Fort Worth Science and History Museum

I was somewhat surprised when my son William approached me about heading to Fort Worth and visiting the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History. He has an abiding interest in all things space and especially dealing with the stars and flotsam that make up our vast Universe. He spends hours watching (and got me hooked too) the new Cosmos Series by Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.

So imagine my surprise when he asked me to go. My response was.....listen, I will go to any museum, historical monument, point of interest, heck...any worn bronze plaque at the drop of a hat. Of course, I said yes.

Thus, we found ourselves wending our way westbound to the City of Fort Worth, Texas, their slogan, "Where the West begins". My GPS, Patty, got us there without incident on a frigid 30 degree workday. After parking, we entered to find every little kid and Soccer Mom in the Fort Worth area present in the Museum. It was Winter (yes...formally known as, no longer politically-correct, Christmas-) Break and Moms were doing something to keep the kiddos occupied. So among the screams and cries of all those inquisitive minds, we drew out our trusty map and headed in.

The museum's history actually began in 1939 when the local council of Administrative Women in Education began a study of children's museums, with the idea of starting one in Fort Worth. Two years later the charter was filed, but it would be almost four years before the museum would find a physical home. With the help of the city's school board, a charter to establish a Fort Worth Children's Museum was filed with the State of Texas.

The purposes of the new museum were listed as: "The maintenance of a place where geological, biological, and zoological collections may be housed; to increase and diffuse a knowledge and appreciation of history, art, and science; to preserve objects of historic, artistic, and scientific interests; and to offer popular instruction and opportunities for esthetic enjoyment." The museum opened in early 1945 in two rooms in a local Elementary School.

By 1947, it became apparent that a much larger facility was needed to serve the growing needs of the community. Ground was broken for a new facility in 1952. On January 25, 1954, the museum opened the building at 1501 Montgomery Street. The following year the Noble Planetarium, the first public planetarium in the region, opened. In 1968, the name was changed to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History to draw in adults. In 2009 it reopened in a newly constructed building and continues to be one of the most successful in the world.

The Museum....like the brochure says, is mostly made for kids. It was a holiday and they were clearly catering to the kids who were there. But we did get to see some pretty cool adult stuff too.

A Seismic Vibrator Truck

There were the usual oil and gas exhibits typical of any Texas Science Museum. After all, we were standing on top of one of the largest deposits of oil and gas trapped in one of the largest such reserves in the world, the Barnett Shale. Then, there were the energy exhibits touting the oil and gas industry's (oh yeah....they were museum benefactors too) benevolence in providing us with that energy and jobs that supply the entire region and how it was adding to Texas' greatness as an energy giant here and around the world...Blah, Blah, Blah. Yeah....you've probably seen the commercials to make us feel like they care about our plight with the added subliminal message they can jack up the price, dry up jobs or the supply if we don't conform.

There were the usual exhibits for rocks and dinosaurs but one kind of stuck out. The Cattle Raisers Museum. Not sure how raising cattle meets the criteria for a Science Museum but....I'll roll with it.

In 1979, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association members formed the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Foundation.  They wanted to preserve and protect the heritage of the livestock industry of the Southwest, the Foundation's wanted to educate students and the general public as to the ways of the cattle industry. The Cattle Raisers Museum officially opened in 1980 and in November, 2009, the Museum relocated and re-opened within the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History which just happens to be right next door to the Will Rogers Memorial Center, home of the ginormous Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo.

Ok...a little branding lesson. The Longhorn head formed by the facing numbers 7 and 7 resting on a bar signify the founding of Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association in 1877. The three parts of the continuous circle represent the independence, courage and commitment of generations of ranching families who built the industry. The horns extending outside the circle symbolize a vision with no boundaries or limitations. Ok...very existential for Cowboy stuff.

It was actually kind of cool to see all the riding tack, the different trails and the famous cattle drovers like Charles Goodnight of Lonesome Dove fame. Ok...little trivia. Most folks know about Blue Bell Ice Cream made right here in Brenham, Texas. Well the name Blue Bell derives from the lead steer of Goodnight's JA Ranch herd. His name was "Old Blue" and led many of the cattle drives from Fort Worth to Dodge City Kansas. Blue was so good and knew the trail so well,it was said he knew the trail better than the cowboys who ran the herds. He is remembered by the Museum by displaying his Bell. And now you know.

Blue's Bell

The exhibits take you through the history of raising and driving cattle to market. From the early days of the cattle drive to the current railroad and truck methods of moving cattle to market. there's a staggering collection of ornate saddles, spurs, barbed wire and, of course...the guns. Some of the finest examples of rifles and six-shooters you'll ever see.

Bill trying to stick a card into a target

In the Special Exhibit Department we had, "Myth Busters, the Explosive Exhibition". Apparently, the team has franchised their show to museums that involve interactive science exhibits mimicking some of the Myths they did on the cable show. It was fun running through rain drops, hanging by your finger tips and swatting buttered toast to see if it would land on the heavier butter side or the dry side (mine was buttered side up). One experiment William and I tried was to see if you could pull the table cloth from under some dinnerware, like the magic trick. Both Bill and I successfully did so. I didn't know I had it in me.

Helena taking one for the team

There was even a live demonstration in whether you can "dodge a bullet". In this case they got volunteers to make predictions as to whether you could dodge a bullet (in this case a paint ball) and whether it would be faster if it was a sound que or a light que. As it turns out our hosts, Augusta and Julia convinced us (and apparently backed up by scientific testing) that a sound que works better than lights. Seems light takes us longer to process than sound in reactions times. Who knew?



We had a little time to wait for our Planetarium show so we decided to leave and get something to eat. I tried my new iPhone and asked Siri who led us to a hamburger joint close by. We were fortunate enough to be close to Fred's Original Texas Cafe on Currie Street. Founded in 1978 by Chef Terry Chandler, in a really homy old single story building in what is now the Fort Worth Art District. But it looks really out-of-place.  I would venture to say the neighborhood may have been the victim of urban renewal in that it is now dwarfed by modern apartment and multi-story parking structures.

But we were there for food and I ordered the Fred Burger with cheese and all the fixin's. Bill got the (sigh) Chicken Quesadilla (with all due respect...who goes to a greasy spoon hamburger place to order a quesadilla?). Both looked good and I must say my burger was one of the best I've ever had. A three-quarter pounder nestled between bun halves, the top bun gently butter brushed, it's top glaze sparkling from the combined lights of the beer signs all around us.


Well...you know....you can always tell the quality of a burger when you bite into it and are rewarded by that little puddle of yellow grease forming below on your plate. Not a steady flow but the gentle drip, drip, drip of exquisitely rendered fat which will probably require the remnants of a crispy fry to sop it up with.  Yeah...you know what I'm talking about. Quite delicious. Oh yeah, Bill said he thought his quesadilla was ok too. If you're ever in the area....check Fred's out.


Back to the museum and our rendezvous with the Planetarium. The Noble Planetarium is named after Ms. Charlie Mary Noble. Yep...a rather famous local woman. She went to college back in the 1890s when few women did, earning her Bachelors degree in Science from the University of Texas (Go Longhorns) and a Masters degree in Science from Texas Christian University (TCU) (Go Horned Frogs). She loved math and became a teacher in 1897 in a Fort Worth high school. During her 46 years as a teacher, she started the first children's science club because of her interest in Astronomy.

She was so good, in the mid 1940s, during WWII, Miss Noble was asked to teach a celestial navigation class for U.S. Navy officer trainees at TCU.  In 1947 she began teaching an astronomy course at TCU. That same year she organized a Junior Astronomy Club at the Fort Worth Children's Museum, which would later become the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

In 1955 the Museum's Planetarium was dedicated to her, being the first planetarium in the entire world named for a woman.  In 1956 she became the first woman to receive the Astronomical League's annual award for her advancement of astronomical knowledge. In 1957 and 1958 Miss Noble organized and ran the Moonwatch Program.  Moon-watchers, who were all members of her Junior Astronomy Club at the Museum, tracked the positions of Sputnik and other satellites for the U.S. government that allowed scientists to determine their precise orbits. She passed away in 1959 but is remembered through the programs at the Planetarium that bears her name.

