I know, I'm a slacker

I have not been keeping up with this blog thing like I should. But, like any good American, I have an excuse. I'm going to blame it on Global Warming. :) Please note the picture. It was taken on 7/18/2008 at about 1:00 PM MDT, and yes, that is snow under the wheels. Global warming is bad science fiction. "Plan 9 From Outer Space" bad.

Seriously, things have been a bit hectic around here. Today, the little Polish guy who has been installing our cabinets was waiting at the curb as I left for work. He shows up early, and waits until his Jamaican partner shows before he gets out of the car and comes to the door. At least it gives Marilyn a chance to corral Wally and protect the workers from our protector.

They were supposed to put the last of the cabinets in today, but for the second time, Home Depot had ordered the wrong cabinets. The trim would not have fit. So they did what they could, replacing the bookcase that sits at the end of the island (damaged in shipment the first time), and fitting a new back panel to the island after the bookcase was installed. They then went to Home Depot to supervise the re-re-order of the cabinets.

After they left, FedEx delivered the glass for some of the other cabinets. The wrong size was shipped the first time.

Tomorrow the counter tops should arrive and be installed. Maybe we can actually start using the kitchen as a kitchen before next week. It will be nice to have the water turned on and the dishwasher installed.

One other interesting thing is going on around our house. Sara is using our home as a safe haven after school. Marilyn and I will take turns watching her in the afternoon. Many thanks to my boss for allowing me to work from home in the afternoons when Marilyn is taking care of folks in the ER.

Well, I've lost my muse. Inspiration is waning, and I think I'll go get a cup of coffee before my head makes a loud noise on the keyboard.

Stay well.

Welcome Back!

Two weeks ago, we were crawling up a boulder strewn "road" to Hidden Lake, about 9000 feet high in the Rockies. Today, I am officially back to work, wishing I was 9000 feet high in the Rockies. Monday was my official first day back, but it took almost 2 days to get me actually back in harness.

Yesterday, I spent most of the day dealing with wise guys who dropped by to welcome me to the company. My free time in between "Welcome back, how was the trip?" visits was spent reading and/or disposing of 1336 emails that had accumulated in the 3+ weeks I'd been gone. That chore had to wait until I was done telling my computers that I still loved them and otherwise coaxing them to cooperate after a long period of inactivity. One didn't want to do anything but 3 weeks of middle-of-the-night updates and maintenance, and the other decided that it had had its fill of being connected to the company network.

One of the emails was interesting. The company is planning to go to a 4 day work week starting in October. I'm for it if they promise not to pester me the other 3 days. Unfortunately, the folks I deal with work 24/7, and are scattered across 20 time zones. It will be intriguing to see how this pans out.

This morning, all of the crud that had been festering for 3 weeks started to boil to the surface. There are installs to do this weekend, sales agencies that need stroking, and a new challenge. For the first time in my career, we are combining two sales offices into one. This would not be much of a challenge from the database perspective, but they also decided to rename the agency and give it a new number.

So, tonight, I get to connect from home to my desktop machine, and from there visit 4 agencies. Three of them are going to get a little cleanup work, and one will get a practice extract of the data to be merged this weekend. Ain't Technology wonderful? In the not too distant past, I would have spent 2 weeks on airplanes to accomplish what I'm going to do tonight.

On the home front, the garage is again host to a slew of boxes with the kitchen cabinets that were mis-ordered. The installers will be in full dudgeon again soon. The counter top is in production and expected to deliver within the week. It will be good to get rid of the cutting boards, scrap lumber, and other large flat things that are serving as temporary work surfaces. Once the counter is installed, they can put in the dishwasher, connect the sink and generally get us back to a functional kitchen. The ladies in my life, Marilyn, Sandy, and Gretchen have spent the last few days leaning over the tops of the new cabinets, spreading paint. It is really starting to look like a dream kitchen.

Time to get to work.

How I have fun...A.K.A.: The Death March

On Thursday of the Great Montana Trout Adventure, John (40 years old) and Teddy (50) decided that they and Bob (60) would fish the lower Bear Trap Canyon. The Lower Bear Trap is about 8 miles of the Madison River below the power station at Ennis Lake Dam. "No problem, it's an easy trail.", they said. So we drove to the bottom of the trail, loaded all our gear into fishing vests and backpacks, and started off up the river.

The trail was easy, indeed, and looked like an old Jeep road with a couple of huge boulders blocking Jeep access. The walking was easy, but suddenly the trail narrowed due to underbrush. The underbrush was about 3' high, and had pretty sawtoothed leaves with red stems. Yep, of the 8 miles of trail, at least 1 mile of it was a 1' wide path with poison ivy on both sides. Nifty.

Teddy was wearing shorts, and stopped immediately to put on his waders. John and I walked on to find a shady spot to rest, being careful to hold our arms and gear above the ivy, and making a mental note to burn our pants when we got back to the motel.

We walked for about an hour, and passed one other fisherman with a dog in the first half mile. After that, we were the only creatures in the canyon (except for the mountain lions, bears, and other varmints). The trail looked like the rattlesnake exhibit in any zoo in North America. Lovely.

I decided to do a Martin Luther ("Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise.") after about another 20 minutes of walking. I found a shady spot, suited up, and fished for about 15 minutes, getting a couple of good bites, but no fish. It was then that reality set in. The thought process was something like, "Bob, you're 60 years old, a grandfather 4 times over, alone in a wilderness populated by eagles, catamounts, and bears. You dumb s**t, get out of the water and head for your buddies."

Being the reasonable person I am, I never (almost) ignore good advice, so I beat feet upstream for another 20 minutes, looking for John and Teddy. I stopped to drink a little water as it was getting warm. While I was resting several things were going on. Teddy and John had kicked it into high gear and were still marching upstream, increasing the distance between us, and another idiot was, unknown to me, coming up the trail behind me. His "Hello!" from behind as I was looking upstream, nearly caused me to soil my waders. I was startled.

We talked for a couple of minutes, and I asked him to tell my friends that I had had all the fun I could stand for one day, and was going to go back to the motel. (Fortunately, we had brought 2 cars.) I then got out of my waders, packed everything into my backpack and started downstream.

By the time I reached the car, nearly an hour and a half later, I felt like Quigley crossing the desert. I sucked down the warm Diet Mountain Dew that was in the Jeep, wrote a quick note stating that a) I was not dead yet, and b) that I was headed for the Fan Mountain Inn to soak my feet, which felt like they were developing at least 3 blisters each.

Once back at the hotel, I took off the jeans and shirt I had been wearing, and put them in the laundry bag with the Bio-Hazard label on it. I then showered, scrubbed well, and put on clean clothes, padded socks, and soft shoes.

I felt like a new man.

That evening, three limping idiots went out to dinner, and decided that despite the fact that we only landed 4 fish between us, had walked through a rattlesnake infested desert canyon, and generally done stuff that reasonable people would never have considered, it had been a great day.

More to follow.

To Do List

Today promises to be one of those "Payment for Pleasure" days. I have a number of things on my To-Do-List that are due to pay the gods back for my wonderful vacation.

The first is to correct the electrician's enthusiasm as evidenced by the photo. A little creative stapling, taping, mudding, and sanding ought to take care of that.

Second on my list is to keep the Jeep happy by giving it a total transfusion. It's time to flush the radiator, change the oil in the engine, transmission, and transfer case, top off the dope in the axles, and grease the 374 fittings on the chassis. If I've got enough energy left after that, I might rotate the tires again, since I put over 5000 miles on them in the last 3 weeks.

The last bit of maintenance on the Jeep will have to wait until tomorrow morning, when it's finally legal to turn on a hose outside the house. It really needs a bath. I know there are bugs from Ohio crammed into some crevices in the front of the thing. After the bath, I get to grab some polish and remove the trail rash from the bodywork. Pushing through to some of those alpine lakes last week left some rub marks on the paint that really need to go. I know that a clean Jeep is a sign of a sick mind, but the Rubicon deserves pampering for staying with me through 3 weeks of abuse.

You can skip the next paragraph if you don't want to hear me rant about government stupidity.

The watering restrictions we've been saddled with for the past year or so are the result of a couple of things. Rainfall for the last 2 years has been below average and intelligence in our government officials for the last 2 zillion years has been abysmally below average. These folks are put into positions of authority to look out for the collective interest of the people in their various constituencies. To say that they've failed might be a bit of an understatement. The various county commissions have been allowing issuance of unlimited building permits without any attempt to ensure adequate water supply. After all, it's not their job to consider the effects of their actions, only to increase the tax base, and there is Lake Lanier which should provide enough water for another 40 years of growth. Unfortunately, the lake (more specifically, the dam) is administered by the Army Corps of Engineers, who take their orders from some place in a swamp north of here. Part of their mandate is to maintain adequate flow in the Chattahoochee River to keep some sort of brackish water mussel happy in Appalachee Bay in Florida. The result is a primary reservoir for 4 million people that is 15 feet below full. Somebody needs to apply a tattoo to the foreheads of everybody who works at that dam dam. It should read (with apologies to Mr. Spock) "THE NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE OUTWEIGH THE NEEDS OF THE CLAMS!". Send a load of refugees from Massachusetts down there with clam rakes and steamers, and solve the problem. At any rate, since the Governor didn't have the stones to take over the dam, we got watering restrictions to enforce conservation. Ultimately, it turned into a total prohibition on outdoor water use. Now, the restrictions (and attendant $1,000 fines in some places) got the results they wanted. Water use went way down. Unfortunately, as usage goes down, so does revenue to the local water authorities. Since the only thing governments apparently know about conservation is how to mandate it, this was intolerable. Thus, we are back to "It's OK to water between midnight and 10 AM on alternate days (except Fridays)". Sheesh.

