Odd Spots – Riveted

Big Bubba’s Burgers and the George Kenny School of Chainsaw Carving

Laura Domela — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 00:44:48 +0000

This morning we left Olympia and headed north toward Harstine Island. The sky was beautiful and the water was calm, and it only sprinkled a little bit during our cruise. Our original plan was to moor at McMicken Island on the east side of Harstine, but en route we decided we couldn't pass up a stop at Allyn, WA for one of Big Bubba's Burgers and to check out the George Kenny School of Chainsaw Carving, LLC (listed on Yelp under "Art Schools").

We docked at the city dock and walked the block into town and stopped first at Big Bubba's.

103-year old church across the street from Big Bubba's:

Big Bubba's is a walk-up, roadside burger stand (since 1966):

Happy Motoring Begins Here!

They have outdoor (covered and non-covered) seating in the way of picnic tables:

We tried today's special, the chipotle burger with bacon and roasted jalapenos and it was delicious!

Just down the road a bit on the same side of the street (you can't miss it) is the George Kenny School of Chainsaw Carving (and wine tasting, and martial arts):

Where the magic happens:

The yard is open to the public and you can wander at your leisure and check out the students' creations.

The start of an eagle:

Obligatory Sasquatch and Seahawks, because, Washington:

Campfire bears in the parking lot:

Allyn, WA turned out to be the perfect lunch stop.

Back to the boat!

Looking north from the dock:

Nice new Rocna on the bow:

Next stop: Jarrell Cove State Marine Park on Harstine Island!

Geysers, Goats, Wine, and Mud

Laura Domela — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 01:47:20 +0000

Today in Calistoga it rained most of the day, so we just hunkered down and worked. Late in the afternoon there appeared to be a break so we unfolded the bikes and took off for a little exploring.

First stop was Envy Wines.

Hey look! They have an Airstream too!

It was a great tasting. (Sauvignon Blanc, Rose, Cabernet, a really good blend, and a Petit Sirah). The tasting room was filled with visitors from Portland (us), Seattle, Spokane, and San Francisco. Fun! Great wines! We brought some back to the Airstream…on our bikes:

Next stop: Old Faithful Geyser of California.

This geyser erupts every 10 minutes, but sometimes every 6 minutes (so convenient!). It's…um…"AMAZING"?

But not really. I mean, it's okay, but it's $14/per person and it's certainly not Old Faithful in Yellowstone. But hey! There's a petting zoo, which is really just a bunch of goats running around. BUT, they have Tennessee Fainting Goats, and although we didn't get to see any fall over, they were pretty cute.

They've got some other stuff too (Jacob's Four-Horn Sheep, and I think some other kinds of goats), and a llama or two.

And that's it. But for us, it was TOTALLY worth 28 bucks because we got to make you guys this video that will give you the truly authentic feel of this tourist trap experience. Enjoy all the way to the end:

So there. We just saved you 14 bucks per person, right? (And how'd you like that fortuitous volunteer narrator??)

We rode back to camp, put our bikes away, and walked a couple blocks to our 6pm mud bath appointment at Golden Haven Hot Springs.

It's a litle hotel/resort with a mineral pool and stuff, but during the week at certain times they have a two-for-one special so a couple (or two naked friends, whatever) can go for $89 bucks total and get a mud bath (with mud facial and cold compress), then a jacuzzi mineral tub soak, then a blanket wrap. And if you want to go in their mineral water pool afterward, you're welcome to do that too. Here's a shot of the mud baths, but my lens was steaming up so it looks a little gauzy:

It was so cool though. You get in and have to kind of shimmy your way down into the mud (which is clay, peat and hot springs mineral water) until you're submerged, but you still are completely suspended in this earthy stuff. It's super trippy and we loved it.

We walked back just at sunset and snapped this shot outside the Airstream:

A great day in Calistoga!

Fish & Chips, Wild Animals, and a Lighthouse

Laura Domela — Tue, 07 May 2013 21:53:03 +0000

Today after we finished up some work we headed over to the Bandon Fish House for some fish & chips. This place has our favorite fish & chips…the fish & chips we think are the best ones we've ever tried. We had one order of salmon fish & chips and one order of halibut fish & chips…both amazing. Light crispy batter that sticks to the fish and super fresh delicious fish. Perfect.

Next we headed over to the "West Coast Game Park Safari" a few miles south of town, still in Bandon. My mom said when she and my brother stopped here they got to hold baby tigers, and that did it for me. We likely never would have stopped at this place, but I'm glad we did.

This place was a trip! It's family-owned (since 1968) and it's a walk-through wild animal park, basically. We got to hold a one-month old baby red fox immediately after we entered the park:

We pet a ton of other things, including sables, an apricot (kinda white) skunk, a huge opossum, llamas, goats, deer, a baby bear cub…. Oh and I got to have a bobcat in my lap:

It was pretty cool. Here's the bear cub having a warm bottle from his trainer:

There are tons of goats, deer, llamas, and peacocks roaming the park freely.

The peacocks were everywhere!

This guy was letting me get really close to him to take this photo:

Then all of a sudden he shook it all out and gave me a spectacular close-up show:

I guess he wanted us both to see how beautiful he was:

Pretty amazing, even from the back! (How bored does Kevin look in that shot though?)

We walked around the rest of the park and saw some gorgeous animals. (You can see a list of what they have here):

Here I am, eye to eye with this white bengal tiger.

Llama eyeball (it would not back up):

And another show from a different peacock:

Crazy design for a bird, huh?

After the animal park we headed out to the Coquille River Lighthouse and took a nice walk on the beach before heading back to camp.

We've got some fresh oysters smoking on the Traeger (again, I know, yawn) and in a couple hours when they're ready I'll throw together a salad and call it dinner.

Devil’s Tower, Wyoming

Laura Domela — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 21:06:22 +0000

We left Rapid City, South Dakota this morning and headed for Devil's Tower National Monument. I found an RV park near the tower that was still open this late in the season so we decided we'd stay the night so we could do some more in depth sightseeing today.

We stopped and got set up in a campsite at the Devil's Tower View Campground, did some work, grabbed lunch in their cafe/diner (photo below) and then headed over to hike the trail around the base of the tower. Our spot's got a great view of the some craggy hills and a canyon below:

The owners here are super sweet, and once again, it's just us. We've got electricity but no sewer or water here (we filled up our fresh water tank before we left Rapid City). No television or cable, but we have full bars of AT&T and Verizon LTE (with our LTE amplifier and external antenna). Woohoo!

The diner:

After some lunch we did our hike around the base. There are some cool views from this close to the tower:

Looking back toward our campground:

(Our campground does have a view of the tower, but we opted for a site that backed up to an overlook instead…the view spots are close to the road and we figured we'd get enough of a view during our hike.)

We drove a little further down the road to check out the town of Hulett (which was cute, but mostly closed). I guess the AG supply and the Hullet Museum gift shop weren't really in the whole Black Friday spirit. All we bought today though was a Devil's Tower sticker from the National Park gift shop for $1.95, so neither were we.

I took this silhouette shot (from the moving car) on our way back to camp:

Minuteman Missiles and Missileers

Laura Domela — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 23:26:11 +0000

This morning before we left our quiet spot in the completely empty campground in the Badlands National Park, we drove over to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site to get a tour of their Delta-01 launch control facility. (Only 6 people can take the tour at a time because that's how many can fit in the elevator that takes you underground into the bunker that houses launch control.)

In 1955 the Soviet Union successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. In 1957 the Soviet Union successfully launched the world's first satellite. The combination of these two developments meant that the Soviets had the potential to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles with hydrogen bombs on board that would be capable of reaching anywhere in the U.S.

This scared the bejeezus out of the U.S., of course. The U.S. response was the development and deployment of Minuteman missiles. These missiles could be launched on very short notice (about five minutes) from underground hardened silos that were built to resist a nuclear blast.

The Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) accelerated the deployment of Minuteman missiles. Over 1000 missiles were poised and ready to launch, with the launch sites spread across the center of the U.S. The reason for putting them in the center of the country was so they would have more notice and more time to launch if a Soviet attack was detected. (Soviet nuclear submarines operating along the coastal U.S. could reach coastal areas too quickly with their missiles.)

The Minuteman was meant as a defense/retaliation weapon, not as a first strike weapon. The idea was to serve as a deterrent so that the Soviets would know that any attack they launched could be met with 1000 Minuteman missiles going the other way.

The missiles were spread across such a wide area so that it would take an enormous number of Soviet missiles to knock out all the sites. The missiles themselves were located about 15 miles from the control centers, and one launch control center controlled 10 missiles around it. There were five control centers in a squadron, and there were three squadrons in South Dakota — South Dakota had 150 Minuteman missiles.

By locating the missiles away from population centers, it also meant that any Soviet attack against the missile facilities would result in far fewer casualties.

We started with a tour of the above-ground quarters of Delta-01. There were about ten people in the above-ground facility at all times (3-day shifts) and two missileers below ground in the launch control center (24 hour shifts).

