POTR #84 Updated Memories

UPDATED MEMORIES

August 6, 2014

Somewhere I have read, likely on the Internet, that the Agave Americana, often called the Century Plant is the fastest growing plant in the world when it starts to bloom and produce seeds. Since I have seen this happen here in Texas I can well believe that it is true. While the myth is that it takes a hundred years to bloom in fact it actually only takes twenty to thirty years on the average with some taking ten and some fifty years. For ten to fifty years the Agave Americana stores up energy for its final spurt of growth. The plant lives its whole life for one purpose, to bloom and produce thousands of seeds and then it will die. The plants that do this are called monocarpic. After it has bloomed the stalk dies and then the main part of the plant follows. It will have produced some cloned seedlings that are called “pups”. In another ten to fifty years these “pups” will follow the life cycle of the parent. In 1932 a fifty year old plant was given to the Bronx Park Botanical Gardens so they could study its growth. The stalk grew at a rate of an inch an hour till it reached fifteen foot tall and produced six hundred gray green buds, which never bloomed. There have been several places that from one to three of these plants have flowered but in one place in McAllen there are close to fifty blooming at one time. They are spectacular to say the least. Some of the stalks have already fallen, and as large as they are they could be hazardous. These stalks have grown to this height in between a month and six weeks.

NEARLY FIFTY BLOOMING AGAVE AMERICANA 

IN McALLEN, TEXAS

It is amazing to see a single Century Plant blooming but to see this many in one place is beyond description. The main thing to say is that everything is bigger in Texas. We have admired these particular plants for eight seasons. By the time we return all of these plants will be dead and only the pups will be growing. On one hand they will be missed, but it will be fun to see what comes next.

EACH BRACT IS COMPOSED OF A 

LARGE NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL BLOOMS

Copper has been used for a decorative metal in sculpture for hundreds if not thousands of years. When it is first cast it is bright shiny metal that looks like a new penny. But if it is exposed to the weather it changes to a beautiful green color, which is called a copper patina. Under normal conditions this will take seven or more years, less near the ocean. Many times the copper is treated with chemicals to hurry this aging process. An example of this natural color that is known to the whole world is displayed by the Statue of Liberty in New York City. When France sent the statue to the United States and it was first erected its color was similar to the pennies that you have in your pocket. With time the elements caused the color to change to the green that it is today. I grew up in Kansas, only about seventy miles from Topeka, the capital. I went to the capital on school trips and at least once I climbed up into the dome of the capital building. I have done that also since I retired. Whenever I have seen the dome of the Kansas capital building it has always been the dark green copper patina. I have always thought that it was a beautiful dome. That is until just a few weeks ago when I again visited Topeka. Over the last few years there has been a major face-lifting done on the capital building and its dome. The green patina copper has been removed from the dome and replaced with a new copper covering that has been treated so that it will not be effected by the weather. Three hundred thirty two million was spent on the renovation of the capitol building which included the change of copper of the dome. I am not sure that the color change has done anything to improve the looks. To me the green was special. It is quite a change. At least the statue of the Native American with his bow firing an arrow towards the north star which was placed up there in 2002 still has the original green copper patina that it developed over the years. The statue alone weighs four thousand four hundred and twenty pounds. Inside the outer dome which can be seen is an interior dome not visible from the outside. The main part is twelve foot higher than the the US Capital dome but at fifty foot in diameter it is roughly half the width.

ORIGINAL COPPER PATINA DOME

 NEW TREATED COPPER DOME

With our motor home pulling a vehicle behind it is a lot easier for us to travel along the Interstate highway system rather than going on the secondary roads even when they might be four lane highways. We make frequent stops for various reasons and there are many rest area along the Interstate system that do not exist along the other roads. There are also many sites that are worth visiting just a few miles off the highway. Many times we simply ignore the attractions and figure that we will see them the next time we are in the area. If we do that too many times there will be things worth seeing that we will never see. We have stopped a few places this trip that we have passed in the past. We are never sure that the roads leading to an attraction will accommodate a vehicle as large as ours. We might have to turn around in some small parking lot or even get blocked into a place where I have to disconnect the Jeep in order to turn around. It has not happened this trip but that has happened in the past.

I don't know when I first heard of the Jolly Green Giant but as a youth I know that I was fascinated by him. He was born or created in 1928 to represent a variety of large green peas from which he got his name. In the beginning he was a puppet who walked around the various field crops. He was green because that was his favorite color and he was jolly because he was fun to be around. But children were scared by him so he was replaced by elves in the commercials. At 3,028 miles Interstate 90 between Boston and Seattle is the longest Interstate in the USA. When the east and west sections were linked near Blue Mound, Minnesota a request was made to the Green Giant Corporation for permission to use their symbol as a 55 foot statue near the Interstate. Permission was granted with the stipulation that the funds required would be obtained locally. A request to ten local businessmen for $5,000 each was made and fulfilled within a week. That represented nearly half the construction cost. The statue stands on top a pedestal with a set of stairs so that the 10,000 visitors a year can climb up and stand between his legs. Every Christmas he sports a red scarf. He has a forty eight inch smile and wears a size 78 shoe. I looked around to see if Sprout was there but I could not find him.

