Cowtown USA!

(Craig writes) We went over to The Stockyards in Fort Worth today and watched an honest to goodness cattle drive complete with cowboys, cowgirls and Texas long horned cattle! Following the cattle drive action we went to the visitors center to see a video about the history of the cattle industry and how it worked. Interesting stuff! After the Civil War the demand for beef in the East, (due to immigration and rapid industrial growth), grew exponentially. Since there were vast open ranges with huge numbers of cattle available cattle ranchers in Texas and surrounding areas began herding cattle to the East. Half-wild range cattle that could be bought for 4 cents a head were worth $40.00 a head at the other end of the cattle drive! Cattle Barons made huge sums of money and cowboys had all the work they could do for many years. The job of a cattle drive cowboy was a rough one as most worked 18 hours a day 7 days a week!

After a delicious lunch at the 3H Restaurant in the historic section of Fort Worth we drove over to Dallas to sightsee a while. The Farmers Market was busy with all kinds of fruits, vegetables, nuts and flowers on display for sale. We were reminded of the exuberant shop owners back in Tijuana as many of the market people coaxed us to sample their produce. On one aisle I ended up tasting samples of watermelon, apple, pineapple and 3 different kinds of coffee!

Most people our age remember the sad day in November 1963 when President John Kennedy was assassinated while driving in a motorcade through Dallas. Being history buffs we decided to drive through some of the areas Kennedy rode through that day and ended up at the infamous "grassy knoll" near the Dallas Schoolbook Depository building. We talked about how sad we felt even as little kids when we heard the news. It was during that same era that the US was fully expecting to be bombed by nuclear weapons by "The Communists". Scary times to be sure that moved "the authorities" to have all school children practice bomb drills. That was when you were instructed to hide under your wooden school desk and put your hands over your face. Thinking back it seems almost laughable that anyone thought that would help if a bomb were to detonate nearby. I guess they figured that doing something would be better than doing nothing.

Our trip has been a wonderful experience with multitudes of great memories but now it is time to go home. The definition of home has taken on new meaning for us in the last several months. Instead of brick, mortar and wood with a mailing address it is now a place where our loved ones are wherever that may be located. Seems like a very fluid way to think, and we love it!