St. Louis!

I've made it to the city of the giant arch, which I have not seen, but expect it's within 20 miles or so.

I've not mentioned road kill for a while.  I've seen some rare ones if you are a citizen (or is it subject?) of the great state of California, and that would be armadillo!  I also had a cicada hatch out on the tent last night.  It didn't wake me as I had ear plugs in, but I saw the silhouette in the morning.

Speaking of other road side attractions, there are firework stands all over the place - so if anyone wants some smuggled out, let me know.  Just kidding!  I've not bothered to stop and they are probably full of "safe and sane" stuff and who needs that?  I remember the Malcolm in he Middle episode where they got the bomb that turned night into day.  "How long before our sight comes back?"  "I think the guy said 3 days." 

Car issues.  So I make some calls last night looking for tires.  Thought a VW dealer might be the best bet.  He had them, but no appointments open for 10 days to mount them.   I don't think so.

I call Big O and use Google to find them on the route.  "Find big o dealer between here and St. Louis."  this actually works.

I call them.  They have tires.  I'll be there mid morning.

I get there about 10:30 at the 159 mile marker on I-44 from Oklahoma towards St. Louis.  It takes them some time to look at it.  I spent that time getting some breakfast at the midnight cafe across the road.  No checks and no credit cards!  But steak and eggs out the door was $10. 

The guy drives the car and then checks balance.  One tire is off by 1 ounce and the other by 3!  Another test drive.  No more vibration.  Cost?  $0.00.  The VW guy charged me $60 for the four wheel balance, plus a $27 shop charge and a bunch of other stuff.  I may write them a letter.

From the small town where the Big O was to Ann Marie's was about 120 miles.  It all seems pretty good at this point.  So I have the capacity to bitch about audio books...

I started a Dale Brown book.  I've read his stuff before and liked it.  This one has a space component in it.  But the book is like being back at work.  He spends so much time developing acronyms that I find it highly artificial and painful. 

The story has not really gotten going yet, so I'll stick with it a bit more and he gets back to telling a story and not missile name dropping.

I'm dropping in on Ann Marie and we are going to do some photography on Saturday.  She joined the St. Louis photography club a few years back and has done some wonderful work.  So she and her friend and I are going to out and do some clicking.  Great fun!

It rained most of the day coming up.  There were sections where it was quite heavy and I even slowed down.  Of course this was pre tire fix and I was slightly cautious about tires not being on the ground much.  But not too much drama.  The stability control came on a couple of times as I hit puddles.

All the rain was in Missouri, with none in Oklahoma.  I did a nice job on picking where to camp last night.  I think that camping in the rain might be a lot of fun with the right tarps up and such.  But I didn't want to setup or take down and store all the wet gear.  Ok, ok, I'm not really a camper!

That's all that comes to mind at this point.

Rich

What country am I in?

And the answer to that is "Will Rogers!" 

They have named the race track after him and maybe the casino, though the casino may be named after the race track.

Indian owned, of course, there are pictures of the tribal council in the casino.

I should have been here yesterday, the shandy would have been $1.

Burgers for $5.  I'm not really hungry and I've snacked a bit today, so I will pass.  I still have some Atomic Fireballs from Cabela's that I've been working on whenever I was feeling a little sleepy.

I mentioned that it is warm.  But there is a nice breeze and it's pretty dry.  I think sleeping will be ok.

Tomorrows run is 375 miles or so.  Less than 6 hours, so I may look for tires on the way.  Can google help with that?  Let me find out.

And the answer is Yes!  As much as I don't like Google mining all my data, I have to admit that the utility of the program is stunningly useful.

There is a button on the maps that allow you to search the area shown for the item of interest.  4 tires for the price of three...  We shall see what they can do.  Big O, just like at home.  Maybe I can get some credit for what I have.  They are in pretty good shape.

Ok, time to put up the tent.

Out of Austin and on to Oklahoma

I left Ed and Judy and the dogs early this morning and headed towards Tulsa.

The only hitch, aside from tire issues, were various wrecks on I-36.  However, google maps with the directions was wonderful on moving to frontage roads and then back on, avoiding any real problems.  I've grown to love this code.

The route to get to the campground, which is north of Tulsa, routed me away from the big city and through some interesting areas of lakes and rivers.  I crossed the southern Canadian and the Arkansas (where I wondered if the Clintons had been up or down river from here).

There was the song about Okie from Muskogee and it stated that the values of the Okies were beyond reproach and no funny cigarettes, etc., however they do sport the gentlemen's club called the Coco Bongos, which tickled my funny bone a bit.  They are also looking for new dancers and "will train."  So if you've got a lot of college debt, this might be a partial solution.

Otherwise, the drive was a bit boring and the singing of the tires an irritant.  The audio book is about done.  It's too silly for my liking, but a comedy of errors in Miami and it's been acceptable.  I hope to find better writing on the  next one.

