So this is Christmas; Mahomet Kneller style

Since my last post, Georgia and I have been holed up at home while her foot heals from surgery. We had to be a bit creative with Christmas gifts this year since running from store to store just wouldn't do. For the most part, it worked out pretty well. Last Christmas we added 2 "Mexicans" to the family. Gerardo and his son with Brianna, Bruno. This year, Aaron joined us from Ethiopia and Rod, Jacqueline and Celina just returned from China with Charlie. Last year, Bruno was only 14 months old, so this year, with 3 new little guys running around (Bruno and Aaron at 2 and Charlie at 3), we were looking forward to the excitement being turned up a notch. It was great!!! My facebook friends can see more pictures of the occasion, but here are a few. Hope you enjoy. Oh, the Christmas ornaments I made for the "grandkids" were penguins. I hated to resort to that because I'm old enough that penguins just aren't symbols of Christmas, but my originality was limited this year. We actually found the "pattern" for the penguins on the back of the exam room door at Christie Clinic on Windsor when we had our last visit with Georgia's podiatrist. Cell phones with cameras can be wonderful at times. Also I made stepstools for the 3 little guys and "train tables" with bins to store toys. We were blessed with a really white Christmas. In fact, we celebrated on Dec. 24 and it snowed pretty much all afternoon and evening at our house.

Let's call it September Song

Several different things to talk about, but none large enough to stand alone. Just a potpourri of notions.
I'll start with the most important. Georgia is now 2 weeks out from her foot surgery. Not a fun time, but hopefully it will lead to her ability to walk without the pain she has dealt with for the last year.. and more. The good thing is that I am retired, so as I have told her, she is my job right now. Monday we see the surgeon who I think will remove the cast and remove skin staples and we will see what happens from here. One "little" thing that happened is really hers to tell, but I'm not sure when she will be able to do it, so I'll jump in here and tell the tale. She had considerable consternation before the surgery but during prayer and bible reading, she felt that she had a promise that Jesus would be with her.  On the way in to surgery, while the anesthesiologist was establishing a venous line, her vein collapsed and he ended up needing to "dig for it"... Ouch!. Speaking of anesthesiologists, my sister sent this link to something posted by a fellow blogspot user who happens to be an MD radiologist. We'll call it the singing anesthesiologists... Don't miss it. Here's the link.
http://nottotallyrad.blogspot.com/2009/11/waking-up-is-hard-to-do.html

Back to Georgia's story. We got through the surgery and got home and on the couch with the aid of a wheel chair. A day or 2 later, I had noticed that the inside of her forearm was bruised from the attempted catheterization, but some where during that time, Georgia said, "look at this. What do you see?"... I'm going to give you the picture now, but wait til later to tell you what we saw on her arm. Whatcha think????

OK, on to the second subject. One of my favorite plants is Sweet Autumn Clematis. You can filter back through my posts to see how we got our original start from a neighbor rather than boring you with it again. It is another neet story, I think. It is a flower that makes you wait all summer for blooms, but when they come, they are glorious. The name is true to form. It doesn't bloom until fall and smells so sweet. Bees and butterflys love it. I'm posting pictures here of what we have come to. I had put the first one on the mailbox. I'm sure the mail lady dreads the fall at our house because she has to reach into this haven for bees to put our mail in the box. From that one, last year, one grew up on the little garden bench in the rose garden, then this year, I left one grow on the porch railing. In some of these pictures you can see all 3 of them in their glory.  So early in September, they were covered with sweet white blossoms. Today, I went out and took some more pictures showing the second and I think just as beautiful phase. Each blossom is replaced by these silvery, thready things that catch the light and give a new but equally interesting appearance.  While you're looking at the clematis, you can also see our pitiful lawn. Most of the lawns in our neighborhood look like this.  Can you see in the later picture that maybe there is a little more green? I think most, if not all of the lawn is dormant rather than dead, but as was stated on "Coffee with the Plant Experts" last Saturday morning on WDWS, "The only way to tell the difference is with water.".. We are in for a few days of rain, so we will soon see if it's time to enlarge flower gardens or mow grass.

The 3rd subject is an addition to my education. I really have trouble believing that I didn't know this, and I'll be you were way ahead of me on this one, but I'm going to tell you what I learned this week. Yesterday was the "first day of fall".. the autumnal equinox. For years I have known that here in Illinois, in the spring, the sun starts coming up 1 minute earlier and sets 1 minute later until the "longest day" on June 21 when it then rises 1 minute later and sets 1 minute earlier until December 21, the "shortest day". I also knew that March 21 (my birthday) was the "first day of spring" and September 21 (not this year) the "first day of fall"... I knew that the term "equinox" and vernal equinox was in there somewhere. Not until now did I really understand that my birthday is the vernal equinox and we just experienced the autumn equinox... Because of my profession, I assumed that the term equinox had something to do with horses in greek mythology.... Not so McGee! Equinox is related to EQUAL, Oh! Yes, the vernal equinox and the autumn equinox are the 2 days of the year in which the daylight and dark hours are EQUAL... Boy can I sound smart when I have learned something new. It only took me 68 years to learn this one. Yes, Judy, I'm 68! and proud of it. But not so proud of the fact that this important fact about my birthday has evaded me for so many years.  Now I know why I tend to be so "even keeled"...  nuf sed. Oh... on Georgia's bruise, do you see our Savior standing there with his hands out???? We do! And now that we think we are through the worst part of the surgery, the image is fading from her arm. And why not, it is written in her mind and heart.

A Week in Appalachia

Have been too busy lately to get this post up in a timely manner, but felt the experience was significant enough to go ahead and put it together for my many followers (heehee?)
Mid August we attended the annual meeting of the American College of Veterinary Radiology (ACVR). It was a must, to keep my certification current. There were so many facets to the trip that I'm sure I'll leave out something significant, but I'll go  with what I remember. Because we can't travel fast and far, we broke up the 11 hour drive to the meeting in Asheville, NC by stopping in Berea, Kentucky. In many of our trips since 1969 from Georgia and Florida to Indiana and Illinois (and back) I remember seeing signs to Berea and it always struck a note. I knew that it had something to do with Bible scholars, then later a Christian bookstore came to Champaign, Il named the Berean Bookstore.. I also knew that was some kind of special college there. As I prepared for this trip, I stumbled onto the "Boone Tavern" which is a historic hotel in Berea.. Finding that they were advertising the first annual Celtic Arts Festival in Berea for the weekend after the ACVR meeting, I booked a room there for the return trip.  More of that later.

View of Grove Park Spa from our window

View of Sunset Grill from our room at Grove Park Inn

As I have been attending the ACVR meetings only every 3 years for some time (the minimal requirement). I was looking forward to renewing relationships with collegues from around the country and World. I saw Dr. Graham Allen from Austrailia and Dr. Chris Lamb from the British Isles along with a lot of people I had worked with in the past and a bunch of people I had helped train in Radiology. The highlight for me, however was to get to have breakfast with Dr. Bob Lewis. Although many veterinary radiologists have influenced my technical skills, Dr. Lewis has probably had more influence on me than any other person aside from my own mom and dad. Dr. Lewis was one of the pioneers in Veterinary Radiology who with 10 or 12 other people formed the "Educators in Veterinary Radiologic Science" (EVRS) and later the ACVR. I have the dubious distinction of being the last secretary of the EVRS before it was disbanned in leau of the emerging ACVR. However his influence was more than that. When we started in vet school, I thought it was to care for hogs and cattle and a few horses. I didn't even know they x-rayed animals. During the last 3 years of vet school, I worked for Dr. Lewis as a work study student while attending school. In addition, Georgia and I sat for he and Mary Lu's children, Mona and Paula. I found I really enjoyed being a "shadow chaser", probably a lot due to his apparent peace and confidence coupled with  a reality based approach in this diagnostic specialty. He, like me was from a small Indiana town (Mitchell; where the school bus factory functioned until 1995. It is also the birthplace of Gus Grissom.) Back to Bob Lewis; When we graduated from vet school, we looked at some radiology training positions, but decided to join a general practice in Parker City, Indiana (See previous post "How do you hug a house")... It wasn't going as we expected and Dr. Lewis told us about a radiology training position opening at the University of Georgia. We took the position and believe it or not, a year later, guess who joined the radiology faculty at the University of Georgia to help oversee my training!!!! Yup. None other than Dr. Robert E. Lewis. I think he came to Georgia to finish the job in my development.  I could go on and on. I could not have found a better mentor if I had sent out a notice and combed through hundreds of applications.  I have included a picture of myself, Dr. Lewis, and Dr. Bob Badertscher at the meeting. Dr. Badertscher was the 3rd and last ACVR diplomate Dr. Lewis and I trained together after I joined the UGA faculty and before I left for the University of Illinois.  Not only are we influenced by those who "train" us, but by those we "train".  (Thanks to both BOBS.) Renewing old friendships was great. The material from the meeting was great, but the place where the meeting was held is a story in itself. You probably know about the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. Not far from the Biltmore is the Grove Park Inn Resort and Spa.. Another "historic hotel". http://www.groveparkinn.com/Leisure/  This place was built by "Dr". EW Grove a pharmacist and St. Louis entrepreneur who made his millions in the 1890s peddling an elixir called Grove’s Tasteless Chill Tonic. My, My, My.. This ain't Motel 6.  They have images of hundreds of "famous" people who have been there including 8 presidents from Bush to Obama (Barry played basketball there in April). Roosevelts, Harding Coolidge. etc. I have included a few pictues, but can't capture the enormity and grandeur of this place overlooking tier after tier of blue ridge mountains. It's a little "spendy", but definitely worth a look for a holiday. While there we took a trolley bus (grayline) tour of Asheville. Matt, our guide and driver grew up on Asheville so gave us a real "homer" view of this very interesting city. That trip was topped of by the accelerator of the bus sticking and we had to abandon it and take another bus to finish the tour.

