Fort Worth

Today is a day we have looked forward to for some time. We are going to meet up with Charles and Tange, a lovely couple we met on the River Walk in San Antonio at the Boat Festival in November. They live just outside Fort Worth and said they would like to show us the highlights of the city. We arranged to meet them in the car park of a Chili’s, just off I35W. We lost our way in the very complex road system, which led to the air turning blue. Fortunately they were late as well because of heavy traffic. We decided to take just our van into Fort Worth, as it carries Sally’s Electric wheelchair. The plan was to visit the downtown area of Fort Worth called Sundance Square and eat lunch, then explore the Stockyard area, watch the cattle run and eat dinner in that area.

Sundance Square is a small area in the middle of Fort Worth which has be cleaned up and has become an eclectic mix of condominiums, high brow shops, eating places (not chains) and bars, most of which seem to be pub style. This area was recently seen on TV as it was the residence of the Green Bay Packers Team during the Superbowl. TV set up an outside studio in the square and broadcast many hours of TV from there in the build up to the big game. Most notably there are many large restored buildings dating from around 1900 – 1940 which feature some excellent Art Deco facades. It was fascinating to explore. The backdrop to these buildings were some modern skyscrapers, all glass style, which gave a cosy closed in feeling (not hemmed in) to the area. We stopped at a eating places called Risckys for a BBQ lunch where we had one dish between four of us! I then had to carry the remaining food back to the car in a box.

The Highlight of the the shops was looking in the very, very expensive western shop (Tange selected a lovely leather handbag; its price was over $5000, so she put it back).

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Following an excellent wander round the Sundance Square area we moved out of town to the Stockyard Area on Exchange Street. Fort Worth is most known for its cattle industry. It was the home of two of the largest meat canning companies Armor and Swift, sadly no more in Fort Worth. The canning industry needed meat and lots of it, so the stockyards round the factories were built to handle literally thousands of cattle, sheep and pigs daily. Exchange Street has become a tourist area of bars, shops and eating places, but many of the original buildings are still there, including a huge stables, the most amazing station and the stockyards themselves. The highlight of the Stockyard is the twice daily cattle drive through the street, a remembrance of the cattle drives that used to happen in its heyday. Twice a day the road is cleared, visitors (including us) wait on the sidewalk and a herd (15) of Longhorn Cattle are driven along the road. All great fun. Many people come to the area dressed as wranglers or cowboys, some to pose with tourists for money, others just because! We really enjoyed visiting the railroad station, it is like no other we have seen. It is a turn off Exchange Street and is a narrow brick road, with shops on both sides, almost completely closed in roof with a rail track running down the middle, no platform of course. When we arrived it was jam packed with people and a full size train, more like I think Calcutta station would be like than USA. Conductors at each carriage, with lots of shouting of all aboard added to the atmosphere, as did the Western Country band playing on the sidewalk. As we watched, the final whistles blew and the big diesel loco pulled the train way from the station to much waving by both passengers and passers by.

Following our exploration of The Stockyards it was time to eat again, Charles and Tange wanted to take us to a Joe T Garcia’s, which is more of an institution that a restaurant. It is simple Mexican food; you can order either enchiladas or fajitas. However it is the place itself that is fascinating. It occupies a complete city block, with a good sized indoor restaurant. However everyone comes the to eat on the patio, which is a huge garden with lots of small areas with ponds and fountains . When we arrived there was a line which ran out of the building, so we decided to eat indoors as there was seating available. However when we left we looked round the garden. The restaurant has seating for 1600, and is mostly a very lovely area of gardens. When we left, about 6.30, the line had grown to around 100 metres of people waiting to eat in the patio area. The streets around were packed with cars parked and there was even a line of cars waiting to get into the street area round Joe T Garcia’s! The food was very nice, with lots of bits brought to the table, nachos, tacos, tortillas and dips. A really fun place to eat.

Following our meal it was time to say goodbye to Charles and Tange who had been the best possible guides and friends on our day out in Fort Worth. Another day that am sure we shall never forget.

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