Google Remembers The Truth About Jesse James Fossil Rim Lake Grapevine With Mom & Dad At The Cotton Bowl

Today, December 7, a date which has lived in infamy ever since this date in 1941, the Google Memories for this day, which show up daily in my email, are things I mostly remember, which does not happen too often.

The top left is from Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, located near Glen Rose and Dinosaur Valley State Park. The drive through Fossil Rim is one of the funnest things I've done in Texas. The good folks at Fossil Rim liked the webpage I made about that visit, so they mailed me an annual pass and extra tickets, so as to take someone with me. 

I never got around to going back to Fossil Rim and using that annual pass.

Top right, that is mom and dad wearing the cowboy hats I gave them when they visited Texas in January of 2009. I don't know why Google would have this as a memory of today. Hard to believe it is 13 years since mom and dad had their last visit to Texas. Seems like it was yesterday. I was able to drive mom and dad all around the Texas State Fair fairgrounds, and up close to the Cotton Bowl, due to nothing much happening on the fairgrounds on a weekday in January.

Under mom and dad is another Fossil Rim Wildlife Center photo. I think this is the entry pavilion.

Bottom right is a gravestone alleging to be the burial location of Jesse James. If I remember right, I made a webpage of this and the claim that Jesse James is buried in a cemetery in Granbury, Texas.

Just checked, yes, I made a Jesse James webpage, titled The Truth about Jesse James. 

The lower left looks to be Lake Grapevine, a location I used to frequent frequently when I lived in the DFW zone. There are miles of fun mountain bike trails at Lake Grapevine.

Seems like I made a webpage about Lake Grapevine. Yup, and it is called Lake Grapevine.

Well, that is it for today's Google memories that I actually sort of remember...

Who Wants To Rent A Cabin At Turner Falls Park In Oklahoma?

In the picture, that is Big Ed on the right, under the cowboy hat. That would make me on the left, without a cowboy hat. Sitting on a rock wall outside The Castle in Turner Falls Park in Davis, Oklahoma.

I don't remember what year this picture was taken. I do remember it was in August and very hot, with a lot of people in the park and cooling off in crystal-clear spring-fed Honey Creek.

I have a few pages on my Eyes on Texas website that people mistake as being the official website for some location or event. This can cause me to get asked some interesting questions.

For example, the webpage I made of my visit to the Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup gets me asked a lot of questions from people wanting to buy my rattlesnake skins or rattles. Oddly, many of these inquiries come from the United Kingdom.

The other webpage that generates a lot of questions is the Turner Falls Park webpage. This morning I was asked how many people my cabins can accomodate, what the cost is, are dogs allowed and are any cabins available for the July 30 weekend.

Within an easy drive from my location there are only a few of what I consider to be scenic destinations. One is Turner Falls Park, another is Dinosaur Valley State Park and another is very close to Dinosaur Valley State Park, that being the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center.

I have been to Turner Falls twice in summer, once in winter. The winter visit was with Gar the Texan. Taking Gar the Texan somewhere always reminded me of taking my nephews somewhere when they were little, due to a sort of babysitting aspect.

With Gar the Texan the babysitting often involved a case of the vapors, or an accident either caused by the vapors or leading to the vapors. Gar the Texan had a horrible case of the vapors on the way to Turner Falls.

By the time Gar the Texan made it to Turner Falls the case of the vapors was a distant memory and he was now in hyper mode, just like one of my little nephews, climbing up steep cliffs, into caves, doing all sorts of things I do not do due to my acrophobia.

Anyway, I do not know how much a cabin costs to rent at Turner Falls, or if you can keep a dog in the cabin, or if one is available the last weekend of July.

What I do know is Turner Falls Park is a scenic surprise in the Arbuckle Mountains, just a couple miles west of Interstate 35, a bit more that 50 miles from the Red River Texas border with Oklahoma.

Held Up By Zebras & Rams At Fossil Rim Wildlife Center By Glen Rose Texas

A comment from Mister Twister brought Fossil Rim Wildlife Center to mind.

I do not remember in what year my December visit to Fossil Rim took place. I know it has been several years. I also know that Fossil Rim Wildlife Center remains the funnest thing I've done in Texas.

At the Fossil Rim Visitor's Center you have an opportunity to buy feed for the critters. It is a good idea to have food. The critters expect it. Like this herd of Zebras. The Zebras plot to halt the traffic flow and then walk along extracting treats from the stopped vehicles.

