One More Stupid Thing I've Done In Texas

When I was up in Tacoma earlier this year I walked a lot. Right out of my little sister's house. You exit the front door to a walkway that connects to a sidewalk that connects to other sidewalks that you can walk all over town. That is a Tacoma sidewalk you see in the photo.

My sister lives in the swanky north end of Tacoma. A former acquaintance lives in the less swanky south end of Tacoma. About 6 miles from my sister's. One day I was at the less swanky side of town and decided to walk back to my sister's. It was a nice, long walk. Sidewalks all the way.

Tacoma is heavily landscaped. When you walk the sidewalks it is sort of like being in a park. Very nice.

So, today, I don't know how I managed to be possessed by an idea of total idiocy, but I needed to go to the Post Office. It's about 2 miles from here. So, I decided I walk to the Post Office. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Well, Fort Worth is a large city. Over 3 times bigger than Tacoma in population. But it is sadly lacking in a lot of big city amenities. Like sidewalks. Maybe 15% of the route from here to the Post Office and back had some semblance of a sidewalk. Narrow little things. Large sections of the route were basically worn down foot paths, where hapless Fort Worthers, like myself, had worn a path through the weeds.

The amount of litter was astonishing. As was the variety. But I made it to the Post Office. I decided to make a loop of it and get back here via a different route. This was a mistake. Way fewer sidewalks. I guess I don't notice how sparse the sidewalks are when I'm driving.

I crossed over I-30 on a very old bridge that also had no sidewalk. It must have been built back when I-30 was a tollway, before the Feds mandated sidewalks on bridges.

I was barely on the other side when I was accosted by 3 pit bulls. Loose pit bulls. I clapped my hands together real hard to scare them. This worked, but I ended up with a real sore spot on the palm of my hand.

Soon after the pit bull attack I stepped on a glass shard. It penetrated my shoe, but not my skin. The "ouch" made me lift up my foot in time to prevent further damage. I pulled out the glass shard and continued on my way.

Suffice to say, I made it back here. I will never try and walk the mean streets of Fort Worth again. Unless I have to.

Meanwhile, Fort Worth continues to be enamored of a messianic vision, that I've mentioned before, called the Trinity River Vision, a vision to build a little lake, some canals, a flood diversion channel and some wetlands restoration.

I wish Fort Worth had the vision to build some sidewalks. Maybe the canals in the Trinity River Vision will have sidewalks.