Back to the Green

The plain below the mountain enlarged the lake

Yet another road trip. That’s right we had an open day in our schedule, heaven forbid, and Sandy woke up with the thought that we should get out and about. The item on the short list was to head out to Mount St. Helen. You will recall that thirty years ago it blew up in a spectacular explosion captured for all time on film. This was a place of old growth forest in the Cascade range of mountains that had been developing a curious bulge on the side of the mountain. That bulge eventually grew to a sizable 450 foot bump before all of it first collapsed and then went skyward. As the Ranger said, “Think fifteen… in 15 seconds it collapsed, then in 15 minutes covered 15 miles with its debris, and 15 hours sent a plume 15 miles high eventually going around the globe.”

Good thing it was cool and comfortable

We started north from Vancouver, Washington at about eleven in the morning. Yes, we were slow getting organized. Blundering off of I-5 at exit 21 (Woodland) we meandered along SR-503 gaining altitude slowly at first then more radically further along. It was one of those green drives where the trees grow together overhead. It gets darker and darker and you start to think that you may not see the sun for awhile. That was not the case this day however.

A great deal of change has occurred

We broke into the sunlight at elevation (about 3500’ or so) and the landscape changed radically. The felled trees of a past forest pointedly giving a clear indication of the direction of the blast showed us much of what we find out from the Rangers talk. The enlarged Spirit Lake with its floating debris showed us secrets of pyroclastic flow and the lake’s water that dragged full trees from 800’ above its new level into its new dimensions as it splashed up and then returned to the lake. The sight of the station that was a mere five miles from the source of the bulge brought a shudder to my spine as I thought of the people trying to monitor the mountain in its final seconds before it blew everything away!! The sight of the new plain below the viewpoint where most of the collapsed bulge ended up and created the new blockage for Spirit Lake is a stark reminder of the destruction of the original forest that was there. Now, just 30 years later the floor of that ash-pumice plain is 80% covered with vegetation… but here we are talking just weeds and low brush at most.


The “weeds” are really wildflowers and that too was part of the day. The lupine fix nitrogen so it helped bring life back to the barren remains of the eruption within a year. The snow covered backside of the hills facing away from the blast also held the seeds of future growth for the area. The immense size of the destruction and loss of life was something to contemplate as we wandered around the viewpoint. We did not climb the hill to the north of the viewpoint because we were running out of time if we wanted to get back to Vancouver before dark. We had not had much for lunch, a bag of chips qualifies as lunch in this case, and getting dinner together was on the list. A sub-note to this trip was that if I had a scooter or a sports car of some sort I would love to take parts of this drive again for the curvy roads (lots of those 15 mph turns) and start earlier in the day!!

Small Towns ARE Fun

This is just a short post about what we did in Roseburg (just south of Sutherlin, Oregon) on a very pleasant summer's eve. These were only about 10% of what drove past as we stood on a corner in downtown Roseburg for a half an hour or so. A few pictures are posted at:

The Roseburg Cruise In

Up & Down Yosemite

Getting greener too as we go north!!

This is a tale of following your desire to see things that you have not previously had opportunity to see. When we left Las Vegas we wanted to get as far as Mina, Nevada before leaving US-95 and turning west. It was last year when we passed through Mina and spotted the large-ish motor yacht that seemed to be a restaurant. At the time we had just had lunch in Tonopah so simply took a couple of pictures and moved on down the road. Much later we learned some of the story behind the boat on dirt and wanted to make that stop this year. Well, mission accomplished. It turned out to be less than our anticipation but we can now check it off the list of stops we wanted to make. More about this later, perhaps.

Lake & Mountain

We made it to Hawthorne, Nevada where we found a great RV park for the night and readied for our assault on Yosemite. Now it has to be noted that our truck and trailer are a fairly heavy duo. I mean, we are carrying a lot of stuff north with us. The road leaving Hawthorne rises very quickly toward the pass through the mountains that make up Yosemite. Tioga Pass is said to be 9945 feet above sea level. There was road construction that halted our progress temporarily but did not deter us from continuing up and up and up! We even got through the forest services' fee station without payment since we now have a park pass good for life that we picked up when we were in Sedona going through Oak Creek Canyon (the best $10 we have spent thus far in our travels).

The problem with going up is you have to, eventually, go down. There are a lot of those 6% grade signs along that route and our gears did not handle keeping us slow enough to be in complete control and by half way down our brakes were smoking… oh yeah, really smoking!!! We stopped a few times to let things cool off and pulled off where possible to let others go around our slow progress. Eventually we made it to a lower elevation; ending up in Lodi, California at another great RV park.

It was here that I used the next morning to go off and find out how much damage we had inflicted on the brakes. I found a shop and they popped the truck up on the lift, took off the wheels to peer at the brakes. Sure enough where there is smoke there can be fire. The rotor on one front brake was pretty much toast and even the rear brake pads were in bad shape. Okay, replaced the critical stuff and we got on the road again just after 11:00 that morning. It cost us some to see Yosemite but, I have to say, it was worth it. Yosemite is not a place for towing anything and it was hard to find spots to pull over and take a few pictures. To do this trip over again we would find a place at the lower end of the road to leave the travel trailer and explore with just the truck. All in all it was a great but long day!!

Vegas in the Rearview Mirror

Kevin Burke and friend

Yesterday (at least as I write this) we went to the other two shows in a whirlwind day of excesses.