The above-ground facility is "preserved" to be a museum of sorts and it basically looks like someone's grandmother's house, or a bare bones rec center decorated in 1970s liquidation sale furniture. I should have taken a photo, but I was too busy cringing at the matching nubby rose pink suede sofa and loveseat, shellac'd oak furniture, and giant forest photo mural that covered one whole wall (complete with a family of deer staring out at me).

I did get a couple shots of some of the cool details in the office/communications area of the place though:

We climbed into the elevator and headed below ground (about 30 feet down).

Looking back up the elevator shaft from the underground facility:

Missile launch bunker artwork:

The launch control central hub was in a watermelon-shaped concrete enclosure that appeared to have about 10ft thick reinforced concrete walls, and a giant steel and concrete blast door.

This is the door to and from the launch control center (more launch control bunker art):

The other side of the door (and that "hallway" is actually a path through the wall):

The control center itself was a separate unit inside this outer shell, suspended on giant springs and shock absorbers so that the missileers and the equipment could still work even with a nuclear war going on outside:

This is basically the whole place. There's a tiny stainless steel bathroom just out of the picture on the right, and on the left out of frame is a fridge and microwave (added modern convenience!), as well as an oxygen machine and some other equipment. (It's about the size of an Airstream…maybe a 34ft.)

There's a sleeping area for one missileer to get some rest while the other remains at the helm. Note how the two missileer chairs are on rails, with seatbelts, so they can keep steady if being bombed while trying to launch missiles.

Launching the missiles worked pretty much like you see in spy movies (the good ones, anyway). There were two launch keys stored in a locked red box.

The box was locked with two combination padlocks. If the order was given to launch, it took both missileers opening their padlocks to open the box and get the keys. The two launch controls were 12 feet apart (so that one person couldn't reach both). The two missileers would do a countdown and turn their keys simultaneously. At the same time, they had to be on the phone with another missile launch control center…the missileers in that other control center would also have to vote by turning their keys simultaneously. So it took four missileers at two different locations to launch any missile(s).

Launch panel #1:

Launch panel #2:

The Minuteman missiles, if launched, would have climbed 700 miles into space at a speed of over 15,000mph. They would then have re-entered the atmosphere reaching their targets in the Soviet Union approximately 30 minutes after launch. Unlike in the movies there was no "cancel" or "self-destruct" capability. Once the missiles were launched, they were irretrevably on their way to their targets.

After the tour wrapped up, we headed up the road a bit to go see one of the actual missile silos. When these things were all active and armed, they were not a secret from locals nor were they kept secret from the Soviets. Quite the opposite. By making them visible (especially from the air) the Soviets could count how many intercontinental ballistic missiles the U.S. had and by having 1000 of them, the U.S. hoped to discourage any attack and actually prevent a nuclear war.

This is what the missile launch control center looks like from I-90.

I doubt they had these road signs at the time, however:

The gate in front of the D-09 missile silo:

The top of the missile silo (now covered with glass — silo door half open so you can look down in and see the prop missile), and the hardened UHF antenna on the right. These antennas allowed the missile launch commands to be given from "looking glass" aircraft that were in the air constantly from around 1961 to 1990 and could launch the missiles if the ground stations were unable to.

This is the back half of the silo door, slid halfway open uncovering the missile silo interior:

All in all it was a super interesting tour. Kinda creepy, but also kind of interesting that it all apparently worked. It's fascinating the enormous cost and amount of effort that went into building this system. A thousand of these Minuteman missiles* and concrete missile silos, a hundred of the underground suspended launch control bunkers, the staffing to maintain and operate all of this for over 30 years…all in the desperate hope that none of it would ever be used.

*According to our tour guide, just one of the Minuteman missiles had 60% of the power of ALL of the munitions used in WWII by ALL countries combined, including the atom bombs. And there were a thousand of them embedded in middle America. The consequences of using any of them is just incomprehensible. Perhaps the most amazing and awesome thing about this entire defensive strategy is that it worked.

A Lot of Work, and then Dinner in Charleston

Laura Domela — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:33:24 +0000

Today we spent the entire day inside the Airstream working. It was one of those days. We headed into Charleston this evening and met up with Kyle for dinner at McCrady's Restaurant.

Shot as we came into Charleston from James Island:

We had an amazing meal and as usual, fun and interesting conversation with Kyle. The chef at McCrady's (Sean Brock) received the 2010 James Beard Best Chef Southeast award and focuses on local, sustainable ingredients (and runs a farm specifically for the restaurant I think).

AND!! George Washington ate here in 1791! How cool is that? It's a great environment, inside and out. The entrance is in a little alley way (Unity Alley), and I didn't get any photos because it was dark, but here's a shot from Brian Stansberry/Wikipedia:

More history from Wikipedia:

McCrady's Tavern and Long Room is a historic tavern complex located in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Constructed in several phases in the second half of the 18th century, the tavern was a hub of social life in Charleston in the years following the American Revolution. The tavern's Long Room, completed in 1788, was used for theatrical performances and banquets for the city's elite, and is the last of its kind in Charleston. McCrady's was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 for its architectural and political significance.

Edward McCrady (d. 1801), a Charleston barber and Revolutionary War veteran, purchased the tavern in 1778, and over the next decade expanded the tavern and constructed the Long Room. In 1791, the Society of the Cincinnati hosted a banquet in the Long Room for President George Washington, who was visiting the city. The building continued to function as a tavern and banquet hall throughout much of the first half of the 19th century, and later served as a warehouse and print shop.
The building was restored to its late-18th century appearance in the 1980s, and currently houses McCrady's Restaurant.

Anyway, highly recommended. Food was up there with some of the top restaurants we've been to, and the service was just perfect.

We parked over near St. Philip's Church, and on the way to dinner I took a few more spooky graveyard photos for you.

Tomorrow we've got a history/homes walking tour scheduled in the afternoon (so we can learn some stuff), and then we'll meet up with Kyle again for dinner. Wednesday (Halloween) we thought it seemed appropriate to schedule another ghost tour. My iPhone will be fully charged, and I'm going to have the backup battery with me this time.

Ghosty Stuff in Savannah

Laura Domela — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 11:54:33 +0000

Yesterday afternoon we went back to further explore the Bonaventure Cemetery (made famous by the book/movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil). We had about 15 minutes before they closed the gates so we drove around to get a good look at some of the more interesting graves and sculptures. I definitely could spend more time wandering around in here.

Driving down one of the roads inside the cemetery:

We had an early reservation at The Olde Pink House for dinner. We'd read good reviews and had also heard mixed reviews from friends…our experience was great. Our waitress recommended some fantastic dishes and we enjoyed everything we had: crab soup, a BLT salad, crab-stuffed grouper, and crispy duck. Our table in the "Study" was lovely, right next to three opened window/doors onto a garden balcony:

After dinner we walked back to our car and I swapped out my cute suede platform wedge shoes for the more comfortable alternative because we were going to spend the next couple of hours walking around Old Savannah on a ghost tour. This was the perfect thing to do on our last night in Savannah (and on the Saturday night before Halloween!)

We met our guide (Chad) at McDonough's pub and got a beer to-go (you can do that here) and started our tour at the Colonial Park Cemetery. This cemetery has some really interesting (and creepy) history, such as:

the cemetery used to stretch several more blocks but as the city expanded, they just built over it as they were developing, so although over 10,000 people are buried here, there are only about 600 headstones.
hundreds of General Sherman's soldiers camped here during the Civil War and would clear bodies out of the tombs so they could sleep in there (warmer than their tents). During this time they also amused themselves by carving disinformation into some of the headstones.

I took a couple photos with my iPhone here (my battery was at 35%):

The sidewalk around the cemetery has this pattern in it…apparently it is/was believed that spirits cannot cross patterns and so there was pattern all the way around the cemetery:

I took about five photos and then my iPhone went black. I tried to turn it back on and it gave me the dead battery icon and the diagram to tell me to plug it in. Um, no. I tried to restart it –nothing. We walked a bit more, I tried again — nothing. I was so bummed. We continued the tour and learned a lot of interesting Savannah history and got to go inside and check out some really interesting old buildings and still, my iPhone would not come on at all.

Our last stop was the building that now houses Moon River Brewing Co. We went into some seriously creepy rooms in this building. Still, no camera.

Eventually the tour ended and we got to talking with some new friends (Hi Katie and Russell!) and the four of us continued down to the City Market area where there were hundreds of people in Halloween costumes. We went and had a beer and danced a bit at the Tree House (totally fun) and then eventually we said goodbye and headed back to the car. As soon as we were in the car, the car robot voice said "Phone, connected." Huh? My phone was dead…how could it bluetooth connect to the car? I got it out of my bag, and it there it was, 18% battery charge, working fine as if nothing had happened.

Now what d'ya make of that? Spooky, huh?

Farmers Market, Tabor Opera House, and Cowboy Mounted Shooting

Laura Domela — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 22:05:13 +0000

This morning we headed into town to check out the last Saturday Farmers Market of the summer. It was quite small, but we picked up some nice tomatoes, jalapenos, garlic, and a box of raspberries.

