Al's travels

I bid you Adieux

2008-05-02T19:30:00.002-07:00

Well, it's time for me to go. I don't know where I'm going to go or what I'm going to do but whatever it is will be for myself. No more blogs and no more pictures; at least not for now anyway. As a matter of fact I've sold off all my photography gear. Who would have thunk it just a couple months ago!?!

For the time being I'm still staying with grandma but it's starting to get tough. While I'm happy to be there for her and will do it for as long as I can I'm getting a bit stir crazy doing the same thing day in and day out. While Grandma's health is still pretty good she doesn't seem to have any desire to get more then 30 minutes from the house now that she has the chance and on bad days it hurts her just to go for a drive. This week has been pretty good though which makes me think I can keep doing this for quite a while; but the previous couple weeks were pretty rough and showed me just how difficult it can be. I guess time will tell.

But before I go I wanted to thank everyone that followed me on my travels over the past year. It really meant a lot to me to get your comments and e-mails while I was out on the road. It never ceased to amaze me how many people were watching and your encouragement was much appreciated. And to the people that I met on the way who gave me food, a place to stay, a place to work, and most importantly, company....well....I guess I don't quite know how to say what I want to say. A special heartfelt thank you goes out to all of you; even if one of you did break my knee. :)

Thank you and goodbye...

Update

2008-04-15T21:53:00.003-07:00

Things are still going fine here in Lester with Grandma. Not too much to report. Lot's of going out at night for hamburgers and lots of card playing.

You may remember a month ago when I announced the arrival of spring. Well, since then we've been snowed on a few times and had some miserable weather. I'm happy to report though that as of today spring is here for good. It was over 70 degrees, it was really windy (45+MPH; a sure sign of spring), the snakes are out (saw a red bellied and garter), the butterflies are out (Mourning Cloak), and the carp have moved up into the creeks from the river. It's about time!

I did pick up a new hobby: bird watching. Who knew it could be so much fun!? It adds a whole new dimension to my hikes and I'm really enjoying it so far. Here's a Snipe I spotted the other day and even got close enough for a decent picture.

In like a Lion out like a Tiger

2008-04-01T07:38:00.002-07:00

You know what they say about March; in like a lion and out like a lamb. Well, I don't think that quite held true this year.

The first day of March Sarah and I were out for a hike where we slogged through waist deep snow in places and then yesterday, the last day of March, we got about 5 inches of snow. Thankfully the temperature was right at freezing so most of it melted in short order but it made for a really sloppy day and we've still got a few inches sticking around.

That being said spring did arrive this past month. The robins returned in force along with the ducks and geese; though they do look a little confused as they sit on the ice of frozen ponds. The majority of our snow melted off revealing the dirt, dead plants, refuse, and dead animals that have been buried all winter which makes the beginning of spring the ugliest season of the year. The most disgusting part is how the dead animals insulate the snow underneath themselves and protect it from the sun; causing the surrounding snow to melt away and leaving them atop a snow pedestal, like they're on display or something. It's actually a relief to get a few inches of clean white snow to cover all that up a couple more days.

While out for a hike a couple weeks ago I saw my first fly (the only time of the year I'm happy to see them) and also stumbled across some water bugs dragging themselves from the icy creek and onto a sunny log to dry off before flying up into the trees, presumably to mate. The kestrels are back in position along the telephone lines and hovering over the ditches and the the northern harriers are back to gliding over the prairies and empty fields. The meadowlarks are singing on the fence posts again and the killdeer, my favorite bird as a child, can be seen flitting around. The red-winged blackbird has returned to the marshes and rooster pheasants are carousing around looking for some lovin'. The mornings belong to the birds once again as they tweet tweet their little hearts out singing the praises of spring, searching for a mate, and building nests for their new family. Even after the little joke mother nature played on them yesterday and overnight I'm listening to them sing their hearts out right now.

We're all looking forward to the snow to finally melting, the ice leaving the lakes, the frost going out, the ground drying off, and the return of all things green. Just a couple more weeks!

Duane Gage 1921-2008

2008-03-31T07:06:00.002-07:00

At 2 AM on Saturday morning Duane Gage passed away in his home, just as he wanted it. The passing was as peaceful as could have been hoped for and at the time of death he was surrounded by three of his four children, a grandson, and his wife of 66 years.

Waiting Game

2008-03-21T18:15:00.003-07:00

Thursday was my grandparents 66th wedding anniversary. There wasn't much hullabaloo about the whole thing but a couple people called to wish them well and a few even stopped over. My grandpa used to own a trucking company and his long time secretary stopped by with a beautiful bouquet of tulips and just after they left one of my grandmother's sisters stopped by with her husband for a visit. It was nice to have some company by to liven up the day a little and even though my grandpa hardly said a word I know he was grateful for the visitors.

Last night, like usual, I was up to help him go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and he seemed weaker then normal. I expected to be woken up again by the doorbell next to his bed around 2am but it didn't go off until almost 7:30. A day rarely goes by that he stays in bed later then 6:00.

To make a long story short his kidneys have failed. He's very weak and pretty much unable to get out of bed. He's decided he doesn't want to go to the hospital and will instead stay home and run out the clock. He seems to have made some peace with the situation and is still able to rest comfortably in his bed. His family is here and everyone knows what's coming.

So now we wait.

Meet Grandma

2008-03-16T14:17:00.005-07:00

I'd like to introduce you to my grandmother, Kathleen. She's 92 years old and while her short term memory is all but gone she's still a joy to be around. She's always been incredibly nice and somehow has a way of asking the same question 20 times a day without it getting annoying; it actually feels like a privilege to tell her for the 3rd time in 30 minutes what day it is.

Despite the lack of short term memory she's still a fantastic conversationalist and hasn't lost a bit of her wit. While my grandpa spends his days trying to find a comfortable position to sit in my grandma and I both tend to get a bit stir crazy; so one day I grabbed a deck of cards to kill some time with her. She's a card shark from way back but she couldn't remember how to play any games, so we started out just playing solitaire together. We played for about 2 hours the first day and the next day when I asked if she wanted to play solitaire again she responded that yes she would but that she hadn't played in years. I just smiled and set'em up. A couple days after that I got my memory refreshed on how to play gin and as soon as I dealt the cards my grandma knew exactly how to play, she didn't miss a beat.

So most days finds us sitting at the table for at least a couple hours in the afternoon and playing I don't know how many hands of cards. Her with her tea and me with my cup of hot chocolate; answering her questions over and over again.

What day did you say it was?

Do you know what the weather is supposed to be like tomorrow?

Are there any cookies left?

Have I had my pills yet?

Do you have any trips lined up?

Now what day is tomorrow?

Duane, are you awake? (he is now)

Do you think Duane would like to go out for hamburgers tonight? (fat chance)

Did you say if Laura was coming down tonight?

What day is this?

By far the best couple hours of the day.

Spring Update

2008-03-16T14:13:00.002-07:00

A little update to my post about spring a couple days ago.

By the time I got out to the prairie for my hike the other night I only had about an hour of sunlight left but the wind had died down and it was the nicest part of the day. The walk turned out to be a short one but a good one. I saw the tail end of a mouse as it scurried away under a shelf of frozen snow and saw a group of ducks fly low and silent directly over my head. In the distance I could hear a lone red winged blackbird looking for company and my jaw almost dropped when I heard the trilling of a toad at 10 second intervals. I just stood and listened for a few minutes to be sure of what I was actually hearing.

But my favorite part of the evening was when I made my way up a small gravelly hill that faces the southerly sun and spotted a little spot of green in last years dead grass. Kneeling down for a closer look I found myself face to face with the first new growth this season. Even though the frost is far from being out it must have known that if it waited too long it would be choked out by the larger grasses that will steal its water and block its sun. So for the time being this little plant is king of the prairie.

Spring!!

2008-03-13T16:01:00.001-07:00

This week has been killing me! Spring has finally sprung here in northern Iowa and while the sun beats down, the mercury climbs, the days grow longer, and the snow recedes I've been able to do nothing except watch the progress from behind a pane of glass. While I'm happy to be able to stay with my grandparents and help them out it is a bit of a change for me. I'm used to spending lots of time outside and getting in some exercise. At my grandparent's house however I'm pretty much committed to being there 24 hours a day with my grandfather in his current condition. If he needs to get up to move or go to the bathroom someone needs to be there to help him. They do have someone, Nancy, who comes in the mornings to cook them breakfast, do laundry, dishes, help them out, and cook lunch but she's not really able to physically help my grandfather as much as he might need. She does however make it possible for me to shake loose long enough on most days to run to the store and find an internet connection for a few minutes, but that's about the extent of my adventures these days. It was pretty hard sitting around the last few days as I saw the first Robin of spring out the window with a large flock of Canada Geese providing a backdrop as they winged their way north.

So I was happy this morning when my dad showed up to relieve me for a couple days. He won't be able to be around for the weekend and since he thought 12 days straight might put me in the looney bin he's taking over for and I'll relieve him Friday night and then stay through the weekend (which I usually have off). It felt wonderful to walk out to my van this morning with the temperature already above freezing and the sun having just come up. All around was the happy chirping of birds that's been absent for these past months. It took me a couple seconds to place the unfamiliar call that fell upon my ears but soon enough realized it was that harbinger of spring the Robin. While much is made about seeing the first Robin of spring around here it's no comparison to actually hearing the first one.

I was amazed how much snow had receded in only a couple days as I began my drive back to Estherville. In just a few days the novelty of the bare earth will have worn off and I'll see it for the disgusting thing that it really is with all the mud, dead animals, and refuse that have been covered by a blanket of pure white all winter emerging from their hibernation. But for now anyway it looks beautiful and I'm very much enjoying it.

Upon returning to Estherville I had to take care of a few things at the shop before the day was truly my own but even that was o.k. It seemed a pleasure to leisurely stroll into the parking lot to retrieve a car without shivering and racing the cold and wind from shelter (shop) to shelter (vehicle). With all the inside bays full of cars I even enjoyed the ability to spend some time working on a truck out in the parking lot where the sun kept me plenty warm.

With my work done at the shop by mid-afternoon I had grand plans of getting out for a hike to enjoy this fabulous spring weather and try out a new camera lens I'd purchased the week before; but I was having a hard time shaking the lethargy that had set in at my grandparent's house. Instead I drove to my dad's acreage, pulled up next to the lilac bushes in the sun, reclined my seat, and took a nap. It was a wonderfully short nap, made all the better by realizing I was by myself when I woke up rather then on duty. I laid there and enjoyed the suns rays streaming in for a few minutes before returning my seat back to the fully upright position and preparing to leave. But still I couldn't motivate myself to do anything that might require effort so I spent some more time peering into the depths of the naked lilac bushes at the rabbit trails carved in the snow, the new buds ready to erupt with green in a couple weeks, and all the empty birds nests from years past that are invisible come late spring and summer.

A little flicker of movement just a few feet away caught my eye and I found myself nearly face to face with a female cardinal who flitted around from branch to branch and down to the ground looking for a small snack or perhaps a suitable place for a new home. I watched her for a while and then took a harder look around until I spotted a brilliant splash of red farther ahead and deeper into the bushes that was her mate. When I tired of them I looked farther in front of the van and was immediately struck by the ugliness that was emerging from the melting snow; the plastic bags, the yellow buckets, and the antique wagon wheels (don't ask). Soon enough though my brain was able to ignore these things and instead focused on the large pond that had been created next to the house from all the melt water. As my eyes perused its perimeter they spotted more movement on the far edge; another little bird. It was too far away to get a good look at so I pulled out my binoculars and trained them on what turned out to be a little Junco hopping around and pecking at some spilled seed or something; then I noticed another, and another, and another again. All told there were six or seven of the little buggers happily scavenging for a meal.

By the middle of the summer such a trivial gathering of birds will be boring beyond belief, but now, during the first few days of truly spring feeling weather, it was a joy to just sit and watch them in action for ten minutes or so through the binoculars until a few of them seemed to be startled and flew into the bushes. The reason why was soon apparent as a pair of my dad's mallards came waddling out from behind the house to root around in the newly formed pond. They happily and quietly quacked away as they waded up to their bellies and exuberantly rooted around in the thin layer of mud over ice for whatever they might possibly find appetizing.

I never realized how filthy and disgusting ducks were until my dad got some a few years back. We dredged out the slop from this old cement pond in back of the house and fixed it up as a little duck haven. The ducks loved it and it made our hearts happy to see them contentedly sailing around their little lake until in only a few short days they'd turned it into a cesspool of filth which plugged up the pumps filter every few days. After a couple weeks of keeping that disgusting puddle of mud clean the warm feelings in our hearts were gone and we left the cleaning duties up the ducks, which of course they neglected.

Anyway, back to the present tense, I was quite content to watch the filthy ducks root around in the mud and was entertained when the male took alarm to something and stood bolt upright, quacking his loudest to ward off all predators. He was quite an intimidating sight with that ridiculous tuft of fuzz that grows out the back of his head and I'm sure it was enough to make any attacker take heed as they went unmolested.

Finally I'd had enough of animal kingdom and I set out again to find something to entertain myself. Even after my nap I still felt a little drowsy but really thought I should enjoy the day before it got dark. That's when I realized that after this past weekend we're now blessed with an extra hour of sunlight every night so instead I went home, wrote this out, will eat some dinner, and then go for a hike to enjoy the last of the day; something I haven't been able to do since sometime in early December.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2008-03-09T11:47:00.001-07:00

The past couple weeks have been full of changes. Changes in weather, changes in plans, changes in location, and changes in priorities.

Over the past months I've mentioned a couple times that my grandfather's health (on my dad's side) has been failing. Not too long after I started my journey this past summer he was diagnosed with acute Leukemia and began getting blood transfusions. At first he could go about 1 1/2 months between transfusions but the interval between transfusions began getting shorter and shorter, just like the doctors said it would; right now it's only a little over a week.

Over the months he's been steadily losing weight and strength and a couple weeks ago a bout of pneumonia in conjunction with fluid in his lungs put him in the hospital for a week. It was touch and go for a couple days but he managed to make a good enough recovery to be sent home. During his hospital stay however we all realized that my grandparents would now need someone with them 24 hours a day.

No one wanted to put them in a home, least of all my grandparents, so last weekend I packed up some clothes and headed to their house where I'll be spending most of my time for the foreseeable future. I get a little free time every morning when a helper that they've had for the last couple years comes in and on the weekends my dad and aunt Laura can spend more time with them which allows me to come back to Estherville and have some time to myself; which is where I'm at right now. I came down with a little cold so it was good that I got out of there for the weekend. I'm feeling pretty good today though so either later today or tomorrow I'll head back for another week.

While this isn't exactly what I had in mind when I decided to pay off my debts, sell my house, and quit my job that's what allowed me to do this now and really, that was my main goal at the time; to do whatever I wanted to do, whenever I wanted to do it, and right now this is what I want to do. It's far from a fun gig but I've gotta say that I'm really happy I can help out.

A Nutty Meal

2008-02-29T21:32:00.004-08:00

Not too many years ago I was the pickiest eater you were bound to run across. If I didn't like the looks of it then I didn't eat it, and that went for a lot of things. Everyone used to give me a hard time when the family would get together for holidays because I'd pass over all the goodies on the table and eat nothing but turkey and bread. Life went on like this for many years until I made a trip to Italy changed my ways. I figured I'd enjoy my trip a lot more if I was more open to the food that I'd be served, plus I didn't want to try and make special orders in a foreign language.

So a few months before the trip I started preparing myself so it wouldn't be such a shock to my system. I began eating tomatoes, cucumbers, fruit pies, asparagus, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, peppers, and all sorts of other weird stuff. And shock of shocks I found out that this stuff was really good after all! My eyes were opened to new horizons and I became fearless, trying anything that was set in front of me.

So a couple days ago when someone came into the shop and hung up a flyer for a Rocky Mountain Oyster Feed at the Elk's lodge Friday night I started trying to round up someone to join me. Sarah was coming down this weekend but decided to push back her visit until Saturday after she heard my offer. I floated it by my dad and sister and neither of them would have anything to do with it. I sent a text message to Lyle but he conveniently couldn't get back to me until it was too late. I even rang up my grandma and grandpa that live in town and they wanted nothing to do with it either. The only person I could get to join me was Will, who my dad helps rangle cattle now and then.

There was still a pretty good crowd when we showed up towards the end of the shindig and we filled our plates with baked beans, bread, and cow testicles. As I popped the first one in my mouth I couldn't help but laugh to myself as I remembered the kid who grew up eating hamburgers everywhere he went. Look at me now!

And how were they you ask?

They were deep fat fried, how bad could they be?

What's Going On

2008-02-27T19:43:00.004-08:00

Everyday I keep meaning to post something on my blog and the next thing I know I'm in bed and drifting off to sleep. So tonight I'm going to try and pound something out before the sandman gets to me; I better make it a condensed version. Here goes:

Good things-

My creative writing class is going well at the local college, even though it keeps getting cancelled because of bad weather.
Now that winter is close to being over I'm really starting to get into it. Rudy and I have been going on quite a few long hikes and have really been enjoying it.
I got a job at The Daily News, our local newspaper. No set hours and it's a temporary gig but it should be a great learning experience and I'm looking forward to it.
Spring is just around the corner, as is a likely trip to Arizona for two or three weeks!

Not so good news-

My grandfather's health (on my father's side) continues to fail and it's not looking very good, at least we all knew it was coming. I've been spending quite a bit of time at the shop filling in for my dad while he's helping take care of them as well spending a couple days with my grandparents to help out.
I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up (but maybe that's a good thing).

Ummm, I think that about covers it for now. I'm sure I'll think of a bunch more stuff as soon as I post this. Here's a few pictures to gander at from the last week too.

A bit Breezy

2008-02-18T17:15:00.004-08:00

So Rudy and I have been getting a little tired of the cold and dreary weather this winter. This fall I was promised by the radio that it would be a warm winter so that put my mind at ease a bit when I decided to come back to Iowa. I waited patiently through the white Christmas and suffered through the bitterly cold January before realizing the other day that it was already the middle of February and that it had been really cold for a really long time. So I was relieved when I saw the weather forecast of 30 degree weather for this past weekend. Unfortunately it was accompanied by skies the consistency of mashed potatoes and 30 MPH winds.

I decided it finally was time to make a stand so I got all bundled up in my wind block gear, threw a small pack on my back, hollered for Rudy, and we headed out the door. Our destination was my sister Audrey's house, about 6 miles north of town and directly into the wind. We faced the brunt of the wind as we slogged up the railroad tracks, through a couple fields, and into the prairie that would lead us most of the rest of the way to Audrey's house. The wind was incredibly strong and I was surprised how hard it was to walk into, the deep snow drifts scattered along the prairie didn't help either. Still though, it was fun to get out of the house for some exercise and after about 3 hours we reached Audrey's house.

Rudy and I kicked back for a few hours and ate a couple snacks to recharge. Around 1:00 we turned down an offer of a ride home, donned our winter gear again, and headed back out the door on our way home. Thankfully the wind was now to our backs, making the walk a little more comfortable and instead of taking the shorter route through the prairie we decided to take the longer but easier route and stuck to the gravel roads back to town.

We found the roads in much worse condition then when we'd started. The snow had been blowing across it all afternoon making it almost completely covered in ice. When we turned to the east the walking got very difficult with the winds blowing directly at our sides but we managed to get through it and arrived home safe, sound, and very tired.

Fully rested I awoke this morning to bright blue sunny skies and thinking that perhaps mother nature had relented I checked the weather report with optimism. What I found was that the temperatures had plummeted overnight and the high today was expected to only be 4 degrees and the wind had actually increased to 4o MPH. By early afternoon the skies had clouded over again and it started to spit snow. I thought that maybe I'd step up and go toe to toe with mother nature again but instead Rudy and I decided that we'd take a day off and dream of warmer weather.

Don't worry, spring will be here soon; sloppy, wet, windy spring.

I before E except after C?

2008-02-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

I've always found it interesting that one of the exceptions to this "rule" is the word weird.

Wierd, huh?

Yes, that's all I've got to say today (believe it or not). You may now resume you're normally scheduled browsing.

Blankets of White

2008-02-08T09:41:00.000-08:00

From a scenic standpoint this has been the most beautiful winter I can remember in a long time. We haven't gotten buried in snow but it seems every time we get a warm spell that turns the snow to a hard, dirty crust with dirt showing through we get a light snow that covers everything up with fluffy white powder again. Lot's of foggy weather too which puts a heavy coating of hoarfrost on nearly everything and is absolutely gorgeous, especially when the clouds burn off and the sun starts shining.

Unfortunately I haven't had very much luck motivating myself to photograph all this beautiful scenery. It's not that I haven't been out enjoying myself, it's just that a lot of days I've been leaving the camera at home. I did manage to take some shots yesterday when Rudy and I were out on a hike and I figured I'd share a few of them here.

You can also follow this link to a small slideshow of images I've taken this winter. Or if you want to skip the slideshow and just see the gallery click here instead.

As pretty as it might be I am getting a little tired of the cold and snow. I just might have to get out of here and head to a warmer climate for a while.

Six Word Memoir

2008-02-07T13:14:00.001-08:00

This afternoon I heard a piece on NPR about a book of six word memoirs that was published. I thought that it was an incredibly interesting idea and since I often have a hard time keeping things brief I figured it would be a good exercise to practice myself.

This is what I came up with for my Six Word Memoir-

Searching for what I already had.

Now it's your turn; post it in the comments section.

Shoddy Shoe Shoppin'

2008-01-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

I don't know about this place sometimes; it can be a frustrating area to live in. Both in terms of weather and pleasure.

We've had some bitterly cold weather over the past week but it broke just in time for last weekend with sunny skies and temps just below freezing; Monday was freakishly warm and got to nearly 40 degrees.

Then we woke up the next morning with temperatures a little below zero and that's where they stayed for the entire day....with 30+ mph winds out of the north. Last night dropped to under 10 below zero but thankfully we're supposed to warm into the single digits above zero today. But hey, it's northern Iowa so what can you expect?

To add to my frustration I'm on the hunt for the perfect pair of light hiking boots. Something lightweight, waterproof, breathable, and mid-heigth for general hiking and wearing about town. I'm done looking for bargains and clearance shoes for my hiking needs and I'm not going to settle for anything less then a perfect fit. No more of this “I bet it won't hurt once I get them broke in” garbage anymore. Sore feet and blisters are no fun at all when the end of the hike is still 7 miles away.

