Michael Witbeck

May 6, 2024May 6, 2024

Meandering on the Way — April 27 to May 4, 2024

Saturday, April 27th

Up at 4:15 A.M. and out of the house by 4:45. It was still dark of course and we don’t really like to drive at night; but with hardly any traffic, it wasn’t so bad. We were at the Eugene airport by 5:30. American Airlines took us first to Phoenix and thence to Palm Springs. There we picked up a rental car and made the one hour drive to the town of Joshua Tree, which is located near the west entrance to Joshua Tree National Park.

On the way we stopped at a supermarket and got a couple of tamales for lunch. E was pleased to find a vegetarian tamale; M went for chicken. Both were quite good. Later on, we had plenty of time to get into our Vrbo house and visit another grocery store for supplies. The house was in a development just west of the town. The orange circle in the satellite photo below marks the location of our temporary home.

The main part of the town of Joshua Tree was only a mile or so to the east, but because of the lay of the land the city was invisible. All we could see out our back window was boring old desert and some weird trees.

We had dinner at home. E baked a couple of Gorton’s frozen salmon squares and M sautéed a skillet full of potatoes, peppers and squash. After dinner we took a walk around the neighborhood and admired the western skyline after the sun went down. A treat for us rain forest dwellers.

Sunday, April 28th

Today we visited two places in the western part of the park: Hidden Valley and Barker Dam. The weather was pretty nice with temperatures in the seventies. On the other hand, The sun beats down all day, the air is very dry, and there is always a breeze, so you need a lot of water. Also, we were at about 4,000 feet, not an altitude we’re used to. We ended up walking only about three miles in all. But what lovely miles they were!

Here are a couple of Joshua trees framing the top of San Gorgonio peak many miles to the west. The altitude of the Mojave Desert ranges from 3000 to 5000 feet. San Gorgonio rises to 11,500 and is the highest peak in Southern California.

Both the Joshua trees and Mojave yucca were striking plants, but so was this Nolina bigelovii with its giant flower stalk. This one was still just budding…

…but on this Nolina, some of the flowers had bloomed, enough to get the bees very interested. Wikipedia says that there are up to a hundred and fifty tiny flowers on each rosette. So on the whole stalk there must be thousands.

There are also a lot of rocks in this part of the park…and by that we mean one helluva lot of rocks.

For Sunday dinner, we went back to a supermarket deli thinking to get more of those good tamales. But then E saw that they also had chile rellenos, a vegetarian dish and one of her favorite Mexican things. Alas, when we sat down to supper, the relleno turned out to be a little different from the ones in Oregon. This one was very spicy, too hot for her to handle. Fortunately, we had some other stuff around. If memories serve, she fashioned herself a sandwich out of some peanut butter we found in the fridge.

Monday, April 29th

It was time to pack up and say goodbye to the Vrbo place. For the next two days we’d be staying at a Fairfield Inn down the road in the town of Twentynine Palms. But first we had to visit Indian Cove, a relatively small area in the northernmost part of the park. Indian Cove is separated from the rest of the park by some miles of rugged terrain, so it has its own entrance. It turned out to be quite lovely with lots of flowers and a nice self-guided nature trail.

This video starts by looking down toward the town of Twentynine Palms and ends by looking up at something closer.

When you first look at Joshua Tree, you know right away you’re in a desert. The whole thing is just really dry, with a hot sun bearing down from an utterly cloudless sky. But in fact there are variations in that dryness that have a powerful effect on plant life. In the photo below you can see that a crease in the rocky hillside collects a bit of extra moisture that is then exploited by certain plant species, species that could not survive in the open areas just a few meters away.

…but here’s the bigger picture.

More subtle variations also have a part in determining which plants grow where. There are a surprising number of different plants and lots of them were in bloom.

As for animal life, during our trip we saw one rabbit, several tiny ground squirrels, two giant gray squirrels, lots of birds, and many, many lizards.

After our walk at Indian Cove we went to the park visitor center in Twentynine Palms. Besides maps and t-shirts and puzzles, there was a great deal of information about the native groups that lived in the area prior to the Euro-American invasion. There was also the following, which E found on a subsequent visit to this same center:

At 3:00 we checked into the Twentynine Palms Marriot Fairfield Inn, which is very nice. (Those Vrbo/AirBnB things are all well and good, but for comfort it’s hard to beat a good hotel!) For dinner we went to a restaurant called Thai Cafe. It was unprepossessing, as they used to say, but it was really good.

Tuesday, April 30th

Today we started out by driving into Twentynine Palms and turning south on a road called Utah Trail, which leads to the northeast entrance of the park. Once inside, we turned left on a road that leads to the south. Our first stop was for a hike to Arch Rock.

They call this Arch Rock, but…you know…we’ve been to Utah and other places where they have real arches. This looks more like an insect or maybe an elephant.

Next we drove south into the part of the park where the Mojave Desert transitions into the Colorado Desert. There were no Joshua trees in the landscape, but we did reach an area where we found ourselves surrounded by Cholla cactus. They call it Cholla Garden.

And then we made our last expedition, a place where there was little walking involved. We drove to a high place called Keys View.

Wednesday, May 1st

Time to go back to Oregon. Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave till 1:05, so we had a fairly relaxed morning even though the Palm Springs Airport is airport is an hour and a half away from Twentynine Palms. We got to the airport early, so by the time we turned in the rental car, checked our bags and went through security it was only 11:35 or so. We had a coffee and shared a croissant, then went out to the gate area and sat down to wait. After a bit, we got a text from American Airlines: our 1:05 flight to Phoenix would be delayed until 1:20. So, a fifteen minute delay, hardly worth mentioning, Then we got another text. The flight was now delayed till 1:40. Hmm. Twenty more minutes. Still, that would not be a problem for our connecting flight from Phoenix to Eugene, which didn’t leave till 4:45. Then another text: the flight to Phoenix was now delayed until 9:27 p.m.. 9:27? That can’t be right, said E. I know what you mean, said M, but I think maybe it is.

So we headed back out down the Sonny Bono Concourse, past security and back to the American ticket counter. The line there was short; there were only three people in front of us. But there was only one agent, so it took a while. When we got to the head of the line–when it was almost our turn–we happened to look behind us. Yo! There was a huge mass of people behind us, none of them looking particularly happy.

Eventually a very nice agent was able to reroute us onto Alaska. We would fly from Palm Springs to Seattle and then from Seattle to Eugene. The Seattle plane didn’t leave Palm Springs until 5:55, so we would be arriving very late in Eugene. But we would be arriving.

And so, four hours later, off we flew toward Seattle. We saw some lovely Sierra Nevada Mountains scenery out the window. About halfway through the flight there was an announcement asking if there was a doctor on board. It appeared that one of the passengers “wasn’t feeling well.” A little while later–quite possibly at the very moment that our plane was flying over the town of Eugene on its way north to Seattle–we were informed that the plane would be making a medical emergency landing in Portland. Well. We’d never experienced that before. But now we have. Once we landed, we found two ambulances and a fire engine waiting for us–all with lights aflashing. So, did we ever make to Seattle? Were we in time to make our connection to Eugene? Yes and yes. We were a little tired though.

It had all seemed so simple that morning.

Thursday, May 2nd

We arrived in Eugene around 12:30 A.M. After half an hour spent talking to people about where our two suitcases might be, we went out into the pouring rain, got into the truck and headed home.

On Thursday morning the rain stopped for a few hours, so M went out to cut the lawn, which seemed to have grown an inch a day while we were gone.

Our bags arrived in Corvallis just before dinnertime.

Friday and Saturday, May 3-4

Rain rain rain. On Saturday E did some sorting and decluttering inside. We made some hard decisions about what we could stand to get rid of. E then took a bunch of things to the Humane Society Thrift Shop. Very satisfying.

Sunday and Monday, Mar 5-6

Weatherwise, it was still kind of damp. On Monday E defrosted the garage freezer while M stayed mostly in bed with a cold.

April 26, 2024April 26, 2024

Meandering on the Way — April 19 to 26

Friday, April 19th

M loaded his truck with camping things and started off on his trip to explore northwestern Nevada. The first day’s drive was a familiar one, southeast across the Cascades and down to the town of Lakeview, near the California border. There he stopped for the night at a motel. Lakeview hasn’t improved much over the years, but it’s a handy stopping place. This time through, M avoided the Aguila Real Mexican restaurant and dined on the second half of big sandwich he had purchased about 150 miles back. He paired this with a very small bottle of Korbel champagne.

Back in Corvallis, E dealt with the sickly rosemary plant in the front yard. Last fall she’d stuck it into her best large pot. It did well at first but the winter was hard on it. It is still alive but is not thriving and E has lost patience. She wrestled it out–without resorting to breaking the pot–and moved it to a new place in the back yard.

Later in the day, she had a Zoom yoga class and then visited the fabric store in preparation for a reupholstery job. Did she then cook herself a gourmet dinner? No. She had some leftovers and they were fine.

Saturday, April 20th

E went out to buy some candytuft (Iberus) to go into her newly vacant pot. She went to Shonnard’s because she heard that they were having some kind of open house. But she was in for a disappointment. First off, they no candytuft in stock and the sales person actually laughed at her for asking! Even worse, the refreshments–at least at first glance–consisted of just one small dish of paper-wrapped chewy taffy! Not her favorite, not even tolerable. Fortunately E kept on searching and eventually found a dish of Hershey’s Kisses, which she thought were a marked improvement. Still, is that all you can do for open house treats? Ridiculous. Ah, but on the other hand, they had some pretty little blue pots at 50% off. So the trip was not totally wasted.

M departed Lakeview and found his way to an area in the extreme northeast corner of California called Surprise Valley. The valley is about 50 miles long and ranges from four to ten miles wide. It runs north and south between the Warner Range in California and the Hays Canyon Range in Nevada. On the map below the white lines are state borders: California is to the left, Nevada to the right, and Oregon above.

When M passed through, the water level in the lakes was higher than in this satellite photo. Do you see that white oval shaped alkali flat southeast of Cedarville? And the wide land bridge that separates Upper Alkali Lake from Middle Alkali Lake? M didn’t see either one of those; he just saw a long unbroken stretch of water. If he came back in another time of year, however, he’d probably see much less water. By August, maybe, a person would able to drive east from Cedarville straight across the dry lake bed and find the road to Vya, Nevada.

Here’s a view looking east; the hills and mountains in the background are in Nevada. Most of the arable land and all of the little towns in Surprise Valley are on the California side of the lake.

In its heyday, a hundred and some odd years ago, the valley was home to a thousand or more people. A number of buildings remain from that era, including these substantial looking school buildings.

Fort Bidwell School. It was built in 1918 when the area population was still growing. One side of the building served elementary students; the other side was the high school.

