The Boy Who Never Grew Up



Great movie.

I have discovered that my life is too ordinary to report on here any more.

Everything of significance that I could ever have to say can be narrowed down to only 440 characters and posted on my Facebook Account which is here: http://www.facebook.com/13asilsprig

I invite you there with all sincerity to join me on my many misadventures.

Meanwhile, if I decide to post on anything that is truly meaningful, I'll be posting it here: http://dreamerofdreams.blogspot.com/ buried in subterfuge and pseudonymity.

Because, really, that's all we have: our thoughts and feelings right?

I don't think so.

God Bless Phineas Gage

In September 13th we celebrate the notorious case of Mr. Phineas Gage. On that day in the year 1845, Mr. Gage experienced a mind-numbing thing: he was working on a railroad building project when an explosion sent a steel rod through his head (it landed about 80 yards away.)

What's special about Mr. Gage as opposed to everyone else who gets a 1.5 inch thick metal shaft sent through their head, is that Mr. Gage survived, and lived a relatively normal life afterwards. Apparently his is the subject of study to this day at universities and colleges that address issues of neurological science: every different perspective using him as an example to support their beliefs and claims (even when those claims oppose one another.)

You can read about Mr. Gage here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage
Happy Gage Day!

Basil

Fake Moon Rock

Now here's something interesting. It has just come out of Amsterdam that a moon rock given to that country in a gesture of friendship by the U.S. Ambassador not long after the Apollo Moon landing is FAKE.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8226075.stm

Apparently they decided to perform tests on it, and discovered that it is nothing more than a small rock of petrified wood.

And "US officials said they had no explanation for the Dutch discovery" - makes you wonder.

Cheers!
~Basil

Vacation Day 5
Redwood Forest Day 2

[Redwood Trees, Del Norte State Park, California]


Today was the day we really planned this coastal trip around: going to spend a day in the Redwood Forests of N. California. We first drove down to Trees of Mystery, a comercialized slice of classic American road-trip.




Trees of Mystery is cool. From the 1960s voice recordings in redwood boxes along the way that explain things, to the named trees, and Paul Bunyan carvings. They've modernized with the Sky Trail: a tram you can take up through the tall trees to the top of a little mountain to see the views all around.

We took the sky tram up, then walked the 1 mile trail back down. Be forwarned, when they say the trail is for "advanced hikers" they mean it. I thought they were just saying that to keep the motorhome-bound pavement hikers from accidentally going down a real trail, but no, it really is some pretty advanced hiking. Very steep downward trails on which both of my girls fell down on their butts a couple of times, in spite of the holding-on-to-the-rope thing.




We had a great time exploring all of their trails with wierd signs and wierd carvings and even wierder recorded explanations. The creepiest thing was the 'Cathedral Tree' which had creepy 1960's organ music with a guy singing "I think that I shall never see a poem so lovely as a tree..." My wife knows that whole poem by Joyce Kilmer from memory but we'd never heard anyone singing it before. A very religious experience.


(Just kidding...)



After a day spent there we ate at the Forest Cafe, not to be confused with the Rain Forest Cafe. My daughter had read about it on some brochure and was hoping that it would be "really cool" like he famous Rainforest Cafe. Well, it was cool, but in a very unique way. Half the dining room was under water and the other half was under the forest canopy. We couldn't quite get used to eating lunch under a duck's butt.



But the food was the best food they've got anywhere around the Trees of Mystery. In fact, it is the only food they've got anywhere around the Trees of Mystery.




After this we decided to spend the afternoon on the beach. This was our "more serious" beach trip, whereas yesterday was our more casual one. We planned to spend the whole afternoon at the beach and basically we did. The beach was a really pretty one, that isn't quite on the maps so I don't know what they call it. It was about a mile or two north of Trees of Mystery at the very southern tip of the Del Norte State Park, near a campground (also not on the map) called SOMETHING lagoon. If you are ever traveling up there, don't worry, you'll find it. It's the only beach along 101 within 15 mile either direction.