I've searched every local shoe store (local around here is a 45 mile radius) and found nothing even close. The selection of such boots is very limited and every store carries the same brands. Either that or they have the display shoe but nothing in stock. I can imagine that there's very little call for that sort of thing around here though.

So yesterday I decided I'd brave the cold and wind to drive to Sioux Falls where I'd be sure to find something. Sioux Falls is 2 hours away from Estherville and with a population of 125,000 people it's the largest town (by far) within 3 hours of us. I went to about 6 or 7 different stores ranging from general shoe stores to specialty hiking/camping stores. Nearly everyone carried the same brands; Merrell, Columbia, and Keen with the odd pair of Ecco and Lowa boots tossed in for good measure. Not many choices in mid-height boots like I want but lots of trail running shoes.

Although I have a pair of Merrell boots that I really like a lot I wasn't able to find anything in their current line that both fit my needs and fit my foot well. Keen and Columbia were rejected out of hand. I haven't had very good luck with either of them holding up to even light duty work. I bought a pair of Keen's that fit me pretty well late this spring and by the end of summer they were completely trashed. The company replaced them for free under warranty and I was never able to wear the replacement pair comfortably. Even though they were the identical boot they were quite painful if I tried to wear them for more then a full day. I got rid of them and ruled out Keen for any future boot purchases. That left my choices for the day with either Ecco or Lowa.

Only one place had a pair of Ecco's that were the style that I was looking for. Thankfully I was wearing different socks on each foot because they felt fantastic on my right foot (which had a heavier weight sock) but they were a bit loose on my left foot (lightweight socks I wear in summer) and I could tell they'd be pretty sloppy and painful on my heal. I tried a couple different inserts but nothing got them to fit quite right.

I was down to one store left, the small, locally owned, dedicated outdoor store and they're the ones that had the Lowa boots. Unfortunately they only had them in size 12 (I need 11 1/2). I tried them on and while they felt like they might be a great boot they were just too big at that size.

I'd tried my hardest to spend my money but no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get it done! Before leaving town I stopped at Midtown Automotive to ask Kevin if there were any stores in town that I might be overlooking. He told me that when he wants a good pair of hiking boots he goes to Minneapolis to get them. Ugh! I guess I should have talked to him before going to Sioux Falls since Minneapolis was the firs thing that came to my mind.

But hey, I guess things could be worse. Sarah has moved back to Northfield now (a little south of Minneapolis) so one of these days I'll head up there, pick her up, and we can go shoe shopping all around town. Between Midwest Mountaineering and REI we should be able to find something.

And the trip to Sioux Falls wasn't a total bust. Lunch at the Mongolian Grill was pretty good and I found some cheap picture frames/albums. Plus I got to stop and see my grandparents and the way back to Estherville.

I'll be sure to let everyone know when I find the perfect pair of boots. I hope the wait isn't too long though.

Oinkers

2008-01-23T18:44:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my mom decided to make my dog some home made doggie treats from a recipe she found. I got to choose the shape of the cookie cutter and when I found the little pig I knew I'd found a winner; especially considering the treats were brushed with bacon fat at the very end.

We decided to call the treats "Oinkers" and Rudy had no complaints whatsoever as he eagerly scarfed one down after they cooled.

The Moon is Down

2008-01-22T07:38:00.000-08:00

I just got done reading what I thought was a great book, The Moon is Down, by John Steinbeck. It's a short book at only 120 pages and makes for a quick and easy read but it's the kind of book that sticks with you afterwards.

The story it tells is the futility of going to war against a people rather then an army and I found it a very interesting read. You can read as much into the book as you want or you can just enjoy it as a good story. It's impossible however to overlook the similarities that take place in this book written over 60 years ago to what's happening now in Iraq as well as what happened over 200 years ago when we won our independence from Britain.

A thought provoking book that can be looked at from many different angles.

Brrrrr!

2008-01-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

Well, if there was any doubt about winter reaching the upper midwest those doubts have been completely wiped away during the last few days. With daytime temps not even reaching zero degrees (F) most people have been laying low and venturing out only when necessary. I did the same towards the end of the week and it worked out well because I had a lot of little projects that I've been putting off that I finally started getting caught up on. But after a couple days of mostly being shut up inside the house both Rudy and I were starting to go a little stir crazy, so yesterday we prepared ourselves for an outing into the sub-zero degree weather.

Rudy didn't have much to do in order to get ready other then whine at me the whole time I was putting on my layers to try and hurry me up a bit. I on the other hand had a whole pile of clothes that I somehow needed to squeeze into. From the bottom to the top and from the inside to the out they were-

A very thin pair of knee length socks to wick any moisture away from my feet
A medium weight pair of synthetic wool socks to provide some warmth
A pair of lightly insulated gore-tex Merril hiking boots
A pair of tight fitting long underwear pants for extra warmth and moisture wicking
A pair of cargo pants
A pair of lightly insulated snow pants to block the wind and to keep my pants dry from the snow
A very tight fitting under armor shirt to provide some moisture wicking
A looser and lightweight synthetic long sleeve shirt
A synthetic T-shirt
A medium weight long sleeve shirt
A pair of tight fitting and light weight liner gloves
A pair of down insulated waterproof mittens
A light weight breathable jacket liner
A waterproof and breathable jacket shell
A scarf
A pair of sunglasses
A wind block hat

Layering is the key to being comfortable in cold weather. Lots of light layers allows you to be warmer and more mobile then only one or two really heavy layers. It helps to wick any moisture away from your body and extra layers also trap more air; both of which mean more warmth and insulation with lower bulk. Synthetic or wool fibers are also much better then cotton. The big knock for cotton is that it absorbs way more water then wool and when it's wet it provides no insulation. It also takes forever for cotton to dry off. Wool and synthetics on the other hand aren't very water thirsty and when they do get wet they still provide insulation to keep you warm; plus they dry off much faster then cotton.

I always used to wonder why my feet would turn into ice cubes and nothing I could do short of putting on a fresh pair of socks would warm them up. The reason was that my feet would sweat a little bit, just enough to make my cotton socks damp. This would rob them of nearly all of their insulating power and leave me with ice cold feet until I'd put on a fresh pair of dry socks. Now that I've made the switch to synthetic wool socks this problem has all but disappeared. Sure, my feet still get cold in the winter but nothing like they used to; and now I can warm them back up without having to change into a fresh pair of socks.

While it may not be quite so important on short hikes around here in rural Iowa it can be the difference between life and death when you're out in the wilderness; not to mention if you're doing any boating in cold water. There's good reason for the saying “Cotton Kills”.

Anyway, enough of the safety lesson. Now that I was all bundled up is was time to head outside to face the weather. I was curious to see how Rudy would get along because I'd given him a fresh haircut just a week before. I really hoped that he wouldn't wuss out because after working that hard to put on so many clothes I wanted to at least get some use out of it.

The thermometer in my van was reading about 2 degrees below zero on our way out to Ingham Lake. Thankfully the sun was shining brightly and the wind wasn't too bad. Any wind in weather like this can be brutal though so we headed to the woods surrounding the lake and attaching to a few small sloughs where I new we'd be mostly protected from the wind.

The first 1/4 mile of the hike to get to the woods left us exposed to the wind and I stayed plenty warm with the exception of my cheeks, which were really starting to burn. I knew that if I could keep my activity up that soon I'd warm up all over though. The cold didn't seem to be bothering Rudy at all with the exception of his feet. Until he got his blood pumping pretty good he'd take a few steps and start hopping on three legs, looking at his back feet trying to figure out what was making them hurt. It didn't take long though and he was running around like a fool on all four legs enjoying the walk.

There's something special about being out in nature during weather like this, it's different then any other time. Everything seems so bright and pure. The air is amazingly clear, the sun is bright beyond belief, and the sky is a deep dark blue from horizon to horizon. The snow is blindingly white and nothing is moving about; with the exception of me and my dog. It's deathly quiet and incredibly peaceful to just stand in a sunny spot and listen, listening to nothing except for your breathing and heart beat.

The animals, the trees, and grass, the snow, and even the wind all seem to stand motionless for fear that they'll shatter in the frigid temperature. It all looks so delicate and fragile and it seems like all it would take would be one gust of wind for the entire woods to shatter into a million pieces; one large crack from a rifle would surely shatter the blue sky. Even the snow in cold temperatures like this protests to any disturbance. Something that is so fluffy, powdery, fluid, and quiet in relatively warmer temperatures turns stiff and hard in sub-zero temperatures while creaking and groaning under foot and every step.

Rudy and I continued our hike through the woods with the satisfaction that comes from braving conditions that keep most people tucked away inside their homes until warmer weather. It seems that the harder you try to beat mother nature at her own game the tougher the winter seems; but simply playing the hand that you're dealt can be surprisingly rewarding and enjoyable. On days like that it's easy to forget the ugliness of winter. The dirty, sloppy roads and the howling winds that pick up the light snow and obscure everything from site. Every time I head out on days like this I tell myself that I should do it more often and I tell myself that maybe I really do like winter after all. That's a lot easier said then done when you're all warm and comfy inside the house though.

Maybe I'll take some of my own advice and instead of staying inside all day working like I'd planned I'll take the time to bundle up and take Rudy out for another hike today. I mean, you've got to take advantage of weather like this before it's all gone.

Oh, and in case you were wondering I stayed plenty warm during the hike. In fact I dressed a little too warm and on the way back to the car I had my outer jacket unzipped and had my gloves off most of the time.

Packin' Heat

2008-01-13T13:43:00.000-08:00

A recent thread on a forum that I frequent got into whether or not you should carry a gun if you were hitchhiking across the country; the majority of people seemed to think it was a no brainer that you should. That's a sentiment that a lot of people seem to have, not just about hitchhiking but about hiking, camping, and traveling alone in general. I've heard it repeated many times on internet forums when people talk about back woods camping and I heard it plenty of times when talking to people on my recent trip around the country.

One conversation in particular stands out in my mind when talking to a fellow I met out in Maine. We were camping in the same area, me alone and he with his wife and two grand kids. He came over the night they showed up just to say hi and we chatted for a while. He mentioned that he'd had some problems in the past camping in that spot with rambunctious kids. One night some kids were throwing bottles at another couples camper and one other time he woke up in the morning to find someone had stolen the seat off his four wheeler. He then told me quite matter-of-factly that he now carried a gun with him all the time when camping and that he wasn't going to take shit like that off of anybody. He told me that if I heard a gun shot in the middle of the night that meant he'd shot someone who was trying to mess with his stuff. To him it was perfectly natural and he seemed to have no reservations about using it; of course anyone can talk big though.

I remember another time last winter when I was camping down in Arizona. I was in a campground one night and I was one of the few people in tents, everyone else was in campers or motor homes. One evening while cooking dinner I overheard two ladies talking as they walked past my tent. One of them said to the other, “I think it might be fun camping in a tent but there's no way I'd do it without a gun.”

I've heard comments like that quite a bit over the last year and I think it's pretty sad that we've lost so much faith in each other. I think Hollywood and the news media have twisted the truth so much that people think there's a murderer hiding around every bush waiting to ambush you. And it's easy to see why people would think that, it's what's reported on the news all the time and it's glorified in movies and TV shows. Since I've been back from my trip I've seen multiple news reports of hikers/travelers being abducted or murdered; but I haven't heard one news report that mentioned that Alan Gage traveled the country for 6 months living out of his car without even one altercation and not a cross word with anyone. I'm happy to say that my story is the normal, not the other way around. Every year hundreds of thousands of people take to the highways and woods of this country and only a small fraction of a percentage run into any such trouble. But of course, those are the ones that we hear about. And with so many 24 hour news channels nowadays scrambling for any story they can get to fill the time it's no wonder they manage to convince us it's much more prevalent then it actually is.

If you did happen to carry a gun “just in case”, let me ask you this. In what situations would you pull it out? Knowing that once you pulled the gun out you've likely committed yourself to using it if your bluff doesn't work.

The reason I don't (and won't) carry a gun is that it's just not worth it in all but the most extreme situations where you life is literally on the line; at least to me anyway. If someone wants to steel the seat off my four wheeler then let them. If someone wants to steal my camera gear and laptop then let them. If someone wants to steal my van then let them. There's no way I'd pull a gun in any of those situations to try and stop them; and I'll tell you why.

Because it's all just stuff and it's not worth killing someone over. When we hear of a thief who murders their victim in order to rob them we think of them as the ultimate scum. How can they justify killing a human being over such a small thing? Well, what's the difference between the thief shooting you over $200 and you shooting the thief in order to keep your $200? In both scenarios someone died over $200.

Sure it might be nice to have a gun if I were to run into a serial killer, but even in that situation I'd have to get my gun out first. Instead I think I'll just keep playing the odds and put my faith in humanity. Honest, we're not as bad as everyone thinks.

Going to the Chapel...

2008-01-07T08:33:00.000-08:00

Late in December I assisted a photographer from Spencer at a wedding. It was fun and I learned some things, namely that I don't want to be a wedding photographer. Or at least not your standard wedding photographer anyway.

He was very good at it but there's just no way I could turn that attitude on and off like that, being all goofy and saying the same jokes over and over again to try and make people relax and smile. I don't mean to take anything away from him, he did excellent, just that it's something I know I wouldn't be able to do. The other thing is that I don't think I could make myself believe I'd doing the bride/groom any favors by photographing their wedding. The whole thing seemed so contrived and if it was my wedding it would have taken a lot of the fun out of my wedding day.

The wedding started at 4:00 and we started taking pictures at 1:00. So that meant that 3 hours before the wedding the bride and groom had to be all dressed and ready to go. Everything was planned out just how it would go, though it was all supposed to look real and spontaneous. It went something like this:

“All right John, put your wedding ring on and hold hers in your hand. A little higher, little higher, now tilt it out towards me, now look out the window, eyes towards me, great, perfect, just like that. Now look down at her ring, down a little more, eyes towards me, look a little happier if you can stand it, there, great, perfect!

Now, John, we're going to have you stand next to the window with your back to the front of the church. We're going to bring out Liz and she's going to walk up behind you so you don't see her coming. This will be the first time you see your bride in her dress so when you turn around I want to see big smiles and a look of surprise. Then just kind of stand there and talk to each other, look each other over, exchange your gifts to each other, etc.

Ok, now turn around John. Big smiles! Yes! Excellent! Now take her hands, hold them up a little higher, now both look down at your hands, heads down a little more, there, perfect. Now keep your heads down but eyes up at each other, excellent! Now lean in for a little kiss, just a light kiss, there, just like that, hold it, excellent.

Ok now John, take her ring out of the box. Liz, hold out your hand and let John take it in his. Now start slipping the ring on her finger, hold it right there, hands up a little more, tilted towards me a little, perfect, there, now finish sliding the ring on, now hold your hands so I can see both of your rings, up a little higher, there, perfect, now bring your heads in closer together, closer, closer, too close, there, perfect, now look down at your rings, there, we got it!”

It went on like that for nearly 3 hours moving from informal shots of the bride and groom in the church to more formal shots of them in front of a background setup in another room. Then it was back into the church to round up all the family members for shots of the bride with her family, now just her dad and brother, now just her mom and sisters, now just with the bridesmaids, now just with her grandparents. Then it was the grooms turn. Then it was both families together, both the grandparents together, both the parents together, the bride with her soon to be in-laws and the groom with his soon to be in-laws. Then it was back into the other room to stand in front of the backdrop and do even more with more family members.

After a couple hours you could tell most of the people were getting pretty tired of standing straight and putting on fake smiles for the camera. But then, about 20 minutes before the wedding was supposed to start the pictures were over. It was time for the bride and groom to take their rings back off so they could do the whole think over again, but for real this time. Everyone retired to their designated areas to recharge their batteries for one last push. Then 20 minutes after the actual wedding started it was over. I don't know how it looked to everyone in attendance or how it felt to the couple getting married but to me it looked just like what they'd been doing for the last 3 hours and I find it hard to believe some of the magic didn't get sucked out by the time they actually got hitched.

If you ask me the wedding day should be for the bride and groom. It should be laid back and relaxed with time for contemplation. Instead it seems to involve a whole lot of running around and stress during which the bride and groom just do what they're told by someone else all day long. By the end of the wedding I was pretty disillusioned by the whole marriage ceremony thing; not to mention the astronomical cost of the whole thing.

Upon their escape from the church the entire bridal party loaded into a big limo while the rest of us went to the reception hall to wait for them. They took a few laps around town before showing up a little over an hour later. What came spilling out of the limo was a totally different animal that what had piled in just an hour earlier. Everyone was genuinely smiling, relaxed, laughing and having a good time. After seemingly having the weight of the world on their shoulders for the last few days it was finally over with. They were done taking orders and making decisions. It was time to relax, have fun, party, and get drunk (they had a cooler of booze in the limo so they were already well on their way to that).

I couldn't help but smile when I saw them all come trooping into the reception hall in pairs while their entrances were announced by the DJ to fast paced music. Every couple did a little dance, gave piggy back rides, or did something goofy on their entrance. I hope that years later when they look back at their wedding they remember the good times of the day that they probably won't have any pictures of.

A Christmas Memory

2007-12-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

Got an extra 1/2 hour? If so do yourself a favor and listen to "A Christmas Memory", read by Truman Capote. You can find an audio link on this page-

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/12/16_hemphills_xmasmemory/

The link is on the right side under "Audio" and you'll need to have Real Player installed to listen to it.

If that doesn't work for you or if you'd rather read it yourself you can find the whole short story here-

http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/capotechristmas.html

I heard this play on NPR today on the way to my grandparent's house for Christmas. I was lucky to have only missed a few lines in the beginning and kept good reception for the whole thing. After just a couple minutes I was completely caught up in the story and enjoyed it thoroughly. As I pulled off the highway onto my grandparents road I was forced to pull over and wait about 5 minutes until the story was finished.

There are a lot of stories about how you should enjoy the little things instead of the material things for Christmas, but none have resounded in me quite like this one. I do hope the audio version works for you as I think Truman's reading adds a lot to it.

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

A Prairie Story

2007-12-18T19:50:00.000-08:00

The prairies of the upper midwest used to stretch to the horizon, as far as the eye could see. No rocks, no hills, no trees, and few lakes, rivers, or streams. The grass would grow higher then a man's head and with no visual markers for a guide the early travelers through the prairie had difficulties keeping a straight line. I've heard that they used to sit a couple kids on back of the last wagon to watch a 200 foot section of rope being towed through the grass. If the rope started to curve that meant they were starting to veer off course and the kids would give a holler.

Things aren't that way anymore. While there still aren't any rocks or hills the prairies are long gone, along with the buffalo that used to roam them; they've been replaced with fields and cattle pastures. I'm sure there are still some native sections of prairie somewhere in the area that have never seen a plow, cow, or herbicide; but I don't know where they are and if they exist they can't be very big. What we do have though is land that the state has bought and turned back into pseudo prairie. I've never been a hunter but I'm sure that they're to thank for this land. If it wasn't for the pheasant and deer hunters paying the state for the right to hunt the money never would have been spent to reclaim these lands and to try and turn them back into prairies. I doubt the main purpose of these lands is for prairie reclamation, but rather to give the deer and pheasants a good place to live so hunters can shoot them every fall. Yeah, it sounds kinda bad, but really I think it works out best for all involved, deer and pheasants included.

North of Estherville there are quite a few of these public lands and about 5 or 6 years ago I started exploring them. I'd always driven past them and seen signs for them but I'd never thought of walking them. Once I did though I found something I hadn't experienced hiking anywhere else in the area and they turned into some of my favorite hiking areas. In particular a largish tract NW of town where four such adjoining areas have been bought one at a time that now let you walk for miles through uninterrupted prairie.

On the northern edge is small little Ringham Habitat. It's a really small section and the only one that actually tries to be something. It has wide, mowed trails around it leading to the star attraction, a few indian burial mounds in the back near the Burr Oak trees that begin growing as the land drops away to the river. The other areas to the south are Crim Savannah and Anderson Prairie. They have no trails, attractions, self guided signs, or anything else to try and accommodate you other then a small, roped off, grass parking area. If you continue walking east on the southern side of Anderson Prairie you'll reach the oak trees that follow the river and you'll find a trail through them. If you follow this trail you'll come out of the woods in about 1/2 mile and be in a separate section of Anderson Prairie that can be also accessed by N26 just north of town.

When I woke up this morning I found myself thinking about the prairie and how I wished it was spring time so I could get out and enjoy it. Then I decided that I didn't need to wait for spring to go out and enjoy it; I'd take Rudy and we'd go today. While the prairie is usually much more interesting in the spring and summer it can also be a pretty neat place in the winter with a nice covering of white snow. There are an amazing number of animals that live in the prairie but you usually never see any sign of them because of all the grass. That changes in the winter though with snow on the ground; even the smallest critter leaves tracks behind as a record of it's presence.

We arrived a little before 2:00 on a surprisingly warm (around 30) and relatively calm day with winds blowing up to a little over 10 mph. One thing about the prairie is that there's no place to hide and the wind can just about drive you nuts, and that's on a good day. On a bad day it can make it so bitterly cold you can't stand to keep your eyes open. Today was a better then a good day.

We pulled into the parking area for Anderson prairie and from the car tracks it was obvious some other people had been around in the last week or so since the snow. As we started walking into the prairie we were following a couple other sets of footprints when I realized that I'd never seen anyone on the prairie that wasn't hunting. I see tracks in the snow from people I assume are out hunting early/late and I see people walking through the prairies during hunting season (when I avoid them). But I've never before seen someone just out enjoying themselves; they don't know what they're missing.

In the winter with snow on the ground it's plain to see these prairies aren't virgin. It's easy to spot the 2 rut trail the maintenance trucks use when they need to do something on the prairie and you can see that the grass even seems to be growing in rows, just like crops. I don't know why exactly it looks like that; though I assume they planted it with a machine when first turning it back into a prairie and while the grass is growing on its own everywhere it's still thickest where it was originally seeded.

We climbed up on a small, rolling hill for a better look of the area and found tracks running everywhere. On top of the hill, following two neighboring “rows”, looked to be a pair of coyote tracks. We followed the tracks for a while as they crossed rabbit and mouse tracks and as they went down one small hill and up the next, always staying in their row. I could almost see the pair loping through the darkness at a steady gate, hoping to scare up some game. I'm sure if I would have followed the tracks they would have led to the woods bordering the river about a 3/4 mile away.

Instead we turned north to follow the prairie the long way. After a short distance we came across a set of rabbit tracks which were soon joined by a set of canine tracks. It's possible they could have been the tracks of someone else who had their dog out, but I like to think it was another coyote. I followed them for a while before they went into thicker grass and I was further thrown off track by Rudy following them as well, ahead of me of course.

