Happy Valentine's Day Hike To The Summit Of Arizona's Camelback Mountain

No, that is not Mount Wichita you are looking at here, though the resemblance is uncanny.

Currently, on this Valentine's Day of 2017, Mount Wichita is shrouded in clouds with those clouds dripping on the mountain and its surrounding area.

That would be Camelback Mountain we are looking at here, not Mount Wichita. Mount Wichita is in Texas.

Camelback Mountain is located two states to the west, in Arizona, in what is known as the Valley of the Sun, which is the location of towns such as Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe, Chandler  and Sun Lakes.

A few minutes ago my phone made  its incoming text message noise. Soon upon checking on the source of that noise I saw a message with a photo.

The message was "Valentine's morning  hike to the top of Camelback. Heading south  to Sun Lakes later today."

You can see who sent this message from Camelback below, but before we get to that let's take a closer look at the south side of Camelback Mountain.

It was my Favorite Nephews, Chris and Jeremy, whose mom, my Favorite Sister, Jackie, took me on a tour of Camelback Mountain during my most recent visit to Arizona. The homes built on to the side of Camelback are impressive. I really liked the one above which looked like a fortified castle with a cactus making what looked like an obscene gesture in the foreground.

Prior to touring Camelback, Jackie and I had hiked up the former Squaw Peak, now known as Piestewa Peak. This was a brutal hike in blazing sun, with the trail shared with dozens of tourists from all over America, in town to watch baseball players play some training games.

No, what we are looking at here is not the well designed trail to the summit of Camelback Mountain. I believe that summit trail is accessed from the north side of the mountain. What we are looking at here is on the south side, with that stairway leading to yet one more impressive home built into the side of the mountain.

And now we get to the mountaineer who sent the below photo this Valentine's morning from high atop Camelback Mountain.

That would be Spencer Jack's Favorite Dad, my Favorite Nephew, Jason, currently in the Scottsdale zone to see his dad and to surprise his Grandma, in the aforementioned town of Sun Lakes, with appropriate Valentine's Day surprises. I assume such would be a box of chocolates and maybe some sort of fragrant flower.

Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day from the summit of  Camelback Mountain....

Return Of Cold Jogging Along Holliday Creek With No Threat From Lake Oroville Dam Failure

With the outer world temperature one degree short of being 20 degrees above freezing I decided to layer on the outer wear as best I could manage so as to have myself some endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation acquired via moving fast on the Circle Trail.

A steady breeze from the north today brought about that much dreaded wind chill factor. That factor somewhat abated when I switched my movement direction from heading north to heading south.

As you can see via the photo documentation dark clouds make rain appear likely.

I suspect Holliday Creek and its gorge, which you see part of above, would like to see some rain, as not much water is currently moving in Holliday Creek.

Last night an incoming  news alert informed me that the catastrophic failure of the Oroville Lake Dam was imminent within an hour. And that a large  swatch of California was ordered to evacuate ahead of the expected catastrophic wall of water.

I'd been watching the drama on that particular California dam since early last week. When I went to the live YouTube feed  of last night's ongoing dam situation that situation  quickly became muddled.

As in was the danger due to the erosion  in the main spillway which early in the week had been deemed not a serious problem? Or was the danger due to erosion on the emergency spillway? The news reporters seemed to be confused as to what the precise danger source was.

I watched the drama for about an hour, and then opted to cease with the watching. By morning the dam had not failed, the water level  was down, no catastrophic failure had occurred. But more rain is on the way.

I suspect today there are a lot  of Californians feeling a bit cranky that they were given a few minutes to evacuate due to failure being expected within the hour.

But it is always better to be safe than sorry.

And the Oroville Lake Dam has not  had its dam problem fixed, so a catastrophic failure could still happen.

Let's hope  not. In Washington I eye witnessed the destruction  resulting from a dike failure when a flooding Skagit River broke through the dike downstream from my home zone in Mount Vernon, causing Fir Island to be flooded.

A breech in the dike of a flooding river is a minor thing compared to the failure of a dam.

Currently I am living downstream a mile from a dam, the Lake Wichita Dam, which holds back the water of Holliday Creek. It would take one HUGE flood to breach the top of Lake Wichita Dam and cause a catastrophic failure. Or so it seems to me. But what do I know about dam engineering? Not much...

