O’Fallon’s Bluff, California Hill, Ash Hollow, Chimney Rock, Scotts Bluff (and Scottsbluff), Chadron, Museum of the Fur Trade, visit to the dentist

(posted from Fort Collins (CO) Public Library)
(This post covers 30-31 August, 2009)

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Monday, 31 August-

This morning we woke early. After breakfast we drove to Scotts Bluff National Monument.
Like Chimney Rock, this is another spectacular landmark for the emigrants. In fact we could see Chimney Rock from Scott’s Bluff and the valley is lined with monumental geographic wonders. There’s Courthouse Rock (and nearby Jailhouse Rock) before you hit Chimney Rock (as you follow the Oregon Trail) then a lineup of impressive bluffs and rocks the whole way to Scott’s Bluff.
At the visitor’s center we saw a good narrated slide show about the area and toured the museum-quality displays. Afterwards, we walked the Summit Trail, a particularly agreeable thing to be doing on this nice day. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by the nice temperatures for the last few days and it appears from the forecast that we’re to have more of it.
Our walk was interrupted by a bit of a surprise. As we walked along talking we weren’t looking down all the time and suddenly we came upon a rattlesnake lying along the edge of the paved walkway. He (or she) was stretched out against the edge of the path, apparently soaking up some heat from the black asphalt.
As I passed the rattler I noticed it seemed lethargic. It didn’t really rattle its tail at us but it did vibrate it, as if warming it up in case it really needed to warn us.
As we skirted around it by simply walking on the other side of the path (we were about three feet from it at that point), the snake thought better of tangling with the big ugly humans and eased off the path and slowly worked its way into the brush.
This was only the second rattler we’ve seen in all our travels out West (or in the East, come to think of it). We saw one crossing the sidewalk ahead of us at Palos Verde National Park in the early Nineties and now this one today. Very cool!!!
In the visitor’s center we had just been talking with the ranger about the rattler taxidermy mount in the glass case under the ticket counter. We were talking coloration and size. The one in the case is an average size for this area but the live one on our walk was considerably larger, about half-again as long and thick as the two-footer in the case.
The light, almost white (and light brown) coloration was identical.
Late in the first mile our path angled upward significantly and we tried to follow it with our eyes. But it seemed to just disappear at a dark spot in the rock face. Shortly thereafter we heard voices and they echoed strangely. The dark spot turned out to be a tunnel and from it we soon saw two men. Labashi hallooed to them and they hallooed back. We later talked with them briefly as we met them on the path.
Our climb to the tunnel wasn’t as bad as it first appeared. And the tunnel was very cool. As it turned out, the tunnel is narrow. Though the bluff appears to be a massive mountain from our angle as we walked up, the tunnel is only about fifty feet long. There you emerge with a completely different view of the valley below, this one overlooking the city of Scottsbluff (Nebraska). Far below the teeny-tiny little men were playing golf on the teeny-tiny little golf course, complete with teeny-tiny little pond and fountain. Off in the distance we could see the lineup of buttes the whole way to the very distinctive Chimney Rock.
After emerging from the east end of the tunnel we continued to climb until we reached a false summit. We could see the trail to the summit but decided this was enough for us today. Our round trip would be about four miles.
We returned to Mocha Joe and pointed him northeast, towards Chadron, about 100 miles away. We were now temporarily abandoning the Oregon Trail to visit The Museum of the Fur Trade, just east of Chadron.
We made it to the museum by 1400 and spent the rest of the afternoon there. As our time there ended, I decided to see if we could solve a little problem. I had broken off the side of a tooth late Saturday as I ate supper. In Scottsbluff I had called my insurance provider to help me find a dentist there. But, surprisingly, though there were a dozen of them in Scottsbluff, none participate in my insurance plan. But two in Chadron do. So in the museum gift shop I decided to ask the two women at the counter which they’d prefer if they were having the work done.
I was surprised to have them not only tell me which one, but also offer to call and arrange for me to be seen tomorrow. The dental receptionist said she’d have to make a few calls and I should call back by 1630 to see what time I could come in.
But as time approached we realized we were actually only a few minutes from the office so I drove there instead of calling.
As I arrived, a family was just finishing up their checkup and the doctor offered to take a quick look and decide what we’d be into tomorrow. Once he saw the tooth, he said I’d need a crown but that could wait until my return home. He ground down the sharp edges to prevent my tongue from getting sore and that was that. $25 well spent.
Labashi was hungering for a good filet so we tried a local place recommended by the dental receptionist. We went so far as to order but then learned they were out of filet today. We instead drove to the city park and had (really good) hot dogs.
Afterwards we blogged for an hour or so before going to the Wal-mart for the night.

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Sunday, 30 August-

After a super-quiet night at the Kearney Wal-mart, we had an omelette at Pane Bello, a local Panera knock-off. This restaurant not only had wi-fi, it had Ethernet ports and power receptacles at each table and booth.
We spent a few hours catching up on email and a bit of news, posting the blog update, and researching info for our travels in the next few days.
We headed west on US30 from Kearney until we reached Sutherland, where we turned back on I-80E to the O’Fallon’s Bluff rest area. This is the location of a problem area for the emigrants. Traveling along the Platte River, they needed to climb to the top of the bluffs and it was at O’Fallon’s Bluff where many chose to do this. The crossing of the Platte was itself dangerous, particularly in higher water (as they would have if they left Independence in May). Then the pull up the incline was steep and muddy, requiring multiple teams. Today, we could see the swales left by the wagon trains and here at the back of the rest area, they are marked by a series of wheels. These simulate the wagon wheels, two larger wheels in back, two smaller in front. The four sets of wheels are positioned in the swales as if the wagons are climbing up from the river.
The rest area is curiously understated. It looks much like other interstate rest areas and it’s only if you walk out behind the building that you see the wheels off in the distance. If we didn’t know they were there (from our guide book), we wouldn’t have known to walk out to the signs explaining what we were seeing.
After regaining the Lincoln Highway going west, we drove to California Hill. A roadside sign tells the basics but our guide book told us to turn back the dirt road and go a half-mile to a pull-off, from where we could walk into the pasture and see a large swale created by the emigrant wagons as it crossed the summit of the sandhill. Our guidebook cautioned us to look out for occasional rattlesnakes and prickly-pear cactus. We saw several of the latter (our first of this trip), none of the former. We also had our eyes peeled for cow-pies. The pasture was occupied by forty or fifty cows and they watched us very closely. When we disappeared over the hill, two of them followed to see what we were doing. But as soon as we came close on our way back, they spooked.
We then set the GPS for Ash Hollow State Historical Site. We made the visitor center just in time to catch the intro video and take a quick tour of the displays. Ash Hollow was an oasis of sorts for the emigrants. After 140 miles of little water and little wood, the Ash Hollow plain provided both. Its water was said to be the sweetest on the Trail.
But to get in to Ash Hollow there was a price. The wagons had been up on the bluffs ever since California Hill and now needed to go down the fearsome Windlass Hill to enter the hollow. With a wagon loaded with over a ton of supplies and gear, the emigrants would chain the wheels of their wagons keep them from turning and skid the wagon down the steep incline. All hands would man ropes behind the descending wagon to slow it and keep it in some semblance of control.
We walked to the top of Windlass Hill via a sidewalk put in to prevent erosion. A bridge crosses a 20-foot deep arroyo which formed over the years from the original Oregon Trail track. Once atop the bluff we took a trail down the steep section. I wouldn’t want to try to drive Mocha Joe down a road as steep as that descent.
By then it was 1700 but we still had miles to go before we slept. We headed for Scottsbluff (where there’s a Wal-mart) but along the way stopped to see Chimney Rock. We saw it from twelve miles away as we drove toward it. We had supper at an informal pulloff within walking distance of the base of the rock and afterwards walked the twenty minutes to a marker at the base and back, returning just before dark.
We then drove the rest of the way to Scottsbluff and our Wal-mart for the night.

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Spencer Art Museum (Lawrence, KS); Following the Oregon Trail from St Marys Mission ; Fort Kearney ; Great Platte River Road Archway

(posted from Pane Bello restaurant, Kearney, NE)
(This post covers 27 – 29 August, 2009)

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Saturday, 29 August-

We left Fairbury (Nebraska) in fog and a light rain this morning but the skies cleared in an hour or so as we turned north to catch I-80 and Kearney.
We reached Fort Kearney State Historical Site by early afternoon. The visitor center’s narrated and automated slide show did a good job of explaining how Ft Kearney had never come under attack but its soldiers had participated in many encounters with Indians. The fort was manned by many different units and after the Civil War some of those units were ‘galvanized Yankees’. I hadn’t heard this term before. It refers to Confederates who had been imprisoned in Union jails and were freed and sent out West as Union soldiers. They were guaranteed they would not have to ever fight against the south and wore Union uniforms in carrying out their missions, typically protecting wagon trains or other such security duty.
Today, good reconstructions of the blacksmith shop and powder-storage bunker help visitors envision what the site looked like in the mid-1800s.
We then drove to the nearby Great Platte River Road Archway for a unique experience. This one may be a little tough to imagine. After buying your tickets, you take an escalator up to the beginning of a series of dioramas and don your earphones. You enter a series of dioramas, each with very life-like figures portraying a portion of a story. The story is told in your headphones as videos and lighting effects dramatize. It sounds a bit hokey but was actually very impressively done, both from storytelling and technical-wizardry perspectives. As we move from room to room we learn the story of the travelers in this area (through which the Oregon, California, Santa Fe Trails, the Overland Stage Trail, the Pony Express Trail, the Transcontinental Railway, the Lincoln Highway, and (now) Interstate 80 passed). Our AAA book gives it a ‘gem’ rating and we have to agree.
We then drove across Kearney to the local version of a Cabelas’ outdoors store. We were quite surprised to see this one looks quite different. The building is a flat, one-story warehouse-style building and though it sells the same gear as the other Cabelas, we couldn’t help but think this version looks more like a Wal-mart. There are some nice animal mounts around but it seemed more like an outlet or discount store.
We only stopped because Labashi wanted to look for a skort. That took all of about three minutes to see that the limited women’s clothing section had nothing even close. I’ve never been a big fan of Cabelas but it’s interesting to me to see what a difference the ‘wow’ factor of the store makes in my view of the merchandise. Today, I was ‘under-wowed’.
We then drove to the Wal-mart to check it out for our overnight. We had supper in the parking lot and shopped for supplies, then checked out a nearby restaurant listed in my wi-fi directory for morning. We’ll have wi-fi and omelets for breakfast tomorrow.
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Friday, 28 August-

Our second night at the Lawrence Wal-mart was noisy. I’m amazed at the number of ‘buzz-bombs’, i.e., small cars with loud, buzzy exhaust systems. And why, pray tell, do they keep zooming around the Wal-mart parking lot? Don’t they have drive-ins to go to? Not that I didn’t try to make some noise with my MGA in high school but at least in those days there was some semblance of a check for excessive noise at inspection time. And inspections were done twice a year back then.
After breakfast we pointed Mocha Joe northwest. We followed the GPS to St Mary’s, planning to see the Indian Pay Station Museum. This was historically the place where the Potowattomie native Americans were paid for their land by the US Government. But unfortunately for us, the museum is only open 1300-1600 and we missed that little detail.
We took a turn through the St. Mary’s Catholic School and noted the boys playing football in their school uniforms of ties and white shirts. The girls of course played separately over at the playground equipment. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just something I didn’t have (uniforms and the separation of the sexes) in my school. It’s actually kind of charming.
We then began following the turn-by-turn directions of the Franzwa book on the Oregon Trail. This took us out of the town of St. Marys on a dirt road. After a few miles of looking for wagon tracks, we came to a little park, the Oregon Trail Nature Park. We elected to walk the ‘Sea of Grasses’ trail which climbed to an overview of a 425-acre lake and, off in the distance, Kansas’ largest coal-burning electric-generation plant. The nature park was part of the price for locating the plant in this area.
The remainder of the trail overlooked the historical course of the Oregon Trail. A silo on the park grounds was painted with four very-well-done murals. Despite the nearby coal-plant, this was a very pleasant little park.
After our walk we lunched in Mocha Joe, then continued on with our search for traces of the Trail. Our book did a good job of leading us to trail crossings but with the prairie grasses so long this time of year, we had a hard time making out more than a dip here and a dip there where there was supposed to be swales.
We had several interesting stops along the way. We visited the site of the crossing of the Red Vermilion River where Louis Vieux lived. Louis was a smart guy. He built a bridge across the river and charged $1 for each rig to be permitted to cross the bridge. The alternative—descending and ascending the steep river banks and dealing with the dangers of the river—was free but risky and time-consuming. Vieux is reputed to have made up to $300 a day at the height of the Oregon Trail emigrations.
Nearby we also visited the ‘cholera graves’. Cholera was one of the great dangers of the journey. Unknown to the emigrants, it was spread from water-source to water-source by the sick. The disease is an intestinal disease and works very quickly. Some were reported to have died within hours of contracting it, others lasted a day or two.
The Red Vermilion ford and bridge was a popular campground. It’s a day’s journey from St Marys and has good wood and water – until cholera struck. In one terrible week, 50 emigrants died there of cholera. Today, there’s a small fenced-in area where three granite field are believed to mark some of the graves.
We followed the turn-by-turn directions until mid-afternoon, finally ending up at Westmoreland, where at nearby Scott Spring there’s a wonderful full-scale sculpture of an ox-drawn Oregon Trail wagon in metal. The wagons are not the massive Conestoga wagons we know of back home in Lancaster County. These are farm wagons with 4 x 10 beds. They seem awfully small and fragile to be hauling a ton of supplies.
We then abandoned the turn-by-turn game and had the GPS lead us to Hollenberg Pony Express Station. This is a state-run historical park featuring a nicely-done trading station and Pony-Express stop. There we talked with some re-enactors preparing for a Pony-Express event this Sunday. We met Jim Sylvester, a (somewhat distant) relative of mountain man Joe Meek.
We then drove to Rock Springs State Historical Site across the Nebraska state line where we had planned to camp for the night. But though our guide book said sites were $10-15, they were $17 AND you had to pay a $4 fee to enter the park. No THANK you, Nebraska.
We drove on to the town of Fairbury for the Wal-mart and spent the evening reading and blogging.

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Thursday, 27 August-

After a nice, quiet night at Chez Wal-Mart, we renewed our supply of ice, then headed to the Lawrence Public Library for a wi-fi connection. Labashi is adjusting to her Mac and I have the trusty old Behemoth (Dell) (and glad of it; it has served me well!).
We caught up on email, I did my Brainiversity thing and uploaded my blog update and still had time to catch up on the online news and do some online research.
One of the problems in traveling as we do is the outdated info on the GPS. I wanted to get some Kansas City-style barbeque and we followed the GPS to three different BBQ restaurants and they’ve all closed! That must be a tough business….
We spent the entire morning at the Library, then drove to the Kansas University campus to visit the Spencer Art Museum. It’s reportedly one of the best University art museums in the country.
Today the special shows were an eclectic collection of modern pieces in Gallery 20/21 (as in crossing from the Twentieth to the Twenty-First Centuries (that name probably sounded better a few years ago)). The quality was good but inexplicably the curators chose not to label any of the pieces. We found a gallery guide but its layout was confusing and only the most basic details about the piece. And when many of the pieces make you wonder what they’re about or why the artist decided they were important to do, that’s a bit of a downer.
One piece really stood out, however. We never did find it in the guide but it was a video of a very complex series of physics interactions similar to the ‘Mousetrap’ boardgame. But this one was the most amazing version of that idea we’ve ever seen. It went on for a good ten minutes and kept surprising and delighting us with highly imaginative devices and interactions to keep it going.
In the traditional art galleries, we saw a gem—an exquisite Jean-Leon Gerome painting of two Arab men. Gerome was a popular artist in the late 1800’s and was a mentor to Thomas Eakins (and clearly a great influence on his work). I look for Gerome paintings in every large gallery for his work is some of the most incredible realism I’ve seen.
After the museum we walked across the street to the student union building and walked through the two bookstores there. I was surprised to see a very well-stocked computer-tech section. They had more stock and variety of accessories than the specialized Best Buy stores, both for Mac and Windows platforms.
One of the museum security guards had given me a hot tip on a BBQ restaurant so we drove downtown and had a great plate of baby-back ribs at the Vermont BBQ (they used to be on Vermont Street here in Lawrence). The ribs were just perfect. They’re done with a dry rub and then you have three sauces to sample (and you can therefore control how badly to blow our low-carb diet restrictions). Excellent, excellent choice!
After supper we window-shopped the Massachusetts Street shops.
We really liked the feel of Lawrence. The town clearly has a college-town feel to it also has a friendly vibe. We saw five bookstores and four coffee shops on our little walk this evening and happened upon a poetry reading and a classic film-showing just getting underway. And if Lawrence ever fails to maintain your interest, Kansas City and Topeka are less than an hour away. One could do much worse than to spend a few months or years Lawrence, Toto.
As darkness neared, we headed back to the same Wal-mart for the night.

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Oregon or Bust! ; Yet another flat tire ; Excelsior Springs and Independence, MO ; Kansas City ; Lawrence, KS.

(posted from Lawrence Public Library)

(This post covers 22 – 26 August, 2009)

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Wednesday, 26 August-

This morning we began following the Oregon Trail. Our first stop was Upper Independence Landing, the spot where the riverboats would put the emigrants ashore for their trip into Independence.
We then followed the turn-by-turn description of the Trail for twenty miles. That was actually a fairly intense process since the guide book would mix directions in with commentary. Sometimes we’d miss a sign or misinterpret a direction. But in any case we saw several locations of swales, campgrounds where the emigrants stayed, and building which were there during the emigration times.
We then backtracked into Kansas City (Mo) to the Westport area, a competing emigrant-landing site to Independence. We checked out the sites around Westport and then decided we had had enough trail-work for the day. We had the GPS lead us to the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum only to find they were closing at 1600 today—less than 15 minutes from our arrival. A quick check of the other museums in the area showed the same. We were doubly frustrated in that the GPS seemed to be leading us in circles—something I’ve not seen before. (That later turned out to be a power problem—the power plug had come loose and the unit had depleted its batteries).
We took an iced-tea break at the nearby Starbucks to regroup. We decided we had had a great day seeing the local terrain, the landings and the crossing point of the Blue River. But we weren’t going to continue the tedious practice of following the historical route turn by turn. We decided we wanted to get out of the city entirely. We picked Lawrence, Kansas as our next stop and had the GPS take us there.
As we neared the Lawrence Wal-mart, we decided to have supper at the Longhorn. We split an excellent filet mignon and salad.
At the Wal-mart we picked out our spot and then did our routine shopping for essentials before returning to the van to blog away.

