Monthly Archives: May 2020
Save The Mussels . . .
Jan’s a really happy, happy camper. She finally managed to get a hair appointment this Tuesday afternoon at 3 at a SuperCuts she used to go to before she found a lady at a nearby TGF. But that one has not reopened and there’s nothing on the door that says when, or if, they might.
I’m sure you heard about the recent dam breaks and flooding Michigan. Well, you can blame it on the Mussels.
Three weeks before the break, the Michigan State Attorney General sued the dam owners because in 2018 and 2019 they had illegally lowered the water level behind the dam because they were worried about its safety. And last year when the dam company asked the state for permission to lower the level to facilitate some repairs, the request was denied.
“Defendants wrongfully exerted dominion over the freshwater mussels and caused their death which denies and is inconsistent with the state’s right to them,”
Apparently the state wanted all the mussels for themselves, even to the point of endangering the public.
So it’s:
Spanish Flu
Japanese Encephalitis
Lyme Disease (Lyme, CT)
German Measles
West Nile Virus
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)
Norovirus (Norwalk, OH)
Marburg Virus Disease (Marburg, Germany)
Valley Fever (San Joaquin Valley)
Guinea Worm
Zika Virus
Ebola (Ebola River, Zaire)
Hanta Virus (Hanta River, So. Korea)
African Sleeping Sickness
Montezuma’s Revenge
And finally . . . Chinese Food!
But Chinese Virus is racist?
Who Knew?
Another in our Where We Were XX Years Today Series.
May 23, 2011
King’s Canyon and Sequoia Too . . .
We had to get early this morning at 7:30, but it was for a good cause: Our trip down south to King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Parks.
But before we left, Jan put some food out for the birds and squirrels. And it turns out we have a another visitor to the food, a resident gopher.
Jan didn’t realize she was dumping the food almost on top of his hole, but he was happy.
We finally headed out about 9 for the 100 mile trip down to the two National Parks.
Our first stop was at a convenience store in Squaw Valley, the same place we stopped last year, for a bathroom stop and a cappuccino.
Then we started the long climb up into the parks, from about 300 ft. in the valley to almost 8000 ft. At about 6000 ft. we started seeing snow again, although not near as much as last year.
The big problem was the fog. It steadily got worse the higher we went. In some places we could only see 20-30 ft. in front of the truck, so it made for really slow going.
We took a bathroom break at the Lodgepole Visitor’s Center and got our National Park Passports stamped for Sequoia, and then head down the road a couple of miles to the General Sherman Tree, by volume the biggest tree in the world
It’s about a half mile walk down the hill to the tree itself
At 275 ft. high, it’s about 2500 years old, and it’s a monster. We didn’t get see the General Sherman last year because the road was snowed in, so we felt lucky this time.
Coming back up to the parking lot we found the fog had really rolled in. And it made the drive back to the King’s Canyon area really dicey. The 26 mile trip took over an hour and fifteen minutes.
We got to the King’s Canyon area about 10 til 3, just in time to get lunch at the café before closed at 3 pm.
Then after lunch, and getting our Passports stamped for King’s Canyon, we headed a couple of miles down the road to see the General Grant Tree, the second biggest tree in the world.
What’s unusual is that, although the General Grant is second in volume to the General Sherman, at 40 ft. in diameter, it has the biggest base. 40 ft. is the length of our motorcoach.
The Gamlin Cabin, shown here, and built in 1872, has served as everything from living quarters for the Gamlin brothers who built it, to a US Calvary storehouse, and then the home of the first park ranger stationed here. And it looks as strong as the day it was built.
Finally leaving the park and heading home, we did see some deer along the way. We had also seen a bear earlier disappearing into the fog, but otherwise it wasn’t a good day for animals.
Except for the gopher, of course.
We finally got home about 7:30 after stopping and getting Nick his cappuccino fix.
Man, he’s really hooked.
Thought For The Day:
Revenge is beneath me. Accidents however, will happen.
A Lot of Pent Up . . . Well, Something
Going into the Memorial Day Weekend, traffic coming home was pretty much back to the pre-Wu normal. And maybe a little more, since the traffic was heavy heading down toward Galveston for the weekend.
