July 5, 2013

   A really weird morning for me today. Nothing bad or anything like that happened, it just seemed like nothing was working right at all. Started off by trying to return a couple pieces of metal stock that I had picked up way back when I was going to hire someone to fix my trailer bumper for me. When it became evident that none of the welders I talked to were going to do it correctly, but were still going to charge me some big bucks for it anyway, I just put it away until I could consult with my brother-in-law about the whole project. As it turns out he ended doing the work for me and didn't even need the metal pieces I had bought, so I thought I'd take them back to the same hardware chain store where they came from. Thought I had the receipt right there with the steel pieces, but when I got there I found it was a receipt for something else I had bought. Searching the truck high and low didn't bring me the original one so that whole trip became null and void.

   My next journey took me on out to the Scott's Bluff National Monument entrance. When I reached for my billfold to dig out the $5 entrance fee, I found that I didn't even have my wallet with me, how embarrassing. Back to the trailer, lucky for me it was only about 6 miles away, grab the billfold, which was thankfully right where I had left it, and then back out to the monument to finally go into it.

    Life was a bit better after those minor problems. Had a good time wandering around the museum building there and walking around the exhibits outside. The monuments main focus was on it being a major landmark along the Old Oregon Trail. As such it had 10's of thousands of immigrants pass by it on their way to Oregon, Salt Lake and during the gold rush, California. They had a couple examples of wagons that would of been used during this period as well as lots of other displays talking about the geology of the area as well as other history and fun tidbits of information. They also had a nice hiking trail that would take you from the base of the monument all the way up to the top. It is only 2.6 miles each way, but it has a nice elevation gain in it, and at a temperature approaching the low 90's it was a bit of a hike. Made it all the way up and back though and was treated to a wonderful view from the top. Pictures will be forthcoming at some point, but not today.

    Walked back down to the bottom and then drove back up in the truck to see all the other things I had missed by being on the east side of the bluff. More wonderful vistas and some really nice engineering in building the road up to the top.

    Once done there, it was off to the east about 20-25 miles to Chimney Rock, another landmark along the Old Oregon Trail. Part of Nebraska's park system, this monument also had a small museum attached with some nice photo's and historical documents about it's history. I was surprised to find out that all of these rock formations are formed out of different layers of sand, dust/silt and volcanic ash. There was no direct vulcanism going on with any of these even though they look like they could of been remnants of old volcanic plugs. In fact the volcanic ash that fell several times, and sometimes built up layers more than 20 feet thick, were actually way west of here in Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Oregon. So all of these rock formations are subject to heavy erosion by wind and water and indeed you can see major changes in them from pictures from only 30-50 years ago. Still very neat to see it all up close and personnel.

    Thought there was going to be a major storm pass right over the trailer this evening just as I got back to it. Very dark, angry looking clouds with 15-20 mph winds. Ended up with only a light sprinkle of wind out of it all, though it did manage to cool things off nicely.

   Just hanging out this evening dealing with pictures and reading a bit in one of my books. Also picked up a couple more boxes earlier on and will get started packing up more stuff at some point. Looks like I have an early morning date tomorrow to meet the kids over at the zoo before it gets to hot. Looking forward to seeing them all again, even if it does mean getting up earlier than usual.

A couple of Misc Photo's from the Chadron Area 

 June/July 2013

Ran into this little buck on one of my walks a week or so ago. I managed to see him before he saw me so I quickly ducked behind a tree and then 'snorted' at him. He had started out about 100 feet farther down the drainage, but when he couldn't figure out what I was he just kept coming closer and closer. I really freaked him out by sticking my arm with my camera out to the side of the tree and raising and lowering it while taking pictures. He finally came right up to the fence before I stepped out and gave him a good fright. Hope he's not that dumb when it comes to mountain lions, coyotes or hunters.

A picture of the theatre where I saw all of the plays while camped near Chadron Nebraska. This is intermission during the last play I saw, Hollywood Cabaret, and the view looked kind of surreal to me. More like a Hallmark Christmas Card than a real scene. Those are real people though. I like how the early evening light lit the area up just enough for me to get a decent shot without a flash. Of course I had to take about 20 shots to get even one that was decent.