I woke up at 3am Thursday morning on mom's couch. After I showered and dressed, I realized I didn't have a belt. Truthfully, I kind of felt naked without it...sorry for the mage. But I have 8 or 9 belts and not one was in my luggage.
The Lyft got us to RDU on time and security and boarding went about as smoothly as possible. I have to give RDU credit, they don't even have a Starbucks anymore. They're making an effort to add as many local businesses as possible. I think that's rather admirable.
As we got on the plane, I took my middle seat, and I felt an aggressive allergy attack coming on. I guess it's no surprise considering Carolina is now entering pollen season. Seemed like I spent almost the whole 3 hour ride wiping my nose with a thin, worn out handkerchief. During final descent, all the cabin pressure went right to my head. It was that feeling of squeezing all the juice out of on orange, a slow build up of pounding tension.
We only had about 30 minutes in DFW, but wow, Terminal C looks amazing. Big LED gate signs, checkout-less shops, even a restaurant and bar named after Dirk Nowitzki. But this may be the coolest and weirdest feature that I saw. The restrooms have signs outside how many stalls are open and how far the walk is to the next restroom.
We landed in the middle of a Houston rainstorm. After collecting luggage, we took a shuttle van to the rental car center. Now we were renting with York car rental. If you're wondering what that is, I was wondering the same thing when I made the reservation. But again, $372 for 3 days and nights of a hotel and car is pretty good. The legitimate companies like Avis, Dollar, and Budget all have their own sections in the center. Not York. We had to go to the off site desk where a totally disinterested woman was holding a QR code for us to scan. A father and son were right in front of us and doing the same thing. The code brought up a 3 minute video on where to walk to get the next shuttle. So we go down the escalator and walk about 5 minutes while moving our luggage to get to the unmarked outdoor spot. I tried calling a provided number and it didn't work. There was even a rental car courtesy phone... and it didn't work either. So they're are 4 of us wondering what the hell we're supposed to do. Eventually, a white Stride van drove by. He picked us up and drove out to the site... right next to the garbage dump. And it's only appropriate because their center was a dump as well. Two desks, a vending machine, a few travel brochures, about 20 uncomfortable seats that probably came from the local dmv, some collapsing sheet rock for good measure.
We let the other 2 go first, they had to drive to Austin. Then my turn. Now I've only rented a few cars, but I didn't foresee any issues. But then they try to upsell me on pre paying tolls. Almost to the point of manipulating me. I explained I would not use tolls and the guy was pissed about it. I guess I cost him a bonus or something. Then I gave them my credit card for the deposit and it didn't go through. I never really use it anyway. But it hadn't expired, there were no issues to my knowledge. But they wouldn't accept a debit card, which was never explained in the reservation. And even though my mother was there, they would not accept her card because my name was on the reservation. Just completely absurd. Even when my mother explained to them about her years in the travel industry, he responds by saying then she should know how these systems work. He flat out disrespected her. I wanted to strangle that son of a bitch, I had to walk away to try to calm down. But they basically had me by the balls, they had the power to refuse me. I was going to have to rent a vehicle somewhere else. So we got a ride back to the center and mom had to rent a car. I then filed a report with Priceline to make them aware of the rude service and try to get some money back.
Mom was gracious enough to rent the car from Budget and it was about $310 for 72 hours. That was with 2 drivers and an airline discount. I felt absolutely sick over it. But we went to Pappadeaux, probably mom's favorite restaurant that we used frequent in Chicago. But it's Houston based, along with several other restaurants in the Pappas family. We had the seafood Cobb salad and an order of fried octopus and calamari. It's not cheap, but mom loves it. And we'd been through enough distress that morning, also factoring in a certain medical email that she received.
The rain increased, so we went to the Galleria, the bougie mall near where my hotel was. They have all the rich stores from Nordstrom to Neiman Marcus. I purchased a crimson colored neck t-shirt at a store called True Classic, which specializes in men's clothes with older looks but made of nicer materials.
Around 3 pm, we checked into the Best Western hotel. I think we were the only white guests there. After such a rough day, we rested for a bit before going to King Ranch. The restaurant stood out to me because it's a local steakhouse with an impressive Happy Hour. Of course we arrived just in time to watch the end of the Mets loss to Houston. Anyway we ordered brisket taquitos with pico, queso fresco, picked onions, and a little guacamole. Excellent. We also had the French dip sliders with caramelized onions. Two might not be a lot, but they were really good as well. Mom was full but not me, I had a bowl of prime rib chili. Excellent flavor, super meaty, just a little touch of spice. All I needed was some oyster crackers or some cornbread. But the highlight was dessert. The pecan pie was probably the best I've ever had. It was served in a hot cast iron skillet. The warm butter flaky crust...I couldn't get enough of it. Plenty of pecans in the goo with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a caramel drizzle on top. I promised myself I would not have another dessert all weekend because nothing could live up to that. Their grilled pineapple margarita was quite good too.
After dropping mom off, I drove to Neon Boots, a small local honky tonk that's been around for decades under various names. But legends like Willie Nelson and Patsy Cline used to frequent it. I was late for the line dancing class so I just sat and watched. I didn't even feel like drinking, I just felt numb on the inside after everything that had gone on. Maybe I stayed an hour and that was it. Before heading back, I made a stop at Target. I got a lame belt, the type where the cloth goes through the plastic loops. I also got a couple of waters and a USB-C outlet.
No comments:
Post a Comment