Whirlwind 400 miles

What a whirlwind 13 hour trip it was yesterday. We cleared the city limit sign with nothing but the tail lights at 7 am and rocketed off in a hot rod 2011 Hyundai Elantra. After our first brief stop in Alpine we pulled in and check out Lunch COunter and Big Kahuna Rapids in the Snake River Canyon. Jackson Hole was a mere blur and we were sitting on the deck at Dornan's by 9:30 am. (More captions between photos below.)

Roger really enjoyed looking at those tall pointy mountain peaks they call The Tetons.

We took a picnic brunch over to the same spot where Susun and Roger's Beloved Mom Doris visited in 2008.  Her spirit continues to preside over this special place.

Little Yonni will do anything for a photo.

But it's worth the effort to wade right in and capture a priceless memory there on the shores of Jenny Lake.

Susun always does her part to pose people for photos.

And here's what it looked like through her lens.

It was a picture perfect postcard day.  This is the view from Signal Mountain Lodge looking across Jackson Lake toward Mt. Moran.

There's a lot of water coming out of Jackson Lake Dam.

It was on to Yellowstone where Roger enjoyed seeing all the water, especially gi-normous 132-sq. mi. Yellowstone Lake.

Naturally, we had to go to Old Faithful to have a Chevy Chase American Vacation bonding moment with all of the other thousands of tourons.

At first Old Faithful merely burped and took too long for our collective attention span.  So, we departed the bleacher seats and prepared to head on out.

Luckily, this famous spout performed flawlessly as we were walking back to the car.

Roger loved seeing thunderous Yellowstone Falls.  It was running at its second highest level of all time (at least in modern histry).

The trusty Elantra was incredible.,  It got 40 miles per gallon and was a really plush ride.  The rental car cost $67 and ten gallons of gas calc'd to $35 so the overall cost was a mere $102 for a 400 mile memory-making day.  Thanks, Roger, for your "go for it" attitude to ride along on such a long and winding memory lane.

Many Cheers, jp

Powerful

More tomorrow.  We're home safe. (Be sure to click on the above photo for the larger version.)

GCT Today

We ought to be on the road well before 7 am today.  Picked up the rental car last night after the shooting match--it's a new Hyundai Elantra with only 2000 miles.  Supposed to get in the 30 mpg range.  It's going to be a long day and we probably will be lucky to complete the 400-mile loop and get home before dark.

Yesterday was a real fun day.  Roger and Yonni went shooting for about 3 hours and a good time was had by all.  Roger and Susun went down to Alive After Five and joyed the music and dancing.  Yonni had a great time at the shooting match.

We scored a OBB kayak for Joshua yesterday.  OBB=Old Beater Boat.  He and GH are pleased.

No time for a longer blog post this AM.  C-YA on the other side.

Many Cheers, jp

A Fine Time

Tuesday was a real nice, laid-back day.  It actually rained most of the morning and the temperatures continued to be quite unseasonably cool and quite nice.  We three enjoyed a very leisurely morning before setting forth about town for various errands and mundane meanderings.  Roger enjoyed seeing the eagle waterfall at the Taylor Crossing roundabout.  He spent a long time standing around in the humidor picking out cigars at the local tobacco shop.  We even took him into the Wal-Mart here that actually contains a stand-alone, honest, genuine fly fishing shop.  It's one of only three such Wal-Marts and was the first even in the world to have a fly shop.  Bizarre but true.  Roger spent the remainder of the day lounging here at home while reading his Barnes & Noble Nook.  Roger's an avid reader and is smitten with the Nook.  He reclined in the shade of our blue spruce out in the courtyard and thoroughly enjoyed himself.  Susun did various "Susun things" and Yonni patrolled the city looking for deals.  One such deal involves possibly buying an old kayak for Joshua.  It looks like wwe are cleared for take off on that deal and hope to close it today.  We had bean burros for breakfast and got to talking about The Tamale Lady.  We hoped she would come by and I suggested we all "visualize" her appearance.  Sure enough, as if on cue, she rang the door bell late in the afternoon.  It's so nice to have six piping hot spicy pork tamales delivered to your door for six bucks.  They made a wonderful dinner.  Yonni was even inspired to make a large batch of the long dormant chipotle salsa.  Roger loved it and now we all have foul smelling garlic breath this morning.  Hey, speaking of salsa, did you know it's officially 20 years since Goatherder and I went into the salsa business together?  Yep 'twas 1991 when Song Dog Salsa sprang forth upon unsuspecting but highly supportive shoppers.  That's quite a story that begs to be told someday.  THANKS, GH, for some great flashback memories last night and this morning.

Today will mostly be all about pistol shooting.   Tonight's the weekly IDPA match and 'tis time to practice again.  I found out last week that last of pre-match practice is highly detrimental to a decent score.  Roger will be coming to the range today but it's "iffy" whether he will participate in the match tonight.  He and Susun will probably kick back and hang out at Alive After 5 downtown this afternoon.

We're still up in the air about when to do the Big Road Trip.  The weather pattern is such that the Tetons are almost certainly obscured by clouds.  It's probably going to be Friday when we take off on the Grand Circle Tour but it might be tomorrow.

Bryan and his two fine sons (AKA: Da Boyz) sent news yesterday that they will be visiting July 29th prior to a Middle Fork trip.  Rosa S is coming for three nights on July 24.  The first weekend in August we're going to Squirrel Meadows with Houn' Dawg and Suzanne.  Soooo.....it sure looks to be a busy time in the weeks ahead.  Good thing we didn't make any travel plans.

