Tag Archives: bicycling

20180828 Family and Friends:

We are “On the Road Again” after two days off to visit family, the Morgan clan, and friends, long time Bluegrass friends and renewed acquaintances from a chance meeting in Yukon Territory in 2007.

So first we joined the Morgan family for Sunday supper at a nice pork chop dinner. Conversation centered around Abe and Carrie’s oldest son, Gavin, who was recently accepted into the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh Scotland. He will be traveling there next week. Younger brother, Layton, will be a Junior in high school. We must get by here more often than every 6 years. My, my how my grand nephews have grown and changed.
Continue reading 20180828 Family and Friends:

20180821 The Great Mountain Journey aka Rocky Mountain High:

Today is Tuesday, August 21, 2018, and Judy and I are going to make an extended trip around and through the Rocky Mountains including the states of Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and end up in Texas for Thanksgiving. Now this is not to be the “All American Vacation,” where you can look at your watch and say “Oh! it’s Tuesday, we must be in Denver.” Instead It will be a “Meandering.”

The NP Wallace Idaho Depot Museum
The NP Wallace Idaho Depot Museum

Here is my definition:
Meandering Vacation: To drive a hundred miles or so and find a place to stay. If there is interesting things to do, stay a couple days. Then pack up and do it all over again. Have a general idea where you want to end up, but make your decisions on where to go based on chatting with fellow campers and your bucket list.
Agents Desk looking into the Ladies Waiting Room
Agents Desk looking into the Ladies Waiting Room

Peeking into Agent's Office from the Ladies Waiting Room
Peeking into Agent’s Office from the Ladies Waiting Room

Today’s goal is St Regis and we are going to ride the Hiawatha trail tomorrow. We will be following in Judy’s dad’s wheel ruts as we traverse Lookout Pass. Pat Starr drove for PIE and liked to bid the Lookout Turn or Missoula Run. The Lookout Turn had the Spokane and Missoula drivers start at the same time and meet at the top of Lookout Pass. They swapped trucks and returned to their home base. Home every day. The Missoula trip went all the way, layed over for rest and returned home the next night. Home every other day.

How my Blog works:
I upgraded my website this weekend. It is acting kind-a strange, however. I installed a new reCAPTCHA routine so I can open up the comments function again. However, I did not get the defunct reCAPTCHA removed properly so if you just make a comment and then try to post it, the new reCAPTIA gets trumped by the ghost of the old reCAPTIA and you can’t leave a comment. However if you are a member and you have signed in, you get shuttled around the whole reCAPTIA thing and your comment goes right in. Trouble is, the reCAPTIA guards the registration too. If you are already a member you can comment, everyone else will have to wait until I figure out what to do.
I expect to try a number of styles for the web pages themselves, feel free to leave comments either here or on Facebook. I will continue to post a text only version to e-mail. I have recently been posting a link on my Facebook page also.
Ending note: We have stopped in Wallace to visit the historic NP Wallace Depot. I will write a few highlights and include a photo and then send this Blog to the publisher.
The Wallace Northern Pacific Depot museum was built in 1901 so it is 117 years old. It has been moved several hundred feet and across the river to make room for I-90.

Prince Albert in a Can
Prince Albert in a Can

It is beautiful and very worth the time to stop and see. W took up three full on street parking stalls right on the main drag. We spent a good hour in the museum. I still think the Ritzville NP Depot museum has done a better job of representing the look and feel of a railroad depot. Wallace has too much stuff displayed out of context. Besides, they forgot the crowning touch. Ritzville has a genuine Prince Albert Tobacco tin jammed down behind the telegraph sounder. Every depot when I was working the Northern Pacific had the exact same thing. An empty Prince Albert Tobacco tin wedged between the sounder electro-magnets and the wooden back of the sounder box. This is thought to amplify the sound of the telegraph so you can read the code easier.

2014: Out Like a Lion:

I have been known to briefly summarize the previous year. Emphasis on briefly. 2014 certainly went out like a lion here in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. High temperature for the day was 41 degrees and windy with the overnight low at 37.7. I am not really complaining, mind you; but we spent a fair amount of time and money hauling our butts down here to be warm. I was prepping the coach for travel this morning with wool socks, long pants, long sleeve shirt, sweat shirt and wooly vest. In the interest of brevity I will finish with the news that today is sunny and bright and the winds are calm. The snow looks just fine over on the mountains around Lake Havasu. Continue reading 2014: Out Like a Lion:

Dancing on Clouds:

We have completed a very challenging shakedown ride on the new tandem, Golanth, the bronze dragon. Here are the details: First we are now at L. L. Stub Stewart State Park near Vernonia, Oregon. This park is in the middle of the Banks Vernonia State Trail. It is in the coast range of mountains and has some severe hills to negotiate. Continue reading Dancing on Clouds: