Amazingly after a 15 flight we landed in Dallas quite refreshed. All we wanted was a steak! We were in 'cattle' country. We were in the land of good customer service and mega portions, so in the good ole U. S. of A. we could expect a fabulous HUGE steak dinner in Dallas, even on Valentines day, couldn't we????? ........ Forget it!!!!

Our lovely helpful receptionist at the Hotel Indigo recommended 'The Chop House' for our dinner. Two hundred yards down the street! Two blocks away! STEAKS! Gosh we were hungry after 2 airline meals in 24 hours. The Chop house could 'manage' to squeeze us in - how kind - it was Valentines day, at 6.30pm! The huge glass - yes, well fibreglass-ish menus contained ONE steak dish. Filet Mignon, no less. No other, but a steak, so Peter and I both agreed to order this as our choice. We were very tired - our day was 36 hours old due to the flight over the international dateline - so knowing how huge American portions were we'd decided that a main course each and maybe desert would do us fine.                                                                                                                                           HA! It had arrived, the most beautiful perfect Filet Mignon, actually we had one each. Each beautiful, oval, porcelain plate had a delicious looking steak, sat on what must have been ONE TEASPOON of sauce, with precisely SIX pieces of rocket-type lettuce leaves! Thats it! ?.........."THATS IT???" Said Peter. THAT IS IT? nothing more? The condescending waiter, whose girth had seen much, much more in a moment than our plates had, stood with hands on his equally large hips and displayed the face of a pathetic French waiter looking at us poor suffering English diners. "Its a special menu on Valentines day! We usually do 'side orders' but not today" Oh, yes very special! We were offered, at great sacrifice, items due for some other poor unsuspecting customer. BRUSSEL SPROUTS AND POLENTA!!!!! We declined his kind offer ( I was choking at the thought) so we consumed our delicious steak, paid up and left, still hungry. We walked back to our hotel for a delicious desert of Pecan Pie, still unbelieving in this land of plenty, we could manage to find a restaurant that didnt do 'FRIES' with everything!
 
On Saturday we had organised a tour of Dallas to be done on a Segway. Those amazing 2 wheeled upright scooter looking things. We had done a Segway trial in the forest near Exeter way back in October thinking it would be a great way to see the city. Oh, wow, it was. After a half hour refresher course, in the heart of the 'Westend' district our tour guide Cyndi took 6 of us around the interesting tourist spots, the JFK memorial, Museums, City Hall as well as the fascinating places that dont get a mention in most tourist guides. It was great, she was a mine of information as well as great fun and importantly kept us safe. We had a wonderful 2 hours and afterwards made our way by foot to the J.F.K museum which is situated on the 6th floor of the Dallas Book Depository - the actual site where the President was shot on that dreadful day in 1963 - Fifty years on and the place was heaving with visitors. An extremely moving place, and easily 50% of the visitors not even born when that tragic event took place. Its the main reason a great many tourists visit the city, sad but true.

So Sunday 16th February and our time for travelling the world is slipping by. Nine weeks are almost up. Another day another country, so after a morning finishing the sights of Dallas we head for the last time to an airport for our final flight back to London Heathrow. Fifty seven hours of flying we will have accomplished in total. Qantas were a delight, Jetstar were good, also Fiji Airways. Virgin Australia needed a few lessons in good customer service AND DO NOT ASK MY OPINION ON B.A.! As partner with Qantas, we had to travel B.A. from Dallas to London. 'Disgusted of Teignmouth' will be sending B.A. a letter suffice to say!

Thank you all for reading my blogs over 700 up to yet, a big thank you to all the lovely comments and messages of support and encouragement. Ive never done anything like this before, so its been funny writing down our adventures for the world and his wife - as well as you, my dear friends and family - to read. Im glad some of you have enjoyed my scribbles, if Ive bored you, Sorry! I couldve written so much more, but just didnt have the time.

We arrived at Heathrow on monday and then got to Paddington in record time, for our First Great Western train home. During our absence from Blighty the south and west have taken a terrible battering and the miles and miles of flooded fields, especially in Somerset was horrendous to witness by two tired world travellers. Dawlish and its washed-away railway had been viewed by us on World News as well as being on the front page of the New Zealand national press. So a big thank you must go to our neighbour Beryl who drove to meet our train at Exeter (as that is the end of the line at the minute!)

So we are home. Jet lagged, tired, with a pile of washing. Weve travelled in excess of 34,000 miles in total, so have we enjoyed it? YOU BET WE HAVE! Thanks for listening and for the last time, Bye for now xxx