Category: Shopping

Road Trip !

~ Chris M. Day ~ Leave a comment

I spent a week with my family (immediate and extended) in North Texas during the last 7 days of September. (I actually flew back home to South Florida on October 01ST.)

During the #Texoma portion of my visit we continued tradition by going on a fun road trip about an hour or two away from the Wichita Falls area. In previous years we’ve gone north, east, southeast, and south. This year we went a new direction – northeast – about 70 miles to the historic town of Duncan Oklahoma. We visited a fun museum – the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center & Garis Gallery Of The American West. We also checked-out a large nursery (garden store) as well as some antique stores along the way.

Up until a couple of years ago I was made aware of the destination(s) of our road trips days and even weeks in advance. That allowed me to do research to find out more about it. But then last year my first cousin once removed (leader of our road trips) decided that it would be more fun if I knew nothing about the destination until we got there. She wanted it to be a surprise to me. We’ve occasionally made a wrong turn and gotten lost along the way to some of our destinations, so it seemed like a surprise to her as well. But getting lost along the way is part of the fun of a family road trip.

We didn’t get lost on this road trip to and from Duncan. My cousin knew exactly where she was going.

Another educational and entertaining road-trip is in the books, and I’ve got the photos to remind me of the good times that we shared together. I’m looking forward to the next destination in September of 2021.

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries

My Lunch At P.F. Chang’s

~ Chris M. Day

I planned it well in advance. It seemed to execute without a hitch, and then …

Our County Mayor reopened our restaurants for inside dining (at 50% capacity) this past Monday August 31ST for the first time since the 2ND week of July. (They were previously open during the 2ND-half of May, all of June, and into July.)

I decided to eat inside a restaurant for Lunch on that first day of business, and that restaurant was P.F. Chang’s – about 17 miles away from home. It’s been over 6 years since I ate a meal at P.F. Chang’s, and I had a unique craving – for their banana spring rolls with caramel-vanilla drizzle and coconut-pineapple ice cream.

Well I never got to that epic finale. As I’m about two-thirds done with my beef and broccoli with brown rice lunch bowl (delicious) – the restaurant is plunged into darkness. The music stops, the lights go out, the air conditioner shuts-down, and the staff start panicking and yelling at each other to “check the breakers ! – check all of them !”.

The manager then started making some frantic telephone calls, and he soon realized that the “biggest breaker” that serves the entire outdoor shopping mall (100+ stores and restaurants) blew, and it could be anywhere from 30 to 40 minutes before it could be seen and repaired.

I was their only dine-in customer at the time. My waiter came over to me and apologized for the situation, and we had a good laugh about it. I was able to finish my meal in the dark. (I was seated at a booth by a window, so there was plenty of light to see.) I also started sweating while finishing my meal since temperatures were rapidly climbing inside the restaurant.

I paid my bill – manually – the old-fashioned way – before modern credit card devices existed – and I departed the now closed shopping center for home.

Those banana spring rolls with caramel-vanilla drizzle and coconut-pineapple ice cream await me for another day.

All rights reserved (c) 2020 Christopher M. Day, CountUp Ministries