dinosaurs, margaritas and more

there’s a quietness that hangs in certain places where you can’t really figure out if it is truly peaceful or flat out frightening. these places for me often include old churches, empty playgrounds, public libraries, public bathrooms, english phone booths, empty movie theaters and dinosaur parks.  yes dinosaur parks! I went to my first one, dinosaur valley state park in glenrose, tx. i went during off-season time so there was absolutely no one there, which greatly added to the eeriness of it all, but nevertheless – made for an incredible surreal experience. there’s nothing like seeing an actual dinosaur footprint, and tons of them. and what’s great is you don’t have to be ten years old to enjoy it, the excitement is still that grandiose in your mid thirties! this month’s issue of texas monthly celebrates 175 years of texas independence by describing “the greatest texas road trip of all time” – a journey to 175 places that made texas what is today. i went and photograph three of the places.

first up – dinosaur valley state park:

those circles are sauropod dinosaur (brontosaur-like) tracks.

this is a three toed carnivorous (theropod) track.

next up: the zapruder pedestal. talk about another eerie place – the grassy knoll would also fall into that category of pretty but…

the kid sits on the actual spot where abraham zapruder filmed 26.6 seconds of the kennedy assasination.

and lastly: where mariano martinez invents the frozen margarita machine (1971). his restaurant is now a petsmart.

the machine stood roughly where the fire extinguisher is.

all images ©  van ditthavong

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