Fort Worth, Texas - July 9th to 14th, 2023
By the time we reached Texas, the heat dome had settled in overhead, creating extreme heat. On our way to Fort Worth, we stopped a few nights in Vinton, Louisiana, just before the Texas border, to visit with some relatives. We spent our time in Vinton and Fort Worth working around the heat and seeking out air conditioning when we needed relief. Despite the heat, we still managed to see and enjoy a lot of Fort Worth.
The drive Sunday from Bogue Chitto State Park to Nibletts Bluff Park, both in Louisiana, was pretty uneventful. We took I-10 most of the way. About three different thunderstorms dumped heavy rains on us, but didn’t slow us down too much, as none of them lasted very long.
The Atchafalaya Welcome Center, near the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, was a great stop for a picnic lunch. The recent rain and the slight breeze made temperatures comfortable enough to sit outside in the shade to eat. We believe we have stopped at the Welcome Center every time we’ve driven that stretch of I-10. It is near the west end of the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge through the swamp. The bridge is the third longest bridge in the US, over 19 miles long.
After we settled in to our camp site along the Sabine River in Nibletts Bluff, our relatives who live nearby, came and picked us up. They drove us into Lake Charles to go out to dinner. They wanted to take us to Tia Juanita’s Fish Camp, a Cajun and Mexican restaurant, but it turned out to be closed as they close early, at 3 pm, on Sundays. Instead, we ended up at Saltgrass Steakhouse inside one of the casinos.
Monday morning, we relaxed at the campground. Keith pulled out our air compressor and was going to top off some of our tires. However, he was missing one of the hoses to make it work. There were two hoses that came with the compressor, so he left one of them at home. He didn’t look closely enough to realized that was the hose he needed, as the other hose had the wrong type of connector. We stopped at a NAPA auto parts store and picked up some parts to make it work.
Monday afternoon, we hung out with our relatives again. After getting our laundry done at their house during the day, we went out again for dinner. This time it was Neches River Wheelhouse in Port Neches, Texas. We sat outside, but it was in the shade with large fans blowing on us and a breeze from the river. It was a little warm at first, but felt much better as the evening wore on. There were nice views from the restaurant out over the river. Neches River Wheelhouse has a pretty large menu with lots of local flavor. For appetizers, we had boudin balls and fried green tomatoes. Boudin is Cajun sausage with ground pork, rice, and spices. The sausage is rolled into balls, breaded, and deep fried. The Wheelhouse serves its Bayou Boudin Balls with a Creole mustard dipping sauce and their fried green tomatoes came with a strawberry jalapeño sauce. Both were delicious. Not being a big seafood fan, Ann ordered the Wheelhouse Chicken. Keith went with Wheelhouse Tuna. Other meals that people in our group enjoyed were the Redfish along with the Shrimp & Grits. All the food was wonderful, matching the wonderful conversations we were having.
When we got back to the campground that evening, we had trouble getting back in. The campground has a gate that is closes at 7:30 pm. They give the campers a combination code to open the gate. When we checked in on Sunday, they warned us that the code changes on Monday and we needed to stop by the office during the day on Monday to get the new code. However, when we stopped by earlier on Monday, the person at the office said they were not changing the code that week and the old code was still good. But when we tried to open the gate with it that evening after dinner, it would not work. Luckily, someone came after us who lived there and had a permanent code that worked and they let us in. We’re not quite sure what we would have done had we not been able to get in. There was a parking spot outside the gate, but it was too hot outside to try to sleep in Red Tail (our Winnebago EKKO) without air conditioning. Parking Red Tail in our relative’s house overnight is agains their HOA’s rules. We probably would have searched for a nearby hotel.
Tuesday morning Keith was able to put air in Red Tail’s tires, now that he had all the parts to make it happen. Before we left the campground that day, we stopped by the office one more time. Yes, they had in fact changed the gate code, so they gave us the new number. We told them we had troubles getting in the night before. They apologized, but they didn’t really seemed to be very compassionate about it.
Tuesday afternoon was a repeat of Monday, except we didn’t have any laundry left to do and we went out to a different restaurant. This time was Lupe Tortilla in Beaumont, Texas. It was another restaurant with a lot of character and good food.
