Dallas? Which Dallas?

A week ago today, Chuck was carefully driving Ellen's U-Haul through downpours in Louisiana (having survived driving through the record one-hour rainfall total in Vicksburg MS the day before) and I was flying to Dallas. He had carefully arranged our rondevous point as the south remote parking lot of the Dallas airport if he wasn't actually meeting me at the baggage claim area. When I arrived at baggage claim at Dallas Love Airport (a few minutes late), he was there but breathless. Seems that the airport with the north and south remote parking areas is Dallas-Fort Worth. He had gotten the truck into the south lot with care and then called American to see which was my arrival gate. The recorded message told him alright, but it also said "Dallas Love" not "Dallas Fort Worth," the only airport C has ever had occasion to fly through in his traveling career. The best laid plans of mice and men....now what? He negotiated the ten or so miles to Dallas Love but then could find no parking lot that was either not full or had too short an entrance. Finally, after several tries and feeling the clock tick down (If he wasn't there to meet me, what would I do after I discovered there was no remote parking lot, south or north?), the nice folk at Thrifty/Budget rental cars let him park in their back corner. He made it to the baggage claim with a few minutes to spare. Then we had to drive through downtown Dallas traffic at six p.m. on a Friday afternoon. That did nothing for my love of big city traffic, I'll tell you.

By nine p.m. we had made it to Ellen's new townhouse, slept on air mattresses that evening and greeted the two strapping Baylor students who hire themselves out as movers the next morning. We spent the next three days helping her make the townhouse her home, doing the many errands that go into moving from state to state, dodging raindrops, going to the church she is likely to join, and touring the Baylor campus (very beautiful, especially for garden lovers and those who appreciate stylish but functional academic buildings). We decided as the three of us drove back into Dallas so we could get a hotel near Love Field Monday night that from now on, flights ought to go all the way to Waco. Two hours and horrendous traffic might well make the extra cost worth it. Whatever we decide, we'll pay attention to "which Dallas" we will arrive at or go through.