Mimi's Own Blog

Coyote Dreams

2011-08-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

In August of 2011 William and I were on a houseboat cruise with friends to celebrate Barrie's 70th birthday. The first night we slept inside on a fold down bed and found it somewhat uncomfortable. We had brought a blowup mattress and William decided instead of putting it up on top of the fold out bed we would put it out on the front deck. We were tied up close to the shore with the bottom of the boat front actually touching the slope.
The night was quite dark. In the middle of the night I felt an animal come close to my face. I reached out and touched deep fur and pushed it away. I woke again a bit later to feel it curled up near my legs on top of the bed. Again I pushed it away and felt it sort of jump over William and leave.
In the morning I mentioned the animal and at the time thought it must have been a cat as I had never had any other animal other than a cat in my bed. Everyone thought I must have been dreaming, but I wondered about that.
If you are sleeping on a houseboat, would you dream that you are sleeping on a houseboat? I also thought that the animal I felt could not have been a cat as it was too large, the fur was too deep and there was no purring.
Coyotes will sleep anywhere that it is comfortable. I think I looked like a good place to sleep to a coyote. The trickster strikes again.

Impossible Vegetable Pie

2011-07-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

Every time I decide to make this recipe I have to search my recipe file for it. I keep thinking it is Vegetable Pie. Tonight I made it with about 8 small mushrooms, cut up and placed on top of the chopped onion. I had no green or red pepper so I just left that ingredient out. The other vegetables, slightly cooked, were a leftover 1/2 of a zucchini and some beet greens. Served with a bit of medium hot salsa on the side it is superb. We also had a few baby carrots and sliced tomatoes on the side.

Impossible vegetable pie

2 cups chopped vegetables
Cooked 5 minutes in water and drained
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped green pepper or red pepper (optional)
Mix vegetables in sprayed pan
Top with 1 cup shredded cheese
Mix 2/3 cup baking mix, 3 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1/2 tsp salt, ¼ tsp pepper
Pour over vegetables and cheese and Bake 400 degrees 35-40 minutes

Cooking Again

2011-07-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

Dinner last night was a delicious seafood pasta with a side of steamed rainbow chard from our farm share.

Seafood Pasta

Ingredients
8 oz fettuccine (I prefer fettuccine and linguini however it\'s also fine with spaghetti)
8 oz peeled shrimps or mixed seafood (you can use scallops, squid or mussels)
1 tbs of butter
extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
grated zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup Mexican creama if unavailable use 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup sour cream
coarse salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 grated Parmesan cheese
handful of fresh basil leaves thin chopped
Method
In a large frying pan heat the butter and 2 tbs of olive oil. Add chili and garlic and cook on medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Increase the heat and add the seafood. Cook stirring until the seafood has a golden crust (3-4 minutes). Remove the seafood from the pan and keep warm.

Return the pan with oil and juices on medium heat. Add the wine and stir to deglaze the pan. Reduce the wine to 2/3 of the volume. Add the cream, lemon zest and heat. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.

Bring water to boil in a large pan, add salt and 2 tbs olive oil. Cook the fettuccine, drain.

Add fettuccine and seafood to the pan with cream sauce and mix well. Serve immediately sprinkled with fresh basil and grated Parmesan.

Dessert was watermelon balls with blueberries mixed together with a bit of sugar and a slice of banana bread.

Banana Bread

Ingredients
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup mashed ripe bananas
1 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
3/4 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix applesauce and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in bananas.

Sift together dry ingredients and add to banana mixture. Mix until well blended. Pour into greased 9-by-9-by-2-inch pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until top is all browned. Cut into squares when cool.
This is my old time favorite.

This morning it is time to make granola. I have been making this and storing it in quart jars since we lived in Sawyers Bar.

Homemade Granola

1 lg box oats
2 cups unsweetened coconut
1 jar wheat germ
2 cups soy flour
2 cups milk powder
2 cups ground/chopped almonds
2 cups sesame seeds
2 cups sunflower seeds
Mix dry ingredients together

4 cups honey mixed with 1 cup of oil (Heating this mixture in a saucepan makes it easier to mix into the dry ingredients)

Mix all together and toast in large pans in 350 degree oven about 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir to prevent scorching. Store in airtight containers.

Root Soup

2011-07-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

What's for dinner!

Root Veggie Soup (a riff on Briar Patch's recipe)
Makes 4-6 servings
8 c water and 2 knorr chicken bullion cubes
2 large white potatoes, diced
2 celery stalks
1 small onion, cut in medium pieces
4 small beets, cut in medium pieces
2 garlic cloves
fresh parsley
1 tsp ground nutmeg rounded
1 tbls chipotle hot sauce
4 ounces cream cheese
½ tsp black pepper
baked or fried tortilla strips for garnish
In a large pot boil vegetables in broth until tender, approximately 20 minutes. Blend vegetables in batches in a blender or food processor or use stick blender until smooth and return to the pot. In one of the batches, blend hot sauce and cream cheese. Add nutmeg and pepper to taste and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 7 minutes.Serve and garnish with tortilla strips.

This is great. Wonderfully tasty!

This is Reagan

2011-07-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

This is an article sent to William by Alan Bier that is well worth repeating.

President Obama may choose between giving in to Republican budget-slashing demands or defaulting on US debt for the first time [GALLO/GETTY]
As things stand today, the US is hurtling toward a budget showdown in less than a month. Either President Obama will once again capitulate to extreme Republican budget-slashing demands, making Democrats seem as much of a threat to Medicare as Republicans, and virtually ensuring a GOP electoral sweep in 2012, or the US will default on its debt for the first time in its history, most likely plunging the world economy back into another five-continent recession, also costing Democrats the 2012 elections. These are the options left for a president and a political class completely divorced both from reality, and its own history of how one of the three greatest US presidents of all time steered the country from the brink of collapse eight decades ago
Entirely forgetting the real history of how Franklin D Roosevelt used activist government to save American capitalism from itself, the entire US political establishment is instead hypnotized by the false history woven around its most over-hyped president of all time: Ronald Reagan. Idolatry of Reagan's supposed tax-cutting wonders propels the now widespread economic belief that up is down, that cutting government spending is the way out of - rather than into - a severe recession. At the same time, idolatry of Reagan's supposed political wonders propels GOP extremists to ignore all other considerations.
Because of this hypnotism, America's political establishment has barely even begun to notice two unconventional possible ways out that remain, neither of which require anything from Congress, but both of which need bold presidential leadership ala FDR.
The first is to ignore the debt ceiling, relying directly on the 14th Amendment's statement that: "the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned". The second is a proposal from maverick Republican Ron Paul to have the Federal Reserve Board destroy the $1.6 trillion in government bonds that it currently holds, which progressive economist Dean Baker recently wrote, "actually makes a great deal of sense". It might take some arm-twisting on Obama's part, but Congress has no say over the Fed, and central bankers have no great love of spreading financial panic.
In anything close to a sane world, either one of these two bold strokes would be widely hailed for avoiding a reckless threat to the still-fragile world economy. But we do not live in a sane world, and the idolatry of Ronald Reagan is one of the principle reasons why. This is why it behooves us to review some of the principle lies involved with Ronald Reagan's record, focusing specifically on the economy. What follows is but a brief rundown.
The idea that Reagan produced a uniquely booming economy is false
First, Reagan's record on the economy was not just exaggerated by his boosters, it's almost exactly the opposite of what they claim. It was a fairly ordinary time by the most common measurements of economic growth, looking good only in comparison with a selective time-slice of the 1970s. But once you start looking beneath the surface even the tiniest bit, the picture turns very dark indeed.
In terms of the most basic measure of economic growth - increase in gross domestic product (GDP) - the vaunted "Reagan boom" was an unremarkable period of time. If we look at Reagan's eight years, and compare them with Clinton's and JFK/LBJ's, Reagan comes in dead last, with 31.7 per cent compared with Clinton's 33.1 per cent and JFK/LBJ's 47.1 per cent. Only Nixon/Ford's eight years make Reagan look good, with a mere 26.2 per cent growth.
The idea that Reagan brought prosperity is true only for those at the top, not for average American workers
If we examine incomes, we discover that Reagan's eight years marked a real take-off for inequality, while average incomes stagnated. The income growth of the top once per cent was ten times that of everyone else during his term: 61.5 per cent versus 6.15 per cent. Under JFK/LBJ, the bottom 99 per cent actually did better: gaining 30.9 per cent compared with 26.9 per cent for the top once per cent. And while inequality continued to rise under Clinton, the bottom 99 per cent did more than twice as well as they did under Reagan, gaining 16.7 per cent compared with 56.6 per cent for the wealthiest one per cent.
The idea that Reagan was good for the American economy in general is false
Reagan was a disaster for the American economy in at least four fundamental ways:      Debtor Nation Status: Under Ronald Reagan, the US went from being the world's largest creditor nation to the largest debtor nation in just a few years - and we have remained the largest debtor nation ever since. In 1981, Reagan's first year in office, the US was a net creditor to the tune of $140.9bn. By 1984, that had shrunk to just $3.3bn - and the next year, the US shifted from being a creditor nation to a debtor nation for the first time in almost 70 years. By 1987, the US was a net debtor by $378.3bn - the largest debtor nation in the world. The figure rose to $532.5bn by the end of 1988, when Reagan left office.
   Deindustrialisation: While the percentage of industrial jobs in the economy had been declining since the 1950s, with the growth of the service sector, the raw number of industrial jobs continued to increase right up through 1979, just before the 1980/1982 double-dip recession. From that year onward, the number of industrial jobs began declining, with a smattering of years when the number would increase. In addition to the raw number of jobs declining, the number of unionized jobs and the number of jobs with American companies declined even further.
   Personal indebtedness: The income stagnation that began under Reagan has had a devastating impact on personal savings. While it fluctuated considerably, the personal savings rate had more than doubled between 1949 and 1982, from 5.0 per cent up to 11.2 per cent. Ironically, one of the main stated purposes of the Kemp-Roth tax cuts, the basis for Reagan's 1981 tax cut bill, was to boost personal savings. Instead, they plunged precipitously, falling all the way down into negative territory by 2006.
   Government Indebtedness: The idea that Reagan was "fiscally conservative" is false. The story of government indebtedness was even more bleak. Before Reagan, debt really wasn't a problem for America. From World War II to 1981, every president had reduced the debt as a percentage of GDP, except for the divided term of Nixon-Ford, which saw a tiny 0.2 per cent increase.
The debt-to-GDP ratio is much more significant than the debt alone, since the GDP represents the nation's total capacity to pay off the debt. And from WWII to 1981, the debt-to-GDP ratio fell from almost 120 per cent down to just down to just 32.5 per cent. The sharpest drop came early on, but even during the supposed "big government" heyday of the Kennedy/Johnson years, the ratio fell by over 16 per cent in eight years. Conservatives then might have complained about the debt - and they certainly did - but no one knowledgeable about economics took them seriously, because the debt grew significantly slower than our ability to repay it.
During Reagan's term, this changed dramatically. The ratio rose by over 20 per cent, and it rose another 13 per cent under his successor, George Bush Sr. It took a Democrat, Bill Clinton, to get the ratio headed down again - by almost 10 per cent during his two terms, before Bush Jr sent it skyrocketing again - by almost 28 per cent. It's rising fast under Obama as well - but that's to be expected as a result of the worst recession since the 1930s.
The idea that Ronald Reagan consistently opposed tax increases is false
The idea that Ronald Reagan always opposed tax increases is completely untrue. He raised taxes dramatically as Governor of California in 1967 - by a whopping 30 per cent. But he also raised them as president - 11 times. Sure, his 1981 tax increase, along with three smaller increases, was much larger than his total tax cuts. But his willingness to raise as well as lower taxes would have made him at least somewhat compatible with President Obama, and totally unacceptable to movement conservatives today, especially Tea Partiers.
Bruce Bartlett was a leading supply-side economist in the 1970s, who helped draft the Kemp-Roth tax bill as a staff economist for Congressman Jack Kemp. He went on to serve in both the Reagan and Bush I administrations. In an April 2010 blog post, listing Reagan's 11 presidential tax hikes and four tax cuts, Bartlett wrote: "It may come as a surprise to some people that, once upon a time in the not-too-distant past, Republicans actually cared enough about budget deficits that they thought raising taxes was necessary to bring them down. Today, Republicans believe that deficits are nothing more than something to ignore when they are in power and to bludgeon Democrats with when they are out of power."
Bartlett was obviously overstating his case, given how the debt skyrocketed under Reagan. But things would have clearly been much, much worse if Reagan had never raised taxes. And if Reagan were around today, he would no doubt be denounced as a "socialist" for all the tax increases he signed onto.
The idea that Reagan's tax cuts spurred job creation is false
As noted in Bartlett's table of tax cuts and increases, Reagan followed up his 1981 tax cuts with increases in 1982 and 1983. And for good reason: The unemployment rate - already high when Reagan took office - continued to skyrocket after his tax cuts were passed - peaking at 11.2 percent in 1983, when the jobless rate finally started to come down. The exact mixture of cause and effect over such an extended period may be subject to debate. But one thing is certain: Reagan's 1981 tax cuts did not magically result in job creation in anything like the way that conservatives nowadays mindlessly claim.
The idea that Reagan changed America's mind about taxes and the role of government is false
Political scientist James Stimson, author of Public Opinion in America: Moods, Cycles, and Swings, has constructed an index of economic liberalism based on hundreds of public opinion questions asked repeatedly over the years. This index reached a low-point in 1980 and rose dramatically for the next seven years, reaching a plateau at levels not seen since Nixon's first term, as if Reagan's rhetoric were convincing more and more people of the exactly the opposite of what he was saying.
This rise was reflected, for example, in four questions asked in the General Social Survey, the most-cited data source for social scientists after the US Census. Between 1980 and 1990, the number of people saying the government was spending "too little" nationally increased 27.4 per cent on health care, 32.9 per cent on education, 67.8 per cent on welfare and 46.7 per cent on the environment. The questions all reminded people that increased taxes might be required if more was spent.
What's more, 20 years after Reagan's election, in 2000, federal tax receipts as a percent of GDP were up 8.4 per cent over what they had been the year Reagan was elected, indisputable proof that government's role had ultimately not decreased across that time-span.
The idea that Reagan was a singularly popular president is false
Reagan was quite fortunate in getting re-elected in 1984 when his popularity was particularly high, but that was not true of his record in general. According to Gallup, Reagan's overall average approval rating was only 52.8 per cent, lower than John F Kennedy (70.1 per cent), Dwight Eisenhower (65 per cent), GHW Bush (60.1 per cent), Bill Clinton (55.1 per cent), and Lyndon Johnson (55.1 percent). It's only modestly higher than George W Bush (49.4 per cent) and Richard Nixon (49.1 per cent).
Summing Up
Surveying all these lies in a single panorama, it should be clear that neither Reagan's economic record nor his political one should provide any case at all for embracing conservative economics. Quite the opposite: They clearly point to failure on both counts. What's more, the only reason his mythology is possible at all is because he significantly backtracked by raising taxes, when doing otherwise would have completely exposed the failure of his principal economic intentions.
President Obama is as drunk on Reagan's Kool-aid as anyone else in Washington today. It will be difficult indeed for him to break the spell in time to save the country - and himself - from repeating the economic disaster that conservative policies led to just before he was elected.
One thing about Reagan is true, however: His wife did play a significant role in saving him from following ideologues into dangerous folly on a number of occasions. Perhaps Michelle Obama is America's last best hope. Perhaps she can see what her husband thus far cannot.
Paul Rosenberg is the Senior Editor of Random Lengths news, a bi-weekly alternative community newspaper.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

The Debt Ceiling

2011-07-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

I feel that I really need to write on this subject as too many people do not understand the threat. Just 6 months ago no one in the leadership of the Republican or Democratic Party was believing that the debt ceiling was going to be a problem. This spring President Obama was asked why he did not secure a raise in the debt ceiling along with the concessions that avoided a government shutdown. No problema. He did not believe that the raising of the debt ceiling would be a problem.
Republicans started out strong with the same hostage deal. Cut spending before the debt ceiling will be raised. They first held out an offer of some revenue increases, but have since said no closing of any tax loopholes for corporations or millionaires. The amount of the raising of the debt ceiling must be matched by spending cuts, preferably to Medicare and Social Security. Republicans want cuts to only impact the poor, middle class and elderly and defund safety programs and programs that will regulate Wall Street.
What is the debt ceiling? Many people seem to feel that this is a limit on future spending and will cause no real problems. Shut down the government? No problema. The debt ceiling is past budget obligations. All that deficit spending by 4 years of the Bush administration has now become a problem to Washington. Debt has been entered into and now the Republicans do not want to pay.
If we had not included the Bush Tax Cuts in the deal to avoid a government shutdown, the debt would be on course to be paid off in 10 years. A government shutdown would have been less painful than what is headed our way.
What will be the consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling even for a short time? Interest rates will shoot up. And you though it was hard to borrow now? The amount of the US debt will raise rapidly. The stock market will plummet sharply 800 or more points. The big earners are protecting their money with investments in short funds. Even if the sudden problems in the economy shake up the Congress so that they then pass a raise in the debt ceiling we will feel the pain for 30 years.
The economy will slow to a stop. No loans, no construction. Forget selling your house and moving to where you might get a job. The consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling will be spread throughout the world as banks are invested all over the world. Bank failures will pick up and even big banks will fail.
Because the unemployment rate will shoot up as we are forced into another recession, the Republicans will probably win the presidency and many elections in 2012. Even though people will initially blame the Republicans for the horror, it is 16 months until the election. Sixteen months of suffering will lead the people who vote to lash out at the closest target. Corporate funded advertising will redirect the blame to President Obama.
With a Republican president and Republican House and Senate we can expect a Ryan budget in spades. Destruction of Medicare and Social Security, no more cost of living increases for federal pensions. More war, less war who knows? For sure advancement of the Republican's social agenda. No abortions. No minimum wage. No rights for gays. Perhaps a return to laws against gays. No rights for workers. No workplace safety rules. Caveat emptor will be the law of the land.
I am fairly old, but I may live to see the thirty years of suffering that just failing to raise the debt ceiling may bring.

A Busy Weekend in May

2011-05-23T15:39:00.000-07:00

On Saturday and Sunday Morning we attended the local Garden Tour. We took lots of pictures and now have to remember what we were liking about that particular garden.
This garden concept may be doable for us with small developed areas within a natural woodland setting. Of course we loved this huge garden with a surprise around every corner.

I think the boccie ball court is a possibility to replace the old badminton court at the bottom of the yard.

We have put in a few plants in the front. But more work in the front has to be done after the tree man pollards the two horrible trees in the yard. William will then get rid of the high stumps and plant something nicer.

Saturday evening was the Annual Democrats Jefferson/Jackson fundraiser dinner. I baked a pecan pie for the dessert run. I think all had a good time and a good deal of money was raised.

Sunday we had an early soul food dinner at the Hornings with a lovely black eye pea soup. I brought corn bread made with the stone ground corn meal I bought in the Great Smokies and another pecan pie. After dinner we all raced to downtown Grass Valley to attend the tribute to Aretha Franklin at the Center for the Arts. A great time was had by all.

Cinco de Mayo

2011-05-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

We finished our little 9,600 mile drive on May 3rd by traveling over the Kingsbury Grade and down to Lake Tahoe. The lushness of the Carson River Valley is so evident from our high perch as we chug up over the grade.We stop at the scenic Emerald Bay rest stop, still closed by snow.And see that Lake Tahoe is still a beautiful blue.
We just happen to arrive at the Bridge Tender for lunch. No fries, we are fried out. But Moose Drool Brown Ale on draft sounds good to Bill. Our meal was great, but we were ready to leave. The waitress had left the bill, but we needed change to pay. We waited. Finally I got up and walked to the bar and caught her as she dashed past.

Home at last.

The plant in the entry is dead so I replace it with a few sprigs of the pink dogwood blooming in the back.Out to lunch on Cinco de Mayo at Amigos & Company. We both enjoy the fish taco lunch special next to the rushing water of Deer Creek. I am smart enough to ask for my Bud Lite in a glass. I may have plebeian taste, but I don't have to advertise it. Bill is happy with Negro Modelo on draft.

Dinner is some very good homemade tortilla soup and pecan pie. The soup was great and the pie was very tasty. I just have to work on the baking technique, so it comes out of the pan easier. I think if I not only spray the pan, but also slightly bake the crust before putting in the filling, it would work.

Why we drive 395

2011-05-03T09:23:00.001-07:00

Since a picture is good for 1000 words I'll save time and offer this as a reason for driving 395 as we head home. The valley is dry, but the mountains are lovely. Not so windy today, so the driver is spared some work.We take a loop on 89 up over Monitor Pass.And stop for lunch on a broad paved turnout just below the summit.
Our purpose was to come to Grover Hot Springs.

Nice hot water but too much algae for me. I like the miracle cure mineral combination of Tecopa better. There was a fairly shallow hot water pool and a regular water deep cool pool. We met a couple who came to Sacramento from the Ukraine in the early 90's. They come here 3 or 4 times a year.
After Grover we head down to Minden and dinner at JT Basque Bar and Dining Room. The food is great, as long as you refrain from local specialties like sweetbreads or tripe and pigs foot stew. The service is friendly family style. If you are there for dinner, you get all the courses. Soup, jug of red wine, salad, rice dish, bean dish, entree, fries and dessert. Some locals indulge in too much picon punch and play bar dice too loud. But it is part of the atmosphere.
We just spent the night in the RV park run by the Carson Valley Inn. Nice and simple. And today we will just have a nice drive home around the west shore of Lake Tahoe.

Leaving Las Vegas

2011-05-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

Since we are not Las Vegas affectionatos, we left via the highway and headed to Tacopa Hot Springs. But wait, there is the road to China Ranch Date farm. Deeper down in a wash than we remember. Good thing there has been no rain lately. I exit to the friendly advances of the resident weimaraner. It wants to hop in the RV to greet William, but is obedient when he says no. Then some other people come over with a small white fluff dog. The weimaraner wants to make friends and play. The little dog rolls over to play and its oblivious owners keep walking for a bit dragging it in the dust. Hysterical. Everyone else here seems to have come for a date milkshake. We bought some Deglet Noor dates, a small date loaf and some syrup. We have done the tour before so we head on to the hot springs. An hour of soaking in the miracle cure hot springs is good for what ails us.
Refreshed we drive on down the road. The Owens Lake basin looks better every time we see it. The City and County of LA are doing their best, under court order, to rehab their destruction. I still would never live in the town of Keeler.
Not a big flower year in Death Valley, but I would love to stay in the Furnace Creek Inn someday.
A fast drive through Death Valley still marveling at the scenery for the umpteenth time. We tool into the Boulder Creek Resort outside of Lone Pine and settle in to our #12 spot in the shadow of Mt. Whitney.

Leaving Silver City 4/29/2011

2011-04-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, 4/28, was our last day in Silver City. Maybe for a while, since it was always the race that drew us back. We are still in a eating out mode so we have lunch at Big Time Burgers. We had a recommendation to this place on another visit. I wondered how it could still be operational with new chain burger places virtually surrounding it, McDonalds, Blakes, and Sonic. But it is a Mexican burger place. Besides us all the customers were Hispanic. Do you want hot or mild chilies on your burger? They also offer fried zuchinni rounds. Very tasty.

Dinner out is a recommendation from the Markely's. The Wrangler. Certainly a place that mainly draws the horse lover locals. Lots of TV's tuned to various sports events. I enjoyed my crispy chicken BLT salad. William had catfish and onion rings. We watched a basketball game.

Today we were on the road by 9 AM. Not much wind as we retrace our steps toward Mogollon (mugeeyon). We continue on toward Springerville, AZ with the thought of eating in our old favorite Blue Bird Cafe. But it is now the Blue Bird Antique Shop. We get a recommendation to Java Blues. I really like the décor and layout of the place. The upstairs has a deli sandwich counter with coffee and baked goods. Downstairs has a full bar and clever New Orleans décor. The girls at the faux windows are nicely done. William goes for a signature Border Burger with guacamole and beer battered french fries, which he said was great. I am still in a salad mood so I choose one of their special salads, Blues Salad and a cup of the soup of the day. I was concerned about the soup as broccoli cheddar is not my favorite, but it was well done, thin rather than thick. The salad looked fine with pecans, blueberries, and blue cheese bits on assorted lettuce. The dressing was a blueberry, blue cheese vinaigrette. But the blueberries were not fresh. They were soggy soft and the dressing tasted of old berries also. I ate some. I should have sent it back. William mentioned the problem to the waitress and the cook sent his apology.

The wind is worse now. We press on in the howling wind toward Homolovi Ruins State Park. There is a lot of dust blowing and tumbleweeds have stuck in the fences to make furry tan fences. In the lees of some of the road cuts tumble weeds have piled in drifts. We spot some nice lenticular clouds.
At Homolovi the wind is still fierce, shaking the RV.

4/30/2011 Not much to say about driving on highway 40. We left early to avoid some of the wind. We took 93 to go past Hoover Dam. Really a zoo there. At least we had toured the dam years ago with the kids. So we just looked a bit at the new highway and how they handle the crowds now. The first thing you notice about Lake Mead is the huge drought driven bath tub ring. I found an interesting dynamic graph of the water levels.

We picked a nice looking RV park in Boulder City out of the AAA Camp book. But they don't take class B RV's. You can almost hear the nose in the air. I am sure they do not take pop up's either. Just the big rigs. We are recommended to a park down the road. Just fine place with very fast internet.

Silver City NM and Tour of the Gila

2011-04-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

It was windy over the top
and for our first day in Silver City. We ate out at Shevek our first night here. This is a great place for tapas. I thought 4 was the right number of tapas, but I think next time we are here I might try three. I took a picture of the dessert. I was too intimidated by the waiter to to take more pictures.
At least the winds die down for the start of the Tour of the Gila. We are here to help Jon's former team for at least the first two days, even though he won't be here.
We managed to look up Dick Markley and Gail. They have a lovely home high up in Silver City. This area is fine for horse-lovers. We met their foreign exchange student. A very nice young man named Ben from Finland. He goes home in June after 11 months in the USA. He says he basically loses a year of schooling at home, but it is a great experience. Gail did an excellent dinner of Mexican food.
We said good-bye to the boys after the race today. Maybe they will come to Nevada City.Blurry boys in the back of the bus from yesterday. Mike on the left and Greg on the right. At least you can see Greg's leg.

More Eating and Soaking in Truth or Consequences

2011-04-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

Last night we ate out at our favorite restaurant Bella Luca. We shared a bruscetta. Then William had an Italian steak and I had cannelli beans and greens with a chicken cutlet.
We went out for lunch today to the Happy Belly Deli. It is a strange place. Great breakfast and lunch food but the ambiance is odd. I guess it was an old house. The no longer used windows are strangely boarded up. These lions probably did not originally have posts out of their backs nor face a weird fence. I keep hoping they might fix their patio. But no such luck.Balance a table leg on a rock and hope your chair with the leg in a hole is stable. William had a green chile philly sandwich and I had a tempeh reuben.This is just 1/2 as it was so good I ate half before taking a picture.
After much more relaxing and soaking we went back to Bella Luca. We shared fried calamari. They fry the rings then toss them with rings of pepperoncini chili peppers and bits of pimento pepper and then serve them on a bed of greens and dust them with chopped Italian parsley and Parmesan cheese. Unbelievable.William had pasta al pesto with chicken and I had special ravioli made by grandma. I brought 2 of the ravioli home to save room for dessert. Don't ask about the picture of the Tiramisu. Lady fingers layered with mascarpone and whipped cream filling topped with shaved chocolate and served with a pot of espresso and brandy sauce. It was eaten too fast for a picture. Tonight we had a special soak in one of the private tubs facing the river. Time to think about packing up and heading to Silver City tomorrow.

Catching up

2011-04-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

From Boulder to Santa Fe to Truth or Consequences NM
Surprises from Jon. He is retiring from road racing. He hopes to continue cyclocross after they move to Chico in June.
We left Boulder the morning of the 23rd. It was spitting snow.We celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary in Santa Fe. The Luminaria was the lovely restaurant William picked for our meal. We window shopped around the plaza before going to eat. I was looking at sapphires, the stone for 45 years.

45 years

William had delicious duck on polenta.

I had salmon. I seldom remember to take a picture first.

So guess who nibbled at the red chile flan and citrus sorbet.

A windy drive today down to Truth Or Consequences NM. We are staying at the Riverbend Hot Springs Resort.We are here a couple of days before we head to Silver City. We will still help Jon's former team at the Tour of the Gila race as much as we can.

Goodland Kansas to Boulder Colorado

2011-04-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

The Goodland KOA was five star with no one there.

An artist is painting giant copies of Van Gogh's sunflower pictures in different countries that grow lots of sunflowers.
They had a nice High Prairie Museum in Goodland. This old helicopter really did not work.

Here we are in Boulder.

We Still Like Ike

2011-04-20T16:42:00.001-07:00

Abilene, Kansas, boyhood home of Dwight David Eisenhower and site of his Presidential Library, Museum and Final Resting Place.

We go over to the chapel that contains his and Mamie's tomb.

I am very touched.

The Chapel where he rests.

He was a great man. When I was in third grade I went over to the neighbor's and watched the Republican National Convention on their TV. We got our first TV about 4 years later.

I was a great Ike fan and still am. No president is perfect and he did some things I cannot agree with (But few knew how evil the CIA was/is) and there were things he did that I was sorry Congress watered down. He was a moderate who was courted by the Democrats and the Republicans before he decided to run as a Republican. At the end of his two terms he was still very popular and would have won a third term if it had been allowed. Walter Lippmann said Eisenhower would have won even if he were dead.

William imitates the general.

Ike's boyhood home.

We both enjoyed the museum, though we tended to skip around each other. William passed me in the Mamie section and I passed him in the WWII section, but we finished about the same time. We both like this quote among many. He left many good quotes.

When we were looking at a display about Kansas in the Library, we saw a display about the rock fences. In the West when there were rock fences, they were the traditional type where the farmer keeps stacking up rocks from the field along the edge and eventually has a fence. These rock fences are different. Where streams have cut in and made bluffs you see sandstone that was easily cut into blocks. Without much source of wood for fence posts, the farmers used sandstone blocks for fence posts and strung barbed wire between the posts. Many posts still stand along 70. A few were used along the edge of a road at a rest stop.
These were buried a bit deeper than they were originally, but you can still see where the wire cut in.

Before we get to the Goodland KOA, our stop for the night we see snow along the edge of the road.

The man who owns the KOA said it snowed here just a few days ago.

Illinois to Kansas

2011-04-19T18:06:00.000-07:00

We leave Litchfield after the morning thunderstorm has let up by 9AM. We enjoyed our stay at Aunt Alice's house.

Being along the Eisenhower Highway system
reminds us that the Eisenhower Presidential library and museum are in Abilene Kansas. We will visit the Museum in the morning. The last Republican I whole heartedly endorsed. Though during the Bush years I grew nostalgic for Nixon.

We push on to an RV park close to Abilene. This RV park, like many we have stayed at on this trip, has seen better days.

Up to Springfield

2011-04-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

The Lincoln Presidential Library Museum in Springfield beckons. We arrive at Ruthie's and had a nice visit while we waited for Mary Kay and Rich.
The Museum is fabulous and the Team of Rivals section had information that we were not familiar with. I bought the book for us.

William and I visit with the Lincoln family.

us and the young Lincoln

The three cousins, Ruthie engineered the Springfield visit. She is a museum docent.

the Lincoln Home

Ariston Party Number Two

2011-04-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

Today we took Aunt Alice and family out to the Ariston for their famous Sunday Brunch Buffet.

Lazy Days in Illinois

2011-04-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

We have been having a lovely time here in Litchfield. We are staying with Aunt Alice, Dad's younger brother's widow, a most gracious hostess. Because Ted was quite a bit younger than Dad and Alice married quite young, she is only 10 years older than me.

We had a lovely family get together of the Schneider side.

Cousin Sue and her son Ben

Scott came up from Florida. He comes up every once in a while. He cooked a huge Cuban style dinner.

A big motivation in coming was to visit mom's sister. At soon to be 97, she is the last remaining of the Whitlock brothers and sisters. She is in a large assisted living right now. She gets around quite well with her walker and has no major health problems, just a little short term forgetfulness. A drive with Ruth and cousin Patty out to the country had to take in the former Crabtree one room school house
where she taught for many years and the farm where Cousin Frank and his wife Patty live now.

Cousin Mary Kay was planning a gathering to visit Aunt Ruth this same weekend. So we pulled cousins out of the woodwork and had a gathering of 16, minus a few spouses who were busy and a few cousins out of state.
The venue was Aunt Ruth's favorite restaurant, the Ariston, in business on route 66 since 1924.

Today we are going to take Aunt Alice, cousins Janet and Sue out to lunch at the Ariston. It is the place to go in Litchfield.

Mammoth Cave to Illinois

2011-04-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

Mammoth Cave to Indiana 4/11/11

We got up pretty early this AM and decided to go on an 845 cave tour. We had seen the dry part of the cave on our historic cave tour yesterday, so today we did a wet part.

The Frozen Niagara tour is short but has a lot to see and has an interesting history.

Mammoth Cave had been a private operation for over 100 years by 1920 when an enterprising person described as an oil man, realized that the cave tours were covering land not owned by the historic tour operators. He managed to surreptitiously map the caverns and bought up adjoining land. He then threw dynamite down a sink hole and blasted a new hole into the caverns. After some exploration he set up a new entrance and built a new hotel and put up billboards calling himself the New Mammoth Cave.

It is amazing to think of people paying the equivalent of $60/person in 1924 to take really dangerous tours. Now there are steel guard rails and steel stairs. Then, forget guard rails, rickety wooden stairs and ladders were what you got for you and your children. People took more chances. And of course the risks you took were your own responsibility. Sort of like skiing now days.

We saw a lot of stalactites, stalagmites, columns and different types of flowstone. We looked into the bottomless pit and also saw the tiny Crystal Lake where people used to climb down to on wooden ladders and ride around in on a tiny boat. The Frozen Niagara was a spectacular tour for little effort.

The weather report was for rain to start at noon so we decide not to camp in Mammoth. It is a pretty campground but has no electricity. We drive on through Kentucky on Scenic route 70.

The idea is to camp at Lincoln State Park in Indiana. There is a historic farm in the area where Lincoln lived from age 7 until he left home. Too rainy to visit today, but little chance of rain tomorrow. At least we have electricity here in this picaresque campground. We could always go to Holiday Village in the town of Santa Claus on the other side of the intersection. Probably not.

Lincoln's Boyhood 4/12/2011

The weather was nice today and we spent the day going around to the various sights around Lincoln State Park that celebrate the boyhood Lincoln spent in Indiana.

In 1816 when Lincoln was 7 his family moved here to a 160 acre claim near Little Pigeon Creek. We visited the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial including the visitor center museum and movie and the Living Historical Farm. The farm had just opened up for the season and was very enjoyable.

We walked around the Col Jones Home. The Col owned a general store where Lincoln worked. It is still closed. The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Plaza was quite impressive.

We walked around the Little Pigeon Primitive Baptist church where Lincoln's sister and her husband are buried. While I fixed lunch William walked up to see Nancy Hanks, Lincoln's mother, grave site.

Lincoln stayed here 14 years. We are camped in Lincoln State Park for 2 nights. We keep changing sites as the RV sites are very uneven. This place is probably packed with people in the summer time.

But it could use a bit of TLC and grader work to level these sites. They offer water and electricity implying that these sites are for RV's. But they are crooked and sloping so it is hard to even roughly level our RV. But we have a nice view of the lake where we are now.

The lake and a ranger cabin, now used for boat rentals, were a CCC project. Reminders from state to state of all the work the young men of the CCC and WPA did in the 30's to fix up our national infrastructure.

New Harmony Indiana 4/13/2011

Just outside Cynthiana, Indiana, I spotted a small clump of headstones on top of a knoll with a large pile of slash next to it piled for burning. No road to this small pioneer cemetery and now no trees to shade the graves. Just cornfields right up to the stones.

As we head west William looks for sights to see along the way. And he picks out New Harmony, Indiana.

They are having Heritage Week, now stamped on my hand. We start at the visitor center for an orientation by a docent and a film. The town is gearing up for their bicentennial in 2014.

In the early 1800's a group broke off from the Lutheran church in Germany and their leader Rapp preached that the end times were near and they should live and work together. They first went to Harmony, Pennsylvania. But they needed more land so they bought 20,000 acres along the Wabash river in a place they called New Harmony. In a few years of hard work they transformed a dense forest into a prosperous town with many industries and surrounding farmlands growing grains, hemp, orchards and vineyards. They exported much of their goods and decided to go back to Harmony, Pennsylvania so their distribution would be better. The sect gradually died off after they espoused celibacy. Like the Shakers.

The town was sold to Owen who wanted to promote scientific study and education. Although he only lasted a few years the people he imported went on to found the Smithsonian Institute.

The town is considered a place where people come to seek spirituality and they have a famous roofless church.The grandparents fountain with William

We have a bit of time to go around to a few of the craftspeople. We see redware pottery making, soap making, rope making, felting and bee keeping and then it is time to leave.

We head out of town and cross the bridge to Illinois. It is a toll bridge, one dollar toll. I think they should pay us to drive on it. It looks to be in terrible shape as the pavement is rutted and the whole thing is covered with rust.

We spent last night in a state park in Illinois at Carlyle Lake. Now we are at Aunt Alice's. She has great internet in her new house.

Mammoth Cave

2011-04-10T15:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we saw many red bud by the road. Today we saw tons of dogwood. We are not staying in the campground at Mammoth Cave even though it is much prettier than where we are. One word, electricity.

Diamond Caverns RV Resort says it is associated with Thousand Trails. Thousand Trails has come down a bit. The pool is green. They have stacked large rocks on some of the picnic tables to try to fix the warping. The hot water is slow and the drains back up fast. The wifi is only available in the "clubhouse" I am sitting at a ratty desk with major damage to the wall board. The exercise equipment is a couple of exercise bikes. I've seen better at yard sales. The Sauna is permanently locked and the spa has been broken for 3 years. Definitely downhill.

We went to Mammoth Cave this AM and went on the Historic Tour. It says moderate but I found it pretty strenuous at times.
Total Stairs 440 and a lot of them are straight up out of the bottom. 2 hours, 2 miles. We entered by the natural old entrance and saw the old mining areas. The bat guano was mined to make saltpeter in the 1800's for black powder manufacture and the Indians in ancient times mined the gypsum off the walls for unknown reasons. The narrow and low passages were not too bad. I got the most breathless climbing those stairs back up.

Great Smoky Mountains and beyond

2011-04-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

Great Smoky Mountains 4/5/2011
Snow is spitting down as we leave Mama Gerties RV Park. We see lots of storm damage from high winds and a horrible storm I slept through last night. I have William's cold and was exhausted from all the walking, so I slept through lightning that made William nervous. He said he was wondering what would happen if a lightening strike hit the RV.
Signs are blown over and trees are broken. Looks like in some places the road was just cleared off.
William sees signs of old log skidding on the hillsides so we stop to look.
Since we will be boondocking the next few nights, we want to have plenty of gas. In the gas station window there is a sign for Hot Boiled Peanuts. You dip them out of a crock pot. Your choice of original or Cajun. So I choose Cajun.
At lunch I offer the peanuts with a sandwich. William does not like them. Says they are mushy. Yes, they are soft, but I like them. They make a great treat with a beer later.
Cut and run was the way trees were stripped out of the Appalachian Mountains. “You hardly left a tree of any size standing and all the little 'uns was tore down.” Spruce, Hemlock, Chestnut and Oak all were cut down. Any chestnuts left died off of an imported disease. 85% of the land that became the park was owned by timber companies and had been clear cut.
In the 30's there were many CCC camps here, and you can see all the stone work they did on the road.
In June this area must be lovely with the Rhododendrons in bloom and all the trees leafed out. What we loose in scenery we gain in fewer tourists. It would be even quieter, if this were not spring break for some elementary schools.
There is a lot of water here, and I don't think it all came from the storm last night. William is unimpressed by the Appalachian Mountains. We discuss the difference in age between the Rockies and Sierras and these ancient mountains worn down to what look to us like rounded hills.
Cades Cove 4/6/11
We camped in Cades Cove Campground in the Great Smokies National Park. We are boon docking with no electricity and no phone or internet.
Our main goal today is to do the Cades Cove Tour. This is a combo driving and walking tour of some of the old homes and churches. It seemed crowded enough today. We had trouble finding a parking place at some of the stops. I can't imagine how it is in the summer when it takes 4 hours to just drive the 11 mile route, let alone stop and park and look at anything.
Early settlers chose this land because it was flat. They could grow crops on the flat fields, corn and wheat. They planted gardens and harvested the bounty of the forests. Each family gathered 20-30 bushels of chestnuts just for their own use. If they gathered more, they would sell them in town. Each family had pigs for smoked meat. They ate venison and bear meat for fresh meat. They grew their own cotton and sheep for wool for homespun cloth. They raised cattle on the flat clear land on top of the mountains and also had milk cows.

William tried grinding sorghum cane for juice to make syrup.

The old mill was grinding corn today.

We looked for Borden's but didn't find any.

Although they had peach and apple orchards, the trees are all gone now. The rangers said the bears broke them down soon after the people left, attempting to get all the fruit. These eastern bears must not plan ahead like western bears. There are places in the west where people have long gone but the apple trees are still there. William says bears may break off a limb or two but they do not break down the whole tree.
After dinner William torches off some wood he has found, in the empty campsite next door. It is a nice fire with minimal smoke.
This contrasts with a thankfully further away camper whose fire was billowing black smoke earlier. William said he thought they used inner tubes for starter.
On to Cumberland Gap 4/7/11
We pass through Pigeon Forge on our route and the road from Dollywood is crowded and under construction to make it wider. We pass some really strange businesses trying to capitalize on the popularity of Dollywood. One building is built crookedly sideways and next to it is one built to appear upside down. I see Moonshine brittle and Catshead biscuits, the “largest as seen on TV outlet store”, the Appalachian Aquarium? Too much! Finally we are off the well beaten path and on our way to the Cumberland Gap.
Then we see prisoners working on the roadside in fluorescent orange vests and wide black and white striped pants. I think of George Clooney.
Here we are in a National Park campground that will be shut down if the government shuts down on Friday. We will actually have until Saturday AM before the rangers start telling people to move out. We were only planning on staying here for 2 nights anyway.
William is on a nostalgia trip with the Cumberland Gap as his dad said that the Bakers came to Nebraska from Kentucky and to get to Kentucky, you came over the Cumberland Gap.
We went to the visitor center and watched a movie about the exploration of the region, heavy on the Daniel Boone. I bought a lovely spoon rest made in the area. It has a red chicken footprint on greenish glass. We drove up to the Pinnacle Overlook. We are at the edge of three states, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia.

William straddles Virginia and Kentucky.

The Cumberland Gap was not a place of any battles in the civil war although it did pass from rebel to union hands a few times and was the source of much misery to the poorly fed and poorly equipped troops who occupied it.
The campground has just had the hazard trees removed and cut up. There is at least a quarter of a cord of firewood stacked up at each campsite. William is trying to figure out how he can burn a quarter of a cord of wood in one fire circle in one evening.
More Cumberland Gap 4/8/2011
We went over to the Lincoln Memorial University to look at their Lincoln Museum. I think William will be pleasantly surprised by the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. This museum was a bit disorganized. Just lots of bits. But lots of information. I bought a book for Axel.
We looked at the outdoor museum about Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Trail. We had already watched the movie at the Visitor Center.
We drove around the historic town of Cumberland Gap. William said it looked as if they took every old house and made a Bed and Breakfast out of it.
We found the train tunnel. We watched a coal train come out of this tunnel from high above on Pinnacle Overlook yesterday.
Back to the Campground.
On to Mammoth Caves 4/9/11
Today was mostly a driving day. The highlights were tons of red bud blooming along the road, driving through a thunderstorm with piercing lightening flashes striking the ground and bad winds after the storm.
We stopped at Cumberland Falls.
From the write up about the falls

“The falls is 65 feet high and is 125 feet in width. When the Cumberland River is at flood stage the width of the falls can quickly expand to 300 feet.
Besides the falls, one of the great attractions at Cumberland Falls State Park is the Moonbow. Visible on moonlit evenings, the moonbow is said to only be duplicated at Victoria Falls in Africa.”

There did look like a lot of water going over the falls. But having seen high western waterfalls I was not that impressed. We were not there for the moonbow. Maybe then I might have been impressed.
We spent a long time on the Louis B. Nunn Cumberland Parkway. This road is for long distance drives as it has exits only every 15 miles or so. Hardly any traffic. Lots of wind. Named for the 52nd governor of Kentucky, a Republican segregationist who raised taxes to improve the state parks and establish community mental health clinics. Needless to say he served from 1964 to 1971. Another time, another place.

Biltmore House

2011-04-04T15:20:00.000-07:00

Today we got up early to be at the Biltmore House close to the opening time of 9AM. We decided to get audio guides to go with the tour. The audio guides were a good investment. If you are paying $44 each for a tour of a house, another $10 each for an audio guide is peanuts. As you go through each room you are cued in the guide book as to what number you input to hear a very well narrated story about the house.
The Biltmore house is the largest house in the USA, currently. There are 250 rooms in the house and 43 bathrooms. It took 20-30 servants to run the house even if there were no guests.
George Vanderbilt was the youngest of the Vanderbilt boys and inherited the smallest portion of the Vanderbilt fortune, which began with George's grandfather Cornelius. Only 10 million dollars. This would be about 225 million in today's dollars. Not too rich by the standards of todays really rich, such as John Paulson, a hedge fund manager who earned 4.9 billion dollars last year.
George and his mother moved into Biltmore on Christmas Eve of 1895. Only half of the rooms were finished. Many rooms remain closed off and are finished to add other aspects to the tour.
In 1930 the Vanderbilts decided to open the house to tours. By making a business out of the house, they avoided having the house taken by the state or other investors for the taxes.
Besides the house tours, they have a hotel, various restaurants, a winery and shops at various locations on the grounds.
The weather was beautiful today with the temperature in the low 80's and a clear sky with a nice breeze.
We are slow tourists. We spent about 3 hours going through the house, had lunch in a restaurant in the converted stables and then spent hours more walking the grounds of the gardens. Though we were tired we drove over to the Winery as we had tickets that came with the house tour for a winery tour and wine tasting.
We bought 3 bottles of wine but no Italian spoon rest, even though I need a new spoon rest.

Asheville, North Carolina

2011-04-03T16:36:00.000-07:00

We were a little late up today and out to the visitor center in Asheville in time for the Noon trolley tour.
This was certainly worthwhile. We would have known little about Asheville and why George Hincapie lives here without this tour.
Asheville had a reputation for healing air and had become a summer vacation site for the well to do and a site for numerous sanatoriums. The air purported to cure TB. But 80% of the patients died anyway. Mental patients came here to be cured also.
We were reminded of Zelda Fitzgerald. She had been a patient for her depression for years and was having electroshock. One day the hospital caught fire and she and a number of other patients died. She and the others had been tied to their beds as they did to patients after they had a treatment. Zelda died in Asheville.
Much of the development of the town came from the wealth of a patent medicine salesman. Quinine was at that time thought to cure many diseases, but it was too bitter to easily take. His tonic was effective against malaria, but of course it was sold as a cure all.
The two main industries are tourism and medical. Just the same as they were when the town began to develop when George Vanderbilt brought the RR here.
After 1929 the town apparently just limped along. Many of the old Victorians were boarding houses or multifamily dwellings and just deteriorated. In the 80's there was a tax advantage for owning a historical dwelling and most were fixed up at that time and many are bed and breakfast inns.

Thomas Wolfe wrote Look Homeward Angel in 1929 about his hometown of Asheville. He changed the name of the town and state, but nothing else. The townspeople were horrified and banned him from the town. When he became famous, they began to publicize themselves as his home town.
We had a little tour of the Biltmore village. We will tour the mansion tomorrow.
As we were nearing the end of the tour the trolley began to rattle and bang. The tailpipe and muffler had come loose. We pulled over near the RR tracks and the driver and a couple of passengers temporarily fixed it with one of the men's leg brace. While we were waiting I took some pictures of nasty kudzu.

We drove a few blocks from the Visitor Center to park in town. Since the garages were out of the question, we found an open air lot with plenty of room for only $3.
I wanted to lunch at one of the most popular eateries in town, The Tupelo Honey Cafe. I figured since it was after 2, we wouldn't have to wait. At first the hostess was not sure, but the pager she gave us started to go off as soon as we sat down.
Asheville is known as a beer city with many microbreweries, so we ordered two microbrews, a light German lager for me and something dark for William.

The treat to eat while you wait is a huge southern butter biscuit and blackberry jam. I had the Veggie Bowl; beans, cheese grits, greens, fried okra and a fresh salsa. William had meat loaf and gravy. It came with mac and cheese, but William substituted a salad. We shared a piece of pecan pie for dessert.

Southerners make great pecan pie.

North Carolina

2011-04-02T13:39:00.000-07:00

This is not the North Carolina I lived in when I was in part of fourth and fifth grade, 1953. We lived near Jacksonville near the coast. Although if we wanted to go to the beach we went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Better beach and I don't think there is much of any beach in North Carolina.
We start the morning with traditional hoe cakes. Not as light as Paula Deen's, but I was using a package of cornbread mix and was unsure of how much hot water to use. Also Pam is not the same as whatever grease you are supposed to fry them in. Very filling. We ate less than half the batch. They should warm up OK again. Also no cane syrup. For Axel's benefit, cane juice is squeezed out of the sugar cane plant stalk. When it is cooked down some, it becomes cane syrup. If it is processed further, you get 2 things, granulated sugar or brown sugar and molasses. Cane syrup and sorghum syrup were the traditional pancake syrups.
The Cradle of Forestry is still closed for the winter. So another change of plans. Although it rained a bit last night, the robins hopping on the grass say spring.
We decide to go to the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
William has put in an address and sent it to me on the phone. The trouble is that the address is Blue Ridge Vista, which is a rural/residential area in Riceville somewhere above the Presbyterian Church miles from the Blue Ridge Parkway. The correct address was on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We eventually get to the parkway and from there to the Visitor Center and then to the Folk Art Center.
The Blue Ridge Parkway was conceived of as a way to link this unique Appalachian land and culture. The culture here is a blend of the Scots-Irish, English and German who moved here and the indigenous population of Cherokee and also black mountain communities. The construction of the parkway began in 1935. Italian and Spanish stone masons were brought to work on the road by local contractors and stayed. Part of the benefit of building the Parkway was to provide jobs through the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration. The CCC and the WPA built picnic areas and campgrounds and did landscaping projects.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is administered by the National Park Service and links a number of National Forests and State Parks. It stretches from Shenandoah National Park in Virgina 469 miles through The Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina. Tennessee wanted the parkway also, but it didn't work out.
We spent a couple of hours in The Folk Art Center. There is a lot to see from the craft demonstrators, to the shop that sells art from members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, the art on the wall to the second floor and the hanging art quilts. Upstairs is art from students. The current exhibit is from North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega, GA.
I am in a shopping mood and buy a lovely pair of red pottery candle stick holders from the craft shop and a CD and a DVD from the Park Service Gift Shop. The CD is Dona got a ramblin mind by the Carolina Chocolate Drops. The DVD is about the Trail of Tears.
We are here in Mama Gerties RV Park for the next 3 days. Interesting hillside location. I am sure it is lovely when the huge rhododendrons bloom, maybe in a few weeks.
I have noticed lots of blooming trees around here that looked a lot like Valerie's driveway pear trees. William just read me a rant from the local paper. Bradford pears, an exotic from China, are invasive here and are out competing local species. The letter writer wants them torn out and trees planted that would provide better food and habitat for local animals and birds. Sort of like the Scotch Broom on the west coast, an ornamental that became invasive. Here they sell Scotch Broom as an ornamental. I guess it does not spread here.

Georgia to North Carolina

2011-04-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

Lawrenceville 3/31/2011
Not much of a post yesterday as I was writing with one finger on the phone. Although we were on the interstate highway we still had sights to see as we migrate north. The trees are leafing out in all shades of green and yellow-green, some in shades of red and orange. We see red-buds blooming and lots of dogwood. Wisteria has gone wild and is blooming with lavender splendor in huge patches up in the trees. Flowers are blooming in the median strip, a low lupine and some red and yellow flowers unidentifiable at speed. In the rain yesterday we passed big tractor pulled mowing machines pulled to the side of the highway. No mowing in the rain. No Spanish moss. We have climbed in elevation. The dead looking heaps of vines hanging on the dead trees and bushes it has killed is kudzu. It will green out later. Right now it looks ghoulish and ghostly.
Georgia houses we see remind me of houses in Texas. Big and lots of brick.
It has been lots of years, since we saw Ray and Lori. The last time they were in California, they were in Gridley. Close enough to visit from Nevada City. But we were busy, busy. Busy with kids, jobs and school. Just busy lives. Then in the blink of an eye they were gone from Gridley to Georgia.
Ray retired at exactly the same time as Bill and he has done various part time and consulting jobs as he waited for Lori to retire today, 3/31.
One of his hobbies is backyard birding. In addition to the various special bird feeders has has a bird house with an infrared web camera in it hooked to the TV. No privacy for birds. I found it fascinating to watch the resident chickadee. She is setting on 5 eggs. Even at night she wakes up to turn the eggs.
Ray's backyard is lovely with lots of plantings and a year round creek.
The lawn is only in the front with flowers and flowering bush borders.
Lori has spent a lot of time carefully decorating this house. It really is lovely.
We are climbing north up into foothill mountain looking areas to the Great Smoky Mountains. We are here in Appalachia. William likes the hills and valleys better than the flat lands. The train says Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.
We are now in North Carolina. Just skipped South Carolina.
We are going to spend some time visiting the Eastern Cherokee Nation. Not all the Cherokees went to Oklahoma on the trail of tears. Some hid out and some came back. They now have a nation here. Fourteen thousand are here. There were thirty six thousand before they were driven out of the land they had lived on for eleven thousand years.
We are in Happy Holiday Campground. They have internet here, but my laptop is acting up again. I can still use my programs in safe mode, but I am limited. The gray screen of death comes up now after I tried to do another system restore hoping that would help. Their IT guy tried to help, with no luck. The ducks also wanted to help.
4/1/2011
There was some incompatibility between the Toshiba and the internet connection at Happy Holidays. William had internet but not me. I thought I would have to use the flash drive to transfer data to his computer. Now we are here in Creekwood Farm RV Park on Jonathan Creek Road in Wayneville, NC. and the internet works fine for me. Poor Toshiba to have been so beat on it stressed out to gray screen. I thought I would have to wait to have Cyndi fix it.
We were going to stay longer at Cherokee, but they do not really open much of anything up until May 1. No Play, No Indian Village of 11,000 years ago, No Cultural Center. So we will move on towards Ashville as we do not do Casinos.
Silva is stop number one as William has a cold. I get him some heavy duty stuff from behind the counter. They have to enter all your personal information from your driver's license to get 24 generic cold pills. I approve of this as it has cut down on the meth labs. I also get him some chewable vitamin C. He started feeling better soon after he was medicated.
On to the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC. William and I like museums and exhibits and this has elements of our heritage about it. We both have Scots-Irish heritage and this museum tells the story of the Scots-Irish and the further story of those who stayed here in these mountains.
In the 1600's the English were trying to tame the Irish, so they imported low country Scots to colonize the north of Ireland. Some stayed on and fought the Irish for 300 years. Others left for America.
It was a hardscrabble farming life for those who stayed in the Appalachian Mountain Country. Besides the exhibit about the migration there were temporary exhibits on woodworking, food preparation, music and moonshine. Moonshine was important here since their farm cultivation changed from oats to corn. They knew how to make whiskey so corn whiskey was a natural outcome. A high value product that transported well. It moved around well even during prohibition. Al, Bill's dad, told of driving moonshine trucks at age 17 up to Chicago.
The food preparation reminded me of some of the food preservation I did when we lived in Sawyer's Bar. Dried green beans, apple butter and canned crab apples.
Bill claims Scots-Irish on his father's side. The Baker's were farmers in Nebraska. I claim Scots-Irish on my mother's side. The Whitlock's (Barrie, McAdams) were farmers in Illinois.
We go back to Silva to walk the downtown and shop. Reminds me of a combo of Nevada City and Grass Valley. Very nice upscale shops and art shops, but still a beauty shop and barber shop. We buy some nice bread in the bakery, a very nice piece of fish in the fish market, and a knick knack or two. We stop in the Brewery. Very small. Smells nice. But he sells by the growler and we have no room for a growler of beer. I think Nevada City needs a brewery like this. The June company would run through a growler or two and it is quite inexpensive just for a fill up.

More new old friends

2011-03-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

We are in Lawrenceville Georgia. This was a travel day with a long drive, for us, from Savannah to Atlanta. We were ready for a break after a morning of heavy rain. We were ready for a rest stop, but it is temporarily closed. At least with an RV any place off the highway can be a rest stop. But there is no place to stop to make a sandwich, so we head for a Shoneys. I had never heard of this chain. The menu says since 1947. No buffet for us as we are having dinner with friends tonight. Had a great visit with Ray and Lori. Since she is finally retired as of today and have a son in california, they promise to visit.

Last day in Savannah

2011-03-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

We get up a bit late and shower, in cold water! I had about 1 1/2 minutes of warm water. Brrr. Red Gate farm for all its quaintness is wearing on us. There is no TP either. So napkins and paper towels and a trash can have to do.

Finally we head off to town. We go to the Telfair Academy. Two rooms in this former mansion are decorated with period pieces, a receiving room and a dining room. The kitchen downstairs was original with the house although the furnishings were not original. We are most impressed with a special exhibit upstairs of paintings by Phillip Juras.

I especially liked the forest fire paintings.
The admission to the Telfair Academy is for three sites. One is closed but the Owens-Thomas House is open with docent tours, so we walk over through 2 of the lovely squares of Savannah.
The tour of the Owens-Thomas house starts with the slave quarters, a 2 story building where some 9-14 slaves lived. Across the courtyard, now a formal garden, to the 2 story house. In the basement was the laundry and bathing room. This house had running water from 2 huge rainwater cisterns on the roof. The bathing room had 2 marble tubs, think Roman, and a cold water shower. No hot running water.
The front two rooms are done in the muted colors of the original owners, the Richardsons, who spent $50,000 building it from 1816-1819. Mr. Richardson suffered personal and financial losses and the home went to the bank. In 1830 Mr Owens bought it from the bank for $10,000. This was a huge fancy Regency home.
The back rooms and the hall are done in the dark colors fashionable later in the 19th century, mostly a hideous green and pink. The tour was great.
But now we are hungry and every restaurant we pass is closed. We are not on restaurant row. Finally we see Barnes BBQ and a neon open sign. No one is inside, but 3PM is not prime lunch time. There are pictures of the food in the window. This is a genuine BBQ joint. So I will go in and have a beer and William will go back to the RV, feed the meter and drop off some parcels. Are you OK being left here he says?
Yes I say!
So I go in and order my typical Bud Light and ensconce myself near the front window. The 3PM crowd begins to trickle in. I am shilling for the place by sitting at the window. Some look like locals. Some young people. Some obvious tourists.
William gets back and we order. A Redneck Reuben with collards for me and a City Slicker with fries for William. He orders a Sweetwater 420 pale ale. Code word!
We walk around downtown until it is time to head back to Red Gate. Thankfully they have not given our spot away. But they have not cleaned the bathroom. We both ransack the place looking for TP. I think they have forgotten to buy any. We are not recommending this place. We hear it is undergoing a change in management.
A bit of soup and bread is plenty of dinner. Off for Atlanta to visit friends in the AM.

Eating our way around Savannah

2011-03-28T17:03:00.000-07:00

Up early with a hearty breakfast and an appointment at Camping World. We have figured out that our converter is working only part of the time. It has a tiny fan that you can only hear when it is very quiet. A couple of nights ago when we were very close to another vehicle at Lake Harmony I heard their fan and realized I had not been hearing ours. So that is why it could test as working when we had the auxiliary battery replaced in Ft Meyers and yet still not be working at times. It would stop working when it overheated. We are customer #7 and our problem is fixed rather quickly as they have a converter in stock and agreed that the fan was the problem. Although they said it was just a coincidence that we started having the problem after we hit that pothole at speed on the freeway in Louisiana.
We now have a print map of the Savannah greater downtown area and see why the navigator wanted us up on the freeway. So we take the freeway back to Oglethorpe Tours and buy a $5 apiece ticket for parking and bus rides to selected locations. We hop on to go to check out the reservation situation at Paula Deens restaurant, Lady & Sons. The reservation lady says that lunch is all reserved and that people line up as early as 630AM for lunch reservations. So William asks what about dinner and she says she has spots left for 5PM and 8PM. We choose 5. Off to find a place for a light lunch.
But wait that is the place where Oglethorpe, the founder of the Georgia Colony, landed and this bench is where he pitched his tent. Must have a picture of William as Oglethorpe.
Down the elevator to River Street, where we wander along looking at menus and in the doors of various restaurants. A little old lady comes up to us and says if you want a good lunch you should go to Huey's. So on her recommendation we try it and have a great lunch. I have a fried green tomato muffuletta with a side of red beans and rice. William had one half regular muffuletta with fries. We sat in the window with a great view of the water. I later told the waitress about the old lady shilling for the restaurant and she was quite amused.
We hop on the shuttle bus again for the Andrew Low house. They are having a huge group tour by reservation at 3pm. We will visit the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist and the Colonial Park Cemetery while we wait for the 330 tour.
The cathedral is really gorgeous. It burnt to the ground in 1898, but the bishop vowed to rebuild. It took until 1920 before the cathedral could be consecrated. In those days a church could be used for services, but not consecrated until it was debt free. The baptismal font was carved in Italy. The stations of the cross were carved in Bavaria. The stained glass was from Innsbruck, Austria. With murals of saints and slender columns decorated with gold leaf it rivals European cathedrals except in size.
We take a walk through the cemetery looking for the famous Borden's of Savannah. We didn't find any, but we didn't look too hard.
It is time for our tour at the Andrew Low house. If you have time for only one house tour in Savannah, this is the one to take. The home went directly from the family to the historical society that cares for it. The furnishings are all priceless antiques. The formal garden is as it was in the 1850's. William touches the lucky lion.
We hop on the shuttle again for the trip to Lady & Sons. We are early so we stop at the Paula Deen Shop for souvenirs. I'm not telling what we bought.
The street is full of 5PM reservations. The reservation person is miked up and calls out names and gives you a card for first, second or third floor seats. We are called near the last and go up to the third floor. The place is busy but efficient. I like the high faux windows with mirror panes. We decide to order regular menu items rather than the buffet. William's drink is a mint julep with lots of mint and mine was a pear/honey martini. I ordered Steak and Pie. William had Crab Stuffed Shrimp. Then we shared a piece of pecan pie with whipped cream. We lumbered out and were glad that it was still light as we had quite a ways to walk in a mist. No shuttle busses after 530.
A quick trip through Savannah on the surface streets. The section that looked scary in the rain is just poor.
We arrive back at Red Gate to find that our spot had been given away? WTF? A 40+ foot RV with pop outs on our pad.
We call and get "You left, we thought you were gone." We had paid for 3 nights and certainly could not leave a chair or anything with rain threatening.
We get put on a dirt pad. I hope it does not rain or we will be in a puddle.

Saavaaaannaaah

2011-03-27T18:19:00.000-07:00

After a fairly leisurely drive we arrived at our RV site for today, Red Gate Farm. Although the office was open there was no one around. William left a note on our check in packet that we would be back before they closed up.
Off to Savannah. The problem is we have no map getting us from here to downtown Savannah. So William says lets just use the Navigator on the phone. Considering our vast success with it so far I am not so sure. But I input the address of the trolley tour company we want to go to. Problem right away. It just says searching for GPS. William does not like where it wants to send us anyway. After a bit of backtracking we finally approach downtown and miss a turn and almost go to South Carolina. We turn around on an island and after a couple more wrong turns arrive at the tour company.
The trolley takes us on a 90 minute tour of historical Savannah. 250 years of history. In the 50's the Savannah that Sherman thought worth saving was getting disheveled and historical buildings were being torn down for parking lots. A small group of women formed an historical society and began a mission to save the old city of Savannah. We are touring the city they saved. Savannah is an important port city, but it's number 2 industry is tourism.The Mercer/Williams House famous from the story, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Williams, who was accused of murder and who died in the house, has a sister who still lives there, but has it open for tours from 10-4 weekdays. Odd. William says to pay the taxes.
After the tour we get off in City Market and look for lunch. We found an excellent place in Cafe in the Market. I had an authentic local dish of blackened shrimp on grits with greens. William chose a crab cake sandwich, a crabby patty. But before we finished eating the thunderstorm blew in. Although we were under a covered porch, I had to move a bit because of the force of the rain and splashing.
The rain would wax and wane and we managed to get to our pick up spot. Back at the RV and again there is the fight with the Navigator on how to get back to Red Gate. She wants to put us up on the freeway and William wants surface streets. He takes us through some really interesting neighborhoods before he decides to listen and turn right. But the corner is flooding. A regular car barely makes it through. But we are higher and I want to leave this area. So I say to go for it. Finally we are headed back and make it home safely, other than me being quite wet as William had left my window down a bit for air and my seat was soaked.

March 20-March 26, 2011

2011-03-26T18:42:00.000-07:00

3/20/2011
We're Back!
We're Back in the saddle again!
Even though we are still making some loops, we reached our turn around point, Key West, and are heading home. Looks like a Snowicane in Nevada City.
Heading back along highway 1.
A drawbridge in Miami.
After we get here to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, William sees that Reserve America was not truthful about the two campgrounds. One is next to the river and has lots of vegetation. The other is up on a rise that is part of a burn that got out of control in 2006 and has very small vegetation. But both campgrounds are described as having no screening vegetation.
We also are intrigued by a parasite that we have seen in Death Valley and now see here in Florida. We saw it on the roadside bushes on Grassy Key and now here in the park.

Dodder is a very versatile parasite to live in such widely variable climates.
We were taking pictures of dodder when William took this picture of me with Flagler's RR in the background. He developed Palm Beach. There would not have been much Florida without Flagler.
3/21/2011
The night before we decide to go on the River tour to the Trapper Nelson Interpretive site before we drive to Disney World. We awoke at our usual leisurely time of about 815 and I call the number for the tour times. I should have called the night before as the tours are 9, 11, 1 and 3. We need to make the 9AM tour on the other side of the park. Leah would have been proud of me as I cram my hat onto unbrushed hair. We are there in time and after paying for our tickets William rushes back to the RV for our coffees and something to eat. A slice of bread and a cup of coffee is better than nothing.
The tour is worth the rush. Only one other family is here, grandma and grandpa, daughter and 2 grandchildren 11 and 7. The guide on our flat bottomed boat is very knowledgeable about the river and we see lots of birds, 2 alligators, turtles and a mother and baby manatee. I add pied-billed grebe, anhinga, great blue heron and great blue heron (white phase) to my Bird checklist. I already had osprey checked, but I did see a chick in the nest. Sharp eyes. Did you know osprey nests can withstand hurricanes?
The Trapper Nelson Interpretive site had a ranger led tour. Trapper Nelson came here as a young man from New Jersey in 1928. By the 30's he settled on the Loxahatchee river and his main income at this time was from trapping. He continued to buy property by paying the taxes on abandoned properties until he had almost 1000 acres.
He became famous in the area and people started to visit so he developed a zoo of wild animals and a tour for people who came out to visit. He built houses with indoor plumbing and propane lights.
He died in mysterious circumstances at age 59. He was found dead of a shotgun wound to the chest. The death was ruled accidental or intentionally self inflicted. But really, who knows? He was especially liked among the town ladies.
Our Florida map blew away in the parking lot while I fixed us a nice brunch before we took off. This adds a bit of spice to the trip.
We manage to find our way and also Mount TrashMore.
The phone GPS takes us the wrong way in the park, to a Disney Hotel rather than Fort Wilderness campground, but the gate man sets us straight. The check in line gets us in the mood. There is wifi in select locations in the campsite or we can try to struggle with a cable modem. We try the cable modem but it does not work for us. William got in a bicycle work out taking the modem back and forth.
3/22/2011
Epcot is our first choice in Disney World as they are having their annual flower and garden show. I don't know what I expected, but it was not this. A majority of the show is character topiaries. They did have a few locations with presentations on aspects of gardening, but it was not much. We did enjoy Epcot for itself though. Lots of bump bump rides with a strong green conservation message. I was pleased with all the live exhibits of plants and animals, better fish than in the Aquarium in New Orleans. In a full day we saw and rode everything in Epcot except Soaring and the 45 minute Ellen Degeneres movie about energy. We missed the fast passes for Soaring. They were all given out. But we were told about the ride and since it was all about California we felt we had been there, done that. We are green level astronauts and car test track drivers. We also had dinner with the belly dancer.

Disney may be the reason few Americans travel abroad. You are presented with a sanitized, safe version of different countries. You don't have to bother to go any where else, just come to Disney's version of the World.
We have been here once and won't come again. But we met people who come twice a year. I don't know why.
This was a long day and we arrive back at the RV exhausted and are right to bed without even downloading any pictures or journaling.
3/23/2011
I had originally thought I wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom for our second Disney day, but after looking at the brochure I see that it is just a larger, fluffed up version of Disneyland. We did Disneyland when Jon was 3 and Val was 6, so we don't need to go again. So I pick Animal Kingdom, since now I know it will not be all animatronics. We did the Kingdom just right, too. Rush to get in line for the Safari first while the animals are still up in the morning. Then rush to get a fast pass for the river ride and the mountain ride. Fill up the time in between with train rides and animal adventure trails and we were worn out for the day. Animal Kingdom compares favorably with an animal park that we went to once in Southern California with the children and is better than any zoo. I would have liked one more waterfall on the white water rapids and managed to survive the Yeti mountain. The tree of life is really impressive. We had managed to find a reasonable seat for the mid day Mickey Safari Parade
and ended the day at the Lion King Show. Dinner was at the Rainforest Cafe. Good food, but loudly filled with animatronic screaming monkeys, trumpeting elephants, and jungle drums. We were supposed to be calling cousin Mike Elias. It would have been funny to call from the restaurant and put the phone on speaker.
3/24/2011
We find our way to Universal Studios RV parking and begin our trek to the Wizarding World. The Harry Potter part of the park is just one of the islands in the Islands of Adventure. I hear someone ask how to get there and they are told to just follow the crowd. So true. Although I have to smile as I come through the gate and past the train, the place is wall to wall people at before 10AM.

