The porch furniture cushions are finished.
finished and very comfy
(Forgive the grumpy looking guy - he was waiting impatiently to find out whether or not his elbow was broken. He’s better now.)
Someday I’ll get around to making chair pads for the dining set. Not just yet though.
Mizz Frizzle still has all 10 chicks. They’re growing bigger and bigger all the time.
frizzle and brood
as you can see at least a few of them are also ‘afflicted’ with frizzled feathers.
I got tools from Rio Grande this afternoon.
new tools
Clockwise from the top. Ring mandrel - very pleased with the quality and heft. Parallel pliers - thank you Sarah L. for getting me addicted to those expensive little dears. Raw hide mallet for banging on metal. Ring clamp for holding onto things and not sanding my fingers, and a pair of tiny pointy snips for getting into tight spaces.
But there is no way that I’ll be doing any work at the bench for the next couple of days.
there's a bench under there somewhere
I have to finish the patio furniture cushions first. (They are gonna be great!)
new cushions in the making
The peonies are almost ready to bloom. How odd that I saw my sister’s peonies in full bloom in Pittsburgh more than 2 weeks ago.
big fat peony buds!
Today we declared a scavenger hunt day. We have a list of things we’d like to have for the house but haven’t found just the right one yet.
We were wildly successful.
two finds in the scavenger hunt today!
Our last gazebo was destroyed by the snow last winter. We finally found a gazebo/screen house that was small enough for the spot between the salad garden and the house.
It comes in a long thin box.
amazingly compact
The last one was a right royal b* to put up. Other than not being able to find one of the parts (we didn’t look hard enough) this one was pretty dang easy.
all ready for the table and chairs.
We have another find in the other big box but right now it’s time to make some supper.
Mz. Frizzle and her brood of 10 are out and about every day now.
Mz. Frizzle and the 10 little Frizzles
Some interesting numbers and random observations:
Total miles: 6804
Gallons of gas: 257
Average price/gallon: $2.69
Average MPG: 26.47
(i’m skeptical but considering the cruise control was in use for most of the non-photo-op driving it could be possible.)
Hotels: 14
Photographs: 3133
Spent on road food: $376.86
Blog Posts: 22 (not counting the chicken update)
Hard drives purchased: 1 - 320G
Dams visited: 19
Confluences seen: 1
Confluences unseen: 1
List of dams:
Kittitas, WA - Wanapum Dam
Yakima, WA - Priest Rapids Dam
Kahlotus, WA - Lower Monumental Dam
Helena, MT - Canyon Ferry Dam
Pierre, SD - Oahe Dam
Chamberlain, SD - Big Bend Dam
Pickstown, SD - Fort Randall Dam
Yankton, SD - Gavin’s Point Dam
Panora, IA - Little dam on the Raccoon River
Clearview, WV - Pike Island Lock & Dam
Hannibal, OH - Hannibal Lock & Dam
Newport, OH- Willow Island Lock & Dam
Felicity, OH - Cap’t Meldahl Lock & Dam
Greenup , KY - Greenup Lock & Dam
Markland, IN - Markland Locks & Dam
Lousiville, KY - McAlpine Lock & Dam
Newburgh, IN - Newburgh Lock & Dam
Winfield, MO - Winfield Lock & Dam
Jamestown, ND - Jamestown Dam
Look for improvements in the existing blog posts (links and key words) and photo galleries.
Thanks to everyone for riding along!
-lara-
Not so much a trip report as a weather report.
There’s weather approaching from the northwest (hello canada, hello snow) and I’m heading, um, northwest. Somewhere the snow and I are going to meet. I was just hoping to pick the spot.
I chose Billings, MT.
So off I went.
I did stop in Malta, briefly. There was a classic rail depot that’s still in use.
passenger rail service lives on
And of course the grain elevator.
i haven't deciphered the sign yet
It started raining about then. Nasty, cold, Seattle in November rain. Long straight roads with few other vehicles. Kind of a zen thing - I go up the rise, I go down the rise, I go straight across the valley, I go up the rise, I go down the rise…
At one point I looked up in the sky and saw a helicopter. A big helicopter. It was green and gold and it was flying low. WTF. Not state police and not life flight. No TV logos. Just big, and looking like it wanted a place to land. Really lousy weather to be flying in.
This is what the sky looked like. When it wasn’t raining.
low clearance ahead
At Billings I stopped and called home for recon help. It looked likely that I could make Livingstone before it started to snow/get dark. Jim sweetly made me a hotel reservation. I grabbed a starbucks and headed west again.
