Is Fort Worth's Imaginary Panther Island One Of The Best Islands In America?

I saw that which you see here a day or two ago via an article in the online version of CNN, in an article titled The best islands in America.

I was shocked, shocked I tell you, when I did not see Fort Worth's non-archipelago, known as Panther Island, on this list.

One of the islands, actually not one, but a group of hundreds of islands, an actual archipelago, is on this list of the best islands in America, that being the San Juan Islands.

The San Juan Islands are a short distance west of my old abode in the Skagit Valley of Washington. It took a short drive to Anacortes to hop a ferry to float out to the islands. These islands are in the rain shadow of the Olympic mountain range, hence way less rain than a few miles to the east, where one gets closer to the Cascade mountains, and thus way more rain.

I went on countless fishing expeditions with my mom and dad out among the San Juan Islands. I remember a treacherous time with stormy waves trying to catch cod at Cattle Point off San Juan Island. And another time trolling for salmon when we were surrounded by Orcas. If I remember right that happened near Lopez Island, not the island named after the Killer Whales.

I remember being on a ferry, with Spencer Jack's grandpa, my little brother, Jake, heading to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, when we learned Elvis had died.  Years later I was on another ferry, with Spencer Jack's dad, Jason, and uncle Joey, floating to Bainbridge Island when we learned Kurt Cobain had killed himself.

I think I have mentioned previously I find it ridiculous that a chunk of land in Fort Worth is being referred to as an island. A chunk of land which will only be sort of surrounded by water if a cement lined ditch is dug, with water from the Trinity River diverted into that ditch.

Does no one in a position of responsibility in Fort Worth not realize how ridiculous this is?

Panther Island.

If that cement line ditch is ever dug this imaginary island is just going to be a head shaker for people who know what an island is. Why does Fort Worth do this type thing? Refer to its downtown as "Sundance Square" for decades. Where there was no square in downtown Fort Worth, until, after decades of confusing the town's few tourists, a little square was built over a couple parking lots and then named Sundance Square Plaza.

To this day, heading towards downtown Fort Worth on I-30, signage still informs those incoming few tourists they are heading towards Sundance Square.

Lately I have been Roku streaming Kitchen Nightmares. I imagine if there was a version of this concept called City Nightmares, where Gordon Ramsey came to a town like Fort Worth to figure out what was wrong with the town, one of the first things he would fix would be the bizarre hyperbolic propaganda nomenclature syndrome (Sundance Square, Panther Island), saying simply...

 "KNOCK IT OFF".

It makes a town seem, well, stupid, to have the town messed up by poorly planned projects, such as the moribund disaster known as the Trinity River Vision, a ridiculous, ill-conceived, ineptly executed, supposedly vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme, which is so not vitally needed that this embarrassing boondoggle has limped along for most of this century, with basically nothing to show for the effort and millions of bucks spent, but a messed up construction zone of uncompleted bridge piers, with a million dollar homage to an aluminum trash can, a defunct wakeboard park, plus bringing to Fort Worth tubing in the polluted Trinity River events, with music and other nonsense, like a temporary ice rink and a beer shack.

Bizarre, and it really is a City Nightmare.

Now, the following blurb is from the CNN Best Islands in America article, the section describing the San Juan Islands. Imagine, if your imagination is up to the task, any similar type verbiage ever being written at some point in the distant future about Fort Worth's imaginary island...

Floating Near: Seattle

Famous For: Making visitors wish this was a one-way trip

Over 170 named islands and hundreds more at low tide comprise Washington's San Juan archipelago. But, for now, a brief word on the three biggies -- all accessible by the Washington State Ferry system and hampered only by crappy car lines on summer weekends.

San Juan Island, the namesake and hub of this chain, is your best bet for shopping and paddling through killer whale country.

Lopez Island, the quietest and flattest, is a magnet for cyclists.

Orcas Island, the "Gem of the San Juans," is for wishing you could afford property here -- and for driving slowly and aimlessly with the windows down on hilly, empty, sun-dappled backroads with names like "Enchanted Forest" and "Dolphin Bay."

Then dipping through a quiet green valley dead-ending at some tiny harbor where an old man on a bicycle is walking his seven dogs along the road. Before driving up into Moran State Park and to the top of 2,409-foot Mt. Constitution for views of Mt. Rainier, British Columbia and everything in between on a clear day.

