Pemmican cakes

Those of you who have read "Swallow and Amazons" will be aware of pemmican cakes. Charles and I have just finished reading "Swallows and Amazons". We have been discussing making pemmican cakes and cooking outside. It had been put on our holiday list and so today we made pemmican cakes. We make the cakes ( with luncheon meat) and as we had decided we could not light a fire outside near a house we borrowed a fuel stove ( along with friendly native alias grandad). The cooking was a great success and the friendly native was invited into Charles' fort in the native trees at the side of the house. Baby Vicki ( alias Christopher) was in the backpack to avoid any issues with stoves and hot pans, had his in the backpack. A pleasant time on a day otherwise taken up with getting extra supplies to the golf course and sorting out the non-printing eftpos machine ( wrong tape)

Volcanic dust or maximising a National park pass

When Murray go back to New Zeland I washed his Icebreaker top and even after several rinses there was still grit in the sink. This came from the next section of his trip. After leaving Devil's Tower he camped in the Big Horn Mountains - these are a very ancient formation - Precambrian. The next day he travelled to Yellowstone National Park. Murray mostly freedom camped in national forests but here due to grizzlies also sharing the forest he chose to camp in the official site. He explored part of Yellowstone early before the crowds built up saw Steamboat geyser one of the world' largest turn on a minor display. The evening was spent camping at Palisades reservoir after driving through the Tetons. Murray was just thinking how alludes it was when a thunderstorm arrived. He managed to get tea between storms.

The next day was to be seeing Craters of the Moon and Sawtooth but the best laid plans... Instead it was EBR1, Craters of the Moon plus Palisades dam and roadworks. The last was a half hour delay. EBR1 was the first nuclear reactor to generate electricity in 1951. The whole place has been decontaiminated and he could walk aroud. Outside were two reactors built to develop a nuclear engine for a long range bomber. The idea was for it to fly non-stop for 5 days - there were even menus planned for the crew. The plane was never built.

Craters of the Moon are in Idaho. The lava caves were particularly interesting with ice in the bottom - a huge contrast from the heat outside. A torch is needed but thanks to Merewyn, Murray had his. Idaho itself is quite different from Wyoming. Much of the State is volcanic. In next few days as Murray attempted to move westwards he also made good use of his National Park pass he visited an interpretative centre for the Oregon Trail. John Day Fossil Bed Monument,Newberry Volcanic Monument and Crater Lake. He continued to camp - mostly free except in Ontario, Oregon where he stayed in a cheap motel. The only cooking device was a microwave which was of limited use with metal billies so he boiled some vegetables in the plastic bowl and fried meat, onions and mushrooms with the camp stove on the table - this probably would have pleased the owners as much as it would have pleased the camp controllers in the former Stalinistic Youth camp we stayed in, in Hungry - fortunately in both cases they didn't know and so everyone was happy.

A Saturday outing

Charles and I did seven interesting things today. We left early to collect our ticket for Malvin Tix the musical clown. We parked under Te Papa and on the way to get the tickets stopped to look at a display of big trucks. Clearly fascinating in their own way to a section of the community. Because we were early we had time after getting the tickets to go over to the water front. Charles noticed a digger so we watched trucks being loaded by a digger that I removing a hill by the lagoon near the rowing club ( the wheel wash was particularly interesting) and to have a look at a display at Te Papa that Charles wanted to show me - about how a fault works. You can press on a lever to build up stress and then the rupture occurs. This was topical as we had a magnitude 5 earthquake during the night and we had been talking about it. We bought something to eat at Te Papa and then went over to the concert. It was first class. Malvin Tix is a very talented musician and clown from Norway and he was conducting the NZSO. Charles was totally engaged for the whole performance. We decided after this we didn't want to go home yet so walked to the new Playground at Waitangi Park. It was a nice sunny day and out of the wind very pleasant. We then felt we wanted to see more of Te Papa. We tried one of the rides (Magic Lilo's - magic seemed to be a theme for the day -large reclining chair that moves as you fly over NZ - slightly sea sickish but reassuring as Charles pointed out that we weren't really lifting up!), looked at the presentation called Golden Days (Kiwi memorabilia) and spent some time in the Pacific Discovery centre. We decided we would go back again in the holidays. By this time we were both hungry and in Charles' case wanting to play on a playground. Where else to go but McDonald's! On the way we stopped to buy Charles a new wallet and a magic book ( you rub patches to find answers to questions). On Charles' count 7 adventures.

The A-team start school

Now that both mother's have commented I thought Grandma could add a bit. Great work girls 25% of the through the job but a critical phase over -the foundations are well in place. Charles's birthday being on the day of Dad funeral along with the other changes got me thinking back. At school one of the teachers asked for an hour to go and see his son at Starter group ( at Alice town Playcentre) this got the other teachers talking about their PlayCentre training - (2 level 3 and a Level 1) . Some how this got me thinking of the sewing and time we ( Judith and I) put in and the rewards ( yes there are some stresses too!) that one can have as a grandparent. Doesn't seem so long since we made the four matching jackets for our team back then.

Badlands and the Devil
After a driving day (2 August) Murray camped in the Black Hills Forest in North Dakato. He awoke at dawn to coyotes - obviously more effective than an alarm! The wildlife theme continued a he visited Wind Cave National Park. As well as seeing prairie dogs, antelope and bison. I was particularly envious of this - seems really western. He didn't visit the caves.
The Badlands were the furtherest east Murray went. Again an amazing sight - familar to geography students from text books but of course much more impressive in reality and on the grand scale that features are in the USA. And its not just the natural features. Murray viewed Mt Rushmore from the road but was more interested to go on to Crazy Horse. This scuplture of the Indian chief is like a medevial cathedral project. It has been going for 60 years and has another 60 to go. The whole thing is some 700ft high and more long, to show Crazy Horse on a horse.

Having found a pleasent campsite in the extreme NW of the Black Hills Forest, Murray could not find his small billy and cooking stove. As these were indispensable he repacked and back tracked two hours to see if he could find them but no luck ( not at this point - hold this for later posts). He camped at the previous night's site again and ate cold andwiches for tea.

Given the lost time he thought of missing the Devil's Tower ( I don't think this personage can be held responsible for the stove) but after trying a different route from yesterday for variety- but variety it seems is not a feature of Central Wyoming - the mentioned difference was following the railway with lots of stationary trains. Fortunately the Devils Tower was worth the effort.

A smaller adventure

Now that I am back at school the journeys have got back to the routine of back and forth to school. However I am at present car pooling and this involves crossing a bridge we made at the back of the neighbour's property across a disused stream - which is council land. Our neighbour is obviously happy with us cutting across the corner. Christopher tried the bridge out and found it nice and bouncy.

The Old Geezer goes anoxic

While I was at Calwood and conferences Murray set off in the rental car on his own adventures. I plan to write up some of the highlights. The first being what Murray tells everyone was the highlight of the trip or at least the High point - climbing Long's Peak. This involved Murray getting up at 2.30am and being on the track by 3.20am. ( Almost unbelievable - hard to imagine he was still in the going to bed phase of the day!) The first part of the trip, through the forest, required a headlight to be worn until dawn broke. By dawn he had reached the turn off to Chasm Lake and continue up the Upper Valley and on to the boulder field- (10-20 tonne variety) There was also near vertical granite cliffs with dozens of routes for the rock climbers. Passing through the "Keyhole " he came to the ledges - with a steep drop off. ( I would have been like many others who stop at this point I am sure) By this time the lack of oxygen was becoming apparent. After the narrows which are a sidle along more ledges around to the front of the peak, there was the final climb up slabs to the summit. The major challenge here is getting enough oxygen - climb a few metres, stop and gasp for a minute. The only food he felt like eating on the top was a NZ Braeburn apple - the lack of oxygen didn't encourage eating more. The view from the top made it all worth while - particularly the feeling of looking down on the peaks around. Then there was the journey down. Murray arrived back at the car park about 3 o'clock feeling tired from the lack of sleep. He drove a short distance to Roosevelt National Forest camped and although the road was too close and noisy he didn't care!