7/5/13: Friday, July 5: Aftermath: A Day to Snooze and Launder. Spoke with friends and relatives this morning, as well as with Pat Forest last night. Bob Lamia called this morning with an assumed voice and manner: "The Highway Patrol has determined that now that you are home, it is safe for everyone else to continue their journeys." The rat!
7/6/13, Saturday: Maybe I'll start a new blog, just for funny and interesting events from life around here. I could focus on one of my favorite "sports," accidentally reading signs and cards wrongly so that, for example, I initially misread a card sideways in a Trader Joe's rack: "CONGRATS YOU LATINOS," it said to me. That's nice, I thought, but what about the rest of us? Then I realized it really read, "CONGRAT YOU LATIONS." So I bought it for Sara's graduation.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Independence and Return Day
7/4/13: Thursday, July 4, Independence Day: Home At Last? 9 PM, July 4, 2013: 7872.1 miles, and Maybelline and I are back in the carport at 148 Sherri Lane, Oceanside, CA. Soon, I hope to be in bed.
Gettysburg Reflections: (Skip this paragraph if you're not interested in the Battle of Gettysburg.) 150 years ago today, the great Battle of Gettysburg is over, each side limping away, leaving the dead behind and carrying their wounded. A true story I heard on one of the Gettysburg tours says that today or thereabouts 150 years ago, a family in a neighboring village, wishing to see the site of the great Union victory, packs a picnic and heads over there. The site is far from glorious: the family are appalled. The stench is overwhelming, not just of dead and perhaps still dying soldiers and of their amputated limbs, but of heaps of dead horses and mules, putrefying in the July heat. These mounds of animal flesh must be set afire; there is nothing else that can be done with them.
Said goodbye to the Velazquezes and to Bob and then headed for Oceanside.
It was a fabulous, scary, wonderful, bewildering, overwhelming experience that I have yet to fully digest. My great thanks to you who helped and who entertained me along the way.
Maybelline's CHECK ENGINE light is on. So is mine!
All cats present and well, thanks to Renai Landes and her team. Mister is turning brown; must figure out why.
Missed you all! Nice to be home!
Can't wait to hear what YOU'VE been up to!
Gettysburg Reflections: (Skip this paragraph if you're not interested in the Battle of Gettysburg.) 150 years ago today, the great Battle of Gettysburg is over, each side limping away, leaving the dead behind and carrying their wounded. A true story I heard on one of the Gettysburg tours says that today or thereabouts 150 years ago, a family in a neighboring village, wishing to see the site of the great Union victory, packs a picnic and heads over there. The site is far from glorious: the family are appalled. The stench is overwhelming, not just of dead and perhaps still dying soldiers and of their amputated limbs, but of heaps of dead horses and mules, putrefying in the July heat. These mounds of animal flesh must be set afire; there is nothing else that can be done with them.
Said goodbye to the Velazquezes and to Bob and then headed for Oceanside.
It was a fabulous, scary, wonderful, bewildering, overwhelming experience that I have yet to fully digest. My great thanks to you who helped and who entertained me along the way.
Maybelline's CHECK ENGINE light is on. So is mine!
All cats present and well, thanks to Renai Landes and her team. Mister is turning brown; must figure out why.
Missed you all! Nice to be home!
Can't wait to hear what YOU'VE been up to!
California, Here I Come!
7/3/13: Wednesday, July 3: The Ol' Stompin' Grounds: Looking back on yesterday, I marveled as I went at how lonely U.S. Highway 6 is through Nevada. I've seen U.S. Highway 50 called "The Loneliest Road," but it's hard for me to imagine that anything could be emptier than the Basin and Range province between Delta, UT, and Bishop, CA, where Highway 6 officially now ends. (I must get another photo of the sign outside Bishop to complement the ones I took outside Provincetown, MA.) Between Delta and Baker, NV, Baker and Ely, Ely and Tonopah, Tonopah and Bishop, there is NOTHING except dry mountain ranges separated by immense flat, mostly dry valleys. The breadth of the valleys makes it hard for me to appreciate the sheer number of mountain ranges, even though Nevada is the most mountainous state in the Union. So obviously, what this speaks to, is my underestimation of the sheer size of the state!
I cried when I crossed the border into California, and I cried again when the highway cleared the Benton Hills and I could see the Sierra Nevada at last. SO BEAUTIFUL! Nothing like them, not even the Rockies.
