We arrived at our motel in Arlington within a couple of hours from Abilene. It was just down the road from the Globe Life Park Stadium. After a quick bag drop we headed to the stadium to watch the Texas Rangers take on the Toronto Blue Jays at baseball. We were seated in some cheap seats up the top, but about halfway through we moved to some awesome seats right behind the diamond. And thanks to google we were able to read up on the rules.

Neither of us had ever been to a baseball game, and I tell ya, this one did not disappoint! It had all the ups and downs of your classic American sports movie. I didn’t expect to enjoy baseball that much but it turned out to be such an exciting game to watch. We had to stop halfway through the game for a prayer and a national anthem, why you ask? Texas.

Little did we know that we were watching rival teams. In a prior game, one of the Blue Jays star players, Jose Bautista, threw his bat in the air after hitting a home run, which is apparently a big no no in baseball. So tensions were high. By three quarters of the way through the game the Texas Rangers were losing, but soon made a great come back with a home run and a few more runs to follow. When Bautista came in to bat again the Rangers pitcher threw a ball that hit him in the body, also a big no no. Tensions were now really high. The crowd was fizzing at this point. The next time he was in to bat, Bautista did an illegal slide into the Texas Rangers second baseman. All hell broke loose. Bautista copped a massive punch in the face and the benches were cleared. All the players were throwing punches in a massive brawl on the field. It was the craziest thing! This hardly ever happens in baseball, so we were pretty pleased we got to see it. After the last tension filled innings, the Texas Rangers were victorious, which made for a very happy crowd. What a game!

The next day we explored a bit of the city of Fort Worth. Fort Worth has a pretty well set up historical town at the Stockyards. It has everything western and even a rodeo arena. Unfortunately no rodeo was happening when we were there. We enjoyed some lunch and checked out the town.

It was then time to head to the airport to board our plane to Panama. We loved our brief visit to Arlington and Fort Worth, and we just really enjoyed Texas in general. Obviously we will be back to visit again.

Here is a breakdown of our costs for 2 days:

Budget = US$272 (NZ$400)

Accommodation – US$60

Activities – US$30

Food/Drink – US$124

Miscellaneous (Petrol etc) – US$58

Total spent – US$272 (NZ$400)

So we were right on budget. Probably didn’t need to buy a Texas Rangers hat, but it definitely added to the atmosphere.