Texas is not a place you can take lightly.

People down here just think a little different, talk little different, and enjoy life a little different.

Consider their vehicles. I soon learned that are just two kinds sold here.

Small, luxury rockets that do amazing things in traffic all while under the guidance of a single hand on the wheel. Intricately bobbing and weaving all while making the big deal or dinner reservations on the cell phone in the other. They all appear so confident and they are all handsome and attractive. Cars highly polished and their drivers exuding the confidence and vibrancy of Dallas and its economy. I think back to my 30 something days and can only remember that slightly rusty Cougar I drove, with hands at the 2 and 10 position, hoping I had enough money to buy some of that 50 cent a gallon gas to make it to work the next day.

Trucks, or better known as peeekups down here, are what really takes up most of the available asphalt. The city Texan has forgone the rifle rack in the rear window and now sport front bumper brush guards so massive you not so sure they're not rejects from an old Mad Max movie. There is enough tubular steel in them to make little Billy Bob three or four jungle gym sets. I've seen a few of those bumpers banged up pretty bad but I'm not sure if they're herding cattle or cars with them.

While I were weaving and bobbing through the concrete canyons, with the speedo pegged at 55 and the left turn signal on, Sharon had the chance to take a few images of the Dallas skyline. With her new camera in hand she has taken several nice photographs I'd like to share with you.



It looks like technical difficulties are bugging the Google blog service as I cannot upload any additional images so y'all will have to wait a bit for more photos.

Anyway...another great marvel is how the Texans have managed to turn tumble weeds, wild range, and prairie into one continuous shopping mall. From our campsite, which has grazing cattle within 1000 ft, is wall to wall shopping for about 35 miles; to downtown Dallas. From there I can only imagine. We've visited many and I have now given serious thought into buying stock in Dr. Scholls.

We made a preliminary visit to the Ft. Worth stockyards. No we didn't go there just to clear our sinuses, but to see if there was enough to do there when our daughter and her family visit next week. Bars, saloons, rodeo arena, stockyards, and shopping ... all wrapped up in a few blocks. Looks like a winner and we're looking forward to showing it off. Met a guy name Beau at the cowboy hat shop. An ex-pro rodeo rider who looked the part and gave us the low-down on how cowboy hats are made. My folks bought me a Stetson some 50 years ago and Beau told me I should have kept it. Very valuable nowadays. New, quality hat will go between $500 and $2000 bucks. I think I'll stick to the cap Sharon bought me in South Haven.

Though the sun is shining and the 70 degree weather is fantastic, not all has been well in travel land. Within the past four days we've had two successful fraudulent hits on two different credit
cards we have. Somewhere along the path at least two perps (learned that term on CSI NY) used our cards to buy stuff. Where they got the numbers is any ones guess but at least we caught them in time. Well we didn't really catch them but the sharp folks at the credit card company did. We pay a small monthly fee for one of the services but it alerts us any weird purchases that didn't fit our buying habits. We won't have to pay for any of the purchases and the only inconvenience was on of the cards was cancelled. A good tip to fellow travellers is to take three or four different cards and once they are cancelled it's tough to get another one while you're on the road. The exception might be a national card like American Express or Discover.
Anyway it's almost unavoidable unless you want to pay cash for everything. And carry a lot of cash is not such a good idea either.

We're still discovering great places and great people along the way. With three weeks behind us and only one left until we head to San Marcos, we're trying to make each day count. Y'all do the same...okay?