Today is a rest day for us. We’ve been driving, visiting, and doing touristy things for a week now and it’s time to take a little break. We are just going to stick pretty much at or close to the campground.

I’ve got some things to piddle around with and fix, mostly wiring and stuff for our TV, DVD recorder, satellite dish , and wireless printer. Ahhh — retiree camping in the 21st century. Who would have imagined when we were dreaming about doing this 20 years ago? All the comforts of home.

I might even get around and do some work on some of my web sites.

I’ve added three more blogs to my blogroll.

• dcr Blogs
• Laid Back Buddist
• vaguetarian tea room

Note: My blogroll includes links to blogs that I find to be interesting and/or useful — to me.

Comments on “Taking a break and additions to the blogroll”

August 21, 2007

teeni @ 11:01 pm

Hi Mike! How flattering to see that you’ve added me to your blogroll. Now I KNOW that I’m not there for the “usefulness” but I’m flattered to be there for “interesting” just the same. LOL. And who knows? Sometime I actually MAY have something useful at my site. For someone. Someday. What’s the saying – “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure?” Yeup – that’s my site.

Anyhoo, I meant to tell you in my last comment that I like your theme. I am partial to the three-columns myself but none (so far) of the free ones on WordPress have everything I want in them so I am doing the best I can with what they have. Anyway, I’ll be back to visit. I’m glad to have met you through Opal! She really is a gem and is appropriately named!

teeni @ 11:02 pm

D’oh – I’m also adding YOU to MY blogroll! Hope you don’t mind!

August 22, 2007

dcr @ 1:06 am

Wow! Thanks for the add. Not sure if I’m there for usefulness or being interesting, but I’m hoping that I’m starting to bring in my A-game with my upcoming posts this week.

I’ll be adding a link to your blog soon as well. (I’ve fallen a bit behind in my blog-linking duties…)

August 24, 2007

Joanne @ 12:33 pm

I love camping! It’s one of my all-time favorite activities. I read dcr as well, both interesting and useful. Thanks for adding me, Mike!

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

We left North Platte, Nebraska, at a little after 7 this morning, driving straight north through the sand hills to South Dakota. We’re just a few miles from Mt. Rushmore.

When we started out the temperature was about 71°F — and it dropped as we went further north. The sky when we started out was gray with low clouds. As we progressed through the morning, there were periods of mist and fog. The temperature dropped to as low as 65°F and it never got above 78° for us all day long!

What a relief!

We will leave here next Sunday morning, headed for Devils Tower, about 2.5 hours west of here in Wyoming.

After we got here, we didn’t do what we normally do. We usually head out to start exploring. Since we will be here for a week, we just stayed put at our camp site, except for a walk around the “resort.”

I’ve been alternately reading and editing photos from the trip so far in the “digital dark room” on my computer.

I’ll have some up soon — I promise.

Not long ago, I wrote a post saying that I was retiring another one of my blogs.

Well, I’ve had a bit of a change of heart. The travel related material that I was posting in that blog fits better there. While I could use this blog for it — and have for the few posts that I’ve made this week –, this blog is better suited for other things.

I don’t want Exit78 to become a travel blog. I just want it to be “Mike’s blog” for writing about whatever seems to be appropriate to expound upon.

So, now I am steering this blog back to its original course, whatever the heck that was.

And, since I never got around to retiring the other blog, it will continue as is and the travel journal posts will be moved to that blog.

The one difference is that, on occasion, I will be posting links here to articles on my travel blog and I will continue to post thumbnails of some of my travel photos, with links to the larger photos.

Comments on “OK — so I changed my mind…”

August 19, 2007

Opal Tribble @ 4:26 am

At times we need time to think on the issue. I really like what you have going on on this blog but ultimately the decision is yours to do what you want with it I think regardless of the path you take I most likely will like it.

Oh by the way my shout out will be going out later today so I’ll be featuring your post.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

I really hate comment spam, especially stealthy comment spam — the kind that almost seems legitimate. Normal comment spam is usually pretty obvious, and I usually don’t have to deal with it as I’m using the Askimet plugin. It’s the ones that aren’t so obvious that bother me the most now.

