Faith versus Evidence

I was at a brunch over the Christmas break, and commented to a group of friends that "I don't believe any of you are religious".

Without exception, they all said they were atheist or agnostic, and so I asked a follow-up question.

"So who believes that there is some entity somewhere that has direct influence over your day to day life"?

I got a completely confounding reply - universally. They all said "yes".

Having been what I am for a long time now, I knew to end the questioning right there and to get back to drinking champagne.

I've come to refine my "atheism" over time to have a broader definition (for me) than it once did. I don't even like the term any more - it seems so incendiary.

I now like to think is that I'm a "evidence based" person. If whatever you think has no evidence to back it up, no testable theory as to how it works, and no ability to predict future outcomes,  then it's simply a belief. And I'll dismiss it outright.

A belief in a God is no different than a belief in the tooth fairy. Or Santa Claus. Or Bigfoot.

On the other hand, a prediction that the sun will rise tomorrow, that Vancouver will get rain, and that vaccinations prevent horrible disease, is based on science - evidence, testable theory, prediction.

I don't have "faith" that a chair will hold me up while sitting. I have "evidence" that it will - based on repeated, tested, predictable, experience.

Our entire lives are based on the evidence model. It enables us to do what we do. Fly in airplanes. Drive cars.  Make cellular phone calls. Have an MRI. Cook food.

Everything we do is based on science, but most of us set all this reason aside in the belief in the supernatural.

What's up with that?

PS: I use the term "evidence" in place of the word "science" mostly because I get the same "rolling of the eyes" whenever I say I believe in science. Quite sad, actually.

PPS: There is a fantastic letter that Richard Dawkins wrote to his ten year old daughter here. It's a very short, very well thought out, essay. Read it regardless of what you believe.

2015 - A Year of Living Optionally

New Year Resolutions are generally broken within a few days. When I'd go biking or running on the dike near our house, I'd see lots of people out in their brand new gear - lycra this, spandex that, and dual suspension ultra light whatevers. Santa was good.

I'd see them for a few days, and then never again.

I hope I can be different.

At first, I thought about a year of living without buying anything (except, of course, consumables like food and gas). I think that would be pretty hard.

But what about every time you asked yourself the question "do I really need this?", you answered "no".

So that's the basis of my resolution for 2015.

I'm not going to buy anything optional.

That means no computers. No smartphones. No subscriptions or downloads. No shoes. No clothes. No nothing. (I'll try not to cheat and have Laura buy whatever I want.)

I hope I'll still be married in 2016.

Addendum: January 4, 2015

Well that didn't go so well. We were at another dinner party last night and I was lambasted, ridiculed, ostracised, and generally made fun of for my outrageous resolution. It appears my intent wasn't clear, and all kinds of "purchases" came up that I should disqualify myself from - movies, wine, chocolate, coffee, you name it. Bruce said it would be his mission in 2015 to make me buy something I don't need at Walmart (hence doubling my failure).

Since the first rule when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging ... I choose to stop digging. Consider my resolution null and void, and I'll go along and do what I intended anyway - doubters be damned.

I'm glad I could add something to the conversation for the first few days of 2015.

The Sony Hack Was An Inside Job

The tech community is pretty unanimous in its informed conclusion: the recent Sony hack and release of confidential information was likely an "inside job", and has nothing to do with North Korea.

Instead of ranting about this, it's better to point you to an expert on the topic, Marc Rogers, who does a good job explaining this conclusion.

Have a quick glance at Marcs Security Ramblings to see what he thinks.

My concern is the rhetoric from the USA - blaming North Korea for the subterfuge.

An outright escalation of an already tense relationship.

12/22/2014: Addendum
Why I Still Don't Think It's Likely That North Korea Hacked Sony
A Lot Of Smart People Think North Korea Didn't Hack Sony

Fauxtribution

The Sony Hack: Attribution Problems, and the Connection to Domestic Surveillance

12/30/2014: Addendum

Sony hack: sacked employees could be to blame, researchers claim
Is Kim Jong Un Innocent?

Oh Canada

Laura was born in San Francisco. Her mom (Cathy) was born in Edmonton, but lived in the USA for many years. The two of them moved back to Vancouver in 1972, and Cathy married Walter. Laura's been here ever since.

