3-29-05

It rained most of the night in Elko and  when I woke up in the morning, I was in the middle of a small lake. I was parked in a parking lot behind the museum where they dispose of the snow that they scrape off the parking lots. With all the rain it had melted the snow, but the lake was only a few inches deep. The drive to Wells and from there on up north to Twin Falls was a stormy ride but with a tail wind, it was a fast trip.
Just as I pulled out of Wells, it started to snow like mad horizontal but most of the trip was small rainsqualls.

About fifteen miles south of Jackpot, Nv is a highway maintenance station where I snapped this photo of a flock of sheep at a ranch next to the station. They shelters are similar to the ones we made of sheep panels covered with poly tarps. I would imagine that with the price of steel going through the roof they would be rather pricey to buy now.

The lambs were pretty good size so he must lamb in February when I bet those shelters come in handy.

From Pocatello north I traveled along with a flock of seagulls (do seagulls migrate?). I took a photo but the gulls don’t show up but they were little white specks against the blue-black clouds. I was traveling at 55-60 miles an hour and they were going the same speed, it was almost like being in the Monarch butterflies. Oh, I remember now to mention that my friend Marsha in Goldfield commented when I showed her the photos of the Monarchs, “there is a place between my house and the post office where the Monarchs pass through. I always hate it when they come through as I kill so many and they make a mess on the  windshield.” She said it was just a small space where they came through. I guess they have a corridor that they use every year, something like a road. I vaguely remember the butterflies coming through Goldfield and my camp there. I guess I was meant to go to their starting place. What makes this amazing is that there is almost nothing along this route other than high, very dry, windy desert. When I lived in Fish Lake Valley there was a young minister for the local Baptist Church that spent several years trapping song birds that use the mountains as a fly way in their migration. You almost never see little song birds but he said that there were zillions of them traveling along the top of mountain ranges.

The freeway climbs to the Continental Divide and the state line near Monida, Mt. as usual It was cold, windy and snow on the ground there. It has to be one of the most miserable places anywhere other than North Dakota.

I rolled into Dirty Mike’s place just after dark and we stayed up late getting caught up on news. In the morning we headed to town to get supplies for the cabin he is working on. Mike has two cabins finished. He has just rented one and lives in one. The third one is about 2/3 completed. After a great nap (Mike is a napper too) we tackled weather and bug proofing the roof on the cabin he is working on.

He had finished the horse stalls as well as a new arena this winter. He will be renting these cabins to folks that want to have their horses with them where they live. The local university has the only four year degree program in horsemanship in the US. Mike is hoping for several scantly clad coeds to rent his cabins. 

That is Lucky, Mike’s black lab hunting dog. He like pets.

Mike shot 53 doves last fall and Lucky was about the only way to find them in the high grain field where most of them fell. Lucky is a very serious hunter and with Mike being a serious hunter, he has lots of work to do. Mike would like to find a girl friend for him and I am sure Lucky is all in favor of that.

After working on one of the cabins in the afternoon Mike went out to his shop and worked on a few rifles. Mike builds custom rifles and here he is checking out the glass bedding he had placed in this stock.

I left Mikes place and passed through Dillon checking for a wifi hot spot. This little sculpture in the highway median must be a representation of the Lewis and  Clark expedition. I thought it was very interesting how Sacajawea is pointing one way and Lewis and Clark are pointing the other way.

I had a good tail wind all along the way and made it into Big Timber in the late afternoon. I was lucky to find Sam working on his house he has in town. He has it fixed up really nice and is now putting on the finishing touches before he and Jacki move in. I thought it was just a little house but after seeing the full finished basement I realize it is really just a compact very efficient house of almost 1200 square feet.

The Livingston and Big Timber area is one known for high consistent winds. There were a couple of wind turbines along  the highway that are on a ranch across the river. I set my camera to take a little video clip of them and if I can get my front page program to allow it, I will post it or a link to the web here. I just tried it and it takes a couple of minutes to download but it is kind of neat. Let me know what you think about this kind of video/photo link.  It opens in Real one Player  for me and you will need your sound on to hear the radio that was broadcasting the weather report as I took the photo/video. 

I rolled Lil Red along at a good clip with the wind at our back all  the way home. We got back a little after nine at night. It is good to be back and take the red road up and over the hill to camp. I spent the day unloading lil Red and in the afternoon I went to town to gather any mail at the PO and get mail delivery started again to my mailbox. I stopped at Joe’s bookstore for a petting session with Bonnie (Joe’s dog and one of my favorites). I met up with several friends there and met a new one name of Rich who just happened to be there on his KLR Kawasaki motorcyle. Oh, it is going to be good to be back on two wheels again. Tomorrow is Friday and I plan to get one of my bikes on the road as well as go out and shoot a couple of guns. Come on SUMMER, I am ready……………………