Monday, May 30, 2011

Doing The Right Thing

I decided to today to complete my little driver down the Wabash that I started in April.
There was just one little problem

Good thing I have a flood in the plot!
My ride was Hecho en Mexico: A Nissan Sentra

I didn't make all the to Fort Ouienton, but I turned around about 20 miles shy in Attica, Indiana with John Mellencamp singing "Pink Houses" on the radio:

I stopped in Terre Haute and took some photos of the Vigo County Courthouse:


I stopped by the George Rogers Clark memorial. A little Bit different than Yesterday:

From Vincennes Memorial day 2011
I paused here at the Grotto.
From Vincennes Memorial day 2011
For some reason, I've felt drawn to this little town. Since this a nice muggy 95 degree summer day , hanging out with Our Lady in the shade and pondering the mysteries of life sounded like a good idea. she told me to go inside the memorial:

yes that's same top I wore in October . George told me he likes it.
There is a little cemetery by the Cathedral that has the Graves of several folk who fought here in 1779. The Only one that was decorated was Joesph Bowman, the only casualty:

Compared to the defeats I wrote about in Fort Wayne last month, This probably ranks as one of the American armed forces greatest victories. When Henry Hamilton, the British commander of sackville, surrendered, he said to George Clark "Where is the rest of your army?" (Hamilton had him outnumbered 3 to 1) Clark's reply "This is my army."
There several other Graves of Veteran of The siege of Fort Sackville, but died later on:

no one
no had bothered to decorate their graves. A Trip to Walmart was in order:

that's better!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Rendezvous with the past


Well, today I used my Nissan Sentra I got from Hertz to go back in time 200 years.
I drove down to the George Rogers Clark Memorial for the Rendezvous. I was supposed to meet my guide at the "cannons". As you can imagine, the big question was which Cannons. I found some likely cannons in time for the worship service. I had a decision, but not a tough one

I walked over to the museum and saw a sign for the Northwest Territory Alliance. I asked where I could find Marilyn. We eventually met, and I spent the better part of two hours talking to various people about the roles they were re-creating.

From Evv
It was then time for lunch : turkey legs (from St James episcopal,Vincennes)

and an ear of corn from the Kiwanis. Watch out for the oxen:

I went back to the Museum. Air conditioning in 90 degree Indiana weather? ahh) bought books, and patronized the vendors who were selling period authentic goods well , except for the guy selling pens made in China) , and talked to people who caught my eye. This was hard, as I am shy. Good way to expand my horizons. soon it was time for the battle:

From Evv
I was not sure about attending the battle, but it was really a boon (lots of details caught my eye, which means, yes, lots of rewrites).
The troops marched past as I was buy yet more books(on period clothing) , some of which was from NWTA.


I closed out the day by thanking Marilyn, My host. I then attended the Closing Ceremonies on the Clark memorial:


before heading back to my car and the present day.
Mr. Turkey legs invited me back next year. we'll see if I can make it.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

The big Jerk(y)

In the interest of writing research ,I did another experiential cooking session: I attempted to make jerky.
You start out with meat cut of you choice. I chose pork because it was on sale
you then cut away all the fat:
(yes, I need to clean my counter tops)
You then slice the meat into thin slices, very thin, like 1/6 to 1/18 inch. This was fun enough with modern utensil,s I can imagine doing it with stone tools.
You then add some seasoning (I used a pre-made mix by Lem, but back in the day, they would have used salt and whatever local herbs they could find.

historically, curing was done by letting strips dry over a flame or out in the air for several weeks, both of which are guaranteed not to meet with Landlord approval. I went back to bass pro and picked up a drying rack. I could have gotten a dehydrator or even a Jerky Cannon(makes jerky- sized strip out of ground meat). You put in the oven and set it for 150 degrees F and let it go for 8 hours.
The result: makes me glad I live in 2011 and not 1811(should have used PAM on the rack). It was worth it, since it gave me some inspiration.
Until next time, keeping on dreaming..

biking on baldy


I admit , I had planned the music to match the ride.
I started out by riding by Ontario airport. Some Fedex md-11's being loaded:

I rode up to Fontana and took a self portrait:

New section of the PET:

