My latest vacation, part 2
The adventures of the gallivanting Dane
USA 2009
Part 2
Tuesday September 15th, 2009
Another day of traveling! We were picked up at the hotel at 8.40 in the morning. We had booked seats on a Super Shuttle, and they had confirmed they would pick us up at that time, and they were there on time, so no worries there. We also got to the airport on time, and once we were checked in, we went to our gate, and relaxed and looked around a bit before we had to depart for Dallas.
The flight went smooth and on time, and luckily enough our luggage also arrived with us, so all we had to do was to proceed to the rental car company and pick up our car. The agent couldn’t find our reservation at first, but apparently he did find it, since we got a car and everything!
After about 2½ - 3 hours drive we arrived at my friends, without getting lost at all, so her directions were perfect! My friends were very kind to carry our heavy bags to our rooms, which were so kind of them. We then had a nice lasagna for dinner, and just hung around and relaxed for the evening, before we headed to bed, a bit tired after the traveling and not sleeping that much the night before.
Wednesday September 16th, 2009
After a good night sleep, I got up and showered, and then went downstairs and just sat and chatted with my friend Katie, while her hubby was at work, and my friend was showering. After a short while their two dogs came in from roaming around outside (my friends live in the country side, and have a big plot of land where the dogs can run free), and they craved and got some petting and attention.
Suddenly without any warning at all one of the dogs fell to the floor and started cramping. We quickly got to our feet and Katie tried to calm it down. It didn’t last much more than a minute, before the other dog did the same, and I then tried to help out. Katie made a call to the vet, and she got the message to bring them in at once. So the three of us got the dogs into Katie’s car, and off she went, to get there as soon as possible.
My friend and I stayed at the house, and just ate and hung around reading while we waited for Katie to get back. Around 2 hours later she finally got back, and when we went out to meet her, she was pulling a big plastic bag out of her car. In it was one of their dogs, that hadn’t made it; it had actually died shortly before she got to the vet. Their second dog was still at the vet, but it looked like it was going to make it.
It turned out that somebody that put out hamburger meat heavily laced with strychnine grain and rat poison. Once Katie got to the vet, they had cut open the dog, and found out what he had eaten, which helped them save the other dogs life.
Shortly after Katie had arrived Puc (her husband) got there as well, and after a little while we went and buried the dog in one of its favorite spots in their back yard. If you want to read more about it, head to Katies journal and read Dewey’s story.
After this heartbreaking episode, we went into Abilene, and made a stop at the vet to visit the other dog, Ginger, and she was doing great under the circumstances. And to be honest, that was quite a relief!
Once we had had lunch, we went to the Air force base, Puc is in the Air force and works there, and we were allowed onto it, so we could go and look at all the airplanes that lined the road into the base. As a plane freak I loved it, and it was fun to see those planes up close and personal.
After having been around town, we went back to the vet and picked up Ginger (the other dog) and went back home. Ginger was doing good, and the vet was sure she would be OK going home.
Thursday September 17th, 2009
After having been around Abilene for a bit, we left for Dublin (Texas) to visit Dublin Dr. Pepper. As a Dr. Pepper fan, it was fun to visit it, and I have to say that the staff they had there was great, and very friendly. And my friend who never had tasted Dr. Pepper is a fan now as well! On the way to Dublin we stopped by a Dairy Queen, since my friend wanted a milkshake, and Katie and Puc mean that they have the best milkshakes, and we can only agree with them!
After Dublin Dr. Pepper, we went to visit a couple of Katie and Puc’s friends, Wanda and Bob. They are very nice people, and we had a great evening with great conversation, good food and wine, and also some very nice homemade dandelion wine, which was a first for me, but something I wouldn’t mind trying again.
Friday September 18th, 2009
Puc had to be on the base for part of the day, so Lone (my friend), Katie, and I went into Abilene mid morning, where we went to see the local library (Lone is a librarian and thought it would be interesting to see an American library). We also went to eat lunch at a place named “Hickory Street Café”, which Katie had heard should be good, and it was very good food! We all had dessert, and I had my first ever slice of key lime pie, and it was oh so good! Afterwards we went and visited the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature, which had a cool exhibition of popup books. Afterwards we went off to Frontier Texas!, which was a very good museum.
