We dropped off Celina at the airport in Austin at 3:00 am on Saturday so that she could go on her trip to Thailand. It’s just stupid for us that we’ve already drunk so much coffee to be able to realize the trip at this time of day that we’re now (at 4 a.m.) sitting around in our living room, exhilarated and awake. What do you do with this “gained” time?
Sleeping is no longer an option anyway, so the decision is: “We’re going somewhere!”. But where? Big Bend is too far, the weather forecast for the coast only predicts rain, flights aren’t worth it for one day and the weather in Austin isn’t supposed to be nice either.
Okay, if Celina is flying to Thailand now, then we’ll just visit Celina. That sounds like a good idea and five minutes later we’re in the car heading for North Texas. First, we drive out of Austin through pouring rain. After a short break to compensate for the excessive coffee consumption with a small “morning snack”, the journey continues towards The Dalles and lo and behold … the sun comes out.
Dallas – JFK-Museum
Our first destination will be the JFK Museum in Dallas. We’ve already been here at the beginning of 2020, but we didn’t visit the museum back then. We want to do that now. But because we’re already there at around 8 a.m. (the museum doesn’t open until 10 a.m.), we think that a leisurely breakfast would be a great idea. Unfortunately, no restaurants are open at this time of day, so we can only eat at Subway (which isn’t the worst thing in the world). And then it’s off to the museum. Apart from the fact that it is extremely crowded, we can learn a lot about the assassination of President Kennedy and the probable murderer himself. A very interesting exhibition and, surprisingly, a suitable activity for many people on a Saturday morning.
Afterward, we buy a souvenir and take a short tour of the city. Okay, we have our satnav to thank for the tour, but Andrea really wanted to drive over this particular bridge anyway…
South Fork Ranch
The journey takes us on to J.R. Ewing and the South Fork Ranch from the 80s series “Dallas”. Yes, we had already been here briefly 3 years ago, but this time we decided to take the tour. Even though we can hardly remember the series from our childhood days, it is impressive to be on this famous movie set. Actually, only the exterior shots were filmed here, but the last owner ended up making the rooms look like they did on TV. The background information on the actual owners and how the ranch has changed over the years is also very interesting. However, we think the $1,998 to spend a night in JR’s bedroom is a bit excessive. But it seems that there really are fans who want to afford it.
Celina, TX
And the journey continues and we visit “Celina”.
Oh… how cute! That’s our first impression of this pretty little town. We first get an overview of the “town center”, which is done pretty quickly due to its manageable size. A few small stores and restaurants and that’s it. Celina would definitely like the nice clothes store in Celina and the fact that virtually everything bears “her” name: Celina Police, Celina High School, Celina Library…
And then we realized that it was time to eat something “proper” (we’ve been on our feet for several hours now). So we stopped off at a Mexican restaurant, which pleasantly surprised us with a delicious steak and the usual Tex-Mex delicacies.
Unfortunately, there is no hotel in the small town (yet) so we have to head south again towards the evening.
On Sunday morning we drive back towards Austin. After all, we still have to make a stopover at IKEA, as Celina’s room is due to be redecorated while she’s on her trip…
So now we’ve done our history homework, marveled at the cult of television, and got to know a nice new place that will certainly be “on the way” again when we get the chance.