Notes & Random Thoughts Archive 12/2004 - 9/2003
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2 December 2004 Well here it is December and it's so @#$%^&! cold out that the only reason one goes outside is to get from the car to the house and back again. All the more reason we should be out riding! There are ghost towns and mining camps getting lonely out there! Looks like nothing is going to happen this month, though. But, you never know. Yeah, we do. Nothing is gonna happen this month. [sniff] 11 November 2004 So much for that. At the last minute, they changed Luis's days off again- no more weekends until further notice. What constitutes "notice" with these people is anyone's guess. ce 9 November 2004 Boy, not even worth starting a new page for November. Well, if the weather holds we may have some exciting tales and photos from South of Hawthorne, namely Candelaria, and any place interesting within fifteen or twenty miles! 15 October 2004 Would we be so lucky as to have a Saturday off, to spend, perchance, in a far away and exotic place... like... Aurora? 3 October 2004 We won't mention any names, but apparently the egg-sucking curs at
25 September 2004 There's talk- just talk, mind you- of hitting some sites down around Smith and Topaz in the coming weeks. 21 September 2004 In other news, we have recently made a discovery of such magnitude that four wheel drive, the compass, and the internal combustion engine pale in comparison. I speak, of course, of beef jerky. Using my recently acquired Maytag Model MGS5870A convection oven and a Mother's 2-Hour Jerky Maker™ (Patent No. 5,996,820) I was recently able to produce a beef jerky product not only superior to what is available in the stores, but one that is less expensive and more satisfying. No longer will we have to shell out five or six dollars for four ounces of dried out shoe leather soaked in unmentionable chemicals in an attempt to make the meat taste like something other than the stray cats and raccoons they scrape up off the road in the middle of the night. The hard part will be making enough so Luis can have a taste before it's all gone. 20 September 2004 Well, we never made it much past Como, we were having so much fun exploring the area. It would have been a bit nicer if I had dressed more warmly, though. Someone forgot to tell me that summer was over- it was getting downright wintery out there. And just as a word of warning, the roads in the area are rocky, rocky, rocky, so wax up your skid plates. 18 September 2004 OK, so, I know I haven't been keeping up the news section or completing entries or even updating the site. I mean, we went to Ophir and had a great ride and no one knows about it except us. Well, that's because my house has been in a constant state of remodeling chaos all summer, and all my books are in boxes being moved from one room to another as work ebbs and flows. I'm sick of it. And now I've got a cold. But that's not going to stop us from going to Palmyra, Como, and Clifton today. Yes, today. Actually, Palmyra and Como are basically the same site, just a few hundred yards from each other, but hey- that counts as two. We'll be making a big circle, up from Dayton, through Como, east and then north and then north west to Clifton on the shores of the Mighty Carson River. We might even his the Hercules Mine on the way back, then try to negotiate our way back through rapidly-developing Dayton to see if there is a dirt road back. The maps say there is, but the maps are ten years old, and I have a sneaking suspicion that a few people have moved to Dayton since then. 13 August 2004 It's a hot and muggy Friday the 13th. But we're committed to heading out to Ophir and Bramber Station and Glen Hamilton and Park Canyon and maybe even Millet. Yes. Maybe even Millet. So let's see if Luis gets the day off. 2 August 2004 Those of you who have come to depend on this page for fresh commentary updated on a daily basis are probably very, very disappointed. So, I'm returning all your subscription checks. I Yeah, right. Looks like my new laptop is going to take longer to get her than I originally figured, by, like, a factor of two, but that's OK, because this morning I finally got the whole GPS / PDA/ $60 cable / software thing to work in peace and harmony and sing a couple of rounds of Kumbaya. Not it's just a matter of getting out there under the satellites and giving 'er a go. As you can tell from this visual clue, we are about to head out towards Ione and see what there is to see. Luis wants to head east from the Ione area, picking the crappiest road he could find, from the looks of it, across the Reese River Valley, and then through the Toiyabe Range and back out into the Smoky Valley. On the way we're supposed to explore Ophir and Park Canyon.
Since we'll never make it back from a bone-crushing trip like this, particularly in the heat of the desert summer, I can only surmise that my little buddy has some kind of restful respite planned. I wonder if Mary Kay and Ashley are even old enough to drink beer? 18 July 2004 OK, so the month is half over and it looks like nothing is going on.
Well you're wrong, my friend. plenty is going on. First of all, we
ripped up all the stinky carpet and padding in the Forgotten Nevada
Headquarters office and replaced it with a Groovy Wood Floor. Moving
the computer and a few hundred miles Now that the floor is done and computers are ordered, I will probably get right on posting the new pictures of Bernice that I took when I went out there over the July 4 weekend with Peter The Czech Guy! 1 July 2004 Interestingly, I have met through Internet correspondence a gentleman from the Continent of Europe, who comes to Nevada periodically to explore its ruins. We are meeting in Fallon at an Undisclosed Location to dine personally with Dr. William C. Davis, famous author, and then on Saturday- armed with notes and hints from Dr. Bill- we will set out up Bernice Canyon to see what there is to see.
20 June 2004 Even with the flat tire on the truck it was a good ride, and the chili-cheese dags were superb! A few new pictures are now in the Bolivia section! 17 June 2004 Bolivia. Yeah, I know- we've been there already. But we took the easy way. This time, we're taking the hard way. That's right, the back way, through Lovelock. Not death-defying enough for ya? Well, we're having chili cheese dogs, too. 16 June 2004 OK, there's a trip brewing somewhere. As we speak, Luis is charting a course, plotting vectors, cogitating coordinates, and reflecting on routes. I'm so excited, I can't stop my tail from wagging! 7 June 2004 We've had over 3,000 visitors now. I hope none of them are still out there, lost. I have decided to NOT install the winch switch permanently, but mount it on the rack until such time as book sales permit me to purchase the winch upgrade. Ha ha ha. Things are settling down for Luis, and he feels the urge to explore. I won't push him- but instead, let it build up and fester for a while until he goes nuts and we end up in Alaska or Kansas or something.