I did the short grind ride,Pete Figuredo was going to ride up to shinn road with me, but he feel. so I went solo
For only being 10 miles in, there was a good crowd there:


here they come:


and there they go:

very fast. If you really want to watch bicycle racing in person, go to a velodrome. I pedaled home and turned on Versus

Sunday, May 15, 2011

a pow-wow we will go

I did the club ride on Saturday, it was a little Cloudy at the start:

it Burned off some by the time we got to Benson. Still some snow on Mt Baldy:

One of these days, I 'll get this thing to trip:

Today, I noticed that there was a Pow wow in San Bernardino and since my literary endeavors involve native Americans, I decided to attend. It was at the Orange show complex:

since it was raining,I decided to go inside and listen to the gourd dance:

everyone was getting into it :

after it looked like the sun was I wondered around outside. I bought some earring , including a pair of silver bears to match the turquoise ones I have already (Maybe My Indianian name should be bicycling bear) I also had that typical Native dish : a chicken Burrito.

I stuck around for the grand entrance:


before heading home:

while we're on the subject of Native Americans, here's a little video I made whil I was in Fort wayne of the Wabash- Maumee portage. It owuld have been longer, but I need to figure out abetter way of doing in car videos. I could have worn my helmet, but I really didn't want to meet any of Fort Wayne's Finest:

Of course, after seeing this, you may want to call me "drunken bear".
Until next week

Sunday, May 08, 2011

May Gray

Been playing around with my droid. I finally figured out how to make a video:

this is from the Bass Pro shop here in Rancho. I came out with $90 of crocs shoes.
Friday, I went to Al Capone's house in Fontana:
From Book fair
Saturday, it was gray and drizzly:
From 5-7-2011
I went up Lytle Creek road:
From 5-7-2011
and at 3400 feet, got above the clouds:
From 5-7-2011
Pretty neat experience.

Sunday, May 01, 2011

Foursquare and the Fair

I went on a bike ride yesterday. I stopped by the site of the Old PAL studios:

The engineer was some guy called Frank:

a neat Mural:
From 5-1-2011
I decide to go to the La Times Festival of Books. I missed the early train, but no problem, no one takes the Metrolink on weekends, right?
Well, this weekend is the Lemon Festival in Upland, so downtown was packed. I got a ticket, despite the vending machine insisting there were no train that day, was soon on a Bombardier car going to Union station:
From Book fair
Once I got there, I hopped on a shuttle bus:
From Book fair
and was soon face to face with Tommy Trojan:
From Book fair
They had a number of seminars that could have been of interest to me as an aspiring writer, but there were all sold out. so I wandered around outside:
From Book fair
I've also been playing around with Foursquare. while it is neat, you do have to have GPS enabled on your phone. I usually keep mine, which does produce some strange results. Hopefully, I won't make it on Pleaserobme.com. I did manage to persuade my phone and Foursquare that I was on the USC campus, and checked in.
I found out that UCLA has extension program for people like me, but the folks running the booths for USC and Chapman U were much more friendly. hmm (USC and Chapman are private - more tuition) Made the trip worth it. Chapman had a project where you wrote down a word, thy took your picture with it, and then the students would try and make a story with it.
I wandered around and around some more. Curiously, the part devoted to Food books seemed more busy. Probably because they were handing out free samples. I was also thinking about an analysis I heard on the royal wedding hoopla - That we, as a society, have been trending toward "reality" entertainment rather then "fictionalized." Maye I should devote my energies to "Revolutionary Idol" instead.
I found a free seminar that was interesting, but glanced at my watch. Time to go back to union station.
Turns out everyone else had that idea, too. Thankfully, they had a larger bus. we went by City Hall:
From Book fair
(the "effect" is the Target "advertising" wrap on the bus) before making it back to Union station.
From Book fair
If you've never been there, it's worth a trip. LAUPT was built in the late 30's, at the height of rail travel, and is wonderfully maintained as a period piece.
I bought a Madeline doll for a souvenir( The Times is using the artwork from the books as theme for this year.
From Book fair
before riding the Hyundai car back:
From Book fair
Of course, we stopped at Pomona for an hour due to ride with a medical condition, so maybe I should have taken the later train. I didn't want to go today, as there is an Immigrant rights march downtown in honor of May Day. Plus Metrolink has even less service on Sundays.
One other I did a bit different was I did'nt take my camera, but relied on phone for pictures - worked out well. Amazing how much "phones" have progressed.