In Wichita Falls Finding Hidden Treasure Under A Mexican Puppet

Last weekend I hauled to my new abode the rest of my stuff which had been quarantined in Fort Worth.

I ended up leaving less in Fort Worth than I had originally intended.

Such as what you see here. I had figured I really did not need to haul this to yet one more location. I think this was among what originally came from Washington way back late in the last century.

The man you see standing in front of the woven basket is a Mexican puppet I got in Algodones, Mexico, I think in 1998.

For the transit from Fort Worth to Wichita Falls I stuck some stuff in the woven basket.

Upon installing the woven basket and the Mexican puppet in its new location, in my bedroom, I removed the extra stuff I'd stuffed in the basket in Fort Worth and discovered underneath the stuff was a silk-like sarong thing from Bali which Singapore's Wee Cheng had shipped to me whilst I still lived in Washington.

I took out the silk-like sarong thing to find myself being surprised to find a treasure trove of photos I had forgotten existed, including photos of my house in Mount Vernon under construction.

We won't be looking at those construction photos here, instead we will be looking at a couple things which both surprised me and sort of appalled me.

First up, below we are looking at the Goober Twins, Big Ed and Bigger Wally. This picture was taken at my abode in Mount Vernon, Washington, sometime, I would estimate, in the early 1990s.

It isn't just Big Ed and Bigger Wally which are surprising and appalling me in this picture. It's the picture between Big Ed and Bigger Wally.

As I sat in my new humongous bulbous green chair looking at the treasure trove of pictures I looked up on the wall to my right to see that which you see below.

The same picture hanging on my new wall which hung on my old wall in Mount Vernon. This meant this picture got hauled to Haslet, Texas, than a couple years later to Fort Worth and now to Wichita Falls. It is not like I have some sort of fond attachment to this wall hanging, so why am I hanging on to it and transporting it thousands of miles?

A couple minutes later among the treasure trove of newly found photos I found the one you see below. That is the living room of my house in Mount Vernon, looking sort of northeast out a bank of windows.

If it were daylight you would be seeing tall fir trees a few feet from the windows.

This location is where I experienced some of my most un-nerving earthquake experiences, back in the 1990s when a localized cluster of quakes epicentered at Big Lake a couple miles to the east. These were only 3 something Richter scale earthquakes at their shakiest. But due to being so close the shaking was severe. One of the quakes cracked my tile kitchen floor.

The scariest of these quakes occurred whilst I was sitting on the couch in the living room watching TV. The quake hit with a loud boom and roar. The windows flexed like they were going to burst. And the fir trees swayed violently.

In the below photo make note of the chair in the far corner and the pillow sitting next to it.

I saw that which you see in the above photo and then looked to the left from the vantage point of that aforementioned humongous bulbous green chair and saw what you see below.

That chair and pillow made the same multi-thousand mile journey as that picture above, ending up in Wichita Falls. The pillow is paired with a matching afghan. In the picture you can see another afghan pillow combo which also made it to Wichita Falls.

My Grandma Vera was an afghan making maniac. I think I had six of them with me on my trek to Texas. I believe three of the Grandma Vera afghans were transported to Miss Martha's during the moving mayhem. One may be at Miss Puerto Rico's.

I can understand hauling my Grandma Vera afghans with me, what with there being a sentimental value attached. But that chair? I bought a pair of those decades ago at Dania Furniture in Seattle. The pair made it to Texas. I delivered one of them to the Paradise Center in Fort Worth when myself and CatsPaw had our one and only visit to the Paradise Center.

If I ever leave Wichita Falls, and I am fairly sure one day I will, I won't be taking that chair or wall hanging with me. Just the afghans....

A Long Wichita Falls Night Of Thunder & Hail

Looking out my bedroom window this morning, well after the sun arrived, I was pleased to see my main means of vehicular transport made it through the hellacious night of lightning strikes, hail and rain which kept me awake for hours, hence the post-dawn wakeup.

My usual walking route to that aforementioned means of vehicular transport is currently flooded, necessitating a detour to get mobile.

I likely won't attempt getting mobile until the rain stops dripping. That dripping rain is why the photo looks a bit foggy.

I had planned to go to the Wichita Farmers Market in downtown Wichita Falls today. I have been hearing good things about this Farmers Market. I suspect this Farmers Market is not going to be an embarrassing dud like the little Farmers Market in my previous ultra craptacular corrupt town of residence.

Wichita Falls seems to operate at a much higher quality level than that town I used to live in. All the parks I have visited have modern facilities, including running water.

I likely will not be attempting to climb to the summit of Mount Wichita today. I suspect currently Mount Wichita could be re-named Mud Mountain.

Last night brought the third major storm since my arrival at my new location, with last night's thunderstorm being one of the longest and loudest I have experienced since being n Texas.

Monday Morning Blues Mount Wichita Climb

Friday I climbed to the summit of Mount Wichita a record breaking six times.

Today I returned to Mount Wichita for the first time since Friday, after an exhausting weekend of driving way too many miles and doing way too much, to find myself with the strength to only make two Mount Wichita ascents.

As you can sort of see, looking over the steering wheel at the aforementioned Lake Wichita, the sky is a bit stormy.

Day after day the forecast has been for thunderstorms and rain. I have seen or heard neither. Everywhere I ventured this weekend was dry, rain-wise.

I think I am some sort of recovery mode. Chicken and macaroni and cheese should help with that, right about now....

Back On Mount Wichita Learning A Texas Persimmon Can Produce Blackberries

I was back on Mount Wichita today for the third day in a row. Today I managed to make it up and down to the summit five times.

Along the Circle Trail as it circulates through Lake Wichita Park there are several informational type signs with little factoid blurbs, like the one you see here.

I took a picture of this particular sign, which is stuck  in the ground between Mount Wichita and Lake Wichita because the sign has an  eagle's eye view of Mount Wichita on it.

With no explanation as to why Mount Wichita is on this sign, or how the mountain came to be. A mini-volcano? A pile of dirt dredged from the lake? One would think the sign would have some information about the mountain directly to the north.

Instead the sign informs us that the Texas persimmon can produce black berries.

I thought only a blackberry bush produced black berries.

Three Times Today To The Summit Of Mount Wichita

I decided to go mountain climbing again today, what with Mount Wichita being so close to my abode.

In two days I've seen more people climbing Mount Wichita than I usually saw in a month of hiking the Tandy Hills.

In the first picture you are looking down a western slope of Mount Wichita at what appeared to be a senior citizen carefully making his way down the steep slope.

Yesterday I managed climbing to the summit of Mount Wichita twice. Today I managed to do so thrice.

Methinks if I keep up with this new mountain climbing regimen eventually I am going to get in good shape.

Apparently summer is HOTTER at my new location than my previous location. Wichita Falls holds the Texas record for most consecutive days over 100 degrees. If I remember right the record is 100 days in a row over 100.

When I was making my final descent I saw what I assumed to be a dad with his son walking towards Mount Wichita.

As I watched the pair begin their ascent I remarked that I don't think that little guy is going to be able to make it. But, he managed to get about halfway to the summit before his dad picked him up to continue the climb. The photo above manages to convey how steep the climb up Mount Wichita is.

When they reached the summit I zoomed to the maximum to take the photo above.

The climb down Mount Wichita is far more treacherous than the ascent. I stayed long enough to see the dad and son begin the hike back to ground level, with the boy back on his feet. I did not stay long enough to see if dad had to pick up the kid part way down the mountain.

I should be feeling good what with all this new type aerobic stimulation and the endorphins such stimulation causes....

Are Alligators Preparing To Invade Fort Worth's Imaginary Island?

I saw this this morning, on Facebook, brought to my attention by Elsie Hotpepper and her Doppleganger.

So, alligators are being seen enjoying Lake Worth again. Isn't this sort of a regular occurrence?

With the reptiles visiting Lake Worth from their home in the marshes of the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge, where one sees signs warning visitors not to disturb the gators.

The Facebook poster, Libby Barker Willis, is suggesting that perhaps Panther Island should be renamed Alligator Island.

That same suggestion cropped up last year when an alligator showed up in the area where the Rockin' the River Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats take place.

I don't know how a gator could get from Lake Worth to the Rockin' the River zone, what with the Lake Worth dam seeming to be a bit of a water transit impediment.

Changing the subject ever so slightly.

I really think America's Biggest Boondoggle needs to stop with the Panther Island nonsense. There is no island. There may never be an island. And even if the un-needed flood diversion ditch is ever dug and filled with water, the area currently being called Panther Island still won't be a real island.

Fort Worth has a history of misnaming things. Like for decades confusing the town's few tourists by calling its downtown Sundance Square, where there was no square, til a couple years ago when a little plaza was built where parking lots used to be. With those parking lots being what many people long thought were Sundance Square.

