Is it possible that in my 6,000-mile trek neither I nor the hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of cars I will be encountering will make a serious mental error that will lead to my involvement in an accident?
Wow!
Never looked at it like that before.

This will certainly favorably impact my driver’s mindset: drive carefully. No rush.

But a blogger writes me some encouragement – in the Reader’s Comments.

_____________________________________________
Today’s post is a compilation of random travel thoughts as D-day looms closer.

________________________________________
Today is Monday, August 27
This is my 139th consecutive daily posting.
Time is 5.13am with another great weather day looming.
Today’s dinner is at Legal Seafood with my son Dom and grandson Dylan.

___________________________________________
Photo of the Day

_________________________________________
Follow Up
Time. Speeding past.
Leaving Sept 1 when the Public Garden and the Greenway are in full bloom.
When I get back, the seasonal change to fall will be in full swing.
Remember to remind myself to enjoy every day.

__________________________________
Encyclopediacs

What is Yellowstone National Park?

Find the answer just before today’s Post below.
Give yourself partial credits for partial answers.

_______________________________
Thumbnail Biography:

CORNELIUS HEDGES was born in Westfield, Mass., October 28, 1831 and died in Helena, Mont., April 29, 1907. A member of the 1870 party led by Henry D. Washburn, (surveyor-general of the Montana territory) the explorers credited with "discovering" Yellowstone, Hedges was the main proponent of the idea of reserving the Yellowstone region in the public interest. He entered the Harvard Law School and graduated in 1855, and that same year he was admitted to the practice of law in the courts of Massachusetts.

Hedges was active in Montana Masonic affairs and was the first Master of Helena Lodge No. 3 in 1865 and 1866. Also an elder in the Presbyterian Church, he established a public library, and was an editorial writer for the Helena Herald. He was coming along, but life was not yet easy. His diary indicates that the Yellowstone trip cost him $280, and that he was uneasy about the expense.

It has been stated that the national park idea was a direct outgrowth of a suggestion made by Cornelius Hedges beside a campfire at Madison Junction on the evening of September 19, 1870. There is no reason to doubt that he advanced a proposal for the reservation of the area so that it would be held for the public good rather than for private aggrandizement. In that, however, he was only restating a proposal he had heard Acting Territorial Governor Thomas Francis Meagher make in October 1865.

Undoubtedly, Hedges' comrades recognized his proposal as a restatement of an idea that had surfaced twice before. Thus, Hedges' contribution lay not in a novel suggestion, but in that series of fine articles, so descriptive of the Yellowstone region, which he contributed to the Helena Herald on his return. He was a reporter, and it speaks well for his basic honesty that he never personally claimed to have originated the idea - only that "I first suggested the uniting of all our efforts to get it made a National Park, little dreaming that such a thing were possible."

Following his return from the Yellowstone trip, Hedges continued in the quiet, constructive way of life so typical of him. President Grant commissioned him U.S. Attorney for Montana Territory on March 3, 1871, and he became active in the Montana Historical Society in 1873. He was Superintendent of Public Instruction for Montana from January 27, 1872, to January 15, 1878, and again from February 22, 1883, to March 17, 1885, most of that time having judicial duties also. Hedges was probate judge of the court at Helena from 1875 to 1880, and from 1880 to 1887 he was the Supreme Court reporter. In 1884, Hedges was a member of the Constitutional Convention for statehood, and in 1889 he became the first Montanan elected to the State Senate from Lewis and Clark County. 

Thank you, Wikipedia

_________________________________________
On Mon, Aug 20, 2018 at 5:41 AM was posted:

Tick tock.
September 4, 8.00am.
Two weeks from Tuesday.
Departure day.

Reader’s Comment: from Tommie Toner
You are going to have a wonderful experience. You are a people person, and will always find a way to communicate and have fun. So what if something doesn't go along as planned! As one of my friends recently said, "I have been on enough rivers to know to go with the flow." What a joyous adventure unfolds for you. Not many people have the opportunity to do what you are going to do  - I might add, at our age. (Sorry for that, but it is true.) I wish I could be on this journey with you. I have never seen some of the sights you are going to see. I hope you take many, many photos to record your travels. 

Don and I traveled across country twice: once on his way to Fort Lewis, WA after having lived in Germany for two years. We had a destination and a time limit, so we didn't take the time to see much except the highway and beyond. It took us four days to travel from Birmingham to Tacoma.  The next trip across country was somewhat better when he came home from Viet Nam  - we drove down the Oregon/California coast and had a great time in San Francisco going to the Purple Onion and hearing great music in several other venues. We traveled the Southwest route which was absolutely breathtaking. I fell in love with New Mexico . . . felt I could touch the sky. But again, we had a destination and time constraints  - he had a job waiting on him in Chattanooga, TN as a chemical engineer with DuPont. So again, we didn't take the time to really explore and appreciate the various parks and sites. I loved the dessert and if I ever go back, I want to see where Georgia O'keefe lived and worked. Have fun on this trip - as has been said many times, it is the journey, not the destination, and Dom, you may never have this opportunity again. So breathe and take it easy, my friend.

