We disembarked on our final long drive of our trip. Back to Dallas, our home base for this trip. The weather on our way to Dallas was exceptionally nice, a little too nice. We heard from family back home that Dallas was going to get hit with some major storms this evening. We listened to old LoveLine episodes on our whole trip to Dallas, including the infamous episode with caller James, the “dog lover.”
We got checked in to the Crowne Plaza in Dallas around 3 oclock. We were starving so we walked over to Deep Ellum (same neighborhood that my friend Manoo dropped me off in) to try the legendary Twisted Root Burger Co.
Twisted Root was a funky dive that looked like it had been yanked right out of Austin. You order your burger and they give you a celebrity’s name for your order. Usually the guy on the mic will make some sort of remark about it. I got Jerry Springer, and was called to my food with, what else, “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!.” Courageous had John McLain, so he was called up with Yippy KiYay, naturally.
The burgers were absolutely top tier. I got a standard beef burger, but they also serve elk, beaver, gator, lamb, and even ostrich burgers.
As we finished our meal we spotted someone across the way that looked familiar. We thought about it for a second and we thought “surely that’s not who we think it is, right?”
Courageous approached him, and after about 3 words they motioned over to me. I walked up, and sure enough, it was Eric, the sound man from the APCA conferences. I was absolutely beside myself. What are the odds I thought. I’m not sure if I’ll ever get over how ridiculously unlikely that was. We hugged him for giving us a food pointer, and he reminded us about The Pecan Lodge, after his suggestion was so good, there was no way we’d miss it.
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We walked our way back to the Crowne and the wind was starting to pick up, it was getting clear that a storm was coming. I took a dip in the ice cold rooftop pool, and headed back to the room and turned on the local news.
The rain and wind came hard. We weren’t too scared, we were in a very old building, and it was all brick and very large, with minimal windows. It was actually kind of nice to be in out of the elements. Hail and tornadoes never came.
The next day we headed back to UNT-Dallas to deliver some t-shirts that were ordered, and to give some cupcakes to Jennifer Skinner as a thank you for having us.
The cupcakes were from a place called Sprinkles. they have a cupcake ATM that automatically dispenses a cupcake to you through a slot.
On our way to south Dallas, we swung by Deep Ellum for some Pecan Lodge BBQ. We got there at 11:15 and it was already packed. This place was famous for its burnt ends. Burnt end is the term used for the point side of a brisket cut. It takes longer to render down the fat on that side, so in order to make them edible, they have to be smoked until they look burnt. They’re not burnt. They’re amazing. If you are ever at The Pecan Lodge, and they happen to have burnt ends, do yourself a favor and give them a shot.
We went back to the hotel and I sat by the pool and listened to a lot of the same music that I listened to when we first got all of these shows booked. Reminiscing on our tour and the memories we’d made. I had a flashback to us stopping off of the highway in Kent, TX to shoot some shots for our video. I was going to miss the road.
That night, it was time for something we’d said we were going to do on every tour we’d been on, but never been able to. Today, we were taking a step back to the past,
Today, we were going to Medieval Times!
Among our many favorite 90’s movies to quote and talk about, Tommy Boy, Black Sheep, and The Cable Guy are among our favorites. Interestingly enough, Chris Farley was the lead in two of those movies. We found out while we waited for the show at MT that Chris Farley was originally slated to play the character of The Cable Guy in TCG, but turned down the role because he was working on what was essentially a sequel to Tommy Boy. That movie turned out to be Black Sheep.
I bring that up to bring up this, in The Cable Guy, there is a scene in which Chip (The Cable Guy) brings Steven, (Matthew Broderick) to Medieval Times. Chip knows one of the owners, and Chip and Steven end up having a battle on the stadium floor. It was an entertaining movie. Dark comedy.
The show was everything we’d hoped it to be. We didn’t have utensils because it wouldn’t have been true to medieval times. We were offered numerous glow sticks, Pepsi, and were encouraged to share the battles on Instagram. I suppose glow sticks, Pepsi, and Instagram are vestiges of the medieval days that I was unaware of.
Our red knight made it all the way to the final battle, where he was dispatched by the evil blue knight. He fought hard, but didn’t survive. If you’ve been to Dixie Stampede, most of the opening activities are similar, but with less death and weaponry.
We headed back to the hotel and called it a night early, as we had lots of travel to get through the next day.