Felix Lindsey Gone But Not Forgotten At Wichita Falls Riverside Cemetery

The oldest cemetery in Wichita Falls is Riverside Cemetery, located on a bluff on the south side of the Wichita River, adjacent to Lucy Park, with Wichita Falls flowing from its north side.

Most of Wichita Falls most famous and infamous citizens are buried in Riverside Cemetery. Familiar local names like  Kemp, Kell, Barwise and others.

Multiple Texas State Historical Markers tell the story of many of the Riverside Cemetery inhabitants.

Walking around Riverside Cemetery takes one on a trek through Texas and American history, past statuary, elaborate mausoleums and monuments.

Among the Texas State Historical Markers is one telling the story of Felix L. Lindsey.

The text on the Felix Lindsay Historical Marker...

FELIX L. LINDSEY

Felix L. Lindsey was born in Gallatin County, Kentucky on October 10, 1847. His mother was mulatto and his father was full-blood Creek Indian. He was sent to live with a white family named Meeks when he was seven years old and was provided a small amount of education so that he could help with the family's business. During the Civil War, Lindsey was tasked by the family with carrying food to Union soldiers camped nearby and he developed a fondness for the uniform. In 1882, Lindsey joined the U.S. Army and was assigned to the 10th Calvary Regiment of "Buffalo Soldiers" at Fort Davis, Texas. In 1885, his unit was sent to Arizona to pursue Apache tribe leader, Geronimo. In later accounts to interviewers Lindsey recalled pursuing Apaches along narrow canyon trails, witnessing soldiers being shot from their horses and a brief encounter with Geronimo as he was negotiating his surrender. Felix Lindsey suffered three wounds that ended his military career at Fort Sill, Oklahoma in 1893.

Soon after, Lindsey moved to Wichita Falls where he married Mary Tillman and raised their family of nine children. Lindsey lived and worked in the African-American community, operating a drapery cleaning service and house cleaning service.  Physically limited by his military service wounds, Lindsey employed family members in his business ventures and earned respect among his clients. Felix L. Lindsey died in Wichita Falls on September 14, 1939 at the age of 92. The life of Felix Lindsey is a testament to the passion and perseverance of African Americans after the Civil War to prosper and earn respect during a turbulent time in Texas and our nation.

_______________

From the official City of Wichita Falls Riverside  Cemetery webpage....

Riverside is the oldest cemetery in Wichita Falls. It was originally known as Wichita Cemetery. The first burial took place December 18, 1879.

Many of the City's founding fathers and their families are buried in Riverside as well as a few infamous former citizens. There are many hand carved granite monuments and mausoleums that date back to the early 20th century that make for interesting viewing during a quiet walk among the stately trees and picturesque trails.

_______________

From the Texas State Historical Marker one comes to at the entry to Riverside Cemetery...

African American citizens organized the “Riverside Colored Burial Association,” and in 1906 the city sold the association a half-acre on Riverside’s northwest corner. Hundreds of burials took place in that section, although today few grave markers remain. Improvement to Riverside over the years included a chapel, iron fencing and gates, landscaping and street paving. 

Near the Felix Lindsey Historical Marker, and grave marker, in the African-American section of Riverside Cemetery, is the above headstone, fallen on hard times, literally, with the name no longer able to be read, with the epitaph an ironic, "GONE  BUT NOT FORGOTTEN"...

Happy Birthday Little Sister Jackie

On the morning of this day, many decades ago, way back in the previous century, my little brother, Jake, big sister, Clancy, and myself, found ourselves sitting on the south side of the curb of Fairhaven  Avenue in the Washington town called Burlington.

Our home abode at the time was on the same block as the curb we were sitting on, on the street due south called Washington Avenue, directly across from Maiben Park, Burlington's one and only city park.

On the north side of Fairhaven at that point in time there was a hospital. I do not remember the name of that hospital. It was soon  to be turned into apartments when a new hospital called United General was built between Burlington and Sedro-Woolley.

It was in that new United General Hospital that my last littlest sister, Michele, the mother of David, Theo and Ruby was born.

And it was in that long gone hospital on Fairhaven Avenue that my then littlest sister, Jackie, was born, on this date, decades ago.

Myself and my two siblings were sitting on that curb on that morning on this day, decades ago, so we could see our new baby sister for the first time. At that point in time kids were not allowed in the hospital, or so we were told.

