Number 6's Blog

Our Colorado Summer Trip 2013

August 21, 2013

Barn on the Blanco Basin Road

SInce I’ve retired I have noticed the blogosphere is chocked full of blogs with “5 reasons…”, “10 Apps..”, 7 things…”. I guess the rationale is a numbered list in the blog will catch your eye and you’ll be more likely to read the blog. So I thought I better join the crowd. Now, no one has ever asked my why I write blogs that probably no one ever reads. That is probably why no one ever asks me. But in case they do here are three reasons I blog our vacation trips:

In case we ever go back there we can review what we liked.
Writing is supposed to exercise your mind and keep it young – wish I could remember where I read this?
Kinda stretches the vacation out a little longer.

I am penning this vacation blog a little differently than past vacation blogs. In the past I wrote in a chronological style with a day by day diary of our vacation. This time I am posting the places we visited and the highlights from each location. Note, I don’t post the low-lights unless I am really ticked off about that particular experience.

Amarillo: first stop and last stop. On the way to Colorado we had dinner at Sava! Italiano with old friends from Dallas, Mike and Jackie, who have moved there. After dinner they treated us to a glass of wine at the Crush Wine Bar and Deli in downtown Amarillo. Now Amarillo is one of those towns you don’t expect to find a wine bar but this one is very good.

On the return trip we visited them again. Also had great visit with Mike’s dad LeRoy. He had loads of great reminiscences of growing up in Oak Cliff and WWII in the Pacific.

Santa Fe: We just stopped their for lunch at our favorite Santa Fe restaurant ( Tomasita’s.) The cuisine is Northern New Mexico and is delicious. Warning: the chile stew is very hot!! It’s definitely not Texas Chili.

Pagosa Springs:

The Springs

We spent a morning at the hot springs. There are around 20 pools. The temperatures range from 93 to 110 degrees. The pools are downtown on the banks of the San Juan River. That evening I resembled a lobster. Apparently, even on a cloudy day at 7800 feet above sea level you can get a sunburn in a couple of hours.
Blanco Basin Road: if your in the mood for a scenic drive while you are in Pagosa the Blanco Basin Road is a can’t miss option. Round trip is 40-50 miles depending on how far you go on an all weather road (aka: gravel). There are lots of scenic views and photo opportunities along the way.
Spamalot: Musical by the Pagosa Springs Performing Arts Center was quite good considering the size of the town. However, either Spamalot has changed quite a bit since we saw it in Dallas or this group added quite a bit more sexual content. Hint, don’t take your kids to Spamalot in Pagosa Springs.

Gwen Hiking

Pierdra Trail: This is an easy hike along the banks of the Piedra River (what a coincidence). As with everything else in Pagosa Springs the hike is very scenic. Also, the drive out from the town to the trail is as well.
Alley House Grill: The best restaurant n Pagosa Springs. If you only eat one meal in Pagosa Springs this is place to have it.
Riff-raff Brewery: Good beer and some unique menu items. I recommend the cabrito burger. If you have two meals in Pagosa the 2nd should be here.
Backroom Wine Bar: Wine bars seem to be sprouting up everywhere from at least Monmouth Illinois to Pagosa Springs Colorado. FYI: my son-in-law is opening a winery in Murphy Texas this fall. Please stop by and partake of a glass or two of vino there. Back to the Backroom Wine Bar. It’s small but the wine is good and the staff is friendly. What more could you ask for?
Higher Grounds: coffee shop walking distance from the condo and very good. If I had a choice between Higher Grounds and Starbucks I would choose Higher Grounds. My friends know this is quite a compliment because I practically live at Starbucks in Dallas.
Farrago Market Cafe: Farrago is a good lunch venue. Most of the seating is outside which is where you want to sit. The Alley House, the Back Door Wine Bar, and Farrago’s are all owned by the same chef and are all top notch. We met the chef who owns all three. She was very personable and obviously a great chef.

High Mountain Pies

Pagosa Springs to Steamboat Springs: The most direct route from Pagosa to Steamboat is up the spine of Colorado. It’s a beautiful and often breathtaking drive. The highlight for me was Leadville. I’ve read about the Leadville ultra marathon and in that story Leadville comes across as a desolate, dying, small burg on the top of Colorado. It’s dying because the local mines closed. Well, Leadville is actually a good size community (2600) and seems to be thriving at least in the Summer. It is also the highest (in elevation) incorporated City in the U.S. at 10,152 feet above sea level. Furthermore, Leadville is the home of High Mountain Pies Restaurant. They served the best pizza I’ve had since I left Chicago in 1968! I considering going back next Summer and staying in Leadville just to eat more of their pizza.

