Fort Worth and John Wayne

We left camp at 7:15 for Ft Worth.  GPS said that traffic was moderate.  Carol and I don't agree.  It seemed heavy to us.  Some truckers, like this one,  have a sense of humor. Woody from Toy Story is hanging on for dear life. 

Texas fly not only the American flag but the Texas one as well.

Our first stop in Ft Worth was "The John Wayne Experience."  It tells John Wayne's story from early childhood to his "Life on the Screen."

He would give each cast member specially designed coffee cups with the completion of the movies he was in.  These are some of those cups.

The many faces of John Wayne.

Here I am holding the hands of the Duke and Kirk Douglas.

Some of the many hats he wore in his movies.

He loved to fish and this is a replica of the boat he would use/

He had lung cancer in the late 60's and thought he had defeated it but in 1979 he died of stomach cancer. These are the bags of cards and letters that came to the hospital shortly before he died.  Because he died so quickly, these bags were never opened.

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We were surprised to find Trigger and Bullet at the end of the museum.  They had been at the Roy Rogers Museum in Branson and when it closed, they were transferred here.

 

These are some of the many costumes he wore in some of his movies.  The two in the center are from "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and his final movie "The Shootist."  The Academy Award is for "True Grit." 

After visiting the museum, we walked around downtown Ft. Worth.  It is an interesting old town.  A lot of the streets are no longer dirt like in cowboy times but have been paved with bricks.

The Fort Worth Stock Yards is a national historic site.

The population of Texas has grown so much but the owner of this car is concerned that this increased population will change Texas. 

We ate lunch at Billy Bob's Honky Tonk.

We both had the chicken strip basket....very good.

For $5.00 you could get your picture taken on the back of this longhorn.  Carol and I declined.  While waiting for the herd, we heard this joke:  "Why do cows wear bells?  Because their horns don't work."

 

This little doggie has his own mini rider.

At 11:30 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. there is a small cattle drive reenactment.  These cowboys were part of that reenactment.

Here come the Texas Longhorns.  We didn't realize how long their horns were!

We left Fort Worth around 1:00 headed for the Kennedy sites in downtown Dallas.  Again, GPS said traffic was moderate (we still don't agree).  

It was quite an experience.  We finally made it downtown and ended up driving around the same block three times and making a u-turn three times before we found a parking lot for the Sixth Floor Museum and Dealey Plaza.  Needless to say it got pretty intense during that experience; however, we finally pulled into a parking lot.  The cost was $12!!  We stopped at the booth and the attendant came out and asked us what we wanted to do in the area.  We told him and he said that the Museum was closed for sanitation.  It is not open on Monday or Tuesday so the museum can be cleaned thoroughly.  Since we had already been to the plaza on a previous trip, we decided to head back to camp.

We stopped for gas at Buc-ee's.  We had never been in a Buc-ee's.  It is unbelievable!  Not only can you get gas but it is like a mini-grocery store, fast food, clothing, etc.  

This building is enormous.

The pump area has two multiple filling areas. One for cars and the other for larger vehicles like RVs.

We were home by 4:00 and sat outside in the shade for a while.  Carol couldn't take the mud on the tires of the RV and car so he spent time washing them off.   

Tomorrow we will head back into Dallas for the Texas State Fair.  It doesn't open until 10 a.m. so maybe by that time we will miss the "moderate" traffic.

First Monday Trade Market - Day 2

Today we wanted to finish shopping/looking at the market.  We arrived at 9:00 which is when it is advertised to open and already the parking lots will filling and people were walking the streets.  During the morning hours the streets weren't as full.  We had a map today which we thought would make it easier but it didn't.  We were looking for the open field vendors and Civic Center.  Finally, around 10:30 we found that area and it was then that we saw how overwhelming it was.  There was so much more.  We told ourselves that at noon we would stop and eat and give it up.

This is blurry but I wanted to take this picture so I hurried too much.  This is a man riding a scooter with a wagon attached to the back for his purchases and right behind him was his wife on another scooter with the dog riding with her.  These are dedicated Market shoppers.  There were so many dogs.  I felt sorry for the dogs having to dodge shoppers, scooters, and kids.  The dogs looked hot and like they would rather be somewhere else.  I saw one man with three dogs on leaches.  I saw at least two Great Danes and heard one owner tell someone that his dog weighed 165 pounds.  Again, why not leave the poor dog at home for some quiet.

This is an original gate from the 50's when the market was moved from the courthouse square. It reads "First Monday Market Day" since 1850.

A sampling of the kids of things that could be purchased.

This fellow was making corn meal with his old steam engine.

Saw a couple of booths selling political flags.

Texans seem very patriotic.

The East Gate Entrance.  This is where we entered today.


After a lunch of catfish sandwich and tamale chili bowl, went to the Walmart to get some prescriptions filled for Carol and do a little food shopping.  We returned to camp around 3:00 p.m.  We brought a bag of kettle corn so we enjoyed a snack before settling in for a nap.

We enjoyed the last two days and both have said we could return again.  Tomorrow we will do something totally different because we are going into Dallas and Ft. Worth.  No flea markets on our agenda only Kennedy and cowboy history.

