Kayenta, AZ – Day 3: “Tse Bii” Ndzisgaii

The Mittens in Monument Valley


 
It has been a long day and I’m beat. I stopped to get three different Roadside America pictures, two of which made the cut. See below or on Instagram. The biggest item of the day was the above picture, the Mittens in Monument Valley. I stopped in and had to wrangle a single seat on a tour. I tried to reserve on line, but there was zero options available for a single, it started at 2 and went up. I can sort of get the reason, it like a cruise ship all there cabins are for two and these tour vehicles seat twelve. But what happens if you get a family of three?

Anyway, I did get on a tour and there was an empty seat beside me. I thought I was getting a 2-hour tour, but as it turned out it was a 2-1/2 hour tour, which in the end, ended up being 3 hours long. At the finish I was bounced, shaken, stirred, slightly sunburned, very wind blown with sand in my shoes and dirt in my nostrils. The guide was great, informative and entertaining. Because it is a guided tour we also got to go places and see things the peasant don’t on their $8 a head self-guided 2-hour loop.

Tomorrow I get to Santa Fe where I can wash some clothes and the dead bugs off the Miata.

Price, UT – Day 2: Plastic Eggs For Breakfast

Texaco Big Friend – Service Station Man

Day #2 Roadside America Pic: Texaco Big Friend – Service Station Man in Springville, UT at a very large Motorcycle Shop that included a Motorcycle Museum and a Motorcycle themed restaurant. Note the puny human on the left for scale.

I got out the door of the hotel at around 6:00 but didn’t hit the Interstate ’til later. Part of the time lost was getting a latte at The Human Bean and then breakfast at a Jack in the Box. When I went back up front to get some napkins the Shift Leader was placing little plastic eggs all around. I looked at her quizzically and she said that none of the people that worked there had never seen this particular Easter tradition. She was the only one I interacted with, so I have no idea why someone had never had an Easter Egg Hunt and I didn’t ask.

Easter Egg Hunt at Jack’s

Boise, ID – Day 1: Oregon Trail In Reverse

The above image of the World’s Largest Map of the Oregon Trail is from Baker City and is the first of many (I hope) Roadside America pictures from this trip. I’ll try and find one on each day I’m travelling. We’ll see how that works out.

I got a 7:30 start and ended up at the hotel in Boise 5:30, but that is Mountain Time, so it was 4:30 on my internal clock. Google says I should have taken 6-1/2 hours to do it, but all my wandering and break taking made it a 9 hour trip. First off I managed to shoehorn in 4 Post Office pictures, a leisurely lunch in Le Grand of pizza slices and salad, a gas stop and literal walk in the park in Baker City. I also didn’t help that I tried to dodge Friday rush hour in Boise by taking some surface streets that really just delayed the inevitable loss of time.

Well, It Is Friday Over There


Ah gentlemen, you know why we are here, we’ve not much time, and quite a problem here.

I started my Easter celebration a bit early this year. I sat down this evening and watched my favorite rock opera, Jesus Christ Superstar. It is only Thursday, but it is early morning Friday, Good Friday, in Jerusalem. Maybe tomorrow night I’ll watch the live stage version that John Legend did in 2018.

April Fools

Because I’ll be on the road June 1st I needed to set up a post with an article from the 3rd issue of the Miata Club of America magazine that I have doing doing on the first day of the even numbered months. When I reach on the top of the stack to get the June/July issue I came up with the April/May issue. Ooops, I forgot to do one on April Fools Day. What a fool I am.

I reached down and grabbed the June/July issue too. I picked an article from each, scanned the pages and went online to OCR the images. I formatted them both and I set the June/July post to publish on 6/1/25 and backdated the April/May post to have been published on 4/1/25. So go back and read it.

Well, That Was Different

For the first time in a year and a half I risked life and limb this afternoon and I went for a bicycle ride outdoors.

Since moving to Fairview back in October of 2023 the only riding I have done is on an indoor stationary bike. Because I’m a fair weather cyclist right after we moved here the weather was either too wet or too cold. Then last year when the weather cooperated Donna was needing a lot more help around the house, so I just continued riding indoors. Then of course once she passed away in September and it was once again too cold or wet for my delicate constitution.

Once the weather improved this year it still felt marginal for outdoor riding and I had become used to just watch a cycling video and listen to a podcast while literally spinning my wheel(s). Well, last weekend the weather was warm enough for me to think about once again riding a real bike. Saturday I pumped up the tires and lubed the chain and planned on going for an afternoon spin on Sunday. I did the post office safari in the morning, made lunch and turned on the TV. Never made it out. I blame it on a tradition like no other. That’s right, a non-golfer sat glued to the couch watching the Masters Tournament.

Today was the day. What they say is right, you never forget how to ride a bike. I planned a ride to the Post Office to mail a postcard. It is about a mile and a half away, so at least I’d get in 3 miles. But, once on the bike I realized how fun it is and futzed around in the residential areas of town and tacked on a couple more miles with out thinking about it. I don’t have a cycle computer on the bike, so 5 miles is just an estimate. Actually, the worst part of the ride was the 3/4 mile of Sandy Blvd both getting to town and back. The speed limit is 40MPH, but that is more of a guideline than an actual rule and combined with the narrow cycle lane it was almost scary.

There are plenty of paved and unpaved cycling trails nearby, but riding to get to them does seem risky. I might have to see if the Bone car rack I have will fit on the new Miata. I will try one more local ride before I head out on Brian’s Big Adventure at the end of the week.

I Return To The Scene Of The Goose

Now, just where did I park my airplane?

So, I drove back to McMinnville today, this time I ponied up a Andrew Jackson and went inside. Wow, this place is amazing if you are anyway interested in aviation. I mean, the Spruce Goose may bring them in, but there are a ton of interesting things to see and do besides that one oversized aircraft. There are two buildings jammed with airplanes, rockets and memorabilia. There are planes from the early 1900’s up to the Vietnam era stuff in the one with the Goose in it and the second is all space race stuff and modern warplanes. In total I spent almost 2-1/2 hours there and I can see a return visit in a few months.

The only thing I had a complaint about is that somehow the Spruce Goose seemed diminished by the shear amount of small (and they all weren’t all that small) aircraft crowded around it. I understand that they probably couldn’t build a third giant building just for the Goose alone and they have an awesome collection and want to display as much as possible, but, I don’t know, maybe it is just me.

I took a couple dozen pictures and here are a sample: