Yes! Another train trip to Texas.

August 4, 2019August 4, 2019 | run-sew-read

Almost a year ago, I took the Amtrak Heartland Flyer to Fort Worth, to see a concert. Now I’ve done it again, for another dose of culture, including the band ‘Yes’ and much more! This should definitely become a habit.

This trip was to see the ‘Royal Affair’ tour, consisting of Asia, Steve Howe’s Yes, John Lodge of the Moody Blues, and Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy with guest vocalist Arthur Brown.

The show opened with something ‘Crazy’ I never expected to experience live:

One thing that did draw me to the show was Carl Palmer. Fifty years ago, he was the amazing drummer for the amazing Emerson Lake & Palmer. Today he is possibly even better. He did sets with his own band, and as a member of Asia.

Curiously, there was a little megaphone on stage.

Before long, I knew why: One of the Asia members was in the Buggles. So I’ve now sung along to ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’…with Carl Palmer on drums!

Other special moments were hearing the John Lodge 10,000 Light Years band perform ‘Legend of a Mind’ (Timothy Leary’s Dead); a song from John’s early years with the Moody Blues at their most psychedelic.

Then Steve Howe’s ‘Yes’ did a full set of Yes songs. Steve’s guitar playing was another main highlight. The entire concert was over four hours long. Definitely a full evening.

The next morning, it was back to Fort Worth for an afternoon of museums via Bike Share. It was Sunday morning, so I had extra time to kill before the museums opened. I did some exploring around downtown, first with a bike ride around downtown, and then via the free Molly-the-Trolley loop. All of my modes of transportation were available from the Fort Worth Intramodal Transportation Center (Fort Worth ITC).

When the museums opened, I headed to the Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Museum via bike. It was already a hot day, but with a slight breeze, thankfully.

The museum district has these great murals on the buildings.

After that, it was time for an unplanned treat. Just down the street from the Cowgirl museum, the Kimbell Art Museum has a special Monet exhibit! It runs through September 15, 2019. I saw dozens of original Monets! It was fascinating, comparing the painted scenes at a distance, and then up close where the brush strokes and colors seemed almost random.

The famous bridge.

All of those lovely water lilies.

From the museums it was a bike ride back to the Fort Worth ITC station, and time to board my Amtrak train for home.

It was another gorgeous, scenic ride; on time, with a dinner of buffalo chicken and wine, and no bad weather. I was home by midnight.

A free afternoon in Fort Worth–a treat for my inner cowgirl.

September 30, 2018September 28, 2018 | run-sew-read

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.

Train, bus, bike, Uber, bike, Uber, train.

January 15, 2017August 9, 2018 | run-sew-read

I had to spend several days in Topeka this week. Normal routine would be to drive my car. It’s only a 2-hour drive. But Topeka is on the Amtrak route…and has bike share. And the weather wasn’t supposed to be too bad for January. So I resolved to make the trip without my car. Along with business attire, I packed my bike helmet, crushable all-weather jacket, fleece neck gator and good gloves. In other words, these items again:

All went mostly okay. The run down:

The city transit system got me from the train depot to my hotel, because my bag was too much to transport on a bike. The Amtrak station attendant was great in helping me get to the right bus stop. The bus drivers were all lovely and helpful.
Bike share got me from my hotel to meeting each morning.
Uber got me back to my hotel each evening. (It was dark, the streets are not bike-friendly, and the bike share bikes don’t have lights.)
The weather was basically great the first two mornings. The third morning was bitter cold (14F), but there was no wind, so I was fine biking in my layers, jacket, and fleece accessories.
The wait for the 12:29am train home at the end of my stay was several hours of heavy boredom.

Pros of going car-less:

Daily exercise and fresh air
Doing something fun and different

Cons of going car-less:

The time and hassle of adapting to the train schedule
The time and hassle of researching and adapting to the city bus schedule
The time and hassle of identifying bikable routes, and then finding out they weren’t so bikeable. Topeka is substantially lacking in sidewalks and bike lanes.
Unpredictable weather

Will I do it again? Certainly, when circumstances allow for it. Do these alternatives to driving my personal car need to be expanded to be more useful? Yes. All of them. Until then, most of the time I’ll still have to drive my car, alongside the tracks of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe.