The sun
was shining and the sky was blue and the temperature was due to get to around
25 degrees, just a perfect day to go down town and explore the town.
From our
Hotel in Arlington we are about fifteen miles away from the main areas
according our Sat Nav and this was, as always, quite accurate. So down the
Interstate we went dodging the cars and trucks and we arrived just down the
road from Sundance square which is the hub of this area.
Noel
visited this place about eight years ago on business and thought it was a nice
place to visit and it certainly is. There are streets of interesting shops and
bars and restaurants but as usual the centre of town was very quiet with
traffic as most people were parked up for the day. We found a handy car park
and then walked in to a Barnes and Noble Bookshop to look at Texas Maps as we
shall spending a little while in this state and it really helps to have a
topical and large scale map. Naturally after all this hard effort we needed a
coffee and of course Barnes and Noble always have a coffee shop and free Wi-Fi.
Shortly
after we left the bookshop we saw in the distance a tourist tram, we thought,
and dashed to catch it. It was called the ‘Molly Trolley’ and it was free and
it travels around down town for anybody to use, great idea. So we did the
complete tour just to see where it went and from there we could the areas we
thought most interesting which quite frankly most of it, except the railways
station. It was getting too close to lunchtime and we found a Texas BBQ place
and had an excellent meal, Noel had the ‘pulled pork’ sandwich with home fries
and Jennifer the beef sandwich with baked potato and with unlimited drinks, not
booze I may add, of iced tea.
There
was an shop where you can purchase your own hand made cowboy hat and this shop
has been going for many years and started by a guy with 25 cents after being
released from prison in the 1800’s. Lovely old shop but the cost of the handmade
hats were about £ 175.00 each, not for me.
We
continued walking and came across the John F Kennedy memorial which looked new,
but perhaps was not, and also met some ladies from British Colombia who were
dressed in a tartan. They were part of a large group of perhaps 3000 people
attending a conference by the General Grand Chapter/Order of the Eastern Star,
and they likened it to the ‘Masons’.
We then
visited the old courthouse which still works today and it is a really a
beautiful building located on the highest point in Fort Worth. There is a plaque
saying that the guy who approved the project had let the costs overrun quite
badly and was subsequently removed. Where have we heard that before and this
was in the 1800’s
By now
it was getting near 4pm and time to leave after having walked for quite some
while and en-route to the car park we noticed some TV trucks and Radio station
trucks and decided to ask what was happening and apparently it was the opening
night of the ‘Sundance Film Festival’ and the TV crew were waiting to fil the
arrival of a well know actor called Billy Bob Thornton. He was not so well
known to us so we decided not to wait but chatting to the TV anchor lady and
her cameraman was interesting until they suddenly had to cut off to go live on
air.
The car
park design was interesting, to say the least, and we could not find the car at
first but in the end we did and then did a little shopping and headed home.
When
previously reading up about ‘Big Bend National Park’ we suddenly discovered
that the busiest time of year is right now and around Thanksgiving and
Christmas and the places to stay nearby get full. Whoops. So when we got back
we spent half an hour route planning and Hotel Booking and we were lucky but we
do not usual book so far ahead to take advantage of room rate price drops.
In the
evening we watched the news programmes reviewing the election results after Mr
Obama not only won more seats than needed he also won what they call the
popular vote. Two days earlier the republicans and some of the TV New channels
were singing the glory of Mitt Romney and his side kick Ryan but now they were
castigating them for total failure to understand the world as it is. Romney
election team raised and spent over TWO BILLION DOLLARS in the run up to the
election and after spending all this money they are actually in a worse state
than before. Boy I bet the night of the long knives will arrive very quickly.
One TV
channel we watched showed quite a few ‘politicians’ sharing their views on
Pro-Life in the case of a women that has been raped and left pregnant. Their
views were appalling and it was interesting that not one of the these
Statesmen? Retained their seat and that includes the potential VP Ryan, that is
had the republican won. The TV stations called the Republicans loss a
shellacking, whichj no doubt it was. In the UK nobody has and could get hold of
this amount of money unless you fiddle your expenses a bit and the amount of
money spent is beyond a joke. Many people’s lives could be saved if this cash
was put to good use. Governments and Politicians are a joke in my book and are
still a total waste of space and money. For a donor to spend multi million
pounds there must be something in it for them?
Finally,
the result of the Tornado in the North East and now the amazing arrival of
early snow and with low temperatures for the million or so people without
electricity it is the most awful situation you can imagine. We have now donated
twice to the US RED CROSS to help those suffering.
Tomorrow
I think will be a quieter and slower day.
