K. D. Lunneborg - The Travel Times – V; Texas Part Two: Fort Worth and the Stockyards

September 1, 2025

Because we still have quite a bit to do before going home, we will keep going big, and the Stockyards in Forth Worth, Texas, are a great place to do that. The Stockyards are exactly that – yards for stock, or cattle. The Fort Worth Stockyards were a particularly large place for gathering stock.

As I am writing this, I am currently traveling in our truck with our camper. Although the scenery here in the state of Misery is a bit different than that of Texas, the south, and the west, it still reminds me of the drive days on that trip. There is a particular jerking back and forth that is iconic to pulling a trailer, especially over rough patches. Well, let’s get back to a much better state of mind: Texas.

From Waco, we drove to… erm… I think it was Taquamenomenah. 𝅘𝅥 do-do-do-do-do 𝅘𝅥 Menomenah. 𝅘𝅥 do-do-do-do 𝅘𝅥 Nope… That’s a waterfall in the Upper Peninsula combined with a song from the Muppet Show. Heh. No, it was some odd lake somewhere in Texas, named Tawakoni. The emphasis, I hear, is on the second ‘a.’ You might be able to tell why I get it confused. The funny thing is, however, that we never actually went to Tequamenomenah. Or, however you spell that place. When we bought our camper, we got a deal on a Thousand Trails membership, which gave us access to campers all over the U.S. This campground wasn’t too bad, but they had an odd gate policy where the code was changed every Tuesday. The playground was also unfortunately a bit swampy (although, not as much as Florida), but I enjoyed riding my bike around, nonetheless.

The Stockyards themselves were quite interesting, though. Twice a day, every day, they send longhorns through the roads, guided by muscle memory and, of course, cowboys. An interesting note about the longhorns – the Stockyards have made trading cards for the cattle. Much more interesting than baseball cards, I might add. The drovers (id est, the cowboys) hand them out to anyone who asks. Unfortunately, we forgot to ask. Whoops. They also hold ‘Wild West Shootouts.’ Going big, we made sure to go to both. It was an awesome chance to get close to the bulls without having to sign up for bull-riding, and the shootout was equally pleasing. They had great actors, and plenty of humor to go along with it, even ‘shooting’ a rubber chicken out of the sky. There are also plenty of wonderful restaurants in the area, and I would highly recommend going to the Stockyards if you are in the area.

Now, the trip to Fort Worth, the Stockyards, and the Taquamenomenama…what-cha-ma-call-it-waki place only brought us up to 1,899 travel miles out of 9,540 total miles on the twenty-twenty-one Out West Trip of the Lunneborg clan. I hope you’ll join us at our next stop, the biggest in Texas, Amarillo!