Windmills of My Mind

The Pondit drove 630 miles today: Completely across Nebraska and a little Wyoming and Iowa thrown in as extra miles. I passed three state capitols today: Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa. Without looking anything up on Google, please add comments to what the three capitols were. I am happy to report that from what I have seen of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa, the US of A will not experience a corn shortage this year.

Besides farming and ranching, energy development was very evident in each of the states I drove through. Wyoming has gas and oil wells on many ranches. They also have large oil refineries. Western Nebraska had gas wells and both Nebraska and Iowa had numerous wind turbines that I could see along I-80. In fact Iowa with only three million people produces the third largest amount of solar wind energy of any state in the country.

As I passed through Walnut, Iowa I thought of Don Quixote by Cervantes:

"They immediately come upon thirty to forty windmills that appear as giants to Don Quijote. He tells Sancho that he is going to kill them all; keeping their treasures for themselves and doing God a favor by removing their evil from the earth. Sancho tries to convince his master that these are windmills, but to no avail as Don Quijote charges at them amidst Sancho's screaming."

Well the windmills in Walnut number about 100 and they are a treasure to the local farmers. Check this link: http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/47235227.html. I actually passed some flat bed trucks hauling windmill blades in Nebraska and I have included some photos I took from my car passing them at 83 MPH.

I also passed the birthplace of John Wayne in De Soto, Iowa although I did not get off the interstate to pay my respects. I saw both parts of raising beef for McDonalds et al. I saw mothers and their calves happily grazing on vast stretches of grasslands. I also passed several feed lots where steer after steer are in 200x200 feet mud/manure corrals all crowded at one end to get to their corn, water and antibiotics. I saw no shortage of grasslands in North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska to support a vibrant industry of grass feed free range beef. All we need is consumer pressure for this product.

The Pondit needs to find a place to each dinner. Maybe I should have chicken.

Here are all of today's pictures:

I am catching up to one of the trucks transporting the windmill blades through Nebraska. This truck is nearly one hundred feet long.

I am parallel to the rear of the truck. The height of the blades on the truck is about twenty feet.

Notice the size of the blades compared to the large truck tires.

This is a Nebraskan ATV (all terrain vehicle). You can see the kids riding through mud flats on these vehicles. Just kidding. This looks like it is some sort of poison spreaded.

A picture of one of those state Capitols.

Ride’em Cowboys

Today's drive was not particularly scenic. Southern Wyoming, although rather high, is unattractive; at least the parts I drove through. The beginning of the trip followed the Snake River for forty miles then I turned down Hoback Canyon and followed the Hoback River for quite some time. The beginning of this trip was scenic and the ride along the Hoback was almost solitary. The terrain then flattened and the trip became tedious. The second half of the trip was across southern Wyoming along Interstate 80. I crossed the North Platte River once and the Continental Divide another three times. The entire day was spent between 6,000 to 8,000 feet. There are mountains in the state, but what I saw was a high plateau. I saw many cattle, horses and antelope.

My golf stop was at the University of Wyoming golf course in Laramie, Wyoming. I got to the course at the north end of the campus and was out on the course by myself in ten minutes. I played through on threesome and finished the round in less than four hours. The course was long for a par 70 but playing at 7,200 feet does help cope with longer holes.
By the time I got to Cheyenne, I was too tired to even drive downtown. My motel is near the airport and I plan to get to sleep early. Tomorrow I have nine hours of driving time to get to Des Moines. This is my longest one day of driving.

Here are all of today's pictures:

This is upper Hoback River Canyon. Lots of curves and bridges. There were many signs warning of avalanches.

This is the lowere part of the "canyon". Actually, there are two mountain ranges on either side of the road but each appears to be over fifty miles away.

This was my golfing venue. It was a "working man's" course. Lots of walkers and students use the course.

The course is at an elevation of over 7,200 feet. The course is at the top of the city of Laramie and above the University of Wyoming and its football stadium. The signs you pass entering towns in the state give the population and the elevation of the town. Laramie and Cheyenne were two of the few towns that had more people than feet.

A view of the first hole.

The most famous venue in the city of Laramie.

