Wednesday, May 28, 2008

APPRECIATION
First, I’d like to thank the relatives and many friends and acquaintances whom I visited. It was nice getting reacquainted with friends from high school, college, and work. I’d like to thank them for the time and the accommodations. I also have to realize that all of this would not have been this easy were it not for modern technology, (still) cheap energy, and an economic system that allows this kind of indulgence. I was indeed lucky on this trip considering I had it rain on my parade on only two days out of 55, had no tornadoes, no flooding, no flat tires, no car problems, no traffic tickets, and no sickness other than some allergic reaction to all of that pollen in the various springs I experienced. Also thanks to Susan for tolerating my time away from Columbia.

TRAVEL EXPERIENCE
My decision to stay on secondary roads and to stay within the speed limits was a wise one. I found the secondary road surfaces equal to and often better than my interstate experiences. Secondary roads had much less traffic and it was easier to stop quickly for pictures, etc. It’s also a much better way to experience the local economy and culture. Locals are also much more likely to obey the speed limits in small communities. One has to wonder if there are any law-abiding Christians living in the cities as they certainly aren’t out on the freeways keeping me company among the speeders.

Motels for me were not necessarily a good experience. They almost universally had bad smells from Fabreeze to worse and some don’t even have windows that open. They almost all have small refrigerators that cycle continuously (can you imagine the energy waste? I turned them off). Many motels are located near noisy freeways and may have trucks with AC compressors cycling all night. The good thing is that they almost universally now have free wireless internet access which is the way this blog got updated. Campgrounds, on the other hand, are usually a great experience for fresh air, prettier surroundings, meeting people, and quietude, though some are within range of midnite (or later) trains. State campgrounds are not cheap (~$20/night) and National Parks with Golden Passports or similar cards are a steal at $6/night. Unfortunately, the National Parks are beginning to look neglected and are understaffed because of poor funding from Uncle Sam. Conditions are being created, I believe, for more privatization of this prime real estate.

Eating out can be expensive nowadays with a reasonable meal and a Stella and tip costing around $20. Meals are a little cheaper in the country, though not by much. McDonalds and Subway are almost always there as backup choices. Many grocery stores offer beside fresh fruit, etc. take-out food for solitary dining. Though finding good grocery stores in some parts of the country is not a choice.

LAND OF PLENTY?
When white man first landed on these shores, he found a land of plenty, a land sustainably used for millenia by the native Americans he subsequently conquered to realize his manifest destiny.

White man’s fascination with growth has now pushed the Natives to marginal lands and has led to the agricultural usage of all easily farmed as well as marginal lands requiring extensive irrigation. As man’s numbers increased, good agricultural lands near population centers were “developed” into housing, industrial, and commercial uses. The ultimate examples of this seen on this trip are Los Angeles and the Florida coasts. Many other examples exist on a smaller scale from retirement community sprawl to house trailer spawl in the high desert. In today’s “dynamic” employment environment, many agricultural workers, for example, just live out of campers in camper cities.

This Land of Plenty has seen its plenty eroded over the last century as the needs of its population, has increased 4 fold. Water demand in the Southwest is straining the dwindling resources. The waters behind the Hoover Dam are approaching their lowest level since they started to fill the lake in 1935 and may be too low for the turbine intakes soon. Yet growth goes on.

This country’s fascination with growth will be its downfall. Growth to our current numbers was only possible because of cheap fossil fuels. These numbers cannot be maintained as we deplete the remaining fossil fuels because the alternatives, wood and grazing for beasts of burden are insufficient for our current numbers. This reminds me of the old seventies saying, “Nature Bats Last”.

DID I FIND A NEW HOME?
So did I find a place I’d like to call a new home? Well, yes and no.

The Southeast has warmer weather punctuated by occasional hurricanes. Florida still has great wildlife in birds and fish and some opportunity for growing fruit trees and vegetables. The hot humid weather I could get used to again. There seems to be a lack of individual and unique communities; it all seems like a sprawl with cars a necessity. In the other southern states one can get the same humid heat in summer and some of the colder northern winters. There are a lot of retirement communities with golf courses. Not exactly what I’m looking for.

The Southwest is too dusty and arid for me. Though a pristine desert environment with a little oasis is of interest, good luck finding it. The cities often look junky except for the few high cost, higher altitude retirement cities. Wildfires are an ever present danger. The California coast must have been Nirvana around 1900 with its ideal weather for growing fruits and vegetables. It is now too densely packed with humans and too expensive for what you get.

The Central Plains states are largely agricultural and can be boring. They also have extreme weather from heat to cold as well as tornadoes. They do often have distinct communities though many smaller ones have very limited variety, great for solitary and inactive lifestyles.

The Coastal Northwest certainly is scenically very appealing. It has mild and cool weather great for gardening and has lots of outdoor opportunities for active lives. It, of course, is also growing fast because of its desirability, a problem with most Nirvanas which soon become less so as they are loved to death by the ever increasing masses.

Western Canada certainly is beautiful. The Vancouver area is mild (they even have palm trees), crowded, and expensive. The Kootenays are beautiful and though they have a colder climate, they are a still a good area for fruit trees and gardening.

The upper Northeast, exemplified by Vermont is beautiful but cold. It has plenty of water and is also good for gardening. It also has nice small towns and a movement statewide to become self-sustaining. Its desire to secede from the US also says something about its welcoming of old out-of-staters like me. If it ever gets warmer with global warming, it also will be overrun with the masses looking to escape the sprawl.

The common thread is that this country only has so much nice-to-live-on land, pretty much all of it populated by today’s 303 million people. What will it look like with the expected 445 million by 2050? Can we really afford the huge legal and illegal immigration policy of today?

So, it’s a toss between Vermont and Oregon at present. So to avoid a decision at this time I will first go to Europe for a few months of reflection and if McCain wins the election just stay there.

Thanks for listening/reading and please remember that all comments made are personal and based upon limited sampling.

Auf Wiedersehen,
Au Revoir
Good Bye
Sayonara
Ciao

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

First, Lets Do the Numbers

In this age of computers, spread sheets, resettable odometers, electronic fuel consumption measurement, etc. it’s easier to do the numbers, so let’s do them.

This trip covered 12,850 miles of mostly secondary roads. The car, a 2004 Prius, was driven at the speed limits, not to exceed 65 mph, by cruise control. It averaged 51.66 mpg on fuel that varied in price from $3.17 to $5.00 per gallon with an average cost of $3.63/gal. Total fuel consumption was 249 gallons accounting for 2.5 tons of CO2. The carbon emission was offset by 2.5 acres of trees in one year on my Carroll County tree farm (What a smug green SOB, this blogger!).

Lodging and food were the dominant other expenses. Lodging consisted of staying at friends and family (44% of the time), camping(22%), and moteling(38%). Food was a combination of grocery food, eating occasionally at good but reasonable restaurants, and having a few too many fish sandwiches and pies from the one universally available source, McDonalds.

Total cost for the 55 days was $4152 or $75.50/day. Fuel was 21.7%, lodging 35.5%, camping 4.8% with the rest, food and drink for self and friends, books, posters, admissions etc. 38%. Of course, there were some savings at home estimated to be: electricity, gas, water and sewage and the at-home food consumption and car usage. There were also some new costs: cutting the grass to satisfy the homeowners association and the neighbors. The incremental cost of the trip is estimated at $3000.

Friday, May 23, 2008

The Long and Winding Road*..

..that leads to my door is mostly US Route 2 from Bonner’s Ferry, Iowa to Saginaw City, Michigan. This route of good pavement and little traffic is a relaxing delight to drive at between 55 and 65 mph.


In West Glacier I took a quick view of the famed mountains of Glacier National Park. The park personnel is just readying for the summer tourist onslaught and hadn’t plowed most of the roads yet.

Going up the nearby Marais Pass (5220ft) on the west side is all nice and green. Just past the peak however, trees quickly change to high desert vegetation as the Blackfeet Indian Reservation is entered. This high plain stretching for 100s of miles to the east is wheat farming country and most of the towns along the road and the adjacent railroad are small decaying farm towns with massive silos, spaced around 20 miles apart. They have hopeful names such as Dunkirk, Inverness, Kremlin(US Style), Glasgow, Harlem, Zurich, etc. Some cities tell the population and one stated that it had 512 happy people and one curmudgeon.












In Montana the locations of traffic mortalities are marked by standard white crosses indicating how many people died. These crosses really standout and are testament to the dangers of driving.













Entering North Dakota,one could see more orderly and well-off cities and greener fields. In the eastern half, windbreaks started appearing many being evergreen trees seen nowhere else. In one city one could see huge wind mill blades although in both Montana and North Dakota there were no to few wind power generating towers visible – here in the land of wind. One other item of interest noted here is the presence of native American (aka Indian) radio stations where one can get lessons in native vocabulary, hear public interest announcements regarding drinking and suicide, hear NPR news, advertisements, and lots of chanting which I really started to enjoy after initially forcing myself to listen to it.

