Being In The Right Place At The Right Time

The afternoon started out with a plan. That plan had holes in it from the beginning. The old water tower in Rowlett that survived the Christmas Tornadoes a year ago, was later determined to be unsafe and would have to come down. That day took a year to come to the point that today would be the day. So, since it is pretty much a straight shot for me to get there on my spoke wheel shooting route, I stopped at Whataburger to get the namesake burger and a chocolate shake. I had hardly made it into Garland when Garland police were racing up and down side streets. It was pretty obvious that they were looking for something or someone.
As I drove along sipping on my shake that was so thick I could have done better with a spoon. That's the way that I like shakes and one of the big reasons why I still go to Whataburger for my shakes.  Every one else has changed up there shakes to make it more "Starbucky" I suppose. Even the last hold out was DQ and when they went to the plastic top stuffed with whip cream and a cherry, I said to my self," Self, we are going to Whataburger from now on for our shakes."

I'm now about three miles up the road and this motorcycle cop come whizzing by zigging in and out of traffic doing every bit of 75 or better. Then here comes a regular SUV patrol car trailing the cycle cop.By my last car count that was a total of 6. The guy got his man, he had the guy and his little white sports car pulled over in a garage parking lot and the SUV patrol car was coming out of the car. Don't want to know what that was about. But, driving on, when I got to Rowlett, there were 5 Rowlett police cars sitting at the light. Again, I didn't even want to know what was going on there.  I got to what I thought was the water tower-- only to find out it was farther north.

While there, it was time to check on the sellout job the city of Dallas did on the city park that was right on Lake Ray Hubbard. The city even put it up for a vote and it was one of those deals where the wording was yes for no and no for yes. It even tricked me. Then I found out listening to Dallas City Council Meetings on WRR that the city sold out to raise money. Not in the best interest of all citizens. They gave away one of the best pieces of ground in Dallas county to the city of Rockwall basically because they were desperate. And the land is in Dallas Country but now owned by the city of Rockwall  of the same county. Oh it will be for the  developer, not the city( laugh here please). The property will match the other side of the causeway. In short, our elected officials sold us out lock stock and millions to  line someone's pockets. ( We all know where those kinds of deals go and the city never sees the money anyway.)  I learned from the city of Detroit when in high school that you didn't use Police and Fire Pension Funds to finance construction projects. The city of Dallas is looking at a major shortage in just that department right now because they financed a high rise lux condo tower across from the Arts District.

Just last week, I was talking to a guy who brought up Para sailing and I mentioned to him that I had shot a lot of images out there but since it is fenced off and posted and all  private now (so much for the citizens benefits). I had mentioned to him that I was still looking for where the group had gone or what happened to the group. When, to day, out of the corner of my eye, I saw beautiful para sails in the sky in the same place that they once had used, only this time, they were the only ones that could get into the place. So shooting could not be like before.

When I got out of my car, here comes this big F250-maybe even a F350, I flagged him down, but later realized he was checking me out or the car or what ever and that he was watching the properly, even the open boat dock. I mentioned to him in our short conversation that I was still a bit mad over the way the deal went down in city hall.  He rubbed this index finger and thunb together and said lots of money. I later said, $14 million. Then he drove back to were he was parking and re parked. I shot the para sailers only to see one sail come flying off the ground and into the lake. With gust as has as 32 mph and steady winds of 20 mph the waves and swells were growing and lapping at my feet on the dock area. I continued to shoot the sail as it would lift out of the water and then fall flat on the surface. Then out of the corner of my eye again, I saw a guy in a full wet suit running along the curving shoreline as the para sail continued to move away from the shoreline, although I had already figured out that once it got a bit farther out, it would begin to come my way as the 3-5 foot swells were coming right at my feet.

The pictures will tell the rest of the story except that another guy in a Range Rover and wet suit  arrived just as the other guy had jumped into the water to try to catch the sail before it was snagged in the trees and underbrush. He also jumped into the water. I drove back to the guy in the big F-what ever and mentioned to him that the number that I had tossed out to him had come from Dallas City Council meetings that had aired over WRR. We agreed that the less number was for the land, but that the final deal of many millions more was for other rights and goodies. He mentioned $45 million. I'm getting the impression that the guy has a stronger tie to the deal than just sitting in a big Ford F1 or 2 or 350. Did you know that Ford even makes a F650? Well, they do. It's a big monster, too!

