Unexpected bonus

Making our way to Minnesota, we just planned to drive across Nebraska on I-80. We had been on this road many times in the past, and thought there was nothing more to see. It turned out we were wrong.

I-80 essentially follows much of the route of the early pioneers that left the eastern US and settled the west. The Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Pony Express Trail, and at times the California Trail all wound their way along the corridor that now is home to I-80. Near the town of Scottsbluff Nebraska, we found the Scotts Bluff National Monument. Woodrow Wilson proclaimed on December 12, 1919 that Scottsbluff be designated a National Monument. Its 100^th anniversary is this year, along with that of Grand Canyon National Park.

Scotts Bluff was a vortex for all the trails heading west. The manageable passes combined with the water of the Platt River assured the hordes moving west that they would have some more hospitable experiences. Also, the high rocky features of Scotts Bluff would be essentially a highway sign for the travelers helping them find the right way to their destination.

In all the written journals and diaries of westward pioneers, Scotts Bluff is the second most written of geologic feature and signpost. There is only one geologic feature that is written of more than Scotts Bluff, and that is of Chimney Rock. Being only about 20 miles from Scotts Bluff, we headed to Chimney Rock. We understood that this formation looks nearly identical to how it looked to the early pioneers and settlers. It’s weird to think that we are looking at the same geologic formation that those who settled the west saw.

We caught a bit of a side story while we were here. We have visited many historic sites dedicated to particular people or families that braved the conditions to settle the west. Many of those stories don’t end that well for the heroes. That to would be the case for Rebecca Winters. Rebecca was born January 16, 1799 in New York. Rebecca and her husband Hiram felt the persecution of Mormons in the east and decided to head west with throngs of other Mormons in 1852. 

In their journey they reached the Chimney Rock area of the Mormon Trail. On August 13 1852, she became sick with cholera, which was not at all uncommon along the trail. At the time cholera was fairly common along the trail. They did not know at the time, but it was likely caused by drinking contaminated ground water. Her death on August 15 would have likely gone unnoted as many others except that William Fletcher Reynolds, a family friend, carved her name into an iron wagon wheel rim and marked the site for us to see still today.

Talk to you soon.

Revisiting Cheyenne Wyoming

We really hadn’t been to Cheyenne since before my brother Jerry relocated to Surprise Arizona. Although we had seen it many times when visiting Erry and Enda, it didn’t look like it had changed much. We finally did manage to stay at the Terry Bison Ranch, an RV resort on the southern edge of town. We always saw it when we drove from Denver to Cheyenne, but never managed to stay there. Because we showed up on the opening day of the epic Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo, it was the only place available, and then it was only a site with no sewer, water or electric – but then sewer, water and electric is for rookies. I guess they have more than Bison here.

We decided to splurge and have dinner at Senators Steakhouse at the ranch. Erry had always talked about it being good, and when we got there, they had live entertainment – the band, of course, was country western, but they were actually quite good! I asked our waiter if they could make me a Bombay Sapphire Martini, up, with olives. He assured me they could. This is what I got, whatever it is. The olive was actually a cherry. However, it didn’t kill me, just made me stronger.

We made one excursion south just to try and score a Whispering Giant. Peter Wolf Toth had dedicated the 37-foot-tall Redman to the town of Loveland, and it sat for decades along the shore of Loveland Lake in the middle of town. Nobody seems to know why or how, but it ended up on the Rock Ridge Ranch west of town. Despite web chatter wondering how much longer this carving may be available to see because the owner does not have municipal funds to maintain it, we were able to find in a field on the ranch. We were surprised at how good it looked given the chatter.

My brother, Erry, still has connections in Cheyenne. So, he pulled some strings and got us rodeo tickets on the opening day of Cheyenne Frontier Days, the first PBR (Professional Bull Riders) sanctioned event of the season. We hadn’t been to Cheyenne Frontier Days in over a decade, but everything still all looked pretty much the same.  His connection, Jon with Boot Barn, even went to the effort to monogram my sponsor pass!

Jon also got us Sponsor passes to the Rascal Flats concert that evening. The opening act, Clint Black, was apparently well known as well. You’d have to ask my daughter Karen, as I don’t have a country western bone in my body. The Woman enjoyed the concert, despite the rain that dampened (yuk yuk) things a bit. I have to admit, I enjoyed it quite a bit as well.

Allegedly, Cheyenne Frontier Days is the largest outdoor rodeo in the US – anywhere! We got to see calf roping, bull riding and several other events. My favorite was the bear back bronco riding. As we headed out of town east in the morning, we saw all the cowboys pulling horse trailers who didn’t make the cut on opening night.

Being the Big Daddy of them All, Cheyenne Frontier Days attracts the crowds. We got lucky and found an older couple who lived across the street from the CFD park, and had 6-8 parking spaces in their back yard that they readily rented, and at reasonable prices. We parked there for both the rodeo and the concert. Being such an attraction, we found a Fantasy RV Tour group of 20 some odd coaches that were staying at the Terry Bison Ranch. Had we not done it a few times; we would certainly consider this option to visit.

Talk to you soon.

Our unbelievable luck continues!

We have had truly uncanny luck at times. In both Europe and Scandinavia, we had virtually no rain when all our destinations were known for providing all four seasons in a single day. Once, as we approached a very high overlook over Geiringer Fjord our driver and guide said because it was totally socked in by clouds (apparently the norm) they had decided to skip it and try again on our way back out. At the last minute they talked to another bus driver coming down on their cell phone, made the turn, and miraculously the clouds completely broke over the view point as well as the town and the entire fjord. We stumbled on several National Monuments and Historic Sites yesterday that we didn’t know about. I ordered something on Amazon 5 days ago that Prime assured me would be delivered in 2 days. When they shot me the confirming email, they said it wouldn’t be delivered until the day we leaving Rock Springs. I told the KOA office they would have to refuse the package when it arrived, but as we left the Park, I saw a UPS truck pull into a business. The Woman pulled over and I asked the UPS driver if she happened to have my package in her truck. She was kind enough to check, and bingo!

In Hoorn Netherlands, the Woman and I did tour of the Dutch countryside on an Ebike. We had been talking about looking into an Ebike, but had sort of decided we weren’t too jazzed about the idea. Well, we were wrong! The Netherlands is home to twice as many bikes as people, and today, 7 out of 10 bikes sold are Ebikes. Rather than scary or complicated they were wonderful. You are only provided some assistance in pedaling when you are in fact pedaling – when you coast, no assist is provided so it is easy to stop. You can decide how much assist you want, and if speed is what you are looking for, it has plenty of it.

The Dutch countryside is magical, but you are never alone – always other bikers passing biking from town to town. We started seeing random windmills, they kinds you hold in your imagination. We actually biked through several communities and then stopped at a typical home, where we were entertained with tea and cookies by the owner. We learned about typical life in smaller Dutch towns, a bit about provisions of their retirement, medical and taxation systems, and some insight into why the Dutch may be the happiest people on the planet.

We then visited an actual tulip farm, and learned about the intense live flower industry. Most of the tulips are harvested and distributed in April, but we still were provided with spectacular views of mature fields ready for harvest. It was amazing how distinct the rows were, with most colors of the rainbow being represented. We got to walk through the fields as well as learn how they keep this industry alive through bulb management and proper planting. We also learned about how the varieties of colors are created – it takes about 10 years to produce a new color that can be grown commercially.

It seemed like anywhere we went in the Netherlands, everybody was happy. Maybe that is why they say the Dutch are the happiest people in the world!

Talk to you soon.

Rock Springs Wyoming

We made a number of unexpected but welcome discoveries on our way to Rock Springs. Driving I-80 we saw signs for Fossil Butte National Monument. We assumed we must have been there before since we have sought out all the National Parks and Monuments in the west during our journeys. But calling up my Excel spreadsheet I confirmed we had not. Being only an hour out of our way, we headed that way.

50 million years ago much of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho was covered by huge lakes or seas before tectonic activity forced them up.  Fossil Lake was the smallest of the three, the others being Gosiute and Uinta. Because of this, these regions high in the hills boast some of the most prodigious fossil beds anywhere in the US. We’ve been to all the other western fossil bed monuments, but this visit was particularly interesting. The fossils on display were outstanding. Also, on the deck overlooking the lake bed at the Visitor Center, a 200-million-year timeline chart put all the parks we have visited over the years into chronological time frame for us – so cool!

Next we visited the Fort Bridger Trading Post. The city of Fort Bridger lies at a vortex. Most of the trails that brought settlers to the west went through here – the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, the Pony Express trail, the Mormon Trail – all went through what is now Fort Bridger. To serve that need, mountain man and trapper Jim Bridger opened a trading post there in 1842 to supply the folk passing through, calling it Fort Bridger.

The US Army established a fort there in the next decade to maintain the security of those traveling the many trails. We walked the parade grounds of Fort Bridger, visited the few remaining buildings that hadn’t been looted, and really enjoyed the convergence of the westward migration, the commerce of Jim Bridger, and the US Army attempt to protect the constant move west of the American people.

But it didn’t end there. In 1912, Carl Fisher (later head of Fisher Body of General Motors) conceived of a nation-wide paved highway for the emerging horseless carriage market. In 1913, the construction from Times Square NY to Lincoln Park in San Francisco began. Of course, it went through Fort Bridger. When the Army abandoned the fort, it sold off the land and buildings. The Roth family bought much of it. When the Lincoln highway came through, they took the wood from the barracks and built what came to be known as the Black and Orange Cabins for tourists on the Lincoln Highway. The cabins, while small, did include a small covered garage for the tourist’s motor car.

Our final discovery was Exploration Island National Historic Site. On a small island on the Green River in Wyoming, John Wesley Powell launched his epic explorations of the Green River and Colorado River in both 1869 and 1871. Many notable features in Nevada are named for JW Powell, including Lake Powell on the Colorado River. Lewis and Clark are said to have visited this island as well. Having hiked the 12-mile round trip to see the confluence of the Green and Colorado rivers, this site meant a great deal to us (except for the mosquitos which sent the Woman back to the Equinox for protection).

We took in one more gem. 20 miles outside Rock Springs on BLM land is the White Mountain petroglyph site. Being a BLM site, there are no services, and the drives are long and unpleasant. But, since we lover petroglyphs, we ventured out. These may be the least impressive petroglyphs we’ve seen, but any petroglyphs are worth the effort. While they don’t know for sure, they date these from 200 to 1,000 years old. They believe that these are art left by the Plains and Great Basin Indians. Despite the small scale of the site, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit!

Talk to you soon.

What do Salt Lake City and the Netherlands have in common?

Other than salt water, pretty much nothing. Over our years in the SW we’ve explored as much of Salt Lake as possible, but somehow, we missed the Whispering Giant there. Chief Wasatch is in Murray City Park. Apparently when some locals visited Valdez Alaska and saw the Whispering Giant there (we saw it last summer), they contacted the sculptor, Peter Wolf Toth, and asked him to carve one for them, which he readily agreed to. This is our 15^th discovery in just the few years we have been aware of them.

Since I wasn’t able to blog while we were in Europe, I will hit some of the highlights as we wander north. Our trip into Amsterdam for the cruise was quite eventful. American Airlines had issues with our plane while at the jetway, and the 3 hours we had allowed for transfer in Dallas soon slipped away to where we were sure to miss out Dallas/Amsterdam connection. American couldn’t get all 6 of us on the same connections, so they booked us all into JFK, then the kids were on a direct flight to Amsterdam on KLM, while the Woman and I flew to Paris and then Amsterdam. When the kids went to board the flight American put them on, they were denied boarding, saying the flight was oversold. Actually, there was room in business class, but KLM wouldn’t seat them there, even though American had allegedly reserved them seats. Caching – first extra expense – buy 4 new business class tickets!4

The Woman and I actually were seated on our flights – well, almost. The connection in Paris took so long that we got to the gate for the flight to Amsterdam, and they had already closed the jetway door. There were actually 6 of us who arrived at the gate at almost the same time, and the two other couples began pleading with the gate attendants since the plane was still connected to the jetway. As I expected, the attendants said once the door was closed, they could not reopen it, which I knew to be true. Then I saw something I never thought I would see in my life – the attendants called the captain on the phone, and he instructed them to let the 6 of us board – unbelievable!

As you would expect, our luggage was not in Amsterdam when we arrived. After an arduous attempt to work with the very uncooperative American Airlines, the Woman’s bag finally arrived 3 days into our cruise – mine didn’t arrive until 5 days into our cruise. Caching – next extra expense – some new clothes and toiletries – thank goodness we had packed all our meds in our carry-on bag.

But despite the ordeal, Amsterdam was lovely. The people were wonderful, and the canals were everywhere. One of the most favorite places to live in Amsterdam is in a boat moored in the canal. They even run full power, water and sewer to these floating homes. Apparently, these are some of the most expensive real estate addresses in the city!

We also figured out the drug culture in Amsterdam. While drugs are legal (most of the recreational ones that is), apparently, they still don’t want it in their faces all the time. So, you just have to learn the code. If you see a business that is called a café, or a cafeteria or a grill or something like that, you can rest assured that it is a place to get a cup of coffee and maybe something to eat. If you see the words “Coffee Shop” on the window or the sign, that is where you go to get marijuana. Go figure!

Talk to you soon.

We're back!

After 3 months in Europe, we only allocated enough time in July in Vegas to get our doctors and dentists appointments in. Literally the same day I had my last appointment with my cardiologist, we are heading north. We did, however, pay one last visit to Karen and Albert’s old house, now empty with their move to Seattle. I have to admit it looked eerie empty, as all our memories are with it full of their stuff.

We headed to Ely, a shortish drive since we knew we couldn’t leave until noonish due to my doc appointment. What we didn’t know was that all our batteries would be dead – all 6 of them – two to start the engine, and 4 to run the house. Fortunately, a mobile tech was able to come out while I was at my appointment and get the replacement started. We weren’t able to leave until after 2 when all was done, but we were glad just to be able to get to Ely for the first of our dozens of RV park reservations. Having done Ely a few times before, we had nothing in mind to see. Not getting any over the air channels, however, we did end up at Hotel Nevada Casino in their Sports Book in order to watch Serena get pummeled by Halep in the Women’s Wimbledon final.

Our next stop was Wells Nevada. We were there 10 years ago, and they had just fenced off the entire downtown due to damage from a recent earthquake. Sadly, 10 years later, all the damaged buildings are still vacant. We did manage to find Angel Lake recreation are in the Humboldt National Forest just outside Wells. Having not discovered it 10 years ago, it was pleasant to visit, and see the snow-capped peaks even in mid-July – nice!

We ventured out to Metropolis. In 1910, a developer launched a 40,000-acre master planned farming community in northeast Nevada expected to be the home to nearly 8,000 peoplee. In anticipation of the arrivals, built concrete sidewalks, the 3 story Lincoln School (the metal ladder from the playground slide set in concrete still sits outside the arched doorway), and a luxury hotel, the largest in the nation between San Francisco and Salt Lake City. After the town grew to a population of 700, a rail spur was run to Metropolis in 1912.

The developer hired a civil engineering firm out of Salt Lake to build a dam on Bishop Creek in order to supply water to the growing town. We sought out the remains, still present, but worn with the years. The developer, however, failed to secure any water rights, and the town of Lovelock Nevada which relied on water from Bishops Creek, successfully sued the Metropolis developer, resulting in no water for the town. By 1920, the population of Metropolis had dropped to 200, the last business closing in 1925. In 1942, the post office was eventually closed.

Heading to Bishop Creek to see the dam ruins, we learned that at the same time that the dam was built, hot springs in the area drew the construction of a retention basin, which still serves its original purpose today. While the waters were not particularly hot – maybe 100 degrees if that – you could still use the springs and the original work was obvious. While we were there, a couple of 4WD pickups showed up, full of coolers and goodies, apparently planning to be there awhile.

Sadly, the hard bumping due to the unpaved roads we had to navigate to get to these spots took its toll. At one point, a loud snap made me realize my bike rack had failed. After heading behind the Equinox to check things out, I realized that while the Woman’s bike was OK, mine was not. Given its age and condition, I had no intention of spending the money to replace the entire front wheel system. So, it became one of the many relics of Metropolis.

Talk to you soon.