HOT Hiking Lucy Park Backwoods Jungle Seeing Skagit Snow

Yesterday, the 3rd day of the 2nd month of 2025, I hiked the backwoods jungle of Lucy Park, currently with no leaves in the trees, with the temperature, at that point in time, nearing 90 degrees.

It was the HOTTEST day, so far, this year. Shorts and t-shirt were totally adequate outerwear.

An hour after returning from Lucy Park I was at my computer, scrolling through Facebook, when I saw a photo from Skagit Breaking News, which is what you see above.

The weather condition, yesterday, in my old home zone of Skagit County, Washington.

Even when it snows at my current location it never creates a winter wonderland scene like you see above, due to the fact there are no trees of the Washington evergreen sort, in Texas, that I have ever seen.

In the photo it looks like one vehicle has skidded off the road. This road is located near Alger, a small hamlet in north Skagit County. The road is an access road to Interstate 5, heading west, with the road on the left being an exit from I-5, with the sign pointing to the entry to I-5 South, straight ahead, and the entry to I-5 North, to the right.

It has been a few years, more than a couple decades, since I have been at this location.

I fervently hope one day to be at this location, and others in Skagit County, and Washington, again, preferably during the time of year when snow can not be a factor...

A Beautiful Veteran's Day In Skagit County Got Me Thinking About Being A Texas Tourist

Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew Jason, emailed me the above picture a few minutes ago, with the subject line "Beautiful Veteran's Day in Skagit County."

It is a beautiful Veteran's Day in Tarrant County, too. But not quite as scenically beautiful as Skagit County.

I just used my computer based temperature monitoring device to learn that Mount Vernon is currently being chilled 3 degrees cooler than Fort Worth is being cooled at 49 degrees.

Before I got distracted by the temperature I mentioned that Skagit County is a bit more scenically beautiful than Tarrant County, but got distracted before adding, just like Mount Vernon is more scenically beautiful than Fort Worth.

Mount Vernon has a beautiful, clean, clear, big river running through town, Fort Worth has a modified river which looks sort of like a big ditch as it passes by downtown Fort Worth.

Mount Vernon has an actual mountain in town, called Little Mountain. Little Mountain would be considered a big mountain in Fort Worth. You can hang glide from the top of Little Mountain. There is nothing to hang glide from in Fort Worth. You can go wakeboarding though, in a dirty lake with a cable to drag you around the lake. No such contraption exists in Mount Vernon.

Mount Vernon has a Skagit River Vision you can actually see, while Fort Worth has a Trinity River Vision where today we learned we will soon be able to witness three bridges magically rising vertically from the ground.

Mount Vernon has a couple grocery stores in its downtown, one of which I greatly miss, that being the Skagit Valley Co-Op. Fort Worth has no grocery stores in its downtown, and nothing exists in the entire Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex like the Skagit Valley Co-Op.

Mount Vernon is served by a mass transit system which takes you all over Skagit County. Fort Worth has a mass transit system which takes you to some locations in Fort Worth, but not all over Tarrant County.

What got me off tangent from my original  intent to comment on the picture my favorite nephew Jason sent me?

Back to that picture. What we are looking at in the foreground is known as the Skagit Flats, one of the most fertile, productive agricultural areas in the world, growing all sorts of fruits and vegetables and flowers. Before diking made the Skagit River behave itself after it left the mountains, the Skagit Flats would get flooded when the river was in flood mode.

In the middle of the picture is something you can not find in Texas. A volcano. The Mount Baker volcano is that white spot sticking up above foothills of the Cascade Mountains. Mount Baker is an active volcano, which means you can see steam spewing from its crater at times.

Mount Vernon would be to the right in this picture, the town I grew up in, Burlington, would be in the middle, I think, maybe more to the left than the middle. As you can see one does not live far from the mountains when one lives in Western Washington. One also does not live far from saltwater. If we went left in this picture, heading west a few miles, we'd run into saltwater, maybe Swinomish Channel which runs past the tourist town of La Conner. Or Padilla Bay.

Having lived a long time in an actual area which actually attracts a lot of actual tourists and has actual  tourist towns, like La Conner, is one of the reasons my eyes roll when I read something ridiculous, such as downtown Fort Worth gets over 10 millions visitors a year. I wonder if those 10 million visitors are the same 10 million a year which were supposed to make the Fort Worth Cabela's the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas?

Maybe in Texas visitor and tourist don't mean the same thing.

