Enjoying Texas Y'All

Monday found me on the road to Portland to catch the flight to Dallas.  The excitement of the freeway included  passing a Joker and Catwoman car on I-205. 

The plane took off from Portland to Texas right on time Monday morning.  It was a packed flight so thankfully we arrived early to Dallas.  After some initial confusion about the whereabouts of my ride to the hotel, including at one point when I knocked on a car's window and asked "are you waiting for me?" (he wasn't), my shuttle found me and delivered me to the hotel for check in.  I met up with my peers, ate dinner and chatted, then it was up to my room for bed.

Today found me rising bright and early (two hours early due to the time change) in order to spend all day on my butt in a training class.  There is nothing worse than sitting, eating, sitting, eating some more, then, as the class is dismissed, the decision is made for everyone to ride together to eat once again!  Yikes!  I hope I won't have to purchase an additional airline ticket to cover my butt on the ride home!

Tonight the group of us made our way to Hard 8 BBQ Pit for dinner.  It was warm outside and even warmer inside restaurant.  We made our way into the door and were immediately shuttled into the pit BBQ line.  The pit master asked what we wanted; it was hard for me to figure out exactly what kind of meat was in the pit but he didn't seem to keen on answering a non-Texan's questions.

I ended up with a pork chop, bacon and jalapeno wrapped chicken nugget, mac and cheese, coleslaw, corn on the cob, and cobbler.  Hey - if I was going to try Texas barbecue I was going to indulge myself!  Normally not a big fan of barbecue, it was all very tasty, including the Hard 8 sauce.  There was so much food - I tried some of this and some of that but it was way too much to eat.

Serious pork chop!

We all climbed back into the shuttle hot, full and bloated but it was an excellent dinner.  I'm hanging out at my hotel room now, watching some shows on TV that come on early, such as Conan O'Brian - I haven't watched him in ages because he comes on too late for us West Coasters!  Tomorrow will be another day of training and eating; however, I'm praying for an early release in order to indulge in my favorite hobby - shopping the mall!  

BBQ Pit