Billy Bob and the King

As you know whenever possible we travel with a flexible schedule and we were doing exactly that last week.  We had points of interest picked for several days ahead and penciled them onto our calendar. Looking at the calendar we were reminded of the Windsor Gate community yard sale. Millie had worked very hard preparing for this event and we didn’t want to miss it. We decided to keep our travel plans for the next two days and then head home in time for the sale.

Sunday Sept 15^th we departed The Crater of Diamonds State Park and cruised up to Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas and the location of the President Billy Bob Clinton Library. We set up camp in an RV park on the Arkansas River directly across the Library. We walked across an old railroad bridge that has been converted into a pedestrian walkway and goes straight to the library.

 Now you know Billy Bob was a two term president during prosperous economic times. Luck that his tenure fell on a high cycle or skilled leadership is open to debate as the true economic stimulus but Billy Bob wants y’all to believe it was his doing. Indeed many good things happened during the Clinton Presidency but we just couldn’t get excited about the presentation. Maybe there was just too much horn tooting; Bill did this, bill saved that, Bill world peace, Bill blah, Bill Blah blah!

After the Billy Bob show we went several blocks down to the revitalized downtown waterfront, yes Bill took credit for that too. We had dinner in a sports bar, the food was good but it was very loud. But then all sports bars are loud.

Monday Sept 16^th we drove to Memphis Tennessee, home of Elvis’s Graceland and legendary Beale Street. Elvis often visited the predominately black music venues on Beale Street, their music known as The Blues was a big influence on Elvis and early Rock and Roll.

We stayed at the RV Park directly across the street from Graceland. The RV Park, a hotel, several exhibit buildings and the welcome center are all part of the tourist attraction or to many, the shrine to the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley.

Entering the home I noticed that it is treated with reverence, visitors spoke in hushed tones and spent time in quiet reflection as we passed through the rooms. The Elvis Company is also respectful of the King, no one rushed us through the home, and there are no gift shops in the home. (There are many gift shops across the street) 

For me and I think for Millie also, touring Graceland made Elvis more of a person. There is no doubt he was a talented performer, but the image they project is that he was also a regular guy who never forgot his humble background.

It’s sad that he died so young but maybe it was the best way for the king of rock and Roll to exit. So many aging celebrities just don’t know when to retire. Anyhow, Elvis has left the building!

Tuesday Sept 17^th we headed for home driving 400+/- miles to Georgia. We stayed overnight at a wonderful little state park named for the vice president of the Confederacy, A. H. Stephens. On Wednesday we drove the rest of the way home a distance of 250 miles.

Thursday and Friday we worked harder than the King of Paradise and his bride should have too, but we got everything staged and on Saturday we had a very successful day during the community yard sale.

Sunday I had planned on doing the blog but was too tired to think. Monday we went back to work, Millie worked in the motorhome (BTW, it now has a name, The Bus) and Doug and I are working on another project, this one in his home. So this was scribbled together late last night and very early this morning.

The adventure continues, see you down the road.

Larry and Millie

Hunting for diamonds

Paved trail to the river

The road from the interstate to the Crater of Diamonds goes through rural southern Arkansas and for the most part it looked like a place lost in time. I doubt it has changed much in the last 40 years. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it made the state park a big surprise. This is one of the nicest campgrounds we have ever been in and one of only three that we have given our highest rating. It’s in a beautiful old growth forest but everything is brand new and very well done. Paved streets and parking pads, well spaced campsites and full utility hookups. The only thing missing is cable TV, something you rarely get in a state park, but something that would be a big plus here. This is the first time in nine years of RVing that we have no TV reception. There is one fuzzy analog channel that appears to be a video broadcast of a talk radio program. It’s not a big thing with us, we don’t watch that much TV, there is very little worth watching nowadays. We go thru the $5 DVD bin at Wal-Mart and keep stocked up on movies to watch at night.

