DINO's GHOST TOWN BLOG

Yeah its me again.  Been going here and there in the wind and cold.  Cabin fever is getting to me in a big way and I just have to go.
Saturday night.  I'm feeling antsy and I know I have to get in the wind again.  I leave the house about 12 midnight on my way down 55 to Pickle Springs Natural Area.  Tooling down the road at 75 to 80 MPH all was verry nice.  No accidents.  No Troopers.  80 miles per hour and the trance is blaring and beating. Cold water and Diet Pepsi in my hand with a few chips for good measure. The scanners are playing loud with the local police traffic.  All is well.  The temp was around 25 with a wind chill factor of -110.  The wind was blowing real hard, and I knew it would be blowing even harder on Dome Rock.  Thats nice.  I'm prepared. Two pair of sweat pants, two sweatshirts, my parka and my trusty dusty Thinsulate gloves. Those gloves have saved me from a few miserable times. Thinsulate is the best. Better than Gortex. I got there about 1:30 in the morning. Dark in the woods. Quiet except for the ferocious wind. The trail was calling me. So was Azazel. I must go. I put my pack on and proceeded into the blackness of the forest.  I feel it already. I know that even in the cold and wind, even in the darkness I am being watched by all sorts of creatures. They knew the minute I got here. They knew. I know.
      In my pack I have provisions. Glucose tablets for my diabetes. Cameras.  Water. Pepsi. Night vision. Various weapons of mass destruction and a digital audio recorder.  I walk down the path.  Its easy and fun.  I stop in THE SLOT and try to wait out the wind.  No such luck. I continued down the path, noticing the icicles along the way on the bluffs and ledges. Very nice. 


 I notice no animals or creatures. It was too cold and windy.  I made my way to the top to a place called DOME ROCK.  Here are the HooDoos, the strange and wonderful rock formations that have been carved out of the rock over the millenia. I needed to get out of the wind so I turned to see if my favorite hoodoo was dry on the inside.  This little rock formation looks like the rock just rose up like a little dome and then was scooped out by a large ice cream scoop. Fantastic little shelter.  I brought a small tarp just in case it was wet but it was dry so I stuffed my self in and settled down. The scene.......pitch black night, howling wind and cold cold cold. Here is a pic from the inside of the dome.

 I knew I needed to get a little shut eye so I could be fresh for the drive home so I pulled my pack up to my chest and laid my head down on it. I fell asleep. Can you sleep here?  Try it sometime.  It is memorable.  I slept in this little shelter for over 2 hours.  I woke up with a start and utter surprise.  I was not cold at all. But I thought that I was back at home in my comfy bed.  I was not cold at all here on DOME ROCK. I was nice and cozy in my little hoodoo shelter. When I woke it was the utter darkness that kinda spooked me at first.  At first. Then I realized where I was and I knew I had to get going.  I looked at my time piece and saw I had been asleep for over 2 hours. That was kinda weird. I didn't think I would sleep that long. Oh well.  I got out of the shelter and hurried down the path to the car.  No problems at all on the way home. Trance and police transmissions to keep me company all the way home. Made it back about 5 AM and went to bed again. I was super cozy again in my bed with my wonderful wifee next to me.A wonderful night. A wonderful life.
Hoodoo On.

Hello again. Nice to see you. Very nice.  Care for a nice libation on this cold and windy Plutonian night?  A morsel of nourishing food perhaps then?  No?  Well, it is fortunate that you have chosen to stop at my humble abode, for I have wonderous and terrifying events to speak of. Recline my friend in my comfy chair as I regale you with a tale of a cold dark and special night.
As you probably already know, I travel throughout the countryside, in the summer as well as the winter, in the day as well as the night. It is the night and the things in it that are so mystifiying. If you must venture into the night you must overcome your natural fear of the unknown as there is an abundance of fearful things in the woods and forests, enough to make a grown man tremble and shout in fear. For there are things in the black woods that even a bullet cannot bring death to. 

On this night I went to one of my favorite haunts, The Weldon Spring Area. This area includes the Weldon Spring Conservation Area as well as the Katy Trail, the former Weldon Spring Ordinance Works, The Weldon Spring Ordinance Works Quarry, the Weldon Spring well field, The Lost Valley, The Hamburg Trail leading to Mechanicsville, and a few restricted areas. These places are great for the family and friends during the day but not for the timid at night.


The time: 1 AM.  The temperature: 12 degrees.  Snow and ice at every step.  Careful. Its easy to fall and break your leg or worse. Then if you are incapacitated, they will come. If you do not get up and get moving the inhabitants of this area will come to make use of your flesh and cast your bones to the four corners after they strip them of all things warm and tasty. You must take care when being here after hours. The large fur bearers will come. The large winged creatures will take you away, piece by piece, even if you are frozen stiff as a board. It matters not to them. Nor to myself.. Prepare or perish.Here I am protected against the elements. A Tee shirt, two sweat shirts,and a thick coat as well as Thinsulate gloves and a one hole Balaclava. I am protected against the interlopers as well, tho you can't see that.  Here, I am the interloper. Notice the ice surrounding the Little Femme Osage Creek.  You can also see the friendly ORBS here and there. They are here. They are there.
   Here is the tunnel leading to the Hamburg trail. 

It goes under highway 94 and continues to the Weldon Spring Ordinance Works Interpretive Site. Wonderful place and not very radioactive at all, unlike the Weldon Spring ordinance Works quarry. Uranium, Thorium and various minerals of the radioactive kind.aLPHA, bETA AND gAMMA. Fun Fun Fun as well as TNT (TriNitroToluene) and DNT(DiNitroToluene)). So here I was at 1 in the AM walking along the Katy Trail. I have various implements but I digress.  I hiked along under the bright 94 percent moon, the gleaming glaring white ambasadors of foaming. All was good and quite. As if right on que what sounded like one hundred coyotes began howling and yipping and come unglued.  I expected it and yet it still made me take a step back. They are always pleasant to hear on RIOT A. The wolves and the  coyotes are easy to recognize and differentiate.
As I walked along I became aware of the presense of two rather night benches made of some thermo plastic or something.  I decided to rest a little by partaking of the bench. I sat, and as I did so I noticed a noize behind me. Sounded like nothing more that something in the leaves rummaging around.  As I searched the immediate area with my light something directly in front of me screamed like a banshee  on crack. I couldn't see it. It was right in front of me!  It said "YEEEOOWWWWWWWWW!!!"   It said again, "WOWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"   i SCANNED THE AREA WITH MY LEFT HAND WHILE MY KA-BAR WAS READY IN MY RIGHT HAND.  I called to it, thinking it might come out for a second so I could get a picture BUT NOOOOOOOO!  No such luck.
I decided to leave it alone and continue on my way.  Some big cat or something. LOUD!  Wonderful in the cold and dark.  Dangerous?  Maybe?  Who cares. Fantastic! Frightening?  A little.  More awesome than scary but totally tubular in a big cat kinda way.  I wished I could have seen it.  But I could tell it wanted me to go away so away I went.
I traveled to the quarry deep in the night.  The frozen night.  The night no one speaks of. The night. As I crossed into the restricted zone I thought I heard something at my feet.  Not so. Close. Very close.  A furbearer. Small. Coyote perhaps. The eyes of the night stalker lit up as I shone my light on the deepening scour of the earth.  Then, as always and without warning, what sounded like a hundred furbearers or more simply erupted with a shattering of the still cold morning. Coyotes as well as larger fur bearers let me know that they knew I was here. They didn't have to tell me.  I already knew and I have seen them in the surreal light of the LED.  They stay away.  But not far.  I welcome the encounters with them.  They don't trust me.  Who can blame them?
As I enjoyed my encounters with the fur bearers of the Weldon Spring area I decided to make my way back to the Weldon Spring trailhead.  I came out of the quarry, being tracked as I went. The feeling of being tracked by a non human is quite a feeling.  As I made my way to the Katy Trail I stopped in the intersection to take a few pictures.  I drank some water and ate some trail mix standing there, at 12 degrees.  The sky was a delight as usual. 
The Milky Way was Milky and the air was still. I began my easy trek back to the car. As I walked slowly, examining the bluffs and thinking other worldly thoughts when I came to notice that directly in front of me, where there was only the light of the moon and the snow, there seemed to be a great shadow. I looked up and coming down from the cold night, surrounded by moon light, was the visage of Azazel coming for me.  It was a bird, but what a bird it was! The wingspan on this creature was could have been six or seven feet and had its wings fully extended as it glided toward me with a smaller bird beside it.  The smaller bird resembled a kite flapping in the breeze.  I have no idea what kind of bird it was but I did know it was hunting and I was on the menu. It got closer and closer without making a sound. I didn't raise my flashlight or my weapon. I was transfixed by this sight of certain doom.  I have been attacked by a large raptor before. It startled me but did not frighten me. This was the same only the bird was even larger.  As it came for me I wondered why it thought I was food?  They have keen eyesight and it don't take a trained eye, even in the dark, to know I ain't no kinda food.  
Just as I thought the the great predator and I were sure to make contact, I saw the bird thrust its wings forward with a fantastic flourish and make a Whooooosh sound.  The little bird that was his wingman seemed to fold up like the kite I had recounted to you. It just seem to fold into a small black piece of paper and fall into the woods.  The large winged Azazel seemed to know at the very last minute that I certainly was not food and as such aborted the attack and went into survival mode, following his little friend into the woods. I could not see them but I knew they were there. They started making this little knashing and grinding noise that kinda put me off. I was shocked!  I have never seen ANYTHING like this in my short time on this planet and I know I never will be lucky enough to see something like that again but I will always remember. I can't help it. I will forever remember the Night Wing.  Attack On.

