Still above ground

Despite the extended drought of posts in this old blog, I'm still among the living.  My typical orbit does not carry me very far from home or work, but I did make a nice elliptical loop out to Scandinavia in the summer of 2017.  I crewed a great tall ship (Statsraad Lehmkuhl) for about a week from Bergen, Norway to Turku, Finland, and then spent about a week in Finland.  I finally got to see some new castles/fortresses, which ended a long drought.

Since then pretty much all my brief escapes from the extraterrestrial grindstone have been to see beloved family and friends.  I've taken zero hours of paid leave I earned this year, all of which I will lose (if I haven't used it) at year's end, and I now don't have enough time to use it all, so...yay.

On the bright side, it has been a very productive year "at the office", with a lot of progress made toward getting new things ready to fly, while continuing to work plenty of cargo missions that intermittently punctuate all the other development activities.  There aren't any big promotions or advancements or changes in the offing.  We have our hands full.  They're full with new stuff, which is definitely enough to handle for the time being and foreseeable future.*

Oh, and I'm gradually easing back into skateboarding for the first time in decades.  A few weeks back I went to my first skate park (indoor), and didn't completely destroy myself.  Yesterday a co-worker friend and I attended the 35th annual Turkey Jam skate contest (didn't compete) held in a big drainage ditch north of downtown.  A good time was had by all.

*Apologies for all the intentionally vague terms.  I haven't figured out how to write about my new daily normal activities without feeling like I'm in danger of breaching NDAs, etc.


"When yu' can't have what you choose, yu' just choose what you have."
~The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister

You spun me right round, baby...

Last month I took a little trip to participate in another research study.  It was a whirlwind of a single day near Philadelphia, PA at the NASTAR (National Aerospace Training and Research) facility.  The study is looking at the effectiveness of training for non-astronauts to participate in future commercial sub-orbital space flights.

The real attractant to me for this study was the chance to ride the big centrifuge at NASTAR.  I'd never done this before, and figured it was a worthwhile experience to add to the old life's resume (kind of like all that time in Antarctica).  The closest experience I had before this was riding the Round Up at the county fair as a kid.  I also didn't have to pay to ride the centrifuge, just the travel costs to and fro (which included getting to drive a brand spanking new Chevy Impala rental car, with all of 6 miles on it when I headed out to drive the mean streets of Philly and I-95).

Visualizations were projected on the interior of the centrifuge cabin, which were quite realistic.  The truly gripping sensation was the acceleration, though.  That was awesome.  And, I don't use that word lightly...

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“But experience is the best teacher, hunger good sauce, and I really think to be acquainted with misery contributes to the enjoyment of happiness, and to know one’s self greatly facilitates the knowledge of mankind.”
~”Journal of a Trapper” by Osborne Russell

The Hopeful Horde

I just read that over 18,000 applications were submitted for the next astronaut candidate selection process.  That's a mean pile of work for the board to review, for sure.  I have a habit of putting numbers of people in perspective by scaling to my home town.  In this case, that's over 9 home towns.  Sweet!  Finding out that I'm just one of an even bigger, writhing, teeming mass daunts me exactly zero/nada/zilch/nicht more than before.  Chances are slim for anybody, regardless of the number of applications, period.  Why sweat it?  Good luck to everybody, and may some truly excellent new astronaut candidates sift out of this bounteous harvest of resumes.  Ad astra per aspera!

-->"We had some incredible people come in-high school track stars, intercollegiate water polo players, international-quality swimmers.  And a lot of them ended up failing.  At the same time, we had guys who had trouble on the runs, guys who had trouble doing push-ups, guys whose teeth would start chattering just looking at the cold ocean, and yet they made it.  And one of the reasons why they made it is they had this relentless perseverance."
~SEAL Lt. Commander Eric Greitens in ”Manhunt” by Peter L. Bergen

Make-believe Mission #2

Going up that ladder, right in front of you is the kitchen/galley, where we will prepare our meals, which will be provided by the food lab that feeds the real crews on the U.S. side of the ISS.

 

 Left of that is a table where we can eat and plug in whatever electrical/electronic devices that are allowed to be used during the study.  There are a lot of restrictions, since the investigators want to ensure we don't have unauthorized communications channels, which I can totally understand.  The two silver (roughly) cylindrical objects flanking the table are cameras, which will be used to analyze our moods/frames of mind.  There are others located throughout the modules.