Well it's the end of May and all I've really got done was fool with the web site and partially install my winch. The website redesign met with smashing reviews and thunderous applause (Thanks again, Mom) so I can leave that alone for a while. I've got my winch mounted [finally] but I'm hating the big ugly switch they're expecting me to use. I mean, what is the point of using a solenoid when I have to mount this honker? Of course, I could upgrade my winch to something that uses a normal rocker switch or even a remote control for only a $150 or so. Anyway. No trip this weekend or next, because the weather is just too pleasant and we need it to be miserably hot so we can whine about it. And I just ordered some K&N oil filters and I have to change the oil in the green beast and, of course, get the winch working. 29 May 2004 OK, the metamorphosis is complete; we've switched over from being a Churchill County-only website to a State of Nevada web site. Of course, most of the sites we document are in Churchill County, but what are ya gonna do? Boy I REALLY gotta start running the spell check before I post things. How come you people never say anything? We just joined a lot of web rings- which you can see on the links page- so that should bring in the exploring types and, with it- fame and fortune. Check out the latest trip to Masonic, Conway Stage Station, and Sonoma. 18 May 2004 OK, so, yeah, I changed everything around and maybe some things don't work, or maybe some things work better. At least it's different, and that, my friend, is what counts. I'm going to have to redo the maps because of Luis- that's right, it's Luis's fault for wanting to travel all over the freaking state, so my Churchill County-centered universe has now crumbled. I'm still going to have directions as coming from Fallon, just because. So for right now, you'll have to know the name of the place you want to visit and choose from the list of names. I'll be refining and changing other things as I find the time. 16 May 2004 OK, it's useless to try and pretend any more. We're not Historic Mining Camps etc. etc. of Churchill County. While there is still plenty for us to explore in Churchill County, and much of our exploration will be centered there and originate from there, it's plain to see that we're getting too many sites from outside the county to limit ourselves. Therefore, on this day, I hereby proclaim the new name of this site to be- Forgotten Nevada. I toyed with the idea of "Forgotten, Nevada" but I'd have to explain to someone that there is no town named "Forgotten." I thought it was a pretty good name, I Googled it, and I'm surprised no one has taken it. So, it's now ours. 14 May 2004 Lucky, lucky motorcyclebatteriesusa.com. My battery arrived and I just happened to be here to sign for it. On a brighter note, I have decided who the next James Bond should be. It came to me just last week, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized how right I am. He's a little old, but then all the actors who have played Bond are too old. Hold your monitor up to a mirror to see my pick, and then tell me how RIGHT I am.
12 May 2004 Our next trip is taking us not only out of the county, but out of the state. We'll be traveling over the infamous Von Schmidt Boundary and into the liberal infestation known as California, to the mining camp of Masonic. On the way, we'll stop at Sulphur, Conway Stage Station, and Sonoma. I ordered one of those newfangled maintenance-free batteries from an outfit called www.motorcyclebatteriesusa.com. I got an email from them on March 4th acknowledging my order, but then nothing. I emailed them. No response. I emailed them again. No response. I went to their web site. No telephone, only a fax. Uh-oh. I faxed them. "I've got to have it by Friday." Their response, "Sir, we received a fax inquiring on your battery order status, you will have this order on Friday, the 14th. " No, "Sorry we've been ignoring you and sitting around with our thumb up our *ss until you found out a way to make us actually respond to your inquiry." So it's taking them eight days to ship a battery 526 miles. That's an average of about 65 miles a day. If I wanted this kind of abuse I would have bought it locally. And in case you were wondering, no, I am not above using my powerful influence and this web site to bring motorcyclebatteriesusa to their knees for crappy customer service. 1 May 2004 Hey, the selling-books-for-Amazon-thing is WORKING! I don't know who the very special person(s) is- because they don't reveal names- but I do know someone bought a copy of Nevada Place Names and How To Deal With Anger from which we made 96¢ in gas money! That's almost a half a gallon of quad juice right there! I'm not understanding the second book though- maybe some of my links aren't working. Better check. Now, Luis has the weekend of the 8th off, but my kid's getting First Communion that day,and when I asked my wife if she would be good enough to take pictures while I was gone, I got a COLD STONY STARE. You know what I'm sayin'? Hmmm. Maybe she's the one that bought the book. Anyway, It won't be until the weekend after that that we get to delight you with tales from our travels. But travels to where? Who knows? 22 April 2004 Hey we're back from Grantsville and all thawed out. Spring in Nevda... Brrrrrrrr! Anyway, we also stopped in Berlin, dropped a donation in the box, and took a few pictures there too. 13 April 2004 Well we're both working odd hours now, so trips will probably be limited this year. So, when we do manage to get out, it will be to release the pent-up frustrations of many months, and I can guarantee you that someone is probably going to get hurt! And hey, why else are you here? Looks like a major trip is in the offing- if Luis can get this Saturday off, it will take us two hours to get there and we should be covering about 30 hard and dusty miles on the quads. Stay tuned. 16 April 2004 Cold? Check! Rotten wet weather? Check! Miserable riding conditions? Check! That's right, when on one else will go out and check out historical sites for you, Bob and Luis are already there. Tomorrow- Grantsville. The forecast? Rain, Wind, Snow, and probably fireballs and wildcats- like we care. We just tighten our explorer pith helmets an extra notch and goose it! Keep your eyes peeled for our report. If Luis gets his day off! 28 March 2004 Visitors from all over the world have visited this web site and gasped in wonder at the Beauty That Is Churchill County. The United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland, Portugal, Austria, Spain, France, Norway, Estonia, Thailand, Italy, Germany, India, Uruguay, Belgium, Denmark, and even the Russian Federation. Truly, we are world wide! Let's all join hands and sing Kumbaya! Oh, and also, I put up a links page just to share some of the interesting sits I've stumbled across in my travels. 24 March 2004 Took a quick trip to Unionville to check it out. It was more populated than I expected- I think next time I'll stay at the bed and breakfast and see if I can wrangle permission to see some of the stuff that's on private property, like the school. 21 March 2004 OK, so I haven't been taking advantage of this nice weather, and I've been complaining about the crappy weather so much you'd think I'd been out there like a shot. But no, I'm waiting for my buddy Luis, who's been very busy. But I can't stand it any more, so I'm going out Wednesday to a Sooper Sekrit location! Watch this space for an upcoming update! In the mean time, I have created- for your enjoyment- a new forum to play in, and to post messages to other Historic Site hunters and aficionados. It's located here so enjoy. Let us know if there are any glitches or weird things going on, or not going on as the case may be. 2 March 2004 Snow again. I'm so completely bored out of my skull that I redid the author page. You people really need to start praying for good weather.
I married Britney Spears today. 1:38 PM We're divorced. I thought it was Britney I wanted- turned out what I really wanted was a meatloaf sandwich. We're both embarrassed. 12 February 2004 You think just because it's cold and dreary that we're just sitting around waiting for the next Superbowl half-time show? Negative! We've got scanner sunburn from all the new pictures of Fabulous Fallon Postcards! Check out the new stuff here. Wow! I just checked and as of 6:59 PM today, 2,000 visitors have sat at their desks, stunned into silence by the scenic beauty of this here web site. Yep, over 166 dozen people have become mesmerized and transfixed, like a snake-charmed mouse, just by reading the breathtaking details of historical sites they would not otherwise see. AND NOT ONE OF YOU HAS SENT US ANY MONEY. Yet another trip back to the drawing board. Hey guess where I went today? I went to Hawthorne to visit the Mineral County Museum there, and on my way back I stopped at the museum in Yerington. I'll be honest with you- I wasn't expecting much, but they turned out to be quite the exhibits. Hawthorne's museum is built in an old supermarket, and they have some pretty nice displays there. I also saw the old Rawhide Jail while I was in town, which is now parked next to the new courthouse. The extremely friendly and pulchritudinous gal working there had to give me the directions twice, because I was mesmerized and transfixed, like the snake-charmed mouse a few paragraphs back. Wow. Anyway, I couldn't think of any reasons to hang out there any more, so I quickly dined at the fabulous McDonald's there and headed over to Yerington, where I visited the Lyon County Museum. These people are really going to town and have several outbuildings full of stuff. It's a nice museum. 8 February 2004 I got rid of all the Amazon links on the main page, because they kept changing them and putting their own stuff in there. I hate that. I replaced them all with a Threat Level Indicator, so you know when it's safe to leave your house. 7 February 2004 Snow. Infernal white pestilence. I'm thinking of maybe breaking up my week and taking a drive down to beautiful sunny Hawthorne Nevada, where the Mineral County Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from noon until 4:00 pm, unless it's the summer, then they are open from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm The curator tells me they have photographs and text which might provoke my interest. 4 February 2003 Cabin fever. Must... go... for... ride. 22 January 2004 I am, like, totally disappointed. My Vicks bottle isn't as old as I suspected. The good people at Vicks say they made them from 1930 through the 1960's, and that they're quite common. 21 January 2004
I notice that several people have come here looking for information on arrowheads. Here is some information on arrowheads for you. There is no information on arrowheads on this web site. None. Oh, I know where they are. Boy howdy, I know a couple places where you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a 55 gallon drum full of arrowheads. They just litter the ground. Buckets and buckets of pristine arrowheads. Why, every time I go there, I find more arrowheads than I know what to do with. I end up just tossing them out the window when I drive home. Boy, do I know where the arrowheads are. Unfortunately, I'm sworn to secrecy and I can never reveal the locations
of these treasure troves. So don't ask. 16 January 2004 We forgot to take into account that Jessups's been done., and done hard. There's nothing there. I did manage to find a bottle though. And while there's a few buildings and cabins if you scout the area a bit, there's nothing in Jessup. Nothing. Nothing at all. We did see a couple of guys with a metal detector, though, poking through the tailings. Good luck to them. But it felt good to get out for a ride, even if it was short. In the news, the Lahontan Valley News has been purchased by the Swift Brothers, who also print the Nevada Appeal (Carson City) and the papers in Tahoe and Gardnerville. This means that the Fallon paper will no longer be printed in Fallon, but in Carson City. Since Luis is the guy who runs the press in Fallon, this means they have to find something else for him to do, and whatever it is he'll be doing it in Carson City. The silver lining in this cloud is that he may end up working a shift where we can actually leave for a ride in the morning, i.e. before 7 a.m. instead of before 11 a.m. This means more riding time, better photos (well, better lit photos- can't say the photos will actually be any better), more range as we travel further away, and more detailed examinations of sites. So lets keep our fingers crossed. 10 January 2004 I haven't written "2003" by mistake once yet, and I'm very proud of myself. In other news, I would like to announce that- at the time of this writing- 1707 unique and wonderful individuals have visited this web site for one reason or another. About 22% of those people actually return for another look. Over 99% have their java turned on. Most visitors use Microsoft Internet Exploder 6 for a browser, their screen resolution is 1024 x 768, and they use Windows 2000. We average roughly five visitors per day. Most people visit on Monday and Sunday. Peak hours are between 6 and 7 in the morning, between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm, and between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm. Twice as many visitors use WebTV as Linux. That's depressing. We've had visitors from all over North America (in order of the number of visits) Japan, United Kingdom, Canada, Netherlands, Austria, France, Switzerland, Norway, Estonia, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Uruguay, Portugal, Spain, Australia, and the Russian Federation. [yawn] Luis suggests we explore up by Unionville and Star City. I'm in agreement, but I needs to go somewhere now. Today. I need to ride. I think I'm going to suggest we do Jessup. Jessup needs doing, and we're just the guys to do 'er. 9 January 2004 No school today, so my Miniature Assistant and I went out to Sand Springs, where we had a wonderful time at the Sand Springs Pony Express Station and the BLM's Sand Springs Desert Study Area. The BLM claims most of the damage to the station was done by hoodlums and half-wits climbing on the walls, and who am I to argue? Being so close to Sand Mountain probably doesn't help, but there is that element which just likes to break things for the fun of breaking things, and I hope they are set upon by rattlesnakes, personally. Anyway, it's very cool out there and the informative nature trail was a nice addition. 5 January 2004
If you have a PDA for about $25 you can download the Special Software that allows you to run the program on your PDA. Hook up a GPS and you're a mappin' fool in the wilderness. You'll know exactly where you are all the time with no guessing. Very cool. So, I guess that's a thumbs up for the National Geographic software which I purchased directly from the friendly folks at digital-topo-maps.com. For Christmas, I got a copy of Shawn Hall's Preserving the Glory Days - Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Nye County, Nevada, and Raymond Smith's Travels: In the Nevada Outback. I'm looking forward to getting some hints on where to visit, and insights into Nevada history. Thanks, Mom! Now we just have to figure out where we're gonna go next. 27 December 2003 I just ordered the National Geographic Topo Maps for Nevada
from digital-topo-maps.com.
I was getting tired of Delorme's crappy map software and needed to try
something different. Supposedly, this has 1:24,000 USGS maps and 1:100,000
mpas, as opposed to Delorme's 1:24,000 USGS maps and their own weird
maps which are not accurate at all. Plus, I find Delorme's route editing
software to be cumbersome and prone to corruption. I was going to update the Delorme software and get Southern Nevada, but it would have cost over $200. I can get the entire state from National Geographic for $78.00 plus shipping from digital-topo-maps.com. Seems like a no brainer. We'll see when it arrives if I made a wise decision. Luis tells me he got a Garmin GPS for Christmas- I guess his wife wants him to come back after all. Now the pressure is off of me to be navigator. It will be interesting to compare the two units. I've been corresponding with the lovely folks down at the Mineral County Museum, who may have some photos and stories of interest. I may have to go down there and stimulate their economy by having lunch and giving them a look-see. 19 December 2003 It's also a good time to add some more pictures to the website- namely, to Quartz Mountain and Broken Hills. 15 December 2003 Lots of agonizing over Lodi's name. Is it Lodi? Is it Marble? How should I list it? I'm going with Marble. If I'm wrong, blame the Dayquil. As I mentioned on the main page, this was the last ride of the year, probably. Hey, it's cold out there, and the days are too short. Good time of year to curl up with some history books at the library. 14 December 2003 OK, so riding out there with a cold probably wasn't the best idea. I begged Luis to let me stay home, but no, he insisted. He did buy me a set of those handlebar mittens which kept my hands toasty warm. He's quite a guy. But the weather was pretty nice- until the sun went down- and we discovered the site of Lodi. My suggestion to you- bypass Broken Hills and Quartz Mountain entirely and check out Lodi. Whole lotta smeltin' goin' on. You could see all the wonderful things we saw if I didn't have a cold. I don't feel like working on the pages right now. But I took my vitamins and I should be up and at 'em in no time. 9 December 2003 OK. Geology finals is tomorrow. 100 questions. Multiple choice. how hard could it be? Then we plan for a Saturday trip- to Broken Hills and Quartz Mountain, with a supper stop at Middlegate. Highs should be about 47 degrees- figuring in wind chill should put us at right around freezing. Like we care. Weather seems to be flip-flopping back and forth between cloudy and some rain. We'll see. 7 December 2003 Which is not going to happen, looking at the weather. Nice during the week, with rain and snow picking up again on the week end. What is Luis's preoccupation with pneumonia, anyway? I mean, they can cure it, can't they? 1 December 2003
Perhaps I could bring some of the rocks I've already collected with me to Leete, then smack them once I get out there. God, I'm desperate for a ride.
