From Toby’s previous
post, you know that we were in Dallas for an overnight. Toby did not have any
of her sleeping accessories for that night. I didn’t have any chance of getting a white noise machine but I felt confident I could find some ear plugs. Toby had already been to the Qwik-E-Mart at the Shell gas station, and they didn’t have any ear plugs.
Since we were in an area with so many hotels, I thought that it wouldn’t be any problem to get them at a gift shop (our hotel didn’t have any). I took Max with me to walk to another hotel. It was about 9 pm local time, but 7pm body time. We walked to the closest hotel, and they didn’t have any either. The next hotel we walked to had just sold the last pair. I didn’t want to be out all night, so I thought I would go to the most likely place to have them. There was a big Marriott hotel looming over all the rest.
The Marriott was farther than the others, it appeared to me to be about a quarter mile away. But I could walk that, no problem. Max and I started off. We cut through the parking lot of one hotel, and then across a field to get to the road that led to the Marriott. We stepped over a little cable fence and were walking on the shoulder of the road. It was much farther than a quarter mile. As we were walking alongside the road, I wondered why there was no side walk. But it was Texas. Maybe they don’t have sidewalks.
Also, cars would pass us at very high speeds. I decided that Max and I would walk in the dirt next to the blacktop. Max quickly got tired of walking, and so I hoisted him on my shoulders. Cars were passing us at much too high of speeds, and when I saw the big green sign over the street, I realized I wasn’t on a street, I was on the shoulder of the freeway! But the Marriott was just a little further…
It took about 35 minutes of speed walking to get to the Marriott. We came up on the back side of the hotel, and almost immediately a security guard came up and shined his flashlight in my eyes. He said that we couldn’t use the back entrance to the hotel and I would need to go around the hotel to main entrance. I replied that I was looking for the front entrance. He seemed a bit confused by this and after a couple turns of the wheels in his head, he decided that he could escort us to the front of the hotel. As we were walking he explained that the Dallas Cowboys were staying at the hotel and the back portion of the hotel was sealed off. I didn’t really care, I was just hoping that the earplugs were here.
Praise God, the gift shop was open and had ear plugs for sale. 89 cents. After the purchase, I asked the concierge where the cab stand was. He said the cabs were right out front. I went out and didn’t see any vehicles with any markings that identified them as cabs. I went back inside and asked where the cabs were. In an exasperated voice (and a slight eyeroll) he said they were right outside the front. In fact, he said, there were 3 cabbies coming in at that moment. I asked the group if I could get a cab back to my hotel. Sure, one said, my cab is right out front. I followed him to the ‘cab’. He opened the back door of a Lincoln and motioned for me to get in. There were no signs, no markings of any kind that this Towncar was for hire. I got in and told him where I needed to go. We went a different way (not on the freeway), but the distance from the Marriott to our hotel was just under two miles. Quarter mile, hah!
That cab ride was the best $10 I spent in Dallas.