Chinese Garlic

I had not been on my bike for a couple weeks, due to cold, not of the viral sort, but of the temp sort, and rain which renders my favorite mountain bike trail a muddy mess. But today I saw by looking at the DORBA website (Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association) that the trails had dried up.

I must digress. Yes there are mountain bike trails in Texas even though there are, for the most part, no mountains. I thought upon moving here that I would be giving up mountain bike riding. Instead I've pedaled thousands of miles on Texas trails. My latest bike odometer is up over 4000 miles. And it's my third odometer since I've been in Texas.

So, with the temps being a bit above freezing when factoring in the wind chill, I layered myself up and ventured off to River Legacy Park in Arlington. This park is really picky about kids having fun making trails for their stunt bikes. Go to the River Legacy page on my Eyes on Texas website and you can read the rude email I got from a park official who somehow thought I was promoting bad behavior.

I got to the park about noon. It was cold and very windy. The trail is one-way, meandering over 3 miles through woods. I usually go a minium of 3 times around, my record is 6. Today I made it one time around. I did not stop due to the cold. I stopped due to it not being fun being all bundled up and overheating. And I wanted to go to Wal-Mart and Chinatown.

Drove to the Ballpark in Arlington Wal-Mart. It sits across from the Dallas Cowboy stadium monstrosity. You can read all about the Dallas Cowboy scandal here. I am up close to the stadium every other week or so. This time I saw they've added a sign bragging about hosting the 2011 Super Bowl. The neighborhood to the south of the stadium is an industrial wasteland adjacent to a ghetto of old small mostly rundown houses. It will be interesting what those attending games think of this when they take in the view from the upper tiers. I don't think the view was taken into consideration when deciding upon a stadium location. There will be no downtown skyline to look at, no distant mountains, no body of water, nothing, unless you enjoy looking at what may be the world's most upscale Super Wal-Mart. It is decorated with giant baseballs, due to also being near the place where the Texas Rangers lose baseball games. Giant footballs have yet to be added to the Wal-Mart. I'm sure it is only a matter of time. They are likely being fabricated even as I type.

It's ironic. The Dallas Cowboys have not played in Dallas for decades. They play in a Dallas suburb called Irving. But at least Irving is in Dallas County. They will soon be playing in another Dallas suburb, that being Arlington. But Arlington is not even in Dallas County, it is in Tarrant County. Fort Worth is the county seat of Tarrant County. Fort Worth sort of feuds with Dallas, with Dallas not seeming to notice or care, as evidenced by Dallas not caring about their new stadium being in Fort Worth's county. Many in Fort Worth will not cross 360. That is a highway that runs north and south, sort of dividing the D/FW Metroplex, as if crossing to the east side of 360 is venturing into enemy territory. One of Fort Worth's most famous citizens, Amon Carter, founder of the Star-Telegram, would resist having to do business in Dallas, and if it could not be helped he would bring a sack lunch so he could avoid leaving even the money it would take to buy lunch behind in the enemy city. I am not making this stuff up. Just go here and read the Wikipedia article about this notoriously odd Fort Worth booster.

I spent 15 minutes at the Stadium Wal-Mart and then drove south to Chinatown. That's an area of Arlington settled by many Vietnamese and Chinese. There are several Asian and Middle Eastern markets. It's a good place to get good produce. Today I wanted garlic and red peppers. And a few other things. When I got to the garlic zone I was perplexed and vexed to see the packaging clearly indicating the garlic was from China. Up til recently I would have thought nothing of this, but now it concerns me.

But the Chinese garlic did not concern me too much I guess, since I've just finished 4 cloves of it with sharp cheese and grapefruit juice whilst sitting here typing. Now, make fun of this behavior all you want, but keep in mind, I've put over 4000 miles on my latest bike odometer. How many have you put on yours?