I Walked By An Area Close To The Public Today In Fort Worth's Gateway Park

I'd not visited the Gateway Park trail in a long time, til today.

That trail was damaged quite some time ago from the Trinity River flooding after the remains of Hurricane Hermine dropped too much rain for the river to easily handle.

For a long time after Hermine left town the Gateway Park trail was blocked, with a sign on the blockage informing trail walkers that the trail was closed.

Eventually the trail was reopened, though the damage has not been repaired, but interesting signs have been installed on the cyclone fencing, that blocks access to the damaged area, informing people that the "AREA CLOSE TO THE PUBLIC."

I did not need a sign to tell me that the area where I was standing was close to the public. I'm part of the public and I knew, quite clearly, that I was close to the area.

Another sign informed me that "TRAIL IS CLOSED TEMPORARILY FOR MAINTENANCE DO NOT ENTER"

Closed for maintenance? I did not see much maintenance going on.

Closed temporarily? It's been years, that does not seem very temporary to me.

As I walked along the sections of the trail that weren't closed, I saw a dirt path heading towards the river.

I followed that path and was surprised to see the remains of a very old trail that the river had washed out a long time ago, likely long before Hermine visited Fort Worth.

No cyclone fence or warning sign stopped me from walking on this old paved trail. You can't tell it very clearly from the picture, but, that is the paved trail, broken off, at the bottom of the picture. If I walked off the end of that trail I would have had myself a fun, long fall to the river below.

Chunks of fallen paved trail lay on the river bed, along with old tires and other flotsam.

A couple years ago a mountain bike trail was blazed in Gateway Park. I've never biked this mountain bike trail. My previous times seeing this trail it did not look as if very many people biked it. Today I saw the Gateway Park mountain bike trail and it now looks well ridden.

I shall return at some point in time in the near future to pedal the Gateway Park mountain bike trail.

A Tale Of Two Town's Flood Control Projects: Fort Worth & Mount Vernon

Currently, here in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex zone, we are in the midst of a thunderstorm. Usually a thunderstorm is accompanied by rain. Often in copious, flood causing amounts.

However.

No matter how much rain falls, or how high the Trinity River rises, it is highly unlikely a flood would breech the enormous levees that contain the river as it flows past downtown Fort Worth.

These levees, on the Trinity River, were built over 50 years ago, paid for by the kind taxpayers of America, after the downtown Fort Worth zone was damaged by a really bad flood at some point in time in the early 1950s, if I remember correctly.

I read some news in my old hometown newspaper, the Skagit Valley Herald, this morning, that had me being perplexed. Apparently tomorrow the Mount Vernon City Council is expected to approve a plan to borrow $1 million of the town's future federal funds, to close a funding gap on the $12.9 million cost of Phase II of Mount Vernon's Downtown Flood Protection and Revitalization Project.

Let me explain downtown Mount Vernon and its flooding issue to you.

When the Skagit River goes into big flood mode, downtown Mount Vernon becomes like New Orleans. It is below the level of the flooding river. So, a temporary sandbag dike has to be quickly built, on top of the existing dike, to keep the river from destroying downtown Mount Vernon.

In November of 1995 record rains brought record flooding to all the rivers of the Puget Sound zone. I remember watching the flooding, on TV, at 1 in the morning, when  KING  5, out of Seattle, went live to downtown Mount Vernon where the  KING 5 reporter made it sound as if a fevered effort was underway to save the downtown Mount Vernon library. The TV screen showed a beehive of activity by the library.

I remember being shocked. I woke up some help and headed to downtown Mount Vernon. At the library I found out what was actually going on was a sand bagging operation, with the filled sandbags being brought to the revetment to build a secondary dike. That was where the help was needed, so that is where we went.

Sandbag Wall in Mt. Vernon While the Skagit River Rises

There may have been well over 1,000 people in downtown Mount Vernon working to build a sandbag wall.

Hundreds of National Guard troops were helping.

Sometime around 3 in the morning we were told we'd done all we could do, the sandbags could go no higher.

