Roadtrip 2 (Day Two) Odessa

Day Two.

Still in Odessa

Unlike our previous roadtrip we tried not to go too far each day (we had a deadline last time) so we stayed in Odessa for an extra day to explore the area.  We are glad we did though.  We got to do a lot of things that were great fun.

Morning

After breakfast we headed to Sandhills state park in Monaghans.  This is an amazing area of the world.  Like being on Tatooine with all the sand dunes etc. For a couple of dollars you can hire sand sledges for sledging down the dunes…and slide we did!  Great fun and well worth the effort.  The place itself is beautiful also.  We also bought some excellent walking sticks from the shop.  I got a Moose (Our Boy Scout troop adult troop is called the Moose Patrol), Ben got a Wolf and Sophie got a paw print one. 

‘Talk softly and carry a big stick’ is my new policy.

 

Afternoon.

After grabbing some lunch at a highly rated Chinese buffet in Monaghans (it looked terrible from the outside but the food was good).  We headed to the 2^nd or 3^rd largest Meteor crater in the US (6^th largest in the world) – one sign says it’s the 3rd and the leaflet says the 2nd – the Odessa meteor crater..  We had tried going there first but it was closed till 1pm on a Sunday so it became our afternoon thing.  It looked great but unfortunately we didn’t get to go down into the crater as there had been a rain storm the night before and the clay floor was too slippy.  Cool place though.  Whilst there the leaflet for the place mentioned other things in Odessa to do…so 15 mins later we found ourselves taking pictures next to the largest Jackrabbit in the world!  We’ve seen a ton of Jackrabbits this trip (especially on the road to the meteor crater).  The roadside attractions are one of my favourite bits about roadtrips!

Evening.

Swimming, Hot tub and Sauna followed by a free bar for 1.5 hrs…that’ll do…

 

Roadtrip 2 (Day One) Round Rock – Odessa

RoadTrip 2

Been a while since I blogged about our travels but the advent of our second big US road trip felt like something I’d like to do.  This time we have a visitor (Carol’s mum from Scotland) and we decided to go West instead of east.  We learned from our last road trip that 6-8 hrs driving each day meant we got to see less of the country so we kept it shorter distances.  We are going in a big circle from our house out to Roswell, Albuquerque, Amarillo and back home.

Day One. 

Mainly a travelling day as we head out to New Mexico.  As I said we don’t want to travel 6-8 hours a day like we did on Trip one to DC.  Not a lot happened till we hit just before Odessa when we got caught in a dust/Sandstorm.  Interesting driving through that.  We stayed in MCM Grande which looked on paper to be a good place for kids.  It kinda was and it kinda wasn’t.  It had a pool which was smaller than we thought and a soft play area but later on on Saturday night was like Lord of the Flies as kids ran amok!

Brady, Texas

Day One travel

It was obviously a place for folks to dump their kids whilst they drank.  It’s a way station rather than a destination so we’ll keep going.

We did see Jim Reeves’ tour bus on the way over here though so that was a highlight ;-).

We also marveled at the very literal names which Texas has for it’s places like 9 mile creek (a creek 9 miles long), Wall, Garden City – we did have our first rest stop West of Eden so there was that!

First rest stop West of Eden, Texas

We ended up playing cards in the room (bar was actually charging to get in!!  A hotel bar!) so we got to find out that Gran is a master at the card game ‘Cheat!’ (also known in local parlance as BS).

Inner Space caverns

We had purchased some tickets for inner Space caverns which the caverns had donated to Sophie’s Schools silent auction earlier in the summer and they had lain in a drawer with a busy summer of other things going on.

We were very glad that we found them again as it was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon!  The caves were discovered when they were building the I35 in 1963 and they are a large network of tunnels stretching under the highway.  There are three options for tours through the caves and we had purchased the adventure tour which is the basic tour.  there are other options for hidden passage tours (which requires a torch) and then a tour of the undiscovered places which requires climbing throuhg small tunnels and crawling in areas.  

Our basic tour was excellent though.  Lasted about 1hr and 15 minutes and ran for about 1.5 miles underground.  Fascinating look at how the world has changed over the years and there were bones down there from sabre toothed cat to Mammoth which are huge!  

There have been some changes to the caves to help preserve them whilst opening them to tourists and one wall which was erected to help make them less rough was interesting as an artist had painted a bunch of cave painting depicting the animal bones which have been found in the caves over the years.  

