⊕dallas, in some ways, was a return to the roots, to the scene of the crime, to the distant origins of the current era in my personal history (which may be coming to a close soon). oh so many years ago (2020), it was where i was suddenly thrust out into the world on what would turn out to be the first of many “official” business trips, flights and accommodations arranged on my behalf, expense account and everything. it was where i inadvertently pioneered or perhaps discovered many of my enduring travel quirks, like taking rail transit whenever possible or trying to foolishly walk places through the treacherous terrain that is american urbanism. fortunately for me dallas was a little bit like starting on easy mode, because as improbable as it may be in the middle of texas, it is somehow one of america’s select cities with a direct light rail link to the city center. thus, my naïve young self, not wanting to rock the boat early on by submitting a laundry list of expenses, decided to try and save the boss some money and take the light rail in to town instead of an uber (nowadays, my jaded older self would still take the rail because it’s fun, however i would forge an uber receipt for the expense report and pocket the price difference). the light rail didn’t run quite all the way to the hotel and i had expected good weather in texas even in the winter, so i ended up getting soaked running through the pouring rain to the hotel from the rail stop, wearing my “business casual” outfit (consisting solely of this dark corduroy sport coat thrown on top of my normal outfit, a $10 last-minute goodwill find that i lost a few years ago and miss very much). then, at the close of the trip, i decided to take the trinity railway express commuter rail to the airport because it also goes to the airport, had a station right by the hotel, and one of the intermediate stations was close to a whataburger, which i wanted to try. of course, it ended up being a more onerous journey than i’d expected from the station to the whataburger because they were on opposite sides of an expressway and through a light industrial/office area with absolutely no sidewalks to be found, which let to me walking through neatly-trimmed decorative lawns rolling my rolly bag behind me and worrying about getting the wheels irreparably scuffed and dirty on its very first outing. nowadays, there’s no need for any of that because there’s now a whataburger at DFW airport, and as everyone knows it's no longer worth going out of your way to get whatburger because it's gone downhill since the owners sold out to private equity a couple years ago. now that i consider it, perhaps the whole dallas episode was more of a prologue, a hint of things to come, because of course not even a month later covid ended up throwing everything off the rails for a year or two.

now wise and savvy (but lacking a large hotel budget), for my two nights in dallas i booked a cheap hotel located right by the light rail line that went to the airport, and not too far away from the amtrak station near the city center. getting off the train, though, i had to transfer over to the light rail, which involved walking a few blocks from the train station and almost exactly retracing in reverse the route i had taken so many years ago when i had gotten soaked. this time around the weather was good, the rainstorm from the train trip hadn't made it to dallas yet though there was ominous cloudage on the distant horizon. a lot of people were out and about, but that's mostly because my route passed right by one of the most famous spots in texas, dealey plaza, where jfk got shot (the other famous texas spot that comes to mind is the alamo, where davy crockett and a bunch of guys shot and got shot. is there a pattern...?) despite its small size it might be one of the most popular parks in the state, though i'm not really sure what everyone was doing there, people seemed to just be standing around looking at their phones. is pokemon go still a thing? the thing is, it's really not a very pleasant plaza to hang out in because it's crammed between these two busy roads with cars constantly zooming by, thousands driving every day right over the spot on the road where it happened. not even jfk was beloved enough to get a major arterial road closed off or diverted in his memory...

after riding the light rail a few stops, i got off at the stop near the hotel, which was still a five minute walk away through a slightly questionable area. the hotel itself was a squat little tower shaped kind of like this: ✦ . the price was concerningly cheap for a holiday inn, luckily at reception they gave me the room two away from the one that a google review from 2 weeks before claimed was infested with bedbugs.

the next day, i looked out the window and noticed that the rain storm from the train trip appeared to have followed me. evidently i didn’t learn anything from my first trip to texas and still thought it didn’t rain there, so naturally i had no rain gear whatsoever and there didn’t seem to be any possibility of procuring any within reasonable walking distance of the hotel, which at the rate rain was falling was under a minute. even the light rail stop was just far enough away that going without any protection would result in a guaranteed soaking. i decided to wait out and after a couple hours it did seem to abate somewhat, so when i started getting hungry i figured i would try to get to a bbq joint that was “just down the road” (about a mile down a giant boulevard through an enormous complex billing itself as “the texas medical district”). i had already been in texas for over a week and hadn’t had any bbq yet, which was simply unacceptable.

once outside it was immediately obvious that the rain was still pretty bad and it steadily got worse as i rushed through it, as if the previous abatement had just been a trap to lure me outside. before i'd even gone half a mile it ramped back up to flash-flood warning proportions and in seconds i was soaked to the bone, as if i'd fallen into a large body of water. too ashamed to show my face in any reputable establishment sopping wet (IMAGINE the jeering: "i'd get you a glass of water but looks like you've already got plenty HA HA"), i gave up on my quest and went to the closest shelter, which was a covered bus stop. it was a decent structure for a bus stop, but the rain and wind were so strong that it was barely an upgrade, so without even knowing where it was going i hopped on the next bus that pulled up.

my new plan was to ride around on public transit until i dried off and the rain stopped, both of which i was fairly convinced would happen eventually. i rode the bus down the boulevard far past my original destination until it reached the terminus, which was a light rail stop. i got on the next train heading back towards the city center, but even when i got off downtown 40 minutes later i was still so wet that i looked like i'd just gone for an hour jog in 100 degree heat (it doesn't help that i was wearing pretty much all cotton). the wind passing between the skyscrapers was making me shiver and i was finally getting hungry again (the shock from having been put into a survival situation by the rain had worn off), so i stopped in at a chick-fil-a to warm/fill up, where naturally i immediately made things harder for myself by reflexively ordering a frosted coffee. in the end that turned out to be a solid strategic move because it gave me an excuse to linger an extra 30 minutes sipping it, since there's always that bit at the bottom that's impossible to suck up the straw until it melts enough.

⊕the historic toad?after drying off enough to rejoin polite society, i wandered off through downtown dallas until i came upon the dallas museum of art. it was free, and i also appreciated how they didn't make you jump through hoops filling out a bunch of personal info on some website to "claim" a free ticket like they did in LA, they just waved me right in. it was refreshing to go to a museum alone and go along at my own pace, i hate going with people who put on this stiff performative "art appreciation" act where they carefully make sure they are seen devoting an appropriately-lengthy amount of time looking at each work in exhaustive sequential order. there is no need to feel ashamed skipping over things that don't interest you, or speneding way too long staring at just one thing that's captivated you. it was close to closing time so i went on a whirlwind tour of aztec toad statues, african ceremonial outfits that may have been props from the movie dune, and this huge display case filled with various glassware carefully labelled with numbers set into tiny transparent cubes that for some reason made me wonder if anyone has ever done a museum display of anime figures, what sorts of things curators might write describing them.

i wasn't really sure what to do the next day. i had already done every dallas tourist thing i was aware of; i'd passed by dealey plaza and visited the art museum. reunion tower had already been checked off during my first trip. nothing else was really coming to mind, there was maybe the giant eyeball that was supposed to be somewhere downtown, or the george bush presidential library. in the end i just hopped on the light rail and rode it all the way to the end of the line in a random direction, towards "north carollton".

most of the light rail line that direction was raised up on a viaduct, so i got a good overhead view of the area around, not that there was much to look at. the line ran through an industrial belt surrounding a parallel freeway, mostly an endless array of anonymous warehouses and other light industry. the tallest structures visible in the distance were almost always huge elevated highway intersections and ovrpasses. on some sections the train was able to pick up some serious speed because the track was dead straight and the stations were very spread out. the few stations that were around didn't seem to be near anything notable, they looked well-maintained but nobody got on or off at them. it was like they were trying to break up the monotony of the rail line by placing a station every place they found a bunch of cheap land. it seemed to me like theyt were going for a commuter rail "park and ride"-type situation because each stop was equipped with a huge parking lot, so the idea is that you first drive ten minutes from your house to the station and park there before getting on the train, but i guess many people weren't doing that because the parking lots were largely empty...

