April 5-10, 2024
Written By: J.Couch
We decided that we wanted to try to get down to the Dallas area to visit family and be in place for the upcoming solar eclipse that was going to cross this area on Monday April 8th. We had to get up early to catch the first morning flight out at 5am. We ended up making the first flight and we were on our way. Since it looked like we were going to make the flight and have the weekend before the solar eclipse, we took advantage of this and headed over to check out Jefferson Texas. We have wanted to check out this place for quite a while and this was our opportunity. While in that area we also wanted to do a boat tour of the Caddo Lake Bayou which we heard was a very cool area to explore. Friday night we stayed in Marshall Texas after looking around the Jefferson area. We had dinner at a food truck that had a vegetable and rice meal that looked and tasted pretty good.
The next morning, we got up and headed to the lake for our tour. It was a great way to see the lake and all the cypress trees. We finished up our tour and headed back towards Dallas, along the way we stopped at a place in Plano called China Blue for dinner. From there we headed back home in Anna and called it a night. Tomorrow we are meeting some friends and exploring the Grapevine Meow Wolf.
We were able to sleep in a bit and try to relax. We were not meeting our friends until later this afternoon. We headed towards Grapevine to be in that area, plus we were meeting them for lunch first before Meow Wolf. We walked up and down Grapevine which is a cute little Texas town that is also the starting area for the train that goes to the stock yards of Fort Worth. It looks like it would be a fun train ride but we have never done it. We met our friends at the Esparza’s Restaurante Mexicano there in Grapevine for lunch, drinks and time to catch up. After lunch we headed over to the Grapevine Mills shopping mall where the newest of the Meow Wolf’s exhibitions. They have 4 in total. We have been to the one in Denver but that it is. We spent two hours exploring around, looking for clues and trying to figure not how to get out of there. It is a lot of fun and a sensory overload, but worth at least one visit. We said our goodbyes and parted ways. We headed back to Anna again to settle down for the night.
Check out this blog:
Exploring Meow Wolf in Grapevine, Texas: An Ultimate Travel Adventure
Today was the solar eclipse. We didn’t do a lot other than hang around and wait for the moon to cross in front of the sun. When that time came it was one of the most awesome events that I have ever witnessed. It was an amazing once in a lifetime event. We hung around in Anna and had dinner and played games. Tomorrow we were planning on heading back home.
Check out this blog:
We had looked at the flights out of Dallas and for being the day after a major solar eclipse, today was not the day to fly standby anywhere. So, we decided, instead of hanging out at the airport all day to go nowhere fast, we would head to the Frontiers of flight and see all the airplanes they have there. We drove down to Love Field, it also was a cloudy, gray rainy day. The forecast called for thunderstorms and heavy rain. Also, not a good thing for standby travel. We got to the museum and it was still dry but looking like it might dump soon. We spent about an hour and a half looking at all the airplanes, stories of pilots and aviation people that lived or grew up in Texas. They also had a Blue Angel F18 on loan there was pretty cool to see up close. When we decided that we had enough and were ready to go eat, that’s when it had decided to monsoon rain. We got to the car a little wetter than planned and headed out to find lunch. We ended up at a place out in Richardson called Albaghdady. It was a place that we had marked as a place to try. After a great lunch we headed back to Anna to call it a day.
Well, again today the flights looked just as ugly as yesterday. But we need to try to start moving. We were going to try for two flights this morning that both depart at 5:40 am from Dallas to Denver. The problem is they are in different terminals, so we needed to pick one and hope for the best. If you have never flown out of Dallas before, this is a big airport and getting from one terminal to the other takes a little time. The sky train is efficient but it takes a little time. The first flight of the morning is the best option for standby passengers, it didn’t look great but you never know. We rely on someone’s bad morning to help make ours a good morning. I know that it is kind of a bad way to look at it but that’s what opens up seats. If that doesn’t work, we may be at the airport all day trying for whatever flight we can make. We are also looking at flying to other cities that we can then catch a flight from there to Denver. There was the option to fly to Omaha and then catch a flight from Omaha to Denver. But there is always a risk of getting stuck in a city that you didn’t want to be in. We were up at 2:45 am to get ready and head to the airport and be there at 4:30 am to get through security and try for our first ride home. Security was a mess this morning, the TSA Pre-check was closed. However, they were giving out passes going through the regular security so you didn’t have to take off your shoes. After a little delay and no major security issues we finally moved through to the secured side. We got to the gate and then found more debacle going on. They were missing a flight attendant and could not board until she was there. They were looking for one that could take her place until she showed up. Then they released seats and could not get the printer to print the boarding passes. It was starting to seem like one thing after another this morning. We got seats, they also found a flight attendant, we were ready to board. If course they were middle seats but we were on the flight and on our way. No sitting in the airport all day or flying to a different city that we didn’t want to be in. We were on our way home and done with this leg of our trip. Next, regroup and head to Portland for a few days.
Thanks for wandering with us,
The Wandering Couchs
