Cowtown Wakepark's March 3 Grand Re-Opening With Hotdogs & Other Mysteries

We need to talk about the Cowtown Wakepark.

I was surprised to learn this afternoon, via the Cowtown Wakepark's website, that today, if you are ready, the world's premiere urban wakeboarding venue is open for business. With free hotdogs.

Seems like only yesterday the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's first up and running vision was damaged by a flood.

Apparently that flood damage has been fixed. And for only $25 you can ride for 5 hours in the crystal clear, fecal bacteria-free, pristine waters of the Cowtown Wakepark Lake.

But, that is not what I wanted to talk about.

I first saw what became the Cowtown Wakepark back in September of 2010. I was pedaling my bike on the Trinity Trail and found myself surprised by the astonishing amount of Trinity River Vision Boondoggle signage, including a couple big signs announcing that the "Trinity River Vision is Underway".

I found the Trinity Trail detoured around what looked like a big pond. Big piles of dirt. Plus new, then un-opened, trail between the pond and the Trinity River.

I took pictures and wondered on my blog as to what the purpose of the pond was.

Either cd0103 (Connie), or CatsPaw, pointed me to a webpage with an article about the Cowtown Wakepark. This was the first I'd heard of this and when I saw the artist's rendering I knew it was the pond I'd seen from the Trinity Trail.

Back in September of 2010 we were all innocent, naive babes in regards to how nefariously corrupt the dealings of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and its chief henchman, J.D. Granger, could be.

And then we learned of the notorious backroom deal that had the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle and its cohorts, the Tarrant Regional Water District, giving Tim Love a sweetheart deal for his new Woodshed Smokehouse restaurant.

And then another bizarre deal that gave a Dallas startup business a drive-in concession as part of the ongoing effort to prevent flood damage.

I don't recollect hearing questions raised as to how the Cowtown Wakepark deal was made.

Clearly some special engineering took place to build the pond and to re-route the Trinity Trail. Someone had to have paid for that.

Was the Cowtown Wakepark deal of the same nature as the Tim Love Woodshed Smokehouse sweetheart deal? With the Cowtown Wakepark owners paying the TRV or TRWD a percentage of their gross? With the TRV or TRWD being the owners of the pond and the development?

It seems sort of clear to me that this Cowtown Wakepark enterprise is not going to succeed. I mean, really, how many people do you think live within a 25 mile radius of that pond who are willing to pay $25 to be towed around, by a cable, in a pond filled with dirty river water?

I really doubt Cowtown Wakepark will last the summer.

Then again, I could be wrong. I never dreamed that 100s of people would be willing to float in the Trinity River in Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Clearly I underestimate the locals toleration for swimming with the feces.