Road Trip 3.2

      Today started only a short distance from the hospital as I spent the night in my mother's house in Richardson.  This morning she was still in her new room.  There was a chance she was going to get to move the rehab facility today...until the Cardiologist came in and decided she wanted her to stay one more night so they could ensure her heart rate was under control.  That was the highlight of the day at the hospital...everything else was routine.

     Breakfast and lunch came and went, as did nurses and aides.  Around lunch time I decided that I was hungry so I left the hospital in search of some good fast food.  As I started the car, I remembered that there was a dealership in Garland...not too far away...so I looked up the address and plugged it into the GPS and off I went.  I would eat on the run.  After doubting the GPS and going the long way, I arrived at the dealership.  It was a nicer, old dealership near I-30 east of Dallas but not on the access road.  I had some difficulty finding the entrance but finally did so by going through the shopping center attached.  I later found out that's the only way in...a bit strange.

     I got the passport stamped and headed back.  I grabbed a hamburger at a McDonald's drive thru and finished it by the time I got back to the hospital.  This time I followed the GPS and saved several minutes on the return trip.  The rest of the afternoon...until I was relieved by my sister at 4:30pm...was uneventful.  We had visits from both the physical and occupational therapists...very interesting people.

    At 4:30, I left the hospital headed for Arlington, to pick up Sharon at the hotel and then meet Courtney and family at Babe's in downtown Arlington...only a few minutes from the hotel.  After running by the house in Richardson to grab my suitcase...staying the night at the hotel in Arlington again...I got on the road to Arlington amidst rush hour traffic.

     I plugged in the coordinates of Longhorn H-D in Grapevine...once again, "on the way"... and headed that way.  I had to endure much of the traffic that drives from Dallas to Fort Worth every afternoon.  In fact, at that time of the day, there's heavy traffic going every direction it seems.

    I merged onto I-635...bad news...moved over to the left lane as soon as possible...and made my way to I-35 headed south.  Now there was a little less traffic but not significantly so.  I merged onto Loop 12 which eventually turned into Spur 408...or something like that.  That led to I-20 and I turned west toward Grapevine and the dealership.  

     Luckily, the exit I needed was only a few miles down the interstate.  I exited and drove up in front of the dealership at 5:45pm...plenty of time to look around and get to the hotel by 6:30pm.  I got the passport stamped and started toward Arlington and the hotel.  It was only a few miles away and the only bad traffic I encountered was nearing The Ballpark...Rangers game at 7:05pm!

     I pulled up in front of the hotel at 6:15pm, parked in front and took my suitcase up the elevator up to room 915.  Sharon was waiting so off we went.  I plugged the restaurant address into the GPS, and as I suspected, it wanted to take us right through the baseball game traffic.  I turned the opposite direction, got on I-30 headed west, went down a couple of exits and then turned toward downtown Arlington.  After about 10 minutes we pulled up in front of Babe's and found a parking space across the street.

     We had a nice dinner with everyone and then retreated to the hotel for a relaxing evening...even though it was almost 9:00pm.  We had a good night's rest and were ready for the next day's activities...back to the hospital and maybe a couple of errands.

     Oh, by the way, there's one more dealership in Corinth...just across the bridge from Lake Dallas...that I might to on Saturday if the conditions are right...guess we'll wait and see.