Excellent weekend and Sunday!

After a run of gloomy weather that set a new record for the month of October in the Dallas area, it ended last Thursday evening. Friday, Saturday and Sunday brought beautiful blue skies and daytime temperatures in the low to mid 70's with low humidity. As far as I am concerned, that is just about perfect! In addition to the great weather, I had the pleasure of having Merilyn, Sarah and Blake come for a visit. They arrived around 9 p.m. on Friday evening. We got them settled into my apartment then we got to bed at a reasonable hour so we could be ready for Saturday's activities...the Oklahoma-Texas football game at the Cotton Bowl and the State Fair of Texas (SFOT)!
We decided to go on up to Fair Park in Dallas before the 11 a.m. kickoff because some of Blake's buddies told him that they had been to the game before and there were some big screen TV's around the grounds. That way we could watch the game and be there to enjoy the SFOT, too. We left Ennis around 9:45 for the 30 minute drive to Fair Park and everything was going smoothly until we got about 1/2 mile away from the park. What a madhouse! There were traffic jams and people everywhere. We saw a sign that said the public parking areas around Fair Park were full so we started looking for one of the numerous private parking places. The folks around the area must make a lot of money during SFOT time. Everyone who had space in their yard or a parking lot were packing cars into every available spot. We ended up paying $20 to park but we ended up only about 2-3 blocks away from the main entrance so it wasn't too bad. Then when we were in line for our tickets, some nice lady came and gave us coupons for $4 off each ticket. Bonus! Once we got in the gate, our first order of business was to find a TV. We got around and found where they did ESPN Game Day. They had a huge TV up so we thought we were in good shape. About 2 minutes after we got there, they turned it off and started to take it down! We saw some Dallas Police on horses, asked if they knew were a TV was and they directed us to the Toyota display. We scrambled over there and found a pretty nice set up where we could watch the game with 500 or so other fans. I've never seen so much burnt orange color before. It was an exciting game just because it was so close, but both teams made lots of mistakes.
At halftime we went to find something to eat. The first place we tried was an indoor food court. There were so many people in there that it was almost claustrophobic so we left. If I have ever seen a place that was more crowded with people, I can't remember where it would have been. There were over 96,000 people in the Cotton Bowl for the game and I have to believe there were 2-3 times that many out in the SFOT. Just about everywhere we went, it was wall-to-wall people. I'm planning on having some of my pictures downloaded to the computer today and I will see if I can post some on the blog tomorrow. Anyway, we went on down the lines of food vendors and finally found an area toward the rear where it was less crowded. During the course of the afternoon, we enjoyed several of the delicacies of the SFOT: sausage on a stick, famous Fletcher's corny dogs, fried butter, fried Oreos, fried Moon Pie and fried churros. Fortunately, we shared most of the fried foods so none of us got too sick from the intake of those items. Sarah's tummy got a bit queasy later in the day, but overall it was OK.
As we were wandering around we just happened to come upon the area where the Texas and Oklahoma football teams were boarding their buses to leave. Not long after we got in there, security cordoned off the area to prevent the crowds from coming in. We were in there with player's families and others who were supposed to be there. We saw Sam Bradford, Trent Williams and several other OU players. Both the Texas and Oklahoma bands marched right past us playing their marching music. The Oklahoma Boomer Schooner drove right past us. We saw Mack Brown, the Texas coach on one bus. Sarah motioned to him to come out because she wanted a picture with him, but he motioned to her shirt and shook his head "No." She was wearing an Oklahoma Sooner shirt. After the buses left, we were walking back around the Cotton Bowl. Sarah was saying she wished we could go inside. We passed by an open gate and there was a worker there. She asked if we could go in and he said, "I don't care. I'm just a TV guy." So we went in. There were quite a few workers going about their business. On the field there was a number of TV sports reporters wrapping up their reports. We got to walk into the lower seats of the stadium and stayed as long as we wanted. Sarah and Blake went down on the field and got a picture. BEVO, the Texas mascot, was laying out on the field with several folks around him. That is one big piece of longhorn beef!
After all that we were all ready to take off. We made our way back to the car and had a surprisingly easy time of exiting the area. Since we were fairly close to the headquarters of the Dallas Police Department, I drove over there so Merilyn, Sarah and Blake could see it. We all like to watch The First 48 police show on TV and they show the front of the building on it when they have episodes from Dallas. We came on back to Ennis, ate at Taco Cabana and got back to the apartment for the last few minutes of the Arkansas-Florida football game. What a heart breaker for the Hogs! We got showers and spent the rest of the evening relaxing and watching more football on TV.
Sunday morning was another beautiful day weather-wise. It was great to have Merilyn, Sarah and Blake with me for worship. Quite a few of our folks were out of town but we had a good morning. One of our elders and his wife took us out for lunch to a nice Italian restaurant then we got back to the apartment and loaded up for their return to Springdale. Fortunately, they had an uneventful trip back home. Merilyn and Sarah were surely glad to see their "babies," Chloe and Mollie. Merilyn had arranged with a co-worker's daughter to stay at our house and watch the dogs. The rest of my Sunday went well. Of course, I was a bit lonesome after everyone left but I am surely glad we are close enough so that we can still see each other every so often. It is always better to count your blessings than to count your troubles.
God is good. He will take care of us and work everything out for our benefit as long as we will be faithful to Him. It looks like it is going to be another beautiful day in north Texas today. I hope it is a good one where you are. Enjoy it, and thank God for it!

We know that in everything God work for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28)