Poolside

I ran across this strange thing spewing water out it’s ass into the pool during my recent travels. It reminds me of my brain right now, deformed and leaking fluids…

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Heceta Beach

Took this shot a few years back on Heceta Beach. I thought about Oregon as a destination but it rains too much and the beaches are usually foggy.

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Water Buddy

My nephew Brian and I hung out at Lava Hot Springs yesterday. The sun was hot, the water was hotter and he and I were just plain hotties. It’s probably a good thing we don’t travel together too often, the cosmic vibrations bouncing off of south Idaho could cause Yellowstone to blow.

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Two Hours Old

I drove to Green Canyon hot springs for a soak today. It’s only 32 miles from my driveway and today it was better than normal. As I settled my body down into the geothermal goodness one of the staff came out and told me that they had just drained the pool, cleaned it and refilled it just two hours before, and I was the first one in it. Clean, fresh and hot, that’s down!

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Davis Dam

I brought up my NeXht app this morning to find my fruit eating spot and found Davis Dam right around the corner from Laughlin. I jotted down the coordinates, fed them to the GPS and was there in a flash. It’s a sweet little dam, notable in that it was built with local bonds as a means of powering Laughlin and the Mohave Valley, and they had the thing paid off by 2000 from the electricity revenue. Power must be cheap there!

Click the photo below (the one with the great gig line) to see some shots:

Here’s the NeXht Permalink.

…tiles by MapBox
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Laughlin Dusk

I went wandering around Laughlin this evening and took a bunch of random shots. If you would like to see them, click the photo below. btw: I have no idea what those things are hanging out of the name and yes, that’s the moon.

Update: Upon a closer look, they’re chips. Still not sure what the top thing is…

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Hanging In Bullhead

I had to kill a little time yesterday before checking in to my room so I ate my fruit down on the Colorado River and scanned the area from the buttes.

Landed in a great little room and had some spicy New Orleans shrimp at Bubba Gumps. The internet was down so I couldn’t post this until today, but I’m back.

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Free White and 71

Well, I’ve certainly got the free part down. You’ve got to love a country that allows you to hop in your little freedom ride with a bed in the back and hit the road to anywhere you want to go. And man, am I white! When you walk around other people that look like they live in the desert, (I guess because they do), you sure feel a touch out of place. As to the 71, I figured I better hurry up and do this post now, just saying…

I ate a great chili dog tonight at a Wienerschnitzel (remember those). It was a Chicago style, beef dog, with chili and onions, and jalapeƱos. After that I stopped at a Safeway (remember those) for tomorrows fruit, and cheese cake with coffee ice cream for tonights desert.

I also started on my tan so when I hit the Pioneer pool tomorrow I won’t blind anyone.

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Oasis

NeXht destination: Mohave Valley, AZ.

…tiles by MapBox

(Click ↑ to go there :-)

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Pioneer

The Pioneer Hotel is my favorite place to stay when I’m hanging out in Laughlin, NV.

…tiles by MapBox and Leaflet, streetview by Google
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Local Soak

I hit up hot springs all around the Northwest during my Summer off time but good old Green Canyon is just thirty miles from my front door. No camping out, I shower when I get home, and sometimes I just rip my wet shorts off when I get back in the truck and drive home naked.

The hot pool area is separate from the swim area so it’s usually pretty quiet on weekdays. They keep it hot (108°) and it’s only $5.50 for old guys like me. Thumbs up!

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Judgement Call

Last Saturday I left the Valley at 0400 and drove 10 hours to Mesquite, NV. It turned out to be a stressful run because my sweet little pickup was running rough and I had no idea why. I installed a new cap, rotor and plugs before I left along with an air filter and fuel filter. She should have been purring like Piper. At a rest area I checked the plug wire connections and after I arrived at the Virgin River Casino I tightened down my plugs. As I settled into the hotel hot tub I was hopeful for the next day.

Heading south in the morning, the problem was still there, and I had to make a decision. Do I drive through Vegas and then down into the desert towards my four night stay in Laughlin, moving my wounded truck further and further away from home on a Sunday when auto repair shops are closed, or do I limp her back north towards Idaho.

It killed me to do so since I’ve been looking forward to this desert getaway for months, but I took the first exit and turned back towards home. I ended up in Lava Hot Springs for the night, had a couple great soaks, and was home Monday morning.

Since I’ve been back I’ve managed to fix my truck (new coil and plug wires), attend a large meeting of the local Eclipse group where I ran my new app TetonPath for the crowd, and whipped up some great database editing code for it. It’s been a very productive couple of days, so why am I so damned depressed? Oh, maybe because it’s cold and rainy here and it’s 85° and sunny there. Ya think?

Here are the culprits before I replaced them:

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Travel Mix

I’ve got my ground up travel meds all mixed together for the upcoming road trip. There are eight different medications that I consume a 1/2 tablespoon of daily. So, four tablespoons of this toxic cocktail of medications mixed with a small V8 every morning should keep me alive while I travel. The container consists of equal parts:

  • Cayenne Powder (90,000 heat units)
  • Turmeric
  • Organic Garlic Granules
  • Organic Ground Pepper
  • Ginger
  • Ground Hawthorn Berry
  • Organic Soy Lecithin
  • Gotu Kola Powder

I feel like a witch mixing her magic ingredients in a cauldron.

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Rexburg Foothills

Steph’s back in country so I drove out of the Valley today for a 16:30 Rexburg pickup. Man, it was hot down there, 80° something, so I mosied up into the Rexburg foothills, overlooking potato farms and BYU housing, in search of a little shade.

Thankfully I’m heading to cooler weather next week, 109° something…

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GPS Bag

The UPS guy managed to dodge all of the driveway resurfacing stuff last night and drop off my new Garmin GPS Bag. It’s a weighted bag thing that I can attach my GPS to and then plop it up on my dashboard. When I settle down for the night I can just pick it up and put it on the floor out of sight. It looks nice there among my other desktop toys, but it’s heading to the truck tomorrow…

Update: It works great!

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