To The Yards

Okay, last time I had us vastly enjoying (and getting hopelessly lost in) Fort Worth’s Botanical Gardens. It was, really and truly, the high point of our visit.

Oh, we did have one last fun mini-adventure that day. After we got out of the garden and were back in the parking lot, we realized we were hungry. We were about to pull out our phones and do “lunch near me” (which never seems to work for us), when I noticed one of the Garden’s volunteers was near-by. Specifically, she was seated in one of those golf cart-like “campus vehicles” that companies and organizations use on large properties.

You see a lot of those carts around the Gardens, but hers was a little different. She’d decorated it with colorful plastic flowers and other accessories. It looked cool and funky and playful. She was about our age, and I wondered if, in her youth, she had decorated her car with peace symbols and flower power stickers.

She smiled when she saw me coming near, and I took the chance of talking to her. She was cheerful and happy and pleased that we had enjoyed the Gardens so very much. I then figured What-The-Heck?” and asked her if there any restaurants near-by that she’d recommend to a couple of peckish out-of-towners? “Why, absolutely,” she said. “Try the Old Neighborhood Grill.”(1)

She gave us directions. We thanked her and then made our way to the Grill. I’m happy to say that she was right. Turned out to be fantastic. We had burgers and onion rings. Not great for our diets but terrific. (If you’re going to sin, Sin BIG.) Definitely, next time you’re in Fort Worth, and you should be around 1633 Park Place Ave., give it a visit.

Anyway, after that, it was back to the AirBnB, in all its prison-like grandeur. We had a pleasant evening and went to bed.

We were up early the next morning. It was to be out last day in Fort Worth and we wanted to get to the Stockyard District.

I think I described the Stockyard District last time. But, basically, it is a tourist center for Fort Worth, and located in what actually used to be the area where cattle entered the city and then subsequently left it again to feed hungry urbanites back east.

ABOUT THE PHOTOS: Three today. First, the cowboy statue I mentioned. Like I say, it didn’t turn out very well, but here it is anyway.

Second, a photo from the interior of the restaurant and bar attached to the Stockyards Hotel. I believe this is the H3 Ranch. Quite a place, really.

And, finally, a photo of Martha dating all the way back to our 2022 visit. Here she is posing with a sign for the John Wayne Museum. This is when she was still recovering from her fall. (Ouch!)

Now, the Stockyards offer shopping, dining, and other tourist stuff, all with a cowboy vibe. There’s Wild West-themed saloons and restaurants, exhibits, shops and boutiques, and so on. There’s even a John Wayne Museum, if you’re interested in him. I’m not. But you may be. To each their own.

Anyway, we drove over to the ‘yards. We parked in one of the lots (there are several) and after that there was the usual bit of Baby Boomer comedy as we tried to figure out how to use our freaking phones to pay for parking. You see, any more, you can’t just feed a meter or take a ticket and pay on the way out. Oh, no. That would be waaaay too easy. Now you’ve got to download an app. Or scan a QR code. Or dance the tarantella while singing the national anthem of Burkina Faso. In Swedish.

Anyway, we finally got it taken care of. And, small claim to fame, after I’d payed our parking fee, another Boomer couple came along and was even more confused than we were. They asked how to work the parking app and I successfully managed it for them. For a whole a fifteen seconds I glowed in my newfound reputation as IT guru.

Then, we set off. First thing we needed was breakfast. It was then that we got a bit of shock. There don’t seem to be many places to get breakfast in the Stockyards. Lunch and supper, and drinks, yes...but not breakfast.

Eventually, we lucked out and ran across Avoca Coffee Roasters.(2) (Yeah, yeah. I know. We always seem to find a coffee shop if there is one.) This turned out to have a good coffee and bagel sandwiches. The one problem was that you had go up a flight of stairs to get to its small, but comfortable seating area. No elevator. But, we managed it. Oh, for the days when we dashed up and down stairs like Chamois on steroids.(3) Okay, we never really did that. But what the heck? I can dream. And I love the word, “Chamois.” Sounds so classy. Maybe I’ll use it at least once a day from now. “Chamois, Chamois, Chamois...”

From there, it was back onto the Yards. We toured a bit...took photos of this and that...and particularly of an enormous statute of a cowboy on a horse out in front of the Hotel Drover. Honestly, they didn’t turn out well. The light was wrong and so and even the best shots I got were dark and shadowy. But, I’ll post a snap of it anyway. It gives a feel for the ‘yards and its Wild West idée fixe.

Speaking of which...we realized that it was getting on towards 11:30 a.m. That meant that it was just about time for the morning performance of “the world's only twice daily longhorn cattle drive.”(4)

Which meant a bunch of beasts. Plus...

... a hell of a lot of tourists.

More to come.

Footnotes:

1. The Old Neighbor Hood Grill has a website here: https://ongwebsite.godaddysites.com/

2. Avoca Coffee Roasters has multiple locations, but its Stockyards incarnation has a site on the ‘yards own webpage here: https://www.fortworthstockyards.org/eat/avoca-coffee-roasters And the parent company is here: https://www.avocacoffee.com/

3. A Chamois...or so I read in Wikipedia...is a “species of goat-antelope native to the mountains in Southern Europe, from the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Apennines, the Dinarides, the Tatra to the Carpathian Mountains, the Balkan Mountains, the Rila–Rhodope massif, Pindus, the northeastern mountains of Turkey, and the Caucasus.” I didn’t know there were such things as “goat-antelopes.” But I think we ought to coin a new name for them. From hence forth, I shall refer to them as “goatelopes.” Just sounds right, you know.

4. See “Fort Worth Herd Twice Daily Cattle Drive,” https://www.fortworthstockyards.org/events/fort-worth-herd-twice-daily-cattle-drive-1

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