Monthly Archives: August 2019

Ellsworth AF Base

 


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I relish the positive ones and will learn from the negative ones.

 

 

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING, you need.    NOT the need to have EVERYTHING.

8.21.2019- The Ellsworth Air Force Base

Above right is the first powerhouse rocket, Titan. Below is a B-1 Bomber. This plane can fly to and deliver a full load of armaments anywhere in the world, with perfect accuracy. There’s also a gift shop, as always.

We are now inside the missile silo. This rocker is big! If and when this missile is ever implemented the force of the rocket will ultimately destroy this silo. The truth is the government will never activate just one missile. Should one missile be needed ALL 153 missiles will be activated because the use of this nuclear bomb will constitute an almost end of days scenario.

Behind Carla is a stage-like structure. Should a new rocket be needed this enclosure will be opened to allow placement of a new rocket. Behind the truck-like unit behind Carla is the cover protecting the rocket inside. This cover weighs way over one-hundred tons. It is totally pneumatic if needed to be open. The purpose of this is to guarantee that no computer or mechanical glitches could interfere in the opening of the silo tube. We were told it would only take fifteen seconds to remove this cover. Top right and bottom are some views of this small city with a city. Everything any military personnel would need or want to do is on this property.

Pictures above are of the control centers for this silo. Military personnel here work 24-hour shifts. Below is the plane that was used to fly a candy-drop to build public relation’s in the ’40s.

Left is a B-1B Bomber. My question was what happened to the B-1A bomber. The “A” bomber was built by another contractor than the “B” version. It was twice as fast, going well over mark-2 and was twice as expensive. It had other problems also. The “B” version flies at mark 1.2 but was only half as expensive, so the decision was made for the, I think, Boeing product. This plane has the ability to adjust it wing formation to increase both its speed and stealth abilities.Just as a side note for air-products that have been awesome is the B-52 Bomber, a product of the 50’s. This plane is no longer being built but the Air Force will be leaving this product in service until 2030 or longer, only because it has been such a perfect plane. It continues to be updated and upgraded as new technology presents itself.

This text is courtesy of AirplaneMuseums.com

In January of 1942, the U.S. War Department established Rapid City Army Air Base as a training location for B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber units.

In July of 1945 Rapid City AAB was placed on standby status as the Army Air Forces began to demobilize with the pending end of World War ii.

Rapid City AAB was again reactivated in October of 1945, and designated a permanent facility by the Army Air Force. The base briefly trained weather reconnaissance and combat squadrons using P-61 Black Widow, P-38 Lightning, P-51 Mustang, and B-25 Mitchell aircraft. The airfield was again temporarily closed from September 1946 – March 1947 for a major construction program to upgrade the temporary wartime facilities to that of a permanent base.

When operations resumed in 1947 the base was a new United States Air Force asset. The primary unit assigned to the base was the new 28th Bombardment Wing (28 BMW) flying the B-29 Superfortress.

Today, Ellsworth AFB continues to be a major active military facility and a major contributor to the economy of the Rapid City area.

The host unit at Ellsworth is the 28th Bomb Wing (28 BW) assigned to the Air Combat Command’s Twelfth Air Force. The 28 BW is one of only two B-1B Lancer strategic bomber wings in the United States Air Force, the other being the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess AFB, Texas.

The base is named in honor of Brigadier General Richard E. Ellsworth (1911–1953), who was killed when his RB-36 Peacemaker aircraft crashed near Nut Cove, Newfoundland during a training flight.

Little Bighorn Battlefield


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HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING, you need.  
  NOT the need to have EVERYTHING.

NEW Updates to the end of 2019

Aug. 10th Hardin, MT (RPIx4n)(500m)
Aug 14th Rapid City, SD (PPx14n)
Aug 29th Forest City, IA (Winnebago x5n)
Sept 3rd Cedar Rapids, IA (171m)
Sept. 17th Peoria, IL (177m)
Sept. 16th Batesville, IL (62m)
Sept. 25th Park City, KY(366m)
Oct 9th Knoxville, TN (224m)
Oct. 10th Lenoir, NC (186m)
Oct. 25th Yemassee, SC(269m)
Nov 1st Port Orange, FL (277m)
Nov. 5th Wildwood, FL (82m)
Nov. 26th Pompano, FL
Dec. 10th Christmas, FL
Dec. 16th Pompano, FL
Dec. 30th Wildwood, FL

8.12.2019-Little Battle of Little Bighorn battlefield

It was just a very short ride to the battlefield of Col Custer and Sitting Bull. This was a battle where Lt. Col George Custer was greatly outnumbered. The grounds here commemorate the valor of those involved in this battle.

