Cross Country, Second day...

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Up by 6:00 am... up, showered, Stevie in shower.... Mojave is a noisy town… it always has been… Its a railroad town and the trains started and stopped… it was a bang, bang, bang, as the slack ran in and out… now they are just the dull roar of the diesel… To make up for it they apparently now pick up garbage in the middle of the night… we were both awakened by the crash of a dumpster at 2:30

Stevie is out of the shower, so in a minute off to breakfast, then east 57 miles to the nearest Starbucks in Barstow.

On the road by 7:00...

At Barstow we drove Main Street… once Route 66… Checked out the old Harvey House, now a museum, then continued to motor east… We decided we were beyond Starbucks… A few miles beyond we visited Daggett… a sad little town named for one of Tina’s Great Uncles… We have his gold box and an Indian basket… John Muir died in Daggett… Old Route 66 passes through town but the bridge to the east is out, so that route is not an option….

Back to I 40… We picked up fuel in “Ft Cady”… a wide spot in the road, with a Texaco station, just beyond was a sign saying “Pavement Ends” The desert is full of abandoned dreams… you wonder about each ruin… why was it built, and why did the dream die…

We crossed the Arizona border at 10:30, 569 miles from home… We lost an hour due to the time change.

We took historic Route 66 in Kingman, and stopped for lunch at El Palacio, across from the railroad station… Back on I 40, off again onto Route 66 in Seligman, more gas and a photo of the “Road Kill Café” Back on I 40, we are seeing snow along the road… off again in Williams… lots of snow… Back on I 40 for the fast run east. Back to Historic 66 in Winslow… we stopped at the corner for photos of us “Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona….”

We crossed into New Mexico at 5:23, 929 miles from home.
A quick stop in Gallup for fuel. It was sunset, and we drove the rest of the way in fast failing light and a “Blue” moon rose…

In to Albuquerque at 7:20, checked into our motel, walked around the “old pueblo” cute, but dead… its all jewelry and art galleries, so has no presence at night… We ended up eating at the hotel… Its getting close to midnight in New York, the TV is on… We will make midnight, then to sleep… we have 550 miles or so to go tomarrow.

Totals for today, 746.7 miles in 12 hours and 20 minutes
1086 miles for the trip (so far)

From the road

10:39 pm, Wednesday December 30th

Mojave California, 352 miles from home.

We survived the first leg of the journey… We left home about 5:00, headed south down the San Joaquin Valley. Traffic was confusing, great near home… then rough going over Altamont pass… Hwy 5 was crowded… We saw a few wisps of tule fog near Bakersfield.
This leg wasn’t about traveling… It was about getting away…

We are carrying our technology with us... we have web enabled phones... so we have GPS and email access... Steph was keeping up with her facebook postings...

Steph is already asleep... I will be soon.

Tomorrow we will get up early, grab a bite to eat, and head east across the desert.

Packing, Madly…

Its 8:30 pm Tuesday… I am packing for a 6 day cross country trip... I go to work tomorrow, work all day, drive home them leave…By plan by 5:00… Then we (Steph, the daughter and I) drive to Mojave… 5 hours or so… its our get away…

First night out we are worried about fog… Valley fog… Tule fog… thick and nasty… but it looks like rain in the “Great” Valley, the San Joaquin… With luck it will knock down the fog.

We are headed east… to Maryland… only Steph (OK, Kellie, Stephanie) will make Maryland… I will end my trip at Dulles airport in Northern Virginia… to fly home… next Tuesday… January 5th

Tomorrow I have to oversee a couple of camps… not my camps, but others need vacation too… and they will watch the house (Patterson House, my place of work) while I am away…

There is another trip looming… a long trip far, far, away… South America for three weeks… Three days after my return from the east… Planning for that trip has meant that I am not thinking about this one… As a result, I am packing quickly, rapidly, with less planning than I would like… I like under planned trips… I don’t like under planning the packing…

At least I plan to check my bag from Dulles… due to the short trip, weight isn’t an issue… Plus this flight is on Virgin America… The best damn Airline flying domestically in the US… I mean that… Really…

Tomorrow late, I may post the first trip report… More each evening following… Pictures too… Stay tuned… same Bat Station, Same Bat time

Christmas is OVER!

It was so rushed we never put up a tree… With the Thanksgiving trip, a weekend in LA for my nephew’s wedding and work we really never got a handle on the holiday.

We did our traditional Christmas Eve dinner, roast beast, Yorkshire pudding and had friends over… Steph and I finally put up the lights on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas day we went to Tina’s brother’s house in Sacramento for a big family dinner.

Strangely our low key Christmas seems right... There were few gifts, mostly things for the big trip. Between the wedding and the dinners there was lots of family. There was more than enough food. I guess I got a sufficient dose of Christmas decorations and lights between Patterson House and a neighborhood we stumbled into in Redondo Beach after the wedding which was over the top lights everywhere.

Brian should be home on leave tonight. We will have a nice dinner tomorrow, then Stephanie and I leave on Wednesday evening on our drive to Maryland. There should be several posts from the road.

Home, and Merry "F"ing Christmas

We arrived home From the East on early Monday, November 30th … I was at work by 10:00, Tina soon after… and in to the hustle, bustle and craziness that is our daily life. I have been heard calling it “Merry “F”ing Christmas”…. I mean it.

For me, it was preparations for the Christmas, cleaning up after the Christmas decorators, preparing for the Christmas preview, a day off, then the three day event, cleaning up after the event, a couple of days off, then tours, a night event, more tours… then cleaning up after the tours, repairing the stove (it’s the heat and we are in a cold snap), more tours, a tea, more tours and finally cleaning up again…

There were a couple parties included… Tina’s Google party, complete with ice skating…

My Rotary Party at Fredrico’s, I have written about Fredrico’s before… Miss Bolivia has been seen at Fredrico’s… Tina danced with Rico… Rico has been see dancing with Miss Bolivia… I dance with a group… generally I don’t dance… but I danced… I was probably drunk…

Google released a new phone to their employees last Friday… the web is alive with rumors about the phone… Tina is enjoying playing with the phone… Stephanie and I are enjoying playing with last years Google phone…

Sunday Tina and I attended a “ house concert”, in a garage, Joe’s Garage… Houston Jones… “New Grass Singer Song writer” meets “Cosmic American music”, or “High Octane Americana”…. What ever, it was great… Live music in a small venue… pot luck food and drink.

Now its Tuesday December 15th and its cold… Its 8:00 p.m. and Tina is still at work… I have dinner on… it will keep, maybe even get better. It’s a pork stew… (pork is really low fat and therefore low calorie) over fingerling potatoes.

We are preparing for a quick trip south… Our nephew is getting married in Los Angeles Saturday… we drive south Thursday night… there is a rehearsal dinner on Friday, the wedding Saturday… I have duties… I have to heard the family during photos… I may bring a cattle prod… probably not… We plan to drive home with the daughter on Sunday… The son comes home after Christmas… duty calls him elsewhere on the 25th

Happy Holidays, keep warm… Randy

DC part 3, homeward bound...

Saturday… up eventually, shower, cleanup a bit and pack…

We start at a Starbucks for coffee in Alexandria, the off to D.C., driving this time… we park near the Vietnam War Memorial… Its Tina’s first time… She calls a friend who served there… offers to make a rubbing of a name… From there we walk to the Lincoln Memorial… take pictures with the flat guy, then walk around the Korean War Memorial, and up to the World War II memorial… they are all very different, all reflections of the time and the people involved, and all made more powerful by the differences, and the proximity of the three… The Vietnam memorial is a stark gash in the landscape, with the many, many names engraved on the black granite wall. The Korean memorial is a group of 40 some statures, collectively a platoon of solders, bundled against the cold… The World War II memorial is classic, with columns, and Greek temples…

We continued down the National Mall to the Hirshhorn Gallery… Back across to the National Museum of History for a second visit, then back to the car, and off to California Maryland where Stephanie is living with Kellie and the kids… Nice evening, nice dinner… then off Sunday morning to explore Saint Mary’s City, where Maryland was founded in 1634… Saint Mary’s was abandoned by 1695 and forgotten under the plowed fields… Now it is a historic museum, under the auspices of the State of Maryland, the site of much archeology and some reconstructed buildings… the site is well done, and doesn’t suffer from the crowds that overwhelm Plymouth and Jamestown.. It was the last day of the year that they would be open… it was wonderful, well worth the visit.

Afterward, we meet Kellie and the kids for lunch on Solomon’s Island… along the shore of Chesapeake Bay… then north towards Baltimore… We checked in at the our hotel at the airport, then drove north to Baltimore Harbor to walk around and get a snack… back to the hotel where we said good bye to Stephanie… She had a 2+ hour drive back to California Maryland.

