Rodeo, Ice Hockey and more!

There is plenty to see and do in the area so we tried to pick a park that was central to both Dallas and Fort Worth. We did the usual research and found a park however it turned out to be more like a car park with hookups than the luxury resort it was advertised to be, but we had booked and paid for it so we set up. We had a couple of days till Lauren arrived so we did not do to much as we wanted to save the things we wanted to see till she arrived. It was a long few days as we were also waiting to pick up our new trailer. As always the weather came into play, the night before Lauren arrived we got a dusting of snow, not normal so we were told, but no weather has been normal since we got here!

A light dusting of snow in Dallas




Tuesday arrived and we headed off to get Lauren. We allowed ourselves plenty of time to get to the airport and were surprised it was so easy. Dallas airport is huge, sporting five terminals. As you enter the airport precinct you go through a toll booth, get a ticket and then proceed to the relevant terminal. Payment is made when you exit and the fee was surprisingly cheap in comparison to our home town airport parking fees. Having an hour or so up our sleeved we decided to visit the bar at the Grand Hyatt, the one we had visited when we first arrived 2 1/2 months ago!

The plane was on time and Lauren arrived safe and sound.




We had plenty of things lined up to do and of course so did Lauren so the first night we started planning. The first place to see was the Dallas Cowboys stadium. We opted for the guided tour and it was money well spent. The complex has the worlds largest opening dome structure in the world, the largest HD TV in the world which has 3 million LED's in it and costs $600 an hour to run, and it runs all day so tourist can view it. The stadium is one of the cleanest I have ever seen. Many other events are held there including monster trucks where they truck in tons of dirt and when that event finished its trucked out again and the whole stadium is pressure cleaned. The field is artificial and they have four playing fields depending on the game, they just roll it up (8 hours) and put the required field down (16 hours). And to top it all off the entire place is air conditioned! A very worthwhile tour indeed.

Dallas Cowboys Stadium is amazing




One hell of a HD screen!




We even got to visit the Dallas Cheerleaders locker room.




Our next 'activity 'was the Fort Worth rodeo, it was the first for the new year so it was a sell out and a great night. We saw such events as "double mugging", "bronco riding", "stock sorting" and finally "wild cow milking" but the funniest event was the kids riding the sheep. These little tackers are aged from 3 to 8 years old and have all the bronco riding gear, right down to the chaps. They have a small stall set up where they put the kids on the back of a sheep. The aim of the game is to stay on the 'sheep's back' for as long as they can. The winner of the event actually rode the sheep backwards, lying down and holding on to the sheep's tail. We couldn't help laughing and thinking about our own grandsons tackling the event with as much gusto as the Texan kids.

Again we had a great night and we were pleased we went.

Got him!



Number 12 had his own style, and he won with it


They all get a trophy


Our final night was to a National Hockey match, again the first one for the season as the hockey players have been on "strike" for some time so everyone was very excited that the season had started up again. I always term ice hockey as a mans game and it did not disappoint. There was plenty of aggression and hits but they all had something to prove after being on strike for so long. Again it was a sellout game with 18,000 people there cheering their team on. Great match and much to the fans delight, the Dallas Stars won the game.

A great game to see, we want more!



Dallas is full of lots to do, we merely scraped the surface. Lauren experienced her first meal at a Taco Bell and much to our demise she loved it! We have had many Taco Bell meals in the past 2 weeks!!

Dallas is great but as always it's time to move on and find another experience in the USA - considering San Antonio or Corpus Christi. The weather will be the guiding factor!

- Posted by RnR on their IPad

Location:Dallas/Fort Worth Texas