Hay Harp.  I'll be there.  Thanks for the invite.  Hello to all.
Dino

Ok thats no surprise. Some young dude in a small van shot up some dudes house and hurt someone. Ok, that happens in the trance world we live in.  But then I SAY then these little wanna be hoodlum thug gangster wanna bees, Angela Davis loookin llittle crack mongers head to my grand little ghost town. They cam flying down 70 by God and CAME TO MY HOUSE!!!       MY HOUSE DAMMMMMIT!!!   Five cars of our friendly police force came to the ghost town to welcome them to the neighborhood.  
They surrounded the van with all the cars and lights and shotguns and air support with mini guns and hellfire misslles.  They politely pulled them from the van and slapped the shiney bracelets on all four of them.  OH YEAH!!  Turns out that one of the boys grew up some in my ghost town as well as his brother who was driving the van mang.  Unreal. The smaller of the two has a mental discombobulation. He can't figure out which race he is. Can't stay off the crack! Then they found The Gun. A Hi-Point  45 caliber semi automatic. Nice weapon. Large. Larger than most 45's. The boys mother showed up and screamed at me to take my camera in the house and that there was no need for such shi* .  I smiled politely as I took her picture and continued shooting at the police cars and the area. I was in my yard after all mang.  The boys mother axed one of the cops if he could make me go inside and he said no. When she asked him why not he said this isn't Russia lady.    Dang rightt!
Loaded em all up in the cars and took em away. Took em ALL away.  Good riddance to bad rubbish!
ARREST ON
 

YA GOT A CLUE NOW DON'TCHA?  YA DONE ME WRONG AND YA DONE THE WHOLE STATE OF ILLINOIS WRONG ROD.  AND THEN YOU REFUSE TO STEP DOWN WHEN EVERYONE BUT YOU CAN SEE THE SO CALLED WRITING ON THE PROVERBIAL WALL ROD.  NOW YOU HAVE BEEN IMPEACHED!  NOW ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS TOSS YOUR SORRY CORRUPT A$$ OUT ON THE STREET WHERE YOU BELONG.  YOU REALLY BELONG IN SOME FEDERAL PRISON WITH THE LIKES OF SUGE KNIGHT AND OJ.  GET OUT ROD!   GET OUT NOW!!  SAVE SOME FACE YOU GOOD TIME CHARLIE LOOKIN, ANGELA DAVIS LOOKIN PIECE OF RAPPERS DELIGHT!

DON'T MESS WITH ME AGAIN RAD.......ROD......WHATEVER.  AS AL PACINO SAID, YOU FU** WITH ME, YOU FU**ING WITH THE BEST!!

Ok I know.  Just let me have my fantasy will ya.  I'm going stark raving mad here in the bunker, away from my precious Shannon County Missouri.  RAVING I SAY RAVING I TELL YA!! 
Here is an image I took of a tree in Lake Wappapellllo.    Wappppo.
OMG!  ITS FULL OF STARS!!!

Henry, it is time to go.  You are a scoundrel and a thief as well as a slime scum bag and you should have gotten 10 years for your lack of couth.

I hope they pound you in jail you callous dog you.

Jail On.

Do you know? Or for that matter, why don't you?  The houses in which I have lived in were always lit up during Christmas in one form or another. I can remember growing up in Hillsdale Missouri many centons ago, we had a large window facing the street. We couldn't really afford any cool stuff but I found 2 large lighted candles in the cemetery, which also was my back yard. I brought the candles, which stood about 3 feet high and were bright red and yellow, to our house and cleaned them all up and took them to my work bench where I installed new wiring and new bulbs.  I then sat them in front of the large window and plugged them in. I went out to see what they looked like and they were grand.  I was happy.  But my Mom was even more than happy. She wept cause she was so happy. She is gone now but I still put out some form of lighting, and the form of lighting gets bigger and bigger.  Unlike most peeps, I leave most or my lights up all year long and plugged in ready at a moments notice. That way if I need the police here I call em and tell em to look for the Christmas lights in July.  Or the pizza man.  They ALWAYS know where to go.You say you don't put up Christmas Lights?  Well thats cool if ya wanna.  I mean I respect your right to be a Bah Humbug and all mang.  I wouldn't dare pressure you to become one with the Christmas Spirit. But I have a Christmas present for you anyway.  :-)
Merry Christmas to all my wonderful friends on the Fox 2 Blogamatic and please have a safe and SAFE New Year.
Oh........Leave The Guns Inside as you all know.  I love guns too but keepem in for everyones safety. And ITS THE LAW..............I always wanted to say that.  :-)

Today I got up after hearing what sounded like a ruckus. A large ruckus. I went to the front and opened the front door. (not the back door in the front. what a stupid concept) and what do my blurry eyes spy?  UMSL college came to the house two houses down from me where a big crack head lives and banged on the door. (UMSL owns alot of houses around here. They are used as low cost student housing.)  No one came to the door. Next two Saint Louis County Police officers came and banged on the door. No one answered. BOOM!  Door gets kicked in and everything in the house gets TOSSED.  Right out on the front lawn. Not the back. This is the dude that I told you gets high and drunk and comes home and shoots his gun off and then scoots inside. Well I laughed and laughed when I saw that. I'm still laughing!!  OMG!!  What a wonderful Christmas present.  Another crack head evicted from the ghost town.  OUTSTANDING!!!!     GETON DOWN THE ROAD TWIT HEAD!
Fantastic!
Evict On.  Or off.  I'm easy today.


Who am I kidding?  I'm always easy. Merry Christmas.  :-)

Ya did me wrong Ron.   Ya did me wrong.

Remember when the Perseids were here?  A long time ago this year?  I told you I had shot some time lapse shots of the sky in Weldon Spring?  Here they are....This is a two hour exposure into the night. These are stars, not meteors.
This pics shows a flare from a lighter which I sparked too close to the shot.

This next picture what taken at 2 IN THE MORNING.  NIGHT TIME.    LOOKS LIKE DAYLIGHT DOESN'T IT?
And the last one.  Remember, it 2 oclock in the morning.  Cool.

You can see the moon in the shot. No Perseids tho.  Oh well. Maybe next time.  The sky was too lit up for any real observing. I'll be doing this again soon.
Image On.

This is why I love the forest and all that is is in it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt7toFy-9T4

OWL ON.

MY NEW EMAIL ADDRESS IS  dino911@att.net.   Upgraded to 6Mbps and got a new wireless router AND dropped cable tv to go with ATT U-Verse.  Better picture, Awesome features and alot more channels and they are ALL digital.  Plus a DVR!  Merry Christmas to me.
Oh almost forgot........Upgraded to a new DELL OPTIPLEX BUSINESS COMPUTER AT 3.7 gHZ.  I get to open it on Christmas.  WHEEEEEEE!   S-1 is now S-2 and the new Dell will be S-1, joining S-3 and S-4 doing duties here at the bunker from hell.

And my 49th birthday is coming the same day as the nation goes all digital, Feb 17th.  Whoopeeeeee!

Dell On.

The mang gets life in no uncertain terms.  For twelve counts? Not to mention I don't see him being a model prisoner after all.I'm a happy mang. Or maybe he'll get all the respect and love from his fellow convicts? And what was up with those gang signs he was making after he was sentenced, standing between his lawyers? Did you notice that?  To me it just stuck out like the Titanic in my parking space. Was he just tucking papers in his pocket or were those quick, deliberate hand gestures not unlike gang signs we see here in Saint Louis and on TV and in Detroit?
I'm gonna have to look at that again.
Sentence On.

Remember when I told you about the Mo. State Trooper who helped me pull over a guy in a blue van for driving drunk?  Well he called me to ask me if I would come in and write out a statement. I said I would of course and met him at the Maryland Heights Police Station the next day. WHAT A COP SHOP.  All brand new and shiny.  I went there and met him. Trooper D____n was so nice. And Young.  Must be only 28 or 29 years old. Sitting with him in the little substation office writing my report made me feel so safe and happy. He was so polite and informative and nice. Thats the way they all are. I love the Highway Patrol.       When I was finished with my report he looked it over and said it would do very nicely. We talked for a few minutes and then I got up, shook his hand and I left the building. The Esprit' de Corps is very evident with these guys and that makes me very happy to be with them and I jump at the opportunity to interact with the Patrol when ever I get the chance.
     BTW... Missouri Highway Patrol has sold their property on Mason road to BJC and they dropped the tower. I was shocked that they missed the opportunity to upgrade the HEAR network with the tower and radios that were already in place. The new station is at Weldon Spring and 64. Super modern. Looks more like a library or museum than a cop shop.  The new tower is on 94 across from the Francis Howell School. You can't miss it. Its wonderful. Beautiful. Majestic. Amazing. Pretty. Nice. Awe Inspiring. NEW.
New is good.
Troop On. 

Hello again my good friends. It is truly frosty that you have chosen to peruse my feeble attempt at describing my outdoor life to you. Please stay awhile. A beverage perhaps on this teutonic of nights? Yes? A Diet Pepsi? A Sierra Mist?  Perhaps something with a little more body. A taste of Jack Black?  The Glenlivet?  Crown?  No? Water?  You have chosen well my good friend.  As you slake your unquenchable thirst let me rip a tale from the annuls of my log.  As you know I have been on a quest to see and explore the great Sunklands in Shannon County in Missouri on the Ozark Plateau. The location is just too large to see in one day even if you get there at first light so I decided to prepare for further explorations into the area by going on an L.R.R.P. to the area.  This is a Long Range Reconnaisance Patrol to gather intel. My departure time was four AM. The trip to highway nineteen was nice and mellow, trancing all the way with the Missouri State Highway Patrol in the background on the scanner. I installed new high powered lighting in the front of the Air-Cav especially for this trip. They are wired into the high beam circuit so they are easy to turn on and quick to turn off. They are for the many and abundant deer that come to meet you on the road to the Sunklands. Also for the many and varied animals that try to commit suicide in front of my car. No no no. I have new brakes for that. Stop on the proverbial dime. Oh yeah mang.      I got to highway nineteen at five twenty eight in the morning. Making good time.  I stopped at the Quik Trip for gas and a couple of those energy shots. I'll save them for later on the way home. I'll need them. I then stopped at the Jack In The Box for two Jumbo Jacks WITH cheese for lunch and a snack on the trail. I must keep my blood suger frosty. I also have these giant Sweet Tarts that come ten to a tube. Great for the trail. Pop one in the mouth and my blood suger is cool again mang. I stopped in Steelville and got twenty dollars from an ATM for Akers Ferry, which must be utilized to cross the Current River into the Sunklands. Six twenty in the morning saw me entering Dent County. I was getting closer. The anticipation was making me travel faster that I wanted to due to the animals so I slowed a bit. The sky was totally clear and dark. Shannon County has the darkest sky of any location in Missouri. The amateur astronomers love it. So do I. At six forty I made it to Salem Missouri. Super nice town. Didn't see too much tho. The darkness and my speed kept me from sightseeing in this little town. On and on into the Plutonian night I went, speed at forty to fifty miles per hour. The Trance was off now and the only sound was the sound of the tires (also new, just for this trip) and the scanner. The scanner was scanning two hundred frequencies, looking for the local police transmissions. The antennas were just singing in the cool air as I was flying along. No moon, just stars. Beautiful.At seven oh nine I crossed into Shannon County Missouri. AT LAST. I was back to my home away from home. God I love this place. At seven twenty one I stopped at the NEW current River State Park to take a whizzzz.  Much needed. This park is not open yet but its coming along. Its Missouri's newest State Park and shall be a wonderful addition to our State Park system. Can't wait for the opening.  Seven twenty nine AM. Entering the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. This area is so wonderful it just gives me the willies just being here.  Now I must get off the wonderful highway nineteen and get on highway K. Six miles down K and you arrive in Akers Missouri. Here is the Akers Ferry, a throwback from the time when things were simpler and much more easy going. Here they still are. Four dollars one way. Four dollars back. Be back by five or you must go the LONG way around to get home. Thats an additional thirty of forty miles added to the trip. No. Not until I camp here. Here is the ferry...


The people here are Amish and have an unusual way of speaking. A little difficult for me to understand but very frosty indeed. Here is a typical Amish farm. If you look closely you can see the buggy they use for transportation tho I did see many of them with large pickup trucks hauling their horses around in style. How do they make money?  Where are the jobs and what kind of jobs are there? Weird.


Wonderful. The Sunklands. My home away from home.







I stayed all day exploring my surroundings. I started down this one little path. It looked like the path I needed to take to the bog I was looking for. It looked like the one I had seen on the sattelite image so I went for it. before long I found that it began to go downward and it led me to another path that traveled down deep into the forest. I began marking trees with my Ka-Bar just to be sure to get out. At the bottom I did find a large bog but it wasn't the right one. I sat and enjoyed the day for about an hour. I then began my climb out of the deep bowl that the Sunklands are known for. As I climbed I went by my tree marks to keep me on course. Once back to the main trail I went the wrong way and proceeded to blaze away along the ridge. Nothing seemed recognizable. All was alien. I sped up. The further and further I went the more I became disoriented. I broke out in a cold sweat and my hands became clammy. Realizing that the sun would be down soon I began to get a little agitated at myself for putting myself in this situation. then I found a camp site. BUT IT WAS THE WRONG CAMP SITE! I was beginning to feel like one of the charachters in The Blair Witch Project, alone in the woods with the light fading and nothing except a bottle of water and a Ka-Bar. I sat down. I told myself to calm down and think it thru. I then drank some water and set out back in the direction I had come. After about an hour of hiking I returned to the intersection of the trails and saw the Thermos. I hadn't seen it before. It was like a beacon in the woods that Azazel had missed in his attempt to get me lost. I realized that this part of the trail HAD to be the right way. I left the Thermos to see if it would still be there when I returned half a year later. The trail led me to MY camp site and ultimately to the car, my salvation. Now I had Jumbo Jacks WITH cheese and other goodies to feast on. Yummy. But I was a little fearful for a few minutes. I don't EVER want to be lost in the woods. I shall invest in a GPS for next time.

Why?  Who?  Its been here a long time. Why?

There are slobs where ever you go. This place is no exception. I picked it up and put it in my pack to be disposed of later. Dang #%%@^^#%#!%&&%^#@$%^*&%$!!!!!!
Thats right...I went there.


The beauty of this place is amazing. And there are large animals here. Bobcat, Mountain Lion and Black Bear. Do NOT feed the animals. They may feed on YOU.






This is where I will camp the next time I come to this place. It will be Spring of 2009. The skeeter and the chiggerz will not have come out yet and it will be perfect. This trip was just for Reconn for intel.  Fun Reconn.


I will be back, and when I do I'll show and tell you more of the place that is so dear but not so near to my heart. I have been trying to get here for ten years. I have arrived.
Please join me again my friends as I persue My LIfe In The Outdoors.

Jog On.