July 6, 2007 -- Whitehorse, YT

Today we are in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. We left Toad River last Monday after spending the weekend. We thought we would stay at Toad River until it stopped raining, but we eventually gave up and started moving. He rains have abated, but we still seem to get showers every day. Above see a picture of a moose calf that I described in out last post.

Monday night we stopped at Laird Hot Springs, a Provincial Park, which has two Hot springs Madeline and I went dipping. The spring pool was about four feet deep. As we got closer and closer to the spring, which was at one end of the pool, the water got hotter and hotter, until eventually it was hotter than we could stand. The water was somewhat sulfurous, which I guess is supposed to help cure whatever ails you.

We met some Escapee friends, Mike and Annette; we had met them earlier in Dawson Creek, and have been traveling (Leapfrogging) with them the last several days.

On Tuesday night we stopped at a restaurant, by a lake, that offered free camping and a boat ride, if we ate there (Mukluk Annie’s Salmon Bake). We had a good time. The boat was a pontoon boat, captained by the man who started the restaurant seventeen years ago, is now retired (turned the business over to his sons), and operates the boat for fun. He was a raconteur, and told many entertaining stories about life in the Yukon Territories.

The following day we moved on. We had a minor mishap crossing a bridge which was being worked on by he road crew. The bridge lane was 110 inches wide – our motor home is 101 inches wide. Turns out I did not know where the sides of the motor home were, as accurately as I thought, so we now have some bad scrapes and dents on one side.

We are now in Whitehorse for a few days. Whitehorse is on the Yukon River, and is at the foot of Whitehorse Rapids, a dangerous set of rapids, named because they reminded the Klondike travelers of the heads of white horses. These would-be miners, usually bypassed the rapids, by having a commercial outfit portage their goods, and hired pilots to take their boats through them. They were required by the Canadian government to carry enough supplies to suffice them for a year – over a ton of supplies per person. After bypassing the rapids, the travelers would embark again, to travel up the Yukon River to Dawson City.

This weekend we will visit some of the local museums, catch up on our laundry, hike a little and then leave for the Klondike on Monday.

Toad River, BC June 30, 2007

Today we are in a very nice campground at a place called Toad River, British Columbia. We are about 400 miles out of Dawson Creek and are on our third day of our trip. This campground is on a small pond in the middle of the Canadian Rockies. – a beautiful setting. We will probably stay here a day or two to enjoy the scenery.

So far, while traveling we have seen two bears, a deer, a young caribou, and a large herd of Stone’s sheep. (I think the Stone’s Sheep are a small version of Big Horn Sheep, but probably a different species.)

We could not see the bears long enough to get a picture. They seem to be foraging for berries along the cleared space on the side of the road. One bear stood on his hind feet to look at us as we passed. However, if we stop, the bears disappear, so I think they are shy of human contact.

The herd of sheep was on the side of a mountain road on a steep bank. I think they come to this spot for minerals, as they seem to be nibbling the rocks on the ground. I do know from my nutrition days that animals will crave phosphorous and will go great distances for licks. The same thing with salt, but I think sheep in particular seem to crave high phosphorous licks.

When we got to our campground last night, we found we were camped on a pond, partially backed up by a beaver dam (See photo of pond and beaver hut against mountain backdrop.) Then Madeline spotted a young moose wallowing in the water, ducking its head completely in the water to eat water plants. Across the pond, on the shore Mother Moose was watching to be sure young moose was safe.

June 27, 2007 Dawson,City, BC

We are in Dawson Creek, British Columbia at the southern end of the Alaskan Highway. This is the official Mile Zero. We are just catching upon stuff today – minor repairs, laundry, car washing, bug-on-windshield removal and exciting stuff like that. We will start moving north tomorrow or perhaps the next day. There is a museum we want to see, as well as a pioneer village, with lots of information on the local agriculture.

The trip up here was interesting. We went over prairie in Montana and southern Alberta, with the Rocky Mountains off on the west often showing up. One night we stayed at an awful campground outside of Calgary with the fanciful name of “Whispering Spruce’. The campground was crowded with older trailers and motor homes of semi-permanent residents, with not a tree in sight --- no spruce to whisper to.

As we continued north, the landscape stayed mostly flat, but instead of prairie, became heavily forested with spruce, white birches, alders and poplar trees. Dawson Creek is a little more open and seems to be an agricultural area with many farms.

As we get farther north, the nights become shorter.—about five to six hours.

We are having lots of fun. We are meeting lots of people like us on the same type of trip. Of course, as always, every one has a story to tell.

Merry Widow Gold and Health Mine June 22, 2007

We are now residents of South Dakota. The move was not too bad --- not too many boxes to pack, or appliances to install! We will still get our mail in Texas for a while. When we return from our northern sojourn into Canada and Alaska, we will make arrangements to get the mail situation straightened out.

We had a pleasant trip from Spearfish, South Dakota to here, Basin, Montana. We are north of Butte and south of Helena. We saw elk and deer beside the road on the way o here. We passed the Custer Battlefield on the Little Bighorn, but we did not stop, as we had spent a full day there several years ago. This is pretty country, especially now before everything is dried up. It is difficult to believe this part of the country was occupied only by Indians 150 years ago -- not so long ago to a man (me) who is nearly 75 year old. Sitting Bull was a chief of the Dakota Sioux at that time, and used to regularly war with the invading white man. Later on, after he was forcefully settled on a reservation, he had a chance to visit the cities in the East. He said, he had had no idea there were so many White people, and if had known, he would have realized there was no way they could win their wars. Parenthetically, I wonder what Sitting Bull would have thought about immigration. I guess by his actions, you would have to say he was opposed. This all raises an interesting question about the rights of inhabitants living in a stone age civilization versus settlers with much higher level of technology, and a more developed sense of government and infrastructure. It is pretty obvious how it is going to end!

We are staying at a campground that has an old gold mine (The Merry Widow Mine) on its site. It is up the hill about a quarter of a mile from the campground. What is noteworthy is that there is significant level of radon gas about 500 feet into the mine. Somehow, people have decided that the radon gas helps cure a number of ill such as arthritis, rheumatism, allergies and the like. People come here and pay to be allowed to stay in the mine for several hours. They claim this gives them relief from their ills and pains. There is also a lady living in an RV here who prepare meals for those campers who wish them. Thus at meal time, there is a kind of social hour down where the meals are served, where we can learn about how successful the radon treatment were. It is interesting that folks pay money to breath radon, while other folks pay money to keep radon out of their basements.

Go figure!

On the Road Again, June 18, 2007

Finally, we have hit the road, after an extended stay in Colorado. We spent a lot of time getting ready for our summer trip to Dawson City in the Yukon Territory. We have spent considerable time shopping for an assistive hearing device, and after looking at several versions, settled on one from Williams Sound, a later version of the one we have had, which is getting beaten up. We also had to get glasses replaced for Madeline, some RV repairs, and teeth cleaned and checked, Anyway – finally we are done and we hit the road yesterday, Monday.

Tomorrow, we get South Dakota drivers license, and that will be the final step of our changing our residence to South Dakota. We will still receive mail at both our old Texas address and our new South Dakota address. When we get back from our summer trip, we will give you all our new address.

Not much else to report for now,

Colorado Days, June 3, 2007

We arrived in Colorado before Memorial Day. We are staying in a city campground in Lyons. It is quite pleasant with a creek bubbling and gurgling behind us --- of course, I can’t hear it, but I have been assured that it is pleasant. Madeline says it lulls her to sleep.

We are visiting my daughter, Debbie, who lives in Boulder. Over Memorial Day weekend, my daughter, Diana, who lives in Los Vegas, flew out to visit us and her sister. So all in all we has a festive weekend, and a chance to do a lot of family visiting.

In Boulder, there is an annual 10-kilometer race walk on Memorial Day. There were 50,000 people participating in the event this year, so as you can guess, this was a pretty big thing. It was lots of fun. This year, Debbie, Diana, Madeline and I walked, while Debbie’s husband, who likes to run, ran the event. Along the course, there were people playing in little bands –there was an Elvis impersonator and belly dancers. Some people set their lawn sprinklers along the road, so you could get cooled off. Every mile or two there were people handing out water and Gator-Aid.

The “race” finishes in the University of Colorado football stadium. There, a box of snacks (power bars, cookies made from organic foodstuffs, etc) and a bottle of soda or a can of beer are handed out. Then two real races are started inside the stadium with several teams of women and then men from countries such as China, Japan, Kenya, and Mexico race a 10 kilometer race. The race starts and ends in the stadium, with the main course outside in the streets. At the mid-point, the runners come into the stadium and circle the track once. The whole race is televised on to two screens in the stadium, so it is possible to sit there and watch the entire race start, develop and finish! Lots of fun.

There is also a 3-day Craft Fair in Boulder, which we went to on the day preceding Memorial Day. In addition to crafts, there is a small midway, also lots of music, and venders selling lots of stuff, but also handing out enough free food samples, to feed you for a day!

We are getting lots of chores done, in preparation for our trip to the Klondike and the Alaskan panhandle. Not very exciting stuff to talk about.

Desert Adventures, May 19, 2007

Since our last posting, we have been moving about a bit and are now in Torrey, Utah, between Capital Reef National Park and Grand Escalante National Monument. I will relate some of our travels and adventures, which will have a few pictures.

Two weeks ago we were in Blanding, resting and watching a small snowstorm. From there we went west to Natural Bridges National Monument. In this National Monument there are three natural bridges. We had visited them the previous week, but arrived so late, we only had time to visit one bridge, of which there was a picture in our previous post. This time we hiked to the other two bridges. Each natural bridge has its own beauty, and they are all different -- different because one is quite old, and has no active stream under it. Another is middle aged and another quite young and still in the process of getting larger. (Natural Bridges are formed as the result of streams in horseshoe bends in meandering and deepening canyons, finally cutting through the "legs" of the horseshoe.) A picture of one of the aging natural bridges is above. right.

Here, it seems almost everywhere, there were ruins of ancient native American dwellings and petroglyphs. On the left there is a sample of the petroglyphs seen at this Natural Bridges Monument. These are thought to be about 1,000 to 1,500 year old. The images are obviously of wild animals. These differ somewhat from images of older petroglyphs and pictographs, which are discussed further, below.

From Natural Bridges National Monument, we traveled to the other side of the Colorado River, crossing by bridge at the extreme northern end of Lake Powell. The scenery was fabulous and beyond my ability to describe adequately. It was quite warm on the cliffs overlooking the river/lake, while there were beautiful snow capped mountains in the background. An example of what I am describing is on the right.

We finally landed up near Goblin State Park. The State park campground had no hookups, so we decided to boondock at a BLM campground, where running our generator would not annoy other campers. Also we are trying to get some boondocking experience with out new (to us) rig to see what is needed to improve our abilities to be self sustaining.

Goblin State Park is interesting. The park is on the edge of the San Rafael Swell, huge anticline, characterized by spectacular cliffs, canyons, and high plateaus. The Goblins are red round boulders of various sizes, posed on top of each other. These are the remains old ancient tidal waters. The formations resemble goblins to some people, and mushrooms and toadstools to others. The soil (which must of been mud at an earlier time) holding these boulders together is

being eroded. What is amazing that we were

allowed to walk and crawl about these formations, which must cover an area of about 100 acres. A picture of typical "goblins' is on the right.

While here we also did some four-wheeling on the back roads. originally we had planned to go to the Maize District of Canyonlands. However this proved to be a long drive. Four -wheeling in the Maize District seems to be designed for those willing to take a 3-day trip, pack extra fuel, etc -- a little too primitive for us. Hiking and back packing in that area is said to be fabulous, but perhaps more for those young in body as well as young at heart.

On the left see me negotiating large rocks. Below see a high balancing rock. This is on a spire that is perhaps thirty feet high, and this is one of the sights we saw on our back-road trip.

