The Bezabor Log

2009-11-06T17:49:00.000-05:00

Back into our home routine; ‘Last Chance Harvey’; ‘Terry Fater: Live from Las Vegas’ ; ‘W’ ; New clothes dryer

(posted from home)
(This post covers 30 October – 6 November, 2009)

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Friday, 6 November-

Today we re-leveled our stove and fridge. The door on the fridge has decided to not fully close so we took it off the hinges, greased the hinge-pins and re-assembled, then played with the leveling legs until it now closes on its own.
Since we had the leveling tools out we also leveled the stove so it no longer tends to pool the melting butter on the frying pan at the front of the pan (apparently a pet peeve of Labashi’s!).
I also took care of a few chores--- starting the KLR motorcycle with a shot of Sta-Bil in the tank; scheduling tax appointments; working on a printing problem for the Mac Book Pro and catching up the blog.
In the afternoon I walked my six-mile loop, then that evening we watched several ‘Pushing Daisies’-Season One episodes.

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Thursday, 5 November-

This morning we returned a dryer exhaust pipe to Sears. One odd thing about their delivery system is we were required to buy an installation kit consisting of an electrical cord and 4” exhaust pipe. If either isn’t needed, it can be returned, but must be available for the installer, just in case. That doesn’t sound too onerous since we could do the return whenever we had occasion to come back into town. But today was the day the computerized cash register chose to freeze up during the return process and caused a half-hour of hassle while they worked through that.
I also started looking for an espresso machine. I’ve taken a liking to cappuccinos (now that I can only have the very-occasional Frappacino) and would like to try making them at home. After finding machines at Wal-mart and Sears I researched them on Amazon, Consumer Reports, and CoffeeGeek.com and found those aren’t likely to give acceptable results.
The better machines are in the $250 range and if I’m to believe CoffeeGeek, I’d have to spend that much again for an acceptable grinder to make espresso worth drinking. Yikes!
I also tried to buy Doubleshot Lights (I can’t have the regular Doubleshots because of high carb content) at my local grocery store and at Wal-mart. I saw them in Nebraska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and California on our trip. From my winter trips, I know I can get them in Florida and (I believe), the Carolinas. My local Wal-mart says they can’t order them and I’m guessing that’s going to also be the answer from my local Giant.
That evening we were each busy on the web until late, then caught three 30-Rock episodes before turning in. I’m reading ‘Jaguars Ripped My Flesh’ by Tim Cahill, a late-80’s book from my bookshelf. Tim was one of my favorite writers as a columnist for Outside Magazine in its early days.

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Wednesday, 4 November-

Today we worked on the web and did some chores while awaiting our dryer delivery. I had started a round of battery-charging for the motorcycles and boat batteries so had some dis-connecting and re-connecting to do.
The delivery went off without a hitch and only took about 20 minutes total for delivery, installation, haulaway, and paperwork. The delivery guys really had their act together.
I spent an inordinate amount of my afternoon washing our old sailboat. The humid summer weather had caused it to develop a coating of mossy growth which took a long time to fully remove. I’m glad to see the solar ventilation fan is still running. I think that’s two years old now.
No walk or movie today.

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Tuesday, 3 November-

We voted in the judges-and-local-officials election today, then drove on into town to buy a dryer. We chose a Kenmore 800-series model with a heat sensor and moisture sensor. It was rated a Best Buy by Consumer Reports and Labashi’s very happy with the controls, features, and layout (not to mention the 20%-off sale!). We were surprised to learn we could have it delivered tomorrow and both the delivery and haulaway charges would be rebated.
Back home I walked my six-mile loop again and then that evening we watched four episodes of ‘30 Rock’ Season One. I had watched this season online on Netflix Instant Movies but Labashi wasn’t available at the time and I thought she’d like it (and that indeed is the case).

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Monday, 2 November-

Labashi spent the morning researching dryers and then went shopping for groceries. I spent the morning on the web, mostly with Overland Journal and its links. This is a great find for me. Overland Journal tends to concentrate on Land Rovers, Jeeps, and FJ Cruisers but has many articles about foreign travel as well as equipment suitable for traveling in our van.
That afternoon I walked my six-mile loop. I had a close call with a dog at the far end of the loop. I’ve seen this dog once in a while and always walk the far side of the road from it but today it charged across the road at me. Fortunately the owner was outside and yelled at it in the nick of time. However, the owner completely ignored me but yelled at his dog about running out onto the road. He didn’t care about the dog nearly attacking me; he just didn’t want the dog hit by a car! It’s time for me to start taking along my little can of dog-spray. (We bought this dog spray called “Halt!” at the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minnesota. That’s what the bear researchers there use to deter black bears. We also have a stronger pepper spray we bought at Glacier National Park for grizzlies).
That evening we watched the Oliver Stone movie “W” with Josh Brolin. Good movie! I was afraid Mr. Stone might stray far into caricature-land, particularly with the malapropisms in the President’s speeches but I didn’t feel that happened. Josh Brolin’s portrayal of W is noteworthy and Richard Dreyfuss’s Dick Cheney seemed spot-on.
We also watched a ’30 Rock- Season One’ episode.

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Sunday, 1 November-

Today Labashi and I went shopping for a dryer. After a bit of research on the internet, we went to Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Sears. I was interested in a GE but the door fit was inexplicably poor compared to the other brands. We ended up tentatively picking a Sears dryer but Labashi will do some research on Consumer Reports before we actually buy. In the meantime, she’s air-drying our relatively small amount of laundry.
While in town we had an early supper at Texas Roadhouse and agreed they have the very best ribs and rib sauce right here at home.
We returned home in time for me to walk my four-mile course along the creek.
That evening we watched the extras on the ‘Planet Earth’ DVD set.

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Saturday, 31 October-

This morning I finished processing the mail and took care of mailing checks for things like auto registrations. I also updated the MacBook Pro’s software and ran a thorough security scan on the XP laptop (which now takes several hours to wade through a check of its 650,000 files!!!!).
Yesterday evening Labashi had found our dryer no longer tumbles so I pulled it out and tried to find some reason for that. I couldn’t find anything but I’m also not about to turn it over to an appliance shop. Looks like it’s time for a new one.
But I do have to say we’re happy with the service this old Kenmore gave us. We had that dryer in our previous house and we moved here more than twenty-eight years ago! We bought it two to three years before moving here so it has been working fine for over 30 years. Thank you, Mr. Sears and Mr. Roebuck!
That evening we watched ‘Terry Fater: Live from Las Vegas’ on DVD. We had seen billboard after billboard in Las Vegas advertising Terry’s live show but we didn’t know anything about him. But when I saw this DVD in our local video rental store, I thought we’d give him a try.
Terry’s act is largely a puppet act and it’s funny but his singing impressions are amazing. He has his puppets ‘sing’, which of course, he’s doing without moving his lips. Recommended.

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Friday, 30 October-

While we’re away our mail is delivered to a neighbor and he very kindly sends us a weekly summary of the mail as well as any interesting local developments (like updates on the new Wal-mart going in at Etters). If something important comes in, he emails us immediately and if it were really, really hot, he has our cell phone numbers.
Even so, we’re a bit apprehensive when we get our big box of mail when we return home. Who knows what little surprises await?
So I spent today starting to go through the mail looking for ‘gotchas’. And this time it was a new one.
When we’re away for more than a month, I have the cable tv and internet disconnected on a ‘seasonal disconnect’. But to prevent them from deleting my email account, I pay for what the internet provider calls a ‘Mail-Me’ account for $5 a month.
Our cable and internet bills are on auto-pay so I was very surprised to see notices from both the cable and internet companies, one threatening to turn a bill for $2.29 over to a collection agency and the other assessing a late charge of $2 to my bill for $10.
After a few calls I learned that auto-pay is automatically cut off when the subscriber is disconnected, even if it’s a seasonal disconnect. So even though I explained I’d be away for two months, they sent me paper bills and then dunning notices.
Once I explained what had happened, the two companies squared it away. The threat of turning the $2.29 bill over to a collection agency was an empty one (it turns out) and the late charge was dropped.
That evening we watched ‘Last Chance Harvey’ with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Good one!

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2009-10-29T23:59:00.000-04:00

Family visit in Austin ; ‘The Turn of the Screw’ ; the drive home to PA

(posted from home!)
(This post covers October 23 – 29, 2009)

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Thursday, 29 October-

We were on the road by 0900 today despite our late start. Our 250-mile drive up I-81 seemed to go quickly, helped along by listening to podcasts of ‘RadioLab’ and ‘This American Life’.
We would have made it home by 1430 or so but diverted at the last moment. I wanted to pick up some candy for tonight (since Halloween in our neighborhood is always the Thursday before) and to pick up a movie since we won’t have television or internet until I get the cable re-connected.
While we were away our grocery store moved so this was also our first time in the new Giant. After seeing dozens of upscale grocery stores on our trip, I can’t say our new one qualifies as an upscale store like the Albertson’s at Jackson, WY, the new Safeways in Canada, or the Von’s in Bishop, CA. There’s no Starbucks counter (no coffee counter at all, in fact), no olive bar, not even a decent selection of foreign cheeses. The aisles are wider and Labashi did find they now carry La Factory low-carb tortillas (our favorite) and now there’s a Giant gas station there so we can more easily use our gas points. And the new store is definitely a visual improvement over the old.
We were very happy to find everything in order with our house. We turned the power on and spent an hour unloading the van and putting things in order.
That evening we only had five trick-or-treaters so we started a movie. We watched ‘State of Play’ with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck. It’s well done, though the intricate plot almost lost us (thank goodness for the Back button on the remote!).
This one I can recommend.

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Wednesday, 28 October-

Last night was a noisy one. Some fool trucker (it only takes one) decided to park near us and keep his engine idling all night. Around midnight we moved but the other side of the Wal-mart wasn’t much better. The parking lot itself was quiet enough but for some reason there was a constant stream of buzzbombs and muffler-challenged pickups zooming by most of the night.
Today was a MUCH better day for driving. As we neared Knoxville in mid-afternoon, the sun came out and revealed the bright Fall colors around us. Off in the distance we could see the Smokies, colorful down low but a rust-brown up high.
Shortly after Knoxville we hit I-81 north and though we were still many miles from home it seemed like our backyard.
At the I-77 junction we found a steakhouse and took an hour out for a filet mignon and baby-back ribs, then pressed on for a few hours, giving us a 500-mile day.
By 2130 we were nearing the I-64 junction at Lexington, Virginia and there we found a Wal-mart for the night. Since it was at the junction of two interstates I didn’t expect we’d want to stay but it was actually a quiet one—at least for awhile. Around 2300 some kid decided we all wanted to hear his boom-boom music but that only lasted for an hour or so. I was a bit wound from the driving so it took me awhile to drift off but then I slept the sleep of the innocent and we woke late (0830-ish) to beautiful sun.

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Tuesday, 27 October-

Today was another driving day as we head for good old P-A. The rains and wind continued as we left Texarkana and passed by Little Rock on I-30 and turned onto I-40. By late afternoon we had crossed Arkansas and entered Tennessee at Memphis. We continued on through steady rain, sometimes heavy, until dark. For some reason we came upon four car accidents in the last hour of our driving. We don’t know if there had been an especially heavy downpour or what but we first saw a rollover (with emergency crews still there), then three spinouts, i.e., situations where the driver lost control and spun into the medial strip or an embankment along the interstate. And again, emergency crews were still there. And we saw ambulances passing in both directions.
We were pushing to get to a Wal-mart at Dickson, TN for the night and had no problem ourselves other than lower visibility in the harder rains but it was surreal to see all these wrecks along the way.
That evening we watched two episodes from the ‘Planet Earth’ DVD set, ‘Deep Ocean’ and the first part of the ‘The Future’ extras disk.

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Monday, 26 October-

We had thunderstorms in the night and were in no mood to leave our hosts this morning. We had a long, leisurely breakfast of ‘migas’ and tortillas and finally said our fond goodbyes at 1030.
We spent the day driving northeast, now ‘heading for the barn’. We drove through heavy rain for several hours, then light rain the remainder of the day.
We ended up at the Wal-mart at Atlanta, Tx, (near Texarkana and the Arkansas and Louisiana borders). We rented ‘Gran Torino’ with Clint Eastwood from the Redbox. What a terrible movie!

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Sunday, 25 October-

We spent the morning and much of the afternoon continuing our wide-ranging conversations with our hosts. Labashi had mentioned theatre and we soon learned of a play going on this evening—‘The Turn of the Screw’—and bought tickets online.
Around 1530 we loaded up the car and drove to the SoCo district’s Austin Playhouse. ‘The Turn of the Screw’ was great. In this case, it’s a two-actor play of Henry Jame’s late 1800’s novella. It’s the story of a young English governess who tells a ghostly tale and we’re not sure if she’s imagining, telling us the truth, or deliberately misleading us. The male lead plays multiple characters, including a middle-aged female housekeeper and a ten-year-old boy. He also verbally does the sound effects.
The female lead evolves from a shy girl to a screaming madwoman, all in the bounds of a 75-minute-long play where the only prop is a chair.
We loved it! It made us think, it made us marvel at the actors’ skill.
We then had supper at Guero’s Restaurant, an Austin Tex-Mex institution only a few blocks from the theater.
Back home we had a celebratory fire in the back yard fire-ring and drank champagne and had butter pecan ice cream with berries in milk-and-white-chocolate tulips (!!!!) before ending our day.

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Saturday, 24 October-

Today was yet another perfect-weather day and on top of that it’s our 39th anniversary. Our hosts treated us to a wonderful day.
We toured their favorite Austin neighborhoods and it was a treat. They’re real estate agents and have refurbished several houses so it was fascinating to hear their tales of their experiences with properties and with the people buying and selling them.
Our tour also took us to the ritzy side of the city and we walked the bluffs about the lake, looking down on the multi-million dollar estates on the lake.
We also dropped in to Central Market, an upscale produce and grocery market where we pursued and found prickly-pear fruit. The produce guy was a treat here. When asked whether he had any prickly-pear fruit, he not only took us to a basket of the fruit hidden away under a stand but also cut slices for each of us to try. And then it turned out the prickly-pear fruit only cost $1 for five of them. It was hardly a money-making proposition for him to spend some 20 minutes with us for a $1 sale but he certainly made an impression. We took the five fruits along for later.
Late in the afternoon our hosts took us to ‘The Oasis’ overlooking Lake Travis. This is a fabulous restaurant on the hillside some 500 feet above the lake. Terraces overlook the lake and contain tables enough for hundreds of people to watch the sunset while having Mexican food and drinks. Our hosts talked our server into taking the prickly-pear fruit to the head bartender and requesting he make prickly-pear margaritas for us. Surprisingly (to us, anyway) it was no problem. Prickly-pear maragaritas are excellent. Like the taste of the fruit slice we had at Central Market, the taste of the margarita is sweet and soft, toning down the harshness of the tequila. (Labashi and I had four of them, just to be sure!)
We finished up our meal just 20 minutes before sunset and then enjoyed the view over the lake as the sun dove behind the hills in the distance. Magnifico!
We spent the rest of the evening back home on the porch as the gentle evening breezes caressed us.

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Friday, 23 October-

We had a pretty morning this morning and decided not to go back into the city today as we had planned yesterday. Instead, we started off hiking a few of the McKinney Park trails. I had taken a walk last night after supper, touring the campground after dark. I like to see what types of rigs the other campers have but in this case there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. But for some reason I had extra energy to burn off and I enjoyed the walk.
Our walk this morning also originated at our campsite but we walked to the visitor’s center (which, it turns out, is only open on weekends), then along the creek. This trail took us under a rock shelter carved out of limestone over many years. We kept following the creek and the trail brought us out to a massive rock outcropping typical of the Austin area. Where there is soil, it’s relatively thin and lies on a relatively porous rock. It seems odd to us to be walking through what appears to be a woods much like the woods back home but then to come to a meadow sprinkled with prickly-pear cactus.
After our walk we once again changed our minds and drove into the city. Yesterday’s plan was to visit another museum or two but we decided instead to check out the SoCo (South Congress) district of funky shops and restaurants on our way to Labashi’s brother’s neighborhood. We weren’t scheduled to show up to his house until 1500 so once we found the general area, we looked up the nearest library. That library happened to be closed on Fridays but the wi-fi still worked (we learned that latter fact from a fellow parked in the library parking lot and working away on his laptop). We spent the next two hours doing our normal wi-fi stuff, i.e., checking email, posting a blog update, checking weather and news and some favorite hobby forums.
Some 15 minutes before our appointed time, we shut down the laptops but mine popped up a Windows update message. It picked that time to install 18 updates, which meant I couldn’t power down the PC. The updates took more than a half hour and I didn’t want to take a chance on driving around while the disk drive was working so hard. That made us late but then again it had been an ‘around-1500’ time so it didn’t really matter.
We easily found her brother’s house and were warmly greeted. The lady of the house was working but we enjoyed learning about two inventions he’s perfecting and was working on in his backyard shop. He showed us prototypes (which I’ll deliberately keep vague here) and we received a quick course in what it takes to bring a new twist to a familiar object to market.
We toured the house and then spent the evening on the magnificent back porch. We had perfect weather and sat around talking and having a bit of wine (after a steak dinner!) late into the evening.

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2009-10-22T23:59:00.000-04:00

Lubbock ; American Wind Power Center ; Silent Wings Air Museum ; ‘The Proposal’ ; Colorado Bend and Ink’s Lake State Parks ; Blanton Museum and Story of Texas Museum (in Austin)

(posted from Austin Library, Millwood Branch)
(This post covers 20 – 22 October, 2009)

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Thursday, 22 October-

WOW, what a night. We had rain as I was writing up my blog entry but after we went to bed the skies really opened up. We had some lightning but it didn’t seem close. But we couldn’t get to sleep for the rain pounding on the roof and blowing against the back door of the van.
Our campsite was right on the lake—within twenty feet of the shoreline--- so I kept an eye on the water level. That was not real easy to do, given I could only see the water level during the lightning flashes, the rain water was streaming down over the van and the windows kept fogging.
By midnight I knew the water had come closer and realized we had better move. Even if the water doesn’t reach the van, I wouldn’t sleep for checking on it.
Fortunately it’s easy to just climb forward to the driver’s seat in the van and start it up. We moved to higher ground at a campsite above the shower house and the campground host’s trailer. If it rose that much, there’d be plenty of commotion to wake us in time to move to yet-higher ground.
We still didn’t sleep for another hour or so as the rain pounded the roof but then it moderated and we dozed off.
After showers and a visit to the dump station this morning, we stopped in at the ranger station for a recommendation for a local breakfast spot. The ranger said he heard the storm dropped between six and nine inches of rain in the region. The park’s rain guage overflowed at six inches so he’s not sure how much more than six we received. The lake rose three feet. After my shower I had walked back to our previous campsite and saw that we wouldn’t have had water on the van but I was still glad to have moved, just for the peace-of-mind.
We took the ranger’s recommendation to have breakfast at the Blue Bonnet Restaurant in Marble Falls. He had praised the biscuits and cream-gravy and they were indeed very good while Labashi satisfied her hankering for a pancake. Neither is on our regular diet but we’ve found we can stray a bit without harm.
We then set the GPS for downtown Austin. We spent the early afternoon in the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas. We happened to arrive just as a lecture was getting underway regarding the reconstruction of a Veronese altar painting which had been cut into pieces in Venice and the pieces sold to collectors or dealers in London, Edinburgh, New York (if memory serves), and Austin. Not all the pieces have been found but it’s now possible to see most of it. Our speaker was quite thorough and interesting in telling us about this painting thought to have been done in the 1560’s.
We spent another hour and a half in the galleries, then took a break at the café before crossing the street to the ‘Story of Texas’, a museum-quality exhibit of dioramas, artifacts, films, and displays, telling the history of Texas.
In looking at the brochure for the ‘Story of Texas’, I wasn’t particularly impressed so thought it would be a walk-through. But it was really, really well done. We had two-and-a-half hours until closing time when we started and found ourselves only a little over half-way done at the 30-minutes-to-go mark.
The exhibit closed at 1800 so when we reached the van we headed to McKinney State Park, our home for the night. We found the park is nearly full and is booked for the weekend but we did manage to snag a good site for tonight.
After Labashi made us a fantastic meal of fajitas (we’re eating like kings out here!), we spent the rest of the evening blogging and researching.

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Wednesday, 21 October-

Our night at the Sweetwater Wal-mart was noisy due to the nearby I-20 traffic but we both managed to sleep well.
We drove through Sweetwater, then on to Abilene. I had thought we might find an interesting museum or two in Abilene but nothing in the Tourbook caught our attention (or perhaps we were ‘museumed-out’). We had not yet passed a Texas welcome center so we tried finding a visitor’s center in Abilene. A sign on the beltway said there was one but we never found it and after driving two miles out of our way, we gave up. Not one sign after turning off the beltway. And the GPS says the nearest visitor’s center is in another town entirely. That was enough of Abilene for me. We did get a brief look as we drove through on Business 20, then down the east side of the beltway so that will do.
We drove southeast down route 84, passing through mile after mile of ranches. The mesquite trees hide the ranch buildings and cattle but for an occasional glimpse, yet we can get a feel for what they are like. We did find it interesting to being seeing lots of goats and then happen on a sign proclaiming Mills County the ‘Meat-Goat Capital of the World!’.
At Bend, we decided to take the late afternoon off by going to the Colorado Bend State Park. The listing in the AAA guide said it was a four-mile gravel road from Bend and we thought it nice that we made it to the entrance to the park without hitting a gravel road. That’s because the TEN mile gravel road to the park OFFICE--- which you must visit to get a permit to do anything in the park --- starts at that point.
But we didn’t really mind. We had been surprised to see how little public land there is in Texas so we were happy to be on a gravel road in the Hill Country, headed for our campground and perhaps a hike of some sort.
After rattling to the park office, we were surprised to learn that Texas State Parks have a per-person fee in addition to the camping fee. So to camp at the primitive campground we’d have to pay $14 to camp and $6 in per-person entry fees for pit toilets and no showers. I asked why the price is so high for a primitive campground and the ranger-lady said it’s because the state government doesn’t want to undercut the local campgrounds, two of which are nearby. So it has nothing to do with value offered, but rather with representing the best interests of business over those of the common folk. Where have I heard that before?
We had intended to take bush-showers in one of the more remote campsites but the rules make it clear that NO greywater (or, of course, blackwater) may be left anywhere in the park and there’s no dump facility. So if you wash your dishes or take a bush-shower, you have to take the soapy water out with you (and if you’re travelling, what do you do then?). Thank you, Texas, but we’ll just move on.
We drove on south to a more modern state park, Ink’s Lake, where we have pay the most we’ve had to pay in overnight fees in the 59 days we’ve been on the road ($22—I hope the local campgrounds approve!!!) but at least we get showers and a dump station.
Ink’s Lake is, according to our check-in person, the second-most popular state park in Texas. It’s within an hour’s drive of Austin and San Antonio so perhaps that explains it. We found our nice spot on the lake and settled in. It’s raining this evening so there won’t be a walk but we do have a very comfortable temperature (70) and we have some blogging and reading to do. And I have some work to do on improving my grumpy attitude.

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Tuesday, 20 October-

We had a most-excellent night at the Lubbock Wal-mart last night. The winds were quite fresh but did not have the turbulence which would cause the van to shake and the heavy traffic on the nearby beltway died down by 2200.
We wanted to go to a museum but it wasn’t to open until 1000 so we found a nearby coffee shop with wi-fi. As we walked toward the door, another customer emerged and mumbled something about ’15 or so’ as she handed Labashi a card. It was a gift card for the coffee shop we were entering. I used the card to pay for my coffee and it did indeed have over $15 of value left on it. We spent an hour or so on the web catching up and on the way out I passed the card on to a Texas Tech student sitting near us.
We then drove to the American Wind Power Center on the other side of town. They took my idea (sort of)! Several times in the past I’ve thought I’d like to have a collection of working windmills (the farm-level watering-tank ones, not the Don Quixote ones) and here it was—a collection far more extensive than I ever could dream of having.
We learned windmills have been found in history as far back as 600 AD on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. These reportedly were like door-sized panels mounted vertically on a turning pedestal. (I’d love to see a drawing and should have thought to ask whether there might be one in the attached library).
We spent several hours looking at windmills, each with something different than the last. This was the first time I had seen a sectional windmill. This design appears to operate backward from a ‘normal’ one. What we think of as the tail of the windmill is in front of the wheel. The blades appear to be mounted backwards. As the wheel turns faster and faster, a counterweight on the tail causes the wheel to change shape, breaking into segments and forming a partial-cone shape, keeping the wheel from turning too fast. It’s an ingenious design but (we learned) overly complicated. Newer designs added controls to the traditional layout (wheel toward the wind, tail behind) to prevent over-running.
I really liked seeing a Zenith Farm Radio Wincharger windmill and it’s accompanying advertisement. For $15 you could order a windmill with a six-foot blade designed to run a Zenith radio. Prior to the electrification of farms, the family could order one of these and mount it on a granary or barn roof or other handy, out-of-the-way spot to power the family radio via what the ad called ‘Frepower’ (wind!). The best part? For your $15 you also got the Zenith radio!
After our tour inside the building we went outside and approached the Vestas V47 wind-turbine across the parking lot. This is a 660 kilowatt power-generating behemoth, circa 1995. It generates 60-cycle three-phase AC power (and thus no batteries are involved), one-tenth of which is used to power the Center and the remainder is sold to the power company. Another wind-turbine lies in pieces along the other side of the parking lot. I found I could stand up inside the base of one of the giant fiberglass blades. This one is a GE and produces 1.5 Megawatts. The V47 (the 660 kW unit) cost $1 million and the GE now costs about $1.5 million. The Center is planning to also have the GE unit installed and operating as money becomes available.
After lunch we drove to the nearby Silent Wings Air Museum. This one is dedicated to the World-War II glider pilots. This was an amazing story, supported by footage from the War. These clumsy-looking gliders were towed to the battle zone by C-47 (think DC-3) aircraft, carrying payloads of up to 8000 pounds. The payloads might consist of troops, a howitzer, a jeep, a small bulldozer (!!!) or one of many different configurations of pre-loaded jeep trailers containing ammunition, medical supplies, food, mortars, etc.
The gliders could land where no other aircraft could land. The clearings in Holland and Germany, for example, often were only 1000 feet long and surrounded by hedgerows of tall trees. After release, the gliders would enter a steep bank and circle down quickly to make what could only be considered a somewhat-controlled crash.
The front end of the glider could be unlatched and tilted up to allow the jeep or howitzer to be rolled out. And, incredibly, in one of the stories-of-the-war video segments, we learned that a cable could be connected via a pulley arrangement to the back of the jeep which opened the door automatically as the jeep drove forward. Incredible!!!!
We also saw incredible training footage of how a C-47 could pick up a glider using a tailhook. The film described how to lay out the nylon rope and how to hang it between two twelve-foot-high poles for the C-47’s tailhook to catch as well as the preparations by the plane crew. The C-47 slowed to 130 miles per hour to make the pickup. A retrieval mechanism in the C-47 and the stretch of the rope (up to 40 per cent for a new rope) allowed the glider pilot to feel an acceleration of 0-60 miles per hour in 200 feet. One glider pilot described finding his hat in the tail of the glider after such a pickup. The pickups, by the way, were primarily used to evacuate wounded soldiers though of course would have been used for any high-priority need.
It was very sobering to learn of the high fatality rate of the glider missions. The tales of former glider pilots included many stories of flying into heavy flak and taking enemy fire throughout the landings. There are stories of watching the tow plane in front of you lose a wing or catch fire and watching the crew bail out, knowing you need to unhook NOW, whether you can see a place to land or not.
The museum has a full glider to look into. Looking to the tail, you see nothing but a light framework of metal tubing, covered with cloth. In another part of the museum is the front three-quarters of a glider with the nose up and a jeep inside, showing how closely it fit. A howitzer and a mortar sit nearby as does a mini-bulldozer, only as wide as the jeep and with a blade only about 18 inches high.
The video-taped stories of the veteran glider pilots grabbed us. These normal-looking, man-in-the-street guys told incredible stories of their experiences.
After the Silent Wings Air Museum, it was time to say a fond farewell to Lubbock (or book another night at the Wal-mart!).
We drove southeast. At supper time we were near the town of Snyder and stopped at the Wal-mart for a look-see. It really wasn’t time to stop for the night so we shared a burger at the What-a-burger across the street and then pressed on.
As we left Snyder we noticed that the density of wind-turbines in the area had increased dramatically. Where before we were seeing lines of them atop the distant mesas—perhaps 50 to 100 at a time leading off into the distance---- we were now in a full-fledged wind-farm. We drove from Snyder to I-20, a distance of nearly 30 miles, through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of wind-turbines, on all sides and stretching to the horizon. And these look just like the GE models, the $1.5 million-dollars-each models. Somebody has put a LOT of money in the Panhandle Plains in wind turbines.
As we approached Sweetwater on I-20 the wind-turbines thinned out (though we could still see a line of them on the mesa on the southern horizon).
We found our Wal-mart for the night and rented a Redbox movie. We watched ‘The Proposal’ with Sandra Bullock. It had a great start but then fizzled badly. Sandra plays a powerful editor in a New York publishing firm. She’s demanding, mean, and self-centered. But a big problem turns up. She’s Canadian and her visa has now been denied. On the spur of the moment she tells all that she and her male assistant are about to marry, thus solving the problem. But of course it’s more complicated than that. She and the assistant must go to his parents’ home (in Sitka) and (for us) hilarity is supposed to ensue. But from that point on it was very poorly done. The actors looked like actors bravely trying to make something of the drivel given them. The powerful woman realized what she really needed was a man. And the man (the assistant) who hated his boss, realized (upon seeing her naked) that he actually was in love with her. Give us a break! Give me my $1.06 back!

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2009-10-19T23:59:00.001-04:00

Across Arizona and to the Tonto National Forest; Tonto National Monument ; Show Low, AZ ; Besh-ba-gawah pueblo ; El Morro National Monument ; El Malpais National Monument ; Sky City ; family visit in Albuquerque ; on to Texas

(posted from Daybreak Coffee Roasters, Lubbock, TX)
(This post covers 13 – 19 October, 2009)

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Monday, 19 October-

We left Albuquerque this morning, yet another blue-sky-and-75 day. There were snow flurries back home over the weekend but I see it’s supposed to get up into the Sixties in the next few days.
We drove across New Mexico seeing ranches east of Albuquerque and seeming to stretch to the horizon. We turned down Route 84 toward Clovis and saw much the same, though we did see a nice wooded valley along the Pecos River at Fort Sumner.
As we neared Clovis, we began to see more green in the pastures and a definite change from range-land to fields. In Clovis we started seeing giant farm machinery for sale and we saw a massive field of pumpkins which took us a few seconds to recognize; they seemed out of place.
Soon after Clovis we entered Texas and saw an immediate difference. Cotton appears to be king around here.
We changed our clocks to Central Time and continued on to Lubbock, where we looked up the local Wal-mart, checked whether we could stay, then sought out the nearest Starbucks for an iced-tea, and a Walgreen’s, hoping to get a flu shot. All the flu vaccine is gone in this area, though. We’ll have to keep checking as we go.
We had supper in the van at Maxey Park in Lubbock and took a short walk after to the lake.
As darkness neared we returned to the Wal-mart and shopped to replenish supplies, then blogged the evening away. It’s quite windy here tonight. The winds were coming from the west as we drove today and I’m sure that helped the gas mileage but it appears they’ve swung south and become stronger, which may give us a less-than-comfortable night.

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Sunday, 18 October-

Today our friends had church responsibilities so we had most of the morning to ourselves. I walked down to the nearby Smith’s Grocery and had a cappuccino at the Starbucks in their lobby while Labashi did a bit of laundry and relaxed.
After lunch Labashi’s brother took us and the two boys to the Albuquerque Zoo. What a nice zoo it was! We were surprised to see that most animals were out and all appeared very healthy and active. The polar bears were incredible and were inadvertently hilarious as they played with ‘floaties’ (giant floating discs). The snow leopards were an unexpected treat (and had two young ones) and the jet-black jaguar mysterious and possessed of burning eyes which gave me chills to imagine meeting in the wild.
We finished off the afternoon at the zoo’s climbing play-space where the boys had a blast. Finally, they kicked us out at 1730 after the zoo closed.
We went out that evening to the County Line, a bar-be-que restaurant where Labashi and I split a full rack of baby-back ribs. Labashi likes the fall-off-the-bone type of ribs and these definitely weren’t that. They had a tarry covering of burnt skin and wanted to stick to the bone but once you decide to just pick up the ribs with your fingers and dig in, they were excellent.
At home we said our goodbyes to the folks who we wouldn’t see in the morning and read for an hour before sleep.

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Saturday, 17 October-

Today we awoke to another beautiful New Mexico day. The forecast is for mid-Seventies and clear for the next few days with overnights into the mid-Thirties here. We took a tour of the house and continued the conversations from the night before and then that afternoon we went to another house her brother is selling in this cooled-off market. Afterwards, we drove to the Sandia Aerial Tramway, the world’s longest.
We caught the tram going up the east side of the valley just as the sun was setting on the west. Though it was still 70 as we boarded the tram at 6000 feet, it was 42 at the top’s 10,000-foot level but fortunately the winds were very light.
We spent about an hour looking at and photographing the view and the small Forest Service visitor’s center, then had a drink at the restaurant. Labashi and I split a ‘Black Diamond’, (which was Bailey’s, Kahlua, coffee and a bit of hot cocoa) while our friends had a hot cocoa liberally doused with peppermint schnapps. Lovely!
Later that evening we had leftovers from a birthday party at the house, then sat up talking for a while.

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Friday, 16 October-

We left El Morro this morning and continued eastward through the Indian reservations on Route 53.
In a short while we came upon the El Malpais National Monument. The ‘malpais’ or ‘badlands’ are lava from the many volcanoes here. At the visitor’s center I noticed that the Continental Divide Trail goes through here and I talked with the ranger at some length about it. I’ve been impressed by the CDT at every trail crossing and want to read more about the experiences of the CDT thru-hikers on Trailjournals.com.
After El Malpais, we continued eastward, which then turned a bit north toward Grants and then into New Mexico.
We soon were on I-40 East but noticed signs advertising Sky City, an Acoma Indian pueblo. The sign that attracted my attention was one advertising traditional Acoma foods. We diverted some 15 miles off the Interstate to visit this out-of-the-way pueblo and visitor’s center.
The valley in which the pueblo lies looks like something out of a movie. You descend down off the mesa into a deep, wide valley strewn with fantastic shapes of massive bluffs and standing rocks. Across the valley lies another mesa, atop which is a pueblo.
At the visitor’s center we bought tickets for a tour and while we waited we had a delicious red chile poblano stew and fry bread. A small bus then took us up the mesa and into the center of the pueblo. We later learned the road had been built by whites who were making a movie in the Twenties. Otherwise, the only way in and out is via a hidden canyon and steps and hand-holds carved into the sandstone.
We had a long tour of the pueblo and it was very well done. We learned the pueblo is of course the historical home of the Acoma people. Still today, there’s no electricity and no running water. In general the Acoma live in nearby homes much like ours or perhaps in Albuquerque but have their homes in the pueblo for weekends and ceremonies. Upon retirement, some Acoma may live full-time in the pueblo though of course many choose to continue to live outside the pueblo.
Our Indian guide had a good sense of humor. When we stood on an area looking down from the mesa at the tops of ravens below, he said those ravens are known as the Acoma Air Force. And at the one tree on the pueblo (next to a water-collection basin), he said his friends call it the Acoma National Forest. He spoke of the kivas where traditional ceremonies are held but simply said he would not speak of or describe the ceremonies themselves.
There are 14 clans within the Acoma people, most with names like Wolf and Bear but our guide’s clan is the Pumpkin clan.
Our tour concluded at the old straw-and-mud church, built in 1629 and it was very impressive, as was the five-levels deep cemetery.
After our tour we climbed down the stone stairway and there were several spots that made us blanch. We had to turn around and use the handholds to keep from falling and the ‘stairs’ were merely impressions in the rock. A fall would have been very nasty, though it would have ‘only’ been ten or fifteen feet since the ‘stairway’ was more of a trail leading from ledge to ledge.
After making it safely back to the visitor’s center we had a snack at the café and than bid a fond goodbye to Sky City.
Back on I-40 East we noticed we crossed through Laguna Indian lands, then Isleta Indian lands as Albuquerque and the Sandia Mountains came into view.
We arrived in Albuquerque at the rush hour but had little problem finding our way to Labashi’s brother’s home in the northeastern foothills. This was our first visit to Albuquerque but we immediately liked the look of it, particularly in those foothills.
We spent the evening catching up as we all went out to a Mexican restaurant and had a wonderful time.

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Thursday, 15 October-

This morning we took nice, long showers in the state campground. We’ve learned to take a folding chair and our Buddy heater in to the shower room, particularly when the weather’s cooler (like this morning’s 38 degrees) and the shower building is made of a stone-based material. It makes a world of difference to have a bit of heat and a comfortable (and dry) seat for undressing and dressing. (We’re so spoiled!!)
We then used the GPS to find a local coffee shop (“Java Deli”) listed in the wififreespots.com listing for Show Low so Labashi could ship off one of her Oregon Trail logs to family and friends.
We then hit the road again, bound (in general) for Albuquerque. We could have zipped up to US40 to shorten the trip but instead took the secondary roads through the Zuni and Navajo reservations, crossing into New Mexico around lunch time.
We bought freshly-baked bread from an Indian bakery in Zuni, home of the Zuni Pueblo, the most traditional of the 27 pueblos still in existence in New Mexico and had it for a roadside lunch in the van.
After driving through miles and miles of ranchland, we came to El Morro National Monument. It’s know for having a centuries-old water source at the base of a massive white rock called ‘The Bluff’ (El Morro in Spanish) and for inscriptions left by people visiting the water source in their travels. The oldest inscriptions are by Spanish explorers who came through the area as early as 1605. Also, atop the rock is a partially-excavated pueblo dating to the 13th Century and thought to have consisted of 800 rooms to support a community of about 1500 people.
The water source is a pool 12 feet deep and holding up to 200,000 gallons of water. It’s not fed by a spring but by rain water and by snow melt.
After touring the visitor’s center, we walked the trail past the rock inscriptions and petroglyphs, then climbed steep switchbacks to the top of El Morro. There we walked a narrow path across open rock, at times with steep fall-off’s on both sides, to get to the pueblo. A few rooms were reconstructed but most of the 800 rooms are still under stones and earth. So this is what an unexcavated site looks like. The clues are subtle but the shapes and contours say there’s a large pueblo here.
After our 2-mile walk we descended to the visitor’s center again and then on to the campground in another portion of the Monument. The campground charges no fee this time of year and our two hours of walking put us at a good stopping time.
We spent the remainder of daylight cooking our prairie-coal hot dogs for supper. Then we took a walk around the campground and chatted with a few of the other campers. Next door is a woman from Albuquerque who is camping in her truck camper with her dog, Stella. We also met a guy from San Diego who’s camping in a Tab trailer. These trailers are about the size of a Casita but they have the shape of a teardrop trailer. This fellow bought his Tab off Ebay and loves it for its comfortable simplicity, much like we love Mocha Joe for the same.
We blogged and I did some skywatching to while away the pleasant evening hours. This was one of my better skywatching nights. I saw four satellites, one nearly as bright as the brightest stars in the sky. I also saw what I call a ‘sizzler’. It was a shooting star so bright that it seems it must be making a sizzling noise.

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Wednesday, 14 October-

This morning we left Cholla campground and drove along Roosevelt Lake to the nearby visitor’s center. I talked at some length with the permits lady about the Tonto Basin permit system. Here I am with my Interagency Pass (formerly called a National Parks Annual Pass) which, when raising the price from $65 to $80, the government said could be used for multiple agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, the US Forest Service, the Reclamation Service, and others. But when I arrive at this US Forest Service site here at Roosevelt Lake, I find they want me to also pay a daily fee for any use of Forest Service facilities here. I can, explained the lady, get an Interagency Pass upgrade for $15 and that will allow me into picnic areas and primitive campgrounds. But if I want to get into a developed campground I have to buy a daily pass. And if I don’t have an Interagency Pass I would have to have the same daily pass. In other words, there’s no benefit whatsoever to having the Interagency Pass at this site.
She also explained that the marina next door to the visitor’s center is owned by the US Forest Service but it’s operated by a vendor and you must have a separate vendor pass to enter the grounds (at six dollars per car and four dollars per boat per day).
Fortunately, we were done with the US Forest Service. We drove on to the Tonto National Monument. This Monument has two 12th Century cliff dwellings, one a half-mile walk above the visitor’s center and the other out of sight and available only by special arrangement for a ranger-led tour.
The visitor’s center movie was one of the best we’ve seen and we later learned it’s an award-winner. Afterwards we began the very steep walk up to the cliff-dwelling, knowing all the while that it’s blocked off due to an infestation of Africanized honeybees (at least that’s the story!). We had a wonderful walk, though. After we were about half-way up, ranger Eddie Colyutt came along on patrol and we struck up a conversation. We spent the better part of the next hour chatting with him about everything from other archeological sites in the park (there are 72 of them); the reasons the people left (overcrowding, drought, over-use of resources); palo verde trees (this green-barked tree is the state tree of Arizona, is a relative new-comer to Arizona, is believed to have been a key factor in the Indians changing from living in a widely-dispersed, hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a farming lifestyle; saguaro cactus (to get moisture from one, dig into it like you would to take a plug out of a watermelon, then suck the plug); the quality of the National Park Service (top-rate, according to Eddie, who has worked for three different agencies in his 30 years in Federal Service); the paving of the road to the remote little town of Young (being done by the state for tourism but it ruins the remoteness of the town); and on and on. Eddie is a very intelligent guy (and says he’s a survivalist) and we greatly enjoyed our talk with him.
After Tonto Monument, we drove on east to Globe, a copper-mining town and home of an early pueblo (‘Besh-ba-gawah’, by name). This wasn’t a cliff-dwelling but rather a stone-and-adobe pueblo abandoned, like the cliff dwelling at Tonto) by 1300. Today, the adobe is almost all gone but part of the pueblo has been rebuilt. We were able to walk about in a three-story reconstruction which had ladders between the levels and was furnished much as it would have been when in use. Very nicely, done, citizens of Globe!
We then continued east on Route 60 into the Fort Apache Reservation. We drove for the better part of a hundred miles through beautiful mountains, going up and down between 3000 and 7000 feet and back and forth through the vegetation zones associated with those altitudes.
We finally reached the town of Show Low. We didn’t actually enter the town, we turned just before it to go to Fool’s Hollow Lake Recreation Area for our campground for the night.
Our campground is nice but a little more citified than what we were looking for. We had hoped to go out into the National Forest tonight but directions didn’t match the map and we were ready to stop.
After supper I took a walk around the campground in the dark, looking at the sky. I didn’t see any shooting stars tonight but the Milky Way looks like a searchlight coming up from the southern horizon. Very cool!
We blogged and I read a copy of ‘Family Motor Coaching’ I picked up from the book-swap box at the after-hours sign-in station. I’m stunned to read ads for motor home ‘pads’ selling for $75-150K in resort areas. And the entry-level motor home featured this month costs $179K. So you spend $180K on a motorhome whose value plummets like a rock the moment you drive it off the lot and costs you $1000 to have the tire pressure checked. And to have a parking spot in a resort area, you also have to pay another $100K for the privilege of using a clubhouse and pool, perhaps even a golf course in the exclusive, gated “Motorcoach Resort”. And I guarantee you there’s an owner’s-association fee to pay that goes up every year. And the ‘pads’, like timeshares, are difficult to resell.
A fool and his money, say I.

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Tuesday, 13 October-

We awoke in our Motel 6 room this morning, both having done only ‘OK’ in the sleeping department. I didn’t get to sleep for awhile and both of us were awakened repeatedly starting at about 0500 by slamming doors. This particular Motel 6 appears to be popular with work crews judging by the number of utility trucks in the parking lot and apparently they like to go to work early.
Labashi cut my hair and we took care of phone calls, emails, and web ‘stuff’ we needed to get out of the way before getting back on the road.
After checking out we drove to the nearby Wal-mart to re-supply and had lunch at the Red Robin across the street.
We then began driving across Arizona toward Payson. I loved seeing the land and the different types of vegetation. Down low is sage and mesquite but it doesn’t take much elevation (or water) to introduce trees, yet the understory is wide open. Along a creek will be willows and cottonwoods and otherwise it will tend to be juniper and ponderosa pine.
Now we are starting to see various cactuses. We see some prickly pear (and a few appear to be in bloom!) and late in the day we started seeing the classic desert cactus, the saquaro.
After crossing through the Prescott Valley, we climbed and descended into Camp Verde and the Verde Valley, then crossed yet another range of mountains and finally hit Payson. We merely passed through, though, and then headed south toward Phoenix.
We were only a few miles outside of Payson when we began looking for prospective campsites. We found Teddy Roosevelt Lake recreation area and Cholla campground by 1700. The campground is a very nice Forest Service facility and is relatively empty. And campsites were only $6.
We had a spectacular sunset while Labashi was cooking supper. The clouds lit up a brilliant red against an electric-blue sky I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.
After supper I was fascinated by the stars coming out so quickly. The Milky Way was visible before it even got completely dark. I saw four shooting stars and two satellites in only about an hour of watching.
We spent the rest of the evening blogging and reading.

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2009-10-19T23:59:00.000-04:00

2009-10-12T23:59:00.000-04:00

Lassen Volcano National Park, Truckee and Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake, Yosemite (Tuolumne Meadow area), Bishop, Death Valley National Park, Las Vegas, Flagstaff, Sedona

(posted from Motel 6, Prescott, AZ)
(This post covers 4 – 12 October, 2009)

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Monday, 12 October-

This morning we drove on to Sedona (AZ). We parked in the Gallery District and a shopping village called Tlaquepaque, reportedly modeled after Guadalajara (I can’t verify—yet!). We enjoyed seeing and walking through all the shops and thought the village very well done and decidedly upscale. It was great to get some ‘art time’ for a change, i.e., to come in out of the forest and mountain and see what the Sedona community is doing.
After lunch we walked to Hozho, another cluster of galleries. We then decided to leave Sedona but as we were driving I saw Starbucks sign and drove up the hill to the Pinion Pointe shops. There we found even more galleries. There we met Lou Deserio, the owner of the Lou Deserio Photographic Gallery. We apparently caught him in a pensive mood. Lou treated us to a mini-seminar on the philosophical underpinnings of photography. He clearly loves his subject and the contents of the gallery amply demonstrate that love and commitment. When he says he has driven 1000 miles to take one photograph (not one image, one photographic idea), I absolutely believe him.
Here’s more on Lou: http://deseriogallery.com/artists-bio.htm . We’re very lucky to have met him.
We then drove south out of Sedona and on to the old copper-mining town of Jerome. What an incredible sight to see this town perched precariously on the mountainside.
We drove on to Prescott and checked in to a Motel 6, our first motel stay of the trip, now on Day 50. We had a good steak at the nearby Cattlemen’s Bar and Grille and spent the evening lounging and flipping channels while catching up on the web via wi-fi.

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Sunday, 11 October-

Today we left the Williams (AZ) area and drove Route 66 east through Flagstaff and then turned northeast toward Sunset Crater National Monument.
We had a beautiful day for a drive—mid-Seventies and ultra-blue sky. We enjoyed our stop at the Sunset Crater visitor center. It’s a small one but has very thorough exhibits. I really liked a u-drive-it animation of the eruption of Sunset Crater about 1000 years ago. This was a largish flat-screen display up on the wall with a console with buttons and a joystick. The joystick allowed me to visually ‘fly’ around the volcano to look at it at any angle as I used the other buttons to select what point in history I wanted played. I could see the landscape before the eruption or through the several-month-long process of the eruption. In this case, the eruption began with a nine-mile-long fissure erupting all along its length. Can you imagine seeing something like that?
After a few days, a cinder cone began forming and built up. Fire went 800 feet high. Smoke and ash rose 2-1/2 miles. Lava began flowing from the lower portion of the cone. This went on for months.
Today, the cone is a beautiful sight, looking very symmetrical and black with pumice. In the area of the cone the earth is black. As you drive further north, you begin seeing patches of red earth showing through where the pumice and ash has been blown away.
We then continued north to Wupatki, a large pueblo built in the mid-1100’s and abandoned less than 100 years later. Wupatki was inhabited by people now called the ‘Sinagua’. The word is Spanish for ‘without water’ and refers to the mountains of this area (the San Franciscos), which the Spanish called the Sin Aguas for the scarcity of water in them.
The Sinaqua people were largely farmers and weavers. There were thousands of them in this area, most living at the 6000-7000 foot altitude level of the high plains. This permitted them to find pinion nuts and edible grass seeds and to hunt rabbits and deer as well as to plant corn, squash, and Indian cotton in small, terraced fields. The growing conditions were much like today (very dry) so much of their time was spent in collecting water.
But their efforts were doomed by a change in climate. The area had been made habitable by a century of higher-than-average rain but the pendulum swung the other way. Years of drought made it impossible for the society to continue living here. They are thought to have moved to other areas of the southwest, most notably to areas now part of the Hopi Nation.
After our visit to Wupatki, we drove on to a nearby pueblo remnant called ‘The Citadel’. From there, we could see eight other pueblo remnants, giving us some idea of the density of the community. Our idea would probably be understated, however, given that many families lived around the pueblos but outside of them. But today all we can see are the crumbled stone walls of the pueblos.
We then drove back to Flagstaff and drove through a few streets to get an idea of the town. But we didn’t do it properly. We were wanting to move on to nearby Oak Creek Canyon so cut our Flagstaff visit a bit short.
Oak Creek Canyon lies just above Sedona and is considered part of the red-rock area famous for artists and (of all things) psychics. We had already had a long day so after checking out the beautiful Oak Creek Vista at the north end of the valley, we stopped at the first available campground for the night (Cave Springs).
While Labashi made supper I met our neighbor, Abraham Habib, a sixty-six-year-old gentleman from Phoenix. Abraham had retired from Bell Labs in New Jersey and moved to Phoenix. He ‘blundered into’ a job with a defense contractor. This weekend he had taken a trip to Sedona and on to Oak Creek Canyon and was sleeping in his car, a compact model. But he had a great attitude about it. He said he was expecting to be uncomfortable tonight but he has been uncomfortable before and probably will again so it’s no big deal to spend an uncomfortable night if that’s the price of enjoying the area.
Labashi and I then retired to our little van and watched two more episodes of ‘Planet Earth’ (‘Shallow Seas’ and ‘Seasonal Forests’).

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Saturday, 10 October-

We woke early in the BLM campground just west of Las Vegas, mainly because of slamming doors of campers. There must be something going on this morning because a larger-than-normal number of campers left at first light. (We later figured out what it is--- there’s a large bicycling event going on).
We drove around the outskirts of Las Vegas to get to our route southeast over Hoover Dam. Traffic was light at 0800 on this Saturday morning and we had an easy trip out of town and over the Dam. We only stopped briefly at an overlook along the way.
We continued to Kingman, then took US Route 66, a more scenic route than the concrete slab of US40. We spent much of the day working our way toward Flagstaff and decided on an early stop west of Flagstaff.
We found a nice little freebie campsite in the Kaibob National Forest outside of Williams. We had seen very cheap motel rooms in Kingman ($26 to $39) so thought we might splurge on a motel night in Williams but we had missed the fact that Williams is the jumping-off point for the Grand Canyon and it’s a weekend. The Motel 6 wanted $63 for a night (and didn’t have any available!) so we opted for the nearby national forest.
Our campsite is in a sunny spot under Ponderosa pines. With the mid-70s temperatures we spent the latter part of the afternoon lounging about in the sun. I went for a walk around 1630 up the forest road and jumped a large mule deer. After supper I walked up to the same area and this time saw six mule deer. The forest here is very like a city park. The underbrush and most of trees smaller than a foot in diameter have been cut down and there’s a thick layer of long pine needles. The Ponderosa pines still standing are a foot to four feet in diameter. The larger ones with their golden bark look wonderful.
After the sun set I sat out watching the pink-and-blue skies while Labashi worked away on her computer. As darkness fell I heard coyotes yelping off in the distance.

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Friday, 9 October-

This morning I checked under the van to see what the new noise is we acquired on the washboard-road last night. The rear muffler-pipe hanger broke off and will have to be welded or replaced but there’s no immediate issue.
We needed to clean out the cooler (it needs a cleaning every ten days or so). We took advantage of having a nice, big picnic table and a warm, sunny day to take most of the contents of the van out and clean everything, then re-stow. Then we moved to a shady spot on the visitor’s center parking lot and I crawled under the van and wired the tailpipe in place until I can replace the hanger bracket and muffler clamp.
We began driving out of Death Valley and stopped at beautiful Zabriskie Point for the view. Our next stop was the 3000-foot altitude marker, about 20 minutes east. Here was another spot the ranger had told us we could use for dispersed camping. It would have been great. It was an old industrial town site which had concrete pads for a series of what must have been mobile homes or work camps, now all stripped of the plumbing and electric infrastructure. But our purpose this morning was different. We washed our hair and had lunch there in the desert.
We then drove on toward Las Vegas, some 85 miles away. But once we hit civilization at Pahrump, we saw an Albertson’s grocery store (with a Starbucks) and took an hour to re-stock the ice-box and pantry.
A few miles west of Las Vegas we came to the Red Rocks Conservation Area and I recognized it from a business trip years ago. We took the scenic drive through the Red Rocks canyon before moving on to Vegas.
In Vegas we arrived on the north end of Las Vegas Boulevard about 1630. That put us right in rush hour (apparently) and we were able to only inch along in heavy traffic through the Las Vegas Strip. It actually worked out very well. We had plenty of time to look at everything (and all the people) as we ever-so-slowly made our way south.
After the airport we turned in to Town Center, a shopping area, and asked a security guy for a recommendation for a good burger. We followed his excellent advice and had burgers at Bar Louie. Mine was called ‘Angry Louie’ and had srirhachi sauce, (a very hot sauce) and a fried jalapeno. Labashi had the California burger.
After supper we walked through the upscale shopping village, enjoying the evening. Then we headed back up Las Vegas Boulevard, this time to see the lights. We had no interest in stopping to see any of the casinos or shows but I was glad Labashi finally got to see some of the famous landmarks.
Our trip up the Boulevard and out to our campsite on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands near Red Rocks was much quicker than the ride in. We spent the rest of the evening blogging and reading.

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Thursday, 8 October-

We left Bishop this morning, heading south. I liked the feel of little Bishop and wouldn’t mind spending a month or so there but Labashi says I’d get bored. I guess I’m thinking of it as a jumping off point for exploring the whole area rather than just the town. She may be right, though, once snows in Tioga Pass cut off access to Yosemite.
Today our goal was Death Valley National Park. We made it to the Stovepipe Wells Ranger Station by 1530 and realized we’d better hustle to see the visitor center at Furnace Creek. The drive in to Stovepipe Wells had been a spectacular one as we descended about 5000 feet, giving the brakes a good workout.
We had been used to the 50-degree daytime temperatures for the last few days but now had a hot-and-sunny 90. But, as they say, it’s a dry heat! I was surprised how comfortable we were. The air rushing in Mocha Joe’s air vents felt hot but we weren’t sweating.
The Furnace Creek Visitor Center is only another ½ hour so we made that in time to see the introductory slide show and tour the exhibits and bookstore. Furnace Creek sits at 190 feet below sea level but we wanted to go to the lowest point at 280 feet under, the lowest point in North America.
After closing the visitor’s center (and seeing a roadrunner) we headed for the Badwater Road in the very nice evening light. We were only a half-mile from the visitor’s center when we saw a coyote cross the road ahead. It seemed very furtive but once across the road it only travelled 20 yards or so before ignoring us and starting to dig furiously at something with its front paws. Afterwards it hung around the area, disappearing then re-appearing as it made its way though small arroyos paralleling the road. This was the best coyote sighting ever for us.
About 17 miles down is the Badwater pulloff, where we could take a walk on the salt pan at the 280-feet-below point. The evening air was moderating already and with the setting sun, it was a perfect evening.
We had talked to a ranger about dispersed camping, i.e., camping in the National Forest outside of a campground and she gave us a couple of options. One of them was to drive down a dirt road (West Rim Road) for 20 miles, then turn up in and go at least two miles from West Rim Road to get to an area outside the park boundary. She did say the last road is rough, more suited to a jeep.
We started down the West Rim Road just as the sun dropped behind the mountains. That road turned out to be a disappointment, mainly because of the miles and miles of washboarding.
Because of the shaking, rattling, and rolling of the van over the washboard road surface, we decided to take the second rather than the third side road and cut off 12 miles of driving (and 12 back tomorrow).
The road consisted of rocks from golf-ball to football size —no dirt between them--- and was only as wide as the van. We had to slow to a crawl. The two miles suddenly seemed a long way to go.
We did pretty well for most of the first mile. The received hitch hit bottom twice and I realized I had a problem. If I had to back down this road, the receiver would likely hang up on one of those rocks and we’d be stuck. I’d have to try to dig us out or find flatish rocks to build a ramp.
We ran out of luck at exactly the one-mile mark. A washout across the ‘road’ made it impossible to go on. And there was no room to turn around.
I walked down the road a bit and found a spot that was perhaps a foot wider than the rest of the road. I backed to that, then started the laborious process of making an eight-point turn, turning and backing, pulling up and turning, etc to gain perhaps a foot of progress each time. Eventually, we made it and breathed a great sigh of relief. Now the trick was to avoid getting hung up until we got down to the West Rim Road.
Going back down didn’t seem to be as hard as coming up and I was even able to avoid banging the receiver hitch. Finally, we made it back down to the washboards. I was never so happy to see a badly-washboarded—but passable—road.
By this time it was well after dark so we retreated to the Furnace Creek Campground for the night. We had a perfect evening. The temperature had now dropped to about 70 and we could see the Milky Way from our campsite picnic table. After supper we took a walk around the campground and found a good vantage point where there were no lights to interfere with sky-watching. Labashi almost immediately saw a very bright meteor. I just caught the end of that one but then saw two smaller ones. By the time we were ready to turn in, we had seen eight of them, two of exceptional brightness.

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Wednesday, 7 October-

The overnight temperature was a bit lower than I expected. It was 17.4 degrees when we woke. The heater didn’t want to start, apparently due to the low oxygen content of the air. Between our night-time exhalations and the higher altitude, the heater just doesn’t want to light. We had to open both side doors of the van and turn on the overhead vent fan to push the CO2 out. To keep the heater running we have to have the door open an inch or so and use a small fan to keep pushing the CO2 out. Even so the heater shuts off every five minutes. I’ve always been able to eventually get it running, it just takes time to get it going and then keep it going. But when it’s running it’s great and we use it to heat water for luxurious morning wash-ups. At least they seem luxurious on a cold morning.
After breakfast we drove another two miles deeper into the Inyo National Forest, just to see what’s there. A sign pointed toward Crooked Meadow so we wanted to see what it looked like. It was actually very pretty, particularly in the morning light. The meadow was surrounded by pines on three sides and the other side was large boulders and a cliff.
The Inyo National Forest has odd roads compared to many of our other National Forests. Where the road builders tend to build up the road and have fairly deep trenches lining the roads (to keep water from cutting through the road surface), the Inyo’s roads are the lowest surface and they are lined by mounds from a foot to two feet high. In a rainier climate this would be a formula for turning the road into a riverbed.
After Crooked Meadow we worked our way back down to the hard road. I was surprised to see that we had camped at 8850 feet altitude last night. No wonder the heater didn’t like the O2 level.
We drove back to Mono Lake and the visitor’s center, which specializes in Yosemite info. Armed with a park map and the knowledge that Tioga Pass was open for travel, we started up the hill. Years ago we had attempted to enter the east side of Yosemite from Tioga Pass but the road was closed by snow. Finally, we’ll get to see more than the Yosemite Valley.
The trip up to the Pass only took a half-hour and the grade wasn’t as bad as I had thought it might be. On top the view was wonderful, particularly the snow-dusted peaks. The road surface was good in our lane though we could see black ice patches in the other lane due to its being in the shade. But they were small enough patches to not be a worry.
We drove for 30 miles, enjoying every minute of it. At Tenaya Lake we turned around and parked along the lake to have lunch in the warmth of the sun and read the park info thoroughly.
We chose a hike back Lyell Canyon, leaving from the Dog Lake parking lot. This hike is on a section of trail where the John Muir Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail are the same. We hiked back in three and a half miles through very open pines and granite outcroppings, more or less following the creek upstream. We crossed two very nice open meadows which allowed us to see the mountaintops around us.
As is often the case, Labashi had an eye out for scat and tracks. The snow here and there allowed us to see several sets of small animal tracks (rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, mostly) plus deer and coyote. We also saw two instances of coyote scat, which Labashi of course had to examine closely and compare to her ‘Scats and Tracks of the Rocky Mountains’ book which she always has in her daypack.
We finished up the seven-mile hike a bit tired but we had had perfect weather for it so had gone further afield than originally intended. Back at the van we snacked to recover, then headed out by 1500.
We drove slowly as we headed back to Tioga Pass and stopped several times at pulloffs both in the park and on the way down the grade. We looked for bighorn sheep at one which told of 27 bighorns being released here in 1986. They are reported to be increasing in numbers but Labashi says she read at the visitor’s center that many of them have been taken by cougars and re-establishment efforts aren’t very successful.
Back down at Mono Lake we turned south and drove for an hour and a half to the town of Bishop. We had some re-supply shopping to do and we were only an hour and a half from dark so we stopped at Piute Palace Casino and made sure we could stay the night in the parking lot. We then did our shopping and had supper in the van at the county Isaac Walton League park before returning to the casino. We walked through the casino and checked out the restaurant. We were hoping to have a drink but this is apparently a dry casino so we decided we’ll have breakfast there tomorrow and gas up before leaving.
We spent the evening blogging, reading, and working on the crossword-puzzle book. It’s nice to be down under 5000 feet where the temperature is so pleasant this evening.

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Tuesday, 6 October-

We woke early this morning- just after dawn. The thermometer said the outside temperature was 24 degrees and our Buddy heater felt extra-good this morning.
After washup and breakfast we drove the ten miles to Lake Tahoe and started down the west side of the lake.
The northwest portion of the road circling the lake is jammed with houses and condos and ‘shopping villages’. We also saw many boats still tied to moorings and the lake was rough. Wind-driven waves from the East were rocking the boats about quite badly and we saw one ski boat in the process of sinking. The timing of the largish waves and the wind direction had apparently pushed the boat a bit sideways to a few waves and they began filling the boat. When we saw it the leeward quarter was under water and it was clear it wouldn’t be long till the boat went under. That will be a shock to the owner. He’ll probably think the boat was stolen until he notices the anchor buoy is also missing and realizes it was pulled down with the boat.
After about the half-way point down the lake, the drive gets really, really nice. We see the snow-capped peaks off to our right and the ultra-blue lake to our left. The pines seem to get bigger and bigger as you go south as do the granite boulders. At one point we were driving a ridge which was only seemed as wide as the road with sheer dropoffs on both sides.
As we neared South Lake Tahoe, we stopped at a US Forest Service visitor’s center. There we learned the kokanee salmon were spawning in the nearby Taylor Creek. Kokanee salmon are landlocked salmon. As a species, they were formerly sockeye salmon introduced into Lake Tahoe to provide a food source (their eggs, presumably) for trout. The salmon spawn in the streams and their young grow there, then move down to the lake and live there for two to four years before returning to the stream of their birth to spawn and die, repeating the cycle.
We walked the Rainbow Trail which took us to Taylor Creek and there we saw hundreds of salmon, bright red with their spawning colors. Most seemed to be content to mill around in the deeper pools. But a few were going through their spawning behavior and there were a small number of carcasses littering the stream bed, perhaps a dozen or so in the short stretch of stream we walked.
The trail also led us to a ‘stream profile’, which is an underground aquarium of sorts. Part of the stream is diverted past glass windows so we could see the salmon and trout from a different angle.
We then drove on in to South Lake Tahoe and we were both hungry for a good burger. We needed to stop at a pharmacy and while there I talked with a shopper in the parking lot, asking where we might find a good burger. She directed us to nearby Izzy’s Burger Spa.
Izzy’s turned out to be a great choice. We had char-broiled burgers festooned with all the fixin’s. We also ordered a salad but there were so many fixin’s on our burger, we saved the salad for supper.
We had thought of Lake Tahoe as a drive-through. We had been down the east side of the lake some 15 years ago as we returned from Reno and hadn’t been impressed. But the west side has a lot going for it. Once you get away from the developed areas, there are some really, really nice natural areas and the surrounding mountains are fantastic, especially with their light snow cover as we’re seeing them today.
After South Lake Tahoe, we headed away from the lake via Route 89. This turned out to be a fantastic choice. We climbed up from the lake to Luther Pass with incredible views on all sides. At Luther Pass we saw the aftermath of a motorcycle accident which had apparently just happened. Someone standing on the road gave us the ‘slow down!’ signal as well as motioning to us to drive in the opposite lane. We first noticed a motorcycle on its side but then saw several people gathered around the motorcyclist on the ground. He was lying down, face up and conscious and his face was bloody. He had a big gash over his left eye and perhaps another on the forehead.
We pulled off just beyond the accident. There were three or four cars off the road and a half-dozen people around the downed motorcyclist. I thought we might have to use my SPOT satellite messenger to call 911 but saw that nobody was running to the nearby houses or business to make a call so most likely that call had already been made. Shortly we saw an ambulance approaching so we moved on.
We continued down 89 to its end. That took us across some of the most incredible scenery we’ve ever seen. Perhaps it’s the dusting of snow on the mountaintops but they were incredible. We had crossed Luther Pass and then Monitor Pass (around 8000 feet) and then took the long, very twisty road down from the Pass to Route 395 very near to the Nevada state line.
We turned south on 395 near Topaz Lake and passed through the very interesting Antelope Valley for the next several hours.
Finally, we hit Mono Lake which is just east of Yosemite National Park. We spent an interesting hour at the Forest Service visitor center for Mono Lake and learned about the formation of tufa columns in the lake. They’re in a sense petrified springs. They are formed in the heavily-salted lake where fresh water springs mix with the mineralized waters of the lake. The mixing forms calcium carbonate (limestone) columns underwater. The lake levels drop as the season goes on, revealing the odd whitish columns.
Mono Lake is three times as salty as the Pacific Ocean. It has five main inlets and no outlets. Evaporation and diversion of its freshwater inlets by the city of Los Angeles has caused the level of the lake to fall but recent court cases have re-established the lake’s rights to the inlet water and it’s now in the process of recovering.
Mono Lake is too salty for fish but does support a very large population of brine shrimp, which color the lake with streaks of red in mid-summer.
I had inquired about local dispersed camping at the visitor’s center and was directed to the Inyo National Forest nearby. We first had supper at a vista point overlooking the lake, then drove well into the Forest, finally finding a nice spot as darkness fell.
We spent the rest of the evening blogging and reading. The temperature is around 41 this evening and expected to drop to the mid-Twenties. We’re at 7000 feet, which will affect our little propane heater in the morning, causing it to shut off every few minutes.

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Monday, 5 October-

This morning we woke to the sound of a sawmill sawing logs in nearby Greenville. After breakfast we continued on down 89 to SR 70 and the Feather River Valley. This is yet another scenic route, following part of the historic Beckworth Trail. I was just reading about Jim Beckworth/Beckwourth last night. He was a mountain man in the fur-trapping days, then when the beaver ran out he pioneered an emigrant trail cutoff and set up a trading station to supply the emigrant wagon trains headed for the gold fields after 1849.
We followed the Feather River for the better part of 100 miles as it descended to the Sacramento Valley and Oroville. I’m not sure I’ve seen a ‘twistier’ road. The river runs between extremely steep mountains and the road seems to carve out just enough space for cars. Along this corridor the ‘49ers took out millions of dollars-worth of gold but today the only remnant we saw is a rock crusher moved to a road-side pulloff for tourists to admire.
By the time we reached a vista-point overlooking the Sacramento Valley we were a little dizzy from all the sharp switchbacks. But there it was— Shangri-La for the emigrants. To our eye (as to many of the emigrants), the valley looked dry and burnt. But as we descended to Oroville, we began seeing orchards and crops. And where plowed up, the dirt now looked brown and rich-looking rather than sand-yellow and covered in sage. As we drove through the valley, we saw it was indeed an agricultural paradise (thanks to irrigation).
In Oroville we tried the library for wi-fi but it’s closed on Mondays. We tried the visitor’s center at the Chamber of Commerce downtown and lucked out; they had a very good wi-fi connection. We spent a couple of hours in the parking lot, catching up on email, posting the blog, and having a nice, leisurely lunch.
Oroville, by the way, is where Ishi came out of the mountains in the early 1900’s. Ishi, you may remember, was the last of his tribe. He was about 50 years old and had been wandering the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in this area for four years alone before descending to the white settlements. A professor from Berkeley learned of him from a news article and studied him, his language, and culture until his death from tuberculosis three years later.
We then continued on down SR 70 to the SR 20 turnoff at Maryville and headed east. In the Sacramento Valley the temperature was in the Seventies while it had been in the Fifties and below in the mountains. But as we drove east we began climbing into the Tahoe National Forest.
Our Route 20 eventually put us on to I-80 East, not far from Donner Pass. The Pass certainly looked ominous today. The mountaintops are dusted in snow and we have a low cloud-cover. As we dropped down off of Donner Pass via I-80 (on the roughest interstate highway segment we’ve ever been on), we needed gas so stopped at Truckee. We briefly stopped at the Emigrant Memorial State Park but the museum had closed by then. The state park is sited near where the Donner party was trapped so tragically in 1846. We realized we could follow the road right up the canyon past Donner Lake and up through Donner Pass.
We drove up through the Pass to the ski areas on top, stopping at several pulloffs to read historical plaques and turning at the Sugar Bowl ski lot, then retracing our drive down through the canyon.
We then hit the local stores in Truckee to refresh supplies and realized it’s getting late. Our AAA camping guide listed a Corps of Engineers lake (Martis Creek Lake) with a campground within five miles and it happens to be one of the few campgrounds still open this late in the year (and it closes in ten days). I’m not so happy to pay $16 for a campground with vault toilets and no showers but it’s getting too late and the choices too thin to try to do better tonight.
After supper we blogged and read. About 2030 we heard coyotes howling for a few minutes and I caught some of it on the video camera’s soundtrack.
We’re at 6000 feet and the outside temp this evening is 43. It snowed about an inch last night on Donner Pass.

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Sunday, 4 October-

After a surprisingly quiet night at Dusty Campground in the National Forest we continued south, winding our way into the California gold country. As I’ve been reading more of the emigrant diaries, I realized the latter chapters cover not only the main Oregon Trail going into Oregon but also the trails into northern and central California. We will be crossing the Beckworth, Noble, Lassen, Donner, and Carson Trails as we work our way south. We love it!
Today, though, we spent most of the day getting to and then enjoying Lassen Volcanic National Park. We had thought this a drive-through, thinking we had seen it years ago. But when we saw the Loomis visitor’s center, we realized we hadn’t seen the park at all and remembered that we had gotten as far as Mount Shasta on that trip but Lassen was still snowed in and we had turned back.
We were very impressed by the Loomis Museum and it was there we realized this wasn’t just a drive through lava fields. Lassen is the only place in the world with examples of the four types of volcanoes (shield, plug-dome, cinder-cone, and composite) within its boundaries. Our snowy drive climbed to 8500 feet, where we parked for a 3-mile hike to Bumpas’s Hell and back. Though the temperature was near freezing and we had several snow showers while hiking, I’d say this hike was the best of the trip so far. We had great views right in the parking lot and then took a beautiful side-hill trail skirting the valley and crossing over into the next valley, where we descended to the steam vents, mud-pots, and fumaroles of Bumpas’s Hell, a very active geological wonderland. Like Yellowstone, this is an area where you definitely want to stay on the boardwalk over the geological features. Nineteenth-century guide E. R. Bumpas was the first known white man to lose a leg to breaking through the thin-but-substantial-looking crust over the bubbling mudpots and steaming waters but a sign warns that each year a tourist or two makes the same mistake, even now.
As we returned to the van it started snowing in earnest and that snow appeared to be laying but we only had to descend a few hundred feet to find it melted on the roadway. We wound our way down to the new southwest-entrance visitor center for a short visit before departing the park late in the afternoon.
We began looking for camping for the night as we continued down Route 89. We found Greenville campground about a half-hour before dark and were surprised to find it was closed-but-not-closed. The sign at the iron ranger said the campground is closed but then said no services are provided. Another sign said camping is permitted (in designated spaces only). We took that to mean the campground’s pit toilets are closed and there’s no trash service but we could camp there just like any other dispersed-camping site in the national forest. We picked out a nice campsite and settled in for the night.
After supper we watched two more episodes of the ‘Planet Earth’ series (‘Great Plains’ and ‘Jungles’).

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2009-10-03T23:59:00.000-04:00

Redmond, Sisters, and Bend (OR) ; Newberry Volcanic National Monument ; On to California

(posted at Oroville, CA Chamber of Commerce)
(This post covers 1-3 October, 2009)

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Saturday, 3 October-

We had about an inch of snow overnight. It was just enough to make our campsite and the surrounding forest very pretty.
After breakfast we drove back to the hard road then turned to Newberry Volcanic National Monument. The road was snow-dusted but melting as the sun climbed above the horizon.
We drove the ten miles or so to the Pauline Lakes within the Monument. These two lakes are inside the caldera of what was formerly a volcano. The temperature was around the freezing mark and the wind was blowing about 10 knots so we were surprised to see a few fishing boats on the East lake. Otherwise, the park was deserted. The visitor center is closed for the season as are several of the park’s campgrounds. We’re lucky to have found our little campground in the National Forest since the ones at the National Monument were $10 more per night.
We explored each of the turnoffs in the National Monument, making the only tracks in the snow for most of them. The surprising one was the Big Obsidian Flow. We saw a massive jumble of volcanic rock as we approached and then the sun hit it at a glancing angle and we saw the flashing reflection of obsidian, the glass-like mineral the Indians traded for centuries and made into cutting implements. There were pickup-size blocks of it throughout the jumble.
We worked our way back out to Highway 97 and turned south. We drove to Crater Lake National Park, entering by its North entrance.
I don’t know what I expected but we were floored by Crater Lake. Our approach from the north was a great setup for the grand reveal. Our road climbed and we took turn after turn with nice views but then we topped out at the rim and there was Crater Lake in all its glory. I think I had expected to be circling the lake at or perhaps a bit above the surface level of the lake. But to climb to the top of the caldera rim and look over is fantastic.
After a few stops at pulloffs to admire the lake, we drove on to the Crater Lake Lodge as it was nearing lunch time and we figured the lodge would have a great view. We had a long lunch with a hot toddy for me and a glass of wine for Labashi while we admired the view. We didn’t tarry too long, though, as snow was predicted for this afternoon and a few flakes were starting to fly.
We descended to the main visitor’s center and took in the orientation movie and then headed out of the park. Along the way we saw fumaroles, which are conically-shaped pillars of rock formed by the volcano gases escaping vent holes. These are buried at the time the volcano is still active but these were revealed by the erosive action of Annie Creek. So what you see is the typical valley cut but a stream or river but here and there stand stone pillars, looking like giant upside-down sugar-cones.
We then drove on for a few hours to the town of Klamath Falls, arriving about 1530. We checked a few bookstores in our search for a map book of California since we’re about to leave Oregon. But no luck. The local outdoors shop had sold their last one this morning.
We drove on down 97 and crossed the border, looking at Mount Shasta off in the distance. Actually, we couldn’t see most of the mountain; it was in cloud.
We continued on to Weed and Mt Shasta, then turned eastward. This route in effect went around Mt. Shasta. And as we drove east, we came to a ‘vista point’ which we thought was going to give us a view ahead but instead turned us around to a beautiful view of Mount Shasta. It was clear on this side. What a treat! We had a full moon coming up over the horizon to our East and a great view of snow-covered Mount Shasta to our north-west. Wow!
We continued on east on Route 89, driving for mile after mile of straight-as-an-arrow road through tall pines and National Forest in the golden hour of sunset. Just before dark we reached our goal, a state park. We picked this one in order to have showers tomorrow morning. But it was not to be. The California State Parks are now charging $30 for a campsite, including tent sites. And showers cost extra. We left in disgust.
We had passed a National Forest campground only a mile or so back so we drove to that and took the last remaining site, this one for $6. It’s beside the lake and actually quite nice but doesn’t have a shower house.
Labashi made excellent soft-tacos for supper then we blogged and read the evening away.

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Friday, 2 October-

Today we needed to contact the folks back home and send an email first thing. The library wouldn’t open until 1000 so we went to a Dutch Coffee kiosk we found on my wi-fi directory. We used Skype to make the phone calls and they were ultra-clear.
Today’s goal was to tour a scenic route in the Western Cascades, west of Sisters. As we left Redmond, we noticed that the deciduous trees suddenly stopped and the Ponderosa pines began. Sisters is a neat little town. We happened upon a nice little air park (as in ‘aviation park’) development just north of town. That would be the way to go. Build your house and personal hangar and keep your airplane next to the runway of a small private runway. What a great setup for weekending while you’re working in the city, then retirement later on.
I really, really like this area. Redmond is a clean, modern little high-desert town of 25,000. Sisters is even smaller (at around 1000) but is very nice. Bend is a small city of 80,000 about 15 miles from either while Eugene is 100 miles. West of the valley are the Cascades and National Forest lands surround it. We really liked the people we’ve met in the area (mostly at the library) and it ‘feels’ right.
Our scenic tour led west toward Eugene, then south toward Belknap Springs, then turned back east across route 242, a very narrow historic highway which passes through lava beds at the top of the mountain on its way back to Sisters.
Out of Sisters we turned toward Bend and only passed through a small portion of the city. We were hurrying a bit to go see the High Desert Museum. We arrived a bit late in the day and only had an hour at the museum but that’s fine, we’ve seen many museums and we’re familiar with the stories of the area.
After the museum we continued south, back into the Deschutes National Forest. We found a small Forest Service campground at McKay’s Crossing and were surprised to have it to ourselves. The sites are only $5 and given this is the start of the weekend, we thought we might have company.
We were only an hour before dark but took a walk on the nearby Peter Skene Ogden Trail until dark.
Labashi then made a scrumptious sausage-apple-mushroom stir fry and we had goat-cheese on our salad. We’re living like kings out here!
After supper we blogged and read. It’s a colder evening (35 degrees) here at 4000 feet but we have a full moon shining down on us in our pretty little stream-side campsite and we’re snug and warm in Mocha Joe.

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Thursday, 1 October –

Today was a stay-in-town day. After breakfast we shopped for a few supplies at Wal-mart and Albertson’s, then spent the rest of the morning at the Redmond Library, catching up.
After lunch we decided it was time to do the laundry, our first of the trip. We’re 39 days into the trip so it’s about time.
After we sorted and pre-treated the clothes and lugged them in to the Laundromat, Labashi sat about monitoring the washing and drying while I cleaned out the van. The whole process took us a couple of hours but it was well worth it later that night to crawl into newly-washed sheets and covers.
We finished up the laundry around 1700 and then went back to the very nice library for the evening. I had been spending all my time on the computer in the morning so now it was time to read a few newspapers and magazines.
The library closed at 2000 so at that point we returned to the brand-new Wal-mart for the night. We both felt like a bit of a walk so spent an hour in the Wal-mart. It’s one of the new open design Wal-mart layouts and is ultra-clean and very nice.
We turned in a bit early and read for an hour or so before sleeping. I’m reading a collection of diary accounts of Oregon Trail emigrants and love it.

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2009-09-30T23:59:00.000-04:00

Sol Duc Valley ; Hurricane Ridge ; Visit to ‘Alaskan’-brand truck camper factory ; Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood

(posted from Redmond (OR) Public Library)
(This post covers 28 – 30 September, 2009)

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Wednesday, 30 September-

We awoke to a very foggy morning. Our campground had great hot showers, though, and Labashi took advantage of it, lingering a long, long time. The shower building had no heat but she took our little propane heater in and that made it nice and toasty.
Today was to be a day of mostly driving as we leave Washington and head into central Oregon. At Portland, we turned East, retracing part of the Barlow Toll Road portion of the Oregon Trail.
The highlight of our day was a trip to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. I’m not a big fan of fancy lodges but this one was a gem. It had been built as a WPA project during the Depression—a familiar story. But this one’s different. This project had true artists and craftsmen working on it. It’s built in a Cascadian style and it’s spectacular. What’s great about it is it was left alone. For example, the craftsmen built the chairs in the 30’s and those are still the chairs used throughout the lodge. And they had a master blacksmith whose work is the best I’ve seen anywhere.
And did I mention the snow? We hit snow on the way up and by the time we reached the lodge we had six inches of it on all sides and the lodge was just beautiful.
We did have a problem parking the van, though. The lower parking lot where we day-visitors had to park was covered in six inches of snow. It was a very wet, easily packed snow on a sloping parking lot. As soon as I entered it the steering went away and the van started sliding. I slowly worked my way to a parking spot and found myself sliding toward a pickup and camper unit, completely helpless. The slide stopped in time but I couldn’t steer past it on either side. The snow had packed into little ice wedges under the front tires and caused them to lose traction. I thought we were going to have to wait until the truck owner returned and pulled out of our way but I found I was able to back up. I then very carefully parked downhill from him, hoping the strengthening wind wouldn’t cause the van to start sliding again.
We walked up to the lodge in the blowing snow and found our way inside. We watched a video about the history of the lodge and then wandered about, marveling at the art and craftsmanship evident all around us. I was particularly astonished at the detail in the ironwork.
We checked the restaurant but it was closing for the afternoon and we were directed to the bar. There we had a completely sinful apple-caramel tart and a ‘Hot Buttered Temptation’, made with Jamaican dark rum, dark cocoa, and Timberline’s butter-mix. Both were fabulous.
While enjoying our treats we watched the snow come down pretty hard so we thought we’d better get down the mountain before it gets any later and things ice up. Our trip down the mountain was a breeze but we did pass the cinder truck on its way up so the freeze wasn’t far away.
We drove on down Route 26 in a light rain for a half hour but then saw blue sky ahead. Remarkably, we soon emerged on the rain-shadow side of the mountain. We had just left snow and the emerald green of mossy-strewn giant pines and just a few miles later we were seeing tall dead grasses and then sagebrush desert. What an incredible change. We had learned that it rains up to 200 inches on the rainy side and less than 20 on the dry side but that didn’t prepare us for seeing the stark difference in such a short distance.
We drove on to the town of Redmond where we found a nice, new Wal-mart to welcome us for the night. We rented a movie from the Redbox and settled in.

