Vacations and time Tech

well, I took a Vacation. I had done a a blog post a week for a year or two, so I would giving it a break.
So, what did I do , well I went on the one eighty west century:

From 9-18-2010

which went by the Richard Nixon Libary and Boyhood home:


and the Santa Ana river trail:

and I went into Downtown Ontario:

From 9-25-2010

From 9-25-2010

and got geeky with my airplanes:

From 9-19-2010

but mostly i've been working on my other writing. I decided to combine two of my hobbies by taking a trip to Vincennes, Indiana to do some research.
It would have been cheaper to stay here , but some times it does pay to get you boot wet, so to speak.
As an example, My Character were living near Fort Wayne,, In when the Shawnee moved to Cape Girardeau. The route was to take the Portage ("The Glorious gate") from the Maumee to the Wabash and trudge down the Wabash to the Ohio, and the Mississippi. I had my folks walking across the plan and down the Little Wabash to the Forks at Huntingdon. I had them take some canoes across the main channel and the ford the next stream, the Salamonie, where one of my minor characters would fall in, catch Pneumonia, and die (Yes, I'm evil).
Only I started to use the Satellite services available with google maps. and lo and behold, there appears to be some rapids in Huntingdon:

View Larger Map
A least the appear they appear to be rapids. I tried using Street View to get a better look, but no luck,as Google hasn't driven their van down the street that runs by the rapids yet.
So , while I'm probably go going to be doing some rewriting here in the evening(not only That, but my character is staging a miraculous comeback), it looks another Trip in order. I need to do some other investigating while I'm there. now do I fly to Ft Wayne, Indianapolis, or Dayton? and from La/Ontario OR LAX? Southwest, where I don't have to pay for my bags, make my friend Phil (the SWA pilot happy) , but only goes to Indy (Lots more driving). Or fly United, Make my other friend Liesel (The United Pilot) happy, get to fly into Ft Wayne ,where I'm thinking should start (or Dayton), or make my Uncle Henry happy (I think he told me his company had the toiler paper contract with Braniff before they went under) and fly American and schedule a nice long layover in D/FW, pay for my luggage and fly in an Embraer. (they do make it to my AAdvantge. how do i get the little eagle to appear between the A's)

Actually, I don't mind flying in Regional Jet. I've got some time before I have to commit, so it's time to go (for now)

Follow the river

Combining my writing and bicycling, I did a trip on The Santa ana river. in the late 1700s'(I almost wrote my day), rivers were indeed the Freeway , as far as they were the fast and easy way of getting there:

Sunday, I also went back in time, but not as far as I went the Planes of Fame museum:

Sometimes, History is till here, as PSA is still in business. Us airways named the regional subsidiaries after the airline that made up the "old" US air, Allegheny, Piedmont and PSA.

And they did a little bit more, too
Click Here to view the photo of an Airbus painted in PSA colors

The Terrian of History

I was think about on Bike ride Saturday, as I was crossing the Santa Ana River:

From 8-28-2010

and I since I've been working on My historical fiction , I've been thinking how people crossed the river without bridges. The Santa Ana is no big deal, but since my writing focuses on the early settlers of my Home county (That way I can Claim Cape Girardeau as well as Jackson) My character will have to cross the Mississippi. A slightly bigger Hurdle.
I 'm still working on how they did this. Most Native tribe kept Canoes at convenient locations and used a honor system to ensure that not all the canoes wound up on one side.
My Main concern with this was the Mississippi's Current. the Present day current is powerful enough that you will wind up downstream of where you planned. This was not as big of problem, mainly because Humanity has changed and Tamed the river so it more predictable and doesn't wipe State Capital on whim, like happened at Kaskaskia, where the church and the bell is all that is left, and it's now on the "wrong" side of the river:

From 7-8-2010

The river is now narrowed, deeper, and Faster.
And the land has changed , too. Most of the Original settler were Shawnees. Among was a young would become famous in the War of 1812: Tecumseh. He moved from Fort Wayne to Cape in 1788 from what is now Fort Wayne, Indiana. They largely followed the Wabash to the Ohio and then the Ohio to Present day Cario, Il and then up "the Father of the Waters"
Only My research showed that Tecumseh had an accident near Paducah, KY and broke his hip. He eventually walked the 60 miles form Paducah to Cape on Crutches (You don't me to give away the whole story. do you?) My question was why was on the Kentucky side? Not only the did the have to cross the Ohio, but also the Cumberland and the Tennessee.
we turn to history. Not was the Illinois side a swamp, but you may have noticed that I didn't say present day Paducah. That's because there was a Chickasaw Village there(Paducah is named for their Chief , Paduke ) and they probably would have stopped there to resupply, consider the only other spot where they could was Vincennes, IN and they may not had much luck there, as that was a Major US outpost at the time.
Just a reminder that we think is permanent, is indeed, Impermanent

Honey, I don't think this is a bike blog

Ok, what's a picture of Boiling water doing in a bike blog? and yes, I need to clean my stove better.
Well, doing research and writing my novel, I found out about some traditional foods in early America. One of the food that people I am currently writing about, The Shawnee, passed on to us is Johnnycakes -which most people think is a mangling of "Shawnee Cakes". So I decided to little experiential research and cook up a batch.
The first item was cornmeal. No big deal. I headed over to Fresh and Easy. They had cornmeal in a 5 pound bag, which for me would be lifetime supply.
I managed to find a one pound can of Quaker at Wal-mart, so it was on again. The next question was what recipe to follow. A lot of them seem to be awfully modern ("mix water, cornmeal, and High Fructose Corn Syrup").In the end, I picked this recipe from whatscookingamerica.net. While I did question the milk (Cows were viewed as "big Knife", or Colonial animals) , I liked the touch of Bacon Drippings. No , Neither Fresh and Easy or Wal-mart had a can of Bacon Drippings. I guess I could have fried up a slab ("bacon Drippings" is the grease left over after frying) Since I would be using my trusty Whirlpool fire,. I Figured I could use PAM.
I combined the ingredients as specified, and then had a problem. The recipe called for the mixture to be fairly thick, but I had something the consistency of soup. I stirred in enough cornmeal to make it thick enough (I used yellow instead of white cornmeal, That must be it. right!) and then fried the results:

I garnished it with Low - Calorie Imitation Maple Syrup (plenty of HFCS there) and real butter.
The result: I haven't died. yet. It may be a little bland compared to our modern foods, and that my be part of our dietary problems, but still it was a good time for a good cause.
and just in case you need a bicycling fix:

The undiscovered county

No, not that

This is o road a lot of folk don't know about. it's right off Glendora Mountain road.
It wasn't quite as long, and I probably could have done more if I had went around the gate.
I've been blogging less and writing more. Maybe one day I'll get it done and published

The Grandmother road

I did another of my old haunts, the ride up Cajon pass. It went O<
I tried the newest advance in sports nutrition. Meet Mr. Gum E. Bear:

This house is on the crest by Glen Helen park:

with Interstate 15 in the background:

My legs did give out about 3/4;s of the way up the climb to Devore (1 mile of 10% Grade), but I did take a shot of downtown:

Back down 12-13%:

and we're there:

Route 66 is now just a lonely desert road with lots of differed maintenance:



soon, I was where it merges into I-15, so I turned around:

I walk up the grade back into devore. I prefer to think of it as addition by subtraction.