As the title of this post indicates, my most recent comment was, “I can’t add your feed to Feedburner. How I do this?” It seems pretty benign and nothing jumps out to say that it is comment spam.

I checked the site the comment linked to and sent an email to the address that was provided with the comment.

The comment’s home site was obviously a commercial site and the email bounced.

Caught ya! Comment deleted.

One extra step that I’ve used when a comment still seems borderline is to do a search on a phrase. Even though I didn’t need to in this instance, I submitted the entire comment for a Google search.

There were 15 hits, all from the same guy, even several in foreign languages, though the comment was in English, and all in the last day or so.

Comment deleted!

Did I mention that I hate comment spam?

Comments on ““I can’t add your feed to Feedburner. How I do this?” (Comment Spam)” »

August 19, 2007

Opal Tribble @ 4:27 am

I’ve been getting a lot more comment spam lately. My content gets scraped at least once per week. It’s starting to drive me nuts! You have to stay on top of things and you obviously are.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

We did it! We managed to escape the heat.

Right now we are sitting outside at a campground next to Interstate 80 at North Platte, Nebraska. The weather is absolutely wonderful.

I started to title this “Home Again”, but the relief from the heat is just so wonderful that it only made sense for that to be the title.

When I left this town 40 years ago this last June, Interstate 80 stopped at North Platte. There were bits & pieces of it constructed further out west, but, in Nebraska, the freeway west from where I’m sitting right now had not yet been started, as I recall.

I really don’t have much of a connection here any more. I am sure that there are a number of relatives still in the area, but most of the family left years ago. My dad and step-mom are coming over to visit from a nearby town. They moved back here from Oregon over ten years ago, but they are planning to move back there where three of my siblings and most of their grandkids are. We’re planning to go out to their place on Saturday.

Tomorrow, we’re driving to visit a great-aunt of mine on my mom’s side who lives by herself on a ranch out in the sand hills. She and her husband moved out there over 60 years ago — their daughter was born out there during the blizzard of 1949. Some of my best childhood memories are from that ranch. Though I didn’t spend a lot of time there, I have some great memories of “riding the range” by myself at the age of 14, branding time, and riding up to the top of one of the highest hills with Uncle Martin during a lightning storm to watch to see if the lightning was igniting any of the grass. Great memories. If you’ve seen the movie “Dances with Wolves,” the country early in the movie that Lieutenant Dunbar (Kevin Cossner) is crossing with a wagon on his way to Fort Sedgwick reminds me greatly of the sand hills of Nebraska. The last time I was out to the ranch my oldest daughter was with me and we played the soundtrack of “Dances with Wolves” as we drove across the hills. It fit. (Wonder if I have that CD with us?)

Then, tomorrow evening, we are driving to another town to see the only one of my dad’s siblings who stayed in Nebraska, a brother, and his wife. Usually when I’m traveling through, I just sort of drop in on them, but this time I gave them a call to see if they would be in.

North Platte is a place that a lot of people can say that they’ve been through. Before Interstate 80 carried people through here, US 30 took people straight through the middle of town. US 30 was part of the first transcontinental highway that was originally called the Lincoln Highway. During World War, tens of thousands of the military stopped at the canteen in the Union Pacific Depot, where they were provided snacks and beverages by local lady volunteers. North Platte was a stop on the first continental railroad. The pony express, Oregon trail, Mormon trail, and California trail all passed near here.

(click on images to see larger picture – opens in new window)

I’m trying to remember to take my camera with me whenever we get out of the truck when we’re on the road. Unfortunately, it still isn’t an ingrained habit.

These images are from the westbound rest area on Interstate 40 near Ozark, Arkansas. Though we’ve stopped here many, many times, it’s usually been on the side where the cars park. This time, though, towing the camper, we had to park with the trucks and other campers.

The people in the cars miss out on the most interesting parts of this rest area. The first thing that caught my eye was a sign pointing to tree in a fenced in area. The tree is a red mulberry, estimated to be over 110 years old, 48 feet tall, over 4 feet in diameter, 12 1/2 feet in circumference and a 48 foot spread of it’s branches. That’s a big mulberry tree!

The fence was not just for the tree. It enclosed a cemetery that had three small stones, all with the surname Nichols. All three had died months apart in 1889, at the ages of 19, 24, and 25.

We also discovered a rock wall running through the rest area not far from the little cemetery. To me, this indicates that the rest area sits on part of a nineteenth century homestead.

There’s a little bit of family history to this general area. Though I didn’t know it when we moved to Arkansas, one of my ancestors moved in the late 1830s, with most of her kids and grandkids, to Huntsville, Arkansas, about 50 miles north of the rest area. One of her kids, James Madison Goad, settled about 20 miles west of here at Dyer. His wife, Rebecca Fisher, died in 1859, leaving behind several children. James was killed in April 1865 by bushwhackers at the very end of the civil war. All but one of the kids were taken north to a Springfield, Illinois, orphanage when some of the Illinois troops in the area went back home after the war.

I’m also trying to post at least a photo a day on my photo blog.

Comments on “Travel Photos – I40 in Arkansas”

August 19, 2007

Opal Tribble @ 4:31 am

I enjoy looking at the photos. I cannot wait to see more.
The fence was not just for the tree. It enclosed a cemetery that had three small stones, all with the surname Nichols. All three had died months apart in 1889, at the ages of 19, 24, and 25.

I find that fascinating. I wonder how they died?

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

Last Friday, I stopped in at the training center where I used to work. I like to do that every now and again, though I’m sure as time goes by it will occur less and less often.

When I was talking to one of the operators during their lunch break, he asked me if I was enjoying my time off.

I looked at him and, with a straight face, said something like, “Time off from what?”

When he realized where the question was coming from, we both had a chuckle.

Words and phrases sometimes mean different things at different stages of one’s life.

Vacation, to a child, means summer, because, here in the US, most kids are off from school for most of the summer. To an adult, vacation often means trips and travel — getting away from the stress and strain of the job — what Europeans refer to as holiday.

When one is retired, vacation and time off are pretty much meaningless. I’m not employed and I don’t have any plans to be — at least not in the near future — so there’s nothing to take time off from. We are now on our third trip of 2007. We will have been gone from home for a total of nearly three months this year. It’s kind of hard to term any of that a vacation.

Well, technically, I guess the first trip was vacation. I was still employed, using up my 2007 vacation prior to my retirement day. I guess I was taking time off, then, too, though all I had to do was go back to go through the formalities of terminating — by retiring — my employment.

I decided earlier today that this blog, Exit78, is going to be my primary blog, and that the content of one of my other 4 current blogs, Haw Creek Out ‘n About, would be folded in here. It’s an outdoors and travel blog, which I have not kept up with as I should, so it is coming to an end.

As a result, a new category will be appearing here — travel journal — which I will use to write about things we see, places we visit and things we do while we’re traveling as well as pictures from our trips.

I’ll also be folding in some of the better material from Haw Creek Out ‘n About, either reposted for the date I move it or for the original date of the material.

This’ll relieve me of a blog that I’ve been sadly neglecting and allow me to post a wider variety of material here for my visitors to peruse.

I’m pre-posting this particular message as we will be stowing stuff away and hooking up the camper about the time I would normally be posting this.

Next stop — Kansas!

Responses to “ Retiring another one of my blogs ”

1. # 1 Opal Tribble Says:
   August 15th, 2007 at 9:00 pm I cannot wait to read the extras over here. I love the outdoors & traveling. I’m usually outdoors during the daytime thanks to WiFi.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

That’s it! I give up!

We’re pulling out tomorrow — heading for cooler weather.

Actually, this has been planned for several months — before it got so beastly hot. Though we have not planned the whole trip out yet, our intent is to be gone until the end of next month. The first ten days are pretty well planned out. We’ll be camping outside Wichita, Kansas the first two nights. From there we’ll be going to:

• North Platte, Nebraska
• Badlands National Park
• The Rapid City, South Dakota area — Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse Mountain, Deadwood, Custer State Park, etc.
• Devils Tower, Wyoming, and
• Lewistown, Montana
• Great Falls, Montana (new addition — found out that’s where my youngest brother moved to)

Our travels after that are going to be dependent upon weather and wild fire conditions. We don’t really have any desire to be going someplace where there’s a lot of smoke.