Dallas


Touchdown.

The road trip that we can all believe in finally began to take shape with the last of the Trippers arriving on Sunday afternoon after the advancing party did the level best to drink Dallas dry on Saturday night. The quest in search of the essence of democracy and, failing that, full strength American beer had now officially begun in earnest.

After having a quick nap to ease the jet-lag for some, and the hangovers for the others, the boys headed to a Mexican cantina in Dallas where we were introduced to a Mexican beer called Dos Equis (which we quickly renamed 'two eccies') by a very friendly Barman called Bob. In between working at a local Market Street Bar, Bob runs a credit repair business. Apparently this business is doing reasonably well right now.

We moved on to a Texan steakhouse where we were introduced to over-sized American meals, filet mignon - sans bacon - and Zinfadel wine from the Napa Valley. It was all very classy, fine wine, fine dining, white table cloths, and more chambre shirts than a Network caucus meeting. But if you’re thinking we had deserted our working class values, our table conversation was far from anything high-class. We really must learn how to swear quietly in this country.

We headed to the Greenville section of Dallas were we had been informed there was a collection of relaxed bars and pubs. We found ourselves at a great place called the Cavern, a great place in anyone’s twang.

We mixed well with the locals and met some great characters including a archetypal hefty republican who thought Australia’s Health system was ‘communism’ and a funny and cryptic bloke who handed us business cards with ‘Director of Controversy’ as his job title, who was kind enough to give us a copy of a photo of a young Jack Kennedy that his grandmother took when they were at Stanford studying and completing other extra curricular activities. We also met a former West Point graduate who is now studying a master of politics and hopes to join the US State Department with a posting to Australia.

He paid a tribute to our road trip quest by playing AC/DC for us on the guitar.

The manager also took a liking to us and gave us Jagermeister shots in between each bottle of Mexican beer. Unfortunately this has the same effect as it does in Australia.

The night ended with us all returning to our hotel room for a game of in-house rugby. Distance, jet-lag, sleep deprivation and alcohol can make men do very strange things...

1 comment:

Yulia Vilich30 said...

Definitely one of the best places I've ever visited in my life! Last time I visited (a month ago) I took a chance and for my Dallas car rental I used Budget. I'm glad I did it! Hope to visit this city again!