I couldn't find a garage to fix Maybelline today, so I saw friends in the valley and, luckily, Shirley Blumberg, who just happened to be coming down to Bishop today. She and I had a great lunch at Whiskey Creek, and she got me caught up on a lot of Mammoth news. Daniel stopped by the motel with Sam to confirm that it was okay to drive Maybelline home. This evening, I had dinner at Yamatani with Bob Lamia, and then we went for a lovely drive in the very pleasant evening -- I really enjoyed that!
Can't figure out why I'm so tired, except that maybe it's the stress of driving with the CHECK ENGINE light on over the past two days. Stress might also have something to do with a sudden rash in a place I won't disclose, a rash that was getting worse and not better until today!
I cried when I crossed the border into California, and I cried again when the highway cleared the Benton Hills and I could see the Sierra Nevada at last. SO BEAUTIFUL! Nothing like them, not even the Rockies.
I couldn't find a garage to fix Maybelline today, so I saw friends in the valley and, luckily, Shirley Blumberg, who just happened to be coming down to Bishop today. She and I had a great lunch at Whiskey Creek, and she got me caught up on a lot of Mammoth news. Daniel stopped by the motel with Sam to confirm that it was okay to drive Maybelline home. This evening, I had dinner at Yamatani with Bob Lamia, and then we went for a lovely drive in the very pleasant evening -- I really enjoyed that!
Can't figure out why I'm so tired, except that maybe it's the stress of driving with the CHECK ENGINE light on over the past two days. Stress might also have something to do with a sudden rash in a place I won't disclose, a rash that was getting worse and not better until today!
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
The Battle of Gettysburg Began 150 Years Ago
7/1-2/13: Monday and Tuesday: Scary, Hairy Days: One hundred fifty years ago on July 1, the Battle of Gettysburg began. Those of you not interested should skip the next 4 paragraphs.
Day One: The North had moved around the tiny town in force; the South (Robert E. Lee) had not expected the Union to be present in such numbers but had none of their usual information, Jeb Stuart, their "eyes" with his superb cavalry, being out "joyriding" and not available to provide that info. "Blind," the South blundered into the territory around Gettysburg. In spite of this, the South nearly won on Day 1. Meade for the North wanted to withdraw after Day 1, but Hancock talked him out of doing so. Chance, surprise, cold feet, missing info, plain old mistakes -- on such things do the fates of nations rest.
Day Two: One hundred fifty years ago Tuesday, 7/2, Col. Strong Vincent and Col. Joshua Chamberlain will defend Little Round Top against Confederate troops. When his men run out of ammunition, Col. Chamberlain will have them fix bayonets and charge downhill into the already-exhausted and now astonished Confederates, as part of the Battle of Little Round Top (part of the greater Battle of Gettysburg).
Day Three: One hundred fifty years ago Wednesday, 7/3, at Lee's insistence and against his subordinate General Longstreet's advice, Col. George Pickett will make his fatal charge up against the center of Meade's forces on Cemetery Ridge, and the Union forces will hold him off, inflicting huge losses not including Pickett himself. Robert E. Lee will never forgive himself; his subordinate, Longstreet, will blame Lee for the eventual loss of the war there at Gettysburg, though the end is almost two more bloody years away. Pickett will always blame Lee for the charge's failure, an exposed mile across rocky ground, into the teeth of the Union army's artillery as well as of its men and their repeating carbines. But these very weapons have made the massed charge obsolete, a lesson that will have to be re-learned in the carnage of World War I.
After the three days' battle, Meade declines to pursue the withdrawing Confederates. But the myth of Lee's invincibility suffers a fatal blow both North and South. Casualty numbers were similar: according to Wikipedia, 23,055 Union killed, wounded, and captured/missing; 23,231 Confederate killed, wounded, and captured/missing. Neither side could afford to lose so many, but the Confederate side had fewer such precious resources to spend in the first place and far less chance of replacing them than the Union side.
I loved the drive from Green River, UT, to Scipio, UT. First, the road climbed into and through the weird shapes and colors of the fantastic San Rafael Swell. Then it wound through redneck and forest country in the Fishlake Mountains. At last, it sank back to the high desert around Salina, UT, and then passed through pretty Delta, UT, a farming community. Rounding dry Sevier Lake, the land grew bleaker and the day hotter, as the road went up and down, and Maybelline began acting up. Poor Maybelline!
