Boycotting Grapevine In Texas Among Other Things

Since it is Saturday and those are wildflowers in the picture, my one longtime reader probably thinks I went hiking at the Tandy Hills Natural Area today. My one longtime reader would be wrong for once.

The wildflowers today were seen at Horseshoe Trails Park in Grapevine. My intention had been to go hiking at Rockledge Park to walk along the beach at Lake Grapevine and use my imagination to create the delusion that I was walking a saltwater beach. This is an easy delusion at Lake Grapevine. There are seagulls and clam shells.

But my Rockledge Park plan came to an abrupt halt soon after I crossed Lake Grapevine Dam and turned into Rockledge Park. The City of Grapevine is now charging an entry fee to this Army Corps of Engineers built park.

I had no cash. The Old Geezer money taker couldn't take a credit card. So, I U-Turned and got out of there, thinking, as I left, that I'm never going to come back and pay to go to that park. The entry fee was $5 per vehicle, $1 per person in the vehicle, $1 per bicycle. I assume that meant a person pedaling in on their bike and not an extra $1 charge per bike.

If I understand the entry fee correctly it would have cost $9 for me and my hikers to enter that park today. The pay station was really tacky. I should have thought to take a picture. Orange traffic cones led to a trailer-like structure, set on the ground, no wheels. An old guy and lady ran the toll booth. I don't know if they live in the trailer. There is not much tacky in the town of Grapevine, so this could easily be the tackiest thing in town.

A few years ago, the State of Washington started charging a fee for day use at the state's state parks. The public rebelled. The fees were removed. The principle is that parks like this are paid for by all the people, from money raised by taxes, in order to provide recreational opportunities to all the people, regardless of where they sit, income strata-wise.

I have been at Rockledge Park many a time and have seen many large family groups. It was easy to see that, for some of these people, paying 5 bucks to enter and another buck for each person, would be money they likely would not want to spend. So, Grapevine is locking such people out of the park. That is just wrong.

This is the same reason I found it so wrong and offensive when Fort Worth began charging an entry fee to the Fort Worth Nature Preserve.

Grapevine is one very well off town. Improvements have been made all over town, paid for by being flush with funds, due to there being things in town like Grapevine Mills, Gaylord Texan and Great Wolf Lodge. I've complained, before, that Fort Worth neglects things like landscaping the freeway exits to tourist attractions, like the Fort Worth Stockyards. Grapevine has the money to landscape pretty much everywhere. And put up special signage that matches the Grapevine theme.

Many a time, when I've gone to Rockledge Park, I've spent money in Grapevine. Either at a restaurant or at Grapevine Mills. I'm now going to boycott Grapevine and will not spend a penny there until Rockledge Park is back open to the public.

Leaving Rockledge Park I headed to another Grapevine park on Lake Grapevine, that being Horseshoe Trails Park. I've probably mountain biked the Horseshoe Trails more than any other Texas trail. But not so much in recent years, because I don't live close to it anymore.

I was fairly certain that the parking lot I use would not have a pay station. There are not enough cars to make that work. And there are way too many entries to the parks that Horseshoe Trails Park connects too. And I knew Grapevine was already charging a fee to use the boat launches.

I'd brought a swim suit with me. I'd intended to go swimming when I was done with the beach hike at Rockledge Park. I have swam there many times. But, swimming was not going to happen on this end of the lake, because this is the spot were I was attacked, while swimming, by a rabid attacking turtle, that I first thought was a snake, when its reptilian head popped up in front of me, causing me to find out I can swim really fast when fear motivates me.

A short time later I was at the same spot, telling a couple fishermen about the turtle attack and they told me they'd seen 2 water moccasins by the dock, that morning. And if that was not enough to keep me out of that water, a few days later I was talking to a pair of girls, sitting at the end of the dock, telling them about my near death experience with the turtle and they told me that, a few days prior, they and their boyfriends swam out to Water Moccasin Island and on the way back one of the boys stepped on a garfish, getting badly cut, requiring stitches.

I'd seen a garfish in Village Creek. Scary alligator eel looking things. I had no idea they were in Lake Grapevine. But I was more stuck on Water Moccasin Island. I asked why they called it that. They said everyone called it that because there are so many water moccasins out there. I asked why would you swim out there if you know there are water moccasins. They told me if you don't bother them they leave you alone. This seemed insane to me and I didn't say another word.

