This morning, we went out to Tandy Hills for a walk with the dog. We left a little late, so by the time we started at around 10AM, it was already starting to get a bit hot. As usual, we forgot to take the camera, but we had a great time! If you’re willing to get covered in spiderwebs and aren’t afraid of a little elevation change, there’s a really nice little stream that runs through the eastern part of the park, you can probably figure out about where it is by looking at the park from I30. There was about a 10 - 15 degree temperature difference between that area (partly because of the shade and partly the creek itself) and the main trail area. We got a little turned around on our way back, but eventually we made it and a good time was had by all.
The link above is to an article about the park and how people are afraid it’s going to be ruined by gas drilling. It mentions that the city has vowed not to let trucks drive onto the parkland, but that’s apparently a lie, since Jenna and I nearly got run over by a big diesel pickup with 4 workers in it. It missed us, but it took out a couple of small trees on its way out, which is always a nice way to start a hike in a nature area. I have never been prouder of Barley barking at people. Those a-holes deserved it. I mean, seriously… That park isn’t that big, couldn’t they walk to where they needed to go? They weren’t even too far off or along the main trail when we encountered them.
I’m of two minds about this kind of stuff. I’m “conservative” enough that I don’t necessarily feel like it’s government’s place to buy up and make unavailable for development large parcels of land. I respect private property rights, they’re really what has made the United States as strong economically as it is. However, I also like having large swaths of relatively untouched land available to walk around in to remind me that there’s a lot more going on in this world than just my little stresses and worldview. I’m glad there’s a national, state, and local park system to make that kind of thing available for everyone, even if they don’t use it and think it’s a waste of money.
I guess what I’d really like is for people to be more educated about the impact the everyday things they do has on the environment. Yes, even little things like the people in the car in front of me the other day that tossed a blow-pop wrapper out the window. A bird could mistake something like that for food and choke on it, and failing that, it’s not going to biodegrade anytime in your or my lifetime. It’s going to continue to be a plastic lollipop wrapper for centuries. What kind of society thinks that things like this are “ok”? (Not the littering so much as the complete, total, absolute, and (most distressingly) WILLFUL disregard for the effects our consumption has on the planet and future generations.) The things you buy don’t just go away when you put them in the trash. They go to a landfill where they continue to exist (if they’re not biodegradeable or the landfill is “sealed”) for hundreds and hundreds of years. Forget for a moment about the potential damage to the environment caused by the toxic juices of those landfills leaking into our streams, rivers, and drinking water. What happens when we fill up our current landfills? We have to make more landfills, which means using more land that was previously “unspoiled” (because who wants a landfill in their neighborhood?) to hold the plastic beer cup you couldn’t bear to recycle from your last party. Or the 3 water bottles you emptied today because you don’t like the taste of the water from the tap.
Man, this stuff fires me up! More on it later. Who’s interested in a cleanup trip to Tandy Hills?
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