Hit or Miss?

It's still way to early to determine where Ike will go, but for now they've got it coming to us.

Jeff Masters, at Weather Underground, predicts a western LA landfall.

Track Forecast for Ike - third paragraph (Jeff Masters' blog)

As Ike moves approaches within 300 miles of the Louisiana coast on Friday, there will be another trough of low pressure capable of turning the storm to the north. The GFS, GFDL, HWRF, NOGAPS, and Canadian models all predict that this trough will be strong enough to turn Ike northwards into central or western Louisiana. The UKMET and ECMWF models disagree, and think high pressure will dominate enough to force Ike westwards into Texas, between Corpus Christi and the Louisiana border. These two models have been trending too far south with Ike so far, so I would lean towards a landfall in western Louisiana at this point.

Off to Oklahoma

I still can't seem to get anything out of my brain and into my blog, but I'll be away on business this week with several nights on my own and plenty of time to blog. Maybe I'll be able to dislodge some posts (I don't count weather updates as real posts).

I'm taking my camera on the off chance that Ponca City, OK has some pretty landscape.

I'm scheduled to return home Friday morning. Just in time for Ike??

Brain Constipation

I have quite a number of blogs jamming up my brain right now, but for the life of me I can't seem to purge them. Even when I try concentrating really hard, all I seem to get are a few brain farts here and there!

Translation: You're Too Fat

I was daydreaming at work today (knock on wood, it's been a little slow) and was remembering our trip through The Badlands last week.

We were only a couple miles in and there was a place you could stop and hike, so we decided to hop out and see what we could see. Kathie and I were walking toward the trailhead when this woman and her kids stopped to talk to us.

She was about 5'3" and maybe 120lbs soaking wet. I honestly don't remember all of the conversation (it was pretty short), but basically the last thing she says to us is, It'll be rough for you two. She didn't say, it's a rough hike; no, she said "you two" would have a rough time with it.

I don't remember if I said anything to Kathie right then, but I remember thinking it was pretty funny that Miss Skinny Chick was concerned enough about us Fat Chicks to let us know we would have trouble with the hike.

I know we had a pretty good laugh about it once Kathie had made the hike (I stayed below to take pics) and we were back in the car.

If you click on the picture, you can see Kathie on her way up (center right).

To you skinny folks out there: Thank you for your concern, but keep it to yourself!!

I would never go up to a skinny person at the pool and tell them to avoid the deep end cuz they're going to have a hard time floating!!

HE HE HE!!!

Profiting From Others Misfortunes

Our flight out of Rapid City, SD was delayed this morning. Denver was having severe thunderstorms that delayed the plane getting to us and those same storms kept the plane grounded for another hour before we could take off. Our original flight time was 11:40am; we finally took off at 1:45.

I stepped off the plane from South Dakota at 3:15 and tried in vain to get clear across Denver Int'l Airport in less than 5 minutes to make my 3:20 connection, but to no avail! It was off to the Customer Service Desk I went.

They had me flying standby on the 9:05pm flight, but just a few minutes a go they confirmed a seat for me on the flight.

Come to find out, there are 5 individuals on a flight from San Francisco who won't arrive in time to make their connection to Houston. I feel kinda bad that these folks travel plans are about to go haywire, but I'm very grateful to know I'll be on my way home in a few hours. The next available flight with a confirmed seat was for Monday at 9:55am!

I hope the folks from San Francisco are able to get booked on other flights soon. I was told the next available standby flight was tomorrow morning!

Deadwood, SD

Deadwood is a town steeped in history and there are few things I like more than history. Here’s a short list of some of Deadwood’s history.

1. Martha Jane Canary (Calamity Jane) and James Butler Hickok (Wild Bill) are buried side by side at the local boot hill, Mount Moriah.
2. Gold was discovered here in 1876, thus the reason for Deadwood’s existence.
3. Wild Bill Hickok only lived here 6 weeks before he was shot to death by Jack McCall at the #10 Saloon.
4. Each of the plots that minors bought were laid out along the river and numbered. The person who owned #10 built a house on his site. It later became a saloon; hence the name, the #10 Saloon.
5. Deadwood got its name because of all the dead wood throughout the forest and along the river.

Wild Bill Hickok's tombstone. The original was made of stone, but people would chip pieces off as a souvenir. This bronze tombstone is a replica of the original.

Over looking the town of Deadwood from Mount Moriah.


One of the many colorful old houses. I liked the bear carving.


This has to be THE MOST colorful house in Deadwood. The house is called Raspberry Hill. The picture makes it look purple, but in real life it's definitely a bright raspberry color.


In 1898 the last wagon trains bringing goods and people from Pierre to Deadwood stopped. The railroad was faster and cheaper. To commemorate the 100th anniversary, a wagon train of about 200 people, horses, wagons, etc., set out from Pierre on July 29th and followed the original route the wagon trains took. They arrived today, Friday August 15th, at noon. I'm glad we just happened to be here to see it.

Devil's Tower

Anyone remember the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind? I absolutely loved it as a kid. I haven't watched it in many years, but one of the scenes I remember is when Richard Dryfus recreates the mountainlike vision he's having by piling the mashed potatoes on his plate into the shape of the mountain.

Well, what to my surprise should be just up the road from Deadwood??? That’s right, Devil’s Tower; the mountainlike structure in Richard’s visions.

Kathie has never seen the movie, but she was a good sport and went along for the ride. I say it’s just around the corner. It’s actually about a 50 mile drive over into Wyoming.

I have to say, it’s pretty stinkin’ awesome to see up close and personal.

The pictures don’t do it any justice.

The visitor center is right at the base of it, so it’s pretty easy to hike up to and around it. We went about half way around and came back down.