A year ago, on a Saturday, I would likely have gone hiking the Tandy Hills, or biking Gateway Park, followed by some Town Talk treasure hunting.
Today is Saturday and hiking the Tandy Hills, biking Gateway Park or treasure hunting at Town Talk did not cross my mind.
The hiking or biking would not be doable at either location today due to the recent deluging.
And I have sort of given up on going to Town Talk, what with the treasure hunting turning not so fruitful after a new owner took over.
I have myself a mighty fine time swimming this morning. By the noon time frame I felt like doing some jogging. I figured the Indian Ghosts who haunt the Village Creek Natural Historical Area might like some company.
That and I needed to go to ALDI.
Well, I got to the VCHNA entry to see the CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING gate blocking entry. I thought that might be the case today, what with that aforementioned recent deluging.
So, I decided to head further east in Arlington, to River Legacy Park, where I found a lot of water creating obstacles and a lot of people making their way around the water obstacles.
Above, that would be the high water of the Trinity River you see behind me. The river level appeared to be rising. I thought this due to seeing no muddy signs of it having retreated from a high mark.
Years ago I biked to the far east end of the River Legacy Park paved trail with the river unexpectedly rapidly rising. By the time I got back to the final bridge crossing, the river had flooded about six inches over the bridge deck. Park workers had blocked entry to the bridge at the exit end. I told them there were a few people behind me. I asked if it seemed a good idea for me to pedal back and tell them to hurry. I was told that would probably be a good idea. And so I did so.
I wonder if there was anything good to be found at Town Talk today. I think my final straw with Town Talk was when I bought three cases of what I thought was yogurt. Each with coconut. Like peach coconut yogurt, strawberry coconut yogurt, blackberry coconut yogurt. I like coconut and thought this would be some tasty yogurt.
Turns out it was pseudo yogurt made out of coconut milk! Pretty much inedible and thick as a brick, and not in a good Greek yogurt thick way.
For a long long time Saturday's were my day to go mountain biking the Gateway Park Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association trail prior to going treasure hunting at Town Talk.
For many a month now Gateway Park and Town Talk have not been my Saturday norm.
Til today.
First off let's get Town Talk out of the way. TT was a dud today. Crowded. All I could find to put in my cart were giant tortillas. With that being all I could find, I bailed, and vowed not to return unless I happened to be in the area. Town Talk has gone downhill under its new owner, I've concluded, after having such suggested by Mr. Stenotrophomonas.
The Gateway Park part of today turned out to be interesting. That and I had myself a mighty fine walk. The photo above is looking at the currently closed entry to the FWMBA trail. Closed due to work being done in Gateway Park by, I think, the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision.
Some of what is being done to Gateway Park I could understand, some of what I saw perplexed me, such as that which you see below.
Every where I walked I saw orange mesh, such as you see above, acting like a flimsy fence around trees. To what purpose I could not figure out.
I have no idea when the Gateway Park mountain bike trail will be fully doable once more, with part of the problem clearly visible below.
When the Trinity River went into flood mode it flooded all the low lying areas where the mountain bike trail trailed. And then when the river receded lakes of water were left behind. I assume the only way this water will drain is via the slow evaporation method.
I will need to explain what you are looking at below.
On the left that big chunk of gray is a dangling chunk of the old Gateway Park paved trail that succumbed to a long ago flood. The blue on the right is a slice of the Trinity River, well below being in flood mode. In the center of the photo you see splashes of white. The camera did not quite capture the astonishing array of litter left behind, stuck in tree limbs, when the river receded.
Today's Gateway Park inspection did not take me to the location of the new Trinity River Overlook on the west side of the park. Today's inspection did take me to the location of the new Trinity River Overlook on the east side of the park.
When I last saw this location, late last year, I saw that the decayed, water damaged boarded up boardwalk overlook had been removed. I was sort of surprised to see the new west side overlook looking good and nearly completed. Above we are looking west at the south part of the new overlook. That would make that slice of blue on the left the Trinity River.
The mud you see in the foreground was frozen solid, so I walked over it to walk over the new overlook.
Above we are standing on the new overlook, looking northwest, with the Trinity River behind us. This new overlook looks to be much more solidly built and better designed than its ill-fated predecessor. Wood is not a construction element. And the entire structure appears to be above what a flooding Trinity River can reach.
Today's walk around Gateway Park had me thinking that the improvements being made may bring this park a lot more visitors. I've long thought Gateway Park was under appreciated by the locals, due to seeing so few people making use of the park's many miles of shaded paved trails.
