h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm not sure if the turtles go after the shiney things, but I wouldn't be wearing anything in my skin that might resemble bait...for that matter, I don't know if I want a beaver around me either, lures or not, but then again, as mammals I figure beavers are just a bit more intelligent.

Good news, though...not a single jellyfish to be found.

Thank FSM for Uncyclopedia. Otherwise, I would have never known that there's a 200-foot pink bunny lying discarded about a kilometre southeast of Artesina, Italy (Piedmont).

Some people's children, I mean, really.

From Ouray to Durango - Colorado

The thermometer read 15 degrees this morning at dawn. The campground is empty and silent except for us and several hundred birds chirping about spring. The piles of snow are beating a slow retreat.

The hike we took yesterday was an odd mix of deep snow and slippery, gluey mud. We went up a trail called “The Pinnacles” for about an hour before turning back.. Sometimes we would break though the snow crust and sink to our knees. Sometimes our boots would pick up several pounds of mud where the snow had melted. One of the things to discuss on a hike is the tracks and the scat. We saw lots of deer sign and a few bear tracks. This is the time that the bears are coming out of hibernation with new cubs, looking for breakfast.

I learned that they took out a 56 pound lake trout from the frozen lake where we are camped last year. The fishing here is reported to be the best in Colorado. Soon they will be releasing several million eleven inch sockeye salmon from the upriver hatchery. That explains the giant trout. Trout are very aggressive eaters and love little fish. We made a special trip to Gunnison to buy a fishing license. The sporting goods store was a rat’s nest of fishing tackle, deer antlers and snowshoes. A good pair of snowshoes goes for $125. I fished for about an hour and didn't catch anything. I scraped up some loose dirt and buried two boxes of worms in the ground and added a little water. They won the worm lottery...never give up.

We moved today. We drove from Gunnison to Montrose, then down though Ouray to Durango. Rand McNally thinks the winding 75 miles from Ouray to Durango is the best drive in Colorado.

The high mountain passes go up to 12,000 feet. It's good to be back to 6,000 feet after a week at 10,000 or more. The air that we breathe is 21 percent oxygen. However, the amount of oxygen available for your lungs is a factor of partial pressure of oxygen and is measured in torr. As altitude increases, the available oxygen pressure in torr decreases. The percentage of oxygen in the air is always 21 percent no matter how high you go, but it’s 21 percent of a smaller total air pressure. At sea level the partial pressure of oxygen is 21 percent of 760 torr, while at 10,000 feet it is 21 percent of only 199 torr. The older you get, the more susceptible you are to lack of oxygen at altitude. In the Air Force, we had to strap on our masks for anything over 8,000. Rapid heatbeat, rapid breathing, headaches and decreased mental acuity are a few of the early symptoms. Death is the last, most serious effect. I lost consciousness in about a minute at 23,000 feet in the altitude chamber...what a nice way to go...Euphoria, followed by nothing. They should use these on death row.

We want to see the ruins at Mesa Verde tomorrow and maybe take a hike or two.

It might take a couple of days to explore the Canyons of the Ancients. There are over 6,000 ancient pueblos up on the desert mesas. After that, there is a trading post in the desert we want to see. It's over in the "four corners" area on the Ute reservation in ther high desert.

We got satellite TV back in the Curecanti National Recreation Area (Direct), but no cell phone (ATT) or computer air card (Verizon) service. I learned how to record TV programs yesterday. The receiver is now set to record all future “South Park” programs until the disk is full. “Dr. Who” was on yesterday with a new Doctor that I didn’t recognize. Dr Who, I guess.

Pictures of the drive:
http://thefirecloudreport.blogspot.com/2008/04/million-dollar-highway.html

amazing piccies of Colorado, Phredster ... amazing ... wow ... snowscapes ... roadscapes ...

and then just thinking about The Canyons of the Ancients .. awesome ...

what a world ... ... what a world ...

I'll say it one more time .. what a world ...

....

a commerical company just left a message on our answerphone the way they do ... usually offering double glazing or holidays in fictional paradises ... anyway ... this charming lady was suggesting that I spend the next part of my life in Durango Mexico ...

Durango gets everywhere ...

you could devote your life only travelling to places called Durango ... but that would be limited .. and you would never see the Canyons of the Ancients ...

......or a 200-foot pink bunny lying discarded about a kilometre southeast of Artesina ......

.....

had this vivid dream last night that you two .. Mr and Mrs Phredster .. were camped beside this road .. which was kind of like on the coast near Exeter .. you had a magic camp ... with a green and yellow awning draped with Christmas lights .. looked like a stall at Glastonbury Fest .. we were passing by in the car and Chris said 'look who it is!' ... and we stopped and visited you ... and impressed you deeply with our conversation and fading good looks..

< ...(all true 'cept for the last ten words ... )

Hi Helen,

A few stops back I bought you a postcard with a coyote in a red baseball cap.



Be patient, I'll mail it soon.

The Greatest Inventor

The canyons and mesas of the Four Corners region are filled with thousands of ruins built by eary Anasazi Indian inhabitants. Some of the most visited are in the Mesa Verde National Park in the Southwest corner of Colorado. Though dendrochronolgy, the study of tree rings, the constuction of these dwellings can be dated very precisely.

The best preserved ruins are those built in caves or cliff dwellinga sheltered by rock overhangs. As we drive the rim of the mesa we can see a half dozen examples of these.

The Indians here lived on top of the mesas for thousands of years. During a 20 year period ending about 1276 A.D., they retreated to cliff dwellings and then abandoned these within a ten year period. The reason for the retreat and exodus is thought to be a 23 year drought which decreased food supplies and increased warfare over scarce resources.

