Marion's Blog

My Dental Implant

When I went to the dentist a month or so ago for a regular check up he said that because of infection I was losing bone around one of my teeth and I really needed to see a periodontist. He recommended  Dr Lang.   a periodontist and dental implant specialist nearby. I had a horrible experience with gum surgery many years ago and I was dreading going to see him.

After meeting with and talking to Dr Lang about my options I felt much better. He very clearly explained my options and answered all my questions. His passion and excitement about what he does and in particular about how the implant procedure has improved in the last few years was contagious. Coincidentally Dr Lang's father  was a pharmacist in Wisconsin near where my Uncle was a pharmacist and Dr Lang received a pharmacy degree before going to dental school a the University of Washington where my sister went to Dental school.

The bottom line on my options was that I could have gum surgery around the tooth but it might or might not work depending on what was causing the infection. That didn't appeal to me so I decided to have to the tooth pulled and have a dental implant installed instead.

Last Tuesday Dr. Lang pulled my tooth and installed the implant. The procedure was not too bad at all and I am so impressed with the whole technology. Bear with me. I am a technology geek. I think this is really cool.

First Dr Lang drew some blood and used a centrifuge in the corner of the room to make some platelet rich plasma (PRP) which is supposed to speed up the healing process. Then he pulled the tooth. There was a lot of infection around the tooth so pulling it was probably the right decision. Dr Lang then drilled a hole in the bone of my jaw and installed the implant which is basically a screw. Here is a picture of it.

Dr Lang used the platelet rich plasma to reconstitute some powdered human bone and then packed the area around the implant with the reconstituted bone PRP mixture, which I think of as glue. He then used a Teflon membrane to cover up the extracted tooth area. He covered the whole thing with more PRP and sewed it all up. In a few months when the bone has grown in around the implant and everything has healed I will go to my dentist and have a crown attached to the implanted screw. Here is an x-ray of my jaw with the implant in place.

 

I  slept most of the afternoon after having the procedure. I've taken a couple of Motrin but the pain hasn't been bad at all. 

The tooth I had pulled has a large gold top. Now I want to figure out how to recover the gold. Apparently some people use the gold from teeth they have had extracted to to make jewelery but I think I will just sell it.

19th Birthday Party for 100.1 The X - Stones for Bones

Reno has a great local FM radio station KTHX branded as 100.1 The X. The X has been in Reno for 19 years. Last night they celebrated their birthday  by having a concert for charity. Stones For Bones featured 19 local bands, one for each year The X has been in business. Each band played a different Rolling Stones song.The concert benefited The Nevada Opera, The Reno Chamber Orchestra, and The Washoe County School District's "Music In Schools" program.

 

It was a great concert. You would think that with 19 bands it would drag but you really have to give credit to the people who organized the show. It moved quickly and was fun! In addition to the bands there were also a couple of Rolling Stones songs performed by people from The Reno Chamber Orchestra and The Nevada Opera. There was even a performance of  You Can't Always Get What You Want by a choir from a local elementary school with the opera singers and the chamber orchestra.  They all seemed to be having a great time and the audience loved it. To hear kids, opera singers, and violins playing The Rollings Stones was funny and great!

Not only was the music great but the whole event was just plain fun. Reno has always had a great music culture. It started back when every casino had an orchestra and it continues today. All 19 bands in this concert were good and some of them were great. It sounded like what was happening back stage was amazing too with the musicians connecting, talking, and generally having a good time. The audience of 500 filled the Nugget show room and we had great time too.

Old Tippecanoe - William Henry Harrison and His Time

William Henry Harrison was the ninth president of the U.S. Harrison's 1840 election slogan is like a song that sticks in your head - Tippecanoe and Tyler Too. If you have ever heard that slogan perhaps you wondered like I did about Tippecanoe and its meaning.

I am in the process of reading a biography of each American president. This is a multi-year project!  You can see the list of other presidential biographies I have read here.

Before reading Old Tippecanoe - William Henry Harrison and His Time by Freeman Cleaves I only knew of Harrison as the first president to die in office. He only lived for a month after being inaugurated. Up until Ronald Reagan he was also the oldest president ever elected. Another unique fact about Harrison is that he is the only president to have a grandson also elected president.  Benjamin Harrison the 23rd American President was Old Tippecanoe's grandson.

One might think that the story of a one month president would be boring and short Harrison's presidency may have been short and un-noteworthy but his life was just the opposite. As I have discovered reading other presidential biographies you learn a lot about American history by studying our presidents. Harrison lived and served on the American frontier much of his life. He was the first governor of the territory of Indiana. When Harrison and his family moved to Vincennes the capital of the territory it was a tiny town on the edge of Indian country. The whole population of the territory included only 5,540 whites. Harrison built a brick home there, the first in the region. It was called Grouseland. From it he negotiated a series of treaties at President Jefferson's request to acquire land from the Indians for settlers.

"Nearly all the Illinois country as well as southern Indiana had now been opened to the whites and before attaining his thirty-third birthday, Governor Harrison could survey many millions of acres peacefully acquired in accordance with Jefferson's wish."

Prior to being Governor of Indiana Territory Harrison had enlisted in the army in 1790. He moved up quickly. He must have been a charismatic and inspiring leader because his popularity both with his men and with the country are what led to him becoming president.

I think the story of the battle of Tippecanoe from which he got his nick name would make a great movie full of conflict and nuanced motives. There were not bad guys and good guys. The Indians, Tecumseh and his brother The Prophet built a confederation of Indians who were against ceding  lands to the U.S. They were terrorizing the settlers. I can see their point of view but I can also see the point of view of Harrison, Jefferson and the settlers. They felt that they had fairly received the land from the Indians. Harrison tried to steer a middle ground. The conflict with maneuvering and rights and wrongs on both sides culminates in the Battle of Tippecanoe.

"Two Shawnee brothers, one a statesman, the other a "Prophet," were at the spearhead of a movement, and duly encouraged by the British they  threatened for a time  to check the entire scheme of land acquisition and Territorial advance"

On November 7, 1811 Harrison with his army of 950 officers and men had camped outside Prophetstown the Indian town founded by Tecumseh and the Prophet in 1808. Harrison planned to meet with the Indians the next day. Tecumseh had gone south to enlist the  Creeks and Cherokees in his confederacy. The Prophet told his warriors that they were invulnerable and that his spell had rendered the Americans harmless. The Indians attacked the army's encampment during the night and a fierce battled ensued. The army's victory was not a sure thing but they eventually prevailed. Harrison lost about a fifth of his men, 37  dead and 151 wounded. Indian losses were proportionately as large. They had between 500 and 700 men fighting.

Harrison's roll in the Battle of Tippecanoe was debated for the rest of his life. He spent a lot of time defending it and his tactics. But his role as the victorious general of Tippecanoe contributed greatly to his eventual election almost 40 years later. Harrison's election in 1840 at the age of 68 culminated a long and varied life. Harrison served as ambassador to Columbia in 1829 and as a senator from Ohio from 1825 to 1828.

Old Tippecanoe was a fascinating book. William Henry Harrison wasn't the first or the last American military general hero to be elected President but he served our country well. I enjoyed learning about the role Harrison played in the expansion and development of the United States and the insight this book provides into what was then the west and its influence on American politics.

My Picture Time Line

I thought it might be fun to put together a picture time line of my life.

1953

 

probably about 1955

 

1956 - 4 years old

About 1959

 

1963

In my Clayfield College uniform in Brisbane Australia about July, 1964

1969

 

about 1972

College Graduation February 1974

 

About 1979

With my daughter Allison - December 1981

1996

About 1998

With my daughter Shannon about 2001

At our wedding 6-20-2003

July  2008

August 2008

An Interesting Story - Jimmy Beans Wool - Reno and Online

Even if you are totally uninterested in knitting you have to find the story of Jimmy Beans Wool in Reno an interesting one. The company was founded in 2002 by Laura and Doug Zander.  Laura focused on the store and the yarn and Doug developed the web site. 

Last Saturday I stopped at Jimmy Beans Wool to look at a knitting pattern that I had found from their web site. There were two cash registers open and a line waiting to check out. Jimmy Beans is Reno's best knitting store. A yarn distributor I know told me that Jimmy Beans doesn't buy from distributors because they sell so much yarn that the yarn companies want to sell to them directly. Business sure seems to be good.

According to an article about them in Fortune Small Business article in July of 2007 the on-line business at that time accounted for 70% of their business. They recently expanded their back room into the store front next door. Often when I am in the store I can hear people on the phone with customers taking orders.

The shopping experience on their website is wonderful. Browsing the web site just makes me want to buy yarn and knit. Right now they have cashmere sock yarn in delicious colors on the front page. They have hooked me on the possibilities. I am probably going to buy some. 

Perhaps because I am a computer programmer at heart I find it inspiring that this website is their own, developed by them. I've always thought that it would be fascinating to develop a web site and sell on line. But what a lot of work. When you look at the complexities of the Jimmy Bean website and store and yet how well it is designed for ease of use you really have to admire the fact that the web site was created from scratch. 

Bottom line is that Jimmy Beans Wool is a real Reno success story. If you want to create your own business, work really hard, be a bit lucky and I am sure put a lot of money and sweat equity into your effort Jimmy Beans is proof that it is really possible to succeed.

Reno to Virginia City via Back Roads

If you live in, or are just visiting Reno, a trip to Virginia City is a must. Virginia City is one of the oldest towns in Nevada. It was at the center of gold and silver mining and the rich Comstock Lode in the late 1800s. At its height 23,000 people lived in Virginia City. Today the population is about 1000. Although it is a tourist town it still feels like the old west and is a fun place to visit. If you take the main roads it is probably no more than an hour from Reno. But in the words of Doc Brown in the movie Back to the Future -  "Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads." My husband, Duke and I really enjoy exploring by taking old dirt roads.

Today Duke and I went with some friend and took the Jumbo Grade Trail and the Ophir Grade Trail to Virginia City. We came home on the Old Geiger Grade Toll Road. All of these roads are rough dirt roads and I think four wheel drive and high clearance are definitely necessary to drive on them. We had a great time. Ed, our leader, and his wife had done the trip before using the book Nevada Trails - Western Region as a guide.

We left the paved roads about 4 miles south of highway 395 near New Washoe City. You can see where we left the pavement and the road we started up on in this picture.

In this next picture I am looking west across Washoe Valley. You can see the remains of a giant landslide described in an article titled Catastrophic rockfalls and rock slides in the Sierra Nevada, USA by Gerald F. Wieczorek

"At about noon on May 30, 1983, a large complex rock and soil slide detached from the southeast face of Slide Mountain, Nevada...... Subsequently, along the northeastern margin of the rockslump zone, a rapidly moving rockfall avalanche of large boulders and a debris avalanche of gravelly sand initiated and entered the northern end of Upper Price Lake, a small reservoir....Price Lake, displaced most of the lake water, which overtopped and breached a low dam. The water then breached the dam of Lower Price Lake and sent a torrent down the gorge of Ophir Creek. In the steep canyon the rapidly moving water picked up fine and coarse rocky debris. Emerging from the canyon 6 km downstream, the debris flow spread out and deposited over the alluvial fan of Ophir Creek in the Washoe Valley, destroying and damaging houses, causing one fatality, and covering old U.S. Highway 395."

Further along the road we had a wonderful view of Carson City, Nevada's capital.

Here are a couple more pictures of us and the road. It was a cool, overcast, beautiful day.

 

After lots of rocks, ruts, and stops for pictures we eventually got to Virginia City. 

Virginia City has a very large Catholic Church. Some guys were in a basket at the end of a very tall cherry picker repairing the steeple. It is not a job I would want to do!

We had a barbecue lunch at Virginia City Jerky and Smokehouse. My spicy pulled pork had a wonderful smoky flavor and was some of the best I have ever eaten.

After leaving Virginia City we headed down on the old Geiger Grade toll road. The Online Nevada Encyclopedia describes the road:

"opened completely in 1863 with several toll stations. Its sharp descent, including hairpin turns and steep slopes, made it impractical for heavy loads, but it was a popular route for stagecoaches. Because drivers had to slow in some places, these became favorite locations for robberies."

Even now it is a very steep and in places very narrow road. It is hard to imagine driving a stagecoach up that road or for that matter riding in one.

Here is a slide show of a few more of the pictures I took on the trip today.

Our October Road Trip

Duke and I just got back from another road trip. We drove about 2200 miles in nine day and had a lot of fun. The only down side of the trip was that we drove too much several days. Our biggest day was 390 miles. The way we like to road trip means we average about 40 miles an hour and we make lots of stops. We stop whenever we see something interesting whether it be a historical marker, an interesting rock or a museum.

fun.

View Oct 2009 Road Trip in a larger map

Day 1 - Reno to Chester California - 126 miles

Chester is very near Mount Lassen. We stayed at the Bidwell House Inn. The fall colors were beautiful and we enjoyed sitting by the fire reading.

Day 2 - Chester to Summer Lake Oregon - 326 miles

The drive through Mount Lassen National Park was beautiful.

 

Day 3 - Summer Lake to Halfway, Oregon -  390 miles

A long day. We didn't arrive at our Bed and Breakfast until after dark. We stayed at the Clear Creek Inn in Halfway, Oregon. This was the best B&B we stayed at on this trip. It is a beautiful fairly new building. We were the only ones there and sat by the fire in the wood stove playing cribbage and having wine, cheese, smoked oysters and crackers for dinner. We woke up to snow on the ground and a gorgeous walnut tree covered in yellow leaves outside the window of our room. Breakfast included home made apple sauce, and jams and home grown fruit.

 

Day 4 - Halfway to Spokane, Oregon - 219 miles

From Halfway we dropped down into the Snake River Canyon at Oxbow and checked out the Oxbow Dam. From there we followed a dirt road along the river as far as it would go and then headed up out of the canyon on a very steep narrow dirt road that literally climbed straight out of the canyon.

This is the view from the edge of the road down to the river

After climbing up close to three thousand feet, when we got to the top  the road was covered in snow. Fun!

Day 5 - Spokane to Leavenworth, Washington - 225 miles

Before leaving Spokane we visited the cemetery where my Grandmother and at least one of her sisters are buried.

After my Grandfather died (Oct 31 71 years ago) my grandmother Marion Gibson owned and ran a sanitarium in Spokane. I remember visiting her there when I was about six years old. I Googled the address and discovered that the old Victorian house is being converted into condos. I called the real estate agent and asked if he would show us the house. The condos are beautiful and the house stirred long forgotten memories.