This morning when I woke up my temperature monitoring device I was surprised to see that device telling me the outer world was being heated to 74 degrees. I confirmed this information via my phone's temperature monitoring device.
74 degrees meant the 48 hour average was well over 50 degrees, thus rendering the pool as swim worthy as a Western Washington lake in summer.
Thus I had myself a mighty fine time in the pool this morning. On the day after Christmas. This is unprecedented.
Yesterday I took a quick dip in the pool so as to take a Santa photo. When Elsie Hotpepper saw that photo she commented that if I had been smiling in that photo she would have had it printed and framed. People telling me to smile really irritate me. Because, if I felt like smiling I would probably do so.
Anyway, today I did not have my Santa cap on in the pool. But, I did my best effort to smile for Elsie Hotpepper. I suspect she is not going to be printing and framing this photo.
If I remember right, and I sometimes do, Thanksgiving morning was the last time I had myself a long bout in the pool. That was followed by jogging and later hiking on the Tandy Hills.
This morning, post-swim, I did go jogging. That went well. But, I have no inclination to go do some Tandy Hills hill hiking.
Both hiking the Tandy Hills and going to Town Talk have faded from my regular activity list. With the Tandy Hills it has been mostly weather related reasons that have not had me hill hiking. With Town Talk the place had become not the enjoyable treasure hunt it was when I first discovered it.
And all my favorite checkers seemed to have disappeared, replaced with newbies who don't already know the answer to the debit or credit question.
That and I got burned by two cases of what I thought were coconut yogurt, but turned out to be inedible pseudo yogurt made from coconut milk.
Swimming and hiking were not doable on this last Saturday of the next to last month of 2015, due to rain and air chilled to only a few degrees above freezing.
I did go jogging in the rain this morning, though. I did not get too cold.
Before noon I headed west, towards Town Talk, via Randol Mill Road, not knowing if the road was open or closed due to flooding.
As I drove by Quanah Parker Park I saw the park was flooded more than I'd ever seen previously. Then I got to the bridge crossing the Trinity. I decided to park and walk out onto the bridge to see how the new bridge construction was faring with the flooding.
As you can see the Trinity River is moving a lot of water. I don't recollect seeing it this high before. The river appears to have wreaked some havoc with the new bridge construction. Unlike America's Biggest Boondoggle, this Trinity River bridge project did not have the option of being built over dry land, with the water to be installed at some distant point of time way in the future.
Were no warnings given that gave the road and bridge builders time to evacuate their heavy equipment? Did the river rapidly rise due to the reservoirs being full from last spring's flood? Mary Kelleher has a farm on Randol Mill Road that also got flooded with Mary not warned a flood was on its way. Mary was alerted to the flood in the middle of Thanksgiving night when she heard her water trapped cows crying.
After checking out the flooded bridge construction I was back in my vehicle, heading west towards Town Talk, dodging some deep water covering the road in several locations.
Town Talk was not busy and was a bit of a bust, again, in the treasure finding department.
After Town Talk I headed back east, again via Randol Mill Road, continuing to Mallard Cove Park to see how much higher the water has risen since yesterday.
Well, this flood has flooded higher than last spring's flood, at this location. When the previous flood subsided I figured a mess would be left in its wake in Mallard Cove Park. Instead, the water quickly receded with nary a sign of it having been there.
I saw a lot of flood looky-loos, both at Mallard Cove Park and in the Gateway Park/Trinity River Bridge zone. I forgot to mention, the north entry into Gateway Park is currently not doable, due to too much water.
The above was one of the Mallard Cove Park looky-loos. I do not know what this person is doing in the picture. Framing something with his hands? As he was doing this he was also talking to himself. I kept my distance.
I have not witnessed any precipitation precipitating for several hours. Is the worst of this over now? I thought I read the remnants of a Pacific hurricane was scheduled to arrive in Texas after visiting Mexico.
Will this flood be the final nail in the former Cowtown Wakepark's coffin? How has that other project of The Boondoggle, that being those V-pier forms under construction that The Boondoggle seemed so proud about, fared during this latest deluge?
I suppose The Boondoggle's one little bridge being built over dry land likely has not been too impacted by too much water....
From looking at this picture the one regular reader of this blog might guess I went hill hiking on the Tandy Hills on this next to last Saturday of September.
Well.
No hill hiking happened.
In this view we are hiking on to the Tandy Hills from View Street, looking north. The summit of Mount Tandy is to the right.
