Traveled by many, remembered by few

Today I drove from Pueblo to Ogden, Utah. Today it's the green line on the Google Earth map in the last post.

I started out getting to Colorado Springs and Pike's Peak. I was disappointed with Pike's. I guess I had expected it to be standing out amongst a horde of mountains. You can't really tell how tall it is when it's almost alone, rising out of the plains. (I took this picture later, from another vantage point.) The disappointment was similar to that of finding the Alamo in the middle of downtown San Antonio. Call me weird. Anyway, I was wrong. I took my disappointment back when I could still see it in the distance when I was on the other side of Denver. That's a long way.

I didn't stop at the Air Force Academy. I had the feeling that it wouldn't be a campus that was visitor friendly. I may be wrong. I didn't have time to find out. You can see the crazy signature A-frame cafeteria buidling in the middle of the picture.

Here's the Front Range north of Denver. They're right there up close, really! Am I alone in the old misperception that Denver's in the middle of skying mounts? I actually knew that it was at the base of the Rockies, but it seems easy to be misled into thinking otherwise. Perhaps it's that whole mile-high thing. Maybe I just assume too much.

Further north (this is looking East) there is little vegetation. Just a bunch of brown rolling hills. I saw a lot of brown today.

I jumped into Wyoming! I had lunch at this great restaurant in Cheyenne. It was called Poor Richard's and I ate a Tenderloin Philly Steak Sandwich. My tongue tried to beat the gums out of my mouth. Rachel Ray's eyes would've rolled back, but she would've had to find a good deal for dinner later. Here I am at the Wyoming State Capitol building.

There were a lot of different and interesting rock types and formations along the road in Wyoming. It looked like God had tore things up pretty good in this area.

There were some pretty, scenic passes.

I passed a massive wind turbine farm. You wouldn't believe how many didn't fit in the picture. there was another one near the Utah border. I wonder how much of their power comes from the wind? It's very, very windy here. A marker at a roadside stop not far from here said that the wind quite often gets up to 70mph, especially during the winter.

There was really a lot of snow, everywhere. The day was in the high 60's and it wasn't going anywhere fast. Hard to imagine what this place looks like in Winter. I'd like to know what these things are. Across the state there were perpetually these propped up pallet contraptions. They were much larger and sturdier than that, of course. Could they be keeping the snow??? There was always unmelted snow behind them...

Here's a picnic table in that roadside park. I think it's strange that a picnic table would be so dang sheltered! There might as well be a door. I guess they weren't joking around about the high winds. This reminds me that I meant to post yesterday about panhandle rest areas in Texas. They're all hopped up fancy tornado shelters. It seemed kind of random to me.

If New Mexico was the "Land of the Trailer House," (and it is) then Wyoming is equally "The Scruffy State." Is that a first class conditional? Class needs to start up again. I liked Wyoming, once. I don't think that I could tolerate it again. The majority of the pretty passes and landscape was quickly used up in the southeast part of the state. This place is desolate. If I come back, I'll opt to be airlifted to Jackson Hole or Jellystone, Boo Boo.

Yeah, here we are on an obscenely curvy part of the highway. It's amazing that there are shacky settlements in places, anywhere. I'm kind of amazed looking back at it that it was fun driving today...but it was. :O)

There were two Continental Divide places, this being the second. I wonder how that's legal? What does that make the area in between the divisions? I think I may have a missing part of my day in there.

Here's a pretty formation that was more common in the midwestern part of the state. I don't know if you can see the stratification. This is a clean color for a state. It doesn't show dirt.

Here was an unexpected treat. A tunnel! Into pretty rock! I wonder why the decided to do this here, when they had blown to hell most of the other rock that was in the way.

The inside wasn't as cool. It was too crampy. Actually, it was fun. The part that wasn't cool was me trying to fiddle with my camera while driving 75 (legally) through a mountain with no shoulders.

current music: John Denver: Sweet Surrender

Imunna jump in a crater

Today I drove from Wichita Falls to Pueblo, Colorado. Obviously, it's the orange line on the Google Earth map in the last post.

I took a picture of my clean car before I left. I got on the road at 1:45, which isn't too bad. I had to have one last lunch with Tina and Laura before I could leave. I guess I missed a good rainy day at home.















I stocked up good for the trip. Yum! (Fear not for me--most of it will make it back to WF.)















It rained all the way from betwen Electra and Vernon to right after Amarillo. The panhandle towns are stinky. The smell waffled between urinal cakes and mercaptan. Here's to fertilizer and oil fields! This picture is of the real hilly area north of Amarillo. I don't know how to take a photo that accurately conveys the degree of hillyness that there was. There was also excessive yellow, which makes me wonder why they named the town Amarillo. It was pretty.















This is Dumas. I think I might have stayed at this hotel before...















The first glimpse of mountain is in this picture. It's directly at the end of the road. It looked large, very unlike it does in this picture...if you can even see it! The city is Texline, just on the clean side of the New Mexico border. The terrain had resumed its flatness quickly after Amarillo.















New Mexico's license plates say "Land of Enchantment," but it's really the land of the trailer house. At that, not even double-wides. Here is Clayton, NM, about 10 miles into the state. The mountain, which is more visible in the photo (but still remarkable how it doesn't show to scale!) is Rabbit Ear Mountain. Clayton's elevation is 5053. Elevations are posted on city limits signs in New Mexico. I'm wondering now why it's a BFD that Denver's a mile high? Pretentious Coloradoans! Here I am, barely out of Texas, and I'm nearly that high already. I suppose it is catchier than "Queen City of the Plains" and "Capital of the Rocky Mountain Empire." In case you were wondering, Wichita Falls is at 954 feet.















Here's Sierra Grande. We're getting to the bigger mountains now. This one's tall enough at 8720 feet for water vapor to condense into clouds as they pass over the peak. It's a shield volcano, and it and Capulin are the first two volcanos on my trip! I don't know if Mount St. Helens will be able to compare.















Capulin Mountain is a cinder cone right across from Sierra Grande and you have to go around the base of Grande before you can see it. I barely made it there before twilight. I'm glad this was the first day of DST, or I would have missed it! I like Capulin. It's not overly big at 8182 feet, but looks obviously like a traditional volcano.
















I was too tardy to get any photos of the most beautiful part of the day (second to lunch, that is). As I approached Raton, twilight was nearly done and there was still a faint orange glow over the Rockies, while the city's lights twinkled beneath. The outline of the purple mountain tops against the orange sky for the majority of the horizon was...indescribable. You know how I stare and am fascinated at the sky and stars, right? Mountains, and especially volcanoes, are a very close second. I guess I was enchanted.

current music: B-52's: Lava

Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?

Tomorrow right after church I'm taking a Spring Break vacation. Road Trip! The goal is to drive up to Washington State and drive the road that goes between Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier. Roughly the route:




















More later.

current music: The Band: The Weight

You're gonna eat lightnin' and you're gonna crap thunder!

I saw Rocky Balboa last night. It was a good movie. More than anything, it verifies what I already knew. The 80's kick this sorry decade's ass! Does anyone have a copy of "First Blood?"

I guess it remains a constant that the Mavs still come up short.

current music: Journey: Who's Crying Now

Keep your memories in your shoes

The weather's finally cold enough for me! Not really, but it's icy for a day or two, at least. I wouldn't be truly happy unless it iced and snowed so bad that I couldn't leave the house. Then again, if that happened I wouldn't be able to have company. I had a fire. Tooter's not in this picture, but she's taken to sitting on this ottoman in front of the fire. No doubt, the warmest place in the house.


And I made chicken and dumplings. I hammed it up for the camera, not realizing that I had taken my sweatshirt off. Trashy. This was Paula Deen's recipe. I'm messing with water and flour. This is the only recipe of hers that doesn't call for a stick of butter.

Laura helped me tear up the dumplings and put them in the soup. I think part of the fun of making food is eating half of it on the way.

