Belfast, Northern Ireland - February 2020

River Lagan in Belfast

I arrived in Belfast on the train after spending a couple of days in Dublin during February of 2020. From the Lanyon Place Station it was a short walk to my hotel, the not at all bad Malmaison Hotel.   On the way over to the hotel I walked past the St George’s Market. An old market with a wonderful old facade which still operates today though perhaps more as a tourist destination being only open at the weekend.  From there I crossed to the banks of the River Lagan and the very modern Waterfront Hall.

St George's Market

After checking in there were a couple of hours of daylight remaining so I went out to explore a little.  Just up the street from the hotel was the impressive Albert Memorial Clock. One of many Victorian edifices in the UK and Commonwealth commemorating Prince Albert.  Nearby is "The Big Fish", a ceramic tiled fish on the side of the Lagan. The blue tiles depict elements from Belfast’s history.

Albert Memorial Clock

The Big Fish

Titanic Museum and one of the H and W Cranes

Across the river you could see the new Titanic Area with its impressive new Titanic Museum building and the even more impressive Harlan and Wolf shipyard (where the Titanic was built) with its massive, but no longer used, big yellow cranes, Samson and Goliath. 

Walking further out to the north on the west bank of the Lagan there is a fair bit of new development going on. Old warehouses converted to apartments, shiny new office buildings.  In my youth I never heard anything positive about Belfast.  It was the time of “The Troubles” and nothing would make you want to come here.  Now I see lots of signs of a thriving city.  

The Merchant Hotel

I walk through the main shopping area of town over to the City Hall which is a most impressive building.  Victorian era and quite magnificent. The surrounding buildings in the adjacent streets are also impressive and show that even then this was a major city.  For dinner that night I stop into one of the finest looking old hotels I could imagine, The Merchant. A truly majestic building with a beautiful old interior that I learned was built as the headquarters of the Ulster Bank in the mid 1800's and then only in 2006 converted to a hotel.  I went inside sat in the ornate bar for a drink (quite expensive) and then moved over to the even more ornate dining room for dinner (quite reasonable).

Belfast Cathedral

Next morning I was up early and out to again explore the city.  The Albert Memorial Clock again, the Custom's House, and Belfast Cathedral. Then over towards the Victoria Square shopping center.  Just outside the shopping center is the Jaffe Memorial Fountain, an unusual and out of place object that was erected by an Otto Jaffe a German Jew who emigrated to Belfast in the mid 1800’s and who eventually became Mayor of the city.  It is a memorial to Otto’s father who died in Nice but whose body was shipped to Belfast for burial, the first Jew to be buried in Belfast cemetery.

The Jaffe Memorial Fountain

The new Victoria shopping mall is just the same as all the others in the world today with all the same shops you get in England.  The shopping mall does have one redeeming feature however, an impressive viewing tower above the mall that you can climb up to and view the surrounding city.  That is worth a look for sure.

Belfast City Hall

Further up the road is the City Hall again and this time it is open, at least partially.  The interior is just as spectacular as the outside and there was a nice exhibition about the city, its history and its people.  

The Grand Opera House

On Great Victoria Street there is the Grand Opera House.  Well known to all Van Morrison fans as it is pictured on the cover of his live album recorded there.  It is a beautiful building. 

The Crown Liquor Saloon

 Just across the road is the Crown Liquor Saloon.  A magnificent example of an old Victorian pub or gin palace.  The pub has wonderful tile, stained glass and woodwork. It is actually owned by the National Trust but it is still operated as a pub.  I should have stayed for a drink but perhaps not at 10 in the morning.

Back on the other side of the street is the Europa Hotel.  This fairly recent 1970’s hotel has the dubious reputation of being the most bombed hotel in the world having survived 36 bomb attacks during “The Troubles”.

