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Photo courtesy of North Texas Jellystone Park

Ahead of the busy summer travel season, the North Texas Jellystone Park in Burlesonhas added a few of the coolest new "glamping" accommodations in Texas. Furnished tipis, covered wagons, and grain bin cabins opened to guests on May 19.

Also on the way? A new Las Vegas-style swimming pool that's 17,150 square feet (two-thirds of an acre) and will accommodate 1,425 people. It's expected to open later this summer.

“We like to do things big in Texas and this is especially true at North Texas Jellystone Park," says Marcie Purviance, the park’s marketing manager, in a release.

Purviance says the park now has the greatest variety of glamping accommodations available anywhere in Texas.

“These new glamping accommodations offer a taste of the Old West, but with modern creature comforts,” she says.

Here's a closer look at each option:

Grain bin cabins
The most unique new glamping spots are the two-story cabins that are made from actual grain bins. According to the release, each grain bin cabin has a spiral staircase leading up to a second story, which features a half bath and two cozy bunk beds. There's a full kitchen and full bathroom downstairs. Rates run about $139 per night.

Covered wagons
New furnished covered wagons sleep up to six people. Made by the Conestoga Wagon Company in Bloomington, Idaho, each wagon includes a king-size bed and two sets of twin bunk beds, all with high-quality mattresses and linens, they tout. Unlike in the Old West, the wagons have heating and air conditioning, a custom-made wagon wheel table with seating, a small fridge, and a microwave. There's a private full-size bathroom next to each wagon (also unlike the Old West). The wagons are situated in a circle and share a large rock fire pit. Rates run about $119 per night.

Furnished tipis
Each furnished tipi sleeps up to seven people and includes a plush king-size bed, a set of queen/twin bunk beds, a futon, and heating and air-conditioning. Amenities include a mini fridge, microwave, and a dinette set, along with a private grill and picnic table. Private bathrooms are a short walk away. The tipi circle features a giant rock fire pit, "where guests can gather with their family and friends to roast marshmallows, tell stories, and make memories that will last a lifetime," the park says. Rates run about $119 per night.

Even though the new accommodations just officially opened, the park already has a waiting list for them, Purviance says. Jellystone still has more than 250 RV sites and 100 luxury cabins, as well. And yes, the famous pirate ship of cabins is still there, too.

Visitors this summer will find a number of new attractions completed during the past year, including a glow-in-the-dark miniature golf course. There's also a new a 26,000-square-foot events and activities center, called “The Barn,” which features live musical entertainment on the weekends and DJ dance parties on Friday and Wednesday nights. Later this year, Jellystone plans to open an additional 20,000-square-foot building for weddings and corporate events, they say.

The Burleson location, located just off Interstate 35, south of Fort Worth, is one of 75 Jellystone Park outposts across the United States and Canada. All feature family-friendly attractions, activities, and Yogi Bear characters.

Pirates' Cove Waterpark, featuring two 65-foot tall, 350-foot long tubular waterslides that twist and turn, is adjacent to the Jellystone campground and requires a separate entrance fee.

North Texas Jellystone Park grain silo

Photo courtesy of North Texas Jellystone Park

Yep, you can sleep inside this.

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Okla. favorite Hideaway Pizza tiptoes into Texas with first shop in Plano

Pizza News

A new pizza purveyor is coming to Texas where it will bravely enter the Dallas-Fort Worth market: Hideaway Pizza an Oklahoma-based chain serving pizza, craft beer, and cocktails, is making its DFW debut with a location in Plano, at 5410 SH-121.

According to a spokesperson, the restaurant will open in mid-October.

Based in Tulsa, Hideaway was founded in 1957 by Richard "The Big Kahuna" Dermer and his wife Marti in 1957 near the Oklahoma State University campus in Stillwater. They became known for making deliveries via a fleet of Volkswagen Beetles.

In 2006, the company was purchased by Brett Murphy and Darren Lister who've successfully retained the anti-chain irreverent spirit and laid-back atmosphere, with employees wearing tie-dye shirts. Their help-wanted ad, for example, says, "We're looking for Weirdoughs and Fungi's to join our team!"

There are now 23 locations across Oklahoma and Arkansas, and they recently made a list of the "10 Established Casual-Dining Restaurant Chains Consumers Love" by Nation's Restaurant News.

Expanding to North Texas made sense because the area has many OSU alumni as well as Oklahoma transpants. The owners also observed that many pizza concepts have moved to to-go only.

"The pizza casual dining space has been vacated by competitors chasing delivery and quick dining," Murphy said in a December 2022 interview. "Hideaway offers premium pizza and a fantastic dine-in experience you can’t find anywhere else."

For pizza, they have two crust options: thin and hand-tossed, slightly thicker and puffier. There are also two alternative crusts: GF and cauliflower.

