Apparently I can’t attach a video to a blog. I can show it to you when I get home. I was watching a short film in a small theater where two rangers are escaping from a flash flood in the desert. All of a sudden, water is flowing into a pool near the screen and I start wondering whether the water will suddenly be at my feet.

On the two lane highway US 95 I was driving on last night and this morning through Nevada, the speed limit goes suddenly down from 70 to 35 and then 25 when you’re driving through these two-bit towns. I saw police cars pulling over people in two towns in a row.

Today I was in the Lake Tahoe area – Carson City and Reno. The Nevada Railroad Museum has several hundred year old restored trains that transported people, equipment and silver and gold to and from the mines. I visited the cute little capitol building in Carson City, which has an interesting museum on Nevada history. Nevada, which never had slavery, was rushed into statehood in 1864 to assure Lincoln 3 more electoral votes. The National Automobile Museum comes from the collection of Bill Harrah, a pioneer of casinos starting in Reno. My favorite part was the round-the-world 1908 auto race westward from New York to Paris (yes, there were ships involved) won by an American car. Finally I strolled around the Ox-Bow nature center, alongside the rushing Truckee River.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Tomorrow I pick up Rachel at the San Francisco airport. We are staying overnight with her cousins Patty and Mike in Palo Alto and then off to Yosemite Wednesday morning.

The song of the day is “Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash, with the lyrics “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die”.

Yesterday, I titled my blog April 12th rather than April 13th. If WordPress were really smart, it wouldn’t have allowed me to use a title I had already used before.

I found a very interesting history and nature center within sight of the Las Vegas strip (see picture). The Springs Preserve is the site of the spring that provided the water that led to Las Vegas’s founding in 1905. I learned that Las Vegas first became a train stop on the Salt Lake City to Los Angeles line and then grew fast when gambling came in, as well as water from Hoover Dam. The Preserve also has desert gardens, demonstrations of alternative energy sources and a replica of Main Street in Las Vegas of 1905.

Then I got into and out of Death Valley alive, but it wasn’t easy. Within two days, the temperature during my hikes increased from 37 to 97. Like everywhere in the West, a Native American tribe still lives here, European settlers didn’t find too much to stay for until borax was discovered in the sand and was first carried away teams of 20 mules. Are you suddenly remembering a TV show from the 1950’s and ’60’s called “Death Valley Days”, hosted for a few years by some guy named Reagan?

Death Valley consists of colorful canyons, sand and a lake with very little water, except for particularly wet winters or after flash floods. It looks a lot like the area around the Dead Sea between Israel and Jordan, the only lower place in the world.

The song of the day is the theme song from the TV show. I actually found it on google/youtube and it sounded vaguely familiar

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I entered the Pacific time zone and switched weather from snowy and 30’s to sunny and 70’s. Welcome to Nevada!

You know that I applied my math skills to actuarial work, not science or engineering. Still, probably the most interesting thing I’ve seen on the trip so far was voted one of the greatest engineering works of the 20th century. The Hoover (originally Boulder) Dam, completed in 1935 over the Colorado River on the border between Nevada and Arizona.

The main goals of the project were to: control flooding of the Colorado; provide a reliable source of water to the entire Southwest; and generate hydroelectricity to sell to the region and cover its construction and ongoing costs. It has accomplished all that, along with making Lake Mead, the reservoir supplying the water, a National Recreational Area.

Now back on my political soapbox. To complete all this: Eastern members of Congress had to approve a project that would mostly benefit the West; Interior Secretary (later President) Herbert Hoover had to come up with a compromise for the splitting of the water among the 7 neighboring states; 6 competing companies had to combine into one, invent new technologies and complete the dam two years ahead of schedule. And finally, the dam was renamed for the Republican Hoover while the Democrat Truman was president. This is what represents the true greatness of the United States.

I visited the visitor center at Lake Mead, got great views of the activity on the lake and the surrounding mountains and hiked through tunnels on the old railroad route built to carry the needed supplies to the thousands of Depression-era workers at the Dam.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I finished up the day hiking among the stunning colorful cliffs at Red Rock Canyon, just 15 miles from all the neon signs, casinos and wedding chapels.

I have two songs today – “We’d like to thank you, Herbert Hoover” from the musical “Annie” (except I mean it sincerely, not sarcastically as in the show) – and, oh yes, Elvis with “Vive Las Vegas”.

It’s a good thing I got out those boots yesterday, as I did a lot of hiking today in varied terrain and weather.

First, I passed some colorful hills called “Big Rock Candy Mountain”. Next was Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It’s a huge area and has 4 visitor centers. I went to Cannondale (the closest to where I was coming from) and was referred to the adjoining Kodachrome Basin State Park. I was in the visitor center just long enough to learn that the Monument will be only half as huge once the current administration’s Department of Interior gets through giving away its land to special interests.

