Anne's blog

2010-04-04T07:27:00.000-04:00

2010-03-28T21:49:00.002-04:00

Fantasy baseball draft went fairly well I think. It has been a blast hanging out with the league for spring training! We saw the Diamondbacks-Indians today and the Cubs-Mariners today. I'll try to to write more tomorrow from Flagstaff or Sedona or somewhere like that.

Links to pictures

2010-03-26T10:59:00.002-04:00

links to pictures:

Big Bend Day 2

Big Bend Day 3

UFO

El Paso

2010-03-23T21:37:00.002-04:00

Big Bend Day 1 Pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2734769&id=2260239&l=f739972cca

My first day I planned on doing most of the easy trails and get orientated to the park. First, I love Big Bend and want to go spend a couple of weeks in the area sometime. I also enjoyed staying at Upstairs at the Mansion, and I will post pictures later of staying there along with a more detailed description!

I started at Rio Grande Village, as it was windy and dare I say cold, and in theory that part of the park would be warmer than the mountains. I took the nature trail thinking it would be an easy introduction, but it involved a nice climb to the top of a hill for a great view of the Rio Grande. I was able to walk down to the bank too and I got way off the trail and had trouble finding my way back. I did NOT enter Mexico.

After that, I took the Boquillas Canyon Trail which was easy and pretty. Lots of Mexican selling things on this trail.

Then, I drove to the other side of the park for two more hikes: Tuff Canyon and Santa Elena. Tuff Canyon was easy and fun, and Santa Elena Canyon was definitely the highlight of the day. As you drive towards it, all you can see is this massive, towering canyon wall and it is very humbling. The hike is short, but beautiful.

This is a lame entry, more later.

2010-03-18T23:38:00.000-04:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2732457&id=2260239&l=d818f804a0

link to pictures

Curious Kumquat!

2010-03-18T21:40:00.003-04:00

I had the most wonderful meal tonight. Serendipity may be the right word to describe my ending up there. After a wonderful day outdoors, I was hungry and in my hotel room contemplating getting delivery or take out. The hotel info guide had an ad for the Curious Kumquat, which advertised "hot dinners to go." Perfect, carryout that would not be Chinese or pizza. So I called because it was near their closing time according to the ad. As it turned out, they did not have meals to go, but they had meals to eat in. The person on the phone sounded nice so I thought why not eat out tonight? Not what I planned, but I didn't want cheap Mexican or American.

So I dined at the Curious Kumquat, and was delighted. They use only local foods from what I understand so their menu no doubt will constantly change. The meal was prix fixe and well worth the price; I have paid more for mediocre food which is always frustrating, but when a meal is excellent, I enjoy splurging. I chose the pork belly blue corn tacos as my main dish. The first item brought out was bread, butter, and olives. Really good olives. Next was avocado ice cream with Mesquite blini (I think I'm spelling that right). All I can say again is delicious. Also there was amuse bouche - parsley sugar disc with local bee pollen and lavender(I stole that description from the chef's blog.) Next was the chimayo soup which the server said was sort of like a squash soup. Whatever it was, I loved it. Then came the tacos. The pork is cooked sous-vide which I won't explain, but hopefully wikipedia gets it close enough: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sous-vide. The blue corn tortillas I believe are made in house. Other than not being quite sure how to eat these and I kind of made a mess, I was very very happy with this entree. The crema avocado that accompanied the tacos especially stood out.
Then, the dessert! A warm chocolate cake. Yum.

The service was wonderful, and it turned out there was an Earlham connection as one of the servers/owners was an ESR graduate! Small world.

Actually you can see pictures of some of the food at the chef's blog: http://blogquat.blogspot.com/

What a wonderful meal and totally unexpected! Yes, I'm a terrible restaurant reviewer, but this place was great!

I spent the morning at City of Rocks State Park climbing around on rocks. Awesome. Then I grabbed lunch at a vegetarian deli which was very good, and headed back into the Gila Wilderness to the Catwalk. It's a beautiful area, although part of the Catwalk was inaccessible due to a bridge being replaced. I think I'd like to come spend a week or so in this area and try some of the tougher hikes in the Gila Wilderness. I'm finding Silver City very friendly.

I will get pictures posted later.

Gila Cliff Dwellings/Silver City

2010-03-17T21:12:00.002-04:00

Link to pictures:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2731993&id=2260239&l=5847c903b3

The Gila Cliff Dwellings made a wonderful day trip from Silver City. This is a beautiful part of the world. The drive is exceptional. On the way back to Silver City, I felt like I was one with the car and the road. It was the most enjoyable drive of my life, through twisty mountain roads, splashing through water that ran over the road, taking in the scenery.

The cliff dwellings didn't disappoint. It's about a three mile hike round trip, passing by the beautiful Gila River.

Back in Silver City, I wandered around town. I ate at Diane's Restaurant, which I thought was pretty good if a bit expensive. I rarely order steak, but tonight I had the Southwest Ribeye--very good. I walked around some more and ended up eating delicious gelato. Yum!

I forgot to mention that the drive from Roswell to White Sands is another of my favorites. You can see mountains in the distance from all angles.

White Sands!

2010-03-17T08:44:00.002-04:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2731796&id=2260239&l=83f3ff5920

Links to photos above! White Sands was amazing. Last time I visited I did not have much time to hike, so I got there in the morning and took two hikes. One was an easy nature trail, though I met two retired men on the hike that made for fun hiking companions. They had actually heard of both Macalester and Earlham and thought it was awesome I was taking a trip by myself.

After that hike, I decided to try to hike the Alkali Flats Trail. It is 4.5 miles leading deep into the dunes. I completed the whole trail in about two hours. It was beautiful. There were a few other people before me on the trail, but it was very peaceful and I definitely enjoyed the solitude. I'm very glad I did it! Most of the pictures are on this trail. They might all look alike, but every view was a little different. None of the pictures really describe the depth of the dunes.

After that, I drove to Silver City. Despite drinking lots and lots of water I think I was a little dehydrated. I ate at Jalisco's which I thought was very good. The guacamole with jalapenos especially stands out! The food was spicy which is a nice change of pace from the Midwest. I drove around town, but then unfortunately needed to get back to the hotel to feed my Lost addiction. Decent episode but I just want it to be over.

Gila Cliff Dwellings today!

Washita/Aunt's ranch/Roswell

2010-03-16T08:15:00.005-04:00

Sunday was a beautiful day, and I had several stops. One was to Braums for ice cream and a burger. Again with the memories, I remember my grandpa taking me to Braum's when we would visit. We didn't talk much, but I cherish those memories anyway. I saw a grandpa with his granddaughter in Braum's, and they weren't talking much, but hopefully it's all good. OK enough of that.

Next, I went to Washita Battlefield National Monument. It was on the map and sounded interesting, so I went. It is near a small town named Cheyenne in the Black Kettle National Grassland. Black Kettle was a peace chief of a southern Cheyenne tribe that was massacred by George Custer in 1868, in a pre-dawn attack that killed women, children, and many ponies. They purposely killed ponies to destroy their culture and make it difficult to escape. The museum at the monument has an exhibit called "Clash of Cultures." Indeed. Two very different cultures come into contact with each other so there will be inevitable clashes. However, I'm very sympathetic to the American Indian viewpoint. Some, like Black Kettle, were trying to make treaties to preserve their way of life and allow the white man to settle; but others understandably did not want their culture destroyed. I'm pretty sure if invaders entered the United States many Americans would fight back. I don' t know how things could have gone differently, unless European settlers decided the land was not so important that they needed to murder people. Many of the visitors at the monument had written their reactions to what they learned, and most were angry about the massacre and wondered how to end cycles of violence that consistently repeat themselves throughout human history. We can look back and say that was awful, but we continue to engage in these cycles with different players and cultures. I don't have an answer! But, I'm really glad I visited the monument.

Next I went to my Aunt Nola's ranch! This was really fun and we had a great visit. There were many friendly dogs, donkeys, and even a miniature horse to visit! Also my cousin's bird Gulliver who seems to have been around forever is staying with my aunt. The ranch was very beautiful. It would be wonderful to wake up to wide open spaces like that every morning. Of course, I could never be a rancher, so that is not going to happen.

Monday I drove to Roswell, partly on Route 66. It was kind of dreary, but a nice drive overall. Roswell is an odd town. I remember thinking that last time I visited, and it held up this time. The art museum had mostly modern art I did not understand, although had a nice exhibit on Robert Goddard the rocket scientist.

Roswell has a serious traffic problem. As I drove past the International UFO Museum looking for a parking space, all the power went off in downtown Roswell--stop lights included. Because of the nightmarish traffic, this was an unpleasant situation. I turned around, found my hotel, checked in, then walked to the museum since the rain had stopped. The museum is mostly newspaper articles and affidavits about the Roswell UFO incident of 1947. I find it fascinating. The museum was crowded. I wonder how many people believe it or just find it an amusing place to stop on a trip?

I ate at a place several said was the locals' favorite called Peppers Bar and Grill. The burrito was pretty good, and all of Roswell was in it so it was a bit chaotic.

Heading to White Sands and Silver City today! Weather looks MUCH better today.

2010-03-15T19:24:00.000-04:00

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2731079&id=2260239&l=c6d5e8d610

That is a link to pictures.

Oklahoma!

2010-03-13T20:10:00.007-05:00

My parents grew up in Oklahoma, and every year we would take at least one trip to Oklahoma to visit my grandparents in Shawnee and Oklahoma City. Some of my fondest memories are spending time with my grandma in Shawnee at Christmas and in the summer, especially one week when I stayed with them by myself while my parents were elsewhere. So, today I spent a couple of hours in Shawnee finding my grandma's house and my great grandmother's house, eating at Hamburger King which is a great Main Street diner, and driving around various neighborhoods in Shawnee. Grandma's house is still there though it doesn't look the same. Oh well. I'm in Oklahoma City tonight. We never spent as much as time with the grandparents in OK City, and I don't remember where they live. I'd like to find their houses though, but not this trip. The one I remember best was their last house, which was probably the house they lived in the least amount of time.

At Hamburger King, I had a cheeseburger, onion rings, and a slice of chocolate pie. Pictures below.

Besides trips down memory lane, I also visited the George Washington Carver National Monument. I mostly associate GWC with peanuts, but he was so much more. He was very close to nature, very spiritual, very wise, and very simple. Someone described him as having the mind of a scientist with the soul of a saint. I'm convinced that is true after visiting the monument. There is a nice little museum, and a peaceful nature trail to reflect upon his life. I highly recommend stopping here. It puts everything in perspective.

Pictures at the link below: (note vegetarians/vegans might want to skip over the hamburger picture. ) I'm uploading pictures to facebook at the moment. Not sure if I will keep doing it this way, but right now it seems the simplest.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2729715&id=2260239&l=1d83761d76

Southwest Road Trip!

2010-03-12T13:01:00.001-05:00

In a few hours, I'm leaving on another road trip, this one to Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. I probably will updating the blog with what I'm up to and posting pictures, or links to pictures on facebook. Thanks for reading!

O negative blood

2009-06-08T20:47:00.004-04:00

I did a search to learn how many people have O negative blood. I found out today while participating in a student research project I have O negative blood--I'm sure I knew that but had forgotten. Anyway, mostly normal stuff about blood shortages and the RH factor came up, but the sixth thing on Google had the headline:

"Type O Negative Blood Hints At Prince Charles As Descendant of Reptilians."

I won't post the link because it crashed my browser, but subsequent searches revealed a number of conspiracies about Type O- blood including ancient astronauts, reptilian conspiracies, alien abductions, Illuminati, and so on as you might imagine. I had no idea.

MLK, Jr. at Earlham College

2009-05-21T11:48:00.001-04:00

Great picture of Martin Luther King, Jr. at Earlham College April 1959

May in Earlham History

2009-05-12T09:27:00.007-04:00

Earlham College Pressroom

Link will take you to Earlham's pressroom, which now has a "This Month in Earlham History" feature, with images from the Earlham College Archives. May Day is featured for the month of May.

Summer Plans

2009-05-10T17:40:00.003-04:00

I just realized I have two weeks vacation to take before the end of June. This means I likely will not get quite as much work as I had planned in the next month or so. I will take a week off for moving and random days in May. Plus I will gone the second week of August and a little more going to SAA and visiting Rafia (AGAIN--she better feel privileged.)I am also dogsitting and housesitting through the first week of July, giving me a great deal of time to get the house in order before really moving. I've been camping out the last couple of nights to get away from the loud and smoky environment I've been living in for the last few months. Freedom is HERE!

I need to get working on my poster for SAA--better start that this week so it is not last minute.

I now own a house!

2009-05-10T10:14:00.005-04:00

I never thought I would buy a house, but here I am. Pictures if you scroll down one post. I will post more pictures later, after I actually move in perhaps.

I enjoyed going to Earlham's commencement activities yesterday.

Now that most students are gone, it will be interesting to see if I get more or less work done on long-term projects. Last summer (my first) we had quite a few genealogists and "outside" researchers visit, but overall I think it will be less hectic. And no evening and weekend shifts all summer! Yay! (although I think it is good we have those hours and I try not complain too much about them--it is a good time for students to get work done, and that is very important!).

House I bought!

2009-04-17T20:48:00.006-04:00

My house!!!

Here is a picture of the exterior:

Here is a picture of the eat-in kitchen (I will keep that range and refrigerator)

Here is the picture of the sunroom:

Three Things

2009-04-05T18:50:00.004-04:00

I am currently obsessing over:

1. Buying a house
2. Work Projects including a large digitization project, Archon v. Archivist's Toolkit, and a presentation I'm giving at MAC
3. Battlestar Galactica and what it means to be human. Also finally read Children of Men which I believe to be about the same topic.

What You Can Do With a History Major

2009-03-06T10:50:00.007-05:00

Today I am sitting on a lunch panel to discuss "What you can do with a History degree." I believe I am the only person from the "information" professions on the panel. Other panelists include three history professors. I thus suspect it will be weighted to college teaching and going to grad school in History.

What will I talk about? Well, I have a master's degree in History, and a masters degree in Information, specializing in Archives and Records Management. Like many people, I became interested in archives primarily because of an interest in history and working with primary documents. But as I learned more about the field, I discovered a true passion for other aspects of the job as well--managing large projects, developing better ways to inform people of materials in collections, using technology in innovative ways, outreach, and of course electronic records management which deals with institutional records rather than those old 19th century manuscripts that first caught my attention.

In my current position, I get to engage myself in all aspects of the above. I am working on increasing our online presence through finding aids/making information searchable/search engine optimization, managing student workers to help with processing and digitization projects, working with all kinds of patrons, convening a committee on electronic records management, and hopefully as I settle in at Earlham working closely with faculty particularly in the history and English departments to bring more students down to the archives. And sometimes I get to work with the old documents as well. It's a great job. A mentor once told me that if you are 80% satisfied with your job, you are in excellent shape. I can say that like with all jobs there are moments of frustration, but I feel like I'm probably pretty close to that 80% threshold for happiness.

How did I get this job? I started working in Emory University's archives while pursuing a Ph.D in history. I loved it. When I started doing research for my dissertation, and found myself focusing more on how the archives I visited could improve finding aids, online presences, and the reference experience. My dissertation became a distant memory as I took on greater responsibility at Emory and received grant funding for some projects. I eventually left Emory, and took a position working as a researcher at a non-profit. Why? I needed to work for a while and NOT be in school.

To work as an archivist, or librarian, and often as a museum professional, you likely will need to go back to graduate school. You can get a degree in Information, a degree in Public History, or a library science degree from a more traditional program. I recommend working for a few years before heading back to school; I found that students coming right from school were sometimes--not always--less prepared for a professional program that emphasized group work, developing leadership skills, and did NOT hold your hand--you are expected to be mature enough to handle graduate level work. I went to a liberal arts college and you will find the experience very different in a professional school as compared to your experience at Earlham.

While school is important, finding good mentors and internship experiences is just as important. Take advantage of as many opportunities as you can. I have been very fortunate in this case but I also jumped at any opportunity that looked interesting.

A word about tech skills: They are important. You can not avoid technology in the archives, museums, or certainly a library. You do NOT need to be an expert, but you need to be able to talk with information technology professionals, know the basics of web design and frankly user centered design, be willing to learn about technical issues, and understand how Web 2.0/3.0 and beyond will impact your work.

That's about it, though there is so much more...

Archives and institutional memory (for lack of a better title)

2009-02-17T19:56:00.003-05:00

I had an interesting conversation with a student who was researching public spaces on campus. Specifically, she was researching The Heart, a central place on campus that students use to respect and not walk on, taking detours if needed to get where they were going. Now everyone walks on it and it is not a sacred space. The student lamented this, and told me that through her research, and the research of other students in the class, she believed Earlham to be a better place in the past than it currently is. She believes that students were more into academic pursuits outside the classroom, more engaged, and more active in the organizations they founded. I found her perspective very interesting and confirmed that one of the best parts about working at Earlham is being able to interact closely with students.

But from an archives standpoint, I posed this question to her: if you are finding evidence that students were more interested in academic pursuits in the past, are all voices heard? Are the records accurate? In what sense are you taking your own wishes and needs and projecting them into the past? Because we might not have records that discuss students lack of engagement, is it easier to assume that they were engaged? On the other hand, we do have controversial issues files and some student organizational records that may suggest a troubled past in many areas, whether it be race relations or alcohol problems. How do we acknowledge that our archives are not close to complete, or tell the entire story of the school? How can we better capture the entire reality of campus life? Or do we focus on institutional memory through official records and assume people will capture the many other sides of life through their own photos, diaries, memories, and so on.

Just some ramblings during my evening reference shift.

Current Projects

2009-02-17T09:15:00.004-05:00

Within the next few weeks, I hope to complete or make significant progress on the following projects:

--Digitization of selected items from the Pennington Research Association Archives, housed in the Friends Collection at Earlham College. The association has paid us to digitize, create metadata, provide full text of the documents, ensure quality control, post images and host the collection through PALNI.

--Completion of processing of the Louis and Mary Ruth Jones collection, a significant collection of genealogical material. Thanks to an industrious student worker, I am almost done with this collection.

--Moving collections around in our climate controlled space in order to provide more room for our expanding collection. This process included moving supplies out of the climate controlled area, which gave us another free range of shelves. The downside? This free range of shelves is closest to overhead pipes. Do I wish there were no overhead pipes? Yes, I do, but we are not going to be making any changes in the HVAC anytime soon, and thus we must make do with the original system built long before my arrival here (although of course I might have built it in same way considering constraints on cost and the building itself). So, the question is what goes under the pipes? We did have a leak once, though not over the shelves. I have decided, in consultation with Tom Hamm (head curator), to place the Friends Serial Group (FSG) in this space. FST is a burgeoning collection of Friends pamphlets from around the world. These are available elsewhere and thus are in this sense replacable if they were to sustain water damage. The collection also needs expansion room and currently has no room to expand where it is shelved. Thus, FSG will be in better shape with room for expansion, and we will have room to expand our manuscript collections and growing collections of Earlham donor records in better space. And I'm going to be looking for other ways to maximize our space.

--Continuing work on processing the Friends United Meeting collection. This is one of our largest collections.

--Beginning work on electronic records management at Earlham. I'm convening a committee to look specifically into managing our institutional records. This will be a long process, but I'm looking forward to getting started.

Of course, there are a number of smaller projects going on, and many researchers to help! Reference questions take up part of every day. Some smaller projects include smaller collections I work on as I have time, with help from the students of course; adding images to the new Earlham Digital Archives; and various surprises that come up every day. The surprises often are related to reference questions, of course.

I will talk about my long range goals in another post. As I think about these short term projects, and projects nearing completion, I see an emphasis on genealogy and prioritizing based on donors. The Penningtons paid us for the project, we have many genealogical researchers, and the Friends United Meeting is an organization with which we have close ties. Improving relations with donors is very important for future gifts of collections, and for financial donations as well. There is nothing startling in this observation, but I do believe it suggests we are focusing on helping the current users of our collections and those who know about our collections, especially Quaker organizations. Many of my long range projects concern bringing more people into the archives, by providing more information about our manuscript collections through online searching, meeting the standards of the archives profession, and outreach. Our core group of researchers is likely to remain genealogists, Quaker organizations, and students; but I hope with other projects to encourage other types of researchers to use our collections when appropriate. (more on our hidden collections later...)

Google Scholar: Boon or Bust

2009-02-16T11:23:00.006-05:00

I'm giving a presentation on Google Scholar today for a faculty technology workshop. Besides demonstrating how to use it, I'm discussing the pros and cons and the murky areas in between. I'm a big fan of all things Google, but am not entirely sold on Google Scholar. Yet. I love this idea however: University of Michigan Book Printing Machine

In the session I will cover how to set scholar preferences to show SFX links from Earlham. It should be noted that exactly how this works is not understood, and I discussed this with our resident techy librarians.

Why might you want to use Google Scholar?

--For quick access to open access articles.

--One stop shopping; Google Scholar, or something like it, may very well represent the future of searching. Instead of having to search multiple databases, researchers could go to one place.

--In theory, Google Scholar provides a way for people without access to scholarly databases--public library patrons, for instance--to be able to find citations, if not full text, of scholarly resources they could then acquire via interlibrary loan. It is free to search, and some items are available for free. Note, however, that of right now an interlibrary loan link is not available from the Google scholar link

--Once you recognize its current limitations, Google scholar can be a useful tool and a place to start research.

Why Might You Hesitate to Use Google Scholar?

--As of today, a significant amount of scholarly material does not seem to be available. Not all publishers have reached an agreement with Google.

--Confusing display: articles and books may come up several times in the search and it may not be obvious which one to choose. How the items are ranked is not entirely clear. Without going deep into the search, researchers may miss an important item.

--Unlike databases such as PsychInfo, there is not a clear editorial policy or explanation of what it is included. The items generally are scholarly, but books for children sometimes come up in the search as well.

Teaching and Learning archives?

2009-01-22T11:15:00.004-05:00

As an archivist, I'm very intrigued by self-archiving systems such as suggested today by a professor over email. Teaching faculty have a weekly meeting called Friday Forum where often the subject involves teaching or research. The idea is to create an archive, open to the Earlham community, with syllabi, teaching practices, improving discussion, etc. Earlham is very much a teaching institution, and this makes a lot of sense to me. While here at Earlham our physical archives focuses primarily on print material, it is clear to me if we want to continue archiving and chronicling Earlham's history we need to pay close attention to systems like ELS and other ways that Earlham's history is being archived--including students uploading pictures to photo sharing sites like Flickr. Of course, teaching is such an essential part of Earlham's mission having an archive--online or physical--devoted to teaching and learning is a great idea. (assuming of course people submit material!)

One aspect of systems like ELS that intrigues me the most is the ability for social tagging, which allows many users to identify the subject of a particular item rather being limited by Library of Congress subject headings or other such controlled vocabularies.

I'm excited about projects like this that can capture Earlham's history and teaching practices in ways we haven't always been able to do- for example, we might get a professor's papers after they have retired or died, but with digital files items can be captured in real time--of course, it is possible we might not always want to do this or professors could be concerned about confidentiality and copyright. I think the positive aspects outweigh the negative and hopefully these are challenges we can work on here at Earlham.

Fun and Educational things I did this week

2009-01-10T21:45:00.003-05:00

(not necessarily in any kind of order)

1. Visited the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, in the Texas School Book Depository. I thought it was an excellent museum, with good integration of video footage of various aspects of JFK's assassination with the museum exhibits. It is really weird to stand in the place Lee Harvey Oswald stood.

2. Fun with Rafia's WACKY GPS system. It often lies.

3. Engaging in shenanigans with Rafia's colleagues.

4. Southfork Ranch, where Dallas was filmed (outside scenes anyway). Oddly enough, we went there on my insistence. EPIC photos were taken there.

5. Ft. Worth Zoo: many active and adorable animals lived here including black bears, a white tiger, lion cubs, cheetahs, meerkats, otters, and more.

6. Kimball Art Museum: A nice art museum, with terrible signs for parking. But a nice museum.

7. Free IMAX videos including "Sea Monsters" and "Extreme". I preferred "Sea Monsters" while Rafia preferred "Extreme"

8. Movies watched: X Files I Want To Believe which I have decided was a dream and thus will pretend didn't really happen, Hamlet 2 which was mostly funny, and Wall-E, which I loved, but wept throughout.

9. Photo Shoots of Rocky, Uniqua, DJ Pinja, Bearning Love, Renee, and a nameless blue reindeer

10. Delicious foods were eaten, possibly to the point of gluttony.

11. San Antonio Missions National Historical Park was wonderful.

12. Riverwalk in San Antonio was sort of cool, if you like that sort of thing. I sort of do. Love San Antonio, and the Southwest, overall.

13. Much, much more!!!

In Dallas

2009-01-08T00:02:00.000-05:00

I am at Rafia's. I'm reading the New York Times while she shops for shoes!

Graceland

2009-01-02T20:52:00.007-05:00

I am in Jackson MS tonight after spending the day at Graceland and driving part of the Natchez Trace in Mississippi (and a brief trip to Oxford MS). Memphis was full of Kentucky and East Carolina fans; having avoided the sports page over the last week I was oblivious to the bowl game being played until I started wondering about all the UK flags on the cars passing me on the highway. Anyway, Graceland was nuts. I sort of felt the same way I felt about Las Vegas--really glad I visited, but felt a little overwhelmed.

Other than a trip a while ago that took me to Tupelo and Elvis Presley's birthplace, I have not spent much time in Mississippi. Tomorrow I'm going to take the Natchez Trace to Natchez before heading to Beaumont Texas, near where my grandfather was born. I am not sure what I'm going to there, but I've never been to that area and I'm curious about where my family is from. My ultimate destination, of course, is Arlington.

The outside of Graceland:

Crazy airplane:

TV Room:

Me with mirrors on stairs:

Presents in the Jungle Room

Trees inside house:

The drive on the Natchez Trace was very foggy (still pretty, and not much traffic)

Earplugs

2008-12-15T11:26:00.003-05:00

I really am going to write about professional issues, but first I have to ask myself why it took me 36 years to figure out earplugs are the answer to a good nights sleep when you have rowdy neighbors? The earplugs blocked out their boring 1 AM conversation for two nights in a row. And I could still hear my alarm, not as loudly, but enough to immediately rouse me from sleep. Blessed earplugs, saving me from being a cranky old woman! We shall see if they help if she blasts music though I now have hope.

I just want to see you smile

2008-12-03T20:02:00.006-05:00

Emusic has Bruce Springsteen performing "Dream Baby Dream"! I am so excited. I heard this during the Devils and Dust tour, in Cincinnati back in 2005 I think. Amazing performance. Um, emusic also has a Twisted Sister Christmas album, and you can download "Deck the Halls" for free.

I'm heading to Oklahoma for my grandma's funeral. Not that I update this often, but when I get back, look for some posts on MPLP and digitization projects, other thoughts about digitization, possible other ramblings about issues in archives, and possibly some crazy ideas how to revitalize Richmond Indiana.

One of the best memories of my grandma I have is spending a couple of weeks with her and my grandpa when I was kid, no parents around. It was a really fun week and I especially remember taking walks around the neighborhood in Shawnee OK looking for new things, whether a tree, leaves, flowers, whatever. I guess I don't remember the details, but I remember how wonderful it was. She taught 8th grade English for years--I have no idea how she did that. I believe she was the first in her family to go to college. I always admired her greatly and cherished those yearly visits to Oklahoma. Now as an adult I'm driving my parents to Oklahoma in my car instead of the other way around. I always loved the drive out there as kid so it will interesting to see how it has changed.

CONTENTdm Customization

2008-11-18T19:30:00.005-05:00

Yesterday I attended training in Indianapolis on how to customize the CONTENTdm interface. It was very useful. Customization requires editing HTML files, and on occasion, editing some PHP. I wish my Design of Complex Web Sites had taught me PHP instead of Ruby, since I'm not in a position to program Ruby anyway, and even if I could, would not be using it here. Then again, learning Ruby actually did help me understand the PHP code.

We currently use CONTENTdm for digital images at Earlham. Prior to my arrival, the Plowshares Project was finished, and right now students are working on getting Earlham College and Friends United Meeting materials online. I will link to the site when they are done.

CONTENTdm has many uses, yet I worry about what we will use down the road. It is not a long term preservation solution; it is good for displaying images and increasing access and description of our collections, particularly photographs. While there are a large number of text documents in Plowshares, I'm not sure how I feel about uploading more manuscript collections in the software. I just hope if we get something new, or CONTENTdm dies, we can easily migrate to a new system.

Archivists

2008-11-12T16:33:00.004-05:00

I had an interesting online dialogue with Mark Pearson, who works as an Instructional Technologist at Earlham and also administers the course management system Moodle and Earlham Learning Spaces. We were talking about Institutional Repositories, and he read a paper I wrote a while back. One question he had was why an archivist does not consider herself to be a librarian. It's really good question, because in some ways (and officially here at Earlham, I think) I'm considered a librarian. But the work I do is very different from being a reference/instruction librarian or subject specialist, or other library positions. I don't mean different in being better or worse, just different. I wrote this in response and would be curious if any other archivists or librarians think I'm way off or got something right:

It's interesting that you are asking the question of why an archivist does not see herself as a librarian. That's a great question. There are many similarities between the professions as both attempt to provide access, arrange, and preserve information resources of many different types. However, archivists have always processed and arranged their materials very differently from librarians. Reference and access also have traditionally been done in a different manner as well. Currently, there is a great deal of convergence in the profession, but there are still some very important professional differences including:

--Archivists are trained differently. While I took a couple of library related courses, I took coursework directly related to archives and had internships working in archives (I also worked in a library, but generally it is unusual for librarians to work in archives for internships--no stats to back this up, so I could be wrong).

-- Archivists often participate in the professional organizations of librarians including ACRL and ALA, but archivists also have their own national organization, the Society of American Archivists, that serves as an advocacy group and helps set archival standards. There are also many regional and topical organizations; for example, I'm active in the Midwest Archives Conference.

--As archival material often is unique, archivists have a different take on issues of security and access. Providing access to patrons and researcher is of the utmost importance, but the nature of the material requires different policies than in a library, such as not allowing primary documents outside the reading room and vigilance about security.

--Archival arrangement currently follows a standard called Describing Archives: a Content Standard (DACS). Archivists also have traditionally created finding aids for their collections, in comparison to traditional library cataloging. Of course, all of these descriptive means are in an upheaval right now as information professionals navigate new technology and increasingly digitize items.

--Archivists also appraise original materials, make decisions about what to keep and what to weed, must take care to preserve the materials long term, and now are dealing with digital born material and how providing access and preserving these items presents new challenges (As are librarians).

--Many traditional archives practices are under review right now, especially the degree of processing a collection may receive. Archivists also are engaging usability studies, metrics, and focusing on how to better serve their researchers and patrons. Traditionally, archivists have viewed themselves as guardians, but while preserving history is still very important, being more open about access has fortunately become just as important.

Those were just thoughts I had this morning, in part sparked by a discussion at a staff meeting about the hours of Earlham's archives. I think we have very accessible hours compared to many archives: M-F 9-12, 1-4, 7-9, and Sat/Sun 1-4. And we rely on student workers to cover some of those hours. I've done my best to remind my students when they work, sending emails reminding them of their scheduled weekend hours and asking them to let me know about conflicts in advance--I have found this simple effort at communication makes a big difference. So far, they have been great--I'm very fortunate in my student workers. In the past, there have been students who have missed their shifts, and reference librarians have let people into the archives. Now, I certainly would be upset a student missed their shift, but I also am very conflicted about a reference librarian letting a student or researcher into our collections, even if the door is locked behind them. I think we reached the agreement this morning in the meeting that if someone wants in and we are closed per our scheduled hours, the researcher will not be let in.

The dilemma is that we have circulating books in our Special Collections, as we have all books related to Quakerism in the archives open shelves, a decision that makes a lot of sense in that it creates a unified collection and helps maintain Earlham's Quaker history and identity (manuscripts, original Quaker records, rare books, and the college archives are locked and researchers not allowed in). But it does cause problems with students who expect to have access to a circulating book. I think our hours are posted prominently, though I'm going to work on making them even more transparent. Many special libraries within a larger library have fewer open hours and students adjust. Then again, perhaps the circulating books should someday be moved to a different part of the library so students can access them at all times the library is open. I have my doubts about whether that would work. But what is more important, providing instant access or keeping items important to the heritage of the school together? These are all issues we likely should consider for the future.

Mothman Prophecies

2008-11-06T08:41:00.004-05:00

I am breaking some rule of blogging by having no focus for my blog (travel? work? random stuff? movie reviews?) but I have a need to report on the movie I watched last night. It was called The Mothman Prophecies and Richard Gere and Laura Linney starred.

Perhaps I chose this movie from Netflix to raise my geek profile; internet quizzes point to me being a pure nerd rather than geek. I remember reading a story about the Mothman legend in sixth grade language arts, and it always haunted me. Thus, I rented this movie hoping to learn more about the legend's origins. I have a genuine interest in unexplained phenomena and the cultural explanations for these. However, this movie was an X Files wannabe. If Mulder and Scully were in it, it would have been fine. Gere and Linney had no chemistry and failed miserably (not that they were trying to emulate the X Files, just an obvious comparison in my opinion). It had great atmospheric music and cinematography and production values. But you never had any sort of idea of what the Mothman was or why anything was happening. It needed more shots of a man in a giant moth costume, in my opinion. I will give it credit for the last 25 minutes were genuinely gripping but the rest of this movie just had a bunch of confused people walking around.

The real Mothman legend came from Point Pleasant West Virginia, where reports of a mothman preceded a bridge collapse in which 46 people died. They have a statue of the Mothman in their downtown, so I may go visit it someday. They also have the world's only Mothman Museum. Road trip.

An update to rival Rafia's

2008-10-30T20:53:00.006-04:00

I realize that my blog will never, ever, compare to Rafia's blog both in her dazzling visual array and culturally relevant content.

Yet, I will try to update my blog. An ongoing project at work is to go through our manuscript collections and discover which ones need a finding aid, which ones have a finding aid but only in a printout from an ancient word processing system, and which ones have a finding aid but lack essential information as required by DACS. After my spreadsheet is complete, I will develop a plan for processing collections and completing finding aids for collections that have been minimally processed (Hey, Earlham has always believed in MPLP), develop the easiest methods for getting the legacy finding aids up to current technology, and update the finding aids that just need a few more pieces of information. At the same time, we are going to implement an EAD project in the next year.

Most of the students and researchers I have talked to like the idea of having more information available regarding the content of our collections, but what they really want is everything digitized so they can search it and view it without having to come in. I'll get that done in the next couple of months, probably.

On a personal note, my mom is visiting this weekend and I'm looking forward to it! I'm also looking forward to Thanksgiving, when I will take my first days off since I started work in July. I love my job, but I know I'm going to be ready for a day off or two by then.

Planning for Another Trip

2008-10-23T15:21:00.004-04:00

I started my job at Earlham College in July, and I love it. I'm very happy and the work is challenging. I'm contemplating writing more about some of projects I'm working on, but we shall see. Meanwhile, I'm planning my next road trip. This means having to save as much money as possible as I have to start repaying my student loans next month. Anyway, I'm going to take a road trip in January to visit my good friend Rafia who now lives in Arlington, Texas. I'm going to take a few days to drive down there and visit Graceland, the new B.B. King museum (tentative), Port Neches TX where my grandfather was born, and San Antonio. Then it is on for 3-4 days hanging out with Rafia!

Stay tune for possible updates.

Almost home

2008-05-23T20:37:00.004-04:00

I'm in Moline Illinois tonight. There is a really great Thai restaurant I found called Exotic Thai, and the green curry was excellent. Some woman who claimed to be doing a study on communication sat down with me and asked me a bunch of questions. I figured she was going to start trying to get me to join a cult, but I think she honestly was taking a class on communication and had an assignment to talk to strangers and try to figure out their communication style. She said I was "balanced."

The Omaha Zoo is fantastic. It had a staggering number of animals and a couple of really great environments, especially the Desert Dome. It did feel a bit old and some of the panels need to be updated, like the Siberian Tiger needs to be renamed the Amur Tiger (I think this is now the commonly used name to be more accurate geographically). Anyway, if you like zoos, I say this is a must see.

Well I'll be home tomorrow, just gotta drive through Chicago and the boring drive on 94 in Michigan.

Catching up on food

2008-05-22T19:36:00.004-04:00

My old nemesis from the first week of the trip returned--the wind. In Nebraska of course. There were tornadoes not too far from where I was in Colorado, so at least so far I have avoided anything that bad. Otherwise I took the drive pretty easy today. The wind ruined the excellent mileage I've been getting--most of the trip I've been getting 44 mpg but today that didn't happen, naturally once gas prices did in fact hit four bucks at one station.

Well, this entry is mostly to announce I made it to Omaha and am planning on visiting the zoo tomorrow before driving across Iowa. Also, I ate at Red Lobster tonight. When I was a kid that is where we would go for nice meals out and I have very fond memories of the place. The cheddar biscuits make it worthwhile. For most of the trip I tried to find locally owned restaurants, and was mostly successful. But I've succumbed to chain restaurants the last two days. Some of the places I ate at I barely mentioned earlier or didn't mention at all:

Local Ocean Seafoods in Newport: fish caught fresh daily from Newport or nearby. They have great fish tacos.

Georgie's Beachside Grill: It was connected to my hotel in Newport, but had a great ocean view and pretty solid seafood, especially the clam chowder. The places was always full of locals which was good because it wasn't just tourists in there. They have great pancakes and french toast too.

Baked Alaska in Astoria: I had a simple salmon club sandwich that was great, but the best thing here (besides the view of the Columbia River) was the sweet potato salad.

Urban Cafe in Astoria: The crab quesadilla was delicious. The only thing it wasn't that long after this meal I got sick; I guess it depends on the incubation period, but it is possible it was this meal that made me sick. Oh well, it tasted great! I'll just assume it was something else that made me sick. Probably the vast amount of free cheese I ate at Tillamook.

Tequila's Mexican Restaurant in Cortez Colorado: really popular local joint with great food. The pinto beans I ordered instead of refried beans were great, as was the chile relleno. Great salsa too. Highly recommend.

Rosita's in Scottsbluff: I already mentioned this place for the chips and salsa. I should mention not to go here if you are on a diet, but it was great food.

The Thai restaurant I ate at in Portland: I cannot remember the name, it was a little hole in the wall place mostly doing carryout orders, but it was delicious, especially the spring rolls. Also the Thai restaurant in Astoria is outstanding as well.

Out of the brewpubs I visited, Tablerock in Boise and Bridgeport in Portland stand out. I went to Rogue Ales in Newport, but hated the atmosphere. It was smoky--too smoky--and the people in there were all kind of rude. Beer is great though. Maybe I picked a bad day to go there.

Freaky Sand Dunes

2008-05-21T23:04:00.006-04:00

The drive from Cortez Colorado to Denver was absolutely beautiful--drove through some great mountains, with lots of mini waterfalls seen from the road from the melting snow. I also stopped at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve. This place was a monument up until 2004, when it received park standing. The park is pretty small, but the dunes are interesting. Kind of freaky, in part because the locals use the area as a beach and in part because of the proximity of snowcapped mountains . There is a creek/river that runs right by the dunes, with very low water, and there were hundreds of kids splashing around in the riverbed and then running in the sand. The kids were also screaming, and I have to admit this annoyed me, so I had a picnic and moved on to a part of the park without kids. You can climb the dunes, but I really didn't feel like it. I took a shortish hike though.

Dunes:

Mesa Verde

2008-05-21T09:22:00.002-04:00

This might have been the best day of the trip. Definitely one of the best. I'm getting ready to check out and drive to Denver tonight, but here are two quick pictures (more tonight, I hope):

Arches and Canyonland

2008-05-19T22:59:00.004-04:00

Words cannot begin to describe the beauty of Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park. So here are a few of my favorite pictures from today (yes that is me, and I think it is a good picture--must be the sunglasses), and a link to all of the pictures.

Utah

Clark Planetarium saves the day

2008-05-18T22:27:00.004-04:00

Yay, I seem to be well and had pizza for dinner. I stayed in Salt Lake City today and visited Clark Planetarium, which is located in a downtown mall. The mall was boring, standard stuff though it it is all open air which I guess makes it better than the average mall. The planetarium I thought was a lot of fun. I watched two of the shows in the Hansen Dome Theatre, one on the ultimate universe and one on black holes. They were both great. It was fun to look at all of the free exhibits and relearn everything I learned back in seventh grade science (and a lot more).

Planning on getting up early and heading to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks!