The CHECK ENGINE light came on, so I slowed down and turned off the A/C -- very hot and miserable in this fiery afternoon. That helped for a bit, but not for long. In a very short time -- very long for scared me -- I reached the Nevada border and pulled into a combination convenience store-gas station-motel-casino (spread across the border so that the casino was exclusively in Nevada). They kindly looked under Maybelline's hood, checked the oil, and opined that in the extreme heat of the day and the fact that the route had a lot of steep little hills coming into Nevada, Maybelline's oxygen sensors had gone bonkers and were making the gas-air mixture wrong for the engine.
So I tipped them and limped on to Baker, NV, where I turned off for Great Basin National Park, ending up in campsite 6 at Upper Lehman Campground. So montane, so pretty! I was charmed, but by this time, the CHECK ENGINE light was on all the time, and the gas fumes were so pervasive they set off the stowed CO-Smoke alarm. I flung the doors open, took the sensor and me out into the fresh air, and all was soon as well as it could be. How well and for how long, I don't know. I was shaking with adrenaline and, after attending an evening ranger talk about bats (GBNP is the home of Lehmann Caves, with a huge bat population), took a sleeping pill and slept well, thank goodness.
Last night in GBNP, there was an astronomy program after the bat program, but I was just too worn out. However, once I'd taken an alcohol bath and changed into my nightgown, I sat outside with my binoculars, enjoying the starry sky. According to the ranger, GBNP has the darkest night skies in the nation, owing to its being so very far from any urban areas (Baker boasts 68 people).
Good montane vegetation here: Lots of wild roses, biggest mountain mahoganies I've ever seen, aspens, junipers, pinyon pines, and lodgepole pines. I wish I could stay longer! Must come back. Site 3 looks like a good choice!
But I have great fears about driving today. Shall I stop in Baker to have the sensors replaced, if that's what they do? Or limp to Ely, where they might have more resources? Should I give up driving in the heat of the afternoon and wait to continue till the air temperature cools -- start doing most of my driving at night? No good choices here. How will this affect my getting home on time?
Well, there's nothing for it but to forge ahead as best I can today (7/2). Wish me luck!
So I forged, and there were no garages in Baker, just an unmanned gas station. At the McDonald's in Ely, I heard that there were no good mechanics in town, but those there were would keep your car for a couple of weeks and then charge you 2-3 times what anyone else would. I telephoned Bob Lamia for advice and told him the situation, thinking I'd try for a repair in Tonopah. Unbelievably, Bob insisted on driving to Tonopah (115 miles one-way for him) to meet me and to follow me all the way to Bishop, and so he did. Now, THAT is a real friend!
Tonight I'm in the Bishop Motel 6, and tomorrow I'll call Mr. K's and try to see if I can't get Maybelline in. If not there, I'll take her to the Ford dealer. She did behave very well today: no near-death by CO, at least, and the CHECK ENGINE light was again intermittent. But something's wrong: she slurps up the gas the way I slurp up smoothies.
Day One: The North had moved around the tiny town in force; the South (Robert E. Lee) had not expected the Union to be present in such numbers but had none of their usual information, Jeb Stuart, their "eyes" with his superb cavalry, being out "joyriding" and not available to provide that info. "Blind," the South blundered into the territory around Gettysburg. In spite of this, the South nearly won on Day 1. Meade for the North wanted to withdraw after Day 1, but Hancock talked him out of doing so. Chance, surprise, cold feet, missing info, plain old mistakes -- on such things do the fates of nations rest.
Day Two: One hundred fifty years ago Tuesday, 7/2, Col. Strong Vincent and Col. Joshua Chamberlain will defend Little Round Top against Confederate troops. When his men run out of ammunition, Col. Chamberlain will have them fix bayonets and charge downhill into the already-exhausted and now astonished Confederates, as part of the Battle of Little Round Top (part of the greater Battle of Gettysburg).
Day Three: One hundred fifty years ago Wednesday, 7/3, at Lee's insistence and against his subordinate General Longstreet's advice, Col. George Pickett will make his fatal charge up against the center of Meade's forces on Cemetery Ridge, and the Union forces will hold him off, inflicting huge losses not including Pickett himself. Robert E. Lee will never forgive himself; his subordinate, Longstreet, will blame Lee for the eventual loss of the war there at Gettysburg, though the end is almost two more bloody years away. Pickett will always blame Lee for the charge's failure, an exposed mile across rocky ground, into the teeth of the Union army's artillery as well as of its men and their repeating carbines. But these very weapons have made the massed charge obsolete, a lesson that will have to be re-learned in the carnage of World War I.
After the three days' battle, Meade declines to pursue the withdrawing Confederates. But the myth of Lee's invincibility suffers a fatal blow both North and South. Casualty numbers were similar: according to Wikipedia, 23,055 Union killed, wounded, and captured/missing; 23,231 Confederate killed, wounded, and captured/missing. Neither side could afford to lose so many, but the Confederate side had fewer such precious resources to spend in the first place and far less chance of replacing them than the Union side.
I loved the drive from Green River, UT, to Scipio, UT. First, the road climbed into and through the weird shapes and colors of the fantastic San Rafael Swell. Then it wound through redneck and forest country in the Fishlake Mountains. At last, it sank back to the high desert around Salina, UT, and then passed through pretty Delta, UT, a farming community. Rounding dry Sevier Lake, the land grew bleaker and the day hotter, as the road went up and down, and Maybelline began acting up. Poor Maybelline!
The CHECK ENGINE light came on, so I slowed down and turned off the A/C -- very hot and miserable in this fiery afternoon. That helped for a bit, but not for long. In a very short time -- very long for scared me -- I reached the Nevada border and pulled into a combination convenience store-gas station-motel-casino (spread across the border so that the casino was exclusively in Nevada). They kindly looked under Maybelline's hood, checked the oil, and opined that in the extreme heat of the day and the fact that the route had a lot of steep little hills coming into Nevada, Maybelline's oxygen sensors had gone bonkers and were making the gas-air mixture wrong for the engine.
So I tipped them and limped on to Baker, NV, where I turned off for Great Basin National Park, ending up in campsite 6 at Upper Lehman Campground. So montane, so pretty! I was charmed, but by this time, the CHECK ENGINE light was on all the time, and the gas fumes were so pervasive they set off the stowed CO-Smoke alarm. I flung the doors open, took the sensor and me out into the fresh air, and all was soon as well as it could be. How well and for how long, I don't know. I was shaking with adrenaline and, after attending an evening ranger talk about bats (GBNP is the home of Lehmann Caves, with a huge bat population), took a sleeping pill and slept well, thank goodness.
Last night in GBNP, there was an astronomy program after the bat program, but I was just too worn out. However, once I'd taken an alcohol bath and changed into my nightgown, I sat outside with my binoculars, enjoying the starry sky. According to the ranger, GBNP has the darkest night skies in the nation, owing to its being so very far from any urban areas (Baker boasts 68 people).
Good montane vegetation here: Lots of wild roses, biggest mountain mahoganies I've ever seen, aspens, junipers, pinyon pines, and lodgepole pines. I wish I could stay longer! Must come back. Site 3 looks like a good choice!
But I have great fears about driving today. Shall I stop in Baker to have the sensors replaced, if that's what they do? Or limp to Ely, where they might have more resources? Should I give up driving in the heat of the afternoon and wait to continue till the air temperature cools -- start doing most of my driving at night? No good choices here. How will this affect my getting home on time?
Well, there's nothing for it but to forge ahead as best I can today (7/2). Wish me luck!
So I forged, and there were no garages in Baker, just an unmanned gas station. At the McDonald's in Ely, I heard that there were no good mechanics in town, but those there were would keep your car for a couple of weeks and then charge you 2-3 times what anyone else would. I telephoned Bob Lamia for advice and told him the situation, thinking I'd try for a repair in Tonopah. Unbelievably, Bob insisted on driving to Tonopah (115 miles one-way for him) to meet me and to follow me all the way to Bishop, and so he did. Now, THAT is a real friend!
Tonight I'm in the Bishop Motel 6, and tomorrow I'll call Mr. K's and try to see if I can't get Maybelline in. If not there, I'll take her to the Ford dealer. She did behave very well today: no near-death by CO, at least, and the CHECK ENGINE light was again intermittent. But something's wrong: she slurps up the gas the way I slurp up smoothies.
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