A Memorial Day Walk Around Fort Worth's Fosdick Lake With A Lonely Turtle

Am I remembering wrong? It seems like Memorial Days previous in Texas, on the times I've decided to go into Memorial Day picnic mode in a Texas park, that finding an unoccupied picnic table was difficult.

Today finding a picnic table was not an issue, due to using my in-house picnic table to support the weight of the massive slabs of pork ribs I have BBQed for today.

Prior to consuming massive slabs of BBQed pork ribs I used my mechanized motion device to take me to Oakland Lake Park to walk around Fosdick Lake. I figured this location would be as busy as it was on Easter.

I figured wrong. There was nary a single BBQing picnic happening. A few guys fishing. A few people sitting on benches, enjoying being outdoors in the muggy humidity. But no Memorial Day picnic action.

Maybe the inclement weather, with its few drops of water, scared  people off of going to the bother of a Memorial Day picnic.

The kid you see above, petting a turtle, had passed me earlier on my walk, speeding by on his bike. He braked to a stop when he came upon a turtle on the trail. The kid and I speculated as to what was wrong with the turtle that had him out of Fosdick Lake, sitting in a vulnerable spot on a sidewalk.

After about 5 minutes of turtle talk the turtle decided to walk, slowly, on to the grass, but heading away from the lake.

Is it turtle mating season? I've seen odd turtle behavior in times previous, when the cute reptiles leave their watery home searching for someone to experience conjugal bliss with them.

Well, enough of this talk about conjugal bliss. It's time for some BBQ.....

This Memorial Day Spencer Jack At The Eiffel Tower Has Me Remembering Las Vegas

When I woke up my computer on this morning of the 2014 edition of Memorial Day I saw incoming email from my favorite nephew, Jason, with the subject line being "Spencer Jack Visiting Eiffel Tower on Memorial Day Weekend."

I opened the email to find the picture you see here of Spencer Jack with what appears to be the Eiffel Tower behind him.

I am guessing this is not the Eiffel Tower which towers over Paris, France, but is, instead, the scaled down version of the Eiffel Tower which towers over the Paris Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It seems like only yesterday that Spencer Jack's dad and my favorite nephew, Joey, took  me to Las Vegas for four days the summer before I moved to Texas. If I recollect correctly it was whilst driving back to Las Vegas from heat seeking in Death Valley that I told my nephews I was moving to Texas.

And now, in what seems like just a few years later, Spencer Jack is bringing his dad and his favorite girl friend, Brittney to Las Vegas to Paris and the Eiffel Tower.

I wonder if Spencer Jack is taking his dad and Brittney to the top of the Stratosphere Tower. Spencer Jack's dad, Joey and I had ourselves quite a HOT adventure at the top of the Stratosphere Tower, some of which you can read via the above link referencing four days in Las Vegas.

I am also wondering if I will be getting pictures emailed to me of Spencer Jack riding the tallest Ferris wheel type device in the world, that being the recently opened for rolling Las Vegas High Roller.

I recollect that soon after the Seattle Great Wheel opened Spencer Jack emailed me pictures of himself, his dad and Brittney on the Great Wheel.

Does Spencer Jack tag along for the casino game playing? I recollect Spencer Jack's uncle Joey was only 15 when Joey and Jason took me to Las Vegas. Joey and I worked around him not being 21 by having Joey direct me as to what to do whilst playing Video Poker.

I also recollect Keno cards being funneled through me when the nephews discovered they could play Keno whilst we enjoyed the Stratosphere buffet for free as one of the compensations we received due to our HOT adventure at the top of the Stratosphere Tower.

Jason had himself a big Keno win, which caused way too much Keno to be played, including returning to the Stratosphere the next morning so the nephews could play Keno during the breakfast buffet.

I had never played Keno until my nephews corrupted me.

I suspect Spencer Jack is likely enjoying playing Keno, with his number choices being funneled through his dad. This type corruption is passed down, generation to generation.....

UPDATE: Additional incoming photos have confirmed it is the Las Vegas version of the Eiffel Tower which Spencer Jack is visiting over Memorial Day Weekend.

Above Spencer Jack is soaking wet after getting out of the Mandalay Bay pool, before getting in the Mandalay Bay Lazy River with his favorite girlfriend, Brittney.

I don't know what to make of the next picture.

