TOURIST IN MY OWN TOWN.

I feel fortunate that I have a friend who not only brings me brownies, but will, at the merest suggestion, drive me downtown Murphys where we pretend to be tourists. That is Jan Stewart. Always ready to seize the day.


I hadn't been to Hovey's tasting room in ages, nor had I seen this clever sign.


Inside I was pleased and surprised by the variety of craft beers they support. The public likes wine but they also like good beer.


Another sign drew us into Frog's Tooth, a wine I'd never sampled.


At 10:00 a.m. neither of us were in the mood for wine tasting, but they had a barrel full of good reds to be had for $12 a bottle.


Of course, because of Mark Twain, frogs are a prominent feature in Calaveras County, but what I liked here is the warmth and friendliness of the staff. A very inviting atmosphere.


This customer is wearing a shirt from a tasting room in  an old school-house, I believe she said in Grass Valley. It reflects the grammar school punishment of writing on the black board over and over again, I Promise Not To Hit Tommy, or some such. Cute.


Town was loaded with motorcycles, all coming for the "Jumps", as they relate to the Calaveras Fair and Frog Jumping Jubilee. Nationally famous after its small beginnings.  I remember a picture of Little Flower, Governor LaGuardia who attended the Jumps as fascination with jumping a frog spread far and wide.


Both bikers, the guy on the left hugged Jan and said,"I know you!"  He is her chimney sweep. His buddy said, "If anybody had told me I'd be a biker with multiple tattoos on my body, I'd have said yer crazy." I had to laugh to find they are locals from Murphys. Tourists just like us.


I liked this gal's leathers and took a picture and she said, "No, no. You caught me with a phone and I'm constantly pushing people I know to put their damned phone away and look up."  So, she posed for me on her bike.


Creative. Guess we can call her Spider Woman, and, by the way, she is from Murphys.


She looked askance at the big hogs lining the street and said, "If one of these guys tips his bike over, he will not be able to pick it up by himself."  We concluded they are for show and pride of ownership as well as performance.


There were some out-of-towners.


I wanted a picture of this guy's curled mustache because it reminded me of Joe Cardoza, a former neighbor and local character who grew his curled and waxed mustache about seven inches long for the local Whiskerino Contest. He had too much to drink and went for a haircut. Jack, the barber was a known prankster and cut half of his mustache off, I expect with Joe's consent. I thought it was cruel, even so.


There were street musicians.


The Murphys Hotel hired a band. The courtyard was packed with people eating, enjoying the music and even getting up to dance in the tight space around the musicians.


A couple local vets told us they placed 400 flags on veteran graves with Memorial Day coming up. They do it every year.

Among  those who served I knew Norm Tanner and a couple others. Norm was a good friend to my husband. I'll be sure to remember those close to me who were vets; I may not get to a grave, but there will be a knot in my heart has I put out the flag on my deck.

A CANDLE FOR OUR TROOPS.

My cousin Rita suggested that we should place a candle in our windows as a way to honor our troops every day during December.  A very fitting reminder of our troops and their separation from families at this time of year.

My candle has to be fed. It sits on a marble dish inside of a glass holder and I expect it will be safe, and I don't mind replacing the votives in it every day.

I may be anti-war and I abhor the number of lives we've lost, and the anguish that war brings, but I've always been a supporter of our troops and our veterans.  Amen.

CAUSLAND MEMORIAL PARK, ANACORTES

Jim and I have moved on to Monroe, Wa. where we are parked at Thunderbird Thousand Trails on the Skykomish River. But, I'm still blogging Anacortes because it has so many unique features, like this World War I Memorial Park. It is named for Vernon Causland a local vet killed during the war.

War memorials are fairly common things to see as we travel about the country. This is the 2nd one we've seen designated a National Heritage Site. It is a beautiful and unique park. The single building, this gazebo type structure is at the front entrance.

The park is fenced on two sides by unique rock walls. This is one corner.

I walked along the side street, fascinated by the detailed work put into this wall.

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The wall undulates, dipping at places and higher at other spots.

It curves into a side entrance.

The walls are unique, but it isn't the only beautiful aspect of this park.

It has sweeping vistas of tiered grassy seating and about an acre of lawn above this spot with beautiful trees and flowers. A very restful place.

I'll blog no more of Anacortes, but if you want to see the 40 pictures I took of Mitchell's Murals in a slideshow, click on the link below.

2014-8-15-Anacortes Murals Project

LIVERMORE VETERANS FACILITY.

