Alaska Trip - Tok, Glenn Hwy, Seward Hwy

Entering Alaska














Alaska Highway south of Tok, AK














Guide Poles for Snow Plows on Tok Cutoff














View of Wrangell - St Elias NP from Glenn Hwy














Mountain view from Glenn Hwy













Turnagain Arm south of Anchorage, view from Seward Highway

Alaska Trip - Yukon

Welcome to the Yukon













Yukon Rest Area - two pit toilets and a bear proof trash can.













Signs at Watson Lake















Yukon Scenery















A section of the "old Alaska Highway"















Early morning in the Yukon

Alaska Trip - British Columbia

Entering Dawson Creek, BC













The start of the Alaska Highway.













Trees behind our campsite at Pink Mountain.













Tetsa River.













The Canadian Rockies through our rain dotted windshield.













View from the camper door at our campsite at Strawberry Fields Campground, Muncho Lake, BC.














Buffalo using the road right of way for pasture in northern BC.

Alaska Trip - Alberta

Field south of Calgary, Alberta











Entering Calgary, Alberta













Township Rd in Alberta. The avenues and streets of the US midwest are township and range roads in the Canadian plains.












Sunrise in the Walmart Parking lot in Whitecourt, Alberta. We slept here in the early morning hours of July 11.














The terrian begins to change north of Grande Prairie, Alberta.

Alaska Trip - Montana

Wyoming / Montana State Line













Yellowstone River near our campsite in ITCH-KEP-PE Park, Columbia MT.












Our campsite in ITCH-KEP-PE Park.













North of Wilsall, MT.














Entering the Lewis and Clark National Forest.













Crawford Creek North of Reihart, MT.

Alaska Trip - Wyoming

Wyoming just across the South Dakota border.













A Powder River coal train. There seemed to be dozens them all along the tracks.












We stopped in Gillette Wyoming to get a tp valve for the camper water heater. As we drove along a city street to get to the RV place, we passed this deer apparently out for a morning stroll.









Northern Wyoming near the Montana border.

Alaska Trip - The Badlands

Alaska Trip - Nebraska and South Dakota

Two of the three old dogs asleep on the front seat of the Dodge. The third old dog took the picture.



We stopped just south of the Nebraska / South Dakota state line and took this picture looking back toward Nebraska.



This is 336 Ave off South Dakota Hwy 44. All the rural roads in Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota seemed to be marked as streets and avenues. The streets, in SD anyway, run north and south and the avenues run east and west.

Alaska Trip - On To Oklahoma

Gantt was so happy to be home that he was dancing.



Our first stop after leaving Texas was the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman.



The Oklahoma Football Stadium didn't look as big in person as it appears on TV.

Trip to Alaska - Texas First

We left on June 30th to take Regan and Gantt back to Texas and then to travel on to Alaska. This is our home for the month, a 3/4 ton Dodge Diesel Pickup with a Fleetwood truck camper. The picture was made at a rest area in Oklahoma.

Back From Texas

Earlier this week the three old dogs returned from Texas. We had been out there since Labor Day helping the Jones move into their new house. I don't know how much help we were, but they said that we were so we will leave it at that.

When I got back from Alaska, I promised that I was going to start posting some trip pictures. I haven't gotten 'aroundtoit' yet, but hopefully I will get some posted soon.

Pi's Law

Every thing man-made increases in complexity with each new design and model until it eventually becomes useless.

The Three Old Dogs ...

The three old dogs, Corky, Dixie and Kenneth, spent the whole month of July traveling to, within, and from Alaska. We made the trip in our Dodge Pickup with the truck camper (see below). It was a long trip and it has taken a couple of weeks to partially recover. In the near future, I hope to be able to post a few pictures and some observations.

I Love The Onion

U.S. Finally Gets Around To Closing Last WWII Internment Camp

It Don't Really Matter

After you read this article you will see that it really does not matter who you vote for in the next election. As the Mogambo Guru is always saying "We're freaking doomed!"