So, that's been my day today, so far, in Texas, started with an early morning swim, capped, so far, by yet one more thing I'm boycotting in Texas. I hope the boycott gets lifted by December, so I can go to the Christmas Party at Austin Ranch in Grapevine.

Dallas Cowboy Stadium Opens With George Strait & Reba McEntire

Tonight the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium gets its first use, with a sold out George Strait, Reba McEntire Concert.

I don't know how many tickets were sold, so I don't know how many people will be there tonight. The stadium has seating for 80,000, expandable to 100,000. Tickets to tonight's concert went on sale February 28 and sold out in one hour.

Blake Shelton and Julianne Hough will also be singing. I like Juliane Hough. I don't know if she'll also be dancing tonight.

Apparently the food offerings have been upscaled from what was available in now defunct Texas Stadium, with many more concession stands with kitchens, which means food freshly cooked. Including an on-site beef smoker.

You can get a Kobe burger with onion rings. A guacamole hot dog with white cheese and blue corn chips. Or a Texas dog with BBQ sauce and coleslaw on it.

The prices seem a bit steep. But something has to pay for this $1.1 billion building. You'll be paying $9 for draft beer, $5 for water, $5 for french or sweet potato fries, $10 for a catfish po'boy, $13 for a green chile Kobe burger, $14 for a beef sandwich, to give you an idea of what it'll cost you to eat and drink in the new stadium.

$5 for water?

I'll try and remember to check out the new stadium tonight. I believe it is supposed to pretty much glow in the dark with a big beam of light pointing skyward. It'll be interesting to see how the neighborhood reacts to the noise. And how well the roads handle the traffic. I'm expecting it's going to be a big mess.

Another Copperhead Encounter In Texas

I was up way before the sun was this morning. Again. Soon after it got bright I was in the pool. Again.

Then after way too many hours hitting buttons on a keyboard I needed to escape. My escape route, this time, was to pedal my bike at Village Creek Natural Historic Area. Again.

I've never seen so many people as were there today. The parking lot was almost full. I've never seen that before. At the pond viewing area there were 3 separate groups of people sitting at picnic tables. I rarely see a single person there.

I think it's the perfect temperatures that is drawing people outdoors. It was around 85 when I headed out of here at noon, 89 now, 3 hours later. I saw a pretty young mom and her little boy, both on scooters. I've been seeing a lot of people on scooters lately. There were 3 different scooter groups at Village Creek today. Has scootering become some sort of fad?

I would have thought that with so many people on the Village Creek trail that snakes would be gone. I was wrong. I came upon a copperhead again. I got closer to it this time and got a better picture. It posed politely, barely moving. And then when I turned the camera off it began to slither off the pavement at an alarmingly high rate of speed. If it had decided to head towards me, that fast, I don't know if I could have backed up fast enough.

And then I remembered what Jammin Mole told me a couple days ago. That rattlesnakes travel in pairs. She learned this after finding a rattlesnake in her laundry room. Her dad came over and helped get rid of it. And told her they usually travel in pairs. Soon the second rattlesnake made its presence known.

While I was snapping pictures another copperhead could have slithered up behind me. I will take this possibility into consideration during my next snake encounter and constantly check behind me to make sure I'm not about to be attacked.

So, that's my exciting Thursday in Texas, so far.

Oh, I forgot a funny thing. Earlier today I blogged about thinking Kincaid's Burgers were overrated. I got a funny comment from my favorite commenter, Anonymous, basically telling me my restaurant opinions were overrated, complaining that my rave reviews of Zorro's Buffet caused him to take his wife there on a Friday night only to find leathery steak and overcooked shrimp. Anonymous started off his comment with this funny line, "In defense of Kincaid's, you defiantly have bad taste!"

I'm defiant about everything.

Kincaid's Burgers Are Overrated

I was not long in Fort Worth when I heard that Kincaid's Hamburgers made the best burgers in the world.

Year after year the locals vote for Kincaid's for burger awards. On Kincaid's website their customers are thanked for this...

"We Won Best Burger! Thank you to all our customers who helped us win the 2009 Golden Local Best Burger Award. We look forward to serving you at Kincaid's soon."

