Hoodoo-Like Cairn Leads Us To Circle Trail End

I came to the end of the trail, today. The Circle Trail, that is.

I dropped off an elderly senior citizen for an appointment with one of his doctors, and then drove to the east Circle Trail access to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area, unloaded my bike, and rolled its wheels for a few kilometers.

About halfway through the WB Nature Area I came upon the tallest Hoodoo-like Cairn I have yet seen at this location.

I got off the bike to photo document this phenomenon.

Back to the current end of the Circle Trail. I thought the project timeline for this new leg of the Circle Trail was to have been completed, by now, the link from Loop 11 to Lucy Park. I recollect due to a funding shortage the final 1000 feet was going to be a gravel covered trail, until funds could be found to pave it.

But, currently, Circle Trail construction seems to be halted at the location you see at the top, with a metal fence giving this halt a look of some permanence.

I have long looked forward to this connecting link to Lucy Park. This will make for greatly enhanced bike rides...

Mayor Betsy Thinks Unfinished Little Panther Island Bridges Transformative For Fort Worth

Late last night an incoming email from Elsie Hotpepper consisted of a Letter to the Editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I had already read that letter, prior to Elsie sending it to me, even though the Star-Telegram currently denies me access to their server.

Before I show you the Letter to the Editor we need to discuss that bridge you see above. This is the one and only of the three bridges to have opened to traffic, after being a slow motion construction project since 2014,

Would one not think that, after so much time, that somehow whoever designed this hapless bridge could have managed to align the bridge with the existing road in a more straight forward fashion? Those curves look like a head-on crash waiting to happen.

And now the aforementioned Letter to the Editor...

Bike lanes nothing big

Mayor Betsy Price, at the delayed opening of the first of three bridges over dry land associated with the Panther Island project, proclaimed them to be transformative for the city. I agree. Those three bridges, along with the profligate and misguided spending sponsored by our mayor to create miles and miles of unused bicycle lanes, makes us the laughingstock among Texas cities. We are not Amsterdam or Singapore, and simply carving out empty bicycle lanes from those used for autos will not change that.

Cleveland, a city I admire, is called by some the “Mistake on the Lake.” At least it does not boast that three bridges over dirt are transformative. We will be known as the “Obscenity on the Trinity.”

- Roy Browning, Fort Worth

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"Obscenity on the Trinity?" I like that. Has a much better ring to it than "America's Biggest Boondoggle".

I have long been puzzled by why it is that Fort Worth officials, such a mayors, or new sources, such as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, have such a tendency to spout idiotic hyperbole about some perfectly ordinary thing in Fort Worth.

But, this may be a new low, referring to those pitiful little freeway overpass style bridges as being transformative for Fort Worth. Well, that is just embarrassing...

Joining Ducks & Fishing People On The Lake Wichita Boardwalk

The outer world was wet this morning at my location on the planet. A middle of the night thunderstorm dropped copious amounts of rain, resulting in floods of puddles rendering going on a bike ride or walking my usual locations to not be too doable.

And so I drove to the Lake Wichita Dam to do some walking where I knew serious puddling would not be an issue.

In the above photo documentation we are at the end of the Lake Wichita Boardwalk, looking east towards the top of the dam's spillway.

In a feat of construction engineering some Texas towns have trouble emulating, the Lake Wichita Boardwalk was built over actual water, taking about a year to complete.

Let's leave the Boardwalk and take a closer look at that aforementioned dam spillway.

Water was spilling over the spillway. But not too much. Those dots you see atop the spillway are ducks, which should give you a clue as to how slow the water was spilling over the spillway.

There were more people fishing today at the Lake Wichita Dam location than I've seen previously, including several fishing where the spillway spills into Holliday Creek.

And several were fishing from the fishing dock floating on Lake Wichita, as you can see via the below photo documentation.

I don't know what was making those streaks of white on the lake. Reflecting clouds? If it were winter I would say it looked like ice. 

In the distance, on the right, that is the Mount Wichita pseudo mini-volcano piercing the horizon. It has been a long time, I would guess well over a year, since I last hiked to the summit of Mount Wichita. The trails to the summit have eroded badly, making it look not to appealing to risk twisting an ankle, or worse.

If the Lake Wichita Revitalization ever becomes a reality, it would be a nice addition to build a lookout atop Mount Wichita, with a stairway taking one to the summit...

Wichita Falls Dries Up With Lucy Park Golf Tournament

My mechanized motion device took me and my bike to Lucy Park on this first Sunday of the 2021 version of June. I thought I would likely have the park mostly to myself, it being Sunday, cloudy, hot and humid.

I thought wrong.

Way back in 2016, the first time I found Lucy Park, it was crowded. As in finding a parking spot was a challenge. Lucy Park is a big park with lots of parking spots. I do not remember what event, if any, was happening, figuring this must just be the Lucy Park weekend norm.

Well, it was not the Lucy Park norm. In all the years since that first visit I have never seen the park with so many visitors as I saw that first visit.

Til today.

A Disc Golf Tournament drew a lot of people to Lucy Park today. But, I had no problem finding a place to park.

I ended up having a mighty fine time rolling my bike's wheels. Even the muddy, slippery sections of the backwoods trail did not vex me too much.

Eventually I left Lucy Park and rolled the Circle Trail to Wichita Falls. Which you can see via the photo I took documenting the fact that today Wichita Falls is not falling any water.

I have never understood why Wichita Falls would spend millions to build an artificial waterfall, so as to have an answer when tourists ask where the waterfall is after which the town is named, to have a waterfall which has to be turned off when the Wichita River runs high.

Today there were a lot of people walking to see Wichita Falls. Where there was no water falling.

I find it ironic to find myself explaining to people why the waterfall is turned off, and that this happens way too often. Ironic because it was not all that long ago, on that first visit to Lucy Park, that I asked the nice lady who was womaning a Texas Tourist Information Center kiosk, how one got to the falls. She pointed the way, which seems so obvious now, and gave me a complimentary tube of chapstick, which I still have. 

Below is a partial look at the throng of humanity in Lucy Park today.

There were several disc golf vendors lined up next to the Lucy Park log cabin/swimming pool parking lot. The vendors are what you see on the right.

I don't know why more events don't take place at Lucy Park. It would seem to be a great location for something like Seattle's Sunday Fremont Market, where dozens upon dozens of vendors sell their wares, along with multiple food vendors. Or an event like the Anacortes Arts & Crafts Festival.

I don't see why such can't happen in Texas. 

Particularly since the biggest such type thing I have ever seen was in Texas, as in Canton's First Monday Trade Days.

First Monday Trade Days is truly something to behold. I've beheld it three times, and enjoyed it greatly each time...

Admiring Wichita Falls Holliday Creek Vision's Southwest Boulevard Signature Bridge

The view you see above I see via walking the Circle Trail a short distance south of my abode. At this location the Circle Trail passes under the Southwest Boulevard Bridge over Holliday Creek. 

This is an iconic signature bridge (according to Fort Worth, Texas bridge standards). Note the stunning round vertical piers upon which the bridge was built.

This bridge was part of the Wichita Falls Holliday Creek Vision. A legitimate flood control project, unlike the illegitimate flood control project projected in another Texas town.

Fort Worth.

The Holliday Creek Vision's Southwest Boulevard Bridge was built over actual water.

While Fort Worth has been lamely trying for years to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Those trying to build these Fort Worth bridges tell the locals, who apparently are extremely gullible, that these new Fort Worth bridges will be iconic signature bridges, which people, world-wide, will recognize as being a Fort Worth engineering marvel, you know, like the Golden Gate Bridge does for San Francisco, or the Brooklyn Bridge does for New York City.

Wichita Falls does not brag about its signature Holliday Creek Bridge. I have never even heard mention made of this bridge in any local forum.

The city does provide that comfortable swinging bench you see in the photo above, so that one can sit and admire this engineering marvel...

Hoping To Overcome My Wichita Falls Grand Buffet Phobia

 I saw that which you see above, last night, on Facebook. The Grand Buffet-Wichita Falls announcing "Our Dining Room is now OPEN!"

