A long travel day

 Our stay at Hickory Creek was pretty uneventful though dangerous for the bank account as I found some very posh stores in Highland Village nearby. We had a wedding in Jamaica approaching and new clothes were required. 

We also had two more possible tornado events. Neither of them hit us, we just got winds and heavy rain.

Saturday 25th March we had a very long travel day, 18 miles!

A travel day does not really change if we drive 18 or 200 miles we still have to go through the same packing up, unpacking process but you would think a short drive like 18 miles would have been a breeze. Nope! I35 reared it's very ugly head again. What a nightmare road, it must be horrible to have to commute on it daily. The traffic was very heavy. John always leaves a very safe stopping distance in front of us but drivers kept swerving in front of us, those that think the other lane is going faster than the one they are in. An emergency stop and wrong turn later we arrived at The Vineyards in Grapevine Texas.

https://www.vineyardscampground.com/

                                                               

This was an expensive site compared to State Parks or Corps of Engineers but we wanted a secure private campsite near Dallas Fort Worth airport as we would be leaving the rv there when we went to Jamaica. It was a very pretty well maintained campsite on a lake with a cool nearby town. We were pretty close to our neighbors on all four sides and apart from feeling secure in leaving the rv I don't feel it was worth the three or four times extra cost.

Sunday 26th March we drove to The Stockyards near Fort Worth, Texas.

https://www.fortworthstockyards.org/

This is a National Historic area dating back to the late 1800's cattle trade but I felt when we were walking around it was like a very manure smelling theme park. The streets were very busy and it was hard to look around you as you were watching out for the crowds. There were some cool shops including places you get personalized cowboy hats. It has in interesting history and worth a read.

While there we had a drink in the world's largest honky tonk and watched a country dancing lesson.

https://billybobstexas.com/about

Some of the week was taken up with packing for Jamaica. When we had a house I would slowly pack over days, making piles of items to pack, clothes, toiletries etc. then it was John's job to try to squeeze everything into the cases as I do not travel light. We don't have extra room in the rv so the living room rug was used though Morgan was not impressed as she had nowhere to lie for a couple of days.

This was a very "extra" trip so a lot was needed

We took Morgan to a vets practice that had boarding so that if there were any issues they would be equipped to deal with her. They were awesome and her stay there was great.

https://crossroadspethospital.com/boarding/

JFK

 Sunday 12th March 20023

Our clocks sprang forward so light nights, yeah but dark mornings Boo.

We drove into Dallas leaving just after 10am. Dallas drivers are awful! This was Sunday morning, I would not like to see how bad they are on work days! 

We visited the site of John F Kennedy's assassination which happened 60 years ago, November 22 1963. The museum on the sixth floor of the Book Depository in Dealey Plaza. Entry was timed to control the number of people as it was a small area, tickets were $18 each.

 I enjoyed the displays but as they were mostly facts and pictures you have seen hundreds of times on various platforms I didn't feel like I was seeing anything new though it was very surreal to look out of the windows where Lee Harvey Oswald (allegedly??) shot the President, though the actual window is now enclosed with a glass wall.

X is where the fatal shot occurred viewed from the Book Depository

 It would have been cool for some of the displays to have had physical items from the period to give more context of how long ago it was and what daily life was like. Telephones, cine camera etc. to show young people that this was not a time when information and news are a second away on your smart phone.

Dealey Plaza seen from the Book Depository 

We walked onto the Grassy Knoll and were glad it was early on a Sunday as later in the day when we left the city the area was very busy.

John really enjoyed himself and asked me if I would have imagined we would be here, see the place you have seen hundreds of times in news, tv or film? This is why we changed our lives so drastically to go out and see America.

We had a walk around the historic district for a few blocks but as we had left Morgan in the rv we could not stay too long.

JFK Memorial Plaza
https://www.jfk.org/john-f-kennedy-memorial-plaza/

The Old Red Courthouse

A city of old and new

Reunion Tower
https://reuniontower.com/

Cattle drive sculptures

The large sculpture commemorates nineteenth century cattle drives that took place along the Shawnee Trail, the earliest and easternmost route by which Texas longhorn cattle were taken to northern railheads. The 49 bronze steers and 3 trail riders sculptures were created by artist Robert Summers of Glen Rose, Texas. Each steer is larger-than-life at six feet high; all together the sculpture is the largest bronze monument of its kind in the world. Set along an artificial ridge and past a man-made limestone cliff, native landscaping with a flowing stream and waterfall help create the dramatic effect.

Leaving the city we drove through Dealey Plaza, following the route taken by the President's cavalcade 60 years ago. Very surreal!

Yup you guessed it, we went home, made a cup of tea and watched the JFK movie with Kevin Costner! We have watched it a lot of times but having now walked around some of the areas in New Orleans and now Dallas that are scenes in the movie, it took on a whole new life.

Truck wash and Hickory Creek

Quiet two weeks

 Saw some turtles and a moccasin snake in the ponds at Ray Roberts State Park. The snake was sunbathing where on a previous day the big turtle had been, hope he didn't eat him!

We left Ray Roberts on Saturday 11th March. As it was only a thirty four mile drive to our next stop and there was a hard and fast rule of no check in until 3pm at the next park so we took our time packing up and then stopped at a truck wash on the I35.

When we had arrived at Ray Roberts there was a big storm and the rv and truck were brown. Found out later there was a dust storm nearby and we got some of it. The truck wash was good though we had to wait in line for over an hour. It was a manual wash which I was surprised at but seeing the different types of vehicles using it I guess it's easier. Everything from a pickup truck to a semi with box trailer to a semi with a big open farm animal trailer, Class A rvs and us with our pickup truck and 5th wheel. It cost $60 to wash both and that included an upgraded Rainex finish.

Due to a crash on the highway and the truck wash taking longer than we thought we arrived at Hickory Creek Campground,

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/232600

This is a very popular campsite situated on Lewisville Lake. It's near Dallas and has a lot of new developments and shopping areas surrounding it as nearby towns build more and more. We arrived at the beginning of Spring Break (half term for UK readers) and the park was full. We do not have a lake view on our site but in this instance I am glad as the sites next to the lake are very close together and there is road noise from the I35 that you can see crossing the lake.

We are under the flight path for Dallas Fort Worth airport so we see and hear a lot of airplanes.

 

A lot of part time/weekend people who probably live not too far from campsites bring two or even three vehicles with them which makes some of the campsites that have small roadways very full as they tend to park all over the place though they are not meant to. I think if you have more than one vehicle you should have to park it at the visitor parking area so the roads are clear especially when kids are playing on bikes and skateboards.

We got backed into our site, leveled easily though it was on a hill, unhitched and went to lower the steps when we saw an ant hill on the edge of the blacktop. John kicked it and out poured angry fire ants. Emily warned us not to get bitten by them as they cause a bad burn. So we dashed to Walmart which is luckily five minutes away and bought lots of stuff to kill them.

 A very strange travel day that took as long to complete thirty plus miles than as if we had driven our usual two hundred plus miles.

Our spacious site with a roof over the picnic table and no neighbors on one side

The locals