So, with all this hype I was looking forward to having the best burger ever. The first time I went to Kincaid's there was only the original, that being the Kincaid's on Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth. Kincaid's has since opened several more burger joints, including one in Southlake that was the location of my second visit to a Kincaid's.

Both times I was totally non-plussed. I didn't get it. But this was not the first time I've seen something hyped here that made me wonder things like have these people never had another burger? Have these people not seen any other downtown besides Fort Worth's? That after one of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's goofy uses of their patented "Green With Envy" verbiage, as in cities and towns, near and far, are green with envy over the success of Fort Worth's downtown. (No, I am not making this up, go here for more examples)

I may have bad taste, but I prefer a Whopper or a Jumbo Jack burger over a Kincaid's burger. My all time favorite burger came from the legendary In & Out chain.

After all these years of thinking the Kincaid's hype was insane, finally, someone has said the Emperor has no clothes. A blog called Best of Texas had a post titled "5 Most Overrated Burgers in Texas." Kincaid's was #1 on the list, saying the Kincaid's burger was a "tasteless, lifeless, dry burger."

Then the new FW Weekly wannabe, DFW.com's Ink Edition, conducted a poll, asking "Are the Burgers at Kincaid's Overrated?"

32% said yes, Kincaid's burgers are nothing special. Another 32% thought Kincaid's burgers were maybe a little overrated, but who cares? While 29% thought absolutely not, Kincaid's burgers are the best. While 8% said they'd never had a Kincaid's burger.

So, I'm feeling a little better about the good taste of Fort Worth's burger eaters. And I'm glad to learn it's not just me who doesn't get the fuss made over those mediocre Kincaid's burgers.

The Mystique Of The Dallas Cowboys & Their New Stadium

This morning I read a Jerry Jones interview about the recently completed new Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Arlington.

The interviewer repeated the local myth that gets repeated a lot and annoys some people in other parts of America, that being the myth that the Dallas Cowboys are America's Team. Most Americans beg to differ.

The Dallas Cowboys being America's Team really is ridiculous. When it came time to build the Cowboys a new stadium they weren't even Dallas's team, they became Arlington's team.

In the interview one of things Jerry Jones says is the following...

"Where we have invested the money in this stadium for the long term will create more people that can come to the Cowboys than could have ever come normally because of the size of the stadium.  . . . More people will have the experience of what the Cowboys are, our mystique, what we’re about. The Cowboys have been about Dallas in the sense that it represents the idea of Texas, and it represents the idea of larger than life and this image that we want for the stadium, which is one of the future."

This is not a very well-spoken, articulate man. The Dallas Cowboys have some sort of mystique about them? What is this mystique? The Dallas Cowboys represent the idea of Texas? What is the idea of Texas? The new stadium is larger than life?

Well, it is rather large. I'm going to make a prediction about what much of the rest of America will think about "their" team's new stadium. There will be a lot of talk about how out of place the building looks, like it does not belong there. Much will be made of the commercial, industrial and residential blight that is to the south and west of the stadium.

I've never seen a major sports stadium in such a rundown setting. Seattle's new football stadium has the Seattle skyline on the north end and the Mariner's ballpark on the south end, with no blight no matter where you look. Denver's new football stadium, same thing, no blight. Houston's, no blight.

Now, I've really not seen all that many professional football stadiums. Maybe there are others that have been built in a residential neighborhood, using eminent domain to move people off their property, surrounded by pawn shops, boarded up businesses and other blight. I suspect not, though.

It will be interesting to see what America thinks when they see where their team is playing. It ain't gonna be pretty, is my guess.

That's the new Dallas Cowboy stadium in the picture at the top, hovering over a FINA gas station.

No Sidewalks Or Safe Fish To Eat In Fort Worth

I was up way too early today. I was already tired of looking at a computer screen when the sun turned the light on enough that I could find my way to the pool.

Swimming perked me up and slightly improved my dour doom of gloom mood.

After several more hours of seeing way too much of this computer screen I had to get out of here. Due to all the rain, of late, Oakland Lake Park was pretty much my only choice to go on a walk.

On the way there, heading west on Bridge Street, I was stopped at a light. Across the street I saw the 3 guys in the picture walking on the grass at the side of the road. Where there is no sidewalk.

I've mentioned before how appalling it is that Fort Worth lacks sidewalks in so many locations where one would think a sidewalk would exist and where I'll see people have worn a path in the grass, totally indicating the need.

I've seen places where the lack of a sidewalk is dangerous. Like when I made the mistake of thinking it would be fun to walk to the Post Office. That turned into a nightmare of picking my way through litter-covered, no-sidewalk sections.

When I took the picture off the camera I was even more appalled. I'd zoomed in to take the picture, so when I saw it I saw way more detail than I saw with my eye. Like I didn't realize that the 3 guys were walking to a bus stop! That's the sign they are standing by, waiting for a bus. No sidewalk to walk to a bus stop on a very busy street. Did I already say I think this is appalling?

A sad sidewalk lack in a town with a "Vision" for the river that runs through it that will cost, currently, somewhere around a half billion dollars. If it ever gets built. I've said before, I think Fort Worth should start with some basics, like the Fort Worth Sidewalk Vision, before moving on to more grandiose visions, like building a little fake lake, some canals and an unneeded flood diversion channel.

At Oakland Lake Park there were a lot of people walking around, picnicking, playing tennis and fishing. The fishing I find disturbing. There used to be signs forbidding you to eat the fish you might catch. The new version is milder, telling the fishermen that there is a "Fish Consumption Advisory." Oddly, this warning is only in English, while the other warning on the sign, not to boat or swim in the lake, is in both English and Spanish.

I saw one group of Spanish speakers fishing, using beer bottles that they wrapped the line around. I figured if you are so desperate to catch a fish that you are using a beer bottle as a fish pole, then you are likely going to eat any fish you might catch. They were gone my second time around the lake. Likely they'd caught lunch and were heading somewhere to cook it.

Speaking of lunch, that's what I need to have right now.

Microsoft's Bing Launch Flickers

This morning I was looking at my blog stats and saw someone had come to the blog, for the first time, via Microsoft's new search engine called Bing.

I'd not seen Bing, so I clicked on the search string Bing link to see what the person had been searching for in Bing that landed them on my specific blogging about A Big Foot Sasquatch in Georgia.

I think maybe Microsoft should have done some more Bing Tweaking before having last night's Bing Launch Party in Seattle, because the person from Kathleen, Georgia who was searching for info using Bing was looking for "big breasted woman in georgia" when Bing directed the searcher to this blog, which comes up #2 in Bing when looking for a big breasted woman in Georgia.

I was curious how my webpages did in Bing. In Google my webpage about Turner Falls Park in Oklahoma always comes up near the top. In Bing it didn't show up at all.

I was really not liking Bing at all at that point.

Then I looked up some of my other pages that Google does not rank as high as I might like, like Googling for "state fair of texas" usually shows up on the second page. In Bing that page was #4. I'll go see what it is currently on Google. I went 9 pages deep without seeing my State Fair of Texas webpage, then decided to look at the first page again, figuring must have missed it. I had. The fair page is currently #5.

So, I guess, other than what Bing does with Turner Falls Park and Georgian breasts, it does a good enough job, but might not be quite ready for prime time.

From what I read about Bing's Launch Party it would seem it may have been launched prematurely too. The Bing Launch Party took place at Fisher Pavilion at the Seattle Center. Around 100 Microsoft marketing people were there, plus some press people. The press people were a bit non-plussed, wandering around wondering when the event would start, not realizing it already had.

The lighting of the Space Needle was turned off. Normally the Space Needle glows in the darkness. Instead of a glowing Space Needle a bright bluish point of light took its place. This had people concerned that the Space Needle had burned out. Others thought it was a bright light beam coming from above.

The view in the picture is looking across Elliot Bay from West Seattle. That little white thing just to the right of the blue beam is the over 600 feet tall darkened Space Needle.

Few could see that a blue light spelled out BING in the grass in front of Fisher Pavilion.

Apparently the Microsoft marketing people planned a big event and then forgot to tell people it was going to happen. Then again, apparently the mysterious blue light did get people talking and people like me blogging about it this morning. Those Microsoft people are such crafty little devils.

Any of you reading this who are from Fort Worth who are wondering if that water feature you see in front of the Seattle skyline was the result of a Seattle River Vision, the answer is no. That water feature was provided naturally by Mother Nature, no rivers were altered, no use of eminent domain was abused.