So, we sat on the Fairhaven curb and scanned the fourth floor windows until we finally spotted our dad holding our new baby sister, Jackie, at the window, so we could see her for the first time.

I remember this like it happened only yesterday. I was seven at the time.

Happy Birthday, Jackie. Hope to see you soon.....

93 Degree Texas Heat Wave Before Incoming Snow

Is 93 degrees a February 11 record for Wichita Falls?

I have so far resisted turning on the air conditioning.

I have turned on the ceiling fans.

Tomorrow a new cold  front arrives, followed, supposedly, with possible snow on Tuesday.

This is leaving plants, birds, snakes and some humans feeling discombobulated.

That Was Not Elsie Hotpepper At The Wichita Falls Public Library Today

This second Saturday of February I opted to risk exposure to the extreme HEAT wave which has descended upon North Texas to venture to downtown Wichita Falls to my favorite local source of reading material.

The Wichita Falls Public Library.

A couple Fridays ago I finally got around to getting myself a library card so as to enable checking out books from Wichita Falls one and only public library.

Regarding that lady walking into the library ahead of me, who you are looking at in the picture, I suspect some might guess this is Elsie Hotpepper, due to the striking resemblance.

Well, this is not Elsie Hotpepper, obviously, because this is clearly not a redhead, but, other than that, the doppelganger level resemblance to Elsie Hotpepper is remarkable.

That is the entry to the Wichita Falls Public Library you are looking at above. The Wichita Falls Public Library is among the best I have ever had the pleasure to experience.

Til checking out a book in Wichita Falls I had not experienced a library using a self checkout method. The self checkout works slick. You scan your library card and then one by one place books above the checkout ray. Instantly the book is identified. When done checking out all your books you select 'done' and then choose to have a receipt printed.

Returning books is also a slick operation. At the entry to the library there is a robotic device where you set a book on a moving belt which sucks the book into the robot whilst identifying the book. When done you can opt to print a receipt.

When I was done with the library I opted to return to nearby Riverside Cemetery to do some walking through history. That is a story for another blogging.

The walk among tombstones was HOT. In the 80s, heading to some place in the 90s. I currently have a ceiling fan spinning overheard and am considering turning on the air conditioner.

These extreme temperature fluctuations are aggravating. Tomorrow a cold front is scheduled to blow in, with snow on the menu for Monday.

Snow.

Very perplexing...

Long Walk Checking Lake Wichita Revitalization Project Progress

Yesterday, if I remember right, I mentioned that Lake Wichita Has Been Reported To The Trump Administration.

I think I also mentioned that according to information I gleaned from what I believe to be the official Lake Wichita Revitalization Project website that Lake Wichita's Revitalization is expected to be completed somewhere in the mid 2017 time frame.

I think mid 2017 would be around June and July, about five months from this current Friday in February.

Til today it had been at least a month, likely longer, since I'd hiked to my neighborhood dam, that being the dam which causes Lake Wichita to exist.

I thought it would be interesting to check out Lake Wichita Dam, and the lake, to see if I can detect any of that much talked about revitalizing, what with the middle of the year and that completion date rapidly approaching.

Well. I could detect nothing that has changed since I last looked at Lake Wichita.

In the above photo we are rock and rolling on a wave tossed floating dock. That pimple on the horizon is Mount Wichita, looking like a floating oasis far out to sea.

The long range plan for a revitalized Lake Wichita includes building a new pavilion  on the lake.

Below is what remains of the former Lake Wichita Pavilion.

The Lake Wichita Pavilion was quite an attraction in its heyday. Eventually the pavilion became neglected and then at some point in the 1950s the pavilion burned to the ground, I mean water. The pilings you see above, sticking out of Lake Wichita,  are all that remains of the Lake Wichita Pavilion.

I think the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project is an extremely good plan. I hope this plan comes to fruition. Soon.

Near the start of this century the Texas town I previously lived in announced a water revitalizing project, which eventually became known as the Fort Worth Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Or, more commonly, as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

The FWTRCCUPID Vision never has seemed like it was as well thought out and as good an idea as the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project.

