We started this morning with Texas shaped waffles and didn’t stop until 11pm. Sprinkled in some American History, some exploring and shopping, and some Rodeo in the Stockyards of Fort Worth, and that’s a perfect vacation day!

The breakfast at the Hampton Inn was great especially the waffles 😉

We have also discovered where the wrestling gene came from…

Filled up with Texas waffles and sweaty from wrestlemania, we hit the road to explore Dallas.

First Stop: Dealy Plaza and the Texas Book Depository. The boys were not excited about this stop. They know the story of JFK but really had not heard a great deal about his assassination. BUT I am counting today as a win, because when we left they both said it was “pretty good.” We arrived before our tour time so we headed out to explore the Plaza and the Grassy Knoll.

Second gunman on the grassy knoll? Mystery solved

We headed inside for our tour of the Book Depository

We freely admit that we believe there is more to JFK’s assassination than a disgruntled Lee Harvey Oswald, but it was unsettling to be in the exact spot where they claim he was…

And see, it’s not just us… it’s on a plaque and that makes it true 😁

We explored downtown and found the JFK Memorial, and of course more plaques!

Most Texas pioneers settled in the “three forks” area in cabins like this, and we found another plaque!

With some time to explore, we HAD to find a sneaker store for Leo

The shoe store was in Deep Elam, a section of Dallas known for its jazz and blues clubs

We grabbed some drinks and snacks for lunch, and enjoyed the people watching… because there was a lot special folks to watch🤣🤣🤣

The Dallas Skyline and their crazy overpass interchanges are too cool (photo credits to Leo)

We scooted back to the hotel and changed to head to the Fort Worth Stockyards! Some of us used the drive to recharge…

Uptown Fort Worth was a typical city with standard architecture with a few interesting designs

And then we turned into the stockyard area. It was like going back in time and it was awesome!

Twice a day the cattle are walked through downtown, then the cowboys eat and then they rodeo… so when in Texas, the Browns did the same thing

We found the home of RFD TV (Rural Free Delivery) and Cowboy Channel. Mike likes the farm equipment show so he was happy with this find 🚜

You can’t visit Texas without a Rodeo! The Stockyards Championship Rodeo is the first indoor rodeo and runs year round on Friday and Saturday night in the Cowtown Coliseum 🐮 We love Rodeos – they always start with with a prayer and the Pledge of Alliance 🇺🇸

This is the real deal rodeo and we had the best time from the opening act to the last ride.

Michael and Leo got a little Cowboy fever from the Rodeo and decided to try out the mechanical bull… others of us decided the recovery from the bull would be too painful 🤣

Another view of Dallas’ skyline and we headed back to the hotel

Tomorrow we leave Dallas proper and head back to the 1980’s in Parker, Texas