The rest of last night was kind of interesting. After finishing up doing pictures while sitting in Micky D's yesterday afternoon, I went in search of real food and found a wonderful little Mexican restaurant on the east side of the town of Alliance. I had one of their combo plates with an enchilada, taco and tostada. Had really wanted a tamale as one of my choices, but unfortunately they had run out of them for the day. Making me think that they might actually make them there on site. Based on the rest of the food though, I will need to go back at some point and try them out. The rest of the meal was wonderful, with good home made salsa and green chili to go with the rest of the items. Topping it all off was a hot out of the fryer sopapilla dipped in sugar and cinnamon and then served up with honey on the side. Really the best one I have ever had.
    It was nearly dark when I turned the truck towards home and headed north. All along I could see clouds blotting out the sky and lightening flashing on a continuous basis. It only got darker and wilder as I approached the top of the plateau overlooking the valley the town of Chadron sits in. By that time I could see a huge black cloud sitting just to the west of the campground. I thought it might miss me though as the wind up there at that time was blowing out of the SE, away from the campground location. Of course when I finally drove into the state park 10 mins later the wind had shifted 180 degrees and was now blowing the worst of the storm right towards me and the trailer. Didn't even have time to hop out of the truck and get inside before the skies just opened up. Within seconds everything was drenched.... and then the hail started falling. Still sitting in the truck at this point so I just fired it back up and drove it over under a lone pine tree nearby. It wasn't a lot of protection, but it probably kept me from having to replace a windshield or get some cosmetic work done on the truck. Like most storms out here it only last about 10 mins, but probably dropped at least an inch of rain in that amount of time. It finally quieted down enough that I could drive back to Esmerelda and run inside. Much calmer feeling inside, but I noticed right away that one of the skylights there in the living area had been knocked full of holes. Not much I could do about it last night, but luckily the rain was soon over. It was obvious though that it was going to need to be patched, at least temporarily until it can be replaced.
    So that is what I spent a couple hours this morning doing. Grabbed the ladder out of the back of the truck and a couple rolls of window and door flashing and went to work. Basically this stuff is a lot like a wide roll of duct tape, but it has a sticky layer of bitumen on the bottom of it. It works pretty well over all, but the sun and ultra violet light will break it down at some point, so it doesn't last forever. But it is now patched for the time being, and I'll need to grab a replacement skylight and get it installed at some point in the near future.
    Got a few other chores done while the temperature was still cool enough to work outside. Put the lawn chairs and bike back on their rack, and got the cover repositioned over them all. Put the bike on facing the other way this time as a couple people pointed out to me that the front tire was hiding the license plate and rear brake light when it was facing that direction. It is hoped that turning it around will fix that problem. As a bit of a side light; the bumper my brother in law welded on for me last year has held up very well. No cracked welds and nothing on the verge of falling off this year. Have to thank him again for such a great job.
    Stopped at the post office in town this afternoon and got my passport renewal form mailed off to the government. It is still more than 6 months before it will be needed again, so I hope it will all be done and sent back by then.
    Just hanging out right now waiting until it's time to take off for Fort Robinson and Post Playhouse. Tonight's offering is my second screening of 'The Sound of Music'. Looking forward to hearing all my old favorites sung by a very talented cast. Am also hoping that the weather will stay decent this evening.... at least until I can make it back to the trailer later on.

Puckett's Cabin along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia  May 2014

The original cabin of Orlena Hawks Puckett. She began a career of midwifery after the age of 50 and by the time she died at 102 she had helped deliver over 1,000 babies..... I just think it's a neat little cabin.

A close look of the dovetail corners, all chopped out, as are the logs themselves, with nothing more than a sharp axe and adz. Note the telltale lines along the face of each log which shows where the log was chopped with an axe in order to square them up. Also note how low the top of the door is. I think people were just shorter back then.

Another close up of the cabin corner.

On one end of the cabin is the fireplace. This one is built out of  stone instead of sticks and mud like so many of them were back then. Of course many of those buildings are no longer around, many of them because their chimneys caught on fire and burnt to the ground. This is a very nice chimney.

Another view showing how the chimney pops out of the cabin framing and then turns and goes up the side of the building.

One last view showing how small this building really was.

*