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Tuesday, 29 September-

Today we drove to the top of Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. The road to the Ridge provided wonderful views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. On the far left we could clearly see the city of Victoria, British Columbia, then the San Juan Islands, then Bellingham, Washington, the famous ferryboat location for ferries up Alaska’s Inside Passage.
Just as we reached Hurricane Ridge we transitioned into the snow-zone. It had snowed up here last night and we had a fairy-land of evergreens, all standing in rank after rank and dusted in brand-new snow. Fortunately, the black asphalt road had held enough heat to melt the snow and we didn’t have to worry about ice on the road.
We checked out the visitor’s center and noticed the cloud level coming down. We were soon in a snow squall but it was a short one, only lasting 20 minutes or so. We drove on past the center to the end of the road, which serves as a trailhead. There we turned back and found a nice overlook for lunch. We loved having lunch in our nice, warm van while watching the interplay of sun, cloud, and snow in the mountain peaks around us.
After lunch we made the decision that we were finished with Olympic National Park. The snow had turned to rain as we descended back to Port Angeles and we took 101 south, bound for Oregon.
But first I had unfinished business in Chehalis. Remember our ill-fated visit to the Alaskan truck-camper dealership in Fort Collins? Well, the campers are built in Chehalis, Washington and that’s right along I-5 on our return route to Oregon.
We spent much of the afternoon following 101 down the eastern side of Olympic National Park toward I-5 and Chehalis. Route 101 follows the Hood Canal for miles and miles so we had scenic road the whole way.
We found the truck-camper factory with only a little trouble but as I saw the building my heart sank. It appeared to be closed and I could see a notice on the door. That notice turned out to be the business hours and they were indeed open. It just isn’t a fancy operation.
Inside I met Brian, who immediately offered me a tour of the shop. Inside the shop, things looked much better. I could see a half-dozen campers in various stages of construction. Brian took me to an 8-1/2 footer and began explaining features. I was in heaven. FINALLY- I get to see the inside of not only one Alaskan camper, but all of the models.
My first reaction was very positive. I LOVE the large, screened side-windows and the various storage locations. But it’s still pretty heavy. The gross weight for a smaller-size unit was 1740 pounds dry and that seems like a lot. I’d definitely need a ¾ ton pickup. Brian also mentioned some model changes which I’d want to be aware of if buying an older unit. Prior to 1998, the cabinets were higher and partially blocked the view out the right-side window. And I believe he said is was 2002 when they widened the camper by four inches.
I was a bit put off by the size of the ‘cassette’ (the lower half) of the porta-potty. I don’t believe it has as much capacity as our current unit and sometimes that doesn’t seem like it lasts very long. Also, the sink simply drains to a fitting on the outside of the camper. You place a 5-gallon water-carrier on the ground outside the unit and connect a hose to the fitting. That seems ok in operation (and I think I’d like it better than having a grey-water tank in the unit) but I don’t think I’d like finding a place to empty it each morning.
As we were closing out our visit and starting to say our goodbyes, I noticed a smaller unit in the corner and asked Brian about it. It turns out to be a unit they’re experimenting with. The idea was to make a smaller camper suitable for the somewhat-light Toyota Tacoma pickup. This ‘mini’ camper top still goes up and down but instead of a cab-over double-bed, it has two bunks, one on each side. And when you sleep on the bunk your feet go into an opening as wide as the bunk and about 18 inches deep. This arrangement immediately appealed to me. The side bunks allow plenty of sitting space with a good view out the extra-large Hahn windows and you could simply roll the bedding up into the foot-space during the daytime. The fridge is between the bunks toward the cab end of the camper and a countertop containing a stove is above. There’s a space under the bunk for the porta-potty and the furnace is also under there. Brian said they’re selling that unit for $13,900 which is about 10K less than the cost of the larger units. All-in-all, if I were doing a truck camper solution I’d go with the mini. This also tells me a bunk-style arrangement in Mocha Joe might also work. I’ll have to do some mock-ups with cardboard or light plywood to try it.
After our visit to the Alaskan shop, we drove to nearby Lewis and Clark State Park for the night. We spent the evening blogging and watched two episodes of ‘Planet Earth’ (‘Deserts’ and ‘Ice Worlds’). Good stuff!

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Monday, 28 September-

This morning we left the Hoh Rainforest and nearly ran into an elk as we left the campground and then saw another within a mile. It wasn’t really close but I do love seeing elk browsing in the morning. There’s something peaceful and ‘right’ about seeing elk in the early-morning light.
After leaving the Hoh, we drove north up 101 to the Sol Duc Valley (still part of Olympic National Park). If you look at a map of Olympic National Park, it turns out the Sol Duc is surprisingly close to the Hoh Valley—just separated by a mountain!
We had heard the salmon had been running at the Sol Duc salmon cascades but we found none there. We did learn, however, that the coho salmon in this stream are ‘summer coho’. They swim up the nearly-empty Sol Duc River in July and August and hang around in the pools until late September before beginning to spawn.
In hopes of spotting some salmon we drove to the trailhead at the end of the Sol Duc Valley Road and took a walk to the falls, then started down Lover’s Lane Trail. We saw several very nice waterfalls but no salmon at all.
After returning to the van we moved on to Port Angeles. We’ve been away from civilization for a few days so needed to connect up and then stock up. We spent a few hours in the very nice Port Angeles Library for the former, then hit the local Albertson’s and Safeway to re-stock.
As it neared dark we checked the local Wal-mart to see if we could stay overnight in the parking lot and once we found it was ok, we drove to nearby Traylor’s Restaurant for a filet mignon and salad.
After supper we found our spot in the Wal-mart lot and watched a movie we had picked up from the Redbox DVD-vending machine in the Wal-mart. We watched ‘Sunshine Cleaning’, a quirky but good movie about a single mom who needs to make good money so goes into the crime-scene cleanup business with her sister.

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2009-09-27T23:59:00.000-04:00

Portland ; Astoria ; Western Washington ; Olympic National Park

(Posted from Port Angeles Library)
(This post covers 23 – 27 September, 2009)

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Sunday, 27 September –

Today we needed a hike. We both happened to wake early (before dawn) so went ahead and prepped for the day and an early start. We drove over to the visitor’s center and first walked the two short trails there. One is the Magnificent Mosses Trail which climbs to a plateau filled with moss-draped trees. The other, the Spruces Trail, wound in and out around gigantic red and sitka spruces and Western hemlocks.
After the first trail we returned to the visitor’s center restroom area. I was rudely interrupted in my visit to the men’s room by Labashi, who yelled in the door ‘Get out here! I need the camera!”. Outside I found two elk cows and a magnificent bull, the latter keeping a very close eye on us.
On the Spruces Trail we came upon another bull elk, this a younger one we had heard bugling (we think) earlier in our walk. What a sight he made, as he glided along among the giant trees and the green, green bushes.
We had a break back at the van, then began hiking the Hoh River Trail. I had expected it to be somewhat less scenic than the other trails since it serves as the access trail for the serious backpackers. But it too was like a garden. We lasted about an hour outbound before having a snack to fuel our walk back.
We made it back to the van by early afternoon and still had an ultra-clear 72-degree day to enjoy more. We elected instead to find a nice, sunny campsite in the campground and relax the day away.
We read and I napped a bit to recover, then I went for another walk, this time re-doing the Spruces Trail in the early-evening light. When I returned we watched the sun set from our campsite, and immediately noticed a drop in temperature as the sun fell behind the mountain.
We buttoned up the van for the night and watched two episodes of ‘Planet Earth’ (‘Freshwater’ and ‘Caves’) on Labashi’s laptop before retiring.
Night-time temperatures are now around 43 degrees but daytimes are perfect in the low-70’s. We’ve not had any rain so far but rain is due tomorrow afternoon.

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Saturday, 26 September-

This morning we took a walk among the giant trees at Campbell Tree Grove. The Pete’s Creek Trail follows the creek for miles and would make a great horsepacking trip.
Once we got back to the main road we soon turned off again, this time to the Quinault National Fish Hatchery. A volunteer gave us a great tour of the hatchery and we learned quite a bit. In this case we’re talking steelhead, coho, and Chinook salmon. The tanks are kept very clean to keep the fingerlings and eggs disease-free. Everything is ready for this year’s run but the creek is far too low at the moment. It will take a week of rain to get the creek up enough for the run to begin. We are hearing of runs beginning on other creeks, though.
After lunch we headed north on 101 again, this time to the Quinault Lake area. We walked the Quinault Rainforest Nature Trail and saw more giant trees (and realized how nice our campground was last night!).
We followed the south shore of the lake and then the river for about 15 miles before finding a road to cross to the other side, then followed the north shore line back to the main road, all the time in beautiful forest.
We continued north toward the Hoh Rainforest but had a long stretch of Washington beaches before turning inland. We had supper at a beach overlook, then drove on to the Hoh Rainforest campground, arriving about an hour before dark. We began looking for a campsite in one loop but our way was blocked by a Roosevelt elk, browsing the campground foliage. We backed out and chose the other loop and settled in for the evening.
I took a walk through the campground loops to look at the camping rigs (nothing new or interesting, though) and met a couple from Homer, Alaska. We chatted quite a while about Alaska as we walked back to our sites.
Labashi and I spent the rest of the evening reading and blogging.

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Friday, 25 September-

After breakfast and showers this morning we drove into Astoria to cross the Columbia into Washington.
We spent the morning hitting several Lewis-and-Clark sites. First was Dismal Nitch, where, in November 1805 the Corps of Discovery was pinned down in a small cove by a Pacific storm. They were along a steep shore and the rain and high winds pinned them down for six days. They were soaked and miserable the whole time and had little to eat.
We briefly stopped at Station Camp, their camp on the Pacific Ocean, then went on to Cape Disappointment State Park. There we spent a few hours in the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center before taking a short walk on the Cape Disappointment Trail.
We then drove north for a few hours (and saw our first black bear of the trip along the way) to a Wal-mart at Aberdeen. This Wal-mart said it would be ok for us to stay in the lot but it was very busy and noisy so we pressed on.
We found a Forest Service campground listed under Humptulips, Washington but it was actually a 30 mile drive to reach it. We eventually found ourselves among a stand of very large trees, arriving (once again) just before dark. This campground is in the Olympic National Forest and is called the Campbell Tree Grove Campground. This one is amazing. The trees must be 25 feet around and two hundred feet high. We parked beside a tree that’s wider (a LOT wider) than our van. The ground is covered in ferns and the whole forest floor is a very lush green with a thick cushion of big, brown pine needles.
After supper I worked a crossword puzzle and then blogged while Labashi read.

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Thursday, 24 September-

After a ‘you-could-have-heard-a-pin-drop’ night at Gnat Creek, we drove on in to Astoria. We spent a few hours going through the very nice and thorough Columbia River Maritime Museum. I was particularly impressed by footage of Coast Guard training on the Columbia River Bar. Across the river is the Coast Guard’s Cape Disappointment Station and from there they train the nation’s maritime forces in operating in extremely rough water, using 48-foot self-righting rescue craft. When the Columbia’s outflow meets the rising tide, steep waves result. Now add high winds and perhaps some extra wave energy from a Pacific storm and you have massive, confused waves at the river mouth.
We then drove to the top of a hill to the Astoria Tower and climbed the 164 steps to the top. That gave us a 360-degree view of the area.
We then drove a few miles south of Astoria to Fort Clatsop, a re-creation of Lewis and Clark’s winter camp in 1805-06. In 2006 we had visited Fort Mandan, their winter camp in North Dakota in 1804-05 and the buildings were (of course) very similar in design.
I was happy to find some charcloth and linen-tow tinder as well as a tin box suitable for making more charcloth. I had bought a strike-a-light and flint at the Whitman Mission so now I have the ingredients to make fire as the pioneers did. We’ll see how that goes…
We then drove to Camp Stevens State Park for the night. We picked out a nice campsite, then went to the South Jetty where a platform gave us a view of the ocean and the Columbia River mouth. We had supper in the parking lot while watching the sun set.
In camp, I spent the evening reading today’s edition of ‘The Oregonian’ newspaper, then a few pages of my book about the Oregon Trail diaries.

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Wednesday, 23 September-

We took a short walk this morning from our campsite at Clackamette Park in Oregon City. Just before dark last night I had taken this walk and wanted to show Labashi what I had found.
Just south of Clackamette Park is Jon Storm Park, which is literally on Abernethy Green and the Williamette River (I called it ‘Abernethy Commons’ yesterday). This is the spot where the emigrants called their journey finished. Yesterday we had been at the End of the Trail Interpretive Center where we had seen the memorial stone which declared Abernethy Green the end of the trail. It’s just across the highway.
Nearby our location this morning is the stump of the Abernethy Elm, which was planted by Anne Pope, the wife of William Abernethy. The elm stump is very near the I-205 overpass bridge but a display in Jon Storm Park has a photo of the elm taken in 1970 as well as a detailed drawing of the Abernethy’s home.
Off in the middle distance we could see the Falls of Willamette, which were well known to the emigrants.
We then decided to get a sense of Portland. We took a tourist map which identified several neighborhoods (The Pearl District, Nob Hill, and the Mississippi District) and drove through them. The Pearl District mostly consists of old warehouses coverted or being converted to trendy shops and condos. Nob Hill is a wonderfully diverse neighborhood of many shops and restaurants and was crowded today while the Mississippi District is an area where do-it-yourselfers are re-habbing older homes and establishing a new neighborhood.
We then used the GPS to find a library and chose the Multnomah Regional Library for our wi-fi connection. We spent a few hours catching up with mail and posting the blog and reading the newspapers.
When we came out of the library we were parked in a Whole Foods lot so checked it out (Can you say ‘expensive’ ??? Labashi bought one organic heirloom tomato and it was $3.14!)
We had an afternoon snack in the parking lot, then headed out of town. We took US30 west through St. Helens, Rainier, and on toward Astoria, enjoying the occasional views of the Columbia River off to the north.
We stopped at Bradley State Park, a picnic area and viewpoint, for a short break, then blundered onto a sign for Gnat Creek campground pointing back a dirt road into the Clatsop State Forest. We couldn’t resist checking it out and found a neat little campground along the creek with $5 sites. Since we were less than an hour before dark, we decided to go ahead and stay the night and Labashi soon had supper underway.
We spent the evening working crossword puzzles and blogging (me) and Labashi worked on an email detailing our trip to friends and family.
We both liked the look of Portland and would like to have had time to explore it in depth. I don’t quite know how to do that. I’d love to take a three-month sublet on Nob Hill or the Pearl District and really get to know the town.

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2009-09-22T23:59:00.000-04:00

Columbia Gorge Discovery Center ; Vista House ; Fort Vancouver ; End of the Trail Interpretive Center ; End of the Oregon Trail for us

(posted from Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR)
(This post covers 21-22 September, 2009)

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Tuesday, 22 September-

We had a windy night last night in our Ainsworth State Park campsite. The site wasn’t far from I-84 and we had quite a bit of road noise through the evening but it tapered off around bed-time. Being the transportation cooridor the Columbia Gorge is, we also had trains come through at least every hour but we were just far enough away that we only woke a few times.
The wind was a different story. About midnight something hard hit the van roof and woke us up. In the morning light I saw it was a branch about an inch thick and three feet long. Fortunately, the wind was in the treetops so it didn’t shake the van as had our windstorm in Chadron, Nebraska. But we did hear pine cones and smaller branches hit the roof a dozen times in the night.
We got a late start this morning, perhaps because of the windy night or perhaps because the sunlight doesn’t penetrate the thick canopy until later. In any case it was 0930 before we got underway.
We took Old 30, the highly scenic route, as we continued downriver. We stopped at the locally-famous Vista House and had a spectacular vista but the winds were blowing a consistent 60 miles per hour with gusts to about 75. Vista House was originally built in 1916 and was refurbished and re-dedicated in 2006. It sits atop Crown Point and has a commanding view of the Columbia. The lower level is a nice little museum which tells the story of the building of America’s first scenic road here in the Gorge.
We then took the many turns of the scenic road all the way to its conclusion at Troutdale. Once out of the Gorge proper, the area reminds me a lot of home. There are many small farms selling their produce and fruits along the road and they are interspersed with long stretches of woodlands. It’s a very pleasant look but I’d bet the locals sometimes get frustrated with all the city-people traffic ‘doing the Gorge’.
After Troutdale, we turned north and crossed the Columbia to Vancouver, Washington to see Fort Vancouver. This fort was a fur-trading outpost of the Hudson’s Bay Company. It was run for years by John McLoughlin, a Quebecer who originally worked for the NorthWest Company (from Montreal) but when it was folded in to the Hudson’s Bay Company, he became an employee of the latter and therefore a representative of British interests.
Though McLoughlin was instructed not to sell anything to the Americans or have any dealings with them, he ignored that direction and helped and sold to all comers, though he did encourage the Americans to stay south of Columbia, claiming the land north of the river as British. Eventually, he was forced into retirement and later became a US citizen and settled in Oregon City. Before his death he was called the ‘Father of Oregon’.
We took a long tour of Fort Vancouver and thought its reconstruction very well done. The original fort burned to the ground in 1866 but the stockade fence, the Factor’s Residence, a cooper’s shop, a counting house, a blacksmith’s shop, an infirmary, and several smaller buildings were rebuilt and are fully furnished.
We then rushed back across the river to Oregon City to get to the End of the Trail Interpretive Center before closing. But we needn’t have rushed. The Center closed for good two weeks ago. According to the woman running the Visitor’s Center the Center was privately owned and with the closing of the main part of the tourist season had to close forever.
We did get to see the End of the Trail memorial which claims the Abernethy Common area to have been the trail’s end in 1845 and 46. In earlier years (I’m not sure which) Fort Vancouver was considered the end of the Oregon Trail.
We asked our Visitor’s Center guide for a recommendation for a steak house and she gave us WoodStone Steak House in nearby O.C. Point. That turned out to be an excellent recommendation. We had a scrumptious filet mignon with salads and a shrimp cocktail plus a glass of wine for Labashi and a glass of port for me. It was without a doubt the best food of the trip.
We then went to a nearby Fred Meyer store, hoping to stay the night in the parking lot but were refused. Once we saw the parking lot we thought it unlikely we’d be allowed given how crowded it was. We then called ahead to two Wal-marts. One in Portland said they don’t permit overnight parking and the other said we were welome to stay at our own risk but sometimes the police come through and kick out the overnighters.
As we were getting close to dark we chose instead to go to Oregon City’s Clackamette Park which had an RV-parking area. It cost us $20—a high for the trip so far— but it’s convenient and lies right on the Williamette River and Abernethy Commons. Besides, it’s appropriate that we end our Oregon Trail adventure here where many of the emigrants had their last camp before claiming their land here in the Oregon Territory.

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Monday, 21 September-

After an extra-quiet night in the Deschutes Recreation Area campsite we woke to a fishing boat roaring up the river at first light. But it didn’t take much trying to fall back asleep!
We drove to the Columbia River Gorge Discovery Center just south of The Dalles. We arrived about a half-hour before the 0900 opening so decided we’d drop in to the Safeway we had passed on the way in to pick up a few essentials. There we also connected to wi-fi to get our email and post a blog update.
We spent several hours at the Discovery Center, learning not only about the natural and geologic history of the area but also about Lewis and Clark and of course the Oregon Trail emigrants. The main display for the latter is a life-size tableau of an emigrant wagon on a raft. The wagon’s wheels were removed and laid flat and the wagon laid atop and tied down. The raft consists of a dozen 15” logs, 40 feet long with sweeps at the ends. The wagon was carried on the raft but the animals were driven on a narrow trail along the river.
It was at the Discovery Center that we learned of the massive floods which had inundated this area and tore away the soil, leaving the stunning scenery along the Gorge.
After lunch in the parking lot, we turned west on to Old Route 30. Here it’s the nation’s first scenic highway, built in the early 1900’s. It twists and turns like a West Virginia mountain road with views of the Columbia River, Mount Hood, and high ridges and deep canyons.
As we drove from Rowena Point, then past Hood River and on to Multnomah Falls, we could see the remarkable change in the forest. In the eastern end of the gorge, at Deschutes Rec Area, for example, the land is arid. But by Multnomah Falls, the forest understory is lush and the trees are huge monsters.
At the Falls we took a brief walk to take the obligatory tourist photos. Then we decided to turn back to Ainsworth State Park for the night, even though it was only 1530. We needed a walk and showers and could get them at Ainsworth but if we kept getting closer to Portland they were less likely—at a reasonable price.
At Ainsworth we settled in and had our walk and showers before dark, then spent the evening on the laptops and reading. About 2100 I pulled out the Kwik Kampfire and lit it but the wind picked up so I cut it short and went back to my reading.

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2009-09-20T23:59:00.000-04:00

Fort Hall, Bonneville Point, Boise, National Historical Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, Pendleton Roundup, Whitman Mission, Deschutes River

(posted from Shari’s Restaurant, The Dalles, OR)
(This post covers 15- 20 September, 2009)

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Sunday, 20 September-

We awoke refreshed and surprised at how nice and quiet our night had been in the casino parking lot. The main part of the lot was jammed full and we had to run back and forth a few times in the open lot area to find a place to park little Mocha Joe. With all the giant diesel-pusher RVs we expected to be hearing their generators running all night. A few were running when we went to bed around 2200 but soon quieted down and the expected hub-bub from the late crowd returning to their RVs never materialized.
We drove north from the Wildhorse casino and across the state line into Washington state at Walla Walla.
Our goal today was the Whitman Mission. It was here that Marcus and Narcissa Whitman came to minister to the Cayuse Indians. Their mission lasted 11 hard years and the Whitmans appeared to realize their mission of bringing religion to the Cayuse and converting them to farmers was failing.
Marcus Whitman had been a country doctor before taking up the calling to mission work. As he realized his conversion efforts weren’t going well, he turned more to medical work. Also, the emigrants of the Oregon Trail soon began depending on the Whitmans to help them.
But the Whitmans had the great misfortune to have a wagon train come along in 1847 which brought measles to the Cayuse population. The Indians had no immunity to the disease and it soon killed half their population of 400. A small band of Cayuse blamed Dr. Whitman and may have believed his medicines only worked on white people or, as one rumor had it, he was helping kill off the Indian population so whites could take their land. In any case, in late November, 1947 a group of Cayuse killed Dr. Whitman, Narcissa, and 11 others staying with them and burned the mission.
The Oregon militia took three years to bring five young Cayuse men to hangman’s justice—and it now appears at least one of them was innocent.
Today, the national historical site is a nice, quiet spot and it’s easy to see what drew the Whitmans to this beautiful area.
After our visit to the Whitman mission, we drove west and before long struck the Columbia River. We followed along it for miles and miles, watching the landscape change. A few hours of driving brought us to Biggs, where we saw the point where emigrants first saw the Columbia River. The Columbia is very blue today and is flanked by rugged hills on both sides (with a bit of room for a railroad and Interstate 84). I was surprised how few boats we saw given how nice the river is.
Nearby we entered the Deshutes Recreation Area, a campground/ launch ramp/state park. We obtained a site for the night ($8!) and after supper we walked back along the river for a mile or so.
It’s steelhead and salmon season on the Deschutes so we saw plenty of fishermen yet there’s plenty of room for more. We saw a fisherman carrying a fish he was having trouble holding up. As he walked along we could see its tail occasionally dragging on the ground while its head was higher than the fisherman’s waist.
Back at the van we blogged and read.

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Saturday, 19 September-

This morning after breakfast we had some errands to run. We hit the local Wal-mart, Safeway, and Albertsons to restock. We then drove across town to the Pendleton Woolen Mills, a major employer here. We shopped the expensive woolen clothing and blankets but realized it’s just not us. We’d feel like dudes dressed up in Pendleton western clothing.
After lunch back at the high-school parking lot, we walked into town, again checking out the many vendor booths.
The rodeo began promptly at 1:30 and lasted all afternoon. This was our first rodeo and we loved it. The mc knew how to keep the pace going and the events were downright staggering to watch. Though some guys made it look easy we saw enough misses to understand how tough these events really are.
We saw bareback bronc riding, calf-roping, steer-wrestling, saddle-bronc riding, calf-roping, bull-riding, barrel-racing, and wild-cow milking contests, all done by world-class riders competing for the big prizes of the Pendleton RoundUp.
We finally got out of the rodeo stadium at 1730 and walked back to the van to have supper. Then we drove across Pendleton to the Wild Horse Casino for the night. We would have stayed at the high school but that would have been a $20 charge while parking at the casino is free.
We took a walk through the casino but they’re really not for us. We did stop at the bar and have a martini and Indian fry-bread with honey and huckleberries (WOW did we ever break out of our low-carb diet tonight!) while listening to a country band play for a half-hour or so. Then we returned to the van to blog and read for a few hours.

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Friday, 18 September-

This morning we wound our way back out of 20-some miles of National Forest to get to the hard road at Medical Springs. The area is very much ranch-country and open-range-style ranch country at that. The ranches have to be large because they’re mostly sagebrush. That means there’s forage for the beef cattle to eat but they have to range a long way to find it. Many of the cattle are in their summer range in the mountains so we see them in odd places. We’ll be rattling down some way-back-in-the-woods road and suddenly come upon a steer (or a herd of 10 steers) blocking the road. They give us the evil eye but eventually move and we can pass by.
After we had emerged from the national forest proper (the part with big pines), we were driving on an extremely dusty road past completely dry and yellow grasses and sage when we came to the intersection at Medical Springs. There I saw something odd—an old-time concrete swimming pool, longer than normal perhaps. As we drove past I realized a woman was in the pool swimming. This seemed like the oddest thing--- a larger-than-normal swimming pool in this extremely dry and dusty environment. Then it occurred to me—oh--- THIS must be the ‘medical spring’, i.e., a pool where people go to swim in (and perhaps drink from a spring of) the mineral-rich water.
As we had driven across the latter half of Idaho we had seen the evidence of fairly recent geologic activity. The emigrants had stayed just south of the lava fields of Craters of the Moon National Park and we had seen these same formations far to the west of the Park. So it was easy to believe that geologic features like mineral springs would also be in the area.
We then drove up Route 203 toward Union and LaGrange. Union is a cool little western town. We were intrigued by the hardware/espresso/liquor store and had to go in. It was very much a traditional country hardware store where you could get any kind of nail or screw or gee-gaw and also pick up some fishing lures. But this one had an espresso counter carved out of one corner (probably where the lawn-mowers used to be) and beside it an eight-foot-by-eight-foot well-stocked liquor counter. You’d probably be out of luck if you wanted more than one bottle of anything but I was impressed by their variety.
In LaGrange we had our favorite low-carb Wendy’s meal—the Baconator--- then drove through town looking for the visitor’s center. The visitor’s center sign took us to a billboard, the back of which said ‘See Other Side for Visitor Info’. Some visitor’s center.
We continued on I-84 which in this area follows (or is on top of) the Oregon Trail. We stopped at Emigrant Springs State Park campground which was formerly an emigrant campground as they crossed the Blue Mountains. We took advantage of the $2 showers in the campground (you put $2 per person fee in an envelope, just like you’d pay for a campsite).
Continuing on via I-84, we finally entered the Umatilla Indian Reservation and drove to their Cultural Center. This nice, very modern facility, tells the story of the Oregon Trail migrations from the Indian point of view. And it’s a sad story.
The Umatilla, Walla-Walla, and Cayuse didn’t have a problem with the whites coming through their homeland and in fact helped them. But it soon became clear to them that the whites weren’t just passing through, they were claiming the land for their own. And worse, their diseases were decimating the tribes, killing as many as half of them at a time.
This eventually led to the Cayuse killing a long-time missionary and his wife—the Whitmans—and 11 others who lived with them.
As we checked out the gift shop we saw an ad for Pendleton Roundup and realized we’re in the middle of its run. We spoke briefly with the gift shop person to learn a little more about it, then rushed in to the town of Pendleton to learn more.
An hour later we walked out of the downtown visitor’s center with the last two tickets for the Happy Canyon Indian Pageant tonight and the finals of the Pendleton RoundUp rodeo tomorrow. We also knew where to make arrangements for a campsite from which we could walk to the show grounds rather than have to camp away from the site and then have to pay for parking near the shows.
We settled in to our assigned parking spot at the high school just in time for a quick bite of supper. We then walked across a river bridge to the show grounds.
We were amazed to see hundreds of teepees along the show grounds. These were the campgrounds of the native Americans. And beside their campground were sales tents--- EZ-Up tents, just like at an art show back home—where they were selling their crafts.
We walked the Indian crafts bazaar, then crossed the street to the bazaar of the whites, where cowboy hats, boots, and clothing were the mainstay but you could also but cowboy furniture and all varieties of foods from corn dogs to jerkies, to sno-cones.
When 0700 came, we entered the stadium and took our seats for the Indian Pageant. This is hard to describe but it’s a pageant in the Buffalo Bill sense. A narrator tells a story while its content is acted out by locals in costume. The first part was done by the Indians and they told how they had lived in peace on the land for centuries only to have their land stolen from them by the whites. Later, as the land is indeed taken by the whites, the story transformed into a sort of vaudeville story—the type where the sheriff wears a massively-oversized badge and the villains have big, black handlebar mustaches.
But it was, all in all, great fun. We were a bit surprised by how few punches were pulled by the Indians in their telling the story of their land being stolen from them. Yet the story marched on and we finally saw—for the first time—a wagon pulled by six oxen (as many real-life wagons were) rather than by two horses or mules (because oxen are hard to come by).
After the show we turned in back in Mocha Joe in his high school parking-lot spot.

