Thunder,Lightening,Wind,Hail,Flash Flooding

It was a jolt from sleep. Normally, I hear muffled rumbles of thunder and weak flashes of light if  I wake up at all. Last night was something else. The roars of thunder were astonishing as was the flashes of lightening that lit up my bedroom through blackout drapes. It was so unusual, I grabbed my phone and checked the NBC weather App to see a line of storms covering the Metroplex all the way back to Abilene. As it was, tornadoes hit Franklin, Texas south of Dallas.

 While it wasn't as bad sounding after the initial jolt, it still could be heard enough that I cap napped for another two hours before finally giving in to a return to sleep. I slept beyond my usual time to wake up by over an hour and that was interrupted with yet another round of rowdy thunder and lightening. Had that not happened, I might have slept to noon.

It was closer to two before I got out of the house with umbrella in hand. And a troublesome tire picked today to be the day to split at the shoulder and was nearly flat. So, my first stop was to the friendly tire shop to get a new tire. Some days are just filled with surprises and I deal with them as they come up. There is no need to worry about things that you cannot control.

There were still several weather hazards still active of which one was a flash flood warning for White Rock Creek. That is always one that will bring me to the lake even if I hadn't planned on going. The flow of White Rock Creek is like a river, not a creek, and  in the summer, the Trinity River is more like a creek than a river. It's one of those misnomers that is somewhat of a paradox. The flow of plastic bottles and debris is rather sickening. It comes from all the northern burbs and get picked up in the runoff flow of alleyways, ditches then into storm drains and into White Rock Creek.

As I made my way around the lake, the secondary spillway and White Rock Creek below the tidal pool from the main dam and spillway were level with each other. That's normally a 30 to 40 foot drop. The USGS gauges in the tidal pool were all under water. I didn't even check the website because the readings would not be posting or at flood stage or above. But, it was drawing a large number of  people to take photos and selfish with the roaring water behind them.

When I made my way down West Lawther, the parking areas and docks were all pretty much empty but alone the shoreline, the high winds had pushed the debris flow all the way across the lake from where White Rock Creek enters the lake to the west side of the lake's shorelines. The water didn't get as high as I had thought that I would find it and that is a good thing. The clean up of plastic will be confined to the shoreline in a about a two foot wide band of wood and plastic.

This is the tidal pool below the main dam and spillway. Where  you see a line between smooth surface and more rough water is where the secondary spillway steps down that 30 feet drop. White Rock Creek begins again right at the bridge line going south into south Dallas where it flows into the Trinity River. From there its a few hundred miles to the Gulf.

Here comes the water over the dam and down the long and wide spillway into the two channels on either side of the island into the tidal pool before it makes that left turn at the secondary spillway that is big blocks like steps that drops about 30 feet in height where it returns to White Rock Creek again 

The west side of the lake where the debris has collected for several hundred yards.

Another Week of E-Ticket Weather Rides

It's been so back and forth temperature-wise this winter in North Texas that even the  weather geeks are going back into the record books to justify why this is happening. One thing is for sure. While the buds have started to open and the flowering red bud trees and dogwood trees are blooming, these every-other day cold fronts will slow down the full arrival of spring a bit. Noticeable also is the green showing up in the woodlands where the tree canopies have held down the cold and frost from reaching the ground which allows the trees and scrub bushes  to stay a bit warmer than the open meadows.

With more down time than normal, it has allowed me to find problems with my camera settings and to experiment and to correct the issues that I have been having with the auto focus and other settings. So, it's not all being a bad thing. But, I am getting excited to be back out in warmer, sunnier, dryer and less windy days than what we have been experiencing here in North Texas.

Valentines Day will be mid 70s with a warm south wind. Since I have a doctor's appointment, that will get me out earlier. With being inside so much it had my schedule a bit out of whack.  Today, in an effort to catch up on some routes that have really fallen by the wayside of late, I headed out for the Trinity mid-way between Irving and downtown Dallas.

