I once told myself I'd take up rock climbing if:
1) there was "something" up there worth seeing
2) I could chin myself with my off-arm (left in my case) 20 times and hold the position for at least a minute
To my knowledge, neither has occurred.
Continue reading →Someone recently reprinted this Far Side cartoon and it brought back memories ... and you have the dubious privilege of having me tell of them.
Sometime back in the early 90s, I had a job supervising aerial oil surveys over the upper headwaters of the Amazon and foothills of the east slope of the Andes in eastern Peru. "Supervising" being a relative term; it was me and the pilot.
We left from a small private airport east of Denver (which no longer exists) and flew by hops down to Pucallpa, Peru (8°23′S 74°31′W; 500ft elevation) where we based operations. Pucallpa is the regional capital and sits on the banks of the Ucayali River, the primary headwater of the Amazon River.
We buzzed around over the jungles at the eastern foothills of the Andes in a plane like this one: a Piper Aztec (after flying it down from Denver). There were the two front seats and 4 passenger seats - in our case, the passenger seats were removed and the cargo space filled with survey and recording equipment. A video recorder was pointed straight down through a hole in the fuselage and the magnetic field sensors were located at the end of a 10-foot stinger off the rear tail.
For some reason, this seemed to attract the attention of the DEA ...
It also attracted the attention of the Sendero Luminoso. The latter shot at us, the former didn't (I think) ... but they were very, very interested.
We were based at the military side of the airport which led to some interesting situations but all was good.
Don't drink the water, use ice cubes, or eat fresh vegetables in a third-world on a first-world stomach.
So to the point of this story:
We were buzzing around on gridded flight patterns that were very similar to plowing a field: 100 km one way, turn around, shift over a few km, repeat in the other direction. Repeat as necessary. 6 days a week for 3 months.
I was the equipment operator; this required me to be prone on top of a platform between the equipment. On one of our flights, I heard the pilot telling me to hang on.
It's wet in the equatorial jungle. Makes Seattle look dry. Clouds form at the uplift of the mountains. GPS didn't really exist yet, the region was not fully surveyed.
The ceiling of this plane is just shy of 19,000 ft. The Andes rise to over 20,000 feet. We came out of the clouds and saw dirt. And trees. One should not see dirt and trees in front of you when staring out the front window of an airplane at 15,000 feet.
All I could do was grip the equipment rails and try to hold still so as to not upset the balance of the plane. I didn't know this plane could perform this maneuver. We pulled up and over ... and headed back to base; that was enough flying for the day.
When we landed, the pilot told me he had undergone a transformation: "I took off as a man; I landed as a chicken".
One does not expect a camera pointed down from an airplane to record images of the undersides of leaves ...
When the surveys were completed, we flew back to Lima, and the pilot took the plane back home to Denver; I took the opportunity to visit Machu Picchu.
Another tale, same trip ...
While in Lima, I arranged to join an English-speaking tour group to Cusco. I was accepted (Yankee dollars) but I was the last-minute addition. Caught the red-eye flight out of Lima (sea level) to Cusco (11,000 ft). Only a bit over 1 hour flight
Cusco is in a valley ... the mountains surrounding Cusco rise to over 20,000 feet.
So anyway, being the last-minute tail-end Charlie of the group, I had to stay at a different hotel than the one the tour group had booked - Cusco is a tourist town after all, it was August, and the hotels were booked. The group I was with were Europeans and Australians just coming in from the Galapagos; I was the only American. They didn't hate us then.
It was an early AM flight; I got dropped off first at a place the tour company arranged for me and the rest of the group went to their hotel.
Coffee. It's time for coffee.
I was the only person in this dining room. Not even staff.
All of a sudden, some little guy came out of the back, presented me with a cup of camomile tea - so I thought, and left before I could speak (No habla Espanol).
"Wait a minute! I want some coffee!"
But the tea was hot and it was cold out. Took a sip.
"Wow! That's better than coffee!"
Turned out that the camomile tea was actually coca tea. Coca is legal and common there (I could buy a box of coca leaves the size of Celestial Seasonings tea boxes for 50¢ American at the airport. I had the thought that may not be a good idea).
Everything we expect coffee to be. Wide awake and full of energy. Must be bad for you ...
Turns out coca tea is a good for reducing the effects of altitude sickness. Having been adapted to Colorado altitudes (Leadville is at the same altitude), I wasn't affected but the rest of the group were sea-level people. Serving coca tea to tourists is a routine.
Spent some time wandering around Cusco ...
Having joined the group got me accommodations and tickets but I was essentially on my own; the group's tour bus was full. Last minute Charlie effect. I hired an English-speaking guide for an auto tour of the area. Most of the drive was between 11,000 and 13,000 feet ... in the valleys.
Came back then caught the train to Machu Picchu the next day. Other than the flight over (when most of the group were taking naps on the red-eye), this was the only time I was with the tour group.
Caught the flight from Cusco to Lima the next day; stayed at the Lima airport to catch an American Airlines flight to Miami, then a domestic flight back to Denver.
Worst part of the trip? Coming through the Miami airport on the way home.
Continue reading →Today marks the 62nd anniversary of the end of America as it might have been and the beginning of the America that is.
On this date in 1963, Lyndon Baines Johnson was sworn in as the new president of this not-as-bad-as-other-places country of ours.
Do you remember where you were on this date?
DT remembers ...
