Miss Chris Shares Close Look At Mount Rainier Which Takes Us To Cabela's

One of my favorite Washingtonians, Miss Chris, currently located in Lacey, previously located in Kent, with both locations providing closeup views of Mount Rainier, when clouds are not blocking the view, shared that which you see above, on Facebook this morning.

With explanatory text saying, "Mount Rainier was so clear today. Got a shot as we were heading south on 167."

Lacey is a town west of Tacoma, east of Olympia. Lacey has one of the three Cabela's locations in Washington. 

People in Fort Worth, who are subjected to Fort Worth Star-Telegram propaganda, may remember when Cabela's courted Fort Worth for a Cabela's location, conning the local politicians with the false claim the Cabela's sporting goods store would be the #1 tourist attraction in Texas.

That #1 con was used to convince those local politicians to give Cabela's tax breaks and other perks. No one seemed to realize it was rather insulting to Texas to think a sporting goods store would be the state's #1 tourist attraction. 

It was not long after the Fort Worth Cabela's opened that another Texas Cabela's came to be, competing for that coveted #1 tourist attraction spot. That second Cabela's is south of Fort Worth, in Buda, near Austin. And then a third Cabela's opened, on the east side of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, in Allen.

When Cabela's proposed opening a store in Lacey, they tried to get tax breaks and other perks. They did not try that #1 tourist attraction con, obviously being a ridiculous thing to claim in the shadow of Mount Rainier. Cabela's was told if it was not economically viable to open a store in Lacey, without tax breaks and perks, then don't open a store there.

Cabela's went ahead with the Lacey store without tax breaks and other perks. And soon thereafter, just like Texas, Washington has three Cabela's. The one in Lacey, one in Tulalip and one in Union Gap.

Tulalip is about 20 miles north of Seattle, close to Marysville and Everett. Union Gap is in Eastern Washington, by Yakima.

Thank you, Miss Chris, for providing the make me homesick photo of the day...

Fort Worth Needs An Incentive To Fix Its Downtown Embarrassments

I see this incentive type headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and find myself once again wondering why this type thing is not seen as a problem in the town which the Star-Telegram ill serves as its only newspaper.

"AC Hotel, a brand popular in Europe, gets key incentive to build in downtown Fort Worth"

Does anyone in Fort Worth wonder what the problem is with downtown Fort Worth which requires incentives to get someone to build a hotel? Or why the voters have to be bothered to vote to help subsidize the building of a downtown convention center hotel?

I don't think towns with functional downtown's need to resort to incentivizing developers to develop downtown hotels, department stores and other such items common in most thriving downtown's which are not ghost towns on the busiest shopping day of the year, that being the day after Thanksgiving.

How many downtown hotels do you think New York City has had to offer incentives to get built? Or Chicago? Or San Francisco? Or Seattle?

Seattle has dozens of downtown hotels all built without the city offering bribes. The latest expansion of downtown Seattle's Washington State Convention Center includes another convention center hotel. Hotel developers competed to get to be the developer to develop that new hotel. And nothing as absurd as asking voters to help subsidize such a hotel happens in downtown's where developers want to develop hotels.

Fort Worth seems to have some sort of repeating pattern of having to offer what amount to bribes to get some developer to develop something. That or Fort Worth succumbs to ridiculous flattery, or a combo of both.

Such as when a sporting goods store called Cabela's wanted to build the first Cabela's in Texas. Cabela's convinced the rubes who incompetently run Fort Worth that this sporting goods store would become the #1 tourist attraction in Texas, thus making all the incentives Cabela's was asking for a bargain.

Fort Worth fell for that con job. Soon the Fort Worth Cabela's was not the only one in Texas. Now it is not even the only Cabela's in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metro zone.

No way do I know of all the instances where the Fort Worth city government has been conned into incentives, or abusing eminent domain. Such as what was done so that Radio Shack could build their long defunct corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Worth.