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Tuesday, 25 August-

This morning we toured downtown Excelsior Springs, Mo. The town is famous for its ‘healing waters’ and here they are of four kinds—iron-manganese, lithium, calcium, and soda. In 1937 the town built a ‘Hall of Waters’ and its architecture was the a very pleasant surprise. At the time the designers believed there were too many European influences in architecture so they strived for something uniquely North American and selected the Mayan culture to fill that role. Their use of color and Mayan shapes is first-class. It somehow lightens and lends interest to what could otherwise be a drab building.
We were too early to tour the Water Bar, which (the brochure tells us) serves waters from all over the world and is reported to be the longest in the world. They appear to be between make-overs. The bar and the room are beautiful but the bar appeared not to have the selection of world-wide waters we expected to see. A few unfamiliar bottles of water on the counter had a ‘Coming Soon!’ sign but otherwise all we saw was a cooler with various flavors of Vitamin Water like you’d see in a Wal-mart. Perhaps they stock the shelves after opening up.
The building also serves as the town offices. Upstairs is a courtroom and the town hall and the offices of the tax collector, planning commission, etc are spread throughout the very cool art-deco building.
The town specializes in health treatments of one sort or another. One was open early today so we stopped in. Our host, Nancy, gave us a tour of her shop. She specializes in air ionizers, HEPA vacuums, chemical-free carpet cleaners, and the most important machine in her life—a Kangen water machine. She gave us quite a pitch about the wonders of this $4000 water-treatment machine. She says it places a positive charge on the water molecules which take the toxins out of your body. She told us story after story of people who have been healed of cancers, skin diseases, heart conditions, respiratory conditions, Parkinson’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, etc, simply by drinking the water from the machine. The machine makes waters of different pH levels, each for a specific purpose. One is for drinking, one for beauty treatments, one for disinfecting (I’m forgetting one or two here…). It has platinum plates to ‘charge’ the water and a small dosing tray for potassium chloride. The unit is supposed to last at least 15 years but, depending on your water, a factory cleaning may be needed every five years (and $500!). The potassium chloride solution will have to be added every year or two ($100).
We really enjoyed our time with Nancy. She obviously believes deeply in the product and gave us pause when our we both noticed a flush on our faces from drinking the water (do they add some chemical to do this?).
The machine costs $4000, is ‘registered as a medical device in Japan’, and is sold via a marketing program which reminds me of Amway. You, as an owner, can not only get well, you can make your friends and acquaintances well, and you get a commission on any machines your friends and acquaintances buy.
Nancy demonstrated how the Kangen water makes a difference. She had me stand beside her, feet together, left arm down with my hand cupped. She then pushed down on my hand with her fist, telling me to resist. My right foot lifted off the floor.
Then I had drank the water and we repeated the test. This time she couldn’t force my outside foot off the floor.
I love this kind of demonstration because it immediately makes you want to understand how it works. Labashi later said that on her try she believed Nancy was pulling slightly to the side as she pushed down the first time but not the second. She demonstrated it and that indeed seemed to replicate Nancy’s results (though of course without the water).
In any case, Nancy is the sweetest lady and clearly not only believes in her product but also believes it has saved her life and her husband’s life. This reminded me of the RadioLab podcast Labashi and I had listened to on our drive to Detroit. Are there really results from the Kangen water and, if so, do they come from the placebo effect as discussed on the RadioLab episode? Or is it all marketing hooey? I’d guess the latter but in any case, we had fun learning about it.
We then drove to the nearby fancy hotel—‘The Elms’—to check out their spa offerings. I thought it might be fun and rejuvenating to have mineral-water soak or maybe even the hot-mud pack. But it turned out we could only do separate whirlpool baths in individual rooms. Half the fun of a soak is playing around like little kids to entertain each other so that was out. We could have taken a day pass for the hotel’s swimming pool and indoor or outdoor Jacuzzis but at $25 each and no privacy, it just wasn’t worth the price. Sometime this winter we’ll have a soak at Berkeley Springs. A hot soak in the summer isn’t all that special and we’ll need a late-Fall or winter diversion anyway.
We had lunch in the parking lot of The Elms, then headed for Independence. As we drove down route 291 we came upon a sign for a Lewis and Clark historical site. That turned out to be located in a sports complex which was interesting in itself. They had many different sports fields—baseball and softball diamonds and soccer fields, but no bleachers at any of them.
The Lewis and Clark memorial was a sign commemorating Lewis and Clarke’s trip across Missouri in June, 1803. The party camped at the nearby river bend. We loved seeing the view and imagining what it looked like in 1803. The sign told us of the prodigious killing spree of the party’s hunters. In this area they were killing eight to nine deer a day (for food, of course).
The highlight of the day was our visit to the National Frontier Trails Center in Independence. We spent the afternoon reading all the panels, each showing quotes from the diaries of emigrants on the Santa Fe, Oregon and California Trails. Independence was the primary ‘jumping off point’ for emigrants. Paddlewheelers would bring them and their wagons and animals up the Missouri from St. Louis. At Independence, they’d make their final preparations for the journey West and start out across the Plains.
After our visit to the museum portion of the Center, we took a quick look in the Library and Archives, a very impressive collection. I’d love to spend a winter here doing nothing but going through the collection.
After the Trails Center we crossed the street to a meadow where you can still see the ‘swales’ (tracks) of wagon-trains as they left Independence.
The day was very hot so we thought we’d go find a shady spot in a local park to relax before spending the night at the local Wal-mart. But in our search for shade we found Fleming Park and Lake Jacabo, a Corps of Engineers lake and campground. Once we learned they had showers included in the $14 cost of a campsite, we decided to stay there.
That evening we met ‘Paul’, a fellow camper. He’s a 61-year old construction worker whose home is in southwest Missouri but he’s living in his car at the campground while working in the area. He says he’s a Conservative. And not a Republican, mind you, but a true Conservative. (I might have guessed that from the Rush Limbaugh program playing on his radio but it was nice to have all doubt on the subject eliminated.)
We had a pleasant conversation with Paul. He’s a good-ole-boy and don’t like the gov’mint tryin to tell him what to do. He explained the problem with the cash-for-clunkers deal, for instance. Some of his friends traded in their vehicles and the damned government won’t let those vehicles, all in good condition, be re-sold. And the $3500 or $4500 is just a trick. You still have to pay it all back and you have to take out a six-year loan to do it that nobody can afford. So in a few months the Man is gonna come get your new vehicle cause nobody could make those payments and the Man shure as Hail ain’t gonna give you back your old one cause he ruined it (part of The Plan). So what did you gain by listening to the government? Nothin’ but trouble (says Paul).
As he spoke, Paul would occasionally cuss a bit, then apologize profusely to Labashi for his words. And as we parted, he apologized for stating his opinions so forcefully. He says he has had a hard life and learned a lot and may not always be right but by God he has an opinion—as is his Right as a TRUE American. And don’t forget, he said as we left—Americans always stick up for each other.
We had a blissfully-quiet night in our campsite.


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Monday, 24 August-

Our night last night wasn’t a great one. We had some unexpected noise—some heavy machinery noise from a nearby factory or something—all night. Labashi slept right through it but I couldn’t get to sleep for awhile. I was about to tap her on the shoulder and say we were going to have to move when I heard her deep breathing and decided I’d try for awhile longer and did indeed fall deeply asleep. In the night I woke twice and both times thought I’d not be able to get back to sleep but did.
After breakfast we visited two tire stores but neither had tires I liked in stock and neither could schedule me in the same day. I had been hoping to find some tires which don’t have the aggressive siping or tread my Goodyear Wranglers do. They were fine for my Alaska trip but a little noisy for the interstate and all the flats concern me. I’ve had more flats in the last year than I had all my other driving years combined, I think.
Alas, I couldn’t find a tire I like so decided I may as well see if Wal-mart will give me an allowance on the tire that had the problem. After looking at the divot, the Wal-mart guy said the tire is defective. Even if it had been plugged it shouldn’t have done what it did.
Unfortunately, the Wal-mart guy didn’t have a replacement in stock. He had sold the last two sets this morning. But he did call the Wal-mart on the other side of town and found one for me.
That Wal-mart was right on our way and just off the interstate so it was an easy trip for us. That Wal-mart guy also diagnosed the problem as a defective tire. He replaced it in about twenty minutes. And the charge? $12.50. Try getting that price from a ‘pro’ tire shop.
After the tire adventure we had lunch in the Wal-mart parking lot, then headed south, underway by noon.
We drove all afternoon and ended up by 2000 at Excelsior Springs, Missouri, again at a Wal-mart for our overnight. We shopped for a few necessities, then Labashi read and I caught up the blog.

