Flying Google Earth From Texas To Visit My Old Washington Home Zone

Last night I flew Google Earth from my current home zone to my old home zone of Washington state. It had been a few years since I had flown home via this method.

I first checked out the town I grew up in, Burlington, going down Fairhaven Avenue, that being the main drag through town. Much had changed, including what looked to be a lot of new landscaping at the area train tracks intersect with, I think, Highway 20, that being the rode which takes you to North Cascades National Park.

When I got to my old home, across from Maiben Park, I saw something which clued me as to why I find a certain aspect of Texas to be a bit appalling.

That being the sad state of sidewalks in the Lone Star state.

The sidewalk in front of the house I grew up in is wide, with a grass median between the sidewalk and the road. A feature I rarely, if ever, have seen in Texas. And now a sidewalk has been added on the park side of the street.

The house I grew up in is the one in the middle. Seeing the sidewalk, with the median between sidewalk and road, I understand why I find the Texas sidewalks so appalling.

After several minutes in Burlington I headed south to Mount Vernon. The first thing I checked out in Mount Vernon was the Riverwalk along the Skagit River.

The Mount Vernon Riverwalk was built as part of a flood control project. Previous to this new flood control method sandbags were used to build a walk to keep downtown Mount Vernon from being flooded. Now a temporary wall can be assembled quickly by just a couple wall builders, not the hundreds of volunteers it took to build a sandbag wall.

The Texas town I used to live in, Fort Worth, has been trying to build a new flood control method in an area which has not flooded since the 1950s, because flood control levees already prevent such from happening. Fort Worth's slow-motion project, limping along for most of this century is known as the Trinity River Vision, purported to be a vitally needed flood control and economic development plan.

So vitally needed that, so for, the only major part of that Vision which can be seen is three simple little freeway overpass type bridges, built over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

The river that flows through Fort Worth is the Trinity River. This is not a Skagit River type river. As you can sort of see in the above photo, the Skagit River looks like it is flowing clean, clear water. The Trinity River looks like flowing mud, and in flood mode that flowing mud is covered with litter.

That photo at the top is the house I lived in before moving to Texas. Built in 1985 for only $65,000. Sold in 2002 for $132,000. And recently I saw the house has been sold again for a little under a hall million bucks. 

Such seems so bizarre to me. That anyone would pay that much for that house. Only three bedrooms, two bathrooms. And no walk-in closets. The decks in front and back were rather nice, there is that. I had a great roof top garden in the front patio, with two big blueberry bushes, among many other vegetative things, including a lot of basil.

I'm appalled to see a garage door has been added to the open carport, not matching the look of the rest of the house. I see the stairs leading to the front door have been totally re-done. And why is there what looks to be a big plastic tarp above where my bedroom was?

I guess it really is true, you can't go home again. And expect all to be the same as you remember it...

Seeing Mount Baker Takes Me To Fir Island & Fort Worth's Imaginary Panther Island

I never tire of seeing photos from my old home zone, especially photos of Mount Baker, a volcano I used to be able to see from my living room windows in Mount Vernon.

I saw the instance you see here, this morning, on Facebook. The view is either from some location on the Skagit Flats, or from Fir Island.

Fir Island is a real island, not an imaginary island, such as one day the town of Fort Worth, Texas hopes to see.

Fort Worth's imaginary island will be claiming to be such after a cement lined ditch is dug, with Trinity River water diverted into that ditch.

Ironically, Fir Island also is created by being surrounded by river water. At Fir Island the Skagit River splits into two forks, the North and South Forks of the Skagit River.

Wikipedia has an article about Fir Island. The article makes mention of the worst natural disaster I have witnessed up close. In the early 1990s a Pineapple Express brought extreme flooding to Western Washington.

The flooding was so extreme that the flood level was predicted to inundate downtown Mount Vernon. So, hundreds of people helped build a sandbag wall to try and hold back the flood. I was watching the 11 o'clock news when it went live to Mount Vernon, showing the feverish activity, filling sandbags, including sailors from the Navy base on Whidbey Island.

By midnight I was in downtown Mount Vernon, helping to build the sandbag wall. The wall was complete around 3 in the morning.

The flood crest was expected to hit Mount Vernon around 11 in the morning. At that point of time I joined the huge crowd, waiting on high ground for the crest to happen. You could see the river was about to go over the sandbag wall, when, suddenly, the river level dropped a couple feet.

No one knew what had happened. Soon, there were sirens blaring. At one point I remember seeing a helicopter with a cow strapped in below it. I do not remember how long it was til we learned the dike at Fir Island had failed, flooding the island.

There is currently no Wikipedia about Fort Worth's imaginary Panther Island. I doubt there ever will be...

Inside Mount Vernon Staying Cool In Lucy Park

On this first Tuesday of the 2022 version of August I drove to Lucy Park for a cool late morning walk in the shade. The temperature was in the 90s. Cooling gusts of wind blew. 

If I were up north in my old home zone of Western Washington I would also be sweltering in extreme heat, with most people not having air-conditioning. However, several of the people I know up in Washington do have air-conditioning, including the Tacoma Trio, David, Theo and Ruby, who are currently flying back home after several days of exploring the other Washington.

A couple days ago when I asked Where In D.C. And/Or Surrounding States Are David, Theo & Ruby? we saw a photo of the trio in front of Mount Vernon, the one in Virginia where George Washington when he wasn't fighting Indians, or the British, or living in the White House.

I asked the Tacoma Trio's Mama Michele if they got to tour George's home. In reply I got two illustrative photos and interesting explanatory text, which we shall see below with the two photos...

Yes, we got to go inside and through the first two floors. It was weird to think about George Washington walking up the same stairs, touching the same handrail, etc.

I only took two pics inside - the first room we got in because I thought I could get the fam reflected in the mirror (didn’t work) and one of the last rooms, his study. He built the desk in the middle and the thing hanging down was a fan operated by his feet! The green color of the first room is notable because the color came from copper and signified wealth. 

They say the rooms look as they did when he died in 1799. Perhaps the most notable thing to me was that the rooms (bedrooms, parlors, dining rooms) were all quite small, even though the mansion appears grand, and that there were no bathrooms. Most old homes have been retrofitted, but not this one!!

