Beyond Bozeman

I love alliteration. Headed out of Bozeman forJellystone-bout halfway this fellow pulls up longside and paces us while waving a model VW van.He pulls in front and in a few miles signals a left into a turnaround. Follow him in and he presents us with a Hot Wheels VW van circa 1966. She's red and white! He spotted us in Livingston bout 25 miles back and chased us down to give us the model. that's the kind of trip it's been.

Into Yellowstone and the glories there-Mammoth Hot Springs,etc,etc.Out the East gate and on to Cody for the night.Up in the AM and on to the Big Horn Mountains (thanks Louie). Breathtaking and, once again unique unto themselves. Next stop Sheridan,Wyo. for a short R&R since we both had a touch of somebody's revenge. Perky was SICK. Next to our motel was the busiest(swear)drive thru Dairy Queen in the country-a line of cars 10am -11pm no shit. So we could count cars while recovering.Off to the Devil's Tower featured in "Close Encounters".beautiful drive,lots of antelope and deer.The tower is awesome and another power spot. On to Sundance(not Redford's) and Deadwood notorious home of an HBO series. Apocryphal stories abound but a lot of shit went down there in the mid-late 1800's. It's all casinos today but the flavor has been kept alive.

A slight miscommunication takes us on a drive to Sturgis, SD where we blow the budget on must-have Sturgis stuff including the ugliest hat i've ever owned. Retrace our steps to Deadwood and on to Hill City SD, gateway to Rushmore. Salami,cheese and wine in the room and off to the south in the morn.

Beautiful drive to the truly awe inspiring Mt rushmore and the story of the family who fronted the project. Didn't do diddly for my patriotism but did inspire me concerning the tenacity of a person with a vision. Which was reinforced and surpassed, at the next stop-the Crazy Horse Monument.

The Sioux tribal elders decided their people of all tribes needed a place sacred to them all to make a tribute to their heritage.They hired a sculptor,Korczack Ziolkowski, who lived and worked alone for the next seven years in a tent in the Black Hills.He married and had 10 children and the family continues the project today.Talk about tenacity!You can feel the spiritual side of the place very strongly...Crazy Horse Monument is a MUST see. It is a fantastic story...about the sculptor, his life and vision, and the Indians chose him to do the sculpture. We pulled up to the visitor center/museum. Sitting in the van organizing ourselves, have to leave the dog! Up comes this really cool man, a little younger than we...another story about the VW van he used to have. He was very excited. He works at the museum. What a job! It has been wonderful to see the light in people's eyes when they see the van and remember their experiences! Jay went to Nebraska in the early 70's to work with VISTA. If you don't remember, VISTA was the "in-country America" Peace Corp. A very wonderful program! He was from New York, still has the accent! Great guy. We had a great time communing with him! The museum at Crazy Horse is the best native american museum I have seen. Very moving and complete.

Next...we went thru Custer State Park. What a beautiful park. Didn't see enough so went into the next town - Custer City - to spend the night and go into the park again tomorrow. There was a Buffalo roundup scheduled for the weekend. The wildlife we saw in the park....antelope, mountain goats, wild turkey, prairie dogs, bison...everywhere! Fantastic! Have you ever driven down the road in the country and noticed a single lane, sorta dirt road going up into the meadow and hills? Well...we took the road!! What a feeling to be off the road and going where few go. So peaceful. We had gone a ways and saw 2 horseback riders going across the hill. Man oh man...how I would have liked to been riding with them. Two girls, they were chasing an antelope for fun. We saw the corrals where the buffalo/bison will be herded into. They cull the herd, sell some at auction, the rest, they vaccinate and return to the wild. This happens once a year...and if you want to go to a fabulous place on vacation, see wildlife, and incredible beauty...talk to us and we'll tell you where to go! There is a huge cluster of giant rocks in the park. There is one that has an opening at the top that looks like the eye of a needle. At least 75' tall. Met some great people at the site, one of the ladies gave me a smudge stick she had made. Had gathered the sage and tied it herself. Very touching. We took the wildlife loop. Went up to the top of Mt. Coolidge. We could see Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse all in the distance. A 360 degree vista. Could see the Badlands in the distance too. The Black Hills are very beautiful. The WPA built the majority of structures in all the state parks. A very proud part of our heritage. We need something like it today! At one point we were surrounded by bison. They were all over the road. What a great experience!! I am in love with Prairie Dogs!! Did you know that Prairie Dogs hug and kiss when they greet each other? They are sooo cute! They pop up out of their holes, stand on their back feet and jump up and down! Run around, yip, and are generally cuter than you can stand!! We drove a total of 67 miles, thru the park, in about 5 hours.

Back tothe Rocket Motel in Custer,straight out of the 50's and a great meal across the street.Custer City is a really cool little known jewel.south Dakota is itself a jewel,much more beauty than i expected.So go say your prayers and get a good night's sleep.More later.

el Escargot&Perky

To Pahrump With Love

Just wanted to say "Love ya" to all the special people we met in Pahrump,mostly at "Our Bar." And to Chris,Charlie,Dana and Gabe much love and we truly miss you.Thanks for everything.Come see us anytime. All our love

Sammy&Gabrielle

Update-healdsburg to pahrump to bozeman

Sittin in Bozeman,Montana and somehow not surprised to be here,but glad to be here. Been really busy time with lots of no connectivity or cell phone.Drinkin Pinot,listening to KPIG and the creek running by with special commentary from Perky and her old friend Susan and smoking cheese(Thanks pal). back to the narrative. We reluctantly left Healdsburg and hit The City for a couple of days with Lou,Colleen and the gang. Seal Rock,the BV,the many,many treasures of San Francisco faded into the rear view mirror of our rented PT Cruiser as we began the truck to Pahrump. Through Tonopah, past secret govt installations and brothels,through the night we rolled. 13 hours and we're home in P'rump. Next chunk of time was taken up with replacement of Flossie's generator with an alternator. Details available by appt-you
bring the Jameson's.
By packing and mailing several boxes of vital shit gathered on the road,we were able to get Flossie down to take-off weight. Hugs and kisses with our hosts in P'rump and we're on our way to Vegas and points NE. First stop Cedar City,Utah.A stop at the visitor's center on the way out of town after camping at the KOA made us rethink our route to Salt Lake. Instead of freeway it's off across the mountains north of Zion to Bryce Canyon "only an hour and a half." Course that time estimate doesn't consider the Cedar Breaks,magnificent little known park at 10,000 ft about halfway to Bryce nor does it consider 50 Harley riders from New York in convoy each of whom had a VW story to share.
But we finally made Red canyon and Bryce Canyon and we're so glad we did. Spectacular doesn't cover it. Otherworldly formations in more shades of red than I've ever seen. Interesting factoid,geologically speaking the floor of Bryce is the same age as the roof of Zion and the floor of Zion is the same age as the roof of the Grand Canyon. After much oohing and aahing we made our way to Panguitch,Utah and a motel straight out of the 40's. Looking at the map,we realized we had made a grand total of 6 miles toward Salt Lake. So it goes.
Break in the narrative-it's become hard to tear ourselves away from the beauty and grandeur we are surrounded by every day.Plus the change in seasons has suddenly come to our attention meaning more color,cooler(colder)weather and the joy that fall brings to Floridians.Computer time has really taken a back seat.So it's gonna be thumbnails till we catch the blog up to real-time.Perky will fill in details as she sees fit.Back to the tale.
Salt Lake sucks,Antelope Island in the Lake is a trip.Took the back road from Logan Utah up Logan Canyon with the Logan River alongside.Magnificent drive.Made Bear Lake and found an old motel on the lake.A couple from South Africa,Kerry&Dot,were checking in at the same time.He reminded me of old friend John Hyman and the 4 of us talked nonstop till bedtime.
Northward in the AM and into Wyoming.Stopped in Alpine for the night and into Jackson the next morning,driving with the Snake River longside the road.Jackson is very beautiful but yupped up and crowded.The Tetons are not yupped or crowded-they're breathtaking,different from any other mountains we've seen.Then it's Yellowstone and jaw-dropping shit around every bend and there are lots of bends.Next morning there was ice on Flossie which required scraping so it's down the road for this cracker.
Headed to Bozeman Montana where Perky has old friends from way back.Wonderful people,Susan and Horus.Horus and his new wife Hanna have 80 acres on the Gallatin river where they supply the venue for weddings plus 3 cabins on the creek running thru. The "Cowboy cabin" became our home for a few days.Thanks Horus(and Susan for setting it up).Oh yeah they also have a 3 story tree house.It was a great time with the extended family there including Susan's S/O Freddie,the crazy Puerto Rican doctor.many peace pipes and much wine later we departed and headed back to Yellowstone to cover unseen territory and beat the predicted snow storm.And there our tale ends for the evening.Hope you're on the edge of your beanbags till next we meet.

for Chuck

This will be brief-need to get Chuck off my back about the Tetons.Also wanna say thanks to old pal Neil for his kind words, support,humor and kickass blog.A fairly detailed post covering the missing days is in production.

