Perspective

Posted on September 23, 2013 by waterhigh

The prior blog referenced Forrest Fenn’s rescue in the jungle of that “conflict overseas”. *** He was shot down twice during his service.

To gain some of Fenn’s perspective on those experiences, see his writings on his blog @ Old Santa Fe Trading Co.com, and in his book The Thrill of the Chase. Maybe there will be more in his latest book, Too Far To Walk, which is being released this week.

*** “the conflict overseas” from Sam Stone by John Prine, one of the great singer/songwriters.

Fair & Square (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I had the opportunity to see Prine at Chicago’s Earl of Old Town ( & other folk legends—Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc) back in the day, and also last week when he “played Peoria”.

Forty years on, Prine’s lyrics still resonate. For example, Paradise:

Chorus:

And daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking
Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away

Caves and Kivas

Posted on August 17, 2013 by waterhigh

So many things can go wrong . . . .
Eastman boat in Chicago
24 July 1915

Just finished reading Preston/Child’s Thunderhead, a thriller set in the mysterious canyons of the desert Southwest. Thrills. Chills. And sherds. Lots of potsherds.

New words: kiva; Quivera.

Forrest Fenn is listed in the Acknowledgements. You’ll see why if you read it.

Will I sleep tonight? Yes. Well, maybe.

Will I wander the canyons in the Southwest? Not on your life.

I also picked up Treasure Island at the library since it’s mentioned in Fenn’s The Thrill of the Chase . I don’t think I ever read it as a kid. I see that there is a Skeleton Island on the treasure map, and, (yes, I peeked at the ending which I rarely ever do), there is a cave — filled with all manner of gold and such.

Forrest Fenn’s Treasure Chest

Click on this link to see a 45 million year old stalagmite in Europe.Antiparos, the Cyclades – A travelogue [part II].

Review: Preston/Child – Relic (abstracthorizons.wordpress.com)
Underwater Cave (rbcconnects.com)
Treasure Island: A Review (nobodyputssarahinthecorner.com)
Explorer rescued after getting stuck inside New Milford cave (rep-am.com)

“If you can’t fix it with gum or duct tape, it’s not a real VW bus”

Posted on August 6, 2013 by waterhigh

Okay. So why did I reblog this? Aside from the humor, it reminded me of the first James Michener book I read. The Drifters— a pop-top VW bus cruising across Europe with, I think, 6 occupants.

It kindled a spark I had for overseas travel, being young and single at the time. I didn’t make it to the running of the bulls in Pamplona (I’m fine with that), or the ancient cave paintings in Lascaux, France (which are now closed to the public).

Lascaux Caves – Prehistoric Paintings (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Michener’s known for dozens of works including Tales of the South Pacific, Texas, Hawaii, Alaska, and Centennial. You get the idea. Lots of historical facts woven into great stories.

Treasure in the Rockies

But, more important to The Thrill of the Chase by Forrest Fenn, it reminded me of another Michener novel I read (and reread) ages ago. The Source. I plan to revisit it again. It’s multi-layered—an archaeological dig at a tell in the Middle East, with a new story at each strata, plus the thread of the current dig. Very Fennesque in imagination.

For more on the VW, click this link:

If you can’t fix it with gum or duct tape, it’s not a real VW bus.

(Having owned a VW bug, I can attest to the cabin comfort consisting of ‘Heater On/Heater Off’. The change in temperature was accomplished by getting underneath the beetle and beating something to the opposite position.)

English: Duct Tape (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For more grins and giggles with duct tape, check out the Red Green videos, especially the Possum Club oath at the end of each show.

From Red Green’s Facebook Page

“If Robert Redford had ever written anything….” Forrest Fenn

Posted on May 30, 2013 by waterhigh

Robert Redford in 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) ( Sorry I missed this event. I love Madison.)

When I returned my armload of TheThrill of the Chase-related library books yesterday, I thought I’d check the history section again. It’s about 4 1/2 feet long, but has had an amazing amount of titles I could use in the chase.

After a minor delay (they’d rearranged their shelves), I found 5 more books to check out that I hadn’t seen before. I suspect someone else in this county is also on the TOTC hunt and had just returned them.

I couldn’t believe my eyes when they landed on a young Robert Redford. Serendipity strikes again. Important Literature. I won’t mention the title, but it was sub-titled A Journey Through Time. Does that not resonate, fellow Fennsters?

The book is full of photos of a trip on horseback that Redford took in the Rocky Mountains (more than 300 miles west of Toledo) and some fascinating anecdotes, historical and otherwise.

English: U.S. Postage: Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1954 Issue-3c. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Currently, I’m thumbing through a book, a 1979 publication by the National Geographic Society, and taking copious notes. And then there’s one on Lewis and Clark.

Another of the books on that same history shelf is on fly fishing. I should probably study that before I head west.

My husband/fiance/boyfriend at the time tried to teach me how to fly fish.

Putting In

One of the problems was that we were in a canoe on a lake in Wisconsin. (A friend dubbed the plastic orange-ish Coleman “a barge with points.” It did have stability in its favor.)

We’ve since bought fly rods. I’ve got waders, needed for another purpose. I picked up an assortment of flies. I watched my Dad fly fish. Am I ready for a chalk stream in the Rockies? I just hope no one will be video-taping.

Serendipity

Posted on May 21, 2013 by waterhigh

The morels and asparagas already gone, I wandered a washed field on Mother’s Day afternoon and found a trove of arrowheads, mostly pieces. Like gold and fish, they are where you find them. I think luck plays a part, but also some logic and imagination. To find Forrest Fenn’s The Thrill of the Chase treasure, it will take all of the above. And research. He says the lucky finder will be able to walk right to it, deliberately.

And so, we seekers continue our research and refine our plans. A simple Venn diagram (see Wikipedia) is a series of overlapping circles yielding useful data. A Fenn diagram is going to look more like a flow chart

Flowchart (Photo credit: BWJones)

branching off each time a clue has more than one solution. There are so many diagrams because no one knows where to begin. Well, we might think we do.

I thought at first it would be a simple fill-in-the-blank game. Decide where the warm waters halt, where to put in, and what the blaze is. Okay. But ‘halt’ has many meanings, likewise ‘warm waters’, even ‘warm’. And then you start to wonder, what does ‘it’ even mean!

A couple weeks ago, I came up with an utterly unique answer for “where warm waters halt”. This week, I even found a butterfly connection.

So, maybe the Chase isn’t keeping me away from the internet, but it has gotten me into the library, especially the history section. Here’s to all your discoveries made along the way. Enjoy.