During the Thanksgiving holiday with Sean, we visited Death Valley and, just outside the park entrance, the ghost town of Rhyolite, NV.  This is not just any ghost town—The interesting thing about Rhyolite is the fact that it went from a bustling town of about 8,000 people to 14 folks from 1904 to 1920!

Gold was found by Shorty Harris and Ed Cross in 1904 and by 1905, a township was established and platted.  Mining was the reason the town grew so fast, with a large mine right on its outskirts.  The entrance is still there, but blocked off by fences (mostly for safety reasons!).   The economy began to fail, due to the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco, and people began to leave the town by 1910.  But by this time, the town had a jail, a new school, a three-story bank building complete with a Post Office, and three railroads with a depot (way in the background).    This mercantile was quite an attraction with its large plate-glass windows—the only one in town!  People visited just to see the glass! 

Probably the most popular place to see is this bottle house, which was erected by Tom Kelly in 1906.  It has survived well as it was refurbished back in the 1960’s and was most recently a curio shop.

We enjoyed walking among all the ruins, looking for small treasures (but finding mostly tin cans and broken glass!) and unusual items.  There were lots of deserted bedsprings, broken dinner ware and metal pieces from woodstoves and chimneys.  All in all, it was a lot of fun exploring this piece of western history!      

I promise that this is the LAST KY entry.  On the final day of our trip, Max and I visited the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, which is right in the downtown area.  They still manufacture the famous baseball bats and we took a tour through the factory (even though they wouldn’t let us take pictures while in it!). 

  Max and Mom posed in front of the BIG bat  outside the entrance before we went into the museum part.  Once inside it was quite a shock to look UP and see this:  Famous ball players from all teams were represented in this museum.  Max posed with this one (under protest!) Then at the entrance to the factory, I got this shot before they closed our cameras down. Just at the exit was this interesting plaque:  I promised Max that he could have his wish to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken in Kentucky, so we stopped by one on our way back to Mom’s.     All in all, it was a great trip!  We all had fun exploring Louisville and seeing my Mom and brother (and his family) again! 

The whole reason we went back to Louisville, was to attend my niece’s wedding (and to visit Mom and Bro, of course).  My brother, Jon’s, younger daughter (who is Sean’s age), Jennifer, was married on Saturday, June 30 to Josh.   The wedding took place in a restaurant located on the banks of the Ohio River, so the reception was held inside (in the air conditioning, thank goodness!).  They were married under a cabana outside next to the river in a short but beautiful ceremony. 

The boys, Sean and Max, were seated at another table inside while Mom and I were in the Table One crowd with my brother and his wife, Julie. The bride’s sister, Erin, flew in from CA and did one of the two toasts.    It was good to see the sisters together!    There was a small dance floor but the music was pretty loud.    But it was good to get the family together again:  (L. to R.) Sean, Mom, Sue, Max and Jon.

We had a wonderful trip to Louisville (pronounced Loo-uh-vul), KY, this past weekend.  Because we did so much in such a short time, I’m splitting this report of the trip into more than one blog. 

The flights from CA to KY took a total of 5 hours and with waiting at the airport before and between flights, not to mention the 3 hours time change, made for a long day.  However, even the airports have interesting sites: This “horn” statue was most intriguing.  I couldn’t resist photographing it   as Max ate his breakfast   (yes, that’s a sandwich he’s eating). 

The highlight of our first full day in Louisville was the trip to Churchill Downs.  The museum there was fabulous!  Part of the guided tour was outside:  in the stands, with a view of the track, and the entrances to the track, and the exits too. In the grounds around the museum were several statues of famous horses, like Eight Belles, one of the few fillies to win the Kentucky Derby.  (If you click on the picture, you can read the inscription.)    All around the top edge of the museum walls were displayed all the horses to win the Kentucky Derby since the 1800’s! We stopped at the restaurant inside for a marvelous lunch and I was amused by some of the quotes that adorned the walls:    Afterwards, we explored the rest of the museum:     (I apologize for the blurriness of this photo, but the inscription is quite interesting concerning Seattle Slew!)  We also dropped by the Bourbon Room (which is part of the Bourbon Trail) and I was especially amused by this quote:    All in all, it was an exciting trip! 

Stay tuned tomorrow for Part Two—the Wedding!

Yes, it’s finally available in Kindle format.  You can get it by clicking HERE or by going to my new and improved web site:  http://www.suealehman.com and then following the link there.  You can also read more about the Whitehead Controversy on my website under “What’s New?”. 

I have been researching and writing this story for over three years and am delighted to finally have it out and available in e-book form.  I am now going to get it ready for actual PRINT as well, under my new publishing site, Keyslip Press (keyslippress.com).  It is a different problem with formatting than for e-books, so I need to experience that learning curve. 

