Interim Update: Missoula, January, 2015

It's the Ides of January, and here we are in Missoula, MT, fog and 16 degrees F at 10 in the morning . At least it's pretty outside, if you like whore-frost everywhere and white-out.... (That's a joke, son).

After a three-day drive from Menlo Park, mostly on I-5 and then the Columbia Gorge, and then up to I-90 via its tributaries, spending nights--savage camping, of course--at Grants Pass (OR) and Kennewick, OR (WA?), we are here, pursuing Vicki's dream of snowmobiling the American West; again. Most of the scenery on the drive was stunning, as usual, particularly Shasta, the mountains of southern Oregon, Mt. Hood, the Gorge, and the montane regions of the inland northwest: our country, or used to be. Anyhow, we survived the drive, with its increasing cold, and our first sub-freezing night in the Bigfoot. Vicki's ingenuities and gadgets got us through with (apparently) no frozen pipes, tanks, bottles, nor frost-bite, and with abundant propane and electricity. (The hypothermia will come later.) The Ram didn't get great mileage--it was uphill a lot of the way. And we're dealing with a bit more condensation inside the camper than anticipated. Vicki has suggested I help solve the condensation problem by not breathing.

Anyhow, we are here, and our next steps will be reviving our eleven year old snowmobile, in storage since 2008, and our trailer, which we'd sold to a friend who is lending it back for the season. As all that progresses, I'll try to fill a variety of blog-gaps from the last month or so.

I watched the national championship game at a bar in Grants
Pass, OR, surrounded by Ducks fans; it is difficult to contain
oneself in such circumstances--particularly here where Ohio
State's Ezekiel Elliot is celebrating his 3rd TD against the 
favored Ducks to make OSU's lead insuperable; it was an 
interesting season for me, since both my alma maters made the 
final four; and my beloved Buckeyes were clearly the 
Cinderella story of the year; FSU was evidently not up to its 
previous year's national championship, and I am pleased that 
its quarterback is moving on to the pros, where he'll 
undoubtedly make RGIII and Johnny Goofball look good; 
oh, and I have nothing but respect for the Ducks fans with 
whom I shared the evening in Grants Pass: good sports, all...