Author Archives: geekemeritus

Small Town Iowa

2022-05-22

I spent time in two small towns, Missouri Valley Iowa and Cozad Nebraska. I stayed in their city park campgrounds and both experiences were great. These city parks are clean, safe and well kept… and inexpensive.

One of the reasons I like small towns and their parks is you come across truly interesting people and events. As it turns out Saturday night in Missouri Valley was the first dirt-track figure 8 race of the season. The eighth-mile track is a 5-minute walk from the Airstream.

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Moab on the Colorado

2022-05-22

I camped by the Colorado River in the Red Rocks Gorge north of Moab.1

The gorge is not as deep as some of other canyons, but the cliffs on both sides are nearly vertical through all of the 15 mile drive. You can’t get a feel of the size in the photographs. There are a couple of places along highway 128 where the cliffs overhang the highway. The downside of being at the bottom of a 2,000 foot canyon is that there is no cell service of any kind.

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  1. I wish I could remember all the times I have camped by the Colorado. The two I do remember are Needles California and Laughton Nevada. [↩]

THE Railroad Town

2022-05-24

North Platte Nebraska is THE railroad town. It was created by Missouri Pacific, and the railroad still dominates the city. When Grenville Dodge was laying out the route for the first transcontinental railroad, he identified this location in central Nebraska as the ideal location for a routing, service and maintenance facility – the midpoint between Salt Lake and Omaha with plenty of land and water. When the track-layers reached the location, they built multiple tracks, sidings, work buildings and housing for the yard. The railroad brought over 100 workers to man it all. The place did not have a name, but soon acquired the moniker “Hell on Wheels”. It was established as North Platte in 1866 and became the western terminus of the transcontinental railroad in 1867 until the railroad was extended to Laramie.

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Farewell Bend

About May 22, 1843 one-thousand people left Kansas City toward new lives in the Oregon Country. Over the next 20 years more than 50,000 people would emigrate to a land considered the “Garden of the World.” Much of the journey was across the dry high plains of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. Near what is now Burley, Utah they came to the fresh water and good grazing of the Snake River, and would generally follow it for the next 300 miles.

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And That’s the Way It Is…

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Ten or so years ago I quit watching television news — both network and cable. I was often fed up with the drivel that was forced on the viewer as “news” and for me, the last straw was a segment about Paris Hilton doing something dumb and completely irrelevant as “news”. There were more productive ways to spend my time. As it turned out, I was none the worse for being “uninformed.” Although it was a few months before I discovered that Glenn Frey had died — OK, just “Take It Easy.”

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The Wall

2021-02-21

This is a long report, but there is a lot to say.

The wall is here. I found it in its many forms. If you drive along US-281, Military Highway, and look south, you will see many the barriers, both old and new. I have been joking about “Biden gates” but they won’t be necessary. The wall is bits and pieces with many gaps existing. It turns out that in this part of the country the wall is not built on the border , but as much as a mile away. US farmers have land and crops on both sides of the wall. Therefore it is necessary for the farm roads to pass through the wall.

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Off To See America

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My extended adventure is about to begin.

In the next few weeks I will set out to discover America. I have traveled a lot in my career, but always by air. Many times I have looked down at America – particularly the Mississippi River and the high plains to the west – intrigued by the many contours, shapes and colors of the land. I wondered what it was like on the ground of the desolate places. Now I will find out.

Read more: Off To See America

My plan of travel is a Ford F-150, pulling an Airstream trailer; following the back roads of this beautiful country!

I don’t intend to write a travelog – just a few comments on things I see and things I think about as I wander.

So follow along if you’re interested.

 

Just Because You Can?

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A while back I had occasion to review the design of a very high-end residence hall facility at an institution of higher learning I can’t name. It is not in the US, so it is unlikely your alma-mater.

There seemed to be no limit on the budget. Each room was equipped with full digital video/voice/data and Internet connectivity. Outside each room a digital touchscreen “whiteboard” where the occupant could leave messages for their buds, who could then leave replies.

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Putt, Putt

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In the mid 70’s there was a series of articles published in Research & Development magazine by Archibald Putt titled “Putt’s Law: The Successful Technocrat”. I was just a young Science Geek at the time, had been doing research on blowing holes in stuff with lasers, but wanted to develop chops as a Business and Management Geek. This became my motivation to do so. Archibald Putt was a management genius, right there with Peter Drucker, Laurence Peter, Tom Peters and Sun Tsu (who was known as “Pete” to his friends). I copied all the articles from the magazine and still have them in my files.

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