Fort Worth's 4th Of July With Trinity River Floating While North Richland Hills Has No River Floating Or Alcohol

I just got an email from Elsie Hotpepper asking me if I wanted to go floating in the Trinity River with her on Monday at Fort Worth's 4th of July celebration behind La Grave Field in what some now call Trinity Uptown.

The ad for Fort Worth's 4th says, "Float the Fourth Water Activities. Be cool and have a fun, splashing good time in the river."

If this floating is taking place by La Grave Field will this be a case of floating where no man has dared float before? Is the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle supplying Inner Tubes for this float like they do for the Inner Tube Happy Hour Floats that occur on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the summer months?

Chesapeake Energy is presenting Fort Worth's 4th of July, according to the ad. What would Fort Worth do without Chesapeake Energy?

I mistakenly did not include the NRH 4th of July among my list of D/FW 4th of July celebrations.

Chesapeake Energy, among other Barnett Shale Natural Gas Drillers is helping sponsor North Richland Hills 4th of July celebration, as you can see in the ad below.

North Richland Hills' "The Family 4th Fireworks Show" is not the type event of which the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle's J.D. Granger would approve, because, according to the ad, "This is a litter-free, alcohol-free family celebration."

In addition to the NRH 4th of July ban on litter and booze, no personal fireworks or outdoor grilling will be allowed. But, there will be patriotic music playing, in sync, with the fireworks.

It seems odd to me, since the 4th of July is basically a celebration of freedom, that some of the celebrations tell you you are not free to grill a hot dog. Or drink a bottle of beer. Or set off a firecracker.

Of these two 4th of July celebrations, J.D. Granger's party on the Trinity River would appear to appeal to me more than the NRH celebration. 

But, I don't think I could possibly drink enough beer to cause my common sense to go haywire enough that I'd end up on the 4th floating in the Trinity River. No matter how strong a case Elsie Hotpepper makes to do so.

The Tandy Hills are Alive with the Sound of Color

With just a little more than a week to go til the Prairie Fest the Tandy Hills are coming alive with color. I'd not been to the Tandy Hills since last Saturday's Bus Ride Adventure, the day before the Easter Deluge rendered hiking a muddy pursuit, but apparently convinced a lot of Texas wildflowers that it was time to wake up and do their annual job.

Like the one in the first picture. Is that not a unique looking piece of work by Mother Nature? It looks like it's talking to you.

I saw at least 5 new wildflowers today that weren't showing on my last visit. I was unable to get decent pictures of some of them due to it being very windy with the flowers refusing to pose in a semi-static position.

Speaking of that wind. Apparently we are supposedly going to be having some heavy duty storming in the coming hours. In spring that can mean big baseball size hail, heavy rain, high winds and tornadoes.

Which will likely wreak havoc with my TV viewing, which tonight only consists of Survivor. I'm sure it will be interrupted, at key points, at least twice to tell us that the Doppler Radar has spotted a small circulating cell somewhere within a 250 mile radius of the D/FW Metro Zone and that that rotating cell has the potential to develop into a tornado, but fear not, they are monitoring the situation for us and will break in with developments as the rotating cell continues rotating.


I did not go to a Tea Party last night. I now regret it. My Physical Therapist, Dr. L.C. (who's advice I continue to ignore, as in I went swimming this morning and then went hiking), went to the Tea Party at La Grave Field and said it was a lot of fun.

La Grave Field is this little hobbled together baseball park that the Fort Worth Cats play in. It's a minor league team. Fort Worth is the biggest city (over 700,000 population) in America with a minor league baseball team. I think that's pretty cool.

The Fort Worth Cats are in something called the Central Baseball League. Big ol' Fort Worth plays against towns like Robstown, population 12,849 and their team, the Coastal Bend Aviators. And Harlingen, population 58,300 and their team, the Rio Grande Whitewings. And Edinburg, population 38,900 and their team, the Edinburg Roadrunners. And Alexandria, population 46,000 and their team, the Alexandria Aces. And Amarillo, population 172,400 and their team, the Amarillo Dillas. And Springfield, (that's in Missouri, I think) population 142,200 and their team the Ozark Mountain Ducks.

Well, you get the drift. Fort Worth has proudly won their league's world series, or whatever it is called, a time or two. But with no citywide celebration, as far as I know.