A mojor source of food was corn. They used a "dry farming" (no irrigation) method, planting in wet, low-lying areas where water pooled in the spring after the eight-foot snowfall melts.

The development of Maize (corn) by an early Mesoamerican geneticist probably happened sometime between 10,000 and 6,000 BC in southern Mexico. This development has done more to enable a population explosion to six billion than any other human invention.

From the 1938 to the 1960s, Mangeldorf's 'Tripartite Hypothesis' on the origin of corn was widely accepted. He believed that corn was developed from a cross between an undiscovered wild Maize and the plant Tripsacum. With a name like Mangeldorf, you have to wonder.

In 1968, George Beadle, in retirement, began to provide convincing evidence for his own 'Teosinte Hypothesis', which simply believed that Maize was developed from the plant Teosinte. Today scientists generally accept the Teosinte Hypothesis because of advances in the study of genomes.

Here are a few shots of the ruins at Mesa Verde.
http://thefirecloudreport.blogspot.com/2008/04/greatest-invention.html

can I have my coyote postcard now pleeeeeze .. when can I have my coyote postcard? will it arrive soon? pleeeeeeeze can I have my coyote postcard? when when when ...

I'm a very patient person ...

There was a village in Poland where two mating bears were eating the villagers.

The village elders, concerned, placed an ad in the Bear Hunters Gazette.

Three hunters arrived:. a German, a Russian and a Checkloslovakian.

The hunters went out, but didn't come back.

The village elders called in the Polish Army and a heavily armed company of soldiers went out and killed both bears.

The bears were placed on the village autopsy table. When the female bear was opened up, the German and Russian were found inside her grossly distended stomach.

One village elder turned to the others and said, "The Check is in the male".

what??

right.

erm .. thankyou ... heheheheheh

will place beside treasured pic of Jim's grave ... still on my desk ...

what music are you listening to on on this trip, by the way? need to keep in touch with the Firecloud soundtrack ...

I'm currently listening to The 13th Floor Elevators ..

yuh

and reading a book called Astral Dynamics ... all about the astral body and things ..

but then I would be ..

....

Just listening to whatever gets beamed down by the satellite.


So bring me two pina coladas
One for each hand
Lets set sail with captin morgan
And never leave dry land


Magic Billy in his wheel chair
Is picking up all this stuff in the air
Billy is face to face with outer space
Messages from distant stars
The local police calling all cars, radio waves
Hear them radio waves, radio waves

Whatever floats in on the ether...

oh yehyehyehyeh

that's so cool ... cruising through the Canyons of the Ancients ... listening to Roger Waters and other musicwaves coming through the satellite ...



its when you start to hear the music of the Ancients coming through the satellite .. oh ... s'pect you already have ... ... just being there must be kind of astral ..

make a good story ... all this weird ghostly music coming through the satellite ... The Ancients mixed with Hendrix ...



I was just going on to Doctor Daktyl about Hendrix ... playing The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock .. magic .. wish I had been there ... sort of .. maybe not .. best on DVD .. .. I'm an armchair festival goer ... ..




I'm in a total flake-space ... its because the sun is shining .. these almost-nude-dudes here are almost preparing for beach weather ... ..

A few pictures of Monument Valley are over here... http://thefirecloudreport.blogspot.com/2008/04/monument-valley.html

wow. monument valley ...

....and I just love love love those writings on home .... and thankyou ..

ah home ....



can't stop today .... ... off to sauna and jacuzzi .. yay! ..

speak soon ...

....

that was the longest sauna and jacuzzi I ever had .. ..

Happy Christmas all ....

its not Christmas?

how long have I been in there ?

Phreddy .. saw a great new documentary on BBC 4 last night .. called The Pink Floyd Story .. Which One's Pink?

oh yes ...



we have just begun a major communal roofjob on our house .. after months of £££££ saving ... and now we find we have a colony of Pipistrelle bats residing there .. which, in this country, are a protected species .. by law ... so now the whole job has to stop till September ... till the bats have had their babies ...

running us up a fortune in scaffolding costs and other such delights ...

hmmm .. don't mention bats to me right now please ..



or else I'll go mad ...

bats




oops .. I mentioned bats ...

whaargh whooooooargh whaaaaargh

Bats in the attic...Bats in the belfy...blind as a bat...like a bat out of hell...

Hello Helen, you must look like a prune after that long in the sauna...

We are babysitting the six grandchildren this week...Our own son slowly worked his way though all the stages of human development... with six spaced two or three years apart you get the whole gamut to compare...

My personal favorite is the terrible twos...Take your eyes away for a minute and they go swimming in the loo....

Mra. Phred and I are discussing a home again...we were up until midmight talking in bed....we don't know how to start...finally we decide to outline criteria and do reserarch...we can't agree on any of the criteria to select...Are there any openings in your place?

She insists on spending the winters in Florida so that opens the colder climates for a possible summer home. whaargh whooooooargh whaaaaargh

whhoooooooaaaaargh!



nothing like a few readings of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner to pacify the kiddies .. sleeping like babies they will be .. by the time you get to verse 20 ... third time around ..



ah yes .. home and its complexities .. tell me about it ... trade you a Pipistrelle bat for an answer ... ..

talking about home ...we have to return to the SouthEast tomorrow on family business ... once again once again .. getting used to packing here .. by this time next year we shall be residing a one bedroom suitcase .. with a bar, jacuzzi and proximity to a Costa Coffee shop ...

speak soon mister

H

Steve,

We've turned away from California...that camping trip will have to wait for another journey...

Bob