I assume Spencer Jack is the photographer. The Luxor is next door to Mandalay Bay. Why are Jason and Brittney visiting the Chapel at Luxor? With Spencer Jack? Is this the second weekend in a row with one of my relatives getting married in an unusual location?

Memorial Day Weekend's Sunday Thinking About A Proper Historical Memory Marker For The Caddo Indians Of Arlington's Village Creek

I had intended to roll my bike's wheels over Gateway Park's mountain bike trails today.

However, my intention was un-intentionally altered when I discovered rain had come to earth at my location on the planet at some point in time during the night.

Rain has a tendency to render dirt into mud on mountain bike trails. I am not a fan of rolling my wheels over mud. It can get messy.

So, I decided to head east instead of west, to a place where I can roll my bike's wheels with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

Visiting Arlington's Indian Ghosts has become very popular on Saturday and Sunday. Today the parking lot was the closest to being full I have ever seen it.

In the picture above my handlebars are not in the Village Creek Natural Historical Area looking at a historical marker. My handlebars are a few feet off the Bob Findlay Linear Park looking at a historical marker.

This particular historical marker tells the tale of why this location is haunted by Indian Ghosts, with this tale told from the Texan white man perspective, not the Native American perspective. Or a balanced perspective.

Years ago, way back in the last century, a short time after I'd read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, I was heading to Reno with a stop at Lava Beds National Monument on the way. The Lava Beds are in Northern California, a maze of lava tubes and caves. It is the location of Captain Jack's Stronghold.

Captain Jack and his band of Modocs caught the world's attention when they successfully defended their position in the Lava Beds from United States Army forces sent to capture  them.

At the turn off from the main highway, on to the road which takes you to the Lava Beds, there is an old historical marker, erected closer in time to the 1872-73 period of the Modoc War, than the present time. That historical marker tells the story of the Modoc War and Captain Jack from the white man's perspective. As in, I was sort of appalled at how slanted and biased that historical marker was.

However, inside the Lava Beds National Monument the history of the Modoc War and Captain Jack is told in the same enlightened way it was told in Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Which brings me back to the historical marker you see above, located near where John B. Denton was killed during the Battle of Village Creek.

A  couple blurbs from the Battle of Village Creek historical marker....

"General Tarrant, for whom the County was later  named, led 69 Volunteers from settlements  near the Red River in an early morning attack on the villages of the Caddo and other tribes which were located along Village Creek."

Okay, digest the above paragraph and then read this sentence...

"Soon after entering the creek, they were ambushed and Denton was killed."

So, General Tarrant invaded from the north, deep into the Caddo Confederacy, in an early morning sneak attack on multiple villages, during which John B. Denton was killed by Caddo Indians defending their villages.

How can Denton's death be characterized as an "ambush" after he helped attack the Caddo villages which then resulted in Denton being killed? That'd be like the Japanese claiming one of their planes was shot down in an ambush by Americans on December 7, 1941, during the Japanese Sneak Attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Caddo Confederacy villages along Village Creek were in existence back when the Spanish first arrived in 1542. In other words, those villages had been the Caddo home for a long time. The Caddo Confederacy was mostly a peaceful, agrarian group of tribes. They were not warmongers like the Comanche.

I suspect a historically accurate Battle of Village Creek historical  marker would be something like this....

Acting on faulty intelligence that blamed Caddo Indians in the Village Creek area for attacks on settlers along the Red River, General Tarrant led a group of settlers in a sneak attack on peaceful Caddo villages, killing untold men, women and children. The Caddo fought back as best they could, killing several of the attacking invaders. 

However, the devastation to the Caddo villages, caused by General Tarrant and his army, was so great that the Caddo abandoned the villages they had inhabited for centuries.

___________________________________________

Attacking innocents based on faulty intelligence happens in modern times, even with all our modern information gathering and communication ability.

I imagine it was rather easy to whip the Red River settlers into a frenzy after some violent Comanche attacks. I also imagine it was likely an easy sell to convince the revenge seekers to attack villages of friendly Indians, who were basically farmers, rather than go after the Comanche, who were a fierce force with which to reckon...

Saturday On The Tandy Hills Finding Cauli Flowers With No Hoodoos Plus Mysterious Fort Worth Police Behavior

Today I was back on the Tandy Hills for the first time in weeks. The Tandy Hills wildflowers seem to have gotten a blooming boost from the rains which rained down during May.

All over the hills today I was seeing the white flowers you see in the picture to the left of the trail.

I am dubbing these white wildflowers Cauli Flowers, due to the blooms slight resemblance to the white cruciferous vegetable.

I was looking forward to seeing the latest iteration of the infamous Tandy Hills Hoodoo today.

But, when I got to Hoodoo Central, at the north end of the View Street Trail, I was saddened to find a totally deconstructed Hoodoo laying on the ground where usually a Hoodoo rises vertical to impressive heights.

I saw no other Hoodoos today in locations where Hoodoos previously were located.

A few weeks ago fellow Tandy Hills aficionado, Stenotrophomonas, asked me if I'd seen the new Tandy Hills Shrine which had been growing on the summit of Mount Tandy. At the point in time when Stenotrophomonas asked me about the new shrine, I had not seen it. But, today I saw what I think may be that to which Stenotrophomonas referred.

Is the above a Tandy Hills guerrilla artist's abstract sculptural art? I have no idea.

For months I have been seeing something when I drive to the summit of Mount Tandy which perplexes me, but which I've not mentioned.

Til now.

Adjacent to Mount Tandy is Broadcast Hill. Broadcast Hill was the location of a NBC broadcast operation. Months ago the NBC broadcast operation moved to a new location.  Ever since the Broadcast Hill NBC broadcast operation closed there has been a Fort Worth police car on the property, with a policeman inside the car.

The Fort Worth police car has been spotted parked at various locations behind the security fence which surrounds the site. Any day of the week, including Sunday, that I have driven to the summit of Mount Tandy, ever since the NBC broadcast operation moved, I have seen a Fort Worth police car.

Months ago I saw trucks arriving to pack off material. At that point I thought maybe the Fort Worth police had been hired to oversee the packing off of material.

So, I can not help but wonder why there is a constant presence by the Fort Worth police at this location? Who is paying for this? And why are they paying for this?

Rolling My Wheels On Gateway Park's Mountain Bike Trails Before Getting Ribbed At Town Talk

Today I was back rolling my bike's wheels again. This time at Gateway Park.

Yesterday when I blogged about Fun Town in the River Legacy Park's mountain bike trail maze I mentioned the first steep drop-off one comes to whilst pedaling the Gateway Park trails.

That would be the aforementioned steep drop-off my handlebars are pointing at in the picture.

Why is it a photo of something steep never looks steep when it is a photo I have taken?

When one zips down this particular drop-off ones speed rapidly accelerates. I saw a guy have a spectacular wreck at this location several weeks ago due to that rapid acceleration of speed thing.

One reaches the bottom of this steep drop-off and then pedals like a bat out of hell so as to make it up the steep climb which one quickly comes to.

My first couple attempts zipping down and then up at this location ended in failure on the uphill part, forcing an emergency jumping off of the bike.

A sign one comes to when one makes it to the top of the steep climb, lucky to still be rolling, is a sign stuck on a fallen log advising that one should go slow. As if there was any other option.

Can you see the SLOW sign above? I rode the section that comes after the SLOW sign twice today. It's the funnest, most difficult section of the trail.  Maybe a half mile of an up and down, twist and turn, two wheel roller coaster ride, before exiting, via shortcut, to the paved trail.

After I was done with Gateway Park, since I was in the neighborhood, I continued on to Town Talk.

I'd not been to Town Talk for a couple weeks. The checkout girl had noticed my absence, saying something like "you've not been in for awhile."

It's nice to be missed.

I got some good stuff today, including a slab of pork ribs for barbecuing on Monday, three already smoked,  ready to eat half chickens, broccoli, extra sharp cheese, ginger, jalapeno sausage and other stuff I am forgetting right now.

All this food talk is making me hungry, and so I think it is time for lunch.

Apparently Breitbart Is Back Rooting Out Corruption At The Tarrant Regional Water District

This afternoon I came upon an interesting article in the Star Telegraph blog. Please note that that is Star Telegraph, not Star Telegram, to which I am referring.

The Star Telegraph blog post was titled Breitbart's back.

Breitbart's back is not about some guy named Breitbart's back problems.