after how lax things had been on the LA metro, one thing that stood out about DART (dallas area rapid transit) is that they had lots of fare inspectors, at least one came through every single time i rode, even when i only went a few stops. they were intidimating, kitted up in bulky armored vests emblazoned yellow with "FARE INSPECTOR" where you might expect to see "SWAT" or "FBI". they were even peaking heat, as if ready to execute fare dodgers on the spot. observing for a bit, it became abundantly clear that their main job was to boot homeless people off the train, since like every other transit system in the country the DART trains serve as mobile homeless shelters. "fare inspecting" was a good excuse for kicking them off, because homeless people riding did not tend to possess a valid fare. i bought all my tickets by tapping my credit card and they didn't even have a way to verify that, but just holding up my card was enough for them to leavbe me alone as it certified me as a Creditworthy Individual. in a way, a credit card is kind of like a universal letter of safe conduct issued by VISA. although i suppose it is nice to see a transit system actually trying to put in the effort to be safe/clean and not just a mobile dormitory for homeless people, at the end of the day the constant "fare inspector" patrols were kind of a band-aid solution of dubious efficacy because the homeless people would just get on the next train every time they got thrown off. i saw a guy get kicked off two stops away from the terminus, and when the train came back around the other way, he casually hopped right back on. then later, the one time i actually would have appreciated some security presence on the train, when these two guys were shouting at each other and looked ready to throw hands, there were of course no "fare inspectors" to be found anywhere.

at one point, looking down into the maze of little circuit-board streets between the warehouses, i spotted a van with the "half price books" logo. aha! i thought, there's something to do, maybe there's a half price books around i could go to. inevitably my trips always devolve into me doing the same two things: going to bookstores and arcades. i looked it up and not only was there a half price books in dallas, it was THE half price books: their hq and flagship location. what's more, it was within easy walking distance of a light rail station, though on the opposite end of town. who knows what that van was doing way out there, maybe it was a sign intended for me. at the terminus in north carollton, i stayed on the train to go back towards dallas, but this time i had a firm destination in mind.

walking from the station to half price books, i passed right by a costco business center and decided to pop in because i've always wanted to go to one but never had the chance. it's interesting because while on the surface it looks like a costco, the vibe is completely different. they're usually smaller, don't have a food court, and the products are all things like huge commercial kitchen equipment, gigantic cuts of meat, barrels of cooking oil and soy sauce, huge boxes of candy for stocking convenience stores and vending machines. it almost made me want to open up a restaurant or convenience store myself. most striking, though, is how few people were in it, i'm so used to costco being absolutely packed. it was quiet, the only movement being employees pushing around these big flat carts with rows of open cardboard boxes on them, occasionally stopping at a shelf to grab something and pack it into a box for delivery orders or something. i imagine it's kind of what it must be like to be in a proper warehouse.

i've been to a couple of half price books locations and it's got to be the highest variance bookstore i've ever been tohalf price books doesn’t just sell books, they also have records and some video games. i’ve been to several locations and one odd thing i’ve noticed is that for some reason inside the special glass case for the rare and valuable objects, there is ALWAYS some installment of this aggressively-japanese video game franchise “Hyperdimension Neptunia” available for sale at an obscene price like $200. they’ve always stood out to me because they look so out of place in the depths of middle america. at the dallas location, as you’d expect from the flagship store, they upped the ante and had multiple copies, some of which were even in the original japanese. there are so many mysteries... where do they all come from? why are they so expensive? why does no one ever buy them? what is the game even about? i worry that they are some kind of power source secretly sustaining each HPB location and if i were to amass enough capital and actually purchase one the store would crumble to dust behind me as i walk out the door.. the shelves are generally packed with a lot of absolute rubbish like many bookstores, generic bestsellers and also worstsellers that were probably picked up for pennies on the dollar at publisher liquidation sales (on a trip once i went to a phenomenally unsettling bookstore whose stock consisted entirely of the latter). then, shoved between 15 copies of "where the crawdads sing", you'll find a rare translation of a short story collection by an obscure but respected slovenian writer. unfortunately finding those hidden treasures is a time consuming process because it requires carefully scanning almost every single shelf in the store, so my visits tend to become quite lengthy. the pricing is a bit quirky sometimes too, some things are way more expensive than they should be and others are oddly cheap, however upon inspecting the original prices printed on book covers it's almost always the outcome of sticking to the pricing scheme in their name with charming dedication.

