The Queen Of Wink Is Now A Durango Roadtripping Guest Blogger With Taos Tales

Today the Queen of Wink is the Guest Blogger on my Durango Roadtripping blog in a blogging titled The Queen of Wink Roadtripping to Taos New Mexico.

The Queen of Wink solo roadtripped herself to Taos this past weekend to have herself a three day adventure.

That adventure included getting tossed into the Rio Grande whilst river rafting, drinking copious amounts of coffee, drinking less copious amounts of liquid refreshments at the one year anniversary of the Mesa Taos Brewery, catching wild salmon for dinner in downtown Taos, being awakened by bear splashing in the Rio Grande, experiencing vertigo whilst walking across the Rio Grande Gorge, meeting numerous Taos natives at the Taos Pueblo, along with other stuff you will have to read for yourself in the Queen of Wink's blogging about her visit to Taos.

My one and only time in Taos I also stayed three days. However, it seems the Queen of Wink crammed more into one day in Taos than I did in three.

The Queen of Wink is barely 25 years old, hence her ability to be so active without collapsing in exhaustion, including staying up til 2am in downtown Taos, while I am 22 years older and get tired just thinking about staying up til 2am.

Pedaling Gateway Park To The Flotsam Of Trinity Falls On The Trinity River

Trinity Falls

I figured the Gateway Park mountain bike trails would not be suitable for rolling over due to a downpour or two that poured down water in the past couple days.

However,  I felt the need for bi-pedaling speed, so I drove myself to Gateway Park to park and pedal on the paved trails which are not affected when rain pours down.

I left Gateway Park at one point and saw City of Fort Worth workers working to get flotsam and jetsam out of the Trinity River that had back up behind Trinity Falls.

A lot of flotsam in the form of floating litter was swirling at the base of Trinity Falls. Why does this flotsam swirl around instead of simply continuing its journey to its destiny of eventually littering the Gulf of Mexico?

After an hour of pedaling, give or take a minute or two, since I was in the neighborhood, I stopped in at Town Talk. I had a good reason to stop in at Town Talk. I needed cheese and yogurt. So, I got Swiss Cheese and Mango Yogurt. Along with some other stuff.

The Thunder Rolls In North Texas On This Dog Day Of August

For the last half hour, give or take a minute or two, thunder has been booming, rain has been dropping.

When this booming and dropping was going on I was not near my computer based weather monitoring device.

When I returned to being near my computer based weather monitoring device I saw it was flashing red with the warning....

"SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING, AREAL FLOOD AD."

What is an "AREAL FLOOD?" I assume that "AD" word that got cut off in the warning was hoping  to spell "ADVISORY."

Earlier today the forecast for this point in time, in the early evening, was for diminished storm action. Instead we are getting more storm action than what happened this morning when storm action was predicted.

My hatches were already battened down, so I am totally prepared to weather this current storm. As long as it does not go into tornado mode at my location....

Today I Found East Fort Worth's Abandoned Harrison Cemetery

For years I have driven by the obscured by brush Texas Historical Marker you see in the picture.

This Texas Historical Marker is located near where Meadowbrook Drive intersects with Meadowbrook Boulevard in far East Fort Worth.

As I've driven by this overgrown Texas Historical Marker, dozens of times I've told myself that one day I need to stop and see what it is that is being historically marked with a Texas Historical Marker at this location.

Today was finally the day I got around to seeing what was being marked here.

I wondered if it might be one of the ubiquitous Bonnie & Clyde crime spree locations. Or something equally nefarious, figuring that this Texas Historical Marker must mark something notorious, hence its overgrown, uncared for state.

It was a bit of a damp challenge to get up close enough to read the Texas Historical Marker to learn it had nothing to do with Bonnie & Clyde, but instead was marking a cemetery.

Harrison Cemetery to be precise.

The information on the marker describing Harrison Cemetery....

When first used, this one-acre cemetery belonged to Tarrant County pioneer D.C. Harrison. The earliest known grave is that of Mary E. Harrison (1864-71). Several early settlers used this site, including R.A. Randol (1850-1922), the operator of Randol Mill, who bought this tract in 1895 and deeded it forever as a burial ground. Graves here number about sixty and include those of the Edward Deason family, Randol's first wife Ronda(Harrison) (1859-82). His brother John C. Randol, who died in an 1894 mill accident, and his wife Nancy Cannon Harrision (1833-83), mother of Ronda Harrison Randol.

Randol is a rather well known name in this part of the country. A section of Randol Mill Road, it being a road which seems to run all over Tarrant County, is near Harrison Cemetery.

Why has this cemetery fallen into such a shameful state of being untended and overgrown with jungle-like foliage?

Seems odd that this cemetery would warrant a Texas Historical Marker, but not warrant being cared for.

Very perplexing....

Taking A HOT Walk On Top Of A Dam

In the picture you are looking at two things in short supply in Fort Worth, Texas.

One of those two things in short supply is the body of water on the left, with the other of those two things in short supply being the sidewalk you see in the center of the picture.

I think sidewalks are so named because they are paved walking zones on the side of a road. Which would seem to indicate that what we are looking at in this picture is not a sidewalk because there is no road on either side of it.

What we are looking at is the paved trail on top of Fosdick Dam in Oakland Lake Park. I had myself an extremely HOT walk today walking around Fosdick Lake.

As you can see, via the picture, there are currently clouds where usually there is a clear blue sky. Those clouds may be part of incoming possible rain that is predicted to arrive soon.

A Long Walk To A Mailbox Filled With Birthday Cards

I had myself a long endorphin inducing aerobically stimulating swim early this morning. By the time my midday need to aerobicize rolled around I was not in the mood to drive anywhere to bike, hike or walk in the humid HEAT.

Instead of driving somewhere to walk I walked to the mailbox.

In the mailbox I found several birthday cards.

My mom called me yesterday and asked if a birthday card had arrived. It had not. Mom said that likely was because it was mailed on the 8th.

My favorite aunt, she being my dad's big sister, writes the best letters. This year's birthday card's letter delivered. Very amusing. My aunt taught high school English, which may explain why her letters are so good. And perfectly handwritten, as in flawless handwriting, a skill I no longer have.

I took the birthday cards to my favorite picnic table and opened them, read what was inside and took the picture above. Then I called my mom  and dad to tell them the card had arrived and to thank them for the contents.

When my mom called yesterday I was informed that I had the number wrong when I blogged about mom and dad's anniversary last week. It was number 62. Not 63. How do I so routinely make mistakes such as these?

Very perplexing....

Video Of The Lee Harvey Oswald Gravesite With Nick Beef

Today I was motivated to drive myself to Shannon Rose Hill Cemetery to shoot some video of the location of the Lee Harvey Oswald Gravesite, along with his grave buddy, Nick Beef. My webpage about the Lee Harvey Oswald Gravesite had been getting a lot of visits the past day or two, so I thought I'd do some webpage augmenting with a YouTube video.

That augmenting plan went badly awry. For the most part.

I used my antique Canon camcorder to shoot the part of the video where I was driving into the cemetery and then making my way to the Lee Harvey Oswald Gravesite location. I arrived, stepped out of the vehicle and then could not find the gravesite.

I turned off the camera and then found the gravesite and then recreated my arrival.

When I got back to my video processing location I saw that I'd not actually aimed the camera at the headstones, while my words were indicating we were looking at them.

That mistake proved irrelevant, because my computer refused to recognize the camera device when I attempted to get the video on to my computer.  It'd been awhile since I'd plugged in the firewire to download a video from that particular antique camera. Of late I've been using my digital camera to take video when I felt the need to do so.

That digital camera takes better quality video. So, I had used it to recreate the part of the grave search where I arrive at the location. Which is what you see in the video above.

But, my intention had been to show how to find the Lee Harvey Oswald Gravesite, from the entry to the grave.

My good intentions go awry with alarming frequency...

