Cowboys Want To Stop California's DreamVision From Ruining The Fort Worth Stockyards

Last night that which you see here showed up via my primary electronic communication device.

Apparently the Dallas Cowboys are upset about their favorite playground, that being the Fort Worth Stockyards, where one finds the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplexes most concentrated collection of cowboys, being potentially damaged by a California developer.

In the past couple days I have heard a time or two reference made to some sort of theme park coming to Fort Worth, this being a supposed 5,000 acre, multi-billion dollar development, by a California developer called DreamVision.

My reaction to reading that DreamVision is claiming it wants to make Fort Worth the family entertainment capital of the world involves some eye rolling, along with other gesturing.

Yes, it seems possible landlocked Fort Worth, with its beautiful bodies of water, including the pristine Trinity River, along with its mild weather, cool summers, warm winters, could easily supplant places like Orlando and Anaheim as the family entertainment capital of the world.

Googling "DreamVision Fort Worth" I came upon an instructive article via WFAA titled "Proposed Fort Worth Theme Park" part of which I will copy below...

FORT WORTH — Fort Worth is no stranger to fun; just look to the ongoing Stock Show and Rodeo.

But a 5,000-acre theme park would be a game-changer.

That's what Fort Worth-based The DreamVision Company will reveal Monday, according to a news release. Its website alludes to plans for a sprawling attraction in Cowtown, complete with golf courses, hotels, and more

If this whole concept sounds familiar, there's good reason. We spoke to DreamVision's CEO Rick Silanskas in 2013 after his company held a huge event downtown and announced similar plans, which have not yet come to fruition.

"We want to see Fort Worth become the family entertainment capital of the world," he said then.

Perhaps this time around, DreamVision will turn its dreams (and visions) into reality.

So.

We find out Monday if the family entertainment capital of the world is going to be located in the Fort Worth Stockyards. Are there 5,000 acres of land available for developing in the Stockyards zone? I would think not.

Before the Dallas Cowboys, and others, in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex get themselves all twisted with worry about the California destruction of the Stockyards, let us review some Fort Worth history of these type grandiose pronouncements and their actual reality.

Early this century we had the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy's Santa Fe Rail Market debacle, sold to the public as the first public market in Texas, modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market, but which was, in reality, a small, food court type failure which did not last long before closing.

Also early in this century we had the Fort Worth Dunce Confederacy foisting a "public works" project on Fort Worth which would allegedly turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South. This was called Trinity Uptown, which then became the Trinity River Vision after an un-needed flood control aspect was added to the project in order to try and secure, unsuccessfully, federal money for what is now know, years later, simply as The Boondoggle.

Then we had the Cabela's Embarrassment, where Cabela's convinced the Dunce Confederacy, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram went along with the nonsense, that being the bizarre idea that a sporting goods store would give Fort Worth the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas. The Dunce Confederacy fawned all over this con job, giving all sorts of tax breaks to Cabela's.

I blogged about the Cabela's Embarrassment several times, including a blogging titled Fort Worth and Cabela's and another titled The Top 15 Texas Tourist Attractions With #1 Not Being Cabela's Sporting Goods Store.

And then there was back in 2009 when another Fort Worth theme park development was announced. I blogged about that one in Fort Worth Glacier Peak Bearfire Resort Vision. And needless to say, no one is skiing down a fake mountain at the Glacier Peak Bearfire Resort, because it never was built.

I suspect never being built is the same fate that will come to DreamVision's possible plan to turn Fort Worth into the family entertainment capital of the world, with no theme park ever built, and the Fort Worth Stockyards remaining safe in its currently slightly neglected state....

I Am Excited To Go To Hummusland Even Though Hummus Is Making Me Fat

I don't remember if I've mentioned one of my recent conundrums, that being my inexplicable weight gain. As in the past few months I have steadily been heavier each time I step on the scale.

I thought maybe the greatly reduced amount of swimming time was the culprit. And less other type exercise, due to the weather restrictions imposed by this bad Texas winter we are currently having.

