Roadtrip One: Denton, TX

I now have a watch that beeps on the hour. I am not pleased.

My watch glitches. Despite the fact that I've fixed the date several times over the past few months, it now tells me its actually February 25th. And Sunday. Which corresponds with neither today nor this past February 25th. But I can live with that, which is strange, because I never know what the date is on my own. Nonetheless, a watch that beeps on the hour even after I have turned that particular feature off is not my friend. I don't need to know when the hour has changed, watch. I don't need your irritating, infernal beep in the background to remind me.

Anyway.
I've been MIA because I've been solitary roadtripping, which is awesome. Let me see if I can recall it all.

Part One: Denton, TX

Sometime a few months back I commented that watching Elizabethtown made me want to road trip. I would find it for you, but alas my subject titles don't help me.

Two weekends ago, I drove down to Denton for the weekend to visit with Philip & Kelly which was lots of fun & relaxing. We watched pieces of three new-to-me tv series' (Fringe, Better off Ted & the very curious documentary The Universe. Ever watched someone bowl with Jupiter?).

Kelly introduced me to downtown Denton which was a lovely smorgasbord of shops and restaurants, including one that serves homemade ice cream in chilled glasses. It was very delicious. And there was Pialo's Pizza (probably spelled incorrectly, but also incredibly delicious). And Chick Fil A breakfast. And Kelly's chicken parmigiana. And lots of Dr. Pepper. Chiptole. Wow. We ate really well. :) (Oh, and the gingersnaps! And chocolate/ginger candy bar!)

On Saturday Kelly & I visited the Dallas Zoo, which I had never been to before. What a beautiful zoo! The perfect combination of easy to view areas as well as lots of conservation information. They had recently opened a huge new section of the Zoo up (The Giants of the Savanna) filled with six elephants, impala, ostriches & giraffes to run around in (and Vern, the lone zebra!) All the exhibits were full and we managed to see almost all the park in four hours. Nicely done. Always something to look at.
But the real reason you need to go is because for $5 you can feed the giraffes. Okay, so you only get four splices of the lettuce, but it's totally worth it. I have never been that close to these gorgeous creatures. Had the Zoo lady not been constantly on guard and repeating "Reminder: Do not pet the giraffes. Please! Do not pet the giraffes! Do not pet the giraffes!" you could have hugged their sweet necks. That close. They were so beautiful. The whole thing just made me want to go to the Elephant Sanctuary of TN even more.
Mind you, I say all that as if I was the one who paid. I had no cash. Which means Kelly is my hero! Thank you!!

Hm... and we browsed through World Market and an antique...? shop full of everything from perfectly intact letters and magazines from the 40's to vintage signs to pink violins.

Meanwhile, Borders was having a closing sale and while Kelly browsed books I found over 65 hours worth of B-movie sci fi (and Gamera) in a collection. I now own it (as well as Godzilla: Final Wars), so if anyone's interested in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians or The Wild Women of Wongo please let me know.

The whole weekend was lovely. Thanks guys for such a beautiful weekend!

Stay tuned for....HOUSTON!

Also, we're almost to that 100th post. Hm.... I'm open to suggestions. I'm currently feeling a lack of creativity on the matter. Maybe we'll celebrate 101, so that I can keep my roadtrip posts together. And one more day to think about it. Ha.