We got up early this morning and went straight to the diamond fields before it got hot. Even though we watched all the instructional videos at the visitors center, and rented all the proper equipment our efforts were fruitless. It’s a lot harder than it looks and is indeed like finding a needle in a haystack. I told Millie metal detecting on the beach was a lot more rewarding. When you dig a hole targeted with a detector you always find something, junk jewelry, coins, beer tabs, something. Here in the diamond field we dug holes, sifted dirt, searched the surface of the ground and came home with nothing. But it was an interesting experience; we had fun and checked another item off the bucket list.

Does Mike Weston ride off into the sunset?

A quick catch up, Wednesday the 11^th we left Bridgeport Texas on Rt 380 and passed north of Dallas/Ft Worth. The area gradually became suburban as we neared Dallas and soon we were passing shopping centers and housing developments. East of Dallas the countryside became more like what we’re used to seeing in the east, green shrubbery and trees, Millie even said “this could be anywhere”.

We overnighted at another lakeside Thousand Trails Campground, this one called Lake Tawakoni. This lake like the one at Bridgeport has very low water; each of them looked to me as if the water level was down 12-15 feet. They must have gone through a long drought period here.

On Thursday we drove to the Texas/Arkansas border and a campground with cable TV. As I said in a pervious blog it was paramount that we had cable so we could watch the last episode of the show, Burn Notice.

The show which has aired on the USA network for seven years is about Mike Weston a sullen ex- CIA operative who lives in Miami.  Besides trying to right the contrived charges that got him expelled from the CIA, the episodes often had him helping people who had been wronged and the matter couldn’t be righted through legal means. If you’ve read any of John D MacDonald’s Travis McGee books, you pretty much have the gist of the story line. In Burn Notice Mike’s cohorts are Fiona, his trigger happy ex-girlfriend. and Sam Axe, a tropical shirt wearing, beer swigging retired FBI agent/Navy SEAL. The sometimes campy episodes often have MacGyver like munitions made with everyday materials and other unrealistic special effects. Of course the good guys always win.

After six successful seasons the powers that be decided to end the show. The entire seventh season leads up to the final episode which we saw on Thursday. How did it end, we almost didn’t get to find out ourselves. After watching an all day marathon of this years episodes the cable went out just before the finale. In the spirit of TV heroes saving the day at the last moment I ran a long cable half way across the park to an outlet that worked and restored our reception just as the last show started. So how did it end, I’ll never tell, you’ll have to buy the DVD set and see it for yourself.

Today (Friday) we drove into Arkansas, we are at a really nice State Park called the Crater of Diamonds. It is the only diamond producing site in the world open to the public. Tomorrow we search over a 37 1/2-acre plowed field, the eroded surface of an ancient volcanic crater that 100 million years ago brought to the surface diamonds and semi-precious stones. Wish us luck!

Crossing the Panhandle Praire

Today [Tuesday 10^th] we drove across the Texas Panhandle Prairie. Our journey took us from 30 miles west of Lubbock [Littlefield] to Bridgeport which is just northwest of Dallas/Fort Worth. A distance of 287 miles on rural country roads, it was quite an experience. The terrain changes back and forth from buffalo grass prairie to some agriculture, to rugged valleys. We only passed thru 2 maybe 3 very small towns and many long stretches of desolate nothingness.

Our campground for the night is a Thousand Trails Campground called Bay Landing. We’ve never been here before and were pleasantly surprised; it is a very nice place. I purchased my Thousand Trails membership mostly as an economical way to spend the winter months in Florida. The system has 88 campgrounds spread around the country that we can use and Millie and I have been to quite a few in the last two years. Some are very nice, most are average and one or two that we’ve seen could use some work. The only negative thing we can say about this park is the sand spurs. They are growing everywhere and the dogs are getting gun shy about walking outside. 

We still have about 250 miles of Texas to cross before we reach Arkansas. We are going to visit another TT campground [Lake Tawakoni] east of Dallas and will reach the border at Texarkana on Thursday. We have a requirement that necessitates stay in a commercial campground on Thursday and I have already called ahead to make sure they have the USA network on their cable TV lineup. The final episode of the series “Burn Notice” will air and we don’t want to miss it.

Murderers and Killing cows?

