bigmacbear (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bigmacbear) wrote2024-10-09 11:59 pm
bigmacbear) wrote2024-10-09 11:59 pm
Dallas EG Conference, Day 3 of 3
WEDNESDAY
Woke up about 3 AM to pee, tried to go back to sleep but was unsuccessful until I returned to the toilet to poop. Got back to bed just after four and slept fitfully until 7:30. Took about two hours to bathe, dress, and pack most of the way, then headed downstairs for breakfast about quarter to ten. They've moved the breakfast buffet into the Media bar and grill in the Atrium central lobby as opposed to the small open-air café in the other Atrium space, which appears to be closed to the public for use by special events (as evidenced by the banquet tables set up in the atrium proper). The decor is the same as it was in its former location. I had a nice chat about cooking techniques with the lady preparing my omelet.
I briefly considered visiting the State Fair of Texas during the time between checkout and the trip to the airport, but decided with all the walking I'd been doing the past few days and the hot weather, it wouldn't go well. Instead, I returned to the room, finished packing, and turned on "The Facility" on FS1 which had been playing at Media during breakfast. I left the room about 11:30 to check out and stash luggage at the bell desk.
I next caught a Lyft to the Hidden Door in a luxurious Volvo SUV. I extracted some cash from the ATM, bought an Angry Orchard, and sat out on the patio. When a space opened at the table where he was seated, I introduced myself to a petite cubbish dude with a thick black beard and wearing a light cowboy hat, known as Bama (as that's where he's from). Two of his three table companions were on their way out; one of them was a gentleman a decade or more my senior who used a walker, and the other two were busy bundling him into the car. Bama had lit a cigarette as soon as his companions left the table, as the man with the walker (who Bama loved) wasn't fond of smoking at his table; I told him I'm not a smoker, but neither am I an anti-smoker. I mentioned I was in town from Seattle, and Bama mentioned his sister lives in Spokane. The third man, a blond, clean-shaven dude about my age, returned to the table and introduced himself as Mike as well. Almost immediately after that, Mike realized he was late for an appointment, and Bama wanted to catch up with a friend in person since he was not responding to messages, so they left together. (Sigh.)
I had an amusing moment while journaling when the heavily made-up woman on an ad on the muted TV in front of me appeared to be giving football commentary in the (offscreen) voice of the dude on the TV to my left. I chilled on the patio watching football coverage on ESPN2, sipping Angry Orchard, and people watching.
About quarter after one I moved indoors for the air conditioning and watched Wheel of Fortune till around 1:30, got bored and sat at the bar. Just as I was about to order another drink, a fellow came in and greeted the bartender, then sat by me. His name is Julio and he had driven all night from St. Petersburg, Florida with a stop in Red Stick (Baton Rouge, LA) to escape Hurricane Milton. He used to bartend at the Hidden Door, and is a master barber in St. Pete. Bama arrived from his errands shortly afterwards and the three of us got to talking. Someone (possibly Bama) sent us both tequila-based shots. I drank mine; Julio was working on sobriety and passed his back to the bartender, who gave it to me as well. Julio and I hooked up on Facebook, and eventually Bama and I as well. I mentioned to Julio that I worked in Unix and Linux security and he mentioned he was taking online classes in the field. It got to be about 2:20 before I finished my last drink and said bye to Julio.
I called for a Lyft back to the hotel, which was a festively-decorated car driven by a cute Hispanic cublet named Lazaro. For the first time, I heard the GPS giving directions en Español. The actual directions appeared to be recorded by a native speaker, but the app sounded like an English speaker phonetically sounding out the Spanish text. I arrived at the hotel, claimed luggage from the bell desk, and was soon on my way to DFW in another Lyft, driven by Chris who reminded me of Barry Bostwick as Brad Majors, with a slim build and heavy-framed glasses.
I got through security in record time and was seated in Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse for a late lunch by 3:30. At ten to four I took my traditional circuit on the Skytrain from my gate all the way around, which takes about 20 minutes. On the first leg of the journey I had a chat with a cornfed young blond dude and his buddy with smoldering eyes, a stubbly beard and legs for days; they left at the first stop for terminal D. At the second stop for terminal B, a cubby dude who reminds me of Chris Daw boarded and sat beside me; he left at the second stop for terminal A, and two ladies a bit older than me boarded there and sat opposite me the rest of the trip.
