The Government Was Right After All!!!

Day 56, May 30


The Government Was Right After All

I have a news flash for all of you, especially all you conspiracy (JFK, 9-11, UFOs, Area 51-- you know who you are) wackos who are stockpiling guns and food in caves in Montana---

Thinking you don’t (and shouldn’t) trust the government----

Well you are about to get rocked right down to your socks.

Stay tuned, and be ready.



A Stack of Storks

I headed south toward Afyon this AM, and not far from the town where I stayed last night a flock of about twenty storks flew across the road at about 30 feet, went into a big spiral and started riding the thermals above a field to about 500 feet or so when I left them to their tasks and continued down the road.

(Remember, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them.)



And later, on the way to the big acropolis, I snagged a stork as close as I ever have—




Snipe Again: or The Greeks Were Here Before Me

When Susan and I were in the Balkans, we were pretty diligent about following all the brown archaeology site signs off the main road to wherever they led.

Only they never led anywhere, at least anywhere that we could find.

I’ve had much better luck in Turkey, generally, until today.

Three Km from the road, the sign said, and I hit this tiny village and the sign in the village pointed up the road and said 3 Km, and I went more than 5 and never saw a damn thing.

Here, Snipe! Here, Snipe!

But there were some poppies back on the main road to console me.









And here’s some more women working in the field along the road.






Back to Church

I hit a great old mosque that was being restored, and had some great stuff to shoot.

Here’s a sign I thought was pretty funny--- a FGCC (Failure to Grasp the Core Concept) example.



A beautiful ceiling in the medrassa (parish school)



And some great old doors.






Poplar Birches?

There are lots of pretty lovely trees here that look like slightly smaller versions of the poplars we have at home although, as you see, the bark looks like a birch tree, although the bark is a little greyer than our paper birches at home.



And it's not all that odd-- poplars, birches, and aspen are all in the same family.


The next article after this one is the one about the government—so be warned.


I bombed around some back roads looking for this fortress this afternoon, and it’s the last of the carved-stone fortresses I’ll see--- from here back west and north to Istanbul, they’re all standard stone-block construction rather than the scoop-out- the-soft-rock versions from Cappodacia and here.










And here’s the carved façade of the tomb where the local pasha was buried.

It’s maybe 75 feet tall.



Here’s a detail



And here’s the view from the top--- that’s cows down there, by the way.



Pot One Day; Heroin the Next

If you anti-government extremists are ready, here we go.

You are about to get the ride of your life. . . .

The government was right!!!

Remember when they said that first you get hooked on marijuana, and the next thing you know you are running heroin straight into your veins. . . .

Of course, we can also say that almost every alcoholic started out drinking milk, so you have to be careful about making inferences.


Well, think about it: yesterday I got pot, and today I’m in the middle of a field of the really good kind of poppies. . . .







The government here licenses certain farmers to grow the potent opium-producing poppies (they are almost all pure white with maybe 1% of them purple) and they sell the opium base to pharmaceutical companies to make opium-derivative drugs.

So you can put this in your underground newsletters and on your far-out web-sites and see what your fellow crazies have to say about it.