Half Way to Austin

Lost the sun and blue sky today but savouring sweet lemons an overcast sky is easier on the eyes. The wind failed to swing North in time to assist me remaining contrarily crossed to my line of route.

Began the day with a shower so they wouldn’t smell me coming in Memphis. While I sat at breakfast 5 people including 3 adults walked through my campsite close enough to touch my windows. Don’t they know it’s legal here to defend your castle with deadly force? Otherwise extremely bad manners.

Began my day with a slowdown that revealed the grisly site of a collision that separated the cab of whatever vehicle it once was from its frame. Next, the female driver of a small grey Toyota who hogged the left lane for at least 50 miles and probably believes she has the highway bought and paid for.

Arkansas highways retain my previous billing, the joints between concrete blocks remain extremely uneven. On the plus side their Welcome Centre was personed by two gals, the first manned site I’ve encountered. I do not recommend their complimentary coffee. Spent a lot of time passing transport trucks again today.

Tom Sawyers RV Park proved to be fully open though recently partially flooded as the Mississippi recedes.

They found a site for me though the gal tried to upsell me on a more expensive paved site. As the billing states Wi-Fi free but not guaranteed; it is slow.

Washroom on wheels

Spring 2018 Travels

Sunday April 29, 2018

After slogging 18 loads over three days down to the RV amid locked doors, the elevator and Saturday’s rain finally had a soak and went to bed last night. Was up again at 4 and off after carefully backing out of the parking lot at 5 AM. First stop half a mile to gas up at $1.37.9/L at Petrocan where I was greeted by a local cop. This station is 24/7. Traffic was light at this hour on a Sunday but the gusting wind blowing snow flurries was not welcome though it wasn’t strong enough to be a bother on the two Skyways.

Getting my new camera registered at Canada Customs was a pain, even getting there a challenge. When I finally reached US Customs the middle—aged agent smiled and welcomed me to the US. After 10 years an agent with a sense of humour. Not all Trump’s Minions take their lead from the boss. This one winked at the idea of Trump getting a Nobel Prize. Was there ever a border crossing not under construction? The Peace Bridge is reduced to 2 tight poorly marked lanes.

At the Pennsylvania Welcome Centre the agent was in her office on the phone and never appeared. Along the way was surprised to see daffodils in bloom. The Ohio Welcome Centre was open but no one showed up. Outside a Phoebe was announcing his name and Red-Winged Blackbirds were busy setting up housekeeping in the marsh. Vineyards adjoined the area.

Astabula had escaped my notice until today. Stopped at a very busy Dennys in Austinburg for Brunch. The background noise covered most of the squeals from a table of 10 unruly imps accompanied by a Junior woman who lived in a shoe. W. C. Fields would have found them vastly underdone. I did not linger over coffee.

[I did linger over the letter k while I had a 3 hour restorative nap there.]

When I looked outside a large full moon was rising just over the horizon.

Realized when I reached my campground that I should have topped up my tank at the Pilot beside Dennys. Got a low fuel warning as I arrived, I’d been more concerned with whether the GPS would find the place than looking at my Fuel Gauge. Somehow feels like deja vue all over again. Fuel in New York State was $3.09.9/USGal. In Ohio around $2.65.9.

Trees are in flower in the park.

Monday, April 30, 2018

Made it to the gas station without having to walk. After driving around Columbus, Ohio set out along I-70 amid heavy truck traffic. The saving grace is the fact that on flat prairies one doesn’t get caught behind two transport trucks trying to pass one another on a grade.

Stopped at a Loves Truckstop in Knightstown for Lunch at Subway before braving Indianapolis. Seems the place was the filming location for the Gene Hackman movie Hoosiers. Rest of the day was mile after tedious mile. The Indiana Welcome Centre was unmanned and simply a rest stop with coin operated bandits and a rack of advertising.

Every time I stop at Terre Haute the interchange seems to have been changed and the route to the KOA is different. Getting there was a nightmare that saw me driving around in circles. The young people at the counter didn’t know how to handle the KOA system and bungled my sign-in. However I can forgive a lot when I get a good Wi-Fi signal.

After supper I ran into Dan, a Chippewa from Bermidji, Mn whose parents own the park. He lives in a tent on site. Sat at his picnic table in front of a fire and talked, well I talked. I enjoyed his perspective but it didn’t get my e-mail read. Tomorrow I gain an hour as I enter the central time zone. 

