Life On The Road — Entry #2
A quiet week lead us into a busy and exciting weekend. We visited a favorite diner of ours (that we didn’t know had a location in Dallas until we got here), Bailey was able to see a childhood friend that she hadn’t in many years, we crossed two more states off the list, added another hockey arena to our collection, visited a very historically important location, and of course, gained new experiences.
Sunday the 7th was dedicated to meeting up with a childhood friend of Bailey’s who moved to Louisiana when she was younger and now lives in Dallas. In doing this, we also managed to visit a favorite diner of ours—Black Bear Diner. Bailey and I first experienced Black Bear in Colorado Springs during our first real traveling experience together. This location in Mesquite, Texas is brand spanking new, it opened in 2022.
Monday was a quiet night for us spent in Greenville. We went to a Starbucks to give me access to internet so that I could get some work done. Tuesday night was spent in the RV just relaxing and even taking the night off to just watch some Big Bang Theory and cook.
Wednesday night was spent at the campground, but this was the night that we learned the activity center here is really nice. So, this campground is so large that they have to buildings dedicated to activity, one is called “The Lodge” and the other “The Activity Center”. The lodge is pretty decent, but definitely could use some work, while the activity center has definitely had some work done. The internet at these buildings is complimentary and actually works pretty well, although not as well as heading into town.
Ever since moving into an RV, we’ve had to become thoughtful and intentional with when we can take showers (or at least decent showers). Our RV shower is just simply too small to use and many of the campground showers are just plain bad. Last year, we purchased Planet Fitness memberships to give us a—mostly—reliable place to shower. Thursday was dedicated to heading in for a workout and a shower since we had a big weekend coming up. Most Planet Fitness locations close earlier on the weekends, so our only true option was a quick, unpleasant, shower at the campground bathhouse.
Friday is one of those days that I would like to have back, while we enjoyed our evening, we missed a couple pretty cool opportunities. Turns out, Jeff Dunham (one of our favorite comedians) was performing in his hometown of Dallas—we had no idea. We, instead, spent our evening in Greenville looking for a place to work, but wanted to try something other than Starbucks. We found a place called “Cotton Patch Cafe”, but turns out it wasn’t much of a “Cafe” it was really more of a sports bar, restaurant combo. We then drove around Greenville to see more of this small town and noticed that the Oak Ridge Boys bus was loading up after their show in Greenville. So, another opportunity missed there. In the end, we realize that our dinner at Cotton Patch was good and saved us a lot of money in comparison, but it still would have been insanely awesome to see Jeff Dunham in his hometown.
Saturday was the big day for us. A few months ago, Bailey and I purchased tickets to the Dallas Stars game in which they hosted the Calgary Flames. Before the game, however, we visited a historical site that is incredibly impactful.
On November 22nd of 1963, John F. Kennedy was assassinated during his motorcade through the city of Dallas. While there are plenty of conspiracies out there, the most likely story is that Lee Harvey Oswald shot from the sixth floor corner window of the Texas Textbook Depository Building on the corner of Houston and Elm. We visited the “Sixth Floor Museum” and stood right next to the location that Oswald took the shot from. We looked out the window at the view he had of the motorcade as it turned onto Elm Street. The road still has three “X” marks to signify the three shots taken at Kennedy. This experience was monumental and I highly recommend everyone go visit.
Just a short walk from the museum is American Airline Center where the Dallas Stars were hosting the Calgary Flames. I will admit that I was a little torn as to who I should be rooting for, but with how much Bailey and I like the Calgary Flames, we were able to cheer for the home team. If the Stars weren’t currently battling our favorite team—the Winnipeg Jets—for first place, it would have been even easier to cheer for Dallas. The Stars played a very poor first and second period and gave up 6 goals to the Flames. They were able to scrum up a near comeback in the third, but in the end still lost by a score of 6 to 5.
Sunday was an interesting day. This was our final full-day we had in Texas to explore. We have a few states in the south to mark off our list still, but only one day to do so. We knew last November that when we left Kentucky early to head up to Coachmen HQ, Missouri would remain a hole in our travels (since we’ve only been counting the states we’ve hit while living in the RV). Next weekend, when we move to our next location, we have two route options to take, one that goes through Arkansas or one that goes through Louisiana. We’ve been stressing this past week trying to determine which route to take so that we could dedicate this Sunday to visiting the other. In the end, we decided that it was close enough to just simply visit both and make our decision easier next weekend.
We first went to Texarkana. This city is unique as it has a large portion in both states of Texas and Arkansas while still sharing the city name. Most other cities in this scenario would deem each side of the state line a separate city or town and have separate names. We started our Texarkana at the Arkansas Welcome Center, which is a little beyond the actual city. The folks at the welcome center were very kind and chatted with us for a while. Unfortunately, being the south and a Sunday, most of the city was closed, so we set off for an hour drive south to Shreveport, Louisiana.
Shreveport is where Bailey’s friend moved to when she left Nebraska, so she gave us some recommendations. We drove through downtown before heading to Sam’s for gas. Then, we decided that we had to try some local eats. We found a unique place called “Gina’s Waffles & Dogs” and that was fantastic. Bailey and I shared a couple corn dogs ensuring that we didn’t fill our selves up. When in Louisiana, it’s only right to try Crawfish and that’s exactly what we did at BeauxJax Crafthouse. While there, we had excellent interactions with a local family and a fella from Alabama who was traveling for work. It’s not often that you can have such a friendly conversation with the folks sitting at the table next to you, but at BeauxJax we did.
So, as you can see, a tame week broke into a very busy and exciting weekend. I didn’t even mention boot shopping at Wild Bill’s Western Store in Dallas, but since we don’t have boots in our budget, it was really just one big tease for Bailey and I. If you’re in the Dallas area, you really must visit Wild Bill’s and ask for Miguel.
Written By Liam Theo
Liam is the Bigs and Littles & Bigs. He is the photographer, long-form video editor, and driver of the small family.