April 5, 2024
Written By: J.Couch
Is it a good idea to try to standby on a flight from Denver to Dallas during the weekend of a major eclipse? Well, we thought it would be a good idea. It was either going to be a good morning or a bad weekend of standby entertainment. We got up very early, around 2:30 am so that we could be out at the airport for a 5:25 am departure. Per the Staff Traveler app, it was going to be kind of tight and we might not make this first flight. Depending on who doesn’t make it, the next flight at 6:25 might be just as tight. Maybe we will just go back home and back to bed.
We got to the airport to see the madness of thousands of people moving about early in the morning trying to get somewhere in the US or the world from Denver. It was kind of busy being 4:30 in the morning, where is everyone going? Hopefully not Dallas. We made it through TSA a little quicker, thanks to TSA Pre-check and headed to the train that takes you out to the terminals. It too was kind of a mess, it looked like the subway in New York with all the people packed in like sardines.
We got to the gate and the ladies there were doing a great job trying to accommodate all the list of standbys that were ahead of us. She said it might be a possibility to get us on but we had to wait until the last minute. That’s the life of a standby traveler, always last minute. Well thanks to the fact that it was earlier than most would like to be getting on a flight and who knows what else holds people up from making it to the gate on time, we were able to get a couple seats on the flight and we were on our way. Dallas here we come, thank you Southwest for the ride.
The flight was uneventful which is always a good thing lately when you are 30,000 plus feet in the air. We made it into Dallas early Friday morning. Our ride was there ready to pick us up from Love Field. Flying into Love Field seems to make things much easier for us since it’s closer to family. But we were not heading back to their place in Anna. We were heading east to a small historic town of Jefferson, near the border of Louisiana and named after Thomas Jefferson. It was founded around 1841 on land that was originally home to the Caddo Indians. During this time, there was a 100-mile-long log jam on the Red River, known as the Great Red River Raft. This acted as a dam and backed up Lake Caddo and the Big Cypress Bayou River. This flooding allowed steamboats to travel from St. Louis and New Orleans via the Mississippi and Red Rivers. In 1873 the Army Corp of Engineers used nitroglycerin, also known as dynamite, to clear the log jam causing Lake Caddo and the Big Cypress Bayou River levels to drop over 10 feet. This caused the river traffic to stop, no more steamboat trips to Jefferson. At its peak just after the civil war there was a population of over 30,000. Today it is around 1,875. Jefferson is located about 2 and a half hours east of Dallas, there are some more direct routes there but we took the back roads across to very pretty farmland which seemed to add even more time to the trip. But in the end, it was a beautiful drive.
We got to Jefferson in the early afternoon and stopped at an Irish bar called McGarity’s Restaurant. It’s located in a historic building that was built in the 1850s and first housed the Jefferson Masonic Lodge. A lot of businesses have been located in the building over the years especially during the civil war. When we first got there it was packed and we had to sit outside just to get a seat. The setting was nice and the weather was warm, the sun was shining. It is a nice historic setting, inside is decorated with a lot of different objects hanging from the ceiling and in the back, there are old photos all over the walls. We picked this place because they had a separate vegan menu that is rare for an Irish bar. We quickly found what we wanted on the menu but the service was a little slow because it was only two ladies working their tails off trying to accomplish everything. I am not sure why there were only two servers for so many people, other than I heard there was an issue and I think they were missing a few employees.
We ordered the vegan French dip. It’s made with caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms and jackfruit on a vegan brioche bun. This sounded pretty good but in reality, was not that great. It was a good attempt but fell short. There did not seem to be a lot of onions or mushrooms and the jackfruit was big chunks, instead of shredded up. Which made it kind of cumbersome to eat, the chunks kept falling out of the sandwich. We had to shred them ourselves to keep them from falling out. Plus, there did not seem to be any sauce making it very, very dry. There was a dipping sauce that helped, but it too was so small that after about 4 bites there was no more sauce. We had asked for another dipping sauce but since they were so busy it never came out. Also, it did not come with any fries and we had to order a side of fries for $4, which is not a lot but we felt that they should have been included with the sandwich. The fries were very good, they were crispy on the outside and moist on the inside with a good seasoning. I always appreciate the attempt to offer vegan and vegetarian options and maybe their other dishes are great but this one needs a little more work.
After lunch we looked around Jefferson. They have a huge number of antique stores. Some of them were nice but a lot of them seemed to be junk stores and more like a garage sale in a building. There are a couple of neat shops and for some reason there were a lot of things closed. They also didn’t seem to have a lot of restaurants in the old downtown historic district area.
There is a nice park down by the river where you can see the old train tracks. The Howe Truss Train Trestle bridge is still there as a historical reminder of the railway system that took over when the steamboats stopped coming into town. We made our way around town and decided we had seen enough and headed south to the town of Marshall where we were staying for the night.
Marshall is about a 20-to-30-minute drive south of Jefferson and seemed to be a little bigger town. I am not sure how much history is in this area since we only really stayed the night and headed out in the morning.
We stopped to pick up dinner at a place called Oishi Hibachi Express which is a small food truck that had a good rating and the food looked pretty good. (As far as I can tell this place has closed down) They didn’t advertise as a vegan or plant-based place but they had a vegetable and rice option. We did forget to ask them to hold the egg in the fried rice but it wasn’t a lot. If you have dietary restrictions make sure to ask about them before ordering. It was very good even with the little bit of egg that we had. The veggies had a good flavor and it hit the spot for the evening. We headed to our rooms to call it a night. Tomorrow we are going on a boat tour of Lake Caddo.
Thanks for wandering with us,
The Wandering Couchs