 

Tuesday, May 01, 2018

First thing this morning downloaded and installed Windows latest Feature Update, a massive file that took considerable time to download and install. While I was waiting took advantage of the pleasant sky-blue morning to visit the donkeys and take some pix. It was warm enough last night that my own hot air kept the RV Warm. Discovered the hard way that the entrance to I-70 Westbound has changed since I last traveled these parts and has moved to the opposite side of the road. Drove up and filled my tank at Pilot for $2.54.9.

Heavy truck traffic until I headed South on I-57. Didn’t bother to stop at the Illinois Welcome Centre and drove through to Whittington. Stopped at a Restaurant/Gas station at the corner and found a walk in beer fridge, a wall of pop coolers, aisles of chips in the gas station store front. The Restaurant has “entertainment”, a games/party room, and a family restaurant so marked.

Whittington Woods RV Park is in a hardwood forest as advertised and the trees are just beginning to bud out. The place is quiet. 

 

Went for a walk in the woods before settling in. 

 

Our Lost Railways

 In 2013 the sole engineer on a crude oil train at the end of his allowable operating hours set the air brakes on his train and repaired to a hut for needful rest. While he was sleeping the idling engine overheated causing a fire which was extinguished by local firemen. Without notifying the owners or attempting to find the engineer they shut down the unit that was powering the compressed air for the brakes. When the brakes failed the train rolled downhill and jumping the tracks caught fire incinerating downtown Magantic. So who is responsible for this calamity? The engineer followed the rules in good faith and lacking a backup engineer had little choice. The train's owners have ceased to exist as a company.

As fuel oil becomes more expensive and profit margins tighter rail lines cut corners. Single-man crews become all to often the norm. Rail bed ballasts become unstable and aging railway ties rot, spikes rust, and wear and tear on rails and their joints take their toll. Rail line inspectors walk only so far from the nearest railway crossing. Derailments occur all to often. In many cases rural level railway crossings have only the most rudimentary warnings. You will remember that on its maiden trip the ill-fated Turbo cut a transport truck in two. A high-speed train from Montreal to Toronto could make the trip in just over an hour downtown to downtown, a trip that in today's environment takes 4 or 5 hours by air. But given present conditions this is only a dream.

It was in Mulroney's era that our rail system was decimated. No rail lines remain in PEI and little remain in NS. The narrow gauge Newfie Bullet exists as a museum in St. John's its line a part of the Trans Canada Trail. Although crude still travels to the Irving Refinery in Saint John transport trucks clog our highways creating wear and tear to replace the much more efficient rail transport.  

Everest

Aircraft pilots and passengers need pressurized air and oxygen above 10,000 ft. Base camp for Everest is at 17,000. Altitude sickness becomes an issue above 5,000 and can be fatal the only treatment a return to lower altitudes. It is only one of the possible bodily reactions to thinning air. Health and conditioning are no predictors of whether these complications will hit. Sound like a tourist destination?

Aside from the body's reaction to lowering air pressure is the issue of thinning air and drop in available oxygen. The Sherpa's who make a living packing for climbers have lived their entire lives for generations at high altitude and their bodies have adapted.

If you've traveled to mountainous regions such as Banff and Jasper in Canada then you're aware of the body's need to acclimatize. Among other things the blood sees an increase in hemoglobin. Until that happens any exertion can leave you panting, suffering profound fatigue, head ache, and stomach upset. Cooking at elevation is another issue. Water boils at a lower temperature and baked goods require less leavening plus fires are harder to start and keep burning.

Back to Everest. Because it's there seems a fool-hardy reason to enter a death zone. Above Camp four on Everest the air is so thin it cannot support helicopter flight and the bodies of those who go there are dying. Remaining too long will kill you and getting trapped by weather is an ever-present danger and will result in your death. No rescue is possible at that elevation and the bodies of the dead litter the mountain as no one has the energy to carry them away.

Finally cold is an ever-present menace the temperature rarely rising above 0º F and dropping to -30 with -60 wind chills. Plus with people from many nations gathering in polluted, pestilential third-world slum conditions diseases rapidly become epidemics. And yet people pay $100,000 or more to go there as tourists.

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Who is Trump making the world better for?

An American Senator is quoted as saying that he believed in climate change until he learned the cost of fighting it. But he ignores the cost of doing nothing. Already thousands are dying from the effects of pollution and heat, those who survive add to the cost of health care.

Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, fires damage property and that increases insurance rates North America wide not to mention the personal costs. The same phenomena damage highways and other public infrastructure adding to our taxes. Droughts threaten the lives and livelihood of millions, rising sea levels threaten to change the world's geography engulfing all of Bangladesh, much of Florida and many islands in Oceaniana, some already ankle deep at high tide. The cost of fighing forest fires exclusive of the loss of personal property is staggering. The loss of a fire team only serves to emphasize the dangers.

Donald Trump is like an osterich burying his head in the sand. If he could send all those foreigners home who would build his highways, office and apartment towers, clean his home and maintain his pool, mow his grass, nanny his children. Is adequate health care really the preserve of those who can afford it ensuring they get prompt attention.

Corporate America cares only for the bottom line. If they keep sourcing cheaper products off-shore who is going to be left with a job to buy them. In Canada thousands of Sears workers are losing their jobs and even severance pay, those on the verge of retirement their pensions but at the same time executives are being offered bonuses to stay. Shades of the Mortgage Banking Debacle. Why does a CEO earn $500,000,000 while his store clerk scrapes by on $25,000 and probably works a second job to make ends meet.

Corporate Greed is destroying our world. What's the point of a tree if I can't cut it, a whale if I can't harpoon it, a wild creature if I can't hunt it, a nature reserve if I can't bulldoze it, mine it, drill for oil.

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State of the Union

Poverty, malnutrition, ignorance, unemployment are the banes of our society. Anyone who feels they have to define their self-worth in terms of the people to whom they feel themselves superior has a fragile sense of being. Racism, xenophobia, bullying, sexual harassment, assault, are all manifestations of this lack of self-worth, a sense of meaningfulness. The ultimate expression of this nihilism and depression shows up in the mass suicides of young people on our Canadian Reserves.

That a young native female feels her situation so desperate that she resorts to becoming a sex trade worker is one thing, that someone should feel that this makes her less than human and therefore the object of rape and murder... ? What makes a person so insecure within himself that he feels he is threatened by another's alternate lifestyle. Be it sexual orientation, race, nationality, religion. And remember being homosexual is a matter of birth, not choice. Pregnant woman now appear regularly in public and later breast feed their infants publicly as well. Those with disfigurements no longer hide in closets and wheel-chair accessibility has become an issue as an increasing segment of our society choose to lead very active lives. The growing number of Vets in America have helped drive this issue. After all, we trained them to be agressive.

Visible minorities are obvious targets, the fact that African-Americans arrived as slaves makes them uniquely vulnerable. However something as simple as an accent or turn of phrase can define one as an outsider.

Alcoholism and Drug Dependency are another means of escape for many people. The use of marijuana has become so general that we are moving to legalize it. The use of recreational drugs prescription or otherwise among the general population has become epidemic. Concomitant with this rise is the crime that supports it. The youth offender act has led drug pushers to utilize children to peddle their wares. The easy money is tempting to the youthful unemployed. Learning that you have a meth lab next door when the house blows up.... That your tenant used your rental property for a grow op.... Or going for a hike in a National Park and discovering that meadow before you is a massive pot farm.... Unfortunately all these scenarios are very real.

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Crime and Poverty

Poverty, malnutrition, ignorance, unemployment are the banes of our society. Anyone who feels they have to define their self-worth in terms of the people to whom they feel themselves superior has a fragile sense of being. Racism, xenophobia, bullying, sexual harassment, assault, are all manifestations of this lack of self-worth, a sense of meaningfulness. The ultimate expression of this nihilism and depression shows up in the mass suicides of young people on our Canadian Reserves.

That a young native female feels her situation so desperate that she resorts to becoming a sex trade worker is one thing, that someone should feel that this makes her less than human and therefore the object of rape and murder... ? What makes a person so insecure within himself that he feels he is threatened by another's alternate lifestyle. Be it sexual orientation, race, nationality, religion. And remember being homosexual is a matter of birth, not choice. Pregnant woman now appear regularly in public and later breast feed their infants publicly as well. Those with disfigurements no longer hide in closets and wheel-chair accessibility has become an issue as an increasing segment of our society choose to lead very active lives. The growing number of Vets in America have helped drive this issue. After all, we trained them to be agressive.

Visible minorities are obvious targets, the fact that African-Americans arrived as slaves makes them uniquely vulnerable. However something as simple as an accent or turn of phrase can define one as an outsider.