Or that Mercado boondoggle on North Main Street, south of the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Or the Santa Fe Rail Market Boondoggle. I know a con job was involved in that embarrassment, misrepresenting what that lame development would be. Were incentives also part of the scam?

Why doesn't Fort Worth focus on fixing its downtown? How many more years will that park celebrating Fort Worth's heritage, appropriately called Heritage Park, act as a metaphor for what is wrong with downtown Fort Worth? A boarded up eyesore allowed to deteriorate, sitting at a prime location at the north end of downtown Fort Worth.

Maybe the city could offer some developer incentives to re-open Heritage Park in all its former scenic glory.

Another fix for downtown Fort Worth?

Cease referring to part of the downtown area as Sundance Square. This is just goofy and confusing to the town's few tourists, even with the addition of an actual square, after decades of there being no square in Sundance Square, the downtown zone is still being called Sundance Square, with the actual square called Sundance Square Plaza, sponsored by Nissan.

And how does Fort Worth ever expect to have a vibrant downtown if few people live there? And why would many people choose to live in a downtown with no department stores, no grocery stores, and few restaurants?

And lose that embarrassing Molley the Trolley public transit device. Converting an old bus to look like a trolley and then charging people $5 to use this public transit is just bizarre. And like already said, embarrassing...

Did Fort Worth Ever Get Payback For Being A Sucker For Cabela's Con Job?

Yesterday Elsie Hotpepper sent me a link along with a question.

I had already seen that to which the link pointed.

That being the fact that the Bass Pro Shops were buying Cabela's.

Elsie figured I must have something to say about this latest iteration of the Fort Worth and Cabela's romance.

However, it had been so long since I was disgusted and appalled by the way Cabela's seduced Fort Worth into an unseemly marriage based on lies and hyperbole, that my memory of that wedding was not clear.

With no pre-nuptial agreement, as far as I know. Well, there were some performance clauses applicable during the course of the marriage, but I don't know how applicable those performance clauses are with this divorce and marriage to the Bass Pro Shops.

So it took Elsie Hotpepper sending me a link to my own blog to a blogging titled A Second Cabela's Opens In Allen In The Dallas Metroplex for me to remember just how absurd this ridiculous affair has been between Fort Worth and Cabela's.

Basically Cabela's came to the homely bride known as Fort Worth and told her if she agreed to marry Cabela's, the sporting goods store would make Fort Worth the #1 Tourist Attraction in all of the state of Texas.

You reading this in other parts of America who think I must be making this up. No, I am not. Those who run Fort Worth in the corrupt way known as the Fort Worth Way fell all over themselves to rush into what amounted to a sleazy marriage to Cabela's, based on lies and obvious nonsense about being the top tourist attraction in Texas.

Fort Worth fell for promises of millions of visitors visiting a sporting goods store. Resulting in Fort Worth giving Cabela's a valuable tax break package dowry to seal the deal.

And then, six months later, Cabela's cheated on Fort Worth by opening another store in Texas, down south by Austin, in the town of Buda.

Fort Worth moved on from its shame, full bore, to embrace another con job full of empty promises, promising the still homely bride she could be pretty.

The Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

More commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The notorious Fort Worth Star-Telegram, chief cheerleader for Cabela's running its top tourist attraction in Texas scam, yesterday shared with its few readers the news about the Bass Pro Shops taking over Cabela's in an article titled Bass Pro to buy rival Cabela’s in $5.5 billion deal.

The Star-Telegram article made no mention of its previous role in misleading the Fort Worth locals about what a great deal Cabela's would be for Fort Worth, drawing in millions of tourists, thus justifying the tax breaks and other incentives given to Cabela's.

The Star-Telegram article did include the following gem of a paragraph...

Cabela’s has other Texas stores in Buda, League City, Lubbock and Waco, while Bass Pro has stores in San Antonio, Round Rick, Pearland, Katy and Harlingen.