Steamboat Springs:

Steamboat Springs Barn

Tubing the Yampa River: We rented tubes from Backdoor Sports. It was great fun and it’s the first thing I will do the next time we visit Steamboat Springs (if it is not Winter)
Fish Creek Falls: The falls was in a Coors commercial is the local advertisement. I never saw the commercial but I believe them. Anyway, it’s a short drive on a paved road to the falls. The fee to park is $5 but otherwise the park is free. There are trails to both the base of the falls and a scenic lookout. We did both because they are short. We enjoyed the scenic lookout more. If I return I’ll go in the middle to late afternoon. The photo opportunities should be better in the afternoon. The Sun rises right over the falls in the morning. There are also picnic areas in the park. An afternoon picnic and short walk to the scenic overlook for photos would be very enjoyable and relaxing.
Yampa Botanical Gardens
Yampa River Botanical Park: It’s small (6 acres) but contains thousands of flowers and is well worth visiting. SInce it is free you will definitely get your money’s worth.
Strings Music Festival: We enjoyed a night of classical music at the Strings Music Festival venue. As with the Spamalot musical in Pagosa Springs the facility and quality of the concert was very, very impressive.
Highway 129 to Columbine, Co: This is a scenic drive north of Steamboat and on the way to Columbine we passed through the towns of Clark and Hahn’s Corner. Stopped at general store in Clark on the return trip for snacks. It’s worth the stop just for the ice cream but they don’t start selling it until 11AM. I had salt and vinegar chips for the first time in ages. My how salty they tasted!

Clark General Store

Creekside Cafe and Grill: We ate lunch here. It’s another good place to eat. Steamboat Springs seems to be overflowing with good, decent restaurants. As least compared with Pagosa Springs. Don’t go there for dinner – they serve breakfast and lunch only and close the doors at 2PM.
Mambo Italiano: Mambo’s was my favorite restaurant in Steamboat. The best seats are outside if you visit in the Summer. I had my first mojito at Mambo’s. It was good. Hint – don’t eat the leaves in the drink.
Ore House at the Pine Grove: The Ore House is a steak place pure and simple. Go here for the steaks and not the scenery. The restaurant was constructed to resemble a mine and has no great views of the mountains. The steaks and baked potatoes are great!
Mahogany Ridge Brewery and Grill: We stopped here after our long drive from Pagosa Springs through Leadville. My head was still spinning from the Leadville pizza so I don’t remember the food. However, the beer was most excellent dude!.

The drive home: The route from Steamboat Springs to Denver is very scenic. The Denver to Trinidad segment is Interstate Highway East of the Front Range and is pretty boring. The segment from Trinidad to Clayton New Mexico to Dalhart Texas to Amarillo is simply amazing because it’s true – there is nothing there. Miles and miles of nothing! So, be sure you purchase gas before turning off the Interstate! I was fascinated by the landscape on this segment because it is the setting for one of my favorite books – The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. Driving through the land today I can’t imagine why people believed they could homestead this wind swept segment of the Great Plains. However the book chronicles the true story of some of the hardy settlers who survived (and some who did not) the Dust Bowl. It’s not a happy tale but often the really true stories are not all peaches and ice cream. I still have a copy of the book. If you want to read it I’ll be glad to pass it along.

Well, that’s all there is because there isn’t anymore until the next trip. Leaving you with a photo from the Blanco Basin road outside of Pagosa Springs.

Mountain Corral

Leave a Comment » | Colorado, Vacation | Tagged: Pagosa Springs, Steamboat Springs | Permalink
Posted by molson46

Watchmen Book Review

August 6, 2013

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

I read a lot. Books, magazine articles, blogs, etc. I don’t usually blog about something I have read unless I consider it really top shelf. Therefore, I don’t often update my blog with book reviews. Just a few days ago I authored a blog on “The Ocean at the End of the Lane.” Now I find myself writing a blog on Watchmen. I really enjoyed Watchmen and will probably read it again in a few years just because it is so different.

Watchmen

Watchmen is a graphic novel. We used to call them comic books, but my how they have changed since I was a kid reading Superman and Spiderman. Before you pass judgement be forewarned Time magazine named Watchmen one of the 100 best English language novels since Time started publication in 1923. I picked Watchmen up out of curiosity. How could a comic book, albeit a long, long one, be one of the 100 best English language novels?

The setting for the novel is a dystopian future of 1985. The setting is mostly the United States although there is an interlude on Mars. Through an awful trick of fate Nixon is still President! If that is not bad enough the cold war is getting very hot and everyone is expecting World War III to break out any day. There are many other differences from what really transpired. For example, with the aid of the superheroes we won the Vietnam War.

The Watchmen are none to “super” super heroes who for the most part don’t really have any super powers. The exception is this blue dude Dr. Manhattan. He got discombobulated in a nuclear accident a few years before our story begins and is not bound by space, time, or laws of physics. He reminds me of Michael Jordan.