The Skagit River was expected to crest around 11 that morning. It was expected to crest well over a foot above the sandbag wall. All the businesses in downtown Mount Vernon were sandbagged to help stop the expected flood.

By the time of the crest, I, along with a lot of other people, watched from high ground as the river crept to the top of the sandbag wall. Just as it was starting to go over the top, the river suddenly dropped a foot or more. Everyone was mystified. It was like there had been a divine intervention.

But, we soon were to learn what had actually happened, as emergency sirens sounded and helicopters began to appear. A dike, downriver a couple miles, had popped a couple hundred foot breech, flooding what is known as Fir Island.

Needless to say, Mount Vernon and the Skagit Valley were in a State of Emergency.

And then, 2 weeks later, after the Fir Island dike had been repaired, it happened again.

From that point Mount Vernon decided something needed to be done, after coming to the point of disaster, twice within 2 weeks. In 2007 Mount Vernon bought a mobile flood wall from a Norwegian company, the first such thing to be installed in America. Now, just a few people can put up a wall in a couple hours, where previously it took half a day and 100s of workers.

But, this was a temporary solution. Phase II of the Downtown Flood Protection and Revitalization Project replaces the mobile flood wall with a permanent solution that will take downtown Mount Vernon off FEMA's list of vulnerable flood zones.

That is a list that downtown Fort Worth is not on.

Now, how is it that Fort Worth and its bizarro Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has gotten millions of federal dollars for an un-needed flood control project that will build a likely ridiculous looking, un-needed flood diversion channel, so that the levees that have stopped flooding for decades can be removed?

Meanwhile, Mount Vernon, which has an actual, real, flood problem, that has caused problems for decades, scrambles to find the money to build a permanent fix.

Is this a function of the fact that the congressperson who represents the district in which Mount Vernon is located is not a corrupt politician willing to finagle shady deals to channel federal money Mount Vernon's way, whilst Fort Worth is represented by a corrupt congresswoman who stands to make financial gains from the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle which she has helped to fund, which, in addition to providing her financial gain, also provided her son, J.D. Granger, the job of running the project, a job for which J.D. Granger has absolutely zero qualifications?

The installing her son to run the TRV Boondoggle is sufficient cause to attach the "corrupt" label to this corrupt politician, let alone all the other reasons.

Why do not more people find the TRV Boondoggle's wastefulness and lack of need to be perplexing, particularly when there are locations in America where money could be spent to fix an actual flooding problem?

Places like Haltom City and Mount Vernon.

If you'd asked me if the 1995 flood I'm talking about above was the infamous Thanksgiving Day Flood, I would have said, yes it was. If you'd asked me if this was the flood that sank one of the Lake Washington floating bridges, I would have said yes it was.

Well, just a little Googling let me know I was wrong about the Thanksgiving Day Flood. That flood was in 1990 and was the one that sank the floating bridge.

The fact that I get confused about Western Washington's floods and the fact that some of them have names, should be a good indication of how bad the flooding in that rainy zone can be.

I remember watching the floating bridge sink, on TV, at my sister's cabin at Lake Cushman. That fact confuses me for a variety of reasons. One of which is I also remember being at Seattle's Gasworks Park watching my aunt finish a marathon in the rainstorm that sank the floating bridge. But, I'm further confused, because I remember being up in Lynden, at the Dutch Mother's Restaurant, because my grandma wanted to have all her kids and grandkids together for a turkey dinner for the first time in decades. I remember that night as the night the rain started that became the flood known as the Thanksgiving Flood. Apparently I was all over Western Washington during that flooding period, all the way to the Canadian border, to Seattle, to Hood Canal.

That or my memory is really mixed up.

Below is a YouTube video of part of the KING 5 report about the sinking. There is footage of the actual sinking, which happened live on TV, if I'm remembering right, which I've fairly clearly established may not be the case...

The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Grows Thicker As Summer Nears

As you can see looking at the Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man, the Thin Man has gotten way thicker since the last time a photo was taken of his shadow.

Indicating, it would seem, that the Thin Man has gotten thicker.

That, or the sun is directly overhead due to it being in the noon time frame, thus creating the illusion of a thicker Thin Man.

Prior to leaving the air-conditioned comfort of my abode I heard a voice on the radio say there was a chance of thunderstorms to the south of Interstate 20, and maybe later tonight, incoming from Oklahoma.

Then, about 2 seconds later, another voice came on the radio saying the National Weather Service had just issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch for the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, with the need to watch for a thunderstorm continuing til 5 this afternoon.

We have about 4 hours to go before we can quit watching for thunderstorms. So, far, I'm seeing nothing that looks stormy. Below is the current weather condition at my locale...

My Alaska Bound Sister Is Stranded By Slides In Dawson Creek

I have now heard from my Alaska bound sister. Even though Internet connections are apparently dicey, email was sent and the Alaska blog is up and running.

I do not know if I am going to be helping with the Alaska blog as previously discussed, as it appears the Alaska bound trekkers have figured it out. Though, it does appear I could be of some use with some formatting issues.

Currently my sister, ex-wife and the three doggies are stranded, due to slides blocking the road. They have run out of water. I don't know if food supplies are running low, but I do know I saw a photo of my sister cooking bacon over a campfire.

Below is my sister's email about the Alaska trip, so far...

Ok...we are trying the blog thing but with the Internet so sparse and slow on our journey, you may or may not see much!

www.otterpengu.blogspot.com  

Will catch you up on our venture so far, sorta.

Anyhoots....Right now we are stuck in Dawson Creek for the next two day. The road going to Whitehorse is wiped out by slides and, from what we hear, Watson Lake, which is the last big stop before Whitehorse, is overwhelmed with travelers. 

So here we wait.

What we do see in the lakes, rivers and waterways is water, brown and ugly and way too much of it!  

Last campground we left yesterday had no water, as it has not passed a test yet and we came in there "dry in the tank" because in the camp book it said the campground had water!  We had to boil the water to wash dishes, do without showers, etc...lots of fun!  

What we hear is they are flying in provisions to the people on the other side of the slide, as most supplies come in by truck. So, they have no gas, etc.

It is amazing how many people do this trek. We got one of the last power/water/bad wifi sites in this park in Dawson Creek and most of the people are heading to Alaska. We are only going to stay one more night here, leave full of water and fuel to make Fort Nelson and see where in the lineup we will fall to continue our trek. We need to be in Denali by July 8th as we have reservations for us in the park and at a kennel for the mutts.

Ok, must fire this off before it is gone.....xoxoxo to all....

Me with LB and Mutts on the Road....yes, Rosie too!

A Pleasantly HOT Bike Ride With Indian Ghosts & TV Crews After A Vexing Library Experience Thinking About Going To Phoenix

Video Crew At Village Creek

My temperature monitoring device indicated the outer world was feeling like a 107 degrees around 5 this afternoon. The real temperature was only 96.

So, I decided to escape air-conditioned comfort and go warm up by riding my bike with the Indian Ghosts at the Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

But, before I visited the Indian Ghosts I went to my neighborhood Fort Worth Public Library because I was in dire need of reading material.

My neighborhood public library is quite nice.

Except for one thing.

Waiting in a long line to check out books. Very inefficient. I know that self checkouts have arrived in Texas, because I have seen them. Fort Worth needs to upgrade.

I was, eventually, at the head of the long library line. I sort of inadvertently started a minor revolt when I turned around and said this library needs a self check out line. Suddenly the line of waiters got loud, sharing their experiences in other, more modern, libraries, in other towns, more modern than Fort Worth.

Like Arlington and Grapevine.

I saw a sort of odd thing (picture above) when I exited the Village Creek trail onto the Bob Findlay Linear Park Pioneer Trail. There was a lighting set up for TV filming, with an old geezer, in a suit, being a talking head to a camera. This was in front of the informational memorial type installation that explains who Bob Findlay was and how he created Interlochen.

Changing the subject back to my bike ride.

I'd forgotten how pleasant it is to ride a bike when it is HOT. You stay cool as long as you are moving. But, when you stop, you're an instant sweat monkey.