Salt Lake

2008-05-17T21:13:00.004-04:00

Well, it turns out I started eating solid food too soon (last night). My stomach just can't take it. I feel great otherwise and someone managed to walk a mile and back to visit Temple Square and take a tour of the Great Salt Lake and the Kennecott Copper Mine, while only drinking gatorade and water all day. And I still have a ton of energy and really want some pizza, but I dare not eat today. I may take another day to rest here before heading to Arches National Park and Mesa Verde because I really can't see visiting either of those places just subsisting on Gatorade.

Now that those gory details are out of the way, I did indeed visit Temple Square today, and even took a tour led by two very earnest missionaries from South America. The tour was mostly about getting people to request more information on Mormonism but occasionally they slipped in a fact about a building or so. Here is a picture of the tour guides praying or something in front of a statue of Jesus with a mural of the universe in the background:

A picture of the temple:

A couple of people left the tour in disgust, but I stuck with it out of curiosity. And I have never seen so many missionaries. They were everywhere. I wonder how you land that job for your mission? I guess I could have asked, but I have to admit I did not want to encourage them. Anyway, I'm fascinated with religious history and religions in general, so I looked at this as a learning experience, though I have to admit the whole setup is...weird. It is a beautiful area and I respect the Mormons for moving out to a desert after being persecuted, but I'm not going to understand the whole be with your family for eternity, including dead relatives that they have to save or something. Among other things.

I'm glad I took a tour instead of having to drive today, though the people on the Great Salt Lake tour were mostly annoying middle aged women who would spend hours in the gift shop buying copper jewelry. There is nothing wrong with this, and I will be middle aged before I know it, but I was reminded why I generally hate taking tours--slow moving people who actually buy the junk in gift shops--I've been wondering this entire trip who buys this stuff, now I know. I know, I should be nicer...but...anyway, the Great Salt Lake was pretty cool:

After that, the tour went to Kennecott Bingham Canyon Mine, a huge copper mine that can be seen from outerspace. The museum emphasized their environmental stewardship which is hard to believe, but then again who doesn't use copper every day? The mine was huge:

A few remaining trees:

Made it to SLC

2008-05-16T18:11:00.004-04:00

Feeling much better today, though still weak. I visited Golden Spike National Monument, which is where the transcontinental railroad was finished. I was going to visit the Great Salt Lake, but was tired and the drivers here are insane so I checked into the hotel and am doing laundry. I'm annoyed with my hotel because there was no soap in my room and there are a bunch of teenagers running around. Here's hoping I can eat tonight and will be completely better by tomorrow.

I forgot to mention I saw Mount St. Helens yesterday while driving...pretty cool. I'd like to visit the monument, but yesterday was not the day for that.

After driving in small town traffic I almost hate to be in the city...but I'm looking forward to checking out Temple Square, then I signed up for a guided tour of the Great Salt Lake and some mine, because I just don't want to deal with driving in this city. I'll take an isolated highway any day!

2008-05-16T10:30:00.001-04:00

I made it to Boise despite being sick, and now am about to leave for Salt Lake City. Feeling better I think...but I don't recommend driving 520 miles while being sick. Ugh! More tonight!

Wonderful Bed and Breakfast

2008-05-14T23:14:00.003-04:00

I have been staying at Clementine's Bed and Breakfast in Astoria for the last three nights. It is wonderful--amazing breakfasts, great conversations, and a really cute room with a view of Astoria:

I have been staying mostly at Fairfield Inns because I had a bunch of Marriott Rewards points that enabled me to stay for free (why I could afford this trip). But I wanted to treat myself to something different, so I opted for a bed and breakfast. Judith, the hostess, is incredibly generous and has lots of great information on the area, as well as creating amazing breakfasts. It has been really great to talk to the other guests here. The breakfast is communal which encourages conversation, and there is wine in the evening too. I met people from North Carolina, one who was a community college instructor and one a retired United Church of Christ minister; some other bed and breakfast operators--I learned a lot about running these places!; a couple from New Albany Indiana on the honeymoon--talk about a small world, right across the river where I grew up;a couple from Idaho; and some of Judith's relatives.

I've done a lot the past two days, and am now quite weary. I have overeaten, and walked about 5-6 miles every day if not more, which is a good combination, but right now my stomach hurts and my legs are exhausted. Sleep will come easy tonight, especially in this comfortable bed! Tomorrow I'm driving to Boise which is going to be a long drive but it's time to sort of start back.

In Astoria, I visited all the local museums: Flavel House, the Heritage Museum, and the Columbia River Maritime Museum. They were all great in their own way. The Heritage Museum had a good exhibit on the Native American cultures of the area and how the settlement of the area by white men changed their culture forever. However, they also have an exhibit on the Ku Klux Klan which includes a robe and a poster. The Klan ran the government for a couple of years on a platform of anti-Chinese sentiment, so the exhibit does in fact make sense. However, the museum really needs to put in an interpretive panel explaining why it is there, because the way it is now you have no idea unless you ask or the docent tells you--they must have plenty of questions because before I toured the museum, he warned me about that exhibit. It would not require much to put even just a piece of paper explaining the historical significance so you are not standing there wondering if this exhibit is celebrating the Klan, or what.

The Maritime Museum was excellent too. I know nothing about river navigation, but they had some great exhibits on river and bar pilots. The sand bars at the mouth of the Columbia River are known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. I definitely recommend this museum if you are in the area.

Incidentally, the Goonies was filmed here. I think I found the house they used for the family's house.

Every meal here has been outstanding. I recommend this one place called Baked Alaska, which had river views and an amazing sweet potato salad. I also checked out a local brewhouse; there was another one, but I didn't get a chance to visit it and as stated earlier, am too tired for that. This place called the Urban Cafe had a great crab quesadilla. I had Thai food tonight, and have plenty of leftovers to save money tomorrow.

I spent today doing Lewis and Clark stuff at Ft. Clatsop where they camped over the winter, Cape Disappointment, and Ft. Stevens. Cape Disappointment had two lighthouses which I visited, and Ft. Stevens had a civil war era fort, which I had no idea existed. Lincoln was worried about a Confederate attack up here. Ft. Stevens also functioned during World War II and a Japanese submarine attacked the fort. They had a nice exhibit on that.

Some photos:

Fog at Cape Disappointment:

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse

Deadman's Cove

Large wave:

Oh I almost forget, there were amazing views from the Astoria Column:

The fog was really eerie, but here is a picture of the Astoria-Megler bridge. According to wikipedia, this is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America. I did cross it to get to Cape Disappointment

The view was awesome, but even better were the friendly people at the top. I have no idea why, but the person running the visitor center, a guy that lived up there, and some random tourists were all friendly and wanted to hear about my trip. It was really nice!

Guest Blogger: Bill Clinton

2008-05-12T23:13:00.004-04:00

Not really, but I did get to hear Bill Clinton speak today:

I actually think this is a pretty good photo:

My original plan had been to stop briefly at Tillamook Cheese Factory, get some free samples of cheese, and get back on the road. These plans were changed when I arrived and found throngs of people. I was pretty excited to hear that Clinton was going to speak. So I went on the tour, such as it was, impersonated Homer Simpson by gorging on free cheese and holding up the line, and then did buy some ice cream while waiting for his arrival. I did not stay for the entire talk because I did not want to deal with the traffic mess when I got out, but I listened to the first half of his speech, in which he revealed his great knowledge of local concerns--not so convincing--and discussed Hillary's policies, which I have to say I agreed with--health care, taxes, etc. It was interesting listening to people in the audience discussing her; they all said the same thing--like her politics generally but do not like her personality. Yeah, well we know what happens when you pick your president based on who would make a good drinking buddy. Honestly I'm not a huge Hillary fan, but she knows what she is talking about policy wise. I think she would make a good president. And I worry that Obama's inexperience is going to get us in trouble if he wins, though I will definitely vote for him. So yeah, this political rally was a nice bonus to the trip. Clinton did seem tired though. Hope he got to eat some cheese and or ice cream...Also, I did not understand the security at this event. They had a security check until Clinton got there, then I was able to enter the area where he was speaking with no security check. Now, I am not a security threat--really--but if I had been, it would have been super easy to sneak in there. I just didn't understand why they seemed to be doing such a great job then just let us go wherever we wanted. Oh well, I'm sure they were keeping an eye on me.

I'm staying in a bed and breakfast in Astoria for the next three nights. I like Astoria; it does not have the touristy feel that Newport, Cannon Beach, and Seaside had. There are some local museums to check out and some Lewis and Clark stuff to be seen. These next two days should still be relaxing; I begin the drive back on Thursday, though I'm planning on a day or two at Mesa Verde National Park. Besides Clinton and Tillamook, I visited Cape Meares which had another lighthouse, and a bunch of scenic viewpoints.

Slideshow of today's pics:

So yeah, over the weekend I saw seals, tidepools, and lighthouses. It was really awesome. Here are a couple of cool tidepool shots. It was very rocky and slippery, but I managed not to trip and make a fool of myself:

Yaquina Head Lighthouse:

Seals:

Seals hanging out in downtown Newport (I recommend eating at Local Ocean Seafoods)

Some good graffiti:

Sunset on beach. The waves were really wild, but the pictures do not quite capture it, at least in this size. On my computer they are better.

Ocean

2008-05-12T00:00:00.003-04:00

I just got back from a wonderful walk along the beach during sunset. The tide was high (previously when I have been on the beach this weekend it has been quite low). Every morning I have woken and then taken a hour long walk on the beach, followed by a delicious breakfast at the restaurant here, which has good food and great ocean views. In fact, I have eaten dinner there every night. I was going to just eat at Subway today, but could not resist the ocean view and seafood.

I have plenty of pictures I will post later. Today I visited Yaquina Head, a natural area with a lighthouse to tour, tidepools full of sea creatures, seals, and many birds. I really fell in love with this area. I knew my mom would have loved it, so I called her and wished her happy mother's day from there (she shouldn't be too jealous, my parents are heading to North Carolina beaches in a couple of weeks).

More later. I'm too busy listening to the ocean to sit at the computer.