A quick look at the site map and I know I am only interested in one ride. So off we go through the crowd to Hogworts as quickly as possible. No fast pass here and the wait time already says 75 minutes and stretches way outside the confined loop area. There is no choice but to get in line as it isn't going to get any better. The best time to visit this park would be midweek, no school holidays, with a hurricane threatening. Maybe then you would actually be able to enjoy the castle tour that is a rushed through preliminary, after suffering in line for an hour, to the thrill ride itself. A swooping up and down round and round ride as if on a broomstick with Harry in the lead. It is a great ride, but it is less than 10 minutes. And you have to stop and get out of line right near the ride and put your purse in a crazy locker. If you are going to this park don't take a purse. Wear clothes with cargo pockets that button or zip or wear a compact fanny pack that buckles tightly and zips closed. Don't shop before going on the rides either, no shopping bags allowed.
With the main attraction over, I am not interested in the dragon or hippogriff open air roller coasters, we look around. There are lines to get in Olivander's. This is just a store. Since I am not interested in purchasing a wand we move on and just window shop.

There is no line at HoneyDukes so we go in and look at the candy. I purchase a small box of Bertie's Every Flavor Beans to give to Leah. There is a huge line to get Butter Beer, but I ask the doorman at the restaurant if they sell Butter Beer inside and he says they do. So we get in line for lunch. I order Cornish Pasties with salad. So unauthentic. They are too small, too mechanically made. The crust is too flakey. The filling is mush and the flavor is wrong. Tomato and cumin in a pastie? The butter beer is a nice dessert. Too sweet to be anything else. Another look around and good bye to Harry Potter. I wish Disney had done this. They would have done a better job.
But this bit of a street has added hugely to Universal's profits I hear. We wonder through the rest of the Islands of Adventure. It looks like themed carnival bits with various themed roller coasters. We are back at the van in early afternoon and figure out how to get to Cousin Mike's.
They live in an older part of Orlando and their house is not too hard to find. We have plenty of time to wash up, change and visit before dinner. Cousin Dick and his wife Joan are down for part of the winter in their RV nearby from Indiana. So there are six of us out to dinner at a lovely French restaurant with a Cajun touch. Great food, great conversation, Mike and Merle are great hosts.
Deep sleep in a soft high bed. Must have been the same mattress I got for our guest room.
3/25/2011
Since I actually remember the street name of the house where I lived in Orlando when I was in sixth grade, Mike looks it up and since it is very close offers to drive us there. This is from Orlando Before, Before Disney. The house has been remodeled. The one car garage is now a room. The place looks scruffy enough to be a rental. It is no longer at the end of the street, but two houses further down, the street ends at the Greenwood Wetlands. Mike and Merle figure out what school I walked to and drive the route and there it is. Cherokee School. I didn't remember the name, but the school is the same.
Time to say good-bye to Cousin Mike and Merle. It has been a most enjoyable visit and we are glad that since they have a son in Walnut Creek, they will actually take us up on our offer to come and visit.
Off now to Kennedy Space Center. We are advised numberless times during our visit that no tax dollars are spent on this visitor center. It is run by a concessionaire. We get on the bus for the tour. Highlights are the fact that the last flight of the Space Shuttle is set up to go and seeing a full size actual Apollo rocket.

We are here in quite a nice RV park north of Titusville, whose wireless does not reach to this end of the park. Maybe better luck with the internet tonight. This will be a long blog post.
3/26/2011
Lake Harmony RV park is lovely. I wish I had brought my fishing pole as you do not need a license to fish in this private lake. I have given up on ever connecting to the internet. The connection is OK but my computer does not recognize the network even though I entered the password. I am connected to an unidentified network with no internet connectivity. I blame the changes to my computer that the Disney tech had me make. Maybe if we ever get to Colorado Cyndi or Jon can fix it.
On our way up from Florida we stopped at Jekyll Island for a tour of the winter cottages of the Gilded Age millionaires who were members of the Jekyll Island Club.
The club had some 50 members with names like Rockefeller, Morgan, Goodyear and Gould. They wanted to have a private club for hunting and family outings. Now we have seen where the wealthy lived January through March. They lived in Newport, RI. for about 3 months in the summer and the rest of the year in places like New York.
The Jekyll Island Club survived until 1942. The truly wealthy survived the crash of 1929 just fine. It was the small investors who were wiped out. The truly wealthy had no problems during the depression. It was the workers who suffered. How similar to now is that sounding. But with the start of WWII the club had trouble hiring enough help. They decided to suspend operations until after the war. But the younger generation did not like Jekyll Island any more and were not keeping up with the dues. When the governor of Georgia found out that Jekyll Island was behind on its taxes he confiscated the property for the state.
It still costs a bit to stay in the hotel. More than $200/night. I am sure the restaurant is equally pricey. We bought a roasted chicken at the Winn Dixie in Brunswick. We got southern smoked, but Mexican chickens are better, not factory raised.
William had a good connection, so we knew I had a problem. We managed to revert to an earlier version of my set up and that worked. It will take forever to finish this blog post, but I will try.

using the phone

2011-03-21T14:54:00.001-07:00

This post is going to be short. In fort wilderness and no wifi at this campsite. I will continue to journal and post in a few days

A Day in Key West

2011-03-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

Key West is a party town. The only industry is tourism these days and all things revolve around the tourist.
We decide to drive into town as we are told that a small van like ours can find a place in a lot. We are first directed to a parking garage. Oh No! 7 foot 2 inch height limit. Our fans will remember that we are nine feet. Around the corner we go looking for an open lot. We find one with big signs, No RV's. We figure we do not count as an RV as we are parking lot legal. But the bikes hang out. We back the bikes into some bushes and make the mark. I get us a one day ticket from the machine.
We plan to take the on and off trolley around town, but William has to go back to the van. That is how I wound up in the Schooner Wharf bar with a beer. We find out that the town is having a second St Patrick's Day celebration in addition to a Pub Crawl and not to forget the great moon and the normal sunset celebration. Every day is party day here.
We find the silver one day ticket trolley and have an enjoyable ride. But I have to tell some of the stories about Key West. In 1982 the federal government decided that they needed to search all cars coming in and out of Key West for illegals. The blockade caused a 19 mile long traffic jam and people quit coming to Key West. The locals decided to secede from the union and voted to form The Conch Republic. They declared war and threw stale bread and tomatoes at local military. They immediately conceded defeat and demanded reparations of one billion dollars. They did not get the money but the feds called off the blockade and the tourists came back. I bought a Conch Republic flag.
Truman liked it here and vacationed often. It was his other White House. Robert Frost spent 16 winters here writing poems about snow. I spotted a sign for a clothing optional bar, upstairs.
The Southernmost Point in the USA.
The Caribbean chickens.
After a too huge lunch at The Conch Republic Seafood Restaurant
we stagger back to the trolley. I want to go back to Ernest Hemingway's house to do the tour and see all the 6 toed cats.
This cat watering trough was made out of a urinal Hemingway brought home from Sloppy Joe's. His wife at the time, Pauline, dolled it up with the urn and tiles.
They have about 48 cats at this time.
We walk back to sunset beach to find a good spot to have a drink and watch the sunset
.
As we drive home (back to Sugarloaf Key KOA) we are treated to the Great Moon high in the sky.

Down the Keys

2011-03-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

Up not too early to make coffee as we have to use the generator for the coffee machine and generators are 8AM-8PM.

A long drive down the keys. When we get to Marathon around 1PM we start looking for a restaurant for lunch. Porky's sounds good. But the turn off is too quick for the bumbling van. We get off at the next business but there is no parking at that commercial establishment. So we dart the van across highway 1 and park on the other side. Then we have to dart ourselves across highway 1. The waitress says sit anywhere you like. So we sit at a table next to the water that had not been cleaned off yet.

She is cleaning off other tables. We politely wait. Then she is taking an order from some people who sat down at a table she had cleaned. Enough is enough. William gets up and says what about us? She forgot about us and associated us with the glassware sitting in front of us. So she finally cleans off the table and takes our order. We were there over 1 ½ hours. We noted their usual service time seemed to be about 15 minutes from sitting down until you were served your food.. I think this is a nice funky local restaurant with good food. But if you do not assert yourself, the wait staff can forget about you. I had a Cuban style pork BBQ sandwich and William had grilled yellowtail. So I look up Porky's and we have the distinction of having been poorly served at a famous restaurant.

Our unique location has hosted famous Keys visitors since the 1950s - include such notables as Ernest Hemingway, Jimmy Hoffa & Elizabeth Taylor.

As we are on the last leg of the trip we see the old abandoned RR bridge. Flagler's folly. The rails have all been taken up. It is discontinuous in places.
Plants are growing up in some places. One part has been made into a fishing pier.
I finally have an address to put in the Navigator on the phone. It feels fun, but I can tell William did not like the voice. Especially since she had only a few turns to talk about. We are here at Sugarloaf Key KOA for 2 nights. Tomorrow we will drive into Key West and spend the day.

Big Cypress and Everglades

2011-03-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

We awoke Monday in Collier-Seminole State Park to the sound of the garbage pickup. I think garbage men are like Santa Claus. The garbage is picked up everywhere early on Tuesday morning. This morning we feasted on blueberry pancakes.
After shooing away a 1½ inch horse fly from the door I jumped in and we were off. We stopped at the display of the walking dredge that built the Tamiami Trail across the bottom of Florida, through the mud in 1927-28.

We are driving along the Tamiami Trail through the Big Cypress National Preserve. The speed limit is 60 during the day and 45 at night, not because the elderly do not see well at night, but because of wildlife. We see a sign that says panther crossing and soon after 2 tan brown heaps at the side of the road. Not a deer. Not a bobcat. Not a dog. And on one I see round ears. The most common cause of death of Florida Panthers is being hit by a car.
Next to the road is the ditch created in the building of the road. The water is brackish. People who fish in it, and we see a number of fishing families, have to have a freshwater license if they catch a freshwater fish and a saltwater license if they catch a saltwater fish.
We see a so many vultures on a carcass that they look like huge black flies.
The Indian villages have thatched roof huts. Seminole and Miccosukee tribes still live here. It looks like they have centralized communal businesses; restaurant, Original Airboat, and a large ~8 story Casino for Bingo and Gaming.
This is a river of grass.
The Everglades is not a swamp like in Louisiana.
Someone in the highway department has a sense of humor. Rock Reef Pass elevation 3 feet.
We decide to head to Flamingo campground deep in the Everglades. No cell phone service and no internet.
Lots of wildlife, cattle egrets, white ibis and juvenile white ibis and a red shouldered hawk in flight.

And at dusk the mosquito. At the visitor center it says that the mosquito level is at enjoyable, the lowest level. Hysterical is the highest level. Few visitors come to the Everglades in high mosquito season. Which is the summer wet months, But the mosquito repellent tester companies come.
Today, Wednesday, is Jon's birthday. We ride the bikes down to the Visitor Center to see what is going on. They are not fully repaired from Katrina and Wilma in 2005. Sad.
We borrow a phone at the store and leave a happy birthday message for Jon. ATT phones work here, but not Verizon ones.
I use the word store loosely as they stock what are called snacks. Chips and more chips.
We visit the resident American Crocodile and then catch the Crocodile/Alligator ranger talk.
High on my agenda is wading in the Florida Bay. Shallow and not as warm as I thought, but being so shallow it is sensitive to the air temperature and it has just started to warm up down here.
Some sand but most of the shore is gray clay. I think you could make pretty good pots out of this clay.
The shadows are lengthening and my mosquito bites are itching. I need to shut this baby up. William prefers to stay out until they are starting to cover him then he brushes them off and comes inside. So he says as I kill tons after he comes in. That was the first night. The second night saw insects managed much better.
On the 17th Thursday Saint Patrick's Day we are up with the sunrise to make a birding hike. We identified a lot of birds out on the shoals of the bay. We watched white pelicans feed. They get in a circle on the water and kick up fish to eat. Then we walked into the parking lot where there were osprey nests in almost every tree with babies inside and flocks of red bellied woodpeckers. Nice.
We then hike out to the sewage treatment plant. The clean treated water attracts birds and we saw ducks and many wading birds. We are now birders.
We then did a self guided hike at Mahogany Hummock. One of the most beautiful tree islands in the park. Huge Mahogany trees, air plants, and the beginnings of spring flowers.

The island is in the river of grass that moves toward the Florida Bay at a rate of 100 feet a day (obviously during the wet season).
We ate lunch in the shade in the parking lot and then moved on to Pa-Hay-Okee, a short boardwalk to one of the highest points in the Everglades for another ranger led walk. We start in the dwarf Bald Cedar and continue onto a pavilion for some overall history of the park. As we are about to leave the pavilion some snake trackers come searching for an electronically tagged Burmese python. They wave their antenna around and say it is somewhere in the area. Our guide says those snakes have eaten most of the small mammals and even alligators. One alligator/snake encounter was won by the gator. He had ahold of the snake and it was wrapped around him. It was a 24 hour long struggle finally won by the gater when he drowned the snake.
When we arrive at our destination for the night, Long Pine Key Campground, I was looking forward to a hot shower. William braved a cold water shower last night, but I refused. I knew that the restrooms with solar had hot water so, so, so. But no! Three toilets and cold water in the sinks. I am going to croak. Since no one is around and the sites are quite private, William fixes me a plastic basin of cold water and I wash my hair and have a quick sponge off, mostly hidden by the RV. Ahh! William takes the hose to a faucet across the street and rinses off wearing/mostly wearing his swim trunks. It is hours before anyone comes by, and we are both refreshed and then grab a cold beer.
We try one more ranger talk. Mistake. Mostly boring talk about the use of fire in park management.
We snuggle down early in our cell free, internet free, electricity free campsite.

Manatee Springs to Bradenton to Myakka State Park

2011-03-13T15:48:00.000-07:00

We left on time since we had at least a 3 hour drive to Bradenton. Quite a bit of bland flat countriside on the way obscured by dense vegetation on the side of the roadway.

Lots of traffic once we got into Bradenton. It's a warm Sunday and everyone is headed to the beach. Made contact with Cousin Scott and he suggests the Rod and Reel Pier Restaurant at the end of a pier on Anna Maria Island. We met at a beach parking lot at the end of the road to the island and drove in his car to the restaurant. Lovely water. Lots of nice resorts and condominiums, rentals and timeshares. A tourist town. Although we saw lots of young people, Scott said the average age is over 60 in the area. He said he felt like a native “cracker” here even though he has only been here three years. He became acquainted with the area through some other half cousins whose father lives here.

Lunch was great in this small restaurant. People were fishing off the pier and catching fish. Scott had the grouper sandwich. I had the Grouper Ruben and William had crab cakes. The food is very good and the waiter was very interesting looking, a real old salt.

Sorry we had such a short visit, but it was a good visit. Scott says that Aunt Alice has rented a house in Bradenton for next week as it will be spring break for Abby and all are coming down. Sounds like a good time will be had by all.

Off for us to Myakka State Park. We drove down to the end of the island to get the full Island experience. Lots more resorts, condominiums, rentals and timeshares. We cross Sarasota and drive only five more miles down to the state park exit. Imagine our surprise when we get to our spot and find no internet access. The WiFi is down at the concession store across the park. Our mind is made up to ramble to the store when the camper next to us starts a smokey fire right next to our driver's side door. Cough, cough. We will just stay under this tree in the concession parking lot until we are done.

From Carrabelle to Manatee Springs

2011-03-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

While we were in Carrabelle we experienced some of the same problems with the electrical we had when we were at Big Lagoon. So we knew it was our problem. We had a load of laundry to do, so while the wash was going I looked through the big file of information about the RV that we keep. I pulled out a few relevant items related to the converter. William then read over those items and did a systematic check of the breakers, fuses and the RV battery. After taking my side of the bed thoroughly apart he found a cord partway pulled out. He reinserted it and all was well. We think that it jolted loose when we hit a few potholes at speed on the freeway in Louisiana. One was bad enough to have potentially blown a tire. You don't expect horrible pot holes on a freeway. Yeah for William and his fix it skills.

We stayed on 98 to Manatee Springs. We noted on the map that this area of the coast had no development and no roads to the coast. The land seems to be just used for corn row forestry. The land is cleared and trees are mechanically planted in plots. After about 30 years they harvest the trees and use them for pulp wood. They do burning for competition control and disease control. With all the uniform rainfall the burning adds nutrients. We coughed our way along the road when the smoke from this fire blew across the highway.

I saw some small signs along the road. Tupelo Honey. Mayhaw jelly. We passed a man selling out of a truck bed. If we pass another Tupelo Honey seller, I want to buy some. And there is another little sign Tupelo Honey 2 miles. William says, “Only if it is out of the back of a truck.” And of course it was. Such a chattery salesman. I am waving my money and he finally pays attention to me. I just bought a small Tupelo Honey as we don't have room for a lot of stuff. The Mayhaw jelly looked too red and reminded me of jellies I don't like, prickly pear and manzanita berry. There were also small signs for hot boiled peanuts. But William refused to stop for those. I'm going to have him get hot boiled peanuts some time when we are in the south.

Manatee Springs for a late lunch and then a hike to the springs. William booked this site on Reserve America and he swears it said nothing about this site being a handicapped site. At least we are old. It is really handy to the bathroom and no three flights of stairs to climb like in Big Lagoon.
We saw some people coming up from behind the RV in wet suits and William asked them about a path to the spring and they pointed it out. Down into a hollow, past catfish sink and then on to the boardwalk. This is a huge spring that stays at a constant 72 degrees so it attracts manatees in the winter. We stop and watch people swimming, snorkeling and scuba diving. We continue on the board walk to look for more wildlife. A sign says to watch out for humans with squirreliosis, a contagious disease of feeding squirrels.
Further on we spot a small alligator and a few turtles. Then out to Suwannee River overlook. Lots of vultures, turkey vultures and black vultures. The ranger who is out here says that this is their traditional area. They may sleep on the same branch every night.

Then we see some manatees out near the vulture trees. They stick their noses up to breath every once in a while. No spouting and breaching like whales. Then one starts for the platform. A huge manatee about 10 feet long with skin mottled and peeling as it slowly swam toward us and then under the platform. Quite a site.

On the walk back William says, “What is that.”

I don't want to yell that it is two vultures copulating because I don't want to disturb them.
Although maybe it wouldn't have bothered them as they seemed preoccupied as I took quite a few pictures. William figured it out.
We also saw a very small young deer. The ranger said it was browsing on the tips of the trees that the squirrels would break off. The deer meandered over to where we had seen the alligator. We waited hoping for some action, but the alligator was not there and was rather small even for such a small young deer. The last animal we saw was a squirrel as we headed back.
Such a variety of animals all interwoven. The vegetarians, manatee, deer and squirrels. The carnivore alligator and the carrion eating vultures. Nice walk.

Friday in Florida

2011-03-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

Back on the internet here at Carrabelle Beach, Florida.
From New Orleans we went to visit Destrehan Plantation. This old plantation was saved from being torn down by a dedicated historical society. Marathon Oil which owned most of the plantation land in the 50's was implicated in the destruction of more than one old plantation house. If you have saved one, why do you need more?A docent dressed in period costume lead the tour through the house which is furnished in regency furniture.After the tour another docent gave a talk about sugar making on the plantation. This was the copper kettle where the syrup boiling process was started.This plantation was also part of the 1811 slave revolt. The overseers house had an exhibit on the revolt that was inspired by the revolt in Haiti. The live oak in the front yard is 200 years old.
We traveled on miles of causeway over swampland.
We spent the night in Big Lagoon State park in Florida. Our stay was marred by some sort of short in our power supply. Our first clue was when our lights got very dim and the low voltage alarm started up. We were forced to go to bed early as there was enough power to keep the low voltage alarm from chirping like a high pitched cricket only if we turned out all the lights.
Observation tower at Big Lagoon.

We took scenic 98 to Carrabelle. That was mostly a good idea except for all the stoplights that were coordinated so that you had to stop at most every one. Panama City was the worst. They just need a bypass.
Pretty beach at Carrabelle, complete with sand fleas.

Last day in New Orleans

2011-03-09T18:10:00.000-08:00

Crash! Boom! Bright flashes of lightning. Huge booming jolts of thunder and rain so heavy it was like being under a gushing faucet. The rain let off after a bit more than 1/2 hour but we were sitting in a lake. I put on my shower shoes to wade to the bathroom. We were going to town today and had to be ready at 9. I waded out barefoot and put my shoes on in the laundry room. Others were at least 7 inches deep around their RV's. The tents had it rough as the tent area became a huge lake. They were still drying their bedding on the fence when we came home this evening.
We were the only ones going in because of the storm.
We began and ended our day at the Riverpark, a nice promenade next to the mighty Mississippi. William posed for me next the the statue of immigrants.
I had heard a lot about the Aquarium of the Americas, but I think Monterey spoils you for any other Aquarium. They did have some good exhibits about the Mississippi and the Caribbean. I took a few good pictures of a penguin and a clown fish.
I thought they could have had a bigger exhibit on wetland restoration. But then the oil companies that pay for most of the exhibits would have had to pay for this and I am sure wetland restoration is not high on their agenda. There was already a bit of revisionism in evidence in the downplaying of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. According to the exhibit it caught fire and sank on the 22 of April, end of story. There was also an interesting exhibit on pirates. No mention of Somali pirates when they mentioned present day pirates.
After the aquarium we had lunch at the Red Fish Grill. Excellent 2 course lunch.
After lunch we took the Canal Street street car to the end of the line and looked around in an old cemetery. Greenwood Cemetery.After wandering in the cemetery for a while we headed back to Riverwalk just in time to hear the steam calliope on the river boat Natchez.

Mardi Gras in New Orleans

2011-03-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day of Mardi Gras and the last two parades are in the morning and we miss the sign up for the shuttle. But a couple near us were going to take their truck in and offered us a ride. We met him as he was taking out their trash. He was wearing surgical gloves and shook hands with us with them on. That was weird. We were to take off at 9 AM, but they were late and we got off after 930.

He was driving wearing surgical gloves. We decide he has some skin disease. They are possibly younger than us, hard to tell. But he drives like someone 95.

He was born and grew up in New Orleans. They lived here in the Garden District until a few years ago when they moved to Florida to be close to her elder parents. They just have her mom, 89, left. Mom is very clingy and they bring her along everywhere. Today they left her in the RV with the dog.

Our driver is having a constant conversation with himself about where he should turn and what off ramp to take and he misses his off ramp. I am quietly semi cracking up in the back seat as we have to cross over the Mississippi bridge away from the city and turn around to come back and pay $1 toll. I thought he was going to miss the turn off again, but he made it. He dropped us off at the old mint where we were used to getting off the shuttle bus. He dropped his wife there also along with her chair and 2 canes. He was going to get the truck parked and come back and help her to Jackson Square where she just sat and people watched. He was in costume and planned to go to a party. Takes all kinds.

We walked over toward the parade routes. Although it was morning we decided to walk down Bourbon street.

We ran across the street parade group Mondo Kayo.

Mondo Kayo, to be sure, has an aesthetic all its own. Compared to mainstream parades, which tend to be highly organized and prepackaged, Mondo Kayo is footloose and rambunctious -- a tribal free-for-all. Their (mostly homemade) regalia is generally tropically themed, but in the spirit of do-it-yourself performance art, individual participants are free to decide for themselves what may please the Tiki gods. And the fact that the krewe operates on the fanciful premise that New Orleans is the northernmost banana republic -- backward by some standards yet blessed with tropical abundance -- seems to encourage a gonzo mentality whereby participants gleefully embrace “primitive” Bacchanalian impulses. That, and copious quantities of early-morning beer.

I got the quote from a cached page by Chuck Busch one of the founders back in 1982.
Their emphasis is obscure African and Caribbean music.

Bourbon Street is the home of colorful characters like the tit lady.
The doom and gloom prophets were out in force. There are 4 campers full of them here. They have fluorescent lettering on the sides predicting the end of the world May 21,2012. Even though we thought we were too late for the Zulu parade we really missed only the first few floats. the Zulu Social aid and Pleasure club has been in existence as a Mardi Gras Krewe since 1909. Their membership is mostly black and they parade in black face.You can tell we were down at ground level and far back in the crowd today.I made friends with Gregory, 5, and his sister Jay Cee, 10. Jay Cee says that she is going to get to ride on a float next year though she doesn't know what parade.
After the Zulu Parade William and I went to Remoulade. William had "Taste of Louisiana" and I had Crawfish pies. All very tasty. We wandered back to Canal Street to watch the Rex parade. Very fancy floats with a literary theme.
After Rex came the truck parade. These are neighborhood floats pulled by semis. All the other parades have their floats pulled by tractors. We watch a few of these, but it is after 3 and we have to walk back to the mint as our ride wanted to leave at 4. No more walking down Bourbon Street. Way too crowded. We chose a less crowded route and found another street parade from Preservation Hall.
Out of the dragon's mouth and back home to the RV.

A Long Revelry Filled Sunday

2011-03-07T15:54:00.000-08:00

The weather dawned crisp and not quite clear, but with no rain in sight. We took the shuttle into town and after a coffee began a stroll through the French Quarter toward the Uptown parade route. Five huge parades were on the agenda today, Okeanos, Mid City, Thoth, Bacchus, and Endymion.
We happened upon the Bacchus Krewe members loading themselves and their throws onto regular city horse/mule drawn carriages that they had reserved. From the line, it looked like they had all the carriages.
We decided to pay for the viewing stand at Serio's again as it gave you good views of the parades and access to bathrooms. Though one time when I went up the long flight of stone steps to use the facilities a number of women had staged a takeover of the men's room. The Women's had one working and one broken stall, none with doors. The men's had two working stalls with doors and a trough style urinal. The women's line usually was at least 10 deep. I usually lined up anytime I thought I might have to go and didn't drink much. I think the takeover was staged because a number of beer filled younger women did not want to wait.

The Parades of Okeanos and Mid City were kid themed.

But even though the floats were kid centric and the children loved the throws. Throws are dangerous, though the injuries I incurred and saw happen to others were minor. I caught a large packaged throw containing a heavy medallion on the end of my thumb and broke the nail badly about 1/2 way down. I kept it wrapped in a handkerchief the rest of the day. I also jammed the fingers on my right hand and was hit a couple of times with full bags of beads I did not see coming as it got darker. I saw others complain of finger jams and saw a guy wiping blood from his face after a throw hit him in the forehead. Next to us a young woman was sitting down with her youngest who had fallen asleep when he was hit with a bag of beads.
The Thoth parade had much fancier floats with a theme of university departments after their Thoth Egyptian style floats. The floats were interspersed between bands and marching,dancing, or equestrian units.
There was supposed to be a few hours break between the morning parades and the evening parades, but the morning parades were delayed and took longer and stretched into dusk. We wound up grazing on shared bits of Serio food throughout the day. The night was cooler and I was already wary of the throws, so I had been spending more time resting down in Serio's. As a consequence, I missed the first float of Bacchus with their parade celebrity, Anderson Cooper. But Bill was there and made eye contact with Anderson and was tossed a plastic cup with Anderson Cooper's visage on it. He was pretty thrilled. The Bacchus floats with their main theme of honoring our armed forces were very impressive. They had a lot of vintage vehicles including a real Sherman Tank.

The only touch of irreverence I noted was in this float labeled The Greatest Generation which was covered with clowns. Did they mean to imply that The Greatest Generation were a pack of clowns?
Endymion's light filled floats were fabulous, but we were both weary and left at midnight. Our goal was to walk to an area where we could call a cab company that would take us to the KOA for a flat rate. But New Orleans was in total gridlock with the intersections filled and unmoving in all directions and of course everyone was honking. We walked and walked and successive policemen encouraged us to head to the Amtrak/Greyhound Station where we might find a cab. The station was closed and locked for the night. Will open at 5AM was posted on the front. We joined a few others stranded there and called for a cab. After 3 calls and 40 minutes a cab pulled up. A black woman immediately rushed up to it and claimed it even though she admitted that she had not called. So we said we were OK with sharing the cab and he could take her home first since she was nearby. So we drove on into the projects and dropped her where she wanted. The driver asked us if we were frightened to be driven into the projects and I said we were too old to be afraid and that it looked like the projects were all asleep anyway. I did say I wouldn't walk around in them. He said that you would never see those who would find you. He made it sound like a jungle and I guess in a sense it is, although we have been told that in renovating the project area New Orleans has tried to make it a more mixed housing and mixed income area. We arrived home exhausted after 2AM.
We slept in today and did little besides some house cleaning and laundry.

More New Orleans

2011-03-05T18:32:00.000-08:00

Today was parades, rain and the Insectarium.

We rode the street car from the French Market to Canal Street, just to ride. We paid full fare and then read on the side of the fare box that seniors get a much reduced rate. Nothing said about being a resident of Louisiana either. We walked down St. Charles a block or two until we came to some viewing stands built over the street. We went in to Sergio's Po-Boy Deli and were told that you buy your way on and that also gives you access to the bathroom. So, why not. The parade was a long parade by the Tucks Krewe associated with Loyola. Some of the bigger floats did have the edginess that we had hoped for. There were floats making fun of Farmville, Viagra, breast enhancement, Twitter, Match.com, etc.None of the floats were any where near as elaborate as the ones that we saw in Viareggio. The Viareggio floats were as elaborate as those in the Rose Parade, but with very edgy themes. No goody, goody stuff.
By now it was pouring rain and it was hard to take pictures from under an umbrella while trying to keep the camera dry and still shout for beads and prizes. By the end of the parade I looked as if I had been thrown in the river and fished back out. But we had about 20 lbs. of beads and prizes.
We went back down into Sergio's to get fresh beers, dry off, and finish the one Muffuletta Sandwich with Olive Salad we had bought there earlier. That is one big sandwich.
After we were semi recovered, we went a block back down to Canal St. to the Insectarium, a neat museum all about insects. We finished up the day with a drink while waiting for the shuttle bus.

New Orleans

2011-03-04T17:27:00.000-08:00

We took the shuttle bus in from KOA West New Orleans to get a taste of the city today. We started out at Cafe Du Monde for beignets. Richard had a box of beignet mix one time I was visiting and I tried my hand. My effort was not any where near the original.

Our walking tour next took us to the St Louis Cathedral Basilica, the oldest Catholic Cathedral in the United States. It was lovely, but the cathedrals of Europe have spoiled us for anything in the USA.

Next we went to the Louisiana State history museum. Did I mention it was raining? Off and on rain and wind, but the temperature was mild. I got tired in the history museum and began to just read bits. But it was impressive how the Louisiana territories bounced back and forth between France and Spain a number of times before being sold to the US 16 days after Spain had given the territory back to France. Napoleon wanted the money more than the territory and the US wanted to secure the Mississippi trade route. I was also impressed with the disease in this city in a swamp.
We rested with a leisurely lunch at The French Market. I had fried catfish on sweet potato fries with hush puppies and William had jambalaya. The meal was delicious.

More walking tour then back to the State Museum for the Katrina exhibit. Very powerful and so sad.
More walking and a drink before heading back to the old US Mint for the shuttle home.

Day Eleven: Louisiana

2011-03-03T15:08:00.000-08:00

We took it easy getting off today and then spent a leisurely day getting lost on back roads in South Louisiana. Road signs or lack thereof do leave something to be desired. We found the highest rated restaurant in Houma, LA purely by accident.

William: I'm turning here. I want to find downtown. Me: But that says No Outlet. William: Look this is a restaurant. It looks busy, so it must be good.

And it was good. http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-18180033R-abears_restaurant-i

We both had the lunch special. Fried shrimp patty, white beans on rice and potato salad. None left for dinner and no room for their special desserts.

A Bear's Cafe est 1963

Day Ten; Louisiana

2011-03-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

We spent this morning at the Acadian Cultural Center learning a lot of history I did not know about the Acadian people. These French peasant people were searching for freedom and found it in Nova Scotia or New France. They landed just before the pilgrims landed in Plymouth. They were pretty much abandoned, but they were resourceful people who made friends with the natives and began to prosper. When the British took over Canada the Acadians were eventually thrown out of the country in a very brutal way. First the British confiscated all the peoples guns. Then when they complained the British required all the men and boys to congregate in churches and other meeting places to discuss the issue of the guns. The Acadian men were then locked in and arrested. The women and girls were required to pack up what they could carry of their belongings and march to the sea where they were placed on boats. The plan was to distribute them among the various colonies, but the colonies did not want them. Some were imprisoned and some were sent back to France. More than half of the ten thousand deported died. Here is another culture that has had it's trail of tears.
After 10 years land was offered in Louisiana to fifteen hundred who had returned to France. This was the start of the Cajun culture in Louisiana. Many more followed and were successful here. The first houses they built were made of palmettos.
Time for lunch in St. Martinville. I ordered an alligator sausage po-boy and Wm ordered chicken/sausage gumbo. Then we switched half way through. Pretty good stuff. Someome had written on the chalkboard that listed evening entertainments that the latest ghost sighting was by Brad Tibadeaux on 2/5/11. I asked the waitress and she said she knew nothing, although there are a lot of ghosts around there. But she was from Breaux Bridge.
The church had encouraged catholic settlers here. We went in to look and then walked around back to see the statue of Evangeline. Longfellow is famous in these parts for his poem about the Acadians, "Evangeline." Also the Evangeline Oak is back of the church. Lots of things that commemorate this piteous history.

St. Martin de Tours Catholic Church

Evangeline and Me

Evangeline Oak and Me

Next on our agenda was the Longfellow Evangeline State Historic Site. We toured a large two story Acadian house then walked out to smaller Acadian houses next to the Bayou Teche. William was right at home here.
Round and round on back roads until we arrived at our destination for the night Lake Fausse Pointe State Park. Nice park and after we set up William wondered off to the water behind us leaving the door open. Then I am yelling for him as a small brown bird flew right in the RV, pooped on my seat and flew out the door. Thankfully it did fly right out.

Where William was when the bird flew in

Day Nine; Louisiana

2011-03-01T18:28:00.000-08:00

Today was a day for sightseeing. We managed two sights and lunch.

We drove down Front Street in Natchitoches with the iron pillars holding up balconies with iron railings. Iron gas lamps were lit on the fronts of the commercial buildings. Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Park was our first stop. We watched the movie and looked at the displays inside before we walked out to the replica of the fort. The fort was quite amazing and the docents were wonderful. When we arrived one was caulking some chinks in the walls with a mixture of mud and dead Spanish moss and another was getting ready to light a fire in the bread oven. Since we were the only tourists, we were given a private tour of all the aspects of the fort.

The docent even fired off a flintlock for us and regaled us with many of the common slang expressions that come from the flintlock such as; “Don't go off half-cocked,” “lock, stock and barrel,” and “flash in the pan.” The French had good relations with the Indians as they were ordered to make friends with the natives by their king in the interest of trading with them. The original fort was built in 1716 to prevent the Spanish forces in the province of Texas from coming across the border of French Louisiane.

By the time we left the fort it was time for lunch so we headed to Mama's Oyster house. William had a fried catfish Po-boy. I wanted to have something unusual so I chose stuffed soft shell crabs. Very good, but a huge plate of food. I ate ½ and we will have the rest for dinner.

