Virtual Low Tide Washington Harstine Island Coronavirus Escape With Deer

A couple days ago I emailed sister Michele, maternal parental unit of David, Theo and Ruby, asking how the Tacoma Trio and their parental units were doing with the ongoing Coronavirus nightmare.

In addition to telling me how things were going in one email reply, a second email included five photos which made me homesick for being in a scenic wonderland.

The first two photos fit in with the recent Facebook fad of people posting landscape photos, with no humans, as a diversion from these trying times.

The text with the first two photos said "Evening low tide with cool sky colors."

I would say cool sky colors along with cool clouds.

It sounds like the home schooling has been lumbering along. The teacher's send some homework. Not graded or required. So, the Tacoma Trio spend time on something called iReady, which focuses the kids on math and reading. The kids are doing a lot of reading.

Above, for his science class, Theo is experimenting with the centrifugal force concept, turning his arm into a windmill, spinning a bucket of water fast enough to keep the water from spilling.

David has been helping mama Michele improve her tennis game. The text with this photo asked "Is there a more beautiful place to play tennis?"

There are a lot of deer living on Harstine Island. The deer frequently visit the Tacoma Trio's cabin due to knowing one of the trio, well, two of the trio, may come and give them a treat. Like an apple.

David does not participate in the deer feeding due to a morbid fear of deer.

Harstine Island is a privately owned chunk of Puget Sound.

Washington has closed all public parks, beaches and playgrounds, currently through May 4. But the beaches of Harstine Island, and the tennis courts, and other amenities, remain open, for now.

The Tacoma Trio's mama Michele has ordered a fleet of kayaks to give  them something new to do during the duration of the lockdown, which some think may not end in early May, but may continue til July.

I was looking forward to heading to Washington in a couple months. Currently that plan is on hold...

Heeding Fat Orange Pumpkin's Advice Shivering Masked Man Takes Bored Walk

I am having a little trouble not going stir crazy during this cooped up in the home cage nightmare.

So, I have been doing some escaping, usually solo, inside the protective bubble of my motorized motion device.

As you can see via the photo documentation I am heeding the Fat Orange Pumpkin's advice to be a masked man when out and about in any sort of public venue.

The bandanna scarf mask is serving a dual purpose today, what with the unwanted return of Winter.

This morning the real temperature was almost freezing, with the wind making the outer world feel as if it was below freezing.

Before lunch I took a drive to Lake Arrowhead, eventually ending up at Lake Wichita, at the dam parking lot. I did not see any infectious humans, so I decided it was likely safe to walk to the top of the dam to check out the current status of the new boardwalk being installed on the lake.

I stayed more than six feet from the man in the boat with a pole. The boardwalk looks as if it is nearing completion. I really don't quite understand the purpose of this boardwalk. Will there be a floating dock at the boardwalk's end, with a stairway down to the dock?

Or are people expected to want to fish from the boardwalk?

There has been some talk of the final link in the Circle Trail being built over the lake. Methinks that is a great idea. A floating trail might be fun, rocking and rolling a bit when the wind whips waves on the lake.

I am sort of running out of places to take a short drive to at my current location. It ain't like my old home location in Washington, where I could drive a few miles to the west and be at a saltwater beach, or a few miles to the east and be up in the mountains, or a few miles north and be in an entirely different country, or hop a ferry and float to islands in the rain shadow of the Olympics.

I think on the next warm day, if one ever arrives, I may head north to Oklahoma, where the waving wheat can sure smell sweet, or something like that...

Chilly Wichita Falls Circle Trail Walk Finding Trail & Library Closed

Several days ago the local weather forecasters were forecasting what seemed would be an early in the year heat wave.

Well, there were two days which followed which caused me to turn on the air conditioning for the first time this year.

And then yesterday it was back to fire up the furnace mode, which continues today.

I know that with the current situation no one expects anyone to go out of their way to return books, and that no fine would ensue, or book collecting gestapo agent would come knocking on my door due to an overdue book.

But, I needed to return some almost due books to the currently Coronavirus closed Wichita Falls Public Library. And any excuse is a good excuse to temporarily take a break from the sheltering in place.

So, I drove to do so, making my way to the closed library, with an empty, usually full, parking lot, using the primitive, antique book drop means, rather than the modern touch screen moving belt electronic means I usually use, to rid myself of a stack of books.

Leaving the drive through book depository lane I opted to head west to the eastern entry to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area for a walk on the Circle Trail.

After arriving and parking I headed to the Circle Trail and then took a right, walking east under the bridge over the Wichita River where I came to what you see above.

TRAIL CLOSED.

I don't know why such a sign is needed at this location. It looked fairly obvious that I had come to the current end of the Circle Trail, with the new section's construction well underway, with the hopefully soon to open link to Lucy Park.

At that TRAIL CLOSED  location I decided to take a rare selfie photo to photo document how cold the outer world currently is at my location, requiring a flannel shirt and a thick head covering. In the selfie you can not see the long pants or long underwear which completed the keep warm ensemble.

After walking I don't know how many miles I eventually found my way back to sheltering in place. I don't know how much longer I can live this way without having some sort of nervous breakdown...