Now that I've got that off my chest, back to the Drudge List. The final thing on my list is to increase my carbon footprint by running the mower, trimmer, and edger to get the yard back in shape after nearly a month of neglect. Thanks, Bob, for dropping by and mowing the lawn while I was gone.

Time to go take my blood pressure medication.

Make it a great day.

There's no place like home...

...There's no place like home.

Unlike Dorothy, I used a Rubicon in place of Ruby Slippers. Like Dorothy, it took me home in 2 shakes.

Driving is like pain. You can remember the hurt, but it doesn't hurt to remember.

I pulled in the driveway yesterday afternoon around 4, thoroughly numb. Marilyn heard the Jeep and came to the storm door. Sam, who was visiting, insisted on holding it open for Marilyn to come out. He's quite the gentleman when he wants to be. Unfortunately, Wally decided to take advantage of the open door and go exploring. He made a mad dash for the street just as I was falling out of the Jeep. I said, "Hello, Wally!!", and he threw on the brakes, did a 7G left turn and almost knocked me down, sniffing, licking, and wagging.

I told him he was a good boy and grabbed him by the collar. After we all got into the house, he went through the whole "Golly, I'm glad you're not dead!" routine for about 5 minutes. Last evening, he sat within about 3 feet of me all night.

After Wally got done greeting me, Marilyn and Sam got their chance. Their greetings were a little less dramatic, but greatly appreciated.

After the obligatory inspection of the kitchen (not finished, but looking about 8,000% better), I sat down for a while in something that does not move. Then I got up and started cleaning up after the electrician. There are two holes in walls, and one in a ceiling that I started to patch. I should finish that up tomorrow so the painters (Sandy and Gretchen (Thank you both very much)) can camouflage the construction.

Today, I gave my Jeep and my butt a rest. While Marilyn was giving Missy a rest break by schlepping Violet around the mall in Athens, I re-acquainted my backside with the recliner, and my hands with the washer and dryer. One accumulates a lot of laundry on an 18 day trip.

Speaking of laundry, I've got shirts for most everybody from Ennis, Montana. Come and get them.

It was a great trip, but it's really good to be home.

...And they're waving him around third!

Just one more post from the road before I get to sleep in my own bed.

In less than 2 hours I'll be pointing the Jeep toward Music City. It feels like I'm in a soap box car at the top of the steepest hill on earth. I'm ready to go and thrilled to be starting, but the butterflies are starting to squirm.

I'm ready to roll now, but I think I'll wait until 8:00 local time to let the Nashville traffic dissipate (and the road construction crews to get into third gear) before I depart. I'm 2 hours from Gnashville and 4 1/2 after that to home. The part I dread the most is Atlanta. If I time this correctly, and the traffic gods cooperate, I should leave I-285 behind me between the lunchtime jam and the going-home jam.

One thing working in my favor is WSB. It will be good to be back in the land of every-6-minute-traffic-reports and Boortz. I think I'm suffering from an insensitivity withdrawal. :)

Regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing all of you again very soon. Time to put my city face on. :(

Much love to family and friends.


PS

The last 2 1/2 weeks have been the most relaxing of my adult life. Thanks to all who tolerated my absence. I'm ready for another fantastic day.

Paducah

I'm currently sitting in a very nice Super 8 Motel about 27 miles into Kentucky. I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but this is one of the nicest (and the cheapest) places I've stayed in my entire journey. I would recommend this place to anyone.

As you may have noticed, there's a picture of Marilyn's Mom at the top of the posting. Today was her birthday, and we had a nice 4 1/2 hour visit before I hit the road. I got a tour of all of the various parcels of the farm, got to see the improvements she is making, and then let her vent about the Kirchhoff clan. It's a shame that she's 2 days away by car.

She's doing quite well, despite her relations who she thinks all are conspiring to take the farm from her. Between the trust officers (her daughters) and her lawyer, I don't see much chance of that happening.

Just before 1:00 PM, I got in the Jeep and pointed it East. By 4:00 I was well into Illinois, and had just missed the rush hour at St. Louis. I don't know what the population of that area is, but it stretches for 40 miles across the last bit of I-70 in Missouri. The bypass around the north is about 15 miles longer, but 10 minutes faster than going through town. Once I got back on I-64, I was out of the St. Louis suburbs in about 15 minutes. I got here Just before 7 PM after covering about 380 miles.

According to Google, I've got about 420 miles, or slightly less than 7 hours remaining. I can almost see Marilyn, Gretchen, and Wally.

I'm really looking forward to being home.

Oh, I almost forgot, there are some pictures from Concordia in the pictures link.

Later.

Concordia

Yesterday, I got kind of a late start, so I bypassed Seward. As it was, I managed to make a visit to the home of Cabela's. It's a bit smaller than the later stores, but has at least one of everything you might ever need to enhance your outdoor experiences.

After Cabela's I put the Jeep on I-80 and did a grand tour of southern Nebraska. It has the advantage of being mostly downhill. Other than that it's everything you ever heard about Nebraska. Whether that is "nothing" or a litany of horror stories about farm country, you heard right.

Today is Grandma Kirchhoff's birthday, so I'll get some breakfast and go hang around the farm for a while, show her the video y'all made, and give her all of your love.

Then it's off toward Illinois and Kentucky. When I stop tonight, I'll post more pictures.

Miss you all and am really looking forward to not recognizing the kitchen when I walk into the house.

I hope Wally remembers me.

I'm Back!

I'm back on the blog thing, I'm back in Nebraska for the first time in 36 years, and I'm on my way back to Monroe.

What a week it's been.

Sunday began with a 5 hour run from Sheridan, Wyoming to Ennis, Montana. I arrived at the hotel around 2:45 PM local time, and waited for John and Ted to show up. At 6:15, I called Ted's wife in Loganville. She told me Ted had been sitting on the tarmac at Hartsfield for 3 hours waiting for clearance to take off. When they finally arrived, they were 5 hours late. Weather in Atlanta kept them prisoners on the plane for 5 hours before they took off on their 4 hour flight. I was glad I drove. Once they unpacked, the only thing they were good for was dinner and bed.

Monday morning we went to a place called Bear Trap Canyon. It's just downstream from the dam that forms Ennis Lake out of the Madison River. I broke my new fly rod in with a 16" rainbow trout that thought he was 20" long. The fish in Montana are strong.

Over the course of the next 6 days we fished places called Frenchman's Gulch, Hidden Lake, South Meadow Lake, Branham Lakes, the Upper and Lower Ruby River, and the Lower Madison River. Everywhere we went, the fish were huge, mean, and beautiful. The exception was the Branham Lakes. The fish there were the most gorgeous 8" brook trout I have ever seen.

Most of the places we went were pristine and alpine. Unfortunately, they were also populated by every biting insect known to man. Hidden Lake was a great example. There were at least 4 varieties of biting flies there. Only bathing in insect repellent kept us from being eaten entirely. At Frenchman's Gulch, the stream was a willow lined spring creek about 8 feet wide. It meandered through an alpine valley that was a riot of sage and wildflowers. It was here that Teddy found the mosquitoes. After 1 cast and 2 bites (from bugs) I went back to the truck and drowned myself in DEET. After that, it was only mildly annoying. Teddy was brave and struck off downstream. After about 20 minutes, John, who had gone upstream came back to where I was, and we went looking for Teddy. He came flying out of the willows like a bear was after him, soaking wet and entirely ready to leave. He jumped into the 50 degree creek to escape the bugs. Think about the swarm in the African Queen, and you might get an idea of what he went through.

We abandoned the Gulch, and went to the upper Ruby River, where there were fewer bugs, and still fewer fish.

I won't bore you with a day by day accounting, but must mention some of the critters we saw. One evening at dusk, we drove up into the back of beyond and saw the moose. On the way up there, there were whitetail deer grazing in herds in the low pastures, mule dear grazing on the higher pastures. One morning I rose earlier than everybody else, went outside the hotel, and was surprised to find 2 pronghorn grazing in the field directly adjacent to the hotel. Pronghorn are supposed to be wary, hard to get close to, and require a long range rifle to hunt. In July, before hunting season, you could kill them with a rock. We also saw elk, eagles, trumpeter swans, every variety of duck known to man, hawks, falcons, and the places where bears and cougars had walked. The cougar tracks were disconcerting because they were in the road as we were coming back from some place remote, and had not been there as we went in.

The picture at the top of the column is Scott's Bluff, a major landmark on the Oregon trail, and the reason the town I'm in now has the name it does.

Tomorrow, I plan to hit Cabela's in Sidney, Nebraska, Seward, where I went to school and Bob was born, and then Concordia, Missouri to help Grandma Kirchhoff celebrate her birthday.

Tonight, I plan to sleep about 10 hours, after I post a bunch of pictures.