19 November 2003 The days are short now. I'm convinced that human beings cause crappy weather on the weekend.. I think the mass of their warm bodies outside on the weekends create warm fronts that push weather masses around effecting weather for the rest of the week. Well, it makes more sense than the guy who claims Stephen King killed John Lennon. Anyway, what with great weather during ther week, and lousy weather and committments on the week end, it looks like no more exploring during the month of November. We may take a short trip up to Jessup, or I might grab my short little
assistant and cover something close by a paved road. I may even do some
updating or changing of things on the web site. You just never know. I even see 101 people have viewed this news page. Who knows how many satisfied readers return every day just to see what we're up to. I'm guessing all of them. 12 November 2003 Sometimes I can't sleep. I lay awake in the wee hours, eyes wide open, wondering. "How can I make the lives of our readers more full, more useful, and less stressful?" Then it occurred to me- I could add Picosearch to the main page so you could search every single page on the web site directly for any word or phrase! So that's what I did. Enjoy. 9 November 2003 No snow, no rain, even some sunshine made for a somewhat glorious day. Considering it's November, it was a superbly glorious day. Ludwig was a surprisingly large and varied site, Luis found a bottle (grrrr) and we even got to view the "Glory Hole," where the Youngsters of Yerington push cars into an open pit mine (or, at least, what is now an open pit) and- judging from the number of bras in the area- also deflower their young virgins. The chili was welcome, although I should have thrown caution to the winds and brought some rolls.
Well, the weather is changing- now we have predictions of rain and snow. Not that we mind. Ha! We laugh at storm warnings, because we know that you, the reader, want to see historic sites and not listen to a bunch of whining about the weather, about broken bones, or other excuses. It does make things difficult to photograph, simple because everything is covered with snow and we're shaking from the cold so much we can't hold the camera steady. But we don't mind. No sir. Gotta be done. And besides. As I type this, Luis is cooking up a batch of his Special Chili. 5 November 2003 We're going to have Les Schwab slap some new shocks on the ol' truck on Friday, and maybe dial in the front wheels a bit before we take off. Hopefully, that will take our minds of the fact that it will be raining the whole time we're down there. Rain. A summer rain, we can handle that. But winter rain. Yech. Luckily, Luis is bringing home made chili. And we're taking seperate vehicles, so the ride home won't be so... fragrant. 3 November 2003
And I replaced my lost thermos with a new one- and just in time. Evidently, Aladdin has sold it's entire thermos business to some outfit called Pacific Market International, so no more Made In USA thermoses. Instead, when you buy one of their thermoses, it will be crafted by slave laborers working for 16 cents a day; slaves for whom owning a Stanley Classic Steel Thermos such as this one is about as far-fetched a dream as me owning my own fully armed F/A-18. Luckily I got one of the last American-made ones in stock. What is this country coming to when we can't even make a @#$%&! thermos competitively? 26 October Did we find the Sooper Sekrit Cabin of Old Man Kellog? Well, er, we don't think so. But we found someone's sooper sekrit cabin after hiking five and a half miles into IXL canyon. Cooler temperatures helped us this time, and we not only found the "ruin" marked on the map which we could only (wrongly) guess at last time, we also found a neghboring cabin ruin. But by 4:00 pm we were still quite a ways from where we suspect the Sooper Sekrit Cabin to be, so alas, we had to turn back again. At that point we were only a 1000 meters from the summit and 375 meters from the suspected cabin location, but with the lanscape being what it was it would have taken us another hour at least. Plus, we barely made it back to the quads at it was. The worst part of the whole trip was I lost my green Thermos somewhere. I loved that thermos. Check out a few new photos on the Silver Hill page. 20 October 2003 OK, I was going to go on the last field trip of the year for school, but the siren song of the Sooper Sekrit Cabin is too much for me to take, plus Luis is now claiming that his stew is out of this world. Also, the time changes this weekend, which makes it imperative we go. So it looks like we're going to hit it from the correct end this time, back to Silver Hill, where we will find the cabin or at least some cabin and report back to you. I'll be the burned and twisted wreckage at the bottom of the ravine with the "Sierra Club Sucks" flag. 15 October 2003 Looks like we may take another whack at the Sooper Sekrit Cabin site this weekend. Stay tuned. The wife closed the garage door on my ATV flag, so it's destroyed. I went down to the local motorcycle shop to purchase another one. Unfortunately, they all say something. The least offensive one I could find was "The Sierra Club Sucks." Now, I ask you, if you owned an ATV store, and your livelihood depended on having places to ride, would you go out of your way to antagonize your opponents? So to all you Birkenstock-wearing, tree-hugging leftists out there, nothing personal, OK? It's all they had in stock. 9 October 2003 I see that the menu is all screwed up when viewed in Netscape and Opera; apparently it only works well in Internet Exploder, contrary to what I was led to believe. Since Netscape makes up only 9% of my visitors, I guess I won't worry about it right now. 6 October 2003 We'd like to announce our new Official Bob 'n' Luis Dictum for 2003 - "From space, it looked like a road!" Also, we have taken the liberty of choosing some topical books for you from Amazon's vast list. Check out the list and buy them all. 5 October 2003. Well, the ridge road we had hoped to take may have looked like a road from the satellite photo, but we sure couldn't find it, forcing us to take the road up the wash. After muscling our way past several pairs or triplets of downed trees, we abandoned the quads and hoofed it. Unfortunately, our bodies are just not what they used to be, and after realizing that- at our rate of progress- we were too far from the alleged spot to make it there and return to the quads before nightfall, we turned around. A setback? Yes. Are we giving up? No! We vow to return from the IXL Canyon side! 4 October 2003 I've changed the main page once again. I got to thinking, if you have to have a sign saying "if this isn't working, do this..." then you need to find a menu that works. This is is much better. Now that that's done, I can prepare for my trip. 3 October 2003 Naturally, I've done no preparation whatsoever for our trip tomorrow to find Old Man Kellog's Sooper Sekrit Cabin, except program the GPS and print out some maps.
30 September For lack of anything better to do, I've added another Pay Pal button for donations. Instead of going directly to our hosting company, this one goes directly into our pockets to use for gasoline, tires, and Pilsner Urquel. Now, all I need is twenty or thirty people to, uh, test it for me by sending a small donation, of, oh, say, twenty dollars or so. 24 September You think you know a person. And then you find out something about them that just boggles your mind. Take my buddy Luis. Oh sure, he's fun to ride with. And he can cook a mean steak. And he chips in on the gas. And he always tells me what Karla and Gaye have been up to. But I never suspected that he had, well, you know- had 'em the size of cantaloupes! That's right, when I mentioned to him, "You know, we could take the easy way into IXL canyon, or we could come from the other side and see if we could find the old toll road." Well, there was no desitation at all, just a steely glint in his eye! "Let's take the hard way!" [PRANG!*] So it looks like we're going to come into IXL Canyon from the east, the way they used to do it in the old days. Can it be done? Will there be washouts? Landslides? Wild beasts? Will it be fraught with peril? We sure hope so. _______________________ * That was the sound of a gob hitting the spittoon. 23 September Well, we have a tentative date for our try at Old Man Kellog's cabin- October 4. We'll ride in as far as we dare, and then we'll hike in the rest of the way. I'm sure the road is no better than it was the last time we went, which was July two years ago, amazingly enough. It was hot as a pistol then, and this will make for much nicer hiking conditions, and easier flying for CareFlight when they have to come get us after we both have strokes. Maybe we should have laid off all the mayonnaise. There are more pictures for the Steamshovel Trail up now, so take a gander. 15 September Well I made the page for the Steamshovel Trail, but I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to classify it yet. I have some more pictures, but I'm going to put them up later. 14 September Bob: "Ow!" Luis: "Ow!" Bob & Luis's skid plates: "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" OK, we found the damn thing, although we decided to eschew returning the same way and instead opted for the Bradshaw Mine Loop of Death which resulted in numerous delays and some exciting Night Riding! Details when the aching goes away. 8 September Still trying to ascertain the exact coordinates of the Steam Shovel Trail- not that not knowing is going to stop us. But it will be sorta anti-climactic if we don't come back with a picture of something at least resembling a steamshovel. Perhaps a steam shovel-shaped rock, or cloud. No, we gotta get the real thing. Anyway, we'll see if someone can cough up the exact whereabouts for us so you can see it all from the safety and comfort of your own La-Z-Boy. Speaking of comfort, I see now that of this date, over 1015 individuals have stopped by this very web site, and some of them probably did it on purpose. That means we may have lured hundreds and hundreds of people to their doom in the trackless wastes of Churchill County. That's quite an accomplishment. I think I'm tearing up - hand me a Kleenex. Apologies to our riding public, we've been busy, it's been hot, I had to get a wart removed from my throttle thumb- whatever excuse makes you happy. We just haven't been to any historic sites lately. And we're not going to this next weekend, either. Oh, we're going riding, all right. We're going to hit the old Steamshovel Trail, we're going to ride right UP to that dumb old steam shovel, we're going to eat our sandwiches in the shade of that sucka, and then we're going to ride back. Yes sir. That's what we're going to do. Nuthin' historic about it, my friend. Tell you what, though. As your reward for being so patient, I'll let you in on a little secret. I think I've stumbled onto the location of
Thaaaaaaaat's right. Trouble is, we actually have to walk to get to it. So we're going to wait until it's nice and cool out so we don't overheat our little bodies. If we're right, and we find it, it will be a Discovery of Major Historical Interest and we can hire people to run this cheesy web site because we'll be rich and famous and probably have our own action figures. 10 August 2003
I had placed a quad a bit too close in the bed to the back window, and we hit a bump and the quad bumper made contact with the glass. So there is a new window. Then on the way home, between Shurz and Fallon, we encountered a strange
vibration. As we were discussing the possibilities and ramifications
of the vibration, the tread separated itself from one of the trailer
tires and ripped the fender off with a loud bang. We replaced the tire with a spare, which got us into town and almost home, when we noticed another vibration. We debated the chances of another trailer tire going out on us when we noticed it getting worse. Pulling over, we found our spare tire had, for some reason, utterly destroyed itself and was nothing that a rubber-dipped rag. Only a mile or so of dirt road was between us and our destination, so we drug it home. We would consider this a bad trip, but we did discover the Meaning Of The Wheel, which made everything worth while. 3 August 2003 It's been decided. This weekend we're heading south to Mineral County, where we'll explore the Ancient Mysteries of Pamlico and La Panta, and then head SE to uncover the forgotten enigma that is Douglas and possibly even Garfield Mill. If that's not enough excitement for you people than I don't know what is. We're still debating on doing a cookout, or dining in one of Hawthorne's fine eating establishments, and doubling their sales tax revenue for the day. My new gas rack may be ready, allowing me to double my range and carry all the cool drinking water Luis and I can possibly drink. 1 August 2003 Got bored, redid Main Menu. For Luddites who refuse to run Java or Javascript, you may use the Extremely Ugly But Serviceable Site Map. Looks like we're going to head in a Southerly Direction on 9 August to play in the hills east of Hawthorne. Cities of Gold and Mining Camps of Mystery await us. 29 July 2003 It's been too hot to ride, and too many chores that needed to get done. So sue me. Looks like an August 9th trip is planned for Lucky Boy, which is on the road between Hawthorne and Aurora and Bodie. It's in the high elevations so it should be nice and cool. Looks like an interesting area. 19 July 2003 Happy birthday, all you people who were born on July 19! Bet you thought I forgot about you, huh? Finally got an answer back from the Department of Taxation regarding SB117. Only took since February. 15 July 2003 After numerous complaints, the pages for Ellsworth, Craig Station, and Downeyville are finally up. The Middlegate page was updated too. 11 July 2003 This Saturday's itinerary- Downeyville, Craig Station, and Ellsworth, with a possible auxiliary side trip to Simon, if there's time. It just wasn't hot enough last weekend, and now that we know the temperatures are going to be in the triple digits that will make it that much more pleasant. That's right, we're tough guys. I might just wear a black t-shirt too. 4 July 2003
I did succumb to peer pressure and purchase the matching front box from Tamarack. It beats using seventeen bungee cords to tie down my canteens and such, not to mention the aerodynamic element that it affords my quad. I'm not thrilled with the mounting, though- two giant bungee cords around the handles- so I may have to come up with something a bit more elegant. 2 July 2003 Added some comments regarding the Wheel Of Mystery which we found at Omco. Flag Day 2003 I redid the text list of sites because it was getting unwieldy. I was going to use some java-based drop down boxes but I just couldn't find one that I liked- so, it's HTML for now. 11 June 2003 There's talk of returning to the Gabbs area next trip to see Quartz Mountain and Broken Hills, and then sliding down past Omco to see Simon, which we came tantalizingly close to last time by taking a wrong turn. Instead, we turned around so we could see Antone Station, which we never did find, and which also had a dead cow. Circling around the desert looking for traces of foundations while the smell of 800 pounds of rotting hamburger fills the air tends to reduce your exploratorial desires. Someone asked me why we didn't go to Broken Hills and Quartz Mountain first, since they were more established camps. That's because we're explorers, not tourists. We don't go after the sure thing. We don't take the easy route. I just had an idea. I think I'll add what we had for dinner to each page. It is, after all, a big part of our trip. Check out my new case- it's a hard polyethylene case made by Tamarack and so far it has proven to be far superior to the soft cases I've used- and thrown away. You should consider getting yourself one, even if you don't have any ATV. 9 June 2003 OK, I completely redid the entire site selection map-choosing-thingie and have probably screwed everything up beyond repair. But since hardly anyone actually reads this news letter, no one will ever know what happened. But at least now there are only four maps to choose from instead of six or eight, and of course the best improvement is that each and every site is represented by a tasty piece of candy corn, which has been made since the 1880's. Speaking of 1880's, I was speaking to someone at the Phone Company and I asked her if she remembers when there was only one Phone Company, and when you got a long distance call it was a big deal, and people would say, "Telephone! It's Long Distance™!" She didn't. Anyway, we added Atwood, Goldyke, and Pactolus (all in Nye County) and Omco (Mineral County) to the lineup. 5 June 2003 OK, the whole choose-a-site-by-clicking-on-the-map deal has gotten completely out of hand, now that Luis has insisted on visiting sites in other counties. Yes, it's all his fault. So look for a new map-choosing-thingie coming soon, and also some photographs on the sites we visited in Nye and Mineral Counties over this weekend. Yes, Mineral County. 4 June 2003 Now it looks like I'm back in the Ghost Town Web Ring, even without the picture. Of course, I can't tell if I'm corresponding with a 'bot or a person. I was pruning my Russian Olive trees yesterday afternoon without gloves- like an idiot- and I got one of those stupid thorns in my finger which felt like it went all the way into the bone. Fortunately, the swelling has gone down enough to ride Saturday. 3 June 2003 Decided to add an actual page for Pershing County, and some day neighboring counties as well, just because it seemed neater to do it that way. Looks like Luis wants to head south to Nye County this weekend, to check out things in the Gabbs area, before it gets too hot, so look for a report when we get back. 2 June 2003 600 unique and wonderful visitors have come to this web site. Some of them even arrived on purpose. 1 June 2003 Ah, the summer riding season is upon us. On our last trip my odometer turned over 1000 miles, most of those miles right in good old Churchill County. This will be the last year for riding on this set of tires, I'm afraid, they're starting to get a bit thin. I'm on my third box; hopefully this one will last through a few riding seasons. Luis is welding me up a rack which will extend from my present rear rack, to hold gasoline and perhaps a rock specimen or two, so that should be handy. Looks like our next trip will be to the Jessup area- I don't know if we'll have what it takes to go from there to Nightingale on the same day, but you never know. 31 May 2003 OK, the stitches have taken hold and it looks like we're going to take a nice easy trip to the Jessup area possibly around the 7th of June, before it gets too beastly hot up there. Stay tuned. 25 May 2003 Because I'm bored out of my skull, I added a little thingie to the Main Page that discovers where you are from and gives a silly greeting. It's somewhat reliable. 15 May 2003 Went out to the Dog Track today- look for a little blurb on that when I get around to it. No trips for a few weeks- I have to go into dry dock tomorrow and get some barnacles removed, so no bouncing up and down for two, maybe three weeks. Mother's Day 2003 Ove 500 unique visitors since February- and some of them actually arrived here on purpose! 10 May 2003 I added a "more pictures" page for the Desert Queen Mine since- for some odd reason- that page gets more hits than anything else. 8 May 2003 I just ordered a new "trunk" for my ATV, manufactured by
Tamarack.
The original Arctic Cat zipper case that I got the with the quad lasted
about a year before the zipper stopped functioning, rendering it I mean, look at the picture. The arrow points to the part that is stitched to the bag. That's it. That's all you got. One thread holding a piece of Velcro to the nylon. Now, granted, there are several of them at various points around the bag, but you're going to need just a bit more to withstand the strain of holding the bag- which wants to bounce off the rack- to the rack itself. The roads must be very smooth in Taiwan. The new box is molded out of Space Age High Density Polyethylene and, I'm told, is dust tight and water tight. That will be nice, as the old soft cases were neither. Expect to see a glowing report or a vicious smear campaign in these very pages as we put it to the test. 4 May 2003 Put up the Pine Grove page and am working on the Rockland page. 2 May, 2003 Pine Grove tomorrow and I don't think the weather is going to cooperate. I see the forecast has gone from "showers" to "rain." Like we care, right Luis? Luis? I was kicked out of the Ghost Town webring because I won't display their big ugly graphic- oh well. 25 April 2003 Even though it's technically not a historic site, I added Cox Canyon just because I had a lot of photographs from your ride there last year. 24 April 2003 Looks like our next stop will be out of Churchill County as well- Pine Grove, down in Lyon County. This county-hopping is really getting out of hand. Interestingly, the spot is equidistant between our two homes, so I guess that means something. Of course, there is a geocache in the area, so we'll have to visit it. 22 April 2003 Just for the halibut, I uploaded a new picture in the postcards section called "Christo Comes To Seven Troughs" which may soon be seen in a museum near you, when flying pigs darken the sky. In the mean time, you can purchase a 8.5 x 11 print for many hundreds of dollars if you ask, or will trade for gasoline. Or MRE's. I also threw together a page on Seven Troughs just because (a) I've had pictures of the area for over a year (b) I'm bored (c) I know you want to see them. I know, it's in Pershing County. So to make it up to you, I also put up the Chalk Wells page, although I have no idea what used to be there, what it was for, the history, nor do I have that many pictures. But it is, by George, well within the borders of Churchill County, and that's a fact. Easter 2003
400 visitors as of today. Woo hoo! 17 April 2003 Well I added what little I had to the Simpson Route page, just so it would be there waiting when I got my act together and added some other stuff I'm sure I have laying around here somewhere. With Easter coming I doubt we'll be doing any exploring until after the Kids are back in school, which is OK since I have some ATV maintenance to do anyway. 13 April, 2003 OK, back from Rochester with loads of pictures, some of which are up available for viewing. We're going to have to return some day when it's sunnier- nothing makes a good picture like some blue sky. We came in from Limerick Canyon, just because it's more difficult and we're no sissies that come in on the main road like a couple of city boys. Plus, we got lost. The weather sucked and high winds prevented us from planting our flags and claiming Rochester for Churchill County, which needs good ghost towns like this. Found the cache we were looking for, too. Dinner was disappointing, though- it was too windy to light our charcoal and we ended up frying them, plus my eggs were too done. Oh well. 11 April, 2003 OK, Rochester it is, this Saturday, although we're probably going to get rained on, catch a horrible cold, and die, at least we'll get to view the contents of this geocache before we go. I haven't made little Churchill County flags yet. Frankly, I don't see it happening between today and tomorrow, either. The only problem is, where to put it on the site? I'm not going to make a new map. I guess I'll put it on the list somewhere and just make do. I've been adding some web rings (check out the bottom of the main page) in an effort to get some more people here to buy books so I can buy gas. That seems logical to me. I also made the main menu entries shorter, just because. 4 April, 2003 BLASPHEMY! Luis suggests visiting Rochester in Pershing County on our next trip! Why, that's just not right! It's not in Churchill County, not at all! It's not even close enough so that we can say we accidentally strayed, although I suppose I could leave my GPS home- again. I suppose I could change the web site from "Churchill County Historical Sites" to "Historic Sites In and Purty Darn Near Churchill County." Another solution presents itself however. I believe I shall lay claim to that part of Pershing County for Churchill County. There is historical precedent for such an action, and all I would need are some Churchill County flags. If Churchill County had a King or a Queen, that would be handy. It's better to claim land in the name of a Queen than in the name of The County Commissioners. And if Pershing County got snotty about it, I'll bet NAS Fallon would back us up. 1 April, 2003 Added the Salt Wells site, including hundred's of photographs and extensive interviews with all the present employees of Salt Wells. You don't want to miss this one, folks. 28 March 2003 Here is a free clue for you amateur explorers out there- if you're
going to go geo-caching- don't be in such a hurry that you leave
your GPS sitting on the kitchen counter, along with your thermos of
coffee, your radios, your cell phone, and a bunch of other stuff you
need. Luckily, we were able to construct a compass from a catsup squeeze packet, a shoelace, and a can of Fix-A-Flat. (Write for plans.) Thus, we were able to locate the geocache successfully, using the opportunity to leave a few cards with the URL to this web site. We not only visited the Salt Wells sites, but also the site of Rock Springs station, since we were in the neighborhood. 27 March 2003 Terrific wind storm yesterday- several squares of shingles got blown off my roof. I guess there is nothing else to do but... let the wife call the roofer so I can go ride my ATV tomorrow. Finally remembered to check the Geocache site for caches before we leave. Lo and behold, we run right over one of them on our journey. So look for the exciting report of that discovery coming soon. 25 March 2003 OK, looks like the Salt Wells run is on for this Friday; Salt Wells (the historical marker, not that other place) down to Rock Springs, and over the Simpson Pass. We hope to investigate the site mentioned by Davis in his book which you should have by now. Remember when I told you to buy it? You weren't paying attention, were you? Anyway, where was I? Anyway, we'll be covering some of Simpson's Route through Churchill County, stepping in the same places where the infamous Diamond Field Jack himself walked, and gobbling up some of my few remaining MRE's. The historical Salt Wells. Not the other Salt Wells. 