How can the Star-Telegram print the above list of all the towns in Texas in which Cabela's has opened a store, with no mention made of the con job pulled on Fort Worth claiming Cabela's in Fort Worth would be the #1 tourist attraction in Texas? And the Star-Telegram neglected to include in that list the second Cabela's store in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, that being the one in the Dallas suburb of Allen.

Shameful and shameless....

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....

A Beautiful Veteran's Day In Skagit County Got Me Thinking About Being A Texas Tourist

Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew Jason, emailed me the above picture a few minutes ago, with the subject line "Beautiful Veteran's Day in Skagit County."

It is a beautiful Veteran's Day in Tarrant County, too. But not quite as scenically beautiful as Skagit County.

I just used my computer based temperature monitoring device to learn that Mount Vernon is currently being chilled 3 degrees cooler than Fort Worth is being cooled at 49 degrees.

Before I got distracted by the temperature I mentioned that Skagit County is a bit more scenically beautiful than Tarrant County, but got distracted before adding, just like Mount Vernon is more scenically beautiful than Fort Worth.

Mount Vernon has a beautiful, clean, clear, big river running through town, Fort Worth has a modified river which looks sort of like a big ditch as it passes by downtown Fort Worth.

Mount Vernon has an actual mountain in town, called Little Mountain. Little Mountain would be considered a big mountain in Fort Worth. You can hang glide from the top of Little Mountain. There is nothing to hang glide from in Fort Worth. You can go wakeboarding though, in a dirty lake with a cable to drag you around the lake. No such contraption exists in Mount Vernon.

Mount Vernon has a Skagit River Vision you can actually see, while Fort Worth has a Trinity River Vision where today we learned we will soon be able to witness three bridges magically rising vertically from the ground.

Mount Vernon has a couple grocery stores in its downtown, one of which I greatly miss, that being the Skagit Valley Co-Op. Fort Worth has no grocery stores in its downtown, and nothing exists in the entire Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex like the Skagit Valley Co-Op.

Mount Vernon is served by a mass transit system which takes you all over Skagit County. Fort Worth has a mass transit system which takes you to some locations in Fort Worth, but not all over Tarrant County.

What got me off tangent from my original  intent to comment on the picture my favorite nephew Jason sent me?

Back to that picture. What we are looking at in the foreground is known as the Skagit Flats, one of the most fertile, productive agricultural areas in the world, growing all sorts of fruits and vegetables and flowers. Before diking made the Skagit River behave itself after it left the mountains, the Skagit Flats would get flooded when the river was in flood mode.

In the middle of the picture is something you can not find in Texas. A volcano. The Mount Baker volcano is that white spot sticking up above foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Mount Baker is an active volcano, which means you can see steam spewing from its crater at times.

Mount Vernon would be to the right in this picture, the town I grew up in, Burlington, would be in the middle, I think, maybe more to the left than the middle. As you can see one does not live far from the mountains when one lives in Western Washington. One also does not live far from saltwater. If we went left in this picture, heading west a few miles, we'd run into saltwater, maybe Swinomish Channel which runs past the tourist town of La Conner. Or Padilla Bay.

Having lived a long time in an actual area which actually attracts a lot of actual tourists and has actual  tourist towns, like La Conner, is one of the reasons my eyes roll when I read something ridiculous, such as downtown Fort Worth gets over 10 millions visitors a year. I wonder if those 10 million visitors are the same 10 million a year which were supposed to make the Fort Worth Cabela's the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas?

Maybe in Texas visitor and tourist don't mean the same thing.

But, the thing is, when you live in an actual tourist destination and then live in an area which is not an actual tourist destination you can tell the difference. One big tell is the number of out of state license plates one sees. In a tourist zone at times it seems like every other vehicle is from out of state. Or Canada.

The only location in Fort Worth which seems like an actual tourist attraction, due to the number of foreigners and out of staters one runs into there, is the Fort Worth Stockyards. In Dallas, Dealey Plaza seems like an actual tourist attraction, albeit a sad one. I don't think many non-Texans head to Arlington to Six Flags Over Texas, not like which heads to Anaheim to go to Disneyland.

