Picto Diary - 12 June 2020 (Part 3) - Nabbed!
Above: Wolverton Mill. Hanksville, UT 12 June 2020
Out and about on the Duc.
Social Distancing from the Walking Mask People Tour
Lunch spot City Park.
Nobody here. Nearby, penned dog barking his head off at me. Outdoors is good for geezers.
Built 1921 by guy hoping to find the elusive Spanish gold mine in the nearby Henry Mountains. The story board didn't explain the connection between the gold and the mill. I still haven't figured it out.
Inside, full blown mill though...water wheel, leather belts...
Water would have had to be diverted from the Fremont
River, about a mile north of this spot.
Wolverton never found the gold.
Above: Waterpocket Fold. UT SR 24. Wayne County, UT. 12 June 2020.
Out and about on the Duc.
Social Distancing from the Mask People Tour.
Image: Section of 120 mile long monocline eroded over the eons. Principal feature of Capital Reef National Park. Behind is Aquarius Plateau.
Duc, here, is east of the Park, off UT SR 24. — at Waterpocket Fold.
Above: Behunin Cabin. Capitol Reef National Park. UT SR 24. 12 June 2020.
Out an about on the Duc.
Social Distancing from the Box Car People Tour.
Image has less significance than what is going on in front of me as I click the shutter.
A national park ranger/cop is writing me up for doing 65 in a 45.
I knew he was turning around when I saw his brake light after we passed one another. I thought, briefly, about stepping on it and finding a place to hide... rather, I slowed to 50 and waited for him to catch up. The Behunin Cabin, in Capitol Reef National Park, provided a timely stopping place where we, the cop and Mwah (sic) were safely off the otherwise limited shoulder of UT SR 24.
I was shocked...shocked...when, after the officer left his SUV cruiser with National Park markings, he did not kneel before me, or apologize for stopping me. I thought kneeling cops was the new paradigm for police action in the US.
Rather than kneeling, which as I said, threw me off, the officer was professional in all respects, assertively enforcing the law.
Cop: You were speeding, 65 in a 45, Sir.
Bishop: You're right
Cop: License and insurance, please?
Bishop: Here they are.
Cop: Please stay by your bike for a couple of minutes. I have to return to my cruiser
Bishop: I didn't exactly stay by my bike. I walked further away from the officer to check out the Behunin cabin story board, and to capture the image seen on this post. The.officer didn't seem to notice...and, I returned to my bike when when he.left his cruiser and walked back toward my bike
Cop: Sign this citation. Its a federal speeding citation. You can pay it off or contest it in Federal Court.
Bishop: Will do. I respect the cops, particularly in these difficult times. Thank you for the work you do to keep us all safe.
Cop: Thank-you, Mr. Taylor. Drive safely.
Back on the Duc, I thought of the irony in my situation. We live in two countries today. One where police work is valued, where citizens have an understanding that the "thin blue line" is all that separates civilized society from chaos. My view.
In the other America, the police are vilified, accused of being racist. I've seen the numbers. While there may be exceptions, there is no widespread evidence of police racism in the US today.
Yet, large numbers of our population support lawless, property destructive protests as a type of virtue signaling their disdain for perceived racial bias, white supremacy, and so-called white privilege.
These virtue signaling citizens, and their political leaders, support curtailing police action against lawless property destruction.
In a New York Post Op-ed today, John Podhoretz described two thirty something Minneapolis moms who vocally supported the lawless rioters, and then had their husbands sit in front of their homes through the early morning hours to ward off neighborhood looting of their own homes. True idiots. Like the hypcritical limousine liberals before them, these Prius Wokesters signaled their virtue in opposition to putative police racism. But, unlike the limousine liberals, who had the money to hire security guards and to surround their properties with electric fences, the Prius Wokesters have no such means to protect themselves. As Podhoretz points out, they are likely to reap what they sow: destruction of their own properties.
City leaders unwilling to enforce the law leads to anarchy and destruction. Reread the accounts of the 1918 Bolshevik Revolution in Saint Petersburg. It doesn't sound much different than what we are seeing in Seattle today.
If you're willing to give up your personal freedoms and property to anarchists fine. Live like the Russian peasants did for 70 years... subjugated, poor, and unfree. Better yet, cooperate as you are led to the boxcars for harboring views not consistent with the State's views.
Pas moi. That's why I listed H and K as #1 of my Covid era priorities. When the cops are neutered, there's only you who stands between your family, property and the mob.
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” George Orwell — at Elijah Cutler Behunin Cabin.
Above: Hickman's Natural Bridge. Capitol Reef National Park. Utah. 12 June 2020.
Out and about on the Duc.
Social Distancing from Mask People Tour.
Two mile round trip hike. 500 vertical foot climb. 87 degrees. I was worn out on return. Consumed all 16 oz. of water I carried in my hip pocket, and then some more when I returned to the Duc.
This was a first time hike for me.
Lottsa young families and young people on the trail. Only saw two other geezers, a man and a woman, not together, each alone like Mwah (sic).
Contrary to the empty Rith Norm of the Cand Granyon, yesterday, Capital Reef National Park is very busy. The visitors center is open and the lot is full. The Hickman Natural Bridge trail head parking was maxed. I found a narrow slot for the Duc.
Some tourists were wading and dipping in the OK flow Fremont River. From what I saw, the great American road trip vacation is alive and well. I didn't do a survey of tags, but I'd expect a greater than normal number of the visitors are Wasatch Front people.
Ordinarily when I come to this place I run into some French speakers. Not this time. With Covid-19, I''d guess more locals traveling closer to home, and fewer ferners (sic) coming here.
That's how Mwah (sic) and TIMDT are thinking about the next twelve months or so. That's why we got the Sprinter. It's now being fitted out in Ogden.
Post Covid behavior on the trails is interesting. Some people give me very wide berth...others pass by as normal. Outdoors, obviously, is a good place to be for minimizing infection from aerosol transmission for any air transmitted disease. About 0.1% of Covid-19 infections occur outdoors. Considering that fact, it is a bit weird to see so many people behaving as though everyone else on the trail has bubonic plague. At least I didn't see any hikers wearing masks. That's a good sign that the "outdoors is good" message is getting through.
One of my complaints about masks (and "social" distancing) is that each changes the social paradigm of American human interaction. Even lib, Trump hater, epidemiologist Osterholm acknowledges that masks are of no efficacy outdoors, and only marginal efficacy indoors. Osterholm says, rightly, "physically distance, don't socially distance." He seems to realize the culturally harmful aspects of masks and distancing.
Above: Capitol Dome. Capitol Reef National Park. Utah. 12 June 2020 (unable to identify the rock formation at right).
Out and about on the Duc.
Hickman Natural Bridge Trail.
So that's why they call it "Capitol Reef!" — at Capitol Reef National Park.