Half Day at the Fort Worth Stockyards

On the last day of our southern road trip for Teddy’s birthday, we headed over to the Fort Worth Stockyards. I don’t think either of us had any particular expectations surrounding the day, but we both agreed this was one of the favorite parts of our trip.

We explored five states over six days which included visiting Magnolia Silos, having the best shrimp and grits in New Orleans, learning about Hot Springs National Park, driving the Talimena Scenic Byway, touring Oklahoma City, and hiking in the Wichita Mountains.

Stop 1: Buc-ees

Rewinding the entire way back to the first day of our road trip after visiting Magnolia, Teddy had his first Bucee’s experience. Teddy had never been to a Buc-ees before and he was trying to use the voice command in the car to tell the GPS to drive to Buc-ees. It didn’t understand him when he pronounced it “Buckys” and tried to take us to goodness knows where so he tried to pronounce it another way because he just wasn’t sure how to say it. So he asks the GPS to take us to “Boose – ease” and I couldn’t stop laughing for a good 10 minutes. The GPS had no idea what he saw saying, I had no idea why he thought that was the way to say it and I laughed harder than I had in months. Teddy realized on that first trip how much he liked Beaver nuggets, so we had to go back and grab some more before heading home.

Stop 2: Fort Worth Stockyards

We got to the stockyards just before breakfast and had planned to spend the half day we had here before our flight. We parked in one of the lots and checked out some of the cattle before walking downtown.

Stop 3: The Biscuit Bar

For breakfast we walked to The Biscuit Bar. I found this online and saw all the different options they had for breakfast. They have your traditional biscuits and gravy and bacon egg and cheese biscuit, but they also have unique biscuit sandwiches. They have biscuits with hot chicken, pulled pork, burgers, bacon and brie, and ribeye. They also have tots and salads you can order as well. We both got the sausage and biscuit and then split the southern style tots. Everything was tasty and we got a kick our of the decor throughout the restaurant.

Stop 4: Daily Cattle Drive

We made sure to finish breakfast in time to go watch the cattle drive through town. This happens twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. While the cattle make their way down the main street, there was an announcer providing history about the area as well as about herding history. We learned that before the term “cowboys”, there were vaqueros, which derived from the Spanish word “vaca” meaning cow. During the mid 1700s and into the 1800s the term cowboy or cowpoke began to be used. While you may have an image of cowboys being white, the first cowboys were Indigenous Mesoamerican and as cowboy culture grew, historians estimating that one in four cowboys were black. 

Stop 5: Downtown Shops

After watching the herd, we decided to browse the various shops downtown. Some were very high end and we just admired the real leather and cowboy boots, and others had fun items and books to explore. I saw that Bison book for the first time on this trip and then a few weeks later got to read it at a coffee shop at the Houston Cafe in Gap, PA.

Stop 5: Coffee Break at Gold Handle Coffee Co

We browsed for a few hours and I needed a pick me up so we went into the Gold Handle Coffee Co. The name of the shop is inspired by John Wayne’s gift of “giving each of his cast & crew members a personalized Gold Handle mug as a token of appreciation”. We popped in for a latte and sat and relaxed a bit while we figured out where we wanted to head for lunch and to in the afternoon before our flight.

Stop 6: Lunch at H3 Ranch

We decided on the H3 Ranch for lunch and as soon as we walked in I was so excited to hang out here for a few hours. I love the western decor with the Christmas touch. It was pretty busy so we had to wait to be seated but once we were, the service and food were great.

Stop 7: Music at Stockyard Station

After lunch, we heard music happening in the distance so we walked to the big tent and saw there were various performers going on stage in the afternoon. We found a picnic table and listened to various country artists and people watched for the next few hours.

The entire day was very unplanned which is a bit of a rarity on road trips for us. We knew we wanted to visit the Fort Worth Stockyards but didn’t realize how much we would love our time here. It was the perfect way to end a week long road trip for us.