The first show was “Defending the Caveman” which turned out to be an hour and a bit more of a comedy one man show that I think gives a good fresh-ish look at the Men & Women issues that have been popular in books for the last 40 years or so. I have to say that this live rendition of common sense was very thoughtfully done and I would see it again. Laughing is good for you, you know!

The second was the Tournament of Kings at the Excalibur. This show was both less than expected and more than expected. The horsemanship was good and the plot predictable (if you could call it a plot). Since it’s really a dinner theater in a participatory setting you cannot get away from the fact that it was filled with meaningless participation. Fun for some but not all, from the looks of it. Eating with your hands was a good thing although there was really too much food and it was noisy (explosions and such). Overall it was enjoyable, but then, after being on the Strip for that length of time between shows was telling by the time we got to the show.

One thing I will say about all this is that when you order a beer in Vegas it is no longer what you used to have there. I mean, $8 for some version of Budweiser (the ONLY concession beer available… yuuuuck) is a bit over-the-top as far as I am concerned. The wine at the Caveman show was low grade grape peels and the thought of sitting in a side bar (so to speak) for the time to wait out the start of the next thing to do playing about $10 worth (using the term “worth” loosely, of course) of video poker while we swizzled a crappy beer should not be repeated. By the time we got back to the RV we were ready to get quiet and read for awhile. It was a productive day but we are ready to get out of here. I, for one, can only take a few days in Las Vegas and I suspect that on our trek going north next year we will choose another route. This was a stop of necessity since I had to empty out a storage locker so there won’t be any NEED to come here for, oh let’s say, about ten years. At least it was not as crowded on the Monday after July 4th!

The next stop will likely, hopefully, be somewhere in or around Yosemite National Park. There is not likely to be good internet or television so I may have to revert back to my revered cruising mode of not caring much for that!! Anyway, as Las Vegas fades behind us on US-95 I will be humming a new tune and looking forward to things in the Northwest.

The Las Vegas Experience

A Borrowed Picture

The Las Vegas I now know is much different than the one I knew prior to now!!

Normally, for me, Las Vegas was a place on my way to somewhere else or a brief stopover while working or simply a place to disappear some cash while I waited for something else to happen. Believe it or not, I never went to any of the shows here. I know, I know, how could that have been? Well, I am not completely sure I know the answer to that question but I suspect it has to do with my partner now correcting that problem.

As happens from time to time, Sandy instigated this and mentioned taking in a show or maybe two while we are here for me to empty out a storage unit I have had for the last year or so. It is hot and the stuff in storage is fairly dusty. By three in the afternoon I was ready to stop and do almost anything else. Sandy had been busy on the computer while I sorted through the contents of the storage unit trying to condense it all still further. Having down sized several times now and living the vagabond life that does not include hauling Stuff around I was really ready for a break. We had to go for a ride, Sandy said, and that was to be down into the heart of the insanity that is the area of the MGM Grand. Gads!! Traffic and tons of people… oh wait, it is the July 4th weekend… what was I thinking? Anyway, I had not gotten cleaned up yet and we were off to pick up tickets for KA. Slow traffic, difficult parking and not enough local knowledge to know how to overcome the obstacles without creating new ones made for an “exciting” trip into the maw!

As it turned out when we got to the ticket counter we had the assistance of a somewhat scattered but very friendly and helpful lady who got the tickets for, not one but three shows that Sandy had scheduled us for!! Yikes!!! I still had boxes to go through. The show started at 7:00 but we had to get there no later than 6:45 so we would participate in the “Pre-Show”. We also still had to get back to the RV Park to clean up and grab a snack or maybe dinner too. “Not likely,” I thought as we got lost on our way back to the RV. We needed gas, we needed an ATM, we definitely needed showers (or, I did at least) and we needed a map to get back to the MGM on a better route. The showers were handled, the meal and/or snack went by the way side but we did manage to get some gas, find an ATM and locate a serviceable map. Then off we raced to get back to the theater (“theatre” on property). This was a race we were losing but we gamely stuck to it and arrived breathless at 6:30. After some confusion about the location of our seats we settled in; not daring fate by going up to the concession for refreshment.

The occasional flaming ball would erupt from the stage and the sound system was noticed to be first rate as we waited. Everywhere there were signs and portents of the act to follow that said it would be in a class of its own. The surrounds of the seating had indications of action to take place and the stage was in absence except for a thin walkway curving around in front of where you would expect the stage to be.

The Pre-Show was illuminating for those who forget to leave their cell phones at home or those that believe everything in universe can and should be photographed. Let’s just say that the message was quite clear… but still missed by the guy sitting in front of us as he snapped pictures (thankfully mostly without flash) for first part of the show.

So, here is where I will NOT include a blow by blow account of the action that ensued. What you really need to know is that I doubt many have seen the perfection to which stagecraft has ascended without having seen a Cirque du Soleil performance. The actor/gymnasts are incredible as well but their back drop is the multi-layered hydraulically moved sections of stage and the ropes and cables that has truly special effects happening rapid fire from all directions all the time! As I said a few hours later, “I am still processing what I saw,” and even now trying to recall all the bits and pieces I have snatches of things that will continue to have impact for the months to come!! This was really an experience beyond what I had expected (I mean, real fireworks on stage!!!).

Take a look:

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ka/default.aspx