#dallstx

We checked in and lugged our stuff up to the second floor. When we opened the door to our room, we were greeted with an unpleasant smell; the TV was on, the bed was messed up, and the bathroom was trashed. It took a few seconds for us to register the situation. Did we book the nastiest hotel in Dallas? Are we in someone else’s room? No, the room hadn’t been cleaned since the last guest, yikes! At least we had our masks on. We lugged our things back downstairs to inform the front desk. “I’m so sorry!” The clerk was clearly embarrassed as she took our room keys and typed feverishly into her computer. “This room should be clean.” She said as she handed me new key cards. We took the new keys and again carried our giant backpacks upstairs. This room was amazing; she had given us a suite! A large suite complete with a living room, kitchen, and separate bedroom! It was now totally worth the extra $13 we spent. We decided we were too tired to venture out into the city to find a unique place to eat, so we settled for what was available within walking distance. We ordered takeout from Lupe Tortilla, which is a Texas-based chain. The food was decent, the hand made tortillas being the main attraction, and the portions were pretty significant for the price we paid. We settled in with our food and a bottle of Libelula Tequila and watched the Democratic National Convention. By 11 pm, when the DNC had ended, we were thoroughly ready to turn in.  

The next morning when my alarm went off at 7 am, I was NOT ready to face the 9-hour drive we had planned to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We decided to sleep for another hour. Feeling better with the extra hour of sleep, we got ready and headed out to see Dallas. We walked around the arts district, and as theatre kids, we were overly excited to see so many performing arts venues. As we walked the empty streets, we fantasized about pre-corona times. Performing in a show and afterward celebrating with the cast in a crowded bar. We both had no idea that Dallas was so heavily saturated with the arts.  

We decided to eat a late breakfast at Yolk, a small cafe that we passed on our walk back to the car. It’s a chain based in Chicago. Usually, we strive to find something local to the place we are visiting, but we had a nine-hour drive ahead of us, we were in a hurry. Yolk was probably the most inexpensive meal we had on our trip thus far, but it was absolutely delightful. The staff was friendly (they were calling us by name by the end) the food was delicious, and the atmosphere was pleasing. We walked back to the car with full bellies. It was time to begin the long drive to the Albuquerque.