Chapter Six May 2, 2001 May 3, 2001 Dallas (Wednesday and Thursday) Lyn and Jesse woke up in the Dallas Courtyard expecting a slow, uneventful day. Lyn took Dave to work early in the morning, and Jesse got to work on some homeschooling. They went out only to bring back breakfast and lunch, Jesse working on schoolwork while Lyn planned the next days of the trip. There was a bit of napping for both of them as well. When Dave got home, he surprised everyone when he suggested they go to Gameworks, a little arcade he had heard of while he was at work. The difference between this and other arcades was that it was based on a time system, rather than money. You were given a card and could use as many credits as you wanted in the time allotted. Needless to say, Jesse ecstatically agreed. We all had an absolute ball. While Jesse got most of the hardcore playing in on the various arcade shoot-em-up's, fighting, and adventure games, even Dave got in on the action with the unique games that Gameworks offered. One of the more spectacular games was a balloon-pirate game where each player takes a seat at a three story tall screen. As the player moves his spike-equipped balloon up, his chair moves up with it. All of this was quite exciting, but even more so when you pulled the trigger on the handle, which sent both you and your opponent (if your hit was successful) zooming towards the ground. Dave and Jesse enjoyed playing this game together, and were quite happy when a couple joined them for some four player antics. It was early on a school day, so the place had been rather empty beforehand. Also unique to Gameworks was a virtual racing game, where you race around the typical oval track, cutting off player and computer cars. Although neither Dave or Jesse were able to read the motions caused by the car, they both had fun anyway. We also tried one more game, a virtual roller coaster, but about 3 minutes through Dave had to push the stop button. Without the wind effects of a real coaster, it was more like being jostled around in a big can. Oh well, you can't win them all. We spent over 3 hours there, an hour while Dave and Jesse played, and two hours of just Jesse. After days of boring driving, Jesse was happy to have a chance to release some energy and beat some of the money vortexes he couldn't even attempt before. We left Gameworks and went back to the hotel. We woke up the next day knowing it was our last day in Dallas, and we had already seen most of everything we had wanted to. There was only one more stop on the way out of town. We still had to get a look at "Southfork Ranch", the famous ranch from the television show "Dallas". Jesse had never seen the show, and after whistling the theme song so many times while we were here, it seemed like we were indebted to take him there. We stopped out front and took a gander, but decided against going on the tour, as we were running out of time and weren't big fans of the show anyway. We were soon out of Dallas, on our way up to Wichita Falls. We hadn't been sure how far along we would get, so Lyn had been calling up various hotels along the way (which she knew of due to that morning's research) to make sure we would have a room for the night. After hours of pretty pastures and highways, we eventually decided to bunk down in Wichita Falls, where we got a room at the Holiday Inn Sundome. We arrived later in the evening, but were able to enjoy a swim in the heated pool. Jesse and Dave were saddened to discover no ping-pong table, as they had been hoping to relive a stay had a Sundome from a long time ago. We eventually got to sleep, knowing we would do a quick tour of the city and head north the next day, another day of long driving. Original Web Upload May 2001 Last Update: December 18, 2001