For four days now we have been traveling the Natchez Trace, a trail that served the “Old Southwest” from about 1775 to 1820 or so. It was declared a National Post Road in 1800 and many improvements were made to it by the US Army and civilian contractors. With the coming of the steam paddlewheel river boats on the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers the Natchez Trace fell into disuse and slowly melted back into the undergrowth.
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Hunkered Down:
We got as far as western Kansas and ran headlong into their first winter storm of the season. When we pulled into Colby, Kansas on Tuesday the weather was fair and warm. We had a nice bicycle ride around town to see the sights. We heard about a high wind advisory and intentionally chose a park over a Wal-Mart parking lot. About 9 p.m. the first gusts shook the coach like a rat terrier shaking a rag doll. We quickly retracted the two sliders and hunkered down for the blow.
Into Utah
This is the first time we have arrived in Salt Lake City from the West across the Great Salt Lake. It’s like 50 miles of flat, straight and level highway across the Bonneville Salt Flats. It is about a hundred miles from West Wendover, NV to the outskirts of civilization again. We arrived in Tooele UT, (exit 99, that is 99 miles from Wendover,) and stopped at the Flying J to fuel up. I was stationed at the light in the left turn lane when I figured out that the truck entrance was directly across from me. I peered down the road and spotted what looked like an alternate entrance to the station beside their big sign board, so I went ahead and made the left. When I reached the spot it was not an entrance.
Ballooning
This weekend we met with long time friends, Tim and Sheri Gale and their son Andrew for a weekend of ballooning at the Albany Air and Art Festival. We seem to have a need to do everything the hard way. The bicycle instead on a car, a sailboat instead of a speedboat. Now we joined a balloon team over an airplane. The balloon is named Checkmate. It has a red, white and black design that includes a knight chess piece. Photos are included at the end of this post.
Sailing
Today we took some friends sailing on the Columbia River. In the early morning our Pastor, Rev. Marilyn Allen joined us at the boat in the early morning to beat the predicted 100 degree heat. We had lovely winds and the temperature was delightful at about 65 degrees. We motored out into the center of the channel and popped out the sails. We first sailed up wind and down river about three miles. Continue reading Sailing