Spokane had a World's Fair in 1974 and as a result has a wonderful riverfront park now. I loved their big Radio Flyer wagon slide and the clock tower and fall colors were gorgeous.

From Spokane we drove west to visit Grand Coulee Dam. It is the largest concrete structure in the U.S. and largest electric power producing facility in the U.S. We looked around the visitor center but were disappointed that they weren't giving dam tours that day. The dam is immense. My dad told me he remembers visiting it when it was being built during the 1930s.

From Grand Coulee we went to Leavenworth a little town in the mountains east of Seattle. Many years ago Leavenworth decided to make itself into a Bavarian village. They did a wonderful job and now this little town gets over a million visitors a year. When we were there the Oktoberfest weekends had just ended and the Christmas festival weekends hadn't started. We had the town and our B&B pretty much to ourselves. We had a wonderful German dinner at Cafe Mozart. I would highly recommend it.

Day 6 - Leavenworth to Hood River, Oregon - 145 miles

After leaving Leavenworth we stopped and bought a box of Washington apples and pears at a roadside stand. Yum! We also tasted wine and bought some at couple of the wineries near Yakima. The drive along the Columbia River was beautiful. We stayed near Hood River at the Sakura Ridge Farm and Lodge. We had some of the best beer and pizza I have had in a long time at the Double Mountain Brewery and Taproom.

Even though Sakura Ridge has a fantastic view of Mount Hood it was overcast the whole time we were there so we never saw the mountain. Typical western Oregon weather! The lodge is surrounded by fruit trees which were a stunning yellow.

Day 7 Hood River to Bend Oregon - 265 miles

From Hood River we headed south around Mount Hood and  finally caught a glimpse of its slopes. We stopped and looked around the Warm Springs Indian Museum and got to Bend in time to do some exploring down town and have a nice dinner at Staccato in the old firehouse

Day 8 - Bend to Surprise Valley Hot Springs - 194 miles

Day 9 of this trip happened to fall on Halloween. South east of Bend me explored some ice caves. They had some eerie green moss growing on a lot of the rocks which seemed quite appropriate for the day.

 

We spent the night at Surprise Valley Hot-springs which is in extreme north eastern California. Each room has its own hot spring fed pool which we really enjoyed. It is located a few miles east of Cedarville.

 

Day 9 - Surprise Valley Hotsprings to Home in Reno - 194 miles

On our last day we went into Cedarville for a great breakfast at the Country Hearth Restaurant. We bought some home made brownies to take home and then headed back to Reno via Pyramid Lake.

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 If you would like to see a slide show of all our pictures from this trip click here.

It was great trip We went by many places on this trip that we couldn't explore properly because we didn't have enough time, They are on my list to go see another time

• The town of Joseph, Oregon  their Bronze foundries and galleries sound fascinating.
• The Eagle Cap Wilderness area. Trip put on by Wallowa Llamas were recommended by the lady at our B&B.
• Lassen National park
• Hells Canyon and the Snake River
• Pullman, Washington

We Installed New Hardwood Flooring

Duke (with a little help from me) has been busy tearing out the old worn carpeting in our family room and hall and installing new hardwood flooring.

 

Over the weekend he finished installing the new floor and the new baseboard and we moved some of the furniture back into the room. He also installed a new book shelf that he built. Although it is not quite finished we filled it with books.

 

We had a beautiful sunny weekend but today it is raining and blowing here in Reno. I think I'll go turn on the fire, enjoy the floor and read my book.

Dancing to the Precipice by Caroline Moorehead

I just finished reading Dancing to the Precipice - The Life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin.

Lucie Dillon, the Marquise de la Tour was a French aristocrat born in 1770. Her father fought with the Americans during the revolutionary war. She was a lady in waiting to Marie Antoinette, witnessed the French revolution, and barely escaped being imprisoned and possibly guillotined. She and her family escaped France on a ship for America and ended up farming in upper New York state. Eventually they returned to France. She knew Napoleon and Lucie's husband was part of Napoleon's government. She was friends with the Duke of Wellington and had played with him as a child. You can see why the subtitle of this book is eyewitness to an Era.

Lucie wrote a memoir and Caroline Moorehead used it as the foundation for this biography. I found parts of the book fascinating and at times even riveting. At other times Dancing to the Precipice dragged a bit. It is a classic example of how a biography can educate you about a period in history. I learned a lot from Dancing to the Precipice about French history, the revolution and Napoleon and I definitely enjoyed reading it.

This is book number 34 for me this year. If you would like to see a list of all the books I have read in 2009 you can find it here.

Exploring the back roads of Middle and Eastern Nevada

Duke and I just got back from 8 days and 1500 miles exploring central and eastern Nevada. We never drove on a paved road when we could drive on a dirt road. We had a grand adventure. Nevada is a stunningly beautiful and interesting state and we had it pretty much to ourselves. We would drive for hours and not see another vehicle.

Day 1 - Reno to Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park

Day one was mainly on paved roads heading east on interstate 80 and then highway 50 (which is billed as the loneliest road in the world) through Fallon. We stopped at Grimes Point Archaeological site to see the petroglyphs painted on the rocks by Native Americans sometime between 5000 BC and 1500 AD.

The first night we camped at Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park, a very interesting park. Berlin is a mining ghost town with lots of old buildings and mine equipment to look at.

In the same park not far from Berlin we saw  the fossil remains of ichthyosaurs. Fossils of forty of these ancient marine reptiles have been excavated at this site.

Day 2 - Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park to Ely, Nevada

We were cozy in our tent but we woke up to snow on the ground. In spite of the fact that we had a nice blazing fire my fingers were frozen by the time we had eaten breakfast and packed up .

Following the dotted and fine red lines in our Benchmark Nevada Road and Recreation Atlas we headed generally east. We saw the Round Mountain Gold Mine and Hadley the biggest company town in Nevada. In this picture of a woman and a girl roping a calf you can see the gold mine in the background.

 

We stop fairly frequently to stretch and look around. Duke always likes to look for interesting rocks. You can see him collecting in this picture.


We drove through the town of Manhattan and eventually got to Belmont. Belmont is now pretty much a ghost town but the old court house built in 1878 before the town was abandoned is a state historic site.

Because of the cold we decided to sleep inside.We headed through a beautiful green canyon called Hat Creek Canyon, opening and closing gates as we went and eventually hit pavement at highway 6 and headed in to Ely for the night.

Day 3 - Ely to Great Basin National Park

We stopped a few miles south of Ely at Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historical Park. The rock work in these charcoal ovens is beautiful. They were built in the late 1800's to make charcoal and are 35 feet tall.

 

In Great Basin National Park we did a hike in the snow up Timber Creek from the Baker Creek Trail head. I lost my GPS last winter after the last snow shoe hike of the year. Very upsetting! When I went to put on my winter boots for our hike guess what I found in my boot? Yep, my GPS! All I could do was laugh.

After our hike we headed to the Hidden Canyon Guest Ranch where we had reservations. It backs up to the park and it turned out to be one my top 5 best bed and breakfasts I have every stayed at. The canyon in which it sits is an oasis of green that you drop down into after you leave the highway and head off across the desert. The lodge and rooms are beautiful and the owners were very welcoming and friendly. They served a great dinner and breakfast. There is a long staircase up to the rim of the canyon behind the lodge. We climbed to the top and savored the view.

 Day 4 Great Basin National Park

On Tuesday we spent the day at Great Basin. A lot of  the snow had melted but the road up Wheeler peak to the 10,000 foot level was closed. We drove into the south end of the park and hiked to Lexington Arch. It was a beautiful day, the views were fantastic and we had the trail to ourselves.

 

Tuesday night we camped in the Baker Creek Camp ground. It was still cold and we had the campground pretty much to ourselves but the wind was much lower than the first night we camped and our fire was wonderful.

Day 5 Great Basin National Park to Ely, Nevada

On Wednesday we headed back to Ely. There are a lot of very interesting things to do in and around Ely. First we drove through Cave Lake State Park  and up the valley on the Success Summit Loop. In addition to being beautiful this is an area that apparently has a lot of deer and elk. They were all in hiding though because it is hunting season and we saw a lot of hunters. We also saw that the hunters at least in some cases had been successful.

We went to an overlook to see part of the enormous Robinson open pit Copper mine. The scale is indescribable. 

 

Day 6 - Ely Nevada

Thursday was another day in Ely. There really is a lot to do there. The railway museum is one of the best I have ever seen. Several years ago Kennecott the then owner of the Nevada Northern Railway gave the whole railroad and all it equipment and 32 miles tracks to the state of Nevada. It is now the Nevada Northern Railway National Historic Landmark. We got to wander around the East Ely yard. I'm going to quote the walking tour guide because it gets the experience exactly right.

"It's an operating historical railroad. It's gritty. It's dirty. It smells of coal smoke, creosote and sweat"

It was very cool!!

 

After exploring the Northern Nevada Railway yard we drove out to the Garnet Fields rockhound area to look for garnet. We had lots of fun collecting rocks that look to us like they might contain garnet. We really have no idea but the guide pamphlet says

"The garnets usually occur as single crystals attached to small cavities known as vugs or vesicles within the rhyolite.... carefully break the rock to see what is inside"

We brought a lot of rocks home and will be doing the breaking maybe tomorrow.

From the Garnet fields we went to the White Pine County Public Museum. I love small county museums. They are full of lots of interesting stuff and are very real and approachable. The White Pine museum has a replica of a fossil cave bear skeleton that was found nearby. It also had a 1940s era washing machine that reminded Duke of what his Mom used when he was little, a toy cattle truck like Duke played with when he was little and even  a coke machine like the one we have in our kitchen.