Watchmen begins with the murder of one of their own (The Comedian). They (primarily Rorschach and Nite Owl) investigate and uncover a plan which threatens to change the World as we know it. However since this an alternative future the World is not as we know it anyway.

The book is non- linear and the story jumps around in both space and time constantly. There is also another narrative (Tales of the Black Freighter) intertwined with the main plot through the reading of one of the main plots characters.

Leave a Comment » | Books | Tagged: SyFy | Permalink
Posted by molson46

Ocean at the End of the Lane?

July 27, 2013

I Just finished reading The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. It’s a short read narrated by a 7 year old boy. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to adults who like syfy, fantasy, or who just enjoy a good story. However, I must confess I really like the author and therefore and slightly prejudice. Fair warning: This is not a children’s book.

I believe Mr. Gaiman did a outstanding job of spinning the tale from a 7 year old’s point of view. The following quote, for example, really sounds like something a 7 year old would think: “Peas baffled me. I could not understand why grown-ups would take things that tasted so good when they were freshly-picked and raw, and put them in tin cans, and make them revolting.” Just thinking, that’s really true isn’t it.

Another quote rings true every time I’m around my grandchildren: “I do not miss childhood but I do miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled.” Children find great joy in the small things: a bowl of ice cream, blowing bubbles, bouncing on a bed, taking a bath. I wonder what is the age we lose our wonder off all things and become adults?

Summary: the boy meets a young girl at the end of the lane. They struggle against supernatural entities! One of the sides win and the story ends.

Actually, the story is a little more complicated than that. The family takes in a South African opal miner who commits suicide in the family automobile. Then strange things begin to occur. For example the boy wakes up choking in the middle of the night with a coin in his mouth. The young girl, Lettie, and he travel somewhere (maybe another dimension if you believe in the multi-dimension theory of everything) to stop the strange things happening. They find the entity causing the strange things but inadvertently bring her back to our realm (or dimension). Then the story starts to get weird…

I’m not spilling the beans on the ending, you’ll have to read the book to find out what happens.

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Posted by molson46

Family/baseball trip 2013

June 29, 2013

Gwen in Heaven

This June we traveled back to the Midwest to visit family and see a few baseball games. We had a great time visiting with my family. We also were lucky enough to watch baseball in 3 of the great parks in the Country. This blog is a day by day record of the vacation.

(Click here for more photos)

Saturday June 01: Up at 5. Drove to St. Louis – partially through a driving rain storm which flooded Springfield Missouri. Checked in at downtown Hilton. Watched the Cardinals beat the hell out of the Giants. First time in new Busch Stadium. Great views of the game but disappointed in the concessions. Costs an arm and a leg to eat and drink there

The Gateway Arch

Sunday June 02: In St, Louis. Breakfast at St. Louis Bread Company (Panera). Visited Grant’s Farm. Rode the tram and saw the Clydesdales. Lunch at St. Louis Bread Company. The Mississippi bridge at Alton was closed because of flooding so we drove to Monmouth via US 61, Hannibal, Quincy, and Macomb. Freeway all the way to Macomb. Staying at Americas inn. Built where Mellings used to be. Visited Sally and George.

Monday June 03: We traveled to West Branch Iowa and visited the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. After arriving at West Branch we lunched downtown at Reid’s Beans. It is a small quaint joint with no published menu. The menu changes every day and contains a limited number of items. 6 the day we dined there. If your ever close to West Branch and hungry I recommend them. After lunch we paid our $3 and toured the Museum. I learned a great heal about Herb. He was truly one of the giants of the 20th Century. And the $3 was a great deal you can only find in Iowa.

Monday evening we had dinner with Sally and George’s family and Jerry at the Longhorn Steakhouse in Peoria. A good time was had by all.

Tuesday June 04: Another day visiting family in Monmouth. We all drove to Davenport North Park today and shopped. After we arrived back in Monmouth we visited the Monmouth Wine Bar – Market Alley Wine. It was a pleasant surprise and pretty busy for 4PM! Since it was our last night in town Gwen and I dined at Cerar’s. The meal was great as usual. Whenever I visit Monmouth I wonder how a restaurant this good survives in a town as small as Monmouth.

Downtown Chicago

Wednesday June 05: We exercised and then drove to Schaumburg for 3 day stay in Chicago. Spent the afternoon chilling in the Springhill Suites. Dinner at the Rosebud. It is a Chicago Italian restaurant. Very good but expensive.

Thursday June 06: Raining this morning so we spent a quiet morning in the hotel washing clothes, nerding out on the computer, and exercising.

We ate lunch at Portillio’s Hot Dogs – a Chicago institution. Hot Doug’s is supposed to be better but I’ve never been there so don’t know. I do know Hot Doug’s is 4 blocks from where I lived from 1966 to 1968. I need to go back there and see the old neighborhood. Hot Doug’s moved in after I left. Was this a coincidence?

