US road trip

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DAYS 19-20

Fort Worth-Dallas

After the long night out in Austin I woke up feeling a bit rough. And the cold was still there which didn’t help. I got in the car anyway and drive about 3 hours to Fort Worth. On the way I stopped in Waco to put some petrol and I went to McDonalds to have something to eat. It’s the first time since in the US that I’ve been to any of the major fast food chains so it is not too bad. And the main reason I went to McDonalds is because they have free wifi and I still hadn’t booked the hotel for Fort Worth. I wanted something close to downtown and the stockyards but I couldn’t make my mind up. I finally booked the Marriott residence Inn after reading very good reviews on tripadvisor. After my big mac meal I drove another hour and I finally reached my destination.

I did good booking that hotel. It was absolutely spotless, very close to downtown and only 10 minutes drive to the Stockyards. It had swimming pool and fitness room which is always a plus and I got a decent rate because it was weekend.

One bit of advice if you are going to the US. The hotels downtown will always take you to at least $125, don’t expect to find anything cheaper than that if you want to be in downtown. I always found the Marriott Residence extremely good. Comfort suites are also very good and so are the Hilton gardens. Anyway, I unpacked my stuff and got myself ready to go to the stockyards. The stockyards is the historic national district of Fort Worth and is a point of pilgrimage for cowboys from all over the country. They have a rodeo, a livestock daily demonstration and lots of bars and restaurants as well as shops selling all sort of cowboy stuff. I wanted to go to a rodeo and they only do them on Fridays and Saturdays so I went to the ticket office and managed to get myself a ticket for $20.

I then went for a walk around the streets, took lots of pictures, had something to drink and basically enjoyed people watching. The rodeo was really good, I got there quite early and it looked like it wasn’t going to get very busy but in the end it was almost a full house. They did the typical things that they do in a rodeo, bull riding, horse riding, calf roping etc etc. It lasted for 3 hours and I really enjoyed. After I wanted to go to the famous Billy Bob’s Texas the largest Honky Tonk in the world but I was still feeling rough from the night before and I was absolutely shattered so I decided to give it a miss. Next time. So I went to 7 eleven and got myself a nice salad and a drink and went back to my room to eat and go to bed.

The day after I woke up at about 10ish and went to the gym and did 40 minutes run which I was quite happy with, then I went to the pool and spend an hour just relaxing. After I went back to the stockyards because I wanted to check the livestock ride that they do around some streets, it was cool but a bit disappointing as it is literally down one of the streets.

So when it finished I went to check Fort Worth downtown. I parked near one of the cinemas and walked around Sundance square. It was ok, quite nice, very clean and with plenty of restaurants and bars but other than that not much else to do. So I spent about an hour wandering around, it was very very hot, and then decided to go to a coffee shop and had a frozen lemonade and some pastry as I wasn’t hungry and then I went back to the hotel to chill a bit. In the evening I went to check the area around the hotel, the Cultural district and found a couple of Irish pubs.
Today was Sharon’s birthday so I had been very down all day and decided to drink my sorrows away. Not that it helped to make me feel better, but I had a few pints and then went for something to eat at Boomer Jacks where I had the best burger I’ve had so far in the US. It was just delicious and so I finished the night on a positive.


The day after I had breakfast at the hotel and made my way to Dallas. It’s only a 30 minutes drive and I was still feeling a bit down. Got to Dallas, parked the car and made my way to the first destination on my list, the “sixth floor museum” at Dealey Plaza where President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated, allegedly, by Lee Oswald. I got there at about 11 and the museum doesn’t open until 12 so I went to have a drink to the museum store as the heat in Dallas was unbearable. The Museum is good, lots of info about Kennedy’s life and of course about his assassination. The different conspiracy theories are also exposed which is good because, there is still huge controversy about who really killed the president. Anyway, after an hour I had completed my visit and went to explore downtown Dallas, which was quite nice, very new, lots of restaurants again but a bit lacking of character.

Also, lots of homeless people wandering around the streets. This is really a constant in any big American city as it is downtown where the social services are situated.
It was really hot and I was fed up and still very down so I decided to leave Dallas and start making my way towards New Orleans, my next destination. The journey takes about 8 hours and I was planning to drive about 6 hours so I only had a 2 hours journey the morning after. So I drove and drove and drove until Baton Rouge where I stayed in a motel for $50, had something quick to eat and went to bed. Quite a boring an uneventful day, which matched my mood very well.

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Comments

[GioGaucho]

Dfons!
Dfons, necesitamos que vuelvas a la blogosfera, lo que el ojo si ve tiene que volver yaaaa!!!! un abrazo maestro