Wichita Falls Coronavirus Lockdown Ends Lucy Park Swinging

On this, the final Sunday of the 2020 version of March, I opted to return to where I had had myself a Lucy Park Enchanted Forest Mud Bath a couple days ago, to roll my still mud coated bike on a ride through the tulips and other colorful flowers, whilst avoiding any mud traps.

In the first photo you are looking at my bike's handlebars aimed at the Lucy Park Pagoda, and some of those aforementioned colorful flowers.

And behind the Pagoda you are seeing part of the also aforementioned Lucy Park Enchanted Forest.

I do not know why Wichita Falls has so many Japanese inspired Pagoda type structures. I have asked a local or two or three if they could explain, to no avail.

On Friday the local Wichita Falls government put the town on a shelter in place type lockdown, with multiple caveats, such as one could leave ones shelter is one needed groceries, or to take a walk in a park, or on the Circle Trail.

However, judging by the sudden drop in the number of park visitors, and Circle Trail users, as witnessed by my eyes, we went from I had never seen the Sikes Lake trail with so many people on it, as I did on Thursday, and then on Saturday, the day after the local lockdown, Sikes Lake was a virtual ghost town during the same time frame as the previous visit.

Same thing with Lucy Park today. Ghost town. But on Friday, before the lockdown went into effect later on that day, Lucy Park was busy.

And since that local lockdown edict the Lucy Park playground equipment sports a new feature, which you see photo documented below.

Caution tape has been wrapped around all the Lucy Park slides and swings, keeping the little playground players from playing too close to each other whilst sliding down a slide, or swinging on a swing.

When I was a kid I really can not imagine yellow caution tape keeping me and my siblings from doing some sliding or swinging.

Then again, when I was a kid we never had anything remotely as scary as something like the Coronavirus Pandemic happening whilst America was being lead by someone the majority of Americans have realized is an ignorant moron, to put it as mildly as possible.

Scary times.

Wichita Falls On Lockdown With Mount Vernon #6 Per Capita Coronavirus Cases

Yesterday evening due to the stressful experience I suffered in Lucy Park's Enchanted Forest's Mud Bath I found myself tired and in horizontal mode relatively early last night.

After an hour or two of being horizontal my phone made its annoying incoming text message noise. Eventually I got back vertical to check the message.

Waking the phone I saw that it was my primary medical information provider, Nurse Linda Lou, texting me, with the text in the message simply saying...

Mount Vernon is #6.

There was an image attached to the message. That image is what you see above. When I saw this image last night I did not see, blurry-eyed that I was then, where Mount Vernon was mentioned.

But, this morning, when I looked again I was shocked, shocked I tell you, that my former Washington home metro zone, that being the Mount Vernon/Anacortes Washington zone was # 6 on a list of "Confirmed cases per capita by metro area" of the Coronavirus.

Methinks this is not a Top 15 list any metro zone anyone anywhere is wanting to be on.

Bellingham is another Washington town I have lived in, way back in the late 1970s.

The Bellingham metro zone, which I assume includes my familial hometown of Lynden, is 15th on this list.

Yesterday the Wichita Falls city council put this town on lockdown, telling us to shelter in place, with a lot of exceptions, like if you desperately need to go to the grocery store.

Sheltering in place is gonna get real old real quick...

Lucy Park Enchanted Forest Mountain Bike Mud Bath

I had sheltered in place for almost an entire day, voluntarily, as doing such is not yet mandatory at my location, though mandatory sheltering in place is being discussed today by those in charge of deciding such things for the people who live in Wichita Falls.

So, whilst still being able to exit my abode without fear of being in trouble with the mandatory sheltering special police I drove my bike hauling vehicle to Lucy Park to do some riding in this sudden return to summer-like temperatures.

90 something was the high yesterday, cloudy and not quite so hot today.

I figured, what with the return of extreme heat Lucy Park, would have totally dried out from its most recent flooding event.

I figured wrong.

Lucy Park has a large undeveloped area which I called the Enchanted Forest of Lucy Park. There are trails, un-paved, un-graveled in the Enchanted Forest. The Enchanted Forest pretty much totally floods when the Wichita River is flowing way too much water. You can sort of see the flood level in the above photo, looking at those trees you see my handlebars are aimed at, that reddish brown color is what remained after the water drained away.

So, I was rolling along, having myself a mighty fine time, and then I came to a section of trail which looked like it was still muddy. But, it has to be dry, by now, what with all these heat, I thought to myself.

I was wrong. I soon found myself rolling in thick mud, tires spinning and slipping, me having to struggle hard not to end up on the ground, in the mud.

I got through that first mud trap and could see more ahead. I thought, maybe I should turn around and go back the dry way I came.

But, this is a mountain bike, this is what mountain bikes are made for. And this current mountain bike has never been on an actual mountain or an actual muddy mountain bike trail.

And so I continued on.

I should have gone with my first impulse and turned around.

After multi minutes of spinning on mud I had traveled maybe 200 feet. I was covered with mud spun up from the spinning tires. The bike gears were covered with mud. The brakes were mud covered. The tires were thickened to what looked like double sized. I had trouble keeping the crank turning and the bike moving.

Eventually I reached dry land and soon stopped at a bench, found a stick and began trying to pry off as much of the mud as possible.

All worked out in the end, well, there is that super muddy bike sitting outside on the patio waiting for rain to give it an anti-mud bath...

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.