8.12.2019-Custer State Park

Our visit to this battlefield, to me, was not a moving as, let’s say, Gettysburg. As always there’s always a gift shop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not even going to try to sum up this battle, most know of it, at least. A great site to visit to refresh your memory would be

The battle of Little BigHorn

As you know Custer was very much outnumbered, possibly 10:1. Above was our host, a former history teacher, who gave us a awesome recount of all the events that took place and several locations on June 25, 1876. Below is the spot that Custer’s bother, Boston Custer, fell.

The grave marker with black facing is the spot that Custer was found after the battle. Directly in frnt of him would be his other brother Captain T. W. Custer fell during the battle.

A memorial to all who fought and died, at the battle of Little Bighorn. Below was our starting point for this experience and the spot we were enlightened by our host the history teacher, now Ranger. This would be his next to last presentation prior to his retirement from the National Park Rangers.

 

 

 

Custer State Park

 

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at the bottom of this blog. I relish the positive ones and will learn from the negative ones.

 

 

 

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING, you need.
  NOT the need to have EVERYTHING.

8.19.2019-Custer State Park -pictorial mostly

This is going to be mostly a car-tour of the Custer State Park. In all it will take us three hours to completely experience only two of the many routes of this park. As usual we begin with a visit to the Visitors Center.

 

This little guy is far from family. We see no other members of his herd anywhere around, but that’s somebody else’s problem. Upper right is the first of two tunnels we travel through. Absolutely no place for the coach. Rock formations abound at every turn.

Tunnel number two. This tunnel, unlike the first one, will bring us to one of the parks famous rock structures, Needle Rock, as seen below.

Being Seniors, especially seniors from Florida, we have a hard time passing up an eatery, especially one with such an awesome reputation. We’ve been told by several folks not to pass up the Purple Pie Place in the town of Custer. At this point we have not yet reached our destination, but the food was great. We enjoyed apple pie and ice cream and Carla enjoyed strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

From a distance we spotted a large group of dots on a hillside. We could only hope we would find wildlife. Yes! A herd of bison were far up on the side of the road with dozens of cars and onlookers viewing them. As we were pulling up to the herd they all decided it was time to come down from the hillside and cross the road we were on. It could not have gotten much better then this.

As if the Bison were not enough, about a mile later we came across a small group of mules enjoying the company to the visitors. Must give credit to the people who saw the bison herd, all remained either in or by their cars. A always the day does come to an end and we have a 66-mile drive back to the coach.

 

 

Hart Ranch, Rapid City, SD *****


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at the bottom of this blog.

I relish the positive ones and will learn from the negative ones.

 

 

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING, you need.
  NOT the need to have EVERYTHING.

8.14.2019-Hart Ranch history-from their Web Site

This write-up courtesy of the Hart Ranch Website

His name was John Harrison Hart, and he settled the ranch in the 1880s. It is only fitting that this land bears his name today.

Hart was straight from the pages of Old West history, and he carved out his ranching empire while Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane roamed the streets of Lead and Deadwood.

There is much about him which is legend, but far more which is fact. This bull driver, Civil War fighter, scout, pioneer, and frontiersman blazed a reputation remembered even today by those who live around the ranch. The legend says he arrived in the Black Hills with only $15 in his pocket and survived the first winter by chopping wood for 75¢ a cord. The facts show his hard work, entrepreneurial skill, and innovative mind parlayed what little he had into a successful freight line from Pierre to Rapid City and Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The legend says he never learned to drive a car, even though he lived to see World War II. The fact is that you still can find people who remember driving him around his ranch when – too old to ride a horse or wagon anymore – he just couldn’t stand being away from the land he loved.

The final chapter of our story is the purchase of the 13,000 acre Hart Ranch in 1983 and the construction of the Camping Resort. In 1984 the membership was deeded the 195 acre resort. There are several companies associated with the Hart Ranch name – Hart Ranch Arena, Hart Ranch Golf Course, and Hart Ranch Development Company. The Hart Ranch Camping Resort Club is an independent and separate corporation.

John Harrison Hart came to the emerald forests and creek-carved canyons of the Black Hills during the gold rush days of the 1880s with $15 in his pocket. Tapping his entrepreneurial skills, Hart soon bought a 13,000 acre ranch for himself. But he didn’t let success get to his head. Hart was a true cowboy, driving cattle by horseback on his ranch until his death.

The Western life was all he knew, for though Hart lived to see World War II, he never learned to drive a car. Today, Hart Ranch is South Dakota’s premier recreational resort, but like John Hart, we haven’t let success give us a big head.

We may have swimming pools, hot tubs, and tennis courts, to name a few, but our greatest amenity is the simple Western lifestyle Hart Ranch has represented for over a century.

Just a short post-note to this blog. All campgrounds offer storage areas. This is a parking-lot for RVs, campers, coaches and 5th wheels. Hart Ranch has this tractor trailer truck that works all week bring the RVs that belong to families who decide to visit for a weekend or much longer. These owners notify the camp director as to when they will be arriving and the camp puts the tractor trailer to work fetching the RV from the storage lot and delivering it to a site ready for the campers for when they arrive. I guess all campgrounds do this, it’s just that with over 500 sites, the retrieval ritual is repeated all day long some days. Shortly after the campers leave to go back home or somewhere, here comes the truck to take the RV from the site and store it once again. The cost for storage of an RV is relatively cheap especially when you consider the delivery and removal services.

 

 

 

Dakota Truck & Auto


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at the bottom of this blog. I relish the positive ones and will learn from the negative ones.

 

 

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING, you need.
  NOT the need to have EVERYTHING.

8.15.2019-Coach needs fixes
We were up early for our 8am apt at Dakota Truck and Auto. It basically needed an it change and generator fix. The oil change is basic along with all the other fine points the technician will check. The generator has been acting funny. One we turn it on it goes well for about thirty minutes then goes off. The goes off part is what has concerned us. The oil filter in the engine, which fuels the generator, needed replacing. Item #2 was a new item. When we were bringing in the slide this morning the hydraulic fluid came gushing out. I could only imagine the worse. Dakota Truck recommended Adams, ISC, across the street. I was anticipating having to rebuild the hydraulic line gain or worse. Long story short it was a 2-bit “O-ring” atop the hydraulic fluid reservoir had disintegrated. We were out of there in sixty minutes.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

8.15.2019

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cathedral

To put it simply I cannot find any “History” on this beautiful Cathedral. I will try to find some information in the church itself tonight.

Below, just a close-up of this beautiful but simple alter. The alter sits on a platform about three-feet above the Cathedral floor making it visible to virtually all the parishioners.

  

An exterior view of this magnificent Cathedral. Below is just a small sampling of the beautiful stained-glass windows.

The image above is what would usually be a “Rose-Window.” This, however is not round and definitely not rose. It is, however, an awesome piece of architecture. Below is the Baptismal Font. My picture does not do it justice. It is a very beautiful and peaceful venue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The text below is courtesy of CMRI

Devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help spread quickly to the United States. When the Redemptorists established a mission church near Boston, they dedicated it to Our Lady under this title and were privileged to receive from Rome the first copy of the icon which had been touched to the original and blessed.1 On Pentecost Sunday, May 28, 1871, the icon was carried in a magnificent procession to the church, where it was enshrined above the main altar. As with the original image in Rome, no sooner had the painting been displayed for public veneration than the miracles began. Soon the small wooden church was thronged with so many devotees of Our Mother of Perpetual Help that it soon became necessary to begin construction of a new, larger church. But even the large beautiful new church which was dedicated in 1878 could not hold the thousands who flocked to the miraculous image in those early years — and rightly so!

Between the years of 1871 and 1884, according to Fr. John Byrne, C.SS.R., “no less than 331 well-authenticated cures had been reported, some of which had been wrought in favor of people living so far away as West Virginia and Texas.”2 In 1886 alone, from January 1 to May 31, he continues, “thirty-one cures, apparently beyond the power of nature to effect, were reported.” A few years later, seven cures were reported to have taken place on a single day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1891.

The weekly devotions in honor of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is a custom that was introduced in 1922 at St. Alphonsus Church in St. Louis, Missouri, which at one point drew as many as eighteen thousand people every week. The devotion spread quickly from church to church until eventually, in St. Louis as in New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago, and Boston, it became necessary to schedule eight to ten services a day to accommodate all the people who wanted to honor Our Lady under this title. Before long the custom of weekly devotions in honor of Our Mother of Perpetual Help had spread worldwide.