After lunch we took the historic Cane River Highway to the Oakland Plantation. We had a guided tour of the plantation house with just one other couple. The plantation was occupied by the Prud'homme family continuously from 1785 to 1990. The park was established in 1994 and furnished with furnishings from the Prud'hommes in the style of the 50/60's. The house was added on and enlarged starting soon after it was originally built when Mrs. Prud'homme brought home furniture from France that was too large for the house. The last add on was an indoor kitchen and kitchen eating area in the 50's complete with the ubiquitous chrome/formica table and chrome/plastic upholstered chairs of the type everyone had in the late 50's. Mrs. Prud'homme chose yellow. My mom chose red and passed the set on to us in the 70's. I would not leave the grounds until we had found the privy. It was worth walking to the other side of the house to find a communal 3 holer for adults and a small low hole for little ones. I could not help but think of Axel. He knows why.

Day Eight; the first of many in Louisiana

2011-02-28T17:35:00.000-08:00

We decided to try a series of Texas Farm to Market roads to avoid freeways in the Dallas area. This might have worked better if William had gone over the route with me prior to departure. Here is William planning the route with Val in a picture shot by Ben.

Farm Roads can change direction abruptly and although you may be going in the most traveled direction your Farm Road may have cut off to the left or the right. William said why are there no big road signs and I said if people are driving here they already know where they are and the small signs telling you that you are in Wylie or Emory are sufficient.

We needed to freshen up our groceries a bit so we stopped in a Brookshire in Emory. We pulled out of the parking lot and went a bit before we realized that we were on the wrong road. We had entered the parking lot prior to an intersection and exited after the intersection and the road we wanted had taken a jog.

Farm Roads are also fun to drive with no shoulder, narrow lanes and 55MPH traffic that feels like you are flying along a tiny curvy track. We crossed Lake Lavon twice in different directions on different roads. Gray shallow water with skinny tree trunks sticking up like sparse dark hair and tiny white caps from the fierce wind on the narrow bridges. This is where Val's tap water comes from. Water is sucked up out of the reservoir into a tall water tower so the water can flow to the houses and come out of the taps smelling like a swamp.

Finally we found Route 69. We decided to just follow it to I20 and then I49 rather than do any more fooling with back roads. But you do miss a bit of the countryside. Once we were on the interstate with wide mowed meridians and verges bordered by skinny short needle pines and hardwoods, we might have been on an interstate south of Jacksonville FL except for no kudzu.

We pulled off at Ajax into the Country Living RV park. Quiet now that the small sawmill across the road has shut down for the day. William shot a few pictures and spent time looking for the resident alligator in the RV park pond. That alligator is sleeping on the job as he has missed a few little yipper dogs tied up outside RV's.

William found no sign of the alligator, though he was told it had been seen today.

Ajax, Louisiana sawmill

Day Seven in Lucas

2011-02-27T18:03:00.000-08:00

A long day at the laundermat because the dryer is not working right. Ben ate a huge lunch at Cici's and had fun taking pictures. We also went out to dinner at Mexigo.

Ben's cleaned dinner plate

Richard and Robert at dinner

Self portrait of the artist

More self portraits of the artist

The artist doing tricks

Grandma

Ben and the car

Ben at Lunch

Day Six in Lucas

2011-02-26T18:06:00.000-08:00

Ben's I Love You Bear hanging up.
Ben, Santa bear and I Love You bear.
Ben and Santa Bear
This is I Love You bear.
Just my Ben

We are here at Valerie's. I played with Ben so much this afternoon that he fell asleep in the middle of his bedtime story. We played in the RV with him wanting to know all about everything. Then we played upstairs with trains, cars, a Scooby puzzle and a ball. We talked and talked about how much we would play together when he moves and lives near me.

Day Five into Texas

2011-02-25T17:56:00.000-08:00

Spending the night in Midessa Oil Patch RV Park and I have nothing I want to say about Texas.

Day four of the journey

2011-02-24T16:12:00.000-08:00

Scrubby desert landscape with red dry mountains at the edges of the flat. Luckily no dust storms again. We were going to stay at Rockhounds State Park outside of Deming, but it was full. It is a small park that caters to a certain interest group, those who like to pick up rocks, geodes, etc., since you are allowed to gather.
So we drove on to Los Cruces and just found an RV park. Very windy. Must be near Texas.

Nice big road runner very visible from the freeway as you enter Los Cruces.
Freezing in the wind with a blah sunset.

Day three on into Arizona Wednesday 2/23/2011

2011-02-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

So we are looking for downtown Needles for a store and I see 8 foot clearance ahead and it all comes back. A few years ago we came through Needles and we were looking for a picnic spot near the river and came right up against this railroad underpass from the other direction. We came pretty close that time and had to turn around right in front of it. We are 9 ½ feet tall. This time we knew it was serious and we detoured at the next corner. Turned out there was no grocery store until you are out of downtown. We found the Bashas and I found my Bashas card. I'm pretty good with grocery cards for the Southwest. The Southeast will be something else. If we see a Piggly Wiggly, we'll have to stop and shop just so I can get a card as a souvenir.
Heading through beautiful downtown Phoenix, reminiscing about the horrible dust storm we encountered our last time through. That was bad. Now just a lot of traffic even though it is only around 2PM. Not as bad as the other side, they are totally stopped due to a crash.
Finally we are at Picacho Peak State Park. Pretty nice park and there was a historic civil war battle fought here. The South was trying to expand to have more slave owning territories and to keep the blockade that the North had imposed from being effective. Confederate troops came out from Texas and took control of the southern part of Arizona, which was still a territory. Union troops came from Yuma and the battle was fought at Picacho Pass. It was basically an ambush and the South won this battle. Thank you Google on the Droid for the information. The park gave us no information, although they do have a reenactment March 12-13. We are only staying here one night.

Out the front door, sunset light on the peak
Sunset at Picacho Peak

Day Two on to Needles

2011-02-22T19:37:00.000-08:00

The sky was clear and crisp as we pulled out from Lone Pine. We soon came upon Owens Lake with water in it. There must have been quite a bit of rainfall. Los Angeles Water District has been under court order for years to work on getting enough water in the lake to prevent toxic salt from blowing around. Such a sad story. The Owens river valley used to be full of orchards and farms. Then through hook and crook LA gained the water rights and shipped all the water to LA until the lake dried up. You would never believe there had once been farms and orchards here.
This was a very large solar farm. Too bad there are not many more of these. One other thing that I noticed as we drove along was no independent trucks. Remember the truck doors decorated with the drivers name. I saw none. All company trucks. Have independent truckers gone away in the recession?Here we are in Needles next to the Colorado River. We got here early enough to sit out in the sun.

Day One the Flight From the Snow

2011-02-21T21:05:00.000-08:00

We made the break after the storm and the road was dry over Donner. Highway 20 was wet, but it is shaded by all those trees. William is washing off the RV now as it got very dirty from road mist. We made it all the way to Boulder Creek RV Resort outside of Lone Pine. A good days travel for us. Highway 395 is our favorite way to drive South, because of the view of the back side of the Sierras. Millions of years ago a crack formed in Nevada and the California side rose up. Over the millennia it has eroded to sharp peaks on the Nevada side and softer slopes down on the California side. But everybody knows this. We saw a few fumerals, quite a few hot springs on the Nevada side. Approaching the Five Mile House.Driving past the five Mile House
More Snow Still Covers the Trees
If you look closely, you can see the ice dripping from the leaky flume.
Thinking of FrankWe rolled right past the Basque Restaurant in Gardnerville. If you eat lunch there, you'll get so sleepy you'll be lucky if you make it to Topaz Lake to camp. But the driver is blowing right past Topaz.Beautiful mountains near Mammoth.Finally near Bishop the snow is only on the mountains and not on the ground.

Wolverine

2011-02-20T08:56:00.000-08:00

In early August of 2008 we went camping at Gold Lake. As we were getting ready to leave I saw a mid sized chocolate furry animal run across the open area in front of me to the edge of the lake and then run back. At the time I thought it might have been a Pacific Fisher, but now I am sure I saw the male wolverine that has been tracked on the Tahoe National Forest since 2008. My sighting would have put the animal rather further north of the range noted in the Sac Bee article today. I am adding myself to the list of the few people who have seen Buddy.
At the time I contacted the local Forest Service and they convinced me that I must have seen a Pacific Fisher, although I had picked the wolverine out of images and thought the size of the animal I saw fit a wolverine better than a fisher. I think it was not widely known in August of 2008 that a lone male wolverine had been found on the forest.

Pasta Puttanesca with greens

2011-01-30T19:31:00.000-08:00

Pasta Puttanesca is a traditional Southern Italian recipe, "Streetwalkers Pasta." This version is from Four Frogs Farm. I used red chard for the bright color and spaghetti as I was out of angel hair.
Kale or Chard Puttanesca
1/2 16-oz package angel hair pasta
2 T olive oil
1/2 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 t red pepper flakes
1 T drained capers
1 2-oz can anchovy fillets, drained and quartered
1 c canned diced tomatoes, undrained
2 c coarsely chopped kale or chard leaves
4 oz sliced kalamata olives
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add
pasta and cook until al dente; drain. Meanwhile, heat
olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add
onions, garlic,
and red pepper flakes. Cook and stir until the onion has
softened and begun to turn
golden brown. Stir in capers, anchovy fillets, and diced
tomatoes, and bring to a
simmer. Stir in kale(chard), and simmer over mediumlow
heat until wilted and tender.
Once the pasta has cooked and been drained, stir into the
puttanesca along with the black
olives. Toss and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese
before serving.
Serves 4.

Apple Pie

2011-01-30T14:00:00.000-08:00

Still trying to use up items that won't go on the trip. I have the remains of a couple of bags of apples. I get asked to buy apples, then people don't eat them, so I wind up making pies or something. Valerie says when they are living here and she hears I have made a pie she will be "get on your shoes, we're going to Grandma's." I said that's OK, but she can stop for the ice cream, because I never have any. I don't make the most lovely pies, but they are pretty tasty. This one has extra spice because I like it that way. Once I put black pepper in with the cinnamon and nutmeg. That was good, too. This time I looked at the pepper, but just put in extra cinnamon and nutmeg.

Social Network

2011-01-28T22:51:00.000-08:00

So we go to Nevada City Video on our way back from seeing the Tibetan monks working on the mandala. we decided to get The Social Network since Bill had not seen it. I also got the first Harry Potter movie. Because when we are in Florida, we are going to go to the Harry Potter theme park. Since Bill has seen none of the movies, I decided he needed a crash course in Harry Potter.
After dinner we tried to get the DVD player in the media room to work. No Luck. So I decided that we should test out the new DVD player in the RV. So we went out there and watched it. Not used to such a small screen. It is no bigger than this laptop. But the sound was fine and the heater warmed up the RV.
Maybe we will go out in the daytime tomorrow and watch the Sorcerer's Stone.

Working on the pumpkin

2011-01-25T20:00:00.000-08:00

This pumpkin was a Halloween pumpkin that I brought in before it got too cold. Since we are hitting the road in a couple of weeks I needed to work on cooking it up.

Today I made pumpkin bread and another pumpkin pie.

The best is dinner. Ginger Tomato Pumpkin soup with fresh baked corn bread. Supremely delicious.

Biblical Law sounds like Shiria Law

2010-09-30T11:51:00.000-07:00

A group that is gaining power among the Christian Right believes that "since we are a Christian Nation we should be governed by Biblical Law." If you have read Leviticus this means extending capital punishment to many others.

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/29/alan-graysons-fl-republican-opponent-tied-to-biblical-stoning-movement-aka-christian-reconstructionism/

Christian Reconstructionism promotes an interpretation of Biblical Law that includes

instituting stoning as a form of capital punishment for rape, kidnapping, murder, heresy, blasphemy, witchcraft, astrology, adultery, “sodomy or homosexuality,” incest, striking a parent, extreme juvenile delinquency, and “unchastity before marriage.”

Remember the recent link between American Evangelical Christians and the proposed death penalty for homosexuals in Uganda.

The American Taliban is closer than many would like to think.

We came home on the 10th of May

2010-05-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

Quite a bit of snow out there

Snow is sticking to the windshield and our one bent wiper isn't helping

Monday the 10th of May we woke up to sunshine at the Carson Valley Inn in Minden NV. Since we were out of good breakfast food, we went over to the casino cafe for breakfast. The decision of the day was when to try to go home.
It looked like the storm hanging over the peaks would last too long into Tuesday, so we decided to try to beat the storm home. We encountered a fair amount of wind going up 395, but only traces of snowflakes before we turned up 80 and headed for home.
We had to beat the chain control as our small RV has neither 4 wheel drive or snow tires and we were carrying no chains.
It was snowing quite a bit but not sticking to the road as we came through the Agricultural check point and Wm asked about chain control. No, not yet we were told. So on we went as the snow was sticking more to the road side and trees.
Then the traffic slowed to a crawl and what's that--Chain Monkeys. And the sign vehicles must have chains or 4 wheel drive and snow tires. We keep on going. All there is on the road is a bit of slush.
Finally we get to the guy who can wave us on or send us off. He says 4 wheel drive right? Wm slightly nods and we are waved on. Well we are a heavy looking vehicle and our tires are large and heavy looking. So on we go. Wm is an experienced snow driver and there is still only a bit of slush on the road. Wm says we would slide if we don't go slow or brake suddenly. So we keep it under 40. Unlike some maniacs who blow past us. We see one later with a crushed front end.
It's a slow trip over the mountain and we keep on going past the highway 20 exit. Too much snow for that winding road. We take 174 where the road is only damp.
Later on we hear that the summit got 5-10 inches. We never saw more than 3. We could not have faked our way through 5-10 inches. So we got home by 2PM yesterday.
Wm said he felt a bit anxious about the whole adventure, but he looked cool to me.

Heading Home from the Gila

2010-05-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

William catches me at Catalina

Catalina Sunset

Tecopa Sunset

After our extra day of rest at Silver City we headed off to Arizona to see friends in Tucson. Catalina State Park was one of the ones not originally scheduled to be closed. Nice park with quite a few people camped right at the edge of Tuscon.
Chuck and Kathe came out to pick us up and we went out for a very nice lunch at a restaurant which did not mind that we stayed there all afternoon and refilled our glasses numerous times. We had a great time catching up and they promise to come up to Nevada City in October.
On Thursday we headed out to another favorite haunt, Tecopa Hot Springs. William thought that a gray, other road, on the map would be a good shortcut from highway 15 to Tecopa.
So at Valley Wells we took what is labeled as Kingston Rd on the map. Although the road started out as a paved 2 lane road there was no road sign on the road when we started out. Some 20 miles along the road split and we took Excelsior Mine Road. The road was now one lane semi paved with large non paved areas. But we were committed and continued on. In another 20 miles the road was not paved and the only thing that saved us was the fact that the RV has a high clearance. This was almost a 4 wheel drive road and for us was a 5 mph road at times as we went up and down past old mines. I was semi cheered by the recent tracks on the road, but was sure that they were all pickups. If we were not passing old abandoned mines, we were stared at by long horn cows and their calves. After we got over Tecopa Pass after the Smith Talc Road and onto Furnace Creek Road and the road had improved to regular dirt not a mess of lumpy, bumpy 2 ruts that seemed to be a road, we passed a small school bus that had recently broken down. The road was paved as we passed the road to China Ranch Date Farm and headed on to the hot springs. I had entertained Wm on the way with my idea for importing some Afghanistan refugees and setting them up in this forsaken area. Nuevo Afghanistan could be a great tourist stop. I had lots of ideas about how this could work.
But we arrived at Tecopa and it was time to soak. As this is a no clothing hot springs, the men and women are separate. On Thursday there was no one but me in the women's side, but on Friday, I had a fair amount of company. One older woman from Trona shared a lot about Susie's Whorehouse in Pahrump. She said it is a great place to eat and the tours are very informative. The girls give the tours, show you the special rooms and you learn about the girls and even about the rates. Wm says Pahrump is on his list to visit someday. With me.
After a drive through Death Valley we are here at Boulder Creek RV Resort just outside of Lone Pine.

Gila is over

2010-05-02T15:49:00.000-07:00

Jon riding in the crit

Greg happy with his second in the crit and thinking of a podium in the overall

Jon Baker and Zach Davies after the crit in front of Lance's hide out RV.

The blowing dust and heavy wind got to my sinuses and I barely made it around for the crit yesterday. Our cat 2, Greg Krause, got 2nd in the crit and was looking for an overall podium after the Gila Monster stage. Jon rolled along in the back for most of the race to save energy then moved up at the end to finish midpack.
William wanted to leave me behind today. But I knew 2 stooges are better than one. On the way out I yelled javelina. We stopped and 7 javelina's, big to small, trotted across the road in the Mimbres Valley.
We just got out to the first feed zone on the continental divide and Wm had to answer a call of nature. Then I heard that the Pro 1 Men were coming early, 10 minutes early. I called but he was too far away. The break passed and I called again. This time he heard me and started to run back. The other feed zone people just cracked up. We made it for the pass to Jon. Zach and Chuck were midpack and got neutral feeds. We waited a while for Joe. But he was a no show.
So off to the second feed zone. Up at the top I saw a rider stopped at the side and yelled Chuck. We stopped and gave him a water bottle. He was dropping out and would head to Pinos Altos. At the second feed zone we fed Jon and Zach, then headed back to Silver City to check if anyone had driven the little red car up to Pinos Altos. It was gone, so up to Pinos Altos and a fierce traffic jam. We parked at the end of a dirt road in a pile of dog poo and William got out to walk into town and look for the boys. Jon and Chuck showed up wrapped in blankets. Chuck said he would sell his on Ebay as a blanket that Lance Armstrong might have used at the Tour of the Gila. Jon had finished only a bit more than 1/2 a minute behind Armstrong and Landis.
But then the best news of the day. Greg Krause won the cat 2 stage and when they counted up the minutes the whole race for the cat 2's. He was really the hero of the day with a really substantial cash prize. Chuck said maybe he would be so excited that he would just drive straight through to Boulder.
So goodbye to the boys until the Tour de Nez and the Nevada City Classic.