Soon upon arrival the rain that was already dripping at my home location had begun to arrive at the Tandy Hills. So, I decided to abort and continue on to Gateway Park, and then Town Talk.
I entered Gateway Park via the Beach Street entrance. This brought me to that which you see below.
The last time I visited the above location I saw that the boarded up boardwalk overlook eyesore had been mostly removed. Now it appears construction of the new overlook is underway.
I walked down the closed paved trail to see if the new trail bridges were yet built. Well, some sort of cement foundation has been laid. And further along I came to new paved trail, replacing the paved trail that had been damaged for years by a flooding Trinity River.
All this Gateway Park construction is part of the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision, also known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.
Near where I parked there were two signs. The first of which had information on it I'd never seen associated with anything to do with America's Biggest Boondoggle.
A project completion date. As you can see above the sign says SCHEDULE COMPLETION DATE DECEMBER 2015. Seems that they'd need to get real busy if this is to be finished in December.
Below is a close up look at the sign you see in the upper right of the above picture.
Some people who are not from around here think I make up that long name for America's Biggest Boondoggle. As you can see above that sign pretty much covers it all, Trinity River Vision-Central City Uptown. The only part missing is the newest name for The Boondoggle, Panther Island.
Town Talk was a bit of a bust, again. Cheese, buns and tortillas. That's about it.
I was last on the Tandy Hills on August 11. I did not enjoy the hill hiking that day.
Too HOT.
Today, 11 days later, with the temperature somewhere in the 80s, it was not too HOT to do some hill hiking, .
Which had me on the Tandy Hills an hour before the noon norm.
At Hoodoo Central I found no Hoodoos, just a pile of Hoodoo rock remains. I did find the obelisk monolith skyscraper you see above, dwarfing the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.
I have no idea how this obelisk monolith was installed. It's one of those statues on Easter Island type how did that get there type mysteries.
I only find one plant that grows on the Tandy Hills to be annoying. That annoying plant is currently starting to be in its annoying phase. That is the annoying plant that you see below.
These annoying spindly plants grows quite tall, eventually sprouting a lot of white flowers. Due to these annoying plant's spindly nature they get whipped by the wind, such as that which was blowing today. The wind can cause the annoying spindly plant to become a switch delivering a spanking or a slapping as one walks by.
After too many spanks and slaps it was time to head to Town Talk.
I have not been doing Town Talk treasure hunting much of late. For months the treasure hunting has not been delivering much treasure.
Today I arrived at Town Talk about an hour before the Saturday norm. The parking lot was full, cars were parked on the street, on the grass. I drove through the parking lot and found only one open space.
I aborted the Town Talk mission. No way was I going to mingle with the mass of humanity thronged inside, or wait in a long line to get checked out.
I think any future Town Talk visits will take place during the week. Likely after mountain biking at Gateway Park, if those trails ever open again. Currently the Gateway Park trails are closed due to a mess of trail "improvements" being improved in slow motion by the good folks at America's Biggest Boondoggle who never do anything in a timely fashion....
It has been well over a month since I've rolled my mechanized wheels to Gateway Park to roll my non-mechanized wheels on Gateway Park's trails.
The last time I did so I saw work had begun on new trail bridges and the removal of the long time boarded up boardwalk eyesores which looked out over the Trinity River.
Well, as you can see here, at least one of the boarded up boardwalks has now been almost completely removed.
I was unable to make it to the other boarded up boardwalk, that being the one at the east end of the park.
Why was I unable to make it to the other boarded up boardwalk, you ask? Good question.
Well, the Gateway Park paved trails have been rendered unusable due to the ongoing supposed trail "improvements". Such as that which you see below.
I was looking at the messed up trail near the now gone boardwalk when a fellow biker stopped, saw the messed up trail, looked at me and said "that sucks" before continuing on, over the mess. I followed him. After about a minute I saw him heading back towards me. As he passed he said it is totally blocked ahead. Soon I came upon the blockage, which you see above, where a bridge is being replaced.
Before I continue on with the trail tale I need to show you what I found floating in the Trinity River when I zipped across the Beach Street crossing.
A BIG fish, dead in the water. Is the Trinity River killing fish like the rivers in my old home zone of Washington is, up north, due low water levels and consequent high water temperatures, too high for fish used to cold water. I have no clue what brand of fish it is we are looking at above. But I am fairly certain it is not a salmon, sturgeon, trout, cod, halibut or blowfish.
So, leaving the dead fish behind I eventually made my way to the entry to the Gateway Park mountain bike trail. Closed. I continued on past the closed sign, not on the mountain bike trail, but on the paved trail.
The paved trail has a huge amount of what looks like beauty bark spread over and beside it. Why? I could not figure it out. Again I came upon trail bridges removed, with the replacements underway. I was able to get past these instances, unlike the first encounter. Soon I came upon a section where the mountain bike trail has been obliterated, along with some paved trail removed.
What is going on here? Why isn't this trail improvement project being engineered in a way which keeps the trails open while the improvements take place? How long are the Gateway Park trails going to be unusable? Who is behind this seemingly ineptly run project?
One would think America's Biggest Boondoggle might be ramrodding these Gateway Park improvements, due to the inept way the project seems to be being mishandled.
Anyway, after a frustrating bike ride in Gateway Park I was off to an increasingly rare visit to Town Talk, where I had not visited in well over a month.
The Town Talk treasure hunting did not yield anything too wonderful today. A lot of corn tortillas, carrots, kielbasa and a couple other things I am not remembering right now.
Before my regularly scheduled Saturday Town Talk treasure hunt my handlebars took me to Gateway Park for some trail inspecting.
As you can see the Trinity River is still roaring over Gateway Falls, making passage impossible across the river to continue on to beautiful downtown Fort Worth, or the Fort Worth Stockyards.
It has been a few years since I have pedaled from Gateway to the Stockyards, or downtown. That makes for a long bike ride.
After seeing my way west blocked by the still flooding Trinity, I turned around and headed to the Gateway Park mountain bike trail.
Above you are looking at the entry to the FWMBA (Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association) Gateway Park mountain bike trail. The sign says "SIDEWALK CLOSED", which it is, but it does not say the mountain bike trail, to the left, is also closed.
I did not attempt to roll my wheels on the mountain bike trail. Instead I chose to find out why the paved trail is closed.
Well, below is one reason for the closed paved trail.
Not only has a tree bent over to block the way, the wooden bridge across the ravine has been removed.
I later figured out why the wooden bridge is gone. The paved trails and wooden bridges seem to be in the midst of the upgrade promised by signage near the mountain bike trail entry where the Fort Worth Trinity River Central City Panther Island Vision Boondoggle informs us that trail upgrades, including new bridges, would soon be underway.
At the time I first read that I said I'd believe it when I see it. I guess that now makes me a believer.
Continuing on I discovered large sections of the paved trail have been removed, including sections which have long been an eyesore, that being fenced off sections of trail left dangling over the edge of the Trinity by the ravages of Hurricane Hermine, years ago. At the location you see above the paved trail previously continued til it hit a cyclone fence with signage informing that the trail was closed for maintenance. The trail continued past the cyclone fence, broken off, in places, dangling, waiting to fall into the river in other places.
The dangling trail and cyclone fence are gone. It appears new trail has been bulldozed, away from the river. All the wooden bridges have been removed. You can still cross those locations via dirt path, sort of like mountain biking.
Well, this will be a good thing, having the Gateway Park trails fixed. Gateway Park has the potential to be an extremely nice park. But, I don't quite understand how America's Biggest Boondoggle came to be in the trail fixing business.
I hope The Boondoggle is able to build these new bridges in Gateway Park faster than the four years they plan to take to build their three little bridges from the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.
Continuing, after Gateway Park I ventured a short distance west, to the aforementioned Town Talk where I got myself some big green peppers, black beans, garbanzos, Swiss Cheese, rye crackers, carrots, yogurt, two giant pumpkin pies, jalapeno kielbasa and other stuff I'm not remembering right now.
Currently, early in the afternoon, at my location on the planet, the outer world has been heated to 90 degrees.
The Tandy Hills were not that HOT when I did a little hill hiking in the noon time frame.
Just to the west of Tandy Hills Hoodoo Central, at the north end of the View Street trail, I came upon the Hoodoo you see here, towering above the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth.
There is a town in Utah called Mexican Hat, so named because of a nearby rock formation which looks like a sombrero. I don't know why the town was named Mexican Hat and not Mexican Sombrero.
Anyway, the top of today's Hoodoo looks like the Mexican Hat rock formation.
A much higher than the norm number of hill hikers were on the Tandy Hills today. I came upon seven different groups of sizes ranging from two to five. Most crowded I've ever seen the Tandy Hills other than Prairie Fest, Manly Man Wild Woman and Brush Bashing Days.
On the View Street Trail I came upon the act of vandalism you see below.
Why would some miscreant mark up one of the Tandy Hills trail signposts in this manner?
