Thursday we went to the Greyhound bus company and bought tickets to go to Dallas for our conference. Our ride home was very late and we ended up waiting an extra hour. Thursday night we went out for Indian food, one of my favorites, and went to bed as early as we could.
Ron had dirty pants, so I had to wash 2 pair of his and one of mine before we could go. My washer did the job.
We left the next morning with 2 pairs of pants each, socks, underwear, etc. Ron carried a backpack with his stuff, I carried a small duffel bag with mine.
Paratransit picked us up on time. It was the same driver who had made those comments a while back, the ones that would have gotten him in big trouble with the Secret Service had they found out. The driver told us how he has gotten into trouble for yelling at the clients, and how one of them videoed him yelling at her and sent it to management. It was an interesting ride.
We got to the Greyhound. Now the terminal in Houston (one of the largest cities in the country) has about 20 gates. They have a ticket counter and an information desk.
We went to the ticket counter and asked about the gate for our departure. Gate 14. They freaked out over the wheelchair until I told them Ron was "Going to have a miracle healing and walk onto the bus". They told us to get the ticket stamped for priority boarding, at the information desk.
But there wasn't anyone at the information desk. Someone showed up right about the time I had planned to ask for a manager.
I left Ron with the bag and got some drinks. He warned me I would have to use the toilet on the bus.
That wouldn't be a problem. Although I have had problems, every time I go to use the toilet the driver gets off the freeway and I have to grab onto the walls to keep from falling, as the chemical laden tank sloshes beneath me.
They boarded us. We checked the wheelchair and had them put it underneath. I was worried it might get damaged, or left behind, but figured I had to trust in God or what.
Ron sat in the second row of seats, by the window. He held both bags. We had our medication in our bags so we didn't want to let them out of our possession. That would be a horrible weekend for both of us without (Ron's nerve disease medication, and my mood stabilizers and antipsychotic) our pills.
We left. It was a pretty uneventful ride. About 2 hours in, I had to pee. I had drunk a total of 2 and a half liters of diet soda by this point.
I went to the toilet on board the bus. The toilet was fine, but, sure enough, the driver exited the freeway as I peed. We were taking a break in Buffalo, Texas.
We had passed a lot of rolling hills with oak trees, and pine trees that grew in a Christmas tree shape. I liked the latter a lot. I wanted to decorate them.
I disembarked. Ron stayed. I bought some snacks and came back. They had a chicken place next door to the gas station and a lot of customers were buying chicken.
Fried chicken, the original traveling food. I don't like chicken much, unless it is in Indian food.
We continued. As we got to the end of the line, I saw a bunch of gospel/pro life bulletin boards. I enjoyed them.
When I was a little kid, my (step) mom and I took my little (step) brother for an errand. We didn't know a radical group was protesting the local abortion office. They circled our car as we passed on the road, screaming, shoving photos of dismembered babies up against the windows, and shouting at Mom. She finally gunned the engine and floored it, they got out of the way!
She was furious, and both of us kids were traumatized. She took us out for ice cream. I don't believe that is the way to get the prolife message out. I prefer a photo of a smiling newborn with "choose life!" or, as I saw on one billboard, "Smile, your Mother chose life!". Much better.
They also had some evangelical/gospel messages. I enjoyed them. It's nice to know I'm not the only one out there, although it can feel that way at times.
We finally got to Dallas. They were having a huge parade and most of the streets were blocked off. We waited until everyone got off, then we disembarked. Ron did fine getting on and off the vehicles.
They had the wheelchair waiting by the stairs, a very nice touch, I thought.
We cut through the terminal. It was very small and only had 6 gates. I asked if they had a cab stand and they looked at me blankly, then pointed out to the street.
I went out, only to see someone getting into the only cab. I asked the driver to "come back" when she dropped the other client and the driver asked our destination. I told her. She wanted us to get in with the other customer and share the fare.
I had a VERY bad feeling about it, so we said we would "wait". The driver tried to get us again but we said no, and lookee there, there's a guy getting out of another cab. I raced over there.
I was pushing the wheelchair. We had Ron's backpack on the back of the chair and he held my small bag across his lap. The other guy was paying.
When he left, we told the driver where we were going and he was very interested (as it turns out, it was a $40 trip). I loaded the wheelchair and he loaded the bags. It was a nice cab, basic, not too fancy, but clean and in good working order. That's all I wanted.
As we left downtown, I mentioned how I had talked to a cab driver who once drove around for half an hour, because his client wanted to find a hooker.
"I can get you a prostitute in 5 minutes" he bragged, grinning. I laughed, so did Ron, and we assured him we weren't looking.
He had a hard time getting out of downtown due to the parade. Downtown Dallas has some nice, big, buildings. Dallas is a lot smaller than Houston but the buildings are about the same size.
We got to the hotel about half an hour later. We got all our crap, Ron paid, and we got a receipt. We also got the driver's number so we could maybe take him on Sunday when we left.
We checked into the hotel. It was a very nice chain hotel. It had lots of floofy pillows. I liked that. So many times, hotels are cheap with the pillows, only giving you 2 pillows for a king bed. That just isn't going to cut it. I use 2 pillows ideally every night, and at home, I use a total of 4.
I was happy with the room. The wallpaper and art were kind of lame but how much time would we be spending there, anyway? We took a nap.
Ron had me set the thermostat to warmer, so I did that. The heater made strange noises as it cut off, though, and woke me up every time. It sure makes me appreciate my heater.
We got up and went looking for other blind vendors. We found them at the bar. There was supposed to be a prime rib dinner somewhere but I hadn't printed up the agenda. I had no idea where to find it.
Ron decided to drink at the bar. I had diet coke with lemon wedges. Ron had Jack Daniel's, straight. He had a total of 4 drinks.
After a while I saw a lot of the other vendors were ordering bar food, which apparently came from a kitchen on the lower level, and eating that. So we weren't the only ones skipping "the dinner".
We decided to eat at the bar. I got a bacon cheeseburger and Ron got one with sausage and peppers on it. We saw some friends and talked. The director of the program came by, chatted with us, and toasted Ron. We saw our direct boss and offered to buy him a drink but he never took us up on the offer.
I drank about 4 diet cokes and after a while, we decided to go to our room. We paid our tab (didn't want to charge it to the room), and went to bed.
That was day 1.
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