EF-1 Tornado-Hardin, MT

 

Please take the time to leave a comment at the bottom of this blog. I relish the positive ones and will learn from the negative ones.

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING, 
you need. 
NOT the need to have EVERYTHING.

8.11.2019-EF-1 Tornado, in our Big Horn County

It was around 7:30 pm and we were watching a Superman movie. The scene was Clark Kent’s father being sucked up by a horrendous tornado.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fast forward to 8:30pm the wind was picking up, the extended awning on the coach was moving radically, our door is locked in the open position and the screen interior door is rattling violently. Carla instinctively told me to get the awning in and after I would try to close our door. The awning retracted with difficulty but the door would be a different story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stepped down our steps and unlatched our door and then it happened. The wind came up so violently I could barely retrace my steps back into the coach. The unlatched door would not break away from the wind forcing it against the coach. I tried again to close the fixated door by leaning out the door opening desperately holding to an inside boarding bar in the coach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Within seconds after leaning out to try to close our door my body felt as though it was in the clutches of an invisible force. This force was desperately trying to pry my body out the open doorway and away from the coach and the door continued to affix itself to the coach. Finally after about 2-3 minutes the wind suddenly died in force for about 15 seconds. I took advantage of the break to close the coach door. Within seconds we had all the windows in the motorhome closed and we immediately retreated to the presumed safety of our bedroom. Instinctively we positioned ourselves at the foot of the bed and pulled our foot-thick Denver mattress over our heads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It did not take a person with a PhD in weather anomalies to know we were in trouble. In the minutes it took me to retrieve the door I could not remember seeing a  funnel cloud, but the clouds were so dark and ominous they could only have come straight from hell. The wind began again with seconds of our closing the door and we were spellbound, lying perpendicular to our bed on the floor.

The sounds of the wind outside beating up the coach in every direction was a horrendous roar. Did it sound like a train I did not have a chance to think of that. The coach was shaking left to right in endless motions. Lying on the floor with our mattress as our make-shift ceiling cover  was frightening. For fifteen minutes or more the floor shook, it never ceased bouncing up and down from just an inch to much more over and over again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The heat under the mattress was almost unbearable. We both had difficulty in breathing but we felt relatively safe. Was it a tornado, yes; but not directly over our location. Were we afraid I’d say yes, we’ve experienced many challenges in the past, even a brush with hurricane Irma from a few years ago, but this was life threatening. Not having seen any funnel cloud in the direction of the wind, minutes ago, I felt fairly certain we would not be sucked up into the upper atmosphere, but I felt strongly the chances were very good this might just be a Microburst. The type of weather phenomenon that could easily crush and flatten our coach, hopefully our mattress might cushion us from severe injuries with this possibility. Another possibility is a chance that a high-enough wind could topple our motorhome to its side or that another RV, with a strong enough wind, being jammed into us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For 15 to 20 minutes we huddled in place frightened, praying and feared life’s worse scenario. The tornado, an EF-1, was located mostly in the Billings, MT area, not far from here, but we were experiencing the outer winds of this very heavy wind. By 8:50 the heavy winds subsided and we extricated ourselves from our shelter. The pictures of the clouds were after the weather phenomenon had ended. The clouds just twenty minutes ago were so black I doubt I would have been able to take a decent picture. We and many of the other RVers here began to go out and ask if everyone was okay.

Never want to experience something like this ever again!

Courtesy of the Northern Wyoming News:

WORLAND – The National Weather Service completed their site investigation to a storm that hit Powder River Pass on June 19 and has categorized the storm that caused damage to trees and snow fences as an EF-1 tornado.

According to a release from the NWS Riverton office, on Wednesday, June 19, a thunderstorm began to develop on the border of Park and Big Horn counties around 5 p.m. As this storm moved east it strengthened and reached its peak intensity in extreme southeastern Big Horn County. The storm crossed into Johnson County and produced a tornado on Powder River Pass in the Bighorn Mountains just before 7 p.m.

Considerable tree damage occurred along and near US Highway 16 as the tornado moved east along its 3.7 mile path. Hundreds of conifer trees were uprooted or snapped at their trunks. Additionally, several large wooden snow fences were torn apart, with fencing debris thrown in all directions. This tornado was unusual in that it occurred at a high elevation of just under 10,000 feet along its western path.