I got back here to find a pleasant surprise in my email. My baby sister emailed asking if there was any chance I could join her, Kristin, Ruby Jean, Theo John and David Jay in Phoenix in December.

I think that is very doable. I have not yet met my two new nephews and niece.

Spencer Jack's favorite uncle, that being my nephew, Joey, texted me last night with a question about Dallas. So, I called him back and had myself a fine time talking to Joey.

The subject of Joey going to Phoenix, came up. Methinks maybe Joey should also go to Phoenix in December. If Joey's big brother, Spencer Jack's dad, and Spencer Jack, also journeyed to Phoenix in December, that would have only one of my closest relatives remaining in Washington, that being my oldest sister, who is currently lost somewhere in the wilds of British Columbia, trying to find her way to Alaska.

Hiking The HOT Tandy Hills Thinking About Lunch At Camp 18 With Elsie Hotpepper

The outer world was heated to 91 degrees when I hit the hills today. The humidity was 51%, which had the Heat Index registering at 102. The predicted high for today is 98 with the Heat Index a HOT 110.

Summer does not arrive for over a week.

In the picture we are looking north towards Alaska on a trail located near the heart of the Tandy Hills.

Today I realized my sister, ex-wife and 3 dogs have been heading north to Alaska since last Wednesday and I have not heard from them.

My sister told me I would be being sent pictures that I was expected to blog. Others were told to be expecting to see pictures on the aforementioned blog, including my mom.

By now the Alaska bound caravan should be well north of the border, deep into British Columbia.

Speaking of other people up north.

I got a postcard today from Elsie Hotpepper, sent from her namesake town of Elsie, Oregon. I do not know if Elsie stopped in Elsie at the Camp 18 Restaurant and Logging Museum.

I do know Elsie Hotpepper is an aficionado of anything that has anything to do with logging.

Keep Fort Worth Beautiful By Putting Litter In The Can

I am fairly certain I have previously mentioned the litter barrels that litter Oakland (Lake) Park.

The park has dozens of litter barrels stuck to posts which elevate the litter barrels off the ground.

To my eyes all these litter barrels are eyesores. These litter barrels are strewn all over the park. If you click the picture and look closely you'll see 3 or 4 litter barrels in the vicinity of the one we are close enough to read the sign on the litter barrel.

The sign on the litter barrel says...

Don't Litter - Put it in the Can!
Keep Fort Worth Beautiful

So, if litter is not put in the can this renders Fort Worth not beautiful?

Well, I see a lot of litter that is not in a can, in Fort Worth. I would not go so far as to suggest that this is what makes Fort Worth less than beautiful. Though, it really does not help with the town's overall prettiness to see so much litter blowing around.

Stick Your Litter in the Can

Oakland (Lake) Park is one of Fort Worth's parks which has modern restroom facilities, which is what you see in the picture on the left, next to one of the ubiquitous litter barrels.

I already mentioned that the sign on the litter barrels tell you to put it in the can.

I don't know if this is the case in Texas, but on the west coast the word "can" is slang for a restroom facility.

Telling people to put the litter in the can might result in having your modern restroom facility filled with garbage.

That would be unfortunate.

A Sunday Walk & Talk With A Sluggish Fosdick Lake Turtle

Usually the Fosdick Lake turtles who live in Oakland (Lake) Park are very skittish. A group will be sunning themselves on a log and before I can get my camera out of my pocket the group leaps for the safety of the polluted lake.

But today one of the Fosdick turtles was behaving very strangely. That is the turtle I'm talking about in the picture.

You can not tell it from the picture, but the turtle is sitting on a short log.

I got my camera out of its pocket, turned it on, with the turn on chirping noise usually spooking the turtles, if they'have not already been spooked.

But, this turtle was impervious to my camera's chirping noise. So, I started taking pictures. Each snap of a picture makes a chirping noise. The turtle just kept turning his head in circular motions like the possessed girl in The Exorcist.

Maybe the Fosdick turtle is traumatized by all that odd green stuff growing in its lake. I know I would be unsettled if green stuff suddenly started growing in my home.

All in all, this has been on odd Sunday, so far. I was up real early, went swimming soon after the sun arrived. The north to Hurst around 10 this morning. Late to Oakland (Lake) Park. Lunch was fried chicken and potato salad.

Yes, this has been a wild weekend so far. If it continues on this wild trajectory I am going to be exhausted by day's end.

A Saturday Evening River Legacy Bike Ride Appalled At Way Too Many Outhouses

The River Legacy Pavilion Restroom Facilities

It's been a few weeks since I've been to River Legacy Park, in Arlington, on a Saturday evening.

Usually River Legacy Park is very busy on Saturday evenings. Tonight, that was not the case.

Usually, on Saturday night, there is something going on in the River Legacy Pavilion. I've seen many a wedding celebration take place there, and reunions, and company parties, and other big get togethers the nature of which I was unable to determine.

Ever since the River Legacy Pavilion opened, and events started taking place there, I have been appalled by a couple things.

One thing that appalls me is there is no running water. No sink. Yet there is a big BBQ type pit where cooking meat products takes place.

In addition to no running water, there are no modern restroom facilities at the River Legacy Pavilion.

There are modern restroom facilities an inconvenient distance from the Pavilion.

Inside the River Legacy Pavilion Looking Towards the
Row of Outhouses

I know it would be difficult to engineer a modern restroom facility at the location of the Pavilion, due to the fact that this area floods. I have seen it under water twice. The existing modern restroom facility is elevated above the potential flood level.

River Legacy Park is one of the nicest parks in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. River Legacy Park would be a nice park in any city in America.

Except for this vexing modern restroom facilities and running water problem.

I don't understand why there is such a cavalier attitude at this location on the planet about something like modern restroom facilities and having running water available where people BBQ and picnic.

Is this cavalier attitude some holdover from the days when the South was way poorer and sort of behind the more advanced development of the North?

I have previously opined about this Outhouse Issue. I recollect verbalizing my appallation regarding the dozens upon dozens of specially designed Dallas Cowboy outhouses that are installed in the parking lots surrounding the stadium. A stadium that cost more than a billion dollars. It seems a little ironic to have that humongous futuristic stadium surrounded by dozens of outhouses.

At River Legacy Park, the Pavilion outhouses are not the only outhouses. Another line of outhouses is near the modern restroom facility, due to the fact that that modern restroom facility is not all that big, and so, likely, requires the extra outhouses to handle the crowds that crowd River Legacy Park at times.

There are more outhouses at the Collins Street parking lot on the north side of the Trinity River. This area also floods.

But, I really think the fact that these areas flood is not a legitimate excuse for not building modern restroom facilities like modern cities do in modern parks in more modern parts of America.

That also flood.

Having A Wild Weekend On The Tandy Hills With Mesquite Thorns

I believe, in the picture, that is a thorn on a dead mesquite bush that looks like it is about to hit me in the face, today, on Lost Sunglasses Ridge on the Tandy Hills.

Today was my first day back hill hiking since a downpour chased me off the Tandy Hills on Wednesday.

The trails on the Tandy Hills have dried out, for the most part, from the recent deluges.

It felt real good to be back doing some heavy duty aerobicizing.

It was 84 degrees when I hiked the hills, with the almost 50% humidity making it, supposedly, feel like 92.

How is 92 supposed to feel? I have no idea.

After I was done with the hill hiking I did some Town Talking, spending some time in the Town Talk cooler cooling off.

When I checked out, the checkout lady who always engages me in pleasant small talk, like last Saturday she told me her mom had died, today asked me if I had a wild weekend planned. I indicated I did not have a wild weekend planned. I asked the checkout lady if she had a wild weekend planned. She said she never has a wild weekend planned and only hopes to get to hear about other people's wild weekend plans.

I'm not quite sure I know what a wild weekend is. I suppose if one does not know what a wild weekend is it is likely logical to conclude that one has never had one.

Maybe I'll go on a Saturday evening bike ride at River Legacy Park. Would that constitute a wild weekend activity?