It is clearly going to be some time before I can get anything going with regards to my Web space. The FTP/Front Page issue boggles my mind at the moment. In the interim and out of boredom I set out to pursue my Flight Simulator interests. My first target was Mt. Rushmore, thinking "North by Northwest," or as it was orignally titled, "The Man in Lincoln's Nose," and here's what I came up with:
Now I realize that's not very artistic, but it was the best I could do at the moment. That little plane flying toward's Lincoln's nose is my Cessna Caravan Amphibian. Anyway, after a few shots of doing those flybys I wound up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, between Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons. There was a Snake river there which made me think about Lewis and Clark. So I thought I'd do a little more exploring. What followed was this:
“Clay, on Oakdale, his eyes uncovered!”
“Lewis and Clark, the Missouri behind.”
“The Snake beyond the Yellowstone”
“Lewis and Clark at the ocean.”
The above is, of course, a parody of the Star Trek episode “Darmok,” but it is fitting at the moment. In playing with my latest flight simulator journey I’ve done quite a bit of reading about the Lewis and Clark expedition and, by George, I think I’ve got it. When I was in Jackson Hole (via FS), I wondered about the Snake River passing by there. I thought there might be two. I mean, how many creeks are there in Texas that are called Clear Creek? Further research however has led me to think that the Snake River near Jackson Hole might be the same one that Lewis and Clark found as their downward waterslide to the Pacific, which makes Yellowstone (National Park) all that more interesting, as a historical reference.
They don’t teach it like that to us in school, or how else would it be that I (at 56) just now figured it out. I could be wrong of course, but I’ve studied up on this some and if I am correct, why is this not more clearly presented. Even if I am wrong, why isn’t the truth more interestingly explained for inquiring minds such as mine?
I went to Bozeman, Montana (via FS), so that I could study the terrain traversed by Lewis and Clark in their expedition, which I consider to be one of the greatest adventures Man has undertaken. As I zeroed in on the nexus of the journey, the “Continental Divide,” I wanted specifics that I found lacking in any maps I had looked at. Even the National Geographic presentation, which is very excellent, failed to satisfy my basic questions about the Snake River, but I think I know why that is.
Nobody really knows. Certainly, nobody writing at that time had any idea where they were. They were doing their best to keep records, as I do in journalizing my own chaotic life, but the frames of reference are often relevant only to the person making the commentary. I guess it’s an example of the “uncertainty principle.”
It is easy to imagine two different routes of this historic trip as presented by the record, but if one looks at the record of how history has named things surrounding the journey, there is no way to be sure which is correct. I like the Yellowstone version best, because that’s where the Missouri would have led, but then that’s only me as a writer wanting to make the best story. The northern trip doesn’t seem to me as convincing, or as exciting, but that’s just me. I don’t feel obliged to anyone to do anything but make the Lewis and Clark Expedition one of the greatest stories ever told. If I take a little literary license by taking the trip through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons; well that will be fine with me. But that bit about Sacagawea’s brother; being the chief of that tribe! That’s hard to beat. Great story! I can’t believe it hasn’t been done yet. I want to do it right! Oh, and by the way, as I finished reading the National Geographic profile of that adventure this was the final post:
"On the morning of September 23 [1806], the Corps of Discovery entered the Mississippi River and at noon disembarked at St. Louis—two years, four months, and ten days after they had left. Gathered along the shore, the one thousand people of St. Louis greeted the returned Corps with gunfire salutes and an enthusiastic welcome."
Oh, and this is September 23, 2006. There seems a circular symmetry associated with the date, somehow. If Magellan had survived his voyage his fame would have eclipsed Columbus' by far. Lewis and Clark survived, but who knows who they were/are?
Now I realize that's not very artistic, but it was the best I could do at the moment. That little plane flying toward's Lincoln's nose is my Cessna Caravan Amphibian. Anyway, after a few shots of doing those flybys I wound up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, between Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons. There was a Snake river there which made me think about Lewis and Clark. So I thought I'd do a little more exploring. What followed was this:
“Clay, on Oakdale, his eyes uncovered!”
“Lewis and Clark, the Missouri behind.”
“The Snake beyond the Yellowstone”
“Lewis and Clark at the ocean.”
The above is, of course, a parody of the Star Trek episode “Darmok,” but it is fitting at the moment. In playing with my latest flight simulator journey I’ve done quite a bit of reading about the Lewis and Clark expedition and, by George, I think I’ve got it. When I was in Jackson Hole (via FS), I wondered about the Snake River passing by there. I thought there might be two. I mean, how many creeks are there in Texas that are called Clear Creek? Further research however has led me to think that the Snake River near Jackson Hole might be the same one that Lewis and Clark found as their downward waterslide to the Pacific, which makes Yellowstone (National Park) all that more interesting, as a historical reference.
They don’t teach it like that to us in school, or how else would it be that I (at 56) just now figured it out. I could be wrong of course, but I’ve studied up on this some and if I am correct, why is this not more clearly presented. Even if I am wrong, why isn’t the truth more interestingly explained for inquiring minds such as mine?
I went to Bozeman, Montana (via FS), so that I could study the terrain traversed by Lewis and Clark in their expedition, which I consider to be one of the greatest adventures Man has undertaken. As I zeroed in on the nexus of the journey, the “Continental Divide,” I wanted specifics that I found lacking in any maps I had looked at. Even the National Geographic presentation, which is very excellent, failed to satisfy my basic questions about the Snake River, but I think I know why that is.
Nobody really knows. Certainly, nobody writing at that time had any idea where they were. They were doing their best to keep records, as I do in journalizing my own chaotic life, but the frames of reference are often relevant only to the person making the commentary. I guess it’s an example of the “uncertainty principle.”
It is easy to imagine two different routes of this historic trip as presented by the record, but if one looks at the record of how history has named things surrounding the journey, there is no way to be sure which is correct. I like the Yellowstone version best, because that’s where the Missouri would have led, but then that’s only me as a writer wanting to make the best story. The northern trip doesn’t seem to me as convincing, or as exciting, but that’s just me. I don’t feel obliged to anyone to do anything but make the Lewis and Clark Expedition one of the greatest stories ever told. If I take a little literary license by taking the trip through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons; well that will be fine with me. But that bit about Sacagawea’s brother; being the chief of that tribe! That’s hard to beat. Great story! I can’t believe it hasn’t been done yet. I want to do it right! Oh, and by the way, as I finished reading the National Geographic profile of that adventure this was the final post:
"On the morning of September 23 [1806], the Corps of Discovery entered the Mississippi River and at noon disembarked at St. Louis—two years, four months, and ten days after they had left. Gathered along the shore, the one thousand people of St. Louis greeted the returned Corps with gunfire salutes and an enthusiastic welcome."
Oh, and this is September 23, 2006. There seems a circular symmetry associated with the date, somehow. If Magellan had survived his voyage his fame would have eclipsed Columbus' by far. Lewis and Clark survived, but who knows who they were/are?
posted by RC | 7:10 PM
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