Subj : Anyone home? To : MICHAEL LOO From : BILL WISE Date : Sat Jul 01 2000 05:29 pm ML> Anyone home? How was the vacation? Let me know that you are ML> reading this conference. Hello, Michael. After I got your e-mail response to my query about the French trip I queued this conference for download. Subjects are still in the "A" category, and I still have over 140 messages to wade through, but I'll get there. Jane and I spent our week-plus-a-day with friends in the Fort Worth area. My grandson's graduation from SMU with BMus-es in French Horn Performance and Music Composition was drawn out to encompass the beginning (9:30am) and the end (6:30pm) of the day. After listening to Gov. Bush's commencement address and some really nice music by the stringless wind ensemble, we went to lunch at a fast food joint with my ex-daughter-in-law and her family--they picked the spot and picked up the tab. Then Jane and I hustled out to the timeshare (2 hours each way) and barely made it back for the evening session which consisted of awarding of diplomas for the entire Meadows Music School. My daughter and her husband, carting my 20-month-old grandson, spent a couple of nights with us but had to rush back to Little Rock because of his USAF duty. The rest of the time was spent with our friends in Weatherford, a half-hour drive from the timeshare near Granbury. The cuisine was strictly not noteworthy, except for a family-run Mexican restaurant outside of Granbury called Ruiz's Cafe. The best Mexican food I've ever tasted--and there are some good restaurants of the type in the Phoenix area. Our friends trotted us down to the old stockyards in downtown Fort Worth, which has to be one of the world's largest tourist traps, and it's dominated by a 250,000 sq. ft. place called "Billy Bob's Texas," billed as the "largest honky-tonk in the world." No video-taping allowed, although still photos are permitted, so we didn't get photos of anything. Since we were there in the daytime there was almost nothing going on anyway except the gleaning of sheckels from the tourists for various souvenirs and other non-artifacts. The last day in the area was spent in a rip-off animal drive-through facility near Glen Rose. Four senior admissions were a tad more than $50, and the park was filled with mostly antelope, gazelles, deer and other grazers, all of whom were highly interested in being fed through the car windows. As you can imagine, you can't really photograph an animal that won't stay away from the car, and "STAY INSIDE YOUR CAR" advice was platered all over the place in the interest of safety. A few ostriches, emus, giraffes and rhinos were there, but the highly-advertised cheetahs were not to be seen, since their habitat was being renovated. If we wanted to see them we'd have had to ask for a special trip to their temporary quarters, which we decided against. We flew with America West Airlines, which left both PHX and DFW on- time, with on-time arrivals on both legs of the round trip. Hard not to be on time with a non-stop. We really enjoyed the trip, but the enjoyment was derived from visiting old friends--and their 3-pound Chihuahua--rather than places, so there's really nothing of riveting interest to anyone else. But I thought I'd contribute something, since it seems to be a battle to get anybody to post anything in any conferences carried by any BBS. I'll be here, reading. Bill --- þ RM 1.3 01861 þ Internet: billwise@afm.org þ Cam-GOLD v2.02: * RelayNet(TM) : FELLOWSHIP (#5665) : COF BBS, Phx,AZ 602-942-8921 * Origin: "THE WORLD BEYOND" - Leaving the Others Behind!! (1:250/502) .