After lunch we drove downtown to the Art Institute of Chicago. Traffic and Parking cost were terrible. If we ever do this again I will figure

Chicago Art Institute

out a way to take public transportation. The Art Institute was great. Saw America Gothic. Also paintings by Sargent, Whistler, and Mary Cassatt. Dinner at the Ram Brewery. There seem to be good micro-breweries everywhere but Texas?

Friday June 07: Spent another morning exercising and hanging around the hotel even though the Sun was shining. At 11AM we hopped the bus to Wrigley Field for a Cub/Pirate game. We froze to death, figuratively. The Cubs lost but we had a great time basking in the glory at one of the shrines of America’s pastime and all. The Schaumburg bus is definitely the way to. No fighting traffic, no paying $40 for a parking spot. After arriving back in Schaumburg we went to a pre-wedding party at one of Karen’s siblings homes in Schaumburg. I can’t remember their name because I had too much to dream that night. Then we took Sara and Paxson back to their hotel and called it a night.

Chicago Pizza

Saturday June 08: We exercised, and checked out of Springhill Suites. Had lunch with Mike, Sara, and Paxson at Giordano’s. Great pizza. Supposed to be the best in Chicago (Giordano says its true). Spent the afternoon at the hotel doing too much of nothing (its a song title by Peter, Paul, and Mary – I’ve been trying to fit it into a blog for years and this was my chance) while waiting for the wedding to finish. Then we had drinks with the Nuestadt family in the hotel lobby. Later we dined at Stonewood Ale House with Dave and Gretchen. The Stonewood appeard to be a great place to watch a sporting event. We ate early but people were already flocking in to grab seats for the Blackhawk Stanely Cup game. All around the bar they had two rows of satellite (?) bars and a bank of large screen TVs above the bar. We watched the beginning of the hockey match with Dave and Gretchen. At 8PM we left for Indianapolis and left them to babysit Paxson in the hotel. We arrived at the hotel there at 1:30AM.

Sunday June 09: Woke up at 10:30AM and had to check check out at 11AM. I don’t believe I had slept this late since I was a teen ager. Wait, I never slept that late as a teenager. I had to get up at the crack of dawn to milk cows and slop the hogs. Of course all of this was up hill in a driving snow storm. Maybe driving late at night in an unfamiliar area when you are 66 wears the body down. Drove to Cincinnati and visited with Jim, Nancy, and Jack. That evening we went to Reds game with Jim and Jack. They were playing St. Louis. The Reds ballpark is great. The game went 10 innings but Cardinals finally won 11-4 by scoring 7 runs including a grand slam in the 10th. Jack is a real baseball fan and a real tropper. He was excited the entire game eventhough the game lasted well into the night.

Jim & Jack at Reds game

Monday June 10: First thing in the morning we drove to Kroger’s and bought ingredients for smoothies. If we don’t have our smoothies we turn into Chewbaccas I have been told. Then we lounged around the Jim and Nancy’s the rest of the morning. We ate lunch at Bob Evan’s. It was very good and healthy. I had bean soup and a pot roast sandwich, Then we drove to Covington to visit Brian, Michelle, Brian Junior, and Erin. We ate dinner with them at a Beppo Uno in Piqua, Ohio. I had the pizza. It was very good.

Downtown Cincinnati

Tuesday June 11: Our last day in Cincinnati and we toured the town with Jim as our guide. First we visited Spring Grove Cemetery. It is the largest private cemetery in the U.S. It was started in 1845. The cemetery is huge and many of the monuments are huge as well. Many generations of a single family are buried in the same large plot with a huge monument marking the plot. I wonder how many cemeteries have their own web site? Seems to me social media for the dead is a market waiting to explode. Enough of that. Seems Gwen and I have started a pattern of visiting Cemeterys. On our last trip to New Orleans I drug her to the Napoleon Cemetery #1 which I know we both enjoyed.

After Spring Grove, we drove downtown, ate breakfast at a really great place. I wish I could remember the name. If your ever in dowtown Cincinnati and hungry for breakfast call Jim. Then we took photos from the 49th floor of a skyscraper, and across the river in Covington. On the way back to Jim’s we stopped at a really cool wine bar (Marty’s Hops & Vines) and relaxed with a couple of really good craft beers. Gwen had wine of course.

Cincinnati from Ky.

For dinner Jim and Nancy took us to Nicola’s in Cincinnati. Best meal of the trip!!

Wednesday June 12: Drove from Cincinnati to Memphis. Very enjoyable drive. We stopped for Lunch at Buckhead’s in Bowling Green Ky. Great lunch. The trip took about 7.5 hours.