When we married in 1982, my career trajectory was either working for a Canadian multinational (Northern Telecom) or a US-based one (Hewlett-Packard). Our thinking over the majority of our life together was that it would be good for Laura to hang on to her US Citizenship. We've had several opportunities over the years to move to the USA, and Laura being American would simplify everything.

All that changed in the last five years. I left Agilent (which was a spin-off from HP) and I had a stroke - both in 2009. US health insurance costs alone would make it impossible to consider a move south.

All this came to a head when we learned that the USA is now aggressively pursuing citizens worldwide to tax any income they may have. Normally, this wouldn't mean much more than Laura filing a US tax return, but we now have things like TFSAs which have no corollary in the States. Our joint savings and home could be taxable as well.

Eighteen months ago, Laura started the arduous process to get her Canadian Citizenship (she would decide on giving up her US passport once everything was said and done). We just learned that December 12, 2014 will be the day she officially becomes a Canadian.

This leads me to think of all the bounty we have that we tend to take for granted, and the things that differentiate us from our neighbours to the south:

• We have a peaceful society. We worry about crime, but we don't live in fear of it (or fear the police either).
• We are a wealthy country. There is a safety net for everyone. If I had my stroke in the USA, we'd be broke.
• Things work. We complain about the small stuff, but most of the big stuff works.
• Talking about the big stuff: Inasmuch as we may not like our Government, it works. So does our power grid. So do our roads. Our water is clean and plentiful.
• Everyone around the world loves us. All you have to do is go abroad to appreciate this.

I know there are hundreds of reasons to love Canada, and these are only a few of them. There may be one reason that surpasses all the rest.

It's home. 

Reacting (versus Thinking)

Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press

It's really hard to reserve judgement after the mayhem in Ottawa yesterday.

A deranged gunman murdered Corporal Nathan Cirillo, a reservist for the Canadian Armed Forces, as he stood on guard at the "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier", just outside the Parliament Buildings.

On Monday, another criminal mowed down Warrent Officer Patrice Vincent in a parking lot in Quebec.

Although the incident on Monday has been tied to Muslim Radicalization, yesterdays has not - so far.

It's easy to make the seemingly logical leap to link these two incidents, and to see a grander plot at play. But the prudent thing to do is to examine the evidence.

Let the truth, whatever it might be, channel the decisions we make going forward.

I Had A Stroke

I went to Outback Australia in 2013

I suffered a stroke on October 5th 2009.

My last day of work, at the job I had for twenty-five years, was on September 9th that same year. In effect, I had twenty-five days of early retirement.

Laura and I planned on taking a year off to travel, and then see where life led us. Where life led us was nowhere we had planned.

Fortunately all the heavy lifting of raising two kids and seeing them through university was done. Our daughter Kathryn was teaching in Turkey, and our son David was to leave for a pilgrimage to India on October 6th.

What Happened

I went to get my hair cut that morning, a Monday, but didn't feel all that well - almost like the flu coming on. When I got home, I bugged Laura and David to take the dog out for a long walk, and then lay down on the couch for a bit. I was sitting up on the couch when I felt a warm sensation as my entire right side - arms, legs - went numb. I knew what this was, and fortunately the telephone had been left on the coffee table, instead of in it's stand across the room. I called 911 with my left hand as I slowly started to slide down into the couch - I could no longer prop myself up.

The ambulance took me away, leaving the couch moved and the living room floor littered with the jetsam of a paramedic. Laura and Dave weren't even home from walking the dog. Fortunately one of our neighbors saw me being wheeled out, and she let them know where we were heading.

Diagnosis

I was at Royal Columbian Hospital inside a half hour from the phone call. At this point I could talk and was quite rational about the whole thing. They ran me through a quick battery of tests, and then asked for my approval for TPA - the clot-busting drug. It's supposed to reverse the effects of a stroke - with me it just slowed things down.

At RCH before things went sideways

The next few days are a bit of a blur. A couple were spent in a bed in Emergency, and then I was moved up to Neurology. Other than the right side paralysis, everything else worked just fine.

The final diagnosis was an ischemic stoke (blood clot) in the cerebellum (at the base of the spine). The clot was in an artery the diameter of a hair.

