Disclaimer

By the way, those who may ave thought I had a lousy time in Central America just remember - the Lake Boren Report is all in fun. We world famous comedy writers empahsize the minor insignificant stuff because it's hard to fill a 2000 word piece with "Oh, wow, that was really cool!" Too much syrup can make the pancakes hard to eat. So if you're planning a trip go ahead and go and have a good time. See the world and enjoy it.


Al

That little monkey was really cool!

Visit a Banana Republic

Pacific Ocean During a Rare Sun Break

Everyone should make the effort to visit a banana republic. Why? Well it’ll help you appreciate America more.

I recently visited Costa Rica where their money is made out of old beer cans and Kleenex. Here are a few travel tips you may not see in the guide books:

• The cash value of an American $20 bill is 10000 Colones. A colon is flexible in value depending on what you’re trying to buy. If you want a $2 ticket to get into a park it’s around 7500 Colones, for example. Don’t try to pay with American money because you’ll get change in hundreds of colones. Seems like a lot but it ain’t. It’s not a rich country so one easy way to make money is a confusing exchange rate.

• Don’t try to get around in a rental car. The roads are terrible. The drivers are terrible. They have millions of busses, shuttles, and taxis. Just get a pocket full of colones and be ready to hand over a handful whenever you see a bus driver. Even if he won’t pick you up just give him some money anyway. We Americans like to have control and freedom to move about on our own. I got a rental and a 35 mile trip can take over 4 hours unless you encounter traffic – then it’s longer.

• GPS – if you want to know where you are take a GPS. It’s essential in a rental car but it can be handy without one. GPS Saga appears below.

• Bathrooms are important – bring your own. The toilets in CR don’t work because Americans can’t deal with the requirement NOT to flush toilet paper. See, the sewer systems are so delicate they can’t handle TP. So if you flush TP don’t expect what you’ve always expected at home – sooner or later the toilet will rebel.

• It rains in Central America. Bananas need a lot of water and so do dense jungles. That’s why a lot of them are located in Central America. You’ll need lots of clothes if you go there because all your stuff will get wet. Especially if you put your suitcase on the bathroom floor.

Our room entrance at La Posada Jungle

• Best places to stay don’t mean the most expensive. In fact it’s just the opposite. If you’d like a nice room try to find a small place where the owner takes personal charge of most of the services. You can get a load of laundry done in a couple hours. Those big fancy smancy resort destinations will take 24 hours and there’s a charge to wash each and every item. Then they deliver it to the wrong room anyway.

• Telephones are a challenge. First of all don’t believe it when your trusted cell phone carrier promises you’ll have coverage. It’s a lie. If you really need a phone you have to rent one there and there’s a charge for each minute in addition to the rent. Plus, if other people are on the trip with you they won’t know your rented cell phone number unless you call them and tell them. That costs money. But their phone won’t work either so don’t even try it. There has to be a secret that I didn’t fathom. My rented phone had “No Service” but our guide on a jungle hike was getting calls. He knows the secret. I decided that I didn’t want to know the secret.

• Heaters in rooms don’t exist. Normally in a tropical jungle you might think heat wouldn’t be needed. But if you’re 6000 feet above sea level it can get chilly at night. But no heat. No fans or AC either. Just vent windows. That way you can hear every word from the people down the hall wondering whose laundry came to their door (it’s yours).

He had a nearby room but didn't bother us much.

• International Driver’s Permit – scam. Don’t bother. A valid American license is all you need to drive there. Plus more money. Your passport is all the identification you’ll need.

• Passports are required. You won’t get there without one. Airports and customs places have scanners and they swipe your passport photo page. That gives them everything they need to know. Just make sure you apply for a passport in plenty of time because “rush” jobs cost extra and you can’t get one at the airport.

• Be prepared for lines. I don’t know how many lines we stood during the trip. Mostly the lines are in the airports, but some are at the parks. I can’t imagine what it’s like in season.

GPS Saga: I got a Garmin last year when Amazon had a big price cut to help move inventory. Nice outfit for trips. (The one in my POV is built in.) I thought it would be good to take to Costa Rica since I would be renting a car. Actually you should take one even if you plan to use the busses.

Garmin doesn’t normally include Central America in their pre-loaded maps. But you can download them from the web. So I did. The instructions for transferring CR maps to my unit didn’t make sense. It wanted me to use something called Map Source. I remembered I had used that a few years ago so I hunted around and found the old CD. I loaded it on my PC and it actually worked (apparently). The message said something like “Congratulations you have successfully loaded Costa Rica on your device!” It required a 25 character password.

OK, so how do I verify that? I know! I’ll have it find a city that I know only exists in Costa Rica. Well, it couldn’t find it. Hours went by and still no success. OK, the message says the map was loaded successfully so I’ll just have to trust it. Besides I have a magic cell phone with GPS as a backup. What could possibly go wrong?

We arrived in Costa Rica and holed up in a motel at the airport the first night. Seemed easier to deal with the rental car first thing the next morning. Why pay rent until we actually need it, right? The following morning I went to the rental car office to pick up my 4WD heap. By that time I had accepted the fact that my cell phone that “would work just fine” would not work. The car rental office also had cell phones for rent. Cool.

As I rode over in the rental car company van I turned on my GPS to see how it displayed things. Well, by the time we arrived at the rental office it had not acquired satellites. There was another person in front of me so I stood by a big window to offer my GPS a clear view of the sky.

The person in front of me was not happy. The discussion was in Spanish but there’s a universal worldwide language called “Jerkola” and this person was fluent. He insisted on arguing with the one clerk for an hour. Even though I don’t speak the language I can understand when somebody is saying the same thing over and over again. It’s classic Jerkola.

During the extremely boring exchange I kept checking the GPS and it found itself after about 45 minutes. Great, at least that issue seems resolved. Now to hustle the jerk out of the way. I finally got my 4WD car rented and arranged for the cell phone to be delivered to the motel near the airport. Everything’s coming together.

When I started up the car I thought it would probably quit at some remote location because it sounded really bad. Then I realized it was diesel. Once it was out in the street it sounded a lot better.

The GPS turned out to be a real help. For one thing you can’t go places in a straight line. They have mountains and lakes and you have to go around everything; even cattle. The other problem is the horrible roads. In November they had 4 ½ feet of rain which means some of the hillsides were still covering some of the roads. Other roads have gargantuan potholes and most were just not wide enough, even where the pavement was good. So it was a challenge. Unless you are an absolute hard nose about having your own vehicle just take the busses. They crash rarely and the drivers know how to get around obstacles.

Anyway, the GPS saved us several times. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place where I was so confused about which way to go so often. When we left Monte Verde heading for Arenal Volcano I was positive we were going the wrong way. But eventually we found a town that was on the way and the landmarks kept coming up right. The GPS got us there. I was sure it was wrong. Lucky for me I decided to rely on it since I knew it was a small country and the worst we could do was still not too bad.

Here’s another tidbit for anyone who wants to visit one of these insect infested banana republics: go ahead and pay extra for a guide on jungle walks. We had a couple of really good guides and they helped a lot. Miguel at Manuel Antonio was the best. He pointed out varmints nobody else saw. The only problem was he was not interested in birds. The guide at Monte Verde Cloud Forest was interested in birds but couldn’t find any. At least we got some interesting information. You know they have bugs as big as small raccoons there?

Oh, and the rains of November weren’t really over. It rained a lot. Sometimes it rained so hard it woke us up at night. We live in the Greater Newcastle Metropolitan area where it seems to rain a lot, but it’s more of a persistent mist. Down there it really rains. People use umbrellas because raincoats get just as wet inside as outside. The only exception is in the high cloud forest where the wind blows constantly. Then you just get wet.

