We felw into Texas and again, the airports are huge. We had to catch a shuttle to the car rental building. It is surreal with all the highways in the States, at one point in the airport area, we went under a bridge as a plane was crossing it. We picked up a tip to visit the Stockyard in Fort Worth so headed there. We didn´t have any decent maps so had to ask directions a couple of times.
We were disappointed that there wasn´t a rodeo but the town was cute, western style. It was incredibly hot and humid so we tried not to spend too much time outdoors. Lunch was one of the best steaks I have ever had at a restaurant called Cattleman's. If we had ordered larger meals. we would have been able to choose the piece of meat from the counter.
We stopped at the pub that is used in Texas Ranger. We started chatting to the barman and an elderly gentleman from the bar. The latter asked where we were from and we said, South Africa. His response, but you aren´t black. We had a laugh and even more so when he pulled out an earpiece which said "bullshit filter" and placed it on his ear. After this pub, the Hotel across the road had a bar where the stools were saddles. Although there wasn´t a rodeo, they walk the bulls down the street at 4pm everyday, so were fortunate to watch that. We saw real cowboys. on horses, herding the bulls. Rose and I also climbed onto one for some photos..... tourist trap.
We were heading down South towards Austin and San Antonio. It took about 4-5 hours to drive there, traffic was horrendous in Dallas but again, the most impressive highway network. We spent the night in San Antonio and almost had our car towed from the parking lot. The manager gave us a token to hang in our car, but we wanted dinner first. When we got back to the car, there was a parking attendant waiting for the tow truck. I don´t understand as the hotel had our car registration number. Anyway, it all ended well.
The morning started with a trip to the Alamo which was interesting for its contribution to American history. The song David Crockett is based on what happened at the Alamo. I hadn´t realised that Texas had once been part of Mexico and thus the influence on the food. It was spicy. We souvenir shopped before heading to the riverside and I bought a magnet with a tiny pistol on it, and the magnet says, in Texas, we don´t call 911. This was an important purchase and leaves for a funny story. But next blog.
After another 4 hour drive and horrible traffic in Dallas, we made it to Southfork. Not in enough time to make the tour but we have our photos. We had seen in a tourist information booklet that there was a state fair on, so we headed towards Denton. It was just like any fair in South Africa, different rides, a carousel but they had a bull riding competition. There was a heart stopping moment when a bull ran into a man and it took him a few minutes to stand up. Those bulls are massive. I was also intrigued by the jam making, photography and art competition. We jumped into the culture by having a hot dog for dinner, followed by funnel cake (doughnut) dusted with icing sugar. You can just imagine the state of me afterwards. It was getting late, so after walking past all the tractors and farm equipment on display, we headed towards a cheap hotel near the airport.
