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I was up early and ready for my journey back to Santa Fe. The trip has been amazing! I have seen a lot of Texas, visited two good friends and did a whole lot of letterboxing. But as I always say when a trip comes to an end - "It sure is good to be back home."

My last blog was on Friday when I did a little letterboxing and sightseeing in Dallas while Eddie was at work. Eddie and I did a bunch of things on Saturday and Sunday. Both days we slept in and didn't leave the house until around 10:00am. Saturday we went to the Highland Park area and we found a small park with these huge teddy bears. They were really nice. From there we headed to the Nasher Sculpture Center and enjoyed walking around the place - there were some neat sculptures and some very weird scupltures. Now that we were done with culture we headed to McKinney Avenue and did a little shopping. Our last stop of the day was Victory Park and the West End. Dallas had its own version of Mardi Gras on Saturday night - it was called MystiQal. They had booths set up and they were selling masks and beads. They also had boiled crawfish, hurricanes and beignets. After walking around Victory Park for a while we headed to the West End and had dinner at Landry's. Eddie and I were both hungry for seafood. I had crawfish etouffe and fried crawfish and Eddie had fried shrimp. It was all really good. After eating we headed back to Victory Park for the Mardi Gras parade. It was nice but nothing like New Orleans - I guess I am a bit biased when it come to what makes a great Mardi Gras parade. Once the parade was done we headed home for the night.

Sunday we had a late breakfast and then headed out to the Dallas Arboretum. We spent two to three hours walking around.The weather was perfect. There were quite a few plants in bloom and it made for a very enjoyable and relaxing walk. We sat out in an open area that overlooked White Rock Lake and watched sailboats going by. Now I was ready for some ice cream and I wanted to go to my favorite ice cream place of all time - Marble Slab Creamery. I had my usual of Sweet Cream Ice Cream with mixings of butterfingers in a waffle cone - yum! Once full we headed home and watched the Super Bowl. I also took some time to get my things together so I would be ready to leave in the morning.

This morning I left Dallas early so I would beat the rush hour traffic - and I was glad - I got through Dallas and Denton in record time. But by the time I reached Decatur a heavy fog settled in. I decided to slow things down and take my time - better safe than sorry. The fog last all the way to Wichita Falls. And unfortunately just before Wichita Falls the police were out and had closed one of the lanes. I originally thought that they did this to slow people down in the fog - but I soon saw the reason - an accident. It was a single car accident, I read just a few minutes ago that the drive lost control, went into the median and hit a light post, he was ejected from the car and he didn't make it. We we passed the accident the truck looked pretty bad and I thought I saw a body bag next to the truck but I wasn't sure. But since I read that the man didn't make it - I guess I saw correctly. Luckily, the fog cleared just as I got into Wichita Falls and the drive home from there was really nice. There was very little traffic the whole way, even I40 in New Mexico wasn't its usual congestion of 18 wheelers. I was home for about half an hour and then the snow started. It has been snowing steadily ever since. I feel lucky to have made it home before the storm started.

I should also mention that I did do a little letterboxing on the way home. I first stopped in Denton at the hospital and found one box, I did try for another box near a hotel but it was still dark and I was unable to find the landmarks. There were three boxes in Amarillo that I wanted to get - one was an easy drive by at a rest area, one was at a roadside attraction and the third was at the Helium Monument. I was able to get them all. My last stop for a letterbox was in Vega, Texas at a small cemetery and I was able to find that one without a problem So I grabbed five boxes on the way home - not too bad.

And if you are wondering what the title of this post means - - - that is how many miles I logged on this trip.