Ken40

Sailing through Wyoming is sometimes tedious. I was, therefore, understandably excited by an op-ed piece in the Casper ?Star-Tribune? which mentioned some plans for a Billings to Albuquerque high speed rail connection. Turns out it is still in the dreaming stage and probably only from Cheyenne to ABQ. Why don't the states and the feds build the multiple new tracks needed and then let transportation companies compete to move freight and people up and down the Rocky Mountain front? Took some things to an auctioneer where I found some odds and end from various parts of the 20th century. They had a whole display case full of working slide rules which raised the temperature of my almost dried out nerd juices quite a bit. We saw a couple of baseball games at Coors Field, but the ... read more

Well, I'm back in Montana now, with pictures downloaded to iPhoto, several notebooks full of notes, my store of ignorance considerably increased, and my humility titer raised several notches. Not surprisingly, the trip itself both exceeded and did not quite live up to my expectations. What journey does? Almost incredible changes are taking place in China in a fairly short period of time but the veneer of Western-style freedoms and such things as accommodations, helpful tour guides and tourist organizations, and government officials willing to tell the truth is fairly thin in most places. These pictures may serve as a way to introduce you to the diversity of sights and scenes seen by me in China during September 2006. By the way, Mao’s Mausoleum (above) is one of the major tourist stops in Beijing: you ... read more