Category: Travel

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Advertising Blogging Computers Driving Food Movies Sports Television Travel

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

Just because I’m not there doesn’t mean that I can’t do this:

1.  It’s 10 PM EDT in Homestead – and 9 PM CDT here on the River Walk en San Antonio as I begin posting this blog entry, and that makes it a true ‘Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts’. Normally these weekly thoughts are compiled and published late on a Tuesday afternoon, but that’s not the case this week. I was busy being a tourist on this particular Tuesday afternoon.

2.  As the 10:30 AM service was just getting started at Life Pointe Church this past Sunday morning me and my brother were just getting started with our 5-hour / 300-mile trek from Allen Texas (north of Dallas) to San Antonio. (We’ll be making the return trip back to Allen on Wednesday afternoon.)

3.  I saw this on a billboard on the President George Bush Turnpike north of Dallas – ‘YOUR WIFE IS HOT !‘ (in big bold letters). Underneath that it read (in much smaller letters) – ‘Better Get That A.C. Fixed’. Now that’s effective advertising that grabbed my (short) attention (span) !

4.  We stopped by my brother’s office in a generic high-rise office building in Dallas to pick up a few items. My immediate observation of the joint – he’s got absolutely no pictures of me in his office. Hopefully this public thought right here will give him a substantial guilt complex that will remind him to go home and retrieve a picture of me so that he can proudly display it in his office.

5.  Parts of I-35 southbound away from Dallas and towards Waco, Austin, and San Antonio kinda sorta reminded me of parts of I-4 westbound away from Orlando and towards Lakeland and Tampa. Central Texas looks a lot like Central Florida in many areas.

6.  We hit 100,000 miles in my brother’s 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee while driving southbound on I-35, and my brother actually captured the flip-over from 99,999 miles to 100,000 miles on video while driving about 75 MPH in the fast lane and passing an 18-wheeler. (I was slightly terrified during those couple of minutes.)

7.  Me and my brother ate dinner Sunday night at this place in San Antonio about 9 miles from downtown. It’s a place that I’ve been to once before – in October 2003 the last time I was in town. We saw the WWE PPV ‘Night Of Champions’ there.

8.  My brother is an official exhibitor (representing the company that he works for) at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) 2008 presented by the International Society For Technology In Education (ISTE). Picture the Exponential Conference that we attended up in Orlando this past April but much bigger than that, and instead of Pastors and church staff members it’s teachers and principals.

9.  One of the most popular blog entries of all-time on here was from January 2008. It’s the one where I posted all of those funny names for Chinese restaurants that have ‘Wok’ in its name. Well here’s a new one. Yesterday I enjoyed Lunch at a mall joint known as the ‘Side Wok Cafe’.

10.  I saw “The Happening” Monday afternoon at the movies, and I thought that it was near-perfect (if you’re in to that type of box office entertainment). It was more eye-popping than it was bonechilling. What was even more horrific than the movie itself is the fact that parents actually brought their small school-aged kids into the theatre to watch the movie as well. If you know anything about this movie then you may just agree with me when I refer to those parents as ‘irresponsible’.

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Food Travel Weather

Texas: It Reminds Me Of Florida

Late yesterday afternoon the northern skies over Allen Texas got dark, and lightning was clearly visible. But it never rained in my brother‘s neighbourhood. We drove a few miles towards the other side of town, and there was substantial flooding everywhere !  It was still raining a little bit, but it had already rained a lot. We picked-up our dinner (at Wingstop), and then we headed back home again in the puddles. Once we got back to his neighbourhood we realized that it was bone dry again. It never rained here.

It reminds me of home – a place where we can have torrential downpours for an hour over one neighbourhood in Homestead, and nothing at all everywhere else. What rain ?  We didn’t get any rain !  Are you kidding me ?

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Food God People Television Travel

Saturday Morning Shenanigans

Here are a few thoughts from my Saturday morning:

1.  I walked in to Miami Internacional Aeropuerto at exactly 6:45 AM, and by 7:15 AM I had successfully self-checked-in with my airline, picked up my tag for my suitcase, and dropped off my suitcase with the screening section. By 7:30 AM I had successfully gone through security. It took a little over 45 minutes to get from the outside of the terminal to the actual gate. That’s not too bad. Anytime I can get from outside to the gate in less than an hour is a good time.

2.  Your typical big city airport may be crowded, but it can also be one of the loneliest places in the world. It’s never about the sheer number of people. It’s always about the quality of the interaction of the people. Call it fellowship. If there’s a lack of fellowship then it’s not fully alive.

3.  There were large organized groups of missionaries at the airport. Most of them came from or were headed to various Caribbean nations (such as Haiti) to assist in the relief efforts there. I know this because they all had colourful tee-shirts on stating that they were missionairies. Some of the tee-shirts had a map of Haiti on them. Some of them had a verse from Matthew on them.

4.  I usually can’t sleep at all no matter how hard I try to up in the air, but this morning I managed to somehow catch a few catnaps at 38,000 feet. I also listened to the hits on my iPod Shuffle and watched a couple of funny CBS sitcoms on the overhead monitors – “The Big Bang Theory” and “The New Adventures Of Old Christine“.

5.  Fuddruckers – It’s What Was For Lunch !  Need I say more my friends ? 

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Blogging Travel

Blatant Promotion

OK I feel better now. I just wrapped-up the majority of my packing for my upcoming vacation. It’s either in my suitcase or in my carry-on bag. If it’s not in either of those two then I’m either not bringing it or I still need to use it between now and Saturday morning. Some people do all of their packing an hour or two before they leave – or the night before. I do most of my packing at least 36 to 48 hours in advance, and then I use that time in-between to ensure that I didn’t forget anything. I’m organized like that.

So anyway tomorrow is a special day here on the big blog. It’s ‘Friday Night Blogroll Review’ time. It’s where I give back to some of my favourite bloggers in the blogosphere. Check out some of my favourite blog entries of this past week. You won’t regret it pal.

Then on Saturday be sure to check out my ‘Saturday Morning Shenanigans’ which will probably be all about my crazy adventures from Homestead to MIA to DFW to Allen Texas on Saturday morning. Look for it on here on Saturday night.

On Sunday I present to you a very special off-season edition of ‘The Major’s Walk-A-Thon’ LIVE from the River Walk en San Antonio.

It’s all comin’ up this weekend – right here on ‘The Major’s Life Blog’.

Have a cool and relaxing Thursday night everyone, and until we hang out again on here remember this:

Camoulflage Couch