If your in Memphis you have to eat barbeque, riight! The problem is there are so many joints serving great barbeque. We chose to eat dinner at Corky’s . It has been voted as best Memphis ribs for 28 years in a row. The ribs were delicious. Plus, there was a Corky’s close to the hotel. After stuffing our selves at Corky’s we drove down to Beale Street and listened to the blues. The entire street was full of parked bikes. Apparently Wednesdays in the Summer are bike nights. They really made the night special with all the noise and 100s of characters walking up and down the street drinking beer. We listened to several blues groups from the street and and finally settled on a group in the park at the end of the street. I did not get any group names but they were all awesome.

Thursday June 13: The last day of our vacation and I could not wait to see home. The 7.5 hour drive from Memphis lasted 9 hours because of road construction. Hint: Don’t ever drive I40 from Memphis to Little Rock. Somewhere on that stretch there will be road construction and long lines of 18 wheelers. Other interesting points:

Discovered the worst McDonalds near the Memphis Galleria. Day old tea, order came out very slowly in shifts. Staff was slow and rude
Discovered the worst Wendy’s on IH 30 leaving Little Rock at exit 123: dirty, understaffed, slow, everyone’s order in front of us was wrong, out of baked potatoes, rest rooms filthy with no toilet paper
On I40 in Arkansas there was a major delay with the road down to one lame. We stopped completely for 10-15 minutes. Then we would move for a bit. Then repeat.
I30 at Texarkana road work was almost as bad. We simply stopped for a half hour and then drove 5 mph for 10 minutes before reaching a small group of workers patching the road.

Thursday night – home at last!!

Cardinals Ballpark

Reds Ball Park

Note: I never mention restaurants I don’t like. This time I made an exception of the two on the last day. They are national chains and I expect to have the same quality of service and same quality of food at ever McDonalds and Wendy’s.

Leave a Comment » | Family, Food, Vacation | Tagged: baseball, Chicago, Cincinnati, Memphis, Monmouth, St. Louis | Permalink
Posted by molson46

The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

May 27, 2013

The Screwtape Letters was written as a series of letters from Screwtape (an experienced demon) to Wormwood (a junior demon) providing advice drawing Wormwood’s patient (The Patient) into eternal damnation. Written by C. S. Lewis in 1942 during the height of WWII as a satirical novel detailing the battle over the soul of The Patient in the eternal battle between The Enemy (God) and Our Father Below (the Devil).

The book was written from the point of view of the forces of Hell which is a unique turn of the screw. Each letter provides advice from Screwtape to Wormwood on tatics to lead The Patient to Hell after death by undermining the faith of The Patient.

I won’t devulge the details of the book but I have to bring up a couple of interesting concepts that especially impressed me:

The forces of hell hope people live many years. That gives them more time to corrupt their victims. Also, as people grow older they are become less idealistic. I’ve considered this idea the past several days and find it true in my own life. I came of age in the 60s and was very idealistic. I thought we were going to change the World for the better. Now that I am in my 60s I consider what has transpired and realize we pretty much stumbled through life just like all the generations that came before us. In that vein I have to nominate “The Pretender” by Jackson Browne as the theme song for our generation (“He started out so young and strong only to surrender”).
God created in man an unique two fold creature whose body is bound by time but whose soul is eternal. As a result we humans consider time very precious and consider any intrusion on “my time” such as work, an unexpected visitor, etc. as stealing our time. In the grand scheme of the Cosmos “my time” is but a puff of smoke in the wind.

In summary, its a short, well-written (around 120 pages) novel with a moral in every letter. 4 stars out of 5.

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Posted by molson46

Texas Rangers Spring Training Trip 2013

April 30, 2013

This year we did a Texas Rangers Spring Training trip – March 15-22. (Click for more photos)

We flew to Phoenix Friday and ate lunch at Four Peaks Brewery in Scottsdale. I ordered the walleye. It was delicious. The beer was good as well. Then we drove to Sedona our headquarters for the trip. Our lodgings were the Wyndham Sedona. We have a timeshare with Wyndham which allow us to book any of their locations. The lodgings are generally top-notch. They are great for people like us who need a kitchen when we travel. The main downside to Wyndham is they encourage you to attend an ‘information” session which is really a sales pitch to buy shares in the condo or buy more shares in my case. I always say no I am not attending a session. For dinner we walked across the street, stocked up at Safeway, and ate in the condo.

Sedona: View from Airport Mesa

On Saturday we drove back to Phoenix/Surprise and took in the Rangers/Dodgers Spring training game. We stopped at New York Bagels in Sedona on the way for a bagel breakfast.

Before the game we dined at Amuse Bouche (rated as the Number 1 restaurant in Surprise by Trip Advisor). I would call the food casual French. It’s a nondescript place in a strip shopping center. Most of Surprise is nondescript. However the food was great and I believe it is probably the best restaurant in town.

