If you’re here, you must be seriously lost. I’m sorry for your misfortune.
That said, if you’d like to hang around a while and see what’s here, then feel free. But be warned, I’m pretty damn good at wasting other people’s time. Also be advised that without the burden of an editor I take far too many words to describe anything since electrons are free. Hmmm…I guess this paragraph is an example in and of itself. Verbosity rules!
OK, moving on, what you’ll find on this site is a chronicle of my various (mis)adventures going all the way back to my old Bluefire website from the latter part of the last century. The items might be charitably described as eclectic, but it would probably be more accurate to state it’s just whatever amuses me at the moment. There’s no advertising on this site nor is it monetized in any way. It’s just something I felt like doing. Next time I’ll consider stamp collecting instead.
Because I have no imagination you’ll find recent additions listed below in chronological order with the newest crap at the top. Or is that being redundant? (See first paragraph). If for some bizarre reason you are looking for something specific then use the menu on the left I so thoughtfully provided. And if you’re here to read about…oh, I don’t know….the finding of the Death Valley Germans, just use this link to get there directly. It will save you time you’ll later waste reading the story. I just am overflowing with….consideration.
As I have stated before, there’s a lotta crap stashed on this website…..
Tom
Sept 4, 2019: After considerable foot dragging, I completed a massive, pain-in-the-butt rewrite of my existing postings on Dr. Albert Michelson’s speed of light measurements in Southern California. Plenty of new pictures and exhibits, as well as 38.43% more history!
July 27, 2019: Another weird location visited, an old mining settlement in California’s high desert, with “high” perhaps being ironically connected to the narrative.
June 25, 2019: Yeah, I know, it’s been a damn long while. Hey, I’ve been very busy. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Anyway, a trip to a very weird badlands area in New Mexico.
Feb 2, 2019: Proton beams and the damnable Lazar story. Why not just do the proton beam modeling for yourself, because…well, you can. You’re welcome.
Nov 19, 2018: I thought I was clever enough to keep my butt out of Joshua Tree and avoid any more searches for Bill. I guess I was wrong. No surprise there.
Oct 19, 2018: It’s cooled off in Joshua Tree so that means it’s time for another search for Bill. Fortunately, it doesn’t mean that I’m doing it though.
Sept 26, 2018: Beating a horse so dead I think it’s fossilized, let’s re-explore the reality behind Lazar’s tale of saucers at Papoose Lake. Yeah, I know. I didn’t want to write it and you won’t want to read it, but here we are.
Sept 18, 2018: Unearthed an old map of the Tonopah Test Range (TTR) and thought it might be of interest in some circles. Yeah, you know who you are….
August 4, 2018: Getting back up to speed with a rather interesting statistical analysis of where Bill might be (AKA, Where we didn’t look).
August 3, 2018 (!!): Damn, it’s been a while. But you know when I’m quiet I’m up to something. This is my excuse.
April 5, 2018: I have a lot of stuff going on keeping me from updating this site, but some things, like looking for folks in Joshua Tree, deserve mention. So here’s the latest. Glad it’s not me.
Jan 7, 2018: First post in a while ’cause I’m lazy. And it’s a weird one, from my distant, wayward youth, a 1928 aerial photo of an old mine I had more than a passing interest in, the Stanley-Miller. And no, you’ve never heard of it. But a few crazies have.
Nov 17, 2017: I haven’t done a truly stupid and questionable hike in a while, so I guess I’m overdue. But here it is, and it has nothing to do with missing people. Science, bitches!!!
Nov 10, 2017: In between the other stuff, another vacation-sorta trip to Europe travelling mostly by train. Yeah, I know, it’s not a stupid hike. But that one’s a’coming…..
Nov 2, 2017: Pigs must be flying ’cause here’s another update. I will insist this stupid diversion has been contributory to my MIA status around here. Or I’m just lazy.
Oct 15, 2017: Damn, it’s been a while. A combination of my usual hiding under rocks waiting out Summer and other stuff. But hey, here’s a tourist trip to the US’s Great White North, Alaska.
July 1, 2017: I have been hopelessly distracted and well behind in my chores, so I regurgitate thusly: I blame some of it on a trip to Hong Kong, then a trip to Australia. And while I continue to screw off, people are still looking for Bill. They are far better people than I.
April 29, 2017: Been busy, so I’m way behind in my paperwork, including another hopeless trip to Joshua Tree looking for Bill.
April 6, 2017: Another fruitless search looking for our friend Bill in Joshua Tree. We are nothing if not consistent.
Mar 23, 2017: A blast (blasts?) from the past, a very detailed, official map of the Nevada Test Site from 1992. Something weird from my Area 51 days.
Feb 9, 2017: I suppose I’ve put it off long enough and head back out to Joshua Tree, looking for Bill. Get my butt kicked yet again. And no Bill.
Feb 7, 2017: Still doing traveling, this time to Japan, but the end of this obsession isn’t far off. Too much of a good thing…..
Jan 19, 2017: Yet another of these historical projects that just got out of hand, but this time local, in the San Gabriel Mountains of SoCal. Hey, at last….something useful!
Jan 4, 2017: Another year and yet another post of me just fooling around and traveling in Spain and Paris. I need to do something useful…..
Dec 4, 2016: More fooling around in Europe, this time in the land of cheese. Again. But really liking it.
Nov 25, 2016: For physics geeks only….I added considerable contemporary press reporting of Michelson’s speed of light experiments to the web pages involving Santiago Peak, San Jacinto and especially Irvine Ranch. It will be of no interest to normal people….I warned you.
October 6, 2016: While I’m off loafing, people are still out in Joshua Tree looking for Bill. If I weren’t having so much fun I could feel guilty…..
Sept 25, 2016: Our favorite road trips are in the Southwest. But if you go far enough northeast (like waaaay far) this looks surprisingly similar. But colder.
Sept 5, 2016: August, as a month, just sucks mightily for me, so I’ve been amusing myself with droney things. Can you say, “Part 107”? I knew you could…..
July 25, 2016: More South American tourist nonsense. But now you can say you know someone who’s been to Quito, so there’s that.
June 21, 2016: Dumb-ass tourist fun south of the Equator in the land of Olympics and the horrific Zika since it’s too hot to go to the desert.
May 16, 2016: Another hunt in Joshua Tree looking for Bill, fortunately not by me. This search has the dubious distinction of pushing the total post-initial search miles to over 900. I can’t decide if that’s sad or not.
May 14, 2016: Me trying to sneak in a last trip to Joshua Tree looking for Bill before it gets too hot, and after all this searching what I think happened and where Bill ended up. Of course I’m usually wrong about this sort of stuff.
May 6, 2016: Yes, people are still wandering around Joshua Tree looking for Bill….for the 82nd time. And in that regard, some details of the case get clarification. Clarification is good!
March 4, 2016: Back from Costa Rica after doing a lot of tourist stuff and eating too much pizza. Oh, and Gallo Pinto too.
February 12, 2016: A large project I’ve been working on for a few years involving a little known archaeological site in New Mexico, the Kutz Canyon Stairway. Glad to finally get it written up.
February 8, 2016: Back in Joshua Tree looking for something weird without any idea of what it is. I scoff at those who say this is the definition of “clueless”.
February 5, 2016: I see I’m not alone in being foolish and still looking for Bill in Joshua Tree. Good excuse for a scenic hike though.
January 26, 2016: I finally get my sorry ass back out to Joshua Tree doing what I do best, not finding anything. I am anything if not consistent.
January 18, 2016: More mundane and unexciting vacation type crap, but in Paris. So lots of pastry may be is involved.
January 1, 2016: Let’s start the new year off right, shall we? While sorta conventional stuff it did require me to get off my ass and actually write about it. Wow, I am out of practice. No promises or resolutions though, so don’t get used to me doing anything.
September 30, 2015: Using drones for doing weird shit. In the desert. Imaging. Not crashing. Yep, ticks off most boxes.
June 28, 2015: And now for something completely different….Old aerial photos of my hometown. Why? Because I can!
May 30, 2015: There are still optimists out in Joshua Tree gamely looking for Bill. OK, maybe I’m feeling a bit lazy/guilty about now…..
May 29, 2015: This is what happens when I’m left unsupervised in western New Mexico with drones when there are archaeological sites just laying around……
April 23, 2015: A veritable dump of pointless efforts including a non-Bill trip in Joshua Tree, tourist stuff on Catalina Island, and not one, but TWO drone thingies. OK, I’m done for a while.
April 6, 2015: Added a trip report for another Joshua Tree search for Bill. I’m not sure whether I’m glad or not that it’s not me.
March 2, 2015: Added a report for yet another trip out to look for Bill. I’m beginning to think this might be a difficult project…..
February 14, 2015: Crazy people still going out to Joshua Tree, lookin’ for Bill. It’s madness, I tell ya!!
January 28, 2015: Thinking it’s way beyond time time to dip my toe back in things, I take a nice walk through Joshua Tree and fail to find Bill yet again.
December 31, 2014: Rather than joining in on post Christmas sales, Adam has yet another look for Bill. But snagging a cheap big screen TV might have been more productive.
November 18, 2014: A grim mountain bike ride in a decadent setting and an even nastier hike looking for Bill in really stupid locations. I guess I’m not a good learner.
November 7, 2014: Release the drone! And at a remote location in Nevada. No, not that remote location, but close (I do suffer lapses in judgement but I ain’t that stupid). How about Rachel, Nevada?
October 27, 2014: OK, I’m officially starting to feel like a slacker since I’m sitting on my ass while others are off looking for Bill. The big question is, do I feel guilty enough yet to get off my ass? Probably not. I’m highly skilled at slackerage.
October 10, 2014: My long awaited convergence of drones and archaeology, flying impossibly complex devices over old crap! And not crashing. That last part is important.
October 8, 2014: I’m still farting around while others are out looking for Bill. Eventually I’ll start to feel guilty and do something. But not this week.
September 27, 2014: More non-socially beneficial nonsense involving bicycles and an island in the Pacific.
September 21, 2014: Nice to know someone’s out looking for Bill while I’m just loafing and screwing around. More please!
September 9, 2014: Something sort of, almost normal to close out Summer before the weather changes, opening the door for really crazy things. I got a list….
July 30, 2014: With this little bit of madness, the search for Bill crosses 800 miles since the original search. A depressing milestone.
July 26, 2014: Yet more tricopter madness, and not just one, but two searches for Bill in Joshua Tree. Was it pretty? No.
July 25, 2014: A couple more non-socially useful things on drones here and here. This seems to be a phase I’m going through. Eventually I’ll run out of money though.
June 19, 2014: Added another chapter in my ongoing destruction of expensive flying stuffery while someone else performs something much more socially useful like looking for Bill.
June 4, 2014: One might think it’s too hot to be out in Joshua Tree searching for Bill. Well it is for me, but fortunately there are more foolish people than I.
May 25, 2014: But wait!! There’s more. Dumb bike adventures on a distant tropical island. Or maybe just Catalina…I forget. But here and here, too. OK, I’m done for a while.
May 25, 2014: Added not one, but TWO JTNP search writeups for Bill, and three pieces of assorted nonsense about drones. That’s a load. Wow, I feel like I just had a great poop!
April 7, 2014: Added another search for Bill in Joshua Tree. SPOILER ALERT! Nope, still didn’t find him.
March 23, 2014: At least someone is still looking for Bill in Joshua Tree. Another nice guest writeup. I’m being shamed into getting off my butt and out there again.
March 11, 2014: It’s been months!! Where I have been?? Why doing dumb things, this time in Joshua Tree. But not looking for Bill. Obscure, 80 year old mines are much easier than Bill.
January 10, 2014: A new year and a big blowout of backlogged stuff. Another Joshua Tree hunt, and not one, not two, but three (!!) drone thingys. I need a vacation. Oh wait…I’m living one. Maybe I need a job?
November 16, 2013: Another week and more fruitless wandering in Joshua Tree. But this time most bodily fluids (the important ones, anyway), were kept inside my body. That, at least, makes me happy.
November 8, 2013: Another trip to Joshua Tree and the usual lack of progress. Oh yeah, and blood was spilled. Worse yet, it was my blood. But rest assured my description of the event is ten times worse than the actual event.
November 6, 2013: It is so fantastic when I can get other suckers volunteers to do the hunting for Bill. I much prefer letting others do the work. I am clearly management material.
November 1, 2013: Another Bill Ewasko search in Joshua Tree to report on. My, but it’s getting busy out there. So far it hasn’t done any good, but it’s….activity.
October 26, 2013: Hey, things are picking up in Joshua Tree! The searching is much better if I’m not the one doing it. This week, a guest searcher! I need to find a way to make this happen all the time.
October 24, 2013: Time to get back into the swing of futile searching in Joshua Tree with another new search. I really should have my head examined but that would require a minimum amount of sense, which I clearly don’t have if I’m out in Joshua Tree again.
October 16, 2013: OK Summer is over and it’s time to start doing useful things again. One of those is a major data crunch involving the GPS search tracks in the hunt for Bill Ewasko. Old stuff looked at in new ways.
August 21, 2013: Yet another drone gets added to the stable. How many is too many? Is there a male equivalent to crazy cat ladies, but with drones? I may find out.
August 16, 2013: Added a page with some old LIGO pictures I took years ago that I thought had been lost. If you’re a halfway normal person you will find them uninteresting so I’d recommend passing on them. So don’t say I didn’t warn you when you end up bored after looking at them. You had to have been there. Oh wait…I was.
July 26, 2013: I’ve been….busy. Hold on, you’ll get some new stuff when I write it up. In the meantime, here’s something from the dark, pre-Internet ages of 1973. 1973?? WTF?? That’s a good question. For the answer you’ll have to read it. I can’t spoon feed you everything….
June 27, 2013: June 24th was the third anniversary of Bill Ewasko’s disappearance in Joshua Tree National Park. I guess that means it’s time for a hike or something.
June 20, 2013: The droning continues. But why should I have to stress out flying the sucker if I can just get it to fly itself? Next project: Self-making pizza!
June 16, 2013: More droneage. This time taking aerial photos and making computer models of weird places in the desert. I do this so you don’t have to (Not that you would, anyway)
June 9, 2013: This item will probably be of interest only to the wireheads that like to build weird electronic crap to fly in their UAV aircraft for imaging. Sadly, that’s me. It’s probably not you.
May 22, 2013: Well, I’ve certainly been preoccupied and suffering from website constipation. But here’s a blast of html diarrhea….How ’bout not just one, but two different archaeological trips to New Mexico….and oh, …I don’t know, maybe flying friggin’ drones over archaeological sites? And yeah, been looking at mounds of dirt on the Illinois prairie. There’s that too. OK, I’m tired…time for a nap.
April 17, 2013: Added not one, but two searches for Bill Ewasko, numbers 51 and 52. The numbering is becoming disturbingly high.
April 7, 2013: FINALLY got around to rewriting my Drones section. Hey, why do you think I’ve been so quiet for a while? I must be up to something, right? Up to drones, man!
April 7, 2013: A depressing milestone….Added the 50th friggin’ trip to look for Bill Ewasko in Joshua Tree. My only consolation is that I wasn’t the poor soul who did it. Although I am due….
March 14, 2013: Added a report of a touristy-type hike in Joshua Tree. Well, touristy from my twisted perspective. Normal folks might cringe, and well they should.
March 3, 2013: Aaaaaand another trip to Joshua Tree looking for Bill, but hey, it’s not by me! I like this! If we can start a trend here, maybe I’ll retire from the hunt.
February 27, 2013: Wow, same day writeup. That almost never happens as I pretty much can always find something I’d rather do than web work. But here’s today’s (!) trip to Joshua Tree for yet another in the ongoing searches for Bill.
February 23, 2013: I have been woefully distracted by actual fun stuff and have been neglecting updating all this crap. I can go out and do things, or, you know, write about doing things. What would you do?? But I now have for your reading pleasure, not just one, but two more trips out to Joshua Tree looking for Bill. There, now go away. I see something shiny to play with.
January 24, 2013: And now for something completely different, “How to make cheap, butt-ugly, energy absorbing landing struts for multirotors“. Yeah, you saw that one coming, didn’t you?
January 23, 2013: Finally wrote up the stinkin’ 45th trip to Joshua Tree looking for Bill Ewasko. This felt like it should have been the one but Fate enjoys scoffing at us. Fate has a nasty sense of humor….
January 15, 2013: Added in a new trip looking for Bill Ewasko and also a page containing my updated thoughts as to where he might be based upon more recent search results and cell phone data. Now not only do I get to be wrong, I get to be wrong publicly.
December 23, 2012: Did a substantial rewrite on our earlier trip report to Cary’s Castle in Joshua Tree. I was able to acquire a lot of new background information for the site and merged it into the writeup. Read it if you wanna know who Cary was. I, for one, say Welcome Stranger!
December 14, 2012: And yet another stinkin’ trip out to Joshua Tree looking for Bill. Still, it’s a good excuse for a nice hike in the desert so I shouldn’t whine so much. But the whining is satisfying.
December 1, 2012: A rainy day in Orange County means a sunny day at Joshua Tree. Good an excuse as any to go on another search for Bill. But 42??!
November 22, 2012: Getting caught up with the paperwork. Added the documentation for three new trips looking for Bill Ewasko. Sadly, still no Bill.
November 14, 2012: With the chores resulting from our return from New Mexico, I’ve fallen well behind in my adventure documentation. So this “fun” (bad choice of words) hike in Joshua Tree to Cary’s Castle is a start on the backlog.
October 30, 2012: We finish out our stay in New Mexico with a trip to some very scenic ruins in the Santa Fe National Forest, which goes by the unpronounceable name of Tsi-p’in-owinge’.
October 14, 2012: Since it’s not yet practical to get to the Moon, the next best thing is a hike across the El Malpais lava flow on the Zuni-Acoma Trail. El Malpais is Spanish for “bad country”. And it is. It really is.
October 5, 2012: The story of looking for what would seem to be a modest Chacoan-style ruin on a mesa top in the Red Mesa Valley, but maybe isn’t. Look, I’m like a dog chasing a car…The chase is a lot of fun, but I don’t know what to do with it when I catch it.
October 1, 2012: And the archaeo-goodness continues with a writeup on a trip spanning from the driest desert to the wettest mountains, looking for Chaco crap. And all the food in between.
September 25, 2012: Added a couple more trip reports to two Jemez ruins, Wahajhamka and Pejunkwa. I needed to cross them off the list before the snows come. Too many ruins and a finite amount of time.
September 23, 2012: Crap! I’m falling behind in my adventure documentation. If the choice is between writing and doing, guess which one I’m going to pick? Anyway, here’s something I added about a trip we made to the wingnut state of Arizona to look at all sorts of stuff, Rock Art Ranch, Homolovi and Hopi Pueblos…oh, and Pottery
September 12, 2012: Actually added an unexpected addendum to the old Bluefire website. Specifically, just how mobile was the McDonnell Douglas Gray Butte RCS facility’s Mobile Shelter building? You might be surprised….
September 4, 2012: It’s full-on Chaco season! So that must mean it’s time for a visit to the Bis sa’ani ruins. What? Never heard of it? I thought not. But I have….
September 1, 2012: So much weird shit in the desert to hunt for and so little time! Added reports on site visits to the Jemez ruins of Amoxiumqua and FS 3. What, you want Chaco? Soon. Very soon.
August 24, 2012: Write up added for our visit to the Twin Angels ruin, a Chacoan structure located near the northern end of Chaco’s Great North Road, the Highway 66 of its day. Why I do believe Chaco Season has begun!
August 19, 2012: Added a write up of the field tour Jeri and I took as part of the Pecos Conference. Ruins, archaeologists, graves and old cars. Fun times were had.
August 16, 2012: I attended a real archaeology conference, The Pecos Conference. Sadly, I am strange enough to fit in with these people. Here’s my report back to the normal people of the world so you may take appropriate precautions.
August 4, 2012: Been busy! Three more trips out to ruin sites. FS 18, Wabakwa and The Ridge Road of Ruins. Remind me to look up the difference between “interest” and “obsession”
August 1, 2012: Added a couple of trip reports to more obscure archaeological sites, the Chacoan Halfway House and the Gallina Rattlesnake Ridge ruins. So much weird crap out in the desert and so little time…..
July 27, 2012: A writeup on a Chaco Canyon outlier ruin, that in fact, doesn’t exist. Casa Morena, the outlier you’ve never heard of.
July 12, 2012: Added a significant update to possible implications of the single cell phone ping received from Bill Ewasko’s phone. Yeah, I know it’s wordy, but it’s important and suggests new search areas to focus on.
July 6, 2012: Added another Bill Ewasko search, now up to JT38. In Joshua Tree, in July. Sorta stupid, eh?
July 4, 2012: A strangely appropriate date for this addition. A disturbingly true story of some computer shenanigans I experienced that may or may not be Area 51 related. You decide. The joy of having a website is that I have a lot of stories like these that have never seen the light of day. But check in occasionally, as they will….
June 29, 2012: A trip report to the Jemez’s Kwastiyukwa ruins in the Santa Fe National Forest. This one sort of blew our socks off. Hard to hike without socks, not recommended.
June 19, 2012: Added a trip report of our adventure to the Tovakwa ruins, the largest Jemez Pueblo Indian ruins in the Santa Fe National Forest. Yeah, big….real big. And way deep in the forest.
June 15, 2012: Added a trip report for the Spring (Nogales) Canyon Cliff Dwellings. Something different from the old piles of tumbled rocks on the ground we have been used to seeing.
June 14, 2012: Added a trip report of a very cool visit to the Folsom Site, an extremely important archaeological site in northeastern New Mexico.
May 31, 2012: My archaeological dabbling continues with three new trip reports to Jemez Pueblo ruins, Boletsakwa, Unshagi and Seshukwa.
May 18, 2012: Added new trip report in the Searching for Bill Ewasko section in Joshua Tree NP, covering a canyon running from the Covington Flats area, northeasterly towards Quail Wash. This would be JT37.
May 10, 2012: Added new trip report in the Searching for Bill Ewasko section in Joshua Tree NP, covering the easterly off-trail portions of the Stubbe Spring loop. This would be JT36.