Mark's Notebook

All Articles - July 2006

In a Ruined Copper Works, Evidence That Bolsters a Doubted Biblical Tale

New York Times

by John Noble Wilford

Exactly when did the nomadic tribes of Edom become an organized society with the might to threaten Israel? Were David and Solomon really kings of a state with growing power in the 10th century B.C.? Had writers of the Bible magnified the stature of the two societies at such an early time in history?

An international team of archaeologists has recorded radiocarbon dates that they say show the tribes of Edom may have indeed come together in a cohesive society as early as the 12th century B.C., certainly by the 10th. The evidence was found in the ruins of a large copper-processing center and fortress at Khirbat en-Nahas, in the lowlands of what was Edom and is now part of Jordan.

The findings, Dr. Levy and Dr. Najjar added, lend credence to biblical accounts of the rivalry between Edom and the Israelites in what was then known as Judah. By extension, they said, this supported the tradition that Judah itself had by the time of David and Solomon, in the early 10th century, emerged as a kingdom with ambition and the means of fighting off the Edomites.

Historians and archaeologists who generally endorse the new findings welcomed the more precise dating of ruins in the under-explored region and the attention focused on copper production in Edomite history. But they cautioned against interpretations that might encourage uncritical reliance on the Bible as a source of early history.

Most criticism has come from advocates of a "low chronology" or "minimalist" school of early biblical history. They contend that in David's time Edom was a pastoral society, and Judah not much more advanced. In this view, ancient Israel did not develop into a true state until the eighth century B.C., a century and a half after David.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/13/science/13edom.html?ex=1307851200&en=a794499e2
337492c&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

A different kind of road trip: Iceland's Ring Road

New York Times

By Mark Sundeen

We lived for many years in a remote nook of the Utah desert where we developed a taste for isolated places and geological oddities. So Iceland was the perfect place for us.

Speeding across the black rock desert in our rented Corolla, we would occasionally pull to the shoulder, running fingers across the bulbous lava figurines or testing the sponginess of the mossy tundra. Iceland's Highway 1 — the roughly 830-mile Ring Road — is the only route that circles the island, and it feels like someone put the American West in a blender: California's poetic central coast, the Nevada desert's barren expanses, Alaska's glaciers and Yellowstone's geysers. They're all crammed onto this island, and if you don't like one natural phenomenon you're just a few hours from the next.

Driving in Iceland is not for the efficient. Highway 1 is a narrow affair that doubles back into the fiords, like driving up and down each tooth of a comb. Most bridges have just one lane, and many stretches are unpaved.

We wound toward Lake Myvatn in the northeast, finally approaching a landscape straight from Middle Earth: a volcanic crater ringed in moss; outcroppings of lava dotted across the hills. Here we were even closer to the Arctic Circle, and the sun shone an extra hour. At a guesthouse in the tiny village of Vogar, we encountered the same sorts of pilgrims I've met in the American Southwest, drawn to a bizarre and inhospitable landscape.

A short walk from the house is Grotagia, a giant fissure splitting the shelf of volcanic rock. I scrambled down into the chasm and found a clear pool steaming at about 120 degrees, then followed a footpath for a mile across a field of tundra and lava. The trail leads up one flank of a symmetrical volcanic crater called Hverfell before dropping off the other side into Dimmuborgir, a hobbit's paradise of towering lava castles, natural arches and countless unexplored grottos. Next we hurried to the gurgling purple and yellow sulfur cauldrons at Namafjall and to the steaming lava heap at Leirhnjukur, an active volcano itching to blow at any minute.

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/travel/18ring.html?th&emc=th

Suggestions for Kids in LA without Disneyland

New York Times

by Sharon Waxman

Consider, just for a moment, a weekend on the left coast without the prefabricated pleasures of Disneyland or Universal Studios.

• There are few civic gifts that equal the delights of the Getty Center, located off Sepulveda Boulevard not far from Westwood. 1200 Getty Center Drive, 310-440-7300; parking $7, admission free.

• Don't miss the spectacular architecture of Frank Gehry downtown at the Walt Disney Hall Concert Hall. 111 South Grand Avenue, 323-850-2000.

• Then, take a stroll about a block and a half to the recently completed Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, where the interior is a tribute to California history. 555 West Temple Street, 213-680-5200.

• Hike among the huge eucalyptus trees in Laurel Canyon Park. 8260 Mulholland Drive, 818-769-4415. Free.

• Will Rogers State Historic Park, on Sunset Boulevard a few miles from the ocean, has acres of rolling lawn. 1501 Will Rogers State Park Road, off Sunset, Pacific Palisades, 310-454-8212; parking $7.