Much to my surprise, some of the areas that normally are closed off from high water were open. That shows right there that the new pumping stations are up and running and above all, working. When I hit the ramp going down into the old Trammel Crow Park on Sylvan, the sand was like two feet deep in parts of the parking lots and they had not been cleaned off from the flooding. Walking across the old Sylvan Bridge, which is now literally 30 feet below the new bridge, the amount of wood and plastic that had been collected was astonishing. There was evidence that the crews had done some
 work on the banks. There were also large 60 gallon trash bags full of plastic maybe. They had been neatly placed on the side of the bridge's west end waiting for a crew to pick them up. Large animal tracks from the river up onto the smooth riverbank's sides could have come for dogs, but they could have also come from   a pack of coyotes, too. A person walking their dog would only have left one, maybe two, sets of tracks at most. These covered the entire area and could only have been made by a pack of  many.

The purpose was to test the new settings on the camera that had been adjusted last night. I got my shots and headed back toward home with a quick stop at the grocery for dinner.  Generally, I play a little game with myself to guess my mileage reading when I pull into the driveway. Tonight, I was off by two tenths!! Now bad from being cross town and not including where I would stop for groceries. The old man is still got some sharpness to him.

Plastic flowing from the Northern Communities down the Trinity and collecting under the old Sylvan Avenue Bridge, now used as a crossover for the Skyline Bike Trail and its connections , old and new.

The western edge of Downtown as seen from the West back of the Trinity at Sylvan Avenue bridge (old).

Discovering Something Else While In Search of Another

Several articles have been written on this topic. Usually it is on the way to the doctor's and finding a

The second piece is now added to the transition base and the first metal fab piece. It's on its way, folks!

serendipitous discovery. Usually, it makes me happy. Sometimes, not. There are several reasons the not is more unhappy than the other. Basically, in the past few months, there has been more negative people in the mix than at other times. There are those who usually are going to look at a picture and find every excuse in the book to tell you what you are explaining  is not what you said it was. To those, my answer is this: Why would one go to the effort to point out something exciting  just to serve an ego? That has always been a cause to frustrate me and continues to do so today. If you have that big of an ego need to begin with, then my suggestion is to contact two friends of mine over the past 40 years. One is a psychiatrist and the other one is PhD psychologist. Personally, this author would suggest seeing the psychiatrist first.

The juvenile bald eagle of at least 4-years already had the full white head and most of the tail feathers had turned, but not all. Riding the thermals between the levees was a beautiful site.

It was an enjoyable shoot, and the eagle made it even better. After all, it is part of the Great Trinity. Eagles like that old wood setting near water and a fresh food supply. Two weeks ago a spotting of two red tailed hawks were seen on the electrical towers between the levees. It's a thrill seeing such amazing birds in the heart of downtown.

Bird : It's really a Juvy Bald Eagle even though there are those who will do anything to discredit the fact.In this case,  a Texas Department of Wildlife Naturalist confirmed it was a bald eagle. So there!!

The distance between the arches is greater than most think. Originally, there were to be two more arches in the middle of these two arches.

And The Winner This 4th of July Week

In the hay day of Detroit's auto prowess, it wasn't common knowledge, but loyalty customers to a brand could go to a depot lot to select their new cars after their dealer made the appointment.  An example of that process went something like this: You are at your dealer. You want to buy or lease the latest of Detroit's hot new car. The dealer says that it will take 12 weeks to order that car and that doesn't include shipping. But if you were a loyal customer to that dealer, he would send you to a depot lot after making your appointment. You go to the depot lot. They ask what color or what model you were looking for and then load you up in a golf cart and drive you "out back". Out back was a lot about the size of the Nebraska Furniture Marts store and distribution center that opened in The Colony, Texas. That's Texas style. That is about 22-football fields in size. So you say you want a blue car with 4 doors. The cart takes you down to row 47B and as far as the eye could see (so-to-speak) all you could see were blue cars with four doors. In short. on a depot lot, you are going to find what you want. Guar-an-teed.

It's the white one....oh, wait....

Or, the red ones.....

Oh, it's blue........ What's it's a KW,no it's a  Peterbilt. OH, so many colors, so many makes.....thank goodness I didn't find the Diamond Rio dealer!.They are all winners!!

It's been a while since I enjoyed the thrills and excitement of such an adventure. Egos ran higher then than they do today. But during the last month going down to the bridge complex to check on the water levels of the Trinity River, that  old excitement began to return.  Trip after trip I would pass this stretch of roadway. That is where I would slow down, stay out of traffic and just gaze at what I was seeing. It was awesome.

Yesterday, I make that trip again to see the waters finally receding after a month since Mother Nature turned off the taps. That stretch of roadway is Irving Boulevard beyond the renamed part known as Riverside Drive. It's beyond the Market District. It's beyond the Medical District. It's about midway between downtown Dallas and downtown Irving, but oh, it's that "Miracle Mile" of big trucks.

That miracle mile of logistics inhales and exhales commerce on such a big scale, it virtually goes unnoticed as cars whiz by on this stretch of road.  Only old marketing executives could appreciate finding such a gold mine and that creative approach to business stirs again from  terrain memory.

No Rain Today!

Cathay Pacific's 747 rescheduled to San Francisco now, then on the Anchorage.

The weathermen have been all over the fact that it rained 24 of the last 31 days. So that is how we got the Trinity River to 42 feet when flood stage is 30 feet. Or: so that is how we got the lakes full  when they have been negative 24 feet or negative 18 feet and so on and so on! The old adage has always been, "it takes a flood to get out of a drought".  At any rate, it was just nice to be out in the sunshine and have the humidity below 40 percent, well, at least 53 percent.

Looking back and forward:

The Mighty Trinity River. 2000 feet of water from bank to bank. So much for the new Toll Road the politicians are trying to shove down the voters throats.

The new Sylvan Avenue Bridge will not open to Trammel Crow Park until the water goes down from the exit ramp!

Drought Buster

Downtown with water from east levee to west levee, about 2000 feet.

Over the past three years, I've heard people laugh when the saw the Mighty Trinity for the first time. Least we all forget that the past five years have been drought years--albeit severe drought conditions for a large part of those five years.

Here are a few images from this afternoon.

The old Sylvan Ave. bridge below the new Sylvan Ave. Bridge

The new Margaret McDermott Bridge over the Trinity on I-30

Two Case In Points

When I started out today, it was because it was the last day of November and the temperature was going to hit 80 degrees F. The future had already been forecast with a 50-degree drop thanks to an Arctic air mass dropping in from the northwest. "Gotta make hay while the sun shines" my grandfather would say. Here are two case in points.

Case in Point #1

Since the first model hit the streets, I have not liked the  SUV vehicles or double cabs or cab-and-a-half trucks. They are big and boxy and they block the view for the average driver. Sure, if  one wanted to hop on the bandwagon and pay more for tires, gas and all the other related cost, then that is one thing. But I do not want to pay the extra money just to be in style. There really must be a functional purpose. A car is transportation from point A to point B.

 Frankly, I could never see the benefit to having a SUV, until yesterday. Within five miles driving from North Park on Northwest Highway beyond the toll way to Love Field, my reservations were answered. I saw two separate SUV vehicles a couple of miles apart each doing the same thing with their SUV. Both drivers had 8-foot Christmas trees,complete with plastic stands already attached, strapped and tied down to the roof racks. Glory be! There really is a good use for a SUV, Virginia!

Case in Point  #2

The past couple of years there has been talk about the development of white water rapids for kayakers on the Trinity River. Then, there were problems with the rapids and the work had to be redone. There wasn't much talk about it afterwards, but several have expressed a desire to locate the rapids.

It seems that we have been looking for the wrong thing. While shooting a live feed of the return of Keith Lynch, the Dallas man that paddled roughly 4,000 miles from southwest Montana down five rivers through 15 states to arrive underneath the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge Saturday, several photographers were talking about not being able to find the rapids either.