Have a great day & Many Cheers, jp

Rainbow Roger

 Roger came to roost yesterday and brought the biggest, brightest, best total double rainbow we've ever seen.  Now you all know we are connoisseurs of rainbows so when we say it was the best rainbow we've ever seen, that's really saying something.  This rainbow was intensely bright and huge.  It was so huge there was no hope of capturing it in a single photo.  It arced perfectly over the house and lasted seemingly forever.  The colors brightened to some of most intense rainbow hues we could ever imagine.  We can only ascribe this event to Roger's arrival so now we're calling him Rainbow Roger.  Roger's flight was 21 minutes late but it all worked out OK.  The flight actually left Mesa quite later than it was scheduled. The flight is listed on line as taking 3 hours but it actually took only one hour and 31 minutes.  Roger said it was a real rocket ride from Mesa to Idaho Falls.  We enjoyed a fun evening and dined on some Alaskan salmon donated by a neighbor.  YUM!  If Roger's Rainbow is an indicator, we can expect a very colorful visit ahead.  Welcome, Rainbow Roger!

Recap

Sun Day was a real blue for Little Yonni.  Miss Susun entertained Kris for a light lunch and had a fine time.  She spent the rest of the day continuing preparations for Roger's visit that begins about Happy Hour today.

Meanwhile Yonni got a wild hare and decided to play a round of kiddie golf all by himself.  My, my, what a fiasco that was.  He looked like The Three Stooges all rolled into one guy.  No matter what he did, the four golf balls he played on each of the six holes developed a mind of their own and went off mostly to parks unknown.  Yonni even managed to hit the trunk of a blue spruce tree with such force that the ball ricocheted back in his general direction at a high rate of speed.  Talk about slapstick comedy.  He even had his suspenders pop totally off on one wild swing. Yes, it was classic Three Stooges golfing and was actually the worst gold ever played in his lifetime.  It sure would have made a great YouTube video. Yikes!

Meaanwhile, an interesting story developed and took most of the rest of the day to play itself out.  The guy who came by Saturday to look at the pistol called and said he was already out west of the city wanting to shoot it.  So, Yonni rounded up all the various things needed to make a target session feng shui and hot-footed it Way Out West where the lava flows.  Below is how we described what happened in an email to Dear Friends Tom and Wes:

"I have had the Taurus Mil Pro PT111 9mm advertised as "unfired" in the newspaper and on KSL.  I finally had a guy to come over and check it out yesterday and he says he will buy it.  He says he will pay my price of $350 (precisely what I paid for it) on Sunday when we take it out to go shooting together.  That's fine, I said.  So, we get out in the desert and we're shooting various other pistols and having a good old time and I say, "Well, Steve, I'd like for you to have this Taurus and fire it now but you will have to give me the $350 before you fire it.  He says, "Ah, shucks, OK, and shells out the $350.  Then he starts firing it and he can't hit the broadside of a barn with it.  His shooting is just totally terrible and embarrassing.  Now, I know he's a good shooter because of seeing him shoot other stuff so I know it's the pistol.  So, I offer to shoot it with my own ammo and I shoot it right on target.  Meanwhile he goes through his whole one box of 9mm ammo and it won't shoot worth a hoot for him.  I offered him my 40 rounds of 9mm reloads that I had brought along and gave him all sorts of coaching to no avail.  I could see he was really, really depressed.  He almost looked like he wanted to cry.  So I said, "Well, Steve, you're a really lucky man."  And he looks at me and says, "How's that, John?"  So I said, "Well, Steve you just so happened to run into an upstanding seller.  There's no way I'm gonna send you home with a pistol you don't like and can't shoot, I'm giving you your money back."  You should have seen his face.  He was thunderstruck and dumbfounded all at once.  If a face could express WTH, his did it.  But I told him, "Well, now Steve, you know I was advertising this in "UNFIRED" condition and it ain't unfired no more so we will have to take a bit of a discount in your refund, you know?"  And he says, "Sure, how much?"  And so I say, "well $25 seems fair to me" and he was overjoyed and kept thanking me for the rest of the afternoon.  It was a hoot.  Well, it turns out he really knew how to shoot.  He was a Vietnam Vet who had been in the thick of things over there.  He pulled out some really choice condition firearms from his truck and told me some stories.  He was a great guy and was so happy he got most of his money back. 
Anyway, the saga of the Taurus Mil Pro continues.  It's a sweet shooting pistol and I am going to use it for at least one IDPA match soon.  I can't wait for the next chapters of this saga to unfold."

Sarah sent some great photos of her sons last night.  I put up a blog post entitled "California Boys" and featured the photos front and center here on the blog.  Normally, I ask permission beforehand.  I better make sure it's OK to put up the pictures before they reappear here.  That's why the post vaporized.  They are delightfully cute-as-a-button photos so we hope it's OK to put that back up.  Stay tuned.

Have a great day with Many Cheers, jp

Heavy weather Down South

Looks like our Friends & LBRs Down South are fixin' to get smacked by some stout monsoon storms today.  At 6 AM (Arizona Time), the NWS had already observed some thunderstorms producing a half inch of rain in a mere 15 minutes.  Apparently, conditions are ripe for these storms to fire off all day and well into the upcoming evening.  A traditional Happy Days Monsoon would form up in the afternoon and then fade away in early evening.  The type of storm system shaping up today involves a much more complex interaction with a low pressure system in the Gulf of California.  In other words, it has potential to be a real corker in places.