Down in SW Wyoming and into Utah not far from where Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado come together is the lesser-known Flaming Gorge Reservoir and National Recreation Area. Named by John Wesley Powell during his 1869 expedition down the Green River, the reservoir was formed in 1964 when the river was dammed.
Continue reading →Sneffels Range in the background
One would not be far off to declare this region among the most beautiful on the planet. Property prices seem to suggest many think the same way.
The Divide is the 9000 ft pass on CO62 west of Ridgway which separates the San Juan Mtns on the south and the Uncompahgre Plateau to the north.
There was once a town within this view down in the valley; a toll road had been built in 1880, a railroad came through in 1890. The town's post office closed in 1910; there is nothing left of the town.
The railroad ran along the faint line across the bottom with the line of trees to the right; Hwy62 is barely discernible in the trees just above the midline.
This view was captured from a friend's home on the north side of the pass.
Continue reading →Cheney's funeral is today - maybe right now as I write this. I hope they remember to shove a silver stake through where his heart should have been before they plant him (it's not his heart; they had to give him one via transplant).
I hope no one gets the impression I don't think he was one of the most evil people in the history of the US government.
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The longest (known) cave system in the world is in south-central Kentucky. The Mammoth Cave - some 425 known miles of connected caverns - is now a national park. New passages are continuously discovered. Evidence of human activity within the cave goes back at least 5000 years. (37°11'13.0"N 86°06'04.0"W)
A body crushed by a large rock was discovered in 1935; the victim was a pre-Columbian miner. The cave environment appears to have been stable for thousands of years. The cave contains many ancient human remains and artifacts - most being hidden from the public.
The first Europeans visited the cave in 1797 when a hunter chased a wounded bear to the site. A saltpeter mine (potassium nitrate, a gunpowder component) was established in the early 1800s. The mining activity ended after the War of 1812 and became a tourist attraction using the owner's slaves as tourist guides. Viewing the mine workings are still part of the visitor's experience.
A tuberculosis center operated for a short while before the war; the thought being the cave atmosphere had curative effects.
Photos of the cave were produced after the war, increasing tourist interest. As the region is pockmarked with smaller caves, a "war" for tourists broke out in the early 1900s, increasing with the advent of auto traffic.
Land ownership was a contentious subject until the last of the majority land owners died off in the 1920s. Interested parties became interested in forming a park in 1924; the Mammoth Cave National Park Association was formed and led to the forced removal of a variety of land owners in the area under eminent domain. CCC camps were set up in the '30s and '40s; the government declared the formation of a national park in 1941.
The park is so popular that advance reservations to enter the cave are highly recommended.
One thing that sticks in my memory from the almost 40 years since I visited was southern-style Coca Cola in the 6oz bottles for 5¢. Tasted far better than the usual Coke. Doubt those are available anymore.
are karens with robes (including that most karen of judges, Boasberg)
"Judge Blocks Trump From Power-Washing Office Building Near White House"
"Judge Dabney L. Friedrich ordered Trump not to power wash the filthy Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB) next to the White House."
How is this even a judge's business? Can't clean the grime of the city off a government building? Granted the inside perhaps needs more cleaning than the outside, but still ...
As an article asks: "we have to ask why we had an election a year ago to pick a president when judges can simply prevent him from doing anything they don't approve of?"
My civics class suggested only the Supreme Court has jurisdiction with the Executive branch. The captains are telling the generals what they can and can't do.
There's no fixing the problems of this country without extreme measures of some sort.
"You might not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you"
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Behind what were American lines at Yorktown in 1781 is an earthen dam (37.2168N, -76.4919W) across Wormley Creek over which American troops travelled to and from the siege lines. At one time, a grist mill operated by Augustine Moore was located here. It was at Mr Moore's home nearby that the British surrender was given and accepted.
The same battlefields and ramparts of the Revolutionary War were used during the Civil War with the Confederates holding Yorktown as did the British and the Yankee armies laying siege where the French and Americans had done so 80 years earlier. There is a Union cemetery on the grounds but most of the region focuses on the Revolutionary War.
This was the same area where McClellan's forces were held back in 1862 by Confederate General Magruder and where 2nd Lt George Custer first came to prominence. Today's Colonial Parkway roughly follows what was the Warwick Line of 1862.
Now part of the Colonial National Historic Park and surrounded by a Navy ammo depot and Coast Guard training center, the dam is now crossed by the "Historical Tour Road". The road is one way and just off the main tourist area of the battlefield. Because the road is one way leading away from the main area along the York River, there is less traffic here even though it does lead to "Surrender Field".
When I lived in Williamsburg, I spent a lot of time between Jamestown at one end of Colonial Parkway and Yorktown at the other. If I were ever to go back east - not likely but never say never - this would be one area I'd return to.
One evening, I caught this swan swimming by on Warwick Pond ...
Continue reading →A sample of some obscure - and maybe not obscure - tunes from my strange and off-the-wall collection.
Today's selection: Jane - "Jane Session" - 1974
German "kraut rock".
Jane was formed in 1970. This cut is off their third album, Jane III - "a scorching guitar blowout"
Wiki describes Jane as "Playing a melodious synthesis of symphonic hard rock, that has occasionally been compared to Pink Floyd"
Not sure I agree with that description, particularly "compared to Pink Floyd" but I like a fair amount of their stuff.
This cut is a dual-guitar instrumental.