The Eddie Sigala Foundation: North to Denton: A PhotoJournal

Let's start this post off right. The frick is Denton at?

It's 40 miles north of the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area. Right at the border between metropolitan and rural North Texas.

Denton, circled in red. Color lines are the light-rail routes we used.

There are two universities in Denton, so you have a rural town with a major young population for most of the year.

It's been an idea of mine to go up there and be a semi-tourist for a while now. A few weeks ago, after talking with Lupe, I decided that I'd accompany her up there and just look around around while she waited for HoJoKo and his parents.

The night before, I spent the night at a friend's house. It was 3 AM when I wanted to leave, but she refused to drive me or refused to let me walk home. I spent the night on the floor and left promptly at 7AM, walking a mile to my house in 15 minutes.

I rushed around for an hour getting ready. I gather all my equipment, cleared the camera, packed it up in a large over-the-shoulder bag. I was nowhere near ready when I left at 8.45 that morning, fifteen minutes late picking up Lupe from her home.

I drove as safely as I could to the Centreport Station in Fort Worth eight miles away, hoping that the parking lot wouldn't be filled to the brim with people hoping to attend to the MegaFest celebration in downtown Dallas. Before we got there, I told Lupe briskly, "If I can't find a close parking spot, I want you to buy my ticket and I'll pay you back later."

We pulled into the parking lot around 9.05 and to my amazement, the place was actually rather empty. I parked my Suburban into a close front-row spot and closed it up for the day, placing a reflective windshield shade on what was going to be a scorcher.

We walked to the busy platform and purchased our tickets: two Regional passes. I got mine at $10, and Lupe got hers at $2.50. (Being a student has its perks it seems.)

The train arrived at 9.15 and we climbed up onto the second floor of the double-decker TRE train. The ride from Fort Worth Centreport to Dallas Union Station took about twenty minutes thanks to a few stops (three) in between. From here, the Green line would take us to a DCTA transfer in Carrollton.

Union Station is probably the oldest building transport-wise in Dallas. It's a little plain, but it's in a Art Deco style, with chandeliers that hang from the interior ceiling. At nine A.M., it was sleepy, with a lone custodian cleaning the floors.

Still early, you could already feel the humidity and heat building up. When we got inside, I figured I had left one of two water bottles on the train, but I thought the prices were ridiculous. Lupe headed over to a vending machine while I stayed put.

Saturday Morning • © Eddie Sigala

The family you see in Saturday Morning was reading a pamphlet when the little girl in the man's arms yelled "cheese" very loudly. This caused everyone to turn around to me, and seeing this, I just looked busy adjusting the camera.

I took another close-up photo of them while they weren't looking.

Modern Family • © Eddie Sigala

After my wide shots, I walked over to the arrival/departure board and admired how it was "old school", physical rather than digital. As I snapped the photograph, a woman wearing a navy blue shirt and black slacks came up to me and asked if I really liked Amtrak. I deflected a little telling her that I loved how the board was still physical rather than electronic.

Analog • © Eddie Sigala
The board is next to the AMTRAK window
in the back of the main lobby

As she walked away, I asked if I could take a photo. She agreed (much to my surprise), and posed with a sign that read "WE'RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER". I took three shots of her and offered free copies. She gave me her email and introduced herself as Jackie.

"Eddie. Thanks so much for letting me take your picture!"

Jackie • © Eddie Sigala

Noticing it was late, Lupe and I walked outside to the platform. She was quick to notice that there was no Green Line sign, just Red and Blue. We asked a DART employee where we could catch the Green Line and he said at Victory Station.

We had overshot the stop. (Mea culpa)

There was a TRE train on the track, and we ran to it, hoping to catch it back to Victory Station. As we got close, a man in the TRE uniform asked, "Are you guys heading to Victory?"

"Yes, we are!" I said. After finding a seat, Lupe mentioned that she was going to double-check our itinerary for any other mistakes. At that point, an announcement said, "Special train between Union and Victory Stations."

Thank God for that train! We got to Victory within a minute, beating the Green Line by a minute.

Once the Green Line arrived, we entered and didn't immediately noticed that the car was... empty.

The entire car was alone except for one man, dressed in a red shirt, blue jeans, and a baseball cap. Lupe sat opposite me to my left and I sat on the right in front of the man. My gear bag and tripod sat in front of me.

Out • © Eddie Sigala
(Note: the intersection is Denton Drive @ Manor Way in Dallas.
It's the first road crossing after the Inwood Station.)

I nodded to the man behind me as I returned to my seat after snapping the marquee. Out of nowhere, he started to speak to me in Spanish. "Yo nunca hay visto el carro tan solo como ahora. Es muy extraño." ("I've never seen the car so empty as it is now. It's strange.")

I replied courteously, "Yo pienso que 'ta tan solo porque es un sábado, también porque hay ese MegaFest en el centro." ("I think it's so empty because it's a Saturday, also because there's that MegaFest downtown.")

He went on to tell me he'd be getting off at Royal, and asked how many stops ahead that was. After telling him how long, he started telling me how his car had been damaged, so he couldn't drive it very far or at a fast rate of speed. The conversation then turned about saving money and how expensive gas was.

As we approached Royal, the conversation slowed a bit. As we stopped, he got up, and before walking out, he turned out to me and introduced himself.

"René."

"Eddie." We shook hands and he left the train.

As the doors closed, Lupe mentioned that I get too conversational with strangers. Still sitting across from her, I said, "It's a curse and a blessing. I have only my mom to blame. She's the same way."

We arrived at Trinity Mills by 10.40. The DART train, arriving empty, began to fill up with people heading south from Denton. The A-Train from Denton arrived minutes later, waiting to be filled up.

Before we got on the train, I couldn't help but notice some of the passengers.
"Lupe, you see that person in the red?"

"The one with the backpack?"

"Yeah. Damn son, dat ass be rocking!"

We were the first ones on the A-Train. It sat idle for a good 15 minutes while it filled up with passengers. The interior of the train was ice cold, but you could feel the heat through the large windows it had. It was only 11AM and it was already 90F outside.

At 11.05, the train finally left Trinity Mills and off we were to Denton!

Our ride to Denton was marked with talks on how I give off a "vibe". I told Lupe, "No I don't" but she refuted and said that sometimes it's a little strong. I promised to "tone it down a bit" although these past few days, that has not been the case.

We also spoke a little about Mr. Rodriguez and what we thought about him. Lots of bean-spilling happened, just saying.

After a 45 minute cold train ride, we could see Denton in the distance. As we passed through a field, a clock tower came into view. It was 11:45, and we had arrived. Almost noon, the sun was already beating down, and it would only get worse from here.