In case you don't already know, be prepared for major issues with taking the Amtrak train from western states into NYS.

This train, the Lakeshore Limited from NYS to Chicago and the California Zephyr from Chicago to California, runs ONCE per day.

I took it twice this year with the most recent trip being a more major disaster. than the first trip. The train was 2 hours late by the time it reached Reno, NV.  It was stuck in the desert outside Reno for about two hours with no power, i.e. no AC nor lights!.  Something allegedly fell off the engine!  Conductors stood around discussing what to do, I was told.

The train came into Grand Junction 4 hours late where I got on.  Prioritizing of freight traffic, including very long coal trains and very, very long oil trains, made the train more and more delayed.

The above photo of just a tiny piece of a long line of oil cars (one of several lines of cars I saw on my four trips out to Colorado and back) has the BookCliffs in the background, which is subject to drilling and definitely is being fracked as I saw the lights for three gas wells, one after the other, just outside Grand Junction on my second trip out).

An hour before Omaha, NE, we stopped yet again, allegedly due to freight traffic.  However, cops were let into the car behind me and I hear dogs were brought on to sniff people and luggage.  Two men were taken off in handcuffs, (allegedly for carrying pot across state lines; where they had gotten on I don't know).  At least one passenger accused the conductors of lying, that the stop outside Omaha was to wait for the cops to arrive, not due to freight traffic.

The conductor announcing also claimed that, in addition to the freight train movement reason for the 2 hour wait on the track just before Omaha, NE, they had to wait for a change of crew to appear as the maximum train conductors are allowed to work under federal law is 12 hours and from when the current crew had gotten on in Denver, CO, 12 hours had passed.  Some passengers claimed that also was a lie.  Personally, I found it curious that the conductor who let us on to the Lakeshore Limited train in Chicago onto the car for people getting off at upstate NY stations like Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse was very present in the car up until at least Syracuse where I got off, more than 12 hours later. 

Also, the smokers were not let off for a smoke during our long stop on the tracks outside Omaha and one man got really angry.  He also was taken away in handcuffs.  Some social media savvy young folks contacted an Omaha TV station.  At the Omaha train station, the TV people - Channel 7 KETV, I heard, showed up and interviewed them and others.  Some said they felt like AMTRAK had held them hostage. AMTRAK train passenger caught with pot

We were supposed to arrive in Chicago at around 3:00 P.M. Monday.  We did not get there until 2:30 A.M. Tuesday, the following morning, unloading into a locked Union Station in Chicago.

Those who missed the connection to the Lakeshore Limited train to NY were presented with a table of crappy, cheap array of highly processed food (i.e. dead food), to line up for vouchers for an overnight at a hotel and $10 cash for breakfast.  We lined up around 4:00 a.m. to get onto a coach bus to take us to the motel, which turned out to be about 1/2 hour away on the highway to Indiana.  It was a Red Roof Inn in a dangerous, industrial area.  Two cop cars were outside my ground floor room after I locked it. I did not gingerly get into bed until 5:00 a.m. I woke up at my usual 7:00 a.m. thus got 2 hours sleep that night. In the a.m. I was the first out into the parking lot to start a line to get back on the bus. As we waited for the coach to come to take us back to Union Station at 11:45 a.m. to catch the next day's train to NYS, I heard that at least one other stranded AMTRAK passenger saw gunshots in his/her motel door.  That person or another person saw bloodstains on a door or in the room. If we had any doubt that classism infuses ride by rail in the U.S., i.e. AMTRAK, these experiences completely cleared them.  If you choose to ride by rail in the U.S., specifically NYS, it's assumed you are low income and thus low class since you're not driving or not traveling by airplane.

Our departure would not be until 9:30 p.m. a day late from Chicago. Thus we had a lot of time to kill waiting in Union Station or wander around Chicago.

Be prepared!
Take a few carry-ons but a blanket and a pillow are a must.

My train car was freezing with AC.  I took a large square of fleece and wrapped myself in it for warmth and to keep out the overhead light overnight. The back of the car to NYS has restroom doors that have to be slammed to get shut.  Thus keeping one awake.
The last seats (numbers 1 and 2) are turned around backwards for wheelchair accommodation
If you're lucky enough to have two seats side by side to yourself, tip back both backs, click out both foot rests and you thereby have a sort of bed.  Works if you're short at 5 ft. tall. :)

Again, as we made our way across the top of midwest to northeast, we started getting more and more delayed.  I was supposed to get into Syracuse at 10:23 a.m. and did not arrive until 5:00 p.m.  The person picking me up in Syracuse has to wait 2 hours for me to arrive, thus having to pay $7 for parking in the expensive parking lot.