When we returned to the campground that evening, we were thankful that the new code worked. Gated campgrounds seem to be the norm in the southern states. We’re not a big fan. Being able to come and go freely is more important to us than any type of safety we might feel with a locked gate. What good does a locked gate do if you’re stuck on the outside of it?
Wednesday was a long drive for us, about six hours of driving, from Nibletts Bluff Park to South Holiday Park on Benbrook Lake in Fort Worth, Texas. For lunch, we stopped at a Whataburger. We had to. We’re in Texas, right? It was another hot day, really hot. While we were on the interstate, approaching Fort Worth, we watched the temperature rise. It was 100, then 110, then it was increasing about a degree a minute or less, until it reached 123 degrees. Yes, you heard that right, 123! That’s insane! Then it finally started backing back down. Luckily, by the time we set up camp, in the shade, by the lake, away from the hot pavement, the temperature was back down to 103 degrees. Ann is worried that Keith will never forgive her for scheduling a visit to Texas in July. Needless to say, Keith didn’t leave the air conditioning of Red Tail the rest of the evening.
Ann only ventured outside a couple of times. The first time was to steam some eggs in the Instant Pot outside, directly hooked to the 20 amp circuit on the pedestal, instead of using it inside and possibly needing to turn the AC off to prevent an overload of our circuits. The other time was after the sun went down when Ann went for a short walk around the campground in the twilight. We haven’t had much exercise the past several days, so Ann was itching to get some steps in.
To try to beat the heat, we set the alarm for 6 am Thursday morning. We hadn’t gotten any exercise in several days, so we want to fit a bike ride in before the temperatures got too unbearable. The system of Trinity Trails in Fort Worth reached close to the campground. We probably could have reached the trails by riding from our camp site, but we didn’t want to waste any of the cooler hours of the morning trying to reach the trails, so we drove over to the Art Cowsen trailhead. The trailhead was only a few minutes away and had ample parking.
The trail at the Art Cowsen trailhead follows the Clear Fork of the Trinity River all the way up to downtown Fort Worth, where it meets the West Fork of the Trinity River. We followed the trail all the way to Trinity Park, just south of the West Fork. The trail is paved the whole way. There are a few sections where a gravel path parallels the paved one, which is great for joggers who don’t want to be on a hard surface. There is one short section of the trail we were on that is on a road, but the road is not very busy and the clearly marked bike lane on the side is wide.
The nicest part of the trail, especially on a hot day, was the first section leading from the trailhead. It was full shade, with a canopy of trees creating a nice tunnel for us. However, we saw more wildlife on the more open sections, where we had a clear view of the river. Herons, egrets, and ducks were keeping cool in the water. The trail was busy with other cyclists, joggers, and walkers, but not overly so.
Even though temperatures would get up into the 100’s that afternoon, the morning stayed in the 80’s We were on the trail by 7:30 am and returned by 11:30 am, just before the temperatures crossed into the 90’s. A storm slowly passed through in the morning which helped keep the sun away and the temperatures down. It rained lightly on us part of the time. At first we stopped under an overpass when the rain started. But once we realized it was not going to downpour or hail, we continued on, not minding if we got a little wet.
We stopped at a bench in the shade in Trinity Park and ate a granola bar, with a view of the Fort Worth skyline just on the other side of the river.
On the way back to the trailhead, we stopped at the Press Cafe, which is right alongside the trail. The outside temperature was still comfortable enough that we sat at an outside table. It was a little early for lunch, but we decided to order food anyway. The stuffed French toast caught Ann’s eye. It was stuffed with mascarpone cheese and topped with strawberries and whipped cream. Keith had the egg in the hole made with sourdough bread. They were both delicious.
The trail was pretty flat, a total of 712 feet over the course of 22 miles. Most of the elevation gain was on the way back, as we were heading up the Clear Fork Tinity River towards the Benbrook Dam. On the way to Trinity Park, we had the power assist turned off most of the way. However, on the way back, in addition to the gradual incline of the trail, there was also a head wind. So we turned on power assist level 1 (out of 4) for part of the way. By the time we finished, we still had four out of five bars of battery power left. The power usage includes our previous ride at Bogue Chitto State Park in Louisiana. We were on the Trinity Trail for four hours including all of our stops. Our actual moving time was under two and a half hours.
