Occupation of Independence

As a reminder, comments are no longer moderated on this blog, so your comments will appear immediately.  We do not mention specific locations.  Once again I want to praise Pacific hurricanes to the sky.  Despite being so far inland, Central Utah felt the most recent one (Rachel) to smack southern California and northern Baja.  I got a reminder of how much care a camper needs to use to stay out of the mud.  It is ironic: when rain finally comes to this gawdforsaken wasteland, I go into a mild panic instead of enjoying it as much as it should be enjoyed. Clothing is important.  Rubberized boots certainly help.  And rainsuits (jacket and pants) with the all-important property of the pants slipping on and off over shoes.  Even something as simple as a baseball hat helps, since it keeps rain off you face and eyeglasses. It happens so rarely that I am 'out of shape' when it comes to the flexibility that rain requires.  A momentary break in the rai...

 I believe it is possible to construct a survivable and stable solution to the mess in the Persian Gulf.  Let's call it the " Greater Persian Gulf Co-Prosperity Sphere ", administered by Iran.  (No facetiousness.)  Iran would charge a hefty transit fee at the Strait of Hormuz , and some of the money would be shifted to Gulf countries that have become friendly to Iran and unfriendly to Washington DC and Israel. What is so bad about global wealth shifting toward energy and resource producers, and away from parasitic consumers? But food will cost more because of high diesel prices , you say.  What is so bad about shifting to more locally-produced food , with its lower transportation cost? When people talk about the cost of energy being a 'tax' or drag on the economy, they act as if your energy usage is absolutely fixed.  Walk into your local grocery store and look at the cars.  They aren't cars, of course, they are monstrous F-150 pickup trucks .  A...

 I am experimenting with NOT moderating comments on this blog.  Let's hope the spammers don't invade.  Last time, it was strange cows.  Now it is horses acting unusual.   Last year it was a weird bighorn ram.  This horse was too friendly.  But that's OK, he and his friends were sure pretty:        Maybe animals have been acting so strange because, in Utah, they have never seen a human being walking or riding a bike.  They have only seen humans in motorized side-by-sides.   Remember the curious ram from last year?    

 Cows can act strangely around mountain bikes.  They started running along the dirt road ahead of my bike, instead of running off perpendicularly.  And they kept at it, going uphill for a couple hundred feet!  When were they going to get sensible?  I smiled thinking about the "Rollin', rollin', rollin" theme music of the old TV western, "Rawhide."   I got some better photos of my 'pet' balanced rock: The next morning a bull walked slowly down the road, bellowing loudly and repeatedly.  Then a cattle truck came and gave him an 'uber' ride down the mountain.  At the foot of the mountain, a man was riding a horse.  What a tall and proud beast!  His wife was also on a horse and had a toddler sitting on the saddle, ahead of her.  The little guy managed to drop one of his size 2 cowboy boots on the ground.  I picked it up so that the mother didn't have to dismount. I asked if the ranching business was doing well, now that beef was 6 ...