After 2 days of relaxing in the Renaisannce Hotel in Richardson we were
picked up on Monday 21.04. by Sherman Rotary club to continue learning
about the life in the Dallas Metroplex area. Monday afternoon was
still relaxing as we enjoyed the beutiful warm weather at Joe Henderson`s
garden and swimming pool. The dinner took place in Clark`s BBQ in Tioga.
The country side of Tioga was exactly how we were imagining Texas
before, full of Ranches with lots of Horses and Cows.

On Tuesday morning we had a tour with Sheriff Keith Gary through the
Grayson County Jail. They wanted to keep us there, they already took our
jail pictures for the records but we managed to escape. That was our
luck because we had interesting meetings awaiting us; The first one was
with Jana Garner, Court Appointed Special Advocate who told us
passionately about her job helping children in difficult life circumstances.
Next meeting was at Four Rivers Outreach center where we learned about the
programme for helping drug and alcohol addicted people who usually
 been through the jail system. This talk was very emotional since we heard
the touching stories from the people who experienced fighting the
demons to get back to normal life.
In the late afternoon we were about to become the local stars since we
were visiting the KTEN TV studio. We were able to see the news room and
all the preparation which are hidden behind broadcasting the news. We
had a lovely dinner at Huck`s fish Catfish restaurant later in the
evening encompassing three Rotary Clubs where $1000.00 for a paul Harris Fellowship was raised.

On Wednesday we had a hard time to get up for the 7am morning presentation
at Grayson Rotary Club. After the presentation we had a short meeting
with a former Texas Ranger who told us about his interesting job, Then
we were ready to experience the real Texas life on Horseback, Trail riding.  We spent the rest of the morning riding horses - exploring beautiful country side and galoping through the ranch. Unlike the others I had  one more first in my life experience of electric shock there!!! Well, I survived but next time I go near any fences, I will read carefully
what is written on them.
After lunch in a mexican restaurant we visited Red River Historical
Museum and Austin College. On the way back we step shortly into state of
Oklahoma.

Thursday morning we were handed over to Denison Rotary club. This day
was special since we built women power group for that day because the
guys left us to visit the death penalty jail in Huntsville (See Andy`s Diary Entry) Our women power group visited local company Crazy Crow which is trading with indian
and WWII artefacts before we had to step up a challenge in doing our
GSE presentation without the guys. We did fine until Bill Gates let us
down with the technology. In the afternoon we moved again this time to
Addison Rotary club. We had a lovely BBQ dinner at one of our host
families.

On Friday Andy visited a local Theatre, whilst Clare and Marc went to visit
Veteran centre. We all met up at the Red Rivers country dancing club for the evenings entertainment. We learned few steps in country dancing with professional teachers and enjoyed some dancing but somehow the artificial bull interested us more. We
experienced how difficult it is to disappoint a cheering crowd so we hold
on the bull with all our power and energy as long as we could, I rode well twice for the girls as Andy fell off pulling his thumb backwards leaving swelling and bruises (Still) be warned of the dangers of Plastic Powered Bulls Guys!

The weekend started excitingly with Car Racing on a local track. Some
of us wished that we hadn`t eaten before we sat into a ferrari and a lamborghini to
race in 130 mph. In the evening we went to a local Water Tower Theatre to see a very
interesting 2-man play called Tuesdays with Mory. After that we celebrated Clare`s 25th birthday in the clubs of Greenville with a younger generation Rotarian. Happy 25th Birthday, Clare!

Before we moved again on Sunday afternoon to Richardson club we learned
how to become a proper Texan...... and shoot the guns (9mm Glok). It was great exciting
experience and after shooting our targets right into the heart we change the Texan slogan a little bit from "Don`t mess with Texas" to "Don`t mess with sleep deprived Brits with a loaded weapon!" 

We have all loved our experiences and again we are very grateful to all the host families who have so kindly taken us in to their homes. Andy will be completing next weeks report in two parts to cover most of the week here and our journey home. Ahoj for now. Lucie x