David, Theo & Ruby Get New Wheels Rolling Through Tacoma

The Scooter Girl you are looking at here is my niece Ruby, scooting fast along a Tacoma sidewalk.

Tacoma is a modern American city with streets with sidewalks on both sides of the street, usually with a landscaped median between the sidewalk and street.

Unlike...

Well, anyone who has read this blog before can fill in the blank which follows "unlike" with the un-modern American city I'm referring to with that "unlike" word.

Ruby's mom phone texted me the Scooter Girl photo documentation you see here, along with additional photo documentation documenting Ruby's brother's new bikes.

Text accompanying the photo documentation...

Some friends gave David a hand me down bike in great shape. 24 inch tires. 7 gears. So, then we got Theo a bigger bike too. He should be able to keep up with you a bit better now. And Scooter Girl too...

I think I need to figure out a way to get my bike to Tacoma within a reasonable time frame so as to have some mighty fine time rolling wheels with nephews David and Theo on Tacoma's mountain bike trails.

T

I hope David has been easily able to master using hand brakes attached to calipers, along with shifting through seven gears.

Theo's new bike looks to be a mountain bike. I hope Theo is also easily able to master using hand brakes attached to calipers, along with shifting through I don't know how many gears.

When I last rode bikes with David, Theo and Ruby, Ruby's bike had training wheels. I do not know if Ruby has opted out of being a bike rider with scootering now being her preferred means of rolling wheels...

Rolling Through Fort Worth's Gateway Park For My First Mountain Bike Ride Of 2014

I finally successfully managed to have myself a mighty fine time on a mountain bike ride for the first time this year.

On Sunday I had intended to go on a mountain bike ride on the mountain bike trails at River Legacy Park, but I was running late, so I opted to go to the much closer Gateway Park.

But, when I got to Gateway Park and pulled my bike out of the motorized bike hauling device I was appalled to find the rear tire flat again.

Unlike the previous flat, which lingered un-inflated for months, I had the needed repair material ready for another tube fix.

Somehow in addition to the big rusty nail which caused the previous flat there was also a tiny little prick of a thorn stuck in the tire, causing the new tube to go flat.

So, today I went back to Gateway Park and managed to successfully pedal the mountain bike trails, including rolling past the location of the big rusty nail that began all this flat tire trauma.

The Gateway Park trails are in great shape. Best I have ever seen them.

I saw some new signage today which perplexed me. That is the perplexing sign below. Note the arrow pointing the mountain biker to pedal to the left? That trail to the left only goes a short distance before running into Randol Mill Road, or whatever it is that Randol Mill Road is called on the north side of Gateway Park.

This trail spur goes about 30 feet then makes a steep dip and then a steep climb up to the road. And then goes where? I have no idea. This seemed a bit dangerous to me. The picture below shows you why this seemed a bit dangerous to me.

You can see how steep the trail is. And you can also see what you might run into if you pedaled fast enough to make it up that steep climb.

Obviously I did not follow the direction of the pointing arrow, instead opting to continue on the trail I've pedaled many times previous, leading to the cliff overlook you see in the first photo above.

I am not the world's most observant person. An example of this is the fact that in the past two weeks I have twice been up close and personal with my bike's rear tire. However, I did not notice until I was lubricating the chain last night, after fixing the flat, that the tread on the rear tire is worn pretty much bald. No tread. No traction providing nubs. Bald.

Why is the rear tire bald whilst the front tire looks new?

Very perplexing.....

I Saw Signs Of Danger In Fort Worth's Gateway Park Today On My Way To Town Talk

 It being Saturday, with this Saturday already the second Saturday of June of 2013, and me, creature of habit that I be, stopped at Gateway Park to rotate my bike tires prior to my weekly Town Talk treasure hunt.

Last Saturday Zombies stopped me from pedaling parts of the mountain bike trail.

Today I was a surprised to find that those sections I did not pedal last Saturday had crime scene type tape with the word DANGER repeated over and over again on the tape.

I thought maybe the DANGER tapes were put there for the safety of the Zombies. Then I remembered I had biked by these locations, this past Wednesday, well after the Zombies had left the park.

The DANGER tapes were blocking little side trails off the main trail. Those little side trails lead to a steep cliff that drops off into the Trinity River. Many a time I have taken a picture of my handlebars from those vantage points, now blocked off by DANGER tape.

