Who shot JR?

 

Lovely sleep, chilled out start ... some of our AMTRAK snacks remained so was blueberry muffin and coffee in the Lorenzo hotel room, mixing up the cheap and cheerful with the more expensive eateries.

Walked to car hire place next to the very swanky Adolphus hotel, which we poked our head into before being directed one door down the street.

No car immediately available, so walked back to the slightly less swanky Lorenzo to check out and then uber back to Avis office.  Looking glass half full today so used that walk to take in a bit more of the interesting Dallas buildings and sculptures. Look up!

Car now ready and after a few mins slightly edgy familiarisation - turning it on on - we were out on the roads of Dallas. As soon as I get my bearings I love driving in the US and it feels part of the whole experience and reminds me of some of the fun roadtrips we had with the kids back in the day; plus of course  land of the motor - head out on the freeway. those freeways from those 8os soap and crime drama title openers.

But we were then heading to the best title opener of all - Southfork Ranch, around 40 mins north of central Dallas, and now a tourist attraction in its own right.  If you don't have the fond memories we have then surely the music will bring it all back?

It was easy enough to find with Chrissi directing and we pulled in to the lot in front of visitor centre.  All kinds of memorabilia in the visitor centre from some early photos, scripts,  cardboard cut outs and actior insights .. we were already immersed on a trip down to memory lane.

It was then on a trolley bus to the main ranch building via an oil drilling platform.. in the 80s a millionaire who watched the show bought the ranch thinking there was oil underneath! Needless to say he not a millionaire anymore, his platform a testament to lack of attention to detail.

We had a guide who provided us a lot of info about current owners of the site, suffice to say the most recent one has really taken time to think what the public want, recreating many of the rooms that were just studios out west ... no real filming was ever done in the property apart from just inside some of the doors.

It was the outside vista that is truly iconic, and standing in front of Southfork just felt like a bucket list moment. I don't know why, perhaps its being taken back to childhood ... Dallas all the rage early 80s, lots of classroom chat on the way into school.

The patio scenes for breakfast, stripey awning, the edge of the pool (that was not Olympic size as appears in the series) all struck home. As did the fencing of the fields where all the horses were kept on the ranch, truly evocative, not convinced I remember much of the details of plots, but the sense of place was the familiar.

Obviously the icon J.R runs throughout the place, his ashes are scattered here, we could have been breathing them in, and a tombstone memorial was a good summary of his life view!

Suitably rewarded for our 30 bucks per person entry fee we got in our jeep and hit the freeway off to our own ranch stay out in west texas.  It involved a lot of looping around Dallas and then Fortworth before hitting the country. Only got lost once, and googlemaps put us back on track.

Once off the main freeways we were moving through less populated areas, was around a 2.5 hr drive to our next destination.  Before we arrived we stopped in a small hick town called Grafford and strayed into a  Dollar General Store to buy some provisions. The cashier told us all about his thoughts on government control and lies, I sense a MAGA/Quannon man through and through.

We kept going with just one eye on the rear view mirror before turning off the highway onto the property of the Wildcatter ranch. A rather sanitised introduction to the wilderness, but beyond my hat, I'm not prepared for the wild living on this trip.  They did offer us shooting and hunting experiences, I think we will call this more our downtime.

We had booked a lovely lodge with a bit of western history after the Marlow Brothers, a couple of outlaws from these parts played by John Wayne and Dean Martin in a movie inspired by their story. The whole place is full of cowboy decor and old school furniture but with new school wifi. Also an infinity pool looking out over a Texan valley that made for a pretty cool sunset.

And a steakhouse for me to indulge in a real slab of top sirloin meat, medium rare, washed down with some local ale and a Colorado one Blue Moon I really enjoyed. Steak also feels like quite an 80s thing, the treat of the upwardly mobile. Never been a big fan, but this one was thick, juicy, and they just know what they are doing. Up in the top 3 steaks I have had, probably 3rd place behind South Africa and France in my just established league table that spans around 30 years of minimal steak eating. Knocks off Angus for sure. (more 80s references)  Chrissis vegetarian salad and jacket potato also worked and she had all of the free starter which she loved, a scone like cheese biscuit.

Saw a mammal running out in front of us on the way back to the lodge, and then when sitting out on our rocking chairs looking into the darkness and listening to a bit of Wolf Alice some howling came up from the valley below. Pretty magical moment.  Sweet Dreams .... Owwwwwwww