Monday, 6:06 am… aboard United 295 from Baltimore…

It’s a full flight… they are looking for volunteers to be bumped… They have announced that there isn’t enough room for carry ons…. “FAA will be inspecting…” “Please gate check if you bag doesn’t fit…” I sense a bit of panic…
Now in line to board, one man, challenged for bag size at the gate, emptying his bag, trying to stuff it into the frame “your bag must fit in this”… People continue past on to the jet way, on to the plane, to their seats looking for overhead luggage space… then past their seats until they find the precious space, but then have to fight their way against the flow back to their seats…. The crew is announcing that if you can’t find space for your bag return to the gate to gate check… considering the crowded aisles, an near impossibility… We found space near our seats… Now packed on like cattle on the way to slaughter we try to relax… Eventually we both napped…

We landed at SFO about 9:00… we caught a taxi home… I was at work just after 10:00… Jumping head first into Christmas… but more on that later…

Thanksgiving in DC part 2

Now, next day, Lawton Virginia… at my niece’s house… The bird is in… the first bottle of champagne is open. There is food out on the counter… there are kids… my grand nieces and nephews under foot… its Thanksgiving as thanksgiving should be…

The bird is done, the stuffing too,
the gravy hot, mash potatoes too
Green beans; its Thanksgiving and we are feeling fine…
Phone calls awaiting from over seas
The kids are asking what’s for me
Jen is bribing the kids to go and hide
Its Thanksgiving, and we all have gathered here….
Wood and wine, we are all here…
Soon it time for pie…
Pecan and pumpkin and cream too…
Kellie is spraying whipped cream into everyone’s mouth…
Its Thanksgiving in Virginia…

Friday morning… we sleep in… we get up… Metro into DC… stop at a Starbucks for coffee and a danish… then on to the National Art Museum… They have a Di Vinci… then across the mall to the Air and Space Museum… We have special responsibilities, we are carrying a “Flat Stanley” visiting us from outside Chicago… and we need photos for Cassidy, his person… We meet another family carrying a flat Stanley in the Air and Space Museum… a group photo is needed… after a quick visit we are off to the Museum of the American Indian… The museum is challenging… it is hard to understand… I hated it after my first visit but now after 4 or 5 visits think it is an inspired museum which asks you to think… Tina is still not sure… we tried to eat in their café… but the lines were significant… off to a Mexican place behind the Library of Congress then back to the Botanical Garden, which had a special Christmas train and village exhibit… the exhibit was great… we spent more time than expected, then walked to Metro for a trip back to Matt’s to reclaim the car and join everyone else at Gaylord’s National Harbor… a destination Convention site and resort across the Potomac. Mike, Jen’s husband works there and we were off for their “ICE” exhibit… an carved ice village in a tent… kept at 9 degrees… They issue everyone heavy blue jackets… we explore… we ride the ice slide… a week ago I was testing water slides… now Ice slides… then off to the hotel lobby for tree lighting, indoor snow, and water and light shows… there were fireworks outside as well… after enjoying the festivities, and deciding that eating in any of their restaurants would involve a wait of hours we made for old town Alexandria… ended up in a high end Italian place… the kids were well behaved… all was good… we had wine (all was good) now home… getting ready for bed.

Slouching towards Thanksgiving….

Late Tuesday night we (T & I) were off to SFO to catch the red eye for Thanksgiving in Virginia (yes Christina there is a Virginia)

The extra daughter, feeder of cats and other animals, drove us, dropping us off at the appropriate gate… an hour and a half before out flight is scheduled to leave…
We were carrying half a case of wine, that needed to be checked… and had included the checked baggage when checking in… we went to the proper counter… all check in stations occupied… a short line, and a noticeable lack of any United Airlines Employees behind the counter… We had seen this before… on a previous United flight… again a busy evening… and all staff abandoned a counter with guest waiting, and waiting, and beginning to panic… After 10 minutes or so a porter tells us to go to a different counter… a general check-in counter, not the have boarding passes but needs to check bags counter… Again, all stations in use… at least there is an employee this time… Another employee sensing my frustration comes over… I believe a supervisor, and gets me served… then off to the security lines… which are quite long… We get through and get to the gate, as they are calling our boarding group…
We get seats and bin space… others don’t and have to gate check, some not receiving receipts for the bags… There has to be a better way to handle baggage and fees…

We arrive in DC about dawn, in a drippy fog… make our way across the airport… at Dulles this involves this involves shuttles that give you a second chance to experience de-boarding…

Our wine arrives without damage at the oversize item area, the daughter arrives within minutes of us going outside and off we go in to DC traffic…

Breakfast in an Alexandria café… rendezvous with the nephew (we are staying at his condo, he is going to Michigan for Thanksgiving… ) Matt lives next to a metro station… We board the metro and go off to the Pentagon for a tour… (thanks to Jackie Spear.) The Pentagon has high security (who would have thought that?) We clear security, then go to the waiting area… then the tour… It’s a good tour, with various hall ways dedicated to military history and honoring various groups and events… the 9-11 memorial is small but powerful…

Leaving the Pentagon, we back track to the condo to pick up cameras and change… then off to DC

Metro to the Eastern Market where they have moved the food stalls back into the old brick building after the fire… In deference to Pikes they don’t throw fish here… but in one stall they were throwing turkey… not for show, but to move them from a cart to the cooler… we have Crab cake sandwiches… We look but there are no butternut squash in evidence.

From the market we walk to the Library of Congress… I need to get to upgrade my card, so we go over to the reader registration room… I get a new card and Tina gets a card… Steph already has a card… All now equipped with current cards we take Tina for a tour of the Jefferson Building… since we all have cards we can explore the Jefferson reading room, the “temple of books”

From the LOC we walk past the Capital, to the mall… then split up, I am want to spend time in a library, but they are closed… I spend a few minutes with “Jupiter” a 1876 steam locomotive I am fond of… we rendezvous at the Museum of Natural History, Then explore the Museum of American History… We last until closing, then walk over to the National Portrait Gallery, via the Navy Memorial…

From the Portrait Gallery, take Metro to Union Station for dinner at the Capital City Brewery… home via metro, then Steph and I go off in search of butter nut squash and more wine… I didn’t see a need to carry the champagne from California when it can be found here, and its always nice to have a back up bottle or two… There seems to be a shortage of butternut squash in the DC area… none found near California Maryland… only a couple of small ones at the Eastern Market in DC… and Safeway has none… couple of stops later we have both…

Now, next day, Lawton Virginia… at my niece’s house… The bird is in… the first bottle of champagne is open. There is food out on the counter… there are kids… my grand nieces and nephews under foot… its Thanksgiving as thanksgiving should be…

T- 3 and counting…

T and I are off to Virginia and Maryland for Thanksgiving in just over 3 hours. So far only the wine is packed… but the rest will take care of itself… The wine (six bottles was an issue… it has to be checked, and we are flying United, and United breaks guitars, and I am sure they are certainly capable of breaking or otherwise mistreating wine… So I bought a wine shipping box with a heavy Styrofoam liner, wrapped precious bottle and sealed the whole thing with lots of tape… it will have to do…

The plan (as much as we have one… overnight flight arriving at Dulles some time near dawn… The daughter will meet us… we will find some breakfast, maybe in Manassas (also known as Bull Run if you follow the Northern point of view related to the War of Northern aggression), find our way to Alexandria, where we will be staying… then metro to the Pentagon for a tour… then off to Washington DC… We want to visit the Library of Congress (I need to upgrade my card so I can put in pulls electronically) and a couple of the Smithsonians… I plan on taking a look at a few things in the Museum of American History Archives while the ladies are next door at the Museum of Natural History… We will probably do lunch at the Eastern Market…

Eventually we will make it back to Alexandria for the night.

Thursday is of course with family at one of our nieces in Lawton Virginia… Friday is so far free, and Friday evening there is a Christmas evening program at Mt Vernon that sounds interesting. Saturday we will probably in California Maryland, and Sunday we end in Baltimore, staging for a very early flight on Monday…

One Year - a Mile Stone...

Today it this blog’s first anniversary… a milestone…

I started it on a whim… I was attending the Lern Conference… Lern is a consulting group serving life long learning and Recreation programs… their message is about how to identify and reach your customers, how to develop classes… they are pretty good at what they do…Our City Recreation Department follows the Lern principals… in a really crappy environment it has worked well for us…

At that Lern conference I was particularly interested in generational marketing and electronic marketing… One talk (really many talks) got my attention… it was on social networks… Facebook and such… I was excited… I made plans… but our management team is suspicious of new things, and I was not allowed to use electronic marketing… we are allowed to use email newsletters… but the soft wear chosen is clumsy…

With the enthusiasm that comes from a good conference I joined Facebook, I started blogging… but not for work… for me… I have files on the cloud… I haven’t embraced Twitter, but I probably will try…

So today is the first anniversary of the blog… in the last year I have made 75 posts… a post every 5 days or so… I find I am enjoying it… I am compelled to continue… to find more things to post about… I have a Picasa page… with photos… it calls me as well. I continue to use Facebook… I find connections on Facebook… it works for me…

If you are reading this you have joined my world… welcome…

Unicorn Chomping Pinko Commies and Water Slides…

Yesterday I got to see Alton Brown… aka Good Eats… He gave a talk at Google… T works at Google… Alton was doing a lecture for YouTube… on Thanksgiving… I got to go…

The lecture is on line at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWJGHOpm9Lo

It was really good… Alton knew he was at Google… he talked about Google… he teased Marrissa, the Google goddess… She was a good Sheila and not at all stuck up (Monty Python Reference… Alton would approve)

Then off to work… decorating a Victorian house.. we ended the day with the capture of Fluffy, a feral kitten who we have been caring for … we now know she is a she… and not anymore as of Friday evening…

Today, I got to be a Water Slide tester… at 10:00… cold, windy… we gathered at the water park… we were promised 90 degree water… (it was) for our testing…We stripped down… We went outside… We climbed the stairs… We were cold… We jumped into the water slide…. We slid… We Splashed… We did it again…

Having provided information about water flow and such… we went home or to work…. I went to the music store… and bought CDs

Fall has arrived… in the land of no seasons…

It’s not a calendar thing… It’s not the store ads that weigh down the newspaper or the catalogs that the mail brings….

It’s beyond the leaves… beyond the early night fall… Fall has arrived…

Tonight it’s dark, very dark courtesy of a very thin, spectacularly thin crescent moon. It’s cold… while days are pleasant, the temperature drops fast as the sun falls.

At work, and at home, I am gathering and splitting fire wood … lighting fires… the smell of wood smoke is both a sign and part of the transition…

We start to cocoon… wear sweaters, hide in our circle of warmth… We think of tropical vacations…

I make soup.

I am starting to think of Christmas lights… of trees inside… of festive dinners…

This winter is seems mostly I am traveling… that seems at odds with cocooning… but it seems to work for me… It also means I am thinking of shedding stuff… losing that I don’t need but keep just for the keeping… probably not enough stuff to make a difference.

Or I can make more soup and empty the refrigerator and freezer… It’s all about soup…

Randy

Wine tasting

We need wine for Thanksgiving… I have written about this before… so today T and I went wine tasting…

Wine tasting is a very common local tourist activity… we are close to wineries… lots of wineries… we enjoy wine… we visit wine country… regularly… we have wine grapes in our backyard… but for the last 15 years or so we haven’t gone wine tasting… probably for the same reasons that New Yorkers don’t visit the Statue of Liberty…

Off to the north… to the Russian River area… near Healdsburg… Its about 100 miles away… The official goal was a Pinot Noir to partner with the turkey… Some years ago (15 years + some years ago) we really enjoyed a Pinot made by Bear Boat… at the time it was made by either J Winery (who mostly make Champagne) or their neighbor Rodney Strong… Now it’s made in Hopland, another 100 miles north… I haven’t found it at our local wine shops, so we decided to drive north and find an alternative…

First stop Rodney Strong… Good Pinot, but not “The” Pinot, but we really liked their “Symmetry”, a Meritage red… we bought that for Thanksgiving plus a Cab, and a really good Zin for home consumption, and a Port … we are taking that on the South American Cruise… We were looking for a oaky chardonnay, but didn’t find it. We asked for and got suggestions for other wineries…

Then off to Healdsburg and lunch in a tapas place… great lunch… Tina had a glass of David Bruce Chardonnay that gave us a fall back if we didn’t find anything else… (fall back doesn’t do the wine justice… it just wasn’t yet THE wine…) we walked about a bit around the square bought Emma (our dog) a Christmas scarf, and found the Kendal Jackson tasting room… They have a really nice soft Pinot… a great red wine for people who might otherwise drink white wine…It makes the dinner list. We buy a bottle… plus a Cabernet Franc for us…

Then off up along Dry Creek Valley… It is fall, the grapes have been harvested, the leaves are turning colors, the trees are changing colors… this isn’t Vermont, but it is fall in a beautiful place….

The folks at Rodney Strong had recommended several wineries… first Papapietro-Perry… they make Pinots and Zinfandels… They are up on a hill with 4 other small wineries and an olive works… We only visited Papapietro Perry… we tasted 2 Zins and 2 Pinots… we bought a Pinot…this one for us… They have a winery dog, complete with a tag on his collar saying “please don’t feed me”… They started making wine in their garage… we are now making wine in our garage… do I see a future for us… Tina doesn’t think so…

Finally we cross over to the west side of the valley to visit Preston… a winery with 13 cats in place of the typical dogs… Its more than just a winery… they have a garden and vegetable for sale… anything you want for $2.00 a lb… olives, and wine, all organic… from a solar powered building… We bought a pinot for home consumption here…

We headed home… stopped for ice cream in San Rafael, across the bridge… San Francisco at dusk… it was really pretty, clear skies and a brightly lit skyline, a ferry passing Alcatraz… we drove south along the Embarcadero…

At home we unload the wine, set the bottles aside for the trip to Virginia… then as I put the other bottles away I find that I have 3 bottles of 2004 Trefethen Chardonnay stashed away… perfect for the Chardonnay for the dinner… so now we only need a champagne… That shouldn’t take a tasting trip…

On other things…

T and I are trying to loose weight… lots of weight… we plan to loose a kindergartner each… We are doing this together… mostly watching calories, (goal, 1,200 to 1,500 a day) and shrinking portions… it’s working… we are both down more than 25 lbs… each, 50 lbs combined… even with eating out a couple of times a week… So today on the travel channel (sometimes a better food channel than Food TV) they visit a place that deep fries Twinkies… and announce a deep fried Twinkie has no less than 785 calories… I think I will pass…

On the travel front, my son is planning a trip for us… Spring 2011… yes, 18 months out… He figures his ship will be returning from an overseas deployment… and on the return from an overseas deployment the Navy usually offers sailors (and even officers) a chance to invite family and friends to join the ship’s company for a “Tiger Cruise”. I joined the crew of the DDG 86, the Shoup just over a year ago as they sailed from Hawaii to Everett Washington… We, the HT and DC group, with dad’s and one grandpa had a great time… the kids want to do it again, including inviting at least one sailor who has since left the Navy and his dad… I’m in…

And finally, the “New Years Cross Country drive” is taking shape… We picked up the car Saturday… I realized that our route will take us through Amarillo Texas, home of the Cadillac Ranch (http://www.libertysoftware.be/cml/cadillacranch/crmain.htm) , a 1970’s art installation by “Ant Farm” consisting of 10 post war Cadillacs buried nose down, tail fins up, as history of design, and a statement of the future of automobiles… It makes an appearance in Pixar’s CARS. It is iconic… They published a book about the project in 1976…. As a recent high school graduate I bought a copy… the project ignited my imagination… I still have the book. Now I will make the pilgrimage to the site… They suggest we take spray cans and contribute… will it be flames, or maybe a decoupage… Maybe pages from the book… I am not sure… but it needs to be something….

It’s Thanksgiving and other November Holidays… at least at Patterson House…

Wednesday we had the day off thanks to a holiday to thank our military veterans… It’s a good reason to celebrate…

It also gives me a day to cook… a lot…

Thursday began the last week of regular tours at Patterson House, my home away from home… Monday starts Christmas… at least decorating, we don’t start tours until December 4th…

To mark the occasion we have a pot luck “Thanksgiving dinner”… I cook a turkey, stuffing and gravy… the docents bring the rest of the fixings… I finish the turkey in the wood burning stove at the house… but a 22lb turkey takes 5 hours, maybe 6, so I start it at home, then about 7:00 or so take it to work…

So I have been chopping onions, celery, and carrots, while the turkey took a bath to promote thawing… (I have been thawing him for 3 days in the fridge…) I am assembling ingredients for two stuffings (regular and oyster) gathering supplies and tools to take to work… flour and broth for the gravy, carving knives, a turkey baster…

I am also gathering various leftover vegetable bits, celery tops, carrot tops, onion skins for a soup stock… to be made from the turkey carcass, for a pot of vegetable soup to be served Monday to the decorators… In 5 short days we should be able to completely consume the poor bird with little going to waste…

There are many schools of thought on how to cook a turkey… most of us only do it once a year… so most of us find it necessary to relearn or reinvent the process annually… I keep notes, so its more of a review than a relearning… My method; thaw the bird, salt and pepper bird inside and out. I like to separate the skin from the meat, they place butter and herbs between. Stuff loosely with roughly chopped carrots, celery, onions and maybe herbs… (thyme and sage)… tie the legs, wrap the wings in foil… place breast up on a rack in a roasting pan. Dump any extra vegetables in the pan, add several cups of water…

I cook the bird at 325 or so, if in doubt on the low side… Sometimes I start the bird at 450 then turn the oven down after I put it in… Several cook books swear by this… so sometimes I do it…

I then cook the bird for 20 minutes a lb… this years big boy should take between 6 and 7 hours… I target 10:00 as a finish time so it can set, I can carve, and make gravy in time for a 11:00 meal… So it needs to go in about 2:00 am… Cooking a turkey takes planning and a commitment.

Of course there is also a lot of paranoia about food safety… warnings about how to thaw, about how to protect the bird from bacteria, and how to handle leftovers… This is all made more difficult because most of us don’t handle a hunk of meat this big… and don’t have refrigerator space and such… I try to keep it all clean and cold, and so far haven’t killed anyone… I will continue to try…

The real secrete to how to cook a turkey is how to consume it… not the at the big dinner, or plate of leftovers heated in the microwave the next day, or the turkey sandwiches the following day, but the rest of it… I have docents to consume the turkey meet, but the carcass is what is really special… I break it up, stuffed it in a huge stock pot, added all the veggies I roasted inside, and the trimmings saved from the celery and onions used in the stuffing and a bunch of old parsley, then cooked it all night… I pulled out the carcass, then reduced the stock for another 12 hours… then strained it though paper towels (they catch everything, including much of the fat)… To the stock I will add carrots, chopped onion, celery, zucchini, and Italian sausage, all browned in olive oil… plus a can of kidney beans, and a can of crushed tomatoes… It will be a soup for the first day of Christmas decorating…

On other stuff… we are honoring veterans this November (there is a holiday dedicated to Veterans, I think I mentioned it before…) At Patterson House it means we change the scatter… the stuff on the desks, beds and such… The Patterson House had an involvement in World War I… the two boys, Henry and William were both too old for service, but they both served on the board that organized and promoted War bond sales. Part of that included helping to organize a War Bond train… A Victory train. The boys were given souvenirs… Henry was given a Pickelhaube… a German spiked helmet. His brother got a couple of Pickelhaubes, along with a trench shotgun (with bayonet) and the magneto from a German plane, complete with a bullet hole from the bullet that shot it down…. The plane is now in the Smithsonian… the Grandson returned the magneto a few years ago… the hole in the side of the plane matched the hole in the magneto…

Back to Patterson House… we have stuff about… we have a display about making socks for solders… we have photos of the Victory train… Upstairs we have Marjorie’s Marine Corp jacket and letters from home… Our guests seem to appreciate the effort…

Bye for now… Randy

Is it possible to travel too much?

I have been working on my work calendar for next year… I realized that I am only working three days in January… with trips planned in November, December, and February as well… There is also a trip in either August or September, one in October, and one in November… next year…

The spread sheet (the one I keep) says I will still have vacation days on the books at the end of it all.

So over Thanksgiving T and I will fly to Dules (Washington DC) stay with our daughter at our nephew’s in Arlington Virginia, with Thanksgiving in Lorton Virginia at a niece’s home… visiting a nephew’s (Fred) home in California Maryland.. He won’t be there, he’s in Iraq… but his wife (She did Afghanistan in an Apache for the Army), children, and our daughter will… Then home from DC via a night in Baltimore arriving early on Monday…

December is Matt and Suzy’s wedding (Matt is Fred’s brother… they both live in the DC area, but both were born in Las Vegas…) The wedding is in LA… The daughter is flying in from DC then driving home with us…

Two weeks (more or less) Steph and I will head east in her new (used) car…. Leaving on the evening of December 30th… New Years eve in Albuquerque New Mexico… to Oklahoma City, Amarillo Texas, Memphis, Nashville, and north via the Blue Ridge to Washington DC (and me home via Dulles)… late Tuesday January 5th… Much of the route follows old Rt 66. We will get to visit Graceland…

On January 9th T and I set out for Rio via Atlanta for a cruise to Antarctica and around the horn… 20 days… Argentina, Uruguay, the Falkland’s, Chile… It’s an itinerary rich in Penguins…

Between the two trips I will be at work January 6, 7, and 8… only the 6th, 7th, and 8th

Some time in February or March I will go to DC to do some research… it’s an annual trip…

This summer, either early August or early September Brian (aka the son) and I are planning a road trip… either Yellowstone and Grand Tetons or Arches, Canyon lands and maybe Navajo National Monument… Somewhere in the intermountain west… Somewhere in the wilderness… a father son trip… before he deploys to the gulf as a Navy sailor… his second deployment… Its either buffalo or Anastasi, we haven’t yet decided….

