Work trip to Dallas

I am on a trip to Dallas to meet with some new clients.I am pretty familiar with the Dallas area since I worked here for 2 years and lived here for almost 2 years. I'm staying in the same hotel I "lived" in when I very first started business consulting with PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1998. It's funny that my new client is right across the street from my first consulting client.

I flew in on SWA. They fly into Dallas Love field and not DFW. Well, back in the day SW didn't fly anywhere I needed to go, so I always flew United out of DFW, to Chicago, or Philly, etc. so I knew how to get around from there! So, when I got in last night, and hopped in my rental to head to the hotel, I was in an area I wasn't too familiar with, but I was pretty confident I could get there easily. Come to find out, my Google directions were pretty bad. SO, I end up on the freeway I think will get me where I need to go. I get off the exit for the street the hotel is on, only to find out it's the wrong "part" of the road, I'm about 10 min too far North, so I head back south, I see the sign for the freeway I need and get on...or so I thought. 10 minutes later, I look over to the left and see Dallas - yeah, I'm too far south now! LOL, a 10 min drive to the hotel turned into about 30 min and a tour of Irving Texas. Pretty funny how with no mountains, it's hard to figure out which direction you're going :-D.

Anyway, I made it. The meetings with my client went really well. I was a bit nervous because they haven't been super happy with our service lately, but I took care of business and got things ironed out and it turned out to be really good!

At dinner we all went out to a place called Pappas Bros Steak House. One of the women I was meeting with said it was like a step up from Chili's, which didn't excite me too much. We got there and it was more like a step up from Ruth's Chris! Now I was pretty happy (though the Creme Brulle at Ruth's Chris is WAY better!) Since I was hosting the dinner, I got to pay. I nearly melted the numbers off my AMEX!!! Oh well, I will expense it and enjoy the points ;-)

Over all it was a good business trip. Hopefully, I can find my way to the airport in the morning.!!!

Oh, and when I called Griff last night and told him I was in Texas, he asked, "the big purple place?" I said, what? And he went on to inform me that on his map puzzle of the US, Texas is purple, so yes - the Big Purple Place! :-D