Instead of going to the Maize in Canyonlands NP, we opted for a seven-mile hike up Horseshoe Canyon, a part of the western section of Canyonlands

National Park. The was the famed Grand Gallery,

a collection of very ancient pictographs, and sometimes combination of pictographs and petroglyphs. A picture of Madeline and I under the Gallery is on the right. The pictographs are on a cliff perhaps twenty feet above the ground. Th panal extends about one hundred feet. while it is possible to get quite close to the pictures, there is a chain barrier to prevent this.

We got a special treat. We had arrived at the sit around noon, ate lunch, and took photos. Then a ranger appeared, having hiked in. He ate his lunch and visited with us and a few other hikers. Then he walked off to the pictographs on the cliff, unhooked the barrier chain,and said" Come on, let me show you how the look up close. Just be sure you don't touch them, as the grease from your fingers will destroy the paint. He then proceeded to show us all of the pictograph, and we were right next to them -- as if in an art museum!

These pictographs differ from any we had seen earlier. For on thing most of the figures had no arms. The body was decorated with stripes and various types of designs. These pictographs are said to be from the "barrier' period. They are at least

2,000 years old, and perhaps as much as 8,000 years old. Unlike some other rock art, they definitely are not Native American graffiti. Some of the symbols and signs seem to represent a calender, and some of the alignment of figures seem to be aligned with summer and winter solstice. There are a number of slot canyons in the area, that are quite amenable to hiking. One day we hiked up one of them, Wild Horse Creek Canyon. The canyon, while very beautiful, at times became quite narrow (see picture on the left). Sometimes one could barely pass through. it was a beautiful hike, and timely for the middle of the day, since one was usually in the shade.

From the Saint Rafeal Swell area we moved to Capital Reef-Grand Escalante area. Originally we planned to hike and four wheel in Grand Escalante., but again we found the facilities for nearby activities, too primitive for our taste, and the distance too great for comfortable facilities. We need to try another time when we are a little fresher.

We have had some good time, however. Mostly we have been riding about--sightseeing. One day we took a nice long trip along the Water Pocket fold. This is a long chain of cliffs, caused by folding of the earth, and probably was responsible for the name "Capital Reef". There are only occasional ways to cross this "Reef" through occasional canyons cut by creek. The scenery is spectacular.

We will be here a few more days, then we leave for Boulder, where we will meet up with family, and get ourselves ready for our next adventure; a trip to the Klondike.

Pictures Arizona/Utah May 6, 2007

These two pictures were taken in the San Juan River Valley, near Bluff, Utah. The archaic ruins are in remarkably good shape. The Petroglyphs are extensive. This is a sample of some of the best ones.
Below, see a photo of one of the natural bridges, in Natural Bridge National monument. This is said to be the second largest in US, second to Rainbow Bridge which is on the shore of Lake Powell in Glen Canyon.

Below is a picture of me at the base of the Superstition Mountains, near Phoenix.

A beautiful desert sunset. It always makes me feel good to be out here again.

The Goosnecks in Gooseneck State Park. The meandering river became trapped, when the Colorado Plateau rose.

Southeastern Utah, May 6, 2007

Since our last posting, we have been on the move!

We went from Phoenix up to Prescott, AZ, where we camped (boondocked) in a beautiful National Forest campground out in the woods. Madeline’s brother lives in Prescott, so we had a chance to do some more family visiting. Madeline’s nephew, Clayton, has recently bought a house and spends half his time living with his mother and dad, and the rest of the time living in his house. The house is a fixer-upper, so he had lots to do. Clayton is in his finishing year in junior College. He is also works as a fire fighter, working on forest fires. The summer season for his work is fast approaching.

After a few days in Prescott, catching up on errands, reading mail, and family visiting, we drove north, ending up in Bluff, Utah. Bluff is a small village in Southeastern Utah. It is on the edge if the Navajo Indian reservation and was settled in the late 1800’s by Mormon pioneers. The pioneer’s trip to Bluff was an interesting one. They made a trail south and more or less blasted a passage across the Colorado River at a place nor called “Hole in the Rock” They then worked their way east more or less following the San Juan River. What they did not realize was that they were blocked by an escarpment called Comb Ridge. They tried to bypass the escarpment by going to the San Juan River and following it up. This they did, but after tremendous work, since Comb Ridge goes down to the San Juan River. Finally, six months after starting their journey, the pioneers reached the area which is now known as Bluff, which was short of their original destination. They decided enough was enough, and they settled at Bluff.

We have had several adventurous trips from Bluff. One day we went to Goosenecks Canyon. This is a place where the San Juan River once meandered. Then the Colorado Plateau gradually rose, making the meandering river into a deep meandering canyon. We also took a road north from the canyon. The paved road suddenly turned into dirt road and proceeded to climb, with a series of hair-pin curves, up the side of a cliff to the top of a plateau. From this plateau we drove out to a spot overlooking the canyon some 1000 to 1500 feet below! Off to the distance we could see the spires of Monument Valley.

Another part of a same trip was through “Valley of the Gods”. This is is sort of a poor man’s Monument Valley, with lots of striking rock formations out in the desert.

We have spent quite a bit of time looking at archaic Indian ruins as well as petroglyphs. One day we visited Hovenweep National Monument. This is set of striking ruins in a canyon, and also on top of the canyon. The ruins were in fairly good shape, after some stabilization by the government people. The most striking thing about then were several high towers in building both in he canyon and on the rim of the canyon.

Last Thursday, we visited some interesting archaic Indian sites down on he San Juan River. These can only be reached by hiking, rafting or a 10 mile ride with 4-wheel drive. (We drove.) It was a pretty trip over fairly rough road down a long wash. We got a little lost a couple of times, but that added to the fun. Finally we came to two pueblo ruins set under cliffs. These were in remarkable shape. One could walk into the ruins and look at everything carefully. There were traces of corn and other seeds, shards of pottery. What an experience to see these thing, almost as if you were the first one ever to be there since they were abandoned 1000 years ago.

From there we drove on and at the end of the “road”, we found a cliff just full of petroglyphs. These were beautiful – really striking – and among the nicest we have ever seen. While there we ran across a midden ((refuse pile) full of pottery shards, flint striking and some curious stones that looked like broken grinding stones.

