Visiting Mount Wichita With Hank Frank In Montana

Most of March I have been slightly ailing, not too miserable, but not in the mood to do much of anything, such as my regular bike riding habit.

This ailing was good timing, sort of, what with this stay at home and away from potential virus carrying humans period we are currently suffering through.

So, what with feeling better, along with the outer world being heated into the 80s I decided to ride the Circle Trail to Lake Wichita.

A lot of other potential virus carrying humans had the same idea. I've never seen this section of the Circle Trail with so many people with so many different means of conveyance, with the majority means of conveyance being the regular non-mechanical assist walking method.

I stopped in the shadow of Mount Wichita for photo documentation purposes, pleased to see the mountain is recovering from the ravages of last summer's wildfire which scorched the mountain's southeast side. Green has returned to most of the mountain. I did not know if this is the result of a re-forestation program.

I do know that we did not have a sufficient snow coverage this past winter to enable opening the Mount Wichita ski lift.

Eventually I made it back to my interior space where I feel somewhat free from the threat of acquiring a potential virus.

Soon after locking my entry door the phone made its incoming text message noise. It was from Hank Frank's grandpa, my little brother Jake, with the text asking if I was keeping adequately isolated during these trying times. That and saying the attached photo indicates that it is already the lawn mowing time of the year in Montana.

Above Hank Frank looks like he is about to drive the lawnmower out of the garage. Hank Frank's maternal grandparental units live on a ranch near Helena, Montana. So, I think I can intuit from knowing that fact that Hank Frank is visiting his Montana grandma and grandpa.

Of all the big towns in Montana I think Helena is the only one I have never been in. Have overnighted in Missoula, Great Falls, Billings, Bozeman and Butte. Have driven though Lewistown and Kalispell, but have never seen Helena.

Awhile back Hank Frank's papa, Spencer Jack's uncle Joey, asked me if I'd been to Helena, which caused me to try and remember if I had, eventually coming to the conclusion I had not visited Montana's capital city after perusing the town's location on a map.

Each passing day makes it seem more and more unlikely the Coronavirus will abate enough for the planned trip to Washington to take place this summer, a trip which will include meeting Hank Frank for the first time, if it occurs.

The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics seems to indicate the level of trouble the world is in. I think the only time the Olympics have been cancelled has been during one or both world wars. And that long period of a few thousand years between the original Olympics in Greece and their revival and return to Athens in 1896.

Enjoying The Dry Falls Of Wichita Falls With Linda Lou

Two days in a row, for the first time in weeks, I managed to go on a bike ride.

Yesterday's ride was chilly, requiring full coverage. Today's bike ride was not chilly, requiring limited coverage.

Two days from now the temperature prediction is somewhere in the 90s.

Today's bike ride started in Lucy Park. I rolled my wheels on the Circle Trail from Lucy Park to the Dry Falls of Wichita Falls.

When a lot of rain falls, causing the Wichita River to rise, Wichita Falls is turned off, rendering it the Dry Falls of Wichita Falls.

It seems just a little ironic, to me, that after a century of visitors to Wichita Falls asking where the falls was that the locals decided to have a fake falls built, so as to have an answer to that probing question. But then did not deem it necessary to have the fake falls engineered in a way which allowed the falls to fall all the time.

I have been in towns in the Valley of the Sun desert zone of Arizona where there are multiple fake waterfalls, which I never saw turned off, even when the desert goes into flash flood mode.

Other than that problem with going dry way too frequently the fake Wichita Falls is a well designed installation, looking almost natural, until it goes dry, or when one hikes the trail to the top of the falls to see that the falls has no source of the creek or river sort, but instead mysteriously flows out of the edge of a massive cemetery.

My primary medical care professional, Nurse Linda Lou, called whilst I was rolling alongside the
Wichita River. It was not convenient to answer the phone at that point in time. I suspect Linda Lou was calling to verbalize about our Dear Leader's latest Coronavirus briefing embarrassments. That seems to happen daily nowadays...

Theo & Ruby's Harstine Island Fairy House Village

Yesterday I blogged about the Tacoma Trios Deer Corona Isolation With Harstine Island Bridge Over Water Unlike Fort Worth after incoming email brought six photos documenting some of what David, Theo and Ruby have been doing whilst they are unable to go to school.

Number six of the incoming six photos is the one you see above.

The text explaining that which you see above was...

"The kids built fairy houses in the forest behind the cabin. This is Theo's, with his path leading toward Ruby’s".

Fairy houses? I had not heard of such, previously. And so I Googled to see fairy houses are a big deal, with one of the explanations explaining fairy houses simply and succinctly...

"Fairy Houses are small structures for the fairies and woodland creatures. Ranging from simple to intricate 'Fairy Mansions', these whimsical habitats are built by children, families, gardeners and nature lovers reflecting their creativity, joy and pride".

Since I first saw Theo's Fairy House every person I have asked if they had heard of Fairy Houses had heard of Fairy Houses.

When I Googled "Fairy Houses" the Amazon extension on my web browser popped up with Fairy House kit products available on Amazon. Apparently the whole world knows about Fairy Houses.

So, this is yet one more thing about which I have been ignorant...

Tacoma Trio Deer Corona Isolation With Harstine Island Bridge Over Water Unlike Fort Worth

David, Theo & Ruby, also known as the Tacoma Trio, are now in, I think, week three of their school being closed due to the Coronavirus nightmare.

The Tacoma Trio's parental units have also been sent to homebound social isolation for the duration.

I do not know if the Tacoma Trio and their parental units are spending all their isolation time isolated on Harstine Island, where they have a cabin retreat, or if they have been going back and forth between Tacoma and the island.

What I do know is in that first photo we are seeing Theo leading his favorite herd of island deer on a bike ride around the island.

In the next photo we can plainly see that Washington geographic feature Washingtonians refer to simply as The Mountain. Non locals refer to this volcano as Mount Rainier.

As you can see the early Spring weather in Western Washington can be quite pleasant, when Mother Nature deems it so. Above we are seeing Ruby filling in a hole in which Theo is being buried.

Next summer, if life on the planet returns to some semblance of normal, I hope to be on a Washington beach with David, Theo and Ruby, where the Tacoma Trio will show me the sand castle building skills they learned whilst attending sand castle building school in San Diego last July.

Above we are witnessing David extinguishing the fire he built for the weenie and marshmallow roast he enjoyed with his brother and sister and the parental units.

No, that is not one of Theo's deer on the left. That is the newest member of the family, Raven, the full-sized poodle. The Tacoma Trio and Raven are sitting on a bench with the Harstine Island lagoon behind them.

And now on to something one finds on Harstine Island which is difficult to find in landlocked Fort Worth, Texas.

An actual bridge built over actual water connecting an actual mainland to an actual island. What a concept!

Even though the Harstine Island bridge is a cool looking bridge, mostly due to the scenic setting, over actual saltwater, no clueless local is dumb enough to refer to this as a "signature" bridge. Or claim it to be a complex feat of engineering.

The Harstine Island bridge was built over actual tidal water which moves with the whims of the moon.

And when the Harstine Island bridge was built there was no TNT exploding celebration to mark the start of construction. Nor did the bridge have a ridiculously long four year project timeline. Nor was any local politician's unqualified son and daughter-in-law put on the public dole to the tune of hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars, year after year after year.

That landlocked Fort Worth, Texas town, mentioned above, has been trying to build three simple little bridges over dry land ever since a big TNT exploding ceremony way back in 2014.

The simple little bridges are now projected to possibly be ready for water sometime in this decade.

For well over a decade Fort Worth's favorite grifter, Kay Granger, has had her son, J.D., un-gainfully employed by what has become one of America's dumbest, biggest boondoggles, with J.D. currently paid over $200K a year, plus perks, along with also employing J.D.'s most recent wife.

