Lord Praise Texas! And Lightening! Lord Praise...

No photos today. In Texas, and damn lucky.

So I get up early, pack, check out, get a cab to the airport because I don't want to trust the shuttle & metro, and you know how terribly important it is to be at the airport nice and early so they can inspect your shoes! So I got there nice and early... only to find that my flight was delayed.

Fine.

Wander around. Grab a bite. Oh, by the way, did I mention that the food in DC is terrible? I didn't have one single decent meal my whole time there. Anyway, down to the gate, and it's looking like they've move my flight to another gate, and pushed it back again. So it was supposed to be 12:45, then 1:20, then 2:10. So I wait in line at the desk at the gate, and listen to them tell the enquiring minds that they're best bet is to just go home, because the planes to Miami and Chicago and San Diego aren't going today, and may not go tomorrow.

Gulp.

My turn. "Uh... so I understand flight 1365 has been pushed back again?" "Yeah... no... It's been cancelled."

Inside I was raging. "And you were going to announce this... WHEN, exactly?", I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs. But I've seen that reality show about airports on t.v., and I know what happens to people who act like that. (Little known secret: Omar Khadr? Didn't kill a marine. His flight got bumped, and he complained. Everything else is just a cover story.)

So I'm looking outside, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the people were screaming about their cancelled flights... and I didn't get it. You're cancelling flights to EVERYWHERE?!?!? Well, yeah, pretty much. There was a major weather system covering a big chunk of the U.S. They were offering to fly me to Raleigh, then a four-hour layover then a flight to Dallas... if the weather had cleared. And I suppose I could have gone north. Well, northwest, since they also cancelled a flight to Hartford. So she's asking me what I want to do, and I'm thinking, and I'm thinking, and she says, "Hey, 3:05 to Dallas! It just opened up!" That was easy.

I still don't entirely get it. It wasn't that nothing was leaving, 'cuz things were leaving, just waaaaay fewer flights than normal. And, it turns out, Dallas got absolutely pounded last night and today, there were roads flooded, there were power outages all over....

Anyway, I made it, got my car, and tomorrow it's the Dr. Pepper Museum and Bottling Plant!!!