We have now left Bluff, moving north a few miles to Blanding. We are a little higher elevation, and yesterday it snowed. So much about our concern about wanting to be here before it gets too hot!

April 21, 2007 - Out West Again

Since our past posting from Red Bay, Alabama, we have moved on to the West.

We got the work completed on the RV and moved on to Austin, TX, taking several days to get there. We visited my grandson Chris, and his wife Erin and their four children – my great grandchildren! We had a nice visit and got a chance to eat several meals together. Chris and Erin recently moved from Los Vegas, and they are enjoying their new home. I think they like the chance to see grass and trees again!

From Austin, we worked our way to Phoenix, and today we are at Los Dutchman State Park by the Superstition Mountains. It seemed wonderful to get west to the wide open spaces again. The desert flowers were in bloom as we came into New Mexico. As always they are beautiful and are in such contrast to the relatively stark desert. Many cacti are also in bloom. I am attaching a couple of pictures.

It seems to be much dryer in the Tucson-Phoenix area than the eastern part of the state. Although there are some desert flowers here in the park the spectacular desert poppies did not bloom this year. (They seem to bloom about once every 5-7 years, depending, I suppose, on the level of winter rain.

Our nephew, Sterling, is finishing college here. Tomorrow, Madeline’s brother and sister in law, Spencer and Annie (Sterling’s mother and dad) are coming to visit, and we will have a family barbeque.

From here we will move on to Prescott, and then on to Southern Utah. We will be visiting some of the canyons and back country there. Our schedule is still open. We do need to get to Boulder, CO in time for the 8k walk/run on Memorial Day weekend --- part of the annual Boulder-Boulder celebration.

April 7, 2007 From Here to There

From Here to There, Back Again, and On to Somewhere Else

Since our last posting, we have had a chance to do a lot of visiting family, and made stops to have the RV worked on.

We left Jacksonville, FL and traveled east to Inverness to visit my sister, Dona and my neice, Nan. The visit was very pleasant. Nan lives out in the country, and has electrical, water, and sewer hookups next to her house. This means we can park our RV there, relax in the quiet of the country, and only hear good country noise such as the singing of the birds, and the rat-a- tat-tat of the woodpeckers. We had a wonderful visit with my sister, who lives in an assisted living facility. I spent much of the week there playing their favorite card game, Hand and Foot. In one case I was badly beaten by one of Dona’s friends who was 96 years old. Fortunately, the game can also be played with partners, and later she was my partner and we won.

While in Inveness, Dona, Nan and I drove down to the Saint Petersburg area to visit our cousin, Sonny. He was raised on a farm in Maine. When Dona and I were children, we went on an annual trip with our mother, to visit our aunt and uncle, and our cousins – a trip of which I have warm memories.

From Inverness we returned to Jacksonville to pick up our glasses. My new glasses did not seem quite right, but I thought I should give them a trail for a few days. From Jacksonville we drove to Gaffney, SC to Freightliner Service to get our RV serviced. Freightliner chassis’s are manufactured in Gaffney, and their best facility for servicing Freightliner RV chassis is located there. The service was uneventful, but several items requiring repair, covered by warranty were found, and fixed,

While at Gaffney we visited the Cowpens National Battlefield. Think about it.

It was January in the middle of winter in 1781. The British in America were trying to control an insurgency. Already, the British had been driven out of Boston, and many in England thought that the New England States were lost to the Empire, and the British should let them go, and keep the rest of the colonies. While the British did occupy the American capital, Philadelphia, they had suffered a humiliating defeat in Northern New York at Saratoga. They were defeated by, what were thought to be, a rag-tag, poorly trained army, many who came from their farms, fought for a month, and then disappeared, returning home again.

The Southern colonies were in, what amounted to, a state of civil war. To support colonist loyal to Great Britain, a British army landed in Charleston, a major defeat for the insurgents. Meanwhile the colonist loyal to Great Britton, were defeated by revolting colonist at Kings Mountain, in North Carolina. While the British believed most of the colonist in Southern colonies wished to stay under English rule, those colonist were decisively beaten at King’s Mountain.

To support the revolting colonist and to confront the British army, American troops were sent south. They knew British troops would be sent to fight them. They chose to fight them at Cowpens. Cowpens was in san area on top of a rise, astride a cross roads, surrounded by ravines. It was a place with adequate forage for animals, hence its name.

The American army waited through the night, and just before dawn the British army appeared. The British probably attacked before they were fully deployed. Whatever the case, as the battle developed, the rifles of the American army proved superior to the British muskets. As the battle progressed, by mistake a portion of the American army started a retreat. The British followed closely. The mistaken retreat was corrected, and the Americans army turned and fired point-blank into the British army. Within an hour the battle was over, and the British army was defeated, with much of the force either killed or taken prisoner.

This decisive loss was the beginning of the end of the British occupation of America. The British continued to try to track and defeat the American army. However, within nine months, the British army surrendered at Yorktown, the last major engagement of the Revolutionary War.

The battlefield at Cowpens today is a peaceful place. However, seeing the surrounding terrain, and reading about what occurred there gives one pause. What lessons can be learned from the past, so that a better ways can be found to settle disputes over territory and government? Who are the heroes and who are the demons in these contests? How you look at it seems to depend on your previous point of view.

Our time in Gaffney was pleasant. The dogwoods and redbuds were in full bloom. Driving in the country side one could see beautiful peach orchards in full-bloom.

We left Gaffney and went to visit our niece and her child in Fort Mill, SC, just south Charlotte, NC. By chance another niece and her child were visiting her, so we had a nice time, at an evening picnic, catching up on what is going on.

From Fort Mill, we returned to Jacksonville, FL. The prescription for my new glasses was not working, so I had to get another prescription. The new glasses are to be mailed to me here in Alabama, Monday.

From Jacksonville, we drove to Red Bay, Alabama. This is the small town where our RV was manufactured, and where, we found, is the best and least expensive place to get out RV repaired. We went into the repair shop this week. We had a window replaced (the seal on the thermo-pane was blown.), and some additional electrical outlets installed for the computer and a light added over the counter. Unfortunately, while making another repair, the mechanics put a big ding in the body paint, so now we are awaiting a paint touch-up. We hope to get out of here the middle of next week.

