The stars at night are big and bright

[fbhjr]

We got in pretty late Friday night. We made it to our hotel room when it was still Friday, but only by 2 minutes.
Although I had asked for a "mid-sized car" from Avis, they gave me what I think is a large Jeep.

But, my wife said everything is bigger in Texas.

We wanted to find the place my wife lived 35 years ago, but we didn't have the address. We had looked at a bunch of places on Google Maps. But, 35 years ago the town in which she lived was mostly farms. Now it is mostly factories and shopping centers.
So, the landmarks have changed.
I had the idea of going into Dallas and looking at their library. They have the phone books from Grand Prairie from the 70's and we could look for her mother and step-father in those.

So, off we drove to Dallas.

They've got some funky big buildings in Dallas.


We found the library fairly easily. But, having left lots of time, we were an hour before they opened.
We asked the guard about places to eat, and he wasn't very helpful.
I had been interested to see the place in Dallas where Kennedy was shot. (My wife says it is morbid, and maybe it is. But, it was less than 2 weeks after I was born, so it was the biggest even of the time around my birth.)

We drove over that way and found a deli with a lot of police cars in front. We guessed that would be a good place for breakfast, and were not wrong.


After breakfast we wandered over to the place I wanted to see. I guess this is a case where X marks the spot.


And, I went and stood on the famous grassy knoll. I had to admit I had a pretty good view of that X in the road from there too.


But, being us, we also spent a lot of time saying "what is that cool bridge over there?"


By then it was 10 and the library was open. We had a bit of trouble getting back there as there was some kind of protest/rally going on at city hall, and the library is across the street. But, we got there.
The archive section is up on the 7th floor and has a very nice view.


The man who works the archives department was very nice. He got us the phone books, the city registers, maps and other listings of Grand Prairie in 1976 and 1977.
Sadly, despite all of that, we didn't find a listing. My wife's step father was not a good person and was at several times on the run from the law. It is possible that the phone was not listed, or was under a false name, or who knows what.
We did use the business listings to find the mobile home parks that were there at the time and went to look at them.

There are certainly parts of town that remind me of places in the 70's.


One of the places is still there, but is pretty run down these days.


The second one wasn't there any more. A housing development was there. It didn't look new, but didn't look as old as 1978. And, my wife thought the "lay of the land" looked about right with the hills and such. And, there was a church in the spot she thought there should be.
(But, there are a lot of churches in Texas, so that's not necessarily proof.)

We did also go over to the school she thinks is the one she used to go to. She said that looked familiar, but had clearly been updated since the 70's. And, as it was under construction while we were there, had been expanded a lot.

My wife declared that she was sufficiently happy about finding her old places. So we headed over to Trader's Village. That's a place her step-father used to go, but wouldn't bring her.
It's sort of a giant flea market/open air shopping area.


It was open air. In Texas. In summer.
We didn't stay long as we were practically melting into the pavement.

I did find some of their signs ironic. "No Stopping anytime" next to a stop sign...


Next, we decided to set off and meet phoenixisrisen who lives a couple of hours south of Dallas.
She is friends with both of us on line, but we had never met in person. Being that close, it seemed like fun thing to go and meet in person.

Driving a few hours across Texas, you really get a feel for how big and flat it is.


There was one point we could see this rain storm coming at us for miles.


And, the sky can be very beautiful.


We did meet up with Phoenixisrisen and met her new Significant other.


He had to be at work, but she joined us and we went to "old" Jody's for dinner.


I have to say it was exactly the kind of place we wanted to eat while we were here in Texas. Not a chain. Good food. Local food.
My wife said it was the first time she had seen "frito pie" on a menu in more than 30 years. I had never seen it.


It was a VERY good time and we were both happy we made the drive.
But, it was a long drive back and we set off back across the plains to Dallas.

Did I mention how nice the sky is here in Texas?
The sunsets are fantastic.


We got back to the hotel around 11 and neither one of us had trouble falling asleep.

Comments

[morgan-lafaye.livejournal.com]

Awesome sunset. Glad you had so much fun. I have to know what a Frito pie is.

[phoenixisrisen.livejournal.com]

Glad to know y'all enjoyed it- I sure did!

And that sunset is fantastic!

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

YAY!

Yeah the sky is amazingly different in that part of the country. Indescribable.

glad to hear things have been going pretty well so far.

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

What on earth is a frito pie??

Sounds like you had a good (and hot) time in Texas!

[malterre.livejournal.com]

It's horrible for you :)
http://www.texascooking.com/recipes/fritopie.htm

And you don't have to cook it, often hostesses will just put it out as a sort of side dish at a party.

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

oh ok .. so it's chilli served with the corn chips already in it? I understand - but don't the corn chips go soggy. I like to dip mine in the chili.

Ohyeah - and it sounds awful for you ;)

(thanks for the link)

[malterre.livejournal.com]

Some cooks are able to make it non-soggy, it's an art form. LOL

[endlessblush.livejournal.com]

It definitely sounds like it :)

[uawildcatgrl.livejournal.com]

Sounds like oodles of fun and it's always good to meet up with lj friends!