Interstate 30 In Fort Worth Shut Down While People Wait & Watch

No, those are not a bunch of Fort Worth natives standing on the Beach Street overpass over Interstate 30 protesting their air being poisoned by Barnett Shale gas drillers. Nor, even though they are close to Carter Avenue, are they showing support for the Carter Avenue Chesapeake Energy Resistance. And no, these Fort Worth natives are not celebrating the eminent arrest of Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief on racketeering charges.

So, I was on my way to the Tandy Hills. I enjoyed yesterday's perfect weather so much I decided to go for a repeat. This morning's swim was excellent too, though a tad chilly.

On my way, to the Tandy Hills, Tootsie Tonasket called me. I was driving down Brentwood Stair talking to Tootsie when I saw 2 Fort Worth Police cars oddly parked on the grass by an I-30 freeway exit and entry.

A short distance later, right before Oakland Avenue, I saw what you see above. All these vehicles parked beside the freeway, with people outside looking like they are waiting for something.

I get views of the freeway from the Tandy Hills. Each time I could see the freeway I'd see nothing out of the ordinary. Then I came to the view you see above, looking west towards downtown Fort Worth. And again with a lot of vehicles parked on the side of the freeway. And people out like they are looking for something. This was about an hour after I'd first spotted people at the side of the freeway watching nothing. If you look at the enlarged version of the above scene you'll see that there are pickups that have climbed the knoll on the opposite side of the freeway.

I finished with my hiking and headed towards the Beach Street Wal-Mart. When the Beach Street overpass came into view I saw all those people you saw in the first picture, standing on the overpass. As I crossed the freeway I finally saw what these people were looking at. I made a U-Turn, heading back to the Wells Fargo parking lot. Saw no NO EVENT PARKING sign, so I risked being towed and walked back to the freeway overpass.

And this is what I saw. Motorcycles as far as I could see, looking both west and east. Sadly I don't have a photo of the view to the east, because by the time I was on that side of the overpass I'd switched the camera to video mode. Which means there is a YouTube video of what I saw today, below.

By the time I got to the Tandy Hills I was fairly certain I knew what the people were waiting for, because I remembered being in Arlington around this time last year and seeing a similar scene, only unlike this year, when I came upon it, the motorcycles were already on the freeway.

This event is called the Toy Run. With the people on motorcycles bringing toys to, I think, the Arlington Convention Center. I have never seen so many motorcycles. Thousands of them.

The Fort Worth Police close off the freeway entries while the motorcycles pass. I wonder how kosher doing that is on a federal highway? Seems like it'd breaking some sort of rule. We don't believe in breaking rules in Texas. How much did this little event cost cash strapped Fort Worth?

It is a tad perplexing that thousands of Fort Worth citizens will line up along the freeway to watch some motorcycles motor by while only 6% of them will line up to vote to hopefully oust a corrupt mayor.

Watch the YouTube video to see and hear the motorcycles and the people cheering them on...

4th Of July Murder Attempt & Facebook

No. Those are not horses in Texas in the picture. They are horses in Eastern Washington, somewhere near Winthrop in the North Cascades.

It has been several months, maybe as many as 6, since I got on Facebook. I'd grown tired of hearing "Facebook" and not knowing what it was. To check it out I had to create an account. I did so, not using my real name, but accidentally sending out these friend request messages to people who's name I recognized.

Of those, Karen eventually figured out who I was, after exhausting pretty much every name in our high school annual. Since Karen friended me a few others figured out who I was and friended me, or figured out who I was and put me on their "don't friend" list.

Getting in touch with some people has been interesting, because some are, well, interesting. Like Karen, near as I can tell she is constantly on the go. Hawaii one week, Canada the next, back and forth over the mountains. (that is Washington-speak, meaning to go east of the mountains, which is also Washington-speak, meaning to cross over the Cascades via one of the mountain passes)

Awhile back I was surprised to learn Karen was a biker chick, as in she rides a Harley with her biker dude husband. They just got back from riding the Harleys up to Whistler in Canada. That is one treacherous road, in a car. You couldn't get me to ride it on a motorcycle. I've only been on a motorcycle twice. Both times did not go well.

And then yesterday I learned Karen does something even more adventurous than being a biker chick and it is also something you couldn't get me to do. Later this month a group of ten people, plus 20 horses and mules and judging from pictures of last year's wilderness expedition, several dogs, will ride horses on mountain trails to some distant campsite, starting the trek somewhere near Winthrop.

I have been hiking in the Cascades and have seen people on horses high in the mountains. It always looks dangerous to me. As in some of those trails are steep with very steep drop offs. I've had nothing but bad luck with horses. The last time I was on one it tried to kill me. Nine years ago on this very day, that being the 4th of July. I won't elaborate on how the horse tried to kill me, suffice to say I believe it was part of a very nefarious murder attempt that went awry.

Another thing I learned via Facebook was that Beth is now a TV and movie star, well, she's on a TV show, one of my favorites, that being LOST. And she's been in a movie. I've watched TV before and have seen a movie.

And then there's Cheryl, she with a daughter all grown up and in videos and films. I watched a very intriguing film starring Cheryl's daughter last week. It was one of those daunting foreign film type movies, deep with meaning that requires deep thought to understand it. Deep thought is not my forte.

Karen also has a daughter who has done an interesting thing. As in being the youngest person, male or female, to climb the highest peak on all 7 continents.

It seems like there were other interesting thing I've learned via Facebook, but I'm drawing a blank now.