added recent pubs to archive

9 files changed, 447 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/published/2022-08-24_august-jottings.txt b/published/2022-08-24_august-jottings.txt
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+***August 2*:** Already I feel the end of summer heading toward us. There's a fleetingness to the warm days now, an inevitability to the cold that comes in the evenings and is slower to go again in mornings. 
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-12_054139_washburn.jpg" id="image-3052" class="picwide" />
+
+I miss the merlins. Every morning since we arrived the first thing I heard in the morning was five or six merlin chicks shrieking and playing in the pines around our campsite. Today I heard nothing. They've gone. Or they all died. Either way the bird life here as changed. The small birds are back. Nuthatches and chickadees are the morning sounds now, with occasional crows and blue jays.
+
+The pileated woodpeckers were through again this morning, you can never fail to notice that flaming-red crest streaking through the trees. It sounds like a jackhammer when they beat on the bark. Such a massive bird for something that spends most of its time clinging to the side of a tree. This morning there were three. One stayed on the ground, which I had never seen a pileated do before. At first I thought it might be injured, but eventually it took off to join its fellows in the trees.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-07-27_084517_washburn.jpg" id="image-3051" class="picwide" />
+
+***August 6*:** Strange mayfly hatch this morning. The bathroom building is completely covered in mayflies. Thousands of them, inside and out. Camp host tried blowing them with a leaf blower but it didn't work, they hung on. Reminded me of [the night in New Orleans when the termites hatched](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2017/05/new-orleans-instrumental-number-2), (which I didn't actually write about in that post, not everything makes it out of the journal). Fortunately we were far enough away this time that nothing ended up swarming in the bus. 
+
+***August 8*:** The kids started sailing camp this morning. I picked them up at lunch time and managed to see the girls sailing, Elliott was already in. Their first day on the water and it was probably the windiest we've had in quite a while. Can't reef an [Optimist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimist_(dinghy)). I guess you just go fast. They spent most of the day practicing knots and righting flipped boats so they knew what to do, but according to them no one flipped in the stiff breezes. 
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-09_112805_sailing-camp.jpg" id="image-3053" class="picwide" />
+
+I've been challenged to many a knot tying contest this afternoon. I have lost almost all of them. I used to be able to tie a bowline one-handed without thinking about it. Now I have to sit there and tell myself the rabbit story to get it right.
+
+***August 12*:** Final day of sailing camp featured a sail-by for the parents followed by a potluck lunch. Unfortunately there was very little wind so it was more a drift, crank-the-tiller-back-and-forth by. Still, it was good to see them out on the water, having fun and making new friends.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-12_111237_sailing-camp.jpg" id="image-3054" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-12_111629_sailing-camp.jpg" id="image-3055" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-12_111643_sailing-camp.jpg" id="image-3056" class="picwide" />
+<div class="cluster">
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-12_112257_sailing-camp.jpg" id="image-3057" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-12_112622_sailing-camp.jpg" id="image-3058" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+</div>
+
+***August 13*:** Heading to the county fair later today. We're suckers for a local fair, but we're used to fairs in October. Yet another reminder that cold comes early up here.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-13_140027_county-fair.jpg" id="image-3059" class="picwide" />
+<div class="cluster">
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-13_145435_county-fair.jpg" id="image-3061" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-13_145423_county-fair.jpg" id="image-3060" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+</div>
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-13_152157_county-fair.jpg" id="image-3062" class="picwide" />
+
+Years ago at the [Elberton Fair](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2019/10/elberton-county-fair) Elliott was too short to ride some of the rides with his sisters. This year Olivia was too tall to ride some of the rides with her siblings. We can't seem to completely win. At least there was a lumberjack show, complete with crosscut saws and log rolling exhibitions.
+
+***August 18*:** Cooler this morning. 54 on the gauge. Blue-gray fog bank on the far shore enshrouds the hills. The crows are unhappy about something this morning. Red-breasted nuthatches seem unconcerned. 
+
+Signs of winter are increasing. The weather has shifted, more birds are passing through. Cape May warblers are already headed south from wherever they've been north of here. On the way to the store today I saw the city had pulled out its snow plows and was giving them a wash. Seasons remain a strange thing to this Los Angeles native. I like the idea of them, I like the transitions between them, but we are not sticking around to live with winter. Two weeks more, maybe three.
diff --git a/published/2022-08-31_grandparents.txt b/published/2022-08-31_grandparents.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..15ee223
--- /dev/null
+++ b/published/2022-08-31_grandparents.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+My parents flew out to visit us in Washburn. Somehow they managed to find a rental house outside of town (there isn't much besides hotels and camping in the these parts) with a spectacular garden.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-23_141236_parents.jpg" id="image-3076" class="picwide" />
+
+We took them out to Madeline Island for the day, which meant the kids got a second trip on the ferry, always a popular way to spend the day. We'd do it more regularly if it wasn't so ridiculously expensive.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-19_153339_madeline-island-parents.jpg" id="image-3075" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-19_123846_madeline-island-parents.jpg" id="image-3071" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-19_123343_madeline-island-parents.jpg" id="image-3070" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-19_124138-1_madeline-island-parents.jpg" id="image-3072" class="picwide" />
+
+Mostly we had nice weather while they were here, but one day while we were parking to get some ice cream up in Bayfield it started to rain, so we ducked into the nearby Bayfield Heritage Museum. If we hadn't recently been the Milwaukee Public Museum, I'd say the Bayfield Heritage Museum is the best museum we've been to. As it is, it's pretty close, for one simple reason -- the kids could touch everything. 