I have not headed to Anaheim to go to Disneyland for over two decades, Christmas of 1993. It has been two years since I've been a tourist anywhere, well, I have been to downtown Fort Worth during that time frame and apparently that is counted as a tourist.....

Did The Waco Star-Telegram Claim The Waco Cabela's Will Be The #1 Tourist Attraction In Texas?

I was a little surprised on Facebook today to see Bud Kennedy, he being a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, telling Fort Worth that "we're suckers."

Suckers? Why, you ask?

Mr. Kennedy says the people of Fort Worth are suckers because they gave the sporting goods store called Cabela's $40 million in tax breaks on the promise to bring 2.5 million visitors a year to Fort Worth.

I really do not know where to start.

First off it was not the people of Fort Worth who gave Cabela's tax breaks. That was done by the naive, incompetent, common senseless Fort Worth City Government, cheered on by the City of Fort Worth's propaganda purveyor known as the Star-Telegram.

The Star-Telegram repeated, over and over and over again, that the Fort Worth Cabela's would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas.

Depending on who was writing the propaganda the number of tourists ranged from 4 million to 8 million.

I would read this propaganda and be absolutely appalled and sort of embarrassed that people whose job it was to report news and apply some common sense to what they were reporting, did not intuitively realize that if a sporting goods store could be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas that this clearly indicated the Texas Tourist Industry had a very serious problem with having a lack of decent Tourist Attractions.

And how can someone (Bud Kennedy made this claim) not automatically realize that 8 million visitors to a sporting goods store in one year is not even remotely feasible?

I was so appalled that I emailed Bud Kennedy about his 8 million visitors claim, along with the #1 Tourist Attraction claim.

Bud Kennedy replied to me by saying that I must be against business. I replied something like, "no, I am not against business, what I am against is a newspaper making ridiculous claims about something like a sporting goods store becoming the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas, drawing up to 8 million visitors."

Bud Kennedy replied again, sort of granting me my points, but I forget how he articulated that.

Reading Bud Kennedy today in Facebook had me wondering if he has forgotten his initial assertions regarding the Fort Worth Cabela's. Bud Kennedy is amazingly prolific, so it would not shock me if he does not remember something he wrote in the Star-Telegram years ago.

After Bud Kennedy trivialized my comments about the Star-Telegram Cabela's propaganda, by saying I must be against business, I sort of had myself an instant dislike for the guy. That has since greatly abated, to the point I now actually like Bud Kennedy and think he's about the best thing that comes out of the Star-Telegram. With some periodic lapses.

Cablela's came up today, with Bud Kennedy, due to the announcement that Cabela's is now opening a store in Waco. It was not long after the Cabela's opened in Fort Worth that a Cabela's was opened in Buda, by Austin. Then another Cabela's opened in the D/FW Metroplex, in Allen.

Bud Kennedy's reference to Fort Worth getting suckered is the closest I have seen to reading anyone associated with the Star-Telegram admitting that the Star-Telegram got suckered into being propaganda tools for Cabela's #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas scam.

I have blogged about the City of Fort Worth and the Star-Telegram getting suckered by these out of state Cabela's slicksters a few times from 2008 to 2011...

THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2008
Fort Worth and Cabela's

SUNDAY, JANUARY 31, 2010
The Top 15 Texas Tourist Attractions With #1 Not Being Cabela's Sporting Goods Store

SUNDAY, APRIL 17, 2011
A Second Cabela's Opens In Allen In The Dallas Metroplex

Crazy Talk AKA The Fort Worth Way From Mayor Mike Moncrief

That is Fort Worth's corrupt goofball Mayor Mike Moncrief shooting up downtown Fort Worth, like a celebrating Iraqi in downtown Baghdad.

Yesterday one of my sources emailed me about a Fort Worth City Council meeting where, apparently, Mike Moncrief nakedly exposed bare the corruption that is at the heart of what is not quite right with how way too much operates in Fort Worth.

