Bike Refuses To Cross Scary Lucy Park Duck Pond Bridge

My gas powered mechanized hauling device took me and my bike back to Lucy Park today to do some wheel rolling. 

In the photo documentation above, we are stopping to consider if it a good idea to ride across that short bridge you see the handlebars pointing to. That bridge looks innocuous enough. However, I have walked across that bridge on previous visits to the Lucy Park Duck Pond and found this bridge a challenge to walk on. It moves up and down and rocks left and right. 

I have seen little kids having themselves a mighty fine time on this bridge. I think crossing it could make some sensitive sorts seasick

So, I opted to be cautious and turned around and pedaled away from the ducks and their pond.

Instead I rolled on the Circle Trail for a few miles. Rolled past Wichita Falls, which was falling a lot of water today. Past the actual site of the actual original Wichita Falls, a mile or so downstream.

And then turned around at O'Reilly Park to head back to that aforementioned gas powered mechanized hauling device.

So far I have not been enjoying the cool Fall weather. Because so far such has not arrived.

Yesterday we broke that day's temperature record at 98. Same is happening today. The A/C is running.

Yesterday I mentioned our record breaking temperature to someone in Seattle who replied that at their location it was 52 degrees and the heater was running. Humble bragger...

What Is Floating In The Wichita River By The Lucy Park Suspension Bridge Locks?

In the view above we are standing midway across the Lucy Park Suspension Bridge over the Wichita River.

Lucy Park was my go to location today to acquire some aerobically induced endorphins after Madame McNutty disturbed my morning yoga session with an attempt to watch the yogi via her video device.

See that string of floats floating across the river? If this was in a Pacific Northwest river I would assume some Native Americans from one of the myriad tribes which inhabit the Pacific Northwest had installed a fish net in the river. 

But, such is likely not the case in Texas, since most Native Americans were chased out of the state a long long time ago, chased to Oklahoma and New Mexico. Texas has only two, I think, extremely small Indian Reservations.

If this were a fish net what type fish would one be hoping to net in this murky muddy river?

Looking the other direction from midway over the Lucy Park Suspension Bridge...

More locks have been added since last we made note of the locks being locked to the Lucy Park Suspension Bridge.

It has been speculated that these locks on this bridge are emulating a bridge in Paris on which people lock locks. That is the Paris in France, not the Paris in Texas...

Virtually Flying Over 5 Volcanoes With Madame McNutty

I have been seeing the above the past few days via Facebook. Even though this has been appearing for days the post has generated only one comment, that being...

"Very cool, must be view from Hurricane Ridge?"

Well, Hurricane Ridge is in Olympic National Park, at the north end of the Olympic Peninsula. From Hurricane Ridge I think there are only two, maybe three volcanoes one might be able to see. Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, and maybe Glacier Peak.

When flying to Washington it is when you start seeing the whitecapped volcanoes that you know you are getting close to landing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The view in the above photo is looking north, from Oregon. That would make the volcano in the foreground Mount Jefferson, with the next volcano being Mount Hood. Then we cross the Columbia River to Washington, seeing three of Washington's five volcanoes, Mount St. Helens on the left, Mount Rainier in the middle, with Mount Adams on the right.

I don't know if this photo of Pacific Northwest volcanoes fits with the theme of Washington scenes which make me and Madame McNutty homesick for our old home zone. Seeing this didn't make me homesick.

I prefer to see scenery from ground level, not the bird view...

Circle Trail Centipede Encounters With Prickly Pear Cactus

Today my bike decided to take me north on the Circle Trail further than I have gone in a long long time.

About a mile north of Hamilton Park the Circle Trail comes to the Prickly Pear Cactus Orchard you see above. This orchard appears slightly south of where the Circle Trail crosses under Holliday Road, which you can also see in the photo above.

Going north on the Circle Trail eventually passes under a couple freeways, making for a lot of cement overhead. Soon thereafter the Circle Trail enters an undeveloped zone making it seem as if one has left the city and is out in the wild country.

Eventually the Circle Trail returns to civilization, around the point where the gazebo you see below shows up. As soon as I got off the bike to get out the phone I looked down on the ground and saw the biggest centipede I have ever seen. I did not know those critters got so big. It was big enough that I reacted the same way I do when a snake slithers too close. As in I shuddered. By the time I got the phone to turn on the camera the centipede had waddled out of sight.

You can not tell it via the photo, but the gazebo overlooks a bit of a gorge, with the Circle Trail crossing the gorge and then going down a slope for a quarter mile, give or take a foot or two. About a mile past the gazebo I decided I had gone far enough.

Turning around I quickly realized I had had the wind at my back as I pedaled north. This made for a more strenuous bout of pedaling heading back south, against the wind.

I think tomorrow my bike and me will take a break from pedaling...

Giant Wichita Bluff Nature Areas Weeds With Mean Girls

Lately a couple well known Mean Girls, Madame McNutty & Comrade Sobek, to be exact, have been belittling my earnest attempts to take a selfie photo with my phone.

One of the Mean Girls even compared my face to a soccer ball. I really do not understand this.

