Giant Wildflower Found On The Tandy Hills With The Queen Of Wink Found Safe Via New Orleans While Traffic Stops On I-30

I am fairly certain this thing I found blowing in the wind on the Tandy Hills today is not some sort of giant mutant wildflower.

It is currently 94. It was one degree below 90 when I hiked the hills today. Very humid. And windy.

The attempts to find the missing Queen of Wink amped up this morning, with the search reaching as far as New Orleans.

By around 2 this afternoon the New Orleans connection bore fruit with the Queen of Wink letting me know she has not been the victim of a crazed serial killer.

The Queen of Wink says her phone did not log my call, or she would have called me back. But, I left a voice mail message. And then we still have the mystery of what caused the Queen of Wink to disappear from Facebook.

I would suspect that someone has hacked the Queen of Wink's Internet accounts, except for the fact that the writing style is totally in the Queen of Wink style. And, as we recently learned from CatsPaw/CowsHoof, writing style is as strong an identifier as fingerprints.

As I drove to the Tandy Hills I saw the westbound lanes of Interstate 30 were in total traffic jam mode. This had drivers trying to get off the freeway, to the frontage road, driving over grass and into the waiting embrace of a multitude of Fort Worth cops.

I do not know why, when there is a traffic jam like this, those ubiquitous electronic freeway signs that usually say "click it or ticket it's the law" are not spewing a message like "I-30 westbound lanes closed ahead, seek alternative route."

Because there are plenty of ways to get around this and easily continue west. The traffic was jammed almost all the way back to the 820/30 mixmaster. A warning sign could have easily directed traffic on to 820, then 121 to continue west.

Coming out of Town Talk today and heading east on Randol Mill Road I was appalled to see about a mile of vehicles backed up, waiting to turn on to Beach Street. These would have been drivers who scurried off the freeway at Oakland Avenue, where I saw the cops in full ticket mode, trying to continue west via the next road that does so to the north, no knowing how backed up that road can get.

So, I guess when I head to downtown Fort Worth around 5, to do me some Trinity River Happy Hour Inner Tubing, I will take 121 to downtown, not 30.

Are there restroom facilities on shore for the Rockin' the River event, I can't help but wonder? With 600 people floating while drinking a lot of beer, well, you get the picture.

I can now see where this Happy Hour Inner Tube floating is going to be adding some fresh pollution to the already polluted river.

Being Stuck In A Traffic Jam Trying To Head North On Loop 820 Aggravated Me

I headed north out of here, on Loop 820, a half hour before noon, heading to Hurst.

Of late 820 has been being re-paved. This results in HUGE traffic jams. Up til today I could tell, before getting on the freeway, if the north or southbound lanes were being jammed.

This morning it looked like 820 northbound was good to go. I got on the freeway, got past the Randol Mill overpass and then saw the traffic in jam mode ahead of me.

Slowed to a crawl. Down to one lane just past Trinity Boulevard.

It is a universal woe wherever I've been in a traffic jam. Here, Southern California, Washington. It seems if people would just use a little common sense. Leave a space so the lanes can easily merge, then bad traffic jams would not develop.

In the case of re-paving 820, why are they not doing this at night? Or better yet, just close the section of freeway being worked on, with plenty of warning signs telling drivers to take an alternative route.

One of things I like about driving in the D/FW Metroplex is if one route gets jammed, it is usually very easy to find an alternative route.

Traffic jams in Washington, particularly in Seattle, are a much bigger pain than traffic jams in the D/FW Metroplex. In Seattle it is not as easy to take alternative routes. Unlike here, there are not broad, freeway-like boulevards that you can easily use if I-5 stops moving. There are no 3 lane frontage roads on both sides of the freeway.

Anyway, today was the first time in a long time I found myself in a freeway traffic jam. The plus side of this was I saw all sorts of billboards I don't usually notice. I now know where to get my next lapband surgery, how to get high school slim, that the food bank is giving school kids breakfast, that McDonald's has a new coffee concoction and I forget what else.

I don't know if I am in the mood to go do some tardy Tandy hill hiking or not. If I don't the endorphin deficit is going to wreak havoc with my good mood.

I Predict Super Bowl Week In The 817 Will End With A Massive Traffic Jam

I was not able to get this week's FW Weekly til the Big Thaw occurred on Saturday. I suspect that was true for a lot of FW Weekly readers.

Judging by the cover it appears this week's FW Weekly focuses on the Super Bowl. I did not get around to reading it til this morning, to find, in this case, judging by the cover is a correct judgement.

Much of what is inside the cover of FW Weekly was rendered a bit ironic due to how Super Bowl week actually played out.

Like an article titled "From Sundance to the World" with a Fort Worth Star-Telegram level of almost breathless puffery, all atwitter that the world was coming to downtown Fort Worth courtesy of ESPN, saying ESPN reaches about 100 million U.S. households with ESPN International reaching 53 million more in 59 other countries.

I think more properly stated ESPN is a channel on various cable networks, with those cable networks reaching a total of 153 million households worldwide.

FW Weekly can't really be thinking that downtown Fort Worth has been seen this week in 153 million houses worldwide. If that did happen the world was not seeing the type images that makes a Chamber of Commerce happy.

After going down to check out the Super Bowl zone again, yesterday, along with thousands of others finally able to escape the Big Freeze and its Big Snow, and thinking about what I saw, I think we may be seeing one more weather related debacle today.

Yesterday the traffic coming from the east on I-30 was jammed up trying to get off the freeway to get to the Ballpark/Stadium area. This was around 3 in the afternoon.

Traffic was backed up all around the stadium area. On the south side of the stadium I saw the longest line of taxis I've ever seen. All stuck in the traffic jam.

I read today that a lot of Pittsburgh Steeler fans fly in to the Super Bowl city any time the Steelers are in the Super Bowl. Even if they don't have a ticket. I talked to several of those yesterday. The Steeler fans were easy to spot, many with cheese on their head.

I do not believe an event has taken place in Cowboys Stadium where the ticket holders get shuffled through a long security tent to get into the stadium.

I believe this will be the largest crowd to have attended an event in the stadium.

What I think may happen today is, just like yesterday, there will be a lot of formerly snowbound locals who decide to try to check out the Super Bowl. There will be no places for them to park, unless they want to pay an exorbitant fee. You'll have all the game goers arriving, by taxi or whatever means. I assume the Arlington trolley buses will be in the mix.

What I saw yesterday was a situation where traffic was not moving well. I think it will be much worse today.

So, that is my prediction for the day. The Final Debacle of Super Bowl Week and Super Bowl XLV will be a monster traffic jam with game goers not able to get into the stadium before the game starts.

Keep in mind, if you find this prediction unsettling, I am usually wrong whenever I predict anything.