Vegas Weekend

Dear Family and Friends:

This past weekend we traveled (by car, not Tuzigoot) to Las Vegas, New Mexico, Susie's NM home town, to attend homecoming festivities at her alma mater, Highlands University. Here's a brief report and several pictures.

We left on Friday, which happened to be my birthday, and we celebrated that by stopping on the way in Santa Fe for fish tacos at my favorite Mexican seafood restaurant. I have sampled fish taco offerings far and wide, and these are still the best.

Homecoming started with a brunch Saturday morning for the class of '59. Around a dozen members of that class were there and they shared lots of fond, sometimes funny, memories of their Highlands days. One frequent memory was of Susie playing Ado Annie in Oklahoma!


Saturday afternoon was parade time. Fifty years ago the Highland U drum major was none other than the lovely and talented Susie Hughes:



Here's a portion of the class of '59 on parade in 2009. They actually sang the school fight song ("Cowboys the best in the west, ... ) occasionally, but I didn't get to hear it. Actually, they closed the brunch by bellowing out the fight song and if you're not careful, Susie will do it voluntarily should you happen to mention Highlands U in her presence.

Saturday night was football and unfortunately the home team had a tough night -- and have had several tough years. We and several of the class of '59 stayed until the end, though, and got to see quite a nice choreographed fireworks show.

Sunday morning we took a particularly scenic route home, going north and west from Las Vegas. This took us through some scenic ranch land and ancient villages, then over the Sangre de Cristo mountains, topping out at about 9500 ft. Here are a couple fall color pictures.

We were impressed by the early snow on the Truchas Peaks.

We had lunch at the Sipapu Ski Lodge cafe, then picked up the art show along the "High Road to Taos." One reason we took this route was that we had read that many of the arts and craft galleries along this road from Chimayo to Taos were having open houses this weekend. Among other things, this meant free snacks. We browsed and nibbled our way home. Susie found a knit head band; I found an old barn to snap.

All in all, a nice celebratory weekend.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob

Rainbow 8-24-09

Rainbow pictures on the morning of August 24, 2009: Cedar Crest, NM

New York City Baseball - 2

Monday, 7/27, it was back downtown, this time down to lower Manhattan to Ground Zero. Walking from the subway station to the site of the World Trade Center took us by St. Paul's Chapel. I like to visit old churches, so I said, Let's go in. You may recall, I didn't, the role this church played in the aftermath of 9/11.

From the church website:

"For eight months, hundreds of volunteers worked 12 hour shifts around the clock, serving meals, making beds, counseling and praying with fire fighters, construction workers, police and others. Massage therapists, chiropractors, podiatrists and musicians also tended to their needs."

The church's exhibits bring that tragic time back quite vividly. Here's one banner that caught my attention.

"Oklahoma Loves You"

Here's a collection of police and fireman shoulder patches.

The chapel has been there a long time. George Washington worshiped there the day of his inaugural - here's a depiction of that event.


It was good to see all of the construction going on at Ground Zero.

I haven't kept up with the plans, but from the internet I found these pictures of the future.

The open area is the 9/11 Memorial site and a guide told us that it would be open and dedicated on 9/11, 2011. The site's center piece Freedom Tower will be 1776 ft. tall. I don't know its schedule. Right now they seem to be working on the underground transportation center to replace the subway terminal destroyed by the collapsing buildings.

Next we went back to midtown to ride on The Beast - a speedboat trip (up to 45 mph, they said) to the Statue of Liberty and back.

A crew member got this shot of your intrepid travelers.

We got lots of ill-focused and -framed shots of the shore from a bouncing boat. At the Statue, The Beast paused for a calm photo-op. As you probably read, the Lady Liberty is open again and you can climb the stairs to the top, but those tickets are sold out long in advance.



Going out, folks on the other side of the boat got sprayed royally. Coming back it was our turn. Jason really got a kick from that part of the ride.

Next we walked: Times Square, Broadway, Central Park, East Side, then finally Grand Central Station where we caught the train to the Mets game. Along the way we snacked, climbed rocks in the park, waited out another rainshower under construction scaffolding, people-watched, and gawked. Here's a shot of the Chrysler Building reflected in the glass building across the street.

The Mets' new field is CitiField. (I don't know if it is coincidence or planning that both NY teams moved into new fields the same year.) This had a more comfortable feeling to me -- red brick and dark green girders and seats -- than new Yankee Stadium.

Anyhow, we saw another good game. The Mets beat the Rockies on an eighth-inning grand slam home run by pinch-hitter, Fernando Tatis. Our seats were in left field, a few rows up from the fence, an area that was treated to four home runs and several long fly balls during the game.