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Thursday, 17 September-

We left the Boise Cabela’s parking lot early this morning. We had both slept well but woke early and were ready to roll.
We drove to the Oregon border and then turned for Nyssa (OR), where we visited a cool little display about the Oregon Trail. We were led 1/3 of a mile up a trail, which was climbing a hill. There, the sign explained, we could see a full day’s travel for the emigrants. In the distance to our right is the Snake River and in the distance to our left is the Malheur River. The fifteen miles in between was a typical day in this sagebrush-desert.
The view was pretty bleak. There’s no shade and the low sagebrush would both hide rattlers and impede progress with the wagons while the valley would hold the massive amount of dust raised by passing oxen and people. The diary quotes we read reinforced our guess — this was a hot, dusty, boring, slog for the emigrants.
We drove through the little town of Vale (pausing only long enough to look at some of their many murals depicting the Oregon Trail) and on toward John Day. We were actually trying to get to Baker City but had a long way around and not a lot of gas to get there. It was going to be close.
Labashi found us a shortcut, albeit on dirt roads, but it would save us 40 miles. We went across Indian Gulch Road to Bridgeport and turned out loving this little isolated road. The road was very narrow, not pot-holed or wash-boarded, and felt very remote. We’re in range-cattle country and did pass a small ranch here and there but otherwise it was just mile after mile of sagebrush hills.
We made it to Baker City and after gassing up drove to the nearby National Historical Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, high on a hill a few miles outside of town. This is a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) facility and appears to be very new.
As we entered the first of the exhibits, we at first thought their competitors had done this better. But after the first hallway of posed mannequins with voiceovers, the displays got better.
About half-way through, they announced a film will be shown in the auditorium. We watched an excellent Ric Burns documentary about the Donner Party for an hour, transfixed the whole time.
A second documentary, this one about the trip West, wasn’t quite as good but we did learn some new things. Part of the reason for the mass emigration, for instance, was a crash in farm prices in the 1840s.
After the films we finished touring the displays just as the center was closing.
We weren’t sure where we were staying tonight and with darkness only an hour away it was time to figure it out. We could have gone to a Wal-mart at Island City but wanted to see more of the land. We chose a fairly remote campground in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, about 20 miles from Medical Springs. The road wasn’t horrible but had quite a bit of washboarding so our pace was slow. We finally made it to Two Colors Campground and found a site just as it got too dark to keep looking (we had passed an informal campsite (a pulloff with a fire-ring) on the way in and would have used it in a pinch). This part of the forest is now covered in big pines with a fairly open understory. We saw six or seven mule deer on the way in but no ‘big’ animals.
After supper we blogged and read.

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Wednesday, 16 September-

We left our Wal-mart spot a bit late this morning. I had a headache much of the night and didn’t sleep well. I don’t know if the altitude is giving me some problems or what but I’ve been having headaches around bed-time.
On the drive west we stopped at several Oregon Trail sites. We checked out Three Island Crossing at the town of Glenn’s Ferry, where the emigrants had to cross the Snake River running six to eight feet deep. It’s said to be the worst crossing of the trip and many were lost here.
After lunch we drove to Bonneville Point, which, after crossing miles and miles of sand and sage, gave us our first view of Boise. The view is terrific. All is dead and dry around you but off in the distance is a valley filled with trees—and among them is the Boise skyline. The word Boise comes from the French boise’, meaning “wooded”.
In Boise we drove around for a bit of a tour since Boise repeatedly wins honors as one of the best little cities to live in in the US. We ended up at the Library where I spent the rest of the afternoon writing an email to my brothers and Labashi blogged.
As evening came, we drove to nearby Albertson Park to have supper in the van, then walk the wildlife-preserve trails. Someone knew what they were doing here. The stonework and large stone-and-log pavilions are gems.
We then drove through Old Boise and were tempted to walk the streets there to get a sense of the nightlife but since we hadn’t found our home for the night, we decided we’d better move on. On the way to the edge-of-town Wal-mart we passed a Cabelas. We shopped there for an hour or so and I asked Customer Service whether they, like many Cabelas, also allow RVs to overnight in the parking lot and got a positive reponse. We set up for the night in the back lot and caught up on the blog and did some reading about Oregon.

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Tuesday, 15 September-

In our National Forest campsite last night we watched two episodes of ‘Planet Earth’, the excellent BBC series narrated by David Attenborough. Labashi’s little MacPro gave us a wonderful hi-def rendering of the spectacular photography of the series.
In the morning we drove in to Pocatallo to tour the Fort Hall replica. The original Fort Hall stood on what is now the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, about 14 miles north of where the replica stands today. The replica was built in the early 1960’s by a local group.
The replica appears to be typical of a local approach to building an historical replica. I’m willing to buy the basic layout of the fort walls and even of the buildings within the walls. But I’m sure the logs weren’t chinked with concrete and that 20-penny common spikes weren’t used for the walkway planks and handrails. Nevertheless, it’s easy to conjure up images of the traders and emigrants here. The point is the fort was crudely built but served its purpose.
The buildings consist of two types—either replicas of life-in-the-day or displays explaining some aspect of pioneer life. The life-in-the-day re-creations are done better by other sites. The furnishings and gear used here tends to be obviously worn out or broken so it doesn’t give you the feeling the person has just stepped out of the room for the few minutes we’re there.
For a small-time operation, the displays were pretty good. I particularly enjoyed reading transcripts of immigrant diaries where they spoke of Fort Hall. In short, our visit was well worth the $1.75 bargain price we paid for our visit.
After the museum we drove through pleasant little Pocatello and joined I-84 to continue West. We stopped at a roadside rest and walked the trail to Oregon Trail ruts near Massacre Rocks State Park. We finished up our day by finding the Wal-mart along I-84 at Jerome, just outside Twin Falls.
We rented a movie from the Redbox ($1.06 !!) and saw Robert Downey Junior and Jamie Foxx in ‘The Soloist’. It’s the story of an LA Times reporter, Steve Lopez, and a mentally challenged (and homeless) street musician who had attended the Julliard School of Music. Director Joe Wright does a great job of story-telling on this one and both Downey and Foxx amaze us with the skills.

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

2009-09-14T23:59:00.000-04:00

Short search for wolves in Yellowstone; Fort Bridger ; National Oregon/California Trails Center ; Soda Springs ; on to Pocatello

(posted from Pocatello Public Library)
(This post covers 12 – 14 September, 2009)

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Monday, 14 September-

This morning we left Montpelier Canyon campground and drove into the town of Montpelier to visit the National Oregon/California Trail Center. We’ve were also looking for some variety in our breakfasts so first had huge omelets at the Butch Cassidy Restaurant. The famous Mr. Butch Cassidy robbed the local bank in 1896 but he didn’t own the restaurant so I’m not quite sure why it’s named for him. The owner must just be a fan, I guess.
We weren’t sure we wanted to pay the $9 per person to see the Trail Center since it gets a lukewarm description in the guidebooks we’re using. But it was actually pretty good. We met with our guide, Dave, who introduced himself as our wagonmaster and dressed the part. He thanked us for choosing him to guide our wagon train to Oregon from our starting point in Independence, Missouri. He pointed to a white line on the floor and said once we passed it, we would be in 1850’s Independence, preparing for the trip.
We stepped over the line and through a curtain into a gunsmith’s shop. After telling us that each of us over 12 years of age would be required to bring a firearm for our (and the wagon-train’s) protection, Dave described to us how long-guns were made as we examined period gun-smithing equipment.
We entered a large room which looked like a street in 1850’s Independence. It’s lined with stores, blacksmith shops, stables, etc. and our wagon was partially loaded with supplies. Dave explained why we’d take certain items and leave others and went over the working parts of the wagon and explained why we’d want to take oxen rather than horses or mules to pull our wagons. In short, oxen walk all day without feeding, feed at night, and are refreshed to go again in the morning. They are slow walkers but strong, even-tempered, and easily handled. And they taste good should the need arise.
The wagons used were, for the most part, ‘Studebaker-Form’ wagons, a farm wagon rather than the huge Conestoga-style freight wagons. The smaller wheels on front made the wagons more maneuverable. Wheels had to be greased every four days with a mix of tar, pine-oil and tallow.
We entered a store where Dave continued talking about the items we’d take and the costs. The average cost of the trip for a family was $1200-1500 of cash outlay. In some cases, families would move to Independence and work up to 3 years to be able to afford the trip.
Dave then herded us into a wagon and we took a simulated wagon ride, bumping and jolting along while listening to recorded excerpts from letters and diaries of the emigrants.

When the wagon stopped rocking, a curtain raised in the front of the wagon and we stepped off. We had arrived at Clover Creek Encampment, the historical location of an emigrant campsite very near the location of the museum today.
We were greeted by a woman who said she’s the wagonmaster’s wife and led us through a series of campfire-style locations while she described life on the Plains. She was much better at acting the part than had been our wagonmaster and stayed in character the whole time. She did a great job of transitioning from scene to scene as she told stories and sought our participation, eventually leading us to a scene in Oregon’s Williamette Valley and the end of our trip.
For a home-town operation, this one is VERY well done. And we could tell it was someone who knew what they were doing who put together this show which required only two people to guide us through and keep us interested. Well done, Montpelier!
After the Trail Center, we drove back to the campground for a bit of lunch and camp-showers. It was also time to clean out the ice box and sweep out the van and re-stow.
We then shopped a local market called Broulim’s for essentials, then headed west on US30.
Our next stop was Soda Springs, where we found Hooper’s Spring and drank from it, just as the emigrants had. It’s said to be an exceptionally fine soda water. Our book says there was also reported to be a nearby spring called ‘Beer Spring’ which, if one imbibed too much, made one dizzy. The locals seem to have kept the location of that one to themselves.
We then drove on to Pocatello and in doing so drove through a very strong thunderstorm, our first of the trip.
We knew our next goal, a re-creation of Fort Hall, was closed by now so we only checked with the visitor center to get current operating hours. We then drove an exit south of Pocatello to take a road into the Caribou National Forest at Mink Creek. We found a campsite for the night on a road into the ATV-trails portion of the National Forest.
We spent the evening blogging, working a crossword puzzle, and then watching a movie. We’ve been carrying along the ‘Planet Earth’ DVD collection for something like a year and 20 thousand miles now so it was finally time to open the package.

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Sunday, 13 September-

We had a very restful night at the Gros Ventre Campground, north of Jackson. As we had driven in last evening we could see a massive smoke plume at the back of the mountain just east of the campground. A sign told us it’s a planned fire but nevertheless we wondered whether we’d smell smoke all night. The smoke all seemed to be lifted and carried away rather than dropping down into our valley, so we thought we should be fine. And that was indeed the case. We had no smoky smell overnight and nothing this morning.
Our plan today was to rejoin the Oregon Trail near where we had diverted to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. That had been at South Pass, the point where the emigrants first entered what at the time was Oregon Territory. They were still hundreds of miles from what is today the state of Oregon but we can imagine their excitement at first realizing the rivers they are following are now flowing the other way—to the Pacific Ocean.
We didn’t want to retrace our steps to South Pass itself so chose Fort Bridger as the logical place to rejoin. Fort Bridger is named for Jim Bridger, the famous mountaineer, trader, explorer, and legend. It is Bridger who had explored into the valley of the Great Salt Lake and suggested it to Brigham Young as a suitable settlement area for the Mormons.
Bridger had attempted to establish several trading posts in his fur-trading years but it wasn’t until he set up Fort Bridger to serve the emigrants that he struck gold. In a letter to suppliers he said the emigrants arrive at his camp with plenty of ready cash and a strong need to re-supply and replace worn stock.
Bridger eventually sold out to the Mormons but it wasn’t long until the Mormons burned the fort down as they left on the run from the US Army during the so-called ‘Mormon Wars’.
The fort was later rebuilt by the military but faded into obscurity after the Civil War only to be resurrected in the new century for its historic value.
Our favorite part of our tour of the fort today was the reconstructed frontier fort. The rude little log buildings are low-ceilinged and dirt-floored. One side of the main building is a blacksmith shop and it looks like the blacksmith is about to come in and start building the fire in his forge for his day’s work. The other side looks like a trader’s shop but it has a mix of modern tourist goods and some very nice reproductions of firearms (non-functioning) and frontier knives. I came very close to buying a knife but couldn’t find just the ‘right’ knife-and-sheath combination. The repros are done by a member of the American Mountain Man Association, an organization noted for its work in authentically re-creating the tools, foods, clothes, etc of the mountain man era. I don’t know his name but his trademark is a small canoe and I saw one item which also had the initials JT or JR above the canoe. I’ll have to see if I can find him online. The girl at the counter didn’t know his name but believes he’s from Oregon.
Though it was late in the afternoon, there wasn’t any cheap camping handy so we drove on to Montpelier, Idaho. This little town is right on the Oregon Trail and as it happens we had stayed in the Montpelier Canyon campground just outside of town last year on our way home from Alaska so we headed there today.
Our drive from Fort Bridger to Kemmerer to Montpelier was magnificent in the evening light. We arrived at the campground in time to build a fire from firewood generously donated by previous campers. Later, we caught up a bit on the blog and on our reading about the Trail.

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Saturday, 12 September-

We awoke before dawn this morning in order to get in position for sunrise at our favorite spot south of Obsidian Cliff. But we had no luck there this year. The frosty meadow was bare of any animals. We probably should have waited to let the sun light up the meadow but we instead chose to drive north through Mammoth Springs, then east to the Blacktail Plateau Drive, a six-mile long dirt road winding through the backcountry. Along the way we saw a few solitary bison and an impressive bull elk south of Mammoth Springs. And of course there were dozens of elk in the town of Mammoth Springs itself. Somehow, it’s not the same to see the elk calming loitering throughout the town as it is to see them in the wild.
We struck out on the Blacktail Plateau so decided to continue on to the Lamar Valley. There we saw a largish herd of bison descending a hill in the distance and it made us wish we had been able to see the huge herds of the 19th century.
We hit the regular wolf-watching hot-spots along the Lamar Valley Road but to no avail; we were late in the morning after all.
We did see a coyote very near the road, apparently eating. I couldn’t tell if it was eating from a kill or had just caught some small mammal.
We had thought we’d spend our second day in the park in the Lamar Valley but I’ve picked up some flu bug or something and we didn’t want to walk today. We decided instead to head back down the east side of the Grand Loop Road and then continue on out of the park and on to Jackson.
Since Yellowstone has a 45 mile-per-hour (or slower) speed limit throughout the park, we had a nice, long easy-going drive. We stopped at Heart Lake Trailhead again -- this time to make a late lunch-- before continuing on.
In Jackson we went to the Albertson’s Market and found a shady spot in the far reaches of its gigantic parking lot. We napped for an hour to make up for lost sleep, then shopped for a few specialty items we like from Albertson’s. After finishing up the shopping, we took the laptops into the mini-courtyard and took care of uploading the blog and picking up our email.
We both wanted a good burger for supper and after a few false starts (Jackson is very crowded this Saturday night), we ended up at Burke’s Chop House. That turned out to be a great stroke of luck. We shared a 10-ounce, perfectly charred, bleu-cheese burger and a fancy (and exceptionally good) salad.
As darkness fell we drove the five miles out of Jackson to the Gros Ventre campground for the night.

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

2009-09-11T23:59:00.000-04:00

Wind storm in Chadron, NE ; Alaskan truck-camper search in Fort Collins, CO ; Casper, WY; Fort Laramie ; Independence Rock ; South Pass ; Union Pass ; Museum of the Mountain Man ; Shoshone Nat’l Forest ; Teton and Bridger National Forests ; Grand Teton National Park

(posted from Albertson’s grocery store, Jackson Hole, WY)
(this post covers 1-11 September, 2009)

(Sorry for the long delay between posts. There’s not a lot of wi-fi connectivity in the National Forests and National Parks!)

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Friday, 11 September-

What a grand night. We still have about a half-full moon and it lasts most of the night, lending an eerie light yet peaceful light to our surroundings.
After rattling our way back to the main road we headed north and soon entered Yellowstone. I wanted to take a short walk on Heart Lake trail since the Continental Divide Trail shares the trail here.
We hiked for a mile and a half and at this altitude (8000 ft), that seemed like enough for our morning stroll. We were climbing a small rise at the time and sat down on a trailside log to rest. As I sat down, I noticed an out-of-place shape behind the log. It was a camera. Someone had apparently sat on the same log and the camera had fallen unnoticed.
The camera was a Canon S3 model, a 6 megapixel digital model with a motion-compensating lens. It only took a minute to figure out how to start the camera and look at the last image taken. It showed a young family of five posing at the trailhead sign.
We took a minute to figure out how to handle the situation. Fortunately, I had a pen and paper and Labashi had a plastic bag. We wrote: CAMERA FOUND HERE ON 9/11/09 AT 0945. WILL LEAVE IT AT THE GRANT VILLAGE RANGER STATION. We bagged the message and placed it on a log in the middle of the trail.
We continued to the top of the rise to even the GPS reading to a mile and a half and turned back. Just as we reached the message we had left, seven hardy young men with gigantic backpacks came through. Of the seven, only #6 saw the message in the middle of the trail (#7 might have seen it if not for #6 noticing first). So much for an obvious message.
As we walked back to the van I continued fiddling with the camera and figured out how to move through the images and to see the date/time the image was taken. The last image, #121, was taken on August 25th. The camera had apparently been lying behind the log for more than two weeks.
Back at the van I scrolled through the images and found two-- #71 and #72 which showed the license plate of the apparent owner’s car. It appeared to be a Texas plate but the LCD image is so small I couldn’t be sure.
After our walk we drove to Grant Village for lunch. We were hoping for pasta to counterbalance our high-protein diet of the last several months but the only pasta was on the kid’s menu. Labashi sweet-talked the crew into serving us from the kid’s menu.
We then dropped the camera off at the Visitor Center with a ranger and a note about where and when we found it and pics 71 and 72. Hopefully it will find its way back to the owner.
From Grant Village we continued north, skirting Yellowstone Lake. We stopped in at the marina Ranger Station, hoping to find a wolf expert we had met there in 2006. We wanted him to listen to the wolf howls we captured on our video clips. Unfortunately, the ranger station is closed today and tomorrow.
We stopped at several overlooks in the Hayden Valley. At the second one, our attention was drawn to a large bull bison taking a dust bath. It was an amazing sight to see him raise a massive cloud of dust, completely enveloping himself. He’d lay on his side and kick his legs as hard as possible and make primeval grunting sounds.
Just after the bison stopped, motion nearby caught our attention. We had a thirty-second view of two coyotes, sneaking along and then vanishing into the sagebrush. We never caught another glimpse of movement, either of the coyotes or the sagebrush.
We turned West toward Norris to reach our campground for the night at Indian Creek. We arrived just in time. We took the third-to-last campsite and there were four more people in line.
After claiming our spot we headed back down toward Norris to a large meadow between Obsidian Cliff and Grizzley Lake. In 2006 we had seen seven wolves here.
Labashi made supper while I wandered down to the river, where I saw at least a dozen trout zipping about. It would have been a great evening to have a fishing rod along.
There were no wolves tonight so we continued south as far as Gibbon Meadow, glassing for wildlife. We saw a half-dozen solitary bison bulls but nothing else. Our search ended as darkness fell.
On the way back to Indian Creek we came upon a Yellowstone traffic jam. A bison was walking down the double-yellow line and traffic couldn’t pass in either direction. It was only a few minutes until the bison found its exit and we were able to pass.
Back at the campground we spent the evening blogging and reading, yet again.

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Thursday, 10 September-

We awoke early this morning and decided to go ahead and drive to some likely wildlife viewing spots.
We drove back down Pacific Creek Road when we hit the hard road we decided to take the Two Oceans Lake road (where we had seen the massive bull elk last evening). We didn’t see the elk but thought we’d take a video clip of the lake. Shortly after walking down to the lake we heard wolf howls, one across the lake and to our right, the other about a quarter mile from it on the same side of the lake. That of course got us all excited. We started walking the trail on the north side of the lake and Labashi almost immediately wanted to turn off the trail and head up into the woods toward the sound. I nixed that given the wet and frost-covered grasses and tall weeds.
We then heard a blood-curdling series of howls and yips on the south side of the lake, perhaps over the hill in that area. I happened to be shooting a video clip of the lake with the Tetons in the distance in morning light and caught this very interesting sound.
We had seen another couple in the parking lot and they had taken the trail ahead of us. But now, here they came toward us. When we met, they said two moose were on the trail ahead and it was obvious they weren’t going to move for hikers. They were going to retrace their steps to the parking lot and then take the south-side lake trail.
We wanted to see the moose so we kept going another 100 yards and there they were. They both were browsing just below the trail. Labashi took the video camera and we began moving very slowly toward the female closest to the trail. To our surprise, she raised her head and looked very directly at us, then began working toward us. The young bull also started working toward us, both of them continuing to browse but keeping a close eye on us. If we’re any judge of moose body language they weren’t upset in the least. They browsed along and stopped quite a lot, looking our way. They began to get too close for comfort so we made a quick plan to jump in to some nearby closely-spaced trees if one or the other charged. We began our slow retreat, ever watchful for any signs of agitation, and were soon away from them. But still the cow watched our every move as if to say ‘what ARE those silly creatures?’
We drove back to the hard road and headed for Colter Village. There we browsed the grocery store and visitor center. We spoke with a ranger at the visitor center and told her of our good luck at Two Ocean Lake. We even played the video clips of the wolf sounds, hoping for confirmation that they are indeed wolf and not coyote sounds but she said she’s not expert enough to help.
After Colter Village we drove north and soon hit the endless construction zone that is the road between the Grand Teton and Yellowstone this year. The roadside sign said to expect a 30-minute delay but that wasn’t a stop for 30 minutes but rather a 5-10 mph drive for miles upon miles. With all the backroad driving we’ve been doing it wasn’t a problem for us though it was incredibly dusty. “It’s like an Oregon Trail wagon train”, observed Labashi.
We drove to the end of the construction at Flagg Ranch and had lunch in the parking lot there, then headed into the Targhee National Forest via Grassy Lake Road. We drove it for about 10 miles, then turned back, deciding that we had seen the character of this area. On the way back we stopped at a one of the eight free campsites in the Targhee, figuring we may as well stay out in the Forest for free rather than push on into Yellowstone National Park only to have to pay for a very similar primitive camping with a lot of noisy people around. Our campsite (#7) has views in every direction.
After getting up so early this morning, we figured we earned a nap so opened up the van doors and took a snooze, then had supper while watching the shadows march across the mountain.
For our evening’s entertainment, we blogged and began reading in earnest about Yellowstone.

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Wednesday, 9 September-

I saw a 29-degree reading in the wee hours of the morning and we had frost on the sage around us at stand-up time today.
We awoke around 0700 and were on the road within the hour. We drove to Jenny Lake and hiked to Hidden Falls and back, a round trip of four and half miles. With the ups and downs and breaks it took us three and a half hours and tuckered us out.
We took advantage of having the van and after lunch took a short cat-nap to revive ourselves. Once again we have perfect weather and that nap in the nice warm van with a cool breeze coming in windows was heaven.
We checked out the Jenny Lake visitor center then began a driving tour. We did the Jenny Lake scenic drive, then took a long dirt-road drive to beautiful Spalding Bay on crystal-clear Lake Jackson.
We then drove up Signal Mountain where I spoke at some length with a wildlife photographer from Montana who travels in his Alaskan-brand camper (the truck camper I had hoped to see in Fort Collins but was unable to).
We then continued to the Signal Mountain turnaround where we had a spectacular view of the Snake River valley below. We found our own personal turn-out and had supper while watching the shadows start to paint the valley.
On the way down Signal Mountain we saw the biggest buck mule deer I’ve ever seen. It could be mistaken for an elk. It’s massive eight-point rack was in heavy velvet.
Driven on by our seeing the muley, we took the dirt road to Two-Oceans Lake and along the way had yet another sighting, this of a trophy bull elk. As we drove along I glanced left up a small rise and there stood the monarch, looking like he was posing for a commercial. What an incredible sight.
We then drove up nearby Pacific Creek road in the twilight and soon came to the park boundary. But it ran into the Bridger-Teton National Forest so we kept going. In a few miles the road ended at Pacific Creek campground. This one is apparently quite the jumping-off place for horse-trekking. We passed a large outfitter’s place along the way and at the trailhead was another large outfitter with what looked like a few dozen horses in the corral. The trailhead parking lot was jammed with horse-trailer rigs, apparently owned by people who rode their horses into the National Forest to camp.
We had the Pacific Creek campground to ourselves, though. I don’t mind paying half-price ($10) for very nice, private little campsite out here in the boonies.
I spent the rest of the evening blogging while Labashi read about the Oregon Trial along the Snake River.

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Tuesday, 8 Septemer-

Our temperature overnight was 30 degrees but we were very comfortable. We love these 70-80-degree sunny days and colder nights.
I thought we’d be entering Grand Teton National Park this morning but we had some errands to run in town (Jackson). We’re thinking we’ll be away from civilization for a week or so and had better stock up on supplies. I also wanted to go back to the Teton Moutaineering outdoors store for some ultra-lightweight long-johns for sleeping these cooler nights.
We spent an inordinate amount of time shopping at the Albertson’s grocery store but it really worked out well. We’re happy to find some variety. For example, in the past we’ve had some excellent low-carb tortillas from a brand called ‘La Factory’ but seldom can find them. At Albertson’s we found multiple choices in low-carb tortillas.
After shopping, we had lunch in the parking lot then went back inside to use their free wi-fi connection. I love this new trend…. upscale coffee shops and free wi-fi in grocery stores. They haven’t quite figured out they should be providing power receptacles but for the most part the wi-fi connections have been very good.
We then went to the visitor center at the National Park and bought maps and guidebooks to help us select some hikes for the next few days.
Finally, by 1500 we were on the trail. We chose to hike from Death Canyon Trailhead to the overlook for Phelps Lake. It’s only about a mile but a steady uphill and at this altitude (around 6500 ft), that will be a good start.
At the overlook I was surprised to hear my cell phone ring. I always carry it but we’ve been out of cell-phone coverage quite a bit this trip. Brother Orat called to arrange a Skype video call tonight.
After our walk we drove south and out of the park at Teton Village (ski resort) and circled back into Jackson. We found the Teton Community Library and had supper in the parking lot, then went in and made the call in one of the library meeting rooms. We both loved this fine little library. The auditorium was in use for a presentation about how to make your home ‘green’; the computers were all in use; wi-fi users and newspaper readers were strewn throughout the building; and yet it was the quietest library I’ve been in. A quick walk through the stacks and periodicals area told us it’s well equipped and up to date.
After the call we returned to the Gros Ventre campground for a second night. It was almost 2200 by the time we arrived so we went right to bed.