Greetings,

After an almost 3 week stay in Los Alamos, New Mexico we departed 9AM Monday on the first leg of our “Road less traveled” tour. We drove south thru New Mexico on mostly secondary roads. In Santa Rosa the old Rt 66 motels are still there but the new modern hotels at the I-40 interchange have pretty much killed any Art Deco ambiance the town may have had. 

Even in death Jesse James is jailed due to several tombstone thefts

At Fort Sumner we turned east and headed towards Texas. We took a short detour and found Billy the Kids grave. Even though he was a thug and murderer, it was still interesting to see his final resting place. By the time we got to Texas the terrain had changed and we started seeing cultivated fields. Lots of the crops are irrigated but there are also large tracts of rangeland lush with wild grasses.

Nothing grazes on the ranges, cattle are held in crowded pens, the ground bare dirt, one side of the fencing made with slots the cows stick their heads thru to feed on the dried hay provided for them. There is a shade awning over part of the pens which gives them some relief from the brutal heat, but that’s about all the comfort they get as they wait to die. It’s a very sad thing to witness. 

factory farming cattle

End of day found us in Littlefield Texas, home of outlaw country singer Waylon Jennings. The RV Park we are staying in bears his name and is provided free courtesy of the town. According to the internet [so it must be true] Waylon donated the money to build the RV Park and put on a concert here every year to raise the money to keep it free. On our after dinner walk we happened upon an outdoor stage a short distance from the park. Now in disarray it probably hasn’t been used since the honky-tonk legend died in 2002.

I wrote this late Monday night and reviewing it this morning it seems I highlighted only darker subjects, murderers and killing cows, that by no means is a reflection of the day. We love traveling the back roads of America and yesterday was another great day.

See you down the road,

Did ET visit New Mexico?

I’m probably going outside the comfort zone for some of y’all with this posting, but it is an intriguing and thought provoking subject. So keep an open mind, don’t hide behind your religious beliefs or Darwinism evolutionary theorizes and I won’t bash either theory, I’m just suggesting early man had a little help doing some things.

A few months ago I watched a show on the History channel that proposed Extraterrestrial astronauts came to earth and helped man build the massive out of place, out of time structures such as the Great Pyramids of Egypt and the many Mayan cities in central and South America. The Far East is also home to many cities, monuments, etc that were built in a time that did not have the technology to accomplish the tasks.

 Could the earth have been visited by ETs and/or technologically superior humans in very ancient times and could these events have been recorded as encounters with "Gods" and "Flying Chariots" in ancient mythologies, legends and religions. Did these visitors teach man the skills needed to build the great structures? Who knows, but being a pragmatic show me the facts kind of guy, this theory seems very plausible to me.

 There are similar ancient accounts, mythologies, cults and religions from all around the world, all basically describing "Gods" that flew around, performed technical "miracles", created things, destroyed them, taught humans skills, etc.  Could it be possible that our ancestors were describing technological events they didn’t have the right vocabulary for? So saying "flames came out of the flying serpent" could very well be the description of an aircraft...for example.

For Religion the Gods were something unexplainable or almighty. I say why couldn’t there have been a Supreme Being in a Universe full of extraterrestrials? Maybe he was telling ET which peoples to visit.

For the science based thinkers, the existence of extraterrestrials does not contradict evolution-theory in any way. It does explain how man was able to leap ahead at certain times in his evolution and build incredible things.

By now you’re probably thinking old Larry has been out in the desert too long smoking coyote dung. Why else would he be writing this space man stuff? Well the truth is I was inspired to write about it while visiting the cave dwellings of Bandelier. There are many petroglyphs on the walls there, although crude carvings, you can recognize the animals, the sun and most of the other drawings. There is one strange anomaly in the pictures though, pictures of man or man like beings. Why is it that the ancient artists could create easily identifiable carvings of horses and dogs and the sun, but his carvings of two legged upright beings don’t look anything like Indians of the period? They look like....space men.

petroglyph of a dog in Frijoles Canyon

ET?

I’ll leave y’all with one more thought to mull over, if the ancient astronaut theory is true and extraterrestrial visitors came and taught the technologies to some civilizations, why didn’t they bestow this wisdom on the early Pueblo people of Frijoles Canyon?  For that matter, on any of the early Indian peoples of North America?  

PS: I'm not the only person who believes in the spacemen, ET has been holding vigil on the mountain road to Los Alamos for as long as anyone can remember.

 

Bandelier National Monument

1200AD Ancestral Pueblo people built homes at the cliffs

Millie climping to indian cave dwelling

About a million years ago in what is now northern New Mexico the Jemez volcano had two violent eruptions. Enough material was ejected to cover a four hundred mile square area with volcanic ash to a depth of 1000 feet. The now sunken core of Jemez is still visible and is now a protected National Preserve called Valles Caldera. The plateau of compressed volcanic ash is easily corroded by the elements and deep canyons now radiate out from the caldera.

Los Alamos is located 15 miles or so east of the caldera. The town and the nuclear research facility that is its claim to fame are clustered on whatever flat land (flat being a relative term) available between the jagged canyons. Some of the homes and buildings sit very close to the steep cliffs, I read once that the main cause of death in the town is people walking around their yards at night and falling off the edge.

Fourteen miles southeast of the caldera is the 34 thousand acre Bandelier National Monument. Within the park, time in the 100’s of 1000’s of years has carved the Frijoles Canyon into a rugged but uniquely fascinating landscape. What makes Frijoles different from many other canyons in the area is water flows thru it year round.

The water supply is most certainly the reason early peoples migrated thru the area, archeological research dating back 10,000 years finds evidence of Ancestral Pueblo people in the valley. About 1200 years ago they started farming on the plateau and in the canyon, permanent settlements were built, these were the cliff dwellers. Later a walled village (The Plaza of Tyuonyi) was built on the valley floor, but it is believed that the people still spent winters in the protection of the cliff dwellings.

This is a very condensed version of one million years of history and we highly recommend a visit to Bandelier to learn more about this strangely attractive place. It is only about a ½ hour drive from Santa Fee and well worth the time.

Millie and Larry at the Cliff Dwellers caves

Indian caves from across the valley floor

Busy week in Los Alamos

(L-R)Rae Anne, Marcus, Evan, Millie, Dave

I haven’t written to the blog since our arrival in Los Alamos and I’ve actually had reader feedback saying they missed it, well actually two people but that is enough to inspire me.

Millie and I have been busy working in and around Dave and Rae Anne’s house and we wanted to get the bulk of the work done while the house was empty. The Kolman’s left two days after we got here for a vacation in Ocean City, New Jersey. That made it very convenient for us to work but I’m sure raises a few questions with you readers, like you drove 1800 miles to see them and they left?

The original plan was we would be here in the end of Sept and part of October well after they returned from the Jersey vacation. When Millie got on her Ophthalmologist's schedule for cataract surgery it meant we had to return to Myrtle Beach by early October. We moved the Los Alamos trip up and decided to get there by the 23^rd of August even though we knew they were leaving because the 23^rd is Rae Anne’s birthday. We will be here for a week after they return so will still get to spend time with them.

Why were we working on someone else’s house while we are on vacation? We’re always on vacation and the answer is because we wanted to. Dave and Rae Anne both work full time jobs and are raising two energetic youngsters, we left Myrtle Beach knowing we wanted to help them in any small way we could. Besides Millie and I are both workers and always have to be doing something, neither of us lets any moss grow under our feet. Millie is a Virginia farm girl and was married to and worked along side a master furniture builder, believe me she can do anything. Me, I’ve been around a project or two.

We did all sorts of things, from building a sand box for the kids to washing windows. I did a little electric work, Millie did some sewing, we worked in the yard, it was a fun week for us.

We did take one day and visited the Bandelier National Monument located not far from Los Alamos. The almost 40,000 acre park preserves both the unique geographic landscape and the history of the Pueblo people. It is a fascinating place and one that merits its own blog posting, which I will write about next.

See you down the road.

 

Marcus (L) and Evan (R)