Day 7 -  Ely to Elko

On Saturday we drove to Elko through the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge and the Ruby Mountains. The drive up Lamoille Canyon into the heart of the Ruby Mountains was stunning. The glacial scenery reminded me of being in the Alps. I love Nevada scenery but this was not like the rest of Nevada. It was a highlight of the trip.

 

In Elko we ate dinner at one of Elko's Basque dinner houses - Biltoki. It was the best meal of the trip and we had some very good food. The steak was thick juicy, and seared on the outside. the fries were hot and fresh and I'm sure had never been frozen, the vegies, soup and salad were OK and the price was very reasonable.

Day 8 - Elko to Reno (home)

Before leaving Elko we toured the Northeastern Nevada Museum another really interesting local museum. My favorite things to see were the wooden strap on shoes with cattle hooves attached to the bottom used by an old cattle rustler who was eventually caught and jailed. The picture below is me in front of the Ruby Valley Pony Express Cabin in front of the museum.

If you would like to see all the pictures from our trip they are on Flickr here.

I've also made a Google Map of the trip. I'm still learning to use Google maps.

View October 2009 road trip exploration of Nevada in a larger map

Carson Pass and Fall Colors

Yesterday we did an all day drive with some friends from the Newcomers Club down to Carson Pass to see if the fall colors were out yet in the mountains. We were a bit early but it was still a beautiful day.

Along the way we stopped to see Snow Shoe Thompson's cave.

 

We also explored a bit a Carson pass where you can still see the marks on the trees from where the pioneers used chains to haul their wagons over the pass.

We had some great sandwiches for lunch in Markleeville.

 

If you would like to see all of my pictures from our drive they are available on Flickr here.

Silver Peak Mount Rose Hike

For ten years the Silver Peak Brewery which has two great restaurants in Reno has sponsored a hike to the top of Mount Rose. For a donation you get a t-shirt and beer at the top. The hike benefits the Nevada Land Conservancy. Their web site says that they have been so successful that because of over use this is the last year that the hike will be on Mount Rose. 

Mount Rose overlooks Reno and at 10,775 ft high is the highest peak around Reno.

We did the Silver Peak Mount Rose Hike one other time two years ago.  I blogged about it here. It was cold, there was snow at the top, and it was VERY windy but still fun. This time the weather was unseasonably warm. Getting to the top was relatively easy. I'm sure that was because Duke and I hiked 32.5 miles with packs on our backs on the Tahoe Rim Trail about a week ago. Saturday afternoon it was wonderful to sit on top with all the people and dogs and enjoy the views and a beer.

From the top we saw a helicopter land in the meadow way below. Apparently they were there to evacuate someone who was having heart problems. We started down and about an hour from the top came upon two guys who had just found a guy collapsed and unconscious on the trail. As we approached he started vomiting and they turned him on his side.  I called 911 and explained that we were were about half a mile above the helicopter that was already there. The man was coming around by this point. He said he was 75 and didn't have a  history of heart problems. He had already been to the top.

We think it was probably the altitude and the heat that got to him. The paramedics hiked up from the meadow and reached in about ten minutes. Apparently in addition to the helicopter guys some more paramedics had hiked in to help with the first guy. We hiked on down and watched the LifeCare helicopter lift of with the first guy who they had carried down the trail and loaded on the helicopter. Another helicopter came in and circled but I don't think it landed so I am guessing that the guy we helped hiked out after he felt better.

If you would like to see all the pictures from this hike they are available on Flickr here.

Two more Books

I recently finished reading Sense and Sensability by Jane Austin and Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. I have seen and enjoyed movies made from both of these books.

I like to read Jane Austin books. Having seen the movie of Sense and Sensability made reading the book even more fun than it would have been otherwise. There are differences between the book and the movie which allowed the book to surprise me and I was able to visualize Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant and Kate Winslet as Elinor, Marianne, and Edward.

While I enjoyed both the movie and the book of Julie and Julia I thought the movie was wonderful and book just OK. In the book  Julie often seemed silly and annoying but in the movie she is likable. In both movie and book Julia Child is awesome. Meryl Steep IS Julia Child. I greatly admire her passion, hard work and dedication. Over a year ago I read My Life in France, Julia Child's memoir. I highly recommend it.

I've added these two books to my list of books read this year.

Tahoe Rim Trail - Barker Pass to Echo Lake - We did it!

Duke and I just finished the section of the Tahoe Rim Trail from Barker Pass to Echo Lake. We did it as a four day backpacking trip. Several of our friends from the Sierra Canyon Hiking Group did it in two days of hiking. The hike is a total of 32.5 miles. Four days was hard. I can't imagine doing it in two.

