Visiting My Favorite Turtle In Oakland Lake Park While The Fosdick Lake Fountain Sputters

Today I was back at Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake with my favorite turtle, that big guy you see politely posing on his home log.

The Fosdick Fountain is still sputtering like a Yellowstone geyser gone berserk. I am starting to think maybe the Fosdick Fountain came back to life all on its own, and is now slowly disappearing, also on its own.

I never have found any explanation of how this fountain suddenly came to be sputtering out in the middle of one of Fort Worth's pristine, signature lakes.

I wonder what the legions of tourists who flock to Fosdick Lake think is burbling out in the lake. A gas leak? A natural spring feeding the pristine lake? An underwater volcano erupting? A submarine rising to the surface?

As you can see, via the crystal clear Fosdick Lake water, even though the Fosdick Lake fountain is not operating at its full aerating potential, the water of Fosdick Lake is being more blue than is the norm for the early part of September, with only a few patches of green algae growth coloring the blue.....

Sunday Wheel Rolling River Legacy Park With Fun Town Slow Pokes & Turtle Traffic Jams

I biked Arlington's River Legacy Park's mountain bike trails today, along with a lot of other wheel rollers.

In the picture on the left I have stopped for a hydration break at a trail junction. Usually at this location I opt to go left on the North Loop. Today I opted to take the bypass to the right.

Rather than riding all the loops today I decided to bypass the loops that are not all that much fun and re-loop the loops that are fun.

In the open zone of the Prairie Loop, where the trail is not very treacherous, I steered single-handed for a short distance whilst my other hand held the camera. In the video I mention having spent some time stuck behind a slow poke. At the point where the video ends a trio of new slow pokes passed me as I put the camera back in its protective cover.

The lack of rain has large sections of the trails cracking into pieces.  Those pieces make for an increased chance of suddenly losing control. It has been awhile since I've had a bike wreck. I'm due for one.

I had no problems today with a speed demon coming up behind me. Today I had multiple incidents where I found myself behind a slow poke, or a group of slow pokes, like the aforementioned trio consisting of two guys and a girl. I was an unnoticed 4th for quite some time,  listening to them chatter. Then one of them noticed me, apologized for holding me up and let me by.

About a mile later I was at the entry to Fun Town, contemplating the fact that I have yet to find the courage to enter  Fun Town, even after I was told by a pair of reliable sources that Fun Town really is a fun town, and without expert level difficulty, for the most part. It is the red arrow, meaning experts only, entry option to Fun Town which causes me hesitation. It is virtually vertical.

So, I'm standing there, hydrating and thinking about my Fun Town cowardice when suddenly the aforementioned trio of slow pokes showed up, rolling fast, with the two guys zipping down that vertical Fun Town entry, whilst the girl opted for the more sedate blue arrow entry.

Even with a demonstration of Fun Town's doability, I still opted out and continued on my way.

A couple miles later I was zipping along at high speed, made a tight corner, than had to slam the brakes. A dad with three kids were blocking the trail. The dad apologized for blocking the trail. I asked what they were looking at, which had one of the kids  moving out of the way of a BIG turtle, so I could see it.

Soon additional bikers showed up and halted. What's going on one asked. I said we have a wildlife in danger situation with a HUGE reptile blocking the trail. And none of us is brave enough to lift the turtle off the trail and send it on its way back towards the river.

So, this very muscular, heavily tattooed lady in colorful mountain bike regalia said something like clear the way, I'll take care of the problem. She proceeded to pick up the turtle and not too gently send it on its way.

All in all I had myself a mighty fine time rolling my wheels today....

Visiting A Big Village Creek Turtle After Zelda Del West Gave Me An Armadillo Leprosy Warning

Today I was visiting the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area, blissfully enjoying the peaceful serenity I get from gazing out at the Village Creek Blue Bayou, when I looked down to be startled by the big turtle you see in the picture, looking up at me.

This turtle was unusually un-skittish. The big guy just sat there winking at me.

Last Sunday I mentioned that I was hunting for an armadillo in the Village Creek zone, for lunch, after having read that armadillos were considered a delicacy, by some, in Texas, back during the Great Depression, calling the cute critters Hoover Hogs.

I then heard from Zelda del West, who recently escaped Texas, after a multi-year exile, to now reside in Walla Walla, Washington, from whence she informed me that "...you can make an armadillo into stew using it's own armor as the pot. You should be nice to armadillos. They can also give you leprosy."

If I felt the need to be nice to all the various things from which I might catch leprosy I would exhaust myself, daily, from excessive niceness.

As for the Village Creek NHA armadillos,  I saw nary a one, again, today. Where have all the armadillos gone?

I did see an Arlington animal control officer releasing some possums from his animal control truck. I have seen this multiple times at this location. He picks the possums up by their tails, places them on the ground,  where they quickly scurry away, never to be seen, by me, again.

The closest I think I've come to a heart attack was years ago, in Mount Vernon, a town on the other side of the Cascade Mountains from Walla Walla, where a possum jumped out of my garbage can whilst I was depositing some garbage.

I know someone in Tacoma who had a horrible possum infestation in her basement. The possum infestation was so insidious that the lady moved to a new possum free location. It would not shock me to learn that the possums followed her there. Because it is well know that possums love chocolate...

A Surprising Father's Day Reptile On The Tandy Hills

Today I saw something on the Tandy Hills that I never expected to see on the Tandy Hills.

