The Continuing Mystery Of The Grotto At Lovers Retreat

On Wednesday I blogged about the Mystery of the Grottos at Lovers Retreat in Mineral Wells.

With the mystery being where is this intriguing looking grotto and does it still exist or is it under the water of Mineral Wells Lake?

Yesterday the mystery was at least partially solved by my newest Facebook Friend, Sherry B.

Sherry B commented the following...

"How interesting! I was looking for it too. I live in Weatherford and run a website about all the attractions & events in Parker & Palo Pinto, so this is something I've wanted to find. I did some research today and turns out; the location is 4 miles outside of the town of Palo Pinto. It is now private and is no longer accessible to visitors. The main clue to the exact location says that the property is located just to the North of where the highway crosses Eagle Creek. Too bad it's not public anymore. I would LOVE to explore it!"

Sherry B pointed me towards several interesting photos of the Grotto at Lovers Retreat. One is a current day look at the scene in the above old postcard.

Another of the Sherry B photos is another old postcard of Lovers Retreat.

On the postcard it says, "New Suspension Bridge at Lover's Retreat near Mineral Wells, Texas. The South's Greatest Health Resort."

Note the use of an apostrophe before the 's' in Lovers. In the previous blogging about Lovers Retreat we learned that one of the versions of the reason for the name was it was named after a guy, last name of Lovers, with no apostrophe needed before the 's', but with one maybe needed after the 's'. Maybe Lovers Retreat is like Devils Tower and Pikes Peak, where the apostrophe indicating a possessive noun is discarded. The apostrophe controversy just adds to the mystery.

The other apostrophe version has the grotto named after a pair of Indian lovers, which would make the name Lover's Retreat.

The final picture is the modern day look at the now old New Suspension Bridge. If this used to be the South's Greatest Health Resort, why is it not accessible to today's public who want to be healthy?

I think Sherry B and I should sneak on to this private property and check out the Grotto at Lovers Retreat. If anyone sees us we can hide in one of the caves. That works out well about half the time.

Up With The Sun August 7 Dried Out From Friday's Storm

I got up about the same time the sun did this morning.

We appear to have dried out from Friday's early evening rather violent surprise storm.

We also have chilled down a bit. Several mornings in a row have started out already in the 80s. This morning it is only 78, but very very humid, thanks to all that wet stuff that came crashing down yesterday.

Today, Sunday and Monday the prediction is for a 20% chance of showers, the same prediction that brought a violent thunderstorm yesterday that knocked out the electricity for a brief moment of no air conditioning unpleasantness.

I feel the need to excessively over aerobicize myself today. I think I will start that plan in a few minutes by going swimming.

See you later today on the Tandy Hills. Maybe.

A Surprise Friday Late Afternoon Thunderstorm Blows Into East Fort Worth & Gets Me Wet

You can not tell it from the picture of my patio view. But the 6 o'clock in the early Friday evening view is stormy. The forecast was for a 20% chance of rain today. I figured we'd likely stay dry.

But, about 20 minutes ago I thought I was hearing thunder booming in the distance. But the sky did not look menacing.

And then the booming got louder, the wind got windier and suddenly drops of wetness were hitting my window.

So, I grabbed my camera and headed out to the patio. And quickly snapped a picture whilst trying to keep the camera dry. Then I stuck the camera safely undercover and returned to the patio to stand in the rains.

It was a nice, cool, unexpected shower. At 102 degrees.

The loud booms continue. I hope I don't have a repeat of yesterday evening's short power outage.

UPDATE: I barely hit the publish button and all hell broke loose. Really strong wind, tree branches snapping, lightning striking close. hail, heavy rain.

I went to take a picture, which is the one you're looking at.

And then the power went out, just like I mentioned I feared that it would. But it was only out for a couple minutes.

I love a good storm. But I was not prepared for this one. I had all my artificial plants out on the patio for a natural dusting. Two of them flew away. I may be able to rescue them when we dry out. If we dry out.

At Green Fosdic Lake Thinking About Making Turtle Soup & Talking To My Sister

You are looking at a turtle herd enjoying basking in the 100 degree plus sun on the beautifully green Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park, today around noon.

It is not a good idea to eat fish you catch in Fosdic Lake. I don't know why anyone would want to eat fish they caught in a green lake.

Or make turtle soup out of turtles caught in a green lake. I only make turtle soup out of turtles I catch in really clear, clean water.

I called my mom and dad as I was on my way to Fosdic Lake to wish them a Happy Anniversary. But, I got the answering machine with my dad's poetic message, "We are not home to answer the phone, please leave a message after the tone."

I then called my sister in the Phoenix zone who lives near my mom and dad. I had not heard anything in the past week about my nephew Jeremy's heart condition.