The FWTRCCUPID Vision has had projected project timelines over the years that never manage to happen. For instance a couple years ago American's Biggest Boondoggle had a TNT explosion celebration to mark the start of construction of one of three little simple bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Construction on that bridge was supposed to begin soon after the TNT explosion. Many months later construction did start on that bridge, with a four year construction timeline. About a year ago construction on that bridge was halted due to the discovery of design errors. No one knows if or when America's Biggest Boondoggle's bridges will get built.

I hope the Lake  Wichita Revitalization Project is not plagued with Fort Worth type inept incompetence.

Way back in 2010 I remember riding my bike on Fort Worth's Trinity Trail. Soon I found myself seeing a lot of dirt being moved and the trail re-routed, along with a massive amount of signage announcing "Trinity River Vision Underway".

Way back then the official name for what has become America's Biggest Boondoggle was a lot shorter than it is now, fitting easier on a sign.

That dirt I saw being moved way back  in 2010 was to make a pond for an absurdity which became known as Cowtown Wakepark, a product of the Trinity River Vision. Cowtown Wakepark soon went out of business, due to multiple issues, most of which common sense would have obviated the Cowtown Wakepark ever being built  in the first place.

I do not see an unseemly amount of signage about the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project, certainly not at the bizarre Orwellian propaganda level of what continues to be seen in Fort  Worth with its embarrassing boondoggle.

Is that huge "Panther Island Bridges Under Construction" sign still displaying near the Henderson Street Bridge near the location of Panther Island Pavilion? Where there is no island or pavilion?

Lake Wichita Has Been Reported To The Trump Administration

I gleaned what you see here a few weeks ago from the Wichita Falls Times Record News, that being the newspaper which serves the area of Texas in which I currently reside.

I read the accompanying article and still could not figure out how Lake Wichita was in a report for Trump.

I have now been in Wichita Falls long enough to notice a thing or two which sort of vex me.

One of those vexations is the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project, which I learned of within days of arriving in this burg.

This coming May I will have been in Wichita Falls a year. Lake Wichita is no closer to being revitalized than it was upon my arrival.

I have made note of multiple Lake Wichita Revitalization fund raising projects, such as car washes.

Trying to raise money for a big public works  project via things like car washes seems goofy, and well, just a bit bizarre to me.

Revitalizing Lake Wichita seems like such a good idea to me I have no idea why funding such is not submitted to the public, asking voters to support a bond issue to raise the money to pay for it. The cost estimates I have seen are in the $30 million range. This does not seem that large a figure for a town of over 100,000 residents. But it does seem like a large figure to try and raise with car washes.

The Texas town I lived in before moving to Wichita Falls, Fort Worth, has a bizarre public works project which has been crawling along most of this century. With little to show for the effort, despite a lot of money having been spent, much of which has gone to pay for the large number of employees employed by what has  become known  as America's Biggest Boondoggle, or the Trinity River Central  City Uptown Panther Island District Vision.

Currently America's  Biggest Boondoggle has been stuck for a year trying to figure out what went wrong with the construction of three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

I hope the Wichita Falls Lake Wichita Revitalization Project is not of the same ilk as Fort Worth's badly designed, ineptly implemented project, ambling along with little to show year after year.

Last year at some point in time I read that the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project was ready to submit its plan to the Army Corps of  Engineers. This submission sounded as if it was imminent. But a few months went by when I read again that the submission was about to be made.

On the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project website I learned the following regarding this project's  projected timeline...

We expect to acquire a permit by the end of 2015 or early 2016. The project should take 1.5 to 3 years. With appropriate funding this project could be complete and ready for water by the middle of 2017.

Well,  we are rapidly approaching the middle of 2017. I have seen nothing which indicates this project is underway.

One of the reasons Fort Worth's water project has turned into America's Biggest  Boondoggle is the son of Fort Worth's Congresswoman, Kay Granger, was hired to be the Executive Director of  the project, even though he had no experience overseeing a large engineering project. J.D. Granger was hired in order to motivate his mother to obtain federal pork barrel money for the project.

I am assuming that no Wichita Falls Congressperson's ne'er do well offspring has been hired to over see the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project, or I would have heard reference made of such.

If not the hiring of the incompetent offspring of a local politician being the reason, what is the explanation why the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project seems stalled?

Everything about this project seems like a good idea to me, with the result likely proving to be a HUGE asset for Wichita Falls and its surrounding area.  Go to the Lake Wichita Revitalization Project website and see for yourself all this project entails. Unlike Fort Worth's, this is a vision which makes sense and seems very doable.

In other words, it seems to me the sooner Lake Wichita gets revitalized the better life will be for the people of Wichita Falls and the people who visit  this town....

Mystery Why Fort Worth Is Not One Of The Top Ten Best Places To Live In America

This particular blog post is sort of yet one more iteration of something I see in a west coast online news source, usually the Seattle Times, about something I would not be expecting to be reading in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram about something related to Fort Worth.

No, I am not referring to the illustrative photo from the Seattle Times article showing part of the downtown Seattle skyline, with the iconic Space Needle, and Mount Rainier in the background, as something one would not expect to see in Fort  Worth.

Because, well, even though Fort Worth does not have much of a downtown skyline, nor any sort of iconic symbol.

Or a mountain hovering in the distance.

What I am referring to as something I would not expect to see in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which I saw today in the Seattle Times, is an article about some legit entity naming Fort Worth as one of the top ten best places to live in the United States.

The legit entity in this case is U.S. News & World Report.

The rankings are based on migration, desirability, quality of life, “value” and job-market health, using U.S. Census Bureau data to compare income and cost of living to show how comfortably people could live within their means. along with crime statistics, health-care rankings and education rankings to measure the quality of life.

The rankings were also a bit of a popularity contest with U.S. News & World Report polling people all over America as to where they were most interested in living.

Sort of surprising Fort Worth did not rank high due to that popularity contest part of the survey, what with, you know, how Fort Worth regularly causing cities and towns, far and wide, to be Green with Envy over something in Fort Worth.

A Texas town, other than Fort Worth, did make this top ten list, coming in at #1 as the best place to live in the United States.

Austin.

These type rankings always seem a little bit goofy.

San Jose? I have been all over California, seeing many places in that state that would be a great place to live. But, San Jose? I have zero memory of anything about San Jose.

Des  Moines? Fayetteville? The rest on the list I have some awareness of.

I think Austin would be a mighty fine town  to live in. Except for being so close to all that mountain cedar pollen. That and the traffic.

If Fort Worth's Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther City District Vision ever becomes something America can see, and no longer America's Biggest Boondoggle, I'm sure Fort Worth will zoom right up to the top ten of any list measuring the best places to live in America....

No Free Lunch With Hard Working Trinity River Vision Folks

 An amusing blog comment a couple days ago linked me to a not so amusing item about America's Biggest Boondoggle in action.

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Has Anyone Seen Fort Worth's Imaginary 8.8 Million Visitors?":

Are the Trinity River Vision folks hard at work or hardly working? That's original, eh? I could work for the Eppstein group with comments like this.

Link: It's a working lunch kind of day...

______________

America's Biggest Boondoggle, also known as the Trinity River Vision Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision has been boondoggling along for most of this century.

Currently, next month, as in March, it will be a year since construction ground to a halt of the Boondoggle's simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Some of the people you see in the above photo have been on the Boondoggle's take for over a decade, such as J.D. Granger, on the right at the far end of the table. Next to J.D. is his girl friend, Shanna, who has also been on the take for a long time.

Due to the Boondoggle becoming such, taking a long, long, long, long time to do very little, these people have been securely employed for years longer than they would have been if this public works project was properly engineered and executed by actual trained professionals with a history of accomplishing such things.

Instead of hiring a trained professional the Tarrant Region Water District hired a low level county prosecutor, who happened to be the son of Fort Worth's congresswoman, Kay Granger, to be the Executive Director of this project, thus to motivate Kay to secure federal pork barrel money from you taxpayers in more prosperous parts of America.

Go to the Trinity River Vision Facebook page and you will soon be seeing examples of propaganda and hubris, such as you see below.

The comments on the Boondoggle's Facebook page can be best characterized as being embarrassing.

As in people gushing about how wonderful this project is, asking when will it be ready, many seeming to indicate no awareness that this Boondoggle has been limping along for years, with stalled bridges and failed wakeboard parks and cancelled polluted river floats.

To one of the commenter's questions asking when will this wonderful project be finished the Boondoggle's Facebook spokesperson replied that the project's "infrastructure is almost complete."

A month or two ago J.D. Granger told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the project's infrastructure should be mostly complete by 2023.

2023.

How many more years is this absurdity going to continue before there is an intervention?

Very perplexing...