Who shot JFK?

 

Our first day in Texas was in Dallas and it was all about JFK.  We started our day at the 6th Floor Museum, which is the museum about the JFK assasination.  It was named 6th floor because Lee Harvey Oswald was at a window on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository when he shot President Kennedy.  Or did he??  Or did he shoot along with another shooter??  Maybe one who was on the grassy knoll??  You will have to go to the museum yourself to figure out your theory!

The grassy knoll is behind those steps

Views from the sixth floor

The far right window on the sixth floor is where they found Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle

After the museum, we took a JFK trolley tour.  It began at Dealey Plaza near the museum.  We drove the route that JFK took on his drive through Dallas; and then the route that Oswald took after he left the book depository, where he also worked.  One part of his route was where he shot a police officer, Officer Tippet.  There is a sign on the telephone pole with his name in memorial.  There is also a house right behind it.  I would hate to live there, but there was a woman working in her yard while we sat in the trolley and looked out at the street.  She did  a good job ignoring us!  

A view of Reunion Tower from Dealey Plaza

The Old Red Courthouse near Dealey Plaza

The boarding house where Oswald lived.  His room was where the second AC window unit is located. 

Texas Longhorns 

After our tour, we went to Moak's Family BBQ in the Historic West End.  We all got brisket and it was delicious!

I tried to find boots at a boot shop, Wild Bill's Western Store, in the district, but they didn't have the ones I wanted in my size.  The lady working there was very helpful though and I wished I could have bought boots from her.  

We took a quick walk to Pioneer Plaza to see the longhorn sculptures.  The sculpture represents the Shawnee Trail from TX to OK where they used to have longhorn cattle drives.

After checking into our hotel for the next four nights, we headed to Fort Worth for dinner.  We went to a restaurant named The Social House.  It was in a nice looking, but not busy section of Fort Worth.  Dinner was good, but the waitress told us that the action was in the stockyard area.

We went into a leather store called Tandy and Dave bought some leather to use in his truck

We then headed to where the action was, the Stockyards.  She was right!  Lots of people were there with many stores and restaurants.  There was also a rodeo happening that night.  We didn't go because it had already started and I was wearing white pants!  

We stopped at Braum's for ice cream 

It was fun walking around Fort Worth and seeing all the cowboy stuff.  No boots yet, but I was looking for them.  It was definitely a place we wanted to go back to during our visit.  

  

 

   

Don't mess with Texas! State 30

 

State 30 on my running adventure seemed like it meant a big goal achieved, so we went big with the state of Texas!  Our trip there went through many different plans, but in the end, we were headed to Texas for Memorial Day weekend 2026.  I first signed up for a half that involved two laps, but they canceled on us.  So we signed up for the only other option, a race with 4 laps!  It was called the Texas Triple and benefitted the Multiple Sclerosis Society.  The triple aspect was you had the option to run a half or full for three days in a row.  We picked the middle day only!  May 24 was our race day.  The course was actually nice with the laps going around a lake and only a couple tiny hills.  Well, a couple times four!  My goal was to not be lapped by Camden before I finished one loop, and I made it 5.5 miles, about halfway through the second loop.  I did good for myself the first two laps, but slowed down the last two.  It was starting to get hot by that point.  The race actually started at 6:00 am to help with the heat.  I also gave the Jeff Galloway method a shot, or at least my version of it since I have not read his book or looked at his plans.  It either doesn't work for me or I didn't do it right (that is probably the reason), because my time was slower by almost 15 minutes.  But in the end, I wasn't too concerned as I finished and got my belt buckle medal.  And since this race had a marathon option and a very generous time cut off, I did not finish last!  

Camden, on the other hand, had a great race!  He finished first of all the half marathoners!  He started out fast and kept it up!  His time was 1:36:52; 7:23/mile.

The race was at Bachman Lake, which is right beside Dallas Love Field airport (where JFK flew into for his trip to Texas) and there were planes overhead quite often.  