Badertscher, Lewis, Kneller (not really brothers by blood)

Although we had been there before, we planned to do an abbreviated tour of the Biltmore on Friday before leaving Asheville. However, let's just say.. "that didn't work out", and we headed back to Berea. We pulled up to the Boone Tavern just before dark. http://www.boonetavernhotel.com/  Another cool place. As I was checking us in, Georgia saw the end of the first session of the Celtic Arts Festival which was next door (I knew that).. and a guy in a kilt with a bagpipe lead a procession into campus (Berea College) http://www.berea.edu/ They were gone by the time I came out.  The next morning after breakfast, I came out the back of the hotel to find a group of players under a small tent playing Celtic music... song after song after song. It was neet as players would join in as they came and others would leave when they needed to, but the music continued without a hitch. The hotel was a story in itself, but I'll let you get that fromt their site. The Celtic Festival is another story. it was primarily the work of a few people who invited a number of players from all over (I am aware of Kansas, Atlanta, Cincinnati, North and South Carolina, Virginia and Kentucky. Some from very nearby. Basically sessions were roughly planned. They played under tha small tent the most, then when it rained, went into the small cafe run by one of the organizers, (see video),  in the campus amphitheater  (we didn't get there), and in the Berea Center for the Arts. http://www.berea-center-arts.com/  more videos. This was a hot little loft which was perfect for the genre. (more videos). The harpist also played in a church service Sunday morning, but we didn't make that... To make it perfect, as we were leaving, a group of them were playing on the porch of the Boone Tavern Hotel. Although it was really difficult to tear ourselves away, home was ahead and darkness was a promising adversary.  Again, I have tried to capture a bit of the spirit of the Festival, but doubt I can do it justice. For a "boy" who remembers the Herrons of Whitely and Noble County, Indiana sitting in a circle after Sunday dinner (noon meal to country folks) playing these instruments this was a short trip to music heaven. The point of the Festival was to bring the music from "the old country" to the center of appalachian music (bluegrass). Scottish and Irish people settle appalachia and brought the music with them. Over time, mountain and bluegrass versions of the music developed. I mentioned Scottish people. An instrument that I believe was developed in appalachia is the dulcimer. If you've heard one, it has the droning background similar to a bagpipe. This brings us to another great aside in Berea. Just around the corner from the Boone Tavern is Warren May's Dulcimer and Furniture shop. http://www.warrenamay.com/ Warren started building dulcimers and furniture years ago. You are welcomed into his shop where he is putting finishing touches on his handmade dulcimers... As he talkes with you he can't help walking over to the counter and picking up a dulcimer and playing a tune, maybe singing a bit as he tells a story.  Another great experience, just to visit. Then to make it even more special, last Sunday, I was flipping channels and came across the Woodright's shop, a PBS show I used to watch a lot. He was doing a thing on Berea College and although I didn't think to record it, he spent time in Warren's shop giving the world the same experience we had enjoyed the previous week, there in Berea. To take it furter, there was a special on another channel called "the Heart and Soul of America".. If you can find it, I really recommend viewing it... Again, I was too late to record it, but during a segment on appalachia, there he was again; a cameo of Warren May in his shop. This of course made our experience even more special.  Leaving Warren and continuing with instruments, the Celtic players brought fiddles, banjos, mandolins, guitars, accordions, concertinas, a couple of bodhrans, tin whistles, flutes, Irish bagpipes, a harp and a couple of instruments that had previously escaped my observation. I thought they were some kind of lute, but after exposing my ignorance was told they were bouzoukis, kind of an overgown mandolin. Great mellow sound. I later found that there are Irish Bouzoukis, Greek Bouzoukis, and some others. On the porch Sunday afternoon, some of the players were discussing the similarity of Celtic music and some Scandanavian folk music. During that conversation, I discovered how similar Celtic music was to one of my personal favorites; Zydeco. Same instruments, same rapid fire melody. Check the Zydeco site in my "sites to watch" if you don't know Zydeco. Oh, the young man (Alex) in the flowered shirt and floppy hair plays 7 instruments... much like one of our gandsons. Notice in the first video that you can see us in the mirror.

Celtic players under the tent behind the cafe in Berea

"Concert" in Berea Center for the Arts (Note program)

Impromptu session of porch of Boone Tavern

This was a familiar sight to me. Very much like was seen around our family during the late 80's and can be seen on Briarcliff in Springfield, IL today.