Signature pies include 17 options, from chicken Florentine with alfredo sauce to the Capone, with sausage, pepperoni, Genoa salami, bacon, red onion, black olives, garlic, and their "Parmesan-herb shake."

There are sandwiches, pastas, salads, meatballs, and garlic cheese bread. Their fried mushrooms are a big customer favorite, and beer is served in frosty cold mugs. Their Sweetza cookies dessert are big boys baked in a six-inch pizza pan and topped with vanilla ice cream. They also have a full bar.

Following Plano, they'll open a location in McKinney at 2101 N. Hardin Blvd. in early 2024, and have Fort Worth penciled in next.

Famed Seattle piroshky bakery makes stop in Dallas on Texas-wide tour

Meat Pie News

A Seattle bakery is coming to Dallas for a special pop-up: Piroshky Piroshky Bakery, which specializes in handmade piroshki, AKA Russian hand pies, will stop in Dallas on a national tour.

The bakery will be at Outfit Brewing, 135 John W. Carpenter Fwy, on October 5 from 5-7 pm, with luscious offerings, both savory and sweet.

Piroshkis are small pies of Russian origin, made from an enriched yeast dough, with savory fillings like meat, vegetables, or cheese, the most traditional being meat and rice or potato and onion.

Piroshky Piroshky Bakery was founded in Seattle in 1992, and offer their pastries in all sorts of delectable fillings: from beef & cheese to cabbage & onion to vegan-friendly mushroom & potato. They make authentic pastries, as well.

Their piroshky are individually made from scratch and hand-formed into unique shapes that help differentiate the flavors and fillings inside.

The company has five locations across Seattle, and also sells their products online. Their original location at Seattle's Pike Place Market serves more than 20 varieties.

But they also make annual tours, just like a rock band, to bring their goods to towns across the U.S. They last came through Dallas in November 2022.

The tour features options such as:

  • Smoked salmon pate piroshky
  • Beef & onion piroshy
  • Impossible beef & onion piroshky
  • Ham, spinach, & cheese piroshky
  • Potato & cheese piroshky
  • Veggie chipotle piroshky
  • Chocolate cream hazelnut roll
  • Cinnamon cardamom braid
  • Pumpkin toffee braid
  • Caraway cheddar cheese stick
  • Poppyseed cinnamon roll

The full menu is online, and pre-ordering is required. The cutoff order date for Dallas is October 3 at 4 pm. There's a minimum of $50; individual items run between $5.25 to $7.25.

In addition to Dallas, they're also making three other stops in Texas:

  • Fort Worth at Martin House Brewing, 220 S Sylvania Ave. on October 4, from 5-7 pm. You must order by October 2; pre-order here.
  • Austin at Twin Creeks Park, 2303 Dervingham Drive, Cedar Park, on October 6, from 5-7 pm; pre-order here.
  • Houston at Elks Lodge, 10150 W Airport Blvd, Stafford, on October 7, from 5-7 pm; pre-order here.

Reunion Tower in downtown Dallas initiates action to save birds from dying

Bird News

Reunion Tower, the little ball on the Western edge of downtown Dallas, is famous for its sassy light shows illuminating the Dallas skyline. But in recent years, the building has followed a bird-friendly policy of dimming its lights, and that dimming is about to get underway.

From October 1 through October 21, Reunion Tower will observe the following lighting schedule:

  • Sundown to 11 pm: lower its lights
  • 11 pm-6 am: go completely dark
  • 6 am-sunrise back to dim

The building enacts these changes to protect birds that are migrating through Texas.

Dallas is on the path of the Central Migratory Flyway, which extends from the Northwest and heads diagonally southeast through Mexico.

Every fall and spring, nearly two billion birds travel through Texas. The bird migration is one of the largest on the planet, and takes place at night. Light attracts migrating birds, making them vulnerable to collisions with buildings and causing them to become disoriented and distracted.

Birds get pulled into urban areas, collide into buildings, and die. Volunteer surveys - in which people go out and count actual dead bodies - in cities such as Dallas, Austin, Houston, and Fort Worth, finds hundreds of dead birds every night. It adds up to nearly a billion birds killed in the U.S. each year.

Dallas-Fort Worth is the third most dangerous area in the U.S. for migratory birds to travel through; Chicago is No. 1, followed by Houston which is No. 2.

As this map from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows, Dallas and Houston are both massively lit, representing major obstacles to the success and survival of the birds' migration.

Lights Out Texas was initiated as a statewide effort in Spring 2020 to protect birds from light pollution by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and BirdCast, with the essential support of founding Texas partners Houston Audubon, the Dallas Zoo, and the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.

According to Audubon, the actual critical migration period through Dallas is September 6 through October 29. A glittery skyline is surely pretty, but downtown should just shut it down during those times.