23 March 2003 I converted the entire site to use style sheets so if you're thinking to yourself, "Gee, everything looks, like, groovier, man, but I just can't tell what it is," now you know the reason why. And of course, if everything is unbelievably screwed up and unreadable and looks like a big HTML train wreck, you, too, have your answer. 21 March 2003 OK, I'm back. I just traveled over 3000 miles in less than a day- I wonder how many pilgrims from the 1850's would have traded their eyeteeth for that privilege? Not many, if they knew that everything is just a "snack" flight nowadays, and American Airlines considers breakfast to be a container of yogurt, a bag of raisins, and an oatmeal bar. I guess that's what we get for "more room in coach." I need to ride my ATV. 11 March 2003 Going out of town for a few days so don't expect to see much activity. Like you have such big expectations anyway. My junior assistant and I traveled to Hazen last Saturday to snap some pictures just so you'd have something new to look at. Look for a death-defying Bob 'n' Luis trip upon my return- a trip so terrifying, so fraught with peril, so monumentally dangerous that if you knew the grisly details you'd beg us not to go. 8 March 2003 I'm experimenting with a little robot-exclusion file so if you have trouble accessing the site for some reason, email us. Of course, if you were having trouble accessing the site, you wouldn't be reading this, now, would you? I also fixed the Middlegate page and I see now I'll have to adjust the map a bit, since it's not where it's supposed to be, exactly. 7 March 2003 Over 200 hundred visitors. Woo hoo! Let me light the fuse... Now if only each one of them would buy five books.... I'd be up to my neck in gasoline.
3 March 2003 I updated the bibliography page a bit more, mainly by adding some color to separate the sections and adding more Profitable Amazon Links, through which we will finally realize our fortunes and ride the deserts and canyons full time, all for you, of course. Would adding a PayPal link to deposit money directly into our accounts be going to far? 2 March 2003 I added some Amazon links to the Bibliography page in hopes that someone will buy something and I'll get some of the proceeds. I take it you've seen the price of gas lately. Pickups and ATV's don't run on sody-pop, you know. 1 March 2003 Liked to freeze our little tushies off yesterday. Brrr. On top of that, we couldn't find much of anything at Carson Sink Station except a couple of posts claiming that this was the spot. We rode to on to Desert Station in beautiful neighboring Lyon County, the next stop heading west on the Pony Express Station. Stopped at Hot Well for lunch. Luis enjoyed his Beef with Mushrooms MRE and my Chili & Macaroni was quite tasty, although the oatmeal cookie did look like a chunk of 1" particle board. I guess that was the plus side of this particular trip. The things we won't do for you, the web site consumer! 26 February 2003 OK, so I never promised I'd never put any annoying sound files on the web site, did I? I specifically said music. I added a few to the Mines page just to make myself laugh. It worked. Looks like we're going to hit Carson Sink Pony Express Station this Friday. I might even show Luis Wildcat Sation, since he's never been there. I know there's snow on the ground. I know it's cold. I know it's windy. I know we're risking death from exposure. But look, it's either we go, or you go. And frankly, you're just too delicate a flower to risk it. So you just sit back, all comfy in your nice warm house, with your bowl of freshly popped popcorn, and let us do the dirty work. 25 February 2003 Our promise to you- we will never have any kind of annoying music on this web site, particularly the kind that starts with no warning and startles the crap out of you. 24 February 2003 I added a few more places we haven't been to, like Togo, Canyon, and Fairfield. 23 February 2003 Big news. I added a Little Guy In An Easy Chair icon to signify places we haven't visited, like Cox Station. Unfortunately, he is not only reading a counterculture newspaper, but he is partaking of Tobacco Products, Known to the State of [Fill In Your State Here] to Cause Cancer, Birth Defects or Other Reproductive Harm. Even worse, it's a cartoon character, known to entice children into Politically Insensitive and Otherwise Dangerous Behavior. So, our attorneys advised us to issue this disclaimer before you can proceed any further. For documents and software available from this server, we (that is, us, not you) do not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed. The views and opinions of authors expressed on this web sites do not necessarily state or reflect those of you, or anyone we know, although they might, and they may not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. You may submit comments and provide other content so long as the content is not obscene, illegal, threatening, or defamatory and so long as the content does not invade the privacy or infringe the intellectual property of a third party. Well, actually, we have a separate email address for the obscene comments. Further, such content may not contain software viruses, mass mailings, chain letters, or any form of "spam." Good Lord do we hate spam. Ever see what a couple of ATV's can do to your lawn in about fifteen seconds? Keep that in mind, spammers. You may not use a false e-mail address, impersonate any person or entity, or otherwise mislead as to the origin of the information. YOUR USE OF THIS SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE SITE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO RESTRICT OR TERMINATE YOUR ACCESS TO THE SITE OR ANY FEATURE OR PART THEREOF AT ANY TIME. WE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTIES THAT MATERIAL ON THE SITE IS NONINFRINGING; THAT ACCESS TO THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE; THAT THE SITE WILL BE SECURE; OR THAT INFORMATION ON THE SITE WILL BE COMPLETE, ACCURATE, OR TIMELY. IF YOU WAKE UP TOMORROW WITH AN UNCONTROLLABLE URGE TO (a) SMOKE OR USE TOBACCO PRODUCTS OF ANY KIND, (b) RIDE WILDLY THROUGH THE WILDERNESS ON ANY TYPE OF RECREATIONAL VEHICLE, (c) INGEST UNHEALTHY TYPES AND/OR AMOUNTS OF FOOD, AND/OR (d) ANYTHING ELSE, WE FEEL YOUR PAIN, BUT DON'T BLAME US. There. Now that that is done, I can work on really important things, like our Mission Statement. 22 February 2003 I added Fairview Station, although we've never actually been there. I was looking at some maps trying to find Clemens, and I noticed some interesting clues regarding Fairview Station, like the name and location on a map. Clue! 20 February 2003 Unbelievable. Luis doesn't want to go out Friday just because they're pulling a tooth out of his jaw. Why didn't he schedule an early morning appointment? Heck, that Novocain lasts for several hours. It's because he thinks only of himself, never of anyone else. I guess I could use this opportunity to knock the crud off my ATV from the last ride. 19 February 2003 I redid the map of Routes because it was pretty hard to to click on one, since they were so narrow. Now, less accurate, but easier to click on. Also added Emigrant Trail page, with what little information I have on hand.