Carry lots of good food and drink, unless you want to spend a pile of money on train food.  Grapes, sealed containers of hummus, dried apples, pears, small packs of cheese, jerky, crackers.

Be well and safe.

Food stash in prepping for train trip

Prepping for train trip of 3 days and 2 nights on the train.  Insulated food bag stuffed in the freezer, along with the below items mostly just made a few hours ago.

 

From the left:  

corn flour biscuits made yesterday and half already eaten :(

Planning to make more in the a.m.

Beet hummus with cashews and not much chick peas.  I was just running the food processor from one item to the next without hassling with undoing the food processor container, washing it, etc. 

I started with the original hummus to the right of the beet concoction, then proceeded to the mixed herbs hummus sorta cheese-less pesto, then proceeded to the beet mix.  To the right of the green mixed herbs mix is my usual choco treat, made with soaked dates and soaked cashews with a dash of cinnamon and agave syrup or maple syrup along with two tbl of organic cocoa powder. Last on the right is a small tub of olives and one remaining stuffed grape leaf.  Behind, resting on the front of the food processor are 3 Larabars, one for each day.  The dregs of the beet mix are in the food processor to which I intend to add the rest of the herb leaves (basil, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme - Ha ha) in the a.m. with some more lemon juice, already juiced into a peanut butter jar. To the left in the second row is the large bowl, put out to motivate me to get more biscuits done early in the a.m., maybe with rosemary leaves tossed in.

Then to mow early before it heats up. 

The biscuits with the dried rosemary leaves were very delicious.

Today's flowers in the garden.

Today's flowers in my garden.  Some past prime, like the white daisies, which were abundant this year. But now they are brown pods of stalks mostly.
Some of the flowers are at prime, like the cone flowers, which are bigger this year, purple ones and white ones.

Some in between prime and past prime, like the peach hued lilies and the small purple puffs of alum and the brilliant red of the bee balm.

 Some barely beginning to come into prime like the Rose of Sharon bush.

 See if you can find the black and white striped butterfly in the middle of one of the photos. Hint, in this photo.
As always, click on the image to get a bigger version, but do not copy without asking me first. To do so violates copyright law, as noted at the top of the blog.

Signs of fracking in Colorado - cream painted tanks most likely filled with waste and/or oil

What happened to the ancient Puebloans in southwest Colorado?

During my trip to Colorado earlier this year, my host took me to the Colorado National Monument We hiked along the trails, aiming for a waterfall sourced from snow melt high up in the mountains.  Other amazing sites within the Mesa County area suitable for hiking include the The Little Bookcliffs and the regular Book Cliffs which are mostly shades of grey, extend into Utah, the same Book Cliffs that's targeted for increased drilling and mining, and give the appearance of constantly disintegrating from what seems to be sand running down the sides of the cliffs.

But I hear that's not so, as the soil on the sides is quite firm and sticks to the rocks.  Even so, it does not attract me the way the CNM attracts. And of course there's Arches

and Canyonlands but those are in Utah, about 2 hours away by fast highway.

On another trip it would be nice to go see the Little Book Cliffs as they seem less steep than the Book Cliffs and to see the wild horses there.  The Book Cliffs seem way too steep for my limited hiking skills and non-existence rock climbing abilities.

Also in the area around or near Grand Junction is the Grand Mesa and further to the southwest is Mesa Verde.
I did go snowshoeing in the national forest on the Grand Mesa

as it's so much higher and thus still had snow in April/May.

Getting to the spot where we got out to snowshoe involved a long drive up a very steep height

but even so we got only half way up, I was told, where we stopped and parked.
A few miles down the hill from where we went snowshoeing/hiking is the famous Powder Horn ski

resort or as they now label themselves the Powder Horn mountain resort, to include summer activities presumably. But there's lots to enjoy when there's snow still on the ground.

This is just one glimpse of the view on the way down the hill up to the forest.

Going to Mesa Verde would involve much more complication because of it being a a greater distance from Grand Junction than the other sites, along with more extensive hiking, climbing and exploring, and at greater heights, as entering and exiting ancient cliff dwellings come into play, including climbing up skinny ladders and climbing into holes in the floor to climb down ladders, presumably in the dark.

