Traveling Kings

One year ago, our family was traveling to sunny and exotic Phoenix, Arizona, to follow our Oklahoma State Cowboys in the Fiesta Bowl.  This season, the wins did not add up like we would have preferred, and the team is playing in the Heart of Dallas Bowl.

But just as the team will suck it up and prepare to play their best game, we will make the most of our situation and bring our A game as fans.  Go Pokes!

This morning, Marissa (9yo) brought her A game for breakfast.  She made a point of telling me, “Dad, be sure to write in the blog that I ate 4 waffles!”  And then she topped that off with a blueberry muffin from QuikTrip.

Continuing with the food theme, while driving through Henryetta, OK, we passed a convenience store that was offering a “BLT or Fried Bologna Sandwich” on their marquee.  Luckily, Marissa was still full from breakfast.

We have made the road trip from Tulsa to the Dallas metro area via Highway 75 untold times.  There is not much along the way we have not seen.  But this trip, we decided to stop in Denison, Texas, and check out the President Dwight D Eisenhower Veterans Monument.

Miles, Marissa and Mallory standing in the cold with President Eisenhower.

The ironic part of the King family visiting the birthplace of President Eisenhower is that Stephanie completely and absolutely detests Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System.  I think Stephanie may have only agreed to stop at this attraction so she could badmouth the President’s statue face to face.

President Eisenhower’s statue fittingly looks out over a busy highway.

We had an uneventful trip to the home we are staying at in Carrollton, but it was quite the contrary for my parents and brother, who drove down Interstate 35.  They experienced snowfall all the way from Chandler to Ardmore.

My parents have secured a vacation home for our stay in Dallas, which was an adventure in itself.  After efforts to locate a home via VRBO.com and craigslist were unsuccessful, we finally found the home for us on airbnb.com.

We arrived at the home first, around 1:30, and we could not get our copy of the house key to open the door.  How fitting that while in Dallas to attend a bowl game dedicated to ending homelessness, we could not get into our home.

Shortly, the rest of the party arrived, got the door open, and we got settled.  A great deal of time was spent figuring out who was going to sleep in which bedrooms, and figuring out what day-to-day things we still needed to purchase for the home.  Once that was settled, we enjoyed some lunch, watched a bowl game that was on the tube, and played a little ping pong.

As it is Mallory’s birthday tomorrow – turning 13 – we have given her a lot of latitude on our itinerary these first few days.  Mallory has spoken and Mallory wants to SHOP.  So after lunch, we made a beeline for the Grapevine Mills Mall and did some outlet shopping.

There is fun to be had when you find a moustache on a stick.

Mallory wearing a fine looking chicken hat.

Maybe it was the fact it was a travel day, but after only about 2 hours, everybody was pretty well tired of shopping, and we shut the party down.  KK had walked across the parking lot and across the street to a Bass Pro Shops and essentially got stranded.  By the time he was done, traffic was so bad he was not interested in walking back to the mall, so we picked him up as we left.

We went off in search of dinner at Uncle Julio’s, but we were told to expect a wait of at least 1 hour for our party of 8.  Ugh, we were too tired and hungry for that.  So we left and found our way to a Saltgrass Steakhouse.  Good decision!

Before going inside the steakhouse, we paused for a moment in the parking lot to sing Happy Birthday to my Uncle Joe.  He admitted he had been waiting all day for our call, and that it was the highlight of his birthday.

Uncle Joe gets a birthday serenade.

The Saltgrass Steakhouse was just what we all needed.  Everybody loved their meal.  At least at our table.  Halfway across the restaurant, one patron had to be carted off by paramedics.  Yikes!

Dinner at Saltgrass.

Before we could head back to the house, we had a final stop at Wal-Mart to purchase an inflatable mattress for Stephanie & I, a birthday cake for Mallory, and a few other assorted items.

Miles and PK relaxing at Wal-Mart.

Steve pushes Mallory and Marissa on the cart through the parking lot. Big Fun!

Once back at the house, all the beds got made and I struggled to get the WiFi connection to work.  We were still awake at Midnight when Mallory officially turned 13.  She got a few “Happy Birthday” greetings from us and also facetimed one of her good friends back home.

Tomorrow we look forward to a full day of shopping plus the arrival of my Uncle Joe and Aunt Judy from Stillwater.