And now we have The Boondoggle nonsense. Re-branding that hapless slow motion "project" over and over again. Trinity Uptown. Central City.  Trinity River Vision. With Panther Island being the latest. And then slapping that absurd Panther Island nomenclature on all sorts of things, like Panther Island Pavilion.

Where there is no Pavilion. Or island.

Currently I am in Wichita Falls. I'm liking Wichita Falls. Pretty much each day I've been here I see something which impresses me, which I never saw in Fort Worth.

Yesterday as I drove to Walmart, driving by the park nearest my abode, about two blocks distant, it being a park with a big pond and regular park facilities, had dozens of kids fishing in the pond. I read this morning this was some sort of after school program.

The signage all over Wichita Falls is very well done and useful, and so far I have not had the signs point me to something which does not exist, like a square, an island or a pavilion that can't be found.

Wichita Falls did have a serious problem with misnaming something and confusing tourists. This problem went on for about a century. I'll let Wikipedia explain via a paragraph in its Wichita Falls article....

A flood in 1886 destroyed the original falls on the Wichita River for which the city was named. After nearly 100 years of visitors wanting to visit the nonexistent falls, the city built an artificial waterfall beside the river in Lucy Park. The recreated falls are 54 ft (16 m) high and recirculate at 3,500 gallons per minute. They are visible to south-bound traffic on Interstate 44.

I visited Wichita Falls in Lucy Park on Saturday. I was impressed.

Harrowing Hike To The Summit Of Mount Wichita

Yesterday whilst walking around Lake Wichita Park I was sort of shocked to suddenly have what looked like a mountain replica come into view.

Today I went back to Lake Wichita Park with the intention of hiking up and down the mountain 10 times, gave or take a time or two.

On my first two visits to Lake Wichita Park I had not ventured, via vehicle, to the southern end of the park. Today I did so and found  multiple park facilities at the base of Mount Wichita, including a large parking lot, picnic pavilion and a tire pump station for the many bikers biking the Circle Trail.

Upon arrival at the Mount Wichita parking lot I saw two guys at the top of the mountain, and another running towards the summit.

Within a couple minutes I was walking around the base of Mount Wichita and saw another guy at the top and another running to the summit. You can see both as little spots in the below photo.

Multiple trails, six or seven, maybe, take hikers to the summit of Mount Wichita. I did not think to count the trails. I walked all the way around the mountain and then opted to run to the summit on the trail you see below.

Well.

I could not even manage to run halfway before hyperventilating began. Mount Wichita is much taller than it appears. And the trails are much steeper than they appear.

Way steeper than any of the trails I used to hike in the Tandy Hills.

It is a bit ironic that on Saturday I asked a sweet young thing at a Texas Travel Center kiosk if there were any hills to hike in any of the Wichita Falls parks. With the sweet young thing indicating no such thing existed.

And then yesterday I found Mount Wichita.

And today I discovered the hike to the summit is far more challenging than any trail I hiked in the D/FW Metroplex zone.

Til today I had some concern that my hiking muscles might atrophy in this hill challenged zone of Texas. To discover the most strenuous hiking location than I've had since I lived in Washington, and to discover it is closer to my new abode  than the Tandy Hills were to my old abode, well, it is all just too fortuitous.

Below you are on the summit of Mount Wichita, looking northeast at the stunning skyline of beautiful downtown Wichita Falls.

The summit of Mount Wichita was flatter and covered more area than I expected.

When I saw the Please Use Caution When Climbing Hill sign, that you see above, I thought to myself that that caution seemed a bit ridiculous, with it not crossing my mind that I would soon find myself being very cautious when on Mount Wichita.

One does not need to be too cautious on the climb up the mountain. It is the descent where caution is required. As in the trails are way steeper than they look from the base of the mountain. One slip and a bad rolling fall could be the result.

I drove to Mount Wichita anticipating going up and down many times, replicating the hiking workout I used to get on the Tandy Hills.

Well, it took me about ten minutes to get my breath back after the first ascent. Then upon heading back down I quickly realized going down the steep trail was  also heavy duty exercise. I made it to the base, thought about it a second or two, then turned around and headed back to the summit. Walking this time, not running.

Next time I will try to make three ascents. Maybe....

Hiking Around Lake Wichita Finding The Wichita Hill

On Saturday when I was in Lucy Park I asked a young lady who was womaning an information booth for the Texas Travel Center if there were any hill hiking options in the Wichita Falls zone.

She looked sort of pained and apologetic when she told me the topography is flat far into the distance.

I asked because when I moved to the D/FW zone late in the last century I thought that zone was flat far into the distance. I soon had that erroneous notion corrected with the discovery of the Cedar Hills in Cedar Hills State Park in the south of Dallas area.

Eventually I moved to far east Fort Worth and a few years later I discovered the Tandy Hills were practically in my back yard. I don't think I ever returned to the Cedar Hills after I discovered the Tandy Hills.

Today I drove to Lake Wichita Park. A closer destination than any of my park destination choices in the Fort Worth/Arlington zone, except for Mallard Cove Park and Quanah Parker Park.

I knew the Circle Trail which circles Wichita Falls circulated through Lake Wichita Park, so I figured I would find myself some trails to venture on in that park.

I parked at the first parking option when I got to Lake Wichita Park. An upaved trail exited that parking lot. The trail followed what looked like swamp. Eventually I got to what looked like a lake. At that point the trail became paved. I later realized this was the Circle Trail. Soon the Circle Trail passed by another lake.

At that point I had a small lake to my north and my south. I figured both could not be Lake Wichita.

Soon the Lake Wichita mystery would be solved, along with being pleased to find the Wichita Falls version of a Tandy Hill, which you can experience with me in the video below....

The Latest Chapter In The Tim Love Woodshed Smokehouse Scandal

The latest chapter in the Woodshed Smokehouse scandal confuses me because I can sort of see Tim Love's side of the argument.

Four years ago Tim Love got a sweetheart deal from America's Biggest Boondoggle, partnering with Mr. Love to build a restaurant on Tarrant Regional Water District land.

You know, land that is supposedly owned by the public.

If I remember right, as part of the sweetheart, no bidding competition deal, Tim Love pays a part of the restaurant's take to The Boondoggle.

The Boondoggle sees this Love operation as some sort of concession deal, like food vendors at the airport, and thus should not have to pay any property tax.

But, this year the Tarrant Appraisal District decided that the Woodshed Smokehouse is more of a private operation than a public one, so they sent Tim Love a property tax bill.

Tim Love says that dozens upon dozens upon dozens of Trinity Trail users are free to take a break from the trail, for free, sitting at one of the restaurant's outdoor tables.

I recollect doing this myself, four years ago, when the Woodshed opened, joining a group protesting the sweetheart no-bid deal The Boondoggle gave Tim Love. That protest also confused me, because several of the protesters protested by ordering food and drinks from the entity they were protesting.

Methinks this entire Woodshed Smokehouse scandal could be put to rest by The Boondoggle selling the Woodshed and the property on which it sits to Tim Love.

Tim Love would likely not be willing to pay what the property is worth, with the property then being sold to whoever was willing to pay the asking price.

Or have a bidding deal where whoever was willing to pay the most above the asking price gets to take possession of the Woodshed Smokehouse....

Solving The Mystery Of The Wichita Falls Horses Of Many Colors

Soon upon my arrival in Wichita Falls I saw a horse which caused me to wonder why a funeral home would have a Horse of Many Colors sitting by its entry.

Soon thereafter I saw another Horse of Many Colors. And then another. And another.

I have now lost track of how many of what I thought were Wichita Falls Horses of Many Colors I have seen.

This morning I came upon the Horse of Many Colors you see above as I walked to the entry to the Market Street grocery store, which my local adviser advised me was the best grocery store in Wichita Falls.

Soon upon entering Market Street I realized it was the same as Market Street in Colleyville. I vaguely recollect when the Market Street opened in Colleyville that part of the story was the store was based in Wichita Falls. Or was it Amarillo?

Anyway, a few days into being in Wichita Falls I realized the Horses of Many Colors were actually Mustangs of Many Colors.

The university which is a couple blocks north of my new abode is Midwestern State University.

I believe the MSU mascot is a Mustang. There is a statue on the MSU campus of a group of Mustangs.

Are all these Mustangs of Many Colors a city-wide thing like when Seattle did the same thing with Pigs of Many Colors back in the previous decade? Many towns back earlier in this century did a similar thing.

I recollect Dallas tried it with Pegasus statues.

If I remember right that particular Dallas effort did not go well.

Tacoma had Salmon of Many Colors all over Tacoma, as late as 2008.

Anyway, I'm having myself a mighty fine time adjusting to a new town. And last night I got to experience my first Wichita Falls Thunderstorm. The booming did not last long. But a lot of water dropped.