This photo is from the Mesa Verde FaceBook page for the National Parks Department, taken by one of the rangers there.

Much is said about the alleged mystery of the disappearance of the ancient Pueblo people who used to inhabit the cliffs dwelling.  For the first time, today, I encountered a theory of population collapse overburden in an article in Wall Street OTC which makes sense to me as an explanation for why the ancient Pueblo people left the area. Native American population collapse  There were too many inhabitants and they ran out of space and food, and most likely water.

Solar install at the Boceks on 12th June, 2014

You may see the above photo being used as the banner for the STSW (Southern Tier Solar Works) Facebook page with the right side of the photo, containing the copyright mark, cut off .  Notice that the photo as well as this entire blog is copyrighted.  I was not asked and thus did not give permission for the use of the above photo on the STSW Facebook page. 

On a cloudy, drizzly day in upstate NY, some sunshine.  The Boceks, including their black cat, live two houses down the road from me, in a development of c. 800 houses on the side of a mostly gently sloping hill.
Remember to click on a photo to see a bigger version.

A bit of solar tech in Mesa near Grand Junction, CO and near Moab, Utah along with snowshoeing and hot chocolate

Solar camping along the Colorado River Scenic Byway outside Moab, Utah on the way to Grand Junction, CO. A narrow one lane each way road running beside the river, sometimes with a narrow bit of land on which the camping sites rest.  Closer to Moab (named after the Moab Desert in which the Arches National Park sits) you'll see an amazing river walk/boardwalk  at times hanging over the river's edge, on which people walk, bike and run. The almost never-ending red rock cliffs soar upwards to great heights on either side.
Remember to click on the image if you want to view a larger version. And click on links also for more information.

We also saw at Arches National Park in Utah, some miles west of Grand Junction, CO, a group of male Japanese visitors of elder status who came with a younger man who appeared to be their outfitter (see him on the left having his photo being taken by the men) and/or guide.  What was also interesting was that another male visitor who may or may not have been with that group of  men was wearing a solar powered backpack to recharge his camera(s) and cellphone.  When one of us said to him that he could also have a small solar powered fridge added to the unit so as to keep his drinking water and food cool, he said "Good idea!"
My sister drives a Subaru wagon which she bought long before she moved to Grand Junction. The Subaru Dealership in Grand Junction has a roof filled with solar panels.  It turns out that Subaru claims to be the official vehicle of the Powder Horn Ski Resort which is in the Grand Mesa National Forest near Grand Junction!

Most likely because of the car's ability to climb over and out of challenging terrain unlike other vehicles.

We went snowshoeing in the "lower" section of the forest which for most of the year is covered with snow.  I was having a great time until I stepped into a hole 3 different times up to my knee as snow had fallen the night before and was still too soft, not having been packed down by prior explorers.

I got a bit panicky at finding myself not strong enough to pull myself out of the last hole, probably as the Grand Mesa altitude even at its lowest height of 5800 ft above sea level is higher than that of Grand Junction which is at 4593 ft above sea level, thus thinner air. 
The National Forests which make up the area vary in elevation from 5,800 feet above sea level to 14,309 feet.  Corm, on skis, turned back on hearing my bleats, to haul me out by the arm.  Sis came up and, being such a caring person and so sympathetic, led the way back, stamping on tricky areas with her snowshoes, exclaiming against the nasty holes that scare her sis. We trudged back to the car and piled in to go back downhill, stopping at BLINK halfway down for our choice of beverage and cake.

My choice was a hot chocolate, of course.
This place looks like it would be hopping on a winter evening after some skiing or snowshoeing. Click on the photo with the leather chair to read the sign about unsupervised kids.

Sign to drilling rig in Canyon Lands National Park, Utah

My host, connected with the Bureau of Land Management, and who travels over many of the BLM lands in the area, said that new rigs are being installed over the past year or so. Click on the image to get a larger view.

