Time spent on a grassy knoll

 

zooming in on the knoll and depositry from reunion tower

A dawn departure was necessary today as we has couple of things to do before returning Jessie the Jeep (as named by one of the kids back home as was tradition on previous road trips) to the Avis office in downtown Dallas.

Plenty of obstacles (in my head) meant we needed to get back to Dallas swiftly ( a No Kings protest and State Fair) but of course it has been a whole 2 weeks without parkrun for Chrissi so she was in danger of going into cold turkey!  Nice to tick them off abroad even if I wasn't feeling it myself, running not my friend at the moment, but maybe parkrun the way back in?

The dark freeways and having to adjust route for roadworks mean Andrea made the right decision not to join us especially as we had to cut and run after. Bear Creek Greenbelt parkrun sounds very wild west but is in fact on a clean concrete path through manicured lawns and play areas out in a well ish to do suburb of Keller .  This would be our first encounter with texan grass of the day but nothing too sinister about this patch.

The locals seemed to like us, the humidity was high, the run was meh but at least haven't fallen off a cliff yet. Chatting to a couple of the regulars after was cool whilst waiting for Chrissi to join me.  The run seems to very much have that original parkrun feel with new runners and community, albeit there do seem to be a higher number of keen, fast youngsters than you might get at home.

The journey back to Dallas was without incident, even managed to do a loop round the city to fuel in a Mobil, one of the big oil companies that were based out here, think one of the early skyscrapers is affiliated to them! Plus 27 dollars fuel for the whole trip, madness!  Left the car where we had found it .. handed the keys over to a chap in the lot who made a couple of quick check, ordered an uber to next hotel.  It was only when getting to the hotel I did have a brief thought I'd handed keys to a complete stranger!

On the plus side our latest hotel the Hyatt Regency allowed us to check into our room 6 hours early - what a result! Able to take a shower, eat some peanut butter sarnies and fruit, watch English premier league and still be back out to explore the city all before 12!

Our current hotel is next to the station we arrived into Dallas on all those days ago, but also adjacent to all the JFK stuff which we haven't seen yet and it feels like a whole different experience, perhaps even city!  Before fully immersing in that (although we did pass by JFK memorial plaza) we took a short walk to the old part of town with our car docs to just check it wasn't a complete stranger we had sold out too ... and that was all fine .. so was fine to then get back to the tourist stuff.

Whilst its someone elses battle - we have enough issues of our own with the rising tide of rather simplistic popularism -- there was a No Kings demo in Dallas, so we thought we'd take a look - certainly not getting involved in anyone elses politics whilst here and have been very careful to keep my opinions to myself on this trip, but it didn't hurt to take a tourist stroll past the demo, as gazed at other sights.

Over 2500 across the country today. Dallas not the largest for sure but the passion and pride in the country and the expression of free speech great to see even if it appears both in the US and the UK free speech is only OK if it agrees with your world view; it was all just peace and love in what I saw, contrary to what was being reported as the basis for the event. I note the president has sent a meme out today shitting all over those who protested which is an interesting response, but that's his free speech I guess.  Country is clearly divided and a bit like out own, polarised views and football style approach to politics, where unification or compromise no longer feels an option.

We took a stroll through downtown Dallas moving away from the protest which seemed peaceful enough but a few masked men approaching as we left did show that there will always be a few looking for a bit of a ruck at any of these kinds of things.  I think the weather in Dallas decided to play its part as the heavens opened shortly after that and we looked go a bar / cafe for some shelter whilst the very brief storm passed.

When it did we then continued back to the site of the JFK assassination, many tributes and memorials to him around Deely Plaza and to other civic figures and workers.

Tried to get a sense of where that famous cavalcade drove on that fateful day in the 60s spending time outside of the book depositry and on the grassy knoll. Thats a knolll as opposed to a gnoll? (aslo a mythical creature in dungeons and dragons)

Lots of markers as to where people were standing that day and we pictured the scene although as it turned out I had it completely wrong which was remedied with a fascinating visit to the 6th floor book depositry now the Kennedy Museum.  22 bucks per head well spent.

The first part of the exhibition gave as sense of the popular and political climate in early 60s USA ... TV, bands etc And the global geo politics especially the fear of communism, and proxy wars across the globe between US and USSR ... bottom line was Kennedy did have a lot of enemies home and abroad - as does any high profile politician?

As we moved to the front of the building the recreation of the boxed by the window where Lee Harvey Oswald weapon was found and the view he would have, as well as videos of the cavalcade made the whole experience very first hand .. a birds eye view of the scene 60 + years ago.

Lots of fascinating insight into the events after the assassination and the build up of evidence against Oswald, the trajectory of the bullet, the theories of second shooters, more grassy knolls, and then the political  aftermath and the liberal 60s US that emerged post Kennedy with Lyndon Johnson finishing all his work.

A lightening and thunder storm drove us back to the hotel and we did feel a pretty full day had already been an experience one way or another. Having fallen back into a bit of insomnia for a couple of nights was pretty tired so a full on evening at the local fair felt a bit much, so we chose instead to go for views and local.

Our hotel is next to the Reunion Tower the viewing platform for the city, we get a discount as guests, so we went up there for sunset and to take in the city in all its glory. the intertwining freeways really caught the eye, twin bridges heading west, the Kennedy scene now we understood it, and then the skyscrapers lighting up and the horizon colours at and post sunset all pretty absorbing.

Our final stop of the day was still in the hotel where we took dinner in its restaurant. It was a trade off against tiredness so the food very average, a burger for me, a vegi etouffee for Chrissi, relatively bland, but a nice drink to accompany, another one of those Blue Moons for me, margarita for Chrissi.

Pretty enlightening day, pretty long day ...