It's been an incredible trip so far, but I miss you all and am really looking forward to being home.

Day 7,213 of My Trip

It's hard to believe that I was at Amy and Geoff's saying goodbye to Mom on Thursday.

The Jeep has killed 87 million bugs and is doing fine, but it does not like 40 MPH headwinds coupled with hills. If there's no wind, it will cruise at the speed limit (75 MPH here) with no problem. If there is a substantial wind, it will slow down to 60 going up long hills. I guess it's time for a Tim-The-Tool-Man-Taylor comment...More Power! Of course if I was driving something more aerodynamic than your average milk barn, I wouldn't have this problem.

Yesterday was a sight seeing day. I drove about 100 miles from Murdo and left the interstate for Badlands National Park. This is a truly amazing place and well worth the $15 entry fee. If I trained for about 3 months, I would like to come back and spend a couple of weeks in the back country in this park. I saw my first prairie dog, one tired looking bison, and more geology than you could imagine.

At first glance, the place looks like a desolate, eroded wasteland, but "life will find a way" (bonus points for correct citation of the quote) and every where you turn there are fields full of wildflowers, critters, or wind battered bushes clinging to the sides of impossible bluffs. God is truly great.

My trip down the road less traveled took me out of the park on 20 miles of very well maintained gravel road. You would have thought that I had been transported to Missouri when I left the park. One minute I was staring at eroded desolation, the next I was driving through farm land with beautifully run operations.

Once I hit pavement, Aunt Sophie directed me to Mount Rushmore. I was unimpressed. It reminded me of Gatlinburg with a rock. If anybody wants to see the place before the end of the year, I'll loan them my parking permit and front license plate. It's good till 12/31, but the nutball at the toll booth put the vanity tag number on the permit.

Due to driver error, and an unfavorable review from a friend, I bypassed Crazy Horse and headed back to the 4-lane, and pointed the Jeep West.

Wyoming is interesting. The people I've met here are really nice. I guess you have to be when your nearest neighbor is 5 miles away. This state has one thing I've never seen before...driveways that dump directly onto the interstate. There are exits with no acceleration ramps that appear to go only to one ranch or another. I suppose the interstate cut off access to the county road the lane previously connected with.

At a gas stop in Gillette, I pulled up to the pump next to a guy with a dirt-modified stock car on a trailer. It was painted like the General Lee. When I told him that I lived near where they had filmed the first episodes of the Dukes of Hazzard, you would have thought that I'd told him I was the Queen of England. Instant royalty.

I'm currently in Sheridan, which is a nice enough town despite being named for a Yankee General, and will be heading for Ennis in a little while. According to Google, I've got 323 miles to go, a little less than 5 hours. Since I can't check in to the motel before 3:00, I'll get some breakfast, scrape the bugs off the windshield and fuel up before I depart. If I see something interesting along the way, I'll stop and take some pictures.

Speaking of pictures, I've posted nearly 200 from yesterday.

Stay well.

South Dakota...

...is an endless sea of treeless hills with a wind that rivals any I've seen. (I'll post some pictures before I hit the road.)

I fought 40 MPH crosswinds across Iowa, enjoyed the 40 MPH tailwind when I turned north, and fought the same 40 MPH crosswind all the way to Murdo, SD. Murdo is an interesting place. The main street is 3 lanes wide and runs from the interstate to the top of one of the hills where it turns to gravel. Two or three of the side streets are paved as far as the end of the houses. The houses I saw all needed a good coat of paint. I don't think there's a Home Depot within 100 miles of this place. The "downtown" area consists of a truck stop/convenience store/restaurant, another restaurant, several "museums" that look like they are left over quonset huts from the Second World War, and this Super 8 Motel.

Other than dodging big trucks, the only real excitement that happened on the way to this garden spot on the plains was a truck with about 40 tons of soybeans that had overturned on a ramp onto the freeway at Sioux City, IA. The road was closed while the local police scooped the beans out of the left lane. I took advantage of the delay to stop at a rest area where I talked to a guy who was just cruising around the middle of America on a Honda Gold Wing. The CB paid for itself this trip, as the southbound truckers warned their buddies of the slowdown.

Today, I'm only committed to about 130 miles of bucking headwinds until I get to Rapid City. From there it's sightseeing at Rushmore, Crazy Horse, The Badlands, and the Black Hills. Then I'm off toward Wyoming and a search for a place to sleep tonight. Tomorrow should be about 7 hours on the road to Ennis.

More to follow.

Davenport, Iowa

Yesterday was an Aunt Sophie day.

Leaving Mom is not one of my favorite things to do, but she said she appreciated all the good wishes and returned them twofold. She was amazed at how the great-grand-kids are growing, and sends her love to everybody.