In October its my annual trip the V&T… a historic symposium presented by the Nevada Historical Society… and the Nevada State Railroad Museum…. I go every year.

November is a trip, yet undefined… a celebration… T and I will celebrate our 30th anniversary on November 8th… We will go somewhere…

Identified options include… (there may be unidentified options):

A Mexican Riviera Cruise…. We have this booked… its obvious and easy… we have done it before.

Hawaii… Both of us have been there, but not together… maybe, but not the leading contender… It would have to include at least a couple of islands… we are not beach people (I might be… T is not) so we would be exploring….

A Caribbean cruise… most likely an Eastern or Southern Itinerary… At this point probably most likely…

Yosemite, the Ahwahnee Hotel… the sentimental favorite… We originally planned to spend our Honeymoon here… scheduling issues intervened… I might pull for a visit during the annual Briceburg Dinner…

Mean time there are piles of maps and travel guides growing on tables and other horizontal surfaces…

Learching towards more travel… Randy

Someone told me It's all happening at the zoo.

It was our Anniversary today (T and I, our 29th…)

We went for a drive… over to Half Moon Bay… a walk about town, stopping at the used book store (they got me for a couple….) the weird antique/junk shop with the broken glass… we love the joint… then the feed and seed… I needed food for the doves…

Then lunch… Our usual place is the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co… but today we went to MezaLuna… (http://mezzalunabythesea.com) It was a wonderful meal… mussels cooked to the consistency of liver… (If you don’t like liver you won’t understand how good…) I had sea food ravioli, she a pasta with mussels… wonderful…

Then north… across Devil’s Slide… through Pacifica, to San Francisco, and the Zoo… We are members… We get in free… Our first date was the zoo… back in early 1978.
We walked about, visiting the giraffes, zebras and gorillas… via the monkeys (primates) to the koalas, kangaroos then the bears… spectacled, polar and grizzly… A walk about the big cats, tigers and lions and previously bears… to the penguins and otters…

Simon and Garfunkel said it best….

The monkeys stand for honesty,
Giraffes are insincere,
And the elephants are kindly but
They're dumb. (of course we don’t have elephants any more)
Orangutans are skeptical
Of changes in their cages,
And the zookeeper is very fond of rum. (Possibly but we didn’t see any evidence)

Zebras are reactionaries,
Antelopes are missionaries,
Pigeons plot in secrecy, (I believe this but I believe pigeons as smart)
And hamsters turn on frequently.
What a gas! You gotta come and see
At the zoo

Its all about the song track of your life…

Random thoughts and why I love KFOG

Today was a glorious waste of time… much needed…

It started with a trip to a city far away to buy a CD… KFOG (local radio station, KFOG.com )releases a “Live from the Archives” CD every year… at least for the last 16 years… there was a Warriors CD before but that doesn’t count… (It does if you have it, and I do). The CD is based on otherwise unreleased live tracks collected by the radio station… (that would be KFOG 104.5 San Francisco… a really good radio station…)

I have them all, (and the warrior's CD) bought when released… Today they released number 16… They sell them though Peet’s Coffee.. (a really good local coffee place)…

Normally I would go to my local Peets and pick up the CD… but that was before last year… Last year T and I were not home for the release… We were on our way to a cruse to celebrate our anniversary… We left our daughter at home to feed the animals (we have too many animals) and take care of things…. including purchasing the KFOG CD…

Steph took her responsibility seriously… She went to the Redwood City Peet’s and hung out with Annalisa…. KFOG midday DJ…. She called us as we were boarding a cruise ship… and put Annalisa on the phone… So, on vacation, DJ on your favorite radio station calls you… Too cool…

Shift to December… I won tickets to the KFOG Christmas concert… The Pretenders and Amos Lee… Great concert… made better because my “free” tickets were in the last row of the balcony… and Amos Lee’s manager had (much better) tickets to give away… and we got there early to see Amos Lee, and as a result were given much better tickets on the floor…

Annalisa was there… we ran into her… she recognized Steph…

So, today they released the new CD… Annalisa was at the Saratoga store… So I drove to Saratoga… Annalisa remembered Steph (again) told her co-worker “she is a big fan of Mat Nathanson (true, and Mat Nathanson has a track on this years CD) She also remembered that we talked last year on release date… I love this radio station (really for the music, but damn, they know who their fans are too) Disclaimer: Annalisa is recently married… I am happily married… this is about music… (but Annalisa is cute…) Annalisa signed Steph's CD... Mine too...

Done with buying the CD I made another stop in the South Bay (aka San Jose) then was stuck in a major traffic jam… a truck had overturned and burned on the freeway… upside, I got to listen to the whole thing… downside… traffic…

I visited my local used book pusher… (B street Books in San Mateo) He got me for 9 books… a really good hit… its reading time ….

Checked in with T at the studio (Aanrakru Glass http://www.bayareastainedglass.com/ )
She was working on a Peacock window for me… we went to dinner at the local sushi joint… Sushi Sam’s… (http://www.sushisams.com/) I had the chef’s choice sashimi… (at the recommendation of a fellow glass artist....) It was spectacular… yellow fin, amber fin, octopus, maguro and toro tuna, Really really good…

Tomorrow is our anniversary… Our 29th anniversary…

We will do something… not sure what yet…

Bye

Late Saturday Night (Halloween)

So far the shots have not caused significant reactions…

I spent the day searching for wine for Thanksgiving… I found a couple of bottles… but now believe we need to spend a Sunday wine tasting along the Russian River to find other bottles… A Sunday which happens to be our 29th wedding anniversary.

We went to a party tonight… at the Saddle Rack… a country night club… owned by the President of our Rotary Club… (Hey, we got cool members) Superman and Cat Lady were particularly impressive as was the Monk and an so far unidentified Doctor from MASH…

As we arrive in the neighborhood kids are still out… most older and lacking costume… Not exactly what the holiday is about….

Great time, wonderful conversation, lots of friends… a pot-luck with good food.

Travel Planning

T and I were off to the airport early today, not for a flight, but to visit the Dr… We will be taking a cruise from Rio to Valparaiso in January, and in addition to a Brazilian Visa, we also needed to be vaccinated against Yellow fever… the clinic suggested Typhoid and Hep A for me, and Typhoid, Tetanus and Hep A booster for Tina… They gave us prescriptions in case of Cholera… They determined we were unlikely to be exposed to malaria, polio, and a whole butch of other nasty stuff… Several needle pricks later we had our little yellow international record of immunization cards declaring us sufficiently immune to be allowed to travel… The airport heath clinic is one of the few able to complete the required heath forms…

We have other travel requiring preparations as well…

We are going to Virginia for Thanksgiving… The daughter is there… One Niece and her family, one nephew and family (well, he isn’t, he is in Iraq, our daughter is living with his wife and children, serving as nanny while she attends the local collage…) An additional nephew is there, but not this Thanksgiving… We will see him in December at his wedding… there is a blog about the wedding dress… at Suzy’s Bridezilla blog, http://suzysbridezillablog.blogspot.com. Of course this means another trip… a road trip… and there is the cross country drive over New Years to deliver Steph’s car… more planning, more reservations…. I already have the flight back, on my beloved Virgin America… and a motel in Albuquerque on New Year’s eve…

So back to Thanksgiving… There is a song about Thanksgiving, or maybe its about the draft… I have been assigned responsibility for the wine at dinner… I am taking this seriously… I figure 6 bottles… I am carrying them on the plane, from California… 6 bottles… maybe two champagnes (yes, not from France so not really champagne) a couple of whites, one must be sweet(ish) so probably a Riesling, the other a chardonnay, and a couple of reds… I think I have those nailed… A pinot noir from Bearboat (Piper Sonoma’s still wine lable…) and Couzins by Elyse, a blend of Zinfandel and Rustivo… (I am not sure I consider this a blend… As I understand it, Zinfandel and Rustivo are the same grape, separated for the last 150 years or so, with differences accentuated by differences in wine making between Italy and California…) I have the Elyse, and the Riesling… (Snoqualmie Naked organic Columbia Valley Reisling) So far I haven’t found the Bearboat… so I may need to drive up to Healdsburg next weekend…

Road trip planning…

The Problem: Steph needs a car… For the time being, Steph is living in Maryland… I have a hard time buying a used car remotely. Eastern used cars have a reputation for rust… Californian cars don’t…. We like stick shifts… They can be hard to find… but probably easier here than there…

The Solution: buy a car in California and deliver it to the East (aka Maryland)… (there is one for sale at Google that looks good)

The Other Problem: Maryland is 3000 miles away…

The Other Solution: Make it a vacation, an adventure… a drive, over the New Years day weekend holiday, plus a couple of days… drive from California to Maryland…

The Plan: leave California Wednesday night, 5:00… Drive to Mojave (still California…) next day, to Albuquerque New Mexico… (New Years Eve, stay in the old Pheblo area of town… we are not party people but it is nice to be in a public place) next day, off to Oklahoma City… next day, Memphis Tennessee… (Beale Street, Blues clubs, and Graceland…) Next day, Nashville… (I want to see the Ryman Auditorium and shop at their gift shop…) from Nashville its Roanoke Virginia (or there about)… The next day (Tuesday) we are off to Dulles airport, near Washington DC…. I fly home, Steph continues to California, Maryland…

It’s a southern route… Old Route 66 much of the way… then across the Tennessee and up the Shenandoah Valley.

