Friday 16 December 2016

A good day in Texas - warm & sunny.....whaaaaat?

Fort Worth, Texas

Weather Max 22 Min 14 - yes 22 C - how does that even begin to make sense. Warm again tomorrow then Frosty the Snowman weather.

This is how my day went

  • Slept blissfully till 6:30
  • Breakfast delivered at 7:00
  • Back to bed and watched TV till 10:00 - Will and Grace Marathon and played computer games
  • Treadmill in gym for 30 mins
  • Shower and shuttle'd to Buc-ee's for a couple of hours
  • Walked back to the hotel - glorious weather (****shakes head in disbelief****)
  • More Will and Grace & coffee
  • Free dinner in the restaurant - result of miscommunication re shuttle a couple of days back
  • Shower and Jammies's and in bed - blogging - and dare I say - Big Bang Theory-ing
  • Feeling happy and relaxed and at peace with the world.

Buc-ee's is hard to explain - it's a 24 hour truck stop/gas station/convenience store/supermarket/bbq equipment/kitchen equipment/diner/fast food joint/clothing shop/souvenir shop/car accessories etc etc etc - in short - a really amazing and fun place to go.


Inside Buc-ee's

BBQ stuff

hehehe




Amazing sandwich counter - I resisted

Theses cups are waaaay
bigger than Aussie cups

Hot hot hot sauce

Even hotter sauce


I lost track of how many
 bowsers there are. 

They circle the place.

Back at the Marriott - what a great fire
 pit. Pity they only light it when it
 isn't cold ...?

My free dinner - wings and
Chop Chop salad. I ate too much
 but it was excellent.


Tomorrow I'm off to San Antonio and very much looking forward to the Riverwalk and the Alamo.





Thursday 15 December 2016

Perilous Puffer Paradigm. A Positively Preposterous Predicament

Forth Worth, Texas

Weather - bloody cold - whether you speak Centigrade or Fahrenheit - it's just bloody cold!!

The things that trigger my asthma are exercise and cold weather and I've been exposed to  both the last couple of days. I'd brought one Ventolin puffer with me as my asthma hasn't been  much of an issue over the past few years, but somewhere along the way the little cylinder slipped put of the plastic casing.  No problem I thought - in Australia I would just go to the Chemist's shop and buy one for $10 over the counter or $6.50 on line from Chemist's Warehouse. NO PRESCRIPTION REQUIRED.  

 I caught the shuttle to Walmart and explained my predicament to the Pharmacist. Seems in America I need a prescription and that means seeing a doctor. As I had no transport and didn't really know where I was, I followed directions and walked to an Emergency Centre where they did everything short of taking my appendix out. This cost me $125.  (Meanwhile I'm struggling to breathe normally - I wonder what they consider an emergency. They could have at least administered some Ventolin). Then it was walk back to Walmart where my prescription would be ready in 40 MINUTES - even though it had been sent through electronically. Of course that meant I had to wander around and buy things meanwhile. I finally picked up the Ventolin - 2 just in case - and it cost $122. To add insult to injury I am walking everywhere - which is exercise - in the freezing cold - which are both triggers.

FFS! - I was not a happy camper and when you consider I was having difficulty breathing and this all took over 2 1/2 hours - I could have been dead! Also this US$247 is about $300 Australian.  I do have travel insurance and I can claim this later but I was very underwhelmed by the whole experience.

At what point does someone say - big picture - she needs Ventolin - NOW - we'll work the rest out later!!

Ok - rant over -moving forwards. I returned to the hotel and had a nap and then went to the gym to test drive my Rolls Royce Ventolin (hmmm the rant obviously isn't over). All is now well and my 2 gold plated puffers are located in 2 separate suitcases so I don't go through this again.  (I'm really not letting this go, am I?)

I had a quiet rest of day watching TV and will have a good sulk tonight and wake up to a new day tomorrow.


From my Hotel room - looks
like Siberia out there - so coooold!



Ah! Here's my boy.
He makes me happy again xx









Wednesday 14 December 2016

The Scales of Just-arse!!


Fort Worth, Texas

Weather Max 12 Min 1

Talking about the weather........how does this even make sense ........Max of 24 C & 21 C Friday & Saturday then -1 C on Sunday.....MAXIMUM!! Thats just crazy. And then -8 overnight.



Talking about arses........you know how deep down everyone has a weight in the back of their mind.....the one that if you go over, you know you have crossed  the line........ and you know you'll never go over that weight because if you do, life as you know it will be over? The immediate response usually involves  bridges and jumping. You know that weight?  Well the scales in the gym say I'm 3 kilos OVER it! The last 3 1/2 weeks I have done NO exercise and every calorie I have eaten has doubled in size and attached itself  to said arse.

Sooooo.....as I don't want to jump off a bridge....I spent 20 minutes on the stationary bike in the gym this morning and 30 minutes on the treadmill this afternoon and walked a few miles in a huge mall and ate only healthy food all day. I figure if I do this every day for the next 3 months my plane will just get off the ground when I return to OZ  :(

The Mall I went to was the South Lakes Mall in Fort Worth and it was HUGE!!  It reminded me of walking around Disneyland. Old style buildings all set up in street fashion rather than under one roof.  Every type of store you can think of there.  I got a haircut .......only cost $15......nice.  I spent a lot of time in Starbucks and also Barnes and Noble. It was a good day!

South Lake Mall

South Lake Mall

Beautiful gardens at the Mall

Movie's - yay - out of the cold.