After a series of Good-Bye's I reluctantly left Saline around 10:30 am. I had said that I did not want to go through Chicago, so I told Sophie to take me to Indianapolis. We headed south toward Toledo, and that's where the adventure began. Her plan was to route me down US 24 to Fort Wayne, IN. No problem, I like byways. Unfortunately, US 24 was closed just west of Toledo. The detour sent me through some of the prettiest Ohio farm country you could imagine. (Note: it's mid July, and I have yet to see corn with tassels. It was a very wet spring in the upper Midwest.) The road ran along the banks of the Maumee river in Ohio. After the heavy weather on Tuesday, it looked like a 1/4 mile wide mud slide. Not my idea of a Midwest river. Some of the fields I passed looked more like a salt marsh than a corn field. Stunted corn and standing water was a lot more common than you would expect. Some of the fields were obviously abandoned after the last floods. Sad.

Once I finally got to the big road, things zipped along. Indiana has surprisingly good roads for a Yankee state. Illinois, on the other hand should change their slogan from "Land of Lincoln" to "Region of Road Repairs". What is not currently undergoing construction, needs to be.

I dragged my tired butt into Iowa around 8:00 PM last night. Checked into a Best Western hotel that is terribly proud of their rooms, ate some dinner, and crashed at 11:00. (Note #2: That's 7:00 and 10:00 here.)

Plans for today, are to first get to Des Moines where I will check out the I-80 Truck stop. Jim Erlandson told me there's a truck show there today, so I may be posting some pictures.

Then it's on toward Rapid City, South Dakota. I doubt I will make it that far, (nearly 800 miles from here) but that's the goal.

Tomorrow will be a Badlands, Crazy Horse, and Rushmore day. Count on pictures.

Sunday, I'll be finishing up the trip from the next time zone, and plan to arrive in Ennis some time in the mid-afternoon. I'm sure there will be a lot of pictures with rear-view mirrors in them, shot as I zip past something interesting. I'm getting better at shooting out the window when I drive, and the image stabilization in my little camera is great.

Hope you are all well.

I'm doing just fine. :)

Saline

I've arrived safely in Saline, Michigan, and am currently visiting with my Mom and the Lahn clan. There's Mom, Geoff, Amy, and Madison (two-legged-people), Rufus and Chester (canine people), Nub, Shaggy, and Jeg (feline people), Hammy (tunnel-rodent-person) numerous amphibians and fish living here. Everywhere you turn you find a critter.

The trip from Parkersburg, West Virginia was uneventful, and even with a stop for gas and breakfast, I was in Cleveland before 11:00 AM. I visited the old church, the cemetery to say hello to my grandparents, and the old neighborhood. I was amazed how much smaller everything was. I guess memory tends to amplify, especially good memories.

Aunt Sophie then directed me through the war zone that is Cleveland's surface streets to I-271 where I headed West for the first time. She is fond of Interstates, and I'm fond of byways. After several "Recalculating (you blithering idiot)" messages from the GPS, I won and took Ohio 2 from the fork towards the turnpike. It was a good ride until I got to Toledo. I arrived to a sky black as coal, constant lightning, and tornado warnings.

After navigating through the flood in Toledo, I drove the 40 miles north in more or less constant rain. I arrived, only slightly dampened, at about 3:50 yesterday afternoon.

I've taken a bunch of pictures and will post them to Picasa (there's a link at the bottom of the blog page).

I'm here until sometime on Thursday, and will update as my busy social schedule permits.

Stay well.

Sorry. No Pictures.

I'm not coordinated enough to drive and operate a camera at the same time.

At any rate, I'm sitting in a nice soft chair at the Hampton Inn in Parkersburg, WV, and it's not moving!!

The first day was interesting. It started by making the Jeep happy. I turned right at Alcovy Street and pointed it to the mountains. Boy, did I point it at the mountains. I don't think there is 1/2 mile of straight road between Franklin, NC and where I am now.

When God made the earth, the part that he crumpled up and threw at the trash can had to be West Virginia. There's more up and down in this state than any I've seen east of the Mississippi River.

If there is a lesson to be learned from what I did today, it's that the beautiful things in life have to be paid for. Take the Great Smoky Mountain National Park for instance. It is probably the most beautiful piece of real estate in North Carolina and Tennessee. The payment comes from having to go through Cherokee and/or Gatlinburg to get to see it. West Virginia is a beautiful state, but the payment was a 5 mile long backup trying to get to the tunnel that got you out of Virginia. At least the griping truckers on the CB were amusing.

One other thing of note is that the road less traveled is only marginally less traveled. There are yahoos where ever you roam. Most of them seem to be more interested in sight-seeing than in driving.

