The West Side

I took a nice bicycle tour of Fort Worth's west side today. I rode up to the Ridgmar Mall area at the western end of what most people consider the west side, then traveled east to downtown. I didn't take a lot of pictures. Kevin Buchanan at FortWorthology.com does a much better job than me anyway. (I'll link to his posts when we get to something he's discussed.)

Anyway, the first order of business is that I met Miles, an acquaintance from BikeForums, who had driven in to Fort Worth from Cleburne to play some golf over at Z. Boaz, a municipal course. I caught him between the front nine and back nine; he proudly showed me his Raleigh Suberbe which was in his truck in the parking lot.

From there I headed east along the south side of I-30, then swung up through the Cultural District. The construction on the new science museum is nearing completion but the site is still a mess.

I picked up Camp Bowie Boulevard and headed east to the big intersection where it crosses University, Bailey and 7th Street, and proceeded toward downtown on 7th. On the north side of 7th, Montgomery Plaza (built in an old Montgomery Wards warehouse) is open for business, which spurred other development on the south side of the street, creating a new urban living and shopping district between the Cultural District and downtown, including the West 7th and SoSeven.

I rode over the Trinity River on 7th and I was in downtown. I stopped for a snack



at Myles's (no, not the same person as Miles above) favorite Starbucks. After taking that pic I decided to sit outside and found an additional level of security for my bike, courtesy of another Starbucks customer.



The dog barked some, but mostly at the guy who threw a cigarette butt on the pavement when there was a trash can (with an ashtray) not five feet away from where the butt landed. :( I wasn't going to let that ruin my day though.

I got out of downtown the same way I entered, on 7th Street, but then picked up the Trinity River Trail on the west side of the river. I got off at the trailhead between University and Rogers, which will soon be reconstructed to make the crossings under the bridges less steep and improve sight lines to make things safer. I rode through the TCU area (avoiding Rogers hill due to my bad back), then picked up Trail Lake Drive, and my usual route back home, stopping off, as I frequently do, at City Cyclist on the way back.

Badda boom, badda bing, thirty-six miles. Except for taking it easy on the hills, my sore back is not getting in the way of riding at all.

20090907 Labor Day

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