Deep in the heart of Texas

We returned to Texas yesterday morning. Arriving in Dallas during rush-hour was quite difficult driving, especially with no idea where we were going to park. We settled on a suburban transport station and caught a bus into the centre of down.

The afternoon was spent at the sixth floor museum - an information centre for everything JFK related, and of course, the room from where he was assassinated. The exhibition is incredibly moving. It follows JFK's life leading up to presidency, his term in office, second-by-second recollection of the assassination, the aftermath, and his legacy. Standing in that room looking down on the white 'X' in the middle of the road was a very surreal experience.

We caught the train back to Winston and drove the short distance to Fort Worth. The cities are basically joined together and are referred to as 'the Metroplex.' We're staying a couple of nights at Treetops RV Resort, which is a really relaxing place between the cities.

Today, we've been in Cowtown - the historic Fort Worth Stockyards district. There is loads of tourist junk now of course, but you can really feel what the place would have been like in its glory years. A herd of Texas Longhorns are driven down the main street twice a day, and cowboys on horseback patrol the streets. We ventured into a couple of antique stores which were stocked to overflowing with all sorts of western (and non-western) memorabilia. One had a polar bear head, two grizzlys, a mountain lion and a real lion, a couple of armadillos, and a huge number of deer heads on the walls. The bar we stopped for a drink at featured a similar deceased menagerie and the barstools were saddles. Chandeliers made from antlers are the norm round here.

Tonight was date night. I bought Charlotte a drink (from Winston's fridge) and took her out for a good western meal (buffalo wings, deep fried ocra, corn and cheese, and strangely, given the distance from the ocean, prawns). Then, to the Rodeo!

We thought it might have been tarted up for tourists, but it was the genuine article. It started with a young lady on horseback galloping around the arena with the American flag, the national anthem butchered by another, and a prayer! Then straight into the action with bull riding, calf roping, bronco riding, barrel racing, and more bull riding. In a couple of intermissions, children (first aged 8-14, then 7 and under) were called into the arena. Just as we were joking (secretly hoping) that they'd release a wild bull, or at very least a pack of coyotes a calf (for the 8-14 year olds) and an aging ewe (for the younger lot) were set into the arena and the kids chased them around, presumably in the hope that they would catch them.

The cowboys were very impressive and I thoroughly enjoyed the show. Charlotte enjoyed it too, though has some ethical concerns pertaining to animal welfare. (Note from Charlotte: In one of the first bull-riding events the bull panicked when it had the lasso around its neck and ran headfirst into the steel bars and put a horn through the placard. I didn't like the little calves getting chased around and hog-tied much at first, but they seemed OK afterwards and it was really impressive. Definitely the worst bit was the look on the wee calf's face when it was being chased by 50 little kids - pure terror. On the whole though, it was heaps of fun and the horses seemed to enjoy it).

Photos of all this will be up sometime in the next few days, when we've got a real connection (rather than stealing some cafe network)