For those who are interested, the most expensive gas I've seen so far was 4.099/gallon. Not much higher than in Monroe.

I'm well, and trust you all are also, and I will soon be ready to hit the road again after some well-earned rest.

More to come.

Take care.

...And One Again

Today is day one of my Lap of America. In about 3 hours I'll climb into the Jeep and start schlepping enough electronic equipment to power a small star across the central part of the US. The real cool part is that I have no planned route, just places to stop.

The subtitle of this blog is Notes From The Road Less Traveled. Well, I'll be pointing the Jeep down those roads starting around 9:00 this morning.

I feel like Crockett or Boone must have felt when they pushed into new territory. I can't wait to meet the people and see the sights I've never seen before.

After a week of seeing new stuff, visiting old homes, relatives, and generally getting sick of riding, I will be in Ennis, Montana. This is another place I've never seen, but one that I've read a lot about. I'm dreaming of a trout as long as my arm.

Note to Missy: I only keep the fish if I do a lousy job of catching them. If they're injured beyond recovery, they get consumed (if regulations permit). The others are admired, sometimes photographed, and then sent back to their homes on the river bottom so somebody else can enjoy them too.

Well, I've got to turn this thing off and shove it into the Jeep.

One more note: My postings might be a little erratic, based on where I can find a WiFi connection. Rest assured, you're all in my thoughts and prayers.

We have Lift-Off of the Cosmic Muffin!

3, 2, 1....

Today looks to be a full day, the last before the "Cosmic Muffin" takes off for the Pleiades.


Things I have promised to do today:

Visit Jon, Missy, and Violet to record greetings to grandmothers. Ditto Bobby, Laura, and Sara. I also need to corral Gretchen to do the same.

Move furniture around to make room for the Great Kitchen Makeover.



Things I need to do today:

Get my hair cut. (Thank you, Marilyn. After 39 years, your still my favorite barber.)

Pack my suitcase(s) for the trip.

Pack said suitcases into the Jeep.

Totally obscure my rearward vision with enough hanging clothes to outfit the cast of a remake of "King Solomon's Mines".

Make sure I have not forgotten to pack anything small and necessary (medications, phone, hats, etc).

Make sure I have not forgotten to pack anything large and necessary (computers, cameras, fishing equipment, shoes, boots, and/or my brain).

Feed the cat who normally ignores me and has suddenly fallen in love with my ankles.


Things I really ought to do today but probably won't:

Grease the suspension on the Jeep.

Keep smiling. Note to any who might cross my path today: I'm not mad at you, I'm probably running through a mental check list.


Things I will positively do today:

Pack something seemingly necessary, but totally useless.

Pay too much for gasoline.

Forget to pack something I will need, forcing another trip to some foreign Wal-Mart.

Tell all of my family (especially Marilyn) how much I love them and will miss them for the next 3 weeks.

The Kitchen

It's here!

The garage has room for only a handful of loose sand, but the kitchen has arrived.

Marilyn is ecstatic.

She wanted to unpack it all and sit around and admire it, but I'm afraid the admiring part will come after the dealing with idiots part.

Monday (the day of my departure on the Lap of America), Wally's favorite chew toy and a crew of other installers are due to descend on the house, start un-packing, un-crating, and un-installing. They're due to be here through Tuesday. On Thursday, the granite people will be here to template the counter tops, and within a week or so, the entire deal should be done.

I have a feeling that I'll finally be using a substantial portion of the 2 zillion minutes a month I have on my cell phone.

Special thanks to Jon and Missy for volunteering to help with the "Dealing with Idiots" part. I think I will have little to worry about on the home front while I'm wandering around the country. With Bobby, Laura, Sandy, Slade, and Gretchen as backup, Marilyn should have no problems with the kitchen installation. Like I've said before, I'm surrounded by good people.

I guess I can safely remove myself from the ranks of the "Less Fortunate". I'm blessed.

Three Days Left...

...until I start my adventure through America. Here's what Google and I have planned.

I'll leave Monroe sometime Monday morning and head north toward Cleveland. Right now, I plan to take the road less traveled, and head toward the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. From there, I'll head northeast to I-77 and Eastern Ohio, ultimately arriving at St. John Lutheran Cemetery in South Euclid. I plan to visit my grandparent's graves, see the house where I grew up, then head toward Saline, Michigan and a visit with my sister and mom.

It's kind of up in the air from there. About the only things I really want to see on the way west toward Ennis, Montana are Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial. I think I'll abandon the Interstate and take a trip through the badlands as well. I'll have 3 cameras and plan to fill up the hard drive on my laptop with pictures and videos.

From Rapid City, it's an easy day's drive to Ennis, through most of Montana.

By this time, I'll have used up a week of my journey, and will be ready to throw myself on the mercy of Teddy and his cousin for a week. According to Teddy, his cousin knows places to fish that the local guides don't. I'm dreaming of a trout as long as my arm.

Since we'll be only about an hour from West Yellowstone, Teddy and I plan to take a break from the fishing orgy and do a one-day flyby of Yellowstone National Park.

Once I've fished myself sick, I'll point the Jeep southeast toward Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The rock there was a major landmark on the Oregon trail. Then it's on to the obligatory visit to Sidney, Nebraska and the home of Cabela's. Two rest stops later, I'll be in Seward, Nebraska where I went to college and Bobby was born.

Seward is only 4 1/2 hours from Concordia, so that's my next stop. I'll visit with Marilyn's mom, and should be there in time for her birthday.

From there, it's two days on the road to Home where I'll get to see the new kitchen and the sorely missed Marilyn, Wally and Gizmo.

This weekend, I'll be packing the Jeep and running around with the video camera trying to get greetings to grandmothers from grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

You have been warned. Beware of Camera-wielding-ne're-do-wells.

Short Timer's Disease

It's really getting bad.

With only 1 more work day until a 3 week vacation, I've developed a bad case. My heart is just not into working all night and giving my all in the office during the day.

Speaking of the office, we're losing a couple of really good people. After 9 years, our Manager of Network Services is taking what he learned at Acuity Brands, and moving back home to Birmingham. Unfortunately, he's also taking his wife, who's in charge of our Oracle Applications. They're both exceptional people and will be missed.

But back to my Shorttimer's Disease. I'm sure you all know the symptoms. You can't concentrate, your short-term memory goes to pot, and your desire to excel is subordinated to a desire to catch a trout as long as your arm. I'm reasonably certain that I will be overwhelmed by the disease, and have to leave early tomorrow because I'm too well to work.

There is an inverse to this disease, but it's too depressing to think about when you are in the throes of a Shorttimer's attack. It occurs in the few days on either side of the end of a vacation, and can be thought of as the employment analog to a diver's decompression. If your transition from Trout Bum to Database Engineer is too rapid, you develop the mental bends.

Fortunately, one can safely transition from state to the other. Unfortunately, it only takes a few days back in harness to wash all of the vacation from your system. Still, it's a good and necessary thing to put the day to day troubles aside for a while and do something you love. I guess that's why it's called re-creation.

But, right now, the only real thought in my head is "I leave in 5 days!"

The Visitor

We have an over-night visitor today. Sara, our #1 Granddaughter is spending the night with us. She recently returned from a 2 week camp with the Girl Scouts, and is a joy. Marilyn loves to go on excursions to the mall, and Sara is the perfect partner in crime. They spent most of yesterday exploring who-knows-what and had a great time doing it.

Marilyn and Sara are both gardeners, both incurable shoppers, and both a joy to be around.

I'm glad to have them here.

Back to Nature

Lately, nature has been a little unnatural. I spent most of last week trying to adjust to a 12 hour day, splitting my sleep between the responsibility of working in the office during the day and the duty to fix an agency server in the middle of the night.

Last weekend was a return to normalcy. This week has been a return to abnormalcy. I'm back on a half-day day, working on cleaning up some agency servers to prevent any of my (younger and more fit) co-workers from having to do this crud.

My day usually starts around 5:00 AM with a cup of black coffee. I pull myself together, kiss the dog and pat Marilyn on the head, and take off for work when the spirit moves me. Time in the office usually expires around 3:00 PM, and it's home for a nap in the coma-inducing recliner. I don't know why, but the thing can put me to sleep while I'm drinking a cup of coffee.

Dinner, and discussion of the day follows, with various activities to fill the time until around 10:00 PM when I get to start work for my second shift of the day. Usually, I'm done by 1:00 AM, grab about 4-5 hours of sleep, and do the whole thing over again.

I'm really looking forward to this vacation where I can drive for 8 or 10 hours, eat dinner, relax in a motel, sleep for a reasonable time, rise rested, and drive some more. Of course, there will be stops here and there just to keep my sanity, but being on the road is something I have always liked to do.

It will be good to see my Mom, sister, brother-in-law, and niece. I plan a stop to see Mt. Rushmore, and anything else that grabs my attention on the way west. I'm planning to ad-lib the route. It should be fun.

Back on the home front, Marilyn dragged in a huge bag of cabinet hardware last night. The "Knob Quest" is over, and the grail is in the garage near the appliances.

The refrigerator, range, etc. won't be lonely for long. The new cabinets will be here Thursday, and the cabinet guys will start demolishing the old kitchen on Monday.

Good on you, Marilyn. I hope it's everything you want.

6 days and counting.