Spencer Jack Drives Me And His Dad Over The North Cascades To Liberty Bell Mountain

Email last night from Spencer Jack's dad, FNJ (also known as my Favorite Nephew Jason).

Email Subject Line: Spencer Jack visits Liberty Bell

Text in Email: Spencer Jack and I traveled east. Have some great pictures of Spencer and the Liberty Bell that I'm sure his FUD would enjoy. Will upload them from my camera and send them to you later.

FUD (that would be me) replied asking: "Liberty Bell in Philadelphia? Or the one on the North Cascade Highway?"

That question was answered a few minutes ago, with the promised pictures and the following message....

FUD --

Your FNSJ drove me east to the Washington State Liberty Bell.

Our original plans were to explore the Skagit Dams yesterday.   We did the dam thing with stops along the route at Rasar State Park, Concrete High School / Airport, Lower Baker Dam and Howard Miller Steelhead Park before proceeding further east to reach our final destinations of Newhalem, the Gorge Dam, and Colonial Creek at Diablo Lake.   But Spencer Jack insisted driving until we found snow.   We both had never seen such a near snow free North Cascades.   We were finally able to find some winter snow remnants underneath Washington's Liberty Bell.   After a snow ball fight, we decided we needed to cool off in Lake Pearrygin before having dinner in Winthrop.   Spencer Jack let me drive home last night while he slept.

In the picture above you are seeing Spencer Jack in the driver's seat with Liberty Bell Mountain in the background and the most pitiful pile of snow I have ever seen at this location.

Above it appears Spencer Jack is in the midst of the snowball fight mentioned above.

I am losing my ability to remember Washington place names, but I believe what we are looking at above is Spencer Jack at what is called the Washington Pass Overlook, which sits atop a steep cliff and overlooks the North Cascades Highway as it descends, steeply, from Washington Pass. The aforementioned Liberty Bell Mountain is behind Spencer to the right.

Above Spencer Jack is standing on a suspension bridge which crosses the Skagit River. On the other side is the Gorge Dam Powerhouse. Gorge Dam is further up river, with a tunnel bored through rock to deliver hydro power to the Powerhouse. One used to be able to go inside the Gorge Dam Powerhouse, with nice restrooms of the modern facility sort located inside. I wonder if one can still go inside the Powerhouse, nowadays, what with terrorists terrorizing that which used to seem safe from such things. Behind the Powerhouse are elaborate gardens, with waterfalls and trails, built while the dams were being built. The town here is Newhalem. Sort of a company town for Seattle City Light. It appears there is a lot of water in the Skagit River at this location. There is no dam that backs water up here. This location is as far upriver as spawning salmon can get. When the spawning salmon are in town it is quite a spectacle.

The Gorge that gives Gorge Dam its name begins shortly past the Powerhouse as you continue east. This section of road is not for the acrophobic. If you saw the Warren Beatty movie, The Parallax View, you saw the Gorge in the part of the movie where Warren suddenly has to scramble due to water being released from the dam. This happens in real life as well as the movies. Alarm sirens go off if water is about to be released, so Gorge explorers can scramble to safety.

The next Seattle City Light Dam one comes to is called Diablo Dam. It is an old dam across a narrow gorge. One used to be able to drive across. I've no idea if that is still the case. Construction on Diablo Dam's Powerhouse tunnel began in 1917. The dam was not completed til 1930. At the time of completion it was the tallest dam in the world. Hence it being a bit scary to drive across. That and the narrow switchback road one drives to get to the dam is also a bit scary.

Next we go back to earlier in Spencer Jack's drive across the North Cascades.

Concrete is a town which used to have a big concrete making business. It was quite the spectacle to witness in operation. It has been closed for decades. Back when it was operating Concrete was known for its gray coating of concrete dust. As you can see above, Concrete High School has the unique distinction of having a road run under the school. Is this the road that leads south to the Concrete area bridge over the Skagit River? I don't remember.

In the last picture I am not sure of location, but it appears that Spencer Jack is somewhere on the west side of North Cascades National Park. Even in drought mode there are rainforest type areas on the west side of the North Cascades.

