1st Report from Dallas
Arrived yesterday in staggered shifts from different locations - everyone super excited to be here. Couple of notes:
1) DFW airport was designed by drunk Martians, not engineers. Very convoluted and difficult to maneuver around in the complex particularly if you have folks flying in on different airlines. Tiny little alleyways and if you aren't paying attention and miss your cutoff you are screwed. The rental car complex is a 15 minute bus ride significantly off the property and you think you're being taken to Siberia by the time you get there. And when you drive back in, you pay a toll.
2) Everyone super friendly and welcoming. Lots of "Michigan is arriving", "Michigan's in the house" comments as we are at bag claim and moving around. One thing we didn't take into account is that all the other ESS EEE SEE teams are on our side and pulling for us to knock off Bama. Lots of hand shakes and high fives form LSU fans, Aggie fans, Arkansas fans telling us they are Michigan fans on Saturday.
3) At Albertson's last night to stock up, there is a very attractive Texas Big Hair housewife with a cart full of enough bottled water to last till Christmas in front of us at checkout. As she is paying, she turns to us and looks us up and down and smiles sweetly and says "Roll Tide". We had a blast telling her she would be learning all about Hail To The Victors this weekend, Bama fans seem nice and friendly and not malicious just supportive and fun folks.
4) Lots of freeway construction in this town. And they don't mark things well so if you encounter any, the driver needs to pay close attention - miss one cutoff and you're lost. We are using Texas 114 going west from DFW and it's a real challenge to stay on the right highway!
5) Opted to stay in the Champions Circle complex in Ft Worth. Nice Marriott, nice Greg Norman golf course, and right across the street from Texas Motor Speedway where we have a tour and test drive scheduled tomorrow morning. Just Chili's for dinner last night watching the Cowboys game but headed to downtown Ft Worth for real Texas food with all the good rec's in hand from the folks who took the time to post earlier about local hotspots for us - thanks to all of you for making this trip even more fun.
It's 100 degrees +, pack your sunscreen and GO BLUE!
August 30th, 2012 at 11:19 AM ^
August 30th, 2012 at 11:51 AM ^
I'm not going to the googles when I need reliable info. I'm going where I get the best news first, MGoBlog.
August 30th, 2012 at 8:37 PM ^
August 30th, 2012 at 12:24 PM ^
Craig James.
August 30th, 2012 at 11:02 AM ^
August 30th, 2012 at 11:04 AM ^
should be saying, "Keep right-ish"!
August 30th, 2012 at 11:02 AM ^
Appreciate the update. Leaving in T-minus-8:15. Can't wait!
August 30th, 2012 at 11:07 AM ^
August 30th, 2012 at 1:21 PM ^
Couldn't you just Apparate?
August 30th, 2012 at 11:08 AM ^
Like everyone is saying, Construction is Terrible around this time of year ( Too hot in the summer for Construction). 635 is an absolute MONSTER, if your Gps tells you to get on this freeway, STAY AWAY. That goes for anyone staying in North Dallas, Plano, Addison, Garland... Even at night there will be wall to wall traffic
August 30th, 2012 at 11:40 AM ^
sorry, double post
August 30th, 2012 at 11:14 AM ^
in case anybody is unaware there IS IN-N-OUT IN FT WORTH NEAR THE TCU CAMPUS. you're welcome.
August 30th, 2012 at 11:19 AM ^
W: It's on Radford, near the in-n-out burger.
TD: The in-n-out burger's on Camrose.
W: Near the in-n-out burger.
D: Those are good burgers, Walter.
W: Shut the fuck up, Donny.
August 30th, 2012 at 11:17 AM ^
August 30th, 2012 at 4:06 PM ^
Sonny Bryan's is usually pretty good. Salih's used to be good - I don't know if it's still there, though. I lived there in the early 80's.
August 30th, 2012 at 11:33 AM ^
August 30th, 2012 at 11:39 AM ^
Left Tulsa yesterday and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol is everywhere.
August 30th, 2012 at 12:00 PM ^
August 30th, 2012 at 12:14 PM ^
HEB FTW
August 30th, 2012 at 12:19 PM ^
I actually think it's one of the best layouts for any of the mega-airports I've been to. Yeah, it's a heck of lot harder to get around than, say, CMH but whe you compare it to the other mega-airports in it's level I think it's boat loads better than LAX, O'Hare, JFK and MIA. I really don't get the tiny little alleyways thing - there are signs everywhere saying which way to what terminal. Now if you came in in terminal A I can understand that - half of it is under construction (yes, it's a theme here in DFW...)
Most all of the road construction is around the airport - once you get south of it and off of 183/121/114 you should be good to go although you're still going to deal with traffic depending on where you are and which way you'll be going as it relates to traffic. ALWAYS check the traffic before you leave to go anywhere - a wreck on a major highway and kill an hour easily...
Sunscreen? What's that?? It's too hot to be outside! ;)
August 30th, 2012 at 12:26 PM ^
August 30th, 2012 at 12:58 PM ^
I'm going to rent the floors above and below the alabama teams hotel rooms and throw a wild party friday night. I would have hired some hookers but, I'm afraid Craig James might show up and we all know how that ends!
August 30th, 2012 at 1:27 PM ^
I attended a conference in Dallas a while back, and the travel information provided by the conference actually included this warning: "For your return flight out of Dallas, please arrive at DFW an hour earlier than you would normally arrive for a domestic flight at any other airport."
August 30th, 2012 at 6:08 PM ^
August 30th, 2012 at 8:34 PM ^
August 30th, 2012 at 9:45 PM ^
Stuck In Ohio 2 reccomended Joe T Garcia's in Ft Worth as a destination for authentic Tex-Mex. Our group hit Joe's tonight and the reviews are universally positive. Only two mains, either encheladas or fajitas but we wobbled out of there very impressed - guacamole like you have never had before. No reservations unless a group of 20 or more but plenty of parking just south of the StockYards complex. Not as fancy as it looks on the website and a big casual patio flips no problem. GO BLUE!