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.

Lisa still has the quilt made for her by her grandmother when she was a baby.

The figures in the alternate blocks are all hand embroidered.

A pretty good way to heat frozen pizza.

The pizza oven is a rotating hot plate that heats a frozen pizza from above and below.

The result is a lovely crisp pizza to enjoy.

I just had time to take pictures of the Christmas Tree and wreath at Lisa and David's before they were taken down for storage for next year.

On our last night in Kansas City we went out to dinner with Lisa's mother, Roberta and friends of David and Lisa's, Natasha and Bob with their daughter, Zoe.

I am pictured here with Roberta.

Nani's place - this is Lisa's grandmother's home where she lived for 50 years.

The home is located in Prairie Village.

The view from the 26th Floor at the Radisson Hotel in Kansas City, MO seemed to stretch for miles and miles.

If I thought they liked doing Christmas lights in Dallas, they did even more so in Kansas City.

The images here shows just two sections of the set up in the front of a home where a gentleman has been creating Christmas decorations for years and years.

He has different themes for different sections of the front of his house and there are decorations on the roof as well.

This section on the right has a basket for donations and dollar bills and coins lie on the foreground of this fenced off area.

The lawn at the front of the house has been worn away by the many viewers who come to see his annual creations.

Lisa can remember being taken here as a child with her family to view the creations year after year.

David the cook - I don't believe it!!!!!!!!!

Lisa did a batch of cooking to take to Kansas City for Christmas and David helped out by making 7 layer slice - seven different ingredients - Graham crackers, coconut, pecans, melted butter, sweetened condensed milk, chocolate chips and butterscotch cookies (one layer is placed on top of the next - no stirring required) - baked in the oven for 25 minutes at 350 degrees.

Close up image of front yard blow up Christmas ornaments.

Inflatable Christmas decorations like this are very popular.

They are attached to a timing device so that they inflate in the evenings and deflate during the day.

This particular morning I saw these ones from my bedroom window and was able to take a photo before they collapsed for the day.

Christmas lights and decorations are quite common in the neighbourhood of Lewisville.

This 2 storey home is typical of many of the homes in this area.

As well as a United States flag, this home sports a Santa Clause flag.

Home again, home again.

Nice to go for a walk but nice to come home again.

The other partner in our almost daily walks in Monet, pictured here with Lisa.