FNJ made mention of going to Winthrop and Lake Pearrygin, but no photos were included documenting such.

Winthrop is a fun old west type theme town. Very touristy. In a good way. If I remember right I did what is known as the Cascade Loop the summer before the move to Texas. I remember it being a melancholy drive, not knowing when I would be that way again. The Cascade Loop is done by driving over the North Cascades Pass making a loop of it by returning via Stevens Pass or Snoqualmie Pass. Or vice versa, clock-wise, counter-clockwise, with the North Cascades being the end of the loop, not the beginning. The Stevens Pass Cascade Loop option takes you by another fun theme town, the Bavarian village of Leavenworth. The Snoqualmie Pass option takes you by Roslyn, not exactly a theme town, but a tourist town, which was known as Cicely in the TV show called Northern Exposure.

I was melancholy the last time I drove the Cascade Loop, not knowing when I would pass that way again. Turns out August of 2001 I did a modified Cascade Loop, leaving out the North Cascades Pass part. Instead taking Stevens Pass to Leavenworth, then on to Wenatchee to get a lot of fruit to take back to Texas, then across Blewett Pass en route to Snoqualmie Pass, stopping in Rosyln for pizza, before crossing Snoqualmie Pass back to Seattle.

A couple years before moving to Texas I remember driving Spencer Jack's dad and uncle, my Favorite Nephew Joey, over the North Cascades, to Lake Pearrygin, where we surprised their parental units, then continued on through the Methow River Valley where the nephews had a Nephews In Danger incident on a rickety wooden suspension bridge swaying over the Methow River. I do not remember stopping in Leavenworth that time, as we headed west towards Stevens Pass.

Yesterday Elsie Hotpepper got me thinking about PNW stuff, mostly Oregon related. And now today has me remembering living a very short distance from an incredible variety of scenic wonders. Saltwater in one direction, mountains in another direction. And my favorite foreign country, other than Mexico, a short drive north.

I think I am ready to move back to the Pacific Northwest.....

Shocked To Learn The Kimbell Art Museum Is No Longer The World's Most Beautiful Work Of Modern Architecture

You are looking at a screen cap here from the Wikipedia article about Fort Worth, with some representative images of Fort Worth, including the Modern Museum of Art, but not the Kimbell Art Museum.

Way back in 2012 I blogged a blogging titled Someone Thinks Fort Worth Is The Location Of The Most Beautiful Work Of Modern Architecture In The World, after I read the following in the Wikipedia article about Fort Worth....

"Fort Worth is home to the Kimbell Art Museum, considered to have one of the best collections in the world, and housed in what is widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world."

By the time I read the above I had long grown used to the tendency to hyperbole employed way too often in Fort Worth by some entities when describing some perfectly ordinary thing in Fort Worth.

But, to claim the Kimbell Art Museum is widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world was so over the top ridiculous I found it an embarrassingly stupid assertion to make.

A person named Anonymous, with a reading comprehension problem, commented....

Anonymous said...
I know you like to dog on all things Fort Worth, but please leave your personal distaste for the city aside on this one. The Kimbell *is* widely regarded as an architectural masterpiece. Just googling Louis Kahn and the Kimbell should tell you this. See also this article from the New York Times.

I never bothered to read the article Anonymous was directing me to, as there was no need. Instead I responded with....

Durango said...
Anonymous, I am aware the Kimbell building is well regarded architecturally. I did not indicate otherwise. What I was dogging was the ridiculous claim that this building is widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world.

So, now to the point of this particular blogging. Yesterday I once again happened upon the Wikipedia Fort Worth entry to see that the Kimbell Art Museum is no longer widely regarded as the most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world.

This is what the article now says about the Kimbell Art Museum...

The Kimbell Art Museum, considered to have one of the best collections in Texas, is housed in what is widely regarded as one of Texas' foremost works of modern architecture designed by Louis Kahn and Renzo Piano.

Now, isn't that a lot better? No ridiculous hyperbole, no embarrassing exaggeration. Just an honest statement that no one should find objectionable. Or stupid.