Not My day

I decide to do a ride i've been planning for a while:

Thing did not start out well, as I ran over a needle. It took me about 20 minutes to get it out.
I made all the sights, only I couldn't spot the arrowhead. here's a better picture

all in all, a pleasant and enjoyable day. Not what you'd expect from san berdoo

Changes in attitudes

Ok, I'll admit i've neglecting this. For a whole week!
I've been out doing some rides I haven't done in a while. Friday , I did Glendora Mountain road. At least part of it:

It was little different on the bent. I didn't have to stop and take panting breaks, but legs did get sore, plus I wanted to go home and do some errands
Sunday, I did another ride that I haven't done in a while:

It's good to to have the confidence to do these rides on my recumbent. but what about those crazy long distance rides of yore?
Well, as my friend Liesel (the 747 pilot) said, 'you've got a life outside the bike'. It's true,I've found fun learn about new computer stuff (not to mentioned continued employment). I've found fun and (and maybe a new career, Hah!) writing. and its hard to do those things with doing 12 hour bicycle rides every other weekends. so it's adios to Paris Brest Paris and hola to:
It was a dark and stormy night along the Father of Water. Lame Horse cursed his long knife , Ben, for forgetting to leave a canoe on this bank. Just then , Rabbi Lieberman rode by on his lay down horse. He knew then he had too much firewater...

Time trip

These are still from last week
The other town of my Childhood is Cape Girardeau, MO is river two, of course some times the river get a little close,like at the themis st. flood wall

The flood wall has murals on it:

let's walk up to Main:

and then to Spanish and the common pleas courthouse:

can I make it up the steps?

actually , I think that was the first time I ever walked up the steps
On the backside/Lormier st are the the two Civil War monuments. The Granite one is the Confederate, and the fountain is Union(Missouri was represented in both governments and had troops on both sides

Since I had flat Lion along, I walked another block:

I came back by the original murals, Those on the Southeast Missourian building:


and another Cape Landmark, the N'orleans. Rush Limbaugh III (aka "Radio Rush") once recommend this to some who wanted an "affordable" place to eat (I was forced to listen to his show). which is ok, if your idea of affordable is $20 a person. It's now out of business. The KFVS building (12 stories - "Tallest Building between Saint Louis and Memphis") is in the background

I finally walked down Broadway. This gate was open, I'm standing next to the Old Bucker- Ragsdale Store - where we went to get fancy duds.!

this old bailing was the headquarter of another of my Heroes, Louis Houck:


Google insisted on putting this last even thought it isn't. an omen?

le nouveau francais

One of my reason for coming back was to do a little research for my fiction.
We stopped in the little town of Kaskaskia, Illinois. This town is odd in that it is now on the west bank of the Mississippi. The river changed course and went through the middle of town. it's most important because on July 4, 1778, George Rogers Clark and his troops to the town from the British and told the mainly French citizens of the Franco-American alliance(which had nothing to do with spaghetti) The bell was rung by Fr Pierre Gibualt (doesn't ring a bell? look him up)

the only thing left of the town is the Catholic Church. It was rebuilt after the flood of 1844 which wiped out the town, but subsequent floods have made it a ghost town:

a big street leaving the town:
]
we then went on to Saint Genevieve, which was founded in the 1700. this is the Bolduc house from 1780:


Maybe I should move back:

we then went to the Gibourd house,which is from 1806:

The flags of New Spain, New France, and the US (what happened to the Osage?)

we then ended up the day at the Amoureux house, it's owned by the State of Missouri, and dates from 1760:

It was a great day , I had not been to Sainte gen (at least the historic houses, since high school, and this gave some new insights

going home

Since the Lord has been good to me, I took another trip home.
one of the things we do at St. Marks is have a Flat lion photo contest. we take a paper lion and photograph it on our travels:

From 7-8-2010

I was at the Ontario airport, some neat stuff:

George Chaffey founder of ontario:

My first flight of the day was to Dallas:

we had a little rain, but then I flew into Saint Louis:

It was dark by the time I got to Cape,
Saturday Morning, I rented a Dodge Avenger. great car, unless you want to back up:

I went to old McKendree chapel:


and then went to the Mall with Mom. we ran into my Brother there:

Mom and I then went on to the Lorimer house museum, it's closed during the winter:



I bought a replica British Guniea coin as a keepsake, and then we took off to Illinois and the Thebes Courthouse. This is where Dred Scott won his freedom, but lost it on appeal. The river (Mississippi) is in the Background:

and from the Missouri side

The Emerson Bridge. The River is in flood stage: