A high and dry, wild and wet, majestic history medley – RTW 2018

[JohnM]

Down to the last of my wine - and it’s now fully hitting its straps. The only problem with a freshly-opened bottle in a restaurant: insufficient time to air. First world problems...

OMG, I’d love to have a couple of cartons of this baby for BBQs over summer. Just nothing like it in Australia. About as addictive as Fentanyl - but far nicer...

 

[RooFlyer]

Dear Dorothy Dix

I am overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy and being consumed by envy.

Why?

Dinky
The Pantanal

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That's not a camera ... THIS is a camera (guy on the path of my morning walk).



I had the same feelings of inadequacy on my bear-watching trip to Alaska. On a boardwalk, with most of the action 50-100m away in the river where the bears were catching salmon in the falls. Again, bazooka lenses Vs my pocket job. i had my revenge when mama brought her family along right below the boardwalk. Those with mega lenses couldn't get this, a few m away:



BTW, you and I had some Fin du Mundos on our trip in western Argentina, IIRC. The 'Postales' line.

Forgive the pictorial intrusion on the TR, but tell those big shots their dream'n.

 

[JohnM]

That's not a camera ... THIS is a camera (guy on the path of my morning walk).

View attachment 133896

I had the same feelings of inadequacy on my bear-watching trip to Alaska. On a boardwalk, with most of the action 50-100m away in the river where the bears were catching salmon in the falls. Again, bazooka lenses Vs my pocket job. i had my revenge when mama brought her family along right below the boardwalk. Those with mega lenses couldn't get this, a few m away:

View attachment 133897

BTW, you and I had some Fin du Mundos on our trip in western Argentina, IIRC. The 'Postales' line.

Forgive the pictorial intrusion on the TR, but tell those big shots their dream'n.

Muchas gracias, amigo . I now vaguely recall the Fin - but the latest was the ducks’ nuts .

 

[JohnM]

A few night shots on the stroll back to the Presidente Hotel.

 

[JohnM]

A few pics from the SJO-PHX ride (5h) today.

Nice scupture of red-eyed tree frog at SJO.



Hauling out of SJO.



Peeking down the spout of a volcano in El Salvador.





Passing along the E side of the cordillera presented a steady string of volcano cones on the port horizon.





For @RooFlyer. Some big holes near Tucson.





PHX.



PHX Admiral’s Club. (Edit: Pier B.) Fairly small. Best described as ‘cosy’.

 

[RooFlyer]

Very nice volcans. Made the whole trip worthwhile, I guess.

 

[JohnM]

Very nice volcans. Made the whole trip worthwhile, I guess.

Sheesh! - no more volcans will appear in this TR!

 

[JohnM]

OK, a lazy 800-click drive from Denver to Rapid City South Dakota today, with a few visits on the way accounting for the extra distance than point-to-point. Good roads, high speed limits (70-80 mph) and relaxed traffic cops here means, ahem, a little opportunity to put the foot down .

Some pretty cool stuff along the way. First, Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska. It’s on the Oregon Trail - the classic wagon route west to Salt Lake and beyond from Missouri and, subsequently, on the Pony Express route.

It’s hard to imagine now, but the pass through the gap at Scotts Bluff took a bit of manipulating for the wagon train folks. There was an issue of both crossing the river and getting into the pass.

Also, for those who grew up on 1950s Westerns, Indian raids on wagon trains, necessitating their circling (and the women loading the rifles...) were really non-existent. Good ol’ Hollywood...

 

[RooFlyer]

He, he. Volcan-sedimentary features .

 

[JohnM]

And some details about the trail.



The image on the back of the park bus is a reproduction of one of about 50 watercolours by an accomplished painter - but they were after the event, so I suspect a little embellished.

Note that the wagons were pulled by oxen. IIRC correctly, the classic Hollywood Western had them pulled by flighty horses, not dour oxen.

Chimney Rock, about 45km east, is a rather impressive, if isolated, part of the same geological formation that was worth the detour.

 

[JohnM]

The prairies are BIG grasslands. This area has large-scale corn and sugar beet crops and alfalfa hay production, mostly under large-diameter centre-pivot irrigation. The aquifer must be enormous.

Hay-making is at its peak now and corn crops are coming to maturity. The grasslands are still green, but just turning. I presume that all the cattle are barned during the brutal winter here.

Also for the benefit of @RooFlyer - to show that, while immense wealth may come from a hole in the ground, food does not .

 

[JohnM]

Then to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, also in Nebraska.

A large deposit of c. 20M year-old mammal fossils was discovered and worked on here in the early 20th century.

The interesting aspect was that this region at the time of the animals’ death was like the Serengeti - and they use the example of the broad, shallow Coopers Creek to exemplify the nature of the watercourses in this region at that time.

 

[JohnM]

He, he. Volcan-sedimentary features .

Aka a pile of dirt...

 

[JohnM]

Final stop was the mammoth site at Hot Springs SD, about an hour’s drive S of Rapid City. Quite extraordinary.

Discovered by accident in 1974 when bulldozing a hill for housing revealed mammoth fossils, the site is now a museum and research centre.

Basically, it was a sinkhole about 140K years ago that a lot of Woolly and Columbian (bigger) mammoths fell into and became well-preserved. So far, about 120 mammoths have been counted. They are only barely 10m down and only about one-third the way to the known depth (it’s probably greater).

It really is an amazing place to visit for its remarkably complete and well-preserved specimens.

 

[craven morehead]

And some details about the trail.

View attachment 134048 View attachment 134049 View attachment 134050 View attachment 134051 View attachment 134052 View attachment 134053

The image on the back of the park bus is a reproduction of one of about 50 watercolours by an accomplished painter - but they were after the event, so I suspect a little embellished.

Note that the wagons were pulled by oxen. IIRC correctly, the classic Hollywood Western had them pulled by flighty horses, not dour oxen.

Chimney Rock, about 45km east, is a rather impressive, if isolated, part of the same geological formation that was worth the detour.

View attachment 134054

Is that a Volcan ??

 

[JessicaTam]

Is that a Volcan ??

No, this is:



(Sorry JohnM, I couldn't resist)

 

[craven morehead]

No, this is:

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(Sorry JohnM, I couldn't resist)

 

[Boca68]

No, this is:

View attachment 134088

(Sorry JohnM, I couldn't resist)

You are a brave woman @JessicaTam

Don't get between a man and his Wooly Mammoths....... (and that is not code for anything Star Trek)

 

[juddles]

JohnM, have been busy the last few days (weeks?) but just got back up to speed with your TR - it is absolutely fantastic - great photos and detail. BTW, many of the wines you show bring back good memories - the Luigi Bosca is fantastic! But never tried their merlot - stick to malbecs.....

But all the photos of the amazing meals make me nervous as a future host - have had to study on youtube new Japanese techniques to do the perfect fish dishes for you to "sniff at" in boredom in Chile next year.

Maybe we can convince rooflyer to pop over too? I have some bones to pick with some of his opinions on air travel, and what better environment than my home turf, with your refereeing???

 

[RooFlyer]

<snip>
Maybe we can convince rooflyer to pop over too? I have some bones to pick with some of his opinions on air travel, and what better environment than my home turf, with your refereeing???

I'm up for that, but with my new abstemious diet and drinking habits I might be a bit on the outer, munching on my green leaves and sipping lime juice . If we go down to Patagonia, we can both be on home turf - you in the nation, me amongst the fa_as of Gondwanaland.

Lets skip the bugs and weeds, though. <Runs like hell>