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Monday, 7 September – (Labor Day)

We left Whiskey Grove campground and the Bridger National Forest this morning and drove to Pinedale (WY). There we visited the Museum of the Mountain Man, a really nice and very thorough museum in the midst of the Green River rendezvous country.
The fur trade was based on demand for beaver which was made into a very fine felt, mainly for hats. Though beaver fur was used for hats as far back as the 1600s, it had never been available in such quantity until the North American fur trade began.
A beaver fur hat doesn’t look rustic as you would expect. In fact, most of them were made as fancy top hats. The Western fur trade blossomed in the early 1800s and lasted until about 1840, when most of the beaver were gone and silk and South American nutria fur replaced beaver fur as the material of choice for hatters.
The rendezvous idea was that of a St. Louis trader, William Ashley. Until 1825, trappers and Indians had to bring their furs to the trader. Ashley decided to take goods to the trappers and mountain men and return with their furs. He scheduled the first rendezvous to be held at Henry’s Fork, a tributary of the Snake River in 1825. That one lasted a day. Ashley realized he had made a mistake by not bringing liquor to that one and remedied that mistake the next year. As fur commerce grew, a Rendezvous could last for weeks with hundreds of trappers and thousands of Indians attending. Games of wilderness skill, games of chance, storytelling and of course massive drinking and the inevitable fighting marked the Rendezvous.
There were 16 Rendezvous all but three in Wyoming and six of those in the Upper Green River Valley outside of Pinedale.
After lunch in the museum parking lot, we drove northwest through the Teton-Bridger National Forest to Jackson (a/k/a Jackson Hole). We spent the afternoon walking the streets of Jackson, checking out the western clothing and artwork. That evening we had an excellent filet mignon and salads at the Cadillac Grille before leaving Jackson and driving to the nearby Gros Ventre (“Big Belly”) campground in Teton National Park for the night ($19).
We are definitely off the Oregon Trail up here. Being so close to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, we just had to take a bit of a detour. I had been to the Tetons briefly about ten years ago while on a business trip to Salt Lake City. My plane had landed at Salt Lake in the afternoon and I had driven eight hours or so to Jackson, arriving late. I got up early and drove in to the Park only to find the Teton Park road only open for a short distance because of snow (this was mid-May). I took a short walk to Taggart Lake in the snow (in my business shoes), then drove up to Jackson Lake, which was solid ice. I had to leave by noon to make it back to my hotel in Salt Lake that evening for my business meeting in the morning. So I’m not sure I can say I really saw much of the Tetons on that trip so we’re making up for that now.

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Sunday, 6 September-

We had rain in the night and I swear I heard sleet against the roof. When I checked the thermometer, though, the temp was in the high Forties.
This morning we idled down Horse Creek Road in the early-morning light, hoping to see some wildlife. We saw two mule deer, with their comically large ears, and a few hawks, chipmunks, and gray-jays but that was about it.
We parked beside the Wind River Gear shop where we had picked up a wi-fi signal from the nearby coffee shop. While I stopped in the shop for a cappuccino, Labashi worked on her email update to the family in the van.
I then also connected to the web to take care of some chores and check the weather for our drive this afternoon.
After lunch we found Union Pass Road and took a long, leisurely drive across the Pass. This pass across the Continental Divide was first crossed by whites— Astorians -- in 1811. After another Astorian tried it in winter and had to turn back, the Crow told him of South Pass, the pass heavily used by emigrant wagon trains beginning in the 1840s.
After a long, steep climb to Union Pass via many switchbacks, the road leveled out and we soon began traversing beautiful high-mountain meadows, one after another.
On the Continental Divide, we crossed from Shoshone National Forest to Teton National Forest and in doing so crossed the Continental Divide Trail. But the trail crossing was only in theory for us. We didn’t see any markers, trailhead, or even a sign about the Divide, just the “Welcome To Teton National Forest” sign.
We worked our way down to Mosquito Lake, then to the Green River valley, arriving by 1600. We wanted to stay in the National Forest tonight so shortly after crossing the Green, we turned in at Whiskey Grove campground and took a site ($7).
After supper we were thinking of going for a walk when I noticed a low tire. A pressure check verified it’s losing air. This is the new tire I just got 12 days ago in Normal, Ill.
Upon removing the tire I found a roofing nail firmly embedded in the tread. I elected to plug the tire and put it back on rather than use the spare. I installed the plug and began to inflate but my stupid little el-cheapo air compressor locked up after only getting the tire up to 7 psi. I had to do the rest with my beat-up old hand pump I use for the bicycle tires.
With everything back in place we decided to take the walk after all. We met and had a pleasant chat with a couple from nearby Rock Springs, up for the holiday weekend.
As we turned back from the far point of our walk we heard oddly-familiar sounds and soon saw two sandhill cranes grow from tiny specs off in the distance and land nearby. We walked as close as we could without disturbing them and watched as the male executed the jumping-up-and-down mating dance. The female appeared to ignore him and they both turned to feeding. We retreated rather than risk disturbing them any further.
Back at the van we blogged and read. I’m reading a mid-1800’s guidebook for emigrants and am finding it fascinating. Along with practical advice on what to pack, how to hobble the horses for the night, how to cross a stream, etc, there’s medical advice based on the theory that disease comes from noxious vapors emanating from swamps and riverbanks. It’s fascinating reading.

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Saturday, 5 September-

Our campground was at an altitude of over 9000 feet so we had a cooler night. The lowest temp I saw was 38 degrees. It’s a bit odd to have these low temps at night when our daytime temps are in the mid to high Eighties.
I generally try to park the van in the shade to keep it from being overheated by the sun for our sleep. But here we’re feeling the evening cool down rapidly as we take an evening walk and afterwards it feels good to get in the nice, warm van. Last evening our walk was a moonlight one. The full moon had just risen over The Pinnacles east of our campsite at Brooks Lake and enabled us to walk without flashlights and see the lake and Sublett Peak bathed in the silver moonlight.
With the lower temperatures we fired up the Buddy heater to both warm up the interior of the van and warm up some water for our morning wash-up. The heater wouldn’t start at all at first. But that often happens when I didn’t have my window open during the night as I often do. My theory is that heavier-than-air CO2 from our breathing lays in the bottom of the van and that makes the oxygen level too low for the oxygen-depletion sensor on the Buddy heater to allow propane to flow to the pilot. To remedy this, we have to open the door and allow the CO2 to flow out. And we can help it do that by turning the ventilation fan in the roof to pull in air from outside, thus pushing on the ‘bad’ air to exit.
Today this worked great—at first. Because of the significantly lower oxygen in the air, the heater would only run for about ten minutes before the O2-depletion sensor would turn it off again. After a cycle or two of this, we decided the wash-up water was warm enough and we really didn’t need to warm the interior any more.
After our wash-up, we decided we needed a morning walk. Brooks Lake is in the Washakie Wilderness of Shoshone National Forest, just east of the Continental Divide. Immediately west of the Divide is the Teton Wilderness. How could we NOT take a walk here?
We decided to walk to the Jade Lakes and return. It’s only a two-mile walk but it’s an uphill one and altitude approaches 10,000 feet. We started out with light-winter jackets given the cool morning but soon took them off as we walked fairly steeply uphill. We stopped to catch our breath more often than we’d like to admit. But our excuse was to look at the stunning scenery.
Our trail wound along the edge of a steep hill, giving us spectacular views of Brooks Lake and of Sublette Peak on ‘our’ side (the west side) of the valley and The Pinnacles on the far (east) side.
We never did make it to the Jade Lakes. We were only about .2 of a mile away (we think) but the trail had taken several forks and we weren’t sure we were on the correct branch. We took a break and decided the altitude and uphill trail had given us enough of a workout.
After lunch in our campsite, we headed to town (Dubois) for better maps plus ice and a few supplies. We found ourselves wandering around with maps with too little detail. The GPS knew the main trail (the Yellowstone Trail) but didn’t have the side trail to the Jade Lakes.
Since this is Labor Day weekend, we thought it likely to be disappointing to continue on to Grand Teton or Yellowstone. So we need better maps so we can cruise the Forest and BLM roads. We found them in the form of the Wyoming Road and Recreation Atlas at an outdoors-gear store called Wind River Gear.
Once re-supplied and better-mapped, we headed north out of Dubois on Horse Creek Road. This soon turned into Forest Road 285. We dropped in to Horse Creek campground to check the prices and availability on this busy weekend and saw they’re charging $15 for a primitive campsite with no potable water nearby and pit toilets. That seems like a bit much.
We wanted to continue exploring anyway so we continued further into the backcountry on FR 285 toward Double Cabin. And what a great decision that was.
The road itself is shown as primitive but the surface was fine—it’s just narrow and winding. The landscape around us just kept getting better and better. Before too many more miles we were looking at Yosemite-type mountains.
Twenty miles in we reached the campground at Double Cabin and we stopped beyond it at the horse camp. I loved seeing twenty-or-so horse trailers in the meadow, the horses corralled in temporary corrals, and white canvas wall tents with wood-stove pipes. From here wilderness trails go off in several directions. We’re in a high valley with rock spires all around. Now THIS is cowboy-camping.
As we drove we had picked out several dispersed-camping sites so we re-traced our steps to the best of those and set up for the night. As I type this, I’ve been watching the shadows creep across the Absoroka Range. I can see a high peak in the distance which has snow on it. LeGeed (our GPS) says we’re at 8500 feet so I’d guess I’m looking at 12,000-footers. All evening long I’ve watched the interplay of light and shadow, sometimes calling attention to one peak, canyon, or high meadow or another. Then with a change of light, an entirely different set of geographic wonders is highlighted.
Nice.

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Friday, 4 September-

With daylight we find we’re in a really, really nice campsite. A small meadow lies beside us and Cottonwood Creek is across the road. The overnight temperature dropped to 42 and once I fired up the GPS I realized why--- we’re at an elevation of over 7000 feet.
After breakfast we walked for an hour or so, just taking the camp road up to its intersection with Green Mountain Loop road and then walking another quarter mile or so to another intersection and then return to the van--- about an hour’s walk total.
With the sun warming things up to the point we could take off our jackets, we decided today’s the day to clean out the ice box. And once we had the cooler out of the van, we might as well clear everything out and sweep out our living space and do a general clean-up.
Once everything was back in place we headed up the mountain. We had come in via a loop road so we took the other side of the loop to go back. This led us up to an altitude of 9400 feet through beautiful pines to wonderful views of the valley below and the nearby mountains. We explored a side road to Wild Horse Overlook and found the views well worth the extra six miles.
By late morning we were back to the hard road and headed toward Lander. But along the way we took the turn to South Pass—the famous Oregon Trail crossing of the Continental Divide.
Our guide book took us off the hard road a few miles to an out-of-the-way historical marker. We realized we had turned onto the Oregon Trail as it crossed the Continental Divide. On our left were the Oregon Bluffs, where emigrants first entered the Oregon Territory. On our right were the peaks of the Wind River Range, beyond which lay Yellowstone National Park.
We walked the Trail to a stone marker put up by Ezra Meeker in 1905 and tried to envision what it would have been like to see the emigrant wagon trains passing this spot.
We then drove back to the hard road and turned for Lander. There we spoke with the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service offices, getting some tips on places to stay and making sure we understand the rules for dispersed camping in BLM and National Forest lands.
We drove for another three hours, pushing through to Brooks Lake campground in the Shoshone National Forest, arriving about a half-hour before dark. While Labashi cooked supper I walked to the lake and found the Yellowstone Trail. It’s possible to walk to Yellowstone National Park from here.
We did a little reading and blogging but we’re tired puppies tonight so that didn’t last long.

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Thursday, 3 September-

We were awakened at 0530 this morning by a worker at the golf course beside our campground. As soon as we had light, he began mowing. I guess they have to get an early start to stay ahead of the early-bird golfers.
After long, luxurious showers we drove to the nearby Register Bluffs site. This is a massive rock face inscribed by pioneers when they camped nearby. The oldest date we saw was 1850 but somewhere on that rock is an 1825 inscription. We’re now a day’s wagon-train travel from Fort Laramie and the area is beautiful. We’re along the river with a flat area perfect for an encampment and for the animals to graze. The bluffs give us a pleasant view and we can see the Laramie Mountains in the distance.
We then moved on to Casper (WY) to visit the Historic Trails Interpretation Center. Though by now we’ve seen and heard a lot, we still learned new things at the Center. One of the fun things we did was to take a virtual wagon ride across the Platt. The ‘wagon’ is a simulator. We sat on crates and barrels in the bed of the wagon and our view out the front was a video screen. Our wagon followed our two trusty oxen down an embankment and into the river, jolting us from side to side and front to back. We saw another wagon ahead of us and it was stuck. As our wagon neared, the other wagon’s wheeltree broke, dumping the driver and supplies into the river, a common occurrence on the Platte. As the men helping with the crossing went to the aid of the other rig’s driver, we managed to skirt by and climb a steep embankment out of the river.
After a late lunch in the van, we drove into Casper to the Lou Taubert Ranch Store (“Nine Floors of Everything for Your Ranch!”). We thought they might have the skort Labashi is looking for and they did indeed have one—but not the ‘right’ one.
We took a brief drive through town to get a feel for it, then went to the Wal-mart to pick up some groceries and have a tire checked. We then moved on to Independence Rock, about an hour southwest of Casper. This geographic anomaly is interesting for its geology but that wasn’t the point for the emigrants. To them, it was an important milepost. If they had made it to Independence Rock by the Independence Day, they were almost assuredly ahead of the Fall snows in the Rockies. Labashi and I walked around about half of Independence Rock but did not climb it.
As darkness neared, we began looking for our campsite for the night. We had found a cryptic entry on a Bureau of Land Management map for a campground. But it turns out that campground can only be reached by trail.
With darkness falling we searched out another campground. This one – Cottonwood Campground-- is 11 miles back a dirt road and up into the mountains. We arrived just as the last light of twilight was fading. Labashi made a scrumptious supper while I walked down to the iron ranger to pay our $6 fee.
We spent about an hour reading and catching up the blog but struggled to keep awake. It has been a long, very fruitful day.

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Wednesday, 2 September-

This morning we went to Ed Carroll Motors, the only dealer for Alaskan-brand truck campers in the lower 48 states. I’ve long been fascinated by these campers, ever since seeing one in the early Seventies. They are unique in that they can raise and lower the top portion of the camper body to provide good gas mileage while travelling and good headspace in camp. They also have hard panels which fold into place rather than a tent fabric for the extended portion. And they are well-insulated and supremely simple. (Unfortunately, they also cost $25,000).
I was disappointed to find that the dealership had just last week sold the last one in stock and they won’t be getting any others in for two months. However, I was able to talk at length with their specialist in these campers.
I really, really like these campers but it only took a half-hour’s conversation with Labashi to realize they aren’t as practical for us as Mocha Joe. First, we don’t have a pickup so we’d have to not only pay the $25K for the unit but that again for a ¾-ton pickup to haul it. Therefore, I think we could replace Mocha Joe (outfitted as we like it) for half the price.
But as we talked through how we’d use it (compared to how we use our van today), we realized there’s a very bad day-to-day usage tradeoff. Today, if one of us has to use our on-board porta-potty, it’s very accessible. Just pull into a parking area, go around to the side doors and there you are. But with a retractable-top truck camper, you’d have to first push the button to raise the top and wait the minute-or-so for that to happen. But once that top has lifted up, the folding panels are not in place. You wouldn’t necessarily have to put them in place just to use the potty but if the weather is rainy or cold, you’d either want to do that to keep out the weather or you’d risk soaking the cab-over mattress. That’s not good!
So, it appears the Alaskan camper isn’t for us. When Mocha Joe needs to be replaced, we’ll probably go with another van-style design.
With that settled, we had a few more little items to do before heading out. We tracked down a General Nutrition Center to buy some protein powder for our morning yogurt/pecan cup breakfast (yummy!) (for our low-carb diet). We also had to track down the local AAA for a map of Wyoming which would meet the navigator’s (Labashi’s) exacting standards.
After a quick lunch in a local park, we headed back up I-25 to Wyoming. Our goal today was Fort Laramie.
At the Fort we learned of the storied history of the Fort. Briefly, it had been put in place as one of a chain of supply forts for emigrants as well as the chief site for treaty negotiations with Indians of the northern Plains. Unfortunately, by the 1870’s it was a key site for staging troops for the Indian Wars on those Plains. Eventually, though, its mission was eclipsed by Fort Robison (which was nearer the reservations) and was shuttered. Today, the Fort has reconstructed buildings, many of which are completely furnished with historically-accurate furniture, clothing and goods.
After our Fort Laramie tour, we drove West about a half-hour to Guernsey, WY where we visited the Oregon Trail Ruts site.
Tonight we camped at a small campground across from the Trail Ruts. You can’t beat $7.50 for a site and hot showers.
We spent the evening blogging and reading.

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Tuesday, 1 September-

We had a doozy of a night last night. In the evening, the wind started building and by bedtime it was howling. We had parked in the open and the wind noise was so bad that we had to move to a more sheltered parking spot close to the Wal-mart building. But we couldn’t get close enough. Though the wind was quieter, it was still rocking the van from side to side, keeping us awake. We thought through everywhere we had been through the day as to whether those locations would offer better protection but none did. Around midnight I went into the Wal-mart to buy two scissors jacks to stabilize the rolling. But they only had one jack in stock, so I gave up on the idea. I wasn’t very happy with it anyway given that I’d have to spend $40 or so. We thought of going to a motel but we had noticed the local Motel 6 was charging $70 a night so that wouldn’t be cheap. I’d rather just stay up all night and then sleep in once the wind dies. And if it didn’t die by morning, we could move to the heavily treed city park (which is closed at night).
But we finally got lucky. Shortly after I returned to the van from my shopping trip for the jacks, the wind began to die. Twenty minutes later, the wind had died enough for us to get to sleep and we slept very heavily until 0700 and awoke refreshed.
We left Chadron with the GPS set for Cheyenne, Wyoming, about three hours away. The drive was wonderful. We had great scenery both nearby and off in the distance (the buttes) as we crossed the very verdant grasslands.
We hadn’t had a full shower for a few days so Labashi wanted to wash her hair. We happened upon a pull-off for an historical marker which was perfect for this. It was deep enough that we were off the road by 50 yards and I was able to park the van across the wind to create a wind-less area with the warming sun directly on us (it was about 60 degrees out this morning).
I heated up two small pots of water to slowly dribble over each other’s hair for the soaping and rinsing processes and we soon were squeaky-clean and refreshed. We like these little road-side adventures—at least in this warmer weather. Washing up outdoors is a lot less fun when the temperature is below 50 or we can’t get out of the wind.
We then carried on toward Cheyenne until the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. This site is the location of an ancient waterhole which existed in a very dry climate. Animals had to stay within walking distance of the waterhole but in dry years they’d eat all the grass within walking distance and die of malnutrition, typically near the waterhole. Over time this left a remarkable bone pile which was uncovered at the turn of the 19th-20th Centuries.
The remarkable find was made by the ranch owner. He invited university specialists to his ranch and scientific history was made.
The rancher also collected Indian artifacts and his collection is also in the visitor’s center.
After our tour of the center, we walked to the nearby fossil digs in the middle of this 90-degree day. The sun was intense but with the low humidity, we were very comfortable. We walked three miles and this time I had my camera along in case of another encounter with a rattlesnake (but no such luck).
After a late lunch we continued to Cheyenne, where we finally were able to get the filet mignon dinner we were looking for yesterday.
I didn’t like the looks of the Wal-mart at Cheyenne (the parking lot sloped too much) so we continued on into Colorado to Fort Collins.
There we found a pleasant little Wal-mart and then drove to the nearby library to spend two hours catching up on email and posting the blog before returning to Chez Wally for the night.

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

2009-08-31T23:59:00.000-04:00

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.

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

2009-08-29T23:59:00.000-04:00

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.

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

2009-08-26T23:59:00.000-04:00

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!

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

2009-08-21T23:59:00.000-04:00

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 ************

2009-08-08T23:59:00.000-04:00

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 ********

2009-07-31T23:59:00.000-04:00

Mocha Joe headliner fix, another groundhog trapped, problem with circuit #25, router problem, Inner Harbor day-trip, ‘Radio Lab’

(posted from home)
(This post covers 22 – 31 July, 2009)

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Friday, 31 July-

I blogged a bit this morning to try to catch up. I then talked Labashi into going to Fuddruckers for lunch, then we returned a pole-light to Lowe’s (we had found another we liked better at Waltersdorf Lighting). On the way home, we were talking about our upcoming trip out West and Labashi mentioned she’d like to have a small laptop so we don’t have to share while we’re on the road. Historically, she has kept a hand-written log but she began writing emails to family on our Alaska trip.
We were near our local Best Buy at the time so we stopped in to look at netbook computers. It appears one would do the job but I don’t know if it makes sense given the lack of a CD drive. I could buy an external CD drive but for the cost I may as well get a lower-end regular laptop. I’ll have to look into this some more and need to get moving on it.
Labashi saw another groundhog under our barn this afternoon so I’d better get the trap re-baited.
After supper I walked my six-mile loop while listening to Morning Report from Saskatchewan podcasts (I love listening to Sheila Coles) then we watched a ‘Closer’ and two ‘Weeds’ episodes.

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Thursday, 30 July-

Oops. I’ve lost track of what I did this morning. Late in the day I walked six miles at Pinchot State Park (from the dam to the water-tank on Ridge Trail) and back while listening to a new podcast. We had heard Ira Glass (on ‘This American Life’) mention ‘Radio Lab’ podcasts so I downloaded six of them today to try out.
I listed to ‘Stress’ and ‘Who Am I’ as I walked. I find the podcasts do a wonderful thing for me. They take up that part of my brain which would otherwise be thinking about the minor discomforts of walking. I don’t think about the little aches and pains – I’m just on cruise-control. I love it!
‘Radio Lab’ turns out to be an excellent walking companion. It has enough of a science component to make me feel like I’m learning something yet it’s really about the story-telling. And I love the fact that they have dozens of episodes on iTunes going back to early 2007. The ‘This American Life’ podcast only has the current podcast up so it’s easy to miss one if I don’t think to fire up iTunes for awhile.
That evening we watched ‘Wild Russia’ and ‘Deadly Catch’ on TV.

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Wednesday, 29 July-

This morning I continued re-doing some of the receptacles and switches on the #25 circuit. Then Labashi and I went shopping for a new pole-light. The old one isn’t causing our problem but the light socket is corroded and it’s time for a new one. That one was probably the original. It has been there the 28 years we’ve lived here and probably was put there when the house was built 32 years ago.
That evening I walked my four-mile out-and-back route, then we watched Closer 3.2.1 and Weeds 4.2.1 episodes.

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Tuesday, 28 July-

Today I drove the Miata to Chambersburg to meet with a property management firm. What a great day for an open-car drive, even though it was quite hot by the time I came home.
That afternoon I wrote an email to my brothers describing what I learned and then went for my six-mile loop walk.

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Monday, 27 July-

Today I spent the day working on circuit #25, trying to isolate the problem which keeps tripping the breaker. I shut down the entrance panel and tightened all the connections, then re-did the outlets and switches. ‘Re-did’ in this case amounted to taking all the wires out of the push-in connections and putting them under the side screws to assure a good connection. I found two somewhat-loose grounds, one very-loose ground, and two fell-out-when-I-touched-it neutrals. But I still can’t figure out why I don’t have power to my front-yard light. It has worked fine for years and is suddenly dead. I can’t get to all the wiring and can’t find the branching-off point to the front yard pole light. More work to come on this.
That evening I walked my six-mile loop, then we watched the last two episodes of ‘This American Life’, Season Two.

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Sunday, 26 July-

Labashi and I went to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor today for an art-break. We visited the American Visionary Art Museum. I had hoped to have a late lunch at their Joy America café but it closed recently when the chef let to open another restaurant. We had been to the café two or three times and always found something new and interesting to try.
After the museum we walked along Key Highway to Harborview, marveling at the new apartments. We were last in the area about five years ago and at the time there was just a big white plywood wall enclosing the construction site. Where we could see through, all we could see were old concrete docks extending into the bay.
Today there are hundreds of brand-new upscale apartments, each with a nice balcony. Unfortunately for the builders, they took too long to finish and now these minimum-$600K apartments don’t have a market and are unlikely to find much of one for years to come (unless you can sell them to bankers).
We used to visit Harborview because our sailing buddy kept his boat at the marina there in winter. We’d visit him on his boat and on one occasion used the boat as our hotel room for a New Year’s weekend visit to the city.
We were amazed to find the marina building had been completely enclosed by new condos and these are occupied.
We were so struck by the change in appearance that I briefly wished I had brought my video camera so I could show our sailing buddy how things have changed since he sold his boat. And that’s when I realized I couldn’t. Our buddy was the guy whose funeral we attended last September in Maine. Rest in peace, Cap.
After Harborview we walked to the nearby Little Havana restaurant for our late lunch. I had a good Cuban sandwich but service was slow and the place was too noisy to just sit back and enjoy.
Afterwards we walked back to the Inner Harbor and sat a bit by the Rusty Scupper then headed home.
That evening we watched ‘Weeds’ 4.1.5, ‘This American Life’ 2.1.3 and 2.1.4, and ‘Closer’ 3.1.5 and 3.1.6.

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Saturday, 25 July-

Today I did my two-and-a-half-hour lawn mowing job in the heat of the day. Though it was quite hot, a light breeze made it tolerable.
I then took the KLR into town for an iced tea at Starbucks and to look around for motorcycle stickers at the Honda shop. I need just the right sticker to cover up a boo-boo on the headlight fairing.
Back home I spent an enjoyable hour or so researching ‘Alaskan’-model truck campers. I’ve been fascinated by these since the early Seventies when my Dad and I saw the original model on a beat-up old Jeep pickup driven by an old man who had made the long, long drive to Alaska. He was one of those crotchety, grumpy old farts who didn’t have much to say but just the look of him and his rig conjured up dreams of making the trip and made it seem possible. If that guy could do it, so could I.
The new-model Alaskan has a unique hard-sided pop-up design which would be great for minimizing wind resistance and eliminating clearance problems but they’re terribly expensive--- $24K for just the truck camper.
That evening we watched a ‘Closer-3’ ep, three ‘This American Life -2’ eps, and two ‘Weeds’ eps.

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Friday, 24 July-

Today I started looking into an odd electrical problem we’ve been having. Twice now we’ve returned home from a weekend-long trip to find a circuit breaker tripped. That circuit has a UPS for Labashi’s PC so when this happens it kills the battery (the battery runs out even if her PC wasn’t on at the time (?!?!)). And today while working in the office I heard the UPS alarm go off. The breaker had just tripped again.
In thinking about what might be overloading the circuit while we’re away, I thought it might be our dehumidifier. But today I found the dehumidifier isn’t on that circuit so it’s a mystery.
This morning I restored my router security. For some reason the router went back to its defaults. I noticed the problem I lost connectivity twice in about ten minutes. When this happens I pull the plug on the router to reboot it and so had done that twice. I then noticed the network name had reverted to the default. This morning I went through the procedures to set up WPA encryption, rename the network SSID, and establish new userID and password for router administration.
In the afternoon I took the Miata into town, first stopping at the town park in Mt. Wolf to shoot basketball for a ½ hour or so on this hot day, then going to the Honda shop in East York to see what they want for a new Gold Wing ($21K).
That evening I walked my six-mile loop then we watched ‘The Closer’ 3.1.1 and ‘Weeds’ 4.1.1 and 4.1.2.

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Thursday, 23 July-

After my morning routine with FitDay and Brainiversity I drove to the Bass Pro in Harrisburg to shop. With the weight loss I needed some more size-L zip-off pants; the XLs are just too baggy now. I love these ultralight ‘World Wide Sportsman’ pants. They’re only $20 a pair (Columbia’s are now $40 and North Face’s $60), last forever, and dry very quickly. They’re particularly useful while traveling. If the day gets warm I can just zip off the lowers and zip them back on when evening cools things off. The one issue with them is a stupidly-designed rear pocket. Your wallet falls way too low, causing you to sit on the wallet while driving. But that’s an easy fix. I just put my wallet in the pocket of one pair and had Labashi run a seam just below it with her sewing machine, then duplicate that line on my other two new pairs. Ahhh—that’s better!
While in the area today, I also had lunch at Fuddruckers, then hit Koups motorcycle shop to look around and buy some o-rings for the KLR and Concours oil filters. I then drove over to Ducky’s Boats in Middletown to see if they have any good deals on a center-console boat for next winter’s Florida trip. But I think I’m going to end up keeping my existing boat.
With the rain today I didn’t walk (and I’m recovering a bit from yesterday’s six miler). That evening we watched the second part of CNN’s ‘Black in America 2’.