On Sunday, I decided that I was going to find the trail or rapids, or something that would fit the suspense.  Well, I did find it, long story short. WOW! I could not believe my eyes. It was amazing.
Here are some of the key facts:

• Santa Fe Trestle Trail

• Corinth and 8th Street, Oak Cliff

• West of the old Sears Catalog Distribution Center near Lamar and Corinth

• On Dart Rail at Corinth and 8th Station and Moore Park

On the wall of the Pavilion and Amphitheater is one of the most powerful statements an environmental supporter could ever read about wetlands. It says:

All water has perfect memory

And is forever trying to get back to where it was.

A View of Downtown. The low profile brown building is the old Sears and Roebuck Catalog Distribution Center from another age.

The Rapids Have Been Found

A beautiful Hike and Bike Trail. While the trail isn't that long, there is a lot to see. It took me about 2 hours and I could have spent more time there.

The Trinity River Corridor Glows Again

It was plain to see that the interest in the Maggie 2 Bridge (Margaret McDermott) is drawing visitors during the early construction more rapidly than the Maggie 1 (Margaret Hunt Hill) did. That, within itself is a testament to the Maggie 1 Project. After people saw what the building of a prized bridge could do as far as community and economic benefits, it was only natural that the crowds would come early on to witness the uprising from the trenches into that glorious Santiago Calatrava design of architectural form. The interesting part is that the first pieces of the double aches have not even been shipped from the fabricator.The other point to consider in the early crowds is that during this bridge construction, there is the new Trinity Skyline Trail that was non existent during the building of Maggie 1.

In as much as Interstate 30 will ferry visitors between AT&T Stadium in Arlington and downtown Dallas, if for nothing more than commuting between a hotel room and the stadium, it would be worth it all. The impression with the remake of the mix-master into the horseshoe will give a more refined coat for the city to wear. There is no question in my mind that the Trinity River Corridor Project was and will be the place to add growth investment for the city. After all, it is only following what mother nature put down eons ago and the city discovered with vision and astute planning, even though the naysayers were screaming at every turn. It was the right decision folks. It really was. I only wish that I was going to be around in thirty years with the same energy that I have today to rejoice with the city for making their dreams come alive despite the negativeness that others were trying to white-wash  as a , "I told you so" party that they will never have.

 Over the years, I have seen cities developed good plans and I have seen cities develop bad plans. I have seen even rock-hard cities like Detroit fall into the gloom of despair. But, Detroit will come back again with vision and planning. It always works. The key to any city is in the elected and the paid visionaries.For visions are the eyes of  new vistas. Dallas took a river and a forest and turned it into the second most powerful economic engine outside of DFW International.

Former Mayor, Ron Kirk (1995-2002)  fired up the engine that we know today. We were lucky to have Former Mayor Laura Miller follow Mayor Kirk and even more lucky to have Former Mayor Tom Leppert to follow. Dwaine Caraway keep the fires burning after Mayor Leppert stepped down. The legacy of Mayor Mike Rawlings is still being written, but I don't see the blazing economic engine that moved this city down the road like it was moving. But, we shall see in time. Don't get me wrong. Mike Rawlings has had his plate full. Long have I preached that Fair Park needed attention. It's getting it now. South Dallas is finally getting the attention that they deserve and will get much more through the Trinity River Project than they suspect will happen. The spin offs will bloom in south Dallas and Oak Cliff. The train is still on time. Don't give  up, south Dallas. Don't ever give up!

As a foot note here, the new radar unit that measures the down river discharge rate that the United States Geological Survey had installed is now up and running with all its wires connected.  Thanks to the USGS office in Austin and the field office in Ft. Worth. I had listed an image with my agent and after talking with the USGS after they reviewed the image, ask that it be withheld until the wiring was complete. I am happy to report.... It's a GO!! Thanks to every one in the office for their great informative discussion on what the unit did and how it worked and how it can be viewed on the USGS web page daily. Now, we just need the rain so that I can check out the log reports.

The Radar unit measures the rate of discharge going downstream. The reports can be seen on the USGS website under water management.

