On our way from Amarillo to Dallas we stopped in Santa Fe. Santa Fe is this gorgeous wee town/city that has some gorgeous architecture - very Spanish and Mexican in origin. We stopped here for lunch and to pick up some cowboy gear for the Rodeo in Dallas. The town centre was one of those quintessential American town squares you see in the movies. We even tried the Fajitas from the vendor on the street. Four us were wandering the city together and all four of us spent over $200 on one item. I'll tell you more about that in person, but at least I wasn't the one that spent $650 on a pair of cowboy boots!
I hadn't given to much thought to Dallas, I knew this was where JFK was assassinated in 1963 and that is was part of Texas, so I was pleasantly surprised with how amazing Dallas was. This was our fourth day on the road without a break, and everyone was hanging out for the 2 night stop over. The bus rides have been good and the stops frequent, but theres only so much bus one an handle after a few days.
On the first night we went to Gators, a restaurant/bar that did a big Mexican Fajita type meal and cheap beers. A large group of us went down the road to the Haunted House. Now, most of you will be surprised to hear that I went to this. To be honest I wasn't going to go, until our tour manager said that the actors can't touch you and so in a fit of some ridiculous courage and 'yolo' (I hate myself a little bit for using that right now) I signed up for it. In groups of 5 we walked through the haunted house and it was actually very good. I mostly got scared by the people that jumped out of the darkness as opposed to the scenes. But I was at the back to the group and lots of the actors would follow very closely behind me. Thank god for Dylan, a very sweet guy wearing a white shirt that illuminated in the dark and didn't mind me grabbing on to it the whole way round.
After the haunted house we spent the night back at Gators. It was here that people watching became a very fun sport. Some of us more 'mature' travellers had great fun watching some of our group flirt with each other. Hilarious!
On the second day in Dallas we went down to the JFK Museum which is on the floor of the building from where the assassinator shot JFK. It was a very in depth tour of JFK's life and his presidency, and a lot of detail about the events of the fatal day in which he was shot there in Dallas. It was definetly a little emotional. We also went over the Grassy Knoll where it happened and had a look at the 'X's' that mark the spots where he was shot. I must say that so far in my experience with the USA, they do their touristy stuff very well. They really take their history seriously and are proud to show off what they know and share it with everyone. And that's meant to be a compliment, just in case it sounds like it's not.
Later on that afternoon we did a tour of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Again, not something that you'd probably expect me to be interested in, however it was pretty impressive to see a stadium that cost over a billion dollars to build. This thing was so flash, it felt like a 5 star hotel instead of a sports stadium
Then it was on to Fort Worth for BBQ ribs and the Rodeo. At this point I should mention that the whole time in Texas it's been in the late 30's temperature wise. This night is was 39 degrees!
We had 18oz (half a litre) beers for $3! and the biggest and tastiest ribs I've ever had.
The Rodeo was a huge cultural experience that I'm glad I went to, but probably won't do it again. There was bull bucking (is that the right name?!), calf wrangling, and all the kids chase sheep and calfs around for fun. I'm sure it's all humane, but I couldn't help watching thinking that these animals were either very pissed off or very scared and it just didn't seem right to be making them that way for sport. That being said, there were some serious skills involved in this sports they were doing, and they did let the animals go as soon as they were 'caught' or finished with.
Dallas was pretty cool and interesting, and offered so much more than I had expected.
Texas rocks
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