Perfect day for a baseball game in Surprise

The weather was perfect for the game: high 80s, not a cloud in the sky, and a slight breeze. We sat behind the Ranger dugout on the 4th row. Spring training games are really different. They split the roster and were playing two games so we saw a mix of regulars and minor leaguers’. The regulars play around half the game and then they walk off to the club house in center field. Everything is really laid back and relaxed. The Rangers beat the Dodgers 4-0 in a 2.5 hour game. That was another difference, the game zipped along at a rapid pace.

The lady sitting next to us was interesting to say the least. She was in her 70s. She took forever to say anything. Not that she talked slow, but she said it over and over again and twisted it a little bit each time she said it. She finally shared she was a Valley Girl in the 60s. Probably too much LSD and speed.

After the game we dined at our favorite restaurant from our last Phoenix visit –

The patio at Beckett’s Table

Beckett’s Table. We arrived an hour before our reservation because the game was much faster than we thought. We sat on the patio and were the first diners seated in Beckett’s new patio area. The tables and seats were constructed from used railroad ties and other recyclable material. The food was as good as we remembered. We will definitely dine there again.

Sunday was our first full day in Sedona. We ate breakfast at the Coffee Pot. I was surprised. The outside appearance gives the impression that it is a greasy spoon. However, the parking lot was overflowing so we gave it a try. The ambiance inside was very homey and western. The food was really good also. Highly recommend it.

We spent Sunday hiking the West Fork Trail. The trail is rated one of the 10 best in the U.S. It follows a creek into Oak Creek Canyon for 3.5

Oak Creek Canyon

miles crossing the creek 13 times. The canyon walls tower around 2000 feet above the base of the canyon. The creek crossings are normally easy. However the previous week Sedona received 14 inches of snow followed by a few days of warm weather. This made the crossings very interesting. I discovered Gwen has exceptional balance as she scampered across tiny logs fallen across the stream while I kept stumbling off and getting soaked. We made it to crossing 10 when after 2.5 hours we decided to turn around.

Sunday dinner was at the Golden Goose. It was mediocre dinner. I was disappointed as it had high ratings.

On Monday morning we decided to give the Golden Goose a second try for breakfast because it was in walking distance and were rewarded by a delicious breakfast. Breakfast was much better than dinner.

After breakfast we climbed into the rental car and drove up to Jerome, an old copper mining town on the built on the side of a hill. We visited the Jerome State Historical Park and then drove though town. We tried a restaurant called Grapes for lunch and were pleasantly surprised. It is THE place to eat in Jerome

Jerome. Az

Next we drove through Clarksdale and visited the Tuzigoot National Monument. It is a 110 dwelling pueblo ruin dating from the 1300s. Interesting, and if you are over 60 and have a National Park Senior Citizen pass ($10 for your lifetime) you get in free.

Monday night we tried Maria’s Mexican. It turned out to be mediocre. Not doing too well for dinners in Sedona.

On Tuesday we traveled to the Grand Canyon. We picked up breakfast at McDonald’s and hit the road. The drive from Sedona to the Grand Canyon is scenic. The first part of the trip is the drive through and out of Oak Creek Canyon. Then through Flagstaff and the National Forest to the Canyon. We parked at the El Tovar. We walked the rim in that area until lunch. We ate at the Arizona Room. The meal was mediocre (I have been using that word a lot but we were very unlucky on our choice of restaurants this trip in some cases). Then we drove to the Desert View entrance on the East side of the park stopping to view the canyon and walk several times.

Back in Sedona we dined at the Silver Saddle in uptown Sedona. The meal was delicious. Recommend it also. I had steak and Gwen I am sure had some sort chicken dish.

On Wednesday we stayed close to Sedona. We alternated between hiking, relaxing in the Wyndham, and eating. Today’s restaurants and results were:

Breakfast: Golden Goose
Lunch: Wildflower Bread Company – very good, will remind you of Panera’s except the food is better.
Dinner: Elote. The restaurant opens at 5:00PM. We arrived at 5:15 PM and had to wait 45 minutes. Elote was worth the wait. They serve Mexican and it is great. Definitely the find of the trip. I’d put it in the same class as a Stephen Piles restaurant. I had butternut squash soup and green chile tamales. Gwen had guacamole and jicama salad.

Thursday was not the best vacation day in Sedona/Phoenix. The day started out fine. We ate breakfast at the Wildflower Bakery which was the best breakfast we had on the trip. Actually, the bagel shop was pretty darn good also.

Then we checked out of the Wyndham and drove to Phoenix. So far so good.

We had the day to spend in Phoenix and Gwen wanted to visit the Queen Creek Olive Farm. The only problem was it wasn’t really in Phoenix. It was on the far Southeast side about 60 miles from our hotel which was close to Surprise stadium on the far Northwest side. Other than the 1.5 hour drive each way through the city the farm was nice and we had a good lunch.

