Getting Benched In Wichita Falls Whilst Rolling Through MSU With Linda Lou

I do not remember why, or who to, maybe it was Linda Lou, but for some reason recently I said something like I think this town I am currently in, Wichita Falls, may have the world's highest per capita number of  benches on which to sit, located in parks, along the Circle Trail, or like above, a shady location my bike took me to today.

The benches my bike's handlebars are aimed at are on the MSU (Midwestern State University) campus, due west of Moffet Library.

It being Sunday, and school currently on summer hiatus, the MSU campus was almost a ghost town today. Expect for a large group of percussionists creating a pleasing, loud drum beat. Today the percussionists were all assembled in one location on the plaza east of Legacy Hall.

Yesterday, when I rolled through the MSU campus, there were two percussion groups loudly percussing. One group was on the sidewalk south of the Fain Fine Arts Center, with the other group on the sidewalk west of D.L. Ligon Coliseum. It was like they were having a percussion duel. I rather liked the throbbing noise.

Today I realized summer is about to arrive. It seems like only yesterday the temperature was below zero, with zero electricity flowing through most Texas wires. But that was in February, in winter. And now spring is almost history, with those three spring months, for the most part, without the usual spring storms with booming thunder and tornado warnings.

The current 10 day forecast is for day after day in the 90s, toying with hitting the 100s, while actually going into the 100s due to the high humidity heat index making it feel hotter than the real temperature.

A few weeks ago I talked to a Washingtonian I had not talked to since way back in 1991. A classmate from the high school from which I graduated. During the course of talking, after answering the usual questions, like how the hell did you end up in Texas, I was asked how I can cope with the HEAT. 

I explained my experience with getting acclimated, with such being something I did not know happened til experiencing me personal adjustment to HOT weather. When I was a Washingtonian a heat wave in the upper 70s/80s was miserable. Few Western Washingtonians have air conditioning in their homes. Eastern Washington is more like Texas, well, way more scenic, but like Texas weather-wise, HOT in summer, hence homes have air conditioning.

The house I built in Mount Vernon did not have air conditioning, but it was designed to passively cool, which worked well. I do not recollect ever getting HOT in that house.

I sit here typing about keeping cool and realized the A/C is blowing cold air on me, whilst the ceiling fan is doing the same thing. Something I take for granted nowadays.

Come to think of it, my house in Mount Vernon did have a ceiling fan. It was part of the passive cooling. The fan was on the ceiling of the third floor, with a large open area below to the second floor and the stairway. Opening windows on the north side of the basement drew in air which was cooled in the basement whilst getting sucked up through the house to vent out through the top floor air vents. 

Back to MSU, the aforementioned Linda Lou asked me if it is a big campus. I've seen bigger. I've seen smaller. I told Linda Lou the buildings are mostly brick, and that the style sort of matches, architecturally, unlike the hodge podge of architectural styles at the last university I attended, Central Washington University.

Here's a map of MSU, to give Linda Lou an idea of that I bike around whilst rolling through this campus...

Biking The Lucy Park Tall Grass On Way To Original Wichita Falls

Feeling the need for green shade my mechanized motion device drove me and my bike back to Lucy Park, again.

The unpaved loop, part of which you see above, is a bit rough, but enjoyable, except for a muddy section or two.

That and being wary of the possibility a snake might suddenly appear.

This late into Spring it seems surprising the green has not turned more brown. That and I wondered if the tall grass, at least six feet tall, is of the sort which used to cover the open prairie, back when buffalo roamed free.

Last Sunday I also rolled my bike's wheels at this location. And just as I did on Sunday, I left Lucy Park via the Circle Trail to find that Wichita Falls was turned off, not falling any water.

Well, today, five days later, the falls is still turned off, and just like on Sunday, there were multiple groups of tourist types following the signs pointing the direction to the falls. 

But, unlike last Sunday, I continued on past the turned off Wichita Falls, and rolled all the way to the original natural, not artificial, Wichita Falls.

The sign the handlebars are pointing towards says "THE ORIGINAL FALLS ON THE BIG WICHITA RIVER FOR WHICH THE CITY WAS NAMED."

The sign is a bit misleading, making one think there is still a waterfall to be seen. But, that original waterfall was wiped out by a flood way back in the 1880s, or 90s. And even when it did exist the waterfall was only a short drop, something like five feet. 