Right of the galley area is the exercise bike, which is complemented by a little open area with some hand weights (where I was standing to take the photo), which we will use to maintain some level of fitness during the study.

 Finally, ladders in two of the corners of the upper level lead to the personal bunk quarters at the top of the center module stack.  I don't know how much room for storage we'll have up here, but this is our solo territory for the mission.  I'm certainly looking forward to the mattresses, which I imagine are a lot better than the air mattress I still sleep on.  ;)

I'll see what official photos I can get after this wraps up.  Personal cameras are not allowed.  I will be out of the loop for the duration, but given how infrequently I update this blog, I don't think anybody will notice.

Since I last posted in 2014 I have started working some with the future commercial crew vehicles, which has been interesting.  I think it is going to be quite an educational several years getting those to their first flights.  In general, I feel extremely fortunate to have the chance to participate in these activities involved with the species' gradual process of becoming multi-planetary.

“If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture-that is immortality enough for me.  And as much as anyone deserves.”
~Edward Abbey, “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”

Make-believe Mission #1

I've been selected to be a crew person on a 2-week HERA isolation study about how a long duration space mission would affect the people living in close confines far away from home.  The next two weeks we will receive training and provide initial data for the researchers.  Then we will be sequestered in the HERA modules for 2 weeks, and that's that.  After we get out we do some debriefing, and presumably some more data gathering.  It should be an interesting challenge, to say the least, right here in my backyard.  Does this count as a "staycation" for me?

Some external views of my future 2-week home:

 

 

 Immediately right of the main entrance is a workstation for the environmental systems and such.

Just left of that is the hygiene module, with the bathroom facilities.  It will be interesting to see how communal use of this co-ed facility will work out.

Left of the hygiene module entrance is the simulator workstation for orbiters/rovers (?), I believe.

Left of that is the area where some of the biological sampling will be done.  There is a tube here to send out saliva swabs to be flash-frozen, as well as the pass-through to dispose of our trash.

Left of the previous workspace is the med table, and left of that is the entrance to the "airlock" module.  It is in here that we will put our arms through a curtain for a phlebotomist to take blood samples from time to time during the study.  This is so we won't see them, and we won't be talking, but communicating via hand signals.  I did say this was an isolation study, as you recall.  This photo is taken through the central lift/ladder that is used to move between the first and second levels of the core module.

More to come

Still here, still working

I'm still here in Houston, chipping away at the training program bit by bit.  Last week I finally got to work my first spacecraft simulation.  It was nice to finally get to put all this "book learning" into action, and I am happy to finally get to the part of the learning curve to bring this all together in a push directly toward working real mission operations again.

Other than work, I haven't really had much of note to report.  I did have my folks visit last weekend, and we made the local tourist circuit around the Clear Lake area.  Otherwise, I generally avoid driving around Houston much.  It's a survival tactic, on my part.  At some point I will get farther afield to some of the state parks and such (out west), but for now I have my hands full here and the focus is just down the road at JSC.

I will get the new work week off to a roaring start tomorrow with my flight physical in the morning (currently fasting for the blood draw and urine sample) and a new hire orientation in the evening.  The latter is just the next step in preparing to take part in a wholesale change of employers as the contract many of us work on ends, and the new contract and set of companies take over on 10/1.

“If you’ve turned away from one road there’s always another-filled with risk but also adventure.  Roads less taken are always the most rewarding ones.”
~Max Allan Collins, Intro to “Road to Perdition”

A Hyborian excursion

Roundabout 2002 I discovered some old pulp paperback copies of Conan stories in a used bookstore in Maryland, while out there working on the SOHO spacecraft at NASA Goddard.  Over the years I read more of those Conan tales, and reveled in the re-publication of the original tales over the next several years during the rest of my time back east and back in Kansas in grad school.  At some point I came across the fact that there was not only the opportunity to visit Robert E. Howard’s old home in Cross Plains, TX, but that once each year folks gather there for the Robert E. Howard Days event that celebrates the author and his works.  It seemed like year after year I was either in school, in Antarctica, or in aggressive job hunting mode and could never make the trek to attend REH Days.

That changed in 2014.  With a launch schedule delay at work the week before, I grabbed the galloping charger that is destiny by the reins and took a couple days off work to journey to Cross Plains. 

The first stop was the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, though.  Here I took in a traveling exhibit called Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology.  They had a good number of real relics, as well as a bunch of original props and costumes from the Indy films.  And, yes, that included the cross of Coronado, where it belongs…in a museum.

In Cross Plains I got to see the fabled Howard house, where REH did a lot of his writing.  It was rewarding to see this very familiar and un-exotic home, which had been the site of the generation of such imaginative tales.

That front porch was the site of a reading of some of REH’s poetry on the Friday night of the festivities.  I contributed an impromptu rendition of “Attila Rides No More”.

A lot of the panel discussions about a variety of topics germane to the man and his works were held in the excellent Cross Plains Public Library.  Strangely enough, they had a main landing gear tire from a Space Shuttle flight long past.

There was also a morning tour around some of the outlying areas near Cross Plains.  This included a stop at a ranch where some top-class longhorn cattle are raised.  They were mostly really shy this day, but one very pregnant cow was convinced to come up close to the fence by a bucket of treats.

All in all, it was a very pleasant excursion.  Getting to chat with other folks that were often times far more knowledgeable and passionate about REH and his works was really interesting.  If you have not read any Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, El Borak, or any of the host of other characters created by Howard then you are really missing out.  If you are skeptical of his writing, then at least take a look at the author himself.  His tragically brief life is another story worth discovering, and a visit to his grave in Brownwood will be all the more poignant.

"Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet."

~Robert E. Howard

In the backyard

A longer while back I took in a couple sites in the more immediate area here in Houston. 

Up north a bit, at the site of the last (and very brief) battle of the Texas Revolution, is the San Jacinto Monument.  This edifice is a bit taller than the Washington Monument in D.C., and has a commanding view of the Houston area.  One can get a feel for how utterly planar this coastal area is, which makes Kansas seem positively undulating. 

From the observation deck near the top, the Battleship Texas on the Houston Ship Channel is easily espied.  The heavily industrialized areas in Pasadena and other surrounding satellites of Houston proper make for a sobering scene.  I imagine if one could take in the view at night they’d be even more reminded of the future Los Angeles in “Blade Runner”.

Just a few miles down the road from my pad is the not-so-urban jungle at Armand Bayou Nature Center.  There is an old farm site and a fair number of critters to take a look at on display or flying/trundling/slithering around the place.  A highlight was finally seeing living armadillos bustling about the undergrowth, not just crushed and broken on the side of the road.  Thankfully, the mosquitoes were few and far between during my visit, since it had been dry for a few weeks at that point.  That would most definitely NOT be the case now.

Most of my time is still spent at work.  Training is coming along well, and I just keep trying to cram as much new knowledge and skill between my ears as possible.  It will still be a while before I am put in the hot seat for simulations, and even longer for real operations, but it feels rewarding to finally be putting things together and be able to contribute to the team.

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

~Henry David Thoreau

Playing Tourist

The multi-week training session I’m currently going through included (in the first week) a fair number of tours to see the highlights of the local space-related environs.  It was fun to see places I had not visited since 2000, and there were certainly plenty of changes since then.  Others I’d not seen before, which were fun as well.  Here are some photos:

These two are in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, which is the big pool used for training for space walks (EVAs) and such.  

This is an old trainer for the toilet on the Shuttle.  It's not the plumbed one you could actually use, but is the one that just had a closed-circuit camera (with a monitor facing you, just right of the picture as shown here), so you could check your alignment/aim before doing the deed for real on the plumbed one. 

In the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility you can see all manner of contraptions, including Shuttle and Station simulators and a concept vehicle for a pressurized-cabin rover, and a Soyuz vehicle.

It was interesting to be in a Shuttle trainer once again, after many long years.  For some reason the phrase "kick out the jams" came to mind.

“A gent that lives on his brain is simply turning daydreams into money.”
~Colonel Dangerfield, “Destry Rides Again” by Max Brand

Back to work

Well, a very happy new year to us all.  It is a nice relief to have employment that won’t (hopefully) end before the end of this calendar year.  The cycle is (likely) broken!  I guess I’m (parenthetically) still not taking things for granted.  I have been doing a lot of solo research at work lately, since we are being withheld from most instructor-led training until after attending a series of classes called ISS Boot Camp that will kick off sometime in February.  I continue to walk to/from work, despite the cooler temperatures, which I have actually been enjoying quite a lot.  It is nice to get the exercise around the sedentary hours at work, and it is a nice hour of “reading” audiobooks when the weather allows.

I don’t have many exotic environs to share here, but I will try to find things of visual interest.  One of these is, I think, our simulator for the robotic workstations on the ISS.  This is in our simulation facility that is referred to as Sim City, and is used to give people a chance to use the two hand controllers (translational and rotational) and digital displays that would be available for crewmembers on ISS to perform robotic work, including the capture of the visiting vehicles that my group supports flights.  I got to grab the Japanese HTV back before the holiday break, which was a fun little escape from searching documents and taking notes.

Bill, wherever in the world you are, good luck and I’m definitely happy you’re setting off on this bucket list assault of a journey.  Bon voyage!

“To those bred under an elaborate social order few such moments of exhilaration can come as that which stands at the threshold of wild travel.”

~Gertrude Bell, “The Desert and the Sown”

Time flies whilst gainfully employed

The weeks are already clipping by at a rapid pace, now that some sort of routine has been established at and away from work.  It has been a long while since I’ve had this out in “the world”, as I usually conceptualized non-South Pole living over the preceding years.  I have not really done anything much of interest away from work, since weekends have been made use of to attend to the necessities of living and the recharging of my own internal batteries outside of the work week.

I have regularly been walking to and from work, which is a pleasant way to begin and end the workday hours.  It ensures I am definitely awake by the time I arrive and provides a nice (active) contrast to the sedentary interval spent on base at JSC.  I have yet to start riding my bike, since the best practice of wearing a helmet conflicts with the marginally vain goal of having decently presentable hair freshly showered.  I certainly have challenge enough in that regard these days.  On occasion, I drive my car, but that is usually reserved for picking up groceries on the weekends.  As the months have progressed, the temperatures have generally cooled to a very pleasant range, and this week I had the pleasure of walking to work a couple days with temperatures in the 30-Fahrenheit range, which was a welcome contrast to the heat and stickiness I typically associate with weather in Houston.

My training at work has steadily progressed, though the pace should pick up greatly starting this coming week.  I have been reading a lot of technical documents in preparation for a lot of training, and hope to keep the progression clipping along toward official recognition that I have internalized enough information to be of practical use to the team.  I have also gotten to observe and play a minor part in a number of spacecraft rendezvous and capture simulations, which have been interesting and presage the activities I will someday be allowed to take part in with actual spaceships flying about in the heavens.  At some point I will share photographic evidence of my new activities and environs, but it has eluded me thus far, having had plenty of other responsibilities to which I have had to attend.

In conclusion, life is good, and I feel most wholeheartedly fortunate to be in the straits that I am in at present.  Though, I am at wits’ end to understand why I rendered this missive in such a stilted idiom.

“Nobody can acquire honor by doing what is wrong.”

~Thomas Jefferson

Let there be Normal!

Tomorrow will hopefully be day one of the first normal full week of work I will have in the Visiting Vehicles group since I started, nearly three weeks ago.  We got to go back on JSC property starting Thursday, which made for a quick couple days to try and settle into the new stomping grounds.  With luck I will be able to start walking to work now that the whole level of uncertainty about the situation will be reduced substantially.  A big part of this week will be my appointment on Tuesday morning to go submit my background check information to the security folks, which will hopefully get the ball rolling to get me a lot of the computer and facility access I need to be a fully-functioning employee on-site.  Other than that, I imagine I will be doing a lot of reading and training and who knows what else.  It feels good to have a job and some stability once again.

“A man doesn’t begin to attain wisdom until he recognizes that he is no longer indispensable.”

~Richard E. Byrd, “Alone”

waiting for a GO

Since Congress passed the bill last night, I assume I am headed back to work today.  However, at this hour of the morning there is still no definitive statement that we should report to JSC like "normal".  It would be fantastic if we could avoid doing this again.  It has been great, but...

“To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.”

~Tacitus

the slopey bit

Indeed, I'm going to have steep going to climb this learning curve for my job for a good long while.  However, I am making progress, despite the extra challenges the last weeks have held.  We continue to meet for training sessions at the library, and I’m getting in plenty of studying at home as well.  I haven not set foot on JSC since a week ago Tuesday, so it will be a little weird to do that again (at some point).

Something here that gets joked about a lot, but is a real phenomenon to which a neophyte must adapt, is the lingo.  We talk in acronyms, and even sometimes nested acronyms, that stretch to several levels of encryption.  The whole operational culture is different than that in which I worked for three years with the SOHO spacecraft.  The scale of the organization is orders of magnitudes larger as well.  Of course a lot of that has to do with the scope of the vehicles involved (a space station with an area footprint the size of a football field…hello, big!) and the added concerns about safety since human beings get to go fly on a number of those vehicles.  I have a lot to learn, and I’m looking forward to it.

On the home front, I feel pretty much settled in and continue to revise how I have my junk arrayed in my apartment.  I actually got a folding lawn chair and some new pillows last weekend, so I feel I’m living pretty large now.  But, with the uncertainties about the work situation, I have been maintaining a frugal budget.  I did get my first paycheck today (hooray!), and hopefully that will continue to be a weekly event.

My heart goes out to the researchers and support personnel of the United States Antarctic Program that are being hit hard by this manufactured disruption to normal business.  With a bit of luck the abbreviated summer season and premature redeployment of hundreds of people will come off safely and leave the stations squared away for next winter.

“Valor is of no service, chance rules all, and the bravest often fall by the hands of cowards.”

~Tacitus

a memorable inauguration

This first week of work has been mostly me studying materials at home, with a couple trips to meet co-workers to receive training at the local library branch.  I have made incremental progress, but I think the learning for this job will probably never cease.  There is a lot to know about flying these vehicles and doing so safely.  For now, we are still being paid for our time.  I fill my time card out online, and keep in touch with my manager via email.  It certainly is a bizarre way to start a new job, but there is nothing we can do to change it.  At some point, however much further down the road, we will get to resume. 

Apropos to this ongoing situation, I got my new voter registration certificate in the mail this week.

“Beware the fury of a patient man.”

~John Dryden

Fraught first foray

Well, nothing worth doing is ever easy, correct?  Good, because I think this new job is going to be pretty doggone challenging.  I got through my initial bout of HR business this morning without any big issues, including getting my first badge for the day for USA.

I then headed over to JSC and got my temporary access badge to enter the base and got myself up to the offices whence I'll base myself for the foreseeable future.  It is kind of a rabbits' warren of partitions and doors and narrow walkways.  It became quickly apparent that getting through the next round of security screenings and obtaining permission to use IT resources was going to take a bit, which might actually take even longer (more below) given current events.  I got the whirlwind tour and gauntlet of introductions, and I think some names and roles sunk in after the first immersion.  I eventually got some hard copies of training materials I need to start learning for my various levels of certification for the hierarchy of positions within the Grappling Visiting Vehicle Officer (VVO) Group.  Reading that material and intermittently trying to find out how to get IT access and sort out other bureaucratic issues consumed the rest of the day save for about 30 minutes spent touring the attached building with the actual operations rooms/flight control rooms.  Learning acronyms is going to be a long-term effort, which comes as no surprise.

Soooo, my initiation into this challenging position is being made all the more tough by the looming issue of the government shutdown and potential furloughs that could go into effect as early as tomorrow.  Great, just great.  Contractors like me won't be unable to work, but we may be kept out of JSC proper and have to work elsewhere.  Regardless, this will neither get me my badges any more rapidly, nor will it get me into and through the background check process any swifter.  The plan is to go to work at the normal hour tomorrow and see what happens.  It'd be nice not to have to worry about this, but it is what it is (way above my pay grade).

So, my plate is pretty full for the time being.  I think it will be from now on, period.

“Man does what he can and bears what he must.”

~Nicias

Turning the crank

Since I last wrote, I have continued to get acclimated to my new digs and environs.  The weather has been fair, despite some rains that rolled through over the weekend.  I have kept myself busy with continuing to research my past for the big upcoming background check, as well as taking care of sundry address changes and such for my bureaucratic entanglements.  Some of the bigger tasks that are almost completed are now just waiting for others to mail me final versions of titles, driver’s licenses, etc.