This announcement seemed to be, to me, a bit out of sync with observed reality.

The Grand Buffet is on Kemp Boulevard. I drive by its location frequently. It is about a half mile distant from my abode.

For months I have been surprised to see the Grand Buffet's parking lot being home to a lot of vehicles, and have seen people entering the restaurant's entry.

Seeing such had me wondering how one does a buffet during these troubling pandemic times.

I have long had a neurotic paranoid obsession when it comes to buffets. No matter where the buffet is located. Texas,  California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, or my old home zone.

The idea of sharing a food scooping device with strangers has long unsettled me. So, before I subject myself to a buffet line I arm myself with napkins to wrap around the food scooping devices. I have long wondered why it were not the case, and wished it were reality, that prior to going through a buffet line, the buffet provided disposable gloves to the buffeteers.

I see, via the screencap above, that the Grand Buffet post on Facebook was a video.

I did not make note of that fact, and thus did not click on the video.

Maybe the video explained what virus spread prevention measures are in place, if any...

River Runs Through Wichita Falls Hamilton Park Waterpark

That which you see above is almost completed. I have been watching this under construction for over a year, as I bike north on the Circle Trail through Hamilton Park.

When this is completed it will be a water fountain playfield for kids. The photo does not show the shade awnings already installed above the fountain playfield. The shade awnings match those already installed above the avant garde climbing playground which came to life a couple years ago.

I biked to this location late yesterday, as in Wednesday, afternoon. As you can see, the sky is blue, free of clouds.

And yet, at this location, ironically with the fountains not yet active, I suddenly found myself pummeled by large rain drops. I turned around and saw some cloud action to the south and figured a strong wind blowing north must be delivering these odd drops. The rain did not last long.

Between the avant garde climbing playground and the soon to open fountain playfield there is a sort of plaza, made of bricks. Some of the bricks identify donors who made building this addition to Hamilton Park possible.

The brick plaza also provides an identifying plaque identifying the group which is behind this excellent addition to this Wichita Falls park.

The Wichita County Medical Alliance. A close up look at the identifying plaque...

"Physicians' families united to care."

Methinks on a HOT day when I find myself biking through Hamilton Park, if the water fountain playfield is not currently busy with kids having fun, I may do a quick cooling off ride through.

I suspect such may be doable quite soon...

Fort Worth's Inept Urban Planning Population Growth Bragging Rights

A few days ago in a blog post about Fort Worth Almost Being The Fastest Growing Big City In America mention was made of the fact that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram seemed to be missing an opportunity to do its usual inflated puffery over something to do with Fort Worth which most town's newspapers would not feel the need to be puffing about.

A few days later on Facebook the Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy made mention of the fact that Fort Worth's population had grown in the latest census, passing Jacksonville to become America's 12th ranked city, population-wise.

This was blogged about in a post asking Is Fort Worth The Biggest City In The World? This question was asked after multiple Facebookers commented on Bud Kennedy's post making the observation that Fort Worth's population growth was largely due to the fact that the town annexes open spaces, and has a lot of open space within its borders in which to build homes.

As witnessed by the above photo which illustrates that open space, with the sprawl of homes, in this morning's Star-Telegram article titled Only 2 cities added more people than Fort Worth in 2020 as city climbs in U.S. ranking.

The caption under the photo says "An aerial view of far north Fort Worth shows a veritable ocean of rooftops. The city has grown 24% since 2010 and is now the 12th largest city in the U.S."

Far north Fort Worth was where I lived when first moving to Texas. Actually it was the hamlet of Haslet, the border with Fort Worth was across the street from my abode. At that point in time this seemed to be out in the country, with farm/ranch land what one saw when one looked south towards the puny skyline of downtown Fort Worth, which you can sort of see through the haze at the top of the above photo.

That open farm/ranch land is now filled in with that ocean of rooftops.

Due to Fort Worth's notoriously bad urban planning, that ocean of rooftops has not been accompanied by new parks, or road improvements.