I can't leave this post without a bit more on Berea College. Built on biblical principles with no particular demoninational bent, the theme of the college is Learning, Work, Service. "You bring the brains, we'll bring the rest". The target students are those who can't afford education, but have the drive to succeed. Basically tuition is apparently paid by gifts of alumni and friends of the college. They will find you a job (and you must work) to help pay for your housing and books. There is apparently a maximum family income level for admission. What a concept. Lift poor students out of poverty, educate them and let them pay for the education of others out of their plenty. Every student we met was a joy to encounter. Oh, did I say that the weekend we were there was also student move in weekend??? Lots of cars and pick-ups clogging the streets for one weekend. But we survived. If we ever find a time when we don't "need" to be somewhere, we think a 5 hour trip to Berea will be refreshing.  Having now been to the west coast several times in the past few years, we find that there is some great stuff in the more nearby area. Mayby not as grand as the Rockies, the Cascades or the Pacific ocean, but altogether as gorgeous and fulfilling to encounter. Check these videos. The last video is part of a dance demonstration at the Center for the Arts. I include it here as a tribute to one of our "locum friends" from Oregon State; Carol Colton who we lost tragically last year. One of her passions was "Contra Dancing". Which I had never heard of. When she talked about it, her Irish eyes would just sparkle. I checked it out and found that it was very much like "square dancing" which I grew up on in Indiana. I'm pretty sure this is more of what she was into than the form of square dancing I was familiar with. It did look like fun.

How do you hug a house?

If you've been following us, you know that since early June we have not spent more than 2 days at home. Although we have enjoyed the places we've been and the people we interfaced with, it really is good to be home (if only for a short time again). For the first time, while unloading the explorer, I kept getting this feeling of doing the "Snoopie Dance".. you know what I mean? I just had that giggly feeling of "Boy, it's good to be home". The flowers needed deadheaded, weeds needed pulled, the grass definitely needed water (sorry gonna have to wait for rain).  The swee autumn clematis in the front and the crepe myrtle in the back were threatening to bury the house... and since we arrived it has been too hot (for me) to spend significant time in the yard..... However, all in all.... It sure is good to be home. Do you get the idea??? I'm glad to be home. Speaking of homes. Sunday as we returned from Indiana, we needed to go to the Muncie (Indiana) Mall. When we got finished there, I said, "Hey, we are really close and don't have a deadline. What do you think about swinging over to Parker City?"  Parker City, Indiana is a "new item" in this blog. That is where we went for my first job out of vet school at Purdue. A classic country veterinary practice where we ran up and down the country roads from farm to farm treating cattle, hogs, sheep and horses while operating a small dog and cat practice from the "base" during noon hours and evenings. This was a bittersweet time of our lives. I was working 13.5 of 14 days, so Georgia and one-year-old Rodney had to entertain themselves. I have 2 pictures in my mind from there. I would run in sometime arround noon for a quick bite to eat to find Rod sitting in his high chair with a mouth full of banana and a piece of banana in each hand. Of course Georgia was in the kitchen with him. The other image I have is Georgia pulling Rod's little red Radio Flyer through the picket fence gate with Rod "pushing" from the back. They would walk down to the track to watch the trains go by.  As we drove by the practice building, we recognized it, but it had grown. Apparently since we were there it had become a large day care center, a site for several businesses and now a real estate office. We talked with one of the present owners and found that each time the place changed hands, the new owners built on more.  We also went into town and found the house we lived in on Howard Street. We snapped a couple of pictures. The unique thing about this house was that it was 2 houses connected in the back by a large room. The significance of this is that the owner, an elderly widow, lived in the other part of the house and was apparently quite lonely. She had a very sad story about losing her son when  he was just about Rod's age, so she had an affinity to him also. The problem is that we had to learn to keep our door to the connecting room locked because she would just walk in and wander around "our" house calling out because she wanted to visit. Of course this put Georgia in a tough situation because she didn't want the lady just walking in, yet didn't want to be "mean" and shut her out.  As time went on, we decided it was a must. Besides caring for a one-year-old in a strange town, essentially by herself, Georgia had another duty.... Inside her, since about February, another person was developing.. Greg was born while we lived there... In fact, only a few weeks before we left that practice to begin radiology training at the University of Georgia.  So here are some pictures of the house that we were glad to see, but not ready to hug. Days we were glad to put behind us, although we are sure they played some significant part in our development.

Leaving Corvallis

This season of blogging has been pretty disjointed, therefore I'm not sure what life experiences are chronicled here. I decided that some of the recent experiences might warrant description. If you've been reading along, you know that I spent the last week working in Corvallis as a "bachelor" because I put Georgia on the plane for Indy to be picked up by her sister. Seems that as much as we try to plan ahead, some plans just interfere with each other. Georgia, therefore had to do one of her least favorite things all by herself. Fortunately, and most likely guided by the power of prayer from lots of people, the trip went pretty well. To top it off, I'll steal a little thunder and tell y'all about her welcome to Indiana. Her sister and mom were waiting in the Indy airport for her. The young man who was assigned to help her navigate the airport (some value in using a travel agent)... was fantastic. Then they stopped at a Texas Roadhouse (Have I told you that Texas Roadhouse originated in Indiana????)  (Squirrel!!!)  You have to have seen "UP" for that to make sense. Back to the trip home from the airport... Georgia wanted to treat them to dinner since we were in Oregon for her mom's 91st birthday. As they entered, a gentleman opened the door for them and "fawned" all over them. They enjoyed their meal and the waiter came to box up the remains. He said, "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"  Georgia said, "Let's start with the good news".. He said, "someone who just left has paid for all your meals".. Apparently that gentleman comes there often and enjoys "blessing" unsuspecting strangers... How bout that???? Oh, the bad news; "I have to work for 4 more hours, have a nice evening".  So with Georgia safe on the ground in Indiana, and me in Corvallis with not much to do in the evening, I went up to Mary's Peak... (See recent post.) Less than an hour after work I was at the highest elevation in the Oregon coastal mountain range. That was Monday nite. Tuesday thru Thursday nite, I packed, cleaned a bit and listened to the Cardinals via the computer (My link to life at home.) Jumping ahead to this weekend, I am bummed that the Cardinals traded Ryan Ludwick http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/lee_jenkins/08/03/dodgers.padres/

Filbert trees along McKenzie Highway

(Squirrel!!!) Thursday nite, I had eaten all the leftovers and washed all the dishes, so decided to eat out. I remembered that Jack from work had mentioned Murphy's in Southtown Corvallis, as a "fun place".. Well, I found it, just as I was about to head into the grass (grown for seed) fields south of town. There was a big banner advertising their barbeque. http://www.murphysrestaurantlounge.com/ . It was early, just after work, so not many foks were there. I went in and said, "I want some of what I'm smellin'". The guy at the bar pointed me to their Barbecue menu. I ordered the Triple thing (don't remember the name, but it was a pile of pulled pork, 2 slices of smoked turkey breast, 2 ribs, some fantastic beans and slaw).. (I passed on the fries). Got it to go, cause I could see that if I were to eat it there, I might not get "home" for a while. Again, MMM mm good. If we get to do another stint in Corvallis, you can bet we'll be eating some from Murphy's.. Thanks Jack.. That left me one more day. I got up about 5:30 Friday morning, stripped the bed, took a shower and put the sheets and last towel in the washer, then dryer, then put the last 2 bags in the car and headed to Sharon's Cafe for breakfast. Some of the folks from work thought they might make it, but I ate my last breakfast in Corvallis alone... No worries, I enjoyed the meal and headed back to put the dry sheets on the bed, turn in my keys to Dave with another goodbye and off to work. Finished up the work with the 2 surgery residents, got the cases of the day dictated and pretty well had things wrapped up to leave right on time for the trip across the Cascade range to get "as far as I could" down the road.. I had said goodby to Jack as he left and was finishing up with Becki. I headed out the door with my famous blue "Bubba Keg" in my right hand and my Western Digital portable drive (containing everything I know) in my left. Planned to stop and say goodbye to Jason on my way out. We were met at the door by one of my new friends, Dr. Bailey, a new medicine resident (who came from Michigan State where she worked with one of my former students who just finished her imaging residency at MSU)... (squirrel again) There was this 19 year old cat who had just had a CT (done by Jason). Dr. Bailey was running to see if they could get us to do a "quick" ultrasound of the kidneys as one last attempt to find a specific surgical problem before finalizing their plan for this cat. Of course the owners were "in the house" anxious for the most info we could get. Well, Jack who does most of the ultrasound there had left a little earlier as there were no more ultrasounds scheduled, leaving me and Becki (and Becki doesn't do ultrasound.) My first response was, "hey. I'm outta here.".. Becki did her best to protect me, I think because she has indicated earlier that my planned trip across McKenzie Pass was worth the extra 20 minutes mapquest said it would take me. For a moment, I had the feeling, you know... "the plans of mice and men ..... are usually about equal".... Finally, realizing that I was about to cause a new friend a very tough encounter with the owners of the cat and the fact that her senior clinician was an old dear friend with whom I had worked very closely at Illinois when she was a medicine resident, I succumbed and Becki and I fired up the ultrasound machine and HIS/RIS system which had just been shut down for the weekend... (Remind you of anything Jason???)  Did the study, saved the images and off I went for McKenzie pass. I e-mailed my report to the returning radiologist at OSU from home Monday. Another reason the McKenzie route was enticing to me is that I had made the twisty turney trip up route 20 enough times than I didn't really want to do that this last time. By dropping down to Eugene (Springfield) and taking the McKenzie Highway on one of my favorite drives along the McKenzie river, it dropped me onto the "Old McKenzie Highway (242) which promised to deposit me in Sisters for one last bowl of that fabuous gazpacho at the Three Creeks Brewery where we started this adventure in central Oregon 3 weeks previously. Again. if you've been one of the 4 followers of this blog, you may remember a couple of years ago when I was describing the McKenzie Highway, you might remember me discovering these strange trees which turned out to be a major Oregon crop... Filberts (known to we midwesterners as Hazelnuts).. As you can see by this weekends motion pictures, those same trees that looked so barren and strange are now plush with green. I'm sure the nuts were in there somewhere. I drove past another of our favorite stopovers along the river, "Eagle Rock Lodge", where the Dershams pick up goose poop to create a fantastic wedding site many times through the summer. Oops, another squirrel. In description of our last weekend together in Oregon, we talked about the Lodge at Suttle Lake. When we arrived Saturday evening, a wedding had just finished and they were having the reception in the lawn along the lake.. Got pictures, but don't think I posted them. Hmmm..

Roughly where the snowplow stopped.

Now to turn from the McKenzie Highway onto 242.. Again, let me take you back. In February of 08, which was apparently a season of unusually heavy  snow, we attempted this trip. You can see in that post where the snow plow turned back and there was nothing but a tree flanked snow drift in the road. I think I have taken a picture from near that site which was on past Camp Limberlost, heading to higher elevations. And you Hoosiers thought Limberlost was in Indiana, right?  http://www.genestrattonporter.net/
I found (and had been warned) that I was not escaping twisty turney roads, just substituted some for others. Our Garmin knew just where we were and mapped out hairpin after hairpin as me and the trusty red Explorer ascended. Dang, another squirrel moment. I may be repeating this, but it's easier to risk that and plow on than to go out an check, then come back to posting. I had hit something over the past weekend and after dropping Georgia off and heading to Corvallis, I noticed a faint shimmy in the front end. Because I couldn't go very far into the airport with Georgia due to security stuff, I got away a little early,  so decided I had time to see about getting the shimmy fixed. I dread shopping for auto repair in a strange town, but just like 2 years ago in Rock Springs, Wyoming, we were directed to good and trustworthy people. There are those times when you think God doesn't care or want to bother with your piddly issues, then other times, you can see Him right beside you. This was one of those times. I had shopped at a little at a Napa store on 9th street during the past couple of years, so thought that was a good place to start. I asked where they took their autos... The lady at the counter recommended D & B at Van Buren and Second street. http://www.dandbbearservice.com/Corvallis-auto-repairs.html
I made my way there to meet another Jack at the counter. Turns out that this Jack and his family keep sheep and hogs, etc. and he loves the Oregon State Veterinary School.... YES! (visualize arm pump). We struck up a conversation and of course he presented a pig problem which was strange, but very reminiscent of my first 4-H barrow "Star" ... circa 1952.. He couldn't get me in til Wednesday.. I arranged for Jennifer, one of the surgery residents I was working with to pick me up and drop me off.... Busted strut... I think it would have gone out anyway and I prefer the flatlands of the Willamette Valley as a place for that to happen compared with wheeling around the turns ascending to McKenzie pass or in the eastern Oregon mountains with no one around, or south western Wyoming, where I could see us (me and my machine) hurtling off some mountain curve. I left Corvallis with a pretty secure feeling that I was being cared for... Thanks to y'all for your prayers.

(McKenzie Pass) Finally I broke out of the gorgeous forest into what had only been described to me. The Lava Fields. I can only try to describe this. There were piles of craggy deep red rock interspersed with twisted dead tree trunks. Assuming some of these trees were trapped and killed in lava flow, I can only guess how long they had been there.... I'm thinking around the time of Noah!. I tried to get pictures, but the sun was sinking behind Mount Washington (the one with the spike on top... you should have other pictures of it from the Santiam Highway (20) from previous posts. )   I was in too much of a hurry to set up my camera on a stand to get good still images, so had to settle for som motion, etc.  Sorry. There were people up on the Dee Wright observatory.  with a box cameral on a stand taking long exposures of the 2 visible sisters. Would love to see that picture when they get it back from the lab. http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Oregon/HighCascades/dee_wright_observatory.html

The guide at Dee Wright (in motion)

I still remember Becki nearly giggling when she told someone Friday afternoon that I was going to "Dee Wright"... I get the idea she likes it up there.. I tried to take some pictures, but if you're interested, I suggest you follow the link and look at their pictures. I'll just give you enough to show that I was there. As I'm basking in the glory of this beauty and awesome sight, I'm wishing Georgia could be here to share this with me. Maybe we can make it work... Obviously it will need to be a summer trip... We already experienced attempting this in the winter. Apparently this road is closed most winters. The sun going down was both a blessing and a curse. There wasn't enough light for some of the pictures I wanted to capture, but then you have to admit that the colors were gorgeous. See "Clouds" post. The good thing is that the bad driving part of the McKenzie Highway is west of the summit. It was really a  "piece of cake" going down the east side to Sisters. I passed the connection of 242 to 20 in Sisters where we had stopped the weekend before to take pictures of middle and south sister. I checked the clock and Three Creeks Brewery was still open, so I headed that way already tasting that gazpacho.  Walked in the door and told the hostess that I was here for a bowl of gazpacho....... not on this night.. seems they sometimes have it..... not on this night...... I settled for a cup of Oregon clam chowder (not a bad second) and a barbecue sandwich. Not Lil Porgy's or Murphy's, but pretty good. Finished that and decided to push on to Bend.. I had actually sort of planned to go to Burns, but spent too much time admiring the scenery at the Dee Wright observatory for that. Garmin found me a Day's Inn on my route. Of course, the guy at the desk grew up in Martinsville, Indiana... There are Hoosiers everywhere. Spent a good, but short night. The same guy was mannng the ship in the morning and actually had breakfast ready at 5:30 although they advertise 6am , so I ate, grabbed a couple of bananas for the road and headed out into the sunrise with the Garmin pointed to Rock Springs, Wyoming. The lady on the Garmin promised that I would be there before dark... Sounds good, lets go.

