Sunday, Day 6

Howdy, y’all!

Hey, it’s Sunday!  Imagine that…LOL!

I woke up early this morning, had breakfast, and headed out to the Fort Worth Nature Center.  My goal here was to see bison and prairie dogs.  Check and check!  By getting there early in the day, I figured that my odds for seeing those animals were exponentially higher than they would be later in the day, so I guess it’s good that I didn’t stay up half the night drinking. 

As I started snapping photos of the bison, a truck pulled over and the guy started to ask me something when he noticed where my camera was aimed.  He pointed them out to his young son who hollered excitedly and the bison walked away…I think that I got a shot of one of them pooping at us…LOL!  I walked down the path to the “Prairie Dog Village” section of the preserve and (thankfully) left the loud kid and his dad behind.  I had no idea that Prairie Dogs are as shy as they obviously are, are so small, and can move like frightened bunnies.  I took some pictures but I’m not sure if they’ll amount to anything even if I zoom in on them in PhotoShop.  I also saw Bluebonnets! 

I didn’t go far into the preserve because I was alone and, while I’m not afraid of all snakes, I am leery of the poisonous ones; the reviews of this place said that there were cottonmouths which sometimes lie on the paths (and in the underbrush).  I could just picture trying to get a signal on my phone to call 911 about being bitten because no one was around to help…nope, not gonna chance it!  I stopped at the visitor’s center and they even had snake skins on display - so I’m thinking I made the right call.  I saw what I wanted to see and left.

I went back to the hotel, packed, and then headed out for some shopping.  My ankle was feeling better this morning and I was wearing my sneakers (instead of the flip-flops that have been my staple for the last few days) so I figured I was good to go.  


Did I mention that my hotel was smack dab next to the Cowboy Hall of Fame on one side, Stockyard Station (where the Grapevine tourist train – which someone on Yelp described as the “Train To H.E.double matchsticks” because it can take as long as four hours each way instead of its scheduled 90 minutes – stops in a tourist-y “mall”) on the other side, the Stockyard Visitor’s Center directly in front of it, and the Livery (where all of the horses and cows for the rodeos and photo ops are housed) behind it?  Yep, perfect location. 

I got a few little cute tchotchkes at the station (fair warning: "little" and "few" are the key words here), took pictures of cowboys, saw the morning cattle drive, and loaded up the car (since I had to check out by noon) before heading to lunch.  I’ve had TexMex and steak on this trip but hadn't had BBQ until lunch today - it was much better than the stuff I got in the Houston area last year – this stuff had a little kick!  I didn’t make it back to the car before my ankle gave out again. 

I only had three more places to visit and they all involved walking, so I tried changing shoes again…this time into heels.  It worked!  I toured two Victorian homes (including climbing stairs!) and a Log Cabin Village.  The homes were beautiful…the craftsmanship from 100+ years ago is amazing to behold. 

The Village was also really good; there were docents (in costume) in each building to give information about the time period…one even let us “help” dip bee’s wax candles!  There were Plexiglas dividers/walls to keep us from absconding with the “artifacts” but they were much less intrusive than the ones in the Corsicana village.  I really enjoyed this stop…it was most like what I was expecting when I originally scheduled visits to the three “settlements” (one of which I didn’t see).

I got a recommendation for a steakhouse from my cousin who used to live in the Dallas area and it was my last stop before checking into my hotel for the night.  Let me just say: Thanks!  I had told the waiter that I wanted to get dessert to go since I was full and would enjoy it more in a few hours…then I saw that what I wanted wouldn’t travel well (except in my tummy), so I ate it there.  The steak was awesome, the jalapeno Mac N Cheese was startlingly wonderful, but the crème brûlée was exquisite.  I have leftovers of everything except dessert for lunch tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, I only have one stop to make before heading to the airport, so my trip is almost over.  I’m in my hotel for the night.  I’ve had my nightly cocktail.  I’ve caught up on my recaps.  I guess the only thing left to do is to organize all of my goodies (aka: a couple of gifts and a plethora of scrapbook purchases) in an effort to fit them all into my luggage (thank goodness for gussets!) so that I can get a good night’s rest before my day of traveling home.