Lava Beds National Monument

Today we went to the fair in Tulelake, CA and then visited Lava Beds National Monument. I learned that Medicine Lake Shield Volcano is as tall as Mt St Helens but so broad and flat that you hardly notice that it's a mountain, let alone a volcano. There are multiple sites in the area that have erupted in the past and the lava beds are a bunch of lava tubes and caves that were formed when lava ran down the land. As it started to cool, the top formed a crust while the inside was still molten lava. When the eruption ceased, the lava slowly drained out, leaving a hollow tube with neat looking drippy hardened lava icicles and things. There are something like 600 caves at lava beds though only, I think, 22 are developed. We went in Mushpot, a very easy and short cave with some informational signs about the lava tubes, Valentine, which was pretty challenging to do while carrying Henry because of the low ceilings so we didn't go all the way, and Scull Cave, which was really neat because it has a huge high cavernous opening at the entrance and it's very steep and goes all the way down to an ice floor. They used to let people walk on the ice and go all the way into scull cave but it's gotten so much dirt and stuff that it's messed with the clarity and quality of the ice so they blocked it off. Scull cave was named because they pulled out a whole bunch of bones from the bottom of it, and it was important as one of only a few reliable water sources in the area. There is no river coming into it or anything. The ice forms when cold winter air gets trapped in the bottom of the cave and condenses, then freezes. Pretty neat. There are some places where the lava tubes have multiple levels, either because a second lava flow ran on top of a previous tube, or because a second crust formed partway through the cooling process. It's neat to go through the caves in part because we're so used to walking around on dirt floors and this is all rock rock and more rock. You definitely need knee pads and gloves if you do some of the harder caves. I think it would be nice to come back to lava beds sometime with a group of adults and do some of the slightly more challenging caves, though I'm not sure if I'd be up for some of the really serious ones (12-inch high ceiling? So complex you can easily get lost? I dunno about that...).

Baseball, Scripture Mastery, and Rowing

Today I learned that Jackie Robinson was the first black man to play major league baseball. I vaguely knew that he was a baseball player but I didn't realize that he was the first. His number, 42, was also the only number retired from all of baseball. Once a year, everyone wears 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson. His wife, Rachel, runs a foundation that provides scholarships. I learned all this from the movie 42.

I also learned that the LDS church changed their scripture mastery selections. For the most part, I think this is a good thing, but it's frustrating since I was almost done with all of the new testament scripture masteries and now will have a bunch of new ones to learn. I suppose I should be glad that one of the ones they replaced was the one I didn't have memorized yet. I hope they update the scripture mastery app soon since that's what I've been using to learn them. Maybe I'll switch to the articles of faith in the meantime.

I also finished reading The Boys in the Boat. Despite their stroke seat being ill to the point of having lost almost 20 pounds and nearly passing out while rowing, and despite the fact that the US team had the best qualifying time (breaking an Olympic record and a course record), they were given the worst lane assignment, which put them in a position that was estimated to be the equivalent of starting about two boat lengths behind, and despite the fact that the race was started so abruptly that the US and British teams did not even hear the start so they were behind by about a stroke and a half at the start of the race, they pulled off an astounding come from behind victory. It was so close that none of the spectators knew who had won and most of them were still shouting for the Germans (who came in third, Italy came in second) until the announcer broadcasted the results. The Germans won every other rowing event in that Olympics. I'd kind of like to watch the movie that Leni Riefenstahl (sp?) made about the Olympics that year. I think it was called Olympia.

Purse Clasp, 1936 Rowing

Today I learned how to attach a magnetic purse clasp and also figured out how to line a crochet purse I made.

I also learned that the 1936 Men's rowing team learned after they won the Olympic bid, that they would have to finance their own passage. They were given a week to raise 5000 dollars. The people of Washington came through with the money in just two days, despite the fact that they had recently raised money to send the team to Poughkeepsie and Princeton for the national championships and the Olympic trials, respectively.

Exercise

Today I learned, again, that if I don't exercise when I have the motivation, it is very hard to find the motivation later.

Crochet

Today .i learned (or relearned) how to do a popcorn stitch. I'm currently working on a purse pattern that uses it.

Rowing

Today I learned that in the 1930s freshman crew raced two miles, JV raced three miles, and varsity raced four miles. The official Olympic rowing distance was 2k (less than 2 miles). When I was in college the race distances were 5k (3.1miles) and 2k.

Yellowstone

Today I learned from a national geographic series on Netflix, that Yellowstone is a super volcano that is due to blow anytime and could wipe us all out or mostly wipe us out by having ridiculous amounts of ash and gasses that would make acid rain that would kill all the vegetation on earth.