Chapter Four Apr 30, 2001 Sunday Monroe, Louisiana to Dallas Dave is Working On It We woke up in Monroe, Louisiana and drove around town on a beautiful Sunday morning, then headed west on I-20. We hit Shreveport in late morning, and couldn't resist this sign on the "Blind Tiger" blues bar. Shreveport is trying for a comeback, with several well advertised casinos drawing gamblers all the way from Dallas. It had a cute little downtown area, but we decided to eat on the run and keep the wheels moving west. We had to be in bed early tonight, as Dave had to go to work Monday morning. We stopped at Sonic for lunch, and enjoyed our first Coconut Creme milkshake. The first of many. Jesse had his traditional chili dog, and we started a new tradition of taking embarrassing pictures of him eating, them publishing the pictures on the internet. Great parents, eh? We drove about Tyler, Texas then onto Kilgore and its West Texas Oil Museum ("Black Gold, Texas Tea").  Kilgore was quite the place for quite some time, but now has receded into relative quiet and anonymity. The museum was a nice source of information about the mechanics of oil extraction and a great perspective on the history of Texas oil wealth. The statue honoring HL Hunt was a harkening to a different time in America. Kilgore is also home to the Kilgore college Rangerettes famous to us from The Macy Thanksgiving Day parades but their museum was closed on Sunday. It was just a couple of more hours heading west when we pulled into Dallas. Since we were passing by "Fair Park", we stopped to see the Cotton Bowl and the famous art deco buildings there. Since no events were going on, we could quickly drive about the grounds and snap a couple of interesting pictures.   We drove directly downtown and headed to Dealey Plaza, the site of President Kennedy's assassination and the famous Texas Book Depository Building (now the "Sixth Floor Museum"). This is, without a doubt, the first site any visitor to Dallas wants to see, yet it is completely ignored in most descriptions of the city. Like the city fathers somehow hope it would just go away. This particular Sunday afternoon we were met by an "assassination expert" holding court upon the famous grassy knoll. A small crowd paused from their gawking to take up the Q&A session he encouraged. He was very well informed, and had a book, pamphlet and interactive-CD for sale (the CD is great, you should get one, too). We walked about and took pictures. He easily answered even the most exotic JFK trivia. Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes, the crowd turned over and the same questions were just repeated by new faces. We were most fascinated by a black "X" in the street where the actual motorcade stood during the final shot. It seems that a mystery person goes out periodically to paint a red "X" on the spot and the city returns to paint black over it. A strange story, indeed Original Web Upload May 2001 Last Update: August 26, 2001