In the past year J.D. sort of got fired from his imaginary Executive Director position and then put in charge of imaginary flood control in an area which has not flooded for well over a half a century. With no pay cut.

J.D.'s mother has failed on delivering the federal pork that the hiring of her son was intended to motivate. And yet the scandalous nepotism continues.

And now another look at the Harstine Island bridge.

That looks like Mama Kristin behind Theo and Ruby, under the Harstine Island bridge.

Methinks it clearly obvious that if Fort Worth is ever able to finish building those three simple little bridges over dry land that the final result will not be any where near as scenic as that which we see above.

A real island, natural water, not a cement lined ditch with polluted river water diverted into the ditch.

And no matter which direction one looks, one will never see a mountain from any location in Fort Worth.

Jason's Skagit Version Of The Corona Virus

Yesterday I text messaged Spencer Jack's dad, Jason, who is also my eldest nephew. I was curious how Jason and Spencer were weathering the Coronavirus storm.

By late afternoon I was in Walmart with the hordes of masked zombies, when my phone rattled my pant pocket, which had me answering a call from Mount Vernon's Linda Lou.

After several minutes of talking to Linda Lou my phone made a new noise, indicating another call. I somehow accidentally connected the two calls together, and so I then found myself talking to both Linda Lou and Jason.

Linda Lou's Mount Vernon home is about two blocks from Jason's.

Wonders of our modern pandemic infested world. Me, isolated in Wichita Falls, Texas, basically in the middle of nowhere, talking, long distance, to two different locations in Mount Vernon, Washington, with the long distance call not costing any long distance toll charge, no matter how long we talked. And with Linda Lou asking me to text her a photo documenting a condition I had used words to describe to her.

Twenty years ago being asked to send a photo over the phone would not have made any sense. And now, doing such, is totally ordinary.

So, by early Friday evening I was back in home social isolation mode, and checked email to find incoming, from Jason. When Jason called me and Linda Lou in Walmart he told me he had emailed me, and then decided later to call. And then even later Friday evening another incoming email from Washington,  Harstine Island to be specific, brought a plethora of photos, which I will blog in a blogging following this one.

And below is the text of the email from Jason, telling me about the current pandemic state of my old home state, along with a couple photos, including the one above documenting that Jason's Fidalgo Drive-In is open and feeding the locals.

And now Jason's email...

I'm going to reply to your text, via e-mail, as it is much easier to do such.

Spencer was dad schooled all week. He is very diligent about starting his homework immediately after breakfast. The teachers at his school have provided him with a lot work that needs to be done on a daily basis. He uses the computer to complete at least half of the assignments. Both yesterday and today he used Zoom to have a virtual meeting with his teacher and classmates.  She has also called to check in with us. So with all of that I am very impressed.

With regard to the restaurant, business has been really steady. I just got lucky, that my drive-in is easily set up to send orders out the door in paper bags.   And that's what we have been doing. 

Driving around the PNW has been quite eerie. Downtown Mount Vernon is a ghost town. And so was Lynden.

After homework was completed the other day, Spencer and I went up to Birch Bay to get some much needed UV rays.

It was a cool crisp sunny day, but the beach was full of young moms and dads and their children who have been kicked out of school.

We then headed east to Lynden for lunch. We took our lunch to the Lynden City Park, which was again filled to the brim with school children.

After lunch we did some house shopping in Lynden, before visiting your father and making our way back home.

Driving home the past couple days around dinner time, I cannot express how busy the parks are. With most everything boarded up, must be the only escape for Skagitonians. People are taking their meals to the parks.

Spencer would really like to go back to school and 'just wants this all to end.'

Jason.

David, Theo & Ruby Isolated Socially From Coronavirus On Harstine Island

Incoming last night from Puget Sound's Harstine Island, with the text accompanying the photos saying "Corona Crazy --- We finally got the kid's bikes to the cabin..."