Meanwhile, it has gone from very warm to cold! Last night it is even too cold for the heat pump to work, so Madeline and I have a contest, to see who gets up first in the morning to turn the furnace on.

Happy Easter, everyone

Jacksonville, Florida - March 11, 2007

We spent the last week at the Mayo Clinic at Jacksonville, Florida. We have been poked, prodded, and photograged, inside and out. We are happy to report that we are both in good health; the only attention needed is new glasses for both of us.

Today we are off to visit family in Inverness, Florida.

March 3, 2007 Kennedy Space Center

Yesterday Madeline and I visited the Kennedy Space Center. There is much to see there; we arrived at 9:30 am and left at 6:00 pm and even then did not see everything!

At Cape Kennedy there is a Visitor’s Center with a number of interesting displays and an IMAX Theater. There is also a display of many of the famous rockets, rocket engines, and space capsules. See the photo of Madeline Skywalker driving her space capsule. It is interesting to note that the early developments of rocketry essentially were part of an overall military mission, with a lot of competition between the army and the air force, and of course a lot of competition between the US and the USSR. It seems to me that the development of rockets for military use is pretty much a mature science now, and as funds become available they are pretty much truly used for the peaceful development of space. A little more on that later.

The most interesting part pf the visit to the Kennedy Space Center was a bus tour through the center which had three stops at areas of interest. At one stop we got a view of one of the launching pads, about a half mile away. There was a rocket with a space shuttle attached being readied for launch. See the accompanying picture. The orange tip is the liquid fuel tank, which is discarded after use. The two white tips are the tops of the solid fuel boosters. The space shuttle, which can’t be seen here, is attached to the large orange fuel tank. Later, we were able to go into a space shuttle. I was surprised how large it is. There are two decks – one where the pilots fly and a lower deck where the living quarters are. The area in which cargo is carried a huge. The black heat shield tiles cover the entire bottom and a large part of the side of the shuttle. I can see how tiles could be knocked off or broken fairly easily. Formerly, space capsules reentered the atmosphere from the rear, and the heat shield was pretty much protected during the ascent, when the shuttle was sent into space. The shuttle reenters the atmosphere front ways in sort of a pancake fashion. The heat tiles have not been protected during ascent. There is a picture here of the front of the shuttle.

We visited the assembly area where the components of the International Space Station (Skylab) are assembled. What was interesting here was the truly international aspect of the endeavor. For example we observed one section being assembled by the Japanese, and another by a consortium of Europeans. These sections of the station are designed and developed by the individual countries but launched either by the USA or the Russians. This seems to be an area where countries are making an effort to cooperate in what at one time was an area of potential military conflict.

The Thirty Years War - What Can We Learn?

I listen to history lessons on CD’s from the Teaching Company. Lately I have been learning about the Wars of Religion which culminated with the Thirty Years War. The Thirty Years War started as a civil war in The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) --- primarily Germany and Austria --- and became what was perhaps the first European international war involving not only the HRE, but also Denmark, Sweden, France, Spain, with financial support from England and Holland.

The causes and of the war are many, since many of the countries had their own agenda, but the initially cause of the civil war was clearly a struggle between Catholics and Protestants in what is now Germany, with the emperor trying to force Catholicism upon all his subjects. The war was devastating to Germany. Nearly one-third of the population was killed. Agriculture was ruined because the war was fought on the fields. The Emperor essentially lost his power, for the peace treaty allowed each German prince to decide the religion within the area he ruled.

Why did Denmark, Sweden, France and Spain become involved? Why did Netherlands and England give financial support? The reasons are involved, but France and England were concerned that a strong Germany would threaten the balance of power. Netherlands wanted independence from Spain. Denmark and Sweden sought an opportunistic seizure of land on the Baltic cost. Spain was a champion of the Counter Reformation, and was allied with the HRE. The King of Spain was related to the emperor of the HRE. Except for the destruction of the power of Germany – certainly not the goal at the start of the civil war, little positive was attained by this dreadful and destructive war. Religion toleration was about the same, except that Calvinism was recognized as an acceptable religion, in addition to Catholicism and Lutheranism.

One needs to contemplate some of the terrible and bloody struggles that have occurred in the past, and see if there are lesson to be applied to situations today.. The Thirty Years War occurred from 1618 to 1648 and started primarily from one group trying to force an ideology on another group. Any sensible person can see that there must have been a better way, negotiations, compromises and tolerance to accomplish objectives. The similarity to conditions among the Christian populations in the 1600’s and the Moslem populations in the 2000’s seems obvious. What can we do to insure there is not another Thirty Years War?

Street Painting, Feb 26, 2007

This weekend Madeline and I, and with our grandchildren and their family, went to a Street Painting Festival in Lake Worth, Florida. This is a street fair that has become an annual affair in Lake Worth (name of a city). Street Painting, using chalk – not paint – is said to be an Italian tradition dating back to the 1500’s. More recently, annual street fairs, featuring street painting have become popular in California.

The street painting festival here had both local artists and artists that participate in competitions from various parts of the country. Much of the street art is a copy of a well-known painting. Other presentations are copies from photographs, magazine covers, or about any picture that has caught the artist’s eye. I am told some of the street art is original art, but for the most part, it appeared to me most of the artists were working from some type of printed picture.

I have included a few samples of the street paintings that were being made during our visit. I am told this festival is unusual, in that spectators are allowed to go right up to the street painting, and not have to view it from the distance.

There was also a section set aside where children and aspiring artist could try their hand in making street art. There was also music, lots of food, and various form of entertainment to fill out the festival.

This is our last week in Southern Florida. Later in the week we will be moving. We are planning to visit the Space Center in Cape Canaveral next weekend, and then move on to Jacksonville to go to have annual medical checkups at the Mayo Clinic.

