The Chisholm Trail, TX

A couple of weeks ago I showed you a picture of the outside of the hotel I’m staying in. Thankfully, the inside is much nicer than the outside.

Embassy Suites outside ...

Yesterday I went to “Traders’ Village”, which is just a giant flea-market. It’s getting warm here, but luckily about half of it is under cover, so you’re not in full sun all the time. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular – rather just heading in the opposite direction to the Texas Motor Speedway, which is hosting a NASCAR event this weekend (and many of the participants and patrons are staying at the hotel: both the Jack Daniels team and the Jim Beam team, among others), so that the roads in that vicinity are naturally clogged with race-goers. But I still finished up with a nice leather belt and buckle – the buckle is inlaid steel, which the dealer let me have for $15.

... and inside

You’ve also seen the size of the car the rental company gave me this time – a Ford Explorer that I have to climb up into. Just in case you think this is big, I parked next to a truck outside the hotel yesterday. The best selling truck in America is a Ford F150; one step up from that is the F250; one more step takes you to the F350, pictured here, next to my comparably modest vehicle. One thing my car does have is a built-in compass. Armed only with this, you really don’t need a map. So today, I headed south – literally south. I just kept following roads that went south, to see where I’d finish up.

Ford Explorer

Barn sale

I took country roads wherever I could, because I’m still fascinated by the variety and beauty of the spring wildflowers (don’t worry – no more pictures!). I found a “barn sale” signposted down one of the roads, and found four delightful ladies manning a barn full of antiques and bric-a-brac. I bought two more belt buckles, at least as nice as the one I bought yesterday, for $5 each. So now I have a choice of belt buckles!

I stopped off at the Cotton Patch Café in Cleburne for some Texas-style cooking – meatloaf, mashed potatoes and black-eyed peas, washed down with a tall glass of lemonade. Meatloaf often gets a bad rap, but a good meatloaf is delicious – it’s all in the sauce!

Inevitably, I found myself back on Route 67, the old Chisholm Trail – I think I must have been a cowboy in a former life. I know this leads right back to Dallas. I was overtaken on the way by a biker in a furry crash helmet with large cow horns sticking of it, his long plaited hair streaming back in the wind. I tucked in behind him, hoping he might pull off somewhere so that I could get a photograph, but then Lucy called my mobile phone, and I lost him in traffic. But not before I pulled alongside him when the traffic slowed, and noticed he had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. And moments before we were barreling down the highway at 80mph! Pretty neat trick!

The Chisholm Trail