Benbrook, TX Outdoor Activities

Set to scratch through to a new era as part of the North American Baseball League, the Cats slug and pitch their way into the 2012 season when it opens with an eight-game home stand on May 23. The perennial playoff-contending ball club joins the Southern Division of the NAL after a successful run through the American Association, where they hoisted back-to-back championships in 2006 and 2007. This season, former TCU Horned Frog Shelby Ford dons Cats' colors for the first time. A third-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2006, Ford is expected to anchor the middle of the lineup while scooping up any grounders and tumbleweeds that roll his way at shortstop.

From the top of a two-level fort, the sniper surveys the grounds below, where opponents lurk behind mounds and ready their semiautomatic markers from within two school buses. Those props, which adorn The West Lot, are among the many obstacles and barriers littering the 10 courses at Fun on the Run Paintball Park. Guests can duck behind army jeeps at The Fuel Depot, navigate The District's maze-style village, and storm the 15-foot, two-story castle, whose 3,000 square feet accommodates battling participants and court jesters performing medieval USO shows. Meanwhile, teams prepare for forthcoming competitions on three grass-turf tournament fields in the park's 3-acre training facility. Elsewhere in the park, players wield paintball markers equipped with laser light beams during outdoor hide-and-go-seek laser-tag games.

At Rockwood Gokart Track, drivers 4'8" and taller buckle up and burn rubber around the outdoor course's tight twists and serpentine turns. There's 12 colorful, single-seat go-karts to choose from, and parents can ferry their little ones (3'4" or taller) alongside them in one of four double-seat mini speed machines. Serious go-karters can also purchase parts or whole new go-karts at Rockwood Gokart Track, or get their current one running again with repairs and promises of oil sandwiches.