Also interesting was that the exterior is wood made to look like stone, so that it appeared grander and more expensive than it was. They applied sand to the wood to give it the feel of stone!! There were also lots of outbuildings with signs that told you what it was back in the day. And we saw slave quarters, the Washington’s tomb, and the enslaved workers burial area, which was originally unmarked, but people have tried to right that wrong.

To get to George Washington's house we took a Lyft (my first time using a ride service because I like taxis, but there aren’t any at National Harbor) to old town Alexandria and then boarded a boat for Mount Vernon.

________________________

More photos arrived in the email this morning. We shall be seeing those tomorrow...

Where In D.C. And/Or Surrounding States Are David, Theo & Ruby?

That was the question I was being asked about seven photos emailed to me last night.

"Where in D.C. and/or surrounding states are David, Theo and Ruby?"

As made mention of previously, the Tacoma Trio, Ruby, Theo and David, are currently in the other Washington, Washington, D.C., where they are taking their parental units on a tour of iconic Washington, D.C. locations, and, apparently, locations, in states surrounding D.C., such as the above visit to Virginia, to the namesake of the town I lived in before moving to Texas, Mount Vernon, George Washington's home.

Above, I believe Ruby, David and Theo are visiting the memorial to our 3rd president, Thomas Jefferson.

And this looks like Mama Michele has joined the Tacoma Trio at the Vietnam War Memorial. 

This one is totally a guess. Are they in the Smithsonian Institute? Looking at some famous piece of jewelry? A Jackie Kennedy pearl necklace? Or some such thing?

The Albert Einstein Memorial Statue. Nice that Einstein got sort of a whimsical tribute for someone so serious, you know, figuring out all sorts of possible things, like atom bombs, among many works of physics, like the Theory of Relativity, and other things I don't understand.

The above is known in Washington, D.C. as the Love Wall, designed by Lisa Marie Thalhammer, located in Blagden Alley.

And now we have headed a bit north and east, to Maryland, and what is known as the National Harbor, with the Ferris wheel known as the Capital Wheel in the distance.

So, how did I do, figuring out where in D.C. and surrounding states, David, Theo and Ruby were?

UPDATE: I missed seeing the following two photos when I first saw the incoming email...

My guess would be that, above, the Tacoma Trio are in the Smithsonian standing by a World War II torpedo.

And, the I Love You sign is likely near that aforementioned Capital Wheel and National Harbor...

With Linda Lou Visiting Mount Vernon Farmer's Market & Hank Frank

Late yesterday afternoon, Mount Vernon's Linda Lou went walking with me in Walmart.

During the course of our walk talk Linda Lou told me about a Mount Vernon Farmer's Market she had been to that day. 

Linda Lou described to me the location of this Mount Vernon Farmer's Market, at the west end of Blackburn Road. So, this morning I used Google Earth to visit Mount Vernon.

I believe that is the Mount Vernon Farmer's Market Linda Lou told me about, above. Linda Lou described a big variety of Farmer's products at the Farmer's Market. Three types of cucumbers, the greenest parsley she'd ever seen, bright ruby red radishes. And more, much much more. 

Including a walk-in cooler with various Farmer's meat products.

And shopping at this Farmer's Market used the honor system. As in, no checkout with a clerk. You pick the products you want to buy, estimate the total, and then insert the right amount of cash into a secured container.

I would have trouble shopping at this Farmer's Market, due to needing cash. All my transactions are made using a debit card. I suppose if I were in Mount Vernon I could get myself some cash to get myself some fresh products from this Mount Vernon Farmer's Market.

This type food shopping is something I miss at my current location, where no such similar thing exists.

Mount Vernon also has another produce selling location that I wish existed here. That being the Skagit Valley Co-Op.

The Co-Op is located in downtown Mount Vernon, in the old Penney's building. I could find just about any food product I wanted to find, at the Skagit Valley Co-Op. Including things like candied ginger. I've never been able to find candied ginger in Texas.

The Skagit Valley Co-Op also sold products other than food. Things like clothes and homemade soap. And there is a restaurant. I remember going to Friday night spaghetti and garlic bread at the Co-Op's restaurant.

And now I suspect a product has been added to the Skagit Valley Co-Op product line up which I definitely can not find in any Texas store.

As in various cannabis-based products. The Skagit Valley Co-Op likely now has entire section devoted to pot products. I must remember to ask when next I talk to a Skagit Valley local.

Since I was in Mount Vernon, via Google Earth, I decided to make a quick visit to Hank Frank's place on Beaver Marsh Road.

I am just about 100% I found Hank Frank's house. This is where Google Earth took me when I entered my Favorite Nephew Joey's address.

Someday, hopefully sooner than later, I will find myself visiting Hank Frank in person...

UPDATE:  Via Linda Lou we have now learned the correct name for the aforementioned Mount Vernon Farmer's Market is Waxwing Farm. And that Waxwing Farm has a website where you see how their organic farming operation works, along with a KING5 news video story about the farm.

Skagit River Crests Near Record High With New Flood Wall Successful

Much of my old home zone of Western Washington is currently under water thanks to a Pineapple Express delivering an Atmospheric River.

I don't quite understand this photo from the front page of the Seattle Times, showing people on the downtown Mount Vernon Riverwalk, standing where the flood wall is.

Except the flood wall is about ten feet tall, and is not at all in evidence in this photo. 

Just yesterday Nephew Jason emailed video showing the flood wall, and commenting that he had to stand on his car's roof to see over it.

You can see that video below.

The downtown Mount Vernon flood wall is designed to install quickly by just a few installers, when the need arises. And to be taken down equally fast.

A huge improvement over the former sandbagging method of saving downtown Mount Vernon from getting inundated by the Skagit River.

The flood control wall was just part of a $25 million riverfront rebuild in downtown Mount Vernon. If I remember right the flood wall cost something like $8 million of the $25 million.

Meanwhile, there is this backwards town in Texas with imaginary flooding issues, trying to get the rest of America to pay around a billion bucks to build an un-needed flood control system in an area which has not flooded in well over half a century because of flood control levees the rest of America paid for way back in the 1950s.

