Well, I have to say, I don't think Tracey and I could have had much more fun on our weekend getaway trip to the Fort Worth Stockyards! I felt like we laughed the entire weekend!!
We were supposed to leave on Thursday night after I got off work but the DFW area was hit with the biggest snowstorm in 32 years so we had to delay our departure until Friday afternoon. Go figure, we're trying to escape the shit weather here in Oklahoma and 14 inches of snow gets dumped on our destination!
After lunch on Friday, we loaded up, cranked up the road trip mix tape and hit the road! Between Maysville and Lindsay we saw this little mess and hoped it wasn't a sign of things to come!
The big truck was apparently stuck and the Sears truck was trying to pull him out. I ended up hitting the muddy ditch and driving around the back of the truck and to my surprise there was a highway patrolman on the other side! OOPS!!! He was too busy to mess with us and we tore off down the road!!
We stopped at the first truck stop we found in Texas to do a little birthday shopping for Chris. Yes, we actually do like him but wanted him to have a craptastic birthday sack of goodies all the same!! Truck stop shopping rocks!
The Hotel Texas was our abode for the weekend.
I plugged the address into my iPhone and it lead us right to it! Lucky for us, not too many people were staying there that weekend because parking is limited. When I say limited, I'm talking about three or four parking spaces! Now this is not the most high class joint I've ever stayed in but for roughly $100 a night you're right in the heart of the stockyards. As long as you don't mind a camper sized shower, no closet, no TV remote and the scent of curry wafting up from downstairs you'll be fine. We chose to call it "quaint" as opposed to "ghetto."
Seriously though, it was clean and we enjoyed our stay.
After chili dogs at the Star Cafe we got all gussied up and headed for the White Elephant. I love the White Elephant and it did not disappoint. Right off the bat we met Randy. Oh Randy.
You probably had to be there but this guy was a hoot! He introduced us to his friends from Taos, Dennis and Suzie. They were very friendly as well. I asked Suzie if Randy was the mayor of Cowtown and she said no but "he has a lot of money and he's used to getting his way!"
Indeed!
He saved us major bucks in the beer buying department! We were paid many compliments and got felt up a couple of times but in the end it was all in good fun! We took his bullshit and gave it right back to him and I think he liked that about us! However, if I don't hear the phrase "hey baby" or "come here baby" for awhile that will be okay with me. ;-)
Davin James was playing that night at the White Elephant. We stayed there quite a while with our new pals. They ended up going to see what was going on at Pearl's bar. We stayed a bit longer and then headed over to another one of my favorite FW bars, Filthy McNasty's. We ran into Randy, Dennis and Suzie on the street and Randy told us to come back to the White Elephant. We told him no and he promptly told us to "f*#k off!" Somehow, as if by magic, our good time friend had turned into a surly old bastard!!
After sleeping in a bit on Saturday morning, we went down to my favorite Cowtown steakhouse, H3, for lunch. Oh my, my!!! So delicious!!! We walked around and went in a few shops. Also watched the Stockyards cattle drive before retiring to our room to rest up for Saturday night.
The TV happened to be on PBS when we laid down and since the damn thing didn't have a remote, it stayed on PBS the rest of the afternoon!! We giggled all afternoon!!! We learned about the value of a hairy pig on wheels toy, incubator babies used as a sideshow attraction and swastikas on a Navajo rug. The fun ended, however, when Lawrence Welk came on! Tracey took and stand and said "hell no!!!"
A friend of mine on Facebook had recommended a Mexican restaurant called Joe T. Garcias so we went out in search of it for our supper Saturday night. It was about a 1/2 mile walk but we found it. It looks like an old house! Upon being seated, we thought we were being ignored because we were never offered a menu. Then we were told by the waitress that they have two things on the dinner menu: enchiladas and fajitas! We got a plate of each and chowed down! Yummy!!! Look it up next time you're in the stockyards!
Saturday night we started at The White Elephant and, once again, spent quality time with our friends Randy, Dennie and Suzie. We bar-hopped around a bit and ended up seeing a pretty cool band called "The Kilroys" at Filthy McNasty's.
As we sat at the bar chatting up the bartender and applying temporary tattoos, this guy staggered up to pay his bar tab.
It seriously took him like 5 minutes to sign his damn name! I couldn't resist getting a picture of the signing. He was so drunk, he never even noticed and even if he did notice and take offense to my picture taking, I'm pretty sure his drunk ass would have stumbled and tumbled to the ground trying to chase me out of the bar.
We eventually staggered back to our digs at the Hotel Texas and Tracey mounted the saddle that they have displayed in the hallway. I took a great picture of it but I was threatened with violence if I posted it on the web. I'm pretty sure Tracey could seriously kick my ass so you'll notice the picture is NOT here.
We hadn't seen my car since we parked it out behind the hotel on Friday and were pleasantly surprised to find it right where we'd left it. Got a little lost trying to find a place to eat but finally headed our asses back north to the 405. All in all, a great weekend that neither of us will soon forget. At least the parts of it we can remember.
Cheers!
Shayla