+
+The woman working even came over and told the kids to open the 1890s oven, the dresser drawers, the kitchen cabinets and the rest. That's really all it takes to make children totally enthralled by anything, just let them do what they want. 
+
+Down in the basement there was a very detailed model of Bayfield at the height of the timber industry. There was a scavenger hunt that involved finding ten little scenes in the model. We found everything but the "happy hobo." Damn itinerants, always hiding out at the edges of town.
+
+<img src="images/2022/IMG_20220818_131559.jpg" id="image-3077" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/IMG_20220818_132312.jpg" id="image-3079" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/IMG_20220818_131627.jpg" id="image-3078" class="picwide" />
+
+One of the great things about having visitors come is it gives you a reason to do some of the things you just never seem to get around to otherwise. Houghton Falls is less than two miles from the campground where we've been all summer, but for whatever reason -- maybe because it was too close by -- we never made it until my parents came.
+
+It turned out to be a great little trail. Judging by the wood planks on the trail, it is probably boggy and miserably buggy in the early season -- maybe it's a good thing we waited until August -- but it was dry and nice when we went. After wandering through the forest for a quarter mile, the trail drops down to the river bed which has cut a deep gorge through pre-Cambrian sandstone. The result is a wonderland of caves and pools with plenty of climbing to keep the kids busy.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-21_112147_washburn.jpg" id="image-3081" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-21_113404_washburn.jpg" id="image-3082" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-21_113840_washburn.jpg" id="image-3083" class="picwide" />
+
+The namesake falls are a bit back from the lake, but there was no water anyway. The trail ends at Lake Superior, just beyond a shallow bay where the river finally empties into the lake. There's a little rock outcropping about 10 feet off the water that looked pretty good for jumping. I actually would not have gone if the kids hadn't been gung ho about it. But then they were less so after I jumped and they saw how far down it was. I ended up being the only one to jump. Pretty sure the eagle up the tree was laughing at me.
+
+<img src="images/2022/IMG_20220821_120901.jpg" id="image-3080" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-21_115705_washburn.jpg" id="image-3084" class="picwide" />
+
+My mom celebrated her 80th birthday the day before they left. The kids helped bake the cake and decorate the house for her. And then, sadly the rental house turned back to a pumpkin, and their grandparents headed back to California. It's always hard to say goodbye. But we're thankful for the time we have with friends and family, and that's part of why we never say goodbye, we say "see you again soon."
diff --git a/published/2022-09-06_porcupine-mountains-backpacking.txt b/published/2022-09-06_porcupine-mountains-backpacking.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d4a0e20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/published/2022-09-06_porcupine-mountains-backpacking.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+There are only a few small stands of old growth forests left on this continent. I have been to couple of smaller old growth stands -- one in the west, one in the south -- but I've never really spent much time in them. When I found out that the Porcupine Mountains were the second largest old growth Hemlock forest left in the U.S., I knew we had to go. 
+
+This time I wanted to spend some time, so I put together a another family backpacking trip. We left the bus in its site in Washburn and headed up into the mountains of Michigan[^1]. Well, elsewhere they might be called hills, but up here they're mountains. 
+
+We drove a couple of hours around Superior to the Porcupine Mountains, picked up our permit, and hit the trail.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-30_125052_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3086" class="picwide" />
+
+The kids were able (and wanted) to carry more weight compared to [our last trip in North Carolina](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2020/10/walking-north-carolina-woods), but of course what they think they can carry and what they can actually carry depends on the distance. 
+
+We wanted a destination to hang out at, so we opted for the [trail around Mirror Lake](https://www.michigantrailmaps.com/member-detail/porcupine-mountains-north-south-mirror-lake-trails/) -- three miles in from the east, three miles back out to the west. We started with the eastern portion of trail, which went over Summit Peak. We wanted to get the hard stuff over with at the start. For about a half a mile it was straight up -- about half of that was stairs -- to a tower that brought you above the tree tops for a view of Lake Superior.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-30_130152_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3087" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-30_120356-1_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3085" class="picwide" />
+<div class="cluster">
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-30_130547_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3088" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-30_130559_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3089" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+</div>
+
+It wasn't until we were almost to the lake that we finally stepped into the old growth Hemlock. Much of the old growth forest in the Mirror Lake area was knocked down in a storm in 1953 when 5,000 acres of old growth forest -- thousands upon thousands of trees -- came down in a matter of hours. Two high school kids out fishing near Mirror Lake got caught in the storm (and lived), which must have made for an exciting morning. Wind shear like that is not unheard of up here, but that's a pretty extreme example (that is weirdly undocumented online, you can read about it at the visitor center though).
+
+It was dark and cool in the old growth, little sun made it down to the forest floor, which was a deep bed of needles. The thing that really jumped out about the old growth though was how quiet it was in those portions of the forest. I noticed the silence before I really registered anything else. I'm not sure why, but I have never been anywhere so utterly silent. The birds were mostly gone, headed south for the winter, that was definitely part of the silence, but it was also just quieter among the Hemlocks than in the younger stretches of forest we passed through. 
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-01_094641_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3104" class="picwide" />
+
+We made it to camp by mid afternoon. I will confess I am fascinated by the modern hiking crowd who seem to love nothing better than 20 mile days. If the people I see on YouTube and Instagram are in fact representative of modern hikers. I am just about the opposite. Even if I didn't have kids... I like three mile days and lounging around camp, swimming, fishing, birding, cooking. The walking part? Meh, it's fine, but it's not why I am here. Walking is just the necessary ingredient to reach the last few spots on earth with some solitude. 
+
+Whatever the case, we set up camp, and spent the afternoon lounging around.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-30_153953_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3090" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-31_093826_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3095" class="picwide" />
+
+
+I have two regrets from this trip. The first is that we did not bring the hammock. Always bring the hammock. Well, if there are trees around. 
+
+My second regret is that we did not bring more real food. Five steaks really would not have added that much weight to our pack and would have 100 percent been worth that added weight. I am done with the whole dehydrated food thing. Some is fine when you're doing longer walks, but there's nothing like a steak in the backcountry. At least in my imagination there is nothing like a steak in the backcountry. Which isn't to say that we ate poorly, just that, well, steaks and bacon and eggs would have been better. Next time.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-30_174525_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3092" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-30_173223_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3091" class="picwide" />
+
+At least we got to have fires, something that's increasingly rare, not just in the backcountry, but everywhere. Long periods of poor forest management, combined with dry weather, have left much of the west forced to ban open fires. I am working on a longer piece about the importance of the fire, especially the outdoor fire, but suffice to say that it was very nice to have one in the backcountry. We even almost got something like a decent family photo. Almost.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-30_184129_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3093" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-31_065645_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3094" class="picwide" />
+
+The next day we did a little day hiking around the lake and a little swimming when we got back to camp.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-31_115020_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3096" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-31_125719_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3099" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-31_115414_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3097" class="picwide" />
+<div class="cluster">
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-31_132928_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3101" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-31_125223_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3098" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+</div>
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-31_130033_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3100" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-31_134317_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3102" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-08-31_142637_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3103" class="picwide" />
+
+The next morning we packed it up and hiked out via the other half of the loop. This time the trail followed a stream that wound through a lot of country that looked very much like the alpine meadows you see in the Sierras or Rockies. A little reminder that in the absence of altitude, high latitude creates a very similar ecosystem.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-01_102746_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3105" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-01_100848_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3106" class="picwide" />
+
+Before we headed back to the bus we did a quick drive around the rest of the park, to check out the larger, more famous, Lake of the Clouds. We ate lunch at the overlooks and then two hours later, we were back at the bus. 
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-01_113654_porcupine-mountains.jpg" id="image-3107" class="picwide" />
+
+It was a good trip overall, though I think I lost my enthusiasm for ultralight hiking somewhere out there. Next time we go backpacking there's going to be hammocks and steak involved.
+
+
+
+[^1]: We originally intended to go canoeing in the Boundary Waters, but couldn't get the permits for the areas that were doable with kids (everything was booked). In hindsight, I am glad we didn't.
diff --git a/published/2022-09-14_goodbye-big-waters.txt b/published/2022-09-14_goodbye-big-waters.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..648b894
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+++ b/published/2022-09-14_goodbye-big-waters.txt
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+Leaving is always a bustle of activity. We go from spending our days relaxing in the sun to frantically making lists and scrambling to get everything done before we hit the road. You'd think by now we'd plan ahead and know how to do it well, but not really. I always end up with a task list that's far more than I can possibly do in however long we have left. I think this is my way of dealing with pain of leaving somewhere -- overwhelming myself with tasks so there's no time to feel.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-11_115545_washburn.jpg" id="image-3110" class="picwide caption" />
+
+Because yes, there is always a pain in leaving. Heading toward new possibilities, while exciting, still means closing off old ones. This isn't something that's unique to travel, all of us are always changing, always leaving things behind. New jobs, new homes, new grades in school, something is always left behind as we move down the river of time. 
+
+For reasons I have not completely figured out, we seemed to have sunk deeper into the life of this place than anywhere else we've stopped in our travels. In all we were here nine weeks, which is actually less time than we spent in the Outer Banks, but I felt more a part of this place. Perhaps it is the open and welcoming people of the area, the [giddiness of summer](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2022/07/washburn) up here, or maybe we're getting better at settling in. Perhaps some combination of these things and more.
+
+We are making a bigger change than we have yet on this leg of our journey (which I count as starting when we left the [100 acre woods]()). For ten months now we have lived by the water -- [coastal South Carolina](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2022/02/ice-storm), [the Outer Banks](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2022/05/ocracoke-beaches), and now [the shores of Lake Superior](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2018/08/superior) -- and now we're headed west to the plains, mountains, and deserts. 
+
+It wasn't all frantic work and packing though. After [our backpacking trip in the Porcupine Mountains](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2022/09/porcupine-mountains-backpacking) we had two more weeks in Washburn, which we spent visiting with friends we've made, hiking up to a waterfall in the hills, re-visiting Little Girl Point, stocking up on local favorite foods, and readying the bus for the next leg of our journey. We even found time to play with a cool telescope I was testing for work.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-04_114226_hiking-washburn.jpg" id="image-3108" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-04_114818_hiking-washburn.jpg" id="image-3109" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-13_150800_washburn.jpg" id="image-3111" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/IMG_20220907_193602.jpg" id="image-3113" class="picwide caption" />
+
+Leaving is always bittersweet. The kids will miss their new friends, and so will we. Up here the pain of leaving is eased by the fact that few of the people we met spend the winters here anyway, so everyone is leaving soon. We will also very likely be back next summer, so this time around while we did say our long midwestern goodbyes, they were really see you next years. And then we hit the road.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-15_090212_drive-to-dakotas.jpg" id="image-3112" class="picwide" />
diff --git a/published/2022-09-21_ease-down-the-road.txt b/published/2022-09-21_ease-down-the-road.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e72fad2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/published/2022-09-21_ease-down-the-road.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+We set out from Washburn, bound for Arizona via North Dakota. We wanted to see Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and then we figured we'd head south and maybe catch some of the fall colors in the Rockies on our way.