I'm hoping that next time, she brings a new dumpling recipe for us to make. These weren't doughy enough. It was more like chicken soup with large noodles, aldente. The taste was good enough, but it wasn't the pleasing cold weather effect that I had aimed for. Couldn't have had better company, however. That's a million dollar smile, no?


current music: R.E.M.: Good Advices

Can I be unhappy? Listen and agree...

Between truck commercials, the Buckeyes tried for the football national championship Monday night. It didn't play out the way we wanted. There's been a rash of that lately with our favorite football teams. At least it wasn't for lack of effort on our part @ Rathgeber.

Pre-game: There was an imminent "i" dotting on the big screen.

It made for a good photo op:


Hopefully, this was the last of the holiday "I'm a turkey, so I stuffed myself" party season. In the foreground are Paula Deen's pecan-stuffed, bacon-wrapped dates. Yeah, they're good. We also had Brian's cheese dip and Allen's guacamole, then pizza. At least some of us had pizza. Then Bobbie's blackberry cheesecake. And a cookie from Carson. And more guacamole.

All that, plus the general cruddiness of disappointment might make a fitful night of sleep. Nah. I'll dream about something good. :O)

current music: 10,000 Maniacs: The Lion's Share

Meowy Christmas

I laid out my tree lights and tested them last night. I removed all the pesky blinkers, for once. Tooter stepped out and did the Meow Mix commercial. She's crazy like that. I screwed around with my camera and the lights. Not trying to be artsy, just messing around.






I remember in childhood how it seemed like it was a big deal whether the lights were going to work from year to year. Going through, painstakingly, light by light to find out which light was burned out. Why wouldn't they work if one was gone? Is it a series vs. parallel issue? Why would they make lights like that?? Wow, I also remember that we used to put c-7 lights on the tree. They had these individual aluminum reflectors shaped like stars and such on each light. It all put out a lot of heat. I vaguely remember having one of these...i think. You'd put it near your tree, where it could shine the slowly spinning color wheel on it and whatever else is in the room. I think that the effect was more spectacular if you had a flocked tree, or one made entirely of tinsel. As usual, I need more. A hallway full isn't enough.


Current music: Pet Shop Boys: I Want A Dog

Bummin around this old town for way too long

I found out a super easy way to get a lot of attention from a lot of women. Buy wooden hangers. You can increase the attention by making silly comments like, "It's all I'm giving for Christmas." Maybe not. I didn't really care--I was just out to solve a problem. My whole life, I've hated to have shoulder nipples. I've never noticed that anyone that I'm talking to has them, but I can't leave my shirts alone if I know I've got them. So, in an effort to eliminate just one of my tics, No More Wire Hangers! Super happy fun in my new closet!

In other news, nearly all the problems in the house have been resolved. The faulty microwave took stamina and repeated upon repeated calls. The replacement of the washing machine took a second in-person unhappy customer visit at the store. Just some patience and persistence is all, but the a/v man is begging to find out that those virtues are all used up. The electrical problems between the living room, kitchen and utility room haven't exactly resolved yet and I'm beginning to be inclined to think that some component in the theatre setup is the real culprit. Who knows? I do know that I've been in this house a month now (yay!) and they're still jacking around. Time's up!

current music: Vince Guaraldi: Linus and Lucy

Ignorance Without the Bliss

I'm not saying that I have a lemon of a house, just a house full of them. So far, making the problem list I have a TV, freezer, washing machine, microwave, and a receiver. I also lost some shingles in the 60mph wind gusts that didn't stop all Sunday night. *Rank Up!* At least when I mentioned the roof, in passing, to Steve he volunteered the builder to repair the roof damage. I had no expectation of that. Stupidly, when you call these Best Buy/Circuit City places to make a claim on your serivce agreement you have to go through a video game-type process of qualifying for the prize.

1. Call the store that gave you the warranty.

2. Call the 800 number for the store's national database and get a claim number.

3. The local repairman to calls you for an appointment to look it.

4. Have the repairman call the store's 800 number to confirm that you'd be stupid to not claim the 30 day return policy.

5. Call the store's 800 number to find out that now you have to...

6. Call the manufacturer because their warranty comes first.

7. Have a manufacturer's repairman appoint to confirm the diagnosis of the store's repairman.

8. Wait for the second repairman to give the manufacturer his information.

9. Call the manufacturer to get a case number.

10. Call the store's 800 number to make sure that they get the claim number from the manufacturer.

11. Call the local store to make sure that they have gotten the case number from their 800 number.

12. Call the local store to set up a delivery date for the new appliance.

I added the unlisted step of calling the local store to ask them to go ahead and order my new appliance in hopes of shortening my wait. They don't stock the product (of course!) and they won't pre-order, even if you have family coming for Thanksgiving. My employees are mad at me because I want to spend all of my day on hold and not see patients. Plus, I'm a grumpy bear.

Here are some move-in weekend pics: Ashton obviously didn't know I had a camera in my hand.

The first cooked and shared meal in the house. Yes, I'll have to make a picture for the first prepared dinner in the house and the first baking that happens. Maybe even more.

The house didn't stay a mess long with my Mother Supreme around.

Papa Murphy's pizza is always a hit!

current music: Aimee Mann: Choice in the Matter

Late night booty calls

Last week I had to interrupt my angst over the impending move with a dental continuing education course in Chicago. (My pimps 'n ho's better know this as Stillwater.) It's a common misconception that "The Windy City" is called so because it's windy. It was nicknamed such because of its long-winded politicians. Lubbock is windier. Even so, it was damn cold and windy!

Driving around in my Cosmos, I made use of the HUD:

I don't know that I'll ever rent a car again without a GPS. I balked when the agent at Hertz wanted to sell me the use of one. In fact, I turned it down completely. I was even miffed when I got to my car and there was one inside. I got in, turned the thing on, and didn't go anywhere without it for the whole trip! I should have thanked the agent when I returned the car, but whatever. Fat chance.

After I checked in and inspected my Heavenly Bed at the Westin, I set out for the idyllic (in my mind) Wrigley Field. I guess the temperature was somewhere around freezing. Does it look that way in the pics? It felt so cold, I swear my hands nearly broke off. It's weird going to a famous place that you're used to seeing on TV. It almost always looks smaller, doesn't it? Here's Waveland Avenue, where Andre Dawson used to deposit his homers:

This is not a pretty stadium from the outside. It *might* make Texas Stadium look good. Maybe not.



I don't know if they were removing sod or installing it. I didn't care to ask because I was ready to get anywhere that wasn't outside, and also for fear that some native Chicagoan would bite my head off for the hell of it.


For lunch, I searched out The Billy Goat Tavern. It's under Michigan Avenue. Strange. You walk along the street and notice no real incline, and all of a sudden there are stairs down to another street. I tried to figure it out with all the walking I did, and couldn't. This joint was made nationally famous on Saturday Night Live by John Belushi. Here is a real video of the cooks, since I couldn't find one of Belushi. If you can catch an old Belushi SNL, you should. They're hilarious.

The Cheeseburger (Double) was simplistically good. They weren't made over an open flame. All it had on it was pickles, mustard and chopped onions. Don't order Dr. Pepper in Chicago. Root beer is the closest thing they've got.


I went from there to South Bend, Indiana. Even though Notre Dame is pretty much on the same ignoble level as A&M and OU, being the lover of the game that I am I couldn't be so close by and not check it out for its historical value alone. If I had been able to get there earlier, I would've been able to visit the College Football Hall of Fame. Here's the Golden Dome way down the street. It was snowing big flakes, a real nice experience.

I got a picture of Touchdown Jesus. Hopefully this means we'll have football in Heaven.


That night I had dinner at Lou Malnati's for a real Chicago-style pizza. It was good, but I'm not a great fan of tomato sauce. There's a lot of that in a deep dish pizza. Ricky-style pizza would invert the tomato paste and mozzerella cheese. Yum! Let's start a restaraunt. I know it'd be a hit. Walking back to the parking garage, I got a picture of the El clacking by.


Friday, I was in Rosemont for a very good class by Gordon Christensen. I went downtown to The Magnificent Mile and shopped (below) for a couple of hours and then attempted to eat at Gene & Georgetti restaurant, since I was dressed casually elegant. Check out the menu. Apparently Frank Sinatra liked this place, and Lucille Ball had been there. I felt out of my element, totally, but since I was alone I decided to just walk around the place and check it out. I saw some hoity toity famosos that didn't have their stage makeup on, and I couldn't tell you who they were. I would've liked to see what a $36.50 steak tasted like, but I decided not to wait on a table. I'd be surprised if I hadn't had one more expensive than that before, but i can't remember where or when. That tells me that I didn't miss out on anything by passing it up and going instead to Parthenon. I had a Greek salad with lotsa big veggies (onions + feta = yummers) and a half order of dolmades. For dinner I ordered something very ethnic, Lamb Amnopita. It was very tangy and stung my ulcerated cheeks, and lamb's just not that wonderful of a meat choice. Otherwise, I bet it was good. It was like a Greek lamb hot pocket.

On Saturday, I checked out of the hotel and drove down for a hot dog at The Weiner's Circle. Chicago is known for its hot dogs? I knew enough to not ask for ketchup on mine. That's taboo. Anyway, if you look very closely, you can see a weiner in there. It's under three slices of tomato, two pickle spears, grilled onions, mustard and some peppers that aren't jalapenos. There's also this "cheddar" cheese (whiz) of a wangy gel on it. It wasn't gross, but it was gaudy and weird, and ultimately, mushy. Boy, those were some good, salty, fries!

They also offer a heapin' helpin' of abuse, which I avoided artfully. The cashier did tell this other guy, who I hope was a native Chicagoan, that "I didn't shove SHIT in front of you!"


It was weird to see such tall buildings everywhere. The whole city consists of 3-5 story buildings shoved up against each other. We're used to seeing open spaces, and things pretty much blended into them. It's neat to visit a place that you can see how as time marched on, they just made it fit. Homes and buildings right up to the train tracks and freeways. I found it charming...unlike the residents.


Here are some views from the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, the Sears Tower. Can you see Comiskey Park and Soldier Field?

Way over yon, the black building, is the Hancock Center. It doesn't look it from here, but it's a very tall building in its own right.

Here's a pic looking up from the base. I think it's black anodized aluminum? Pretty.


I have a picture of Donald Trump's new building/hotel here on the river at Michigan Avenue that will be the second tallest in the city. (I forgot to upload it.) I wonder how much it'll cost to stay there. Michigan Avenue is magnificent. Huge store upon huge store, most with large show windows on the street, or skyscrapers with shops on the first several floors. Stores for everything! I guess it's second only to 5th Avenue in New York for retailers. Here I met the nicest people in Chicago. They were all trying to make sure I didn't want to buy anything, but they were very helpful and nice.

I'd like to go back with friends or family. I uncharacteristically made questionable food choices at the restaurants I visited. I want a re-visit! Fun was had anyway.

current music: Who Da Funk: Shiny Disco Balls

comments?

Something is out of reach...he's feeling taunted

I finally got my computer back, but not for good. I'll have more pictures to post as soon as I have time. I'm off to Chicago on Thursday for a continuing education class. Maybe Sunday? The place is nearly ready to move into. I haven't allowed a closing date to be set yet, but I'm aiming to move on Friday, November 10!

Here's a picture of Ashton and Sarenna standing on my mailbox.


The toilet lids won't slam! I wonder how long that is supposed to last.


A rough picture of the place at night. I didn't have my tripod, so I couldn't take a nicer picture.


My first meal in the house. I guess it doesn't count, since it's not mine yet. Yum. Taco Casa. I'm hungry for it right now.


current music: 10,000 Maniacs: A Campfire Song

Gone, but I don't know where

I've been without my computer, so my public's been without an update for too long. The hoose is pretty much finished! I have a meeting on Tuesday to review the contract and go over finishing touches with the builder. I guess my official move in date is going to be November 11. I imagine that I'll have various things moved in before then, but that's when I'll get it all done (for me).

In the meantime, the charge of the elephant:


current music: Aimee Mann: Lost in Space