Texas is obsessed with Dr. Pepper. Just like their flags flying high, they are not ashamed to proclaim their love for this homemade soft drink. In Dublin, TX a Dr Pepper bottling plant still makes the original formula. I’m not from Texas but I do love DP, so we decided to make a pit stop in this small town dedicated to making DP with “real sugar.” We didn’t go on a tour of the bottling plant because we were lazy, but we did try some of there delicious beverage. You can taste the difference between the corn syrup soda and the sugar flavored soda. I’m not really sure which one I like better. I’ll need to further investigate. The locals swear by “Dublin Dr Pepper” though, I saw a guy purchase a hand truck full of it. You can buy it everywhere down here in Texas. I might grab a case before we head west, just for the novelty of it.
After the carbonated pit stop we headed north to Fort Worth. We’ve visited a lot of cities so far and have been on the road for almost 6 weeks running around like crazy people. After a couple of slow days here and there (Diamond mines, day 1 in Lancaster, hotel Zablotny, Football Sunday at Aly’s) we realized we get more out of the trip when we do less. We don’t need to run around and see EVERYTHING a city has to offer. We can just pick a couple of interesting attractions and take our time seeing them. It will make for a more enjoyable experience. In a couple days we will reach the Albuquerque Balloon Festival (we’ve been aiming to hit this one week event since somewhere in Minnesota), and after that we vowed to take it a lot slower. We put this philosophy to use here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. On the agenda in Fort Worth for today was the water gardens. This is the location of the worlds coolest fountain, at least in my opinion. The site is made up of 3 fountains. 2 of these are cool but not a big deal. The Third fountain is where the action is at. It has water cascading 38 feet down terraces and steps into a small pool at the bottom. I wanted to go swimming in this fountain so bad. It gave me a great idea for a water park ride. I’m gonna keep that secret to myself though, you’ll have to wait till I open Saetta’s Water World. Enough talk…
Part 2 was some Texas Style BBQ, at “Cousins” a highly recommended Zagat Rated strip mall joint. The food did not disappoint. This BBQ was different then all the other regional BBQs we had, I never new you could do BBQ so many different ways. The sauce was the main difference here. It was a lot more vinegary and wet then other BBQ sauces. Wasn’t my favorite but it was interesting and tasty non the less. The rub on this BBQ was excellent though, delicious southern sides and to top it off I got a Dublin DP to wash it all down.
What should you do when you visit Texas? Go to a rodeo, stupid.
We went to the Stockyards, A touristy old cowtown market feel with food, western clothing shops, a rodeo colosseum , and a honky tonk. Our first rodeo. Lights low, light show, spotlight bull, Cowgirl on a horse ridding with the America flag, “Proud to be an American” playing. That’s how it got started. Sounds pretty rad right? There was a couple of events on the table, bull riding, kids calf scramble (all the kids in the place chase down a calf with a flag pinned to it tail. Awesome),Tie down roping, women’s barrel racing, and team roping. Bull riding was brutal. We got to sit really close. Sitting next to us was one of the bull farmers/trainers, she was cheering for the bulls of course. The Rodeo was the highlight of the day.
It was time for bed and as usual we take out the IPad, open the Allstays app and find a Walmart. I found a nondescript Walmart in between Dallas and Fort Worth in Arlington. I figured this would be a perfect jump off spot for tomorrow. When we get to the Walmart we find out that it’s directly across the street from the cowboys stadium. Home of last years superbowl. It’s funny how you just can accidentally end up in places. Nice view for the night and a strange place for a walmart.
-Ricky
Next stop: Dallas, TX