Most of the stuff we do fits conveniently into another category, so you may have already visited a page elsewhere. Sometimes, we go somewhere that just doesn't fit, so I guess I might as well put it here.
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Thanksgiving 1999 was time for our biennial trip back to Ohio to visit Maw Charles. The way I figure it, if Kansas and Nebraska are part of the Midwest, then Ohio must be in the Mideast. No matter, we went there and had fun. We hit all the old haunts, visited some old friends and looked for bottles and junk. The only thing we didn't do much of this time was slop around in the rain and track mud into my mom's apartment. She'll just have to wait until 2001 for her biennial dose of mud. Click on the State Bird to see the sights. |
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Every year, round about January, we head off to the desert. We go over to the happenins' at Quartzsite, Arizona. Quartzsite is a town of 400 residents, on Interstate 10, 20 miles east of the Colorado River (CA - AZ border). It's a big rock show, junk show, & swap meet, all thrown in together. You can get fossils, rocks and minerals, antiques, and just plain stuff. People from all over the country and Canada show up. It's fun. There's probably 40,000 people wandering around. This year, we went the weekend after the Superbowl: the first weekend in February. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law, commonly known as Jane and Hutch met us out there. Ed and Donna drove over too. We hit the shows on Saturday, then drove about 5 miles out of town and camped in the desert over night. We built a fire, barbecued some steaks and had a regular little picnic. The weather was great, about 75 in the day. I took a few pictures. Might as well share `em with y'all. Click on the town seal and check `er out. |
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Sunday started out harmlessly enough. We had returned from Baja the night before. Little did we know that what was to become the most destructive fire in California history had started northeast of Ramona the evening before. Fanned by fierce Santa Ana winds, by daybreak the fire had already burned to Poway. Before long, the police told us to evacuate. It was the dumbest thing I ever did. Fortunately, my neighbors weren't so dumb. Many of them stayed and saved our house. The conflagration became known as the Cedar Fire and burned for over a week before rainy weather helped put it out. The fire was the legacy of stupidity and bad decisions. |
Updated: 11/16/02