Pegasus

We didn't want our visit to Dallas to be all about the assassination of John F. Kennedy so we chose the general Downtown tour instead of the moment-by-moment retracing the motorcade's path down the streets of Dallas and out to Lee Harvey Oswald's house. The trip into downtown took us 20 minutes and the approach to the city showed a very dramatic skyline with an elegant bridge, imposing and sleek skyscrapers and construction cranes.

We bordered the red trolly in Dealey Plaza, steps away from the Texas Book Depository, now called the Sixth Floor Museum, the grassy knoll and the spot on Elm street where the assassination happened and which is now marked with a white X on the street. The trolly took us through the West End Historic District where the old red brick manufacturing, industrial and warehouse buildings are now preserved and used for nightclubs and entertainment venues. The adjacent greenway, next to the Trinity River, will soon undergo a massive development with shops, parks, golf courses and will be the largest and most expensive ever built. We rode out to get views of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge (see pictures below) that is the first of three similar bridges, designed by Italian Santiago Calatrava. The bridge is 1,800 feet long and 40 stories tall.  Uptown to the Arts district, the Dallas Museum of Art, Crow Collection of Asian Art, City Performance Hall, the Margot & Bill Winspear Opera House and where there are apartments and condominiums, and  through the downtown and the corporate headquarters buildings. We really like these city tours because you get a lot of information, see a lot of sights, and get a feeling for what makes a city unique.

The skyline of Dallas.

Construction around the city. On the right side of the picture you can see the construction of the second of three bridges. 

More highways under construction.

The Red Trolly. 

Dealey Plaza with the Book Depository building in the background. The two upper windows on the far right of the sixth floor is where the shots were fired. 

George Dealey was a civic leader and publisher of the Dallas Morning News. Recognizing that because Dallas is land-locked it was necessary to bring transportation to the city, Dealey was instrumental in bringing the railroads. 

The Woodall Rogers Freeway passes through the city and a four acre park has been built over the freeway. The park is lined with food trucks.

This Dallas Pegasus sits on top of the Magnolia Building and was erected for the 1934 American Petroleum Institute Convention. Pegasus was originally the logo for the Socony-Vacuum company of which Magnolia Oil, later know as Mobile, was a part. For years it was visible for miles around the city and became a symbol of the importance of oil to the city.

Where Neiman Marcus began - the flagship store.

There are numerous sculptures in the city including this one. The "eyes of Texas" perhaps?

In front of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center is this sculpture that commemorates the trails that brought settlers to Dallas and cattle to market.

There are 49 cattle and three cowboys, all unique.

In the Visitor's Center is this Pegasus that sat atop a Mobil gas station in east Dallas where it was lighted and rotated. Before that, it was on display in the 1939 World's Fair in New York.

The John F Kennedy Memorial paid for by the citizens of Dallas and designed by architect Philip Johnson. It is a cenotaph, or "open tomb,' that symbolizes the freedom of John F. Kennedy's spirit as it appears to float, with no visible support, more than two feet above the earth. 

This is a replica of the cabin built by John Neely Bryan, a colonist from Tennessee, who arrived in late 1841, opened a store, and is considered to be the "Father" of Dallas. 

After the tour we thought we would walk to the Continental Bridge, a pedestrian bridge that parallels the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge and passes over the soon-to-be-developed greenway.

We got a city map from the Visitor's Center and tried to find our way to the bridge. There was no good or direct way and we had to pass through some of the downtown construction.

Eventually we found it and walked the full length.

Passing over the Trinity River.

This sign was at the far end of the pedestrian bridge. Evidently it is more developed at the other end.

This young man was getting his graduation picture taken in front of the large "B" and "G" letters at the end of the bridge.

When we asked what the B & G stood for we were told "BIG", but you are supposed to stand in the middle to make the "I".

The Centennial Pedestrian Bridge on the left, the Margaret Hunt Hill on the right and the greenway and Trinity River below.

Some playful dodecahedrons on the bridge.

Other playful objects. This one swiveled and tilted.

Frederick pushing the button to activate the fountain.

I think  you can just make out the jets of water that would form patterns and vary in height.

This is a great building in downtown and changes shape depending on your view point.

Hike right

Today we moved closer to Dallas and Fort Worth. In fact, we are just across the city line from Dallas in Cedar Hill State Park. The park is on a huge man-made lake and there is an emphasis on boating and fishing. But there are some hiking trails.

The Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association built 15 miles of biking trails that are also used by hikers. At this trailhead the sign says that you bike to the left and hike to the right. This way hikers go in the opposite direction and can see the bikers coming, a much better arrangement than at the last two parks.

It is definitely spring here with lots of blooming trees and shrubs.

Bluebonnets

March 29, 2015 blog post -

Today’s hike was here in Cleburne State Park where we are staying. There were a few mountain bikers but not as many as yesterday.

All of the bikers were older than yesterday’s youth groups. As you can see, this woman is really enjoying her ride.

This is a pretty level place on the trail but there were sections that were quite steep and must really be a challenge on a bike.

There is a lake in the park that was created by this spillway that was constructed by the CCC.

An upper view of the three-tier spillway.

Another attraction on today’s hike were the blooming bluebonnets with prickly pear.

Dinosaur Valley

Blog post for March 28, 2015 -

We are currently in Cleburne State Park because when we went to book a campsite at Dinosaur Valley State Park, home to a Texas geo-site, there were no sites available - even though it is after spring break. Cleburne State Park is only 20 miles from Dinosaur Valley so we were okay with the alternate. Wanting to see a “fun” geo-site, we drove over to Dinosaur Valley this morning to show Mr. Spock some dinosaur tracks and to take a hike.

Nine-year-old George Adams stumbled across strange three-toed tracks that looked like prints of a giant bird in a tributary of the Paluxy River in 1909. During the days of the dinosaurs, this area was a large shallow sea with beaches, lagoons and coral reefs. The shells of crustaceans that lived in this sea left calcium carbonate deposits that created the special “limy” mud that preserved the foot-prints of the dinosaurs that roamed the area browsing on the large tropical palm and conifer trees along the shore. 

The three-toes theropod prints probably belong to the carnivorous Acrocanthosaurus, a smaller relative of Tryannosaurus rex. As scientists were researching the riverbed in 1937, they discovered a large sauropod track, the first distinct prints ever found in the world. They look like a brontosaurus.

From a exhibit in the Visitor Center, this is what the two dinosaurs looked liked.

And these two also left tracks.

Many of the prime tracks were excised from the riverbed and taken to the American Museum of Natural History. Here is a track in the river that remains. 

We took Mr. Spock to show him two more sites, this one in the river…

and this one along the side the river.

Here’s the track of a theropod…

and this is one of a sauropod.

In the exhibit, this is a mold of the tracks.

When we began our hike we soon found out why the campground was full this week-end.

As we were hiking up a somewhat arduous trail, along came mountain bike rider after mountain bike rider. Maybe 75 or so passed us going up a 2.6 mile trail.

At the top of the trail, at an overview point, we met these two riders. They are parents of some of the riders who are participating in a mountain bike race that will be held on Sunday. Today the trail was open for a trial run and these guys were supervising a group of mountain bikers from the Dallas area.

This is a big race with age groups which reminded us of swim meets .This field will fill up this evening with campers who will participate in tomorrow’s race. 

The park displays two gigantic life-size fiberglass replicas of the tyrannosaurus rex and apatosaurus that were built to exhibit at the New York City World’s Fair in 1964-65 and donated to the park in 1970. Since I worked at the World’s Fair in 1964, I probably saw them there.

The ferocious T-Rex.

Driving out of the park, about a mile down the road, was another museum - the Creation Evidence Museum. We didn’t stop as it was closing when we drove by.

The museum was also advertising a performance held in September and October. 

Austin in the rear view mirror

Blog post for March 27, 2015

A few weeks ago Howard asked about pictures of lawyers on billboards. We have seen a lot of them in the south, beginning with Alexander in Alabama and the Panhandle of Florida, and Austin seemed to really go all out. Here are a few...

This one is my favorite.

Austin was very welcoming and the people extremely helpful and interesting, except for the drivers. Maybe because the highway system around and through Austin is inadequate, under construction and the most confusing we have ever seen, but the drivers seem to epitomize the Texas motto - Don't mess with Texas. Drivers will not yield an inch, are aggressive (of course), and pushy. 

But we liked Austin and, as usual, we are sad to leave because it seems there are a lot more things to see and do. Here are a few closing shots -

Patsy Cline's restaurant and bar - Austin: live music capitol the world (even though Patsy Cline is deceased).

We have seen this bird apartment building in several places around Austin. I don't know what birds it attracts.

Finally, the bluebonnets are beginning to bloom and we see them along the highways and the interchanges. The Texas state flower.