Monday, May 4, 2020

Evanston: Quivira; empty; a great name; spring leaves



Those of you who have been here a while know that GANNET is docked at a marina in San Diego’s Mission Bay’s Quivira Basin.  I’ve been around the basin off and on for decades and wondered from time to time about the name.  Yesterday in a book, INDIANS OF THE PLAINS, I found out.  Quivira was a mythical city of gold sought by Fernando Vasquez de Coronado.  Allegedly located in present day Kansas, it did not exist and Coronado killed the guide who led him on that particular wild goose chase.  

As you can see from the above, Coronado never was near San Diego, but he and his men were the first Europeans to see the Grand Canyon, and someone sometime in San Diego knew of Quivira.





Chicago’s marinas normally open on May 1.  I thank Jimmy Grizzell for the above photo of Monroe Harbor in the heart of the city taken yesterday.  There should be 392 moorings dotting that water and the docks should be filled.  As you can see they aren’t and are not likely to be until June 1 at the earliest.  


Also from INDIANS OF THE PLAINS comes the great, if inscrutable name of an Oglala Sioux chief:  Old-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses.




Yesterday continued warm and Carol and I had drinks on our balcony for the first time this year.  Also the last for a while.  Today is more than 30ºF cooler.  The buds I photographed a week or so ago covered with snow have become leaves.  The leaves do not know or care.  They simply are. 








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