Adventures in the South, #17

Dallas

Sixth Floor Museum

The Sixth Floor of the Book Depository  in Dealy Plaza, from which Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President John F. Kennedy provides an exploration into history from the exact place it happened. The events of JFK’s early presidential  events are outlined through pictures and videos.

The tour around the sixth floor culminates at the window from which the shots that killed the president were fired. A mock up of the setting from that fateful day is in front of the bank of windows. Taking a view of the street below we could see just where the presidential limousine traveled and where the car was when the shots struck the President. Artifacts from that day and explanations and videos of all the investigations pertaining to the shooting are also on display.

Although it was a drizzly day, after we finished in the museum, we took a walk to explore the downtown area. You never quite know what a big city will be like. Dallas had the usual high rise buildings and old structures.

 But in the course of our walk, we were surprised with a 5.2 acre urban park.  The Klyde Warren Park serves as a kind of Town Square, it is a delightful green belt surrounded by high rise buildings.

A Fountain / splash pad provides fun for the kiddos. The reflections of the buildings behind the dancing waters of the fountain were stunning! The park also has free games such as foosball, table tennis and corn hole, set up with tables for picnicking or enjoying a meal from an adjacent food truck. This was one of the most beautiful downtown areas we have seen!

Fort Worth 

While many towns we have been to have a town square or a historic district, Fort Worth has the Stockyards! This area of the town has a long history as the destination of many cattle drives, when  ranchers drove their stock to town, in order to be shipped by rail to markets in the east. 

Each day, once in the morning and again in the afternoon, cowboys reenact the cattle drive by bringing a herd of longhorns down the Main Street to the delight of visitors lining the curbside. It was more of a cattle parade than a drive, but it was a fun way to see these amazing cattle up close!

Two very different gardens provided some great areas to explore and enjoy. Located downtown, the Fort Worth Water Garden is an urban plaza that features three different water features, the Quiet Pool, the Aerating Pool and the popular Active Pool with its stairway down into the pool surrounded by waterfalls!

We enjoyed an afternoon of walking around the Fort Worth Botanic Garden  with its many trees and plants. 

We especially loved the exceptional Japanese Garden with beautiful bridges, ponds and streams.

Impact

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

‭‭II Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭17‬-‭21‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

While in the Dallas area we had the great opportunity to have a mini reunion with some of the men who had been teens in Steve’s Youth Group more than 40 years ago. One of the men knew we would be coming through the area on our route home, so he reached out to former youth group members that have stayed connected through social media with each other and with Steve.

Five of the men, their spouses and a girlfriend made plans to meet up for dinner. A couple of the men and their families live near each other outside of Dallas and attend church together. One of the men and his wife drove from their home in San Antonio, and another man and his girlfriend drove from a town an hour away. Though separated by years and miles we all are connected together as a family in Christ!

It was a rare opportunity to see the impact that this youth group had on these men, and that has extended to their families! One couple had been missionaries on a Mercy Ship through YWAM for twenty five years, bringing the love of God to people all around the world! One of the wives shared that she had been a surrogate for infertile couples, not just once but several times!

It was so odd to see those who had been teens in our youth group now grown men with wives and children and even grandchildren. Steve enjoyed spending one on one time with each of them while I visited with the ladies. I overheard one of the men share with Steve that when he first came to the youth group it was because he was forced to. But soon he was coming to youth group because he wanted to and it was a highlight of his week!

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”

‭‭III John‬ ‭1‬:‭4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Amarillo

It took three days of driving west on the I40 to get out of Texas! The drive took us through Amarillo and a stop along a Route 66 road side tourist attraction, Cadillac Ranch. 

Here is the backstory I found on this iconic sight on RoadsideAmerica.com

“Standing along Route 66 west of Amarillo, Texas, Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies imported from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh’s fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt (supposedly at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza). They faced west in a line, from the 1949 Club Sedan to the 1963 Sedan de Ville, their tail fins held high for all to see on the empty Texas panhandle.”

