RenegadeRider

Here's the evidence of Her Bionicness. It was rather difficult getting these images. The doctor had given us a printed copy of the x-rays. I then tried to scan the images and they came out barely recognizable regardless of the scan parameters. These are photographs of the prints with some manipulation. Side View Front View

This sign was posted on the door of a hospital room of a Navy Seal recovering from wounds. It expresses an attitude of someone who is very much alive and who will prevail, no matter what. It expresses hope and appreciation. Thank you again.

Dianne's medical adventures helped to provide some new outlooks on life and giving. We often hear (and say ourselves) when someone has needs, "if you need something give me a call". We then never follow up and the one that needs never calls. As a preface to this discussion I must state that we are not in need. But that does not seem to matter. In a little over a week we have been the recipients of three batches of soup, a pan of lasagna, cookies and two loaves of bread. In addition, her daughter, Wendy came for the Thanksgiving weekend and cooked a turkey with all the fixins. We haven't eaten this well in years. Besides the food, our friends have supplied us with crutches, a walker, a wheel chair and have done our housework. I'm almost ready to put my feet up myself. Out of this we have a new appreciation for someones needs, even if they are not expressed. We also have a new appreciation of gratitude. Without this "misfortune"we might not have ...

Dianne tried to teach Riley to ride a bicycle. Yeah, I understand you already know about it, I'm slow. And the good news is that Riley did not fall off the bicycle. Nor was he injured. Neither did he require surgery to repair any damage. The same cannot be said for Dianne. Observe the stitches. She has hardware in her knee that the doctor could have gotten at Home Depot. She only has to keep weight off the leg for three months. BTW, I tried to warn Riley about the perils before they left home. I told him that his mother would try to do him harm. He then either didn't listen or assumed he was quick enough to avoid whatever she could try. Since he returned home safely, I guess he must have been right.

Yesterday we participated in the Veterans Day parade here in Reno. I received a frantic call from a friend. Republican Congressman and Presidential candidate, Duncan Hunter would be in town for the Veterans Day parade and his ride fell through for the parade. Would I be willing to take part in the parade (she knew I had a convertible)? I jumped at the opportunity. Even though Congressman Hunter was from San Diego, we really knew very little about him. We knew that he was the ranking Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee, and that he was a strong supporter of the border fence. But, we usually heard the pundits dismissing his as a "second tier candidate". Participating in the parade gave me the warm fuzzies. Again and again people would approach the car and say that they were supporting him and that they were counting on him. Dianne and me with Congressman and Lynn Hunter. We later attended a town hall forum (which we had not had any intention of attending...

We just baked a loaf of no knead bread. It was quite wondrous. The recipe could use a little tweaking, possibly because of the altitude. A Google search for "no knead bread" revealed over a million hits. Look for a You Tube video from the New York Times.

I refuse to ever use one of the automated checkouts at Home Depot where they replace humans with computers that like to speak "Espanol". I believe that they have and exhibit their contempt and disregard for American consumers Around 9 p.m., the man was in line at a self-service checkout stand, ready to buy a pry bar and hacksaw, according to a Seattle police report. But as a manager told an officer, the man accidentally hit the button for Spanish on the computer screen. And then Home Depot received the proper payment.

You were probably wondering the whole time. Well, I must finally admit it. The only reason for the trip was to find my own park. Here it is and I like it! What do yo think?

I learned about High Points about three years ago when I was passing through Lone Pine, CA, the closest town to Mt Whitney, which is the highest point in the lower 48 states. No, I have not attempted Mt Whitney, yet. We also learned of highpointers, a group of people that set out to reach the high point of all 50 states. We thought that would add an interesting touch to our travels. I have no intention of reaching all 50 highpoints. Five of the highpoints require technical mountaneering skills and specialized equipment. Dianne has rebelled at just the idea. As of the end of this trip we have conquered ten state High Points. I just learned that in addition to the High Points, some folks have also gone to the state Low Points. Here is Harney Peak at 7242 feet, the High Point of South Dakota. Shown is an abandoned fire tower that was constructed by crews during the WPA days. It is listed in the national historic register. View from the top of Harney Peak. Timms Hill, at 1951 f...

