I'm going to Texas!

The second week of May I'll be in Forth Worth, Texas at a conference. While my first inclination was to try and use this opportunity to add three states to my list (Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas), the voice of nagging reason (aka S.D.) has convinced me that a better option would be to explore the area where I'll be.

So what, you may rightly ask, does Fort Worth, Texas have to explore?  (Any and all suggestions are greatly appreciated!)

Apparently - in the days of the Chisolm trail, it used to have one of the most notorious red light districts. Known as Hell's Half Acre, this area hosted a number of saloons, and brothels, along with their famous and infamous visitors. The Earps, Bat Masterson, and my childhood favorites, Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch. I'll actually be staying in this area. Of course the actually buildings were all plowed under years ago and it is now the site of Fort Worth's convention center and tourist district but hey...Northfield, MN is now a midwestern yuppie haven.

But wait, no need to be discouraged, Forth Worth does has an historic stockyard! Yup. You can't visit the brothels of yesteryear but you can see where all the cows were rounded up. Right next to the Armour and Swift meat processing plants. The historic stockyard features a twice daily cattle drive and gunfight.

I've also just begun exploring the beer situation, and it does look promising. Aside from Forth Worth being "the first brewery to produce Miller Lite, Fort Worth can make a Texas-sized claim as the birthplace of the low-calorie beer revolution" apparently there is a bar, The Flying Saucer that serves over 100 types of beer. The week I'm there, Wednesday night is "Drink the Beer, get the Glass" night. Starts at 7pm, for a limited time only...so we're looking at 2 glasses at the most. But it's really about the thrill of the hunt, isn't it?

Just like going to a new place is about the thrill of the new adventure.