Bruce Letters: Underground in Fresno

Care to take a guess at this mystery photo?

Busy travel month for us, 4 interview trips for Helen in all directions. First stop, Missoula MT, dinner take out by a pretty little fish pond:

There is a fun park downtown where there is a enough of a rapids in the Clark Fork river for surfers and kayakers to have fun:

This is the U of M mascot, appropriate for the area, a Grizzly bear:

A view of the city from top of the 'M' from the previous photo:

We would love to move to Missoula, and the hospital crew there liked Helen, but looks like the catchment area is simply not big enough to support a full time Epileptologist.

Next stop, El Paso TX. The lower 1/2 of this photo is in the US, the upper 1/2 is Juarez Mexico, with the now empty Rio Grand river in between:

I rode a tram up to a peak in the center of town, Franklin Mountain. It is the largest city park in the US, with the city built around it:

I hiked back down, had the trail all to myself for some reason (100+ degrees):

I guess not quite all to myself ... I shared it with some friendly cacti:

When I walked around downtown, it seemed a bit deserted. Until I walked into the air conditioned convention center and found hundreds of people with bowling balls ... a big tournament:

Next stop was Chattanooga TN. We had a layover in the fairly modern Dallas airport:

Chattanooga (yes, the city with a Choo Choo train) is a pretty town with a nice big river. That 2nd bridge is the biggest pedestrian only bridge in the US:

Not nearly the size of Charlotte NC (200k -vs- 2,000k metro area), but it has a big catchment area that seems to be able to support an Epileptologist. The river has lots of activity, boats, kayaks, paddle boards:

I rented a bike and peddled around both sides of the river:

Surprisingly, this horse is NOT made of wood, although it looks exactly look weathered branches. It is not until you try to bite it that you realized it is made of metal:

This week we landed in Fresno CA. We had a visit with one of Helen's online friends. Helen went wild eating fresh fruit off of trees in their backyard:

The drought was much talked about. Our Armenian taxi driver figured he would have to leave in a few years if it continued. I found the San Juaquin River still had some water in it, but if it were not for the salmon who spawn below this dam (with the help of a fish hatchery), I'm told it would have been much lower:

I saw quite a few artificial lawns which looked pretty realistic. This park should maybe consider it:

About 100 years ago, an Italian mis-bought 80 acres of land near Fresno, hoping to start a citrus orchard. After discovering it was all 'hard pan' (brick like earth, not plant-able dirt), and after discovering Fresno is quite a bit hotter than Italy, he bought a pick ax and started digging. After 40 years he had created a 50 room underground oasis, hoping to turn it into a hotel. He never quite got there, but he made a nice, cool, home for himself:

He planted lots of grapes and fruit trees 10->30 feet below ground, allowing light and rain to come in through the roof:

Back home, we have our house on the market. For the first 2 weeks, we had a house tour about every day, now we are down to one every 3rd day or so:

The cat caught the dishwasher mouse he has been patiently stalking for about a year. He quickly ate the head, as is the way of cats, but was willing to share the body with the rest of us:

We had a birthday party for Boris. The Gargoyle and Dino sing a pretty terrifying Happy Birthday:

We had a nice visit from some CA friends. Sophia took Ikebana flower arranging lessons from Helen, who learned the secretes from Mom:

We were joined by another guy with funny hair that Helen picked up somewhere. He is a little fishy, not wanting to share much about himself, but it is a good listener: