Encased in a glass chamber in the local history museum at Fort Worth was a beautiful Ottoman silk bridal dress called the 'bad luck bridal gown.'

The silk was showing signs of deterioration but was a beautiful gown, nevertheless. The front panel was row upon row of lace embellished with three dimensional flowers.

The history of the garment was posted on the outside.

It had been worn first in 1886 and within a short space of time the bride lost her husband. The gown was worn by another 3 women of different generations who all lost their husbands not long after marrying.

After this it was never worn by another bride but a woman who did chose to wear it for a day was suddenly struck down by a mysterious illness and had to be hospitalised. She recovered but the illness was never diagnosed.

The dress was donated to the museum where it remains until now.

One of the places we visited at Fort Worth was a local history museum. Within a relatively compact area there was an excellent collection of early memorabilia including examples of weapons from early American history and samples of Confederate currency.

Household items such as those depicted here were of most interest to me.

David - the reluctant cowboy.

Our day would not have been complete without a picture of David astride a long horn bull. Lisa and I took the easy option of standing alongside.

I would have loved an audio of the man attending David. He was there all day helping people on and off and his accent was that of a true Texan - a delight to listen to.

At Fort Worth there were shopping malls which contained mostly souvenir type items of anything and everything to do with Texas.

All of the shops had music in the background and all of it was country and western.

Of most interest to me was one of the first stores I visited where the owner, an artist, had a table laden with crazy quilt style handbags.

All of the pieces were embellished with buttonhole stitch only.

This lady had a whole range of craft products and she told me that what she enjoyed most was doing crazy patchwork stitching in the evenings.

The British would create a maze with garden greenery, here in Texas the same idea has been created with cow pens.

We chose not to try to see if we could work our way through, but rather stood on a platform to watch others.

If you look closely you can see an image of a model rat surveying the scenery.

To set the atmosphere for the day there were cowboys in the streets.

Twice daily they move a small herd of long horn cattle from one location to another for the public to come and watch.

Our day at Fort Worth began near Billy Bob's - a popular night spot for locals and visitors.

The photo didn't pick it up but there were at least 6 Texan flags flying in the vicinity - just in case you weren't sure you were in Texas.