The campground provides free fly swatters!  Yipes!  And the gal said they were useful.  Since the tent is basically a large bag made out of bug netting, I think I'll sleep ok and unbothered, but the being outside stuff may be an issue.

The trip odometer has crossed 3000 miles.  I think it will be a shorter run tomorrow.

Interesting to me is that the speed limits were lower coming out of Austin via interstates than going in on local highways.  There wasn't much 75 mph stretches today.  The car tells me I am averaging about 66 mph -- I don't think that includes my short breaks.

It was a good time with Ed and Judy and the conversations were engaging.  It was sad to leave, but the rest of the country beckons.

Ok, I'm going to walk over to the casino and see what they might have to nosh on, hopefully subsidised by folks who don't know about the gambler's fallacy and some basic probability!

Yeah!  Taxes on the ignorant!  You won't hear that from other candidates!

Ok, a quick message to my many readers, if you ask questions, this can be more of a discussion than my boring drivel.  Don't hesitate to interject something.  :-)

Rich

Tuesday June 28 Texas Rangers and Dr. Pepper

Today Ed,  my brother,  and I took off North and west of Austin to Waco to hit two wonderful tourist attractions,  the Texas Rangers Museum and the old Dr.  Pepper bottling plant and museum.

Both were interesting,  but I would have to side with the TR Museum as the highlight.   Lots of guns and uniforms.   There were hands on exhibits where dragoon pistols could be hefted and some pistols in parts that one could assemble and reassemble.  

The old pistols were heavy,  over 4 pounds and difficult to keep loaded.  Those were the days when men were men.

They had a lot of pictures of Rangers, old to new.  There is at least one rule for being a ranger and getting your picture taken: you must wear your hat.

Allow me to digress back 20 years to a dinner I had at an upscale country club in CA.  The club had pictures of all the past presidents.  The pics scanned 30 years or so.  In the early 70s they had a "hip" president.  His hair was over his ears, his glasses were sporty as they were in those days.  He might have had on a leisure suit and he was probably wearing flaired pants.

A close inspection of the pictures allows one to understand that the CC figured out that they had made a mistake with this guy.  The next year and all years afterwards all of the presidents fit back snuggly into the earlier mode.  Which mode, I hear you ask.  Imagine a 50s banker with cropped hair, appropriately slicked down.  If he wore glasses there was naught fashionable about them. 

Why do I bring us this bit of conservative experimentation?  We now move back to the Ranger museum and their hats...

Yes, without exception they all had very, very similar Stetson hats.  Oh, some were a bit wider and some were cocked at jauntier angles, but the hats were interchangeable back to 1835 or so.  Did they have a deal with Stetson?  Did they get a discount if they ordered that model?  Were only Rangers allowed to own them?

What does it look like?  You will not have to consult Google to find out, search your memories back to 1962 and the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby.  In that classic photo there is a Texas lawman with the exact hat on.  He might have been a Ranger.  I don't remember the details of who he was, but the hat shape sticks.

OK, on to the Dr. Pepper museum.  The original bottling plant still survives from 1895.  This museum consists of two buildings, the bottling plant and some other building that contains the a gift shop, soda fountain and some exhibits.

The plant was interesting to me in that it showed some of the early automation to wash, fill, label, and cap bottles.  The rest of it was old bottles and a lot of old advertising stuff. 

The museum was worth the trip since we were there.  I wouldn't go too far out of my way to see it.  Check out the Rangers museum for sure.

We had lunch at Schlotzki's, which is a bit about the bread.  I ordered medium pastrami and it was too much, so I'll be having the rest of the sandwich on the road tomorrow.

Yesterday we took in the Snake farm that is south of Austin.  My car had been dropped off for wheel/brake issues and we kept on going to see the snakes. 

Lots of wonderful colors and patterns on them.  I was hoping for hat bands in the gift shop, but nope.

We hit Rudy's barbeque for lunch.  Sets of long tables, banana pudding and meat by the pound.  I had the brisket and some slaw.  "You want white bread or wheat with that?" I was asked.  "I'm from California, we are not allowed to eat white bread, which is a felony in CA," I answered.

The meat was good with a nice salty rub (another felony in CA!).  The sauce was pretty mild and they had a "Sissy" sauce too. 

We then went to Cabela's to look at manly toys while we waited for the car to be completed.  The store looked a lot like a Bass Pro Shop.  And when I saw "a lot" we are talking very little difference at all, at all.

We spent time gawking at the stuffed animals, shot by various nature lovers.  Then ended up at the gun (ha, it almost came out as "fun" counter) counter and looked of the wonderful assortment of hunting and protection tools or heinously dangerous, black, war like and mean, assault weapons, which should be owned by no human on earth -- so take your pick.