We put our produce in the car and went to check out the self-guided tour of the Tabor Opera House.

From their website: "The Tabor Opera House was built in 1879 by Horace Austin Warner Tabor, one of Colorado's most well known mining magnates. It was one of the most costly and most substantially-built structures in Colorado history."

We got to wander through the place at our leisure after watching an interesting short video about the theater's history.

Much more information about the Tabor Opera House, its history, and renovation is here on their website.

On the way to town from our campground for the past couple of days we'd been noticing an accumulation of horse trailers over at the Lake County Fairgrounds. This morning when we drove past there were a bunch of horses in the arena and what looked like the setup for some cowboy mounted shooting. (!!!) We headed there next and sure enough, it was our lucky day. We hung out for a couple hours watching the shoot and it was a blast…such an exciting sport to watch. I took a bunch of photos…here are a few of my favorite ones:

This is Kevin Perry (I know because while I was researching the event, I found him on the Colorado Mounted Thunder website):

Kevin's horse kept nuzzling and nudging his arm while he was trying to reload.

It was such a fun time. There's more tomorrow so we may go back.

We headed back to the Pastime Saloon for a beer and some hot wings for a late lunch and this time Jerry (the owner) waited on us. She's been tending bar at the Pastime for 36 years this October 1st and she was super sweet. She greeted us with "Have you been in before?" and I said yes, we'd actually been in last night. She said "I thought I recognized you! I think I waited on you. Nice to have you back." (She didn't wait on us…I never saw her before, and I heard her say the same thing to other customers). So sweet though…she was wonderful. There are two large oval portraits above the liquor bottles behind the bar: one is of her husband and the other is of her (both taken many years ago). They're lovely. (The burgers last night were better than the wings today, but it was all still good.)

Oh yeah, here's a little video Kevin took at the shoot today:

Now we're sipping a martini with three olives, Kevin's got a pork tenderloin on the Traeger, the storm has passed and it's a gorgeous evening. Happy Saturday everyone!

Bordellos and Burgers in Leadville

Laura Domela — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 12:02:14 +0000

We've been enjoying this area for the past couple days, but mostly we've been working and not taking very many photos. Here's downtown Leadville taken with my iPhone while driving.

Last night we met some new friends/blog readers Debbie and Glen. They just bought their first Airstream and had a few questions for us. We met at our Airstream and chatted a bit over a beer, then headed over to the Pastime Bar on 2nd Street for burgers and fries.

This place is a real gem. The saloon was founded in 1878. Originally it was the Oro City Chinese bar and was Leadville's official bordello and has (of course) a pretty racy history. It's now a full bar and serves really good burgers and fries (and chicken wings, but we didn't have any of those). Kevin and I both had the jalapeno burger and it was great. I think we should go back and have a drink at the bar sometime while we're here.

So far our spot here at Sugar Loafin' has been wonderful. Great views of the mountains, dramatic afternoon thunderstorms, beautiful sunny days. We haven't had neighbors in either spot directly next to us until last night. At about 11pm we heard an awful lot of noise outside and I peeked out the window and saw a truck with a trailer trying to back in to the next spot. There were about five men with flashlights all talking to each other at full volume while the diesel rattled away. Our tiki torches were flickering nicely while the mayhem beyond them looked like longshoremen offloading a container ship in the middle of the night. Stabilizers, hookups, and slideouts, oh my.

Sea Lion Caves

Laura Domela — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 02:25:02 +0000

We left my aunt Zelma's in Florence early this afternoon and decided to stop at the Sea Lion Caves. It's only a few miles north of Florence on the Oregon Coast, and I hadn't been since I was a kid. My mom decided she wanted to come along too so we caravanned to the RV parking lot and met up to see sea lions together.

You walk down about 100 feet to an elevator that takes you another 200 feet down into the cave. This is the largest sea cave in the world, apparently.

This is the path to the viewpoint…the path to the elevator is basically the same…off to the right.

This is taken from a cool spot in the cave with a view of the Heceta Head lighthouse:

In the winter, there are MANY more sea lions in the cave, and my mom said it's so loud with all their barking and mooing that you can barely hear yourself talk. You can stand here and watch the sea lions come in and out:

We all headed up to Newport and met up again for some shrimp/fish/scallops and chips for lunch, and then we peeled off with the Airstream and headed to I-5 while my mom took the longer, more scenic route home in her motor home (adding a leisurely extra day to her trip…fun!)