I'm supposed to be going to Texas

In the Spring of 2002, Cyndi, my online girlfriend, flew from Ft. Worth, Texas to San Jose, California to meet me for the first time and see how things went and if we wanted to take our relationship to the next level. We had a wonderful time and spent our first night together at a very nice hotel that my brother paid for as a birthday gift to me. Cyndi made the trip for us to meet but she also flew out to surprise me for my birthday. John told me I had to pick up his wife's friend at the airport. But from him telling me to pick up Sue's friend and she wasn't going to pick her up herself that made me suspicious. With that and some other things that were clues I figured out what was going on. I surprised Cyndi at the airport instead. I had a sign and flowers. I loved her expression when she saw the sign and the flowers. After 4 days together we decided we would move forward and the next step would be for me to fly to Ft. Worth and meet her sons and her friends. In another post I'll go into detail about her visit to California.

I was able to get a good price for a flight to Ft. Worth over the July 4th weekend.in 2002. It was a 4 day weekend because July 4th was on Thursday. I had Thursday through Sunday off from work. I was able to get a ticket to leave San Jose airport at 6:00 pm on Wednesday July the 3rd and I was flying back to San Jose on Sunday. When I was ready to go I had John drive me to the airport. I went through airport security and after removing my shoes and so on, I went to my gate to wait to board the plane. You have to remember this was not long after 9/11. As I was sitting waiting to board, there came an announcement. Our flight was now delayed by 30 mins. Okay not a big deal. Just about 6:30 pm there came another announcement over the airline's P.A. system that our flight was now delayed an hour. So now we're scheduled to leave at 7:30. Now I am wondering what's wrong and I go up to the check in counter and ask the lady why the delay. She said that our plane coming in from Texas was having delays because of weather. So I sat back down and started to read a book I had with me. As it got closer to our departure time there was another announcement saying that our flight was now delayed another hour, so now we're scheduled for an 8:30 pm departure. This is getting ridiculous, but I am not about to miss seeing Cyndi and meeting her boys. Now I'm bored with my book so I go to the gift shop and buy a deck of cards. As I return to the waiting area I pick up a soda to drink and some cookies. After each delay I am using my cell phone to call Cyndi on her cell and keep her informed.

Back in the summer of 2001 I added Cyndi on my cell phone account and sent her a cell phone. This way we were on the same service and all calls from my cell to her cell were free. The time difference between California and Texas is 2 hours. So 8:30 pm in San Jose would be 10:30 pm in Texas and with a 4 hour flight to Ft. Worth that now means I would be landing around 2:30 am, Texas time. Now just before our scheduled time to leave at 8:30 we got another announcement that now we would not be leaving until 10:30 pm. Another call to Cyndi, telling her that I wouldn't be there until 4:30 am. Also we have been informed by the airlines that they could accommodate any of us by booking us on a flight at 8:00 am Thursday morning. I called Cyndi to see if she wanted to wait until the next day. This would mean that we would lose half the day on Thursday due to travel time. She didn't want to lose this and neither did I. So I sat in the waiting area waiting for my flight. Pretty soon another announcement, oh no not again, yup we are now scheduled to leave at 12 midnight. I'm supposed to be going to Texas, people!! All this time I've been going to the restroom and getting something to drink. It's not been the best time waiting, because it's July and it's been pretty warm in the airport but what can you do. I was just getting back to the waiting area when I find out that they changed my gate number and I almost missed my flight. I was one of the last 6 to board the plane. The nicest thing about this flight to Texas was that a lot of the people flying decided to wait until the next day so we had room to move around and sit where there was no one sitting next to you. It was great, especially being large like I am. The stewardess was very nice and she got me a pillow and helped me lift up the arm rests. After she got everyone settled and a lot of the passengers took a nap she also took a nap. It was a long flight for her and she was exhausted.  The flight was uneventful and we got into Ft. Worth around 6:30 am.

Texas Longhorn

Cyndi, with her best friend Yvonne and Richard, Yvonne's boyfriend, picked me up at the airport and we went to Yvonne's house. Cyndi was renting a room from Yvonne. On our trip to the house Yvonne said that we could use her brand new truck to get around. Since Cyndi was not able to drive a stick shift I had to do the driving. Yvonne had no problem with me driving. Very sweet of Yvonne. We would be  much more comfortable in her large air conditioned truck than Cyndi's non-air conditioned small car. It was really unusual that anyone would let someone that they just met drive their beautiful new truck. After getting home and getting settled we got in the truck and went to Dos Gringos for Mexican food. It was really good, I especially liked the flour tortillas. Yvonne was taking care of them, she was putting a lot of butter on the tortillas as they brought them out hot from the kitchen. The butter melted all over them and they were just wonderful. That evening we watched some Tv and then hit the sack so we could get some sleep I was so tired from that trip. I slept very little on the plane and that made for a long night. And we had plans for the next day. As tired as I was, I did make an important discovery. There is a vast difference between a king sized bed and a queen sized bed. All it took was one mis-timed roll over and this boy was on the floor. But no harm, no foul.

When we got up in the morning and got dressed and ready to go we got in the truck and we drove around to see Ft. Worth. We had a lunch date with Robin and Debbie, who were a couple of internet friends that lived close to Cyndi and I wanted to take the opportunity to meet them. We had a very enjoyable lunch and spent a very wonderful couple of hours together. After lunch we went to the  North East Mall. Cyndi was looking for a charm for her necklace and she was showing off the mall. It's a very nice mall.

On Friday we were scheduled to meet Cyndi's two sons, Gary and Joe. They came over to Yvonne's house and we sat around and chatted for awhile. After spending a couple of hours together the boys had to leave.

They were very nice and I wanted them to like me. This was very important that they did. After they left I asked Cyndi how that went, she said that she thinks that they liked me but she would know more when she could talk to them privately. (ps: they liked me)

The next day we were heading out to The Stockyards and Billy Bobs. We arrived at The Stockyards and started to walk around. There are a lot of gift shops and shops that sold western wear. They had a cattle drive through The Stockyards twice a day. One in the morning and one in the afternoon.. There was a guy dressed as a cowboy who was riding a long horn cow. After walking around The Stockyard and looking at the western shops we walked over to Billy Bob's. This place has nearly 3 acres that has a rodeo arena inside for live bull riding. Plus it has a stage and plenty of room to dance. All kinds of sitting room and arcade games. And if you want to drink, I think you can belly up to any one of the 32 bars they have. A casino if you want to make a donation. Capacity for over 6000 people. A restaurant if you're hungry and what else, actually I'm not sure you need anything else. While we were at Billy Bob's we had a couple of drinks and Richard and I played some video games. I love this picture Cyndi took of me on a Harley riding it on a video game. 

Had a great time. I'll finish the rest of this story another time.

I also got a smashed penny at Billy Bob's. Smashed pennies, now there's some stories to tell.....