Y'all come back!

So Susan and I took a short break from the Florida fun for a long weekend in sunny Texas. We were treated to an authentic taste of this larger than life state by a lovely local named Emily, who had lived with Susan and my host family in Morocco in the weeks before I arrived. The stay would not have been the same without her! To start with - Emily took us straight from the airport to one of her favourite spots that, during happy hour, provides free tacos with your very reasonably priced margaritas. (Ahh - am I ever leaving??) Then just when I thought this day couldn’t get any better we were off to Billy Bobs - which claims to be the worlds largest Honky Tonk. What is a Honky Tonk might you ask?? Good question. My answer? - a massive room full of fun! We made it just in time for the free weekly line dancing lesson. Couples and singles, young and old, experienced and .. well us, clamoured for a space on the dance floor to take direction on how to side step, grapevine and spin in unison. It was surprisingly easy and way too much fun! During the break we checked out the mechanical bull, pool tables, tried the famous TX Whisky (not bad!) and then took our newfound confidence back to the dance floor to try out a couple of dances we didn’t know. (I don’t want to sound arrogant but I think we were pretty darn good.. could this be my new calling..?).

The next day Susan and I left Emily temporarily to spend a night in Austin. I was really excited to go as I’d heard great things. I liked it, but I think my expectations may have been a little too high. I will say there was more than one place to get real coffee (the Aussie kind..) so that in itself made the trip worth it! We saw some cute bars, including some with the live music that Austin is so famous for, checked out the neighbourhood and got see an amateur porn show in our hostel that I’m still trying to erase from my memory!

Then it was back to Fort Worth for the the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. It was certainly an experience! To be honest I’m going to avoid writing about the actual rodeo events as I was a little conflicted about the treatment of the animals involved. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t see any cruelty practiced, and I believe that the event is born of a lifestyle in which these skills are a necessity - however I don’t know enough about it to make any real judgement so for now I’m just going to focus on the culture that surrounds the tradition.

So… cowboy boots hats and flannel shirts were an absolute given - and they are a fashion category all of their own! The girls looked cute and the gents looked very dapper ( enough to believe I could probably date a cowboy..). The atmosphere was fun and family oriented. I had my first experience with a ‘funnel cake’ which I learnt is essentially the batter they use to make doughnuts piped into a swirly mess straight into boiling oil. Once deep fried it’s fished out and covered in icing sugar. I kind of didn’t like it but weirdly kept going back for one more try. A similar experience was had with a deep fried Oreo…

During the rodeo the announcer, who was every bit the character you would expect, effortlessly switched between commenting on the events, acknowledging sponsors and making people do funny things on camera. Just like many American sporting events, just by being an audience member you automatically held the potential to achieve your 5 seconds of fame on the big screen by dancing, or kissing for the ever roaming video cameras. As you would expect, the camera panned to many a cute kid or embarrassed teen, however my favourite was the moment it rested on an older couple who, after a little encouragement graced the audience with a big smoochy romantic kiss. However, what was a little more unexpected was when the camera panned out a little and into focus came the wife’s IDENTICAL TWIN - who then received the same big smoochy romantic kiss that her sister did. To this day I don’t know if he was actually married to both of them - but I felt like all my Texan aspirations were achieved in that one moment!!!! That and seeing people’s horses tethered to trees around Fort Worth while the cowboys popped into the bar for a drink..

Okay - so enough of the stereotypes. While the above is actually all true, Fort Worth was actually a really awesome place to visit. I ate some of the best sushi I have had on my whole trip while I was there. We visited an awesome bar where the cocktails are named after literary figures and a password is required to get to the downstairs section. And we spent and evening listening to some fantastic jazz - on a Sunday night no less! I didn’t get to see as much as I would have liked but Texas certainly exceeded expectations. All in all our visit was short but as sweet as the sauce accompanying my Texas BBQ…

Extra - here is a pic of a very special moment I captured in the bus station on the way back from Austin.