Rolling Through Fort Worth's Gateway Park Finding A Crystal Clear Mountain Stream

No. Those are not rapids in a Pacific Northwest, high in the Cascades, crystal clear mountain stream you are looking at to the left, sent to me by someone up north, trying to make me homesick.

I saw and heard these rapids with my own eyes and ears, today, Saturday, August 10, no where near the west coast, because I am in Texas, where today I rolled my tires on the Gateway Park mountain bike trail and came upon the mountain-like stream view you see in the picture.

Yes, that is the Trinity River, looking natural, clean and clear in a way few get to see.

Then I looked to the left and zoomed in on a view of the Trinity River that is more typical of what I've come to expect when out in the outer world of Fort Worth.

Somehow a couple giant tires made it to this location on the banks of the Trinity River, near Gateway Park. I do not think tires, such as these, can float. There is no nearby road access, that I know of. How did these tires get to this location?

Why do tires show up at so many random isolated locations in Fort Worth? I've found tires on the Tandy Hills, at Quanah Parker Park, at Mallard Cove Park and now at Gateway Park.

Very perplexing.

After having myself a really fine steam bath at Gateway Park I took my wet self to Town Talk where I did not find anything memorable. I do not remember the last time I went to Town Talk and found nothing memorable.

The Continuing Saga Of Lee Harvey Oswald & Nick Beef In Fort Worth's Shannon Rose Hill Cemetery

At some point in time, early in this century, I learned that the final resting place of the assassin of John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, was in my neighborhood, in a place called Shannon Rose Hill Cemetery.

Soon after learning about my new neighbor I paid a visit. During that visit I noticed that next to Lee Harvey Oswald's headstone there was a headstone for someone named Nick Beef.

The Nick Beef headstone, just like Oswald's, has no details, no birth date, no death date, nothing but the name.

After my visit I webpaged Oswald's Gravesite on my Eyes on Texas website.

Soon after I webpaged Oswald's Gravesite I received info regarding Nick Beef and added that info.

Then yesterday I heard from Ed, via email and a blog comment, with the email's subject line being "The real 'Nick Beef' story."

Ed's real Nick Beef story was an article from August 9, 2013, in the New York Times, titled Mystery From the Grave Beside Oswald’s, Solved which elaborated on the explanation I already had regarding the Nick Beef headstone.

With the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination I am noticing an uptick in visits to my 3 webpages that deal with that subject, those being the Dealey Plaza page, the JFK Anniversary page and the Oswald's Gravesite page.

I am also noticing an uptick in visits to a blog post related to the JFK 50th subject titled You Need A Criminal Background Check To Get A Ticket To Dealey Plaza For The 50th JFK Assassination Event In Dallas.

I can not help but wonder how many people, so far, have subjected themselves to a criminal background check to get themselves a ticket allowing them to be at Dealey Plaza this coming November 22.

I am guessing the crowd in Dealey Plaza this coming November 22, will be quite a bit smaller than the throng that crowded into that location on November 22, 2003. At that point in time, just over 2 years after the 9/11 attacks, no criminal background check was needed, or a ticket, to be there that day.

I long for the simpler times of yesteryear.....

Shocking New Age Related Information Regarding Haltom City's Layla Caraway

I was perusing this week's Fort Worth Weekly when I came upon an advertisement which surprised me.

I knew that Miss Layla Caraway's birthday this year was a significant one.

But, for some reason I thought the number was going from 29 to 30.

Not 39 to 40.

On more than one occasion, when Miss Layla and I have been out in public, there have been incidents where someone makes a remark which indicates the person making the remark believes me to be Layla's dad, with the remark being directed at Layla being something along the line of  how nice of you to take your elderly dad out on the town.

I have found these incidents of being mistaken for being Layla's dad to be slightly unsettling, but I quickly get over it.

However, now I must re-assess, what with this Lordy Lordy Look Who's 40 information. I guess this means I look something like 70.

Anyway, Happy Birthday, Layla. You don't  look a day over 29.....