The wayback machine has been on a long journey back in time and space. We logged over a thousand miles. At one point we were so far south that we narrowly missed Nevada. We went east almost to Idaho. Up north we lost all sense of time and space and wandered into Washington as far north as Saint John's Monastery, for coffee and pastry.

I have brought back all sorts of wild tales, with something for everyone: sex, drugs, money, gold, rocks, industry, beautiful campgrounds, and MAGA. Oh dear lord, I have been wandering in the land of MAGA. I have enough MAGA that you could smear it all over you and eat it with a spoon. If anyone here isn't getting enough MAGA I can tell them exactly where to go. We also brought back some gold and other treasures.

The adventure didn't really start until we got to the Malheur Wildlife refuge.

https://www.fws.gov/refuge/malheur

Malheur is French for misfortune. Legend says that the area was named by French fur trappers, back in the day.

So there we are in the desert and it was raining lightly, with a little lightning here and there. I had bought a rockhounding book that led us to a place where we could collect pretty rocks that might take a nice polish in our rock tumbler. We have a lot of rocks from here and there. Naturally we stopped at the visitor's center and looked at birds and other critters.. The Feds have spent a lot of money improving the place since the last time I was there, sometime in the last century. My wife hadn't seen any of this until we were getting toward the end of our trip.

We also took in sights like: French Glen, The Round Barn, The P ranch and Diamond Oregon, population 29, median age 52.5. The median age in Oregon is around 40. Pay attention, these numbers are important in the rest of the tale. :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenchglen,_Oregon
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/peter_french_round_barn/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P_Ranch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond,_Oregon

The P ranch has an old lookout tower that's a popular roosting spot for Turkey Vultures. There were only around half a dozen of them there when we were there. I have seen many more there.

One of the ranchers in Diamond had a large sign that said they had been doing just fine until the fraudulent election in 2020. It didn't say what awful misfortune they were experiencing in Diamond since then.

The BLM has a nice campground at Page Springs.

https://www.blm.gov/visit/page-springs-campground

The campgrounds is first come, first served. I suspect that it's rare for the place to fill up. There are no hookups, but they have fresh water, vault toilets and garbage service. The nearby "river" has been so channelized that it's more of an irrigation canal than a river, but it looks and sounds nice.

The next day the rain got more serious, so we decided to drive around to the east side of the Steens mountains where the rain shadow of the mountains has created the driest place in Oregon, the Alvord desert. It was raining there too. So, we headed deeper into MAGA territory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvord_Desert

More trip reports coming as I find the time and energy. We were just getting started at this point.

TB

On 6/14/2023 1:16 PM, Technobarbarian wrote:
>
> The wayback machine has been on a long journey back in time and space. We logged over a thousand miles. At one point we were so far south that we narrowly missed Nevada. We went east almost to Idaho. Up north we lost all sense of time and space and wandered into Washington as far north as Saint John's Monastery, for coffee and pastry.
>
> I have brought back all sorts of wild tales, with something for everyone: sex, drugs, money, gold, rocks, industry, beautiful campgrounds, and MAGA. Oh dear lord, I have been wandering in the land of MAGA. I have enough MAGA that you could smear it all over you and eat it with a spoon. If anyone here isn't getting enough MAGA I can tell them exactly where to go. We also brought back some gold and other treasures.
>
> The adventure didn't really start until we got to the Malheur Wildlife refuge.
>
> https://www.fws.gov/refuge/malheur
>
> Malheur is French for misfortune. Legend says that the area was named by French fur trappers, back in the day.
>
> So there we are in the desert and it was raining lightly, with a little lightning here and there. I had bought a rockhounding book that led us to a place where we could collect pretty rocks that might take a nice polish in our rock tumbler. We have a lot of rocks from here and there. Naturally we stopped at the visitor's center and looked at birds and other critters. The Feds have spent a lot of money improving the place since the last time I was there, sometime in the last century. My wife hadn't seen any of this until we were getting toward the end of our trip.
>
> We also took in sights like: French Glen, The Round Barn, The P ranch and Diamond Oregon, population 29, median age 52.5. The median age in Oregon is around 40. Pay attention, these numbers are important in the rest of the tale. :-)
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenchglen,_Oregon
> https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/peter_french_round_barn/
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P_Ranch
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond,_Oregon
>
> The P ranch has an old lookout tower that's a popular roosting spot for Turkey Vultures. There were only around half a dozen of them there when we were there. I have seen many more there.
>
> One of the ranchers in Diamond had a large sign that said they had been doing just fine until the fraudulent election in 2020. It didn't say what awful misfortune they were experiencing in Diamond since then.
>
> The BLM has a nice campground at Page Springs.
>
> https://www.blm.gov/visit/page-springs-campground
>
> The campgrounds is first come, first served. I suspect that it's rare for the place to fill up. There are no hookups, but they have fresh water, vault toilets and garbage service. The nearby "river" has been so channelized that it's more of an irrigation canal than a river, but it looks and sounds nice.
>
> The next day the rain got more serious, so we decided to drive around to the east side of the Steens mountains where the rain shadow of the mountains has created the driest place in Oregon, the Alvord desert. It was raining there too. So, we headed deeper into MAGA territory.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvord_Desert
>
> More trip reports coming as I find the time and energy. We were just getting started at this point.
>
> TB

I am seriously glad you made it back safely. I would miss our little,
although not so private, tête-à-têtes.
--
(Space holder for future brilliant signature line)

Technobarbarian wrote:
>
> The wayback machine has been on a long journey back in time and
> space. We logged over a thousand miles. At one point we were so far
> south that we narrowly missed Nevada. We went east almost to Idaho.
> Up north we lost all sense of time and space and wandered into
> Washington as far north as Saint John's Monastery, for coffee and
> pastry.
>
> I have brought back all sorts of wild tales, with something for
> everyone: sex, drugs, money, gold, rocks, industry, beautiful
> campgrounds, and MAGA. Oh dear lord, I have been wandering in the
> land of MAGA. I have enough MAGA that you could smear it all over
> you and eat it with a spoon. If anyone here isn't getting enough
> MAGA I can tell them exactly where to go. We also brought back some
> gold and other treasures.
>
> The adventure didn't really start until we got to the Malheur
> Wildlife refuge.
>
> https://www.fws.gov/refuge/malheur
>
> Malheur is French for misfortune. Legend says that the area was
> named by French fur trappers, back in the day.
>
> So there we are in the desert and it was raining lightly, with a
> little lightning here and there. I had bought a rockhounding book
> that led us to a place where we could collect pretty rocks that
> might take a nice polish in our rock tumbler. We have a lot of
> rocks from here and there. Naturally we stopped at the visitor's
> center and looked at birds and other critters. The Feds have spent
> a lot of money improving the place since the last time I was there,
> sometime in the last century. My wife hadn't seen any of this until
> we were getting toward the end of our trip.
>
> We also took in sights like: French Glen, The Round Barn, The P
> ranch and Diamond Oregon, population 29, median age 52.5. The
> median age in Oregon is around 40. Pay attention, these numbers are
> important in the rest of the tale. :-)
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenchglen,_Oregon
> https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/peter_french_round_barn/
>
>
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P_Ranch
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond,_Oregon
>
> The P ranch has an old lookout tower that's a popular roosting spot
> for Turkey Vultures. There were only around half a dozen of them
> there when we were there. I have seen many more there.
>
> One of the ranchers in Diamond had a large sign that said they had
> been doing just fine until the fraudulent election in 2020. It
> didn't say what awful misfortune they were experiencing in Diamond
> since then.
>
> The BLM has a nice campground at Page Springs.
>
> https://www.blm.gov/visit/page-springs-campground
>
> The campgrounds is first come, first served. I suspect that it's
> rare for the place to fill up. There are no hookups, but they have
> fresh water, vault toilets and garbage service. The nearby "river"
> has been so channelized that it's more of an irrigation canal than
> a river, but it looks and sounds nice.
>
> The next day the rain got more serious, so we decided to drive
> around to the east side of the Steens mountains where the rain
> shadow of the mountains has created the driest place in Oregon, the
> Alvord desert. It was raining there too. So, we headed deeper into
> MAGA territory.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvord_Desert
>
> More trip reports coming as I find the time and energy. We were
> just getting started at this point.

I'm impressed that you stayed disconnected - at least from RORT -
during your trip. Kudos to you. Internetism is the opiate of the
masses, you know.

I like rocks, too, and gathered a bunch on my trips. However comma I
don't diss them by tumbling them. I leave them in their natural state
as the passage of time made them - it makes them more significant.

In any case, at the end of the day going forward, it sounded like a
Good Trip?

--
bill
Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.

On Wednesday, June 14, 2023 at 1:14:13 PM UTC-7, bfh wrote:
> Technobarbarian wrote:
> >
> > The wayback machine has been on a long journey back in time and
> > space. We logged over a thousand miles. At one point we were so far
> > south that we narrowly missed Nevada. We went east almost to Idaho.
> > Up north we lost all sense of time and space and wandered into
> > Washington as far north as Saint John's Monastery, for coffee and
> > pastry.
> >
> > I have brought back all sorts of wild tales, with something for
> > everyone: sex, drugs, money, gold, rocks, industry, beautiful
> > campgrounds, and MAGA. Oh dear lord, I have been wandering in the
> > land of MAGA. I have enough MAGA that you could smear it all over
> > you and eat it with a spoon. If anyone here isn't getting enough
> > MAGA I can tell them exactly where to go. We also brought back some
> > gold and other treasures.
> >
> > The adventure didn't really start until we got to the Malheur
> > Wildlife refuge.
> >
> > https://www.fws.gov/refuge/malheur
> >
> > Malheur is French for misfortune. Legend says that the area was
> > named by French fur trappers, back in the day.
> >
> > So there we are in the desert and it was raining lightly, with a
> > little lightning here and there. I had bought a rockhounding book
> > that led us to a place where we could collect pretty rocks that
> > might take a nice polish in our rock tumbler. We have a lot of
> > rocks from here and there. Naturally we stopped at the visitor's
> > center and looked at birds and other critters. The Feds have spent
> > a lot of money improving the place since the last time I was there,
> > sometime in the last century. My wife hadn't seen any of this until
> > we were getting toward the end of our trip.
> >
> > We also took in sights like: French Glen, The Round Barn, The P
> > ranch and Diamond Oregon, population 29, median age 52.5. The
> > median age in Oregon is around 40. Pay attention, these numbers are
> > important in the rest of the tale. :-)
> >
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenchglen,_Oregon
> > https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/peter_french_round_barn/
> >
> >
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P_Ranch
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond,_Oregon
> >
> > The P ranch has an old lookout tower that's a popular roosting spot
> > for Turkey Vultures. There were only around half a dozen of them
> > there when we were there. I have seen many more there.
> >
> > One of the ranchers in Diamond had a large sign that said they had
> > been doing just fine until the fraudulent election in 2020. It
> > didn't say what awful misfortune they were experiencing in Diamond
> > since then.
> >
> > The BLM has a nice campground at Page Springs.
> >
> > https://www.blm.gov/visit/page-springs-campground
> >
> > The campgrounds is first come, first served. I suspect that it's
> > rare for the place to fill up. There are no hookups, but they have
> > fresh water, vault toilets and garbage service. The nearby "river"
> > has been so channelized that it's more of an irrigation canal than
> > a river, but it looks and sounds nice.
> >
> > The next day the rain got more serious, so we decided to drive
> > around to the east side of the Steens mountains where the rain
> > shadow of the mountains has created the driest place in Oregon, the
> > Alvord desert. It was raining there too. So, we headed deeper into
> > MAGA territory.
> >
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvord_Desert
> >
> > More trip reports coming as I find the time and energy. We were
> > just getting started at this point.
> I'm impressed that you stayed disconnected - at least from RORT -
> during your trip. Kudos to you. Internetism is the opiate of the
> masses, you know.
>
> I like rocks, too, and gathered a bunch on my trips. However comma I
> don't diss them by tumbling them. I leave them in their natural state
> as the passage of time made them - it makes them more significant.
>
> In any case, at the end of the day going forward, it sounded like a
> Good Trip?
>
> --
> bill
> Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.

I guess I may have come at all this rock stuff unnaturally. I hadn't paid much attention to rocks until years of the Gem and Mineral show in Tucson wore me down. It's a huge assault on the senses. Now I like rocks in all sorts of conditions. I have some for which nothing will happen other than being relocated. A few I might slice and some I will see what the tumbler does to them. I have some small pieces of "worm rock" that cannot be improved on. It's pumice that looks like it was eaten by worms. And a small piece of red pumice that looks like it will float just because I liked it. I also picked up a beautiful piece of volcanic limb cast for $10 at the Columbia River Interpretive Center. One side of it was shaped by the wood it flowed over and the center looks to be agate and maybe quartz. I have no shame. I also picked up rocks from parking lots.

Speaking of "significant rocks" reminded me of the time I was selling pottery at the Saturday market in Eugene. My display table was the stairs from my park model trailer house. The guy next to me was selling big basalt rocks that had a more or less smooth side. He had collected pretty pictures from magazines and pasted them to the rocks and then put a clear coating on the whole thing. People loved his rocks. He had people saying that they didn't have anything like that in Arizona and they were going to haul this big rock back home. He made a lot more money than I did.

Just about anytime I make it home alive I figure it was a good trip. This was an excellent trip.

