Downtown Wichita Falls Dodging Lightning Bolts With Littlest Big Blue Skyscraper

This morning I had a book or two which needed to be returned to their place of residence, the downtown Wichita Falls Public Library.

So, with the weather outside being only somewhat frightful, what with a few lightning bolts with occasional raindrops, it seemed at the time a good idea to take a walk around downtown Wichita Falls.

It had been a couple years since I had walked by the World's Littlest Skyscraper, which is the towering edifice you see here.

I wonder why Dubai does not try to take the World's Littlest Skyscraper title away from Wichita Falls?

The World's Littlest Skyscraper is close to the Wichita Falls Farmers Market. The market was open today, with a few vendors and few shoppers.

Downtown Wichita Falls has had some aesthetic improvements since I first saw this downtown three years ago.

When one walks around the downtown one sees a lot of vacant buildings, some with what looks like good restoration possibilities.

I don't know if anything, restoration-wise, could be done with the pair of vacant buildings you see above. The open space behind the still standing storefront on the right looked like it could somehow be made into a functional space for some imaginative use. Maybe the building on the left could become a saloon with the open space on the right a beer garden.

Downtown Wichita Falls is an extremely eclectic mix of architectural styles. To my eyes the older buildings look good. The modern buildings not so much. Such as the short skyscraper you see below.

The locals call the above building "Big Blue". This building has been a work in progress as long as I have been in Wichita Falls. The exterior of Big Blue has a lot of issues in dire need of fixing.

From what I have been told this was an older building which was updated. To make the updating cost effective blue cladding was stuck on the old building so as to easily facilitate modern plumbing and wiring changes. This has never seemed like a plausible explanation to me.

Near as I can tell most of the locals like Big Blue. To my new to town eyes this blue building sort of sticks out in an obtrusive eyesore sort of way. Methinks removing the blue cladding would be a real good idea.

There is another attraction near the Wichita Farmers Market. A railroad museum.

The railroad museum has what looks like a graveyard of vintage rail vehicles, from locomotives to passenger cars.

I need to return to downtown Wichita Falls sometime soon and check out the railroad museum and maybe takes some photos of some of the impressive looking old buildings, some with explanatory historical markers.

Finding Wichita Falls Stone Palace Anticipating Spelling Bee Next Friday

Next Friday I am scheduled to be in downtown Wichita Falls at the Stone Palace.

Since I was not sure I knew where the Stone Palace was located in the downtown Wichita Falls zone I figured a quiet Sunday morning would be a good time to locate this particular palace.

I figured correctly.

And it turns out it was a good plan to find this location ahead of next Friday because it would have been possibly difficult to find when the sun was in its daily setting mode.

Why am I scheduled to be at the Stone Palace next Friday?

Well, I am glad you asked.

Somehow I got myself hoodwinked into being part of the support team for a group of spellers at the Wichita Adult Literacy Council, Inc. 20th Annual Spelling Bee.  The doors open at 6 pm, dinner is at 6;30 pm and the Bee Begins at 7 pm.

According to my admission ticket "21 t must show ID to purchase  alcohol".

Does alcohol and spelling mix well? I would think not. I guess I will be finding out next Friday.

My understanding of my Spelling Bee Team support role is I, along with a couple others, act as cheerleaders, cheering on our spelling team. There are a couple dozen spelling teams competing for the coveted Best Speller title.  I have no idea what the prize is, if any, for winning the coveted Best Speller title.

After locating the Stone Palace I decided to take a walk around downtown Wichita Falls.

The Stone Palace is just a couple blocks east of the Wichita Falls Public Library. I walked past the library and soon saw the infamous Wichita Falls World's Littlest Skyscraper scraping the sky a couple blocks to the northwest.

At the time I was doing my downtown Wichita Falls walking I thought I would document some of the interesting items of architecture one comes upon, but the bright light was not cooperative, so upon seeing what the photos looked like, once I got them off the camera, I decided to put off for another day photo documenting downtown Wichita Falls' interesting items of architecture.

Back to the subject of next Friday's Spelling Bee.

Saturday night, during a practice session with the team for whom I am scheduled to be a supportive cheerleader, my faculty for spelling became noticeable. Pressure was then exerted on me to become a Spelling Bee speller, replacing one of our Spelling Bee team's spellers, with that speller being completely happy with being replaced.

However, I opted not to become an official Spelling Bee speller. I feel I will be much more useful in a supportive cheer leading role....