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Wednesday, 22 July-

I spent the morning updating the blog, then took on a long-delayed repair. Mocha Joe’s headliner fabric had worked loose right at the windshield. I believe this comes from my use of a sun-shade while he’s parked in our driveway. The sun-shade keeps the sun off the dash and seats but the heat is funneled up to the headliner. Also, as I take the sunshades in and out of the van, I bump up against the headliner, perhaps even snagging it a bit. Over time, the headliner had become detached about two inches back from the glass of the windshield.
I had found a 3-M spray headliner adhesive at Wal-mart months ago and just today got around to trying it. After masking off the area with newspaper and blue-tape, I sprayed on the adhesive in two crossing patterns with a ten-minute set time after each. Then it was simply a matter of carefully rolling the very light material back into place with a bit of stretching to avoid any wrinkles. All in all, it was probably an hour’s job.
That afternoon I went for a six-mile walk at Pinchot State Park. This time I walked from the far end of the Beaver Creek Trail around to the campground entrance station, a remote-feeling section. Shortly after making the turn to retrace my steps back to the car, I was caught in a downpour and was quickly soaked to the skin. And this wasn’t a great section of trail to be caught in the rain since it quickly turned to mud. On the other hand, I soon was like a little kid playing in a mud-puddle. I was already soaked so I might as well enjoy it!
Shortly after I returned home Labashi said our Havahart trap had caught another groundhog. I could see the trap shaking from the poor little guy’s frantic efforts to escape.
I threw a blanket over the trap to calm him down and then took him to a nearby wooded area and released him. That’s two of the four we had seen in the yard in June. I had caught one within a few days back then but the others disappeared until we saw one emerge from under the barn two days ago.
That evening we watched CNN’s ‘Black in America 2’.

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

2009-07-21T23:59:00.000-04:00

‘Phoebe In Wonderland’, BleachWhite, New York trip, ‘Day for Night’, ‘MI-5’, ‘Rashomon’, walk-walk-walk, ‘Man on Wire’

(posted from home)

(This post covers 3 – 21 July, 2009)

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Tuesday, 21 July-

This morning I caught up on email and the web news. In the afternoon I took Mocha Joe to the West York Wal-mart for an oil change. I see I’ve put 10,000 miles on since my oil change just before my Florida trip in February. The Wal-mart oil change seems like a pretty good deal. I had always done my own oil changes up until last summer, just before our Alaska trip. But I found I could basically have them do all the work for about $10 and that included lubing the nine grease fittings, checking the air filter, belts, lights, and fluid levels, and vacuuming the front carpet. The deluxe oil change for my van is $61 but that includes the six quarts of the Mobil One oil I like and an oil filter. With that oil now at $6.27 a quart and a filter around $10, I’d have to pay over $50 just for the oil and filter. So $61 for the job seems very fair, even cheap. Mocha Joe mileage is now 137K.
That evening I walked-four and then we finished watching ‘Man on Wire’, a documentary about Philippe Pettit, the high-wire walker who wire-walked between the New York World Trade Center towers in 1974. This was an amazing story and well worth my highest recommendation.

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Monday, 20 July-

Today Labashi and I both wanted a burger from Fuddrucker’s so drove in for lunch, then did some shopping at Home Depot and Wal-mart.
That afternoon I took on a long-dreaded task. Mocha Joe’s front-passenger window doesn’t go down reliably. The problem has been sporadic but arose again over the weekend as Maypo and I drove around the Tuscarora State Forest.
The window problem is very odd. For several years, Labashi’s window control would not work but the one on my side always would. And mine worked, hers would start working again and would continue working for days at a time.
Eventually, we found the switch (for her window) on my side wouldn’t work as reliably. And for brief periods, neither would work. But then the problem would entirely disappear.
So today I dug out the manual and a can of electrical contact spray. The job of cleaning up the contacts turned out to be remarkably easy. I only had to remove one screw for access, pull the switch mount forward and turn it over. There I could see the wire connections. They are odd but the good news is I could easily get the contact spray in there. I cleaned them up repeatedly, then did the same on my side.
I then removed the battery cables and the chassis ground and cleaned up all the connections and put them back.
The window works but I won’t know for some time whether I’ve resolved the problem. Before starting today, I tried both switches and they worked fine. Only with time will I be able to tell whether I’ve solved this problem.
That evening I walked the six mile loop, then we watched ‘Rashomon’, a Japanese classic film made in 1950. We enjoyed learning about the film and its place in film history though, again, like in watching ‘Day for Night’ we feel we’re missing much of the context that made this a multiple award-winner.

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Sunday, 19 July-

Today I couldn’t stand it any more. I had to get out into the Tuscarora State Forest, just to cruise the roads and look around. I called Maypo and he happened to be free so joined me.
We spent the afternoon driving the dirt roads, stopping occasionally to check something out. By the end of the day we had seen three young bucks (two of them with two-to-three-inch antlerettes, one with just the buttons where antlers are starting to grow), four does, a turkey, and four hawks.
I had told Labashi I may not be home that evening, thinking I might stay at Fowler’s Hollow State Park. But I had to get Maypo back to his truck and at that point it seemed a long way back to the State Forest, so I just continued on home.
It had been a good day in the forest, though. There was an enduro going on around Fowler’s Hollow area and we saw lots of motorcycles. We also toured the Kansas Valley area and walked out to the overlook. We also stopped along Second Narrows Road at the Tuscarora Trail crossing and I realized this is a section of trail I’d like to do, perhaps this Fall.
That evening we watched the second episode of ‘MI-5’, Season One.

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Saturday, 18 July-

Labashi isn’t feeling well today. We were a little concerned when we learned our grandnephew and grandniece had had swine flu a few weeks before our visit. We seemed to be fine after the visit but today’s ‘bug’ makes us wonder.
I had a long Skype video call with Orat today. We played around with Skype’s new screen-share feature. I was surprised to learn I could play a video clip on my computer and Orat could see it on his in real-time and we could even discuss it in real-time while watching.
That afternoon I took a long walk at Pinchot State Park, this one a nine-miler from the dam parking lot to the bridge beyond the campground entrance station and back. To make it last, I also did the spur from the Ridge Trail to the hard road and back and then branched off to walk some of the Lakeside Trail in order to give me more distance and time. The nine miles was plenty as far as my feet were concerned so I was glad to see the car at that point.
That evening we watched the first episode of ‘MI-5’, a Brit television series somewhat like ‘Alias’. We like seeing the details of place, office buildings, homes, cars, etc. and the plot was pretty good.

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Friday, 17 July-

Today I spent much of the day catching up my medical and estate logs. I find them very useful as reminders and as repositories of details but tend to let them go too long between updates (sort of like my blog, no?).
I was planning to walk this afternoon but just as I was preparing to leave, rain started so I put it off.
That evening we had a nice, long Skype conversation with Shilla and Moth, our friends from Boulder. We had great fun catching up since our visit to Boulder last September.

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Thursday, 16 July-

Today I rode the Concours to Chambersburg for meetings with the financial advisor and lawyer for Mom’s estate. Afterward, Maypo and I spent the evening with wings-and-beer on the deck at a local pub, chatting about his new job and about the meetings.

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Wednesday, 15 July-

I was up for another walk today. This time I parked below the Pinchot State Park dam and again walked to the campground entrance station and back— about eight miles total.
That evening we watched ‘Day for Night’, Francois Truffaut’s 1973 homage to film-making. We enjoyed learning about it but don’t quite get why it was historic or worthy of so many awards. The Seventies were a time of great experimentation and looking for answers so perhaps we just don’t have the right context for this film but it doesn’t seem all that special to us. Nevertheless in our effort to ‘fill in the blanks’ in our film education, we’re glad we saw it.

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Tuesday 14 July-

Today I needed to get out in the woods so took a walk at Pinchot State Park. I walked six miles, leaving from the East Mooring area and walking the Lakeside Trail to the Nature Center parking lot, then up to the Ridge Trail and across to the campground entrance station before backtracking that route to the bike.

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Monday, 13 July-

Today Labashi and I headed home in Mocha Joe. We detoured to Corning to visit the Rockwell Museum of Western Art (good, but not outstanding). Afterward we walked Market Street and had lunch at Thali of India, a very nice (and inexpensive) Indian restaurant. We took the bus over to the museum but walked back so I’d guess we walked something on the order of two miles today.
We took our time with our day and ended up on the north side of Harrisburg around supper time. There we realized we were close to Tavern on the Hill, a restaurant we’ve wanted to try. We celebrated splurged with two meals of their filet mignon covered with Roquefort cheese. We learned this restaurant is popular with state government officials and their lobbyists and they were in evidence all around us. I don’t think we’ll be returning.

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Sunday, 12 July –

Today we helped out with prep for the afternoon birthday party and then partied down with the kids. The four-year-old made out like a bandit and we adults had fun ‘helping’ him play with his toys.

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Saturday, 11 July –

Today we two carloads of family went to the Corning Glass Works for a tour. We then stopped at the Village Tavern in Hammondsport for supper—a great choice. I just had appetizers for my main meal but also had an excellent mojito beforehand and than after supper a chocolate martini. I loved seeing all the choices available there and will definitely be back.

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Friday, 10 July-

Today we loaded up Mocha Joe and headed up US15 toward Orat’s home in the Rochester area. We’re invited to a four-year-old’s birthday party so we shopped along the way. After some frustrations, we came up with the perfect gift—a bed-tent. Our little grand-nephew loves to make a ‘fort’ under a blanket-draped table so this ought to appeal to his imagination.
That evening we joined the pre-party party at my niece’s house. I very much enjoyed pulling my little one-year-old grand-niece around the yard in her wagon. The faster you pull, the bigger the smile around her binky! And when it’s roughest, she even flaps her arms, apparently to help us cross the speed-bumps. What a riot! (Here she is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgz1KNVMaUU .

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Thursday, 9 July-

Today Labashi and I met with our local tax-prep guy for the last phase of our financial-checkup review. With the financial world in upheaval, the results almost completely depend on what you think is going to happen in the future. Like any such endeavor, the devil is in the details of the assumptions. Nevertheless this exercise was good for us in that it encouraged us to do a detailed review of our expenses and our budgeting and pointed out a few areas for us to consider changes.
That afternoon I mowed the lawn and considered it equivalent to a three-mile walk.

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Wednesday, 8 July-

Today I took the Miata for a sunny-day ride up to Mechanicsburg. I wanted to see how the motorcycle marketplace is doing. I first stopped at the Harley dealership on the Carlisle Pike. I don’t see much evidence of prices falling, at least not in the price tags. Perhaps you can get a better deal than indicated. But I’m just not that enthusiastic about Harleys. I did take a demo ride on a StreetGlide but found it odd. The sales guy touted it as a performance bike but I don’t see that. It has a batwing fairing with a cut-down windshield and that means I had a lot of wind-blast on my chest and helmet. And the fact that it doesn’t have lowers means my pant-legs were flapping madly. And I was only on some back roads. At interstate speeds, I’d think that would be very disappointing.
I then stopped at the nearby Honda and BMW (Velocity Cycles) shop and saw ridiculous prices on the Gold Wing and the entire BMW line. I wouldn’t even consider paying $24K for a Gold Wing or paying their ‘Prepaid Maintenance Plan’ prices. They’ve got to be kidding.
I repaired to the local Starbucks for an iced tea, then went home and walked my six-mile loop.
That evening we finished up the ‘Corner Gas’ disk.

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Tuesday, 7 July-

Today I rode the Concours over to Lancaster. I first went to the BleachWhite franchise, hoping to get a walk-in appointment to whiten my teeth. I had blundered upon the BleachWhite franchise in York’s Galleria Mall a few months ago. Last week I finally decided to give it a try only to find it had closed. I had to go to the web to find another location.
BleachWhite is a twenty-minute treatment using a special blue-white light and a dental tray with a whitening agent. The blue-white light supposedly opens the ‘pores’ of the tooth enamel to allow the whitening agent to work. The process was very easy and did indeed whiten my teeth about two shades. The cost is normally $100 but I had found an online coupon which reduced it to $75 and considered that a good deal.
I also rode to Trans-Am Cycles in Lititz to pick up oil filters for the Concours and KLR.
That evening I walked my four-mile route, then we watched three episodes of ‘Corner Gas’-Season 3. Labashi is losing interest in it since it’s really just a sit-com but I still enjoy the setting and characters.

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Monday, 6 July-

I spent much of the afternoon cleaning out Mocha Joe in preparation for a trip at the end of the week. This was one of the remove-everything, vacuum-everywhere, and wipe-down the contents of storage boxes. I really need to work on cutting down the amount of dust that comes in past the rear door seals on the forest roads.
That evening I walked-four.

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Sunday, 5 July-

Sunday means a motorcycle ride to the Tollgate Starbucks to read the Sunday Times (and often there’s a Wall Street Journal).

That evening I walked my six-mile loop course and felt great fast-walking it.

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Saturday, 4 July-

Today I took the KLR in to Best Buy and Staples looking for a replacement telephone headset for Labashi. Hers is quite noisy at times and I think she’d like to have a two-muff version. I was surprised to see how limited the selection is so ended up giving up on this little project. On the way home I took a tour of basketball courts to shoot around (I keep the basketball in the KLR’s saddlebag). I’d shoot for a half-hour or so, then move on to the next.
Back home I installed yellow Acerbis hand-guards on the KLR handlebars. I had bought these on a whim several years ago and never installed them once I realized it was going to be a hassle. It took me about two hours to install something that should have taken about twenty minutes if the mounts had been designed properly. As it was it took cutting and fitting to get the mounts to fit. But once on, they look great and will provide yet a bit more of conspicuity, particularly for oncoming drivers. Hopefully these and the bright jersey I wear when I ride the KLR will help oncoming drivers notice me and therefore not turn right in front of me.
That evening we watched ‘Phoebe in Wonderland’, a quirky film about a young girl who longs to be part of her school play and can’t understand why she doesn’t appear to be ‘normal’. If you can handle a movie which blurs the line between reality and fantasy in its storytelling, I can heartily recommend it.
As to Fourth of July fireworks, neighbors around us had an impressive array of the high-powered stuff so we didn’t need to go anywhere!

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Friday, 3 July-

This morning I updated the blog, then rode the KLR into town for a shopping trip. That afternoon I shot around at the basketball court at Shelley Park but when rain started I bolted for home. The rain didn’t last long, so I then walked my regular four-mile route along the creek. I’m happy to report that this summer we have five or six goldfinches flitting around the powerline crossing. I’ve only seen the bluebirds I had been seeing all winter a few times this summer so the goldfinches are a welcome sight. I see the great blue herons and a white heron quite often but seldom see the kingfisher I was seeing nearly every day in winter.

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

2009-07-02T16:50:00.000-04:00

‘My Flesh and Blood’, walking, motorcycle riding
(posted from home)
(This post covers 26 June- 1 July, 2009)-----------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, 1 July-

For some reason I feel compelled to go to town lately. One reason is I normally find a way to run to Starbucks for a venti unsweetened passion tea. But I also feel like I need stuff.
This morning Labashi had a problem with the headset she uses for phone calls so I after mowing the yard in the mid-Eighties heat today, I used that as an excuse to ride into the Staples to try to find a better headset, possibly even a new phone system. But I didn’t see anything that looks like better quality than we already have.
At Tar-ZHAY I bought an el-cheapo basketball and a nice twin-window fan. I’ve not touched a basketball in years. But I’ve recently decided I’d like to shoot some hoops to give me some variety in my workouts.

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Tuesday, 30 June-

After a morning getting my normal routine with Fitday and Brainiversity done, I rode into town on this nice day to hit the Walmart. I picked up the moleskin I need to pad my new work shoes and picked up some more Atkins protein shakes. We really, really like these and one of these sometimes makes up the entire meal.
That evening I did a four-mile fast-walk and jog along the creek. After doing a six-miler Sunday and a four-miler yesterday I was feeling a little slow. I took a caffeine pill and it didn’t seem to do anything at first but after about a half-mile of walking, I felt like jogging (though I didn’t last long!)

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Monday, 29 June-

Labashi took the day to travel with her tea-lady buddies. The three of them get together a couple of times a year and travel somewhere to have tea and chat. Today’s trip is to Chadd’s Ford and they also want to visit a small Utopian community in the Wilmington area.

I mostly worked on the computers today, upgrading to Internet Explorer 8 and bringing the hardware and software drivers up to date and testing everything out afterwards.

That evening I walked the four-mile course along the creek. The creek road has been resurfaced and makes for nice walking but the road is now much thicker and when traffic comes I have to carefully watch my step when I get off the road.

Later on we finished up ‘The $100 Taxi Ride’, season 1, disk 1. I think we’re done with this series.

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Sunday, 28 June-

After a morning on the web, I took my Sunday ride to the Tollgate Starbucks to read the Times.

Back home I walked my six-mile loop. I’ve not done it for a few weeks and it felt very good.

That evening we watched ‘My Flesh and Blood’, an excellent documentary about a single mom who has 13 adopted kids, all disabled. She’s amazing and a saint. I highly recommend this one.

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Saturday, 27 June-

Today I changed the oil on the Concours. I don’t have that many miles (5K) on the last oil change but because I don’t have a garage, I do the change outside so wait for good weather. I’m up to 32K on the bike now and it has some rust on the undercarriage and exhaust pipes. My riding the bike in the winter exposes it to salted roads and that has taken its toll.
With the belly-pan off I got a good look at the exhaust repair I did a few weeks ago and the news isn’t good. The repair cement cracked in several places. I made a run in to Advance Auto for another type of exhaust repair cement but expect it will soon do the same. Between the heat and vibration, I guess I’m not surprised. If this latest repair does the same, I think I’ll try some JB Weld. To replace the exhaust pipe would be expensive given the part is around $200 and requires five or six hours of labor to remove the fairing and replace the entire right-side header. I can mess around with my home-made repairs a few more times and if they all fail I can then opt for the expensive fix.

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Friday, 26 June-

Today I caught up the blog and then made a motorcycle run in to our local Sears store to buy a pair of workboots. I just need simple boots without frills and found a pair of high-top Dickies on sale for $60, normally 75.
Back home I decided to start breaking them in right away and started off on my 4-mile walk along the creek. I finished about 3.5 miles of it before Labashi showed up to rescue me from the thunderstorm just starting. But I was also thankful she picked me up because one of the boots took some skin off the back of my foot. Now I need some moleskin.
We watched several episodes of ‘The $100 Taxi Ride’ that evening and then our regular Moyers and Now shows on PBS.

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

2009-06-26T10:49:00.001-04:00

‘Young Mr. Lincoln’, Michigan trip, Tour-De-Retirement-Homes, Brainiversity
(posted from home)
(This post covers June 8 - 25, 2009)

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Thursday, 25 June-

In Michigan I had read about a brain-training program called ‘Brainiversity’ and had ordered it. I’ve long been interested in ‘Brain Age’ but didn’t want to spend $150 on the Nintendo DS Lite and the game just to find I didn’t like it. The Brainiversity version runs on the PC and costs $20… low enough to take a chance on it.
Today it arrived. After the ultra-simple installation, Labashi and I gave it a run and we both enjoyed it. We’ll see whether this holds up.
I do like the way it works. You have practice sessions in Language, Memory, Math, and Analysis to prepare for a ‘daily exam’. The exam then presents four tests (one each from those categories) and posts your results. The results are tracked from day to day.
I’m hoping to add this to my morning routine of weighing myself, taking my blood pressure, and then recording the results of those as well as what I’ve eaten and what activities I did yesterday in FitDay.
Status on the diet: The original 30-day program ended last week. I dropped 12 pounds but perhaps more importantly my blood pressure dropped from the ‘should begin blood-pressure medication’ to well inside the ‘normal’ range. We are going to re-cycle through the 30-day diet for now, then get off it during our upcoming Fall trip.
That afternoon I jogged the 5K course at Rudy Park in the full heat of the 88-degree day. I had a slight breeze to help out but did have problems cooling down that evening after going to bed. We may have to bring the air conditioner up from the basement soon. Last year we only ran it twice but then again we left about this time for our trip to Alaska.

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Wednesday, 24 June-

My primary chore today was to get the lawn mowed. With temperatures in the mid-Eighties, I chose to mow in mid-afternoon; I need to work on my heat-tolerance. Fortunately, the humidity wasn’t as high here as it had been in Michigan and I had a light breeze so my 2- ½ hours outdoors was actually pretty comfortable.
That evening we watched five episodes of ‘The $100 Taxi Ride’. This is a television series jointly produced by Canada and the UK in which a guy flies into a city and gives a taxi driver $100 to show him the sights. I love the idea but initially found the execution wanting. The guy tries to cram way too much into the tour (and there are two different cities in each half-hour show). But as we watched more episodes, they seemed to improve and we’re looking forward to more.

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Tuesday, 23 June-

Labashi and I once again made the 500-mile drive between Detroit and home today. We had a beautiful day for it and enjoyed listening to four ‘This American Life’ episodes on the iPod.
As we neared home, we celebrated our successful tour-de-retirement-homes with a meal at the Hillside Restaurant.
That evening we watched a documentary about Howard Zinn, a favorite of the Progressive community.

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Monday, 22 June-

Today we did some more chores around the house. I removed the winter cover from the air-conditioning condenser and we enjoyed having a nice, cool afternoon on this very hot and sticky day.
I also spent a few hours attempting to cut down on the number of unwanted phone calls coming in to the answering machine. The new DSL/telephone installation gave us caller-ID so I started making calls to attempt to stop the unwanted calls. I was successful in some cases but there were also cases where the number is hidden or the callers are playing games by not having an opt-out capability. Of eight numbers, I believe I got three of them cut off. The new system also has call-screening and that’s supposed to block up to ten numbers. I could only get one number into the system, however, and had to put in a trouble ticket with AT&T to determine why I can’t add the other nine.

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Sunday, 21 June-

Today I bought and installed two antennas for Labashi’s parents’ DTV conversion. The rabbit-ears just aren’t cutting it. I’m surprised that we are within five miles of the PBS transmitter but have problems getting the signal. I first installed an RCA flat antenna in the kitchen and found the signal only marginally improved until I strung the antenna to a location which looks out the window. That gave a much stronger signal and ended the problems for that one. This also allowed me to eliminate the unsightly rabbit-ears antenna.
The living-room TV was another matter. I considered buying another flat antenna but while checking out the setup, I saw the disconnected cable from an earlier satellite-receiver installation. The satellite dish was still in place on a five-foot mast in the yard. When Mom and Dad ended their subscription, the company merely took the LNB down-converter and the in-home receiver and left the cabling and bare dish in place.
I bought an exterior antenna which looks like a small (about 30”) UFO at the local Radio Shack. While discussing my plan, the Radio Shack guy said I might have a problem if there’s a splitter between the antenna and television since the satellite splitters pass a different frequency. Sure enough, after installation my channel scan only found one channel (while the other tv had found 14 channels). I traced the cable from the mast to its entry into the crawl-space under the house and there found the splitter. After a quick trip to Radio Shack, I replaced the splitter and soon had 15 ultra-clear channels.

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Saturday, 20 June-

Today we made the 500-mile drive back to the Detroit area to take Labashi’s parents home. Our trip went very smoothly, particularly so in Dad’s full-size Buick. It rides smoother than our car and I was amazed to see it get 28 mpg coming east earlier this week, then 25 mpg going west against a fairly strong headwind today.
We didn’t make it to our destination until 1900 so we were all pretty well tired out by the journey.

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Friday, 19 June-

Today we finished up at Bethany Village and drove to the Normandie Ridge retirement community on the west side of York. We toured the common areas and two apartments and had supper in the dining hall—(EXCELLENT crabcakes!)
That afternoon, Labashi’s Dad had expressed an interest in seeing a Catholic retirement village which Labashi had mentioned. Originally we thought it wasn’t of great interest so hadn’t made arrangements to visit. But Labashi got on the phone and just caught the marketing person before she was taking off for the weekend. She very graciously arranged for someone to give us a tour that evening.
We drove to St. Anne’s retirement community in Columbia and had a quick but very thorough tour that evening.

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Thursday, 18 June-

Today we toured Bethany Village East retirement community. We had been introduced to apartments there yesterday but hadn’t seen the common areas.
I split off from the group and drove home to mow the lawn while they toured the Assisted Living and Nursing Care areas (I had seen them on a previous visit with Labashi). I had foolishly gone for a jog the day before we left home, never thinking I should be using my exercise time to mow instead of jog. And as we left I realized I was going to have to take care of the mowing or make arrangements with the lawn-pro guy we use when we’re travelling.
As I arrived home and changed clothes to mow, a rain shower came through and thoroughly soaked the lawn, making the grass a clumpy mess to mow. But I persevered and finished in time to get back to take the group to supper.
We once again dined well in the Bethany West restaurant and then spent an hour or two relaxing in the reading room. Back at the guest house, I spent the evening catching up the blog.

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Wednesday, 17 June-

This morning we briefly toured the nearby Penn Hall retirement facility. My mom lived there for five years so we’re familiar with it and didn’t need the grand tour to give Labashi’s parents a good intro and let them see a few apartments.
We then drove to Mechanicsburg and spent two hours touring the Bethany Village West retirement facility’s independent living apartments.
That evening we dined well in the Bethany Village restaurant and then spent the evening in the guest house.

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Tuesday, 16 June-

We spent several hours touring the Northgate retirement center today. We were very impressed with this facility—it’s really, really nice. The building is only a year old and it super clean, super-modern, and seems more like an upscale hotel but with better rooms than a hotel.
That evening we dined in the restaurant and found it to be one of the best restaurant’s in Chambersburg. We were so impressed we asked if we can dine there even if we aren’t residents. We can, so long as we call ahead for reservations.
After supper I met my brother Maypo for a drink at the Norland Pub. We had a few then returned to the Northgate so I could give Maypo a brief tour and have him meet Labashi’s parents. What a great evening.

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Monday, 15 June-

We travelled from Michigan to Pennsylvania today. ‘We’ in this case is Labashi and I and her parents. We’re traveling in their older Buick and it did really well. It’s more comfortable than our Honda van and gets about the same gas mileage.
We had a later start so supper time found us around Bedford exit. I’ve long wanted to try the Jean Bonnet Tavern which is only five minutes off that exit. That turned out to be a great decision. We had perfect weather to dine on the porch and the food was very good. We also enjoyed a tour of the bed-and-breakfast rooms upstairs and a chat with the restaurant manager. The tavern has been there since 1762 and it has a great feel though it does sit close to the turnpike and to Routes 30 and 31.
After our leisurely meal we took old 30 to Chambersburg and checked in to our rooms at Menno Haven’s Northgate community by 2000.

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Sunday, 14 June-

I spent most of today working on an email problem left over in the DSL installation begun by my sister-in-law. After working with an AT&T technician who finally had to give up and refer me to Microsoft to address an Outlook issue, I thought to update the product to the latest releases and that did it. What a pain. I could receive mail but could not send. And the error simply said there’s something wrong with the To: field yet it was clearly correct.
Late in the afternoon I celebrated the fix by walking to the nearby Starbucks for an iced tea.

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Saturday, 13 June-

Today we drove the nine hours to Michigan. The trip was an easy one and we made it there in time for supper.

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Friday, 12 June-

Today we finished up prep for our Michigan trip and then I spent an hour or two combing the web for some shotgun accessories.
In the afternoon I rode the motorcycle to Rudy park and warmed up on the LifeTrail exercise equipment, then slow-jogged 5K on this very hot day.
That evening we watched Bill Moyers as he and Robert Reich talked about the impact lobbyists have on our government.

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Thursday, 11 June-

Today we prepared for our upcoming trip to Michigan. We’re going to pick up Labashi’s parents out there and drive them back to PA to look at several retirement homes in the area.
Late in the day I received a call from my sister-in-law who was installing a DSL line for her parents. I believe she has most of the problems solved.