Kodachrome Park is so named for its colorful cliffs, though unless Paul Simon’s song remains popular, our grandchildren visiting will think that Kodachrome must be the name of an old Native American tribe. I went for a few hikes around the rock formations and two box (mini) canyons.

Then on to Bryce Canyon, my favorite of the parks Rachel and I visited on our bus tour one and a half years ago. It’s still winter there, so there were only 3 trails open. I hiked all three, most important Queen’s Garden Trail, which goes down into the Amphitheater (it’s technically not a canyon), where all the famous hoodoos (stones pointing up) are at. Just after I huffed and puffed my way back up to the rim, there was a sudden snow/hail barrage that lasted about 10 minutes. My remaining time in the park alternated between peeks of sun and more snow. A great adventure!

Two songs for today. “Big Rock Candy Mountain”, first recorded by Harry McClintock in 1928. And “Born on the Bayou” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, which mentions hoodoos.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

A musical interlude. Along with showing me how to do this blog, I must thank Dan for preparing for me an iPod with hundreds of albums and thousands of songs to keep me awake during my travels. I am going through the albums alphabetically and I’m afraid I am already up to P.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The letter P today stands for “Pet Sounds”, the 1966 Beach Boys masterwork. One of my favorite concerts ever was Dan, Rachel and I on Father’s Day 2016 at Tanglewood, when Brian Wilson and his lineup performed the album on its 50th anniversary, along with all the other hits. Brian was sitting, banging on the piano and singing some lower-range songs – Al Jardine’s son handled his old falsettos. But it was great to hear all the old songs live. Every once in a while, it’s great to be in the company of genius.

Let’s start today with some more music. After all the rain, snow and fog yesterday, “Well beat the drum and hold the phone, the sun came out today!”. Instead of “Centerfield”, it’s Capitol Reef National Park.

Where did that name come from – we’re nowhere near Washington DC and even further from the Great Barrier Reef. The answer is – the cliffs are reef-like and are capped by white sandstone so they resemble the Capitol’s dome.

I saw some petroglyphs left by the indigenous people who lived here. I hiked up to the Hickman Natural Bridge that must have escaped from Arches. In the late 1800’s, a small group of very self-sufficient Mormons started a small community called Fruita, mainly because the Fremont River that runs through the park provided just enough water in this desert area of Utah to support fruit orchards (which are still standing). A ranger showed me the one-room schoolhouse used from the beginning until 1941, when World War II sent the remaining residents into civilization and established the National Park. And the park is gorgeous.

For the song of the day, I have to stick with the Beach Boys – “Salt Lake City”. I just heard it for the first time and now so can you.

We’ve all seen bumper stickers that say “The worst day of fishing – or golf or tennis – is better than the best day in the office”. I am here to report that 6 hours in mostly rain, snow and as low as 37 degree temperatures at Arches National Park is still better than almost anywhere else on earth.

The film in the visitor center shows how arches have been formed by sand, time and erosion. Most interestingly, new ones are forming and existing ones can disappear – a few have vanished in recent memory. In addition to the arches, there are all kinds of cliffs and rocks, including Balance Rock (see picture), which seems ready to tip over at any moment.

Then I spent most of my late afternoon time in nearby Canyonlands National Park battling cold windy snow squalls. Even in fog, I got really close-up views of the canyon carved out by the confluence of the Colorado and Green Rivers.

Finally I went “next door” to the overlook of the Dead Horse Point State Park and got a better view of the snaking Colorado River than you can get in the Grand Canyon.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I couldn’t come up with any songs about arches or canyons (suggestions are welcome), so my song of the day is “Utah”, by that home state group the Osmonds.

I have commenced the purple mountain majesties portion of my tour. The hardest thing is to avoid stopping every 5 minutes to take a picture. Don’t worry, I’ve cut it back to every 10 minutes.

Starting today, I will visit 10 national parks in the next 12 days. Before planning my trip, I had never heard of either one I saw today in Colorado – Great Sand Dunes and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

I did not expect to witness the highest sand dunes in the country, adjacent to snow-covered mountains about 1,000 miles from the nearest ocean. Apparently, dust from the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona are carried by the prevailing winds from the southwest, but can’t make it over the mountains so have been deposited in this spot for thousands of years. In a picture you can see people hiking over the sand to climb up the dunes. I went for a short nature hike through the woods (not the sand) and quickly realized that strolling through a couple of zoos did not prepare me for walking uphill at over 8,000 feet altitude. I will get whipped into shape soon.

I had a wild drive between the two parks on narrow winding roads up and down through mountain passes. On the north side of the hills, there was enough snow to ski.

