In Wichita Falls Praying For Revival Hoping Jesus Is The Answer

For a couple weeks I have been seeing that which you see here at the northwest corner of the intersection of Kemp Boulevard and Midwestern Parkway in beautiful Wichita Falls.

Today was the first time the stoplight cooperated enough to allow the taking of a phone photo through the driver's side window.

Today's sign holding group was the smallest I have seen.

Three.

 I think the most I've seen is double that.

Whilst struggling to take a picture I did not have time to read what was on the sign held by the sitting cowboy. The standing cowboy remained with his back turned to me til the light turned green, so I had no chance of reading what was on that sign.

Previous signs have expressed sentiments such as "Pray for Revival" and "Jesus is the Answer".

I have no idea what the question is to which Jesus is the answer, or what is in need of reviving.

I suppose if I really wanted to know I could stop and ask the cowboys....

Over Half Decade Ago Trinity River Vision Pretended To Be Underway

Yesterday after I blogged about Hoping The Lake Wichita Revitalization Project Happens Soon it got me to thinking, anew, about Fort Worth's pitiful Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision, known now as America's Biggest Boondoggle, due to boondoggling along for most of this century, with little to show for the effort.

Currently Fort Worth's clouded vision is being made more murky due to the inability of Fort Worth Congresswoman, Kay Granger, to secure federal pork barrel money to help jump start the stalled project in dire need of a money infusing defibrillator.

Kay Granger's son, J.D., with no experience running any sort of public works project, was hired by America's Biggest Boondoggle to be the Executive Director of what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle.

Hiring J.D. was supposed to help motivate his mama to secure those federal handouts.

That has not quite worked out as planned. Instead, J.D., with a highly honed frat boy mentality, has turned that long ago Trinity River Vision into seeing things like muscial happy hour inner tube floats in the polluted Trinity River.

Yesterday a conversation about how Wichita Falls seems to wisely go about a project, such as revitalizing Lake Wichita, turned into musing about how bizarrely backwards Fort Worth is when trying to do just about anything.

That musing had me thinking back to when I first saw signage claiming that the Trinity River Vision was underway. With that "underway" verbiage referring to the actual moving of dirt, rather than simply propagandizing about moving dirt. The dirt moving propaganda began in 2002. Eight years later the signage appeared announcing that the cloudy vision was underway.

The last day of September, 2010, I rode my bike from Gateway Park, west, towards the Stockyards. A short distance after passing under I-35 I found myself seeing signage such as you see above, informing me, and others, that the long stalled Trinity River Vision was finally underway.

Six years ago.

I blogged about being astonished by the number of Trinity River Vision underway signs, and other ridiculousness in The Trinity River Vision Is Underway With A Lot Of Signs.

Among the things astonishing me that day was an area where the Trinity Trail had been re-routed around what looked like a big excavated area.

When she read that long ago blogging Connie D commented asking if this (a link to a TRV webpage) could be what I saw.

Cowtown Wakepark.

What I saw that day, six years ago, was America's Biggest Boondoggle moving a lot of earth to build a private business a pond. Soon after Cowtown Wakepark opened it went out of business, due to what seemed to me to be a rather obvious bad business model.

That and building such a thing where a predictable flood could do a lot of damage.

Ironic that such an easily flooded entity would be built by a project touted as a much need flood control project.

How much money did The Boondoggle spend to build that pond for the Cowtown Wakepark? Why has the Cowtown Wakepark's failure and The Boondoggle's part in that failure not become an issue with the local media? You know, journalists covering wrongdoing.

J.D. Granger was quoted multiple times touting the viability and wonders of Cowtown Wakepark giving the citizens of Fort Worth the ability to satisfy their imaginary long held desire to participate in the sport of wakeboarding.

Why has J.D. Granger not been held accountable for the failure of Cowtown Wakepark? Or any of the other failures of America's Biggest Boondoggle?

Like that simple little bridge being built over dry land to connect Fort Worth's mainland to an imaginary island. Is that bridge yet back under construction after a half year delay due to supposed design problems, and not due to the rumored lack of funds, due to J.D.'s mama not delivering that federal pork?

Both J.D. and his mama need to be fired....

