Our trip to Texas

Jill and I have a goal to visit every state together. This past holiday weekend, we hit four of them. Late last year, when rumors started floating up that BYU may be invited to play Oklahoma in the first ever Cowboys Classic college football game, my wife suggested it might be fun to go down and see the Cougars play. This was to be the first college football game ever played in the brand new Dallas Cowboys football stadium.

I've been a BYU football fan since I was a young child, when my dad would buy season tickets for him, my brother, and myself. I can't recall my father ever going on the road to see the Cougars play an away game other than the occassional game against the Utes in Salt Lake City at Rice Eccles Stadium, so we decided to invite my folks along for the trip.

We flew out of SLC on Thursday, 9/3/09, early in the morning. Our flight to Dallas, TX was a bit weird, as we first had a layover in Minneapolis, MN and then continued on south towards TX. That night we grabbed a bite to eat to eat at Pappas BBQ, a recommendation of the hotel front desk clerk.

The next day we grabbed a quick breakfast from Sonic and then headed out on the first of the two road trips we had planned. We were going to start by heading east to Texarkana. Jill had used the very scientif "thumb on the map" method to calculate the distance, and figured that it was about 70 miles or so. It actually turned out to be about 140 miles, but it was a fun drive. Texarkana is a pretty cool little town. The Texas/Arkansas border goes right down the middle of town, and the town's Courthouse is split evenly down the middle as well. The 2nd level of the Courthouse is evenly divided, one side is all Texas offices and the other side is all Arkansas office.

After our stop in Texarkana, we drove south and crossed over into Louisiana, and stopped for a walk around Shreveport. Shreveport, LA, from what I could tell, is basically a town of casinos. It really wasn't my favorite stop, but it was cool to see at least once.

The next day was the day of the "big game". The primary reason for the whole trip in the first place. We got up and grabbed breakfast at my favorite Scottish restaurant, McDonalds, and then drove into downtown Dallas to visit the JFK Memorial and museum. Visiting the museum, as well as being able to take a tour of the warehouse that Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK from was haunting. After this tour, we drove a couple of miles away to a place Jill had read about called the Thanksgiving Gardens.

X marks the spot on this picture, of where the car was when shots were fired.
JFK Memorial

As we walked around town, you could see the many sports fans walking around the sites. The Oklahoma faithful were all clad in their crimson red, while the Cougar fans were wearing blue.

A few hours later, we dropped my mom back off at the hotel and then headed on our way to find the stadium to see the game. Oklahoma was favored to win by 22 points. The stadium was packed. Attendance was over 75,000. Most of those attending were wearing Oklahoma red. OU fans outnumbered BYU fans by at least 4 to 1. That didn't stop us from shouting and making ourselves heard. Even Jill, a proud and stubborn U of U fan, couldn't help but cheer as the Cougars fought, teeth and nails, to earn a 14 to 13 victory over OU. What a game!!!

Sunday morning we got up, grabbed breakfast at Denny's and then drove northward. Our first stop was in Dennison, TX to see the birthplace of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Then we drove around looking for Pottsboro, TX to see where my dad had first served as an enlisted military man at the no-longer existing Perrin Air Force Base. After stopping and asking around, we found an elderly gentleman at a gas station that knew where it was and pointed us in the wrong direction. Well, that almost got us there, but not quite. So it was up to Jill and her iPhone to save the day and find the directions. That's why I will always request her to be the navigator on our little trips. She's much better at directions than I am. After driving around Perrin, we headed further north up to visit Oklahoma.

It was fun to be able to say that we visited four states in just a few short days. I didn't really travel too much before meeting Jill, but now that we're married, she's passed the contagious "travel bug" my way and I have really started enjoying the trips we take. I can't wait for our next adventure together.