Tommie Toner

Web Master Responds:
Thank you, dear.

____________________________
Movie Details
“Wagon Master” is a 1950 Western film about a Mormon pioneer wagon train to the San Juan River in Utah.

The film was conceived, produced, and directed by John Ford, who is often listed among the greatest film directors.

The film stars Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Joanne Dru, and Ward Bond.

Wagon Master inspired the US television series Wagon Train (1957–1965), which starred Ward Bond until his death in 1960.

The film was a personal favorite of Ford himself, who told Peter Bogdanovich in 1967 that "Along with The Fugitive and The Sun Shines Bright, Wagon Master came closest to being what I wanted to achieve."

While the critical and audience response to Wagon Master was lukewarm on its release, over the years several critics have come to view it as one of Ford's masterpieces.

Thank you, Wikipedia

____________________________
Word of the Day
geyser
a spring characterized by intermittent discharge of water ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Answer for Encyclopediacs

Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
It was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872.
Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world.

The park is known for its wildlife and its many geothermal features, especially Old Faithful geyser, one of its most popular features.
It has many types of ecosystems, but the subalpine forest is the most abundant.
It is part of the South Central Rockies forests ecoregion.

Native Americans have lived in the Yellowstone region for at least 11,000 years.
Aside from visits by mountain men during the early-to-mid-19th century, organized exploration did not begin until the late 1860s.

Management and control of the park originally fell under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior, the first being Columbus Delano.
However, the U.S. Army was subsequently commissioned to oversee management of Yellowstone for a 30-year period between 1886 and 1916.
In 1917, administration of the park was transferred to the National Park Service, which had been created the previous year.
Hundreds of structures have been built and are protected for their architectural and historical significance, and researchers have examined more than a thousand archaeological sites.

Yellowstone National Park spans an area of 3,468.4 square miles (8,983 km2), comprising lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges.
Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-elevation lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super-volcano on the continent.
The caldera is considered an active volcano. It has erupted with tremendous force several times in the last two million years.
Half of the world's geysers and hydrothermal features are in Yellowstone, fueled by this ongoing volcanism.
Lava flows and rocks from volcanic eruptions cover most of the land area of Yellowstone.

The park is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining nearly-intact ecosystem in the Earth's northern temperate zone.
In 1978, Yellowstone was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles have been documented, including several that are either endangered or threatened.
The vast forests and grasslands also include unique species of plants.
Yellowstone Park is the largest and most famous megafauna location in the contiguous United States.
Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk live in this park.
The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States.

Forest fires occur in the park each year; in the large forest fires of 1988, nearly one third of the park was burnt.
Yellowstone has numerous recreational opportunities, including hiking, camping, boating, fishing and sightseeing.
Paved roads provide close access to the major geothermal areas as well as some of the lakes and waterfalls.
During the winter, visitors often access the park by way of guided tours that use either snow coaches or snowmobiles.
 

_______________________________________
TODAY’S POST

As departure day closes in some random thoughts are swirling.
_______________________________________
Money. Some think I have allocated too much for the trip.
Not so bad to come back and find that I didn’t spend as much as I had thought I might.
But I did review my budget:

Expenses of Auto Trip to Jackson Hole, WY
Based on 31 nights

Rooms                      130/night    4030

Café                         7/day           0217

Breakfast                 15/day         0464

Lunch                       15/day         0464

Dinner                      125/day       3875

Gas                           25/day         0775

Tolls                         7/day           0217

Admissions               25/day         0775

In Town Transport                       0300

Miscellany               10/day         0310

                                                     11,427

_______________________________________________________
Thinking of rest stops or long stretches of highway without rest stops and realizing that peeing is much easier for men than for women.
We don’t have lines at the urinals.
Or if we do, they move quickly.
We men also are not averse to peeing alongside the highway.

_______________________________________________________
I didn’t plan this but I know I must:
several personal half-days for laundry, at a ‘leave it and pick it up later, folded,' place; a haircut; manicure; and a workout at Planet Fitness.
Sone likely spots: Chicago, about a week out; Dallas, about another week; Savannah?

We’ll see.

______________________________________________________
Wednesday, August 29, I leave on a mini-trip to Swarthmore, returning on Saturday to prep for the big event, push-off the day after Labor Day.

Here’s the reminder I’ll wake up to on the first day of the trip:

TODAY IS:           TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4

Get today's blog out
Then head for :

Niagara Falls,
Name of Hotel
Address
Phone #:
Reservation Confirmation #
8 hours on road

Dinner will be @ 63.00pm @...

Niagara Falls
Name of Restaurant
Address
Phone #:
Reservation Confirmation #
 

 See you soon.