Dallas

Val said she felt well enough to ride to Dallas, so we headed out about 9:30 on a chilly 43 degree morning.  Thank goodness it warmed up to around 60 within the first 30 miles as the sun rose in a cloudless sky.  The trip there was uneventful until we got around Dallas where 5 lanes of highway made the last 15 miles a little tense.  I don't trust other drivers and in fact, one older guy in his minivan tried to take us out.  But we arrived safely and headed downtown to Fountain Place.  This 60 story skyscraper is known for its 172 fountains around the base.  You might remember that a young man from Jordon was arrested by the FBI last year for plotting to bomb the building.  What a shame, and I have no idea why he would pick Fountain Place.  Anyway, it was worth a stop just to see the fountains, waterfalls and dancing water.

As buildings go, this one is not the usual middle finger to the sky.  It's great from all angles.

After a little Texas barbecue, we headed to our main reason for visiting Dallas, the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.  It is 66 acres of beauty on White Rock Lake with a view of the Dallas skyline.  There were water walls, landscaped lawns, sculptures and bamboo forests for just a start.  The plantings change with the seasons, but there were over 150,000 plants blooming in fall colors.  And we were there for their Great Pumpkin Festival where they brought in over 40,000 pumpkins and gourds.  They even made four houses out of pumpkins modeled after children's stories like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

We decided to get out of Dallas a little after 3 pm to miss the traffic.  Well, for those in the know, that was just a tad late on a Friday afternoon.  Instead of a lazy 90 minute trip home, we were in stop and go highway traffic for all but the last 45 minutes of a 2 1/2 hour ride.  Thank goodness the rest of the day had been relaxing because that was not.  But we made it home in one piece, and after some wine, we were doing well.

I haven't been able to load a video yet, but here are two shots of the clouds from the other day.

Tuesday is moving day as we head to Texas hill country outside of San Antonio.  The bike riding is supposed to be some of the best in Texas.  All for now.