Don't Mess With Texas!

Our time in New York was too short, but last Saturday we flew from La Guardia airport to Dallas/Fort Worth airport via Washington.
The first thing you notice is that everything in Texas is HUGE, especially when you have recently come from Europe. The cars are not really cars, most of them are massive trucks like the Ram 250 - google it! Everywhere we went there were huge Bunnings sized shops with even bigger car parks to fit all the big trucks. The meals are huge, and so are lots of the people. Actually I am surprised that EVERYONE is not morbidly obese because it is almost impossible to just buy a sandwich for lunch or just a small healthy meal. Even Subway has a 'fit meal' that include chips! Er, I don't think they become 'healthy' because they write baked on the packet. There are fast food shops every 5kms, if you drive down the highway you go past a Taco Bell (and about 8 other shops like it) and then 10 minutes later there is another one (and another 10 others like it). You never have the oportunity to forget that you are hungry because you are forced to think about your stomach constantly as you are bombarded with food shops. It is really an effort to not stuff yourself sick every time you go into a shop - seeing as even electronic shops sell snacks.
It is hard to get any exercise too since you have to drive anywhere. We decided to walk around to some hotels one night to find out prices (they were all close to each other so we just walked instead of getting in and out of our car) and we got stopped by security who wanted to know why we were walking around. Nobody walks anywhere, there are even drive-in ATMs, and chemists, so you really never have to get out of your car. We did see a woman power walking around an indoor shopping mall though, with her joggers and ipod on though. Nobody walks around outside though.

On our first 2 nights in Texas we stayed in Fort Worth in the same hotel where JFK spent his last night before he was shot - the Fort Worth Hilton. It was our 1st anniversary so we decided to stay somewhere nice, plus hotels in the US (except New York) are super cheap.
In Fort Worth we went to the stockyards one day to see the long horn cattle drive. The cows have huge horns, and they look so much bigger in real life. I think those cows must have a headache from carrying around their horns constantly. The stockyards are full of cowboy shops selling hats and boots and belts etc. The hats are about $400 though and the boots even more for nice ones so we didn't buy anything. I can't really see myself being a cowgirl when I get back to Oz though.

After Fort Worth we drove up through Oklahoma to Amarillo in the north of Texas. We rented a Ford Mustang which, to my surprise, was very comfortable. Much better than a mercedes that we rented in Germany. Here's our number plate. Cool heh!

Leaving Oklahoma we came across the Route 66 museum, although we didn't go in. I think the sign was the most exciting thing there. Route 66 itself was pretty similar to all the other roads in Texas, wide, flat and very straight.

Entering Texas from Oklahoma. Texans do drive friendly too. Driving here is so relaxing compared to the high speed death drives of Germany. It is like Australia really, you can just wack on the cruise control and sit back. The roads rarely curve so you don't even really have to steer.

I took this photo in the hunting section of a shop in Amarillo. There is a whole range of camoflage stuff for hunting from pants to guns. And why bother to search for and animal to kill when you can just lure it to your property with this stuff and then blast it away! Handy!

See, straight and flat! Notice the absence of traffic, unlike Europe.

South of Amarillo is Palo Duro State Canyon Park. Here is our mustang in the canyon, the 2nd largest in the US.

The colours in the canyon are amazing, with lots of red, orange and pink. Unfortunately we couldn't walk around the canyon as it had flooded the previous night with heavy rain.

More car/canyon photos.

Amarillo is a nice town centred around Route 66. You are really forced to drive everywhere due to the size of shops, and an absence of footpaths. Here is a typical view from the highway though. See what I mean about fast food shops? On either side of the highway are shops, and then behind the shops is just flat empty grassland going all the way to the horizon. It was pretty weird. I've since learnt that all highways seem to be like this in the US though. Hmmm.

From Amarillo we drove back through Texas via Lubbock to Dallas. We were looking for oil wells, but we saw more windmills. I wanted a massive field full of oilwells, but we only found cotton fields with a few oil wells. I probably should have taken photos of that but I didn't. The windmills were cool though, and massive - like everything else.

We spent 2 days in Dallas and on one of the days drove downtown to see 'the grassy knoll'...

and the School Book Depository in Dealey Plaza. Quite a few tourists around there, and people showing some lovely pictures of a dead JFK. Nice.
Lastly we went to a rodeo in Fort Worth which was good although I didn't really like the calf roping. The poor calves just about yank their own heads off when they are lassoed. A bull did get a cowboy back by breaking some of his ribs though, so that made me feel better. The bull riding was pretty good, but I think the baby animals should just be left alone. Poor bubbys.

Now we are in Yellowstone National Park and it is below freezing! I will have some awesome pictures for my next post though.