+
+It's pretty rare for us to drive more than 200 miles a day. We're not in any rush and that's about how far you can go in the bus before it starts to feel like a chore. That said, we decided to blast our way across Minnesota and North Dakota doing back-to-back 300 mile days. We spent the night at a city park in Fargo the first day and then pushed on for Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It was a lot of driving, but there just weren't many places to stop in between.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-16_141824_drive-to-dakotas.jpg" id="image-3115" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-16_134205_drive-to-dakotas.jpg" id="image-3114" class="picwide" />
+
+Theodore Roosevelt has a fairly nice campground, but we opted to stay at a more remote boondocking spot in the Little Missouri Grasslands. Although it was well outside the park, and off by itself, it was actually closer to town and made a good base for exploring the area.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-16_151155_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3116" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-16_162322_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3117" class="picwide" />
+
+The Grasslands themselves were in some ways more interesting than the national park, though if you want to see bison you have to go into the park since a fence keeps them in. The kids loved having some badlands for a backyard. They'd disappear up into the hills in the mornings while Corrinne and I worked, returning only for food.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-16_163516_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3118" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-16_155612_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3132" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-19_194953_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3125" class="picwide" />
+
+The kids and I hiked a ways out on a trail that runs through a petrified forest. We were mostly looking for birds since the petrified forest was farther than anyone wanted to walk. The kids had been looking over the bird list we picked up at the visitor center, deciding ahead of time what they wanted to see -- the Sharp-tailed Grouse was their top pick. I gave them the usual caution that one doesn't really pick which birds they're going to see, to have patience, and so on. 
+
+Naturally, the first thing we see, after less than 10 minutes of walking, was a Sharp-tailed Grouse. It reminded me of the time I explained to them that fishing requires patience and then less than two minutes after casting [Lilah was reeling in a fish](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2018/01/almost-warm). Maybe it's just me. Maybe everyone else is always seeing birds and catching fish.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-17_002345_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3121" class="picwide" />
+
+We're not just bird and fish people these days, we also go in for rocks. Some of us anyway. Whatever the case there's a river just over the Montana border that is the place to find eponymous agates. We made the hour long drive and came back with more Montana agates than anyone living in a 26-foot bus should really have. 
+
+It was nice to spend a day beside the river though. The current was pretty strong, but we managed to get a little swimming in.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-18_115628-1_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3123" class="picwide" />
+
+And yes, we did drive into Theodore Roosevelt National Park one day. The kids like to get junior ranger badges whenever we're anywhere national, so they did that while I wandered around the visitor center. Men like Theodore Roosevelt aren't very popular these days, but it seems to me that might actually be most of our problem. We could use some leadership just now and boy it's been a while since politicians were leaders. Try to imagine one of our current "leaders" taking a bullet and then refusing to stop his speech just because he'd been shot. 
+
+We also wanted to see the bison herd that lives in the park. Our best view though turned out to be this one, which was off by himself, standing right beside the road. Maybe, I thought while I was taking the picture, if you can't be a leader, at least don't be a follower. Maybe just stand off by yourself, mind your own business, eat grass, and stare at the tourists.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-17_155530_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3122" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-20_163735_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3129" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-20_164453_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3130" class="picwide" />
+
+We also made a stop at the cowboy museum in the nearby town of Medora, where the kids learned a little about rodeo culture.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-20_104432_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3126" class="picwide" />
+<div class="cluster">
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-20_110610_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3128" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-20_110315_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3127" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+</div>
+
+Mostly though we spent a lot of time just hanging out at the campsite. The landscape here is such a stark contrast to the last few months that we were all happy to just wander around under that vast, seemingly endless western sky.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-16_163650_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3119" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-18_185406_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3124" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-16_201159_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3120" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-20_215737_missouri-grassland.jpg" id="image-3131" class="picwide" />
+
+Part of what made our campsite nice and our time in the grasslands so enjoyable was that we happened to hit a gap between storms. For five days we had virtually no wind. On the sixth day though we got a taste of what this place is like most of the time. With a 20 MPH wind blowing dust around all day, and a storm bearing down on us that promised a 40 MPH headwind for our next drive, we decided to it was time to hit the road again.
diff --git a/published/2022-09-28_under-the-bears-lodge.txt b/published/2022-09-28_under-the-bears-lodge.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8504063
--- /dev/null
+++ b/published/2022-09-28_under-the-bears-lodge.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+From Theodore Roosevelt National Park we headed south. Originally we'd planned to go through South Dakota and then down into Colorado, but the day before we left we noticed that if you go west around the Black Hills, instead of east like we'd planned, you pass right by a place none of us had ever been -- Devil's Tower.
+
+I'll confess that my chief association with Devil's Tower is *Close Encounters*. And yes, we made mashed potatoes the night we arrived. I mean, you have to right? 
+
+<div class="cluster">
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-22_084736_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3135" class="cluster picwide" />
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-21_184115_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3133" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-21_184734_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3134" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-22_153831_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3140" class="cluster picwide" />
+</div>
+
+Devil's Tower is either a poor translation or a deliberately wrong translation of the local name, Bear's Lodge Butte. That name comes from the fact that it really does look like a tree that bear has gone to town on, and the constellation of the bear is always nearby, above the butte. 
+
+I don't see a bear when I stare up in the sky, but then I don't think I'd see a dipper either (the big dipper is part of the bear) if people hadn't been pointing it out all my life. Constellations aren't my strong suit. Whatever the case I think Bear's Lodge is a better name for this place. It stops me from confusing it with [Devil's Postpile](https://www.nps.gov/depo/index.htm).
+
+<div class="cluster">
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-22_085854_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3136" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-22_101920_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3137" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+</div>
+
+There were a couple of trails, one of which ran around the base of the butte, and then a couple others that headed up into the bluffs and "backcountry", though this monument isn't really large enough to have what you'd really call backcountry. Still, it was a nice hike up into the grasslands. It's unreal how silent it can be out there. The only thing I heard -- besides the kids -- was the wind, and the occasional scream of a hawk or eagle.
+
+<div class="cluster">
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-22_151043_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3138" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-22_151551_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3139" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+</div>
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-24_155439_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3142" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-24_154239_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3141" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-24_155959_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3143" class="picwide" />
+
+
+We'd planned to just stay a night, maybe two, but then we ended up staying a week because we liked it. It's always interesting to stop for a while in places that most people come, see the thing, and then leave. Every morning the campground would empty out, but then every night it was full again. When that happens you notice the people who don't leave, and those often turn out to be people in the same situation -- people who aren't seeing the sights, but are just living out here, like we do. 
+
+We ended up running into our friend Pete, who we met way [back at the beginning of summer](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/2022/07/4th-of-July-2022), and we met several new friends. It might sound strange to call people you only spend a few days with friends, but that's one of the wonderful things about travel -- you makes friends fast, and become fast friends. I am still friends with and regularly talk to people I traveled with in [Laos in 2006](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/laos/) (hi Debi!), and I have no doubt the same will be true for our newer friends. 
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-28_193604_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3144" class="picwide" />
+
+
+One of the great things about living this way is the fluidity you can bring to plans. If we like a place we might stay longer than we plan. If we don't, we might leave early. That cuts both ways though. Sometimes you *have* to be flexible. Sometimes you *get* to be flexible. The flexible part is the constant. Fortunately in Bear's Lodge we *got* to be flexible. Though we also got a little hint of how we might need to be flexible soon.
+
+
+The day we arrived I noticed the check engine light in our Volvo was on. I didn't think too much of it, it happens when you don't properly tighten the gas cap. Usually it goes away when you re-tighten the gas cap. I did that and forgot about it for a few days.
+
+But a few days later I went to get some groceries in a town down the road and the light was still on. Damn. Well then. 
+
+I stopped for gas and opened the hood to see if anything was amiss. It took me a minute, but then, next the oil filler cap I noticed a plastic hose that had cracked. I wasn't sure what it did, but after tracing its path I figured out it was probably involved in the vacuum system somehow. I figured I could either tape it or glue it back together.
+
+I took a closer look when I got back to camp and the plastic hose promptly disintegrated when I touched it. So much for patching a crack. Now I needed to rig up some kind of temporary hose or we were stuck. I dug through my considerable collection of hoses and came up with some fuel line that fit at both ends, and then I telescoped that up to some extra PCV valve hose I had lying around. I anchored it all together with hose clamps and wedged it in place with another hose clamp at the bottom and some blue RTV gasket maker at the top. Then I waited 24 hours.
+
+The next morning it started up fine and seemed to run, so we hit road with it, figuring I'd pick up a replacement hose at the next Napa. About 3 hours into the drive, the check engine light went off, which I considered a kind of success. We made it where we were going anyway, and some times, that's enough.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-09-28_213843_devils-tower.jpg" id="image-3145" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/GoPro_star_trails.jpg" id="image-3146" class="picwide" />
diff --git a/published/2022-10-05_broken-down-in-lamar.txt b/published/2022-10-05_broken-down-in-lamar.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..117e81d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/published/2022-10-05_broken-down-in-lamar.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+From Bear's Lodge Butte we continued south, bound eventually for Tucson though we had a few weeks to get there. Unfortunately there isn't much between northern Wyoming and New Mexico. Or, let me rephrase that. Taking into account that the bus doesn't climb mountains, and Colorado is ridiculously expensive and crowded, there isn't much between northern Wyoming and New Mexico. 
+
+The first night out we spent at a random fairground in southern Wyoming. I like places like this. They're cheap stopover spots and sometimes you meet interesting people. The next day we drove onto to Brush, CO were we camped in a city park for the night. We were having flashbacks and realized that we once camped in a city park in nearby Limon that looks nearly identical to this one. 
+
+From Brush we had originally planned to head to Trinidad to camp and then maybe take a day trip into the Rockies. As we talked about it though we realized our heart really wasn't in it. We decided to cut east, then south down into New Mexico via Texas.
+
+We were just outside of Lamar CO when the bus suddenly lurched and hesitated. At this point that's happened enough that I immediately knew the fuel pump was shot. Again. I pulled over and confirmed that there was air spitting into the fuel filter. I don't know if it's poor manufacturing, the amount of ethanol in gasoline or what, but I've been through three fuel pumps in five years. These days I carry a spare. I got under the bus and half and hour later we were all good. 
+
+I've realized I can tell you where we are from under the bus with a high degree of accuracy. If every single car that passes stops to ask if everything is okay, we're in the south. If most cars stop to ask if I'm okay, we're in the midwest. If no one stops, we're in the west.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-01_145845_around-lamar.jpg" id="image-3147" class="picwide" />
+
+When I was changing the fuel pump I noticed the wind was blowing much harder than I thought and we were headed straight into it. According to the local weather it was blowing 25 miles an hour. There wasn't much we could do about that of course, so we hit the road again.
+
+About ten minutes later I smelled smoke. It was the smell of burning oil. I lifted up the doghouse and sure enough there was smoke coming out the valve cover vent. I pulled over again. When I opened up the air filter I found a good bit of oil, along with an oil soaked air filter. I try not to jump to catastrophic conclusions, but at this point I know this engine pretty well, and this had happened once before, when we blew our head gasket.
+
+We were about 20 miles outside of Lamar CO, but the next town was a good 60 miles away and it was already 3:30 in the afternoon. I hated to do it, but we had to turn around. We found an RV park in Lamar and pulled in for the night. 
+
+<img src="images/2022/DSC08435.jpg" id="image-3152" class="picwide" />
+
+The next morning I got up and started troubleshooting. I like to be optimistic so I started by replacing the PCV valve, which vents the crankcase. It also costs about $2 and was the simplest possible fix. Unfortunately, the new PCV valve did nothing. At least I have a spare PCV valve now. 
+
+I moved on to a dry compression test. The results were... not good. Not only did I have two adjacent cylinders with compression at 65 PSI, which is a pretty good sign of a blown head gasket, not a single cylinder was actually at the compression it should be. As my uncle put it when I texted him the results, "your cylinders are rattling around in there like a bunch of old coffee cans."
+
+The fact of the matter is this engine is worn down and needs to either be rebuilt or replaced. 
+
+Unfortunately now is not the time, nor is this the place to do either of those things.  Every mechanic I talked to was slammed busy. I couldn't find a anyone will to even look at it for two weeks. And that mechanic was in Amarillo. I told him I'd see him in two weeks and decided it was high time I took this thing apart myself. 
+
+Unfortunately work got in the way for a week. My job is extremely flexible most of the time. However, there are about three weeks a year when I have to be in front of the computer 9-5. As luck would have it, the week after we broke down was one of those weeks. So I set aside the bus and worked. As I mentioned in my last post, some times you *get* to stay somewhere, other times you *have* to stay somewhere. 
+
+Lamar, CO does not seem to be a top of anyone's list of destinations. The vast majority of people who pull in to the RV park where we're staying pull out again the next morning. A handful stay for the weekend. We've been here for two weeks. We'll likely be here two more. If the thought of that raises your blood pressure, long term travel is probably not for you. 
+
+
+
+The secret to these little moments, whether your bus breaks down or your plane is delayed or whatever else happens is to relax. Remember that there actually is nowhere you have to be. You're just here on earth, hanging out really. Unless you live in a war zone, just suffered a natural disaster or have a loved one in some kind of distress then chances are whatever plans you had aren't that important. Let go of them and relax. That's all there is to it. Making good food helps too.
+
+<div class="cluster">
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-07_075326_around-lamar.jpg" id="image-3149" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-14_170442_around-lamar.jpg" id="image-3150" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-02_163952_around-lamar.jpg" id="image-3148" class="cluster picwide caption" />
+</div>
+
+
+Once you let go of your agenda, your plans, your vision of what the world is supposed to be, you can look around and access your situation with a clear head and open mind. You might notice simple things, like the moon is huge and beautiful, the rodeo is due in town next weekend. You might realize the most important trading post on the Santa Fe trail is just down the road. You might realize there's the ruins of a Japanese internment camp just over the hill.  
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-09_194224_around-lamar.jpg" id="image-3151" class="picfull" />
+
+
+There are things to do everywhere, just because they aren't the things you were planning to do doesn't mean you can't have fun doing them. So we relaxed and settled in to spend some time in Lamar Colorado.
diff --git a/published/2022-10-19_rodeos-and-fur-trading-posts.txt b/published/2022-10-19_rodeos-and-fur-trading-posts.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..45b0d89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/published/2022-10-19_rodeos-and-fur-trading-posts.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+Three weeks flew by in Lamar, Colorado. It took a week just to figure out what we wanted to do about the engine and find someone willing to do it. Every mechanic was booked at least two weeks out, so we had plenty of time on our hands. I got caught up on work (and this site), but we also got out to see some of the local sights, like the local end-of-the-season rodeo.
+
+The community college in town has a rodeo team (natch) and hosts this rodeo, which pulled in competitors from all over the place -- Wyoming, South Dakota, there was even a contestant from Australia. We missed the first day, but Saturday I took the kids over to watch their first rodeo.
+
+We saw everything from goat tying and barrel racing to bull wrestling and riding, but I think the favorite was the bronco and bull riding. There's something about watching someone try to stay on a bucking animal that I think everyone can relate to, at least metaphorically. 
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-09_111708_lamar-rodeo.jpg" id="image-3153" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-09_113624_lamar-rodeo.jpg" id="image-3155" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-09_112450-1_lamar-rodeo.jpg" id="image-3154" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-09_120545_lamar-rodeo.jpg" id="image-3156" class="picwide" />
+
+
+It had been a long time since I'd been to a rodeo and forgot how physically brutal it is -- by the end of the day my spine was hurting from just watching those guys get thrown around like rag dolls.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-09_121155_lamar-rodeo.jpg" id="image-3157" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-09_131358_lamar-rodeo.jpg" id="image-3158" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-09_131633_lamar-rodeo.jpg" id="image-3159" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-09_132136_lamar-rodeo.jpg" id="image-3160" class="picwide" />
+
+The first day we went no one managed to stay on a bull for the full 8 seconds. We had so much fun the kids insisted we go back Sunday morning to watch the final rounds of all the events, where the top three finishers from Fri and Sat squared off. This time one young man -- and only one -- managed to stay on for the full 8 seconds and went home with a trophy.
+
+---
+
+The next weekend we headed about an hour west of Lamar to see something called Bent's Old Fort. Fort is a bit of a misnomer though, it was really a trading post, the largest on the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail. The only really. From the last signs of city in Missouri, to well into Mexico, Bent's Fort was the only permanent settlement.
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_133823_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3165" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_134203_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3166" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_134406_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3167" class="picwide" />
+
+The fort was abandoned in 1849, primarily due to a bad cholera outbreak. The original adobe structure long ago crumbled to dust, but at one point it housed a young man who recorded all the dimensions and architectural details in a journal. That was used as the basis for rebuilding the structure for Colorado’s centennial in 1976. There were only two when we were there, but much of the year it's well-staffed with historical re-enactors as well.
+
+I am going to sound like a broken record here, but once again what made Bent's Old Fort such a great experience was the fact that it isn't all roped off. The kids could touch things, feel the furs, try on a hat, pick up the super-sharp two-tined fork, walk up to the stove, work the blacksmith's bellows and loads more. 
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_125924_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3161" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_134702_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3169" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_130137_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3163" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_130109_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3162" class="picwide" />
+<div class="cluster">
+    <span class="row-2">
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_135840_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3170" class="cluster pic66" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_130835_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3164" class="cluster pic66" />
+    </span>
+</div>
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_140106_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3171" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_141930_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3174" class="picwide" />
+
+It was quite a contrast to our other recent historical building visit, which was in Theodore Roosevelt National Park where you can walk in Teddy's original cabin and... look at all the stuff behind the plexiglas walls. That was so uninspiring I didn't even mention it. Apparently it pays to come to out of the way places if you want to interact with them.
+
+I particularly enjoyed the kitchen, the blacksmith's shop, and the carpenter's shop for this reason. All the tools were there, or in the case of the blacksmith, the tools to make the tools. The kitchen actually incorporated the original limestone fireplace stones into the floor, which were worn smooth from years of cooks working over them. 
+
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_141242_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3173" class="picwide" />
+<img src="images/2022/2022-10-15_140241_lamar-bents-fort.jpg" id="image-3172" class="picwide" />
+
+The spider pans and cast iron pots were mostly period correct, though I did notice a couple of Lodge brand skillets. Cast iron hasn't changed much over the years though so there isn't much difference between what they had in the 1840s and what I have in the bus right now.
+
+The other room I found fascinating was the council room, the room you would have been taken to when you first arrived at the fort, especially if you were from a local tribe or up from Mexico. The purpose was to sit down and present gifts to the visiting traders. This was expected, though where that expectation comes from I'm not quite sure. I assume it was just how the tribes had always done business. The purpose was to establish at least a business relationship, but often, from what I have read, friendships. 
+
+It reminded me of some of my experiences in [India](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/india/) and [Nepal](https://luxagraf.net/jrnl/nepal/), and for that matter much of the world. Commerce is not just an exchange of currency for goods, but a kind of relationship. You go in a shop in India or Nepal and you will have to bargain to establish a price, and you usually bargain over tea. If the shopkeeper thinks you might spend a lot of money you might also get some bread and chutney. 
+
+These days it's very fashionable to hate capitalism, and I am not here to defend the current brand of capitalism, especially in the form of online commerce, but I do think it's worth remembering that where we are isn't the only place we could be. The free market was absolutely the driving force behind any frontier trade (the nearest regulatory body being thousands of miles away), and yet somehow what seems to have emerged is a system of exchange that had elements of a gift economy and elements of more traditional barter. Personally it sounds a lot nicer than what we have. I'd rather sit around a fire on bear skins talking than stare at a screen, clicking buttons until a bunch of plastic crap is delivered to my home.
+
+My contention would be that we will get back to Bent's Old Fort style trading sooner or later. The totally lack of humanity in today's commerce makes it deadening to our souls. That's usually a sign of something that's not long for the world. In some ways there are aspects of the old ways lingering in our current system. A lot of the hardware stores and auto parts stores I end up at have a bunch of older men sitting around on stools, talking. I've always preferred Napa auto parts for exactly this reason, you come in and pull up a stool. That's inviting. Except in smaller communities most of the stools are taken. There's a gathering of some kind in progress whenever I come in. Perhaps those men came in to buy some little thing, but I think mostly they're there to talk. I imagine those relationships may have started a little like the old council room gatherings at Bent's Old Fort, where there may have been a commercial origin to the relationship, but it didn't have to end there. 
+
+Of course while musing on all this I ordered a bunch of engine gaskets from Rock Auto rather than going to the Napa just down the road. In my defense, Napa wanted almost double what I paid, and for inferior gaskets. But even in the old days, I'm sure some traders never made it past the council room. Not every deal is a good one. Still, after our trip out to the trading post, and thinking about these things, I started buying what I could locally here in Lamar, sitting on a stool in Napa. Sometimes I know I did pay more, but it was more enjoyable and if we want to find our way back to commerce with a bit of humanity, we might have to pay a little extra. I mean, who really wants to win a race to the bottom anyway?
diff --git a/published/2022-10-26_going-down-swinging.txt b/published/2022-10-26_going-down-swinging.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7217cd7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/published/2022-10-26_going-down-swinging.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+When we broke down in Lamar I kept thinking about a book I read almost a decade ago: *[Shop Class as Soul Craft](http://www.matthewbcrawford.com/new-page-1-1-2)* by Matthew Crawford. The gist of the book is that the only way to escape a dependency on stuff is to be able to take it apart and repair it. There is empowerment in knowing how things work -- your stuff will never fail you because if it does break, you can repair it. 
