The Ground Where Big Tex Stands

Big Tex Float at the St. Patrick's Parade on Greenville Ave.

Friends of the State Fair

Surveyors at work to raise the stand by 6 foot for Big Tex.

Well, everyone has heard by now about the Big Tex fire a few days before the fair closed in the 2012 season. Since then, there has been a lot of talk and work and discussions about the future of Big Tex.  Happily ( it was decided and private money started pouring in to help ) Big Tex will be rebuilt bigger and better. He was a pretty big guy to begin with. The fact of the matter is: he's gonna be bigger if for nothing than the ground he will stand upon.


Opening day of the State Fair this year is September 27th. Big Tex will be there! He is sure to be a big crowd draw throughout the fair this year especially, but I would anticipate the 11 AM opening ceremony this year will have a bigger crowd than normal. I'm thinking it will be, at least.







The surveyors are out already working to raise the stand by 6 feet. This is a spot of respect! Big Tex has been here every year for 60 years and he's coming back for year 61 bigger and better than before.

You can call the Fair Board at Fair Park if you want to make a donation to help fund the reconstruction, I bet.




 

The Trains at Fair Park Are Thinning

The next consist to move at month's end

The brakes are being rebuilt.

The Big Boy on the left. Over 1 million pounds of steel!

     The old trains at the former Museum are just about gone. The next big consist is being readied to move across the Union Pacific tracks out of Fair Park to the BNSF yard in Irving before being moved those final miles to the new Museum at Frisco. Looking at what's left, shows the years of neglect while on display at Fair Park.
     Of course, the Big Boy move will be the last to go. It is the biggest locomotive under steam that I have ever seen. I must say that. This is the one that everyone has been waiting to see on live rail again. The enjoyment of seeing an old steam locomotive under it's own power moving on the tracks is still exciting. To see this locomotive under it's own power will be an experience of a life time.
     Meanwhile--here are a few pictures from Fair Park. There are a couple taken from the other side of a chain link fence and the slight grey blur is the camera's reaction to the object in the lens. The Facebook page for the museum is saying that the move will be March 31. That's a Sunday and the TRE will not be running. That means that the trip should have live rail free from traffic to move to Frisco. It would not be expected to have this piece of equipment sitting on a yard siding at Mockingbird or Irving yard. It would be assumed that it will move non-stop from Fair Park to Frisco in one move. That is, of course, just an assumption. There is a little bit of politics being played out by a few and that always spoils the broth some.

Good Bye, St. Patrick's Parade, Until Next Year !

The Buzz Bike

The Best Bike in the World!

A year-after-year crowd pleaser!

The end of the train of parade pictures. This is it until next year's parade. It is to be hoped that all y'all enjoyed the images from Greenville Avenue from behind the barricades like most folks!  Even my barricade neighbor could not hold back his love for the Budweiser Trucks!

Next year, I want to ride the Buzz Bike and take pictures of the crowds!




 

Friends and Neighbors at the Barricades

My barricade neighbors had a wireless speaker and it provided some pretty cool music  while waiting for the parade.

A bunch of good kids.

Just as you have seat friends when you go to a Mavs game or a Cowboy's game, at a parade, you have neighbors and friends along a barricade. It was lucky for me to have some good neighbors at the St. Patrick's Parade this past Saturday. The sad part is that at the end, they all posed for a group picture. It was one picture too many as I had shot a SD chip and didn't realize until I was on the train that I had missed the best shot! Luckily, I had some candid shots while the crowds pinned us between the sidewalk and the barricade on the street. One of the group does have a group picture----they got on their cell phone. If you e-mail it to me, I'll  post it addendum to this post. Meanwhile, after tonight, I have one last day of images to post.

Yup! It looks just like the image above but it's not!

 

Nearing the End of the Parade Post

Bagpipes and Firemen!

The Irish Flag in the middle

The other Irish Flag in the middle

Another year of published St. Patrick's Parade pictures is nearing the end. It has been a labor of love because I do enjoy capturing a few precious moments of  a celebration. Since I don't shoot weddings, I make up for it with the Children's Christmas Parade and the St. Patrick's Parade. Then, it's time for the Dragon Boat and Kite Festival, Plano Balloon Festival, Memorial Day Program at a local cemetery, There are  always festivals that fill in the balance of the calendar year.

So, as the St. Patrick's Parade comes to a close for another year, it is a hope that every one has enjoyed the parade highlights.  

Fast Forward from Saturday's Parade

This is what scouts look for in a DO-DA Parade, but St. Patrick's on Greenville is just as much fun!

A participant in the Character Unit with Batman and Superman

Now this really is : For the Love of the Lake!

On this last day of winter, preparing for the little cold snap due this weekend has taken up a little bit of edit time. Prior to today, I had been a bit concerned about my red bud tree that I have pampered from seed. It currently stands about two and a half feet  with one bifurcation about half a foot in length. All the red buds are out and in full bloom. Then, as if by some magic, there are several new shoots of green on the trunk, tip and the bifurcation branch. In line with the showing of the green, my red bud tree has come through right in the nick of time. Hopefully, next year, I should have red bud blooms. The parent plant budded in the third year. Now, I just have to protect it from the possible freeze. The heat island effect should keep temperatures here in the city warm enough. But, you never know what the weather will do and it will be insulated just in case.

Now, I can get back to editing the last group of pictures from Saturday's parade.
 

Day Three Post from St. Patrick's Parade

A Couple Toast the Parade-Goers

Superman !

Rowdy Cowboy?!

It's really been rather hectic this year with the parade pictures. First, I charged up my battery pack and had everything set for the short lens and the long lens cameras. The parade was soooooo good this year, I shot well over 300 images.  Processing that many images is a bit of a chore and that is just sorting out the files. It does not include the posting time and all that goes with that little task.

Today, two full days after the parade, I'm shooting at Fair Park and get the light that my battery pack is low. Usually, I get about three weeks from a charge. That caught me by surprise. So, I walked back to the car to get the short lens camera and to pack away the long lens. As luck would have it.....the guys were surveying the mound where Big Tex usually stands. Not only is he being rebuilt, the mound is going to be raised by six feet. In short, Big Tex is coming back bigger as well as his building up his standing ground.

Then, if that wasn't enough. I had just been over looking at the trains that are going to make up the next consist to be shipped to Frisco. So, since the day was moving along so well........I walked over to the Cotton Bowl because there was a crane lifting steel beams over the front facade. That lined up well with the new ride that is going up. Which is the tower at 500 feet. Men were working on the cable cars. Generally, there was a lot of activity at Fair Park. I turned around and two guys were taking pictures in front of the Cotton Bowl. One ask the question: "Why do they call it the Cotton Bowl?" I knew he wasn't from Texas. I ask him where he and his friend were from. "Ireland", he says!. Later, he said that they were from,"Galway". That's about as Irish as it can be as far as I'm concerned. They had walked from downtown Dallas, having gone through Deep Ellum. I suggested that they take the train back to downtown and pointed out the train station. I last saw them walking along the station fence and I would hope that they did take the train. That's a fur piece to walk.

On Saturday, I had taken the train down to the Park Lane Station and walked from Park Lane to just South of Southwestern, then after the parade walked on to the Lovers Lane station and picked up the train there. I still haven't checked the actual mileage but I'd call it a bit more than a fur piece! !