I also came across the trail of what I think was a kangaroo rat. They looked like they were made by only 2 feet (always right next to each other) and a tail lightly dragging behind. I can remember seeing them on TV as a kid and thinking they looked so cool. Then one night when I was probably 8 or 9, returning from fishing with my dad, I swore I saw one hop across a gravel road in our headlights. My dad didn't see it and I don't think he quite believe me, and I wasn't so sure I believed myself either; I didn't think we had them around here. It wasn't until fairly recently that I discovered that actually we do have kangaroo rats in the area but since they live the prairie and are mainly nocturnal they're not generally seen. The tracks that I saw today was the first time I'd seen any sign of them since my brief siting as a kid. It made me happy.

We continued walking to the north into Crim Savannah where we picked up a small creek, next to which the state had cut down some very large trees in the last couple years and left them laying there. While it kind of seems like a shame, on the other hand there aren't supposed to be trees on the prairie. We followed the creek down across a small valley it had either cut over the years or had opportunistically decided to follow as a path of least resistance. We went back up the other side and walked to the edge of the line of Burr Oak tress where we could look down the mostly frozen river below us. Rudy walked around, sniffing about, while I just stood there for a while and enjoyed whatever it was I was enjoying.

We'd walked quite a ways by then through the snow and we were both ready to head back. We picked up a well worn path the deer had made right next to the tree line and followed it back towards the car. We followed the tracks up a steep slope, where judging by all the skid tracks and spots where it looked like deer fell down, that they'd had a tough time getting traction on the hard, icy snow.

Over the prairie, in the deep blue sky, hung a perfect looking 1/2 moon. I stood looking at it and when I looked down it seemed that Rudy was watching it intently as well. I don't know just what exactly was going on in his mind but he seemed a little unnerved by it. He wouldn't take his eyes away from it for very long and started growling a little at it. I've never seen him pay any attention at all to the moon before; maybe it was the first time he'd ever actually noticed it. Once we started walking again he managed to put the demon in the sky out of his mind and went back to sniffing the holes in the grass. By the time we got back to the car the sun was hanging pretty low in the sky, casting long shadows from the tall grasses and making odd patterns in the lightly drifted snow.

I don't really know why I enjoy walking in the prairie so much. It's generally not very exciting and because you can see for miles ahead of you there aren't any surprises waiting around the corner. I suppose it's mostly about being alone and feeling like you've been transported back in time a little. It's not too hard to stand in just the right spot and imagine that instead of a bunch of cattle just on the other side of that hill that the prairie keeps rolling on for miles. While I don't think I could explain it there's just something peaceful about being out on the prairie on a warm, calm day.

As the winter turns into spring, summer, and fall I'll try to keep you updated on the prairie and how it progresses through the year. It's quite an amazing transformation and I'm usually astounded but what I see when I actually take the time to look.

Take a Step Back

2007-12-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

In the couple days since I've made this post I've received some excellent and varied responses; both here and on a forum that I frequent. I really appreciate everyones input and it's left me with plenty to think about.

One of the things I was reminded of by a couple people is that a job isn't everything and there's much more to life then that. Funny how me of all people would forget that since it's been my motto the last few years.

I think the thing that's got me a little but frustrated right now is that for the last few years my plan has been to just live my life how I wanted and to do what I want. If I feel like moving then move. If I feel like living out of my car for 6 months and traveling the country then live out of my car and travel the country for 6 months. If I feel like having a different job then get a different job.

But right now I'm not doing what I want to do and unfortunately there isn't anything that I actually want to do right now. So that's got me in an awkward feeling position where I want to do something but I can't seem to make myself take the plunge. Perhaps because I know I'm prone to changing my mind and life direction on a whim I'm reluctant to devote large portions of time/money on something that I think I might want to do only to end up abandoning it later. I also don't want to just sit around waiting for something to come along that I actually want to do only to find myself broke when it shows up.

ACK! I gotta quit over thinking this!

This morning started like most other mornings over the last month. My dog woke me up because he was hungry at about 7:30. I told him to shut up and laid in bed for another 15 minutes because it was really comfy before I broke down, fed him, and let him outside. There's no going back to sleep for me then so it was onto the computer to check my e-mail, research things I might want to do, check forum postings, and to generally just kill the morning.

Around 8:30 or so I came across an excellent response to my blog post on a photography forum that I belong to. It was like a wake up call for me and really stopped me in my tracks and made me think. I went upstairs and had a couple bowls of cereal while I contemplated things. Then the dog, cat, and myself stood in the warm sun coming through the window for about 10 minutes to think a little longer. Never had I been so motivated not to do anything!

Instead of heading back downstairs to the computer for the rest of the morning I grabbed my camera gear and my dog and headed out the door. The first stop was the grocery store to pick up a loaf of bread. On the way past the deli I noticed some good looking chocolate pie in the display and thought, “why not”! I got myself a piece of pie and found an empty booth were I enjoyed my mid-morning snack and read about a robot heckling Bill Clinton and found out that Blossom is 32 years old. Then we stopped by the shop to see what my dad and sister were up to and then out to Ft. Defiance state park for a hike. I brought along my macro lens and tripod so I could continue a little project I started last winter of photographing ice formations on the edge of the water. Me and Rudy both had a good time, he even did a little swimming (I never said he was smart).

I came back to the house, wrote this, and now I'm getting ready to head out the door to drive to Lakefield and hang out with Sarah. We'll eat some food, drink some wine, smuggle Rudy into her apartment (Shhhh!) and start watching season three of The Office. I'll crash on the floor and then we'll get up early and go for a hike before she goes to work if we're ambitious; or we might be lazy and just drink hot chocolate instead.

I don't need to stinkin' career; at least not now anyway. I'm gonna keep my options open and my bills low; maybe I'll pick up some little rinky dink job to make a little money, who knows!

I'm almost 30 years old, unemployed, and living in my mom's basement. Life is good!!

Thanks Jorn.

Tough Choices

2007-12-10T14:55:00.000-08:00

Things continue to move along at a snails pace here in Estherville and I can't seem to break out of it. I'm getting bored and would like to go back to work but I don't have a clue what I want to do. I'm sort of stuck in a funk where I want to do something but I just can't quite motivate myself to get started.

I've actually enjoyed helping out at the shop now and again and I considered going back there on a more permanent basis if for no other reason then to make some easy money. Most of the work I've been doing has just been diagnostic work, which I enjoy; but last week I went in two days in a row and was doing more general repair work along with the diagnostics. The work wasn't bad but it didn't take me long to remember why I had to leave in the first place. I was really surprised on the second day how quickly my attitude took a dive into the toilet and soon I found myself cursing under my breath at every vehicle I was working on. By noon it was apparent that coming back to work for anything other then just “pinch hitting” wasn't going to be an option.

So that's left me wondering just what I am going to do to try and earn a living. My options are limitless but I don't know where to start. It seems like every week I come up with some idea on something that I think might be fun but the more I think about it the more I realize that they're not what I really want to do either. Man, making decisions sucks!

One thing I have been thinking about pretty seriously is trying to turn photography into a for-profit venture. For years people have asked me if that was something I wanted to do for a living but up until now I've never had a real desire to turn it into a career; or at least into a money generating hobby. The fear is that once it turns into a “job” it will suck all the fun out of it. The upswing would be not only that I'd still enjoy it but that it would stimulate my creativity and give me a whole new passion for it.

I've been doing some research and have been talking to some local studios to see if they need an assistant so I can get a look behind the scenes before I just dive in. Unfortunately this is a really slow time of year for them and they don't need much help. I do get to help out with a large wedding towards the end of the month though and I'm looking forward to that.

Although it's something that I want to try I worry a little bit that I keep dragging my heels. If it was something I really wanted wouldn't I be pushing myself a little harder? The other side of the coin to that is that I don't just want to rush into something that big unprepared and pay for my recklessness later.

Should I take my time, do my research, find a “mentor” to work with, and slowly enter a career in professional photography? This seems like the safe choice and the responsible choice. But is it the right choice? Doing things like studying and researching are good and all but they're no substitute for actually doing. Plus there aren't a whole lot of choices around here when it comes to finding a mentor either.

Or should I just toss away my inhibitions and dive in head first; forcing myself to learn as I go along? There's bound to be mistakes made this way but I'm sure it would also be a much steeper learning curve. Being lazy and not getting anything done all day wouldn't be an option because people would be depending on me to get something done.

If I wait a while I can work on my photography and get some experience not only behind the lens but behind the counter (so to speak) as well while working with professionals in the area. Spring will be the beginning of their busy season and I shouldn't have a problem finding someplace to help out. Hopefully the experience I gain from that would make it an easy transition to go out on my own.

On the other hand that's still a long ways away and what am I going to do until then? If I waited until after summer to start doing photography as a career then I'd be starting out during the slow time of the year.

If I were to "just go for it” now then by the time spring came around I'd have learned some valuable lessons in the school of hard knocks and I'd know what works for me and how I'd want to run my own photography business; and just in time for the busy season.

Or maybe this isn't what I really want to do at all and next week I'll be thinking about something completely different.

I know that all I have to do is actually commit to it personally and then a little switch in my brain will flip. After that most of the nervousness and apprehension will be gone and I'll just do what needs to be done. That's a tough commitment to make though. Funds are dropping though and something will need to be done soon.

Decisions, decisions........

I'd also like to pose a question to all of you out there reading the blog-

What if you could be 20 years old again with the option of taking any career path that you wanted? You've retained all the knowledge that you've gained from your years in the work force and now you can put that to use on a blank canvas. The only thing holding you back would be your desire and determination.

So what would you do?

Would you take the same career path that you took in real life?

Would you have the determination to pursue your dream career no matter how much hard work, time, and money it took to achieve it?

Would you know what you wanted to do?

An Otis and Margaret Update

2007-12-06T13:01:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it after posting about Otis Ray and Margaret (wife of Otis Ray) my dad did a quick Google search and left this in the comments section-

I did a little digging, if you google Oak Hill Cemetery Estherville you will come up with a registery for the cemetery with all it's guests listed by alphabet.

They have Mrs. Woodyard listed, she is shown to have passed on in 1981. She is listed as the wife of Otis Ray.

Now why isn't her name Ray? And is she buried somewhere else in the cemetary, or did they just not bother to chisel in her date of death?

That got me to do a little digging of my own and while I didn't find much I did come across a 4 year old post on a genealogy website asking for information about Otis Ray and Margaret. She didn't really get any but I dropped her an e-mail directing her to my blog thinking she might enjoy the pictures of the head stones and the stories about them. I got an e-mail back a little while later saying that she was indeed happy to get the e-mail and she included a little more information about Otis Ray and Margaret. She also included her “story of their life”-

I LOVE to turn me computer on and find a totally unexpected, but great
genealogical-related email- thanks so much.

Ok I've look at the picture of the head stones and several comments -
Otis wasn't born in 1864-he was born in 1884, so he was only 4 years
older than Margaret. But I have, since my post, learned that Otis Ray
married Margaret Skaggs -and later married Richard J. Woodyard?
Margaret Woodyard died in 1981, and her stone looks fairly new, so .....

I think Margaret Skaggs married Otis Ray in 1918 - they didn't have much
but they loved each other and tried to scratch out a life together. In
their seventh year of marriage, Otis contracted influenza and died.
Margaret tried to move on and married in the Woodyard family, a marriage
that provided her with a secure life, a quiet life, but one without
passion. And as she moved through her life, she grew old, alone again
after Richard died. So when she died at age 92, her last instructions
were, 'don't bury me with the Woodyards, bury me beside Otis, and make
sure the stone makes it clear that I was OTIS's wife....

How's that?? Diana

That's great!

Diana is also right about Otis' date of birth. I took a closer look at the picture and he was indeed born in 1884 and not 1864 like I said. Some moss and lichens appear to have camouflaged that part of the stone making that “8” look like a “6” on initial inspection.

Thanks to everyone who responded with comments and their own take on the life of Otis Ray and Margaret. On one hand it would be fun to find out the real story but it's probably nowhere near as entertaining as making something up.

A Matter of Perspective

2007-12-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, not long after getting back from my trip, I was driving around town and looking to get some exercise. I took a turn that led me up a steep hill on the edge of town to Oak Hill Cemetery. This is the neatest cemetery we have in town and contains the grave of some of the towns founders, including Esther Ridley, who the town (Estherville) was named after.

As I was walking through the cemetery I came across a couple graves that I'd seen a few years previous and that I'd taken a 4X5 polaroid of. I couldn't remember where that print was off hand and figured since I was armed with a camera that I'd take another shot of it. Just in case you can't read the head stones the one on the left says-

OTIS RAY
1865-1925

The one on the right reads-

MARGARET WOODWARD
1889-19
WIFE OF OTIS RAY

What's the first thing that comes to your mind after looking at those two head stones? What circumstance did your mind jump to?

The first time I saw them I found it sad. Poor Otis Ray, nearly 25 years the elder of his wife, probably bought the plots which gave him piece of mind knowing that although he'd likely die long before her that one day she'd lie beside him again. For some reason though that didn't happen and now they were separated forever.

Then I started to wonder why she wasn't lying next to Otis Ray in the ground. I mean, judging from the dates on her head stone she'd be in the Guinness Book of World Records if she was still actually alive, so I think we can rule that option out.

Maybe Otis was an overbearing brute who suckered her into marrying him at a young age and forced her to grow up faster then she wanted. Otis could have been a paranoid and controlling husband who wouldn't let his pretty young wife out of his site for fear she might not come back. Before he died he made sure to buy the adjoining burial plots, his last attempt at controlling her fate. When he finally kicked off she was free for the first time in her life. After the initial shock and pseudo-mourning wore off she spread her wings and flew. Far, far away from the tiny town of Estherville and out to find her dreams. She traveled the world and went to see all the things that Otis would never have done, going wherever the winds blew her. When she died she asked to be cremated and her ashes were spread from one of those new fangled flying contraptions far over the ocean.

I suppose another option could be that Margaret was madly in love with Otis Ray and after his death she never really could come to terms with it. They'd never had much money and after paying to bury Otis and purchasing the adjoining plot there was no money left. She'd never had a job in her life and didn't know what to do. Maybe she was poverty stricken the rest of her life and forced to move in with relatives back on the East coast who she barely knew. She'd always been a little off in the head and it only got worse after Otis was gone. She didn't talk much to anybody and no one really knew about her previous life in Iowa with Otis. As she lay on her death bed the doctor couldn't make heads or tails of what she was mumbling; something about a berry and two people named Otis and Esther, neither of whom he'd ever heard of in the area. He gave her something for the pain and she slipped off to sleep for good. Three days later she was buried in a cemetery with no one else she knew. Only a few people came to the service and no one cried.

Or maybe Otis and Margaret had a happy life. They loved each other dearly and she cared for him as he got sick, right up until the day he died. She mourned for him deeply and she didn't think she'd ever recover from his death. She resined herself to being alone and miserable for the rest of her life. Gradually though her spirits began to rise and she ventured back out into the world. She became reacquainted with old friends and made new ones easily. She'd never been able to imagine life without Otis and two years after his death, though she still missed him greatly, she was surprised to find that she was truly happy.

She continued on with her life and found new things to live for. In a couple more years she met a man while volunteering at the church clothing drive. He was about her age and all day long they kept stealing glances at each other. They bumped into each other a few more times over the summer and one night at the Elk's club he asked her to dance. She felt very awkward at first but halfway through the song she relaxed and it felt good to be held in a mans arm's again. They began dating and after a year he asked her to marry him. She accepted and within 6 months they were married. They bought a small house just outside of town with a nice big porch and swing. They were too old to have children so it was up to them to keep each other entertained. It seemed the older they got the younger they felt. She'd chase him around the yard with the hose while watering the newly planted flowers in the spring and he'd sneak up and scare her while she was cooking in the kitchen.

While Margaret never forgot about Otis Ray she realized that that wasn't her life anymore. That she'd moved on and her new life was out here at the acreage with Brett. They both lived long and healthy lives, never leaving each others side for very long. When they were in their late 80's Brett passed away in the middle of the night unexpectedly; two months later Margaret followed him. They're buried in adjoining plots in a small cemetery in the country not far from their house, on the other side of town from Otis.

After leaving Otis' grave I continued walking around and saw something odd sticking out from under a couple leaves. I kicked back a couple of the dead oak leaves to reveal the corner of a grave; the rest was buried under the dirt. I began scraping the dirt off from the top and then went about digging all the dirt out of the lettering with a stick.

When I was done I found the head stone of Mary Ellen Sewcll - Age 7. I looked at the surrounding graves but found none of her family; she was the only one there. Seems sad, doesn't it? But is it? Is it really so sad to think about parents coming to terms with their loss and moving on with life; doing what they needed to do and being happy once again; even if it meant moving away from the child they were leaving behind?

And what does it really matter anyway? If you're a religious person then Otis, Margaret, and Brett are all up in heaven the best of friends. Well, unless Otis really was a butt head, which would mean he suffered a different fate. Mary Ellen was re-united with her parents and they're a big happy family again. They can barely remember the short time they spent on earth and the grief that they once felt. It was a small price to pay for what they have now.

And if you're not a religious person then there are just a bunch of dead, non-feeling, non-caring bodies lying in the ground that don't know or care what you do after they die.

The Christmas Spirit

2007-11-25T19:28:00.000-08:00

So it's Christmas time once again. Time to be bombarded by ads for things we don't need, time to hit the malls, and time to max out those credit cards!

Let me start out by saying right now that I'm not a religious person. Sometimes I feel a little bit weird celebrating a holiday that means so much to so many other people when it doesn't really mean anything to me. My reason for continuing to celebrate though is that it's one of the few times a year nearly the entire family gets together and the only time that I get to see some of them.

When I was a kid I used to enjoy Christmas and could “get into the spirit” so to speak; but really I think that was mostly due to the presents. As I grew older I began to almost dread the arrival of Christmas. Within a week of Thanksgiving I'm sick of most of the Christmas songs and every year the remakes and “funny” Christmas songs just seem to get worse and worse.

Every year I put off buying presents because I'm waiting until I think of “just the right gift” for so and so. The right gift never comes to me though and invariably I find myself wandering some big-box store with glossed over eyes as I stand shoulder to shoulder with a thousand other shoppers. I walk up and down each isle five times not seeing anything that my dad would actually want or use. In the end I find something to spend $100 on that I think he might decide he likes, even though he never knew he had a desire to own one. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. The whole time I'm doing this I'm feeling bad because I know that other people are being put through the exact same thing trying to find a gift for me.

The other option is that the gift recipient gives me a list of the items they would like me to purchase for them. Gee, that's a gift straight from the heart. I have a hard time making up lists for other people, if there was something I needed or wanted badly then I've already bought it for myself. How can I tell someone else what I want if I couldn't go into the store myself and find something that I wanted.

There is one person out there though who loves every present that you buy, both large and small. They're never disappointed no matter what you buy, wrap up, and stick under the tree. That person is the one who owns the retail store or manufacturer and they're the ones behind this whole mess. They're the ones that start Christmas earlier and earlier every year. They're the ones that market you needless things while convincing you it's a necessity. They're the ones that tell you that the only way to know that someone actually loves you is if they spend a lot of money on your present. They're the ones that cause millions and millions of people to spend money that they don't have every year just trying to prove their affection for everyone else. They're the ones that want you to believe that that is the true spirit of Christmas.

For me last year was my breaking point. I didn't enjoy the months leading up to Christmas and I didn't really enjoy Christmas either. I can't remember any of the gifts that I gave and can only remember a couple that I got; they were given to me because they were on my “list”. I watched everyone else open most of their gifts while feigning a smile and a trying to sound enthusiastic when they said “thank you”. Never before had I been quite so disenchanted with Christmas and I think what really drove it home was when our whole family went to the bowling alley for a couple hours. We were the only ones there and we took up 4 or 5 lanes. There were contests for high and low scores (I won low score, thank you very much) and we all had a blast. A couple years before that we'd made up a Jeopardy game and all the questions/answers were about each other. Another year we got ahold of a Karaoke machine and set it up in the basement.

Those are the things that I remember, not the presents. Those memories will stick with me longer then any enjoyment I'd get out of someone's gift; and they were free. No matter what your reasons for celebrating Christmas I think we can all agree that it's things like that that best exemplify the Christmas spirit.

When Christmas was over last year I decided that I wasn't going to buy people presents for holidays or their birthdays anymore; and I told them that I didn't expect them to buy anything for me either. Instead I decided that I'd get them something when I felt like it. If I saw something that I thought my sister would like then I'd buy it for her; it would be more of a gift from the heart then buying something just for the sake of buying it.

So far I'm liking this new philosophy and for the first time in years am actually looking forward to Christmas; it helps though that I don't watch TV anymore so I don't have to put up with all the holiday ads. Today my aunt sent out an e-mail about how the gift exchange will work this year. We always draw names, two names per person. It's usually one “big” and one “little” gift, but this year it's going to be done a little bit differently. One of the gifts will be a book, preferably a book that you think will mean something to the recipient or that will tell them a little something about the giver. I really like that idea and at first regretted that I'd opted out of the gift giving. Then I remembered that I hadn't opted out of the gift giving at all, just the receiving. I can get something for anyone that I want; and I probably will.

Let me say in closing that I don't think gift giving in and of itself is a bad thing; as long as it's done from the heart. I find that giving a gift that's truly come from the heart is better then any gift I could possibly receive. Also, receiving a gift from someone who gave it from their heart is an amazing experience as well. It makes you realize just how meaningless all other gifts really are. If you want to give gifts on Christmas then that's great, but don't do it just to do it; make them count, make them from the heart.

Spending Thanksgiving at the Hospital

2007-11-23T21:08:00.000-08:00

So the trip is winding down and nearing an end. Just a couple more posts and we'll (hopefully) be back home safe and sound. When we were preparing to leave for the trip I knew we'd be gone over Thanksgiving and I started giving some thought to what we'd do for a Thanksgiving day meal. I put out some feelers for anyone who wanted to let us join their family celebration but unfortunately I don't really know anyone in Montana; or at least not close to where we'd be anyway.

We left Bozeman and headed north on Wednesday not knowing where we'd get our Thanksgiving meal the following day. We knew that if we went all the way to Great Falls we'd probably find something that was open but I didn't really want my Thanksgiving meal to come from a restaurant; and besides, Great Falls was about an hour or more out of the way. We were headed to the Lewis and Clark National forest to do some snowshoeing and White Sulphur Springs was the last town of any size at all that we'd be in for the next couple days. It was right on the edge of the National Forest.

Things were looking grim on the food front but as we were driving through town scoping things out I spotted their small hospital and pulled over. I was hoping that their small town hospital worked like our small town hospital back home in Estherville. Since they have patients over the holidays the cafeteria always cooks a Thanksgiving day meal for everyone; and back home the cafeteria is open to the public and actually serves some pretty good food. As a matter of fact my mother and her parents get together every Thanksgiving to eat at the Hospital cafeteria.

I walked into the hospital/medical clinic not knowing where I was going and after getting directions from a couple different people I found myself in their small cafeteria. It was pretty small and probably couldn't seat over 20 people but it was something. I stood at the counter a few moments before I was noticed by a group of women standing in back of the kitchen. They were busy trying to figure out how the solve the crisis of the moment; their water wasn't working.

One of the ladies broke from the group and walked forward to help me. I explained that Sarah and I would be in the area the next couple days and asked if their Thanksgiving meal was open to the public. She looked a bit confused by the request and turned to the lady that was obviously in charge of the kitchen for help. I asked my question again and was told “We'll have plenty of extra food, come on down. It will be $3.50”.

I left very happy knowing that we had someplace to eat for Thanksgiving and that it would probably be better then anything we could find at some restaurant that happened to be open. With that problem solved we drove up into the mountains to do some snowshoeing. We spent that night in the Ranger Station parking lot before waking up early, driving around to do some site seeing, and getting in some more snowshoeing. We'd intentionally skipped breakfast and by the time we got back into town at 12:30 had worked up quite and appetite.

We changed into the nicest clothes that we had with us (which weren't that nice) and walked into the Hospital cafeteria for our meal not quite knowing what to expect. There were about eight or so elderly people at a long table who looked like they might be permanent residents. One of the nurses was helping them to eat. We stood at the small counter a minute or so before the same woman that I'd talked to the day before came around the corner to serve us. She seemed happy that we'd actually showed up and told us that there was good news, it turns out the meal was actually free! I thought that $3.50 was amazingly cheap, but free was just incredible.

We still didn't know just what we were getting for a meal as she pulled out a couple plates and started filling them with food. Our eyes kept getting bigger and our stomachs started growling louder as she started piling on green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, turkey, gravy, stuffing, deviled eggs and cranberry sauce. After handing us our plates piled high with food she said their was also fruit salad and pie for dessert and that she'd bring them out to us at the table. I thought she meant there was a choice between pie and fruit salad but we were pleasantly surprised when in a couple minutes she walked out with two bowls of fruit salad and two servings of pumpkin pie.

Not only were we served a full on Thanksgiving meal for free but it all tasted fantastic too! I think we ate the whole meal with big grins on our faces, we couldn't believe our good fortune. We savored every bite and by the time we finished we were both stuffed. We sat at the table a few minutes longer before we got up and gave thanks once more to the cook staff who were now seated and eating after serving themselves last. We put our dirty trays of food on the counter along with a $5 bill.

We left completely satisfied and headed north to begin our trek back home. We had the best intentions of getting in another snowshoe outing but by the time we got to the trailhead neither of us had the ambition. Instead we continued driving until we arrived in Winnett, MT later that evening. The first day we left on this trip we were listening to The Splendid Table on NPR and caught a short segment about the Kozy Korner Cafe located in Winnett. We heard stories of nearly 1 inch think pancakes served with excellent ham. We found Winnett on the map and planned right then that sometime on the trip we'd find a way to stop in to try it for ourselves.

After sleeping that evening in a church parking lot we got up and walked into the Kozy Korner Cafe. Winnett was a small town that couldn't have had many over 400 people in it and the Kozy Korner Cafe was exactly the kind of café you expect to see in a town like this. Unfortunately even though it's the type of café you expect in such a town it's rarely the type of café that you actually get.

When we walked in to the café we found about 8 tables on one side of the room and an open kitchen taking up the other side; there was no door or even a wall to separate the kitchen from the dining area. Their was only one other customer sitting at a table and drinking a cup of coffee. It looked like a husband and wife in their 60's who owned the place and a lady that looked like she could have been one of their mothers was in the kitchen making pie crusts from scratch. The husband seated us and took our order. He then took it to the kitchen where his wife cooked it up for us.

As we waited for our food we heard typical small town café conversations as more customers showed up. We saw the typical small café decorations on the walls and heard the husband joking with his wife to hurry up the orders because "the young'uns over there were starving". All of it seemed like any other small town café I'd been in except for the multiple plaques on the wall for “Best Pie in Montana” and the article clipped out of Gourmet Magazine all about the Kozy Korner Cafe. This place was the real deal and the last of a dying breed. I'm often frustrated when I go to small, local cafes and restaurants hoping for some good home cooked food only to find bland, frozen, and prepackaged food. It was refreshing to see someone who still did it the way that it should be done, and that they were also getting some recognition for it.

Our food arrived and the pancakes were just as big as advertised. They took up the whole plate and were close to 3/4 inch thick. I won't say they were the best pancakes I've ever had but they were pretty darn good and the hunk of ham it was served with was great. I really wanted to try some of that pie and thought about getting a slice even though it was 7:30 in the morning, but I mustered up all my self control and held off.

I'll guarantee you though that the next time I'm driving through Montana I'll plan my route to take me past the Kozy Korner Cafe around noon (they close at 3:00) and that at the end of the meal you'll find a big home made slice of pie on my plate. I'll let you know how it tastes.

Brrrr!

2007-11-22T13:34:00.000-08:00

I don't have a lot of time for this one so I'll try to keep it short and let the pictures do some of the talking.

We woke up in Bozeman to about 5 inches of snow, got all cleaned up, and headed downtown to do some shopping. Sarah was looking for a pair of light hiking boots and I was looking for a set of snowshoes. We were both successful. After that we headed towards the mountains to find the place where Sarah was interviewing for a job. We found it without a problem and still had a couple hours to kill so we drove a litter farther up the road to try out the new snowshoes; thankfully Sarah had brought hers along.

We found about 8 inches of fresh powder up in the mountains and a nice trail to hike down. It was cold but we were dressed for it and we couldn't have asked for it be much more perfect. Just after starting the hike we spotted a Great Gray Owl who let us admire him a while before flying off so he could hunt in peace. We finished up the hike and Sarah changed for her interview. It went well and they'd be silly not to offer her the job. Sarah will just need to decide if it's the job she wants and if she wants to move to Montana.

It's getting really cold up here at night and every night we wear more and more clothes to bed. Last night it dropped down to -7 F overnight but we were surprisingly comfortable. We're in White Sulphur Springs, Montana and have been spending the last couple days seeing the sites and doing some more snowshoeing. The snow is even heavier up here and yesterday we were snowshoeing at the top of the pass in about 14 inches of fresh powder. We were the first ones to break the trail.

We ran into some free range cattle on a forest access road and Sarah said one of them looked like me, she said he had a similar facial hair. She's nuts, I don't see any resemblance.

First Taste of Winter

2007-11-21T07:13:00.000-08:00

Although we haven't had the greatest weather since I got back to Iowa at least we haven't had any snow. Actually, now that I think about it I think I would have taken snow over the dreary, windy weather we have had. As I was packing up the van Saturday morning so Sarah I could take off for her job interview in Montana I was surprised to walk outside and find it snowing heavily. Other then a few random flakes the week before it was the first real falling snow of the year. It only lasted about 15 minutes and there was no accumulation but it was a reminder that winter was on the way and that we were living on borrowed time.

Late in the morning I pulled out of Estherville and headed to Lakefield to pick up Sarah. There we loaded up the rest of her stuff in the van and managed to get most of it packed out of the way. Knowing that we'd be driving into the mountains on this trip we also packed the small shovel that she kept in the trunk of her car, just in case. We were both kind of anxious to get out west so we didn't waste any time and hopped aboard I-90 to carry us through South Dakota.

South Dakota isn't the most interesting state to drive through and by the time we reached the Badlands it was almost dark, though it was only 4:00pm. We weren't ready to quit driving for the night though so after stopping in Wall to bum a free wireless connection at Super 8 we continued on through the dark. By the time we reached Rapid City near the Wyoming border we were ready to be done driving for the day. We did some shopping at Scheel's and grabbed some vegetables at a grocery store. We weren't quite ready for bed yet so instead we pulled out the laptop, connected it to the stereo in the van, and watched a few episodes of The Office before crawling in back of the van, me on my cot and Sarah on a mountain of Thermarests, for our night's sleep. I gotta say it felt really good to be sleeping in the van again.

We woke in the morning and continued on our journey to the west. We took a look at the map and decided we'd drive to the Bighorn National Forest where we'd stop to stretch our legs by taking a hike. As we got closer to the Bighorn National Forest we could see mountains appearing on the horizon and they were covered in snow. We'd been steadily gaining altitude all day long, culminating in a 9500+ foot pass in the Bighorns. There looked to be pretty fresh snow on the ground but thankfully the roads were clear. We found a small road that led back into the woods and followed it until we found a good place to park.

There was about 1-2 inches of snow on the road and we were both kind of excited to be in the snow. In her exuberance Sarah decided to wear her gaiters, which led to me making fun of her for wearing gators in less then 2 inches of snow. Once we got back into the woods though I had to eat those words as the snow was piled considerably higher and while I somehow managed not to get any in my boots I did get some wet pant legs and wished I had my gaiters on as well. It was a short hike but a nice break from driving. It felt great to be back in the mountains again.

We hadn't known for sure which route we'd take to get to Bozeman but now looking at the map we found that if we stayed on Hwy. 16 we could go right through Yellowstone and then straight north to Bozeman. We continued driving through the dark (which starts at 4:30) and when we got to Cody we found signs saying that Hwy. 16 through Yellowstone was closed for the season. Luckily we just hopped on Hwy. 296 North from Cody which would bring us to Hwy. 212, which went through the northern part of Yellowstone and that I knew was kept open all year.

It was still surprisingly warm in Cody at over 50 degrees. Once we left though we started climbing steadily on our way to Yellowstone. Once we turned onto Hwy. 212 West things started to get a little bit dicey. It started with a little bit of slush on the road and then it started snowing a little bit. The higher we climbed the harder it was snowing and the more snow was on the road. No plows had come out yet and soon we were traveling through one set of ruts in the snow. The snow on the road was about 6 inches deep and was dragging on the bottom of the van the whole way. The temperature had dropped into the low 30's and it just kept getting worse. I thought for sure we were going to get stuck in one spot but somehow managed to get through it. We were hoping that if we could just get to Yellowstone that we might find the roads clear but once the road started going downhill again we had to rethink the situation. We were afraid that if we started going down that we'd never be able to go back uphill if we were forced back. Instead we decided we decided to take the easy route and turn back, which would take is downhill and out of the snow. It only took a couple miles of driving until the snow was pretty much gone and we reached a trailhead parking lot to sleep for the night.

We woke in the morning just before the sunrise to find ourselves surrounded by mountains. It hadn't snowed anymore at our elevation but once we hit the road back to Yellowstone we also found that the plow hadn't been out yet and that the road wasn't in much better shape then the night before. There was no way we were turning back though and amazingly enough we made it to Cooke City. From Cooke City it was all downhill (literally) and on the other side of town we found the road clear the rest of the way to the park. The farther back downhill we went the better it got and by the time we reached the park there wasn't any snow to be seen, except on the surrounding mountains.

The park was nearly deserted and it was a nice drive. We could stop wherever and whenever we wanted without having to worry about anyone else. We stopped for about 5 minutes as a heard of buffalo crossed the road. They didn't look so tough from the other side of the windshield. It looked like mostly females with their young from the previous spring. We'd grabbed a map at the deserted park entrance and found every other road except the one we were on through the far north end of the park was closed for the season. When we got to Tower Junction though we stopped at the barricaded road and decided to hike to tower falls, only about 2 1/2 miles away.

It was actually a great time to be at the park and I enjoyed it a lot more then when I came through earlier this spring at the beginning of the tourist season. We had a nice leisurely hike down the road and other then one park ranger and two people on bicycles we didn't see another soul. We had the entire road and every tourist attraction to ourselves, which made us feel very un-tourist like. While on the way to the falls we passed a group of about four buffalo lazing around in the woods next to the road. It's a very different experience walking past them on foot with no vehicle for protection and made us feel extra cool.

Although it was very windy we were mostly walking through the woods which blocked most of it and made for a pretty enjoyable hike. The sun played peak-a-boo through the clouds the entire way to the falls and we got some great views. As soon as we started back from the falls though the sun went behind the clouds for good and it started spitting snow and sleet. It never got very bad while we were walking but it made for a different view on the way back to the van. We finished our short drive through the park with a short stop at the Mammoth Hot Springs before continuing north to Bozeman.

Leaving Yellowstone that evening was a very similar to the experience of arriving at the park that morning. That morning we'd driven through snow and bad road conditions until we got about 5 miles from the park. Now that evening we ran into snow and bad road conditions about 5 miles north of the park when leaving. I didn't expect it to to last very long but started to get a little nervous when we noticed the vehicles we were meeting that were coming from the north covered in snow. It started snowing harder but the roads were only wet. We nervously watched as the temperature dropped below 32 degrees and the road started to ice over. Soon we were down about 40 MPH in heavy snow. It was a slow drive to Livingston, MT where we'd catch the interstate the rest of the way to Bozeman. I was confident that once we hit the interstate we'd be in good shape since surely it would be better then the highway we'd been on.

It didn't start out too bad but quickly got worse as we gained more altitude. The interstate went from snow covered to ice covered and many trucks were pulled over on the side of the interstate putting on chains. Once while climbing the pass I looked in my rear view mirror and saw the car following 100 feet behind us turn sideways and go into the ditch. It wasn't until the next day that I was informed that the pass between Livingston and Bozeman is notorious for its winter conditions and at times has to be shut down because of strong winds making it impassable for trucks.

Thankfully we made it to Bozeman in one piece and after doing a little exploring around town we were able to meet up with relatives of one of Sarah's friends who would give us a place to sleep that night.

Who's that girl?

2007-11-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

After my last blog post about Sarah and I coming out this way (Montana) for her job interview Danny left a comment asking just who Sarah was-

If you're going to introduce another person in your travels would you please describe your relationship with Sarah. Have you guys been buddies since you were 2 years old or something like that? I'm sorry if I'm asking something that's too personal, but you're the guy putting up the blog and I don't have a program for this show.

I guess I didn't realize that I never properly introduced her here and that Danny likely isn't the only person wondering just who she is. So let me clue everyone in.

To start with I suppose I should back up a little bit to before I met Sarah. Before I met Sarah I dated Lilly for nearly 8 years. I was very happy with Lilly but in the end I got my heart broken and went through a really tough time. During that tough time I was introduced to the theatre (by Lilly's mother, Edith) and I was surprised to find out that I actually enjoyed it, which I never would have guessed. It gave me something to do during the winter other then sitting around my house feeling sorry for myself. It felt good to get out and meet new people. During the second play that I was involved in, Lost in Yonkers, one of those new people was Sarah.

It seems to take a couple weeks for the cast to get to know each other and loosen up a little bit, but once that happened Sarah and I hit it off. We found we had many similar interests and that we both liked to get outside to hike and explore. It was nearing spring time and there were a few times when we hustled through rehearsal as quick as we could so we could go hiking or kayaking. We had a great time hanging out with each other and I was happier then I'd been in quite a while. Since Lilly left Sarah was the first person I had any feelings towards and it did wonders for helping me break out my my funk.

After the play was over we started dating. Sarah had grown up just south of Minneapolis and had only been in the area about a year so she was still pretty unfamiliar with it. We spent a lot of time that summer kayaking the local lakes/rivers, hiking, taking trips to Sioux Falls and just having a good time. Sarah hadn't really met anyone from the area yet either so this was an important friendship to both of us and I think that we both cherished it As good as it was though I still didn't really feel like I was ready for a serious relationship yet; I just couldn't get into it like I should have been. As scary as it was to put the friendship on the line we decided to call off the dating and to try and remain friends.

It seems that everyone tries this and that it never works; in fact it hadn't worked for Lilly and I up to that point in time and we'd given it our all. It's a common theme in sitcoms, movies, and soap operas but we decided to give it a go anyway. It was a bit awkward at first but the longer we stuck it out the better it got. In the end I think it was probably the best thing we could have done. There was no longer any reason to put on any false fronts for the other or to make sure you made a good impression. It took away all the pressure of dating and really allowed us to get to know each other.

It's been over a year now since we tried this little experiment and I think it's worked out great so far. I'd be lying if I said there weren't times I questioned the wisdom of the decision and thought I was crazy to just be her friend; but in the grand scheme of things I know it's the right thing. I hope we both do.

We still hang out with each other all the time and I consider her my best friend. When I left this spring for my big adventure it was the thought of not being able to hang out with Sarah that gave me the biggest pause. She was the hardest person for me to say goodbye to and she was the person I was happiest to see when it was time to head home.

And now I'm typing this post in the parking lot of the Montana Fish and Wildlife Service just outside Bozeman, Montana while Sarah is interviewing at the Montana Outdoor Science School just next door. As much as I'd hate to see her go I hope that if it turns out to be the job that she wants that she gets it and loves it. Besides, it will give me a good excuse to come to the mountains of Montana now and then.

Lookout Bozeman....

2007-11-17T07:21:00.000-08:00

Man, I gotta start writing more again. Now that I have something to do other then just sitting in my van all day (and night) long I find myself putting off writing to do other things. Things have been going well on the home front since my return though and it's been good to see people I know again. After returning from my big adventure I'm surprised how many people know who I am and what I did but I don't have a clue who they are. I guess that's nothing real new though, I've always been terrible with names.

I honestly don't know what I've been doing with all my time. Somehow I've been managing to stay mostly busy during the day but when the day is over I don't know what I really did. I've been filling in at the shop now and then when they have some tough diagnostic problems or if they're short handed for a day. It's kind of nice just going in once in a while and I actually enjoy it. I think most of that is because I know I don't have to come back the next morning and because working for a day is a break from the norm. Just like when you're working everyday you relish your days off because it's something different.

The really good news is that I went to see a local bone and joint doctor and he said he doesn't think surgery will be required for my knee. That the ACL tear is small enough that building up strength in my leg/knee and wearing a brace during more strenuous activities will give me the support that I need. While the thought of avoiding major knee surgery is nice I'm also a little bit apprehensive. I pretty much had my mind made up to just have surgery and (hopefully) be done with it. I knew that surgery wouldn't be a necessity but with my activity levels thought it would probably be best. The only way I'll really know if my knee is strong enough to do whatever I want to do is if it never fails again, which is something I'm really hoping for because it hurts really bad when it dislocates. I definitely don't want it to fail again someday when I'm by myself 2 days back in the mountains somewhere. Hopefully everything will work out all right though and it will sure be nice not having the spend the money on the surgery.

I'll be giving my knee a good test over the next week or so though because today Sarah and I will be leaving for Montana for about a week. Sarah has a job interview out there and instead of doing it over the phone she asked if I'd like to go to Montana with her so she can do it in person and see what the area is like. Since life has been so stressful lately I figured I could really use a vacation so I took her up on it. The last couple days I've been getting the van and cleaned out, repacked, and re-organzied for double occupancy. We'll be heading to the Bozeman area and I'm sure there will be a stop in Yellowstone too. We're hoping for good weather but either way I'm sure we'll have a great time.

We'll be in Montana over Thanksgiving so if anyone in the area reading this wants a couple extra dinner guests next Thursday we'd be happy to accept your offer. I promise we won't stink.

I'll have my laptop and cameras with me so you can expect some more updates from the road. I'm looking forward to doing some traveling with someone for a change.

Family

2007-11-13T08:52:00.000-08:00

The other day my uncle Larry and his wife Nancy came for a short visit from their home in southern California. I hadn't seen either of them in a long time and it was fun to talk to them again. Whenever Larry comes back he always goes all out when preparing a meal for the family and this time was no exception. He cooked up a delicious prime rib, sweet potatoes, rice pilaf, and peas with green beans, and glazed carrots. It's probably hard to believe but it tasted even better then it looks in the pictures. I arrived at the perfect time since the food was almost ready to be removed from the oven and the wine was just beginning to be poured. It was fun to sit around the table eating and joking with family.

I'd brought my camera along to perhaps take a few pictures and after the meal it was decided that we'd take a family picture of everyone gathered around my grandfather. As I was setting up my camera and light I admit that I was feeling a little uneasy about the whole thing. I think everyone there knew, my grandfather included, that the main reason for taking the picture is because it would probably be the last time this group would ever be together. You see, his health has been declining lately and I don't think anyone has any illusions of him making a recovery from this one. It will be a nice picture to have but the whole thing felt a little awkward to me.

I normally bring a camera or two to family gatherings but I rarely take any pictures. When I really feel like taking pictures is when I can divorce myself from whatever activity is going on; but I guess when family gets together I feel like I'd rather just enjoy myself and be part of the action. I don't know why I'm that way but I guess I just am. I usually regret not taking pictures at family events but even that doesn't seem to be enough motivation for me to take them the next time.

However, about 3 or 4 years ago on Thanksgiving I pulled out a camera and took a few pictures. For the camera geeks that read this blog it was a Russian made Iskra 6X6 folder made, I believe, in the 60's. I bet the person who made it never would have guessed that in 40+ years it would find it's way to rural Iowa.

Anyway, I was having a good time taking pictures and everyone was in great spirits. Later in the evening when people were about ready to head home I noticed my grandfather sitting in his chair and holding the hand of my grandmother, who was standing next to him while carrying on a conversation with someone sitting at the table.

When I was growing up I don't remember seeing any such displays of affection; but now as they're getting older it's quite common to see them sitting close to each other and holding hands whenever they're near. I've noticed that with other elderly couples as well and it seems to be a common theme. It's kind of like everything goes full circle and I wonder if the feelings are similar to what they had when they first fell in love so many years ago; feelings that were perhaps lost or dulled a little in the middle of their lives, only to return again in old age. Instead of looking at someone through the dopey, love struck eyes of a teenager you look at them through wise, knowing eyes that see everything that's happened in the last 50+ years together and that also know what's likely to happen in the next few years.

I wonder if a 90 year old man/woman feels that same thing when they look at their husband/wife as they did when they were in their teens and their love was still new. That aching feeling when you realize how much that person means to you and the terrifying thought of what life would be like without them. I experienced those feelings in my early 20's and I'll consider myself very lucky if I can feel them again when Im 90.