Energy activity portion of my trip to Grand Junction, CO

 Colorado, including Denver, has a reputation for being an epicenter for fracking, with many years of acceptance of the industry and the practice.  But I'm hearing that the flooding of Denver last year, including the dislodging of fracking equipment resulting in the spreading around of frack waste fluid shook residents out of their complacency. Colorado superstorm damaged fracking facilities  Yes, you see signs of fracking in many areas, including in downtown Denver, like those three-nippled frack trucks,which in this photo may more likely be filled with grain and in front of a grain processing facility, which may be what that row of silos is. On the front page of the May 23rd issue of the local paper was an article about possibly sending frack waste to sewage treatment plants. Even after years of fracking, it would appear they still have not figured out what to do with the waste in a responsible manner. More issues are also popping up, like communication with existing wells
You also see wind turbines out on the plains
in Nebraska. along with sites showing forms of energy new to my understanding, different and local climate appropriate ways of cooling, etc. with many, many sections with solar arrays the closer you got to Grand Junction.
There's something called Evaporative Cooling which substitutes for air conditioning, thus saving loads on energy usage.  You see units on roofs which look like air conditioners but they're not.  They cover them with mustard hued fabric in winter then remove these covers in the summer.

Grand Junction is an oasis in a desert, rimmed by the beyond impressive 33,000 plus acres of the Colorado National Monument, part of the National Park System, and edged with other conservation areas, along with private undeveloped lands. Colorado National Monument

Way off in the distance, covered with snow is the Grand Mesa, the largest flat-topped mountain in the entire world. That snow, when it melts, is the source of water for the Colorado River, and for drinking water and watering lawns and food gardens for Grand Junction and agricultural areas of small famly farms, for example in Orchard Mesa, next to Grand Junction, which produce organic stone fruits like peaches, nectarines, cherries, and salad greens.  The snow melt is directed into canals which are shut in the winter and opened in the spring.  The water started running about two weeks before I got here.

The altitude in Grand Junction is 4597 feet. This can be a challenge to your body if you fly in from a place at a lower altitude like that of New York State with Vestal at 1010 feet, Ithaca at 446 feet, Syracuse at 380 feet, Corning at 932 feet, and especially Manhattan in NYC which ranges from 3.3 to 265 feet.  But the Grand Junction altitude is only about half of the altitude that research shows may trigger altitude sickness. How to prevent altitude sickness
And, interestingly, maybe understandably, if you're over 50 (my theory is that it's because you've been on the planet for a longer time), you are less susceptible to Altitude Sickness. 
Best to take the AMTRAK in, like I did, rather than fly or drive. AMTRAK and sustainability

It's a more sustainable choice for long distance travel and better for your body. But AMTRAK still has many problems with lateness, cleanliness, organization of seating assignments, etc.
As a result of taking the train, in spite of not springing for the expense of a sleeping car as seen in the three train cars in the photo above, but "sleeping" two nights in a seat, my body suffered no discernible ill effects from the drastic change in altitude, i.e. Altitude Sickness.  No racing heart, no lightheaded-ness, or the like.
My sister checked my pulse the afternoon of my arrival on a Saturday afternoon, as we set out on a short hike in the nearest conservation area  and again the day after, as we took on a more challenging hike in the actual Colorado National Monument.  It also helps if you are already in pretty good shape.

The Colorado National Monument has to be on the list of places you must see before you die. Along with the other parks and preservation areas in the location. Colorado Parks . No cathedral that any human could build could come even a fingernail's bit of closeness to the magnificence and stunning impact of this area.

I choked up with tear filled eyes on looking out at the magnificence of the vast expanse and intensity and variety of hues, when we stopped at one spot about half way up a main road up the Colorado National Monument.
A major issue, though, is the contrast of the huge beauty of the natural environment as compared with the choking stink of the auto traffic at the local mall and down the main 12th Street  main drag. As beautiful as the area is naturally, Colorado has a kind of backwardness that's a danger to the natural environment.  There appears to be little or no regulation of auto emissions or sounds. Nor any bottle or can deposit which seems to be a California and northeast U.S. activity solely.
You can see black smoke coming out of tail pipes, smell the oily stink of and hear the rumbling of the numerous ill-kept diesel powered  pickup trucks, which half the population seems to drive. The other half of the population seems to be seniors as Grand Junction and maybe other cities in Colorado is clearly a retirement mecca.  There's several apartment complexes like the one in which my sister lives halfway between downtown Grand Junction a mile or so from the Colorado River and the airport at the other end, close to the base of the Bookcliffs mountain range. You can walk from that downtown end of the city and out to the airport in two hours. Crossways the city is wider.

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Englebert Farm in Nichols, NY

Some pics taken before the last flood (the fall 2011 one) which devastated their farm.

 Water troughs by the road

 The fields with the cows way back - you can see it's a similar set up to McRey Farm with fields in front and a forest of trees up on a ridge.

 The barn