The program we watched was, "Back to the Moon for good". It gave a brief history of our efforts to get to the moon and our failure to capitalize on that achievement. Little piece of trivia, the last mission to the moon returned two months after I graduated High School in 1972 (yes...40 years ago). It went on to present new efforts spurred on by the  Google Lunar XPrize. In essence, it requires teams to launch a spacecraft, orbit the moon, land a lander and either that vehicle or an autonomous rover then must traverse 500 meters transmitting pictures back to Earth while doing so by December 31st, 2015 to win the 20 million dollar 1st prize or a 5 million Dollar second prize.  There are 18 teams signed up and the clock is ticking.

A wonderful program viewed on their 40 foot dome screen. We had a great time and some pretty good bonding time to boot. Looking forward to the next such outing.

Boyd, Texas

As some of you may recall...I did a brief stint as a "Roadie" for my friend and co-worker Doug's sound production company. Always keeping myself in reserve in case Doug was desperate for help for a last minute gig that came up, an opportunity arose when a mutual friend, Brandon, was placed on injured reserve. Not anything that he did working for Doug (although I could see how that could happen in Doug's employ....hey, the guy's a slave driver). No, Brandon had a terrible motorcycle accident a while back and conked his head pretty good and had to have a follow-up surgery. The "quick" recovery didn't happen as planned and Brandon had to beg off. Then came the magical call-up from the minors to move to the "Bigs" and off the bench I went. Well.....it wasn't all that magical. Doug called me and asked if I had Saturday free. He caught me at a weak moment....I had been working overtime and was a little sleep deprived and hadn't had a second cup of coffee that morning. After much thought, with a little trepidation (still recovering from my two prior gigs where I had to sleep for a week and take massive doses of Aleve), I accepted.

I agreed with two stipulations. There had to be ample opportunities for sustenance (you know...large quantities of fattening foods, preferably fried, and, hopefully, funnel cake) and, this was a deal breaker, I could be in charge of something not just be one of the grunts. To his credit he said there would be a great barbecue guy there with the best BBQ ribs around (more on that later) and that I would be the senior helper and would be in charge of all the crew. My pride swelled as I listened and cheerily asked who would be on my crew. Doug said it was just me and him and I would be supervising myself.  I suddenly realized he had not been referring to any seniority I may have had among the other helpers but a backdoor reference to my advancing age. That Doug, he's a cagey one.

The gig was a small venue in Boyd, Texas (Go Yellow Jackets!) a forty-five minute drive west of Frisco at a place called the Boyd Fun Fest where the owner, Toby, was running a "Pumpkin Patch" for the local residents. As part of this, each Saturday, Toby booked bands to play on the stage of a converted box truck-trailer.

Boyd is in Wise County. Wise County was officially established by legislative act on January 23, 1856, and was named in honor of Henry A. Wise, a United States Congressman from Virginia, who, during the 1840s, supported the annexation of Texas. The county seat, Decatur (originally named Taylorsville), was selected by a countywide election and has remained the seat of government to the present.

The county, comprising 922 square miles, is divided from north to south between the Eastern Grand Prairie and the Western Cross Timbers regions of Texas (who knew?). Approximately 40 percent of the total area is quality farmland, and 60 percent is forest and grazing land. The first known inhabitants of Wise County were probably Wichita Indians, a nomadic plains group that depended upon the buffalo for food and other necessities. In 1540, when the Coronado expedition came through the area east of the site of present Decatur, there were several Indian villages between the Trinity and Red rivers.  During the antebellum period, Decatur was a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail route from St. Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California. Many Wise County residents fought in World War II; the Lost Battalion of 1941–45 was composed largely of area citizens.

Boyd is on State Highway 114 seven miles south of Decatur in southern Wise County. In the early 1890s farmers settled at the site, in the curve of the North Fork of the Trinity River. The community was originally referred to as Greasy Bend because the area was used to fatten hogs (I love that). After the Rock Island line reached the town in 1893, the settlement was renamed Parkhurst in honor of a railroad executive. Sometime later, railroad officials complained that Parkhurst might become confused with Park Springs, a town just down the line, and Parkhurst citizens selected the name Boyd for their town, in honor of H. S. Boyd, another railroad executive (really.....they couldn't think of anybody more important than that guy?). The Boyd community incorporated in 1895 and soon became a retail point for area farmers. Until the 1940s cotton and livestock were the area's principal agricultural products; afterward Boyd became a center for melons. In the late 1950s the town began to serve as a bedroom community for citizens working in Fort Worth.

Residents of note are Billy Joe Tolliver, former Texas Tech and San Diego Chargers QB. Bo, the First Dog to Barack Obama, was bred in Boyd (I bet the natives love that factoid). And Peter Mayhew (7 ft 3 inches tall), most famous for his role as Chewbacca, currently resides in Boyd (how cool is that Star Wars fans?).

Boyd is a neat little rural town with a very small town feel. So imagine my lack of surprise when we arrived to what initially looked like a car lot with a kids zone of inflatable slides and bounce houses amidst the pumpkins greeting us. We drove around back to our venue, the converted box trailer stage. It was pretty trick in that the entire side folded open providing a 40 foot stage with an overhang protecting it from weather (well...sort of) and allowed us to hang some of Doug's new cool LED lights for the evening show dodging the open holes in the wood deck flooring.

Doug and I dutifully began our setup by unloading all the necessary gear from Doug's trailer of death. Lots of large and small objects needed to produce music and lighting. Some heavy...some very heavy, some with tentacles which reach out and threaten to cut off limbs or at least put out an eye. Add to that several hundred watts of electricity, well you get my drift.

This is no Rolling Stones road show with convoys of support vehicles with pyrotechnics and stadium size big screen TVs and flying speaker systems run up by cherry picker lifts. This is two-wheel dolly, muscle it up onto the stage and hang it with a Home Depot aluminum ladder. I like to think of it as the Economy Class of stage production. It's steak and Champagne on a beer budget. But a lot of bang for the bucks.

There were two acts playing. A relatively new three piece band called The Hotheads would open and a more experienced regional act, the four piece MKB (Matt Kimbrow Band) would be the headliners.

Now when I say the Hotheads were new, I'm talking green. These guys had just graduated from their garage (and, I suspect from High School). When we had our briefing for what they needed, we learned they had failed to bring their own amps (a must for electric instruments to produce sound.... Hey, even I know that) or even their own drum set. We ended up negotiating with the members of the MKB band to let them utilize MKBs stuff. They were very gracious to the new upstarts and let them have the run of their stuff and even did a little mentoring as well. Very cool...it could easily have gone the other way. As one of the band remarked," Everybody has to start somewhere."

When they started their set, Mom and Dad and a couple of uncles and an aunt were seated front row center (well...it was actually a dirt lot) to watch their little boys play along with a small number of girlfriend-groupies. They were very enthusiastic yelling and applauding often to encourage these young men. For what it's worth, they did try real hard and although both the bass player and the lead guitarist couldn't carry a tune in a bucket (I'm in Texas now...I can say stuff like that) the drummer actually had some skills and I firmly believe he's wasting his time with these guys. I put forth the notion the lead guitarist was a cross between Bob Dylan and Willy Nelson. Doug was kinder and only remarked that it was the most unique voice he had heard to date. It was a very long and arduous 90 minute set. They kept looking over at us and asking to do "just one more." I'll let you decide for yourself:

The MKB band was a completely different animal. You can always tell experienced stage performers from the rest. These guys were polished and were well versed in the art of stage production. They had brought most of their own stuff and spent a lot of time with Doug refining their sound and look.

Matt, the bands leader, is an accomplished singer-songwriter in his own right and has really surrounded himself with some other accomplished musicians. They have their own unique sound and aren't trying (like many other cover bands) to emulate anybody else. It's quite refreshing to listen to them and their original numbers. Here's a sample:

The highlight of the evening was when they did an extended set and had Matts little boy Ryder (and future Country Music Hall of Famer) come up on stage and joined him on the number. Kid's got possibilities and may have a record deal in the making.

Now let's talk about the BBQ. Calvin Thompson brought his "Bama" giant smoker to the event and provided some of the finest smoked chicken and pork I've had the pleasure to sample. This was some tender stuff. Slow cooked in a custom three-chamber rotary smoker heated to about 350 degrees by a wood fired burner. Calvin confided in me he had put on his competition rub on the meat and slow cooked it for about four hours.

The smell generated by the curling smoke rising through the shade tree he was parked under had mouths watering for miles. Calvin is a competitive BBQer and has won some awards for his stuff. He's there every weekend for Toby's events and will be participating in the Boyd Fun Fest BBQ Cookoff competition this coming weekend. Oh yeah, there was no one making Funnel Cake. I have lodged a complaint with my International Brotherhood and/or Sisterhood (we are a very politically correct organization) of Roadies Union and may have to break out the picket signs to protest the unfair working conditions I have had to endure.

After MKB did their ninety minutes, we began the tear down to reduce our handy work and stuff it back into the trailer. Because MKB utilized most of their own stuff, we were able to put away all of our stuff in record time. Now it was around midnight when we left Boyd behind but the night would not be complete without Doug's appetite being satisfied.

See, there's this little known fact about Doug. He's always hungry. Because of this, he has several eateries he frequents when he's out on jobs. On this trip, we had to visit the  #912 QuikTrip Food Mart convenience store at I-35 and Highway 380, the highway that would take us home. There, Doug insisted I try one of their Sausage Dogs. Now, I am not a big fan of fast-food, but I will try anything once. Doug raved about the Sausage Dog and it's many iterations. QT has several self-serve products from breakfast items to hamburgers, hot dogs and sandwiches all waiting patiently on warmers and high-tech roller/heaters which ensure the dogs are cooked through with beads of fatty sweat adorning them. This close-up display forces you to approach and simultaneously invites you to pick one up and drop it into one of the cool steamed buns lodged in their custom little clear plastic locking boxes in drawers below the warmers.

Ok....it's not gourmet cooking but if you're hungry, the instant gratification of holding a perfectly prepared sausage dog is hard not to like. Yeah...I know, probably lots of meat bi-products, preservatives and most likely strange and unpronounceable ingrediments along with Red Dye #4 and Yellow #6 for coloring. But, I must say, a tasty little dog. A bead of yellow mustard and washing it down with a Dr Pepper (in Texas all things are consumed with a DP) did complete the experience...... but if I ever get back to a QT during a moment of weakness, I may indulge myself again. Let's face it, like a handful of other things like apple pie, football (not that damn European stuff), baseball and the Fourth of July, hot dogs are..... an American tradition and we need to embrace them for what they represent....America.

Perot Museum of Nature and Science

My family is well aware of the fact I will go to any museum anywhere at the drop of a hat. So imagine my excitement when my son (probably wanting to stay in the will) got Dianna and I tickets to the new  Perot Museum of Nature and Science  in downtown Dallas. Now I say excitement but when Dianna was asked about her anticipation level, she clapped her hands together like one of those high society claps followed by a subdued "Yea!" then she quickly moved off to update her Facebook page.

Now I should add (so I'm not killed in my sleep) Dianna has been a real trooper in that she has dutifully ridden shotgun on all of our excursions in which she has been forced to follow me into every roadside museum this side (well...and the other side) of the Mississippi. Slogging along in all kinds of weather to document each stop with Facebook updates and her Momentos app without complaint (usually).

The Perot Museum has only been open since December 2012 but has pretty much sold out everyday since. Thus the need to buy tickets online. When you do, you  have to select a date to attend and the Museum assigns you a time to be there.  This breaks up the numbers of people over the entire day so there is no build up of bodies in either the theaters or the museum halls to stop you from seeing the  whole museum in one visit.

The Museum is chock full of tactile exploration areas, discovery stations, workshops, demonstrations, lectures and symposia, field trips, labs, a teacher development center, after-school and summer classes, clubs, interactive media  and more. Online activities, interactive media and online education programs. They even take their show on the road to any venue you can schedule. Hey...you can even have a birthday party there ala Chuck-e-Cheese.

Tornado machine

Shocking statistic....an alarming 79% of 12th graders in the U.S. are not proficient in science, and in a study by the California Department of Education and the American Institutes for Research, At Risk youth experienced a 27% increase in mastery of science skills after they participated in a nature education program. They also cooperated better, resolved conflict better and had better self-esteem than their peers who didn't participate in the program. So the Museums primary mission is not only to educate adults but to provide a kid-friendly environment to excite children about science and math and give local school districts the resources they need to improve this statistic and maintain a competitive edge in the world.


We also got tickets to the 3D theater so we began our visit there where we were to see a National Geographic documentary on the life of Monarch Butteflies. Luckily for us there had been a schedule mix-up and our assigned time turned out to be the Dinosaur Documentary. Technology in 3D has really matured and watching all those Dinosaurs come to life was very cool. Best part was we were invited back to the next show to see the Butterfly Documentary. A two-fer!

Turns out the Monarch Butterfly journey begins right here in the Hill Country of Texas with Monarch moms laying eggs on our Milkweed that grows all over. The Milkweed they feed on as a caterpillar is actually a poisonous toxin and is stored in their bodies. This is what makes the Monarch Butterfly taste so terrible to predators. So it's perfect for Monarchs in that they can lay there eggs where they won't be disturbed and provide a ready supply of food for the young hatchlings. They continue to eat there way to adulthood where they turn from caterpillar to beautiful butterfly.

Hibernation

Monarchs can produce four generations during one summer. The first three generations will have life spans from 2 - 6 weeks and will continue moving north. During this time they will mate and have the next generation that will continue the northward migration. The fourth generation is different and can live up to nine months. These are the butterflies that will migrate south for winter from Canada to either Mexico or Southern California.

The documentary followed four generations through their travels and ultimate migration back to a special place in the Mexican Sierra Madre Mountains where the millions of the Butterflies go every year to spend the winter and hibernate. The amazing thing is, although the butterflies have never been there, they are able to navigate there way to this one patch of Mexico. It's still a mystery as to how they do it but because they are endangered, the Mexican government created the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve which protects the 217 square miles of forests in the Sierra Madres where millions of Monarchs spend each winter. They hang in clusters in the trees of the forest like moss wriggling as the gusts of wind pass through their wings until they suddenly burst forth in middle March with the change from Winter to Spring and they begin their migration back north to find Milkweed, mate and to lay eggs to start the whole process again.

The 3D effect had them swarming and swirling seemingly right in front of us as though you could reach out and touch them as some of the younger members of the audience tried to do.They filled the screen and sky blanketing the scene in every direction with their bright colors like confetti swirling in the air.So make sure you plant a Monarch Butterfly Waystation by using specific plants and raised flowerbeds to give the little guys a safe place to hang out and recharge  .


The Perot Museum building alone is an exhibit on it's own.   The massive blockhouse-like structure is 180,000 square feet. The building’s outer skin is made up of 656 textured precast concrete panels (which include recycled and locally sourced materials), totaling 4 million pounds.

It also has as a 54-foot continuous-flow escalator contained in a 150-foot glass-enclosed tube-like structure on it's outer wall which provides a breathtaking view of downtown Dallas. The escalator looks more like somebody forgot to put the last bolt on and it fell over in the wind.

The building’s plinth roof is home to drought-tolerant plants that are native to Texas. They even recycle the air conditioning condensation to use it for water and irrigation.The buildings water is heated by Solar panels on the plinth while the building’s interior is lit by LEDs and natural sunlight, including skylights for street-level rooms.

Plinth Roof

Although the exhibitions change periodically, there are permanent displays including the history of energy drilling/fracking in Texas, extreme weather, engineering developments of Texas Corporations and a the physiology and physics of Sports.Let's not forget that Mr. Perot and many of the big-money contributors of the museum made their wealth in oil, gas and electronics.There's also a pretty cool collection of Dinosaurs and particularly those native to Paleo-Texas.The most entertaining for me was the Rees-Jones Foundation Dynamic Earth Hall. There, among the many geological and weather related exhibits, was a shake table.

It was actually billed as the "Earthquake Shake Immersive Experience" in the Land Dynamics section and was an attempt (no matter how lame) to simulate three different levels of magnitude of earthquake. The uninformed would stand on the shake table, select a magnitude and begin to sway back and forth to experience this obviously terrifying event. Dianna and I witnessed one of these when a Texas Mom corralled her son and husband onto the exhibit. She was clearly in awe of the opportunity to engage in this brush with death.

Once on-board, she quickly latched onto both of the handrails provided (handrails....really?), instructed her son (he must have been the expendable one) to push the first (and lowest) magnitude and away they went with Mom holding on for dear life as this platform moved ever so gently from side to side. The boy then began pushing each succeeding magnitude to "Danger, Will Robinson!" mode. I could see Mom spread her feet farther apart and squeeze the rail tighter as she exclaimed over and over, "Oh God, Oh God, whoaaaaaa!" calling to those aboard to "Hang on!" as though they might succumb to the wild gyrations beneath their feet.

Let me digress to describe the actual movement I observed. Ever get into a porch swing and just push back and forth using your toe? I'm not talking a high arcing swing....that one just before you jump off onto the hard pack dirt we remember as kids...forget the whole rubber chip molly-coddling playgrounds of today..no, sir. And each progressive "magnitude" just increased the frequency to a point where you could have sloshed your Slurpy if you hadn't thought of it. When they were done, Mom looked like she had been through the movie "Earthquake" (1974, Charleston Heston) as the exhibit stopped, she pried her hands off the rail and gingerly stepped off the platform onto Terra Firma. I actually thought she might kneel down and kiss the earth (or actually the floor). Californians (and most Haitians) would have been incensed by her display. Amateurs!

After taking in the Perot, specifically navigating all five floors and dodging untold numbers of children and strollers, we were ready for lunch. Luckily, just down the street was an El Fenix Mexican Restaurant .

Miguel Martinez was an emigré from Mexico in 1910 to avoid the Mexican Revolution. Miguel meets and marries fellow emigré Faustina Porras in 1915. They have eight kids. Miguel opens a small eating place called the "Martinez Café" in 1916. In the next two years Miguel serves mostly American style foods but begins to incorporate Mexican elements and "Tex-Mex" is born in 1918 and Miguel reopens his new restaurant calling it "El Fenix" newly reborn just like the Greek bird.

Miguel wasn't the best business man...as an example, tortilla making was a labor-intensive job and would yield inconsistent product. Miguel built a machine that would do the work and consistently make those yummy little disks to butter up. Miguel sold his tortilla machine to a guy named Herman Lay for $200.00. Miguel thought he had been the winner in that deal; but little did he know that Herman Lay would later go on to create Frito-Lay. Ok....a missed opportunity.

In 1925, he bought the corner grocery store at  1601 McKinney Ave. and in 1930 expands into the building next door and adds a ballroom on the second floor which became a well-known nightspot for many years. In the thirties, many big bands like Glenn Miller, Gene Kruppa and Kay Kaiser came to play. In 1946, Miguel retires back to his home-town in Mexico and leaves the operation to his children to run. Since that time, they have franchised and further expanded their restaurants to 20 after 96 years in business.

Of course, we were in the flagship original restaurant in Dallas a short walk east of the Perot Museum. The menu is extensive and the Margaritas were flowing. It was late afternoon but it didn't look like the lunch-time crowd had left. After imbibing in two bowls full of chips and what seemed like a gallon of their signature salsa (well...I had to overcome the effects of the fish-bowl Margarita they gave us), I had the Pan Seared fish tacos and Dianna had the Cheese Enchiladas. For dessert we had the Chocolate Caramel Sopapilla. Awesome.

After walking our feet off at the museum, consuming some of the best Mexican food (well..and Margaritas)I've had since California (and concerned what I might blow in a  GCI  if we had stayed), we made our way up the Dallas North Tollway safely home.