Road Trip to Perdition

I had an inpromtu trip to Waco today. The land famous for David Koresh & the Branch Davidian [Waco = We ain't coming out] and for Baylor University's Med School. Last minute checklist: full gas, check; paperwork stuff, check; cell phone, check; map, check; sun-glasses [as it was sunny and almost 85 deg outside], check; water [same reason as prev], check; and I took off with the Rage, my bro's coupe.

Along the 110 miles travel, 82 at Highway 6 and the rest down in I-35W, I observed several things worth mentioning:
1. Blue Bonnet is everywhere. Not only the blue Blue Bonnet, but also orange, green, red, pink. Some even have all the available color on as a bunch. Btw, it's illegal to tamper with those mighty flowers, as they are the offical state flower.
2. Baptist church should work more on properly calling themselves. What were they thinking with: "Old Time Baptist Church" and "Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church".
3. There is an 8 Mile Ln in a small city 20 miles from Waco. Whether it carries the same geographical significance as the one in Detroit is very unlikely.

The long straight road makes it possibly to have a 0.5 mile visibility to spot every white sedan from suspecting law enforcement unit. Although, I pretty much obeyed the speed limit, since Rage is not equipped with a radar plus I could'nt find anyone to cooperate (*victimized*) to be a part of a wild herd. Anyway, Texas road is great, compared to I-10 section of Lousianna's, we have much better quality road and higher speed limit (70 mph in the free zone, 55 in the city). This to my concern is contributed to the fact that we have higher legal drinking age compared to LA, but that will be a whole other story.

The Department of Transportation's title registration's regional office in Waco, the destination of the trip, is located in Austin Avenue, a part of the downtown. Like other cities built in 19hundred, the downtown has one-way-paralel-numbered streets and avenues crossing the streets perpendicularly. Going west on Austin Ave, I found a middle-upper class residential area, with varieties of home: ranch, fixer-upper, colonial, cottage, and castle (with Rapunzel like tower, it was cute), you named it. This is the good ol' American neighborhood where people know the name of their post man/woman, where everybody greets each other, and knows everyone lives down the street.

It took me longer to find the place than to get the certified copy of my Baby Blue registration, as it shares a 1-story brown brick building with an insurance company which for some reason has a more grandeur life sign, while the DOT itself is only represented with a shoe-box sized plate that says, you guess it, Department of Transportation. Done with official business, I was inspired to fill in Rachael Ray's footstep [with her $40/day budget to get 3 decents meal in her travel destination]. Squaring around the downtown, I ended up decided to inquire the advice of some honest-to-goodnest local people. There it stood, the Salvation Army building. I got me, two nice old classical music cassettes, and a free copy of J video. Unfortunately, the nice shopkeeper couldn't name any good-nicely priced-lunch place around. I am doing my best effort to avoid chain restaurant.

So, I squared back the downtown, and found this so called Trading Houses, and the sign says that there is a Deli on the backpart of the store. O my, a Deli. If this is NYC, I will gladly try it. But anyway, I had no other choice since this thunderstorm inside kept hauling me, vigorously. Then, I said to the Deli owner that I want something big for lunch and decided to get the roastbeef sandwich, hoping if it will be minuetely as good as a phillycheesesteak. Wondering if the cheese cake is from the Cheese Cake Factory [since he got it from Sam's], I couldn't help my self to order it too. While the food turned out to be an unsatisfaction, I got enough excitement exploring the rest of the store [the building has three stories of glorified garage sale stuff]. I bet you could find any "antiques" that you want, reasonably priced too. I took a copy of Texas Antique directory, just in case I need a new hobby.

The was nothing special on the ride back home. Arrived at my apt, there were Jem and Kumin and my brother trying to have some studying done, with a Papa John's pizza in the middle of the room. Then, it was time for the special American Idol air time. And now, I'm back in the lab, trying to deposit some real p+ with the new chiller. And, I'm hungry. If only I could find a better, bigger meal in downtown Waco....