Currently there is some controversy in Fort Worth over the predatory behavior of Pawn Shops, taking advantage of the desperate, while charging usurious interest rates.

Cash America is the biggest of the Pawn Shops. The headquarters of Cash America is located on 7th Avenue, due east of the Trinity River.

Recently, the Cash America Pawn Shop, out of the goodness of its corporate heart, donated a strip of land to the city for the expansion of the Trinity River Bridge. Mayor Mike Moncrief, when questioned by WFAA-TV, said the strip of land, that Cash America gave the city, was valued at around $2 million.

At the recent Fort Worth City Council meeting Moncrief was grilled about the Cash America Land Deal. He then backtracked regarding the value of the strip of land, saying it was a figure he made up to illustrate a point. Moncrief did not explain what point he was illustrating by making up a figure.

According to the public appraisal records, the 2.5 acre strip of land is valued at $3.4 million an acre, which, according to my rudimentary math skills, would make this land donation, by the Cash America Pawn Shop, worth $8.5 million.

Fort Worth's corrupt Mayor Mike Moncrief went on to say there was nothing unseemly or untoward about the generous donation from Cash America. That it was simply doing business "The Fort Worth Way."

You out there in the parts of America that don't do business the Fort Worth Way, allow me to explain. Oh, and by the way, the City Council did not act to put any restrictions on the Pawn Shops. What is the term for that? Quid pro quo? I am not sure. I never learned Latin. But I do know that quid pro quo is The Fort Worth Way.

In Fort Worth, civic corruption is the status quo. For example, Mayor Mike Moncrief is on the take from the gas drilling companies, poking holes all over his town, to the tune of over $600,000 a year. In other parts of America this is what is known as a very serious conflict of interest, which would land a politician in jail. In Fort Worth it is called The Fort Worth Way.

In Fort Worth a company comes to town, like Cabela's, sells the city a bill of goods about building a sporting goods store that will become the top tourist attraction in Texas. The City of Fort Worth gives Cabela's all sorts of concessions. A short time later Cabela's announces another store in Texas, down by Austin, thus making obvious the degree to which the City of Fort Worth was snookered. No one is held accountable, no one even admits they were snookered. The City just moves on to its next boondoggle. This is The Fort Worth Way.

Radio Shack wants a new corporate headquarters. A headquarters that would obliterate what was, really, the only thing in downtown Fort Worth that was something no other big city had, as in, huge, free parking lots, with a subway to take parkers to the heart of downtown. Eminent domain was abused to remove a big public housing project, the headquarters was built, Radio Shack could not afford it. And now the Radio Shack campus is the campus of a new branch of Tarrant County College. Boondoggle. It's The Fort Worth Way.

A business wants to run a non-odorized, high pressure natural gas pipeline down an avenue in Fort Worth called Carter. The City of Fort Worth does not act to protect its citizens, instead it helps the business, Chesapeake Energy, abuse eminent domain, including the City of Fort Worth ordering City of Fort Worth Gestapo Stormtrooper Raids on the home of the last holdout on Carter Avenue, Steve Doeung. In the rest of America a city, doing such a thing, would be considered a criminal act. In Fort Worth it is just The Fort Worth Way.

Anyway, enough about the Fort Worth Way. It's all very perplexing to me. When is the FBI ever going to find the time to investigate all the nefarious shenanigans that go on in these parts?

The Top 15 Texas Tourist Attractions With #1 Not Being Cabela's Sporting Goods Store

All of us Texans should have the Texas Almanac in our possession.

Among the best information, that I've found so far, comes from the Survey for Office of the Governor, listing Texas Traveler's Top Attractions.

My one longtime reader, and anyone reading this in the Fort Worth zone, may remember a few years back when the sporting goods store named Cabela's come courting Fort Worth.

Cabela's told Fort Worth officials, and the city's puppet newspaper, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which repeated it over and over again, that Cabela's would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas.

The number of visitors predicted, that I read in that terrible newspaper, ranged between 4 and 8 million.

