Thursday, April 7th – Cedar Hills State Park, Dallas, Texas – Day 58
Gen was planning on making a laundry run the night before but decided she was too tired. Super keen, she woke up in the morning and decided to get going. Mary and I decided to do a hike with the kids while Gen was out. Gen dropped us off at the trailhead of Talala trail; an easy 3.4 km hike that brought us through hills to a beautiful look out over the lake, down to the flood plains, through some shady wooded areas and back to our campsite. On Mary’s suggestion we took a side trail to go down onto the muddy flood plain and planned to stop for lunch until the wind blew a little bit harder and the water started moving towards our dry patch of sand. Instead, we stopped at a much higher overlook for a very breezy lunch of tuna sandwiches, carrots and cucumber.
On this trip, we had seen a Raptors game in New Orleans, a Blue Jays game in Dunedin and we just missed out on a Rock game in Atlanta. About a month prior to today, Gen plotted out the Leafs’ schedule versus our potential travel plan and came up with some options. Most options didn’t end up working, we missed games in Tampa and Colorado but if we hurried a little bit, we could see a game in Dallas. So for the last week we have been working towards ensuring we were in Dallas for today. We were checking Seatgeek for the past few days for tickets. Gen picked up tickets for her and the girls for $9 in the upper bowl but Mary wanted something better. Gen found a great deal for tickets four rows off the glass for $130 American and on Mary’s insistence we jumped on them. I didn’t want to spend that much but Mary offered to contribute some money to my ticket and off we went. I’m very happy she insisted.
When we returned to the campsite, Gen returned shortly, and we headed into Dallas. The American Airlines arena was beautiful. The walk to the arena had restaurants and bars on both sides as you approached and the arena was very nice. The hockey experience was fun. During the American national anthem when the singer said the word “star”, the whole stadium yelled “STARS” at the same time. When the opposition scored and the announcer announced goals and assists, everyone said “WHO CARES”. The crowd was really into the game.
The game itself was very exciting. Austin Matthews was poised to break Rick Vaive’s record for goals in a season and ended up scoring two including the overtime winner. The game went back and forth; the final score was 4-3 as Matthews scored a beauty for the win. Gen tried to sneak up to the lower bowl but had difficulty this time and had to return to her seats shortly after. Mary and I had fantastic seats that were just off the corner of the penalty box and provided an amazing view. I've never had a better seat for a hockey game by far and I may never have one this close again. Gen wished she had taken my seat for a period.
After the game was done, it was late, and we headed back to the campsite. Gen and I hung out for a bit but then went to bed.
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