Day 26: Fort Worth, TX
Welcome
Yesterday we headed to northern Texas for a show in Fort Worth
I woke up to find Deano sitting up the front of the bus waiting to deliver some good news. Rob was steaming west through Arkansas in Golden Sparkle Face and would reach us later in the afternoon. With this knowledge warming my heart I headed out into a rapidly warming Texas morning, in search of a breakfast.
My body was telling me to eat something with green in it so I headed to the nearby Roots Coffeehouse and ordered a Sunshine Breakfast - a sandwich with house-made egg patty, cheddar, tomato, rocket, and avocado.
I next went in search of an attraction. The closest one on the map was the Fort Worth Water Gardens so I headed in that direction, passing underneath the giant I-30/I-35W junction to get there. This junction was actually recommended to me as a great example of a massive Texas interchange, and so it was. My photo from ground level didn’t really do it justice so I found a better shot that someone took from the air.
📸 http://www.dfwfreeways.com
My hunt for a better photo led me down a rabbit hole, as these things sometimes do, and I stumbled onto a brilliant free resource for anyone who enjoys aerial photography of northern Texas freeways. Oscar Slotbloom must enjoy a great passion for this standard of infrastructure for as well as his 541 page book on the subject he maintains a very thorough website with an extensive collection of photographs and information on every section of this behemoth highway network.
I reached the water gardens which lie at the south end of downtown Fort Worth. There are three distinctly different water features to see here, and I began with the largest, called the Active Pool. Irregular concrete terraces create an 11 meter-deep gorge with water cascading down into the small basin at the bottom.
Next was the Aerated Pool. This one features forty evenly spaced nozzles that spray water at a very consistent height.
Lastly I visited the Quiet Pool, a very shallow pool surrounded by calming Cyprus trees.
I got back to the bus just in time to catch up with Liz and Tristan who were ready to head out for some bouldering. Our walk to the climbing gym took us across the Trinity River Bridge, an impressive structure that dates back to 1938, and features the famous teracotta panels depicting Texas Longhorns. This bridge provides a scenic route for cars and pedestrians leaving downtown and crossing Trinity Park, and it was from this viewpoint I was able to observe two other interesting spans crossing the Clear Fork of the Trinity River.
To the south of our position was the Fort Worth & Western Railroad Bridge, a humble through-truss design built in the early 20th century, with a longest span of 4.3 metres, and a total length of 153.6 metres.
To the north of our position was a much more modern design, a precast network arch bridge; reportedly the first of its type in the world. This one is the West 7th Street Bridge and its 300 metre length is comprised of six 50 metre spans, each made from precast concrete arches that were moved into place.
We had an enjoyable couple of hours of bouldering before getting a taxi back to the venue where finally, we were reunited with our fine four-fendered friend, Golden Sparkle Face. Rob was enjoying a self-congratulatory Marlborough Red and looking pretty pleased with himself, having driven a couple of very long days to catch up with us.
The venue we were playing was called Tulips. It is a medium club with a great-sounding stage and a sunny outdoor patio area. The stage was one of the smaller ones we have played on and for this reason it was a challenge to find a spot for Bird, our inflatable fish. They ended up on my side of the stage, not quite imposing on my space, but definitely always feeling present. We usually keep Bird deflated until we start playing, and yesterday this caused me to have to take evasive action when I was nearly bowled over by a partially-inflated flopping fish head, straining to get upright.
The soap dispenser in our backstage bathroom.
We ended our night in a complicated and drawn out fashion with a viewing of The Fellowship of the Ring. I have included a gif of the film’s climactic moment and you can play the included audio file below it at the same time if you want to relive the experience.
