I had been feeling a bit glum about the move to Texas in the run-up to our familiarisation visit to Fort Worth. It's easier to see what you are leaving behind when you have never been to the place you are going to. Not to mention the fact it's a 10 hour, 4700 mile flight from the place my entire family and all my friends live. I had travelled to America many times before I had the children, to both east and west coasts, and Colorado in the middle, so I felt like I had a good handle on what we're in for when we get there. But for some reason Texas seems a bit different. It's big, it's hot, it's conservative, it's gun-toting, and famous for cowboys and oil, well, if you believe the media portrayal anyway. My expectations were of a hot, dry, flat landscape with none of the rolling green fields I'm used to, and the usual skyscrapers looming out of a pristine downtown.
Flying in over Dallas to land I was pleasantly surprised. There were several lakes with beaches, and it was, to quite a degree, green (O.K., it's May, we'll see how that pans out as the summer gets in to full swing). The flight was pleasant enough, the first long haul for the kids, although getting through US immigration at DFW airport involved a tediously long wait. Still, through picking up the hire car, I was reminded how friendly and helpful Americans are, and genuinely felt happy to be back on US soil after so many years. Plus the weather was fantastic; sunny, warm and breezy. I'm liking it already.
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