John and Carols Blog

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2009-11-20T12:44:00.000-08:00

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2009-11-18T13:51:00.001-08:00

Well sitting in an airport again and waiting. There was chaos at the security check in as they had a new toy to play with, a drug and explosive sniffer but you had to wear your shoes through this one then take them off. Of course, we sheep are now conditioned to remove our shoes so everybody was retrieving shoes from the boxes on their way through the xray machine then by the time they had gone through the sniffer their boxes had gone. The security people were getting a little hoarse but we sheep just looked puzzled and were eventually herded to the next holding pen.

The Bombay is ready to go on it's mooring in Chocolate Hole, St Johns and the sea trial is scheduled for Thursday. I am not sure if the surveyor will make it. I guess I will hear from him tonight.

I overdid things a bit yesterday. After a hectic morning at Tropical shipping loading the barrels with my stuff and sorting out the manifest I thought a swim would be a pleasant way of cooling off so I walked over to the beach to discover surf was up and an entrepreneur was renting out boogie boards and frog feet. After ½ an hour of mental fun I suddenly realized that I was so tired I could barely stand and stagger up the beach. This being 62 with a mental age of 13 is the pits.

Back to the USA

2009-11-15T09:45:00.000-08:00

Back in the USA and heading for Miami. The trip from the Rio Dulce to Guatemala City involved a leg on a chicken bus.

I was expecting one of these and was looking forward to the ride.

Instead I got one of these, but it got me there albeit at considerable environmental cost to the atmosphere and some discomfort to my rear as the seats were plank wood and all vestige of springing or shock absorbing was long gone.

Then when I got to my hotel and logged on to print my ticket I had got moved to an earlier flight. They had warned me that this was possible. A 4.30 am start, is there such a time/

But the good news is that I have finally made up my mind on a boat, I think anyway, providing it passes the sea trial. The Bombay Explorer 44 which I had looked at before down in the BVI has finally been extracted from the back of the boatyard and splashed. I think I will be flying down to St Thomas on Thursday this week with hopes for a sea trial on Friday.

SEDUCED BY THE RIO DULCE

2009-11-13T10:48:00.000-08:00

Well I am not going to buy this boat. There is just to much to do and the timeline for repairs, escaping from the river over the shallow bar and the necessity to be on my way to a safe area for the 2010 hurricane season does not make sense.

Not to mention the termite poo, apparently the black poo comes from drywood termites and the sawdusty stuff from the normal variety.

However this is a great area and I plan to come back for a visit on my forever boat at sometime in the future.

I can even visualise myself staying at Mango Marina with Lesbia cooking breakfast again and the resident white heron waiting on the next boat for a passing fish.

The wildlife is outstanding with manatee, plentiful fish including giant tarpon and these cute little finches that have taken up residence on the anchor rodes.

Delving into the bowels of Pacifico

2009-11-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

The owners have suggested that I liveaboard Pacifico while checking here out. This makes it much easier as she is moored 2 miles by river from the nearest road.

I started by getting the, some what tired, dink in the water and fitting the outboard. Bob who is helping the owners sell Pacifico was directing operations and more in hope than expectation gave here a squeeze and a couple of pulls. It was a forlorn hope. The motor and fuel had been sitting in the hot sun for more than a year. But it is a Yamaha and it started second pull.

Lesbia seems to run the Marina and lives in the Palapa right in front of Pacifico. Nothing is too much trouble for her and her breakfasts are great!

The Rio Dulce is a special area and although there is real borderline subsistance fishing and gathering class here everyone I have met so far is friendly and helpful. Even the two couples sitting next to me in the restaurant who were from North London. Small world indeed.

The boat needs work and I suppose I have to decide how much I have to do before going sailing and how much can be an ongoing project. It really needs rewiring the aft cabin needs gutting and refitting from the fibreglass out as it has termites and some nasty chemicals which were used in an effort to kill the beasties.

Still there are worse places in the world to be stuck for a while.

Pictures of termite poo in the next blog!

Boat hunting on the Rio Dulce Guatemala

2009-11-08T18:03:00.000-08:00

My hunt for the "right" boat has taken me to Mango Marina on the Rio Dulce.

To get here I flew into Guatemala City on Saturday November the 7th and stayed over night at the Torres Guest house, an OK if slightly run down place with one unusual feature not found in any guest house I have stayed before. The charming young man who carried my bags in sported a pump action pistol grip shotgun.

Armed guards were everywhere and the pump seems to be the weapon of choice.

Pretty scary when you go to the local version of Macdonalds and this guy is leaning against the wall. Hamburger bandits rule OK.

When I got the bus for the long trip down here I got my next surprise.

The bus which looked like a new [ish] coach on the internet was a really old Mercades that had many hard miles behind it and many holes in the bodywork. Yet more armed guards greeted me when I boarded the bus and I was efficiently searched my backpack opened and searched and a metal detector waved over me. The bus was driven by a very neatly dressed boy who did not look like he needed to shave yet. Still we got here and in reality despite the holes and rattles eveything vital seemed in excellent working order especially the horn. Oh yes all the safety searches were a waste of time as the bus picked up people all the way down at roadside stops without a guard in sight.

Guatemala, so far seems to be a beautiful country full of really helpful people and many of them carry guns!

Goodbye

2009-11-01T18:21:00.000-08:00

We say goodbye to the Trek in the car park of Motel 6 in Orlando

as Gary and Melissa prepare to drive off in their new acquisition.

There were great moments in the last two years, the Alcan, wolves in Yellowstone, tranquility in the Teons and so many more.

But now the Caribbean beckons. So it is with little regret that I say goodbye to Orlando. My vision of hell includes in part the Bluewater shopping centre so International Drive Orlando which consists of many shopping centres stitched together with tawdry souvenir shops selling the same tat is hell squared.

I am down Fort Lauderdale after stashing our "stuff" in a storage unit. The boat show is on here but it is of little interest to me as it is mainly giant gin palaces aimed at the Berie Madoffs of this world.
However I can walk along the beach with Ferraris snarling past, grannies overtaking me on skateboards and a very swish couple with matching Yorkies jogging their way to lunch in Las Olas.

But I was on my way to slip F18 Bahia Mar Marina.

I paused for a moment to think on Travis Magee whose houseboat was moored here for years and Miss Agnes his 1936 bright blue Rolls Royce pickup truck. Both of course are creatures of fiction.

But this is running around Florida somewhere.

On my way back I was held up by that east coast phenomenon, an Intercoastal Waterway Bridge which is raised by a demand from any passing sailboat I called for many bridge openings when I sailed Carpe Diem from Miami North to Washigton DC and was indifferent to the delays caused. Now it was my turn to be delayed.

So was this skater. Another Fort Lauderdale moment.

We say goodbye to our Safari Trek

2009-10-26T13:04:00.000-07:00

Like a owning a boat the two best days of RV ownership are supposed to be the day you take possession and the day you sell.

But we were both very sad to see our faithfull Trek depart with new owners today. It carried us from Texas down the Baja in Mexico and all the way up to Alaska as well as many National Parks. So many great days on the road, fantastic destinations and comfortable nights in places as diverse as Walmart car parks, everyday camp grounds and wilderness boondocking sites.

We hope Gary and Melissa get as much fun Trekking as we did.

Now the next task is to make up our mind about a boat.

Old Town Kissimmee on cruise night again

2009-10-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

We met Carol's brother Dave in Old Town Kissimmee last Saturday evening for the ritual so common in many US towns of the car cruise.

Dave would only stand in front of a Ford.

I picked a pristine Vette

But really liked this outragous dragster car from the 60s complete with wheely bars and giant ram pipes on top of the 671 blower. Apparently it is street legal!

This one was super clean though.

POPPIN SOME CAPS IN ORLANDO

2009-10-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

We got a chance to do what every boy and lots of girls have wanted since Clint uttered those immortal words "...and this is a 44 magnum, the most powerful hand gun in the world"

Yup we shot the dirty Harry gun. But only after Dave, Carols brother had checked us out on some lighter stuff and made sure we were safe and knew what to expect.

Starting with a 357 revolver and lighter 38 bullets we got to blow away the blue man while practicing our range safety and reloading procedures.

We had a variety of politically incorrect targets to choose from as well as the common bulls eye.

I enjoyed blowing away Burt with my Glock 45 and got reasonable groupings albeit at relatively short range most of the time. I did try a magazine at the full length of the range but found that my eye sight is now so restricted that I do not have the depth of field to "see" the sights and the target clearly at the same time.

Dave was a good teacher and we quickly got good groupings and felt safe handling the revolvers and the automatics.

Dave had the big gun and we knew when he was blasting away because the noise and shockwave was much greater. I expected the difference in recoil when it was my turn but the violence of the kick was still a shocker and after only two shots I could feel the growing ache in my wrists.

Carol actually moved backwards when the recoil hit but her injury came when a hot shell casing from her automatic lodged in her cleavage. Nasty!

'CRUZIN' in Old Town In Kissimmee

2009-10-12T16:45:00.000-07:00

We moved up to Orlando to see Carol's brother Dave who was over for a week.

For something to do on the first night before we hooked up with Dave we looked in on Kissimmee "Old Town". It was Old Time Car Cruising night. Everything from 30s Willys 5 windows to a Plymouth Superbird [ a replica I think ] to a really Cherry 50 Ford.

But some one just could not resist the temptation to go tacky!

Condos, a lighthouse some injured turtles and a boat

2009-10-01T17:27:00.000-07:00

We had a look at some of the bargains in the housing market here in Florida. The realtor tried hard with a 50% discount but the "marina" turned out to be some semi derelict boats

and the possibility of some mooring balls. The condos were pretty inside with marble floors but the neighborhood is not good.

Still someone paid 3/4 mill not so long ago for it.

We drove down to Jupiter and had a look at the lighthouse.

Nowadays it still lights the way home for the rare boater without GPS

But it mostly signposts the most costly real estate in Florida, Celine Dion lives here and Tiger Woods is building.

The Turtle hospital seems well resourced and full of volunteers some cleaning tanks and others scrubbing algae off hatchlings using toothbrushes.

However all the adults seemed to do is try to climb over the tank lip and escape to the sea.

The turtle place also had these strange fish called look downs in quite small tanks, we wondered why?

We have a boat under offer at last. An elegant old lady that someone poured lots of time effort and money into.

If she surveys well she will be our home in the future,

Tortola Trip

2009-09-07T08:41:00.001-07:00

I have just spent an entertaining few days visiting Tortola in the BVI to look at some boats. Erica, a big lass who could not make up her mind, made sure that “I was living in interesting times”

In the end it mostly rain but flights were canceled, ferries stopped running, hurricane shutters went up and anyone responsible for boats was scurrying around making sure the storm lines were securely tied. But Erica was partly responsible for one of the strangest experiences in my life.

I got to the terminal in Charlotte Amalie in plenty of time only to find an eerie site, no queues at check in and going through security I was on my own. The security operative powered up the xray machine and my bag was duly scanned. I was waved through to the departure lounge where a few people sat n front of a single attendant. They were swiftly boarded and the attendant chatted with the floor sweeper

then she left me on my own in a vast echoing and entirely deserted terminal.

This was not entirely true there was me and two fellow fliers, but I am pretty sure they did not have tickets. I felt that I was an actor in a scene from some “end of the world” film.

Eventually some one appeared a few minutes before my boarding time and called my name. It turned out that I had the whole aircraft to myself with two flight attendants to look after me. She then proceeded to improvise on the lack of a tannoy, bellowing out the the opening of the gate and immediately called last call for passengers on my flight. All this while digging out a monster umbrella and beckoning me forward. I was ushered on board seated and they wound up the elastic for my private flight to San Juan. “ Je suis un rockstar!”

I am heading up to Orlando to pick up Carol who has been back in the UK sorted out her house purchase

and working for a German Shepherd rescue society.

This is Kaiser who now has a new home.

SHUTTLE LAUNCH AT NIGHT

2009-08-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

Well it finally got off. I would have liked to see it from Manatee Hannock up at Titusville but even from 70 miles away it was still impressive.

It turned the low clouds into sunset pink then clmbed through the upper sky to orbit. It is the third launch I have seen and the wonder is still there.

It has been seriously wet here with a convergence line setting up over the area yesterday, big boomers and 2 inches of rain was the result. The lights went out for a while but one of the advantages of being a RV is you just start the genny and the lights come back on for you.

SHUTTLE LAUNCH BLUES

2009-08-25T17:40:00.000-07:00

Well I am up in Titusville, opposite the shuttle launch site in Cape Canaveral, sitting in a pretty nice campground called Manatee Hammock, but singing the shuttle launch blues.

Stayed up to 1.30 in the morning and waited at the waters edge along with thousands of others, all hoping to see a night launch.

With only a few minutes to go they were counting down when BIG SPARKIES hit the Cape a few miles south of the launch site. The regulars looked at each other shrugged their shoulders and started packing up. A couple of minutes later came the official word from NASA saying "cancelled due to weather".

I booked in for another night on the strength of a positive forecast and an update from Nasa reschduling the launch for 1.05am. Wednesday morning. Tonight came the bad news, a main engine fuel supply valve has failed, and the launch is cancelled possibly to October.

Still I met some nice locals

including this one sipping fresh water from a leaky hose in the marina.

Florida Thunderstorms

2009-08-09T17:54:00.000-07:00

It is hot and the thunderstorms roll in with the sea breezes and line up on the convergence lines. If one sets up camp where you are several inches of rain are possible. Well that is what happened. I disconnected all the electrics and sat there with the rain pounding down.

When it was all over the depression behind the Trek was now a little lake. It might be an anti flood catch pond I suppose but it still looks pretty as well as holding some of the loudest frogs in the world.

I am getting on with some little jobs that need doing before I advertise the Trek for sale.

Nothing major needed just a coat of varnish on the woodwork and some cleaning.

SILVER SPRINGS CYPRUS GARDENS and EPCOT

2009-07-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

Silver Springs

Since the 1850s, the natural beauty of Silver Springs has attracted exploiters from around the country. Glass bottom boat tours of the springs began in the late 1870s and we took one in 2009, a bored captain with a delivery that was almost unintelligible, gave a commentary of the features on the bottom of this crystal clear lake of springwater including some statues placed their for some film.

But Carol had remembered animals roaming freely on islands and sadly this was not the case anymore.

Bored bears chewed on dustbins,

giraffes begged for food from the punters and

albino alligators hid from the sun

or snacked on rats.

The bird show was well presented and I suppose they would not perform if they were not content but I hate to see clipped wings and tiny cages.

CYPRUS GARDENS

Cypress Gardens opened on January 2, 1936 as a botanical garden
planted by Dick and Julie Pope. Over the years, it became one of the biggest attractions in Florida, known for its water ski shows, lush gardens, and Southern Belle models.

Many films and ads. used the gardens as a backdrop.

I am sure that this banyan was in one of the predator films.

Recently the park has been on hard times as Disney and Busch gardens stole away thir customers. We saw this as we seemed to be the only visitors at times and I am sure there were only 20 or so people in the park.

It became known as the "Water Ski Capital of the World" because many of the sport's landmark "firsts" and over 50 world records were broken there but sadly for us there are no shows when we visited.

What a contrast it was when we were part of a madding crowd at Epcot center, or as I call it “The world according to Walt”. First of all it was a good day out, WAAAAAAAAY overpriced but all the same a good day out. However we are in their low season just now and it was still pretty crowded in the park. As the car park was less than ¼ full what it must be like in hign season I can only imagine. Waits for the rides were measured in hours and at times the madding crowds were quite scary. I mean grown men wearing Micky ears, what is that all about.

There were some high spots though. Many children were sporting amazing facial artwork, courtesy of the free face painters, the American Experience started off

with a Fife and Drum band who were good but the singers in period costume who followed them were exceptional. The potted history of the USA, narrated by the figures from the past courtesy of some tired animatronics, was OK starting with the Mayflower, but did we need Walt and Tinkerbelle?

As a pleasant contrast to the trained exhibits, we found theses cranes wndering around at Buds Marina and RV park in the middle of nowhere.

The boat hunt is still ongoing with several that would "do I suppose" but we are still hoping to find "THE BOAT" somewhere.

Homosassa Springs

2009-07-12T16:34:00.000-07:00

We visited an unusual State Park called Homosassa Springs. It is world famous as the center for sick and injured manatees but, to us anyway, the reality is different. It is a zoo, animal side shows with clipped wings and small cages, a fat and bored bear, a panther forced out in the sun when it would usually lie up in shade

however the manatees were in a large pool but they still had to put on their show three times a day.

Right at the end of our visit we found out that it had been a private, for profit zoo which had been taken over by the state for the purpose of exibiting animals native to Florida. We liked this resident, made an honorary Floridian by Governor Chiles.

Repo's, The Keys, The Everglades, Monkeys, Flowers and the Best Tool Box in the World.

2009-07-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

We go see the REPO MAN

We went to see the huge stash of boats repossessed by the banks, confiscated by the drug police and those recovered from the big fraudsters, [yes you know at least one of them.]

There were hundreds and hundreds of them, mostly powerboats but a few sail too. The one we wanted to see required us to sign in and be escorted by a duly authorized federal marshal as we had to pass through an enclosure full of boats all the subject of “ongoing investigations” and covered with warning stickers, many even shrinkwrapped. This was the end result of the when the real Miami Vice meets the real CSI Miami.

However after all this we did not like the layout of the Gulfstar we looked at so it is on with the hunt. We did see one boat we liked, a 44 foot Cat Ketch with a custom interior. Unfortunately it needs a lot of work and although the owner is clearly willing to negotiate it might be too much work to do.

We are taking a few days off to go down the chain of islands stitched together by concrete bridges that lead to the Conch Republic AKA Key West.

Key West

We stayed at Bahia Honda, a great State Park just North of Key West and used the bus to get there. It was interesting with lots of funky little shops some of which were selling artifacts recovered from the treasure galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha in 1985.

Mel Fisher found it. It took sixteen years and unfortunately, the lives of his son and daughter-in-law, but Mel persevered and never lost hope. All during the
1970s, his crew found bits and pieces from the 1622 fleet, some spectacular, others more common. They finally found the main cargo hold of the Atocha in 1985.

The Everglades

We stopped off and did the tourist thing with an airboat ride then a visit to the Miccosukee Tribe alligator wrestling show.

The airboat driver ran over a gator but did give us a good show.

The gator wrestled was pretty impressive, passing his hand through the gators open mouth and kissing his snout.

Did I mention it is HOT over here!

Monkeys

When Joseph DuMond, an inquisitive animal behaviorist, released six monkeys into the wilds of a dense South Florida hammock in 1933, he didn’t realize that their descendents are a thriving troop that runs free at MONKEY JUNGLE today.

They dive for food in the pool and mine the tourists for food

by rattling the metal cups on chains that dangle from the tunnels we were confined in.

Yup the tourists are in the cage and the monkeys run free.

They are a sanctuary for exotic abandoned pets

such as this hansome fellow.

Coons
We also met another group of wild/tame animals. These racoons live on and in a shop in a strange little shopping centre.

One of them has a foot fetish and kept following Carol around and stroking het toes with his long fingers. Creepy!

Looking around the Japanese Gardens

Orchids

A walk around the gardens was a pleasant change from the boat hunt. Almost completely funded by enthusiasts the gardens were spectacular.

Best Tool Box in the World.

We spotted this and I WANT ONE!

It even has a FRIDGE!

St Augustine to West Palm Beach Florida.

2009-06-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

After being founded in 1565 St Augustine was attacked and burned by English privateer Sir Francis Drake. Then it was plundered by English privateer Robert Searle and most of the inhabitants were killed. However it was also USA's first legally sanctioned free community of ex-slaves. However nowadays it is a holiday town selling stuff to tourists.

The picture says it all.

We have started the boat hunt and it has been pretty depressing so far, junk interspersed with dirty junk and some really dirty, worn out, rusty and rotten junk.

This picture shows rot, dirt and clutter. This not untypical of the boats we have looked at.

We have only seen 2 boats so far where the owners have made any real attempt to finish the necessary repairs and clean the boat to make it presentable.

I had had high hopes of one particular boatyard in the centre of Florida but even the boat broker was a little ashamed of the standard of the boats he had on his books. Some have been lying in the open for years with little or no attention yet the owners are asking high prices. Mind you they may owe that amount of money on the boat. Still there are plenty of boatyards to go and brokers to visit.

We were able to sit outside tonight in cool comfort which is a pleasant change from the hot and muggy nights we have endured recently.

Temperatures have been over a 100F in the shade and the “feels like figure” has been over 110F.

I had originally been thinking about getting something around 44 feet but so many people of our sort of years with 44 footers seem to be downsizing saying that it is too much boat to handle anymore so perhaps it is time to get realistic and look at something smaller.

The best bet we have seen so far is an a boat called an Endeavour 40.

Creole slave plantation and HOT HOT HOT

2009-06-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

We visited the Laura Plantation just outside New Orleans. The plantation was established in 1755

By this family

and like almost every other major plantation was built on the banks of the Mississippi and continued functioning as a plantation into the 20th century.

This was the plant that it was all about, sugar cane. It made the Duparcs and many other growers incredibly wealthy as the demand for sugar in Europe soared.

The house was built in 1805

by a French Créole family. Like most people we only had a sketchy understanding of the word creole. Here it is used to describe a family of French origin but who lives in Louisiana but it is also used as the name for the language spoken by the mixed-race Creoles and enslaved blacks.

It was a patois used by slaves and planters alike. It continues to be used to some extent today and is similar in some respects to the everyday language spoken in parts of the Caribbean.

The house has been repainted in traditional creole colours. It was built on brick pillars to cope with the flooding

and the timbers were old growth bald cyprus from the bayou, a hard wearing long lasting wood that is resistant to insect attack.

This is an original timber with the marks used by the skilled slave carpenter still visible.

The plantation was run by Laura Locoul Gore for 30 years and when she sold it part of the deal was that it be called "Laura" forever.

The interior of the "big house" is furnished with original antiques. Some pieces were donated to the plantation by families of the original owners and some areas inside the home are unrestored.

The slaves lived in a much simpler style

without protection from the yearly floods or systems to catch the cooling breezes.

One story from the early days of plantation life bought home to me how slaves were thought of. Realising that the most valuable slaves were young men, women being much less costly, they purchased some young girls and proceeded to raise a crop of young men, keeping the females as breeding stock.

At it's peak the plantation supported around 200 slaves. This was the maximum that most slave owners would allow as the risk of an uprising was ever present in their minds.

We are heading East now towards Jacksonville in Florida and it is HOT HOT HOT. 100 degrees yesterday with high humidity and the same conditions are forecast for the next few days. Air conditioning, fans and lots of rehydration therapy are the order of the day. I just wish I could get access to my favoured therapy, Theakstons Old Peculiar.

Louisiana Baton Rouge, The Bayou and New Orleans

2009-06-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

We head down into Louisiana and the first stop was Baton Rouge, but not much of the old town stil exists so we looked in on the rural museum.

The small exhibits were displayed pretty haphazardly,

in some cases just in piles of similar items with no signs giving any information. They may be building a new museum and just warehousing their stock.

The outside exhibits were better organized. We saw some slave quarters, overseers quarters, a smiths shop and the plantation commissary. When we looked around it I was reminded of the line from the song “I owe my soul to the company store.”

This building was initially puzzling to me, why apply boards on the diagonal. However all was explained; it was the jail and by overlapping boards in opposite directions with lots of nails it was possible to make a wall that could not be cut through with an axe.

There were some coffle chains left over from the days of the chain gangs and I could not resist seeing what it would have felt like.

We headed south from Baton Rouge into the delta bayou and stayed in a lovely little RV park The sites were laid out around a pond full of duck and frogs with dragonflies everywhere. The owners have lots of space and are working on the next phase. This was somewhere we were reluctant to leave but the swamps were calling.

BAYOU and SWAMP TOUR with BLACK GUIDRY the CAJUN MAN

This is quite a famous tour with an ex military guy as our guide. The tour had 20 or so people on a well used pontoon boat, this was in contrast to the very new looking big aluminum airboat which blasted off before us with only three on board.

We were soon pootling along canals [ dug artificially ] and bayous [ natural waterways ] learning about Bald Cyprus knees and oil company pipelines. He turned into a dead end stopped the engine and let out a weird rumbling roar. Within seconds a dead log started moving towards us

and soon was begging for his dinner.

He stopped again announcing that he was lost and pulled out is Cajun squeezebox. He gave us a few bars of Zydeco but stopped claiming this was not his forte and swapped to his guitar for a rendition of the Cajun national anthem “Jolie Blon”.

After entertaining us he “remembered the way home” and we were off again. He was very scathing about the locals who fished this area for pleasure on their metalflake bass boats with giant outboards who set off in the morning with a cooler full of beer. He said the accident rate on the water was so bad that they have a special boating while impaired law to deal with it. As he said that we were overtaken on the outside of a blind bend by a couple of good old boys doing at least 30 knots.

New Orleans or “The Big [Sl]easy” was next.

We decided to stay at an expensive campground in the centre and use their shuttle bus but befroe we committed ourselves we stopped at the Bayou Segnette State Park and did a recce. As I am writing this we are still there. The park is delightful with swimming pools free laundry and free WiFi plus it is 1/3 of the price of the city park and very quiet at night with no “WOO WOO” train whistles.

To get in to New Orleans we drive to the Algiers ferry which drops us off by the French quarter.

Every one has heard of Mardis Gras in New Orleans so we toured the factory responsible for many of the floats. We learned of the history behind todays krewes and why they throw stuff like beads and plastic coins to the watchers.

Some of the big figures are over 40 years old and have appeared every year with a new coat of paint and sometimes a new head or face to fit the current theme.

But this bird was brand new, carved from plywood and styrofoam before being sprayed with a platic coating then painted.

Nowadays motors move the dragons jaws but only a few years ago sweating floar riders would be inside the "props" doing it by hand and there are still a few old floats where they do it this way.

The oldest established krewe is Rex who have been going since 1872. The all-male krewe is responsible for the concept of day parades, for the official Mardi Gras flag and colors – green for faith, gold for power, purple for justice – and for the anthem of Carnival, “If I Ever Cease to Love,” as well as for one of the most popular throws, the doubloon.

Our guide told us that the individuals who ride the floats are responsible for buying their own "throws" and on average they spend 400 to 500 dollars a year on plastic junk to throw away. ??WHY??

There are so many krewes with floats and riders desparate to throw stuff away that there are many separate parades during the Mardi Gras season.

We learned that while it is illegal to smoke on a float drinking is OK. As long as you can stand and throw you can parade. However the law also says that everone must be tied to the floats and we saw the harnesses and ropes they use for this.

RIVERBOAT NATCHEZ

We took a trip on the Natchez. This is the last steam driven paddle wheeler running out of New Orleans.

Built to a traditional design and using engines from a much older boat it keeps tradition afloat.

She was pretty special but it was a pity that the guide doing the commentary was not up to the same standard.
YOU WILL NEED BROADBAND FOR THIS

We were greeted by a Calliope recital before departure then learned more than we wanted to know about the oil terminals, grain terminals, sugar terminals and [ we both fell asleep at this point and missed the next bit]

We did get a look into the part of New Orleans flooded to a depth of 15 feet when Katrina broke through the levees.

Back at the dock we headed into the French quarter with its lovely old ironwork and found out why it is called "the big sleasey" when we hit the end of Bourbon Street.

Strip clubs, hookers and cheap boooze were everywhere but behind and beside the sleaze were muscicians belting out Jolie Blon and Delta Blues.

I liked the one called

" I got the
Fuzzy Dummy
Empty Sippy Cup
Lost Blanky
Dirty Diaper
Delta blues "

Some more on Vicksburg and we head down the Mississippi to Natchez

2009-06-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

We got to tour a lovely old house filled with original furnishings

from the time of the civil war.

It had been hit several times during the siege of Vicksburg and one of the cannon balls is still in the wall.

It came through the door here

and finished up here.

We also took the National Park Service tour of the battlefield which was a waste of time, just lots of monuments. The only interesting stop was a museum dedicated to the ironclad gunboat Cairo

which was sunk by an early mine

and recently recovered and restored.

This is the damage that the mine did.

It was built like a catamaran at the back to protect the paddle wheel.

The North built 7 of these in 6 months. This is the only one to survive and as it went down in a few minutes it was a time capsule as the Mississippi mud preserved most of it.

The Park is also the site of a big military cemetery

used from the civil war until the 1960s.

DOWN THE NATCHEZ TRACE

Getting off the main road we followed part of the 444-mile Natchez Trace Parkway which commemorates an ancient trail used by animals and people that connected southern portions of the Mississippi River, through Alabama, to salt licks in today's central Tennessee.

It was also used briefly by riverboatmen who, having floated down the Mississippi would walk or ride on horseback North back up the trace.

This is one of the old stops on the way. They used to sell the travellers a meal for 25 cents and space to sleep on the porch.

We will look in on one of the mound building peoples sites today and then head on down to Baton Rouge in Cajun Country for some Zydeco!

VICKSBURG or THE SOUTH SHALL RISE AGAIN (maybe)

2009-06-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

Vicksburg on the banks of the Mississipi was the scene of a pivotal battle during the American civil war.

It was also the start of another battle which is still going on across most of the world today.

In 1894, a Vicksburg businessman named Joseph Biedenharn became the first to put Coca-Cola in bottles and sell it by the case in surrounding areas. His soda factory is now a museum and we looked around the original facilities.

DUE TO THE VERY SLOW WIFI CONNECTION AT THE MAGNOLIA RV PARK WE WILL FINISH THIS BLOG WHEN WE GET SOMETHING FASTER!

MORE MEMPHIS and GRACELANDS

2009-05-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

CAROL'S BIT.

GRACELANDS, home of Elvis Presley. We headed up Elvis Presley boulevard , past Heartbreak Hotel,

The Lisa Marie, Elvis's private jet named after his daughter. He had another private plane as well with TCB on the tail

( taking care o' bizness )

and one of his cars on display.

Used to be the Pink cadillac.

We go to the RV park just down the road, within walking distance. This was fortunate because, the last time I was here the famous gates at Gracelands were down for cleaning.

This time they were up but open, so I walked down at 6.30am to get a good shot of them. Not a particularly good idea, Memphis is a high crime area.

Everyone has to be bussed into the Mansion from the souvenir area opposite, no one is allowed to just walk in. This was a very organized and state of the art tour. We were given headphones with numbers on. Each area had a number for us to tune to, and we could diverse for extra information if we wanted to.

Gracelands is a mansion sized house and has been left as it was when Elvis was there. He was an honorary member of the FBI and a black belt in Karate, so we passed through his target practice room and gym.

Anyone who is not an Elvis fan , may have the impression that this was just another pop star. He was not. He could sing for a start, and could also act. Unfortunately his manager Col. Tom Parker had a tight grip on what Elvis did, and made both of them a lot of money.
After Elvis died of a heart attack, brought on by PRESCRIPTION drugs, Parker came in the firing line for pushing too hard, and allowing the dependency on drugs to take over Elvis's life.

We got to the area with his working history,
it is full of awards, silver, platinum,gold discs. Covering the walls from floor to ceiling.

His costumes ( you can even buy a copy in the shop, for a price).

All of his films are here.

Including the only two straight part ones that he made Wild in the country and CHARRO ( guess where my dog's name came from, it took me years to get the sound track for that)

Elvis always wanted to play straight parts, instead of the musical ones that he mostly did. They were the bread and butter films though.

There is even an area covering his army days,

he did his two years service, and Tom Parker kept his career going until he came out.

Most Elvis fans learned the German words to Wooden Heart, the song he sang for the film GI Blues.

We came to where he and his family are buried, flowers and tributes come in daily.

In August, which is when he died, this place is packed as fans make a pilgrimage to 'The King '

When we passed the stables and paddock they weren't open to the public. Since then Pricilla has opened them to the public. These contain the horses tack and riders clothes. Some of the original horses were rescued, some bought. Elvis's favorite , a golden palomino called Rising Sun was born in 1961. He was one of four. There are relatives of the original horses still at Gracelands. Sun's Reflection is related to Rising Sun .
The stables were built in 1939 by the original owners, and was bought by Elvis in 1957.

JOHN'S BIT ON ELVIS AND GRACELANDS

I went expecting to be overwhelmed in tacky and unimpressed with a singer that I remebered with some disdain, being much more into the Beatles and the Stones in the 60's.

Instead I liked what was on show. The presentation was excellent and I had not realised how hard he must have worked to satisfy his manager. Even the jungle room with it's green shag pile carpet worked as quirky style rather than tacky. I was also impressed by the fact that he did his two year tour in the army. Even though he lived off post in Germany with some of his family. Also he was a biker so that was another plus point.

Mind you during his life he was exploited and in death he is still a money making machine for someone, maybe Priscilla, hopefully some charities. After all Elvis gave away more than 200 Cadillacs to family and friends.

The Metal Workers Museum was worth the visit.

Along with elegant pots,

[ it is a piggy bank really - put your money on the brass cup and pull the lever]

quirky sculptures

and odd artifacts

they had a working foundry and blacksmiths shop. I was hoping to find some gunsmithing in progress but had to be content with a look at the special anvil that was used and a description of how a Tennessee long musket barrel was formed and forge welded from a short billet of iron. The technique had been lost and was rediscovered by an Arkansas smith who had been asked to make a replica barrel for an old gun.

As well as an entry charge we were asked for a contribution to the cat fund!

We took a tourist trip on a replica riverboat. We were seated on the top deck well before the departure time and as usual I checked out the engineering on view, Carol looks at dogs, I look at welds. WELL they were appalling. This was not welding, this was low flying sparrow shit. I consoled myself by thinking that they had done some DIY modifications to the superstructure, only to find that the hull was a DIY job in some ones backyard and the same person had finished off the superstructure after launching the boat.
As a City and Guilds Certificated welder I know that welding is mostly practice. SO this guy should have been well practiced by the time he got to the superstructure. I was not a happy camper thinking we were heading out on a collection of steel plates tacked together with snot and heading in approximately the same direction through force of habit!

The tour guide raised my anxiety level by punctuating his commentary with famous Mississippi river boat disasters culminating with the greatest loss of life when the Sultana went down killing more than the Titanic sinking.

We visited Mud Island to see the scale model of the Mississippi river created in layered concrete. The idea worked well and as we walked down the half mile of the model we got the feel of the big muddy as it wandered down by towns like Memphis and Vicksburg. The efforts of the Army Corps of Engineers to try to control the course of the river was also well documented.

This part shows the bridges and part of Memphis including Mud Island.

The reasons behind the efforts was not well covered, no mention of the politics that left one town on an unnavigable backwater while another had the channel deepened and kept by their docks. Some towns protected by levees; others allowed to drown in the annual floods as the snow melt raises the water level.

The riverwalk museum covered the history of the area and the river. The history of the boats started with the first rafts, through the days of the steam driven riverboats including the winner of many a race the Robert E Lee and finished with todays powerful pushboats and the string of barges they chug up and down the Mississippi with.

These strings run 24 hours a day, they are refueled and provisioned on the move and is by far the most economical way of moving bulk goods in the USA. The captains get more than $1000 a day which is pretty good money.

We finished off the day with tired and hot feet so it was only right that we had a paddle in the Mini Mississippi to end the day.

Arkabutla Lake

As Memorial day weekend approached and it is the equivalent of UK bank holiday we decided to get booked in somewhere to be sure of having a RV site somewhere.

Fed up with the noise of big city sites with train lines in earshot we settled on a campground at Arkabutla Lake. This area is under the control on the US Army Corps of Engineers who built the dam as part of the efforts to control flooding in the Mississippi valley. Well it was quiet and empty for the first night but even though the forecast was poor it filled up by Saturday mid-day. The site next to us had some kind of extended “redneck” family group. The men had the haircuts, the fishing habit [ big catfish!] and the pickup trucks. They only had one dawg with them though. It was a tiny tiny puppy who seemed to belong to a 5 year old girl. Carol found it difficult not to get involved when we heard it crying but when it got picked up by the little girl it seemed happy enough. The weather forecasters got it right and on Saturday evening the heavens opened and the thunder gods paid us a visit, the unstable weather is supposed to go on for a week.

Still we got out in breaks in the rain to see the beaver pond,

note the chisel points on the tree stumps created when the beavers fell the trees for food and dam building material,

and the sunken picnic tables, the water level is high in the lake due to all the rain.

Next stop Tunica, self styled Las Vegas on the Mississippi, for some poker and shopping then on to Vicksburg and some serious civil war stuff.

Sun Studios, Beale Street and dogs riding shotgun in Memphis

2009-05-16T17:23:00.002-07:00

The high spot of the tour was when Eldorado, our tour guide said “Then she licked the microphone”.

We came to Memphis for different reasons, for Carol, Gracelands will be the highlight of our visit to the home of the blues,

for me it will be to stand on the hallowed ground of the home of rock and roll.

The first stop on our tour of the highlights of Memphis was the Sun recording studio. For lovers of rock and roll this is where it all started with a song called Rocket 88. A song about fast cars guys and the chicks they hoped to pull.

The studio was a time capsule from the 50s. Sam Phillips the owner, recording engineer and floor sweeper would use a single track, recording onto tape with the best live “take” being made into an acetate master disk.

This LP shows how the history of rock and roll came from Sun records.

This picture shows the million dollar jam session when Jerry Lee Lewis was recording with Carl Perkins when Elvis dropped in to catch up with the local gossip and Johnny Cash who had been due to record later got in on the act. We even heard a tape of some of the out takes from that session.

As Sams success had allowed him to move into bigger premises this tiny studio was left untouched and some of the early outdated equipment stored there, including this microphone which was used in the 50s in many recording sessions. Eldorado our tour guide said that when one visitor heard that it was likely that Elvis had sung into this mike she went up to the mike and licked it. Carol had to promise not to repeat this act.

But the guitars and drums in the sessions were there with the crosses on the floor where the artists had to stand to get the best out of the old style acoustics in the tiny studio.

We got to hear the 18 year old Elvis on his first ever recording. It cost him $3 to make and he only got one take. Sam did not make the disk for Elvis . This lady did and she fell for the velvet voice. Sam was not sure and it took her a year to get Sam to fix it for him to play with two other musicians. Eventually he signed him to a 3 year contract. After 18 months he sold Elvis to RCA records for $35,000. This was a lot of money in the 50s. With hindsight he might have asked for more but the money allowed him to stave off his creditors and hire more staff. With the next few years came success as he had gold records with Great Balls of Fire [ Jerry Lee Lewis ], Blue Suede Shoes [ Carl Perkins] and He Walked the Line [ Johnny Cash ].

As Eldorado played little riffs from many of these sessions all over the studio eyes were closed and a little discrete air guitar was played as many there had a Walter Mitty moment. I know I did.

Our next stop was Beale street, so nearly bulldozed in the fit of urban regeneration that overtakes town planners but some how allowed to survive, scruffy, tacky and very much alive today. We wandered up and down listening to the live music belting out from many free performances.

We even found a bar where the spirit of Coyote Ugly lives on and girls dance on the bar.

Walking back we met Echo, a white German Shepard sitting tall alongside his carriage driving owner, he was not the last dog we saw riding shotgun on a horse drawn carriage.

Sun Studios, Beale Street and dogs riding shotgun in Memphis

2009-05-16T17:23:00.001-07:00

The high spot of the tour was when Eldorado, our tour guide said “Then she licked the microphone”.

We came to Memphis for different reasons, for Carol, Gracelands will be the highlight of our visit to the home of the blues, for me it will be to stand on the hallowed ground of the home of rock and roll.

The first stop on our tour of the highlights of Memphis was the Sun recording studio. For lovers of rock and roll this is where it all started with a song called Rocket 88. A song about fast cars guys and the chicks they hoped to pull.

The studio was a time capsule from the 50s. Sam Phillips the owner, recording engineer and floor sweeper would use a single track, recording onto tape with the best live “take” being made into an acetate master disk.

This LP shows how the history of rock and roll came from Sun records.

This picture shows the million dollar jam session when Jerry Lee Lewis was recording with Carl Perkins when Elvis dropped in to catch up with the local gossip and Johnny Cash who had been due to record later got in on the act. We even heard a tape of some of the out takes from that session.

As Sams success had allowed him to move into bigger premises this tiny studio was left untouched and some of the early outdated equipment stored there, including this microphone which was used in the 50s in many recording sessions. Eldorado our tour guide said that when one visitor heard that it was likely that Elvis had sung into this mike she went up to the mike and licked it. Carol had to promise not to repeat this act.

But the guitars and drums in the sessions were there with the crosses on the floor where the artists had to stand to get the best out of the old style acoustics in the tiny studio.

We got to hear the 18 year old Elvis on his first ever recording. It cost him $3 to make and he only got one take. Sam did not make the disk for Elvis . This lady did and she fell for the velvet voice. Sam was not sure and it took her a year to get Sam to fix it for him to play with two other musicians. Eventually he signed him to a 3 year contract. After 18 months he sold Elvis to RCA records for $35,000. This was a lot of money in the 50s. With hindsight he might have asked for more but the money allowed him to stave off his creditors and hire more staff. With the next few years came success as he had gold records with Great Balls of Fire [ Jerry Lee Lewis ], Blue Suede Shoes [ Carl Perkins] and He Walked the Line [ Johnny Cash ].

As Eldorado played little riffs from many of these sessions all over the studio eyes were closed and a little discrete air guitar was played as many there had a Walter Mitty moment. I know I did.

Our next stop was Beale street, so nearly bulldozed in the fit of urban regeneration that overtakes town planners but some how allowed to survive, scruffy, tacky and very much alive today. We wandered up and down listening to the live music belting out from many free performances.

We even found a bar where the spirit of Coyote Ugly lives on and girls dance on the bar.

Walking back we met Echo, a white German Shepard sitting tall alongside his carriage driving owner, he was not the last dog we saw riding shotgun on a horse drawn carriage.

Sun Studios, Beale Street and dogs riding shotgun in Memphis

2009-05-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

The high spot of the tour was when Eldorado, our tour guide said “Then she licked the microphone”.

We came to Memphis for different reasons, for Carol, Gracelands will be the highlight of our visit to the home of the blues, for me it will be to stand on the hallowed ground of the home of rock and roll.

The first stop on our tour of the highlights of Memphis was the Sun recording studio. For lovers of rock and roll this is where it all started with a song called Rocket 88. A song about fast cars guys and the chicks they hoped to pull.

The studio was a time capsule from the 50s. Sam Phillips the owner, recording engineer and floor sweeper would use a single track, recording onto tape with the best live “take” being made into an acetate master disk.

This LP shows how the history of rock and roll came from Sun records.

This picture shows the million dollar jam session when Jerry Lee Lewis was recording with Carl Perkins when Elvis dropped in to catch up with the local gossip and Johnny Cash who had been due to record later got in on the act. We even heard a tape of some of the out takes from that session.

As Sams success had allowed him to move into bigger premises this tiny studio was left untouched and some of the early outdated equipment stored there, including this microphone which was used in the 50s in many recording sessions. Eldorado our tour guide said that when one visitor heard that it was likely that Elvis had sung into this mike she went up to the mike and licked it. Carol had to promise not to repeat this act.

But the guitars and drums in the sessions were there with the crosses on the floor where the artists had to stand to get the best out of the old style acoustics in the tiny studio.

We got to hear the 18 year old Elvis on his first ever recording. It cost him $3 to make and he only got one take. Sam did not make the disk for Elvis . This lady did and she fell for the velvet voice. Sam was not sure and it took her a year to get Sam to fix it for him to play with two other musicians. Eventually he signed him to a 3 year contract. After 18 months he sold Elvis to RCA records for $35,000. This was a lot of money in the 50s. With hindsight he might have asked for more but the money allowed him to stave off his creditors and hire more staff. With the next few years came success as he had gold records with Great Balls of Fire [ Jerry Lee Lewis ], Blue Suede Shoes [ Carl Perkins] and He Walked the Line [ Johnny Cash ].

As Eldorado played little riffs from many of these sessions all over the studio eyes were closed and a little discrete air guitar was played as many there had a Walter Mitty moment. I know I did.

Our next stop was Beale street, so nearly bulldozed in the fit of urban regeneration that overtakes town planners but some how allowed to survive, scruffy, tacky and very much alive today. We wandered up and down listening to the live music belting out from many free performances.

We even found a bar where the spirit of Coyote Ugly lives on and girls dance on the bar.

Walking back we met Echo, a white German Shepard sitting tall alongside his carriage driving owner, he was not the last dog we saw riding shotgun on a horse drawn carriage.

VILLAGE CREEK STATE PARK

2009-05-15T16:32:00.001-07:00

Sometimes it seems that we are just blatting along an Interstate motorway going from one RV park to another. Each RV park being much the same with rows of Rvs jammed in like sardines. But where possible we like to use State Park and National Park campgrounds as they usually offer more space and sometimes, no most times, better surroundings.

With this in mind we decided to forgo the commercial campgrounds with their WIFI and laundries for the rustic simplicity of a state park and made our way up a twisting backroad to VILLAGE CREEK STATE PARK. As soon as we pulled in it was clear we had a winner and within minutes I was adding another entry in my bird spotters notebook as I spotted a sharp shinned hawk working a thermal. The campground was a delight
with well spread out shady plots with full hook-ups all for a very reasonable price. In the couple of days we were there we must have seen at least 50 different birds ok some were unidentifiable [by me] LBJs. But brightly colored tanagers, cardinals and some kind of predominately blue bird which might have been a female prothonotary warbler flitted around and we heard a wild turkey gobbling away one morning. Deer came out to graze on the open spaces and frogs were everywhere there was water nearby.

We also new about the hikes available before we came but one attracted us in particular.
The park holds the most unspoilt section of an old military trail which was built in the early 1800s to supply the forts in Little Rock and Fort Smith and was used a little later by the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes as they were forcibly moved West along what became known as the Trail of Tears.

The roadway has been cut by footsteps, hooves and wagon wheels to a deep lane running through the trees. The parties of travelers would often stop here for a few days as the game was plentiful and the land a little dryer than the boggy miles from Memphis. As we stumped along carrying a water bottle and a camera only intent on making a couple of miles before retiring to our air conditioned RV with hot and cold running everything we did reflect on those who were making a journey of several hundred miles carrying all they owned and having to hunt or gather their food as they went. It is little wonder that the old, the very young, the halt and the lame did not make it to the New Lands that the Great White Father had promised them in Oklahoma.

It would have been easy to gather a meal from the mushrooms

but I might have skipped these two.

The deer might have been a little more gun shy than this pair.

We are heading toward the home of rock and roll and we will visit Gracelands for a lesson in tastefull décor as well.

Well when we got to Memphis and found our campground, we found it was underwater. Yes all that rain has flooded the mighty Mississippi. So here we are, slumming it at the Elvis Presley Blvd RV park, running on some very dodgy WiFi.

OZARKS and LITTLE ROCK

2009-05-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

We left Fort Smith and drove up into the Ozark mountains. There's an old folk saying about the Ozark Mountains: "It's not that the mountains are so high, it's just that the valleys are so deep."

Where Carol made some new friends at our camp site.

Not long after this the saying " It's nice weather for ducks came true" and we retreated from the mountains.

We discovered that the locals were religious about their

right to kill anything that moved or swims.

Even the official body charged with conservation seems to be mostly concerned with getting the numbers up to the point where the species can be hunted.

We saw a fine display of hunting rifles at the local museum in Little Rock

along with a fine display about the local first nation peoples although we were puzzled about this fine traditional eagle feather item.

There was quite a bit about the trade of gunsmithing and some fine examples of early hand made one off weapons like this one.

This "Old Mill" garden was very Hansel and Gretel but we liked it as it stayed just this side of twee.

Finally we visited the shrine to Little Rocks most famous citizen.

Strangely we could fine no mention of "that woman".

AKA Monica Samille Lewinsky

We are still in Little Rock getting wetter by the day as the rain that drove us out of the Ozarks keeps falling. I suppose we will head further East but it is even wetter there!

FORT SMITH, JUDGE PARKER and THE TRAIL OF TEARS

2009-05-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

We left Oklahoma yesterday and stopped off at Fort Smith.
I had always wanted to see this place because it was on the "frontier" between the white lands and indian lands. It was a lawless area until a severe and able Federal Judge, Issac Parker was appointed to dispense justice.

He was nicknamed "The Hanging Judge" because of the many men he sent to the gallows.

During his 21 years on the bench at Fort Smith, Judge Parker sentenced 160 men to die and hanged 79 of them. It didn't take Parker long to get going. On May 10, 1875 -- only 8 days after he arrived at Fort Smith -- he opened his first term of court. Eighteen persons came before him charged with murder and 15 were convicted. Eight of them were sentenced to die on the gallows on September 3, 1875. One was killed trying to escape and a second had his sentence commuted to life in prison because of his youth.

To capture the bad guys, Judge Parker deputized marshals
who would go into the Indian territories with a mini wagon train and a pocketful of warrants. It was a risky job and about a 1/3 of them lost their lives on the job.

For every 7 white men captured this way, there would be 3 afro-americans and 1 Indian.

His court room has been recreated but the ambiance is missing. He was no friend to the defence and justice was heavily weighted in favour of the prosecution.

Fort Smith was also important in a dark part of American history,
the "ethnic cleansing of the South".

In 1831, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee-Creek, and Seminole were living in the American Deep South. But the white man wanted their lands. So they had their lands taken from them under the Indian Removal Act of 1830. They were rounded up and placed in concentration camps, before being sent on a forced march west to Oklahoma.This became known as the trail of tears.

The Seminoles in Florida were the only tribe who tried hard to resist this. The war cost over $20 million and even now there are a small group who maintain that they won!

Perhaps they did as thay have the right to run casinos on their lands and the slogan is "Taking back America, one nickel at a time."

OKLALHOMA CITY

2009-05-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma City

We spent some time looking around a homestead based
on one of the original 160 acres sites "won" in a race.

The Land Rush of 1889 started at high noon on April 22, with an estimated 50,000 people lined up ready to race for their 160 acres of the available two million acres in Oklahoma. Some of them settled around a favoured site which is now downtown Oklahoma City which was laid out by the end of the first day.

Inevitably some cheated by getting an early start. These people were called "sooners" and generated a profitable legal
business for some including a man called W Harn who lived in this house.

At first, Mr. and Mrs. Harn lived in a one-room house but Mrs. Harn wanted to return to Ohio to her family. Mr. Harn said that if she would stay in Oklahoma, he would build her any house she wanted in the National Builders Supplement catalogue, a Sears & Roebuck company. She chose a Victorian, Queen Anne style home, characterized by a small, offset front porch and the half-octagon shape of the parlor and upstairs bedroom. Mr. Harn ordered it for a Christmas present. It was crated up in Chicago, put on a train, and erected at the homestead in 6 weeks in 1904.

The inside was pretty spectacular for the time when many people who made the land run lived in tiny wooden cabins or houses built of sod.

Guess being a lawyer in the USA is a profitable business.

CAROL'S BIT

National Cowboy Museum. This is a big museum dedicated to the Cowboy and Indian era. Most of us probably have a romantic impression of the wild west. Part of the museum depicted westerns and the film stars that starred in them From the screen with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara to The Cisco Kid
and the 'Masked Man' and Tonto. Tonto was played by Jay Silverheels a full blood Native American. He went on to teach about the Indian culture and promote Indian rights. Tonto called the Lone ranger Kemo Sabay ( trusty scout ) I called two of my German Shepherds by the same names.

There was a section on Rodeo's. Which is portrayed as entertainment, not for the animals. Cattle and calves are chased by a cowboy on horseback, roped around the neck , then DRAGGED across the
arena until they are brought down and then have their legs tied together, so that they can't move.

After that they would normally have a hot iron welded to their flanks. Nowadays identification is done by chipping, or tagging the ear ( that's not painless either)

The Bucking Bronco's are apparently horses that will not tolerate anyone on their back, and there is a breed line for these horses. One of the reasons that they buck ,might be the spurs that the rider has on the heel of his boots, that come down with a thud into the horses neck everytime he bucks .

Some of the Rodeo cowboys thought a lot of their horses and would keep them after they both retired, as did Buffalo Bill Cody who was a true frontiersman and performed from experience.

