Tonight, Fort Dodge, IA

We left Lusk, WY at about 9:30 this a.m., and headed east on US 20. What a great highway! Straight and well - maintained, it has the advantage of I-80, viz, speed,  but virtually no traffic, and the opportunity to see towns and stop now and then. We followed all day across Nebraska and well into Iowa. Tonight we are at the Budget Host Inn in Fort Dodge. It's budget priced but the room is actually quite nice.

                           Ellen looking for the food channel

Early in the day, still in Wyoming, we went through the town of "Node." It consisted of one house. That was it. Not another building. This inspired some doggerel:

Ode to Node:

All hail to thee, O Node!

All praise to thee is owed!

Midst bleak desolation,

In stark isolation,

You consist of but one abode. 

Or 

There once was a village called Node,

Which consisted of but one abode. 

Want something to do?

It's all up to you! 

Unless something comes down the road.

Lusk. WY

We left Alpine at about 9:30a.m. Ellen woke up with a terrible headache, and still wasn't feeling very good when we left. But as we went along she realized it was allergy-related, took a Zyrtec, and by the time we reached Hoback, was feeling better. Pretty soon, she was feeling great!   We came down thro Pinedale and turned up toward Lander - beautiful road, but incredible wind gusts  - probably as strong as we have ever experienced. We picked up Rte US 20 in Shoshoni and it was clear sailing to Lusk, near Nebraska. We were able to pick up a radio broadcast of a Tarheels BB game with Clemson, which ended just as we reached Lusk. The Heels lost by 4 - their third loss in a row. There is no joy in Mudville tonight (I know - wrong sport; same feeling). Most of the ride I read Stranger in the Kingdom, aloud, which continues to be gripping. The roads were clear all the way, weather mild. A good day, except for those 50mpg (?) gusts. Tomorrow we'll drive across NE into IA.  Looks good weather - wise.

An earlier post

I tried to upload  this last week and it didn't work. Here goes again sans a photo which may have been the problem. 

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Tomorrow we are making a side trip to Boise. We're hoping the weather cooperates. It looks good going over but may hit snow at the end of the trip back, Friday.

Ellen and I went to church Sunday and visited with some members at coffee hour. I had met one couple at the MLK event. Everyone there is very friendly but a bit more conservative than our usual circle. It's good to be pulled out of our bubble. I have a feeling that if I ever preached there, though, I might not be asked back! 

This week I started reading through John's book from beginning to end and sending back my thoughts and responses.  It is an edited collection of his essays, and it is powerful! I'm in awe of how he has tackled one of the most difficult of topics.

I've also been reading  about The Septuagint, the Ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, which has a lot to do with the doctoral dissertation I wrote 50+ years ago and am "revisiting." I ordered a book from Amazon, titled Invitation to the Septuagint. It is very clearly written. The author, Karen Jobes, teaches at Wheaton College, IL, where Rob went. I'm hoping to visit the Wheaton library when we are back in Bartlett next week. 

Otherwise, it has snowed quite a bit. I've been very glad to have my ice grippers to slip over my shoes; it's icy. 

Ellen has prepared some great meals: e.g., shepherd's pie, meat loaf, and tonight a Cajun stew with shrimp and sausage. 

Wondering

Yesterday I went to church at Star Valley United Church, and I found myself wondering if it might be my last time there! Paul is planning to have their house ready for the market in February, and it is not inconceivable that it will sell this spring. They would then move into temp housing locally to allow Max to finish school, come out east at the end of May for Tamar's bat mitzvah, go on a European trip as a family and then move to Boise, ID. That would effectively end our trips to Alpine. There are, of course, many "ifs" in that plan. But that's the plan.

I said nothing of this to folks at the church, of course, even Pastor Alan Schoonover, who I have come to have great respect for as a pastor, and who I regard as a friend. If I lived here, he would be a friend. He is five years younger than I -  he celebrates his 80th birthday on Wednesday. The church put on a pot-luck lunch for him after the service. He grew up in Wisconsin and went to seminary in Dubuque, IA, just a few miles up the road from Anamosa, where I went to high school. So we share mid-western roots. 

He and his wife, Dee, left today for seven weeks in Arizona. I do hope I'll get to see him again. 

                          Alan and I after church 

                                   Pot-luck lunch

In the afternoon I drove up the road behind Paul's house to check out its condition for walking. It's good - I think I'll try it today - with poles and ice grippers.

                                   From  behind Paul's house 

Staying low

Today it snowed all day, Paul, Jenny and Max went skiing at Teton, and except for a brief time at the Library, I just stayed warm in bed and read, and put heat on a muscle spasm I've been having in my back -  until the heating pad went on the fritz!  I guess everything wears out eventually - it has served well for many years. It also had the estimable feature of shutting itself off after 2 hours. I've often used it to warm my cold feet when I first go to bed but don't need or want it all night. So I will want a replacement and I hope I can find one like it!

Back in Alpine

So -  we had a very nice visit in Boise and are now back in Alpine. Thursday, we got up late, I had breakfast with Ellen and Christian, and no sooner had I finished than we left to meet Susan and two friends for lunch ! We ate at a Thai restaurant we've eaten at before which has a very ample and reasonably priced buffet lunch. We had a private room!  I wasn't that hungry, but still managed to enjoy a judiciously chosen buffet of small amounts.

         Syd ,  Christian and Susan

Our room was presided over by this chandelier which was like an alien creature !

      The private dining room "creature"

In Boise

I tried to upload a post last evening that would have caught up my devoted readers to what is going on with us,  but kept getting an error message, so I gave it up as a lost cause. So - we are in Boise tonight. We left Alpine at about 10 a.m., and got here at about 4p.m. It was a nice ride all the way. We left Alpine in very cold, snowy conditions - like 9 degrees and fresh snow, and fifteen minutes later in Idaho it was in the high twenties, and hardly any snow on the ground. Here in Boise it is like spring and no snow at all. We are with Susan and Christian, in their loft guest room, We just had a nice simple supper with them and are now listening to a CD of Brazilian Choros music Susan lent us - she is learning to play the flute and has discovered this music, which we have heard before but didn't know what it was called. We'll be here tomorrow and go back to Alpine on Friday.

Where I go

Almost every day here in Alpine, I go to the Library. It is a pleasant place and it has Wi-Fi access. Today I went to email my son John, and I also re-discovered the way I can access a huge online archive of academic journals called JSTOR. Normally you have to pay to open a personal account. But I remembered I could go through my PhD alma mater, Brown University, and I figured out today how to do that. The Library closes at 2pm on Saturday, so I didn't have a lot of time. But I will put it to future use. 

       My work spot at the Library

     Another view. A print-out of John's book is on the table. 

Quiet day

Paul, Jenny and Max have all gone skiing today up at Teton Village and Ellen and I have a quiet day at home alone. Yesterday Max was home - a school holiday - and a friend, Aiden, was here all day. They played pretty noisily all day. Plus Paul was doing remodeling of the upstairs bathroom, drilling, etc. it was hard to concentrate. I was reading John's book MS, and then my new book which arrived titled Invitation to the Septuagint. It was snowing hard all day so I decided not to try to escape to the Alpine Library. Last night, PEM and I watched a Spielberg  film called The Goonies.  It was an adventure romp about four boys looking for buried pirate treasure right in their Maine backyard, with some very unusual villains after them. It was fun if you just turned your brain off. 

Thursday, Ellen and I went into Jackson, I got time in the hot tub and pool - great - and then we saw two really good films: The Post, ( then a snack at Whole Foods), and then The Darkest Hour, the former about Ben Bradley (Tom Hanks) and Katherine Graham (Meryl Streep) deciding to publish the Pentagon Papers - really well done; the latter about Churchill in 1940, at the time of Dunkirk when it looked like Hitler would conquer Britain and Chamberlain, et al, were advising a negotiated peace. It didn't matter that you already knew how it all played out. It was gripping. Gary Oldham's portrayal of Churchill is amazing. 

Old-time movie star display in theater 

Looks like we'll go to Boise next week. I've cut way back on pain meds and doing ok. My right shoulder is going to need some attention when we get home. I have to be very careful how I use it and have become a lefty in many ways. Getting in and out of my parka is especially tricky. But I do it! 

Today is the Women's March in many cities. Nothing here. Ellen is sad about that. We'd probably be joining others either in Brattleboro or Northampton if we were home. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event

Last night I went to Afton, WY for a MLK day event. It was a fascinating window on the local culture. It was sponsored by a local couple who are members of the Baha'i faith. They not only organized it, they provided a free spaghetti and meatball supper. A local state policeman spoke about the need to support the police and the need for high quality recruits. No mention of places like Ferguson. There was a "wall of hate,"  -  about 12-15 photos depicting hateful actions, starting with the Oklahoma City bombing and including 911, Sandy Hook and Vegas, but no mention of Charlestown or Charlottesville. But on the other hand there were three young people - middle school/high school - who read prize-winning essays they had written, and they were great. Very progressive, especially in a town 80% Morman. And pastor Alan Schoonover gave a good talk on his experience with Dr. King at Selma. And there was a raffle of local artistic creations, and I won a coatrack emblazoned with bald eagles! I gave it to Gary and Donda, who brought me to the event and who were thrilled to get it. 

As pastor Alan said, "a good start but we have a long, long ways to go."

        A student reading her essay

           After adjournment. 

        The coat rack I won

           A poster board at the event

Rime and reason

This morning we awoke to a beautiful scene of blue sky and rime coating every branch, stem and leaf. It was beautiful! 

And this evening we played Scrabble, with Paul helping Max. Max/Paul won. 

Much of the day Ellen and I discussed our housing situation. We decided not to pursue buying a 120-year-old farmhouse in Putney with a perfect location and a great price, but a daunting challenge to renovate. It has potential charm but many peculiarities. 

          We decided "no."

We hope that was a "reason"able decision. 

Some images from our trip

Here are some images that I have not included in my posts thus far - a motley collection:

This is a print that was on the wall of the breakfast bar area of a motel we stayed in - I think near Toledo, OH. It's sort of peculiar, and not particularly interesting, but what drew my attention to it was that there were six of them, identical, hanging on the wall together. I thought that was very peculiar:

         Six identical prints

One of our stops for lunch was at a Runza restaurant, which is known for their loose- meat sandwich. They had this promotion which I had never seen before: 

So if the temp is 5 degrees at 6 a.m. that day, you pay 5 cents for the sandwich. (They are probably still making a little profit off the fries and drink). I asked what happens if the temp is below zero? Do they pay you? No, it's just zero. 

As we were driving across Nebraska at night, we went by this amazing installation out in the middle of nowhere - not sure what it is - a refinery? - but it looked like something from another planet:

And finally this more prosaic image from Wyoming showing how the "wilderness" is dotted with gas wells: 

          This goes on for miles

Safe and sound in Alpine!

Despite warnings of possible snow, we had a pretty easy drive from Little America to Alpine - about 180 miles. We approached Alpine from the south this time, on Paul's advice. It obviously had snowed earlier in the day, but except one section of slushy road, it was clear all the way. We got here a bit after 4pm. Paul and Max arrived shortly after. 

Some changes in the house: they, like we, are preparing for a move. 

    Max is watching a Lego cartoon show

   He just turned it off - enough of that! 

Thanks to everyone for travel prayers and good wishes! 

Little America

I 'm sitting in the sun at the cafe, waiting for a bowl of clam chowder. It is delightfully sunny and warm. Little America is a truck stop off I-80 near Rock Springs, WY. It boasts 17 marble showers for truckers, which gives you a clue to its pretensions. Even the plain old men's room is all marble. 

I got my clam chowder. I can count the number of tiny pieces of clam in the bowl on one hand. Not much potato either.  The main ingrediant is some kind of thickener, I think.  The ice cream cones are only 75 cents, however.

       The cafe at Little America

The gift shop here raises kitsch to a new level. E.g.:

  

And: 

It's fun in a campy way. 

Little America goes back to the 50s. Here's what it looked like then:

The novel we are reading. Stranger in the Kingdom, is set in 1952. One of the main characters drives a "woody" station wagon. And what's for sale in the gift shop here? 

A "woody" station wagon cribbage board!  It all fits together.

Tonight, Rawlins, WY

We had clear sailing today, but the winds were high - up to 50 mph gusts. We had made a reservation in Rock Springs, but the wind was buffeting the car so much that it was very tiring for Ellen, so we cancelled in Rock Springs and are in Rawlins.

Good going

Last night's storm was light. Strong wind,  cold temps, but little snow. Driving along I-80 is good.  The sky is clear. Some blowing snow, but not bad. We're making good time. We'll have no trouble being in Alpine by Friday eve or earlier .

      Clear sky, clear road

We're in Grand Island, NE

We made it to Grand Island without incident. Nice room, comfy bed. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

We're on our way!

We decided to get as far as we could today, so we left Bartlett before  9am. Siri took us on an interesting route over to I-88 west, which is where we are now, and we'll merge with I-80 in Davenport. IA . Then it will be I-80 all the way to Rock Springs, WY ! But we'll stop in NE somewhere tonight and let the storm blow over us.

                  It's sort of hazy and 35 degrees.

Later :

It 's almost noon and we just crossed over the Mississippi River into Iowa. Road is dry and visibility is much better. 

     You can actually see what is ahead!

Should we travel on?

The big question tonight is: should we leave tomorrow for Wyoming or stay until Friday? The reason is another storm moving into Nebraska from the west on Wednesday night and Thursday, bringing plummeting temps and heavy snow and high winds. The question is should we get as far west as we can tomorrow before it moves in, then wait it out in a motel on Thursday and move on as soon as we can either later Thursday or Friday, or just stay here and let it blow through and leave on Friday. The first option, if it worked, might gain us an extra day or even two in Alpine, but might also entail some blowing-snow-over-the-highway conditions in Wyoming, which is no fun. That's hard to determine in advance from the forecast. The second alternative would be safer, but we would lose the weekend in Alpine, when Paul and Jenny are not working and Max is not in school. So it isn't an easy decision. We'll see how things look in the morning.

