APOLOGIES FOR TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES WITH OUR EMAIL SERVER ON JULY 17TH. THE LINKS
WERE NOT WORKING AND WE HAD TO RESEND THE "ALMOST" DAILY SCOOP TWICE YESTERDAY.
WERE NOT WORKING AND WE HAD TO RESEND THE "ALMOST" DAILY SCOOP TWICE YESTERDAY.
| Fun at the Fort Worth Stockyard Grounds  Tanya's Daily Scoop CURRENTLY IN: LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE, NH Good Morning and Hello out there, I've got to say that I am a little sleepy this morning... We got into Boston as of just about 6AM yesterday (Wednesday), after taking the Red Eye and luckily getting out of Texas just in the nick of time! - Tons and tons of cancelled flights happened yesterday and Cosette and Javier were on one of them and are now stuck in Dallas until 9P the following day - today. I have no problem sleeping on planes and during flights. As you've heard me say it before, they are like 'Nap Capsules' for me. (Heck I have no problem sleeping just about anywhere!) And that was my plan - to sleep on the plane. For that would be my "nights" sleep, but I somehow was thinking that the flight was longer that a mere 3 hours. Once we arrived into Boston, we had to pick up a rental car and drive the 2ish hours to get to the lake. So needless to say that there was a little stretch there yesterday when I was quite sleepy. But as they say " the show must go on" and I pushed through, dealt with hours upon hours of so much drama coming over on my phone (from doggie drama back at home to helping Cosette deal with the airlines and book a new flight out of Dallas) and somehow I managed to trigger my 2nd wind, 3rd wind, so on and so forth, eventually going to bed at around 1:30A. Now for the fun stuff... TRAVELIN' TANYA GOES TO FORT WORTH!! How amazing and what a fun time I had! Who knew that I had it in me to pull off being a baseball cowgirl for the day?! While I had already planned to squeeze in a visit coming out to Forth Worth to watch and see the Cattle Drive (learn all about this ONLY IN TEXAS event in Elisa's SCOOP) but while in Arlington, we found out that Fort Worth was hosting the MLB DRAFT. Talk about everything coming together and working out perfectly! There were MLB All Star banners and Welcome signs posted throughout the old cowboy town, along with the lawn of the Stockyards having games and various activities set up for all of the baseball fans that have come from around the world for this event! Check it out:  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c) travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com And if I hadn't already mentioned it, before heading out to Fort Worth for all this excitement, we had already spent the first few hours exploring more fun at the Playball Park in Arlington. (I'll catch up later with more pictures from the earlier part of the day). And what a day it was! Now time to transform into being a boat and lake gal. Hopefully I don't yell out a big YEEHAW while out on the water. LOL Ciao 4 Now, -Travelin' Tanya | Fort Worth Cattle Drive & The Old Stockyard Grounds  Elisa's Daily Scoop CURRENTLY IN: LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK Hello!! Your favorite cousins actually made it to you TWO DAYS IN A ROW this week!! I hope you like the new title of our blog THE "ALMOST" DAILY SCOOP. So...last week Tanya texts me all excited about an event she just heard about in Dallas/Fort Worth, which she inadvertently heard about from her daughter Cosette through one of her friends. My dear cuz didn't have all the details, except that it had to do with a "cattle drive" and she was going to get it on her agenda to go and see. Well, as fate would have it, not only did she attend, but it turns out that this "event" is the FORT WORTH HERD.  (c)travelincousins.com Neither of us, with all of our travel prowess had never heard of this quintessential Texas event! This event is truly like a throwback to when cowboys could be seen all around, driving cattle through the towns. A visit to Fort Worth will allow you to take that step back in history and enable the Old West to come alive. It certainly did for Tanya on her current trip to the All-Star Game in Arlington, Texas. During her excursion to Fort Worth this week, she experienced the world's only twice-daily cattle drive presented by the Fort Worth Herd where real Texas cowhands drive a herd of Texas longhorns down East Exchange Avenue in the Stockyards National Historic District every day!  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com  (c)travelincousins.com Filled with all kinds of tours, activities and foodie adventures, Fort Worth Stockyards' National Historic District is a terrific place to celebrate the romance of the American West. From the original brick walkways to the wooden corrals, every inch of the Stockyards tells the true history of Texas’s famous livestock industry. So what was this experience like? Well, according to Tanya, in her own words " Not going to lie - I was super jealous and wished I could be there this week with my dear cuz. It's going to be hard for you to believe, but, deep down, I free very much like a Texan at heart, considering I'm a native "Yankee" from New York. But, to me, there is nothing more American than the American West and cowboy culture and to have witness a cattle drive up close and person, seems like an exhilarating experience. A Bit of Fort Worth Stockyards History  (credit: rsmdesign) Of course, I'm not naive about the purpose of the cattle drives - they were for food supply and as a vegan, of course, my heart goes out to these animals. But, in pure historic terms, we are talking about a time when ranching was done more ethically and not in a corporate factory farm manner that it has evolved into today. People understood the value of these animals, their need to be outside, roaming free, free from chemicals and hormones and with a true understanding and respect. for a healthy herd. They were men of the land and not corporate executives. The best historic overview of the Fort Worth Stockyards can be found right on their website, so I'm going to add this for your information and reading pleasure: Established at the fork of the Trinity River in 1849 by Major Ripley Arnold, the Fort Worth Stockyards represented the last “civilized” outpost for cowboys driving cattle to market along the famous Chisholm Trail. By the mid-1870’s, Fort Worth had become a major center for the buying and shipping of livestock, thanks to the Texas & Pacific Railroad. Between 1866 and 1890, drovers trailed more than four million head of cattle through Fort Worth. The city soon became known as “Cowtown.”It soon became known as “Cowtown”. Between the 1880’s and 1950’s, the Fort Worth Stockyards grew to become the largest livestock-trading center in the southwest, and during the Great Depression, in the country. Cattle, hogs and sheep were bought and sold here, and with the building of the Horse and Mule Barns in 1912, the Stockyards hosted the largest horse and mule market in the U.S. during the First World War. The Stockyards continued to grow throughout the next few decades, reaching a commercial peak during the 1940’s. The 1950’s signaled a shift from rail transportation to the less expensive, more flexible trucking industry, and business gradually declined at the Stockyards as trading moved to countryside auctions. Today, live auctions at the Stockyards are primarily restricted to prize-winning bulls and “show” longhorns, bought and displayed for their fine lines and stunning animal beauty. This authentic historic district has become a hub for those interested in the rich legacy of the old west, a must-see mecca for those wanting to experience a piece of the past and learn more about what it was like to drive cattle along the trail to a thriving destination where cowboy culture and commerce intersected.  (c)travelincousins.com In 1976, a 98-acre (40 ha) portion encompassing much of the district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District. It holds a former livestock market which operated under various owners from 1866. In 1999, a reenactment of a 19th Century cattle drive took place in as part of the city's sesquicentennial celebration. To this day, the cattle drives continue to be held twice daily at 11:30am and 4pm with a Herd that consists of 17 longhorn steers, one steer for every decade since Fort Worth’s founding. Steers are led down East Exchange Avenue by a historically authentic, diverse team of drovers who represent Texas. The spectacle has captivated almost 20 million people since its inception.! Well, this destination is definitely on my bucket list for my next trip to the Dallas/Fort Worth area!! And that's it for today folks!! Have a great day! - Travelin' Elisa |