+
+Crawford calls this person who wants to fix their own stuff, The Spirited Man. Crawford writes:
+
+>[The Spirited Man] hates the feeling of dependence, especially when it is a direct result of his not understanding something. So he goes home and starts taking the valve covers off his engine to investigate for himself. Maybe he has no idea what he is doing, but he trusts that whatever the problem is, he ought to be able to figure it out by his own efforts. Then again, maybe not—he may never get his valve train back together again. But he intends to go down swinging.
+
+I kept staring at the bus's valve covers thinking about that line. Could I get my valve train back together again? There was only one way to find out. Still, I don't think I would have done it if Corrinne hadn't insisted that I could do it. The kids also seemed to think I could do it. You can do a lot more when people believe in you. So I decided I had to try, to go down swinging at least.
+
+After a week of thinking it over, weighing other options, and realizing no one else was going to do it for me, I dove in. The valve covers came off.
+
+<img src="images/2022/DSC08428.jpg" id="image-3177" class="picwide" />
+
+Well, first I messaged my Uncle Ron and asked for advice before I dug in. He gave me some helpful pointers -- take lots of photos, label everything, keep track of where each rod came from, clean it all up with soap and water, coat it with a light coat of oil. Check. The best mechanics he told me are the ones that were patient and methodical -- take your time. Patient. Methodical. Check. 
+
+I grabbed the four wrenches I'd need and started taking things apart. I pulled off the electrical components first. That's when I remembered the alternator problems I'd yet to deal with. Since I had to drain the radiator anyway, I decided to pull it out completely which would give me easier access to the alternator. I removed the alternator (the most difficult, stubborn bolt in the whole job) and had the local Napa bench test it. Dead. I ordered a new alternator. If you're going to go all the way, you better go all the way. 
+
+Then I pulled off the carburetor and then the valve covers. I took a lot of photos, I cleaned and labeled everything. I pulled off the intake manifold (which was so much heavier than I expected), and then I took out the valve trains (the bus's are all on a long rod, which I took out as a single piece, so they stayed together nicely). Finally, the only thing left was the head. Ten more bolts and then I'd know. I won't lie, I was a little scared that I'd find a blown cylinder in there, but I didn't. The head came off and there was the gasket burnt through in pretty much the exact same place it blew last time. 
+
+<img src="images/2022/DSC08441.jpg" id="image-3178" class="picwide" />
+
+That told me something was wrong with more than the gasket. 
+
+At Ron's suggestion I tested it with a feeler gauge, which is just a bunch of strips of metal of precise thicknesses, and discovered that the head and the block are each slightly warped in that spot. That's why we blew the gasket again, and it's why we'll blow the new one I installed eventually too. If there'd been a machine shop around I might have pulled the other head and had them both ground down, but there wasn't. Machine shops that were over 200 miles away in big cities told me it would be at least two weeks before they could get to it.
+
+All I wanted to do was get us back on the road and keep us there for a few more months. I *do* plan to rebuild or replace the engine next year, but now that I've done the head gasket, I feel like I want to do a rebuild myself too. But I want to do it where I can work on it without being stuck somewhere we don't really want do be. In the mean time we just need to squeeze a few thousand more miles out of it. In the end I put some copper coat on the block, the gasket, and the head to help seal it a little better and hoped for the best.
+
+Once I had everything I needed, I reversed everything I'd done, working from my notes, photos, and some videos, to get it all back together. It took me three days to get everything back in, though I imagine I could do it in two now that I have a better idea of how it all works. 
+
+Then came the evening when I first fired it up. Deep down I knew it was going to work, but it was still a stressful moment. Especially with the amount of oil that had to burn off... so much oil... for a moment I thought we'd failed. It was too windy that day to go for a drive, but the next day after work I drove into town and filled up the tank before going down the highway for about 20 minutes. Amazingly, everything seemed to work. Well, almost everything. I must have bumped a wire somewhere because the headlights don't come on anymore, but if that's the only thing I screwed up... I can live with (and fix) that.
+
+Two days later we hit the road south. Unfortunately we had to abandon our plans to go to Tucson. There are too many hills between here and there. We didn't want to push it. If we're going to squeeze more life out this engine as it is, we're going to have to stick to the flat areas. So we pointed south, to Texas. It was a long drive to Amarillo, probably the longest, most nerve-wracking drive I've ever done in the bus. Dead into a 20-30 mile per hour headwind the whole way, with me obsessively opening the doghouse hatch, sure I would see the telltale smoke blowing out again... but I never did. We made it to Amarillo. We checked into The Big Texan RV park and took the kids to swim at the indoor pool. It was almost like a normal day on the road for us.
+
+<img src="images/2022/IMG_20221026_142039.jpg" id="image-3180" class="picwide caption" />
+<img src="images/2022/IMG_20221026_155910_01.jpg" id="image-3181" class="picwide" />
+
+With more wind in the forecast the following day we got a very early start, hitting the road when the light was just enough to not need headlights anymore. We got three hours of driving in before the wind came up hard again, but by then we were only an hour from Lake Arrowhead State Park, where we planned to spend the weekend. I managed to relax a little, I only lifted the doghouse half a dozen times on the drive. There was never any smoke coming out. So far so good. A few thousand more miles and I'll start to trust myself.
+
+We set up camp at Lake Arrowhead State Park, which was deserted, and settled into something we haven't had in a long time: silence. There was just the wind in the trees and the sounds of the kids playing. A huge white-tailed buck wandered by. I forgot how peaceful it could be out here. It's good to be back.
+
+<img src="images/2022/DSC08442.jpg" id="image-3179" class="picwide" />