Road Trip... #5

Bad Lands?

          Somewhere near the above-mentioned Bone, WY, we encountered the Devil’s Half Acre, which is actually about 400 acres. It had all the features of a badland landscape, but it was very small in scale. Therefore, I determined that it was not a badland but a naughtyland.

Pucker up:

          Have you ever kissed a goat? Well, I could have while hiking in the Montana rain. Coming around a bend, I came face to face with a large, white, and very hairy female mountain goat. Either of us could have initiated a smooch had we been so inclined. She didn’t seem to be too thrilled, and I was a bit put off by nanny goat breath. 

“Life is much too important to be taken seriously.”

 Books by Lou Bradshaw available on Amazon Kindle

 A Fine Kettle of Fish – Hickory Jack – Blue – Ace High – Blue Norther – Cain

–  One Man Standing – Rubio –  Cain…just Cain….Spirit Valley…..soon Driftin’

Visit me on Facebook Lou Bradshaw Artist – Author or www.facebook.com/loubradshawarts

Or you can contact me at loubradshaw7@gmail.com

Or at Amazon Author Central www.amazon.com/author/loubradshaw

Who names those places?  Road trip #4

          Some of the town names we ran across left me scratching my head. I can’t seem to accept some things at face value, and need to know what is behind it.

Crazy Head Springs, MT: Now where else would one be crazy but in the head? Maybe the crazy bone in the elbow but that’s a stretch.

Boys, MT: That’s all well and good for a weekend, but without some girls that place can’t last long.

New Underwood, MT: It was a town sitting out there all alone and not an Old Underwood in sight.

Ralph, MT:  This was one of my favorites – just plain Ralph.

Sheet House Creek, ID: I wonder what the name used to be, and what was that creek used for? Trust me, I wouldn’t drink the water.

Chugwater, WY: This town was only a couple of hundred miles from Golden, CO and the Coors brewery, so I find it hard to believe that water was the only thing they had to chug.

          There were several towns that weren’t towns. The sign would give the elevation, but the population read 0. There were no people and no buildings.

Bone, WY: It was just an empty place along the highway. I can only imagine that a Godzilla sized dog came along and buried Bone.

Powder, WY: Like Bone, there was nothing there but a sign at each end of what might have been the city limits. I doubt that it took much of a wind to blow Powder across the high plains.

“Life is much too important to be taken seriously.”

 Books by Lou Bradshaw available on Amazon Kindle

 A Fine Kettle of Fish – Hickory Jack – Blue – Ace High – Blue Norther – Cain

–  One Man Standing – Rubio –  Cain…just Cain….Spirit Valley…..soon Driftin’

Visit me on Facebook Lou Bradshaw Artist – Author or www.facebook.com/loubradshawarts

Or you can contact me at loubradshaw7@gmail.com

Or at Amazon Author Central www.amazon.com/author/loubradshaw

High Plains Pharmacy:

            For 400 miles in all directions, you can see signs advertising Wall Drug Store. The last time we were there (33 years ago) we didn’t stop – this time we had to. They advertised free ice water and nickel coffee along with every other thing imaginable. We found Wall Drugs to be at least a full square block (maybe more) of outrageousness. They had every form of souvenir junk that Japan, China, or Taiwan ever manufactured. They had an in-house tattoo parlor, beauty shop, dentist office, and a full sized dinosaur skeleton.  When we walked out, I walked right into a bunch of Sturgis leftovers and told them, “Boys, I’ve been to Gatlinburg, Branson, and Wall Drug. I’ve seen it all, and I can die a happy man.”

“Life is much too important to be taken seriously.”

 Books by Lou Bradshaw available on Amazon Kindle

 A Fine Kettle of Fish – Hickory Jack – Blue – Ace High – Blue Norther – Cain

–  One Man Standing – Rubio –  Cain…just Cain….Spirit Valley…..soon Driftin’

Visit me on Facebook Lou Bradshaw Artist – Author or www.facebook.com/loubradshawarts

Or you can contact me at loubradshaw7@gmail.com

Or at Amazon Author Central www.amazon.com/author/loubradshaw

Road trip… # 2  Sturgis:

            Sturgis, SD is the home of the world’s largest motorcycle rally – about a half a million bikes. We were surrounded by them for the first 2 days, with bikes going both ways. Those lawyers and CPAs never travel alone. They travel in packs of 8 to 14, and they are all dressed in black jeans, black scull or eagle tee shirts, and leather. I estimated about $100,000 worth of leather per 20 miles. Marlin Brando must be very proud to have spawned so many character wannabees.

“Life is much too important to be taken seriously.”

 Books by Lou Bradshaw available on Amazon Kindle

 A Fine Kettle of Fish – Hickory Jack – Blue – Ace High – Blue Norther – Cain

–  One Man Standing – Rubio –  Cain…just Cain…. and now available…Spirit Valley

Visit me on Facebook Lou Bradshaw Artist – Author or www.facebook.com/loubradshawarts

Or you can contact me at loubradshaw7@gmail.com

Or at Amazon Author Central www.amazon.com/author/loubradshaw

From the editor:

A few years back, Avon and I spent about a month traveling the northern mountain states. It was one of our best trips ever – a regular second honeymoon but without all those tears. I couldn’t seem to stop crying on the first one. Anyway, brace yourselves because you’re going to get a synopsis of the trip from my own somewhat askew prospective. We didn’t give ourselves a time limit, but figured we’d have to come home when we collapsed or when the plastic cards did. LB, editor

This may take a few weeks just to tell about it.

South Dakota:

            South Dakota is a featureless land with few exceptions. One of those would be the Corn Palace in Mitchell. The thing is a monstrosity shaped like a Russian Orthodox Church, which hides the fact that it is a gymnasium. The outside and the inside are covered with murals all made from corn. That’s correct… corn. They use everything out of the cornfield except the weeds. It’s really well done and should be seen – once. If they ever have a fire there, Mitchell and the surrounding countryside will be 3 feet deep in popcorn. When you leave the Corn Palace, there are about 350 miles of horizon until you reach Mt. Rushmore, the Black Hills, and Sturgis.

Coming Soon to a Reading Device Near You

“Life is much too important to be taken seriously.”

 Books by Lou Bradshaw available on Amazon Kindle

 A Fine Kettle of Fish – Hickory Jack – Blue – Ace High – Blue Norther – Cain

–  One Man Standing – Rubio –  Cain…just Cain…. and now available…Spirit Valley

Visit me on Facebook Lou Bradshaw Artist – Author or www.facebook.com/loubradshawarts

Or you can contact me at loubradshaw7@gmail.com

Or at Amazon Author Central www.amazon.com/author/loubradshaw

The Ice Age of 09:

            Back in of 2009 the Ozarks has endured yet another major ice storm and we were fortunate to have survived that one without the massive power failures. There were many who couldn’t get out and had no place to go if they could, so they just kicked back and stayed warm inside the house. What are the consequences of this kind of natural occurrence you ask? Well there would be a good deal of lost man/woman hours, some loss of retail sales, and higher heating bills. But in October of 2009 the maternity wards at the local hospitals were be booming.

Truths:

Aging :     I’ve stored a lot of knowledge over the years, and the password to my database is safe, but I forgot where I put it.

Economics: A person with foolish spending habits often has more dollars than sense.

Personality: An ego the size of Texas can’t cover your shortcomings from anyone but yourself.

“Life is much too important to be taken seriously.”

 Books by Lou Bradshaw available on Amazon Kindle

 A Fine Kettle of Fish – Hickory Jack – Blue – Ace High – Blue Norther – Cain

–  One Man Standing – Rubio –  Cain…just Cain…. and now available…Spirit Valley

Visit me on Facebook Lou Bradshaw Artist – Author or www.facebook.com/loubradshawarts

Or you can contact me at loubradshaw7@gmail.com

Or at Amazon Author Central www.amazon.com/author/loubradshaw

Hmmmm!:

          The lovely Avon has an activity, which she looks forward to every month. She and a group of lady friends all get together to eat desserts, laugh, probably gossip, and play BUNKO. Right off the bat, the name of that game sounds criminal. There used to be a radio crime program called Bunko Squad, in which the police fought and arrested a bunch of gangsters (yes, children we watched police stories on the radio). Every month they move the game to another lady’s home. The whole thing sounded vaguely familiar, so I searched my memory and came up with the answer. Back when I was making a serious effort to miss-spend my youth and my paychecks; we had a similar activity. We didn’t call it BUNKO, we called it a Floating Crap Game, and there were no desserts. 

The Name Game:

            My sister got caught up in the name thing and discovered that after all these years she didn’t know where my name came from. Sis, I was named for an old Blue-Tick hound that Uncle Ed had.

Patience:

          Lately, Avon has been showing a great deal of patience towards me, but unfortunately she isn’t exactly extending much of it towards me.

“Life is much too important to be taken seriously.”

 Books by Lou Bradshaw available on Amazon Kindle

 A Fine Kettle of Fish – Hickory Jack – Blue – Ace High – Blue Norther – Cain

–  One Man Standing – Rubio –  Cain…just Cain…. and now available…Spirit Valley

Visit me on Facebook Lou Bradshaw Artist – Author or www.facebook.com/loubradshawarts

Or you can contact me at loubradshaw7@gmail.com

Or at Amazon Author Central www.amazon.com/author/loubradshaw