But the real indication that things were finally opening up, was that the Heartbreaker’s Gentlemen’s Club right along the Interstate was open again. And it was more crowded than I’ve ever seen it. Not only was the huge parking lot full, but people were parking out along the feeder.
Like I said, a lot of pent up . . . something.
One thing funny about this club is that every few years some do-gooder in League City decides to shut this den of iniquity down. But that only lasts until the first City Council meeting when they present their petition. And then they’re told that their taxes would more than double, since that club is the largest single tax-paying business in the city, by a wide margin. And then it all fades away until next time.
This past Tuesday we once again have lunch at Saltgrass Steakhouse, the second time since they reopened. And then yesterday we had supper at Los Ramirez Mexican Restaurant, our local favorite, and where we last ate back in March the day before everything shut down.
Every other table was taped off, and the waitstaff were all wearing masks, but the food was as delicious as always. And like a look of places, they used their dine-in downtime to repaint the place. Really nice.
Now they tell us.
CDC now says coronavirus ‘does not spread easily’ on surfaces.
So what do we do with all the Lysol spray and wipes.
And now he tells us.
Another in our Where We Were XX Years Today Series.
May 22, 2010
Bloody Marys and Northern Exposures
Be sure and check out yesterday’s post which I didn’t get posted until this afternoon due to a bad Internet connection in Westport, WA
Also forget to mention in yesterday’s post about the Bloody Marys that Al and I had at The Half Moon Bay restaurant last night
First off, they use peppered Stoli Vodka so it’s really hot and spicy. And they also include all the 5 basic food groups. In addition to the normal stalk of celery, we got a piece of Slim Jim, a piece of cheese, two steamed green beans, a pearl onion, a green olive, a cherry tomato, a boiled shrimp, and a lemon slice. By the time you finish the drink, you’re almost too full for supper.
We left the American Sunset RV in Westport, WA about 9 am after saying our goodbyes to our good friends, Al and Adrienne Cox. We first met them in Fairbanks, AK two years ago and have kept in touch ever since.
We only went about a quarter mile down the road where we stopped and got diesel at a local Chevron station. The station canopy said the height was 12’ 4”. Since the coach is 12’ high, I didn’t want to take a chance on scrapping it, so I dumped the air bags which dropped the coach height about 6”.
The only real problem I had is one I’ve had before. Slow fuel pumps. It took about 20 minutes to take on 115 gallons.
Finally we got back on the road and headed toward Cle Elum, WA, 195 miles away, our stop for the night.
About 11:30 am we stopped for lunch at the Super Buffet Chinese Buffet in Du Pont, WA, about 15 miles west of Tacoma. We saw their sign along the Interstate and decided to give it a try. We were just hoping we would be able find a place to park the rig. And we lucked up. We found a place right beside the restaurant.
And the buffet was really good. Maybe the best one since Yuma.
About 40 miles before Cle Elum we started seeing the mountains of Snoqualmie Pass, complete with a lot of snow.
We got into Whispering Pines RV Park in Cle Elum about 2:30 pm and got set up.
Well, everything got set up, except the satellite dish. There were a lot of trees and I just couldn’t get a good sight line.
So I gave up for a while, and about 3:45 pm we headed about 5 miles away to Roslyn, WA. .
Roslyn’s claim to fame is that it was the town of Cicely, AK in TV’s Northern Exposure.
And it’s all still there.
Ruth Anne’s store is still a store.
Dr. Joel Fleischman’s office is now a gift shop. We came here because Jan wanted to replace some of her Northern Exposure T-shirts that she wore out since we were here two years ago, in 2008.
And the iconic Roslyn Cafe is…still a cafe.
And of course, Chris’ KBHR studio, which still seems to be a TV show set.
And the Brick is still the Brick, although it looks completely different inside from what it did on the show.
We got back to the site about 4:45 and I started working on the satellite again. Finally I found a place about 50 feet out in front of the coach where I could get a signal through the trees.
Now Jan’s happy, so all’s right with the world.
Tomorrow we will head out for Coeur d” Alene, ID for a couple of days.
Thought For The Day:
If masks work, why don’t we just give masks to prisoners instead of releasing them.
