Jack is short for Jackopher: Dallas, day three

THE BEST DAY OF THE TRIP!!!!! I built Dallas around being able to take Rhyann to Meow Wolf, since we weren't able to take them to Convergence Station in Denver. This morning, we woke up, everybody had a donut (I rerscued them from the ants, we really only lost two donuts to the ant horde) except me, I had keto toast, and then we got going to Meow Wolf. We were going to try and hit up the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, but Derek took a way long time getting out of bed and it wasn't a feasible option by the time he was ready to go. But no worries! Straight to Meow Wolf we went. 

Convergence Station is a stand alone building. And it is fucking massive, I believe it is the biggest Meow Wolf space at...um...90,000 square feet? Derek and I spent a total of 9 hours at Convergence Station and while we saw every room (we think), we did not get to take everything in. The Real Unreal is atttached to a mall. Which is wild to me. So the space is much smaller, but they did so fucking much with what they have. 

Ok, ready? Here we fucking go. Meow Wolf Grapevine - The Real Unreal. 

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!! It's Meow Wolf day it's Meow Wolf Day!!!!!!

We hadn't even entered the installation at this point, this is just where all of the shit you can buy is, but I really loved the murals. 

I am always very perplexed by signs like this, because I don't quite know what to make of them. I do think it's important to acknowledge that we are occupying stolen land, and naming the people we lied to, murdered, and forcibly displaced counts for something (though I cannot make the determination of what exactly it amounts to, so maybe I'm wrong in that it counts for something), but like...is it just lip service? Is something besides an acknowledgement being done? Any kind of reparation, anything like that? Meow Wolf, to my understanding, has gone from art collective to corporate husk that sucks in money (as long as I remember, I will talk about this later) that won't even allow its artists to unionize, so like...it isn't like they couldn't do some direct giving to the tribes they mention. I can't help but think that thse are here to make Meow Wolf look good rather than to honor or acknowlege. The language is so fucking passive. We're on the ancestral lands, yes, but like...why aren't they on it anymore? Maybe lt's mention that in our cutesy little wall medallion. Are their communities thriving today? Let's ask them. It's a big pet peeve of mine. 

Anyway.

So this is the first spac you go into. It's where your aventure starts. And for anybody wanting to go to a Meow Wolf, touch everything. try and open everything. It's made for you to fuckin' poke and prod, do not skimp out on the touching. 

There are three options for you to take here: one, you can go into the house itself and start exploring there. B, you can go in through the shed (which is what we did), or III, you can go in through the tool shed on the farthest right side of the space, which I didn't take a photo of. There is no wrong way to approach this. We all went in through the shed. 

That brought us into this room, and if you enter through that fridge, you find yourself in the living space for Lucious. Who won't really enter into the equation if you're only checking out the space. 

So these numbers are all callable on any phone you can pick up in Meow Wolf. I did call all of these numbers. Some of them ring different areas of the space, though people almost never want to talk. 

I am just going to post the rest of the photos, because there is no real rhyme or reason to walking through this place, and honestly, our biggest disappointment is the mystery kind of self resolves? There were a lot of fun side quests to do, and we did a few of them (like the brain beans!! I got all of them!!), but mosly, we just ran around and touched everything and enjoy ourselves. 

I do love how everything is prety super fuckin' gay at Meow Wolf. Both of the ones I've been to so far have all manner of queerness throughout, and it makes my queer little heart super happy. 

We had so much fun at the DWEEB/ATM. Rhyann and Derek did great solving the PIN puzzles, and then we played the game and found out balance a 290, which isn't bad! We're Meow Wolfionnaires!

Obvy Derek and I had to take an ussie. 

It's not weird!

This was a slide that was definitely very easy for my aging body to get in and out of. Actually, it really wasn't hard, but a lot of adults were struggling with this slide. There was another one in the dryer, but Derek and I did the washer slide. 

I had saved this to call the number and join the faction, but I totally fucking forgot, and I'm upset about it. I AM HERE FOR PLOTZO. 

Derek and I had a lovely little sit down in that geodesic dome. It was nice and quiet in there. 

I noticed wallpaper with this number on it, but I never got around to calling it. Boooooooooooo.

I just wanna do photoshoots in here!!!!

If you open the right door, a chandelier drops down and plays music and it's dance party time. I stayed for several dance parties and danced with a whol bunch of strangers. Like being at a club, but way more expensive. And somehow louder?

This was my favorite iny detail. In the house, there is wallpaper with people on it doing homesteading things in a garden. Bu the closer you get to the portal, it starts to change and incorporate things from other Meow Wolves. I fucking lost my shit over the Yawlp. 

Here I am, calling all kinds of numbers!!! I ran through almost all of the ones on this page, and Derek had to finish the numbers I took a photo of in the cabin. 

I spent about thirty minutes going through all of the apps and documents and photos and videos on that tablet (and I was fucking OVERJOYED at the queer love!!! A proud bisexual woman and a trans man in love?? GIMME MORE PLEASE!). And I spent a long time on the missing kiddo's tablet, especially on his Minecraft simulation where, if you play long enough, you can walk through all of he portals at Meow Wolf. There is so much that goes into making everything here, it's criminal to me that so many people just walk through and don't invest themselves into more than the superficiality of the space, but also, it isn't like the aesthetics aren't awesome, too. 

I wish I could explain all of the photos, but that would take fucking FOREVER, so I'm not gonna. You'll just have to go see it for yourslf. 

After Meow Wolf, we went to Smokey John's for dinner. Well, Derek, Rhyann, and Alex went to Smokey John's. I went to Jinya. Again. Of course. 

How about that fucking brisket, though. It smelled like miracles in there. It made me miss eating meat. 

Nobody got any kind of desserts anywhere that we went. I was shocked nobody got peach cobbler. What a batch of losers. 

Those greens were hella good. Usually greens disappoint, but here? They were great. 

That cabbage was really good, too. And so were my noods. 

We had planned on playing Cards Against Humanity again, but we were all kinda wiped from the day. It was a long day, but really fucking great. So we all just kinda lazily hung out, and then went to bed early, because we had t wake up and pack the next day to be out of the apartment by 11, and to drive home. 

Essentially, this was our Dallas trip. I did not take any photos of our trip home, because I was driving, so. here we go! That's a wrap on Dallas. 

We are trying to plan our trip for nxt year, and I'm thinking I want to go to Sana Fe and Vegas to hit up the other two Meow Wolves. There is one opening up in Houston that I may try and squeeze a four day out of, but I would much rather see Vegas and Santa Fe's offerings. Especially Santa Fe. I've been yarning to go there for years and years and years. But we are PCSing in a few months, so a trip next year before we move may not be feasible. We'll see, we are just in the planning stages now, but uh. I'm going to do my bes to make it happen.