You start the tour by walking down a long passage way to get to the main entrance which is a hike if you are not the fittest but not a major difficulty. You are not allowed to touch the walls to preserve the integrity of the walls and the tour guide talks you through how the various different types of rock came to be formed over the millenia.

The bottom of the adventure tour has a lovely pool area where water has formed and we get to about 70 ft down and we’re on the opposite side of the highway from the visitors center.     Funny to think of all the traffic going on above your head whilst you are in the tranquil atmosphere below ground.  The guide will also let you experience total darkness which it is difficult to get above the ground and is a little disconcerting. There is a gift shop and little cafe area for afterwards which was pretty reasonable.

We could certainly not go every weekend but we did enjoy the glimpse of pre history Texas.  Well worth a visit.

Schlitterbahn July 2015

Fantastic day out at Schlitterbahn with some friends from Scotland.  Great fun at a reasonable price at this place.  Unfortunately on the day my dry sack split and my iPhone went for an unexpected bath which made the day much more expensive than it should have.

Schlitterbahn is a huge waterpark which has bases around Texas.  We went to the original site in New Braunfels.

However…the Masterblaster, the Wolf Pack, the Falls and the other rides made the day perfect.  Why trust me though.  take a look at some of the day in the video below.

The Big American Roadtrip Day One – Round Rock – Forrest City. Clintons Birthplace…

We decided that we had to stop talking about a road trip and actually go for it!  I had a work meeting in DC next week and we decided that instead of me flying up alone.  We’d take some time out and drive the 1500 miles to the Capital of the US and see some sites along the way.  Of course we also need to drive the other 1500 miles the other way!  So it’s going to take us 7 days in total (with 3 nights in Washington DC thrown in for recovery!).

 

So we started this morning very early.  A 4.30 start meant that we were able to be away for 6.15am (that seems a long time but in our family that is a minor miracle!).  Our first leg was going to land us up the other side of Arkansas which is about 580 miles away.  The road itself was pretty quiet for most of the way so it was largely uneventful as we headed to Dallas and beyond.  What the trip made us realise was that Texas is BIG…really very very BIG!   We had driven for 5 hours north and were still in the Lone star state!!

We stopped around 8.30 in Waxahachie for a quick breakfast and then were on our way again.  Someone did park a beautiful old car next to our rental which we wanted to swap for.  Roadtripping America in a Ford Fairlane (56?) would have been much cooler than a Kia Optima but I suspect we’d have used up more gas!!

After breakfast we were on our way again and actually didn’t stop again till we were in Arkansas.  we stopped at the visitor center just across the border (where the picture of Ben above was taken) but couldn’t eat there so we grabbed free map and headed out looking for food.  We found out the nearest town was called Hope and it was the birthplace of one of our ultimate destinations (DC) famous ex residents.  A certain William Jefferson Clinton was born in Hope, Arkansas so as we were passing we popped into see his old house and Birthplace.   Very interesting that the town itself (like a lot of small US towns is looking a bit run down with the notable and eye catching exception of the local Bank which looks incredible.  There is a story in there to be told I am sure.

Anyway after that we had planned to go check into our hotel (Hampton Inn) then hit Memphis but we got there later than we first thought so we scrapped Memphis till tomorrow.

Interestingly the city of Forrest City is named after the same person that Forrest Gump was named after!  Now he is an even more controversial character than President Clinton so I will leave well alone!   One thing I will say is that we did not have the most friendly of welcomes in Forrest and maybe it was because we were staying well outside town but we ended up scrapping dinner out (after I had an altercation with the rudest waitress ever) and had burgers in our room before heading to bed.  Carol and I both had been suffering from the remains of a flu and although i was on the road to recovery she was struggling so I did the driving and it must have been my biggest day ever from a driving point of view with 587 miles and 2 states down…tomorrow Tenessee!!

San Antonio Zoo, Texas

With the Mother in Law’s time in town coming to an end we decided to use the last day of my holiday to go on a little Road Trip down to San Antonio.  Stopping half way down to jump in for some lunch at iHop (we all ate lunch for less than $50 which is always nice!).

Our destination for the day was San Antonio Zoo.  I had read some reviews which were not flattering of the zoo but it’s relatively high rating on Yelp and some of the really nice stuff people wrote about it meant we wanted to see it for ourselves.  I have to say I understand peoples objections to Zoo’s but I do feel they have a place today especially for conservation purposes.  So i’ll stay away from the politics and stick to the day out and how it was for the kids.