18 February 2003 I have just received my copy of The Pony Express In Nevada and- quite frankly- I'm disappointed. It doesn't mention any of the stations in the "northern" route at all. So I guess I'm off to the library. I added Beckstead's Station and Benadum's Freight Station, since I had a couple of pictures, although I have no information on either of them, to speak of. I also updated the Routes page a bit, and added a tiny bit of Pony Express stuff, just so I could say, "Yeah, I got some Pony Express stuff." I think yesterday I also added William's Station, even though it's not in Churchill County. Maybe it was. No one really knows where it is. I know I don't. 17 February 2003 OK, all done with converting the old-style pages to the new-style pages. While we're waiting for good weather (or, at least, better weather) I'm going to add a few pages for sites we haven't visited yet, but that I have information for. Oh, there I've gone and ended a sentence with a preposition. 16 February 2003 I'm in the J's now. It snowed last night. Brrr. The Lad and I went to the newly-expanded Nevada State Museum the other day. There were several books I was interested in, and I noted most were published by Patrice Press out of Tucson, Arizona. Checking out their web site I see they publish many interesting books regarding the pioneer trails. 15 February 2003 I added a whole mess of pictures to the Fairview page- just for you, man. Valentine's Day 2003 I have decided on a semi-permanent template for the data pages and am slowly converting them, in alphabetical order. I'm in the "C's" now. Thank God someone has finally signed the guestbook- thank you, Mike! I see we have 88 visitors now, from - I hasten to add- all over the globe. Rain for the next few days- our visit to the Carson Sink Pony Express Station is hereby postponed. I may have to heat up an MRE and console myself. Ah, Jamaican Porkchops, mon! An admirer writes, "Why do we have to look things up using your crummy map? Why can't we just have a simple list?" Your prayers have been answered. There will be some 404 errors- be patient while I get the list to jibe with the actual contents. Also, Fallon's Senator Mike McGinness just introduced a bill to make ATV owners register with the DMV, if you can believe that. Read about it here. 12 February 2003 Began experimenting with a slightly new look for the data pages, as evidenced by this and this. I may continue along these lines or try something else entirely. 10 February 2003 In an effort to find more stuff to do instead of what I'm supposed to be doing, I've added a guest book which you can sign or view, accessible from the main page. In the mean time, I'm working on the "routes" page so you may see it appear, vanish, and reappear as I work on it. 70 visitors now. Luis must be busy passing out the URL. Hey Luis, it's warming up- we need to go for a ride. I also changed the opening "Churchill County Historical Sites" text to a stunning graphic. 9 February 2003 I changed some of the backgrounds to purple because I didn't feel like making any real, significant changes today. I did add another picture on the "postcards" page. And I am working on the Lincoln Highway / Highway 50 page because I finally got around to playing with the maps I got from the Nevada DOT. I'm also waiting to hear from the CC Communications to make sure it won't ruffle any feathers if I post a map from the 1959 Fallon phone book. It's probably public domain by now but why not ask, I always say. Besides, you never want to mess with the phone company, man. If the CIA has its own smart bombs, who knows what these guys got. Wow- 66 visitors- they can't all be my relatives. 7 February 2003 I just ordered a copy of "The Pony Express in Nevada" by Dorothy Mason, from the Tonopah Historic Mining Park in beautiful Tonapah. I've heard tell that this book is very informative regarding Nevada's Pony Express sites. It will be the first of the "non-mining-camp-type" pages, like Highway 50 - The Lincoln Highway, The Overland Trail, and the Pony Express 6 February 2003 OK, I put up the Soda Lake pages but I'm not really happy with them- I need more pictures. Good God it stinks over there, though, maybe in the winter it's a bit less smelly. I doubt it. I also put up a "postcards"
page, accessible from the Main menu. I reckon I've taken about 5,000
photographs so far, and a few of them accidentally have some kind of
artistic value. I applied a Special Artistic Effect to them to make
them look Eerily Wonderful. Someone saw them and said, "Hey, they
look pretty cool- why not make them available as a postcard or something
like that?" OK, it was me who said that. Anyway, all I need now is a $5,000 color laser printer and I can get cracking on that project. (See email address below for directions on where to send donations and/or laser printers.) I also added a short page regarding the photos. 5 February 2003 If you have any comments, or want to know where you can send us gas
money, or think you might be cool enough to go with us, you can drop
us an email at This was never actually meant to be a web site, but rather put on a CD, so some of the pictures may take a while to load if you're on some stinky little dial-up line. But that's not our problem, is it? That's right, all this riding in the desert and exploring has made us heartless and cruel. Especially Luis. I don't know what's gotten into him. It must be old age. Don't cross that boy, that's all I have to say. I see there have been several people looking at the web site. I knew we should have charged money. Anyway, I just loaded Stillwater today- most of the pictures are from the Churchill County Museum. I may just mention here what I've uploaded so you don't have to look all over the place. See, I'm the nice one. Bob, Nice. Luis, heartless and cruel. Remember that. I may do Soda Lake next if I can find the pictures I took. |
of
cables made me realize that I should simplify my life a bit, so I'm
taking my Dell tower and giving it to a needy family, substituting
instead a new even-groovier-than-the-wood-floor Toshiba SATELLITE
A70 laptop and E755 PDA. I can hook the PDA
up to the GPS and watch our bad selves real-time crawl across a genuine
USGS map in full color. 
31
May 2004
13
February 2004
A
surprise snow storm from out of the north. Very cool. I'm spending this
week looking up a few things at the library. I added (finally) the page
on 
Well
I've been playing with my new toy, the National Geographic Seamless
USGS Topographic Maps on CD-ROM for the State of Nevada. Very cool.
Unlike the DeLorme 3-D Topo Quads product which gives you half the state
for more money, the N.G. software gives you the whole state and
all three sets of maps, that is, 1:24,000, 1:100,00 and 1:500,000 in
addition to National Geographic maps of the country. You also get 500K
maps of surrounding states. DeLorme gives you only the 24,000 series
maps and their own funky maps which don't really match up well with
the USGS maps. The NG map gives you five levels of mapping plus you
can zoom in and out on each level, so in reality it gives you more than
the DeLorme software does. 
I
did like some of the drawing tools on DeLorme, but you couldn't load
all the map data on your hard drive like you can with the N.G. product.
Plus- the printouts are very high-quality, compared to the nasty resolution
DeLorme maps.
6
November 2003
We're
going after an easy one this time, just to soothe our battered pride-
we'll be checking out the rotting carcass of Ludwig and environs this
weekend. Copper is the name of the game here, and Ludwig was at the
terminus of the Nevada Copper Belt Railroad back in them days.
It's
a national holiday, and here I am typing. What I won't do for you. Looks
like we're planning another expedition to Nye County- Broken Hills?
Simon? Downeyville? Ellsworth? We just don't know yet. We do know that
we're going to give Middlegate some business come dinnertime.
useless.
Then I bought some other generic soft case made by someone in Taiwan
who wants to remain anonymous- and I can understand why. What a piece
of garbage. It broke on me going down a dirt road, for crying out loud.
I mean, all it has to do is sit on the stupid rack. We're not talking
about a real tough life here. But oh no, they decided to attach the
Velcro loops to the bag with an amazing 1/8" of an inch of fabric,
held by a single stitch of thread.
I
note today that Google and Yahoo both seem to have included this site
in their indexes, which should result in (a) more visitors and hence
(b) more gas money. We can only hope.
100
visitors. Whoopee!