Breitbart's back is about the problem with the entity known as the Tarrant Regional Water District.

The somewhat controversial publication known as Breitbart has been investigating the controversially corrupt entity known as the Tarrant Regional Water District.

In Breitbart's latest edition you can read an article titled ROOTING OUT CORRUPTION AT THE TARRANT REGIONAL WATER DISTRICT which roots out, in easy to understand language, why those who know corruption when they see it look at the shenanigans of the Tarrant Regional Water District in amazement that those shenanigans continue with no adults intervening and putting a stop to the bad behavior.

Or maybe this fester of corruption needs a federal intervention with the perps rounded up, handcuffed and jailed. Pending trial. Maybe that will come after the 60 Minutes expose.

I have long thought Fort Worth would benefit from a good hard hitting 60 Minutes expose.

My favorite paragraph in the Breitbart  article was this...

The move comes in support of reform-minded Board Member, Mary Kelleher, who believes the documents contain potentially incriminating information regarding the TRWD’s alleged misuse of public funds, cronyism, and numerous other activities surrounding what is known as the “Trinity River Vision Boondoggle.”

I like to believe that it was I who first attached the "Boondoggle" word to the Trinity River Vision. But, I suspect that is not the case, what with the Trinity River Vision so obviously being a boondoggle, attaching that appellation to it likely crossed the minds of dozens of locals appalled at the ridiculousness of the entire bizarre thing.

Including the TRWD's corrupt hiring of Fort Worth Congresswoman Kay Granger's un-qualified son, J.D., to run the massive pseudo public works project which the public has never been allowed to vote on. Hiring an un-qualified relative of a political power, for a government job, is what is known as nepotism, and is frowned upon, or is outright illegal, in areas of the world where democracy has been established.

Also, regarding the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle, Laurence Meyers, the writer of the ROOTING OUT CORRUPTION AT THE TARRANT REGIONAL WATER DISTRICT article, must not have gotten the memo that due to imaginary public input the name of the Trinity River Vision Boondoggle has been officially changed to the Panther Island Boondoggle.

The name change thing  is just one more boondoggly addition to the ongoing embarrassing boondoggle...

Rolling Past Fun Town On Arlington's River Legacy Park Mountain Bike Trail

Water had almost been fully re-installed in my swimming pool by this morning's regularly scheduled pool dip.

To be totally topped off the pool still had about a foot to go at that point in time, but the deep end was sufficiently deep to facilitate the acquisition of some much needed endorphins from stimulating aerobic activity.

It has been awhile since I have rolled my mechanized wheels to Arlington to roll my non-mechanized wheels on the River Legacy Park mountain bike trail, so I decided to do so today.

Several weeks ago I whined about the lack of directional signage pointing the way on Fort Worth's Gateway Park's mountain bike trails. A couple days after I whined some directional signage showed up, but not nearly as copious as the directional signage that points the way on River Legacy  Park's much more convoluted maze of  trail loops.

Above you are looking at my handlebars looking at the signage for Fun Town, plus some directional signage.

To the left, not caught on camera, is another directional sign, with that sign having two arrows, both pointing left and down, with the down part indicating a drop-off. One of  those arrows is red, indicating experts only should think about taking that option. The blue arrow points to a slightly less scary drop-off that reaches the same spot as the scarier drop-off.

That is the scary, experts only, drop-off  you see above. The picture does not do this drop-off justice. That and you aren't seeing the steep uphill that comes after the drop-off

I opted to avoid rolling over anything scary and continued on past Fun Town without indulging in that particular fun.

The subject of Fun Town came up weeks ago in Gateway Park. I'd had a going the wrong way incident with a couple of bikers. I got them turned around and led them back to where they needed to be. This was the incident which prompted me to whine about the lack of directional signage on Gateway Park's mountain bike trails, with me having no way of knowing such signage was in the works and about to be installed a few days later.

The couple of bikers I got turned around and I stopped to chat when we reached the location where I could point them in the right direction. The lady of the pair asked me if there were any difficult areas on the trail. I asked what she considered difficult. She asked if I had pedaled the River Legacy Park trails. I indicated  I had. She then said something like, "You know that steep drop-off you come to shortly after leaving the parking lot, and then the next drop-off that follows that, followed by more ups and downs? That I consider difficult."

