Jungle Hiking, Dogfights, Earthquakes & Big Texas Leaks

Around noon I figured it was HOT enough to go hiking in the Tandy Hills Jungle. The wildflowers have taken a beating in the Tandy Hills Natural Area. But, there did appear to be one I had not seen before.

On the way to the Tandy Hills I saw something disturbing. At the intersection of Boca Raton Boulevard and Bridgewood Drive, water was bubbling out of cracks and holes in the cement, like a Yellowstone mudpot.

A city worker was trying frantically to turn a valve that he was accessing out in the street. I thought that the spot where I first saw the Yellowstone mudpot was the source, but, heading up the hill, I kept seeing water running down the street, eventually seeing the source of that water, that being water spewing out of a manhole cover type thing.

I've no idea if it is two separate leaks, but I don't see how the leaking water up the hill caused the massive mudpot spouts further down the hill. I came upon this scene too quickly to react with my camera. But, on the way back from the Tandy Hills, I had the camera out, ready to take a picture if the geysers were still blowing.

Well, there were still city workers at the scene. The water spewing seemed to be running at a lesser volume, but it was still leaking a lot of water in this drought stricken area.

These spontaneous leaks seem to happening with increasing frequency. I've heard no explanation. Today's leak is right by where I live. On that same street, within 1 block, there are 2 other spots where holes have been dug to fix a leak. One leak is so chronic it looks like whoever has been trying to fix it, has given up, so now there is always water running along side the curb.

Yesterday we had another earthquake here in Texas. I mentioned this earlier today. I'm wondering if maybe we have been having way more earthquakes than what are detected by seismic detectors, like little .5 or .1 earthquakes. Too small to be detected as being any different than a Big Truck thundering down the freeway, but big enough to cause pipes to break.

Could it be that the shattering and fracturing of a layer of the earth's crust, that being the Barnett Shale, is shaking all over? Not just the bigger shakes detected in places like Arlington and Cleburne, but little tiny trembles all over this metropolitan zone, cracking pipes, sidewalks, foundations.

If it's not a bunch of mini-quakes, then what is it that has North Texas leaking?

Speaking of getting wet. I saw a very interesting Mother Nature Moment I'd not seen before, this morning while on my back in the pool. A grackle, that's a bird, was flying like it'd gone rabid crazy, darting about, swooping up and down. Then I realized the grackle was chasing a flying bug of some sort. It was like watching fighter planes in a dogfight. A couple times the flying bug led the grackle close to the water. I did not like that. I did not want to get caught up in their battle.

The flying bug seemed to have more maneuverability than the grackle, able to make real tight turns that the grackle had trouble with. I do not know who won the dogfight, if the flying bug successfully escaped, or if the grackle had breakfast.

The Parker County Peach Festival

A couple months ago someone associated with the Parker County Peach Festival let me know that I had the date wrong for this year's Peach Festival.

I fixed it. Or thought I did. Sometimes I do these things too fast. Today I looked at that webpage due to a Roadtripping Blogging I was writing about a Daytrip, when I saw the error.

So, I fixed it and uploaded. Then I look at that website again to get a picture for this blogging, that I'm writing right now, and I see another error. That fix uploaded right at the time I was writing about it, as in right now.

I hope I've got it all correct now. One would think this would not matter, and in the bigger scheme of things it doesn't, but the problem is, my webpage about my visit, years ago, to the Parker County Peach Festival, comes up #1 or 2 in searches, causing people to think it's the Official Parker County Festival website. How people can be that clueless perplexes me, but it happens all the time.

This year alone I've gotten at least a dozen requests for information about how to be a vendor. I always direct them to where they can get that information. It's sort of annoying, but I bring it on myself, so I guess I shouldn't be whining about it.

The Peach Festival is a one day only event. Which has always seemed odd to me because it is so HUGE. All that bother for one day. I assumed it was a Friday, Saturday, Sunday type deal, a few years ago, and went on a Sunday to find it was done with. Ended up at the Weatherford Iron Skillet Buffet instead of a Peach Festival. I think I had peach cobbler there.

I'll repeat the Peach Festival information, that I hope is now correct on my website, below, as yet one more public service helping the Parker County Peach Festival.