Like a lonely spinster, surprised to find a suitor interested in her, Fort Worth agreed to just about anything Cabela's asked for, like tax breaks, I forget what all the concessions were. Part of the deal was Cabela's had to meet certain performance criteria, and if those criteria were not met, Cabela's would pay for it.

I remember the first time I read that Cabela's was to be the Top Attraction in Texas, it just seemed such a ridiculous claim, that I was appalled the local newspaper of record fed that propaganda without questioning it.

Not long after Fort Worth got shystered by its Cabela's suitor, Cabela's announced that another Cabela's would be opening in Texas, down in Buda, south of Austin. The fact that Cabela's was cheating on its Fort Worth suitor, with another town in Texas, was not much mentioned in the Star-Telegram. Nor did the Star-Telegram ever admit, as far as I know, that the claims that Cabela's would be the Top Attraction in Texas, were, basically, a con job that Cabela's has pulled on other easy to dupe places.

In other towns, like Boise, Idaho, when Cabela's makes its play and asks for tax breaks and other breaks, Boise told Cabela's if it is not economically viable for Cabela's to operate in the Boise area, without being subsidized, then don't. Boise provided Cabela's no breaks. Cabela's built a Boise store, anyway.

So, I found it amusing to see a list, provided by the State of Texas, of what the Top 15 Tourist Attractions are in Texas, both for Texans and for out of state visitors.

I know it is going to shock you, but Cabela's is not the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas. The Governor's survey combined the total number of visitors to both the Buda and Fort Worth Cabela's and even then Cabela's was only the #10 Attraction for Texans and #7 for out of state visitors.

In a rather funny irony, two attractions in Fort Worth are more attractive to Texans than Cabela's, that being the Fort Worth Stockyards at #8 and the Fort Worth Zoo at #9. Six Flags Over Texas, in Arlington, is a bigger attraction than Cabela's at #5. I remember mentioning Six Flags in my letter to the editor of the Star-Telegram, asking if it really made sense, to them, that a sporting goods store was going to be a bigger attraction than Six Flags?

Anyway, below are the two lists, the first list being that of the Top 15 Attraction for Texans, with the second list being the Top 15 Attractions for out of state visitors.

Top Attractions For Texas Tourists

1. Alamo
2. River Walk
3. Galveston Island
4.(T) State Capitol
5.(T) South Padre Island
5. Six Flags
7. NASA Space Center
8. Fort Worth Stockyards
9. Fort Worth Zoo
10. Cabela's (both Buda & Fort Worth)
11.(T) Sea World
11.(T) Moody Gardens
13 Ballpark at Arlington
14. Kemah Boardwalk
15. San Marcos Outlets

Top Attractions For Out of State Visitors

1. Galveston Island
2. Alamo
3. San Marcos Outlets
4. River Walk
5. State Capitol
6. South Padre Island
7. Cabela's (both Buda & Fort Worth)
8. Sea World
9. State Fair of Texas
10. Six Flags
11. Kemah Boardwalk
12. Fort Worth Stockyards
13. Fiesta Texas
14. Moody Gardens
15. Ballpark at Arlington

My only problem with the Texas Almanac is there is so much information on its 736 pages that the print size makes it hard for me to read, at times, without a reading aid, like a magnifying glass.

Lulu & Durango at Pioneer Square, Fremont & Lacey

This morning I went over to Lulu's, on the dark side of Tacoma. Dark, today, due to her side of town still being cloudy and dripping, while my north side of town had returned to blue skies. Lulu's zone of Tacoma is generally more gloomy than my end of town.

While Lulu and I consulted, I made 100s of these bubble magnet things til the fumes from the resin started making my throat constrict. I'd never experienced anything like it before. Perhaps it was not the resin, but rather the possibly toxic dust-laden air in Lulu's work space that put me near respiratory failure.

All I know for certain is when I left Lulu's, lung function seemed to quickly return to normal.