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South and Middle Sister

I have found that I have sort of a "love/hate" feeling about Highway 20 (the central Oregon Highway) from Bend to Ontario, Oregon. There are lots of things to see, yet it is pretty much a desolate drive. However, compared to our first encounter it's a garden center now. We came through in early Feb 08, or was it January??? (OK, it was either January 27 or Feb 3) Growing dusk through snow covered forbidding land. The only people we saw were trying to right a camper than had gone out of control and was lying on it's side almost into the basin. The emergency people had arrived. We had to make Corvallis because I had to lecture on Monday. Now we find that there is actually a stream running along part of the road and several places where they irrigate and grow real crops. So here I am feeling pretty much like a mover and shaker, making my way along this high desert road when I start seeing these people all dressed alike, spread over maybe 15 miles coming from somewhere east of me.,... on bicycles. OMG, just the thought of pumping my old single speed Schwinn (used to belong to Georgia's dad) up those long grades made my knees burn. Why not just go over and beat your head against those big rocks. I could see that some of the people "in the back" who I encountered long after seeing the leaders, might have had the same thoughts running through their heads. Hopefully they knew what I knew... Burns was miles to the west, then another 100 to Bend. Wonder what their destination might have been..

I know the pictures are fuzzy, but I had to include something that intrigued me from our first trip out. I probably posted some back then, but, what the heck. Most likely because of the plethora (love that word) of rocks and the difficulty in sinking stable posts here, They make corner and end posts for their fences from piles of rocks enclosed in fences, much like the way decorative rocks are displayed in landscaping yards in the midwest. I think that is really good adaptation and use of resources. Sorry the pictures are motiony, but I think you can get the idea.
As I came near Ontario, the irrigation became more obvious. This is where we had seen the fields of potatoes and onions. As you can see by the signs, these people take their onion farming seriously. I tried to capture the onion irrigation system. They run little tubes down each row. I think there was also a lot of swiss chard or similar lettuce. I remember on the first trip west that I was fascinated by the number of "dog and pup" trucks in the west. Maybe I missed it, but until this trip I wasn't aware that they have now increased that. I don't know what they call it, but there were several instances of units where there were 3 pieces tied together for a short "train".

Fast forward across Idaho and Utah. Again, gorgeous, be we've "been there, done that".. Don't believe I'm saying that about such beautiful landscape. With 75 mph speed limits and not "too much" roadwork, I made pretty good time. I can see those folks who settled Ogden, Utah saying, "We've arrived in paradise. Why go any further?".

I got to Rock Springs and although we seem to have a tie to this place and I really thought about staying there so I could get an early morning shot at seeing the wild horses (See post "Wyoming to Oregon" or something like that... or maybe the one before it.)  I decided it was really too early to stop and the only difficulty ahead might be going up around Elk Mountain just outside Laramie... I check with the Garmin Lady and she said we could make it to Laramie by 10 pm. I swear I heard her say, "Just do it!" ... Sorry, couldn't resist... I know that's old, but then so am I.I didn't count on 30 miles of roadwork causing lane closures just before Laramie. It wasn't like that on "our side" going out. That added to the weariness when I pulled into Laramie, only to be added to the fact that rooms were getting filled up. I ended up at, may I say, a dump. a HOJO. I was directed there by the guy at Super 8 who was booked. Let's just say it wasn't the Hampton. Did I mention that mapquest said I had just traveled 1000 miles from Bend to Laramie. I got in and out of there in time to see the sunrise over Laramie. See if you can find it in the "Clouds" post.