⊕the dallas location did not disappoint when it came to size, it was basically one giant floor the size of a grocery store filled with bookcases. one amusing thing i noticed is that it seems they never turn down anyone coming in selling curriculum classics, because they had an ENTIRE bookcase dedicated just to "the scarlet letter", and a few of the other usual suspects like "to kill a mockingbird". if you're starting a huge book club and need to buy literally one hundred copies of the scarlet letter, HPB dallas is the place. i decided to skip the sprawling fiction section and focus my efforts elsewhere, because it probably would take me a full day to get through it. this is one gripe i have with most bookstores, even when they have a dedicated "Literature" section it's more often than not stuffed with enough books of questionable literary merit that it might as well be the HPB fiction section. i went instead to some of the more focused sections, like the bookcase marked "literary criticism" where i discovered they had over half of the books on my little "lit crit" book list, which was wonderful. then i went over to the non-fiction area to see if they had this cookbook "pickiling the japanese way" i'd been looking for, and they did. next, i went looking for "a field guide to american houses", and they had not one but THREE copies (later i found out that the author is from dallas). feeling lucky, i went over to the foreign books section and looked for ドグラマグラ (i always do) and of course they didn’t have it (nobody ever will).

it was probably a good thing i didn’t find much of anything else, because those two non-fiction books i’d picked up were hefty tomes and walking back to the station i started regretting my shopping spree because my bag weighed at least 25 pounds. at least, i thought, once i get on the train i can sit down and relax... except that when i reached the station, it was BUSY, and when the next train pulled up, it was so stuffed that i could barely squeeze myself in, the worst i’ve seen since the last train of the night in tokyo. out of nowhere dallas residents were VERY enthusiastic about train travel, and looking around at my fellow passengers dressed all coordinated wearing green jerseys and scarves and hats, i deduced that they must be going to a sports game. they all got off at the stop for the “american airlines center”, of course only one stop away from where i was headed.

⊕it was the evening and i didn’t have anything better to do, so i did what i usually do and looked to see if there was any place to play korean dance game “pump it up” nearby. it looked like there was one of those “barcade”-type places within reasonable walking distance just down the road, which in this case meant three miles away going under a freeway and over a river. i always like to partake of the local flavor (luckily it is easy to find products made in texas because their origin is always well-advertised) so i pre-gamed with some deep eddy lemon-flavored vodka that i had first had with my friend back in austin, and joked to him that it was “mike’s hardest lemonade” because it went down so smooth. despite its length, the walk was pleasant, most parts had either a sidewalk or a sidewalk converted into a tiny road for electric scooters that i wasn’t sure i was supposed to be walking on. near the end, there was a road bridge over the trinity river that had been converted to pedestrian use with fantastic views of the lit-up dallas skyline that i failed to adequately capture on my phone camera after over a dozen attempts.

