Groovy Tuesday

The mega-hyped storm arrived at Fruita, Utah, in the middle of the night leaving behind perhaps a couple of hundreths of an inch of rain and a lot of wind.

The wind is really confusing the leaves.  They don't know which way to blow.  First they race across north across the campground.  Then they change their leaf minds and race back south.  Such behavior makes them very interesting to watch.  Fruita's stately old growth cottonwood trees were at their peak when we arrived early Monday afternoon.

Now their slightly past their peak because the wind has stripped off lotsa leaves.  But there's still plenty of color, so much so that the campground has an odd but pleasing yellow tint.

The NPS put signs at the Visitor Center saying "Campground FULL" but it actually wasn't completely full.  Close but not quite.

As usual the Capitol Reef Campground fills out Hearts & Spirits full with Joy & Delight. Site 30 in the B Loop is arguably the best site in the whole campground. 

After our Spring 2021 Northbound trip and factoring in this Fall's Southbound route so far, we've decided it's our new South-North Route.  Plus, we're going to experiment with repeating our Fall 2019 leg via Hanksville-Blanding-Bluff to Arizona.  It might actually be equal or even shorter distance to go that way rather than to go back through Loa and then to Koosharem, etc. to get to US 89.

You can't make something from nothing. Cell signal boosters only work if they have a weak signal to boost.  There is absolutely ZERO cell signal here in Fruita and the NPS intends to keep it that way.  So, our hoop-dee-doo cell signal booster is useless in such a situation.

(View from our. Phone booth.)

However, it "might" work its magic at a viewpoint where we know there is a weak signal.  The nice thing about the unit we purchased is that it came with two external antennas.  One works great on a tall mast.  The other is magnetic and can simply be attached to the roof of the truck.  The amplifier plugs into the 12 volt port.  Those ports used to be called cigarette lighters but that seems such an archaic name now.

Today promises to be cooler than normal.  It was 68 degrees when we pulled into this campground yesterday.  At 10 AM it's 44 degrees and the wind makes it feel even cooler than that.

Anyway, it will be a good day to spend time at the Visitor Center trying to find more information about The Bird Ripple Rock Mine and also the location of the 1937 National Monument Dedication Ceremony.

We're thinking of delivering a short Eulogy to E.P. Pectol at that Dedication Site but, as this point, we have no clue where it is located.

We have VERY low expeectations for working with the NPS Staff today. In fact, it will be no surprise if we come up empty-handed on all of our inquiries.

This might be a large National Park in physical area but it's a very small park in terms of Staffing and so-called "resources."  I'd be quite surprised if they actually even had archival records located on site here.  I'd be willing to bet real money the Capitol Reef archives are located at the Denver Regional Office.

But whatever...at least we will give it a good ol' college try and see wot hoppens.  

Theoretically, the weather is supposed to improve this week.  With four more nights remaining, we have plenty of time to explore and do all the stuff people do when they visit Capitol Reef.

Capitol Reef National Park was created from Capitol Reef National Monument on December 18, 1971, when President Nixon signed it into law.  So the Park is turning 50.  Efforts to designate this area as a National Park actually began over 100 years ago through the relentless efforts of E.P. Pectol.  Pectol coined the name "Wayne Wonderland" well over 100 years ago.  He and his pards began a concerted promotional campaign in 1921. 

Back in 1925, people here actually thought that a "Wayne Wonderland" State Park had been created.  A couple thousand folks showed up at a Dedication and the Governor was keynote speaker.  Interestingly, there never was a Wayne Wonderland State Park here or anywhere else.  But people "thought" there was.  President Franklin Roosevelt actually signed the law creating Capitol Reef National Monument in August 1937.  It was supposed to be called Wayne Wonderland National Monument but some NPS bureaucrat co-opted the name at the last minute in the legislative process. Local folks wer\\\e very upset about the name change.

Guess who actually named the area Capitol Reef?  None other than that famous river runner, Major John Wesley Powell!

All-in-all, it's a minor miracle that Capitol Reef National Monument became a Nation Park 50 years ago.  Such a thing would NEVER happen in today's political climate. Utah has five headliner National Parks.  It's doubtful ANY of them would stand a snowball's chance of becoming National Parks in today's contentious culture.

We're very happy to be tucked into the Capitol Reef campground at Fruita.  It's one of our favorite places to be.  We Love It Here. 

Southbound Day Four

A Merry Meandering Monday...

We're at the top arrow due west of Cleveland...but we're definitey not in Ohio! We head south on what Utahans are now calling "Carbon Avenue." Maybe it should be called The Coal Truck Causeway.

We cross under I-70 and use a frontage road to gain access to Utah 72 (middle arrow). That fun road takes us up and over the east flanks of the Fish Lake Mountain area. UT 72 drops us out near Loa, the Wayne County Seat. Eighty years ago, every house in Loa was on a corner.  Seriously.  You can read about Loa and its neighbors from the 1941 WPA Writer's Project book on Utah by clicking the ridiculously long link at the end of this post.

We turn left there on Utah 24 and eventually go through Bicknell. Bicknell was once called Thurber after the first intrepid dude that settled the desolate area.  Well, by and by, some effete Easterner named Thomas W. Bicknell said he would donate a library to any Utah town that took his name.

The Good Citizens of Thurber jumped at the chance but so did those of Grayson. So Tom split his donation between the two and he got Bicknell while Grayson became Blanding, his wife's maiden name,

Bicknell might be the only remaining Utah town of its size to still have a functional movie theater. The owners cooked up an International Film Festival which occasionally brings Bicknell a few seconds of fleeting fame.

Torrey's the last settlement before entering Capitol Reef.  We first visited Torrey over Thanksgiving 1982. Ever since then we've been convinced there's really nothing much actually in Torrey, except for the obligatory tourist motels and restaurants.

But that a changed last year when Ann Torrence and her husband opened The Etta Place Cidery.  Having a cidery in rural Utah is kinda like having a meteor drop into your backyard...or something.  The cidery's products recently received SIX medals at the nation's premier cider judging contest: four bronze and two silver.

So now we can confidently say there really is SOMETHING in Torrey.  And why is it named Etta Place, you ask?  Ann chose to honor The Sundance Kid's Love interest.

Our interest in Torrey definitely perked up when Ann'e Etta Place opened up.  Ann's most famous to us at least for writing THE book on US 89. Her book will never be topped.  Ever.

How Ann jumped from studying US 89 to the cidery business is quite an intersting and endearing story.  Maybe we can get her to tell it someday.

Technically, Fruita is the last community before our campground but it's not a real town any more.  It once had over 100 residents.  However, the NPS acquired all the private land and now only NPS staff live there in "company housing," so to speak.

So, that's our Merry Monday ahead.  It's probably about a hundred miles, plus or minus.  EZPZ day.

https://books.google.com/books?id=n28KXZRkmoEC&lpg=PA348&ots=MiTP-n7coK&dq=what%20is%20the%20loa%20bicknell%20area%20called%20in%20utah&pg=PA348

THANKS BLM & Emery County

The Swell is truly swell. 

In some ways it is better than its Big Brothers--all the NPS Utah headliners you've grown to know and love: Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Bryce and Zion.

The key difference between The Swell and The Fab Four is your ability to actually drive to some Super Sweet Spots.  The BLM manages The Swell and they've enabled access in ways the NPS just would never do.

The BLM has made The Swell accessible and we LOVE IT!  You can drive to places that the NPS would make you hike to or buy a mule ride to.  

The scenery is spectacular beyond words. Utah tourism movers & shakers have latched onto the "playground" moniker for The Swell.  It's apt, appropriate and fun....just what a playground should be.

We did an 80-mile loop through The Swell today, basically seeing The Wedge, The Little Grand Canyon Overlook, Buckhorn Wash, the Swinging Bridge and the obligatory Buckhorn Big Boys.

The BLM and Emery County have gone all out to continue to keep these destinations accessible, user-friendly and enjoyable.

We had a DFD--A Danged Fun Day!

Weather conditions were beyond perfect.  Temp at the Swinging Bridge was easily low 70's. No wind & glorious light.

We reserved our time @ Capitol Reef  because we felt we could catch some Utah Fall Color.  Boy! Oh! Boy!  Did we ever.

The cottonwoods on The San Rafael and in Buckhorn Wash were at their peak.  Knowing cottonwoods as we do, it would be hard to imagine how they could be MORE "peaky" that they were today.  The incoming storm will surely change that.

But we caught their peak and we are grateful. They were sublime!

Buckhorn Wash is truly misnamed.  It should be Buckhorn Canyon.  It's far more dramatic than so-called Nine Mile Canyon. Driving down Buckhorn Canyon could easily be analogous to driving down a side canyon of Lower Grand Canyon.  Think Diamond Creek and you get a decent idea of the analogy.

Many of Utah's premier places "seem" to be amply promoted but sometimes we think the promoters don't really understand how to promote what they have.

Buckhorn Wash is an amazing destination.  A Prius could have driven that road today. Easily.

The Swell's landscape is very durable and isn't going to be harmed by additional usage.

We wish Emery County and the BLM (s)Well in their efforts to bring additional visitors to Swell Country.

Swell Sunday

A Fun Four Letter Word...

L-A-Z-Y...Yep, we're lazy today.  So lazy, in fact, we're staying here another day.  When serendippity delivers such a bonus gift, go with the flow.

It will be dry and mostly sunny today.  There was a sprinkle overnight but not enough to muddy up roads out in The Swell.  It's been 16 years since our last foray into The Swell so we're long overdue for another Swell kinda day.

Back before the internet, The San Rafael Swell wasn't widedly known.  Now practically everybody knows about the place.  However, it is past prime time for the annual tsunami of Swell Seekers so we "should" have the place mostly to ourselves today.  Especially with the locals all being in Church or driving coal trucks...or whatever.

Since The Swell became so frightfully popular, local tourism boosters were quick to capitalize with slick maps and brochures revealing ALL those Swell Secrets that were once as carefully guarded as a good fishing hole or morel mushroom sweet spot. Now each of them has their very own GPS coordinates.

Luckily, we have the correct truck tires to venture out into The Swell.  We're really happy with those Perilli Scorpions.  They were pricey but they're worth it for times like this.

Monday's weather looks fine & dandy so there are no worries in driving down yonder to Capitol Reef.  Whatever remnants of The Big Storm make it to Southeast Utah will arrive after sundown tomorrow. 

Southbound Day Two

Leisure Cruise...with rain...

It started sprinkling as we pulled out of Heber City...The sprinkling turned to a rain somewhere in Provo Canyon.  

After our Harmons visit, the rain became harder as we passed the BYU football stadium.  I felt sorry for the early bird fans huddled in blankets under wide umbrellas.

It was barely 11 AM and the stadium lights were already turned on!  Yes, it was a dark and damp day.

