Road trip 2011 - part 1

Nov. 7th, 2011, we began a 30-day road trip west to visit my side of the family and to tour some sights. John has been working in the prison for 4 years, and We Care Program allowed him an 8-week sabbatical. We are grateful for this opportunity for him to rest and to be rejuvenated. We are continually thankful for all of you who support us through prayers, words of encouragement, sharing of your lives and financial support.

Be warned – we took a LOT of pictures. Day 1 (11/7) – driving to Dallas. Day 2 (11/8) – touring Dallas and Fort Worth.

We rented a car because we didn’t feel confident in either of our vehicles. The cost savings of better gas mileage offset the cost of the rental, so we felt that it was worth it. Our first stop was Dallas/Fort Worth, TX area where we stayed 2 nights. Driving the first day, we went through Jackson, MS, so we took a short walk at the capitol. We spent some time praying for the personhood amendment that was on the MS ballot, as the next day was election day. We drove about 11 hours and stayed in the Intercontinental Hotel north of Dallas using our accumulated hotel points. Most of our hotel stays were using redeemed hotel points, so we were able to stay for free a lot of places.

The next morning, we drove into downtown Dallas to see some of the sights. This is a new bridge under construction. We enjoyed the large sculptures of long-horn cattle in the midst of a cattle drive through Dallas.

 

This is the area where John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Notable sign on the Dallas Morning News building – I wonder how many that work in the building read and adhere to this sign. The other picture is of a tall, observation tower that you can pay to go up in. We just enjoyed it from the sidewalk.

Fun opportunity for a family picture – using the reflection of the glass :)

Visitor’s museum in Dallas. The picture on the right is the Convention Center in Los Calinas. It has a very unique architecture and use of materials. We parked there and walked to see the mustang sculptures.

It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed hanging out with the mustangs. Savannah loves horses, so she sat and sketched the outlines of all of the horses.

 

On to the Stockyards in Fort Worth. It was later in the day, so there weren’t a lot of people around. We enjoyed meandering through the shops and talking to the shop owners.

We decided that a fun, inexpensive souvenir would be crushed pennies from different places. The kids had fun looking for the machines, and also crushing them  at each place they found them along our journey.