review: From Here to There

From Here to There
The Art and Science of Finding and Losing Our Way
by Michael Bond

Most fascinating non-fiction book I've read in a long time. It's all about how the human brain learns to get places--with or without maps, in known and unknown terrains.. The sections on the search for a lost hiker on the Appalachian Trail and the ones on Alzheimer's disease patients are especially fascinating. And heart-wrenching.

For reasons we don't know, Alzheimer's patience are often driven to walk, and when they do walk, they often continue in a straight direction for many miles. It's as though there is something essential about moving and about going somewhere, purposefully, is deeply ingrained into the human psyche, and one of the last functions to be lost in a degenerating brain.  Why? It's not known yet, but it could be one of the things that makes us human.

He even has a chapter on how we navigate through big cities and other featureless and over-featured mazes (think: hospitals) and on design strategies to make big cities (and hospitals) more navigable.

Very useful if you ever wanted to know (a) Do lost people really go in circles? (b) How did Eskimos and Polynesian sailors and other native people travel long distances without satellite navigation? (c) Is your GPS affecting your brain?  And so much more.
 

Review: a Good Man With a Dog

 A Good Man with a Dog: A Game Warden's 25 Years in the Maine Woods
    by Roger Guay

Good Dog!  And good dogs! And a great book.

Mr. Guay recalls his 25-ish years as a game warden in the Maine Woods, and it's a wild and crazy ride.  At first he tells his "normal" game warden stories--the fish hidden in the duffle, the doe permit episode; the many nights of skulking along the shore of a pond in search of a mysterious searchlight. And many episodes where he is able to educate the public, and their children--quite lovely. And then he moves on to his increasing work in the search-and-rescue field.

Somewhere in there he learns how useful a dog can be. His well-trained dogs can distinguish between game fish and trash fish; find discarded shotgun shells; track down hidden caches.... It's a blast.

I have to warn you that the widespread use of snowmobiles in the woods takes a lot of the joy out of his mission. Instead of educating hunters and enforcing game rules, he's tracking down drunks who take off cross-country in the cold and dark forests. It takes up more and more of his time.

But then he trains a cadaver dog and gets into rescue after floods and explosions. Grisly, miserable, and mostly unrewarding work. But the whole book is still fascinating to the max.

Highly recommended. And a lot of scary action scenes, too.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 25

Home
Friday, August 2

And home, only to find the heat pump thermostat off. It's likely we'll spend the next few nights in the motorhome. And the grass and weeds outside are so tall that it looks like no one ever lived here. My $70 Bur Oak tree is pretty much dead but the hackberry tree growing beside it is two feet tall.  Note that it wasn't there at all before I left, although there may have been a few leaves sprouting down low.

just horrible. I don't think I ever want to be gone so long again.  One of the hummingbird feeders was on the ground and Waynette had hung it on a concrete block, pretty much on the ground there, too. And the cord it was hanging by was chewed through with most of it is missing, probably buried in the tall grass.  I'll fix it tomorrow--for now I just cleaned and refilled it and hung it on the wire where I hang the bird feeder in winter.

Everything looks horrible. Horrible.

But as to memories of the trip...it was our longest trip to date. Too long? In some ways.  And it was somewhat disappointing--so many things anticipated and missed; so much adventures undone, places unexplored. I really really wanted to get out on the shore of Cape Cod and explore mudflats and marshes and see the little birds. I wanted to eat the farmed oysters and try some local clam chowder. I wanted to look for whales at the tip of the camp, at Provincetown.

But i did see the herring gull and the scarlet tanager. And Elyanna playing with her Grandpa was a hoot. And having them at camp was fun even if it did cut into our explorations. Plenty of time to do that when we don't have family nearby.

I enjoyed walking in the rain. Showers at bathhouses. The tall trees.  The last two campsites by water.  Sunsets. Long walks on wooded trails. Exploring the safe unknown. Loved all that--a major criteria for my campground choices from now on should be access to trail systems.


Trip Notes

450 miles with generator and 3-6 hours stoppage time (setup & teardown) leaves us 1/4 tank. Do not exceed this--aim for 425.

For a 24 day trip, 1 bag of trail mix is not enough! Will only last 21 or 22 days

Need to shave legs daily.

Check out Fall Creek Falls SP for camping. Also cloudland canyon. They have waterfalls.  Also Dauphin Island Campground.

Next trip bring prunes and veggie hash.

Try freezing guacamole. Bring tofurky and hummus for wraps

When scheduling the drive for a 4-hour leg, schedule either one break in the exact middle or two breaks, one at either end.  Anything else sucks.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 24

 Thursday, August 1, 2024

On to Maumelle Park in north Little Rock. Apparently this northern neighborhood is where the richest of the rich live; the road going toward the park is pristine and recently resurfaced with brand new asphalt and a bike lane on either side; the houses look like they'd cost $750K to 1M in the Dallas area; and the whole setup is awfully clean.

The guard at the gate let us in early--check-in time wasn't until 4pm but we arrived at about 1:30. And setup was pretty quick. We had this lovely site right on the banks of the Arkansas River--

 

Which is perfect in pretty much every way except no sewer.  But there are three dump stations. We got Starlink reception by setting it on the ground near the end of the side toward the river.  There are big trees to give us shade. The spacing between sites is excellent and the sites are pretty long. We went ahead and parked the Jeep in back and then backed in the motorhome to it, so we could hook up in place.  Of course that wouldn't work if we were going anywhere, but we're not. The site reservation page said it was 70' long but the RV and Jeep with tow hitch barely fit. The RV is about 35', the jeep 16' and the tow hitch maybe 4' so that would be about 55 or so feet. There's no way this site is any more that 60', but I'm not going outside in the heat to measure it.

 

 In fact, the only issues I have at all with this park are:
On weekends it gets very crowded. It's pretty empty today; maybe 1/4 to 1/3 full? but last time we were here was a different story.
No long trails away from people. There are a few little trails but they're mostly paved and not very exciting
No sewer, of course
And it's too damn hot

It's 97 today, heat index 107. But the big trees and the breeze off the river help make it livable. And it is, of course, August.  So I can't blame the park.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 23 Wednesday, July 31

Traveled to Natchez Trace State Park, Pin Oak Campground

We got an exceptionally early start--8:35--due to being in a full hookup site and Ed skipping his morning TV show. It wasn't necessary, but we were glad to get the drive through Nashville over with. Nashville isn't supremely trafficky, but the Interstate takes at least four left-right-left-right splits requiring a lot of lane changes.

After a 28 minute rest stop and a 17 minute gas stop, we arrived at the visitor center at 12:39.  4:04 total time; minus stops--it matches up pretty wel with the google map time. 3:19 vs. 3:27 or so.

Sadly, the visitor center wasn't the end of our journey. It was about 10 miles from there to the campground and when we arrived there was a camper and two cars occupying our site.  It turned out that they had originally reserved the site across the road, but then changed it and were assigned a site up the hill. But they mistakenly read the tag on ours and occupied it. They graciously agreed to move--we wouldn't have minded swapping with them, but the other site 30 that they thought they had (but didn't) was really unlevel and just would have been a beast for our plan to hookup the Jeep in site, behind the Motorhome.  That would give us a much faster exit time in the morning, and the morning's drive is NOT a 3:37 drive. It's 4:10, last time I looked.

But this is a beautiful, beautiful camp site. Right beside a lovely, clean lake. Full of fishies and no power plants in evidence.  I'd love to come back when we can stay longer.  (And it's not so damn hot.) It's only about an hour from Memphis (plus the 25 minute "inside park" drive time) and well worth another stay.

 

BEAVER alert!  Just after supper, when Ed was sitting outside and I was doing the dishes, at about 7:00, a beaver appeared on the mowed grass in front of our campsite. He lingered there for a while, gnawing up grass roots or some such edible, until Ed decided to take a picture and (mildly) harassed him into leaving so he could get a picture including the tail. From my higher viewing point in the motorhome, I could see it fine when the beaver shifted position.

 He didn't appear to be all that scared--he simply waddled down to the water and slowly swam away.

Wow, totally.

The campground will also be memorable for the "3D target range". Molly and I took a walk on the roads since I didn't have a trail map and it was too tired to waste energy looking for one. We went down to the day use shelter area where they had something called a 3D target range.  What the heck?

It was a small trail winding around plastic statues of the hunter's target animals.  I saw a deer which much perturbed Molly, who wouldn't believe it wasn't real until she got close enough to smell it. And a turkey, and a coyote. I didn't go on further to see what else they had. Wrestling Molly over the deer statue was bad enough--I didn't see the point it fighting over the others.

Note to trip memoirs: I hereby dub Tennessee as "the land of lots of beautiful water."

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 22

 Tuesday, July 30
 

Day off from traveling, hurray!  We went over to the Ozone Falls State Natural area, where a painful little walk (aka scramble over rocks) took us to the bottom of a very tall waterfall. Lovely!

I found it worse going down than returning back up, because I was wearing the cheap sneakers I'd bought for walking Molly on road surfaces and gravel. But this surface was rocks and sometimes slippery rocks, so I really needed my hiking sandals.  After slipping a couple of times, my steps became so tight and uncertain I could barely move and ended up wtih exhausted legs for the climb back up.

Lesson learned, and a rationale for why I have no fewer than 8 pairs of shoes in the motorhome. Waterproof walking shoes (that hurt my feet on a long trek), road walking shoes, hiking sandals, hiking boots for cold weather, swimming shoes, flip-flops (2), and scuff-type sandals for stepping outside when I have socks on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After returning from the Falls, we lounged around for a bit and then did lunch. Lazy day.  There were thunderstorms moving in, predictably, so Molly and I took our afternoon walk early, leaving at about 2:30 I think. We went down the Byrd Creek trail (the yellow trail), jumping on at the spot right beside our neighbor's campsite. It ducked into the woods and then meandered creekside for a mile, joined a short segment of paved road and a bridge over the creek, then meandered back on the other side of the creek to join up with the red trail which went to the historic CCC bridge and the old mill.  Really cool old stuff.

 

Talked to a ranger with a gas-powered weedwhacker across the creek for a minute, then later met a lady walking a young dog. She (the lady, not the dog) wanted to talk and talk, a lot. But we soon got away and went on.

About three-quarters of the way around, I finally decided I needed to go pee really badly. I tied Molly to a tree and squatted, and about that time a lightning bolt struck pretty close and a thunderboom sounded soon after. Maybe a half mile away. Molly was upset, but she handled it okay.  But needless to say, my relief stop was not very effective.

Made it all the way back to the gift shop when Molly decided to drop a turd by the road. No baggies left, so I took her up to the entrance to the campground where a poo station had the supplies we needed, grabbed a couple, and quick-stepped back. Couldn't find the dropping, and the rain was starting to pepper down.

So we gave up looking (the rain would hide the evidence) and ran for Magnus the Mighty. We got rained on pretty well but not critically--plenty of tree cover to deflect the first raindrops. And returned.

Tomorrow is moving day again, so I need to quit now and start planning the route.

Back to our scenic view of the power lines. That's our motorhome way off in the distance.

Magnus Moves! Massachusetts and back, Day 21

Monday July 29

 

Trip to Cumberland Mountain State Park.  Drove in rain off and on, more on than off, all morning. It finally started clearing about halfway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our spot

Arrived at Cumberland Mountain state park at 2pm-ish with the time change giving us an extra hour. Not until I went for a walk along the lake did I start to recognize the place--apparently we were here in June of last year, for a one-night stay on the way to Massachusetts.  I'd walked the handicapped/kid friendly trail along one side of the lake, then later we'd eaten a spectacularly mediocre dinner at the park restaurant.

It's a great park and well worth a do-over. Some of the sites in Loop 1 (like ours) are full hookup. There's a great network of trails. This time Molly and I walked the handicapped trail to the end, then went on the Pioneer trail loop for 1.8 miles to the swinging bridge (not while I was on it!).  At the bridge we returned on the trail up the other side of the river until we reached the boat rental. We tried to go back on the road, but it had been over an hour at that point and I didn't know the best route back. So we just went across the bridge there and returned on the handicapped trail. 

 

We were walking for about 1-1/2 hours total.  Merlin heard a hooded warbler but I didn't see much--I was too busy walking.  Oddly enough, we met several people during our walk. I heard a voice ahead of me saying, "Oh look, there's a waterfall." when the voice came in sight, I saw it was a young lady alone, narrating the walk to persons unseen through a headset.  We met about four other people and everyone was pleasant except for the two park workers doing trail maintenance. They weren't unpleasant, just grumpy.

Ed grilled fish for supper.  Bedtime came with a crash because we were both so zombified by the time change. We did manage to stay up until 10:00, but only barely.

More trail pics. Not crossing that!

But we will cross the "swinging bridge" so long as there's NO swinging while we're on there.