Who was Jean Baptiste Charbonneau?

Reno, Nevada to Boise, Idaho – 413 miles

We just completed the first day of our road trip. We are in Boise, Idaho. There is a whole lot of wide open spaces between Reno and Boise but I love the wildness of it.

In south eastern Oregon we happened to see a road side historical site and decided to stop. Do you know who Jean Baptiste Charbonneau was? I should have known when I saw this sign but it didn't click.

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The sign below explains. It begins……

"This site marks the final resting place of the youngest member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Born to Sacagawea and Toussaint Charbonneau at Fort Mandan (North Dakota) on February 11 1805."

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Here are a couple of other pictures of the site.

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We stopped at one other interesting roadside site. Who would think an area in eastern Oregon would be named for an outdated spelling of the word Hawaii!

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Road Trip and how I will use Twitter

Duke and I are leaving Sunday for a three week road trip through Idaho, Yellowstone, Bismarck, North Dakota, Manitoba, Ontario, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Manchester, Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado. I'll be blogging while I'm gone but I will also be using my phone to post regular updates to Twitter.

For those who have never heard of Twitter, Twitter.com is a service that lets you post 140 character updates about what you are doing. I haven't found it all that useful because none of my friends use it.

One thing I have found nice is that I can have my Twitter updates show up on the right side of my blog.  So even when I don't have time to write a blog post I can do a quick Twitter update and then people who read my blog will know what I am up to. Plus I can update Twitter via a text message from my phone.

Another nice thing is that I can follow the Reno Gazette Journal on Twitter and be aware of what is happening in Reno while I am gone.

Anyway the bottom line is that if you are interested in where we are on our trip just watch the top right hand corner of this blog.

Three More Tahoe Rim Trail Hikes

As I've mentioned before some of us from the Sierra Canyon Hiking Group are hiking the Tahoe Rim Trail this summer. Duke and I have missed many of the hikes and we have made up a couple on our own. The trail is 165 miles long and we are hiking it in 8 segments. Duke and I have now done five of the segments and we have three to do. I've blogged about the first two segments that we hiked.

I have not been keeping up with my blogging. There are three more segment hikes that we have now completed so I need to add to the blog.

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  • The hiking group didn't hike on the July 4th weekend so on July 3rd Dave, Duke and I hiked the segment from Brockway to Tahoe City. It was a nice day and a very long hike. Unfortunately about five miles form the end we missed a turn and got off the Tahoe Rim Trail. We ended the hike about 100 yards down the road form the end of the Tahoe Rim Trail  but I guess technically we need to go back and make up the part of the trail that we missed. When the group hiked the trail the following week while we were on vacation they said that last part that we missed was the hardest part. The pictures from the hike are on Flickr here.

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  • On August 7 after we got back from Iowa Duke and I were back hiking with the group again. We did the 22.8 mile segment from Kingsbury to Big Meadow. The combination of not having hiked in 4 weeks, the distance, lots elevation gain and the heat made this a killer hike. We left home at 5:30 am and got back home at 10 pm. Duke drove so with shuttling the cars he drove 4.5 hours and hiked 10 hours. The best part of this hike was soaking my feet in Star Lake at lunch. Here are my pictures on Flickr from the hike.

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  • Last Thursday August 14th we hiked the segment from Big Meadow to Echo Lake. It was 17.5 miles and a lot easier than the hike the week before. I didn't take many pictures but the ones I did take are on Flickr here.

Chihuly, DeYoung Museum, California Academy of Sciences, Duke, and McCain’s Hand

Life has been hectic around here lately. Right after we got back from Iowa I made a trip to San Francisco for a girls weekend with a couple of friends. Among other things we saw the Dale Chihuly exhibit at the DeYoung Museum.

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I enjoyed the Chihuly show and also really enjoyed going up in the new observation tour at the DeYoung. Here is a picture of the view from the tour. The building in the front is the new California Academy of Sciences which opens in a little over a month. Their website is cool. I can't wait to visit the new academy when it opens.
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The day after I got back from San Francisco  McCain was in Sparks (right next to Reno) for a Town Hall meeting. Duke and I went to see him. I continue to be impressed by his honesty and competence but he sure doesn't create enthusiasm. One guy McCain called on said "When I vote for you I won't be voting for you I will be voting against Obama because I don't believe you are a conservative. Tell me why you think you are a conservative." I thought McCain gave a pretty good answer but I don't think he convinced the guy who asked the question. After the meeting was over Duke went down front and got to shake McCain's hand. He got stopped on the way down and was told by a secret service agent to take his hands out of his pockets.

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The day after the McCain visit my sister came to spend a few days with us and visit Dad. My Daughter and her family came for one night and my niece also stayed with us for a few days. It was all a lot of fun and and My Birthday was in there too.

Nevada Republican Executive Committee will Pick Delegates to National Convention

If you have been reading my posts about the Nevada Republican state convention or if you have been following the story in the news you know that the original Republican State Convention was adjourned after the Ron Paul delegates staged a coup. The party elite said that they would schedule a reconvened convention soon. The original convention was April 27. They finally got around to scheduling a part 2 convention for this Saturday July 26. The Reno Gazette Journal ran a story Friday saying the new convention has been canceled and the party central committee will pick state delegates to the national convention. I think this was what the party elite wanted all along after the Ron Paul supporters took over the first convention and it was clear that if the convention elected delegates they would be Ron Paul delegates not John McCain delegates. I'm a John McCain supporter but his back room politics makes me question whether I want to be a loyal Republican in the Fall!

The next chapter of this cliff hanger drama will be when the national Republican party credentials committee meets to decide whether they should seat the delegates picked by the central committee or the delegates picked by the Ron Paul supporters at the alternate part 2 convention they staged on June 28. I wonder if the meeting is open to the public. It would be very entertaining to listen to the arguments.

Update 8/8/08: I emailed the party and asked them whenthe Credentials committee meets and whether it is open to the public. Here is the answer:
Hello and thank you for your interest in the 2008 Republican National Convention.
The Convention Committees that meet the week prior to the convention are not open to the pubic.
Thank you for your questions.