The Lesser of Two Evils

Recently I have been getting quite a few emails from friends, acquaintances, and strangers regarding the upcoming presidential election. Most have been telling me how bad Obama is. A few have pointed out some shortcomings of McCain. So far, no one that I know has sent me an email telling me why I should vote for either one of these bozos. Every one describes why I should vote against either John or Barack. Well, I can tell you this. I quit voting for the lesser of two evils a long time ago. Voting for the lesser of two evils is like committing the lesser sin or killing the ugliest baby or taking the less addictive drug. If you can look at these two men and with a clear conscience say, yes, this man deserves to be President of the United States and deserves my vote, then by all means vote for him.

I, on the other hand, see little merit in either of these guys. I would not hire either one of them to run the basement apartment in an outdoor shithouse and I surely won't vote for them to be President of the United States. So, to all my friends, acquaintances and all you motivated strangers that have my email address, don't bother sending me any emails telling me how lousy either one of these candidates is, I already understand. And to any of you who are thinking about writing me to solicit support for either one of them, don't waste the bandwidth.

Since neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have nominated a worthy candidate for President and since third party candidates have no chance of winning, I fully intend to save some gasoline on election day and sit my butt at home.

Be Careful What You Ask For

Last week I read an article that said that Ford was opening a big new manufacturing plant in Mexico. Lots of places in the US wanted it, but Ford chose Mexico for economic reasons I suspect. Yesterday morning I was driving down the Pelham parkway past one of the local stores. There is a grassy area near the store parking lot and several trees on little islands out in the parking lot. A crew of what appeared to be Mexican workers was cutting the grass and tending the trees. At that moment, it struck me. We are on the way to getting what we asked for. One day soon those guys will be moving back to Mexico to work in a Ford motor plant. Then they won't be "taking" our jobs. We will again be free to wheel around big box store parking lots on lawn mowers and pull up weeds for minimum wage.

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road

During the last couple of days I've received a two part email from Joke of the Day with explanations for why the chicken crossed the road. I can't figure out how to link to the information so I am re-posting it here. If you are the copyright holder and object, let me know and I will delete this post. Otherwise, enjoy.
------------------------------------------------------
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road - Part One...

BARACK OBAMA:
The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN MC CAIN:
My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON:
When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.......

DR. PHIL:
The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding 'NEW' problems.

OPRAH:
Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH:
We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL:
Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road...

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY:
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

NANCY GRACE:
That chicken crossed the road because he's GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road - Part Two...

PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART:
No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY:
To die in the rain. Alone.

JERRY FALWELL:
Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth?' That's why they call it the 'other side.' Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media white washes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA:
In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

JOHN LENNON:
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES:
I have just released e-Chicken2007< /B>(c), which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Chicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^(C% ...reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON:
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE:
I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS:
Did I miss one?

AL SHARPTON:
Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens
------------------------------------------------------

I noticed for some reason, the PAT BUCHANAN joke got posted in both emails, maybe they like him more :>)

In case you are not signed up for Joke of the Day, you can do so here. They will spam you a little, but some of the jokes are really funny and it often helps to brighten up my day so I suppose it is worth it.

Be Of Good Cheer ...

While we probably will never see gasoline under $2.00 again, this article from telegraph.co.uk indicates that things may be getting a little better before too long.

Walter Williams on Environmental Predictions

This article by Walter Williams looks at some of the environmental predictions of the past century. In the last paragraph he mentions that the greenhouse gases are 95% water vapor.

Stands to reason since 70% of the earths surface is covered by water. If we completely eliminate all the auto exhaust and cow farts, we would still have significant and very important greenhouse gases. If we double our output of manmade gases they will still be puny when compared to the total.

As a man thinketh, so is he

Once again, it is as if Charley Reese had climbed into my head, extracted exactly how I feel and eloquently put it into words.

It is official, I am not cheap!

Linda recently called it to my attention that some of my friends say I am cheap. She did not agree with them, but none the less, they say I am cheap. Tonight I found this test online and took it. I scored 22. By that standard, not only am I not cheap, I am not even frugal, just careful with my spending habits. So take that friends :>)

And, in case you are wondering, I answered all of the questions truthfully.

What I Believe and What I Know

I believe that I am Right.

I Know that I could be Wrong.

Pogo again proven right

Or at least that is what Charley Reese appears to be saying.

An Armed Society ...

Is a polite society.

The Secret To Happiness?

This is what the Wall Street Journal says about at least one aspect of happiness. Works for me.

The Odds of Dying

A picture from Pixdaus:

No Drinkee, No Shootee

I see that the drinking age limit is making news again. The folks in favor of lowering the drinking age say it is a unfair for 18 years old to fight and die in Iraq but to be unable to drink a beer in the USA. I agree. The other side says that raising the drinking age to 21 lowered drunk driving deaths. They have statistics they say proves this. The argument is that people under the age of 21 are not mature enough to make appropriate choices when it comes to drinking. Ok, I will play along with that but my question is this. If a person under the age of 21 is too immature to make a decision about drinking alcohol, then are they not also too immature to make a decision about joining the military and killing people? You can not have it both ways. If the minimum drinking age stays 21 then the minimum age to join the military should be raised to 21 as well.

What The Hell Happened?

If you are around my age, I'm 60, do you ever look back over the last 35 years and ask yourself, "What the hell happened?" Take a look at this video and it may answer some of your questions.

Jack LaLanne on Being Happy

Pi

An interesting article about Pi.

Inflation

We all talk a lot about inflation. It seems to be particularly bad right now, but did you ever stop to think about the cumulative effect? I mean we really complain when it is real high but even when it is moderate it is chipping away at our resources. What brought this to my mind was an article I was reading today by Byron King of "Whiskey and Gunpowder." In the article, he said that Henry Ford paid his workers $5.00 per day. Doesn't sound like much does it? Well Byron said that adjusted for inflation, it is the same as $225 per day today. $225 per day, 5 days per week, 52 weeks per year. That is over $58,000 per year. That fact tells me two things. Henry Ford was paying a pretty good wage to his employees and inflation is a bitch.

OCD

POSSESSED from Martin Hampton on Vimeo.

Dyslexic Schizophrenic Insomniac Atheist

A Dyslexic Schizophrenic Insomniac Atheist lies awake at night arguing with the voices in his head about whether or not there is a Dog.

CNN talks to John Williams about the Economy

See it here.

Delusion

Look up 'delusion' in wikipedia and read what it says. Then go read this and you will understand the definition you just read.

PSWSIPs

It used to be that you would see articles that talked about WASPs (white anglo saxon protestants). I have not seen that term mentioned lately but I suspect it is still in use out there somewhere. I may have, in time, identified with that group, since my ancestors were white and protestant. However, as I have gotten older, I have come to realize that I'm no WASP and my ancestors weren't either. My ancestors were, for the most part, PSWSIP (poor southern white scots irish protestants). To the average layman, the difference may not be apparent, but to some of us, WASPs and PSWSIPs are as different as night and day. To fully understand PSWSIPs, you need to learn about our history. Senator Jim Webb of Virginia has written what I think is a great book, "Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America", that gives tremendous insight into what makes PSWSIPs tick. Of course, he dosen't mention PSWSIPs directly as he is talking about the Scots Irish in general. Still understanding the Scots Irish will give you a great start on understanding the PSWSIPs.

An Interview with Naomi Wolf

The CBS Video that WHNT Blacked Out

Click on this link.

The Status Quo

I read a lot of letters and articles on line, view videos on YouTube and check posts on Digg.com and Reddit.com. From all of this, I had gotten the impression that a majority of Americans feel like Howard Beale from Network, i.e. "I'm as mad as Hell and I am not gonna take this anymore!"

At the beginning of the nominating process, there were four candidates that actually represented a change from the old way of doing things. I know, nearly all candidates talk about change, but look at their platform and you will see which ones are really interested in change and which ones are gonna promote the status quo. The four who actually represented change were Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul and Bill Richardson. They certainly had differences in their individual platforms, but based on their positions, I believe that anyone of them would have, if elected, tried to make a change in the way our country is being run. If you total up all of the votes that they have received so far, I think you would find that it amounts to about 10 percent of the total votes cast. That tells me that there are about 1 in 10 of us that share Howard Beale's sentiments and are willing to do something about it. Everyone else, regardless of what they say, are satisfied with the status quo.

