old and new

Every Memorial Day weekend, I fly to Dallas for a road trip with my friend Myron to the Oklahoma City Rodeo. We've made this trip so many times that there is always a danger of the it becoming a bit routine, but somehow we always manage to hit some our favorite stops and still mix in some new ones. This year we also had a new passenger along - a stray that Myron found a couple weeks ago. Her name varied from Hoonah to Belka to Snowball to Tempo ("Temporary Dog"), and though she may have a made a meal of one of the hotel curtains, she was a fun passenger and made for a fun addition for the weekend. This year we really did no planning and just flew by the seat of our pants, which made it a pretty stress-free trip. We hit some usual stops like Arbuckle Fried Pies and Del Rancho, revisited Cattlemens after getting tired of it a few years ago, and ventured to some new spots like S&B Burger Joint and a chocolate factory adjoining the Chickasaw Nation Welcome center (which by the way, has a great off-leash dog park for those traveling between Dallas and OKC). Monday we made the trip back to Dallas, went straight to a big birthday Chinese dinner with friends, and then united Hoonah/Belka/Snowball with a new owner a friend had matched. Sad to see her go, but nice to see her take to her new owner right away. Sometimes you just have to give up the comfort of the known to experience the good of the new.