Southern Road Trip: Dallas, Texas

Originally we had planned to do the road trip right from Virginia to LA, but we soon saw the cost of a rental car to be returned all the way back and decided instead for Texas to be our turn back point in the loop we travelled. Caleb has life long friends from Texas, that used to study in New Zealand. We spent about 5 days relaxing in a real house (hotels are annoying sometimes) and enjoying the lone star state. Again I wish I had more photos to share, but I was always in a hurry and forgot to!

The house was just out of Dallas in an area called Denton, which is a lovely college city full of amazing thrift stores. The antique stores here were Caleb's favourite full to the brim with western style antiques that I'm sure he would have carted home with us if he could! I found two more pairs of roper boots while I was here and thrifted my feet off.

 Top: Thrifted, Kiapoi, New Zealand

Bag & Belt: Thrifted, Rangiora New Zealand

Skort: Thrifted, Auckland New Zealand

Boots: Vintage, Minx, Athens, Ga

On the first night we were there we went out to a club (that I have forgotten the name of) but it was huge by New Zealand standards and so much fun. I'm sure cowboy themed bars may seem tacky to a lot of Americans but it was such a novelty to be in Texas, in one of these places. The place had a huge stage with a live country band playing. People  were dancing around a circular platform in the middle of the room that went right around the bar. I tried a couple of times, but I am forever clumsy and kept messing up.

A few nights later there was a barbeque for Caleb's return and all his old friends came around, had some drinks and for the first time in my life I played this crazy card game called Pit. An hour of shouting later it was time to head to the observatory. Some students once a month open up the telescopes to the public for free and talk about space and what you can see that night. It was amazing. I had never done this before and I have always been fascinated by the stars. The brightest star was amazing and we saw Jupiter too! Quote of the night was 'Turn that cellphone off, you are ruining my night vision'.

On one of the last days we were there we went to a southern style all you can eat restaurant called Babes. The best fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy and sweet tea (addiction during camp). I see where southern food gets it's amazing reputation from. It took us a few meals to finish all of that off. We were having such a good time that before we knew it, it was time to say our goodbyes and head back towards Virginia. As we were leaving there was a crazy storm that was flooding Texas and tornado warnings were all over the news. It was exciting but a little scary, especially when the windscreen wipers wouldn't go fast enough to be able to see! Only two more stops to go on our Southern summer road trip.