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Wednesday, 10 June-

Today I drove to Biglerville to pick up Labashi’s new 14-foot orchard ladder. After much research on the alternatives, we decided an orchard ladder would be the best way for Labashi to trim her Canadian hemlocks and white pines. For the price of the ladder we could have nearly paid for a professional tree trimmer but then again it wouldn’t get done the way she wants it. And she’ll be able to keep the trees trimmed just the way she wants them in the future.
On the way home, I had lunch at Sidney Restaurant in East Berlin. Now there’s a find. It’s a upscale tavern and restaurant and the food was excellent (I had a super quiche). It’s wonderful to find a good restaurant on our rural drive route between home and Chambersburg.
That afternoon I jogged 5K at Rudy Park. I was caught in a light rain storm but that just felt good and by the time I reached the parking lot, the rain was over for my motorcycle ride home.

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Tuesday, 9 June-

Labashi is having sleeping problems we believe are related to the low-carb diet. I spent an hour checking through posts about insomnia on ProteinPower.com and it appears melatonin may help. I have some left over from trying it years ago so she can give it a try. As I remember it from the last time, the melatonin worked well for a day or two, then didn’t really help.
In the afternoon I drove up to a local junkyard that advertises taking junk cars. Good old Cherry Larry is done, I believe. In any case, I’m tired of dealing with problems. The latest is a failed power steering pump. I could get that fixed for about $125 but Larry’s right-side rocker panel is completely rusted out and we use him so little that I think I’m ready to junk him. The going rate is $3 per hundred pounds if I drive it in and $2 a hundred if they have to come pick it up. Hopefully a refill on the power steering pump will allow me to drive it in sometime in the next few weeks. Larry served us well. He has 156,000 miles now and I paid $10K for him in 1997 or so (he’s a ’93) with 38K. I remember feeling lucky to find a van at the time.
That evening we watched ‘Young Mr Lincoln’ with Henry Fonda. This one is a John Ford film about Lincoln’s early years, mostly in Springfield, IL. Very good flick!
We also watched the finale to ‘Out of the Wild’, the series about nine people left in the Alaskan wilderness with no idea how long it would take them to get out. This series was much better than last year’s attempt at this idea (I can’t remember the title). We were particularly impressed with how well these folks did in holding up in the cold weather.

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Monday, 8 June-

I spent the morning updating and posting to my blog. I continue to struggle with time passing so quickly that I forget to keep notes on what I was doing and then have trouble catching up on the blog.
In the afternoon I walked at Pinchot State Park. Today I walked from the east mooring area along the lake to the east parking area, then up to the Ridge Trail and then across the very muddy link trail to the campground office. The latter was horribly muddy and turned into a slough-slog. After circling back past the east parking area, I was passed by a bus-load of joggers and after they passed I began jogging too. I caught up with a couple of stragglers and learned they’re from the Dover Junior High School cross-country club. I was just happy to be able to jog at all, even if it was only for ten minutes or so.
That evening we finished Corner Gas Season 3, disk 1.

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

2009-06-07T19:42:00.002-04:00

‘The Tracker’, ‘La Bete Humaine’, ‘The Boys of Baraka’, ‘Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired’, groundhog adventures, ‘Seducing Doctor Lewis’, FitDay, ‘Doubt’, preparations for pruning.

(posted from home)
(This post covers 23 May to 7 June, 2009)

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Sunday, 7 June-

I of course started off the day with a FitDay update and checked the ProteinPower site to see what’s going on there.
After lunch I rode the Concours down to Tollgate for my tea-and-Sunday-Times and stopped at Lowe’s on the way home to look at other pruner alternatives since the power-pruner we have is pretty heavy when extended out. I’m thinking the power-pruner, which is really just a small chain saw, may not prove all the friendly to use for lopping anything but the larger branches and a manual pruner would be more controllable. When your feet are ten feet off the ground and you’re on a narrow orchard ladder, a heavy, corded chain-saw may not be the right tool to lop a wall of small branches.
I spent the latter part of the day on the web and doing my blog update.

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Saturday, 6 June –

This morning I did a blog update, a FitDay update, and posted a message on the ProteinPower forum describing our experiences thus far, on the 20th day of our 30-day diet.
The rains have finally subsided so I cleaned up the groundhog trap and re-deployed it with new bait. But I think the groundhogs are wary of it now so we’ll just have to try various baits. The one good-news item here is the groundhog family moved out from under the barn and back to the groundhog holes in the woods. That’s where I’ve now moved the trap. Hopefully the groundhogs don’t now decided they need to move back under the barn.
I also helped Labashi research orchard ladders. We’ve been looking at them on the web for the last few days. We need a solution for trimming the Canadian Hemlocks and white pines on our property. They’re threatening to get out of control. They’re about 16-18 feet high and it’s time to top them. They form ‘walls’ of trees (like giant hedges) which define visual boundaries of our property.
After lunch we drove to Boyer’s Nursery in Biglerville to get a first-hand look at a 14-foot orchard ladder. We were able to get up on a twelve-footer (the 14-footer was still packed up). We had thought we’d need a sixteen-footer but it would be expensive to get one shipped in here and I believe the 14-footer would be enough given that we have a long electric pole-pruner. We were at first wary of the orchard ladder because it’s a tripod, i.e., the back side of the ladder is nothing but an aluminum pole. But once we climbed up to the top of the 12-footer, we can see it’s stable and will work much better than a standard stepladder for working among the tree lines. But we still want to do some more testing back home to decide whether to go ahead and buy the orchard ladder.
Late in the day I mowed the lawn and it seemed like a lot of work this time. The grass wasn’t really dry enough and clogged up the mowers. My old early-80’s mower did ok but I like to also run our newer one to give it some exercise and it was a pain today. I had to stop every ten minutes or so and clean out the discharge chute. What a silly design!
That evening we watched the introductory episode of ‘The Expedition’, the re-creation of Stanley and Livingstone’s treks across Africa. Our early impression is it’s a bit too much like ‘Survivor’ in that the producers (under Mark Burnett) seem to have selected people for their potential for interpersonal conflict. These folks are supposed to be professional explorers (whatever that is these days) yet they don’t seem to understand co-operation. But it’s still early in the adventure…

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Friday, 5 June-

Again I spent a long time on FitDay getting food data entered but it’s going to get easier. As I save the info to the ‘Custom Foods’ area, I can now simply click on the item to add it to my food log.
Again we have a rainy day today but fortunately it’s a light rain. I wanted to get out of the house by mid-afternoon so made a run to the Giant for Labashi.
That evening we watched two Corner Gas-3 episodes and then a good Bill Moyers Journal about contracting-out the wars and news being very inadequately done by ‘the punditocracy’ (and learned about a good web source called ‘PressThink’). After that, the ‘Now’ episode was about the dramatic changes in our food production and a new documentary about it called “Food, Inc”.

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Thursday, 4 June-

I spent a few hours on my FitDay update this morning. Getting all the food information entered is a bit of a pain when you have to take a recipe and look up the nutrient info for each ingredient then figure how much one serving is and enter the details in a standard nutrition label.
I had lunch with a buddy from the past, Rabbit. He sent me an email out of the blue a couple of days ago and we ended up meeting for lunch today. We had a good time catching up motorcycling and sailing stuff.
After lunch I hit the Camp Hill Starbucks for a tea-and-Times and then walked five miles at Pinchot in a very light rain.
That evening we watched ‘Doubt’ with Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman. GOOD movie and highly recommended!

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Wednesday, 3 June-

We caught our first groundhog this morning. We actually saw it happen. We noticed the groundhogs out from under the barn and feeding in the general area of the trap. They didn’t seem interested in the trap but then the little one stood up on its hind legs and started sniffing around the trap door. Within a minute it entered and went right for the bait, tripping the door as it reached the goodies.
We took the trap and groundhog to a nearby powerline area well out in the boonies and let the little fella go. Hopefully we can relocate the rest of the family here too.
Back home I spent a few hours setting up a diet tracking program called FitDay. This one is recommended on the Protein Power forum (at www.proteinpower.com) and I at first only looked at it casually. But as I played with the features, I decided I like it quite a lot. We’ll see.
I also worked today on finding another electricity supplier but it appears I don’t really have any choice. Despite the state government’s efforts to ensure competition, there is none in my area. Over the last few days I’ve exchanged emails with the Consumer Advocate’s office and called the Med-Ed Retail Choice Center. But the bottom line remains the same—no choice for me.
That afternoon I walked four miles and used the new LifeTrail stations at Rudy Park. LifeTrail stations are exercise stations for us nearing-60-and-over folks.
That evening we watched ‘Seducing Doctor Lewis’, a Quebecois comedy about the efforts of a remote fishing community to attract a doctor to their village. Not bad!
The film was shot in Harrington Harbor, Quebec and now I want to go there in person. It’s on an island in the far reaches of the St Lawrence, not far from the Quebec-Labrador line.

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Tuesday, 2 June-

Today I drove in to Home Depot and Lowe’s to buy a groundhog trap. I bought a Havahart trap and brought it home and set it up next to the barn in the area we’ve been seeing the groundhogs.
I spent the rest of the day working on the spreadsheet I’m using to compare the Ivy Portfolio to another investing strategy we like. I think we’re going to stick with the other one. The Ivy Portfolio would require a lot of discipline to stay with when it underperforms in a string of bull-market years and I’m not sure we’re willing to do that—even for its benefits of limiting losses in the bad years.
That evening I walked four miles at Pinchot Park (from the east-side mooring area to the campground and back).

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Monday, 1 June –

In our meeting with the financial guy last week we learned he favors an investing strategy based on principles laid out in a book called ‘The Ivy Portfolio’. It sounded interesting enough to check out so I ordered the book last week and spent today going through it and starting a spreadsheet to help me decide whether I’d want to do something like this.
I also spent an hour or so researching groundhog pest control methods. Our local groundhog had up to this point been staying down in the woods and only seemed to have a passing interest in our barn. But over the weekend we saw four groundhogs come out from under the barn. The little ones are very cute but we can’t let this stand.
That evening we watched three Corner Gas- Season 3 episodes.

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Sunday, 31 May-

Sunday! I’ve recently taken to driving or riding to the Tollgate Starbucks on Sundays to sip an iced tea and read the Sunday Times.
That evening we watched the extras from the Polanski documentary.

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Saturday, 30 May-

After some research on the web this morning I decided I should have bought the 500GB portable drive I saw on clearance at Office Max yesterday. My search for zip disks turned up a few disks but they were expensive-- $10 each. And when the drive dies, it will be tough to find a drive and if I do, it won’t be cheap. Time to move on!
The drive is a SimpleTech and it was normally $150 but on clearance for $109. I’ve had good luck with the SimpleTech 120GB drive I use with my laptop so this one should work out well for Labashi to keep her many photos and there will still be space left over to back up her computer.
That evening we watched ‘Roman Polanski, Wanted and Desired’, a good documentary detailing Polanski’s background, his films, and the controversy around his having sex with a 13-year old girl, his 43 days in county jail and his leaving the US to avoid sentencing. I was unaware of the issues around his trial and sentencing and it’s clear the system worked against him and drove him to leave. I’d have no problem with his now being permitted back into the US.

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Friday, 29 May-

Our meeting with the financial specialist went well yesterday but was only the first of three meetings. The specialist gathered info from us and now will prepare his report and recommendations. We’ll then have time to review them in detail, then go back for yet another session to (hopefully) reach a conclusion about where we stand and what changes we should consider for the future.
I had my hands full this morning with office work. The IRS notice turned out to be a missing form problem for which my tax prep specialist apologized. She missed informing me that I needed to send along a court form from the estate with the return.
After lunch Labashi sent me on a mission for some zip disks and some ingredients for our diet from the Farmer’s Market in East York. I continue to love the diet, by the way, so am more than happy to go on such missions.
That evening we watched our regular Friday night PBS shows.

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Thursday, 28 May-

I spent the morning finalizing info for a meeting with a financial planner tomorrow. Our tax-prep service offers a free financial ‘checkup’. These are generally aimed at trying to answer the question ‘Are you on track for retirement?’ but in our case we’re trying to answer the question ‘Are we on track for STAYING retired?’
Maypo called me last night to say a notice from the IRS had arrived in regard to mom’s estate so I buzzed on over to Cburg to pick it up and make sure I understand what’s missing.
I made it back home by 1830 and we watched a documentary called ‘The Boys of Baraka’. It follows at-risk boys from a blighted area of Baltimore as they are selected for and attend a boys’ school in Kenya. The film does a great job of digging into the lives of the boys and their families and giving us a thorough understanding of why the families would consider sending their sons 10,000 miles for an education and how it would make a difference to them. Recommended!

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Wednesday, 27 May-

Today we received a notice from a debt collector saying we owed $10 for a Cycle World subscription. I had had a subscription expire in January so I called Cycle World directly to figure out what’s going on. The explanation was that ‘someone’ had submitted a subscription request but it was later ‘cancelled by the computer’. Apparently the record went to the collection company before the cancellation. The call-center person says he dashed off an electronic notice to the collector and that should be the end of it. But I lost several hours going through the process of determining what the issue was and sending off a claim dispute.
I spent the greater part of the day preparing for tomorrow’s financial meeting.

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Tuesday, 26 May-

I spent the morning working in my office, updating the blog and taking care of some financial tasks—paying bills, organizing records, and handling a credit card problem generated by a compromised VISA database. The latter led to the discovery that the only way to update your credit card on Skype is to buy at least $10 of minutes. Does that seem right? I exchanged emails with their call center but it’s clear that they simply say ‘my way or the highway’ (in a nice way). This is actually a very minor issue for me, though. I’ll just wait until I need additional minutes to provide the updated numbers. It just shouldn’t work that way.

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Monday, 25 May –

We spent much of today shopping for food for the diet. We drove in to the East York Wal-mart instead of our local Giant because we knew we could get some hard-to-find items there. But it still took forever because of the searches for items we don’t normally get.
We returned home late for lunch and then afterward Labashi decided to make a run to the Giant for a few items we never did find at Wal-mart. But we’re not complaining (much!). The recipes from the book have been very, very good. We’re eating excellent food, losing weight, and having no cravings. I’m not sure that lasts long-term but we’re certainly happy with the results thus far.
I also spent a frustrating hour dealing with credit card updates. I’m amazed at how poor some online systems are at this. Verizon’s is particularly bad. I ended up just deciding to wait until tomorrow and do it by phone.

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Sunday, 24 May –

We still had some research to do today for the new diet—just small things, like figuring out portion sizes, total protein requirements, alternatives for pre-packaged protein drinks, etc. I spent an hour or so on proteinpower.com, reading through the postings to get a feel for who the experts are and what questions people have about the diet.
I then buzzed down to the Tollgate Starbucks south of York for a ride and to read the Sunday Times. This Starbucks is a little nicer than the others and always seems to have a free paper to read in the rack. The York one took out the comfortable reading chairs to place more tables (I guess I can’t blame them but it’s not as nice for me).
I of course can’t have any of my favorite Starbucks drinks because they have far too many carbs. But I can have an Americano if I want the caffeine or the unsweetened tea is very nice on a warm day like today.
Late in the day I took a walk for a couple of hours — this one behind the mower. Rains are supposed to be coming so I’d better get ‘er done today.
That evening we watched ‘La Bete Humaine’ (“The Human Beast”), a 1938 French film directed by Jean Renoir and based on an Emile Zola novel. This is a classic tale of deceit. Jean Gabin plays a locomotive engineer who lusts for the stationmaster’s wife. Circumstances drive her into his arms but she tries to get him to kill her husband, making him realize what a mistake he has made. The extras include an introduction by Jean Renoir in later life and we also see him as a younger man as one of the characters. The footage of late-1930’s France and trains is worth the price of admission alone. Recommended!

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Saturday, 23 May-

I spent most of the morning catching up the blog and patrolling my news sites. In the afternoon I continued researching the diet, mostly in comparing the original Protein Power book to the 30-day plan we’re using now (both are by the same authors). The methodologies for figuring things out have changed and they now say you need not limit your protein to the daily recommendation and goes so far as to say you can eat all the protein-only meats (and protein shakes) you desire.
That evening we watched ‘The Tracker’, an Australian film about an aboriginal tracker who is forced to help three white men hunt down an aboriginal man accused of killing a white woman. As the sadistic leader of the group commits heinous acts against others encountered along the way, the hunters find themselves in ever-more perilous conditions. The actor portraying the tracker is David Gulpilil, a name you may not know but a face you’re probably familiar with from ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’ and ‘Walkabout’. Very good movie! And the extra feature about David’s remarkable life is very worth your time.

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2009-05-22T23:59:00.000-04:00

Flu, Chrome, another round of dieting, ‘Johnny Got His Gun’, ‘Bonk’, van leak repair, ‘Burn After Reading’,

(posted from home)
(This post covers 15 – 22 May, 2009)

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Friday, 22 May-

I had to buzz in to the Home Depot again to get more silicone seal to finish the van. I also picked up some Tazo Iced Tea at Starbucks since it’s an ingredient in an upcoming recipe.
Back home I finished up the van and cleaned everything up, then got back to researching questions about the diet.
That evening I went for a walk but only for three miles. The road I normally walk is now covered in stone as part of a resurfacing project and the passing cars covered me with dust.
That evening we watched what is becoming our standard Friday-night lineup. ‘Smart Talk’ on PBS had an interesting interview with Linda Thompson, the woman who upset Harrisburg mayor Steve Reed in the Democratic primary. In her TV interview after the election, she seemed spacey but she did well tonight.
Bill Moyers then had a good show about nationalized health care and the single-payer option which government is failing to pursue. And Now had an interesting show on the rehabilitation of terrorists in Saudi Arabia.

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Thursday, 21 May-

After working with the diet book some more, we decided we needed protein powder. We spent an hour or so researching exactly what we want and then I rode in to the GNC in the Galleria Mall for it.
That afternoon I started my project to find and fix the roof leak. On our last visit to Detroit we had a few days of heavy rains and found a wet curtain. Apparently there was a small drip at the largest window on the left side. I couldn’t figure out how it could be coming down from the roof when I had sealed it well previously. But there’s a decorative trim over the roof-to-van joint which has a vinyl strip. I had sealed the bottom of that strip but not the top. And while sealing the top, I think I spotted the real problem.
Now, I believe the problem isn’t the roof joint but the top of the window seal. I sealed it with an excellent-quality silicone rubber sealant but ran out of sealant about a foot from the end.
I also took a few minutes to put another coating of rubber-roof ‘paint’ around the van’s vent bubble to (hopefully) prolong the life of the sealant.
That evening we watched the Coen film ‘Burn After Reading’ with Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Richard Jenkins. It’s a strange story of attempted blackmail against a low-level CIA analyst by two utter morons. This one wasn’t the Coen brother’s best effort. It was amusing, perhaps even ‘funny’. But for some reason it didn’t have the spark of genius that was ‘Fargo’ or ‘Blood Simple’. Perhaps the extras give us a clue. The brothers tell us they wrote the movie for each of the celebrities because they thought it would be interesting to see them play off each other. It thus seems more like an exercise than an inspired story.

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Wednesday, 20 May-

The diet is going very well. I’ve lost five pounds in two days! I spent the morning continuing to research info about the diet and working in the office. That evening I rode the Concours in to Home Depot to pick up a silicone seal cartridge for tomorrow.
That evening we watched the rest of the ‘Johnny Got His Gun’ extras.
I also finished the book ‘Bonk’. It’s a history of sex researchers and presents many incredible facts and opinions. The author has an irreverent tone and manages to keep the subject light—just the right mix.

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Tuesday, 19 May-

We voted in the primary elections today. It sounds simple but to have any idea who you’re voting for takes some research. Labashi really digs in and prints off a ream of information for me and that’s a big help.
Before going to the poll today I thought I’d try the state’s voting simulator. It worked fine at first. But on a whim I tried the Espanol version and soon ran into a problem. When you select ‘Write In’ on the English version, a keyboard pops up for you to put in your candidate. But on the Spanish version, you select ‘Escribalo Aqui’ but the keyboard doesn’t appear. You can’t write in a candidate or learn how the write in process works from that point on. That’s incredible!!!! With all the concerns about the validity of electronic voting, you’d think this bug would have been found.
At the polling place I received another shock. The sample ballot posted outside the door was the wrong one. It was the one for Wrightsville. And only the Republican sample was posted.
When I asked why only the Republican version was posted, one of the helpful volunteers said ‘That’s probably because there are a lot more Republicans than Democrats who vote here’. What a concept that is! You only provide the helpful sample ballot for the Republicans!
I was so shocked I asked if Democrats were even welcome here. She realized she had made a mistake and asked someone else, who helpfully explained “That’s what they gave us. And that wasn’t the only thing wrong!!” That pretty much exploded my head.
Other than that, the voting process went fine.
That afternoon I walked-four and that evening we watched some of the extras on the ‘Johnny Got His Gun’ DVD where we learned Dalton Trumbo’s history. Interesting guy!

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Monday, 18 May-

This morning we started the new diet. Our last go-round of the Protein Power diet was an eye-opener on how easy it is to lose on an ultra-low carb diet. I think we made the mistake on our last round, though, of limiting our variety far too much. Day after day I’d have the same breakfast (Stauffer’s Chipped Beef) and grew tired of it. We also eventually missed pizza and pastas.
We’re approaching it a bit differently this time. We’re using the menu in “The 30-day Low Carb Diet Solution”. By sticking to this plan we can get some weight off and then at the end of 30 days elect to continue as is or transition to substitutions. In other words, we don’t have to wade through all the mind-boggling array of possibilities to come up with what we’re going to have for the next meal.
Today I also continued working on the sorting old statements, paid bills and caught up the offline blog. In the afternoon I rode the Concours in to town (mostly for a ride) though it was a very windy day. Since the repair of the exhaust system, I’ve been really enjoying my time on the bike.
I also walked my four-mile course today.
That evening we watched ‘Johnny Got His Gun’ with Timothy Bottoms and Jason Robards. We saw this one back in the Seventies and I’ve had it on my Netflix wish list for more than a year. It’s the story of a young World-War I soldier who loses his arms, legs, hearing, and face to a mortar explosion, yet is kept alive in a hospital for years afterward. He’s thought to have no mind but begins communicating with his caretakers.
Recommended! (And I see on RT that a new version of it recently came out).

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Sunday, 17 May-

Labashi and I spent much of today food shopping. It’s time for us to go on a diet again. I generally lose ten or fifteen pounds when we travel and that was true for my Florida trip this winter but I’ve regained it (and we’re not planning a long trip this year until Fall).
We had tried an Atkins-style diet years ago and was very impressed with how it brought blood pressure and cholesterol counts into the good part of the range. On my recent doctor’s visit my blood pressure was higher than expected.
I walked my four-mile out-and-back course today and that evening we watched the “Survivor-Tocantins” finale. We were glad to see ‘JT’ win. And it looks like the cat has come out of the bag on Coach. It appears the whole point of his appearance on Survivor was to ‘build a brand’. And when we learned his book-publisher was in the audience, it all became clear. If he had won Survivor, fine, all the better for the brand, but otherwise his “personality” is merely a publicity thing for ‘brand Coach’, the Viking-samurai-nativeAmerican ‘warrior’. Somehow, the only word that comes to mind is “Loser”.

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Saturday, 16 May-

I’m ready to declare I’m over the flu but it’s a rainy day today so I spent much of it playing with the Google Chrome browser after a quick install this morning. I had switched to Opera some time ago—probably two years back--- when I became frustrated with IE hanging up time after time. I like Opera in general and it fails a lot less than IE but I’m curious whether Chrome is even better. Sometimes a web site will only work correctly with IE (Netflix Instant Movies, for example) so I still occasionally fire it up.
Based just on today’s testing, I seem to get fewer router hangups with Chrome when I view YouTube videos but it’s of course too small a sample.
That evening we finished the ‘Corner Gas’-Season Two disk set. We hit several sub-standard episodes in the middle of the season but quality improved to the point where I’m ready to put Season Three in the Netflix queue.

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Friday, 15 May-

I was still feeling under the weather today (just a minor flu, I think). I posted long-overdue blog updates and patrolled my regular web news sites.
Labashi took care of the lawn mowing since we’re due to have rain for the next few days. That’s normally MY job.
That evening we watched more local election coverage on ‘Smart Talk’, then “Bill Moyers’ Journal” (making the case that Pakistan is not as dangerous as the media suggest) and “Now” (problems with UN peacekeeping).

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2009-05-14T23:59:00.001-04:00

Normandie Ridge visit, ‘Iron Man’, sick days

(posted from home)
(This post covers 9 – 14 May, 2009)

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Thursday, 14 May-

Today was another sick day and I faded even faster today. I went back to bed only an hour or so after rising. I read and slept off and on until mid-afternoon and then watched (of all things) ‘Death Wish’ on Turner Classic Movies channel. ‘Death Wish 3’ came on right after but I couldn’t stand any more. But I was starting to feel a little better toward the end of the day.
That evening we watched ‘Survivor’ and we both cheered when Coach was blindsided and voted off. I suppose the world needs blowhards like Coach but I was glad to see him go.
I was hoping to watch some more Corner Gas but Labashi wanted to see the PCN special on judicial candidates for the upcoming primary elections. In the end I was glad we saw that. Just watching these guys talk for awhile is very helpful in making decisions.

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Wednesday, 13 May –

Well, dang it, I apparently overdid the walking. I woke with a sore thoat and felt a cold coming on. I faded mid-morning and went back to bed. I read a couple of chapters of ‘Bonk’ and slept for two hours.
That evening we watched three episodes of ‘Corner Gas’ (Season 2, Disk 3). Something apparently happened to the writing staff for the last few episodes. We’re descending into recurring predictability and lots of laugh-track.

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Tuesday, 12 May –

Today we went in to York to take a tour of the Normandie Ridge retirement community. This is another of the local continuous-care facilities, i.e., it offers independent, assisted, and nursing care, all under one umbrella company. The apartment layout was excellent and we liked the amenities but there are no current openings and they want prospective residents to buy in now to their plan to build more apartments in the next two years. In this economy, that would be a risk. And if you do get in before the two year mark, you’d have to live with construction noise and dirt.
Afterwards we drove downtown and parked near the library, then went looking for lunch. I wanted to go to a new restaurant, ‘Agrodulce’ but couldn’t find it. It turns out to be near the stadium in a building I thought was still under construction.
After walking up and down George Street, we selected ‘Colesseo’, an Italian restaurant. We ordered a simple Margherita pizza and ran into one of the frustrating things about living in this area. The menu said the pizza has fresh basil on it. But it arrived without basil. The server had no idea why but eventually tracked down the fact that they had run out of basil ‘this morning’ (yeah, right—they had only opened about ten minutes before we arrived!). But rather than tell us about it, they just served up the pizza and hoped we wouldn’t notice.
After the horrors of being shorted the fresh basil on my pizza, my nerves were shot but we somehow bravely struggled on with our lives. We walked on to the library and read the papers. I checked out ‘Bonk’ and ‘The Last Lecture’.
Back home I walked the six-mile loop and then we watched ‘Iron Man’ with Robert Downey, Jr. I thought the movie would be completely over the top but it was surprisingly good. I see RottenTomatoes agrees; it gets a 93% on the Toe-ma-TOM-eter.

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Monday, 11 May-

Today I continued sorting through the investment statements from years back. I needed a way to store them so drove the Miata in to Staples to pick up some expanding ‘wallets’ and thoroughly enjoyed the top-down drive. Since the transmission and exhaust changes, the Miata is more fun than ever to drive.

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Sunday, 10 May-

I spent most of today opening and sorting through years of statements from my parents’ investments. Maypo turned a three-foot-long box of statements over to me to organize and I had been putting it off until today.
Late in the day I walked my six-mile loop course. I was surprised to see it go so well. I was accelerating uphill in the last mile and it felt great! My leg seems to have healed to the point where I don’t have to worry about it any more. Hopefully the knot beside my right knee will continue to slowly go down. It’s a bit tender to the touch but otherwise okay.

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Saturday, 9 May-

This morning I caught up the offline version of the blog and then spent a few hours on the web, mostly on my scan of news sites.
Late in the day I walked the four-mile course along the creek. The road-side foliage has grown incredibly since my last walk. And I saw a Baltimore oriole today!!!

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