A misty morning at Shoshone Falls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a post on May 18, 2026 I discussed Attending the 2026 District 15 Conference of Toastmasters International in the Salt Lake City suburb of South Jordan.

 

During my drive back to Boise on May 17th I stopped at the impressive Shoshone Falls on the Snake River, which has a height of 212 feet – 45 feet higher than Niagara Falls. There is a nominal fee of $5 for admission to the city park.  Recent TV news reports had noted that the falls was at peak flow.

 

I stopped around noon, and took the misty soft-focused image shown above from over the fence by the parking lot. At the lower left you can see a viewing platform reached by taking steps down. It was soaking wet, so I didn’t try going down there.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another shaper image from April 25, 2018 shows a similar view when the flow was lower. Then that viewing platform was nice and dry.

 

 

Attending the 2026 District 15 Conference of Toastmasters International

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday May 15th and Saturday May 16th I enjoyed attending the 2026 Toastmasters District 15 Conference in the Salt Lake City suburb of South Jordan, Utah. The theme was The Power of Our Past - The Promise of Our Future. You can find a pdf file of the agenda.

 

The district Humorous Speech Contest was on Friday Afternoon and the International Speech Contest was on Saturday Afternoon. Friday evening Ron Chapman conducted a workshop titled The Elephant in the Room: Leading Change. On Saturday morning he gave a keynote speech titled Becoming a Transformational Leader. In the afternoon he led another workshop. There were five other excellent workshops with speakers and titles as follows:  

 

Dana Jones – What Our Past Tried to Teach Us.

Christine Campbell – The Power of P.O.S.I.T.I.V.E.

Ben Hunt – How to Ethically Use Artificial Intelligence in Speechwriting

Bart Merrell – Mining Your Stories

Kelly Kaye Walker – From Awkward to Awesome: Building Club Culture That Members Can’t Wait to Come Back To.

 

I know how much effort goes into creating a workshop. On May 15, 2024 I had blogged about My workshop presentation at the 2024 District 15 Toastmasters Conference on May 18, 2024 about Creating or Finding Great Table Topics Questions.

 

This is the last conference for District 15. A reorganization will put us into a new geographically larger District 207 that also includes most of Oregon (except the northeast corner).

 

My Garmin GPS got me through the Salt Lake City traffic to the motel and meeting. But when I got into the car on Sunday morning that GPS was dead. I had a Utah road atlas with me, so it was easy to get on I-15 and then to I-84 back to Boise. Later I found the GPS still worked, the power adapter for the car was dead, and the internal battery for the GPS also was dead. It was my second Garmin GPS, so I had a spare power adapter.  

 

 

Writing as bushwhacking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Merriam-Webster dictionary the second meanings for bushwhack are:

 

 “to travel by foot through uncleared terrain; to clear a path or advance through thick woods especially by chopping down bushes and low branches”

 

There is an intriguing 2023 book by Jennifer McGaha titled Bushwhacking: How to Get Lost in the Woods and Write Your Way Out. There is a preview of the first 41 pages at Google Books.

 

Her chapter titles and their starting page numbers are:

Why We Write: Searching for Beauty [1]

The Thrill of Discovery: Writing Your Way into Knowing [12]

In the Weeds: Discovering Courage on the Page [27]

Coming in Hot: Zipping out of Your Comfort Zone [40]

Back in the Saddle: Cultivating Resilience [50]

Echoes in the Mountains: Honoring the Voices Within [67]

Rallying Your People (or Your Canines): Creating a Writing Community [76]

A Lighter Load: Unpacking the Writing Life [92]

Lost in the Woods: Writing Your Way Home [101]

Bushwhacking: Digging for Deeper Truths [118]

Finding Your Stride: Toning Your Writing Muscles [127]

Running Uphill: Surviving the Tough Climbs [136]

You Can Do Anything for a Mile: Channeling Your Inner Stallion [154]

The Beauty of the Question: Embracing the Wilderness Within [168]

Questions for Further Exploration [187]

Bibliography [190]

Acknowledgements [191]

 

At the end she has a list of nine long, deep questions, each of which could make a speech topic:

  

Questions for Further Exploration

1] Discuss your relationship with fear. When do your fears serve you well, and when do they get in your way? What is your greatest fear? Where does it come from? What strategies do you have for keeping it at bay? What does it feel like in your body? When/where/how does it overwhelm you? Now, imagine for a moment that you weren’t afraid. How might your life be different? How might you be different?

 

2] Discuss the nature of truth as you see it. Are there different degrees of honesty, and, if so, what are the gray areas? What makes a story true or untrue? Can a memoir contain both lies and deeper truths? In what ways?

 

3] What is the most daring thing you have ever done as an adult? Why did you do it? What did you learn about yourself? In what ways have you carried that knowledge with you since? 

 

4] Discuss your relationship with physical strength/stamina. When in your life have you felt strongest? When have you felt most vulnerable? Why and how were you shaped by these experiences?

 

5] Discuss the role of imagination in your life. What did you dream (literally or metaphorically) when you were a young child? What is the most imaginative thing you have done in your waking life as an adult? What other things do you dream about doing? What, if anything, is holding you back? 

 

6] Describe a moment in your life when you were lost (again, literally or metaphorically). Where were you? Who was with you? How did you come to be lost? How did you come to be found? And what did you learn along the way?

 

7] Make a list of questions you have about any topic. These can be ridiculous or serious. They can focus on one area, or they can be wide-ranging. The only requirement is that you cannot currently know the answers Try to get ten or twenty questions. When you are finished, trade questions with someone you know. Now, take their list of questions and see what new questions arise for you from those. In other words, what questions do you have about their questions? You can do this on and on, in an endless game of round-robin with questions.

8]  Do you agree with Brian Doyle’s assertion that, no matter how hard we try to communicate effectively, we invariably fail in our attempts to express the depth and breadth of our emotions and experiences? Why or why not? How might acknowledging the inherent shortcomings of language change both our relationships with others and what we bring to the page. 

9]  Drawing inspiration from Ross Gay, vow to spend every day for the next week noticing things that delight you. Each day, make a note of one simple thing – a box turtle in your flower bed, a blackberry patch you came upon while hiking, a new song you discovered, a phone call with an old friend, a batch of freezer jam you made that turned out especially well. Freewrite about this for no more than one page. The point here is to capture the mood and the tone, the essence of delight. Do not attempt to make a cohesive story. Do not use a thesaurus or run a grammar check. Do not go back and edit old entries. This is not a stepping stone to anything else. Think of each entry, each delight, as whole and complete, as worthy in and of itself. The goal here is not a polished final product. The value is in the practice, the practice of noticing, of cultivating and expressing gratitude for all those quietly astounding moments that fill your life with meaning. At the end of the week, share your responses with at least one other person. Notice how your delights multiply when you share them.”

 

On October 18, 2025 I blogged about 15 excellent Table Topics questions from the end of a 2024 book by Jennifer McGaha titled The Joy Document.

 

An image where you might need to take your machete was adapted from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

Pearls Before Swine cartoon about navigating with maps or atlases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When traveling, I currently navigate using Apple Maps on my iPhone, or my Garmin GPS. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But when I fly somewhere, I take along an AAA map (shown above) as a backup. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And when I drive around a state, I carry a road atlas (as shown above). With it open on my lap I can keep track of exactly where I am, and turn off when traffic is blocked up ahead.

 

On June 1, 2025 Stephan Pastis has a Pearls Before Swine cartoon with dialogue about how we previously used maps:

 

Stephan:

 Well, I had all of these fold-out maps in the trunk.

 And a bound book of maps called a ‘Thomas Guide.’

 And if it was an unfamiliar city I got free maps at the AAA office.

 Then the person in the passenger seat would look at them and try to tell you which way to go.

 And if all that failed you could ask for help from a gas station service attendant…

 I see a question.

 

Young girl: My friends and I were wondering if you had electricity back then.

 

Stephan: Yes. We had electricity you @*#@!

 

Goat: And that’s why I don’t talk to young people.

 

Rat: Now explain Blockbuster video stores!

 

 

Viewing a coral reef from a glass bottom boat and a submarine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you aren’t a scuba diver, then a glass bottom boat or a submarine are the best options for viewing a coastal coral reef. On the afternoon of April 29, 2025 at Kailua Kona, Hawaii my wife and I did both. We took the Kona Glass Bottom Boat Tour and the Atlantis X submarine tour. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The glass bottom boat gave an overview of the fish and reef (depth about 100 feet).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Atlantis submarines are discussed at Tripadvisor. The 48-passenger submarine gives a close-up view of the reef from a depth of 80 feet. Better views of coral and bottom feeding fish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a wreck of the Predator – a World War II landing craft that was refitted as a dive boat with a crane for a shark cage, as shown above in two images. An article by Brett Eldridge at Wrecked in My Revo on February 15, 2022 is titled Predator Landing Craft (Kona Hawaii – 90 FSW). There also is a brief YouTube video by Todd Hackett from February 4, 2024 on Diving the Predator.

 

Using Tender Boats on Quantum of the Seas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Honolulu and Vancouver the Quantum of the Seas docked. But on April 29 at Kailua Kona, Hawaii it anchored offshore and used tender boats (motor lifeboats) to ferry passengers to the dock for shore excursions. That ship has sixteen boats, each with a length of 41 feet and a width of 18 feet. An article by Susan Moynihan and Marissa Wright at Cruise Critic on December 3, 2024 titled What is a tender boat on a cruise? What is a tender port? discusses tenders.

 

Traveling from the U.S. mainland to Oahu and back by plane and cruise ship

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My wife Elaine and I recently went on half-month vacation trip. We flew from Boise to Honolulu on April 24 and spent three days in Waikiki. Then on April 28 we boarded the Royal Caribbean liner Quantum of the Seas which went to Hawaii for a day and then cruised from April 30 to May 6 to Vancouver. We stayed in Vancouver for three days, and then flew back to Boise pm May 9. When we flew to Hawaii on an Airbus A320 it was at 500 mph, versus the sea cruise at 20 mph – 25 times slower and a very different experience.  

 

This was the end of a repositioning cruise where Quantum of the Seas changed from Australia to Alaska. There were still several satellite TV channels from Australia including the ‘other ABC.’ On April 28 I came down with a bad cold, so I spent the ocean cruise mostly in the stateroom watching TV and listening to my iPod.  

 

Back on October 28, 2023 I blogged about My first ocean cruise to Alaska via the Inside Passage on Ovation of the Seas.

 

Images of a plane, ship, and Oahu came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Allokataplixis is a recent word for that feeling when travel makes everything new

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In an article by Liam Henneghan at Aeon on September 18, 2017 titled We have a new word for that feeling when travel makes everything new he described the compound word allokataplixis, from Greek words for other and wonder. That article also was reposted at Big Think on February 23, 2021 and again at Pocket. I felt that way when I saw Crater Lake.

 

Another article by Avard Woolaver at The Image Journey on October 3, 2020 is titled Toronto Gone – allokataplixis – seeing the city for the first time. More recently there is yet another article by Joe Walewski at Field Notes – A Naturalist’s Life on March 29, 2024 titled Allokataplixis.

 

I blogged about going to Crater Lake on September 10, 2019 in a post titled Visiting Crater Lake. And on September 21, 2019 I blogged about The joy of travel surprises.

 

Do not take Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend to China, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, or the UAE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week at Trader Joe’s I bought a bottle of their tasty Everything But The Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend, as is shown above. Then at Pocket I saw a repeat of an article by Kelsey Ables at The Washington Post on July 12, 2024 titled This Trader Joe’s seasoning is a hot item. In South Korea it’s illegal. There also is another article by Yi Whan-woo at The Korea Times on July 15, 2024 titled Beware of poppy seed seasoning products.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As also shown above, poppy seeds are the very last ingredient in this blend (and are not even mentioned on the front label). There is yet another article from the U.S. Embassy & Consulate in the Republic of Korea on August 30, 2024 titled Information on Controlled Substances that explains:

 

“Please note that food products containing poppy seeds, including popular bagel seasoning blends, are considered illegal in Korea. Attempting to travel into Korea with these products could result in a criminal investigation resulting in fines, entry and exit bans, or even imprisonment.  