This is a small, but very beautiful beach with rocks out in the water. There is enough sand to build sand castles, and here we built our main sand castle of the summer after strolling up and down the beach for several hours taking photos of birds, and rocks and waves and other interesting things.

Day 4
Redwood Forest 1



Today we had a leisurely drive from Umpqua Lighthouse down to Crescent City CA, stopping only twice: for Pizza lunch in Gold Beach, and at the BORDER. Wow, did you folks know they still had border stations between California and other states? How ancient is that?

Our hotel wasn't ready yet to move into the room, so we went on a short excursion to a beach and to the redwood forest. (Saving the bigger excursion for day 5.)



First stop: Crescent Beach, just south of Crescent City. We had fun playing on the beach but it was so windy that we ultimately had to give up. You don't need to worry about sunburn there, you need to worry about getting all of your skin blasted off.






We did all the important beach things, like building a sandcastle and walking along getting our feet wet, and taking lots of photos!



I got some great photos there of a couple of beautiful birds (and several ugly ones). I was scanning the skies trying to get an Osprey when this seagul flew right into my line of sight. (Thus the amazing close-up... I really wouldn't try intentionally to get right underneath a seagul like that!) I also managed out of a dozen photos or so of Osprey to get at least two photos that were pretty good!






Second stop: a drive Southward through the redwood forest. Xenia "couldn't wait" to see those giant redwood trees. We drove past the Trees of Mystery where we plan to go tomorrow, and kept right on down to the Drury Road, Old Highway 101 that turns off and goes through the beautiful trees. We turned off there and went for a short walk through the redwoods, ooo-ing and ah-ing as we looked up at the giant redwoods.



We got back to the hotel late and went next door to a mexican restaurant for our last (thankfully) seafood meal of the fast. (I've had seafood so many times on this trip I think i'll throw up if I even look at a fish in the next several months.)

Vacation Day 3
Live

Day three: we enjoyed a scenic drive down the coast from Tillamook to Umpqua Lighthouse State Park, just south of Reedsport.



We didn't stop much on this road trip, but we did stop a viewpoint near Waldport to watch the whales. This was the first time I've ever seen humpback whales in person (not at some sort of aquarium, but in the wild. It was really cool! This isn't a really great photo. We saw them blow quite a few times but I was unsuccessful at catching a photo of it. I think Xenia might have got one, and I'll post that later if I can.


We also stopped later at the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, home to some great Ghost Stories, which I have been working on
integrating into my story of a pirate-turned-cowbowy in the 1850s in Southern Oregon.




In the 1890s the first ghost story was written about this lighthouse: how a sailor came into port one day and left his daughter in town because she was seasick, and how she disappeared in the lighthouse after some teenagers discovered a secret passage way that went beneath the lighthouse itself down to the sea. Well, I won't spoil and tell my version of the story, which fits perfectly with he historical facts, but tells the "true behind the scenes" story of pirates and smugglers.

Anyway we made the rest of the trip safely to Umpqua Lighthouse State park where we stayed in a beautiful cabin overlooking the lake there and enjoyed roasted banana's on the camp file and munching on huckleberries, both black and red.



The Roasted Bananas: I got the idea from the girl scout who put those things inside aluminum foil with chocolate and throw them on the coals in the fire. Only we didn't have any aluminum foil so I improvised. You cut an opening in the top of a banana. You slit the banana itself it three times (or four) and insert three (or four) squares of chocolate. You stick on a regular wiener/marshmallow roasting stick and hold over the fire until the banana is sizzling and the chocolate looks melted. You remove and let cool. You eat.

If you do this with good chocolate (we used some gourmet 65% cocoa chocolate bars) it tastes delicious!


We had a great time once again at Umpqua Lighthouse State Park. This time staying in a beautiful cabin.

~ Basil