Wichita Falls Midwestern State University Campus Most Beautiful In Texas

Saw this yesterday, via the Midwestern State University page on Facebook. A website called The Travel had named MSU the "Most Beautiful College Campus in Texas".

I went to The Travel website and scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and scrolled and scrolled down the entry page, and after an awful lot of scrolling I came to the entry about MSU and the school's beautiful campus, an article titled These Are The 10 Most Beautiful College Campuses In Texas.

What The Travel had to say about the MSU campus...

Despite being founded as a junior college in 1922, Midwestern State University has blossomed into a world-class university. It features tiled roofs on top of arched facades and signature maroon (red brick) exteriors.

The 255-acre campus has 70 buildings and notable attractions like the Sunwatcher, The Gates of Hercules, and a replica of the Liberty Bell.

Top attractions: The Sunwatcher, The Gates of Hercules, Castaway Cove Waterpark, The Family Fun Zone, Wichita Falls Museum of Art, Kemp Center for the Arts, The Juanita Harvey Art Gallery, Jenny to Jet Exhibit, Kell House Museum, MSU-Burns Fantasy of Lights, Museum of North Texas History, Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum, etc.

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The article fails to mention the trail around Sikes Lake on the MSU campus. I was going to go to Sikes Lake this morning, but the walking plan has switched to Lucy Park.

I have been to a couple other Texas college campuses. Baylor University, in Waco, and Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

TCU in Fort Worth is quite nice, slightly hilly. I do not remember much about Baylor.

In another of The Travel college campus lists, one listing the most beautiful college campuses on the west coast, the University of Washington, in Seattle, was one. The UW is a nice, scenic campus. Unlike MSU, the UW has a big football stadium on the campus. 

The MSU football stadium is miles away from the MSU campus, that being Memorial Stadium, a football venue MSU shares with the four Wichita Falls high schools.

Western Washington State University, in Bellingham, was not on The Travel's list of the 10 most beautiful west coast campuses. Methinks WWSU is as beautiful as the UW campus, being nestled up against Sehome Hill.

I can see why The Travel would have MSU as the most beautiful campus in Texas. I was impressed with it upon first seeing it. The MSU topography is totally flat. The buildings all sort of match, architecturally, with new buildings incorporating elements from the older buildings, which is quite aesthetically pleasing. 

Centennial Hall, the newest building on the MSU campus, is a good example of how MSU blends a modern building with the ones built in decades past.

I will be driving by the MSU campus in a few minutes....

Getting Benched In Wichita Falls Whilst Rolling Through MSU With Linda Lou

I do not remember why, or who to, maybe it was Linda Lou, but for some reason recently I said something like I think this town I am currently in, Wichita Falls, may have the world's highest per capita number of  benches on which to sit, located in parks, along the Circle Trail, or like above, a shady location my bike took me to today.

The benches my bike's handlebars are aimed at are on the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus, due west of Moffet Library.

It being Sunday, and school currently on summer hiatus, the MSU campus was almost a ghost town today. Expect for a large group of percussionists creating a pleasing, loud drum beat. Today the percussionists were all assembled in one location on the plaza east of Legacy Hall.

Yesterday, when I rolled through the MSU campus, there were two percussion groups loudly percussing. One group was on the sidewalk south of the Fain Fine Arts Center, with the other group on the sidewalk west of D.L. Ligon Coliseum. It was like they were having a percussion duel. I rather liked the throbbing noise.

Today I realized summer is about to arrive. It seems like only yesterday the temperature was below zero, with zero electricity flowing through most Texas wires. But that was in February, in winter. And now spring is almost history, with those three spring months, for the most part, without the usual spring storms with booming thunder and tornado warnings.

The current 10 day forecast is for day after day in the 90s, toying with hitting the 100s, while actually going into the 100s due to the high humidity heat index making it feel hotter than the real temperature.

A few weeks ago I talked to a Washingtonian I had not talked to since way back in 1991. A classmate from the high school from which I graduated. During the course of talking, after answering the usual questions, like how the hell did you end up in Texas, I was asked how I can cope with the HEAT. 

I explained my experience with getting acclimated, with such being something I did not know happened til experiencing me personal adjustment to HOT weather. When I was a Washingtonian a heat wave in the upper 70s/80s was miserable. Few Western Washingtonians have air conditioning in their homes. Eastern Washington is more like Texas, well, way more scenic, but like Texas weather-wise, HOT in summer, hence homes have air conditioning.

The house I built in Mount Vernon did not have air conditioning, but it was designed to passively cool, which worked well. I do not recollect ever getting HOT in that house.

I sit here typing about keeping cool and realized the A/C is blowing cold air on me, whilst the ceiling fan is doing the same thing. Something I take for granted nowadays.

Come to think of it, my house in Mount Vernon did have a ceiling fan. It was part of the passive cooling. The fan was on the ceiling of the third floor, with a large open area below to the second floor and the stairway. Opening windows on the north side of the basement drew in air which was cooled in the basement whilst getting sucked up through the house to vent out through the top floor air vents. 

Back to MSU, the aforementioned Linda Lou asked me if it is a big campus. I've seen bigger. I've seen smaller. I told Linda Lou the buildings are mostly brick, and that the style sort of matches, architecturally, unlike the hodge podge of architectural styles at the last university I attended, Central Washington University.

Here's a map of MSU, to give Linda Lou an idea of that I bike around whilst rolling through this campus...

Taking Linda Lou On MSU Bike Ride With Mustangs

I went on a long bike ride this final Sunday morning of the 2021 version of May.

About halfway through the bike ride I stopped at the location you see above to drink some water and to see why my phone had made its incoming text noise.

With the phone out of its bike storage location I decided to use it to take a photo. 

A time or two Linda Lou has asked me what the university I live near is like. Like as in how, asked I, a time or two.

To which Linda Lou asked is it big? Old? Lots of buildings? Brick?

I recollect answering yes to all Linda Lou's university questions. And added that the campus is flat, like most of Texas, not hilly like Western State University in my old home zone in Washington.

The horse known as a Mustang is the Midwestern State University mascot.

Hence the four Mustangs you see galloping through a pond. The first represents the Freshman class, carefully entering the pond, the second Mustang is a Sophomore, splashing right behind the Junior Mustang. the rear end of which is all you can see, whilst the Senior Mustang is leaping out of the pond, almost knocking us over.

The building behind the Mustangs is the newest on the MSU campus. That new building sort of illustrates, for Linda Lou, what MSU looks like, due to the fact that this new building cleverly incorporates all the various architectural styles one finds on the MSU campus, with that window wall you see behind the Mustangs being the one modern element which matches nothing else on campus. 

If I find myself feeling unusually energetic, on some day in the future, maybe I'll wander around the MSU campus photo documenting the various architectural styles, and how they are represented in the new building, known as Centennial Hall.

In the meantime tomorrow is Memorial Day. I won't be putting flowers on any nearby graves. I know no one in any nearby graves...

Wichita Falls MSU Centennial Hall Built Over Dry Land In Less Than 2 Years

Til today it had been a day or two or three since I rolled my newly refurbished bike for a tour around my neighborhood.

Today's bike tour eventually took me to the Midwestern State University, also known as MSU, campus, which is currently crowded with new students.

The start of the new school year is when the campus seems to be the most crowded, soon be thinned by the 2019 versions of Limbaugh and Hannity, not able to pass a college level course, and thus turning into college dropouts.

I digress.

The four horses you see here, splashing though a pond, are Mustangs. My first car was a 65 Mustang Fastback.

Again, I digress.

Mustang is the MSU mascot, so you see various iterations of that particular horse all over Wichita Falls.

The four Mustangs you see splashing above are part of MSU's new Centennial Hall, construction completed yesterday, building dedication scheduled for some time today.

Construction began in December of 2017, completed in less than two years.

Construction of Centennial Hall began over three years after the small town of Fort Worth began trying to build three simple little bridges over dry land, to try and connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

I assume building a big building is a bit more difficult construction project than building three little bridges over dry land. But, those Fort Worth bridges still are no where near being completed, with the current completion timeline some point in the next decade, if money can be found.

I suspect MSU's Centennial Hall was a fully funded building project before construction began, whilst Fort Worth's hapless project has never been fully funded, waiting for the public works project equivalent of federal food stamps.

Unlike Fort Worth's pitiful bridges this new MSU building, to my eyes, is an interesting, well designed structure. The building seems to pay homage to all the various architectural styles one sees on the MSU campus, from the old to the new, with the part of the new building you see behind the Mustangs, that tall glass wall, being the modern, 2019 style, part of the building.

I also like how Centennial Hall looks different from every angle. Lots of curves, angles and arches. Every color of brick on the MSU campus is incorporated into the various facets of the building.

I strongly suspect no local politician's unqualified son had anything to do with engineering this new MSU building.

Midwestern State University Traffic Jam With Two New Mustangs

I headed to the Midwestern State University campus this morning to take a shady walk in what I thought would be a virtually abandoned campus, due to the day being Saturday.

Well.

I soon found myself perplexed by a long traffic jam of vehicles trying to get to some unknown, to me, location.

Soon I was to learn the long traffic jam was trying to make its way to a drop off zone where incoming students could unload their goods.

I do not know why people did not just park on one of the many empty parking zones and then walk their stuff to its final destination, thus avoiding that long line moving in slow motion.

But, it all made for an entertaining spectacle.

And then I came to the location you see above. The new Centennial Hall building nearing its construction completion, almost ready for its grand opening next month.

Today I saw a pair of Mustangs running wild in the currently unfinished water feature in front of the new building.

This is the first two of an eventual four Mustang sculptures, one for each class, freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, With each class of Mustang bigger than the one before.

I have no way of knowing which two classes of Mustang I saw installed today. I suspect, maybe, freshman and sophomore.

These are realistic horse sculptures. Impressive.

I have been watching this new building get built for years, it seems like it began soon after my arrival in town. I like watching something like this progress. To my eyes this is a well designed building, with architectural nods to all the various styles of buildings on the campus.

I think I may attend the Centennial Hall grand opening event...

Biking To Wichita Falls Mysterious Towers Of Hercules

With the temperature nowhere near 100, and thus the outdoors being somewhat pleasantly moderate in the heat department, I opted to take my bike on a ride, with no particular destination in mind.

I am finding biking right from my abode at my current Wichita Falls location to be almost as pleasant as I used to experience late in the last century at my old  home location in Mount Vernon, in the Skagit Valley in the state of Washington.

From my abode in Mount Vernon I would exit to coast at high speed down a hill on the cul-de-sac on which my house was situated. No matter which direction I went steep hills were available, including the paved golf cart trail of a hilly golf course called Eaglemont, where Spencer Jack's dad used to have a restaurant he called a pavilion. Paved bike/pedestrian trails cross Mount Vernon, making it easy to get from the east end of town, where I resided, to the west end of town where a river ran.

At my current Wichita Falls location  the topography is pretty much flat. But the Circle Trail and the paved alleyways which course all over my neighborhood make for a fun maze of routes to roll around on.

Today I rolled north to Hamilton Park, then exited the Circle Trail to pedal on surface streets, eventually coming to an annoying street made of  bricks.

Why do Texans think it is a cool/good thing to retain old-fashioned streets made of brick? It ain't cool, it ain't good. Fort Worth's Camp Bowie Boulevard is the worst Texas offender of this sort I have bumped across.

The brick street eventually turned into a modern road going by nice homes, one of which looked like it would have made Howard Roarke proud.

Soon I came to Hempstead, which meant I was at the north end of Midwestern State University.

Why is this university so named? It's not in the Midwest. It's in North Texas. Why not Texoma State University? That has a nice ring to it. And the name makes sense. What with this region being known as Texoma, due to sharing space with Oklahoma.

From Hempstead I crossed Taft to the university campus. Soon I came upon that which you see above. An art installation known, for reasons unknown to me, as the Towers of Hercules. I do not know why this 'art' which looks like a row of phallic symbols is known as the Towers of Hercules.

My photo of the Towers of Hercules make them appear to be the Leaning Towers of Hercules. In reality the towers are totally erect, completely vertical, not even remotely resembling that famous tower in Pisa...

Sunny Wichita Falls Walk Around Sikes Lake With Art & Mona Lisa

Anticipating incoming thunderstorms, on this final Sunday of June I decided to take a walk, a short distance from my abode, where I've not walked before.

That being a walk around Sikes  Lake.

Sikes Lake is at the south end of Midwestern State University. I think the lake may be part of the campus, due a sign you will see later in this blogging.

I have not lived so close to a university since decades ago when I lived in Ellensburg, Washington, a slight distance north of the Central Washington University campus.

I was a bit non-plussed when I saw the above sign at the outdoor entry door to the aquatics center. But, mistakes happen, even on at a university full of people in the process of getting educated. Or as MSU might say "proces of getting educated."

The Sikes Lakes paved trail takes one past the Wichita Falls Museum of Art, where one sees multiple pieces of outdoor sculpture installations, along with the covered pavilion you see below.

I believe concerts and lectures take place at this pavilion location. It appears to be a real pavilion, unlike a Fort Worth style imaginary pavilion. I do not believe any Rockin' the Lake Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats take place at this location in Sikes Lake.

Above you see a couple examples of the aforementioned outdoor sculptures. The one in the foreground is titled "Screen Sculpture #49 Painted Steel".

The Sikes Lake Trail has one of those ubiquitous Mustang installations one sees all over Wichita Falls. I had no way to tell if this particular Mustang and her baby were part of the Museum's outdoor art, or not. I do know I have never seen Mona Lisa displayed on a horse's right rear leg before.

Multiple signs warn against swimming in Sikes Lake. And no kayaking or canoeing without prior MSU approval. Why no swimming? Lake too shallow? Polluted? Why does kayaking require MSU approval?

I have no clue.

Freedom loving Texans are so much more restrictive with their rules than I was used to in the free spirited progressive liberal minded state of Washington.

I saw four covered picnic gazebo type installations as I walked around the lake. Three of them with  a water fountain, such as the one you see above.

How is it that Wichita Falls has figured out how to deliver drinking water to remote locations around a lake? While a much bigger city, such as Fort Worth, can not figure out how to deliver such? Or how to install, in its parks, restroom facilities of the modern, non-outhouse variety?

Wichita Falls seems to have a real sense of civic pride, grounded in reality, unlike that Texas town from which I recently escaped. Wichita Fallers seems to realize their town has some problem areas in need of work, with the town actively addressing those areas, rather than pretending the problems don't exist, such as was the case in that delusional town from which I recently escaped....

Solving The Mystery Of The Wichita Falls Horses Of Many Colors

Soon upon my arrival in Wichita Falls I saw a horse which caused me to wonder why a funeral home would have a Horse of Many Colors sitting by its entry.

Soon thereafter I saw another Horse of Many Colors. And then another. And another.

I have now lost track of how many of what I thought were Wichita Falls Horses of Many Colors I have seen.

This morning I came upon the Horse of Many Colors you see above as I walked to the entry to the Market Street grocery store, which my local adviser advised me was the best grocery store in Wichita Falls.

Soon upon entering Market Street I realized it was the same as Market Street in Colleyville. I vaguely recollect when the Market Street opened in Colleyville that part of the story was the store was based in Wichita Falls. Or was it Amarillo?

Anyway, a few days into being in Wichita Falls I realized the Horses of Many Colors were actually Mustangs of Many Colors.

The university which is a couple blocks north of my new abode is Midwestern State University.

I believe the MSU mascot is a Mustang. There is a statue on the MSU campus of a group of Mustangs.

Are all these Mustangs of Many Colors a city-wide thing like when Seattle did the same thing with Pigs of Many Colors back in the previous decade? Many towns back earlier in this century did a similar thing.

I recollect Dallas tried it with Pegasus statues.

If I remember right that particular Dallas effort did not go well.

Tacoma had Salmon of Many Colors all over Tacoma, as late as 2008.

Anyway, I'm having myself a mighty fine time adjusting to a new town. And last night I got to experience my first Wichita Falls Thunderstorm. The booming did not last long. But a lot of water dropped.