We got there early afternoon (around 1.30pm) and it was a pleasant (if not warm) afternoon.  The first thing that struck me was the price – We were used to visiting Edinburgh Zoo (Calderpark being my first zoo experience but it’s been closed for decades) which charges around 16.50 GBP for entrance for an adult so it can be a pricey day out.  San Antonio Zoo prices are $12.00 for adults (Significantly cheaper).  It is smaller than Edinburgh but it did have a bunch of animals which were new to us.  North American and European zoo’s are going to be different but it was interesting to see the differences up close.

Anyway – We got a map as we went in and planned out what we wanted to see and the best route to do this…then ignored that completely and jumped from animal to animal and reptile house to aquarium as the fancy took us!  We were in till it closed at 6pm so it was a long day but we were kept busy and interested the whole time.

Starting out at the fabulously colored Flamingos was a great start although finding out that they are no longer native to the US was disappointing…I have been lied to by my Miami Vice titles.

Next up were the bears which they had a few of…the American Black bear was not for coming out see us but still pretty cool.  travelling round the Hippos, White Rhino and Tigers was pretty cool.  The Lions though were a highlight as they were just sitting around their cages when we arrived but after we got there they started playing about then the male lion decided that he would have a bit of a roar…it was pretty damn impressive to see!

They had some excellent injection molding machines to create your own souvenirs which were pretty nice and cheap and the kids liked the early 3D printers!  At $2 they were a pretty cheap little keepsake.

As we left for the day we stopped in at the Aquarium almost as an afterthought.  I am so glad we did.  there were some pretty amazing looking fish in there but they also hit all the kids ‘food groups’ when it came to cool things that live in the sea – Jellyfish, Sharks, Piranhas and electric eels!  All very impressive.

This was worth the visit and a good low price day out for the kids.

We finished off the day with a quick trip into San Antonio (10 mins drive) to see the Alamo (so that my mother in law could say she had been there!) and then the 1.5 hr journey back to Round Rock.  A pretty long day all in all as we arrived back about 10pm but a great day out and at a pretty low cost too!

Kennedy Assassination site, Dallas, Texas

After our trip to Southfork the previous day we headed out into Dallas itself for our second day there.  We had stayed in the Homewood suites in Plano overnight and spent some of the morning playing in the pool before we headed out to Dealey plaza to check out one of the most famous (infamous) places to visit in the US.

We headed out to Dealey plaza and got there around lunch time.  We walked down and explored the scene itself which has a cross marked on the ground to show where the car was when the shots took place.  We also looked over the grassy knoll area which is famous as the spot where people claim to have seen shots coming on the day.
Here is my dad at the grassy knoll.  The fence behind him is pretty much the same as it was on the day.

After looking at the scene we were peckish before we went into the Book Depository so we stopped for some lunch.  Yelp had a recommendation for a small grill just up the road – The Record Grill.  It was actually very reasonably priced and the food was great.  We would recommend that place every time despite it being a tiny little cafe type place.  

Our next stop was the Texas book depository (also known as the Sixth Floor Museum) which is where the shots were said to be fired from.  It’s now a Kennedy museum and the area where the alleged shots were fired is cordoned off and left exactly as it was on that day in 1963.  There is all sorts of info in the tour which is an audio tour you do at your own pace.  Everything from the Zapruder camera where the infamous footage of the assassination was taken is on display and the suit worn by the agent who was next to Oswald when he was killed by Jack Ruby.

The interesting thing about the tour was how frank it is about the background to the event.  It does not take the view that it was obviously just Oswald acting alone.  There is a lot of info presented about how it could have been a conspiracy which surprised me at the time.  Lots of the, literally, hundreds of books about Kennedy are on display here. It lets you make up your own mind.

There is lot of footage of Kennedy as president, the assassination and his funeral.  There is a particularly poignant piece of footage of JFK Jr saluting his fathers coffin on the day of the funeral which they have incorporated well into the museum.

Upstairs is a tribute area for JFK and Jackie Kennedy.  They have quiet space for people to recollect and some incredible images of both the President and the First lady which are made up with the others images.

The image to the left is made up of mulitple images of Jackie Kennedy and they had another one of her made up of images of him.

I think they have put this together very well and it asks a lot of questions and I came away thinking it made no sense that something like this had so many unanswered questions.  We’ll probably never know what happened leading up to that day but it was fascinating to stand in the area it happened and see a site which we’ve seen in countless movies, TV shows and news footage.

Worth a visit but there is so much to see we spent hours going round it.