Each year when we leave The Straw House, we screw into place what we call a "flood board."  It protects the front door.  That's the door facing up-drainage to the adjacent wash on our property.  Back in early September 2002, The Straw House was actually flooded when water came up two feet high all across the north side of the house.  Some of our propane tanks and other stuff we left outdoors were washed clear over to Wet Beaver Creek.  Water would have to come up well over two feet again to force its way through the front door a second time.  That's the purpose of the "Flood Board," peace of mind when we see a weather forecast such as the one this morning.

With the Arizona monsoon, one never knows.  One area might stay totally dry all day long.  A nearby area might experience a damaging flash flood.  It's the classic fickle finger of fate type of deal.  If a big cell parks itself in the headwaters of the wash on that runs across our property, a large localized flood is virtually guaranteed.  If the big thunderstorm cells park themselves elsewhere it will be a ho-hum day at Second Chance Ranch.

Below is the radar profile from 6 am Arizona Time.  This is definitely an active system that's poised to move north into the Central Highlands soon.  We will be monitoring the situation as it evolves throughout the day.  We encourage our Verde Valley and Arizona LBRs to report any unusual weather here in the form of a blog comment.  THANKS!

Many Cheers, jp

Sun Day

Gotta love these summer mornings.  The wind may blow later in the day but the mornings are delicious summer morsels to be savored with coffee and a fresh newspaper, too.  Yesterday's high was 87 and the overnight low 48 degrees.  That's about what it's supposed to be during Roger's impending visit--80's and high 40's.  Perfect.

We enjoyed a nice visit to the Farmers Market. This time of year it's always so colorful and swarming with people.  People are carrying away bulging bags brimming with leafy vegetables or hanging baskets overflowing with flowers.  'Tis a scene that would make Norman Rockwell proud. 

As expected, the remainder of the day was a Chore Boy slog.  Most of it was tied up in a hand-to-hand tussle with a balky electric weedeater.  The weedeater won yesterday's battle but lost the war.  We're tossing it in the trash and will buy a new one today.  Bye, bye!  Some mechanical devices in life are such a hassle.  Old weedeaters easily make the short list of such devices.  Perhaps there should be a warning on them when you buy them.  It might say something such as: "WARNING-Use of this weedeater after the third season may result in serious frustration or even terminal aggravation."  Horrid things, those weedeaters.

We received some great news yesterday.  Our Local Roger, he who runs the daily newspaper here, agreed to judge the Clayton Heritage Days Chili Cookoff.  Roger has a great eye for humanity and we're sure he and his wife, Kathleen, will thoroughly enjoy the unique slice of Americana they call Clayton, Idaho.  THANKS, Roger!

Today we will be immersed in much more mundane-e-monium--tackling a lengthy list of chores best left unmentioned here.  On the bright side, we will be going out to teh shooting range early this afternoon.  It seems we have sold a pistol that's been advertised locally for quite some time.  A guy came by yesterday and agreed to pay for it today out at the range.  We shall see.  In other Big shooting news, Tom B. finished our custom 1911 and it will be shipped up here this week.  That's huge.  We made a deal for him to undertake this project way back in September 2009 when he swung through for a visit.  It's an heirloom legacy masterpiece of top notch pistolsmith craftmanship.  THANKS, Tom!

We are both enjoying a stay-at-home summer.  Last summer we were on the go all the time spending 50 nights in a tent and driving hither and yon seemingly every week.  Our time last year in Idaho Falls was all about redigging the most recent trip and resupply and rigging for the upcoming trip.  We didn't really have a chance to smell the roses last year.  It was go-go-go.  This year is the polar opposite of last year and we are savoring each day here in Idaho Falls.  One of the many reasons we picked this city to live is that we knew it would be a wonderful place to stay at home all summer if we ever chose to do so.  Well, this is the first chance we've had to test out that theory and it's working out just the way we thought it would.

Have a great Sun Day!  Cheers, jp

Summer Saturday Sunshine Smiles

Saturday greetings! 'Tis another Blue Bird Day here. The wind blew like Eastern Idaho wind loves to blow yesterday, gusting to near 40 mph but today dawned delightfully for a perfect Farmers Market morning.

We had a busy "chore day" yesterday and will continue to tackle "chore boy" tasks all weekend long and Monday, too. Why so much work? Well, Roger is coming to visit at 5:15 pm Monday afternoon. That's THE Roger--Susun's brother from Mesa, Arizona. He's excited. We're excited. He's flying out of Mesa's Gateway Airport non-stop to Idaho Falls for about $200 round trip. Roger's looking forward to a week long break from the heat and we're looking forward to being tour guide hosts.

It's often said that people see more of their own tourist attractions when company comes to visit than they do any other time. Take, for example, the visit of Wes and Nancy G. the other day. We went down and had a delightful picnic under a tree overlooking The Falls. We're sitting there at the picnic table and Susun says, "Thanks, Wes and Nancy, if you weren't here, we wouldn't be picnicking at The Falls." It's true. Susun and I could go picnicking any day of the week down at The Falls. But do we? Have we? Nope. We don't and we haven't.

Now fast forward to next week some time. We're going to rent a nice new Chevy Impala four door and do The Grand Circle Tour. This tour is famous here in Eastern Idaho. We first heard about it from an EMT at a Blackfoot Memorial Hospital Open House many years ago. Here's how it works. You get up real early and zoom off north on US Hwy 20. You hot foot it to Yellowstone and see Y-stone Falls and Old Faithful. Then you zoom over to Y-stone Lake and head down the John D. Rockefeller Parkway. You drive alongside Jackson Lake and stop for a break at the majestic Jackson Lake Lodge. Then you proceed south along the old road to Jenny Lake Lodge and thence to Jenny Lake. You get out and wiggle your toes in the COLD Jenny Lake and take in the towering Tetons and then head over to Dornan's for dinner. Afterwards, you continue your tour down through Jackson Hole, the Snake River Canyon and beside Palisades Reservoir. You finish the tour by coming back onto the Snake River Plain as the sun is low on the western horizon, hopefully putting on a show similar to the incredible OMG sunset above captured (and copyright 2011) by Roger Plothow earlier this week. You arrive home tired but dazzled just about dark. As far as spectacular tours go, this one is right up there at the top of day trips. The Grand Circle Tour can only work in the middle of the summer when the days are long. The total trip length will be a whisker over 400 miles. The loop show in blue is 347 miles. We added the red spur to Y-stone Falls and that's probably a 60 mile round trip off and back from the main route. Chances are we will leave no later than 8 AM and return about Dark City at 10 pm.

Well, pistol shooting, repetitive reloading, some long recent bike rides and incessant blogging have finally caught up with my wrists. Hopefully, they are both just worn out and need a break and we're not experiencing the onset of carpal tunnel or arthritis. Deano posted up a comment about this photo. (See below). OK, yes, Deano, first you have to duct tape the camera to your face. Then you build a wooden contraption that has a vertical rod mounted over your head. When you lift up your head, the rod pushes down on the shutter. We learned it from The Rube Goldberg School of Creative Photography.

Create a great Saturday & Many Cheers, jp

A week does wonders

Susun has made a great recovery from her oral surgery a week ago today.  She hasn't eaten any solid food since last Thursday and won't be able to for quite awhile yet.  She's become an expert on smoothies and soup, including such esoteric soup as buttermilk and spinach or how about peanut butter banana?  Last night she pureed some cauliflower into something resembling mashed potatoes and reported it was quite good.  She's adapted quite well to this dietary regime.  She's buoyant as ever and appears none the worse for the wear.  Muy kudos to her resilience.

As usual, Susun's leading a busy lifestyle here in Idaho Falls.  Yesterday she spent a good portion of the morning taking semi-formal portrait photos of her friend Shirley's daughters and grandchildren.  The pictures are easily as good as anything a professional could have captured.

As for Little Yonni?  Well, he spent most all of yesterday bird-dogging estimates on various repairs to the Nissan.  You see, we learned Wednesday that the radiator has developed a leak necessitating its replacement.  The radiator is plastic and can't be repaired with super glue or JB Weld.  This development engendered a whole string of unintended consequences.  To keep and repair?  Or to sell and shift gears?  Aye, that was the question.  For sage advice, we turn to the Cornville's own version of Click and Clack, none other than The Goatherder himself.  GH pulled in his turban and helped play Swami in the equation.  After snagging various cost estimates and swapping notes with GH, the answer is in.  We're keeping Snappy and will happily invest in repairs to extend her lifetime for at least 5 more years.

You may not have noticed but the used vehicle market has gone nuts-so in the last year or two.  New vehicle prices are so high that they have trickled far down the vehicle food chain, affecting even vehicles in the 10-15-20 year age range.  It's phenomenal.  Take this example:  We paid $5000 for the Big Chevy (AKA: Annie) 10 years ago at a Forest Service auction in Cedar City, Utah.  We could sell the truck today for at least what we paid for it!  If we sold Snappy for perhaps $1500-$2000, plus the cost of repairs we plan to do ($1000-$1500), what could we get?  After roaming hundreds of Craigs List ads plus at least 200 KSL listings, we concluded that $3500 would buy nothing even remotely as good as what we already have.  So, she's a keeper--Snappy will continue serving yeoman duty in our household well into the foreseeable future.

Time once again for a water report.  Yellowstone Falls moved into the #2 all time peak flow position yesterday when it went above 9170 cfs.  It may have peaked this morning at 9300 cfs.  There's no way it will take out the 1997 #1 position of 9950 cfs but it's a real feat to capture the #2 position.  The 1997 peak was an anomaly.  There was a huge amount of snow and it flash melted in mid-June.  So, this year's flow is actually the #1 overall peak for a normal spring-summer runoff season. Records have been kept for 87 years so it's a big deal to capture the #2 spot.

Meanwhile, water managers are playing cat and mouse with Jackson Lake and Palisades Reservoirs.  As you can see from what's called the BuRec "teacup diagram," both behemoth water bodies are danged near full while over 23,000 cfs pours through Snake River Canyon.  So, the BuRec has once again cranked up the Palisades release and there close to 23,000 cfs coursing through downtown Idaho Falls.  Although it's a far cry from the peak of 31000+ cfs recorded back in June, it's still quite a show for this late in the season.   The Salmon River below Stanley is running about 4000 cfs and the Middle Fork is almost 5 feet on it's gage.  We've been thinking about maybe boating a portion of the Salmon between Yankee Fork and Torrey's Hole but unless the water drops significantly in the next two weeks that now looks highly unlikely.  Remember the old adage: "You can't get in trouble in a river if you don't get in the water."

As usual, our hollyhocks are going gangbusters.  A lot of people consider them a weed here but we get more compliments on our hollyhocks each year than anything else associated with this property, garden or otherwise.  They are a delight and passersby of all stripes love them.  Today, we recorded our first three blossoms.  For the next few weeks, the blossoms will be popping like crazy and will put on their annual colorful show.  Hollyhocks are the easiest plant to grow we've ever experience.  They couldn't care less about 40 below temperatures and they are already greened up and ready to grow when we return from Arizona each year.  Maybe Buddy Holly could have done a rock and roll tune "Hock Around The Clock."
We planted some peas, corn, squash and sunflowers on the lee side of the hollyhocks.  The hocks provide late afternoon shade for the other plants so they don't get scorched during the hottest part of the day.  We planted the corn "Hopi-style" and it appears to be doing well.  The sunflowers are coming along nicely, the squash is yet unmolested by pests and the peas are flowering.  All-in-all, it's a tidy little urban garden and makes us both smile each day.

Create yet another wonderful day with Many Cheers, jp

1958 to 2011

WARNING: Below lies a Sad Story.  Don't read it if you don't want to feel saddened.

Back on July 9, 1958, I was bit by a black bear at the East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park.  Here's how it happened.  We had camped in Cody, Wyoming the night before.  Other campers told my parents about how cool it was to feed the bears at the park entrance.  They went to a Cody grocery and bought a big package of Pecan Sandies.  Sure enough, when we arrived at the park entrance there were several black bears waiting to be fed by incoming motorists.  We could hardly wait our turn.  When the time finally came, a big black bear perched on the passenger side of our 1955 Chevy four-door.  I was ever smaller than I am now (height-wise, that is) and was sitting on my Mom's hardcase cosmetics box.  (Child seats didn't exist in 1958 and seat belts were a superfluous oddity.)  I doled out the cookies one at a time to the bear whose head loomed large in the passenger window.  The bear's tongue would stick out and I would put a cookie on its tongue and then the bear would intake the cookie and a dreamy look would seem to appear in its eyes.  This went on until we ran out of cookies.  That's when the trouble began.  The bear assumed we were "holding out" on it and that more cookies existed someplace inside the car.  So, the bear began to climb into the car in search of the cookies.  My Mom began shrieking as only Mom's can shriek.  My Dad popped the clutch on the Chevy and killed the engine.  Meanwhile, in a panic, he pumped the gas pedal so furiously that he flooded the old Chevy six cylinder and we were trapped.  As the bear began trying to squeeze into the car, it began also attempting to find the cookies using its large mouth.  It put its teeth down on my right knee thinking perhaps I was hiding cookies under my pants.  It gently closed its jaws and gave my knee and leg a real good shake.  No cookies there.  So the bear let go and began sniffing elsewhere for the coveted Pecan Sandies.  Meanwhile, of course, my Mom had began smacking the bear in the nose all the while wailing at a most ungawdly decibel level.  The smell of gas from the flooded vehicle filled the air and the whine and grind of the poor Chevy starter provided a counterpoint to my Mom's hysteria.  Finally, the bear tired to wasting its time.  Afterall, many other tourists already waited in line to begin the 1950's Yellowstone Bear Feeding Ritual.  So, it climbed out of the car and went on to more productive food sources.   Meanwhile, dad got the poor Chevy started and we sped off in search of medical help.  When we reached the clinic at Fishing Bridge, the nurse there pronounced my injury "the least serious bear bite" they had ever seen.  That was no consolation to me or my parents as I was indeed lamed up all summer.

OK, let's fast forward to the years of 2007 and 2008.  By and by, after I took the job at RSVP, I told this story one day in the EICAP lunchroom.  No one believed me.  In fact, they all looked at me like I was a pathetic liar.  Their treatment of me stung and hurt my feelings.  If I tell you a story is true, you better believe it.  I will ALWAYS tell you if I am reciting a piece of fiction or embellishing a tale.  But a true story is a true story and that's that.  Anyway, I began to get some ribbing about "the bear story" and that hurt my feelings even more.  So, I called up Mom and asked her if she had a record of the bear bite.  Mom saves everything and would shame even the world's most prolific pack rat.  Surprisingly, she didn't have the record and I was even more bummed out.

Well, Mom took my request for that record as a personal challenge.  Unbeknownst to me she took on the Yellowstone National Park Administrative Establishment in a way that only my Mom can do.  She pestered them until they had no choice but to find the record to get her our of their collective hair.  Soooo.....one day, much to my abject and utter surprise up shows a copy of the record of the bear bite.  Oh, how excited I was as I began to read the report....until I got to the last line.  As a result of our boo-boo stupidity in feeding the bear and receiving the indignity of a superficial injury the bear was shot later that day.  End of Yogi. I was crushed to learn the outcome of that day oh, so long ago.

There's a saying that a "fed bear is a dead bear" and I played a role in perhaps the early coinage of that phrase.  The death of the bear continues to haunt me and I will always feel foolish for that episode in a Past Life.

OK, let's fast forward to yesterday when the news broke about the killing of a hiker by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park.  It's very sad when anyone dies from any cause but somehow a death-by-bear seems to magnify the sadness exponentially.  Last summer, some of you may recall I started a blog called "bearnoia.com."  I actually had to stop messing with it because it was so incredibly sad to write than I simply couldn't handle the intense sadness in studying the details of various bear incidents and deaths.  There's no way I will revisit that bear blog gig.

However, when a grizzly kills somebody in Yellowstone for the first time since 1986, it's Big News in this neck of the woods and so I read extensively about it last night.  In a Reuters article, I came across this quote:

"Authorities are still investigating the circumstances of the attack, but initial information indicated the mother bear behaved normally in defending her cubs and would not be killed as a result of her actions, park spokeswoman Linda Miller said."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/06/us-grizzly-death-yellowstone-idUSTRE76578E20110706

My, my, what a difference 53 years makes in bear management.  A bear is shot in 1958 for eating cookies and gumming the knee of an Indiana kid.  A bear kills a man in 2011 and stays alive for behaving "normally."  My heart goes out to the widow and the Families involved.  May God's Grace comfort them in their time of grief and sorrow.

Below are scans of the documentation of my incident.  jp

Dust to Dust

Greetings and a Hearty Howdy-Doody Haboob to you this morning!  Haboob who?  Well, in case you haven't heard, a HUGE, GI-NORMOUS Haboob walloped the Phoenix metropolitan area last night.  WOW!   It was 50 miles wide, extended at least a mile into the sky and was moving at 30 miles an hour.  The video footage of this haboob makes use of the word "spectacular" an epic understatement.  We copied some photos off the internet and you can find all sorts of stuff about the haboob via Google News right now.  In fact, it's one of the top stories of the morning and people worldwide are carrying the story today.  Click here for the Wiki on a haboob.
PS--The bottom photo is from The Dust Bowl Days of 1935.  Eerie resemblance, eh? 

Down South

How are things going down south these days?  Well, the temps have been roaming well over 100.  Goatherder reports a temp as high as 108 in Cornville.  We suspect it's probably been 110 in Rimrock.  When it gets above roughly 105, each degree of temp becomes a lot like the Richter Scale.  How hot it feels increases exponentially with each degree up until about 120 when you lose consciousness and the temperatures don't matter any more.  Anything over 120 is like a Magnitude 8.0 earthquake to the heat sensors of your brain.  Gary reported last night that the Montezuma Well vicinity received over an inch of monsoon rain.  Oh, how the tumbleweeds needed a good drink from the sky.  Summer rain is what really helps them flourish and grow BIG and BUSHY!  Thanks, Gary for sending the three photos of Second Chance Ranch.  We know our LBRs will also appreciate being able to see what the place looks like in the high heat of mid-summer.  Many Cheers, jp

16,000

We left home around 9:25 and threaded the needle and got to the John's Hole Gate at 9:55.  The fireworks started about 10:10 and finished up 30 minutes later.  From our vantage point, we were basically as close to being underneath them as one can be unless we were part of the fireworks crew.  This year's show was as spectacular as I can imagine it could ever be. The Tuesday morning paper said the show had over 16,000 aerial shells!  Do the math: that's an average of over 500 a minute during the 30 minute show.  The fireworks company that staged the show had a crew of 10 people work three long, full days to set everything up.  Even when you think a show can't possibly be topped,  we suspect The RIch Guy will go all out so that next year's will top this year's.  That's the way he is.  We arrived back home a few minutes after 11 pm and we're both kind of wiped out. We will post photos tomorrow.  In the meantime, we hope you had a truly memorable July 4th and enjoyed Many Cheers!  jp

Staging for The Fireworks

We didn't go down to the Greenbelt today.  We got "raptured" by our yard and so forth.  It just seemed like an patriotic upright and upstanding thing to do to take care of business in our own yard today.  So we did.

We've been down to the Greenbelt Gig on the 4th pretty much every year we lived here.  It's mostly the same but the No. 1 thing we both remember is that it's real hard to ride bikes.  Mostly, you walk your bike through the throngs of people slurping sugar in all its various July 4th form factors.  Sorry to say we have no photos of all that transpired down by the riverside today.

Now the big deal is staging for the fireworks.  The aerial show doesn't kick off until 10 pm tonight.  That's a little more than 2 hours away as I write this tonight.  Normally, I'd be staging for beddy-bye time right about now but tonight?  Nope, no way.  The Idaho Falls Fireworks is truly one of a kind.

Why's that?  Well, there's this Rich Guy.  You don't need to know his name.  He's just your Basic Rich Guy and he's got this thing about fireworks.  Maybe when he was a little kid he got hypnotized by fireworks or maybe his parents wouldn't let him have any.  Whatever.  The bottom line is that he spends lavishly on the fireworks.  There is no public money involved (except for the Police and various public safety agencies).  Tens upon tens of thousands of people flock from all 'round to witness the spectacle that is known far and wide simply as "The Idaho Falls Fireworks."

You would simply have to see them to believe them.  They have no peer in my life experience.  They are so far "over the top" that they redefine what "the top" is all about.  In other words, this Rich Guy sets a real high bar.  Rumor has it he spends in excess of a quarter million dollars each year on "his" fireworks.  You see, that's part of the perks of being a Rich Guy.  When you pick up the tab they really are YOUR fireworks.  It's lucky that the world-at-large calls them "The Idaho Falls Fireworks," instead of The Rich Guy fireworks.  Trust me, nobody would mind such a change in nuance.

Anyway, this Rich Guy hires a team of people to work ALL YEAR on each year's fireworks.  Their work begins on July 5th each year and they are paid to work ALL freaking year getting ready for the next rendition.  Here's one major technicality that makes the planning so complex.  The Rich Guy buys out the airtime of the area's major FM station each July 4th and they choreograph the fireworks note-for-note to a symphonic musical presentation aired on FM.  People bring their headsets and listen as the show unfolds in the night sky above.  Meanwhile, The Rich Guy hires one of the world's premier fireworks companies to stage the show.  They use an array of hardwired computers to synchronize the precise launch of each aerial bomb down to the millisecond with the notes being played on the FM radio.  Hard to believe?  Trust me, 'tis true.  There's simply nothing like it in my Life Experience.  As far as I am concerned it can't be topped on this earth unless some other Rich Guy decided to play "one up" on this one.  There's absolutely no municipal or non-profit fireworks displays that could possibly compete with this one.  That's why nobody knows how many people show up to witness it each year.  The baseline guess is 50,000.  Some people think it's much closer to 75,000 and some wide-eyed people actually toss around the magic number of 100,000.  Bear in mind the city's population is 50,000.  When it comes time to launch The Rich Guy's fireworks, this city stands still as a stone.  Nothing moves.  We are all raptured.  And for good reason.  This show has no peer.

For the last two Holidays, Susun has stayed at home and I have bicycled alone down to Ground Zero within 500 feet of the launch point.  I can assure you that the experience from that vantage point is mind-expanding.  Tonight Susun wants to join in my ride.  She's very safety conscious and, on this night, I am not.  I throw caution to the wind.  So, it's going to be interesting to see how we fare as a pair tonight.  I have been able to get to the John's Hole Gate each of the past two years.  Wish us luck in getting there, or somewhere near there tonight.  It is a worthy goal and destination--one worth fighting a little bit for.  Who cares about an elbow here and there, eh?

Last year, I got real nostalgic about my Dad.  I put up two posts--one on Dad's experience watching Nuremburg being bombed.  You can click here to read that post.  Finally, after I went down to the fireworks last year, I have to say they were a very emotional experience for me.  When I came back home, I posted up some photos and dedicated the post to my Dad.  You can click here to read that post.  What we shall see tonight will look a lot like the photos you can view from last year.  The nuances will be different, the timing will be different but there's won't be a lot of difference in the photos I take tonight compared to last year's photos.

Whenever I stand directly underneath such a spectacular and ground-shaking aerial display such as we will see once again tonight, I always feel a profound and emotional bond with those who have fought and died to gain and preserve and protect our freedoms that most of us take for granted.  Freedom isn't free.  Untold thousands of people have had to put their lives on the line to buy our freedom.  And many thousands of them gave their lives in that precious process.  Please let us honor and celebrate them as this July 4th draws once again near to darkness.  We are a Blessed Nation and may God Always Bless America Forever!

Many Cheers, jp

A Picnicing They Will Go

More than half the known world here in Tater Nation is off on a picnic of some sort today.  Picnicing is THE thing to do around here on July 4th.  Our neighbors joined The Spirit of Picnicing and off they went, children riding in royal style in a real Radio Flyer wagon.  (l-r) Cody, Jared, Danielle and Brook are excited about their Picnic Prospects on a very fine Fourth of July.  Cheers, jp

Everybody Loves a Parade

You know, it's true.  Everybody really DOES love a parade.  We sure know we love a parade!  Idaho Falls really gets into the July 4th Holiday.  It's a classic Real Big Deal here.  Some people plot and plan and prep all year for their float or routine in this parade.  The trophies and ribbons are very coveted coup here and people brag about their prizes all year long.  It's one of our annual highlights here.  This is our fourth year of enjoying the Idaho Falls July 4th Parade.  Each year is more enjoyable and, if you will, more electrifying that the previous year.  Taking in the parade is very much like being a kid again.  This year, we missed the start of the parade but we milled around in the staging area for quiet awhile before we sprinted off on our bicycles to attempt to get to the head of the parade.  We peddled 3 miles and still couldn't get to the parade's head.  Meanwhile, there were still probably 25-30 floats that hadn't even left the staging area.  We think the head of the parade arrives at its destination before the last float leaves the staging area so the whole thing is stretching out for perhaps five miles.  There are untold thousands of people lining that five  mile route.  People stake out their viewing area "turf" days in advance.  The side streets are gridlocked upwards of 6-8 blocks away from the parade route on both sides.  Basically, the city shuts down for the parade.  We've never witnessed a parade the likes of this one.

This year, parade organizers added an aerial element that included four flyovers.  The first was by a bunch of local helicopters.  The second was two A-10 Warthog gunfighter jets from Mountain Home AFB.  The third was the thunderous roar of three radial engine WWII planes: two AT-7 trainers and one of the few flyable TBM Avengers torpedo bombers left alive in the sky.   The fourth was a tandem appearance by two F-15's from Boise.  WOW!  The Avenger actually flew low right over our house.

We could take a ba-zillion photos of this parade and no scratch the surface of all the things to see and savor.  Here's just a few scenes for your viewing pleasure.  Next up: The Liberty Festival downtown on the Greenbelt.  Many Cheers, jp (There are a few comments between some of the photos below.)

 

I took a telephoto of this group but wouldn't you know Miss Susun could get the Star Couple to pose?

 OK, above is Miss Susun getting a float full of baseball players to smile.  She's pulling her "eagle" trick.  Below is what she saw through her lens when she captured this great shot.  What a ham!

Jump Starting July 4th

We're going to do several blog posts today. (Hopefully.)  We will start off July 4th with breakfast.  Most of the LDS Wards put on some sort of free public feed on July 4th.  We experienced our first such meal on July 4th in Escalante, Utah, exactly 10 years ago today.  It was a spectacular potluck with all the trimmings.  This week, some of the 11th Ward Young Men and Young Women (YM/YW, as they are known) went around the Ward neighborhood and passed out a tiny piece of paper not much larger than a 3x5 card.  It just said the Neighborhood was invited to breakfast July 4th morning between 7-9 am and gave an address.  There was nothing on the paper to indicate it was an LDS event.  Of course, anyone who knows how these things work knows the score so I eagerly awaited July 4th morning and showed up not long after the event commenced at 7 am.  It was really fun and a great traditional, rootin', tootin' red, white and blue American breakfast as well.  I made certain to wear red, white and blue as did many other older attendees.  As usual, the meal was served in the Ward gym which was all spick and span for the event.  The food included hashbrowns, sourdough pancakes, scrambled eggs with onions and peppers on the side, sausage links, tortillas, shredded cheese, salsa, all sorts of jams, syrups and jellies for the pancakes and boxes and boxes of orange juice, chocolate milk and 2% milk.  Naturally, the breakfast food was cooked to Red, White & Blue Perfection by a crew of LDS men who have been through this drill since they were knee high to a sausage link.  It felt great to partake in this traditional patriotic meal.  It was a great way to kick off this July 4th.  There's a lot more Independence Day festivities in which to partake today and we hope to illustrate them all this year.  Yep, there will be a lot of photos posted here today so pull up your Laz-E-Boy recliner and sit a spell.  We're bringing the Idaho Falls July 4th to your neighborhood today.  Many Cheers!  jp

95

Yep, 'twas 95 here today.  It reached that level at 6 pm.  It's pulled back to the low 90's now.  It's really nice to be HOT for a change.  When we lived up on The East Fork, it would get hot.  We would talk to the local people and they would say, "Gee, this is great, we love the heat--we look forward to it each year.  It's so brief."  Well, guess what?  We finally know what they meant when they said that stuff.  This heat is great and it feels wonderful after all the cold and cool weather we have been having.  I actually stayed out in it for four full hours in the direct sun.  It's one of the first times in our modern history that hot heat has felt so danged GOOD!  Who knew?
Cheers, jp

July 4th Weekend Underway

Good Morning and Happy July 4th Weekend! Susun is doing well this morning. She continues on three different heavy artillery pain meds and will probably be laid up all day.  She is now able to get up and fetch her own meds and ice packs so my need to be "Johnny On The Spot" has lessened. We very much appreciate the emails and blog comment about her situation.  THANK YOU!  Even though it's a holiday weekend, her Doc has already called to check on her recovery and will continue to keep a watchful eye on her throughout the next few days.  He's a cool guy.

My day yesterday was pretty much a "mill around" day.  Lots of menial errands including a couple of trips to the WINCO Spa & Relaxation Center just to watch the buying frenzy underway there.  The Friday before the 4th is a pretty amazing sight to see at WINCO.  It's pure and utter mayhem only marginally controlled.  Very interesting phenomena.

We tried to dive back into our Cook Shack.  The poor little place has been sadly neglected for many months.  It's going to take some dedication and focus to get it up and running and feng shui once again.

This morning, we're going target shooting with Mike and Chance.  We've both had lots of developments in the firearms end of things since we last went shooting weeks ago.  They area very fun Father-Son pair and we're sure looking forward to it.

Well, here's a great quote from the very top of the USGS Wyoming Real Time Streamflow page:

"July 1, 2011: USGS water-resources monitoring have been temporarily suspended at 06225500 Wind River near Crowheart WY following destruction of the gagehouse by flood flows. Station operation will recommence as soon as a temporary streamgage can be installed."

The morning paper says that the highway west of Dubois, Wyoming, has been flooded and over $4-million in flood damage has been caused by the Upper Wind River in that area.  As you will recall, we were over there last year in late June.  Now would not be a good time to be visiting the Dubois area.

Yellowstone Falls crept above 8000 cfs this morning.  It's in the #5 All Time Peak Flow ranking right now.  if it can creep past 8250, it will be in #4.  It's looking a lot less likely that it will take out the Top Three spots.  We still plan to go over there to check it out.  We saw it at about 7000 a few years back.  The addition of another 1000 cfs will probably make a noticeable visual difference.

Well, there's not much else to report today.  Thanks for all your kind wishes for Susun's situation!  Have a great Saturday and Many Cheers, jp

Short Note

Howdy, LBRs!  Thank you for visiting the blog all week long even though there hasn't been a new post since Monday.  WOT hoppened?  Well Monday afternoon Wes and Nancy G. from Camp Verde, Arizona, came to visit.  We all had a great time.  We turned our home over to Wes and Nancy and we camped out in the Skamper in the back yard.  That way Wes & Nancy had a real nice B&B to live in until they departed yesterday morning.  They made it all the way to Richfield, Utah, after leaving here.  Their Buick must have sprouted wings.  Yesterday was taken up with all sorts of house hold chores from professional carpet cleaning to laundry and much, much more.  Since we normally write our blog posts in the early morning and since we didn't have access to our computer until later than normal, we didn't do any blog posts for a whopping four days.  Interestingly, this blog's LBRs kept visiting just to see if anything had been posted.  The Friday morning statistics are below.

We leave in less than 30 minutes to go in for Susun's oral surgery this morning.  Wish her a safe journey through this procedure--it's a major dental milestone.  She will most likely never forget this July 4th weekend!

We're hoping she will be healed up enough toward the end of next week to take a day trip to Yellowstone Falls.  The flow there this morning eeked into position #5 on the all time peak flow list dating back 86 years.  By the end of next week, it might be in position #3 or #4.  It's unlikely it will set a new all time record flow but it's going to come danged close.  There's still over 30 inches of pure water in the snowpack that feeds Yellowstone Lake--the source of the Yellowstone Falls water flow--and it's going to be hotter than blazes over there this holiday.  It might even hit 97 here in River City on July 4th.

well, there's lots of other stuff to write about but we have to pack it up here this morning and get ready to head out to the dentist.  Let's all hope we create a great day and everything turns out OK.  Many Cheers, jp

The Daily News                        
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