During the heat of the day, we hung out in the air conditioning of Red Tail. Taking showers revived us. We used our own shower this time. The one bathhouse in the campground had showers, but it was not air conditioned. In this sweltering heat, the bathhouse was like a sweat box. If we would have taken our showers in there, we would have come out sweatier than when we went in. The other bathhouse in the campground had been torn down and they were in the process of rebuilding it. Perhaps they will add AC to the new one.
In the evening, we met our Fort Worth friends and went out to dinner. They took us to Joe T. Garcia’s in the Fort Worth Stockyards area. It is a Mexican restaurant started in 1935. The restaurant has grown so that it now holds more than 1000 diners. Even with that capacity, our friends say the line to get in can stretch around the block, although the line moves fast. Most of the seating is outside, but it is shaded with large fans to help keep you cool. Even in this heat, it was tolerable in the shade. It only got uncomfortable when the sun would poke through openings in the overhead arbors.
We all had the enchilada dinner, served family style. Despite the heat, it was a lovely evening, with delicious food and wonderful conversations in beautiful surroundings. A big shout out goes to our friends for such a special experience.
We slept in a littler longer on Friday, getting up at 7:30 am. We drove over to the Stockyards to explore, arriving just in time to join the 10 am walking tour. It is always nice to learn a little history and stories about the places we visit, making the sights more engaging. The tour ended just in time to watch the 11:30 am cattle drive down Exchange Street. The City of Fort Worth owns a herd of pure long horn cattle which is housed at the Stockyards. Normally they have a cattle drive twice per day, but the 4 pm drive was cancelled for a while due to the extreme heat. It was another scorcher of a day, with temperatures in the 100’s starting in the afternoon.
After the cattle drive, we walked around to scope out a place for lunch. We ended up at the Second Rodeo Brewery. There is inside seating, but out back there is a covered courtyard along with an open patio by the creek. In the “Truckyard”, as they call it, there are two walk up windows with food. One has Philly cheesesteaks, the other has hot wings of various flavors. We opted for the cheesesteaks. It turned out to be a good choice. They were some of the best cheesesteaks we’ve ever had. Believe it or not, we opted to sit and eat in the Truckyard instead of inside. It seemed to have much more character, the air temperature was tolerable with the large fans blowing on us, and we could listen to the solo guitar player and singer warming up for the 1:30 pm set.
Then we went for a walk, in the afternoon heat. We kept it short, walking the raised walkway over the stockyard pens, all the way over to Billy Bob’s Texas, the largest honky tonk in Texas. After retrieving some cash from the credit union ATM across the street, we headed straight back to Exchange Street to the Shake Shack for a cool refreshment and air conditioning to cool back down.
After our cool down, we ventured outside again. This time we headed over to Stockyards Station to see the different brick ramps that our tour guide talked about, built to help keep the cattle from slipping on the ramps. Then we went back to Second Rodeo Brewery for more drinks and to listen to the live music. We spent several hours there. At first we found a shady spot in the Truckyard, right in front of a large fan. But, after a while, even that got a little toasty, so we went inside. We could still hear the music inside.
Before we left the Stockyards, we made one more venture out in the heat. This time we walked along the creek behind Second Rodeo Brewery, then worked our way over to Joe T. Garcia’s, the place we ate dinner the night before. Ann wanted to get a couple more pictures of the place from the outside. By the time we returned to Red Tail, we were pretty hot. We still had a few minutes before we needed to leave for our friend’s house for dinner. So we turned on the air conditioner of Red Tail, knowing that we could run the AC a few hours on our batteries with no problems. We had left the windows cracked open, with the window shades in, and the ceiling fan on during the day, but it was 110 degrees inside when we returned. With the AC running, it was dropping about one degree every minute or two. So it was only about 104 degrees by the time we left. We each put our faces right in front of an AC duct, so we were able to cool our bodies down.
Then we had another lovely evening with our friends. This time we were inside, enjoying the cool air conditioning of their home along with more wonderful conversations and delicious take-out food from Railhead Smokehouse BBQ.
Would our stay in Fort Worth have been more enjoyable had the weather been cooler? Absolutely! But we did not have a miserable time. In fact, it was quite enjoyable. Visiting with friends and family certainly added to the wonderful experience.
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(Ann)