• Try Will Rogers State Beach for a quiet, contemplative moment. Enter along the Pacific Coast Highway near Temescal Canyon Boulevard. Parking $5 to $10. Or head for the Santa Monica Pier, at Colorado and Ocean Avenues. Keep an eye peeled for dolphins and seals; they swim close in to shore.

• Eat at Mel's Drive-In on the Sunset Strip. Open 24 hours, 8585 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, 310-854-7200. Or La Serenata de Garibaldi, a reasonably priced, gourmet fish restaurant, in Santa Monica at 1416 Fourth Street, 310-656-7017.

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/06/18/travel/18kids.html

A Legacy of the Storm: Depression and Suicide

New York Times

By Susan Saulny. Published: June 21, 2006

NEW ORLEANS, June 20 — Sgt. Ben Glaudi, the commander of the Police Department's Mobile Crisis Unit here, spends much of each workday on this city's flood-ravaged streets trying to persuade people not to kill themselves.

New Orleans is experiencing what appears to be a near epidemic of depression and post-traumatic stress disorders, one that mental health experts say is of an intensity rarely seen in this country. It is contributing to a suicide rate that state and local officials describe as close to triple what it was before Hurricane Katrina struck and the levees broke 10 months ago.

Dr. Jeffrey Rouse, the deputy New Orleans coroner dealing with psychiatric cases, said the suicide rate in the city was less than nine a year per 100,000 residents before the storm and increased to an annualized rate of more than 26 per 100,000 in the four months afterward, to the end of 2005.

At the end of each day, Sergeant Glaudi returns to his own wrecked neighborhood and sleeps in a government-issued trailer outside what used to be home. "You ride around and all you see is debris, debris, debris," he said.

And that is a major part of the problem, experts agree: the people of New Orleans are traumatized again every time they look around.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/21/us/21depress.html

Where attending church at Easter is itself a test of faith

Times Online

(Still catching up ... Mark)

From Daniel McGrory in Baghdad

TO REACH her church to celebrate Good Friday today, Sameera Girgis will be smuggled on to a bus at a secret location, walk through a chicane of razor wire, and submit to a body search by gunmen guarding the Evangelical Protestant Church in central Baghdad. Security teams will check even her Bible to ensure that there is no bomb inside. “In Baghdad you pray watched over by Kalashnikovs, not angels,” she says with a shrug of her shoulders.

Dr Girgis realises that she will risk her life attending services this Easter, but the 42-year-old university lecturer insists that the insurgents will not scare her away as they have thousands of her fellow Christians in Iraq.

A neighbour and university colleague from the suburb of Azamiyah, north of Baghdad, was shot dead on his doorstep three months ago for organising the clandestine Sunday ten-mile bus trips to church.

Eight months ago insurgents bombed ten churches in Baghdad and others in Mosul, killing a dozen worshippers during Sunday services.

Religious leaders say that barely half of Iraq’s 700,000 Christians, who were protected under Saddam Hussein, remain in the country as militias linked to some of the ruling parties try to impose Islam by force.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2133517,00.html

One Church's Easter Gift to Another

Washington Post

(Mark says: I'm still catching up on reading from April thru June.)

Ashburn Worshipers Send Pews to Hurricane-Struck Miss. Congregation

By Arianne Aryanpur, Washington Post Staff Writer; Sunday, April 16, 2006; Page LZ01

In February, the membership of Crossroads United Methodist Church in Ashburn (Virginia) decided that its sanctuary needed an extreme makeover. It would become a more flexible space, allowing the church to use the sanctuary for more purposes than Sunday-morning services. The altar and pulpit would be moved forward and made level with the rest of the room, and the rigid wooden pews would be replaced with padded, stackable chairs

But what was Crossroads to do with those pews? They were barely more than a decade old, too new to chuck into the trash dump.

They heard about a congregation in a Mississippi town, Escatawpa, population 3,566 in 2000, that had been dealt a cruel blow by Hurricane Katrina. The Rev. Willie Hill estimated that 90 percent of his congregation at Summerville United Methodist Church lost homes or businesses because of the hurricane.

In the months afterward, Summerville managed to restore most of what the wind and water had destroyed. But it did not have the $12,000 needed to replace the rotting pews.

Crossroads' unneeded pews, church members quickly decided, should go to Summerville. The plan was to have them installed in time for Easter services. The maroon cushions and wood frames arrived in Escatawpa just as crews finished painting the walls (maroon and white, to match the new cushions) and laying new red carpet.

Crossroads also sent along a surprise: Bibles, hymnals and choir robes to replace those ruined in the storm surge.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/15/AR2006041500019.
html

URDC 2006 Cue Sheets

Mark Prow kindly sent me cue sheets for the 15 dances taught at URDC last week. You will find them in the "recently posted" section of the cue sheet site.

http://www.mixed-up.com/round/all-over/recent.html

Men welcome here: Churches tackle persistent problem of low male attendance

Kansas City Star

by Helen T. Gray, The Kansas City Star

In his book, Why Men Hate Going to Church, author David Murrow says the one place you won’t find the majority of Christian men on Sunday morning is church.

“Women comprise more than 60 percent of the typical adult congregation on any given Sunday,” he says. “At least one-fifth of married women regularly attend worship without their husbands.”

Among Murrow’s conclusions:

• Many men see the church as “a ladies club.”

• Sermons, volunteer opportunities and ministries are geared more toward women. Many churches operate on a feminine model, such as nurturing, verbal expression and gentleness, which is a lot harder for most men to achieve.

• Churches are not challenging men to live out their faith.

• Churches need to recover the masculinity of Jesus, who was bold and aggressive, “but we have turned him into a wimp, and men don’t follow wimps. They follow leaders.”

Men don’t share very well, so it’s important to ask the right questions that focus on putting into action the things they have heard, said Deacon Monte Giddings, head of St. Michael’s men’s ministry. Then there are activities like a river trip that includes camping, being out in nature, a male-oriented way to create a band of brothers. Men also volunteer to take food and clothing to the homeless.

“Some churches are not challenging men to live out their faith boldly,” Giddings said. “Men need that call to action; that appeals to men. Most of us are not called to be contemplatives.”

If men believe Christianity is too submissive, he said, that’s because no one has explained it to them.

Some men may have a misconception of what a Christian man is supposed to be, said Chuck Wolfe. “They think, ‘If I come to church on a regular basis, I’m more apt to be more passive and less aggressive in what I do. I’m going to sit in church and behave and be a good boy.’?”

Men also want to be empowered to do something, such as teaching, working in the multimedia ministry, going on mission trips, evangelizing and working in the prison ministry and the street ministry.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/living/religion/14179176.htm

Has the prevalence of air conditioning turned us into heat weenies?

San Jose Mercury News

By L.A. Chung, Mercury News

I know it's hot. But do we have to whine so much about it?

Over the past few days, air conditioners flew off the shelves. Hotels were mobbed by locals who couldn't sleep. Tempers were a bit short. The call of the Great Outdoors, a.k.a. our back yards, was louder than the suffocating heat of our bedrooms.

So what? Suck it up and deal.

I've snapped into coping mode, pointing the box fan out the window to blow out the hot air and suck in the cool air in the evenings, wearing loose clothing and simply acclimating myself. We survived all those family road trips when I was a kid without the luxury of air conditioning, so now I roll the car windows all the way down, let the air whip through and turn up the radio.

Still, I had to think: What did we do before air conditioning?

We used fans, got wet a lot and slept outside or on sleeping porches. Homes were designed with wide eaves and natural cooling. AC changed everything, from building design to entertainment. If you don't believe me, ask the curators at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., which once ran an exhibit on the history of air conditioning.

Any longtime valley resident can tell you how things have changed. ``We expect more now, because of air conditioning,'' said Ken Nelson, owner of Rural Supply Hardware in Los Gatos, an old-line valley store that still sells horse and goat feed. Nelson's store doesn't have air conditioning, but he does have a cooling system similar to a ``whole house'' fan that makes people think he's got AC on. Fans in front pump in cold air at night, and hot air rises out through the attic.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/columnists/la_chung/15124787.htm

Among Elderly Evacuees, a Strong Desire to Return Home, but Nowhere to Go

New York Times

by Rick Lyman

Thousands of elderly evacuees like the Lindseys still struggle every day to get by in cities hundreds of miles from their homes in New Orleans. But it is the elderly who want most to return, say social service workers, and who have the hardest time doing so.

“There is simply no place for them to go in New Orleans,” said Walter L. Jones, director of community-based initiatives for Neighborhood Centers of Houston, which has worked with about 2,200 families displaced by last year’s hurricanes.

“There are no nursing homes — none,” Mr. Jones said. “There are no plans to rebuild the public housing where many of them lived. And those apartments that are available are priced way, way beyond the means of anyone on a low, fixed income.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/24/us/24elderly.html

Landis completes comeback

San Jose Mercury News, Los Angeles Times

by Claire Rocher

PARIS - Floyd Landis sped down a sun-baked Boulevard Champs-Elysees to victory Sunday in the Tour de France, extending to eight years the U.S. domination of the venerable race after seven consecutive triumphs by Lance Armstrong.

Landis became the third American to win the 93-year-old race, joining Armstrong, with whom he supported as a teammate for two Tour victories, and Greg LeMond. Landis' achievement was all the more impressive because he overcame an arthritic hip that will require surgery.

