The amount of road construction is unbelievable. They must be going for at least 6 lanes in every direction for every interstate. No matter where we go we seem to pass through a giant tangle of flying ramps and bridges. Today the goal is downtown Dallas. Kent wound his way perfectly. Hey look, there’s a high school band. A float. More floats. Clusters of Misses in tiaras. Horses. The Marine Drum and Bugle Corp. Surprise, we just landed in the middle of the State Fair Parade staging area. We stayed to watch it of course..parades are always fun.

A bit of history, The Grassy Knoll overlooking the site where President Kennedy was assassinated.

A bit of paradise in the concrete and glass heat, fountain plaza. We could wander among 100 fountains and cascades repeatedly reflected in plate glass. A perfect oasis.

That’s one giant Honky Tonk. It was pretty much deserted at mid day but sounds like evenings are really jumping with live music, food, arcades and even live bull riding.

It’s all about the cattle.

Old school – they drive a herd of longhorns down the cobblestone street twice a day.

Modern day – the livestock auction is all done online. No more noise and smell of thousands of head crammed into pens. Buyers sitting at monitors in a quiet air conditioned room check out and bid on the stock via live video feed from the ranch. Much more practical but not very exciting.

Still about the cattle: Cattlemen’s steakhouse. They have been in business at this location for more than 100 years. Practice has made just about perfect. Kent’s filet mignon, what fantastic flavor and tenderness. My ribeye was definitely one of the best steaks I have ever tasted.  We tried it because it’s a tourist “must do” but no regrets here.

Thousands of the new 100 dollar bills fly through printing presses at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth. Very cool.

From a glass walled walkway above the production floor at the Western Currency Facility we watched blank paper being transformed to vacuum packed bails of finished “notes”.

It is an ever more complex process as increasingly sophisticated anti-counter-fit features are added.

Unfortunately, no free samples.

Their currency museum is worth a visit too. It traces the evolution of paper currency and its manufacturing methods as well as interpreting the social/political changes that are reflected in its evolution.

Between the tour and the museum they share lots of fun factoids. Here are a few I found pretty interesting.

Only two locations print bills – this one and one in DC

This plant will print over 7 billion notes in 2015 and most of those are to just replace worn out money.

It costs about 10 cents each to print a note (ones and twos cost half that)

No bills bigger than $100 have been issued since 1969.

Martha Washington was on a Silver Certificate note.

30 feet above normal pool. 5 feet deep across the spillways for weeks. Lake Texoma left quite a mark in this area as a result of the spring and early summer rains that hit north Texas. The water is back down now-they even have a fire ban in the Parks-but landowners and parks are still putting things back together.

Denison TX is home to a huge retired (or semi retired) military airport so it is a great place for these guys to do their playing. We watched a while as one little single engine, a biplane and best of all, a glider did barrel rolls, stalls, loops and wing tip stands. Great from the ground but I am certain I’d have needed the barf bag if I had been in any of those planes.

We stopped in at Eisenhower State Park to catch up with Ben. He was the super at Sea Rim SP when we volunteered in 2013. It is great to catch up.

Seating for 20 anyone? Those CCC guys didn’t fool around when they built stuff. Crafted using local travertine this thing will be here for generations. It is on Travertine Island at Chickasaw.  

Freshwater springs: beautiful.

Mineral Springs: stinky and ack, taste awful!

Bison: love to see these guys where ever they are.

It is probably a bit of a zoo during the summer since there are many swimming holes created by CCC dams along the spring fed Travertine Creek. September is pretty quiet though. We enjoyed the hikes and watching heron and osprey fishing. The campground at The Point has big sites with great lake views.