Today's hill hiking had me wondering how it is I manage this activity when the temperature gets into the 100 degree zone. I suppose the extremely high humidity made today's heat a bit more daunting.
After the hill hiking was done it was off to Town Talk for my regularly scheduled Saturday treasure hunting.
I got 10 pounds of Italian sausage. I got home to find the box did not fit in the freezer. I opened the sausage box to find links strung together. 56 links. It took awhile to get them unlinked and re-packaged. I also got several pounds of carrots, 5 pounds of Gorgonzola. I think I am getting addicted to Gorgonzola. Also got broccoli, tortillas, yogurt, black beans, garbanzos and a watermelon.
On the way to Town Talk I decided to park at Quanah Parker Park and take my Bumbershoot on a short walk in the rain.
The last time I saw a flooding Trinity River from this location, years ago, the river had an amazing amount of litter, in a wide range of color and size, flowing by.
During this current flood event I have seen the Trinity River in several locations and have not seen much litter flowing by.
Does this indicate the chronic Texas littler problem has improved? Or has all the rain already flushed most of the litter to the Gulf of Mexico?
I just realized I do not know where the Trinity River enters the Gulf. I suspect the beaches in that area, wherever it is, would make for some interesting beachcombing.
Today's Town Talk treasure hunting went well.
Organic Fuji Apples from a town in Washington called Wenatchee, Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit, Carrots, Cinnamon Rolls, 5 pounds of Gorgonzola and a gallon of Organic Milk, plus other stuff I am not remembering right now.
Long ago, almost every Saturday, I took my handlebars to Gateway Park to roll over the mountain bike trail before going treasure hunting at Town Talk.
Well, due to excessive mud the Gateway Park mountain bike trails are currently not rollable, but the paved trails are.
What you are looking at over my handlebars is Gateway Park's Trinity Falls, currently with the Trinity River running high, rendering the Trinity Trail bridge over the river uncrossable.
I don't know why a road has been scratched through the levee, scratched all the way to the river. I saw construction activity today in Gateway Park in addition to the scraped levee.
I found the sign my handlebars are pointing at above to be a bit amusing. Sanitary sewer relocations? Hasn't that old sewage treatment plant in Gateway Park been abandoned for decades? They're relocating it? The Sanitary Sewer Relocations are for the Trinity River Vision - Central City Project & the Trinity Uptown Service Area?
Whoever made this sign must not have gotten the memo that America's Biggest Boondoggle is now called Panther Island.
Trinity River Vision Central City Project Trinity Uptown is so last decade.
Continuing on I came to some new paved trail damage on the Gateway Park trails. The flooding river has done some fresh trail undermining.
It has been quite a few years since the remnants of Hurricane Hermine flooded the Trinity River and did the original damage to the paved trail, which the latest flood has enhanced. Is the damaged trail finally going to be fixed? I have no idea.
Continuing on, arriving back at the mountain bike trail soccer baseball parking lot, I saw the sign you see below.
America's Biggest Boondoggle loves its signage. For years now there has been a HUGE installation of Boondoggle signage by the Gateway Park dog park.
The above sign tell us....
"As part of the Trinity River Vision Master Plan, we're counting down to the launch of some major improvements to Gateway that will make 2015 a big year for progress. Improvements have already been launched in both east and west Gateway Park, many of which are scheduled to be complete this year. Thanks to the project partners for making Gateway Park a world class park for our city!"
Oh the hubris, the raw galling hubris. World class park? Counting down to the launch of some improvements? Improvements have already been launched? I thought we just read we were counting down to the launch?
I'm stuck on "world class park"
What exactly is a "world class park" I am wondering?
Can a "world class park" be world class if it sports dozens of outhouses like Gateway Park currently sports?
In the middle of the sign are two illustrations of the progress coming to Gateway Park, including that which you see below.
The above illustration tell us "This scenic river observation deck is one of many amenities going into Gateway Park East in 2015, thanks to the City of Fort Worth Parks Department".
Fort Worth is finally going to repair the long boarded up boardwalk eyesores which have been an embarrassment in this world class park for a decade or longer? Or is this to be a new overlook at a different location, with the existing boardwalk remaining a boarded up eyesore?
Last summer I made a video of the boarded up boardwalk in Gateway Park East. Let me see if I can find that video. I'll be right back. Okay, I found it. I'll stick the video in at the end, but first let's look at what we learn on the right side of the sign.
A comprehensive list of those aforementioned "improvements" which have either launched or will soon launch.
