WEDNESDAY 18-6-08

This morning we left AbileneKOA Campground, never having actually seen Abilene itself. We made our way towards Fort Worth, not being too sure where we were going to finish up. Enroute we decided to make contact with a guy, Tony Lester, who had been recommended to us for arranging the shipment of the RV after our second tour of the USA. His office was between Fort Worth and Dallas and we felt we should sort this issue out before moving on to touristy things. He was very helpful, gave us a lot of helpful advice, and a quote which came out at about what I expected to pay. The vehicle will be shipped out of Georgia and land in Southampton when the time comes.

After meeting Tony we made our way to the Stockyards area of Fort Worth which is where cattle were unloaded years ago and slaughtered for the growing meat markets at one of two abattoirs on the edge of town. The whole setup was quite impressive but ceased to be used many years ago. Nowadays it’s a tourist trap with steam train rides in to the station from Grapevine, Thursdays to Sundays, shops within the station complex www.stockyardsstation.com , the first ever indoor rodeo www.cowtowncolisseum.com and Billy Bob’s, the world’s largest honky-tonk www.billybobtexas.com .

On arrival at the Stockyards, Rosina popped in to the Tourist Information Center to find out where the nearest campground was and also where we could park the RV. She returned with the news that there was no designated RV parking in town, and no campground though she was given details of one 4 miles away. It was suggested that we approach Billy Bob’s to see if they would let us park there, so off we went, The Chef popped in and came back with a result. She was under the impression they’d ever been asked the question before but they agreed to allow us to park on their huge near-empty car park opposite their establishment (though I bet it’s full on Friday & Saturday nights) for the rest of the day and tonight. So we parked up away from the buildings and under a street lamp for security, then fired up the generator and air conditioning to help us cool down as the temperature was again hovering around 100F. After our evening meal we cleaned up and popped over to Billy Bob’s for a drink. It really is quite an impressive place and world famous (even outside of Fort Worth). We bought a drink and sat and watched the live Country & Western band.

By 21:00 sharp cutlery had been removed from around me, by 21:30 social workers were by my side and by 22:00 I was on suicide watch. The only break for the Social Workers was when I brightened up after the band played a bit of pre-recorded honk-tonk, so they could get a drink at the bar.

During the band’s break I couldn’t resist a wind-up. I went to get another drink at the bar where the lead singer was standing. I told him we were from England and this was all new to us, and that I had watched the film ‘The Blues Brothers’ and could he tell me at what time during the performance did we get to throw bottles at the band. He laughed and said “But there’s no cage”, I said ‘I know – that’s what makes it more exciting”. I’m sure he realised it was a wind-up but I bet he kept an eye on me and the empty bottles out of the corner of his eye until we left – just in case.

On our short walk back to the RV we got chatting to a cabbie stood by his vehicle, who seemed keen to talk due to boredom. Again it was politics, and he raised it not me, but they really are an unhappy bunch with their current president.

On our return the air conditioning went on again to try and get the temperature down to a comfortable level before turning in. Tomorrow we will have the luxury of an early start around the Stockyards complex without the hassle of travelling to it like most tourists.