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison River is a much smaller, less colorful version of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, but there were breathtaking views from the North Rim. A road that goes further along the top of the canyon is still closed for the winter/early spring and the trail I hiked along the rim was still about half-covered in snow.

The song of the day is “Midnight at the Oasis” by Maria Muldaur, since it mentions sand dunes.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

My trip is now one-third completed (4 weeks) and I am now getting views of snow-capped mountains.

Last July, Rachel and I enjoyed 5 days in the Denver area, attending the wedding of Rachel Glum, the daughter of our friends Anne and Tom from New York. So I did a few things today we didn’t get to.

I received validation of my decision to travel in the early spring rather than in the summer where everyone is on vacation. Last year I arrived at the US Mint at 8:00 to try to get a ticket for a tour and they told me they were all gone, given to people who had gotten in line by 6:00. Today I showed up at 10:00 and had a choice of any tour. It was fun to see the process of making coins, to learn that the gold that is not in Fort Knox is kept in the Denver mint and that the only attempted theft in the mint’s 156 year history was an inside job, but he was caught smuggling out gold bars. My favorite exhibit was a painting of Martha Washington inspecting the first coins from the Philadelphia Mint, with her husband, Hamilton and Jefferson breathlessly awaiting her verdict.

Then I went to City Park just east of downtown and visited the Nature and Science Museum and the Denver Zoo. The museum had a comprehensive exhibit on the evolution of dinosaurs and many other forms of life. Then, my second zoo in a row. This one got me very close to the animals.

So far, presidential houses/libraries are in the lead on my trip, but national parks are going to be challenging over the next couple weeks.

The song of the day is “Rocky Mpuntain High”, by John DENVER!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Another foggy start to my last day in the Central time zone for about a month. But then the sun came out and I had a pleasant stroll around the Rolling Hills Zoo, which had a wider variety of animals than I would have expected to see in Salina Kansas. There was also an indoor exhibit called the Wildlife Museum that had dozens of dioramas of animals and their habitats from all parts of the world, complete with some real waterfalls and animated speaking figures (Native Americans, an Arab shopkeeper …). It was quite unique – see a couple pictures of it below.

Then I visited Dwight David Eisenhower’s boyhood home, museum, library and burial place in a chapel, in Abilene, Kansas. A film in the Visitor Center concentrated on the years 1940 to 1960, during which he ran the Allied army in Europe, NATO, Columbia University and – oh yes – the United States of America.

The second paragraph of the panel in the picture below confirms the roadside sign I saw in Missouri – his leading after WWI a convoy of military vehicles across the country on rough roads first gave him the idea of building the interstate highway system named after him. For us baby boomers, our parents and we after them were greatly benefited by the GI bill, loan programs for housing after the war and interstate highways – big ideas by which the government did great things to help tens of millions of Americans get ahead. Instead of the current gridlock and rolling back rights and progress, we need more of those big great ideas!

The song of the day is “Dust in the Wind”, by that rock group called Kansas.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

I must have fallen asleep last night before hitting Publish, so I just posted it – sorry about that!

I said I was going to talk about The Trail of Tears, when many Indian tribes were forced to leave their ancestral homes in the Southeastern United States and head west. First they were sent to a large area in the current Great Plains states. Then when westward expansion continued and Americans realized there was money in growing grains on that land, the remaining intact tribes were squeezed into Oklahoma territory, where they remain as quasi-sovereign nations today.

You may remember that when Elizabeth Warren announced her candidacy for president, Trump said he would meet her on the trail. He may have innocently meant the campaign trail, but many think not, especially since his hero Andrew Jackson instigated the initial evictions and resettlements. The last word on the subject goes to our friend Will Rogers, who was about 25 percent Cherokee on both sides of his family -and didn’t need a DNA test to prove it. He said that his ancestors didn’t come over on the Mayflower, but they greeted its passengers.

OK, enough Oklahoma, today I went to Wichita Kansas. My first stop was a pair of foot bridges where two tributaries form the Arkansas River, watched over by a huge statue of an Indian chief. Next to it was the Exploration Place, where I saw interesting exhibits for all ages and an IMAX film about the Chinese trying to release pandas back into the wild. Then I visited the “Museum of World Treasures”, which was started by a Wichita couple who were big travelers – it’s like a Readers Digest condensed history of the world in two floors of text and exhibits. Finally, I went to the Kansas Aviation Museum, which is in the terminal building of the original Wichita airport and is now located next to a busy Air Force base. Many well known airplane companies started or had manufacturing facilities around Wichita – Cessna, Lear and a division of Boeing.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Today’s song is “Wichita Lineman” by the late great Glen Campbell.