Picto Diary - 16, 17 April 2016 - On the road again

Above: Ducati Multistrada. My garage. Park City, UT. 16 April 2016.

On the road again.

Above: "Metaphor - The Tree of Utah" sculpture. I-80, 25 miles east of Wendover, UT. 16 April 2016.

Sculpture is by Swedish artist, Karl Momen. He created the 87 foot high sculputre between 1982 and 1986.

In the background of the image is Pilot Peak, in Nevada, just west of the Utah/Nevada state line. The peak, now with Spring snowcap, was a beacon for early travelers crossing the Great Salt Lake Desert (salt flats). Pilot Peak was the source of springs after crossing 70 miles of waterless desert. Early western explorer John C. Fremont (1844) and the Donner Party (1846) used the Pilot Peak route.

Image looks northwest from the highway.

Above: Mt. Haystack. Deep Creek Range. Utah west desert. 16 April 2016.

The Deep Creeks are an obscure range, located next to no place, in Utah's west desert, just east of the Nevada state line. Mt. Haystack is over 12K feet in elevation, higher than any mountain in the Wasatch Range. The Wasatch front, 100 miles to the east of the Deep Creeks, are where most of Utah's population live.

Image looks south south west, from Wendover, UT/NV.

I've taken I-80 west numerous times. Despite the straight slab of highway, I never get bored of the vistas of Basin and Range province America.

Above: Winning slot. Winnemucca Inn Casino. Winnemucca, NV. 16 April 2016.

Credit window shows $212, of which $80 was my stake. So, I cleared $132.00 on this spin. I knew enough to walk away. Win paid for the day's gas and ribeye with a little left over to help cover the room at the Best Western Gold Country Inn.

My experience is a very basic, crude version of "know when to hold 'em.... know when to fold 'em. know when to walk away... know when to run."

Or, better described as.... patience is a virtue?

Via max bet 75 cent spins, I had whittled down my $80 stake on this twenty five cents Wheel Of Fortune slot to about $5... but, I kept spinning... ready to risk it all... when, abruptly, I started winning, culminating in the spin seen here. About 7 earlier "wheel of fortune" spins gave me nothing more than 20 or 30 quarter pay outs. How is it that you never get the 1000 or 500 quarter pay outs when spinning the wheel?

And...so goes the story of the motorcycling, high roller, gambler.

Above: Morning meeting of La Societe Deux Magots (LSDM). Wasatch Bagel. 17 April 2017.

Image by Tucson, who noted that meeting was hosted by Caspar.

Stephen D. Taylor eating burgers and fries at In-N-Out Burger.
April 17 at 12:50pm · Auburn ·
Mandatory stop every motorcycle crossing of Donner Pass.

Donner Pass summit: 57 degrees.
Auburn, CA: 80 degrees.

Above: Jim Mattis, speaker at Hoover Institution Spring Retreat opening dinner. Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center. Stanford, University, Palo Alto, CA. 17 April 2016.

Jim Mattis is a U.S. Marine Corps four-star general who retired in 2013 after forty-two years of service, including serving from 2010 to to13 as commander of the U.S. Central Command. As such, he was responsible for military operations involving more than 200K U.S troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and surrounding countries.

IRAN

Bad deal.

Good news: We did get Iran to give up 25K pounds of plutonium and to not build bomb capability for 10 years.

Bad news: Nukes only one source of Iran's belligerency. We released most of the sanctions to allow Iran to increase its aggression in the ME on four important fronts.

1. Mining straits of Hormuz
2. Development of ballistic missile capability.
3. No restrictions on cyber warfare.
4. No restrictions on proxies (special forces, Hezbollah etc.)

Iran is the single most dangerous threat in the Middle East today. We have helped to empower them further in the Iran nuke deal.

That being said, it may have been the best deal we could get... considering international perception that the US has become a paper tiger in the Middle East. It started with Obama's backing away from the "red line" in Syria.

Addendum:

Congrats, Steve.. you made it to 100 ski days. Until next season..

Espresso,
Washington, D.C.