Really, this is the loneliest highway

This is U.S. Highway 6 in Nevada, somewhere east of Tonopah. I read once that less than 150 cars a day travel this lonely route. So, no traffic jams here. The Nevada Tourism people promote U.S. 50 as the "Loneliest Highway" but it's a freeway compared to this. A hot springs was a few yards behind where I snapped this photo, right by the road.

New blog: Mannequins and other fake people

Some people collect coins or stamps. I collect photos of mannequins -- not necessarily the ones in department store windows, but ones that I find in places you would least expect them. I also take pictures of dolls, toys even statues -- as long as they look human but are not. Please visit my new blog, NotPeople.com, where I have begun posting the hundred or so photos of mannequins and other human-like objects that I have taken through the years.

The revenge of the dinosaurs

I snapped this photo in Vernal, Utah many years ago -- back in the stone ages of film photography, and when black and white photography was not an ancient art. I like this photo very much. I have published it many times. If you were to see it without an explanation, you would think it was trick photography or that the town was being invaded by a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Well, the photo is real. At the time, the dinosaur, a fake one of course, was right along the main drag with a photo in front that said "Welcome to Vernal."

I believe another dinosaur has replaced the T-Rex now. Maybe you can tell me in the comments section.

Collecting grocery shopping lists

My 18-year-old daughter works part time as a grocery store courtesy clerk. She bags at the checkout stand, stocks shelves, helps customers find things and walks customers to their cars to load their groceries.

Last night, Emily showed me a plastic baggie filled with a colorful assortment of folded up notes. "I have been collecting shopping lists," she said. "We're supposed to throw any litter in the trash." But she collects the shopping lists instead.

"You can learn a lot about people from their grocery lists," she explained. One by one we examined them. About half were written on lined paper from notebooks big and small. One short list was written by someone with a shaky hand on a Post-It note with a drug company logo. "She was probably old," I said, assuming that it was a "she" because the shaky handwriting was like my mother's before she died at age 85.

Another list was on of NASCAR promotional literature. "Is beer on the list?" I wondered. Nope. Most lists were on one side of the paper. One had only four items. "Couldn't someone remember only a few things?" I asked. Then I thought that with my lousy memory I might bring along such a short list.

The blue ink on one shopping list was smeared and the paper wrinkled. "I got it from a cart that had been in the rain," said Emily.

It was pretty obvious that one long list was for Thanksgiving supplies -- Dressing, gravy, cranberries, marshmallows, etc.

Sadly, there was a lot of bad spelling. But I suppose even if you spell tomatoes wrong you still know what to buy. It's not like you're writing for a large audience.

I asked Emily if all the lists were written in English. She said, yes. I told her that if she worked in Southern California it would be a different story. "I bet half of them, maybe more, would be in Spanish."

Yup, it's interesting what you can learn about people by looking at their shopping lists.

Read Emily's blog.

Me and an ugly tent trailer a long time ago

This is me camped at Death Valley in the 1950s. I'm the little speck of kid in the middle of the photo, sitting on the step of what appears to be a big tent, but which is actually a primitive tent trailer. My mother is bending over, cooking. Notice her camping attire: a dress! I assume my father took the photo. The trailer was made by J.C. Higgins which I believe was Sears' brand. Looking it brings two words to mind: Mutt Ugly!

I have been back to Death Valley about a dozen times since this photo was taken and plan to go again maybe even this year. Now I camp in a comfy motorhome, which is better than that old tent trailer by about a million light years.

Motorhome crashes with 13 people aboard

This motorhome crashed recently after its brakes failed coming down Highway 14A in Utah. The driver laid the RV down on its side to stop. Two people were injured. And that's good news because the 37-foot Gulf Stream motorhome was carrying 13 people -- eight adults and five children, the youngest 6 months.

Traveling with this many people aboard a single RV is stupid -- it likely puts the rig in danger of being overloaded, and, probably more important, most of the passengers do not have seat belts. Everyone aboard this runaway RV should thank their lucky stars they weren't killed. The driver should never be allowed to pilot an RV again. A highway patrol officer at the scene said no citations were issued.

The Beav and Wally are old guys now

This photo showed up in my email. I forwarded it ten friends. Maybe you've seen it.

The guys in the photo are the TV actors who played Beaver Cleaver, his older brother Wally (right) and devious Eddy Haskell (left), Wally's buddy who was total wise ass until he appeared in front of Ward and June Cleaver -- Mom and Dad to the Beav and Wally -- when he was so polite he'd make a fellow kid puke, but make a parent think "Oh, he's such a nice boy."

I watched Leave It To Beaver about every week when I was kid. If you are in your 50s or 60s, then maybe you did, too.

And now, here comes this picture, and all of a sudden my childhood chums look like Hell. So, the question I must ask myself is "Do I look that bad, too?"

Of course not. No way!

But maybe I'm not the one to judge: Every day of my life while I brush my teeth I see myself in the mirror. So I get used to me, the old guy compared to me, the young guy.

I think if humans were only allowed to look in a mirror once every ten years -- say on their 40th, 50th, 60th and 70th birthdays -- they would probably commit suicide or beg for anti-depressants.

Anyway, that's my thought for the day. To be honest, I wish I had never seen this picture. It makes me face reality, which is a lousy thing to face.