(It was interesting: on the subway ride after the game we were sitting next to a chap from Tennessee who had also come to NYC for the baseball weekend. I believe he did two Yankee games and the Mets game.)

We all flew home the next morning with great memories and some musing about future years -- say Chicago/Milwaukee, or LA/Anaheim/San Diego, ...

Cheers,

Rob, Mike, Jeff, Jason

New York City Baseball -1

Perusing the baseball schedules early in the spring, I got the idea of an Easterling-guy trip to New York for a weekend of Yankees and Mets games. Both teams are in new stadiums this year, so that was an important part of the draw.

All parties were enthusiastic, so, Saturday, July 25, Jeff, Mike, Jason, and I rendezvoused at LaGuardia airport. (Actually, I rendezvoused with Mike and Jason in Cary, NC a couple of days earlier, then flew to NYC with them -- for logistics and plane-ticket cost reasons.) We had lucked out in lodging because Mike's brother-in-law, Jeff Nauman, has an apartment in NYC that was available -- he's in Interlochen, Michigan for the summer, instructing and performing in their theatre summer camp program.

Jeff's apartment is on the upper west side of Manhattan, in an area called Washington Heights. It's the sort of NY apartment and apartment house you see on Seinfeld, Taxi, Rhoda, or in the movies. One feature is its art-deco lobby, which had been listed as one of NYC's most notable/attractive/interesting apartment house lobbies. Jeff's parents told me that the day the story appeared there were lots of people peering in the lobby windows (there's no Carlton the doorman, but you have to have a key to get in) trying to see what the fuss was all about.

For us, the main attraction was that Jeff's apartment had one bed, a fold-out couch, and an air mattress, and was free. Had good subway access, too.

One nearby attraction that I wanted to see is the Cloisters. My vague, erroneous impression was that this was a former monastery converted into an art museum. Actually, it was built as an art museum, largely with Rockefeller money, styled after medieval monasteries in Europe. Rockefeller even bought New Jersey land across the Hudson River to preserve the pastoral view from the Cloisters. We got there late Saturday afternoon, late enough not to have to pay admission, and took a quick 30-minute walk-through. As they say, Expose yourself to art! Really some beautiful and historic paintings, carvings, and sculpture, dating back to the 1100's and 1200's.

With medieval culture under our belts, we then subwayed downtown to see modern culture - the lights and sights of Times Square.

On weekends the city closes some of the streets in Times Square and provides folding recliners and folks sit around just like any ole backyard.

On Sunday morning it was back downtown to go up in the Empire State Building. Went all the way to the 102nd floor, 1224 ft. up, just beneath the lightning rod on top which extends to 1454 ft. It was a hazy day, so not the best pictures. One oddity: bumble bees flying around at that elevation.

The 102nd floor observatory is enclosed with plexiglass. The 86th floor is not, so you can get better pictures. Looking down from there ...

Then it was on to the new Yankee Stadium for an afternoon game.

The new Yankee Stadium cost $1.4B. It has many of the features of old Yankee Stadium: the facades and the same dimensions of the playing field. However, it seems to be producing more homeruns than were hit in the old stadium, for unknown reasons. The new stadium is adjacent to the old, which is shrouded in scaffolding as they prepare to demolish it.

Jason said right away, The new stadium is not as big as the old one. That looks to be the case height-wise (couldn't find the data right away). The old had three decks essentially stacked one over the other, meaning it was hard for many to see balls hit into the air. The new sweeps back in a flatter slope and the upper two decks are further back from the playing field. The new stadium actually seats about 6000 fewer people, 51,000 vs. 57,000. One reason is that the seats are larger and with more legroom.

One of the controversies about the new field is the ticket cost. Single game tickets were priced at $2600 for behind-home-plate seats. That meant that TV watchers saw largely empty seats, which was embarrassing. They reduced prices a bit. We thought maybe they would pay us to sit there for PR sake, but No. We were in the third level, about even with third base.

One big ticket item is a huge HD screen behind center field. Here's Mariano Rivera warming up as he prepares to efficiently nail down the Yankees' 7-5 victory over Oakland. Any bluriness is in my camera and skill, not the screen.

I came away impressed, but feeling a bit underwhelmed. I think it was the limestone and concrete construction. Felt like I was going into the Pentagon, not a baseball park.

After the game it was back downtown, with two destinations in mind. A friend had suggested the Carnegie Deli to Jeff, so we went there for an early dinner. Sandwiches were mind-bogglingly thick. Here's my BLT and Jason's ham sandwich in the background.