Alcoholism and Drug Dependency are another means of escape for many people. The use of marijuana has become so general that we are moving to legalize it. The use of recreational drugs prescription or otherwise among the general population has become epidemic. Concomitant with this rise is the crime that supports it. The youth offender act has led drug pushers to utilize children to peddle their wares. The easy money is tempting to the youthful unemployed. Learning that you have a meth lab next door when the house blows up.... That your tenant used your rental property for a grow op.... Or going for a hike in a National Park and discovering that meadow before you is a massive pot farm.... Unfortunately all these scenarios are very real.

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Getting Into a Jam

Making gooseberry jam is not about the cost but a labour of love. From the time I left to pick up 3 L of berries, to stemming and blossom ending them, to cooking the berries with lemon juice and sugar to topping the final glass, 9½ hours. In the meantime I also made 2½ quarts of Gazpacho, and 2 L of lemonade. And watched Brokeback Mountain one more time. The lid on at least one of my jars has already noisily snapped--that's a good thing. Given its history Wyoming is one hell of place to be gay, Texas not much better. Ironic that in the movie Jake Gyllenhaal's character dies while in real life it was Heath Ledger who didn't survive Hollywood. Oh, 12 jars of Gooseberry Jam and the lids all snapped.

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Chesapeake Bay Bridge

So being that it's in America it has to be the ----iest.  Typical of America is the shopping centre in the middle of the Bay. The Jets taking off from NAS Norfolk Roads directly over my head at KOA Virginia Beach....

Have you seen the Confederation Bridge? Driven the High Mountain Road, HWY 1, through the Rockies from BC to Alberta in spring with its avalanche sheds and no stopping avalanche warning signs. Red Mountain Pass, 1300 ft with 90 switchbacks, 15 mph caution signs and 5000 ft drop offs at the edge of the pavement--no shoulders and definitely no guard rails. The million dollar highway into Durango has one looking for a pullout to cool ones' brakes and driving in low gear at that. On a clear day Chesapeake Bay is a walk in the park.

When I drove into Ashcroft from the Blueridge Parkway losing 3000 ft in one mile I passed 5 suicide lanes. On the drive from Prince Albert to Flin Flon I passed through 3 hours of frozen fog. Have you driven at night on a prairie highway and waited for an hour until you finally met that car coming toward you? Driven in Northern Ontario where the nearest settlement is another 200 miles. Met a moose in the road at Plaster Rock Game Reserve  again, 250 miles of rocks, trees, lakes, and moose. And then there's reputedly America's most dangerous highway from Helper to Provo Utah, I drove it in February, the pass a balmy 9 above.

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Armageddon

We have a sick joke in Canada about the Tim Horton's Cups on the moon.

If we could find them the tracks Franklin's men and sledges left in the high Arctic still exist. Chernobyl's radiation infects the reindeer lichen. In the Antarctic the bones of Amundsen's Dogs (which he ate and Perry's  gas fueled sledges (which he couldn't eat) litter the ice. The Amazon Jungle shrinks ignoring the fact that the Sahara was once a Rainforest. The bodies and oxygen bottles of adventurers litter the Himalayas. The wilderness has been beaten back until little remains of the Boreal Forest but the 200-ft tracks adjoining major highways. Four Billion and counting clutter the Indian subcontinent and China. The remotest ocean reaches are littered with millions of tonnes of our plastic waste. Cities such as Montreal and Vancouver use our waterways and oceans as a convenient sewer. And we wonder why our whales are dying. Forget global winter or melting icecaps, if the phytoplankton should collapse, we lose the engine that provides the majority of the world's oxygen. Pristine Wilderness no longer exists anywhere on earth.

The space surrounding our planet is littered with thousands of bits of space junk; from lost screw drivers and wrenches to defunk rockets, satellites, and boosters. Various landers and explorers litter the moon along with Mars and several other planets. Satellites have crashed into asteroids and comets. Two voyagers have even left the environs of our solar system. We may quarantine materials brought from space but we do space no similar favours.

Politicians such as Trump argue that the world's economies cannot support the fight to save our planet, meanwhile they spend trillions on Weapons of Mass Destruction and complain that others do not contribute their share. Be fruitful and inhabit the earth. It could be argued that mankind is a blight upon the earth that is rapidly working its own destruction.

The biome has and will rebalance itself after an asteroid impact; global sea rise; earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions; nuclear winter; tornadoes and hurricanes; global plagues; droughts, heat waves, global winter. The question is will our species survive the readjustment.

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