Again, we continued on our High Point quest. This time we scaled Hoosier Hill, the high point of Indiana at 1257 ft. It is located on private property about 50 ft from the road. We temporarily parked the coach in a truck stop that was within about 10 - 15 miles. We next (later in the same day as Indiana) conquered Campbell Hill, the Highest point in Ohio at 1549 feet. This site is located in the campus of Ohio High Point Vocational school at Bellefontaine, OH. It was once a Nike missile site. On our way home now, we bagged Hawkeye Point at 1670 feet, the High Point of Iowa. This is located in northwestern Iowa in a farm yard. Yes! we had permission. Approaching Hawkeye Point we passed through the city of Okoboji, IA and an area called the Great Lakes of Iowa. It was a water wonderland and clearly, one of those "secret" treasures that are unknown to the rest of the country. Next at 5424 feet was Panorama Point, the High Point of Nebraska. This site is also located on ...

We're home! Yes, that home, the one in Reno. You probably thought that we had fallen off the edge of the earth since I have not posted for so long. I haven't had convenient access to the Internet in all that time. Sometimes the connection was not reliable or not secure. Other times, too much was happening to take the needed time. We began this journey by dawdling and meandering wherever the road lead us. We avoided the Interstate wherever practical. The terrain is quite similar on both routes, but the Interstate bypasses nearly all the small towns and cities. I believe that the heart of America lies in the small towns. It cannot be found in any of the shopping malls or chain stores that proliferate along the Interstate and in the larger cities. We found treasure after treasure, along with a few duds. The duds were the price we paid to find the treasures Treasures cannot be found on a Denny's menu or in chain stores. The treasures also depended on not adhering to ...

We stopped at Devils Tower National Monument and walked around the base. We then drove on to Rapid City, SD. Fri: The road lead to Custer, SD, and to Custer State Park. I wanted to climb Harney Peak, the highest point in SD. The round trip took about 4 hours and covered about 6 miles. It passed through some very beautiful country. A former forest service lookout tower was built on the peak as a CCC project. We returned to the bottom just as it began to rain and hail. View from the lookout tower at the top of Harney Peak, highest point in S. Dak I secured a camp site in the park. We were all three exhausted (Yes, Riley was allowed on the trails at the state park.) but Riley soon found his second wind. Sat: We visited the Crazy Horse Memorial mountain. It is a very impressive undertaking and I highly reccommend it for anyone. Crazy Horse from the visitors center.

Bison (Bufffalo) in Yellowstone. American Buffalo with our favorite patriot. Custer, SD. Buffalo on LSD, Custer SD.

Coal truck to haul coal from the mine to the crusher. I could use one of these in certain parking lots. I'll bet i get fewer door dings. View of the 80 to 120 foot coal seam from the rim of the open pit mine near Gillette, WY

Wed: Arrived Gillette, WY. We explored the town. Noticed That a passenger train was in the station. A tent was set up and a barbeque was in progress. We inquired what was happening and learned that the train was there for a Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) employee appreciation event and travelled around the route system during the summer. BNSF is one of the world's largest transportation companies. In Gillette, the business was to haul coal from the mines to the various consumers, mainly electrical generating stations. We were invited to ride the train, about three hours, and then were treated to the barbeque. We even brought home a doggie bag. We saw a lot of wildlife, mostly deer and antelope, 'playing'. Thu: We toured an open pit coal mine. Northeastern Wyoming is experiencing a huge economic boom. It currently supplies about 25% of our nations coal. It is also becoming a large producer of methane which lies on top of the coal.

Tue: We left Yellowstone, encountering a major road construction project near the east entrance. The route into Cody, WY was much the same as in Yellowstone. We were pleasantly surprised. The Buffalo Bill museum was superb. My maximum time in a museum is about two hours. I chose the firearms section and was enthralled. They have about 1500 firearms on display, and then another 1200 downstairs. We also previewed a cowboy memorabalia auction. It was scheduled the next day and we chose to not stay. We progressed as far as Sheridan.

Mon: We joined another ranger guided tour along the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We have found the tours to be extremely informative and probably better than stumbling about on our own. A common theme was emphasized in each of their presentations. The park was here and available for us today because it had been set aside and protected over 130 years ago. It appears that the park service is constantly in confllict between preservation and use. Often it seemed like preservation is winning out. I realize that my thought is not entirely correct, but I sometimes got the feeling that Yellowstone was treated more like a museum with exhibits behind velvet ropes than a park as a place to play. We are instructed to stay on paths and to not touch the features. Now I realize that Yellowstone can be a very dangerous place. Many of those warnings serve to protect us foolish and unaware visitors. People have fallen through the thin ground that is near the thermal features and have fall...

