Ronald Huereca is part developer, part mammal. And he only comes out at night. View the author's website.
 

Reflections From Dallas, TX

This is just a bit of a personal off-topic rant about my travels today.

It was just a little over a month ago that I was in Dallas for WordCamp Dallas. It was my first real trip to Dallas (besides going to the Ft. Worth zoo), and I had a blast.

The trip today, however, was more for business.

Knowing that Dallas is a maze, I went to BestBuy late yesterday and bought myself a Garmin 200W. I had hopes it would come in handy in Dallas, and boy did it ever!

The first order of business was visiting a home establishment in Grand Prairie, Texas. After we were done with that, the work for the day was done.

I mentioned to my co-worker that there’s a great Tex-Mex place called La Hacienda Ranch that you can only find in Dallas.

After traveling through torturous rush-hour traffic, we finally located it (using the trusty GPS) on Preston Rd. The name sounded really familiar, but I let it slip by me.

After La Hacienda (which was great, by the way), my co-worker wanted to find a sports store. The trusty GPS took us to a place called Dick’s Sporting Goods, which was still on Preston Rd.

Déjà vu swept over me. The sporting goods store was located in a giant mall, which looked very familiar. It finally dawned on me that I was in the very location where the WordCamp Dallas attendees had their first meet-up (at Dave and Busters).

I looked over at my co-worker and said, “Wow, I never thought in a million years I’d be back in Frisco, Texas.”

It was WordCamp Dallas all over again for me.

As a sidenote (I think everything in this post is a sidenote), the La Hacienda had a nice feature that I think should be done more often.

In their restroom is a switch above the sink. The note more-or-less states, “La Hacienda Ranch is committed to a clean restroom. If this restroom needs attention, please flick the switch to the right.”

When I read this, I thought, “Wow, what a great and non-embarassing way to bring attention to a problem.” If only every restroom had such a feature! I was looking for one in my hotel room, but I sadly couldn’t find one.

Anyways, I head back from Dallas tomorrow and back home to humid Alabama. I just wanted to share a quick note with the readers. I hope all is well out there in the blogosphere.

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Read the Discussion (8 Responses)

  • Simonne says...

    http://www.alltipsandtricks.com

    Hey, I had no idea GPS maps include also shops. I’m strongly considering to get one before I go on vacation, but I haven’t fully made up my mind yet. Pointing to shops and restaurants is certainly a plus, but it can easily translate into a minus in my pockets ;)

  • Not A Niche says...

    http://notaniche.com

    Hey Ron,

    sad that I’m not there anymore, would be great to see you again. Hope you will have a business trip to Europe soon ;)

  • Post Author

    Ronald Huereca says...

    http://www.ronalfy.com

    @Simonne,

    Yup, shops and even traffic reports, at least here in the US. It was a real time saver.

    @Alex,

    Yeah, me too. It was a busy trip, so unfortunately not a lot of time for play this time :(

  • Charles Stricklin says...

    http://wordpresspodcast.org

    Try 2 months! (End of March)

  • Post Author

    Ronald Huereca says...

    http://www.ronalfy.com

    @Charles,

    Wow, you’re right. Two months it is.

  • Guy Cohen says...

    http://guy-cohen.blogspot.com/

    So I guess you’re having a great time at WordCamp Dallas. How I wish I could find time to have a trip also. :)

  • washington mutual mortgage rates says...

    http://savingsaccounts411.com

    Ronald,

    I have been in the market for a new GPS for months now, but I am having trouble deciding which unit to buy. Why did you decide on the Garmin 200W?

  • Post Author

    Ronald Huereca says...

    http://www.ronalfy.com

    @Washington,

    I bought the 200W because it was cheap, portable, and still had the voice directions. It has a bicycle mode, car mode, and pedestrian mode. I’m rather stoked about it.

    I learned yesterday that TomTom has an iPhone app that will work with the new iPhone 3G. I’ll probably test that out as well when I pick up an iPhone on July 11.

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