As we crossed into New Mexico we were glad to see the mountains and landscapes of the west! We drove through Petrified Forest and took the Blue Mesa hike down a steep trail into a bowl shaped valley surrounded by hills striped with layers of blue, gray and brown, the ravines littered with Petrified wood. The dramatic cloudy sky added to the other worldly experience.

We are almost home and our Adventures on the Road for the fall of 2023 are coming to an end. We are excited to see our kids and grandkids in Arizona and then we will be heading back home for the Thanksgiving weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving y’all!!

Adventures in the South, 16

 South East Texas 

We spent two nights camped between Galveston and Houston, along the Eastern Gulf coast of Texas to allow for a full day to tour the Space Center in Houston. After getting our trailer disconnected at our campground in the afternoon we headed toward the island of Galveston.

Traveling along the gulf coastline we came upon the Galveston Pleasure Pier, developed in 1940’s, which cast an interesting silhouette into the Gulf of Mexico on our drive along Seawall Blvd. This iconic entertainment zone, was at one time known as the largest of its kind in the country. 

Continuing our sightseeing drive we arrived at the oldest neighborhood in town. Designated a National Historic Landmark, the East End Historic District spans over 50 square city blocks of homes. The District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Its oldest homes date to the mid 1850’s. We were impressed by block upon block of Victorian style homes of two and three stories which were well maintained. 

A few mansions that have survived terrible hurricanes through the years, reflect the fact that in the early 1900’s “The Strand” neighborhood was known as the Wall Street of the Southwest, boasting 26 millionaires living in a five-block span!

The downtown area has a lot of historic buildings as well as some amazing churches.

Space Center Houston

The Space Center is both a working facility and a museum. Having grown up in the Space Race Era, we had a blast exploring the history and artifacts of the Race to the Moon, as well as learning the future plans of space exploration and travel.

Our Astronaut Training Facility tour took us into a huge facility where we climbed 87 steps up to a cat walk with views of the full scale space station modules, docking mechanisms and assorted equipment below. Here the astronauts train in the ISS replica to learn to use, and repair all of the components and systems of the Space Station. We learned that the ISS circles the earth at a rate of 16 times in 24 hours and is the length of a football field!

“The Eagle has landed!”

Later we took a tour to the Apollo Mission Control Center, which was where the Apollo Missions’ support teams communicated with and tracked all aspects of the Lunar Landings, the Shuttle Program and the International Space Station. 

We sat in the VIP gallery behind the control room, which looks as it did when the Apollo 11 moon landing was televised from this very room and listened while we watched that historic moment replayed when we first landed on the moon!

One last tour took us to Rocket Park, where we saw one of three remaining Saturn V rockets. Displays walked us through all of the Apollo Missions as we walked the length of the rocket, suspended horizontally from one end of the building to the other. It was massive!

Before and after tours, we enjoyed various displays about the International Space Station and Mission to Mars.

 

Astronauts were seen floating overhead. 

Steve posed with astronauts.

Lori held the moon up.

We even walked through a replica Space Shuttle piggybacked on the actual Boeing 747 which was used to transport the shuttle between Florida, Texas and New Mexico.

Across the street an astronaut (or is that Steve) was dropping in for some fries at McDonalds!

A few days after we visited the Space Center in Houston we heard the news that Frank Borman had passed away at the age of 95. He was the commander of NASA’s 1968 Apollo 8 spaceflight, 

whose astronauts became the first men to orbit the moon. The iconic image called Earthrise” was taken as earth came into view after their fourth orbit of the moon. Astronaut Gorman, in a Christmas time message from space read lines from Genesis. It was not that long ago when a quotation from the Bible giving glory to God was the norm! What an appropriate response when viewing the wonders of the universe! 

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth….

Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬, ‭16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭19‬:‭1‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

If you don’t remember this image you can see it at the link below!

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/apollo-8-earthrise/

We have some more Adventures on the Road ahead of us as we head north toward Dallas, and then head west toward home, after a visit with our grandkids and their parents.