September is for falling leaves and chilly rides

30 Sep:  In Hasting, Minnesota, we enjoyed a windowside visit with my former college roommate Greg for an hour before we lunched with Donna at a Perkins then rode up Minnesota 55 to Minnesota 3 (which IS Robert Trail) towards Sunfish Lake through incredibly strong winds and light rain to Robert Trail to visit Y-DNA cousin Lance and effervescent wife, Shelley.  Even though Ron has tons of experience riding motorcycles, those winds were unnerving, especially with the rain included.  Shelley cooked a marvelous meal of Minnesota wild rice, chicken in parchment, and baked sweet potatoes caramelized to perfection.  We like our new cousins.  Lance entertained us with pictures and books and spreadsheets from his basement catacombs.

29 Sep:  Eagan, Minnesota is our goal today, a 45-minute ride on Interstate 494 bypassing Minneapolis.  At the Hilton Garden Inn there, we should meet cousin Lance for the first time.  He promises to be a whole lot of fun.  (But maybe not quite as much fun as a healthy, energetic 2-year-old boy.)  In Butte, Montana, where sunshine is the norm, when we looked at weather forecasts a mere week ago, it was supposed to be in the high 60s and low 70s here and now.  Instead it has been perpetually cloudy with highs in the low 60s and high 50s.  Hey, at least the rain has been well timed in the late afternoon, and there has not been any snow YET.

28 Sep:  Medina, Minnesota for one more day.  Roxanne flew home, but we are awaiting Cynthia's newest found first cousin Kathy from Benson, MN.  (And we passed through Benson twice on our route from Butte, once intentionally and the second time because of a wrong turn on Minnesota Highway 9.)  Kathy is a delight, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together.  If anyone finds a photo of Charlie Rinker, aka Harry Bernard King, Kathy would love a copy.  After she left, Cynthia and Ron walked the circle that Bluebell Trail makes and arrived home just as sprinkles were falling.  Cynthia took several pictures of the rainbow that expanded across the sky and grew pronouncedly more vivid as we watched.  Again this evening, Hudson displayed amazing energy as only a 2-year-old can.

2-year-old Hudson pushing his stroller uphill

What a wonderful rainbow for a cloudy day

27 Sep:  And we did indeed awaken early enough to get to the church on time.  Hudson behaved as well as can be expected for a 2-year-old boy, so everyone was pleased, especially Cynthia, a very, very proud great grandmother.  If you'd like to see the video, click here for the church service including Hudson's baptism on U-Tube.  (The baptism begins 31 minutes into the service.)  After the service Cynthia had arranged with Annie to provide a meal for 15 at home, although only the immediate family of six showed up.  Hudson was able to move from lap to lap eating all visible fruit from every plate.  It was fascinating to watch him cram more and more food into his mouth without ever apparently swallowing.  We merely assume that the drainage into his stomach was similar to the drainage down his front.  Afterwards, Cynthia and Ron walked (waddled) around the neighborhood, enjoying the fall colors and nicely kept lawns.

The Smooches are often told that they are so cute

Brett, Hudson & Jenn dressed for church baptism

26 Sep:  Medina, Minnesota at grandson Brett's house, entertained by 2-year-old Hudson, tantrums and all.  Air quality in Butte has been "Great" all day today.  Ron took this opportunity to visit with his sister-in-law Carolyn, who lives near Bossen Park in Minneapolis (click here because nobody knows where Bossen Park is located).  While on Crosstown Highway (Minnesota route 62), Ron was delighted to still see vivid fall colors and to see a couple of airplanes fly close overhead to land at the airport.  They are BIG at that distance.  We visited outside for a couple of hours, catching up on Carolyn's father's condition, her siblings, her previous job, her current activities curtailed because of covid, etc.  As he prepared to leave, raindrops at Carolyn's house prompted Ron to wear a rain coat, and occasionally more raindrops reminded him that the raincoat was good idea until he arrived on Blue Bell Trail.

25 Sep:  Waubay, Minnesota is where our ride began without much color other than ripening grains and grasses, but then suddenly we were back into more varied scenery and our fall colors returned to please our palettes.  After entering Minnesota on US Highway 12, we then navigated through a variety of state and county roads to Minnesota Highway 55 that kept us in countryside all the way to our turn onto Arrowhead Drive.  And we ended our riding day early at grandson Brett's house in the outskirts of Medina. The commotion of greeting was enhanced by the fierce barking of Bret's two dogs.  Fortunately no one was eaten.  Roxanne was in a dither, trying to keep tabs on 2-year-old Hudson while rearranging furniture in her head.  Cynthia pitched in with the decorating/ arrangements, the handyman was instructed to move the bed from the basement to the second floor and the one on the second floor to the basement.  The delicate girlie types instructed the manly masculine types to more this furniture here, there etc. until the basement bedroom was declared to be "good."  Then we all piled into the cars and drove to the adjoining village of Excelsior for a delicious dinner, followed by a quart of sorbet from the Wisconsin Farms (advertising "if you want nutrition, eat carrots"- click here).

24 Sep:  Tonight we are near Waubay, South Dakota, surrounded by lakes.  No mountains today, but the scenery on Highway 12 continues to be spectacular with golden yellows and occasional reds, oranges, and purples mixed in.  We ended our ride at 200+ miles at the Circle Pines Motel, highly rated by undiscriminating fishermen (click here).  Still, it was clean, cheap and quiet.  We walked around the motel to Dog Lake and along the lake shore and dirt road for a mile or more.  Consequently, we slept well, despite crowding together on a full sized bed.

23 Sep:  This morning in Miles City, our hostess greeted us warmly and served a suitable breakfast for our diet that filled us quite well.  Only when Cynthia asked about paying for our lodging did she bother with those details.  All of the reviews that lauded her hospitality and generous breakfasts were accurate.  She is the real deal.  Today on US Highway 12 we engaged in another scenic ride with mountains and varied terrain eastward across the southwestern corner of North Dakota into South Dakota to the Dakota Countryside Inn (click here) in the middle of nowhere, SD.  (Nearest town is Watauga.)  Again the sporadic fall colors were predominately yellows with a few oranges and roses thrown in as accents.  It is remarkable how the usual green vegetation highlights the sporadic fall colors.  We enjoyed a walk for about a mile along the gravel road next to the Inn but stopped short of the terminal driveway.  This is a very peaceful part of South Dakota.  Our host is a very thin, pleasant farmer whose wife told him that she was going to open a B & B-type hotel, so he decided to join her and moved five miles to do so.  Sadly, she has had a stroke and can no longer use her left hand that drew the architectural drawings for the hotel.

22 Sep:  Tonight in Miles City, Montana after a marvelously scenic ride on I-94 from Billings, Montana. As we passed by Livingstone and Big Timber, we thought of Seth and wife who grew up on Montana ranches north of those towns. And the ranches we saw were really vast! It is harvest time, the golden, newly-mown hay fields stretched to the horizons. It was equally fascinating crossing the Yellowstone River many times, and riding past the junction of the Big Horn and Yellowstone, thirteen miles west of the famous battlefield known as Custer’s Last Stand. How timely, after recently reading the incredible NY Times #2 Bestseller, Killing Crazy Horse (click here). Cynthia captured a photo of the Rosebud memorial. The ride was cool until we neared Miles City, our destination for the evening, and then it got hot. And how fun to have lunch sitting at the soda fountain in an antique shop that formerly was the old Woolworth’s Store in town. Their restaurant is called, Remember When Cafe (click here)! Our lodging for the evening is in the Horton House, a historical B&B (click here). Strangely, our hosts never appeared to ask us to check in. We arrived early and their hired helper gave us a key and combination.

And this is what we saw as we rode eastward

All decked out and ready to ride !!

Our friends at the Copper King

21 Sep:  After one last breakfast at the Copper King and photographs with our delightful servers (right), we expected to leave "early," or at least prior to official check out time of 11 AM (Cynthia chuckled at the foolish notion that we might leave by 11:00), but Ron did it, got all packed and in motion before 11AM !!  The ride started south on Montana Highway 2, and after several miles, we were worried by a sign that said "Road Construction - Motorcycles advised to seek alternate route."  We continued for 20 miles, being wary for any sudden change to gravel, through Thompson Park (click here) and past an "End of Construction" sign without ever seeing any evidence of road construction in the last several years.  Then there was a Detour sign pointing left.  Again we continued cautiously until we arrived in the town of Whitehall where we turned right onto I-90 east.  (What peculiar signage.  It must be a Montana insider joke.)  We arrived in Billings about five PM, in time to enjoy a lovely dinner at the Windmill Restaurant (click here), one that we enjoyed so much when we stayed in Billings in 2018.  

20 Sept:  We leave tomorrow.  Still a tiny bit smoky, but air quality is almost "Good."  Everything looks good for a hike up the Maud S. trail today.  Thank goodness we did get one final good hike up Maud S. before leaving Butte, and we were both surprised by our speed and stamina.  Cynthia exclaimed that her knees, feet, back and legs felt wonderful.

Sunday Offering 

To live we need air to breathe, food to nourish our bodies, and safety to survive.  Beyond the basics, every human longs to satisfy the sex urge, and CRAVES being appreciated. To recognize this is key to relationships, and it speaks personally to how we live out our lives  in Christ. Listen with your heart to these words. 

Galatians 2:20-21Revised Standard Version

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification[a] were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose.

19 Sep:  It seemed obvious to me and my sister in April.  Why did it take the media so long to tell the public that obesity is the greatest risk factor for coronavirus death (click here)?  Air quality is "Good" in the rain this morning, but we are not about to walk until the drizzle stops.  Cynthia tried to fix the font size in this blog, but Ron had to do it to avoid spousal frustrations!  Now at 3 PM the rain has stopped, so we will (and did) walk to the Montana Club for food and stop at Walmart on the return trip for blueberries and raspberries and anything else we can eat with only one evening, one day and a breakfast left before departure.  Rain again forestalled our attempt to walk this evening.

18 Sep: More smoke; air quality is "Unhealthy" again but has improved to a smig above "Unhealthy for sensitive groups."  We walked the cemetery and picked up shreds of plastic flowers everywhere, our new preoccupation while walking.  Again we walked to The Montana Club for dinner and walked the cemetery a second time just before dark.  Ron is "perfecting" concordances in preparation for indexing Volume 7 of the Colonial Records of the Swedish Churches of Pennsylvania.  Lots of tedious work for those of us who love tedium as a change of pace from normal over-activity.

17 Sep:  Smoky again today - this is getting tedious; air quality slightly less "Unhealthy."  Looking for the positive, we probably don't need sun screen today.  We walked the cemetery and enjoyed another fine, fun conversation with the superintendent and a short one with one of the Forest Service fire fighting helicopter support crew.  Sad news today that Ron's former boss Kurt has passed away.  One final cemetery walk today, and we picked up shreds of plastic flowers which we left in a bag on the superintendent's steps.

16 Sep:  Smoky again today with no relief in sight until Saturday.  Air quality is "Unhealthy," but we walked the cemetery, took an hour break, then walked to The Montana Club for salads.  We've already walked 5.7 miles today by 3:34.  We went out for another smoke inhalation therapy this evening, total miles for the day 8.5.

15 Sep:  Smoke today in Butte started with "unhealthy for sensitive groups" and about noon moved into just plain "unhealthy."  Thank goodness Ron is an insensitive.  Our morning walk provided us our minimum daily requirement of smoke.  Then Ron rode the motorcycle to the Post Office to mail additional letters and cards (12 mailed to date).  We again walked to The Montana Club for salad, salmon and a baked potato.  Now it is 8:17 in the evening, and we forgot our after dinner cemetery stroll.  Ron still went for a quick stroll about the cemetery after dark and hopes that his conversation on the cell phone did not disturb the residents.

14 Sep:  The smoke is still bad although we've improve through "unhealthy" and "unhealthy for sensitive groups" to "moderate"after noon.  We can again see the mountain with the "M" for Montana Tech (just barely).  We walked the cemetery and rode the motorcycle to Walgreen's for a prescription then to The Montana Club for lunch.  We walked a second time in the evening once the temperatures dropped a bit.

13 Sep:  Gosh, has it ever gotten smokey here in Butte.  Apparently there is a fire just beyond the mountains, and the winds must have wafted some smoke westward to us.  So we opted to hike the cemetery instead of Maud S.  Amusing to see a horizontal line across the mountains; above is more smoke, below is less smoke.  Air quality here is supposed to be good, but we can smell the smoke in the air.  We walked to the Montana Club for lunch, and the smoke is heavier.  Ron looked for the source on the web but didn't find anything helpful.  It is time for our evening walk in smoke that has caused air quality to become just plain "unhealthy."  Let's hope that cooler air overnight causes particulates to drop out of the air.  Nine miles walking today.

12 Sep:  Every new day comes so quickly now: obviously time is accelerating.  It is now 4 PM, and we've been waiting since breakfast for housekeeping to clean the room.  Ron has been reviewing cell phone calls to label many "nuisance" and to discover (via Google) a couple of useful phone numbers.

11 Sep:  How did the rest of the 10th disappear?  We hiked Maud S. early and enjoyed lunch at the Montana Club.  Ron continued going through his address book and has sent another 43 emails addressed with blind CCs.  If I have your email address, you should have gotten a copy of the annual letter.  Now I need to send a few more snail mail letters, and I will be caught up with correspondence.  Oops, the snail mail count is 39 letters.

10 Sep:  And another cool start to our day, but we will walk the cemetery early (i.e. before noon).  And then we walked to dinner and again walked the cemetery just before dark.  Ron spent the entire day going through his address book and emailed the annual letter to 48 correspondents.

9 Sep:  32 degrees in Butte, Montana after breakfast - - - but it is supposed to reach 70 degrees today.  Our efforts to finding cooler weather for hiking certainly succeeded beyond our wildest imaginings.  Cynthia promises to be ready to hike up Maud S. by noon.  Life is good.  It is noon, time to visit Maud S.  We hiked 2.5miles to the Vista and enjoyed seeing Our Lady of the Rockies closer again.  Why does the uphill seem harder each time we go?  In the evening we again walked the cemetery for 8.4 miles total today.

8 Sep:  dawned even colder, and after breakfast Ron walked around the hotel and found ice on the seat of the motorcycle.  After sending a couple copies of the annual letter (below), Ron decided that it was too cold to inflict a motorcycle on da poor little weefee to get to the Maud S. Trail, so we limited our walk to 2.5 flat, flat, flat miles around the cemetery.  (And it was cold.)  We walked to the Montana Club for typical afternoon meal of huckleberry salad and steamed veggies for Cynthia and two baked potatoes with lotsa pepper for Ron.  Then in the evening we walked the cemetery again for a total of 10 (flat) miles today.

7 Sep:  dawned a bit chilly in Butte, Montana, and a brisk wind blew in colder air and snow by noon.  We walked around our convenient cemetery very early, but cut our walk short when raindrops hit us in the face.  After fussing with Google sites for an hour, Ron decided to walk to Walmart for frozen mango and blueberries.  Sister-in-law Carolyn reports that the rioters in Minneapolis are nowhere near her.  Sister Carol reports that new DNA matches are providing much food for thought.  Ron is now shivering as he eats his frozen mango.  It is time to mail his annual letter, dated September this year.  The walk this evening through the cemetery was again wonderful because of the dusting of snow on the mountains and the mama with two baby deer watching me walk by.  It was amusing to see that all three heads tracked me identically.

This annual letter comes to you from Butte, Montana on September 6th, 2020.  Ron and Cynthia report that life continues with the same old same old - hike, health, travel by motorcycle, no fat, no oil, no butter, no cheese, no salt.  We no longer own a house or a car, just a motorcycle, and we fill our days with hiking, genealogy and travel.    One of the ironies of aging is that we need a daily exercise routine to stay fit enough to enjoy the activities of daily life.

If you'd like to know all the gory details of our daily lives, check out our blog by Googling "Where is Ron."  Our blog shows up first.  The URL is whereisronnow.blogspot.com.

Once again we are delighted to be among the living - - - and we are feeling Younger Next Year (click here) after reading the book and going to the Pritikin Longevity Center four times in the last two years.  Our 2019 adventures began in late January when the motorcycle driveshaft broke on I-10, 30 miles west of Mobile, Alabama, as we rode towards the Pritikin Longevity Center in Miami.  BMW Roadside Assistance rescued us with a tow truck, and the driver even dropped us off at our hotel.  We were both sick for the next three days, but when we recovered, the repair shop was still waiting for the driveshaft, so we rented a car and drove to Miami, arriving at the Pritikin as scheduled.  Cynthia checked in and I rode further south to visit friends in the Florida Keys.  That ride over all those bridges out to Big Pine Key is really lovely in the off-season, and those tiny key deer are just too cute.

Again our stay at the Pritikin provided us results and new exercises.

After our month at the Pritikin, we again rented a car to retrieve our motorcycle from Pensacola.  Then we rode south through Mexico Beach and were astounded by the hurricane damage there.  Whole forests of pine trees were snapped off 30' above ground for miles and miles.  The first floor rooms of the Hotel Governor, where we love to stay, 30' above the normal high tide, had been demolished by the storm surge and waves.  Most houses between the roadway and the gulf were entirely gone without a trace.

We visited friends as we rode north to spend 3 months in Mt. Airy, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia.  We spent most of our time in the basement of the Lutheran Archives, working with Peter Craig's collection of books and papers (genealogy).  Mt. Airy is fun for us, and the weather stayed mild enough for us to walk the mile to Chestnut Hill for lunch every day at Fresh Market, a grocery with a nice salad bar.

After summer heated up, we hustled north into Vermont to cool off and spent the next three months hiking - except that Cynthia's children mandated that she fly to Houston to celebrate her birthday with them.  She came back from the flight with a cough that soon turned into bronchitis, then into pneumonia, which led to a shingles affliction that lasted a month.  We were compelled to leave Vermont, just as the leaves began to turn fall colors because we had booked the first 2 weeks of October at the Pritikin to take advantage of a seasonal discount.  At least we did see a few marvelously colorful displays of leaves in Vermont and New York before outrunning fall south, and we enjoyed a bon voyage Pasta Loft party with MIT friends.

Samantha and Adam's wedding in Texas in November was a joyous occasion, vindicating our early arrival in Texas, long before our scheduled doctors appointments the first week of January.

2020 will go down in history as the year when pandemic paranoia gripped America, when wearing face masks and social distancing became mandatory.  Cynthia and I were lucky to arrive in Sedona mere days before the ___ hit the fan.  We were able to walk from our vacation rental house to the Bell Rock Trailhead for the first six weeks and then from a second rental to the Sugarloaf Trailhead for the next month.  Those red rock mesas are just so spectacular.

Then we spent two weeks at the Grand Canyon with only a few other early arrivals.  Imagine getting to see and hike the Canyon without crowds.  Awesome !!  Ron was even able to hike down the Bright Angel Trail to the second rest stop (3 miles distance and 2100 feet elevation) in 1 1/2 hours and back up in 2 - - - giving him confidence that his heart is A-OK.

Next we visited friends in Santa Fe for a couple of weeks and were able to see nearly everyone in outdoor settings deemed "socially distanced" and safe from pandemic propagation.

Seeking cooler temperatures, we spent a month in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, hiking every day, and now another month in Butte, Montana, hiking the Maud S. Canyon Trail every 2nd or 3rd day except when the air was contaminated by California wildfire smoke.  We have really enjoyed staying at the Copper King Hotel and Convention Center in Butte.

Before long we will ride across South Dakota to Minneapolis so that Cynthia can baptize her 2-year-old grandson.  Then back to Texas, visiting friends and relatives along the way.

I continue to tell people that I had the perfect life as a bachelor, but leave it to God to improve upon perfection.  And I continue to tell Cynthia that I love her just the way she is.

6 Sep, Sunday:  Another day with a smoky haze from wildfires.  At least this time it is local fires.  After our morning walk, it is finally time for Ron to get productively busy, so he wrote his 2020 annual letter in order to send a few snail mail letters this month.  Next project is to print one.  Then I need to lambast Google for the travesty they are inflicting upon their web site users when they "convert" to "new sites" November 2021.  We walked to The Montana Club for lunch of salmon and asparagus; Ron had baked potatoes.  After fussing with Google sites, Ron walked around the cemetery for half an hour.  Now time for bed.

5 Sep:  Today is forecast HOT, so we hustled through exercises and breakfast in order to hike the Maud S. Trail early - but it was already hot.  We persevered and hiked to the viewpoint despite feeling that the hike was more strenuous than ever.  We stopped at the Montana Club for lunch and walked around the cemetery in the evening.

4 Sep:  And here it is already the 4th of September.  How did that happen?  We walked our favorite cemetery twice today and bought lots of groceries at Walmart.  Ron was successful at avoiding work of any nature.

Ron did NOT realize that the bike is so clean.  Angenieta must have a magic camera.

Isn't Cynthia a beauty ?  SmoochSmooch, I love you.

Angenieta photographed our heels

Lost Trail Pass ?

Informational rest stop

3 Sep:  Today we rode from Missoula back to Butte after Big Sky Motorsports installed the diaphragm in the front brake fluid reservoir and after we met the nicest couple at the Montana Club near the HGI.  Angenieta is quite the vivacious motorcyclist.  She just had to ask about us, and believe it or not, Ron was able to respond to this young cutie at length.  Our route was south for 80 miles on US 93 through way too much traffic and population and heat, although the surrounding Bitterroot Valley appeared quite agricultural and scenic.  Then we started climbing up to the Lost Trail Pass and stopped at the informational rest stop explaining that Lewis and Clark might has crossed about here when they were lost on their way to the Pacific.  In contrast, we were not lost and turned east on Montana Highway 43 towards Wisdom - and we recognized Wisdom when we arrived.  We had stayed at the one little motel at the edge of town and ate at the one bar in town some previous trip.  (2 Sep 2010 according to the blog)  We both remember an awesome sunset (not mentioned in the blog).

2 Sep:  We checked out of the hotel for the day, but the manager told us to leave our luggage in the room since we are returning tomorrow.  WINDY.  WOW was it ever windy !! as we rode from Butte to Missoula, 118 miles of being blown mostly sideways or sometimes noticing the abrupt loss of speed when the gust hit us directly from the front.  At times it was a struggle to remain confident that the bike would stay on the road.  All's well that ends well, and Cynthia checked into the hotel, Ron rode to the motorcycle shop despite the GPS misleading him, and the shop was able to change both tires easily.  The  lounge was occupied by another motorcyclist working remotely for his job with Verizon, and our conversation made the time vanish quickly.

1 Sep:  Let's see if Ron can figure out the font that he likes without copying from yesterday.  OOOh, I like this, Times - Large.  We are up, exercised, fed and digesting, preparatory to filling the motorcycle tires with air and hiking.  Walmart Auto Center cooperated by providing air and we hiked the Maud S. Trail again today.  It seemed more strenuous uphill than on other days, but the downhill was a breeze.  Lunch at The Montana Club and too many things to do before bed time.  Goodnight.

August... Rolling North On Two Wheels

31 Aug:   And tomorrow was indeed another day: today, and today dawned drizzly in Butte, Montana.  At noon-thirty, the weather is drying out a little.  We walked to The Montana Club for salads for lunch and are back to preparing for our departure Wednesday morning towards Missoula to buy new tires for our baby blue motorcycle.  Ron putzed with recycling before discovering that there is no recycling center in Butte, even though it is at the intersection of two major Interstate highways.  Then we walked the cemetery again in the cold- and getting colder.  And Cynthia wanted a baked potato dinner at the Rib & Chop House.  While we were waiting Ron witnessed such disorganization by the hostess seating people that he got disgusted and told Cynthia to call him whenever she was finally seated.  She has called, so I am on my way back down even though I don't feel inclined to eat anything.  And except for the cook, service for the rest of our meal was similarly incompetent.  I left an $0.84 cent tip.  Today Cynthia made reservations here at the Copper King after we return from Missoula until September 21st.  It is cool here, and we do like hiking the convenient cemeteries and the Maud S. Canyon Trail, so this will be an excellent option until time to head directly towards Minneapolis.  Ron started trying to figure out a route and lodging en route, especially across South Dakota, where finding hotels is more of a challenge.  He had to change the route in order to find acceptable lodging no more than 300 miles apart.

30 Aug, Sunday:  So now we have seen quite the selection of font sizes, tiny, reasonable and nearly huge.  Cynthia has been napping, but I'm guessing that her "feed me" alarm will be going off momentarily.  We hiked this morning to Walmart for groceries, and Ron is now enjoying frozen mango as he types.  It has taken him three days to get caught up on emails and this blog, but he can now consider what else to do before we leave Butte - only three mornings hence.  At 4;30 we walked the mile or so to The Montana Club for lunch of salmon, salad, steamed asparagus, broccoli and a baked potato.  In the evening we again walked the cemetery for a half hour to take it easy on Cynthia's hurty feet.

Maud S. Canyon Trail map

Sign pointing to Continental Divide

We hiked up really high today

29 Aug:  Today we hiked the Maud S. Loop Trail up to a junction where we continued uphill towards the Continental Divide but stopped about a half-mile short of reaching it when the trail became steeper with gravelly inclines that made it quite a challenge.  In two places going back down, Cynthia squatted onto her heels to scoot down.  The loose rock is like ball-bearings under her shoes.  As we ascended, we met Paul, a Butte resident who had bicycled all the way up to Our Lady of the Rockies (click here).  We all decried the social unrest, radical left, and "news" media who are trying to purge our country of capitalism and plunge us all into socialism.  (Socialism means that you either join the Socialist party to work for the government or live on welfare.)  Our mileage totaled 11.5 miles with about a 1500 foot elevation gain.  (Cynthia's feet are tired and upset with her.)  Ron and Cynthia walked the cemetery at sunset.  Now that the air has been clear for a couple of days, we are considering returning to Butte after getting new tires Missoula.

28 Aug:  Ron likes the larger font.  He is astounded that the smaller font survived this long because it means that he hasn't updated the blog in nearly a month.  (Don't bother to look, it is gone now.)  Today has been more relaxed because he doesn't have a clue what he wants to spend his time doing for the next four days before we leave to hit the road again on Wednesday.  For now, this blog is a great choice, especially since Cynthia has abandoned me while getting a manicure and pedicure (and God knows what else).

27 Aug:  Yesterday seems so long ago that Ron cannot remember anything about it.  Oh, memory is returning, we woke up to a light rain and putzed around in the room after breakfast until late morning.  Since the air quality was again "good," we rode the motorcycle a couple of miles to the Maud S. Canyon Trail (uphill for two miles and 1000 feet of elevation gain).  Cynthia was delighted that she had the strength and energy for that uphill challenge; Ron discovered that his energy was weak.  Afterwards we ate our usual salads at the Montana Club.  (We have apparently given up on the Rib & Chop House after Cynthia's unacceptable shrimp dinner - although we will probably continue to eat their superior salmon.)  Ron went for a second cemetery walk at dark and talked for an hour to his friend Ed.  Finally he stayed up until 1 AM answering long-neglected emails.

26 Aug:  Butte, Montana.  And Ron is finally back on-line !!  He hasn't been for the month due to working on the next SCS package and fearful that the hotel internet would throw his computer into somewhat permanent never-never land.  (And it did just that !!)  Now he has successfully backed up the computer and sent the package off to the SCS member, so he can breathe a sigh of relief and start answering some of the more than 50 emails that have stacked up.  The good news is that Cynthia and I are still "sheltering" successfully despite being in a hotel and eating breakfast and dinner in a dining room ... at least we don't think we are any sicker than usual, - no covid-like symptoms so far.  And we are still walking a couple of times a day despite the unhealthy air thanks to California wildfires, raging out of control almost like America's younger population that is "entitled" to riot and loot and burn to their heart's content, protected by their assurance that the police don't dare interfere with this inalienable right.  One of these days a whole lot of them are going to wake up in prison wondering how and why did they get there.  The highlight of our day was seeing a fawn enter through the cemetery gates and walk around paying her respects to the people buried there.  This fawn was about as little as a mule deer can be, and she seemed very puzzled by the two-legged characters watching her.  Somewhat later she ran out in the opposite direction and crossed the street without looking both ways for traffic.  By then we had noticed the big, friendly, curly-haired black dog that a lady was "walking" without a leash.  Apparently the little deer wasn't interested in making new friends.

25 Aug:  Hiking it tough in this smoke, so we are stuck walking the cemetery twice a day (level ground).  Our walk this morning was punctuated by seeing a large red fox streaking through the cemetery a couple of rows away.  His tail extended straight behind him with a white chevron at the tip.  Today the smoke was diminished by a blessed rain after a huge wind.  We ate dinner in at the Montana Rib & Chop House adjacent to our hotel.  Amusing that the restaurant web site shows the butte near Montana Tech with its "M" prominently displayed; amusing because the restaurant is so far away that the M is obscured by the smoky haze on many days recently.  Cynthia listened to speeches tonight while Ron walked the cemetery.  He was quite surprised to find several trees or large limbs in new places; the tree next to the cemetery office was entirely uprooted but fell without damaging either office or tombstones. 

Sunset amidst wildfire smoke

24 Aug:  We had one walk and a long nap.  Yes, this is boring to our readers, but we were delighted with our afternoon nap.  Ron is knee-deep in the SCS project (as he has been for three months now - which explains the absence of details in WhereIsRonNow), Cynthia mailed her article on DNA to the editor, and we fussed over the increasing smoke from California.  Ron went for a second walk after dark despite the smoke.  His conversations have also been neglected, so he caught up with a few of his walk-and-talk regulars.

23 Aug, Sunday:  Cynthia is lining up the winter reservations.  She is in charge of her high school class reunion on 3 October.  All of the letters were mailed and food is ordered. 

22 Aug:  Our hikes are totaling nine to ten miles a day flat-land as we hike the cemetery due to heavy smoke from the California wildfires. 

Boss Hoss motorcycle, V-8 engine

21 Aug:  After our walk up Maud S. to the Butte overlook, we returned to the Montana Club and discovered an unusual "Harley" in the parking lot.  After eating we exited to see the rider talking with a friend, so we walked over and introduced ourselves and were quickly corrected to learn that we were looking at a Boss Hoss motorcycle whose rider was returning to Portland from Sturgis.  His Boss Hoss has a Chevy small block V-8 engine (a 509).  He says it does 0 to 100 MPH in three seconds. 

20 Aug:  Our morning walk through Holy Cross Roman Catholic Cemetery was three miles in an hour and 45 minutes.  We stopped in the office to learn why there is a huge lot of babies ... most without headstones or names (because they were not baptized).  Another huge field of unkempt graves is due to burial without paying for perpetual care, or they were indigenous.  So much for Christian care of the poor.  In the late evening we repeated the walk for another three miles.  Cynthia foreclosed on a house she sold and she owner financed.   She got the furniture back, and it was moved out of the house today to the storage unit.  

19 Aug:  Wow! We hiked the Maud S. Trail to the Vista, a thousand-foot elevation gain (actually 930 feet gain), plus the evening walk for a total of ten miles.  YAY for us.  This was after an early AM ride to Summit Labs for a fasting blood sugar test.  We arrived at the labs in the morning just before they opened and were back to the hotel in time for breakfast.

This is Our Lady of the Rockies

View from Maud S. Trail to valley

18 Aug:  This was our designated day for hiking on the bike trails near the Montana Tech College. But when we arrived, the parking area indicated by Google Earth required a Blue Decal, and classes had already commenced.  So we parked in the nearby lot for the World Museum of Mining (click here).  Curious, we paid $8 each admission and entered the compound full of recreated buildings and shops full of authentic artifacts from the days gone by when Butte was a bustling city full of deep shaft miners.  Due to covid we were required to wear a mask whenever within eighteen inches of any window worth peering into.  Cynthia found the mining museum spectacular and promised to post photos.  (Oops.)

17 Aug:  And today we hiked the Maud S Trail again.  Cynthia's feet and back seem to be tolerating hiking this uphill grade every other day without undue complaint.  We have decided that we really like this Copper King Hotel & Conference Center and being close to both cemeteries and the Maud S. Canyon Trail.

16 Aug, Sunday: We must have rested on Sunday, except for our twice walks of six miles.  Ron is working on a package of materials about Israel Peterson for a Swedish Colonial Society (SCS) member. 

15 Aug:  Hiked the Maud S. Canyon loop trail, with 1000 foot elevation gain...  two TOUGH miles up and two steep miles down.  The downhill trail had many short, steep sections with treacherous footing on loose gravel, so we promise ourselves to never do that again.  Tonight we walked through the very large Holy Cross cemetery across the street.  It was a pleasant walk in a diversely maintained cemetery.  Some parts were watered, mowed and green, another part was untended, parched and broken, yet another part had tiny plots, and yet another mere flat stone markers.

14 Aug:  We hiked to Staples to pick up the invitations printed on party paper, ate lunch at the Montana Club, and boogied back to the hotel.  Cynthia stuffed envelopes and got them into the mail.  Classmates are now fully informed about the upcoming extemporaneous reunion Oct 3 in Northwood.

13 Aug:  We checked out of the Hampton Inn in Butte, rode three miles south, and checked in to the Copper King Hotel & Convention Center.  We asked the desk clerk (also hotel manager) if there were good hiking trails nearby, and she told us how to get to the Maud S. Canyon Trail.  After unpacking, we followed her directions and hiked the Maud S. Canyon Trail as far as we dared for our first steep hike in a week, almost to the panoramic Vista overlooking Butte.  In the evening, we rode to the downtown historic district and walked an additional mile or two, starting with a "tour" of the grand old Hotel Finlen.  (We asked to see a couple of rooms.)   As we walked and read historic plaques, we became more familiar with the colorful history of Butte.  Besides seeing the gigantic open-pit copper mine north and east of town, we were able to walk right up to the fences around several "headframes" which lowered miners into the underground mines and brought the ore to the surface.  Butte has a plethora of old buildings with historic markers in varying stages of decay.  Several look to be very well cared for, but they are the exceptions.  I just read today that Butte is a very, very dangerous US city.

12 Aug:  We departed Bozeman via the same Baxter Lane and backtracked to take Montana Highway 84 west until we intersected US 287 north towards Sappington, Montana according to the map.  Cynthia is a Sappington descendant, so Ron thought it would be fun to show her the namesake town - but there was nothing there.  Population must be zero or less unless you count cattle.  Google Earth shows me that there is indeed nothing there - except for one large milling complex.  No houses, no residences.  Fooey.  I was still expecting to find something of a town when we came upon Montana Highway 2 which would take us to Butte, except that when highway 2 crossed Interstate 90, I changed the routing extemporaneously right there for a quick and easy entry into Butte. 

11 Aug:  We enjoyed breakfast at the Bunnery, but the wait was long and the service was slow, drawbacks of a popular place in a tourist town.  We continued on US 191 right on through The Tetons.  The only delay was an interminable line at the entrance station.  Ron was surprised that the lakes were not as big nor the mountains so impressive as his memory.  After enjoying few delays and light traffic for a couple of hours, it was a huge disappointment to run into another interminable line.  Ron was convinced that the stupid tourists were each in turn stopping in the middle of the road to get out of the car and take a picture of some unique wildlife (like a chipmunk).  (Cynthia read that one lady was gored by an irate momma buffalo for approaching her little calf too closely this year.)  As it turns out, the line was to go through the Yellowstone National Park entrance station. Since the parks are practically contiguous, I had expected to have to endure entrance lines once.  Fortunately for the rest of our very enjoyable ride through the parks, no one saw any wildlife so we were not forced into yet another interminable line by the photo-crazy tourists.  We stayed on 191 through West Yellowstone and came to a stop due to road construction, chip sealing (click here).  Continuing north after riding through that loose gravel we came to another episode of chip sealing before clear sailing up to pass the junction with Colorado 84 and on to Baxter Lane that took us in to the northern edge of Bozeman where our hotel was located.  Baxter Lane was a sweet, untrafficked alternative to the main highways through town.

10 Aug:  Rock Springs provided us about the most deplorable breakfast we have been fed on this entire trip, so we left with a poor opinion of Rock Springs and continued north on US 191 into Pinedale, Wyoming where Cynthia decided that the Heart and Soul Cafe looked good.  (After that long without eating, anything looks good.). The restaurant was actually able to provide us good food.  We were quite well pleased.  US 191 took us through the mountains into Jackson, a town full of tourists.  Cynthia was very proud of herself to use points to book the night at the Hampton Inn.  (Otherwise prices are outrageous.)  She also won the competition to find a suitable place for us to eat: St. Genevieve (click here), a quite excellent restaurant.  Pearl Street Market is supposed to have groceries, but it is more akin to a yuppie convenience store.  We did get bread and blueberries there.

9 Aug, Sunday:  We left Grand Junction on Interstate 70 west for several miles until we could turn north on Colorado 139 towards Rangely, Colorado.  (Granted, few people besides Ron have ever heard of Rangely.)  There are impressive emerald-green fields on both sides of Colorado 139 as we headed north up a slight grade.  That lovely emerald green stops abruptly as if cut by a knife - when the irrigation systems end.  One side of the fences was lush green and the other side was parched brown desert sands and plants.  The rest of highway 139 isn't a scenic wonderland, but it is a good route towards cooler northern vacationlands.  We enjoyed a surprisingly nice lunch at the Main Street Cafe in Rangely.  After lunch we saw the backsides of two pronghorns quite close to the road (Colorado Highway 64) and enjoyed marvelous views as we sped through those desert landscapes on US 40 into Utah.  Our goal for the day was Rock Springs, Wyoming (click here), so we stopped only briefly at Vernon, Utah and turned north on US 191 towards the Flaming Gorge Recreation Area.  We were surprised to find ourselves on top of the world, and the hurricane force winds also surprised us.  It was a struggle to ignore the force of the wind in my ears.  The motorcycle was able to absorb the wind without much more than occasional deflection.  It was awesome indeed to look in any direction and see other plateaus and mountains at the same elevation or lower.  By the time we arrived at Rock Springs, Cynthia was starved, but the only good option was to buy rolled oats, berries and veggies at the Smith's market in town.  This was the second day that Ron's butt got tired of sitting.

8 Aug:  We didn't need a particularly early start to ride from Ouray to Grand Junction, passing over Grand Mesa, but since the weather at elevation can be unpredictable, we started somewhat early.  The early part of the ride on US 550 through Montrose was a bit warm.  In Delta we turned east on Colorado Highway 92 for several hot miles, but as we rode uphill north towards Grand Mesa on Colorado Highway 65, it became downright chilly.  Having just been warm, we felt no need to stop for warmer clothing.  Grand Mesa is a wonderfully scenic vacationland (click here) close to Grand Junction.  We enjoyed incredible views ascending the twisty roads (which so many motorcyclists love - including Ron).  I had forgotten that Grand Mesa also has gorgeous lakes besides the mountains, forests and twisty roads.  We stopped only at the visitor center because it was mid-summer and everybody and their brother were out vacationing with no coronavirus concerns to dampen their enjoyment of the outdoors.  Besides, the roadways were relatively uncrowded, so the ride was delightfully free of slow pokes.  As we descended the other side of the hill, the heat returned to relieve our chill and we were soon overdressed (having donned more clothing at our rest stop).  Once to the river at the bottom of the hill, the roadway entered into a deep gorge that was even more awesome; river and greenery on one side and ahead, perpendicular rock walls on the other side and ahead.  This canyon continues for about 10 miles !!  Here the slowpokes don't bother Ron as he prefers to gawk at the scenery and admire those impressive, sheer cliffs up close and personal.  Once we exited the canyon and joined Interstate 70, we ran into oppressive heat and heavy traffic, but there is no convenient alternative into Grand Junction.  At least that stretch of Interstate 70 is quite scenic, being built as an elevated above the Colorado River at times.

7 Aug:  Ouray, Colorado.  We hiked the flats today, and as we passed through downtown approaching our hotel, we saw two bucks!  Both were still in velvet.  The smaller one looked a little scrawny and desperate, but the larger one was a fine specimen with six points.  It was indeed to a surprise to see these bucks walking right through a residential area two blocks from the highway and downtown.  We liked the Bon Ton so well that we ate there again this evening.

Cynthia takes flattering photos

Ouray is NOT a big place

The San Juan mountains in Ouray.

6 Aug:  The adventurers hiked three miles straight up to God, starting in town at 8000 feet elevation and walking up the steep Box Canyon trail to Ouray's Perimeter Trail (click here).  The photos are from that hike.  A widowed classmate asked if Ron is looking for a second wife... he looks so good.  In the evening we walked again, this time through town to enjoy a more nearly level pathway.   There is a koi pond as part of the hot springs/ swimming pool in town and we discovered a veritable humming hive of activity near a house with multiple hummingbird feeders on the front porch.  Ron had been curious to see if a multitude of hummingbirds perch at dusk on the same electric wire across the street as in previous years, but apparently they've changed to a different evening "hang out."  In the evening, we thoroughly enjoyed an excellent dinner and great service at the Bon Ton; the swordfish was awesome. 

This is the "river"  in Box Canyon.

5 Aug:  And we are off.   We rode west on US 160 into Durango and ate breakfast at Jean Pierre's again.  That part of our trip was through typical Western ranchlands tucked into the forested mountains.  Then we continued north on US 550 through entirely different scenery, crossing three high mountain passes, and arrived in Ouray late afternoon.  The local grocery sold us fruit and veggies, and we had just enough time for a good walk around town - uphill and downhill at 8000' elevation.   Ouray is magnificent, but it is almost impossible to find a place that will feed us a breakfast that we can eat (no oil, no butter, no fat, no cheese, no salt) - so we used hot water from the coffee pot to cook oatmeal.

4 Aug:  D-day minus one (Departure day).  Up, exercised, and fed with mandatory correspondence completed, it is time for our morning walk.  Ron feels relatively confident that he will be packed and ready to roll first thing tomorrow morning - off through Durango to Ouray, about three hours and two high mountain passes away over the "Million Dollar Highway." (Click here for accelerated U-Tube dashcam ride.)  Don't worry we won't travel as fast as it appears in that U-Tube.  Afternoon thunderstorms are forecast, so we want to get a very early start.  (That means 10 to 11 AM to us.) We were lucky this evening to have Dan join us for our walk again.  It was really quite dark by the time we finished (8:58).

3 Aug:  Ut oh, our departure date is only two days away.  We walked our favorite to-the-lake route and return in the late morning, and it was really quite warm.  Then Cynthia indulged in a manicure before we ate lunch of sweet potatoes at Boss Hogg's, and now Ron is returning to his tasks preparatory to packing the motorcycle.  During our evening walk to the lake & back, we saw the five bucks, a forest of horns again.  Ron was delighted that they were available to see us off so close to departure.  Cynthia retired early tonight, so we did not stay up past midnight reviewing her "Harry Bernard King" article for the NGS Quarterly.

2 Aug, Sunday:  And the birthday month came to a successful close.  We can hardly wait to see what next year will bring for birthday presents.  Our hiking total today was seven miles in two walks, and we saw our favorite five bucks with antlers in velvet - twice !!  In the morning, they were resting in woods on the eastern side of our neighborhood, a proverbial forest of antlers, and in the evening, they were grazing close to the street on the western side of the neighborhood.  Cynthia took video on both occasions but hasn't cropped a photo out of the video.

1 Aug:  The views crossing the Continental Divide take your breath away, and massive thunderstorms an arm's length away will do the same trick.  We had a beautiful ride over Wolf Creek Pass through South Fork to Alamosa to visit with Becky and Doug for the afternoon before heading back towards a beautiful sky full of grey clouds and streamers of rain descending in torrents.  The lucky part is that all of this that captured our full attention and imagination was slightly to the left of the northwest bound route we were riding (US Highway 160).  We did pass under a few of the leading streamers and experienced a brief spattering of raindrops.  We passed through those before we arrived in Del Norte and turned to a due west heading just north of that same thunderstorm system.  In twenty minutes more it was apparent that we had dodged that bullet.  Thank God.  We arrived in Pagosa Springs early enough to eat dinner at Boss Hogg's before our usual evening walk.  And this walk was special in that we picked up a stray homeowner to keep us company from his new home to the lake and back.  Even more special was that he (Dan) was born in Conroe, Texas and still lives in that part of Texas.  Pretty much a small world any more.

July, Cynthia's birthday month!

31 Jul. Whaaaat? We are out of the birthday month?  Oh, no! The last day of the spectacular month was momentous. We rode to the National Forest and hiked nearly eight miles on a gorgeous day followed by dinner at Boss Hoggs, and yet another 3.5 mile walk to the lake and back.  Tremendous progress is being made on the DNA article for the NGS Quarterly.  After all, tomorrow is another month. 

30 Jul:  In contrast to yesterday, we awoke at 6:45 and had to rush through exercises and breakfast to get the motorcycle moving towards Durango by 8:30, stop for gas, and arrive at Spine Colorado by 10 PM for Cynthia's cortisone injection into her irritated hip bursa.  Afterwards we ate a marvelous egg white veggie omelet breakfast with sourdough toast at Jean Pierre's bakery.  Cynthia has already dropped off into a nap this afternoon.  The doctor recommended against walking today, so Ron walked alone both faster and longer than usual.

29 Jul:  And we were able to sleep in until 7:45.  Nice.  But now Cynthia is in a fluster, rushing to be ready to walk to her hair dresser appointment.  We had a good morning walk, although it was too warm, and arrived back at a poor time (noon-thirty) to go to Boss Hogg's, so we waited an hour and went early afternoon to get better, quicker service.  And our timing was excellent since it rained while we were eating.  After eating his veggies in the afternoon, Ron walked to City Market for blueberries, grapes, pretzels and frozen mango.  Then we walked to the lake through the neighborhood a second time before dark.  Ron wants to see the bucks with  the tall antlers again, but they are not cooperating.

28 Jul:  Ron finally stayed asleep most of the night.  For those of you who complain about waking up at night to relieve your bladder, Ron woke up at 12, 1, 2, 3, 4:30 and 6:30, which is fairly normal if he doesn't eat a lot of pretzels before retiring.  You can understand his pretzel obsession.   Our morning walk was cool and pleasant as was our typical luncheon at Boss Hogg's (click here. or click here.)  Our afternoon neighborhood walk was a little warm in direct sunlight, and we napped away an hour of the late afternoon, causing us to begin our evening walk late so that we turned around early in order to avoid walking after dark.  9+ miles today.  Again we stayed up, this time until midnight-thirty, editing Cynthia's Harry King article.  Cynthia appreciates walking three times since her body accommodates that much easier.

27 Jul:  Ron is not doing such a good job of transitioning from DNA to SCS packages, but he is confident that today is the day.  Five PM and Ron has answered several emails and chatted with a few people.  We walked through the neighborhood once and were heading out on a second walk when the first several raindrops hit us.  They were the first of not very many, so maybe we shoulda kept going.  Instead we decided to wait an hour which has now turned into two hours with increasing rain.  On the upside, Ron is struggling to stay awake as he finally begins work on the next SCS package.  Then Cynthia asked him to review her Harry King article, and we stayed up until 11:30 enjoying the thrills of chasing footnotes, rounding them up and getting them into their proper pens.

And here you see the beauty of answering "nature's call" in nature

26 Jul, Sunday:  Thank God!  And we do!!  Our usual routine with morning walk was punctuated by seeing a quick brown fox sprint across the field for a quarter-mile and cross the road far in front of us.  That and we saw several deer.  The drivers of the two tractor-trailer rigs parked across the street were buddies who threw a barbecue right there in the parking lot for their friends in town.  During one trip downstairs to the freezer to retrieve frozen mango for a treat, I detoured through the courtyard to chat for an hour with a very interesting guy who builds Morton buildings because he likes the work and likes to satisfy customers. Our second walk also went well although the color radar showed rain 10 miles to our east and 10 miles to our west.  We had a moment of hilarity when Cynthia took a bathroom break in the bushes and discovered a deer that was just as surprised as she was.  When we were ready to take the third walk those promised thunderstorms finally showed up here.  Cynthia is still celebrating 8+ miles walking today.

25 Jul:  The forecast was horrendous, but the reality was mild and pleasant.  We saw a group of four bucks with TALL antlers, still in velvet, during our morning walk.  It was peculiar to see such tall "sticks" from each head in the grass.  Afterward, we enjoyed eating salmon with potatoes at Boss Hogg's.  Jamie was our waitress again and explained that there is no "baked sweet potato" button on the order menu, so she has to punch "baked sweet potato fries" and tell the cook that those are actually supposed to be baked sweet potatoes.  Our second walk, mid-afternoon, was supposed to be rain-shortened, but wasn't.   The forecast was 100% chance of rain; reality was no rain.  We are now discussing the third walk.  Either that or Ron has to resume working on a Swedish Colonial package.  Ugh.  And we managed a rain-free third walk totaling 11.5 miles, 26,000 steps for our daily total.  Cynthia is celebrating.

24 Jul:  And the birthday celebrations are over; a song is sung beautifully in two-part harmony.  GEDmatch.com is still down, so Ron is accomplishing a few other tasks recently, including mending 101.  Our usual neighborhood walk went by without a hitch (or rain), and afterward, we enjoyed another luncheon of potatoes at Boss Hogg's.  Ron laid down for a nap during this afternoon thunderstorms after too many nights without adequate sleep.  Our evening walk was cut short by thunder and approaching ugly black clouds.

23 Jul:  Happy Birthday to Sistah.  A phone call and birthday song is sung early.  Looks like a good day for a longer hike in the National Forest, but tomorrow and Saturday forecasts call for an 80% chance of rain.  Our hike was delightful even though our single wildlife sighting was one grey squirrel with a bushy tail.  We picked the one mushroom we've seen for the mushroom-hunting owner of the motel but gave it instead to his daughter-in-law's cousin for her husband because she was at the desk when we got here.  Oh, and Jamie asked to know our names to tell the kitchen staff who know us by our order.  The chef even came out to see us in the last two days.  We walked to the lake and back again at 7:30 and are getting ready for bed early tonight.

22 Jul:  We awakened early, exercised early, ate our oatmeals early, and now Ron is quite disappointed that GEDmatch.com is not yet recovered from its latest "maintenance" that has lasted three days now.  Oops, they sent Cynthia an email revealing a security breach.  No doubt thousands of users will be scared off.  We had a nice walk through the neighborhood to the lake and back, 3.5 miles according to Cynthia's Apple watch.  Then we ate potatoes for lunch at Boss Hogg's, and now we are back to computers on a slooow internet.  And now we've finished our second walk to the lake and back.  Sunset was a multitude of various grey clouds with faint pink highlights.  We even saw a couple of deer.  We've had rain for the last couple of days, so we should start seeing more flowers and greenery soon.

21 Jul:  Is today.  We woked up, ate breakfast, did email chores, and decided to walk through the subdivision because the forecast was too hot.  Somewhere along the walk, the clouds covered the sun, and our normal subdivision 3.5 miles to the lake and back was quite pleasant, even though we did have to dodge the road grader and gravel truck.  Why are those big 18-wheel gravel trucks built like a bridge superstructure?  (Technically it is called a semi-trailer bottom dump truck, and it can dump the gravel in a long window instead of a heap.)  Ron walked to City Market so that he could fill up with frozen mango before we walked to an early dinner at Boss Hogg's.  Now he is so full as to burst.  In the evening (7:36), we walked again to the lake and back, seeing five bucks in velvet along the way.  One had ten points, one had eight, two more had six points, and the last one wouldn't tell me how many points.  Sunset was nice although the clouds blocked most of it.

20 Jul is yesterday, and I fell on the mud slicked trail.  Yup, because of the heat, we decided to ride to the end of the Piedra Road pavement and hike on the Turkey Springs Trail in the National Forest.  We hiked along at a good clip to our first sitting log, then past the Jack gravel road, then to the gate and the second sitting log, but by then the thunder and storm clouds were presenting convincing arguments for a retreat.  Our retreat was not early enough or quick enough and raindrops soon increased in frequency so that we took shelter against a ponderosa pine and inside a plastic rain poncho.  That worked marvelously for the half-hour until the raindrops became less frequent and we decided to continue to the motorcycle and get home while the gettin' was good.  As we hustled down the final steep slope of the trail Ron stepped onto very slick mud and landed BOOM on his butt and back.  It was sooo quick that he hardly realized what was happening before his head bounced off the hard ground.  The mud on his pants was quite the sight.  WoooHa.  We rode back into town on wet roads and straight to Boss Hogg's for sweet potato, baked potato, & veggies dinner.

19 Jul:  Disappeared somewhere, somehow.  We think that we walked twice around the neighborhood to the lake and back for a total of eight miles.  We cannot think of anything else done two days in the past.

18 Jul:  Ron is excited to see if any of the Bankston cousins replied.  Out of seven emails sent, five have replied, and Ron is already way behind, having answered only two.  We did walk twice and were inside for the heavy afternoon downpour, and we ate dinner of salmon & potatoes at Boss Hogg's.  The dusty neighborhood roads are no longer dusty and thankfully not muddy either.

17 Jul:  Something we ate prevented us from sleeping well last night.  We were both up to the bathroom frequently for the first two hours.  Fortunately last night Ron had the brainstorm to use the slippery bedspread to cover the curtains.  It worked perfectly to keep the room dark even after sunrise.  So now it is nearly noon by the time we've finished our oatmeal & berries breakfasts.  Ron is half-way through mending the hole in a seam of Cynthia's backpack.  I guess it is time to check the weather - rainy season seems to have begun.  Today is OK, but most of the rest of the month afternoon thunderstorms are predicted.  Time to go hiking at 2:30, the usual neighborhood route.  We got sprinkled upon close to the lake and took shelter under a pine tree.  After afternoon showers and a day of genealogy on computers, we went for a second walk to the lake and saw a couple of distant deer.  Ron sent 7 emails to GEDmatch Bankston cousins; this time he selected people who had several kits, hoping for a better reply rate.  Now time for bed: 10:20.

16 Jul:  Happy Birthday to mee beloved weefee, SmoochSmooch.  We finally slept better for the night and feel much more rested today.  We have absolutely no intention of repeating yesterdays ten miles of hiking.  We walked through our nearby neighborhood early, but the bird seed eating deer were not to be seen and the bird feeder was empty.  Ron walked to City Market mid-afternoon for his favorite treat, frozen mango, and other foodstuffs.  He has been diligently running triangulations with Bankston cousins for days now.  Before long he will have to figure out what to do with the results.  We walked over to Hoss Hoggs for Cynthia's gormet birthday dinner.  The waitress almost choked when Cynthia asked if they had champaign.  When we were set to leave, the rain came down in buckets.  We walked our neighborhood loop again this evening and were delighted to see at least two bucks reasonably close (like 50 feet) in a thicker stand of young trees.  There were another four deer there but too much shade to see antlers or not.  Then we saw two bucks go into an equipment yard that we pass close to our motel.  We were set to get to bed early when Ron decided to answer Cynthia's questions about footnoting her manuscript.  That kept us up until midnight.

15 Jul:  One more day to go before showering my love with I love yous.  And we are nominally ready to go hiking at 9 AM today.  We got out the door early and discovered it to be hotter than we imagined by the time we arrived in the forest about 10 AM.  We walked again to Park Ave and back, our 7+ mile out & back.  The "bear" was still in the same place.  Turns out our "bear" was a tall char-blackened stump.  Today Cynthia saw a sight I'd love to have seen.  Momma deer jumped gracefully over a 12' high tree & shrubbery while fleeing from us.  I saw the two youngsters scurrying away in the opposite direction through the underbrush.  On our evening walk we saw three does, then two bucks, then a coyote, and on the return, we saw them all again.  Today we walked 10 miles+.  We will be ready for bed by 10 PM.

14 Jul:  Countdown towards actual birth date continues as the excitement builds.  And again we've sat at our computers while the heat builds until mid-afternoon.  We walked about 7:30 and it was still hot enough to be a bit sweaty.  Then Ron walked to City Market for frozen Mango as a treat.  Tonight it is already 11 PM.  So much for getting to bed earlier.

13 Jul:  Monday the 13th is OK versus Friday the 13th.  We straightened the room so that housekeeping could find the bed and the floor.  Both are now much better, and we are ready to leave for hiking at the Continental Divide at 1 PM.  But then we checked the weather and prospects for rain in the mountains, coupled with a nice breeze in town convinced us to hike in our usual place.  This time we believe that we saw a bear, but it was too far away to be certain, and we were a little reluctant to go so far from the trail directly towards the large dark nearly-stationary object we saw.  We ate at Boss Hogg's again.  The explanation is that there was formerly a bar in the same building which was known as Hogs Breath.  The bar is gone, but the signs remain.  Ron grocery shopped both at Walmart and at City Market while Cynthia waited to be seated and waited to order.  Ron returned from putting groceries into the freezer and refrigerator just minutes after the food arrived at the table.

12 Jul, Sunday:  And again we sat at our computers until 3 PM, but then the forecast was 94 degrees, and we do enjoy our genealogy.  Ron didn't even eat breakfast until well after noon and still hasn't finished his final two morning exercises.  At least he finally ate his morning pills.  At sunset Ron walked over to City Market and came home with groceries, then went for a long walk to the lake after it was too dark to see.  The stars were really quite brilliant and the milky way was stepping on the tail of Scorpio.  Lyra was directly overhead, and there were hosts of stars that should fit into some constellation.

11 Jul:  And we slept well, awoke the third time after 9 hours, and are exercised, fed, and ready for the day.  Thank God.  Cynthia was disinclined to hike today but is hobbling around the room complaining of stiffness.  It is 91 degrees and sunny with a forecast high of 94, a good day to take a break and work on mending, genealogy photos, and DNA.  And now it is 7:45 PM and 88 degrees, still too hot, but we are running out of daylight, so walking we will go.  Cynthia returned to the motel after 8 blocks, so Ron resumed and walked to the lake and back as usual.

10 Jul:  Today we made it to the trail by 11:26, a bit later than yesterday and managed exactly the same hike plus an increment.  Today's high was 91 degrees, and tomorrow is supposed to be up to 94 degrees.  The breeze was warmer too, but we managed to enjoy our hike despite the heat.  We were a bit quicker than yesterday, and Cynthia says it is because "we" didn't stop to talk to other hikers as much.  The most exciting wildlife sighting today was a doe crossing the road close in front of us.  Ron immediately scanned where the doe came from but did not see any youngsters following mama, so he looked at mama more closely and was quite shocked when he returned his view to the road and saw two tiny fawns right beside the road, right beside us on the motorcycle.  That was shockingly too close, but those fawns were so tiny, perhaps only 18" tall, with ruffled and polka-dotted coats.  We again dined at Boss Hogg's (one potato, two potatoes, third potato sweet.)  And we both walked to the lake and back for the sunset, which was very nice with redish streaks of clouds throughout the skies.

