So last weekend Ron and I headed up to Dallas for one of our summer rituals–a weekend of baseball, hot dogs, and pie from the Collin Street Bakery in Waco. This weekend didn’t go as smoothly as in the past. For one thing,  it was blisteringly hot–98 degrees even at 10:30 at night when the game mercifully ended in the bottom of the 9th inning when the Rangers hit a home run and won the game 2-1. Sitting in the stands soaked through to the skin, I prayed we wouldn’t have to endure extra innings.

The free trolley system that operates between adjacent hotels and the ballpark was overwhelmed; this game was the celebratory game marking the Rangers’ 40th anniversary and the stadium was packed–so we wound up taking cabs to and from the game. The local cabbies have figured out that people do not want to stand in line for an hour and half after a game waiting for the trolley, and the bargaining with potential passengers can be quite entertaining.  Fare-wise, anything goes.

We finally convinced a guy from Cameroon to take us home and was it a thrill ride as he wove in and out of the post game traffic, all the while talking on his phone.  Ron was giving him directions to our hotel, and at one point the driver broke off his phone conversation to say to him, “So. You cab driver, eh?” Before swerving into the hotel driveway just yards ahead of an oncoming car.

We enjoy a little culture along with our sports, so on Saturday before the game  we visited the Kimball Art Museum in Ft Worth with  Ron’s sister and had a lovely time viewing the Renoirs, Monets, and Michaelangelo’s first ever painting, done when he was twelve.  At lunch time we discovered an  In and Out Burger just down the street. As former Californians, Ron and I were excited. In and Out burgers are the best ever and we don’t have a franchise here in San Antonio. So we crowded in for a burger and fries.

Sunday morning, we headed down I-35 toward home, stopping in Waco at the Collin Street Bakery. The bakery’s original location is still going strong in Corsicana. The new one opened a couple of years ago.  We bought a pecan pie that smelled so good we could hardly keep from eating it with our fingers on the way home.

We have such busy lives with so many deadlines that these weekends are precious times to decompress and reconnect. I wouldn’t take anything for them. However,  next  year, we’re going to the opening game in April to avoid the heat, the crowds, and the wild cab rides. But we’ll still stop in Waco for another Collin Street  pecan pie.