Hello Bill,  Do you remember I said that if we did anything I thought might be of interest I would send you a line, well on April 21st.16 of us went on a 2wk. holiday to Texas, Fort Worth and the second week in Oklahoma City.

  From leaving home in Wark it took us 26hrs to reach the hotel in Fort Worth, Whacked!

  Our holiday was put together by Ken Northall from Barrow who was going on holiday with his wife Elaine and a couple of friends. As he said, "how we ended up a group of 16 he had no idea".12 were from The Lakes, Les and Wendy Telfer from Cyprus and hubby Joe and I.

  Fort Worth is well known for The Cowtown Old Stockyards and of Billy Bob's, "The World's Largest Honky Tonk". Built in 1910, it was used as an open-air barn for housing prize cattle, in the days of the stockyards. Now it is used for concerts, live pro bull riding, has 32 individual bars and a large Texas size wooden dance floor. Most of the dancing is two-stepping and boy do they know how to dance!

   On 26th April we had tickets to see Travis Tritt, $30=£17 per. ticket.2hrs 30mins of pure talent. The songs just kept coming one after the other, A Member of the Country Club, Taking it Easy, Don't Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys. It was a "GREAT" show.

   Fort Worth is at its best on a Fri/Sat night when it is full of Cowboys and girls down for the weekend. These nights are also when the "Stockyards Championship Rodeo" is held. Our group- went on the Friday night and ended up sitting just in front of Tommy Lee [Pamela Andersons Ex] an American rapper called "Ludicrous" and heavy metal group "The Black Crows". The T.V. cameras were there and it was hard to know where to watch, the Rodeo or what was going on behind us. I decided to go for it and try to get Tommy Lee to sign my book for me. [Don’t ask me why]. Where the tattoos started and where they stopped was hard to tell, never mind even though he looked rough he was very nice, put his arm around my shoulder and said it was a pleasure. [to sign my book]. Spoilt the Rodeo really.

   At 11am/4pm each day the Longhorn Cattle were driven down the main street and on Saturdays from 1st May the old steam train "The Tarantula", runs between The Stockyards and Grapevine. Joe and I did the Stockyards Walking Tour. The guide told us how the stock of sheep and pigs were brought in alive and was taken out, sometimes within 20mins as meat. The only things to be in and leave alive were horses and mules. It was interesting to hear what the buildings now used as shops and restaurants were once used as.

   There were loads of Western Wear shops [all with men sitting outside] but with Wrangler jeans for only $34=£17 who could resist!. The Cowboy Hall of Fame was also worth a visit.

   12 of us went to Dallas for the day in search of J.R. and Sue Ellen! Getting the train tickets out of the machine proved to be a headache, thanks to a nice young man who took pity on us, with a struggle we got there. Getting off the train we must have had "LOST" written all over us? A man stopped to ask if we needed any help and then we got the full story and tour of J.F.K.'s assassination. What nice people!

   On 26th April we boarded the Amtrak train "The Heartland Flyer" for the 4hr journey to Oklahoma City. As a group of 16 we ended up with a carriage to ourselves. It was a pity that most of this journey was in the dark.

   In Oklahoma we had a tram stop outside of our hotel, a Happy Hour every night from 5pm/7pm, a Western Wear shop over the road and some outlet shops around the corner [my kind of hotel].

 Bricktown seemed to be the place where most things were going on. Tickets for a concert with Kenny Chesney and Leanne Rimes were sold out with in 1rh of going on sale, so we missed that one.  Toby Keith has a bar and grill on the riverside and on Fri/Sat. night they have live music.

 We went on the Sat. night to hear a group called, Jonathan Esco and Soldier Creek. We managed to get a table in front of the stage. It proved to be very difficult to eat a meal, clap and listen all at the same time. After the show was finished we had to rush to catch the last tram and who was standing at the back door having a "ciggy"? Jonathan Esco, so I asked if it would be O.K. to take a photo. It had been real hard to take his picture because of the angle he was wearing his hat. What a nice lad!

   When we got to the tram stop it was broken down and so because it was really cold we decided to sit inside along with three American ladies. Has any one ever seen Les Telfer do his "Knee Knapper" party piece? Well he did this with one of the Americans on the tram to pass some time. Laugh, we were past ourselves. If you could have seen their faces!

   At The Wormy Dog Saloon [the name says it all] beer was $1=50p a bottle and it cost us $10 to see a group called "The Kentucky Headhunters".4pc band. They had a no1 hit with a song called "Lets all go down" with I can remember from the days when I first started linedancing?? Years ago.

  The Memorial Museum to those 168 people killed on April 19th 1995 in the bombing outside of The Alfred P Murrah Building left us all in a sombre mood. 168 chairs in the memorial garden, represent those who lost their lives, the 16 small ones are a reminder of the children.

   Oklahoma National Stockyards are the largest cattle market in the World. Auctions are held on Mon/Tues. Real cowboys herd the cattle to and from the auctions. We went on the Tues. to see a small sale of what was left from the day before.

   In a club called Graham's Central Station I got the chance to do some two step with a very nice Polish man [waxed moustache and all].Linedancing is done in Texas with Attitude with a capital "A". This was the night Oklahoma had a tornado warning out. One half of me wanted it to happen, but when the thunder and hailstones started I changed my mind. Well lucky for us we just caught the edge of it, but the news next day said three had been killed.

   The Amtrak journey back to Fort Worth on May 3rd was more interesting, this time in day light. This was the night we had tickets at Billy Bob's to see Sammy Kershaw. O.K. so he's been around a bit, but the tickets only cost us $14=£7 and I was prepared for what-ever, after all I was on my holidays.

   May 4th. Was Joe’s?? Birthday [the night before we were due to come home]. In the morning we set of to do some last minute shopping, watch a group of singers on the steps of The Cowtown Coliseum then go straight to a dance hall called, The Stagecoach and have an early night. Well best made plans never work. We were there just after the doors opened at 6.30pm [still in our flip flops]. Someone told the band it was Joe's birthday and much to his embarrassment they made him stand up. We were very popular, and then we discovered we were sitting under a sign saying “Singles Corner. This was the best and latest night we had!

  On the Monday we flew back home and on the following three days, boy did I pay for the fun with jet lag.

  Well done Ken for putting together the whole trip with no hitches, thank you to every one who like us was lucky enough to be included on Ken and Elaine's holiday, thank you for being GREAT company.

   Linda and Joe Potts.