In Texas Enjoying A Basket Of Washington's Favorite Fruit

An email from Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason, amused me this morning.

Subject line: Any guesses on Washington's favorite fruit? Hint: It's not an apple.

The link in the subject line goes to a Seattle Refined article titled, appropriately, Any guesses on Washington's favorite fruit? Hint: It's not an apple.

The reason this amused me was because of what you see in the photo. The only fresh fruit in my kitchen.

A basket of my favorite fruit, Mangoes.

And the list of Washington's Top Ten Favorite Fruits...

1. Mango
2. Peach
3. Raspberry
4. Cherry
5. Rainier Cherries
6. Pomegranate
7. Pear
8. Plum
9. Lemon
10. Melon

Mangoes are not commercially grown in Washington, as far as I know. Nor are Pomegranates or Lemons. Maybe a Melon or two are grown. I vaguely recollect Watermelons growing in the Eastern Washington HOT zone.

As for Apples not being in the Washington Top Ten. Well, let's just say Apples are plentiful, in many varieties, and thus they become ordinary. And often free for the picking. Whilst Mangoes are exotic and delicious, much more so, to my taste buds, than a Washington Delicious Apple.

But, where are Apricots on this list? Apricots are my second most favorite fresh fruit. Can't remember when I last had a fresh Washington Apricot. Maybe summer of 2001 when Wanda and Wally drove me over to Eastern Washington when I was up there for my mom and dad's 50th.

Rainier Cherries are another favorite. I remember when last I had Rainier Cherries. August 8, 2008, in Seattle.

And why aren't Strawberries on this list? Apparently Strawberry topped the list in more states than any other fruit. You have not had a real Strawberry til you have a Washington Strawberry. California's Driscoll Strawberries should be prosecuted for committing Strawberry fraud.

I have heard Texas Strawberries from Poteet are good. But, they are not in wide supply, and thus I have never sampled one.

Fighting Off Vicious Attacks In Wichita Falls

Til today it had been awhile since I attempted one of those selfie things. I don't think I was being a grumpy as I look. Then again, I was a bit grumpy.

Why grumpy?

Well, lately I have been under attack.

A couple days ago I was viciously attacked by swarms of biting insects of various types whilst climbing Mount Wichita.

Yesterday I got no salubrious mood enhancing aerobic stimulation and the endorphins that result from such stimulation.

After getting bugged on Wichita Mountain I bought myself some Cutter bug spray to use if I ever return to that mountain once the multiple bug bumps and the resultant itching subsides.

Day after day the weather prognosticators for this location predict thunderstorms. Til today these seem to take place in the middle of the night. Around noon I decided to test if it is safe to go jogging on the Circle Trail which circulates by my front door without being tormented by swarms of biting bugs.

Well, the jogging went well. Til a couple miles in rain started to drip. Thunder rolled in from a long ways distant, with no lightning flashing seen due to that distance thing. But, I turned around and headed back to my under cover zone.

I did not make it back before the rain went into downpour mode and the thunder moved closer.

About ten minutes before the rain started dripping is when I took the grumpy picture above.

As for bug bites. By the time I got out of the outdoors I found I had been bitten several times, but not nearly as bad as that last bout on Wichita Mountain.

I would have thought this would be a bug-free zone, what with the five years of extreme drought. One would think the insect population would have died off. But I have had more bug bites in one month at this new Texas location than all the previous Texas years combined.

I am still liking this new location though.....

Memorial Day With Cousin Scott In Vietnam

Memorial Day, the start of the Summer season, even though Summer does not arrive for a few more weeks.

I erroneously thought Memorial Day was the day we remembered relatives and friends who had passed away. And that Veterans Day was the day we remembered those who served in America's military.

When I saw multiple people posting Memorial Day homages to fallen soldiers, and those who served, I felt compelled to point out that Veterans Day was the day for that type homaging.

But, before doing so I Googled "Memorial Day" to learn I was wrong, as I often am.

This morning my cousin Scott's daughter Olivia posted the photo of her dad you see above. My cousin Scott then commented with...

"i was probably 20 when this was taken. sitting in the office in saigon and maybe listening to anti-war music my uncle gerry sent me..."

I don't know why, but my cousin Scott refuses to use capital letters.

I also don't  know why cousin Scott and his sister, cousin  Linda, insist on calling our youngest uncle, Uncle Jerry, when Uncle Jerry is known only as Uncle Mooch by my side of the family, and since my side of the family is more numerous I think our naming conventions should be the standard.

