The cities of Dallas and Fort Worth sort of run into each other. They are often collectively referred to as Dallas/Fort Worth. Fort Worth is known as more of a 'cowboy' town, while Dallas is supposed to be more of a fast-paced business/oil money/sports/clubs/nightlife place.

I went to the Crooked Tree Coffeehouse to get some work done and ran into a couple friendly folks - Basil and Amy. Basil was a businessman from Jamaican and he had been in Dallas for a few years. He had lots of good ideas for things to do. Amy was from Oklahoma and had also been in Dallas for a few years. She was a big sweety and offered her couch to sleep on and her time to show me around town.

It was hot out and we rode the free, air-conditioned(!) trolley up and down McKinney Ave, where most of the bars and restaurants and all the other young-people stuff was. There are a ton of bars on McKinney and nearly all of them were full on the hot Wednesday evening. We ate and hung out for awhile, then hopped bars. The scene seemed aggressive and trendy. Not a lot of dive bars around. Very much a 'be seen' type of atmosphere.

This kid was practicing for a drumline in a convenience store parking lot. He was pretty good.

The next day Amy took me for a jog along the Katy Trail - a very long, popular trail that runs through Dallas under tall shade trees and bushes. It was very beautiful with the blooming dogwoods and flowering plants. I returned to the Crooked Tree and found Basil there again. We got to talking and his friend Phil showed up. Phil was also from Jamaica, and he worked for the Jamaica travel bureau to get people to travel there. He was very impressed with my travel stories and told me that I should try to get on the Late Show with David Letterman. I told him if he got me on I'd give Jamaica some props. We'll see!

I drove to downtown Dallas and walked around for awhile. It was very hot and there were a lot of tall buildings and concrete. This building looked neat.

I was disappointed with the lack of 10-gallon cowboy hats and girls wearing tight blue-jeans. I had thought Dallas would be more of a cowboy mecca, but instead it reminded me a lot of downton Los Angeles. I only spotted one cowboy hat.

I didn't have too much fun in the main downtown area. The heat made it difficult to walk around very much. Old Town Dallas was pretty neat, lots of cafes and old brick buildings and things like that. I tried to stay inside as much as possible. Also there was this dinosaur statue. I never found out what it was for.

I headed back to McKinney street at night and ran into Phil from earlier at a table outside of a bar and he invited me for a drink. Everybody loves Phil. While we sat there a ton of folks came up to say hi to him. He asked me what I thought of Jamaica. I told him, a land full of Rastafarians and marijuana and dreadlocks and beautiful beaches and beautiful women and everybody hanging out all the time. He said that was pretty accurate. He tried to convince me to go there and I plan to someday. It was a very enjoyable drink.

I met up with Amy and we stayed up late comparing our childhoods.