I was transferred to Eagle Ridge Hospital after ten days or so - it was very close to home, and had a stroke rehab facility. I started their program of relearning to walk, and was even able to get day passes on the weekend so I could get out with the family.

Relapse

Somewhere along that path to recovery, near the end of the month, things went sideways. I was having lunch with a good friend of mine (Andrew), and suddenly could not chew. I asked him to wheel me back to the rehab wing, and they ran a bunch more tests. The CAT scan revealed that there was a bruising in the area of the stoke in my brain, and that it would subside with time. It probably did, but the whole adventure cost me to lose my voice and the ability to swallow.

Ruth (the physiotherapist) and me learning stairs

I remained up in a critical care and step-down ward of Eagle Ridge for a couple of weeks. Eventually things stabilized enough for me to get back down to the rehab wing where I picked up where I left off - with the new addition of Speech Therapy.

93 Days

In all, I was in the hospital for 93 days. Near the end, I could get weekend passes so Laura and Dave could pick me up on Friday afternoon and drop me back on Sunday night (Dave cancelled his trip to India to help out).

When I was released I could speak a few words at one time - fortunately for me there was no problem with knowing what to say, how to say it, or being understood when the words finally came out. I could also walk about 1km - but then would have to relax the rest of the day.

Over the entire stay at Eagle Ridge, I had visitors every single day. I'm grateful to all of them! The boost you get from knowing others care is huge. (It's sad to report that one of the young men on the rehab ward with me had no visitors the entire time I was there. He was depressed, and people wondered why.)

After months of tests, the cause of the stroke was undetermined - bad luck.

Long Term

All things heal with time.

When I first had the stroke, we understood that most of the recovery takes place in the first few months. After living through this, I can say that the most noticeable recovery takes place then, but it continues subtlety for years.

Even tried catamaran sailing with Dave and Sherri

I can now speak almost normally - although I could never read a book out loud. I can sustain a conversation, although the voice gets very tired after a couple of hours if it's intense. For some strange reason (the neurologists scratch their heads) I cannot swim and cannot run. I think it has to do with the actual timing of my gait on the right side - fractions of a second slower than the left. I also seem to have this uncontrollable urge to breathe when my head is under water!

Overall, my deficiencies are minor compared to the other stroke survivors I've come to know. The fact I can walk, drive, talk, and ride a bike are things most of them envy.

The Future

I celebrated my two year stroke anniversary on Bora-Bora

I never went back to work - there's no way I could do the job I used to, and certainly don't really want a full time job that ties us down anyway. I've been fortunate enough to have another friend (Dave) who's given me some part-time, home-based work to do.

Laura went back to school in 2010 to become a Early Childhood Educator, and has been working part time over the last three years. She loves it, and is very good at it. Likely what she should have been doing all along.

After stints in Turkey and Australia, Kathryn is back in Vancouver and teaching at a private High School in Richmond.

David has worked for a couple of years in South Korea, and is now getting ready for another adventure in China - teaching Adult Business English this time.

Everything and everyone turned out OK.

I'm a Buddhist ... And I Didn't Even Know It

"Daibatsu-2"

My daughter Kathryn has been right more than once on the big issues in my life. The first was when she explained that I ate too many carbs - I was vegetarian at the time - and that can't be good for you. I've written lots about that realization.

The other day the family was having a philosophical conversation about free will, cause and effect, natural universal laws and the like, and Kathryn said "Dad, you're a Buddhist and you don't even know it".

I didn't think much about that comment, but then she started saying it more and more often to me .. so I started to investigate.





The basic tenets of Buddism (There are several lists - but the basic ones are here) are:

1. Not killing
2. Not stealing
3. Not misusing sex
4. Not lying
5. Not abusing intoxicants
6. Not talking about others' errors and faults
7. Not elevating oneself and blaming others
8. Not being stingy
9. Not being angry

Notice how they say nothing of religion, belief in a higher power or spirituality? Buddhism at it's core is about the examination and introspection of ones own mind. This is often through meditation.

There are some precepts that go further and believe in some supernatural or metaphysical phenomenon. The great thing about Buddhism is that you can choose to ignore these.

I'll not call myself a Buddhist, but it's nice to know that people have been thinking like me for thousands of years.

BTW, if you're interested, Sam Harris (one of those vocal atheists) has an excellent article on all of this titled "Killing the Buddha".

Charity Fatigue

I have nothing but admiration for what the ALS Organization has done with the "Ice Bucket Challenge" meme it has created. It's been fantastically successful, and has raised millions of dollars for ALS research. A home run.

I'm convinced, however, that many people are doing it more to see themselves on video than to donate to a charity. It's now the charity of the day, and I'm sure it's had an impact on other worthy causes.

"I've just given to ALS research so I can't give to your cause" ("Your cause isn't cool because nobody can see me on YouTube.")

The end justifies the means, so the ALS people have a hit on their hands. I have no idea how they could ever hope to raise this much notoriety or money. But we need some perspective now. I think we've entered the realm of "Charity Fatigue".

ALS affects 2 out of 100,000 people. Here's a list of other diseases which might be worthy of your money (Wikipedia). Time to give them some attention again.

Mortality Rates (death rate per year, from data for 2002^[2])

Group[3]	Cause	Percent of deaths	All Deaths per 100,000	Male Deaths per 100,000	Female Deaths per 100,000
–	All Causes	100.0	916.1	954.7	877.1
A	Cardiovascular diseases	29.34	268.8	259.3	278.4
B	Infectious and parasitic diseases	23.04	211.3	221.7	200.4
A.1	Ischemic heart disease	12.64	115.8	121.4	110.1
C	Malignant neoplasms (cancers)	12.49	114.4	126.9	101.7
A.2	Cerebrovascular disease (Stroke)	9.66	88.5	85.4	95.6
B.1	Respiratory infections	6.95	63.7	63.5	63.8
B.1.1	Lower respiratory tract infections	6.81	62.4	62.2	62.6
D	Respiratory diseases	6.49	59.5	61.1	57.9
E	Unintentional injuries	6.23	57.0	73.7	40.2
B.2	HIV/AIDS	4.87	44.6	46.2	43.0
D.1	Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	4.82	44.1	45.1	43.1
–	Perinatal conditions	4.32	39.6	43.7	35.4
F	Digestive diseases	3.45	31.6	34.9	28.2
B.3	Diarrhea diseases	3.15	28.9	30.0	27.8
G	Intentional injuries (Suicide, Violence, War, etc.)	2.84	26.0	37.0	14.9
B.4	Tuberculosis	2.75	25.2	32.9	17.3
B.5	Malaria	2.23	20.4	19.4	21.5
C.1	Lung cancer	2.18	20.0	28.4	11.4
E.1	Road traffic accidents	2.09	19.1	40.8	10.4
B.6	Childhood diseases	1.97	18.1	18.0	18.2
H	Neuropsychiatric disorders	1.95	17.9	18.4	17.3
–	Diabetes mellitus	1.73	15.9	14.1	17.7
A.3	Hypertensive heart disease	1.60	14.6	13.4	15.9
G.1	Suicide	1.53	14.0	17.4	10.6
C.2	Stomach cancer	1.49	13.7	16.7	10.5
I	Diseases of the genitourinary system	1.49	13.6	14.1	13.1
F.1	Cirrhosis of the liver	1.38	12.6	16.1	9.1
I.1	Nephritis/nephropathy	1.19	10.9	11.0	10.7
C.3	Colorectal cancer	1.09	10.0	10.3	9.7
C.4	Liver cancer	1.08	9.9	13.6	6.2
B.6.1	Measles	1.07	9.8	9.8	9.9
G.2	Violence	0.98	9.0	14.2	3.7
–	Maternal conditions	0.89	8.2	0.0	16.5
–	Congenital abnormalities	0.86	7.9	8.1	7.7
J	Nutritional deficiencies	0.85	7.8	6.9	8.7
C.5	Breast cancer	0.84	7.7	0.1	15.3
C.6	Esophageal cancer	0.78	7.2	9.1	5.2
A.4	Inflammatory heart disease	0.71	6.5	6.7	6.2
H.1	Alzheimer's disease and other dementias	0.70	6.4	4.7	8.1
E.2	Falls	0.69	6.3	7.5	5.0
E.3	Drowning	0.67	6.1	8.4	3.9
E.4	Poisoning	0.61	5.6	7.2	4.0
C.7	Lymphomas, multiple myeloma	0.59	5.4	5.4	5.4
A.5	Rheumatic heart disease	0.57	5.3	4.4	6.1
C.8	Oral and oropharynx cancers	0.56	5.1	7.1	3.1
E.5	Fires	0.55	5.0	3.8	6.2
B.6.2	Pertussis	0.52	4.7	4.7	4.8
C.9	Prostate cancer	0.47	4.3	8.6	0.0
C.10	Leukemia	0.46	4.2	4.7	3.8
F.2	Peptic ulcer disease	0.46	4.2	5.0	3.5
J.1	Protein-energy malnutrition	0.46	4.2	4.2	4.2
D.2	Asthma	0.42	3.9	3.9	3.8
–	Endocrine/nutritional disorders	0.43	3.9	3.4	4.4
C.11	Cervical cancer	0.42	3.8	0.0	7.7
C.12	Pancreatic cancer	0.41	3.7	3.9	3.5
B.6.3	Tetanus	0.38	3.4	3.4	3.5
C.13	Bladder cancer	0.31	2.9	4.0	1.7
B.7	Sexually transmitted diseases excluding HIV/AIDS	0.32	2.9	2.9	2.9
B.8	Meningitis	0.30	2.8	2.9	2.7
G.3	War	0.30	2.8	5.0	0.5
B.7.1	Syphilis	0.28	2.5	2.7	2.3
–	Neoplasms other than malignant	0.26	2.4	2.4	2.4
J.2	Iron deficiency anemia	0.24	2.2	1.5	2.9
C.14	Ovarian cancer	0.24	2.2	0.0	4.4
B.9	Tropical diseases excluding malaria	0.23	2.1	2.5	1.6
H.2	Epilepsy	0.22	2.0	2.2	1.8
B.10	Hepatitis B	0.18	1.7	2.3	1.0
–	Musculoskeletal diseases	0.19	1.7	1.2	2.2
H.3	Parkinson's disease	0.17	1.6	1.6	1.6
H.4	Alcohol use disorders	0.16	1.5	2.5	0.4
H.5	Drug use disorders	0.15	1.4	2.2	0.5
B.1.2	Upper respiratory infections	0.13	1.2	1.2	1.2
C.16	Melanoma and other skin cancers	0.12	1.1	1.1	1.0
–	Skin diseases	0.12	1.1	0.8	1.4
C.15	Uterine cancer	0.12	1.1	0.0	2.3
B.11	Hepatitis C	0.09	0.9	1.1	0.6
B.9.1	Leishmaniasis	0.09	0.8	1.0	0.7
B.9.2	Trypanosomiasis	0.08	0.8	1.0	0.5
I.2	Benign prostatic hyperplasia	0.06	0.5	1.0	0.0

The Demise of the LBS (in Suburbia)

I bought a new bike.

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a 50km ride with my brothers and came to the realization that I was going half as fast as them, and expending twice the energy.

When we got back I weighed their bikes - probably a bit more than half the weight of mine. Plus my all-steel, wide tired mountain bike had limited gearing and lots of rolling resistance on pavement. All this combined to push me over the edge and get something  modern and more practical for the type of riding I do today.

So I bought a new bike.

Things went well for several days, but after a bit of cable stretch (all new bikes will have cable stretch and need to be adjusted after a couple hundred kilometers) it was time for a tune-up. I had also noticed a low-end "rumble" in the gearing that was hard to pinpoint - but I thought the tune-up would resolve it.

I left the bike for two days, and then picked it up and rode it home. The rumble was even more pronounced, so I asked my friend Bruce to take it for a short ride and see if I was imagining things. He confirmed he could feel it too. So back to the bike shop.

The shop took the bike in right away (after all, I had just picked it up) and started to troubleshoot. I stuck around for three hours of trying this and that (new pedals, changing wheels, check bearings, change bearings) and then walked home.

After dinner (they had the bike from 11am to 7:30pm) Laura and I drove to the shop to find they had just solved the problem!

Bad chain.

The bike shop had spent over eight hours on a bad chain.

This got me to thinking - this shop is mostly run by twenty-somethings, and I doubt that their "service team" has any accumulated experience at all (their "sales team" likely doesn't either). While I was waiting for my bike, I overheard two other customers with problems that weren't as simple as a tire puncture. Neither was happy.

Unfortunately, given the price war waged by these folks ("we'll match any price") it's removed any knowledgeable competitor from the field. Someone that could afford a real mechanic or experience sales people. So it's run by inexperienced amateurs that know about as much as me.

Kathryn said to me "Dad, you should have bought it downtown - everybody there knows bikes, because if you don't you can't survive". She's probably right.

Another case of price trumping service.

If anyone wonders who the bike store is, suffice to say I live in Port Coquitlam. Guess.

Further to Being a Hypocrite

Over a year ago, we moved into a small space - a 600 square foot basement suite.

Having done that, I can report it's been mostly a success, but required some tweaks moving forward. These are things we didn't really think about at the start, but which became apparent over the last thirteen months.

We've become spoiled over the years, and there are some creature comforts that have joined the "must have" list when we looked for our next home..

1. Sheltered parking for the car. The street just won't cut it anymore.
2. More light. While this is a really bright place for a basement suite, it's not bright enough. Especially in the winter.
3. Another bedroom. While we can get by with only one room, it's a pain to have someone sleep in your living room when they stay over. I'm sure this limits the number of invitations we give, and the acceptances we receive. Our friends are a bit old for couch surfing.
4. While I'm willing to live off the kindness of neighbors, Laura isn't. She wants room to have people over for dinner and to entertain. Fair enough.

And that's really about it. Everything else - the down sizing process especially - has been fantastic. We now know that we can certainly live in a small space and not kill each other, and there is far, far less junk in our lives.

I said at the outset that chances were good we would rent for the duration. But, in addition to Laura looking all the time for our next suite, I read an article in the New York Times that did a very good job of quantifying the rent versus buy equation. Never one to stick to my beliefs when new information comes to my attention,  I went through this multiple times. I adjusted all the variables I could - conservatively and aggressively - and came up with a range of rental numbers to fit our lifestyle (I also took into account the US mortgage interest tax relief, something we don't share).

In the end, Laura and I found that any rental property in the area that we would live in (taking into account the four "must haves"), was priced significantly higher than any place we could buy. So the search started for homes to buy, rather than to rent. There's many, many more that fall into this category.

The floorplan up top is the place we bought. 11th floor of a high-rise. Move-in date is July 15.

The Dark Side of Downsizing

Let's get this out of the way right now. I'm a hypocrite.

When Laura and I sold the house last year and rented a small one bedroom suite, I thought it was for the duration. I actually believed that we would rent for the long term - years, decades even. But things change.

Both kids are cycling through Vancouver again  (not a bicycle, an airplane) and would like a place to land for a few days. This and the ability to host anyone comfortably overnight - or several nights - has led us to look for a bigger place.

Another Home

The search for something comfortable led us to a couple of rental suites, and several open-houses for new construction. Our thinking was to find a rental unit in one of the more desirable places. Maybe even convince someone we know to buy it and rent it to us (good luck).

What we found was that buying a 2 bedroom condo was less expensive than renting one. Especially one we'd want to live in. There was a great New York Times article that quantified the rent versus buy conundrum.

We found a new unit in a concrete tower - one floor, two bedroom, new construction that solved all the issues we have today. Underground parking, room for guests, relatively small, and rentable if we decide to travel for a year.

The Dark Side

We decided that, although we could buy outright, it doesn't make sense. Our investment income today is, more or less, funding our lifestyle. We like the ability to work when we want, and to travel when we want. It's kind of living an ideal.

We would do this deal if we could invest a minimum amount of our nestegg dollars, mortgage the rest, and not worry about servicing the debt - mortgages are now at record lows, and our investments are earning more than a mortgage would cost.

Here's where things get interesting/frustrating. Banks aren't set up for people like us. Banks want people with regular paycheques. Not people who earn as little as we do, and take money from their savings whenever they need some. Even if the number they have access to is several times the value of the home.

I could explain all this in a few seconds to someone that approves mortgages, and they would see my logic. But you no longer meet with the people that say yes or no. You meet a "mortgage specialist". Which basically means that they take all your information and send it to Toronto for a decision. Kind of like someone at Jiffy Lube if your oil change took place 3000 miles away from where your car was (no disrespect for the oil change guy at Jiffy Lube).

This will likely force me to leave the big banks and find a local credit union who makes decision in the Lower Mainland. I'm pretty sure they would see the win-win here.

The lesson in all this is that while the vagabond, irresponsible lifestyle is attractive, it's not understood by the mainstream. I knew that, but this is the first time I've been unable to easily get around a "rule".

I know, I know. This is clearly a first world problem.

The Extraterrestrial Highway

For Star Trek fans, cosmologists, astronomers, geeks (OK - so they're all geeks) and any one else interested in "what's out there", a short trip north of Las Vegas brings you to a really fascinating place.

When Laura and I crawled out of Death Valley, we cleaned up for a few days in Pahrump, a small city en route to Las Vegas. When we were in Pahrump, we stopped into a store to get a few things for the motorhome. Turns out they didn't have what we wanted, but on the way out one of their sales people stopped to chat us up (and sell us a forty foot condo on wheels).

Once he determined we weren't going to buy anything, and with one foot back in the store, he asked us where we were going to next. We had planned on going back through to the Napa Valley in California on the way home, and told him that.

He said that next time we were down, we should really venture into eastern Nevada, north of Vegas, into the ET Highway, Cathedral Gorge and Great Basin National Park.

While Great Basin would be a bit far, the other destinations are easy.

Our first stop was a short drive north of Las Vegas - I-15 to I-93, about 150km - into a town called Alamo, Nevada.

We used Alamo as a base for our trip to the ET Highway. There's not much to see - it's about 60km each way from Alamo to the Little A'Le'Inn - but you could spend all day doing it.

Our first stop was the Black Mailbox (which is actually white). If you enter "Black Mailbox" into Google Maps, it'll show you exactly where it is. It's at the intersection of Highway 375 and a dirt road. Apparently if you follow the dirt road for about 13 miles, you'll reach a sign (and shortly after, a guard shack) for the famous Nellis Air Force Range. You might know it better as Area 51.

People set up camp at the mailbox and wait to see any night-time activity -and sometimes there is some. Just park well off the highway and the grid road and you should be OK. The night skies there would be incredible. We didn't stay, but the skies in Alamo were fantastic too.

Once we had "done" the mailbox (and Laura forgot her camera on the running boards of the motorhome subsequently destroying the camera on the highway) we went another half hour west towards Rachel,
Nevada. Rachel is home to the Little A'Le'Inn. And nothing else.

You have to spend an hour or two at the Little A'Le'Inn. At least have some lunch and take a bunch of photos. You can stay overnight as well (they run a small motel) and take in the night sky. Pat (the owner) is a wonderful host, and can tell you all about the area.

If we were driving anything different - like a car or a pickup - we could have also gone to see the petroglyphs at Mount Irish (spooky).

We spent most of the day going to Rachel and back (and searching for camera parts on the road), and were up early the next morning for the drive to Cathedral Gorge State Park.

Leaving Alamo, you have and easy picturesque drive through to Calliente (about 100km). After an ice cream and some gas it's only another 30km or so to the south entrance of Cathedral Grove State Park.

This is one on the nicest, smallest, best run, least expensive state campgrounds we've ever been in. Next time we'll stay for a week. Caves, gorges, ravines, great off-road biking, lots of hiking, and sipping beer under a tree all made for a really nice time.

As a bonus, members of the astronomy club from Las Vegas were up for the weekend with their telescopes, and they made sure we had lots of opportunity to ask questions and look through them (at stuff I could never see in my scope).

We left Cathedral Gorge after only a couple of nights, and traveled further north to Great Basin National Park. You couldn't really do this as a day trip from Vegas (500km one way).

Great Basin reminded me of home. Higher up out of the heat of the valley, and into the trees and mountains. If somebody dropped you there and said you were in Yoho, you might believe them. The big attraction the Great Basin is Lehman Caves. These are pretty neat and we took a 90-minute tour of them with thirty of our closest friends. Needless to say, if you've been on one easy-access cave tour and seen stalactites and stalagmites before, this is nothing particularly special. I would say the Lewis and Clark Caverns in Montana are more spectacular (and harder to tour).  I would imagine, though, for people living in the desert to come to a mountain would be something special.

Needless to say, next time you're near Las Vegas, go a little bit north. Who knew?