We proceeded on US 89 to point a few miles north of US 6.  Looking down toward Nephi the sky was nearly black.  We weren't too worried about snow on Soldier Summit.  The Provo area temp was 49 degrees and that's a long way from 32 degrees.  But we still had to check the radar to make an informed decision.

The radar sealed the deal.  We could tell the rain was heavy south of Provo and light up on Soldier Summit.  Turns out it was a leisure cruise on US 6 to Helper. Beautiful scenery, Very manageable traffic and only medium rain.

A few miles west of Helper the rain stopped and the pavement was dry.  We spent a long time in Helper taking way, WAY too many pictures.  The temp was pleasant and there was nary a hint of rain.

We both got raptured by the Helper Post Office and spent most of our time there.  I didn't know there were any old relic Post Offices left from the 1930's WPA Era.  Stepping into that Post Office was like Instant Time Travel back to the Post Offices of my boyhood daze.

We will Post (pun intended) up a ginormous photo album of the Helper Post Office.  Guessing there will be maybe 20-30-40 photos.  It was a postalpalooza for sure.

After maxxing out Helper to a greater or lesser degree in a general sense, we went down to Price where the price really WAS right.  For whatever weird reason, gas in Price was $3.24 a gallon, the lowest we've paid in many months.

Then we idled down south on Utah 10 to the Huntington State Park.  We're snugged up here with electricity so we can run our forced air furnace.  We're nice and cozy in The Mosey.

Got a great Door View, only a few neighbors and a decent $30 price.  

If we weren't so lazy this afternoon, we would have drive out into Swell Country--that's The San Rafael Swell, of course.  But a warm and cozy tiny home on two wheel kinda captured us today.  We're enjoying a Leisure Cruise Afternoon and it's delightful.

Thanks for reading.

Slow Saturday

Good Morning from the Heber City Walmart parking lot. 'Twas a fine overnight here at what Bentonville corporate HQ calls a mini-super store.

Walmarts in high traffic or transiet areas long ago banned overnight parking (AKA: camping) but the Walmarts in the hinterlands are still OK with it.  We always go buy stuff in any Wally where we spend the night.  This morning was no exception as we picked the fixin's for a real nice Holiday-style breakfast.

We will probably hang out here until 9 AM.  That's when the adjacent dollar store opens.  I bought a real nice $1 folding phone holder that's perfect to use with this Blue Tooth keyboard.  Susun decided she has to have one, too.

With the dollar stores you better buy it when you see it becuz often they never get that exact same item in ever again. Like, ever.

But that's OK, it's only 30 miles or so to Provo.  We're hoping to be there for an early brunch and munch at Harmons.  Harmons in an SLC area institution started in the pits of the Great Depression in 1932.  That's back when some people were honestly grateful to have two pennies to rub together. Of course, that's when a penny actually bought stuff.

It's always been interesting to me about the number of now successful groceries that started in the Great Depression.  Talk about optimism!  Our Arizona Friends all know Basha's.  Well, they started in the Depression, too.  Ironically, the store chain that recently bought Basha's started back in the early 30's as well.

That much ballyhooed storm is slowly working its way onshore.  The leading edges will produce some precip in this vicinity later today.  But we're OK to lollygag in Heber this morning.  We will be just ahead of any precip as we meander farther south in this here Beehive State.

At this point we really don't know which way we're going to meander until we get to munch some brunch at Harmons in Provo.  If we go left we will traipse across Soldier Summit and thence into Helper & Price.  That route takes us through what we call "There'n or Ferron" and onward to Loa and Capitol Reef.

NO WAY we're going through Dechesne.  That hill coming down off that plateau is so steep it's downright SCARY!

If we go right, we're back on I-15 for a few miles to Nephi and thence the normal Levan-Gunnison-Salina-Sigurd route that eventually gets us to Capitol Reef.

The right turn route has the add bonus of getting to visit with Dear Friend Lyman in Sigurd.  Lyman is a Totally First Class Utah History Enthusiast whose excellent work we thoroughly enjoy. 

The left turn route has the advantage of spending some Saturday quality time in Helper.  Helper kinda sorta comes alive on Saturdays.  Plus as an added bonus we get to pay our respects to Big Bad John again.  He's The Muffler Man In Black that stands guard out front of the 1930's Civic Center.

The left route has a lot of advantages because there are FAR more places to camp on the east side of the Wasatch Plateau.

There are two significant chunks of Utah topography named "Wasatch."  One is a mountain range and the other is a plateau.  And both of them are huge.  The east side of the Wasatch Plateau is coal country.  Maybe that's why it is named Carbon County. And maybe that's why Big Bad John carries a miner's pick instead of a muffler.

Well, I reckon it's time for breakfast and a yummy one it is today---chicken and gravy served over Stove Top Savory Herb stuffing mix.  Wha-whooo--ROAD FOOD!

Speaking of which, we'll see ya on down The Road.  Thanks for reading!

 

https://www.harmonsgrocery.com/mission/

Southbound Day One

Picked a Fine Friday to end our 2021 Idaho Season.  Perfect weather, beautiful sky and smooth sailing.

We got caught in a 40 minute bumper-to-bumper typical Salt Lake Metroplex traffic jam just north of Brigham City.  Once it cleared, we jammed east on I-84 to totally miss the whole Friday mess in the 100-mile metro gauntlet.

