Rednecks, Airborne Yankees and the $5 Dr Pepper

Adventures In Genealogy: F2F Chat
Or
Rednecks, Airborne Yankees and the $5 Dr Pepper

Now I have been doing Genealogy for a few years now and stumbled into AOL’s Gen. Chats fairly early. To be honest with you I have made a lot of good friends in the chats and since becoming a host I have had the pleasure of meeting 3 other hosts Face to Face (F2F), but I have made it a point to avoid meeting the other chatters. Like my blonde always says, "Babe, you never know they might be part time Genealogists and full time Axe Murderers, or even worse Yankee Lawyers from Massachusetts."

One of the folks that talked me into becoming a host, recently flew into that big ole airport in Dallas on her way to a boat trip in the Gulf of Texas. I figured they don’t allow Axe’s in the airport so it should be ok. So, GFS Loni (Yall remember her don’t cha?) and I agreed to meet DianeAbra and DougAbra at DFW.

Some of yall may have noticed I aint what you would call a Monday Morning kind of guy. It usually takes me till Tuesday afternoon to wake up and start thinkin clearly. Well her plane landed at Midday at DFW on a Monday. For those of yall that aint never flew into DFW let me tell ya its big. 6 Runways, 4 Terminals and slightly more square miles than Manhattan Island. If that weren’t bad enough they just changed the names of all the terminals.
Knowin all this I decided I had better get there early so I wouldn’t miss em. I knowed I was in trouble when I got to the Front gate and there were 20 entrances. I got my parking ticket (I gotta believe there is something un-American about being charged for parking when you’re still 5 miles from the Parking lot.) and headed for the terminal. I wanna tell you there were signs pointing in all directions now that big Yankee Airline lands at 2 terminals. So I figured I had a decent shot of finding the terminal on the first try. After going in circles for 5 minutes in the 4 story-parking garage, I parked and headed into Terminal A. Managed to work my way through the security guards, metal detectors and people asking for donations to where the gates were. Went into the bar, ordered a $5 Dr Pepper and sat back to wait for some airborne Yankees.

The Arrival time for their plane came and went, so I figured I had better go double-check the gate number. Right Gate number, wrong Terminal!!! Back in the truck zigin and zagin down to the "international" Terminal. I should have knowed that a flight from Minnesota would land at the International Terminal. I ran into the terminal and headed for the gate, the little guy at the metal detector wouldn’t let me take my camera in unless I took a photo of him. If any of yall want a picture of middle aged Pakistani Gate guard please let me know.
Finally made it into the Gate area and saw GFS Loni waving at me. (I assume she was waving at me and not trying to chase away birds) I got to meet Diane and Doug and they seemed like real nice folks, although they did talk kinda funny. We visited for about an hour then they boarded their plane and another Adventure in Genealogy drew to a close.

Once again we did learn a little something. Genealogy chatters are in most cases good folks (Yes, even the Yankees) but if you meet them F2F make it in a public place. Cause you never know when your gonna run into that Axe wielding Yankee Lawyer From Boston Massachusetts. Adios and Keep Smiling.

NOTE: Like many of my columns this one is based on the truth. I did meet DianeAbra at the airport and I did go to the wrong terminal. The funny thing about it is 6 months later I met another one of my online friends at the airport (Ricma55) and her plane went to the wrong terminal. That Day my whole family was with me and we ended up riding the Trans completely around the airport from one terminal to another. Sometimes I think I should just stay out of airports.