Summer of 2009 – 3 months & 4 trips

Trip #1 July – Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado

The road beckoned us this summer, where we entered each of the USA mainland’s 4 time zones. After our trip to Savannah (eastern time zone), in late July, we headed west to Wyoming (mountain t.z.), Idaho, Oregon (Pacific t.z.) and Colorado (drove through Utah also). Of course, we live in the Central time zone.

Our motivation for the trip was another sad task, a long-time friend of Elaine’s passed away in 2008 & a memorial service for Karla was being held in Cove, Oregon – Elaine really wanted to go there to honor Karla’s memory and their friendship. Of course, we added a great number of other stops, which you will hear of within.

Traveling west on Interstate 80, we drove through windy Wyoming, where we saw many windmills that are now common throughout the central part of the USA. Most of Wyoming is an arid, treeless high prairie region, interspersed with some beautiful rugged mountain ranges.



After a day of driving, our tent found a home in Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. The temperature during the day was about 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind was fierce. I wondered if the tent would stay up, as I had to rrepound the stakes in a few times when the wind blew them out of the sandy soil. The ranger assured us that the wind would stop around 7:30 PM, which it did. The temperatures dropped to a comfortable 60 degrees by morning.



This area was once a deep canyon of the Green River, maybe 1200 feet in depth. In the 1950’s a dam was constructed for power generation, recreation and water retention. We will later view how these canyons once looked on our return trip via Utah/Colorado on a downstream part of the same river. The area is still quite scenic, with many limestone formations, remnants of the ancient seabed which covered much of the Great Basin area of the USA.







Boise, the capitol of the state of Idaho was our next destination. Elaine’s sister Rose and her husband Merle have lived in Boise for many years. We enjoyed their hospitality for several days. Met many of their friends and went to a minor league baseball game while there.



Rose & Merle’s daughter, Midge, husband Keith and thier wonderful children live nearby. We celebrated their daughter, Tawny’s, 10th birthday with them. Had a lot of fun getting to know them better. Unfortunately, the photo of their entire family was blurred, so only the birthday girl is in this pic.



One day, we traveled to Karla’s memorial service in Oregon. Services were held at a church & the cemetery (which has a glorious view of forest-covered mountains) where Karla rests. After the services, a social time with meal was held at the church, where many friends gave testimonials to the wonderful person she was. I had met Karl once in 1976 and again when she visited us in Kearney a few years ago.







Elaine & Rose got involved in a quilting project after our return from Cove. I barely saw them for the next couple of days, except when they decided to come up for air and have a meal. The sewing machine worked its magic into the wee hours of two nights – I enjoyed talking with Merle, but knew enough to go to bed at a decent time.
Once the quilt was done, we started on our way home. I have wanted to visit Dinosaur National Monument for many years – so that was our next destination. I had promised a good friend of ours that we would stop in Pocatello, Idaho to buy some very special salad dressing at Buddy’s restaurant. Buddy’s is an Italian restaurant that features many great foods. From the outside, it is not very promising looking. However, if in the area, give it a try – you won’t be disappointed. So, I loaded up the car with $200 worth of salad dressing. Needless to say, our friend really likes this particular salad dressing.
Dinosaur National Monument (DNM) sits in a very desolate area on the Utah/Colorado border, where trees are rare, rain is a rarity and fine red dust blows. Actually, just got the last of the red dust cleaned out of our car in November. To make it even more pleasant, daytime temperatures exceeded 100. Having said this, we really enjoyed ourselves. Much of the land of DNM is on both sides of the Green & Yampa Rivers – which are tributaries of the Colorado River. A famous American, John Wesley Powell, brought this area to the attention of the nation when he was among the first to raft down the Green River. It is a raging river in many parts and his trip was all the more outstanding when one learns that he had lost an arm in the Civil War and rafted with only one arm. I think others were with him, but he was the driving force of the exploration.





Found a secluded campsite on the banks of the river. The temps dropped down to 55 during the night. Which meant, it was worth it to rise early and see the sights before the heat of the day became oppressive. Being very remote, the dinosaur fossils lay undiscovered until 1909. Here’s 7 vertebrae and the femur of an Apatasaurus. WE walked a trail that had guides stationed to show you where the fossils were, as they often can be mistaken for a rock – which I guess they are, as mineralized bone.







The next night we camped in DNM at Echo Park. To reach Echo Park, one has to travel down a steep, dirt road, that is one lane in many parts and has heaps of switchback turns to navigate. The ranger informed us that if it rained, the road becomes impassible until 10 hours after the rain stops. As the forecast did not predict rain, we chanced it and made the drive. If you look closely at the photo you can see the road way down at the bottom of the canyon.



A hundred years ago, Basques from northwestern Spain found they could graze their sheep on the poor grasses here. Evidence of their time here is absent except for this mobile home.



In the 1950’s, this area was also proposed as a site for a dam or two, but the outcry was so loud that this area was left pristine, while Flaming Gorge (see above) became Flaming Lake.
Here’s our campsite.



On the drive down to Echo Park we passed sites where Indian petroglyphs were in abundance. See all those dots in the rock? That’s a petroglyph. Nobody can tell you for sure what they meant.





Also explored the Whispering Cave, where one can whisper at one end of the fissure and be clearly heard many feet away. Elaine felt especially strong & is holding up the cave’s opening. The best feature of the cave is that when it is 100 degrees outside, step one foot inside and it is in the 50s.



As you can see from the pic of the campsite, we were at the base of the canyon that has been carved by the Green & Yampa Rivers. Towering over us was the formation known as the Steamboat, a rocky mesa at the junction of both said rivers. See 2 views of the formation.





Elaine & I walked down to the river to cool ourselves off in the waters of the Green River.



While in the water, Elaine motioned to me to look across the river. Where a small herd of what we thought were elk, but were later informed by a expert hunter were mule deer, grazed in the late afternoon. They saw us and one kept watch on us while the others munched. Since they are not hunted in the park, they tolerate humans.



Next morning found us on a hike on the crest of the canyon (1,500 ft higher than our campsite), where we were treated to panoramic views of the area.









After leaving DNM, we spent a few days at a friend’s home in Colorado Springs, Colorado and then returned home for a couple weeks.


Trip #2 August – South Dakota

Our niece, Deb Trefz, has been asking us to come visit for years. Deb & Doug (& 5 children) live in a remote part of South Dakota, where they farm and ranch. I often joke that it is right on the edge of the earth and warn them to be careful not to fall off. In August, we made the decision to finally go to Onaka, South Dakota. Onaka is one of the larger towns in South Dakota (population 30). If you want to find it on a map, you had better be using a map of the state of South Dakota and maybe a magnifying glass.







While with the Trefz’s, we took the short drive to Faulkton to tour the Pickler mansion, a lawyer/legislator from the 1880s.



It was luxurious for the era and for the state, but if you reread the David Davis and Benjamin Harrison slutigrams, you can compare the photos to see what real luxury was in the eastern part of the country.







Enjoyed our time with them, a wonderful family.

Thence on to Fort Pierre, SD for a couple days with Elaine’s sister, Eileen & her husband Bob. I don’t have any pics of Bob & Eileen, but did take some of the area. Fort Pierre is where in 1913 the Verendrye plate was found by local school children. The plate was placed by the French explorer of the same name in 1743. The existence of the plates confirmed the historic claim that the French had traveled so very far west before they lost their colony to the British in 1763. The actual plate itself resides in a museum in the state’s capitol.



Explored the local museum, where relics of early pioneers and the native American Indians are in abundance.







Off to the Fort Pierre cemetery, where, among others one can find the graves of Casey Tibbs – one of America’s most famous rodeo riders.



The other notable personage interred there is Scotty Phillips. Never heard of him? Well, Phillip, SD is named after him. So what you say. Okay, how about this. Scotty is famous because it was through his efforts that the American Bison (buffalo) was saved from extinction. There were others who helped, but he is arguably the key person that kept alive a small herd, which became the base stock of the hundreds of thousands of these majestic beasts that once again roam the American plains, albeit all in privately or government herds. Thanks Scotty, they are awesome animals.



Trip # 3 Kansas

During the waning days of summer, in September, my brother David returned to Nebraska for a visit. Looks a bit like me. Don't ask me if he is my younger brother - he is not. David’s hobby is USA Presidents.