Clifton House

I checked departure times for the airport bus in the adjacent terminal and then set off to walk some of the neighborhoods.  Due north of the Europa is the Clifton House a fine example of Georgian architecture. Then just beyond this I found myself in the New Lodge area.  This, as I remember from my youth, was an ardent Republican area and even today there is no confusing it as anything but that. The murals on the walls, the graffiti, the flags flying and the memorials to casualties of the conflicts all identify the place as a fiercely Catholic Republican area.

New Lodge Mural

Wall murals have become a significant part of many neighborhoods in Belfast.  I don’t know if they started with the troubles but they all seem to be related to that period and they are often quite militaristic.  In addition to the murals there is the odd piece of recent graffiti stating “Britain out of Ireland” or “End Forced Strip Searches” or “Join Saoradh”.  I thought "The Troubles" were diminished since the Good Friday Agreement but they are certainly not over and they are not being forgotten.

New Lodge Mural

New Lodge Graffiti

Walking down Antrim Road and then up the Crumlin Road you get to the Crumlin Road Gaol.   Again along with the nearby Shankhill Road and Falls Road are these are names from the news reports of the 60’s and 70’s.  I went in the Crumlin Road Gaol and took the tour. It was an interesting view inside a Victorian Gaol that was actually in use up until 1996 and housed many of the Republican and Unionist prisoners of “The Troubles”.  Eamon De Valera also was a prisoner there, as was Bobby Sands. 

Crumlin Road Gaol

Across the road from the Gaol is the Crumlin Road Courthouse; an impressive building that is now derelict and up for sale (with planning permission for a hotel conversion).  The Gaol and Courthouse are linked by a tunnel to facilitate transfer of prisoners between the two.

The Unionist Neighbourhood

South of Crumlin Road I get into the Shankhill area and this is a Unionist area.  Here the wall murals promote the British military and the ties to the Queen. The flags flown here are all Union Jacks.

After walking up the Shankhill Road for a while I turned south onto Cupar Way which was the location of one of the Belfast Peace Walls.  Walls like this were built to separate the Republican and Unionist communities in the late 60's early 70's. This one still exists today along the side of Cupar Way. It is covered with crude tagging.

Belfast Peace Wall

At the end of the Peace Wall it ran into the Falls Road and I was now back into Catholic territory.  Again here we had murals depicting the Republican point of view. It is here that there is the mural of Bobby Sands the Provisional IRA member who died on hunger strike in 1981 in Long Kesh Prison just outside Belfast.  Incidentally he was for some time in Crumlin Road Gaol and it is there where he was married in the Governor’s office (all a part of the tour).

Bobby Sands Memorial

By then I was tired of walking (over 10 miles according to the iPhone) so I took an Uber over to the other side of the river and the Titanic Museum.  On the way I asked the driver to locate the George Best mural. He was a Belfast boy and a brilliant footballer but he couldn’t handle his alcohol. I saw him once in Aberdeen airport in the 1970’s and he looked terrible.  Somewhere there is quite a large mural of George but we could only fins a small one. Still it was nice to see something not remembering or promoting the Unionist-Republican differences.

George Best

The Titanic area on the other side of the Lagan is part of a new development near the old Harlan and Wolf shipyards where the Titanic was built.  It has a new stadium and new office buildings and restaurants and of course the Titanic Museum. I walked around but didn’t go into the museum.  It looks a lot more interesting from the outside and I didn't really have the time.

The Titanic Museum

In dry dock near the museum is the White Star Line's Nomadic, the last remaining White Star Line vessel (other than the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean).  The Nomadic was used to ferry passengers from Cherbourg to the Titanic before it left on its fateful voyage, the Titanic being too big for the harbour at Cherbourg.

The Nomadic

That was the end of my tour of Belfast.  I walked back to the hotel, picked up my bag, and walked to the bus station for the ride to the airport and back home to England.

Dublin, Ireland - February 2020

In February I took a break from clearing out my mother’s house and escaped to Ireland for a quick look around the cities of Dublin and Belfast.  I flew from Birmingham to Dublin, on RyanAir of course, for next to nothing ($20). In Dublin a quick bus trip into town where I got the chance to be anxious about two Chinese looking tourists with face masks getting on the bus.  In these Coronovirus days people like that are noticed and wouldn’t you know they came and sat right next to me on the bus. I am sure I will be fine.

I was staying out in Dun Laoghaire, the passenger ferry port for Dublin, so from the center of town I got the DART train out that way.  It is a very nice journey out on the side of the bay to Dun Laoghaire, the train goes right alongside the water. My hotel for the night was the Royal Maritime Hotel, a nice old building housing what was once (and perhaps still is) a fine hotel.  It sits above the harbour and is perhaps one of the more impressive buildings in the town. That is with the exception of the fine new library, the dlr lexicon. This very modern building is just in front of the hotel by the harbour. 

The Royal Maritime Hotel

After checking in, I walked around the town which, to be honest, is neither large nor particularly attractive.  To escape the cold, I paid a visit to the National Maritime Museum of Ireland. Housed in an old church it is a collection of maritime artifacts and model ships (some of them in bottles).  It was interesting but, for such a seafaring nation, I found it a bit of an anticlimax. There was a presentation on the torpedoing of the Royal Mail Steamer, the Leinster, just one month before the end of the First World War. Some 501 people died onboard the vessel when it was hit by two torpedoes just outside the Dun Laoghaire harbor.  For the number of fatalities this sinking got very little attention.

The library and the church hosting the National Maritime Museum

Next morning I headed into Dublin again on the DART train.  In the city I decided to take the Hop on Hop Off tour. As I was leaving for Belfast in the mid afternoon, I did not have a lot of time so I did the whole tour without hopping on or hopping off.  I sat the entire time out on the back of an open top double decker bus under blue skies but really windy and cold weather. By the end I was chilled to the bone,

The Customs House

Despite the cold it was a good overview of the city.  We started in O’Connell Street and off we went… the Dublin writer’s museum celebrating the likes of Shaw, Beckett, Swift, Wilde, Joyce and Behan (quite an impressive collection of authors); the impressive General Post Office where the declaration of independence was read;  the Customs House; the very haunting Famine Memorial; the Georgian Merrion Square; the National Gallery; Leinster House, the seat of parliament; Grafton Street; Trinity College and College Green; Dublin City Hall; Christ Church Cathedral; St Patrick's Cathedral; the Guinness Brewery and Storehouse; the Museum of Modern Art; Kilmainham Gaol; Phoenix Park which is the largest urban park in Europe; and finally down the north bank of the Liffey past the Jameson Distillery to our starting point in O’Connell Street.   

Dublin Cathedral

Entrance to the Guinness Brewery

O'Connell's Statue on O'Connell Street

The trip was quite a lot to take in from the top of a bus but it served its purpose of giving me a great overview of the key sites in the city.  It must have been 15 years ago that I was last in Dublin (to run the Dublin Marathon) and I must admit I don't have much of a memory of the city or the marathon course for that matter.  I still will have to come back for a more leisurely look around the place.

The Samuel Beckett Bridge

After the bus trip I walked over to Connolly Station to buy a train ticket to Belfast.  I then had a couple of hours to kill before the train so I walked out to the Liffey and walked up the north side towards the Samuel Beckett Bridge.  This bridge is a modern one designed by Calatrava, the same man that designed the very similar looking Sundial Bridge in Redding, California.

The Famine Memorial

To the west of the bridge is the Famine Memorial which is a haunting group of statues commemorating the Irish Famine of the 1840’s and the departure of so many Irish families for the United States.  Quite moving.

I then had just enough time to visit the Irish Emigration Museum before catching my train.  This museum had apparently won awards for one of the best new museums in Ireland but alas I did not share that view.  It was modern and full of videos and interactive presentations. The trouble with them is that you don’t know when you step into a room showing a video if that is the beginning or middle or end of the presentation.  You have to wait to get oriented and then possibly sit through it again to get the main message. I find that frustrating. As for the interactive displays there are so many of them with so much material that you never know which is the best one and you simply can’t work through each and every one - there’s not enough time.   A thumbs down from me.

I went back to the station and caught my train to Belfast.  A nice modern train and a reasonable price too. Unlike the English trains they don’t penalize you for buying a ticket at the last minute.  The journey up to Belfast takes just over 2 hours and passes along the coast for a while and then inland through some nice countryside. You are totally unaware of when you cross the border to Northern Ireland and I wonder if it will remain the same post Brexit.

Manchester - January 2020

At the end of January 2020 I was looking for something interesting to do in the UK and I decided to make a trip to Manchester for a day out.   I had never been to Manchester before so I thought it was time to visit England’s second largest city. I drove over through the Peak District past Ladybower Dam and over Snake Pass before dropping down into Glossop and then into Manchester.  That is a beautiful route through the Peak District.

I parked near the city center and found myself on Piccadilly, the street that runs from the station (Piccadilly Station) to the park (Piccadilly Park) and on to the Arndale shopping area.  It was a grey, gloomy and damp day and to warm up after the drive I went inside the Arndale Shopping Center. It could have been Meadowhall in Sheffield or even Arden Fair in Sacramento (except for a few British shops).  These places look all the same these days.

Queen Victoria in Piccadilly Gardens

Breakfast at Marks and Spencers with a bacon roll and a very fine latte (IMHO the best and most reliable coffee in the UK) got me ready for exploring the town.  I had no specific agenda so I wandered back up Piccadilly to the park where there is a statue of Queen Victoria and one of Wellington and a few others who I didn’t recognize.  

Manchester Cathedral

From Piccadilly I walked over to the Cathedral.  A nice looking church but not as impressive as some cathedrals.  Inside it was again nice but not spectacular. Of note was the so called fire window, a stained glass window that commemorates the location of where a bomb dropped in WWII.  The choir stalls or quire as they called it had some beautiful carvings. Very ornate and detailed carvings and, as I learned later, I missed the most unusual carvings. Each choir stall has a tilt up seat called a misericord and on the underside of these seats are more beautiful carvings of all sorts of scenes - not all religious but all quite detailed and exotic. So that means another trip to see these.

Gandhi outside Manchester Cathedral

Outside the church is an area of medieval buildings - a pub, a restaurant, etc.  There was the Hanging Bridge Chambers - apparently nothing to do with hanging people.  A statue of Gandhi that has only recently been added. Gandhi visited Manchester to explain to the mill workers why he was proposing a boycott of English textiles, which was something that affected the people here.  Apparently there were people here who objected to erecting a statue to him because of his record for intolerance of black people that was not entirely good.

The Coop

Next to the Cathedral is Chetham’s Library, an old library that is supposed to be quite fine but alas closed at the weekend.  Then there is the Manchester Arena; the site of the bombing at the Ariana Grande concert a couple of years ago. Then a fine facade to an old Cooperative Wholesale Society office building.  Everyone shopped at the Coop when I was young.

John Rylands Library

I walked down Deansgate, one of the main thoroughfares through the city.  Old shops with lovely facades and then you come to the John Rylands Library.  A magnificent neo-gothic building that was built by an Enriqueta Rylands to honor her late husband John.  She was from Cuba and had sugar plantation money, he was a mill owner and quite wealthy. When he died he was predeceased by all 7 of his children so Enriqueta inherited everything.  She built this amazing library which aside from being an architectural masterpiece also contains an impressive collection of early books.

John Rylands Library Interior

The library is open to the public and it is truly amazing.  The detail in the stone carvings, stained glass and wooden bookcases is a wonder to behold.  The toilets are also the original Victorian conveniences and they still work.

Albert Square and the Town Hall

The Town Hall sits on nearby Albert Square and it is an impressive building too. Closed for renovation at the moment but it has a wonderful exterior.  Albert Square has a statue of Prince Albert of course along with some other notables, Gladstone being the only one I recognize.  

L.S. Lowry in the Manchester Art Museum

Adjacent to the Town Hall is the Manchester Art Museum.  A free gallery with some nice paintings. Lots of 18th Century stuff and a little from the 20th.  Most notable for me is the collection of L.S. Lowry pictures. Since I was young I have always liked his industrial city landscapes and here were many of my favorites.   In the same room were paintings by Pierre Valette, a French artist who came to Manchester and who was a teacher to Lowry. I like his gloomy, foggy, smoky, northern city scenes too.

Frederick Engels Statue

Walking further south I went to see the statue of Friedrich Engels that has recently been erected or rather re-erected as it was retrieved from the Ukraine where it originally stood.  Not all were happy to see Engels commemorated in Manchester as they feel he is the reason that so many people suffered and died under the Communist heel. Engels dad owned factories in Manchester and though Engels was born in Germany he came to work at his father’s factories and it was there along with Karl Marx that he formulated his ideas for their Communist philosophy.   Apparently conditions in his dad’s factories were not so great. Manchester in some respects could be considered the birthplace of Communism.

The Rochdale Canal

I then walked along the towpath of the Rochdale Canal.  There are quite a few canals and waterways crossing the city as canals of course were the means of transporting goods when the mills were in their ascendancy.  

Alan Turing Statue

In Sackville Gardens there is a statue of Alan Turing sitting on a park bench.  It is nice to see him commemorated. After cracking the Enigma Code he moved to Manchester University after the war and it was there he was outed as a homosexual and suffered so much torment.  It was in Manchester that he died, most likely a suicide.

By then I had done a lot of miles and seen most of the places I wanted to see around the city center (I didn’t need to go to the National Football Museum).  I continued to walk around what is known as the Northern Quarter in search of murals. There were quite a few nice ones. I do enjoy exploring a city to find these pieces of art.  The city has a lot of restaurants, coffee shops, bars and pubs. It is an interesting mix of hip and trendy places alongside shabby scruffy old places. Not sure I would like to live there though it has become quite popular these days.  

At the end of the day I find myself at the Arndale Shopping Center so what better thing to do than get another latte and a bite to eat at M and S.   Always reliably good.

Anthony Burgess Mural

Here are some more photos of Manchester.

Mt Patterson, Walker Valley Offroad - November 2019

In the middle of November I finally got the chance to take the Land Cruiser out for an off road trip.  It would be a solo trip so not the best thing to do - the last thing I needed was to be stranded in the middle of nowhere with no support.  At least if I did get stuck I could try out my radio skills and see if I could make contact with anyone. I was not too confident of that.

I headed out early Saturday morning up Mormon Emigrant Trail to Carson Pass and then out through Ebbets Pass to Highway 395.  Just south of where the Ebbets Pass road meets 395 there is a road to the east, Topaz Road. That heads to the mountains and then turning north you meet Risue Canyon Road that is a dirt road curving around the top end of the Sweetwater Mountains.  

Danger Trapper - Watch Kids and Pets

The above sign lets you know you are not in Kansas anymore.  I guess people still trap out here. The road turns into Road 105 and heads up past some old mine workings.  I wander around the mine site but it is not too spectacular. Further up the road I get a bit confused as to which way to go.  There are lots of options and none of the roads seem to match my map but then the map is not as detailed as I really need. Nevada also seems to be very sporadic and arbitrary in the marking of dirt roads.  Occasionally you see a marker, but more often you don’t. I did know roughly which way I wanted to go - towards Mt Patterson, the tallest mountain in the area and one which has a road to the top.

The Destination - Mt Patterson

Mt Patterson Trail

After stumbling down a few dead ends I finally found a marker for the road up Mt Patterson.  However at this point it was around 3:00 pm and it would be dark soon. As I was up over 9,000ft I decided to go down a little and hopefully find a warmer spot for the night.  

Camp for the night

I drove past Lobdell Lake reservoir and three or four miles further down I found what looked like a reasonable spot to spend the night.  It was by now 4:00 pm ish and it was getting cold. I heated some soup and had beer and soup for dinner before I got so cold I had to retire to the truck.  So it was 5:00 pm and I was inside the back of the truck in my sleeping bag wondering what am I going to do for the next 13 or 14 hours. That is the problem with backcountry travel in the wintertime - the nights are long.

After tossing and turning and listening to Audiobooks for hours it finally started to get light around 6:00 am.  I did manage to heat water inside the truck without getting out, so I had coffee before I braved the cold. Interestingly on a boulder near my site I found a group of grinding rocks.  I believe the Paiute Indians once occupied this land.

On the road again I retraced my route to the Mt Patterson marker.  It was fairly straight forward path from there to the top of the hill.  That is until I found a patch of ice on a tricky hairpin turn. Other than stream crossings I hadn’t seen any ice on the road, and being blinded by the morning sun in my eyes, I was on the ice before I knew it and as I slowed for the corner I started sliding.  Sliding backwards until my front end slipped over the edge and I was off road pointing downhill. Not what I needed. Into 4 Wheel Low with front and back lockers on, I tried to reverse back up but to no avail; I turned around and tried to go up forwards, again without success.  I stacked rocks in the holes that my tires were digging as they struggled up and took another run at it - again almost but not quite. More rocks and a longer and faster approach but still no luck.

A bit of a dilemma.  No trees or rocks around to winch me out, no other people on the road to assist me.  I decided to turn around and drive through the brush to the stream bed and follow it down to a point where the drop off from the road was relatively shallow.  I scouted out a path on foot and then took off driving blind through the 6 ft high brush along the side of the stream before diving back up the hill to the road.  Success, I was back up on the road again.

To turn back or to try again.  Try again of course. I went back to the icy corner and spent a good while scattering gravel over the ice to give me traction.  Then I approached as I should have done earlier with one side’s wheel on the ice free side of the road. No problem. A lesson learned, don’t be too confident when the sun is in your eyes and it’s cold enough for ice out there.  Incidentally I encountered no more ice for the rest of the trip.

Mars with Flowers

It was a relatively easy route (for the Land Cruiser) from there to the top of the mountain.  It is barren and treeless on the upper reaches of the mountain. There was a sign half way up that identified the landscape as “Mars with Flowers”.  This late in the year there were no flowers so I guess it was just a Martian landscape. I find that kind of barren mountainous landscape quite beautiful.  Though there was no real visible vegetation up that high but there was plenty of color variations on some of the adjacent mountains. Plenty of mineralization and plenty of signs of old mine sites.

On the Summit - Mt Patterson

On the top of the hill at 11,673 ft someone had planted a US flag.  There were great views over the rest of the Sweetwater Range and over to the Sierra Nevadas in the west.

It was a straightforward route down the other side of the mountain just a bit rocky in places.  It made me wonder about the YouTube video I watched earlier in the week. It was titled “Surviving Mt Patterson, one of  the world’s most dangerous roads”. I think not.

Belfort

Half way down the mountain you pass through the one time mining camp of Belfort.  It was active in the 1880’s but now all that exists are a couple of log cabins surrounded by the debris of other buildings.  It is nicely situated and would have made a nice camp spot had I wanted to stay out for another night - I didn’t.

The view of Mt Patterson from the East Side

I continued on down the hill to the flat lands of the East Walker Valley below.  It was near lunchtime when I reached tarmac so I headed into Bridgeport some 20 or so miles away where I had lunch and filled up with expensive $5 gas.

