Thanksgiving in North Texas

 Hello Dallas-Ft Worth.

Or to be more specific, Lake Lewisville in a Corps of Engineers campground.

In preparation of our approximately 5 hour drive from Livingston, Tx to Hickory Creek, Tx (the town associated with the campground) we put away in the cargo trailer the few things we got out for our six week stay and got the cargo trailer hitched up to Pepe the night before departure.

The morning of our departure the weather was cooperative and it was just a matter of disconnecting the utilities, pulling in the slides and hitching up.  The roads were essentially interstate the whole way with I-45 being what we spent most of our time on.  The one unpleasantness in this simple plan was that our route went smack-dab through the center of Dallas and its intense traffic.  Traversing the city also required a bit of a "dance", switching from I-45 N to I-30 W to I-35E N with the switch from 30 to 35E being in the middle of a bowl of spaghetti of multiple highways going in all directions and very short ramps.  

As if that wasn't enough stress on its own, both of our GPS' were telling us to set up to take ramps from the wrong lane.  While I managed to make a correction, Cyndee was blocked by traffic and missed the ramp.  She ended up putting on several more miles meandering around to get back on track.  Oddly enough  we only arrived at the campground barely five minutes apart.  Still, Cyndee had a death grip on the steering wheel and it took awhile to get her hands peeled off.  Needless to say, Cyndee is not a fan of Dallas traffic.

We arranged this stop to coincide with the week of Thanksgiving so that we could spend some time with my brother and sister-in-law as well as attend a Thanksgiving Day gathering of about 20 of us at my brother's house.  

Unfortunately COVID reared its ugly head and both my sister-in-law and brother came down with it.  So much for a Thanksgiving gathering.  All of our highly anticipated visiting in person just got reduced to a couple of phone calls.  We'll try again, maybe Christmas or New Years.  If the work on our rig is complete before those holidays then we will be relocated to a lake that is about 3 hours south of my brother's at that time.

With unplanned time on our hands we shifted gears and decided to take in the sights in our general vicinity.  The weather has been pretty dodgy, thunderstorms and cold fronts with high winds.  When the weather breaks for a few hours we pop out and see what the local fare has to offer. 

We can sure tell we have left the more cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Houston metroplex.  Where else would you find horse parking at a local restaurant but in the Dallas-Ft Worth area of North Texas.

Something else I have been enjoying about our campground is that it is directly below and in-between final approach to the two north/south runways of DFW airport.  As the planes go over our position they are still high enough that the noise is barely noticeable but close enough to get a good look at the plane.  On one occasion when I had gone out to take out the trash I looked up and spotted something special.  It was an Airbus A380, the worlds largest passenger jet with seating capacity of 650.

This iPhone photo leaves a little to be desired but it was a highly opportunistic shot and had to get it with what I had.  In my photo it is not easy to see just how huge this thing is nor that it is a double-decker.  So here is a stock photo from Airbus to help with the visualization.

In my professional career the company I worked for heavily competed to be the material of construction for several components of this aircraft.  While we were not successful with Airbus we did get parts on their competitor's aircraft, the Boeing Dreamliner.

So not everything about this week was ad-hoc.  We had to plan for and buy tickets to an ice sculpture exhibition at the Gaylord Texan.  The Gaylord, a hotel resort, is an exhibition in and of itself.  First and foremost it is gigantic, and they don't waste any of the space.  The place is chock-full of hotel rooms, convention center, restaurants, shopping, fountains, seasonal displays and organized 'resort' activities.

The Gaylord Texan in all its sprawling glory.

The Gaylord Texan's hotel atrium all decked out for Christmas

While all the decorations in the hotel were nice to see we came for the ICE exhibition.  Each year the Gaylord converts their convention center into an enormous deep freeze and fills it with ice sculptures.  In true Texas fashion they do it big!  There is a theme each year, usually a child's Christmas story that has been reimagined into a movie.  This year's theme; The Polar Express.

Everything you see is ice.  The train engine in this scene is 
about 12' tall.

Like the Johnson Space Center we went to the previous week, the tickets for this exhibit were timed entry.  And again, you had to wait for your assigned time to enter but once inside you could stay as long as you like.  But at a maximum temperature of 9 deg F inside the exhibit there was little chance of wearing out your welcome.  When buying your tickets you are informed about the "weather" inside the exhibit and advised to wear coats, gloves and hats.  Even at that, once you arrive you are given a large hooded parka to go over whatever you brought.
 

The large portion of the convention center which had been turned into an Artic environment housed all the ice sculptures.  The sculptures were placed in a way so as to tell the story of The Polar Express by reproducing iconic scenes from the movie.  Each scene was more or less its own room and you wove through the rooms, progressing through the story.

The hot chocolate song and dance scene on the train.

In addition to the phenomenal ice sculpture scenes, the appropriate sound track was being played as well.

The below scene was at the North Pole when the elves were trumpeting the arrival of Santa.

To get a better idea of just how big these blocks of ice are I jumped in to give it a little scale.

If this isn't the epitome of a couple of old people
trying to make a selfie, I don't know what is.  Not to make 
excuses but I couldn't feel my hand holding the camera at this point.

We're nearing the end now.  This is where Santa is presenting the bell to Hero Boy.

By the time you get here you have been at single digit
temperatures for a good while.  This kid is a popsicle 
and looking for the exit.

The last sculpture before the exit is not part of the theme but rather the reason for the season.  A simple clear-ice sculpture of the manger scene.  I think this one was Cyndee's favorite.

And what would an exit to an attraction be without a gift shop.

I'm being scolded for photographing Cyndee giving in to her 
gift shop addiction.

Now that we are back in heated space we thought we
would give a selfie one more try.

Our week in North Texas is up but the weather is really working against us.  Rain, some of it freezing, is predicted the whole way from Texas to Kansas the day we are scheduled to travel.  We looked at leaving a day early but the weather would be the same, it is a big storm.  So, even though it will make us a day late for our service appointment we're going to wait out the storm.  Luckily our campsite was open so I added a day and then rescheduled our layover reservation in Oklahoma.

One more day in this little paradise.
Hickory Creek Campground, Lake Lewisville

Bone chilling wind or not, there is one more chore that needs done before departure - propane refill.  After a little searching we found propane at a good price ($21 to fill an empty 40 lb'er) a couple of towns over from where we were camped.  One last little adventure to an industrial section of Denton, Tx,

Sometimes you end up in less glamorous places to get things you gotta do done.  

It's supposed to be seriously cold when we get to Kansas, mid-teens overnight.  A full load of propane will be necessary.