Welcome to day two of the wonderful road trip!
The original plan was to get an early start, drive into Dallas, TX, stop at the 6th Floor Museum then drive into Baton Rouge, LA. We began our day at 6AM on Thursday, May 16, 2013 since the previous night was spent at the Super 8 Hotel in Childress, TX. Before leaving we ate a little breakfast from the hotel, which wasn't anything exciting. We ended up leaving Childress around 6:30AM, heading towards Dallas.
After quite a while we arrived in Dallas, parking near the Texas Schoolbook Depository in Dealey Plaza on Elm Street. It took some time to pull out my camera since I had removed the strap in hopes of receiving my new one in time. While walking to Dealey Plaza and the Grassy Knoll, I finally figured my strap situation out and began taking photos. The first photographs I took were in the middle of the street of the markers of where President John F. Kennedy was shot the first and second time, along with several vantage points on both side of the street. My absolute favourite was the podium in the Plaza where Zapruder shot his entire film.
The next stop was the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, which was located on the Sixth floor of the former Texas Schoolbook Depository in Dallas, TX. The majority of the afternoon was spent walking around the self-guided audio tour that took place on that floor. They requested that there were no photographs, but I ended up taking a picture of an older Breakfast at Tiffany's vintage piece from the 60's exhibit which my best friend absolutely loves, plus I love Audrey Hepburn.
After spending a good amount of time at the Sixth Floor Museum, we finished up and went to the seventh floor which is now utilized for catering and other events. They had really neat wall prints of President John F. Kennedy and the first lady Jacqueline Kennedy. I took a photograph on the seventh floor with the same vantage point of the floor below where Lee Harvey Oswald was positioned. We then walked over to the elevator and exited through the gift shop, where I purchased two postcards.
The next stop in Dallas was the John Fitzgerald Kennedy memorial located on Main Street. The memorial is just a white square structure with a base and a plaque on the inside. We then stopped at the Chipotle on Pacific Avenue which was really quite spacious and nice to relax in for a bit. After that we spent quite a while looking for a post office, and were redirected to a federal building somehow. I really needed a post box/office to ship out my postcard, and we ended up finding one several blocks over on Field & Main Streets thanks to a post locator site I discovered on my phone.
Since we finished up with everything in Dallas, we got back in the car driving down Elm to Commerce street where President John F. Kennedy was shot in his motorcade. The next stop was Alexandria, LA for the night, which we made in pretty good time driving through Shreveport, LA on the way. Due to the fact that we spent the majority of the day in Dallas, TX we arrived later in the day when it was dark. The scheduled stop was Alexandria, LA but ended up moving forward to Baton Rogue, LA due to hotel issues with the Marriott group. During the drive we went through several smaller towns including one named Charlotte, LA in addition to a bridge during the night. We finally ended in Baton Rouge, LA which was the capital of the state.
The one difference of our stop in Baton Rogue, LA was our stay at a Motel 6 which was absolutely positively not my decision whatsoever given the neighborhood. We placed our bags in the room, then I went to go ask for several more towels and pillows as I really need more to sleep with for reasons. The lady at the front desk said "too bad, so sad" in regards to the pillows as that was it, but handed me a few towels which I then dropped off at the hotel and left.
The place that I spent the majority of the night was the McDonald's on Reiger Street which was just across from the Motel. Since it really wasn't the greatest neighborhood, I parked my car within sight, ordered some food, and sat down on my computer for the next few hours to take care of quite a few things. After charging my phone the majority of the way, I called my best friend since we hadn't talked our date together on Monday. We spent an hour and a half on the phone talking, catching up, and thankfully settling things which made my night that much better. I absolutely loved her story about the teenage high-schoolers fighting over Jordan shoes. I ended up spending the rest of the evening into the morning sitting at the McDonald's by myself while making calls to my bank, updating my budget, and several other smaller things as I really wanted to keep an eye on my car. Towards the end of my time at McDonald's I had realized I took two bites of my food, as I was on the phone for the majority of the time, but did drink my coffee I had purchased. I also had two nice employees that worked there to converse with, who eventually figured out I was on my way to Florida, which ended with "Girl, did you hear this boy, girl? He be moving to Florida to work!". Wrote one of the two postcards from Dealey Plaza at McDonald's that night, and shipped it the next day from the New Orleans, LA post office to Aurora, CO. Ended up wrapping up Molly's present right before leaving at 3AM, which I'm hoping she enjoys since I was unable to see her.
The entire day consisted of 682 miles taking approximately 11 hours (with a one hour time change to CST) from Childress, TX to Baton Rogue, LA making one stop at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, TX.
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