Cast Away Crossroads

Last Friday I took another trip to the Arrington Ranch House, the rural location featured at the first and last of the 2000 movie Cast Away. (blog post about my first visit) I hadn't visited the intersection and wanted to take photos of the roads described by Bettina Peterson (played by the lovely C&W performer, Lari White), the artist character who gives directions to the Tom Hanks character, Chuck Noland, at the ending of the flick.

A friend of mine went along for the ride; he works for the Texas Dept. of Transportation and, just before the scenes were filmed, was tasked with removing most of the easily visible highway signs around the intersection.

I asked him why he had to remove them and he said he was told it was to keep the location "secret". Since the roads were mentioned by number in the movie, that didn't make sense to me. Personally, I think they were removed for "artistic reasons", to make it look a bit more barren.

This is a new "goalpost-type" sign that replaced one of those that were taken down.

(click for larger view)

This is the intersection, facing NE.

The last dialogue in the film was between Hanks and White; he has just dropped off the pkg. to the woman's house and is now at the intersection, standing by his vehicle, puzzling over a map, wondering which way he should go. (and the obvious symbolism is that he is also puzzling over which direction he should take his life)

Bettina Peterson: You look lost.
Chuck Noland: I do?
Bettina Peterson: Where're you headed?
Chuck Noland: Well, I was just about to figure that out.

The woman then points to each direction, telling Noland where each will take him.

Bettina Peterson: Well, that's 83 South.

(NOTE: That's not THAT hwy. number, it's 1268, but it connects with Hwy 83, which is one of the longest north/south highways in the U.S. It's also facing east in the above photo.)

And this road here will hook you up with I-40 East

(NOTE: That's facing south, but WILL connect you with I-40. I'll have to check my road map, but I believe one would reach the small town of Mobeetie first via Ranch Road 48 and then wind their way over to the interstate. Yep, you can "hook up" with I-40 that way, it's a twisty path though. Might as well just go ahead and get on 83 which will intersect I-40 at Shamrock, Texas.)

If you turn right, that'll take you to Amarillo, Flagstaff, California.

(That's Ranch Road 1268, facing west. It intersects with Ranch Road 748. Turn left/south to Laketon, then turn right/west on Hwy 152 which will then lead to Hwy 60, Pampa, White Deer, Panhandle then Amarillo and points west. One could also turn right, go to Miami and get on Hwy 60 there. Also, there are a multitude of small farm and ranch roads leading off of Hwy 60 between Laketon and Amarillo that would let a traveler go South and hook up with the interstate. )

And if you head back that direction, you'll find a whole lot of nothing all the way to Canada.

Chuck Noland: I got it.
Bettina Peterson: All right, then. Good luck, cowboy.
Chuck Noland: Thank You.

I'm not so sure a "whole lot of nothing" would be a nice thing to say to folks in the top part of the Texas Panhandle, the Oklahoma Panhandle, Kansas, etc. It's a lovely drive between Canadian and Miami as well as on up to the state line.

Be that as it may: That is a caliche road, not in the best of shape with some blind corners and hills. If it is wet from a recent rain, it will be slicker than earthworms in a barrel of snot. (I wonder if the mud puddle the FedEx truck drives through at the first of the movie was real or manufactured, i.e., filled up by the film crew from a water truck? As you can see in the above photo, the low spot is still there)

As we made our way on down to the Arrington Ranch house, nice, smooth stretches lulled me into picking up too much speed, then suddenly hitting suspension rattling holes and ruts. "Spur 'im, Hogan! " my pal said after I steered right into a deep hole and nearly lost control. "Hell, I'm barefoot!".

We stopped to take a few pictures, but I had already taken quite a few the last time I was out there and other than a clearer sky, nothing had changed since my previous visit. As was the last time I took photos, there was no one there, and I wondered if they had ever had problems with "fans" prowling around the property.

There's not much to photograph out there; besides the house, there's the sign over the gate. It was altered for the movie, but the angel wings were left when the sign was restored.

EDIT: 11/11/18

I removed a YouTube user created video of him at the crossroads; that is the reason for the comment from my sister at the start of the comments below this post.  Sorry for any confusion.

Here's the end scene from the movie.  As I have pointed out in the comment section, the surrounding area looks much different now.

09/03/08

I added a bit more information about the various highways, put in some links, posted the Google Earth screenshot. Hope this helps anyone searching for this location.

In case the link was missed at the first of this post, there's another blog post about my visit to the ranch house.

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9/19/08

Sheesh, noticed another hit, then figured out I had put the wrong directions in when I described how to go to Laketon. Mea Culpa, I'm an idiot, what can I say. It's correct now...I think.

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9/23/08

Edit once again, probably for the sole sake of being anal retentive.

In case you didn't know, click any photo for larger view

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1/12/09

Interesting article about the history of the house, plus some photos of it and the intersection

In PDF format

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09/16/09

Added a new post about the locations

Cast Away Locations in Google Maps

Arrington Ranch House

Recognize this sign, specifically the angel wings?

If you're a movie buff you've probably recognized it from Cast Away, the 2000 release starring Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt. Hanks plays a FedEx globetrotting troubleshooter who, after a plane crash, is stranded on a small island.

The angel wing motif was the trademark of the artist character who lived at this ranch and who sent and received pkgs. from FedEx. She was a metal sculptor and her husband was in Russia, their relationship a very tiny but interesting detail of the plot.

This is another shot of the gate and the barn where she worked on her pieces.

The house was featured again near the end of the movie, in the scene where Tom Hanks stood on the porch and knocked on the door. When no one answered, he left the package--which had the angel wings on it, and which also was featured throughout another large part of the movie-- and a note saying the package had saved his life.

I don't think anyone was there; it's now a bed and breakfast but there were no cars or other vehicles other than the farm trucks and tractor in front of the barn.

I did take a photo of this new marker:

Why is it that Texas signs look like Texas belt buckles (or vice versa) and are as big, bright and shiny as our womenfolk's hair-dos? Just like the stars, deep in the heart, I guess. I took two shots of this new sign and both had the reflection of a big doofus in them, I haven't yet figured out just what causes that.

At the IMDB Cast Away listing, there are quite a few message threads about this movie; some, like far too many one sees on the 'net, are full of inane comments, but there are other posts that speak of how profoundly the movie affected them (as it did me) or asking questions about the movie such as "where was the island?" as well as "where is the farm house?"

One guy who posted on the IMDB site has a website with some very nice photos including many I did not get, such as the interior of the house, a close-up shot of the note Hanks' character leaves at the end and autographed later by the actor. The note is on Arrington Ranch stationery, by-the-way.

(the site loads slow, even for me with a fairly fast connection; it's also in a "turn the page" style slideshow, a little tricky at first. It's a great site, though, sure worth a look if you're interested in seeing more of this particular bit of movie trivia)

I didn't go on to the intersection where Hanks' character was standing at the end of the film, but I stood in the middle of the dirt road in front of the house and took a couple of shots. The next shot is looking North, back the way I had come from Hwy 60, the turn off being 12 miles or so east of Miami in Hemphill County, another dozen or so miles to the northeast lies the larger town of Canadian.

This is looking South, showing a bit of how the terrain is at that particular spot, gentle rolling hills, great pasture land. We've had twice the normal amount of rain and the fields are fairly green and lush but this day was so hot the moisture was being sucked out of every living thing, including myself.

I'm not for sure what the attraction would be to stay out there; the road is fairly busy, what with a fair amount of oil field activity and even though I'm "oil field trash" and know you have to break some eggs to make an omelet, the unsightly scars left on this beautiful landscape by the fresh caliche roads and well locations, tank batteries and other production equipment pretty much spoils the view and beauty. I could make out the tops of three drilling rigs from the next hill over, so at least this area is benefitting from a robust economy.

Still, the house IS picturesque and has quite a bit of interesting history. It wouldn't be hard to imagine living there a hundred years ago. This shot doesn't do justice to the beautiful southwestern sky as it filled up with enormous thunderheads with tops reaching up to 30-40,000 feet. The rain would be welcome sight, but tornados often come during these exact same conditions and from this direction. I'm sure they have a basement or storm cellar and back when it was built it probably had a root cellar or some underground, cool place to store canned items and smoked and/or salted meat. You couldn't miss it, turn right at the outhouse.

I'm not sure what there would be to DO out there, either. (I kept thinking that getting to sit on the front porch in the shade and snap green beans might have been the highlight of a day back then) I hadn't been out there in a long time, not since I was helping to drill wells back in the late 70's and early 80's, but even without the ugly signs of progress, there's not much to see out there, just those rolling hills broken by some gullies and wash-outs that collectively don't quite deserve the name "canyon". If you wanted to brave the rattlesnakes, you could probably find some wild plums to pick, but I can't think of any other recreation out there unless it would be stealing oil field equipment or rustling cattle.

(Edit to add: I shouldn't be so harsh about there being "nothing to do" out there. To be honest, there's all sorts of wildlife to see such as antelope, deer, raccoons, many species of birds, etc. You'd still need to keep the rattlesnakes in mind if you go traipsin' off down in those gullies )

There's certainly no 7-11's within a dozen miles nor is there cable TV and I'm not so sure about land line phone service. The closest place to buy a beer would be just across the state line in Oklahoma, probably another 30 miles, or back to Pampa, over 30 miles back the other direction.

What one did while staying there would depend upon whom one was staying there with, I suppose. That's probably also the reason, that being not much to do, that old ranch families had so many children.

You can read more about the B&B on the Arrington Ranch website. The Trip Advisor website has a review on the lodgings.

(back when I was roughnecking around the area, I worked with some local boys named "Farrington" and they were always going around adding an "F" to all the Arrington signs. That's been years and years...and years and years ago, the statute of limitations has run out)

The sky was threatening some severe weather, so I headed back into Miami. Not too far out of town a van got right on my tail and wouldn't back off. The speed limits drop severely as you drive into Miami and I certainly wasn't going to get a ticket being the first one in a close convoy not of my making just to satisfy someone's impatience.

He stayed almost on my bumper right into town, right into the 35mph limit and first chance I got I grabbed my camera to take a photograph; I had to turn it around and look at the LCD window in my rear view mirror and still try to keep an eye on the road.

Seeing my camera, he eased off; guess he thought I was doing it to turn him in, and I would've if he'd been more aggressive and not backed off, but I took it because I couldn't believe what sort of truck it was...and you'll prob. have to click the pic. in order to make out the company logo on the front of the delivery van:

If you can't make it out, here's a cropped bit of the original photo above, at the highest resolution.

Yup, was a FedEx truck.

Wonder if that was Tom Hanks driving?

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For those of you who have found this post via a Google search, you *may* be interested in a followup post on the intersection that leads to the ranch house. It was shown at the first of the movie, and a longer scene at the crossroads ended the film.

Cast Away Crossroads

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1/12/09

Interesting article about the history of the house, plus some photos of it and the intersection

In PDF format

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09/16/09

Added a new post about the locations

Cast Away Locations in Google Maps

Cast Away Crowd Coming; Contest Commences

Just noticed where TNT.tv is airing "Cast Away" tonight at 7p.m. (CST). That will most likely mean a modest surge in this blog's traffic from Google, AOL or other search engines for "cast away farmhouse" or "cast away intersection location".

Who would have ever thought this blog would be at the top of ANY listing on the 'net?

