Am I really color blind? (10/25/2023)

As everyone that blogs should and it is something I haven’t yet, is speak out about the latest happenings in the Middle East. In the past I was somewhat neutral about what was going on; however, the attack by Hamas nudged my neutrality of kilter, a bit. Having lived in the Arabic/Islamic world for two years, I was somewhat sympathetic with their plight; I really believed that the Palestinians had an equal right to a country of their own as the Israelis (or in other words, Jews). While this opinion has not changed, the Hamas attack was horrific and I condemn it. However, in my opinion, retaliation by Israel will just worsen the divide. Yes, Israel wants to eliminate Hamas but the collateral killing will just harden the lines between the Islamic world and the Jews. Both groups are at fault in my eyes and actually, I am not sure if I see a way out. And I haven’t written about the plight of the hostages.

Now I have always claimed to be neutral in this case (but who actually cares about what I think). You can almost say I am colorblind when it comes to this case. It is this word colorblind that I really want to write about. The Washington Post (10/19/2023) had an article about the wish to abolish the idea of race designations the upcoming census. The article tells us that we human beings have 99.9% of our DNA in common with each other. In other words, we are so similar that race seems to be an artificial construct to claim superiority (especially by folks who have a white skin color). I have always argued in the genetics classes that I teach that the African population is evolutionary more advanced than the European folks, since the African folks have a lot more variability in their Ribosomal DNA than the other groups on earth. This shows that they have been in the evolutionary process much longer and all other ethnic groups originate from them. In other words, I don’t think I discriminate and I used to consider myself color blind.

From the Washington Post I learned that calling myself colorblind is actually discriminatory and that got me thinking. Is my neutrality with and consideration of the Middle East conflict as a conflict between Palestinian and Jews, me telling you that I am colorblind in this conflict, discriminatory? Interesting to think about. Here I am dividing the waring parties into two distinct groups, instead of just calling them plain human beings. It seems to me that a lot of warring and fighting comes from pigeon holing people into one group or another, whether it is religion, race, political belief, and so on. No folks, we are just human beings with what seems to be a lot of faults and weaknesses. Privately I wonder if strife would disappear if we consider ourselves equal human beings.

A lot of my readers will know that I was born in the depths of Africa, the Congo. I grew up in the Caribbean and was partially raised by a black maid, had black friends who I often played with or went fishing with after school. Somewhat tongue in cheek I used to tell my employers that they should classify me as African American to show how diverse their hiring practices are. Moreover, I sometimes tell black folks here that I am more African American that they are, having been born in Africa. Folks tell me that I do not have the correct skin color to be considered African American (I wasn’t born in what was at that time racist South Africa, but I am not count as a strike for or against calling myself African American) . However, I now feel emboldened by the article in the Post about colorblindness. I am human and no different than anyone else out there; however, I was born in Africa and have US citizenship!

Honestly, have no firm opinion about all this, but it got me thinking. I am contemplating about any solution to racial, ethnic and all other forms of discrimination. I honestly wish that all folks of different religions, skin color, country, sexual orientation, political persuasion would agree that they are human and no different than someone who is different than the. That they treat them with respect. Yes, I still wish for world peace!

Walking in the woods gives me time to contemplate things like this.  I am actually slightly color blind and often have a difficult time distinguishing between the leaves and a red bird, kike a cardinal.

Advice anyone? (10/12/2023)

How would I have reacted as a 55-year-old if I, as my current 70-year-old self, was able to return and tell that 55-year-old self what to do, how to live his life, or what not to do? Or how would I react right now when my 85-year-old self returned with all that advice, if I even make it to 85? An interesting question, isn’t it? I based this question on a YouTube video I saw, in other words, I am not that original, but it got me thinking.

We recently came home from our trip across the country. As I wrote <here>, we followed part of the Lewis and Clark Trail going west, but had to cut the voyage short, and dropped south to the Los Angeles area after we got to the continental divide <here>. At the divide we came upon (one of) the source(s) of the Missouri river. When they reached the divide, the Lewis and Clark expedition spent some time in this general area, meeting the Shoshone Indians, figuring out the trail further west, and negotiating for horses. Lewis celebrated his birthday during that stay, and he wrote the following “self-assessment” in his diary:

"This day I completed my thirty first year, I reflect that I had as yet done but little, very little indeed, to further the happiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now sorely feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. (Spelling corrected by me)

I dash from me the gloomy thought and resolved in future, to redouble my exertion and at least endeavor to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestowed on me …"

The man who led the expedition to open the west had self-doubt and did not think he had achieved anything to further the happiness of humanity. Lewis discovered and described a large number of new plant and animal species. He described the medicinal use of these plants by the Indian population he came across. He studied the various tribes they encountered. In fact, he greatly advanced the information for succeeding generations.

