Riding the DART

My wife and I took the opportunity this weekend to ride DART (Dallas Area Rapid Tranist) to go to downtown Dallas.

The oxymoron of this tale is that we rode the rail downtown to go to the Dallas Car Show. 

Now, to cover some insights gained while we were riding downtown.

1.  The DART system is a heckuva place to people watch.  We saw all kinds.  Everything from the suburbanites like ourselves riding downtown for various reasons, to the uhhmmm "working" woman that was apparently on her way home from "work", in her blond wig, high heels and her t-shirt with the slogan "Made for Love" on the front. 

2.  Every train must have at least one rider that talks to themselves.  We actually rode 6 different trains yesterday, and all 6 had a person that sat in the corner and talked to themselves.  Now one of them actually made a repeat command performance, but still...he counts.  I wonder where DART goes to hire such people?

Yeah...Doesn't fit the need right now, but I could see this
being in the picture down the road.

3.  No one, and I mean no one checks tickets on the weekend.  We did our duty and paid the $4 each to ride, but didn't have anyone check a ticket.  Now, I rode almost everyday about 2 years ago, and someone always checked tickets.  Maybe it was just a weekend thing.

4.  "Crackhead Bob" made an appearance on one of the trains.  If you're not familiar with Crackhead Bob, he's the generic crackhead that appears in your travels.  You can tell it's him by his "I'm a space cadet" blank stare, his disheveled appearance, and his tendency to stare and people and grin.  Bob stopped by us and grinned, until he caught my glare and he decided that maybe the big guy wasn't someone that appreciated his type of conversation and moved on to the next car.  Apparently not all the brain cells had ceased to function.

5.  While Downtown Dallas claims that it is trying to be an urban mecca, it needs to talk to it's restaurants about being open over the weekend.  Now the West End had it's the majority of the establishments open, but I'm not one to eat where the tourists eat.  I prefer something smaller and a place where you more likely to find the locals than Uncle Bill and Aunt Gertrude from South Dakota.  Or, Hans and Frans that were in town on holiday and were seated at the table across from us at Spaghetti Warehouse.  Look for a future restaurant review of this place, man has it gone downhill.

Now, all in all it was a good trip.  We got to test drive a car of interest at the car show, first time I've seen that available.  Determined that 1 of the cars is still the car of choice, a 2nd vehicle of interest is still very much close to the top, and that there is actually a third car that surprised us by having great potential.  While the train rides sounded like an adventure from Tim Burton movie, it really wasn't that bad.  We had fun and enjoyed the day.

Whatever Happened to the Courtesy Wave?

Okay...am I the only one who has noticed this disappearing act of civility on the roadways?

I'm not talking about the road rage you hear about or read about on a daily basis.  I'm talking about the courtesy wave.

Used to be, you let someone in front of you as he's trying to merge onto the highway and the driver would make eye contact in the mirror and wave to you.  Nothing big. I'm not talking about a wave from the Queen of England. I mean just a nice acknowledgement of the fact that I allowed you to slow my day down just a few nano-seconds and let you move ahead.

Of course, then you were obligated....no not obligated, but allowed the privilege to wave back and let them know it was no big deal.

I've even done the "mea culpa" wave. I know those of you who know me will find this hard to believe, but I have made a mistake in the past while driving and then as the driver pulled up next to me to give me the one-finger salute, simply waved with a "my bad" or "my mistake" look on my face.  Typically the other driver realizes that yes in fact I am a bonehead and simply waved back and we drove on.  Without the obligatory pulling over to the side of the road and threatening each other.

Maybe that's it.  If more people would take the time to wave to say thank you, to say no problem, or to say my bad then just maybe we wouldn't have so many stories about road rage dominating the news.