One section of the museum was dedicated to a man called Lois Ortega. He specialized in making COMFORTABLE tack for horses. He made Hackamores and Cinches from hair, so that they were soft and didn't cause any cuts or pain to the horses. A Hackamore is a bridle without the metal bit that fits in the horses mouth to control it, and a Cinch is the belly band that fits under the horse and holds the saddle on.

There were display cases of Guns, Spurs, Whips, barbed wire, and branding irons. It has taken years to make films showing the truth about the west , with regard to the way the Indians were treated. The only animal that seems to have come out on top ( literally) is the bull. They could be mean, and would gore, trample, and roll on their rider.

The picture is of a Charro, a Mexican cowboy in costume. This is where Charro got his name from. The feminine is spelled Charo.

WORTH MORE THAN GOLD ALIBATES FLINT

2009-05-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

More valuable than gold. Prehistoric prospectors would have discarded gold nuggets as worth little but the raw material for their tools and weapons was highly valued. But the most desirable flint of all was from this one site we visited yesterday.

On the shores of the Canadian river, North of Amarillo, on a mesa there is cap rock containing deposits of flint. Small pits and literally tons of stone manufacturing debris result from 13,000 years of quarrying a brilliantly colored stone known as Alibates flint.

So prized was the material that prehistoric hunters traveled—or traded—over distances of a thousand miles or more to obtain it.

Spear points like this
one made of Alibates stone have been found in sites as far north as Montana, as far south as Central Mexico, and east to at least the Mississippi River.

Flint miners left holes ranging from small depressions to broad pits ranging from 5 to 20 feet across and up to 2 feet deep.

Everywhere there are the quarry wastepiles and tool-making debris covering the mesa. Thousands of quarried chunks, tested cobbles, flakes, and tools in various stages of production.

This piece was discarded because of the fault through the stone.

Most 'flint' is dull and grey. Alibates flint has hues and tones of the evening sky, colors range from pale gray and white, to pink, maroon, and vivid red, to orange-gold and an intense purplish blue.

Patterns in the stone are varied as well. Bands of alternating color create stripes and a marbled effect.

It was the exotic appearance of Alibates flint rather than its workability that attracted prehistoric toolmakers. Modern-day knappers report that the material has a resistant quality and hardness which makes it more difficult to flake and shape into tools than other stone, such as the Edwards cherts found abundantly in the Edwards Plateau to the south.

Martin Schmitz the ranger guide
explains that later visitors to the quarry mined the quarry stone more intensively than the first finders 12000 years ago. They used Alibates flint to outfit all parts of their "daily toolkit of weapons and cooking implements" as well as blanks to trade for other materials from far afield. In return they received painted pottery, shell and turquoise jewelry, pipes, and obsidian from groups in the southwest and to the north, many hundreds of miles away.

Martin speculated about the widespread occurrence of red Alibates flint in sites and how often the raw material would be worked into a weapon with a bright red flint tip, and whether the color might have invoked magical connections to the blood of animals.

It was a cold and grey day but the ranger guide made the bleak hillside come alive for us, recreating the scenes from the past as stone age man, or woman, cut into the rock for their treasured raw material. It was a pleasant change from some of the inexperienced seasonal interpreters we have come across at other parks who knew little about the background of their subjects.

New Mexico to Texas Panhandle.

2009-04-29T18:35:00.001-07:00

Well we finally got out of New Mexico and are sitting in Amarillo Texas but not sitting too easily as the area is under a severe thunderstorm warning - PING PONG SIZE HAIL - and a tornado watch - yikes!

Hopefully it wil pass us by but nevertheless we have parked close to the severe weather shelter AKA the brick built toilets.

On a lighter note it is pleasant to see cattle grazing on grass instead of dodging the cactus in the desert.

Before we left New Mexico we visited a couple of unusual attractions.

The first was Madrid where some of the film the Wild Hogs was fimed.

It is an old mining town which has become an artists colony.

This is the cafe from the film.

Anyone seen the hose and my cable ties?

.

But some of the stuff was more conventional.

The second was Tinkertown museum. It is a living testimonial to a man called Ross Ward’s belief in self determination, independence and his ability to carve, paint, create and improvise out of scrap. At age 57, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and passed away November 13, 2002.

This car was one of his last pieces

Manyof his earlier pieces are animated using old washing machine motors, cranks wire and lots of ingenuity.

However this was the exibit that created some wonder in me.

What is a 35 foot wooden boat built in Malden in England doing in a shed in the desert in New Mexico USA.

The story of it's voyage to it's current resting place would be interesting.

THE POW WOW IN ALBUQUERQUE

2009-04-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

Also called the Gathering of the Nations it is held in the PIT

at the Uni building in Albuquerque. Even the bikers got in on the action. They called the run to the pit “Rolling Thunder” lots of indians on Harleys.

I liked some of the humour demonstrated on the articles we saw for sale, even custom skate boards.

One bumper sticker I nearly bought reads “ I am the rez boy your mum warned you about.!”.

We saw the entry of the dancers, all 3000+ of them, led by the eagle feather staff.
We were allowed to photograph much of the proceedings but if an eagle feather falls to the ground all recording is to stop while the special ceremony to recover the feather takes place.

The
music for the dancing is supplied by groups of drummers around the edge of the pit.

CAROL'S BIT.

Today was the last day of the gathering of the nations. This is where the Native American nations from the US and Canada come together for a big pow wow. There are competitions for the best dancers in several groups, a miss native America, and best regalia. There is a lot of singing and dancing, and some of the singers, mostly girls have very powerful voices.

The regalia is very colourful and inventive, although not always traditional. This year's colour seems to be flourescent lime green or ditto in candy pink.

A lot of traditional dress though. Feathers are used a lot, and the head-dresses especially on the men are magnificent. They wear large bells around their ankles that sound in time with the drums.

One of the dances is to see how much the girls can make their dress swing, and this dance is seen a lot in films.

The dresses have a lot of long fringes made from wool or leather thong, that swing with the drums and gather momentum. Silver or tin cones are sewn onto the dresses in 'shimmy fringes' that glitter and move with the music. The sound stays in time with the beat of the drums.

Around the outside of the main arena are Indian market stalls.

These stalls can only sell genuine Indian made stuff, and I made a dent in my credit card with a heavy weight 'wolf' 'bracelet, and pendant.

The Indians are very polite and courteous , and tend to take the 'micky' out of themselves in a gentle way. The stall holders always said hello, and said 'thank you for buying from us' or shook my hand.

From what was being said from the podium, it is very obvious that they haven't forgotten what was done to them , but they all stick together and help each other. The money raised from this gathering will help the Indian people, and of course they have their casino's for the white man to lose his money in.
The goods on sale aren't cheap either. There are some excellent silversmiths here and their pieces of jewelry are beautiful, custom made if required.

This gathering is something that should not be missed , and is unique

John's Bit

The number of seriously overweight people was quite astounding. Mind you we saw that the standard meal of Fry bread and full sugar coke on offer from the food court must be a contributory factor.

The organization was slick, it had to be with hundreds of tribes, 3000+ dancers and many singers to showcase. Everybody seemed to be good humoured and the M/C kept his cool even when people were tardy.

Tent Rocks National Monument

2009-04-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

One of the most recent additions to the National Parks, Tent Rocks was not initially on our list of “ must see places “ but as we had a few days to fill before the big Albuquerque Pow Wow at the end of April; we decided to have a look.

The access instructions were a little off putting, we had to drive up through a pueblo, then the road quality dropped to gravel with a rider that it was not suitable or recommended for Rvs. However we gave it a go, taking it very slowly on the gravel section as it was badly washboarded.

Again the weather forecast was for us to be on the edge of a big cold frontal system which was dropping loads of snow up in Denver and some in Northern New Mexico. It had been cold overnight and it was a bit gray and threatening as we drove up, however a few flakes of snow greeted us as we poked our noses outside the Trek. We retreated to the Trek, had a warm drink and as the flakes seemed to be sporadic got togged up and headed up the trail.

The rock formations were 'well weird'.

Some even looked like the KKK turned to stone.

Millions of years ago, a volcanic eruption had laid down several hundred feet of soft rock. Later on these layers had been covered by harder rock. Now as erosion wears away the hills sometimes a little hard cap protects the softer rock beneath it and you get these tepee shaped formations.

As we climbed higher we entered into a slot canyon which eventually narrowed to the point where I had to turn sideways to get through.

There were some points where the hard rock caps had toppled down into the slot and were jammed across the slot, creating a roof and a feeling of doom as we ducked underneath, This tested Carol's claustrophobia but as she could always see the light she kept on going. But as the snow was still falling we kept our eyes on the sky. I am sure that there was no risk of a sudden flash flood but we were both conscious of the pictures and stories of people trapped and swept away in such canyons before.

The snow flurries kept up and as we climbed, we saw other hikers coming down just wearing fleeces and they were clearly wet through and cold. The danger of snow and rain was obvious and had been widely forecast but people still went hill walking without proper clothing. Still I am sure they all had their mobiles and were expecting a rapid rescue if they called 911. After all a woman had called 911 last week when the local fast food joint failed to satisfy her shrimp appetite and refused her any more!

The dangers were bought home to us
as the skies darkened and wet snow started to fall heavily.

As we got back to our RV park we had a couple of inches with snow still falling. We even lost our satellite as the dish sported a layer of the white stuff.

Albuquerque

2009-04-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

We are back in shorts and Tees with sun tan creme but a reminder of winter has blown through New Mexico. There were 15+inches of snow in Taos. We were there last week. But we escaped with some Snow Sleet Rain and Hail.

So in the sunshine we visited the Botanical Gardens Zoo and Aquarium. Carol quickly entered into conversation with this big box fish.

A rare white rhino.

The zoo had quite a few endangered species in its cages. I suppose I am being unkind when I call them cages, the enclosures are well laid out and most animals seemed happy enough. However I hate to see birds without the room to fly freely.

South to Santa Fe

2009-04-08T15:42:00.000-07:00

We came into Santa Fe and were surprised to see a city center built using Adobe style construction. Later on we found out it is the law passed in 1958, whereby new and rebuilt buildings, especially those in designated historic districts, must exhibit a Spanish Territorial or Pueblo style of architecture, with flat roofs and other features suggestive of the area's traditional adobe construction.

The town was formally founded and made a capital in 1610, making it the oldest capital city in what is today the United States.

We visited the governors mansion, now a museum, and saw the mud bricks from 400 years ago still holding the roof up.

Buildings
like this old hotel
have changed little in outward appearance in the last 75 years.

We found a really nice RV park and have used the bus service to get into town and explore the many art galleries in and around the city center. On one road the concentration of galleries is such that it claims to outdo London or Paris in terms of art per square mile. We some rubbish but also some realy impresice and original work.

After Santa Fe we are heading to a little known National Monument called Tent Rocks

then on to Albuquerque for the big Pow Wow in late April.<

BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT

2009-04-02T17:23:00.000-07:00

Just south of Los Alamos we entered Bandelier, another canyon full of ruins.

In 1880 men from Cochiti Pueblo guided Adolph Bandelier, a self taught Swiss anthropologist, down the walls of Frijoles canyon to the homes of their forefathers. We got a chance to see these homes today.

The carbon dating from fires in the canyon show that it has been inhabited for 10,000 years. Early hunter gatherers found reliable water, year round game and a wider variety of vegetation than the mesa tops.

The earliest dwellings were probably modified caves.
The very soft 'tufa' rock was easy to work and there were many hollows which could be used as starting points.

Later on additional rooms were built out from the cliffs and the rows of holes for the roof beams can be seen today, sometimes three stories high.

This room was the third level and has storage alcoves, windows, a fire pit and a smoke hole.
Some rooms were part of an extensive suite with connecting doors, others were so small that only a child could have used them.

Access below by ladder would have been the normal way in and out

but the agile would have used the rock ladders to make their way up to the mesa top.

Over time people built in many places in and around Frijoles canyon. Over 3,000 archaeological sites have been discovered in Bandelier National Monument.

The great house seems to have been the last to have been inhabited.
It is circular in form unlike the others we have seen which were rectangular. Only one of the three kivas built inside the great house has been excavated.

“Spiritually, our ancestors still live here at Bandelier. You see reminders of their presence here – their homes, their kivas, and their petroglyphs. As you walk in their footsteps, value the earth beneath you and show everything the same respect we do when we re-visit this sacred place.” First nation elders.

STEPS and MORE STEPS
Carol was wondering if there were many more steep sets of steps.

FIRE

On May 4, 2000, Bandelier National Monument fire management personnel ignited a prescribed burn, Upper Frijoles 1&5, which has become known as the Cerro Grande Prescribed Fire, near the summit of Cerro Grande. This prescribed fire was based upon a flawed plan and required fire management policies were not followed. This fire progressed without problems until on May 5 at approximately 1300 hours when slopover and spotting resulted in the burn boss declaring it a wildfire.

This tree was one of the many badly burned in that fire, but still alive.

DEER

As we walked out of the head of the canyon we came across this litle group of mule deer.

They were completely unworried by our presence.

I AM BECOME DEATH THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS

2009-04-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

Those words were uttered by Robert Oppenheimer after witnessing the successful detonation of the 'gadget' as they called the first ever atomic bomb.

He recognised the potential of the new technology in 1939 and was appointed Coordinator of Rapid Rupture, a title that delighted him, by the bomb committee that Franklin Roosevelt had established to shepherd nuclear weapons research, Oppenheimer surveyed the work of bomb design being conducted at small laboratories scattered across the United States, none of them allowed to talk to each other, and proposed that the separate projects be assembled in one place under one director. That place was Los Alamos.

We are in Los Alamos and walking the same streets as Ferme, Teller, Bohr and Oppenheimer did in the 40s when this town did not exist on the maps. Mail went through a PO box in Santa Fe and censorship was ironclad.

We even walked down the street called Bathtub Row, so called because they were the only ones with tubs when the scientists were housed there.

This was the one Oppenheimer lived in.

The museum in town was excellent covering the early days of the nuclear race and then showing the problems the USA faces in maintaining their aging nuclear stockpile, without being able to set them off.

They also had an excellent area showing the efforts being made to clean up the radioactive debris left behind during the construction and testing of nuclear weapons in and around Los Alamos and in the Nevada proving grounds.

The aerial pictures showing the aftermath of years of underground testing were the eerie reminder of Robert Oppenheimer's words “ I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.”

FREEZING AND SKIING AT TAOS

2009-03-28T19:44:00.000-07:00

As there had been 15 inches of fresh powder overnight I decided to go skiing on Saturday. As it was 13F overnight we woke up to a partially frozen water system.

Carol had to wait until 4 pm to get a full water supply restored.

I took the local bus up to the slopes and had a great day, giving up when my knees gave out. at 4 pm after what may well be my last ever days skiing.

It will be a long and pricy journey from the Windward islands to a ski slope.

Snowed in at Taos RV park today..

2009-03-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well the big storm just missed us but we still woke up to a covering this morning.

It is bitterly cold 16 degrees F and several rigs on our site have frozen pipes.

HO-HUM Where is the To-Do list, inside jobs only.

PEOPLE AT THE RED WILLOWS AKA Taos Pueblo

2009-03-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

We visited the Taos Pueblo today in the snow.

The first flurries of the several inches which are forecast for tonight.

Archaeologists say people lived here nearly 1000 years ago. The main part of the present buildings were most likely constructed between 1000 and 1450 A.D.

The appeared much as they do today when the first Spanish explorers arrived in Northern New Mexico in 1540 and believed that the Pueblo was one of the fabled golden cities of Cibola. The two structures called Hlauuma (north house) and Hlaukwima (south house) are said to be of similar age. They are considered to be the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the USA. But the Hopi on the first mesa also claim this.

The outside surfaces of the Pueblo are continuously maintained by replastering with think layers of mud. Interior walls are carefully coated with thin washes of white earth to keep them clean and bright. The Pueblo is actually many individual homes, built side-by-side and in layers, with common walls but no connecting doorways. In earlier days there were ladders and skylights to gain access through the roof. The doors are a recent innovation.

The tribal elders ban electricity and piped water inside the pueblo. Water is still drawn from the stream that runs through the pueblo.

We visited most of the galleries in the Pueblo and were surprised by how warm most of them were. The wood burning stoves or earthern fireplaces they use really doing a good job.

The present San Geronimo, or St. Jerome, Chapel

was completed in 1850 to replace the original church which was destroyed in the War with Mexico by the U.S. Army in 1847. That church, the ruins still evident on the west side of the village, was first built in 1619. It was then destroyed in the Spanish Revolt of 1680 but soon rebuilt on the same site. St. Jerome is the patron saint of Taos Pueblo.

The Pueblo Indians are about 90% Catholic. Catholicism is practiced along with the ancient Indian religious rites which are an important part of Taos Pueblo life. The Pueblo religion is very complex; however, there is no conflict with the Catholic church, as evidenced by the prominent presence of both church and kiva in the village.

We liked the parking space in the village reserved for the war chief, he and his men see to the security of the mountains, the Pueblo, and the land holdings outside of the old city walls.

AZTEC RUINS SITE NORTHERN NEW MEXICO

2009-03-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

We had looked at visiting Chaco Canyon where a great house is situated but the 20 miles of badly washboarded dirt road we had to drive put us off. So we headed on across the top of New Mexico on our way to Taos. On our way we saw a small National Monument called Aztec Ruins and went in as we passed by.

Much to our surprise we found ourselves looking at a well preserved great house with one of the largest kivas in the USA.

The building techniques used surprised us with their sophistication.
For instance look at the ends of the roof beams, cut with a stone axe then squared off with a sandstone block. But others just seemed to have no real use other than aesthetics. The green layer of blocks comes from a different area than the sandstone used for the rest of the blocks. But both were carried for miles from the quarries used.

The plan showed below is only a small part of the complex but is the part open for visits. All show carefull planning and the construction was an ongoing process with timber beams being imported and stored for decades before being used.

The work was carried out over a couple of centuries with different styles of stonework used. The experts think that the early work was based around the Chaco canyon style but the later is from Mesa Verde and the cliff dwellings.

We were able to walk through some of the internal rooms.

Boy o Boy were the doors small, I would have had to crawl through the next one.

The great kiva is a reconstruction but they think it is pretty accurate except for the height of the roof.

It is the most impressive piece of pueblo architecture that we have seen. The internal pillars are set on great circles of limestone which were quarried many miles away and moved here somehow. They weigh several hundred pounds each.

Also puzzling is the purpose of the two rectangular vaults in the ground. One theory is that they were foot drums, another is that they were used to germinate corn.

Like all the other pueblo buildings they were abandoned in the late 13th century. Some experts think that a succession of drought years forced them south to the Rio Grande area of Texas, others talk of invaders from the North forcing them out, personally I think they heard that Walmart had a sale on in Texas and they all left to get in line for the midnight opening.

We moved to a state park after Aztec. The Navajo Dam park is a mini Lake Powell with beautiful lakeside campgrounds and at this time of the year we had no problem finding a prime site overlooking the lake.

But as you can see from the snow on the pole it was chilly there when the sun was not shining.

Our next stop is Taos where we might see some serious snow if the weather forecast is accurate.

SKIING AGAIN

2009-03-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

Well Telluride came up trumps in the end but it was a rocky start.

I had phoned in advance to the Information office inquiring about parking the Trek as I knew the town of Telluride is anti rv due to the lack of parking places. A very polite young lady gave us precise directions to the only park on the mountain capable of taking us, pity she was wrong. The place she directed us to was a double decker with low headroom and single places where we need 12 feet and a double. After managing to back out and get turned around we asked a police man. He was straight on the offense; where in Telluride were we staying, did we have a parking voucher, how many people were inside the RV etc. Eventually we convinced him that we were not intending to camp here and we did have a hotel room albeit not in Telluride so he directed us to this park in the middle of nowhere. The only problem was that this was an employees park so the shuttle had stopped running when we got there. There were no directions to the lifts or any information about which direction to walk. We started walking generally uphill and a fit young man with skis on his shoulder told us where to go to catch the Chondala. When we got there I had a problem finding long skis. The rental shops stopped at 178cm and I like 200cm, eventually I settled for 191cm GS skis very heavy [ bad ] very stiff [ good ] and very pricey [ bad ].

But two days later as I skied down on the last run with a big smile on my face all was forgotten if not forgiven. The sun was shining the snow was perfectly groomed and the skiing had been great.

Many of the black runs are short and through the trees which I do not like but some of the runs on the town side of the ridge were long, steep and free of moguls so I could let the skis run in big sweeping GS turns. Although it was spring break and the place was full of teenagers the ones on skis or boards were nearly all competent and slope aware so I was not too worried about being wiped out by some out of control lunatic.

But it was the new Prospect Bowl that really made the last afternoon a perfect couple of hours. Perfect snow when the rest of the mountain was starting to get soft and slushy in places. My MP3 player was up loud and the skis were running for me. I may even have let out a few “Yeah Haa” cries.

As all of the skiing is between 9,000 ft and 12,500ft this was a pretty good second stress test for my heart. I felt great.

HOPI CEREMONY AFTER MOVING NORTH FROM PHOENIX

2009-03-16T20:22:00.000-07:00

We stopped of at Prescott on our way north but were not impressed, lots of plaques describing empty sites which had been occupied by wooden structure long since burnt down. The shops were expensive and there was little innovation.

However our next stop at Jerome was much more interesting, this is an old mountain mining area and the modern day inhabitants are some what off the beaten track of mediocre America. We liked it, the shops were quirky, the shopkeepers friendly without being pushy and much of the merchandise interesting.

Sedona is a sort of US Burton on the Water, touristy and much visited. It has many art galleries and although we had done the rounds on our last visit we trawled the shops for anything eyecatching. We both bought Arizona Dirt shirts dyed with genuine local dirt.

Before we left Sedona we had to deal with the output from the heron nursery above the Trek. Boy o Boy these birds are real sh***hawks. I was scrubbing for an hour.

Our next stop was Flagstaff but on the way we stopped at a recently developed state park based on a 1908 homestead set up in Oak Creek Canyon. He used the river water to irrigate his fruit trees and had a successful business. The orchards are still there with one original tree still producing fruit. One of the main attractions in the park is a narrow chute between two pools in the canyon. As the rocks have been worn smooth it is an natural easy water slide, hence the parks name, Slide River. The toe test soon established why nobody was sliding today; too cold as we are in snow melt country.

As we get close to Flagstaff we start seeing piles of snow in corners where the ploughs had piled it up and our campsite was full of banks of snow.

HOPI INDIAN RESERVATION

North of Flagstaff we went looking for a Hopi indian experience. We knew that unlike the Navajo, who like to live separate from each other, the Hopi crowd together on a few mesas. I had the expectation of huddled pueblo style buildings but the reality was double wide trailers, cinder block shacks and a few buildings that might include some original pueblo walls all on dirt roads. So we were disappointed but it was what we had come to expect 'On the Res'.

However we pressed on. One of the things I knew I wanted to see if at all possible was the ceremonial dances that form part of their complex religious rites and I had looked at the schedule and one was on this weekend. We got lucky, the ceremony was on and e could enter the village to watch even though we were not Hopis. No cameras, sound recorders or even sketching is allowed but we could join the spectators. While we were waiting for the dancers it was good to see lots of healthy looking kids running around playing with what they had from their surroundings and not a game boy in sight even though there were satellite dishes on many of the houses.

The dancers appeared and it was obvious why this was the Cow dance. 32 dancers wearing similar masks with cow horns took their place in the dance arena. Another dancer wore a mask without horns but the muzzle and teeth of a wolf. He final dancer carried a bow and had a another kind of mask. They were all adorned with much turquoise jewelery. The only odd note was the man controlling the dance and sprinkling something, possibly corn pollen, over the dancers at regular intervals; he wore a plain shirt and slacks and of the dancers he was the only one not masked. The sole drummer called the cadence of the dance and the drumbeats were echoed by the turtle rattle each dancer wore strapped to his right leg.

The drum beats and the sense of antiquity attached to the rituals made me think of the years and years of dances that had taken place. For these are the oldest continuously inhabited town sites in the USA. The kivas have housed the masks, the shaman have lead the dances and the rituals have come down to the present day through 800 years. Have they changed? Who knows, but the sense of times past was really strong as the old men in the the ritual lead the the young boys in the same costumes through the steps that may have been heard in this place for 800 years.

Oh yes, the dancers also bought laundry baskets full of food which was handed out to the watchers at half time. Why I do not know. This was a dance for the village. There were us and another couple amongst hundreds of Hopis. We were offered food and accepted but felt a little uneasy about this. For there can not be much money on the res. Still to have refused would have been wrong, we are sure of this.

Carol is not sure if we should eat it or keep it. We both felt honored to be a small part of their ceremony

Looking for information on the internet did not turn up much. Well we were not expecting much as this is part of a religion that goes back a long way and is still alive today with a lot of secrecy sourrounding parts of the ceremonies especially in the Kivas. Still we think that the dancers were Wakaskatsina an animal Spirit that is a cow Kachina and is one of the Rain Gods Messengers.

Another special moment on our trip round North America.

CANYON de CHELLY

Our next step was the Canyon De Chelly. This is jointly administered by the Navajo and the Parks Service. We drove up to the overlook at the White House.

Here we saw why this site has been inhabited for thousands of years. Running water and flat fertile flood plains.

We also saw the local ravens putting on a show for the tourists - or maybe just flying for fun. An old argument amongst stiffie flyers.

We could walk down to the canyon floor from the White House overlook but as it was steep we decided to wimp out after coming through the tunnel at the cliff top.

The Navajo run jeep trips down to the Pueblo but as we have seen similar and got closer than we would be allowed to do here we skipped that as well.

We are now in Dolores still chasing our mail and John is looking forward to getting back on the boards at Telluride where the snow is still deep.

Travels in the Yucatan

2009-03-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

.

Carol's bit,

Cancun.

We had to leave the U.S because our 6 month visa had expired. So we went to Mexico to see the Mayan ruins. We arrived at Cancun airport and picked up the hire car. As we drove towards our hotel,
we passed one long road of hotels, and cheap shops. This is Costa del Yarmouth.

On the day going out again, we had a walk around the Artisans market, which was fun. If you have been to Morocco you know that you are going to be hassled by the vendors, and are expected to bargain with them. It was mostly cheap tat, but I managed to get a hand crocheted shoulder bag from $700 down to $550 ( pesos).

The Mayans are a quiet , friendly people, but obviously have a lot of anger towards the Spanish. The Mayan civilization was decimated with the Spanish invasion. Their buildings were built on top of ,and their books burned by a Spanish priest, who was trying to convert them to Christianity. The history is a bit sketchy because of that incident , the Mayans kept very good records, and were very advanced.

Whilst walking through the ruins at Uxmal I felt a light touch on my hand, when I looked down there was a skinny young bitch looking up at me. She was covered in mange and ticks. Somewhere she had puppies, or may be they were dead, she didn't look fit enough to look after babies. I had nothing to give her, but she appreciated the attention when I held her face in my hands. One of the other visitors had a plastic pot and gave her some water. Something needs to be done here, there is no animal welfare, and they have to fend for themselves. Other dogs at Ek Balam ( black panther) had made friends with one of the guides, and about 4 or 5 of them had established a nice life for themselves. They seemed happy and were fed every day. The guides were genuinely fond of them .

One of the places we stayed at was tucked into a jungle setting, and although basic, was very peaceful and comfortable, it would have been nice to have stayed longer here.
I found the roads here easy and pleasant to drive on, even if they did suddenly disappear into a ditch at the side.

We decided to have a meal at a roadside cafe called the Pickled onion.

The owner turned out to be British, from the north of England . She was in the process of setting up another business in holistic medicine, and had some of the locals coming in to do therapy work. Valerie herself was a Reflexologist and Reiki practitioner, I got a job offer. I think if I worked down here it would be animal rescue.

The ruins are fascinating and each one has a different Aura and feel to it. Apart from the poor little dog,I preferred Ek Balam. No one should go to Cancun and not see the ruins ( but they do)

CANCUN

We expected a cross between Blackpool and Benidorm and what we got was a little better but no much. The hotels are in a 20km long strip against the sea with lots of tshirts and other such tat on sale in little booths with aggressive vendors. It is a sign of the times and US big business that they have a new cry when they try to entice you into their shops, instead of “Lookee Lookee less than 1 dollah” they shout with pride “ Cheaper than Walmart”.

However the interior was better than we could have hoped for and the many Mayan people we met were unfailingly polite and helpful.

Our first stop on the interior was at Chichen Itza and the Mayaland Hotel where we had reserved a room at the extortionate rate of $165 a night. We had decided that one nights worth of luxury and to be next to the ruins made this worth while. But we got a lot more than we bargained for as they upgraded us to the Pavarotti suite, their most expensive at only $800 per night. The bed was about 8 foot wide, the ensuite jacuzzi had room for 3 and there was room for a cricket pitch in the room.

The grounds were fabulous, 3 swimming pools, several bars and restaurants and a variety of animals and birds wandering around.

[ YES Those are peacocks walking upstairs for the evening!]

We took in the sound and light show inside the ruins which was very atmospheric that evening and got an early start next day with the aim of seeing as much as we could before the tour buses arrived. The great pyramid greets
you first and you can only marvel at the industry required to build it and all the other structures.

The 1000 pillars might have been a market place. The Platform of the Eagles and the Jaguars are built in a combination Maya and Toltec styles. Each side has a staircase to the top. Carved into the sides are panels depicting eagles and jaguars consuming what appear to be human hearts.
Great Ball Court about 150 meters to the north-west of the Castillo is by far the most impressive. It is the largest ball court in ancient Mesoamerica. It measures 166 by 68 meters (545 by 232 feet). The imposing walls are 12 meters high, and in the center, high up on each of the long walls, are rings carved with intertwining serpents.

At the base of the high interior walls are slanted benches with sculpted panels of teams of ball players. In one panel, one of the players has been decapitated and from the wound emits seven streams of blood; six become wriggling serpents and the center becomes a winding plant.

We walked down a SacBe an old Mayan white road.

As well as being highways connecting their many centres together they have a religious significance to the Mayans and you sometimes see the locals utter a brief prayer before crossing a SacBe.

It led to the Cenote,
one of the two water sources for the site and home of many sacrifices.

These old time Mayans were a bloodthirsty lot.

Our next stop was Merida. We took a walk around the central plaza with a local guide, and learned that there had been 5 pyramids in Merida when the Spanish arrived. They enslaved the local mayans and forced them to tear down the pyramids and build churches on the flattened sites. They also burned all but three of their books. This was a thousand year old culture which had erected magnificent edifices, run a trading empire thousands of miles across and kept meticulous written records of their achievements.

We stayed at a little bed and breakfast run by a couple of cuban ladies and their cat named doggie. The outside street was pretty rough looking and Carols comment was “This is a right sh** heap”. But inside there was a tiny swimming pool and lovely little back yard that we could use, filled with plants. The owners were a goldmine of local information.

We visited Dzibilchaltun just north of Merida. As well as significant Maya ruins there was a museum full of Maya and Spanish artifacts including pirate memorabila. The deep cenote freshwater well
looked excellent for a cool swim but I did not bring my trunks.

Our next stop was Uxmal, much less visited than Chichen Itza but as impressive and perhaps of more archaeological significance.

Unlike Chichen Itza where a strict no climbing rule was applied we were allowed to walk and climb our way around and over much of the buildings except the roofs.

My calves are still aching from the climb up the pyramid and boy o boy were the steps narrow and steep.

Coming down was pretty scary and over the years several people have fallen and either died or been seriously injured. Some descended on their bottoms but Scottish machismo prevented me from doing this.

We stayed at a charming little place called Sacbe,
[Mayan for white road]

in a spotlessly clean little bungalow in grounds where a bewilderigly wide range of trees and plants were lovingly nurtured by the owner. Carol was in her element.

and ate at the Pickled Onion just down the road.

Carols Bit has covered the owner already, a Lancashire lass now living happily in Mexico.

We finished off our ruins tour next day at Ek Balam. This much smaller site was only recently discovered. Excavations and restoration is still going on but in some areas the degree of preservation is astounding. This giant idol was mostly intact when discovered.

The guide said only a small amount of restoration work had been done this area. It was all original stonework and only the stucco had needed some filling and retouching.

We are both more than a little skeptical about some of what we saw and read. Buildings were reconstructed from piles of bricks to some 1950s idea of what a Mayan temple looked like and explanations are little more than guesswork. But whatever the mistakes and misconceptions there are there remains an unmistakable truth, this was a complex, long lasting and successful civilisation.

Some Mayans still live in traditional oval houses with a thatched roof but here the wattle and daub wall looks like it might be cement to me.

The television screen was an anchronistic touch though!

After this we returned to Cancun where that peculiarly American College tradition “Spring Break” was in full swing.

We were lucky to find a quiet room and avoid the drunken mobs reeling from bar to bed to bar along the 20 kms of the hotel zone.

Amongst the memories we have of the Yucatan are
1 The enormous semi feral but friendly stray dog population
2 The crazy and scary bus drivers.
3 The even crazier and scarier taxi drivers. You would stop for a red light and the taxi behind you would take to the pavement, drive around you and run the red light.
4 The friendly and unfailingly polite Mayans.
5 The person who sat on the bonnet of our hire car in Merida, denting the bonnet.
6 Last but not least the "Get out of jail card" provided by the hire car company which we needed when John got stopped and accused of " Not respecting the red light" and not having a back number plate.

DOWN IN MEXICO

2009-03-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

We are down in the Yucatan following the Mayan ruins trail. It seems that the border towns have lots of violence but not down here or so the locals claim. The only scary thing so far was the local buses in Merida - boy they are big fast and take no prisoners. his is very intimidating when you are trying to find your way home in a little hire car at night.

carol´s bit

lot of stray dogs down here, I am keeping some chicken in my pocket. There is no animal rescue here , and these dogs are not going to live very long. They are very submissive and friendly and look hopefully for just a little food and kindness. The Mayan people are very friendly and helpful, but they can´t feed themselves, let alone stray dogs. English dogs are very lucky in this respect, there are laws to protect them, here there is nothing, including hope.

More stories and pics to follow when we get home to the RV and find a good WIFI connection.

BISBEE, TOMBSTONE AND TUCSON DOG SHOW

2009-02-21T21:20:00.001-08:00

.
We realised we would probably like Bisbee when we were greeted by a sign that said “KEEP BISBEE WEIRD” and it surely is.

The town was a wealthy copper mining town in the 1890s and has evolved into a place where aging hippies run businesses extolling the benefits of Reduce Reuse Recycle and try and sell you magazines from the 1980’s. Coffee, pottery, and vegetarian shops compete with a shop selling laser cut sculpture based on skulls. I liked this one but would need to keep it in the garden to avoid nightmares.
Bisbee is also famous for "the Lavender Pit", one of the more famous of the American mines because Bisbee turquoise (also known as "Bisbee Blue" registered name) was one of the first put onto the market. The turquoise mine is part of the Bisbee copper mine The Copper Queen now operated as a tourist underground tour . Bisbee turquoise has developed a reputation as a hard, finely webbed or dendrite, high blue stone, known for its "chocolate brown" matrix. Bisbee Turquoise also comes in a beautiful dark green color.
While we were looking around the rock shops and jewelers stores at the amazing minerals around we heard tales of the legendary rockhound ‘Bisbee Bob’. Apparently he had the best examples of turquoise and other local gems and mostly collected at the dead on night from other peoples mines. They ran him out of town!

CAROL’S BIT.
Bisbee reminds me of the West country, Devon and Cornwall. Lot of odd shops with all sorts of different things for sale, and “odd” people, who are quite happy to admit they are odd. My feeling is that they are like those in the west country , normal, it’s everyone else who isn’t. We came here last year,and business was slow then, it still is, but is was nice to see that the same people have survived and are still trading. I did well in a jewelry shop that had a sale on silver, 70% off.

The place was packed, but the cat on the counter didn’t budge. Several shops had dogs in, as part of the welcoming committee. The shops are run by their owners, who bring their pets into work.
This is one of the places I wouldn’t mind staying for a while.

TOMBSTONE
"The Town too Tough to Die," Another of Arizona's old mining camps. When a miner named his first claim “The Tombstone” and rumors of rich strikes made a boomtown of the settlement that adopted this name. In only 7 years the mines produced millions of dollars in silver and gold but rising underground waters closed them.
Days of lawlessness and violence, climaxed with the infamous Earp-Clanton battle, fought near the rear entrance of the O.K. Corral, on October 26, 1881 and recreated several times a day for us tourists.
We were enjoying our walk up the historic main street avoiding the ‘Shady Ladies Side’ when we came across this.

CAROL’S BIT
I think John has overdone the diet bit, don’t you?

I didn’t realize this thing moved every so often, there was nearly another corpse in Tombstone.

TUCSON DOG SHOW
This was all about finding homes for shelter dogs but we were not sure about this breed spotted in the food queue

CAROL’S BIT.
America is very good at these types of events. They often take the shelter dogs out to the public to try to place them in homes. There are so many of them though, and seems to be so little control of the breeding. I saw one hybrid of a Pyrenean mountain dog crossed with something half it’s normal size. The result was hideous, the legs were half the size of a pure breed, but the body wasn’t a lot different.
It would be nice to think that most of these dogs were placed by the end of the day. Fortunately there were no White German Shepherds looking for a home, although there is a rescue for them in America.

As we were leaving we came across a group In regalia, dancing. We think they were probably Mayan, judging by their clothes.

After we left the dog show, John took me for a birthday meal at Mimi’s, which has become one of our favourite places, the weather was hot all day, so all in all, a good day.

2009-02-18T09:37:00.000-08:00

TUCSON

After feeling a little overcautious because we stayed put in Coolidge after a snow warning on the weather forecast on what turned out to be a sunny day we went to the Biosphere 2 site just North of Tucson.

We visited the site of the famous experiment where 8 people got locked inside this giant closed system greenhouse in the hope that they could grow their own food while the greenery was producing enough oxygen to keep them alive.

In most peoples recollections the experiment was a failure as the inhabitants fell out and the oxygen production failed to keep pace with the consumption and I have to say that was my picture of the place, another glorious failure. However the excellent docent who took us round made me think other wise. They found out about lots of things and the “ BIG SCIENCE” experimental facilities they used are still in use today allowing macro research in a closed and controlled environment.

The giant diaphragms made using Hypalon, rubber dinghy material, were impressive as was the huge under floor pumping and air conditioning setup that allowed the scientists to produce whatever environment they wanted, be it mangrove forest or savannah or Sonoran desert. They even have a boojum cactus growing tall in one corner.

Coming out of the airlock caused the roof to come down.

Oh Yes it turns out that we were not overcautious about the snow. They had had lots the day before!

We visited Sabino Canyon a desert oasis in the Catalina foothills. We took the hike from the trailhead down to the river.
It was steeper than expected and required a bit of scrambling at the end due to erosion damage but worthwhile.

We spotted this unusual rock formation

Snoopy and Woodstock again.

The walk back down to the Trek was a pleasant downhill stroll but we were passed by earnest runners in IRONMAN T shirts on their way up and down the 4 mile access route. We had taken the shuttle up!

We found a noisy little RV park in the middle of Tucson for the night.

As I was connecting up the Trek to the utilities we were visited by the park cat who hopped in, checked us out, mooched a meal and then asked politely to be let out.

Wanna buy a Fat ALbert cheap mister?

Well as we left Tucson we came across this giant unwanted military aircraft parking lot. Several hundred Fat Alberts [ AKA Lockheed C-130 Hercules ] rows and rows of Warthogs plus many others. I suppose it is all part of the peace dividend.

We are off down to Tombstone and Bisbee again as we did not allow enough time last year to see everything.

Quartzsite and Casa Grande

2009-02-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

We joined the wave of RVs that hit Quartzsite during the months of January and February, swelling the population from a few thousand to over a million.
At this time of the year, 2,000 vendors of rocks, gems, minerals, fossils and everything else imaginable create one of the world's largest open air flea markets in Quartzsite.

Eight major gem and mineral shows
as well as vendors of raw and handcrafted merchandise peddle their wares to snowbirds, collectors and the odd stray Brit like us.

But there is the car show as well.

People trailer their beautifully restored classic and spend two days sitting behind it making sure people do not touch while answering the same foolish questions over and over again.

Not every thing was a conventional classic and I liked this old time truck with it’s working likker still and animated talking doll beside it.

We came away with some unusual
semi precious stones and now have to work out what to do with them.

CAROL'S BIT.

I have always wanted a good piece of Amber a lot of the stuff you see is a sort of resin made up to look like Amber. This piece has a lot of dead bodies in it, flies, spiders and a few unidentifiable ones. This stone will cut and file easily, but I will probably put a bell cap on it, so that a chain can be attached.
The green stone is FUKITE it glitters and seems to be made up of several layers. I have left this as it is and had a hole drilled. The silver Bale that you see will fit through the hole.

The Red and Cream piece is MOUKAITE - Australian Jasper. It would make a nice back drop for a picture of Charro.

The torqouise and red is CHRYSOELL and CUPRITE - Senoran Desert. These make nice pieces on their own on a stand.

Those little rocks are IRON PYRITE - fools gold. This rock grinds easily into granules and could be used to fill in the faults in the MOUKAITE to add interest.

John has some flat pieces of AGATE and TIGERS EYE which he intends to use as inlay in the table on the boat.

The prices of this stuff was amazing, and I guess people come from worldwide to stock up and take back to their own country, to sell at a big profit. I have seen some of the large geods at alternative medicine shows that cost thousands of pounds. I can imagine what Harrod's would charge. You could get hooked on making things or just displaying what comes out of the earth naturally , and drive yourself nuts looking for it.

So far we have avoided becoming rockhounds but we are looking down and are starting to pick up interesting looking rocks. I am told that the next step is to buy a bag of marbles and every time we pick up a rock we should leave a marble. When we have lost all our marbles then we can call ourselves rockhounds.

After Quartzsite we moved to Casa Grande then on to Coolidge where the Casa Grande ruins are. Confused? We certainly were!

We joined a ranger lead tour of the ruins.

Anyway we already knew a bit about the Hohokam and their irrigation based culture but much of what he said was new to us,
Casa Grande is four stories high and about 60 feet long and 40 feet wide. All constructed from caliche a kind of desert hard pan mud. It is one of the largest prehistoric structures ever built in North America, its purpose remains as much a mystery as the people who built it.

This building was at the centre of a community of three to five thousand people and at the end of a complex canal system twenty miles long.

It was a giant undertaking with stone hammer and wooden digging stick as the canals were 70 feet wide and 18 feet deep in places.

We also discovered that they were small people.

Carol got through the doorway but I could not make it.

The ranger finished by telling us that the Hohokam lived in this area for a thousand years and had little impact on the land as they used renewable resources. He then asked us to look at all the dead trees in the back ground. He said that in the last 30 years deep well irrigation has dropped the water table in this area from 12 feet to more than 100 feet, out of range of the deepest tap roots!

We have to hang around this area because I have to go back for a stress test on my heart at the end of the month.

We get out of Dodge - well Phoenix actually!

2009-01-30T19:41:00.000-08:00

I visited my cardiologist yesterday for my hospital follow up and got the all clear to travel.

I have been feeling pretty good since I got out of hospital and although panicking slightly at every chest twinge when we are out walking around local landmarks

and sweet factories. We were told this might just be my heart revelling in its new and improved blood supply.

I was feeling slightly miffed about all this as I had asked for a heart check up just before leaving the UK but found this;

“According to American Heart Association data, published 2004, for about 65% of men and 47% of women, the first symptom of cardiovascular disease is heart attack or sudden death (death within one hour of symptom onset). Yet the evidence is that stress tests, even if they were performed shortly prior to these events, would not detect that these events were about to happen for most of the individuals who were about to have events.” so you might still be at risk even after the best test!

Anyway we are back on the road and heading to Quartzsite today for a big classic car show and the mineral extravaganza that goes on at Q all the time.
Carol has always been interested in jewellery making and I had a look at lapidary while we were at the big park in December where they had specialist shops for working with stone.

I even made a clock, inlaying the hours with turquoise before polishing it flat. We might do something along these lines on the boat but who knows.

BRRR BRRR!!

Looking at the UK weather forecast you guys back home are in for an icy blast this weekend. Keep warm.

John and Carol [ enjoying the Arizona sunshine and preparing for the Super Bowl (me) and Puppy Bowl (Carol) ]

Before my helicopter trip we visited a quiet and peaceful state park just outside Phoenix

2009-01-19T12:41:00.000-08:00

WHITE TANKS on JANUARY 6TH

We stayed at White Tanks State Park, the largest park in the system, for a couple of days. It was great to get away from the continuous traffic noise of Phoenix and enjoy the peace of a campsite out in the boonies.

In a place where annual rainfall is less than 10 inches a year and summer temperatures will be above 100o degrees for weeks, water is important. These mountains have been a reliable source of water to people for thousands of years.

We walked up to the site of one such source, marveling at the bone white rocks in the stream beds that give the park its name. The violent monsoon rains scrub the boulders clean and the gentle rains trickling down through the rock layers keep the top pools [or tanks ] fed year round. At first the stream bed was dry, even though we have had more rain than usual for this time of year, but soon we saw some small pools and then as we got to the top there we heard the trickle of running water from pool to pool and finally at the top we saw the drizzle of water running down the cliff face and filling the top pool.

It was a short hike and we were glad that there was something to see at the end of the trail but as we stood there at the pool, gray and dusty images flickered at the edges of our vision as thirsty travelers, from the past, in loin clothes or buckskins or denim flung themselves into the pool and drank deeply knowing that they would not die of thirst that day.

In hindsight the minor chest discomfort on the hike, which went away when I coughed up some mucus was in fact the start of my heart problem. The crushing chest pain I had always heard about was just not there. It was just like having a chest infction and a cough. Many other people in the area were reporting such infections.

I get to ride in a helicopter and visit the DynoRod man.

2009-01-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

.

It all got a bit exciting last Sunday. I had had what I thought was a chest infection for about a week and although I managed the White Tanks and the pioneer cemetery hikes plus changing house batteries on the Trek during the week it turns out I was 7 days into a heart attack.

Carol drove me to the hospital in Wickenburg where they too think, to begin with, I might have pneumonia but soon work out that I have blocked heart arteries and that I am in real trouble. They call the chopper ambulance and get the DynoRod team on stand by at the cardiac unit 70 miles away in Phoenix as they load me in to the chopper.

We land on the roof of the hospital and minutes later they are shoving a large tube into my groin. I do not know what tranquiliser they were feeding me but it was pretty good stuff because I felt pretty unconcerned about it all. They took care of two of my three obstructed arteries on Sunday then the other on Wednesday and I was discharged on Thursday with a big book on how to look after my heart.

The good folks at the Escapees Park helped Carol drive the Trek down to Phoenix and the hospital car park has a section for RVs with hook ups so she was able to stay there and walk over to visit every day.

We have to hang around near the hospital for a couple of weeks as my heart may get a little out of control with all this extra blood supply.

Carol has cleared the larder of all the bad stuff I used to eat like bacon and crisps and we went shopping for fat free and low salt groceries like celery and shredded wheat today.

I feel fine today and the sun is shining here in Phoenix so we will be out getting my exercise and thinking about what might have been. It was a close call. However the cardiac nurse who looked after me seems to think I should be able to get back to a normal life in a few weeks.

Agility dog show in Phoenix

2009-01-07T14:51:00.000-08:00

AKC dog show.
Carol’s bit

The rules for AKC ( American kennel club) are a bit different to ours, and the ultimate goal is the Nationals as the British is Crufts.

This was agility, from basic level to some pretty serious experienced dogs.
Most of the dogs were border collies as usual, because without a doubt they are the fastest workers, not always the most accurate though. Going at that speed they can end up with injuries, and over shoot the object. The handler has to be one jump ahead all the time to point to the next challenge. Even so if the dog takes the corner too fast they can cause some pretty serious injury that may be permanent. Charro did basic agility and I decided it wasn’t worth the risk, he had perfect hips until the day he died, although an injury just chasing a ball, caused a permanent contracture in the groin muscle when he slipped and did the splits.

Although most of the dogs enjoy the excitement, some do not. These competitions can be about the handlers, and I saw a couple of them with dogs that made mistakes
walk a way from the dog in disgust, leaving the dog standing, wagging it’s tail, not knowing what it had done wrong. The dogs are under their handlers control, and they are responsible for the dog’s m
istakes.
Mostly though everyone seemed to enjoy the day and we were accepted as part of the day, even without a dog. There was a stall selling doggie things, always a big mistake going to look at these, the handlers buy things for their dogs, and the dog probably never even looks at most them.

One of the competitors ,Judy was in a turbo charged wheelchair
and took her border collie bitch Peek round the course faster than some of those on foot. Peek is a rescue dog and has very unusual markings for a border. She responded very well to the wheelchair and kept well out way of the wheels, I don’t see why an event for competitors that are disabled, shouldn’t be included as part of the agility programme here and throughout the dog agility world.

Thanks to Judy for her help in making us feel welcome and settling us in.

WE GO TO JAIL

2009-01-04T19:58:00.000-08:00

Happy New year from sunny Arizona.

After a few days of rain and cloud the blue skies and warm sunshine returns to our corner of southern Arizona. So we were back in the outdoor pool and with a little help from a modified neck pillow Carol is making good progress with swimming. A width is now easy and we are working on breathing .

I wish I could say the same about my progress on the poker table but the local sharks are treating me like a fish and taking my money!

JANUARY 2 Our visit to Tent City Jail.

We checked in to jail at 2 pm on Friday not sure what to expect. We had heard of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his tent jail but here we were in Maricopa county to see how it was in real life. After a brief introduction we were soon at the gate in the razor wire fence with the next step we were inside. The clunks of the locks signified we were inside, what some inmates call, the toughest jail in the USA.

It reaches 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and drops below zero in the winter.
But rain, hail, sun or snow the inmates sleep in bunks in tents. Male or female they wear pink socks and pink underwear. There is no privacy as the tents sleep 50 or so and in summer they are near capacity. But Joe keeps the VACANCY sign burning high above the jail on an unused watchtower and says he will always find space for lawbreakers. This is important in Maricopa county as, unlike most of the rest of the states, here if you are caught driving drunk you go to jail

We only expected to see an empty cell or tent but much to our surprise we actually were walked through the woman’s facility and right through the common room which was air conditioned and into the tent city. Everywhere there were woman in striped clothes some chatting some reading but many just lying on their bunks just ‘ stacking time ‘. As many of these woman had not seen a man for a while I felt pretty uneasy and more than a little vulnerable as we walked through within touching distance of the inmates.

We were not allowed to speak to or take any pictures of the prisoners but the jailors who showed us around filled us in on Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s use of chain gangs[

APPROVED PIC!]

to provide labour for burial of the unclaimed dead, road clean up and workers in his animal rehabilitation center. { The chains are off for the last one. But for the rest they are in leg irons. }

Some of stories about the jail turned out to be urban myths. They are not fed green out of date meat, They do have access to TV, but only 4 educational channels and no football. But there is no smoking, newspapers, coffee and the food is very very bland.

The jailors showed us the sort of things that were confiscated and amongst the home made knives, was a home made tattoo machine, a set of nunchucks and saddest of all, a pink teddy bear made from towels.

We were both very happy to hear the outer gate open for us and as we walked out into the Arizona sunshine we decided we would definitely avoid finishing up in the pink tent city jail.

John needn’t have worried about being eaten alive by sex starved women, they were too busy picking up clean towels. The ones outside couldn’t be bothered to stir off of their bunks. These bunks looked like metal market stalls with a foam mattress on top.
Anyway he grabbed my hand for protection and shuffled along side. I must admit to an uneasy feeling as we were told we were going in with the inmates. I think I would rather be dead than shut in a prison, albeit an open one like this one.

The sheriff that runs this prison is an animal rights supporter and runs a service that looks after pets for the inmates while they are serving their time. The service also includes animals seized pending cruelty charges and are then put up for re-homing.
Didn’t go there, haven’t got room for a kennel full of abused pets desperately wanting someone to love them, and I’m not strong enough to walk away.

2008 Looking back at the highs and lows.

2008-12-30T18:51:00.000-08:00

2008 WAS A YEAR THAT STARTED IN TEXAS AND FINISHED IN ARIZONA VIA MEXICO AND ALASKA.

These are in no particular order just as we thought of them. The highs come first.

Getting up close and personal with two California grey whales, mother and baby, off the coast of the Baja Mexico.

From John and Carols Blog

We were able to touch both mother and baby who seemed happy to be with us. A very special moment.

MukTuk kennels near Whitehorse in British Columbia is the home of a famous sled dog racer and his 140+ sled dogs. We were able to go for a walk with some and Carol really enjoyed meeting the puppies.

From John and Carols Blog

Manuela, a carpenter from Germany, who is now a musher at heart, showed us round and we are following her progress as she works with her sled dogs and aims to complete a qualification race this year with her sights set on the Yukon Quest in 2010.

In southern Utah we drove through the most spectacular canyon scenery.

From John and Carols Blog

Called Canyonlands the red rock is interspersed with bands of yellow and grey and sculpted by wind and water into the most amazing shapes.

In North Yellowstone we hoped to see a wolf or wolves in the wild but knew how we would need to get lucky to get more than fleeting glimpses at great distance in high mountain meadows.

From John and Carols Blog

However we did get extremely lucky. We were treated to a view of the Slough Creek pack on a kill no more than 150 yards away from the front of the RV. They had killed a pronghorn antelope the day before in a riverside and meadow. We saw them coming, bouncing down the trail from the high meadows, chasing a coyote off the kill then breakfasting at leisure with time off for a snooze and a bit of play with a pack mate.

A visit to Joshua Tree National Park enabled us to drive through and appreciate the three desert types on show. The subtle changes in attitude, altitude and rainfall creating growing conditions suiting particular vegetation. The most spectacular being the expanse of Cholla cactus wa walked around very carefully.

These plants spread by dropping parts of themselves which then get picked up by animals brushing past and when they drop off some will root and grow another cactus, a clone of the parent.

As a contrast we were in the snow in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park when we walked through the groves of the largest living things on earth. The General Sherman tree is 275 feet high and is thought to be between 2300 and 2700 years old.

From John and Carols Blog

It was a very sobering experience to touch something that had seen that many cycles.

Outside El Paso at a small state park we met Shadow.

From John and Carols Blog

As a wolf hybrid his possession is forbidden in many US states but we saw only a big friendly animal.

At a facility in Oregon where rescued animals were rehabilitated we saw these two female wolves. Carol was able to get down in a corner where the electric fence was low and the wolves came to speak to her and allowed Carol to touch them.

Lake Powell is a giant and very controversial man made lake in Southern Utah / Northern Arizona.

From John and Carols Blog

We rented a speedboat from Waweep marina and headed up the lake past giant red walls of sandstone to a hidden gem called the Rainbow Arch. To get there we had to thread our way through some twisting slot canyons, park at a little marina and then hike to this natural wonder. It is sacred to the first nation people and we were only allowed to get so close but not to walk under the arch.

Driving up to Alaska on the 1,522 miles of the Alcan Highway.

From John and Carols Blog

We saw bears walk across the road, swam in a natural hot spring in surroundings

From John and Carols Blog

straight out of a Indiana Jones movie and at Hyder we saw a big old grizzlie catch and eat a salmon.

From John and Carols Blog

THE LOWS

John is finding that he can not cope with the conditions of many of the animals kept for exibit to the public and will try to avoid captive animals in the future.

Carol is against any animal being caged or trapped in unnatural conditions. If they have to be in captivity they shouldn't be too aware of it. It was a honour to be able to get close to the two white wolves who managed to find a gap next to the electric fence to come forward and make contact. they wagged their tails and licked carol's hand. The feeling that came across was " I don't want to be here but I bare no malice, I am resigned"
Carol feels ashamed for the members of the human race that put these animals where they are, and helpless for having to leave them there, and others like them.

The worst of all lows was losing Charro. He never complained even when he was sometimes in pain,
he was always willing to go and smell new places, or just lie in the sun with company.

His trolley was a godsend, and he accepted it so easily, knowing that this was a lifeline , and that he could maintain his freedom still, and accepted the situation with dignity. He saw more places in his lifetime than most dogs, and had lots of memories. Now he is one of our most precious memories.

PUEBLO GRANDE, DISCOUNT ROULETTE AND GOING TO JAIL

2008-12-29T20:07:00.000-08:00

The scarcity of recent posts relates to the poor quality TENGONET wifi connection we have here at Superstition Sunrise.

We visited the homesite of the Hohokam first nation people today. They lived in the Phoenix valley from AD 1 up to about AD 1450 building 100s of miles of irrigation canals to make the desert bloom. They also had an intricate society including some accurate astrology.

We wondered about the game court, what sort of football was played here and how did you score a goal?

We looked in at the Scottsdale Fashion Mall.
This is a vary upmarket mall with Guchi stuff and valet parking.

We liked this approach to giving a discount at one shop.

First shop and let them swipe your card then spin the wheel to find how much discount you get,

ONLY IN AMERICA.

Finally we got the call. Friday at 2.00pm we go to jail.

Parks and Museums in Phoenix.

2008-12-22T19:03:00.000-08:00

We found the historical museum in Papago park gave us a real insight into the growth of Phoenix and how important water is to a town in the desert that gets only 7 inches of water a year. Irrigation has been practiced since about AD700 firstly by relatives of the pueblo people up to the present situation where thousands of miles of canals make the desert land fruitful.
This is somewhat ironic as we have had two days of heavy rain which flooded the RV parks baseball field and it is raining again tonight.

We also learned another disquieting fact about bad treatment toward the first nation people. In Arizona they only received the right to vote in the 1940s.

The Botanical Garden was amazing,
firstly a great display of Sonoran desert vegetation and some wildlife including lots of desert hummers like this one which I tentatively identified as an Anna’s Hummingbird. But we also were blown away by an amazing display of blown glass from the Chihuly workshops.
I had seen similar work at the Belagio but this was where it belongs out in the sunshine and a natural backdrop.

The park highlighted the way the Sonoran desert vegetation could be used to support life with lots of hands on exibits. Carol had a go at making brushes.

There was a light show in the gardens that night which was a sellout so we went to the famous Phoenix Zoo show which was excellent.

The legend of the Lost Dutchman Mine still draws prospectors and treasure hunters to the area and we went to see if we could stumble across it.
Instead we found a junkyard which had been renamed as a Goldmine recreation.

The museum included something I had never heard of before, Parlour Pistols. These were designed for indoor target practice.

We are having a break from RV life over Christmas and are off to stay at a hotel. Someone else has to washup after dinner!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2008-12-19T20:26:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas from Phoenix in Arizona.

Getting in the Christmas spirit

2008-12-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

We dug out the motorcycling snowman, reassembled him and much to
our surprise he still works. Carol has built a new centerpiece decoration and it is on the dashboard. Overall the whole park is looking more colourful unfortunately this years in decoration is a motion sensitive device which sings you a christmas carol everytime you walk past. One would be OK but they are everywhere! Bah humbug I say!

Superstition Sunrise RV park

2008-12-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

After a cloudy Thursday the sun returned today and after getting some odd jobs done including washing the Trek we decamped to the pool for an afternoon swim in the heated outdoor pool. Carol’s problem with her light weight feet was again evident. When she tries to stand up from the prone position her feet stay up and her head goes down, which is not good. A friendly fellow swimmer lent us her giant foam noodle and normal service was resumed with head up and feet down when stopping.

We had had advance warning of a block party for
our neighbour’s 65th birthday party. So we were not surprised when we returned from our evening walk to find a golf cart jam in front of our plot.

The park is fairly quiet at night but there is an active coyote population in and around the park and sometimes they have a real good howl. There is also a three legged coyote which we are told lives in the park denning under a park model home, AKA garden shed.

Mesa Arizona and the hunt for a RV Park

2008-12-03T17:18:00.001-08:00

We have been down in Mesa, which is part of the urban sprawl called Phoenix, for a few days now. The drive down was a wet one with a surprise regarding the road. Our Rand Macnally atlas showed a tarmac road leading to our planned stop at
the Lost Dutchmen State Park but when with 25 miles to go the road turned to dirt. We chickened out as it was going to be slippery and there is always the chance of a flooded wash like this one blocking our way. The rain was the first significant amount in six months.

When we finally got there we discovered that finding a park that met our parameters was hard. We have had to make some compromises and have finished up at Superstition Sunrise RV Park which has fairly good WiFi [sometimes!] and lots of things to do but we are surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of garden sheds which they call a park model home down here and little greenery other than a token orange tree. The park has more than a thousand sites and about as many golf carts. However the skies are blue, the temperature is in the 70s and the swimming pools are a toasty 82.

We were tempted by a sign boasting of the best cod and chips in the valley. Carol added onion rings and mushrooms to her order and we were both appalled by the amount of batter we were paying for. Carol decided to peel hers and this is the result, I being the gannet that I am ate mine, batter and all. Yummee!

I got a days flying in with the local club. This magnificent tarmac runway with the Superstition mountain range providing the backdrop, is provided by the local parks authority and is home to one of the more active clubs
I have come across. They even go pylon racing. However they won’t let me fly my delta, too fast!

In the back in the park we are getting the odd jobs,
that have built up attended to and decorating the Trek and our plot for Christmas.

Sedona down to Payson via some state parks.

2008-11-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

We left Sedona after a last visit
to the art galleries which are full of interesting and quirky pieces.

Montezuma Castle

I got a mornings flying in with the Central Arizona Flyers before we moved on to Montezuma Castle. This is a pueblo people’s building, another built in the shelter of an overhanging cliff. When the early white explorers saw it they assumed that it was too well built to be a product of the local Indians and thought it had to of Aztec origin and this is the reason for the name.
We could only look at this 5 story 20 room dwelling built high on a vertical cliff and marvel at the agility and the endurance of the builders in the 12th century. The stream below was a reliable source of water and the flood plain provided fertile soil for the squash, beans and corn that was their staple food. Yet this dwelling with its attached lower village of 45 more rooms at the base of the cliff was abandoned by the early 1400s.

Fort Verde

The Fort is the best preserved example left in the southern states. Unlike the movie forts the southern forts had no stockade but relied on good lookouts. Anyway the local tribes avoided big set piece battles preferring to make hit and run raids on supply trains and small settlements or patrols. The soldiers sent to garrison this fort had no idea of how to track the raiders but they employed scouts from local tribes who could. We learned how the tribes were not united but in fact existed in a state perpetual intertribal slave taking and raiding for horses so it was not difficult for the scouts to feel OK about working with the army
. In fact as most of the tribes were crammed into one tiny reservation, this was a way for a young man to acquire wealth and status. In 22 years 11 scouts won the USA’s top award for valour. As this was only 120 years ago the oral memories of the scouts live on in the minds of their descendents and someone had tracked them down, recorded them and edited the stories into a some short films. It was quite eerie listening to a first nation slant on the Indian wars.

When the forts were abandoned at the end of the Indian wars those parts made of wood were dismantled and the timbers reused elsewhere, those made of adobe could not and were just left.
The four we looked at were adobe and were refurbished as living quarters. The commanding officer’s quarters were well furnished and quite genteel in contrast to the bachelor’s quarters which had guns stripped for cleaning on the dining room table and a poker game in the back room.

Tonto Natural Bridge

This was a find. We only stopped here because it was on our route to Phoenix. We had seen other natural arches including the rainbow arch at lake Powell, supposedly the best in the USA and expected this one to be less impressive. We were wrong.. This arch is different.
A different set of geological circumstances resulted in a massive arch of travertine over a river.

The trail down to the bottom of the canyon and back, taxed Carol’s strength to the limit as she is recovering from a severe bout of shingles. We walked over the top of the bridge and dropped down into the canyon.
Apparently the water flowing from the top of the bridge is still rich

in the mineral travertine and the bridge is still being built one drop at a time. Although there are no signs of first nation dwellings it is hard to believe that this site with it’s reliable water supply and convenient caves was never inhabited.

We are sitting in the rain in Payson at 5000 feet glad that the forecast snow level has been moved upwards to 7000 feet. It has been a long time since we have had some serious rain but we might get 2 inches today. This will produce "gulley washers" as the soil does not absorb the rain very well and it floods off into theses temporary rivers.

Williams to Sedona

2008-11-21T17:54:00.000-08:00

Horrible Zoo

We visited a deer farm / petting zoo near Williams on Route 66. The pigmy goats were seriously cute and seemed to take turns in the bath tub in the middle of their small compound. The deer expected to be fed by the visitors as you were prompted to buy a cup of deer feed on the way in as you bought your ticket. Some deer were full up and content to lie in the dust in the shade in the middle of their compound others looking like they were eating for two would follow you around waiting to be fed.
I was concerned by the lack of stimulation for many of the animals who did not have visitors in their compounds. All they had was a small area of red dirt and a little shade.
Some of the animals, like the caribou are used to cold climates and must really suffer in the heat of the Arizona summer when daily temperatures approach 90f.

The whole place had not one blade of grass, just rocks and red dirt. Tiny fenced compounds with no enrichment, at best a shed offering some relief from the Arizona sun.

All in all I did not like this place and believe it needs looking at by someone with the animals welfare at heart.

Oak Creek Canyon

This leads down from Flagstaff to Sedona and is a mini grand canyon. The road was impressive and I wish the information given by the visitors centre had been the same. We were expecting to stay in one campground which was closed even though the web site said otherwise, the one we were directed to was open but took tents only although the web site said short RVs were acceptable, our final site we were directed to was miles away and there were several others closer that we were not told about. We finished up in Cottonwood at The Dead Horse Ranch State park. It was OK just further than we needed to go.

SEDONA

Next day we back tracked to Sedona which was a find. The weather is great. We are back in shorts. The shops are interesting. Carol is happy and goes shopping. There is a good flying field nearby. John is happy and goes flying. There is a really nice RV park inside Sedona within walking distance of the free bus service which runs around the interesting bits. So the Trek is happy and gets a rest.

We spent a day using the free shuttle bus and exploring the shops, art galleries and quirky little courtyards on offer.

Sedona is a four seasons playground for everyone. It has history and archaeology; arts and culture; power shopping; outdoor sports. It also has much to offer in the spiritual and metaphysical fields plus internationally known Vortex meditation sites which are locations having energy flows in those deeper dimension that the Soul can soar on.

All of this with a backdrop of some of the most spectacular scenery in the world including SNOOPY.

Finally flying after many frustrations

I got a good days flying in with the Central Arizona Modellers,
after fiddling with the tank on my big Yak and replacing the throttle servo on the little delta which then performed nicely now I have increased the size of the fin to avoid the involuntary inverted spin.

Sacagawea

As we explored the North East USA we kept coming across references to the heroic exploits of Lewis and Clark whose journey across ¾ s of the northern USA had been the second non native expedition to the Pacific. However we found out in Sedona that one reason for their success was their Indian companion, Sacagawea, and her infant son. This Shoshone woman, married to the French trader Toussaint Charbonneau, accompanied Lewis and Clark from the Mandan villages to the Pacific Ocean and then came back with them.
Indians who might have suspected the explorers were on a warlike mission would have been reassured by seeing Sacagawea and her child with the soldiers. According to William Clark, "The Wife of Shabano our interpreter We find reconsiles all the Indians, as to our friendly intentions. A woman with a party of men is a token of peace."
She did all this carrying her child on her back in a papoose carrier.

SQUIRREL

2008-11-13T16:44:00.001-08:00

We are staying in Flagstaff in a Ponderosa pine forest. It is a commercial campground but unlike many
it has a healthy wildlife population including this cute little fellow. It is an Abert's squirrel or tassel-eared squirrel. With it’s long tufts or tassels of fur on its ears red stripe on it’s back and bushy white edged black tail with white fur on the underside it is also pretty striking..

It turns out that Abert's squirrel is a favorite game of hunters and its flesh is often eaten. The fur is not particularly valuable yet has been used for pelts.

Carol got this video clip from through the Trek door. BROADBAND NEEDED

Lake Havasu Cars Boats and Planes

2008-11-11T19:06:00.000-08:00

CARS

One of the big car dealerships in Lake Havasu cleared its sales lot for a classic car and hot rod show and it was quite a show.

Here are two hot rods that we really liked. Both were very well crafted and the chops were subtle with a really good finish.

I loved Carol's reaction to this little additional feature on display.

However not all the cars were immaculate chassis up restorations. Some people just polished the old pickup, turned up and parked.

Others were a little more creative.

BOATS

Ok this one is a bit of a stretch but I liked it for the title. At first you will not see anything out of the order until I tell you that the model seaplane fly-in took place just to the right and the circuit and landing approach was directly over the passing boats, one of which was the local ferry.

PLANES

The local flying club, the Desert Hawks, put on this 3 day fly in every year. The weather was unkind for days 1 and 3 but day 2 was perfect. Lots of 1/4 scale Cubs and little electric foamie Northstars flying really well. I did not see the WW1 job fly but it looked very scale.

MY PLANES

Over the last 10 months I have been putting together a fast little home brew delta to handle the windier days. I had built something like this many years ago and although I did not have any plans or measurements I thought it looked about right although I was not sure about the CG and the size of the fin. The CG seemed to be a long way forward. I did a calculation which showed it to be about right.

After a final aileron and range check I fired up the ancient MDS 38 and tossed it into the air. I was pretty sure it would fly as the thrust to weight ratio was clearly better than one to one but boy was I surprised. I was instantly into a huge loop as I had dialed too much reflex into the ailerons. As it screamed of the top of the big vertical split S it accelerated to warp factor 13. It was a busy 30 seconds as I went for low rates and trimmed in some down. Even on low rates it was still twitchy but boy it is quick and tracks really well on low passes. I was glad I had painted the underside half black as I tried for some twinkle rolls on high rates. But all good things come to an end and as I pulled a tight turn it went into an inverted spin and I could not recover it. Shutting the engine down just before it hit I watched it hit the desert just off the runway. Not too much damage and I will soon have it back in the air with a bigger fin.

I got some nice flights in with the YAK after this but after 10 months of absolute engine reliability I have been having engine problems and it is it still deadsticking. RATS!

Many thanks to the Desert Hawks for letting me fly at their great site.

Hunters and Fishermen US style.

2008-11-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

Camo man [with the odd woman].

Just recently we have seen a large number of men dressed in camouflage gear. This is serious business over here with the right to bear arms somehow spurring on a subset of American men and the odd woman to don camo, and head to the woods looking for something to kill. Some prefer to kill bambi using a scoped modern sniper rifle others take advantage of extended open seasons offered to more primitive weapons. This has lead to the explosion in bow hunting.

Hunting with bow and arrow seems barbaric to us as an arrow kills by bleeding the animal. You must give it time to die, at least 1/2 hour on a good hit or longer on poor hits as much as 5 hours or over night on a bad hit like a gut shot.
Elk, whitetail deer and turkey are popular prey for bow hunters.

But one shot, close range, 1830’s technology muzzleloader rifles are also popular hunting tools. Licenses are limited, so there are few hunters in the woods.
Individuals who possess a valid concealed carry permit may carry a concealed handgun for hunting. Only pistols having
a barrel at least 4 inches in length are legal for use in the woods Well this one meets that requirement.

One piece of equipment that almost all hunters possess is their trusty steed, a camo ATV.

Oh yes, all this camo is rendered useless by the legal requirement to wear a bright orange jacket to reduce the risk of being shot by another hunter.

Despite this there are deaths and many injuries every year as "buck fever" grips the hunter who fires at anything that moves.

The complete angler US style.

In the UK this phrase conjures up an image of a fisherman with rod reel and wicker creel stalking his quarry, on foot along the banks of a stream.

It is a little different over here. Firstly he needs a boat,
and if he is after bass it is a BASS BOAT. It will be very gaudy, usually metal flake and will be capable of at least 60 mph with its 200 hp motor. Then he needs a trolling kicker outboard and an electric outboard. He has to have an electronic fishfinder and most will have two with multiple sonar sender units. Having found the fish he will use a GPS to store this hot spot and an electronic chart to keep track of his position. It will have two or three large ice boxes one of which will be dedicated to keeping his beer cold.
His swivel chair will have repeaters and remote control devices allowing him to see the electronics and move the boat to the fish.

Oh yes, he needs a rod and reel as well.

Laughlin, Oatmen and on to Lake Havasu

2008-11-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

We stopped off for a couple of days in the southern corner of Nevada where it joins Arizona. Laughlin and Bullhead look across the river at each other. Laughlin has the casinos, Arizona the punters.

Laughlin's started in the 1940's a motel and bar that catered to gold and silver miners who dotted the map, and to the many construction workers who built the nearby dam on the Colorado river. In 1964 Don Laughlin, owner of Las Vegas' 101 Club, flew over the now derelict motel and offered to buy the property. In less than two years the motel and bar, now called the Riverside Resort, was offering all-you-can-eat chicken dinners for 98 cents, play on 12 slot machines and two live gaming tables. The Laughlin family lived in the other four rooms.

The U.S. Postal Service inspector insisted Don Laughlin give the town a name-any name-in order to receive mail. Don Laughlin recommended the name of Riverside or Casino, but the postal inspector used his name instead. As Don Laughlin is a car buff he has a museum and showroom of some great american iron and a few imports.

Across the River, Bullhead City flourished in the glow of the casino light. Shuttle boats transported customers from the Arizona side of the river to Laughlin's glitter gulch.

We headed out of Bullhead and up to another old town which used to be supported by gold mining.
This one is called Oatman. It also used to be a stop on the road to California on Route 66.

Now it pans for tourists and instead of salting
mines with nuggets of gold it arranges for donkeys to wander its streets and arranges gunfights outside the bank every hour.

It even has buildings of national interest,
or at least that is what the sign says.

Yes, this one believe it or not!

The donkeys follow the tourists mooching
for carrots, which enterprising shopkeepers just happen to have for sale. The whole thing is really well organised and even the babies are covered by a no carrots sticker system. They die if they eat solid food too soon. See the sign between the little ones eyes.

We headed on south to Lake Havasu where we found that an american really had bought London Bridge, or at least one of them, transported it to the desert and rebuilt it there.

Zion to Las Vegas

2008-11-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

.
Why should women marry men with a pierced ear? Answer at the end.

Mukuntuweap

We visited Zion National Park after driving past the Vermillion cliffs up the ‘staircase of strata’ from the land level with the top of the Grand Canyon.
We also saw a Walt Disney style restoration of a western town including boot hill.

Just when we thing we have seen enough red sandstone we found something different.

Originally named Mukuntuweap Park because the local Piute Indians called it that It means the place where the land go straight up. The Mormons found it and were so impressed by what they saw that they called it Zion, the promised land. The names of the features are a mix of Piute and Mormon names, eg. The Temple of Sinawava.

The most visited area is a cull de sac with limited parking. Matters came to a head some years ago when they had 5000+ vehicles chasing the 400 parking spaces. Now you park and ride the shuttle which is free.

We rode to the end and walked up the canyon until the walls closed in and we were walking on the bed of the Virgin river. Everywhere there are warnings about flash floods and stories of people trapped in the canyons when they happen. We were glad to know that there had been no rain for some time and none was forecast. But the river still flowed and water still ran down the walls of the canyon from high seeps. Fossil water, from long ago rains, seeps out high on the cliffs creating hanging gardens and micro climes with ferns, frogs and green grass in the desert.

Even though this was the end of October and many other camp grounds were empty or closed the two large campgrounds in the Park were full and we just got in. Unlike some other parks we had visited climbing is allowed here and the vertical walls were dotted with fluorescent lycra and festooned with multi coloured ropes spinning webs up the canyon sides. The many climbers were telling “There I was stories”[ waiting to die] the mountain bikers were in their granny gears pedals whirling round with minimal forward process but the serious cyclists whistled past us all in their replica Lance Armstrong outfits. It was as well they did. The shuttles are not allowed to pass moving cyclists but the message had not gotten to the ones we had to follow. This family toiled up the slope with mum, the tailgunner, frantically waving us pass and calling to her brood to hug the kerb as they wobbled on. Eventually an Armstrong clone shouted the reason to them, they finally stopped and we went past waving thankfully.

Because the river in the canyon flows all year round, a rarity in this region, it has a long history of habitation from the Clovis point makers through the pueblo people, the piutes then the usurpers came in, first the Spaniards and then the Mormons all reliant the river to sustain life.

Las Vegas

We parked the RV in the car park of our hotel and booked in. It made a nice change to have the bed on the floor instead of coming down from the ceiling, and a power shower with as much hot water as we wanted. The first evening we strolled up the strip. Things have changed a bit since I was here last, no one was walking around with little buckets of coins for the fruit machines, and all of the shops are now designer . The locals go to the local outlet mall to get their cut price clothes, so that is where we headed.

The following day we went to the enchanted gardens at the Mirage casino, to see the white lions and tiger cubs.
Neither of us is keen on captive animals,
but these were kept in very comfortable surroundings and the four 6 month old cubs had constant human companionship to keep them stimulated. There were plenty of toys to play with, including a plastic bath in the pond. The boldest of the cubs was quite happy to sit in it and sail around.She also seemed to prefer to swing on her keepers leg ,in preference to playing with her ball .

BROADBAND NEEDED

I suspect these cubs will be used in the show when they are older, if one of the handlers ever recovers enough to resume. Some time ago one of the partners of Seigfriede and Roy met with an accident. One of the white tigers got a bit over enthusiastic apparently and put him in intensive care. He is still recovering. The tiger wasn’t blamed and is still living on the ranch with the rest of them. These white tigers and lions are probably safer in captivity than in the wild. White animals ( not albino ) have a hard time from other animals and man. The colour is a recessive gene called leucism ( as was Charro) and seem to be a target.

We could have watched these babies all day, they were happy and well cared for, as were the adults. All looked as if they had just been brushed.

The next day we split up and John went off to play poker whilst I hit the shops. In the evening we went to see a show, the star being an Elvis
lookalike, along with Ann Magaret , Donna Summer, Justin Timberlake,and Jay Leno it was a very entertaining show and a good evening.

John’s bit on Vegas

It was good to get away from the Trek for a couple of days and endless hot water to shower in without worrying about running out of water was wonderful. Las Vegas is still tacky but the shops have definitely moved up market and the décor is better in some casinos. The Belagio where I played some cash Hold Em is an example of better taste and it has a great dancing waters set up out front. Also Paris .
with its balloon
was impressive but I wonder how many Americans know about the Montgolfier brothers taking to the air many years before the Wright brothers.

I also had the chance to fly at the Tournament of Champions field in Las Vegas.

Bill Bennett created the North Las Vegas model airport for the TOC with a heavy asphalt base runway of 200-feet by 600-feet, most always in the prevailing wind and at no time have the sun in the eyes of the pilots. He did all this, fenced the field, built a rameda and then turned it all over to the city of North Las Vegas with the stipulation that the field must always be available to any modelers who wished to use it. I wish I could say I had a good day but my usually reliable OS 120 AX cut on me early on every flight. RATS! However I did win at Hold Em and We enjoyed a meal out at Ceasers Palace on some of my winnings.

The answer. They have experienced pain and then bought jewellery!

Lake Powell and the Rainbow Bridge

2008-10-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

We had a day out on Lake Powell, a huge man-made reservoir on the Colorado River, between Utah and Arizona. Lake Powell was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon. The reservoir supplies some states but has to provide a minimum flow to the lower states of Arizona, Nevada, and California. Some say that a water war is looming as California wants to keep its lawns and golf courses green but Colorado wants to irrigate and feed cattle.
We visited the world famous Rainbow Bridge a sacred place for some First Nation Tribes. It was hard to find, a two hour trip up Lake Powell
then by following a narrow twisting water
Filled canyon we came to a marina.

On foot we followed a trail up to the Bridge.
It is 275 feet across and is hard to believe that something like this could be formed naturally.
We started early, in fact earlier than we thought as we were on the wrong time zone but just made it back in time and are pretty tired and a little sun burnt.

Snows of the high country and then on to Monument Valley

2008-10-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

The snows of the high country are behind us and we are back in canyon lands.

We have been seeing yellow green deposits layered in with the rich red sandstone. It turns out that these are low grade uranium ore which has been mined on and off over the years. Much was sent to the Monument Valley upgrader site which is on Navajo Nation land. The left over radioactively contaminated material were relocated and stabilized at the engineered disposal cell at the Mexican Hat mill site in Utah.

Guess why it has that name?

Next stop was Monument Valley

where we drove around the valley floor and made the usual stops for photographs.

Our campground was equally photogenic
and came with a charming feline friend.

Our next stop will be Lake Powel where we hope to go boating however we are arguing over whether it should be a stinkpot or a raggie.

DURANGO SILVERTON AND RAILWAYS

2008-10-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

After Mesa Verde we headed to Durango for some wild west culture. Durango was founded by the Denver & Rio Grande Railway in 1879 with the rails arriving 2 years later. However it was a wild time. The best example we found was the case of “Who shot the sheriff ?” Or Durango's Strangest Shootout: The Day the Marshal killed the Sheriff. This was all about a tragic day in 1906 when two officers of the law, fought it out over the enforcement of legal gambling in Durango. Both emptied their revolvers at each other then carried on the fight, clubbing each other with their empty guns, before the sheriff collapsed and died.

Silverton was founded in 1875. About 100 people had made their homes there, working around the mining industry. A wagon road was opened over Stony Pass in 1879 and would be followed shortly after by the railroad a 3 foot narrow gauge line, which would make the transportation of minerals easier, as well as bring more people to the newly accessible Silverton.
The line still runs today with 80 year old engines. It is a steep climb the fireman shovels six tons of coal and ten thousand gallons of water are used per trip.

Mining began to decline after 1912, as did population but before then they had a high old time. Like all mining boomtowns worth their salt, Silverton had its own red-light district — Notorious Blair Street. Here, along a mere three-block stretch, a carousing miner (or “respectable” businessman out for a bit of slumming) could choose from thirty-two saloons, gambling halls, and houses of ill-repute. Among their colorful names were the Mikado, the North Pole, and the Laundry…where they “cleaned you out!”

The Trek

made the same trip on a few gallons of petrol, climbing over several high passes including Red Mountain Pass at 11,018 ft where we found a modern day ghost town, shutting down for the winter.

YES THAT IS SNOW!

GALLOPING GOOSE

We also found another unusual railway engine as we wandered around the San Juan Skyline Drive, a Galloping Goose. These were converted cars built in the 1930s in attempt to keep rail lines open. Running steam trains was just too costly All of the "geese" were built in the railroad's shops at Ridgway, Colorado on 3 foot guage. This is Goose #5, now owned by the city of Dolores, Colorado. After restoration in 1998 it is now operated from time to time on the Cumbres and Toltec and Durango and Silverton tourist railroads.
While we are enjoying a warm Indian Summer we are aware of the snow waiting in the wings. The campground we are in tonight is at 6,200 feet and is usually closed by mid October as the water lines freeze up.

WATER

We saw many examples like this, an abandoned mine with mine tailings below it. This means that the streams run red and yellow and nothing lives there due to heavy metal contamination.

We made the tour on our internal tanks and did not need to fill up on our stops.

I spotted this unusual outfit and although it looked like a vintage BMW at first sight it is a repro. possibly Chinese.

We are heading south to Monument Valley and on to lake Powel next week.

MESA VERDE

2008-10-14T20:10:00.000-07:00

Today we saw some spectacular reminders of people who lived on this mesa for at least 700 years. They used to be called Anasasi but are now known by the politically correct term of Ancestral Puebloans. They were experts at surviving in a dry climate with conditions that would dismay any 21st survivalist and yet they produced some amazing art in their basketwork and pottery.

They started by living in pit dwellings and moved through stages to building durable stone multistory houses under cliff ledges before leaving the area in ad 1300. Tree rings show that the previous 24 years had been very dry ones so that might have been the reason but no one knows for sure.

We visited the Spruce Tree House, one of the largest villages on the mesa with 129 rooms and 8 ceremonial circular rooms called kivas. Closing my eyes transported me back in time and I could smell the fires and hear the chatter of the kids playing with their dogs while their mothers ground corn for the evening meal.

On the way back I noticed this
contradictory bit of signposting.

The small one says
NO FOOD OR DRINK

We are off to Durango tomorrow for a silver fix.

Pueblo ruins in the four corners region

2008-10-13T16:35:00.000-07:00

HOVENWEEP NATIONAL MONUMENT

This lies in the south east corner of Utah on a high plateau. Most people have heard of Mesa Verde and the cliff dwelling pueble people but it turns out that the fertile plateau was home to many many small communities usually located by a reliable water source.

In the first picture, the square tower down in the Canyon was built next to the water seep.

We walked into Little Ruin Canyon to see fine stonework that had lasted for 700 years out in the elements. I wonder how many of todays houses would last as long.

It was bright and
sunny enough for Carol to need her new sun hat although she still needed her warm woolly jacket.

CORTEZ

It had been a long day so before hitting the campground we decided to eat out and just could not resist this classic chrome diner.

We both needed warm jackets next morning as it was 14 degrees F. Brr. They turned off the water to the campground but our Trek found some and made icicles.

We are off to see Mesa Verde tomorrow then on to Durango.

Utah's Canyon Country

2008-10-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

We got out of Salt Lake City after a week which included some Trek maintenance, Mormon history and lots of noise and headed south to Yuba lake
for some peace and quiet. The campsite was almost deserted and so quiet we could hear the rustle of the leaves in the breeze.

The next stage on our wanderings will take us round the high sandstone plateau mostly in Southern Utah but extending into Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. So far the scenery has been "awesome", I know it is an overused word but for me this time it fits. Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges and Lake Powell have passed by and we are heading towards Mesa Verde via the Valley of the Gods.

One surprize to me was the orchards left behind by Mormon families who had come here a hundred years ago to scratch out a living in a tiny oasis sourrounded by red rock and to spread the word.

They also slept in some unusual places.

Keys and Salt Lake City

2008-10-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

We saw another Trek parked in the supermarket car park as we went to stock up.
Their rear mural was of a wolf which we both liked although as an unrepentant cat lover I prefer our snow leopard. When we came out of the supermarket, laden down with supplies we met the owners who were in a real pickle. Their luggage compartment key had stripped and they could not get in to hook up or access anything stored below. Our key fitted so they now have our spare and can carry on camping!

The drive down to Salt Lake city took us through some magnificent scenery as the trees and hillsides were lit up with the colours
of autumn and the rocks of the Snake river canyon served as a great backdrop. Once down on to the plain it was an easy drive to Salt Lake City and our RV park.

We took advantage of the free shuttle from the park next day into the heart of Salt Lake City, the Mormon temple complex. We followed the drivers advice and took the tour of the complex. Well we soon realised that we were in for some proselytising when the two charming young ladies each clutching the Book of Mormon started off by reading to us their favourite passages. However they did show us around and made their religion come to life.
The Temple is a magnificent tribute to the art of the stonemasons who built it and this tradition of building great and challenging
structures continues with the new conference centre with roof garden waterfall and pillarless hall which can seat 21,000 people. The acoustics were pretty good but we did not get to hear the famous choir in full song.

I got a mornings flying in on Friday at a the state owned modelport, a good tarmac runway with a sun shelter and bleacher seating for spectators. I was going at the weekend but the first major storm of the “winter” season was forecast with high winds rain and snow in the mountains for the weekend.