First Monday Trade Day - Canton, Texas

 We had planned to go into Dallas today and do the First Monday Trade Day tomorrow but we found out that the George W. Bush Presidential Library would not be open.  I am assuming the reason is Covid.  We were going to the Kennedy sites but didn't think it would take more than a couple of hours so we are going to combine Dallas and Fort Worth in one day. . What to do with the extra day?  The answer was to spend two days at the Trade Day.  We are so glad that we decided to do that because First Monday Trade Day is like the Covered Bridge Festival on steroids!  It is BIG!  It is not doable in one day unless you want to leave things out.

First Monday Trade Day began in the 1850s when the circuit judge stopped in  Canton on the first Monday of each month to hold court, people from across the county and surrounding counties came to the Courthouse square to watch courthouse proceedings and take care of business.  This is what people did for excitement in the 1850s when there was no television, internet, etc.  Many people also brought things to sell or trade because of the large number of people who would be there on that day.  By 1965 First Monday Trade Day had outgrown the Courthouse square so the city of Canton purchased six acres two blocks from the Courthouse and the sale moved off the square.  Over the years it has grown and grown to include Thursday-Sunday and not Monday as trade days and is open year round, rain or shine but the name First Monday Trade Day has stuck.  It is advertised as the largest flea market in the world and from our experience today, I would agree.

The press of humanity can be seen in The Arbors.  This building is only one of several more buildings

 each one just as packed.  There are many similarities to the Covered Bridge Festival in that we saw the same types of merchandise and kettle corn.  There were other things that were new to us like booths selling handcrafted furniture and accessories for firearms.  There were several food courts.

We saw lots of people using these types of transportation.  I know that some people needed to ride one due to physical needs; but I think a lot of people used them to be able to shop all day in this huge flea market.  We saw several places renting them and some selling them.  It can't be seen in this picture; but one of these carts is a two-seater.  Carol and I could have brought one and both of us could ride around the market on it.  I don't know the price but I am sure it wouldn't be in our budget!  I also think that some people need a quick driving course.  

It is hard to see but this is a map of the grounds, but we only got through half of the top page.

This park has two resident swans.

 

This porch is at the back of the office and shower/restroom building.  It is pleasant to sit in these rocking chairs and eat ice cream (which we  did today).

A view of the campground taken from the porch.  We were talking to an employee here and she told us that the cold snap that Texas had last winter killed 70 trees in the park.  We saw the roots of trees at our site so I guess that is why most of the sites only have the roots and not the trees.

For the last two evenings we have enjoyed sitting outside in the evening.  We have been able to turn off the air conditioner.  The camper stays cool enough without it.  Rain had been in the forecast for today, but we didn't get any....yeah!  Tomorrow we will return to Canton and try to finish it out but I am sure we won't be able to see it all.

Goodbye Louisiana, Hello Texas

Left River View Campground about 7:45 a.m.  Yesterday we scouted out a place to fill up the motorhome and a route to that place so that is where we headed.  We were able to get gas at a Shell station on Route 425 which is the highway we wanted to take to I-20W.  US Route 425 was a four-lane divided highway and we enjoyed the scenery of small towns and cotton and soy bean fields.  It was sad to see the main streets of most of the small towns fill with old empty storefronts.  I could imagine fifty years ago, these stores would be filled with people doing their weekly shopping and visiting with neighbors.  I have memories of those times on the streets of small rural towns.

Today we drove  through Shreveport, Louisiana.  I-20 west roads were terrible.  They are the worse so far on this trip.  Besides terrible roads, Shreveport seems to be the Las Vegas of Louisiana.  I don't know how many casinos we saw downtown and along the river but we saw Sam's Town and The Horseshoe which I know that we have seen in Las Vegas.  There were several others, as well.  I think the city should take some of the money they are making from the casinos and repair their roads.

We stopped at the Texas Welcome Center for a good paper map of Texas and what other brochures and pamphlets we  could find that related to the places we planned to travel to.  

We were very surprised to find a small café at the rest area.  Since it was noon, we decided to get a sandwich and eat in the motorhome.

Carol ordered the shrimp, fried green tomato, and bacon po'boy.  The sandwich also had slaw on it along with their special sauce.  I am not quite as adventuresome so I got the BLT on a croissant.  Both were delicious.

It began to rain as we were leaving the rest area...again!  A few miles down the road, traffic came to a halt and then inched it's way west until we could see that the cause for the delay was an accident.  These two cars were on the left side of the road.

This car as already being towed away and we were very sad to see that a motorhome with a toad was also involved.

The truck was involved as well.

We are hoping that since we didn't see or hear an ambulance, injuries were minor.

This is our spot (#22) for the next five nights and four days.  We are camped at Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park, Terrill, Texas.  We have a nice concrete pad and don't feel too close to other RVs.  The showers are wonderful and the staff very nice. The only negative is that fact that the county or state has scraped the road to the park down to the bare ground so it can be completely repaved.  It has been raining so we drove very, very slowly for about a mile on gravel and mud.  Of course, the car and motorhome picked up that mud.  Carol has a really hard time with a dirty car but it would do no good to wash it because it would just get dirty every time we traveled on the road.  The park has a no car/RV washing policy so both will have to stay muddy for awhile!

It was a nice evening so we sat outside for awhile and the Texas sky treated us with this beautiful sunset.  The top picture was taken toward the west and the bottom one toward the east.

It will be good to be in one place for a few days.  Tomorrow we are going to the First Monday Market in Canton, Texas or as it is better known as "The Largest Flea Market in the US."  I hope our feet are up to the challenge of a flea market that big!