Sun Valley, ID

Sun Valley has long been a hangout of the rich and famous, attracting the Likes of Ernest Hemingway, Gary Cooper and Clarke Gable back in the day.

Sun Valley Lodge, built in the 30’s, has concrete walls stained to look like wood, nicely done.  Behind the hotel is a huge, all-season ice skating rink.  It’s open to the public, has professional shows several times a year.

Adjacent to the lodge is this music pavilion which has big name entertainment in the summer.  The pavilion is about 7 years old and is an architectural masterpiece.  There’s big money here.  Both Sun Valley and Ketchum are chock full of attractive, unique structures: lodges, homes, hotels, businesses, you name it. 

River Run Lodge, at the base of Bald Mountain, is right at the edge of town.  This ski area has both chair lifts and gondolas.  There are several other ski lifts in the area, catering to all skill levels.

A big thank you goes to Nancy for hauling us around, showing us the above sites and many others. 

North Fork

Our campground is in the Sawtooth National Forest, a few miles north of Ketchum/Sun Valley, ID.  We camped here in ’07; T’s been here several times.  This time our visit is much enhanced by friends Gary and Nancy, long term residents who winter in LHC; they’re members of our potluck group.  Also, Nancy and T are in the same book club, and Nancy plays Pickleball.  We met them for cocktails one night and had an excellent dinner at their home another night.

Gary owned and operated Grumpy’s, a funky, quaint tavern/restaurant in Ketchum, for many years.  He sold it awhile back but it’s still going strong and doing well.

The Big Wood River flows by our campsite, playing nature’s fine background music.  There are no other campers in sight and we love it.  No cell phone signal here but we’re only 10 minutes from town so no biggie.  Big Wood combines with Little Wood to form the Malad which flows into the Snake which flows into the Columbia which flows into the Pacific.

Utah Lake State Park

We changed our route.  The trip planning software had us heading north through NV on US-93.  Trish pointed out that I-84 was a better road with better scenery so we made the change and spent the night in Provo, UT rather than Wells, NV.  We’ll be back on the road this AM, destination Ketchum, ID.

Yesterday. 

We did an overnight here in ’07 when we had the Chalet A-frame pop-up trailer; we toured Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon North Rim, Monument Valley and so on.  It’s a nice park with electric and water hookups, at a reasonable price.  Utah Lake, the largest fresh water lake in the state, is in a broad valley between the Wasatch Mts to the east and the Cedar Valley Mts to the west. 

2007

When we were here in ’07, we noticed terracing way up high on some of the Wasatch Mountain peaks.  I’d never seen anything like it, hadn’t a clue: why was extensive terracing done way up there, at about 10,000’ altitude?

Turns out, it was a Civilian Conservation Corps erosion control project done in the 1930s.  Gee, what great fun, hauling all the tools, supplies, food, water, etc way up there.  And, once you’re there, even more fun: you get to pound rocks with a sledge hammer for weeks at a time.  Oh boy!  Still, given the choice – pound rocks or starve – I’d be right up there, merrily (?) pounding the hell out of those rocks.

Saint George Pickleball

Pickleball is big in Saint George.  They have a very nice outside 12-court venue, plus a separate 6-court play area.  Nearby is a smaller town, Hurricane, which has another 8 public courts.  Don’t know if there are any inside courts.

I played at the 12-court place this AM, got there about 7:30 AM and there were already 40 players.  When I left 2 hours later, there were about a 100 players and still more drifting in.

Saint George, UT

Lee's Ferry, above, is where we crossed the Colorado River en route to 

Saint George, UT from Williams, AZ. 

This is where we (Patty, John, Mollie and I) started our 7-day white-water adventure 

through the Grand Canyon 20 years ago.  

Trish and I camped here in the Chalet a few years back.

The pix above and below are of Pioneer Park, just north of SG.  

Magnificent red rock scenery.

Trish and the dogs are sitting in the shelter in top pix; Trish is waving.

Resembles an ant farm viewed through the glass.

Really big ants with really tough jaws.

Quail Creek State Park, 10 miles north of SG, beautiful setting.

Trish is searching for out next campground, which will be near Provo.

Trish just pumped her bike tires, is locking it up for the night.

Ranger and Artie are supervising.  They're very good at that.

Grand Canyon Railway

Williams, AZ, 3K population, is one of many southwest towns that capitalize on Route 66 themes.  This is where you turn off of I-40 to access the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, 65 miles north.  The Grand Canyon Railway is based here.  It’s a period piece tourist train that makes daily round trips to the Canyon; we spent 3 nights here to do the train ride and hang out.

On the Rim with Bright Angel Trail in center background.  The Trail goes to Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Canyon.  The Ranch has dormitories and a restaurant.  My brother Pat, his son Bill, and I, stayed there when we did the rim to rim hike several years ago. 

Hopi dancer with traditional footwear - at South Rim

Choreographed by our car waitress, passengers throw up their hands in dismay upon hearing the train is being robbed.

One of the 4 train robbers.  His gang and the sheriff had a shootout prior to train boarding; the sheriff gunned them all down but those doggone outlaws are tough: 7 hours later they’re back doing dastardly deeds, none the worse for wear.

We Have Liftoff!

The Ram is pawing the ground, ready to charge and butt heads.

 

 

The Cougar is crouching, muscles tensed, about to spring.

 

 

We're sooooo outta here!

Man & Woman Controls

These controls are typical although the Woman controls illustrated here are 

much simpler than those in real life.  I didn't want to intimidate and discourage young guys

who haven't yet mustered the courage to mess with the Woman controls.

Older guys have learned by trial and error (mostly error) that the Woman controls:

     A.  Are different for every woman.

     B.  Change every day and often change several times a day.

     C.  Freeze up instantly if not tuned to the proper settings in proper sequence.

     D.  Should not be even touched on certain days.

     E.  Are beyond comprehension.

Gals know, seemingly from the day they're born, that the Man control is the same for all men, never changes and can be easily switched on and off.  Adventuresome gals have discovered that the Man control has WIFI capability and can turn it on without even touching the switch!

  

The Fly and I

Doug and Gail, LHC friends, stopped in Santa Fe, NM en route to their MN home.  I suggested they eat at Harry's Roadhouse, a popular restaurant south of town where Trish and I had dinner last summer.  They did eat there, said they enjoyed it, but didn't mention seeing the infamous fly.

Last June: Trish and I arrived at Harry's about 5:30, decided to sit outside, perfect weather.  She ordered a margarita; I, a local microbrew.  We’d only taken a couple sips when this pesky fly arrived, quickly determined that I had excellent taste in handcrafted ales, and decided to help itself.  I wasn’t inclined to share and became irritated after several dive bomb attacks.

Fly, you’re gonna die.  I took a wild swing, a forehand smash, attempting to catch the fly in midair and then squish it.  Wham!  Crash!  Splash!  Missed the fly but nailed both the beer can and the nearly full mug of beer.  Beer everywhere!  Luckily, Trish wasn’t in the line of fire and the next table was vacant, so there was no collateral damage.  

I was disappointed that the other outside diners didn’t cheer and applaud.  Boring people.  No sense of humor.  Granted, it wasn’t my best performance ever but I thought it merited some recognition.   

I apologized profusely to the waitress as she cleaned up the mess, then ordered another beer.  The fly disappeared, possibly intimidated by my killer instincts but more likely sitting in the corner laughing its ass off.

That best performance ever?  It occurred in Oregon a few years ago.  We’d just finished dinner, which was enhanced by a bottle of champagne.  I topped up our champagne flutes, then picked up Ranger’s ball; he’d been patiently waiting to do his fetch thing.  I wound up and winged that ball a good one – right into the top edge of my full champagne flute.  It was spectacular!  A champagne/glass hand grenade!  Yee-haw!  Floor, walls, cabinets, everything down range within 20’ got a taste of bubbly.  Both Trish and I cracked up and continued chuckling while we did the cleanup. 

Don’t cry over spilled champagne.  Or beer.

3 Laws

Issac Asimov originated the Three Laws of Robotics.  They are the basic marching orders built into sophisticated, humanoid/android robots, a moral safety net if you will.  They provide robots with priorities in dealing with humans and other robots.  The laws:

1.     A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2.   A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3.   A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

At first, I thought they were brilliant, thought they concisely covered all the bases.  But they don’t.  There are many potential conflicts.  For example, how does one define ‘human’?  Cyborgs are humans with non-biological enhancements.  Is there a tipping point, some definable boundary where adding one more piece of hardware changes it from cyborg to robot?  My ruling would be if it started out human, it’ll always be human, and vice versa.

Another problem: can a robot possibly know every action or inaction that might cause harm to a human?  I don’t think so, too many possibilities and scenarios.  Several authors have referenced, analyzed, tested and modified the laws, and some have added complementary laws that deal with the conflicts. 

The imagination and creativity of some sci fi authors boggles my mind, especially when they delve into the moral, legal, social and philosophical issues that arise with artificial intelligence (AI) and alien species.  AI is real.  It’s being developed rapidly and some experts predict that it will replace nearly 50% of the current work force within a decade or so.  Scary!

Are aliens real?  Depends on your definition.  Given the billions of planets in the universe, I have to believe there’s life out there.  Is there sentient life, some kinda critter that ‘thinks’ - as we humans define the term?  Probably.  I doubt that aliens have visited earth, though.  Space is too vast, too many light years between us and our ‘neighbors’.  I can’t imagine any device, technology or power source capable of traveling several light years to distant planets.  But, I couldn’t imagine microwave ovens, cell phones or the internet either.    

Favorite Quotes

Golf: A great walk ruined.  Mark Twain

I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.  Unknown

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.  Randy Hanzlick

Fish and visitors smell after three days.  Ben Franklin

He has delusions of adequacy.  Walter Kerr

It's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.  Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Confucius or George Elliot

We have met the enemy and he is us.  Walt Kelly (Pogo comic strip)

You can't fix stupid.  Ron White

You make me wish that birth control was retroactive.  Redd Foxx

Beat me, whip me, make me write bad checks!  Laurence Kirwan

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.  Oscar Wilde

Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.  Issac Asimov

Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly, and for the same reason.  Jose' Maria De Eca De Queiroz

If designed by a perfect god, why are we so horribly flawed?  Mike Delaney