In Minnesota northern style forests started appearing and further along the lumber trucks started rolling again carting this time not lumber for construction as in the west but lumber for paper production. Driving for hours in a green canyon of trees is not as interesting as driving in the treeless plains as the trees hide most everything and one can’t look over them. So one plays music and listens to the radio offerings which in these parts as in most other parts of the west are dominated by country&western and religious broadcast, an occasional PBS station, and lots of right-wing hate and misinformation talk radio with notables such as Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck. I’ve gotten to really enjoy C&W.

After crossing the Mackinac Bridge into northern Michigan, the environment seemed familiar again with bad Interstate roads and everyone in a great big rush wasting fuel to get to somewhere. My last motel night was in Gaylord, Michigan, a touristy town with its architectural shtick being little alpine roofs in front of every establishment. From here it was a visit in Medina, Ohio with in-laws Phil & Pat and Susan’s brother Stuart who just happened to be visiting for a few days.

Coming soon to this blog will be a summary of the trip and what it meant to me.

* Beatles

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Oh, Canada


Oh Canada, had I only left more time to discover the west of you. My four days there were just enough to wet my appetite for a more lengthy tour of discovery.





Realizing that I would be in Vancouver on Victoria Day Weekend (a long weekend celebrating the 64 year reign of Queen Victoria), I decided to stay in a distant burb of the city, Maple Ridge, hoping for a few cheaper nights of lodging. Maple Ridge was like many other small cities I saw in Canada, relatively clean and orderly compared with most small rural US cities.




My foray into Vancouver started in Stanley Park which is an island park north of the city. I parked the car for the whole day ($7) and biked about the city exploring the park and the Seaside trail which also takes one around False Creek, the little bay into the city around which all downtown life seems to revolve on a beautiful day like the one I had. Further west of the city is a large beach with an impressive tidal flat visited by Bald Eagles and many other birds. Since the temperature was in the 80s, the bike and walk paths were fully packed as was any available grass near the beaches. There were many outdoor eating opportunities and the several, large outdoor pools were open for business. Vancouver seems to be a real livable city with little blight noticeable downtown.

After a beautiful day in Vancouver I filled up with $5/gal gasoline and drove the roller coaster route 3 across many mountain passes to Creston located in the Kootenay region of eastern British Columbia. Here I briefly visited with the Almeritters, acquaintances from my hometown in Germany. It was a day after the wedding of their youngest daughter and I was asked to participate in finishing the left over wedding goodies.

Realizing that I was a little too early for the roads and campgrounds in Banff and Glacier National Parks to be open, I decided to start heading for home via the route of the cheaper fuel – the USA.

Friday, May 16, 2008

The Pacific Coast

The Pacific Coast hasn’t been very pacific with its strong winds and high seas making for a cold California experience along the coast. All this wind was of course great for the thousands of wind turbines in the San Gorgonio Mountain Pass, creating 300-600 mega Watt of electrical power, enough for Palm Springs and the whole valley.

Palm Springs appeared to be a grander version of Naples, Florida with all of the upscale stores, fancy dwellings, and hundreds of restaurants. It was a great contrast to the poverty seen in the adjacent Mojave Desert.


Coming out of the desert and crossing the Santa Rosa mountain pass on Route 74, I had an opportunity to hike for a few miles on the Pacific Crest Trail which runs from Mexico to Canada. It was surprisingly busy with back packers and in full bloom with a great variety of flowers.


In San Diego I visited with Steve and his lovely wife, Sue in their downtown home. The house is built across a small gulch and the gulch is an unbelievably beautiful and productive garden with orange, plum, avocado, loquat, banana, and other trees, myriad flowers and orchids and many birds including an expatriate Baltimore Oriole who kept tweeting something like “San Diego beats Baltimore almost any time of the year”. Steve and his wife and another old high school and Boy Scout friend, Daryl, all joined for a local Cinco de Mayo meal.

In Hemet, I visited Aunt Püppi whom I hadn’t seen in over 50 years. She’s 94 years old and has retired from work and horseback riding to the internet and e-mail.

From Hemet it takes about !120 miles! of freeway and development to get out of greater Los Angeles to the much more serene coastal route. In both Santa Barbara and Monterrey I had the opportunity to explore the waterfronts by bicycle on their excellent path systems. In several locations such as Watsonville, one can see the truck farms growing lettuce, strawberries, artichokes, etc. with the largely Latino workers bent over picking or planting. The worker’s small towns are largely hovels of temporary lodging and Spanish signs. Think of them sometime as you enjoy your California fruits and greens.

Of course, I had to spend some time in the Big Sur area of the coastal route, famous from the hippie days of yore. The area still has hippies, though somewhat more aged. It also has a Henry Miller Library containing all those banned books from the 50s, such as Tropic of Cancer, which one had to obtain in Europe. Camping among the Redwoods in the valley is cold. It was 37 degrees one morning and it stayed cold most of the day even though when I went hiking in the desert-like adjacent 3000 ft Mt. Manuel, it was hot and dry. Interestingly, when the light rain comes at night, it never hits the ground below the trees, keeping tents dry.

I arrived in San Francisco on a beautiful clear day and just had to join the hundreds of bikers and walkers crossing the Golden Gate Bridge to take in the sights and enjoy the day. Advisory signs were periodically present to protect us from ourselves.

Going back to the coastal route I revisited Stinson Beach where Susan and I had slept in the Dunes in our 1972 Tour d'Ouest. It hasn’t changed! It even still has the Redwood House B&B with its German sign “Zimmer mit Frühstück”.

Driving the coastal route requires lots of patience, a strong upper body for serpentine driving, and an appreciation for beauty. There are great vistas around nearly every curve and there are happy cows feasting on luscious greens on ocean front meadows. There are also a lot of bicyclists and hikers trekking the Coastal Route in a southern direction to take advantage of dominant winds and to be better seen by motorists. The coastal communities are small and have not yet been invaded by outside development money. They are mostly plain with seemingly contended residents in the fishing, oystering, or lumber business.

In Oregon I visited former APLer, Don Duncan, who has landed his dream job in the liberal outpost of Portland. It is a busy and livable city with many great restaurants and pubs and bumper stickers saying “Keep Portland Weird”. Don has a great view of downtown from his office window and he can ride on a modern alpine-style aerial tram from his waterfront campus to his hill campus. Portland has a nice park with Japanese Garden, Zoo, Arboretum, and many hiking trails plus great views of snow topped mountains.

Continuing the travels on coastal route 101, takes one to the Olympic Peninsula known for its northern rain forests. Driving there was my second rainy day on this trip. And the following day the promised sun also did not appear and it rained yet more making the rain forest seem truly genuine.

Finally on the third day on the ferry ride to Victoria, British Columbia, the sky turned a lovely and warm blue making it possible to explore this beautiful Capital of BC by bicycle and sit outside for a delicious lunch and a Stella draft. I finished the beautiful day back in the US with a drive up to Hurricane Ridge to get a great panoramic view of the snow capped Olympic Mountains.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

The Southwest


The Southwest experience was also very windy, starting off with a blinding dust storm on the Interstate coming into Albuquerque, NM. The cutsey adobe style old towns started with Taos which had a small town square reminiscent of town squares in small midwestern towns such as Medina, OH. The stores in these “old towns” are largely touristy in their offerings, yet I couldn’t find a good outdoor place to sit to have a brewsky for my minimum daily liquid requirements. The architecture is adobe, adobe, and adobe. Even the new steel structures have the old adobe finishes. Outside the tourist area other architectures, presumably not as expensive, quickly became the norm. Santa Fe, the capitol city, was similar to Taos, except on a larger scale. Both cities were explored by bicycle as it is a quick, yet less stressful way, to get to see the places.

The next destination was Flagstaff for an expected camping overnight. However, because of the forecast 22 deg night at the city’s 7000 ft altitude, I decided to move to lower altitudes for more of an atmospheric blanket. I thus headed for Sedona, an upscale cutsey place built for the upscalers. Trying to find a campground or motel outside of Sedona on the way to Las Vegas was unsuccessful and I had to drive into the evening before I suddenly had dozens of choices in the crossroads town of Kingman. On the way there I had to pass through the village of Jerome which reminded me of those northern Italian villages clinging to the top of mountain passes with narrow serpentine roads winding through town. It even had a catholic retreat center at the top of the village.

