6 Months, 2 Newlyweds, 1 RV

So after our bottomless lakes stay, which was really fantastic and unexpected in terms of facilities and hookups for the RV and what have you, we were back on the road for a few big days of driving.

There's not much to our first day really except that we drove lots and saw the scenery change from dusty desert with a lot of cacti. Moving through to low level plant coverage, bushes and small tree's which then moved into forest area's which I presume the Americans would call "the woods" but basically we would call it bushland. We stopped a couple of times along the way, twice for fuel, once for lunch and a few rest stops to stretch the legs after driving for a few hours. The only other stop we made that day was to a cowboy boot outlet shop, seeing as we were in Texas at this time we only thought it appropriate to checkout the local footwear of choice..... we presume. After looking around (it was a very big shop that pretty much covered everything cowboy from head to toe) and trying on a few boots, we headed back into the RV and drove well into the night before stopping at a service station in Dallas Texas where trucks and RV's can spend the night while just passing through and went to bed.

We awoke the next morning and we had previously decided to have an easy day a do a few things along the way and then drive until we were ready to stop for the night again. First thing on our agenda, to visit Dimebag Darrell's grave site and memorial plaque, now for those of you who don't know who Dimebag Darrell is, he was the lead guitarist for the heavy metal band Pantera, and then Damage Plan. Unfortunately he was gunned down and killed performing on stage December 8th 2004 as well as other concert goers and employees. As I (Kade that is) have been a fan of Pantera and in particular Dimebag's guitar skills it was like a pilgrimage for me to visit the site where has been laid to rest.

Just on a side note we did not know the exact location of where Dimebag's grave was located but we knew he was buried at the Moore Memorial Gardens in Arlington Texas, but as we found out from Google maps the Moore Memorial Gardens is rather big. And nowhere on the internet that we could find (we meaning my beautiful and very helpful wife Kate) a specific location for Dimebag's grave site just that he was buried next to his mother. So with that in mind we decided to just go with the flow and hope to find it somehow. That being decided we now had to fight morning peak hour traffic to get to the Gardens. This proved relatively easy with the exception of one unsettling moment when we saw a sign for an upcoming bridge that stated its height was 14 feet and 1 inch. Our RV we were told when we first picked it up was 14 foot in height, as we approached the bridge Kate and I both hoped that we weren't told the approximate height of the RV or that they guessed the height when they told us. On our approach to the bridge Kate and I both held our breath and ducked down in our seats and passed under the bridge without incident. Just to let people know that clearance between the top of our RV and the bottom of the bridge was 1 inch or 2.5 centimeters and as Kate said as we drove under, don't hit a bump or anything.

That crisis avoided we made it to the Memorial Gardens with no further incident we parked in the car park and tried to figure out where Dimebag's grave site was. Now for everybody whoever would like to find Dimebag's grave site pay attention. We parked in front of the chapel in the main looking car park, So as we walked towards the chapel we followed the road and went to the right of the chapel following the road. Once the chapel is on your left continue down the road until you come upon the lakeside estate on you left (as the name suggests they are grave sites surrounding a lake). There will be a small garden called the Reflecting Garden, just beyond that is a concrete path that takes you up to view the graves around the lake. Take this path and about 5 graves in or about 50 meters on your left you will see a grave marked simply with "Abbott" which is Dimebag's last name (Darrell Lance Abbott for those wondering his full name). Just in front of the Abbott gravestone and to the right is where Dimebag is buried and on top is his memorial plaque, where Kate and I both paid tribute to a great musician and left a dime each as a token of remembrance.

From there being on a high from seeing Dimebag's memorial and being able to locate it so easily we went back on the road to see where it would take us. We didn't have to wait long as we saw a very big sign advertising an outlet center after about 60 miles so we took the exit to check it out. Outlet shopping in America is pretty cool, being so cheap and all Kate and I both bought a shirt each and window shopped for all the other shops until we came upon a cinema located in the middle of the outlet center. It was a small complex and only had 5 movies showing (I think because they only had 5 movie screens) and as Kate and I had decided as we weren't in a hurry, to take in a movie. We decided (mainly me because the title was just so funny) to buy tickets for "Hot Tub Time Machine" which we do not think is out in Australia yet. Once the tickets were sorted we went about organising our lunch for the day, located on the outlet center property was a restaurant called Applebees where Kate had the riblets and I had the cheeseburger sliders, both came with chips. The cheeseburger sliders meal is an appetizer or entree or whatever you call it, its the pre-meal you have before your main meal, if you can eat a main meal after having three cheeseburgers with chips you are doing well. After lunch we hung about for awhile waiting for the movie to start which by the way cost $9 for both Kate and I and we had the whole cinema to ourselves for the entire movie. We both thought that Hot Tub Time Machine was very funny. After the movie it was time to hit the road again and we drove until late into the night staying at another service station that lets trucks and RV's stay the night.