About 10 miles outside of Livingston the rain turned to snow.
yup, snow in june
Even the locals are a bit nonplussed.
OTOH My life isn’t as bad as the guy I just met in hotel hallway. Remember what I said about a big green and gold helicopter? They just bought it and are trying to fly it to the coast. Maybe they should rent a truck?
Random Stuff:
If wishes were wings I could fly to the moon.
The music to day was unremarkable. Except, maybe, a couple of Patsy Cline tunes.
Today’s Route:
View It’s a Big Dam Country - Day 24 in a larger map
From Minot, ND to Glasgow, MT. Cool, overcast. It didn’t actually rain but it was very threatening.
Hwy 2 is often an interesting road in that it varies between two-lane and newly divided four-lane. This occasionally leads to confusing lane striping on the portion that used to be two-lane.
that bit between the two yellow lines is the left hand west-bound lane.
I stopped at the Wal-Mart in Williston. Couldn’t be more different from the W-Ms near home if they tried to be. Huge, wide aisles, well lit, well signed, *clean*. Replenished some supplies and headed back out. Head turner on the way out of the parking lot. You’ll notice that the Wal-Mart Logo is nowhere near the sign that says Liquor.
tires, groceries, lawn furniture, and tequila
Along the road there are lots of these little oil pumps slowly moving up and down. Hypnotic.
oil for america
The main attraction for the day was the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. Unlike that other confluence I tried to see this one is open and inviting. The North Dakota Historical Society maintains an interpretive center that sits in the middle of a wetland wild-life refuge.
The Yellowstone River is the longest un-dammed river in the contiguous Untied States.
missouri on the far left, yellowstone on the mid left, wetlands on the right
The coolest part of the visit was eating lunch in the company of 20 or so Goldfinches. The center puts out feeders and keeps them well stocked.
two fellows and a lady dining
waiting his turn
This little guy is not a goldfinch but he was very interested in what I was having for lunch…
what have you got there?
One more goldfinch.
thistle feeder
Next door (sort of) is a recreation of the Fort Union trading post. Built by the American Fur Company in 1828 it was not a military installation. Trade continued until 1866 when Fort Union was torn down and the timber etc. was used to build Fort Buford. (Which was a military installation.)
a place to trade furs
It looks way too much like a Disneyland recreation to me but the original was white washed at the insistence of the management who though it made the place more ‘impressive’.
There were these lovely blue flowers in the parking lot. I have no idea what they are - except pretty.
blue but not bachelor buttons.
From Fort Union I tried to get back up to Hwy 2 using 58 North. Didn’t get far before the “pavement ends” sign sent me back the longer way around. It wasn’t the first time I’ve questioned my choice of vehicle. There have been a lot of local dams up 5 -10 miles of gravel road that I have passed on. On the other hand absolute comfort at 70(nominal) with the top down is just too good to pass up.
Got a whiff of nostaligia when I stopped for gas in Culbertson, MT. Do you remember this guy?
an old friend
Two more quick images from the road between Culbertson and Glasgow.
This is railroad country - here’s another piece of maintenance equipment. I’m staying in the largest hotel for 100+ miles around. There are two full size buses and 5 of the large trucks that can also run on rails used for maintenance-of-way
trucks. (BTW the Wikipedia link is a stub - anyone have a good links for identifying the types of vehicles?)
no doubt this does something very cool
All over the west you find houses that have been abandoned. Sometimes with new houses built right next them. This one doesn’t have anything near it except the range fence.
what happens when you don't fix the leaks in the roof
Random Stuff:
70 mph on a divided four-lane is not conducive to stopping for the odd photo-op. 70 on a two-lane is better. 60 on a two-lane is even better and not at all hard to get away with out here. Locals are usually driving that slowly anyway and the rest know how to pass politely.
Towns along Hwy 2 in Minnesota, N. Dakota, and much of Montana exist to house/service grain elevators and the railroads that transport the grain.
I need one of those little wifi detector things. There is no cell phone data service out here - but I know that most towns have a town hall, library, school, or community center with open wifi that my Crackberry could talk to. I just don’t have quick way of detecting them.
Song and Lyric of the Day:
The moments of pleasures never do last
Are gone like a suitcase full of your past
Ashes by Now - Emmy Lou Harris
More signers should cover Springsteen songs.
The changes in the color of the worn asphalt make road pictures identifiable to the experienced traveler. (Ooo, rose beige - that would eastern Montana)
I have finished reading Gruber’s Forgery of Venus (good) and begun Giaman’s Neverwhere.
Today’s Route:
View It’s a Big Dam Country - Day 23 in a larger map