We chatted with the sales guy about calibers and the ebb and flow of the gun trade and of course touching on the world's greatest gun salesman, who has moved more guns to the hands of the unwashed than any man in history.  I am, of course, talking about our dear Leader, the POTUS.

The car was done.  The alignment had a problem, thus the tires were screaming in pain on the drive from Albuquerque.  Post alignment they were not real quiet either, as the tires tried to deal with this new configuration.  I hope that theory is correct...

I making a run to Tulsa tomorrow and I'll see if they wear back to some quiet state.  I fear I'll have to get new tires to get some peace and quiet.

The good news is that the brakes were ok.  I had some strange stability and antilock issues coming into town.  If the anti lock system goes out it's about $2500 since the VW folks have to do some coding.  Did I mention this last bog post?  Hard to keep track.

The thunderbolts are banging away as I type and I'm off to St. Louis, trying to get there by Thursday evening.  It looked a bit long for a single day, so a night in the tent is called for.

I was trying for Joplin, Missouri, but early morning probability of rain was 90% or so and I didn't want to deal with that.  Tulsa, on the other hand, was dry, but warm.  If there is rain, I'll see it Thursday morning at the earliest.

That's all I know!

Rich

The trip to Austin

I've said goodbye to the folks in Albuquerque and moved on to Austin.  

It was an 11 hour drive through some of central Texas.  This is a place I've not been.   I was impressed with the scenery,  marred as so much is, with "green"  energy projects.  But rolling and green and pretty. 

The route took me through a lot of small towns and empty areas.   The towns that didn't look healthy has abandon store fronts and buildings and businesses for sale.   It looked like they had been for sale for a long time.

Gas was a bit spotty,  but I'm used to a station every 3 blocks and not every 50 miles. They do the fifty cent bump to premium here too,  as in NM.

There were areas that had middle sized cliffs that surrounded a valley.  Which are the evidence that in some prior times,  this dry area was once an ocean.   How can someone look at that and what had to cause it and suggest we wee humans can "ruin"  the earth or that this period of earth's geologic condition is perfect and we have to / should preserve it as is?

The car worked ok,  but there are still alignment / balance issues with the front tires.  They are starting to wear some on the outer edges and there are various singing noises at speed and a touch of steering wheel shimmy.  I should never had had them rotated.

I finished my second Jack Reacher book and started some light hearted drivel set in Florida.  The Reached one ended well as they all do. 

I've found that the books provide the means to remove the monotony from the driving.  Turn them off and I'm bored very quickly.  Back on and I don't mind rolling along. 

It also looks like the anti-lock (auto corrected to anti-social) brake system is a bit confused.   I've made an appointment for Monday to get it looked at.   If the brake system is going out,  it will be a few thousand to put it right.   The Gtis are known for this a bit.   Vw does proprietary programming and you are locked into their repair.  

There are a couple of dealers in town,  the yelp rating are about the same,  but only one can get me in this week,  so I'm doing that.

I had dinner with brother Ed last night.  We went out to the local pizza joint and we sparred over toppings.  Then back to the house to discuss advanced conservative theory and folks who don't seem to grasp the true nature of the political environment.

Then with Fox news playing in the background, the giant dogs demanding a smattering of attention, we chatted a bit and sought the news of the day on various electronic devices.

I've not watched much Fox News, but it was amusing and more light hearted than I would have thought.  Truly there is much to laugh about these days in re politics and election season.

The weather is a bit unexpected here too.  It's overcast and rainy.  I was expecting hot and dry.  It is hot a bit, in the mid to high 80s.  Not too bad and we got rained on a bit walking across the parking lot to the pizza joint.

We are off to the Top Golf establishment this morning and then we pick up Judy at the airport early afternoon.

A Night at the Ball Park

So we thought we would go to the Albquerque  Isotopes game last night.  We looked for tickets on line.  (Ticket master added a nice 20% to the ticket price, but if you claim "senior" they were pretty reasonable.)

"Let me pick the best seats for you!" the software said. 

We clicked our assent because some of the pick from the map widgets were not robust.

"Here you go, three nice seats all together."

We looked at the map and it seemed they were pretty close to first base.  And clicked Buy them!

"Logon!" cried the code.

We tried to create an account.  Seems we already had one. 

"What's the password?" we clicked. 

"Let me mail it to you," it replied.

We waited for the mail.  Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum dum.

"You've got mail!"

We got the reset instructions, clicked back in, reset the password.  "How about this?" asked the browser?  Sure, why not.  We can't remember the easy ones, might as well make up a nice strange one.

The game started at 7.  We got to the park at 5:30.  We didn't know where we were going and I wanted to drop the folks off close to the park, due to walking issues. 

The parking guys were very friendly and with a couple of U-Turns and $5 bucks, the folks were dropped off and I was parked in a handicap spot just across the road.  (The road was 6 lanes with a nice zebra stripe so that pedestrians can just walk across whenever they want and the cars will magically stop!)

Well, the gates to the park don't open until 6.  So we had 1/2 an hour to hang out by the gate, in the shade.  Fun watching the fans wander by.

Have I mentioned the weather?  It was, in the vernacular of a friend from Massachusetts, "It was frickin' hot!"  yep, close to 100.  The sun was strong that day, my friends.

The folks looked a bit melty.  Soft like discarded crayons on a hot sidewalk.  Age report request?  Ok, 91 and 86.

Rules of the park: "No outside beverages allowed."  Water for sale inside!
They actually had drinking fountains, a nice touch. 

Our seats were not on the first base position.  Nor were they close.  What we had here was a great view of the right fielder.

Now we need to discuss the sun.  We've noted that it was frickin' hot, but it was still up.  It's now 6:15.  We put dad into a seat to rest.  It was in the sun.  Doug was the attendant and quite helpful.  A nice feature of the park.  He got dad some water while mother and I looked for dinner and water.

We got back and ate and drank the water.  Then moved to our seats.  Section 122, row I (which looked like a 1 to me!  Hah!)  Seats 3, 4, and 5 put us closer to the right field fence, not closer to the home plate, which one could not see from where we were.

Some of the Reno Aces come out and loosened up.  Action!

Only 30 minutes to game time.  The sun was still up.  I refilled my water.  I yelled at the parental units to drink up.  I got another sip into them.

Let me skip ahead as the blow by blow wasn't pretty.  The folks told me later they felt tortured.  Might have been close to the truth!

The sun sets at 8:30.  Oh, it gets blocked for a couple of minutes behind a structure of the stadium, but roars back for a few minutes.

We borrowed fan/water sprayers from the kids sitting next to me.  Those work pretty well in this dry climate.  Recent news report said the relative humidity was 4%.  I think that's low.  Probably due to global warming.

Now I must also comment on the steepness of the stadium seats rows.  If the seats climb aggressive towards heaven, that makes it more difficult for people standing, passing beers, selling cotton candy, to block a lot of folks' views.  But this stadium, set on the campus of the U of NM, rises slowly from mother earth, does not threaten the heavens.  Thus anyone who stands for any reason across 3 sections and 4 rows will block the view of your reporter towards the home plate, still unseen, laying a long way from our assigned "best" seats.

Until the sun went down, the back light was ferocious and we all developed wonderful squints.  The light got better, but it was hard to follow the ball at all.

We left after 7 innings.  The Isotopes were down 3 to 1.  We ventured out, away from the sun, the heat, the wiggly children, the lack of light, the crappy seats, etc. 

If you decide to go, here are some useful hints:  1) wait for a cooler day.  2) Get seats along the 3rd base side, especially if this is an evening game -- if you can't get those seats, stay home!  3) Bring lots of money, food was expensive.  4) Come early for the parking - one of the highlights for the night.

Turbo and Altitude

I have a VW Gti,  which has a 2 liter turbo.   Albuquerque is at altitude.   I think it's about 5000 feet at the river and about 6000 where the folks live.

I've found the car seems out of breath,  a bit like me,  until the revs climb beyond 3000 or so,  then the turbo comes on pretty strongly.   I'm guessing the lack of oxygen is an issue.

Some of the gasolines sold here do not have stickers denoting oxygenated gasoline.   I saw that as a benefit.   I did fill up at Shell today and at least the premium grade promised oxygenation.

The run to the driving range,  my morning exercise,  is straight up and down Montgomery,  a road, that if you know it,  will provide just about everything out need in this town.  

Gas,  clothes,  barbecue,  food,  RadioShack, it's all there. Sure,  does not have the excitement of Central,  a portion of which was the old route 66, and the hookers and all the cops are there.   You can't find them on Montgomery!

A Visit to Bernie's World

Or a trip to the casino.

Two blogs back I mentioned that we were off to the casino this afternoon.

I was after the inexpensive green chili cheeseburger, which I got.   The food was cheap and the sodas and drinks were Free!

After I thought about it a bit,  it looked like a Bernie Sander's promised environment.   You got free stuff,  but you had to leave all your money with the house.   Yeah,  all taken care of,  but no choice about what to spend it on.   What could be better than that?

Free soda,  cheap food,  bright flashing lights,  glitter,  the smell of crashed dreams,  the lure of a jackpot,  a life changed,  and unfulfilled hope (we can't forget the aroma of legal drugs that perfumed the air),  all as a tax on folks that can't do math.   Which,  IMHO sums up the entire Bernie platform.   Lots of promises,  none of which can be provided in any rational manner.   But,  it is popular!

OH,  but the restrooms were very nice and all the "state" employees looked happy.

Chickens a One Act Play

The scene is the dining room.   Father,  Mother and number one son are sitting around having finished eating.

Mother: Do you remember how you hurt your arm?

Father: I think I fell.

M: Where did you fall?

F: on the steps to the cellar.

M: Where are the steps?

F: they are outside.

M: what's in the cellar?

F: Coal and stuff.

M: what other stuff?

F: chickens.

M: did you get any eggs?

F: No, these are all roosters.

M: Are they pale from being in the dark all the time?

F: No,  they all have high blood pressure and are pink.

Son: Does anyone else want a Klondike bar?

Mother skipped it,  but father and the son had one and then they retired to the family room and watch the Warriors play poorly.

Author's note.   This is as true as I remember it.   It was a story worth repeating.   Sly twinkles were playing in everyone's eyes.

Sunday

This is a town filled with doves.   Yes,  they are charming and cute and quiet - -  well,  they are quiet in California.   Here they are the loudest things around.   From the folks' house to the golf course,  their cries fill the air.   Must be a lot of territory to fuss over.

The big news was that corn dogs was going to be the luncheon entree.   Sadly we have none.  But there are chicken lollipops and some Greek stuff to substitute.  

We wound up with pizza from Trader Joe's,  which was fine.   I'm trying to eat less and have some success,  but I don't think it's making me any thinner.

We did find some corn dogs at Sprouts and had then the next day for lunch.   I guess you need to eat them at the fair for the full effect.   Sadly a bit bland.

Met family friends,  Stella and her daughter Marion, for dinner on Sunday night at a nice restaurant,  the Savoy bar and grill.   I had the prime rib,  which tasted ok,  but was a bit tough.   I must retry when I get to the Midwest.

I had a work friend from Germany who loved his prime rib.   They don't have it there.  He told me that on one business trip,  "I did not fool around,  I had prime rib 14 straight meals."   A man to admire.

It's Tuesday now and we are off with Marion,  a family friend,  to do the casino,  which means,  of course,  to partake of the green Chilli cheeseburgers,  subsidized by the many gamblers and they come in at a nice $2.00.  Unless inflation has hit the casino.   More on that later.

I was at the range this morning getting in my daily exercise and trying to work on tips from the golf channel.   I'm happy with what I am doing and may play tomorrow.   Practice is more convenient and as much fun for me,  but every now and again,  you have to test your skills.

Ok,  I'm going to work on the next post which will be a one act play about chickens.   You' ll want to stay tuned for that one.

Rich

Love and Friendship and Popsicles

Mother and I went to see Love and Friendship this afternoon.  A cool repose from 100 degrees.

It was a movie about England.   Which reminds me of the old Woody Allen joke about Evelyn Wood Speed reading,  "I read War and Peace in 15 minutes.   It was a book about Russia."

The movie was interesting,  but no car crashes or shootings,  so I did fall asleep a couple of times.

But the dialog was good and snippy and Kate Beckinsale was pretty cute and an evil woman - -  all things considered,  better to have gone than not. Mother thought the theater was going to be filled with retired English teachers.   She might have been right.

I got to the driving range before it got hot.   I'm reasonably happy as long as I can hit them on the course.   They have a nice practice area and I enjoy practicing there.   The practice chipping green has a big hill on it and the balls always break up the hill.   The balls break towards the river.   Makes it tough for those who don't know where the river is and expect that gravity is universal.

Kachina doll repair is the activity of the afternoon.  

But first a sport nap!

Saturday:

Wikipedia had things to say about Jane.   Lady Susan,  the short novel from which the movie was made,  was one of her early works and dates from 1795.  It was reworked about 1804.  A light read, mother informs me,  so I may take it up.   What I found surprising are the sentences ending with prepositions,  which I would not have thought would have been the language of the day.

A bit of excitement,  I came back from the golf range and settled out on the back patio with a diet root beer.   Father decided to have his breakfast with me.   One thing led to another and dad has a scrapped arm,  the grapefruit made it into the bushes,  the ceramic Foo lion has died and we found where the roaches were living!   It was a pretty exciting few minutes.   Even the neighbor poked head over fence to see what the crash was.   But no big deal except for the insects and Foo lion.

News update,  the birds are coming onto the patio to grab the dead roaches.   I've decided the poison is not in their best interest and have chased them away and swept the bugs up.

Wind was blowing last night and there might have been a bit of rain.   The car seems to collect a lot of dirt every night.   Wind blown dust I guess.

I guess that's enough excitement for one post.   It's expected to be a slow day.   Tomorrow promises more excitement.

They have these small buzzing bugs here that sound like mosquitos.   They don't seem to bite,  but they like to be involved with ears.   Semi-annoying.

Wednesday Thursday

Two days in one.   Not a lot happened yesterday.   Though had nice Italian beef sandwiches courtesy of mother.

