Thursday, June 6th 2002

Austin, TX to Dallas, TX

Weather:  Sunny,  Hot and Humid... High of 90 in both Austin and Dallas

Total Miles To Date 2,022 miles not updated

Money spent today:

$89.70 for 2 night motel stay

$27.00 on Gas

$3 on McDonalds

$25 on a haircut

$2 roundtrip on the DART

$10 on museum tour

$5 on parking

Total Spent Today

$161.70

Total Spent To Date

$894.05

Normally, my log would start in the morning when I wake up...today will be a little different.  This log will start where I left off last night, when I thought I was going to sleep.

I don't remember exactly when this all started, but being in my room without sufficient air conditioning and it still sounding like a jet engine was not going to do.  Since the motel didn't seem to care I decided to play mechanic.  I would love to say that I knew exactly what I was doing, but let's be honest...I had no clue.  Somehow, I did it.  I don't know how, but I did.  There was cool air coming into my room and the jet engine sound was gone.  Alright, this night is getting better...Or so I thought.

3am  and someone starts knocking on my door.  Since I'm not going to open the door, I look out the window and see some guy. He sees me and start asking for Jose.  I'm cornered in my room, I'm barely awake and not really sure what's going on.  I try to tell him there's no Jose here.  He doesn't exactly understand but he goes away.  Why do I know this isn't over.  A couple minutes later now he's pounding on the door.  This guy clearly doesn't believe me.  He tells me that my friend down the hall wants to talk to me.  Now I'm trying to convince this guy that I'm not Jose, there's no Jose in this room and that I'm going to go back to sleep.  Fortunately after a couple of minutes (which it seemed lasted longer than that) he finally moved on.  It took me a little while to go back to sleep...Note to self:  the baseball bat that's in the back of my jeep will now come in the room with me.

8am Woke up again

9:15 now some one has to give me some credit...instead of watching the E Celebrity Profile on Sandra Bullock, I'm going to check out of this flea trap and head off to Dallas.

9:30 I'm on the road, taking 35 North to Dallas.

12:10 I arrive in Dallas

12:15 my life gets really bad.. I just noticed my gas tank has the reserve light on.  Who knows how long that thing has been on.  Plus, I really, REALLY, have to go to the bathroom.  (How do people drink that much water without a bathroom nearby).  Anyway, do they not have a gas station is this dam town?  I drive all the way across town before I find a place, plus no one is helpful...they just look and me and say I don't know...This is also a tough city to navigate.  I'm not happy, find me a gas station.  

12:50 I finally find a gas station with bathroom (bonus) and now it's time to find a place to sleep.  Once again, people are rude here.  I ask one guy for a hotel in the area and his response was, "a hotel in the downtown Dallas area?...good luck.."  I mean really, what the hell does that mean?  Thank ASS!!  The funny thing is I drive a couple of blocks and there's town of hotels.  Once again, thanks ASS.  All these places are really expensive, don't they have a days inn or something?  I find one nice hotel, probably too nice.  I go in and as how much...179..yuck, next hotel...great this one is even nicer..ok how much. 169..yuck, thanks but no thanks.  can you recommend another hotel.  all of sudden after I said that the room rate became 90.  You know what?  after the experience I had the past two nights, I can use this for one night, plus, I'm camping out the next two nights.  Wow, this place is really nice.  I can even get a haircut here.  I needed haircut.  refer to may 28th to see how I couldn't get a haircut then.

3:30pm.  I got my haircut, got some lunch and now I need something to do and thanks to Robin Rhodes here in Dallas, she reminded to go visit the grassy knoll and the book depository where JFK was killed.  So, that's where I'm off to.  Now the concierge a the hotel recommended that I take the DART instead of driving to the 6th Floor Museum.  

Now the DART is weird. It's a very disorganized street car public transportation system.  Similar to Boston's "T", but nowhere as efficient and it causes a lot more traffic than it should.  But at a dollar a trip, it's not bad.  By the way, no one seems to know what DART stands for, including the police (I asked two different cops).  I took it to mean Dallas Area Rail Transit.  So, I take it 3 stops to the other side of town, walk a couple of blocks and there it is.  

It's very surreal when you stand there.  I mean, you've seen it on TV and in the JFK movie, but when you stand there it's just weird.  On the street are marked 3 X's.  One for each shot that JFK took and where on the street he was hit.  On the side of the street near where the third X is, is a plaque that marks this as a national monument.  Across from the grassy knoll you can see the window that Oswald made his shots from.  Now since this street is still active you can watch cars drive down and try to figure how quick these shots had to have been and how accurate.  Clearly, I'm not a specialist in this, but I see No Way that there was only one shooter.  Now, also seeing where the shots from the grassy knoll came from, it's easy to see how easy a shot would be from there.  But these are just my opinions.

I decide to go to the museum.   The book depository is now called the 6th Floor Museum.  the first floor is a gift shop.  the sixth floor is the JFK Museum and the 7th Floor is a gallery of Pulitzer Prize winning photographs.

The 6th floor is eerie.  It's also quite informative.  I learned a lot in this room.  I learned about the Bay of Pigs, The Cuban Missile Crisis and other historic and political aspects of the Kennedy administration.  The back corner of the floor has been preserved behind Plexiglas the way it was when he made his shot.  The window right next to is available to look out the window to path of his shots.  Once again, it's weird to realize that he was here and made his historic shots from here.  I also look out the window and try to watch cars going to slowly through the route and I even try to emulate the shots on the locations.  It's almost impossible to lock, reload, aim and shoot with that kind of accuracy.  

I move on to the 7th floor  which is where all the photographs are.  This were the pictures you've seen before.  For example, the one from Kent State, the little Vietnamese girl running down the street naked and even more recent shots like from Columbine and the World Trade Center.  I've never seen so many moving photographs in one room before. The room was completely quiet.  You couldn't even hear breathing.  It was that kind of exhibit.

After I was done, I took the DART back and was back in my room at 6:30.  Now It's time to go hang with Robin.  I hate this city.  I of course get lost on my way to the bar.  Once again, the police is no help.  He acts annoyed in giving me directions.  Anyway, I finally get there, a little late, but I get there.  Robin and I go to a Mexican Restaurant on Greenville Road.  Greenville Road is a trendy little street with outdoor restaurants and bars.  You get a so called hip crowd and bikers.  The only thing that sucks about this, is that it's nestled within a suburban neighborhood.  So, there's no place to park... All the streets have been designated no parking so the residents don't go crazy.  Now the thing that sucks for the residents is that's it's impossible to have any parties or guest because there's no place to park.  Anyway, after parking Robin and I got to hang and have some great Mexican food.  It was good seeing her.  After dinner I went right back to my hotel.  I hate this town...lost again.

I'm going to go to sleep early tonight and get ready for my last big drive for at least a week.

C YA

notes:

Robin Thanks for Dinner!!!

Can someone please e-mail me and tell me what the hell an "Aggie" is...you sports people should know...I have no idea

Dee Dee Ramone - R.I.P.

You don't realize how cool Austin is until you go to Dallas

Bret, how much does it suck when your girlfriend gets to meet her number one on her list...Who's on your list and how can we make that happen for you

I've never watched the food channel before, but the girl who hosts the morning cooking show is hot!!

Stogzzz...I can't wait to come back and hang...maybe, since I'm unemployed, you can teach me how to win at the track!!!

What up Jason?  Say hi to Anastasia...and Matt Connor

Total Miles Traveled Today 

Ok, I forgot to check again before I parked my car...I'll update tomorrow, but it was around 200