The Legends Of The Grottos On Lovers' Retreat In Mineral Wells Texas

This morning Betty Jo Bouvier, the Wild Woman of Woolley, asked me what I knew about Crazy Water. I was surprised that somehow Betty Jo had heard about the special water that comes from Mineral Wells.

Back on November 28, 2009 I blogged about Crazy Water after I heard from the Famous Mineral Water Company via a Twitter Tweet from @lovecrazywater.

Betty Jo, asking about Crazy Water, put me in mind of Mineral Wells and an old postcard I'd found titled "The Grottoes on Lovers' Retreat, Mineral Wells, Texas."

I assumed that the Lovers' Retreat Grotto must have existed prior to the building of Mineral Wells Dam, which created Mineral Wells Lake, and was now under water. My assumption was wrong.

I do not know where, in Mineral Wells, Lovers' Retreat is located. Here's a blurb I found about this grotto, "Lovers' Retreat has long been one of the most picturesque locations in the county (Palo Pinto) and has been a favorite recreation spot since people have lived in the area. The huge rocks that jut from the earth and numerous ledges and naturally occurring caves contribute to the scenery of the place."

I could find no photos of Lovers' Retreat, which has me thinking my initial assumption may have been correct. Where Mineral Wells Lake and Mineral Wells State Park now exist, there are steep cliffs in an area called Penitentiary Hollow. I imagine the gorge, that the dam dammed, had steep cliffs.

There are two versions of why the Grottos on Lovers' Retreat are so-named.

One version has an early Palo Pinto settler, last name of Lovers, being chased by Indians. Lovers hid in one of the grotto's caves til the Indians gave up looking for him. When Lovers got back to civilization and told his tale, ever after, the grotto had Lovers' name attached to it.

The other version is an Indian legend with 2 versions and it involves actual lovers. The father of an Indian maiden insisted she marry the son of another tribe's chief. But, she was in love with a brave from her own tribe. The day before she was to be married, the maiden eloped with her brave. Her dad then sent out a pack of warriors to catch the pair. They hid out in one of the grotto's caves. When the warriors reached the caves a Medicine Man warned that the caves were haunted by evil spirits. So, they left. The Indian maiden and her brave emerged from the cave and lived in the grotto area for years, eventually joining another tribe and living happily ever after.

In the second version the warrior search party found the hiding lovers, killed the brave. And then, as they were dragging the maiden back to her dad, she broke free and jumped to her death off a 40 foot cliff.

Anyone out there know where the Grottos at Lovers' Retreat are located in Mineral Wells? I think I can eliminate the Baker Hotel as a possible location.

Up Early Looking For The Aurora Borealis To Light Up The Texas Sky

I got up early this morning, around 4, expecting to step outside to view the Aurora Borealis, also known as the Northern Lights.

The Sun chose to do some major erupting on the day named after it, aiming two mass ejections of solar material directly at the Earth.

I have seen the Aurora Borealis one time previous. I got a call from a pseudo-religious friend of mine. She told me she thought God was up to something big, telling me to look outside to see if I saw the same thing. She thought maybe God was just putting on a show for her.

So, I stepped outside and was instantly amazed at what I saw happening in the sky to the north. A major multi-colored light show the likes of which I'd not previously seen.

I had no clue what it was. I'd not heard of the Northern Lights ever being visible from my location. And, unlike Sunday's Sun eruptions, there had been no forecast of incoming solar material and its resultant neon light show.

Back to Earth. Yesterday I took an interesting virtual trip to Luckenbach, Texas. I'd been in the Luckenbach zone before, to Fredericksburg and Enchanted Rock, but I'd not been to Luckenbach.

I do not know if I am going to go anywhere virtually today. I am fairly certain I am going to Hurst. And I am going swimming, likely before that Aurora Borealis causing Sun lights up the place.

Having Fun With A Chase Bank ATM Before Tandy Hills Hiking

It has not hit 100 yet. I had to go to the bank, so since it is near the hills, I hiked after I banked. Only 96 when I hit the Tandy Hills.

Speaking of the Chase Bank ATM check deposit mechanism. Using this thing has gotten much easier after multiple times of using it.

But.

Today it took 6 tries for the ATM to successfully read my debit card.

When you get to the part where you stick a check in a slot, it tells you that you can deposit a stack of up to 20, or was it 30, checks. Now, the first time I made a deposit in this new machine it kept rejecting the check, due to me not sticking it in properly.

Today I had 2 checks to deposit. They were not the same size. I did not go with the stacking option. I deposited them separately. How does this thing sort through a stack of checks? I did not see any good coming from me trying to deposit a stack of 2 checks.

Anyway, after the banking adventure I was off to the Tandy Hills. A nice breeze was blowing, but I just could not get into heavy duty hiking mode. I'm thinking maybe I'm getting sufficient aerobicizing swimming, and so the endorphin fix need is not so dire.

Whilst on the Tandy Hills I looked for a Creek Plum Tree so I could pick me some and make a Don Young Creek Plum Tart. But I had no luck finding a Plum. Probably this is for the best. The last time I tried to make pie dough it ended up clogging up my garbage disposal. The last time was the only time I tried to make pie dough.

Hot In Fort Worth Cold In Seattle

The above is from this morning's Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Those are tourists on the deck of a ferry in Seattle's Town Lake, known as Elliott Bay. Elliott Bay was not built by the good ol' boy network that runs Seattle, because Seattle does not have a good ol' boy network that runs it. Elliott Bay is not the result of a bizarre public works boondoggle that the public did not vote for. Elliott Bay is provided by Mother Nature as part of Puget Sound, which is part of the Pacific Ocean.

This morning's article in the P-I was lamenting the unusually cold summer the Puget Sound area is experiencing. Apparently yesterday was very foggy until sometime around noon, when the sun managed to burn off the fog.

Two years ago, at about this exact date, I was up in the Seattle zone realizing I'd made a HUGE mistake in planning to stay for an entire month. At this point in time I still had 17 days to go before my scheduled escape back to sanity. I was so disgruntled I tried to get an early flight back, but in my confused, disgruntled state I was not thinking all that clearly and did not realize how easy Southwest Airlines would have facilitated my escape, til I told my Phoenix sister of my desperation when she called the day of my escape to ask how happy I was to be escaping.

The summer month of 2008 I did not bring cold weather clothes with me. I only had one pair of long pants. No sweat pants. No long underwear. No long sleeved shirts. No coat.

After about 2 weeks of watching me shiver my little sister took pity on me and came home with a coat she bought me at Costco. It is a wonderful coat. I wore it to bed nightly to help stave off the shivering. It helped.

This morning in Texas it is 80, heading to a high of 105. My air conditioner is currently keeping the interior temperature at 82. In Seattle the temperature this morning is 58, heading to a high of 75, 7 degrees colder than my air conditioned temperature.

The Stars Are Not Twinkling & The Moon Looks Orange This 3rd Day Of August In HOT Texas

I slept in this morning, til slightly past 5, unlike yesterday when I got up slightly before 3.

When I stepped outside and looked skyward I saw no stars twinkling at me. I know there are no clouds, I don't know why there was no twinkling.

You are looking at the star-free early morning view out on my patio, from just a few minutes ago.

I suspect the lack of stars twinkling may be related to something the National Weather Service was being alarmist about yesterday, that being air pollution and a Level Orange Air Pollution Alert.

Though the stars do not seem to be twinkling this morning, a piece of the moon was, twinkling with a slight shade of orange. Is this where calling the bad air pollution "Level Orange" comes from? There does seem to be an orangish tint to the horizon when the air pollution here goes into alert mode.

The sun has yet to show up and it's already 80. It is going to be another HOT one today in the Fort named Worth.

Trying Not To Break The New Speed Limit At Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historic Area

The temperature has gone over 100 again. With not much of a breeze. I've been up since 3 this morning. I went swimming well before the sun showed up. I liked swimming under the partial moon.

By 11 I was in the mood for a walk in the shade. It was only 96, or thereabouts, at that point in time. I decided to go to Village Creek Natural Historic Area, because there is a lot of natural shade there.

Upon arrival I saw a new sign. Listing TRAIL RULES. One of the rules is "SPEED LIMIT 10 MPH."

See that sign a short distance from the new sign? If you click on the picture to see the bigger version you'll see that that second sign, on the lower left, says "20 MPH speed limit on trails."

I think Arlington is setting up some sort of trail speed trap. With the trail cops, with their radar guns, ready to ticket anyone moving faster than 10 mph on the trails.

Or this is a silly mistake that one would think someone would have noticed?

Other than the sign faux pas, it was an uneventful walk through the Village Creek Natural Historic Area zone. As you can clearly see, in the picture, I did not overheat today.

Don Young emailed a recipe for Creek Plum Tarts yesterday, using plums picked from trees growing on the Tandy Hills.

There is some sort of fruit tree shedding some sort of fruit at Village Creek. The fruit looks like it my be a Wild Cherry. Or maybe it's a Wild Plum. I'll go look at Don Young's plum pictures and be right back.

Well size-wise Don Young's Tandy Hills Creek Plum look the same as the Village Creek fruit. But the color is different. With the Village Creek fruits being a deep red. I did not sample one of the possible Village Creek Wild Cherries because I thought it odd that birds did not seem to be eating them. And no ants were working on the ones that were on the ground.

Would a park that can't make up its mind about its trail speed limit be growing poison fruit trees? Likely not.

