No Sleet here!

We have one day to take in all of Dallas!  And see our son at the same time.  We need to be back in KC by mid week, so we are watching the storms up there as we sit down here.  We are 500 miles South of our KC home here in Arlington, and that is enough that we have completely different weather.

Our daughter in law reported a freezing rain that has coated everything with ice, and nothing nice!  My son Ben reported that he is hoping for the warmer weather that is forecast for later in the week.

But my oldest son is working here in Dallas at a job for the federal folks, that can't be disclosed here on a public blog.  He came to see us this morning at the campground.  We had an enjoyable visit for most of the morning and into the afternoon.

He had plans to go with a friend to Austin this weekend, that had been made weeks ago, so he finally left to go get the friend and start that way.

We had the rest of the afternoon free, but did not know what to do.  We agreed upon going to the Dealy Plaza where Kennedy was shot so many years ago.  It was over 30 miles from here to downtown.  We didn't get off until 3, once we were finally organized.  It would be one of our drive by visits that we are famous for.

The GPS took us directly to the center of town, but I didn't know how to find Dealy Plaza.  We drove thru the newer parts of downtown, but I surmised that it must be in the older section.  Then I remembered that the Texas Book Depository building had a museum on the 6th floor where Oswald had fired his shots.

Looking under Museum, the GPS offered a museum named sixth floor.  It was on Elm street, so I decided that there could only be one, and selected to go there.  Within minutes we drove right past the grassy knoll.  I was on it before I could take it all in.

There were folks all over the place!  A memorial has been built on the top of the hill, and the grass is mostly trampled.  Folks were around the memorial and out on the grass.  We drove under the overpass where the train tracks go overhead.  That leads right to the interstate.

I hauled around in a U turn and went back for a second pass.  This time I came from the South and was able to wait at the light in front of the Book building and take it all in.  Of course there is no parking anywhere close, and folks were arriving on foot.  Loyce saw one man on the grass bending down and kissing the ground in front of him.  He was at least our age, so he is old enough to remember how that event played out on our TVs for that frightful weekend and the funeral the following week.

I put Parkland Hospital into the GPS to see how far away that was, and it was about 3 miles to the North.  So under the underpass I went following the track spelled out by the machine.  That drive seemed eerie at best, as we pulled up behind the hospital to the emergency entrance.  The building seems newer in many sections now, but the oldest part is definitely the same.

I turned 16 the day after Kennedy was shot, and within the week got my first drivers license.  But that normally happy event, will always bring back memories of the president being shot in late November.

Tonight we went to a Cracker Barrel up North of the ball stadiums and Six Flags over Texas.  The food was good like usual, but to my opinion, all of those stores are much the same.  We ate in one in Alabama when we were having warranty work done on the motor home.  They could have easily been the same store, because you couldn't tell any difference.  Maybe the Texas accent is a little different than the Alabama twang, but to a Northerner like me, it is all just Southern!

Oh go ahead and flame me for a comment like that!!!!!!!  LOL

Retired Rod