A lively history of Surprise Valley schools written in 1996 mentions that the Fort Bidwell School was built of dressed native stone and was supposed to last “forever.” Both the Lake City and Fort Bidwell schools are now closed, but the buildings are still standing tall and sturdy at the age of roughly 105. The very first high school to be built in the valley was Cedarville Union High, which opened in 1904. Presumably it was not built to last ‘forever’ as it burned to the ground in 1935.

Most of today’s Surprise Valley homes and ranches seem prosperous enough, but there are still a number of abandoned houses, this being one of the best preserved. Should we say that this house was tragically doomed by the unreliability of its humans? Or should we say that its owners finally set it free to find its own way?

After touring Surprise Valley, M crossed into Nevada and continued south to the town of Gerlach at the lower end of the Black Rock Desert. This area is home to Burning Man, a week-long party attended by upwards of 75,000 people each year. The Black Rock Desert is a fifty mile long alkali flat, which is barren and featureless until the Burning Man invasion. It takes a month to clean up after Burning Man, but during that month every trace of the party is removed. M can testify that in April of 2024 it looked as barren and featureless as ever.

Here’s a tiny swath of the Black Rock Desert at its narrowest point near the town of Gerlach.

From Gerlach M headed east into a seriously empty part of the Nevada, as in no towns, no rest areas, no campgrounds, no nothin’. But he did see some wild horses and one speedy antelope that seemed to be challenging him to a race.

There were no paved roads, but many of the gravel roads were in fantastic condition, having just received their once-a-year, post-winter grading. After only a few hours heading east M found the scattered remains of a place called Sulphur that had once been a railroad town. A sign pointed toward something called Rosebud Spring ten miles away. That sounded like a good place to camp, so off he went.

When he arrived at Rosebud Spring, M found out that he wasn’t the only one interested.

Not wanting to intrude, he made his camp a quarter of a mile down the road. During the roughly fourteen hours that M spent here, the road saw no other traffic.

Viewed from his campsite, the moon rose early in the east…

Sunday, April 21st

Today E worked on chores and on her sewing projects–a cushion and a bathroom curtain. Then, as a reward, she went to another nursery in search of candytuft. As it happened, she had a quite different experience. Besides having lots of candytuft available, Garland nursery had their own party going and treats galore.

M breakfasted on a two-day-old chocolate ginger scone from Bodhi’s Bakery, a fine establishment located about 450 miles away from his current location. Then he packed up and continued south and east in the general direction of Imlay, Nevada. After an hour or so he came to a place where he could see that the road was leading him toward a body of water.

His map identified it as Rye Patch reservoir. Just for a change, this lake contains fresh water and has an outlet. It owes its existence to a dam on the Humboldt River. The Humboldt arises in the mountains of northeastern Nevada and flows southwest for some three hundred miles. This being the Great Basin, there is nowhere for it to flow out and it never finds its way to an ocean. Instead, it disappears into a large wetland area called The Humboldt Sink and is never seen again. At this time of year the Humboldt runs pretty high. Here’s what it looked like when M finally reached it.

As it passed through Nevada in the 1840’s, the original California Trail followed alongside the Humboldt for a few hundred miles. The old route is still passable in many places, passable that is, for four-wheel-drive vehicles piloted by determined and perhaps mildly masochistic drivers. M drove the Trail for ten miles at a place where the old route was still in occasional use by ranch traffic. It took about an hour to go the ten miles. Oddly enough, there was no other traffic of any kind. It seems that the overwhelming majority of drivers who travel through the area prefer to use I-80, which parallels the route about fifteen miles to the south. Why this should be so is such a mystery. M suspects that it has something to do with people wanting to get somewhere. (In one of his books Edward Abbey gave his idea of what constitutes a good road. Does anyone remember it? Was the book Desert Solitaire?)

Monday, April 22nd

E’s assignment for today included installing her new candytuft into its pot and remembering to take out the garbage. (This last is a chore that E is normally reluctant to do because M seems to enjoy it so much.) She then went out to dinner with H at the Spaghetti Factory.

Having spent the night at a motel in Winnemucca, M set off north toward the wilds of southeastern Oregon. He had planned to camp somewhere up there, but was now wavering. Night time temperatures were predicted to be below freezing, which didn’t seem all that pleasant. He ended up exploring some nice country in the Cow Creek area and then moving on to another motel in the town of Ontario, Oregon.

Tuesday, April 23rd

M’s hotel in Ontario turned out to be a Red Lion on the Idaho side of the border. M had a light supper and then went to the Dairy Queen down the road for a more substantial dessert. In the morning he got up at 7:15, had a quick breakfast and was on the road by 7:45. He made pretty good time, churning along Highway 20 past the Oregon onion fields. In fact he went so fast that by the time an hour had passed, it was still only 7:45.

Thanks to this early start M got back to Corvallis at 3:30 or so and found E slaving away in the back garden, filling up those pretty new pots that she got from Shonnard’s. For dinner they had Amy’s frozen dinners and hybrid margaritas. Very fine.

Wednesday, April 24th

M spent all day cleaning up the camping stuff, including hosing down a bunch of gear that had gotten massively dusty. And then of course there was the truck itself, which needed cleaning both inside and out. And the garage had to be cleaned up because the solar installers were coming…

E did some critical grocery shopping and made other preparations for tomorrow’s meeting of the Lemon Meringue Pie Society, which she is hosting. For one thing, she mixed up a batch of piecrust. She’ll roll it out tomorrow and use it to make a pie, a pie which is not destined to be lemon meringue. (!)