Then rolling past pottery shacks, sculpture gardens and back onto Main Street, Eastsound (a.k.a. "town") where the ferry boat awaits near those sigh-inducing realty office window posts.

__________________

Nope, my imagination was not up to the task either.

Panther Island, what an embarrassment.

Just knock it off...

Labor Day Wichita Bluff Hike Finding A Sidewalk Closed Ahead

On this Labor Day of 2018, at my Wichita Falls location, clouds have been doing some blocking of the sun.

And, along with that sun blocking, a cold front, of sorts, has blown into town, dropping the temperature into the 70s when I decided it was time to return to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area to walk the newest section of Circle Trail.

And by newest section of Circle Trail I do not mean that section of Circle Trail which meanders through the Wichita Bluff Nature Area. I mean the section of new Circle Trail which one accesses when one comes to a barrier on which a sign says "Sidewalk Closed Ahead".

What with that barrier's signage not forbidding going beyond the barrier I and many others were opting today to hike and bike on this under construction new section of the Circle Trail.

In the photo above we are already well past that aforementioned barrier, looking back up at the location of the barrier, about where you see that gray wall hit a green bush. Sitting atop that gray wall is the Circle Trail, awaiting railing to keep anyone from falling off the wall.

In that photo at the very top you are looking at a hardy wildflower which has sprouted big from the freshly graded dirt.

Eventually the new section of the Circle Trail reaches the valley floor, as it runs alongside the Wichita River.

You can see a glimpse of the Wichita River past the trees, on the left. At this point the Circle Trail heads slightly uphill again, getting near to that "Sidewalk Closed" area we were warned about at that barrier now far behind us.

And now you see that point where the sidewalk is closed, which that sign on that barrier a mile or so back warned us about.

The termination point for this new section of the Circle Trail is the Loop 11 road, a short distance to the east. From the end of the pavement one can see a paved trail coming from Loop 11, with a short gap of dirt awaiting the finishing touch of concrete.

It would appear this new section of the Circle Trail should be ready for its Grand Opening soon.

Now if only the local voters would vote to fund the completion of the other three short sections of uncompleted Circle Trail...

First September Sunday Summit On Mount Wichita

This first September Sunday my bike decided to roll me around Mount Wichita.

That is about a 12 mile roll.

It has been awhile since I have seen any mountain climbers climbing to the summit of Mount Wichita.

Today I saw four mountain climbers, well, three and one mountain crawler.

The outer world air is a bit too HOT this time of year for pleasant mountain climbing, but on this second day of September a semi-cold front has come to town, dropping the temperature into the 80s, with some big clouds doing some sun blocking.

Mount Wichita is looking as if it could use a little rain, well, actually, a lot of rain. I think we are back in drought mode again in the Wichita Falls zone known as Texoma.

Texoma is a clever combo of Texas and Oklahoma. I do not know the parameters of the Texoma zone, if Wichita Falls in Texas is the southern border of Texoma, with Lawton in Oklahoma being the northern border, or what. And I have no clue where the east and west border of Texoma is.

I do know there is a big lake called Texoma over 100 miles to the east of Wichita Falls. I have no idea if Lake Texoma is in Texoma, or not...

First Day Of September Bucolic Sikes Lake Meghan McCain Great America Musings

How did August disappear so quickly in a HOT blink? I grow weary of time seeming to fly by ever faster.

This first day of September I spent the morning watching the National Cathedral John McCain memorial service.

I had no idea, when I began watching, that the memorial would take up almost the entire morning.

Even though she is sort of a right winger, I have found myself liking Meghan McCain in the past. Watching Meghan's moving eulogy had me liking her even more.

Particularly when Meghan said, "The America of John McCain has no need to be great again because America was always great” to the eruption of loud applause for the first time during the memorial.

I hope the Orange Menace can restrain himself from doing any unseemly tweeting about all the subtle comments made today which were directed at our ongoing National Embarrassment. Unless someone explains it to him, he likely is too dense to figure out on his own what the words meant.

Sometime before noon I turned off the TV to take off on a bike ride, eventually arriving at Sikes Lake, where I stopped to take the bucolic photo you see above, looking at the Sikes Bayou, and a flock of geese, at the west side of Sikes Lake.

The reality that September is likely going to fly by just as fast as August has me concerned. Because I am not yet adjusted to the idea of doing so, but in early October I am currently committed to roadtripping to Arizona, where a house has been rented as my temporary abode for almost a month.

In addition to the regular characters I see when I am in Arizona, this time I will be seeing some new faces with which I used to be quite familiar, from Washington, the Skagit Valley of Washington to be precise.

I expect I will be finding it amusing, me being the tour guide guiding the Arizona site seeing....

Aunt Arlene On Oregon Coast Helping Make Orwell Fiction Again

I saw that which you see here on Facebook this morning via my favorite Scott cousin.

Cousin Scott currently resides in Elsie Hotpepper's favorite Oregon town, Cannon Beach.

Cousin Scott's mama, my dear Aunt Arlene, is currently, according to the aforementioned Facebook, visiting cousin Scott.

Aunt Arlene is my dad's big sister.

My dad was Aunt Arlene's big brother.

Via this Facebook post cousin Scott tells us his mom has never wanted to take a top-down drive along the Oregon coast, but she did agree to pose as if being the driver of cousin Scott's convertible.

Whilst wearing cousin Scott's recently acquired "Make Orwell Fiction Again" cap.

A Big Brother reference, but not one referring to Aunt Arlene's big brother.

I want a "Make Orwell Fiction Again" cap. I imagine such are popular on the west coast. And would totally befuddle many of those who might see such at my current location where the majority would have no clue who Orwell is, or was, or the meaning behind the message on the cap...

Will Wichita Falls Show Fort Worth How To Build A Roundabout?

A day or two or three ago I asked Questions About Fort Worth's Homage To An Aluminum Trash Can.

Apparently a lot of people are asking the same questions, or thinking about those questions, or so it seems, what with there having been thousands of page views of that post about Fort Worth's embarrassing homage to an aluminum trash can.

Yesterday, my bike made a full recovery from its broken seat debacle, so it took me on a long ride, including rolling through my favorite area through which I roll, in this town, the area I refer to as the Wichita Falls Beverly Hills.

In the Wichita Falls Beverly Hills one comes to several of the road entities known as Roundabouts.

Fort Worth's homage to an aluminum trash can sits in the center of an uncompleted, unlandscaped, weed infested, littered roundabout, which has been spinning vehicles around for years now, with the surrounding road and bridge development stalled in incompetent construction debacle mode.

An incompetent construction debacle known as America's Biggest Boondoggle.

As you can see above, the Roundabout my bike's handlebars are aiming at is landscaped.

What a concept.

Wichita Falls does a lot of things a town wearing its big boy pants does, which Fort Worth, for the most part, does not do, or do well.

You know, little things like roads with sidewalks. And city parks with modern restrooms and running water, unlike the Fort Worth city park norm of outhouses, with no running water.

Maybe Fort Worth could send an investigate task force to Wichita Falls to learn how to build a functioning Roundabout.

But, a task force looking into how Wichita Falls manages to provide modern city park facilities would be too big a reach for Fort Worth, for now....

Mount Wichita To Home Base Death Defying Bike Malfunction

Yesterday I had myself a mighty fine time adding a snippet of Google code to the head section of a few hundred webpages.

I had not had this sort of fun for several years. I think the last time was way back in 2015, also inspired by Google.

This morning, after a long, peaceful, cinematic nightmare laden, night's sleep I decided going on a long bike ride this morning seemed like a good idea, what with the temperature not even in the 90s. And me in need of some much needed endorphins.

All went well with the bike ride, til near the end.

At the midway point I stopped to take a photo of Mount Wichita, a Wichita Falls landmark which has been rendered brown by the ongoing drought.

You see the lower right side part of the photo?

I had no idea, when I took this photo, that a few miles later that bike seat, part of which is what you see in the lower right side of the photo, would cause me excitement of the sort I've not had for awhile.

I was almost back to home base. Had just exited the Circle Trail, was within a couple hundred feet of my abode when suddenly I found myself popped off the bike, with the sounds of something breaking and hitting the ground behind me.

I landed hard on something hard. It hurt.

After landing on that something hard, I hopped off the bike without crashing to see that the bike's seat had popped off, popping me off the bike.

I picked up the pieces and soon saw the bolt which held the seat to the post, which is stuck to the bike, had broken. The bolt looked as if it was made of cheap pot metal.