Here are a few historic photos of the original Whitehead planes that might spark your interest:      

Yesterday Gypsy Girl came up lame—she may have stepped in one of the many holes in our yard.  To keep her from running with the injury, we put her in time-out on a short chain.

Zelda was so good at keeping her company and brought over a bully stick to chew on…that Gypsy promptly stole when Zelda left it to get a drink of water.  Even though Gypsy growled at her when she tried to get it back, Zelda stayed close by her buddy… What a pal! She just had some trouble staying up on the cushion, but was just content to be close to Gypsy Girl! HA!

What a week this has been.  Zelda, our new (?) pup visibly grows before our eyes and Gypsy seems astounded that this once-small pup is becoming a monster-dog.  However, Zelda’s mild personality is a welcome change from hyper-Gypsy. (With Caruso watching over them!)  They both thoroughly enjoy all the chew-treats I’ve been getting for the pup—i.e. pigs ears and bully sticks, but I’m beginning to think we should own stock in those companies with all we are buying.

Here are two pics—one from the time we first brought Zelda home (at 2 mos.) and a more current shot (about 3 mos.):   

As you can see, Zelda is outgrowing being a lap-puppy, even though she is still so incredibly soft!

Early last week, Gypsy had a too-close encounter with our girls (chickens) and, unfortunately, I found Fluffy (the beautiful Orpington) in a mass of feathers on our back porch.  Several of the other girls are nursing injuries, but the 5 of them seem to be coming back from the tragedy.  Needless to say, the yard is shut up tight and Gypsy is no longer invited in—ever.  Believe it or not, we actually got a couple of eggs again yesterday!  So, they’re on the mend!  Spot is one of the lucky ones.

Just look at the size of those feet!  Can you tell which set is the pup and which is the adult? Zelda is really growing these days.  When we picked her up (at 8 weeks old), she weighed 12lbs.  Today she weighed in at 27lbs! 

As you can tell by the size of her sturdy legs and feet, she promises to be a larger dog than Gypsy is now.  We figured Gypsy was about a year old when we got her and we just got notice that she is due for her yearly Rabies shot, so we’ve had her a year (that makes her two). 

Zelda adores Gypsy and follows her around the best that she can.  Gypsy is fast and can out run and out maneuver Zelda, but the pup still seems to wear her down.  Sometimes Gypsy will hide from the pup, just to get a few minutes of rest.  Both cats seem to tolerate Zelda well, even though the pup is constantly kissing both cats.  Caruso will sink his teeth into the pup to stop her, but Kit-Kit just out jumps and out runs the pup. 

All in all, Zelda has a sweet disposition and is very devoted to her people.  She doesn’t shy away from Gypsy or us, but will around strangers (at least, at first).  She is indeed quite adorable!

This is our new Puppy:  ZELDA!  She is just 8 weeks old and going through the housebreaking stage.  Our other dog, GYPSY GIRL, is also going through a training stage to qualify as an official babysitter (that’s basically ON A LEASH around the new puppy, as she is too rambunctious for the little one now).  ZELDA is a Malamute/Australian Shepherd mix and by the size of her feet, going to be a big dog. She already weighs 12 pounds.  She has one adorable bright blue eye and one warm brown eye (they go well with Gypsy’s half-moon blue-brown eyes!). I was amazed that little ZELDA can actually pick up that tennis ball in her mouth, even at this young age! She promises to be a ball retriever when she gets bigger.  ZELDA is a snuggler too. She really loves her people and follows us around as much as possible (when she’s not following her mentor, Gypsy).  I can’t wait for her to get big enough to take walks with her and start on obedience training.  Because she had her surgery (spade) the day before we picked her up, so she is in “a less excitable stage—calm and quiet.”  Riiigghhtt!  That’s impossible for a puppy, isn’t it!?

Look for more photos and constant updates on her progress on FB and Google+!

Steve, Max and I had an enjoyable Thanksgiving with our son, Sean, who lives down in Ridgecrest (at the edge of China Lake), CA. Sean works as a Legalman in the Navy and is currently stationed there.

While there, we went golfing, played tennis and visited an unusual museum. The guys were more excited about this place than I, but I enjoyed the various emblems and documentation and presentations of these weapons. I especially liked this relief map of the entire China Lake area. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the entire map in the picture, but the only part left out were the various mountainous ranges to the east of the main area (which is marked in red).  We saw an interesting short film which takes a tour in a helicopter over the massive space.  The museum also housed some interesting history that most of you will  remember well: 

Sean was most eager to show off his latest surprise (he’s been thinking about getting one for quite some time):    The Navy is specific about where you can display tattoos…they can’t be visible with a uniform on.  This design was created to his specifications and done by a friend of his—  He’s really into squids these days…

While there, we visited a “ghost town” and when I saw this band outside of the general store, couldn’t resist a few pics:     

All in all, it was a wonderful experience and we enjoyed spending time with Sean (isn’t he handsome in his uniform??!!!)!