I read yesterday that Fort Worth is starting the process of taking the land needed to dig the cement lined ditch that will go under the three little bridges which took seven years to build, creating an imaginary island, solving an imaginary flood control problem.

I would have thought that the land for the ditch had already been acquired. I suspect soon more classic Fort Worth eminent domain abuse will be underway, taking property for an imaginary public works project the public has never voted to support.

And people wonder why I refer to that Texas town as being backwards....

11/16/2021 Jason Drives Us To Downtown Mount Vernon To See Flooding Skagit River

In the above video my Favorite Nephew Jason drives south on I-5, beside the flooding Skagit River.

And then Jason takes us to a closeup look at the Mount Vernon Skagit Riverfront's first major test of the new flood wall.

Pineapple Express Atmospheric River Deluging My Old Washington Home Zone

A Pineapple Express, also known as an Atmospheric River, is currently dropping a lot of water on Western Washington. I can not remember if it is in an El Nino or El Nina year that a tropical air mass gets over heated and over saturated with water, and then heads north to drench the west coast.

My Favorite Nephew Jason (FNJ) emailed the photos you see above and below, arriving in my email inbox this morning.

I believe the above photo shows the current Skagit River status in downtown Mount Vernon, while the below photo shows preparations for the disaster flood of 1995..

The text in the email from FNH---

FUD -

We are still on high alert here in the valley.   The 1990 and 1995 floods were at measured depth of over 37 feet in MV.

Projections for Tuesday evening's depth are for about 36 feet in MV.

I believe the below flood photo depicting the old sandbag method was from 1995.

Hope you are high and dry in Texas. 

-FNJ

I think the 1995 Pineapple Express is the one that sank one of the Lake Washington floating bridges. I remember watching the late night news out of Seattle. They broke in live from Mount Vernon, showing a lot of people filling sand bags by the downtown library. Showing servicemen from the Whidbey Navy base helping. Asking anyone who could do so to come downtown to help.

And so I woke up the house and we headed to downtown Mount Vernon. I had never seen anything like it. So many people feverishly working in emergency mode. Soon I was part of  a brigade passing sandbags to be stacked in a long line to attempt to stop the river from flooding downtown Mount Vernon, which, when the Skagit is in flood mode, downtown Mount Vernon is like New Orleans. As in it is below the level of the river.

By about three in the morning the sandbag wall was complete. I went home, then returned to downtown Mount Vernon ahead of the predicted 11am crest of the flood. People were blocked from entering the downtown area, but you could see the river, and downtown, from the hills due east of downtown. If I remember right I was on the old Highway 99 bridge which crosses I-5, along with a lot of other people. 

Around 11am you could see the river reaching the top of the sandbag wall, and seeming to start to spill over in spots.

And then, suddenly, the river backed off, retreated, about a foot. People were collectively thinking and saying what the hell just happened.

Within an hour or so we knew what had happened. A dike had breached down river, a break of a couple hundred feet. This quickly flooded Fir Island. An actual island (not an imaginary Fort Worth, Texas type island) made so due to being surrounded by two branches of the Skagit River. 

The Fir Island disaster triggered all sorts of emergency action, including loud sirens. Soon we were seeing things like cows being rescued by helicopter. As in a cow in some sort of harness dangling from a helicopter. 

Before the Fir Island dike breech could be fixed, and before the Mount Vernon sandbag wall was taken down, two weeks later it happened again. Another flood, this time easily re-flooding Fir Island due to the broken dike.

I remember when it was eventually allowed driving around Fir Island seeing the destruction. I'd never seen anything like it before.

There were a few more floods where a sandbag wall was used to protect downtown Mount Vernon. And then it was decided there needed to be a better solution.

A better solution to a real flood problem, not a goofy incompetent solution to an imaginary flood problem, such as what I have witnessed in Fort Worth for a couple decades now, expecting the rest of America to pay a billion bucks, or more, for what the Fort Worth schemers claim is a vitally needed flood control project, but is, in reality a corrupt money making scheme geared to line the pockets of those foisting the project on the public.

Meanwhile, in Mount Vernon, Washington, it was decided to build a new flood control system, a temporary wall which can be installed in a few hours by a few installers. Not an army of sandbaggers.

That is the new flood wall you see in the photo at the top. It is part of Mount Vernon's rebuild of its riverfront into a sort of riverwalk. If I remember right this cost around $25 million. I don't remember what the funding mechanism was.

Likely there was a bond election with the public voting to support the project. I do know this flood control project began well after Fort Worth began its inept Trinity River Vision's imaginary flood control project, with the Mount Vernon flood control long completed, whilst the Fort Worth "vitally needed" imaginary flood control project to control floods in an area that has not flooded in well over a half century due to flood control levees already installed, had basically not even started, with nothing done other than three simple little bridges built over dry land, taking seven years to build, with the hope that one day a cement lined ditch will be built under the bridges, creating an imaginary island, and providing that vitally not needed flood control.

Fort Worth expects federal funding to pay for its not needed flood control. To that end a local congresswoman's unqualified son was given the job of being executive director of the project, to motivate his mother to get that federal funding.

Eventually it became obvious the congresswoman's son was inept at the job he was being paid well over $200,000 a year to do no one knows what, the congresswoman's son was moved to a new job, where he could do no harm, still paid that ridiculously high salary, while a person actually qualified to oversee a public works project was hired.

I am almost 100% certain that no local politician's son, or daughter, was hired by the Skagit River Vision, to motivate that politician to secure funding for the Skagit River flood control project.

Nurse Canecracker's Mount Vernon History Took Me To America's Fort Worth Boondoggle

I found that which you see here in my mailbox this morning, sent by Nurse Canecracker, aka, Miss Linda.

A history of the town I lived in before moving to Texas, titled Images of America: Mount Vernon.

I have always liked learning about the history of this, that or any other thing.

This book from Nurse Canecracker answered several questions about Mount Vernon, and the Skagit Valley, which I have wondered about.

Such as when was the bridge across the Skagit connecting downtown Mount Vernon with West Mount Vernon built? I now know it was 1954 that cars first drove across that new bridge.

And when did the two malls in Mount Vernon open? One would think I could remember this, since I was living in the neighborhood at the time.

Well, it was 1971 when the Mount Vernon Mall opened on the north side of College Way, with the Skagit Valley Mall opening two years later, across the street on the south side of College Way.

Those two malls wreaked havoc with downtown Mount Vernon. And then a modern mall opened a couple miles north, on the other side of the Skagit River, in Burlington, eventually causing the two Mount Vernon malls to be demolished, replaced with modern type strip malls.

And now that mall in Burlington, the Cascade Mall, is having trouble staying open, losing all its anchors.

I have wondered what the flooding history of the Skagit River was, before dikes were built to contain the river when it left the narrow valley and entered the delta flood plain.

Well, there were some hellacious floods, photo documented in this book from Miss Linda. I have eye witnessed some hellacious Skagit floods post dikes being built, hence wondering what it was like before those dikes were built.

The Texas town I lived in before moving to my current location, Fort Worth, has had a multi-decade pseudo public works project underway to supposedly address imaginary flood issues which were long ago fixed by the construction of massive levees.

This Fort Worth "flood control" project is known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision. But more commonly known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Fort Worth has long wanted to be the best or biggest at something.

And now the town proudly hosts America's Biggest Boondoggle, with an embarrassing mess of a project with three simple little bridges under construction now for years, being built over dry land, to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

With the current state of those bridges being badly engineered seesaws in teeter totter mode, with locals referring to the eyesores as the Yeehaw Seesaws.

A Fort Worth congresswoman's totally unqualified son was put in charge of this ill conceived ineptly implemented plan, paid around $200K a year, plus perks and benefits, to motivate his mother to secure federal funds, with little luck, hence a recent bizarrely corrupt ballot measure conning the ill-informed locals that they were approving a quarter billion bucks for flood control and drainage issues.

And somehow in Texas this type ballot subterfuge is perfectly kosher.

Reading about Mount Vernon's flood history, and how intelligent Americans dealt with flood issues, I amused myself thinking what if someone in Mount Vernon came up with a brilliant plan to take down the Skagit River dikes, then build a flood diversion channel to divert a flooding Skagit around an imaginary island, with canals, creating a sort of San Antonio Riverwalk type venue.

Well, I don't think there is anyone stupid enough any where in the Skagit Valley to come up with something so idiotic, and to amp the idiocy by claiming it was a flood control plan, and an economic development scheme.

Selling such an idea, the economic development scheme, in a town with is already doing quite well, economically, would be laughed at. But, in Fort Worth, those who decide such things, don't laugh. they think it makes sense to create an imaginary island with canals.

And to remove levees which have prevented flooding for decades.

Oh, I almost forgot.

Without any corrupt political shenanigans, with no hiring of a local congresswoman's son to do a job he has no clue how to do.

Mount Vernon has built a Riverwalk type attraction on the Skagit River as it passes past downtown Mount Vernon.

A Riverwalk type attraction with a flood wall which can be put in place quickly when the Skagit goes rogue. A Riverwalk type attraction with a plaza.

And, unlike what is the Fort Worth norm, no outhouses.

All done in a fraction of the time Fort Worth has been boondoggling along with little to show for the effort.

Well, to be fair, those Yeehaw Seesaws have become a bit of a tourist attraction, to the few tourist attracted to Fort Worth. That and the giant million dollar homage to an aluminum trash can, stuck in the center of America's Biggest Boondoggle's roundabout.

Has the Star-Telegram ever looked into how that million dollar homage to an aluminum trash can came to be? Installed years before any other aspect of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle came to any sort of fruition?

What is J.D. Granger's connection to whoever it was who got the million bucks for that imaginary work of aluminum art?

Is there an Images of America: Fort Worth book? I suspect not...

Thinking About Riding My Bike To Mount Vernon To Visit George Washington

My handlebars at the location you see here may have you guessing I flew my bike to Washington, D.C. and then pedaled the short distance from downtown to visit George and Martha's famous house named after the town I lived in in Washington before arriving in Texas.

Now that you're making me think about it, George and Martha's last name is the same as the name of the state I lived in prior to arriving in Texas. What a  pair of coincidences.

I used to live in Mount Vernon, Washington, and George and Martha Washington also lived in Mount Vernon, only in a state called Virginia.

Anyway, that is not Mount Vernon, in Virginia, my handlebars are pointing towards. That is Sikes House in Wichita Falls, on the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus. Sikes House is where the university's president resides, not the American president.

I took a roll around Sikes Lake this morning, which is adjacent to Sikes House, then crossed Midwestern Boulevard to the MSU campus, eventually leaving the campus to head east to a big neighborhood with dozens upon dozens of big mansions, many of which mimic other famous American homes, such as Jefferson's Monticello, Madison's Montpelier, Jackson's Hermitage and Trump's Mar-a-Lago.

I made that last one up.

I should photo document some of these mansions. It's the biggest collection of such I have ever seen outside of Beverly Hills in the Los Angeles zone. One or two of them have State of Texas Historical Markers.

My favorite mansion I roll by looks as if it was inspired by, or designed by, if such were possible, Howard Roark. One would have to be familiar with something called The Fountainhead to understand what I am talking about.

Well, enough about that. I wonder if it easy to ride ones bike from downtown D.C. to Mount Vernon? To be clear, I'm talking about biking to the Mount Vernon in Virginia, not the one in Washington...

Today Via Google I Learned The Home Of America's Biggest Boondoggle Is America's 17th Largest City

Last night I Googled Seattle. When I did so I saw that Google put a blurb about Seattle on the right side of the search results.

I was Googling Seattle because I wanted to find a paragraph I had previously read in the Wikipedia Seattle article about Seattle's print media, as an example of a town with real news sources of various sorts compared to a town without a real newspaper doing real investigative journalism.

The point I was going to opine was that in a town with real newspapers you don't have things happen that result in becoming something like America's Biggest Boondoggle. Or a public works project never voted on by the public, where a local congressperson's unqualified son is hired to be the executive director of the project, where the son's executive directing goes into planning things like floating beer parties in a polluted river.

The Wikipedia article also mentions that Seattle has the highest percentage of college and university graduates of any major American city. And that Seattle is the most literate of America's 69 largest towns.