El Escargot

Pahrump, Nevada

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Before we leave Pahrump to return home we want to let you know a little about the area.
When we first arrived here, July 2nd, it was the heat wave from hell the first week. We survived and actually have acclimated! Pahrump is 60 miles west of Las Vegas over the Spring Mountains. About 45 miles east of Death Valley, and about 100 miles from Area 51. Also only 70 miles from the controversial Yucca Mountain. The mountains to the west of town are the Nopah Mountains which you drive thru on your way to Death Valley. From Vegas you drive the Blue Diamond highway west, and climb up to 5,400 ft and go over the Spring Mountain range. Once over the summit it is a long valley ahead of you to Pahrump. The town is at an elevation of 2,725'. The name Pahrump comes from the Southern Paiutes. Pah meaning water, Rimpi meaning rock. Pah Rimpi became Pahrump, the Paiute description for springs or flowing water emerging from rock. There are springs here and at the turn of the century they grew cotton in the valley. The valley is 26 miles long and about 12 miles wide. Population 32,000, no movie theater, several large casinos, gambling is available just about everywhere. Brothels are not allowed within the city limits, here or in Vegas. So they are all on the outskirts of town. Mesquite grows prolifically here. Free movies were shown every Friday night in the park. That was great fun! No bugs, breezy, and very pleasant. We are staying about 9 miles from "downtown." There is no downtown....there are 2 traffic lights. The first light is bordered by the Nugget Casino, Terrible's Casino, Walgreen's, and the Bank of America on the 4 corners! Quite a representation of our culture...eh? That is the main intersection. Lots of fast food places. No Denny's or anything like it. Restaurants stay open until 8 pm. If you get there at 7:45...forget it! The Casinos have on-going buffets which are not bad. Art Bell lives here. Lesli and I drove out to his compound. You have never seen so many antennae in any one place! He is quite a character. There is also a sizable retirement community here. Very diverse...lots of bikers, tattoo parlors, Boys & Girls Club, Masons, Rotary, 1 Science of the Mind church and 1 metaphysical church...and of course 5 Baptist churches, Pentecostal, Catholic, Episcopal...etc. The Science of the Mind church has a labyrinth, which I walked. A teepee sits next to it. Very peaceful place. There is a Pahrump Valley Museum. It's not very big inside but has a lot of old historical stuff from the area that people have donated. Old buildings have been preserved and taken to the grounds. Lots of old farm machinery and tools. A representation of the old town is being created. They're the ones who told us how to find Art Bell's house, and all about Heidi Fleiss wanting to open a brothel for women! Honeysuckle is highly recommended by local nurseries as a great plant for your yard. Grows easily and likes the desert!
The night sky...oh the night sky...starry, starry nights. The Milky Way begins on the northeast horizon and dances across the sky to the southwest. You can see the "clouds" of stars. We sit on the front porch at night in awe. Speaking of the night sky...oh my god, the lunar eclipse on August 28th! We knew from AOL Sky Watch the time it was to begin. We decided we may never have this chance of clarity again. We stayed up until 2:30ish AM to see the beginning of the earth moving between the moon and the sun. The sky was clear as a bell, the moon was a bright white and then it began...we sat on the south side of the cottage with no obstruction of the sky. No ground loom, just black mountains in the far distance. Because of the brightness of the moon, there were no stars. As the moon began to darken and turn red the stars began to come out. Once the eclipse was complete you could see a billion stars! We watched the darkened moon until about 4 am and decided we didn't need to see the return after all. The night was cool, a slight breeze, and the heavens above. I will remember it the rest of my life.
This property is slightly above the town, so you can see the lights in the far distance 9 miles away. It is silent 'cept an occasional dog barking in the distance. They say there are coyote, oh how I would love to hear them....but we haven't. Lots of ravens! We have seen road runners, quail, and jackrabbits with big ears! The sunrises and sunsets are spectacular. The mountains show them off so well. The mountains are rock, rocks of all colors, no vegetation, and they loom so beautifully. The light bouncing off the many colored rocks changes the colors. It's never the same. Mt. Charleston is due east of our front porch. It is 11,000'. Clouds formed over it and we could watch the storms up there. Beautiful lightning but no thunder. You can see that in ancient times there was tremendous earthquake activity because you can see where the rock mountains were once horizontal and are now vertical! When you drive to Shoshone on your way to the entrance to Death Valley you see the most amazing mountains with abrupt stops and then soft gradations of land down to wide open spaces. Once this was all swamp, trees, wetlands and dinosaurs, mastodons, and wonderful ancient creatures. It's easy to see what it must have been. Your mind's eye can imagine it with the help of the land. We have experienced 2 major dust storms that covered the valley. Dust devils are constant. Have tried to capture one on camera but they don't last long enough. Dust devils are sand tornadoes. The wind sucks the desert dust up in a twister and runs across the sand for a short distance. They're really neat to see! There is something in the area referred to as "poof" dirt. Let me tell you that sand/dust is amazing. When you drive off the gravel road onto the dirt it looks like normal dirt...but no! All of a sudden you can't see out the windshield, there is dust covering the car in a flash and it's an inch thick! Yes, I speak from experience! Few houses have "lawns." How refreshing! Most yards are landscaped in desert rock, cactus of all kinds, mesquite, and cowboy/western motif! Very low maintenance! No wasted water here! Or chemicals to leach into the groundwater.
The mountains allow you to easily watch the days get shorter! Watching the sun set over the mountains in one area, and now the sun is so much farther south. You can really see and appreciate the changing of the seasons. My brother said when September comes the weather changes. It was 65 at 6:30 this morning! Fabulous. Only 98 today. It was 104/106 in the day last week!
Politics...like everywhere there is change. Nevada is mostly Republican. Clark County/Las Vegas is mostly Democrat. However,the tide is turning and the Democrats are gaining. There is also a large population of "non-partisan" voters. Believe it or not...Pahrump has become a regular stop for the candidates running for President. Dodd was here; Hillary was here. Richardson is supposed to be here today. Pahrump is considered to be a key in winning the state of Nevada. Go figure?
It's been quite an experience being here. Living with rock mountains, sand, cactus, is so very different. All the farm animals that "Charlie" has, have been a treat. Did you know roosters crow anytime? They gather at least a dozen eggs every day. There are currently 5 baby chicks. The house piglet, "Gumball" is now in the barnyard. Pigs, piglets, geese, chickens, cows, a horse, 6 dogs of all sizes, 1 cat-"Tiger"...that's about it! We will be sad to leave but the road is calling us! Lots of must see before we arrive home.

More Friends,Blackberries,Plums and Redwoods

That's Terri & Keith in the "T" bucket! Terri won it in Reno at Hot August Nights car show. It's quite a rig. They drive it in parades and take it to the Healdsburg square on music nights. It's way cool!
There is nothing on earth like a redwood. They are magnificent. The one I am standing in front of with my arms outstretched is just one of many "saved" by Col. Armstrong. There were acres and acres of virgin redwoods when the white man arrived. Then, Guerneville became known as "stumptown." Armstrong decided to preserve what was left up the canyon, thus, Armstrong Woods Park. We have hundreds of hours spent there. A paradise for children and others! There is an open theatre area where Shakespeare is performed in the summer. The sun filtering through the redwoods is so beautiful, it is quiet, and the forest smells are wonderful. Redwoods are so unique. When the "mother" is cut down, babies sprout up around the stump. Where we first lived in Guerneville, the stump in our yard had 5 babies around the stump. Today they are all about 100' tall. Redwoods survive forest fires because of the thickness and wetness of the bark, no bugs attack them, and they stand, watching us all. The largest one left is named after Col. Armstrong, she is 308' tall, 14.6' in diameter and 1400 years old.
August was a time I really looked forward to when I lived on the Russian River. Plums and blackberries galore! (Plus, autumn was just around the corner!) It was time to make jam! The kids and I would head out armed with buckets, long sleeve shirts, and a board. We would go to the dry creek bed and truck in. It was 1 blackberry for the bucket, 1 for the mouth! The shirt protected our arms from the thorns, and the board was to flop down on the brambles to walk in and get more berries! Sammy and I went out to Cazadero to see my old friend Pat (you know, she came to see us from northern California on her way ? to Wyoming right after we arrived in Pahrump!) There were 3 plum trees on her property! Wowee! 2 of them so laden that the limbs touched the ground. They were small and black. Not like the ones I used to pick. No matter what size they were they were sweet! The bigger ones were not more ripe than the smaller ones! We filled a bucket with the plums and blackberries. I was determined to make jam! And make jam I did! I was at the music night in the square in Healdsburg, there is also a farmer's market going on around the square. Pat didn't know what the plums were called...and there they were. Elephant Heart plums. Now, isn't that the most beautiful name for a plum? I was able to make jam and my heart and soul were filled. Can't tell you how much it meant to me.
And me-dam fine jam