The damage produced by this storm was consistent with an EF-1 tornado, with estimated peak winds of 110 mph. The time of the tornado was estimated by comparing the location of the damage with radar imagery, according to the NWS release.

The maximum width of the storm path was 250 yards.

Tillamook Creamery

Please take the time to leave a comment at the bottom of this blog. I relish the positive ones and will learn from the negative ones.

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING, 
you need. 
NOT the need to have EVERYTHING.

7.20.2019-Tillimook Creamery in Tillamook, OR

 

 

 

 

 

This is the Tillamook Creamery. It is located in, where else but, Tillamook, OR. Every year this museum/creamery is viewed by over 1.3-million people.

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone touring this complex will go home with a great admiration on the Tillamook attitude towards farming and cattle in particular. For us city folks we’ll learn how intense caring for cattle is on a daily basis. I lost the picture I had of a mechanical scratching wheel designed for the pleasure of the cattle they care for.

 

 

 

 

 

As you walk through this self-guided tour you will be taught the process of making cheese. This learning process is presented in pictures, kiosks and videos.
In our travels what we see, more than anything else, are farms. We both have a great deal of admiration for all those farmers who take so much pride in the areas where their cattle feed and live each day. Sadly so many times we see cattle meandering around in twelve inches of mud. It probably makes no difference in the milk they produce but in all fairness, with all the land most cattle farmers have, they should have more consideration for their animals.

 

 

 

 

 

The Tillamook Factory produces more than 170,000 pounds of cheese each day. It also produces and makes available over one-million pounds of cheese to be sold to the public each week.

Above is the Octopus. Tillamook cheese is aged in forty-pound-cubes for periods of 60 days to, as many as, five-years. Up to fifty-million pounds of cheese is stored and aged at this location on average.

 

Above is the tasting bar. Several flavors and types of Tillamook Cheese are available for consumer consumption in hopes you’ll not go home empty handed. At every venue you’ll almost always find an eatery and a gift shop. This eatery is huge offering items from burgers to ice cream to its guests.

 

 

 

 

 

Our trip here was very exciting and educational. If you’re in the area take time to visit this location.

Grandview Camp & RV Park

Please take the time to leave a comment at the bottom of this blog. I relish the positive ones and will learn from the negative ones.

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING, 
you need. 
NOT the need to have EVERYTHING.

8.10.2019-Grandview Camp & RV Park
Welcome to Grandview. The view is not really that grand. This is one of those private parks. It’s also a Good Sam Park. These four days we pay the full price but we needed a resting place for four days before we can move on to Rapid City, SD.

 

 

 

 

 

This is not a very big park actually kind of small. I bet it’s a great little business. Upper left is the site plan for the park, we’re in #36. Below is what we always hope for, a wide entrance to the office. We’re also greeted by Smokey the Bear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upper right is the office; it’s in a state of renovation inside. As you can see in the lower left pic. What is nice about this rv park is a major fuel station on the other side of the road entrance to the park; how convenient. In its defense we do have cable, 50amp, satellite, sewer and very good Verizon phone reception. Everything we are always hoping for.

St. Joseph CC

8.10.2019

St. Joseph Church, Hardin, MT

 

 

 

 

 

St. Joseph’s, as you can see from the pictures below, is a very pretty Church. The congregation is not that large or they all go to Mass on Sunday, not sure.

 

 

 

 

 

Large or small it is a church and deserves being mentioned in a blog. The next church we attend, in Rapid City, SD is a Cathedral and is very impressive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Travel to Hardin, MT

Please take the time to leave a comment at the bottom of this blog. I relish the positive ones and will learn from the negative ones.

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING, 
you need. 
NOT the need to have EVERYTHING.

8.08.2019-1st stop would be Idaho Falls, ID.
Last thing I saw last night was a caution light on the dash saying “Oil level low-Check!” It would have to wait until tomorrow morning, to dark right now. Windows open , Scooty slept through the night, Carla is sleeping like a log and here I am at 4am thinking about the oil level in the coach. Just like last night, it’s to dark to do anything else but think about the situation. To make a long story short I did find the 5W30 motor oil and we did make it to Idaho Falls, safely.

 

 

 

 

 

The sky, as you can see, was always a little threatening, but nothing came of it, at least not today. In the next picture you can see what it looks like to be homeless, as we and many others are, and enjoy the lifestyle of free stays at a Walmart.

 

8.09.2019 Next stop Butte, MT -now Bozeman, MT

 

 

 

 

 

What an early start, around 8am, rarely happens. Then we checked out the GPS and it projected we’d be in Butte around noon, give or take. 

 

With a 300-mile trip on Saturday. So we decided to extend the travel today 85-miles to Bozeman, MT.

  

 

 

 

 

 It was all highway with, once again, some very awesome sights. As we travelled West we caught a glimpse of the Rocky Mountains to our south, not to mention thousands of acres of corn, wheat and potatoes. Below, I thought, might have been a plant to convert corn to the oil for possibly fuel, but no! It was a oil distillery. They get their oil on trains from Canada to make fuel to be distributed throughout this region. Below, we often see, are these huge water falls. This picture does not do it justice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see from the picture above, the rain did finally come. Not a heavy downpour, just a constant heavy drizzle. For some reason the coach seems to love this type of weather. It moves us along with just a slight hum from the engine. It could almost put you to sleep; not good for the driver, however! We did arrive in Bozeman just minutes before 2 pm, cold not ask for anything better, considering the distance.

8.10.20`19-Sat. travel to Hardin, MT for a 4-day stay.

 

 

 

 

It was a very easy ride, almost boring, if it had not been for the awesome views along the way. It is so hard to believe that our farmers manage such big farms, and, by the way, who eats all this corn and wheat they produce.

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve seen farms that must have been over one-thousand acres of just corn alone. Wheat and hay was  produced as far as Bozeman, MT  with the assistance of vast irrigation systems. As we pushed forward, closer to Billings, MT we saw farms producing hay and wheat with no irrigation systems at all. I believe we were told that these acres were producing “dry-wheat.”

 

 

 

 

 

All they do is let it grow then cut, bail, stack and watch the next generation of wheat to come out of the ground. Livingston, MT was just before Billings. The rolling hills were awesome. Tom Brokaw has a farm here, and we think it might be for sale. As we arrived in Billings at the Petroglyphs cave we saw this sign.

 

 

 

 

 

The inducement to take this walk was this paved walkway, that would soon change.

 

 

 

 

 

We did make it to the first of the three caves. I don’t think either of us were that impressed with the pictographs; we’ve seen better. In the picture below is a cropped version of a cave painting.

 

 

 

 

Above possibly a gator or crocodile. I’ll let you decide what the picture in the upper right might depict. I see a fish in one spot. Like I said we’d seen drawings from the ancients that were much better. Definitely not his or her calling.

 

 

 

 

 

Upper left just right of center you’ll notice three black spots. Those were added in the last fifty years to indicate the level of the floor before the archeologists began tearing things apart. Many artifacts were discovered in this cave. But we have two more caves to investigate.

 

 

 

 

 

The pathway has become either gravel or crushed stone, still not bad to walk on. Upper left is our new destination. cave #2. Dead center in the picture below is where we saw the first cave. The second unimpressive cave is below right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To make this long story short the walkway to worse and we decided to pass on cave #3 and start back to the coach. You can barely make out the coach in upper right pic but it’s there, we just have to walk back on this gravel path. This was the first time we’d taken the coach to a venue, usually we get to the campground and drive back but the campground in Hardin is forty-five miles from here and we were going right by it so we coached it to this venue, possibly never again. From here were going to travel to the Grandview Camp and RVPark. Not much to brag about but, nonetheless, I gave it it’s own blog.

Petroglyphs and Carla’s Birthday*

Please take the time to leave a comment at the bottom of this blog. I relish the positive ones and will learn from the negative ones.

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING, 
you need. 
NOT the need to have EVERYTHING.

 

8.05.2019-Petroglyphs of Celebration Park in Melba, ID.

DSC_0002.jpgK

 

 

 

 

 

The Petroglyphs in these pictures are from Melba, ID. They are, however, found all over the country. The boulders found in this area date back over 15,000 years. The Petroglyph images go back to the 1300’s. Most pictures are primitive for the people living in this area at the time.

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Exactly what these images portray no one is sure. The inhabitants of this area were, most likely, had no knowledgeable of the Gregorian Calendar. Rocks exemplifying dots might have been the primitives trying to keep track of days, seasons or even marks indication each new arrival for that year. Below left is a star image and the mark in the 9 o’clock position is 0.06 degrees of true north but when the professionals calculate for shifts in the world crust the 9 o’clock marking is exactly focused on true north and is also aligned to the North Star called Polaris, the star you find at the tip of the Big Dipper that stays in the same position at all times.

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Above is a picture of Henry a Park Service Person. If it were not for him we would have gone home with a big feeling of disappointment concerning this trip. A quick look of the Snake River in this area. The inhabitants inhabiting this area centuries ago were not annual inhabitants. They would arrive in the late fall and leave the area in early spring. With no air conditioning yet, they had no incentive to endure the heat. Below left was a possible image of a sheep. The dots may be explained as their way to show shading on the animal, or possibly, a primitive method of keeping track of time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a very dry area with the great option of the Snake River for irrigation. The road picture is just a depiction of how desolate and even boring traveling some of these Idaho roads. On a positive note for Idaho, their roads are in excellent condition. In our stay here I’ve seen only on major pothole.  Below is the 8000 Series Precision irrigation system. It delivers water to very dry land masses. It will pivot at the beginning and send water through the piping at the top of the unit to a distance of 2800 feet, almost a one-half mile in length. It then pivots in a semi-arch very slowly covering hundreds of acres of land.

 

 

 

 

 

Carla’s Birthday:
We did finally get home a little after 4pm. We both needed some time to unwind. For dinner we had the usual, a salad, followed by a 4-ounce cheesecake, in place of a small birthday cake and finally one of Carla’s favorite movies; SAVING MR. BANKS. This was a movie on the origins of Mary Poppins. No pictures this year, maybe next year. We will to a nice dinner once we find ourselves in a bigger city with more restaurants to choose from.

 

 

Our Lady of Good Counsel

8.03.2019

Saturday-Our Lady of Good Counsel

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s Saturday night which means Mass at another new church. This week we’ll be attending Our Lady of Good Counsel. We’ve never come across a church by this name before. Fr. German Osorio presided over the service with an awesomely inspiring sermon on the shallow importance on earthly things. How interesting that this sermon would mimic the saying we post in all our blogs: “Happiness is to have everything, you need. Not the need to have everything.” It was probably just me but I did find a correlation in the statements.

 

 

 

 

 

The pictures may not be as sharp as usual since I was lazy and used my cell phone then shot a picture with my camera. What you cannot see in this picture is that the statue of the Blessed Virgin is holding a “Brown Scapular.”

Mountain Home, ID&RVPark

Please take the time to leave a comment at the bottom of this blog. I relish the positive ones and will learn from the negative ones.

HAPPINESS is to have EVERYTHING, 
you need. 
NOT the need to have EVERYTHING.

 

8.01.2019 Preparing to travel
Can you believe, the end of another month. At the same time we’re preparing for our next move. I’ve pulled the tanks and filled the fresh water tank so we’re 90% ready to go. Our next destination is about 450 miles from here so we’ll be doing an Walmart overnight in Island City, OR our last time to experience this gorgeous state. We’ll leave Island City on Saturday and arrive in Mountain Home, ID for a 5-day stay. All I know about this will be an RPI resort and will cost us ten-dollars a night and they warn it’s dusty there, still cheap enough. We will leave Mountain Home on the 8th of August. During our stay we plan on experiencing more petroglyphs from the past. As hard as I’ve tried I’m still one-blog behind, but will make it happen soon. We said good-by to Dawn and Dick, a very young couple possibly in their early forties, in their Zephyr motorhome. It made our couch look like a classic from the past, but it’s home to us.

8.04.2019-Sunday-Would be wash day.
The washers and dryers here come in at $1.00 and $1.25 per load cheapest we’ve seen in months if ever. Does not mean that they’ll be fully dry but it’s cheap. I relocated some of my winter clothing to a closet chest below and found my bathing suit. Yes, swimming might be on tap later today. High 90’s today but the coach is almost cold inside. I really thought today was going to be one of those do-nothing days but out of thin air Carla asked if we could goto the pool here at Mountain Home RVPark. So off we went, expecting to do not more than waddle around and talk to each other but what a surprise. We had the pleasure to meet the Thorne family; so awesome to be young as they were.  Not only that but their son Chase visited this Web Site, something neither of my kids ever do, and left a comment. It will be a long time before we forget the pleasant visit we had with this family. When we got back to the coach who shows up but Chase and a family member. Chase had our Web Site on his tablet, something I did not have until I was 70. They all enjoyed Scoots and Scoots was nice enough, this time, not to run and hide from them. Thanks to this visit we now have a few more ideas on venues to visit while we work our way East and eventually back to Florida. For now it’s back to my Sudoku.