The sign tells us that coming in 2015 to Gateway Park East we will see new benches & tables, extra security lighting, additional restrooms, pedestrian bridges, new picnic pavilions, trail extensions, a new trailhead and something called "sights and sounds of nature" children's learning area.
Additional restrooms? Since there are no public restrooms in Gateway Park, of the modern indoor plumbing sort (except in the baseball park, open only when games are being played) are these additional restrooms more outhouses? I would assume so.
Outhouses are the restroom facilities at one of the world's premiere outdoor music venues, The Boondoggle's Panther Island Pavilion, where there is no island or pavilion.
Does it not strike you, as it does me, that these are rather meager park improvements? Is it really necessary to install a sign letting park visitors know more outhouses are being added in 2015?
I have grown tired of typing, so I will keep the Town Talk talk short. Suffice to say, I got a lot of good stuff today.
Anyway, below is the aforementioned video of a walk on the current Gateway Park East boarded up boardwalk....
One week after the 2015 Prairie Fest I was back on the Tandy Hills for a pre-Town Talk hill hike.
I intended to park at my regular summit of Mount Tandy location under the Fort Worth Space Needle.
However, since my last visit to this location multiple "NO TRESPASSING VIOLATORS PROSECUTED" signs have been added.
I was in no mood for a possible confrontation with a member of the Fort Worth Gestapo, what with a large number of such ensconced a short distance away in the former NBC broadcast building, so I drove on to the View Street entry to the Tandy Hills, which also is the location of the Prairie Fest.
Some interesting pieces of Prairie Fest art remain on the prairie, like that which you see here.
I pondered the above piece of art after I finished pondering the piece of prairie art below.
My guess is the above is titled "Bird's Nest". Built for a really big bird. The color in the nest comes from string of various sizes and color.
Continuing past the first artwork installations I came to what appeared to be a new trail, heading west. I followed that trail and eventually came to another possible art installation, installed to cause us to ponder the sad fate of Fort Worth's large population of homeless people.
I walked into the Homeless People Prairie Fest art installation til I got a closeup view.
As you can see the Homeless Camp is quite a mess. To the left of what you see here was a black tarp stretched between tree limbs, clothes hanging off branches and other stuff.
After a couple miles of hiking it was time to exit the Tandy Hills. On the way back to my vehicle I came upon the latest Tandy Hills Outdoor Learning Center, which is what you are looking at below.
This is the area of the latest brush bashing, an ongoing project which removes non-native, non-prairie vegetation from the Tandy Hills.
And then installs natural benches where un-natural vegetation once grew.
The Town Talk Treasure Hunt went well today. Four loaves of Ezekiel bread, sausage, English sharp cheddar, corn tortillas, carrots, kale, tomatoes on the vine, a couple bags of apples, yogurt, sesame oil and other stuff I am not remembering right now.
Even though a downpour poured down a large volume of water this past Thursday at my location on the planet, I thought, despite thunderstorms being forecast, that today would be a mighty fine time to go do some hill hiking on the Tandy Hills prior to doing some treasure hunting at Town Talk.
Thursday's rain turned out to have had no muddying effect on the Tandy Hills, which resulted in the desired mighty fine hike.
Today the hills were much greener than two Saturdays ago, greener and the hills were alive with the blooming of color. One example of which you can see below.
It is always baffling to me how few locals take advantage of the Tandy Hills for some much needed nature communing on a day as nice as today.
I did come upon two women hiking. The first one was dressed colorfully, topped with a bonnet which was not blue. The second one was texting on her phone as she hiked. I howdied her and told her it was against the law to text while you hiked.
The texting woman acted panicky when I advised her regarding the texting/hiking law, apologizing for her lawbreaking in a thick German accent. I quickly tried to explain that I was joking. I hope I did not cause any sort of international incident.
I forgot to make mention of the Hoodoos, above. That collection of artistically sculpted Hoodoos was located at Hoodoo Central at the north end of the View Street trail.
On the top of Mount Tandy I came upon the beautiful, big, purple wildflower you see below.
This wildflower looked like a flower one might see being grown along with the tulips in the flower fields in my old home zone of the Skagit Valley in Washington.
Town Talk was uneventful today. I got a bag of carrots, some honey lemon yogurt, swiss cheese, a bag of whole grain bagels and bacon hotdogs. Bacon hotdogs may turn out to be problematic, but when I saw them I was hungry and the concept sounded good.
I will soon know if the bacon hotdog concept turns out to be good in reality, because they are on the lunch menu.
I was back on the Tandy Hills today for the first time in a lot of weeks. Two Saturdays ago, en route to walking around Fosdick Lake in Oakland Lake Park, when I drove by that blue orb you see hovering above the Tandy Hills I was surprised to see a large volume of water cascading down Bridge Street, with the leak looking as if it came from the blue orb.
Two weeks later and the leak is still leaking, in copious amounts. Is the Lawn Whisperer out of town?
The Tandy Hills were much greener today than my last visit, way back when winter was still in town.
At Hoodoo Central at the north end of the View Street trail there was no Hoodoo, just a pile of rocks where a Hoodoo is usually Hoodooing. South of Hoodoo Central, the massive Hoodoo that I saw my last visit is now gone, replaced by several smaller Hoodoos which seemed to be functioning as trail markers, including marking one of two new trails I came upon today.
The first of the new trails served as a sort of bypass link from the View Street trail to the newly installed outdoor auditorium of benches.
The second new trail I came upon today is what you see above, with that marker marking what is called "Wildflower Loop". It is appropriate that this loop is named as such, due to this open part of the Tandy Hills prairie usually being the most colorful wildflower area.
However, today, I did not seem much color blooming on the Tandy Hills. Are the wildflowers late this year? Were they damaged by the deep freezes, snow and ice of the past 30 days?
Changing the subject from big leaks, new trails and flowers which are not blooming, to something else.
I made an increasingly rare Saturday visit to Town Talk today. It was a good visit. I got two bags of apples from Yakima. That is a town in my old home state of Washington. In addition to a lot of apples I got a lot of tortillas, a big bag of Mayo Cobo beans, extra sharp English cheddar cheese, cauliflower, chicken, carrots, two pumpkin pies and other stuff I am not remembering right now.
A short while ago a knock on the door had me opening it to get delivered a package in which I found Smoked Salmon, sent from someone in Washington who felt I needed a good Washington fix. I may have been doing some whining about feeling homesick.
I am thinking it would be a good idea to open that Smoked Salmon, and pair it with that extra sharp English cheddar, on a cracker or two. But not right now, because I am only an hour past lunch.
Does anyone have the Lawn Whisperer's phone number.........
I was back on the Tandy Hills today for the first time in what seems a long time. This may be the first time I have gone hill hiking this year.
I was not alone on the hills today. I saw four different groups of various sizes, some with dogs, communing with nature on this perfect weather day, which will be the last such day, for awhile, if the weather predictors are correct with their prediction of incoming cold and possible snow.
I saw multiple Hoodoos today, more Hoodoos than I've seen any time previous on the Tandy Hills.
The Hoodoo at Hoodoo Central at the north end of the View Street trail was a short stubby Hoodoo today. After taking a picture of the stubby Hoodoo I continued with my hiking, on the new trail that was built late last year.
Where the new trail junctions with the View Street trail I found the Hoodoo you see above. The picture does not do justice in picturing how big this Hoodoo is.
I do not know if Hoodoo Purists will consider this new Hoodoo an authentic Hoodoo, due to the fact that it is a sort of hybrid Hoodoo, not make solely of rocks. I guess this is what one might call a mixed media Hoodoo. In addition to rocks a brick or two is part of the structure. And an old rusted Texas license plate is integrated into the Hoodoo in the mid-section.
After having myself a mighty fine time acquiring some much needed endorphins I headed to Town Talk for the first time in a couple weeks.
Today the Town Talk treasure hunting yielded 5 pounds of Italian sausage, a bag of giant carrots, 3 cases of yogurt, tortillas, tomatoes, flame-broiled burgers and other stuff I am not remembering right now.
I hear a beeper beeping, indicating it is time to remove that which has been cooked in the oven, which means it is lunchtime....
As I was leaving my abode today to head towards Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fort Worth's inland sea known as Fosdick Lake, I got a text message from Elsie Hotpepper asking "You at Tandy?"
To which I replied, "No. Should I be?"
To which Ms. Hotpepper answered, "Yes. I am holding a meeting of my bird watching group on the Tandy Hills. But the meeting is over now so we are heading east to see Mary's little lamb."
I did not know Mary had a little lamb. I knew about the pigs, horses and river rats.
That kid you see driving the off road vehicle by the Fosdick ducks looked, to me, to be too young to be driving a motorized vehicle.
Fosdick Lake had a lot of people walking around it today, enjoying the relatively balmy, well above freezing, temperature, along with a mostly blue sky.
Today whilst walking with the ducks I came upon that which I come upon every year, that being the first sign of spring in the form of a colorful wildflower. In today's case that being the big, yellow beauty you see below.