It was VERY COLD ( 4 degrees C) and I spotted a movie theatre  and made a beeline for it and bought a ticket for the first movie that was showing.  Office Christmas Party - Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. Quite good  and some big laughs.

The mall was a 20 minute drive from the hotel and I was taken there by the hotel shuttle. The front desk gave me a card with a number to call when I wanted to return and I was to wait outside Barnes & Noble to be picked up. I called 7 times over a period of an hour and a half and left voicemails and never got a response so I didn't know if someone was coming or not and I had to wait out in the cold. Did I mention it was VERY COLD. I didn't want to catch a cab in case the shuttle turned up. Finally I got hold of a real person and they hadn't  got any of the messages. They had given me the wrong card. Grrrrrrrr. Anyway, a lovely man called Eric came and got me and he was suitably repentant for the miscommunication etc etc.  When we got back to the hotel he gave me a voucher so dinner tomorrow night is free.  Nice :)

PS  after my 3 hours sleep in 36 hours during my journey to Fort Worth I showered and went to bed last night and read 3 words of my book and the next thing it was 6:30 this morning. Bliss.
















Tuesday 13 December 2016

♫♫♫ Deep in the Heart of Texas ♫♫♫

Forth Worth, Texas

Weather Max 15 Min 2

Well...what a to do!! As per yesterday's blog, Kae dropped me in Greenbrier and I caught the bus to Little Rock. I booked into a hotel and as I had received no text from Amtrak to say the train was delayed, I optimistically left the hotel at 2 am to get the train due out at 3.10 am.  Keep in mind that I never slept as I was too worried I might not hear the alarm (I know! - but it happened the morning I flew out of Brisbane to LA). I showered and headed off to the station to find the train was delayed - BY 4 1/2 HOURS!!!  I debated returning to the hotel but I had handed in my key and I wasn't sure that if I could get it back. In the end I stretched out on a hard wooden pew for the next 4 1/2 hours. There was no coffee - I had a Twixt from the vending machine but it was melted because they had the temperature pumped up in the station to 29 C ( 83 F) - it was like a bloody oven.  It was a very very very very long night and to add insult to injury the train arrived just before the end of the thriller I was watching on the TV so I still don't know if  Kevin Costner recovered from the the terminal disease he had and if he finished killing all the bad guys.

If I never see this station again
it will be too soon
Texas Eagle - should have been
 called the Texas Budgie


At this stage I'd had 1 hours sleep in the previous 24. Shortly after we boarded the train they served breakfast so I went to the dining car. I thought I'd sleep after that but I was way past it by then. I still have the head cold so I took the night time Nyquils and I slept for 2 hours. That was it!!  I finally arrived at Forth Worth, Texas after 8 hours on the train at 4.30 and then by the time I got my bags and Uberred to the hotel it was nearly 5:30.  I am way too old to get by on that little sleep.  I am now showered and fed and I will hopefully sleep all night. 

The food wasn't as good on the Texas Eagle as it was on the Coastal Starlight. Just another grrrr moment.  

Breakfast
Lunch - pork shank sandwich.

This day has been loooong but my room at the hotel is wonderful. I booked at the Marriott because it's cheaper mid week and Christmas is their quiet time so the room was a good price. HOWEVER - I am quite a distance from anything so I might just treat myself to a bit of relaxing luxury in the hotel for a few days. 

Flags are flying at half mast everywhere and apparently it's  out of respect for John Glenn - they will stay like that until he is interred.




I was sitting in the caboose!!

Texarkana



Texas is a bit sparse




Made me laugh - Molly the Trolley


Monday 12 December 2016

On the road again...... :)

Little Rock Arkansas

Weather Max 13 Min 6

Well ....here I go again. Kae took me to Conway this afternoon and I caught the bus to Little Rock Arkansas. 


Waiting at the Service Station
for the bus to Little Rock
Thank you Kae and Ang for your hospitality . I love you guys and will miss you and look forward to you visiting us in Australia.

I'm currently in a hotel in Little Rock but will be going to Union Station to catch the Train - The Texas Eagle - to Fort Worth Texas where I will be staying for 4 nights. The train goes at 3:10 AM!! so I will need to leave here about 2 am-ish. The trip takes about 10 1/2 hours. Now this all sounds great but Amtrak are notorious for being late - by hours - anyway. They then advised there may be further delays due to line work further north. Add to that, the train is coming from Chicago which is experiencing heavy snowfall and I will be amazed if we get there at all. It will be interesting.

Meanwhile I am in this hotel for a few hours - the train station doesn't open till 10:30 pm and with the number of shootings and other nasty things that have happened in Little Rock this month I'll play it safe.  

Random - I watch Love Actually every Christmas - my favourite Christmas movie.  I thought I was going to miss it this year but just as I got settled to do my blog I turned on the Telly and guess what was on . Happy face. I get my Liam Neesan fix and Andrew Lincoln looks gorgeous in pre Walking Dead fame.
How good is that!

Random - how come we pay $4.00 a bottle for water at the movies and yet the local Servo sells it for 21 cents a bottle.





Random - I haven't seen these before - do we have them in Oz? You just set the whole bag on fire.




Random - on sale in the Servo - I didn't buy one :)



My beautiful grand dog Derek who gets his picture here whenever I want because I love him and miss his unconditional love and hugs xxx........ and just look at that bloody face......can you hear my heart melting?