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Vedauwoo Overnight
We miss sleeping outside, so we decide to see if we can acclimatize to the colder weather at Vedauwoo. Even in below freezing temperatures, this place always feels welcoming to me. We have a pleasant evening hike, followed by dinner under the stars. A couple of Leonids flash in the sky. It’s hard to keep…
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Movie: The Watermelon Woman (1996)
A low-budget indie lesbian film that, despite some stiff dialog in places, manages to keep an interesting story rolling and supplies some unexpected surprises.
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Movie: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2006)
As I’ve come to expect from documentaries on politically charged topics, especially when there’s a narrator telling you how to interpret what you’re seeing, there is plenty of spin going on in this. Even so, I found it worthwhile. Not being a TV watcher, I didn’t even know the faces of the key Enron players,…
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Movie: The Squeeze (1978)
For pure unadulterated, wah-infused 70’s style this flick is hard to beat. Beyond that, it’s a pretty standard heist story. Referred by Ted
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Home Again
Mile 2640. Pete drops me off back at the fifth wheel where we started, with plenty of time left for him to join Jess in Denver for a family dinner. For me the physical travel is done. Pete will get on a plane tomorrow and fly back to Chicago. It seems like we have covered…
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The Sno-Chi-Minh Trail (Storm #5)
Mile 2518. Back on I-80 in Wyoming, Pete tells me about the Snow-Chi-Minh trail. The story is that the Elk Mountain section of I-80 is so bad in the snow that a detour up to Rock River and back south to Laramie is often a better alternative. We laugh as though this is a ridiculous…
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Back to Utah (Storm #4)
Mile 2199. Our momentum carries us past Twin Falls, where Pete has friends willing to put us up for the night. He tells them we’re merely following Bergman driving rules, “…when you’ve hit your groove, for God’s sake don’t stop…”. In Ogden another blizzard hits, reducing visibility to near zero. We pull off, thinking we…
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Fish Dinner
Mile 1865. On twenty minutes’ notice Ann’s parents, Bob & Carol Fish, welcome us into their home in Nampa, Idaho for dinner. Bob is in the middle of painting the kitchen, which he continues as the rest of us enjoy stir-fried veggies, African bean soup, and rice. We pass along hugs from Ann, talk a…
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Touring Central Oregon (Storm #3)
Mile 1636. We’re impressed with size and variety of the landscapes of central Oregon. Volcanic features are definitely the main theme, but forests and pastures also abound. There are several passes to surmount, one of which features a SNOW ZONE sign that, true to its word, marks the boundary of a blizzard. There are many…
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No-fly Zone
Mile 1523. Both the road and the sky have cleared by the time we reach Bend, raising our hopes. In Redmond we stop at a grocery store for bagels, cream cheese, chips, and salsa. Munching on these we get on the road to Madras. Topping the final hill we see one kind of dark cloud…