Let's Go Mavs

Then on Wednesday it was all about transfer. We wanted to be outside of Dallas in order to have the whole day for the Texas metropolis tomorrow. For this we found a mega secluded campground. We were almost alone in the state park, the reception was a short hour's walk from the pitch... we still took the walk there, just for a chance at Wi-Fi, but it didn't quite work out... still beautiful, afterwards we had a big pot of chili 🌶 con carne and in the evening we looked at the starry sky. I have rarely experienced such a calm and dark night...

The next day we could sleep in and then off to Dallas. Even though we had little hope, we tried our luck with our two RVs with parking spaces in the middle of downtown Dallas. At first we thought no chance, but shortly afterwards we found a parking space. We always need two spaces in a row, because our vehicles are so long. So we paid twice. 20 dollars for three hours. That should be enough. First we looked for the Cattle Drive at Pioneers Plaza. It was actually only two blocks away... and very impressive. In the middle of the city between cars and skyscrapers, 3 bronze cowboys drove a herd of longhorns through a creek... perfect weather great photos.

Then we really wanted to see the site of the Kennedy assassination and the historic West End. It was very windy in Dallas today, but we still found this, it wasn't far away, and I always think that no one like the Americans can create memorials. Impressive simple and imposing.

Then a quick bite at McDonald's, and then to Dirk and his Dallas Mavericks. After all, we have tickets for the game against the Clippers. Parking is basically easy, if you weren't traveling with two whole apartments. We put everything on the handicapped card, left our larger RV at a nearby Walmart parking lot and all 5 of us drove with one car to the American Airlines Center. Right in front of our entrance West was an extra parking lot just for disabled people, showed the ID, wonderful. However, we needed three spaces and ended up paying 15 dollars. Per space!!!! On the regular parking spaces it would have been 20.

The AAC is like a fancy airplane hangar and therefore also has its nickname. The Mavericks experienced their golden basketball times in the Nowitzki era, and you can see it in every corner. 80% of all jersey wearers wear the number 41 and from every oversized billboard the tall blond guy, or The German Schnitzel, looks down at us.

There was a bit of confusion with the tickets at the entrance, but it could be resolved, and in the end, to our surprise, three of us were able to sit together. The arena is gigantic. Almost 20,000 seats, we sat on Terrace level 3 pretty high up, you had to swallow how steep it was. We were practically still above the huge video cube, the view was outstanding, even though the chance of a word with Dirk was zero...

Even the warm-up was a eye-catcher. Almost every throw was a hit, 'our' Dirk high-fived a whole horde of preschoolers who were standing in awe at the sidelines and it became clear at the latest during the player introduction how important the Würzburg native was for basketball in Dallas. He was introduced as a player in his 19th season with the Mavericks. It was also funny how the PA announcer called him...'number fourty one - - - Döck' the only player who was called by his first name tonight.

In the end it was a game that had it all. It was exciting, which was very conducive to the atmosphere, there was an unsportsmanlike ejection of Barrea who disagreed with the Clippers star Blake Griffin. DeAndre Jordan had a strong 17 rebounds and Dirk had a normal game with 14 points. Seth Curry was outstanding for the Mavs with 26 points. In the end, the Mavericks win 97-95 and cling to the hope of still making the playoffs. The evening was definitely one of the highlights of my vacation... but tomorrow there will be another one.