Back from Dallas

I'm thankful that I managed to make it back to Peoria before another cold front came though.  I am also glad that I walked a couple miles to church from the hotel. I was able to get out and experience the area a bit.

Reminders I was in Texas:
Flora:
-Texas mountain laurel
-mistletoe on tree
-dandelion flowers in January
-pansy flowers in January
-cedar tree
-bald cypress trees
-LIVE OAK trees

Fauna:
-great-tailed grackle (heard, but not seen)
-armadillo shell fragment
-oyster and Inoceramus shell FOSSILS from the Cretaceous in the dirt along the sidewalk (it was REALLY nice to be able to walk along and pick those up again)

Restaurants:
-Whataburger
-Sonic
-a barbeque dinner at the conference last night
-TACO CABANA (Despite that I really like that place, I ate at an In and Out Burger instead to see what the fuss was all about.  I was not impressed with the fries, but I had a pretty decent burger.)

Other:
-Cowboys references (yuck)
-crazy arial highway interchanges
-nice cowboy hats and boots worn by patrons at the airport
-Texas souvenirs at the airport
-WARM October-like weather in January (near-record high of 73 F)
-some sort of odor I associate with Texas, sort of a woody odor perhaps associated with the live oaks
-storm sewers without grates
-Dr. Pepper, but not Mountain Dew, at restaurant
-last night there was a party at the hotel for the DTMOB motorcycle group (all that biker gear was quite a contrast to our American Chemical Society meeting)