After that we went and met up with Puc at a mall, where Lone and I did a bit of shopping, and we also visited a cool comic book store. Afterwards we headed to a Mexican restaurant named Abuelo's, where we met up with some friends of Katie and Puc. We had a good evening with nice people and very good food, before we headed back to the house.
Saturday September 19th, 2009
Katie and Puc had arranged a BBQ with some of their friends, so we started out with going shopping, where both Lone and I went along, just to help out a bit, and I also wanted to buy some razor blades, since they are about half price over there, compared to Denmark.
Once we had shopped, we went back to the house, and then the afternoon went with preparing for the BBQ. In the evening we were joined by the couple we went out with Friday, and some more of their friends. It was interesting and fun to hang around and talk about difference between Denmark and the US. There was lots of great food and beer (I must say, I really like beer from the Shiner brewery!) The last two people left sometime after midnight, and then it was time to head to bed.
Sunday September 20th, 2009.
Our last full day in Texas. We started out by doing some dished and such from the day before, had a brunch, and then in the early afternoon we left for Dallas, where there was a hotel room waiting. We found the hotel, almost without problems, once we figured out that we were driving in the wrong direction on one of the highways outside Dallas ;) They didn’t have a room ready for us, but after a bit of confusion, they told us it would be ready in 15 minutes, so they sent us to the bar with a couple of drink coupons. We didn’t have to wait long before we were told the room was ready, so we headed up to it, but for some reason the key didn’t work, so I went back down again. The service was so good, that he recoded the keys, and went up with me to check it worked, which it did.
After spending just a short time in the room, we went out and headed to a Cheesecake Factory restaurant. I find their food very good, and their Cheesecake amazing. And we didn’t get disappointed at all! And it just so happened that there was a Barnes and Nobles bookstore next to the restaurant, so we spent some time there, before we went back to the hotel.
Monday September 21st, 2009.
Time to go home. We got up and left the hotel, so we would be at the airport in good time. We didn’t have any problem getting to the airport and dropping off the rental car, and getting to the terminal, where we had to check in. Check in went without any problems, but our plane was already at that point delayed by 1 hour, so it was going to be a bit close in Washington DC, where we would be changing plane to Denmark.
We landed ½ and hour before our connection left Washington, but since they didn’t have a gate free for us, we had to wait for around 15 minutes before we got to the gate, and then they had problems with the door, so it felt like it took forever for them to open it. We rushed through the airport, and arrived at out gate, which was closed shortly before we got there, we could actually see the plane parked out on the tarmac, so that was very annoying!
We went back to a United service counter, and after waiting in line for 20 minutes, the United guy couldn’t figure out how to rebook us onto another plane! So we were sent to another terminal, and another line that went for 30 minutes before it was our turn. There we were rebooked to Copenhagen, but via Frankfurt. She booked us so we had a 5 (!) hour layover in Frankfurt, even though I asked if she was sure there wasn’t an earlier connection, but no there’s only one connection between Frankfurt and Copenhagen daily! So we got rebooked to that flight, and then we went to the gate and got something to eat. I then went on-line and checked flights between Frankfurt and Copenhagen, and found out that there was a flight 45 minutes after we arrived, and 3 hours after we arrived, which didn’t surprise me. So I went back to the counter, and talked to another United person, and she was very competent and rebooked us to the flight 3 hours after our arrival in Frankfurt, since we couldn’t make the 45 minutes later connection.
The rest of the trip home went without any problems, and once we had been via Frankfurt, Copenhagen and then on the train, we got home around 7 hours delayed. Lone was lucky enough to be able to get off the train 3 hour before me, since she lives closer to Copenhagen, and the last part of the trip felt like it lasted forever. But once I was home I felt that it had been a great trip, and it went without too many problems.