Wichita Falls

Why is it, do you think, that people are always in such a gigantic hurry to get on the plane? It's not like sitting around in an airplane seat, contemplating battery-powered dirigibles from Skymall, is such great shakes.

Yet everybody always crowds around the departure gate, jockeying for position before the boarding call even starts. People sneak on before their row number is called, or try to pass themselves off as minors traveling alone despite the fact they clearly aren't a day under 53.

I'd assume it was just that airports are so soulless and horrible that no one can possibly wait to get out of them, but everybody's in just as much of a hurry to get off the plane once it lands. The new airport isn't going to be any better than the one you left behind, people. Especially if you're flying into Dallas.

This, on the other hand, is a fairly cool way to travel:

I won't shout "PT Cruiser bruiser!" and punch you in the arm, partly because that's, like, SO 2003, but mostly because I'm not there. But I will tell you that, on the drive from Dallas to Wichita Falls today, I blew the doors off of not one, but two (count 'em! Two!) Corvettes. You heard me.

For some odd reason, their drivers appeared to be observing the speed limit.

The countryside around here is very pretty, though, not flat like Amarillo, and not rocky and scrubby like San Angelo. They've had lots of rain lately, and it's green; the pink dirt is red with moisture, and the gentle, rolling, white-fenced, tree-dotted hills of the horse country between Dallas and here remind me a bit of rural northern Virginia.

The Wichita - about a mile north of those magnificent falls here - is pretty, too.


I tried to get my boss to go to dinner at Fat Bastard Steakhouse ("Fat" McBride's, whatever) but she felt she'd had just about enough steak, and we ended up going to Red Lobster. Nothing else evokes the unique, regional flavor of the Oklahoma border quite like seafood, you know?

No complaints, though. I was up at 5 this morning. This is the most appealing sight I've seen all day.