Day 30. Trip miles: 3667. Jamestown, ND

Here we are in the hometown of The World’s Largest Buffalo. Eat your heart out.

We saw the renowned buff as we drove by on the freeway, en route to our 1-nighter campground. We plan to do a drive by/photo op tomorrow on our way through town, only fitting since we didn’t stop to see The World’s Largest Turkey in Frazee, MN. That turkey was a surprise, only a few miles from my hometown and I wasn't even aware of it. You and I have both met many turkeys who could have been finalists for the title but now we know that they didn't make the cut.

Trish wanted to see my alma mater and it is conveniently located just a mile off the freeway so we stopped by Minnesota State University/Moorhead and took a few pix. Ballard Hall, the dormitory where I lived for 3 years, is still standing, as is Snarr Hall, where I lived when I was a senior, 1965/66. The library has been expanded to triple its original size, supporting a student body that has also tripled. Several other buildings, already old when I attended, have been razed and replaced by new structures.

They have a new metal sculpture of a dragon, the school mascot; I’m wondering how often it gets decorated with TP and assorted items of underwear.

Tomorrow we’ll cross into Canada at the little town of North Portal, and from there we head on to Regina and Edmonton on the way to start of the Alaska Highway at Dawson Creek.

Day 30. Morning. Coon Rapids, MN

Birds have always interested me, as you may have guessed from earlier posts. Crows and jays are often seen around campgrounds and Bunker Hills is no exception. Both are excellent scroungers and thieves; in fact, jays are sometimes called camp robbers. Both birds make loud, raucous noises especially, it seems, right around daybreak.

For the last 5 mornings, jays have served as our alarm clock, screaming at us to get up and accidentally drop some food outside where they can get at it. Either they or the crows, sometimes even seagulls, check the campfire rings each morning for dropped bits of hot dogs, marshmallows, whatever.

Just after dark the last few nights, I’ve been hearing a 3-note repetitive sound and I couldn’t figure out what it was. At first I thought it might be somebody inflating a rubber mattress with an old squeaky tire pump. Last night, that possibility was eliminated when I heard the sound to the north, and then a few seconds later, to the south. No, there couldn’t be 2 guys with squeaky tire pumps that just happened to be pumping away at the same time.

“It’s gotta be a bird,” methinks. But, what kind of bird could it be? Mostly, birds hit the sack about sundown but not this bugger. I listened more closely to the noise – or song if you’re feeling quite generous. Shazam! It hit me. We looked it up in the bird book and I was right: whip-poor-will.

They’re nocturnal and their song sounds exactly like their name. Neither Trish nor I had ever heard the song before nor had we seen one; didn’t see one last night either. They’re funny looking birds about the size of a robin, with big eyes and mottled coloring similar to many owls. Apparently that coloring is Mother Nature’s approved standard for birds of the night.

Getting back to the jays, we’ve all heard the saying, ‘naked as a jay bird’. Huh? Jays appear to be no more naked than sparrows or yellow bellied sapsuckers so what’s the deal? Gotta go google.

Later. The answer is not at all satisfying: the origin of the saying in unclear. It may have to do with the fact that jays and robins are born nearly naked, while most hatchlings have a bit of down. In Great Britain, by the way, the saying is ‘naked as a robin’. Next time you’re in the UK, you can dazzle ‘em with your knowledge of local jargon – and if you’re lucky, you may not have to get naked as a jaybird to slip it into the conversation.

Day 29. Coon Rapids, MN

Yesterday, we went to REI and bought headwear with built in mosquito netting. MN mosquitoes don’t always live up to their reputation but we fear that AK skeeters will. I don’t mind applying bug spray to my arms and legs but spraying it on my face has no appeal whatsoever.

We hiked in Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis yesterday afternoon, along with nieces Mary Kay and Carina, and a friend of Carina’s. The pix were taken on the hike, Minnehaha Falls and the Mississippi. The park is huge, has several pavilions, bronze statues and the house of one John Stevens, known as the Father of Minneapolis. There was a Swedish Festival there yesterday so the place was packed. We didn’t participate in the Swedish stuff, notwithstanding the nearly overpowering urge to gorge ourselves on that great delicacy, lutefisk.

The Song of Hiawatha, by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, was supposedly inspired by images of Minnehaha Falls, though Hank hadn't actually seen the falls when he wrote it. Another theory is that he was writing about the Hiawatha that was a mythical superhero of the Iroquois; yet another is that it was about the Ojibway, since they lived near Lake Superior - Gitche Gumee. Take your pick.

Pat (brother) and Julie will be joining us for dinner at the campground tonight. We’ll give them a tour of the EDGE, which takes all of 30 seconds. We plan to have a campfire, our first in this park. P&J are fondly known as The Bunnies, as in Energizer Bunnies. They’re extremely social and active, wears me out just watching them. Pat sings barbershop quartet and is rehearsing for a production of The Music Man.

This is our last day in MN. Tomorrow we beat feet, heading northwest through ND, first stop Jamestown, then on to Canada, eh.

Trish may go play in the water park today while I defrost the fridge. She says that’s my job cuz she does the laundry; fair enough. Both have to be done about once a week, exciting stuff, what?

Day 28. Coon Rapids, MN

My brother Gerry and his wife Linda started hosting annual family reunions 20 odd years ago. For many years these events, called Rendezvous, were held at their home on Cedar Lake near Aitkin, MN. It was a great location for the event, with plenty of room to pitch tents and to play volleyball and pickleball. The lake, of course, was great fun for the kids and provided opportunities to fish, canoe or take the pontoon boat out for a leisurely sunset cruise.

A few years ago Gerry became the victim of a very rare illness that made hosting the event impractical, so my brother, Pat, and his wife Julie took on the task. They have a lovely home and yard in Fridley, MN, right on the Mississippi River.

There are usually about 40 people at the reunions, and all age groups are present. They’re a great group of folks: smart, witty, talented, diverse, accomplished and fun to be with.

I’m 65 years old and the last of 8 children, so the older siblings are getting up there in age - dare I say elderly? It’s daunting though, to get health updates from the older siblings. The lurid details of their multitudinous pains, afflictions and worn out body parts can get downright scary. This year we came up with a label for these harrowing tales of infirmities, drugs and therapies: Organ Recitals.

Day 25. Trip miles: 3215. Evening. Coon Rapids, MN

We’re at Bunker Hills Regional Park for the next 4 nights, about 15 minutes away from my brother’s place in Fridley where the family reunion takes place on Saturday.

On the way here from Detroit Lakes, we drove by the 2-room school (see pix) I attended for 8 years, visited the graveyard where my folks and 2 brothers are buried, and also stopped at the farmhouse where I grew up. The old house is still standing and is occupied so I just took a couple pix from the road.

In the picture, you’ll notice that the front porch has a roof over it and a window just above. That window is in the upstairs bedroom where my brothers and I slept. It is also the window through which I peed on many a cold winter’s night - rather than venture out into the frigid night air to the outhouse, risking frostbite on my delicate parts. It didn’t do the window screen any good but it sure made me feel a lot better. I was always afraid my Dad would notice the yellow streak in the snow on the porch roof but he never said anything.

The farmhouse is about 7 miles SE of Perham, MN. I spent my first 18 years there – in servitude to several hundred cows, sheep, chickens and hogs. All summer long it was make hay while the sun shines (and corn and oats and wheat and soy beans), milk cows when the sun came up, milk ‘em again before the sun went down. And then, all winter long, all those critters ate all that perfectly good produce and just turned it all into crap. We’re not talking about nicely shaped individual bovine pies here. Uh-uh! We’re talking major crap, tons of crap, mountains of crap, wall to wall crap, knee deep crap, head to toe crap. Guess who got to fork, shovel, haul and spread crap. Yessiree, those were the days.

Perham’s main claim to fame nowadays is Barrel of Fun potato chips. The next town down the line is New York Mills, the home of Lund boats. And then comes Wadena, which was torn up a few days ago by a tornado; see pix of the destruction.

Further south, we lunched at the Main Street Café in Sauk Centre, the home of Sinclair Lewis who wrote the book Main Street, wherein he described the town and some of its citizens. Everything’s Main Street there: Main Street Salon, Main Street Liquor, Main Street Motel, Main Street Dog Pound. There’s just no end to the imagination, originality and creativity of mid-America! Makes a man proud.

Day 24. Detroit Lakes, MN

What a fine party it was.

About 50 guys attended the fraternity reunion, most of whom I knew, but about 5 who joined after I graduated and did not know. We all attended what was then called Moorhead State College, now University of Minnesota Moorhead. Most of us are retired but a few diehards and late starters are still punching the clock. About half the group were in education, the rest a mixed bag of business management types, entrepeneurs, you name it. Tau Kappa Epsilon was the name, Greek letters TKE, it's members referred to as Tekes.