To celebrate, ToTG is offering one free chance in our *"Free Gas for a Month" contest to the person who guesses closest to the total number of hits. (from "Cast Away" searches only)

*Details to be announced

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Original post was in November '08.

Welcome to the latest batch of Cast Away fans!

Cast Away Locations in Google Maps

Since I've had thousands hundreds a few requests via email for the exact locations of the farm house and intersection used at the first and last scenes in Cast Away, I decided I'd embed a Google map to show just where they are.

For greater detail, click on the link "View Larger Map" at the bottom of the embed.


View Larger Map
I've got it set to the intersection but you can drag the map upwards* to see the farm house.

*Go up/North by dragging the map DOWNWARDS with your cursor.

Since I couldn't put a "push pin" in the map, I wasn't for sure just how I would pinpoint the locations, then found out by opening up the larger map, then clicking "More" and checking the box "Photos", there were a couple of photographs of each location, allowing the viewer to zoom out and see a better map by selecting "Map" at the top of the Google Map page.

After following those convoluted instructions, you should see something like this:

The top photo is the location of the farm house; the bottom one is the intersection.

Google Maps won't let you zoom in too close, but at least by having the two photos as "placemarks" in lieu of "push pins", you can have some idea of just where the locations are.

If you have the Google Earth application, you can download a .kml file with the locations at this page on Waymarking.com

Here are the two main posts about those locations:

Cast Away Crossroads

Arrington Ranch House

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Edit to add: I had noticed my Cast Away posts were still among the most searched for articles in my blog and decided to check them - to correct grammar errors, "clean up" a few sentences, center the photos, etc. and I noticed that when I followed the directions to view the photographs in the larger map that they had disappeared - meaning that whoever had uploaded them had deleted them or their account(s).  I'll see if I can upload my own photos to those same spots on the map.  

More Cast Away Visitors

Checking the Feekjit counter just now, I noticed several hits in a row from Ireland, England and the Netherlands from search results on this blog's Cast Away posts. There's always an increase in visits when the movie is aired here in the U.S., so I figured it must have been shown on the BBC, and sure 'nuff, checking their website's Cast Away listing, it came on earlier this evening. (England is six hours ahead of CST here in the Panhandle)

In case you've stumbled across this blog and did not know that we're up at or very near the top of search results for the movie locations, here are the posts:

Cast Away Crossroads

Arrington Ranch House

Those are the two main posts, but I've mentioned the movie in several others.

Cast Away Over/Under

"Cast Away" is showing tonight on the FX channel, coming on in less than 45 minutes and again immediately after.

I wonder how many hits my two posts will get?

Cast Away Crossroads

Arrington Ranch House

I'm setting the line at 10. Any takers?

I'm also thinking of going back to the intersection, sweeping up some gravel and selling it on eBay.

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UPDATE: The first showing is just ending and there's been five (5) visitors so far. Looks like the over/under may be too close to call. OTOH, it's only 8 PST on the coast, so maybe we'll get the California crowd to give it to the "over".

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A quick count shows there were 14 more after the ending of the first showing, bringing the total up to 19. The bad thing about the Feedjit counter is that it allows someone to opt out and delete their visit.

Cast Away Count Contest

Just got up from watching the Cowboy game to see what was coming on afterwards, and noticed that "Cast Away" is beginning on the FX Channel now as I type.

I predict there'll be nine hits - or more - on my Cast Away posts. (there was one from Pasadena, CA earlier, about four hours + ago)

Gee, I hope I win something neat-o.

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UPDATE:

The movie ended five minutes ago, and a quick count shows 11 hits in the last forty minutes.

It Don't Mean Jack

I haven't been doing a lot in this blog; even though my computer is near my air conditioner, the heat wave has sapped my inspiration. As a result of fewer posts, the blog has been getting fewer visitors. It usually gets an average of 75 hits per day on the counter, but this last month the number has dropped to 50. To be honest, I enjoy having the "larger" amount of visitors, but it doesn't mean anything other than a fluctuating interest in this blog...and since I don't have any paying ads, it means even less than nothing. IOW, no jack means it don't mean jack. -grin-

Clicking on the graphic a couple of days ago, I noticed a fairly significant spike in visitors over the weekend.

It was too late to see exactly what the visitors were coming to see on the other counter, but I had a suspicion. Sure enough, checking through the TV listings for last weekend, I found that Cast Away had been shown several times over a couple of days. In fact, while waiting on another movie to start, I had watched the last fifteen minutes of Cast Away and that's when I noticed something strange.

After doing a cursory search, I found that others had noticed the same thing. When Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) visits his ex-fiancee Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt)and is driving away, Hunt runs down the driveway of her house after him, yelling - what it sounds like to me and others - "Jack....JACK!"

Since the Hanks character's name is "Chuck", I guess Hunt didn't mean Jack either.

Cast Away End Scene

The end scene from "Cast Away", filmed near by.

Other posts about the movie. (and posts about the posts!)

Curious Cast Away Crowd

Noticed that Cast Away was on the tube Saturday afternoon; as soon as the show started, this blog started getting hits left and right from Google and other searches.

Here's but a small sampling of the visitors:






I believe there were close to a hundred hits within a ten minute period. That's a pretty significant amount of visitors for this insignificant blog.

Cast Away Quiz

IMdB has a Cast Away Quiz with various levels of difficulty.

You don't even have to scratch your answers on a rock.

ToTG Sets Record!

No, not a late April Fool's joke, but this blog actually set a record for visits today. (well, a record for this blog) The increased traffic resulted from the post Google Changes Name and came from the hoax post at the official Google blog.

Here are screenshots from our Flag Counter widget:

Weekly visitors



The dark blue denotes new visitors (1,303) and the light blue is the total counter views. (1,687). I'm sure most of the total above and beyond the first-time views is from me popping back in here so many times watching the numbers climb on the Feedjit widget. I couldn't keep up with the count, but at one time I estimate there were over a hundred hits in less than a minute.

Here is the graph for monthly visitors:



The previous record for visitors was something on the order of 200+ when a post about the marquee tag was linked to from a Mozilla forum with another post about the Cast Away crossroads following close behind. (and that one wasn't about the movie, but was from an alternative energy thread in a forum and meant to illustrate how flat and suitable this area is for wind generators)

What did I learn from this? Well, if I want to increase hits, all I have to do is link to the Google blog. First, though, I'll need to load this blog up with ads.

Nah, THAT would be a joke, thinking I could make money off of this blog.

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UPDATE: As I predicted, yesterday had our second largest number of visitors, with 399 first-time visitors and 515 total.

There also was an increase in hits on the "Cast Away" posts; it must have been showing on TV.

Silly Squirrel Story

I belong to an MSN photography Group, the highest ranked one in the category. In this recent thread

(edit to add: link removed because it is no longer valid as MSN Groups were discontinued several years ago) is a pretty good shot of a squirrel that made me think of how my folks loved to watch the squirrels in their back yard, putting out peanuts and not even caring (too much) that the tree rodents cute, loveable creatures also ate their birdfeeder empty. I believe my big sister has problems with that and has tried all the gadgets/gimmicks to keep them out of her bird feeders.

It also reminded me of a friend of my dad's; they had a lovely, shady place right on the creek and the century old cottonwoods were full of squirrels. We were down there late one summer afternoon and our family friend was showing my pop how the squirrels would come when he called them. He took a nut from his shirt pocket and tapped on the tree, making some "tik-tik" sounding call.

Sure 'nuff, here came a squirrel from a hole in the trunk of the tree; this man backed up to the tree and the squirrel jumped to his shoulder and took the nut from his hand. I was about ten yrs. old or so, and I thought it was SOOOOOO cool looking, that squirrel sitting there munching away on the nut held between its two tiny paws. It ate the meat, cast away the bits of shell after it was done, then to my amazement, climbed face down into the guy's pocket and nabbed another nut! Again, it perched nonchalantly on his shoulder and ate.

"I got almost all of 'em like this 'un here." said dad's friend, and at the same time, rubbed his nose with his forefinger, making an audible inhaling "Sniff". It was an odd mannerism he had, one my dad always said prefaced a bald-faced lie.

I think there was some validity to my dad's theory- after all, most Texans, myself included, are known to sometimes stretch the truth...but maybe not THIS time, because the squirrel, apparently frightened by the sudden movement of the finger, PLUS the "sniff" (which, come to think of it, would be more like a backwards "snort") sound rewarded my dad's friend with a quick, hard bite on his earlobe, which then sprang off his shoulder and scampered back up the tree.

Let me tell you something and take it to heart: If I ever obeyed anything that my dad told me, it was to respect my elders, the "seen, not heard" type of child and not speak unless... yada yada yada. It's not a bad thing, and I don't resent it. I still try to respect my elders, but there's getting to be fewer and fewer of them.

The thing I remember most about this long ago scene is not the squirrel bite, nor our family friend's reaction, but my own. I KNEW I shouldn't laugh, but Lord help me, I was having trouble. I alternated between my face splitting open like a watermelon in the August sun and doing my best to show the proper amount of concern, lest I embarrass the adult. After all, the ear was bleeding "like a stuck hog" and blood was staining his shirt. I'm sure it hurt, but the expression on his face wasn't one of pain, but something like the shock of betrayal.

MY ears were hurting trying to hold back my grin. You know what I'm talking about, it's almost like a funky little earache, you know you can't laugh, it's like you get a small shot of helium gas in those lymph glands, the mumps ones, they start to tingle. It's a warning sign you're about to explode with laughter. You want to laugh SO bad. It's like when someone farts in church, y'know?

When my dad started laughing like an idiot, I figured it was safe for me to laugh, too.

Big Hits

More than a little annoyed at the end of the Cowboys/Giants game, I got online to try to take my mind off it. I wasn't going to visit any of the rash of doom 'n gloom posts that have hit my reader and were being posted on the Cowboys website and Facebook pages so I decided I'd pop in here and check the stats, see who has been visiting and what they were looking at.

I'd noticed quite a few hits yesterday on my Cast Away posts and the movie must have played on TV and I didn't notice it in the listings. The Feedjit stats showed that, but don't tell the entire story; many people have the Do Not Track extension on their browser so their visits won't show up on it or have some other "stealth" application or add-on. Unless they have Blogger cookies blocked, however, it will show up on the Blogger stats. (and I've previously blocked some of the tracking stuff, but I won't be able to see the top navbar and have to go in via the dashboard to create a post or look at the stats) Looking at the day's stats, I noticed there had been quite an increase in traffic earlier.

As you can see, there was quite a few visitors, relatively speaking, that came to this blog. ("relatively", because ToTG doesn't get all that many visits.  200/day is fairly avg., sometimes more, sometimes less.) I have it set to not track my own page views or the visits would double on the days I have nothing better to do than come in here.

I decided to switch to the "day" mode on the stats and saw this:

90+ visitors in a matter of a few hours. Wow. Wish it would be like that all the time; I would put in some paying ads...which would probably drive the traffic away.  I also wish the Cowboys had put that many hits on Eli Manning.

I'm glad I'm not trying to make a living at this blogging thing.

foremost

foremost [fawr-mohst, -muh st, fohr-]

adjective, adverb
1. first in place, order, rank, etc.

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Not a new word to me but I always thought it odd that the phrase "first and foremost" is often used.  It just seems redundant...and I'm not the only one who thinks so: Common Redundancies (F-O). No, I'm not the only one. (see what I did there? did ya?)

I do know this blog isn't foremost in any category, not even for Cast Away Crossroads.

(but, like Avis, we're #2!.  Some people think this blog is #2 -ahem-)

Scandinavian Invasion

Sounds like a Nordic version of an "Up With People" cover group, or some drink made with schnapps, doesn't it?

No, it's the dozen or so hits on this blog today from Norway and Sweden. They're following a link I left at the Cast Away msg. boards in the IMDB site.

The movie must've been on the tube over there. Searches for the Arrington Ranch House used in the film have this blog on the first page, depending upon the terms used, but the intersection post is nearly always at the top or in the top three.

Castaway's Great Ending

Following a Google UK link from a hit on this blog's "Cast Away" posts, I discovered this blog post: Grace and Truth to You: Castaway's Great Ending and Lessons Learned When Facing A New Crossroads in Life

It's a great post with photos taken from a trip to the crossroads and ranch house, but like so many other forum threads and blog posts on the 'net, the comments veer off into politics.

It even brings into play Godwin's law; what I'd like to know...and even though the post was on a minister's blog, and said nothing about politics, I have to ask...is what the hell does Hitler have to do with this fantastic movie? I know it's not part of the post and is instead in the comments section, but still....

Granted, I didn't read all the replies after the political angle was brought up, but my eyeballs sometimes glaze over when I see this sort of discussion.

Surprising Snake Spike

I had noticed an increase in traffic when I checked in Wednesday; most of the new visitors were coming from two different website forums that linked to the post Rattlesnakes in Palo Duro Canyon.

I kept an eye on the Feedjit Feed but unless I want to count each visitor, I had to wait until the Flag Counter totaled up the day in the early evening(around six p.m., i think)  I was semi-shocked to see that the blog traffic had tripled the average.

Usually when this pathetic excuse for a blog sees such a "large" increase in traffic, it's because Cast Away aired somewhere in the world.

I signed up for Google's AdSense a few years ago, but never followed through with the process.  I always figured the hassle to me and the extra loading time for my visitors wouldn't be worth the dollar a month - or less - I'd make from the few dozen visitors I get each day. 

While this blog doesn't get all that much traffic, the Flag Counter says that 169 different countries have visited. While most visitors are from the U.S., followed by the U.K. I did notice there had been one visitor from Iceland.  One visitor...and they, like most of the others, never came back.

Thanks TBS!

For airing "Cast Away" twice in one evening!


I only hope they don't show a Movie of the Week titled:

"My Sister's Feet"

About That Time Again

I was looking at this blog's Flag Counter the other day and viewing the yearly graph, I was reminded that April Fool's Day is coming up.

For the last couple of years, I've linked to the Google blog and their annual April Fool's joke and it had a trackback and people saw the link and came here.

I'm sure they were disappointed.

This blog averages around 50 unique visitors every day, 80 on a "good" day.  Now and then the count tops 100-150, but that's rare.  They mostly arrive from search engines, looking for gay dwarfs, sister's feet or other things I'm sure they meant to find but didn't...at least not anything applicable to their original intent. 

There are quite a few hits from people searching for Duane Chapman (Dog the Bounty Hunter) or for a particular vehicle I just happened to photograph at a car show.  Some come for videos, but often YouTube has taken them down.  That's probably a visitor that will never come back here, but I can't help that.  I always wonder why they don't search YouTube, but on the other hand, sometimes the comments after the video might be what brings them in. My friends, family and regular readers are sometimes enthused by a certain video and Google or other search engines has their comments in the results.

Many come from different parts of the world when the movie Cast Away is shown, and I'd bet the other spikes in visits shown in the above graphic are from that.  ToTG is near the top in most types of searches for that movie.

My claim to fame. -sigh-

No matter the reason they arrive here, I appreciate the traffic...even though I don't have any paying ads. I don't validate my self-worth by the hits on my blog, but the interest does make it seem worthwhile.   I also appreciate my online friends, my family members and loyal readers who do stop by and laugh at an old fool just foolin' around all year long.