Sunset Circle Trail Ride To Wichita Falls Mount Wichita Mini-Volcano

Yesterday in the late afternoon, early evening time frame, about an hour before the sun made its exit for the day, I decided it might possibly be pleasant to enjoy the balmy first day of November heat with a bike ride to Lake Wichita, with Mount Wichita as the distant goal.

As you can see here, by the time I got to Mount Wichita the sun was setting behind the Wichita Falls pseudo mini-volcano.

I saw no one doing any mountain climbing on Mount Wichita, but I did see dozens of people circulating on the Circle Trail via various means of locomotion.

Prior to arriving at Mount Wichita I arrived at the location of the Lake Wichita floating fishing dock. As you can see wind had the lake being a bit wavy, which causes the dock to oscillate. But that sea sickness inducing oscillation did not stop fishermen from fishing.

And now, nearing the end of last night's bike ride, heading north on a straight section of the Circle Trail.

Holliday Creek looks serene and blue, no longer the raging flood of rapids it was a week or two ago. At this point in last night's bike ride the wind was now working for me, not against me, adding several additional miles per hour to my speed.

The white dot you see towards the middle upper right is an almost full moon. However, even with the moon almost full, I did not detect much post-Halloween lunacy last night...

First Of November Wichita Falls Santa's Workshop Visit 55 Days Til Christmas

On this first day of November the weather in the Texoma zone of North Texas is just about as perfect as it ever gets.

Not too hot, not too cold, not too windy, the sky totally blue, pollen levels low, biting bugs diminished by recent freezing.

So, with only 55 days til Christmas I decided to roll my handlebars to the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus to check in on the current state of Christmas preparations.

Above you see my handlebars looking at Santa's Workshop, with Santa waving and Mrs. Claus coming into the shop from the right.

A few days ago I took a Final October Sunday Bike Ride To Wichita Falls MSU Santa Train and blogged about it, with the blog title telling you I saw a Santa Train on that day.

In that blogging I speculated the reason for the MSU early Christmas installations was likely due to the fact that this Holiday Season display is a sprawling thing, involving electricity, illumination and animation, requiring a lengthy set up time.

Miss Darnya Woodknot read that blogging and confirmed my assumption was correct, that the early set up is due to it being a complicated operation.

Only 55 days until Christmas.

I am not a procrastinator. I have completed all my Christmas shopping. I have put up all the Christmas decorations I am going to put up.

All I have left to do is cook my Christmas goose, but that will have to wait til the magical day gets closer...

Maxine's Halloween Hiking Tale To Stehekin With Smoky Bears

Time has been busy flying way too fast, what with tomorrow being the start of 2017's version of November.

For months now, beginning in early June, I have been feeling a bit discombobulated. I find myself losing track of this that or another thing.

Like I'd not heard from Maxine since about a week after I got back from Arizona last June.

I knew I'd not heard from Maxine due to the fact that every fall Maxine hikes over Cascade Pass to Stehekin, after which I get a report, allowing me then to get to enjoy, vicariously, going to Stehekin, which is one of my favorite locations I have been to. And the Courtney Ranch in the Stehekin Valley, one of my favorite places in which I have consumed vittles.

Long ago, late in the last century, prior to broadband and the resulting lesser need to make photos small, bytesize wise, I made three webpages about a Lady of the Lake boat trip to Stehekin. There is a general page about Stehekin, which mentions a lot of bears. Another page about Hiking in Stehekin. And another about Eating in Stehekin.

Last year I made Maxine's annual Stehekin tale into a blog post on my Washington blog titled Maxine's 2016 North Cascades Adventure Trek To Stehekin. Last year's Stehekin report from Maxine included a lot of photos.

This year's Maxine Stehekin report included only one photo, which is what you see above. In Maxine's 2017 Stehekin report, below, you will read reference made to the fact that the air was smoky. And there was an encounter with two bears, which you can find, if you look close, in the above photo. Due to the photo being so smoky I used a photo filter to filter out some of the smoke.

And now, Maxine's 2017 Hike to Stehekin...

The hike up to the pass was hot and smoky. One of women in the group broke her wrist in 2 places the week before but was determined to hike in with us. She had overpacked and  really had a struggle, fortunately her 30 ish son was hiking in too and took part of her load so that helped her immensely.

We had lunch at Doubtful Falls, everyone took off their boots and soaked their feet. Delyn slipped on a wet rock and fell on her right shoulder really hard, fortunately it was just a bruise. We were packing for 2 nights on the trail so all packs were heavier than usual, makes for a more arduous hike.

