Hiking On The Tandy Hills In One Of The Greatest Cities In The World

In the photo you are looking west from the summit of Mount Tandy, from whence a wagon trail heads towards the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth, a town some of the locals believe is known planet-wide as one of the Greatest Cities in the World.

More on the Greatest Cities in the World delusion in a subsequent blogging.

Today's hiking conditions were just about perfect. Not too hot, not too cold. And not windy.

With local kids on Spring Break I would have thought there would be some kids doing some hill hiking today. But I saw none.

I heard on the radio whilst driving to the Tandy Hills that traffic was a bit congested in the area around the Fort Worth Zoo due to Wednesday being half price admission day at the zoo, which always draws a big crowd to the zoo during Spring Break.

I've only been to the Fort Worth Zoo once, a long long time ago. There were areas of the Fort Worth Zoo that I liked. And other parts that I did not like. Like the aquarium. Is that aquarium still operating? It smelled bad and looked sort of rundown. Not the type thing you expect to see in the zoo of one of the Greatest Cities in the World.

Speaking of things you don't expect to see. Today I came upon a pile of litter at an unlikely location on the Tandy Hills.

That is the pile of litter I am talking about, above. This pile of litter is located just a short distance south of Tandy Falls. Where did it come from and who left it at this location? The two metal chunks of litter looked like they'd be heavy and cumbersome to carry.

Green is beginning to re-appear on that which has been brown for months. It being March wildflowers should soon be blooming. To my eyes, the best Texas ever looks is when the wildflowers are blooming.

Spencer Jack Did Not Go To The Fort Worth Zoo With Me On Saturday

That is Spencer Jack in the picture, taken yesterday at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. Spencer Jack took his mom, Jenny, to the zoo to meet his aunt, that being my eldest sister, and his namesake, that being my ex-wife.

Behind Spencer Jack is part of the African Savanna exhibit. When the African Savanna opened in 1980 it was the first of its kind, won awards and spawned similar exhibits in other zoos.

Only the Bronx Zoo in New York City has won more Best National Exhibit awards from the Association of Zoos & Aquariums than Woodland Park Zoo.

My sister had not been to Woodland Park Zoo since the exhibits went natural. I don't think she'd been there since back when Bobo the Gorilla was the big attraction.

I forget when, exactly, but back in either the late 60s or early 70s there was a massive bond issue in the Seattle zone called Forward Thrust. Voters approved all sorts of things. Like building the (now dead) Kingdome, fixing up Pike Place Market, upgrading Woodland Park Zoo, building water treatment plants on Puget Sound and Lake Washington, that returned those bodies of water to their former salmon supporting clean glory, and I forget what else.

The voter's rejected building a rail transit system. That is now seen as a big mistake that only started to get rectified in the 1990s.

My sister takes off for Alaska next week, with Denali National Park as one of her destinations. I don't know if she took Spencer to the Northern Trail exhibit yesterday. It is made to look like a trail in Denali National Park. My last visit to Woodland Park Zoo was soon after that exhibit opened in 1994. I remember coming face to face with a big black bear, underwater, and being a little startled.

I've only been to the Fort Worth Zoo once. I did not find it a very pleasant experience.

I remember my first year in Texas some friends had friends visiting from Washington and they took the Washingtonians to the Fort Worth Zoo. I remember one of them verbalizing being amazing at some of the tackiness, mentioning one thing in particular, saying something like, "They have ad signs all over, that'd never fly in Seattle, things like Cheetah Exhibit Sponsored by Cheetos."

I remember being appalled by the aquarium. It smelled really bad and had all sorts of sea critters roaming around in one big tank.

The 3rd Thursday Of March In Texas Thinking Of Lethal Injections, Drinking Wine & Going To The Fort Worth Zoo

I woke up after the sun did, this morning, on the 3rd Thursday of March.

I had myself a night of nightmares.

Few details, of which, I remember. Except for the fact that the nightmares took place in Washington and involved a lot of high steep mountain drama.

I did not manage to go on my daily walking/hiking constitutional yesterday. I am feeling the lack of that stimulation this morning. I think endorphin withdrawal may be as bad as withdrawal from something like heroin.

Speaking of drugs. This morning I was shocked to learn that Texas has run short of the drugs it uses in its lethal injection cocktails the state uses for its many executions. The state has had to come up with a new mix of drugs in order to be able to successfully kill Cleve Foster, with that execution scheduled for April 5.

In other drug related news, the West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska's drug suppliers are running low on potassium iodine due to panicked people depleting the stocks due to fear of a radiation cloud arriving from Japan, with potassium iodine possibly preventing thyroid cancer caused by radiation exposure.

I learned yesterday during the 15 minutes I can stand listening to Rush Limbaugh that the Bulgarians are claiming that drinking red wine is as beneficial in preventing radiation caused thyroid cancer as potassium iodine.

So, I got several boxes of really red wine yesterday and have been taking a medicinal dose ever since. So far, no thyroid cancer, near as I can tell.

Change of subject from cancer, drugs and wine.

Yesterday the Fort Worth Zoo had a record breaking crowd due to it being half price Wednesday and Spring Break Week for area schools.

This had me thinking would it not make sense for the Fort Worth Zoo to make it Half Price Spring Break Week? It seems as if they would get way more visitors than what crammed into the zoo on Wednesday. And in the end make way more money.

Change of subject again.

It is 65 degrees outside according to my supposedly accurate temperature information source. I am well past my usual morning swim time, but rather than bail on the swimming, due to the balmy temperature, I am heading to the pool now.

Talk to you later.