How do you go about measuring how literate a town is, I am left wondering? Percentage of people with library cards? Number of libraries? Hours libraries are open? Number of books sold in bookstores? Number of bookstores? Amount of print media produced in a town?

Anyway, after I saw that Google puts up a little blurb about any town in the world that you Googled, I thought I would check in on a few towns and see what Google blurbs about them.

Well, Google pretty much waxes poetic about Seattle....

City in Washington
Seattle, on Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest, is surrounded by water, mountains and evergreen forests, and encompasses thousands of acres of parkland (hence its nickname, "Emerald City"). It’s home to a thriving tech industry, with Microsoft and Amazon.com headquartered in its metropolitan area. The futuristic Space Needle, a legacy of the 1962 World’s Fair, is its most recognizable landmark.

I then Googled Fort Worth to find that Google did not have a lot to say about Fort Worth....

City in Texas
Fort Worth is the 17th-largest city in the United States and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas.

One would think that Google could at least point out that Fort Worth is known for its Stockyards and for currently hosting America's Biggest Boondoggle. And that Fort Worth has a long history of making other towns, far and wide, green with envy. Google does point out that one can stay in a 3-star Fort Worth hotel for around $120, while Seattle's 3-star hotels will cost you around $300, with 5-star hotels running around $510.

Now let's look at Fort Worth's sister city, Dallas.

Well, Google has more to say about Dallas than it says about Fort Worth, saying....

City in Texas
Dallas is a major city in Texas and is the largest urban center of the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the United States. The city proper ranks ninth in the U.S. and third in Texas after Houston and San Antonio.

Apparently Dallas has 3-star hotels cheaper to stay in than Fort Worth's at around $110. Dallas has 5-star hotels way cheaper than Seattle's at around $180. Google really does not have much more to say about Dallas than it did about Fort Worth. No mention of Dallas being the location of the State Fair of Texas. Or being the location of America's most recent presidential assassination.

Let's go back to Washington to see what Google has to say about the town I was living in before I was exiled to Texas.

City in Washington
Mount Vernon is a city in Skagit County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,743 at the 2010 census. It is one of two principal cities of and included in the Mount Vernon-Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area.

I just now noticed that Google is getting some of the blurbs from Wikipedia, which would explain the sparse Fort Worth entry, because the Wikipedia Fort Worth article is sort of pitiful.

Mount Vernon's 3-star hotels are a more expensive stay than Fort Worth and Dallas at around $150. I've stayed in a Mount Vernon hotel or two on return visits to Washington. Never paid anywhere near $150. I have no idea if I was staying in a 3-star hotel.

All the blurb examples I have used here came from the first sentence of that town's Wikipedia article.

Except for the Seattle blurb.

Which I assume means there must be a way to edit Google's description of a town. I think someone needs to get on this serious issue right away and spruce up the Fort Worth and Dallas blurbs.

And Mount Vernon's as well, with mention made of the annual tulip festival attracting over a million tulip tiptoers, the annual Skagit County Fair, the Riverwalk, Little Mountain and other stuff I am not remembering right now....

A Little Mountain Hike With Spencer Jack Seeing Real Non-Fort Worth Type Islands

Yesterday Spencer Jack took me on a hike up Little Mountain in my old Mount Vernon hometown.

Little Mountain is a little mountain which is within Mount Vernon's city limits.

Little Mount Vernon has a park like Little Mountain near its downtown, whilst the little town I currently call home, Fort Worth, has a park near its downtown called the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

Having been in both town's parks I can tell you that Mount Vernon's Little Mountain Park is much more natural than Fort Worth's Tandy Hills Natural Area.

Well, there are those hang gliders who launch from the top of Little Mountain. That is not too natural.

No hang gliding was taking place on Little Mountain yesterday, due to weather related issues in the Skagit Valley and all of Western Washington, with those weather related issues causing large bodies of water to stand where usually there is not water. We shall see some of that documented in the photos which follow.

Above we are behind Spencer Jack, looking slightly northwest. That water you see in the distance is not the result of flooding. It is saltwater. Padilla Bay, I think. Near where I first met Spencer Jack, over six years ago, at Bay View State Park.

In the next picture we have zoomed in for a closer look.

In the foreground above you are looking at I-5. That straight line across the flooded land is the railroad track which on the left heads towards Seattle and on the right heads towards Canada. The land which you see on the other side of Padilla Bay is Fidalgo Island. Fidalgo Island is a real island, not an imaginary island of the sort that grows in Fort Worth. Fidalgo Island is where you will find the town of Anacortes and Spencer Jack's restaurant, the Fidalgo Drive-In. Click the link and you will soon see Spencer Jack with a root beer float.

In the next picture we are looking at another island in the distance.

That lump in the distance is known as Lummi Island. The Lummi are a Pacific Northwest Native American Tribe. The Lummi's Tribal Lands are on the mainland north of Lummi Island. A ferry will take you from the mainland to Lummi Island. Lummi Island is also a real island, not a Fort Worth style imaginary island. In other words, no ferry will be needed to take you to any of Fort Worth's imaginary islands.

Below is a section from informational signage about Mount Vernon's Forest Reserve Little Mountain Park. There are a couple things I found interesting about the information on this sign.

One thing I thought to be interesting was the fact that the sign is bi-lingual, both in English and Spanish. Now in Texas one would expect signage to be bi-lingual, what with Texas being so close to Mexico and once having been Mexico. Mount Vernon is only about 40 miles south of the Canadian border. If a Mount Vernon sign was going to be bi-lingual one would think the information would be in both English and Canadian. Or French.

However, just like Texas, the Skagit Valley, and Mount Vernon, has a large number of former Mexican nationals and their descendants, who have long lived in the Skagit Valley. Way more Mexican-Americans live in the Skagit Valley than Canadian-Americans. I do not think I ever knew a single Canadian-American whilst growing up in the Skagit Valley. I knew many Mexican-Americans.

The other bit of information on this sign, which I found interesting, was something you would never read on a Fort Worth sign in a Fort Worth park. That which I found interesting is in the first paragraph on the sign. I will copy that paragraph in its entirety. See if you can spot that which one would never read on a Fort Worth sign.

At its founding in 1877, Mount Vernon stood in a vast forest of giant trees. The idea of saving areas for public enjoyment would have seemed crazy then. But later, when the popular Carpenter Creek area was cut, the need became clear. On January 16, 1924, citizens of Mount Vernon voted overwhelmingly for the city to buy a park site.

Did you spot the part you would never read on a Fort Worth park sign?

Citizens voting on something to improve their city. What a revolutionary concept. A real vote, not a childish make believe vote, like having voters vote on Three Propositions with those propositions being things like voting to approve charging $1 to rent a livestock stall, rather than a straight up vote on whether or not to build a small arena for almost a half billion bucks.

I wonder where Spencer Jack is going to take me hiking next? A hike to the top of Goose Rock in Deception Pass State Park used to be one of my favorite things to do. Goose Rock is also on a real island.

To get to Goose Rock one takes a short drive west, to Fidalgo Island, crossing to Fidalgo Island on a bridge which spans the Swinomish Channel. That bridge was built over water in far less than four years.

One continues on Fidalgo Island, driving by Lake Campbell, which has an island in the center of the lake. One of the world's rare instances of an island on an island. Again, real islands, not Fort Worth type imaginary islands.

A short distance past Lake Campbell one comes to another bridge, Deception Pass Bridge, it being one of the Pacific Northwest's iconic images, built in less than a year, over very deep, swift moving water, back in the early 1930s.

Deception Pass Bridge takes you to Whidbey Island. Yet one more real island. The trail which leads to the top of Goose Rock begins at the south end of Deception Pass Bridge. From the summit of Goose Rock you can look in just about any direction and spot a lot of islands, some big, some small, none imaginary....

Spencer Jack's Walk Across The Skagit River Has Me Freshly Pondering Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision Boondoggle

This morning due to photo evidence I found on Facebook I thought Spencer Jack was in Eastern Washington, east of the mountains in Washington lingo, in the themed tourist town of Leavenworth.

I blogged about this this morning on one of my other blogs in a blogging titled Spencer Jack Taking His Snowy Thanksgiving Turkey To Leavenworth.

And now, late this afternoon, incoming email from Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew, Jason, seems to indicate that Spencer Jack is back in Mount Vernon, with the primary evidence of that being the picture you see above.

The email contained no explanatory text.

Above Spencer Jack is standing on the Skagit River bridge which connects Downtown Mount Vernon to West Mount Vernon. As you can see, the Skagit River at this location is a big river. A big, free flowing river. The size of the river you see here is not the result of any type of dam.

This particular Skagit River bridge was built in less than four years. Built over water. A lot of water. All of the Skagit River bridges were built over water, in less than four years.

I really think it might behoove Fort Worth to send out some sort of task force to more advanced parts of America, like Mount Vernon, to see how those more advanced parts of America manage to build things, like bridges, far faster than Fort Worth's dawdling Three Bridges Over Nothing and their four years til completion before an un-needed flood diversion channel finally can be dug so that water can be added under the bridges.

In the second picture Spencer Jack is still on the Skagit River Bridge. In this view we are looking south at part of the Skagit River Vision's completed riverside walkway. In the picture you can not see the plaza, which is in the distance to the south.

It only took Mount Vernon a couple years to see its Skagit River Vision. Fort Worth began dawdling on its hard to see vision early in this century. Well over a decade later there really is not much to see of Fort Worth's fuzzy vision.

Well, there is the traffic mess being caused by those Three Bridges Over Nothing finally being under construction. I have not experienced the traffic mess. I read about it in Fort Worth Weekly. Apparently drivers who have noted how dangerously bad the detours are have tried to get the city and J.D. Granger to fix the problem.

To no avail.

I recollect J.D. Granger saying words to the effect that he had used his advanced engineering skills to engineer a project which would cause motorists no woes.

Will nothing short of the voters finally wising up and un-electing his mother get J.D. Granger fired from a job he is clearly not qualified to do, as evidenced by the ongoing displays of ineptness?

You can listen to J.D.'s traffic assurances in the YouTube video at the end of a blogging from a week or two ago titled A Big Boom Begins Boondoggle Bridge Construction Three Months Late.....

Spencer Jack On Mount Vernon's Skagit River Vision Flood Control Riverwalk & Plaza

That would be Spencer Jack looking happy to be walking on my old home zone's newly finished Skagit River Vision Flood Control and Riverfront Development.

Part of this project provides a long walkway along the river, as in that on which Spencer Jack is waving.

There is also a plaza and other amenities.

Including a flood wall that can be erected quickly should a rampaging Skagit River threaten downtown Mount Vernon, a situation which previously required an army of volunteer sandbaggers to save downtown from a New Orleans in a hurricane type fate.

Yes, unlike another town which comes to mind, the Skagit River Vision actually fixes an actual flood problem.

I believe that is part of the new plaza we are looking at below. It looks to be a nice open area which likely will come in quite handy when the next Skagit Valley Tulip Festival takes place next spring.

Below we get a closer look at Spencer Jack and part of the plaza. I like how giant boulders are incorporated into the design. In the HUGE versions of these photos, which Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew, Jason, sent me last night, you can much more clearly make out details, such as the giant boulders.

That thing sticking up into the air above Spencer Jack is known as the Tulip Tower. Every spring the Skagit Valley has a month long Tulip Festival, with downtown Mount Vernon being one of the festival sites. The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival attracts over a million visitors to the valley every spring. These are real actual visitors, not an imaginary 10 million visitors like that which Fort Worth propagandists claim visit Fort Worth's imaginary Sundance Square every year.

Fort Worth's propagandists have used that bogus 10 million visitors to Sundance Square number in falsehood filled submissions to get awards no one has ever heard of so the Fort Worth propagandists can then make embarrassingly absurd claims, such as Fort Worth has the Top Downtown in America.

Those of you reading this who do not know anything about Fort Worth, let alone its downtown, Sundance Square is what the Fort Worth propagandists years ago named a 36 block area of Fort Worth's downtown which was, apparently, in dire need of revitalization. After a couple decades of confusing Fort Worth's few tourists, who thought Sundance Square was the parking lots at the heart of downtown, Fort Worth finally added an actual square on those parking lots, then goofily named the new square Sundance Square Plaza.