 

Still another article by Ocean Robbins at Food Revolution Network on December 25, 2024 titled Are poppy seeds good for you - or dangerous? notes that China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, and the UAE also ban poppy seeds. Who knew?

 

The best view comes after the hardest climb – or a quick helicopter ride. (Call Jimmy’s Choppers!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 29, 2024 Doug Savage published a Savage Chickens cartoon titled The Best View. There is an article by Sanjoy Kumar Malik at LinkedIn Pulse on December 28, 2023 about that saying titled The best view comes after the hardest climb. His first paragraph claimed that:

 

“The age-old adage, ‘The best view comes after the hardest climb,’ serves as a powerful metaphor for life's challenges and the inherent rewards that accompany perseverance and determination. This saying encapsulates the essence of resilience and the idea that the most gratifying experiences often follow the most demanding efforts.”

 

But a Google Books search finds that phrase is recent, from the twenty-first century. Where did it come from? Another article at BooKey titled 30 Best Reinhold Messner Quotes with Image[s] lists it as #20 without detailing a book source. Reinhold Messner is a well-known mountaineer. You can buy blank notebooks for journaling with that phrase printed on the cover.  

 

Michigan coney dogs and Cincinnati chili

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been enjoying reading Paul Fehribach’s 2023 book titled Midwestern Food: A Chef’s Guide to the surprising history of a great American cuisine, with more than 100 tasty recipes.

 

Paul defines the Midwest as a region in a paragraph on page 9:

 

“Our Midwest, then, stretches from central and western Pennsylvania and the Finger Lakes of New York west to the Great Plains states – it’s a truly diverse region in terms of geography and topography, containing some of the most productive agricultural land in the world. Yet the humid and sticky summers of the river towns Cincinnati, Louisville, and Saint Louis remind us of the Southern influence on Midwestern culture, in stark contrast to the Scandinavian- and French-influenced cultures of the Great Lakes, where the summers are sublime and the winters harsh."  

 

I lived in this region for forty years: 22 in Pittsburgh, 9 in Columbus, 7 in Ann Arbor, and 2 in Chicago. Chapter 4 is titled Of State Fairs, Tailgates, and Main Street Cafes and subtitled Sandwiches and Handheld Food. On page 128 he discusses Coney Dogs, which Wikipedia calls Coney Island hot dogs.

 

The Keros brothers in Detroit argued, and then separately opened Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island in the 1930s. As shown above, a Detroit Coney Dog consists of a hot dog on a steamed bun, topped with a beanless chili sauce of Macedonian descent, chopped onions, and mustard. There is an article by Erick Trickey at Smithsonian on June 30, 2016 about how The origin of the Coney Island Hot Dog is a uniquely American story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul describes three sauce recipes: one for Detroit, another for Jackson (80 miles west of Detroit) and yet another for Flint (70 miles northwest of Detroit). Detroit sauce has three parts ground beef to one part beef heart, Flint has two parts ground beef to one part beef heart, and Jackson only has beef heart – it’s just offal. He also mentions Kalamazoo (140 miles west of Detroit) but does not present a recipe for there.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 6 is titled Pull Up a Chair and subtitled Meat and Potatoes. In Cincinnati, 260 miles south of Detroit, the sauce instead became the star ingredient – discussed starting on page 191 under the heading of Queen City Chili. As shown above, two-way Cincinnati chili tops spaghetti noodles. Beans, onions, and grated cheese make it three, four, or five-way. He says it began with Tom Kiradjieff at Empress Chili. Paul says there is no chocolate in Cincinnati chili. It still can be served on Coney Dogs (with cheese too).

 

When I lived in Columbus the Skyline Chili chain had several locations, and I enjoyed their four-way version without cheese.

 

Images of a Detroit Coney and two-way Cincinnati Chili came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

If there was a no-fly zone at the South Pole, then you would have to drive there

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The web page for the conspiracy-friendly Coast to Coast AM show on May 22, 2024 titled Antarctica Mysteries / Ancient Aliens & Harmonics claims that Brad Olsen:

 

“….recounted his trip to Antarctica around five years ago and what he observed there. There is a no-fly zone over the South Pole, and he suggested this could be a cover-up for a giant hole in the ice, which Admiral Byrd allegedly reported as an aviator on his first flyover of the area.”

 

His claimed no-fly zone is nonsense (as is that giant hole in the ice). The transportation section of the Wikipedia page for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station instead states that:

 

“The station has a runway for aircraft 12,000 feet (3,658 m) long. Between October and February, there are several flights per day of U. S. Air Force ski-equipped LC-130 Hercules aircraft from the New York Air National Guard, 109 AW, 139 AS Stratton Air National Guard via McMurdo Station to supply the station.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My brother-in-law and his co-workers operated a radio telescope there, and my sister once flew there. Back on June 7, 2011 I blogged about How many hats do you wear? And I included the above image of a souvenir hat from the station.

 

An image of snowmobilers was modified from this one at Yellowstone from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Two questionable features in a room at the Quality Inn in Twin Falls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I travel there often is something new to discover that might be used as material for a humorous speech On May 17 th I drove to Twin Falls, Idaho to attend the District 15 Toastmasters Conference. I previously blogged about my workshop presentation titled Creating or Finding Great Table Topics Questions.

 

I stayed for two nights at the Quality Inn & Suites at 1910 Fillmore Street, near the Costco. When I checked in, they asked me if I was OK with getting a room on the second floor of the two-floor Building B - which did not have an elevator. I was, since my luggage just was a small overnight suitcase and a briefcase. If I had our large wheeled suitcase, then I instead would have asked for a room in the three-floor Building A, which does have an elevator.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Usually when you flip on the light switch near the front door of a motel room it turns on a ceiling light nearby (such as at the location shown by a dashed green circle). But for my room that light (circled in red) instead was at the back, only three feet from the window. The nearest light to the front door was the table lamp on a night stand to the left of the king-size bed. It did not illuminate the area where the closet rod was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I first entered my room, I also noticed that the top drawer of the dresser beneath the television was open about four inches (as shown above). I assumed the maid had left it that way, after checking that the last guest hadn’t left anything behind. I closed it, since it was something to stumble over. But when I woke the next morning I found it had opened again. I suspect that rather than a poltergeist the slides for that drawer had been attached with a slight tilt.   

   

Other than that dresser, and not being well-lit at the front, the room was clean and just fine. And the free breakfast buffet in Building A was quite good.

 

When I mentioned the lighting to another conference attendee, they remarked that the motel name just was Quality Inn, not High-Quality Inn. On The Simpsons there once was a Low-Quality Inn.

 

Coincidentally the Pearls Before Swine comic strip for May 18, 2024, titled A Hotel Room Conundrum, had the following dialogue:

 

Front Desk Clerk: Hotel front desk.

 

Rat: Yeah, I just woke up from a nap. The whole room is dark. I managed to find a light switch, but nothing happened.

 

Front Desk Clerk: Yeah, that’s cause you have to put your card key in the little slot marked ‘MASTER’ by the room door.

 

Rat: How am I supposed to find my key and the card slot in a dark room?

 

Front Desk Clerk: By first bumping into a whole bunch of @###.

 

Rat: Actually happened to me.

 

Goat: God bless that hotel clerk.

 

Cruise ships do this to help save energy. There is a one-minute YouTube video from Vacation Impossible titled Carnival Cruise Tip – Stateroom Lights Not Working which explains that really any card will work, not just the Sail and Sign magnetic one.

 

Visiting Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, Idaho

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On May 17th I drove to Twin Falls, Idaho to attend the District 15 Toastmasters Conference. After lunch I drove east on Falls Avenue and then north to visit the very impressive Shoshone Falls on the Snake River – sometimes known as the Niagara of the West. It has a height of 212 feet and a thousand-foot span. The Falls is in a city park with an admission fee of just $5 per vehicle. The mist just above it forms a rainbow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Downstream of the falls the river is rather placid.