Texas-Part 2

Fossil Rim Wildlife Center is in Glen Rose, Texas, about 90 miles southwest of Fort Worth. This center is a conservation facility for endangered and exotic animals and covers about 1800 acres. There are about 52 species of animals, including antelope, deer, zebra, giraffes, ostriches, cheetahs, rhinoceroses, and wildebeest. Carol and I drove the 9 mile self-guided auto tour. The great part is that most of the animals roam free and the center allows you to feed them, so they approach the cars when stopped. It was funny to watch ostriches through the rear view mirror running towards the truck. Most of the animals actually put their heads in the windows looking for food. What a lot of fun!!!!!!!

While Carol and I were having fun in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Art and Matt were having fun in Minnesota. Matt drove and Art flew to the Twin Cities for the Halloween evening football game between the MSU Spartans and the Golden Gophers of Minnesota. To Art and Matt's horror, the Gophers managed to score two touchdowns in the first two minutes of the game! In a high scoring-no defense game, the Spartans managed to regain the lead in the 4th quarter only to fall behind again and lose the game. Despite the loss, it was a great opportunity for Art and Matt to bond and enjoy a great father-son experience!

Before leaving the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Art, Carol, and I visited two more places. One was the Gaylord Texan, a huge hotel-convention center in Grapevine, Texas. The complex has a recreation of the Alamo and the San Antonio River Walk inside the building. We had lunch at the Texan Station which is a sports bar with a 54 foot HD TV. Art thought it was pretty neat, but fortunately, one of those won't fit in the RV! The second place we visited was the "6th Floor Museum" in the Texas Book Depository, where President Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. The exhibits were extremely well done. We were also able to see Dealey Plaza and the "grassy knoll". Originally the depository was going to be torn down due to the negative impact of the incident, but it was saved because of the historical importance.