When I came upon some of the critters I quickly rolled up my window. Like when I saw an Ostrich quickly stick its head in the vehicle in front of me. I could see the people inside the vehicle jump out of the way. When the Ostrich pulled its head out, it had something in its beak. What, I do not know.

Towards the end of the trail through Fossil Rim I ran out of food to bribe the critters with for safe passage.

This became problematic as I drove down a steep hill after seeing some Cheetahs. A herd of some type of Ram was holding up traffic as the various Rams solicited treats. When I told the Ram, in the picture, I had nothing, he/she stuck its tongue out at me.

The hills in the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center are the steepest I've driven on in Texas. One steep hill leads from an area called the Overlook. There are many things to see and do at the Overlook, including the Overlook Cafe, which had a very good Overlook of the valley below, hence the name.

If you have not been to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center and you live within easy driving distance, you really should go, especially if you have kids. It is only between 60-120 miles from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, depending on where you live in the Metroplex.

After I webpaged my Fossil Rim experience, Fossil Rim sent me a Season's Pass, plus a couple guest tickets. I never got around to using them. For years now I've wanted to go back and shoot video.

If you want to visit Fossil Rim Wildlife Center you can find all the information you might want to know by going to the webpage I made of my one and only visit.

Memorial Day Weekend at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center

I've said it before, I'll say it again, during my now decade long exile in Texas the funnest thing I've done, where I laughed more than anything else I've laughed at in Texas, was my drive through Fossil Rim Wildlife Center.

If you're in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone and you've not been to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center and you're looking for something in the area to do to kick off the start of the summer season, you can not go wrong with Fossil Rim. Especially if you have kids.

Fossil Rim is down by Glen Rose, near Dinosaur Valley State Park, which is also a good getaway if you've never seen the dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy River bed. The hiking and biking in Dinosaur Valley may be the best I've experienced in Texas.

At Fossil Rim you go into the Visitors Center to buy your tickets and feed, if you want to feed the animals. On weekend and holidays the entry fee is at its highest. It may sound a tad expensive in these troubled times, with adults 12 - 21 $22.95, kids 3 -11 $16.95 and seniors $19.95.

I do not know, what with Fossil Rim qualifying 12 year olds as adults, if the 12 year olds are allowed to buy adult beverages at Fossil Rim.

The entry fee may seem steep, you will only think that before you see what you get for your money. After that it will seem like a bargain and the money will seem well spent.

After I webpaged my visit to Fossil Rim I was sent an annual pass good for one year and two guest passes. I did not get around to using the pass. I had good intentions. I wanted to go back and take video. But, I've not been back.

For more pictures, including more zebra pictures, go to my Eyes on Texas website to see why Fossil Rim Wildlife Center is the funnest thing I've done in Texas.

Have yourself a good, happy Memorial Day Weekend.

Fossil Rim Wildlife Center Zebra Attack

A couple years ago I webpaged a visit to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. In one of the rare times that something I did, website-wise, actually generated anything worthwhile for me, I was sent a Season Pass to visit anytime I wanted, along with 2 guest passes.

Yesterday I realized I can not remember the last time I had been outside this Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone. So, with gas being only $3.15 a gallon and with Fossil Rim Wildlife Center being only about an 80 mile drive it seemed like a good idea, at the time, for another visit.

Fossil Rim is like a drive through Safari. Which is very appropriate because I drove my Safari van. At the Visitor's Center you can purchase a bag of animal food. This comes in handy because the animals are very pushy with their demands to be fed. Like the zebras. If they don't get some instant gratification they will stick their head in your open window looking for food. The one you see above took a bite out of my steering wheel. I don't think he liked how it tasted.

I also had an ostrich get a bit aggressive. I guess there are good reasons why you are advised to keep your windows rolled up. Which seem a bit confusing to me, as in how did they expect you to feed the animals with the food they sold at the same time they were saying to keep your windows up? When I snapped this picture of this ostrich it must have thought my camera was something to eat because it lunged at it causing me to back away really fast. And then I rolled up the window.

To see more of my photos from Fossil Rim Wildlife Center go here.

Fossil Rim is near the town of Glen Rose, a very scenic town with a very cool courthouse square. Also nearby is Dinosaur Valley State Park. Outside Dinosaur Valley State Park there is this anti-evolution thing called The Creation Museum. I guess its purpose must be to prove that dinosaurs did not exist. And a new bizarre thing has been added right outside Dinosaur Valley State Park. That being another Dinosaur Park called Dinosaur World. It looked pretty lame. Sort of Flintstonesque.