This year opened a new era with the absence of Armstrong. The indomitable Texan developed a kind of aura during his seven years at the top. His talents and his inspiring victory against cancer made him, and the Tour, known to an audience beyond cycling fans.

(emphasis by me - Mark B)

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/other_sports/15108381.htm

Final map

I have updated the "road trip 2006" map to correct mistakes, bring everything up to date, and assign web pages to everything where possible.

http://www.mixed-up.com/maps/?searchtype=roadtrip

Heard the one about the vicar who was allergic to wafers?

Leeds Evening Post

By Vicki Robinson, Health Reporter

Rev Clive Barrett was convinced he had cancer after years of ill health saw his weight plummet and left him unable to digest food. Then tests finally showed the real root of the trouble ... he was allergic to his Communion wafers.

Rev Barrett was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease, a digestive disorder which meant he was severely allergic to gluten – a key ingredient of the holy biscuits.

Rev Barrett, priest in charge of St Cross Church in Middleton, first became ill around 10 years ago, but it was several years until he went to his GP for help. By then his weight had dropped to less than 9st, extremely underweight for a man standing almost 6ft tall.

Doctors suspected colon cancer and Rev Barrett underwent a year of painful and invasive tests like endoscopies to try to find the cause of his digestive problems. Tests ruled out most illnesses, however, and medics could find no trace of a tumour. After almost a year of examinations, in a last-ditch effort his GP ordered his blood to be screened for allergies – and his intolerance to gluten was immediately picked up.

Since then Rev Barrett has cut all wheat, barley and rye from his diet, including the offending Communion wafers.

Factfile: Coeliac Disease

Coeliac disease is a lifelong illness caused by a chronic intolerance to gluten. It can only be treated and the symptoms alleviated by sticking to a gluten-free diet for life.

Around one in 100 people in the UK has coeliac disease, which can make people seriously ill and even prove fatal, but only one in five has actually been diagnosed.

Symptoms can include tiredness, anaemia, diarrhoea, abdominal discomfort, weight loss, vomiting, and mouth ulcers. Coeliac disease in children can result in stunted growth and impact on a child's overall development.

Diagnosis is made by a blood test, followed by a visit to a gastroenterologist who will perform a biopsy of the small intestine lining.

http://thisisleeds.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=39&ArticleID=1514056

Listening for God in the silence

Cincinnati Post

by Kevin Eigelbach

When Quakers get together for worship, you hear something you don't hear in most contemporary worship services.

Silence.

Members of the Society of Friends, the formal name for the Quakers, spend at least some worship time just listening for "the inward light" of God.

Imagine between 20 and 30 people in a sanctuary, all of them silent. Once in a while, you might hear someone say a few words or request a hymn.

Initially, it's an odd feeling, but it quickly becomes very comforting, said Jeff Mays, a White Oak resident who's attended the congregation's weekly services for about a year.

Perhaps it's a sign of our entertainment-oriented times, but I rarely hear extended periods of silence in worship services. In the Presbyterian Church I grew up in, the minister sometimes gave us a few moments to reflect on our sins, but not for long.

No one wants to spend too much time reflecting on his sins. If you think about that sort of thing too long, you might feel the need to do something about it.

I like silence, but I think it terrifies many of us. Perhaps it's the thought that we might actually hear God speaking, or have to confront issues within ourselves that we'd rather not face.

"The teachings of Jesus are not difficult to understand," Mays said. "Too many people are spending so much energy trying to avoid what those teachings say.

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060706/LIFE/607060356/100
5

Mark says: We visited a Quaker church in Philadelphia, the Arch Street House. The attendant was a member of another Quaker church in another city. He told us how things function in a Quaker church. It was fascinating talking to him.

Prince of Peace's Hometown Bombarded

Christianity Today

Botrus Mansour. lawyer and general director of Nazareth Baptist School

On Wednesday afternoon I was working on my laptop in my office on the ground floor of our home. Three more missiles hit Nazareth. The third fell about half a mile from my home on undeveloped land.

We hold a Bible study in the Baptist church on Wednesday evenings. Should we cancel it because of the shock and dismay in Nazareth? No way. We decided to convert the Bible study to a prayer meeting. We had prayed the day before for peace, too.

Such terrifying experiences like missiles raining on your neighborhood have a tendency to raise "purpose-driven" questions: Did Jesus put us here in his hometown without a purpose?

Our calling as the remnant of Christians in the birthplace of our faith is to pray for the people of this broken land.

Less than a mile from where a Hezbollah missile hit the empty garage in Nazareth, the Prince of Peace declared: "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

It was realized 2,000 years ago when God sent his son to give hope. He was the anointed who said:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. (Luke 4:18-19)

Will his followers rise to the challenge of reflecting this message of compassion, love, care, justice, and mercy to the nations in this troubled area?

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/129/52.0.html

Star Trek Sings Knights of the Round Table

Hilarious!

http://www.devilducky.com/media/48608/

Calvary Chapel Bay St. Louis updates

I found this page for the fledgling Calvary Chapel in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

It appears they have bought a property and they are moving into the new quarters soon.

The site also has lots of photos of the flood damage and the camp setup. It looks like they have new quanset huts to live in for now.

http://calvarychapelrelief.org/

Goodbye Klondike! and good riddance!

On about the third night out on our road trip, we spent the night at the Klondike Hotel in Las Vegas. We're not particularly enamored of Las Vegas; about the only thing we like about it is that when you're leaving California, you'll see your last In-N-Out hamburger stand for thousands of miles. And after having visited Death Valley on a Saturday, we wanted to make sure that on Sunday morning we would be in a city where there might be a Calvary Chapel or some other Bible-teaching church we can attend.

I've already briefly told the story about our experience at the Klondike. I don't intend to rehash it. Suffice to say that we found the place disgusting in almost every way.

Anyway, today I found this nice little article about the Klondike's demise. The place closed down at the end of June, 2006, about three months after we stayed there, and nine months after the property was acquired by Royal Palm Las Vegas last September. Perhaps after the acquisition, the hotel just stopped taking care of anything at all. Maybe they were just biding their time until the wrecking ball hit.

Apparently the new owners plan to build 1200 condos, 900 hotel rooms, and a huge casino there. "Definitely five star," they say. As they all say.

http://www.rgtonline.com/Article.cfm?ArticleId=65787&CategoryName=Gaming

Come One, Come All, Join the Terror Target List

New York Times

by Eric Lipton

It reads like a tally of terrorist targets that a child might have written: Old MacDonald’s Petting Zoo, the Amish Country Popcorn factory, the Mule Day Parade, the Sweetwater Flea Market and an unspecified “Beach at End of a Street.”

The National Asset Database is used by the Homeland Security Department to help divvy up the hundreds of millions of dollars in antiterrorism grants each year, including the program announced in May that cut money to New York City and Washington by 40 percent, while significantly increasing spending for cities including Louisville, Ky., and Omaha.

In addition to the petting zoo, in Woodville, Ala., and the Mule Day Parade in Columbia, Tenn., the entries include “Nix’s Check Cashing,” “Mall at Sears,” “Ice Cream Parlor,” “Tackle Shop,” “Donut Shop,” “Anti-Cruelty Society” and “Bean Fest.”

New York City officials, who have questioned the rationale for the reduction in this year’s antiterrorism grants, were similarly blunt.

“Now we know why the Homeland Security grant formula came out as wacky as it was,” Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said Tuesday. “This report is the smoking gun that thoroughly indicts the system.”

New York, for example, lists only 2 percent of the nation’s banking and finance sector assets, which ranks it between North Dakota and Missouri. Washington State lists nearly twice as many national monuments and icons as the District of Columbia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/washington/12assets.html

URDC?

An email from a so-called "friend:"

Hi Mark & Mary,

Do you realize that if you get back in your truck right now, you can still make it to North Carolina for the URDC dance?

Al

Thanks, pal! I haven't started up the truck since we got home, and I'm not looking forward to starting it up tomorrow to take in into the shop. (Minor adjustments, I hope)

I've been so tired and so busy ... I need to rest from this vacation.

How fast can you type?

http://labs.jphantom.com/wpm/

I scored 88 words per minute with one mistake.

Cars

San Jose Mercury News

In the movie Cars, Pixar chief creative officer John Lasseter incorporates his family's cross-country adventure, including toe dips in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

After directing three films, and getting an Oscar nomination, and then becoming an executive producer of others, Lasseter heard his wife express her fears. She suggested he'd look up one day and his sons would be off at college "and you will have missed it."

So, in summer 2002, they toured the United States in a recreational vehicle. They started at the Pacific "and turned east. We had one goal -- to put our feet in the Atlantic." Most thought they'd drive each other nuts. Instead, he said, "we got so close as a family. I came back changed. This is what I wanted with 'Cars.' "

In it, a hot-shot racer named Lightning McQueen gets sidetracked on his way to the big race in California in the forgotten Route 66 town of Radiator Spring. His time there changes him, convincing him of the importance of friends, experiences, slowing down.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/14725376.htm

Coast to Coast

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday, July 5, we dipped our toes in the Pacific Ocean at a "wayside" in Ophir, Oregon.

In case you missed it, we dipped our toes in the Atlantic Ocean at Fort Popham State Historic Park in Maine, on June 20.

It took us from April 5 until June 20 to reach the Atlantic Ocean (75 days). It took us only 15 days to make it back to the Pacific Ocean. We were really racing the last few days to make it home quickly.

Intel grant gives Second Harvest $100K in technology

San Jose Mercury News

With a $100,000 grant from Intel, Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties will install a food-tracking system that will let the agency distribute more than 4 million additional pounds of food annually.

Intel's inspiration for the makeover grant was a 2005 Community Foundation Silicon Valley study that showed non-profits struggling to afford major technology, Pettinger said. The company held workshops to help non-profit officials evaluate their hardware, software, Web services and other needs. About 22 organizations submitted proposals, and Second Harvest was awarded the grant this week.

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/14886178.htm

We are home !!

We got home about one hour ago. We have unloaded almost everything except the camping equipment. We have not really unpacked anything yet. Right now I am sorting out the mail.

We had a really nice last day of vacation, in Mendocino, Fort Bragg, and Napa. More about all that soon ...

Escape from the commies

Wednesday, July 5

Today we drove from Coos Bay, Oregon only as far as Fort Bragg, along the northern California coast. We are still about four hours from home. Seven years ago we spent our honeymoon here in Mendocino, and we haven't been back since. We hope to spend a few hours there tomorrow afternoon. Mary still isn't feeling too well, but hopefully she'll feel better tomorrow and she'll be able to enjoy a few hours of a second honeymoon. We hope to get home tomorrow evening.

Wildlife Jam - One highlight today was seeing several groups of elk right along the highway between Crescent City and Eureka. There is a national park and state park where they keep "Roosevelt elk." I don't know the difference between one variety of elk and another. We did see three different groups. I slowed down for the first, right along highway 101, because I noticed lots of cars by the side of the road. The first thing I said was "wildlife jam" - this is the term they use in Yellowstone park when traffic stops right in the middle of the road to view wildlife. There was a group of about nine males together in a little field. I thought it was strange that the males should hang out together. But rutting season isn't until the fall, so maybe right now they're all getting along together just fine. On a side road, we found another group, about a dozen females, with what appeared to be one adult male and one young male. Even farther down the highway, Mary spotted another large group as I whizzed by unaware. Mary caught several good photos of the first group of males, and I tried to get a few close-ups through the binoculars; we'll see if those turn out. It really wasn't necessary because the animals were practically close enough to reach out and touch; but I aimed to get some close-ups of their facial features and antlers.

Farther south, we drove along the "Avenue of the Giants," a side road through dense redwood groves, until we came to a drive-through tree at Myers Flat. Mary insists this was the "real one" that used to be right along the highway in our childhood days. But farther on down the road we spotted another in Leggett, and this is where I remember the "real" tree being in times past. Unfortunately, this second tree was in a park that had already closed for the day, so we could not confirm anything. It was still a lot of fun. We never did find a postcard. My big truck just barely made it through the one tree that was open ... we had to fold in the mirrors.

Highway 101 between Myers Flat and Leggett is treacherous, and at one point a semi truck was following so close behind me that I had to pull off the road at high speed to avoid being flattened by him. I pulled off at a bad spot right into a pothole; we may have to inspect the truck for damage later. Highway 1 between Leggett and Fort Bragg is way too windy for me. But the views were awesome, even as it got dark. One mama deer and two tiny fawns did cross the road in front of us, and that was a real treat. We both think these were about the smallest fawns we had ever seen.

We drove through the north side of Oregon on one tank of gas that we bought in Walla Walla, Washington, and we drove through the ocean side of Oregon on one tank of gas that we bought in Vancouver, Washington. I really hate buying gas in the commie state of Oregon. They insist on pumping it for you, they refuse to let you pump it yourself, and they take their sweet time getting it all done. It really irks me. But after we got into California, I really wish I had got one last fill-up while still in Oregon. Their gas was running around $2.75 even in the small towns along the coast, while the lowest we've seen so far in California is $3.25. That costs me $13 extra when I fill my 26-gallon tank. Yikes! We hadn't seen prices this high since we were in Canada, and not this high in the US our whole trip, since we left California three months ago. Hopefully prices will be lower than that when we get home to the bay area.

Fireworks

Sunday, July 2

Today we had another good long drive. Mary woke up with a fever, and she was not up to going to church. This is the first time this trip we have missed going to church on Sunday.

Our day basically consisted of driving US Highway 2 from Missoula, Montana straight across the narrow part of Idaho to Walla Walla, Washington. We did visit a nice health food store in Missoula before we left town. We think our health problems are due to poor nutrition, so we picked up a few healthy things to eat.

We also stopped at the visitor center at Lolo Pass, at the border between Montana and Idaho, where I bought a nice cap with a moose figure on it. Mary stayed in the car. She slept most of the day.

We stopped at an old-time burger place in Clarkston, Washington, just over the border from Idaho. By dinner time, Mary was starting to feel a lot better.