THE JOLLY GREEN GIANT STATUE

 IN BLUE EARTH, MINNESOTA

When I was growing up my sister and I enjoyed music. She would play the piano and I would sing with her. I really enjoyed doing that. We shared a lot of church songs and a lot of contemporary music too. I enjoyed those times very much and even to this day I wish I could go back and share those singing sessions. One of the songs that we enjoyed together was Church in the Wildwood. The chorus goes, “Come to the church by the wildwood.” We would often sing it as, “Come, come, come, come to the church in the wildwood.” At that time I did not know that there was an actual church that the song had been written about. Oddly enough the song was written five years before the church was built. The song was written by William S. Pitts in 1857 after a stage coach trip to see his fiance. The stagecoach had stopped near Bradford, Iowa and he wandered the woodlands a bit. He envisioned a brown church in the area and could not be at peace with himself until he wrote the song. In 1862 he and his wife moved close to the area and he discovered that a church was being built in the exact area that had inspired the song. They were also painting the church brown because it was the cheapest color that could be bought. It is interesting to note that the church is called -- 'in the Vale,' or -- 'in the Wildwood,' or -- 'in the Dale.' With the Internet highway system thousand of people visit the church and there are many weddings performed there every year. This happened to be one of those places where there was only a limited space in which to turn around. There was a curve in both directions from where we parked. There was also a fair amount of traffic coming from either direction plus people who were parked in the parking area and could easily have blocked our movements. We were fortunate that we only had to wait a few minutes for no vehicles to be coming from either direction. It took the parking area, the two traffic lanes and part of the far shoulder to turn around the motor home and Jeep. This church was only about three four or five miles away from the Interstate, through town but on good roads.

THE LITTLE BROWN CHURCH IN THE DALE
 NEAR BRADFORD, IOWA

We are currently in the Rochester, NY area. The camp in which we are staying is a combination of RV camp and golf course. A special party was in the clubhouse at our arrival time. There were so many cars in the parking lot that the owners were concerned that we would not be able to get into the camp. They called us and asked that we enter through the exit only road and they gave us specific instructions of how to get to the needed location. As we came in there were several people who looked at us with that look of, “Why are those idiots bringing in a big motorhome the wrong way and going the wrong way on one way roads that they should not be on?” In two hours all the cars were gone.

We are enjoying our time here in Rochester. We went up to the Rochester Public Farmers Market. There are many farmers markets that are set up during the summer. But this one is special to us. It was started in 1905 and had grown to be huge. There are over a hundred farmers stalls to buy produce, in addition there are many open air booths where just about anything you can think of is sold. The people that come to the market truly represent a cross section of the world. Many languages can be heard if you listen. The attire worn comes from anywhere in the world and is very interesting. Parking can be one of the biggest problems, but with patience a spot will open up. Then it is a matter of walking the aisles that almost seem endless along with thousands of people. We go to get vegetables, fruit, cheese, butter; well the list of what we might get would take more space than there is left on this page. Suffice it to say that we always look forward to a visit to the Rochester Public Farm Market. It is simply a destination any time that we are here. Even in the middle of winter (which we don't do now) it is a fun place to visit.

Till Later This Is Doug Of

PEACE ON THE ROAD

POTR #83 Changes

CHANGES

March 31 2014

“The only thing constant is change.” While there is question of who actually made this quote, Issac Assimov, an American author, Francois de la Rochefoucauld, a french author, or Heraclitus of Ephesus. a Greek philosopher (wise man) of the fifth century BC it holds a lot of truth. My personal guess that it was the Greek that wrote it first. Things change for every one of us on a daily basis. Most of the time we do not notice the changes. Many years ago my brother told me of a friend of his who bought a building lot on which he wanted to build the perfect house. His plan was to build a “perfect” house on a different site and live in it a length of time. He would determine how it could be made more “perfect” and build another house on a second lot. He figured that the third house that he built would really be perfect and could be built on the “perfect” lot. When twenty years or so had passed I asked my brother about him. I received an answer that should not have surprised me at all. The friend told my brother something like, “No, I was not ever able to build the perfect house. As I aged my needs and my desires changed. The house that would have been perfect years ago is no longer perfect.”

We change and become different. For a great number of years I have felt that we become different people every few years while still retaining a lot of the same characteristics. Of course there are major changes while we are very young. A person as a baby is a very different person than when they become a toddler, and then a small child, a preteen, and a teenager. I think that the changes slow down some when a person reaches early adulthood, about the time they reach college age. Then the change is influenced by life choices. I went to college and my best friend did not. It seemed to me that he had changed when I went to see him. But my Mother said, “No, he has changed little. You left home and became the one that changed a lot.” Becoming a spouse, perhaps a parent, and middle aged does a lot to change us into different people. Suddenly we become that person that is called a “Senior Citizen.” I would think that we become different people about every five years on the average. The average years between changes might be less, but I don't think an individual time span is ever more than fifteen years.