2/14/2007 Down Memory Laine

Frankie Laine died last week at the age of 93. His death brought to mind his many renditions, recorded over many years. According to Wikapedia, his first big hit was, That’s My Desire, released back in 1947, when I was a teenager – 15 years old. So Frankie Laine singing career and my attention to popular music must have traveled down the road together. I was certainly aware of Frankie Laine in 1947 and I recall That’s My Desire. But at that time my major interest in music was Benny Goodman, and Stan Kenton. This was the later part of the age of the big bands. Another big favorite of mine was Spike Jones, with his, what we thought hilarious, spoofing of popular music. Clyde Slade, a wonerful friend who introduced me to popular music, could mimic an entire Spike Jones record such as “Tea for Two”.

But back to Frankie Laine. One record I remember well was “Jezebel” (“If Ever a Devil was born --- Without a pair of horns--- Jezebel--- [pause for one or two measures] “it was you.” In those youthful days of unrequited teenage love, full of hormones -- this song rendered tremendous emotion!

I never thought Frankie Laine’s music was great in the sense it would last generations – but it was a catchy and many of his songs were among the top ten on the Hit Parade. (Who among you, dear reader, remembers the Lucky Strike Hit Parade, first on radio and later on Sunday night TV? Indeed who among you remembers Lucky Strikes, or “LSMFT”, or “Lucky Green Goes to War”? I must admit I just barely remember when the Lucky Strike package was green rather than red, black and white.)

At any rate as I grew older I was particularly fond of Frankie Laine’s, Cry of the Wild Goose (“Wild goose, brother goose which is best, a wandering fool or a heart at rest?” (Rise and fall of trumpets, sounding perhaps like a wild goose traveling). Probably I should get this to accompany Willie Nelson’s, On the Road Again, to play when we hit the road in our RV.

Later as I grew older, it seemed as if Frankie Laine’s recordings had less substance, but were still memorable, and the lyrics catchy. It was almost impossible to get out of your mind some of the corny stanzas from tunes such as Mule Train (‘There’s a Bible in the pack for the Reverend Mr. Black”) or Cool Water (“Keep a movin’ Dan, he’s a devil not a man, spreads the burning sand with water” [rest for a measure] “cool, clear water. [Chorus singing “Water water.”)

It is nice to think back to the days when Frankie Laine was releasing records. Those year span from my teen age years, through college days and the early years of my marriage, and are times I recall with pleasure.

Back in the USA

We were gone last week on a seven-day cruise. We went with Madeline's brother, John and sister-in-law, Katie. We had a wonderful time -- eating too much and being spoiled with too much service. we visited three places; Nassau in the Bahamas, Saint Thomas and Saint Maartens. We had good weather almost all the time and missed the terrible storms that occurred here in Florida. We returned to a wet and coldish rainy day, but arrived in time to watch the Super Bowl on TV last evening.

There is not too much else to report, except that we have been out of circulation for a week and missing most of the World news, which recently has not been very good news ( so a good thing to miss it for a while!)

More from Florida

I took a picture on my walk today to give you an idea of the surroundings here in John Prince County Park. This picture is taken from the road looking across a slough. (At least we would call it a slough in Missouri.) If you look carefully, you can see a Great Egret wading in the water, fishing (or maybe frogging?). To the left up, on the land is a Great Blue Heron, who seems to be just hanging around. There are at least three kinds of herons here. In addition to the Great Blue, there are Tricolored Herons and Green Herons.

Last weekend I went up to Inverness, FL to visit family members. Inverness is perhaps 150 to 200 miles north of here. It is amazing how the climate changes here in Florida by going such a small distance north. It was, at least ten degrees cooler, cooler enough so that long pants rather than shorts were called for.

Whereas the dominant feature here in the Fort Worth area, is either ocean or wetlands, Inverness is dominated by low rolling hill with intermittent areas of wetland. There is a lot of calcium rock there, remains, I suppose from the time when Florida was covered by a shallow sea. There are considerable phosphate deposits in northern Florida, and these are the result of the remains of small organisms, diatom-like, I suppose from when the area was covered by a shallow sea.

When one thinks of Florida agriculture, one thinks of oranges. Over the years the orange growing has moved south because of occasional freezing weather which can kill orange trees. I wonder what effect global warming will have on the location of orange groves in the future. Tomatoes and strawberries are wonderful Florida products and are just coming into the stores now. In this area there is a significant immigrant population, which I am told is involved in vegetable farming. Guatemalans are particularly prominent. On Sundays, one sees teams of Guatemalans playing soccer. Family picnics and get-togethers in the park are a common and pleasant sight.

Pictures Discussed Below, Part II

Pictures Discussed Below, Part I

Pictures of South Floridian Wildlife

Madeline and I took a short walk through the park, near our RV, the other day. Here are some pictures of the various critters we saw.

The first picture in Part I, (the second set of pictures) is of an Anhinga. The feathers of this bird are not waterproof, so the bird swims with just it's neck out of water, then dives looking for fish and resurfaces about 30 feet further on. Since it's feathers become soaked with water, when it gets through swimming, it comes out on the bank or sits on a branch, spreading it's wings to get dry.

The next picture is of a turtle sunning itself on a log. As you can see it is about to jump.

I thought the bird in the next picture was a Great Egret. But the picture shows me more than I could see from a distance, and now it looks a little like some type of crane. I need to work on this.

There is an Iquana in the next picture. Although this is a domesticated animal gone wild, there are quite a few of them here. The people in Boca Raton, a city near here, want a program to irradicate them, but I am not sure what damage they do, other than eat a few leaves. Maybe this is Florida' version of the white-tail-deer, a nuisance in more nothern cities.

The first Picture in Part II, the first of the top three pictures, is a Tricolored Heron.

As, we were walking along , I wanted to show Madeline an Aligator, that I have seen here from time to time. Well, I almost walked on it as it was sunning itself on the bank on a grassy spot. It was startled (and startled me) and jumped (the aligator, I mean) into the water with a big splash. Madeline got a nice picture of it swimming in the water.

Finally there is a not-very-good picture of a Common Moorhen. There are quite a few of these in the water here. They have a bright red bill and a bright red face. They seem to be diving a lot. I think they are mostly vegetarians, so i suppose they are eating submerged waterweeds.

Florida and the Birds of Florida

Just before Thanksgiving, we moved to Lake Worth in Southern Florida. Lake Worth is on the Atlantic side of Florida, just south of West Palm Beach, and north of Fort Lauderdale. We spent Thanksgiving with our son, Hap and his family. Shortly after that we took a short trip north to Inverness, Florida and visited my niece and my sister.
We have been quite busy seeing our family!

Our daughter Diana flew out from Las Vegas for a short visit; last week I flew to Virginia and visited by son, Tom and his family. Daughter Debbie is coming to visit us in February and perhaps her husband Stu will also accompany her. Son Tom may fly down to see us at the same time.

Our new RV makes it much easier to have company. There are two sofa beds, and they are comfortable. (In our former RV, the sofa bed was “unsleepable”, and we usually set up an air mattress on the floor, with a sleeping bag.) Also, as you might guess, with the greater length (40 feet vs. 37 feet), and more slide-outs (four vs. one in the former coach) we have a lot more room --- well, for those of you who live in a house, you might not think it is a lot of room, but we find it spacious – in fact the two of us seem to rattle around in here.

It is always nice to get to southern Florida when winter comes. The weather has been pretty nice; although there were a couple of rainy spells, but usually it has been warm and sunny most of each day. The weather in Southern Florida differs from that in the north. It is warmer, and probably a little wetter.

We are staying in a county park, John Prince Park. This park is quite large, and surrounds about two-thirds of Lake Osborne. Only a small part of the park is devoted for camping – mostly RV, but room for a limited amount of tents. There is a bicycle/walking trail around the lake, and if one wished, one could take a ten mile walk or bike ride. Since I lost my sense of balance, I no longer bike, but I do walk some. There are several species of palm trees in the park, as well as banyan trees and some type of pine trees. The fishing is pretty good, but I have not tried it this year. There are bass, catfish and tilapia. However, when I did fish, I only succeeded in catching bass on artificial lures. When I tried to use worms, I caught turtles, and believe me, that is not much fun!

There are lots of water fowl here. There is a small family of wood storks (3-4 birds). They are impressive, both because of their size, but also they are quite ugly, with bald red heads. From time to time there are pelicans. These are huge creatures, soaring over the lake looking for fish. When they see one, they go dive head first in a free fall of perhaps fifty feet. You would think they would hurt themselves, but they don’t seem to.

When daughter Diana was here she gave me a small guide to southern Florida water birds. While on a one hour walk yesterday I saw the following birds:

Great Egret
Glossy Ibis
Little Blue Heron
White Ibis
Anhinga
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Limpkin

My New Year’s resolution: I will try to update the blog each week. If nothing eventful happens, I will entertain with political commentary and colorful observations.

Red Bay, Alabama

October 31, 2006

When I last wrote, we were in the Richmond area, visiting our son and his family. We had a wonderful time, going to various activities the family was engaged in. We went to an indoor facility, where people could race in small gasoline-powered race cars. Kathleen and Sean participated in one race, then Tom, a die-hard NASCAR racing enthusiast, participated in another. It was interesting. There was no coordinated start. All the folks seem to get out and go as fast as they could. The winner was determined by who had the best average time, or perhaps it was the fastest lap, I am not sure which. Actually the main point seems to be to go as fast as possible, without skidding out on the turns (There were a lot of sharp turns.) and avoiding hitting anyone. Occasionally cars ended up on top piles of tires defining the side of the track; such an event resulted in instant disqualification. Anyway, our racers did pretty well, and had fun. I think Sean came in either second or third.

We left the Richmond area and went to Gaffney South Carolina, to have our chassis serviced. The Freightliner factory that manufactures all their RV and school bus chassis is located here. We got what was probably the most thorough service and inspection of any of our regular checkups. We also visited the Freightliner factory which was quite interesting. We watched them put wheels, motors, transmissions, gas tanks, etc and all the wiring and stuff needed to make a chassis. It is a lot more complicated than I anticipated.

From Gaffney we hurried on to Red Bay, Alabama to get our rig worked -- sort of an annual checkup – and that is where we are now. While here, we met some people who were trading 2005 RV for a new 2007 RV in the process of being manufactured here. We looked at the 2005 RVand it was so beautiful we wanted to buy it --- so --- we called the dealer (in Texas), made a deal, and will have a new (to us) motor home, when the motor home that the former owners are buying, is completed, probably next week. Madeline and I are very excited about soon having a new home.

World Series --- wasn’t it great the way the Cardinal came through in the last minute to win their division, although with a terrible regular-season record, and then go on to eventually get to and win the World Series. Since I saw the Cardinals in spring training, it was special delights to see some of these same players succeed in October.

Finally a word on this blog, if you use the Yahoo or Google home page, you can create a link to your home page, by scrolling down to the left of this blog, and clicking in the appropriate place under “Links”. To make a Google home page go to www.google.com and then click on “Make Google your homepage!”

Dan and Madeline in Iowa, September, 2006

 

Ocober 6, 2006; Migration

It has been over two months since we have added to our blog!  Since I last wrote, Madeline went to Florida for a three-week sojourn to visit her son and his family, returned, and we started our annual migration east. I will try to give you a run-down on our life since my last writing.

While Madeline was in Florida, I moved the RV up to Estes Park for about 8 days, in order to spend a little time in the mountains. I took several beautiful hikes. Unfortunately my photographer, Madeline, was not there, so I don’t have pictures to share. One hike was up Boulder Creek. This hike was very steep and strenuous. The creek had numerous little water falls and cascades. The hike ended up on another trail so, I could follow it back to the road, where a bus returned me to my car on the road to Bear Lake. Another hike started at Bear Lake, went up a couple of miles to about 11,000 feet, where one could look down from a height, viewing Odessa Lake. This is part of the trail to Fern Lake which is the locale for the book, “Hard Truth”, by Nevada Barr. I was a little proud to be able to hike, albeit slowly, at 10,000 to 11,000 feet.

