Occupation of Independence

 Sing the praises of hurricanes coming in from the Pacific Ocean!  That is what it took for a couple days of rain to hit Utah.  Actually it is pretty impressive how far inland the rain can come. After a couple days of bliss, it went back to looking like Utah. People who haven't seen red rock before go absolutely crazy over it.  But that kind of infatuation is not long-lasting.  Personally I move onto shapes of various kinds.  It is strange how a guy can stay interested in shapes forever -- and maybe it is a guy thing. It is easy for a dog-lover to remain permanently in love with dog photos, of course:    How many ' balanced rocks ' are marked on map's in this world?  I shudder to think about asking AI that question.  Regardless of its answer about "America's Top Ten" balanced rocks, and regardless of the tourist industry's effort to make a minor tourist attraction out of them, most of the fun comes from discovering them for yourself su...

 Many bloggers steer clear of political topics because they can become polarizing and full of frustration or even anger.  (And therefore lose readers/viewers, the measure of 'success'.) But what is the result?  The blog becomes innocuous, insipid, and nothing more than escapist entertainment.  Another direction for the blog to go is to the mundane and humdrum: "Another Tuesday", or "I Cooked Elbow Macaroni Today". Every now and then, political developments can be surprising or even inspiring.  Usually this shows up with war outcomes.  Most recently, think of 1) Britain at Dunkirk , early in WW II , 2) Russian perserverance in 1812, after being invaded by Bonaparte , 3) Alfred the Great in his swamp while holding onto the "Last Kingdom," and for all time, 4) ancient Greece repelling the Persians . Could Americans be facing a situation like that in the upcoming election?  Do they realize that their back is against the wall, and that for their econo...

 There are times when rain on the roof of a camper can be unpleasant.  But a light rain is a great thing to wake up to.  My app said this town in central Utah got 0.02", but I think my exact location got twice that much.   The next morning the sky was clean-scrubbed.  The air felt slightly moist to the skin.  People who haven't experienced severe aridity do not understand how nice it is to finally  have double-digit relative humidities .  It is no small thing to have enough moisture to form a cloud, in these gawd-forsaken wasteland states of the West.  At this point I should have been happy to declare victory.  But I stumbled upon something that I should have noticed before in this area:  There were 20 trees in the area...trees with leaves. .. sacred oak trees .  Please don't call them ' scrub oaks .'  Hell, they were 15 feet high and their shade was opaque. It doesn't matter if I am hit by a semi-truck tomorrow....

 What makes for a perfect campsite?  This seems like an obvious question, but it really isn't.  It seems obvious that there should be a magnificent view from your front door.  That is how You Tube videos show 'breathtakingly beautiful' campsites.  But remember that those videos are selling a fantasy to armchair travelers who think like scenery tourists or vacationers.  Or they think like bougie suburbanites who want a campsite with 'high property value.' I bumbled onto such a campsite today as my little sweetheart and I biked up towards the bigger mountains in central Nevada .  And at first I considered relocating camp to this site.  But on second thought, it was not a good idea. This superficially perfect campsite was too close to the upper end of the dead-end dirt road.  So it would force me to start   out-and-back rides by going downhill.  Yuk! A particularly pretty campsite is too likely to attract 'customers', and that is t...