made reservations way in advance at the Lubbock Marriott. Its one of those towns that is pretty small, and once they have a local football game scheduled all the hotel rooms in the area get really booked and the prices sky rocket. One week before we are leaving, we get a letter in the mail that the Lubbock Marriott cancelled our reservation because they wanted to accommodate other guests that extended their stay. Who does something like that?? So retarded. Anyway, we ended up staying at La Quinta or something. It was not as nice as the Marriott's hotels, but it was decent enough.

TEXAS TECH (Lubbock) Texas Tech vs. TCU (Texas Christian)

Texas Tech's stadium is big, consistent with everything else in the state! We were in the sun at first, but we managed to sneak into seats that were in the shade. Thank goodness, because I was still recovering from some earlier sun issues! This was a fun game to see. We routed for the home team and they won! Sadly, I wasn't feeling very good at this game so we didn't get to enjoy it as much as we would have liked. I think Lubbock is cursed for us!

DRIVING (Lubbock to Denton)

This is another drive that well, when the heck else will you drive around TX? Its such a gigantic state! It was just under five hours going to Denton. This was a different route, so we got to see even more rural TX! We were driving for awhile, and I started noticing that all the houses looked like they were pretty messed up. In particular, the roofs were all caving in and just a mess in general. I noticed it once, twice, three times... and then, we look on the side of the road and in the middle of one of the fields, there is a mini tornado! The crazy thing was, it was a nice day, a little cloudy but that's about it. Suddenly, the messed up roofs are starting to make sense!

So we drive a little more and see another tornado, and then we see a big tornado! Most of them were like a few feet tall, but this one was as tall as telephone pole! It was spinning all kinds of dirt and leaves and debris. I wanted to stop the car and check it out, but Greg was having no parts of that and well, he was driving. I'm pretty sure it couldn't hurt you unless it was a giant one, but he was probably the sensible one in that scenario. He's reading this right now thinking in most scenarios, but no way I'm giving him that much credit... haha.

Another thing that you notice is there aren't developments or like... houses. Its all ranches. Some are big, some are small. Most of them have signs that say like "Froggy Bob's" and some guy that calls himself froggy Bob owns that ranch. Was that his AOL screen name back in the day?? Just wondering... Some of the ranchers were super big and were probably like oil tycoons or something. They had helicopter pads and their own private airports. You know you have a ridiculous amount of money to burn when you have a private jet AND your own airport!

TAKE AWAYS

... OH MY LORD TAKE ME HOME. Just kidding. Sort of. I had lots of fun in TX! It was just so, so hot. For the first time ever I missed the blistering cold. I am pretty sure if I had a choice between exile, imprisonment or eternal summers in TX, I would choose anything but TX. And I'd live happily ever after knowing that I was not in hell. I mean Texas. I'm definitely picking on Texas, I know but the heat is killer! Visit sometime in the dead of winter, this should make it much more enjoyable!

Best things to see in Texas - tons of good places to get steaks. I don't eat a lot of meat so we didn't go to them, however steak lovers, this will be your paradise! Add the Botanical Gardens to your list. Its just beautiful. I really liked taking the time to walk around the waterfall, check out the fish and also stand in the sprinklers... and walk across the stone pads in the middle of the pond.

Cowboys, love the spirit! Its hard not to have fun here. Bring your cowboy (or cow-girl) gear and Yee-haw!!