Residents of Baker, Nev. (pop. 68), like to outdo one another in “Post Impression Art,” a whimsical hobby started by the Permanent Wave Society in 1997. All around the area, locals and visitors create art installations on fence posts, pretty much just for the hell of it.
My favorite was a simple pink flamingo nailed to the top of a fence post. Why? Because it’s a pink flamingo, dammit, in the middle of nowhere in the Great Basin’s sagebrush desert. The only thing better would have been a garden gnome. The flamingo wasn’t photogenic, though, so I only have memories.
This Sunday, Feb. 28, was something of a catch-up day for me. I hung around the Whispering Elms Motel and Campground, finished a few blog posts, and wrote my semi-monthly letter to my list subscribers. (Sign up at top right!) Basically, other than lunch out at T&D’s grocery store/lounge/restaurant, I was chained to my laptop. No, actually, I was even chained to the laptop while eating lunch.
Still, Baker is a lovely town to take a rest in, especially out of tourist season. I asked the grocer lady when folks start rolling into town to visit Great Basin National Park. Oh, forgot to mention: Baker, Nev., is the gateway to Great Basin National Park! Anyway, she said people start showing up in April, but things really kick off Memorial Day Weekend.
That makes sense. The mountains are still snowed in, and even down in Baker, it’s below freezing at night. In fact, much of Great Basin National Park is inaccessible, except by snowshoes, as I discovered Monday ...
Plenty of instant and dry goods – just add water! I'm ready for weeks of travel OR to relieve Bundy's Boys in Burns, Oregon. No French vanilla creamer, though.
This is a New Year resolution we can all get behind in 2016! (Image reposted from "The Rolling Steel Tent.") Update: I'm currently at home in Brownsville, Texas, getting my house ready for market. I should be back on the road by end of January and heading to the Southwest.
I visited historic Cross Keys Plantation, and the most exciting thing to me was this mystery farm tool/torture device.* Yup, I'm an oddball! * I know what this gadget is. Do you?
You still see old-fashioned cabins and shacks in the Blue Ridge, but this guy's house is a fun caricature. Even his street sign says, "Hillbilly Place"!
Even by the Walmart Home Office, Old Sam has his imitators. Wonder if he found it flattering? (BTW, I saw this chain several places in Arkansas and Texas.)
Hazy footage of Bruco, caterpillar monster of Italy, Texas, about to devour ... something. – This photo is so seriously a fake, like Nessy and Bigfoot!
