To · Speak · of · Many · Things · ...

GCT Day 9: This morning we decided to head toward home. We'd planned to go northwest and visit the national parks in Utah, but scenic vistas, plateaus, deserts, cliffs, canyons, etc were losing their appeal. Utah would wait. We drove east and north toward the Monument Valley and Colorado.

The Grand Canyon is vast, picturesque, and colorful beyond description. It is a dynamic landscape that varies with the time of day, the cloud cover, and the interplay of shadows on the canyon walls. It is also an international place, with many visitors from every part of the world. Many, many visitors; the polished walkways testify to that. I would like to return one day, to spend some time absorbing the vistas, and to walk some of the trails.

Kathy would add that the Grand Canyon is a dangerous place. Her fear of heights kept her (and sometimes me) away from the edge and the trails. At one of the gift shops, she discovered a book about deaths in the park, Over the Edge. Later, at the Kiabab Plateau ranger station, she learned that the death count for this year was five. One fell as his picture was taken. I wonder if that photo is on the Internet. Two were a murder-suicide and another person drove his car over the edge. The ranger said the car was still in the canyon, painted the same color as the rock to lessen the danger of someone falling in while looking at it. Later, when fewer people are around and they have a crane or helicopter in the area, they'll pull it out

.

From the Jacob Lake Inn, the road took us to Page, UT and Lake Powell. In Page, I snapped a photograph of a huge houseboat that seemed out of place considering all the miles of desert we'd driven through. In addition to recreation, Lake Powell likely provides the cooling water for the electric generation plant we saw along the road. The plant is powered by Navajo Nation coal mined near Kayenta, AZ and delivered to the plant by an electric train. In this seemingly vacant land, I was curious who used the electricity. The Navajo Nation? Flagstaff? Surely, Las Vegas is too far away? In our travels thus far, I was disappointed at the lack of solar installations. With all the sunshine in AZ, one would expect solar panels to be as ubiquitous as tv antennas and satellite dishes or ... Mexican restaurants.

After the sandstone buttes and mesas of Monument Valley, we passed through a corner of Utah and saw more desert and more canyons. We turned at Mexican Hat, UT to follow the San Juan river to Colorado and the town of Cortez where we spent the night.

GCT Day 10: I had planned to go up to Rico, CO to visit my brother. He and his wife volunteer each summer at a National Forest ranger station near there. But we were unable to contact them and I wasn't sure the station was still open. Winter comes early at those altitudes. We learned later that they were traveling too, after making a tour of the Utah National Parks, they were about a half a day ahead of us on their way to Oklahoma.

We left Cortez, went through Durango, crossed the Continental Divide at Wolf Creek Pass, and ate lunch in South Park. From there, it was a quick downhill drive to Trinidad. Hey, when we start home, it's like releasing a rubber band! Besides, we'd already seen this part of Colorado. We stopped near Del Norte at an Elk farm to buy jerky for a young nephew. It's funny, after we purchased the package of elk jerky, one of the farmhands said they only had one elk, a bull. The farm had been quarantined for eleven years after buying a diseased elk from another farm. The place was now a processing and shipping facility for other elk raisers.

We spent the night in Trinidad. We ate dinner at a good Chinese restaurant, Wonderful House. It was a welcome change from our usual diet of Mexican Food.

On day 9 of our trip, I discovered I left my laptop power cord behind at the Jacob Lake Inn. This ended my day to day reporting. We returned home, caught up with life and yard, finally received the power cord in the mail, and took another trip.

I have time now to to start bloging again, and rather than skipping to the present, I plan to seek closure by continuing our trip report.

GCT Day 7: Today, we traveled to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, crossing the Colorado River on the Navajo Bridge near Marble Canyon and historic Lee's Ferry. Here, at end of Glenn Canyon and the start of the Grand Canyon, the roadway is only 470 feet above the water.

The sunny weather we enjoyed thus far turned toward storms and rain. We were caught in several furious downpours before reaching the Kiabab Plateau. On top of the plateau, we turned south at the Jacob Lake Inn and drove down through a pleasant series of forest-ringed meadows to the North Rim vantage point and lodge. The lodge overlooks a side canyon called Bright Angel. Bright Angel Canyon erodes a fault line that cuts transversely across the Grand Canyon.

The North Rim Lodge shares the vantage point with a number of cabins. We really liked the cabins and decided next time we would get reservations far enough in advance to stay there.

The North Rim is higher than the south one, is cooler, and is heavily forested because it gets more than twice the rainfall.

It was overcast when we got there, cold, windy, with an intermittent fine, misty rain so we looked, took a few pictures, and left for our lodging back at the Jacob Lake Inn. The Grand Canyon is a fantastic place, is huge, and defies description, but after several days of seeing it, we were jaded.

GCT Day 8: A day of rest. We explored the area around the Jacob Lake Inn by car and by foot. Jacob Lake is a small limestone sinkhole a few miles south of the Inn. We saw several other sinkholes along the road to the North Rim. Small and insignificant today, but they were probably important sources of water in the early days.

The Kiabab Plateau is surrounded by deserts and canyons, isolating it and its creatures from the rest of the world. Some of the creatures have evolved unique sub-species. In our exploring, we saw some small animals with black furred bodies and white tails cavorting beneath the trees, Skunks, we decided, and dared each other to get close enough for pictures. Then one started climbing a tree like a squirrel. The others quickly chased after it. That was our first introduction to the black and white Kiabab squirrel. We saw others that day, but none allowed us to get close enough for pictures.

We ran across a human traveler in the woods and took pictures of his three mules. I asked him where he was from, and he said "I live out." Nothing more, as if that explained things. He seemed anxious to get south of the Grand Canyon before cold weather. He was irritated with park rules about such things as campground limits and reservations. Apparently, he'd experienced some trouble with the park rangers in the Canyon the year before and was trying to follow rules this year.

The Inn is a generational enterprise that has grown with its owners over the years. There is a restaurant, a bakery, a number of small cabins, and a couple of multi-room units, all of typical quality for a historic remote tourist location. I can recommend the cookies, baked fresh each day, especially the chocolate parfait ones, but not much else, except the locale. Their advertized wifi proved to be non-existent.

We took shuttle buses today to see the parts of the south rim we hadn't seen yet. Afterward we drove down to Tusayan, a small tourist town just south of the Grand Canyon park. We watched a nice film on the Canyon at the National Geographic IMAX theatre. We stay another night here at Cameron, AR. Tomorrow we visit the north rim and stay the next two nights at the Jacob Lake Inn.

Road sign in the park:

Pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7ony/sets/72157622219430003/ I've re-ordered the set so the latest ones are in front.

Wireless was intermittent yesterday evening, so now I cover two days.

Day 4: Gallup is a major craft outlet for the Pueblo Indians. We spent several morning hours shopping. I bought a chunk of blue turquoise. Years ago I carved a small turquoise frog, and I want to try carving a larger something. Kathy bought some necklaces for her kids. We left Gallup about 11 am. Next on the agenda was the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert National Park which took us the rest of the day. The park has some startling and beautiful vistas, well worth the price and time. We spent the night in Winslow, AR, a well-known Route 66 town. It's also a railroad town. The tracks run parallel with the 'Mother Road.' I counted at least three during the night. Almost non-existent wireless.

Day 5: We were up early and on our way to the Grand Canyon National Park. On the way, we stopped to visit the largest meteorite crater in the US. It's a big hole. Ate lunch in Flagstaff and took the scenic route north to the park. Arrived there about 2pm. The Canyon is amazing, incredible, and too large to comprehend. The crowds were huge and from everywhere in the world. And I thought this was the off season! We're spending the night in Cameron, a town on the nearby Navajo land. There are many roadside craft stands between the park and the motel. We stopped at one. I saw my first mountain lion crossing sign today. I'll try to get a picture of it tomorrow when we return to the park.

Our pictures are now in an ordered set on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7ony/sets/72157622219430003/

We left the motel in Tucumcari after I had a spirited discussion with the manager about health care plans and GWB. I wanted to tell the guy he listens to too much talk radio, but didn't. Most of his opinions echoed those of big mouth Rush L.