Continuing on, a broader view of the picture above, below in the distance you can see the Skagit River bridge which connects downtown Mount Vernon to west Mount Vernon. It is a big bridge, built over water, in less than four years.

The above picture sort of gives you an idea of the size of Mount Vernon's Skagit River Vision. Unlike Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision the Skagit River Vision had a project timeline, a qualified project engineer, was fully funded, was completed on schedule and did not hire the unqualified son of a corrupt local politician in order to try and motivate a corrupt local politician to secure federal pork barrel money to help pay for the project.

Below another look at part of the plaza, the Tulip Tower and the Skagit River Bridge.

Unlike Fort Worth's Trinity River Vision, eminent domain was not abused to take people's property to build the Skagit River Vision. The businesses and buildings which had to be removed were removed after this thing called "negotiating a fair price" took place with the owners, leaving no one feeling abused, unlike what has happened in Fort Worth.

We end this look at Mount Vernon's newest attraction looking southwest across the new plaza, which I doubt has a goofy name, at the sun setting on a Pacific Northwest fall day.

A Trio Of Kids Tip Toeing Through The Skagit Valley Tulips While Spencer Jack Has A Root Beer Float At The Fidalgo Drive-In

No, those are not a trio of kids frolicking in a flat field of Texas wildflowers you are looking at on the left.

That trio of kids are frolicking in a field of tulips in what are known as the Skagit Valley Flats, in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley in Washington.

I have never met this trio of kids. I don't know if this trio of kids know they have an uncle who lives in a place called Texas.

I found this tulip picture this morning on the blog on which this trio of kid's caretaker poodles, Blue and Max, chronicle the ongoing adventures of Theo, David and Ruby, in a blog post titled Tip Toeing Through The Tulips, or something like that.

If you click the Tip Toeing Through The Tulips link you will see many more photos of the trio of kids frolicking in the flowers.

The Skagit Tulip Festival is at the half way point, running the entire month of April, with events all over the valley, in addition to the 100s of acres of blooming flowers.

Over a million visitors come to the Skagit Valley each year for the Tulip Festival. This creates traffic mayhem.

A blurb from the Skagit Tulip Festival website...

The sun is shining and the tulips are blooming and people are coming from all around the world to see the flowers. 

Back in the early 1980s I lived in West Mount Vernon, around the time of the first Tulip Festival. Worst traffic mess I've ever lived through. The traffic mess has greatly improved over the years, turning some roads temporarily one-way, signs pointing to alternative routes, tour buses to get visitors out of their cars, helicopters overhead to monitor the traffic flow and events all over the valley to take some of the traffic away from the tulips.

If you're going to this year's Skagit Tulip Festival be sure to go to Anacortes to Spencer Jack's dad's Fidalgo Drive-In and have yourself basket of Pubhouse Battered Cod, Puget Sound Clam Chowder, a Dungeness Crab Sandwich, a Tillamook Bacon Cheddar Burger and a Root Beer Float made by Spencer Jack.

And then return to the Skagit Flats for some more tip toeing through the tulips....

This Morning I Woke Up To Shocking Bridge Collapse News From Washington

Spencer Jack's Dad With Collapsed I-5 Bridge

This morning when I woke up my computer, among the incoming email I saw two from Spencer Jack's dad, that being my nephew Jason, and one from Connie D, that being the Fort Worth Connie D, not the Tacoma version.

The subject line in the Connie D email was "Did you see this?" I clicked on the link in the email and was more than a little surprised by what I saw.

But the details were a bit sketchy (MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) Authorities say there were no fatalities when an Interstate 5 bridge over a river north of Seattle collapsed. The Thursday evening bridge failure dumped vehicles and people into the water), so I was not totally sure exactly what I was looking at.

Go Skagit On-Line's Bridge Collapse on I-5 Info

There are several bridges over rivers on Interstate 5 north of Seattle. The MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) part of the article had me thinking this could not possibly be the I-5 bridge between Mount Vernon and Burlington. Could it?

Then I opened Spencer Jack's dad's email to see the picture above to realize it was the I-5 bridge in my old hometowns of Mount Vernon and Burlington that collapsed.

I remember when that bridge was built. If that bridge is old enough to have such a failure, for no apparent reason, like an earthquake, well, America, methinks our infrastructure really is in trouble.

UPDATE: I later learned the bridge collapse was caused by a truck with too wide a load hitting the bridge trusses, which was a known vulnerability of an outdated bridge design.

Losing the I-5 bridge is going to make for some Skagit Valley traffic nightmares til it gets fixed. In Mount Vernon there are now only two bridges across the river, with one taking you to West Mount Vernon, with a long detour to get yourself back to I-5.

The other remaining bridge across the river in Mount Vernon is a short distance to the east of I-5, with it being a new bridge built this century to replace the old bridge on Highway 99, that being the highway that I-5 replaced. If I remember right, the new Highway 99 bridge is 4 lanes wide. I think I've only been over it once.

Fort Worth locals reading this, whose only river they've ever seen is named Trinity, in the pictures you are looking at a full size river, not a big-sized creek. At the location where the bridge collapsed the Skagit River is contained by dikes that are not nearly as massive as the levees that keep the Trinity River from going over its banks as it passes past downtown Fort Worth.

You can safely eat any fish you catch in the Skagit River. But, apparently, you do not want to be standing in the shade of a Skagit River bridge when you do your fishing.

UPDATE: After blogging this morning I checked my phone to see that last night I had voice mails about the bridge collapse, including one from Spencer Jack's dad and one from my mom telling me to turn on CNN.

Then I checked in on Facebook to see what some of my friends up in the Skagit Valley had to say about the I-5 debacle...

Martin is the first husband of one of my best friends from high school. Martin is a Skagit Valley farmer and best selling author. Martin is a bit profane, so please excuse his extremely foul language...

And then there was this first hand account of the Skagit Valley's bridge collapse traffic woes from one of my best friends from high school, Bev....

And this from one of my friends from high school, Bruce....

To those reading this in Texas who are unfamiliar with such things, in the photo above, that bluish item under the clouds, in the background, is known as a mountain. Well, actually, a Cascade Mountains foothill. If I remember right this particular "hill" is called Cultus Mountain.

A Tale Of Two Town's Flood Control Projects: Fort Worth & Mount Vernon

Currently, here in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone, we are in the midst of a thunderstorm. Usually a thunderstorm is accompanied by rain. Often in copious, flood causing amounts.

However.

No matter how much rain falls, or how high the Trinity River rises, it is highly unlikely a flood would breech the enormous levees that contain the river as it flows past downtown Fort Worth.

These levees, on the Trinity River, were built over 50 years ago, paid for by the kind taxpayers of America, after the downtown Fort Worth zone was damaged by a really bad flood at some point in time in the early 1950s, if I remember correctly.

I read some news in my old hometown newspaper, the Skagit Valley Herald, this morning, that had me being perplexed. Apparently tomorrow the Mount Vernon City Council is expected to approve a plan to borrow $1 million of the town's future federal funds, to close a funding gap on the $12.9 million cost of Phase II of Mount Vernon's Downtown Flood Protection and Revitalization Project.

Let me explain downtown Mount Vernon and its flooding issue to you.

When the Skagit River goes into big flood mode, downtown Mount Vernon becomes like New Orleans. It is below the level of the flooding river. So, a temporary sandbag dike has to be quickly built, on top of the existing dike, to keep the river from destroying downtown Mount Vernon.

In November of 1995 record rains brought record flooding to all the rivers of the Puget Sound zone. I remember watching the flooding, on TV, at 1 in the morning, when  KING  5, out of Seattle, went live to downtown Mount Vernon where the  KING 5 reporter made it sound as if a fevered effort was underway to save the downtown Mount Vernon library. The TV screen showed a beehive of activity by the library.

I remember being shocked. I woke up some help and headed to downtown Mount Vernon. At the library I found out what was actually going on was a sand bagging operation, with the filled sandbags being brought to the revetment to build a secondary dike. That was where the help was needed, so that is where we went.

Sandbag Wall in Mt. Vernon While the Skagit River Rises

There may have been well over 1,000 people in downtown Mount Vernon working to build a sandbag wall.

Hundreds of National Guard troops were helping.

Sometime around 3 in the morning we were told we'd done all we could do, the sandbags could go no higher.

The Skagit River was expected to crest around 11 that morning. It was expected to crest well over a foot above the sandbag wall. All the businesses in downtown Mount Vernon were sandbagged to help stop the expected flood.

By the time of the crest, I, along with a lot of other people, watched from high ground as the river crept to the top of the sandbag wall. Just as it was starting to go over the top, the river suddenly dropped a foot or more. Everyone was mystified. It was like there had been a divine intervention.

But, we soon were to learn what had actually happened, as emergency sirens sounded and helicopters began to appear. A dike, downriver a couple miles, had popped a couple hundred foot breech, flooding what is known as Fir Island.

Needless to say, Mount Vernon and the Skagit Valley were in a State of Emergency.

And then, 2 weeks later, after the Fir Island dike had been repaired, it happened again.

From that point Mount Vernon decided something needed to be done, after coming to the point of disaster, twice within 2 weeks. In 2007 Mount Vernon bought a mobile flood wall from a Norwegian company, the first such thing to be installed in America. Now, just a few people can put up a wall in a couple hours, where previously it took half a day and 100s of workers.

But, this was a temporary solution. Phase II of the Downtown Flood Protection and Revitalization Project replaces the mobile flood wall with a permanent solution that will take downtown Mount Vernon off FEMA's list of vulnerable flood zones.

That is a list that downtown Fort Worth is not on.

Now, how is it that Fort Worth and its bizarro Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has gotten millions of federal dollars for an un-needed flood control project that will build a likely ridiculous looking, un-needed flood diversion channel, so that the levees that have stopped flooding for decades can be removed?

Meanwhile, Mount Vernon, which has an actual, real, flood problem, that has caused problems for decades, scrambles to find the money to build a permanent fix.

Is this a function of the fact that the congressperson who represents the district in which Mount Vernon is located is not a corrupt politician willing to finagle shady deals to channel federal money Mount Vernon's way, whilst Fort Worth is represented by a corrupt congresswoman who stands to make financial gains from the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle which she has helped to fund, which, in addition to providing her financial gain, also provided her son, J.D. Granger, the job of running the project, a job for which J.D. Granger has absolutely zero qualifications?

The installing her son to run the TRV Boondoggle is sufficient cause to attach the "corrupt" label to this corrupt politician, let alone all the other reasons.

Why do not more people find the TRV Boondoggle's wastefulness and lack of need to be perplexing, particularly when there are locations in America where money could be spent to fix an actual flooding problem?

Places like Haltom City and Mount Vernon.

If you'd asked me if the 1995 flood I'm talking about above was the infamous Thanksgiving Day Flood, I would have said, yes it was. If you'd asked me if this was the flood that sank one of the Lake Washington floating bridges, I would have said yes it was.

Well, just a little Googling let me know I was wrong about the Thanksgiving Day Flood. That flood was in 1990 and was the one that sank the floating bridge.

The fact that I get confused about Western Washington's floods and the fact that some of them have names, should be a good indication of how bad the flooding in that rainy zone can be.

I remember watching the floating bridge sink, on TV, at my sister's cabin at Lake Cushman. That fact confuses me for a variety of reasons. One of which is I also remember being at Seattle's Gasworks Park watching my aunt finish a marathon in the rainstorm that sank the floating bridge. But, I'm further confused, because I remember being up in Lynden, at the Dutch Mother's Restaurant, because my grandma wanted to have all her kids and grandkids together for a turkey dinner for the first time in decades. I remember that night as the night the rain started that became the flood known as the Thanksgiving Flood. Apparently I was all over Western Washington during that flooding period, all the way to the Canadian border, to Seattle, to Hood Canal.

That or my memory is really mixed up.

Below is a YouTube video of part of the KING 5 report about the sinking. There is footage of the actual sinking, which happened live on TV, if I'm remembering right, which I've fairly clearly established may not be the case...