I was making my way across the escarpment above the currently dry Tandy Falls when I looked down at the small puddle below the dry falls and thought I saw a watermelon in the water.

And then I realized it was no melon, it was a really big turtle.

At first I thought the turtle was dead, and then it looked at me and shook its head. The turtle did not pull inside its shell, or quickly move, like the Fosdick Lake turtles do, usually, when I get in their vicinity. I guess this guy was already in water, that, and there really was nowhere for it to run to.

To get to the location beneath dry Tandy Falls this turtle must have journeyed south from the Trinity River, crawled through the culvert through which Tandy Creek flows under the I-30 freeway and then waddled its way to the Tandy Escarpment, where it found it could go no further.

I hope we get rain soon to freshen the turtle's little puddle with some new water. This did not look like a very happy turtle.

Close Encounters Of The Turtle Kind Walking Fosdic Lake

I went to Oakland Lake Park around 3 this afternoon to walk around Fosdic Lake. Tootsie Tonasket had called me earlier, leaving a message.

So, I called Tootsie back, as I started to walk. About 20 minutes later I was paying more attention to what Tootsie was telling me than to where I was walking, when I almost stepped on the turtle you see in the picture.

I put the Tootsie on speaker phone, put the phone on the ground and took a picture. The Fosdic Turtle was shy and quickly pulled his head in to safety. As soon as our photo session was over the Fosdic Turtle stuck its neck out and started walking, quickly. Where he was going, I do not know. He was not heading towards the lake.

Earlier today the subject of the Windmill Restaurant in Wenatchee came up. Tootsie Tonasket frequents Wenatchee, so I asked Tootsie what she knew about the Windmill Restaurant. Tootsie told me it's a big windmill, that's all she knows. And that she took pictures of it and sent one to me. That seems vaguely familiar. I have memory problems.

About an hour in to talking to Tootsie Tonasket the weather situation turned dire. Drops of wet started to fall. I got off the phone. I was afraid I was going to need to make a mad dash for cover. I was correct. About 30 seconds later the biggest raindrops I have ever seen began to hit me.

I thought to myself these must have been those infamous baseball size hail balls a few hundred feet higher, only recently melted. And still huge. Each splat of a raindrop left a 4 inch spot of wet.

I started running. By the time I got to vehicular cover I was as soaked as if I'd jumped in Fosdic Lake. Another odd aspect to the humongous raindrops was that they seemed almost HOT.

Very disturbing.

By the time I was in the driver's seat the rain had become torrential. And it became very windy, driving the rain in sheets. This lasted about 5 minutes and then it was as if it had never happened.

Now I am back in my abode, it is darkening again. I am about to make my way out of here to go to Miss Puerto Rico's. I suspect I will be experiencing some Saturday night drama, some of it weather related.

River Legacy Reptile Encounter & Dallas Cowboy Stadium Name

I had my first encounter of the new year with a large reptile this morning at River Legacy Park. I had to be in Arlington, again, at 10am, so a morning bike ride seemed to be the thing to do.

I saw no Wild Boars today, but I did get startled, coming around a turn, by a large mammal. On the second time around I stopped to talk to the large mammal. She was Blonde. I asked if she'd seen a Boar. She had. A solo one and it was big. She'd only been walking at River Legacy Park for a couple months and she's seen a Big Boar.

I've been biking at River Legacy for years and only learned of the Herd of Boars last week, followed, within days, by seeing the Herd in motion. I asked if the Blonde, Bobbi, had seen a Bobcat. That seemed a logical question after learning her name was Bobbi. Blonde Bobbi said she'd not seen a Bobcat, but she was prepared. She showed me her can of pepper spray. I told her she was safe from the Bobcats, but the pepper spray was a good defensive plan against other predators in the park.

I'm guessing you can guess that my large reptile encounter was with a Turtle. He/She was a cute one in really good shape. Sometimes you see Turtles that look like they've had a rough life. This is the time of year when Turtles and Armadillos wander where they should not be wandering, looking for love in all the wrong places, often ending up as roadkill. Which in these troubled times could provide a struggling family's protein needs for the week.

On initial encounter, today's Turtle retreated into its shell, but quickly got over its shyness and posed politely for closeups.

I did the mountain bike trail loop 3 times. That is over 15 miles. The pool had warmed up a lot by this morning, so I comfortably swam for about a half an hour. No need to warm up in the hot tub. The water will be even warmer tomorrow morning, because we are in the 80s again. So, between the swimming and the biking and talking to Turtles, I've had me a day.

Anyway, like I said, I had to be in Arlington again, once more by the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium. No one has wanted to fork over the bucks to name the thing. Some have suggested temporarily naming it Salvation Army Stadium, due to Jerry Jones' longtime philanthropic endeavors helping the Salvation Army. I forgot how this scheme benefited the Salvation Army monetarily.

When I saw the new stadium today I was coming at it from the west on side streets. It looks so weird how it so hugely looms over all these little old houses, like something from outer space touching down in a poor American neighborhood. When I came to Collins Street I pulled into a CiCis Pizza parking lot to snap the picture you see here.

Having just had that reptile encounter at River Legacy, I looked at the stadium today and realized what it is that I've never been quite able to identify that it looks like.

Today it was obvious. The building looks like a turtle. I think it should be named Turtle Stadium. That's real catchy.

After driving by Turtle Stadium it was on to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. Today's most memorable item was an unusual salad of spinach leaves, mint, strawberry, banana, peach, other fruits and a lemony dressing. I didn't think I'd like it, but I went back for seconds.