It seems a bit early for wildflowers to be springing into bloom. This yellow wildflower did not have a pleasant rose-like fragrance, it was, instead, a rather bitter smell.
Post Fosdick Lake walk I was off to Town Talk for the first time in weeks.
I got some good stuff today. Artisan bread, Italian sausage, three cases of yogurt, giant carrots, multiple varieties of beans and other stuff I am not remembering right now.
All this food talk reminds me I have not had lunch yet. I must rectify this at once....
I did not realize, until this 3rd Saturday of the New Year, how much I have been missing the blue sky of Texas, when the sun which that blue sky lets shine, heats the air to a temperature allowing outer wear of the t-shirt and shorts variety.
In other words, the temperature currently is halfway between 60 and 70 which made it possible to go on my first bike ride of the new year along with getting my first good strong dose of endorphins of the new year.
If I remember right the last time my handlebars parked at the location you see here, looking at my neighborhood golf course, the grass of the golf course was still green.
How come Western Washington grass in winter remains green, while Texas grass in winter turns brown, for the most part? One would think it'd be the opposite, what with Western Washington getting way less sunshine in winter than what usually brightens Texas.
I did not realize til getting today's strong endorphin fix how much I had had been suffering from the rigors of endorphin withdrawal.
Prior to getting an endorphin fix I had no energy or desire to take myself to downtown Fort Worth to watch the 2015 Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo Parade.
That parade is now over, but if I felt before it started, like I do now, I think I would have made one of my rare visits to America's Imaginary #1 Top Downtown to do some parade viewing.
The Stock Show Parade is one of the best, if not the best, parade I have ever witnessed.
Seems like in years past my regular Saturday habit was to go to Town Talk. I don't think I have been to Town Talk yet this year. I guess I am no longer a creature of habit....
For the first time in a long time I was back at my favorite Saturday photo op location in Gateway Park, prior to a visit to Town Talk.
Damage from a windstorm way back in late September, or was it early October, was the start of a long Gateway Park bike riding drought.
I saw the remains of a lot of chainsawed fallen trees today.
And the carpet of fallen leaves obliterated the trail in multiple locations, making the wheel rolling a bit more challenging than it is on a leaf free trail.
Post Thanksgiving Saturday at Town Talk was the most un-busy I've ever seen Town Talk on a Saturday.
Today's Town Talk Treasure Hunting yielded 6 cases of yogurt, 2 bags of Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit, extra sharp white cheddar cheese, 8 bags of beans, tofu, onions, carrots and bacon.
One thing I learned today was it is not an easy task to handle 6 cases of yogurt. That and I prefer my bike trails to be free of leaves.
That Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man was back on Fort Worth's best hills on this first day of November. Last Saturday I sort of overheated running up the Tandy Hills. This Saturday I was almost underdressed.
This morning we were colder here in the D/FW zone, at 39 degrees, than the balmy 50 something in my old home zone in the Skagit Valley of Washington.
I did not last long in the pool this morning. It was too cool and the hot tub was in malfunction mode, as in it was not hot, not even warm.
Oodles of footprints on the new Tandy Hills trail seemed to indicate it is getting well traveled. I hope the trail blazers return to blaze some more trails.
On a perfect weather Saturday like today it is always a great puzzlement to me why there were no other hill hikers hiking hills today.
The Tandy Hills is pretty much at the center of a city with around 800,000 people, the majority of whom would benefit from more exercise. That city with around 800,000 people is part of a metropolitan area with around 6 million people, the majority of whom would also benefit from more exercise.
I've opined before that if something like the Tandy Hills existed a couple miles from the downtown's of Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, San Francisco, and many other towns, the hills would be alive with the sound of people on a day like today.
There is plenty of evidence that there are some people hiking the Tandy Hills.
Evidence such as the aforementioned footprints.
And there is also the Hoodoo evidence of humans on the hills. The Hoodoos don't build themselves.
Today's Hoodoo was shorter than the norm, but no less a feat of Hoodoo engineering.
After I'd had enough of the Hoodoos and the Hills I was off to Town Talk.
It's been a couple Saturdays since I've been to Town Talk on its busiest day.
Today I got another big chunk of Italian sausage, two big bags of russet spuds, strawberries, red kidney beans, two cases of soy yogurt, one lemon, one raspberry. I've not had soy yogurt before. I suspect I will like it. I also got a huge bag of already shredded cabbage.
Cabbage is currently my favorite vegetable. I think I will have some for lunch, as in right now....