Then again, it is true that Uncle Mooch's wife, Jane, rather strongly objected the first time she heard Mooch's nephews and nieces call him Uncle Mooch. Jane relented when it was explained the Uncle Mooch name derived from a Disney character we liked, named Moochie.

I remember it being a big deal when cousin Scott returned to the states from one of his Vietnam tours. I recollect one memorable Thanksgiving, if I remember right, with it being a big deal that Scott was home.

I remember when Uncle Mooch was shipped out for military duty. I remember it being a tearful departure with Grandma Jones (Anglification of Slotemaker) and all of us at Sea-Tac, back in the good ol' pre-terrorist days when you could bid someone farewell right at the gate.

I think Uncle Mooch was in the Air Force. But on the ground, somewhere in the Middle East. Turkey maybe? Or was that Uncle Mel? I know Uncle Mel was stationed in Turkey during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Anyway, I hope y'all had yourselves a very memorable Memorial Day....

Walking Over The Wichita River On The Old Ohio Street Bridge

Yesterday I took myself to the Wichita Falls Farmers Market for the first, and likely only time. Suffice to say I bought nothing. I was hoping for a Dallas Farmers Market or Pike Place type experience.

Instead I got a slightly better than Fort Worth Farmers Market experience.

After spending a couple minutes at the Farmers Market I walked around downtown for a bit. Long enough to see that downtown Wichita Falls is in the midst of being re-vitalized, with a lot of re-vitalizing needing to take place.

Last week I visited the nearby Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture. It's nearby but on the other side of the tracks and the Wichita River from the location of the Farmers Market. After visiting the Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture last week I read somewhere that near that sculpture is a trail entry for the well regarded Wee-Chi-Tah Trail, thought, by some, to be the best mountain bike trail in Texas.

On my first visit I saw nothing which looked like a trail near the sculpture. So, since I was in the neighborhood I returned for a second look. This time I think I may have found the trail, but due to it being muddy the trail did not appear to have been rolled on recently.

Looking for the trail took me on a bridge I mentioned the first time I blogged about this location. You can watch video of yesterday's bridge walk below.

In the video I indicate I am wary of walking all the way across the bridge. However, after I finished the video I opted to walk all the way across due to curiosity regarding something I saw at the far end of the bridge. What I saw turned out to be the historical marker you see above.

From that historical marker I learned this river crossing is known at the Ohio Street Bridge, opened to traffic on July 4, 1886. A second span was added in 1911. In 1972 the bridge was closed to traffic and the older span demolished.

The Circle Trail, which circulates all over Wichita Falls, circulates under what remains of the Ohio Street Bridge. The Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture is on the north side of the river. I wonder why a side spur off the Circular Trail does not take bikers and walkers across the river to the sculpture? Currently the Wee-Chi-Tah Sculpture is a bit isolated from the downtown zone.

Below you can walk on the Ohio Street Bridge with me and get a good look at the extremely colorful, totally litter free Wichita River....

Wichita Falls World's Littlest Skyscraper Con Job vs. Fort Worth's Con Jobs

The middle arrow on the sign you see here points the direction to what is known as the World's Littlest Skyscraper.

To find this skyscraper I did not need directional signage because I had already found it a week or so ago. But, at that point in time I did not stop for a close up look because I did not have my camera with me, other than my phone camera.

That and I knew I was going to be visiting the Wichita Falls Farmers Market today, with that market being next door to the World's Littlest Skyscraper.

Before we look at the skyscraper, regarding that blue directional sign. This type signage is installed all over Wichita Falls. The signage is very useful. More on that in a subsequent blogging.

Above is another example of the blue signage one finds all over Wichita Falls. This particular signage seemed a bit unnecessary. What else could this structure be but the World's Littlest Skyscraper?

The tale of how this little skyscraper came to be in an amusing story. Wikipedia does a good job of telling the tale in its World's Littlest Skyscraper entry.

Short version: Wichita Falls was in the midst of an oil boom, needing office space. A con man, some think was a Yankee, conned several local businessmen into putting up the money to build an office tower. The investors approved of the building's blueprints. Construction began, apparently with none of the investors, or any other Wichita Fallers, noticing the foundation was very small.

Not noticing the foundation was small goes along with also not noticing that the blueprints showed the skyscraper's dimensions in inches, not feet, showing 480 inches in height, not 480 feet. When the investors realized they'd been swindled they sued, but a judge ruled the deal was not a swindle due to the fact that the approved blueprints showed a building the small size of the building which was actually built.