Walker River

After lunch I headed back up Highway 182 to the Walker Valley and headed out on Sweetwater Road that runs along the East Walker River towards the town of Hawthorne.  On these flatlands the views are not so spectacular but the river itself is quite beautiful.

9 Mile Ranch

Leaving the river the road I headed south towards 9 Mile Ranch - now abandoned but in it’s day it was a going concern.  The Historic Marker informs me that John Fremont camped here in one of his exploratory expeditions and even Mark Twain passed through. I passed through too and nearly stayed. When I got back in the truck all the electrics were dead - nothing at all.  I was still a long way from anywhere and no one else was around. I opened the hood and tightened battery connections, jiggled any wires I could see and began to contemplate my dilemma. It must have been the battery connection because when I got back in, all was well and off we went.   For the rest of the trip I did not turn the engine off unless I was in a town.

Old Mine Workings - Eureka Mine

From 9 Mile Ranch the road was good to the junction with the Eureka Mine Road and since Eureka Mine is once again active the road there to Hawthorne was excellent (for a dirt road).  I took a detour to the Eureka Mine. There wasn’t much evidence of the old mine workings but the modern mine is huge. Huge excavations and vast settling ponds. I bet there is some nasty pollution going on around there.

I arrived in the town of Hawthorne just before nightfall.  It is not much of a town - dominated by a large army munitions depot.  I got a hotel for the night - no sleeping in the truck for me again. A meal in the restaurant of the sad little casino next to my hotel and a wander around the casino.  It was really depressing - no card tables or roulette wheels, just a large number of big slot machines but very few people playing. How could such a place stay open in a town like this.

Outside the Munitions Museum - Hawthorne

Next morning I take a closer look at the town.  I don’t know when the town was doing well but there are no signs of prosperity today.  Lots of run down store fronts and no modern businesses save a drive up coffee booth in the middle of a parking lot.  The military presence is everywhere - from the park decorated with cheerful sculptures made from munitions parts to the munitions museum with the array of scary bombs, rockets and torpedoes sitting outside.  Too early to visit the museum however. Outside the museum is a memorial to those who gave their lives to supporting the military - about a dozen folks who were killed in explosions at the munitions factory in the Korea and Vietnam War era.

Walker River outside Schurz

North from Hawthorne the road passes the very beautiful and brilliant blue Walker Lake to the town of Schurz.  There’s not really much in Schurz but from there I left the road onto the dirt road running west along the Walker RIver towards Yerrington.  It’s desolate dry country but relatively flat along the valley floor. It is an Indian Reservation. There are no residences there only signs of failed agricultural land (fenced fields, dry irrigation canals, etc).  We did not leave the Indians with any really good land around here. The marshlands where the river meanders around did look quite beautiful though.

Marsh Land Walker River Valley

More Typical Landscape along Walker River Valley

Back on the highway again I headed south to Yerrington - another nondescript town struggling to make a go of things.  Then on through Wilson Canyon to Wellington. From Wellington I took the dirt road out of town, Hoye Canyon Road. This follows the south side of the Walker River through Howe Canyon and then out to Antelope Valley.  I bounced along this road for a few miles until I was at the point where I started the off road trip on Saturday morning. Since it was still only lunchtime I traveled into the mountains again along RIsue Road and then wandered around along one of the valleys.  There was a dead Desert Bighorn Sheep by the side of the road and a game warden parked nearby. I stopped to see what was going on. The warden was probing around in the bush above the eviscerated carcass of the sheep. As I walked up, she stopped me saying “this is my crime scene - don’t come any closer”.  Apparently she was looking for evidence of who killed the sheep - most likely a mountain lion.

I drove around a little more then went back to Highway 395 and headed home.  A great weekend away that rekindled my desire to do more of that kind of travel.  Time to get the Land Cruiser in shape again - or buy something newer and more reliable - a Fore Runner perhaps?