The other Mean Girl, last night, suggested I have an eating disorder, in addition to being photography challenged.

Shortly before noon today I returned to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area to do some natural hiking.

Yesterday, or the day before, I mentioned having a run in with giant 20 foot weeds sprouting alongside the Circle Trail. When I mentioned those 20 foot weeds I also mentioned seeing the same type giant weeds sprouting in the Wichita Bluff Nature Area, and that at that point in time I was not in the mood to photo document them

But, today I was, hence the photo documenting selfie above, standing in front of giant weeds. I eagerly await the Mean Girls critique.

Continuing past the giant 20 foot weeds.

Above I am far above the giant weeds which grow alongside the Wichita River. You can sort of see the Wichita River peeking through the trees. As you can clearly see, the leaves have not gone into fall color mode at my location.

I don't remember if the trees here do go into fall color mode. Seems like what happens is first freeze the leaves just fall to the ground, without going through a being colorful phase. Can you spot the purple wildflower which was what provoked me to take a photo at this location?

Madame McNutty probably won't be belittling my latest selfie anytime soon. She is currently stuck on a slow motion Amtrak train, heading north to Delaware, stuck behind a slow moving freight train... 

Maxine Takes Me & Madame McNutty On Virtual Washington Hike To Stehekin

The past couple months Madame McNutty and I have been being tormented by photos on Facebook making us homesick for Washington.

Both myself and Madame McNutty currently live in non-scenic American locations, with me in North Texas and Madame McNutty near where Lee surrendered to Grant.

Yesterday the Washingtonian known as Maxine emailed some photos of this year's hike over the North Cascades to Stehekin.

One can get to Stehekin via one of two ways. Either hike in or float in on Lake Chelan, via boat or float plane.

The first paragraph of text in Maxine's email explains, I think, the first picture, which shows Maxine crossing a chasm on a foot bridge...

I had an excellent hike to Stehekin this year, the weather was perfect and there weren’t any scary drop offs. The only unnerving part was on the hike out Bridge Creek Trail; the North Fork bridge had collapsed last winter from snow and was replaced by a swinging bridge.  I worried about this crossing for most of the summer and it ended up being a piece of cake.

Continuing on let's see some more scenery with some more explanatory text...

I believe the above must be Lyman Lake. I believe this because of the following text from Maxine's email...

We hiked to Lyman Lake our first night, the 2nd day we hiked a portion of the Pacific Coast Trail that goes thru Plummer Basin (we hadn’t done this piece before, last time we took the unmaintained trail which was a huge mistake), spent a 2nd night on the trail and then hiked the last 12 miles to High Bridge on our 3rd day and made it to the Stehekin Valley Ranch in time for dinner. 

I have had dinner at the Stehekin Valley Ranch. You can see that via the Stehekin Eating webpage I made following the Stehekin visit. These are primitive webpages made a long time ago. Hence the small photos of low quality. And for some reason Google seems to flood the pages with ads.

Continuing on with another scenic wonderland photo...

Some more text from Maxine which contributes to the feeling that I'd really like to go on a real hike...

I haven’t got the Lyman Lake area out of my system yet, I’d like to go back and spend a couple of days at Lyman Lake and day hike to Upper Lyman and Spider Gap. So remote there, we only saw 2 other people on that portion of the trail. I didn’t get as much hiking in this year as I would have liked. 

Some final words from Maxine...

I didn’t get as much hiking in this year as I would have liked. I hope to get to Cutthroat Pass this weekend for the Fall colors. The Seattle Times did an article last weekend about Fall hikes off of Hwy 20 and it’s always a nuthouse on the trails after that. We’ll see...

I was hoping to go hiking with Maxine this past summer, but COVID postponed going to Washington, again, two Summers in a row.

The first time I ever hiked up the slopes of Mount Baker it was Maxine who led the expedition. I have photos of that expedition, but I don't remember if I ever digitalized them. They are likely in an old-fashioned photo album stored in a big box in my closet.

Shrinking Sikes Lake Leaves Geese Nowhere To Float

This morning my bike decided to take me back to Sikes Lake for a few rolls around the lake. 

Sikes Lake is rapidly shrinking due to the lack of rain. The geese seem stressed by this nightmare, not knowing what to do. That flock you see above the handlebars is not floating on water. It is too shallow for that. They are just sitting in the water.

Years ago Sikes Lake was dredged. The product of that dredging was hauled to Lake Wichita Park, where it was dumped in a big pile which eventually solidified, creating the local landmark known as Mount Wichita. Well, known by me as Mount Wichita. I've heard others call it Murphy's Hill.

Methinks it may be time to dredge Sikes Lake again and haul that which is dredged to Lake Wichita Park making another mountain next to Mount Wichita. This would then become known as the Twin Peaks of Wichita Falls...

The Attack Of The 20 Foot Weeds On Wichita Falls Circle Trail

Yesterday I biked the Wichita Bluff Nature Area. During that bike ride I saw tall weeds like you see above, but did not feel like stopping to photo document them. I wasn't in the mood to do such. Even when a snake slithered across my path I did not feel like stopping to photo document it.

Today my bike took me on the Circle Trail, north of Hamilton Park, where eventually the trail once again runs alongside Holliday Creek. As the trail nears Holliday Creek a forest of those same type weeds I saw yesterday almost takes over the trail.

And today I did feel like stopping to photo document them.

The foliage is jungle-like at my Texas location.

Back in June of 2017 when I had decided to return to Texas from Arizona, my little brother, Jake, volunteered to follow me home, so I didn't have to worry about another traumatic vehicle breakdown and having to deal with it alone.

I did not think this was a good idea. It could become too complicated, which later seemed the case when I was stuck in a traffic mess in El Paso. And then after that was unable to find a motel vacancy in West Texas. Eventually I stopped at a rest area west of Abilene to rest for a couple hours. 

I started driving again a couple hours before sunrise. It was when the sun rose that I realized it would have been amusing to have Jake following me.

Why, you ask?

Well, the route back to Texas is through desert country, non-stop brown desert country, from Arizona to New Mexico to West Texas.

As I headed north from Abilene and the sun began illuminating the landscape, well, that is when I realized it would have been fun to hear Jake's reaction.

Because, when the world lit up that morning it was no longer brown. It was lushly green, like you were in another world. Jake would not have been expecting this, due to being like a lot of people, thinking that all of Texas is dry brown desert.

I don't know why the outer world here is remaining so green. We have not had much rain. Last week's prediction of day after day of rain and thunderstorms pretty much petered out, with only a couple downpours, both of which I managed to get wet in...

Will Heidi Klum Attend Fort Worth Fashion Week?

Yesterday I saw that which you see above from Fort Worth Report, via Facebook. Fort Worth Report is Fort Worth's new news source. Fort Worth Report has been accurately reporting on the ongoing TRWD/TRVA scandals, doing actual real investigative journalism. Having a real news source in town seems to have caused the Fort Worth Star-Telegram to slightly more accurately report on those aforementioned scandals.

Now, I don't know what to make of this Fort Worth Report news I saw on Facebook. Apparently Fort Worth is going to have an event resembling the world's four major fashion weeks. Those four being, according to the blurb above, Milan, Paris, Long and New York City.

I have never heard of the city of Long. I suspect London is what the writer meant to type. 

So, this fashion designer, named Phillip Maximillian, created Fort Worth Fashion Week to cultivate Cowtown's fashion scene, hoping to steer the spotlight from cowboys to fashion.

Good luck with that cultivating was my reaction.

I have seen the New York City Fashion Week via TV's Project Runway. Heidi Klum was the hostess for the Project Runway part of New York City Fashion Week. I don't know if Project Runway still exists. I think Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn have moved on from Project Runway to a similar show on Amazon called Making the Cut.

Dallas has a fashion district. I forget what it is called. Maybe it is just called the Dallas Fashion District. I wonder why Dallas doesn't have a Fashion Week? Such would seem to be way less ridiculous than Fort Worth having a Fashion Week....

Spencer Jack Takes Jason To An End Of Interstate 5 Mystery

The three images you see here arrived in my email a couple days ago, sent by my Favorite Nephew Jason.

The text in the first email, which included the first image was...

"This reminded me to send you some pictures…now I must go find them."

Well, this seems to be a screen cap from Jeopardy. With the correct answer being "What is Washington?"

That is one weirdly worded Jeopardy clue. Makes it sound like one end of I-5 is in a salmon canning center in Blaine. Blaine is the last town in America, heading north on I-5, before reaching Canada.

Now on to the second email, which includes the pictures Jeopardy reminded Jason to send me. The text which accompanied two pictures...

"Call me sometime for an explanation of these border pictures. This is an X-rated story."

Okay, let's take a look at the two border pictures and see if we can see anything X-rated...

Okay, above Jason and Spencer Jack are on the U.S. side of the border, with the Peace Arch behind them. The American side of the Peace Arch says "Children of a Common Mother". I see nothing remotely X-rated.

Let's look at the next picture.

Now Spencer Jack has crossed into Canada and is on the north side of the Peace Arch. The message on the Canadian side of the Peace Arch is "Brethren Dwelling Together In Unity."

Again I see nothing remotely X-rated.

I can not remember when last I was in Blaine and at Peace Arch Park. I was close in August of 2017 when I was at Birch Bay and Lynden, just a few miles south of the border.

When Spencer Jack's grandpa and I were a little younger than he is we thought it was great fun to be at Peach Arch Park and go back and forth across the border and then later brag about how many times we went to Canada that day.

Years later I was at another border absurdity. Four corners, where Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona's borders meet. There is a monument at this location, with tourists stopping to take photos of being in four states at once, which involved putting one foot in one state, another foot in another state, a hand in another state and the other hand in another state.

I did not stop to take a picture. Although, thinking back on it, it might have been amusing to take some pictures of people contorting themselves like a game of Twister, in order to be in four states at once.

When I get the answer to the X-rated mystery I will let you know...