The Old Gray Mare…

It is now 10:50 PM in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The Pondit is worn out! Someone please remind him that he is no longer a young man. The Pondit also has a confession to make. He has been writing his new postings at the end of each day. Prior to ending the day, he has often been imbibing in alcoholic beverages. He is not always on the top of his game in these situations.
The Pondit overdid it today. His day started out early as usual. After my morning yogurt, I headed out to the Moose entrance of Grand Teton National Park to take a three mile hike recommended by one of the other guests staying at the Alpine House with me. When I arrived at the parking lot of the hiking area, the temperature was 37 degrees and there was frost on the wooden walking bridges. I hiked up to Phelps Lake and took some wonderful photographs. It was a very nice experience and a great start to any day. I returned to the Alpine House for Sunday brunch. The meal was delicious. I then got back in the car and drove thirty minutes to South Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. I had to search for a parking space! The last two days have been perfect weather in the area. This has not been the case for the previous twenty days. They already have had their full complement of rain for the entire summer. I was planning on a short hike prior to my afternoon tee time, but rented a canoe instead. I then spent an hour and forty-five minutes paddling on Jenny Lake.

Now I drove off to the golf course but had a few minutes to spare. On my way I spotted a moose in a pond off a small "short cut" I was taking to the golf course. Turns out it was a momma moose and her child. For twenty years I drove to Vermont and passed numerous "Moose Crossing" areas and never saw one moose. Now I have seen two, I also saw ospreys and a red fox today.

I played the Teton Pines golf course which was very nice. I did not shoot well but was exhausted. Remember all this physical activity is taking place in full sunlight at 6,500 feet elevation. I played with a club member, Don Shockeley. He was very nice and pointed out many sites and helped me find my balls (golf balls) in the lush deep rough. On the eighteenth green he pointed out Dick Cheney's house to me. I mentioned that Dick was not to popular in New York, and he answered that during the last elections, he was not too popular in Wyoming.

We finished our three and one-half hour round of golf at 7:20 PM and on the way back to the motel I stopped in Wilson, WY at a ribs place for dinner. I was sitting at the bar watching ESPN air the Yankees-Mets game. After an inning a young couple (aren't they all young couples) sat next to me. They live in Cambridge, MA but it turns out he is from the Bronx (Fordham Road area) and she is from Carlow, Ireland. He thought I had an Irish accent, but it probably was just the left over Bronx accent I have that through him off. He was a Met fan. We watched the entire game, and drank for two hours. Turns out he is an RPI grad. It is a small world. Yawn…I am tired.

Here are some of today's pictures:

Beginning of my morning hike.

Day break over a ridge.

Tell me this doesn't look like the face of a troll.

Phelps Lake reflections.

More reflections.

Interesting deadfall.

I did not have a hybrid and had to park one space over. This is a parking lot for people about to take hikes of three to fifteen miles. Do you think they need a preferred parking space?

Jackson Hole ski resort.

Was tempted to try this. They take the cable car to the top of the ski area and then glide down with an experienced hang glider.

Start of brunch back at the Alpine House.

Jenny Lake canoe trip. Notice the Wyoming yachting cap.

Photo from the canoe.

Momma moose. Yes, I was fairly close.

This time I did not follow the Garmin directions.

These views beat those at Hudson National.

Notice the Wyoming golf cap.

This was actually in the background of the previous shot. This is Dick Cheney's house. It took some time to prepare for the shot since Dick left his NY Post on the patio and the papers had blown all over.

More Photos:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=16tr4m3e.be7vvnwm&x=0&y=v248q6&localeid=en_US

Old Faithful

I took one hundred and five pictures today. I will include some in this posting, but will also include a link to a folder in my Kodak Gallery. I left Billings at 6:45 AM and did the first one hundred miles in one hour and twenty-two minutes. Time flies on Montana highways. I once again followed the Yellowstone [brick] River; this time right to its source. The scenery in Montana improves greatly improves west of Billings. I enjoyed the ride. I actually went on I-90 to Livingston so that I could enter Yellowstone Park from the north entrance. I enjoyed the trip and the driving was easy. I stopped at a roadside rest area along the Yellowstone River (is there any other?) to have my yogurt and blueberries. I had to put on a jacket since it was only 51 degrees in the early morning. By the time I got to Jackson, it was 66 degrees.

I knew but didn't know that much of Yellowstone Park is a volcano caldera. I was surprised to find only a few views of mountains in the park. I was overwhelmed by the hot springs and geysers and the remaining amount of surface activity generated by the volcano still looming below the park. Today being Saturday and a beautiful day at that, the park was full of visitors. When I got to the Old Faithful area, there must have been over one thousand people waiting for the next eruption. Fortunately, I arrived on site with only fifteen minutes to spare before the "scheduled" display. As tacky as it seems, the display was awesome. Standing downwind from the eruptions was a poor idea.

I spent about four hours in Yellowstone and another two in the Grand Tetons. I will head back to the Grand Tetons tomorrow to do some mild hiking and collect more photographs. I did see buffalo and elk in my travels. I also saw about one hundred fly fishermen!

Here are some of today's pictures:

My breakfast stop on the Yellowstone River.

Roosevelt arch at the north entrance to Yellowstone Park in the town of Gardiner, MT.

I am arrived.

This is not snow, but mineral deposits from a very large hot springs area.

I chased this fellow on foot for twenty minutes and tired him out.

A hot springs. The water, just below boiling, looks about ten feet deep. I overheard a guide say the color is due to bacteria in the water. Perhaps, or maybe Lysol Bowl Cleaner.

Nice color contrast.

Old Faithful, two minutes late. It shot up over one hundred feet high.

People got here by every means of transportation you could imagine.

Dick Mauer said I spent so much time in my car, I ought to have a picture in the blog.

I crossed the continental divide three times. This was the lowest passage. The highest was at over 8,300 feet.

This is some falls whose name I have already forgotten.

Jackson Lake is very large and most of the Grant Tetons are on the west side of the lake.

Mount something or other.

Looking across Lake Jackson .

Here is the link to my Kodak Gallery:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=16tr4m3e.643wlkfa&x=0&y=-df4yb&localeid=en_US

Set the Cruise Control at 83

One does not creep across Montana. The speed limit on two lane highways is 70 MPH and the Interstate is 75 MPH. This makes for quick trips but there is not tolerance for losing one's concentration. Taking photographs from the moving car was quite a challenge. I never mentioned I drove into downtown Minot, ND last evening. It is a nice town, but at 8:30 PM it was difficult to find a person up and around. It does not get dark until after ten o'clock. I wonder if people but on eyeshades to get to sleep in June?

Today's travels took me from Minot to the western North Dakota city of Williston. This completed my time spent on US 2. "It was a long, but not particularly winding road." At Williston I turned south and almost immediately crossed the Missouri River within miles of where the Yellowstone River that flows northeast adds to its impressive volume. I found a picnic table to sit down and have my yogurt and blueberries but when I got my small cooler empties I notices I had a least twenty mosquitoes on my neck, legs and arms. I quickly packed and ate in the car. About thirty yards from me were two women fishing for their dinner who must have had the secret for repelling these bugs.

Here is another flashback to yesterday. When I was standing on the tee box to the sixth hole at the Rugby Golf Course (without my camera), three huge extended flat bed trucks drove by. On each was a propeller for a giant windmill. Each propeller arm must have been eighty feet long. This morning just outside of Minot I saw four more large trucks carrying equipment to the Minot ICBM missile base. One looked long enough to be carrying a missile. My next truck sighting was out in a field under a row of high tension electric lines. I guessed it was a machine used to pull cable up on the poles. Sure enough I had a turn to make in a mile and was stopped while a crew started drawing up electric cable for the line of poles. I watched this for about fifteen minutes (had no other choice). I have pictures below. My last trucking experience was a line of ten Halliburton trucks that were part of a oil drilling operation. I had to pass each of these trucks on a two lane highway. They were only doing 60 MPH.

Today I saw the beef. Cattle were grazing everywhere. There were also over one hundred oil pumps on the grazing lands that I passed. I wonder which pays the ranchers more money, beef or oil. For the end of my trip in North Dakota and for most of the way in Montana the road followed the Yellowstone River. This river is no slouch. It was flowing very quickly.
I crossed into another time zone today. I am now on Mountain Time. Since my trip yesterday was to Minot and not Devils Lake as originally planned, my trip to Billings went quickly. This was also helped by driving at 84 MPH and saving an hour with the time zone change. I got to my hotel at 12:45 PM. The Pondit had time for another unplanned round of golf. I played at Eagle Rock Golf Course just north of Billings, MT. I played well on this 6,238 yard course and was hitting the ball a little farther than normal. I just checked and the course is at an elevation of 3,400 feet. I am not getting stronger, only higher. I did hit twelve greens in regulation including a string of seven in a row. It was too bad I took forty putts. Some of the greens were very large.
There will be no golf tomorrow as I drive through Yellowstone Park and Grand Teton Park on my way to Jackson Hole.

Here are some of today's pictures:

The wide Missouri.

The water was flowing very fast here. The mesquitoes were huge and hungry.

The money makers of the prairie.

A close up look at these fully automated pumping stations. There were some that looked forty years old and some that looked only months old. That's my Genesis in the background.

Here is the crew trying to get the high tension cables up to the top of the poles.

The guy in the suspenders is the crew chief.

Old railroad bridge across the Yellowstone River.

Looking down from the railroad bridge.

I came into Montana on a back road but was still greated by a rather large sign.

Contrary to suggestions by my Garmin, I thought I should skip this exit.

Billings, MT from the Interstate.

The club house at Eagle Rock.

The golf course looking back toward Billings.

More of the course.