The drive out yonder on I-84 is blissful compared to I-15 along the Wasatch Front. At Dear Echo, we hung a right on I-80 and then another left on US 40 and arrived in Beautiful Heber City after 5.5 hours elapsed time.  We're parked in Chez Wally tonight.  Great Door  View and a few nice landscape plants beside us.

A Wasatch County Sheriff's Deputy cruised by and eyeballed us but proceeded on so we know we're good to bed down for the night.  This is a Wal-Mart we feel comfortable staying at.  The price is right!

Our parking spot here is a short walk to a Sportsman's Warehouse.  We dispatched Susun to buy a fresh Utah Map Book which at $25 is still a steal.

Tomorrow it's on to Provo and then to decide whether to take the Full Monte Back Route or go the way we always do.  We'll have more on that tomorrow morning before we pull out of here.

Last 2021 Sunday in Idaho

Our 2021 Idaho Season is rapidly drawing to a close.  We've been busy for the past month tending  to details, prepping The Mosey Inn (our tiny travel trailer) and making ready for our annual Snow Bird migration South to Ol' Airy Zonie.

Every day has been filled with the issues, challenges and opportunities that can only arise when we move our lives 800 miles down yonder to set up housekeeping in our straw bale abode beside Montezuma Well National Monument in Beautiful Bubbaville Rimrock.

We're actually ahead of the game this year which is good because we're almost certainly going to have to depart ahead of our target date---Saturday, October 23rd.  As of this morning's weather window forecast, Friday looks like our departure but it might get moved to Thursday depending on how the next stormette evolves.  You see, La Nina has decided to visit early and often this season.

Yesterday, we picked up our "Party of Two" sign from the Farmers Market wood burner guy, Aaron.  He's great and reasonably priced as well.

Most of our spare time is now spent studying and writing various esoteric history stories to post on one of our Facebook history pages for Arizona, Utah and Idaho.  Lately, we've been focused on only Arizona, much to the neglect of Utah and Idaho.  

https://racket.com/arizonahistorystories/rfdBe

Most of the time our main mode of operation is to find an intriguing postcard on eBay and then let the postcard dictate our study and writing.  We like to say "every old postcard tells a story."  You'd be quite surprised at just how complex those stories can become.  One of our recent finds created a pleasant stir in Globe, Arizona.  Most of you know we love Globe, its neighbor Miami and Gila County, in general.

Anyway, as is often the case, one thing led to another and then another and we wound up doing something we'd never even though of before.  Funny how that happens.  The upshot is that we found nine compelling paragraphs in the July 5, 1908, "Arizona Silver Belt" newspaper and produced and audio file reading those paragraphs.  It was quite a fun project but took huge gobs of time.

When we're not studying something from the Globe-Miami-Gila area, we generally pick on Prescott, Sedona, Flagstaff, Grand Canyon, and sometimes Tucson, too. In a history-rich state such as Arizona, there's never a shortage of material!

Today will be our last visit with Dear Friends Mike and Camille.  They are coming at noon for a mini cribbage tournament.  Mike has the distinction of being our Best Customer for Big Board Cribbage.  I think he bought maybe six boards...maybe more.  Mike's Story began on November 20, 2007, when we meet him for the first time on a cold, windswept day in Freeman Park beside the State's Vietnam Veteran's Memorial overlooking The Snake River.

Mike had a mountain bike for sale on Craig's List for $50.  I knew I wanted to buy the bike even before I saw it or rode it so I brought along $50.  Mike let me ride the bicycle and I loved it so I rode back to his van and said, "Here's Your $50."  Well, Mike just looked at me with a blank stare and asked, "Have you ever heard of Bicycle Karma?"  Of course, I hadn't ever heard of Bicycle Karma so I was perplexed.  Then Mike said, "Well, I am in need of some Bicycle Karma so the bike is yours and I don't want your money.  It's Bicycle Karma."  WOW!  I drove home that day with tears running down my cheeks.

We became fast Friends and our Friendship and endured and blossomed over the past 14 years.  Mike and his wife, Camille, are so fun, fascinating and delightful!  I recently gave Mike a cribbage board that I named   The board had so many flaws that it reminded me of that Famous Dog, Lucky.  You know that dog, right?  RIGHT!  Well, if you didn't know Lucky before, you sure do now.

Dodging The Gauntlet

 If we leave on Saturday, October 23rd, we would camp at Willard Bay State Park on the very north tip of the 100-mile-long Salt Lake Metroplex and then drive I-15 through the gauntlet on Sunday morning when everyone is in Church.

However, if have to leave early, there is NO WAY we would drive The Gauntlet on a weekday.  Absolutely NO WAY.  So, we would then have to drive on the east side of The Wasatch Front.  The route variations are below.

Here's the normal and most direct route from Idaho Falls to Capitol Reef National Park.  EZPZ.  We jump I-15 and drive to Nephi, then head south through Levan and Gunnison to Salida.  Then over to Segurd and thence South to Torrey, Utah.

A second alternate is to get on US 6 at Spanish Fork and go over Soldier Summit to Helper/Price and thence south to Ferron and take a paved backroad to Loa and then to Torrey.  It's only a few miles different than the most direct route.

The route that entirely bypasses the Salt Lake Metroplex is about 50 miles longer. We'd turn East at Ogden and then south at Echo to Heber City and then to Provo.  We'd take side streets (AKA: Old US 89) to Spanish Fork and then up and over Soldier Summit to Helper/Price  and then to Ferron, etc.  There is another ALT version of this going from Heber to Duchesne to Helper but the long, steep downhill off that plateau is wickedly scary so we won't be doing that.

The Weather Window

 The Southbound migration is always the one during which weather plays a factor.  After all, it's FALL and that's when the weather can be very fickle.  Nice today, not so much tomorrow.  We watch weather every day but much more so beginning 10-14 days before departure.

As of today, we're 7-8 days from departure.  The plan is to pull out of Idaho Falls on October 23rd.  But we could move that to October 22 very easily....possibly even October 21 is we actually to. At this point, it looks like we're going to have a decent weather window during which to hit Interstate 15 South.

The wild card is whether weather will develop farther downstream on our route before it works its way up to Eastern Idaho.  

The above graphic shows next Wednesday through Friday with our approx. route in red,  Note that area of Coastal weather over by NORCAL.  If that chunk of wetness decides to impinge on Utah, then we probably need to beat feet a little earlier.

So far this Fall,m the prevailing pattern for area has been shaped by pulses coming out of the Pacific Northwest, pulses spawned by robust low pressure systems in the Golf of Alaska.  We're going to get yet another such pulse early next week but it "should": be cleared out of the way just about the time we need to depart.  It's kinda touch and and go for this season's migration.

Scratching the history itch

When the weather turns nippy and the days grow short, that's when we get the history itch.  It comes on slowly but pretty soon it's mighty itchy!  We can feel it growing more scratchy by the day.  So, what is there do to but scratch that itch, right? RIGHT! 

And the only way to scratch that itch is by digging deep into the Rabbit Holes of History.  Frnakly, such Rabbit Holes aren't hard to find.  They're practically everywhere, at least if you know what you're lookin' at.

And if on any given day, you can't find a right & proper Rabbit Hole, you well know what to do.  Open up an old, OLD newspaper and let a rabbit Hole leap off the page and grab you.  That's what we did today when we decided to see "whazzup" 150 years ago in Prescott, Arizona.

Why there was actually an October 14th issue of "The Weekly Arizona Miner" newspaper.  Talk bout 150 years to THE DAY, eh?  How lucky is that?

Anyway, it was a heck of a lot of fun diving into that Rabbit Hole and we spent all morning down where only rabbits roam.  We found some fun stuff and took a whole new approach to presenting it.
We like to put stuff on our Arizona History Stories Facebook page.  Then we like to post the link onto one or more of the other Facebook history pages for Arizona.  In the past, we've just put our link on those pages.  Today we created a photo collage of some of our content and posted that along with the link.  Then, as an added bonus feature, we did a huge long blog post on one of the 150-year-old advertisements we found.  Plus, we even found a link to the entire newspaper.  So, it's kind of a win-win deal for anybody who's interested in such Old But Goodie Stuff.

If you're inclined to take a flying leap down my rabbit Hole de jour, here ya go:

https://www.facebook.com/ArizonaHistoryStories/posts/418975979615704
  
Since we started scratchin' the itch a few weeks ago, our Arizona History Stories Page has been doing pretty well, actually.

Happy History Trails!

John Parsons Blogging History

Got blogs in my blood...

I probably started blogging in 1986 but didn't know I was blogging back then.  That's when I bought my first computer.  I would write daily entries on it and print them out on an old noisy dot-matrix printer.  When Windows 3.1 came along, I really amped up by daily writing.  As soon as I figured out how to post narratives online I did so.  That would be about 25 years ago, plus or minus, but probably 1995 and definitely no later than 1996.  That's back when buying a domain name and creating an actual hosted website was heady stuff.  I actually created the very first watershed website in all of America back then!  Seriously.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation bought an installed the latest, greatest computer for the Verde NRCD somewhere around 1995 and then they paid to connect us to the web with the best available local internet service provider.  Since it was easier to post text that photos back then, I would write frequent, sometimes daily entries about The Verde River and its watershed.  So, that would qualify as my first genuine "web log.."  You see, that's what the word "blog" actually means.  The two words "web log" were shortened to "blog" long ago...in fact, so long ago that most people don't even know.

Anyway, things proceeded merrily along for the rest of the 90's.  I was happily blogging away even though it still wasn't yet know as blogging.  In late Y 2 K, we decided to retire at the ripe old age of 53.  We decided to take a really long Road Trip from Arizona to the north tip of Vancouver Island.  Naturally, we named our trip: "Western Space Odyssey 2001."  And, naturally, we bought a domain name to that effect.  And, naturally, we began writing long daily tomes to post on that website.

What eventually became today's Google Blogger wasn't even invented until 1999 and it was so obscure I never even heard of it until a few years later.  The word "blog" was just beginning to echo in the lexicon of internet-related jargon.  To me, daily writing was a Way Of Life and it was just something that I did whether anyone was reading it or not.

Our last day at The Verde Natural Resource Conservation District was January 10, 2001.  On January 11, the very next day, we arrived on the beach at Rocky Point, Sonora, Mexico.  That's where my blogging really took off.  Of course, I STILL didn't know that IU was blogging!  To me it was just the daily habit of writing and then posting the words on the web.

It was rather difficult to get my writing actually posted on the web.  I had an ancient Windows 3.1 machine that used a floppy disk.  Remember those?  So, I would sit in our little pop top camper and peck away at the keyboard to write a long narratives of each day's doing's.  By and by, we would drive out little Suzuki Samurai into "downtown" Puerto Penasco to what was then known as an "internet cafe."  We'd pay our pesos and be granted access to a clunky desktop computer connected to the internet via one of those despicable 14.4K dial up phone modems.  Talk about S-L-O-W!

