#texas – Over 50 Aussie female solo traveller USA road trip and beyond

Fort Worth Texas

23 March 2018

What a fun place Fort Worth is!!!

This morning I went to my favourite department store “Macys“. The clothes are so well priced and different to home.

Then I went to the Fort Worth Stockyard for the longhorn cattle drive

I was held hostage by a ferocious gunslinger.

Enjoyed a drink at One of the oldest establishments Lil Red’s Longhorn Saloon

Met Kristen from Seattle in the cowgirls’ room which has the Texan flag shower curtains for doors.

I haven’t had a chance to do this yet

The Cowtown Coliseum Stockyards Championship Rodeo is a must. This is where the real cowboys are.

Stephen and Bo from Georgia have instructions to introduce me to their single uncles. The uncles must be cute with those genes don’t you think. 😁

I ended the day with a live band (Aaron Lewis) at Billy Bob’s. This is the biggest venue I have ever been to with a dance hall, saloon, bull riding, restaurants, pool tables (lots). Enjoyed dinner and a drink with these local ladies Pam, Paula, Kathy and Leticia.

Fort Worth is a fascinating city with parks, skyscrapers, bridges, lots of cars, pretty suburban areas, country music playing everywhere, friendly people, historical and haunted areas but most noticeable are the cowboys and their big trucks. Yep. I will return one day and stay at least a week but probably longer. Thank you for some great memories Fort Worth.

Geronimo’s Grave

22 March 2018

I left Oklahoma City at 10:00am wanting to get to Fort Worth for some dancing.

I took a 1.5 hour detour which ended up being a 2.5 hour detour so that I could go to Geronimo‘s Grave inFort Sill.

To enter Fort Sill you need a visitors pass and go through a process similar to border control but processed by the Army.

The pass is free and it is issued for a specific period. I only needed the one day.

Fort Sill is an Army training facility with everything for a town including hotel and supermarket and lovely housing for the personnel based there.

I had no idea Fort Sill would be a large town, thinking it would be a small fort area like the western movies. That was very ignorant of me. If I had known I would have spent a whole day in Fort Sill which has lots of museums covering all the wars including the Mexican revolution, civil war and WWI.

Geronimo’s Grave is in a section of the Army Base which includes graves for Apache prisoners of war.

When I pulled up at the cemetery I was drawn to the most beautifully haunting Indian singing. It was so moving. I went up to the Indian who was singing and told him it was so beautiful I felt his emotion. He told me his family just buried their grandfather and that they were descendants of Geronimo and that was the reason the grandfather could be buried on this site.

I arrived in Fort Worth at 7:00pm exhausted and decided no dancing tonight. Rest up for a good day tomorrow with minimal driving.

Amarillo Texas

20 March 2018

It is no warmer here and I have learned that Amarillo is “the windy city” not Chicago. It is -2c (29F). When will I find some warm weather!!

In the meantime I am wearing lots of layers and hopefully my discoveries will distract me from the cold.

I started today with a drive to Palo Duro Canyon.

35 minutes from Amarillo is the most spectacular terrain! This is what you see when driving through Texas for hour after hour mile after mile. Flat nothing.

Then out of nowhere the road falls away to this.

Cadillac Ranch also known as Carhenge.

I encouraged an 11 year old to graffiti my name. Luckily it is legal in this area.

2nd Amendment Cowboy

Legs sculpture

Helium time columns monument

I wish I could have stayed for the weekend to dance with some cowboys .

Although this lovely gentleman, Wayne, spontaneously danced with me in a restaurant which was fun.

New Mexico/Texas

19 March 2018

I had a lovely breakfast with my airbnb host, Sheri, and her guests from Scotland and England who are a Scottish folk duo Alan Reid and Rob van Sante and they tour the world including Australia. They wished me well on my “Odyssey” which sounds much more exotic than ” road trip”. I think I will use that.

I left Albuquerque behind with -2 C (32F) and looking forward to some warmer weather in Amarillo.

On the way I found this lovely spot on Route 66 at Santa Rosa New Mexico “Blue Hole”