A few years after their return, Lewis reportedly committed suicide. Some say he was murdered, but the interpretation of events has been questioned. Regardless of Lewis’ untimely death, if his older self or we were able to go back now and tell him what a hero he would be considered, or how revered he now is by humanity, what would have happened? Would his depression have lifted, or would he have quit and gone home, would he have lived to a rip old age? We will never know, will we? But I had that thought on top of the divide: if he only knew.

Wow, this is a post with a lot of question marks, I feel like I haven’t found that key in a lot of my posts. But this question got me thinking. What would I like to tell my 55-year-old self that I know now but did not know then? Or conversely what would I like to know about me in the future 15 years from now? (when I told my wife what I was pondering her immediate answer was: “eat more vegetables.”)

My posts go back only 10 years, so I have no reference here. This blog started out as a photo diary anyway, and I have never kept a diary to find out where my head was at the time. I was most likely unemployed sometime in 2008. They had closed the office where I was working; thank goodness I had a few consulting jobs and the conditions of my lay-off were good. In addition, I was drawing social security during the weeks I had no consulting income. It was tight, but we weren’t hurting.

It was around this time fifteen years ago that I was getting excited about a job with the state that I applied for and was about to be interviewed for. We all know now that this was the job that I was going to get for the next 14 years until my retirement. Is there anything that I would have told myself to dissuade me from taking the job? Hell no, there have been very few moments that I hated the job or regretted taking it. I love to teach and that’s what the job turned in to. Eat more vegetables? I lost around 20 lbs. since then and I have been able to keep them off. Yes, I would love to lose an additional 20. The only thing I can come up with is: “follow your bliss.”

What would I want to learn from my 85-year-old self? I am not sure, I currently love life and I just hope that I can hold on to it for another 20 years or so, of course in good health. On a positive note, my financial advisor estimated the other day that I will live to the ripe old age of 92! Guess, I need to eat more vegetables and salads. This post isn’t a “rest of my life resolutions.” As I mentioned in that post, I hate resolutions. But this was something I was pondering after that YouTube video where the maker asked exactly that question: “what advice would I give my 10-year younger self about van life?”

Lemhi pass, the continental divide and the border between Montana and Idaho.

The supposed source of the Missouri River in Lemhi pass

The valley where Lewis camped and celebrated his birthday

Nomads, the conclusion (10/8/2023)

We are home arriving a few days ago. On arrival we felt both happy and sad at the same time. Happy to be home, sad that it was over, thirty-four days of travel of which most of them on the road. Yes, we spent a week sleeping on a guest bed at our daughter's and four nights in a motel bed, but we did spend the majority of those days that we slept in a motel in the van.

Here is a summary of our itinerary, listing the places we spent the night: (Home –) Twin Knobs Campground, Cave Run Lake (near Morehead, KY) – Babler State Park (near St. Louis, MO) – Big Lake State Park (near St. Joseph, MO) – North Sioux City (SD) – Gettysburg (SD) – East Totten Trail Campground (near Coleharbor, ND) – Miles City (MT) – Lewistown (MT) – Great Falls (MT, two nights) – Dillon (MT) – Logan (UT) – Cedar City (UT) – Henderson (NV) – Long Beach (CA, a week) – Kingman (AZ) – Flagstaff (AZ) – Albuquerque (NM) – Alamosa (CO) – Dodge City (KS) – Lee’s Summit (MO) – Rend Lake (near Mt. Vernon, IL) – Ashland (KY) – Natural Tunnel State Park (VA, three nights) (– home)

 

We drove 4695 miles going and 3277 miles returning. This makes sense considering on the way there we ended up north in North Dakota. I don’t know the exact amount of fuel we bought, but at 18 miles per gallon I can estimate that we burned 440 gallons of gasoline. This could have been less if we did not have to idle the van to keep our doggies cool.

We visited or drove through: VA, KY, IN, IL, MO, NE, IO, SD, ND, MT, ID, UT, NV, CA, AZ, NM, CO, KS, MO, IL, IN KY, TN, VA, a total of 19 different states. Personally, I added North Dakota and Nevada to the list of the states I have set foot in. Before this trip I had been to all the other states on this list. How long did we spend in these states? In total we spent 8 nights in CA, MT 5 nights, MO 3 nights, VA 3 nights, SD 2 nights, UT 2 nights, KY 2 nights, AZ 2 nights. We did not sleep in IN, IO, ID and TN and in the others only one night. Does this reflect our love, enjoyment or dislike of a certain state? To some extent, we really liked Montana and Missouri; in addition, we drove from one side of the state to the other (east to west, and in Missouri again from west to east on our return trip). Both states are big, but yes, we enjoyed both and fell in love with Montana. Kansas was liked least <here>. While I loved the countryside in certain areas of Kansas, we were bothered by all the feedlots, the looks, the smell that they produce and as a result the huge number of flies we had at our camp site. It was almost too much and it made us wonder if vegetarianism was the answer. Getting the hell out of Dodge seemed appropriate.

What did I or we learn from this trip? This country is damn big! No wonder it took Lewis and Clark so long to get across <here>. I realized that I still miss the desert, or maybe being an arid-land ecologist, observing all the changes in the plant life. I am and will stay a biologist or ecologist at heart. You read that folks complain about the monotony of the Great Plains; however, to me this area is fascinating. This includes the land use, differences in vegetation and most likely soils, the prairie potholes, the limitless sky, you name it. Moreover, I realized during the trip that the desert still remains my second love (after my wife/family/dogs of course). I have often written about forest bathing and my love dor wandering in the wood; I even presented a sermon on the subject. Yes, we drove through forests in Montana, New Mexico, Colorado and even in Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia, and loved it. However, I wonder if traveling through and spending time in the prairie and desert gives you the same benefits as experiencing the forest.

What did we learn about camping? You run out of time! Our van is small, and with two dogs we tend to cover the bed, a place where they spend most of their time while driving. The cover is used to keep the allergens (read dog hair) off our pillows and bedding. It generally took us 30 to 45 minutes to set the van up for sleeping once we decided it was time. Getting ready to get on the road in the morning is a different story. We never got on the road before 9:30. Stowing everything and cleaning up takes a long time. Thank goodness we both have our tasks and overall, it went very smooth. Usually, Donna would walk the dogs while I got the van ready for sleeping and driving the next day. I would make coffee in the morning while the dogs got their walk and breakfast, and at night I would make our evening coffee while Donna did the dishes. But still, it is a process to arrive at a site and depart the next day.

A little about camp sites. We stayed at commercial RV sites, KOAs, US government and County sites, and a town park. While KOAs started out as the last resort, they are the most expensive, later in the trip they became a great fall-back option and actually a preferred option at times. We found that commercial sites packed as many campers or RVs into their places as humanly possible. The sites were on gravel, which is a pain for the dogs, and two of the sites were next to livestock holding areas, smelly and teaming with flies. With the possible exception of the camping in Lewistown, MT, we left none of the commercial sites with the thought that it was so nice that we should return soon. Commercial sites charge around $50 per night.

KOAs are generally cleaner, have larger plots per camper, often have trees, clean restrooms and shower facilities, recreation facilities, a store, and sometimes a restaurant of sorts attached to it. Now, if you are passing through this may not be important, but it is nice, albeit more expensive. The cost for a night is close to $80 or even higher in desirable locations.

We fell in love with the State and County parks in Missouri and Virginia. They are relatively inexpensive ($20 to $35) and as good or better than the KOAs in my opinion. They miss the miniature golf, camp store and swimming pools, but they are clean, have nicely spaced sites and are well managed. With the special government pass, the US government sites are $10 per night. We stayed at one in Kentucky and in North Dakota. They were the two favorite sites on our trip. Finally, the city park site in Gettysburg, SD <here>. It seems that some of the small towns in the mid-west have opened their city parks to camping. They even provide electricity, water, bathroom and shower facilities to the weary campers. This is all for free, but a donation is welcomed. Moreover, you are expected to spend some money in town. We had breakfast at a local coffee shop the next morning. We loved the place and will return.

Something we never realized is that the public camp sites, like those owned or operated by the federal, state, or county governments have camp hosts. We encountered a camp host for the first time during our camping outing in July <here>; I wrote about them thinking they were unique; however, I now realize how ubiquitous they are. Hosts are folks that are volunteers who stay in the campground for free and manage things. At the campground in Lee’s Summit, Missouri and Rend Lake, Illinois <here> they even handled the registration and money. Camp hosts will bring firewood and ice to your camping site, and they all seem to drive around in golf carts to check on you and occasionally to chat. Now the town park site in Gettysburg <here> had no host and we were all alone, but the sheriff lived across the street.