Let the planning begin

Bad dog, no cookie… and snow throwers in the land of no snow…

This weekend is night tours at Patterson House… one Victorian house, 80+ oil lamps, 0 electric lights… a fire in the fire place, a fire in the wood burning cook stove for baking cookies, for which we need cookie dough... as a result we have cookies, no butter and a bad dog… I had butter out over night to soften… early Friday I started to make the cookie dough… unwrap the butter, grab the white sugar… not enough.. time for a store run… while I while at the store our darling Emma ate the butter… all the butter… back to the store for more butter… cold butter, hard butter, which won’t cream with the sugar… chop it up, put it in a warm oven, beat it for a bit, back in the oven, repeat, repeat… finally get the cookie dough done and off to work just in time for the first tour… The cookies are pretty good…



On other thoughts… I like to get up early and read the Sunday paper… the Sears (formerly Sears Roebuck) caught my eye… Here in the land of little snow they have snow throwers on sale… three different models ranging from $599.99 (Save $130) to $799.99 (save $270) Clearly this is an national ad campaign… and those developing it in Chicago land have forgotten that a snow thrower is of little use in the land of no snow…

I am tempted to walk into my local store and try to buy one… Better yet, gather friend and make a short Michel Moore style film: Scene 1, couple sitting in living room reading Sunday paper, Him, “Wow, these are great prices on snow throwers… I think I will buy one”… Wife, (while picking oranges from tree in front yard) “OK honey, its good to be prepared (maybe she believes in Global warming…) Scene 2, at Sears, Husband (holding ad from paper), to clerk, “Can you explain the features of each of these snow throwers…” Clerk, with blank stare “Hun????)

In their defense, in the fine print at the bottom of the page the following can be found (under the heading “Sears In-stock promise on advertized items”) … items not normally available at your Sears store are excluded…”

Still you have to wonder about their one size fits all approach to advertizing… The flyer also includes warm coats better suited to the arctic than to the beach… and we are the beach… I guess I won’t be shopping at Sears this week

Trips… past and future

Last weekend I went to Carson City. It was the annual “V&T Symposium” held by the Nevada State Railroad Museum… two days of presentations on Nevada Railroad History, a reception, a banquet, and a shop talk on Sunday…

I drove over after work on Thursday… left at 5:00, I-580 to I-5 north to Stockton, then Hwy 4 across Stockton to Hwy 99 north… then either Waterloo Rd (Hwy 88) or Hwy 12 east until they meet in Lockford… Outside of Clements they split… I followed Hwy 88 across the Molkoleme River then up the Martell divide between Sutter Creek and Jackson… I headed down Hwy 49 to Jackson, past the Empire and Argonought mines, making Jackson about 7:00 as the light was failing.

At Jackson I head east on Hwy 88, past the Indian casino, past the towns of Pioneer, into the high country, beyond Hamm’s Station.

Traffic was light… the sky was clear… the stars were present. The blue tipped snow plow guides had been put out… a sign of the changing seasons… There was snow along the side of the road above 7,500 feet or so.

My biggest fear was hitting a deer in the darkness. Despite the fear the trip was without incident…

Into Carson about 9:00… a friend was checking in as I did… we went to dinner down the street…

We had two days of papers, subjects ranging from the Lighting Express to the location of a 1873 railroad, to the 1939 City of San Francisco accident…

The highpoint of the weekend was the shop talk, by restoration manager Chris DeWitt, in the shop with the McKeen car… this 1910 self propelled gasoline rail car had been reduced to a café-dinner in 1946… followed by use as a disco, then a plumbing shop…

With the end of the plumbing business, Al, the owner chose to save the McKeen (and a second Berkeley built Hall Scott car, also part of the building) to the museum with some support to have it restored as a railroad car.

The car its self is Jules Verne’s dream, sharp pointed front, rounded rear, port hole windows… rivets, lots of rivets… and thanks to lots of work it lives… They tested it on Thursday… we were allowed to inspect it Sunday, but it didn’t run…

The run home was fast… and beautiful… the trees were turning in the Carson River canyon… Maples, Aspen and willow in bright yellow… Higher up the Aspen were past their peak… on the west side the trees hadn’t peaked yet…

I could have stopped and taken pictures… but I didn’t… I am torn… taking pictures says “I was here…” but would my photos be better than a post card… I wasn’t sure… and didn’t see “THE picture…” Sometimes you need to be satisfied with just having seen… without the proof of the 5”x7” photo…

So today, I went to the Brazilian consulate in San Francisco… Tina and I need visas for a trip in January… There is something exotic in having to go to the Brazilian consulate to apply for a visa… The experience wasn’t exactly exotic however…

I arrived at 8:30, they open at 9:00…. There were 18 people in line in front of me… complaining about wrong forms and previous visits… I waited… the doors to the consulate opened early… We took numbers and sat in hard plastic chairs.

I sat, I watched others sit at the 4 windows… they had different lines for Brazilians, for non Brazilians, and for commercial visa contractors… The staff tried to take all groups in fair proportion… The room looks like a cross between a DMV office and high school counselors office… The only thing missing was the elevator music from Blues Brothers…

They called my number about 10:50, and I finished about 11:20, receipt in hand… The staff was polite… no one yelled or threatened or screamed…

Finished, off to the garage to fetch the car… pay for 4 hours (anything over 3 hours is 4 hours) and head south and east towards work… Traffic is so bad that I head south on US 101 towards the San Mateo and Dumbarton bridges… I took the Dumbarton.

At work I spent the day filling oil lamps for the night tours starting tomorrow… I spent four hours filling lamps, changing wicks… getting ready… then home to get the cookie dough ready… It will be a long day tomorrow.

Randy

Stove pipes and wood smoke

Friday I spent the day replacing the stove pipe at Patterson House… The stove was smoking, and wouldn’t draw (a term meaning the smoke goes up the chimney, and not into the room) I replaced the sheet metal flue… taking it down, then replacing it with sheet metal off the shelf replacement flue…. It took 7 hours…

Stove flues are one of those things which are simple, but can be complicated… and while once common are now not… the local hardware store carries the basic stuff, not in a great variety… There are a couple tricks to doing it well… one being a special tool to crimp the ends to make them fit together… I have a pair… Our blacksmith has a cone mandrel, using it allowed me to lock the seams…

It was a fight, I got dirty, I cut my hands... The first fix didn’t take, but the second did, and it went together and now works… 7 hours later…

This weekend (Saturday and Sunday, October 10 and 11) is Harvest Festival… People picking corn, people buying pumpkin, listening to music, doing crafts, and such…

Saturday I spend my time in the house… By 5:00 on Sunday we had entertained 576 guests in the house… Sunday we had 548… The total is the highest attendance since 1998… I’m tired… The house is dirty… but the stove worked…

The stove is important… its iconic, black and nickel, containing fire and filling the house with the smells of wood smoke and food cooking…

On other things… The son graduated from US Navy Search and Rescue swimmer school (SAR) and is back in Everett Washington. Its pretty cool… we are proud. Tina surprised by and cleaned the gutters… very good considering that we expect rain tomorrow… lots of rain…

Its now about 9:00 pm Sunday, I am at home… I have a fire going… first of the season… I have a book waiting….

A Random Report from under a harvest moon…

We are fast slipping into fall… its cool, maybe cold in the morning… but hot by early afternoon… I lit the heater in my office at work (I turn it off sometime in early May as the weather warms… ) I have to fix the flue for the wood burning stove Friday… and chop wood, and stack wood, and chop more wood.

At the farm the pumpkin patch is open… Our farmer grows all his own pumpkins… its a very sincere pumpkin patch. Elsewhere the corn cribs have been emptied of last years crop. The farmer is plowing the wheat and pumpkin fields, preparing it for a hay crop… First he waters to let the weeds sprout, then plows them in before they can set seed. Its a timing issue… the weeds will still sprout if water is available, the new sprouts easy to kill. The pigs go to market next week.

The moon tonight was wonderful, low, large, dark yellow orange as it rose… It’s a bit past full.

In the kitchen the wine seems to be doing well. The head (a collection of skins and such floating on top) is starting to fall… Its time to move the wine to a more airtight container and press out the skins…

This weekend is the harvest festival at the farm… next week I am off to a history symposium in Carson City… across the Sierras… with luck the Aspen will be turning bright yellow as I top Carson Pass.

The son graduated from US Navy SAR (Search and Rescue Swimmer) school and is back with his ship in Washington… He called today asking how to prepare artichokes… there was feminine laughter in the background… we all move on… our kids grow up.

Last weekend was busy… Saturday I went to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass… a three day free concert in Golden Gate Park… 6 stages… I saw Guy Clark and Vernon Thompson… then the Austin Lounge Lizards, walked about a bit, then Steve Martin and his band… settled in for Ricky Skaggs… followed by Gillian Welch…. Emmylou Harris joined her half way for one song, then rejoined for a finale… Followed by Steve Earle…

The trip home was eventful… first the Muni LRV driver (aka motorman) didn’t want to board the two wheel chairs on the ramp… the passengers revolted and he loaded them… We were packed in like sardines, but everyone was friendly (except the motorman/driver) The fare box was out of order… I couldn’t pay my fare… I expected to pay when I got off… but at Civic Center station it was chaos of the highest order… and all gates were open… and we were being driven out… Payment was not an issue… Bluegrass had met the Love fest…

The Blue grass crowd was older… a little more traditional… Love fest was young, wearing fluorescent wigs, minimal costume, fur and feathers… We were both trying to find a way to escape San Francisco… and Bart and Muni were finding it a challenge… The Bart gates were open… you couldn’t scan a ticket… they had abandoned all effort to exact payment… Police were at the head of the escalator… they needed to hold the crowd back until the platforms below cleared… eventually I and several hundred of my closest fiends made it downstairs to catch our trains… Many of the kids were trying to go south via Caltrain, but had abandoned Muni and were trying to use Bart to get to Millbrae and a transfer station…

We were standing room only on the train when it finally arrived… but it was fun… one guy had a mouth powered keyboard… people were singing… they were rapping… they were polite… We all escaped together…

Sunday was a new event… 100 years before President Taft had visited California and along the way visited the Yosemite… He invited John Muir to guide him… but there must have been tensions between the two men… Muir had frustrations with the direction of the park… Taft would soon approve a dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley…

A friend has saved a wooden railroad passenger car, an observation car, the car that Taft and Muir rode on their journey to the Yosemite… In celebration we recreated the event… We assembled a train… a steam locomotive, a postal car, a coach, and the Observation car… A friend and his wife assumed the role of Taft and his wife… (Taft’s wife wasn’t there 100 years ago, having suffered a stroke but 100 years allows healing) Eleven of us dressed in period clothing… I assumed the role of John Muir… It was a strange role… he was invited, but in the photos he is in the rear of the group, away from the president… This was very different from 6 years earlier when with President Roosevelt they had been shoulder to shoulder and had gone off together for adventurers and discussions… The administration and with it the climate had changed…

Not a bad weekend.