But, the thing is, when you live in an actual tourist destination and then live in an area which is not an actual tourist destination you can tell the difference. One big tell is the number of out of state license plates one sees. In a tourist zone at times it seems like every other vehicle is from out of state. Or Canada.

The only location in Fort Worth which seems like an actual tourist attraction, due to the number of foreigners and out of staters one runs into there, is the Fort Worth Stockyards. In Dallas, Dealey Plaza seems like an actual tourist attraction, albeit a sad one. I don't think many non-Texans head to Arlington to Six Flags Over Texas, not like which heads to Anaheim to go to Disneyland.

I have not headed to Anaheim to go to Disneyland for over two decades, Christmas of 1993. It has been two years since I've been a tourist anywhere, well, I have been to downtown Fort Worth during that time frame and apparently that is counted as a tourist.....

Tarrant Is Not The County Leading The U.S. In Real Domestic Product Growth

This morning as I perused the various online news sources I peruse every morning, when I got to the news source for my old local home zone of the Skagit Valley, via a website called GoSkagit, I learned something I did not know previously.

That being that my old home zone is designated as a Metropolitan Statistical Area by those who pay attention to such things in the federal government, specifically designated as the Mount Vernon - Anacortes Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The article where I learned that Skagit was a Metro zone interested me for a couple reasons, with the main reason being the news that the Skagit-Anacortes Metropolitan Statistical Area has the highest Gross Domestic Product Growth in the U.S.

Another reason this article interested me was it was quite noticeable the stark difference between how the news in this article was told in my old home zone and the way it would have been told in my current home zone, a home zone which does not have what most people would consider a real newspaper reporting news in a factual, accurate, honest, un-biased, non-propaganda manner.

Had the Fort Worth Star Telegram the same type news to report we would have seen a GIANT headline at the top of the Star-Telegram's front page, screaming...

TARRANT LEADS U.S. IN REAL GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT GROWTH

While in GoSkagit the news that Skagit leads the U.S. in real gross domestic product growth is way down past the fold on GoSkagit's front page, as you can see via the screen cap above.

And the article about the Skagit Metropolitan Area leading the U.S. in GDP growth makes no mention of this fact making other Metropolitan Areas far and wide Green with Envy.

You had to click on the link on the GoSkagit front page to go to the actual article to see a big headline,

When I lived in Skagit County it was the least prosperous of Washington's Puget Sound counties. I don't know if this 10.6 percent growth has Skagit County no longer being the least prosperous Puget Sound county, or if the growth is helping the county catch up.

What I do know is this. That upon moving to Tarrant County, well over a decade ago, it was readily apparent that Tarrant County was not nearly as prosperous as the county in Washington from which I had moved.

A few examples.

Parks in Mount Vernon and Skagit County have modern amenities, like running water and modern restrooms.

Is there any other sporting venue in America which has more outhouses surrounding it on game day than the Dallas Cowboy Stadium?

The freeway exits in the two towns in Skagit County which I-5 passes through, that being Mount Vernon and Burlington, are landscaped.

Fort Worth's freeway exits to its only tourist attraction, that being the Fort Worth Stockyards, are not landscaped, instead they are littered, weed covered messes.

Arlington is in Tarrant County. The freeway exits in the Six Flags Over Texas, Ballpark  in Arlington, Dallas Cowboy Stadium zone are very well done, with murals and landscaping.

So, some parts of Tarrant County seem as prosperous as Skagit County, freeway-wise.

Skagit County has a public mass transit system called SKAT. SKAT connects to the public mass transit systems of surrounding counties. When I lived in Skagit County it was free to ride SKAT. In 2014 a fare is charged. One buck for 90 minutes, two bucks for an all day pass.

A Fort Worth T bus charges $3.50 for an all day pass. Unlike SKAT, which has lines covering all of Skagit County, Fort Worth's T does not cover all of Tarrant County, just Fort Worth.

Tarrant County is a much smaller county, size-wise, than is Skagit County. And not nearly as prosperous....

Maxine Had Me Breaking Skagit Which Has Me Looking For Tarrant Breaking

A couple days ago I asked Maxine a couple questions about my old home zone of  Skagit County. One question was about Pilchuck Falls which had been in the news in late June due to the loss of a Skagit Search & Rescue rescuer named JB Bryson who was lost along with one of a pair of hikers who had fallen near Pilchuck Falls.

The other question I asked Maxine had to do with my being perplexed as to why kids where no longer allowed to pick Skagit Valley berries, while tons of the world's best berries went to waste.

Maxine answered my two questions, with the first answer about the Pilchuck Falls incident, rendered poignant when it turned out JB Bryson was a Sedro Woolley High School classmate of Maxine's.

In her email reply Maxine pointed me to a Skagit County Facebook page I'd not heard of called Breaking Skagit. I checked out the Breaking Skagit Facebook page to quickly find out the breaking part of the name referred to breaking news.

On the Skagit Breaking Facebook page I saw that there is also a Skagit Breaking website.

Both the Skagit Breaking Facebook page and the website seem to me to be extremely well done. This had me curious as to who was behind Skagit Breaking. That curiosity led me to Skagit Breaking About Us page where I eventually found the names of the Skagit Breaking creators, none of whom I knew.

The About Us statement states that they are not a "News" site,  right after saying, "We provide  scanner traffic from our local Police, Fire and EMS airwaves. I enjoy off beat news, and in addition to local news, we also post  odd news stories from around the globe."

I read that Skagit Breaking was not a "News" site just as I was wondering to myself how is it little Skagit County, population of 118,222, manages to have more than one real newspaper, whilst the county I currently live in, Tarrant County, with a population of 1.88 million, has nothing that I know of like Skagit Breaking. Or the Skagit Valley Herald.

Maybe some of the small towns in Tarrant County have real newspapers that I've not seen. Is there a Haltom City Town Crier (other than Layla Caraway)? A North Richland Hills Harbinger? A Keller Knocker?

Prior to Maxine telling me about the incredible memorial event that took place in Sedro Woolley for JB Bryson, another Sedro Woolley-ite, Betty Jo Bouvier, mentioned being amazed and impressed by the size and scope of the memorial.

Read the Breaking Skagit article about the JB Bryson memorial event and notice the good writing, the detailed article and wonder to yourself why it is you never read such a thing in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

If only I knew how to make websites I'd make a BREAKING NEWS TARRANT COUNTY website....

Sampson & Delilah Turned Me Into A Homesick Melancholy Baby Today

This Sunday afternoon has me feeling like a Melancholy Baby.

Sort of homesick.

Yesterday I was told that Sampson and Delilah were taking a roadtrip this weekend. This morning I learned the destination of the roadtrip was the Swinomish Casino and Lodge in my old hometown zone of the Skagit Valley.

Sampson and Delilah posted a couple photos today, on Facebook, taken from their location in the Swinomish Casino Lodge and Resort's RV Park, which I have swiped, without permission.

In the first photo you are looking northeast, towards the Cascade Mountain foothills, with the Mount Baker volcano being that white thing sticking up on the middle left side of the picture. The water you see is saltwater. Padilla Bay if my memory is correct.

Make note of how clear the air appears to be. I miss clear air, that smells good. Fellow Washington exile, Steve A, has asked, more than once, regarding all the tree covered mountains and hills of Washington, pertaining to the Cedar Fever Texas woe, "What makes Mountain Cedar pollen worse than Western Red Cedar pollen?" It is a perplexing question.

In the next purloined Sampson and Delilah picture we are looking slightly northwest at a couple of the islands sticking out of the bay. I don't remember if that is still Padilla Bay. There are a lot of named bays in the Puget Sound zone. My memory is starting to fail regarding Washington geography. Is this considered the Straits of Juan de Fuca, north of Puget Sound? I can't remember where Puget Sound ends and the next named body of water starts up, let alone its name.

The Swinomish Casino was about 15 miles from my abode in Mount Vernon. To the left in the above picture, which is west, in another 10 miles, or so, you come to Anacortes. Anacortes is the town where Spencer Jack's dad, my nephew Jason, has a restaurant called the Fidalgo Drive-In.

Speaking of Spencer Jack's dad. One of the reasons I am feeling a bit melancholy is I got email from my nephew this morning telling me he was thinking of burning up some frequent flier miles by coming to Texas in early February. Spencer Jack's dad was last in Texas nine years ago, way before there was a Spencer Jack. I am appalled that that is nine years ago. Time flies. I felt bad explaining this was a not a good time to come to Texas.

Looking at these Sampson and Delilah pictures has me thinking how extremely different Skagit County is from the county I am currently in, Tarrant County in Texas.

As you can see, via just a small glimpse, Skagit County has some rather scenic natural water features. Tarrant County has some man made lakes, a polluted river, creeks prone to flash flooding and a bizarre plan to make a fake lake and build an unneeded flood diversion channel.

