thebaldgeek

Well, we got to Dallas, took a little longer than we planed, but we got here…..

We got to the airport in plenty of time. I would rather stand around a little than be hasseled and rushing….anyway, we got the car back (Freddy did not cry this time!), caught the shuttle bus to the terminal (Avis really has the whole thing sorted), and got our selfs checked in (no, really, you do it your self on a touch screen, its a really crummy system that should be scrapped). We got our luguage scanned (A really, really crummy system that should be totaly scrapped and re thunk from the start!), and went through the shoe removal security system……a really really REALLY crummy…..blah blah blah.

We got on the plane and settled into our seats, Terry next to the window (this is important), then Amy, then Freddy, isle, then me, and two others that were friendly enough (older married couple). Bit late leaving the termial, someone parked their plane behind us and we had to wait for them to shift it. Nice smooth take off, about 10 minutes into the flight there was a series of about 8 really loud bangs, each one shook the whole plane, and the lights in the cabin flashed in time with the bangs. I looked up and out Terrys window in time to see the last two bangs, there was bright orange flames coming out of the left engine each time it banged. Terry was sitting right behind the wing, so saw the whole thing up close and personal! Talk about great in flight entertainment!
Once it stopped, there was no difference to the sound of the plane, so I thought we would just keep going….no, the pilot came on to say they had reduced power and that we would be landing back at LAX in about 10 minutes. Bummer.
When we landed, we had the fire tucks along side of us, and the airport police cleared a way for us back to the jet bridge. We all got off and milled around. There were long que’s for those that needed to re-schedule connecting flights. Finaly after about an hour, they said that they had found another plane in a hanger and that we would be leaving in 45 minutes. Well, it turned into an hour and a half, but we finaly got into the air.
Freddy was wraped as we got to fly in Dallas at night and it sure was pretty…..

So, some 6 hours after we left, we got to Dallas.

That was yesterday.

Today, we slept in and milled around for a bit while Terry slept in some more.
Once up and running, we had a  quick lunch and then drove to  Fort Worth. We went to the  6th Floor Museum. Its set up to show the events surrounding the assasination of JFK. Out side on the grassy knoll is a guy who is set up each day to “tell the real story”, I bought his magazeine and will have a read when I can, the offical story does not add up real well in my mind, Im not sure hes got all the facts, but he claimes that he has been on the job for about 40 odd years, will be interesting reading either way.

From there we went to a placed called “Stocklands”, its like down town Texas 80 odd years ago. We went to a “pub” called Billy Bob’s, they have live bull ridding, line dancing and a big bar, all under the same roof, it was pretty crazy. (And it smelt rather…..um… interesting).

Then, to dinner, then home at about 10pm. Nice full day.

TOmorrow, I hope to buy a laptop and probably not much else……

Chow for now.

Ben (and crew).

We have a eairly afternoon flight, so we are leaving mid morning……between the freeway traffic, the returning the rental car, the shuttle bus to get us back to the airport, the finding the right terminal and the check in, we need to allow plently of time, I DO NOT want to miss this flight!
They tell us that we will need our passports to check in on the flight….an internal flight in the USA, and we need our passports….Ah, the post 911 world, I feel so much safer….or not.

Had a great day at church yesterday, really nice dinner with friends last night, it was a great day.

I got photos of the car, just need some time now to get them off the camera, and get them resized and posted here, might get time at my Uncles…..

I still have not been anywhere near a Goldwing shop, so am getting a little more than keen to get that done!

Ok, we are off, Blog some more from the state of Texas!

Ben.

P.S Sorry DaveW, been meaning to let you know that we got your shoes and hat just fine. MattW, no size 14’s yet, but we ain’t done looking.
MattB, great to chat yesterday, who’s going to do the soldering on the throat mike? Not you I hope! 😉

Its been a busy few days. We have had a bit of a chance to relax, but we have also been a little busy looking at different things.

Thanks to Dan we have the weather back up and running. Turns out that it was one of the two 8 port network cards in my main HP switch had failed. Go figure, that has never happen before and should not have happen at all…. Anyway, I am not going to retract my first statement that the Windows computer had crashed, it was probably the OS that caused the card to crash…… yeah, Hi Gary!

We have a special church dinner tonight, then church tomorrow, then the next day we fly to Dallas, so its not long now till we see some very different country. Looking forward to seeing my Uncle and Aunts house and spending some time with them. We were due to have dinner with their son and his family, but they have come down with a pretty nasty bug, so they are going to miss the dinner, which is a real shame, but it sounds pretty contaigius, so we are glad they are not spreading it around.

Still need to get a photo of the car, the sad thing is that we have hardly taken any photos, not a lot to do in that regard…. I must get some of the car soon though, we may not get the same sort of car when we get back.

Well, thats about it. Thanks again Dan for fixing up the home network.

Chow for now,

Ben.

We are just back from a great day and a half at Opto22. Was really good to catch up with all the regulars, and to spend some time with Bryce and get to know each other better.

The traffic there and back was Ok, guess you can get used to it.

This afternoon we went to the Pasadena Brewery, It has about 400 hundred beers from all over the world, one guess what they had from Australia….yeah, the only non beer we make, Fosters! Never mind, in honor of my good friend Dan, I had a Canadian beer called Mooshead, it was Ok, not as good as the other I had that I totally forget, It was really nice!

After that, we went to a friends house for dinner.

Thats about it, I guess I need to add that I should listen to Gary and Dan, my Windows PC at home has crashed, and the house/dog sitter cant reboot it, so the weather is down until we get some thing arranged….yeah, well, not a lot I can do!
Chow for now.