I arrived back at my gate at ten after four, just as predicted. There was a bit of a delay in boarding while the aisle wheelchair was extracted from the aircraft after use, but soon enough I was onboard and settled in with a paper cup of sparkling wine. My seat mate reminds me of Rob from Atlanta, only scruffier. A passenger across the aisle had a small dog under the seat; I saw a dog-sized bag in the overhead bin but was soon reassured the yapping was not coming from that bag.
We left the gate a few minutes late to accommodate some connecting passengers, but were soon airborne, taking off into the south and making a long, sweeping turn to the northwest. About an hour into the flight, I snapped pictures of some interesting cumulus clouds just southeast of Amarillo. (Chrysler Cirrus, Dodge Stratus, Plymouth Cumulonimbus - j/k). It was otherwise fairly clear until we crossed the corners of Oklahoma and New Mexico into Colorado, and the clouds became thicker just south of Pueblo so I decided to close the shade and put up the phone till after dinner. By then the weather below us had cleared, and I got a couple of shots of the Rockies just west of Denver. Right after that, my seat mate got up for the restroom and I took the opportunity to pee right after he was done. Then I turned on music (Burt Bacharach), had another ginger ale, and relaxed. I did notice a curious mountain ridge that looked like a face as we crossed the corner of Wyoming that fits in the "notch" in Utah. We hit some rough air as we approached the Snake River valley between Idaho and Oregon and passed through another cloud bank. It didn't clear much until we passed the Tri-Cities in Washington.
We landed from the north on the far runway (16R) and parked at the North Satellite. It took a while for the checked bags to arrive at the carousel. I waited for the shuttle cart to the light rail station, but gave up and walked. Of course the cart passed me in the other direction. 😞 I made my way to the front car of the train and sat opposite a young lady in a wheelchair until she left at Symphony Station.
When I arrived at Lynnwood, Gary texted me where the pickup lane was, the same side of 46th Avenue but the opposite side of the tracks, and I soon found Gary in the Vue. When we arrived home, I quickly unpacked and sent a message to Colleen and Sheila at 10:00.
Woke up about 3 AM to pee, tried to go back to sleep but was unsuccessful until I returned to the toilet to poop. Got back to bed just after four and slept fitfully until 7:30. Took about two hours to bathe, dress, and pack most of the way, then headed downstairs for breakfast about quarter to ten. They've moved the breakfast buffet into the Media bar and grill in the Atrium central lobby as opposed to the small open-air café in the other Atrium space, which appears to be closed to the public for use by special events (as evidenced by the banquet tables set up in the atrium proper). The decor is the same as it was in its former location. I had a nice chat about cooking techniques with the lady preparing my omelet.
I briefly considered visiting the State Fair of Texas during the time between checkout and the trip to the airport, but decided with all the walking I'd been doing the past few days and the hot weather, it wouldn't go well. Instead, I returned to the room, finished packing, and turned on "The Facility" on FS1 which had been playing at Media during breakfast. I left the room about 11:30 to check out and stash luggage at the bell desk.
I next caught a Lyft to the Hidden Door in a luxurious Volvo SUV. I extracted some cash from the ATM, bought an Angry Orchard, and sat out on the patio. When a space opened at the table where he was seated, I introduced myself to a petite cubbish dude with a thick black beard and wearing a light cowboy hat, known as Bama (as that's where he's from). Two of his three table companions were on their way out; one of them was a gentleman a decade or more my senior who used a walker, and the other two were busy bundling him into the car. Bama had lit a cigarette as soon as his companions left the table, as the man with the walker (who Bama loved) wasn't fond of smoking at his table; I told him I'm not a smoker, but neither am I an anti-smoker. I mentioned I was in town from Seattle, and Bama mentioned his sister lives in Spokane. The third man, a blond, clean-shaven dude about my age, returned to the table and introduced himself as Mike as well. Almost immediately after that, Mike realized he was late for an appointment, and Bama wanted to catch up with a friend in person since he was not responding to messages, so they left together. (Sigh.)
