[Coco] Really off-topic Re: Shoot to Kill at CoCoFest

[gene heskett]

On Thursday, May 03, 2012 08:15:59 AM Sean did opine:

> I hate to be the internet jerk, but the Mustang Ranch being owned by
> the govt is a fallacy.  (scroll to the end)
> 
> "Contrary to a popular urban legend circulated by email, the Mustang
> Ranch was never operated by the US government.[9][10]"
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustang_Ranch
 
Apparently I was suckered in by that too, plus there is a Maxine cartoon 
(the little old lady with a dog and coffee cup, who "doesn't exercise 
because it spills her coffee", asking, after relating a synopsis of that 
rumor, "what were they thinking?".  In fact, that one was classic enough to 
earn its ink and has been posted on the back of the bookshelf used as a 
room divider here in the midden heap I call a computer room for about 3 
years.

Interesting read, thanks.  I was by the place a few times in the 1980-82 
time frame, going too/coming from the NAB show in Vegas, which according to 
the wiki is fairly early in its history, both times going south in the 
daytime, and it was obvious that its main claim to fame would have to be 
after dark, because in the daytime it looked like a good place to bulldoze 
a firebreak in the scrub juniper of the high sierra desert, add a gallon of 
k1 to each dilapidated building, wait half an hour for it to soak in and 
toss in a match.  And keep the dozers running in case it jumped the 
firebreak.  In a 25 mph wind, a fire in that juniper would travel about 15 
mph.

At night, the light pollution from its lights told you it was coming up 
from 25 miles away.  I obviously wasn't impressed either way.

Get far enough away from Vegas that its night sky pollution is just a glow 
on the horizon, and the night sky view is almost as good as it is at 11k 
feet on North Mountain CO in late January, at 2 am.  That view would blow a 
city bred mind.  Yes, there are many trillions of stars out there, and you 
swear you can just reach up and grab a handful.

But the mountain is alive, with a 4 foot thick blanket of powder doing 30 
mph past where you are standing.  You slog thru the powder from 30 foot 
cedar pole planted along side the trail, going from pole to pole by star 
light for 2 or 3 miles till you are back below the timberline.  There is no 
trail to follow above the timberline when the snow is there, and your 
footprint is back filled & disappeared like footprints on the beach at high 
tide, except its gone by the time you put the foot back down.  But the sky 
view above you is something you remember the rest of your life.

Cheers, Gene
-- 
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