Last year, we went to see Harry Truman’s home and library in Independence, Missouri (see summer of 2008 blog). Truman’s successor was Dwight D. Eisenhower, the commander of Allied forces in Europe during WW II. He was born and raised in rural Kansas. His Presidential museum and library is located in Abiline, where he grew up.
After clearing the souvenir shop, one can view the modest prairie home that the Eisenhowers lived in during Dwight’s time at home before enrolling in the US Military Academy at West Point.





Next to his home is the Presidential Museum, which holds items from his birth all the way to his death. Eisenhower was president in my youth, the first President that I remember. He was elected in 1953 and served two terms, leaving office on January 20, 1961.



In the entry way, each wall is covered with a mural detailing a phase of his life.
Kansas childhood days



His wartime role



His first car, a 1913 electric vehicle. Looks a lot like the proposed Chevrolet Volt doesn't it.



Various Nazi mementos. Eisenhower had a visceral hatred of the Nazis and what they stood for. Films show his open disgust of what he saw at the liberated concentration camps.



When leaving office, Eisenhower warned the US people of the dangers of the military-industrial complex, under which we have operated since WWII. Our country has become the policeman of the world and the defense suppliers continue to prosper, even when peace threatens. I fear that we have and will continue to lose many of our enjoyed freedoms under the regimes of big government and big business.
I salute a great President.



President Eisenhower and his wife Mamie are interred in a chapel on the grounds.







Trip #4 North Platte, Nebraska

While David was visiting, we took a day trip to the small City of North Platte, Nebraska, an hour and a half west of our home. North Platte has several attractions, too much to see in one day. We focused on two.
A visit to the final home of the famous adventurer of the American West, Buffalo Bill Cody was our first stop. Allow several hours for an in depth view, or 30 minutes if you want to run through and see and learn nothing.





Buffalo Bill was born on February 26, 1846 in Iowa. In his pre-teen and teen years he was an ox-team driver, and was an assistant wagon-master by age 13. By 16, he was a miner in a gold rush in Pike’s Peak Colorado. If we had today’s child labor laws, Bill probably would not have done what he did in life.
During the Civil War, he served the Union as a Scout. By 1864, he had joined the Kansas Infantry. During his time in the Army, he drove the stage between Fort Kearney (5 miles from where we live) to Plum Creek (now known as Lexington, NE).



As far as records show, he spent about 1 month in school – which probably helps explain his exceptional creativity and maybe lack of business skills.
It was during 1867 to 1868 when he acquired his moniker “Buffalo Bill”. Quite the shot, he is said to have killed 4,280 buffalo in 8 months (thanks again to Scotty Phillips for keeping these wonderful beasts from Bill’s efforts at extinction). The buffalo meat was used to feed the railway workers who were crossing the plains with the rails at this time. There is no doubt, that another side effect, and perhaps the real reason for the wanton slaughter was to deprive our native American Indians of a major source of food, clothing and shelter.





He served in several capacities during the Indian Wars of the 1870’s, and was almost elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 1872. Sounds like a full life? He was only 26 in 1872.
After fighting the Indians in 1878, he settled in North Platte, buying a small ranch, which eventually totaled 4,000 acres (about 1,3500 hectares).
In 1882 he began the company known as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show which extensively toured the USA and the world and continued on tour for 34 years. He had some really famous names in his show: Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull are two.





He made loads of money from the show, but lost even more on poorly thought out or executed business ventures. Should have majored in business at my university.
Wild Bill has been honored on a few USA postage stamps (my hobby) and one group is on display at his home.



The home and furnishing, show that he was a prosperous man.









The home is a state park and can be visited for a nominal fee of a daily state park pass ($3.50)

The other site we visited was the Union Pacific Railroad’s Bailey Yard, which is the largest classification yard in the world. A classification yard is where railway cars are connected into trains. We viewed the operations of the yard from the Golden Spike Tower, which provides a great view of the trains being split up car by car and reassembled into completed trains.






Time for the impressive statistics. Every 24 hours, 15,000 rail cars are handled. The diesel engines that run this operation use 14,000,000 gallons (about 4 times this in litres) of fuel every month. Talk about carbon footprint. Of course, 1 gallon of diesel is said to be able to move 1 ton of product about 435 miles. Wish my car got mileage like that. They have a repair shop on site, where about 750 locomotives are fixed and where they replace about 10,000 pairs of railcar wheels annually.



We returned home after a very educational day, and our summer travels came to an end.