Well (Fort) Worth It

Some of our connecting buses had been hours apart. Some, like the transfer in Montgomery, had been only minutes apart, but largely due to the lateness of the initial Greyhound coach. We had approximately 25 minutes to make our connecting bus in Shreveport to make sure that we got into Fort Worth in time. But alas, our first coach from New Orleans was running late (as usual) so we had a certain amount of dread that we wouldn’t get there in time, as we believed that probably the only coach that would leave on time would be the one we needed to change onto. Thankfully, we made it, and with only minutes to spare! However, a new problem presented itself. We had heard numerous stories of bags going missing on various routes, and to our horror we were told to get on the adjacent coach and “not to worry about our luggage” as it would be taken off and transferred accordingly. Obviously there was the chance of error to occur; a bag placed on the wrong coach here, a destination tag ripped off there, etc, etc. SO we tried to gain as much sleep as possible, all the while wondering if our luggage was safely beneath us in the cargo hold, or whether it was now wending its merry way out to Florida or Detroit. Someone must have been looking down on us, as we arrived on time and with our luggage safely ensconced in the hold. Soon it would be time to meet Susan.

Who is Susan, I hear you ask. Well, she is the lovely lady who graciously offered up her home for me and James to stay in whilst we explored Fort Worth. She had also offered to pick us up from the bus station and take us straight into the town centre and drop us off for some sight-seeing before coming to pick us up later in the day for some dinner. We knew we were onto a winner here.

And so the day began with a need for coffee. The sleep on the Greyhound had not been great, interrupted many, many times with stop-offs in middle-of-nowhere-one-horse-towns. The best we could do was to attempt a “walk-thru” order of two coffees and a breakfast sandwich for James from a nearby Cosmic Drive-thru. But it did the job and we headed out to see what we could find in the Stockyard area of the town. This was an area that had many Texan restaurants offering massive chunks of steak, for unfortunately rather out-of-our-price-range prices. But we mooched around, waiting for 11:30 when the infamous Cattle Drive would be heading through the cobbled streets of the Stockyard, which is apparently a big draw for the area. We loitered around the main street where the Cattle Drive would be heading through, with more and more people lining the streets we were thinking we were in for a great show and hankering to get a great position for some classic photos. In our minds it would be like the Pamplona Bull Run, with long-horn cattle tearing down the streets by the hundreds. Sadly, our overactive imaginations seemed to have over-egged the pudding a little, as there were about 10 cattle being slowly herded along the street by a few cowboys on their steeds. Still a great sight to see, but we were expecting so much more.

The fantastic, albeit slow, cattle drive

Fort Worth is divided into 3 distinct areas: the Stockyards, the Cultural District and Downtown. With the Stockyards “done” we hopped onto Molly the Trolley to get into Downtown. There, we hit Sundance Square, the Courthouse buildings (old and new), a free museum about Fort Worth and the Waterpark. The Waterpark was a great little place with numerous different water features built into the middle of the district. Although great to stop off at and see, it did raise the humidity levels somewhat, as was indicated by the sweat on my forearms. Unfortunately the one thing missing from the area were drinking fountains. Unlike DC, we only found a couple dotted around, with one being broken and one being too warm to satisfy our thirst. But luckily, the lady in the Visitor Center kindly gave us two chilled bottles of water on the house, and these were soon finished within a couple of minutes. Once Downtown had been completed we headed over to the Cultural District on the Number 7 bus. It felt very odd to be sitting on a bus knowing that we were not going to be sitting there for 10 or 11 hours whilst any number of weirdo’s coughed, sneezed, chatted or generally disturbed us. We were both excited to visit the Cultural District as the Botanic Gardens had been highly recommended, as were the museums. So we hit the gardens first, and as we were flagging a little from the lack of sleep the night before, we found a couple of wooden benches to catch 40 winks on. It felt like sleeping in a jungle with all the different sounds and sights around us, but sadly the bench was not up to scratch and I only grabbed 5 minutes of dozing whilst James was out like a light for 40 minutes. The weather had noticeably changed and as we headed off in search of other beautiful areas of the gardens we couldn’t help thinking that we had brought the weather with us from New Orleans (for we had left just as a thunderstorm hit the city, and thankfully a taxi driver had picked us up just as the first few drops of rain had started to fall), but Susan had said that the area hadn’t seen rain in weeks, so we thought nothing of it. But as we lingered by a pond that housed a number of wild terrapins an unexpected gust of wind nearly tossed me in with the snappy little critters. It was time to leave the gardens. Easier said than done, for we had not left a trail of breadcrumbs and the map was pretty poor. So by the time we had left the Botanic Gardens and made it to the Art Museum (free entry) it had closed. Another attraction we had missed by minutes, but as we were still “crashing” from lack of sleep we texted Susan who thankfully came to pick us up and take us back to her house.

Good job there was plenty of water!

Susan lives in a lovely little housing complex, in a bungalow with two cats (Indiana and Mistletoe). After a quick, and much-needed, shower we headed out to get some food, from a place called the Golden Corral. An all-you-can-eat buffet place with various foods from around the world, you grab a plate and load up with whatever you want. After two full plates, and a valiant attempt at a third, I was stuffed and both me and James agreed to keep our eyes out for any more of these places that would satisfy our hunger and our desire for green vegetables! With no room for dessert we jumped back in the car and headed home to complete our agreement with Susan. We had offered our services for anything that was needed doing around the house as a form of gratitude for letting us stay, and Susan had had the carpets cleaned that day so needed the furniture putting back into place We obviously agreed to this and set about our task, which was made all the more difficult due to Indiana getting curious and attempting to get in drawers, under beds, etc. Contract fulfilled we all sat down to a glass of “two buck chuck” (a $3 bottle of white wine) and chatted late into the night, at which point I had to call it a night as the clock neared midnight as I was beginning to hallucinate from the lack of sleep. A shared double bed awaited us (along with a playful Indiana, and occasionally a curious Mistletoe too) and we both knew this would be a much more restful nights sleep than one on the dreaded Greyhound...