OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
So, this was my 2nd trip to the US. The first was to North Carolina (Chapel Hill), which I was absolutely in love with. What a beautiful place.
This time around it is Dallas. I was there for a week and will be back several times in the next year due to a project I am involved in.
Flying in I was excited. I had intended on finding a local gun range and renting a .50BMG to do some target shooting with. This never materialized as I didn't find a range that rented one.
It was dry. Really dry. It rained. And then it got dry again, LOL! But I like the heat (it was 8 degrees C when we left, it was 34C in Dallas) so I enjoyed that. And dry heat is much nicer than humid heat. But the dryness and general absence of rain was quite evident in the condition of the grass and vegetation, all of which was quite brown/burnt.
The roads were awful. That surprised me. I expected a place with no frost to have roads in much better condition. Also, there was an extremely evident and stark contrast between prosperity and poverty, much more than I am used to seeing. You'd have a beautiful place like Parkland Hospital neighboured by a few businesses then a pile of condemned buildings that used to house businesses, then ghetto, then some very nice houses and this was a common theme. There didn't seem to be any middle ground, just nice and then awful.
Our 2nd day there, somebody tried to steal the wheels off our Tahoe during the night. They got all the hub caps off and 5 of the 6 lug nuts off the right front wheel before the security guard at the hotel caught them and they peeled out leaving the lugs and the caps on the ground.
The food was good. We found a number of Texas barbecue places that served some very nice meals. But it wasn't as diverse and plentiful in selection as the areas around Chapel Hill in NC, where you were literally surrounded by wonderful little restaurants serving all manner of food.
It will be interesting to do some further exploring the next time I'm down. I really want to visit a range there and do some shooting. I didn't see any guns while I was there, at least in the area I was in, which was surprising, I honestly expected to see a lot of them (yes, typical Canadian stereotyping happening here).
The people seemed to be extremely friendly and hard workers. The drivers weren't anywhere near as bad as some of the other states I drove through when I went to NC. Also, I found the absence of rust and the condition of some extremely old vehicles that were still on the road fascinating. There was an early 70's Ford tow truck that was scooting around with some very faded paint but rust free. You'll never see anything like that up in Canada.
All-in-all, I had a great time and am looking forward to going there again.
And of course some pictures:
Dallas from the air:
An accident we saw during lunch:
One viewpoint:
Another:
Parkland Hospital:
This time around it is Dallas. I was there for a week and will be back several times in the next year due to a project I am involved in.
Flying in I was excited. I had intended on finding a local gun range and renting a .50BMG to do some target shooting with. This never materialized as I didn't find a range that rented one.
It was dry. Really dry. It rained. And then it got dry again, LOL! But I like the heat (it was 8 degrees C when we left, it was 34C in Dallas) so I enjoyed that. And dry heat is much nicer than humid heat. But the dryness and general absence of rain was quite evident in the condition of the grass and vegetation, all of which was quite brown/burnt.
The roads were awful. That surprised me. I expected a place with no frost to have roads in much better condition. Also, there was an extremely evident and stark contrast between prosperity and poverty, much more than I am used to seeing. You'd have a beautiful place like Parkland Hospital neighboured by a few businesses then a pile of condemned buildings that used to house businesses, then ghetto, then some very nice houses and this was a common theme. There didn't seem to be any middle ground, just nice and then awful.
Our 2nd day there, somebody tried to steal the wheels off our Tahoe during the night. They got all the hub caps off and 5 of the 6 lug nuts off the right front wheel before the security guard at the hotel caught them and they peeled out leaving the lugs and the caps on the ground.
The food was good. We found a number of Texas barbecue places that served some very nice meals. But it wasn't as diverse and plentiful in selection as the areas around Chapel Hill in NC, where you were literally surrounded by wonderful little restaurants serving all manner of food.
It will be interesting to do some further exploring the next time I'm down. I really want to visit a range there and do some shooting. I didn't see any guns while I was there, at least in the area I was in, which was surprising, I honestly expected to see a lot of them (yes, typical Canadian stereotyping happening here).
The people seemed to be extremely friendly and hard workers. The drivers weren't anywhere near as bad as some of the other states I drove through when I went to NC. Also, I found the absence of rust and the condition of some extremely old vehicles that were still on the road fascinating. There was an early 70's Ford tow truck that was scooting around with some very faded paint but rust free. You'll never see anything like that up in Canada.
All-in-all, I had a great time and am looking forward to going there again.
And of course some pictures:
Dallas from the air:
An accident we saw during lunch:
One viewpoint:
Another:
Parkland Hospital: