Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for July 11, 2018

I thought it would have been the leader of the Donner Party.

It’s what happens when you try to always make the shortest distance a straight line.

I know it’s a covered wagon, but is it covered for accidental chasm damage.

I’ve been there but my experience involved a rickety truss bridge across a channel through wetlands in South Jersey. It gets exciting driving a two ton car across while the bridge frame rattles and the old planks flap at their ends. Never again!

Ah, memories of playing Oregon Trail, one of the cruelest games ever developed. Never got to any cliffs in that game, though. Everyone in my party always died of dysentery or typhoid.

YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!

If you know what’s good for you, that is! ;)

That bridge is a catwalk, so you can strut your stuff.

That was back when the canyon was a little less grand.

You think GPS is any better?

Shortcut: “The LONGEST distance between any two points!”

If whoever they asked didn’t warn them about this without being asked, it was because he was messing with them anyway. Ask a GPS for directions, and you get this sort of thing because it wasn’t set up for common sense.

And that’s why men never ask for directions.

Precisely what bit the Donner Party…

Long Grove, Illinois, two weeks ago.

I heard that the reason the Hebrews had to wander for 40 years in the Sinai Desert was that Moses was too proud to stop and ask for directions.

Just back up and get a running start.

Unhitch the ox. Send it across solo. If it doesn’t break the bridge, the wagon can at least be broken down and taken across piecemeal. It’s probably not a shortcut, as this will take all day, but who knows how many days going around would take?

Alternatively, break out some rope, and reinforce the bridge.

Wiley is obviously not an engineer. I imagine he doesn’t know why Satan keeps Hell at a constant temperature gradient.

This is why you don’t take short cuts with an 18 wheeler.Best one was one of our drivers that hit 14 foot bridge clearance with a 13’6" trailer. Apparently, they didn’t remeasure the height after some road work. Ouch. At least, it wasn’t his fault.

Is that a seagull on top of that cactus?…..just curious.

Where’s the old guy to ask, “what’s the air speed velocity of an unladen sparrow?”

That recently? I would have thought maybe the cavemen tried it with first wheel.

Wiley understands how men think; women get to deal with the circumstances.

" Maybe if we back up and then get a running start….? "

I recognize that canyon – it’s almost certainly the Rio Grande as it heads north through Colorado!

Why I know how to read several types of maps.

Google maps once tried to send us across a difficult single lane gravel 4WD road as the shortest route between two points. We were pulling a trailer at the time and had the sense to skip it. It has also sent us down a series of county roads, turning every couple of miles, rather than staying on the interstate. I checked afterwards, and the “shortcut” saved us less than 5 minutes on 4 hours of drive time. We always check to make sure the routes make sense before following them now.

The current state of many US bridges. So lift your feet and close your eyes. Thanks Congress!

Anoesis

The people who Live near there keep sending Wagon Trains along that road hoping that one of them will be sucker enough to build them a New Bridge.

An illustration of the Mormon expedition to southeastern Utah through the “Hole In The Rock” trail.

GPS can be very helpful, and I know it can’t be perfect, but sometimes I really wonder about it. It consistently tells the Uber drivers to turn the WRONG WAY up a nearby street! It’s a very busy street, close to a hospital. It has been one-way at least 17 years, as it was that way when I started working at the hospital. I always have to remind myself if we’re going to be driving in that vicinity to warn the driver, lest we both end up IN that hospital, or worse, for following GPS instructions!