Qantas flight QF21 MEL-DFW was boarded (and subsequently departed) on time for the 14-hour, 45 minute flight to the USA. After about 30 minutes we crossed the eastern coastline of Australia and had nothing but the sky above and the sea below to observe though the window. A meal was served after pre-dinner drinks; it was difficult to know whether the meal was designated as lunch or dinner. The cabin lights dimmed after the meal was cleared and the flicker of seat back entertainment units was all that lit the cabin.
We all drifted in and out of sleep, interspersed with periods of movie watching, walks to the bathroom and the occasional snack. About 2.5 hours prior to arrival in DFW another meal was served. There was no mistaking this was designed to be breakfast – cereals, juice, eggs, bacon, tea and coffee were the give-aways. Breakfast was cleared away while passengers prepared themselves for their pending arrival in the USA.
Our flight arrived roughly 20 minutes ahead of schedule, landing at 1:20pm on Wednesday 1st November – about 50 minutes before we departed Melbourne at 2:10pm on Wednesday 1st November! The Dallas-Fort Worth airport is one of our preferred entry points into the USA, being well organised, quiet and well designed. We were quickly through the obligatory immigration checks, with Chris having to provide his finger prints as he was travelling on a new passport. Luggage was already arriving on the carousel when we joined the other travellers who were gathering to wait for their prized possessions – our luggage appeared all at once and we were quickly ushered through the ‘nothing to declare’ aisle before officially entering the USA.
A courtesy bus that would take us to the rental car administration centre was parked a short distance from the exit to the arrivals hall. All the car rental companies operated out the same building, with Avis front and centre. The directions to our rental car were followed and we were soon loading our luggage into the back of a Ford Edge SUV. Chris snapped photos of all sides of the vehicle, then settled in to work out where all the controls were. The Android Auto system was connected to Chris’s mobile phone and our destination keyed into the GPS system before setting off, leaving the airport behind.
While walking in the UK earlier in the year, a fellow walker had mentioned the Old Stockyard District in Fort Worth as a place worth visiting. There was no mistaking we were arriving at the right destination when a sprawling stockyard came into sight. We circled back and found a car park close to a wooden footbridge that crossed over the yards (that were all empty except for a few head of stock and a handful of people on horseback). As we walked closer we noticed we were approaching longhorn cattle, the type that this area (and Texas more generally) is known for around the world.
There is a regular droving of longhorn cattle down the Main Street of the Old Stockyard District – a tourist attraction that brings people from far and wide to get up close to these extraordinary beasts. Every day at 11:00am and 4:00pm, drovers move the cattle at a slow pace out from the stockyards and down through the paved Main Street, before returning them to the stockyards. The drovers overseeing the movement of cattle were “of mature years” – very mature years in many cases, but our reading confirmed that longhorn cattle, while looking very threatening, are actually quite docile. We speculated on what, if any, other way such cattle could be transported around the country, given the reach of their massive horns. Some would struggle to get through standard farm gates, let alone being loaded onto the back of a truck.
With the droving of the longhorns over, we set off to find our B&B for the night. The address was plugged into the GPS and off we set. ‘Road Closed’ and ‘Detour’ signs had us approaching our accommodation from the opposite direction to that initially mapped out by the GPS. We parked our rental car in the drive and attempted to access the keys from the combination key locker box beside the front door. Numerous attempts later, Wendy contacted the owner (who lived opposite) to seek assistance, only to find we were booked into the house next door! Problem solved, and we were soon inside as the final rays of the sun slipped below the horizon.
H3 Ranch was initially on the list of places to investigate for dinner, and when our B&B host Luis also recommended it our minds were made up. It has a live hickory wood grill (a wood fired grill with hickory as the fuel of preference) to cook all manner of meat cuts and the occasional vegetable. Grilled catfish was a house speciality – unfortunately out of stock when Wendy tried to place an order. Hickory-grilled steaks were subsequently ordered before we settled into some serious people watching. Stetson hats were commonplace among the patrons, as were western-style boots. The hats were so large that they stayed atop heads throughout the meal and remained so as the wearers made their way back to their vehicles. Our steaks were very tasty and very filling. We returned to our B&B (the correct one this time), fell into bed (one that we could stretch out on), and fell asleep quickly after our travels from Melbourne.
Distance travelled: 14,428 kms