9 Jul:  Today we got in gear a bit earlier, perhaps because Ron slept for 7 1/2 hours uninterrupted.  We rode to the end of the paved road and hiked into the National Forest for apparently 4 miles, then returned.  It was a hot day with a high of 87 degrees again, but there was just enough breeze to make it cool enough in the shade.  We did see one doe grazing on the side of the road before our hike, but that was the only wildlife we saw today.  We ate lunch at Boss Hogg's Restaurant before shopping for groceries at Walmart.  After an afternoon on the computer, Ron went for an additional walk at 8 PM while talking to friends on his cell phone.  And now it is time for bed.

8 Jul:  Ron is suddenly realizing that July is probably the month when he needs to send his pacemaker readings to the doctor.  The technology is amazing: he holds a small device up to his chest, Cynthia synchronizes it with her cell phone, the device listens to his pacemaker and sends the report to Cynthia's phone which sends it to the doctor without so much as a phone call.  We were slow to get up this morning, and it is hot outside by now.  Fooey, we'll have to wait for 7 PM to want to go for our constitutional hike.  Ron has been enjoying genealogy correspondence again today, but now he needs to eat and organize, perhaps concurrently.  Our walk at 7:30 was ideal except that we didn't see any deer.  It was cool, and the sun set before it blinded us.

7 Jul:  Boy-o-boy, did we wear ourselves out again today.  We were slow to rise, and now Ron is slow to bed at 11 PM.  We rode out to our previously favorite location for a hike and discovered a hot day.  The scenery was strangely different because we could now see far into the woods.  Apparently much brush was cleared before a prescribed burn.  We could certainly see the burned areas, but more unusual was seeing such a distance into the forest.  Ron spent all afternoon answering a few genealogical e-mails.  At least a couple of distant cousins should be happy.  We walked for 8 miles today, and now we need our sleep.  We did see several bucks on our evening stroll around the neighborhood.  One had 7 points, and that wasn't the biggest one.

6 Jul:  We were excited to eat again at the Two Chicks and a Hippy restaurant (click here) in Pagosa Springs but were sadly disappointed that the owner was not there and that the omelets were so full of oil that we couldn't eat them - and the waitress still charged us in full for those uneatable omelets !!  We will always check for the owner before ordering again.  Ron is so delighted that his computer finally came to life and connected to the web as well.  Now he must ride to Walmart to forage for groceries.  Sad to say that the Walmart here still has terrible management ordering frozen foods, so Ron will need to make a second trip to City Market for pretzels and frozen fruits.  Wow, it is hot here !!  87 degrees and a forecast up to 90 in the next several days.  The usual daily average for this week is 83.  We walked to City Market after the heat died off at 8:30 and discovered minimal frozen fruits there also.  Ron is happily munching on pretzels now, as we speak.

Sunset at Pagosa Springs on Sunday, God's testimony

We walked to the lake in late afternoon

5 Jul, Sunday:  God certainly created a marvelously beautiful world, and we enjoyed a spectacular ride today.  We checked out of the Doubletree hotel in Santa Fe just before noon.  Our luggage is still too heavy.  Ron was surprised that the brand new, huge Walmart did not have an auto service center.  However, that put us in position to take the 599 bypass around Santa Fe, much quicker than going through town by any route.  We waved goodbye to Lupe as we passed Calle Nopal.  As we descended Opera Hill, the heat began to be oppressive, and when we passed Buffalo Thunder, we both breathed a sigh of relief that we had not booked lodging there; the 20-minute drive in the heat would have been a daily hardship.  Ron remembered a Chevron gas station just north of Espanola, but that turned out to now be a Speedway.  As we were about to wave goodby to highway 285, Cynthia nudged Ron's side to draw his attention to the Chevron station on that corner.  Once there, Ron remembered that they provide free air on the side of the building and was able to fill his tires to the recommended 42 pounds.  We endured the heat but could imagine relief under the clouds over the mountains ahead and to our right.  We were soon under those clouds, the wind became fierce and the temperature dropped as low as 69 degrees.  Shortly before we parted company with the Chama River, the clouds started leaking on us from time to time.  Usually that ascent from the river valley is a motorcyclist's delight, but with the sprinkles and the wind, Ron opted instead to give his undivided attention to the roadway.  The clouds and the afternoon sun provided incredible colors and highlights to the landscape as we approached Ghost Ranch (click here.)  Sometimes a single mountain would be spotlighted vividly although everything else was in shadow.  The reds were awesome, and the supporting cast of colors included every shade and hue imaginable.  The sandy yellow walls of Echo Canyon (click here) were brilliantly lit against a shadowed background as we passed it.  The sights were worth enduring that wind that was sometimes frighteningly strong.  We passed through Tres Peidras headed towards an ominously black sky and stopped at Henry's Liquors and True Value Hardware store out of desperation, but alas, Henry's does not serve food.  We ran head-on into those ugly black clouds at Chama, but fortunately our road (US 84) turned abruptly west, and we escaped with only moderate dampness.  It was wonderful to no longer worry about rain - - -  until we separated from US Highway 64 and headed directly towards a huge mass of obvious rain clouds with long streamers descending from them.  Ron's peculiar memory reminded him that there was a roadside shack on this stretch of road, and we soon came upon it and stopped.  Cynthia also remembered this little forlorn shack from the one other time we stopped there during a rain storm, and we discussed the likelihood of rain, even though cars passing by appeared to be dry.  Before long raindrops disturbed the puddles, and Ron moved the motorcycle under cover as shown.  

They had a room available for us !!

We had packed the remaining lettuce, spinach and half a baked sweet potato, so we had a picnic to make the best of our captivity.  After about ninety minutes the rain stopped, and we resumed our ride to Pagosa Springs.  We encountered rain and wet roads for about four miles of the remaining 24 miles, but the road dried out entirely long before we arrived in Pagosa.  We ate at the Hog's Breath Saloon & Restaurant and recognized our waitress.  A different prominent sign names it Boss Hogg's Saloon.  We hiked through the subdivision and on the bicycle path to the lake and got rained on again on the way home.  Cynthia took pictures of the lake and of the sunset clouds.

Da masked Smooches

4 Jul:  Happy Fourth of July!  We awoke far too early this morning at 4:45 and were unable to get back to sleep.  We again enjoyed a wonderful afternoon lunch with Janie and her brother Paul at Harry's Roadhouse (click here.)  Now, however, it is time for Ron to quit this blog and get busy packing.  Although he was very focused, more packing remained by bedtime.  As usual, it will wait until morning.  Goodnight.

3 Jul:  Apparently Ron consumed enough pretzels to sleep without awakening until 5:30 AM, and today he feels wonderfully rested.  John & Linda did reclaim their car this morning, and Ron walked over to Santa Fe BMW to reclaim his motorcycle thereafter.  We enjoyed seeing Tony again for a couple of hours this afternoon and managed to get to bed early after our typical evening walk along Arroyo Chamisa.  The Fourth of July Mt. Rushmore speech (click here) and fireworks was truly inspiring.  

2 Jul:  Because of the late evening, Ron was loathe to arise at 6:45 AM in order to ride the motorcycle over to the shop for service.  Walking back at 7:30 was much less onerous.  Shortly after 11 AM John and Linda showed up at the hotel in two cars so that we could go for a nice picnic and hike together up Hyde Park Road to the Little Tesuque Picnic area (click here.)  It was a pandemicly appropriate BYO picnic, so everyone was happy with their meals.  Our hike was quite industriously uphill until we reached the Aspen Vista road and continued on it at a more gradual grade uphill for quite a ways, 4.5 miles total.  We arrived "home" at the hotel too tired to consider any other evening activities beyond blogging.

1 Jul:  BirthDay Month begins (Cynthia turns 18 again on the 16th), and the Smooches had a delightful day starting with two hours talking to Jim May and ending with a marvelous dinner with Mark and Robin.  Mark is a talented cook and Robin knows more spices to add to the salmon, veggies, and rice.  Robin and Cynthia are both Myers-Briggs INFJ "introverts (click here,)" and they talked animatedly and endlessly.  (But nobody talks more than Ron.)  Then we stayed up far too late (1:30 AM) after Cynthia discovered that some of her Gmail is not being delivered because her "quota" has been exceeded - although she had 160 GB free space.