What about rapid transit? Nope! They have a four lane highway that runs thru San Jose and it’s regularly at a dead stop because some Jerkola in a rented car did something really stupid in front of a large truck. Crunch! Once that happens the local law comes out and chases everyone off the four lane. Bus and van drivers are good at avoiding those scenes. Luckily we didn’t spend much time in that mess.

They also have a toll road that’s four lane at random sections and sometimes not. The speed limit is in meters or something. It works out to about 50 mph. I was going 60 and cars went by us way faster than that. The biggest problem with the toll road is you need to pay cash and it’s hundreds of colones. Makes a guy nervous. “How much did we give that guy?”

You know what I didn’t see? Railroads. Given the condition of the highways (washed out dirt tracks in some places) I can’t imagine how they would keep two parallel rails from getting all jumbled up. My guess is Costa Rica won’t see rapid rail transit very soon.

Conclusion: Don’t go. If you do go take plenty of cash and dry clothing. Learn Spanish. It won’t do any good but it’ll give you the illusion you’re preparing for the trip. Oh, and say hello to Mike at La Posada Jungle.

Pool at La Posada on the Edge of Manuel Antonio NP

Web Sites:

http://www.laposadajungle.com/ Where we stayed at Manuel Antonio. Very quaint.

http://www.manuelantoniopark.com/mapk/english/photogallery.html The park and lots of photos.

For birds search Google images “Costa Rica Birds” and see hundreds of photos of birds. We even saw a few. Elin saw a pair of resplendent quetzals.

http://www.monteverdeinfo.com/ Cloud Forest. We stayed at Hotel El Establo – didn’t really care for it.

http://www.arenal.net/photo-gallery.htm Volcano area.

http://www.arenal.net/observatory-lodge/ Where we stayed at the volcano. It’s within the potential blast zone for the next overdue eruption!

Al

Here's the Jungle Near Arenal Volcano

Elwha River Restoration

The Elwha River drains a portion of Olympic National Park near a place called Port Angeles. This is one of those city names that indicate it’s on the water. In fact Port Angeles is an actual port where ships dock. On a clear day you can see Canada.


There are two dams on the Elwha and they produce about enough electricity to power a couple of cell phones. That’s because in they were built before cell phones were invented. The Elwha Dam was built in 1913 and the Glines Canyon Dam was built in 1927. That was before Port Angeles had ever heard of the Grand Coulee Dam. People who lived there thought the world ended at the Hood Canal. Some people call it “Hood’s Canal” for some unknown reason.

In any case the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State used to be kind of a world of its own. The National Park was established in 1938 while everyone back east was distracted by issues such as the Dust Bowl and the Depression. They wanted a nice big park with big green trees and plenty of water.

Well, these two dams are really suffering from the ravages of time. They leak and they also block the salmon that we treasure so much. So the all powerful high potentates (me and the guvment) in 1992 decided to tear down the dams and restore the river so salmon could spawn.

Well, guess what? Work has begun. Bulldozers are clearing out the delta above the lake in order to… something something. Who knows why?

The complaint is that the trees that colonized the delta, which sits on the opposite end of the lake behind the Glines Canyon Dam, are bad. We need to remove those so we can restore that delta. That way in 30 years the salmon will be able to spawn there.

The real reason to remove the dams is they aren’t making that clean solid color electricity required to charge modern computers and iPods. They make plaid and paisley electricity only when they feel like it. Sometimes it has an Art Deco motif which interferes with the internet in some way. Port Angeles and the rest of the northern Olympic Peninsula need red, blue, yellow and sometimes green electricity. If you don’t believe me just cut a hole in your wall and look at the wires. See?

Another cool aspect of removing these two dams is that the demolition team will recycle the cement. True. They’ll haul it off to some grinding facility and turn it into gravel and dust. Then they can mix it with fresh cement and some of that newly released water to make biscuits or roads or something. Who knows what you make with recycled concrete?

Once they empty the lakes in an orderly fashion and complete the dam removal the old Elwha River will spend a few years washing lake sediment into the Samish Sea. It’s also supposed to help bolster something called Ediz Hook. That’s a sand spit that acts as a breakwater for Port Angeles. So besides lots of new cement biscuits and salmon the port gets more spit. Oh joy.

There are some other reasons to remove the dams. For one thing the upper lake, called Lake Mills Reservoir, is within the Olympic National Park. The rangers are against having that kind of municipal hydro facility in their park. They don’t like the plaid and paisley electricity running through their trees.

A fairly large reason is safety. See, back when the dams were built it was a different century. The problem is some people are a little concerned one or the other might lose its motivation and stop being so dam obstructionist. The resulting flood would be a disaster. So you can see this is right up there with the SR 520 floating bridge and Alaska Way Viaduct in urgency. Something we have to take care of immediately.

Which brings us to yet another interesting twist. Removal of these two dams was approved by congress in 1992. Official removal begins in 2012. Get out the calculator. If yours doesn’t have a decimal point don’t worry, the answer is in even numbers.

Don’t look for protest marches and enigmatic speeches by Seattle’s mayor. This deal looks like it’s actually going to happen. The river will be free flowing long before the final route decisions on light rail in Bellevue. Count on it.

Salmon have been hovering off the northern coast of Washington for 18 years waiting to spawn in Olympic National Park. They’ll soon qualify for the Golden Age Pass. It’ll all work out.

Al

Floating A Supreme Court

Here’s what’s going’s on in Bellevue.


Kemper’s law suit has been submitted to the State Supreme Court on Olympia. Sounds all “Temple of the Gods” right? Anyway, that’s where the state government hangs out.

The main gist of the suit is that laying tracks on Interstate 90 is unconstitutional. That’s the favorite position when people don’t want something – claim it’s unconstitutional.

Let me outline the situation because I like to do outlines and this one is kind of fun. Streetcars came to Seattle over 100 years ago when the city was growing and people worked farther from home. It became difficult to ride the family mule to work every day. Roads were horrid and nobody could afford a car yet. So modern thinkers laid rails and put streetcars on them. People could hike down to the streetcar stop and ride to work.

Over the years the system was modernized and upgraded. Streets were improved and the public transportation system was reliable and kept getting faster. The whole experience was not that bad. They had newsboys at the stops so you could get the morning paper to read on the way to work. No TV so that’s how they got the news.

Things were changing, however. After WWII Americans could actually get cars that were reliable enough to drive every day. You had to be a part time mechanic to keep the older ones going. In addition many streets and roads had been paved. Cities had long since banned mules and horses from streets and had instituted such conveniences as signs and lights at intersections. People could drive to work, even in the big city.

Seattle was much larger after WWII because of a big wartime manufacturing establishment. A great many of the workers imported from rural America remained in the city where they could work and own a house and a car. Result: riding the streetcar got to be a bother. Ridership dropped and the city found other uses for the space taken up by the tracks. Eventually all city rail transit was removed. They still had busses that used those same paved roads as the cars.

OK, as time went on we got the Interstate Highway System. The great thinkers decided it was a good idea to run I-5 right through Seattle. Cool. They also added I-405 as a bypass on the east side of that big lake. I-90 came from Boston and finally banged right into I-5. Ribbons were cut and bands played.

Then came something that only a few people had foreseen; the oil crisis. “Gosh, what if we can’t get to work,” people began to say. So we passed some transportation proposals and we got stuff like Metro and Sound Transit.

Then came the big one: light rail. This was supposed to relieve traffic in every direction as far as the eye could see. Some people pointed out that we had a rail transit system in the past and we tore it up. Well this is better, it’s “light” rail so you won’t gain weight. Clever.

They drew big maps of where all the tracks would go and said it would take millions of cars off the roads. Great, everyone thought, I’ll have the roads to myself. So we voted YES and built the first line from the center of Seattle to the airport.

Now we’ve also started work on a line to the University north of the city and to Bellevue east of the city. The grand plan is to have a spider web of light rail eliminating the need for automobiles. Hooray, no more oil crisis.

But, wait, how do we get tracks across that big lake. It’s not a river that can be crossed by ordinary bridges. It’s very wide. It’s also very deep so you can’t build a causeway by dumping dirt into it. That’s how we got Mercer Island and as you can plainly see it didn’t work. The most feasible way to get over the lake is a floating bridge. It’s made up of a number of cement pontoons that are anchored to the bottom and hooked together with super glue.

That way you can have one pontoon that moves to let a big boat through, if you want to. Or you can just say “No big boats” and let it go at that.

But the point is we have this floating bridge with 6 general purpose lanes and 2 HOV lanes over the lake. Nobody wants to add another floating span next to it for light rail. So the plan is to use the HOV lanes for the light rail into Bellevue. Then add an extra lane to each direction and make it the HOV lane.

I-90 Floating Bridge with Link Light Rail and HOV Lanes

Kemper, who has come out against the light rail plan from the beginning, says the State Constitution won’t allow the rails on the roadway. He says the bridge was built with gas tax money and the constitution says you can’t use gas tax money for anything but roads. So it’s gone to the Supreme Court for a decision.

That should be an interesting decision. Based on some of the past decisions from this group we could be looking at almost anything. They could say yes you can build tracks on the bridge but you have to remove them every night.

Al

Getting Older and Losing Parts

Once you reach a certain age, mine, it begins to dawn on you that the old machine needs more maintenance than seems reasonable. There are lots of pills and lots of “you shouldn’t be doing that anymore” advice.


One of the biggies is people seem to want to cut you. They say stuff like, “that has to be removed.” You wonder why and they say well if you let it go it will only get worse. Worse than what? Worse than spending an afternoon completely unconscious? Seems like a decent trade.

What usually follows is a thing called a “Pre-Op” visit with the doc. This is where they explain everything they plan to do and then tell you all the things that can go wrong. If it’s a lady doctor (a lot of them are) you don’t want to get caught whimpering as the “things that could go wrong” list grows.

Of course your first question is, “Is this going to hurt?” My doc said, “Well once I stuck myself with the needle but usually I don’t get hurt at all, thanks for asking.” Ha ha, old doc joke.

Next you visit the pharmacy to pick up a bag of post-op pain pills. These are controlled substances so (depending on what state you live in) have to sign something indicating you understand it’s illegal to share. Dang. But wait, I thought as soon as the bad thingy was removed I’d be fine. Why do I need 40 pounds of pain pills???

Recovery period! OK, let’s do it. That recovery period sounds kind of fun. Lay around day and night watching TV and popping illegal pills. Just how long do I get to do that?

Anyway, it’s over until the next time my doc needs a new car.

Speaking of medical insurance: the program I got shuffled into when I turned 65 is not as much fun as before. It’s now a “supplemental” program. What does that mean? It doubles the number of papers I get in the mail after each medical care event. But don’t even try to understand what they say. Just pay the $2.01 beside the big red “PAY THIS AMOUNT” line.

Oh, and I don’t write checks anymore. It’s cool. A few years ago I jumped on this online banking service. I just log on and fill in amounts beside the names of billers and the bank electronically transfers the money under my account number. It’s safe and a lot cheaper than buying stamps. You probably do that too.

However some of the places where I have accounts have instituted their own online payment systems. They email me a bill and want me to log onto their web site and pay it there. I won’t do that. Because the next step is “Well, Al, since you pay online why don’t you set an automatic withdrawal so we can just snatch money from your bank without bothering you?”

I silently say “Why don’t you forget it?” and then hit the “No thanks” key. I don’t know how everyone else does it. I know a lot of people still write checks and buy stamps. Some people even put outgoing payments in their mailboxes on the street. Not a good idea.

One thing I need to say: I know I’m not the only one ever to have stuff removed. Everyone gets to do that as a reward for living. I got excellent care and now I have plenty of popcorn left over (I used it for ice bags). I expect to be back walking and biking shortly. Except the rain has started again. There must be a surgery for that. Oh, yeah, I could wear a raincoat.

Anyway, to everyone who endures the indignity of having stuff chopped out of the body my hat is off. Whoops, my doc says I have to keep my hat on or she’ll cut me for a completely different reason. They just don’t let it go do they?

Al

High Speed Rail in America

I’ve been off meeting with my Bilderberg Group for a couple weeks. I’m back now. We finally decided where LeBron should play. At least now we know Miami won’t win the NBA title next year because you can’t have too many over paid prima donnas in one building. Their egos will collide.


Now for the main subject:

The French have a bunch of trains called TGV. Train Goes Vast or something like that in French. There are several things that make the TGV worth looking at for America. They’ve designed the power pickup to run on different voltages and either AC or DC. Heavy.

Oh, did I mention it’s electric? Electric trains. We had those when I was a kid. Anyway, the point is they don’t pollute so much. France has nuclear power plants that are much cleaner than coal.

The newest TGV track allows speeds up to 200 mph. That means people in France can go places without wasting a lot of time waiting for luggage that went to LA with all their guns. That allows them more time to waste watching soccer games.

The TGV runs very often. If you need to go someplace you just get down to the nearest station and catch the next train (if it stops). The availability rate is over 90 percent. That means only one out of ten is out of sorts at any given time. Not stopped on the tracks, just in the shop for a tuneup. The running reliability is even better. They rarely have service stoppage. They also have diesels spotted along the route for towing if it’s ever needed.

Here’s something a lot of us don’t realize: one key to people moving is that everyone has different purposes and time requirements. Some people want to leave early and get someplace for an appointment. Others are in no hurry and leaving any old time works just fine. Most people don’t want to mess around trying to figure out what time they have to be at the station. For example the NYC subways just come by one right after another. If you miss one you catch the next one.

If your system runs a rare mission, like three times a week, you have to build an elaborate reservation system that assigns seats and loses luggage. If you run 48 times a day you can ignore that nonsense. An example of poor service is the Washington State Ferry System. Capacity is way below demand because we can’t figure out how to buy new boats. Thus arriving at the dock “on time” does you no good – you won’t get on that boat anyway. Now they’ve installed a reservation system. No idea how that works, but the result is people sit on the dock for hours waiting for the next boat. Don’t promise to meet anyone on the other side at a specific time.

There are a few other lessons for America’s high speed rail planning. What France is finding is many passengers on their trains are French. It’s a bother but they seem to be coping. In America we hopefully won’t have to share the trains with too many French.

One of the big cost savers is that the train runs high speed out in the rural unwashed boonies and then takes slower existing tracks into the city. That means you don’t have to spend the National Budget building high speed tracks in the suburbs. They can run at 200 mph through the cow pastures and then slow down to deliver the shrieking passengers into Newcastle. They’re shrieking because somebody forgot to build fences to keep the cows off the tracks.

Trains going 200 mph with steel wheels on steel track take 2 miles or more to stop. Places where cars or pedestrians could get on the tracks have to be controlled. Americans are pretty stupid (OK maybe not all of us, just Republicans). People drive around the crossing barricades. The point is high speed train planning has to include ways to prevent the “I don’t care about no stinkin’ law” people from getting on the tracks. That automatically disqualifies California from ever having high speed rail.

Our President, Hopey, has announced that we need to immediately begin a program to install high speed broadband internet everywhere. See, it’s a theme. Everything has to be “high speed” these days. Remember how you used to get in line at the Foodarama behind people writing checks? You’d be behind a shopper with 50 items in the “8 items or less” line who waits until the clerk tells her the total price before she begins to dig her checkbook out of the carryon luggage she uses for a purse. Then during the check writing process we discover she failed third grade arithmetic. And the pen the clerk helpfully lends her won’t work. More and more of us use cards and it’s a lot quicker (high speed). Carryon luggage purse lady can’t remember her PIN so it wouldn’t help. And I lost track of what I was saying.

Oh, yeah: high speed is the key these days. You need to buy a car that can go 120 mph even though no state allows you to drive that fast (willingly). You need to get a phone with the highest “G” number in order to enjoy all the benefits of the “high speed” network they promised to install before your next birthday. And certainly your next computer has to be capable of high speed HD TeeVee and the latest high speed gaming. Does anyone know a real human being that actually plays these kill everything games online? Neither do I.

We were talking about high speed travel. Going on trips under 200 miles is easier on the train. As the trains go faster the mileage goes up. Now it’s easier to take the train for a trip of 400 miles. Basically it’s the amount of time we can go without strapping on the old feed bag. Have lunch in Memphis and dinner in New Orleans.

We’re looking at several routes here in America that could benefit from these high speed city to city links. People in Houston might want to zip over to Dallas for the rodeo. They’d probably stay home or drive rather than fly. That’s what the French are finding on their routes. Airline travel where TGV trains run has dropped as much as 25%. Many other people are going places they never went before just because it’s so easy.

We have a speedy Talgo train here that goes between Vancouver BC and Portland, OR. The main speed limitation is that it shares the tracks with freight trains. The track itself limits the speed. Door to door train ride from Seattle to Portland is already faster than flying. If they could speed up to 200 mph we’d all be shopping in sales tax free Portland. Umm, maybe Christine should consider that.

OK, what’s the plan for America? We don’t have one. The all powerful high potentates have decreed that we will move forward with high speed rail in several key locations around the country. Examples would be LA to San Fran (California is disqualified), Denver to Cheyenne, Cleveland to Miami… OK, I don’t know but then I’m not on the team making this stuff up.

I’m pretty sure whatever they come up with will work like our Ferry System. They’ll have tracks, overhead wires, and fancy logos with stars and stripes to help us remember which taxpayers are paying for it. I bet they won’t run often enough to attract riders and bring down per-passenger costs. They’ll defer buying adequate trainsets claiming “budget constraints” which will prevent them from reaching the efficiencies that could return the investment.

Maybe by 2100 when the whole country is one big city.

Al

Boring Alaska Way Viaduct

A few weeks ago, in 2008, Christine promised she would personally destroy the Alaska Way Viaduct in 2012. She even bought a giant bulldozer. Well, we need to keep that dozer greased up because the viaduct is staying in place until the tunnel is ready.


Well, almost ready anyway. The issue is we won’t have a tunnel until 2016 or later (depending on a few factors, such as high tides and blue moons, etc.). Everyone realized that losing a six lane north-south corridor through downtown Seattle would cause traffic backups all the way to Olympia. That’s where Christine lives (until the next election).

No hurry; if you still want to drive the viaduct and look out over the waterfront it’ll be there a few more years. Unless the big one hits and the whole thing lands in Elliott Bay. See, they decided the risk of losing the viaduct in an earthquake was less than the risk of Seattle traffic jams in Olympia. It’s risk management.

The transportation people are seeking bids from boring contractors to dig a tunnel. Wait; that may not have come out right. How about contractors to dig the boring tunnel. Oh well.

It turns out one of the prime potential bidders (the paper used the word “poised” but I don’t use words like that so you won’t see “poised” in this blog. I’m too poised to use those kinds of words.) is in a legal dispute in Vancouver BC.

Vancouver was doing some tunnel work and this German company was the prime contractor. Their poised, sophisticated safety expert got all emotional over some loose rock in the tunnel and halted the boring project temporarily. The city was poised for completion of the project but the contractor wasn’t poised to finish. They got fired. “You can’t fire me, I QUIT!” was the response. “Oh yeah?” cried the city and large teams of poised lawyers filed suits.

OK, maybe I’m not too proud to use a word like “poised.” Is that such a bad thing?

In any case this German company, along with some pals from Nebraska, are among the potential bidders on the Alaska Way Viaduct Tunnel project. We need a new name for this thing. First of all the new tunnel won’t follow Alaska Way. It heads toward Redmond and swings back to Lake Union via Poulsbo. Well, maybe. Anyway, we can’t name it after our current and/or recent past Mayors due to their annoying opposition. Reference to state level politicians doesn’t seem right either, given the glacial rate at which they’ve moved on this “urgent emergency.”

Which leaves only one option: The Lake Boren Tunnel. Maybe it’s not actually located at Lake Boren but once you’re underground how do you know where you are? Besides it has a nice ring to it.

Speaking of nice rings a member of the Puyallup Tribe wants to rename Mt Rainier "Ti'Swaq." In fact he wants to rename a lot of places around here to their old Indian spiritual names before the casinos made them all rich. The goal, apparently, is to make the whole area unpronounceable. Good luck with that.

Meanwhile, Patty, one of our Washington delegation, wants to help the city of Bellevue with the Bel-Red Corridor proposal. Again, this is a place that could use a new name. In case you haven’t worked it out the term “Bel-Red” refers to the area’s location between Bellevue and Redmond. But it’s actually within Bellevue. They call it Bel-Red because nobody famous ever had anything to do with it. Maybe the Puyallup Tribe would like a crack at it.

The proposal for Bel-Red is very much like that “Urban Village” concept where you can live, work, and shop all within one block. That is if you only shop in a soap store and work in an espresso stand. The light rail train will go by every seven minutes.

Back to German contractors and the Viaduct project. I’ve been watching the local highways for a long time and there’s one thing they seem to have in common. Nothing ever happens quickly or cheaply. If you want a project to come in on time and under budget you need to double the time and triple the budget. Then you might hit it.

On the other hand the Great Slide on SR 410 actually closed the road and they built a bypass in record time. Really, it was fast. So I guess the way to get things moving is for the land to start the moving first. We’d like to skip that step on the Viaduct project. That could hurt people and we really don’t need any of that.

This emergency Alaska Way Viaduct project hasn’t even been bid yet and they expect to be able to remove the old structure in 2016. We’ll have flying cars by that time. But, assuming there’s no earthquake in the meantime, it’ll be pretty entertaining. I’m poised.

Al

Sumpter Valley Dredge, Sumpter Oregon

Sumpter Valley Dredge - From Oregon State Parks and Recreation Pamphlet

Long ago when the west was new a lot of our ancestors crisscrossed the mountains looking for gold. A few found it. Each time somebody found gold they’d whoop and holler so loud it was heard back east. The result was even more people tramping around looking for gold.


In school we learned about the California Gold Rush of 1849. That started a big migration west. There were more strikes over the years and each time it caused a new migration toward the alleged find. Some people never learn.

Holmes Stereo Card - Uses Stereopticon Viewer

The best way to make money during a gold rush was to sell stuff to the rushers. Washington State had a building boom around 1910 – 1911. Many of the rail lines, banks, and municipal buildings were built in that era. Why? Because somebody who couldn’t keep his mouth shut discovered gold in Alaska.

The Alaskans didn’t want thousands of bodies frozen in the snow so they made rules that anyone going to look for gold had to come with supplies. Tons of supplies. People in Washington, Oregon, and California sold tons of supplies to these gold seekers and financed a building boom.

In Oregon gold was being panned in mountain streams. The gold seeker washed creek gravel in a pan and got a little smidgen of gold dust. Lots of backbreaking work for a little bag of glitter. Some thought there had to be a better way. “Why not use some of them new fangled machines they got?” For example the telephone. Or the automobile? Something.

Drag Line Bucket

Some of the ideas were a little closer to addressing the problem. One idea focused on the steam shovel. They brought in drag line type shovels. A few of those buckets are still there. Very heavy to haul off.

But that still left the problem of finding a dude big enough to swirl the giant pan. “Hmm,” said several old timey gold seekers, “What we need is a machine that can scoop up the creek bottom and do all the panning too”

See, the issue is stream beds are full of large roundish rocks that are very hard to pan by hand. At least for those wimps. I can toss those things around like tiddly winks. But several people studied the problem. “There must be a way” they said to their donkeys as they sat by the stream panning.

Dredge Bucket Line

In New Zealand somebody invented a thing called a paddock dredge. Look at the photos. The short story is this: It’s a boat hull with a gold extraction factory sitting on top. It’s also called a Yuba Style dredge. The front end drags up buckets full of rocks, gravel, and gold. They sluice the gold and dump the rocks and gravel out the back. It makes its own moving pond and floats forward as it works.

Dredge Hull Near Bourne in Its Pond

The dredge in Sumpter is actually the third one. They two earlier ones. One built in 1913 and another in 1915. These two quit in the mid 1920s. Some of the hardware was removed and used to make a new one. On one end there’s a bucket ladder. It can reach down 13 feet. The buckets on the Sumpter Dredge could scoop up 9 cubic feet each at 25 buckets per minute. A lot faster than a pan. Plus a lot deeper.

The Sumpter Dredge could process 100 acres a year. Your assignment: Go to Google Earth and find Sumpter, Oregon. Zoom in close enough to see the little photo icons. Click on these and see photos. Then follow highway 410 southeast to highway 7. Continue to follow highway 7. See the odd looking grey land? Zoom in close and you’ll see the side to side deposits. These are the tailings from the dredges that worked the valley.

The paddock dredge on display in Sumpter is the last of three (or four) that worked the valley. It’s an amazing contraption that has to be visited to appreciate. The people of Sumpter and Baker City, as well as several others, got the dredge fit for visitors. Sumpter itself is made up to look like it did 100 years ago. They also have a railroad station in town. A narrow gage train carries tourists to McEwen and back during the warm months. I’m impressed that they made their town into a tourist destination to keep it alive. You can eat, camp, and wander around the state park. Train rides are also fun. Visit the dredge, it’s worth the trip.

Dredge Buckets in Water Showing How They Scooped Up Rocks

The Sumpter Valley Dredge was left in its pond when the dredging stopped in 1954. Another hull is up the road toward Bourne. A third is near the McEwen station. Those two are just rotting hulls and all the machinery has been removed.

In addition to the dredge and the railroad there are several old mining and logging artifacts on display. The map shows ghost towns in the area. Bourne is a ghost town. If you like having roads all to yourself eastern Oregon is the place to go.

Al

Bellevue Battles Nature

PROBABLY NOT BELLEVUE

Long ago in internet terms Coal Creek Park belonged to King County. That was before King County was named after MLK. It used to be named after the Vice-President in the Franklin Pierce Administration to curry favor with DC. Pierce County was named after Hawkeye, ironically.

Then in a wave of political correctness they renamed the county after Martin Luther King. Maps could remain the same but all the stationary and business cards had to be changed to subsidize Office Depot or somebody.

Here's a Trail in Coal Creek Park

It all seemed quite reasonable and everyone was happy. Coal Creek Park has several hiking trails and millions of old deciduous trees that are falling to the ground due to natural processes. The longer lived evergreen trees could be seen growing up between all this downed wood. In 100 years it will be an evergreen park.

It turns out there was another problem with Coal Creek. The name is a big hint. A few years ago the county was sued over the coal residue that was still seeping out of the ground and allegedly polluting the creek. King County didn’t have the resources to clean up the creek because it was spending all its money on new stationary.

Creek

The county whined to the judge and here’s the resolution that cracks me up: The judge awarded custody of the park to Bellevue and then ordered Bellevue to clean up the pollution! Is the American legal system great or what?

Bellevue thought it was getting a new park and paid no attention to the cleanup requirement. The judge could have given it to Newcastle, except the judge probably lives there. Newcastle celebrated with all-night fireworks because it dodged that pile of warts.

See, the thing is, Coal Creek runs between Bellevue and Newcastle. It could have gone either way. For one thing part of the seepage probably comes from the fact that a construction landfill and golf course sit above many of the old coal mines. And they’re in Newcastle.

A few years have gone by. Here we are living in Martin Luther King County and Bellevue has been aging gracefully and learning to live with its new park. They just can’t figure out how to get light rail into downtown.

This week Bellevue announced that it is nearing completion of the Coal Creek cleanup project. The purpose of the project is to “reduce erosion and sedimentation, reduce flooding, improve water quality, and enhance fish habitat.” Pretty much my creed.

The last step to be done this summer is to build a sediment pond. Now I have to get in there and do some hikes to see what they did.

And in another park related convolution Bellevue has hired four separate contractors to study various aspects of the light rail route from I-90 into the south end of downtown. That means dealing with Bellefields.

Bellefields is a large natural area of wetlands that used to be under water until 100 or so years ago. When Lake Washington was lowered by the Ship Canal project this area of lake bottom emerged. Mercer Slough runs through it now. It collects runoff and drains into Lake Washington.

That area is also called the Mercer Slough Nature Park. The light rail project is called East Link. Everything has to have a name. Surrey Downs is the name of a neighborhood right south of the downtown business district in Bellevue. They have raised Mt. St. Helens over the idea of running light rail next to their neighborhood.

Plants in Spring

Surrey Downs residents have been practicing for many years. It’s a collection of nice single family homes and the city would love to bulldoze the whole place and allow big tax paying office buildings. So Surrey Downs folks have a lot of experience fighting City Hall so to speak.

In this battle they have the attention of everyone involved. Thus an alternative route was proposed that would run the light rail on the other side of the Bellefields Mercer Slough Nature Park area. This seemed like a decent way to avoid a Surrey Downs melt down. Well, guess what? The folks on the other side of Bellefields don’t want it either.

Small Classic Car Collection

Then somebody got the bright idea to run elevated diagonally across Bellefields to avoid both neighborhoods. But wait! It’s a wetland. You can’t do that. The Audubon Society had a cow. The result is there are three unacceptable alternatives to get light rail from I-90 into downtown Bellevue.

So Bellevue hired four consultants to figure out the best way. Why not five? That way you could have a tie breaker. Oh, why not one? Me. For a few hundred thousand I would be more than happy to solve the whole thing. These guys need some innovative thinking for once. I like cable stay bridges.

Just remember when all the dust settles and Mercer Slough Nature Park is in its pristine Coal Creek Park like natural state and a world class cable stay bridge is carrying commuter trains high above Surrey Downs into Bellevue THAT WAS MY IDEA.

The Wet Season in Coal Creek Park

Al

Newcastle Finally Getting a Library

The Newcastle News reported that the developer that was going to build condos along side the new Newcastle Branch Library is no longer on the project. The agreement was that they had to find financing by June and it won’t happen. That means a library all by itself. Kind of like the old plan years ago before all the “what if we add a… waterpark?” diversions that delayed everything.


The KCLS person made a “management doublespeak” remark about the area that won’t be used for condos. Something like “realize that asset” meaning more parking for library patrons. But since the current approved site plan doesn’t designate that area as anything he can’t say “more parking” he has to make it sound as if some huge management effort has to happen, thus assuring another day on the job.

Wow, did I reveal my disdain for obtuse management verbalizations? I hope so.

The plan is to have it done by fall of 2011.  Another fun construction project that will disrupt traffic in the main intersection in Newcastle.

The new library will have seven times the amount of space of items put on hold. That means you can log on to the library from home and put a book on hold. When it arrives they send an email and you go pick it up. They also keep track of the books you checked out so you don’t keep getting the same ones over and over. It also keeps the library from overcrowding.

They will have 20 fixed computer stations and cyber bars where you can connect your own computer. How cool is that?

They’ll have a 10,000 gallon water retention tank but I have no idea why. Maybe it’s to flood the tunnel to the rapid transit station in case of overwhelming numbers of commuters. They need to explain that tank.

Outside there will be parking for 44 cars. This doesn’t count paving over the realized asset at some future point. And just because the car wash was removed from the so called “multiuse” plan there will be a rain garden along one side. Maybe this is what the 10,000 gallon water tank is for. On sunny days (we get 3 per year) they will simulate rain out there.

This is one more step in the grand plan. King County Library System is already huge. Oddly people still read books in large numbers. The Kindle and iPad (OK Sony has one as well plus some others too) have not eliminated the old time physical book. The Seattle Public Library is on the list for hostile takeover.

I think at some future point KCLS will mount a charge and storm the gates of the Seattle libraries. Then a meeting between their doubletalking managers will take place at a plush Hawaiian resort for a couple of weeks. Once that’s over and some incomprehensible agreement is announced the real workers will take over and arrange a merger. Should be easy.

Then KCLS will begin to eye neighboring counties. They’ll take over the Pierce and Snohomish County Libraries. KCLS will have about the same territory as Sound Transit. They won’t stop there. At some point in the future, possibly before the new SR 520 Bridge is built, KCLS will control all the libraries in Washington state. They’ll change the name to “THE LIBRARY” and if you want a book you have to have an enhanced rfid Washington State Driver’s License. You heard it here first.

Al

Those new Signs Have to Go

New Lake Boren Park Sign all Green

The Newcastle City Council voted to go back to the old sign motif. Motif is a high dollar word meaning design scheme. Use one word in place of two saves gas. Explaining it wastes electricity. Being confused proves it’s really me writing this.


The new signs, which came from an investment of $191,000, kind of annoyed a lot of people. Basically the lime green background and white letters did not have the kind of contrast one looks to read at 40 mph.

The huge sign at the south entrance to Newcastle was removed by a disgruntled mob, I think. It was right there where Coal Creek Parkway turns into Duvall Avenue and Newcastle turns into Renton. One council member said it was “tacky-looking.” He should know, I remember his campaign sings.

Old Lake Boren Park Sign

The council moved on to more details including deciding which of the new signs to replace with the old motif immediately and which ones to leave until they evaporate on their own. The shipment of new signs that have not yet been installed sat in the back of City Hall. Those were declared “surplus” so I suppose if you want one you can find it on eBay. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll Google (Topeka) “surplus Newcastle signs” and see what happens.

New Logo

They also voted to return to the original logo that was designed way back in 1994 by an actual Newcastle resident. The new artsy logo was done by a high priced consultant. Reverting also requires a revision back to the old motif (that word again) on business cards and letterheads. Apparently it’s also cheaper but I don’t know why.

The lesson here is that we don’t want to get carried away with the “green” movement. The new signs in lime (they call it chartreuse for some reason) green background with invading leaf images was supposed to show how Newcastle was embracing the earth friendly movement. These signs have cost $191,000 and are hard to read. In addition they are made of sheet metal which has some sharp corners and can probably be badly bent in a wind storm. The whole thing was environmentally un-friendly due to several factors. So hooray for Newcastle having the nerve to cut its losses and return to readable signs reasonable costs.

Old Logo

Now if I could only find out where those signs are being sold. Probably melting them down to make new busses.

Al's iPod

Al

The Cables are Rotting

Our Floating Bridges are tied to the bottom of Lake Washington by steel cables. Why do we use steel? Ropes are susceptible to damage from water borne hazards such as motor boats.


Steel also has a characteristic that causes it to deteriorate in water. It gets wet.

So WashDOT likes to replace several cables regularly so that they are all fresh and no older than their useful life. In the case of the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge they will replace 15 of 58 cables this year.

These cables get attached to anchor blocks securely stuck on the bottom of the lake. The other end is snaked into the pontoons and cinched up to 65 tons tension. That provides a stable and motion free bridge. It won’t bounce up and down in heavy waves like those second rate floating bridges.

The process requires replacing one cable at a time. First they detach the old cable and haul it off to the scrap yard where it will be returned to the steel mill. Then it gets made into consumer goods such as toasters. Now I know why my toast is always soggy.

The high paid divers paddle down in 200 feet of water dodging rainbow trout and giant octopi to reach the bottom anchor. Using a Swiss Army knife they snip off the old cable. This is only done on the first one. The rest will have their 65 tons of tension released before being snipped off in 200 feet of water.

The upper anchor is inside a pontoon. It takes several days studying engineering drawings to figure out how to get into one of those things. Then they release the tension and slip the cable out so the divers can snip the lower ends.

Once the old cable has been pulled from the water and loaded on the scrap barge they get to work installing the new one. The process takes one day per cable. After the initial week or so fumbling with the first one, that is.

You probably think it’s a waste of time replacing cables on the SR 520 bridge since it’s due to be replaced very soon. By the year 2000 I think is the goal. Well those WashDOT folks are realists. They know this bridge replacement process could take years. They don’t want the cables rusting out and allowing the old bridge to break loose and float up to Kirkland.

Besides they need to keep the old bridge in use for most of the construction period to maximize the toll revenue. It wouldn’t do any good to stick a toll on it and then close it right away.

So my suggestion is that if you like that bridge then you need to go drive on it right now before they get the tolling installed and before they close it off for 12 years.

The Seattle mayor, Mike, wants to delay the replacement and revise the plans to add tracks for future light rail and make the HOV lanes for transit only – no car pools. He says allowing a lot more cars into Seattle from the north Bellevue area will cause a shortage in parking places in Seattle.

Actually Seattle parking shortages are self correcting. They just increase the cost to park in Seattle until the number of cars equals the number of spaces. So reducing the current number of cars on those bridges would just be a matter of raising the parking rates. Simple solutions for simple minds. Just before they close it for the replacement they could raise parking fees in Seattle to $100 a day and $120 in Bellevue. Everyone would switch to transit on I-90.

Please don’t share this with any elected officials because they might think it’s a good idea.

Another thing the steel mills make with the old cables is steel for transit vehicles. So get ready to ride a bus made out of old floating bridge cables. Don’t you just hate the damp seats?

Al

Fun with the ORCA Card

Driving downtown and parking in Seattle are getting pretty bad. You need to haul a pile of cash or perhaps a credit card. They have these little stands that spit out a card you tape in your passenger side window.


The other alternative is to find a parking garage. There are two kinds. One kind you get to park your own heap. The other kind you hand your keys over to some kind of freaky looking dude who allegedly parks it for you. When you get it back half the gas is gone. Don’t touch the tires because they’ll be real hot.

There’s another way. Park free in one of the palatial Park and Ride lots in suburbia. They have a little more room between cars so you don’t have to climb out through the sunroof like you do in a downtown lot.

The next thing you do is get on a bus. That’s an adventure you have to enjoy. You might as well enjoy it because all those parking lot valets ride the bus too. It’s real cozy.

I use the ORCA pass. It’s one of those rfid enabled devices. Works a lot like the GoodToGo Pass (or EZPass for you easterners). You get on the bus and just pass the card in front of the reader. Don’t even have to “swipe” it like a credit card. The LCD shows you have much you paid. Lots less than parking downtown.

Now I have two rfid cards. My driver’s license is rfid. I can go to Canada. I still have to get out of my vehicle and sit in Canadian Customs for an hour but at least I can come back to America.

On a recent errand I decided to see if Glen, the Lake Boren Carp, needed anything from the big city. He said that place gives him the willies. Ever seen a giant carp with the willies? That’s give me the willies.

He said last time he went to Pike Place Market they tossed him around and he ended up on a pile of fresh produce from Snohomish County.

He gave me a check to turn in at the King County Court House. He was paying off a ticket from a non-motorized citation. After reading it over we both decided it would not be in our best interest to appeal. He said he had a headache. Here’s what it said:

START OF CITATION

Dear Mr. Carp;

Please remit $20 fine to King County Superior Court for the following offence:

Subject, named in citation, has been known to frequent establishments where certain activities heretofore have been banned in alternative venues however notwithstanding are unacceptable given a specific set of guidelines not generally practiced by the general population in general based on the prevailing meteorological currents and vectors owing to unmentioned established parameters not excluding those previously delineated frequently in as yet unwritten tenets not defined at the present time insofar as it has been previously documented in various prognostications not yet uttered in these domains based on the preponderance of evidence insomuch as could conceivably be anticipated by a fictitiously reasonable practitioner of such prognostications and random pusillanimous prevaricators.

Thanks you for your attention to this notice:

Signed; Super Prosecutor, King County, Washington, USA, Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy. (Unreadable signature goes here)

END OF CITATION

Speaking of ORCA cards you can ride five bus lines, three ferry systems, any Sound Transit train, and more. Glen is a little leery of a card that’s named for something that would eat him. So don’t look for Glen on the bus.

Oh, how did my errand go? Well I got to the courthouse and paid the $20 for Glen. The clerk stared at me like I was from outer space. Oops, he used a carp check. Those things don’t translate to human money. So I quickly handed over a Jackson and got quick smile.

Then I forgot the other reason I was downtown so I just wandered around admiring all the big buildings. Seattle can be both interesting and intimidating at the same time. At one point I spotted the parking enforcement officer and decided to have a little fun.

I read about this in an email a few months ago. I walked up as the ticket was being written. I began to rant about how unfair it was for Seattle to victimize senior citizens with these outrageous parking fees. I called the officer a Fascist and that earned a second ticket under the wiper. At that point I began calling attention to the fact that the officer was on the verge of popping uniform buttons and something about how it’s amazing they could find a hat big enough for such a fat head. The car got a third ticket.

I thanked the officer for our nice little chat and walked away.

Then I remembered the original errand I went to town for. I need an iPad. OK, I don’t really need one but what’s the difference? It was about then I also remembered the current models don’t have 3G. So I need to wait.

Back to the bus tunnel for the ORCA ride to Bellevue. It only took me an hour to find my heap in the Park and Ride lot. Made it home in time for Dancing. Another glorious day in retirement land.

Al

Light Rail East Link Route Revision and on

Sound Transit insists on going ahead with the new East Link light rail route. We just don’t know where it’s going yet.


Bellevue City Council sent in a proposed preferred route and now the Sound Transit Capital Committee has another proposed route. It’s called B2M. These routes have code names. Not real sure what they stand for. It’s alphabet soup.

B2M is slightly different from B3M because it stays on 112th rather than looping around the Bellevue Club. Hence you can subtract the Bellevue Club and end up with a 2 instead of a 3. New Math. That one little number is expected to save $50 to $100 million. Wow, that’s some little difference.

Part of the savings comes from not having to run the line through the Red Lion. Dang, that would have been something to see. Get a room at the Red Lion and your USA Today would be delivered outside your door by light rail. These people take the fun out of staying at a motel.

There are other numbers as well. C9T includes a tunnel under 110th Ave which is what the Bellevue City Council wants. Then there’s the C11A alternative that runs on the surface of 108th Ave. I like my R7Al proposal that requires a cable stay bridge over I-405 at the I-90 interchange. We need a soaring bridge icon to distract people from the demolition of the ancient Bellevue Trestle.

In the mean time I-90 is getting some changes in preparation for light rail. They recently added an HOV left lane from Bellevue to the middle of Mercer Island. This is to ease the sting of the eventual loss of the express lanes. Next they’ll add an HOV lane east bound from Mercer Island to Bellevue.

They expect this to wrap up in 2012 and people will have to get used to it. In 2014 they begin the light rail line installation on the Express lanes. Unless the lawsuit puts a stop to it. I haven’t heard much about that one lately. Was it thrown out? Don’t know. If you recall the suit claimed you can’t put light rail on a highway that was built with gas tax funds because the law says those funds can only be used for roads.

The next step in this long march to 2050 is to install those HOT lanes everywhere. That’s where you get a Good-To-Go pass and you can pay a toll to drive alone on the HOV lanes. Unless you’re hauling a car load of illegals then you don’t have to pay.

The Good-To-Go pass will work on any toll facility that’s part of the same network. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge and soon the SR 520 Bridge will be in that network. But I don’t know how far it extends. Can I use my pass in Chicago?

Chicago has the I-Pass and the EZPass. EZPass is mostly on the Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Mass, etc toll roads (some are called turnpikes or Thruways). There are also numerous bridges and toll roads from Maine to Virginia. Check it out: https://ezpassmaineturnpike.com/EZPass/info/facilities.jsp Will the Good-To-Go pass work on their system? Will EZPass work here? These are examples of questions.

Will my fake pass work anywhere? Now that the world is controlled by photo surveillance I imagine any cheating like that would result in a costly fine. This makes my fake pass a collectors’ item. Now I can charge more. Hooray!

Well we still don’t know what route light rail will take in downtown Bellevue. After they finally realize they can’t use I-90 and switch all the effort to SR 520 we’re looking at a line being built in about 40 years. By that time everyone will be driving electric cars and they’ll be controlled digitally. After you leave your house and pick up the carpool you pull out on the ramp and let go of the steering wheel. You take control again when you reach the off ramp distribution point at your destination. Drop off your carpool riders and deflate the car and fold it into your briefcase.

Who needs public transit? Why waste all that steel making old fashion rails? Get those smelly old busses into museums and give us our inflatable electric cars.

Al

Antiques and How to Tell

Covered wagons at the Oregon Trail Museum in Baker City, Oregon

Americans live in an old country. It’s true! How many governments do you know of that are older than ours? If you guessed England you got it.

Drive down any country road in America and sooner or later you’ll pass an antique store. Or if my sister’s in the car you’ll stop.

1938 Packard Club Sedan, Sixteen Series, Maine Coast RR Museum

That’s because we like old stuff. It reminds us of simpler times, like that time the cocktail waitress … No, no, no wait! OTHER simpler times. Like this:

When many of us were younger a car would stop along the road and the driver would get out and open the hood. The proper posture was to scratch ones head while staring at the engine. Somebody would stop and after a little discussion and “that looks loose” type comments they’d get it running again. Today if there’s a car stopped along the road it’s because the driver has a phone call. Nobody stops anyway because most of us have no clue how cars work since about 1980.

That’s not the point. The point is old mechanical stuff is interesting to millions of us. Because of this interest there are thousands of organizations dedicated to “historical” preservation and restoration.

There are clubs dedicated to most makes of cars and some even specialize in certain decades. For example there’s probably a club for 1950’s Nash Rambler. There are also clubs that focus on tractors, trucks, motorcycles, streetcars, and riding lawnmowers.

1907 Stanley Steamer in Wells Auto Museum, Maine

Look in your AAA guidebooks. Most states have railroad museums. Shore line states have boat museums. Tractor museums are scattered all over. In Auburn Indiana there’s the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum. (Highly recommended, by the way)

Most of the museums have a membership arrangement. You send some money every year and they send you a card for your wallet. In many cases you get a magazine or newsletter. If you like the museum enough to send money then you’ll like the magazine because it includes pictures.

Third Avenue Railway B in Seaside Trolley Museum, Kennebunkport, Maine

Maine, another place where “Portland” is a city, has a Seashore Trolley Museum. It’s near Kennebunkport. Coastal people like to include “port” in the names of their towns. You won’t see “Mystic Seaport, Montana.”

The Seaside Trolley Museum has a collection of public transit vehicles from the last millennium. There are busses and streetcars from many cities across America and some international locales. It’s very interesting. You can ride an old trolley with lots of clatter and rattle just like back when people rode to work on those things.

Your assignment is to find a museum or society that preserves your favorite old mechanical vehicles and join up. That’s all there is to it.

Conductor on Trolley Ride, Seaside Trolley Museum, Kennebunkport, Maine

How do you tell if it’s a true antique? One way is how long ago the last time you saw one of those was. When you are in an antique store and they have an exhibit of the appliances in your kitchen it’s time to re-think. Either you need new appliances or you’re not in a real antique store.

Worse yet is remembering much of the contents of a museum as stuff that was in your parents home when you were growing up. And how odd it looks. Ever see an old radio that you recognize as one you wanted but couldn’t afford? It’s in the museum because nobody could afford it back then and it was still in unused condition when it was found in a warehouse.

Try your antique 3D movie glasses on these photos.

Al

Al's Handwritten Blog

Rusting Tractor in Kansas Field

For a few years now I’ve been trying to chronicle the buildup of unstoppable forces bringing a world class transit facility to the shores of Lake Boren in Newcastle, WA. Writing about local events is a part time hobby. Nobody asks me to and nobody pays me.


The process is I write the story and then send it out as email to selected friends, acquaintances, and relatives. Provides evidence that I’m still alive while giving me with a therapeutic vent. A lot of it is based on real events with my added slant.

Then I upload that same story to my Lake Boren Rapid Transit Report blog. Sometimes I add photos and change the title. I’m a definite rooky formatting a blog and/or web page. I can get photos uploaded and I figured out how to re-open a post to fix a minor error.

One thing I can’t figure out how to get a background design working. I’ve had some help and found some hints but I still don’t know how to cause that “code” to actually get into the internet and make a background. You’d think I could do it. Everyone says it’s simple. I’m kind of simple too. It may be simple but you have to know what to do to make it happen.

A real event came along and kind of made my blog premise moot. Newcastle and Sound Transit spent a lot of last year installing a “Transit Center” at the main crossroads in Newcastle. Essentially it’s a bus stop. Paint on the street says “BUS ONLY” and some tiny rain shelters were added. The intersection got new pavement and new poles for traffic lights. Newcastle is very proud. However it’s not the palatial edifice envisioned in the Lake Boren Rapid Transit Report. I call it the “interim transit center” providing service until the real one is built in the future.

In the mean time there are many other interesting things going on. I’m a man of leisure these days and I like to follow what’s happening. Lbrtr sometimes branched out to discuss other public and transit related construction projects. Some of these are getting stale. Maybe it’s me getting stale.

The Lake Boren Rapid Transit Report will add a cousin. Transit rants will still be sent to the lbrtr email distribution list. The Lake Boren Rapid Transit blog will continue with random updates. Light Rail on the eastside and various other local road and transit projects will continue to be found in email and in the blog. The new cousin will not have an email component.

My working title for the new cousin blog is “Al’s Handwritten Blog.” By not including the email I’ll have more flexibility to include photos referenced in the words and links to pertinent web sites. The blog building tools (although I don’t understand a lot of it) seem to be getting better allowing more items and hopefully more interesting visuals.

For now I'll be including these posts in my current blog rather than open a new one. I expect you’ll be able to tell the difference. Especially if you read both the email and blog versions – you won’t see the “Handwritten” posts in email. If you are particularly interested in reading what I write but only use email maybe this will encourage you to get the RSS feed. It’s easier than email and you’ll see all the photos, links, and confused logic.

On the other hand if you like reading what I write you need to visit a library. It’s full of stuff written by people who are actually good at it. Some of them use the correct words and form sentences way gooder then I ever done.

Downtown Bus leaving bushes at the Seaside Trolley Museum in Maine

Transit is still one of my prime interests. The evolution of transit vehicles has been amazing. Probably a subject for the Handwritten blog. What was that bus doing in the bushes?  I like history and the history of transportation is particularly fascinating. The “Handwritten” reference means these new posts will be even more along the lines of what I’m up to and where I’ve been. "Handwritten" in the sense that I do all the labor rather than gleen stuff from other sources.  I took that photo.  If you recall I’ve written about birding, photography, and maritime museums in the past. These are examples of subjects that will fall under “Handwritten” in the future. Pretty clever, eh?

Therefore, if you have questions, suggestions, a sense of wonder, or you’re just annoyed please feel free to let me know via the comments button below. I don’t know how it works, but I think all you need is a Google account – it’s free. It’s part of planet Google. When you send a comment I’ll read it (unless the “subject” has been flagged as spam in my gmail account).

I’m still not comfortable publicly ranting about national politics or the entertainment industry so you won’t see that stuff. Sports and “news” don’t hold my interest much either. Also my three rules will apply to the Handwritten posts: Accuracy – optional; Plagiarism – I’m not above it; Frequency – whenever.

The second one was from my college days. Several of us were putting our heads together on some project that was due very soon. One of the guys was a paragon of virtue, a well spoken stiff collar type who expended extra effort to obey all the rules. He spoke in complete sentences and used adverbs correctly at all times. Another guy suggested we could speed up the project if we were to copy a small section from a library book. Someone pointed out that copying was plagiarism. Mr. Straight Guy in his usual precise speaking voice immediately said, “I’m not above it.”

Just in case you’re curious, I still intend to maintain my own point of view. “What were they thinking?” Or “Could they possibly have made it any harder???” However, Glen, the Lake Boren Carp, will most likely stay with the Rapid Transit Report.

My other intention is that photos in these posts will mostly be my own. In the past I’ve borrowed web photos as a way to punch up stories. I’m not above it. That will probably continue in the transit posts. But the Handwritten posts should be more about the interesting stuff I find on my own. You’ll see some 3D photos. Dig around and find the red/cyan 3D movie glasses. You’ll need them. Again, if you have any comments please feel free.

Al