We're heading back west to visit the big cities of Texas! We drove through Texarkana, and of course I had to sing Smokey and the Bandit a couple to times. Our first stop was to Dinosaur Valley State Park. There were so many amazing footprints in this park! If traveling here, be mindful of the river level. There are more footprints visible when the water levels are low/gone. Evan was so excited to see so many prints! We walked up the mostly dry river to see all of the spots.
Our next stop was Fort Worth. We went to the Stockyards. This place reminded me of a redneck Bourbon Street. There were shops, restaurants, and people driving along the cobblestone streets and having a good time. We even saw a drunk woman get in a stranger's car! They hold a cattle drive twice a day. I was so excited to see the Longhorn Steer and horses! They also had a petting zoo, horse rides, and even a rodeo (although we were too late to go).
After this, we moved on to Dallas! We went to the Federal Reserve Bank for a tour. It was self guided (many of the displays were broken), and not quite what I expected, but we got a free bag of shredded money at the end of the tour! It goes great with our blank pennies from the Denver Mint! We went to Dealey Plaza and the Schoolbook Depository, site of JFK's assassination. It was so surreal to stand at that site. There are Xs in the road to mark where the shots took place. We walked a couple of block to visit the JFK Memorial Plaza.
McKinney Falls State Park was next on our list. This park is located outside of Austin. This park was covered in limestone beds. The area we walked was normally a waterfall, but the water levels were low at this time. We saw a few tourists jumping from the top of the falls into the water below. I really enjoyed the walks we took here. We felt like we were walking across Mordor! We stopped to stay the night at the Fredericksburg Inn. This was such a charming town! Our motel had two pools, hot tubs, campfires, outdoor tvs, volleyball, grills, and seating at the creek. We absolutely loved this place! We also passed a "Rhinorey"- a winery where you can pet a rhino! We wanted to visit, but it was over $200 a person.
The next morning we drove into Stonewall to the home and burial site of President Lyndon B. Johnson. We drove towards San Antonio. We stopped at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. This drive through park was so amazing! We had to go through twice! We felt bad for the really hungry donkey at the end because we had already run out of food. We also reaffirmed our knowledge that ostriches are assholes! This one was blocking traffic from entering the gate. There was an area in the middle to walk to the giraffe enclosures. We also paid extra to go into the Budgie exhibit. They loved Evan! This was such a neat thing to do! We also walked through a section with animatronic dinosaurs and dragons. It was really unique! We went ahead and drove into the city to eat on the River Walk. We ate at Joe's Crab Shack. We stayed the night at a new hotel outside the city with limited internet access, so we had some trouble confirming our reservations. We finally got a room though!
We got up and headed back into San Antonio. Our first stop was the Alamo. With so many bigger buildings in the downtown area, this building looked so small in comparison. Next we walked along the River Walk. I absolutely loved this area! It was so peaceful and unique! We bought some souvenirs and ate at the oldest restaurant along the riverfront, Casa del Rio. We also did a boat tour to learn more about the area.
We drove to College Station to the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. We walked through the museum. Behind the building was a peaceful lake with a short walk to the burial site. Only two more presidential burial sites to go (so far)! We thought we could make it further, but with the winding curvy roads the map took us on, we decided to stay in Shreveport, LA for the night.
On the rest of the drive home, we stopped at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. We walked through the openly plowed fields looking and digging for diamonds. You can bring in your own tools, rent tools, or bring your own. Surprisingly, most of the diamonds have been found by people just walking the fields and looking at the dirt. Sadly we didn't find any, but we did find some jasper and calcite!
We didn't stay long at many of the sites, and it definitely wasn't on our list of top favorite trips, but we had a great time on the road and visiting new cities! How many days until our next trip, because I'm ready!
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