As I mentioned above, we stayed in motels four times during our trip. Three of them were weather forced, in North Sioux city we read 108 on the thermometer <here>. In Cedar City we were hit with thunderstorms, and just outside Las Vegas we hit the heat again <here>. We had agreed to meet up with our friends who were moving from Yorktown wherever our paths crossed and stay in a motel <here>. The dogs behaved in the motel rooms, so it was actually not bad. Motel rooms are more expensive than camp sites and therefore are something to avoid.

Concluding this long post, we had fun. Will we do something like this again? Yes, probably but we need to plan the season better to avoid extreme heat, cold or inclement weather. Thirty-four days? Who knows, but first some shorter trips exploring our immediate area and the East Coast.

Google gave me a location map for September, and this shows the route we took.

Our dog Jasper is happy to be home, not to wear a harness and cuddle with mommy.  

Nomads, day 34 (10/4/2023)

We are home after 34 days on the road and let me tell you it feels good to us weary van travelers. This is how day 34 transpired:

Day 34: Natural Tunnel State Park – Gate City – Abingdon – Salem – Home

On the evening of our 33rd day it came to our attention that our battery was dead. I had put a bug-screen in the passenger window and lowering the window resulted in partial opening. After a little I figured out that it wasn’t a malfunctioning window, but a dead battery. I tried to start the vehicle but to no avail. I approached the folks next to us and they had one of those starting gizmos. We made a deal that we would try to use it in the morning; however, that did not ease that evening’s sleep.

Now try to jump a Ford Transit Van. We finally found out that the battery is located underneath the driver’s seat. However, you don’t jump the vehicle on that; you could not sit in the seat and turn the key. After looking under the hood we found a place for the positive jumper cable to attach to, but the negative was not to be found. We clamped it to the body of the vehicle; no that did not work. Back to the manual: jumping the battery, page 188. Ah, there is this one bolt sticking out underneath the hood hinge where you need to attach it too. Which bolt? The photograph is very unclear. Let’s try this one; success!!! We can get on our way.

Breakfast in Gate City and off we go. Gate City, the county seat of Scott County is a lovely little town, and we may need to return to explore it. We drove a few miles through Tennessee (Bloomingdale) and then permanently back into Virginia. I had to drive through Abingdon, a town I like a lot and to show Donna around. We eventually made a brief stop at the start of the Virginia Creeper Trail, fleetingly walked a short distance on the trail with the dogs. It is a six-hour drive home from there, so without further hesitation it was on to home. A quick burger in Salem and a gas and coffee stop interrupted the drive which got us home around 5:30.

We found that our home was in great shape. It smelled good, probably thanks to the dehumidifier we had installed in the crawlspace just before leaving. The dogs were happy and so were we. Thirty-four days on the road is long (yes, we stayed for a week at our daughter’s and slept in a real bed). The home survived, my bonsai trees are looking great; in all, we are happy campers (pardon the pun).

This is the end of this series of my travel blog. I still plan to write a summary post, in which I will try to summarize the trip, discuss some of our experiences and what we learned. So, stay tuned.

The beginning of the Creeper

I was so happy to be able to Donna this 150-year-old (or older) white oak at the beginning of the trail

Nomads, day 31 through 33 (10/3/2023)

The plot thickens! Somewhat on the spur of the moment we questioned that, while constantly driving from point a to point b can be fun and the landscape we drove through was often beautiful, were we really camping or was this just on a road trip? As a result of our deliberation, we decided to make an in-between stop at one of the Virginia State Parks. It was the weekend and looking online the only state park close to our route with an open camping spot were Grayson Highlands and the Natural Tunnel State Park. Since we visited Grayson Highlands already in July, we decided to go for the “Tunnel.” We could have easily driven home from Ashville but we decided we needed a break from driving and book two nights at the state park to relax, which gave us about a day and a half to explore. So, without further ado:

Day 31: Ashville (KY) – Wise (VA) – Natural Tunnel State Park (VA)

Days 32 through 33: Natural Tunnel State Park

By 3 pm on day two we decided that we enjoyed our brief “stay” camping so much that we asked the camp office if we could extend our stay by another day. There was room, so we stayed two whole days. We arrived around 3 pm on the first day, so technically we had two and a half day to explore this (actually) great park.

On the first day (day 31) we drove only around 120 or so miles. Like usually, we had a slow start (I’ll write more about this in my summary report, later this week), and followed US highway 29, south to the park. Still very mountainous, the surface of the road was poor. While the speed limit was 55 mile per hour, every darn vehicle, including big rigs, flew by us at an estimated speed of 70. It is amazing that nobody obeys the speeding laws, it makes you wonder what laws we teach our kids to break, or maybe it makes the increasing crime rates somewhat explainable. The drive through the Kentucky mountains was nice and the road got worse when we entered Virginia.

After setting up at the camp, we took a walk on the “Lovers’ Leap” trail. From the Lovers’ Leap view point you can clearly see why this is a tunnel state park. There is a huge natural tunnel through which they constructed a railroad. According to the legend, two native American lovers from different tribes (a Cherokee and a Shawnee) jumped to their death after their love affair was forbidden by their tribes. In other words, a native American Romeo and Julliette. We wondered if every culture has a story like it.

The weather was glorious at the park and as we mentioned above, by day two we were wondering if we could stay another day. Finally, a vacation, no driving but just a morning hike, shower in the afternoon and sitting in the shade, knitting and writing. Absolutely perfect; a great break from constantly driving and checking in late at the next campground.

The drive home will be long as I will briefly describe in my last post on our adventure of 34 days. After that I will write an overview of the trip. In other words, two more posts to follow and after that back to my regular writing schedule.

Relaxing with no place to hurry to

A view of Lover's leap

The tunnel

The tunnel

Relaxing (knitting) after a nice hike and a shower

Nomads, days 29 and 30 (10/2/2023)

Day by day we are getting closer to home. Albeit relatively slow going, on average we are driving 350 or so miles each day. At the end, soon, I will write an overview/opinion piece on this “more than a month trip in a camper the size of a large hotel van.” But then first, stay tuned for my next entry for a plot twist. First things first:

Day 29: Lee’s Summit (MO) – Tipton – Jefferson City – St. Louis – Rend Lake (near Mt. Vernon, IL)

Day 30: Rend Lake (MO) – Mt. Vernon – Evansville (IN) – Morehead (KY) – Ashland (KY)

Both days were crazy, but in particular on day 30, we drove 420 miles, had a side trip to Evansville, and we lost an hour going from Illinois into Indiana and Kentucky. What technically would be a 6-hour drive, puts you 7 hours later at your destination. On that day we had a nice breakfast at the Cracker Barrel in Mt. Vernon, where we also looked for a wool store in town that appears no longer exist, followed by the need to restock our dogfood, literally put is on the road a little after 11 (or 12 noon Kentucky time). At the Cracker Barrel we finally saw evidence what is reported, you are allowed to camp in their parking lot.  A side jog and visit to that wool store in Evansville and grocery shopping in Morehead resulted in the fact that we reached our destination around 8 pm that day, leaving little time to enjoy our destination and forcing us to eat dinner in the dark or by the one plug in lights we have and the two battery operated lanterns. We also have and old USB Christmas light strand that we plug in for atmosphere; however, it does not contribute much to ambient light. Now, the KOA in Ashville wasn’t the greatest KOA we ever visited, although we did not have the time to explore it and the surroundings. Message to self: “Better planning recommended.”

Let’s return to day 29. We took US Route 50 to Jefferson City and the interstate highway after that. We passed through some cute towns including Sedalia (“This is a cute town; hey, look a home for sale”). Just outside Sedalia we found a Dutch Sandwich and Bulk Food Shop. Bulk did not refer to folks trying to bulk up your waistline, but those sandwiches were humongous and eating a few of those would put some bulk on you. Remember, Dutch refers to Pennsylvania-Dutch and has very little to do with the country I originated from. Anyway, a wonderful ham sandwich later we were on the road again. We hit St.Louis right around 4:30 pm.

The camping at Rend Lake, an hour away into Illinois was strange but actually, ok. It seems to be a state owned or operated site. Their website mentions first come-first service camping, but there is none. They squeeze you into an already reserved site where no one is. Our site had no running water. The camp host was difficult to find, the rest rooms were not very clean, so it felt awkward. However, it is at a great location. It cost us $20 per night (we stayed one night) and I can imagine why some folks just park their motorhome or trailer there for the entire summer. It would make a stay $140 a week, which is less than the average one-night stay in a motel room for us (remember we have to pay for the dogs to stay in a motel room, as well).

In all, I have little to report since they were driving days. I’ll discuss more about our experiences, camp hosts and alike in my summary posts, a few days from now. But first we need to end this adventure. Stay tuned.

Breakfast at the Lee's Summit campground, operated by the county.  It was a great place and only cost $20 

A quick stop on the way for a brief walk at Knob Noster State Park (MO), we absolutely needed to take care of the needs of our pouches as well

The sandwich shop in Tipton (MO)

A visitor (banded tiger moth) in our van during the evening in Ashville (KY)