Museum of Retired Birds

Several weeks ago, I bought a Groupon to go and ride a WWII plane over the SuperBowl activities in Fort Worth. Well, today's post is about the Vintage Flying Museum that runs the plane rides. I was totally intrigued!

Here's a plane that I guess had something to do with the Navy at one time - very neat shape...

Here is an old ejector seat from a plane.....

This is what it says right next to the lever you pull to eject yourself from the plane - freaky!!!

This was my favorite plane in the whole museum - it flew in WWII, if I remember correctly.

This is the front of that plane - there's a seat for someone to ride in that chair right in the clear nose of the plane - and shoot guns! Gives a whole new meaning to the term 'riding shotgun', huh????

Here are the guns on the sides of the plane. The plane is all shiny and pretty from far away, but when you get closer, it's like a death machine!

Here's the bottom opened up - probably for dropping ammunition out of there......

In the gun's path......

Pretty intimidating with the grim reaper on the side.......

I thought this was cute - "The Pilot"

And on the other side......."Other Guy" - too funny!

She was a beauty!

And in their workshop area of the museum, I saw this piece of machinery with a prosthetic leg/foot on it! What in the world?!

And it's not just the women of the world that are texting constantly - check out these airplane mechanics.....

Checkin' his email and texting the ladies while he's up on a plane fixing it (and standing quite diva-like, if I do say so myself)!

This blue one was pretty and had the super old-fashioned seats where there's no top!

This is a close-up of the seat......

And I also liked this one because it's red and it had lots of character.

List Friday

Top 10 Musical Acts

1. Bob Dylan

2. Bruce Springsteen

3. Sugarland

4. The Who

5. George Strait

6. John Fogerty (CCR)

7. Pat Green

8. The Beatles

9. John Mellencamp

10. Bob Seger

Sew It up!

One of the things on my 33-list was to buy a sewing machine and learn to sew. Well, that goal was achieved - or at least started - last weekend! I bought my sewing machine on Black Friday back in November, but I just now am taking classes to learn how to use it!

Here's my Singer in all her glory:

I signed up for a Sewing 101 class at JoAnn Fabrics in the Arlington Highlands (my favorite area to shop - it's fantastic and new and big and clean!). There were 6 people in the class (it should've been 4-5 people if you ask me) and we were all learning how to use our individual sewing machines and then we all made our own messenger bag by the end of the afternoon!

Here is my new friend Shelly (I met her while picking out fabric for the project) and her messenger bag (we ended up picking the same fabric). She's a great model for our project!

Here's my messenger bag that I finished in class!

It's even lined! I think they are super cute.

I'm not sure what I will use my bag for, but I don't even care - I love it so much! But even more than the bag, it was that I tackled a goal and I'm well on my way to learning to sew. My friend Reta and I are going to have "Sewing Night" at work soon - we are going to bring our sewing machines/supplies and once 5:00 hits, we're going to whip out our stuff and start making projects. She is an accomplished sewer, so she is going to be my mentor and teach me things as I go. I'm so lucky to know her!

Cowtown Oddities

As with a lot of my topics, I have to have a post with oddities or 'outtakes' from the outing. This day in the Stockyards is no different!

Here is an animal oddity that we saw in the Stockyards - a triple decker pet sandwich! A dog, with a cat harnessed on top of him and then a rat on top of the cat. So bizarre, but very cute at the same time...They attracted quite a little crowd.

I thought this bumper sticker was odd, but I loved it - I want one!

This truck was parked outside of the place where the animal auction was taking place. Heehee!

This was what we found on the ground outside one of the biker bars. You can drink outside in front of the bar and I guess this was the garbage can.....

And the last stop of the evening was Filthy McNasty's bar to see a band play. It was fantastic!

Longhorn Lesson

On my day in the Stockyards last weekend, I learned even more about my beloved longhorns! For some reason, I am obsessed with them....They are officially called "The Fort Worth Herd" - they even have their own Facebook page!

Anyway, here is the official 'brand' symbol for the Fort Worth Herd:

The symbol has a backwards "F" that points to its past, and a "W" that flows into its future.

And here is a sign that shows the layout of a cattle drive...It's like primitive football formations!

And here are some of the cuties of the Fort Worth herd - relaxing after their cattle drive down Exchange Ave.

About a week or two ago, I saw on Facebook that it was 'branding week' and I saw the evidence on this longhorn! It has the "Fort Worth Herd" branding symbol and some shaved fur. Cool!

Here's a black beauty chilling in their pen.....

I think this little lady was batting her eyelashes at us! She must be the slutty one.... HAHA! (Oh wait, they DID tell us that all of the longhorns here are males). Well, I guess he's the one with 'game'.

Our tour guide told us that this turnstile was over 100 years old - we got to go through it!

Here's the longhorns' home when they aren't strutting their stuff in the little cattle drives (2x per day). Here they are eating dinner:

I just had to take a picture of this cute braided horse tail....Cute!

Here are the cattle pens - they used to go all the way back to that stuff in the distance. HUGE back in the day. The heyday of cattle driving was back in the 1800's, so they've downsized since then.

Cowboys & Motorcycles

Last weekend I went to one of my favorite places in Dallas-Fort Worth: The Stockyards! All of my visitors know what this area is like since I take everyone there. It just never gets old to me and I usually find or learn something new every time I go.....this time was no different.

It was definitely the most crowded I have ever seen - because of the SuperBowl coming in a week and also the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo going on....oh, and the fact that it was about 70 degrees and absolutely gorgeous out.

It's such a crossroads between cowboys and bikers - so bizarre to me! And there were LOTS of both the night we were there!

I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to find the owner of this bike and ask for a ride! It's such a beautiful red and oh so shiny!

While we were there, we took a walking historic tour of the Stockyards which was super interesting. We hit a lot of the spots that I was familiar with, but it was cool to hear all of the history associated with each area. Here's the Cowtown Coliseum - built in 1908 and holds the world's first indoor rodeo (still operating today). Teddy Roosevelt did a speech in this building and while he was speaking, there was a huge fire that broke out across the street in the barns. Teddy himself helped the firefighters put the fire out!

As part of the walking tour, we got to go in the building that houses the animal auctions.

That day, they were auctioning off horses and we got to hear and see the action! Here are the auctioneers:

Here are the owners/potential buyers:

Here's the horse up for auction:

It felt like I was in a movie like "Pure Country" or something!

We had dinner at Riscky's Steakhouse right on Exchange Ave. at the heart of all the action in the Stockyards....

The Stockyards at night is just so beautiful! I love the atmosphere, the people, the horses, etc.

There were a lot of people out that night, but not too many where it was annoying. They even had little bands playing along Exchange Ave.

I found this hotel up the street from the main action - I love it! Hotel Texas - I need to stay there!

List Friday

My Favorite Restaurants!

1. Genghis Grill

2. Cheddars

3. PF Changs/Pei Wei

4. Angeno's Pizza (Minneapolis)

5. El Camino Real (Toledo)

6. Hard 8 BBQ (DFW)

7. The Elephant Bar (Toledo)

8. Sweet Tomatoes

9. Old Spaghetti Factory (Minneapolis)

10. Gloria's (DFW)

Thankful Thursday

This week, I am thankful for having a job. Work has been stressful in the last couple months and I sometimes let that get to me, but I have to remind myself that it is a BLESSING to have a job these days! Every job/company is going to have stressful times and situations, so you'll never outrun that....you just have to take it in stride and persevere through it.

When I dated Chris, he was going through the major upheaval of a layoff (which included losing a company car and computer too). He went through all of the emotions - anger, disappointment, fear, discouragement, etc. And at the same time, I would find myself complaining about stupid little things at work. How ridiculous!

So today, amidst the stress and sometimes frustration of work, I am very thankful that I have a job to go to every day and can live the life that I have.