As I continued my pedaling I wondered if the City of Fort Worth Parks Department has gone into super cautious mode, indicating DANGER, where previously there was no DANGER indicator, due to a teenage boy, Malik Cisse, drowning recently in the Trinity River, near some of Gateway Park's boarded up Boardwalks.

After the drowning the boarded up entries to the boarded up boardwalks were made slightly more boarded up.

However, no "NO SWIMMING" signs were installed. No "DANGER" signs were installed. The boarded up Boardwalks, remained, attractive nuisance eyesores, from whence a boy jumped to his drowning.

When my pedaling brought me to the site of the drowning and the boarded up Boardwalk, below is what I saw.

The memorial to the drowned teenager is still in place. There is no DANGER tape to be seen anywhere in the vicinity.

Has Malik's family contacted a lawyer yet?

After having myself a fine, perplexing time biking with a lot of other bikers, it was on to Town Talk where I got a lot of Yellow and Orange Peppers, two bags of Mandarin Oranges, a few dozen Chicken Legs, a case of Cascade Fresh Orange Cream Yogurt, Tillamook Extra Sharp White Cheese, Organic Non-Homogenized Whole Milk and other stuff I am not remembering right now.

The temperature was perfect for biking today, minimal clothing was needed, no overheating occurred. Such will likely not be the case in a few days. I heard on the radio today that our first 100 degree days of the year are arriving next week.

My air-conditioner is ready for the HEAT. It got a tune-up and a new filter last week. I, myself, did not get a tune-up and new filter last week, so I don't know if I am personally ready for the HEAT. I suspect I will successfully acclimate.

A Memorable Memorial Day Mountain Bike Ride In Fort Worth's Gateway Park

I had myself a memorable Memorial Day bike ride today on the Gateway Park mountain bike trail.

The bike ride was memorable because I don't ever  remember seeing so many people biking on this trail as I saw today.

And many of the mountain bikers were little tyke mountain bikers. Little tykes, as in little kids of the 4 or 5 years old variety.

As you can see via the view over my handlebars of the Trinity River and the cloudy sky above the river, Memorial Day in North Texas is not a clear blue sky day.

It is only 80 degrees in the outer world at my location, which really is not all that hot. Yet I keep turning the dial on the A/C cooler and cooler. Ceiling fans spinning, A/C running, minimal clothing and yet I am still uncomfortably warm.

I have not heard from Spencer Jack's dad or Uncle Joey today with an update into their ongoing search for proof that the Federal Highway Administration National Bridge Inventory Database information about the recently collapsed Skagit River I-5 Bridge is erroneous. Yesterday Spencer Jack's dad had a run in with law enforcement when he got too close to the collapse in an early morning evidence search.

I have blogged about this serious issue a couple times on my Washington blog.....

The Collapsed I-5 Skagit River Bridge Was Built in the 1960s not 1955 and My Nephews Jason & Joey Continue to Try to Find Out When the Collapsed I-5 Skagit River Bridge Was Actually Built.

I just got incoming info via email from BNKer John Basham about the recount of the votes cast in the recent Tarrant Regional Water District Board Election.  Apparently a current TRWD board member, the Self-Entitled Dowager Heiress Marty Leonard will be busy clutching her pearls whilst overseeing the recount for the TRWD.

I shall hit the publish button on this blogging and then blog about the recount....

I Returned To Gateway Park Today & Mountain Biked To A Fort Worth Murder Scene

I was more than just a little unsettled to come upon a brutal murder scene today in Gateway Park.

A likely psychopath shot and killed the armadillo you see in the picture.

I saw multiple gunshot wounds. Doing a forensic examination of the crime scene I was able to determine that the armadillo was first shot about 20 feet from where it died. I made this determination due to a pool of blood, with a trickle of blood leading to the final resting place.

At what time of the day would anyone feel free enough from prying eyes to feel like they could discharge a firearm in a Fort Worth city park and murder an armadillo?

The armadillo is the Official State Small Mammal of Texas. Is murdering one of the Official State Small Mammals of Texas a capital offense in this state? If not, I really think it should be.

The animal kingdom in Gateway Park was acting odd today. Maybe in reaction to the armadillo murder. I saw only one squirrel acting squirrelly. Usually it is dozens of squirrels acting squirrelly.

Previously I'd not seen a lizard in Gateway Park. Today I saw at least a half dozen, all of whom were acting squirrelly. As I pedaled towards the lizards they'd be looking away from the trail, and then right before I reached it, the lizard would turn around and run across the trail right in front of me, forcing a brake application. Over and over again, like the cute reptiles had a death wish.