Close to two and a half years ago when I returned to the valley with West Nile some friends of ours loaned us their golf cart (personal electric transportation vehicle) while they went on vacation. At the time I was walking a small amount but not a lot. The gift of its use was a blessing that I would never have guessed was so good. There were many evenings that we would go out and drive it around the park, get some fresh air, meet the other residents of the park and simply get out of the motor home. It was so nice that the idea of getting one of our own was constantly in the back (or closer to the front) of our minds. Our friends went on vacation several more times in the next couple of years and again they gave us their golf cart to use. A lot of people here in the park have PETs (personal electric transportation) but as far as I know they all also have carports to park them in. When they leave in the off season they cover the PET with a cover of some sort. We do not have any sort of carport so our thoughts were we would build some sort of shed in which to store it when we leave for the summer. Of course there is other value to having a shed. In February we decided that if we were ever to get a PET (now to us it is a Peace Electric Transportation) we should do it now and start enjoying it. For Erma's 50th anniversary, her Christmas, her birthday and Mothers Day I bought a sand colored Yamaha PET. I put on a few extra bells and whistles, like a rear seat so it carries four, a long roof that covers the seats better, hub caps that dress up the wheels, a custom dash so the the original ugly dash does not show. And of course I had lights put on it. So for my equivalent celebration days Erma had built for me a 10” x 12” shed and had it electrically wired. Now since the shed is really a home for the PET it has to be called the PEnThouse. It may just be me but I think that our PET is one of the nicest looking vehicles in the park. The PEnThouse turned out a lot nicer than I dreamed it would. It is covered with vinyl siding, even the door is covered. The fellow that did the wiring suggested that it would be good to put 220 volt into it so that if I ever wanted to put a clothes dryer out there I would have the power. It has twice the number of receptacles I thought about installing. His suggestions simply made sense. A shop florescent light gives a lot of light in there too. The bottom line is that all we have had done has turned out nicer than I imagined before we started. This is a rather significant change for us this year.

THE PET HALFWAY OUT OF THE PEnThouse

In early February I was up for a short bit when it was just before dawn. As I headed back to the bed I noticed a dark spot on the floor. My first thought was that it was likely a black sock that I had kicked away from my shoes. As I got a little closer it looked like it moved. I thought my imagination was in high gear, it could not have moved, but it did. So did we have a rat or mouse in the motor home? In just a second or two I realized that it was a smallish bird. It flew away from my grasp and to the other end of our motor home and down the steps next to the door. I reached over to open the door so it could go out but it had other ideas. Right past me and as far back as it could go by the bed again. It was only flying a few inches above the floor, but it was fast. I went back to see if I could catch it and put it outside. Again it eluded my grasp but this time it went under a package by the back window. By using a hand on each side of the gaps I was able to get my fingers around it and gently hold it. It nearly got away again. As I walked towards the door I could feel its heart beat. Its feathers were so very soft. It was so small. As I looked at it I could tell that it was a fledgling bird. I think a young sparrow. The feathers were not fully grown and did not extend as far outward as an adult birds feathers do. I was able to get it to the door and release it outside. It was gone in a flash to points unknown. Then the questions started coming. How did it get into the motor home? Is there a hole somewhere that is big enough for a sparrow to get inside? Did it come in from the outside the last time that I had opened the door when I came in? Was it inside all night? If it was inside all night I would call it smart to be in and away from the 35 degree air outside. Why in the world would any bird be having fledglings in the first week of February. I know this is Texas and the weather has been up in the eighties some days, but it is still quite cold some nights.

Over the years that we have been On The Road we have had several visitors. We had a small frog that came into the motor home when we were in Virginia. One time a beautiful butterfly paid us a visit for a short time. Out in Colorado we had a dozen to two dozen miller moths that would come in every day. So every day we would spend time catching them and letting them go outside. We kept doing that through Colorado, Wyoming and Utah until we got out of their territory. The worst was once when we got fire ants in that then bit and stung Erma. They very nearly put her into the hospital. Most of the critters that come in are carefully invited to go back outside, but those fire ants got sprayed.

Here in Bentsen Grove we have been privileged to be able to watch a Golden Fronted Woodpecker work at building a nest cavity in a tree just in front of our motor home. In fact there are four holes that he (it is a male bird) worked on some. In the neighbors tree there is a hole that is an inch to a inch and a half deep. There is another hole in our tree about the same size. One that he has barely started and a hole that must be getting nearly large enough to get his whole body inside. We have been told that a male will make several cavities and then show them off to the female and she chooses which one will be the nest. Both of the birds will be close to the cavity once in a while but usually the male is alone. We feel very glad that the nest is in a place that we can easily see it from our front window.

THREE VIEWS OF THE GOLDEN FRONTED WOODPECKER IN OUR TREE

Bentsen Grove is experiencing a massive exodus of winter residents. While that is usual some of them are going to places where it is still in single digits and snowing. We have not scheduled a time for us to move north but I assure you that it will be several weeks or at least till there is little or no chance of getting into freezing weather or snow. I could stop all my activity duties here at any time but I am just going to slow down those activities for now. I still will be quilling and I will be helping people with their computer problems, and that is about all.

Till Later This Is Doug Of

PEACE ON THE ROAD