Central Park, our second destination, is just a couple blocks north of the Carnegie Deli. Before we got there, though, it started to rain. More than rain, we had thunder, lightning, and wind. We found shelter under construction scaffolding just across the street from the park. Here, a couple of carriages wait for the storm to pass. As the coachman driving the white coach came down the street (to park at the park), the wind whipped his umbrella out of his hands and it disappeared down the street to our right.

The storm passed, so we went on into the park.

The gold-trimmed building is one of Donald Trump's.

Cheers to all,

Rob

Goin' Home

In the week since we left Billings, we've had very limited internet access, so no postings for you anxious readers - we know you're out there. Well, we're b-a-a-a-ack.

We left Billings on Monday, 7/13, bound for Denver. Wyoming was in between (actually, it's a very nice state, but we had another agenda).

Our main excursion was to Story, WY - several miles off of the interstate, for lunch. Our Road Food book lauded the Waldorf-a-Story (get it?) General Store and Cafe. Well, the Waldorf had been sold and renamed and the "restrunt" subsequently closed (see picture), but the store was still an interesting visit. They did have a deli crammed into this over-crowded store and we got some good soup for our evening meal.

With our typical last-minute advanced planning, the campground at Chatfield State Park, near where Jeff and family live in Highlands Ranch, was booked solid for the weekend. No other campgrounds in the area. We did spend Wed and Th nights there and had a day with Malia with us at the lake. Here's Malia wearing one of Susie's shirts for apres-swim wear. We found out she's quite the UNO player.

Tried to get a night or two in the motel closest to Jeff's, but no room there either. So, we had to cut our Denver stay short and then decided to spend the weekend at one of our favorite Colordo places, Westcliffe. Usually we go there for bluegrass festival weekend. We were a week late for that, but this was Rodeo weekend. We kept seeing sights in Montana that reminded us of Westcliffe (lush valleys, towering mountains), so this also lured us. Some pictures:

The view from the campground.

Some beautiful old barns in the valley (officially the Wet Mountains Valley) also:

The rodeo parade had horses

and more horses

and ...

Fire trucks spraying water were a lot of fun.

We went to the rodeo on Saturday, then Cowboy Church at the rodeo grounds on Sunday. There were make-up rounds of calf-roping happening at the time. How about this setting?

Sunday afternoon we were treated to mountain showers sweeping across the valley and into the mountains.

So, we had a nice, relaxed Westcliffe weekend, then drove on home Monday - six weeks and nearly 5000 miles since we left. Lots of great sights seen and memories made.

Here's the traditional Almost Home, Ah New Mexico, There's the Sandias picture, shot through a bug-specked and rain-dropped windshield.

Cheers to all,

Susie and Rob

Billings, Custer, and Clark

The Billings KOA is the world's first KOA and it is really a nice one: well laid-out, equipped, and maintained. Clean restrooms, nice store, friendly staff. Given our KOA-centered choices of campgrounds, we had to stay here. We've stayed at some old KOAs that have not been kept up to date, so we really appreciate this one. The location is nice, too, right next to the Yellowstone River, not too close to a highway or RR tracks.

Here are a river scene and a campground shot. Lots of tall cottonwood trees to provide shade and pleasant sounds as the wind blows through them.

Anyhow, after we got to Billings late Friday morning, 7/10, after a grueling 60 mile drive, I went downtown for a history walk, which led to an interesting connection. When we visited with my classmate, Ken Tiahrt, a few days earlier in Bozeman, he had mentioned his interest in old highways, in particular the Yellowstone Trail. That highway came up in my history walk and then the tour guide pointed out this marker for another named highway, the Glacier to Gulf Motorway.

That highway ran from Brownsville, TX to Calgary, Alberta, with a spur from Galveston. These named highways were established soon after automobile travel became popular, before the government came up with numbered highways in the 1920s.

I sent Ken this picture. He wrote back that I had made his day. A great discovery for Montana car buffs. He would post it on his old car club's website and acknowledge me for its discovery. Ain't history fun.

Our main reason for coming to Billings was to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield, located about 60 miles SE of Billings. We went there Saturday. Started with a bus tour put on by students from Little Big Horn College. Our guide was great, very dramatic. She made us feel like we were there on the battlefield, trapped between soldiers and warriors. (I should note that the National Park Service on its website sniffs that they cannot vouch for the accuracy of presentations by organizations other than themselves. Our guide said there are 5000 books on the battle and none of them agree. Nobody in Custer's immediate command survived to tell the story, so there is room for much speculation.)

Here's the hillside site of Custer's Last Stand.

When troops from another cavalry force came on the scene a day after the battle (which was June 25, 1876) they marked the locations of the bodies they found in this horrific scene - more than 200 deaths. The marker with a black shield is Custer's. The bodies were initially buried where they were found. Subsequently they were disinterred and some 220 soldiers who died here are buried in a mass grave at the top of the hill from where this picture was taken. Bodies of the officers were moved elsewhere, including Custer who is buried at West Point.