Or, most notoriously, adequate drainage to prevent the deadly flooding which has occurred due to the bad urban planning. 

A few days ago I made mention of the fact that my Access Is Denied: But I Don't Need Permission To Access The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  

Even with my access being denied, I am easily able to gain access, and thus read what I want to read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, such as today's odd article about Fort Worth's population.

Previously I had blogged that it was Seattle which the latest census indicated had grown the most of the big American cities. With Fort Worth having the second most growth.

Somehow the Star-Telegram knocked Fort Worth down to 3rd place, from 2nd, claiming Phoenix was #1, with San Antonio #2.  In the Seattle Times article about this serious population issue, neither San Antonio or Phoenix are in the Top Five, with the Seattle Times version having Seattle #1, Fort Worth #2, Mesa, Arizona #3, Austin #4 and Tampa #4.

The Star-Telegram article about Fort Worth being #3 has some choice Star-Telegram type verbiage, including a gem from Fort Worth's outgoing mayor...

“Fort Worth’s move to the 12th largest city in the United States was expected, but that doesn’t make the news any less exciting,” Mayor Betsy Price said Tuesday in an email to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

What would be exciting would be if Fort Worth matched infrastructure improvement with population growth. You know, things like modern facilities in the city parks, sidewalks alongside the city streets, modern public transportation. That type thing. 

Filling open spaces with more homes, making a sort of bedroom community, does not seem all that exciting.

And then in this paragraph Betsy's elaborates more ironic nonsense...

“Growth, especially the explosive growth we are seeing in Fort Worth, is always challenging for a city, but it is in that growth there is also massive opportunity to build incredible things,” Price said. “In my 10 years as mayor, we’ve worked to capitalize on those opportunities, meeting the needs of a growing city with innovation and resourcefulness, while always maintaining the unique history and spirit of Fort Worth.”

Build incredible things? Like the ongoing Trinity River Vision Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision which has been ambling along for most of this century, so far rendering a large chunk of Fort Worth's central core into being an embarrassing eyesore.

Maintaining the unique history and spirit of Fort Worth? Has Heritage Park, across the street from the downtown Fort Worth Tarrant County Courthouse, re-opened yet? After a decade, give or take a year or two, of being yet one more Fort Worth eyesore.

It would be fascinating to hear Betsy Price try to elaborate on how those opportunities to which she refers, have been capitalized upon, along with some examples of Fort Worth innovation and resourcefulness.

And then there is the final paragraph of this Star-Telegram article, reviving some classic Star-Telegram verbalize we have not seen for awhile...

Besides creating bragging rights for the largest cities, the Census figures are used for crucial things such as determining how many seats in Congress each state should have, and how much funding communities can receive for roads, schools and other government functions.

Oh yes, the all important bragging rights.

Long ago we made a webpage with multiple examples of what was referred to as the Star-Telegram's Green With Envy verbiage, where this that or the other perfectly mundane thing in Fort Worth was making towns far and wide green with envy, or was giving Fort Worth bragging rights. 

For years that type embarrassing verbiage has seemed to have disappeared from the Star-Telegram, only to reappear today, maybe thinking those of us with access denied would not notice...
 

Is Fort Worth The Biggest City In The World?

 

A few days ago in a blog post about Fort Worth Almost Being The Fastest Growing Big City In America mention was made of the fact that Fort Worth is unique among big cities in that the town has multiple wide open spaces within the town's borders, along with wide open spaces to expand to, unlike towns hemmed in by geography in the form of mountains or bodies of water, or surrounded by suburbs.

Last night, on Facebook, I saw a post from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy, he being the closest that newspaper has to an actual journalist, in which Mr. Kennedy wrote "We're #12: Fort Worth officially passes Jacksonville to become America's 12th largest city at 927,720 people..."

Some of Fort Worth's population growth comes from annexing territory previously not incorporated into a town. Doing this has seemed a bit bizarre, to me, at times. Such as annexing a narrow strip of territory all the way to D/FW International Airport.

I think the annexation actually includes part of the airport property.

Which renders it sort of ironic when landing at D/FW with the pilot welcoming those onboard to Dallas, whilst landing, sort of, in Fort Worth.

Fort Worth has a puny downtown, lacking things like department stores. I think there may now be a small grocery store of some sort downtown. There are few restaurants, and on the busiest shopping day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving, downtown Fort Worth is a ghost town. We have made mention of this ghost town fact a number of times in various venues including Having Fun Looking For Black Friday Shoppers Today In Downtown Fort Worth.

Via the comments to Mr. Kennedy's Facebook post I learned I was not alone in realizing that Fort Worth's population size is a bit misleading when thinking the number of people in a town somehow relates to that town's, well, being an actual big city with an actual big downtown.

Two of those comments...

Michael Doran: While technically true, the area within the Fort Worth city limits is so huge -- 355 square miles -- that I'm doubtful that it makes for a fair ranking by population. I would argue that anyone from Fort Worth who visits Seattle (84 mi²), Denver (155 mi²), Boston (90 mi²), or San Francisco (47 mi²) would say that those cities sure *seem* bigger than Fort Worth.

Paul Allen: Those cities are more urban, vs a sprawling city like Fort Worth. I don't think that should change the rankings though. Just came back from Seattle and you are right, it "feels" like a much bigger city because everything is stacked up. You hardly see anything under 5-6 floors inside the city. Many more skyscrapers and high-rise apartments, real, mostly functioning public transit gets people around. It feels like a city. Fort Worth feels more like a big suburb with a few tall buildings in the city center.

______________________

I did not realize the size of Fort Worth was so huge.

355 square miles!

San Francisco is only 47 square miles. With Seattle slightly bigger at 84 square miles. Denver, at 155 square miles, is like Fort Worth, with wide open space to expand to. I have been to all those towns Mr. Doran mentioned, expect for Boston, and his opinion matches mine, in that San Francisco, Seattle and Denver sure do seem way bigger than Fort Worth. 

And Mr. Allen's observation that Fort Worth feels more like a big suburb with a few tall buildings in the city center, than an actual big city, seems accurate.

At 355 square miles in size, is Fort Worth the biggest city in the world? Likely not or we would have heard such bragged about, over and over again...

UPDATE: After hitting the publish button on this blog post I went to Twitter and what was the first thing I saw?

This...

Apparently we are in full on brag mode regarding Fort Worth's new population status. But, note the image included in this Twitter post. Photo documentation showing how puny downtown Fort Worth is.

Does not look like the downtown of a town with almost a million population, sprawled over 355 square miles...

Taking Linda Lou On MSU Bike Ride With Mustangs

I went on a long bike ride this final Sunday morning of the 2021 version of May.

About halfway through the bike ride I stopped at the location you see above to drink some water and to see why my phone had made its incoming text noise.

With the phone out of its bike storage location I decided to use it to take a photo. 

A time or two Linda Lou has asked me what the university I live near is like. Like as in how, asked I, a time or two.

To which Linda Lou asked is it big? Old? Lots of buildings? Brick?

I recollect answering yes to all Linda Lou's university questions. And added that the campus is flat, like most of Texas, not hilly like Western State University in my old home zone in Washington.

The horse known as a Mustang is the Midwestern State University mascot.

Hence the four Mustangs you see galloping through a pond. The first represents the Freshman class, carefully entering the pond, the second Mustang is a Sophomore, splashing right behind the Junior Mustang. the rear end of which is all you can see, whilst the Senior Mustang is leaping out of the pond, almost knocking us over.

The building behind the Mustangs is the newest on the MSU campus. That new building sort of illustrates, for Linda Lou, what MSU looks like, due to the fact that this new building cleverly incorporates all the various architectural styles one finds on the MSU campus, with that window wall you see behind the Mustangs being the one modern element which matches nothing else on campus. 

If I find myself feeling unusually energetic, on some day in the future, maybe I'll wander around the MSU campus photo documenting the various architectural styles, and how they are represented in the new building, known as Centennial Hall.

In the meantime tomorrow is Memorial Day. I won't be putting flowers on any nearby graves. I know no one in any nearby graves...