We saw 2 big black bears in Pelton Basin, thankfully far away. We hiked to a nice campground at Flat Creek. The 2nd day was only 4 miles, we stayed at Bridge Creek campground.

The weather was hot and so some of the younger people in our group (in their 50’s) slept outside under the stars. A mouse ran over one of them. We stayed 3 nights at the Stehekin Ranch. It rained a little and the wind shifted so there wasn’t any smoke. I got a massage, a banjo player stopped by one evening and jammed with the Lauri the Mandolin Player.

I kayaked on Monday and ate pie every night for dessert.

The hike out was 16 or 17 miles.  Originally Delyn and I wanted to go in a day early and spend the night at Pelton Basin and take a side trip to Thunder Basin (I think that’s what it’s called, a little valley surrounded by waterfalls), but somehow the whole group ended up going in a day early, I may have opened my big mouth. The campsites are on a first come first serve basis and the sites that would have worked better for our plan were taken. It all worked out, but a 14 mile day followed by a 4 mile day is kind of silly.  The woman with the broken wrist decided to take the ferry out, I think  the body takes a lot of energy to heal.

Can’t wait until next year for more multi night back packing trips. We hiked up to Cutthroat Pass October 8th hoping to see fall colors and everything was covered with snow.  I saw more people than  I have ever seen before out on the trail. There was a big article in the Seattle Times about best places to hike for fall color the week before and I think that was the reason we saw so many people. There were a few people using Micro Spikes, like a crampon that goes over your shoes. I thought I had every possible piece of gear but shoot, one more thing I may need.

There was a big storm on the 18th and 19th of  October followed by snow in the mountains.  A man from Bellingham hiked up Sauk Mt during that time and died. I tell you that mountain is haunted. I haven’t heard the details yet, so can only imagine what happened.

___________________

Yikes, another Sauk Mountain fatality. My worst Nephews in Danger incident took place on Sauk Mountain, when Spencer Jack's uncle, who is also my nephew Joey, and I, hiked to the summit of Sauk Mountain in a mild snowstorm, with ice coating the trail switchbacks near the top. I was being terribly irresponsible. We should have turned back when the trail got icy and the hiking got dicey. But, we were having a mighty fine time, and that top of the mountain kept pulling us higher...

Happy Halloween From Zombies David, Ruby & Theo

That is Zombie David on the left, Zombie Ruby in the middle, which makes that Zombie Theo on the right.

When I was in Tacoma last summer I quickly learned how fond David, Theo and Ruby are about zombies.

My second day in Tacoma I found myself in a Tacoma community center where David, Theo and Ruby were taking some sort of immersive, intensive Lego oriented class.

I was never clear as to the Lego aspect of this class. But each day when we retrieved the kids from the Legos they were armed with multiple papers on which what looked to me like pixelated drawings, made with large pixels, which rendered images which to my eyes all looked the same.

However, when one of the kids, usually David or Theo, would show me an image and ask if I knew what it was the only time I was right was if I said it looked like a zombie. Like I said, all the images looked the same to me, but apparently some were non-zombies. Things like lions, tigers, bears and snakes.

Spending quality time with David, Theo and Ruby was the first time this century I have spent quality time with pre-teenage kids.

I had no idea so much has changed regarding a kid's world. I don't think zombies had been invented when I was a kid.

When I was a kid we had cartoons like the Flintstones, Popeye, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, the Mickey Mouse knock-off known as Mighty Mouse, the Jetsons, the Roadrunner, and others.

Each morning I was in Tacoma I joined David, Theo and Ruby for cartoon viewing. The cartoons seemed a bit disturbingly dystopian to my sensitive nature. Each morning we watched this one "cartoon" where we joined in a battle against evil monsters, helping a good guy superhero. At multiple points during the battle the good guy superhero would stop the action, turn to us and implore us to help with the spell he needed to cast to thwart the evil doer/

We were told to stand, to do this, to do that. When I just sat there watching in amused amazement, David, Theo and Ruby got upset, imploring me to join in with the effort to help the good guy superhero thwart the bad guy. And so I would find myself joining in with the casting of the spell.

I felt as if I had joined a cult.

And then there was Mindcraft, or Minecraft, or some such name. This was a video game played on Amazon Kindles. Played by David and Theo. An interactive game with their two Kindles connected via wi-fi.

My first morning in Tacoma I found myself caught between David and Theo in a Kindle battle caused by this aforementioned video game.

Suddenly Theo cried out that David had stolen one of his hearts. David did not deny the theft, quickly telling Theo it was his fault because Theo left his heart unprotected. Theo demanded David return his heart.

David then told Theo that he could not return Theo's stolen heart because he had already buried it in his Garden of Eternal Memories.

Theo accepted the futility of retrieving his stolen heart. And the game proceeded.

And then it happened again, with Theo crying out David had stolen another of his hearts. Again David told Theo it was Theo's fault for leaving his hearts unprotected.

I then found myself sucked into this bizarre world when I found myself saying to Theo that he had been warned by David to not leave his hearts unprotected. I then found myself imploring David if there was any way he could see his way clear to getting Theo's stolen hearts out of his Garden of Eternal Memories and returning them to his little brother.

David said it was possible, but it took a lot of effort and would require the acquisition of a variety of difficult to acquire magic spells and potions.

I walked away.

Happy Halloween, one and all, especially my favorite Zombies, David, Theo and Ruby...

Nurse Canecracker's Halloween One Night Stand

I saw that which you see here last night via Facebook.

The caption accompanying the photo said...

"One Night Stand".

It took me a second or two or three to get that which was the "One Night Stand".

Very clever.

That is Nurse Canecracker costumed for Halloween as "One Night Stand".

I know Nurse Canecracker is scheduled to go on a Caribbean cruise sometime during the late fall time frame. I do not know if it was during this Caribbean cruise Nurse Canecracker attended a Halloween party as a "One Night Stand".

I last saw Nurse Canecracker last summer, on August 13, at Birch Bay, a few miles south of the Canadian border.

Betty Jo Bouvier had chauffeured Nurse Canecracker north from their Skagit Valley home location to visit me for the first time since early in the last decade of the previous century.

I shudder at the thought of how old I will be if another couple decades pass before I visit again with Nurse Canecracker and Betty Jo Bouvier.

I have no way of knowing if Nurse Canecracker plans to do any active trick or treating whilst in "One Night Stand" mode. Or if this was just Halloween attire being tested for use on Tuesday at home in Mount Vernon, getting ready to greet the hordes of little beggars. Or party attire for floating somewhere between Caribbean islands.

Spencer Jack's Hillcrest Mount Vernon location is about two blocks from Nurse Canecracker's home location. I hope Spencer Jack goes trick or treating at Nurse Canecracker's and photo documents Nurse Canecracker's "One Night Stand"....

Seattle Seahawks Honor Karl Knapp With #76 Seahawk Jersey

All afternoon, this last Sunday afternoon of October, Chris and Sheila have been posting photos, on Facebook, from the Seahawk football field, in Seattle.

Literally, from the field, from the sidelines, and out on the field.

Chris and Sheila fairly frequently attend Seattle Seahawk games, usually due to the fact Sheila's dad has long had season tickets, center field, near ground level.

Ever since it happened, last month, I have wanted to tell a particular story, but it was not my story to tell. But, today I think it is okay to do so.

Last month Sheila's brother and her dad watched the Seahawks win yet one more football game. Sheila's dad, Karl, in his 88th year, had been in failing health, but this did not stop him from enjoying watching the Seahawks, or going to the Muckleshoot Casino with his favorite daughter.

Well, after the Seahawks won that game last September, when Sheila's brother and Karl made it to their car in the Seahawk parking lot, Karl collapsed and died.

What a way to go.

And now a month later, from Chris, on Facebook, the photo you see above, and the following...

For those of you who are not friends with Sheila on FB, her parents were Seahawk Season Ticket holders since 1975. Today the Hawks Organization honored him by giving the family a Seahawk Jersey with the Knapp name on it, and let us have sideline passes on the field. Her dad passed away in September. RIP Karl

Chris and Sheila have been modeling a variety of Seattle Seahawk garb, from the field, this afternoon.

Chris and Shelia live in Kent, a couple blocks from where one of my relatives used to live. When staying in Kent, visiting Chris and Sheila was my go to place when I was in need of sane, normal conversation.

Almost 12 years ago, Halloween weekend of 2005, I went to the best Halloween Party ever, at Chris and Shiela's next door neighbors. My relatives who lived two blocks away did not attend...

Final October Sunday Bike Ride To Wichita Falls MSU Santa Train

Today, this last Sunday of October, the temperature in the outer world was warm enough, unlike the previous couple days, to facilitate a comfortable bike ride without need of excessive insulating material.

So, I rolled my wheels through my Caribbean neighborhood and then left Nassau for a loop around Sikes Lake, before crossing over a not busy Midwestern Boulevard to do some uncongested, mostly student-free, touring of the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus.

I was doing my wheel rolling, having myself a mighty fine time, when suddenly I was startled to see Santa Claus waving at me from a train.

Three days before Halloween, about a month before Thanksgiving, two months before Christmas, and Santa is already doing his business in Wichita Falls.

I stopped, got off my bike, aimed the handlebars at the shameless Santa and photo documented that which I saw.

It was not just Santa and his train. On the grounds all around Santa there were other Christmas displays getting ready for the apparently already beginning Holiday Season.

I remember last year when these things began showing up, with me having no clue what it was, being new to town. Soon to learn this is an annual Holiday Season display. It is quite an elaborate operation. Many of the displays have animated illuminated aspects.

I would imagine setting all this up is quite time consuming, and difficult, hence beginning the process even before Trick or Treating is done for the year.

Where In The World Are Ruby, Theo, David, Blue & Eddie?

Last night I got a text message on my phone asking...

Where in the world are your niece and nephews and poodles?

Along with the photo documentation you see here.

That would be Theo on the left, holding the poodle, Blue, David in the middle, and Ruby on the right holding the poodle Eddie.

I examined the photo documentation trying to determine the location. I was fairly certain it was not any location in Tacoma's Point Defiance Park. Goose Rock in Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey island? Seemed doubtful, as that would be a long drive from Tacoma. A location above Hood Canal on the Olympic Peninsula? Again doubtful because the body of water appeared to be too wide.

So, texted back with my guesses and soon received an answer...

Beautiful weather today, mid 60s. Kids had a day off school so we headed to Fort Worden, just outside Port Townsend. So much fun.

Well, Fort Worden would also be a long drive from Tacoma, but not as far as Goose Rock. Fort Worden is located at the northeast corner of the aforementioned Olympic Peninsula.

If I remember right the last time I was at Fort Worden and Port Townsend was with David, Theo and Ruby's cousin Joey, who is also Spencer Jack's uncle and my second oldest nephew. Joey and I took our bikes to Fort Casey, on the opposite side of Admiralty Inlet from the Fort Worden side.

We rolled our bikes on the ferry to cross over to Port Townsend and biked to Fort Worden. We were having ourselves such a mighty fine time we almost missed the last ferry crossing of the day.

By the time we got back to our vehicle parked at Fort Casey the park gates were locked with a note from the ranger telling us to come knock on his door and he'd let us out. And so that is what we did. Apparently this happened frequently, people crossing back to Whidbey Island after Fort Casey locks up for the night.

I was amused when I went to Google "Fort Worden". I typed "Fort" and got as far as "W" when Googled added "orth" making the search "Fort Worth". I backspaced and changed "Worth" to "Worden", and thought, now that is ironic.

Fort Worden was an actual fort. Fort Worth was never a fort. It was known as Camp Worth. I don't know what early local propagandist puffed up Camp to Fort. But, this may be the earliest example of Fort Worth hyping something into being something it is not.

Sundance Square where there was no square. Trinity Uptown to turn Fort Worth into the Vancouver of the South. Panther Island where there is no island. Panther Island Pavilion where there is no pavilion. An iconic downtown where there is nothing iconic. Well, you get the drift.

A town named after a fort where there has never been a fort.

From the Wikipedia article about Fort Worden we learn about three actual forts actually doing what real forts do, you know, guarding something...

In the 1890s, Admiralty Inlet was considered strategic to the defense of Puget Sound in the that three forts -- Fort Worden, Fort Flagler, and Fort Casey -- were built at the entrance with their powerful artillery creating a "Triangle of Fire" to thwart any invasion attempt by sea. Fort Worden, on the Quimper Peninsula, at the extreme northeastern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, sits on a bluff near Port Townsend, anchoring the northwest side of the triangle. The three posts were designed to prevent a hostile fleet from reaching such targets as the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett.

Fort Casey on Whidbey Island is the biggest of the three forts. Massive bunkers built into a bluff, with huge guns at various locations. Dark tunnels leading to underground chambers to explore. Over the years I spent many hours exploring Fort Casey, with my siblings, and later with my four oldest nephews.

I think I would have myself a mighty fine time exploring Fort Casey with nephews David and Theo and niece Ruby. However I think David might get a big concerned in some of those dark, spooky tunnels. David is very cautious...

UPDATE: Three new incoming photos with explanation text explaining "as per your blog post"...

Ruby looking spooky in one of the Fort Worden underground bunkers. I think that is Theo behind Ruby.

Ruby, Theo, David and Eddie, with Mama Kristin behind them, in one of the Fort Worth tunnels. I don't know where Blue is. Likely with photo taker, Mama Michele.

In the blog post I mentioned that it would be fun to take David, Theo and Ruby to Fort Casey to explore that fort's complex of tunnels and underground bunkers. But that David might be a bit cautious, as is his nature. Above it appears David is being a bit cautious in a Fort Worth underground bunker, worried as to what he has gotten himself into this time...

UPDATE: Reading back I see I typed "Fort Worth" when I meant to type "Fort Worden". If David were in a Fort Worth fort bunker, if such existed, I think he would have good reason to be very worried...

Dana Loesch Top 5 Famous Mullets Gar The Texan Omission

Friday afternoon I saw that which you see here on Twitter.

A Twitter Tweet where someone Dana Loesch via something called Dana Radio ranked the Top 5 Famous Mullets, along with Honorable Mention Mullets.

I know who a few of these mullet heads are, well, actually, all of them, except for Dog the Bounty Hunter and Danny McBride.

What appalls me is why is the most famous Texas mullet head is not on either the Top 5 or Honorable Mention mullet list?

I refer, obviously, to Gar the Texan, the famous West Texan who sported one of the most elaborate mullets in mullet history, a mullet which lasted for years after mullets passed their prime way back in the previous century.

I used to have an illustrative photo of Gar the Texan in long haired mullet mode, but I don't know where it is. If I find it I shall be sure to share it...

How Cool Forbes Ranks Fort Worth With Molly The Trolley

I saw this Seattle ranked nation’s No. 2 coolest city — just behind this West Coast rival article this morning in the Seattle Times, which I found amusingly interesting.

Now, if the Texas town I lived in previous to the Texas town I currently live in had been ranked #2 in anything a city wide celebration would be declared by the town's mayor, which is what happened earlier in this century when some obscure Washington, D.C. lobbying group listed Fort Worth as being a Top Ten Most Livable City, with the criteria being something to do with having neighborhoods develop as urban villages, or some such thing.

Tacoma also got this imaginary prestigious "award". Soon there after I had reason to visit Tacoma's then deputy mayor. I told him Fort Worth had a city wide celebration after receiving this prestigious award. The deputy mayor laughed and said you're kidding, aren't you?

Nope, I'm not making this up. Are you saying Tacoma did not have a city wide celebration?

No. said the deputy mayor, we just politely thanked them and then forgot about it.

Now, should Fort Worth be ranked #2 in anything the town's propaganda purveyor known as the Star-Telegram would headline an article full of embarrassing puffery touting their imaginary iconic town, such as what happened a couple weeks ago, which we mentioned in a blogging titled Imaginary Iconic Fort Worth Downtown Opens New Little Hotel With Molly The Trolley.

Now, when you think about it, shouldn't a town  be considered one of the coolest towns in America when its downtown public transit consists of a bus made to look like a trolley, then called Molly the Trolley?

The first few paragraphs of the Seattle Times cool town article are instructive as to how a big city newspaper, wearing its big city pants, covers such a thing, as opposed to Fort Worth's embarrassing excuse for a newspaper of record...

What a bummer, Seattle; we’re No. 2.

San Francisco is officially cooler than Seattle, according to Forbes and Sperling’s Best Places, which found that the former was “crushing” the competition when it came to restaurants, world-class museums, sports teams, good hiking and reliable mass transit.

Seattle, however, trumped all other contenders when it came to, yes, coffee and beer.

“Seattle won on this front with 83 coffee shops, coffee roasters & craft beer breweries per 100,000 residents,” according to the 2017 edition of America’s Coolest Cities, published on Thursday.

The article also had a graphic showing the location of the top 10 coolest cities in America.

Shocking. No Texas town is in the Top 10 coolest. Not even Austin.

Austin does show up on the full list of Top 20 coolest towns, coming in at #13 coolest.

According to Forbes, the west coast dominates in coolness, which is not too surprising to me, having been in all those towns and finding them all quite cool.

Dallas has always seemed sort of west coast cool to me. Making me surprised Dallas is not on this list of cool American towns.

The entire list of 20 Coolest American towns...

1. San Francisco
2. Seattle
3. San Diego
4. New Orleans
5. Portland
6. San Jose
7. Los Angeles
8. New York
9. Boston
10. Denver
11. Charleston, S.C.
12. Honolulu
13. Austin
14. Miami
15. Madison
16. Houston
17. D.C.
18. Las Vegas
19. Orlando
20. Tampa, Fla.