Here's the memorial to the soldiers, and some civilians, who died on this battlefield.

The Little Bighorn River is in the valley below. That's where there was an encampment of around 8000 Indians from various tribes, 2000 of them being warriors. Custer, with his force of 600, was either unaware of how large the force opposing them was or was overconfident in their ability to defeat it.

In 1997 this Spirit Warrior memorial to the Indian warriors in the battle was added to the battlefield displays.

It was a very somber thing to be here. You ask Why? and How (could things have been handled differently)? but no satisfactory answers come.

Returning to Billings, we made our last stop on the Lewis and Clark trails. Pompeys Pillar is a prominent outcropping on the banks of the Yellowstone River about 20 miles east of Billings. Clark and his party stopped there on their return journey -- it's recorded in Clark's journal. He said he wrote his name and the date there and there it is - the first graffiti west of the Mississippi?

The rock was named for Sacagawea's son, who made the whole trip. Pompy was the boy's nickname and Clark actually called this place, Pomp's Tower. When you google Pompeys Pillar you get a pillar in Alexandria, Egypt, as well as this National Monument in Montana .


Here's a view of the river from the top of the Pillar. A board stairway has been constructed which gets you to Clark's signature and to the top.

Hail and farewell to you, William Clark.

We had planned to leave Sunday noon, after church, to head south through Wyoming. However, the campground was practically deserted, a pleasant breeze was blowing, there was no one in the swimming pool, and we didn't have a need to rush, so we stayed another night. Was a blissful, totally relaxed afternoon -- no agenda, no place to go.

In late afternoon, while we were dining at Cracker Barrel, a strong thunderstorm went through the area. At the KOA it knocked out power and blew down a few limbs, but there was no damage. There was a prominent rainbow as we drove back to the KOA. This is what remained by the time I got my camera out and clambered up the river bank.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob

Red Lodge and Fishtail

As of July 8, we've been on the road for a month -- seems longer to us. You, too?

Anyhow, we marked the occasion by spending a night in the Red Lodge Comfort Inn. Susie misses having a bath tub, so she's catching up -- three baths during our stay. That should get her home.

I had been thinking of surprising her before our trip to Cody and saying, Pack an overnight bag. But, when I tried to get a room in historic Irma Hotel and couldn't, I went to Plan C. Plan B was to get a motel in Billings this weekend. However, when we left Cody, Susie saw a Comfort Inn and said, I want ... . I didn't say anything then, but the next morning (yesterday, 7/8) when I got up, Susie said she hadn't slept the whole night. She went to bed and I went in to Red Lodge for the morning. While there I made a Comfort Inn reservation (Plan C). Went back to campground in late morning and told Susie, Pack an overnight bag. We had planned a loop drive from Red Lodge and I was going to finish that by driving up to the Comfort Inn. Well, she wanted to know where we were going, in order to choose the proper wardrobe, so I told her.

Our afternoon activity was to take the aforementioned loop drive. The main objective was to visit the General Store in Fishtail. Just before we left Cedar Crest, Susie saw an article in Country magazine about the oldest continuously operating general store in Montana. It's known for its monster cinnamon rolls and friendly, wide-ranging service. Their motto is "A Little Bit of Everything Since 1900." Stuck that article in our folder of things to do on our trip and luckily looked in the folder in time to plan a visit to the store.

Here's a picture of the magazine one-page article. We took that page with us and had the staff all sign it. They were tickled. They had had a few visitors since the article was published, but nobody had asked for their autographs. The owners, Katy and Bill Martin, were away on a rare vacation. A friend of theirs works in the store as a volunteer and just raved about what fine people the owners are and how much they do for the community. E.g., miners on their way to work stop in for burritos and to pick up sandwiches for lunch.

We had the cinnamon roll -- took us two days to finish it. Lots of cinnamon and brown sugar, covered with creamy frosting. Here's Susie with the cook.

Thursday, we 'did' Red Lodge. Walked both sides of the five blocks or so of shops. Had lunch at one of the locals' favorites - a combination organic grocery store and cafe, mostly the latter. Then we took another loop drive in the afternoon. Managed to find some barns and other scenic shots on these drives.

The brand represents the Broken Horn Ranch.

Couldn't miss with this road sign: Red Barn Lane.

Which led to this barn:

One more entry in the barns of Montana sweepstake:

This picture combines a barn with a rushing mountain brook for a twofer.

Then there's mountains and pastures.


Big day planned tomorrow: driving 60 miles to Billings for the weekend. Main attraction: Custer and the Battle of Little Big Horn.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob