The feeling you get when you’re almost home

There is just something about the Dallas skyline. For as long I remember, after traveling anywhere, the sight of the Dallas skyline meant one thing – I was almost home.

After living in Port Lavaca for almost half the number of years that I lived in the Dallas area, I still feel that familiar tingle every time I make the trek that way. It never fails, traveling north on U.S. 35, I cross Interstate 20 and at the top of the rise, the magnificent skyline looms into view.

So as I traveled to Dallas this past weekend, I felt that old familiar tingle and realized some things never change, but as my short stay progressed, along came several other realizations:

1. About the time the skyline comes into view, one begins to experience the traffic congestion that will plague the entire visit.

2. No one drives the speed limit. I am not sure why officials even bother to post speed limit signs, as there are only two speeds on Dallas freeways – slow and fast. If the posted speed limit is 60 mph, there will be cars going 40 or 85. There is no “going with the flow” because there is no flow. If you are one of the rare people that actually attempts to observe proper speed limits or go slightly over, you are definitely the minority. At 65-70 mph you will be passed or have to quickly swerve around the 40 mph car in front of you.

3. A car will cross five lanes of traffic in 10 seconds, to quickly exit. I wonder, little red sports car driver, did you not know that your exit was coming up in one-tenth of a mile?

4. Central Expressway has had a “Roadwork next 10 miles” sign for 30 years. This freeway, once dubbed as the “oldest living highway controversy in the nation” by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, has gone from four lanes to 10 lanes in some spots during my lifetime.

5. While on the topic of roadways, LBJ Freeway, once my haven as a way to cut across town, is now nothing but a parking lot for 18-wheelers.

6. Due to the aforementioned musings, my method of travel is the tollway system, on which I can easily spend $40 in a weekend.

7. It doesn’t matter where you go; it takes an hour to get there. I wonder how I ever did a minimum two-hour commute every day and am thankful for my present two-mile five-to-sevenminute (depending on how I catch the lights and school zone) drive to the office.

8. The Trinity River near Commerce Street and Industrial Boulevard will always stink.

9. The Como Motel is most likely the oldest working hotel in the Richardson area. It may have been nice at one point in time, but it has been a long-standing joke since before I was in high school. However, such as it is, it has been around long before me, and will probably be standing long after my children and grandchildren are gone.

10. The best amusement center ever was at Dallas Love Field Airport. Random, I know, but I have thought of this place often. Love Entertainment Complex was at the front of a former terminal and featured movie theaters, an ice rink, a roller rink, a huge video arcade, places to eat and a bowling alley. One could spend the day for a single admission charge of about $3.50 and our parents thought that was expensive.

11. While there are some unique places to shop, such as the Indian food market I patronized on my last trip, I like knowing my checker at the grocery store and the teller at my bank.

12. My childhood home will always have a piece of my heart, but it is no longer home. A dozen realizations later, it was time to head home. As the skyline faded in my rearview mirror, I thought about the four very special people in the area. I know that as long as they are there, I will make the trek to visit. However, I wonder, should those compelling motivations to visit ever relocate, will I find reason to travel to the place I once thought I would never leave?

I leave you with one final realization, as I turned from Hwy. 87 onto FM 1090, I was struck with a familiar tingle that meant: “I was almost home.”