A couple hours later I don't think I have had any damage done to my personal self. When this happened I thought my most vulnerable location had taken a direct hit on either the now seat-less seat post, or the top bar of the bike frame. But the immediate sharp pain has not translated into anything more serious, as of now.

This losing the bike seat seems sort of deja vu to me. But I can not remember details of a previous seat loss incident.

My last catastrophic bike failure, which I can remember, happened way back around the turn of the century, on the Horseshoe Trails at Lake Grapevine in Grapevine.

The Horseshoe Trails are classic mountain bike trails. A bit treacherous in some locations. I was pedaling along, swooped down a steep downhill, then up, fast, then hit a bump to find myself quickly halted due to the bike frame breaking where one leg of the triangle broke like a fragile twig snapping.

This did not cause a wreck. The only thing I suffered was a long walk back to my vehicle rolling the now broken bike.

I soon thereafter bought a new bike. A K2. That one lasted til 2010 when it was stolen. The first of two bikes I have had stolen whilst living in crime ridden Texas.

I may be taking a break from bike riding. Today's incident could have had serious consequences had it happened a short time previous, such as when I roll at high speed down the trail from Lake Wichita Dam, continuing fast through the turn under Kemp Boulevard.

I was lucky the bike seat decided to pop where it did. A convenient, safe location...

Questions About Fort Worth's Homage To An Aluminum Trash Can

Way back in June I blogged about a Fort Worth Drive By America's Biggest Boondoggle Embarrassment after I eye witnessed the landscape mess the Trinity River Central City Uptown Panther Island District Vision has become after limping along for most of this century with little to show for the ill-conceived, ineptly implemented effort.

Last Wednesday I was in the DFW zone and drove by the mess again. Little has been cleaned up, that I made note of, since I last saw this a couple months ago.

And driving around the "art installation" which locals refer to as an homage to an aluminum trash can, I found myself freshly appalled and freshly perplexed as to how and why this part of the overall TRV embarrassment came to be.

In about a month it will be four years since the Trinity River Vision's project manager. J.D. Granger, and his mother, Kay, along with other perpetrators of this nonsense, had a TNT exploding ceremony to mark the start of construction of three simple little bridges being built over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Four years later those simple bridges are no where near being anything anyone can drive over, and are currently multiple V shaped forms, some with cement added. Locals have taken to calling these modern day Stonehedges the Yeehaw Seesaws.

A short time after that TNT exploding ceremony another ceremony was held, nearby, to mark the installation of that beautiful work of art you see above. This sets in the middle of an uncompleted, unlandscaped, weed and litter infested roundabout, which is part of the Boondoggle's bridge building effort.

This beautiful work of art cost around $1 million.

Why were these million bucks spent for this homage to an aluminum trash can years before the roundabout and the Boondoggle's bridges were completed?

How did the commission to install this homage to an aluminum trash can come about?

Did the million bucks benefit a friend or colleague of anyone in a position to influence such a wasteful expenditure?

Someone in the Trinity River Vision Authority or the TRWD?

Such as when a sweetheart deal was instigated by the TRWD's Jim Lane to help a friend suffering cash flow woes, with that sweetheart deal having the TRWD buy up some of the suffering friend's property, which later became the first drive-in of the 21st century, located due south of La Grave Field, a rundown baseball park, which was the beneficiary of a recent TRWD sweetheart deal helping another TRWD crony in financial distress.

Why was it so important to spend a million bucks on this homage to an aluminum trash can? It's not like the Trinity River Vision is flush with funds.

Just last May the TRV and its parent, the TRWD, used ballot shenanigans to put a measure on the ballot to raise a quarter billion bucks supposedly for flood control and drainage.

When flood control and drainage was not what the quarter billion bucks was for, which we learned last month from TRWD District Manager, Jim Oliver, who told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, with nary a hint of shame, that "the approval of the bond sales by about two-thirds of voters was very important. It’s going to allow us to complete the project, keep it online and on track.The money is needed to buy land, rechannel 1.5 miles of the river and build water storage areas and floodgates."

We blogged about this subterfuge, and other related issues wondering why the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Is Unable To Answer Why Boondoggle Bridges Take So Long To Build.

Why aren't the Fort Worth locals demanding some answers to all the problems which have blinded the Trinity River Vision? Why does no one ask why, if this, which was sold as a vitally needed flood control and economic development scheme, is so vitally needed, why is the project progressing in slow motion, year after year, decade after decade?

It seems the only ones who have benefited economically from this scheme have been the Granger Gang and that gang's cronies, with one of the prime beneficiaries being Kay Granger's son, J.D., a lower tier attorney who was given the job of being what has become, under his unqualified, inept leadership, America's Biggest Boondoggle, for which he is compensated, annually around $200,000, plus perks.

Would any modern American city, wearing its big boy pants, tolerate such outrageous nepotism? The answer is no. Such can only take place in American backwards backwaters, locations modern America has sort of given up on.

The people of Fort Worth really need to wise up and take their town back from these grifters.

That is what should happen, would happen, in a modern American city, but it won't happen in Fort Worth, because it has never been the Fort Worth Way to be a modern American city...

Where In The World Are David, Theo & Ruby?

That was the question I saw myself being asked this Friday morning when I checked email.

Where in the world are David, Theo & Ruby?

Well, it took me a moment or two to figure out the location of the trio.

Solving this mystery required zooming in on the building in the background, and then Googling some words I found on the building, such as "Davidson Building" and "Scott Rollins State Farm".

So, I now know the answer to that where in the world are David, Theo & Ruby question.

Ellensburg.

That is a town in Eastern Washington.

I suspect David, Theo & Ruby took their parental units to the location known in Washington as East of the Mountains, which is how those who live in Western Washington refer to the part of Washington on the east side of the Cascade Mountains, in order to escape the smoke filled air which has been choking the Puget Sound zone.

I lived in Ellensburg for a few years way back in the last century, whilst attending the school in Ellensburg now known as Central Washington State University.

I was last in Ellensburg in late August of 2001. I had driven solo from Texas back to Washington to attend my mom and dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary party. For the return to Texas I opted to take a different route than that which I had driven to get to Washington, with that route back to Texas being Interstate 90 across the Cascades, through Ellensburg and on to Montana where eventually I left I-90 to head south on I-25 to the Highway 87 connection to Highway 287 in Amarillo.

I wonder if I will ever be in Ellensburg again....

Not In Seattle Today Smoking 7 Cigarettes

This morning I saw that which you see here, on Facebook, posted by KIRO 7 in Seattle.

Apparently the smoke in the Seattle air today is so bad it is like smoking 7 cigarettes.

I know the smoke is coming from wildfires up north in British Columbia.

I do not know how nicotine is getting into that smoke making it like a cigarette.

Have Tobacco Farms been added to Canadian agriculture since I last lived in the neighborhood?  I know there are now Pot Farms across the Canadian nation, but I have not heard about any Tobacco Farms.

For at least a week I have been hearing from Pacific Northwesterners regarding the smoky haze which has covered most of the west coast.

Below is a dialogue from Facebook this morning of people commenting about the state of Washington's air....

Kimberly Ann Johnson: This smoke is crazy. Just drove home from Bow Hill. Headlights have an orange glow. It looks like October fog out there.

Bruce Forrester: I went to Marysville today and you can see how socked in the valley was from star bird road. I see according to Wa St air quality, that Bellingham and Lynden are worst. I know I smell it in my house, and don’t feel the best.

Kimberly Ann Johnson: I have asthma. My lungs are tight! I hope this goes away sooner than they're predicting.

Bruce Forrester: Lets hope so for you and your asthma.

Sandy Brooling: Bruce even over here in Port Townsend, we have orange suns. And I have started coughing more.

Christina Stockholm: The smoke is so awful!

George Hespe: Ruth & I were headed up to your area today, but by the time we got to Conway we were afraid we'd probably be lost in the smoke and drive right by your place if we went much further north. Glad we left bread crumbs to find our way home.

Tess Sakuma-dunlap: Smog?

Bruce Forrester: Smoke! Forest fires from Canada.

_________________

Now, Miss Tess asking if what these people are talking about is smog is a bit ironic, what with Miss Tess currently in Redding, California where she has been surrounded by wildfires for weeks, along with smoke filled air.

Miss Tess, like me, grew up in the Skagit Valley.

Just yesterday Miss Tess and I spoke of being homesick for our old home zone.

But I do not think either of us would want to head north right now, what with neither of us being smokers....