We watched the Ranger/Angels preseason game Thursday night. Rangers prevailed in the bottom of the ninth.

Our hotel was a Marriott Residence Inn at 17N and Happy Valley. It was new and really first-rate.

We flew home Friday and that’s the end of the story.

Cathedral Rock

Click for more photos

Leave a Comment » | Sports, Vacation | Tagged: Grand Canyon, Jerome, Sedona, Spring Training | Permalink
Posted by molson46

Some days are diamonds, some days are gravel

April 30, 2013

There is an old John Denver song – Some Days are Diamonds and Some Days are Gravel. Well my day Monday was both. Summary: I took a bike ride. I rode into a truck. Now, I hurt to breathe and sneezing is out of this world. I don’t believe any ribs are broken. Other than that I have a few bumps and bruises.

I woke Monday morning (April 29) ready for a brand new week. When you are on a 7 day weekend you like Monday’s as much as any other day of the week.

I decided to take a long bicycle ride. The morning was perfect. The temperature was 57 degrees and there was no wind. No wind in Texas Spring is as rare as the Cubs winning the World Series – so maybe this is the year. I decided to ride the bike through East Allen and Lucas. That area is mostly rural so no lights and very little traffic. Up until 2 hours into the ride I was having the best ride of the year. Then disaster struck! I turned onto a new street. All of a sudden there was a pickup about 2 feet in front of me. I just had time to start to say a very bad word but never finished it because I slammed into the truck doing probably 15 mph! Of course the bike and I bounced off the pickup. For the first few seconds I thought my jaw and ribs were broken and the wind was knocked out of my lungs so I could not breathe.

After a minute or so I could breathe again but my ribs hurt like nothing I’ve ever felt before and blood was spurting out of my chin.

I managed to get the bleeding to stop holding a handkerchief against the cut but my ribs were not getting any better.

Then I saw my bike. It was in no shape to ride either. The front wheel was bent and the handlebars were turned the wrong way. By the way the pickup was parked when I hit it and did not have a scratch. I secretly believe the pickup jumped out from the curb and hit me.

It’s the day after now and I feel like a train ran over me. Oh, well. This too shall pass.

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Posted by molson46

Retirement Part II

March 28, 2013

This is my second and final post on my thoughts on my impending retirement. The first post spanned from birth to hiring onto E-Systems.

My first big shock at work was working on a team and interacting with other people. I toiled virtually alone at all my other jobs from driving a tractor on the farm to repairing microwave transmitters for Continental Electronics. My first assignment was with a group of around 7 of building computer system based on a 24K mini-computer with 7 level paper tape as the only IO device. My, how technology has changed! My cube-mate was Sharon Horton. Steve McNeil sat in the next cube. He knew more cuss-words than anyone I ever knew and used them in a very casual manner. Jim Snow was our lead. After that project I moved onto another one lead by the Sarge, Dave Scott. Other members of the team I will never forget are George Hall, Dave Hooker, Jim Dunn, and, Roland Rentz.

After a couple of years I volunteered for an assignment in Alice Springs Australia. We lived there for five years. I was a maintenance programmer there instead of building systems. The kids went from babies to just young enough they don’t remember anything except what we tell them. We formed some great friendships there and camped out bush a lot. We learned to enjoy soccer, rugby, and Aussie rules football. We saw the Great Barrier Reef, Sydney, Hawaii, Fiji, and our favorite – Adelaide. We returned home with mixed feelings but I was bored with work and the kids were getting older.

After returning from Australia I was talked into switching from Software to Systems. The switch was promised to be temporary but lasted the remainder of my career. I enjoyed the Systems journey. It was a journey literally. I traveled most of the rest of my career- Australia, West Coast, Denver, East Coast, State College, San Antonio, Florida. Other than I traveled I can’t really say much about what I did except:

I made money
I had fun
I did something useful

I did get to know many really good people. Also, some of them were really nerdy. Like let’s calculate the gravitational effect of a proton on Halley’s Comet on the Earth at Midnight GMT April 23, 1587. I’m not going to mention any names because at my age with my memory I’ll leave someone out and wake up at 3AM in a panic.

Meanwhile on the home front the kids grew up, we grew older, and our previous generation passed away. We, mostly Gwen, must have done okay because the kids all graduated from Texas A&M, started careers, got married, and procreated.

They say its the journey and not the destination. I really enjoyed the journey and am ready for another one.

Best advice: He that is not busy being born is busy dying.

Best moments:

Fixing a righteous problem in a component I developed. Talk about immediate high
Flying home after a long and successful installation

Worst moments:

It’s Friday afternoon at 4PM. We are trying to install a new System. The head Customer dude tells us if our System crashes again this weekend to turn it off, tear it down, and go home.
Its the day before Thanksgiving. Both sets of parents coming to visit – mine for the first time. My VP tells me to get on a plane and fly to Australia tonight to fix a problem or turn in my badge.

The best moments dwarfed the worst moments by far. And it’s true: If you love your job you will never work a day in your life.

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Posted by molson46

Retirement Part I

March 1, 2013

I’m retiring a month from today and…

I was born in 1946 along time ago in a country far away called the Midwest. It was quite a different place and quite a different time. In the place where I grew up everyone was a farmer or had some connection to farming. We thought diversity meant Lutherans, Catholics, and Methodists attending the same school.

Fast forward to 3 years of school in Chicago – what an eye opener.

I discovered Polish saugages, Wrigley field when I needed a day off from school, and roomed with good friends from exotic Pittsburg who had never seen a cornfield.

Then, fast forward to Fort Worth — another eye opener.

My only previous connection with Texas was John Wayne movies. I imagined mountains, cactus, sage brush, and cattle. However, after graduating from DeVry Institute I found myself and my two Pittsburg friends driving Southwest to Texas to start work at Generous Dynamics building F111 aircraft. Mile after mile we kept expecting the scenery to change. We were really excited driving through the Arbunkle Mountains (actually small hills) in Southern Oklahoma. Well, we thought we are finally getting close to Texas: plenty of red rocks, cactus, hilly, and everything looks dry. How disappointed we were when after a few miles the landscape returned to close to the midwest. It was a little drier, the weather was a little drier (in March), but otherwise looked much the same as the Midwest.

My first August I wondered why anyone lived in this hot hell hole. But then January came and I could play golf. I was hooked on Texas. As Daryl Royal used to say “Son, after you’ve worn Florsheim’s you never want to go back to Tom McCann’s.

My three years at General Dynamics did not change my life substantially. I was still a Midwest nerd, single, and, my idea of a good time was driving around aimlessly all night – going nowhere, seeing no one, and doing nothing. I was laid off from that job along with 30,000 or so other people. So, I went back to school.

It was at school that I meant Gwen, my future wife. At the time I thought she talked to much and was pretty naive because she had never heard Simon and Garfunkel sing Sounds of Silence which by that time was the anthem of my generation.

Nothing much happened until one Thanksgiving week. I was home studying like usual (probably proving the set of real numbers given the set of integers. I always liked math). Gwen called my roommate because her battery had died. He was out at a bar so I hopped in my car and repaired her battery. The rest is history: love – dating – marriage – kids – grandkids.

Back to retirement. When we tied the string I was still in school so I hired onto Continental Telephone in Useless Texas. I attended UTA in the day and repaired microwave transmitters at night.

During my senior year I interviewed with a number of companies. I was a math major with minors in physics and computer science. At the time there were no Universities in Texas offering degrees in Computer Science so the high tech companies were hiring math majors to fill their positions. My two most memorable interviewes were EDS (Ross Perot’s company) and E-Systems. EDS want me to cut my hair and wear white shirts and ties. E-Systems did not care as long as I produced so I went to E-Systems. I remember May Sue Thorton, Ed Redwine, Jim Snow, and John Harris interviewed me.

I graduated in December 1973. On January 2, 1974 I started my employment at E-Systems in Garland Texas and moved to beautiful John Glenn Drive in Garland Texas. A few days later on February 2 our first child was born – Claudia. Meanwhile I was sitting in the E-Systems leper colony. But that is a story for another day.

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Posted by molson46

Life in Inda’s Slums

January 26, 2013

Behind the Beautiful Forevers Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo.

I had never heard of this book before my daughter gave it to me for Christmas. However the title was interesting to say the least. How did a Beautiful Forevers relate to life in a Mumbai slum?

Turns out the Beautiful Forever is a hugh billboard advertising Beautiful Forever Tile hiding the slum from the jet-setters at the international airport. The title does provide a sense of irony to the book.

For the most part the story takes place in the slum situated beside a large cesspool by the Mumbai International Airport. Most of the slum (Annawadi) inhabitants depended on the airport for their livelihood – from reselling trash to stealing anything that was not bolted down and sometimes even bolted down items, to part time subsistence paying jobs for which they were often times stiffed.

The book’s main character is Abdul, the oldest son of a minority Muslim family in a mostly Hindu slum, who provides the income for the family by buying and reselling trash. As an aside most of the fathers in the book either suffer from tuberculous, drink too much, or otherwise are not the family provider.

The main plot is the family’s trial and tribulations after their one-legged neighbor self-immolates herself because of an argument she had with their family. Abdul, his father, and his sister are charged with first setting her ablaze and later with just driving her to attempt suicide.

The book is a fast read and does not become boring. I recommend it.

The author spent 4 years of her life interviewing and chronicling the lives of the people of the Annawadi slum. Assuming their lives are similar to the characters in the novel I am indeed blessed I live in the USA, have a great job, and a decent family.

Amen

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Posted by molson46