Day 1 - Barker Pass to Richardson Lake

We started the hike last Friday.  We picked up our Desolation Wilderness camping permits in Tahoe City then drove two vehicles to Echo Lake which is just off of highway 50 at the south end of Lake Tahoe. We left the truck parked at Echo Lake and drove the car north to our starting point at Barker Pass. What with stopping for lunch and all the driving back and forth we didn't get on the trail until about 2. Our first night was at Richardson Lake which is just north of the start of the Desolation Wilderness.By the time we got there it was around 7 and we didn't have a lot of time to get our camp set up. Duke does all the cooking when we camp. The red beans and rice were really good.

This is a picture of our camp site at Richardson Lake.

Richardson Lake

Day 2 - Richardson Lake to Fontanallis Lake 

Our first day of hiking was only about 7 miles so we needed to do more on day 2 if we wanted to average 8 miles a day. We ended up camping at Fontanallis Lake which was one of the prettiest lakes we saw. It was overcast and cool most of the day, perfect weather for hiking. The evening and first part of the night were very windy. The tent even blew away and we had to catch it before we could stake it down.

The battery on  my small camera died  on Saturday (day 2) and I discovered that my back-up battery wasn't charged so these are my last pictures from the trip.

This picture is of Fontanallis Lake.

This picture is of our camp site at Fontanallis Lake.

Day 3 - Fontanallis Lake to Aloha Lake

This was by far the hardest day of the hike. We climbed over 1000 feet up to Dick's Pass. From the top which is at 9,380 feet we hiked down 1,700 feet and then back up about 500 feet to Lake Aloha. It sounds like a very welcoming lake doesn't it? Wrong! In my opinion this is the moist inappropriately named lake ever. It should be named Desolation Lake, or Moon Scape Lake, or even Granite Lake. There are very few trees and we had to walk aver a mile along the shore of the lake to find an OK camp site. Lake Aloha is part of the Sacramento water system and the water level was way down. I think where we camped is usually under water. The vast amount of granite and very few trees did make for one of the most memorable experiences of the trip. As it got dark we lay on a big slab of granite and watched the millions of stars and the milky way come out. We even saw a meteor!

Day 4 - Lake Aloha to Echo Lake

The hike out on Monday was relatively easy. During the summer there is a water taxi on Echo Lake which allows you to avoid the last 2.5 miles of the hike. It was closed for the season so we got to admire all the cabins along the shore of Echo Lake as we hiked out. The Desolation Wilderness ends about 3 miles before the end of the hike. Soon after we started hiking Monday morning a ranger checked our wilderness permit. We also had a ranger check the permit while we were camped at Fontanillis Lake. I wonder what happens if you don't have a permit.

Conclusion

Backpacking is hard work. The scenery was wonderful and the weather was great, but I must admit I am glad to be done.

We have now hiked the whole Tahoe Rim Trail all 165 miles of it! We did it in 10 hikes:

• Barker Pass to Echo Lake - September 18-21, 2009
• Spooner Summit to Tunnel Creek Road- June 28-29, 2009
• Barker Pass to Ward Creek Road - June 23, 2009
• Tahoe Meadows to Tunnel Creek Road - June 19, 2009
• Ward Canyon to Tahoe City - June 16, 2009
• Big Meadow to Echo Lake - Aug 14, 2008
• Kingsbury to Big Meadow -  Aug 7, 2008
• Brockway to Tahoe City  - July 3, 2008
• Mount Rose to Brockway -  June 26, 2008
• Spooner Summit to Kingsbury Grade - June 21, 2008

How to be a Better Amateur Historian

Last Monday I listened to a online lecture by Professor David Hackett Fischer of Brandies University. He has written several books of history including Washington's Crossing, Paul Revere's Ride and Champlain's dream. He was also my daughter's adviser at Brandeis. Professor Fischer's lecture was great. One of the things he talked about was how interest in History is growing among college students and among older people who are coming to History having studied and had careers in unrelated areas. That's me.

 I consider myself an amateur historian. I have always loved History. My college degree was in Computer Science rather than History because my parents always impressed on me how important it was to get a marketable degree and History was considered anything but marketable. So now that I am no longer working for a living but instead I am working at things I love, I have added Historian to my list of current 'jobs'.

At the end of the lecture Professor Fischer took questions so I submitted one. I asked if he had any advice other than reading books about how to become a better amateur historian. He said that Francis Parkman wrote an essay about being a historian  in which he said you should "Go there", "Do it", and "Write it". He recommended retracing the paths and locations of whatever you are studying. Professor Fischer inspired me and made me think that I should plan some historical travel trips and write about them.

it would be fun to retrace John Quincy Adams trip from Russia to The Netherlands as a 16 year old. Here in Nevada, Duke and I have explored some of the old pioneer routes. I should do some more reading about the pioneers and write about it. Do you have other suggestions?

What other ideas do you have about how to be a better amateur historian?

If you would like to listen to Professor Fischer's lecture it is available here.

