Intersection!
Fortuitous intersection!
Non-sexual but thrilling anyway.

Ponca State Park.
And Dom's Existential Auto Trip to Jackson Hole.

An explain coming.

So.
I’ve mapped out Boston to Niagara Falls to Cleveland, then an as yet unplanned space, until I get to Chicago.

And after Chicago, before I discovered Ponca, I had another large, unplanned space between pushing off from Chicago to Jackson Hole, WY, two days at least of not knowing where to stop and what to appreciate.

Meanwhile, still researching the path of the Corps of Discovery, hoping for an intersection.
Or something approximately close.
Convinced one has to be here.

The ‘why?’ and ‘who cares?’
Totally spiritual: Messieurs Lewis and Clark are great American heroes to me.
They are who I want to be when I grow up.
As stated before on the Web Site, the corps setting out into the Great Unknown, all connections, all support, all possibility of rescue forsaken.
For over 800 days and nights.

The goals lofty; all achieved.

I typed in “Lewis and Clark Historic Trail" and my readings produced the "Lewis and Clark Visitors’ Center" in Omaha, NE; and, 2 hours out from Omaha, towards Jackson Hole, the Ponca State Park.

Fingers trembling, I asked the Gods of the Internet for a map: Chicago-Omaha-Ponca State Park- Jackson Hole, WY.
Result: a relatively straight line connecting the four.
Not only that, but Omaha fortuitously a single-day’s drive out of Chicago; Ponca, two hours out of Omaha.
Leave Chicago at 500am and reach Omaha by mid-afternoon, with stops on the way.
Play Omaha, Ponca, and departure for Jackson Hole, WY by ear.

From Ponca to Jackson Hole, WY is about 16 hours, a day and a half.

Perhaps leave Ponca with afternoon cappuccino in hand and drive a leisurely two or three hours towards Jackson Hole, stopping randomly along the way for dinner and lodging.
Reducing the 16 hour trip to 14.

Note that two hours on Omaha’s side of Jackson Hole, WY is the Wind River Indian Reservation.
Maybe a stop there.
Never been on a reservation.
 
The Existential Auto Trip departure getting close.
Time now to prepare.
See post below.

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Today is Monday, August 6.
This is my 118th consecutive daily posting.
Time is 5.40am and the weather is boiling. 95 today. Fortunately, the hot, hot summer has altered my ‘working at café’ habit: going out at 9.00am and leaving café at 1.00pm, getting home before peak heat.

Today’s dinner is Roast Duck, so simple. Ridiculous, even. I brushed baking powder and black pepper on the duck last night. Let it sit uncovered on a poultry rack in the refrigerator overnight. I stuck it in the oven at 5:30am. It’s roasting now and before I go out it’ll be past the slow roast, leaving only the aesthetically pleasing browning for this afternoon when I get back from the café.
Damn easy. Damn delicious.

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Reader’s Comment
From Jim Pasto, Boston University.

“Dom,
You are so right on this. Your blog is so amazing. Part sociological analysis, part film review, part food arts, part humor – and 100% Italian North End.”

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Word of the Day
advert

We may take a credit if we know the word without referring to the definition:

refer to in speaking or writing.

Use: "he had failed to advert to the consequences that his conduct was having"

synonyms: mention · make mention of · make reference to · allude to · touch on · speak of/about · talk of/about

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Today’s Not So Trivia Question
On reaching the Pacific, the Corps of Discovery had to decide whether to set up camp and wait out the winter or to head home immediately.
They camped.

What made the manner of this decision unusual?

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

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Thumbnail Biography:
William Clark (August 1, 1770 – September 1, 1838) was an American explorer, soldier, Indian agent, and territorial governor.
A native of Virginia, he grew up in pre-statehood Kentucky before later settling in what became the state of Missouri.
Clark was a planter and slaveholder.

Along with Meriwether Lewis, Clark helped lead the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 to 1806 across the Louisiana Purchase to the Pacific Ocean, and claimed the Pacific Northwest for the United States.
Before the expedition, he served in a militia and the United States Army.

Kentuckians fought the Northwest Indian War against American Indians, who were trying to preserve their territory north of the Ohio River.
In 1789, 19-year-old William Clark joined a volunteer militia force under Major John Hardin.
Clark kept a detailed journal of the expedition, beginning a lifelong practice.

