Day 666: De Soto NWR and the National Music Museum

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Ben

This morning we awoke to a rainy day that was unpleasantly warm and muggy:

We drove a few miles to DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge:

The main attraction here is the housing of the artifacts from the steamboat Bertrand, which sunk here in 1865 and was found in 1968, her cargo still intact:

This vast roam displays a fraction of the 10,000 cubic feet of cargo recovered, supplies for the gold fields in Montana:

The Bertrand’s paddlewheel flange:

This keg of nails rusted together, then the barrel rotted away, leaving the mass of metal behind:

Miners need lots of shovels:

General goofyness at the visitor center:

This poster shows various birds’ wingspans to scale:

This facility manages both DeSoto and Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuges, so the kids completed the joint workbook and received both badges:

Continuing north, we arrived in South Dakota:

We stopped in Vermillion, South Dakota to check out the National Music Museum:

The museum has room to display only 7% of it’s collection, which includes this massive drum:

The string collection was especially impressive:

This Amati was made in 1595 for King Henry IV of France and was later owned by Jean-Baptiste Cartier:

A Lira da Braccio:

Many of the instruments had impressive internal scrollwork:

A carved neck:

The cello on the left has seam lines near the top of the belly, showing the original profile of the instrument, a viola de gamba made by the Stradivari family in the 1730s:

A Stradivarius violin:

This Stradivarius guitar has its maker’s name carved in the neck:

18th century clavichord:

An armonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin:

Bohemian bag pipe:

A Balalaika:

A Serpent:

The Hurdy-Gurdy was my favorite instrument at the museum:

An elaborately carved shofar:

Portable violins for dance instructors:

The bent instrument is an A clarinet:

Harmonicas:

There was a gallery dedicated to Asian and African instruments:

This phonograph played two-minute was cylinders, which were made obsolete by records:

Elaborately engraved bell:

A theremin:

We stayed at the museum until closing, then drove north to overnight at Royal River Casino outside of Flandreau, South Dakota. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 559: Mexican Dental Care

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Ben

Today we dropped off our RV for warranty work in Yuma. We then drove to the border, parked our car, and walked into the town of Los Algodones in Mexico. The town is 6 blocks by 2 blocks and has dozens of dentists, opticians, and pharmacies. The town is filled daily by American and Canadian seniors who come here for medical tourism:

We’ve been here twice before for dental work and to buy a new pair of glasses for Trish. Today we all had dental cleanings done. It was $120 for the four of us, which is significantly cheaper than having it done in the US.

We had to wait about half an hour in line to go through the US border crossing, all the while being encouraged by Mexican peddlers to buy everything from ceramic turtles to asparagus:

Our “waiting in line in Mexico” selfie:

It turned out that despite the fact that I had sent in photos six weeks ago of items that needed warranty issues, and was assured that the warranty approval process had been initiated, nothing had in fact been done. I did make sure via repeated calls that our new rear staircase was in stock. The dealership told me I’d have to come back with it once they got warranty approval to cut out the bent brackets and weld on new ones. We drove to Home Depot and within and hour I had coaxed, via sledgehammer, the brackets into being straight enough that they accepted the new stairs:

Tonight we drove back to Paradise Casino to overnight there. An RV that was towing a trailer carrying an ultralight and a PPG trike pulled in. We chatted for a while about area fly-ins. Small world!

Day 558: Flying to the Glamis Dunes

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Ben

This morning I got up early, hoping the winds would be calmer than yesterday so I could fly to the dunes. Flight Service gave a good report, and winds seemed mild, so I got ready to take off:

Kiting the wing to make sure all the lines weren’t tangled:

Liftoff for flight #33:

So long RV:

The entire area between the RV and the dunes is a massive dry wash:

Extensive dikes have been built to channel flood waters under the railroad tracks at periodic trestles:

Flying out over the dunes was amazing. There weren’t many people out on the dunes this early:

The dune field is roughly 40 miles by 6 miles. It’s amazing to think that it would take a good amount of time to climb even one of these dunes:

Coming in for a landing back at the RV. The air became progressively worse as I came in for a landing:

I was excited about this flight, as it’s the first time I used the PPG for the use I had in mind when I decided to purchase one. I was able to see an object in the distance and fly over to explore it. Hiking or driving the dune field would be difficult to impossible, but from the air, exploring the dune field was easy.

Trish was inspired by how amazing the weather was while drinking her morning coffee outside:

The kids got some biking in between home school subjects:

This afternoon we left the dunes and drove south and east to overnight at the Paradise Casino in Yuma, AZ. Yes, that’s right, the same casino that hosted us on Day 173. I managed to get in a short ride before nightfall, heading north to pass by vast tracts of agricultural land growing lettuce and other leafy vegetables:

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 469: California Beachcombing

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Ben

We woke up to our first morning here at the Lucky Seven Casino on the Tolowa Nation’s Smith River Rancheria. Looks like we’re the only ones holding down the fort here in the RV lot:

B sewed a skirt for her doll today:

Looks like we need a bit of Oz Vehadar Levusha review:

After homeschool we walked across US 101 and down to the beach. There’s no shortage of sea stacks here:

This beach also has an amazing amount of driftwood:

In places, the sand is covered with pebbles of all different colors and textures:

Stormy sunset:

Here’s our haul from the beach, ready to be made into jewelry:

Trish got to work on a few pieces tonight:

Tomorrow, we will sadly say goodbye to the coast and head inland. Curious about what the coast south of here looks like? Start reading at Day 76.

Day 468: Southern Oregon Coast

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Ben

This morning, M and I got up early and drove down to the beach for more motorcycle riding. Unfortunately, it was high tide, so the sand was too soft for him to ride on:

We drove over to a nearby OHV staging area and M had a great time driving around the parking lot:

As long as I had the PPG motor out, I installed a fuel line quick release I’ve had waiting for just such an occasion. Now the fuel tank can be stored in the toolbox in the truck bed, instead of in the RV compartment where the PPG lives:

We said goodbye to the wonderful BLM spot in Coos Bay we’ve called home for several days now and drove south to the Coquille River Lighthouse. It is no longer active, nor does it have its lens anymore, but it’s still a neat structure:

We poked around the tide pools next to the lighthouse:

View from the jetty back towards the lighthouse:

We drove around to Coquille Point, on the south side of the river mouth. Sea Stacks seem to be common in this part of the Oregon shore:

Marine life abounds in the tide pools:

This fellow was running along the beach:

Looking north, the lighthouse is visible on the right side of the photo:

It’s a beautiful Oregon beach:

Continuing South, we stopped at Cape Blanco Lighthouse, which is still in operation. Tours are not available this time of year, and the grounds are closed, so photos had to be taken from a distance:

It’s a wonderfully rugged spit of land:

Great views were had to the south as well:

A storm looks poised to roll in:

Continuing south, we photographed the fading sunset over Ophir Beach:

We said goodbye to Oregon and arrived in Smith River, California a bit after dark, where we will be staying at the Lucky Seven Casino, located in the Smith River Rancheria of the Tolowa Nation. Long time readers may recall that we were here in October of 2013, when we built a ship and built a driftwood watch tower on the beach.