While I was still able to breathe, Lulu told me my schedule for the remainder of my time up north. Lulu & Durango will be making another appearance at the Fremont Sunday Market, this coming Sunday. Depending how that goes, this may be Durango's final Fremont appearance.

Then on Thursday, Lulu & Durango will be where Seattle began, Pioneer Square. We will be at Occidental Park for First Thursday's Art in the Park.

According to the Pioneer Square website...

"Discover Seattle’s most talented emerging artists at Art in the Park on First Thursdays, February through December. Grab a latte, stroll through historic Occidental Park, and immerse yourself in the Emerald City's vibrant independent art scene."

Seattle's Pioneer Square covers over 20 blocks of Romanesque/Victorian buildings. There are more than 30 galleries, over 200 shops, nightclubs, lots of restaurants. And coffee houses. Pioneer Square is sort of like the West End in Dallas, only much bigger, much more going on. And with no Presidential Assassination site.

The other appearance by Lulu & Durango will be at a show in Lacey. That's down near Olympia. I don't remember the name of the Lacey show. I think it is next Saturday. Lacey, Washington is like Fort Worth, Texas. Both have a Cabela's. Only Lacey didn't have to bend over backwards, with bribes, to get one. And, unlike Fort Worth, Cabela's did not tell Lacey that their Cabela's store would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Washington, while Fort Worth fell for the con that their Cabela's store would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas. One would think real Texans would have found such an assertion somehow insulting. But they didn't.

Anyway. See you at Fremont, Pioneer Square or Lacey. Or any combo of.

Fort Worth and Cabela's

A few years back a business calling itself the "World's Foremost Outfitter" came calling in Fort Worth. Cabela's wanted to open a store. Like a suitor come a courting, Cabela's made all sorts of promises. And like an Old Maid desperate for company, any company, Fort Worth agreed to all sorts of tax incentives if Cabela's would call Fort Worth home.

That is the Fort Worth Cabela's above.

Fort Worth was told that their Cabela's would be the "#1 Biggest Tourist Attraction in Texas." The local co-hort in this type propaganda, known as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, repeated this nonsense ad nauseum, with the number of tourists varying between 5 to a high of 8 million.

At the same time that Cabela's was busy courting, successfully, Fort Worth, it was also courting the town of Buda, down by Austin. Also in Texas. I do not know if Cabela's ran their '"Biggest Tourist Attraction in Texas" scam, down in Austin. Austin may be a bit more sophisticated, overall, than Fort Worth. With, possibly, a more responsible newspaper of record.

I don't know why it was never mentioned in the Star-Telegram, during the courtship, that Cabela's was also building a store down by Austin. You'd think Fort Worth would feel sort of jilted.

Fort Worth ended up giving Cabela's $60 million or so in tax incentives. There were some strings attached in the pre-nup. Cabela's had to meet some performance goals. How hard could that be with those millions of customers turning this store into the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas?

Well, Cabela's did not live up to its performance estimates and is having to give Fort Worth back a lot of money. And Fort Worth has had to come to terms with the fact that it does not have the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas.

Cabela's does not always run their "Biggest Tourist Attraction in the State" scam on every place they want to build a store. Cabela's must do some pre-proposal research to determine the level of rubeness they are dealing with. Cabela's does always try to get tax breaks. Sometimes, like in Idaho, they are told if it doesn't economically make sense for you to open a store here without tax breaks, then don't build a store. In Idaho there are now 2 Cabela's. Neither the Biggest Tourist Attraction in the State.

Cabela's opened in Lacey, in Washington, last year. They got some small tax breaks. Cabela's did not run their "Biggest Attraction in the State" scam. They used a variant, as in Cabela's will be "One of the Biggest Attractions in the State." It's interesting how Cabela's seems to know where not to use their #1 con, knowing if they did it in some places it would make them appear like clueless, foolish snake oil selling con-men. Like when Cabela's came to a Phoenix suburb in the state that has the Grand Canyon, they did not run the same scam that worked so well for them in Old Maid Fort Worth.