The swindle and the little skyscraper was a big embarrassment to the Wichita Falls locals, at the time. But, eventually enough time passed that that lemon was turned into the lemonade it is today.

I think it speaks well of the people of Wichita Falls that they fessed up to something that's a bit embarrassing and eventually embrace it as part of their shared history.

I used to live in another Texas town which was prone to swindles and con man cons. The people of that town never seemed to fess up to the fact that something turned out to be a bit embarrassing. Then again, the embarrassments weren't really the fault of the people. Rather the embarrassments were brought to the locals by the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network which runs the town in what is known as The Fort Worth Way.

During my time of being stuck in that town I saw the town swindled by a con job from a sporting goods store, convincing the local rubes in charge that this sporting goods store would be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas, drawing incredible numbers of tourists. All sorts of tax breaks and concessions were given to this store to land Fort Worth this imaginary prize.

Soon it was obvious that that sporting goods store was not going to be the #1 Tourist Attraction in Texas, it was not even the only iteration of that store in Texas, with another one opening by Austin a short time later. And then another opened in the D/FW Metro zone. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram never fessed up to their part in foisting this con on the town. Nor did the city government and the Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network which controls the city government.

And then there was the Santa Fe Rail Market, touted by that Good Ol' Boy and Girl Network and its mouthpiece, the Star-Telegram, as being modeled after Seattle's Pike Place and Public Markets in Europe. And that it was to be the first Public Market in Texas. This con job and its accompanying propaganda was so embarrassing to witness and so obviously grounded in pure ignorant idiocy that I made several webpages documenting the nonsense. You can find all that documentation by clicking on Santa Fe Rail Market.

And then there is Fort Worth's biggest con job littlest skyscraper type foolishness, an ongoing embarrassment known as the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island Vision, or, more commonly, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

My awareness of this embarrassment was brought to me like so many Fort Worth embarrassments, by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. On a Sunday morning early this century I recollect being startled by a big banner front page headline proclaiming something like "Trinity Uptown To Make Fort Worth the Vancouver of the South".

I recollect thinking how could anything possibly make Fort Worth be anything like Vancouver.

Mountains, big bodies of saltwater, a world's fair, a big Chinatown? What? I recollect wondering if any of these fools had actually been to Vancouver and thus realize how ludicrous it was to make such a claim.

This was followed not too long later by the equally bizarre assertion that a little lame food court type thing was modeled after Seattle's Pike Place, with me again wondering if any of these fools had actually been to Pike Place.

I wonder if America's Biggest Boondoggle will one day be like the World's Littlest Skyscraper in Wichita Falls, with unfinished bridges being some sort of tourist attraction and a historical marker explaining that the bridges were part of an ill-fated plan to connect Fort Worth's mainland to an imaginary island....

Burlington's Maiben Park Upgrade Has Me Wondering Anew Why Fort Worth Is So Backwards

A couple days ago Spencer Jack's dad, my Favorite Nephew Jason, emailed me an email with the subject line "Spencer Jack may be on a zip line through Burlington's city park in the future".

All that was in the body of the email was a link to an article in Skagit County Breaking Community News titled Safety Improvements Continue at Maiben Park.

Maiben Park is one of the city parks in the town I grew up in, Burlington, Washington. Maiben Park is across the street from our home location on Washington Avenue.

About a year ago a still unsolved murder took place in Maiben Park. This set in motion a community effort to make the park safer.

Community meetings have been taking place to solicit input from the public. Three paragraphs from the article about this effort...

Burlington, Washington– Burlington Community Leaders having been holding community meetings and asking  residents for input on some big changes that are coming to Maiben Park in the next year.

Some of the upcoming changes include improved L.E.D Lighting, Security Cameras, a separate play area for 2-5 year old children, an expanded  play area for 5-12 year old children that includes a zip line, new park benches, Free Wifi, parking epansions,  new restrooms with shelter and security options, picnic tables, and a new splash pad. Some of the items that will stay the same are the trees and bike jumps, among other things.

In the latest community meeting, which was held on Wednesday May 11th, officials shared  some digital copies of two of the new park diagrams that are now being considered.  The layouts are very similar with the position of the restroom building at different angles as the only major difference between the two options.

_____________________________

What a difference between the town I grew up in and the town I recently escaped from, Fort Worth, Texas.

Fort Worth has a bizarre pseudo public works project which has been dawdling along for most of this century, known as the Trinity River Uptown Central City Panther Island Vision, or more commonly, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Every three months America's Biggest Boondoggle mails out a slick propaganda production.