Up Way Before The Texas 106 Degree Sun This 2nd Day Of August

I was real tired real early Sunday night. I think going for a second swim during the HOTTEST part of a very HOT day did me in.

So, going to bed early got me up early, as in very early, this 2nd day of August. I've been up since 3.

It is now half past 4. I have a while to go before the sun starts to turn the light on.

Looking down at the pool this morning it looks real inviting. I think I'll turn off the lights and go swimming under the moonlight.

Overnight the National Weather Service seems to have decided to turn up the temperature for today and tomorrow. To 106.

106 seems to be getting into the territory of being seriously HOT. Then again, yesterday it was 119 in Baghdad. So, it could be worse.

Walking Arlington's Veterans Park Maze & Seeing A Touching Memorial Plaque

I went to Veterans Park in Arlington on my way to Arlington's Chinatown. Well, more accurately it is more Vietnamtown than Chinatown.

There were a surprising number of disk golfers out playing that odd game. Surprising because it is rather HOT.

I opted to walk through the Xeriscape/Natural Trail area, which is heavily shaded. The trails are a bit of a maze, there are boardwalks like you see in the picture, rock bridges, big rock pavers, little creeks. And it is slightly hilly.

Veterans Park really is a gem of a park. Part is heavily, and beautifully landscaped. With about half of the park being pretty much totally wild with great trails running through through the wilderness.

True to its name, Veterans Park is one big memorial to veterans, with a big centerpiece memorial with a statue of a soldier overlooking names of those who died in the various American wars going all the way back to the War of Northern Aggression, also known as the Civil War.

Today I saw a new memorial plaque, set into the cement foundation of a bench donated in memory of a soldier.

The soldier's name is Glenn "Dale" Hicks, Jr. A Sargent in the U.S. Army. Killed in Action in Iraq. August 25, 1982 - April 28, 2007. Son, Big Brother, Friend.

Only 25 years old. Killed in Iraq. In America's first pre-emptive war, brought on by bad intelligence in more ways than one.

Had America not been caught in the quagmire known as the Vietnam War I doubt I would have been in Arlington today getting Asian groceries. After that war's bad end America gained a lot of very industrious new immigrants, one of whom owns the store I was in today in Arlington's Vietnamtown, the Saigon Cho Market.

Saigon no longer exists as the name of a city. It's now Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh was a fan of Thomas Jefferson and America's democracy til we botched our budding friendship with the man after World War II.

Condolences to the Hick's family. And kudos to Arlington for Veterans Park. If you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metro Zone you should pay this park a visit. That includes you, George W. Bush.

103 In The Middle Of The Afternoon On The First Day Of August In Texas

As you can see, we have hit 103, as predicted, well, actually, the latest prediction for today is it will hit 104.

And the dreaded HEAT INDEX is back, making it feel like 106. Yes, those 2 degrees make a huge difference.

Adding to the HEAT the National Weather Service has issued one of those pollution alerts, of the Level Orange sort. The elderly, like me, are supposed to avoid exertion where you might find yourself breathing too much of the polluted air.

That snoopy Betty Jo Bouvier used her Wild Woolley Eyes to see what book I was reading that I said I was embarrassed to admit to. How rude.

I got halibut yesterday at Town Talk. Moving to Texas really caused a big hit to my seafood consumption. I used to be able to drive about 10 miles and put out a crab pot and get me some fresh dungeness crab. Or if the tide was low, dig me some clams.

I do not recollect when last I had halibut. Back when my mom and dad lived in Washington my dad caught a halibut in the San Juan Islands zone of Puget Sound that weighed over 180 pounds. My dad fought the fish for about an hour before a guy in another boat assisted with the capture. I've got a picture of my dad and that halibut somewhere. I believe it was in the local newspaper.

I've heard of catfish getting caught in Texas lakes that are quite heavy. But, if you've ever had fresh halibut, cod or salmon and then taste catfish for the first time, well, it is really shocking that anyone finds catfish edible, particularly the muddy-flavored variety. What does a catfish eater think the first time they taste real seafood? It's perplexing.

Below is the Fort Worth Forecast for the next 7 days. It's HOT!

103 The Predicted High In My Zone Of Texas For The 1st Day of August

I aimed my camera towards the pool again this morning, instead of towards the sky. You may be able to intuit from the fact that there appears to be more light than yesterday's photo of the pool, that on this first day of August I slept in til about the time the sun woke up.

The National Weather Service is claiming that the next couple days will be the HOTTEST of the year, so far, with today hitting 103.

Currently, at a little before 7 in the morning, it is a relatively chilly 78.9. So, even though today may end up being the HOTTEST day of the year, currently I have my windows open and my A/C off.

I'm not quite sure what I am doing today. I think I may go to Chinatown in Arlington. And I have a couple more places I want to virtually visit on the Texas Gulf Coast.