Bachman Lake

Early morning views.  It was not fully light when we started

Camden passing me!

      Overall, running four laps is not my idea of a great half, but this course and the people who ran the race made it a good experience!  And the medal was nice too!

Another SC adventure

 

We were able to all be together over Mother's Day Weekend and participate in a SC adventure #8.  The card was for a smash room in Taylors, but since there is one in Charleston, we made our own rule and went to iSmash on James Island.  We could choose splatter paint or smashing items, and we decided to smash.  

After getting us set up in protective gear, they sent us into a room with a music speaker, bats and lots of glass and electronics for smashing.  Camden got some smashing appropriate music set up and we started hitting items!

 It was a fun evening, even though it was loud and we were all a little nervous about being hit by flying glass!  We also threw plates against the wall!  Kind of like a Greek wedding!  We got more creative with the glass items and started stacking them on top of each other and trying to hit only the top one.  We made a huge mess!

When I first got there, I thought that this would have been a good place to take the boys for their birthday parties, but as I was hiding from flying glass, I was glad I never was responsible for a bunch of boys running around with baseball bats!  

Broken glass and smashed electronics was not what I would usually plan for an activity, but time with my boys is priceless!

  

SC adventures 4 and 5 and kind of 6 and 7

 

On March 7, Dave and I took a road trip to Florence to see their Little Theater's production of A Few Good Men.  Dave and I love going to the theater, to this was not a big chore.  We did, however, never think we would be going to a play in Florence.  This town, sorry to those who live there, was not on our bucket list, but I am so glad we went!

We started at the Pee Dee Farmer's Market.  This weekend wasn't the best weekend for a farmer's market, but we still were able to see some cool stores/stalls and even buy some wax melts.  Lunch was really yummy at an Hawaiian restaurant named Aloha Kitchen.  If you are in the area later in the year, I bet this farmer's market will have lots of great produce and flowers and other things to buy.

Our next stop was downtown where we would spend the rest of our time.  We had heard that their downtown had been revitalized.  It kind of seemed like it had been, but then lost some businesses.  There were lots of lawyer offices, but there were really only four stores in the area where we walked.  Ice cream, chocolate, books and a general store.  All the stores were great and we bought things at 3 of them.  We bought beautiful and yummy bon bons at ChocoBella; good ice cream at a very busy Smiling Scoops ice cream shop; and a book at an awesome book store called Jack's Books.  As previously stated, all of these stores were great!  But everything else we saw were restaurants and bars.     

There were posters advertising the play throughout town.  This was a cool shot as my face ended up in the head of the Marine!

One other place we were able to go to was the Florence County Museum.  Like a lot of the town, there were things not available to see.  This was due to renovations.  But the history of the Pee Dee area was interesting.  And the special exhibit, pictures of Civil Rights by photojournalist Cecil Williams, was moving and well presented.

Our choices for dinner were either Mexican, Mexican Sushi Fusion, or steak houses.  We picked Victor's Chophouse and were not disappointed!  We had a great dinner on the way to the play.

The play was a great production.  We tend to go to the Dock Street theater in downtown Charleston mainly and the bar is set high for theater productions.  This one may have been slightly not as well done as Dock Street, but we were not focused on that as we really liked the play and almost all the actors did an excellent job.  I would go back to that theater again if given the chance.  Now we need to watch the movie as we have never seen it!

   

In looking through our adventure cards, I realized that we did the John's Island card on December 31 without realizing it was a card.  This was our day adventure to Angel Oak and lunch at Freshfields.

And then in looking for future card choices, I realized that we have also done the two Murrell's Inlet cards by going to Brookgreen Gardens and Atalaya Castle a few years back when we camped at Huntington Beach State Park.

So as I figured, some of the cards we have already done because we like to visit places.  But also, the cards are doing what they are meant to do by sending us to places where we might not go otherwise.