A World's Biggest Butt Candidate From West Texas

Looking at my blog stats this more I'm again a bit embarrassed and mortified that, once again, for who knows what reason, people all over the world are looking for Big Butts.

Some are looking for the World's Biggest Butt, some are more specific and just want America's Biggest Butt.

Last week I thought I'd finally found the answer to the mystery of why so many people would think that somewhere out there, somehow, the World's or America's Biggest Butt had been found. I thought I had my answer when I learned that the World's Biggest (cigarette) butt had been erected on Trafalgar Square in London as part of a UK anti-littering campaign.

That made me think that all along it was people looking for a picture of that Trafalgar Square Biggest Butt in the World instead of looking for the Biggest Human Butt. But then, soon after that, some of the search strings had Women or Person in it, which ruled out the Butt on Trafalgar Square.

And now this morning, a lady from West Texas sent me a picture of herself and asked to be considered for the honor of possessing the World's Biggest Butt. Apparently I am now a Big Butt Authority with the power to assign the title of World's Biggest Butt.

Well, I hate to disappoint the West Texas lady, but I've seen at least 2 Texas Butts bigger than hers. I think I even have a relative or two who outdo the West Texas Big Butt.

So, I guess the search continues. I think I'll go Big Butt Hunting at Oakland Lake Park today.

The Ghost Hunters Of Wink Texas

There is a very small town out in West Texas, in the Midland/Odessa zone, called Wink. By some odd confluence of natural forces, Wink is some sort of Texas Twin Peaks, X-Files episode type town.

Gar the Texan was spawned from Wink. He has special powers and regularly consults the stars, prays to his special gods and sings karaoke.

Currently back in Wink, after having escaped, and then drawn back, is a young lady I will call, for anonymity purposes, Jammin Mole.

Jammin Mole has a blog. She tells good stories.

A few days ago Jammin Mole told a Ghostly Wink story that she had experienced in Wink. It's a pretty good story.

And then Jammin Mole expanded on the originally story with an even better one, with corroboration, in the form of a comment, from one of the persons in the story. I tell you, we are talking X-Files/Twilight Zone territory here.

And then today, surprising new news, that being that, apparently, Jammin Mole hates men. I'm shocked. I was of the impression the exact opposite was the case...

North Texas Storms, Earthquakes, Sprouts & Insomnia

Go here for the latest Cleburne Quakes.

I have had myself a rough past 36 hours, give or take an hour or two. The night before, I had a bad insomnia bout after being chased by Jabba the Hut in a nightmare.

I was stuck inside most of yesterday, unable to swim, due to a shocked pool, unable to hike or bike, due to a big Thunderstorm dropping a lot of water.

Last night Jabba the Hut left me alone, but Mother Nature did not. There were way too many flashing lights and explosions during the night. And downpours. That got me worrying about those long-suffering creek dwellers in Haltom City. I've not heard from the chief of the creek dwellers today. That is unusual, so I'm concerned.

Yesterday at 3:06 in the afternoon we were hit with another earthquake here in North Texas, where earthquakes used to be extremely rare, til recently.

There have been thousands of holes drilled in the ground in North Texas in the past several years. These holes are drilled so this material called shale can be shattered by a process called fracking. Yes, basically solid rock, underneath us, is being shattered.

And now there are earthquakes. Which used to be very very rare here. It seems sort of intuitive that there might be a connection between shattering a layer of the earth and the earth quaking.

Yesterday's quake was a puny 2.8 magnitude on the Richter Scale. The quake was centered about a mile west of Cleburne. Cleburne is a town outside the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, about 30 miles south of my location, about 12 miles south of Kelly Clarkson's hometown of Burleson. Several people reported hearing a loud boom and feeling the ground rumbling.

My one longtime reader may guess that, due to today being Wednesday, I likely had to go up to Southlake and, in doing so, I likely went to Sprouts Farmers Market. That guess would be correct. You can see how stormy it was up at Sprouts in the picture above, that was taken at noon.

Due to the storming I was up really early today, the pool is now un-shocked, so I was in it when the sun tried to break through the clouds. Swimming was a good thing, but I still feel beat up. I'm hoping for peace and quiet tonight, with no earthquakes and no earplug piercing thunder. And please, no Jabba the Hut.