Methinks signage should be added to the currently dry Wichita Falls, informing people that a short distance further on the Circle Trail will take you to the original falls. Well, the location of the original.

Dam Memories Of The Upper Skagit Valley

 

This blog post goes into the category of things seen on venues, like Facebook, which make me homesick for my old home zone of Washington.

What you see above is known as the Upper Skagit Valley.

Eventually the Skagit Valley flattens out into a wide fertile plain, known as the Skagit Flats. It is on the Skagit Flats, in Burlington, I spent my formative years.

As the Facebook poster posts, there are three dams on the Skagit River.

Ross Dam, Diablo Dam and Gorge Dam.

Of the three, the only one easy to see is Diablo Dam. You can drive across Diablo Dam. The switchbacks to get to the dam, and then its crossing, is a fun adventure. I think, if I remember right, the last time I did this was a long time ago, with Betty Jo Bouvier, in my now antique 65 Ford Mustang.

The Skagit River dam shown above is Gorge Dam. I do not recollect if I have ever seen this dam. If you watched the Warren Beatty movie, Parallax View, this was the dam which released a lot of water, almost drowning Shirley MacLaine's little brother.

What is now known as the North Cross State Highway is to the left of the view you see above. This is the highway which crosses through North Cascades National Park on its way to Eastern Washington.

The only time I have seen Ross Dam in person was on an 8th grade field trip. We got off the trip bus in Newhalem, had lunch and toured the Seattle City Light facility, including the building which housed the turbines which made electricity from the water flowing from Gorge Dam.

After lunch in Newhalem we took a funicular up a steep incline to a road. I recollect this seemed scary, treacherous, and a lot of fun. As long as I lived in Washington this was a free touristy thing provided by Seattle City Light. I do not know if such is still the case.

From the top of the funicular we walked as a group to the lake behind Diablo Dam, where we boarded a boat which took us to Ross Dam, for a tour.

This was decades ago, I shudder to count the years. But, I remember it as if it were yesterday.

Sometimes it is a curse to be blessed with a razor sharp memory.

Other times I feel quite blessed, remembering things I find others have forgotten...

Hoodoo-Like Cairn Leads Us To Circle Trail End

I came to the end of the trail, today. The Circle Trail, that is.

I dropped off an elderly senior citizen for an appointment with one of his doctors, and then drove to the east Circle Trail access to the Wichita Bluff Nature Area, unloaded my bike, and rolled its wheels for a few kilometers.

About halfway through the WB Nature Area I came upon the tallest Hoodoo-like Cairn I have yet seen at this location.

I got off the bike to photo document this phenomenon.

Back to the current end of the Circle Trail. I thought the project timeline for this new leg of the Circle Trail was to have been completed, by now, the link from Loop 11 to Lucy Park. I recollect due to a funding shortage the final 1000 feet was going to be a gravel covered trail, until funds could be found to pave it.

But, currently, Circle Trail construction seems to be halted at the location you see at the top, with a metal fence giving this halt a look of some permanence.

I have long looked forward to this connecting link to Lucy Park. This will make for greatly enhanced bike rides...

Mayor Betsy Thinks Unfinished Little Panther Island Bridges Transformative For Fort Worth

Late last night an incoming email from Elsie Hotpepper consisted of a Letter to the Editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I had already read that letter, prior to Elsie sending it to me, even though the Star-Telegram currently denies me access to their server.

Before I show you the Letter to the Editor we need to discuss that bridge you see above. This is the one and only of the three bridges to have opened to traffic, after being a slow motion construction project since 2014,

Would one not think that, after so much time, that somehow whoever designed this hapless bridge could have managed to align the bridge with the existing road in a more straight forward fashion? Those curves look like a head-on crash waiting to happen.

And now the aforementioned Letter to the Editor...

Bike lanes nothing big

Mayor Betsy Price, at the delayed opening of the first of three bridges over dry land associated with the Panther Island project, proclaimed them to be transformative for the city. I agree. Those three bridges, along with the profligate and misguided spending sponsored by our mayor to create miles and miles of unused bicycle lanes, makes us the laughingstock among Texas cities. We are not Amsterdam or Singapore, and simply carving out empty bicycle lanes from those used for autos will not change that.

Cleveland, a city I admire, is called by some the “Mistake on the Lake.” At least it does not boast that three bridges over dirt are transformative. We will be known as the “Obscenity on the Trinity.”

- Roy Browning, Fort Worth

____________________

"Obscenity on the Trinity?" I like that. Has a much better ring to it than "America's Biggest Boondoggle".

I have long been puzzled by why it is that Fort Worth officials, such a mayors, or new sources, such as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, have such a tendency to spout idiotic hyperbole about some perfectly ordinary thing in Fort Worth.

But, this may be a new low, referring to those pitiful little freeway overpass style bridges as being transformative for Fort Worth. Well, that is just embarrassing...

Joining Ducks & Fishing People On The Lake Wichita Boardwalk

The outer world was wet this morning at my location on the planet. A middle of the night thunderstorm dropped copious amounts of rain, resulting in floods of puddles rendering going on a bike ride or walking my usual locations to not be too doable.

And so I drove to the Lake Wichita Dam to do some walking where I knew serious puddling would not be an issue.

In the above photo documentation we are at the end of the Lake Wichita Boardwalk, looking east towards the top of the dam's spillway.

In a feat of construction engineering some Texas towns have trouble emulating, the Lake Wichita Boardwalk was built over actual water, taking about a year to complete.

Let's leave the Boardwalk and take a closer look at that aforementioned dam spillway.

Water was spilling over the spillway. But not too much. Those dots you see atop the spillway are ducks, which should give you a clue as to how slow the water was spilling over the spillway.

There were more people fishing today at the Lake Wichita Dam location than I've seen previously, including several fishing where the spillway spills into Holliday Creek.

And several were fishing from the fishing dock floating on Lake Wichita, as you can see via the below photo documentation.

I don't know what was making those streaks of white on the lake. Reflecting clouds? If it were winter I would say it looked like ice. 

In the distance, on the right, that is the Mount Wichita pseudo mini-volcano piercing the horizon. It has been a long time, I would guess well over a year, since I last hiked to the summit of Mount Wichita. The trails to the summit have eroded badly, making it look not to appealing to risk twisting an ankle, or worse.

If the Lake Wichita Revitalization ever becomes a reality, it would be a nice addition to build a lookout atop Mount Wichita, with a stairway taking one to the summit...

Wichita Falls Dries Up With Lucy Park Golf Tournament

My mechanized motion device took me and my bike to Lucy Park on this first Sunday of the 2021 version of June. I thought I would likely have the park mostly to myself, it being Sunday, cloudy, hot and humid.

I thought wrong.

Way back in 2016, the first time I found Lucy Park, it was crowded. As in finding a parking spot was a challenge. Lucy Park is a big park with lots of parking spots. I do not remember what event, if any, was happening, figuring this must just be the Lucy Park weekend norm.

Well, it was not the Lucy Park norm. In all the years since that first visit I have never seen the park with so many visitors as I saw that first visit.

Til today.

A Disc Golf Tournament drew a lot of people to Lucy Park today. But, I had no problem finding a place to park.

I ended up having a mighty fine time rolling my bike's wheels. Even the muddy, slippery sections of the backwoods trail did not vex me too much.

Eventually I left Lucy Park and rolled the Circle Trail to Wichita Falls. Which you can see via the photo I took documenting the fact that today Wichita Falls is not falling any water.

I have never understood why Wichita Falls would spend millions to build an artificial waterfall, so as to have an answer when tourists ask where the waterfall is after which the town is named, to have a waterfall which has to be turned off when the Wichita River runs high.

Today there were a lot of people walking to see Wichita Falls. Where there was no water falling.

I find it ironic to find myself explaining to people why the waterfall is turned off, and that this happens way too often. Ironic because it was not all that long ago, on that first visit to Lucy Park, that I asked the nice lady who was womaning a Texas Tourist Information Center kiosk, how one got to the falls. She pointed the way, which seems so obvious now, and gave me a complimentary tube of chapstick, which I still have. 

Below is a partial look at the throng of humanity in Lucy Park today.

There were several disc golf vendors lined up next to the Lucy Park log cabin/swimming pool parking lot. The vendors are what you see on the right.

I don't know why more events don't take place at Lucy Park. It would seem to be a great location for something like Seattle's Sunday Fremont Market, where dozens upon dozens of vendors sell their wares, along with multiple food vendors. Or an event like the Anacortes Arts & Crafts Festival.

I don't see why such can't happen in Texas. 

Particularly since the biggest such type thing I have ever seen was in Texas, as in Canton's First Monday Trade Days.

First Monday Trade Days is truly something to behold. I've beheld it three times, and enjoyed it greatly each time...

Admiring Wichita Falls Holliday Creek Vision's Southwest Boulevard Signature Bridge

The view you see above I see via walking the Circle Trail a short distance south of my abode. At this location the Circle Trail passes under the Southwest Boulevard Bridge over Holliday Creek. 

This is an iconic signature bridge (according to Fort Worth, Texas bridge standards). Note the stunning round vertical piers upon which the bridge was built.

This bridge was part of the Wichita Falls Holliday Creek Vision. A legitimate flood control project, unlike the illegitimate flood control project projected in another Texas town.

Fort Worth.

The Holliday Creek Vision's Southwest Boulevard Bridge was built over actual water.

While Fort Worth has been lamely trying for years to build three simple little bridges over dry land to connect the Fort Worth mainland to an imaginary island.

Those trying to build these Fort Worth bridges tell the locals, who apparently are extremely gullible, that these new Fort Worth bridges will be iconic signature bridges, which people, world-wide, will recognize as being a Fort Worth engineering marvel, you know, like the Golden Gate Bridge does for San Francisco, or the Brooklyn Bridge does for New York City.

Wichita Falls does not brag about its signature Holliday Creek Bridge. I have never even heard mention made of this bridge in any local forum.

The city does provide that comfortable swinging bench you see in the photo above, so that one can sit and admire this engineering marvel...

Hoping To Overcome My Wichita Falls Grand Buffet Phobia

 I saw that which you see above, last night, on Facebook. The Grand Buffet-Wichita Falls announcing "Our Dining Room is now OPEN!"

This announcement seemed to be, to me, a bit out of sync with observed reality.

The Grand Buffet is on Kemp Boulevard. I drive by its location frequently. It is about a half mile distant from my abode.

For months I have been surprised to see the Grand Buffet's parking lot being home to a lot of vehicles, and have seen people entering the restaurant's entry.

Seeing such had me wondering how one does a buffet during these troubling pandemic times.

I have long had a neurotic paranoid obsession when it comes to buffets. No matter where the buffet is located. Texas,  California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, or my old home zone.

The idea of sharing a food scooping device with strangers has long unsettled me. So, before I subject myself to a buffet line I arm myself with napkins to wrap around the food scooping devices. I have long wondered why it were not the case, and wished it were reality, that prior to going through a buffet line, the buffet provided disposable gloves to the buffeteers.

I see, via the screencap above, that the Grand Buffet post on Facebook was a video.

I did not make note of that fact, and thus did not click on the video.

Maybe the video explained what virus spread prevention measures are in place, if any...

River Runs Through Wichita Falls Hamilton Park Waterpark

That which you see above is almost completed. I have been watching this under construction for over a year, as I bike north on the Circle Trail through Hamilton Park.

When this is completed it will be a water fountain playfield for kids. The photo does not show the shade awnings already installed above the fountain playfield. The shade awnings match those already installed above the avant garde climbing playground which came to life a couple years ago.

I biked to this location late yesterday, as in Wednesday, afternoon. As you can see, the sky is blue, free of clouds.

And yet, at this location, ironically with the fountains not yet active, I suddenly found myself pummeled by large rain drops. I turned around and saw some cloud action to the south and figured a strong wind blowing north must be delivering these odd drops. The rain did not last long.

Between the avant garde climbing playground and the soon to open fountain playfield there is a sort of plaza, made of bricks. Some of the bricks identify donors who made building this addition to Hamilton Park possible.

The brick plaza also provides an identifying plaque identifying the group which is behind this excellent addition to this Wichita Falls park.

The Wichita County Medical Alliance. A close up look at the identifying plaque...

"Physicians' families united to care."

Methinks on a HOT day when I find myself biking through Hamilton Park, if the water fountain playfield is not currently busy with kids having fun, I may do a quick cooling off ride through.

I suspect such may be doable quite soon...