To which I pointed to a spot on the trail and said she would not want to go past that point, because it gets a bit challenging, more so than that first challenging section in River Legacy Park.

And then, for some reason, I brought up the scary sections of the River Legacy Park trails, that being the EKG and Fun Town loops.

Well.

She then told me they rode Fun Town all the time. And that it is a lot of fun! I incredulously then asked if they actually went down that first steep drop-off with the experts only warning, to be told, no, they avoid that part.

So, I guess I am going to have to give Fun Town a try. And get there by pedaling the paved trail to its end, because if I get to Fun Talk by the mountain bike trail by the time I get there I would have already pedaled several miles.

I Can Not Swim Or Find Fort Worth Weekly Today While Elsie Hotpepper Is With David In Italy

Tall grass is blocking the iron spears which make up the security fence which keeps me secure.

I was easily able to escape security to have myself a walk around the neighborhood culminating in a Fort Worth Weekly acquisition attempt at Albertsons, which usually is not successful until Thursday, which remained the case today.

I was unable to go swimming this morning due to an almost complete lack of water rendering swimming impossible.

The water has been drained from the pool so cool new LED lighting fixtures can be installed. No telling how long this will take, but I have not seen the electrician electrifying anything yet today.

Elsie Hotpepper has still not returned to inside America's borders, because Elsie is still in Italy. Florence to be precise, where it seems Ms. Hotpepper has become infatuated with a guy made of marble named David.

And on the allergy front conditions have greatly improved, with greatly reduced eye irritation. The eyes being irritated was real irritating, so I'm hoping this reduced irritation becomes the status quo and not just a respite...

June 8 Gateway Park Fort Worth Fat Tire Festival Celebrating All Things Mountain Bike For $15

A couple weeks ago I saw a flyer on the information sign at the Gateway Park Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association trail's trail head announcing the June 8th 4th Annual FAT Tire Festival.

This was the first I'd heard of this festival, even though there have been three previous.

I don't think I've ever been to a mountain bike festival of any sort, so I thought maybe I might go to this one.

Then in this week's Fort Worth Weekly I saw the advertisement for the FAT Tire Festival you see above, with that advertisement advertising there would be Live Music, Singletrack, Bicycle Vendors, Great Food Trucks, Mountain Bike Events and FWMBA T-Shirts & Memberships.

And then in the lower right part of the advertisement, in a low contrast, hard to read font, we learn....

Admission

$15 Donation

$40 for Families of Four or More

Wow! This must be one ultra-cool festival. Isn't $15 about half what it cost to get into Six Flags Over Texas? So many really cool festivals in the D/FW zone charge no admission charge, such as the Tandy Hills Prairie Fest and Fort Worth's Main Street Art Festival.

And what odd admission verbiage. If the "Donation" word is used, is it not usually used in a context such as "Suggested Donation $15"?

Maybe the food from the food trucks and those FWMBA T-Shirts are included in the price of admission, which would sort of help explain, maybe, the $15 Donation.

And what is meant by "Singletrack" on the list of what one will find at the FAT Tire Festival? Is this a reference to the mountain bike trail, which is mostly singletrack, except for one short section that is two-way?

On June 8, from 9 am - 3 pm, must one donate $15 to roll ones wheels on the Gateway Park singletrack mountain bike trail?

I suspect I will go to Gateway Park on Sunday, June 8, and find out....

Today's 34th Anniversary Of The Mount St. Helens Eruption Has Me Feeling Homesick

This morning after I realized today marked the 34th Anniversary of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in my old home state of Washington, I blogged about this on my Washington blog in a blogging titled The 34th Anniversary of the Mount St. Helens Eruption on May 19,1980.

Thinking about the Mount St. Helens eruption which boomed over three decades ago got me feeling more melancholy than feeling even remotely nostalgic. How could anyone get nostalgic about a mountain exploding, killing a lot of people and doing a few billion dollars in property damage?

The melancholy homesick thing kicked in when I watched the YouTube video below, which I had used in an earlier blogging about Mount St. Helens and Harry Truman on my Washington blog titled Mt. St. Helens Harry Truman's Spirit Lives On.

Watch the video below and see if you can guess what makes me melancholy and homesick in addition to the woeful tone of the song.

If you guessed seeing mountains, rugged scenery and forests of tall evergreen trees you would have guessed right.....