Weatherford hosts the 2009 Annual Peach Festival on Saturday, July 11th. This year's festival features more than 200 arts and crafts vendors. Come to the Peach Festival in Weatherford’s historic downtown, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. You will find a children’s area, a food court, non-stop entertainment, and of course sweet, juicy Parker County Peaches. Beat the heat with Peachy treats of all kinds - Peach ice cream, Peach juleps, Peach smoothies, Peach cobbler, Peach jams, and just plain ol' Peaches to bite and let the juice run down your chin. Admission is $5 for adults and FREE for children 12 and under. There will be free parking from the Ninth Grade Center (1007 S. Main St.) Exit 408, Weatherford College (225 College Park Dr) Exit 409, and the First Monday Grounds (100 Block Santa Fe) Exit 409. Free Shuttle services are available from these sites as well. Free handicap parking and handicap shuttle from Weatherford Ninth Grade Center. The Peach Pedal Bike Ride is on July 14th. Visit www.peachpedal.com for more information. Call the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce for more information: Toll Free 1-888-594-3801.

The Earth Quakes In Cleburne Again

Go here for the latest Cleburne Quakes.

We've had ourselves another earthquake here in previously earthquake-free North Texas. The latest quake struck the Cleburne area, again, for the second time within a week.

The epicenter for the latest shaker was around 11 miles southeast of Cleburne. The magnitude of the latest quake was 2.6 and relatively shallow at around 3.1 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The quake struck at 5:56 pm, Sunday. A couple dozen people have reported feeling the earth move.

I don't know how many earthquakes I have experienced, which indicates I have experienced a lot of them. What people don't know, who have not been through one, is that even though a 2.6 sounds like it must not be much of a quake, if you are near the epicenter, trust me, you know you're going through a seismic event.

The big quakes that make big news, the 7.0 magnitude quakes, those do damage over a large area and are felt over an extremely large area. I remember a 6.5 magnitude quake, the epicenter was southwest of Seattle. I was 60 miles north of Seattle. The ground where I was shook violently for about 30 seconds. The house felt like it was coming apart. I was in the house with my mom. We ran outside. Everything was moving.

Several years later I lived in the town of Mount Vernon. We went through a period of quakes, centered about 3 miles east of my house. The quakes were in the 2-3 magnitude range. I definitely felt those quakes. One time I was watching TV when one hit. Quakes are very noisy. My windows all popped as if something had hit them. The whole house moved. One of those quakes caused a crack all across my tiled kitchen floor. For another of those quakes I was laying on my waterbed. That bed turned violent and almost tossed me to the floor.

The 2-3 magnitude quakes that I experienced were very shallow, which helped to make them more noticeable. I don't remember how deep they were, to be able to compare them to these North Texas quakes. I'm guessing the Texas quakes are deeper, or people would be talking about popping windows and cracked floors and foundations.

Anyway, I'm hoping we are not heading towards a Big One here in North Texas, that all that fractured, formerly solid, Barnett Shale isn't heading towards some critical point where a massive geological event is triggered. In earthquake zones big buildings are designed with earthquakes in mind. The new Dallas Cowboy Stadium was designed before Texas started having earthquakes. I wonder how it would handle a 2.8 quake shaking the ground under it?

There was an earthquake during one of the last games in the now dead Kingdome that scared a lot of people. Ken Griffey Jr. signaled for his family to get out of there. I don't remember if the game was stopped or not. The cement arches that held up that dome made people nervous even before the Kingdome opened. I don't think I'd want to be in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium to experience how well those roof arches hold up during a quake. I think Arlington has had 2 of this year's Texas quakes, if I'm remembering right.

Broken Spoke Causes Quanah Parker Blading

Yesterday I figured out that the wobbling of my rear bike tire was caused by 2 broken spokes. I probably should have tried to figured out what was causing the wobbling earlier, because, apparently, continuing to ride on a wobbling tire likely does some serious damage to the rim that may not be fixable by simply replacing the broken spokes.

I don't know how many wobbly rides I've gone on. At least once on the River Legacy Mountain Bike Trail. One wobbly ride on the River Legacy Paved Trail. And at least 3 wobbly rides at Village Creek Natural Historic Area.

I finally grew concerned enough to look closer at the wobbly wheel when, when last ridden, the wobbliness seemed to be causing a sort of instability, similar to when a tire goes flat.

This rim has had spokes replaced before, and the wheel rim trued, at Bicycles, Inc. It was somewhat wobbly after that, so I was used to some measure of wobbliness. And then it got worse. And I continued to ignore it. I don't think it was trued correctly the last time.

Looking it up on the Internet I found a bike repair website with how-to videos. The how to replace the spoke video made it seem like the easiest thing in the world. For the rear wheel you have to remove the gear cassette. Again, easiest thing in the world.

That's easy for them to say, hard for me to do. It's like me telling someone, who has never made one, go ahead, making a website is the easiest thing to do, which it is, for me, due to having made one or two before.

The truing the wheel video admitted this was a bit more difficult. I knew I was out of my league at the remove the gear cassette part.

