Jack is short for Jackopher: Dallas, Day One

In expected of me fashion, I am writing these blogs after we've been home for two days. It was a short, whirlwind trip, and kind of stressful due to bodies being vile betrayers, but we'll get to that. First, day one. 

We leeft an hour late, which is always a thorn in my fucking side, and never fails to fucking happen. I saw this reel on Insta about giving your partner space because we have different kinds of time blindness and in the end, it isn't really that serious, and in theory, I think it not ultimately being a big deal is accurate, and I am prety positive that Derek and I do have different kinds of time blindness. In practice, though, it is a hard transition for me to go from "we need to leave by 8:30!" to "well, whatever time we leave is cool I guess". I mostly want to leave on time because I fucking HATE letting AirBnBs/hotels/VRBOs get any money for free, meaning I want to occupy that space for every single fucking second I have paid for it. I have always always always gotten enraged over the idea that you don't even get a full 24 hours in a place if you book for one night, so I despise letting anybody get a second of my renting time as easy money. I'm gonna be in there the entire time, god dammit. But like...unless I'm traveling on my own, my timelines are almost never met. Moving on. 

We left at 9:30ish, maybe closer to 10? We had gotten gas and road snacks and everything the day before, so once the car was packed, it was go time. Long car trips with Derek are one of my favorite things. The kids pretty much tend to themselves in the back, I think Rhyann was watching movies or a show, and Alex slept or played her game, so Derek and I just chatted, like we always do. I love talking to my husband. I especially love when we see ridiculous shit in the clouds together. Exhibit A:

Derek said it looked like The Birth of Man, I think it looks like someone backpacking and reaching out to touch some moss. 

We made pretty great time, all things considered. We stopped at the first Allsup's we noticed, Derek ran in to see if they still had their amazing empanadas, and they fucking did. I was an idiot and didn't take a picture, and I'm kind of kicking myself for that now. Every time that Derek and I would make the back and forth trek to either pick up Alex from Colorado Springs or drop her off to her dad for visits, we would stop at the Allsup's in Texline for their bean empanadas. They were absolutely magical. When we were sharing the empanadas with Rhyann on the drive to Dallas and describing the amazing delight of them from Texline Allsup's, I told Rhyann that I think the Allsup's we would always stop at was a place that existed outside of time and space, like a magic bubble stuck in the 70s, so everything we go there was magic. I told Rhyann that the outside was super outdated, the inside was super outdated, they had older gas pumps, and they kept kinda weird hours, so it wasn't hard for me to imagine that time froze this little building to keep things perfect in the world of fried road food. But when I went to look up the Allsup's, it didn't look right. So obviously I had to get to the bottom of this and find the right one. I really thought it was the Allsup's at Texline, but I was wrong. It's the Allsup's right ouside of Amarillo.

Imagine my fucking disappointment seeing the bones of my treasured, stuck in time Allsup's had been thrown out of time and tossed into modernity. Our run down Allsup's is now a YES Way, with modern gas pumps from Valero. It is the same building, but it isn't the same. Well. It exists in that pocket for us still. 

We hit traffic right outside of Dallas, as we expected, but we still arrived at our AirBnb at 5:30, which is only an hour and a half after our check in time. Now, I will say that I am very opposed to AirBnB for several reasons, but I had like, 400 bucks in AirBnB credits that I had to use or lose, so I booked through AirBnB. Our place was cute enough:

This was Rhyann's room and bathroom. I did not realize when booking that there wasn't a universal bathroom, and the bathrooms were in each bedroom. Kind of inconvenient for Alex, and we had a small issue with having to remind Rhyann to keep their door open. Alex told me privately she was uncomfortable having to ask for permission to get into the bedroom to go into the bathroom, and I understand that, and I will admit I was fucking irritated that Rhyann just...kept their door open a sliver. Derek and I were talking about how Rhyann would have reacted if the situations were reversed, and we feel fairly certain they would not have wanted to have to ask permission to enter a room to use the restroom, and would have quietly told me that Alex kept closing her door. Of course that's just conjecture and we'll never know, but we both felt fairly certain that was an accurate assessment. 

This was the bedroom Derek and I stayed in. That bed was horrendously uncomfortable. 

This made me laugh pretty hard, I was not expecting it at all. And I believe that the people who own the apartment didn't really expect it, either? It was turned around like they were embarrassed to have a Taylor Swift as Jesus candle, and I only noticed when I was photographing the aparment and went to peek at the mirror a little closer. I put it back in the hidden way I found it. 

Our little patio! Rhyann invited me outside to see a few of the coyotes wandering around during the evening, which was lovely. 

This is where Alex slept, she said she didn't want to pull out the bed and was happy to just sleep on the couch, she said it was super comfy. Great for her. 

The kitchen! Where we were bombarded by sugar ants!!! They ate all of our donuts. I say our like I had any donuts. I did not. 

The living room/dining room. We played Cards Against Humanity the second night we were there. The space was all around fine. Suited our needs, was just full of ants and the furniture was uncomfy. 

After we dropped all of our shit off, we relaxed for a little bit before going to Jinya. Derek and I were worried that Jinya in Dallas would be like Jinya in KC...not great, and a waste of our money. We were delighted by this Jinya being very good. 

As I've said each time, Ramen IS all the craze! They are so right!

Derek got a lychee martini and reported that it was middling. 

Derek got himself and Rhyann a Jinya bun, his favorite appetizer there. There is a picture down below of Derek eating his bun with joy and gusto. 

So in Denver, Derek and I got this appetizer of tempura brussels, and they were...like...eh? Mid is generous. We ordered them again to give them one more try and like...they were so much fucking better. We really enjoyed them this go around. 

See? As promised.

So, because I can't eat noodles, and because I can't have sugar, I have to get all kinds of super special sides and asks and I feel like a total asshole everytime I have to ask for my special bullshit. So there is my ramen bowl, sans ramen, with bamboo shoots, bok choy, cabbage, and broccoli. And that shit is literally 40 fucking dollars. Because those toppings are 2.50 - 4.00 each. And it's a fucking racket. A racket that I kind of had to eat every single night we were in Dallas. 

There's Rhyann's ramen, and I believe they got the Jinya Black pork charsiu ramen because it's Derek's favorite and he suggested it to them with great fervor. 

And there's Derek's. Both of them fucking loved their ramen. Rhyann really liked Jinya, and Derek and I were super excited to take them to Jinya, so we were glad that they enjoyed it as much as we hoped they would. 

After Jinya, we went to Sprouts so I could pick up snackies for myself, some konjac noodles so I could have dinner while we were in Dallas, and then we went to Voodoo Donuts. Rhyann has never been to Voodoo Donuts, Alex loves Voodoo Donuts, and it seemed that it made a great deal of sense to take them there. 

This sign delighted me. 

They've really upped their vegan donut game! Back when we lived in Texas, I would hit up Voodoo Donuts every time we were in Austin because not a lot of places had vegan donuts. They didn't initially have a lot, though, so I always go their voodoo dude donut. Love seeing the expansion of options for vegans! Do keto vegan next!!! I miss donuts!!

Here's Alex's Diablo Rex donut....

...and Rhyann's voodoo dude donut. 

All around a successful day! But long. Derek and I flirted with the idea of picking up Cards Against Humanity expansions that night (we have so many expansions a home, so we would have had to buy the ones we don't yet have), but we were way too tired. So we all went into our separate corners, and that was day one!

Up next, Dallas World Aquarium!! For Rhyann's 21st birthday!!