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First things being first... September 9th - As I sit here on a rainy night in an Ozona, TX truckstop, you may notice I have added a new feature at the bottom of the page...actually it's not new, it's been there since day one, it's just I've made it MUCH LARGER (remember everything is bigger in Texas) and it is the UNSUBSCRIBE link...nuf said
Next up, the website has been overhauled and now includes the RoadNotes Archives I have been pledging, not to mention a new "New Additions" section, bigger images and more. And in celebration of my finally getting my act together, any framed New Addition image in any size will be available at 25% off it's regular price. Ok, I should have gotten this "skunk off the porch" several RoadNotes ago, but many of you in response to various editions have sent much appreciated feedback along with the equally appreciated admonishments of "travel safe", "drive catefully", "be well" etc...
And while that is always my intent, that dang Indiana train incident reminds me it's not always so...anyway, if I should meet an untimely demise, someone out there, PLEASE take measures to see that, if I am to be remembered at all, it is only through the images and NOT like the poor, late, Esther Marie Daniel of Nebraska, whose no good family let a miniature golf course in a local park be named after her...the dang thing didn't even have a water trap for cryin' out loud. It's small world time... August 22nd - I'm back at the Western Legends Roundup in Kanab, UT against my better judgement and I say that, for while it sounds like it should be just my crowd, it tends to draw the E-Z Boy recliner Old West types rather than those that have lived or continue to live a rural lifestyle...but I digress... I was a bit behind in my preparation for the show as I had some trailer (tire) issues (the tread on two was peeling off, but no one had the right size for 80 miles so I limped in to Grand Junction) on my way from Colorado, which set me back a day on getting my prints ready, so I decided not to set up the night before and just get up early in the AM.
With a full night of work ahead of me I also decided a beer might be in order and not of the 3.2 variety which the local Utah stores offer...so with that in mind I headed off to Fredonia, the first Arizona enclave across the border and just a mile or two down the road. As I arrived at the liquor store, it was immediately apparent that this store was serious about offfering just what it advertised...booze....beer and not a wide variety, less wine and some hard stuff on a shelf behind the counter...the rest was clutter and debris...no chips, no gatorade, no slim jims. As I began to navigate my way through the boxes and empty crates, an elderly woman emerged from the back room with a walker and gave me a hard stare. "Can I help you", she asked.. "Nah", I said, "just wanna get this six-pack".... At the time I was wearing a baseball hat I had purchased at the Babbitt Ranch colt sale and as the woman moved to the register, she looked up at me and gave me an even harder look. "And just who are you to be wearing a Babbitt Ranch hat?" She coldly asked. "Well", I said..."My name is Jim Tunell and I'm a phoptographer. I shot the ranch's annual colt sale last month and bought this hat while I was there" She then extended her hand and said, "Well I'm Mrs Banks and my husband Frank ran that ranch for 41 years. And next month they're putting him in the Cowboy Hall of Fame down in Prescott. She then gave me a big smile and we began to chat...when it was all over we were fast friends and as I said good-bye and had just about closed the door behind me, she yelled after me, "And how much were those hats?" Good conversation is one thing, but a good hat is another thing altogether.
August 20th - I guess like the words "natural" and "organic", there's not a lot of oversight when it comes to a business proclaimng itself, "World Famous"...which brings me to the World Famous West Winds restaurant at the West Winds truck stop in Green River, UT. Why you ask is it famous? Well other than the sign in the convenience store that says it is, best I can guess is their bad food, poor service and over charging, have lead to the global infamy...couple those noteworthy qualities with its Covered Wagon salad bar and a host/server/busser who speaks almost no english and clears your table by tossing any stray food pieces over the counter diner's heads and toward a trash can by the kitchen door...well, let's just say you've got the makings for a dining experience that screams, "I've got to tell everyone I know about this place!".
Random Thought I need to remember to close the slide on my trailer screen door...uninvited bugs regularly make their way through at night, but I have more flying critters in here tonight than I've ever seen. And there must be a Praying Mantis ceonvention nearby as I have removed five so far...it was kind of fun watching them stalk the bugs, but if I don't get them out tonight I'm afraid they'll die in here as well and I like Praying Mantis'. Looks like I have a project. More Animal Updates You may recall last month I told you about my brother's feeding of a wide variety of furry woodland creatures in his Virginia back yard, but i'm afraid I must be the bearer of more bad news as neither the injured Gray Fox or White Tail buck have returned. On the other hand, a new Gray fox eveidently filling the void has arrived and is in perfect health.
Random Thought While people the world over are in a constant journey to seek affirmation that their God is the one true and only God, and still others only beg that he exits at all...me and my furry crew have proved that a great bunny god in the sky (NO, the Easter Bunny proves nothing) does exist, for as we were on one of our journeys (actually it was just our morning walk) Willow (my Chessie for new readers) dug under a Sage stump and came out with a mouthfull of baby bunnies. As you may recall from an earlier RoadNotes, Diesel (my coyote mix) found a nest and went through them like a bowl of pistachios...but in this case (hence the bunny God) my soft mouth retriever merely deposited them gently in my hands to be returned to their hutch. In the end, they were all unscathed, but that didn't keep the squad of high school cheerleaders and their dads a campsite over from rushing horrified to the squeal of baby rabbits in distress..."move along folks, nothing to see here...
I Stand Corrected Again In an earlier RoadNotes I said that when "the day after" finally arrives, the only beings left to inhabit the planet would be cockroaches and the Hare Krishna sect... after torrential rains on a Saturday morning in Longmont, Co, I now have proof that blue-haired elderly women looking to buy cheap jewelry shall also play a role in the rebuilding of civilization. The More Things Change...(or Trailer woes and Whoahs!) I hate to be the worst part of any one's day and for two days I successfully avoided it, but in the end I failed. It started two days earlier when on Friday night as I pulled into my Santa Fe KOA, I cringed as I saw a brand spanking new Heartland Cyclone parked next to me. Knowing its new owners would like nothing more than to "chew the fat" with a fellow Cyclone owner who could validate what a smart purchase they had just made, I was on the look out. Well as I said, I failed. For when I arrived after the show on Sunday, I saw that the owner was playing find and seek with the trailer's long list of "features", so I slithered into my trailer without eye contact. Feeling a bit bolder, I then decided to unload my truck of my show supplies... and again, he remained intent on his new rig. Well, it was now clear that I had become far too self centered in thinking "of course he'll want to tap my vast knowledge library", so I decided to move forward without any regard for now what was a couple admiring their new Cyclone. Moving to hitch my truck so I could get an early start back to Colorado in the morning...I started the truck and began to back up...but with risks also come results and as I began to inch toward the hitch, a head popped through my window and said, "Hey, looks like we're members of the Cyclone club!" By now I was worn out and said, "you better hope we're not in the same club." Well for obvious reasons his mood changed and after we talked for a few minutes, his wife walkede off and said she didn't want to hear anymore a few minutes later, he went back to wiping down the trailer, which is what most trailer owners seem to spend their time doing. Ahhh...the fleeting happiness of another satisfied customer shattered like so much pottery under my feet. Trailer Alert!!!! As I write this I am awaiting word from Heartland as the source of my bedroom problem (no not those bedroom problems, real bed room problems as in it keeps breaking...anyway), is not that the bed is at fault or the rollers it was built on...the good service manager at the Flagstaff Rv center discovered that my walls were built CROOKED!! Random Thought At least on the surface, if there is a better humane society in this land, I have yet to see it (of course this is the first I've camped outside of) but the Longmont Humane Society of Longmont, Colorado has a beautiful facility and what appears to be a seemingly endless cadre of dog walkers. Kudos to whoever is behind this operation. Yet More Proof We're a Nation in Decline! I hate to cover ground already covered, but this intentionally running over animals pattern I seem to be experiencing (suffering) is a little disturbing. I was heading South on I-17 north of Phoenix at sunset when I saw a very large rattlesnake had ventured out on to the highway to keep warm .
I immediately pulled over and grabbed the monopod for my camera so I could pick it up. As I approached I saw one truck approaching and even though he was already in the opposite lane, I waved him to stay over. Mouth breather that he was, he switched lanes and hit the snake dead center...it exploded as did I...I gave chase, but the truck was long gone. And don't think I don't know I most of you transplants from the East are cheering, but snakes do a lot of good and that's all I'll say because I'll never convince you otherwise, but it was so unnecessary. And while I was walking along the highway, it reminded me of another disturbing behavior that seems to have taken root in America today... and this time it the guys who are to blame... no, not the odd practice of hanging athletic shoes over telephone wires. And certainly not my recent find of what I call the "glove shrub", no, something far more disturbing and telling of a society in decline. It's the practice of urinating in bottles and jars and then casting them roadside. I mean whatever happened to pulling off the highway and finding a tree? And if you don't have any objections to "going" in a jar, would it really be that bad to drive it to the next exit and putting it in the trash? It seems pretty 3rd world to me, but then again, so much of America does today. And some proof we still have what it takes. I haven't yet made it through Abilene, but a taste of it made its way to me at the Museum of the Southwest show in Midland, TX and what a taste it was. On Friday night before the preview party, all of the artists were catered a dinner by Joe Allen's just up the road. Well just up the road or around the world, I'd travel far and wide for another helipng or three of Joe and family's grilled catfish. The chicken fried steak, cheese corn, corn bread and the rest of the menu was spectacular, but that catfish was all anyone could talk about the rest of the weekend. Random Thought I will never get to sit on the bench of the Washington Redskins...while in Ridgway, Colorado I shared a beer with the sister of Washington Redskins coach Jim Zorn...she was a bit down over the fact that she had sold none of her high end handcrafted quilts at the show that day. I tried to cheer her up and offered a few reasons why it wasn't a reflection of her work, until she told me that the theme of her best quilt was a combination of Colorado AND African wildlife! I told her that was crazy, that no one would want Zebra and Moose on the same quilt, but she didn't take it well. I even had the reluctant backing of the drunk trucker next to her... I say reluctant, because I think he still had visions of a few free tickets dancing in his head, but in the end he had to agree. Things I've Learned: Someone told me that the greatest compliment you could ever give someone is that you never really knew them...until someone proves this wrong, it shall remain something I learned. While images from the "Vanishing West" have gone over better than I could have imagined, I've learned the best is yet to come as the people who most appreciate my work are the friends and relatives of the people who are actually at the shows..."My dad would love!"..."My son would buy !"..."If my husband were here!"... geez Not to mention that if all of the homes are ever built whose owners have promised they will be decorate the entire house with my work, well then... let's just say a lot of you will have to find a new source for feeling better about yourself. At some point I will have to hurt a dog or it's owner. At my recent stay in Ridgway State Park, my pups were challenged each and every day by a dog or dogs off leash... They have now been challenged or attcked by coyotes in too many states to name. wild dogs at Hopi, a guard dog in Oklahoma (she was tough and clobberd Diesel who is always first in, as his legs gave out, Chief, who is all bark, hit and ran, but then Willow did her Vulcan death grip thing to the neck, so the owners who thought it was not so serious up to this point, stepped in (so as not to lose their prized breeding bitch.) and most recently a Mountain Lion... This has been going on for sometime, but our most recent encounter prompted me to say enough was enough and is the cause for me thinking I may have to take extreme measures. You see, it was on a lonely trail down by a lake at sunrise when a father and son jogger team thought it wise to allow their chocolate lab and some sort of designer poodlish thing to run 100 yards in front of them...well as you might expect as the dogs saw my three and thought more the merrier. At same time Deisel (he'd take on a train...and lose every time, but his heart is huge) Chief and Willow thought "protect the pack" at all costs. Now again, I can completely understand and accept the actions of a city raised dog, it's the city dumb owner I can't...for while I was successfully disuading his pets from engaging mine, when he and his son finally arrived, he found my question of , "Have you ever heard of a leash?" offensive and thus responded with pure genius, "Far as I can tell my dogs are on the trail!" "These are the times that try men's souls.", Thomas Paine once scribed about the rise of a nation and I concur about it's demise...one thing this asshat (wink) didn't consider was his dogs were not on the trail mere moments before as I scared them back on to the trail, and he certainly did not consider that mere moments before that, not to mention a few minutes later my three too, would be on that trail...and it would not be pretty when they met. In short, my point is, dog owners don't know what other dogs or their owner have been through or why their dogs react the way they do to other dogs....all dogs have not been raised in a gated community...all dogs have not been socialized in dog parks...to be honest, some dogs ACT like dogs...or K9s...they have a heirarchy and protect their pack... Couple this with the fact that in a state park like Ridgway, bear, mountain lion and packs of coyote rule the ecosystem...no one who love their dog would allow it off leash. Texas Roadhouse restaurants. in Colorado will not allow you to throw your peanut shells on the floor as they do in the rest of the country...I of course learned this the embarassing way by finishing half a bucket (you can't fill a bucket to the top there either) and tossing them to the ground much to the dismay of all seated around me and my servers. I feel certain I would have figured it out sooner but I was focused on writing RoadNotes at the time. More people want RoadNotes longer than shorter...this was nice to learn. Not enough people use the UNSUBSCRIBE link...maybe now that it's just darn LARGE. Not sure what age you have to be, but I'll never own an "OLD GUYS RULE" t-shirt. 
Chief, my Catahoula mix hates, vets, nail trimmings, anything but milk bones, too much attention....but that and so much more, I already knew...what I learned though, is he doesn't seem to mind grasshoppers piggybacking on his head for miles at a time. This one only stopped because unlike Chief, the grasshopper had better things to do. I have to buy Mrs.Banks a Babbitt ranch hat. Until next time....be well and as always, please excuse
any typos (and you know who you are) and most importantly, "Save a
Horse, Ride a Mustang." |
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