Well, my sister answered her phone. She told me mom and dad had gone down to the south part of Arizona, I guess because it was not hot enough for them in the Valley of the Sun. They'd gone as far as Bisbee and then stayed in Wilcox overnight.

Jeremy has had no more heart out of control incidents. They return to the cardiologist on August 11 to find out the test results.

It was nice to hear Jeremy's heart is not acting up, and other good news about my siblings, well good news about 50% of my siblings.

Missing Washington Mutual Due To Chase Bank Incompetence

I miss Washington Mutual. It was real easy to call Washington Mutual. The Washington Mutual ATMs worked real well. Unlike the Chase Bank new-fangled ATM's that vex me with way to many inputs needed.

A couple weeks ago I realized Chase had mailed a new bank card to my old address. This is the 2nd time Chase has replaced my bankcard since Chase took over WaMu.

This time it is switching from MasterCard to Visa.

So, I logged into my secure Chase account and went to their message center to tell Chase they sent the new card to the wrong address.

This began a series of nonsensical responses. The responses had the feeling that I'd reached a Ukrainian support center. I was told such a request could not be honored from an email, that I had to go talk to a Chase banker in person with 2 pieces of I.D.

I replied that that was ridiculous, that it was not a request made via email, that it was made using their supposedly secure online banking website. The reply to that told me that my account had been reviewed and confirmed a card had been sent to me June 28.

To which I replied that I already knew that, the card was sent June 28 to the wrong address. At that point, last Thursday, I decided to call Chase. That turned into the phone tree from hell. I got to the phone tree from hell after entering all the digits on my current card and the PIN. And then it told me my account balance. Which is not what I was calling about.

Eventually I got to an option to talk to a phone banker. After a few minutes a woman with an extremely thick Indian accent, that I had trouble understanding, asked how she could help me. After a lot of effort she understood the problem, said she'd take care of it right then, that I'd have my new card in 2 business days.

That was last Thursday. I still have not received the new card. I did get an email from Chase telling me that a new card had been sent and for me to activate it as soon as possible because my current card goes inoperative on September 15.

I'm assuming I'll muster the energy to visit the Chase Bank phone tree from hell again, sometime before September 15.

Oh, I forgot the most amusing thing about this Chase debacle. I asked the Indian accented phone banker where she was located. I assumed she was going to say India. Instead she told me she was in Irving, Texas. I said that's only a few miles from where I live.

Maybe I could drive to Irving and pick up my missing bank card. Or ride my bike. Or walk.

In Texas Thinking About Atom Bombing Hiroshima & My Mom and Dad's Anniversary

You are up early, under cover of darkness, sitting out on my patio with me, drinking coffee on August 6, the 65th Anniversary of the day Hiroshima woke up to an atom bomb exploding overhead.

Six years after an atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima my mom and dad got married. This makes it easy to remember my mom and dad's anniversary.

Yesterday I read somewhere that there was some upset over the refusal of America to apologize for blowing up Hiroshima. This seemed bizarre to me.

I've no recollection of Japan apologizing for what it did on December 7, 1941. Maybe there was a Japanese apology and I missed it. Japan did a lot of bad behavior in the 1930s and 40s that would seem to require a lot of apologizing.

I must remember to call my mom and dad today.

Hitting A HOT 106 In Texas Straining My A/C & Making Me Sneeze

As you can see, it is past 6pm and 104 degrees, with a HEAT INDEX of 107, currently, in my HOT zone of Texas.

I'd turned my weather monitor off this afternoon, due to not wanting to hear its relentless weather warning chirping.

So, I did not know we'd hit 106 today, before cooling off to the relatively chillier 104.

A 20% chance of showers is in the forecast for tomorrow, which pretty much means there is a bat's chance in hell that we'll see any cooling rain on Friday.

I hope I am wrong.

I think the HEAT is wreaking havoc with my computer. It misbehaved almost all day today. At one point I thought, and still do, that it was the Flock browser causing the problem.

So, I switched to Google Chrome, which is what I am using right now. I don't have some of my saved websites on Chrome, which becomes a problem, like when Elsie Hotpepper asked me to do something, with the Hotpepper info in Flock. So, I had to temporarily kill Chrome and bring Flock back to life, in order to do Elsie's bidding. A real slight sacrifice to make a Hotpepper happy. And I'm all about making Hotpepper's happy in these troubled times.

The A/C cycling off and on, in this searing HEAT, causes me to erupt in these instantaneous explosive sneezes that I fear may put my back out or knock me out of my computer chair. Or both.

I used to live in a gentler climate. At times I long for those days. And then I come to my senses.

Hiking Hot At Village Creek Thinking About Getting Obese To Keep Cool

In the picture I'm in the shade, lifting my shades to look at you, while in the Village Creek Natural Historic Area around noon.