The lizard behavior was unsettling. Not as unsettling as the murdered armadillo, though.

It was a good thing to be back on my bike again, after having totally recovered from the bout of soreness that had had me cutting back on doing much of anything that was too physically stimulating, which pretty much left me with walking, swimming and doing yoga, while I recovered.

Mountain biking, when the temperature nears 100, is totally doable. Between the shade and the cooling self generated air movement, one keeps almost cool. Until one stops.

Currently the outer world at my location is heated to 105, while really feeling like 111. We have a couple hours to go before the air starts to cool down. I suspect a temperature record is going to be set today.

Bi-Pedaling The River Legacy Park Mountain Bike Trail The Last Sunday Of August

I decided to take an unusually long roadtrip this fine last Sunday of August and drive 9 miles to River Legacy Park in Arlington.

It was slightly over 100 degrees when I left air-conditioned comfort around noon. It is almost 108 now, 3 hours later.

I had not been to River Legacy Park for almost 10 months. Not since 4 days before my mountain bike was stolen in a brazen act of personal, to me, terrorism.

After my bike was stolen I quickly rationalized this was maybe a good thing, due to the fact that on that last bike ride at River Legacy Park I had what is currently my last bike wreck.

It was a minor bike wreck, but I think it wrenched my right foot, creating a malady that still slightly maladizes me, 10 months later.

The older one gets the harder it is to recover from injuries. My worst bike wreck, ever, occurred on the DORBA Trail at Cedar Hills State Park. On a steep downhill the front brake cable broke. This caused an instant burst of speed that had me crashing. There was some blood and gore and a miserable walk back to the trailhead that followed that wreck.

On August 11, 2004 I survived my ex-wife talking me into rollerblading while she rode her bike in a park and through her neighborhood in Kent, Washington. In the park I found myself blading down the steepest hill I'd ever bladed on. It was a scary miracle that I did not crash.

One week after this near death experience I was back in Texas, roller blading on the paved trail at Village Creek Natural Historic Area, when a snake caused me to mis-focus my attention, which had me crashing. The skin was ripped off the left side of my butt, leaving a big, bloody mess and later a huge black bruise.

I swore off roller blading after that fall, for a long time, and only bladed a few more times before deciding it was not worth the risk of having to recover from another catastrophic fall.

Today, walking the River Legacy Park mountain bike trail it did make me feel a bit nostalgic for the good ol' days when I had fun in that location. The trail looked a bit treacherous in places, due to being broken up, due to the drought, but other than that, the trails are in great shape.

A lot of well done signage has been added to the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails, helping let bikers and hikers know the correct direction to go on the one-way trails.

It was so peaceful today in the heavily wooded, shaded zones of the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails. Very quiet, except for the rustling of leaves. I saw no herds of wild boars, no snakes, no armadillos, not even a squirrel.

One thing I did make note of today is the fact that if I were hiking up in Washingtion today, up on any random Cascade Mountain trail, I would be covered with bug spray and still spend a lot of energy swatting at biting flies of various types. In Texas, today, I interfaced with absolutely zero flying, biting insects.

Til I got to Wal-Mart....

Suffering In Texas With A Flat Tire And Other Possible Ailments

That is my bike in pieces you are looking at. My therapist, Dr. L.C., insisted I take a break from being a webpage making machine.

I decided to take my doctor's advice and go pedal the mountain bike trail at River Legacy Park. I knew a bike teeter totter has been added since I last biked there.

I saw the bike teeter totter, clearly visible from the mountain bike parking lot. But I did not bike over it. Nor did I bike out of the mountain bike parking lot.

When I pulled my bike out of my vehicle it was quickly obvious that the front tire was totally flat. Flat front tires are easy to fix. Usually I have at least one spare tube. Today I had none.

So, the River Legacy Park Mountain Bike Trail Ride was aborted.

On my way back here I dropped in at my neighborhood Wal-Mart Supercenter to get a couple inner tubes. Among the tubes was a new one, that for $19.99 a tube, guaranteed the tube to be flat-proof. I've fallen for that before. But not this time.

When I got back here I quickly switched out the tubes. It was one of those goathead thorns that had killed my tube.

After getting the tire with the new tube back on the bike, my next calamity was my tire pump broke. The part of the pump that pushes in the valve, ceased pushing.