On the way to Vegas, I stopped at Hoover Dam for a tour. It was interesting to hear about how quickly and efficiently it was built (we don’t seem to be able to do even some smaller government contracted projects without cost and schedule overruns anymore). The old exhibit center had a huge hydrological model of the Colorado watershed which showed all of the dams and irrigated areas. About 30% of the electricity goes to light up Las Vegas and most of the rest goes to California. Security is high, as an act of terror on the dam would have huge consequences. In fact they are in the process of building a bypass bridge over the gorge, south of the dam, which will be the largest bridge of its kind.

Driving in Las Vegas was a stressful, high speed experience which made me decide on the spot to get some rest in Death Valley instead. I arrived at Furnace Creek Ranch and found a great camping spot in the shade of several Mesquite trees. The first evening was pleasantly warm for sleeping in the nude on top of the sleeping bag (did I mention the full body tanning session in the Colorado dunes?). The night sky was clear with a brilliant display of stars and the Milky Way, accompanied by a chorus of Hyenas howling in the distance. Daytime found Prairie Chickens suddenly appearing in the camping area with their weird call, an introduction sounding like a Dove, followed by castanets. There is much wildlife in Death Valley.

The following morning I went to Bad Water waiting for a colorful sunrise, which didn’t appear. This was followed by what seemed like a quick ride to the easily visible other end of the valley to see Scotty’s Castle. Well, it took 160 miles of driving to see it. It was interesting to observe what can be done with lots of money in a somewhat disorganized way.

The evening cooled down from the 97 deg high to a pleasant beer and wine drinking temperature. Our neighborhood social hour or three was composed of a detective dad from Chicago and his Hollywood director (in training) daughter and a spelunker lady from Taos. The pleasantries of conversation were followed once again by a dazzling display of stars and a peaceful sleep.
The dry desert environment is great for preserving the past. This allows us to find evidence of past civilizations more easily. It unfortunately also means that today’s junk easily accumulates and is easily visible. The result is that much of the “civilized” desert is trashy looking from plastic bags trapped in cacti to old abandoned trailers, cars, etc. scattered about.
As one drives through the Southwest, one realizes the importance of water to this desert environment. Yet, one cannot help but notice the water squander in high flow shower heads and high flow toilets in motels, wasteful irrigation practices in some areas, and the prevalence of conventional water sucking golf courses. Even in Death Valley, the moneyed class can fly in for an evening round of golf. The Coyotes are fighting back, however, as they have taken an occasional fancy to chasing golf balls on the course during daytime.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

The Rocky Mountains



The Rockies started for me in Ft. Collins, Colorado where I visited my new grandson, Bran, and my son Ian and his lovely wife Laura Resau. They live in Old Town which is a vibrant part of town consisting of two story historic houses. This town is one of the few bike towns in the US where bikes are extensively used for utilitarian as well as pleasurable purposes. The weather was very windy and cold except for the last day and this allowed me to get to know Bran better while Laura worked on her next young adult novel in her writing trailer. For more detail on her work see http://www.lauraresau.com .
Coming down from Loveland pass I noticed a lovely skiing scene on a warm day at Arapaho Basin. This was an opportunity not to be missed. Fortunately, I had planned for such an event when I packed my cold weather clothes. The 12000 ft elevation often left me out of breath but did not diminish the enjoyment of late April skiing. The night was spent in the old and cozy Frisco Lodge. Frisco was able to save some of its building history in a downtown museum. The rest of Summit County has exploded into a condominium bubble with shopping centers featuring the usual boring chain stores. Pity!

The drive from Frisco takes one past several old mining towns such as Leadville, a site never completely cleaned up by the EPA’s superfund. The long run down the traffic free San Luis Valley toward the Great Sand Dunes National Park is awesome and relaxing. It certainly seemed as though much agricultural development has taken place in this valley since my last visit.
The Dunes is one of the best places to visit in the National Park system. The day was cool though a bit windy but near perfect for an ascent of the 700 ft sand dune. Camping was also near perfect: cool and quiet except for a few cycling generators on the many camping buses and trailers parked in the distance. When I woke up during the night I saw the Big Dipper constellation perfectly centered in my oval tent window. The sky was brilliant in the complete darkness and seeing the Milky Way clearly was an event one can rarely experience back east anymore.

This section of the Rockies has many scenically beautiful places to live if one doesn’t mind the solitude and the long distances to most places such as grocery stores, hospitals, etc. As automotive fuels get more expensive, these areas will experience real hardships.

Did I mention the wind? If my few days are any indication, the place is too windy for me and really should have some wind generators to slow those winds down and produce some electricity. It seems the natives don’t like wind generators but seem accepting of many high tension lines.