Maggie 1 as seen from the new Maggie 2. That is # 11, grade 60 rebar there on the ground. It ain't no # 3 pool rebar!

Here goes another skyline change for Dallas! Where else can you see a bass fishing boat, complete with outboard motor  hanging from a crane eclipsing both the Bank of America Building and Reunion Tower?

Peaceful Turtle Creek: It's National Hot Dog Day

While I make fun of myself for visiting White Rock Lake as much as I do, I go there as a photographer because there is always something going on. I've seen a fire department pumper run into the lake. I've seen divers pull a stolen car out of the lake. I've seen a sail boater flip in the middle of the lake and watched a water rescue that ended in success. I've also seen paddle board accidents and just plain stupidity end with tragic consequences.

I've seen a steam-powered boat on the lake; dogs on sail boats having as much fun as their owners, wildlife, snakes, monk parrots, American bald eagles, red-tailed hawks, pelicans, seagulls, ducks, swans, geese, coyote, horses, etc.,etc.

There is no question that White Rock is also a very pretty place and a crown jewel of the city park system. Bikers, runners meet regularly to bike and run alike. Visitors come and take pictures from the docks. Several rowing clubs hold meets on the lake and sailing clubs give lessons as well as hold regattas. The city put several million dollars into the dam and spillway a couple of years back so people can safely watch the waters cascade after a heavy rain. People fish. People picnic; even eat Hot Dogs the year round and not just on National Hot Dog Day, which is today, in fact. The culture center offers many events during the course of the year. All-in-all, White Rock is worth the trip to exercise with a cardio-walk and a place where one can meet professional photographers and hobbyist. It's a direct path to the Gulf of Mexico via its confluence with the Trinity River down stream past the dam. That's always an awesome feeling when you see water flow past your position in stream or on shore.

Having said that, when I want to think and reflect (especially during this time of year remembering my son and mom ) it's done along this stretch of paths on Turtle Creek in Uptown. Everyone has that special place for such personal reflection and thought. Mine is here.

While the traffic sounds are around you, they fade into the background as you walk. The heavily traveled  Katy Trail carries most of the bikers and runners along  and upon the ridge to the left. At White Rock, you would be getting "ON YOUR LEFT" over your shoulder as bikers zipped past. The solitude here is priceless. Across the street at Lee Park, provides areas where you can bring back the tempo of the day with statues, benches and rose walks that Jerry Jones and wife made possible. It's not that far from Jerry's house either as Highland Park, Uptown and Turtle Creek all overlap like a lotus bloom on  a lily pad.

Turtle Creek, Uptown Dallas

More Trinity Development Evident

Looking East up Singleton Blvd toward downtown



The Sylvan Avenue Bridge Project Is Underway

The stainless Steel tanks would suggest a micro brewery--maybe?

Since the  opening of the new Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, the area West of the bridge along Singleton Boulevard has increased its development. The new Trinity Commons Project is already showing new stonework,sidewalks and even something that looks like a new micro brewery. This area is getting ready to pop economically and commands watching closely.

A Pun Fully Intended

Everyone handles unwanted decisions in their own way. Some, have a more difficult time at it than others. I learned early on that you need to watch those that handle difficult decisions much more because they become your teacher on how to handle those decisions more effectively. Over the years, the common thread seems to be: Find the humor in a bad decision and laugh then move forward

This brings me to the most current and recent decision to rename the White Rock Marathon and begin immediately calling it the Dallas Marathon. I can see that.....but it doesn't make the decision any less painful for a lot of hard-working volunteers that love,The Rock! Not that they don't love the city any less, it's just a thing that grows on you over time. And, as in most cases, in time-----the Dallas Marathon will be the norm and good memories of the old days of running the rock will be memories for the grand kids and old friends.

I'm in training to run the Roc-------No,wait-----

December 9th, I'm running the Dallas Marathon!

So, for those of you who are having a bit of a hard time adjusting...... I found a little humor this week at White Rock that can lessen the burden of a decision already made.