I'm not an over eater. I'm a bit of a health food nut, sort of. Have been that way for decades. I rarely eat in restaurants. I don't like candy. I don't even eat dinner, at night I just have a healthy snack.

So, what is causing the weight gain? I'm almost 100% certain it's not all added muscle. I have not had clothes fitting tighter. I can easily get into my skinny jeans that I could not easily get into before I moved to Texas. I just realized, those are old jeans.

Anyway, this morning I was trying to think of anything I've done different the past few months. I realized I've consumed massive quantities of hummus. But that's pretty much a health food, garbanzos, roasted red peppers, garlic, lemon, tahini, onion, other good stuff.

This morning I Googled to find out the caloric count for hummus. Over 400 calories a cup? It is easy to eat 2 cups of the stuff. That is not sufficient calories to explain the weight gain. My research continues.

In the meantime, Googling hummus brought up something really bizarre.

After Lebanon won the Guinness World Record for the largest plate of hummus, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism announced plans to win the record back by building a massive hummus themed resort and spa in an area called Shebaa Farms in a disputed 12 mile strip of land on the border of Israel and Lebanon.

Hummusland will have a huge Lagoon filled with hummus, in which Hummusland visitors will be able to swim, ride canoes and take in the rejuvenating powers of the anti-oxidizing pulverized garbanzos.

The Hummusland Lagoon will also have a wave pool, a creek, waterfalls and a shark reef. All filled with hummus.

Are sharks going to be happy swimming in hummus? I can't help but wonder.

The director of the Hummusland project, Amos Cohen, says, “The total volume of hummus that is pumped through the park each day will exceed a million cubic meters. This will make the Lebanese 2,506 kilogram dish seem like a joke. Our kiddie pool alone will have twenty times that much hummus in it.”

Cohen says there are plans to add other Israeli dishes, like zaatar, couscous, shawarma and falafel, to the park's attractions. Falafel Mountain is currently under development. This will be a roller coaster which tunnels inside a giant Falafel, as big as a football stadium.

I don't know about these Israelis. Hummusland sounds like something nutty I'd read here about some kooky Texas plan, like Bearfire Resort.

I forgot to mention, that is an artist's rendering of an overview of Hummusland at the top.

Fort Worth Glacier Peak Bearfire Resort Vision

Earlier today I blogged about Seattle's cruise ships. That somehow had me remarking that Fort Worth should add a fake mountain to go along with its fake lake as part of its very clear Trinity River Vision.

Then Steve A commented about the mountain idea by pointing out that there have been plans to build a mountain in Fort Worth called Bearfire. It was supposed to open in fall of 2009. However, ground was never broken on this ambitious project. I believe it was to be located out by the Texas Motor Speedway and Cabelas.

Bearfire was to have toboggans, bobsleds, a mountain called Glacier Peak, gondolas, ski lifts, ski and snowboard slopes.

An Alpine Village called the Villages at Bearfire were to have shopping, restaurants, ski shops, all in a romantic hamlet at the base of Glacier Peak. In the center of Bearfire Village you would have found Bearfire Ice Creek, using some sort of synthetic ice that has the properties of the real thing, except for not being really cold, the Ice Creek trail was to meander through the village.

I'm thinking skating on fake ice in the Texas summer heat might not have been too fun a thing to do. Maybe a lot of misters were to have been used. The snow on Glacier Peak was also to be a synthetic that replicated snow.

With Bearfire Resort and Glacier Peak not likely to happen, another group of visionaries is seeing the possibility of building a ski resort and mountain near Lake Grapevine. That would seem to be a much better location for such a thing than out in the Fort Worth Alliance area. A fake mountain and ski resort would be a nice fit with Gaylord Texan, where all of Texas is under one giant glass atrium and Great Wolf Lodge, where you can pretend you are staying a cabin in the wild north woods.

Now if only the brilliant visionaries, who saw the Trinity River Vision, could convince someone to build one of these fake mountains and ski resorts on the banks of Little Fake Forth Worth Lake, why then you'd be really having yourself something to have a vision about, that would have towns far and wide really super green with envy.