I managed to get to the driving range.   The local course is in Bear Canyon,  though they call Oso here.   Occasionally the Bears come into town looking for easy eats.  Sadly,  rarely.

My current problem is to make my driver swing match my iron swing,  which I will put up against just about anyone.

A guy at the range did ask me to move down as the sound of my hits was intimidating.   Success!

Thursday was a day of getting some errands taken care of.   My car went in,  diagnosed as a bad tire,  but not too bad; charged me $0.00 for the effort.

Then we took mother's car in,  which had some minor paint damage.   Owner came out and cleaned and touched up the paint,  gave us a bottle of the paint,  total cost $0.00.  It is an inexpensive place to get help.

The off to XFINITY to fight the phone/tv/internet bill.   Got that reduce by $50 per month.

Basically we saved a bunch of money on the day.

Then some solar lights for the backyard,  long on mother's list of wanted items,  then finally to the food store where staples and some Black Butte Porter were laid in hand.

Weather:  Still over 90 and that with some clouds.  There are some small chances of rain,  more towards the weekend.  

We're cooking spaghetti tonight,  which rumor suggests was my first spoken word.   I might have been Italian in another life.

I've been making some calls for mother,  who finds the phones a problem due to hearing issues.   I don't mind it.   That is surprising to me as I usually would prefer not to talk to folks on the phone.   Maybe I'm getting better at that.   But I think some of that is due to talking for someone else.

The list of things to do is shrinking.   Mother is impressed.

OH,  and laundry got done today.   I've been saving up and traveling light,  a combination that requires some washing occasionally.

On a sad note,  the Reached book I started,  I think I've read it.   But I don't remember the story,  so will allow it to spin out.

That's about it.   Maybe some golf tomorrow,  probably a bit more of the list.   Anyone want to buy a lathe or band saw?

Rich

Tuesday 7 June, abq

After a reasonable night's sleep,  we awaken early to play golf at Los Altos,  the old ones presumably,  with the Los Altos 9, a women's 9 hole group.   They were happy to let me play with my mom.

I shot a smooth 28, hit 7 greens and chipped in for my only birdie.   The greens had some slope and we're a bit quick in certain directions.   All balls break to the Rio Grand,  it seems.  Not my best putting day,  sadly.

I got some screws at the auto parts store and will see if I can mount the front license plate.   The challenge will be not drilling into a radiator hose and doing the mounting when it's 90 plus.   I think I'll wait for shade.

In NM,  if you get a fix it ticket,  you have to go to court.   Then they dismiss the ticket upon proof of fixing things,  but charge you court costs.   I've put this on the list of things to change when the revolution occurs.

Drinks with neighbors this evening and not much else for the rest of the day. 

I have some sore calves that suggested I was doing more things than driving and pounding in the odd tent stake.   I have no answer,  but might suggest minor dehydration.   Or this is left over from golf 3 days ago,  as the body doesn't heal as quickly,  but seems slower to take offense.

There was a major tragedy on Monday.   I didn't mention it then as I didn't want to ruin anyone's sleep.   I mentioned that I was listening to Lee Child's The Enemy,  somehow the last disk or two didn't make it to the car.   So I heard 9 of them and it was wrapping up nicely,  and I was left hanging.   Bummer -  something I'll have to attend to later.   But I like the book and would recommend it.   Perhaps stock Reached,  but set when he was in the army and some of the fall of the Berlin Wall plays out around it.  

I'm on to something else,  I forgot the name of it.   I may not stick it out as I have another Reacher book queued up.

The phone does some strange things.   The apps and Google seem to work one way one day and differently the next.   For the first time,  it offered to read me a text message.   Handy,  but unexpected.  

Some of the wake up features,  directed by voice,  seem to also be a bit buggy.   Anyone with thoughts on this are encouraged to comment.

Finally, the tires on the car are making some noise like something is off a bit,  so I have an appointment to check a few things on Thursday.  

Now,  it is siesta time!
, I

Albuquerque

I made short work of Canyon De Chelly and then kept rolling along to Albuquerque.   The backtrack was going to be 80 miles and it just made sense to keep going. Thus one less night at Koa Holbrook.   I stayed in one of their super tent sites.   I had three picnic tables and a nice shaded area with a lot of privacy.   Worth the $2 for the shade alone.

While it was only 98 or so,  it was still kind of hot. It does cool off quickly and I was under the sleeping bag fairly soon.   Ear plugs to block the freeway noise and from the Harley next door.   The sun and I rose about 5.  On the road by 7 or so.

The canyon was an impressive item.   I only looked at the north wing and only by looking at 3 overlooks.  The morning photography is better in the north and the southern in the afternoon.   It looked like there is camping near by and hotels in the town.   The town is about 3 miles from the park.   It's quite handy.   There are tours and such;  can you get to the bottom of the canyon?   I'm not sure,  but it looks like a nice thing to do.

I would estimate the walls as being about 500 feet down. They are quite sheer.  This is the red Sandstone that is seen elsewhere.   Some of it reminded me of Mt.  Diablo in CA.   Water and greenery is found at the bottom.

The Navaho live there now,  but are the third wave of inhabitants that are know.   They came in about 1700s, the previous group disappeared in the mid 1200s.  I forget the rest of the story.

Worth the trip.   It's at altitude,  so somewhat cooler that the towns on I-40. 

Trip milage is over 1500 at this point.   I'm getting some tire noise and will get that checked out here.

I may break down and mount the front license plate.   I can save $15 on my ticket if I do it and have a cop sign the form.   It looks like ignoring it will follow me back home.

No camping for awhile,  I'm with the parents.    They are over feeding and providing ice cream and licorice!

Rich

Speed limits

Just a quick note in re AZ speed limits. They're a useful 75 mph. CA needs to get with this.

Canyon de Chelly this morning then on to Albuquerque.

Arizona Including the Bad Lands, Petrified Forest, Winslow Crater, and Holbrook.

A busy day.   I got out of Kingman about 700 and headed down I-40.  Stopped at 830 for a McDonald's egg "McMuffin"  which the spell checker is having trouble with.   Normally not a breakfast guy,  but they (yes,  I had two)  tasted better than I remembered.

I grabbed 10 lbs of ice for the reasonable cost of 2.50 and headed for the crater at Winslow.   It was worth the stop.   It's been in private hands for a long time.   Prior to that the Indians knew about it,  but didn't care.   It was hunting grounds to them.

The access to the crater is $16 for seniors and worth the cost.   They had a movie and some exhibits and a rock and souvenir shop.   A guided tour is included and that gets you out a bit to the side of the main viewing areas.   Pleasant,  impressive and the light sucked for photography.

Most of the state is sitting under a high pressure system and it's hot without clouds.   Last night there was a mild breeze,  but that disappeared when I wanted it for sleeping.

About 1 am,  I looked for a sheet and about 3 I dropped the sleeping bag over me.   About 6 I was sweating as the sun lit up the tent. I tore down,  watered up and headed out.

On the way to Holbrook,  I dropped South and took in the Petrified Forest.   It,  too,  was interesting.   Imagine a place strewn with big old tree trunks,  a few soft white rocks (the trees are reddish) and not much else.   The trees are everywhere.   There was a ranch outside of the park with fields full of them.   Most of the rocks are split into log segments about 3 feet long.   Trunk diameters can be quite large,  perhaps 4 or 5 feet at bottoms of the bigger ones.

There are also some badlands looking areas of the park too.   I've taken some Panos,  but will not process them until I get back.

There is a nice loop from the south back to the freeway and back to Holbrook.  So it was easy to do.  

As a bonus,  I've picked up my senior pass that gets me into all the National Parks until they change the law or I die.   Cost of $10, plus all taxes paid over the years that went to parks.

A minor change in plans.   I've decided not to spend two nights in Holbrook,  but will do Canyon De Chelly on the way to Albuquerque. Otherwise it would have been more backtracking than the distance to just keep going.

Holbrook also seems to have tiny biting bugs too.   So I may regret this travel plan.   So far bugs have been a non event,  but I've got netting and stuff.   (Sorry for some of the funny spellings,  but SwiftKey likes to change what I type and it doesn't have all of my vocabulary.

I had a nice ham and Swiss Sammie for lunch and will have the same for dinner.

It's hot and I'm drinking a lot of water.   That leaves be unenthusiastic about cooking anything.   Besides with oat nut bread,  every Sammie is a treat!.

Rich

Kingman AZ

6/4 Kingman AZ from Santa Monica (SM)

It's about 2:30 pm and I'm gotten to Kingman.   It was about 330 miles and with no traffic,  not a long run.  

I've gassed up,  found some food for tonight and checked into the campground.  

Have I mentioned the temperature?   62 or so in SM,  but here it's 107 or so.   I saw 115 on the way across CA.   I am happy to be 7 degrees cooler.   I'm hoping it will drop to a mere 90 or so by tonight.

The drive across is interesting for the geology.   There is not a lot of civilization out there.   A couple of signs pointed ways to the original rt.  66.  I didn't bother, as freeway was good enough for me and I don't want to shift more than I have to.

Did I mention the golf just about killed Jay and I?   Well,  it did.   We walked and carried (or pushed) our way the LA Hills.   Would have killed lessor men.   My hips and calves don't seem to like it much.   The soreness didn't make the drive anymore fun.

I found the county library and it's cooler than outside and I'm grabbing that and the WiFi to catch up on the blog.

The tent site is pretty much sand and small gravel.   I took the shadiest spot as some attempt to block the sun.   It might be tarp time as a sun block.  Sand in the tent?   A real possibility.  But I am not expecting dew in the morning.  

I found a Safeway and the ham was on sale,  so Sammie for the next couple of days.   It's really too hot to add heat to the world,  so cold food will be fine.

Jay bought me a couple of Stouts,  and I may have one after I get setup later.  

The temp extremes crossed 55 degree swing today.   Amazing what folks can adapt to.  

No sightseeing today.   Tomorrow I'm off to the East part of the state,  Holbrook,  which for me is a hard name to remember.  I know a Holman and it's blocking my keen memory from working properly.   On the way there is Petrified National Forest and the Winslow meteor crater.   I'm not really interested in the crater,  but they are supposed to have a nice fossil collection in the gift shop.

I finished the Saturn Run audio book.   Quite good and I enjoyed it all.   Good pace and the science was pretty good and also interesting to me.  

I'm on to a Jack Reached novel by Lee Child.   It's not the usual narrator I'm used to,  but he sounds a lot like the other guy.

That's all for now.   Your humble servant,  etc.,  etc.

Santa Monica golf day

Hello world.  Today Jay and I went out to sample LA golf.

Firstly they put us with three other guys.  Then complained when we played slowly, we were following a 3 sum.  Then being LA, one of the guys was Byron Scott, who, I am told, used to coach the Lakers.  He was tall and slim and could move the ball quite well.  Everyone was friendly and a fine time as had by all.

Jay and I got sandwiches from the famous  Bay Cities deli.  We, again ate too much and came back to Jay's place and collapsed on various bits of furniture.

Hugo seems to be pouting.

Pizza is on order and the game is on.

Back to golf.  We played in Las Verdes (I think) , which is up the hills.  The fog was strong today, my friends. Coolish, damp, hard to see through fog.  It was thick enough that the laser range finders wouldn't work. GPS watches worked just fine, of course.

Almost 5 hours to play, which seems to be the norm around here.  The course for tomorrow is the same. 

Bad news is that the keyboard doesn't work as well on the tablet as it does on the phone.  The arrow keys don't work and the blogger app editor seems to lose the location of the cursor. 

Updates:  I've made it to Kingman,  AZ and am hiding out in the Mohave County Library while the heat drops off.   Yes,  it is hot my friends.   But let me finish the times in SA. 

The second round of golf was at another LA County course.   They played the 1935 LA open there.   Long,  with a number of hills.   Yes, LA is a flat area.   Not much of golf to report,  but I managed a nifty 5 on the final 18th, where in 1935, Arnold Palmer took a smooth 12.  His drive was OK,  but then sliced two OB on the driving range,  followed by two hooks over the fence to the left.   There is a plaque there describing the event.

Was it 5 hours long?   I hear you ask.   Nope about 4, maybe a bit less.   We lost our third at the turn,  a nice guy from SF named Dale -  down visiting his folks.   Then we saw no one for the rest of the round.   Heaven!

Fish tacos for lunch,  salad for dinner.   I can't stay here much longer,  by stomach can't take it.

Jay and I played a bit of backgammon,  Jay kept all of his money and a bit of my own!   Well,  we didn't gamble,  but he played well and rolled even better.

Saturday morning got the car repacked and the golf clubs buried beneath the camping gear.   Got some gas on the way to US 10 East and found a ticket on the windshield.   It seems the Santa Monica police were unhappy that I had no front license plate displayed and thought that a $25 bit of encouragement was in order.   The big question is can I ignore this???

The temperature was in the low 60s upon departure  -  keep this in mind for the next post.   Onward to AZ.

Santa Monica II

After a cool night at Pismo Beach,  I've wandered down to Santa Monica to see Jay and Jess.

This was by way of Solvang and a short stop at the Chamas Recreational area,  then Santa Barbara for a short moment.

Then down the 101,  crossing on some Canyon to 1 South and through towns like Malibu and Malibu Adjacent.   Traffic was OK,  which means a mere 10 minutes of stop and go.   Tough on the clutch leg and the other leg too,  as cruise control ain't an option.

The weather in S/M is close to perfect.   This is moderated due to the traffic.   But is helped by the walkability of the town.   Jay and Jess live near the beach area and much is available on hoof.

We ate on Ocean Blvd.   It over looks the pier.   I had the green Chilli cheeseburger,  Jess the Chicken and Jay a fried chicken sandwich.   More fries than anyone wanted to eat and beverages of choice.

Then on the walk back, stopped at the yogurt store where it was priced based on the container size,  but not on how much you can get in the cup.   This reminds me of a joke of my father who used to say "you can always tell an engineer,  but you can't tell him much."   So we have an exercise to construct a large, solid,  tall tower.

Thank God we walked.   This is more food than the last day or two combined.

Final note,  the micro USB keyboard works just fine on the phone!

Rich