May 23, 2012: Hail at Crazy Horse Memorial, SD

It's a 5-hour drive from Cheyenne to Rapid City, South Dakota. On the way, via I25,  you go up to Highway 16, and turn east. First you come to the Crazy Horse Monument, then the exit for Mt. Rushmore, then various camping resorts, such as Rushmore Shadows where I stayed for 2 nights (23rd and 24th May, 2012) and then Rapid City.

Since I was passing by Crazy Horse Monument on my way to Rushmore Shadows, I stopped there for about 3 hours. Had to wind down my window to pay for the parking, and for some reason forgot to rewind it.

It was a grey day, kind of drizzly, but I figured since I'd be spending most of my time inside the buildings, I'd go for it.

After about an hour, took a $4 bus ride up to a photogenic spot to take photos. It was cold, but not raining at this point.

On way back, the bus drove through the parking lot and I discovered my open window. Dropped off at museum entrance, walked back up to my car.

No theft, but this is what I saw:

Fortunately, I had some towels in my trunk. So after scraping away most of the hail, I put the towels down when I resumed my drive to Rushmore Shadows.

Damn time zones!

I'm sitting in a cabin near Rapid City, South Dakota.

I've got the cabin for 2 nights, free, dependant on my attending a 90-minute presentation this morning.

Last night, my cell phone was right. It said 6 pm, and indeed at 6 pm the store I was in closed.

This morning, my cellphone is an hour fast.

So instead of getting up at 8 am, so I could attend the presentation at 9 am, I got up at 7 am!

Turned on my laptops - *THEY* said 7 am!  (Yes, I travel with two lap tops One to work on, the other to show a netflix movie full screen while I work).

The office is only about 50 yards from this cabin, and they are supposed to open at 8 am... but when I got up it was POURING with rain and I wasn't going to drive up there. (It's now drizzling, and is supposed to drizzle through Tuesday. Just my luck.)

Anyway, that's the story of my morning.

You don't know what you don't know...

I had thought I was buying landscape fabric that would keep weeds from growing but let water go through. I had had my doubts a few days ago after a brief rain -the water puddled on top of the black sheeting instead of going through...and today confirmed it when I was watering my newly planted flowers, some wter got on the sheeting where the rocks go, and just stayed there.

I hadn't bothered to read the directions - I'd seen this stuff at Lowes and at Walmart in their garden aisle, there were no other choices, so of course I assumed there was only one kind - the kind that would let water go through.

So tomorrow I'll go and but 4 more pots, shovel all this dirt into those pots, and in another montrh or so when I've got some more discretionary money, buy more tree bark to cover these water-proofed containers.

So kind of annoyed today...

My Garden

I live about 9 miles away from the outskirts of Cheyenne (I'm on the outskirts outskirts!) in a housing development. Most of the houses in this area are located pretty close to each other, but my own  house is on its own acre of land.

Clay-ey land. Impossible to grow anything decent. Scrub grass in the back, full of rocks under the dirt/clay. In the front, mostly clay, with a little bit of grass.

There's a wooden frame work of a room, that eventually I'd like to actually build and use as a room for model trains or something, but that will be some years in the future.

The garden that I'm setting up - and to tell the truth I'd prefer that it be all rock - nice red rock - runs from the very edge of the bottom "patio" to that room. Next year I"ll put in another layer of cinder block from the edge of the room., running in a curved manner to the patio.

So, below are the photos. The final photos, from May 12, show dirt (or rather, potting soil) in the two boxes flanking the center box, into which I put a bag of decorative bark, and two pots. My plan is to plant flowers in the pots, and perennial plants in the other two containers. Perhaps only a couple of plants in each, to see if they survive.

April 30, 2012, Monday
The first idea was to have three separate areas, divided by my cinder blocks. But then I decided that would require too much dirt and bark, so I asked my dad to put together the wooden boxes instead, and got the idea to surround them with the rocks from the other side of the house.

May 2, 2012

May 7, 2012

 Below - the rock pile on the back side of the house. This rock pile was here w hen we moved in.  When the garden is done, all these rocks will be in the front, surrounding my boxes with the flowers and plants.

2 views of the rocks that infest the grounds under the grass - small rocks, medium sized rocks, even a few big rocks.

 5/8/12 - As you can see, the rocks are being added to the back first. Slow going because they are so heavy!

 5/10/12 - slowly but surely the rocks are being added

 5/11/12 - more rocks being added

 5/12/12 - The dirt has been added, as well as the bark and the pots.

Sale of Wyo. hamlet for $900,000 is official

From KULR8: Sale of Wyo. hamlet for $900,000 is official
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — The sale of a remote, unincorporated area in southern Wyoming to a man from Vietnam is now official.

Cheyenne broker Rozetta Weston says the sale of Buford was closed this week.

Located along busy Interstate 80 in southeast Wyoming, Buford advertised itself as the smallest town in the United States with one resident.

It was sold at auction for $900,000 last month to Vietnamese businessman Pham Dinh Nguyen (WIN).

Buford includes a gas station and convenience store, a 1905 schoolhouse, a cabin, a garage and a three-bedroom house on 10 acres between Cheyenne and Laramie.

The town traces its origins to the 1860s and the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.

Wyoming Special Olympics torch delivered to Laramie

From Boomerang: Wyoming Special Olympics torch delivered to Laramie
As David O’Malley, Albany County Sheriff, appeared on the hill running down 15th Street toward Deti Stadium, “Flame of Hope” torch in his hand, a roar of excitement ran through the neighborhood.

Hundreds of people from around the state welcomed the law enforcement group running to the stadium to officially open the Special Olympics Wyoming Summer Games. The group picked up the torch a few hours earlier from Cheyenne law enforcement to deliver it to the opening ceremonies for the event.

“It touched my heart. It brought tears in my eye,” Brenda Ocheskey, Cheyenne resident, said. “Special Olympics always had a special place in our hearts.”

For many years, Ocheskey has been attending Special Olympics in Laramie with her brother John Patton, an athlete who has participated in the event since its inception in Wyoming 40 years ago.

This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the Law Enforcement Torch Run (LETR) in Wyoming. The largest grassroots fundraiser and public awareness vehicle worldwide, LETR started in Kansas in the 1980s to give law enforcement agencies an opportunity to get engaged in Special Olympics.

Since its inception in Wyoming, LETR has raised more than half a million dollars to support Wyoming athletes.

Having several law enforcement agencies engaged in the run (including police department, sheriff’s department, Wyoming Highway Patrol and Wyoming Game and Fish Department) helps the Special Olympics reach many communities around the state, Priscilla Dowse, president and CEO of Special Olympics Wyoming, said earlier.

It is also an opportunity to build a positive relationship between law enforcement and the community, Officer Melinda Miller said.

“It’s an amazing experience to do what we do and to feel so welcomed. And we feel so honored to be able to do this for the community,” she said. “A lot of people may think law enforcement (representatives) are kind of scary but it’s a positive thing, for sure. It makes us more approachable, too.”

About 40 law enforcement officers from Laramie participated in the run, Mike Samp, coordinator of the run in Laramie and assistant chief of the UW Police Department, said.

“It was great and I had no idea how many people were going to be here until we came over the hill. It’s just phenomenal. It gave me goose bumps. I didn’t expect that many people,” O’Malley said. “Mike (Samp) asked me to do it this year and I really appreciate him for doing that because it’s been a really good experience. When you come over the hill, you see the stands are full and you realize what efforts are put forth by people to make sure these athletes get to compete. And it’s pretty emotional.”

For more information about the games go to the Special Olympics Wyoming website, www.specialolympicswy.org.

Coors Field, Denver

More photos to come shortly.

If you're going to drive from Cheyenne down to Denver to see a baseball game at Coors Field, the easiest hing to do, if it's just one or two of you, is to drive down about 50 miles to exit 223 (on I25), park in Wagon Road Park and ride (actually on some street named Melody), and take a bus the remaining 15 miles/15 minutes to the stadium. The bus takes you right there and right back.

It does cost - $4 each way. If you're with a group of people so you can split the cost of parking, you could go all the way in to town, but if you're don't want the culture shock between driving "downtown" Cheyenne, where there is no traffic and two one way roads in and out of the city, and Denver, which is five times and large and has twenty times as many people driving around on any given day.... take the bus!

Only soft sided bags allowed in the stadium. Interestingly, they had vendors outside selling discount food - peanuts and pop, about half the price of what was on offer inside.

There were also people selling tickets outside - not the normal ticket people, but "scalpers" - although I don't think that that's the right term since they seemed to be offering expensive tickets for cut rate prices. It must have been legal because they were walking around quite openly, holding up tickets fanned in their hands, and there were about 4 cops around - on the stadium side of the street, who would presumably have arrested them if they were breaking the law.

So if its just one or two of you....maybe try one of these folks. I'll be doing that when I return in a couple of weeks to see the Mariners play, all on my lonesome.

Cheyenne Home and Garden Show

I went to this today...for about 30 minutes. The hazards of bringing an elderly, mobility-impaired relative along with you.

It was very much more about the home than the garden - although there was a small section where flowers were on sale, from somewhere called Grants Farm, which sells organic eggs...I'll have to dig out the brochure later and share more info.

The show is on tomorrow as well. If you've got a house with room for a deck, or a hot tub, or need landscaping, or a new roof, or want a fire pit - check it out.

*I'd* go back tomorrow for a more leisurely look except my brother is in town and we're going to drive down to Denver for a Rockies game tomorrow.

(And on Monday he'll drive back down to see a pink Floyd concert. Anyone want to take a bet on whether or not my brother, who makes 10 times what I make, will fill up the car before giving it back to me, or let it sit on empty? (I made the mistake of putting in $30 today - 6 gallons. That's enough to get us to Denver and back tomorrow, and him to Denver and back on Monday, with at least a gallon left over, and if he's not afraid of running out of gas you can bet he's not going to put any gas in...)

Well, but I digress. Hopefully the Rocckies will win tomorrow, and it will be my first time seeing a Rockies game in their stadium.