The day after the ELO concert in Dallas last month, my train wasn’t scheduled to depart from Ft. Worth until 5pm.  I opted to spend the afternoon in Ft. Worth, so on checking out of my hostel, I caught the TRE commuter train from Irving back to Fort Worth.

In Fort Worth, I decided to visit the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.  Feeling an acute need for exercise, I opted to get from the train station to the museum and back via Fort Worth’s bike share.  There was a bike share hub at the train station and one at the museum complex.  Good job, Fort Worth!  All went smoothly with the bike checkout process.

Google mapped the bike route for me.

The bike was a joy to ride.  It was easily adjustable, and had no mechanical issues.

It was a mostly-flat, pleasant 3.1 mile ride each way.

 

 

National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame

The cowgirl museum was wonderful.  Part of it is under renovation and closed to visitors until February 2019.  This means I will want to go back and see the rest.  But the exhibits I did see gave me a badly-needed cowgirl ‘fix’ for now.  I could have stayed there all day.

I love the way they posed this mannequin and draped her red jacket.  It’s as if she just got up after being thrown and is walking back to her horse.

Annie Oakley’s wedding ring!

 

“Ride the range all the day till the first fading light,
be with my western girl round the fire, oh, so bright.
I’d be the Indians friend, let them live to be free,
ridin’ into the sunset, I wish I could be.”

 

Can you handle more from the cowgirl museum?  They have an amazing collection of historic western-themed Hermes scarves.

This scarf, wow.  Here is the center motif of an awards themed scarf that seemed to spoof the Oscars.  It was quite an entertaining thing to study.

After finishing up at the Cowgirl museum, I still had more time for sightseeing, so I went next door to the Fort Worth Science and History Museum.

In their huge lobby, they have a beam from one of the World Trade Center towers.

The beam towered over the lobby.

They had a great section on Energy, which I enjoyed so much I forgot to take pictures.

They had a large Cattle Raisers exhibit, which was an excellent complement to the Cowgirl Museum.

Lastly, they had a Grossology exhibit, on human body functions.  The irony about this is that I took a head cold home with me from the trip.  Ugh.  I was pretty much like this guy for the next week.

When I’d finished at the museums, bike share got me back to the Ft. Worth Intermodal Transportation Center, where I would await my Amtrak train.  They had some neat things to see at the station:  An old Fort Worth commuter train car.

A series of history-telling tile murals.

Back in the lovely old train station, I reclaimed my bag from the luggage storage service, drank a delicious milk from Subway, and waited the last few minutes before boarding my Amtrak train.

Some Fort Worth tips I picked up:

• The Fort Worth Intramodal Transportation Center is the Ft. Worth hub for all transit–Amtrak, the TRE, trolleys, buses, and bike share.  Darn handy.
• I originally booked Amtrak all the way from OKC to Dallas Union Station and back.  Turns out I only needed Amtrak between OKC and Ft. Worth.  Between Ft. Worth and Dallas, the TRE was the way to go.
• By cancelling the Ft. Worth – Dallas – Ft Worth portions of my Amtrak ticket before those departure times, I was credited that portion of my Amtrak fare, to apply to future Amtrak travel.
• The museums I visited are all at the Ft. Worth Stock Show complex.  The complex was easy to get to by bike, and offered lots to do in one spot.  The Botanical Gardens and Trinity Park are also adjacent to the complex.