Dallas, Texas

Drove the 25 or so miles from Frisco south into Dallas, on our way to check out the JFK Assassination site. After parking near the Book Depository, we took a short walk down Houston Street through Dealey Plaza. Took a few pictures of the area, the BD building, and the Grassy Knoll. It is pretty eerie to be at the site, to see the grassy knoll, and to imagine what it was like to be there in Nov 1963.

Starving, we decided to get a quick bite to eat before checking out the museum. Two blocks away, we happened on the Founders Grill, a pretty standard business lunch kinda place. LVL settled on a salmon Caesar while I opted for a local favorite, the chicken fried steak. CFS was pretty tasty, but probably not something I’d eat that much of, even if I lived in Dallas. Would have been a pretty nondescript meal, if not for the location and the short, semi-annoying waiter.

Back down Houston St. to the Book Depository/6th Floor Museum. Before heading in we walk across Elm St., over the Xs marking the two spots where bullets struck JFK, and to the Grassy Knoll. Watched several hard-to-identify (Russian? Kazakhstani?) female tourists (in town for some sort of conference, we guessed, esp given their formal attire) take pictures. Also saw an annoying teenage kid run into the middle of the street and jump on the X furthest from the BD, posing for a picture with his arms out to his sides in the shape of a cross. Pretty gross.

At $13.50 each, the museum tix were a bit expensive, but it wasn’t something either of us wanted to miss. We picked up our headphones and audio device just after the annoying teen and his family got theirs. Even more annoying now. Elevator up to the Sixth Floor, where the audio tour starts.

Kennedy campaigning. Kennedy getting married. Kennedy in office. Kennedy foreign policy. And so on. Interesting context, though we skipped some of it on account of the heavy crowds. The museum itself is very well done, with lots of interesting pictures, news stories, etc. After 15-20 mins or so, the audio tour walks us through the assassination itself. Stills from the Zapruder film and chilling audio from live radio description of the tragedy as it occurred. Though I don’t have personal memories of the moment,* it was incredibly moving to relive the assassination, the chaos of the moment, the manhunt for Oswald, Oswald’s subsequent murder, and the decades long investigation.

In an effort to miss most of the rush hour traffic, we headed back to Frisco about 3. We’re quickly learning that no matter when we’re on the highway in the Dallas Metroplex, traffic is unavoidable. Even without traffic, tons and tons of very fast moving cars on the road.

Another thing we’re learning: the toll system in place on the Dallas North Tollway is terrible. At at least four points on the road to and from Dallas to Frisco, drivers without the TX version of EZ-Pass are asked to fling into a basket an unpredictable and irregular dollar amount (e.g., $0.80; $1.15; $0.45) before passing. Most of the stops are coins only and offer no possibility of change. We witnessed a guy in a truck directly in front of us about lose his mind. He kept honking to get the attention of the attendant in the neighboring booth (to no avail), kept whipping coins into the basket (also to no avail), and kept yelling. A few toll points later, we threw in our money and didn’t get the green light. Rather than scream/yell/waste money, we drove through the red light. Though we heard a beep and will probably get a ticket in the mail, there was no reasonable alternative.

* My parents certainly do, of course. In response to my texted picture of the Grassy Knoll, my Dad said simply: “It still gives me shivers.”