Texas by the Numbers

 McKinney, TX

Our time in The Lonestar State until we return in January

Packing Day

Today is packing day and that isn't very interesting so Texas by the Numbers it is!

Texas by the Numbers

We will have just over 1000 miles of Texas highways driven (this doesn't include side streets or county roads) at the end of the day.

We add another 100 miles on the way out. 

This map is really hard to see.  The bold lines are the highways we have traveled in Texas.

We added 35 new counties to our county total

We still have a long way to go to finish Texas.

We added 2 New Tiki Bars to our list

Swizzle in Dallas, TX

4 Kahunas in Fort Worth, TX

We added Texas Pinball to our list of places we have played.

Arcade 92 Retro Arcade and Bar

We added Public Transit to our list

- Dart Rail Red Line

- Dart Rail Orange Line

- Dart Bus Route 3

We added 3 new places where we have spent the night in Texas

Amarillo, McKinney, and Longview Texas

We added 1 new Brewery to our list

Siren Rock Brewing in Rockwall, TX

We went Thrift Store Shopping in a new state (Texas)

We visited 6 new museums

Morton Museum of Cooke County Gainesville, TX

Colin County History Museum McKinney, TX

Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary, McKinney, TX

Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX

Perot Museum, Dallas, TX

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX

We went to the movie theater 3 times and saw;

- Thor: Love and Thunder

- The Gray Man

- Nope

We visited 1 new Farmers Market

We went to our first Guinea Pig /  Rabbit Show as well as our first Dressage Competition.

Keep your fingers outside of the cage at all times

Simon and Sharon doing their thang

To quote Ferris Bueller, "Nothing - wha - what do you mean nothing good? We've seen everything good. We've seen the whole city! We went to a museum, we saw priceless works of art! We ate pancreas!" (we didn't eat pancreas but we did have Ramen)

The "whole" city!

Went to a museum

Priceless work of art

Not pancreas

So to wrap up McKinney, we didn't do as much as we waned to do because it was really hot and we were far from public transit, but we did do a lot and had a great time doing it.  We even got to catch up on some of the shows we love and I got to watch quite a bit of the World Series of Poker.  Most importantly we got to spend time with family we haven't seen in a long time.  We got to hang out with Sharon (Donna's Sister) and we got to know Erika (our niece) a lot better.  We got to trade experiences.  We showed them some of the things we love and they showed us some of the things they love.  It was a cultural exchange! Next stop, Tulsa, OK.  You can read about it here (kidding, I can't link to a place I haven't visited and a post I haven't done yet).

If you didn't get to see yesterday's post you can check it out here.  

Bonnie Wenk Dog Park and Game Night

 McKinney, TX

Bonnie Wenk Dog Park

Back to the Dog Park

This morning we took Francis back to Bonnie Wenk Dog Park.  He enjoyed running around and smelling other dogs.  It was pretty warm so all of the dogs were pretty mellow.  I looked up Bonnie Wenk and found out she was a local environmentalist and was active in the local City Council.  The park opened in 2013 and Kyle Brooks & the Rhythm & Beards performed on the lawn that evening.  It appears that the park has outlasted the band because I can't find anything about Kyle or the Beards.  You can read about her here if you are interested.  

They have a place where kids and dogs can play in the water.  I waited until the kids were out of the shot to take the photo.

Donna and Francis enjoying the shade

Francis keeping his distance

Errands and Game Night

After dropping Francis off at home, we went out to run errands.  I mailed my big camera to a friend to borrow / check out to see if he wants to buy it.  I am not using it and it is taking up a lot of room. We also picked up dessert items for tonight.  Sharon and Erika came over for game night.  They brought dinner and we provided the dessert.  There are a few board games here at the house so we played Clue.  In the end I lost.  I knew the killer and the weapon and was down to 1 of 3 rooms and I guessed wrong.  They were all closing in so I felt I had to take a chance.  I didn't feel so bad because I only wrongly accused the location, I still got the right killer.  

The rest of our stay here consists of packing up on Friday and leaving Saturday morning.  We are ready for a new adventure!

If you didn't read about yesterday, you can see it here.

Hollow Knight

 McKinney, TX

On the Couch playing Hollow Knight

Today was a lazy hot day.  We didn't have any plans so I played Hollow Knight pretty much all day long.  I used to play games all the time.  I would have 2 different games going at once and switch back and forth when I got stuck or frustrated.  The other day Erika (our niece) was over and brought her switch to show me some games.  She chose Hollow Knight and let me play.  I was pretty hooked from that moment on.  It's a great platformer with really great design, really compelling progression, and great boss design.  I have been deep into some games over the past few years but this game hasn't put me in the "well I have come this far, I just need to finish it" mode like some of the other games I have played in recent years.  Hollow Knight started out as a Kickstarter game and raised money for initial development back in late 2014 and was released in early 2017.  It went on to be released on many platforms and had sold over 3m copies by 2020.  There is a sequel in development.

I am taking my time going through and collecting as much as I can.  Some of the bosses are really hard so I am trying to over develop my character to help me get through them.  I am not as good of a gamer as I once was and this game isn't known for being easy.  I have also been getting tips from Erika when I get stuck. She said there is a boss that took her a week to figure out.  That's going to be tough.

We have 2 more full days here in McKinney and don't plan on going out much.  I will continue to play Hollow Knight and we have a lot of packing and organizing to do before we hit the road Saturday morning.  We are excited for our next adventures in Kansas City MO.  We already have some solid plans and we are in the heart of everything there and close to public transit so it will be a more familiar month for us.  

If you didn't read yesterday's Nope post you can find it here.  

Nope is a Yep!

 McKinney, TX

Another Movie Day

Today we went to Moviehouse and Eater again for their $6 Tuesdays.  It's a great way to beat the heat and we are remembering how much fun it is to see reasonably priced movies.  When we were dating we would see multiple moves in a week or even sometimes in a day.  We let Sharon know and she decided to come along after making sure it wasn't a slasher horror movie.  Nope is another great movie by Jordan Peele.  The three of us really enjoyed it.  

Nope was playing on quite a few screens

Thrift Store Shopping

Donna and I haven't been thrift store shopping since we got to Texas so the three of us went to Goodwill after the movie.  I looked for the usual shirts related to breweries, Tiki, and I also want one that says Dallas or McKinney on it somewhere.  I didn't find anything.  It seemed like this thrift store had very low inventory in the men's section except for suits and long pants.  Donna did find a nice pair of lounging shorts that looked pretty Tiki so it was a good stop.  The rest of the day I played Hollow Knight and we watched Disney+.  It was a pretty chill day.

I did take a few photos on our evening walk so I could remember where we stayed and how it looked.  

I was looking around for photos to take and didn't notice I was walking through sprinklers

The hidden Peace, Love, Unity, Hope, McKinney sign

Some historic houses have permits to use a lot of water to keep their yards nice.  Others do not and have to let the grass die in the heat.

This is where the fire ants live.  See the relevant post about fire ants here.

If you didn't read yesterday's post check it out here.  

Fort Worth, TX and Tarrant County Part 2 This Time It's Arlington!

Arlington, TX

4 Kahunas Tiki Lounge

Tiki in Texas Take 2

After our Ramen lunch we drove to Arlington, TX to visit 4 Kahunas Tiki Lounge.  While I was taking photos of the front a man in a Tiki shirt walked in so I figured it was a good omen.  We got there about 45 mins after it opened.  I had read it wasn't overly crowded on a Sunday and they were right.  We were seated at a booth.  The bar was filled with people in Tiki attire.  This isn't an unusual thing but it did seem like more people were dressed up than I would have expected.  Donna looked for a moment and then said, "Ah, that's a Tiki meet up!"  Soon a server was there to take our order.  Sharon and Erika asked about mocktails and they said they could make drinks for any flavor profile so they went over the juices that they like.  Donna and I stuck to the menu. 

They have a patio out front for when it isn't 10000000 degrees

The aforementioned man in a Tiki shirt

I haven't been to very many Tiki Bars with a Neon sign.

They too had merch

They had great animated lighting like Darrin's bar

The bar was hopping!  Donna was right, it was a monthly Tiki Meet Up (more on that later)

When we were seated a dog ran and jumped into our laps.  You can see everyone is a bit starteled.

He was a kind dog.  This is the best photo we have of him with me.

More of the bar and the meet up.

I liked the carved birds in this lamp.

Another Skateboard Deck

Chugging Monkey

Since it was Erika and Sharon's first Tiki experience, I made sure my first drink was on fire.

And I posed with it.

Sometimes the bathrooms are decorated.  This one had shared strip mall bathrooms so they were not.  They did have this plaque on the door when you came back.

My 2nd drink was a Cobra Fang.  Complete with an Orange Peel Cobra Garnish

I posed with this one too

Another photo of the chugging monkey

Shrunken Head Lamp

As we were finishing our drinks, a young lady from the meet up came over and introduced herself and asked if we were with the meetup as she pointed to my Tiki shirt.  We said that it was a happy coincidence and that we just happened to be visiting.  She told us about their group, Texas Tikiphiles,  and how they meet up monthly.  Last month they went to Swizzle, you can read about my trip here, and next month they are going to Tarantula Tiki Lounge which wasn't even on my radar.  She asked about us and we told her all about our trip and our checklist items including visiting Tiki Bars.  She was very interested.  We had a good chat and then she returned to her group.  By this time about half of the group had left.  There were about 4 left and you could tell that they were friends as well as a part of the group.  On our way out they called me over to talk about our US Tiki Tour.  I explained that Tiki was just some of our checklist items and told them all about our travel goals.  They gave me some really good Fort Worth area tips that I hope to use next time we are in the area.  We also talked about some of the Tiki Bars we had all been to and they knew the up and coming Tiki Bars that were on our list to visit.  At the end of the talk we exchanged Insta info and they asked if I was documenting the trip so I gave them the blog into too.  If y'all are ready this, it was very nice meeting you all and I hope to see you at future Tiki stops.  I am going to follow along on their Insta as well as keep tracks of their Facebook page.

County Progress

Since Tarrant County was a new county for us I figured I would show our county progress.  

We have made a dent in Texas.  We will get 2 more counties on the way out and then we will be back in January to get some southern counties.

Here is our US progress.  It looks pretty much the same but on Saturday we begin to head north again so things are going to change!  We are excited for our up coming road trip.

If you haven't read Part 1, check it out here.