American Patriots: Lee Greenwood and Keb' Mo'

I'm probably just digging myself deeper into a hole but I'll give it a try. I was at Philmont Scout Ranch this last week. It is a wonderful, beautiful place and part of that is because everyone is so nice there, motivated by personal choice to live the principles of the Scout Oath and Law. Now, that is not to say the Scouts don't have their controversies and issues as I step aside the 800-pound gorilla waiving the little rainbow flag. I will note that I have never personally experienced, in any official Scouting function, a negative word or even official statement against gays. Of course, there is the all too common and inappropriate gay-bashing by jokes among youth, and maybe some adults, although I think that is less frequent now than when I was a kid. And I have actually heard it condemned by Scout leaders, yours truly included. It seems to be a courteous "don't ask, don't tell" policy in practice. And while I might prefer a more straightforward policy of acknowledgment and strict adherence to conduct standards, more like the current, official LDS church policy, I will leave it for now.

Nobody owns the rainbow. God shares it with everybody, even Philmont.
(It's good it shows up here though, even if a little under the radar)

Trails Hurt and Heal: In Honor of Milton Smith, 1825-1846

I have a new idea which I think is original on the differences of understanding and perception among humans. At least I think I think it's original, so stop me if you've heard this one.

Santa Fe Trail cut just south of Cimarron, NM, north of Villa Philmont (through the low point of the fence line)

Could it be that the veil that separates us from the Spirit World works the same to cloud our individual minds and cut us off from each other's spirits in the here and now? Otherwise, we would more easily understand, and love, and have no further need for experience in this life to help us learn how to live the Lord's Charity with each other. Yet there are certainly those times where spirit connects to spirit and we understand things we cannot easily express in human terms.

A Philmont Story from 2002

I was driving back into Cimarron from my Santa Fe Trail explorations today and Paul McCartney came out of random play on my iPod. It reminded me of something I had written a few years back in my Albuquerque days wrapping together running, Philmont, and even sort of a love story. 

LAZY DYNAMITE

My wife is getting a little jealous because I’m in love with my shoes.

Running the Galisteo River in Search of the Mormon Battalion Route

I finished last night's posting pretty late with the reference to running the Galisteo. When I thought about it this morning, I realized that was sort of an inside joke if only in my subconscious because, well, I wasn't exactly talking about white water adventures. As I started out with my love and respect for the rivers of the Pacific Northwest, the Galisteo isn't like them. I suppose the Santo Domingos appreciate the huge, monstrosity of the Army Corps Engineers Dam, because there have been flash floods that washed away parts of the ancient Pueblo which has been moved based on those floods. And I am sure there may be 500- or thousand-year floods that might actually float a boat. But in my experience, the Galisteo was for trail-running - on foot. Please note that the information for the recreation site above indicates no "water sports" "fishing" or even "drinking water." Remember, this is New Mexico.

Our Constitution Survives Even Unnecessary, Drummed-up Crises!!! (Or maybe not?)

I still say ANY compromise is good for the President, and our Constitutional Union (that's ALL of us), because the opposition ends up "compromising" with a President they have been trying to make fail. Oh, and did they forget he's some kind of Communist/Nazi/Foreign/Muslim/Elitist/etc., or maybe, just maybe,they are beginning to acknowledge he's a real American like all the rest of us and actually our legitimate President????? That's good enough for me. Feel free to disagree within our Constitutional processes.

That's all I'm asking. Please feel free to disagree through our inspired Constitutional processes including all of the Amendments, our Court decisions, and 200+ years of Constitutional History (not to mention our heritage of the common law.) Our Constitution did not die with the Founding.

We Explore the Battalion Route on Public Lands, Then I Help the US Give it back to the Santo Domingos

If you look closely at that map from the last posting, the route pretty much follows modern roadways with the glaring exception of that 24-mile, near marathon day from October 20-21, 1846. And if you look even closer, there is one very interesting geometrical configuration, a triangle, the apex of which points sideways, sharply at San Felipe Pueblo close to the number 21, and the narrow base of which is State Road 22 that intersects with the dark, thick line of the route right at another intersection of a broken line that forms the southern boundary of Santo Domingo Pueblo. I thought that might be a point on a map that I could find in real life.

The first time out there with my boys, and there were a few more to follow so I get the trips a little mixed up, I found the spot right on because the diagonal line at the top that intersects with SR 22 is the fence line of the Santo Domingo boundary. Just east and south of that intersection, I pulled over off of 22 and noted that yes, just to the east looked like ruts that went onto Santo Domingo. I did not go that way respecting the Pueblo's land. So I turned to the west on the BLM public lands portion and looked for something on the other side. It was a large, flat space, empty of vegetation other than course grass. I wandered a bit and got over to the edge where it dropped off into some piñon/juniper, and there it was! The old Camino Real that comes all the way up from Chihuahua City to Santa Fe and beyond to the first Spanish Settlements at San Juan, now, Ohkay Owingeh in its original Tewa name.

In which Marc Simmons and the Utah State Historical Society Come through for me.

Marc Simmons is a great guy and one of many interesting characters in New Mexico. I think per capita, New Mexico may outdo California, New York and even Utah for its eccentric characters. Simmons is a great popular historian who writes to explain things to regular people rather than impress the academic crowd. He lives fairly close to Santa Fe but rather far in an "off-the-grid" sort of way. At least when I had my minimal contacts a few years ago, he had no electricity, computer (a manual typewriter kind of a guy) or even a phone.  He picked up his mail at the newspaper office in Santa Fe, where I had left my letter, and with no moral aversions to the telephone (he just preferred not to have one) he gave me a call when he was in town.

 About the same time, I had come across a publication by Utah State Historical Society which was a detailed study of route of the Mormon Battalion Trail. (Yippee!)