RenegadeRider

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...