On a related note, yesterday an incoming blog comment was along this same theme, as in objecting to Cowtown hyperbole....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Texas Is A Large State With Deserts Pine Forests Houston And The Rio Grande":

The Fort Worth Business Press pulp fiction writers and Dud Kennedy should edit the Texas Google page to portray Cowtown in a better light. Fort Worth will outwit, outplay and outlast you! Fort Worth's bold moves and relentless success takes it to the next level! TCU slapping their name on the Osteopathic Medical school is a game changing bold move according to the lap dogs at the FW Biz Press. The Cowtown Way's bluster and blather makes me ill.

Yeah, the bluster and blather really are a bit much at times.

Regarding the Wikipedia article about Fort Worth, I find it interesting that there is absolutely no mention made of the Trinity River Uptown Central City Gator Island Vision Project, known worldwide as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Fort Worth's Congresswoman, Kay Granger, has indicated she thinks this project is currently the biggest urban water project underway in North America. Yet no mention made in the Wikipedia article about Fort Worth.

Ms. Granger's blustery blathery claim is sort of an insult to urban zones of North America which have actual urban water projects underway with a bit more complexity than building three little simple bridges in four years to connect the mainland to an imaginary island, while hosting dozens of inner tube floating parties in the polluted Trinity River, while waiting for a ditch to be dug under the three simple little bridges, sometime in the future, with that future being more than four years from now.

How can a Wikipedia article about Fort Worth not mention that town is currently hosting America's Biggest Boondoggle? Makes one question the accuracy of that which one reads in Wikipedia. Then again, Wikipedia did fix that embarrassing most beautiful work of modern architecture in the world nonsense.

So, maybe soon an entry will be made in the Wikipedia article to include America's Biggest Boondoggle, run by Kay Granger's son, J.D., a highly trained civil engineer specializing in urban water projects....

Cowtown's Bluster & Blather Makes Some Ill While I Am Annoyed At Non-Presidential Bushes

I decided to take my handlebars on a roll around the neighborhood today. Upon doing so I soon came upon the obstruction you see here, obstructing the already narrow sidewalk.

My opinion about this Fort Worth obstruction will likely be a bit negative. So, be warned.

I am saying this because earlier today I had a reason to look at a blog post from way back in 2012, seeking a bit of info for another blogging which will likely show up tomorrow, and is very amusing, at least to me.

So, in that blogging from way back in 2012 someone calling him or herself Anonymous Someone had this to say....

Just goes to show that opinions vary. Ranked lists of this and that aren't all that important, and your perennial negativity toward Fort Worth has become rather annoying. And I don't even live in Fort Worth or care dearly about it...sigh...

My perennial negativity toward Fort Worth? I don't know how anyone could think such a thing. And if one found such a thing annoying why would someone continue to read it?

Back to the sidewalk.

My handlebars are looking west, on the north side of Boca Raton Boulevard, across from Albertsons. On the other side of the row of sidewalk obstructing bushes is my neighborhood Chesapeake Energy gas pad site.

Years ago Chesapeake planted those bushes to try to pretty up the mess they'd made. And now the bushes have grown out of control.

Continuing west on Boca Raton I come to multiple obstructions due to brush growing over the sidewalk. Last week I stopped to break off some mesquite branches with thorns which were presenting a hazard.

Now, why in the world would a world class city which is the envy of other cities, far and wide, causing multiple spasms of green with envy syndrome, not have a street crew of some sort whose job it is to make sure Fort Worth's  few sidewalks are free of dangerous obstructions?

Very perplexing.

This just in, a blog comment on my most recent blogging from someone else named Anonymous with perfect timing, with this Anonymous person totally getting what it is that causes me to seem to some to be perennially negative about Fort Worth...

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Texas Is A Large State With Deserts Pine Forests Houston And The Rio Grande": 

The Fort Worth Business Press pulp fiction writers and Dud Kennedy should edit the Texas Google page to portray Cowtown in a better light.

Fort Worth will outwit, outplay and outlast you!

Fort Worth's bold moves and relentless success takes it to the next level! 

TCU slapping their name on the Osteopathic Medical school is a game changing bold move according to the lap dogs at the FW Biz Press.