Hoping The Lake Wichita Revitalization Project Happens Soon

I was back in Lake Wichita Park today, climbing to the summit of Mount Wichita.

I cut the mountain climbing short due to there being way too many skeeters skeetering about.

I'm assuming the recent rain and the drop in temperature has the mosquitoes out and about in bloody bite mode.

When a skeeter skeetered to my left ear lobe I decided to seek skeeter free shelter.

I was not long in Wichita Falls before I learned there was a local effort known as the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project, aimed at returning Lake Wichita to its former glory, well, actually, even more glorious than its former glory days of long ago.

Below is an artist's rendering of one aspect of the proposed Lake Wichita Revitalization.

In the view from the summit, in the photo at the top, we are looking down on the area where hopefully soon the beach you see above will be built.

The Wichita Falls city website is where I gleaned the beach scene, along with a lot of other information about this project.

The Lake Wichita Revitalization Project came into existence a couple years ago. Currently the permitting process is underway, with the project taking 1.5 to 3 years to complete. The lake will be drained and dredged so as to make for a deeper, healthier lake. Water features will be added, such as a canoe/kayak trail which will wind its way around Mount Wichita and a new mountain which will be added near Mount Wichita.

I have not been in Wichita Falls long enough to know if this project is actually going to happen, or if it will end up being like a Fort Worth project, as in dawdle along in slow motion, blustered by a lot of hot air, turning into an embarrassing boondoggle due to corruption, ineptness, poor planning and, well, wanton stupidity.

I suspect, judging by what I have seen so far in Wichita Falls, with so many things, like city parks, done so well, and events, such as the just completed Hotter'N Hell 100, done so well, that the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project is going to happen, and will happen in a timely fashion.

And the end result will be a HUGE boon to Wichita Falls and the entire Texoma region.

I hope the Lake Wichita Revitalization happens much sooner than later. I want another mountain to climb, a lake to swim in and a kayak trail to paddle on....

Is The TRWD-Gate Scandal About To Blow Wide Open?

Last week, on August 24, 2016, to be precise, I blogged about Tarrant Regional Water District Board Election Fraud.

In that blogging I blogged about the rather bizarre fact that nothing had been done about the rather obvious electoral fraud which occurred in the last TRWD Board Election, where Marty Leonard and Jim Lane were re-elected in a HUGE landslide, breaking Mary Kelleher's previous TRWD Board Election record by around 10,000 votes.

10,000 votes in an election which did not attract a large number of voters, and yet this election somehow generated around 10,000 absentee ballots, which, apparently, coincidentally, was about the same number of votes Leonard and Lane landslided to victory with.

Yet I detected no verbalization of outrage in what passes for the Tarrant County press and media. No editorial in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram calling for an investigation. Nary a peep in Fort Worth Weekly, Nothing about the unseemly election results in the Fort Worth Business Press, which had endorsed one of those trying to unseat Leonard and Lane, that being Craig Bickley.

Two days after blogging about me being perplexed by the TRWD electoral fraud I was informed that finally something, supposedly is being done about this miscarriage of electoral justice.

I first learned of this on August 26, 2016 via the Star-Telegraph. Please note that is Star-Telegraph, not Star-Telegram.

Above is a partial screen cap of the Star-Telegraph blog post titled Attorney General’s Office Investigating Voter Fraud in Tarrant County.

An entity about which I know nothing, called Empower Texans, is apparently behind the effort to ferret out the corruption in elections in Tarrant County.

You can read the Empower Texans post about the Tarrant County Electoral Fraud in AG Investigating Voting Abnormalities in Tarrant County Elections.

As you can see, via the screen cap from the Star-Telegraph, the official in charge of the Tarrant County Election Office admits to knowing there were abnormalities related to mail-in ballots.

Now, unless I missed it, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has not informed its readers that Tarrant County is being investigated for Electoral Fraud. Would one not think that this is news the local population might want to know about?

It's like there is a Watergate type cover up of a worse crime than Watergate, with no local Woodward and Bernstein, journalizing for no local newspaper, following the money to find out how it happened that thousands of absentee ballots came in to play in the last TRWD Board Election.

