Sopranos is DONE

So we were pretty avid Soprano's watchers. I liked it and thought the ending was rather fitting to the show. What happened there? I suspect Tony was killed, AJ joins the Hollywood scene, since he appeared to be impacted by "worthlessness" of it all, Carmela became another mobster widow, and Meadow became a mobster lawyer in pursuit of a bias against "Italian" Americans.

HBO produces the best TV on TV. However that said, the best series todate is Six Feet Under. Best drama series on television, ever. Watch it, and you be the judge.

I watched Lost. OK.
I watched Heroes. Decent
I don't watch game shows. Lame
I don't watch popularity shows. Super Lame
I don't watch reality shows. Uh.....
However, I like MTV2 Rob and Big. Funny as shit.

Salmon - Day 4 - Where the hell are we?

A map will only get you so far. A GPS will help you identify where you are. A map and a GPS, well hell, you should be totally golden. It took some effort, and on an occasion we did get turned around, but for the most part we were able to stay true to our navigation goals, oh except that time we took the wrong road, and the time we got off trail, and the time we took the wrong trail, and the time we couldn't find the right road, and....where are we?

Fortunately I'm in the parking lot of the ranger station here, so our chances of getting lost are about say 50-50.

Salmon - Day 4 - What's next?

So the next morning we exit the best western (it was right in downtown Sun Valley, EXCELLENT location) and head north to Salmon. Here we are just north of Galena summit. As we travel on, we get to a spot called Sunbeam Dam. We pull over and discover it's the remains of a dam that was built in the 1900's.
It looks like a pretty easy scramble down, so I hope the fence and head on down. Scott quickly realized that clearly I did not fall in the river and drown, or somehow a several ton concrete structure that's been sitting in a river for over 100 years didn't crumble under my weight, it was safe to go do.

So he scrambles down too!

View from the upriver side of the dam. We could walk all they way out to the edge! Awesome.

Boise - Mi Casa es tu Casa

So it's been 8+ years since Scott and I have seen each other. It was really cool to have the time to get to see him again. Scott is not only one of my best friends, but I've known Scott since I was about 14. Holy shit. That is like 28 years. Scott and Susan were super accomodating, and even their dog North was a really good host. Our plan was to depart the next morning for our "week in the woods." Anyway, here we are in Scott's driveway ready to depart. Oh, yea, gotta get to REI first!

PreTrip - Medersa Ben Youssef Museum

The Ben Yousef museum is well worth a visit if you are Marrakech. This museum was orignally a school to team the Qur'an (had to look that one up to know how to spell it since I was sure the Americanized version (Koran) was completely wrong. It was.) to Islamic children several hundred years ago, who's great great great great grandchildren probably have the same love/hate relationship with Americans too. They love us because we're rich, and hate us because we're rich. Hopefully the extremists ain't out to go and kill whitey! This lady was cleaning this place. I didn't see any dirt, but I guess she found some, cause she was scrubbing like there was no tomorrow. I was quite amazed since I've never cleaned (and the Mrs would agree) anything in my life.
View of the pool and courtyard.
Peek a Boo. A funky door.

This was one of the "teachers" rooms. Looks like my first apartment when I lived in Los Angeles and made a gargantuan 26K a year. I was so money....Oh anyway, compared to what the student dungeons, let me tell you, this was a palace. The window overlooked the courtyard.
Another photo shot of the courtyard...

Here is an excellent example of the type of tilework common to Morocco. If you stare @ it long enough, I'm sure you'll go mad. Seemed very similar to a mandala created by Tibetan monks. Those guys will just sit for hours creating those things, then let them blow away in the wind. How would that be, to work hours on something to let it all just go away? How could you do that, I wonder about......Ah, see, I just proved my point.

PreTrip - Working hard to earn a dirham (1/10 of a dollar)

These artisans really did some cool stuff.

For example, first the men would make a pattern then cut it out with metal or tin snips...

Then someone would heat the metal into a particular shape. The someone would stamp out the pattern. I think these guys were working on a huge lamp or a medium sized bong for smoking hash. I wasn't sure which.

The women would typically do textiles stuff. Almost everything we saw was made by hand.This lady had a TON of knitted hats. Not sure if she did them all herself but she was set up early and had the best selection.

I purchased one hat before we left on our trip. I liked it so much, I bought the company. Actually I did by two more similar to this style. The first one cost me 20 dirham, about $2.50, the second two I got for 30 or about $ 2 bucks a piece. I think look like P Diddy.

Man or Beast? This guy used his arm to work his lathe, and his hand for the chisel, and then his TOES to guide the blade. More amazing than the handiwork he did, was the fact that he still had all 10 toes!

Dennys

We ate here several times. Yea, just like the 60 year old retired folks. Let me tell you, you CANNOT get into this place @ 5pm. Wall to wall blue hairs! Gotta a better shot of waiting until 7pm, and competing with Billy Joe Bob who's got his kids for the weekend. Actually, I refused to eat in these places, for years and years, but I have to admit now, the food ain't that bad, and they always serve breakfast. I had on a couple of instances the Lumberjack Slam. Let me tell you this is a heap of food!

• Three buttermilk pancakes (Yummy!!)
• A slice of grilled honey ham (Not half-bad)
• Two bacon strips (Crispy!)
• Two sausage links (Low cal, not!)
• Two eggs (Over easy, mr hair-netted friend!)
• Hash browns or grits (Hashies of course, I'm from Idaho for Christ's sake!)
• Your choice of bread (Wheat toast, thank you!)

The total was usually under 20 dollars, but well over 20,000 calories. Yea brother. Oh and get this, the Denny's in Ontario OR, was one of the few in the US that actually served BEER!!!

Denny's facts

• Denny’s is the most recognized name in family dining providing good food and service for more than 50 years. With approximately 1,600 restaurants across America and systemwide sales of more than $2 billion, Denny’s is the largest full-service family restaurant chain in the United States.
• At year end 2004, there were 1,603 Denny’s restaurants: 553 were owned and operated by the company and 1,050 were operated under franchise and licensing

1603 locations?

Speaking of Scared.....

We saw this guy along the side of the road. Lou Ann, I am sure would be running back to the car if she were here, because she's VERY scared of bigfoot.
Here was a different version and he was SCAREY!!

Holy Shit!

So this is a pic I found on the intenet with some additional information.

Our Lady of the Rockies is a 90-foot statue sitting atop the Continental Divide located on the East Ridge of Butte off of I-15. Our Lady of the Rockies is the end result of a dream and six years work. A seemingly impossible task was completed by countless volunteers on December 20, 1985 when ‘Our Lady” was placed on the East Ridge overlooking Butte, Montana.

The statue, lighted and visible at night, is a spectacular sight to see. To give you an idea of the dimensions; Our Lady is 90 feet high, 48 feet wide (from fingertip to fingertip), and weighs 51 tons. The overall statistics are: the head (16 feet high by 10 feet wide), eyes (2 feet), nose (4 feet), nose (4 feet), lips (3 feet), hands (8 feet) fingers (3 1/2 feet to 5 feet), and the base (32 feet by 34 feet).

And I thought Oprah was a whole lotta lovin.