When Madeline returned, we started our journey east. We stopped in Iowa a couple of days and visited our friends, Tom and Liz. They are our friends, formerly from our Saint Louis. While there, we visited the Athens battlefield. This is a battlefield during the Civil War in what was once a town on the Des Moines River. The town has since disappeared, but several houses remain, maintained as a state park. The battle occurred early during the Civil War, and consisted of Home Guard units fighting --- two groups of guerrilla really – rather than regular army units. It is interesting to reflect on the violence in the Border States during the Civil War. Missouri, in particular was racked with fights, killings and acts of terrorism, which were many times undertaken by vigilante gangs. (In fact, Jessie James got his start with one of these gangs.) It was impossible for people to not take sides. Families that did not take sides would be terrorized, robbed, and likely killed. They had to choose a side, in order to gain protection from some group. The parallels between this and some of the activates in Iraq are obvious,

After Iowa we journeyed on to Van Wert, Ohio. We went there to attend the rally of Escapees, which is the name of our RV club. There were about 700 RV’s and about 1400 people attending the rally in the Van Wert fairgrounds. We volunteered to help, and were assigned to the team helping set up the parking area for the RV’s in the fields, and then assisting with parking on opening day. This was a lot of fun. Although it was ostensibly work, in truth, there was a lot of socializing, with pot luck dinners, visiting, and a social hour (drinks, snacks as well as socializing) every evening. The actual Escapee meeting was interesting, with seminars and booths by venders. Following the end of the meeting there was a day and a half work shop for computer users (Madeline attended) and genealogy buffs (Dan attended).

After the meetings we drove on toward Virginia. We spent a couple of interesting days in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Harpers Ferry is in that little corner of West Virginia, wedged in between Maryland and Virginia, where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet here. Thus Harpers Ferry is at one end of the Shenandoah Valley – a good agricultural valley west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Although Harpers Ferry is just a small village now, with perhaps a population of three or four hundred people, in the early eighteen hundreds it was an important industrial center, because of the abundance of water power. It was a center of arms manufacture and consequently had a large armory.

Now Harpers Ferry is largely a National Historical Park. The town was devastated during the Civil War, changing hands a number of times as the Union and Confederate armies moved up and down the Shenandoah Valley. By the end of the war, the town was in bad shape, with many of the buildings burned, and most of the population gone. A series of floods petty much finished the job of ruining the city and its economy. The area was made a National Historic Site. In recent times many of the building of been rebuilt or renovated; so much of the town is a big museum, demonstrating how people lived in the early eighteen hundreds during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Harpers Ferry was also the site were John Brown with a small group of men tried to occupy the city, in order to get rifles to start a war to free the slaves. I reflect on John Brown and wonder if he is to be admired as an idealistic though perhaps an ineffective abolitionist, or to despise him as a terrorist, with a history of planning and engaging in murderous terrorist attacks in Kansas. (Bleeding Kansas occurred when abolitionist and pro-slavery people tried to populate the Kansas. which was to choose or reject slavery by popular vote.) At any rate, John Brown became a martyr for the abolitionist. I was raised in New England and taught that John Brown was a hero to the cause of abolishing slavery. (I suppose we would call that cause human rights, today) Of course, many raised in South were taught to despise John Brown. Who is right? Where would we stand if those circumstances were to occur today?

Following our visit to Harpers Ferry we moved down to the Richmond area to visit our son and his family. We are having a good time. We will be moving on South soon. Our next stop will be to South Carolina and then on to Alabama to get work done on our rig.

Aug 6, 2006 A week at Rocky Mountain National Park

Below are a couple of pictures Madeline took. One is a picture of the sun rising and the first light on the mountains. The mountain in the picture is Longs Peak, the highest mountain around here – over 14,000 feet. People (stronger hikers than me, for sure) get up at 3:00 in the morning and hike up there, hopefully to arrive and leave before the afternoon thunderstorms come up.

The other picture is of the Loch. The Loch is a beautiful mountain lake at the end of a three-mile hike. There are several hikes that end at these mountain lakes.

Tomorrow we will take one last long hike, and then return to Lyons, where I will camp, and Madeline will visit Florida.

The Rockies

Sun rising upon Longs Peak

The Loch, a mountain lake at the end of a thre mile hike
 

July 31, 2006 A Week in the Mountains

We spent the last week in the San Juan Mountains, north of Pagosa Springs, on the west side of the Divide. We were camping on National Forest Campgrounds. One of the campgrounds had full hookups, so we stayed there a few days, and then moved up to the reservoir. I did a little fishing and caught all the fish we cared to eat! One rainbow trout was over 15 inches long, and was more than Madeline and I could eat in one stting.

This area is one in which I camped with my family over 40 years ago. I wondered if it had changed much and was pleased to discover it was still as wild and unspoiled as ever. I wonder if my children remeber camping there. It was our first camping vacation in Colorado.

The muntains there consist of layers of lava which are some times level and sometimes tilted. This makes for very striking mountains with many big square blocks -- sometimes building pyramids -- sometimes making structures resembling castles and walled cities, and many other delightful structures. One evening, as we watched the sunset, Madeline and I fashioned names based on what the mountain reminded us of.

Sunset at Dinosaur Mountain

 

San Juan Mountains, North of Pagosa Springs

Sunset at Williams Reservoir. We nicknamed the mountian in the background, Tyrannosaur
Mountain. The two beds of lava rock serve as teeth!

The mountain behind the road, we called Pyramid Mountain. This is fairly typical one of the San Juan Mountains in this area. The mountains are composed of layers of lava rock that has gradually eroded. Some mountains, such as this one, have a little cap of lava on the top.

July 20, 2006 Escapees and Traveling On

We arrived in Hatch, Utah to attend a rally of our Escapees RV Club. There were about 50 units there. The main activity was driving on the back roads on either 4-wheel drive vehicles or ATV’s. Madeline and I took our little Tracker on several trips. We also led a group on a geocaching trip. There are many, many geocaches in the Hatch area. It was fun to meet old friends again and participate in group activities. There was lots of good food and good company

A high spot on the trip was a weekend visit by our daughter Diana. She spent one day 4-wheeling with us, and another day visiting Bryce Canyon.

We left Hatch and are headed east. We revisited Monument Valley, and are now in Pagosa Springs. We may stay here a few days and journey up into the San Juan Mountains. Or perhaps we will move over the other side of the divide to South Fork.