Fair Park - Dallas

Friday, January 22, 2010

In 1936, Texas celebrated it’s centennial as a state of the union.  To help celebrate the event the Fair Park was built.  It covers 277 acres and houses one of the largest collections of Art Deco architecture anywhere.  It also contains an amusement park, several museums and the Cotton Bowl stadium.

We spent the afternoon touring the Museum of the American Railroad.  This outdoor museum contains hundreds of pieces of rolling stock and engines.  A number of the engines are particularly interesting.  The big, red Santa Fe engine #97, hauled the Super Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles at speeds up to 90 MPH. The fuel tank holds over 4,000 gallons of diesel fuel.

The Big Boy is aptly named. This steam engine was the largest of its kind.  The drive wheels are nearly 6 feet in diameter.  And there are 8 drive wheels on each side.  It was used by the old Union Pacific Railway to haul freight over the Wahsatch pass in Utah.

The temperature on the truck thermometer hit 27 degrees Celsius. (I think that this reading may be a couple of degrees higher than the true temperature.)  We are getting a bit of Vitamin D from walking around in the sun.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

It rained and drizzled fairly steadily throughout the day.  We had planned to take the day off anyway so it worked out well.  We did some laundry, cleaned the trailer and just generally relaxed. 

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Quite a bit cooler today. It only got up to 13 degrees Celsius and it was fairly windy.  We got out for a little walk, just a couple of kilometres, but it was nice to stretch our legs.  The balance of the week is predicted to be 17 degrees.

I spent the afternoon installing a surge protector in the basement of the trailer.  Most of that time was spent unloading our stuff and then trying to figure out where I could find a solid surface. to mount this thing.  Anyway got it done just before Janet started dinner. She finds it is very difficult to cook without electricity!