What to Do When There’s Nothing to Do

Posted on April 6, 2019 by Roger

I woke up Saturday morning a little before 7:00 with a strong desire to go somewhere. I spent about an hour on my computer trying to decide where. I couldn’t find anything that looked interesting. It was getting me a bit depressed so I took a nap. I woke up again around 9:30 and felt much better about life.

I drove 95 miles north, to Fort Vasquez in Platteville. I knew this was a small adobe fort located on the medium strip between lanes of US 85, because we’d passed it a year or so ago when we visited Greeley.  What I didn’t know is that only the walls have been restored. Inside, it looked like this.

     

There was a tiny museum and gift shop. I walked through the fort, read every sign, and perused the displays in the museum. I may have been there maybe 20 minutes. This was a discouraging start to the day. But I looked at my list of food places and found a Georgia Boys BBQ in Frederick, about 10 minutes away. Mental Floss rated this the best BBQ in Colorado.

I ordered a brisket plate. About 20 minutes later, the friendly young woman who was waiting on me came by and apologized profusely for the delay. I assured her I didn’t hold her responsible. When the food finally came, she told me she had them put a few extra burnt ends on my plate.

I only tried the original sauce, which was a little more vinegary that I like. I wish I had tried the sweet sauce, but I’d already covered my brisket. It was tasty, and I’d definitely go back if I’m in the area and hungry. My server told me that she felt worse, she thought, than she’d ever felt before. I told her she’d had a pretty easy life so far.

I drove from there to Golden and visited the Colorado School of Mines Geology Museum. It was impressively done, with a lot of cool-looking rocks. I know very little about geology, so I just wandered and admired the beauty of God’s creation. (This was my own take, and decidedly NOT the take of the museum.)

If I were naming minerals, I would call this one frenchpoodleite.

Moon rock from Apollo 17.

I was there for about 45 minutes, which wasn’t long. But I would definitely stop back in if I was footloose in Golden again. I headed home on Route 105, tunes blaring and sun roof open (until the rain shower began). Although the day involved a lot of driving (215 miles), and the sites weren’t overwhelming, I had a good time.

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Highlights from Recent Reading

Posted on April 3, 2019 by Roger

It was through the Declaration of Independence that we Americans acknowledged the eternal inequality of man. For by it we abolished a cut-and-dried aristocracy. We had seen little men artificially held up in high places, and great men artificially held down in low places, and our own justice-loving hearts abhorred this violence to human nature. Therefore, we decreed that every man should thenceforth have equal liberty to find his own level. By this very decree we acknowledged and gave freedom to true aristocracy, saying, “Let the best man win, whoever he is.” Let the best man win! That is America’s word. That is true democracy. And true democracy and true aristocracy are one and the same thing. If anybody cannot see this, so much the worse for his eyesight.

The Virginian, by Owen Wister

“When a man ain’t got no ideas of his own,” said Scipio, “he’d ought to be kind o’ careful who he borrows ’em from.”

The Virginian, by Owen Wister

It was a variant of the situation Bill Veeck, then owner of the St. Louis Browns, had found himself in twenty-nine years earlier, when 20-game winner Ned Garver had asked for a raise. Veeck told him, “We finished last with you. It’s a cinch we can finish last without you.”

9 Innings, by Daniel Okrent

“They showed it on an airplane and people were walking out of the theater.”

Rodney Dangerfield on one of his movies

There is great danger, at the present day, of compromising truth for the sake of union. This should be carefully guarded against. There can be no true union attained at the expense of truth. The true Christian’s motto should ever be, “Maintain truth at all cost; if union can be promoted in this way, so much the better, but maintain the truth.” The principle of expediency, on the contrary, may be thus enunciated: “Promote union at all cost; if truth can be maintained as well, so much the better, but promote union.” This latter principle can only be carried out at the expense of all that is divine in the way of testimony.”

Notes on Genesis, by C.H. Mackintosh (1879)

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Harry S Truman Birthplace Historic Site

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Roger

When we were in Independence, I discovered a brochure for Truman’s birthplace. It happened to be right along our route to Arkansas, in the tiny town of Lamar, Missouri.

Truman was born in the downstairs bedroom of this tiny house on May 8, 1884. His parents had bought the house as newlyweds in 1882, and sold it when Harry was 11 months old.

As we approached the visitor center across the street, a young woman came out and offered us a tour. Nothing in the house was original to the Trumans — it’s just filled with period furniture — so the tour didn’t take long. The guide knew her stuff, although her presentation was a bit timid.

The room in which Harry was born.

Two shots of the front room, and our guide.

The kitchen

An upstairs bedroom. There was one more similar bedroom upstairs, and a bedroom off the kitchen used by a young neighbor who helped out around the house in exchange for room and board. And that was it.

I don’t think we were there for 20 minutes.

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Harry S Truman National Historic Site

Posted on March 24, 2019 by Roger

Because we went to Wamego to see the Oz Museum, it made the most sense to head to Arkansas via Kansas City. We spent the night in Belton, Missouri. My wife hadn’t been with me when I visited Truman’s home in Independence back in 2006, so I told her I’d be happy to see it again. We arrived just as the visitor center opened and bought tickets for the first tour, which included just us and the guide. The ranger was formal at first, but when he saw that we were both knowledgeable and interested, he lightened up, happily answered our questions, and offered a lot of additional information. We probably spent three times as long in the house as I had on my earlier trip.

As before I couldn’t take photos inside the house.

The home had originally belonged to Bess’s family. Harry’s aunt lived across the street. Her house is now open with a few displays. I didn’t get a photo of the outside, but here’s a shot of the main house from the front window.

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OZ Museum

Posted on March 23, 2019 by Roger

Every time we’ve driven across Kansas, we’ve seen billboards advertising this museum. We felt compelled to stop and see it. There wasn’t much else of interest in the little town of Wamego, and the museum stood out on the main street.

The exhibits featured L. Frank Baum, his OZ books, all aspects of the movie, and other OZ-related productions.

There weren’t many actual artifacts from the movie itself, but they did have a Munchkin costume and one of the flying monkey models.

Video displays throughout the museum gave more information — we watched one of them — and the movie itself played constantly in a theater in the back. We didn’t watch it. (We did overhear the woman at the front desk tell about a guy that spent nine hours in the museum one day.)

My wife was disappointed that there wasn’t a yellow brick road to follow through the museum. I thought it was fairly well done, although somehow it fell short of being great. The gift shop was lame. We were probably there about an hour.

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