Butte, MT to Spanish Fork, UT

Today was Butte to Spanish Fork, Utah.  It was a complete and total shit drive until about ten miles north of Ogden Utah.  We had MANY miles of gusting sideways wind, rain, heavy rain, and mist.  It was gruesome.  The car seems very susceptible to winds from the side, we get pushed a lot.  Once we hit Salt Lake, the weather cleared and it was a nice day.  Traffic southbound was not terrible, there were a few rolling slowdowns but not bad.  Northbound sucked for them.  All driving was done on I15.

Most of Idaho and Montana are under construction.  New lanes, new bridges.  

I have photos.  This is how most of the day looked.

Last night we had a tragedy of first world epic proportions.  The hinge on Jim's Lenovo failed in spectacular fashion.  One side had already failed, but we got it to the PC guy in time and he screwed it back together.  This time was way worse.  Click on the photo to enlarge, and behold the beauty of the destruction from the hinge giving it up. 

We have the spare laptop with us, Jim will have to use it until we return to Spokane in the spring, or we buy something in Tucson.  The internet assures me that the data on the drive is recoverable.  This is good, because my beloved is not good at backing up files.  I'm not either, but he's worse.  So, that has been a bummer.

The heck of it is, we really like the Lenovos.  The keys are backlit which is very helpful for those of us with aging eyes.  The mouse pad is very nice, we like it a lot.  We just don't like the 5 year cycle of death for the hinge.  It's all over reddit and the internet, it's not like they don't know they have a design issue.  I wrote about this here. So, I say to you all, back up your files!

 

Spokane to Butte, MT

We are in Butte, MT.  The forecast still says it's not going to freeze.  We are happy about that.  The route from Spokane is get on I90 and stay there until you hit Butte.  Tomorrow we will back track to I15 and stay on that for awhile.  

I have a few photos.  It was not a good day for photography due to the bright sunshine and dead bugs on the wind shield.

Here we are in beautiful downtown Deer Lodge.  It used to be a thriving community until the Milwaukee Railroad pulled out.  Population dropped by 50%.  They will probably never recover from this.  It was an enormous payroll, they did the majority of the heavy maintenance for the Rocky Mountain division.  There were acres of shops to do this work.

The yellow trees are Larches.  They are a deciduous conifer.  In the spring they grow new needles.

This is a terrible photo what with the glare on the window.

These are trees with leaves.  There was a lot of fall color today.

We're at the Hampton Inn in Butte.  It's still a nice place to stay.   Tomorrow we are up and out to Spanish Fork, UT.  Friday and Saturday are the long driving days.  

Carry on and keep calm. 

That Man

This is 15 seconds, it's worth looking at.  You can really see the malice and crazy when he goes off on a reporter.  To play the video, click here, and then press the video button.  I still don't know how to imbed a working video from twitter into blogger. 

The car appears to be 90% loaded.  However, I'm still at the stage where little stuff keeps appearing that must be packed.  
 

A Short Post

Greetings Earthlings.  We're leaving Thursday.  Butte, Montana forced us to move departure to the left, because their temperatures are dropping.  Thursday it won't be so cold, so we don't have to schlep in the contact lenses and the drugs.  Anyway, it's been sort of a pain, to get it all done.

So that's what I have been doing.  We did get it down to four space saver bags, vs 6 or 7 last year.  That was good.  I guess if we don't have an item, we'll go buy one.

Clearly I have nothing interesting to say.  Here are a few paltry photos.

This was taken out the front door recently.  The clouds and the contrails were looking good.

Yet another turkey photo.  I like how his wattle is illuminated.  It's weird, last summer we had virtually zero sightings of turkeys, this year, they're everywhere.  What we don't have is rabbits.

The voter in chief.  We got it done, voted for all of the democrats.  The party here did a really good thing, they mailed out a list of democrat approved justices, so we voted for them.  It vastly simplified the process.

Other than France is burning, Russia is burning, Ukraine is burning, and 47 is a traitor, I have nothing much to say about anything.
 

Fall and Perfidy

It appears that 47 has caved to the pressure to not live stream the execution.  It's still on for December 3, but limited to victims and victims' families in person.  

Meanwhile, the US turned off Starshield for two days.  Reuters says the order came from within the White House.  They limited it to devices traveling less than 100 mph, so effectively it was turned off.  47 has lifted the sanctions on Russia, and is buying diesel from them.  He's trying to force Ukraine to stop fighting, because Putin wants him to.  Zelenskyy is furious, and has said so.  The Europeans are trying to get him to be less blunt about how he feels about this.  Ukraine plans on taking out all the refineries and the data centers.  Good.  

Every day, it's worse.  Every day I wonder what will it take for the republicans to discover they have a spine, and they could stop all of this.

It's cold now, ok, not really cold, but into the 30's at night.  

We've not been doing much of anything that's interesting.  It makes blogging difficult.  Here are three photos I have on offer.

This is a mama turkey and her two chicks.  We've been observing them for quite awhile.  They will not turn and face the camera.  Wretched birds.

I don't know how widely this brand is carried in the US.  If you see it, buy some.  It's not too hot (for I am a wimp) but it's really good.  Sodium level is tolerable.  They make good carnitas, but after reading the label, we had to quit eating them.  Too much saturated fat!

This is the mystery fungus growing on the rockery.  It has greened up considerably since the last photo.

 Other than this, I got nuthin'.

That Man

Well, Well, Well.  We're now a nation that wants to have a firing squad live streamed.  I think about the logistics, the man to be executed, Major Hasan, is a paraplegic.  What are they planning to do?  Roll him out in his chair, hope someone gets a head shot?  How will this be done?  This is such a stain on this country.  Hegseth was talking about it yesterday, and I swear he was about to ejaculate with joy at the thought of it.  

47 has told Ukraine if they don't stop bombing Russian refineries, the US will cut off intelligence to them.  Are we the only country in the world with intelligence?  I think UK is pretty good in that department.  47 has completely capitulated to Putin.  Apparently the first tanker of Russian diesel is close to arriving, carrying its precious cargo of 15 minutes worth of fuel.  This would be fuel which may or may not require re-refining to US standards. 

47 is now on record as saying he feels badly for the Cornell rapists.  Something about tarnishing their bright futures.  Today he said that Ukraine needs a new president.  

47 has abandoned Ukraine.  Greece and Spain are the European countries identified as holding large stockpiles of Patriot air defense interceptor missiles that are nearing the end of their operational shelf life.  Why don't they ship them to Ukraine?  Ukraine is what stands between Europe and Russia, I can't believe they're still clutching their pearls and gazing in their navels.  Worse yet, China is working on their version of Starlink which they will allow Russia to use.  It's all very depressing. 

Yesterday and today, the noise level from the administration has just been unbelievable.  I've not been writing about it, but I think it's time for a historical footnote.

That's about all I have to say, my spleen feels better for having vented.

Update to post:  It's looking likely that the Minerva Zen, the boat allegedly carrying diesel, is actually carrying fertilizer.  It's difficult to know anything these days.