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Sunday, 23 August-

This morning we helped Labashi’s parents prepare to leave for their vacation trip to northern Michigan with Labashi’s cousin and sister. We, on the other hand, were loading up to depart for our Oregon Trail trip. I pulled out the GPS and had it find the route to Independence, Missouri—the ‘jumping off point’ to the Oregon, Santa Fe, and California trails.
After seeing the rest of the family off, we headed out I-94 to Chicago to catch I-55 south. I’ve not had great luck getting past Chicago without some delays and today was more of the same.
About 60 miles before Chicago I felt the van start to sway as if it were being blown about by a strong wind. But I couldn’t see evidence of a strong wind around me. And soon it became clear that a rear tire was losing air and giving me the ‘squirrelly’ feeling in the steering.
We happened to be driving through a construction zone which had the right-hand lane closed and two others open and very busy. I was able to drive between two of the barrier cones to pull off into the right-hand lane. That turned out to be a great spot to change a tire. It was flat with plenty of space and the line of traffic cones kept the other traffic well away from us.
Upon removing the tire I was amazed to find a large divot in the center of the tread and I could see the torn steel belt. This is my fourth flat with this set of tires and my third with this individual tire. I first fixed this tire on the McCarthy Road in Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park last August. I put in one of the el-cheapo square-style Wal-mart plugs and that lasted some ten-thousand miles. Then, this past February, I noticed the tire going flat in a parking lot in Umatilla, Florida. Air was escaping around the plug. I had it professionally repaired using an internal patch. But I believe my old plug somehow was today, six months and four or five thousand miles later, the cause of severe overheating around the plug site and ultimately failure of the internal patch.
Fortunately I was able to swap on the spare in only fifteen minutes or so and we were underway again. I was hoping to get past Chicago and started down I-55 before running into heavy traffic.
But only a mile or two past our breakdown spot we came to a completely-halted line of traffic. An emergency vehicle had gone by with siren blazing while I was putting on the spare so we guessed there was an accident ahead.
We came to a stop very near an exit and a quick look at the map appeared to show a road running parallel to I-94. And as we exited, we saw a sign saying ‘I-94 Emergency Route’. Since the GPS was trying to get us to use I-94, we simply followed along. Our detour ended up taking us some twenty miles on the alternate route and then we found ourselves on a near-empty I-94 for a few miles. Good deal for us….bad for all the people stuck behind the accident!
We finally reached I-55 South and made the turn away from the city. Traffic immediately lightened up and we had a pleasant evening drive.
We used our Wal-mart Atlas to find a Wal-mart with a tire shop and that turned out to be Normal, Illinois. We pulled in about 2000 hours and checked out the Wal-mart, then used the GPS to find several other tire stores to check out in the morning.

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Saturday, 22 August-

Today we had a family party in honor of our guest from Belgium (Labashi’s cousin). We spent the morning in preparation, welcomed our guests at 1300, and spent the afternoon and evening chatting away happily.
I bowed out in the evening to get in my four-mile walk. After sampling the Belgian chocolate our guest brought along, I need it…
Great day!

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Trip prep and departure for our ‘Oregon Trail’ trip.

(posted from Southfield, MI)
(This post covers 9-21 August, 2009)

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Friday, 21 August-

Today we ran some errands then again hit the local library. Labashi continues with the Oregon Trail books and I spent my time researching things to see in Missouri (the Oregon Trail starts in Independence, Missouri) for our trip.
Late in the day I took my five-miler. The family watched a movie but I spent the evening catching up the blog.

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Thursday, 20 August-

Labashi and I went shopping for a pillow for Mom and found the ‘right’ one at Target. We had lunch at Fuddrucker’s in the area, then spent the afternoon at the library. Labashi picked out wonderful books of old photos of the Oregon Trail to peruse and I read through back issues of MacWorld magazine.
Back home I washed Mom’s car and the van. Then I walked the five-mile Lahser Loop. I just arrived home as Labashi and her cousin decided to go for a walk so I accompanied them, tuckering myself out. I slept GREAT.

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Wednesday, 19 August-

Today I ran some errands at the local Meijers and then washed Dad’s car for our main task of the day. In the afternoon we drove to the airport to pick up Labashi’s cousin, who had flown in from Belgium.
After settling her in at home, we all went out to supper at a local Mexican restaurant. I laugh whenever I see this place. It’s called ‘El Nibble Nook’. Apparently it started out as a hamburger restaurant in the Fifties and was known as the ‘Nibble Nook’. And when it transitioned to a Mexican restaurant they had a problem—lose the historic name or ‘mexicanize’ it. “El Nibble Nook” is the hilarious result.
I was actually looking forward to going to El Nibble Nook. On a previous visit I had seen a newspaper article about a search for the best margarita in Detroit (in honor of Cinco de Mayo) and El Nibble Nook was a top contender.
Though Labashi and I are still on a low-carb diet, we made an exception and had several of the very excellent Ultimate Margaritas.
Back home I decided I’d walk off the effects and did my regular five-mile loop.

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Tuesday, 18 August-

I spent the ‘working’ portion of the day reviewing final accounting info for the estate for our lawyer. I was happy to break from that for my new five-mile route late in the day.

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Monday, 17 August-

Ahh, vacation… that’s nice. I spent an hour or so doing routine checks on Mom and Dad’s PCs, then ran some errands at the local Meijers. Later in the day I went to Best Buy to look at Mac accessories and enjoyed playing with the 24” iMac. That’s likely to be our next desktop.
By mid-afternoon I needed a walk. I again did the Starbucks-Lahser Loop for five miles.
That evening we watched ‘Finding Neverland’ with Johnny Depp (one of Labashi’s favorite actors). That was surprisingly good.


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Sunday, 16 August-
We spent today driving the 500 miles to Labashi’s parents’ home near Detroit. The temperature was around 90 but we did fine (the van doesn’t have air conditioning) as we cruised along listening to several episodes of a new podcast for us--- ‘RadioLab’ from New York Public Radio.
After supper I was feeling a bit ‘wired’ from the trip so walked to the local Starbucks for an iced tea, then walked what I call the ‘Lahser Loop’, to total five miles of walking. That was a big help for sleeping.

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Saturday, 15 August-

We spent all day today loading the van for our departure tomorrow.

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Friday, 14 August-

Today we continued doing little trip-prep items. I removed the heavy trailer hitch, put the KLR in the barn and spent what seemed like a long time printing off the latest wi-fi hotspots for each state we’ll be visiting (from wififreespots.com) and the free campground details (from freecampgrounds.com).
I continue reading about the fur trade after having finally finished ‘Tales of Old Florida’. I’ve been reading the latter for months, just a little at a time. It’s a wonderful collection of articles from turn-of-the-century outdoors magazines. I loved visualizing what it was like to travel in Florida in the 1870s to the 1920’s. Most of the articles were from New York and New England sporting writers. They’d take the train to Jacksonville, then either take a steamer inland up the St. John River or down the coast. The down-the-coast run was to Saint Augustine, Miami, and Key West.
I also loved seeing the old photos, particularly of the private sailboats. I’d love to have made the journey from Miami to the Keys, then along Cape Sable to Marco and on around to Fort Myers. I really, really need to spend more time in Florida…..

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Thursday, 13 August-

Today Labashi and I drove to Chambersburg to see a sell-your-house and staging presentation. The retirement villages are smart to assist seniors in selling their homes and we wanted to see how to help Labashi’s parents when the time comes.
On the way home we had lunch at Caledonia Bistro. We like this little place. We generally go there on non-prime hours and generally have the place to ourselves.
Back home I followed the mower around for two hours and that was plenty of exercise for the day.
We had no movie tonight. I worked on email then did a few SearchTempest searches of Craigslist.

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Wednesday, 12 August-

I began reading up on the Oregon Trail in a wonderful book about the fur trade we bought two summers ago on our north-of-Lake-Superior trip. This is helping establish the general outline of our trip. I also charged up all the rechargeable batteries for the trip.
That afternoon we met with the elder-law lawyer and had our questions answered about the contracts used by retirement communities.
Late in the afternoon we had an early supper at Fuddruckers before returning home in time for my six-mile loop. Afterwards we watched Closer 3.5.3, the end of Season Three.

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Tuesday, 11 August-

Today I worked on good ol’ circuit 25, the one that has tripped mysteriously while we’re away. I installed our new pole light and found bad ground connections in the outlet above Labashi’s mud-room worktable.
One of the rear windows in Mocha Joe has a bit of a transparency problem. The darkening (window tint) film I had applied years ago seems to have deteriorated and now the view through the window is wavy. It’s the same film as the other windows and they currently show no problem but if it spreads to the others, I’ll have to decide whether to have them re-done. While checking out the window problem I went ahead and took off the screens and washed both the windows and screens in preparation for our next trip.
Late in the day I walked my six-mile loop, then we watched Closer 3.4.1 and 3.4.2.

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Monday, 10 August-

Today was very hot and sticky—93 with a dewpoint around 70. I spent the morning on the web, then went to my doctor’s appointment. I’ve decided to get off the Lipitor prescription to see how that goes. The idea started simply enough. I bought some Fresca before noticing it contains grapefruit juice (which Lipitor patients can’t have). With the diet changes and the walking, it occurred to me I might be able to get off the Lipitor entirely and then could have Fresca and any other grapefruit I wanted.
Today the doctor and I reviewed my blood test results and determined I’d give it a try for the next several months, then have another test.
Back home I moved Labashi’s email addresses to the Mac using vcards (that was easy!) and took care of Netflix and cable and internet bills.
That evening I walked my six-mile loop. I’m looking forward to a break from the six-milers...


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Sunday, 9 August-

I spent much of this morning updating the blog and then trying to determine if the retirement communities we are considering for Labashi’s parents are financially stable. I didn’t really have much luck at it—mostly because the available statements are too old. But now I know I want to see the most-current statements.
I also provided comments to Labashi on her prep document for an upcoming meeting with an elder-law attorney.
In the afternoon I rode the Concours to the Tollgate Starbucks for my regular iced-tea and Times before coming home to walk my 6-mile loop.
That evening we watched MI-5 1.3.6 and Wonderfalls 1.1.4.


************* END OF POST ************

Trying out and switching to Mac, ‘1000 Journals’, ‘Wonderfalls’
(posted from home)
(This post covers 1-8 August, 2009)

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Saturday, 8 August-

Today we set up the MacBook in Mocha Joe so Labashi could work with it as she will on our trip. She was concerned about the keyboard angle and we needed to test out our movie-viewing setup.
It was fine as is. The Windows laptop is an unwieldy thing which doesn’t fit well on our little fold-out table. But the Mac fits just fine and Labashi says the angle of the keyboard is no problem.
We also made some small improvements to Mocha Joe. My pill-box, for instance, has always been too small so I made another. I also found some straps to help retain the rolled-up window curtains. I’m not sure that’s a long-term solution but we’ll give it a try. Part of the fun of traveling in the van is having little ‘eureka moments’ about small things like finding just the right fastener or box to solve a problem.
I spent an hour or so on email to bring my brothers up to date on my meeting yesterday, then did my six mile walk.
That evening we watched ‘MI-5’ 1.3.1.

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Friday, 7 August-

Today I drove the Miata to Chambersburg to (hopefully) meet with the lawyer for Mom’s estate and work on some tax stuff.
I made it back home in time for my six miler and then we watched ‘Wonderfalls’ 1.1.2 and 1.1.3 (that’s season, disk, and episode).


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Thursday, 6 August-

I was on the web for most of the day today, mostly just doing everything I could think of to determine what else I may need for the MacBook to become a good laptop for Labashi. I still need to transfer her contacts list from her desktop, for instance, so I needed to research how you transfer from Outlook to the Mac mail system. I also spent some time prepping for a meeting with my lawyer tomorrow for my executor duties.
After I walked my regular six mile loop, we watched the first episode of a new series for us—‘Wonderfalls’. It’s about a young slacker woman who works in a gift shop at Niagara Falls. It’s a bit quirky but so far we like the feel of it. Will the writing hold up?

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Wednesday, 5 August-

I continued working with the MacBook Pro this morning, then drove the Miata to town to find a case. I found just what I was looking for in terms of functionality, a very well made Samsonite zip-sleeve, at Staples but they only had it two ugly colors. But I then found one in black at the nearby Office Max. And while in that area I dropped in at the Panera to see what the display would look like on battery power. My Windows laptop is so dim on battery that I have to find an outlet near a table and that’s not always possible, particularly if there are several other laptop users around. Also, my old display is highly reflective, so the bright windows of a Panera reflect back at me.
I was very happy to find the MacBook display is terrific. There’s no need to plug in, the webcam is built right in and needs no assembly or setup, and the display doesn’t reflect the windows back at me. Alrighty then!
Late in the day I walked my six mile loop, then we watched ‘1000 Journals’. This one is a documentary about a gentleman in San Francisco (he calls himself ‘someguy’) who, in 2000, created 1000 blank-journal books and gave them out, hoping to have them returned when full. The idea caught on and people lined up to be next in line to help fill up the journals. At the time of initial filming, only one of the 1000 had been returned.

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Tuesday, 4 August-

I spent most of today on the MacBook Pro. I installed and configured Skype, the Neo Office suite, and email. After some research on the web, I was able to get wireless printing to work to the printer attached to Labashi’s Windows desktop. Now THAT I didn’t expect. I also viewed video clips from the SD card from my little Xacti video camera.
Late in the day I walked my six mile loop. No TV today.

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Monday, 3 August-

Today I drove to the Mechanicsburg Best Buy to look at MacBook laptops. I spent a good two hours playing with several models, even using one to look for a better price than I could get at the Best Buy. I ended up deciding I’d go ahead and buy it now rather than deal with possible ordering and shipping delays, not to mention the hassle of filling out the rebate paperwork and hoping the site would honor it. Since the difference would have only been $60, I walked out with a MacBook Pro 13 in hand rather than wait for the one in the bush.
Back home I was pleasantly surprised to find I could start working right away. There’s no need to charge up the battery before starting to use it. I soon had it working on my wireless network and I installed all the latest software updates, then just explored.
That evening my exercise consisted of walking behind my mower for two hours, then we watched ‘The Closer’ 3.2.6 and ‘MI-5’ 1.2.2.

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Sunday, 2 August-

Today I took the laptop apart to re-seat the display plug. I have five vertical lines on the display, each only about a pixel wide. I don’t notice them when working in Word or my browser (currently Google Chrome) but they’re very noticeable when I try to watch a movie. Dells says the problem could be the plug or could be the display. It turns out they had a vertical-line problem with these displays. Last year they offered to send a new display to anyone who had the problem within the first three years of ownership. But of course my problem didn’t show up until the fourth year.
The instructions online were actually pretty good and I only have a brief moment of panic when it seemed I wouldn’t be able to get the hinge bezel off without breaking it. I did make it through the entire process of getting to the plug, pulling it, cleaning it, and re-installing. But I wasn’t all that surprised afterwards that the lines didn’t go away.
But I did have to complete that check in order to decide what to do next. Later that afternoon I had a nice, long video chat with Orat then walked my six mile loop.
That evening we watched ‘The Colony’, episode 1 and ‘MI-5’ 1.2.1.

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Saturday, 1 August-

I spent the morning updating and posting the blog to finish out July, then rode the Concours to the Best Buy in Harrisburg to see what they had in the way of netbook computers. I wasn’t impressed. Too small, too slow, too much of a pain to load software from a CD.
I was also hoping to see Apple Macintosh products but they only had one lonely little beat-up last-one-left MacBook. It seems the Mechanicsburg store has a selection of Apple products, not the Harrisburg store. But I did enjoy talking to Gino, a sales guy into Macs.
That afternoon I walked my six-mile loop.
That evening we watched ‘Weeds’ 4.2.6 and ‘The Closer’ 3.2.5.

********** END OF POST ********