⊕for a barcade, they had a surprising selection of rhythm games, even maimai and pop’n music off in a little side room. their pump it up was an older version with all sorts of vintage kpoop that i always enjoy playing, and the pads weren’t awful. the one annoying thing is that they were right by the speakers for the dj stand, where a guy went up a couple minutes after i arrived and started playing music really loud to like the five people who were there on a weeknight. they left the maintenance door on the cab open and i cranked the volume knob up all the way, but it still wasn't quite enough. after wearing myself out dancing, i went over to the secluded corner with pop’n music where i somehow pop’d off out of nowhere and cleared a couple of new level 40s (i have only ever cleared one or two before) despite being somewhat drunk and not having played for weeks. then i headed back over to pump it up for a few more plays before heading out right as the arcade closed around midnight.

i wasn’t really looking forward to walking all three miles back, so i made an unprecedented move: i rented an electric scooter. i’d ridden them a few times before but somebody else had always used their phone/account to rent them (i hate dealing with apps), and usually i ended up hitching a ride on their scooter as well which is exceedingly dangerous and quite terrifying because they have nowhere close to enough space for two people. luckily, the uber app which i had installed for other emergency situations also let you rent lime scooters, so i busted it out, scanned the QR code, hit “confirm payment” with a thumb tap of destiny and then... a warning popped up “it is after the curfew for this area, you cannot rent at this time”. what the hell? is this not the EXACT use case for rentable scooters: late at night trying to get home somewhat drunk, not really far enough away to justify an uber? they let me down in my time of need, and for that i will never forgive them. no wonder those scooter companies are always going bankrupt...

the next morning, i still wasn’t sure what there was to do in dallas, so i got on the light rail heading towards the airport right after checking out, hours before my flight. the airport rail line passes through some of the “good” parts of town, like a dense “new urban” lakeside development of those 5-over-1 apartment buildings that are everywhere now, “luxury” capitalist commie blocks. apparently the variant that’s wrapped around a central parking garage is known as a “texas doughnut”. one of the selling points is always that every unit has a balcony and there's always a little bit of furniture on them, but never in my life have i ever actually seen someone out on one of those balconies, in the same way that although i’ve chanced upon dozens of attempts, nobody has ever successfully pulled off an ollie in my presence. that particular development had an oddly european feel to it because the light rail ran right in the middle of the road between the buildings, although it felt eerie because there sidewalks were almost abandoned and there were almost no ground floor shops or restaurants. then the rail line hopped over a highway and entered up in a large green area that you might call “landscaping” (as opposed to a park or a field or a forest) surrounding a corporate campus perched on top of small hills, before entering an an adjacent academic campus. finally, it passed by a couple of warehouses placed near the airport and then ducked into the woods surrounding the airport. it re-emerged to join up with the main roads leading into the airport, going with them beneath an impressive aircraft overpass.⊕i was gonna snap a pic of this myself but turns out they already had one on the DART homepage

i entered the airport at terminal A, which is also where my flight was, but headed over to terminal D to have a late lunch at whataburger. airport restaurants are always overpriced and have basically no motivation to be any good because they have a captive audience, so i almost always eat fast food in airports because their quality is still consistent and the prices aren't bad. then, i headed back to terminal A and walked almost the entire length of the terminal looking for a nice comfortable nook to set up camp in for a few hours. unfortunately i didn't really find anything good - it's shocking how cramped 80% of DFW's terminals are (all except D) considering it's in TEXAS and the amount of land set aside for it is literally larger than the island of manhattan. meanwhile SFO airport, crammed into the second-densest city in the country, somehow has all these huge spacious terminals with tons of nooks and crannies, and a great variety of comfortable seating as well instead of the generic airport row seats. i ended up sitting near my gate for a few hours with ebbed and flowed with people as earlier flights departed. i decided to get chick-fil-a for dinner, but the one in my terminal had already closed, so i had to go to the one in terminal C. when i got back to terminal A, i discovered that my flight's gate had been changed to terminal B, so i headed over there, and that's how i ended up visiting four out of five terminals at DFW (keep in mind i was also carrying my 25+ pound bag of books the whole time). maybe it was because of wearing myself out walking around everywhere and passing by thousands of people in the airport, or perhaps it was spending hours shivering and sopping wet riding around town, but as soon as i got home i fell very ill for several days, a sort of texas hangover i suppose.