Each day we were eventually successful and posted out writing.  One of the visitors to Palmar RV Park that season was a retired airline pilot from an upscale East Coast area.  He became very curious about my writings.  So, he returned home and printed out each and every single day's worth of writing.  Then he had the printouts professionally bound into three booklets and sent them to me!  Seriously!  So, I have actually physical PROOF of my early 2001 blogging.

This whole archaic method of blogging continued unabated through that summer 20 years ago and then into the next couple of years that followed.  Sometime perhaps in late 2001 or early 2002, I actually heard about the Blogger platform. Back then it was owned by Pyra Labs and sounded decidedly cumbersome, unwieldy and expensive.  I ignored it.

Well, by and by, Google bought Pyra Labs in early 2003 and that was the down of the new Blogger.  Google made everything free and began a steady drum roll of amazing improvements.  I was one of Google's first "early adopters" for the Blogger platform.  I can't seem to remember or find my first Google blog but it's out there somewhere---probably in more ways than one of being "out there".

Google really had Blogger running slick by 2004 and that's when we started out first summer of Forest Service volunteering at Bowery Guard Station.  In the next few years and especially in late 2007 and all of 2008, I really latched onto Blogger and began creating blogs of all types and stripes, a trend that has continued to present.

As of mid-October 2021, I don't even know how many blogs I have, let alone where they all are.  I would guess I have at least 70 blogs but it's probably much closer to 100.  Seriously. I have somewhere around 20 Gmail addresses and each of those accounts has quite a large number of blogs.  I bet my primary Gmail account has more than 20 blogs.  One of these days we will count 'em up.

Google doesn't care how many blogs you have and they are all free so why not?  I often create a blog for any reason...or NO reason at all.  A few weeks back I created about six new blogs for which I have yet to create even a single post.  Why?  Well, I read about a new trend that hasn't yet caught on and figured I might as well lock up some relevant blog names "just in case" the trend takes hold.  I think they call that "blog squatting"...or something.

Obviously, THIS blog is my Number One Primary blog and it has it's own domain name: Live Simple, Care Much.  So whazzup up with that?

In the Fall of 2005, Susun and I spent a lot of time talking about the then new trend of "voluntary simplicity."  Back in '05, it was all the rage.  We both decided we ought to buy a website domain name capitalizing on that phenomena but we couldn't think of a name that both of us liked.  Time passed.  

On Christmas Morning 2005, we were getting ready to go to Christmas Dinner with Our Dear Friends, Brad, Kate and Joshua.  Suddenly about 30 minutes before our departure the name hit both of us: Live Simple Care Much.  BAM!  Just like that.

So we jumped online and bought the domain name and dutifully continued to pay our annual dues to keep it.  However, we really didn't know what we wanted to do with the name.  We just knew we WANTED THAT NAME! Time passed.

Back on Halloween 2009, a juvenile jerk badly vandalized our Arizona home  by breaking out numerous windows.  We rushed from our job in Idaho Falls down to Rimrock and began an incredibly labor intensive, long-term rehabilitation project.  It took nearly two months of non-stop work to get the house repaired and safely "vandal-proofed."  Then we headed back to Idaho Falls to resume working our paid job as Director of The Eastern Idaho Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP).  Well, we got snowbound in Nephi, Utah, and had to hole up for two days at the Safari Motel there.

That's when I learned my boss has been fired and everything was going to change at my job.  We decided right then and there to retire from the job just as soon as we could get everything in order.
And that's when we decided to document the entire transition with a blog dedicated solely to the documentation process.

We created a Google Blog called "y2ten" and began blogging away.  Man, that blog took off in a heartbeat and I was writing up a storm on it.  As time passed I realized the name was totally inadequate and that's about the time Google decided to let people link their own domain name to a blog.  

BINGO!  Finally, we knew and understood the reason why we had the domain name "Live Simple. Care Much" and had held on to it for over 4 years.  We quickly linked the domain name to the y2ten blog and carried on blogging there for many years.

All-in-all we put up over 1,700 blog posts on Live Simple Care Much before we were kidnapped by Facebook.  Now that we have broken free of the Facebook cult, we're back to our roots here happily blogging once again on Live Simple Care Much.

We're not going back to the Facebook gulag. Yes, we will visit our account every day and like and share stuff but we will no longer write our own stuff to be posted there.  Whatever we write will be posted here.  We might occasionally link a blog post from here to Facebook but, as a general rule, we won't.

We're going back to writing purely for the sake of writing, just as we once did long before the word "blog" was openly spoken.  Whether anyone reads our writing is irrelevant to us once again.  It's a wonderfully liberating feeling and we're already immensely enjoying our born again blog buzz.

testing

Yippie, skippie!  Our first "TODO" item for Thursday morning was to create a simple post from our Android phone.  It was EZPZ and took no trouble whatsoever.  So, we're good to go as far as creating blog posts On The Road.

As far as the photo goes, it was last night's dinner.  Dear Susun is getting SO Much better in her quest to create credible, appetizing and visually appealing Asian Pho. I sure cleaned my Pho Bowl.  

Today being TBT, our main blog post will be about our own personal history of blogging as well as when, where, why and how this particular blog was created.

BBC Stickers coming right up!