Sat : Arrived at Yellowstone. Sun: We made the requisite visit to Old Faithful. While walking around the geyser basin we met some folks that are geyser watchers, a.k.a geyzer gazers. The older ones are geezer geyser geezers. They are sort of like the geyzer version of storm chasers in tornado country. They might sit there for hours on end lest they miss an eruption. They monitor, record on notebooks and report their observations. They keep in radio contact with their associates and also with the rangers. They are better able to predict the next eruption than the rangers. They told me that a geyser named Grand was predicted to erupt between 3:45 and 7:45 pm. Grand is larger than Old Faithful. It's the largest 'predictable' geyser. I decided to watch Grand. The weather was less than cooperative. It was cold and windy and began to rain. Distant lightning was fast approaching. I decided to get inside. While waiting, it rained, snowed and hailed. Approaching 5:30 we noticed a r...

Posting has been delayed and running very behind. Internet connections have been where we find them. Sprint service is non-existent across Wyoming and South Dakota. Even Verizon is spotty. I'm finding that Blogger has it's layout for photos, no matter how I might want it differently. Wed - Fri: We stayed three days at Grand Teton National Park. Spectacular scenery and abundant wild life kept us in awe.

Correction 1: The name Jackson Hole refers to the valley formed by the Teton mountains. The city of Jackson is only a very small part of it. Correction 2: We have since found that there is a lot more to Jackson than the touristry downtown shopping area. We found it necessary to take Riley to a veterinarian. The service was outstanding, even though I can't recall his name.

Tue: We drove on a historical loop into Idaho, through the town of Soda Springs. It covered some of the route of some emigrant trails, including the Oregon Trail. We had seen a number of what I would consider, fairly large mining operations. We later learned that they were mining phosphates. Monsanto chemical company had a large plant that processes the mineral to produce extremely pure elemental phosphorus. While we were at a park nearby I noticed a section of the slag heap turn a brilliant red as might be seen with lava flowing from a volcano. As we were watching a truck appeared in the same area with it's load giving off steam. The truck then dumped the firey contents down the side of the slag heap. The bucket was still glowing red. I checked at the plant and was given a pamphlet describing the process. An exquisitely restored hotel was near the downtown. The first and second floors were loaded with antique artifacts and was a wonderful museum. The third floor was still operat...

Sun: We drove to Jackson, WY,a.k.a. Jackson Hole. What surely was once a quaint little western town has become completely corrupted by money and tourists. Except for the western flavor, it was virually indistinguishable from someplace like Beverly Hills. It had all the high priced art dealers and expensive furniture shops. The requisite ice cream stores and tee shirt shops were also in abundance. Dianne had seen some identical items at a craft show in Reno at about a third of the price. City slickers wearing cowboy clothes would hardly have stood out more if they had been naked. The real estate brokerage brands were Sotheby's and Christies. Mon: We visited the town of Afton, WY. We toured the Aviat airplane factory. Yeah, I know. I'm dreaming about a former life. But, I still like airplanes. After lunch we hiked to an intermittent spring. It's a fairly rare phenomenon. It works on a siphon principle, much like a toilet trap. It wasn't intermittent during our visi...

Thurs: We finally got on the road about 2:00 pm. Thats an early start for us. We travelled only about 170 miles stopping in Winnemucca, NV. We had dinner at the Winnemucca hotel. It's an establishment that has seen better days. The food was Basque, served family style. This restaurant was reccommended by folks we met at a Basque restaurant in Reno. As soon as we were seated a bottle of chilled red wine was brought to the table. A huge bowl of soup soon arrived followed by a salad. Plate after plate soon appeared, more food than we could eat in two seatings and then a steak. When Dianne askeer for a doggie bag, the waiter brought out so much meat that we didn't need to buy dog food for three days. A conversation with the waiter revealed that his father had built the hotel and had just passed away. The family was still operating the business and were trying to follow the fathers footsteps. I wonder how long it might continue. There are newer more modern motels in the...

Do you know what they say about the post office, about the DMV as examples of governmental incompetance? Well, yesterday I had my experience with the Social Security Administration. And I know, I know. I must share the blame because I put off action much longer than prudent. But, I believe that the effectiveness of the Social Security office might be like that of the DMV times the Post Office, sort of a mathematical product. Since I am nearing that magical age when I am eligible for Medicare I learned that I must enroll in the Medicare program or possibly face reduced insurance payments. I trundled down to the local SSA office armed with a couple of unread magazines to pass the time I had to wait. I soon learned that merely carrying two magazines was grossly inadequate. My two magazines were consumed in about half the time allotted. The next hour was then spent people watching. An enlightening experience it was. I saw creatures that once were relegated to the carnival side sh...

The Nevada Democrats in a quest for more attention and influence moved it's primary/caucus to an earlier date. Consequently, we have been infested with those Dems on the campaign trail. Today we were "treated" to a Barack Obama rally. I decided to attend. The crowd was surprisingly normal and well behaved. I don't recall seeing any of the moonbat types that I had expected. I had a conversation with a woman who had just move here from Chicago. She was a volunteer assigned to a crowd control function. She noticed my shirt and indicated that she didn't like it's message (see photo). I asked her what she had against diversity? She responded that it was guns, not diversity made her uncomfortable. She knew very little about guns but was afraid of them, and that there were no guns in Chicago because they had been made illegal. I asked, if that included the police? She replied that they were in fact armed. The same story was for the ba...

Dianne and I are planning a trip across the country this summer . This time we will explore the northern states. We plan to visit friends and family that happen to live along our route, unless of course they find out we are coming first. One caution, though: we don't know when we will arrive. We're not ever sure when we will leave. Tentatively, we are looking at early June. Since the season finale of 24 was shown tonight we are free to set out at any time Likewise, we don't know which route we will follow. We have already changed the route three times and we haven't even left home yet. I intend to post on our experiences as opportunity permits. The post may be sporadic since we will be travelling in areas with limited internet access.

Yesterday I received the sad news that my friend Frank Reed had passed away from an aneurysm. Frank ran a hot air balloon ride business in the San Diego/Del Mar area. Through him I learned to fly balloons and I worked for him for four or five years. Frank began his flying in Anchorage, Alaska in 1979. He had over 3,000 hours as the Pilot-in-Command and has trained numerous other pilots throughout the years. One well-known flight was his 1982 trip over Mt. McKinley (North America's tallest mountain). Frank has finally slipped the surly bonds of earth. Godspeed.

I know, I know! I haven't posted for a long time. And even though this is by now very dated, here is my report on our SA trip. We departed from LAX on LAN Chile for Lima, Peru and then on to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was lucky, sort of. I requested an emergency exit seat because of the extra leg room. But the seating diagram at the ticket counter didn’t show the bulkhead for the lavatory. Our lay-over at Lima dispelled any notion that I might have had about Peru being a third world nation. Now, I must admit that an airport terminal probably doesn't represent the entire country. The terminal was as modern and as clean as any I have seen in a long time. They even had WiFi. Another unexpected surprise: Lima was very humid. I then realized that Lima was nearly at sea-level and fairly close to the ocean. I had erroneously thought that it was high in the Andes. We finally were awakened in preparation to land in Buenos Aires. IT was now about 9:00 am local time. The weather was so ...

I have now survived for a year and a day since my heart attack. I didn't even notice.

I commented previously about a lad from San Diego enduring the winter here in Reno. I think it has been raather a bust. Over-hyped. Over-rated. I've seen comments that the Sierra snow pack is only about 50% of normal. In truth, I'm disappointed. I bought a season pass to the Mt Rose ski area. It is about 13 miles from the house. So far I have managed to ski twice. The show is so thin my skis are already severly gouged. The true sign of the seasons though is the stores. They are already stocking with spring (and summer) merchandise.

Dianne & I had both grown up in the north country. Consequently we are not strangers to the winter time. We were still frequently asked if we could survive the cold and snow of Reno after living in San Diego for as long as we had. It is not much of a hardship since we don't need to commute to work. Last week it had been raining mixed with snow. Then about sundown it got a bit colder. I think that we had less than two inches of snow, but the area was essentially paralysed. The roads were all extremely icy. By early the next afternoon the roads had cleared and normal life had resumed.

Happy New Year! It has been nearly six months since I have last posted. Can I return or not?