TB

On 6/14/2023 4:26 PM, Technobarbarian wrote:
> On Wednesday, June 14, 2023 at 1:14:13 PM UTC-7, bfh wrote:
>> Technobarbarian wrote:
>>>
>>> The wayback machine has been on a long journey back in time and
>>> space. We logged over a thousand miles. At one point we were so far
>>> south that we narrowly missed Nevada. We went east almost to Idaho.
>>> Up north we lost all sense of time and space and wandered into
>>> Washington as far north as Saint John's Monastery, for coffee and
>>> pastry.
>>>
>>> I have brought back all sorts of wild tales, with something for
>>> everyone: sex, drugs, money, gold, rocks, industry, beautiful
>>> campgrounds, and MAGA. Oh dear lord, I have been wandering in the
>>> land of MAGA. I have enough MAGA that you could smear it all over
>>> you and eat it with a spoon. If anyone here isn't getting enough
>>> MAGA I can tell them exactly where to go. We also brought back some
>>> gold and other treasures.
>>>
>>> The adventure didn't really start until we got to the Malheur
>>> Wildlife refuge.
>>>
>>> https://www.fws.gov/refuge/malheur
>>>
>>> Malheur is French for misfortune. Legend says that the area was
>>> named by French fur trappers, back in the day.
>>>
>>> So there we are in the desert and it was raining lightly, with a
>>> little lightning here and there. I had bought a rockhounding book
>>> that led us to a place where we could collect pretty rocks that
>>> might take a nice polish in our rock tumbler. We have a lot of
>>> rocks from here and there. Naturally we stopped at the visitor's
>>> center and looked at birds and other critters. The Feds have spent
>>> a lot of money improving the place since the last time I was there,
>>> sometime in the last century. My wife hadn't seen any of this until
>>> we were getting toward the end of our trip.
>>>
>>> We also took in sights like: French Glen, The Round Barn, The P
>>> ranch and Diamond Oregon, population 29, median age 52.5. The
>>> median age in Oregon is around 40. Pay attention, these numbers are
>>> important in the rest of the tale. :-)
>>>
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenchglen,_Oregon
>>> https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/peter_french_round_barn/
>>>
>>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P_Ranch
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond,_Oregon
>>>
>>> The P ranch has an old lookout tower that's a popular roosting spot
>>> for Turkey Vultures. There were only around half a dozen of them
>>> there when we were there. I have seen many more there.
>>>
>>> One of the ranchers in Diamond had a large sign that said they had
>>> been doing just fine until the fraudulent election in 2020. It
>>> didn't say what awful misfortune they were experiencing in Diamond
>>> since then.
>>>
>>> The BLM has a nice campground at Page Springs.
>>>
>>> https://www.blm.gov/visit/page-springs-campground
>>>
>>> The campgrounds is first come, first served. I suspect that it's
>>> rare for the place to fill up. There are no hookups, but they have
>>> fresh water, vault toilets and garbage service. The nearby "river"
>>> has been so channelized that it's more of an irrigation canal than
>>> a river, but it looks and sounds nice.
>>>
>>> The next day the rain got more serious, so we decided to drive
>>> around to the east side of the Steens mountains where the rain
>>> shadow of the mountains has created the driest place in Oregon, the
>>> Alvord desert. It was raining there too. So, we headed deeper into
>>> MAGA territory.
>>>
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvord_Desert
>>>
>>> More trip reports coming as I find the time and energy. We were
>>> just getting started at this point.
>> I'm impressed that you stayed disconnected - at least from RORT -
>> during your trip. Kudos to you. Internetism is the opiate of the
>> masses, you know.
>>
>> I like rocks, too, and gathered a bunch on my trips. However comma I
>> don't diss them by tumbling them. I leave them in their natural state
>> as the passage of time made them - it makes them more significant.
>>
>> In any case, at the end of the day going forward, it sounded like a
>> Good Trip?
>>
>> --
>> bill
>> Theory don't mean squat if it don't work.
>
> I guess I may have come at all this rock stuff unnaturally. I hadn't paid much attention to rocks until years of the Gem and Mineral show in Tucson wore me down. It's a huge assault on the senses. Now I like rocks in all sorts of conditions. I have some for which nothing will happen other than being relocated. A few I might slice and some I will see what the tumbler does to them. I have some small pieces of "worm rock" that cannot be improved on. It's pumice that looks like it was eaten by worms. And a small piece of red pumice that looks like it will float just because I liked it. I also picked up a beautiful piece of volcanic limb cast for $10 at the Columbia River Interpretive Center. One side of it was shaped by the wood it flowed over and the center looks to be agate and maybe quartz. I have no shame. I also picked up rocks from parking lots.
>
> Speaking of "significant rocks" reminded me of the time I was selling pottery at the Saturday market in Eugene. My display table was the stairs from my park model trailer house. The guy next to me was selling big basalt rocks that had a more or less smooth side. He had collected pretty pictures from magazines and pasted them to the rocks and then put a clear coating on the whole thing. People loved his rocks. He had people saying that they didn't have anything like that in Arizona and they were going to haul this big rock back home. He made a lot more money than I did.
>
> Just about anytime I make it home alive I figure it was a good trip. This was an excellent trip.
>
> TB
>

I have a few pieces of petrified wood I've picked up along the way. I
got one really big one from the Petrified Forest :-)
--
(Space holder for future brilliant signature line)