My apartment complex is quite nice, rather nicer than any I have been in before.  Of course I would not mind an uncluttered vista like the view from my folks’ place back home, but that is not really possible here.  So it is and so it goes for a country mouse in a city house.  After a week in the apartment I am getting used to some of the rhythms of the place.  The gurgle and spurt of sprinklers turning on late woke me up the first few nights.  I also seem to be coming to grips with my paranoia about mold, but will remain vigilant to keep that at bay.

All in all, things are going well and I think I will be well and ready for work to start next Monday. 

“Like many introverts, I'm capable of adopting a persona and going out into a public place if there's a reason to."

~Neal Stephenson, Eurogamer interview pub. 7/5/2012

Dislocation, relocation, & now this location

I got myself moved down to Houston over the weekend and Monday with the assistance of my folks, and thankfully with no mishaps.  The truck I was given was a 16' one, not a 10' one like I'd ordered, so I had plenty of extra space in the cargo box.  After getting my folks to the airport I started the process of unpacking and doing the multitude of errands involved in resettling someplace urban like this.

There are already things I miss about home, for sure.  But, it has been alright here, and I've probably not suffered any more than my usual fair share of trepidations upon embarking on something new.  I know I have to make a long-term home here, and I think it will be doable.  It's mostly going to be a mind game, like so much of life is it seems.

A few niceties of the experience thus far are that I seem to be able to navigate pretty well, though I haven't been here much since an internship during the summer of 2000.  My apartment is pretty close to a lot of the places I've needed or will need to visit to take care of the relocation errands.  The public library nearby is pretty big/extensive.  I will have a succinct commute to work, as well.  My apartment is also very livable, though I'm going to have to deal with some paranoia regarding mold in the swampy environment here.  All in all (knock on wood), the process of becoming a Texas resident is going pretty decently so far.

"Turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese!  I really think so."
~The Vapors

The Guy Who Came in from the Cold

Once again I will be heading south to work, but not THAT far south.  I have actually accepted an actual offer for an aerospace-related position in Houston, TX.  I will work at National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Johnson Space Center (JSC) in mission control as a Visiting Vehicle Officer (VVO), supporting flights to and from the International Space Station (ISS).  I will not start until later next month, but am already in the thick of doing hiring paperwork, background check data collection (daunting), and the usual interstate relocation song and dance.  It feels great to have gotten this opportunity at long last, and I look forward to much learning and professional development in years to come.  A door has certainly opened at an opportune time.

“Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks, and the setting sun with the last light of Durin’s Day will shine upon the key-hole.”

~J.R.R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit”

Northward, ho the wagons!

I had a nice little road trip and visit to Omaha, Nebraska last week.  It was a new destination for me, and having some local friends from the Ice to see the sights with was certainly fun.

The first big destination was the Strategic Air and Space Museum, which had many remarkable vehicles on display.  Getting to see a B-29, let alone go in the cockpit of a B-36 was pretty novel.

Downtown Omaha with its NPS visitor’s center for the Lewis and Clark Trail, multiple monuments to organized labor, relatively new pedestrian bridge over the Missouri River, and proximity to my most newly visited state of the Union (Iowa) was a fun outing for day two.

The last day there we went to the really big and excellent zoo.  I didn’t really photograph anything there, but really enjoyed the day.  Animals of note for me were a giant Japanese salamander (head the size of a large cantaloupe), sleepy aardvarks, snow leopards, and pygmy hippopotami.

The drive to and from was nice as well.  We visited the Atomic Cannon above I-70 at Fort Riley, the Pony Express barn (last home station in existence) in Marysville, and the Homestead National Monument of America near Beatrice (that’s pronounced be-AT-tris, FYI) on the way up.  On the way back we had lunch in the oldest restaurant west of the Mississippi (Hays House in Council Grove), visited the verdant National Tallgrass Prairie Preserve, and watched muddy flood waters of the Cottonwood River at Cottonwood Falls.

“The slow cavalcade of horsemen armed to the teeth has disappeared before parlor cars and the effeminate comforts of modern travel.”

~Francis Parkman, “The Oregon Trail”