Another day at the Gila

2010-04-30T18:09:00.000-07:00

Zack just finished with bike check

Jon ready to race

More Jon

Joan lined up

Off she goes

Out to Tyrone to watch the time trials. Very extensive bike check this year including measuring the bike, measuring the bike with the rider on it, and weighing the bike. The time to do this caused something of a clog and made some almost late to the start. A few were sent back to fix their bikes. One guy had to just go get his road bike when his TT bike did not pass.
Jon had been having trouble with his TT bike and it gave him some trouble on the course as he finished much slower than he should have. The rest of the team did about as they expected.
Greg Krause came in second in the cat 2 group and was notified today that he just has to fill out an on line form to get his cat 1. Congratulations to Greg.
Joan did her first ever time trial as a cat 4 with the cat 3/4s and did great. She came in 15th. Congratulations Joan.
The boys wanted an early dinner, so we hit Jalisco's at 5. The waitress took Jon's order wrong so his meal was comped along with 4 orders of sopapillas. Wm enjoyed chatting with their host, Rich, who provided their housing.
5 was a good time to go out as many other teams came later and had to wait a long time. I think Axel Merkx, such a tall guy, and his entire Trek-Livestrong team, including Taylor Phinney had to wait at least 1/2 hour. That team included today's stage winner Jesse Sergent. They were still waiting when we left, but I got the impression that they cleared our table of 8 in about 1/2 a minute and then seated them.

Hard Day at the Gila

2010-04-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

We were packed up and waiting at the street for our lift to Fort Bayard at 815. Our ride came up at 835. Not much gas. Should we get gas now or hurry on to the Fort. Greg Kraus sat in the back and changed and used some of my sun screen.
By the time we found the boys at the Fort and loaded up their bags and chairs, it was 5 minutes to the start of the Pro 1 race.
Rush off back toward town and there is a Walmart gas station. We'll do this like a Nascar fill up. I was running the card, but Wm forgot where the gas cap button was. So I reached back in and got that. I got the nozzle and pushed mid grade. Wm got the inner cap and started pumping gas. We agreed on about $30 worth. I said don't bother about a receipt and went to get back in the car. BUT THE DOOR IS LOCKED!
WTF!!! In trying to find the gas cap release, Wm had hit the door lock and the keys are in the car. I ran over to the pay window and yelled that we are locked out and need help to unlock the car. The attendant had a slimjim and a skinhead dressed in camo came up and I asked him to help. He said he had gotten into cars before.
But a new Toyota Highlander Hybrid is a little hard and it took him about 15 minutes. I went to the other side of the car and cried, knowing we were missing the first feed zone.
We tried a short cut, but we were behind the peloton. We had to go to Pinos Altos anyway to get Joan's car, cat 3 girlfriend of Zack Davies, to bring it to Fort Bayard. No problem for me to drive her little Honda Civic stick with 218,000 miles on it. Parked near the finish line at Fort Bayard and then headed out to Feed Zone 2. Jon did miss us at Feed Zone 1 and had to go back and get some water for them from another team car as there was no neutral feed at 1.
Passed 2 bottle musettes to each of our 4 cat 1 riders at Feed Zone 2. Jon and Zack were in the front group and Chuck Coyle and Joe Lewis were in a following gruppetto. We took off and took a short cut to get in front of the peloton back to Fort Bayard.
I yelled when I saw Jon coming in with the front group. But then Zack came in at the end of that group that had strung out and where was Jon? Then finally he walks over to the car with bandages on. He was on fifth wheel with a good chance at third when he got edged into the dirt and took a tumble. He jumped back up and was passing people and was still in that front group and in front of Lance, but not where he could have been.
Back in the car and waiting out of the horrid wind, 40 mph and gusting to 60mph, when Chuck says he thinks Greg Kraus our cat 2 rider will win his race. And then Greg comes in, the solo winner. Happy Day!

Pfizer on the loose

2010-04-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

From Sally Kohn
In 2009, the pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer was ordered to pay the largest criminal fine in U.S. history — $1.19 billion — for illegally marketing the painkiller Bextra, a drug the FDA approved only in low-doses for the relief of arthritis and menstrual discomfort. Pfizer nonetheless pushed Bextra as an all-purpose pain killer in high doses for acute, post-surgical pain — despite the FDA’s finding that in such uses, Bextra would significantly increase risks of heart attack and stroke.

The criminal conviction for illegal marketing of Bextra would have barred Pfizer from participating in federal Medicare and Medicaid drug programs. So, with the consent of federal prosecutors, Pfizer created a “shell company” — Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. — to take the fall. According to a CNN Special Investigation:

“…the subsidiary is nothing more than a shell company whose only function is to plead guilty. According to court documents, Pfizer Inc. owns (a) Pharmacia Corp., which owns (b) Pharmacia & Upjohn LLC, which owns (c) Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. LLC, which in turn owns (d) Pharmacia & Upjohn Co. Inc. It is the great-great-grandson of the parent company.”

Parmacia & Upjohn Co. is barred from doing business with federally-funded health programs, while Pfizer continues to reap profits from our tax payer dollars. This isn’t the only trouble Pfizer has caused in the last few weeks but while as a country we keep pushing for tougher law-and-order treatment of individual crimes, massive and monstrous corporate crimes are routinely overlooked by our political system (which is now officially a wholly-owned subsidiary of corporate America).

All the rage

2010-04-06T11:39:00.001-07:00

All the rage

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SEC to do something?

2010-04-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

SEC thinking about enforcing Sarbox???? read more

Libertarians should sign this pledge also

2010-03-30T17:15:00.000-07:00

The Tea Party Socialist-Free Purity Pledge

I do solemnly swear to uphold the principles of a
socialism-free society and heretofore pledge my word that I shall strictly adhere to the following:

I will complain about the destruction of 1st Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly allowed to exercise my 1st Amendment Rights.

I will complain about the destruction of my 2nd Amendment Rights in this country, while I am allowed to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights by legally but brazenly brandishing unconcealed firearms in public.

I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life. I will abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services including but not limited to the following:

Social Security
Medicare/Medicaid
State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP)
Police, Fire, and Emergency Services
US Postal Service
Roads and Highways
Air Travel (regulated by the socialist FAA)
The US Railway System
Public Subways and Metro Systems
Public Bus and Lightrail Systems
Rest Areas on Highways
Sidewalks
All Government-Funded Local/State Projects
Public Water and Sewer Services (goodbye socialist toilet, shower, dishwasher, kitchen sink, outdoor hose!)
Public and State Universities and Colleges
Public Primary and Secondary Schools
Public Museums
Libraries
Public Parks and Beaches
State and National Parks
Public Zoos
Unemployment Insurance
Municipal Garbage and Recycling Services
Treatment at Any Hospital or Clinic That Ever Received Funding From Local, State or Federal Government (pretty much all of them)
Medical Services and Medications That Were Created or Derived From Any Government
Grant or Research Funding (again, pretty much all of them)
Socialist Byproducts of Government Investment Such as Duct Tape and Velcro (Nazi-NASA Inventions)
Use of the Internets, email, and networked computers, as the DoD's ARPANET was the basis for subsequent computer networking
Foodstuffs, Meats, Produce and Crops That Were Grown With, Fed With, Raised With or That Contain Inputs From Crops Grown With Government Subsidies
Clothing Made from Crops (e.g. cotton) That Were Grown With or That Contain Inputs From Government Subsidies
If a veteran of the government-run socialist US military, I will forego my VA benefits and insist on paying for my own medical care

I will not tour socialist government buildings like the Capitol in Washington, D.C. I pledge to never take myself, my family, or my children on a tour of the following types of socialist locations, including but not limited to:

Smithsonian Museums such as the Air and Space Museum or Museum of American History
The socialist Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments
The government-operated Statue of Liberty
The Grand Canyon
The socialist World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials
The government-run socialist-propaganda location known as Arlington National Cemetery
All other public-funded socialist sites, whether it be in my state or in Washington, DC

I will urge my Member of Congress and Senators to forego their government salary and government-provided healthcare.

I will oppose and condemn the government-funded and therefore socialist military of the United States of America.

I will boycott the products of socialist defense contractors such as GE, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Humana, FedEx, General Motors, Honeywell, and hundreds of others that are paid by our socialist government to produce goods for our socialist army.

I will protest socialist security departments such as the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, TSA, Department of Justice and their socialist employees.

Upon reaching eligible retirement age, I will tear up my socialist Social Security checks.

Upon reaching age 65, I will forego Medicare and pay for my own private health insurance until I die.

SWORN ON A BIBLE AND SIGNED THIS DAY OF IN THE YEAR

Signed Printed Name/Town and State

Fix Social Security and Unemployment

2010-03-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/natale-zimmer/two-birds-with-one-stone_b_518434.html

Insurance Companies

2010-03-29T14:01:00.000-07:00

Insurance Companies plan to get out of insuring children with pre-existing conditions by saying that nothing in the law says that they actually have to sell them insurance--just cover them-- and if they have to cover them they can increase the cost of the policy.

Harris Interactive I Newsroom I Harris Polls

2010-03-28T16:31:00.000-07:00

24% of Republicans believe Obama is the AntiChrist!!!
Harris Interactive I Newsroom I Harris Polls

Bad for Morale

2010-03-28T16:20:00.001-07:00

Ha Ha Gays in the military is bad for morale, but an 11% increase in sexual assault on female soldiers is reason for the military brass to congratulate themselves. What???
Bad for Morale

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Meg Whitman

2010-03-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

Meg Whitman is no good for California because as a CEO she is used to fixing things by firing people, but you can't fire people out of California.

START

2010-03-28T16:01:00.000-07:00

Yeah to arms limitations. I have been for this since I used to write letters about the SALT ratifications to Biz Johnson back in the sixties.

Not a Christian

2010-03-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck is not a Christian. He is not even a good Mormon. Social Justice is a foundation principle of Christianity. more here from Jim Wallis

CCC

2010-03-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

CCC the new KKK

Council of Conservative Citizens

Rep Paul Ryan

2010-03-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

Rep Paul Ryan has become the GOP go to person on numbers. They claim all sorts of benefits with his budget plan. It will privatize Social Security, give seniors vouchers indexed to overall inflation to buy their own health insurance, make Bush tax cuts permanent, repeal all estate taxes, lower capital gains taxes, and they have the audacity to state that this plan would lower the deficit. LOL The rich would get richer and the middle class and poor poorer and seniors without adequate health care would just die as they used to--prior to 65. The wealthy elite would live forever--think Mr Burns.

George Washington was a socialist

2010-03-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

So George Washington was a socialist, too!
If the individual mandate is unconstitutional, how could our first president require every citizen to buy a gun?
By Joe Conason
Salon

It is an annoying habit of politicians and activists on the right to loudly denounce almost anything they don't like as "unconstitutional" -- including progressive taxes, civil rights statutes, environmental protections, and now healthcare reform. So Republican lawyers and attorneys general around the country are preparing challenges to the healthcare reform bill on constitutional grounds, perhaps hoping that a Supreme Court majority will strike down the legislation with the same flagrant disdain for legal precedent and democratic order displayed in Bush v. Gore.

Along those lines, one of the favorite complaints against the healthcare reform bill is that the founding document doesn't permit the federal government to order anyone to buy a product or service. That supposedly renders illegitimate the individual insurance mandate that is part of the bill.

As every fervent advocate of gun rights ought to know, however, that argument suffers from a glaring historical flaw. Only a few years after the nation's Founding Fathers ratified the Constitution, Congress approved the Militia Act of 1792, which was duly signed by George Washington, then the president and commander in chief.

Establishing state militias and a national standard for their operation, the Militia Act explicitly required every "free able-bodied white male citizen" between the ages of 18 and 45, with a few occupational exceptions, to "provide himself with a good musket or firelock, a sufficient bayonet and belt, two spare flints, and a knapsack, a pouch with a box therein to contain not less than twenty-four cartridges, suited to the bore of his musket or firelock, each cartridge to contain a proper quantity of powder and ball; or with a good rifle, knapsack, shot-pouch and powder horn, twenty balls suited to the bore of his rifle, and a quarter of a pound of powder.."

Within six months, every citizen enrolled and notified of his required militia service had to equip himself as specified above. There was spirited debate in Congress as to whether the state ought to subsidize the purchase of arms for men too poor to afford their own, so that everyone could serve his country. Subsidized or not, however, the founders saw no constitutional barrier to a law ordering every citizen to buy a gun and ammo.

Quotations and facsimiles of the Militia Act can be found on hundreds of right-wing blogs, of course, where it is often cited to demonstrate that the founders would have despised gun control. Few if any of these Second Amendment zealots seem to have realized yet how ironic it is for them to quote this venerable statute alongside their anguished protests against the constitutional validity of any federal mandate.

Or maybe Washington was a socialist, too.

History of White People

2010-03-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2010/03/22/history_of_white_people_nell_irvin_painter?source=newsletter

How long will it take for Supreme Court Repeal

2010-03-22T10:52:00.000-07:00

Court cases such as the one begun by Virginia will proceed and despite setbacks will reach the Supreme Court. There whether or not the arguments have merit The Patient Protection Act will be repealed, 5 to 4.

Deficit Hawks

2010-01-11T19:27:00.000-08:00

GOP deficit hawks are on the march to default on government debt to cut Social Security benefits.

Traveling Home from Mexico

2009-12-04T22:30:00.000-08:00

12/2/09
Waiting in the Puerto Vallarta airport. The flight will be about 1 1/2 hours late, so far. Spent the last 150 pesos on 2 bits of hand embroidery of a rooster and a wild red bunny. Bought here in the airport at a pretty art shop near where we are sitting. I think I will sew them on 2 small pillows for 2 grandchildren.
Going home with the hair braids. Wm thought I should wear them home. They are growing out a bit. I will have to make a hairdresser appointment to have them taken out as I sure can't.
Sounded like Jasmine was glad to get home. I think she missed her friends a lot. Even with the 2 hours of conversation on the international Skype Richard bought for her phone.
Overall I think the trip was a success. Parties were good and children played nice together. But I agree with Frank that the 10th anniversary should be closer. I am sure he would be agreeable to have it in Redding or Nevada City. That would be 2014. Just before our 50th in 2015. Hopefully a Caribbean cruise with family and friends.
Wondering if Ben is missing me. He was getting into a habit of wanting to see me as soon as he got up. I did enjoy playing with him. He is so eager to learn everything. I hope it will work out for us to show up at Palo Duro in April with the RV to join the children's campout.
Part of my carry on is a painting I bought today. I will group this chicken painting with the 2 prints I already planned to put on the east kitchen wall.
We did get to Vitae for lunch. It was excellent. They even make whatever flavor of agua fresca you want. So since I liked the agua fresca at Maria Gallo's so well I had carrot orange. William had the special grilled tuna sandwich. Thankfully he shared a bit with me. I had the spinach quiche that was also very good. I agree with Robbin about the bread spread. We also had lovely salmon rolls for an appetizer. The people at the next table said they had already been there 4 times this week. They were asking for recipes also.
An airplane has arrived at gate B6. Now for unloading and plane cleaning. Boarding now in 10 minutes. So I will sign off.
Pretty uneventful flight except for the plethora of crying babies. Thanks to Jon for the music and William for the ear buds. Since the plane was late the meal was late. I touched William to ask him when he thought they would serve dinner. He startled and hastily pulled out his earbud and it came detached and the earbud stuck in his ear. He was mad at me and considered it my fault that the earbud got stuck and it took him about 20 minutes he says to get it out and made his ear hurt. I think most of the 20 minutes was spent glaring at me. The real problem was that he had chosen window seats for both of us and I was seated at his request behind him. I told him I was sorry about his ear later, but I did not try to talk to him again on the plane as it was noisy.
Then at immigration we were shuttled to a special area in immigration and waited for about 1/2 hour to be told that there is a William Allen Baker on the watch list--just with a different birthday. When we went in the special room they said “what have we here? Two Americans?” William was very mad about the delay and told the security people off.
Then at CitiGarden they tried to stiff us on the parking. We had stayed one night on the 12th for 14 days of parking and then tonight for 7 days of parking and have only used 19 of the 21 days.
So maybe there were some problems getting home and we are not home yet.
12/4/09 Arrived home and I want these braids out. Took me two days to get them all out and it looks like there is a small gray animal in my bathroom trash can with all the hair I shed.

Health Care for Illegals

2009-10-02T14:44:00.000-07:00

1. There are ~12 million illegal immigrants in the US.
2. They do require health care at times, so they go to the ER.
3. They can't pay, so hospitals eat the cost, but must treat them anyway.
4. Hospitals pass the costs on to paying customers.
5. Even with a mandate for all to buy insurance, illegals are generally too poor to buy regular insurance.
6. You can't enforce a mandate with illegals as even though they may pay taxes through an employer they could not file a tax form with a bad SS #. So no chance for a penalty.
7. Could a cheap enough insurance be offered so that illegals could buy it without a subsidy?
8. But the cheapest insurance would be a public option and they apparently will not be able to buy this even if a subsidy is not offered. Even though it is supposed to be pay as you go.
What is the answer?

Final touches are starting

2009-09-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

The cabinets are in. They soon will have lovely euro bar handles. The tile and granite is going in along with the sinks. The mirrors are ordered. I wanted to take more pictures but William said to wait until the end of next week. By then all will be done on the granite and floors and tile. Sounds like there is little left to do.

New British Film

2009-09-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

"Creation"--too controversial to show in the US where less than 50% believe that evolution is scientific fact. The UK movie fails to find even an independent distributor.

We're # 37

2009-09-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

Buzz around new cyclocross team

2009-09-05T08:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.hudzsubarucycling.com/elite.html lots of good stuff here about Jon's new cyclocross tram.

The Real Death Panels

2009-08-21T09:22:00.000-07:00