Speaking of channels. There is a marina at the Swinomish Casino. There is also a channel. Called the Swinomish Channel. I believe the Swinomish Channel is manmade. I know it is a connection between two bays and that the scenic tourist town of La Conner is on the channel.

The total population of Skagit County is 118,222. The total population of Tarrant County is 1,809,034. The total area of Skagit County is 1,920 square miles. The total area of Tarrant County is 897 square miles.

So, Skagit County is more than twice the size of Tarrant County, with a population less than one-fifteenth the population of Tarrant County.

And yet, all of Skagit County is served by public transit, known as Skagit Transit.

From the Skagit Transit website, this blurb....

"Our goal is to provide high quality public transportation that meets the needs of the citizens of Skagit County at the least cost to the taxpayer contributing to the county's economy and quality of life."

How come it is no ones goal to provide high quality public transportation that meets the needs of the citizens of Tarrant County I am sitting here wondering? And somehow it is someone's extremely goofy goal to provide the citizens of Tarrant County a Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, which no one has voted for?

Another stark difference between Skagit County and Tarrant County is the existence of casino resorts. There are two. In addition to the already mentioned Swinomish Tribe's operation the Skagit Tribe has the Skagit Valley Casino Resort.

Whilst living in Skagit County I would visit the Skagit Tribe's casino more frequently than the Swinomish Tribe's Why? Nothing to do with gambling. It was the Skagit's buffet, usually at lunch, that I frequented. However, for seafood, the Swinomish Casino's Two Salmon Cafe was my favorite. So good. With pan-fried oysters just like mom used to make. And no catfish, ever.

I purloined the below image from the Swinomish Tribe's website about the aforementioned Two Salmon Seafood Buffet.

Before the Washington Tribes won their battle with the state over casinos it was a novelty for me to go to Nevada, usually Reno. It seemed so exotic, all those noisy slot machines. It took awhile for the Washington Casinos to get to being totally Nevada-like.

Unlike Texas, Washington did not use a primitive form of eminent domain to evict its Tribes. There was some hostility, early on, but for the most part relations between the natives and the newcomers were fairly cordial. Hence the name of Washington's biggest town being Seattle, after Chief Seattle, well, Sealth. It is why a lot of Washington place names are native based.

Unlike Texas, Washington has multiple Indian Reservations. During the 60s and 70s and 80s the Tribes got themselves some good legal help that helped them win court battles against the state, over and over again, over things like fishing rights. And their rights to a high degree of sovereignty on their tribal lands. And to open casinos.

The income from the Tribe's casinos  has noticeably improved conditions on the tribal lands. I remember when the Swinomish Reservation was an extremely impoverished, depressing thing to see, back decades ago in the previous century. That extremely impoverished depressing thing to see no longer exists in 2014.

I really think I need to move back to a progressive, liberal, well-educated location. I must try and figure out how to make that happen.....

My Old Hometown Bikini Coffee Baristas At The Foxy Lady Latte

I seem to be blogging a lot lately about my old home zone. I guess it's because those wacky Pacific Northwesterners generate some goofy news of a different sort than the news I find goofy in Texas.

I knew of the current fad in the Puget Sound region of espresso stands being manned by girls in bikinis.

This type thing would seem to be something that there would be in Texas, but substitute snow cone stands for espresso stands. There are so many strip joints in Texas, few of those exist in the Northwest, it seems logical that Texas would be the place where scantily clad females sold beverages in little drive-thru stands.

The "bikini barista" stand I read about in my old hometown newspaper, this morning, is called Foxy Lady Latte. It's the first in Skagit County. The county to the south, Snohomish, made embarrassing national news a couple months ago when some of the Snohomish "bikini barista" stands were raided for providing additional services.

So, I'm a little surprised that one of these has opened in Skagit County. The Foxy Lady Latte is managed by Kymm Rivers. She talked her boss into opening up Skagit County's first "bikini barista" joint in June. Apparently Kymm had worked in one of the Snohomish County "bikini barista" stands.

Business has been brisk for Foxy Lady Latte. 75% of the customers are male. Some customers verbalize surprise that a place called Foxy Lady has coffee brewers working in bikinis.

I never bought into the espresso fad when I lived in Coffeeland. Paying 3 bucks for a tarted up cup of coffee just seemed dumb to me. That and I hated the lingo you had to use when ordering a cup of coffee. It always has sounded so pretentious to me. I'll have a Double Tall Mocha Frappacino Skim with Whip. I have no idea if that means anything.