The Cowtown Way's bluster and blather makes me ill. 

Texas Is A Large State With Deserts Pine Forests Houston And The Rio Grande

Yesterday I Googled "Texas" for what reason I no longer remember. Upon Googling "Texas" Google, in addition to the myriad Texas links, came up with the above snapshot of Texas, in which we learn...

Texas is a large state in the southern U.S. with deserts, pine forests and the Rio Grande, a river that forms its border with Mexico. In its biggest city, Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts houses works by well-known Impressionist and Renaissance painters, while Space Center Houston offers interactive displays engineered by NASA. Austin, the capital, is known for its eclectic music scene.

Seems a bit Houston centric, to me. though Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and Galveston are mentioned as Destinations. No mention made by Google of Fort Worth. Google must have missed the memo that Fort Worth is a world class city making other towns, far and wide, green with envy.

Seeing what Google did to Texas had me wondering what Google did to my old home state when one Google's "Washington".

Well, we learn that...

Washington is a state in the Pacific Northwest with terrain spanning the snow-capped Cascade Mountains to forested islands in Puget Sound. Its largest city, Seattle, is known for its thriving tech industry, vibrant music scene and celebrated coffeehouses. Its landmarks include the futuristic Space Needle and century-old Pike Place Market. Nearby, hiking trails wind through vast rainforest in Olympic National Park.

Well. Google makes my old home state sound a bit more interesting than the state I am currently sitting in, what with snow capped mountains and forested islands, rainforests and coffeehouses.

And a minimum wage over $2 higher than the Texas minimum wage.

Google thinks the Points of Interest in Texas are the San Antonio Riverwalk, the Alamo, the state capitol and a pair of Six Flags theme parks.

While in Washington Google thinks the Points of Interest are Olympic National Park, the Space Needle, Pike Place Market, and Mount Rainier and North Cascades National Parks.

With Google's Destinations in Washington being Seattle, Forks, Bainbridge Island and again with the state's national parks.

Leaving out the most interesting national park n Washington, that being Mount St. Helens National Monument.

Bainbridge Island? But no mention of the San Juan Islands? Or Whidbey Island? Eastern Washington is totally ignored. Spokane? Grand Coulee Dam? Lake Chelan? Wenatchee? Yakima? Leavenworth? Apple orchards?

As for Texas. No mention of Big Bend National Park? Or South Padre Island? Or Enchanted Rock? Or Marfa?

Or Fort Worth?

How can Google ignore the most important city in Texas? If not the entire world?

Clearly, Google needs to adjust the algorithms used to determine a state's Destinations and Places of Interest....

Wondering Why There Are No Plans To Build Fort Worth A New Skyscraper

This blogging is a variant of my popular series of bloggings about something I see in a west coast online news source, usually the Seattle Times, that I would not see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The variant is that this particular blogging is about something I regularly see in the Seattle Times which I rarely see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

That being the announcement of some new big construction project.

Seems like hardly a week goes by without reading of some new construction project in downtown Seattle. Pike Place expansion. Residential towers. Mixed use towers. And projects like this skyscraper you see  here.

I've seen no new skyscrapers scrape the sky in Fort Worth since I have been in Texas. I think Dallas has added one or two.

I read yesterday that the Seattle area is currently the fastest growing zone in America, with the economy back in boom mode.

A booming economy would explain all the building projects, I suppose.

But, I thought I've read in the Star-Telegram that Fort Worth is growing fast. I don't think I've read that the local economy is booming though. Is that the reason for the static skyline of beautiful downtown Fort Worth?

The only semi-tall building I've seen constructed in Fort Worth since I have been in Texas is the Convention Center Hotel. That project did not come about via private enterprise building a hotel to accommodate all the tourists and convention goers flocking to Fort Worth. Due to the paucity of both, no private entity was interested in making that type hotel investment, so the local voters were snookered into helping pay for the hotel.

Since I have been in Texas I have witnessed several large construction projects in downtown Fort Worth.

Such as the Radio Shack Corporate Headquarters. To build that building eminent domain was abused to remove a public housing development. Due to building the Radio Shack Headquarters the big free Tandy parking lots were no longer usable. The world's shortest subway line was closed, making access to downtown Fort Worth no longer the easy thing it was prior to this debacle. The lack of easy parking has greatly reduced the number of times I have visited downtown Fort Worth ever since.

A short distance from the Radio Shack debacle we had the downtown campus of Tarrant County College debacle, a grandiose project, with an interesting design, thwarted in mid construction. In the midst of the Tarrant County College downtown campus boondoggle Radio Shack found it could no longer afford its new corporate headquarters. So, in a deal which made no sense to me, Tarrant County College, which had already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on their mangled downtown campus, then paid a few hundred more million to buy space in the Radio Shack building to use as their downtown campus, in a building which was not designed to be a school.

I tell you, Fort Worth has to be the "Boondoggle Capital  of the Free World".

That should be the town's catchy slogan, not "Where the West  Begins".

Adding to the roll of boondoggles, we have the Pier One Imports Corporate Headquarters. A beautiful building built on the spot where buildings were destroyed by a tornado. I don't remember how long Pier One Imports occupied their new headquarters before they, like Radio Shack, found out they could not afford it. The building was then sold to Chesapeake Energy to use as their satellite corporate headquarters from whence they ran their shadow Fort Worth city government during the reign of gas industry lackey, Mike Moncrief.

I don't know who owns the former Pier One Imports building now that Chesapeake Energy has taken the Walk of Shame out of Fort Worth.

If Fort Worth's economy is doing as well as the Star-Telegram propaganda-izes, how come we don't see more evidence of such?

We have America's Biggest Boondoggle currently stalled in slow motion, taking four years to build three little simple bridges from the mainland to an imaginary island, but not much else, except for an extensive music festival schedule taking place in, and beside, the Trinity River, a river which other parts of America would call the Trinity Slough, with no one thinking it a good idea to use as an inner tubing venue.

I'm sure some local would point to the West 7th area as evidence of Fort Worth's booming economy. Well, what I have seen in that area is extremely poor planning, with the area turning into a flooded lake when too much rain falls. The sidewalks are too narrow on West 7th, creating a canyon like effect that is not pleasant.

There is a lot of highway construction underway. Is that a sign of a booming local economy? Or one more sign of bad planning? The I-35 drive north from downtown Fort Worth has turned into an extremely unpleasant experience, particularly when you get past I-820.

I know there has been some effort to have some sort of train transit running from downtown Fort Worth to Grapevine, and, I think, the north entry to D/FW International. But, that project seems to be a lot of talk and little action.

If Fort Worth ever does actually have itself a booming economy do you think maybe sidewalks could be added to more of the city's streets? And maybe get rid of all the outhouses in all the parks and install modern restroom facilities with running water to replace the outhouses?

We have all recently witnessed how fast the South can change when properly motivated. Could not the Fort Worth outhouses go as quickly as the Confederate flag? We can only hope....

Apparently Texas Is The Best State In America In Which To Make A Living

A couple days ago Spencer Jack's dad sent me a link to a website's webpage about the Best States to Make a Living where I learned that Texas is currently the best place in America to make a living, with my previous home zone, Washington, the second best place to make a living.

That's a screen cap from the best place to make a living webpage you see above. Apparently last year Washington was the best place to make a living, with Texas the second best place to make a living. I could not glean from reading the article if Texas moved to number one due to Washington doing worse, or Texas doing better, or a combo of each.

Washington has a much higher average income than Texas at $52,540, with the Texas average income being $45,330. From my own observation the cost of living is higher in Washington than Texas. Gas is more expensive in Washington. As is housing. But, public transportation is cheaper and more plentiful. Apples are also cheaper in Washington than Texas, along with a lot of other fresh produce, some of which grows wild and free for the picking.

I digress.

You can click the link to read by what criteria these conclusions were reached.

The Worst States to Make a Living are also listed, with Hawaii being the worst and with the state I was born in, Oregon, being the second worst.

Oregon has no sales tax. But does have a state income tax.

Washington and Texas have no state income tax. Both raise money via the sales tax method.

Oregon can be a bit eccentric. When the rest of America went to the self serve method of filling ones tank, Oregon preserved the jobs of professional gas pumpers by making self serve gas pumping illegal, with gas pumped only by trained professionals. I do not know if Oregon still bans self serve gas pumping. It's been a few years since I had a tank filled in Oregon.

Another Alligator Not Caught In Downtown Fort Worth

Yesterday I blogged about the capture of the 10 foot long blind alligator which had been terrorizing downtown Fort Worth ever since it was flushed in to town by last month's flooding.

In that blogging I opined that this was something one would never see in the Seattle Times, a reversal of my popular series of bloggings about things I read in west coast online news sources which I would never read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Well.

This morning I found a blog comment from Steve A which sort of contradicts what I'd opined about not seeing such a thing as an alligator capture in an article in the Seattle Times about an alligator terrorizing the Seattle zone on one of the town's lakes  or saltwater beaches.

Steve A's comment....

Steve A has left a new comment on your post "Downtown Fort Worth's Blind Alligator Pulled From Trinity River So Rockin' The River Can Resume":

Hmm, they caught an alligator last year in Ocean Shores - http://northcoastnews.com/news/police-nab-alligator-ocean-shores-blvd.html 

_________________________________

There are some major differences in the two alligator incidents.

The Ocean Shores alligator was a woman's pet, kept in a kid's swimming pool in her apartment. The woman had had this unusual pet for years. Someone tipped off the police, a warrant was issued, but then someone tipped off the Alligator Woman, who then tried to escape with her alligator, just as police arrived to find the gator in the backseat of the woman's vehicle, thwarting the attempted escape.

The alligator was then taken to a nature preserve. I am guessing it was a different nature preserve than the one Fort Worth's downtown alligator was taken to....

Downtown Fort Worth's Blind Alligator Pulled From Trinity River So Rockin' The River Can Resume

Today I am reversing my popular series of bloggings about something I read in a west coast news source, online, usually the Seattle Times, that I would never read in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

That which you see here was screen capped from this morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram and is something  I don't think you'd ever see in the Seattle Times getting wrangled out of Puget Sound or any of the lakes in the Seattle zone.

The big alligator which has been terrorizing downtown Fort Worth, like Godzilla terrorizing Tokyo, has been captured and removed to a new home, presumably the bayous of the Fort Worth Nature Center & Wildlife Refuge which is located between Lake Worth and Lake Eagle Mountain.

In the caption below the photo of the captured gator we learn the 10 foot long monster was blind. How was this determined I can not help but wonder?

Did the alligator go blind from too many years of exposure to the water of the Trinity River? Or is it blind from one of the usual old age blinding maladies, such as cataracts or macular degeneration?

Speaking of going blind from too much exposure to the water of the Trinity River.

Now that the alligator has been removed from America's  Biggest Boondoggle's party zone did Thursday's Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Float take place?

I Googled Rockin' the River to see if I could find out if an alligator free float took place yesterday, to no avail.

But, I did find something else appalling. That being that America's Biggest Boondoggle has gotten itself yet one more domain name and has had yet one more website made touting one of its many parties.

The new domain with a new website is rockintheriverfw.com. Apparently The Boondoggle's other website devoted to its imaginary island and imaginary pavilion, pantherislandpavilion.com did not suffice for propaganda spewing purposes.

Back a decade and a half ago, before America's Biggest Boondoggle turned into one, did anyone think that all this time later all we would basically see produced was a tacky music venue where the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision encourages people to float in the Trinity River and three simple little bridges being built over dry land, taking four years to build, to connect the mainland to an imaginary island?

Oh, and the world's premiere wakeboard lake. I am likely forgetting a product or two.

If the TRWD had hired an actual qualified project engineer as the Executive Director of what, at the time of the hiring, was called the Trinity Uptown Project (I think that is what it was called, it gets hard to remember all the names The Boondoggle  has gone by over the years), instead of hiring a local congresswoman's son to motivate her to seek federal money for the project, do you think we would be seeing people floating in the Trinity River at Rockin' the River and Sunday Funday events?

Do you think the old Tandy Subway's service shed would have been turned into a beer hall called The Shack?

If a real project engineer had been hired would we, all these many years later, be seeing the proposed project actually coming to some sort of fruition?

And another thing. How much of the people's money is America's Biggest Boondoggle spending on all these websites it is making to promote its various shenanigans?

There really needs to be some sort of adult oversight of Kay Granger's son. Don't you think the mountain of evidence makes that sort of obvious?

Mount Rainier Has Lost Its Glaciers With The Skagit River Drying Up While B.C. Burns

I saw that which you see here yesterday on Facebook via Sister Chris. I was puzzled as to what mountain this was, with the comments being made making me think it was Mount Rainier, which I did not think possible, what with Mount Rainier always covered in the icy white of multiple glaciers.

I was then informed that this is indeed the current status of Mount Rainier.

The only Washington volcano I have ever seen minus its perpetual white glacier cover is Mount Saint Helens. And that was due to that volcano erupting and melting its frozen cover.

Way back in December of 2000 I drove from Texas back to Washington. The route north was Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Oregon, then home. This was a big mistake. Hazardous icy driving in Kansas, Wyoming, Utah and especially Oregon, where I skidded out of control at one point.

So, when it was time to head back to Texas I decided to head south via I-5, where the only possible bad snow zone would be Southern Oregon and Northern California. Turned out, due to that period's drought, there was no treacherous snow driving.

What was memorable on that drive south was the condition of Mount Shasta. It was looking like Mount Rainier looks now. Stripped of most of its icy white cover. I'd driven by Mount Shasta dozens of times. It was shocking to see it looking naked.

In one of the Facebook comments replying to my bum puzzlement about this being Mount Rainier, Spencer Jack's dad had this to tell me....

Durango Jones, you would be shocked to see the little creek formally known as the Skagit River.

I need photo documentation of the current state of the Skagit River. Spencer Jack, if you are reading this could you drive your dad down to the river and take a few pictures?

I have read multiple first hand accounts of the smoke that has wafted over Washington, on both sides of the mountains. Something like 70 wildfires are blazing up in British Columbia. The smoke is so thick that it caused the temperature on both sides of the mountains to drop.

Below is a screen cap regarding the B.C. fires from a couple days ago.

I don't remember where I got the above, but wherever it was people were commenting who obviously did not live in Washington where one is used to British Columbia being referred to as B.C., because more than one person said that upon first glance they thought how could wildfires from 70 B.C. be burning now, or something like that....

On FOX News Betsy Price Is A Former Bull Leading Fort Worth

I saw that which you see here on FOX News online, widely believed by very few to be the world's most reliable news source.

I don't really rely on FOX News for news, I find entertainment value in FOX News, what with the news on FOX often seeming to present some sort of alternative universe from the one most people live in.

Yesterday on FOX News online I saw an article titled How Fort Worth's Bike Riding Mayor Steers the City.

That is a screen cap from the article you see here, with the lady in yellow being Fort Worth's hugely popular populist mayor, Betsy Price.

A woman of the people. Got a problem? Take it to Betsy Price. Gas drillers causing your property to flood? Take it to Betsy Price. Being evicted by a criminal landlord? Take it to Betsy Price.

You get the drift? Got a problem? Take it to Betsy Price.

This FOX News article seems to be a puff piece bordering on propaganda, almost like some sort of advertisement paid for by the committee to have Betsy Price made a saint.

One would think that, except for one thing. The article refers to Betsy Price as the lead steer leading the Fort Worth herd. If you do not know what a steer is I screen capped a definition for your enlightenment....

So, FOX News thinks our dear leader is a castrated bull? Can that possibly be true? Does FOX News know something that is not commonly known in Fort Worth? Or does FOX News owe our dear leader an apology?

You can read the article in its entirety by going to FOX News and reading How Fort Worth's Riding Mayor Steers the City.

Below you can read the part of the article which says Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price is a castrated bull....

Texans know every herd follows a lead steer.

On several days throughout the year, you can see a herd in the old cow town of Fort Worth, Texas, a city of approximately 800,000 people, following its lead steer.  The surprise, however, is that this herd is on bicycles and its lead steer is their mayor, Betsy Price.