Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
Serving the Platte Valley since 1888
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I’ve told you, dear reader, that we were headed to the train station to depart on the one train that goes from Bobo-Dioulasso to Niangoloko. I haven’t mentioned what time that train was supposed to depart though. That wasn’t an oversight. Matt, the friend we were visiting in Niangoloko, had been told by a railroad employee there that the train leaves Bobo at 3 p.m. A railroad employee in Bobo had told Rebecca that the train was scheduled to depart at 4, while a sign posted in the same lobby said the train would depart at 5:... Full story
Fifty years ago a spacecraft was launched at the National Broadcasting Company. It was not a literal vessel but an idealized one sprung from the brain of a WWII pilot who, along with other distinctions, won the Distinguished Flying Cross. It was a craft that came to be backed and promoted by comic genius Lucille Ball and her Desilu Studios. The forward-looking Ms. Ball even managed to get the rerun rights to the show (along with “I Love Lucy”) from studio executives before the... Full story
By 1:30, we'd paid the check at La Marguerite and started making our way toward the train station two kilometers away. Imagining we were under some sort of time constraint (ha), we split into two groups with Rebecca and David biking ahead and me walking my bike beside Barry, who had opted not to bring his. His was a prescient decision. I'd seen Bobo-Dioulasso's train station many times from afar, but this was my first time inside. In a city with little to offer in terms of... Full story
City of Saratoga: I am writing to tell you how much we enjoyed Saratoga even though we do not fish. We sashayed along the “downtown” streets taking in the sights and enjoying delicious cuisine in several restaurants; did a little shopping; dropped into Hack’s Tackle for a three-hour boat ride down the Platte River with Pat as our guide who pointed out the numerous bald eagles, furry minks, and other two-legged and four-legged wildlife only Pat could spot and identify instantly; we went to Mass on Saturday afternoon at St. A... Full story
The west is a dry place. I know this is a shocking revelation to those who live here and I apologize for intruding on your blissful unawareness. Coming from the coastal south, I was used to thunderstorms though. Sorry, that should be Thunderstorms with a capital “T.” Down there, rainfall would last literally weeks—with the occasional hurricane to break the monotony. Somehow the west still gets hurricane-force winds but a storm might only last 15 minutes … and you can dance b... Full story
Although it does have a certain ring to it, we were not, in fact, supposed to be on the night train to Niangoloko. I was well into my second year of service in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, and checking one of the items off my Peace Corps Bucket List: traveling by train in West Africa. Along with Rebecca and Barry, two Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) friends, I was joined on the trip by Rebecca’s boyfriend David, who was visiting from the States. The four of us were headed a... Full story
Facebook is a nice little online tool with both apparent upsides and not-so-visible downsides. A reason to join The only reason I ever got on Facebook was to find a friend I hadn’t seen in 20 years. I checked the phonebook. I perused old addresses and phone numbers I had from years before. I called other friends. I Googled the guy. Finally I took the plunge and got on Facebook... …and found him immediately. We made plans to meet up with some other friends since I was pla...
Editor, Are you tired of waking up to smoke in our valley? Tired of having your eyes water, your nose run, a foul taste in your mouth, and our valley obscured by smoke? Tired of millions of dollars being spent on mega-fires that could have been much less severe and much fewer, had responsible Forest Management been done? Tired of hearing that these fires are just nature’s way of replenishing itself, and that it is good for the resource? Tired of hearing that not much can be (or could have been) done to prevent these c... Full story
My second trail season with the Maine Conservation Corps (MCC) began, as the locals say, “way down East” in Washington County. Our assignment there was to do heavy duty maintenance on a ten-mile section of the Cutler Coast Public Lands. These paths were a little more trafficked than the deep-woods locations I’d been sent to in my first three months, but we could still work for several consecutive days without seeing any hikers. This was especially true of the inland half... Full story
You may have noticed that the first paper of this new volume of the Saratoga Sun is slightly shorter than previous editions. That’s because we have changed printers. We now print out of Cheyenne and the change in size is due to what the different presses can accommodate. Before anything else is said, we would like to thank the Casper Star Tribune for their excellent service. They went out of their way on several occasions to point out errors we had made in the files we sent them. We value our business relationship with t... Full story
When Donald J. Trump becomes president he has promised to build a wall along the Mexican/American border. As recently as his win in the South Carolina primary, Trump reaffirmed that “… we’ll do the wall, don’t worry. We’re going to do the wall.” I, for one, applaud this for several reasons. I would like to see America build more monuments. The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is a wonder. Mount Rushmore is amazing. Crazy Horse is a labor of love, the Empire State Building is... Full story
I spent seven months of 2011 bush-whacking, boulder-rolling and timber-hauling my way through some of the most inaccessible and gorgeous parts of Maine. It was a strangely disjointed and financially treacherous period of my life. The trail work I did with the Maine Conservation Corps (MCC) was perilous, arduous and exhausting. I am convinced there is no better way I could have spent that spring, summer and fall. During my first week in Maine, I did not once see the sun... Full story
I was walking around town the other night (because I am trying to get some exercise) and had gotten to the other side of town from my house (it’s not a big town) when I heard a repetitive and plaintive mewling. Being a cat guy (or a guy who will investigate any animal in distress), I walked over behind the abandoned building where the noise seemed to be coming from. When I got to the back door to the building I heard the meow a couple more times and thought to myself that t... Full story