So, I've been up since a bit past 4 this morning. By the time the sun finally got up I hit the pool. Around noon I felt the need to be on wheels of the non-motorized sort. All I had available to me was my roller blades. I have not been on them in months. So, I motored down to Quanah Parker Park, that's the park closest to where I live, about 2 miles from here, put on my blades and bladed.

It took me about a mile to remember why this is not a favorite hot weather activity of mine. On a bike the rush of the air is cooling. Hiking there's a lot of shade and not as much exertion as it takes to roller blade. In other words I got a bit overheated. Several years ago I roller bladed to the end of the River Legacy Park Paved Trail, about 12 miles round trip. By the time I got to the end I was badly overheated. You see a lot of people overheating on that trail. It was a rough return that time. I've not been back on blades there since that incident.

As you can see in the picture above, it may be HOT, but it's nice and green. Which one would think would be cooling. But it's not. And it was very windy. Also not a big help with the cooling. So, I need to find new wheels, I don't think I'm going to be doing a lot of roller blading as the temperatures get ever hotter.

Dallas Cowboy Stadium Opens With A Few Glitches

Last night's George Strait/Reba McEntire concert in the new Dallas Cowboy Stadium apparently pleased most of the 60,188 people in attendance.

Yet there was country singer Blake Shelton saying, "Traffic coming into this thing sucks. I didn't know if we were going to make it here on time."

When you did make it to one of the 14 parking lot entrances you learned it cost $40 to park. There was off-site parking available for an even steeper price. Like the CiCi's Pizza on Collins Street, directly across the street from the west entry to the stadium, charged $60 for parking. With that $60 you also got access to the CiCi's Pizza Buffet.

In some areas of the stadium the air-conditioning was not working. It being a 90 degree day, that might have been a bit uncomfortable. Construction was not completed in some areas of the stadium, with insulation awaiting a sheetrock cover, painter's tape was stretched along a wall.

There was an hour wait to get a frozen Margarita, trash bins were overflowing, some of the concession stands ran out of straws, others ran out of hamburger buns, Pepsi dispensing machines malfunctioned.

On the plus side, apparently the humongous video screen was very impressive and people liked the restrooms.

At some point during George Strait's time on stage he said something about opening the roof, saying only one man, Jerry Jones, has the power to open the roof. So, the crowd started chanting, "Jerry, Open The Roof." Soon the roof began to open.

Arlington's Cluck mayor declared that the stadium "will be a wonder of the world."

I suspect Mayor Cluck may be right. Where else in the world can you get all the pizza you can eat and park for $60?

Don't Mess With Texas You Rude Yankees

Feedback comments to my Eyes on Texas website, from Texans, has been a gift that keeps on giving for years now.

This morning I found a good one in my email inbox with the subject line being "Rude Yankees."

The commenter calls him/herself "One Angry Texan." This angry Texan seems a tad defensive regarding Texas being known as the most Littered State in the Union.

Below is the comment from "Angry Texan"......(spelling and grammar left uncorrected, you don't wanna be messing with an Aangry Texan's spelling and grammar)....

I have several comments re: your website. As you may have learned Texans are very proud of our traditions and our beautiful variety of landscape. Your website commented on "Messing with Texas" writing about how we litter even though our slogan is "Don't Mess with Texas". Has it ever occured to you that unlike the stigmas ya'll have about us; not all of us are the exact same. Its like you make it seem that all of the state gets together and has a meeting and says "Okay nobody litter the Yankees might look down on us." You cannot stereotype an entire group of people like that. Is there not litter anywhere else in the country? Let's think about some of the biggest cities in the U.S. Hmmm......Is New York City clean on every single street? What about Washington D.C.? Or perhaps Philadelphia is sparkling clean every day of the year. Maybe you should spend less time pointing out what is wrong in your opinion of Texas and use that energy to figure out ways to help clean up litter or make an old building look nicer.

From one Angry Texan

Gar The Texan Takes On Jerry Jones

Gar, the Texan, possibly the most erudite person I've ever come across, today wrote yet one more of his erudite bloggings.

In this blogging, Gar, the Texan managed to zero in to the heart of what was and is so wrong about the perverted abuse of the perfectly legitimate concept of using eminent domain, to acquire property, for your own private gain, like what Jerry Jones did, in Arlington, to get himself a new football stadium. That opens tonight. Hopefully to massive traffic jams and noise complaints.

I did not know about the old guy in Hurst, who Gar, the Texan talks about, who was booted out of his home because a mall wanted a parking lot. In his home were murals painted by his kids. I've never managed to put into words, in a way that nails it, why these abuses of eminent domain, in Texas, are so wrong. Gar, the Texan, managed to do that.

But, not to the extent that I'm going to go see that PIXAR "Up" movie.

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.