Flying to the USA, Dallas

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1. To the USA and Dallas



Unlike my earlier trips the reason for the trip was to see the extended family who are all scattererd around the USA. As a higher conentration was in the south and west I decided to limit the trip to the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona,Nevada and California. We had previously been to Indiana, New York and the GreatLake states. There was time limit of maximum 15days as Thankam could not avail of more days of off work.



We booked the most convenient of flights to Dallas leaving Dublin at Nnon and reaching Dallas in the evening approx 7 PM. There would still enough day light left to get to our first stop in Frisco. We were cleared with ETA which was a pre-requisite under the Visa waiver programme. The added advantage of preclearance at Dublin (Probably the only facility outside North America) guaranteed that we could book the our luggage directly to Dallas as customs were cleared in Dublin.



For internal travel in USA we opted to drive rather than fly. This was mainly due to two reasons : flexibility and value. When we tried to book economical flights mostly we were getting flights early in the morning or very late at night which meant we have to leave our pad at 4:00 AM to get to the airport in time. The disruption to our hosts was something we were not prepared to put up with. The later flights were prohibitively expensive. Then we also had to haul all the luggage each time through the airports. The driving, though I was a bit aprehensive at first, also gave us the chance to see a bit of the country and gave us the freedom to go where ever we wanted to and when we wanted to.



The US airways flight to Philadelphia (on 1^st April 2014) was comfortable, and we were served lunch and evening tea on the flight. There was also backseat screens in the aircraft with various options for entertainment. The flight arrived on time in Philadelphia, we had enough time to catch the connecting flight to Dallas.



We boarded the flight to Dallas at 1600 hrs, in time. Very soon it became obvious that there would be some delay due to “technical reasons”. At first we were worried that there was something wrong with the aircraft. That worry was expelled soon. It was almost comical. Apparently the paperwork was not in order and it took them 3 hours to clear. Finally it was 2200 hrs when we landed in Dallas. My main concern was the closure time of the car rental company which was at 2300hrs.



We had booked an SUV because of the long trip. When we got to the rental desk obviously there was problem with payment. At 2300hrs I was not going to argue with the desk assistant, took hold of the keys and proceeded to the car. I had a choice of many vehicles some of which were very large which I thought may be a bit difficult to manuevre in the cities and small towns. We selected a Ford Explorer which was brand new with only 1300 miles on the clock. Had a bit of problem navigating the toll roads in Dallas but finally managed to get out of them and get to Sajna and Jojos’s house in Frisco by midnight.



Frisco is a small town on the perifery of Dallas mostly with newly built estates. It appears there is a boom in building in the area with many northern pensioners migrating down south due the favourable climate and cheap houses and lower taxes. The estates were well laid out with ample communal areas with landscaped gardens, water features and childrens play areas. There was nothing spectacular to go and see in Frisco or in Dallas. So next day we headed for downtown Dallas just for a walk in the streets. We also got to the location of Kennedy assassination where the road was marked two “+” s where the first and second shots hit Mr. Kennedy. Being a RepublicanState I can understand why there would not be much to highlight this major incident in American history.



The return trip was more interesting; Sajna was getting tornado warning on her mobile regularly for some time with pictures showing the path of the tornado which was going towards Frisco. As we approched Frico suddenly the skies darkened (it was a hot bright day till then) with an almost ominous gloom and we could see the tornado moving away less than a mile away. There was very heavy rain for a short time and the skies brightened up again.



Only later did we learn (from TV news) that the tornado had reaked havoc in the next townships of savannah and Prosper but spared Frisco. All around there were hail stones the size of golf balls. What we did not notice at the time was the damage done to the hire car with dozens of pok marks on the bonnet, side and the top of the car.



We stayed in Jojo/ Sajnas house (which was quite large and spacious for a small young family) for 3 nights during which we made two other trips, one to visit Alphonsa (my cousin who I had not seen for over 40 years) and Paul and the second to visit Sally (another cousin whom I had not seen since 1976) and Shajan who lived an hours drive from Frisco.



We had to say bye to Frisco by late morning on our trip to Tucson in Arizona. It was hard leave Joanne, whom we were very fond off, and Joshua. But we had to stick to the schedule. As it was a 900+ mile drive to Tucson (AZ) we had decided to stop for the night at a small town (Van Horn) approx. 500 miles from Frisco. The drive was very uneventful, almost boring, but as the road lanes were wider and straighter than European roads it was less stressfull to drive. Driving 500 miles did not seem that bad at all. We got to Van horn before nightfall, had dinner and retired to our rooms. Like most motels en route this was also basic but comfortable and fairly close to the route.



It was late moring before we set out to Tucson after some breakfast. We had another 400 miles to cover. We were still in in West Texas and the land was getting more arid and bare. In the distance we could see some “dust devils”, a funnel of air lifting the loose sand in a cone. When we neared the Mexican border town of El Paso the road got busy again. There was a lot of development in road costruction here as well. So one had to be careful not to miss the correct “exit”s etc..It appears the closeness of Mexico has not had any adverse effects this area if you go by the building boom here. We got to Tucson in the afternoon.

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