So, a new pump must be acquired before I am back in ride mode again.

I found out a few minutes ago that I likely will be quite sick soon. One of the Washingtonians, who I had lunch with on Tuesday, is now in American Falls, Idaho, deathly sick. On Tuesday there were 2 hugging instances, once upon arrival, once upon departure. There was also some fairly close talking in the restaurant.

My throat is already a little sore. But that may be from the green tea I'm drinking right now.

I can not remember the last time I've been sick with anything, so I am way past due. I don't know what happened to me on Tuesday that caused me to drop my usual aversion to germ-spreading unnecessary hugging.

Chinese Garlic

I had not been on my bike for a couple weeks, due to cold, not of the viral sort, but of the temp sort, and rain which renders my favorite mountain bike trail a muddy mess. But today I saw by looking at the DORBA website (Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association) that the trails had dried up.

I must digress. Yes there are mountain bike trails in Texas even though there are, for the most part, no mountains. I thought upon moving here that I would be giving up mountain bike riding. Instead I've pedaled thousands of miles on Texas trails. My latest bike odometer is up over 4000 miles. And it's my third odometer since I've been in Texas.

So, with the temps being a bit above freezing when factoring in the wind chill, I layered myself up and ventured off to River Legacy Park in Arlington. This park is really picky about kids having fun making trails for their stunt bikes. Go to the River Legacy page on my Eyes on Texas website and you can read the rude email I got from a park official who somehow thought I was promoting bad behavior.

I got to the park about noon. It was cold and very windy. The trail is one-way, meandering over 3 miles through woods. I usually go a minium of 3 times around, my record is 6. Today I made it one time around. I did not stop due to the cold. I stopped due to it not being fun being all bundled up and overheating. And I wanted to go to Wal-Mart and Chinatown.

Drove to the Ballpark in Arlington Wal-Mart. It sits across from the Dallas Cowboy stadium monstrosity. You can read all about the Dallas Cowboy scandal here. I am up close to the stadium every other week or so. This time I saw they've added a sign bragging about hosting the 2011 Super Bowl. The neighborhood to the south of the stadium is an industrial wasteland adjacent to a ghetto of old small mostly rundown houses. It will be interesting what those attending games think of this when they take in the view from the upper tiers. I don't think the view was taken into consideration when deciding upon a stadium location. There will be no downtown skyline to look at, no distant mountains, no body of water, nothing, unless you enjoy looking at what may be the world's most upscale Super Wal-Mart. It is decorated with giant baseballs, due to also being near the place where the Texas Rangers lose baseball games. Giant footballs have yet to be added to the Wal-Mart. I'm sure it is only a matter of time. They are likely being fabricated even as I type.

It's ironic. The Dallas Cowboys have not played in Dallas for decades. They play in a Dallas suburb called Irving. But at least Irving is in Dallas County. They will soon be playing in another Dallas suburb, that being Arlington. But Arlington is not even in Dallas County, it is in Tarrant County. Fort Worth is the county seat of Tarrant County. Fort Worth sort of feuds with Dallas, with Dallas not seeming to notice or care, as evidenced by Dallas not caring about their new stadium being in Fort Worth's county. Many in Fort Worth will not cross 360. That is a highway that runs north and south, sort of dividing the D/FW Metroplex, as if crossing to the east side of 360 is venturing into enemy territory. One of Fort Worth's most famous citizens, Amon Carter, founder of the Star-Telegram, would resist having to do business in Dallas, and if it could not be helped he would bring a sack lunch so he could avoid leaving even the money it would take to buy lunch behind in the enemy city. I am not making this stuff up. Just go here and read the Wikipedia article about this notoriously odd Fort Worth booster.

I spent 15 minutes at the Stadium Wal-Mart and then drove south to Chinatown. That's an area of Arlington settled by many Vietnamese and Chinese. There are several Asian and Middle Eastern markets. It's a good place to get good produce. Today I wanted garlic and red peppers. And a few other things. When I got to the garlic zone I was perplexed and vexed to see the packaging clearly indicating the garlic was from China. Up til recently I would have thought nothing of this, but now it concerns me.

But the Chinese garlic did not concern me too much I guess, since I've just finished 4 cloves of it with sharp cheese and grapefruit juice whilst sitting here typing. Now, make fun of this behavior all you want, but keep in mind, I've put over 4000 miles on my latest bike odometer. How many have you put on yours?