 

The Crystal Mine and the Top of Peavine Mountain

Last Thursday we went for another back road exploring trip with some friends. We went north form Verdi on Dog Valley Road and then north of of Dog Valley road to a wonderful Forest Service Camp ground called  Lookout Campground  that we will have to camp at some time. The sites were far apart and the setting was beautiful. 

From there we went to a nearby crystal mine.  Apparently crystals were mined here during World War II for radios. We had fun collecting some beautiful white quartz and a few crystals.

Peavine Mountain is the large mountain on the northwest of Reno. The crystal mine is on the west side of Peavine. From the Crystal Mine we headed around the north side of the mountain and went up the dirt roads to the top of Peavine where there are lots of communication towers and fantastic views.

 

 

If you would like to see all the pictures from the trip they are on Flickr here

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

I just finished reading Outliers by Malcom Gladwell on my Kindle. It is a fascinating book about why some people are so successful. Contrary to what most people think brains and talent play a small roll compared to luck and hard work.

It was fascinating to see how this applied to Bill Gates, The Beatles, and Gladwell himself.

I can't decide what to read next on my Kindle. I have a couple traditional books going but I need a new Kindle book. I almost always have my Kindle with me so I am never left without something to read.

Lovelock and Lovelock Cave

Duke and I like to explore back roads. Through the Reno Newcomers Club we met another couple who also like to explore back roads. It probably is smart to have two vehicles when you are in the middle of nowhere on rough roads exploring. So last week the four of us took two vehicles and went to Lovelock and Lovelock Caves. The area is described in the Moon Handbooks Nevada Guide. Lovelock is about 90 miles east of Reno on interstate 80 and has a population of about 2000 people. It is the county seat for Pershing County and has a small round court house building. According to the Moon Handbook the court house is one of the only two round court houses in the country. We explored inside and went into the court room. The jury box is in the center of the room and the inside of the dome is painted to look like the sky.

We drove out to see the tufa formations north of town and then had a great lunch at the Cowpoke Cafe. They had homemade pies but we were too full for desert. Next time we stop there I am starting with pie!

 

The Lovelock cave is 20 miles south of Lovelock. It is a small cave but it has been excavated by archeologists. The cave was inhabited by Indians 4000 years ago when it was on the edge of a lake. The archaeologists found lots of artifacts including the oldest duck decoys ever found. From the cave we looked out over the Humboldt Sink where the Humboldt River ends. Most of Nevada is part of the Great Basin. None of the rivers or water in the Great Basin ever reach the ocean.

 

If you want to read the sign you can click on the picture.

We took a couple of wrong turns but eventually we found the dirt road heading southwest from the cave and took it to make a big circle back to Interstate 80 and home.

If you would like to see all of my pictures from this trip they are on Flickr here.

Catherine de Medici - Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda

I speed read Catherine de Medici - Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda last week in order to finish it in time for the Newcomers Club Book Club. It is not an easy read and the author who is Swedish by birth and apparently speaks five languages loves using unusual words like bobbish, chimera and  tergiversations. In spite of the fact that reading the book is a bit of a slog, it reads like a text book, I did find it very interesting.

Renaissance France is fascinating. Catherine De Medici lived from 1519 to 1589, during the reigns of 5 French kings. One of them was her husband and three of them were her sons. This was a particularly violent period. There were constantly recurring religious wars (at least six), the St Bartholomew's Day massacre (for which Catherine was blamed), Burnings of protestants, and  political assassinations. Catherine survived and perhaps even thrived, shaping French politics through most of this period.

I am glad I read this book. I learned a lot about this period in history in general and French history in particular. It certainly helped me better understand the renaissance and the reformation.

Thanks to my friend Linda here are a few of the obscure words, their meanings and the page references.

Page 25:  tergiversations - changes in opinion or course

Page 107:  shambolic - disorderly or chaotic

Page 337: bobbish - healthy, in good spirits (this word wasn't even in my dictionary. it is in dictionary.com)

Page 337: chimera - an illusion or fabrication of the mind

Page 352:  extirpate - exterminate

September Events in Reno

One of the reasons that Reno is such a wonderful place to live because there are so many things going on here.

Last weekend Duke and I went to the Reno/ Tahoe Blues Festival. We enjoyed sitting outside on the grass and listening to great music. I must admit I brought a book. It was quite a juxtaposition reading an English Family saga set in Cornwall during World War II while sitting outside in shorts on a hot Reno afternoon enjoying the blues.

September is full of events.

September 2-7 is the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off. I missed last year because Duke and I were out of town so we are definitely planning to go this year.

September 11-13 is the Reno Balloon festival. We went in 2007 and it was wonderful beyond anything I had imagined.

September 16-20 are the Reno Air Races. Duke went to the Newcomers Club Men's breakfast Thursday morning and heard a presentation about the races. They sound great. We are planning to go this year for the first time.

September 23 -27 is Street Vibrations the annual Reno motorcycle gathering. I don't ride a motorcycle but it is still fun to see all the bikes.