Book Tour Part 5: The BIG D

When I’m talking about a ‘BIG D’, I’m not talking about myself (although applicable). I’m talking about Dallas, where they do it up BIG.

I landed in Dallas, Texas, after the first four stops on the Crusoe Tour, including; NYC, LA, California Cruising, and San Francisco. Now let me tell you straight, I really didn’t know what to expect in coming here. I’d never been to Texas or even anywhere close.

And yet, Dallas might have been the place that surprised me the most. It’s possibly the most dog-friendly US city I’ve ever been to. It seemed like EVERYONE here owns a dog and that EVERY restaurant & patio advertises “dog friendly / dog menu”.

It was already dark when we arrived though, but I was hungry, so we stopped at Mutts Cantina.

What a great start to my Dallas experience! I’ve yet to see a concept quite like Mutts – being a restaurant/bar with outdoor seating situated INSIDE a dog park! Or perhaps the other way around. Either way, mega cool.

Oh, but to get there, I forgot to mention we had to pick up the rental car first. Now I have a lot of fans in Texas, so once again I was concerned with Mum and Dad’s frugality rubbing off on me. So I insisted we get something nice.

I was quite content with the silver Audi A4 they picked out for me.

Although, as it turns out, they didn’t “pick it out” – because the fleet at Silvercar Rental are all silver Audi A4’s, and also it was the kind folks at Visit Dallas who arranged it for me.

So the next morning I rolled up to the popular Breadwinners Cafe in style.

It was delicious, but unfortunately as I’ve learned Mum and Dad are not the “breadwinners” in the family, so I had to pay.

From there we were to head downtown, but not by car.

We were to take the historic trolley; a very cool (and dogs accepted) experience. We thought it’d just be an old and slow public transit ride, but no – the driver was more like a tour guide than a trolley driver – and the trolleys looked like something out of a museum!

In fact, some of these things are over a hundred years old.

The most surprising part was that the whole thing was free! Anyone can ride the trolleys, free of charge, and enjoy a nice history lesson on the way. Mum and I like to watch out the window at the city passing by too.

When we reached our destination, we were right downtown at Dallas’ iconic Klyde Warren Park – a beautifully kept piece of greenery right smack in the middle of the city.

It was lovely, and it somehow reminded me of a football field.. Which gave me an idea.

I thought I’d show off my football prowess to all the pedestrians and people up in those skyscrapers around to hopefully get myself noticed and then drafted onto the Dallas Cowboys.

Because hey, a “star” suits me pretty well 😉

By my own estimation, I’m sure I’d be the fastest member on the team.

“Hey Mum, time me!”

But you should see my moves in live-action video. This is my official demo tape.

I expect my football contract to arrive anytime now. I’m thinking eight figures would probably be reasonable.

While in the downtown area, we headed over to the Reunion Tower – you know, the tall tower with the round ball atop that does the cool light shows.

And once up there, I had to check out the view!

At least that’s what I tell Mum! But in actual fact, I’m scoping out the babes lounging by the rooftop pools.

“Mum, just 5 more minutes. I’m really admiring all this beautiful architecture…”

But while I was looking around, I happened to glance down, and you wouldn’t believe what I saw!

I screamed, “WIENERZILLA, the city is under attack!!”

I was just kidding of course, but I did manage to scare the HECK out of a few Japanese tourists standing nearby.

Speaking of pools, later that afternoon a photo surfaced in the media of ME lounging by the pool at my hotel; the Residence Inn.

Confounded! I guess that’s Karma for you.

I can never escape those dang puparazzi, but I always look at the bright side – at least I was looking pretty sexy at the time.

Anyway, later that day we went for an early dinner at a nice Italian-style pizza place called Cane Rosso with a classic wood-burning oven.

Mm-Mmmm!

And the cool part? The founder named the business after his beloved dog, Rosso; hence ‘Cane Rosso’.

Fantastico!

After dinner, it was time for my book signing! And Dallas was to be my biggest turnout of the whole tour at over 300 people!

We had fans come from all over Texas and beyond. Heck, they were even sending me photos of them on their way to come see me!

This little pup belongs to our fan Kelley Brandt.

And I have to admit, my ego bumped up a few notches when I saw my name on the sign outside the Half Price Books location.

Those who arrived early for the signing were lucky, because the store sold out of books and the lineup was two hours deep as early as 30 minutes before the event even started!

To anyone who waited that long in line, sorry for the wait!

At least the store was big enough that everyone could fit inside.

I have to be honest though, sometimes I wonder why people go to such lengths to meet me…

I mean, I’m just a regular, lil ol’ dog.

Well, perhaps I’m being too modest.

Actually, now that I think about it – I’m pretty awesome.

I guess there’s a reason my book is entitled, “The Wiener Dog Extraordinaire”.

But my fans are pretty awesome, too.

It was a long event, and I was “knocking nails” by the end of it as Mum calls it (head bobbing from sleepiness).

So it’s safe to say I slept well that night. And good thing I did, because the next morning I was up early for an interview on Good Day Dallas.

Here’s my selfie with one of the hosts.

(BTW, she told me that the Dallas Cowboys would be crazy not to draft me – even if not for my talent (which is obviously quite apparent), but at least for my handsomeness.

While downtown, we then headed over to Pioneer Plaza, which features 49 bronze steers statues. But if you remember from my California roadtrip, I had a new cowboy hat to try out.

Maybe they weren’t real cattle, but no reason I couldn’t pretend they were!

“Yee haw!”

I think I could pass for an actual cowboy!

But I’ll admit, I had a few issues with the cowboy hat falling over my eyes while I was trying to round ’em up.

So feeling in the cowboy mood, we headed over the famous Wild Bill’s Western Store. But before walking through under those saloon doors, I had to pose in the #DallasBIG sign out front.

Although admittedly, I guess I’m more of a lowercase “i”.

Once inside, I posed up on the shelf next to the cowboy boots. I got more than a few curious looks, but they all moved on once they saw my price tag…

– which read, “trust me, you can’t afford me.”

And as it turns out, Mum and Dad couldn’t afford any of the boots either, so… (Kind of ironic that they’re my parents).

But anyway, as a nice and relaxing final stop to my Dallas visit, we went over to the White Rock Lake Dog Park. And what a dog park! It features two large grass areas for small and large dogs, and a splash zone!

I’m a big dog at heart, but I still stuck with my clan in the small-dog zone.

However, one thing that you may not know about me is that I’m not really a “dog person”.

I preferred to sit up on the bench next to Mum while I chewed my stick.

So maybe in fact I’m a human at heart.

I mean, you have no idea how much I wish I could hold a fishing pole myself. All I can do is sit and watch this guy on the edge of White Rock Lake – and cringe as his casting form doesn’t meet my standards.

But I’ll still watch anyway. Sometimes that’s the good part of being a dog – you just get to sit back and enjoy the ride – whether it be in an Audi A4 or a donkey cart. It’s about the people you’re with after all, and I have to admit – at the end of the day I have a pretty awesome Mum and Dad.

All in all, I’ve had such a wonderful time here in Dallas. The parks, the city, the dogs, the people, and all my fans – have been awesome. I’d return in a heartbeat.

Keep rollin’,

~Crusoe

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