Meanwhile, today, we had lunch with Carol Plagge at Alexander's and had a good visit with her. Both Carol and I are both moving sort of gingerly - her because of knee pain and me because of shoulder pain, mostly.  I am better though - especially my hip. I'm actually able to lie on my right side now, which I could not do a week ago. I have cut back significantly on the pain meds.

Alexander's

After lunch, Ellen went to a Swedish shop she likes in Dundee and I stayed at the house researching weather forecasts and also doing some work on the Septuagint. You don't know what the Septuagint is? Well, it all has to do with a doctoral dissertation I wrote 60 years ago and which i am sort of getting back into. Stick with this blog and you will learn more.

We had a nice baked "Chicken Peoria" dinner with M&J tonight and then EM&J watched "old" TV while I listened to a UNC/Boston College BB game on the computer (UNC won after losing their last two games), and tracked the weather again.

I also read an amazing news item about a 4-5th C. Coptic codex of the Book of Acts which was severely damaged in antiquity by a fire and so fragile that no one has dared try to open it  to decipher it, but which has now been scanned by some amazing laser process which can read its pages without opening it. It is an astounding technology which, if successful in this case (they won't know for a few weeks) could "open" countless other damaged MSS.

The ancient codex being scanned

Spring in Bartlett

We arrived in Bartlett about 3pm Central time on Sunday. The trip from Toledo to Bartlett was all clear sailing. Today it was in the 30s or even 40s and sunny - it felt like spring! We went out to lunch with Maggie and Jerry and two couples who are friends of theirs. We went to the "Dogfather Cafe" which specializes in hot dogs and plays on the "Godfather" theme in the art work on the wall. Sort of unusual to say the least! But we enjoyed the folks - the booths only held four people, so the men sat together, likewise the women. Can't remember the last time I ate with three other guys !  I forgot to bring the phone, so no photos.   : (

Tonight my grand-nephew Damon Crockett came over for supper. A very fascinating guy! Ph.D in Philosophy but with strong interest in perception and visual design. He is currently a post-doc at Yale and applying for a job at, inter alia, Victoria U in New Zealand. Take a peek at   Visually amazing things! 

Toledo, Ohio

Well, we didn't quite make it to Indiana, but almost. We stayed in a Super 8 motel in Millbury, OH last night - a suburb of Toledo. We got here about 8:30pm. The roads were clear all the way once we got away from the lake effect snow west of Syracuse. Much of the trip I read aloud from Howard Frank Mosher's novel Stranger in the Kingdom, which is really quite engaging. It is set in the early 1950s in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and made into a movie by Jay Craven, which is how we learned of it. Mosher is a good writer.

We missed the Crockett clan gathering in Bartlett last night, but I talked with Damon, Rachael, Tristan and Daniel on the phone. We 'll probably get there this afternoon sometime. It's going to get into the 30s by tomorrow - like Spring!

On our way again

We looked out the window this morning and watched the local weather on TV and decided to go for it. The car was encased in snow but it started! The motel had a good hot Bfst. We were on the road by 10am. We decided the southern tier expressway would be better but had to do a stretch of NY thruway first. That was snowy. Ellen said "not as bad as last night."

      NY Thruwsy

We came our usual route thru Penn Yan . Conditions rapidly improved south of the thruway. We had a splendid lunch at the Penn Yan Diner, and are now in Bath, about to get on I-86.A beautiful, sunny, cold winter day . 

     Penn Yan diner

              I-86 - quite a contrast! 

We're about 11 hours from Bartlett. We'll probably stay in Indiana somewhere and arrive after church tomorrow. 

Delayed again

Well, we got to Syracuse, NY and hit a blizzard of lake effect snow. Very poor visibility, high winds, dangerously low temp. We pulled off into a Quality Inn with a coupon low price. Cancelled our Erie, PA reservation with no penalty. We won't get to Bartlett for the family gathering Sat. night. Not sure when we will get there, because tomorrow is forecast to be more of the same! No relief till Sunday or even Monday!

                    The view from our motel window. 

We're warm and safe. That is the important thing!

New Years Eve

We brought in the new year in our usual way - going to a concert by the Amidon family, with Keith Murphey, Becky Tracy and their son, Aiden: eight performers in all. It was a bitter cold night, and the Baptist Church sanctuary is huge. It was probably cozy up near the ceiling, but down on the floor where we were, it was cold, so we kept our jackets, mittens and hats on! But it was a wonderful concert, as always.

Keith Murphy and Peter Amidon

                       The whole ensemble

                Tom, Mike and Walter: three of my favorite men

Postponed

Our original plan was to leave Thursday morning for our trip west. But we postponed due to weather - a storm is coming up the east coast into New England tomorrow. We'll see how Friday looks.