 

We just ordered some of these stickers!  YEA!  They're only going to be 3 by 3 but they will look good in a tasteful sorta way.  BIG BOARD CRIBBAGE ROX!  Below is the proof of the sticker they sent to me overnight.  I approved it Thursday morning and should it will be waiting in our Rimrock Post Office Box when we arrive the first week of November.

Revised Snack Box

As everyone knows we travel a lot.  The diet of a traveler differs from one who remains sedentary at home.  Travelers often get "the munchies."  That's why we have embedded Snack Boxes in both our truck AND Travel Trailer (TT).  Of course, the TT Snack Box is considerably bigger than the one in the truck.

The TT Snack box danged near has it all--lots and lots of various crackers, canned oysters, peanut butter, black olives, orange marmalade, mango-habanero salsa, hot chocolate packets, onion soup mix and now even Cheerios, too.  When one of us gets the munchies, the LAST thing we need to deal with is a depleted Snack Box.

We amped up our Snack Box today to include breakfast staples, too.  Five grain flakes with all the trimmings: fresh walnuts, dried cranberries and raisins as well.

The cracker selection is arguably the best it's ever been: two pkgs. of flavored woven wheat crackers, a box of club crackers; two pkgs. of honey graham crackers; a bag of Goldfish and a stack of saltines. Now we're talkin' CRACKERS!

We're lucky that WINCO is less than 2 miles from our Idahome.  Whenever we get a whim, we can simply dash to WINCO to fulfill that whim.  We did so today twice.  Once for the Bulk Box and once for the Snack Box.  At less than 4 miles round trip, who cares?

WINCO has an awesome bulk section.  You can find almost anything there.  One of their tried and true, fan-favorite staples is fresh ground peanut butter.  Well, today there was NO peanut butter.  Seems there is a shortage of peanuts.  Ah, well, shortages are The New Normal.  Luckily, we have Back Up Peanut Butter, right? RIGHT!

Don't EVER plan a Road Trip without Back Up Peanut Butter!

One of the many coolest things about WINCO's Bulk Department is that they sell really goof stuff.  It sure makes our Snack Box Sing!

The Bulk Box

We travel with everything except the kitchen sink.  Sometimes we even think of bringing the kitchen sink along.  Most of the time when we prepare to migrate south or north, we purposely "over pack" and take more stuff than we need.

Our total food inventory is actually pretty extensive and complex.  We divided it into sections much like small town grocery stores are in sections or departments or whatever.

One of our staples (so to speak) is our Bulk Box.  It hold dry primary ingredients that must be cooked.  There's nary a single thing in that box that can be eaten "as is."  Most of the Bulk Box contents actually need to be pressure cooked.  Of course, we carry a pressure cooker...but you knew that already, right? Right!

Today, I roto-rooted the Bulk Box and focused on the items we eat most often.  All other extraneous items were removed.  Until today, we've always carried breakfast items such as oats and pancake mix in the bulk box.  Only quick cooking grits remain.  The oaks and 10-grain pancake mix are moving to a more convenient location elsewhere in our traveling grocery store.

Obviously lentils, brown jasmine rice and Navy Beans are very popular menu items for us--hence five one cup bags of each.  Lately we've found ourselves becoming quite fond of pressure cooked pearled barley so that one got upped to four one cup bags.

We're only carrying two cups of pinto beans just in case we need to make a "company pot" of beans.  Otherwise, we will stick with small red beans as they are slightly more versatile and go really, really well with rice.

It generally takes about a month to rig for one of our migrations.  We try to devote a lot of time to each task.  We don't want to wait until the last minute and then have to rush through everything.  It was a pleasure today to spend almost four hours on the Bulk Box.  It will serve us well through most of the upcoming Arizona Season.

"He don't know beans"

Even though the USS Constitution was launched in 1797, it remains an active US Navy ship.
There's virtually no doubt, Old Ironsides was powered just as much by Navy Beans as wind!

Have you ever heard that phrase?  A variation is an accusation such as "You don't know beans."  Well, I know a little bit about beans but I could easily say "I don't know beans" and be more right than wrong.

This morning I am trying to know a little bit more about beans than I knew yesterday.  Of course, it doesn't take much to increase one's knowing of beans since the internet is full of beans, pun intended.  So-called Navy Beans have long been a favorite legume of mine.

A treasure trove of recipes!

Yesterday I "rediscovered" a lost casserole book we purchased in Livingston, Montana, last October.  It has 2,000 recipes all contributed by Home Economics teachers in the mid-60's.  As you might suspect, most of those 2,000 recipes are full of Cheese Whiz, Velveeta, butter, bacon and all sorts of other yummy fat.  Some of the recipes aren't even casseroles.  I found one last night which sure sounded like a "pot-o-beans" recipe and that's why I am deep down the Rabbit Hole of Navy Beans.

First off, how did they get their name?  Navy Beans have been around for about 5,000 years and were supposedly one of the very first beans to be "domesticated." I'm not sure how you domesticate a bean.  Do you teach it table manners...or what?

Despite that little white bean's lengthy pedigree, it apparently didn't merit a name of its own until The U.S. Navy began serving the beans to sailors aboard ships at least from the mid-1850's and probably long before.  Those tiny bean's became rather ubiquitous aboard ship and it wasn't long before the "Navy" moniker was permanently affixed to the beans.

Four types of white beans.

In our casual research this morning, we found one article which asserts Navy (and other) Beans played an important role in creating the Industrial Revolution! "In fact, beans may have driven the industrial revolution as much as the increasing use of fossil fuels. As a cheap and abundant food resource, beans provided the impoverished workers with enough nutrients and energy to get through the long, grueling work days."

That assertion could well point to why small white beans became such a staple food aboard ship.  They are easy to cook and don't lose their shape or break apart.  They are easy to store and provide some of the most protein per serving of any dried beans.  The little beans pair exceptionally well with salt pork--a meat unit that could be easily carried aboard ship for long periods of time.

All-in-all, it now makes some degree of sense to me why and how those beans could come to be called Navy Beans.  I happen to love Navy Beans for the same reasons the U.S. Navy must have loved them--ease of cooking and a natural affinity for any sort of pork product.  I've used ham hocks. ham bones, salt pork and even bacon to flavor my bean pot. 

I'm looking forward to using this mid-60's "Old-Fashioned Baked Beans" recipe from Rogue River, Oregon, just about as soon as I can get all the ingredients together.  Knowing beans just a little bit better will help my imagination wander while I savor a bowl of Navy Beans.

My Hero

 Heroes!  I grew up with Heroes and I LOVE Heroes!  I have a LOT of Heroes but I think that Andrew Carnegie is my Hero of Heroes.  His dedication to Learning through Libraries stands as a Forever Shining Example to the value of BOOK in people's lives.  Oh, how we could wax eloquent about Andrew.  There's been nobody like him ever since he walked this Earth.

Google today dredged up a post we wrote about Andrew over ten years ago.   That's when we realized we had been remiss in buying his stamps.  We just therefore ordered a full sheet of 70 Andrew stamps from eBay.  We can hardly wait to paste them onto our Postal correspondence!

A Rosie Idea

Many of Our Dear Friends well know how much we LOVE Arizona's Roosevelt Lake area and especially the Windy Hill Campgrounds.  So, I conceived this idea we could volunteer for the Tonto National Forest to create a Facebook Page for that glorious area.  EZPZ, right?

Not so much.  My Beloved Soul Mate accused me of "promoting" the area with such an idea.  Well, how can you promote an area that has been a headliner in Arizona for 110 years?  Aye!  That is the question.

My idea is about providing visitors with up-to-date information about current conditions at The Roosevelt Lake Recreation Area so that they don't arrive with unrealistic, unsustainable expectations.  There's plenty of leg room at Roosevelt.  NO one wants to be disappointed in their visit to one of Arizona's headliner attractions!

That's why we feel it would be important and valuable to provide current, relevant information about "The Status of Roosevelt."  The visiting public would LOVE it!

Once we HOPE that Clair Weslee understands the idea, we will begin to pursue it.

No Limbs Lost

Eastern Idaho and Idaho Falls got hit hard with a record-breaking snowstorm October 11-12, 2021.  Snow amounts varied widely but we received nearly 8 inches.

We thought such an event would cause a large loss of limbs from our deciduous trees.  Such was not the case.  Surprisingly, very few leafy trees lost any limbs.  There were exceptions, including one of our adjacent neighbors who lost several LARGE limbs. 

Oddly, the leafy trees have all shed their snow load and look totally normal.  The conifers are holding on to their snow load.  Go Figure.

One of the weirdest things about this year's seasonal shift is that the leaves just won't let go.  They keep holding on and on and ON!  It's weird because, normally, they have given up their game and totally let go.  But not this year.  NOPE!  Almost ALL of them are hanging on like they might have a New Life...or something.

We have this saying that when The Idaho Leaves Fall, we leave.  Just as when the Arizona Mesquites Leaf, we leave.  Such is Snow Bird Life.

This is the very First Post of our New Posting Life.  We will no longer even THINK about writing a long narrative on Facebook.  Each of the past 15+ times we've attempted to do so, Facebook has automatically deleted our narrative.

Google NEVER does that stuff to us and Google NEVER tells us we violate some sort of policy with our posts.  Therefore, we are no longer writing narratives on Facebook. We will write ONLY on Google Blogger and NOT on Facebook.  Yes, we will still post the usual assortment of snarky comments and memes but never again a narrative.

Been there, done that.

 

A Haunting Story

As many of our Dear Friends well know, we began building Big Cribbage Boards in early Summer 2021.  It has been a truly wonderful experience in every way. We have received fabulous support from our Dear Friends and total strangers, too.

The evening of September 8, we received a terse message from a Grand Ma in Boise, Idaho.  She simply said she wanted to buy a particular cribbage board and would pay full price for it plus shipping to Boise.

We dutifully began to find out who were were dealing with and why she wanted to buy one of our Bullet Boards.

She matter-of-factly told us that she had taught her Grand Son to play cribbage as a kid but he has since "forgot" and she wanted the board to help him relearn cribbage.  We accepted her statements at face value and proceeded to attempt to conclude the sale.

And that's when "The Rest Of The Story" poured forth.

It turns out that her Grand Son joined The U.S. Army and was sent to Afghanistan.  His troop carrier was hit by a roadside bomb and he suffered Traumatic Brain Injury.  He has made little progress over time and his Grand Ma had prayed for guidance to help him.

In one of her Prayers, she realized that a Cribbage Board might be able to resurrect some of his brain function.  When she saw my Facebook listing for my "bullet boards" she knew she had found her target, so to speak.

She fervently believes my Cribbage Board will be the ticket to reawakening her Grand Son's brain function.

I've heard of many uses of cribbage boards but never one like this.  I fervently hope and pray that Grand Ma is right and my board will work its magic on her Grand Son's brain.

Cribbage is a remarkable Game and has perhaps curative values we have not yet learned.