DFW Mass Transit Is a Win/Win

This past week, Alan & I celebrated our 28th anniversary with a visit to DFW. We shopped, ate at new restaurants and attended a movie. We try to have a DFW date night every 4-6 weeks and that is our usual agenda, plus the opportunity to run errands and search for items that are not available in our immediate area.

When we started planning our anniversary adventure, I suggested a visit to the Bush Center on the SMU campus in Dallas. A special exhibit was being featured with the White House 2001 Christmas decorations. The general public had not been able to view these decorations "Home For Christmas" because the White House had been closed to the public as a result of increased security caused by the terror threats after 9/11.

The George W. Bush Museum was a very educational and informative historical collection. The exhibits were varied and interesting. The Oval Office even included a picture opportunity to sit behind President Bush's desk. Being from West Texas, I was especially interested in the early life of the President and Laura Bush's early years growing up in Midland, Texas. There was also a more personal exhibit telling about their private, family life while living in the White House including a video interview with Jenna & Barbara sharing some of their memories of growing up in the public eye not only when their dad was President but also the years that their grandparents, Bush 41 & Barbara occupied the Executive Mansion. Even Barney & Scott, their dogs, are immortalized in bronze. The 9/11 exhibit affected me in so many ways, both from my personal perspective and the scope of how America was forever changed by this attack on our country. We shared the museum with people of all races, generations, and many young adults who were touring with school classes. An added bonus was the area choirs who were performing Christmas concerts throughout the day.
What do all this have to do with mass transit? Several years ago, when Jake was living in Plano, he would use DART to travel all over the area. Even now, when he comes to visit us at Possum Kingdom Lake, he will use DART and Trinity Rail Express for more economical travel. I've been wanting to travel around DFW on the rail/bus lines just for fun. Alan always, give me one of those "you must be crazy" looks, but if that was what I wanted to do, he would go along with it, just this once. We parked at the T&P station in downtown Fort Worth and boarded the Trinity Rail Express to Union Station in downtown Dallas. We purchased our tickets with an app on my phone and could ride any train or bus in the DFW area for the next 24 hours for only $10 per person. That was less than the price of gas to drive in the area. The trip to Dallas was less than one hour. At Union Station, we transferred to a DART train that took us to Mockingbird Station, where we changed to a shuttle bus that took us to the front door of the Bush Center. The trip was very efficient and timely. Why don't more people embrace this transportation method? No hassle, no traffic problems; sit and relax, read a book, surf the web with WiFi provided on the trains. Win/Win!

When we finished our visit, we waited for a bus to shuttle us back to the Mockingbird DART station and then we decided to stop at the West End to eat a late lunch and shop in the area. We ate BBQ at Sonny Bryans and shopped at Wild Bill's Western Wear. We boarded the DART again and traveled back across Dallas and then Fort Worth via TRE. Even Alan enjoyed the ride and the lack of stress usually associated with DFW traffic. We have decided that the next time we go to Market Center, we will use the train because it stops at Market Center and the shuttle will take us to the front door of the World Trade Center. No traffic, no parking hassle and service with a smile.

If you have never use the DFW mass transient, I encourage you to give it a try. We thoroughly enjoyed the adventure.http://www.bushcenter.org/