Massachusetts and New York State - November 2019

On my return from the UK in November I met Nancy in Boston for a short trip around Massachusetts and New York State.  After all the flying I have done from the UK to the West Coast, it was a real treat to have the short flight into Boston.  Oh how easier it is to be only 5 hrs or so away from the UK.

Landing in Boston in the late afternoon we headed out of Boston immediately and headed for Salem thinking that might be quieter.  An incorrect assumption, Salem was quite busy because Halloween is the main tourist season for Salem. Apparently because of its Salem Witch Trials associations.  It was full of tourists and full of cheesy Halloween displays.

The Site of the first Long Distance Phone Call - 1876

The only notable thing for me in Salem was the plaque on the wall of what is now a restaurant that identified the building as the location from where the first long distance telephone call was made.  In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell called his associate, Mr Watson, in Boston. “Come here Mr Watson. I want to see you”.

Fall on the Massachusetts Turnpike

We left Salem the next morning and headed west towards Stockbridge.  The fall colors were quite splendid on the Massachusetts Turnpike even though we were perhaps a little late in the season.  We arrived in Stockbridge around lunchtime and had lunch in the Main Street Cafe. This was the location of the “Alice’s Restaurant” of Arlo Guthrie fame.  Nothing very special these days and perhaps it wasn’t so special even back then.

Runaway - Norman Rockwell

Rockwell did the cover of the Mike Bloomfield/Al Kooper Album

The other big thing in Stockbridge is the Norman Rockwell Museum.  Mr Rockwell moved to Stockbridge later in his life and made it his home.  The museum is just out of town in a beautiful setting but not where he lived.  They moved his studio from his home in town out to the museum site and it sits in a beautiful location on a hill overlooking the river below.  I am not a huge fan of his art but he certainly was accomplished and he certainly provided a catalog of American life and events with his Saturday Evening Post covers.

Crane Paper Mill - Dalton, Ma

We spent the night in a nice old B and B in the town of Lee, just outside Stockbridge and the next day we wandered around the area looking for a spot for a hike.  In the process of wandering, we passed through the town of Dalton. In Dalton there is a paper mill, the Crane Paper Mill, and it produces all the paper for the US Mint.  In this relatively small mill all the linen paper with all its watermarks, metallic strips, and other security features is produced there. All the US Government do is print the ink on the paper and cut it into note size.  A fascinating factory tour culminating in the making of our own sheet of paper.

Monument Mountain Reservation

We then went to Monument Mountain Reservation near the town of Great Barrington and did a little hike.  Only 3 or 4 miles up to the top of a ridge and then back down but quite beautiful with all the autumn colors.

We stayed that night in the town of Great Barrington in another old B and B.  A very fine meal that evening in The Prairie Whale - highly recommended. Prairie Whale is another name for a pig apparently.

The FDR Home, Hyde Park

FDR Home Dining Room

The next morning it was raining so we headed further east into New York State, to Hyde Park.  This was the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his home is open for touring. It is also the site for FDR’s Presidential Library also open for touring.  We went around both. A beautiful setting though not so nice on such a wet day. The home was fitted with accomodations for his wheelchair (ramps and a dumb waiter type of lift he could hoist himself upstairs in).  All very discrete modifications though as he kept his disability fairly quiet.

The Vanderbilt Mansion, Hyde Park

Almost next door to the FDR home is the Vanderbilt Mansion.  An impressive house on the side of the Hudson River that was occupied (at least for part of the year) by Frederick Vanderbilt one of the grandsons of Cornelius, the family fortune’s founder.  A most ornate and extravagant home that was just like touring an English Stately Home.

Covered Bridge, Ware, Ma

Back to Stockbridge for the evening where we stayed at the Red Lion Inn a large and majestic old inn that dominates the main street of Stockbridge.  Next morning we headed back towards Boston for the flight back to California. On the way back we diverted to the town of Ware to see a covered bridge.  Interesting but once you have seen one, that’s enough.