We finally made it!! 32 hours of travelling - starting in Brisbane (we went to the wrong airport too which was pretty embarrassing but allowed us to get our bags to be gladwrapped for $9 - take THAT drug dealers in baggage claim!) and jumping down to Sydney, then over to LA (LONNNNNNNNG flight) and after a 7 hour (and freezing cold) layover in LA, we finally flew to Dallas.

Oh…my…god. I’ve never seen anything so big in all my life. As we flew in over Dallas… there was nothing but lights to the horizon in every direction. It was spectacular. Rhonda and Jesse met us at the airport, which was fantastic, and we then started the adventure of “Find Wendy & Sam’s Luggage” as it didn’t come off the conveyer belt for C15 where our flight’s luggage was supposed to be. Our bag actually flew in on an earlier flight, so we got into Jesse’s monster truck and drove up to C4, and picked up our bag (I actually hugged our suitcase). While Sam ran back to the car to pick up the ID to get our bag, the guy that was behind the desk told Rhonda and I how much he loved Aussies and kept repeating “Bloody mate” over and over, causing us to be almost on the floor in laughter.

It was too late by then to pick up our rental car, so Jesse drove us all back to our hotel, we checked in and then I took a shower because 37 hours between showers was TOO long. Fresh and ready to go, we then all headed to Rhonda’s house to watch the Stars Vs Kings game. MAN… that was a GREAT game! Not just because we won (4-1!) and Mike got the final goal, but also because it was kind of live, it was on a tv, we were eating Taco Bell, and we were IN DALLAS!! Plus, Pete, I can see what you mean about watching the game without knowing the score now. Still… it was fabulous!

I love my friends. They’re fantastic! We had so much fun with Jesse and Rhonda - Rhonda is as loud as I am when watching it on TV. I bet we’ll be able to hear her from the rafters at the AAC. Anyway we got back to the hotel at 3am.

We got up Friday morning at 9am, and checked out. We took the shuttle to the airport again with our bags and had a really lovely shuttle driver. He was excited to talk to Aussies too. Everyone seems to love them here. The airport had a shuttle from where we got dropped off at Delta to where the rental cars are, and we went to Enterprise where we booked for our car. We were given a PT Cruiser (Exchange PT for CHRYSLER and think Gangsta car!) in red, and we were on our way. Of course we got lost on our way to our hotel that we were moving to for the rest of our stay. Finally there an hour late, checked in and then found our room.

Of course the lock on the door wouldn’t work. Sam had to go back to the front office twice before they gave us a new room. We dumped our bags and ran out the door to meet Leni up at Frisco, but of course we got lost. A guy at a toll booth did a double take when we said “G’day” as we handed over the dollar bill for the toll as we didn’t have any quarters. He said “Did you just say ‘G’Day?’” and we were like, “Yeah.” And he said “My brother lives in Tasmania!” Small world. No, we didn’t know him. HAHA.

We got to Frisco at 2pm, and missed Leni unfortunately. We did go into the StarCentre. OH MY GOD…. I was home. Seriously. I saw the ice where the Stars practice. OH MY GOD… I am home. Yes, I’m repeating myself. I was in reverence silence. We went into the Stars Stuff Store and I almost cried. Jerseys on the walls, tshirts, jumpers, even a BIKINI… which obviously will be staying on the rack. Man there was EVERYTHING there. And I wanted everything too! But we left empty handed. I’ll probably pick up a jersey on Sunday when we go back there.

Stonebriar Mall was our next stop since we hadn’t eaten since midnight the night before when we ate Taco Bell with Jesse and Rhonda. OH man… I though Indooroopilly was big. Oh lord. Stonebriar Mall is a shopaholics dream come true! It’s so huge. We ate and left though because we wanted to get a cell phone and there was no Best Buy at Stonebriar, it was in another mall complex type place up the road. So we went and got a cell phone, which has made our lives a WHOLE lot easier now that we can get in contact with people.

We got lost not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES coming back from Frisco to Dallas. Oh lord. It took us TWO HOURS to get home. Anyway after we got back to the hotel, we called Rhonda, had showers and she arrived for us to go to BILLY BOBS OF TEXAS. Mate… MATE…the place rocked. TOTALLY ROCKED!! Rhonda and Dave came with us, and we just had a total blast. We were ID checked, and then got inside. It was MASSIVE. We almost missed the Rodeo, but Rhonda talked the lady into letting Sam and I get in after they’d closed the gates because we were from Australia and it was the only time we were going to get to see anything like it. That was pretty great of them. We have a couple of photos but I don’t know when we’ll be able to get them uploaded. There’s a computer issue which I’ll get to at the end.

We drank Shiners - Texan beer - and played pool, and ate cheese nachos. We drove DAYTONA video cars and just talked and laughed and took photos and had a fabulous time. It was the best. We got home at 2am.

Today… Saturday, we slept in until 11am. We found a Target and got a couple of Stars t-shirts and jumpers, because man it’s FREEZING here - we thought it would be warmer than it is. We got some makeup for me since i left mine at home by accident, and some food. WOW there’s like NO grocery stores here. We have to find a Wal-Mart. We went to Val’s place to watch the Stars Vs San Jose Sharks game - which was great. Stars won 4-3 in a shootout where Jussi Jokinen was finally stopped, but Mike Modano had a goal, two assists and a shootout goal as well! It was great! We had Pizza for dinner with great people, we’re having a total blast. A TOTAL BLAST!

Tonight, we’re going to watch Jesse play hockey - he’s a goalie - and then tomorrow it’s off to Frisco again.

We don’t have net access at the hotel since we don’t have a net account in the US so we’re basically updating via Internet Cafes and friend’s places. I’m borrowing Val’s net at the moment. So I don’t know how often the updates will be I’m sorry - and of course they’re not as detailed as I was going to do but I’m on a time limit unfortunately.

Anyway I hope to update again soon. Please feel free to leave messages or comments. We’ll reply when we get back on here!
Take care!
~ Wendy