The picture is from a trip to Chicago in 2007... to see Brian graduate from Boot...
We all have come far...

September 29, It is offically Christmas time

I declare that Christmas has started… We received our first mail order catalog…

And the winner is… The National Geographic Holiday 2009 Catalog…

Holiday – Christmas it’s that correct word thing again…

Of course, we are planning Christmas at work… we have been planning Christmas since last December… but now its imminent…

The wine is doing well… I punch down the head a couple of times a day….

Ken Burns National Parks show is on the glowing box… I hated the first episode… too preachy, not on subject, used “cathedral” 4 times in two minutes… The second was better, much better, and the third is Ken Burns at his best…

In a related note, I get to be John Muir on Sunday… A local railroad museum has a car that Taft rode on when he visited Yosemite in October 1909. We are recreating his train… steam engine, postal car, and the Presidential car… a Taft impersonator… We need a John Muir, he was there… I have a beard, I have a felt hat, I have appropriate Victorian clothing… I am trying to acquire a Scottish accent… I need to drink more scotch…

Christmas will be long, it’s a season after-all… as Loughton Wainwright said, “its not over until its over and you throw away the tree” Tree disposal will have to wait until January.

It's wine making time…

Some years ago I planted grapes across the back (west facing) side of the house on an arbor… the plan was greenery which shades the house in summer but loose all leaves in winter allowing the sun in… a passive aggressive approach to heat management and solar heat…

Of course grape vines also bear grapes…

Being a Californian, I planted Zinfandel… They should be a good choice for our climate… of course they make good red wine…

This year they bore fruit (last year they didn’t) … lots of fruit… tons of fruit... (well, not tons, but hundreds of lbs of fruit…)

Our local raccoons have found the fruit… and have for weeks been feasting on grapes… at first it was cute… but 4, yes, 4 raccoons can make a mess… 4 cute little raccoons silhouetted against the moon late at night while they strip grapes off the vines…

The grapes had been ripening at different rates… some green, some purple… but now, with a heat wave, all are ripening and even over ripening… So today I started to harvest… I have plastic bins… each holds about 70 lbs of grapes… I harvested a vine an a half of four, and filled two… I topped each with 5 lbs of dry ice to build up a CO2 head to prevent aerobic fermentation.

I have to fine a brew store open tomorrow to find a source of yeast and yeast nutrients. Then harvest another 300 lbs of grapes, and clean and crush them… It’s a project… Calculations suggest this will result in about 14 cases of wine… They should produce a “Primitivo” red.

Somehow it is appropriate that September and October should be harvest, and wine making season… We city/suburban folk in the land of sun and little rain forget what seasons mean… I hope I don’t.

Black Helicopters, a strange week and other issues….

So, a crazy week at the farm (aka work) What’s New…?

Monday we had our Quarterly Marketing meeting….

Tuesday I took the day off and fled to Sacramento…

Wednesday, reserved tours… continuing to clean up after the camps… and trying to finish up my goals statement from last year… long hanging, very late, there are good reasons, but the time of reckoning is here… (not an issue, I have done well but not always followed the goals from so long ago…)

Thursday, we had phone calls, issues, problems, emergency problems, and things were just weird…

There is a missing child in the vicinity… a foster child, who reportedly disappeared in Oakland. The foster parents live within 300 feet of the park… they are suspects in the disappearance… (Disclaimer, the above from news reports… which are full of speculation and rumor…) We had helicopters circling the park back in August… a result of this case.

A Citizens group wants to search the property Saturday… they are not associated with the police investigation… They have searched other city sites… and were well organized and well disciplined… But they are not officially sanctioned… The first notice of their proposed actions are from a rec. employee who read a news report… I hate to the last to know… To make it worse, the park is not really staffed, one employee on vacation, on at a funeral, on at a management meeting, out of the park… the remaining employees dealing with rumor…

We have a school group coming tomorrow, but they don’t have house tours but have been told they have (or not) and of course, no one is home at the park who knows what has been offered, promised or…. We end up creating a new tour plan and sending memos out to everyone…

Then one of the farmer’s guys hits the railroad’s electric service with a tractor, and now a 440 3 phase panel is sitting in a heap on the ground… hot, popping and hissing… with burn wires visible… and no one in charge… Park calls PG&E… they tell us it is a park problem… no on does anything… I use caution tape and tape the site off… I am not comfortable with the response…

We plan for the citizen’s search… We are lost in the woods… The Arden woods… Finally I leave, not knowing what will happen Friday or Saturday… Have I told you I love my job???

Friday… finally someone has a plan… The Park police are canceling the search… Not comfortable with the plan… we are comfortable with the decision (particularly since it is someone else’s) We discuss the electricity issue… Park will inspect next week, we express concerns… Park staff are not aware of our concerns… they make calls…

We give the tours.. the kids are good… the tours are good…

But… there are black helicopters circling the farm… they appear to be Blackhawks… I don’t know why they are circling… they are circling low… Somehow it seems appropriate to all going on…

Park maintenance staff arrives to look at the damage to the electrical system. They have concerns… they react… we support the reaction… (the railroad has tools need by park staff) and by the end of the day the electrical system is cut off, and there are plans to fix it… Next week, good plans…

Now, its time to get ready for tomorrows’ Patterson House Foundation event, a Chile cook off and Hoedown…

Home (via the local Mexican market) to cook to chilies… One red with beans, the other green with pork… It’s 10:00 pm and the chilies are in the frig… I am tired… what’s new.

The picture is from Labor Day weekend... a night photo, two locomotives and the three men who own them... I like it...

Bye, Randy

Ren Fair in the Rain

Its Ren Fair at Ardenwood (Renaissance Faire for those who have not experienced the event…) We will have Ren Fair tomorrow as well…

We have Knights, a Queen, peasants, jousters, and vendors… a grand and gay crowd has invaded the farm.

They are celebrating Queen Elizabeth, but we at Patterson House are a Queen Anne…. (bad joke) In a sea of guests in Elizabethan wear, I am dressed as a Victorian... One of us has an allegiance to the wrong English Queen...

The guests are not here for our historic house… they are here for the Faire, the food, the Joust… we get few visitors… not a bad thing… The guests who visit are really into visiting a historic house. Making things better, we have several new volunteers starting… one a high school student, (a second working his 2nd day) the other 11 years old, apparently a Victorian by birth…

The Ren Faire folks have taken over the farm… they are doing the parking, they are doing security… they don’t always recognize that we have farm and house volunteers… and so try to prevent them from joining the event… We are dealing with the issue. This morning I had to tell no less than 6 of their volunteers that I was park staff while driving in… They were polite, but were uninformed… Yes, some people work here…. Tomorrow don’t be surprised… (but they will, I have faith)

To make it weirder we are experiencing a thunder storm… Thunder and lighting and really big raindrops… This is not typical northern California weather… but it is here. At least it is cooler.

So, Brian (aka the son) is now in Jacksonville Florida, in SAR swimmer school… We are proud… Its pretty cool to say you son is a Navy SAR swimmer. The daughter is in Maryland living with her cousin’s wife, and caring for her cousin’s kids and going to the local JC…. (He is in Iraq… in command of a company of Apache Helicopters,. She is a former Army Apache pilot, a West Point Grad… we are proud of both Kellie and Fred, both heros…)

We are going to Maryland for Thanksgiving…. It’s a transcontinental holiday. I plan to visit the Smithsonian History Museum Archives… They have the Jackson and Sharp order books… I may go the Library of Congress… I have a card… Our daughter is trying to arrange a tour of the White House… It will be a good trip.

United Breaks Guitars

Those of you who regularly read this blog (both of you, ok, maybe the three of you) know that I am sometimes critical of passenger airlines and their customer service… as noted before they are low lying fruit and an easy target.

So, I was surprised, and greatly amused to find a song, no, two songs, with promise of a third… chronicling one musician’s experience (not good) with United Airlines and its baggage handling, which resulted in a busted guitar, and the resulting claims procedures.

Accepting the information our singer (Dave Carroll, of Sons of Maxwell, sonsofmaxwell.com) has provided at face value (why not, it reflects personal experience, although, I have never lost a guitar to the baggage monkeys), United was bad, United didn’t care… and now he has posted a statement on YouTube about the guitar that has been viewed 347,932 times along with the first song (viewed 5,435,364 times) and the second song (334,609 views)… So he has reached something over 5 million people with his story… United, are you listening… I guess not. At least UAL is consistent.

A few lines from the song
United, United
You broke my Taylor guitar
United, United
Some big help you are
You broke it, you should fix it
You're liable just admit it
I should have flown with someone else or gone by car
'Cause United breaks guitars

You to can view the videos and hear the songs. I recommend it.

Song number one… United Breaks Guitars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo&feature=channel
And of course the second song, United Breaks Guitars, two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-UoERHaSQg&feature=channel

Apparently United has since offered compensation… Dave seems amused… but is not taking them up on it…

Dave’s statement…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_X-Qoh__mw#

Of course, now others are piling on making the whole thing worse…

CNN and CBS have both reported on the story…

A parody response from United (no, not really from United Air lines…)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhuI3NxwI8c

Now Taylor Guitars has posted their response to the issue… a bit tongue in cheek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n12WFZq2__0

Of course, the top ad on the side bar when watching the CNN interview is Low Fares on United Airlines…. We pay for ads, but we don’t pay for broke guitars….

I think I will fly Virgin America… as far as I can tell they don’t break guitars… and they treat me well… every time… without my having to resort to YouTube… I like their safety video, I like the mood lighting… they have fresh flowers at the check in counter… Even when I am running late, out of breath, nearly late for my flight, they stay calm, and treat me well… I love Virgin America.

