Having Myself A Mighty Fine Time Stuck Behind A Fort Worth Truck Blockade

I opted not to go biking or hiking anywhere today, unless one counts wandering the aisles of Target as constituting a hike.

I don't think I wandered the Target aisles at a high enough speed to reach any level of aerobic benefit, because I did not perceive any endorphins being generated.

I opted out of going to any of my regular hiking biking locations because the weather is being a bit inclement.

That and I had myself a mighty fine time during my morning hot tub hydrotherapy session and multiple semi-cool pool dips.

In the picture above the sky does not look to be stormy. That is the view through my windshield. The view via the rear view mirror was looking stormy.

At the location above I found myself stuck in an unwanted roadblock. You are looking west on John T. White Road, where it crosses I-820. The truck and trailer combo was having a hard time making a turn, driving up on the median.

And then a Fort Worth cop showed up.

It took two green light cycles before the truck driver was able to get his truck to go where he wanted it to. Where he wanted to go turned out to need a U-Turn, heading back east on John T. White Road.

I thought a U-Turn was a no-no at this location.

But, apparently, blocking traffic, driving up on a median and making a U-Turn where U-Turns are a no-no is not a ticket worthy offense, like, for instance, driving too slow, in a traffic-free neighborhood, without clicking ones seat belt.

The Fort Worth cop simply continued heading west, ignoring the traffic blocking truck driver who was heading east.

Eventually I successfully made it past the stoplight....

Talking About The Oso Landslide I Learned My Mom's Washington Memory Is Better Than Mine

A couple days ago my mom called, apparently erroneously thinking I'd not called in a sufficiently recent time frame.

During the course of talking to my mom the subject of the Oso Landslide in our old home state of Washington came up.

At the point in time where my mom and I were talking about the Oso Landslide it was only a couple days old and at the point in time the fatality numbers had not reached the dozen point, nor had the projected number of fatalities reached the current projected number of well over 100.

When I first learned of the Oso Landslide, the day it happened, I thought the name sounded familiar and thought it was one of the small towns one drives through on Highway 2 when one heads over Stevens Pass to Eastern Washington. I was erroneous.

Mom told me she thought Oso was on the Stillaguamish River, upriver from Arlington. I said to mom, isn't the Stillaguamish the river that runs beside Highway 2 on the west side of Stevens Pass? Mom told me she thought that was the Skykomish River. That then had me confused as to whence the Snoqualmie River flows from and to.

I lamented with mom that after 15 years of being away from Washington,  I am losing memory of places and routes and, apparently, rivers. Mom told me it gets worse when one gets older.

After I got off the phone I opened up my Microsoft Map program to quickly learn my mom was right regarding river locations. So, even though mom claims the memory woes get worse as one gets older, mom remembered better than me the river locations in question.

I was more than a little surprised to see where Oso is actually located, as in how close it is to my old abode in Mount Vernon, as in only about 22 miles distant, as you can see via the screen cap above, with the thick black line drawing the route from my house to Oso.

I think the last time I took this particular route was with nephew Joey. We had gone mountain biking at a location the name of which I can not remember, then drove east to Lake Cavanaugh, then over the logging road mountain pass that eventually drops down into the Stillaguamish River Valley and the little town of Oso.

This Oso Landslide is by far the worst natural disaster to hit the Pacific Northwest since Mount St. Helens erupted over 30 years ago. If the worst case scenario turns out to be accurate, the Oso Landslide will result in more fatalities, by far, than the Mount St. Helens eruption.

I need to use Google Earth to do some virtual driving in Washington. I am totally drawing a blank as to the route I would have taken, multiple times, to Granite Falls and the Mountain Loop Highway, with that loop being looped a lot of times, hiking, mountain biking and cross country skiing. And yet I can not remember the route from I-5 to Granite Falls. If I remember right the Mountain Loop Highway loop goes from Darrington back to Arlington via Highway 530, passing Oso a short distance from Darrington.

I need to spend a month in Washington doing some road tripping.....

Visiting Arlington's Village Creek Indian Ghosts Before Biking Through A Forest Of Tires

I am guessing no one can guess where my handlebars are in the picture on the left.

Well, if you guessed Texas, that would be correct. The Dallas/Fort Worth zone, as a guess, would also be correct. Arlington would also be a correct guess.

But, I don't think anyone could guess the actual specific location of my handlebars because I am not actually certain where they are.

Except I know the handlebars are in the Texas town of Arlington. When I began rolling my wheels today I started from the western parking lot of the Village Creek Natural Historical Area, which the whole world knows is in Arlington, Texas.

I had not attired myself adequately to prevent the wind chill from chilling me once I began rolling my wheels at high speed. So, when I got to the area of the Village Creek Blue Bayou I opted to pedal south, over the big open grassy area which is sometimes used a  soccer field. This leads to an area which is wooded on both sides of the trail, eventually coming to the scene you see below.

Above you are looking at only a fraction of the tires which have taken up residence at this location. Why do so  many Texas city parks serve as refuges for used tires?

I pedaled on past the Forest of Tires, eventually coming to the big open field you see above, in the photo at the top. In that photo I had reached Division Street, turned my bike around to face north, to take the photo of the big open field.

Is this big open field and the Forest of Tires part of the Village Creek Natural Historical Area? I have no idea. I do know as I pedaled south I saw no sign telling me I was leaving the Natural Area and entering the Forest of Tires Area.

I also no longer felt the presence of the Village Creek Indian ghosts.....

Information Architect Shout Out About 2014 Prairie Fest Saturday April 26

On Saturday an information architect / visual storyteller named Jen emailed me nicely asking me if I would shout about the upcoming Prairie Fest.

I don't think I attended last year's Prairie Fest. I think the last time I attended a Prairie Fest was 2012's part one of that year's three part Prairie Fest.

Would that make it the 2011 Prairie Fest when I helped man a booth with a leggy ex-waitress and Granny Grassroots?

I enjoyed manning a booth at that particular Prairie Fest, that is til the White Knight and his assistant, Robin, showed up and insisted we dismantle and leave early, wreaking all sorts of havoc.

Anyway, below is what the information architect wanted me to shout out about......

Hello there Durango. Love your blog. Give Prairie Fest a shout out? Thanks!!

Who: Friends of Tandy Hills Natural Area (FOTHNA)

What: The 9th annual Prairie Fest is a free outdoor festival celebrating the natural world. A FW Weekly Best Outdoor Cultural Event winner, the family-friendly, solar-powered event is Saturday, April 26, 2014, 11am to sunset, rain or shine.  Along with arts, entertainment, and tasty local food and beverages, you'll find prairie wildflower tours, storytellers and science hikes on rolling hills - while spontaneous happenings inside the Prairie Circle of 50 exhibitors feature services and products for sustainable living.

Where: Tandy Hills Natural Area, 3400 View Street, Fort Worth, TX 76103

When: Saturday April 26th, 11am - Sundown

Why: To bring your local Prairie to the People!

More Info: www.tandyhills.org/fest

A New Tandy Hills Hoodoo With A Crow Mad At A Bobcat & Pesky Flies

Well. The Tandy Hills Hoodoo has under gone yet one more remodelling, taking on a different shape than the shape I saw last Friday.

A new shape and it appears a new Hoodoo is sprouting to the north of the main Hoodoo.

After I photo documented the new Hoodoo I found myself suddenly confronted by a very upset crow, making extremely loud crow cawing noises.

A few seconds later I saw what had the crow so upset.

A bobcat suddenly leapt out from the trail which leads to the Hoodoo from the west.

The bobcat saw me and did a quick u-turn, running back from whence it came. I followed, hoping to take a picture, but the bobcat was long gone.

I think today was the first time I've had a bobcat encounter on the Tandy Hills. I may be forgetting one.

I had other wildlife encounters today on the Tandy Hills, with those wildlife encounters being extremely annoying.

I do not recollect ever being bugged by bugs on the Tandy Hills.

Til today.

It was being like a mild version of a late summer high country hike in the North Cascades, where biting deer flies can make hiking miserable, unless one douses oneself in bug spray.

I don't know if it was biting flies which I found myself repeatedly swatting. I do know they looked like a small version of a deer fly. And I don't believe I suffered any bites.

I don't remember if I've mentioned it before, but my location in North Texas is way less buggy than my old location in Western Washington. I don't believe I have had a single mosquito bite since I have been in Texas. I never went a summer in Washington without a mosquito bite. My last mosquito bite occurred  the last time I was in Washington, in Tacoma, summer of 2008.

If this fly infestation continues to be a pest on the Tandy Hills I think I may be cutting back on my hill hiking.

Walking With Arlington's Indian Ghosts Perplexed By Litter Mudslides & Kissing A Leggy Ex-Waitress

Today I had myself a mighty fine time taking a Sunday walk with the Indian ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Soon after the Sunday sun arrived, lighting through a cloudy sky, I had a long hot tub hydrotherapy session combined with a long bout in the not too cool pool.

Decades ago I knew a nurse who was known as The Fat Lady. The Fat Lady had a thing about hugging trees. I remember being in Olympic National Park with The Fat Lady with her hugging the biggest tree in the world of some particular type. Was it cedar? I don't remember. I do remember the Fat Lady would only hug a very small part of that particular tree's circumference. The tree hugging sent The Fat Lady into some sort of religious like reverie that was sort of creepy to be an eye witness to.

So, today, with The Fat Lady in mind, I came upon the tree you see above. I think it is an oak. I gave the oak a hug.