 But we have to take another side trip here. This trail starts back when I attended the 50th reunion of the Silver Lake High Class of 1960... "To make the best better"... Marilyn, our class glue sent some things I put together to her class list which included one classmate who couldn't make it. Judy and her husband Art live just south of Denver and when she recieved some of the stuff Marilyn sent, Judy contacted me and we started catching up on each other's lives via e-mail. I had considered stopping by, but wasn't sure how the timing would work out. My major objective of this drive was to get to Indiana asap so I could help Georgia with her mission. If I could work it out and not jeopardise my arrival time in Indiana, I thought it would be great to see them after a number of years. Judy's folks ran the B&K in Silver Lake where my sister and Georgia had worked during the late 50's and early 60's... You know, sock hops, duck tails, poodle skirts, and root beer stands. I think I remember that there had been a Fats Domino sighting at that root beer stand.. If you don't know who that is, google him... I found my thrill, on Blueberry Hill, Blue Monday, etc. (OK, I didn't warn you did I..... Squirrel!!!! I consulted Maquest and considered my options. I really didn't want to go back through Nebraska and Iowa again. It would be Sunday so the Gothenberg, Nebraska museum would again be closed, so I couldn't get any more info from there about Georgia's mom and dad's stint there in 1940. The last time we drove this route, we also didn't want a return trip through Nebraska and Iowa, so we dropped down through Ft. Collins where I stopped and visited with a radiologist.. (My old friend Dick was off, so we didn't get to see him.) We then stayed in the Denver Area and we have the picture of Georgia coming out of a Starbucks with her lime green mug full of hot chocolate... Did I mention that we were also met with the beginning of a snowstorm that gave us white knuckles til well into Kansas.. I distinctly remember not knowing if we would be stuck in Hays. That was April 2008. Being the first day of August, I though it would be safe and I would rather go that way than back along 80.. I inquired of the Shiotas and found that they were only about 30 minutes south of I-70 and they would be available for me to stop by. Garmin took me within a couple of blocks of their house and left me, so I had to call for Judy to direct me on down the street where she was in front of the house.  They treated me to a fantastic breakfast at a beautiful club, we visited and stopped by their store (For Every Season) in Lone Tree, then back to their house to look at a few family pictures and get back on the road. The visit was too short, but I'm glad it worked out to catch up a little. The magic of e-mail has helped fill in gaps and I'm sure it will continue.  Hopefully I will be able to take Georgia back to visit them, their beautiful setting, and their store that is like something Georgia would seek out to shop in. Although the visit was too short, it also costed me a little. When I got back on the road Lady Garmin said it would be 1:30 am when I got to Springfield, Illinois (where our oldest lives with his family. Hmmm, did I just set back my arrival in Indiana another day??? I had lots of time and miles to comtemplate the issue.

I had to include this picture from an eastern Colorado rest stop. At many of the rest stops there are "pet areas". Well only in the western states would you see a horse staked out while the people took a breather from driving. Pushing on across Kansas where I saw lots of fields of sunflowers... It is the sunflower state you know. I passed Manhattan where Kansas State vet school is planted, then on past Lawrence where our old basketball coach Bll Self hangs his hat to Kansas City. I have noticed that on every trip, there are more and more wind farms. I mused about the ingenuity of using the wind to bring water to livestock, filling "tanks", wether they be round or oblong steel tanks or something akin to a pond in the midwest. Although I saw several, I only captured one and that one with motion at that. So here is the still used salvation for livestock and the "offspring" now turning wind energy to electricity. 

At this point I was sure Garmin had led me astray. I saw no way I could make it across Missouri to St. Louis, then up through Illinois to Springfield by 1:30 am on that day. I had resigned myself to an extra day on the road when Garmin directed me, not on to I-70, but north on I-35. Oh, boy, here I am. It's dark and I don't know whether to over-ride Garmin and follow my past experience or blindly follow... I was wishing I had used my past method of printing out directions from mapquest so I could see where I was going rather than only getting the next turn from Garmin. Well, I decided to follow Garmin... Again, thank you folks who were praying. I said I should take US 36 east after driving 45 miles north. I turned onto US 36 to find that I was on a 4 lane divided highway (VFW memorial) and 250 miles from Springfield via I-72 from Hannibal. Wow!. I didn't have to go through dreaded St. Louis in the dark and I was a lot closer to Springfield than I thought. If there was a downer it was that there was no place to stay over before Hannibal which was only 100 miles from Springfield. I called Rod and asked that they leave the door unlocked and I could come in and crash and see them in the morning. He agreed and I was now committed. Hey, after driving clear across the country, a measly 100 miles was nothing.

Got up about 6:30 Monday morning, got to say hi to and hug our grandkids and kids as well as wave to Jacque's bible study group before heading to home. Stopped by the post office to collect mail that had not been forwarded to Corvallis, then on home. Our neighbor Jan who had been keeping our tomatoes and flowers alive was home working in her flowers. We visited a bit, then I started war against my beloved sweet autumn clematis that will be fantastic this fall, but right now is trying to cover everything near. This Friday is yard waste pick-up day, so I piled it out front along with a bunch of spent hollyhocks and some weeds. Contacted our youngest and his daughter about mowing the lawn... It did pretty much survive the drought of a couple of weeks ago. Got to give them a hug. Having gotten a "home" shower, I was back on the road and pulled up to the house in Gas City about 5:30 Monday. This morning I had a great breakfast at the B&B in Gas City, still my favorite place in America for breakfast.