Video of Ocean

2008-05-11T20:27:00.002-04:00

So my camera can sort of take video. Here is an attempt to capture waves crashing upon rocks at Yaquina Head:

Relaxing on the coast

2008-05-09T19:17:00.003-04:00

Now it is the part of my trip where I get to relax in my hotel with a nice ocean view:

Fortunately, I bought some books at Powell's yesterday. You could spend all day in that store. I am now reading: Historians in Trouble by Jon Weiner, which includes chapters on two of my professors at Emory (I was a research assistant for one and house/dog sat for another---I so should have been interviewed for this book, ask if you want the details!); The Quakers in America by Thomas Hamm (my new boss at Earlham College in Indiana, as I need to learn more about Quakers); and Traveling Music: The Soundtrack to My Life and Times by Neil Peart. This last one should be interesting since I've been thinking about road trip music a lot lately, for obvious reasons. Neil Peart is the drummer for the band Rush, by the way. One album I recommend not listening to, at least if you are a single female traveler, is Murder Ballads by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. It is a brilliant album, but with stories of murder, especially of women, I cannot recommend it for female travelers. I can recommend Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Rush (good for any occasion), Snow Patrol, Eric Johnson, Tom Petty, Beth Orton, Tracy Chapman, and the Doors. For starters.

Also yesterday I visited the Portland Art Museum, which had a special exhibit on Degas, Forain, and Toulouse-Lautrec. I have to admit I'm not much of a Degas fan, but it was a nice exhibit nonetheless. From their website: "This landmark exhibition, appearing exclusively at the Portland Art Museum, explores the complex image of the dancer in the work of three artists intrigued by various manifestations of dance in fin-de-siècle Paris: Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Jean-Louis Forain (1852-1931), and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). The Dancer presents an international roster of more than 110 works of art, including rarely seen paintings, pastels, drawings, prints, and sculptures from collections in Europe and the United States. "

The rest of the museum was fine, especially the exhibit on Persian narrative painting. From the website: "Every Picture Tells a Story features 26 works, including a magnificently preserved complete manuscript of the Yusuf and Zulaikha of Jami (a tale of the Biblical Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, as retold by 15th-century poet Jami). The majority of the brilliantly colored and exquisitely detailed paintings in the exhibition are from Shāhnameh manuscripts, allowing visitors to trace historical changes in illustration from the 14th to the 19th centuries. Other works offer visual interpretations of Khalila wa Dimna, a collection of animal fables, the Khamsa (Five Tales) of the poet Nizami, and other literary classics." Actually I really enjoyed this exhibit.

I had a drink and lunch at Bridgeport Brewery, which might be the oldest microbrewery in Portland (I found conflicting information). The chipotle chicken and black bean burger and the Ropewalk Amber Ale were both delicious. I also bought some cd's in a used cd store--Band of Horses, The Dears, and The Chills. I hadn't visited a used cd shop in ages so this was nice. For dinner I found a nice little Italian spot and had tortellini. The neighborhood near my hotel had a lot of cute shops and restaurants--many Thai and sushi places, but I was in the mood for pasta last night.

I could spend another week in Portland, but the coast beckoned...so many neighborhoods to explore. I will definitely be coming back someday, maybe on a trip that would involve visiting Seattle as well (but probably flying out instead of driving though I love driving).

Today I drove to Salem and visited the historic district, but got annoyed at the traffic. I then made a stupid decision and took the less traveled road to Newport. This took forever as it was a winding road with a lot of logging trucks. On the one hand, it was pretty; on the other it was very frustrating. In the end I made to the Pacific Ocean, with my first stop being Seal Rock State Park, though there were no seals here:

I then drove into Newport and enjoyed a pleasant walk along the beach. Hopefully I will see a whale, but I somehow doubt it.

There is a nice restaurant attached to the hotel so I'll be dining there tonight and probably all weekend. Rogue Ale is in town somewhere so I will fit them in too. Other than the aquarium and a couple of lighthouses, I'm going to be chilling in the room reading and enjoying the view, which sounds great!

2008-05-08T11:20:00.002-04:00

My first full day in Portland started with a visit to the Oregon Historical Society. I'm a sucker for these types of museums, visiting them in every city I visit when time permits. They tend to vary in quality. The Oregon Historical Society only had a few exhibits, with mixed results. The third floor was devoted to an "interactive" exhibit called Oregon My Oregon. I think interactive must mean sit down and watch a film or listen to music or actors read diaries. And there is nothing wrong with that--the diary entries they read were quite good ones. Multimedia might be a better word than interactive however. Their interpretive panels provided blunt information, such as explaining why John Fremont has an "undeserved" reputation as a daring and innovative explorer, calling reservations concentration camps, and so on. Compared to the Chicago Historical Society, which I visited in January, the OHS did not have nearly as many exhibits or artifacts (CHS was very over simplified). I think they did at least a somewhat better job of interpretation, but everything was still geared towards kids. They did have a nice exhibit on the New Deal in Oregon.

I thought about going to the art museum, but just was not in the mood. There was a small farmer's market in the area (called the cultural district, I think). I bought a fresh falafel plate and ate it outside. The falafel was good, but the pita bread did not seem that fresh. But a nice lunch nevertheless. I then took a long walk along the waterfront park before finding a coffee shop to relax for a bit.

I stumbled upon the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center while heading towards my walking tour. This museum was small, but excellent. Most of the exhibits explained the internment camps during World War II and the experiences of the people who were forced into them. In two days, the entire Japanese neighborhood in Portland was gone, and it became Chinatown (still is called Chinatown, though I learned very few Chinese people live in this area and the real Chinatown is fifteen minutes away). They had an amazing oral history exhibit. I think some of the other museums I have visited could learn a thing or two from this one; granted, I do not know much about the concentration camps or Japanese-American communities, so maybe there was more for me to learn, but I thought this was a very well done museum.

I went on a walking tour next. The tour focused on Portland's underground--topics such as shanghaiing, prostitution, myth-debunking, crime, etc. The tour also took into the tunnels of Portland, such as they were. Anyway, I know very little about Portland's history, so I cannot verify that the tour guide was telling the truth, though he claimed to be an unemployed historian and that he sought to be as accurate as possible, so I'm guessing most of what he said was reasonably true. So I do think I learned a lot and it was very enjoyable. The goal of the tour was to point out Portland is not some perfect oasis--it has problems and a dark side like every other place. It was especially interesting to learn about the Oldtown/Chinatown area, which had a number of homeless people and it not really a Chinatown. For example, one alternative medicine shop we went into in Chinatown was owned by a Iranian. You get tax breaks if you open up Asian-themed shops in this district.

I also visited Voodoo Doughnut, which has amazing doughnuts, including a voodoo doll doughnut which is in the shape of a body and comes with pretzels to stab the doughnut with and then it oozes the filling, or you can just rip the head off as you imagine the person you hate the most. Heh. They also do weddings here.

For dinner I was starving and stopped in at the first Thai restaurant I found, a hole in the wall kind of place. It was delicious.

Today I'm heading to Powell's and hopefully hitting a couple of brewpubs. There is too much to do here, so I'm being selective and not trying to rush through everything.

Waterfalls, mountains, dams

2008-05-07T12:05:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I drove on two Oregon scenic byways. I guess this is an official designation of sorts. This post will have a lot of pictures. First up was the Mt. Hood Scenic Byway. There were some nice overlooks of Mt. Hood:

However, after that, the road became annoying. One of the themes of my trip is "more snow than usual this winter" and many of the side roads were not accessible, and I started freaking out when I realized I was driving through a snow zone where it was required to carry chains or traction tires. I'm fine with driving in snow--I did it a lot in Michigan this past winter--but not on windy mountain roads at high altitudes. Fortunately there was not much snow on the roadway, but it made me nervous as I ascended to Government Camp and Mt. Hood. I did not linger and arrived in Troutdale Oregon as soon as I could. Troutdale was kind of cute and the visitor center gave me a great map of waterfalls along the Historic Columbia River Highway. Taking this highway ended up being a great decision. I saw seven waterfalls and took one really great hike.

One the way to the waterfalls, there were a couple of lovely overlooks at Chanticleer Point and Crown Point, where a building called Vista House was constructed as a rest stop years ago:

The first waterfall was Latourell Falls:

After a hike of maybe over a mile, and I was wondering if it was going to be worth it, I stumbled upon Upper Latourell Falls, so it was totally worth it:

Next up was a brief stop at Sheppard's Dell Falls:

Then, maybe my favorite and I lingered here a while, Bridal Veil Falls (a couple of shorter hikes here)

One of the hikes took me by camas, a kind of "increasingly rare" plant that used to be a food source for Indian tribes of the northwest:

And one hike took me by some nice views of the Columbia River:

I like this shot, because it combines the railroad, the highway, and the river--all of the main transportation routes of the area:

Next, Wahkeena Falls:

And then, the largest of these falls and I think the second largest waterfall in height in the United States, Multnomah Falls. Very impressive. Also, I should point out that on this stretch of my trip there actually were other people. While being the only person at a museum or natural landmark is nice, I have to admit it was good to see other people at this point!

It was sort of windy, but mostly I was coated in spray from the waterfall in these goofy pics:

Then one last waterfall, Horsetail Falls:

I kept driving east and arrived at Bonneville Dam. I already discussed the sea lion/salmon/human/technology clash in broad strokes. The dam has a huge visitor center, including an underwater viewing area where you can see the salmon and other fish making their way through the fish ladders, meant to help them through the dam, though some end up in the turbines and I assume die a bloody death. There were a few fish in the ladders today, but nothing amazing--still very cool. The ladders look like this from the top:

And the dam; I did see a boat navigating the locks:

For some reason I'm intrigued by the sea lion controversy. It has so many different angles and viewpoints, and everyone with interests--including the "salmon-gobbling mammals"--has a legitimate claim. It is the kind of messy issue that requires everyone to make trade offs. Too bad someone had to resort to violence against the sea lions.

After this, I decided to head back towards Portland. It may be my imagination, but most people in Oregon seem to drive the speed limit or close to it. Also, for a big city, there did not seem to be much traffic. An abandoned building was on fire which made for a dramatic entrance to the city, but otherwise traffic was moving. And I'm thrilled with the public transportation, which means NO driving for a couple of days while I explore the city. Having driving about 2500 miles in the last week, that's going to be great. I'm here until Friday when I leave for the coast, specifically Newport for the night.

I actually slept in for the first time on the trip (until 8:15). There are a couple of museums I want to see, but mostly I'm going to be walking around and hopefully take a tour of the Shanghai Tunnels. I called about it and could not understand a word the sleepy person on the other end of the line had to say, but I heard something about showing up fifteen minutes early, so we shall see.

See all pictures here:

Portland

2008-05-07T01:04:00.003-04:00

It took me about five minutes to fall in love with Portland. For one, there is a free light rail system downtown. And the general vibe I'm getting is a happy one. I got here around 5:30, and got situated. I walked around some downtown, ate dinner (pizza in a haunted restaurant), checked out the light rail system, and now am reading about things I might want to do tomorrow--maybe a walking tour at some point. I'm also doing laundry.

The internet connection is iffy right now, so more later. Suffice to say I had a great day--saw several waterfalls and Mt. Hood. Meanwhile on the Columbia River a fight is brewing over sea lions. Fisherman have complained for a long time sea lions eat salmon, and Native American tribes argue that the sea lions are taking away their salmon guaranteed under 19th century treaties. So there has been a plan to catch the sea lions and relocate some of them (there is an injunction preventing authorities from killing the sea lions). But six sea lions were shot over the weekend. I was at Bonneville Dam today but did not know any of this was going on. I think I saw a sea lion in the river while driving the other day--I thought it had to be my imagination, but maybe not. The AP article below calls sea lions "salmon -gobbling mammals". Well, I think one reason the salmon are an easy target is because of the fish ladders they have to navigate at the Bonneville Dam. Is this a problem we have created by tinkering with ecosystems? I really have no idea. Food chain in action, I suppose.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080505/ap_on_sc/sea_lions_shot

Into Oregon

2008-05-05T22:48:00.004-04:00

Wow. I'm actually in Oregon. The road just keeps getting prettier and prettier. Which is great, but there isn't much to actually write about. Let me try anyway. I drove from Boise to Baker City Oregon, which has a Oregon Trail Interpretive Center run by the Bureau of Land Management. The best part of this center was the four mile trail I took, but I will get to that in a minute. The museum area was great for kids, but most of the exhibits were replicas of things like wagons with mannequins posing as pioneers and that didn't do much for me. They did have excerpts from diaries and letters, which are always interesting, and their interpretative panels were overall of solid quality. There was a large family also visiting the center and they did not stop to read a single item. I can gripe all I want about over simplification at museums, but if people don't even bother to read it...oh well.

The trail was really nice however. It provided nice views of the Blue Mountains and some trail ruts.

Mountains:

And many really cute chipmunk/prairie dog like things. They were all over, but this one actually posed for me:

This is what happens when you travel alone to fairly isolated areas and you want to get yourself in a picture:

After my hike, I went into Baker City for lunch, then headed west on 1-84 to the Dalles, my destination for the night. The drive went through some beautiful mountains, and ended up driving by the Columbia River for the last leg.

I found a riverside restaurant here in the Dalles called the Windseeker. The meal was very nice, scampi with grilled vegetables and baby red potatoes, and a Black Butte Porter from Deschutes Brewery in Bend Oregon. Better than the meal though was the view:

And me:

And a seagull that sat here for my entire meal:

Tomorrow I'm driving the Mt. Hood Scenic Byway. Which reminds me, I could see Mt. Hood today, and it is spectacular.

Idaho

2008-05-04T21:36:00.003-04:00

Today was another beautiful drive with only a couple of brief stops. If I were more tech saavy I'd post a map with my route on it, but I'm not going to figure that out. So yeah, I drove from Rock Springs Wyoming to Boise Idaho today. Rock Springs actually is prettier than I gave it credit for, as seen in this picture from the parking lot of the hotel:

Route 412 in Wyoming was the most isolated drive of my trip so far. I did not see another vehicle the entire length of the route (only about 30 miles I think). But it was beautiful, and I finally saw some deer. Actually, I hope and think they were pronghorn. There were warning signs on some of the roads I was on, and on one road I saw at least 6 dead deer by the side of the road on one three mile stretch. Anyway, I drove slower along these routes and would occasionally see them running along side the road. Cool.

I stopped at Fossil Butte National Monument today. I had noticed it on the map before but had not though of stopping there, but the landscape was beautiful so I did. The visitor center had many pictures of fossils and a decent video. I hiked some on the Historic Quarry Trail, but kind of wimped out and didn't take the whole trail. I did go far enough to get some different angles of Fossil Butte for photos. I failed to find any fossils myself. The area used to be a giant lake; thinking about that boggles the mind. A huge industry in fossil hunting had sprung up in the early part of the 20th century, but the town of Fossil is all but abandoned.
Fossil Butte:

After that, I drove to Soda Springs, another spot pioneers frequently camped. There are plenty of natural springs in the area, and now a man made geyser. I didn't stay around to watch it do its thing, but here is a picture, and a nice view from Soda Springs:

The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful though lovely. I am now in Boise, which seems like a nice city. I found a microbrewery called Tablerock, and they make a great Orange Blossom Pale Ale. Food was decent too. I drove around some and saw the capital building and the Boise State campus. That is probably going to be it for exploring Boise; most of the museums are closed on Monday, so I'm heading into Oregon tomorrow!

Wyoming

2008-05-03T21:55:00.001-04:00

First, one last picture of Scottsbluff National Monument from the hotel parking lot:

Needless to say, the weather was much better today. I had a beautiful drive through Wyoming with several stops along the way. I'm also tired and not thrilled to be in Rock Springs WY, but I needed to stop for the night. The town mostly consists of oil workers and road construction.

So the day started off at Ft. Laramie. The buildings are all restored, not simply reproduced, and they provided a nice audio tour of all the buildings and grounds. Most of the exhibits focus on the period from 1870-1890, with some trails stuff as well. There were also nice views of the Laramie River:

Also a couple of rabbits (click on the photo to be sure to see them):

From there it was on to Guernsey. I actually was able to see the Guernsey Ruts--pretty impressive:

I visited Register Cliffs too, but it was pretty boring. Mostly modern day graffiti that was not all that interesting.

I stopped at several other views/markers before getting on 1-25 and heading towards Casper. The drive was especially pretty because of the snow in the mountains. I did not stop in Casper, though there were a couple of museums that might have been worth the time but I was in the mood for the open road, not a city. The drive from Casper to Rock Springs was amazing. Here are a few highlights:

Along the way I saw a number of landmarks, including Independence Rock, Devil's Gate, Split Rock, South Pass, and a few others it seems. I also saw some wild horses! It was a really great drive, but I don't have much else to say about it. Tomorrow driving to Boise Idaho. Going to a long day! Last long drive for a while though.

Link to all pictures:

Wyoming

Goodbye Scottsbluff!

2008-05-03T08:45:00.003-04:00

I just want to say that the staff of the Super 8 in Scottsbluff is the best. Mary Jane who does the breakfast is so nice, and she now takes responsibility for saving me from certain death on the roads yesterday by persuading me to stay. I was talking to people in the lobby this morning, and there were many stories of cars in ditches, closed roads, 18 wheelers driving off the road...so I think I made the right decision to stay here. Really nice to talk to fellow travelers hanging out in the lobby yesterday and this morning. Well, except for the strange man who came and knocked on my door later after overhearing my room number by the hotel clerk (only mistake they made), but I followed my mom's advice to "stay away from strange men" and did not answer the door.

Next stop: hopefully Ft. Laramie National Historic Site.

Rosita's

2008-05-02T21:09:00.008-04:00

I had an amazing Mexican meal tonight at Rosita's Restaurant in Scottsbluff. For starters, the chips were simply amazing. They are fried up after ordering and are very hot and very tasty:

The salsa was also amazing, with a nice amount of garlic (I love garlic) and also hotter than usual:

I ordered the combination plate and it was incredible. The burrito, tostada, and especially the taco were delicious. The enchilada was good too, just not quite as good as the others:

Also, I am terrible at reviewing food, so go here for a great review:

http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/whereweeat/stern_rositas.shtml

Lastly, I just want to say what a friendly town Scottsbluff has been. For example, I went into Target for modern day trail supplies (hand lotion and chapstick, what luxuries) and at least ten employees offered to help me find what I needed. There is also a nice coffee shop in town where I went and read for a while during the day.

Stuck in Scottsbluff

2008-05-02T12:16:00.003-04:00

I decided to spend another night in Scottsbluff. The weather in Wyoming looks pretty bad, though it's fine here in Scottsbluff...except for the occasional 60 mph burst of wind. Since I'm by myself and this doesn't throw me off a schedule, why take a chance? The wind is brutal. I'll try to find another local restaurant tonight and make the best of it. Plus the weather is supposed to be very nice--and not as windy--by tomorrow morning, so I will enjoy the trip more.

Wind

2008-05-02T09:37:00.002-04:00

I'm holing up in Scottsbluff for the morning until the snow and wind dies down some...the snow isn't too bad, but the wind is insane.

Here is a picture from the hotel parking lot:

2008-05-01T20:13:00.006-04:00

Woke up this morning before five and was on the road by 7. The drive was magnificent. I took 80 West to 26 to Scottsbluff. The drive on Highway 26 is well worth it; many odd rock formations and something new around every bend. There were plenty of historical markers and places to stop and enjoy the view.

I've wanted to see Chimney Rock since I was a kid, and finally made that a reality:

I could see it from maybe 20 miles away--not sure--but my efforts to snap it from the road didn't work since I had to avoid hitting a semi. I pulled over at every historical marker I could. I did stop at the Chimney Rock Visitor Center; they had a nice film but otherwise not much going on.

After that I went to Scottsbluff National Monument, where I spent a couple of hours. First, I have to say the weather here is absolutely horrible today, but exhilarating at the same time. The wind has been deadly and I had to wear three layers (including my Michigan Archives hoodie) to survive it, and even then it simply cut through me. Because it is the off-season, and because of the weather, nobody else was there. Scottsbluff offers a small museum that hasn't been updated for years. However, they had a local art show featuring watercolors and other artwork related to the area. Some of them were actually quite good.

Scottsbluff is pretty impressive:

Someday Scottsbluff will be completely eroded and will be at the same level as the rest of the plains. I walked along a short trail that paralleled the Oregon Trail and had some stunning views. Mitchell Pass provided a way for pioneers to shorten their journey west by cutting through Scottsbluff instead of taking a long way around.

This one shows the drive up including two of the three tunnels:

I drove up to Scottsbluff and had the entire place to myself once again. There were two paths to take, both with amazing views:

The wind was brutal up here. Just brutal. I got knocked around quite a bit. Well worth it though, so far the highlight of my trip, I would reckon.

I checked out the local museum, the North Platte Valley Museum. There is something to be said for local history museums that are run mostly by volunteers. They had some cool stuff though it was arranged randomly. Especially cool were a bunch of maps of Nebraska over the years.

Then I got my warning for running a stop sign mentioned last post. I was listening to Bruce Springsteen's album Nebraska, which includes the song "State Trooper", so I guess it was bound to happen. Incidentally, if you get a chance, see the movie Badlands. Directed by Terence Malick and starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, it's a retelling of the Starkweather-Fugate killing spree in the Dakotas. It inspired two Springsteen songs, "Badlands" and "Nebraska".

It was getting late in the afternoon but I drove all over Gering and Scottsbluff to get a better feel for the towns. Ok, I got lost. I did have steak for dinner, so yeah! Very tired.

Tomorrow I'm still planning on driving to Casper and hopefully seeing Ft. Laramie. No one seems concerned about the weather so I guess I won't be either until I'm actually driving in it.

You can see all the pictures below. They get kind of repetitive, but there are some pretty good ones in there. And none of them do the area justice.

Nebraska

Thank you Officer Bibb

2008-05-01T18:46:00.004-04:00

I had my first brush with western style law enforcement, after apparently running a stop sign in Gering, Nebraska. In my defense, the stop sign seemed to be for another road that crossed the road I was turning on. Officer Bibb was very nice though and issued me a warning instead of a ticket since I'm not familiar with the local roads. I couldn't find my registration though and he told me he could have hassled me, but didn't. How generous.

More later; had a great day wandering around Scottsbluff National Monument. No snow yet, but it is supposedly on the way.

2008-04-30T21:45:00.004-04:00

"There was land to take and people to kill
While you were conquering America
You served yourself and did God's will
While you were conquering America"--Tracy Chapman

"There's diamonds in the sidewalk the gutters lined in song
Dear I hear that beer flows through the faucets all night long
There's treasure for the taking, for any hard working man
Who will make his home in the American Land"--Bruce Springsteen

As I drove through Nebraska today, those two songs came on in quick succession on my iPod--followed by Little Steven's "Trail of Broken Treaties" which is also right on. All these songs were appropriate for my drive, as I learned more about the Homestead Act of 1862, both the good and the bad (and everything in between). Sure, I put those songs onto a huge playlist for my trip, but I do wonder if my iPod knew I was thinking about the impact of westward expansion on the land and peoples of America.

I covered a lot of ground today. In fact, it is safe to say I committed a common mistake of misjudging distances when traveling out west (still in the midwest, but still). However, it all worked out great and I saw some beautiful scenery. I had no idea northeastern Kansas was so pretty.

The day started off most aggravating in Kansas City traffic. I found one trails site at Minor Park, some swales and a couple of historical markers. I finally got on Highway 10 to Lawrence after some nauseating traffic. I cruised by the KU campus but really wanted to get out of the city. Fortunately, the Oregon trail auto route is well-marked and it was easy to find my way on all of the roads today.

First stop was St. Mary's. The historic sites in town were closed so this was a short visit. In between St. Marys and Belvue I stopped at the Oregon Trail Nature Park, and am glad I did. I took some short hikes and found the terrain beautiful. It was very very windy but that just added to the fun.

I stuck to the auto route through Kansas and made two more stops: Scott Springs, a popular encampment that had a sculpture of a wagon and an ox, and Marysville, a cute town. Marysville calls itself black squirrel city, but alas I did not see any black squirrels. I have one living in my backyard in Ann Arbor so it's not a big deal. The people here were very friendly and I had a very cheap lunch in a small cafe on the town's main square. I also stopped at a few historical markers along the road. Some were very general, and some dealt specifically with a crossing or a grave. I did miss the turnoff for a cholera cemetary, but perhaps just as well.

From here I made a brief stop at a Pony Express historical marker, then pressed on into Nebraska. I'm really glad I visited Rock Creek Station State Historical Park. The park had some great ruts and swales, and a few buildings from the era they are restoring. The views here were beautiful. I don't think my pictures do this area justice. You could walk right on a small part of the trail. Cool. The rangers were very friendly. Since right now it's looking like I'm not going to be able to see the Guernsey Ruts in Wyoming due to a "winter" storm, I'm especially glad I stopped here.

I then decided to take a "short" detour to Homestead National Monument. It really wasn't that far, but the drive there was not as pretty as the rest of the day. I took a long hike around the upland prairie. They are trying to restore the prairie to its state before homesteaders invaded the land. The monument is built on the land of the first homesteader Daniel Freeman, who prospered. Personally, I have to wonder about someone who rushed to be the first person to get a permit, but whatever. Maybe I'm just being cynical, but interesting that the first homesteader was also one of the most prosperous and has his land be the site for a national monument? Many homesteaders struggled mightily compared to Freeman, which the museum does point out. Anyway, it was a good visit.

I'm in Kearney Nebraska tonight and exhausted. Looks like I will be able to make it to Scottsbluff tomorrow though the weather is going to be awful, just going to be difficult getting out and into Wyoming on Friday...we shall see. I had to eat at some chain Mexican restaurant next to the hotel called Carlos O'Kelleys, because I was too tired to do anymore driving safely. It was ok since I was so hungry, but I wish I had had more energy to find some steak or something...after passing so many cattle on the road. That will be the objective in Scottsbluff--have steak.

Pictures:

Kansas and Nebraska

I left too early! (maybe)

2008-04-29T17:57:00.015-04:00

Yes, I may have left too early, but more on that later. Also, if you don't want to read this, just go to the bottom for some pictures.

I spent today in Independence MO, with a brief detour into Kansas City after Google maps failed me for the first time. After a number of u-turns, the day began with a visit to the Harry Truman National Historic Site. The tour took you through his house in Independence, where he retired after his presidency ended.

The guide kept emphasizing how modern day presidents could never retire to a small town and live reasonably private lives. It was a very modest home. After that, I walked around the Harry Truman Historic District...and saw many houses. I checked out Independence Square next; not a lot going on, but at one point it was a major westwards trails site, with blacksmith shops, wagons, ox, and a bustle of activity. I saw Clinton's Soda Fountain, where Truman had his first job.

Continuing the Truman theme, next up was the Truman Presidential Library and Museum. I enjoyed it, though it was pretty much like the others I've seen (Carter, Ford, Nixon, and Reagan). I will forever remember the Nixon Library for the Johnny Cash exhibit...but I digress. I do have a beef with these museums. Some of the interactive exhibits allow visitors to vote for their choices of presidential decision making or guess at a president's motives. For example, one today presented dilemmas Truman faced as president, such as choosing to recognize Israel. Then it would ask the audience to choose from four choices--interest group pressure, personal values, long-term good of nation, and recommendation of policy advisors-- which had the most impact on Truman. First, there is no way to answer that without a lot more reading and research. Second, of course, it is an interplay of all these pressures and probably more that resulted in said decision. Interestingly enough, most visitors pick personal values in the survey. I think this is because the exhibits are all geared toward explaining Truman's personal beliefs, including fairness for African-Americans, concern for Holocaust survivors, and saving American lives to end World War II. I don't know. It was a decent museum but simplifying the issue does not help the American public learn anything. As proof of that, there was a scrapbook like thingy in which to write your opinion on the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Most people wrote something like "I love you Harry" or "Rock on! Right decision". I flipped through and found a few thoughtful entries pro/con/ambivalent, mostly by young kids who couldn't spell but at least were trying. Admittedly, I did not take the time to write anything, but I would have been there a long time to write out my thoughts. Anyway, I did enjoy my visit to the museum and I reconnected with that period in history.

After that, I checked out a view of the Upper Independence Landing, which looked out over the Missouri River and is presently on the grounds of a lumber company. It was the landing closet to Independence for emigrants arriving by steamboat. It was surprisingly peaceful. Next, I had lunch at probably the most expensive restaurant in Independence, but it was really good and I was starving (blackened tiliapia sandwich with sweet potato fries, so pretentious).

Next up was the National Frontier Trails Center. This is kind of a cheesy museum, but they have a done a good job with what resources they have. The movie romanticizes the trail--especially in regard to Native American issues--but then the museum exhibits are pretty blunt describing both the positive and negative impacts of westward expansion. Mostly it had primary source material from diaries to go along with maps and material objects. It jazzed me up for the rest of the trip and the lady there was very nice and said I was "brave."

So yeah, I got back to the hotel late afternoon, and checked the weather. I had just read in the museum you can't leave too early on your Oregon Trail journey (or if anyone played the computer game, you know the dangers of that). And yeah, it's likely going to snow on Thursday night/Friday--potentially a blizzard. Right now I'm not changing any plans, but I may get stuck in Scottsbluff Nebraska for a second night, or might have to veer off the trail a bit to get to Casper Wyoming, where I targeted for Friday night. We shall see what tomorrow's weather report says. I should be able to make it to Scottsbluff, though my visit to Chimney Rock and Scottsbluff National Monument will either be cut short or will be in windy, rainy, and snowy weather. Hey, it could be fun; I brought my coat. I've got over three weeks of stuff to do, so let the adventure begin! Tomorrow I'm driving through Kansas into southern Nebraska and ending up at Kearney, visiting a few sites along the way.

I'm doing a lousy job of integrating pictures into the blog--but the pics from today are right here:

Independence MO

Long Drive

2008-04-28T19:47:00.003-04:00

I'm in Independence Missouri. That's about it. Today was a long drive from Ann Arbor, but it went quite fast. Other than a bizarre weather front that brought a brief period of torrential rain and caused the temperature to suddenly drop ten degrees then go back up in a matter of minutes while in Illinois, nothing too eventful happened on the drive. It did not feel like I really got going until I arrived in Missouri, since I had driven the rest of the route before (in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan).

Tomorrow: Harry Truman Presidential Museum/Library/Home, and some Oregon Trail related stuff in the area. Alas, the Royals are not in town this week. Bad planning on my part.

Test some photos

2008-04-21T17:40:00.000-04:00

I'm preparing for my trip out West by creating directions for following the Oregon Trail out West. I'm also experimenting with how to get photos loaded. I'm trying Picasa. Let's see how that works. So yeah, this seems to work. If you click on the photo below, it should take you to the album. This is from my first trip out West, in 2000 I think. Or was it 1999? Regardless, I think I'm going with picasa and google for this trip.

Test Album

2008-04-15T21:27:00.001-04:00

I'm heading out to Oregon in a couple of weeks and figured I'd make a blog to chronicle it.