Major Hardin was advancing against the Wea Indians, who had been raiding settlements in Kentucky, on the Wabash River.
In error, the undisciplined Kentucky militia attacked a peaceful Shawnee hunting camp, where they killed a total of eight men, women, and children.

In 1790, Clark was commissioned by General Arthur St. Clair, governor of the Northwest Territory, as a captain in the Clarksville, Indiana militia.
One older source says he was sent on a mission to the Creek and Cherokee, whom the US hoped to keep out of the war, in the Southeast.
His responsibilities are unclear.
He may have visited New Orleans at that time. His travels prevented him from participating in General Josiah Harmar's disastrous campaign into the Northwest Territory that year. 

In 1791, Clark served as an ensign and acting lieutenant with expeditions under generals Charles Scott and James Wilkinson.
He enlisted in the Legion of the United States and was commissioned as a lieutenant on March 6, 1792 under Anthony Wayne.
On September 4, 1792 he was assigned to the 4th Sub-Legion.
He was involved in several skirmishes with Indians during the continuing Northwest Indian War.
At the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, Clark commanded a company of riflemen who drove back the enemy on the left flank, killing a number of Native Americans and Canadians.
This decisive US victory brought the Northwest Indian War to an end.
In 1795, Clark was dispatched on a mission to New Madrid, Missouri. Clark also served as an adjutant and quartermaster while in the militia.

Merriweather Lewis asked him to serve as a co-leader of the Corps of Discovery to map out and claim the full Louisiana Territory, including land west of its borders.

After the expedition Clark served in a militia and as governor of the Missouri Territory.
From 1822 until his death in 1838, he served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

Thank you, Wikipedia

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Movie Details
“Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery,” is a 1997 documentary film about the Lewis and Clark Expedition directed and co-produced by Ken Burns.
The film, produced by Burns' Florentine Films for Washington, DC PBS station WETA-TV, first aired on PBS on November 4 and 5, 1997.

Part 1 of the film covers the expedition up to the headwaters of the Missouri River.
Part 2 covers the meeting with the Shoshone, the treacherous crossing of the mountains, the downstream rush to reach the Pacific Ocean, and the ambitious explorations of the return trip.

The film, as with most of Burns' individual biography documentaries, is part of his American Lives film project, and is so credited in the copyright.

Thank you, Wikipedia

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Answer to the Quiz-Question:

Lewis and Clark decided the decision as to when to start their trek home should be a truly democratic decision.
On the expedition were Captain Clark’s slave and a Lemhi Shosone squaw.
They were permitted a vote.  

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Okay.
Four weeks out from start of Dom's Existential Auto Trip to Jackson Hole: it’s about time to start
preparations.
These are the ideas that came pouring out.
Please, let me know what I should add here.
I am not a terribly experienced traveler and appreciate advice.

I live in an apartment complex with 24-hour concierge, so I must give them dates.
They also will water my one plant so I’ll include the specific dates they should enter my apartment.

My mail room: hold my mail, please.

My cleaning lady should come a day or two before I leave to do the last laundry.
While I’m gone, she can clean everything she can’t get to in the two hours-weekly that she works for me.

My bank: expect charges from unusual locations.

My health insurers: refresh myself with the protocol of receiving out-of-state health care.

Are there movies about my destinations that might be educational?
I’ve already seen the National Parks movies.

I should review laundry protocol in the most unlikely event I have to do my own clothes on the trip.
I should be able to find a laundromat that will do it all for me.
Twice on the trip, I think.

Calendar on the trip for two haircuts, eight visits to Planet Fitnesses around the country.
I won’t need a manicure until I get back.
Twice, the laundry.

Gather my electronics and carefully label them so packing them will be seamless.
Chargers and wall plugs.

Cash can wait, Am thinking $1000.
Gather the boxes or bags that will contain all my goods.

Establish my last haircut here in Boston. My last manicure. My last dry cleaning.

This not an ‘ultimate checklist,’ just some ideas that have struck me.

More important is the idea of doing in advance as much of the prep as possible.
The point is to avoid tension as the date arrives.

Good luck.