Michael Scheuer On Terrorist

In the video clip on this page Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, talks about the front running Presidential candidates and their approach to terrorist. Here is a little hint on what he says: clueless, clueless and clueless.

I Don't Want It, Here You Take It.

Well, I think I have finally figured this 2008 presidential election out. Both of the major political parties know that the country is screwed up. They know because they are the ones that did it. They also see the handwriting on the wall; the excrement is about to hit the fan. Neither party wants to be in control when that happens. Right now the Republicans are winning the race to loose the presidency. While Clinton and Obama are neither one bargains and I would not hire either one of them to run the downstairs apartment of an outdoor toilet, either of them could no doubt beat John McCain. Face it, only 19% of the American public approve of the way that "W" is doing his job and McCain has been described as Bush on steroids. McCain would be lucky to get that 19% to vote for him. Yeah, the Republicans are winning at losing. With a Democratic controlled congress and a Democrat president, they will be able to sit on the side lines and piss and moan about how much better things would be if they were in control. The American public, whose attention span seems to be about as long as my chewed off finger nails, will no doubt agree with them.

The Snake

Ever so often I read or see on TV or hear on the radio, a story about some politician who, according to the storyteller, "has let us down." The most recent case of this is the computer fund stink currently going on in Birmingham. I don't know enough about the Birmingham business to even make an intelligent comment, so I won't. But I would like to address the bigger problem of politicians, "letting us down."

First, let me say that I am talking here about politicians and not statesmen. If you don't know the difference, do some reading and don't rely too much on dictionary definitions. In my mind, politicans lie but statesmen tell the truth, albeit done carefully. Just as a matter of observation, I would estimate that 99 percent of the elected officials in these United States are politicians, with the rest being statesmen.

When I hear someone refer to a politician as having let us down I always think of the Johnny Rivers song "The Snake." If you don't remember the song Click Here and scroll down to the middle of the page to read the lyrics.

You see, politicians are just like the snake in the song. They will tell you what you want to hear to get you to do what they need you to do, then they will do what is their nature and feel contempt for you because you were foolish enough to believe them in the first place. What is the answer to this problem? I say never vote for a politician, always vote for a statesman, and learn to tell the difference.

I Spam Myself

Let me begin by saying that really, I don't approve of using the word Spam as a verb. I grew up occasionally eating, and always liking Spam. Sometimes my mother would slice it into thin slices and fry it until it had a light crust on either side. It was served with whatever vegetables we might be having. At other times, we would open a can and just make sandwiches with bread, mustard and maybe mayonnaise. To me it is an unfortunate twist of the computer age that good ole Spam has become the name for junk email. However, I alway heard that "when in Rome, do as the Romans do", so herein, little 's' spam refers to junk email.

When I say that I spam myself, I am specifically referring to Yahoo's bulk mail folder. I've had a Yahoo web mail account for years. In fact, I am sure I had it prior to opening my eBay account and I did that in 1997. I like Yahoo and I do appreciate the fact that their email filters send a lot of stuff that I am not interested in to the bulk email folder, but occasionally I am puzzled. Like day before yesterday, I sent an email and included a cc: to myself. The copy did not show up. Later on when I went to empty the bulk mail folder, I did a quick scan and sure enough, there was my cc: to myself. I guess I spamed myself?

Its kind of hard for me to figure how yahoo thinks that anything I send to myself is spam. I know about spoofing and I routinely get emails with my email address as the sender when I did not send them, but yahoo has authentication and it would seem that they would know a true khmiller email from a spoof. Maybe email filters work like humans, they sort and sort and sift and sift and every so often they just get fed up and say to hell with it and dump everything into the bulk mail folder. I doubt that is the case, but as we do with animals and other things, we humans love to ascribe our humanness to non-humans, even computers.

A Story Of Two Signs

Read it Here.

Whither the Remnant?

Whither the Remnant? by Butler Shaffer. Read it, if you don't understand it, Read it again. Then, if you want to read Nock's essay about the remnant, you can do that here.

It's All About The Sun

An interesting article from `Investor's Business Daily' about changes in solar activity.