I never did find the water tower. It was on the news tonight. Lots of people were there. All I found out was that the next time I'm going to Rockwall, I'm going to Boots Hamburgers. The guy still runs the hamburger joint out the back of his house (legal of course) and is only open about 2 hours a day. Like he said," It's my business. I can run it when I want." I grew up with a hole in the wall burger joint that I still get that smell in my head today and have never found a burger that comes close to it other than a plan Whataburger with mayo. So going to Boots is now a mission in search of my childhood burger taste for another day.

This is the guy that was chasing the sail from the shoreline

The shoreline here is very rocky.

The swells were 3-5 feet with gust winds of 32mph and substained winds of 20MPH

Total Support of Dallas' Park System Has Now Been Downgraged.

Dallas wrangled the voters a couple of times to get their way-- their way being $31.8 M in cash and an agreement  to get $2M more annually in perpetuity-- in a deal with Rowlett and City Council over tax revenues from the sale of Elgin B. Robertson Park. Two trips to the ballot box got harder to figure out what was really going down with each trip, even after doing the research. At some point it really is easier to believe in the old adage: Don't fight city hall, but my total support of Dallas will be downgraded after this slight of hand. When I saw the first Rowlett rezoning signs I knew the city had done their magic trick.There's another phrase  that could be used, but I was raised with more tact than that.

Accepting the fact that there will be no more photos of a migrating snowy owl; no more watching the guy exercise his 12 foot Python in the open field; no more fantastic shots of sailboarders laying out their chute lines in those grassy fields, is a big disappointment for sure. The increase usage of White Rock Lake has increased lately, but White Rock does not have the open expanse of water that Lake Ray Hubbard has and was accessible as a city park for boaters and fishermen or just a fantastic view of the lake by visitors that pulled off I-30 for a break.

Last week,while making  a trip out to see what was happening a line of cars  and mine were meet with fences. Earlier trips just yielded the re-zoning changes which announced the official sale of discovery. But the latest trip was meet with fences steering you only to the existing marina and boat dock after you figured out what the signs were telling motorist. The rest of the park was totally fenced off now that the sale has gone through.The developer has staked his claim quickly.  At least my vote to keep the park makes me  proud of that fact. It wasn't a jewel so-to-speak. It was a diamond in the rough and Rowlett gets to keep the diamond!

Here are two links to published articles about the pre-sale and the post sale of  Elgin B. Robertson Park.

1.http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2013/04/dallas-voters-would-be-wise-to-authorize-parkland-sale.html/

2.http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2015/02/26/dallas-sells-lake-rayhubbard-park-for-31-8m-paves.html

Both articles are a bit murky and one needs to have followed city council broadcast on Wednesdays to see how murky things got.  

Boaters were saying that Dallas simply never took care of the park.

There were people who were stunned the city sold the park. They pointed out situations like this since the sale.

People said they didn't understand the wording on the ballots when they voted to keep the park.One man said he felt that because of the wording on the ballot that he wasn't voting the way that he wanted to vote. I felt the same way, myself.  Fishermen were not happy, either.

Where Did The Water Go?

The local media has been all over the depressing levels of area lakes from a weather angle. They aren't even excited about the Zebra muscle threat by running stories a couple of times and then not being well educated in the problem at hand. Zebra muscles arrived in the ballast tanks of international ships that bring goods to this country, particularly in the Great Lakes. While ships are tied to the docks and  cargo is being unloaded, the ballast tanks are blown out into the fresh water of any of the five Great Lakes where they are docked. Zebra muscles are non-native species and thrive in  the conditions  of the lakes.

Spreading quickly, zebras soon were clogging Great Lakes water-intakes  and spread by boaters that do not wash off their boats completely before putting their boats back into another lake. Well, zebras have made their way to North Texas and just in a few years have spread from Lake Texoma  to neighboring lakes. While Zebras are no laughing matter, combined with the drought and dropping levels in the water supply, The concern should be more of a concern for the media than it has been the past couple of years.

 I've lived through the infestation of Zebras in a metropolis that got their drinking water from the Great Lakes. It isn't a pretty sight. Yesterday, I went in search of visible low lake levels and I found them. I didn't see a single boater washing down their boats after pulling them from the lake. Check out these pictures.


The Marinas have actually trapped boats  in their slips where the boats cannot get out.

The boat ramp is so low, the boats are being loaded and discharged a full truck-length farther down the ramp.

On the Rockwall side of Lake Ray Hubbard, the water marks on the wall measures a full 7-feet down to the current water levels.