And the standard disclaimer… My wife works for Google. Google owns YouTube…

The Travel Bug

It’s about 10:00 pm. There is a waxing moon. The marine fog is moving in fast… the sky is spectacular…

T and I went over to Half Moon Bay, and had lunch at the local brew pub, then I went to work... we had a special photo tour. I am home now...

I am watching TV (Travel Channel, Bizarre foods with Andrew Zimmer….) I am web surfing, South West parks and “Old Ones” (aka Anasazi, a term not popular) sites… I am thinking about next summers travel. Also South America sites… we have are going on a cruise from Rio to Chile and are researching and planning…

The last trip did not cure the cravings for travel…

I am not looking forward to work tomorrow… this is not the norm… There is not much to do this week, but I am tired…

The travel cravings are calling. The Old Ones are calling, Navajo National Monument, Road 400 (Cottonwood Canyon Road across Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument), Chaco Canyon, the desert in general…

There is a public market at the port in Montevieo Uruguay… it too calls me.

I continue to read “In Search of the Old Ones” by David Roberts… about his explorations of Anasazi culture and sites… It feeds the longing...

The longing is starting again…

I have been back just over a week… the tent and equipment are cleaned and put away. It took almost ten days but I have sorted and organized the photos, and posted the selection on Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/RandyHees/SouthWestNationalParks# ). The car is still dirty, and there are at least a couple of pieces of firewood hiding in the back.

The travel channel is on in the background. Tony has been visiting Chile… the food looks good… yesterday he was in Uruguay… the market at the port is calling.

Working on the house, working in general is still fun, but the road is calling, and I am already thinking towards the next adventure… There are several options… I am will get to Carson City for a weekend in October… it’s the Virginia and Truckee symposium… an annual history symposium… Steph (aka, “The Daughter”) has suggested Maryland for Thanksgiving… It would be expensive, and tiring, but it is intriguing. In addition to family there is Tidewater Maryland, the Chesapeake shore, and Washington DC…

We have our big trip coming up in January… a cruise from Rio to Chile, visiting Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, the Falklands, cruising Antarctica (no stops) back to southern most Argentina, then Chile… This time the sisters, and her brother and wife are joining us… a very different trip than my recent solo jaunt in the desert.

I am thinking of a trip to the Navajo National Monument… They have a couple of cliff dwellings… one a 8 mile hike in (and 8 out) the second a short 5 mile hike… or maybe Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Another option is across Wyoming to Custer Battlefield, better known as Little Big Horn to the winners… I like walking battlefields… it gives a sense of place to stories and readings…

In the mean time I will tend my flowers, weed my garden, and if bored clean my car…

Its not dangerous enough

So camp is in session... this time its the Daring and Dangerous Kids camps, named for the best selling books... and after one day we have had a complaint... our camp is not dangerous enough... one young man expected to jump off of moving railroad trains onto mattresses... We get the feeling that they wanted to make slingshots and hunt squirrels... while we could use a few less squirrels around the park... I thought that there might be issues (I am soooo closed minded) so, instead of slingshots and moving trains we are making bombs and blow guns... the bombs from dry ice in tennis ball cans, and the blow guns firing marshmallows...

How do I get involved in these things...

Randy

Homeward bound.- Expanded and closure…

So, Sunday early a.m. I awoke in Ely Nevada… by 6:45 I was packed… I had drunk my morning cup of coffee… I left… room keys and five bucks on the table… (first rule of travel in Nevada, don’t screw the locals…)

Up the hill, stop and gas up… it’s a long way to the nest gas… probably Tonopah…

Uphill, past the High School, into the Juniper and Pinion pine… This is Hwy 6, the highway lonelier than the “Loneliest Highway.” I counted 14 cars and a tractor in the first hour… 6 cars in the second… Travel was fast… much of the time I was traveling over 85 miles per hour… slower on hills, but fast.

There isn’t much out there… a few ranches… with cattle and hay fields… some road side taverns with gas stations… now long closed… signs for school bus stops, with little to show where the students live… I see prong horn antelope, wild horses, (the “feral” horses of the National Park Service, another term thing)

There are more cars as I approach Tonopah. I stop for gas… It will be a long way, before I find another station. Then off south for Benton Jct, north of Bishop in California. Still fast, more people, lots of motorcycles… I start down at Boundary Peak, Mt Montgomery, an abandoned motel, once a whore house, a closed gas station… The place sticks of failure and hopelessness…

Benton Jct. has gas… I pass it by, doing well and knowing where the next tank can be purchased… up hill through Benton Hot Springs, climbing up into the Ponderosa Pine forest along the south of Mono Lake… I pause at Mono Mills, once site of the largest sawmill east of the Sierra… Nothing left but a board scatter and a few railroad ties… On to Lee Vining, gas at the world famous Lee Vining Mobil station… gas only, no food, but the food is great.

Up hill, along the creek, I camped along the creek a week or so ago… but this time I am headed home… My progress is hindered by turtle people and tourists… they are traveling slow, unaware of those who follow… It’s free weekend at Yosemite… and there are hordes of volunteers, asking for donations in place of an entry fee… There is a long delay at the entrance station, much longer than would be expected when no fee is charged… I drive, past Tuolumne Meadows, following more turtle people… It is a beautiful place, but there are just too many damned people….

The Park has a 45 mile speed limit… within the park (and other parks) I believe in the speed limits… they seem slow, but make sense in these places of worship… for the most part I don’t make 45 mph… out of the park beyond Crane Flat, and speed limits increase, but my speed doesn’t … the turtle people block progress for miles…

I pass one large group on Priest Grade… I encounter a long back up reaching Oakdale… Breaking though, I make good time towards home… over Altamont Pass and it’s windmills, across the San Mateo Bridge… I make home just after 4:00, 527 miles, in about 9 hours…

Home to the wife, a shower, a chance to clean out the car and unpack… Out to dinner, and a night in my own bed… life is good.

Some statistics… The entire trip was 2646 miles… I consumed just under 100 gallons of gas as of the last fill up in Lee Vining… I averaged about 24.8 mpg… The highest mileage noted was over 30 mpg from Jacobs Lake to Mexican Hat… I bought three t-shirts, three bundles of fire wood, four bags of ice, three books, and not much else… I ate out three times… otherwise I ate what I brought. I camped 4 nights. I stayed in motels 4 nights.

I saw buffalo, a Kabab squirrel, a California condor, Mule deer, white tailed deer, a coyote, wild horses (“feral horses”, that term thing again), prong horn antelope, chipmunks.. and other birds and animals… there were Edward Abby’s “Slow Elk”

It was a good trip… I will do it again, not the same trip, but similar trips in similar country. I will have camp fires, I will sit by said fires with a drink in had and contemplate the cosmos… I will sleep soundly in my tent… I will have coffee early in the morning, sitting by a fire, watching the sun come up.

Randy

Home at last

I left Ely at 7:00 am this morning Fueled at Tonapah and Lee Vining…

Today was all about getting home…526 miles… about 9 hours…

South west from Ely to Tonopah, then to Benton Springs, then west on 120 to Lee Vining, and across Yosemite to 580 and home… the turtle people were out in force, as were the “were am I let’s drive really slow” types…

I did see prong horn antelope and wild horses along the way, but they only distracted me from the goal, Home.

Home is good…

Now, a shower, dinner out, and time to sit... life is good.

Turning point

Saturday Evening, Ely Nevada

I left the motel in Moab this morning about 8:15, stopped at Denny’s for breakfast, then started westward… not exactly, the most direct route would have been to head directly for Green River, instead I turned north east and followed the Colorado River… The river is one of Moab’s recreation draws… they offer raft trips, kayak trips, shuttle services for floaters… There are camp grounds, and a couple of resorts… one of which was surrounded by grape vines and they had signs up advertizing their wines and wine tasting… Why is it we need to plant grapes and make wine at every tourist destination?

Moab is defiantly a tourist destination… as a result it is a young town, full of 20 somethings from all over, outdoor enthusiasts, working in the various tourist spots, and guiding tourists. The tourists are dominated by Europeans though out the desert southwest. They have adopted the Kauai Red Dirt shirt as their own... I ignored those, but bought a Monkey Wrench Gang shirt at a book store...

Anyway, along the Colorado, climbing out of the canyons until I reached I-70… Then, a little before 10:00, I turned and headed for home. This was the first interstate since last Sunday, when I was Interstate 15 for 20 miles headed into Utah from Nevada… Now I drove across half of Utah… through Green River, where I got gas, and glimpsed the last of the great rivers that make canyons land look like it does… Along the way I have crossed the Colorado, the San Juan, the Mancos, and now the Green.

I drop off of I-70 onto I-50, the anti-interstate… cross I-15 (an pick up more gas, its 89 miles to the next services…), then off on what is called the loneliest Highway in America (I know a lot of Nevadans who claim Hwy 6, the road I am driving tomorrow is less traveled though more remote country.) I cross the Nevada state line about 2:30, and the clock is set back to Pacific time… I gain an hour… I pull into Ely about 2:30, check in to my hotel, then go down to the railroad to find out what is happening at the depot.

Ely is home to the Nevada Northern Railroad… the 120 mile long railroad was built to haul copper ore out of the mines below Ely to a smelter a few miles to the north at McGill. Then further north some 80 miles to connect with the Central Pacific Railroad. When the copper mines were closed in the early 1980’s the railroad stopped running, but was not scrapped… Eventually it became the property of the county, to be operated by a local nonprofit… the railroad left everything when they shutdown the property, particularly the shops at East Ely and anything that was inside… including 3 steam locomotives, a steam snow plow, a steam crane, tools, spare parts, and probably someone’s half eaten ham sandwich.

I got a tour, then said hi to the general manager, then took the evening train ride… It was a geology train, with a group of geologists on board explaining what the rocks were and how you find copper here.

So now I am finishing up this post, and will go to bed… tomorrow I drive home… Across Nevada on Hwy 6, right at Benton Springs in California onto hwy 120, by Mono Lake and over Tioga Pass in Yosemite. Google says its 529 miles With luck and a tail wind I will be home by 6:00 pm

Friday in Moab, and John Wayne slept here...

So, I am camped on a mesa in south west Colorado… Its about 9:00 pm, its raining… It’s good… It’s warm, probably high 70’s… The rain is light… I have an awning up, a lantern lit, a fire going (not raging, just going)

It is interesting to look at how others camp.

There are the turtle people with their campers, motor homes, and air streams… It’s not really camping, its mobile living complete with our shells which we hide within…

There are the hippies, in their back packing tents (hippy being a stereotype into which I may belong) more urban that rural, but having a good time….

There are the cheapskates, camping to save money… and not always doing it well.

There are Europeans, for whom camping is a cheap way to inexpensive way to travel.
There are new campers, not comfortable with the skills and such, but bravely making a go.

There are families, believing this is a family way to travel, but uncomfortable with the skills and such.

There are a few of us camping for the experience and love of camping. It’s one of the few times we are responsible for our own shelter, food, and comfort (even if the store, showers, toilets and such, including wireless internet (gasp) are no more than 100 yards away… we can pretend)

We all come together at the NPS campground…

Most probably see rain as an issue, maybe as a disaster…. I find it interesting… It may be a problem if gear is still wet tomorrow morning… but for now it is interesting, and I have met nature and was prepared…I like to camp, for camping’s sake… (my wife does not… l leave her at home… after 29 years of marriage this is the best solution… )

The ranger talk tonight was good… women and the founding of the park, his about his aunt, and his family story, in the context of the park… it was personal, it made sense to me… As I returned to camp it started to rain, not the heavy sudden rain of thunderstorms brought by the monsoon, but a constant rain. I sat under my awning, by the fire and read… It is good.

Friday, afternoon, Moab Utah

Well, It rained much of the night at Mesa Verde… not an issue for me but others were suffering and taking to their cars… Up with the sun, made coffee, and broke camp… The big issue was wet gear. I will have to take it all out, clean it and dry it once home…

I decided to turn right at the end of the park’s entrance road, towards Mancos Colorado… got gas then north towards Dolores Colorado. Mancos and Dolores were two stations on the Rio Grande Southern Railroad… among the most loved and least successful of all American railroads… There wasn’t any evidence of the railroad in Mancos, but I was surprised by how large the town was… Sometimes you miss context such as this when reading just about railroads… Dolores was smaller, but the depot is preserved, and they have one of the railroad’s home made “Galoping Goose” railcars, but it was in Durango on a visit… I took photos of the depot and around town then headed north west towards Moab.

Just outside of town the BLM has its Anasazi Museum… I stopped… it’s located at a site, with a larger pueblo site on the hill above. The museum had its origins in both the sites on BLM land, and on the development of the McPhee reservoir and the archeological sites that were investigated before being downed. The museum was spectacular, inclusive, full of artifacts well used… Mesa Verde needs this level of museum displays..

From there it was just a drive to Moab Utah. This is across the pinto bean growning capital of the world... small towns, each with a bean processing plant, hay fields, and what look to be vacation homes...

Arriving in Moab I checked in at the Apache Motel, (listed on the National Register, John Wayne slept here…) Then off to Arches.

Arches is beautiful, it is expansive… generally you need to take short hikes to get the best view of the various arches… They are clustered in 4 sites… I did three of the sites, hiked some, but not as extensively as possible… I was tired and it was hot. I enjoyed it but felt used up before I had seen all I wanted to see.

Back to town, shower and clean up, and time for a walk about… Bye for now, I will add some photos tonight and write again tomorrow.

Thursday evening or, Who knew they had wireless in Mesa Verde

Wednesday Morning – Mexican Hat Utah

After posting last night I went down to the river, and laid down staring at the skys… the Percius meteor shower was suppose to peak about midnight… It was a bust… only a few meteors, and those very unimpressive… about 11:30 I gave up when the moon came up…

Next morning, Up, shower, breakfast at a small café next door, now off for Mesa Verde. The café was a hoot… they were a failed store, with some merchandise, a single girl dealing with foreign tourist, serving basic eggs, bacon sausage and such at a walk up counter. You ate outside at picnic tables… I like this place more and more.

North of Mexican Hat is Mexican Hat rock… a large flat rock balanced on a much smaller rock, topping a mesa… I drove down the marked road looking for a photo opportunity, only to find it was shared by a quarry with very large dump trucks… the truck drivers were used to tourists and would pull over and wait for us to pass them, so all was well. Beyond the Mexican Hat rock you entered the Valley of the Gods… equal to Monument Valley but completely undeveloped, except for a BLM dirt road. Many photos were taken.

Beyond the Valley of the Gods, I passed along various local roads, in search of the fabled 4 corners. It’s another Navajo Tribal park… I walked about, took a few pictures, then off to Mesa Verde… Entering Colorado, you are now in the Ute reservation. Just outside the park I passed through Cortez Colorado, and the culture changed, this time to western ranch town… I stopped at the true value hardware for supplies… upholstery tacks to repair my army surplus cot… they had them, along with anything else you could want from camping supplies, guns and ammo, paint, and canning jars.

The park is huge… its miles from the entrance to the campground, then miles to the visitor’s center, then more miles to each of the areas with cliff house ruins. I purchase tickets for the three ranger lead tours, then leave for the first, Long House ruin… I eat a picnic lunch then join the tour. First a tram ride to the train head then a little less than a mile on a steep but good trail… You climb a ladder into the ruin (which isn’t that ruined…) then climb a ladder down out of the ruin… The tour was good, artifact tags were in evidence on pieces of burned wood… afterward I took the tram with Mr. Ranger to visit two overlooks. Since we had time he showed us (3 of us) a recently excavated ruin site on the top of the plateau, and some of the local plants, a Yucca ready for harvest and a young juniper, in a fire zone… Much of the park has burned in the last 12 years, and recovery will be slow, hundreds of years… not at all like the situation at the Grand Canyon.

The ranger, from Massachusetts, was lamenting the fire damage… I found that I as a westerner have come to expect evidence of fire in western National Parks. He loves the park, but has eastern sensebilities… From there I went to the Park Headquarters/Spruce tree ruin site walked the museum, then walked down to the Spruce Tree ruin (again, ruin may not be the right word… in the arid west, protected by the cliffs, these sites are mostly intact… not the ruins one would expect after being abandoned for 700 years.

Then back down the road to the camp site to check in… get a site, set up (this time I set up the canopy, both because it looks like rain, and to provide shade… then off to the ranger talk… on stars… he was not expecting good skies, both smoke and clouds were present, but it turned out well… with the bonus of the Perius meteor shower showing up, a day late, but some great shooting stars… and due to smoke his laser pointer worked really well…. Like the bat beam… a column of light into the sky.

So now, (Wed. night) I am updating the log, for the blog (can’t post until I get an internet connection on Friday, unless one of the rangers or employees has an un secured wireless connection… I may drive near the residences and find out, or not…) It seems strange to be working at the computer in a national park campground, fire nearby, by Coleman lantern light… so maybe I will end the strangeness for now…
Thursday, about 4:00 p.m., back in my camp site… I have discovered the camp store has wireless internet so I will head up there and try to post this a little later.
Today, I took the ranger lead tours at Cliff Palace and Balcony ruins… I note the park service alternates between calling them “sites” and “ruins”… while some are clearly ruins, with only portions of walls remaining, some are surprisingly complete with floors, roofs, and even intact balconies… They also have a conflict on what to call the inhabitants… They alternate with the long used Anasazi and the newer “Ancestral Puebloans”… Anasazi is derived from Navaho, and can mean ancient enemies, so is considered demining by the Hopi, but Puebloans is a term from Europeans, and who have arguably treated the people worse… I prefer Anasazi, but will try to use Puebloans… It all smacks of political correctness…
Its clear when talking to the Park Service staff that there is no clear story, instead there are theories, and speculation, but the folks giving the tours are being guided by one point of view, in a field of study with several defendable points of view… Some rangers are better at accepting other views. There are several back stories… the original excavators, in the 1890’s were better archeologists that some admit… In a sense the local cowboys with help from a Swedish scientist created modern archeological methods here… but they also were pot collectors so must be villains. At one time the archeologists were writing the stories based on excavations, today we use Hopi (and other native American) oral tradition to the exclusion of some archeological evidence.

The two tours (three if you count Long House yesterday) are similar, the guide meets you at the top, explains what you are going to see, gives the scare talk (we are at 7,000 feet, we are going down lots of stair, climbing ladders (some quite tall), Its hot here, take water, take nothing else…) then you descend into the ruin (only after the ranger has collected the tickets, $3.00 each, a bargain) You reach the edge of the site (not ruin, my rules) are told never to sit on or touch the walls…. Then hear the story as presented, with many questions left unanswered.

Beyond the two major sites I toured, I spent much time doing the various loops, and interpretive walks… I saw a coyote, I saw wild, or feral (oh, no, another word conflict) horses… There are ravens everywhere you look.

This was a fast changing culture, from hunter gatherer to early farmers in pit houses near their fields, to stick and dabble houses, now with ceremonial underground round houses (Kivas) but Kivas here were also living quarters during the winter (apparently), to pueblos on mesa tops, to pueblos with towers, to cliff dwellings, along the way there are several masonry styles... I may have read too much to accept all the rangers are telling me… So am buying books, So far my favorite is “In Search of the Old Ones” by David Roberts, but its not available in the Park stores… I suspect he and his views may not be in line with the Park Service’s ideas…

I also find myself critiquing the rangers’ presentations… There is one who tells too much (He knows it so must tell it) and others who have done the talk too many times, and herded tourists up the ladders too many times, and are just not publicly excited about the subject anymore… (in their defense I have been there with house tours, but its common rather than occasional here… I suspect they get together over beers on Friday night and talk about how stupid the visitors are, some are, some are not…)
I find myself organizing my own views on the architecture, and culture…

So, it’s now late afternoon, It’s cloudy, and threatening rain… There is a gusty breeze (a neighbor’s tent has blown over… I will intervene if it heads for the road or places unknown) I have the awing up, so am ready for what happens…

I should post again tomorrow, but again, I am unlikely to post photos… too little band width here in the desert…

Randy