Life, as usual

We've been home for a few days, and life slowly resumes as usual.  My old Lazyboy chair sure feels good.  When on the road a person cannot relax like he can with the favorite things of home.  I've sold quite a few books since the first of the year, three today alone.

It hasn't been hard to find old-timers who reminisce about the things they know that are included in the book.  One gentleman today spent most of his life farming in Emmons County.  On the phone I said Wm. Wade writes of Horse Head Bottoms in Emmons County.  Oh, yes, he knew all about it, in fact had farmed near there.  I promised to make a date with him to talk about his history and what he knows.  Among other things he had a relative murdered south of Linton.

I told another fellow today about the 1905 map I'd included in the book and that not many roads show on it.  He lived on the west side of the river and talked about how he remembered the road through there was nothing but a trail.  Of course, now it is a paved state highway.  He wants to talk more, too.

The picture of San Francisco shows how closely packed the buildings are in that city.  I remember some of the cop shows that used to take place there and how steep the streets were.  I thought as we drove on them how much fun it would be to start at the top of a hill and skateboard down; however, I don't think the cops there would think too highly of that.  I now wish we could have spent more time in the downtown and explored some of it, especially the bookstore established by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights. 

While the Memory's Fresh

The old Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote a poem he titled "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with a Plough."  In it he stated, "The best laid schemes of mice and men go often awry."  I guess I can claim that fate.  I took along this little netbook with the intention of blogging frequently on the road.  Then I came down with bronchitis and didn't have much energy to do anything.  The weather was cold and windy in Arizona, especially, and I believe it was there I caught the bug.  When we got to Las Vegas I succumbed and made up my mind to find a doctor and get some medication.  Because of that I missed going to Hoover Dam one afternoon and Disneyland one day.

Here is a scanty outline of the trip.  Day 1 - travel until we pulled in for the night at Lusk, WY.  Day 2 - drove in strong wind until we arrived in Las Vegas, NM for the night.  I've encountered strong winds like that before in the Cheyenne area.  Day 3 - Roswell, NM.  We toured the museum of the reported alien crash landing.  It could have happened, I don't know for sure.  This is for sure: Roswell has made lots of money from tourists.  From here we drove to White's City and entered Carlsbad Caverns.  This is quite a site.  It's one big hole in the ground!  I left a few bucks in a gift shop after buying a fancy bolo tie.  I blew my spending money for the trip on that one.

Day 4 - Drove past El Paso, TX and then across the dry Rio Grande River, just a few puddles here. 
Tombstone, AZ and a terrible motel experience awaited us.  Day 5 - A tour of Tombstone took us through Boothill Theater, the Birdcage Theater, and the OK Corral.  Spent the night in Tucson.  Day 6 - An interesting old mission church - Mission San Xavier Del Bac - took a couple of hours.  We headed for the AZ Sonora Desert Museum, 40 or so acres of desert plants.  Then to Old Tucson, a movie set where John Wayne and some of the other western stars made movies.  Day 7 - Biosphere, a couple acre site under glass where all kinds of experiments have take place, including a few people who lived inside its confines for two years in self-sustaining conditions.  Apparently, at the end of two years, they all went their separate ways, couldn't stand to look at each other anymore.  Day 8 - Mesa, AZ city tour for the day in and around the area, then supper at Organ Stop Pizza.  This organ can play one mess of sound effects, only one of its type in the world.

Day 9 - Sedona, Red Rock State Park and the Grand Canyon.  Mary's first time to see it.  Day 10 - Las Vegas, NV.  Here's where I found a doctor; the group toured Hoover Dam.  I don't think I left a dime in that town.  Hey, big spender!  Day 11 - Hollywood, CA and Universal Studio tour.  Arrived Anaheim.  Day 12 - Disneyland.  Here's where I was a party pooper and stayed in the motel.  Day 13 - Drove all day and arrived at San Francisco.  Day 14 - City tour and ferry ride over to Alcatraz.  What a hilly city!  What a dreary hell the prison was!  Stayed in Sacramento that night.

Day 15 - Crossed Donner Pass, drove all day to a smelly casino at Wendover, NV.  Gawd, the cigarette smoke reeked in everything, even the so-called no smoking rooms.  Day 16 - Drove all day to Casper, WY.  Day 17 - Toured a planetarium in Casper run by the school district.  I guess I slept part of the time.  Those chairs were sure comfortable.  Drove to Deadwood.  Day 18 - Arrived in Bismarck about 4:00.

The bus driver said we drove over 5,000 miles.  The most interesting part for me was watching the landscape change.  Cactus country is interesting; some of them really get big.  The bus was full - 54 paying passengers plus a driver and an escort.  With that trip we have taken all the big 18 day trips that the Farmers Union offers and consequently have travelled all the continental states except Delaware.  Last year we even went to Hawaii with them.  So that's about all I've got to say about the Southwest Tour of 2013.

On the Road - 4

Disneyland, 83 degrees outside, and I didn't even go across the street to Disneyland.  I went to the doctor yesterday in Las Vegas, diagnosed with bronchitis, given four prescriptions, told to stay away from smoky rooms (therefore, no casino time for me.)  I had big plans to write blogs every day but the bug didn't allow that.  Tomorrow we head for San Francisco.  I knew I was in California when the waiter at the next door Denny's called me "Amigo."

On the Road - 3

Tucson, AZ   January 12, 2013

It seems like we brought winter along with us; we've been wearing our heaviest coats.  Other than that the trip has been enjoyable.  Today many sagauro cacti filled our view.  I never knew those cylinders with arms climbed the foothills and took root at the top of some of the mountain peaks.  It's hard to get to the computer and post these, so I'm a bit behind.  After leaving Carlsbad Caverns area on Thursday morning we drove to El Paso and later that day arrived in Tombstone, AZ where among all the motels I've stayed in the Tombstone Motel certainly was one of them.  I don't think there was a satisfied soul with that place and more nightmares occurred the next morning at breakfast.  We did enjoy touring the city on Friday, including Boothill Cemetery, the Birdcage Theater, roaming around town, and then leaving for Tucson.

Here we toured the Mission San Xavier Del Bac which has a long history with quite ancient beginnings.  The AZ Sonora Desert Museum proved quite a treat, and Mary walked around the grounds snapping many pictures with her new camera.  Then off we went to Old Tucson.  It has been the site of about 300 movies and tv productions over the years.  We watched three movie stuntmen go through their paces, staging fist fights, shootings, falling off buildings, riding a ladder pushed backward off a high place, etc.  A movie dedicated to John Wayne and how well liked he was in Tucson, followed by some dancehall girls entertaining us rounded out a good experience.  That's enough for today.  I stayed back from supper because I'm not feeling so good with a cold coming on so will close for now.

On the Road - 2

White's City, New Mexico - January 1, 2012

All day driving through this part of the country we thought how dry the landscape appeared.  Well, tonight at supper it started raining, and quite hard.  Maybe we should take credit!  Our first stop was at Roswell, NM to tour through the UFO museum.  It was nothing fancy: a few dummies to look like aliens, lots of photos and written documents, newspaper clippings, etc.  Am I a believer?  Myresponse is, it might be true.  This is a mighty big universe and with some of the scientific theories floating around like quantum mechanics and string theory, I believe there is potential. A Mexican restaurant beckoned to most of our group at noon.  The food was good (and reasonably priced).  Next door to it was a Mexican bakery that smelled so good when you stepped inside.

Carlsbad Caverns was next on our itinerary.  Those caves really make a person feel small since they are huge.  Great experience, and now I can chalk that one up.

On the Road

Las Vegas, New Mexico,  January 8, 2013

We've driven a solid two days to get to this point.  Last evening we stayed in Lusk, Wyo.  Tomorrow we travel on to Roswell, NM for a tour of the UFO museum and on to the Carlsbad Caverns Nat'l Park.  I always enjoy the drive along the front range of the Rocky Mts. past Fort Collins, Denver, Colorado Springs, etc.  This evening I watched out the window at the settling dusk with the mesa tops outlined against the sky.  Beautiful.  High winds, over 50 mph around the Cheyenne area (as usual) made for some poor fuel mileage with the bus, so much so that the fuel gauge was low, low.  The cities along the front range are growing together so that they'll be one continuous city before long.  A sign seen along the way: United we squabble, divided we wobble.

A New Year

 

And I hope it is a happy one!  The Congressional gang in Washington probably isn't too happy about now, sitting in the capital when they could have been home celebrating.  And you'd think they'd learn; they did it to themselves, leaving things go until the last minute.  Listening to all the "going over the cliff" talk had me a bit concerned.  Would walls crumble?  Would people fall into crevasses?  Would the wind blow it all down?  Then it came out that whatever deal the gang comes up with can be made retroactive to the first of the year, so what's the problem?  Suffer on, you saps.
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Should I make a New Year's resolution?  I never think too hard on it, but if I were to make one it would be to learn something new.  It still stands strong in my memory how I had never learned to write the English language until I began studying the German language.  Now the active voice, the passive voice, subjects, predicates, gerunds, infinitives, what have you, pose no obstacle.  This year I learned something about publishing a book.  Now I'm in the middle of learning something about promotions; that's where the workout comes.  I learned how easy it is to become a book reviewer, and now the books arrive regularly.  I'll have to buy more bookshelves!  I learned I'm not getting any younger as evidenced by new aches and pains that pop up.
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Losing weight ranks high on resolutions.  For a lot of people, they know it's time to lose weight when they step on a talking scale and it says, "One at a time, please."
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Lutefisk by the barrel gets feasted on this time of year.  Check out our Norwegian friends -- 

Ole, Sven and Lars die in a tragic Lutefisk accident. They are met by God on the stairway to heaven.

God says, "There are 3,000 steps to heaven. It's very serious up there. I'll tell you a joke on each 1,000th step you reach. If you laugh you go to hell."

So they start walking and reach to the first 1,000th step. God tells a joke, Lars laughs out loud and goes straight to hell. Ole and Sven look at each other nervously.

On the 2,000th step God tells another joke, Sven tries his best but laughs and goes to straight to hell.

On the 3,000th step God tells the last and best joke, Ole doesn't laugh and proceeds to the gate.

Suddenly, Ole bursts out laughing hysterically. God asks, "What are you laughing about?".

Ole replies, "Oh dat's funny. I yust got da first yoke!".
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Obviously, I haven't learned much since the last blog was posted.   Trust me, next week will be very different.