Monday, July 3

This morning we ate a nice breakfast at Elmer's in Walla Walla. After breakfast, Mary decided she is feeling well enough today that we can visit her father, who lives near Portland.

We headed down toward the Columbia River scenic area. We stopped at the Bonneville Dam, but since we had got a late start and the speed limits in Oregon are painfully slow, we got to the dam just after they closed up the last tours. The fish hatchery was also closed, but there are some ponds outside we could still see, including lots of trout and a few large sturgeon.

Somehow we managed to buy lots of stuff at the Bonneville Dam gift shop, even though everything else was closed. How do we always manage to do that?

Getting closer to Portland, we turned onto the side road that goes down to several waterfalls including Multnomah Falls. Mary had never seen these before, and I had not been there since I was a child. Mary took lots of photos. We also took photos of others, and they in turn took photos of us, so we have some neat photos with the two of us and huge waterfalls in the background.

To finish off the day, we visited Mary's dad and his wife in Vancouver, Washington, just across the river from Portland. It was a beautiful night as we sat in the swing on their porch, visiting with them for a couple of hours. The kids next door were setting off fireworks, but this was no match for the lightning storm taking place simultaneously over the Columbia River. We got to watch man's fireworks and God's fireworks at the same time. We all agreed that God's fireworks won out.

OK, I lied, we're not finished yet. After leaving Vancouver, we went through Portland to find a road to the coast. We ended up very late, around 1:00 am, in the little town of Tillamook on the Oregon coast.

Tuesday, July 4

If the town of Tillamook sounds familiar, think cheese. Yes, this is where they make our favorite cheese. (You can get a great price on it at Costco.) Somehow we both thought Tillamook was made in Wisconsin. Not so.

But I get ahead of myself. After a very late morning breakfast at the hotel, we sat in the hotel lobby and fired up Yahoo Messenger. At about 1:30 pm, we were able to connect with Matthew. Our son is serving with the Marines in Iraq, and his unit just recently got access to this chat software. We have not really "talked" with him in this way for several months; he has been in Iraq since March, but our only communication with him has been the infrequent email message. We're really jazzed that we'll be able to "talk" to him a couple of times a week, just as we were able to during his first deployment.

After they put Matthew back to work and we had to sign off, we were able to visit the Tillamook Creamery "factory" just north of town. I did not know that they make butter, milk, and ice cream in addition to cheese. The factory was mostly not working because their production was ahead of schedule and today was a holiday. But there were short videos that showed the normal daily activities of all the inactive equipment we could see below us. The "factory" is mostly really a gift shop, where you can buy ice cream, cheese, and fudge. I tried the wonderful huckleberry ice cream, and we bought a little fudge for the road, but we haven't tried it yet because Mary is starting to feel lousy again.

We headed down the Oregon coast, which we've never travelled before. In the past, we've driven the length of Highway 5 through the Willamette Valley, the length of Highway 97 through the edge of the desert, and some of the eastern area around Lakeview. But the coast is by far the loveliest drive we've ever experienced here. Lincoln City is the cutest town, and some of the larger towns have a bit of a rough edge to them. But the road is relatively straight and fun to drive, and the road crosses up and down from mountain forests to the beach and back up again. There are several "historic" bridges and at least one lighthouse that we've seen so far.

We made it only as far as Coos Bay by nightfall; we had hoped to make it all the way down to Crescent City in California, but at a fruit stand I heard about a fireworks show to be held over the water in Coos Bay at 10 pm, so we decided to stay here tonight, see the fireworks, and let Mary get a good night's sleep, since her cold seems to be coming back again.

We are a good ten to twelve hours from home, and while we hope to make it home by tomorrow night (exactly three months on the road), we also want to take it easy. Today was very relaxing and we want to arrive home in that condition, not frazzled. So I'm hoping we might make it as far as Mendocino, where we spent part of our honeymoon seven years ago. Then we would arrive home on Thursday.

The Big Sky

Sorry I haven't posted much this week. Both of us have been ill, and we've also been cobbling the trail end of our trip together differently than we'd planned.

By the way, I've got the map mostly up to date:
http://www.mixed-up.com/maps/?searchtype=roadtrip

Wednesday, June 28

Today I wasn't feeling well, so I let Mary do a fair amount of the driving again. We drove pretty much straight through from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota to Belfield, North Dakota.

Belfield is about ten miles east of the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where we plan to visit tomorrow.

We did stop for a few minutes to drive through Barnesville, Minnesota. Why? Back around 1985, I installed some electrical equipment here. I wanted to see if it still looked the same, or if I even remembered it at all. In all those years I've often told the story how I was trying to put some tiny screws into a terminal block in an electrical cabinet outside as it snowed around us. I had lots of trouble because my hands were so cold! The screws were small enough that I could not wear gloves. I looked across the street to see a bank sign that read 19 degrees. I commented that I didn't think I had ever been in 19 degree weather before; that perhaps it didn't even get that cold in sunny California! My co-workers from the local community remarked how 19 degrees was a beautiful spring day in Minnesota, because in the winter it got down to 40 below! Anyway, today I did find that electrical substation on the north side of town, and across the street was a Wells Fargo Bank, although now the temperature sign was gone.

I've also many times told how Minnesota had the friendliest people I had ever met. In those mid-1980's trips, one co-worker from the local community had me to his house for lunch (which he called "supper") including fresh corn from his farm. I got to meet his wife. Also, in the laundromat I met a cute gal and asked her out. We went to a modern music concert at one of the local universities (both Fargo and Moorhead have state universities). I went to her Lutheran church that Sunday, which happened to be Reformation Sunday, so they held a potluck that included Lutefisk, a Norwegian special that some say is not to be missed, others never to be eaten. The church welcomed me like a long-lost family member even though I came to the potluck empty-handed. Afterward, this same gal's family invited me to their house, where I played piano for them and she played piano for me.

This time, we stopped at several places in Minnesota and the people weren't nearly as friendly as I remembered them. But I guess the people you meet at the truck stops are not the same as the people you meet in the local Lutheran church. Or perhaps we just didn't pass close enough to Lake Wobegon.

Thursday, June 29

Today, as promised, we visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It is a smallish park that includes badlands geology and a good assortment of wildlife. We saw wild horses and buffalo among other things.

Before entering the park, we shopped around the little town of Medora, where we found some small binoculars that we liked. We've looked at several pairs before, including expensive ones in the "discount" shops in New York, but until now we've never found any that we both liked. These were inexpensive enough that we bought two pairs, one for each of us.

Anyway, by chance, it is possible to shove our camera into one eye of the binoculars to get close-up photos. I got close-ups of some buffalo calves nursing. We'll find out later how the photos came out.

After finishing up at this park, we wanted to put as much distance behind us as possible. I wanted to make it to Great Falls, Montana, but we only got as far as Lewistown before we ran out of steam. At the Yogo Inn, we stayed in a very strange inside room that had no windows. They said this would be our "budget" option. Nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

Friday, June 30

Today Mary is getting a cold. It's probably the same cold I've already had for several days. Fortunately I'm starting to feel better, so I can do the driving. I want to visit Great Falls because it is the Great Falls of the Missouri River, where Lewis and Clark took almost a month to portage 18 miles around five waterfalls. We've been getting a lot of Lewis and Clark on our trip, starting with the Expansion Memorial (arch) in St. Louis, and continuing through the museums in Washington and elsewhere. We heard about these Great Falls before and I wanted to see them.

In the city of Great Falls, we found the Lewis & Clark National Interpretive Center, yet another museum devoted to their trip. Mary braved it for most of the day despite not feeling well, just because it is so well done. The volunteers there were very helpful, and they drew us maps to the actual falls, and also to the path L&C took over the Bitterroot range.

The largest falls are about ten miles out of town, and I found them a little disappointing. First of all, there is a dam, built either in 1913 or 1930 ... I didn't quite understand. Also, they are apparently much more impressive earlier in the Spring, with the as the snow melts. But there is a nice island there in the middle of the river downstream from the falls, and Mary took a few photos.

We drove up to Shelby, Montana, about 70 miles from the east entrance to Glacier National Park.

Saturday, July 1

Today was difficult. Mary was very ill and she slept most of the day while I drove through Glacier National Park. The only glacier we saw was the Jackson Glacier, and it was disappointing, even viewed through the binoculars. It's hard for me to distinguish between a glacier and simple snow pack. In the photographs, they can be distinguished by some "squiggles" on top of the glaciers, caused by the stresses of their extreme weight. But I saw similar "squiggles" on the surrounding snow pack also. Or I was confused. Probably the latter.

I really enjoyed the many narrow waterfalls that dot the road. There is even a section called the "wailing wall" where there are many small waterfalls in a row. But the one I liked the best was a high waterfall that came over several rectangular rocks, through a pipe under the road, then down farther into the gorge. It was very tall even though not very wide.

Tonight we are in Missoula, where we hope to go to a Calvary Chapel or a Vineyard Church tomorrow morning. (There are both in this town.) We're not sure where we'll go from here, but the Lolo Pass is nearby, and this is where Lewis and Clark crossed the Bitterroot Mountains into Idaho. We may follow them, then head down toward the Snake River Canyon in eastern Oregon. Once we get that far, we'll be home in pretty short order ... on the 4th or 5th of July.

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Last updated Monday 3 August 2009