Who has the most to lose if control of the TRWD Board is lost to the good ol' boy and girl network which runs Fort Worth and its environs in what is known as the Fort Worth Way?

It is all very perplexing.

Hotter'N Hell 100 Finish Line In Wichita Falls With Mr. Spiffy

No, that is not Mr. Spiffy you are looking at here, shortly after crossing the Hotter'N Hell 100 Finish Line.

I did not catch their names, but the announcer announced, to thunderous applause, that this pair of bikers was somewhere in the 90 years old range. I did not catch the exact age, due to the atmosphere being a bit noisy, which you can hear for yourself via the below video taken at the Hotter'N Hell 100 Finish Line.

Not everyone crossing the Finish Line rolled the entire 100 miles. I documented that fact in a blogging previous to this one titled Pickle Juice & Muscle Milk At The Wichita Falls Hotter'N Hell 100.

To qualify to go the full 100 miles riders must make it to what is known as "Hell's Gate" at the 60 mile mark by 12:30pm.

Mr. Spiffy took time out from rolling his wheels to take a picture of making it through Hell's Gate and documenting having done so on Facebook. Just a second, I will go see if I can find that picture. I'm sure Mr. Spiffy won't mind me purloining it.

If one makes it though Hell's Gate in time I believe the 100 mile route then eventually takes riders through Sheppard Air Force base where much cheering takes place.

Somewhere around 14,000 riders ride in the Hotter'N Hell 100. There are distance options shorter than the 100, such as 50 mile and 25 mile options. I think there may even be a shorter option.

What I do know for sure is riders were crossing the Finish Line the entire time I was there. I think I was off looking at something else when the first rider to complete the 100 miles crossed the Finish Line.

Below you can see a couple of race helpers holding orange strings to which Hotter'N Hell 100 race completion medals were attached. Part of the medal giver's job seemed to be to keep the riders moving along to make way for incoming Finish Line crossers.

The Finish Line scene became a bit chaotic at times, which you will also see in the video at the bottom.

As you can see, bikers came in all sizes and ages.

I was at the Hotter'N Hell 100 not too long today before I decided that next year I want to roll wheels at this event. This will require new wheels. A mountain bike would not work.

And now the aforementioned video where I find myself wandering amongst the incoming bikers crossing the Finish Line...

Pickle Juice & Muscle Milk At The Wichita Falls Hotter'N Hell 100

Yesterday I was told by a lifelong Wichita Falls local that the Hotter'N Hell 100 was a really big deal, bringing thousands of people to downtown Wichita Falls.

I thought there might be some exaggerating going on with that thousands of people claim.

Then this morning I was listening to the local radio station which calls itself BOB to find myself being told that there were already thousands of people at the MPEC (Multi-Purpose Events Center).

Yesterday I learned from Hotter'N Hell rider, Mr. Spiffy, that one needs to be at the finish line by 11 to be certain to see the first of the 100 mile riders cross the line.

I arrived in the MPEC zone around ten this morning. I quickly realized that that thousands of people claim was no exaggeration. All the parking lots around the MPEC were full, as were multiple other parking places near the MPEC. I drove towards the heart of downtown and found a place to park near where I parked for the 4th of July parade. It was only a couple block walk to get to the event center.

Via Facebook Mr. Spiffy has been updating his progress on today's 100 mile ride. The only update I saw prior to leaving for the Hotter'N Hell 100 was Mr. Spiffy's update from the first rest stop, where he was in line eagerly awaiting his dose of Pickle Juice.

Pickle Juice? wondered I and others.

One of the first things I saw upon arrival at the Hotter'N Hell 100 was that which you see above. A banner advertising the aforementioned Pickle Juice. I was offered no sample of Pickle Juice, but I was offered, multiple times, something called Muscle Milk. The first time I was asked if I would like some Muscle Milk I took slight umbrage. The question somehow seemed disparaging. In the video below, at the bottom of this blogging, you will see the moment I discovered from whence the Muscle Milk came.

The temperate was a bit warm, in the 80s, as I explored the Hotter'N Hell 100, and humid.

The above person, attired to look like a Holstein cow, asking people to eat more chicken, was miserable just to look at. The sad cow looked so HOT, and a bit feeble from likely heat exhaustion, with that feebleness requiring walking assistance in the form of the lady on the left helping the cow keep upright.

Art Bikes was a new addition to the Hotter'N Hell 100 this year.

There were dozens of cleverly designed bikes. The elephant bike was not the most clever, but it did seem to be the most photogenic.

Below we have some abstract Bike Art.

Near the Finish Line there is a large First Aid Station.

I don't know at what point in the ride the guy above crashed into injury mode. It looked painful. Did he crash near the Finish Line? Or crash miles away, but continue on to the Finish Line where he coasted to the First Aid Station?

At the Hotter'N Hell 100 one can escape the HEAT and find themselves in air-conditioned comfort inside a large exhibition hall where a lot of vendors were exhibiting a lot of bike related goods. As you can see, more people were enjoying the HEAT outdoors, than the indoor conditioned air.

What is all that orange material you see below being guarded by guards in gray t-shirts?

Well, the above is at the finish line where a constant stream of bikers crossed the line to find themselves being given a medal attached to an orange string.

The video below will give you a better idea of what some of the Hotter'N Hell 100 event looked like this morning. I took a lot of pictures, and video. Following this blogging I will blog another one, focused on the Hotter'N Hell Finish Line, where you may, or may not, see Mr. Spiffy.

At MPEC Day Before Wichita Falls Hotter'N Hell Hundred

Like I said in the Looking At Lucy Park Pagoda Focal Points Before Looking At Hotter'N Hell 100 blog post, which preceded the blog post you are reading right now, after doing some nature communing along the Wichita River in Wichita Falls' Lucy Park, I intended to make my way, via a confusing maze of roads, to the MPEC (Multi-Purpose Events Center) to see what there was to see of the Hotter'N Hell 100.

Well, I saw that which you see here, which I believe must be either the starting point, or finish line, or both of tomorrow's HOT race around Wichita Falls.

Before I saw that which you see above I saw a HUGE encampment of RVs, trailers and tents, set up on parking lots to the south of the MPEC.

I took several photos of the Hotter'N Hell encampment, but my photo skills do not render a photo worthy of showing how HUGE this conglomeration is of the Hotter'N Hellers is.

I saw a lot of vendors getting set up, likely opening later today, or maybe tomorrow.

The Hotter'N Hell 100 starts early Saturday morning. I expect to be at the MPEC before noon tomorrow, hopefully before the first rider rolls across the finish line.

I know only one person riding in tomorrow's Hotter'N Hell 100. He being the extremely speedy, Mr. Spiffy. Yesterday I learned Mr. Spiffy's doctor told him that for him to be in top shape for a 100 mile bike ride he needed to lose 20 pounds and start drinking red wine.

I doubt Mr. Spiffy has managed to lose the prescribed 20 pounds in the time since the prescription. I also doubt that enough time has passed for the wine to have had its salubrious effect.

Nonetheless, when I am at the finish line tomorrow, I fully expect Mr. Spiffy to be the first to cross it...

Looking At Lucy Park Pagoda Focal Points Before Looking At Hotter'N Hell 100

Til today I had not been back to Lucy Park since receiving an interesting blog comment earlier this month, part of which referenced that which you see here, that being the Lucy Park Pagoda.

Ann Arnold-Ogden has left a new comment on your post "Wichita Falls Creatively Covers Traffic Signal Boxes":

I'm the Community Marketing Director at the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, and I'm currently working on a video for Lucy Park! I asked the Parks Director, Jack Murphy about the pagodas a few months ago. In his email, he replied, "I thought it would be interesting to have some ornamental structures with an Asian flair. The blue roof Pagoda and the smaller shelter by the park road are meant to be focal points from each other along the open space axis between." 

Further information on Mrs. Saunders from her obituary: Mrs. Lucy O. Saunders, one of Americas foremost woman oil operators, died here today of Spanish Influenza. She amassed a vast fortune in the oil business, operating successfully in the Sour Lake, Batson, Tulsa and the Burkburnett fields. One of her most notable achievements was development of the Sunshine Hill, Texas field. 

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Today I wanted to check out the epicenter of tomorrow's Hotter'N Hell 100 at the MPEC (Multi-Purpose Events Center).

Since Lucy Park is near MPEC I thought a peaceful nature walk would be salubrious prior to getting Hotter'N Hell.

And at Lucy Park I could check out the Pagoda and see if I could figure out how the Pagoda and another structure were focal points from each other.

Figuring out that focal point thing proved to be a futile effort. My powers of imagination are quite weak.

After failing to find the focal point I continued on to something more tangible.

With that tangible thing being the Lucy Park suspension bridge across the Wichita River.

I wonder how long it took to build this Wichita Falls suspension bridge over the Wichita River? I suspect construction took way less time than the four years it took San Francisco to build a suspension bridge across the Golden Gate.

Or the four years it is supposedly supposed to take Fort Worth to build a bridge over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

I like the golden brown color of the Wichita River. I wonder if anyone inner tubes in the Wichita River? The Wichita River somehow looks more inviting to get wet in than the Trinity River as it flows through Fort Worth. The Wichita River looks like one would be taking a mud bath, whilst the Trinity River looks like one would be taking a sewer bath.

It also helps the Wichita River seem more appealing to float in due to the fact that, unlike the Trinity River, one is not also floating with a lot of litter of various unseemly sorts.

Is the Wichita River tested for bad stuff, like too much E.coli? I suppose if no one goes floating in the Wichita River there would be no reason to be testing it for E.coli.

Well, enough of that, it's time to head to the MPEC and Hotter 'N Hell 100.

Need For Changed Oil Eventually Takes Me To A Wichita Falls Dock On A Bay

When I ignited my motorized means of vehicular transportation this morning the dashboard told me something like I should change the oil soon.

I am a big fan of being right on top of vehicle maintenance, never procrastinating on these type issues.

So, since I was driving to Walmart, among other destinations, and knowing Walmart had an Auto Care Department, I figured what could go wrong with a Walmart oil change?

I figured right. It was an efficient operation. I walked in, said I needed an oil change, was told to park the vehicle at the first open bay, did so. A Walmart auto tech guy was quickly there with a high tech handheld device taking down all the vital information.

I was given a card to scan on the in store price check scanning devices, with the card scanning telling me the status of the oil change whilst I did my search for Walmart goods. The first time I scanned the card I was told "Waiting". The second time I scanned the card I was told "In Bay".

I did not scan the card a third time because the in store loudspeaker loudly told me that "Mr. Jones, your vehicle is ready."

The whole process took about 15 minutes.

Leaving Walmart I took the out in the country route, leaving Wichita Falls to make my way to Lake Wichita for some maritime refreshment via a location I'd not been to previously, that being the Lake Wichita Boat Launch and Dock.

Walking out to the end of the Dock was a bit of a rickety boardwalk experience that I liked.

In the  photo documentation above, way in the distance you can see Mount Wichita looming over the far side of the lake.

I had originally planned to do some mountain climbing on Mount Wichita today, But, with the temperature semi-hot in the mid 80s, and with no wind blowing, I opted not to overheat via mountain climbing and instead acquired endorphins via negative ions zapping from the slow moving waves on the lake.

In August Thinking About Climbing Snow Covered Mount Wichita

No, that is not snow covered Mount Rainier you are looking at here. What you are looking at here is snow covered Mount Wichita in Wichita Falls, Texas.

A day or two ago I opined that it would be a good thing for a chair lift to be installed to take people to the summit of Mount Wichita, obviating the need to do that vexing mountain climbing thing for those disinclined to experience vertical exercise.

It did not occur to me that a chair lift to the summit of Mount Wichita might facilitate downhill skiing.

I found the photo you see above on the Facebook page about Mount Wichita titled The Dirt Hill.

Calling Mount Wichita "The Dirt Hill" seems sort of rude to me.

Are those people in the foreground sliding on a frozen Lake Wichita? If so, apparently Wichita Falls has the capacity to become a bit of a Winter Wonderland.

You would need to click the photo to enlarge it to see the large number of people trekking their way to the summit of the snow covered Mount Wichita.

I can not imagine doing so. Climbing Mount Wichita is treacherous enough without the added treachery of ice and snow.

I suspect in a few months, weather permitting, I will be finding out how doable it is to ascend and descend Mount Wichita when it is in snow covered mode...