4th stop: Fort Worth, Texas

Fort Worth

I arrived today in Vegas (more on Vegas in a later post) and had a great time in Texas. I expected Texas to be a bit chilly, but not as cold as it was. Asking around the locals tell me it’s pretty normal that the temperature goes below freezing around this time of year. I was hoping that as I head on south I would get the much warmer temperatures, alas even here in Vegas that isn’t the case. Even looking at the mainly dry landscape in Texas the cold temperatures just look so out of place here. Arriving here you definitely feel that you’re in the South: the big trucks and pickups, the typical (and might I add delicious southern) cooking, the cowboy hats and the southern accent. All of this adds to the warm, inviting and traditional southern feel.  My friend Ricky from the Symbian-Guru was kind enough to show me around the Fort Worth area so I could kind of get a feel of what Texas is all about.

We started the day off with a little tour of downtown Fort Worth and what struck me in this part of town and in fact in the entire Fort Worth area was the lack of people walking. It seems everybody here loves their cars and trucks and this seems to be the transportation mode of choice. In cities like Amsterdam or Manhattan people actually do quite a lot of walking and suddenly coming in a relatively big city like Fort Worth with almost nobody walking on the sidewalks is a bit different. The city does have a few skyscrapers, but these aren’t as tall or as numerous as in Manhattan. The city can best be described as a contrast between old and new. We parked in this big parking garage just filled with cars, but where were all the people?  The little downtown tour also included the Water Garden, a great little treasure hidden in downtown Fort Worth. If I was driving around here I would have actually missed this as the gardens are kinda hidden. I’m sure that unless you know about the Gardens, you’d probably pass them by several times without ever noticing them.

 

The Water Gardens is basically a concrete park with the main attraction being these three pools and a terraced hill.  The first pool is the most interesting; it’s a mix between a waterfall and a terrace. The cool thing is that you can actually walk down these steps as the water cascades right next to you. You don’t actually get wet, but I made sure I chose my steps careful as falling in the in that cold water with all those electronic devices was not one of those things I planned on doing in Texas. The sound of the cascading water is loud and by the time you walk to the lower steps, the sound becomes loud enough that you need to scream to hold a conversation. The sound is very relaxing. The other pool is surrounded by these weird trees that seemed to have been grown in a particular way to get this interesting shape. The pool itself has this weird neon green color. You know how in movies and cartoon they illustrate radioactive material with this weird bright green color? Well, the color of the water sinside this second pool kind of reminds of that.  And finally, the last pool has these small fountains that spray a fine mist. If you’re in the Fort Worth area, you definitely should check out the Water Gardens, especially because they are free. After that I had some lunch and headed back to my hotel to get ready for the highlight of the day or (or night if you will): Billy Bob’s Texas.

Before going to Billy Bob’s we went to have some dinner, the group consisted of Ricky, Christina, Matthew and his wife and of course me. So what is this Billy Bob thing? Billy Bob is a large western and country club, also known as the largest Honky Tonk in the world. “A honky tonk is a type of bar with musical entertainment common in the Southwestern and Southern United States, also called honkatonks, honkey-tonks, tonks or tunks.” This place is huge, complete with several sitting area, dance floor, stage and even a souvenirs store. The theme inside is typical for Southern bars with the walls that are typically filled with all sorts of things including pictures of artist who performed there, neon signs and miscellaneous. The atmosphere was lively, fun and loud:  with music playing and everybody talking at a higher volume, just to be heard over the music. This made talk to the ones sitting next you a bit hard. We sat in the bar area, but as a country singer was set to perform over there at that time, some people decided to take a in the arena right next to the podium. Where sitting a bit far from the performance, but due to the raised setting and the fact that the bar area is raised we got a pretty good view. I have to say though, I don’t think I have ever heard about this singer and I don’t remember the name either. As the night went on, people became drunk all around is adding to the sights and sounds : ) I also found it very interesting how some people took young kids and to this bar, never seen such a thing before. After several hours everyone was feeling a bit tired, so we did a little sightseeing of Fort Worth at night and headed home. Las Vega is next!       

         

Comments

[Ricky]

Dude! I totally forgot we were going to do a DWTG! Geez! Next time for sure.

[Devin Balentina]

@Ricky,
fo shizzle! You guys are always welcome in the tropics :)

@James
It's quite interesting James, would have liked to stay a bit longer though.
About the driving with the guru, Ricky commented on that, but didn't have time to do a driving with the Guru.

Devin

[James @ Nokia Creative]

Hey Devin, I've really enjoyed reading about your adventures... so cool that you met up with Ricky, Christina and friends! Ricky's a top fella! I'm desperate to visit Texas, sounds like you'd recommend it then? Did Ricky record an episode of 'Driving' during your visit?

[Ricky]

Glad you enjoyed it! Next time, we'll have to come down to Curacao to have you show us around!