Driving through Livermore yesterday, down First St., I spotted what I thought was an evergreen in bloom. It took a second to realize this evergreen is festooned with yellow ribbons. The significance, I’m guessing, is a welcoming home of returning veterans. Amazing, isn’t it?  That a simple song about welcoming home a wayward lover has spread across America and brings a warm, fuzzy feeling every time you see this in communities all over the U.S.- to know that someone is welcoming someone home.


A huge veterans medical facility is located on Arroyo Rd. A beautiful drive past Concannon, Wente and other vineyards.  This lovely old Mission Adobe style building serves a lot of people. It was a hospital at one time, but now nothing but minor emergency surgeries are done here.


The facade tells me the building was built in 1947. It is still in great shape unlike our abandoned mental facilities that were closed during Reagan’s presidency in the belief that drugs would control mental problems. It hurts to see crumbling old buildings serve no purpose, so this one was a joyful chorus.


Jim was given a very comprehensive eye examination by Doctor Pineda.


She checked and measured and photographed, then rechecked every aspect of his eye health. Pressure in his eye is caused by a cataract and not from glaucoma.  A second cataract is building on his left eye. He will need surgery.


Conclusive evidence by a very competent and efficient doctor who will now pass that information along to a surgeon who works out of their Palo Alto facility.  We now know it will take about 6 months before they can fit him in the schedule at Palo Alto. We expect his surgery will be done sometime in October.
We ate East Indian food at the Clay Pot on First St. in Livermore.  It has been so many years since I’ve driven through town I barely recognized the place for the beautiful upgrades, nice restaurants and upscale small businesses.

I wanted to show Jim the oldest light bulb in the United States, perhaps the world, but I could no longer spot where the old City Hall was? I saw it when I was 17 years old, and I know the light bulb was still burning after 100 years and I wondered if it was still so? I went on-line, and found the whole story.
 Check it out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Light

SIX MILLION RV'S ON THE ROAD.

Memorial Day is tomorrow. We read where there are an estimated six million rv's  on the road for this three-day holiday. Jim has a philosophy, and that is to hunker down somewhere for popular holidays and stay off the road. We spent Thursday night at an American Legion in Dillsburg,  PA. We saw bunches of vets with motorcycles headed for various parades and festivities honoring vets. Friday morning, he drove through another rain storm to bring us to a Thousand Trails in Hershey, PA.

 I took a couple of barn pictures between raindrops.

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I compared the beauty of the land to this painting from the Shenandoah Valley Museum. The same general area.

And this painting. An unusual boat for American waters. I've never seen any thing like it. You can click on it to enlarge it.

It was beastly cold and we stayed in and read  and did computer chores most of the day. A short walk away, ducks were so cold we thought at first they were decoys; their heads tucked under wings.
Then, yesterday, we did our laundry and walked to the visitors center for a look around. The pool opened for the season, but I wasn't up to braving the cold. We looked through the library and traded books we've read for some we haven't.  I'm walking slowly, so Jim took an evening walk by himself.

I'm reading an excellent book entitled My Dream Of You by Nuala O'Faolain.  O'Faolain returns to her native Ireland to dig up a story of an aristocratic family during the potato famine. I'm French/Irish and it reminds me that there was genocide in Ireland during that horrific period. Living on the road for months at a time, gives me the luxury of reading good books as well as my trash novels, and I love it.

POLITICS FRONT AND CENTER.

The debates have everyone atwitter, Biden smiled and chuckled too much, Ryan hesitated too long before answering a question he clearly didn’t expect about abortion, yatta ta yatta ta yatta. I guess the pundits have to earn their money someway, but not one of them mentioned the most telling line from Biden:
The next president will pick two jurists to serve on the United States Supreme Court. If the Romney ticket wins, you can expect a conservative court to be even more conservative. I think having such an unbalanced court is a disaster as in their recent decision giving corporations the same rights as a human. That is something to think about.
Ryan avoids answering the direct question, what is their plan to bring 12 million higher-paying jobs to Americans.  He says they will do it, but he can’t explain how. Biden says the way to get back to work is to let the Bush tax cuts expire and level the playing field for middle class Americans. Help out where needed just like the banks were helped. Working people PAY taxes.
It makes me nervous to watch the debates. I don’t watch the horrible ads I hear about. But, we have so much to lose and be concerned about if our leaders fail us. If there was only some way we could be guaranteed what we hear is honest, and hear plans to solve problems that are clear and concise. This campaign has given the fact checkers a lot of business. There are more, and more fact checkers needed. We should require our congressional leaders to take ethics classes before they take their oath. I would just once like to see a fact checker at a debate slap one of them across the knuckles with a ruler when he or she lies. And, I’d just once like to hear an ad that says, “This message has passed the fact checker for truthfulness.”
(I didn’t hear from the pundits that there was a proliferation of lies at this debate like the Presidential debate.)
And, no one mentioned Republican Senator Larry Pressler’s endorsement of President Obama, and the positive things the Obama Administration has done for veterans.
Yesterday, I proudly endorsed President Obama.
As a combat veteran of two tours of Vietnam with 22 years of service as a Republican member of the U.S. House and Senate, the choice was not easy.
But it is clear: President Obama recognizes that our sacred trust with those who serve starts when they take their oath, and never ends.
That’s why he’s enacted tax credits to spur businesses to hire unemployed veterans and wounded warriors. He implemented and improved the post-9/11 GI Bill, the largest investment in veterans education since the original GI Bill more than 60 years ago. He’s proposing a Veterans Jobs Corps that would help put returning service members to work as police officers, firefighters, and first responders.
President Obama ended the war in Iraq, and has a plan to responsibly end the war in Afghanistan. He’s laid out a clear plan that would reduce the deficit and prevent the mandatory arbitrary military spending cuts that no one wants.
And something that hits close to home: President Obama secured the largest increase in VA investments in decades, so veterans get the care and benefits they earned, like treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury. As someone with service-related PTSD, I meet with younger veterans weekly to help them through the treatment and transition. It makes a difference for them knowing their president has their back.
And let me be clear: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would be disastrous for America’s service members, veterans, and military families.
When you fail to mention an ongoing war in accepting your party’s nomination to be president, or veterans in a so-called jobs plan, the public praise rings hollow.
Mitt Romney has time and again failed the test to be commander-in-chief of our nation’s military. When he politicized the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other brave Americans in Libya, he demonstrated that he lacks the required resolve and steadiness. He sowed division between “us” and “them” when he wrote off 47 percent of Americans, including any veteran collecting disability like myself. He has still failed to outline any plan to end the war in Afghanistan or bring our troops home.
He has not proven himself fit to serve as commander-in-chief of this nation.
Now, that is clear and concise.

WE RIDE FOR THOSE WHO CAN'T

We meet a lot of veterans on the road as we travel like this Air Force Veteran.  He and a Navy buddy ride together and are proud to have ridden all the way to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C.  I visited the Memorial;  I don’t remember what year it was. We, like many others, traced the name of a friend.  It was an emotional experience. Especially the notes, and flowers, and meaningful (to them) trinkets that people lay next to the wall where their loved ones names are etched in stone  forever.
We’ve seen several of these Veteran Biker Groups on various missions.  Just seeing them reminds us of All Gave Some, Some Gave All.

Wherever I see a vet just minding his own business, I feel shy about walking up to him and thanking them, but we do smile in a friendly way and say hello. If they have cameras we  offer to take their pictures for them.  It is one thing I can do, as small as that may be.  This duo let me take their picture for my blog, and we took their pictures in front of the ruins we were all admiring, with their cameras.

Both of these guys made the trip All The Way in 2011 and in 2012.  The theme is We Ride For Those Who Can’t.  I didn’t ask their names,  but I’m going to make a point of doing so the next time we meet a veteran biker and post their pictures on the blog.

I fly to Vegas this afternoon for a visit with my son and daughter and their families for two days.  Then, home to Murphys for my family reunion. Besides everyday business to catch up on, each time I return home, I make it a point to finish one major  project  I started.  I’ll be in touch via this blog and give you a look into what goes on in my very active community.
We’re parked in the City of Farmington, in  a huge parking lot behind the shuttle service that will deliver me to Alburquerque Airport later this morning.   Then Jim will head for high ground, cooler temperatures, hopefully, and more rest for his injury which still plagues him.

REMEMBERING

Memorial Day, Wendy Jaillet and daughter Jaime marched 3 miles in the Essex Memorial Day Parade, near Ivoryton. Wendy is a girl scout trip leader. I bought a poppy, forgetting that they still do that. I hadn't seen a vet selling poppies since moving to Murphys.
This county put their flags at half staff for a local man who recently died in Afghanistan.
I'm conflicted because I'm against wars as a way of solving problems because it causes so much pain and sacrifice. The cost is not only human carnage. Right now, the trillions spent on our current conflict could more productively be used to assist nation building and lower our national debt.
Remembering those who served and sacrificed? On this trip since January,  I've visited Fort Bowie in Arizona, The huge Pacific War Museum at Fredericksburg, Texas, Chalmette Battlefield, the Cabildo, Port Hudson and the LaFitte National Parks of Louisiana, covering the Revolutionary War of 1776, The War of 1812,  The Spanish American War and the Civil War. More Civil War battlefields in Gettysburg, PA, and Harpers Ferry in W.Virginia. War is a vivid culture of countries, men and politics like no other.
In short, Memorial Day reminds me of the service and sacrifice made by our armed services and many civilians as well, but it also reminds me of the killing machine going on right now. I despise that it is deemed  necessary. I sometimes think my friends believe people who are anti-war are unpatriotic. Not true. Patriotism is as much about keeping the peace as it means fighting for our country's values. Defining those values is not a straight street, and I take it very personally.

My partner Jim Jaillet in 1961.   

WAYWARD COWS AND ABANDONED HORSES

This is Suzy, sweet and kind and sharing and fun! Her other strong trait is an empathy for animals. I was gone for two months, and what happens? Suzy finds a wandering cow. First it is in Brian's yard. Then its on the road. Next the pasture at Gonzalez'. The whole neighborhood has seen the wayward cow except ME of course. Its a smart cow. It gathers where the grass is greenest. (Of course, I'm missing my camera right now.) This isn't the first time she has guided a lost pony, sheep, dog, cat or cow to its rightful owner. Then, the worst happened. A horse was down on the road. Suzy held its head and tried to make it comfortable. It was extremely thin. It hadn't had its teeth floated and couldn't chew so it was starving. Its hooves hadn't been filed and it couldn't walk comfortably. She got it up and tried to walk it to her barn, but it collapsed. The Deputy from Animal Control and Suzy stayed and held vigil until a horse trailer arrived. The horse died before the vet could treat it. Suzy burst into tears and speculated that with the economy in the tank, so many people not working, they just turn their horses loose. Her message is: THAT DOESN'T WORK!! The horse suffered and died. Please, let someone know, 4-H, or Suzy Hayes on Pennsylvania Gulch Rd. at 728-8949. People will take your horse in and care for it until a new owner can be found. Amen!

Lechuguilla, Planet Earth, Young Friend From Murphys

The Planet Earth video showed the most pristine cave in the world, right in our own backyard near Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. Discovered and discarded as a nothing place it's true scope came to light in the 1980's. Travis Deem of Murphys, Ca., at age seventeen was one of a lucky group of cavers who were allowed the privilege of joining an exploration team. In a recent letter to me he talks about that experience and how it shaped his life.

"It is hard to believe that it has been almost 20 years since my first trip to Lechuguilla. I have also seen the footage from the Planet Earth series and it is spectacular, almost like being there.

I have not been to the cave since the early 1990's. Despite all the time that has passed there is seldom a day that goes by that I do not think about the early days of exploration at Lechuguilla and the amazing privilege that I, and several others from our caving group have had as part of it.

The article you wrote had several pictures to accompany it, one of which has two of my teenage friends Greg Stock and Kyle Fedderly entering a cave. Both of them went on to become world-class cavers, not only participating in numerous expeditions to Lech (Greg was there this spring) but also to Europe and Borneo. I spoke with Greg ( whom I had not seen except in pictures from caving magazines since we were in college) just about two weeks ago. He is now the first ever park geologist for Yosemite National Park. During our brief phone conversation he remarked about how those days were instrumental in shaping his life and I have to agree the same is true for mine. In an age were every surface of this planet (and several other planets) has been mapped, I take heart in knowing that common people can still venture into the unknown and make discoveries that can astonish the world. Those who have been blessed with the opportunity to enter Lech have all, in at least some small way, taken their place with the great explorers of other ages. I know that sounds a little melodramatic, but I believe it is true. I asked Greg if Lech has paled in comparison to the other adventures he has had caving all over the world and he assured me that both for himself and other Lech veterans it still stands out as the jewel in the crown of speleology.

As I get older I sometimes find myself wondering if it all really happened, did a bunch of kids really get to engage in exploring the most significant cave discovery of the 20th century? Did I really walk through those rooms filled with forests of crystal and sleep over 1,000 feet below the New Mexico desert? I recall very well waking up on Christmas morning 1989 along with Greg and Kyle in an area called the Western Borehole where all the floors were covered with snow white gypsum, that is one white Christmas I will never forget. I cannot overemphasize the grandeur and beauty of that place. As you can probably suspect, I would go again in a heartbeat.

The exploration that occurs now is much more regulated than in the old days. Although that probably means I will never return I believe it is for the best. Some past practices did real harm to certain areas of the cave and, once damaged, the cave has no means of healing itself. Exploration will go on but now the groups are small and their activities are limited.

I do still cave, now with my own children. I hope that their own experiences will shape them to appreciate the natural world, to be brave, but not foolhardy, and to treasure the fact that they live in a world where there is still a frontier to explore.

Travis Deem

Thank you Travis for enlightening us once again with your experience at Lechuguilla.