A Rodeo in Fort Worth, Texas

A home standby from 9pm – 5am meant I was refreshing my roster all day, hoping that a nice flight would appear. 9pm on the dot, after having unsuccessfully tried to sleep for a few hours, DFW appeared! I have to say, I was expecting to get a long flight as I’d had two days off prior (the legal requirement for us to get a ULR – ultra long range – flight), but I didn’t expect it to be Dallas, as I have one rostered in 2 weeks time!

Never mind, I quickly got up and packed my suitcase, waiting for crew control to ring and confirm the flight.

Departure time was scheduled for 2:50am, so the least I could hope for was that my passengers would go straight to sleep. Luckily I was also finally back to working in first class!

Flight time was a long 15 hours and 20 minutes, and as I was first to go on break, it felt like the longest 15 hours ever! 

Eventually we landed into Dallas, where it was a chilly 8 degrees. After a short drive we arrived at the hotel, where my bed was calling my name.

I arranged to meet one of the girls later to head to the cinema, and after a good few hours sleep, we met down in the lobby. Fortunately there’s a cinema right opposite our hotel, so popped into a sushi restaurant nearby for some dinner, before watching “The Upside” which was a great movie.

We shared a small popcorn and were given a free drink…not sure it’s big enough!!

The next day I was awake early (thanks jet lag!) and after breakfast had a walk around the area and did a spot of shopping in Whole Foods. 

In the afternoon, 6 of us had decided to drive to Fort Worth to watch the rodeo! Rather than taking 2 Ubers, we hired a car, and somehow I was the one that ended up driving. The car was the most enormous thing I have ever driven, this picture doesn’t even do it justice!

Just under an hour later, we arrived in Fort Worth, which felt like stepping back in time to an American movie set.

We wandered around the small town, checking out some of the little boutiques, before stopping off at a bar playing country music for a bite to eat.

When in Texas, you have to eat barbecue, so we all got a beef brisket sandwich, which was delicious!

After our late lunch / early dinner, we continued walking around the town, grabbing another drink (lemonade for me!) at a bar with some live music before the rodeo started.

Finally it was time to head inside to the arena, and although it was a Friday evening the rodeo wasn’t particularly busy, so we got great seats in the centre.

The show started with the American National Anthem and then on to some bull riding, where the rider is supposed to stay on for 8 seconds. This seems pretty much impossible, as none of the riders managed more than a couple of seconds. Can’t say I’d want to try it to be honest!

Then there was some lassoing, which I have to say was pretty impressive. The guy even managed to stand on horseback whilst lassoing and getting the horse to jump through the rope.

The next part was not very nice. The riders lined up on their horses, and the aim was to lasso baby calves as quickly as possible. All of us were pretty shocked watching this, and it went on far too long! Luckily lots of the little baby calves managed to escape the lassos, but it was not very nice to watch.

Eventually after some more bull riding, the rodeo was over. Certainly something different to do on a layover!

I drove us back to Dallas, where it was straight to bed as we had an early wake up call the next morning, before the long flight home.

Let’s see what I can find to do there in two weeks time!

P.s. Follow me on InstagramFacebook & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂

6 Comments

  1. Jacqueline Bodel
    February 6, 2019 / 11:45 am

    Just wondering did you have to apply to work in first class and if so what was the process. Jacqui ps. I love reading your blog

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      February 6, 2019 / 11:57 am

      Yes, I did have to apply. You need a fairly good record (i.e. not too many sick days/ absents) and then you have to go for an assessment (written questions) and an interview and mock-up, so pretending to serve someone. I had to study quite a bit to make sure I knew all of the questions for the assessment and the interview!

  2. February 4, 2019 / 9:36 pm

    What a fascinating post which builds beautifully on what I saw on your Instagram the other day. Loved your description of the rodeo. Also, your note about the car rings home as well; I had to rent a car last month and the smallest model which was available was a Jeep Wrangler which I had to drive around NYC for 2 days until I could exchange it. I also have to share that I had a great chuckle when I saw the size of that “small” popcorn. I got to Texas for work every year, and it’s no joke that “everything’s bigger in Texas.” It’s the only place where I’ve seem 3 litre bottles of soda, lol.

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      February 6, 2019 / 11:54 am

      Thanks for reading! Yes the car was certainly interesting to drive especially as that was my first time driving in America as well! 😀 everything certainly is bigger in Texas, haha!

  3. Pete
    February 4, 2019 / 8:42 pm

    Great post as usual Rachel! I’ve not been to Dallas yet but the Botanical Gardens look lovely and maybe worth a visit?

    • thedubaidiaries
      Author
      February 6, 2019 / 11:52 am

      Thanks so much! Yes I did read about the botanical gardens, if the weather is nice perhaps I will go and have a wander round!

Leave a Reply to thedubaidiaries Cancel reply