The fraternity had a major influence on our lives, enhanced our college experience immeasureably, and obviously, provided many lifelong friendships. Most of us came from small towns, many from farms, by and large a bunch of naive hayseeds going out into the big world. I suspect fraternity guys are widely considered to be a bunch of rich spoiled wastrels who do nothing but party their way through college, despoiling innocent young women along the way.

In our case, and I suspect, most others, the fraternity emphasized and enforced scholarship; several of the brothers said they wouldn't have made it through college without it. We were taught social skills, teamwork, loyalty, the value of community service; we developed leadership and organizational skills. The list of positives is long and varies from person to person.

Yes, we did have parties. I, of course, being as pure as the driven snow, never attended. If you believe that, contact me at once about a really good deal on a bridge.

Day 22. Morning. Detroit Lakes, MN

We had a brief shower this morning, thunderstorms forecast for next couple days, muggy and mostly cloudy at 7:30 AM.

The land of sky blue waters: that's what Minnesota means in the language of the Dakota tribe. More recently, the phrase was made well known by the Hamm's beer TV commercials that featured a cartoon bear doing silly stuff. We watch very little TV so don't know if those commercials are still running or not.

There are lots of Scandinavian folks here and they're famous for their traditional dishes of lutefisk and lefsa. Not being of the Scandinavian persuasion myself, I know little of these alleged foods but I have seen lutefisk and vaguely remember tasting it once. There's no danger of it replacing chocolate any time soon.

Here's your lutefisk recipe. Buy several pounds of dried codfish, a 10 gallon tub and a 5 pound bag of lye. Pour the lye and 7 gallons of water into the tub and mix well. Add codfish. Allow codfish to soak in the tub for 2-3 months. Remove the lutefisk and pat dry with paper towels. Bury the lutefisk in a remote corner of your yard where you don't want anything to grow for several years. Eat the tub.

As yet, I've not seen lutefisk on the McDonalds menu but it's only a matter of time. There's a song called The Lutefisk Lament that has cute lyrics; youtube or google if curious.

Day 21. June 20th. Detroit Lakes, MN

Had a great time with Wayne & Gloria last night. Wayne did a bang up job on the barbie, a mixed grill of bangers, steak and pork ribs. See pix of the house they had moved. The house has beautiful old wordwork, including wood floors with intricate designs.

We pick up our first batch of forwarded snail mail tomorrow, 3 weeks worth. And, there's a bunch of boring stuff to take care of: laundy, fill propane tank, Trish's hair, etc. In the mid/late afternoon Trish will drop me off at the fraternity reunion site, a lakeshore home owned by one of the brothers. I'll be there two nights and Trish will pick me up Wednesday AM.

We're staying at Forest Hills Golf Club and Campground about 3 miles west of DL, a quite attractive place with full hookups, wifi and 18 holes of golf. A number of the brothers, including me, will play 9 holes here on Tuesday.

On Thursday we head down to the Twin Cities for the family reunion, stopping in Perham to take a peak at the farm where I spent my first 18 years. The farm was sold long since and the buyer split it up into 5 acre mini-estates. When I last visited, about 10 years ago, it appeared that only one or two of the lots had been sold, which was no great surprise.

Perham has a population of 2500 and is surrounded by farms. Why anyone would want to buy a 5 acre lot that's several miles out of town and is not on a lake or river is beyond me. But, they say there's one (sucker) born every minute so the lots will probably sell. Someday. I suspect the buyer/developer went teats up years ago but I'm not curious enough to spend the time it would take to verify that.

Day 19. June 18th. Evening. Mitchell, SD

Sometimes one’s mind goes AWOL, no notice given, no reason provided, whereabouts and duration of absence unknown. It’s just gone. Such was the case about noon today when I saw a sign that read North, with the number 83 just below it. I said, “Huh, how about that. A town called North, South Dakota.” Trish cracked up and remarked, “That means hiway 83 northbound.” Oh. Okay. Duh.

A bit beyond said sign we pulled off the hiway for a quick break at a little tourist attraction/gas station place near Midland, SD. See pix 1880 Town.

I doubt that very many readers know Mitchell’s claim to fame and we didn’t either until Trish starting looking for the nightly campground. What she found was the one and only Corn Palace, along with a nice city campground a few blocks away. The pix show the front of the building which is decorated in murals made entirely of ears of differently colored corn. There are several more corn murals on the side of the building. Quite impressive, and the murals are changed every year. Why the onion domes? Beats hell out of me; maybe the designer was named Boris or Natasha.

Tomorrow we’re off to Big Stone City, SD to visit Wayne and his wife Gloria. Wayne’s a fraternity brother and, like me, a member of the infamous ‘shotgun four’ who spent quality time in the redneck jails of Arkansas and Oklahoma in ’65. Wayne and I earned but were not rewarded purple hearts for that adventure; the other two guys weren’t wounded. I’ve not seen Wayne since graduating college in ’66.

W & G own a software company that has offices in SD and CA; they live in LA in the winter. Not long ago they bought a big old 5000 SF mansion that was to be destroyed. They had it cut into 3 pieces and moved to their Big Stone Lake lot, where they put it back together and fixed it up. We’re anxious to see the end result.By LHC standards it’s not been that hot the last few days but the humidity makes it feel that way. We’re slowly adjusting to the change – and the blankity blank bugs.

Day 19. June 18th. Badlands, SD

Ever wonder what those big red numbers are on the front of many Airstream travel trailers? Me too, so I researched: they are issued by the WBCCI Airstream owner's club and have nothing to do with when the trailer was built or when the trailer owner joined the club. WBCCI stands for Wally Byam Caravan Club Intl; Wally's the guy who started the Airstream company several decades back.

And do you wonder why this bit of trivia is in my blog post? Because 15 Airstream trailers pulled into our campground yesterday, including the longest one I've ever seen. It looks like a humongous stainless steel cigar with wheels, 3 per side. Airstreams are built like Sherman tanks and are quite heavy so this bugger must be a bitch to tow.

Did the Badlands loop yesterday AM - very windy, and stopped at the visitor's center which is one of the better ones in the NP system. We didn't see Rocky and I suspect he either succumbed of wounds or simply died of old age. What's the life expectancy of a raccoon?

Played cards with Dave and Verna last night, lots of laughs. We part company today; they're headed west to tour the Deadwood area, while we head east to overnight at Lake Mitchell in Mitchell, SD. Trish says she'd like get her hair done today or tomorrow. Mine's been done for 30 years.

The pix were taken from various outlooks and includes the previously unpictured Verna and her killer attack guard dog, Lili. Lili's 4.7" tall, weighs 3.2 pounds, defends Verna from would-be attackers by licking their ankles until they fall down on the ground giggling helplessly, all thoughts of violence forgotten.

Shortly after they got Lili and she was still a pup about the size of your average adolescent field mouse, Dave was downtown with her one day. Some guy walked by, noticed the little furball and said, "Hey, where's the other half of your dog, mister?"

Day 18. June 17th. Badlands, SD

There was a tornado warning for this area last night, ending at 11 PM. We saw lots of lightning off to the west, but no storm action where we are, Badlands Ranch and Resort. The name BRR sounds considerably more grandiose than it actually is - which is a bit tacky and haphazardly managed. On the plus side, it has grass, trees, full hookups, wifi and a very good price so we're not complaining.

Lot's of readers have stopped at the famous Wall Drug I'm sure. It advertises with hundreds of signs along the roads as you approach Wall, SD. And we are no exception; we stopped there for a while, took some pix. Dave & Verna stopped there also. We saw their motorhome in the parking lot and then found them in the store. See pix of gang with various Wall Drug residents. Verna was taking pix with her Droid, so avoided being in a picture herself - a temporary situation I assure you.

D&V are now parked beside us at the BBR. They served up a great dinner of buffalo burgers, beans and salad last night; our turn tonight and it's going to be salmon.

Dave and I met in the summer of '64 when we were working in the Forest Service in the Clearwater NF in northern Idaho. Lots of college guys from all over the country worked for the FS in those days, trying to slow the spread of blister rust, fighting forest fires, and so on.

The Badlands entry road is under construction, has 5 miles of bumps and washboard dirt to cover, one way traffic and many delays. Murphy's Law: we'd done a thorough cleaning of both rigs not 2 hours before we hit the cruddy road.

Today, we're doing the Badlands Loop Road, stopping at the many overlooks to view the Baddest of the Bad. I'm hoping to see Rocky Raccoon along the way, assuming he survived his wounds.

Other pix above include CO mountains approaching Denver and typical southeastern WY landscape.

Day 17. Morning. Sturgis, SD

It's a nice sunny day with a high of 84 forecasted for the area.

We'll be heading out about 9:15, stopping at a RV service place in Rapid City to have the tires rotated and maybe fix the water line leak. Also need to get groceries and stop at the bank to get cash and quarters for laundry machines.

There was a wild turkey roaming the campground at first light this morning. At least, I think it was a turkey, difficult to ID in low light and fog. Could have been a little kid with spindly legs and a severe back problem and a speech impediment. I'm kidding about the speech impediment: the alleged turkey did not a gobble make.

Gotta find a place to wash the rigs soon cuz they're filthy from the rain and sanded roads coming out of CO, and short stretches of gravel roads here and there. We need a pressure wash place with a high ceiling bay for the RV, couldn't find one in Sturgis but Rapid City should have one.

Day 16. Evening. Sturgis, SD

What is Devil's Tower? I was thinking maybe a mesa or butte. Uh uh. It's an igneous intrusion. This is new to me. I've been the victim of several intrusions over the years and some of them were quite embarassing, but as near as I can recall, none acheived igneousity. But there you have it.

The Tower looks better in rock than in mashed potatoes. Actually there was no mention of Close Encounters in the brochure or anywhere else in the visitor center, which was mildly disappointing. Regardless, I bet the visitor count increased dramatically after the movie.

Anyway, it's a fine piece of sculpture and I compliment mother nature and the Belle Fourche River on their accomplishments.

We're staying at the Rush-No-More (gag me) RV Park outside of Sturgis, SD and it's a great campground with lots of grass and pine trees and good wifi. Tomorrow, we're off to the Badlands where we'll meet up with old friends from Spokane, Dave and Verna.

Dat 16. Morning. Gillette, WY

There’s nary a cloud in the sky but it’s still chilly, 43 at 6 AM.

Turns out, wifi here works after all but it’s wimpy and doesn’t reach the camp sites. You have to haul your laptop up to the laundry room to get online, which we did last night and will again this morning.

The campground is near a hospital where they’re building a parking garage. Many of the camp sites are occupied by construction workers, which is often the case. Given the size of the place, Gillette has darn few campgrounds; in fact the entire state of WY seems to be lacking.

So, it’s 9 PM last night and Trish is taking a well deserved break, sitting up in bed with her book and a glass of wine. She’d done the laundry, changed the sheets, bathed Ranger, and made dinner. Tired woman. I mentioned in the last post that Ranger goes nuts after his bath and last night was certainly no exception. He’s hopping back and forth from bed to sofa and killing stuffed bear for the umpteenth time, occasionally flinging it off the bed and chasing after it.

No sooner has Trish gotten settled in than Ranger hops back on the bed, kills the bear yet again, and throws it for a perfect strike – dead center on the full glass of wine. There’s wine all over the freshly laundered sheets, the blanket, the wall, the floor, and of course, Trish. The air in the immediate vicinity instantly turns blue: Trish is NOT a happy camper. Ranger is cowering in the corner and yours truly is trying desperately to avoid extensive collateral damage to my physical person that would result from falling down on the floor laughing my ___ off.

No! Being the super sensitive and supportive guy that I am, I keep a straight face, make sympathetic noises and grab the paper towels. Trish mops up the spill, strips the bed and trudges off to the laundry again. The one bright spot in this little disaster is that it was white wine, not red.

Day 15. Evening. Gillette, WY

We’re at Green Tree’s Crazy Woman Campground. How’s that for a handle? There’s supposed to be wifi here but it’s on the fritz. We tried connecting at McDonalds but that didn’t work either.

Laundry is the priority task, currently in progress, after which Ranger gets a bath. He doesn’t seem to enjoy the bath itself but goes totally nuts afterward, possibly in ecstasy that it’s over.
The weather’s improving: sunny and 60 degrees at 6 PM and supposed to be even better tomorrow.

Antelope abound in WY, have seen several hundred. I like their snazzy colors. They’re supposed to play, right, along with deer? We didn’t see any playing, with deer or anything else. I’m not even sure what they play – bass saxophone, left field, possum, gin rummy?

Day 15. Morning. June 14th.

Trip miles 1615. Curt Gowdy SP, WY

I awoke to a blackbird serenade at 5:30 this morning; temperature is 36 and there are a few wispy clouds. The park is halfway between Laramie and Cheyenne, altitude 7600’. It’s a huge park containing three small reservoirs surrounded by rolling grassland hills, sporadic wooded areas, and a few rock formations. It’s quite an attractive spot. Our camp site has a water hookup but no electricity or wifi. It’s just a few steps from the edge of one of the reservoirs. See pix.

Except for a brief sunny period in the early AM, it rained nearly all day yesterday, making for a not so pleasant drive out of the mountains. Today, we’ll head north and overnight in the Gillette area. The lower elevation and improving weather – think warm - will be most welcome. Why Gillette? Cuz we want to see Devil’s Tower NM and the town of Sundance, both a bit NE of there.

Devil’s Tower has been on my hit list for some time, even before the movie, Close Encounters…… with Richard Dreyfus sculpting it in mashed potatoes and sundry other ‘mediums’. I thought that was one great flick.

Blackbirds, like wrens, take me back to my youth in MN. Also, some of you old farts may remember one of the first LP records to use the Moog Synthesizer in the early 70s: it included a synthesized version of the Beatles’ song Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night. Dated, yes, but at the time it was totally awesome! Was that on Switched on Bach, or a different album?

We’ve completed our first two weeks on the road and1/10 of our estimated 15000 total trip miles, so far, so good, with no major complaints or problems. We’re enjoying the scenery and pretty much everything else except the chilly weather, which should end today.

FYI for the younger crowd: Curt Gowdy was a well known sportscaster with a long career, a household word for any baseball fan for many years. I don’t know his connection to southeast WY, the park brochure didn’t say. Google and ye shall find.

Day 14. June 13th. Leadville, CO

That picture with snow on the pickup? That's what greeted me when I stepped outside at 6 AM - and it just started snowing again. Tens of thousands of people head for the CO high country each year to play in the snow. We are not among them. We are soooooooo outta here - as soon as the roads are safe to travel that is.

The other pix show prime examples of dwellings in Leadville, quite the dog's breakfast.

Had a great time last night, chatting with the locals, playing bar shuffleboard, eating greasy burgers and fries, and watching rowdies get thrown out of the pub. Actually, only one guy was thrown out but he came back in so he got thrown out twice. Slow learner. Then the cops came and questioned the owners and selected bar sitters. We chatted with the owner, a 70 year old lady, who said the guy was a recurrent problem but that after tonite he was permanently banned from the place. The lady and her daughter own the business, which has been in the family for 78 years.

Trish skunked me at shuffleboard the first game, but I finally got in the groove and won the second. We'll have the playoff at the next pub that has a shuffleboard, although you don't see the full lenth 22' tables around much anymore.

Day 13. Evening. Leadville, CO

A change of plans is in order. We were headed for Rocky Mt NP for 2 nights, after our last night (tonight) in Leadville. But - there's a low pressure area over this section of the Rockies that continues for the next couple days, bringing freezing temps and snow. The road to and through Rocky Mt NP is treacherous at the best of times, no way I'm going to drive it with ice on the roads. Who wants to camp when it's freezing anyway?

So, we're bagging it. In the AM we're heading NE towards Denver, then north to Cheyenne, WY where we'll camp at Curt Gowdy SP for a night or two.

It's 5 PM now, raining as it has been most of the day, and the temp is 43. We're going out to visit a couple of the vintage (1879) Leadville bars tonight to soak up a bit of history, local color and suds. We'll grab a bite at one of the pubs if there's something appealing on the menu.

Leadville is actually a fun and funky place with all the colorful history, old buildings, and a major destination for outdoor sports like skiing, white water rafting and hiking. The headwaters of the Arkansas River are here, 1450 miles from where it flows into the Mississippi.

Good night, y'all.

Day 13. Leadville, CO

Never before have I seen such variation in building design and decor in one small place. Seems like anything goes here – or at least used to. There are about 30 vintage buildings in the downtown area, mostly Victorian, built in the late 1800s. The houses in town are a mixed bag, about 1/3 being cobbled together, jerry-rigged affairs. Another 1/3 are cute little old houses painted to look Victorian although few actually are, and the final 1/3 are modest newer homes. The wooded area west of town has many large modern homes plus the occasional, and seemingly inevitable, rundown places reminiscent of Dogpatch.

Here’s a bit more Leadville history. A surprising number of well-known names are associated with the place, including Houdini, Oscar Wilde, John Phillip Souza, and Sarah Bernhardt – all of whom entertained here. Doc Holiday has his last recorded gun fight in Leadville: he won of course but his opponent survived his wounds, and Doc was acquitted. John May of May Department Stores started here, as did Marshall Fields and the Guggenheims. Others included Margaret Brown, aka The Unsinkable Molly Brown; Buffalo Bill; Soapy Smith; Chicken Bill Lovell.

Trish made a great stew for dinner last night. It really hit the spot in this cool weather.

Speaking of food, here’s a bit of advice for those who take food on the road. If the last time you opened your half full jar of chili sauce was at 450’ altitude, you’ll want to aim it away from you when you reopen it at 8320’ altitude. Otherwise, you and the area around you will closely resemble a scene from one of those chainsaw massacre movies.

Day 12. Evening. Leadville, CO

Have any readers heard of Leadville? Odds are, very few have so here’s a history lesson. Current population is just short of 3000; population in 1880, 30,000. It was one the gold/silver mining boomtowns, and is touted as the bawdiest and baddest of the genre. It boasts the highest airport and golf course in US at an altitude of 10,430’. We are staying at a campground on 2nd Street, which used to be named State Street and boasted 64 bars and numerous brothels back in the day.

We had planned to golf here so we’d have bragging rights on playing the lowest course in the world, Death Valley, and the highest course in the US in the same season. But, the forecast for tomorrow is crap: high of 51 with wind and thunderstorms, so that’s not going to happen. Instead, we’ll tour the old Victorian buildings and such, maybe go to a movie.

Day 11. Afternoon. June 10th. BCG NP

Day 11. Afternoon. June 10th.

Did the rim drive this AM and took the above pix. No cell phone signal or wifi here, although we did manage to poach on some other camper’s wifi signal yesterday and get our email.

Ranger has a leg up – yup, pun intended - on us two legged critters when it comes to communication. We use cell phone or email and are often frustrated because the signal’s poor or nonexistent. Ranger, however, always has a strong signal. He is instantly connected to pmail when he steps out of the EDGE or the pickup, due to olfactory senses 100 times more sensitive that ours. Based on our observations, pmail has many merits: it’s always interesting, there’s no spam, there’s no ‘forward to 10 people or else’ threats, and there are no political/religious/illegal immigrant rants.

In case the above was overly subtle, let me make it perfectly clear to those who forward said emails: please stop! I don’t read it, I don’t forward it, I delete it the second I see it. And, I’ll bet 99% of the other recipients do the same.

The canyon wren summers here and it has a song very similar to the house wrens that nested near the farm house in Minnesota. Wrens aren’t that plentiful in OR or AZ, and it’s a real pleasure to hear them again. One could say……oh, this is a bad one……… that hearing that song again was renovating.

Day 11. June 10th. BCG NP

Day 11. Morning. June 10th. Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP, CO

The drive from Durango to Montrose is one of the most scenic in the US. Sheer cliffs, snowcapped peaks, waterfalls, and brightly colored mineral-laden mountainsides abound. Red Mountain Pass, at 11008’ is the highest of many passes in that stretch of road. We had the GPS set to show us our altitude as we progressed, found it to be consistent with the map-posted altitudes.

Trish isn’t fond of hairpin turns on roads with no guardrails and 1000’ drops. She had a white-knuckle grip on the armrest some of the time but managed to pry her fingers away enough to take about 80 pictures. I was driving and was a bit nervous too, sometimes; being 3’ from eternity does inspire one to keep a firm grip on the steering wheel. The bottom 2 pix above were taken en route while we were moving so they aren't the best quality but you get the idea.

We’re at the South Rim Campground at 8320’; for comparison purposes, Mt St Helens is 8366'. BC is not the deepest major canyon in the US by any means, but it is the narrowest. When you’re at the rim looking down, you want to grab onto something that's well anchored and hold on tight cuz it’s breathtaking, disorienting and just plain scary.

In 48 miles the Gunnison River loses more elevation than the does the Mississippi in its entire 1500 mile length. The river is really moving along and carrying a lot of debris and that’s what carved the canyon – and the carving continues.

The top 5 pix above were taken near the South Rim visitor center, where they built an enclosed viewing area on a narrow rock finger, perhaps the best view in the park. It's impossible to capture the scope and grandeur with a camera but you do what you can. Today, we’ll be doing the South Rim Drive which has many viewpoints.

Day 10. Morning.

Morning. June 9th. Trip miles1023. Day 10. Durango.

We’re off to Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP this morning. We’d never heard of it until we started researching this trip and saw that it was on the way to Rocky Mountain NP. So, we penciled it on to the dance card. We’ll stay there 2 nights, before going on to Leadville, CO for another 2 night stay.

What’s the difference between a canyon and a gorge? Is gorge the root word of gorgeous? If so, to be fair, shouldn’t there also be a canyonous? Hold on, I’m off to Wikipedia.

I’m back. Canyon and gorge are interchangeable terms, with usage varying from one locale to another. As far as naming goes, it appears it’s only a matter of who gets there first and labels it with their term of choice. There appears to be no connection between gorge and gorgeous. Although I’m not the first to consider canyonous as a possible word, the only real Canyonous is a place in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Thus ends today’s geography/vocabulary mini-lesson. Now we can go forth into the world of the uninformed, dazzling one and all with our knowledge and brilliance. It’s always a pleasure to add another bit of totally useless information to minds long since over-cluttered with same.

June 7th. Evening. Durango

We had dinner and microbrews at the Carver Brewing Co pub in Durango tonight. They have a nice large outdoor patio covered with a huge awning, very pleasant place to grab a bite. Trish mentioned that the table we sat at there was uncomfortably high for her.

This got me thinking, “There’s elevator shoes; why not elevator pants?” They could be a real boon to short people. The pants would have pleats in the sides and rear, inflatable pads under each cheek, and a control mechanism that would allow Shorty to inflate his/her butt bolsters to just the right height and angle. One hopes that they would be sturdy enough to avoid blowouts which, admittedly, would be tremendously entertaining. To everyone but Shorty, that is.

Okay, it’s time to hit the showers.

Day 8. June 7th. Durango.

Day 8. Morning. June 7th. Trip miles: 800+, too lazy to check odometer. Durango, CO
We’re staying at a private campground with full hookups and wifi 10 miles north of Durango on the Animas River.

It’s my first time in Durango, looks to be a neat and upbeat town. Trish says they’re into microbrews here and that’s always a magic word for me; will check one out for dinner tonight, our first night out on this trip.

Today’s a maintenance day, do laundry, clean RV interior – filthy from the 26 miles of dirt road we traveled to & from Chaco. A lot of that road was washboard and bumps, shook the living crap out of us and the rigs. Well….to be honest, it was actually the living pee that got shook out.

We arrive in Durango and I notice the RV spare tire is hanging at half mast; open the RV door, see loose screws on the floor; open the closet, clothes all over the place like a tornado had gone through; open a beer, foams over the top, stick it in my mouth, foam erupts from nose, ears. Bummer.

We spied a car wash coming through town. No, no: WE were coming through town, the car wash lives there. It was the type where you insert quarters then run around in circles like a rabid dog, dragging the cumbersome pressure-wash hose, trying to get the vehicle soaped and rinsed before the time runs out and you have to go dig up more quarters. Got both rigs cleaned up nicely.

Bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast this AM, been eating fruit and cereal to date, time for an upgrade.

Day 6. Morning. June 5th.

Day 6. Morning. June 5th.

Included in the pix is a shot of our security chief, Ranger, taking a well-earned rest after a grueling security check undercover. He’s very conscientious about his undercover work, does a thorough check every morning, seeking out terrorists, thieves and rapists. He keeps his findings to himself, isn’t much for either verbal or written reports but that’s okay cuz his judgment on these matters is legendary. He is the security chief after all.

Chaco’s amazing, a center of activity and culture circa 800-1150, they built dams, canals, 400 miles of roads, all with stone tools. Several great houses with 500+ rooms and sophisticated masonry have been excavated but hundreds of smaller dwellings have not. They traded far and wide, some of the artifacts such as seashells and conches coming from the Pacific coast and chocolate from Central/South America.

This seems an unlikely spot for 2000-6000 people to live for over 300 years. It gets down to 35 below in the winter, 100+ above in summer, elevation is 6200’, and average rainfall is 8”. The culture, activity and occupancy shriveled in the latter years, due, it’s thought, to a major long-term drought. The people dispersed, heading for greener pastures.

Just a minute: now that I think on it for a bit, the upper midwest has the same temperature spread – and it’s NOT a dry heat.

If you want to learn more about Chaco, you can check out the national park system website or of course you can google it and get a zillion hits.

Hot here, 97 high yesterday, same forecasted for today, about 10 degrees above normal. We’ll be doing a guided tour of the largest ruin, Pueblo Bonito, see brochure pix, this AM, and also viewing some of the other lesser ruins. We originally scheduled 3 nights here but 2 will do it. Had planned 2 nights in Durango, will expand that to 3, maybe get the RV leak fixed, play some golf.

Had salmon over the campfire last night, with sides of snow peas and heavy duty whole grain French bread; leftovers tonight.

Yeah, I know: one of the pix is up there twice. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to delete pix.