School has been closed for a week now for David, Theo and Ruby. And their parental units have also been home, working remotely. I suspect some level of stir crazy began to manifest itself.

And so the Tacoma Trio took their social distancing to their cabin on Harstine Island, along with their bikes.

That would be Ruby and Theo with their bikes on the island, above. No photo documentation of David on his bike was included.

July and August are less than half a year in the future. Who knows if this Coronavirus nightmare will be over by then. So, I currently do not know if traveling to the Pacific Northwest is going to be doable this coming summer.

On Thursday I was in Walmart and saw the wiped out toilet paper supply phenomenon for the first time. The next day I was in the ALDI across the street from that particular Walmart and was surprised to see ALDI did not seem to have even a dent in their toilet paper supply.

Then late Saturday afternoon I was back in ALDI surprised to find all paper products wiped out, no canned goods, the meat section totally gone, along with many other items no longer available, including oatmeal.

Across the street Walmart was even more wiped out, with almost all produce gone, except for a random fruit or vegetable remaining. The bread shelf was bare. The meat section pretty much wiped out. In the cleaning supply area even the dish detergent section was empty.

I am currently beginning Day 11 of experiencing what seems to be a mild cold. Or allergies. Nurse Linda Lou called yesterday and when I described my symptoms she insisted I needed to be tested. Later Linda Lou texted a link to a local location where I can get my symptoms checked. I do not think Coronavirus testing is available, yet, at my relatively isolated American location.

Sunday I escaped Texas temporarily to drive north to Oklahoma. I find driving in a pouring rain and listening to the windshield wipers keeping time to be relaxing, for an hour or two...

Tacoma's Queen V Takes Me To Whidbey Costco & Texas Walmart Toilet Paper Madness

This morning, via Tacoma's Queen V, on Facebook, I saw a bizarre video documenting yester morning's opening of the Costco in Langley, Washington.

Langley is a town on Washington's Whidbey Island. I did not know there are now Costcos on Whidbey Island. Does Oak Harbor have one too?

I digress.

This video, by what I assume to be a Costco employee, shows shoppers rushing at high speed to the back of the store. Dozens of shoppers pushing shopping carts at high speed, with Costco employees admonishing them to slow down lest someone gets hurt.

For anyone not familiar with Costco, the toilet paper and bottled water is located at the back of the store, a long distance from the entry. Probably not any longer than a half mile, or so it seems.

Ever since this toilet paper/bottled water hoarding thing started happening I had paid zero attention to such when I have been in one of the two stores I frequent in this isolated American location, those being Walmart and ALDI.

So, this morning I made a point of directing myself to the Walmart toilet paper aisle, well, bathroom tissue aisle in euphemistic Walmart-speak,  and was sort of surprised to find the supply pretty much wiped out, except for the ultra-cheap generic type rolls you see above on the mostly empty shelf.

Those remaining bathroom tissues are a whopping 55 cents for a 4 roll pack. I don't know why no one has yet snapped them up...

Coronavirus Strikes Close To Home In Tacoma

Overnight the Coronavirus nightmare has struck closer to home, well, a home I have stayed in.

In Tacoma.

A couple days ago I emailed David, Theo and Ruby's mama, who also is my little sister, Michele, and asked, among many other questions...

Has Tacoma closed any schools? I saw on Facebook pics from Chris Sampson of the run on water and toilet paper at the Covington Costco. Why those two items? I don't get it.

To which Michele replied, in part, with...

So far, school is open in Tacoma. Kristin is busy as lots of doctors are freaked out. Understandably so, especially if they are in a high risk group. We stocked up on TP in case we were quarantined for two weeks. Do you know how much toilet paper the five of us would go through if we were all home 24 hours a day?!? We also stocked up on groceries  Water, that I don’t understand. Side note: I may have already told you - Ruby had a thing at Mercer Island high school last Saturday. Boys and I watched her thing then ran up to Bellevue Square and that’s where we were when my phone let me know the first death was in Kirkland. That was a bit unsettling, to be so close.

For those not familiar with the geography, Bellevue Square is a downtown Bellevue mall. The next town north of Bellevue is Kirkland, made famous by Costco, and the past few days for being the epicenter of the Coronovirus outbreak in Washington, with the Kirkland outbreak mainly in a Kirkland nursing home.

And then last night incoming email from Michele with the current Tacoma status...

Our school is closed for the rest of the week. Parent of a kid in Theo’s class tested positive. Wanna come babysit?!?  So at this point, it just feels like we are just waiting to be told to stay home.  The governor is weighing options to enforce “social distancing”, one Tacoma elementary school is already closed because a staff member tested positive, one of my colleagues is at home with the main symptoms, waiting to hear from her doctor.  The clubhouse at the beach cabin is closed due to fears of the virus.  Kristin has no face to face meetings now, everything is done over the phone.  All the local colleges are doing online only classes.  It seems like it isn’t whether we will be at home for a while, but when it will start.  So very odd. 

I dunno, does it sound like a good idea currently to get on a plane to fly north to Tacoma to have myself a mighty fine time babysitting the Tacoma Trio? I am conflicted. I've not been back to Washington in March since way back in, I think, 2000, when I remember watching the new Mariner ballpark under construction.

Anyway, thought it interesting to share this report from one of the American frontlines in the battle against the Coronovirus pandemic.

Happy 13th Birthday Spencer Jack

Driving Commercial Avenue in Anacortes, Washington today you would see the Fidalgo Drive-In advertising the fact that today Spencer Jack is 13 years old.

Seems like only yesterday, a Saturday in the 2008 version of August I met Spencer Jack for the first time at Bay View State Park in the Skagit Valley of Washington. If I remember right at that point in time he was somewhere between one and two years old.

The next time I saw Spencer Jack was in March of 2012 in Chandler, Arizona, at Spencer's Aunt Jackie's house. Spencer was a rambunctious five year old by then.

And the last time I saw Spencer Jack was in August of 2017 at Birch Bay, Washington.

I suspect I will be seeing the 13 year old version of Spencer Jack this coming summer.

Lake Wichita Boardwalk Over Water Nears Completion While In Fort Worth...

This first Thursday, fifth day of the 2020 version of March, with the outer world being void of clouds, and a temperature high today supposedly nearing 70, and despite ailing from what matches Coronavirus symptoms, it seemed like a good idea to turn the key on my motorized motion device and drive to Lake Wichita Dam to check out the current status of the building of a new Lake Wichita Boardwalk.

Well, as you can see, there has been a lot of progress since I last checked out this construction project. The signature vertical piers are now completed, with the boardwalk and railing installed atop the signature vertical piers.

As you can see this boardwalk is being built over actual water.

Whilst, meanwhile, for years now, Wichita Falls neighbor to the southeast, Fort Worth, has been struggling to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Those Fort Worth bridges boast highly touted imaginary signature V-piers, with a design which looks like nothing special, despite the signature propaganda. The Fort Worth bridges, in their current un-finished state, look like simple freeway overpasses. Waiting for water to one day possibly flow beneath them.

If I remember correctly the new Lake Wichita Boardwalk is projected to be completed soon. Imagine that, undertaking a project over water with the funding to pay for the project in place before starting. And completing the project in a timely fashion.

Regarding Fort Worth's infamous ongoing Boondoggle fiasco. The attempt to tie Kay Granger to the Boondoggle, with Boondoggle disgruntled Republican voters voting to replace Granger with a right wing nutjob Trump acolyte, predictably failed.

It is now up to Democrat. Dr. Lisa Welch, to prescribe the cure to the Granger disease in the upcoming General Election with its anticipated Blue Wave Tsunami, with a few million bucks of help from Michael Bloomberg to counter the Granger machine's millions...