I had planned to go get HOT on the Tandy Hills today, but at noon it was Dead Calm out there. No cooling breeze.

Going to Village Creek was a good choice because even there, with a lot of shade, I overheated. sort of. I likely would have suffered a heatstroke on the noon Tandy Hills, had I gone there today.

I put 5 bottles of water in the freezer this morning. It did not take long for them to thaw. The bulges in my cargo pant shorts are my supply of water bottles. If my heavy drinking problem continues I may have to drag out my water bladder that I never liked using when mountain biking.

Today I recollected the last time I was involved in an activity up close to an obese person, with the temperatures in the low 80s, the obese person did not sweat, did not think it was hot, while I did both, sweated and thought it felt hot.

So, now I'm wondering if I've been wrong, like I often am, in thinking that obese people must really get hot, being under those thick blankets of fat. Instead, does the thick blanket of fat insulate obese people from the heat? Is this why I see so many people in Texas who choose to be ultra-fat? They're just trying to keep cool?

I'm currently at my skinniest in 2 years, skinnier than when I was in Washington 2 summers ago. Is this why I seem to be so easily overheated on these mild Texas days of barely 100 degrees?

While it would be nice to stay cooler, I really don't think I want to lard on 100 pounds to do so. The heat stifles my appetite. I really don't think I could manage to eat enough to add 100 pounds. I've seen what obese people go through to get to that state of cooling obesity. It is almost non-stop eating. And when not eating, time is spent worrying about what to eat next.

All morning long, ever since I got up around 5, I've had one annoying computer problem after another. I finally got the system all calmed down and then Elsie Hotpepper asked me to do something. This quickly turned into a boondoggle of my own making. Eventually I was able to get done what Elsie wanted done. And then I had to get away from looking at a computer.

And now I'm back at it again. Trying to get 4 webpages made.

The Mystery Of Dollar Stores

For several years whenever I leave this place and take a left on to Bridgewood Drive I see the sign for a store called Family Dollar. Though this store is fairly close to my abode I have never been in it.

Then a couple months ago construction started across the street from Family Dollar, next to the Krogers parking lot. Eventually a "Dollar General Opening Soon" sign appeared on the new construction.

It did not take long for Dollar General to get constructed and opened. The Dollar General is a better looking building than Family Dollar, with nicer landscaping. The only jarring note is somehow Dollar General was permitted to sit their Dollar General sign on the ground. This looks sort of strange.

So, last week I popped into Krogers to pick up FW Weekly. I decided to check out Dollar General.

For some reason I thought these dollar stores were full of stuff that cost a buck or less. As I often am, I was wrong.

Near as I can tell the dollar part of the name means everything is priced in dollar increments, as in $1, $2, $3, you get the drift. No $1.99 prices.

I figured the draw for these stores must be low prices. I was a bit surprised to see that the stuff for sale was not at bargain pricing. And that the Dollar General was like some sort of strange department store, with food products, car care products, clothes, shoes. It was like a mini-Wal-Mart.

Since the prices are no bargains and the selection is not great, what is the attraction of these stores? Do they cater to people who are scared to death of Wal-Mart?

Can anyone explain the dollar stores to me?

I did not see a dollar store til I came to Texas. Are they all over the country now, spreading like a disease, like here in my zone of Texas?

It's very perplexing.

Looking At August 5's Pink & Blue Texas Sky While Thinking About The Devil's River

I think those pink things in the blue sky are clouds, not Northern Lights. I'm almost certain our Aurora Borealis outbreak ended yesterday. Then again, I woke up with my head feeling brain pain, like yesterday, when I thought my neurons were being tortured, somehow, by the Sun's Sunday flareup.

I do not know what a reddish sky means when one is 100s of miles from the nearest sea. When I lived in Washington, about 10 miles from the nearest sea, from about as far back as my memory goes I remember, "Red sky at night, sailors delight, red sky in morning, sailor takes warning."

Well, it is 10 minutes since I took that picture with the dire sky warning and solid blue has now returned. So, I'm fairly sure I do not need to prepare to batten down the hatches.

Yesterday's blogging about J.D. Granger's bizarre plan to have a tube float happy hour on the polluted Trinity River brought a comment from Don Young that pointed me towards Devil's River by Del Rio.

The Trinity River is pretty much the dirtiest river I've ever seen. But, Texas also has the clearest rivers I have ever seen, such as the San Marcos River that flows from Aquarena Springs. Aquarena Springs may be the clearest water I have ever seen.

What sold me on the going swimming in Devil's River idea and visiting Devil's River State Natural Area is you can also go mountain biking there on a 22 mile long trail.

I think I'll take a virtual trip to Del Rio today. And maybe a real trip to the Tandy Hills.