That is the Lacey Cabela's, above, with the rain drenched, empty, parking lot. It does not appear near as elaborate as the Fort Worth version. At least on the outside. In Lacey, Cabela's likely had less land to work with, so there is no lake, river or waterfall. Just a wet parking lot.

Startlegram

That's what the locals call the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Startlegram. So, yesterday I verbalized my slight umbrage at the Star-Telegram's purple prose regarding America's Team: The Dallas Cowboys. I said something about how that paper regularly annoys me.

And then I got feedback via email from my Eyes on Texas website and the page I added yesterday about "America's Team" about my amusement at the articles in the Startlegram. A couple of the feedback emails asked what other examples of goofiness I've seen in that notorious paper.

Well.

Probably the worst was when downtown Fort Worth opened a food court called the Sante Fe Rail Market. The Star-Telegram turned Chamber of Commerce propaganda booster and repeated in article after article that this lame little market was the first public market in Texas, that it was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place Market and markets in Europe. Of course, being from the Seattle zone that set up some high expectations for me. When it opened I visited the Santa Fe Rail Market and webpaged what I saw. I could not believe a newspaper would so misrepresent something to this extent. Had no one on that paper been to Seattle? Did they not realize that some of their readers may have been to or were from Seattle and would know how ridiculous it was to say this little food court type thing was modeled after Pike Place? Even after this was pointed out to the Star-Telegram the erroneous propaganda continued to be repeated.

And then I found out that not only was this soon to fail lame thing not the first public market in Texas it wasn't even the first one in Fort Worth! It was as if no one on the Star-Telegram had even been to the Dallas Farmers Market, a location that actually does resemble Pike Place.

Let's move on to another example of what a bad newspaper this is.

A sporting goods store named Cabela's wanted to open a store in Fort Worth. Cabela's wanted tax breaks and other incentives. Cabela's PR told the powers that be in Fort Worth, including the Star-Telegram, that Cabela's would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas. This was repeated ad nauseum in the Star-Telegram, which never once questioned the absurdity of the premise. One of their more idiotic columnists, I won't name him, suffice to say he shares a last name with a president who was killed in the big city to the east of here. The number of supposed 'tourists' at Cabela's ranged from 5 million to this bad columnist's high of 8 million. When I pointed out to him how absurd this was, via email, he told me I must hate business. So, Cabela's got its tax break, Fort Worth got snookered and Cabela's is now open and has performed so poorly there have been a lot of layoffs and they had to return incentive money to Fort Worth because Cabela's did not perform as advertised. And Cabela's has opened another store in Austin! Cabela's must have left that planned store out of the info they gave Fort Worth when conning them with the "Top Tourist Attraction in Texas" nonsense.

Another example of this irresponsible newspaper's knack for being a bit lacking with facts---River Legacy Park opened a new section of the park a couple years ago on the north side of the Trinity River. A new pedestrian/bike bridge connected the old trail with the new. The new trail added about 4 miles. The new trail and bridge was open and being used for months before the park declared it done. The Star-Telegram reported this by describing, wrongly, that a final mile of trail had been completed and opened connecting the River Legacy trails to 360. (360 is a highway that bi-sects the D/FW Metroplex). Now, I had already been pedaling to the end of this new trail for months. I knew it did not end at 360.

So, the very day after the Star-Telegram printed this false information, incorrectly describing the River Legacy Trail, I pedaled the new trail. At the end of the trail, at the 7 mile marker, there was a guy. He had jogged to the end. I stopped. He asked me how you get to 360 from there? He said he thought the trail went to 360. I asked him if he read that in the Startlegram. He said yes. I told him you can not trust what you read in that paper, that I highly doubted if they had any reporters who were sufficiently non lard assed enough to actually see a trail for themselves. This guy had told friends that he would be on an overpass on 360 when they returned from the airport. I let him use my cell phone to leave a message for his incoming friends.

Okay, I've got more of these type things in my memory bank, but it is time for Amazing Race.