The kitchen, during

In the interest of creating phony dramatic tension, now here are some pictures of the kitchen shortly after the demolition. Also, the living room wall which crumbled when they jacked up the house to make it level.

The kitchen, before

So here's what the kitchen used to look like (although it typically was not this empty). These pictures were taken around mid-July, just before the destruction began.

Last day in Denver

Last day in Denver, and let’s be honest there’s not a lot going on here other than your general outdoor activities.

We had thought about going to the science museum after the convention was over, but it’s only open until 5 and it was already after 2, so I decided to skip it and we walked over to the Virgin Megastore instead. It turned out to be a short visit, since their classical section was fairly lame and nothing was on sale. Beth was in the middle of doing laundry at the hotel, so we went back and checked on the clothes and hung out for a while watching the Olympics, then went out early for one last dinner, at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Back in the room it was more Olympics and more packing, trying to figure out how to get everything into the suitcases and keep them under the weight limit. Have to get up early tomorrow to get the car dropped off and get to the terminal for a 10am flight to Philadelphia, should be home by 7:30 or 8pm if everything is on schedule.

So it was a long trip, more like two trips back to back, with a clear dividing line during that long drive through southern Wyoming on Tuesday. Next year’s Worldcon is in Montreal, much easier to manage, and 2010 is in Australia, so we can skip that one entirely. Lots to get through after this trip, lots of ideas, hope they stick long enough that something comes of it.

Worldcon Day 2

Beth took the kids to a student production of Peter Pan this morning that was nearby, then they drove out somewhere and did some shopping. Meanwhile it was day two of Worldcon, and today’s panels were a little more interesting, although even though I got a good night’s sleep I still passed out for a few minutes during one of them.

I got back to the room at the same time as everyone else, and we turned around and went out to dinner at the Breckinridge Brew Pub across from Coors Field. On the way back we stopped at Barnes & Noble for a while, and that was that. Tomorrow more of the same.

Worldcon 2008

The first day of the Worldcon had finally arrived and for once we were already in the city and ready to get started. Beth decided that the most interesting thing to do in Denver would be to get the car and drive down to Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods, which took most of the day. Meanwhile I got going so I could register before the first panels started at 11:30.

It was raining by dinner time and Beth and the kids were back from the mountains later than they hoped, but I waited around until they returned and we walked a few blocks through the puddles to get some Italian food and seafood at the Rialto Bistro. There wasn’t much Italian food in Wyoming, and certainly not in Yellowstone, so it was a welcome change of pace. The Rockies are in town during the entire convention, playing some non-descript teams like the Nationals and the Padres, but tonight’s game ended up being rained out and will be made up tomorrow afternoon, which is a bummer for the block of tickets that the con made available to fans a few weeks ago. We had thought about catching one of the games, since they stink this year it’s no problem getting tickets at the door, but I don’t know if we’ll manage to work that in. A full day of panels are on tap for tomorrow.

Fossil hunting

Woke up bright and early so we could be on the road in time to get to the fossil dig by the proscribed 9am. Had one last free hotel continental breakfast, where they made the waffles for you, then it was a long drive down a completely deserted US-30 to Ulrich’s Fossil Site just up the road from Fossil Butte National Monument. We got there around 8:30 or so, and were actually ready to go shortly before nine. We were introduced to our guide, Shawn, who is going into his senior year of high school and has no particular interest in paleontology. He and a few co-workers had already been up on at the dig site for a few hours to take advantage of the sun being low in the sky to see telltale images in the rocks that indicate the presence of fossils.

This entire part of southwestern Wyoming was once a vast inland sea, which dried up gradually between 60 and 50 million years ago, leaving enormous deposits of fossils embedded in shale. Various buttes around the landscape are owned by different companies or individuals who either do their own excavating or lease it out to others, and fossilized impressions of fish are easy to come by. Ulrich’s actually has a separate dig site for their commercial excavation, and keeps their own area just for people like us to try our hand at it. We could keep a reasonable number of fossils that we found, although they reserved the right to take anything that was considered unusual.

So after a short drive up a 15% grade in an extremely dusty truck, we were at the site. It was sunny but not too hot. The process basically consisted of breaking off slabs of shale horizontally, maybe a couple of feet square and an inch or so thick, and if nothing was revealed after separating the slab itself from the ground, then we’d set about trying to break it in half crosswise. Sometimes you’d find fish right at a break, or just get the negative image of one, fossils you would keep anywhere else, but here were considered inferior and not worth keeping. They provided the tools, essentially a large hammer and several crowbars that you’d use to pry up slabs of rock and then break them apart. it took a couple of hours, but we came away with a sufficient number of fossils, maybe 15, mostly between three and six inches long, that we considered it a success. Back at the store, they could cut down the larger slabs with a radial arm saw into more manageable-sized pieces, but there were still too many to take with us, so we arranged to have them shipped back home, which will probably cost a fortune but beats trying to get them on the plane in one piece. We’ll keep the best few and the rest everyone can expect to get as Christmas gifts!

Since we were just a couple of miles from the national monument, we made a detour to the visitors center there and looked around a bit, but didn’t take the drive or the trail. It was getting to be lunch time and we’d been up for a while, but the visitor’s center helpfully had a map of the greater Kemmerer/Diamondville area with several restaurants listed. We drove into town and found the first couple of places were closed, maybe just gone fishin, they didn’t look like they’d closed forever, but it didn’t do us any good either way. We did see on the corner of the town square the still operating original J.C. Penney’s store, which wasn’t very big. We ended up at some diner on the edge of town where we could get burgers and sandwiches that were pretty decent. By 1pm we were on the road with a full tank of gas and no place to stop before Denver.

The drive across southern Wyoming was endless, a straight shot down I-80 to Cheyenne of about 250 miles, then a right turn back on I-25 for that last stretch of 75 miles or so to the big city. I think we only stopped once, and we finally got some weather as we drove through the Laramie area with some scattered downpours and even a couple of rainbows. Heading south it still was trying to rain off and on, but we kept going until we got to Longmont, just north of Denver, where we made a return trip to Martini’s Bistro, site of our last meal in Colorado 3 years ago. I had looked up the address and directions the night before, otherwise I never would have found the place, since it’s off the main road and not near any major shopping area, but we got there about 7 and had a nice dinner.

Took one last stop for gas and some squinting at the map afterwards to figure out where our hotel was, but once we knew where to go we found it with no issues and were in the room about 9:30 and glad that we wouldn’t have to drive that far again. It was only 350 miles, mostly at 80 mph, but it seemed to take forever and now that we’re contemplating driving to Illinois for Christmas, which is 3 times as far and with a lower speed limit, I’ve definitely lost my nerve for long car trips.

Bonus day in Jackson

Today was the nebulous day between the rafting trip yesterday and the fossil excavation tomorrow. The only goal was to get somewhere close to Fossil Butte National Monument by nightfall, which ends up being Montpelier, Idaho, unless you want to stay at a flophouse or double back a similar distance through the wasteland of southern Wyoming. Between Jackson and Montpelier is about 2 1/2 hours of US 89, and some lovely mountain scenery, and not much else. So we opted to spend the day in Jackson, as it turned out there was enough to do there to keep us occupied for a while.

The first order of business was laundry. Since the availability of laundry facilities at the Denver Marriott is dubious at best, we checked out of the Painted Buffalo Inn and made our way south of town to a laundromat we saw yesterday with the name of The Missing Sock that was too good to pass up. It was in a new building and had a two story ceiling with a laundry line of odd socks pinned up along the wall. Across the parking lot was a giant grocery store, so while the wash was going we picked up breakfast and lunch (although it was mid-morning by then) and ate the former while the clothes were drying. Beth got them all folded up and packed away, I got another $45 worth of gas in the minivan, and we were ready to do something more interesting, if less practical.

Since we'd had to kind of rush through Grand Teton National Park yesterday to make our schedule, we took some time to go back north into the park, this time on the inland route of Teton Park Road as far as Jackson Lake Junction. We tried to stop at South Jenny Lake, but the parking lot was mobbed on a Monday at lunchtime, so we kept going to the next area north of Jenny Lake at String Lake, which was still hopping but much less crowded. The people there were doing all manner of things, saddling up horses, picnics, swimming, kayaking, hiking, not all at the same time of course. We stuck with the picnicking, with the backdrop of the Tetons through the trees and the bugs. It would seem that the Grand Teton area, being much closer to civilization and much smaller than Yellowstone, is a popular place for all manner of recreation, and as a result is a bit more difficult to get back to nature, although maybe if you get out on a trail for a while you can find some solitude, that's usually the case. String Lake isn't even a big lake by Teton standards, but it's big enough for all the activities described above, and with the mountains looming in the background just on the other side it makes for a spectacular view.

After lunch we drove up a little further to Signal Mountain Lodge, which had the requisite gift shop to browse around in. Then we drove out to the main road and back south to Jackson. Just north of town is the National Museum of Wildlife Art, which is in a dramatic building stuck into the side of a mountain and blending in with the landscape, with an elaborate deer sculpture out front at the road. Since it was only 3pm and we still had some time, we stopped there for 90 minutes or so and checked out the paintings. Beth was worried the museum would contain mostly shlocky western art, but in fact had some legitimate paintings, including a Rousseau and an O'Keefe, plus a collection of prints by Picasso, and a special exhibit of work of Robert Bateman, whom I'd never heard of but his wildlife paintings were pretty good. Beth particularly liked the more recent, political stuff.

It was evident from the map that we might as well stay in Jackson for dinner, since there was not much between there and Montpelier that could be counted on for sustenance, so we drove back into town and did a little shopping for t-shirts and hats, which like everything else in Jackson seem to be on the pricey side. In between shopping we had dinner at the Snake River Brewery, where I could sample a few of their beers and we could take advantage of happy hour appetizer specials, and then had a decent dinner of pasta or pizza.

Finishing up the shopping, it was 6:30 and time to hit the road. Most of US-89 is very scenic, and very empty. As we got within the last 7 or 8 miles of Montpelier we hit a major construction project where the road was down to one lane and we had to sit at a makeshift traffic light for several minutes, but it was ok because I could put the car in park and watch the episode of Gilligan's Island that the kids were watching (the one with the gorilla throwing grenades, in case you're wondering, which is not one of the better known ones). But we managed to get to the Super 8 here by 8:45 or so with no further items on the agenda, which was good.

If you look at the map, Montpelier, Idaho is nowhere near Denver, which is our destination tomorrow as the Worldcon starts on Wednesday. So don't be alarmed if there's no Tuesday entry until later, since we may get in too late to put in an update, and how much do you really want to hear about transversing southern Wyoming?