Up a big hill and down a big hill all the way from Oklahoma into Texas.  We passed through miles and miles of open land, with a few cattle now and then grazing in the rocky fields.  We traveled down the Indian Nation Turnpike through various tribal areas, often driving for miles without seeing another vehicle in either direction.

We arrived at Lake Tawakoni, a Thousand Trails campground near Point, Texas.  The campground was basically deserted so we had our pick of campsites.

On Monday we drove into Dallas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and our first stop was the Frontiers of Flight Museum,  an aerospace museum affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and located at Love Field.  It has a large collection of artifacts, information and vehicles related to the history of aviation and space exploration.  Among many exhibits it has the Apollo 7 command module, a World War 1 biplane, artifacts from the Hindenburg, and over 200 World War II aircraft models.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They had a special exhibit for the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination.  An Air Force One plane like the one that brought President Kennedy to Dallas on that fateful day and then took his body back to Washington.  It was also the only plane in which a president was given the oath of office, the only time the oath was administered by a woman, and the only time the oath was administered in Texas.  While not the actual plane, it was reconstructed inside to show what the plane looked like that day.  It is interesting to note that Air Force One used today is about twice the size of the one used in 1963.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we went to Dealey Plaza and the 6th Floor Museum (JFK.org) at the former Texas Schoolbook Depository where Oswald shot from during the Kennedy assassination.  The museum was well done with an audio tour that took you throughout the sixth floor and explained in detail the events leading up to that day, beginning with the start of Kennedy’s political career and ending with the aftermath of the assassination which included the shooting of Oswald by Jack Ruby and the Kennedy funeral.  My only complaint is they did not allow ANY photography.  I would really have liked to take a picture of the area, enclosed in glass, where Oswald was sitting during the assassination.  They found Oswald’s fingerprints here on some boxes and everything is arranged the way it was found that day.  The area has been preserved so the floors and walls, etc are the way they were November 22, 1963, which was also Bill’s 10th birthday.  The building is now owned by the Dallas County Administration Building.  One exhibit they had that was especially interesting were 9 possible conspiracy theories about what really happened that day.   The bottom line…we will never know for sure.  When we finished at the museum we went outside to the Grassy Knoll area where Bill took some pictures, including the two X’s marked on the street to show where the Kennedy limousine was located during the shooting.