We saw more mountains, cacti, mesquite, and cedar, then stopped at Kline's Corner for awhile. Lunch was eaten at Padilla's in Albuquerque. Good food. Kathy chose it based on an Internet recommendation. We spent most of the day on the road, stopping at the Laguna Pueblo and the Sky City Casino for a few pictures and for Kathy to lose a few dollars at the latter. We arrived at Gallup about 5pm local time and shopped at an Indian jewelry store where Kathy bought a silver and turquoise pendant for a souvenir. We'll hit a few more shops tomorrow before heading to the Petrified Forest National Park in AZ.

The photo is the view from behind the Sky City Casino. These Indian Casinos really clutter up the scenery. The money derived from them wasn't evident at the Laguna Pueblo.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I actually had a talking companion after we left Kline's Corner. lo5an loaned us the new Alan Dean Foster book Flinx Transcendent, and Kathy read it most of yesterday. She finished it this morning; my turn starts tonight.

Day 1: We left town about 4pm and drove to Norman to spend the night and have dinner with lo5an and A.

Day 2: Left Norman about 10am, ate lunch in Clinton, stopped twice in TX, once at a rest stop

and once to refuel. We drove through my favorite country, beautiful eye-candy (at least for me) and saw motorcycles touring old 66 at various places. Since I grew up using Highway 66, I suppose I'm immune to its charm. I'd rather drive on Highway 40. Continuing west beyond Amarillo, we went through grasslands then rimrock country with cacti, mesquite brush and large wind turbines. The highlight of the TX drive was passing a sewage pump truck painted bright metalic magenta. We stopped at a rest stop on the NM border, proceeded through dark mesa vistas, saw more wind turbines and finally mountains. Well, one. Tucumcari Mountain is near its namesake town where we're spending the night. We're staying at the Safari Motel on Route 66. Yesterday we averaged 49 mpg; today with a headwind, 44 mpg. It looked like rain in the evening, but I doubt whether any hit the ground.

Some murals in downtown Tucumcari.
Some shiny for lo5an

Old half-dead elm with limbs askew,
Survivor of an ancient crew,
Now reigns over a field of grass,
Stoic witness of time to pass.

Scarred deep within the old tree bark,
A heart and names cut on a lark,
By young lovers who lingered there,
To testify their love and care.

The gnarled runes carved for all to see,
Out-lived the love twixt you and me.
An old promise of love not kept,
A sad truth we must now accept.

Come on a walk with me, my dear,
We'll reminisce that yesteryear.
And there again where we once stood,
We'll trace the letters in the wood.

Pictures of the items mentioned in my last post: two photos of the cannon and two of the 'store.' Click pictures to enlarge. Geronimo follows, the signature is on the back (not shown).

I've been scanning old family pictures and decided to post some of me at 1.5% and 33% of my present age. The last one was an extra of my first US passport picture. I must have sent it to my parents years ago.

My brother-in-law is an absolute pack rat. Kathy has the same tendency, except she is more selective. I think it's a gene thing. Their grandmother had a houseful of 'whatnots,' doodads,' knickknacks,' clocks, and ceramics. Kathy has at least 100 cookie jars and probably as many antique glassware pieces. All our closets and cabinets are stuffed to overflowing with them.

Back to my brother-in-law. He has several places in the pasture where he stores his 'bargains,' his items bought cheap or freely given that he might need someday. From time to time, when I have a need, I 'shop' his store. This time I was looking for a piece of heavy iron screen, something to use as a garden table top for Kathy. There amongst the rusty oilfield pipe, large diameter water pipe, old high line poles, old boat motors, pickups, farm equipment, and other odds and ends, I found a cannon. An old cannon, antique or replica, I don't which, but definitely old and well-rusted. Small, a muzzle-loader, about three feet long, it looked like it would shoot a 2-inch ball. I was amazed, and maybe a little envious. Although, what would I do with an old cannon?

I'll take my camera along next time and get a photo to post.