For years, each quarter, those propaganda productions tell the easily duped that The Boondoggle's Vision of the Gateway Park Master Plan includes over 90 user requested amenities.

Signage at Gateway Park's Fort Woof also mentions these 90 user requested amenities. For years I have been asking who these users are and what was the mechanism by which they made these amenity requests.

All I have heard is crickets chirping.

I think growing up in a little town like Burlington, population then somewhere around 3,000, now somewhere around 8,000, and then seeing a big city, like Fort Worth, up close, with a population around 100 times bigger than Burlington, yet so backwards by comparison, is what has long perplexed me about Fort Worth, trying to figure out why the town is so backwards and lacking in so many ways. Like the miles of roads without sidewalks. And parks without modern restrooms.

Decades ago, when I was a kid, playing in Maiben Park, the park had modern restroom facilities and running water for the park's picnickers.

I think, if I remember right, I have verbalized a time or two how appalling I have long found the fact that most of Fort Worth's city parks do not have modern restrooms or running water.

How is it not some sort of universal health code violation to have city parks with picnic tables with no running water to wash ones hands?

As part of the Maiben Park upgrade the park is getting new restrooms. And free wi-fi. Free wi-fi is not a concept alien to Texans. On Wednesday I was in the Texas Star park in Euless, connected to that park's wi-fi.

The towns surrounding Fort Worth have multiple parks with modern amenities. I really don't understand why there is not some sort of Fort Worth sense of civic embarrassment that the town is so backwards with its outdated parks which belong in another century.

Or a Third World country....

Wichita Falls Prairie Dogs Lead Me To The Historical Mystery Of Zenobia Trimble

A couple weeks ago when I first visited the Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town in Kiwanis Park I was perplexed about something I found there.

A cemetery.

Kiwanis Park includes Lakeview Cemetery.

Now, I guess that would not seem all that unusual, except for the fact that directly across the street, on the south side of Southwestern Boulevard is another cemetery. A big one called Rosemont.

So, on my last play date with the Prairie Dogs I decided to check out Lakeview Cemetery. I have long found wandering around an old cemetery to be interesting. I got this trait from my Grandma Jones.

Clever epitaphs and elaborate headstones were popular long ago. The best examples of this I have ever come across is in the Roslyn Cemetery in Roslyn, Washington. This is the town the CBS show Northern Exposure was filmed in. The Roslyn Cemetery is divided into something like 30 different sections, based on race, ethnicity and country of origin.

Among the interesting headstones I found in the Lakeview Cemetery is the one you see above for Mary Washington. She died in 1998 at 107 years old.

As I wandered among the headstones I started to think that Lakeview Cemetery might be an African-American burial ground. It was the names which made me think this. An awful lot of Beulahs.

So, when I was back at my computer I Googled Lakeview Cemetery Wichita Falls and found the following entry about Lakeview Cemetery on the City of Wichita Falls website....

Lakeview Cemetery is an 11.5 acre facility with 2250 burials since it opened in 1927.

In 1927 the City of Wichita Falls purchased 80 acres of land on the south side of town and designated 11.5 acres as Lakeview Cemetery. The remainder has become Kiwanis Park. 

Lakeview is well known for the African American community leaders who are interred there. Some of the most prominent are Zenobia Trimble, who has a Texas historical marker placed on her grave; Otis C. Polk Jr.; and C.E. and Gwendolyn Jackson. One of Wichita Falls’ longest lived citizens, Mary Washington, is buried there. She lived to be 107.

I am assuming Lakeview Cemetery is a relic from the age of segregation. I did not see any recent headstones.

As for Lakeview Cemetery having had 2250 burials since opening, well, most of those burials must have been without grave marking headstones, because I did not see anywhere near that number of grave markers.

Next time I play with the Prairie Dogs I must try and find the Zenobia Trimble gravesite and its Texas historical marker to find out why Zenobia Trimble is of historial interest.

Picnicking In Haltom City Without Elsie Hotpepper Or Amon Carter

I have long done my best to emulate my favorite Fort Worth historical figure.

Amon Carter.

When Amon Carter had the distasteful task of needing to venture all the way to Dallas he packed a lunch to take with him, so as not to leave any more money, than need be, in that evil town to the east of Fort Worth.

Now that I have exiled myself from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, on those rare occasions when I return, like today, I pack a lunch.

Today on my way out of the Metroplex mess I stopped at Whites Branch Park in Haltom City for a pseudo picnic.

Whites Branch Park should be named Ally Collins Park, but I digress.

I would never stop in a Fort Worth park for a pseudo picnic, due to most Fort Worth parks missing an essential picnic element that I deem necessary for a modern era picnic experience.

Can you spot what this little Haltom City park has which most Fort Worth parks lack?

If you spotted running water in the form of a fountain, you are very observant.

This little park in Haltom City also has modern restroom facilities with modern indoor plumbing. An amenity also lacking in most Fort Worth city parks.

Elsie Hotpepper texted me whilst I was picnicking in Haltom City, with geographic information.  I had harbored the delusion that Elsie Hotpepper was joining me on this picnic, but that was not to be, to my great  disappointment....

I Had Myself A BUC-EE World Famous Restroom Experience Today

A couple weeks ago en route from Wichita Falls to East Fort Worth I opted to exit 287 to 114 to take a different route than that which I'd been on way too many times, of late.

That route turned out to be a mistake, which I repeated today when I needed to be in Euless, which made the 114 route to 121, then south to Euless seem the sensible way to go.

It wasn't.

Anyway, when I went this route a couple weeks ago, at the point where 114 intersected with 35W, I was surprised to see the biggest bank of gas pumps I had ever seen. With no gas getting pumped. But due to all the cars parked around this location I figured it was open, but for some reason not pumping gas.

I figured wrong. BUC-EE's is the name of the place. Apparently a Southern institution I'd never heard of or experienced.

Til today.

Between the time of seeing BUC-EE's a couple weeks ago, in what turned out to be its under construction phase, I learned BUC-EE's is well known for its amazing restroom facilities.

I had not been amazed by a restroom facility since December 27, 1994 when I visited the palatial Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda. Or was it in Whittier? I don't remember.

Since I first saw BUC-EE's its Grand Opening happened, and is still happening. So, today I joined the throngs pumping gas at one of the BUC-EE gas pumps. And then went inside.

I was not expecting the humongous beehive of activity or vast store of goods and food when I walked through the entry to BUC-EE's.

At the center of the store I came to a food preparation area with a rather astounding array of vittles.

One ordered ones vittles at a touch screen kiosk. I went through the motions of acting like I was ordering something. I touched the screen. A plethora of options came up. I chose Sandwiches. Then Fish Sandwich. I think the base fee was $6.99. Then add-on options were offered. I touched bacon, then jalapeno, then tomato, then extra fish. With each touch the cost was adjusted til I'd made myself a Fish Sandwich costing something like $10.99, plus tax.

I then walked away.

I think I saw the future of the fast food ordering experience today.

And then I found the entry to the BUC-EE's Restrooms.

As you can see, the RESTROOMS sign informs us they are World Famous!

Well, I certainly was impressed.

HUGE is a word that came to mind. Each, uh, station, gave its user a sense of privacy I'd not seen in such a facility before. And everything was automated. All one had to do for oneself was handle ones zipper or buttons.

I also dropped in on Miss Puerto Rico today, to see the babies and pick up some mail, and some other stuff.

The drive between Wichita Falls and the Metroplex seems shorter each time I drive it.

Visit To Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town Ends With A Mama Dog Scolding

For my daily communing with nature today I decided to return to my neighborhood Prairie Dog Town and its Dog Town suburbs.

Soon upon turning onto the road which leads to the Wichita Falls Prairie Dog Town I came upon multiple Prairie Dog Puppies playing in the road.

By the time I got my camera pointed out the windshield all but the two Puppies you see here remained on the road, whilst the others had retreated back to the protection of their Mama.

We will see that Mama later in a photo and via video.

But first I got photo evidence of why the Wichita Falls Prairie Dogs seem to be so tolerant of their human visitors.

The above lady was with her kids, tossing food to the Prairie Dogs. I asked what she was throwing at them. Carrots was the answer. She said they eat just about anything. If you look closely you can see that the burrow receiving carrots is near some playground equipment. Let's look closer at that.

Prairie Dogs have built a Prairie Dog Town suburb quite close to the ladder which leads to a curving slide.

Another Prairie Dog Town suburb has been built near a row of swings. Clearly the Prairie Dogs like to live near where their human friends play.

Below is the aforementioned Prairie Dog Mama and a couple of her babies.

I got too close to the babies and their Mama, which had Mama scolding me and sort of waving her upper arms at me as she stood up. I think the scolding may have been Prairie Dog barking. You can see this incident in the video below, along with a look at the wall which surrounds Prairie Dog Town...