I had an amusing moment while journaling when the heavily made-up woman on an ad on the muted TV in front of me appeared to be giving football commentary in the (offscreen) voice of the dude on the TV to my left. I chilled on the patio watching football coverage on ESPN2, sipping Angry Orchard, and people watching.
About quarter after one I moved indoors for the air conditioning and watched Wheel of Fortune till around 1:30, got bored and sat at the bar. Just as I was about to order another drink, a fellow came in and greeted the bartender, then sat by me. His name is Julio and he had driven all night from St. Petersburg, Florida with a stop in Red Stick (Baton Rouge, LA) to escape Hurricane Milton. He used to bartend at the Hidden Door, and is a master barber in St. Pete. Bama arrived from his errands shortly afterwards and the three of us got to talking. Someone (possibly Bama) sent us both tequila-based shots. I drank mine; Julio was working on sobriety and passed his back to the bartender, who gave it to me as well. Julio and I hooked up on Facebook, and eventually Bama and I as well. I mentioned to Julio that I worked in Unix and Linux security and he mentioned he was taking online classes in the field. It got to be about 2:20 before I finished my last drink and said bye to Julio.
I called for a Lyft back to the hotel, which was a festively-decorated car driven by a cute Hispanic cublet named Lazaro. For the first time, I heard the GPS giving directions en Español. The actual directions appeared to be recorded by a native speaker, but the app sounded like an English speaker phonetically sounding out the Spanish text. I arrived at the hotel, claimed luggage from the bell desk, and was soon on my way to DFW in another Lyft, driven by Chris who reminded me of Barry Bostwick as Brad Majors, with a slim build and heavy-framed glasses.
I got through security in record time and was seated in Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse for a late lunch by 3:30. At ten to four I took my traditional circuit on the Skytrain from my gate all the way around, which takes about 20 minutes. On the first leg of the journey I had a chat with a cornfed young blond dude and his buddy with smoldering eyes, a stubbly beard and legs for days; they left at the first stop for terminal D. At the second stop for terminal B, a cubby dude who reminds me of Chris Daw boarded and sat beside me; he left at the second stop for terminal A, and two ladies a bit older than me boarded there and sat opposite me the rest of the trip.
I arrived back at my gate at ten after four, just as predicted. There was a bit of a delay in boarding while the aisle wheelchair was extracted from the aircraft after use, but soon enough I was onboard and settled in with a paper cup of sparkling wine. My seat mate reminds me of Rob from Atlanta, only scruffier. A passenger across the aisle had a small dog under the seat; I saw a dog-sized bag in the overhead bin but was soon reassured the yapping was not coming from that bag.
We left the gate a few minutes late to accommodate some connecting passengers, but were soon airborne, taking off into the south and making a long, sweeping turn to the northwest. About an hour into the flight, I snapped pictures of some interesting cumulus clouds just southeast of Amarillo. (Chrysler Cirrus, Dodge Stratus, Plymouth Cumulonimbus - j/k). It was otherwise fairly clear until we crossed the corners of Oklahoma and New Mexico into Colorado, and the clouds became thicker just south of Pueblo so I decided to close the shade and put up the phone till after dinner. By then the weather below us had cleared, and I got a couple of shots of the Rockies just west of Denver. Right after that, my seat mate got up for the restroom and I took the opportunity to pee right after he was done. Then I turned on music (Burt Bacharach), had another ginger ale, and relaxed. I did notice a curious mountain ridge that looked like a face as we crossed the corner of Wyoming that fits in the "notch" in Utah. We hit some rough air as we approached the Snake River valley between Idaho and Oregon and passed through another cloud bank. It didn't clear much until we passed the Tri-Cities in Washington.
We landed from the north on the far runway (16R) and parked at the North Satellite. It took a while for the checked bags to arrive at the carousel. I waited for the shuttle cart to the light rail station, but gave up and walked. Of course the cart passed me in the other direction. 😞 I made my way to the front car of the train and sat opposite a young lady in a wheelchair until she left at Symphony Station.
When I arrived at Lynnwood, Gary texted me where the pickup lane was, the same side of 46th Avenue but the opposite side of the tracks, and I soon found Gary in the Vue. When we arrived home, I quickly unpacked and sent a message to Colleen and Sheila at 10:00.