I'd like to say I felt the spirit of an Indian ghost pass through me as I hugged the oak. But, I felt nothing.

Spencer Jack's dad, my favorite nephew, Jason, emailed me this morning regarding the massive mudslide that slid down in my old home state of Washington, destroying several homes and killing several people.

More on mudslides below, but first I have to point out the "mudslide" I came upon today in the Village Creek Not So Natural Historical Area. That to which I refer you can see below.

How can a little rain wash this much debris into Village Creek? I am almost 100% certain that Village Creek flows out of the Lake Arlington reservoir. A short distance away. How can this much litter  accumulate in such a short distance?

Continuing with the mudslide subject.

In the same batch of email as the one from Jason regarding the Washington mudslide there was a blog comment from someone named Bulletholes mentioning a Texas mudslide.....

Bulletholes has left a new comment on your post "Illuminating Luminarias in Fort Worth": 

I started working there as a busboy in May of 1975, the day after I graduated High School. I ended up Head Chef a few years later.

Every time the millionaire owner would fly in from California I would tease him that he out to know better than to build a California restaurant on the side of a Texas hill. And he'd laugh at me. Then two years later, I came in one morning after it had been raining for days, got my cup of coffee, went over to the window to look at downtown before starting work (which I did every day) and I got to the window, looked down and the patios were covered up in a mudslde and half the hill was gone.

I just had to laugh.

Somewhere, there is a leggy ex-waitress with a branding iron in the shape of a heart I pulled off the wall. If you see her say hello, kiss her once for me.

The restaurant to which Bulletholes refers used to exist on the west side of the Tandy Hills, at the north end of Ben Street. The first time I was in Fort Worth was in August of 1980. At that point in time I stayed at what was then a Ramada Inn on the north side of I-30 and Beach Street, a short distance from the aforementioned restaurant. I remember seeing that restaurant back then and thinking it looked to be an interesting location. By the time I moved to Texas the restaurant had become an abandoned ruin, but was still standing. Then at some point in time, after that, the remains were razed to the ground, leaving only the cement foundation.

As for kissing a leggy ex-waitress. The only leggy ex-waitress I can think of is Elsie Hotpepper. But, Elsie is unbranded.

Speaking of Elsie Hotpepper, and who isn't? Today whilst walking with the Indian ghosts Elsie Hotpepper texted me with the cryptic message "No Comment?"

I had no idea what "No Comment?" meant so I texted back, verbalizing my perplexation. This turned into multiple textings back and forth. Each time the text noise happened I'd have to sit down at a picnic table or bench in order to text back a reply.

My needing to sit down in order to text a message had me wondering how and why there has been a problem with people texting whilst driving. I don't see how it would be possible to fumble out a message on a phone whilst driving.

At my location I have seen none of the rain that was predicted to be falling this weekend. Nor have I heard a single clap of the predicted thunder. The only part of the weather prediction that has come true is the temperature has been dialed back down to the chilly zone.

I am looking forward to that time of the year when the temperature is reliably, predictably, HOT....

No Thunderstorm Impeded Biking Gateway Park Today Before Town Talking

Apparently I misunderstood the forecast for today's weather. I thought that more than once I heard that thunderstorms were scheduled to rumble in some time after midnight, along with rain.

With an electric wet forecast I figured I would not be swimming or getting any hot tub hydrotherapy this morning, let alone a bike ride in the noon time frame.

I figured wrong. No thunder, no rain, at least so far, coming up on two hours past noon.

So, this morning I was able to have my second long swim of the new year, and then later, a long bike ride on the Gateway Park mountain bike trails.

At one point whilst rolling my wheels today I stopped at a point high above the Trinity River and saw the view you see above. I thought the giant twig stuck in the middle of the river was interesting. How did it get there?

And then I found myself being perplexed by the water rolling down the river.

Where does all this water come from, what with very little rain falling on North Texas, what with the upriver reservoirs  pretty much drained almost dry.

There are no mountains with snowpacks in Texas, melting, and flowing water into rivers.

So, why is there so much water still flowing in the Trinity River?

Anyway, I had myself a mighty fine time bike riding today. I have to say, the Gateway Park mountain bike trails are very well designed. Who figures out where to make a trail like this? The Gateway Park trails are more challenging to me than the River Legacy Park mountain bike trails that I roll on. I stay off the challenging River Legacy Park trails that are beyond my biking ability, like the EKG loop and Fun Town.

Maybe I should give EKG and Fun Town a try. How much harder than the Gateway Park trails can they be I can't help but wonder. Part of the Gateway Park trails could be called Fun Town, because, well, it's fun. Like a twisting and turning roller coaster ride of sharp ups and downs.

I had a successful Treasure Hunt at Town Talk today. Two bags of California mandarins, dozens of Tyson all natural chicken legs, broccoli, extra sharp white cheddar cheese, prickly pear syrup, whole grain Belgian waffles and transmission fluid.

I am fairly certain the transmission fluid is not edible....

Seeing Blooming Daffodils Has Me Wondering Where The Texas Bluebonnets Have Gone

I saw what you see on the left on my old hometown newspaper online this morning.

Daffodils blooming. Lots of daffodils.

Apparently spring sprang on schedule in my old home zone, with the Skagit Valley in multi-color mode with acres upon acres of fields of daffodils, tulips and other bloomers.

Meanwhile, at my location in Texas, where spring has also sprung, we are currently over two-thirds through the month of March, with nary a colorful wildflower to be seen.

Where have all the bluebonnets gone?

On The Tandy Hills With A Growing Hoodoo Plus Mysterious X's

I could not determine, for certain, if today's Tandy Hills Hoodoo was the same Hoodoo I saw on Wednesday, or a newly rebuilt Hoodoo.

I could tell, for certain, that additional rocks had been added at the base of the Hoodoo, perhaps for future Hoodoo construction when the current Hoodoo collapses.

I wonder if whoever it is who is doing the Hoodoo is going to do a Hoodoo construction demonstration at the Prairie Fest  next month? I suspect this would draw a crowd watching the precarious balancing act that results in a Tandy Hills Hoodoo.

The Tandy Hills Hoodoo was not the only work of art or mystery or combo of both I came upon today whilst doing my high speed hill hiking, photo documented below.

The weather is near perfect for hiking today. I  doubt I will be doing any hill hiking tomorrow, what with the current weather menu having thunder booming in some time after midnight, along with rain.

I saw one other hiker today. A young German brunette in very short shorts. I am fairly certain this young German brunette was not one of Gar the Texan's ex-wives. For one thing, this young German spoke fairly easy to understand English.

Below is one of the new art installations I came upon today on the Tandy Hills. A re-imagining of the Tandy Bamboo Tepee, laying on the ground in the Bamboo Tepee Grove.

The mystery of how these sticks of bamboo came to reside in the heart of the Tandy Hills has never been solved.

I came upon a big white X marking a spot in three locations today.

The first big white X I came upon, you see above, on the Tandy Escarpment above Tandy Falls. The other two big white X's were at other locations along the Tandy Highway. And then I came upon the inexplicable white marking below, also on the Tandy Highway..

Is the above supposed to represent a pair of eyes? Or another part of the human anatomy which comes in pairs? In addition to the big white X's, and whatever that is above, big dots of white were also marking spots along the trails.

Yet one more Tandy Hills mystery.

And then we have the scene below.

Once a year a  group of prairie aficionados get together and spend a day doing what they call 'bashing brush' on the Tandy Hills. Above you see the result of this year's brush bashing.

An area of the hills is selected and then de-nuded of anything that is not native to a Texas prairie as it existed pre-human  interference.

Or maybe it is pre-Texan human interference.

I doubt the pre-Texan Indian population introduced a lot of non-native vegetation to the pristine prairie they called home before they got their eviction notices from the incoming Texans....

Today I Felt Introvertish Watching The Village Creek Turtles Welcoming Spring Celebration While Texting Elsie Hotpepper

Apparently the Village Creek Natural Historical Area turtles got the memo that today Spring began, and so the turtles were out of the water having themselves a mighty fine time basking in the springtime sunshine.

I have rarely seen turtles in the Village Creek Blue Bayou. Usually dozens of them hang out on logs further upstream.

But today there were about a dozen turtles in the Blue Bayou, lolly gagging in the sun, totally impervious to me observing them, unlike the usual excessive nervousness with which the Village Creek turtles greet me, as opposed to the non-nervous, extrovertish Fosdick Lake turtles, who at times almost act as if they are waiting to get petted.

I had no idea extrovertish is not a word til I typed it and saw extrovertish get red flagged. Well, it should be a word. As should introvertish be a word.

Used in a sentence...

Elsie Hotpepper is very extrovertish, while I am extremely introvertish, which is why I have myself such a fine time when I go saloon hopping with Elsie Hotpepper and is also why I engage in that saloon hopping behavior so seldom.

Anyway, today marked the first time in a long time I've rolled my wheels through the Village Creek zone without wind being an issue. I do not like wind being an issue when I roll my non-mechanized wheels.

Speaking of Elsie Hotpepper (and who isn't?).

Elsie was the first person I observed up close being a texting maniac on her cell phone. I recollect being at a public meeting type event and being amazed as I watched Elsie clack her phone keyboard at high speed sending text messages to someone on the other side of the room.

And now, just seconds ago, I found myself suddenly realizing that I'd become a text messaging maniac as I sat here exchanging text messages with the aforementioned Elsie Hotpepper.

Progress comes slowly to me, but eventually I catch up. Even if I am a decade behind.....