Thursday, April 25th

After a long spell of mostly dry weather, the rains have made a return, a welcome one as far as the yard is concerned, but perhaps not so pleasing to the guy mounting the solar panels on the garage roof. The installation is supposed to be finished today or tomorrow; the rain is supposed to stay on several days longer.

M went out for an eye appointment in the morning and when he returned was treated to an empty house smelling of just baked cherry pie. E had gone to BBB class, trusting that Goldilocks would not come by. The solar installers were finished by 3:30. A few more steps remain before the panels can go online.

The meeting of the Lemon Meringue Pie Society began at 5:00. It went well and everyone seemed to like E’s cherry pie. But this variation from the lemon meringue tradition inspired one member–the rational one–to propose changing the name of the group to something more general. This suggestion was dismissed immediately with a resounding chorus of negatives. Make no mistake, this is a rowdy crew.

Friday, April 26th

We spent the day prepping for our trip to Joshua Tree. Our plane leaves tomorrow at 7:00 am, so we’ll have to be out of here before 5:00 am. Who planned this trip?

April 3, 2024

Meandering on the Way — March 26 to April 2

Tuesday, March 26th

E noticed today that a flicker has made a couple of largish holes in our back fence power pole. She wondered if the damage would compromise the pole’s structural integrity, so she called Pacific Power. Within half an hour a fellow turned up to assess the damage.

After taking a look, the technician’s first response was that the easiest solution would be a BB gun. E was not impressed. His next move was to say that the pole was not immediately at risk but that he would report it, adding that “They will probably put it on the B list.”

Wednesday, March 27th

We’ve had lots of rain lately, especially today. But E had an appointment to walk with her friend Asher, so off we went to the OSU forest and hiked up to Cronemiller Lake. Here’s what that looked like:

And here are some big leaf maple flowers now fully out.

Thursday, March 28th

Better weather today, cloudy in the morning but clearing by noon. While M stayed home and did garden work, E went back to the forest and found this pretty little Calypso lily.

E remembers that these didn’t use to come out until early June.

Friday, March 29th

The clear skies continue. Beautiful moon last night.

Around midday we listened to the game between Oregon State and Notre Dame in the NCAA round of sixteen. In a hard fought struggle, the OSU women defeated the Irish 70-65 and will advance to the Elite Eight. In their next game they will have the dubious honor of playing South Carolina, who are undefeated and heavily favored by almost everyone to win it all this year. So that should be fun.

For dinner we went to the Bombs Away Cafe, which has been part of the Corvallis restaurant scene since 1991. The original owner identified it as a “funky taqueria” featuring Southwestern cuisine. Once, in the mid nineties, M went for lunch and ordered the chef’s infamous “chicken wings chupacabra.” He said it was incredibly delicious and also the spiciest dish he ever had in his life, calling it a “life-changing experience.” He never forgot it and never ordered it again.

In the late 1990’s we went there a number of times for lunch or dinner, but then it changed hands, gradually morphing into a place that focused a little more on live music and drinks and a little less on food. It had been maybe twenty years since we’d been there. How did we like it? Well, for one thing, it seemed smaller. How did that happen? We found a few of the old recipes still on the menu. We tried the wet burritos and they were very good. These days Bombs Away claims to have the largest selection of tequilas in Corvallis, which may be true; but E’s pickle margarita was pretty bad–way too sweet, even for E. It’s interesting how sameness and difference collide when you go back like this.

Saturday, March 30th

Shutterfly sent us a reminder that 5 years ago today was the ANDEES’s wedding day. They must be mistaken. Surely it was only 2 or 3 years ago.

Here’s an attendant prepping the groom during his last moments as a bachelor.

Sunday, March 31st

Playing in Albany, NY, the OSU women’s basketball team fell to #1 seed South Carolina, ending their NCAA Tournament run. The Beavers played well and trailed by only four points in the middle of the fourth quarter. But from then on SC made their shots and OSU didn’t. The final was 70-58.

On the happier side of things, we went over to Albany, OR and had a wonderful Easter dinner with B and B.

Tuesday, April 2nd

We’ve had several days of good weather and made use of it to get things done in the yard. E has expanded her front yard iris patch by digging up and moving some plants from out back. She’s also been weeding and making sure that the invasive blue flower things don’t choke out her Russian sage. M helped a little in the front, but put most of his effort into the rebuilding of Hummock #0, which had slowly been going to ruin over the last few years.

We didn’t have to do much work on Hummock #1; things just popped up by themselves like they’re supposed to. Flowering currant, dwarf iris and tulips are the early bloomers.

March 25, 2024

Meandering on the Way — March 5 to 24

Tuesday, March 5th

We just watched The Holdovers, which is nominated for a best picture Oscar. It’s probably too low key for that, but still very good. It stars Paul Giametti, Dominic Sessa, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph and is set in a remote New England prep school over the Christmas holidays. Wonderful acting and scenery, and an interesting plot.

Wednesday, March 6th

We did a short hike on Vineyard Mountain. The trailhead is just a couple of hundred feet higher in elevation than the city; but whereas in the town last week’s snow melted almost immediately, up there it was lying around everywhere. It was like a different season.

In the afternoon, M finished doing this year’s taxes.

We’ve almost got the house cleaned up after the various parties, but we do have a challenge remaining. There is chocolate everywhere. Where are we supposed to put it all?

Thursday, March 7th

M tested negative and off we went to Tertulia. We’re still trying to get the house back to normal. That includes not only party pick-up, but also disassembling the COVID ward and returning to communal living.

E went to her in-person exercise class and was glad to be back.

Sunday, March 10th

Da’Vine Joy Randolph has won best supporting actress Oscar for her role in The Holdovers.

Wednesday, March 13th to Wednesday, March 20

After a week of rain as well as some snow earlier in the month, we just got a whole week of sunny days with temps in the 60’s. Wow. Lots of garden work got done: bed maintenance, irrigation rebuilding, and a start on a major revamp of what we call Hummock Zero. More on that later.

Thursday, March 21st

Cloudy today with rain on the way. But today’s big news is that E managed to have three meals out! First it was morning tertulia at Coffee Culture, then lunch with a friend at Ants on a Log, and finally a meeting of the Lemon Meringue Pie Society at Shari’s restaurant. Somewhere in there, we also found time for a walk in the forest to see what we could find in the way of flora and fauna.

…and it’s flowering season for the big leaf maples.

Sunday, March 24th

It’s the start of spring break for OSU and normally the town would have been quieting down. But the Oregon State women’s basketball team has done well this year and has just finished hosting two NCAA tournament games. OSU won both their games, beating Eastern Washington in the first round on Thursday and then eliminating Nebraska in the round of thirty-two on Sunday, earning themselves a place in the Sweet Sixteen. Later this week they will travel to Albany, NY and take on Notre Dame.

We got a mysterious gift bouquet today! M heard the doorbell ring and when he got there he saw no one but did notice a lovely little bouquet on the mat. E found a vase for it.

In other news, Meandering on the Way–via our vast network of contacts–has obtained a copy of a document that we hope will shine some light on the mysterious goings on at LMPS. A redacted version follows.

A meeting of the Lemon Meringue Pie Society was held on March 21 at Shari’s restaurant in Corvallis. Members present were XXXXX, XXXXX, XXXXX, and XXXXX. Members absent and sorely missed were XXXXX and XXXXX. While they were sorely missed, their portions of pie did not go to waste, as members present took on the burden of consuming the extra rations.

The next meeting of LMPS will take place at the residence of XXXXX, who will endeavor to produce a cherry pie for a belated celebration of the 292nd birthday of George Washington. The party will be held at 5:00 pm on Thursday, April 25th.

At the March 21st meeting, a resolution was passed to declare the 3rd Thursday of every month as LMPS meeting day. Time and place may vary.

Respectfully submitted,

March 5, 2024March 5, 2024

Meandering on the Way — Feb 23 to March 3, 2024

Friday, February 23rd

We had beautiful weather for our flight to Salt Lake City. As the plane started its descent, we had a great view of Ogden–M’s old home town–where it lies stretched out along the base of the Wasatch Mountain Range. On a bright day in winter, that long line of snow-covered peaks is quite a sight. The SLC airport is a big one these days. We got 3,000 steps just by walking from our arrival gate to baggage claim. But we were out of the airport quite quickly and the traffic in Salt Lake–even at 5:00 PM on a Friday–was running very fast and very smooth. We had enough time to check in to our room and relax for a few minutes before heading out to the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday, February 24th

The wedding was at the Millcreek Inn, which is located in just a few miles up Millcreek Canyon. There are no ski resorts or other developments there, just a narrow old road that leads up into the mountains. A much younger M often went hiking in that canyon while he was in college. It is still lovely.

There were lots of wedding things going on….

E with her cousins D and L, L being the mother of the bride.

Sunday, February 25th

On Sunday we met D and L at a place called Taggart’s Grill. Taggart’s is located in Weber Canyon just a few miles from the town of Morgan, Utah. Before lunch we walked for an hour or two along the river.

Here’s a view of the Weber River flowing down westward toward the Great Salt Lake.

Here are the cousins walking east toward the mountains from which the river rises.

After a longish stroll along the river, we were ready for lunch and Taggart’s is definitely a good place for that. We started off with some “creamy chicken mushroom artichoke, spicy black bean soup.” That’s a pretty long name for a soup, but it’s a pretty awesome soup. Wow. Then a couple of us had jalapeño burgers. Wow again. As you see, it has cream cheese and sliced jalapeños at the top. But there is also some goopity stuff at the bottom–house made apricot-jalapeño jelly.

Taggart’s has only been around since 1938, but Weber Canyon has been a national transportation route since the late 1860’s when it was chosen to be part of the route of the first transcontinental railway. As part of that project, the Union Pacific Railroad built 1,085 miles of track, starting at Council Bluffs, Iowa and ending at Promontory Point, Utah. There, they met up with the Central Pacific Railroad, who had built 690 miles of track from their starting point in Sacramento, California. For the Union Pacific, crossing the Wasatch Mountains and descending Weber Canyon was their most challenging stretch of track. The grade was steep, the canyon was narrow, and a number of tunnels had to be built. And in fact, on May 10, 1869, when Leland Stanford drove the golden spike at Promontory Point and the great cross-country route was officially opened, the tunnel at Taggart was only partially completed. Yes, the line was technically open, but only if you dared take your train onto a temporary curved wooden trestle perched next to the river. Ironically enough, several high Union Pacific officials on their way to attend the opening ceremony in Promontory were stranded in Taggart when this temporary trestle partially collapsed beneath their train, causing them a two day delay. E comments that it’s really too bad they were 150 years too soon to sample the current Taggart’s menu.

This photo of the Taggart area was taken in 1870. The tunnel was finished by then, but the route of the temporary trestle can still be seen. Sixty-eight years after, in 1938, the first incarnation of what has become the Taggart’s Inn appeared near the bend of the river in the upper right corner.
For a larger version of this photo, click HERE.

In this photo, taken about 150 years later, there’s not much sign of a temporary trestle. And a freeway has been added to the scene. But the modern railroad tunnel is just a widened version of the original. The small red circle in the upper right marks the location of Taggart’s Grill.

This bit of Union Pacific track is part of one of the steepest railroad grades in the United States. From Ogden at 4,298 feet, the line runs 65 miles up to the town of Wahsatch, at 6,799 feet, a climb that averages 38.47 feet per mile. Pulling long freight trains up such a grade requires a lot of power and for many years the Union Pacific had to use a helper system, whereby extra locomotives were temporarily added to the trains just to get them up the hill. Then, in 1941, wanting a single locomotive powerful enough not to need a helper on this route, the Union Pacific commissioned the largest steam locomotives ever made. Built by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO), these engines were originally meant to be named the Wasatch series. But after an unknown ALCO worker in Schenectady scrawled “Big Boy” in chalk on the front the first one, that was the name that stuck. Historical note: E’s father and her uncle were both working at that ALCO factory in 1941.

In 2024 the tracks shown here continue to be part of the Union Pacific main line connecting the West Coast to the Midwest. And that line is busy. During our walk, three long freights went by, climbing the grade with their diesel engines roaring. Since modern diesel electric locomotives produce only about one third the power of a Big Boy, modern trains typically have three to four engines.

Monday, February 26th

We had an uneventful flight back to Eugene. But by late afternoon M was sneezing.

Tuesday, February 27th

M tested positive in the morning and so we set up a COVID ward so he could isolate. The main concern was whether E would get it. Besides the issue of her own well-being, there was a family dinner planned for Friday and a major birthday party planned for Saturday, with many guests coming from far away. Today she tested negative.

Wednesday, February 28th

M still ill but slightly less dead. E still negative.

Thursday, February 29th

A lot like Wednesday. We started feeling a little optimistic that E might be fine for the party.

Friday, March 1st

M improving little by little. E still negative. Yay!

The dinner went on as planned–though some extra precautions were taken. The party was held in the garage, far away from M’s COVID ward in the house. Andy brought the food truck down and put together dinner and dessert for twenty. Amazing!

Saturday, March 2nd

E again tested negative, so that was a relief. M was feeling…not good exactly…but much better. He had to skip the big birthday party, though, as he was still positive and coughing a lot.

And what a party it was! The cake topper was made from a photo of E.

So E got to stand on top of a birthday cake, at least for a while.

But she later fell (or jumped) into a layer of frosting from which her daughter had to extract her.

Sunday, March 3rd

Today E had a final brunch at Odd Bird’s with family members who were still in town. It was a wonderful weekend.

February 19, 2024

Meandering on the Way — February 13 to 19

Tuesday, February 13th

Lots of dull, damp days this week, neither cold nor warm. In the morning E went out and did a little garden work in the drizzle while M went to the eye doctor to discuss whether cataract surgery might make things brighter. Eye doc seems to think so.

In the evening we went up to Salem to have dinner with K and J. K made a great salad with fried chickpeas, kale and spinach. We brought a chocolate pie for dessert. And it turned out that chocolate pie is one of K’s favorites.

Wednesday, February 14th

E went down to Eugene today to meet S for coffee and to go shopping. She went to Nordstrom’s in the Oakway Mall and was pleasantly surprised to see that they carried quite a collection of shoes in her size.

For Valentine’s dinner we had Brazilian fish stew from a Local Ocean dock box. Out of this world delicious in E’s opinion. For dessert we had a bonbon or two. Also delicious.

We had 24 of these boxes lying around. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, 23 of them were empty. This year’s box is the white one in the front row.

Thursday, February 15th

Our friend P came to lunch. We had take-out sandwiches from the Vietnamese Baguette. We also finished off a bag of Kettle chips, but it was only one of the really small bags.

Friday, February 16th

We’ve been looking into getting some solar panels, which at first seemed pretty complicated. By now, though, we’ve gotten three estimates and narrowed it down to one. A technician came this morning to take final measurements and to inspect our roof and electrical panel. Everything seems fine, so it looks like the project will proceed.

Mostly cloudy today but not raining and the roads were dry. M took the Jaguar out for some exercise. What a noisy and bumpy car that is! Clearly, you must put it into Dynamic Mode and ride around in the foothills raising a ruckus. (In a suitably restrained sort of way.) Nice.

First he had to find the car. Is that it?

Saturday, February 17th

Another soggy day. The yard is like a wetland. It could really use some attention, but it won’t be getting it today.

Sunday, February 18th

E has been doing a lot of preparation for the upcoming birthday celebrations. For one thing, she’s planning a dinner for the extended family on the day before the main party. She’s looking forward to having as many family members as possible seated around her grandmother’s oak dining table. Complicating matters is the fact that we also need to prepare for a trip to Salt Lake City this upcoming weekend. We’ll be attending a wedding, so we should probably think about what we will wear…

We did manage to get in an afternoon walk on the Calloway Creek trail. It didn’t rain on us right then, but there was a coldish wind and the southern portion of the loop was a mucky mess.

Monday, February 19th

More rain early this morning. We passed that time doing our grocery shopping. As usual E went to the Co-op and M searched the vastness of Winco. Then, in late morning, the sun came out. Wow! That drew us both outside, where we accomplished quite a bit. The yard was soaked and the grass was squishy, but it made for easier weeding. M planted a new little blueberry bush, continuing his quixotic quest to replace an old one that mysteriously dwindled and died. Last’s year’s replacement plant did not thrive either. But hope springs eternal.

February 12, 2024February 12, 2024

Meandering on the Way — February 3 to 12, 2024

Saturday, February 3rd

We finished one of the puzzles that E got from her puzzle exchange with her yoga teacher. Just 500 pieces and very entertaining.

Sunday, February 4th

We went up to the Washington Square mall today. E took this photo on the way. That’s Mt. Hood in the background.

Wednesday, February 7th

We packed a bunch of winter stuff and drove over to Bend today, planning on doing something in the snow, either snowshoeing or cross-country skiing, depending on conditions. We stayed at a hotel that was handy to the slopes but was also in the middle of redecorating. Some of the parking lot was stacked with dozens of old couches, partly covered by a tarp. Another corner held a couple of shipping containers from which people were unloading new couches and carrying them inside. We had dinner at Hola in the Old Mill District. Hola is still good and still kind of expensive. Later in the evening we were happy to see some snow falling. It was a lot nicer than watching ice rain falling.

Thursday, February 8th

We woke to a dusting of snow covering the world. Very pretty and not very serious, so the roads were fine. In Bend it was overcast, but as we drove south up the Mt. Bachelor highway, we saw more and more blue sky. It turned out that conditions were nearly perfect at Swampy Lakes sno-park: soft new snow, little wind, and lots of sunshine. Such a contrast to our last visit, when the snow was icy, the sky was dark, and the wind never stopped. We did the main loop and had a great time, especially on the way down.

We took this picture during our luncheon at a spot just a few yards off the trail.

Friday, February 9th

We got up early and were on the road in time to pick up some donuts and scones at Sisters Bakery as we passed by. We arrived in Corvallis around 12:00, early enough for E to get prepared for her Smart Reading at Lincoln School in the afternoon. We put the scones in the freezer.

Saturday, February 10th

February, such a beautiful time of year in the garden:

Sunday, February 11th

For Sunday breakfast, we had marionberry scones from Sisters Bakery! Awesome.

Monday, February 12th

Mostly cloudy today, just a little damp. Nighttime temperatures are in the thirties, but daytimes are more fiftyish. For some of the early plants that’s quite acceptable.

Indian plum is one of the earliest flowering NW trees.

These snowdrops were planted just a couple years ago. So far they are quite well behaved…

…unlike this colony of volunteers who have invaded a neighboring territory.

These sarcococca confusa, aka Himalayan Sweet Box, have been blooming for a couple of weeks now. Ours won’t win any beauty contests, but their smell is amazing.

January 30, 2024

Meandering on the Way — January 20-30, 2024

Saturday, January 20th

We were happy to see that our house and grounds had remained undamaged after the onslaught of ice. There was only one casualty.

E’s Halloween pumpkin lost any semblance of structural integrity.

Sunday, January 21st

Despite a few patches of ice and a bit of rain, we took a walk in the forest today. It was kind of a long walk. Too long, in fact. What were we thinking? But we made it up to highest shoulder of Mt. Peavy. Back when we lived part way up the hill, we used to scamper to the very top before breakfast. But the effort was worth it today as it was a lovely scene and not too cold.

We had light rain most of the time and it was as if the clouds came right down to the ground.

We remember the day we first saw that this maple had been cut down as part of a thinning operation. It was just a tall stump then, but we knew it would be back. That was about seven years ago.

Monday, January 22nd

Lots more rain today. We took another walk, but a short one, just once around the boardwalk at the Jackson-Frazier wetland.

…with water almost high enough to swamp the walkway.

Tuesday, January 23rd

E called Alaska Airlines today to see if we could get a refund for our cancelled flight from San Diego to Eugene. Altogether, she spent more than two hours on hold, finally getting someone to talk to just at dinnertime. Happily enough, it took only about seven minutes for the representative to agree that a refund was due and to set it in motion. Hoo-definitely-ray! And kudos to Alaska for stepping up.

Thursday, January 25th

Tertulia with R and J this morning. J maintains a rain gauge and reports that she’s been seeing daily totals of a half inch or more for several days now. She notes that a good portion of it comes during the night.

Sunday, January 28th

Well! Finally we had a mostly rainless day. We took a good walk in the forest around noontime, and it didn’t rain on us at all. What a concept.

Here’s an understory tree that seems to be expecting spring.

Monday, January 29th

Today is the 43rd anniversary of the opening of a Gustav Klimt exhibition at the Isetan Museum of Art in Tokyo. The exhibition ran from January 29 to February 24, 1981 and sometime in that period M managed to attend, purchasing a copy of the exhibition poster as a souvenir. The poster painting, Lady with a Fan, was one of Klimt’s last works. It was still mounted on his easel, they say, when he died in 1918. M’s poster is sadly faded and in fact hardly resembles the original that he saw forty-three years ago. (M can’t really complain; his own appearance also differs from what it was forty-three years ago.)

Last June, Lady with a Fan sold at Sotheby’s in London for $108,400,000. Here’s an unfaded image of the painting.

Tuesday, January 30th

E was busy today, with a medical appointment and a Better Bones class in the morning and then a puzzle exchange meeting and a dog walk assignment in the afternoon. She’s also been busy trying to get some estimates for installing solar panels on our roof. What a process that is! She also found a crocus or two next to the driveway.

M has been dealing with water drainage issues in the garage, writing, and making pickles.

December 28, 2023

Meandering on the Way — December 22-28, 2023

Friday, December 22nd

E walked over to H’s house this morning. She’s tending to Houdini the cat while H and T are in Portland for a few days. Her route led her past Garfield Park.

She found this on the sidewalk. It must have fallen from one of those tall branchy things.

Sunday, December 24th

We had a great meal on Christmas Eve, courtesy of BJEM Enterprises, a (very) local catering cooperative. We started with a couple of black cod salad dock boxes from Local Ocean. The boxes provided baby kale, acorn squash, cauliflower, pepitas, green onions, parsley and white balsamic vinegar, plus four pieces of cod. While B tossed and plated the salad portions, M pan seared the fish. J assisted with plating and sliced up a loaf of olive bread that she had baked for the occasion.

For dessert, E provided a baked Alaska and talked M into flambeing it, thus transforming it into bombe Alaska.

Christmas Day

That tall, light-blue present on the left turned out to be a generous jug of organic maple syrup. Oh yeah.

Tuesday, December 26th

The day after Christmas was damp and foggy. In the morning we went up to Basket Slough, planning to walk through the wildlife refuge there. It turns out, though, that at this time of year, only wildlife are allowed into the main area. No humans.

So we took a look…but then moved on to Salem.

In Salem we went back to Minto-Brown Island Park, located along the south bank of the Willamette just west of downtown. The park covers 1200 low lying acres, an area that was once a Kalapuyan trading center and later became home to a large lumber mill and a number of farms. The park is named for two early immigrant landowners: John Minto and Isaac “Whiskey” Brown . Minto was a prominent sheep farmer and a long-time state legislator. Brown was not. Today much of the area has been restored and only a few traces of its history remain.

Part of our walk went right along the river.

On our way back to Corvallis we couldn’t help noticing the blueberry bushes and the seed fields.

Thursday, December 28th

E has been enjoying her social life with various animals. Yesterday she had a delightful walk with her canine friend, Asher, in an oak savannah park on the outskirts of town. Asher even surprised E with a luscious bag of Lindt chocolate balls! He clearly knows her taste.

This morning she paid a visit to Houdini the cat. He grumbled that she was late in serving breakfast, but after eating he purred and rubbed against E’s leg before settling down for a rest on the heated floor of the bathroom. What a life!

December 20, 2023

Meandering on the Way — December 11-18, 2023

Friday, December 8th

We’re doing a lot of bird feeding lately, mainly by allowing birds free access to apples.

Some birds seem to prefer pecking at the fruit that is still up in the tree, but we also see them pecking away at ground level.

Monday, December 11th

E had her post-op appointment today up in Lake Oswego. Because she arrived early, she took a walk around the neighborhood. She ran across this sign that gave her pause.

E wishes to stress that this is not the place where her surgeon has her office. It’s another business entirely.

At the post-op, out came the nasal stents, which was a huge relief. E is delighted to be able to breathe through her nose again, in fact already better than before the surgery.

While E was up north, M went to the Albany train station to pick up our friend Charles. Charles has been visiting Seattle and stopped by on his way back to California.

Tuesday, December 12th

We took Charles to the Ankeny Wildlife Reserve today and walked along the boardwalk through the wetland ash forest. The ash trees there grow in one to three feet of water for half the year. It’s a unique scene. Such forests may soon disappear from Oregon. Emerald ash borers, which have killed millions of ash trees in the east and midwest, are now moving into our region.

Wednesday, December 13th

Today the three of us took a walk in the OSU forest. Here we are in front of the old logging wheel at the Forestry Club cabin.

We took Charles to the OSU campus also, mainly to see the food delivery robots in action. Since it was quite cold, we decided to have hot chocolate. We have the app all set up, so it wasn’t too hard to place the order and say where we wanted it to be delivered. The only glitch is that when we ordered three hot chocolates (Swiss Miss), the app informed us that the most we could order was two. Well, okay, two would have to do.

When your order arrives, you use the app to identify yourself. Then the top flips open. Aah…we could almost taste that hot chocolate already.

Oops! No drinks. Just two large cartons of Swiss Miss powder packets. The robots serve about a dozen campus entities. Most of them are cafes and restaurants, but…some of them are convenience stores and it’s not easy to tell which is which. Good thing the maximum was two.

Thursday, December 14th

Eve still has nasal swelling but has been feeling a lot better. So good, in fact, that we made short work of this 500 piece puzzle.

Monday, December 18th (Andrea’s birthday)

We’ve been running around getting our gifts ready for an early Xmas and Birthday celebration up at the Andees’ in Vancouver. Here are the things we had to haul up with us. The Charles Leclerc F1 shirt, ordered from Germany, arrived just in the nick of time.

We drove up to Vancouver in the afternoon and had a nice spaghetti dinner, followed by our gift exchange. We did the exchange early because Andy and Andi are leaving this Friday on a trip to Spain.

We had a chance to visit with the English china that once belonged to Lizzie Spanswick Chambers, E’s paternal grandmother. Here are a few pieces as seen on Andrea’s table in Vancouver.

And here’s Lizzie herself circa 1950.