A couple of months ago, my brother-in-law brought by a plastic sack of old photographs. Twenty or thirty years ago he'd found them in an old desk he'd bought at an estate auction. He set the pictures aside, forgotten and covered up over the years. He'd found them again and thought we would like to see them. They were early photographs of Oklahoma, some original, others obvious copies. One of the originals was an autographed picture of Geronimo. I was envious that time too.

Each year at this time, Kathy and I fuss about our overgrown yard. She likes neatly mowed grass whereas I prefer the wild meadow look with scattered bunch grasses going to seed, clover flowers, and miscellaneous weeds. Okay, okay, so maybe I'm a tad lazy in the spring and early summer.

I'd just finished posting that last entry about Ms Teng when Kathy told me she smelled smoke. A cow pasture is all that separates us from a busy highway, and we have a constant worry about a carelessly tossed cigarette butt. I flipped on the back porch light and stepped outside. No fire in sight, but I did happen to notice a copperhead snake slithering away from me and sliding off the porch. It wasn't a large snake; copperheads tend toward short and thick, but still . . .

The yard gets mowed tomorrow!

Kathy decided to feed birds this year, goldfinches in particular. We know they're around, but we rarely see them. The feeder provides an incentive for visiting our yard. Finches are suckers for thistle seed; that's the kind of feeder we have. The feeder is designed strictly for finch beaks and discourages other less desirable and more aggressive birds that might prevent the finches from feeding. The red-headed house finches were the first to visit. Then we started seeing the gold ones, usually early in the morning. This weekend we had a surprise non-finch visitor, a indigo bunting. Around here, that bird is elusive. One might see a brilliant flash of blue in the brush along the road or between trees in wooded areas, but one rarely views the bird up close. The blue is such a pretty hue; it's hard to believe it's not a true blue. The blue appearance is the result of sunlight diffracting through the black feathers of the bird, a faux blue. As always, a larger view of the picture can be seen by clicking on it and then selecting the 'all sizes' option.

I think I mentioned this last summer. Not sure. If so, here it is again. We have three rows of pine trees that we planted as seedlings several decades ago. Almost from the gitgo, they've been infested with pine tip moths (I blame a nearby and now defunct Christmas tree farm). The moths lay eggs in the new growth each year and the larvae eat their way out. While this doesn't kill the tree, it destroys the new growth and makes the trees ugly and stunted.  I should spray several times each summer with some really bad systemic stuff to control the infestation. I don't like to spray, so sometimes I don't and sometimes I procrastinate until after the damage is done. The trees are large enough now that the spray doesn't reach the top. The process is a big pain in the butt.  

Several years ago, I had a great idea (IMO). Since my problem is a moth, and we know moths are attracted to lights, maybe they could be controlled with bug zappers. I wanted to give it a try, but the pines are far enough from the house that providing electrical power for the bug zappers would be a hassle. Last summer I saw an advertisement for solar-powered bug zappers. I ordered four. I didn't received them last summer; they were back-ordered. Six months later, in the middle of the winter, weeks after I'd given up ever receiving them and had forgotten about them, they arrived.

I 've installed them. They look like normal solar-powered garden lights except around the light is a coil of wire. The light, an led, is blue, biased toward the ultra-violet, I suppose. The zappers appear to be working. I watch from a distance, and every so often, the blue light flickers and dims like the proverbial light at an execution.
Edit 25may2009 to add picture:

22. That's how many consecutive days of rain we've had. Not continuous, of course, but occurring sometime during the day. It reminded me of when I lived in Houston. According to our local tv weatherman, 22 is a state record. Fortunately, we've moved on and now the sun is shining more than not. I've been busy mowing. Also fortunately, our tomatoes survived the wet.

Oklahoma has also had an unusual number of tornadoes this year. Last week we twice participated in that Oklahoma pastime of watching the storm fronts on tv as they roar across the state. Both times, the storm bypassed us to wreak havoc in Arkansas and Missouri. I guess we're living right.

Last Friday we took advantage of a day of sunshine and visited two state parks: Natural Falls SP and Spavinaw SP.

We had so much fun that we returned to Spavinaw the next day with Kathy's Mother, sister, and the kid. Although the day was overcast and not as warm as Friday, we had fun playing in the water.

While reading news from the Internet this morning, I happened on an article discussing a new hybrid automobile company in Loveland, CO. A Google search pointed me to the website for Lightning Hybrids. The company uses hydraulic technology instead of electric. I had never thought about that approach. It's now being tested in trucks for regenerative braking. Hydraulic motors have been around for years in farm equipment. I have a lawnmower that uses one.

Another Google search pointed me to these web sites:
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/hydraulic-hybrid.htm
http://www.newtechspy.com/articles06/hydraulichybrid.html
http://www.hybridcars.com/related-technologies/hydraulic-hybrids.html
http://www.hybra-drive.com/NewsITReport.htm

Lightning Hybrids uses a bio-diesel engine to power its car. That's a good choice for a hybrid because a diesel running at constant speed is an efficient power producer. You don't see more diesels in conventional cars because gasoline engines have better performance at low speeds. That better performance isn't necessary in a hybrid car because you use the high-torque electric, or in this case the hydraulic, motor at the low speeds.

Even though Lightning Hybrids' 100 hp engine is capable of deactivating unneeded cylinders, it still seems a bit large and heavy at 100 pounds. My Prius' gasoline engine has a 70 horsepower rating, and I feel it has plenty of power. The 2010 Prius model sports a 98 hp engine. In my Prius, the gasoline engine and the electric motor work together to produce a net horsepower of 110, the 2010 model combination produces 134 hp.

I've read that only about 40 hp is really necessary for most cars at 70 mph, so the excess must be a macho thing.

Electric or Hydraulic? Which is more efficient in delivering the fuel energy to the wheels? Which provides better regenerative power storage: batteries or accumulators?

The accumulators are sure to win the green contest. They're just a high-pressure cylinder with an inner spool separating the oil from a compressible noncombustible gas, maybe something as cheap and available as nitrogen.

I want to learn more about hydraulic hybrids.

One hundred years ago, my great-grandfather Martain Haze Duke owned and operated a grocery store in Chickasha, OK. I have several of the account books for his store. I found the following loose note in one of them. The ink is faded in places, but still legible:
"Mr duke i want 25 cts
Worth of arsh Potatoes
and a bar of barks Soap
just send a part of the
Potatoes and the Soap
for the Boy Cant Carry
them all and i Will
Send for the rest
Lee"

Edit:I decided to scan and load several pages from the ledger which covers the end of 1907, 1908, and the start of 1909. I found only a Lee surname.

To enlarge, click picture, then select 'all sizes.'

My wife bought this book for me. It's from my reading list which consists of any book from the eight feet of bookcases that line the west hallway wall of the town library. Used paperbacks sell for 50 cents, hardbacks, a dollar. She knew I have a weakness for good personal travel books.

The book is well-written, an enjoyable and humorous read once you get past the stereotypical put-down of rural southern life. It is a history and a description of  the Appalachian Trail as well as a general social commentary and a first-person account of walking 870 miles of the 2100 mile AT. Over one summer, sometimes solo, sometimes with a companion, Bryson hiked bits and pieces of the trail. The largest contiguous piece was at the southern end where he and his friend Stephen Katz walked from the beginning in Georgia through the Smokey Mountains to near Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

His opinion of the Gatlinburg area, you have to include Pigeon Forge, Dolly Parton's extravaganza, agrees with mine. On our visit to the Smokey Mountain National Park, Kathy and I passed through the area without stopping, preferring instead to use the sleepy little town of Townsend as our base. I enjoyed visiting the park although I can still recall, with some clarity, a terrifying experience involving wind, rain, hail, and lightning on a mountain-side while hiking a trail near Cades Cove.

That was twenty years ago; I suspect Townsend is no longer sleepy ... or little.

So now the Democrats in Congress want to do punitive taxation. Give me a break. Why don't they just leave Obama and his merry band of experts alone to do what's necessary. Obama's guys have enough on their plates without having to worry about a bunch of numbskull back-seat drivers using 'cover their butts' hindsight. Congress had its chance and failed when they passed the bailout legislation. Let the experts take care of the problem.

This is the time to inspire and build confidence, not scare the crap out of everyone with the idea of punitive taxation. I doubt it's constitutional, anyway.