I took a picture of my grandparents holding hands that night and I'm glad that I did. That night Leukemia and Alzheimer's were still a little ways off in the future and no one was thinking that perhaps this would be the last time they'd see their father or mother. Or that it might be the last time they could be next to each other, holding hands, surrounded by the family that they created.

Back to the Grindstone

2007-11-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

Today was a pretty big day for me, I was up at 7 am, which in itself isn't very unusual, but I was at work by 8; which hasn't happened in a long time (it rarely happened even when I did have a regular job). My dad called me up yesterday to say he had to take my grandfather to the hospital today and asked if I could come in and cover for him. I tried to make it sound like it was really cramping my style but I was actually kind of looking forward to it. As much fun as it is not doing anything it's nice to feel productive once in a while.

I got to work and found a pretty good list of problem vehicles awaiting my attention, especially considering I'd be helping to cover the phone and front desk when Audrey was out. I like showing up to work and having a lot on my plate, that's how I work best. I hate it when there are only a couple things scheduled and other jobs just trickle in through the day.

If you're interested here's a rundown of what I did today- (if you're not interested at least pretend like you are for my sake)

1: Diagnose shifting problems and MIL on '97 F-150. Found a shorted shift solenoid and forgot to order parts (hope you weren't planning on getting that one done tomorrow, Dad) :-)

2: '98 Chevy K2500 - Diagnose/replace inner door handle, diagnose and repair bad ground connection behind glove box for no blower motor, clean/adjust throttle plates (sticking), and replaced leaky thermostat that I noticed while doing the throttle plates.

3: '94 Escort - Replace blower motor resistor and new pigtails (that means connector with wire ends - the old ones melted). Found out after splicing wires that the dealer sent the old style connector and new style resistor so they won't plug into each other. Ordered correct (I hope) parts.

4: '98 Tahoe - Diagnose MIL, poor mileage, and rough running. Found 8 codes stored, 5 of which were being caused by the severely ruptured fuel pressure regulator (also cause of running and mileage complaints), 2 were caused by faulty O2 sensor heaters (sold all 4 since the other two weren't much better), and the last one was caused by a bad thermostat. The vehicle actually hydro locked in the bay after cycling the key a few times. For the non-automotive people reading this that means that the leaking fuel pressure regulator (which was leaking raw fuel into the engine) leaked so much fuel into one cylinder that when the piston came up on the compression stroke the engine stopped moving, since you can't compress a liquid.

5: '97 F-150 - Removed dash and replaced heater core and heater hoses. Flushed the coffee out of the cooling system and put pretty green coolant back in its place.

6: Got approval for repairs on the Tahoe. Removed plenum, replaced regulator, replaced thermostat, removed plugs, turned over engine to expel gas in the cylinders, and installed new plugs. Ran out of time for the day and figured I'll let my dad finish it up tomorrow with the plug wires, O2 sensors, and changing the gas soaked oil.

All in all I actually had a pretty fun day. I don't think I'm ready to do it all day every day; but it might be nice for a once in a while type of thing.

Other big news to report is that Wednesday was my sister Audrey's birthday, she turned the big 2-8! I asked if she wanted to go out for dinner and she said that yes, she would like to go out to the mexican restaurant, but only on the condition that I promised not to tell them that it was her birthday. I had no intention of telling them that it was her birthday since I wouldn't want to be put through that humiliation myself and I like to abide by the golden rule. But seeing as how she told me not to tell them and seeing as how I really don't like people telling me what to do I simply had no choice.

She was a good sport about it though and she got a free dessert so it wasn't all bad. I actually think she secretly enjoyed it. After dinner it was back to my mom's house for cake (carrot), ice cream (vanilla), and presents (I didn't care about them, they weren't for me) with my grandparents, one of my cousins and her boyfriend.

A wonderful time was had by all.

Going once, Going twice,.....

2007-11-07T08:17:00.001-08:00

This past weekend I was looking for something to do so I got up bright on early on Saturday morning and drove up to Fairmont (about 40 minutes away) for an auction. I don't go to a whole lot of auctions anymore but they can be a fun diversion for a while and I thought that maybe I could get a good deal on something that I could resell on EBAY to make a little money.

I remember when I first started going to auctions about ten years ago that I never left without buying something; which wasn't always the best thing to do since I didn't really need or even want most of it and it really starts to accumulate. But what are you supposed to do when there are 3 big flats all selling for $1!? Surely there must be something in there that I can make use of. Wow, look at that! A great big framed picture of flowers (with a mirror frame no less!) is selling for $2! Surely it must be worth that!

And so it went back then, my house began to fill up with junk that I didn't, nor anyone else for that matter, have any desire to own. Eventually I started to get control of the situation and quit buying stuff unless I actually wanted/needed. This took a lot of the fun out of auctions because it was then that I started to realize there wasn't anything at them that I actually wanted/needed. I'd still go check one out now and then but generally didn't stay for more then a few minutes. When I left town and sold my house this spring I was simply amazed at how much stuff I had; most of it had come from auctions at one time or another. I'm really glad I was able to quit when I did.

Now that I'd been out of town all summer/fall though I'd missed almost the entire auction season so I felt it was only right that I attend a couple. Besides, like I said earlier, there was potential profit by finding a good deal on something just to resell it. The auction was at the armory building and even though it started at 8:30am the place was pretty full when I showed up at 8:00 to check things out. I made a walk around the items and made a little list of stuff I might be interested in. Then I got back in my car, drove to a free wi-fi connection, and did some quick research before heading back to the auction.

I knew my stuff wouldn't be selling for a while so I took my time. When I walked back in the door the 1st item was interested in was being auctioned off; a used KitchenAid Professional 6 quart mixer. These are the best of the best and sell for pretty good money used (not to mention new). I figured that if I could pick it up for $150 or so that could make about $50 selling it on EBAY. The bidding was up to about $115 when I walked in the door and it soon shot over my limit of $150, then it went over $200, $250, $300, and before I knew it it had sold for about $350. Holy crap, you can get a brand new one for that much and this one looked like it was missing an accessory or two!

Over the next few hours I watched as the items I'd marked as interesting one by one sold for more money then they were worth (to me or anyone on EBAY anyway). Sometimes auctions just go that way and I find it fascinating how much people will pay for some things while at other auctions fantastic deals abound. Maybe I could do a research project to determine the factors that make for these two types of auctions. If I could figure that out I could get great deals at one and then resell them for a huge profit at the other kind.

While I was waiting and killing time I got a little hungry so I picked up a Sloppy Joe and Special K bar at the lunch stand that was working the auction. As is nearly always the case it was run by nice old ladies who I joked and made quick friends with. It was their excellent recommendation that made me decide on the Special K bar over a chocolate chip bar. I think it was a good recommendation as the Special K bar was fantastic.

Around noon my final items that I was interested came up for sale. I'd been frustrated all morning watching stuff go too high and I guess I got a little carried away. I convinced myself the items were in nicer condition then they actually were and that the Ebay gods would smile on me, allowing me to get top dollar out of them. I paid my absolute top dollar for all three items that I bought and if I'm lucky I'll break even, though it's more likely I'll lose a few bucks on the whole deal. Oh well, at least I've got it out of my system now.

As I was walking out the door I stopped at the lunch booth for one more sloppy joe. When it was served I found it had about twice as much meat as the first one; at least the auction wasn't a total bust.

My other big event of the weekend was that while I was out for a walk I ran across another herd of cattle; though these seemed to have the opposite reaction upon seeing me as the crew I met the other day. I was walking down the road when I caught some motion out of the corner of my eye. When I looked I was surprised to see a small herd of cattle running out of the trees toward me. They stopped about 75 feet from the fence and stared at me with intense interest. I snapped a few shots and then started walking down to the fence to get a little closer to them. As soon as I started walking towards the fence the whole herd started to run towards me again until we met at the fence. They were very inquisitive and I had to be careful not to get nose prints on my camera lens when I stuck it through the fence. When it was time to go they trotted along the fence line next to me a ways before heading back into the middle of the field.

It was kinda sad to think about the fate of these curious and friendly guys and gals. I'm glad I ate my sloppy joes the day before and not the day after.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Above should be an embedded Flickr slide show I want to try out, it should work fine without any actions by you. Let me know if anyone has problems viewing it though. You should have options of stopping, speeding up, viewing file information, etc. if you move the mouse over the slide show or click the image. The actual Flickr set with the cows is here.

A real Blow Hard

2007-11-04T06:58:00.000-08:00

Even though I never forgot my least favorite thing about Iowa the whole time I was traveling for some reason I was still surprised by it when I got back.

What is it you ask?

The Wind

Every since I was a kid it's been the bane of my existence. When I wanted to play baseball/football/basketball it was always there to take some of the fun away; and don't even get me started on how it ruined many a potential fishing expedition. Any time I plan something to do outside the first step in the morning is usually checking the weather report so see what the wind will be doing since it has such a large effect on what I do.

Want to go kayaking or fishing? Better see what direction the wind is coming from so you can choose a protected lake/shoreline so you're not battling 3o mph winds and white caps.

Want to go hiking? Better see how hard the wind is blowing because it's not much fun on the open prairie when all you can hear is the roar of the wind in your ears.

I must have gotten spoiled while traveling around this summer because, while there was the odd windy day, everyplace I went had calm winds for the most part; it was fantastic! I always appreciated it though, always remembered that it wasn't like that in Iowa. So why did I seem to be taken by surprise when I came back home and found that everyday is windy?

I guess in my mind I remember the best things about fall; and one of those is the late fall days we get now and then. The leaves have fallen off all the trees and are crunchy under foot. There's a crispness in the air, the sun is shining, the sky is a deep rich blue, the air is clearer then you can imagine, and there's not a breath of wind. Those are my favorite days of the year. Even though the temperature may only be in the 40's it still feels nice and warm in the sun and the lakes take on a glassy look you very rarely see around here. They're made all the more special because you know that it's entirely possible that within a day or two there could be snow on the ground and a day like that won't return for another year.

Unfortunately we haven't had one of those days since I've been back; but I'm still waiting and still hoping. Sometimes the wind gets me down and keeps me from going out and enjoying the freakishly warm weather for this time of year; but other times I take the affront personally and vow not to let my foe keep me locked in doors. I drag out my wind block hat and jacket and go face the brunt of it.

The other day was such a day. I didn't really know where I was going when I left town, I just started walking from the house. I wasn't too far north of town when I decided to hop on the railroad tracks. I always like walking the tracks, it gives you a different perspective of things you've seen a thousand times and it brings back memories of the hundreds of miles I walked on the tracks as a kid.

Anyone who's walked along railroad tracks has played the game of seeing how long you can walk on a rail before falling off. I've never been all that great at it and with my knee still in a tender condition I wasn't about to try my luck that day. But as I was walking I noticed that people don't seem to be the only ones who get pleasure from walking the rail; in the dust were the foot prints of a possum dawdling it's way down the rail. He seemed to have pretty good success too.

It turned out to be a nice walk, despite the wind. I scared up a couple deer and even a coyote. On the other side of a small ravine from me I could see some cattle in their pasture. It was tough to see them through the thick trees but a couple of them saw me walking down the tracks as well. While cattle usually seem to be content by staring at a passersby with an unconcerned stare these cattle started to get restless by my presence. The few that actually saw me started to get a little jittery and this spread to the rest of the heard. Soon mass hysteria had broken out and after walking just a little farther down the tracks and past the ravine the whole herd came tearing out of their pasture headed for home with panic in their eyes. I always find the site of running cattle entertaining so I enjoyed the little spectacle.

After a couple miles on the tracks I turned around and followed them all the way back in through town, which brought me over the old trestle that crosses the river running through town. It was always off limits growing up and only the bad kids would walk across it. I guess now I am one of those bad kids because I didn't think twice about using the shortcut and admiring the view from the top.

And now this morning starts a new day. Looking out the window I see the one tree left that's still clinging to most of it's yellow and now browning leaves. The sky is blue, sun is shining and the leaves in the tree look pretty calm. Maybe this will be the day.

Or maybe not, I just checked the weather and winds today are supposed to be 15-25mph. Starting tonight and all through tomorrow they're supposed to increase to 25-35 with gusts over 40 mph. Looks like I better get my hike in early today. I think if I go to Ft. Defiance I can use the woods and ravine to mostly stay out of it.....

Happy Halloween!

2007-11-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

It's been fun seeing friends and having people to hang out with since being home and I'm glad I made it back before Halloween. The day after I returned home I headed over to Spirit Lake for a Halloween party at my friend Joe's place. He's got a great group of friends who always come up with some incredible costumes and are always a blast to hang out with. Plus it's a pot luck type of deal with snacks so there's always TONS to eat. Since I'd just gotten back the day before I didn't feel like finding a costume so I had to be the party pooper. Actually, I tried to tell them that I dressed up as someone that had a job, I mean after all, I did take a shower and put on a clean shirt that day...which is more then I could say for the whole last week. Sarah said I still looked like a bum though.

Last night Sarah, Joren, and I all headed over to Spencer to see a play, The Woman in Black. Unfortunately they didn't have a real big turn out but it was a good show and we had fun. I still hadn't found myself a costume and Joren was kind enough to offer the use of his Roman gladiator costume. I tried it on when we got to the theatre but found it was pretty short and the only way to keep my underwear from showing would be to take them off, which would have led to a host of other problems. Thankfully Joren and Sarah were dressed up though and their costumes were good enough to make up for the lack of mine. They even took 1st and 2nd place in the costume contest at the theatre! Sarah won four free tickets and Joren one six blank pieces of paper.

Even though it was a Wednesday night none of us were ready to go home yet. We were having a great time in the car on the drive back and when we hit Spirit Lake for whatever reason we thought it was be a good idea to hit the strip club. Neither Sarah or I had ever been to a strip club before and Joren hadn't in a loooong time. We were all a little hesitant and none of us really wanted to see naked women dancing around but we thought it would be fun anyway. It gotta say it was kind of weird walking in with a scarecrow on one side and a nun on the other.

Apparently the fact that it was a Wednesday over ruled the fact that it was Halloween because the place was dead. There was only a handful of people milling about and not many seemed too interested in what was going on onstage. The women on stage weren't very attractive and didn't have much stage presence. They were all wearing the same super high heeled clear plastic shoes with flashing lights inside them and most of them could hardly walk in them. Any sexiness of the shoes was offset (and then some) by watching the women clumsily move around while holding onto the wall to keep from falling over. I have a hard time seeing what's supposed to be so erotic about the whole thing. Not that I'd built up any great mystique about strip clubs in my head but any that I did have were wiped clean soon after walking in the door. I had to keep on eye on Joren since he kept saying he was going to buy me a lap dance. I think I finally convinced him that I wasn't just saying I didn't want a lap dance but that I really didn't want one. Still, it was fun. We had a couple drinks and played a couple games of pool before moving onto another bar for a couple more games of pool.

Sarah was driving by this point and I was surprised when she suddenly took a turn and pulled us up in front of the other strip club in the area. By this point all our inhibitions were out the window and I think we all felt pretty good about hitting two strip clubs in one evening. We were curious to see if there was a difference in the clientele or the dancers. When we walked in we found even fewer people in this club. Besides one guy and gal shooting pool I think we were the only ones there. I'm pretty sure the gal he was shooting pool was one of the strippers too. My tip off was that as we made our way to the dart board she walked past Joren and I while saying, “hey, you guys are cuuute”. I've never heard that from a strange woman before so I can only assume she wanted money.

After about 5 minutes we gave up trying to figure out how to set up multiple players on the dart board and just started taking turns chucking darts at it. The strippers were no dummies; they realized they weren't going to get any money out of us or anyone else in the club so they just sat around. I will say that they were better looking then the strippers at the other club, but maybe that's just because they had their clothes on.

Welcome Home

2007-10-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a nice few days after coming back home. It was fun to surprise everyone (and they definitely were). I've just been hanging out with friends and family so far; which has been very relaxing.

For now I'm staying in an "apartment" my mom has set up in her basement and while doing some reading yesterday evening I could hear some cooking going on upstairs. Since my stomach was starting to grumble I headed up to see what was going on.

Mmmmm, it's good to be back.

As Quickly as it Begins...

2007-10-26T11:32:00.000-07:00

The rain never did let up and since the park closed at sunset I went and found myself a place to sleep for the night. Towards the end of my stay in Maine I was starting to consider returning to Iowa for the winter. I was still enjoying my trip but it was starting to feel like I was doing it more just do do it; instead of it being something I felt I needed to do. I thought perhaps it was because I'd been alone in the same place for about 1 1/2 weeks and that maybe when I started moving again I'd change my mind.

I couldn't shake the idea though and I don't know if it was just time or if it was a result of the rain but sitting in my house that evening I decided I would return to Iowa for the winter. It would give me a chance to actually make some money and I could schedule surgery for my knee, hopefully being well on my way to recovery by spring. I phoned my dad and let him know that although I wasn't positive that he could probably expect me to be home in about a month. I have no desire to go back to the shop full time but told him I'd be happy to help out with some diagnostic work if they got behind and that I could help fill in while he was out taking care of his parents.

I'd made sure to let him know I wasn't positive and that I could change my mind, but I knew deep down that wouldn't happen. Once I make up my mind about something that's just the way it is. Deciding to take this trip was that way. It took me about 3 days to think it over and decide that I wanted to do it. I gave myself a month to get all my stuff sold and my house ready to go. There were no agony in the decision and no second thoughts; that was just the way it was. Almost exactly one month later I was heading west with nearly everything I owned in my car. And now it seems to be the same with this decision.

I found a wireless connection and checked the weather report; it had changed from earlier in the day and showed cloudy and rainy for the next three days. I gave up on getting in a hike at Ricketts Glenn and decided instead to begin my trek SW.

When I woke up the next morning it was still dreary and rainy. I thought about it and decided I didn't need another month before I went home, just a couple weeks would be enough. I'd never visited the SE part of the country and really wanted to see the Virginias, Kentucky, Tennessee, and that general area. There were also some people down there I wanted to meet. Two weeks would give me plenty of time.

I drove pretty much the whole day, getting out of Pennsylvania before cutting through parts of Maryland and Virginia until I was winding my way through the fog shrouded mountains in the rain on some blacktop road headed SW through West Virginia. It got dark early that evening and I needed a break from driving so I found another wireless connection. I was tired of the rain and looked at a weather map to try and find someplace to go where it would at least be dry. I found the weather forecast for the entire area was dreary until at least the beginning of the weekend.

I sat there contemplating my choices, figuring out what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go. For nearly this entire trip I've avoided interstates whenever possible, choosing small highways and black tops instead; but now I needed to cover ground. I abandoned the small, windy road I was on on and headed north to the first interstate headed west. I drove relentlessly and the landscape began to change. From mountains and trees just entering their peak fall colors to gently rolling hills and trees that were just past their peak colors. Only twenty four hours after taking to the interstate in colorful and mountainous West Virginia I found myself in a landscape that was flat, brown, and dreary with empty fields and empty trees. The only radio stations I could find were country, classic rock, and light rock. It reminded me why I only listened to NPR and my MP3 player for the last couple years.

I crossed the Mississippi river into east central Iowa in the dark. I stopped at the worlds largest truck stop to stretch my legs and make my final blog post from on the road. I drove on another 50 or so miles before pulling into a rest area to sleep. When I woke up this morning I stuck to the intererstates until they disappeared before getting back on small highways. Now I find myself in my friend Lyle's driveway, typing this and using his wireless internet connection in the early afternoon.

Nobody knows that I'm here or that I was even on my way back home. In a few minutes I'll go to the shop to see my dad and sister. This evening I'll head over to my mom's house when she gets done at work.

So, just as quickly as the trip started it's come to an end. I won't lie and say it feels great to be back, that it feels like I'm coming home, or anything sappy like that. It is what it is and the reason I'm here right now is because I want to be. I guess I shouldn't really say the trip is over, afterall this whole “trip” wasn't really about the “trip” (as in seeing the country). It was about much more personal things then that and while I can't say I've found just what I was looking for I have more answers then I did before and I'm not ready to stop looking.

Trust me, I'm just as surprised as you are at the sudden “ending”, but that's how things tend to go with me. Stay tuned in to the blog though, I'm sure there will be plenty of other adventures and who knows when I might up and take to the road again.

So I guess the trip continues, just from a different location.

10 Pounds of Travel in a 5 Pound Can

2007-10-25T19:21:00.000-07:00

I'm getting too far behind so it's time to cram a bunch of stuff together to almost get you caught up on my travels.

So now it was time to leave Maine behind. I headed back down the coast the way I'd come; stopping in Machias again where Andy Beal took me out for another great lunch. I got to Ellsworth, Maine that evening and planned to stay there for the night. I had plenty of time to kill and wasn't sure what to do when the idea hit me to go see a movie. I got really excited about the idea. I don't get to go to movies very often and I planned on really treating myself by eating lots of junk food.

When I walked into the theatre though I found out that they only had two movies showing that night and they'd both already started for the evening with no later show times. I was really bummed out until I had the brilliant idea of renting a DVD and watching it on my laptop in back of my van. The more I thought about it the better the idea sounded. I could watch whatever I wanted, talk all I wanted, go buy any candy I wanted from the grocery store, and drink.

I loaded up on junk food, grabbed a Curb your Enthusiasm DVD and pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot to spend the night in the midst of 5th wheelers and motor homes for the evening. I couldn't help buy laugh at myself for being so excited and the situation seeming a bit ridiculous. The setup worked great though and 2 hours later I went to bed thoroughly entertained and sick to my stomach from junk food. Definitely a successful evening.

I woke up the next morning and drove to Bangor where I met up with John Sweeney. John only had a little time since his daughter had a birthday sleep over the night before and he had to get back to take them home. We met at a truck stop and I jumped in his truck while he showed me some sights around Bangor (like Steven King's house!) and I accompanied him on some shopping errands. It was just your typical mundane stuff but I really had a good time. I enjoyed talking with John and I don't get to do things like that anymore. I think I had more fun shopping at Home Depot and the grocery store with John then I would have doing anything else in Bangor.

The best part was that I found the ultimate replacement for my stolen mug! While we were in Target I found an extremely nice OXO mug. They always seem to have nice stuff. This one is truly spill proof and well insulated. I tested out the spillproofness of it as soon as I could and it sealed up tighter then a drum. It also kept my hot chocolate nice and hot for a long time. Boy, I sure am glad someone stole my other one or I never would have known how nice a mug could be! Now I just need to find the perfect replacement chair. I figure I'm not going to settle for second best now. I've got to find a way to turn a negative into a positive.

After a successful morning of shopping it was time to start moving on again. I drove down the coast to a lobster joint John recommended. I figured since I was leaving the coast for the foreseeable future I better get my last fresh seafood meal while I could. I don't remember if I've ever actually eaten a lobster that I had to dig the meat out of before and I know I'd never had clams. It was a fun meal and the lobster definitely slowed down my normally rapid eating pace. I took my last look at the Maine coast and headed back inland on my way back to Montpelier, VT.

When I got to Montpelier I stayed with some relatives of mine I'd never met before, Meg and Ken Page. They lived a couple miles outside town and were fantastic hosts. I got my very own room and was treated to some excellent meals. I stayed for a couple days and was a total bum. The second day I actually managed to drag myself out of the house and into Montpelier to buy a new backpack (I swear I needed it) and a bunch of used books. Again, I was very impressed with the town. It really looks like it would be a nice place to live.

Meg, Ken, and I didn't do much, which was fine with me. I've been “doing stuff” for 5 months now so it's nice to just relax in a house for a while. One evening we had to laugh as Meg commented it was good I was easily entertained. We were all in the TV room with Ken sleeping in his chair, me reading a book, and Meg ironing while the Red Sox game was on TV with the sound low. Some company and conversation was plenty good enough for me.

After leaving Montpelier I went out a bit of a whir wind tour, heading over to Salem, MA to hang out with Marc Darisse and checking out downtown Salem as they prepare for their big Halloween celebration (this is the Salem from the Salem witch trials). I was there early on a Thursday morning and there were still tons of people site seeing. I can't imagine what it was like the next couple weekends. Halloween is HUGE in Salem. That evening I made it over to Chicopee, MA where I caught the tail end of one of John Robison's book readings/signings. The day I got to see his shop and chat a little before we both had to get going. He had important stuff to do and I had a lot of driving ahead of me.

I left there and drove straight through to Philadelphia, which took me through some more really slow traffic. I made it that evening though and met up with Guido and Hal and Jen Lewis in downtown Kennet Square. They bought me dinner and beer while we talked and listened to the live band playing. After an hour or so we all headed back to Hal's house where I stayed over the weekend. Hal and Jen were great hosts and I got the whole upstairs of their house all to my own. I got to see a lot of the local sites and even got to go to a birthday party which included a lot of food and ice cream cake. Sunday afternoon Hal took me into Philadelphia so I could get an official Philly Cheese Steak at Pat's.

A couple things about Philly:

1: It's amazing being somewhere that's so old and with so much history, real history. I mean, everywhere you look is the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross' house, Independence Hall, and tons of other stuff

2: It's fun to see that the “stereotypical” Philly people/accents/attitudes don't just exist in the movies. People really are like that!

From Hal's place I planned on driving SW into the Virginias and then probably into Kentucky and Tennessee before figuring out where I'd go after that. Before I went that way though I drove North of Philadelphia to see some other iATN members I'd been wanting to meet. They were just as nice in person as they seemed to be on-line. I had a great time with them and got a great recommendation to check out Ricketts Glenn state park. It was farther north then I'd planned on driving but it sounded incredible and since I didn't have any plans anyway I figured I might as well hang out there for a few days.

I made it to Ricketts Glen in the middle of the afternoon in the pouring rain; that wasn't quite in my plans. I thought about putting on my rain gear and going for a hike anyway but I just couldn't motivate myself for that. Instead I found a nice place to park and hoped to wait out the rain while I read for a couple hours.

Paybacks

2007-10-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

If you missed part one of me being violated you can catch up here.

I had a nice day seeing some sites in Maine and as I headed back to my campsite that evening, foolish as it might have been, I honestly expected to see my chair and mug back in their rightful place next to the fire ring. I just couldn't believe that someone would have taken them maliciously and even though it had been less the twelve hours since I'd posted my note I somehow thought that would be enough time.

A great man once gave me some excellent advice, “no expectations, no disappointments”, and I guess I should have listened to him closer. As I pulled into the camp site my headlights swept over nothing but barren ground and firewood. I drove around the park to some of the other sites to make sure the chair hadn't been placed somewhere else. It was nowhere to be seen.

I'd been in such a good mood expecting to have my chair returned to me that day that when I found it wasn't back I was really bummed out. I thought about having a fire but just didn't feel like it. I crawled back into my house and tuned into NPR. I was eventually cheered up a little with the help of some amaretto and listening to Terry Gross interviewing Stephen Colbert, followed by This American Life. I was in pretty good spirits by then and after reading for an hour or so crawled into bed knowing what must be done if my chair didn't show up the next day.

It was Wednesday night and I knew I'd be leaving Friday morning. The day I'd got to the Reversing Falls I'd cut and chopped a lot of firewood, much more then I'd need. I figured I'd just leave everything I didn't use behind for the next camper to use. But the thought of the SOB that stole my chair burning my firewood was more then I could handle. If my chair wasn't returned by the following evening I'd be forced to burn up every scrap of firewood I had.

The next morning I awoke with a mission. A good portion of the wood I'd chopped had been from a fallen over birch tree that was much wetter then I'd thought. It didn't burn well and would take a lot of the fun out of my “fire of spite”. I knew that in order to fully burn all the birch I'd have to get a big, hot fire going before I started to add it a little bit at a time. This meant I'd actually have to go out and chop more wood in order to make sure I could keep it hot enough.

I started my day off by chopping the birch up into smaller, more easily burned pieces, which I then stacked up for easy access in the dark. I stacked the nice dry pine up as well and then walked back into the woods to find some more dry wood. I ended up finding some dead but not yet rotting pines and got a lot more dry wood. I split what needed to be split and threw it in the dry wood pile, greatly adding to what you see in the picture to the left.

With work for the day all done with it was time to kill time until it was dark out. Since it was to be my last day and I'd seen pretty much everything in the area I'd wanted to see I mostly just hung around the park. It was a cool, overcast day and I spent it relaxing, doing some hiking in the woods, and reading. A little before sunset there was still no sign of my chair or mug so I started preparing for the nights festivities.

I began by preparing a nice bed for my fire, which involved laying some small pieces of wood across a couple stones to allow air to circulate up from underneath as well as to give the fire more fuel as it begins to burn. On top of this I piled some small, dead, pine branches.

Now it was ready to get the actual fire going. I found a nice piece of birch bark and tore off some small, thin pieces that would ignite easily; in the midst of these I added some dry moss to help catch and hold the sparks. I'd normally just use a match but since I wanted to look more badass I used my Swedish Firesteel instead. I lit the kindling on the ground to make it a little easier.

Once the tinder was burning I picked up the piece of birch bark, placed it on top of the wood in the fire ring, and then added more small, dry pine limbs on top of it. There was a good breeze blowing through camp and it no time the fire was off and running on its own. I started adding larger and larger pieces of wood and in short order it was burning good and hot.

I kept feeding it lots of dry pine to get it really hot. I wanted to have a lot of hot coals for a bed before adding the birch to the top of the burning pine. With the wind whipping through camp every once in a while it didn't take long. After about 20 minutes I started adding the birch and it didn't stand a chance. The birch hissed and steamed as the water was boiled out of it and soon the first batch of birch was reduced to nothing but embers. I kept adding more pine and more birch to the fire. The wind continued to blow through camp creating an extremely hot and fast fire. After only an hour the birch was no more.

I normally keep my campfires small but it was pretty fun to have a big one. Now with the birch all burned off I could let it burn down for a while before I started adding the rest of the pine. I sat around the fire on an uncomfortable tree stump for a couple more hours while drinking hot chocolate from my crappy uninsulated cup before letting the flames die down for the night. I left just enough wood to start a fire for breakfast in the morning. I went to bed happy, knowing that the dude that ripped off my stuff wouldn't get any enjoyment from my wood.

I woke up the next morning to find it really windy, really cloudy, and pretty cold. I wasn't in the mood for a fire but I surely couldn't leave perfectly good firewood behind. I realized now that since my chair had been stolen I had a nice, blue nylon bag that had no purpose (it used to carry the chair). I pulled it out of the house and found it was just the right size to hold the small pieces of wood that were left. I filled it up, threw it in the back of the house and jumped in myself to start driving south west. As soon as I pulled out of my camp site it started raining and didn't quit for the rest of the day.

I've been violated

2007-10-20T20:30:00.000-07:00

Since I sleep in my new house now when traveling I don't have a tent or anything to mark my territory, so to speak. To keep someone from squatting on my campsite while I was out exploring during the day I would just leave my folding camping chair sitting next to the fire pit. This seemed to work fine as a family pulled in the day after I arrived and even though I wasn't there they set up someplace else upon seeing the chair, knowing the spot was taken. Seeing how it's a very rural area and I have the utmost faith in the majority of humanity I never gave a second though to leaving it behind while I was gone for 6+ hours at a time. So you can imagine my bewilderment when I pulled into my campsite, all ready to relax in my chair in front of the fire while drinking a hot chocolate, and found my chair was missing!

I was totally shocked! I got out my flash light and walked around the campsite thinking maybe I'd moved it and forgot about it. I even checked the trash cans in the park in case some hoodlums thought it would be funny to toss it in one. There was no sign of it. While losing the chair was pretty upsetting the most devastating part was that I'd left my double walled vacuum insulated stainless steel travel mug sitting in the arm rest of the chair and it was missing too! Now not only did I not have a chair to sit in while I enjoyed my hot chocolate, I also didn't have a something to drink it out of! I was becoming quite distressed.

I calmed myself down though and tried to be practical about it. Most likely someone didn't steal it, they just thought it had been abandoned. After all, it had been sitting in nearly the same place for 2 days and if they were only there during day light hours they wouldn't have seen any sign of me. They figured someone had left it behind so they were cleaning up camp. That still didn't explain why my leather work gloves and pot for boiling water were still right where I'd left them though. I was too distraught for a fire that night so I climbed back in my house, did some reading, and went to sleep convinced it was all a misunderstanding that would be straightened out.

I woke up the next morning, started a fire, and made myself some pancakes for breakfast. Thankfully I had a nice stump that I'd been using to chop wood that was a satisfactory fill in for a chair, it was pretty lacking on back support though. I rummaged around in my house and found that I'd packed a plain old regular cup as well so I did have something to drink hot chocolate out of after all. Unfortunately it wasn't a double walled vacuum sealed stainless steel mug so the hot chocolate soon turned to warm, tepid, and finally cold chocolate in pretty short order; forcing me to drink it much faster then I would have liked. Somehow I needed to get my stuff back.

As I ate my breakfast I contemplated my plan. I decided that since it was a small, probably pretty tight knit community I'd put a post on the community bulletin board; and I even knew where it was. I'd gone to the local convenience store/gas station/grocery store a couple days earlier because I needed someplace to refreeze the water jugs I kept in my cooler. They were kind enough to let me put them in their chest freezer over night. I'd noticed outside they had many postings of things lost, found, and wanted and everyone that came in or out seemed to stop and read them.

My plan was simple as well as genius. I'd put a simple note on the bulletin board that would get across the fact that I was a nice, easy going guy who wasn't accusing anyone of anything. If the offending party happened to see the note they couldn't possibly help but feel guilty and would surely return my beloved chair and mug. Anyone else who read the note would surely feel terrible that someone from their small, honest community could do such a thing. Word of the infraction would spread like wild fire through the town. Jimmy would tell Jeff and Tom at the barber shop. Tom would tell his wife Carolyn over dinner that night who would then tell Vickie, May, Dorothy, Barb, Samantha, Ruth, Violet, Gertrude, and Chuck (don't ask) at the Passion Party she held at her house that evening. By the middle of the next day 3/4 of the town would know about it. And to top it all off my impeccable, yet witty, descriptions of the items would ensure that no teenage hoodlum would be able to let any eyes fall on his newfound treasures lest he be found out as a crook and a denigrator of the town of Pembroke's reputation. Even a hoodlum would read the note and realize that this wasn't some stick in the mud old fogey he'd stolen from but a cool, hip, understanding dude.

With my master plan all laid out I walked into the convenience store/gas station/grocery store and bought a notepad. I went back out to my house, composed my letter, and posted it on the bulletin board in plain site. As I was walking away a fella passed me as he went into the store, I saw him pause to read the note just before he went inside. I smiled to myself as I climbed back in the house, the plan was already in motion. It was a beautiful and sunny fall day as I drove off to explore some more of the Maine coast.

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion!

On a lighter note I'm happy to say this is my 100th blog post. Before I left on my trip and decided to keep a blog to keep everyone up to date on my travels I really didn't think I'd stick with posting this long or this often. I never would have guessed that I'd it enjoy it this much and I have no intentions of stopping any time soon. Thanks to everyone that's followed along on the way.

Mainelining - Part III

2007-10-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

In case you missed them catch up on parts I and II.

My plan for this fall was to just take it easy. I already know what you're thinking-isn't that what I did all summer too? Well, yes and no.

While I got in plenty of relaxation this summer I was also working, which meant I needed to be in certain places at certain times. I wanted this fall to be totally open: no work, no schedules, no nothing to keep me from just plain enjoying myself. Instead of to trying to cover as much ground as I could and seeing everything I could cram in I wanted to try staying in one place for a while and getting to know the area; something I usually have a hard time doing.

I felt I did a pretty good job on my way out east by covering ground a lot slower then I usually do. I made plenty of stops that I normally wouldn't have made. I was in a bit of a rush though since I wanted to get to the far east coast, and Maine in particular, before it got too late in the season. When I arrived at the reversing falls I knew I'd be spending a lot of time there. Just hanging out around camp and using it as a base for short day trips. I love the feeling of waking up in the morning and knowing that there's nothing that I have to do. Just laying in bed until I finally decide I feel like getting up. Starting a nice fire and boiling some water for hot chocolate as I just laze around camp and take in the early morning sitesl walk down to the water to watch the gulls and seals hard at work for their breakfasts.

Usually by mid/late morning I'm finally ready to take on the day. I felt pretty lazy the whole time I was staying at the reversing falls and it was great. Some days were pretty packed with day trips down to Lubec or up to Calais to do some hiking along the coasts. During one nice hike along the rugged Maine coast I was standing on a cliff looking out over the water and saw a pod of dolphins passing through as they repeatedly rose for breaths of air. At least I'm telling myself they were dolphins, for all I know they were some sort of porpoise. Seeing a dolphin is way cooler though so that's what I'm telling myself they were.

Other days I didn't really feel like doing anything. Some of these days were spent just hanging around camp but on most of them I did what I usually do back home when I'm in the same mood, I drive. I don't drive to any destination in particular, instead I just start driving two lane black tops or gravel roads to see where they go. It's my favorite way to see and get to know an area. It's how you find all the neat little things that aren't listed on maps.

During the week these 2 lane black tops are almost completely deserted so you can drive as slow as you'd like or even stop in the middle of the road to help out a caterpillar. I don't think there's anything more relaxing on a cool, sunny, fall day then driving down desolate roads through the wilderness.

This is what I found myself doing after I'd been at the reversing falls for a few days. I'd set out that morning to find a place to hike a little inland from the coast where the fall colors were in their full splendor (it's mainly pines right along the coast). I set out with the best of intentions of getting in some good exercise for the day but I soon found myself growing lazier by the minute as I cruised along some unnamed blacktop road; admiring the scenery and basking in the warmth of the bright sun streaming through the windows.

I came to a spot where 2 rutted tracks turned off towards a river (so the map said). I wasn't ready to relinquish my ambition just yet so I turned off knowing I'd find some sort of trail at the end of it. The road, and I use that term loosely, turned out to be about 4 inches narrower then my house and pretty rough in spots. I took it slow and wove my way around stumps and rocks as the trees and bushes scraped along the side of the house. After about a mile I reached a spot where a stream crossed the road. It was a deep rut that was full of rocks and there was no way I'd ever make it across. I put the house in reverse and backed up a couple hundred feet until I got someplace I could park.

I planned to just keep hiking down the “road” so I started getting some gear ready. Though as I sat there in the warm sun, which made for the perfect temperature inside the house, I began to lose my ambition. A Prairie Home Comapanion was just starting on NPR and I told myself I'd just listen to the first few minutes before I went out for a hike. 1 1/2 hours later I finally pried myself loose from the house and into the great outdoors. I went light on gear, just taking one camera and one small lens with a small water container clipped to my belt loop.

It was a perfect fall day except that it was a little breezy. The trees were exploding with color, the sun was shining without a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was in the low 60's. I set off walking down the road and started soaking up the scenery. There was a nice mix of pines, birch, maples, and I don't know what else that make for excellent contrasts of colors and textures. The birch of course with their bright yellow fall leaves and bright white, peeling trunks. The maples were all blazing reds and the pines were of course nice, deep greens. Other trees and shrubs did a good job of filling in all the colors in between.

Although the leaves were still clinging to the trees pretty good some couldn't resist the strong wind that was blowing. With every gust a few would come flittering to the ground. One though I noticed somehow managed to go the opposite way. While all his comrades had a nearly straight, short fall to the ground this one somehow managed to catch the air currents just right and rose above the trees. I saw it about 20 feet over the top of the peaks, seeming to just hang in place. It began to fall back towards the ground until another gust of wind came through and instead of knocking it down picked it up and carried it even higher and farther into the forest. It was still gaining altitude before it was blocked from my site by the trees.

As I was looking up I heard the familiar honking of geese heading south. I looked and found the large flock, much higher up then I usually see them and very disjointed. The couldn't seem to agree what angle the “V” should be at and just who should be where. The first half dozen had it all figured out and the ones pulling up the rear seemed to be in position, but the ones in the middle just couldn't get it together. There were many geese in the middle of the “V” and the same ones kept flying from one side and then back to the other, not knowing which side to join. As they did this they slowed up everyone to the rear and let the head of the flock begin to pull away. This made the screw ups in the middle the new leaders and it didn't seem to be going well. They bickered and honked but couldn't seem to work it out. As they got farther away the whole flocked looked like a long piece of string blowing and undulating in the breeze before they were out of site. I hope they figured it out or it would be a long flight south.

I followed the “road” for a while before turning off on a trail I thought would lead to the river. The trail soon turned into nothing bigger then a game trail but it was still easy enough to follow. As I got closer to the river the forest turned into nearly 100% pine trees, which were all very small and grew incredibly close together. The area must have been clear cut before and these small pines were shooting up so they could help provide for the nations need for wood in another 2o years or so.

All the trees were the same size and grew incredibly close together. A couple times I got off the trail and it was very difficult to wind my way though the trees they were so dense. They blocked out all the light from reaching the ground so that there was no undergrowth at all except for a mushroom here or there and some moss growing in spots.

There were a few small openings in the woods which I assume were caused by a large old tree or stump that had been left behind and had since fallen down. As you walk through the woods you'd occasionally catch a glimpse of small, green patches a little ways off the trail. These really stood out in contrast to the black soil that was apparent everywhere else. I fought my way back into one of these to see just what it was.

When I got to it I found it was only about 10 feet across and incredibly moist and green with moss. As I walked through one of the openings I stepped on some of the moss and was amazed at how soft it was and how far my foot sunk. I found a small, sharp stick and poked it down through the moss. Looking at the moss I could tell it was covering something. I could see the undulations and variations in texture where whatever it was covering changed height. I poked the stick down into the moss and found it went down about 1o inches before hitting anything solid. I was amazed that it could be that thick! I pulled the moss back on one edge and found it was feeding off of a large old tree trunk that had been sitting there for who knows how many decades. There was no sign of the stump/trunk left, the moss had it completely covered in a dense blanket.

Apparently there used to be very large areas like that in the Olympic National Forest in Washington, even as late as the 1950's. Unfortunately once that area (Hall of Mosses) was discovered and opened up to tourism the moss, for the most part, all died below about 6 feet off the ground. I'd love to be able to see what these forests where like before people came in and clear cut them into oblivion. It must have been an awe inspiring site.

The rest of my hike went very well and I did manage to make it to the river. I was hoping it would open up near the shore but unfortunately the trees were just as dense there and after following a nearly non-existant trail down the bank a little ways I turned back to head back to the house. I left the windows up on the house when I left and it was nice and toasty warm inside when I got back. I contemplated taking a nap but instead headed back down the 2 rutted lanes back to the road. I continued a little farther inland and got to see some more of the Maine countryside. It's much like northern Minnesota if northern Minnesota had hills.

They actually call them mountains out here in Maine and I'm sure they're right if you look up the actual definition of a mountain. But when I think of mountains I think of the Rockies or the Cascades; and these ain't them. Still though, they made for some pretty scenery. From the top of one of these mountains you could seemingly see forever through the crisp fall air and all you see are blazing trees, beautiful blue lakes, and more tree covered solitary mountains on the horizon.

It had been a perfect day and exactly what I was hoping it would be like as I visited the Maine coast. It was just after dark when I pulled back into the Reversing Falls park. I drove down to the waters edge to watch the rushing water in the last fading light. I was in a great mood but as soon as I pulled into my camping area that mood was immediately erased.

To be continued-

Don't you hate it when someone leaves you hanging?

Mainelining - Part II

2007-10-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

If you missed part 1 you can check it out here

So if you haven't already done a Google search on it you're probably wondering just what exactly the reversing falls are. Well, just sit right back and I'll tell you.

For starters I think “reversing falls” is a bit of a misnomer. While it really is an impressive site it's more like a series of standing waves rather then actual “falls”. It's caused by the constantly changing current as the tide goes in and out. You see, the east coast (at least up there) isn't really like the west coast where it's pretty much just a straight line. The down east Maine coast is very crooked and jagged with lots of bays and inlets. Couple that with the very rocky terrain and you get lots of little islands, cliffs, points, and narrows in these inlets.

Now when you throw the tides into the mix you've got a heck of a lot of water being forced through some pretty narrow passage ways. You see, the tides up here are pretty massive. When I was in the PNW a pretty good tide change had a difference of about 8 feet between high and low tide, many places were less then that. But around the Pembroke and Eastport area the difference between high and low tide is about 20 feet. That means if you were standing on the edge of a cliff at high tide and the water was lapping at your toes then at low tide the water would be 20 feet below you. So you can imagine how much water must be flowing during the tide changes.

What actually causes the reversing falls is a narrow channel between two points of rocky land that the water is forced to flow through, making for some hellacious current. At high tide, just below the surface are a few submerged islands and bars. When the water really starts to whip through the channel these underwater islands really disrupt the current and cause some big rapids and standing waves (reversing falls). As the tide gets lower these islands eventually poke their heads above water where they get to soak up the sun for a few hours before being submerged again. The whole process makes it look like a totally different place at high and low tides.

The moving water is nearly constant 24 hours a day too; it's like camping next to a rushing river, the roar is constantly in the background. As the tide comes in or out it gradually builds up speed until it's a rushing torrent with rapids, eddies, small whirlpools and huge boils of water thrust up from underwater rocks and cliffs. Then as the inlet begins to fill up/empty the water begins to gradually slow down until all of a sudden you notice it's quiet for the first time in hours and the water is still. It gets very peaceful and you can hear the lobster boats in the distance. You can hear the sea gulls chatting away on the newly uncovered islands and you can hear the seals flopping around and forcefully expelling air through their nostrils. You just sit on the jagged rocks and it's like looking out onto a peaceful lake. You see a bald eagle soaring above the trees and you hear the little squirrels and chipmunks scurrying around in the woods behind you.

This lasts for about 10 minutes before you start to notice the water swirling the other way. It gradually starts to pick up speed and before you know it there's a raging river in front of you again. The cormorants and seals don't seem to be bothered by it at all. You see the seals floating along through the ugliest looking currents just as calm as can be. They stick their heads under water like they're looking for fish and then dive out of site, only to reappear a few seconds later 500 feet away. As you watch them you wish that you could be as comfortable in the water as they are and then you wonder if they think the same thing as they watch you walk about on the land. It's mesmerizing to sit on the rocks and watch the water sweep by as you watch the waterscape change right before your eyes. You know that the rock you're sitting on, 10 feet above the water line, will be submerged in just a couple of hours.

That's about all their is to see at the Reversing Falls park. It's a really nice place to check out though. It's not a park like you'd normally think of. There are a few camping sites but they're just spots people have built a fire ring next to a flat place to park or pitch a tent. There are no interpretive signs, paved roads, or any little things to entertain the kiddies. You just pull into the small gravel parking lot and walk around.

There is however a nice trail that winds through the woods and follows the shoreline. It's not really long but it leads you out to a couple small, rocky points for a different view of the area and also leads you past a couple of wrecked boats along the shoreline. I can remember walking this trail a couple years ago when I was out here. It amazed me at the time, it was the first time I'd ever really walked through a pine forest. I couldn't believe how moist everything seemed to be and how soft the ground was with pine needles. The pine trees were really dense and they all had this moss growing on them.

While I still think it's a nice little trail it doesn't seem so impressive or new anymore. Hiking in the rain forest at Olympic National Park takes some of the edge off many hikes in the woods now. Still, it's a nice trail and I walked it more then a few times on my stay. Most people don't take the time to walk the trail so when a few people are crowded around the parking area all it takes is a short 10 minute walk and you're all by yourself on a little rock out cropping.

There must have been a homestead on the place once upon a time. In one corner of the park stands a small, roped off cemetery with a few headstones in it. They're all very old and a couple have been vandalized. All that's left of one appears to be the base while another looks like it's been shot at a time or two and broken off and then propped back up. A couple of them have a few fake flowers around them that are who knows how old. I wonder if they were actually placed there by family or if someone just thought it would look nicer. They're old and ratty looking enough now that they make it look a little creepy.

Another clue that there was a homestead is all the apple trees in the area. All of them are now neglected and look pretty poorly. They were fully of apples while I was there and many had already fallen on the ground. I thought of trying some but most didn't look too appealing. Some of the trees are in nice lines out in the open but others seem to have been swallowed up by the forest and are somehow managing to still survive. It's odd to be walking through the dense woods and suddenly see a few apples hanging from a limb. The trees in the woods are poor, spindly looking things. The small pines have grown in so thick it's very difficult even to walk around; I can't imaging the small apples trees get much sun, they don't stand a chance.

Just a little ways into the woods you also find what looks to be the remains of a short, stone wall. I looked around for any signs of old foundations from a house or barn but didn't see anything. I thought I had for a while but the more I looked I think it just may have been a large outcropping of rocks; though it did look like it would make a great corner to a foundation. While walking back into the woods a little bit I did run across an old fire ring that didn't look like it had been used in years. I'm sure it wasn't left over the from homestead but it was a sign that where I was wasn't quite so overgrown at one time.

It was just a small circle of rocks, all of which were now nearly covered by the earth with just the top half of them sticking out. The whole thing was covered with many layers of pine needles and there were a couple small pines growing up from the center of the ring. There was one small piece of wood left from the last fire the ring had seen. It was black on the top from being burned but it didn't have that burned look to it anymore. It had been weathered enough that it just looked like someone had painted part of it black, it was the same texture as the rest of the wood. I picked it up and found there was hardly anything left of it. It was nearly rotted away and weighed next to nothing. It was a lot more charred underneath. Lots of bugs and mold had made their homes under it and were none too happy with me for picking up their house. I set it back down in the same place I'd picked it up. I looked around the campsite for some sign of it's previous use but found nothing other then a cigarette butt. I don't know if it's from someone that had a fire there or just someone that dropped one while walking through. I did do a little research and found it takes a long time for a cigarette butt to break down. The general consensus seems to be from 2-25 years depending on conditions.

For the most part the reversing falls is a really nice place to hang out. Few people come back to check it out and most don't stay very long. The whole area, while not exactly remote, is pretty rural. The towns are very small with nothing but a convenience store if you're lucky. Most of the towns don't have anything resembling a downtown; the houses seem to be spread out a little more. I always thought the coast line would have lots of big, fancy houses along it but I found that's not the case, at least not up here. The shoreline is mostly just forest and most of the houses you do see along the coast are very modest, definitely a pleasant surprise.

Yes, a good place indeed to spend a week or so just relaxing.

To be continued-again

If you'd like to see some pictures showing the difference between high and low tides you can check out this Flickr set

Mainelining

2007-10-15T10:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've had any updates on my actual travels and today it's time to start playing catch up.

I continued heading east after leaving the Adirondack mountains on my way to Maine. I made a short pit stop in Montpelier, Vermont for an afternoon to bum an internet connection and get caught up on some computer work. As with most New England towns I've passed through I was pretty impressed how it had an honest to goodness small town feel to it; even more amazing considering it's the state capital. Then again it does only have about 8000 people living in it so I guess it's kinda hard not to have a small town feel.

Another fun fact about Montpelier is that it's the only state capitol that doesn't have a McDonald's. I can't believe there are any state capitols (or any other town with over 5000 people in it) that don't have a McDonald's. It really makes me want to move there.

I didn't spend much time checking out the city, just walked around downtown a little and then up to a hill top park over looking the city. I bought a few Steinbeck paper backs at a small bookstore I hadn't read to keep me busy over the next week. The place doesn't even look real, it looks like a movie set or something.

I left Montpelier that afternoon and pointed my house towards Maine again; not really knowing exactly where I was going to go when I got there. I knew I wanted to head up to the Pembroke area to hang out for a while but I didn't know what I'd do on the way. I'd be driving close to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor but didn't know if I really wanted to stop or not. When I took a short trip to Maine a couple years ago I spent some time in that area and while it was nice it was really touristy, which isn't my taste at all. In the end though I decided that since it was a few weeks after the end of the summer vacation season and it was the middle of the week I'd give it another shot. I stopped in Ellsworth on the way to do a little shopping at some outdoor stores before heading out to Mount Desert Island, which houses Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't find any gear I needed to buy. I had fun looking though.

It was still pretty early in the morning when I got there but I was amazed how many people were at the parks visitor center. I almost turned around and left when I saw the parking lot but went in to grab a map anyway. Acadia National Park takes up much of Mt. Desert Island and it has a lot of hiking trails; but unfortunately most of the trails are pretty short and there are lots of roads on the island, which means it's a big tourist attraction and there's not really any where you can go to get away from it all.

I looked at the map and at the trails trying to decide where I'd go to do some hiking. I finally decided I'd hike up The Precipice and then come back down a different trail heading south to stretch it out and see some different areas.

The Precipice trail climbs about 1000 feet straight up Champlain Mountain and is very well known. There are all kinds of signs and warnings telling you how it's the most difficult trail in the park and how dangerous it can be. To make sure you're physically fit before attempting it, don't climb it alone, and to take plenty of water with you. Signs like that make me want to climb something.

I'd climbed The Precipice a couple years ago when I was out here and I found it wasn't anywhere near as scary as they make it sound. Yeah, it's a pretty strenuous climb since it's very vertical but I never felt like I was in a dangerous position. You're on an exposed rock face but they have plenty of iron ladders and bars to use as hand holds on the way up. If anything I think they have too many of those things and that they tend to get in the way at times and make it more dangerous.

I don't know why I decided to climb it again this time, probably because it's one of the most interesting trails in the park and there aren't tons of people on it. Also, it had been a very foggy morning and it was just starting to break up. I thought the view from the top overlooking the ocean with some fog still around might be pretty nice. Plus I tend to like doing the same thing multiple times. I usually enjoy it more the second or third time I do something.

I pulled into the trail head parking lot and found it was already full of vehicles. Plenty of people were milling about and tour buses were pulling up with people climbing out. Thankfully I realized that they weren't here to climb the trail but that the tourist companies must be making it a stop on their tours now. Telling the passengers how tough the trail was and piquing they're interest so they'd want to stop.

As I got my gear ready for the hike people were buzzing all over. Taking pictures of the face of the mountain, watching the climbers edge their way around through binoculars and constantly making jokes and comments to each other about climbing it. Most seemed to be petrified of the trail, I don't know if that's really how they felt or if it was just more fun to feel that way.

I set out up the trail and just like when I climbed it a couple years ago I found just as many people in their 50's and 60's on the trail as people my age. They might have been a little slower but they weren't having any problems and were thoroughly enjoying themselves. In fact, a couple years ago I passed a fella in his 80's that was climbing the trail; he was doing it with his son (who was in his 60's). I passed him about 1/2 way up and although it took him a while I saw him make it to the top just before I started back down. While most of the people that visit parks like this don't get more then 50 feet from their car it's always nice to see people actually get out and make use of the trails. A couple miles from the roads the parks take on a totally different feel then when you're in the parking lot.

I enjoyed my climb up to the top and it was a good work out. I paused for a while about half way up and admired the view. The fog was still rolling in but the sun seemed to be trying to break free now and again and it was nice having the outside world come and go with the wind. By the time I got to the top though the fog had rolled in and it appeared to be there for good. A couple of guys my age from Germany were standing on top and said they were waiting for the fog to blow off so they could get a view of the ocean. One joked and said they'd been waiting for 2 days. It never did break and we headed off in the same direction down the south side of the mountain into the fog.

It was a nice and relaxing hike down. A couple times the fog moved out just enough to give a nice view of parts of the surrounding area but then it socked itself right back in again. I took my time getting down and actually cut my hike short and took a short cut back to the road and walked back to the parking lot. I'd planned on hiking a few more miles but I was feeling kind of lazy and tired. I knew by the time I hiked another couple miles I really wouldn't want to hike all the way back to the car so I figured I better do it now.

Although it was a nice hike I knew I was done exerting myself for the day and that I was ready to leave Acadia National Park. Even though I'd barely gotten into the park I had no desire to continue the rest of the way along the loop road with the scores of other tourists slowly making their way around the island. I hopped back in my car and headed to the next ranger station to get some recommendations on good, local seafood before leaving the park. On my way there I had to weave through a couple spots in the road where a dozen cars were pulled over on the road with tons of people milling about looking at whatever caught someone's eye.

It's amazing how people will drive past something and not even notice it unless someone else pulls over first. More then once on my journey I've been in national parks and stopped to look or take a picture of something. There was no one else there when I stopped but once I was standing out there with my camera almost every car that passed would stop so someone could hop out and take a picture before jumping back in the car again. Usually by the time I would leave there were 4 or 5 cars pulled over.

I managed not to run anyone over and got a couple good recommendations for seafood in Bar Harbor, just a short drive from Acadia. Although it's one of the big “must see” spots of the area I never went to Bar Harbor when I was in the area before. It's a quaint little coastal town that I believe lives almost entirely off of tourism. As I pulled into town I was amazed at how many cars lined the streets and at how many people were walking around on the side walks; this on a Wednesday in the middle of the afternoon well after peak tourist season!

Thankfully I found the recommended restaurant to be nearly deserted as I took my table. I didn't know what I wanted to eat other then a cup of clam chowder. I took the waiters recommendation to pair it up with a Haddock Sandwich and fries. I also ordered a 1/2 carafe of wine and pulled out my laptop to do some work while I waited for my meal.

I normally don't spend a whole lot of extra time in restaurants; I order, I eat, and then I leave. But I'm starting to stay longer now. It's nice to just sit read the paper or to do some work on my laptop while I take my times eating my meal and drinking my wine. It's much more enjoyable that way; plus I get to listen in on more conversations that go on around me as different people come in and leave.

After about 15 minutes my food showed up and the waiters recommendation turned out to be a good one. The haddock was very good and the fries were some of the best I've had. I took my time eating and when I got done figured that since I was splurging by going out to eat I might as well go all the way. I asked about dessert and found that they had a home made Maine blueberry pie. I asked him to bring it out in about 10 minutes warmed up and with ice cream. I wrapped up what little work I had as I finished my wine and prepared myself for a wonderful dessert.

I got done at the restaurant and thought about spending some time seeing Bar Harbor but thought better of that idea and instead took the most direct route out of town and off of Mount Desert Island. I'd had enough of touristy and populated areas; it was time to head farther up the coast where it was a bit more on the isolated side.

I always think Maine is a really big state and I'm always surprised how little time it takes to get from one place to another. I suppose it just looks big on the map since it's next to all those really tiny states. I took my time driving up highway 1 which follows the Maine coast for the most part. That night I found a library parking lot with a wi-fi connection to sleep in before waking up in the morning and continuing my journey north. I stopped in Machias to see Andy Beal, an iATN member who offered to take me out for lunch.

I met Andy at his one man shop where we hung out for a while as he finished up the mornings work. It was nice to have some company again and I enjoyed talking with him. A little before noon he closed up shop and took me out to an excellent local pizza joint. We took our time eating and had a nice chat before he headed back to work and I headed back to the highway. From Machias it was only about 30 miles to my main Maine destination, The Reversing Falls park in Pembroke.

I was told about it last time I was in Maine and I'd come and spent a day there at that time. I really liked the place and this time I planned on spending a lot more time in the area and getting to know it a little. It was the middle of the afternoon when I got to Pembroke and I found the park again without a problem. I was afraid that perhaps the park had changed in the last couple years but I was happy to see it was just how I remembered it.

I found myself a nice spot to park the house at a little campsite, walked around for a quick look to reacquaint myself with the area, and went about gathering and chopping some wood to burn for the next week or so. I was really looking forward to my time there.

I hoped that the area would be as nice as I remembered. It's always a little dicey coming back to someplace you've only been once but have fond memories of. There's always the worry that it's not really that special after all, that the reason you enjoyed it so much the first time was because finding it was an accident or because of the way circumstances worked out at the time. By returning for a second visit you not only risk disappointment this time but you also risk ruining the nice memories you already have of the place.

More to come...

They'll

2007-10-09T09:31:00.000-07:00

When I started my houses engine this morning to begin my day I caught the very tail end of Garrison Keillor's “The Writers Almanac”, just in time to hear the daily poem.

It was entitled “They'll” by Cheryl Denise.

If you have Real Audio installed you can listen to Garrison read it, which makes it even better

Copied without permission below-

They'll

take your soul
and put it in a suit,
fit you in boxes
under labels,
make you look like the Joneses.

They'll tell you go a little blonder,
suggest sky-blue
tinted contact lenses,
conceal that birthmark
under your chin.

They'll urge you to have babies
get fulfilled.
They'll say marriage is easy,
flowers from Thornhills
are all you need
to keep it together.

They'll push you to go ahead,
borrow a few more grand,
build a dream house.
Your boys need Nikes,
your girls cheerleading,
and all you need is your job
9 to 5 in the same place.

They'll order you never to cry
in Southern States,
and never, ever dance
in the rain.

They'll repeat all the things
your preschool teacher said
in that squeaky too tight voice.

And when you slowly
let them go,
crack your suit,
ooze your soul
in the sun,
when you run through
the woods with your dog,
read poems to swaying cornfields,
pray in tall red oaks,
they'll whisper
and pretend you're crazy.

Wooly Bully

2007-10-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

I'm either a very observant or very easily distracted driver, I haven't decided which one yet. While I've never been in an accident, well, except for that one when “a deer ran out in front of me” and I turned my dads car over in a ditch full of water to avoid it. Honest, it just came out of nowhere just as I was approaching that really sharp corner on a gravel road!

What's that? Why were there skid marks approaching the corner when I should have already been slowed down by the time I got to the corner where the deer suddenly appeared?

Come on, that was over 13 years ago, who can remember all the details? That's not what the whole point of this post was about anyway. Let's get back to where we were before we got distracted on this side story.

Like I was saying, I'm either very observant or very easily distracted while driving. When I should probably be paying closer attention to other cars, semi trucks, and deer(!) I seem to notice any little creepy crawly thing on the road directly in front of me. Lots of turtles, frogs, salamanders, mice, and, particularly at this time of year, caterpillars.

And not just any caterpillars, but the cute little fuzzy black and brown Wooly Bear caterpillars which will later turn into a very common and pretty unimpressive Isabella Tiger Moth. Still though, I've always liked these little fellas and used to find them all the time when I was a kid.

This time of year they're pretty much done eating and are searching out a safe place to hibernate for the winter before waking up in the spring, spinning a little cocoon, and emerging a few weeks later fully transformed from a lowly land lubber to a winged tiger of the skies. Pretty amazing stuff when you think about it.

Anyway, I'm getting distracted again. The whole point of this post was to bring this annual “migration” to your attention. You see, it often involves them crossing our busy highways and not so busy 2 lane black top roads. Every fall, all day long while driving, I see them slowly crawling their way across the gauntlet of our road systems. I can't help but notice them and am constantly weaving this way and that to avoid squishing the little bears. I'd surely be pulled over for suspicion of drunk driving if the po-po ever saw me doing this.

I pulled over the other day on a nearly deserted road when I saw this one so I could take a couple pictures and escort him the rest of the way across what must seem to them a vast expanse of burning hot blacktop. He seemed a bit confused when he reached the end of my finger, wondering just where the rest of the world went.

So please keep your eyes open while driving this fall season and save a few lives. There's a lot of little critters running around on our road ways and it takes a keen eye to spot them before it's too late.

A different sort of Monday morning

2007-10-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

I'm not trying to rub anything in here, but it's Monday morning and I know that most of you started your Monday off quite differently then I started mine. Most of you probably woke up when the alarm went off and then hit snooze a time or two before finally dragging yourself out of bed. If you didn't hit the snooze button three times you made yourself a quick breakfast and then headed out to work, all the while wishing it was still the weekend. A routine I'm very familiar with.

Let me tell you how my Monday morning started.

Since it gets dark at 6:30 I went to bed pretty early the night before. I woke up at a quarter to seven fully rested. It had been a chilly night with temps dropping into the low 40's. My face was chilly but the rest of me was pretty warm under tucked away in my sleeping bag on top of my cot. I laid in bed about an hour just thinking about things and watching the sky brighten out the window. I was happy it was Monday. That would mean it was the work week and I'd have pretty much the whole Maine coast to myself. It was late in the season so most peoples vacations were over. No matter where I went in the next 4 days I could count on likely being alone.

Since there was no place I had to be and nothing I had to do I rustled myself out of bed when I was good and ready too. I slipped on my hiking boots to get some extra warmth in my feet instead of my tennis shoes and then put on my jacket and hat to keep myself warm. I stepped out of my house and looked around. I was on top of a small hill overlooking the ocean. The reversing falls near Pembroke, Maine were to my left. The tide was rushing in causing a furious current, it sounded (and looked) like a fast flowing river. I took a short walk down to a overlook of the reversing falls and watched the water churn around the sometimes exposed/sometimes covered island in the middle of the channel.

That's what makes the reversing falls you see (actually a better term might be standing wave). As the water rushes through a narrow channel during the tide changes it's disrupted by an island that sticks out during low tide and is submerged during hight tide. When this island is slightly submerged it causes some pretty intense rapids and standing waves.

The tide was coming in when I got down to the water and only the tip of the island was still showing. Even though I've been here a few days and seen it plenty of times I was still amazed at how fast the water was churning through; some of the fastest and nastiest current I've every seen. I stood there a while just admiring the scenery. I could see a few lobster boats out and about dropping their lobster pots to try and earn a days wages. Apparently the lobster take has been down a bit in the last few years, causing hard times for some. Add to that a new law just put in effect to protect the endangered Wright Whale. The law says that all lobster fisherman must use sinking lines (the ones that connect the underwater pots) to keep the whales from becoming entangled when they dive. This has most lobster fisherman quite upset as it entails a large up front cost of switching to different ropes and an even more expensive yearly cost to pay for all the lost traps due to the sinking lines getting caught on the rocky sea floor of the Maine coast.

I watched the boats putz around and drop their traps hoping that one would try to go through the channel by the reversing falls, but none did. I guess they don't want to end up like the two ship wrecks just a short walk down the coast. I was a bit chilly so I walked back to the house and started up a small fire in the fire pit. I sat in my chair and warmed myself by a fire for a little while before adding some water to my boiling pot and placing it over the fire. In a few minutes the water was at a rolling boil and I was ready to start my day with some hot chocolate. This past winter Sarah had shown me how good hot chocolate could be with a little Bailey's. She was right, it did indeed make it even better so I started carrying a bottle with me on my travels. The other day while at the grocery store I saw a bottle of Amaretto and thought that might make a nice addition to the brew as well, which it indeed did. So in my little double walled vacuum insulated stainless steel mug I mixed my powered hot chocolate mix, Bailey's Irish cream and Amaretto for a delectable brew to start my day off right.

As I sat in my chair and enjoyed my drink while I pondered what I'd do that day. It didn't take long to figure it out; I decided I'd do whatever I felt like. Most likely that would involve a leisurely morning before heading up the coast a little to Eastport where I'd walk around the port a little bit before finding a library to sit down and catch up on some work. The nice thing about being on perpetual vacation is that you don't feel the need to do something every waking hour of the day. There's a freedom that comes from the knowledge you can pretty much waste an entire day by not doing anything meaningful. In fact, not doing anything meaningful seems to make the day all the more meaningful. It seems to help you relax and enjoy what you're doing more then if you were rushing around trying to see everything you could see.

By now my drink was gone and I was thinking I should probably get up and make myself some breakfast. Similar to what Sarah put my dog Rudy on I've prescribed myself a starvation diet. OK, not really a starvation diet, but I've started eating only twice a day on most days. Since I no longer have the physical exertion that comes from working all day I've found myself putting on a bit more weight (and losing some muscle). No matter how hard I try I have a very hard time cutting back on my portions of food when I comes to meal time. Instead I try to put off my breakfast until mid-morning, skip lunch (maybe a snack if I'm doing something that requires energy) and then eat dinner in the late afternoon. This way I can still eat my normal portion of food but not eat as much total through out the day. It also gives me a good excuse to over eat and get desert if I happen to stop at a restaurant.

I was too comfortable in my chair next to the small fire though and figured I could put off breakfast a little bit longer. Instead I poured a little straight Amaretto in my stainless steel double walled vacuum insulated mug and went back to pontificating todays actions. The Amaretto was good all by itself so I added a little more and thought how nice this was. How much I was enjoying my trip so far. That I couldn't believe how slow time was going by (and this was a good thing). It seemed like I'd left Iowa after my short visit a month ago but when I thought about it I realized it had only been two weeks. An awful lot of fun and relaxation has been crammed into that two weeks.

I started to think about how my Monday mornings used to start. Waking with a sort of dread when the alarm went off. Hitting the snooze button a time or two before dragging myself out of bed to face the work week that I really wasn't looking forward to. If I hadn't hit the snooze button a third time I'd have time to eat a couple bowls of cereal or some oatmeal and a bagel before heading out the door to start my work week. I'd be dreading my day (week) as I made the short drive to work. Thinking how I'd give anything to suddenly realize it was really only Sunday and that I had whole 'nother day to do whatever I wanted. Only five days I'd tell myself, only five days and it will be the weekend again. Then I can do whatever I want for two days, whatever makes me happy.

And now here I was. Sitting next to a fire on the Maine coast only 100 yards from the ocean, listening to the water churn in its endless cycle of in and out and in and out and in and out. This hour, this day, this week, this month, this year I could do whatever I wanted. I felt lucky to be born where I was born and to be born to the parents I was born to. I congratulated myself on working as hard as I could to pay off my mortgage early as well as all my other loans so that when something came up that I really wanted to do I could just do it (like this trip/adventure/lifestyle) . Those are what made this whole trip possible, which in turn is what's made me happier then I've been in a few years now.

I was starting to feel hungry but decided to put off eating just a few minutes longer so I could jot some thoughts down into a program on my computer. After all, what was a few more minutes when I had the rest of my life ahead of me.

Now that this is done I can make myself a peanut butter and banana sandwich for brunch that will tide me over through the rest of the morning and afternoon. Maybe this evening instead of cooking for myself over a fire I'll try to find a nice, small, local restaurant and go out for some seafood. You know, just to help the struggling local fishermen. As I look out the window of my house now I see the clouds that blanketed the sky have broken up and the sun is shining. The weatherman promised a nice, sunny day in the low 60's today and it looks like me might be right after all. A perfect day for doing whatever I want.

And that's how I start off my Monday mornings.

Congratulations to those of you who wake up and go to work on Monday mornings looking forward to the week.

The Adirondack Mountains - Part II

2007-10-03T16:36:00.000-07:00

If you missed Part I you can catch up here

The night before I'd attempted to hang by backpack from a tree to keep it away from any prowling bears but it was nearing dark by the time I got around to the task. After some frustration that ended it nearly getting clobbered by a large falling branch that was much more rotted then it looked like when it was 20 feet in the air I just left my pack next to the tree a couple hundred yards from camp and figured if something wanted what was inside they could have at it. When I awoke the next morning the first thing I did was retrieve the pack since it had my breakfast in it. I was relived to find it right where I'd left it, unmolested. At first it appeared not damage had been done to it until I got it back to camp and started retrieving things out of it. Then a found a small little hole a mouse had chewed through one of the compartments so he could get at the zip lock baggy full of trail mix on the other side, which also had a small hole torn in it.

There was no way I was going to let some little mouse get the best of me. I'd mixed that trail mix myself since it's way cheaper then buying it pre-mixed and I wasn't about to throw my profits away. Besides, I doubt he actually got inside the bag and any mouse turds could easily be dismissed as small bits of raisins. I dumped the trail mix into a fresh baggy and repacked it before cooking myself some mushrooms and eggs for breakfast. After I finished eating I cut some more wood to leave behind and headed towards the lean to at Pillsbury lake where I'd spend the next day. I really hoped I'd find it vacant when I arrived.

It was looking like a pretty nice day. Much cooler then it had been just a couple days prior and a little overcast and windy, but great weather for hiking. On my way back to Pillsbury I passed 2 ladies hiking the other way. These were to be the last people I'd see until I got back to the trail head the following day. Which of course means when I arrived at Pillsbury Lake I did in fact find the lean-to vacant. It wasn't outfitted quite as well as the other camp but it was just as sturdy of a structure and was on an even more beautiful lake with a better view.

As I started unpacking my gear I noticed a small squirrel watching me from a nearby stump as he munched on a nut. I pulled my hatchet out of the pack and shook it at him, telling him sternly that if he left my stuff alone we'd get along just fine and wouldn't have any problems. He just innocently kept on watching.

There were quite a few dead, long logs around the camp site so I set to cutting some of them up so I'd have firewood for that evening. After chopping a while I started to feel pretty tired and had a headache. I'd had a slight head ache through most of the morning and I thought maybe I was getting a bit dehydrated. I started drinking more water but the only difference it made was that I had to pee every 15 minutes.

I decided I'd lay down and take a nap for a while. Once I stopped moving I started to feel a bit chilly. The lean-to faced north so it didn't get any sun on the front of it and the woods blocked most of that anyway. The wind was coming from the NW down the lake and the lean-to was on a small hill which seemed to do a pretty good job of catching some of that wind, despite a few rows of trees between me and the lake.

I laid down in the lean to with my legs hanging over the edge and my feet touching the ground. I covered my legs with my jacket the keep warm and tried to go to sleep. I wasn't sleeping but was resting peacefully when it felt like the wind lifted my jacket a little and ruffled it. I knew it wasn't that windy though so I opened my eyes and lifted my head to see what was going on. When I did I found that little squirrel had crawled up my leg and was heading towards my pack! I yelled at him and clapped my hands to scare him away. The game was on and I laid back down smiling at the anticipation of competition.

About 10 minutes later I heard his scurrying footsteps on the roof on the lean-to and soon his head poked around the side right by my pack, just like a super hero (or super villain) he was walking along the walls now to avoid detection. It didn't work though and I had to chase him off again. I didn't like having to move to scare him away though so this time I sat up and found some small chunks for wood and sticks that I could throw at time. In another 10 minutes I had my chance when he came sneaking around the side again. I chucked a small stick at him and he ducked around the corner just before it would have hit him. We did this a couple more times and each time it got a little less fun and a little more annoying. After all, I was going to be here the whole rest of the day and I didn't want to put up with this the whole time.

It was nice to get a little rest but I never did get any actual napping in and I still had a headache. I got up and explored the area a little bit. There were a few places to get down to the lake for some nice views, it was a very attractive place. I was still pretty cold so I put on a couple more layers and my new wind block hat. I looked longingly at the opposite shoreline which was bathed in sunlight and would also be blocked from the wind. I just couldn't seem to get warm on my side of the lake.

With my headache I didn't really feel like doing anything and it wasn't much fun just sitting in the shade and wind so I popped a couple aspirin from my first aid kit and walked down the shoreline a little ways away. I hadn't seen my little “friend” the squirrel in a while so I was hoping he'd given up. Just in case, before I left, I made sure everything was tucked away in my backpack and I placed my already mouse infested bag of trail mix inside my cooking pan, put the lid on, and then precariously placed my pot for boiling water on top of that so any disturbance would cause it to tip over; hopefully either dissuading the villain or scaring him away.

Now that the sun was getting a little closer to the west I was able to find a nice sunny spot on the shoreline a little farther down from my camp site. I just stood there for about 5 minutes and soaked up the sun, it felt great. I was still pretty sleepy so I looked around and found a nice tree with a flat spot of ground next to it right in the sunshine. I managed to settle my butt into a comfortable position and leaned back against the tree. It felt really good to be sitting there in the sun. The only problem was that as soon as I started nodding off my head would fall forward and wake me up again. After being jerked awake by my falling head a half dozen times I gave up and found a semi-flat patch of dirt in the sun to lay down on. It might not have made for the most comfortable bed but the warm sunshine more then made up for it and I was asleep in no time. I slept soundly, and warmly, for about 45 minutes before waking up again.

I was really enjoying the sunshine and since the lean-to was still in the shade I retrieved the book I was currently reading and went back to lean against the tree in the sunshine and get some reading done. While I was back at the lean-to I noted that nothing had been disturbed in the hour or so that I was gone.

I was reading comfortably in the sun and thoroughly enjoying my book when I heard a metallic crash from the direction of the lean-to. It took me a couple seconds to realize that my trap had been sprung. I grabbed a handful of shrapnel (I'd now taken the shot gun approach instead of rifle approach) and ran as well as my knee would let me over to the lean-to. Just as I reached it the little bastard of a squirrel came squirting out of a crack in the wall and I fired away at him, spattering the wall next to him but missing any direct hits. He scrambled out of sight up a tree where I shook my fist at him and made menacing threats. I reset my trap and retired back to my tree for some more reading. Happily the aspirin, sunshine, and relaxation seemed to be doing a good job as my headache was finally gone.

I was engrossed my book when my train of thought was again broken by a sound that resembled claws on the bark of a tree. I looked around hoping to see a raccoon or something of the sort scurrying down a tree but I didn't see anything. As I was trying to figure out just what had caused the noise I started to wonder it maybe it wasn't my trap being sprung again. Even though that's not what it sounded like I figured it couldn't hurt to go back and check on my stuff. I sauntered back to the lean-to and as I rounded the corner I saw that damned squirrel high tail it out of there and my baggy of trail mix was torn into!

That little bastard! I don't know how he did it but somehow he managed to move the lid on the pot without tipping over the water pot. He moved it just enough that he could reach down inside and grab my bag of trail mix. He had a nice sized hole torn in it and had no doubt been stuffing himself with peanuts before I showed up. When I'd first gotten to camp I had only been joking when I threatened him with me hatchet but now I found my self envisioning how gratifying it would be to sneak up on him next time he got into my stuff and lop his ugly little head off. Maybe I'd even fry him up for dinner that night, in effect getting my lost peanuts back. There would sure be some satisfaction in that.

I walked to the tree he'd scampered up but was unable to see him up there anywhere. I still shook my fist up at the tree and uttered unimaginable threats at the little monster. It was clear I couldn't keep him out of my stuff so I picked up my pot of trail mix and back pack and carried them to the sunshine with me where I knew they'd be safe. I was grumbling to myself as I re-situated myself in the sunshine to do some more reading. I kept a supply of ammunition ready at my side should I see the little vermin within striking distance.

It was nearing dark by the time I finished reading so I picked my stuff back up and headed back to the lean-to to start cooking supper. I was still imaging frying that little turd over a spit as I got my fire going for the evening. As I started sauteing my vegetables for the evenings meal I saw him scampering across the ground and stop by the trunk of a tree. I picked up a rock and chucked it at him but he moved just it time as it harmlessly bounced into the bushes. I watched him climb a nearby tree and innocently watch me cook. I wished for laser eyes so I could fry his ass with just a look.

Before the light was totally gone for the evening I walked a couple hundred yards behind the lean to and found a nice place to hang my pack from the bears. Thankfully everything went a little smoother then the night before and I got it suspended in the air just fine. The only thing I worried about was my little rat with a furry tail friend finding his way into it. He seemed to retire with the sun though so I figured it was probably safe.

Dinner (chicken, rice, onions, and mushroom) cooked up to perfection and I kicked back and enjoyed my meal, finishing it off with a couple cups of hot chocolate before retiring for the night. I was amazed how many mice lived around the lean-to. They must make a pretty good life for themselves cleaning up after the campers who pass through. I could hear them everywhere and any time I walked around with the flashlight on I'd see scurrying shadows running back into the shadows.

I walked down to the waterfront to get a good look at the stars before the nearly full moon came up and washed most of them out. The lake was dead calm and the stars were as bright as could be. The surface of the water could have been mistaken for the night sky it was so flat and black. There was a perfect mirror reflection of the big dipper on the water and it looked just as bright as the real thing.

I finally retired for the evening and after getting used to the scuffling sounds of the mice under and around the lean-to I fell asleep for the night. I slept soundly through the night until I was woke up just before dawn by the nails on a chalkboard chattering from that hairy demon of the trees. Apparently he was up for the day and that meant I was up for the day too. I wanted to lay in my sleeping bag longer but figured I better go get my pack before the little pecker found it and dug into it again. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and stumbled up the hill to retrieve my bag, which was thankfully hanging just how I'd left it with no signs of squirrel invasion.

I got back to camp and got another fire cooking to warm myself up and make some hot chocolate. It was a gorgeous morning with the lake shrouded in fog and mist, lit up by the rising sun. I dug through my bag for the last of the food that I'd brought along and made myself a peanut butter and banana sandwich, which would provide me the energy to get back to the car at the trail head that afternoon. The fire and hot chocolate were warming me up nicely and it seemed a shame to eat a cold sandwich so I got my pan out and had myself a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. It was delicious and when it was done I spent some time walking around the lake shore and admiring the view.

Satin with buck teeth and a furry tail was back up to his old tricks again but I made sure I kept my treats well hidden and didn't leave them alone for too long at a time so he didn't stand a chance. As I stood admiring the lake view the loons began calling as they became active for the day.

By mid morning I was ready to head back to the car so I hurled my last few expletives at the little twirp and hit the trail again. I was amazed that even though it turned out to be a nearly perfect fall weekend I had hardly seen a soul out on the trails. I thought for sure a few other people would come to the lean-to I was using hoping to use it themselves but unless they came while I was sleeping there wasn't anyone. As a matter of fact I didn't see another soul until I hiked all the way back to the trail head.

I packed all my gear back in its designated spot and sat in my house mixing up another batch of trail mix and enjoying the sun when I heard some voices walking up the road. They were talking amongst themselves and as they came into site of the parking lot I heard one of them say, “Ooohhh, a mini-van!” in a sarcastic tone. What the hell!? Didn't he know that was my house he was talking about? Even though I had the drivers door open they couldn't see I was sitting there yet. I hollered back to them, “yeah a mini-van, you got a problem with that?” I said it in a joking tone though and ended with a laugh to they'd know I wasn't really upset by it.

They all laughed and looked a little sheepish at finding out the owner was sitting right there and had heard them. As they approached the trail head I asked if they were just getting in or just leaving. All I got was a short, “just leaving”. Trying to make a little conversation I asked how far they were heading, the leader of the pack just pointed at the sign for Pillsbury Mountain and said “to the top and back”. Apparently they weren't a real talkative group. If I'd have disparaged someone's house and been caught in the act and the owner wanted to be friendly I think I'd be inclined to give more then a simple, gruff, answer.

But apparently they didn't think the same way which allowed me to think disparaging thoughts about them as they set off on their hike. I watched them take pictures of the Pillsbury Mountain trailhead sign by itself and then watched them pose for pictures next to the sign. I couldn't help but wonder where they got off making fun of my house (the mini-van) as they posed for pictures before their monstrous 1.5 mile hike in which they'd gain a whole 1,000 feet, all the way up to 3600 feet at the peak!! These were the guys making fun of my house!?

In a way I was glad they brushed off my questions because now I could channel my nasty squirrel thoughts onto them. At least it gave me something to think about other then what I was going to eat next. I left the trail head parking lot still thinking sarcastic thoughts about them. As I drove down the dirt road I was curious what sort of bad ass outdoorsmobile the tremendous trio drove. I wouldn't have to wait too long to find out since there was another parking area just down the road.

As I rounded the corner I saw three vehicles parked in the lot, all of them Yippy vehicles (you know, a Yippy, cross between a hippy and a yuppy). I don't know which one belonged to the tremendous trio but everyone knows these are what today's generation of soccer mom's are driving; or maybe they couldn't decide who should drive so they all drove separately.

Either way I felt vindicated as I drove back to the main road and continued my journey to Maine. I had the whole rest of the glorious day ahead of me to think of witty, disparaging remarks towards the squirrel and the trio.

The Adirondack Mountains

2007-10-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

I left the Catskill Mountains and headed north to the Adirondack Mountains. I'd always heard people say New York state is beautiful and I sure can't argue with that. Once you get away from the interstates and big cities it's a very scenic place. Lots of twisty winding roads that lead through deciduous forests and the occasional small town that was invariably founded in the 1700's, something you just don't see back in Iowa.

It always rubs me the wrong way when I see a town referred to as a “village” in the midwest or when I was on the west coast; it just doesn't seem right. It doesn't fit midwest or west coast towns and the only point seems to be to endear tourists. Out here on the east coast the “village” moniker seems to fit quite well though. With centuries old large stone buildings in lush, green town centers surrounded by a cluster of beautiful houses with large old trees growing all around. They all have an old cemetary on the outskirts of town filled with plain, white, tall ,eroded head stones surrounded by an iron fence, many of which share ground with an old church. Many of the headstones are dated in the 1700's and some of the cemeteries became filled up and stopped accepting new clients back in the 1800's. These towns seem like they could legitimately be referred to as a village. Even if they aren't what you might call a village now that's what they were when they got their start.

Thursday night I'd stopped at a small book store a little south of the Adirondacks to find a good map of the area that showed some hiking trails. Unfortunately the Adirondack mountains cover a big area so it was split up over 4 or 5 different maps and I didn't know which part of the park I wanted to be in. I was the last person in the shop and they were waiting on me so they could close so I didn't have a lot of time to figure it out. I asked the owner if she knew much about the park and she said she'd only been up a few times, around the Lake Placid area. That name rang a bell and she told me I'd probably be happiest with map “742” since it showed some of the most popular places in the park and covered more area then most of the other maps. I opened the map and saw a maze of hiking trails, it looked like a winner to me. Map 742 covered the Northeast/east central portion of the park.

She walked off for a while and I grabbed a couple other hiking books of the Adirondacks to flip through and to try and get an idea of where to hike. In one of the books was a map of the park with numbers for each trail head that corresponded to the trails mentioned in the book. I noticed that very few of them were in the area covered by map 742. I decided to take a little closer look at map 742 and discovered it definitely was NOT the map I was looking for. It was mainly centered around the main highways and interstate that ran up the east side of the park. Sure there were lots of hiking trails, but they were all pretty short and left directly from trail heads on the main highway. There were also very few gravel/dirt roads shown that got you farther back into the park and off the beaten path. I made a quick judgement call to buy map 744 instead and checked out. I studied the map further in the car to figure out where I'd sleep that night and where I'd hike in the coming days. Map 744 covered the south central portion of the park, which didn't have a lot of highways running through it. It also contained quite a few dirt roads winding back into the woods. Just what I was looking for.

It rained hard on Thursday night and I was once again happy to be dry and warm sleeping in my house. Friday was supposed to be cloudy and rainy earlier in the day, clearing towards evening. I was up fairly early to bright blue skies though and I started driving to the trail head I'd picked out. To get there I'd have to drive about 6 miles down a dirt road; from there the trail head led to a few lakes as it made a large loop through the mountains. I arrived to the trail head by mid-morning but was in no rush. I still wasn't sure how many days/nights I was going to be out so while I thought about it I studied the map and mixed up some trail mix for snacks.

I looked at the map and my food supplies and planned on a 3 day, 2 night trip into the woods. It had been quite a while since I'd done any real hiking in the woods and I was looking forward to using my new backpack and sleeping bag. I planned out what my meals would be so I could pack accordingly and I got all me gear loaded up and ready to go. As always I was amazed how heavy my pack was when I picked it up, it's always a mystery where all that weight comes from! The new backpack felt great though and I found it much more comfortable to carry the heavy load on it as opposed to my other internal frame backpack. Also helping to make the load more bearable was my water purifier that I'd bought in Portland but hadn't used yet. Carrying a quart to drink on the initial hike to camp was much easier then carrying 1 1/2 gallons to last the entire trip.

I set out down the trail towards a lean to that showed on the map at Sampson Lake, about 6 miles away. It was a great hike through the woods on the way there. There was a slight breeze blowing and the sun was shining. Many of the trees were really coming into color and quite a few others had already dropped their red and yellow leaves on the forest floor during the previous nights rain, making for a soft and colorful carpet to walk on.

There had only been one other car at the trail head parking lot and I met the owner of it as I passed by Pillsbury Lake. He and a friend had spent the previous night at Sampson lake and were going to spend this night at Pillsbury before heading out the following morning (the exact plan I had). He'd dropped his GPS while out gathering wood and was searching for it when I rain into him. We walked together on the trail until we reached the turn out for his camp and then I was on my own again.

After passing Pillsbury Lake the trail started getting smaller and smaller. Apparently not as many people continue on this far, even though it isn't very far at all and an easy hike. It was only a couple more miles from Pillsbury to Sampson but as I approached the trail didn't look like much more then a game trail for some stretches.

When I'd seen the “lean to” marked on the map I really didn't know what to expect, but I wasn't expecting much. I figured at best it would be a rickety little shelter propped up against some trees and that maybe I wouldn't actually have to pitch my tarp (left the tent behind for weight savings). All I was really expecting though was a dilapidated structure that I couldn't use but that would have a cleared area to set up camp and a fire ring of some sort.

Needless to say I was shocked when I reached the small clearing where the lean-to was located. What I found was a good sized structure in very good shape, fully outfitted with pots, pans, cups, silverware, a saw, and even dry kindling. It was built out of logs and was elevated off the ground, the roof was even shingled! As soon as I got over my shock of seeing it I immediately regretted carrying the weight of some of my gear that would now be unneeded. Oh well, if I'd planned on something this nice it probably would have turned out very differently anyway or would have been occupied and I would have been kicking myself for not bringing the extra gear.

I arrived just in time since I'd started hearing some low rumbles of thunder a few hundred yards down the trail and it was just starting to sprinkle as I arrived at camp. Just after setting down my bag and getting situated a little the wind picked up and it started raining pretty good. The weather report seemed to be backwards. Instead of cloudy early and turning sunny later in the day it was the exact opposite. As I sat under my shelter waiting I began unpacking and read the entries in the travel log left in the lean-to so travelers can sign in. I was very happy to be under the lean to as opposed to be huddling under my tarp to keep dry.

After the small storm passed the wind died off completely and the lake in front of me began to calm down. I saw a couple loons go swimming past and I got up to explore what would be my home for the next day. There was a nice fire place right in front of a lean-to and a pit toilet out back. A little farther down the trail was another fire ring and plenty of dead falls for fire wood. The lake was nice and clear with a few small islands on it. I could see a few loons and herons out in the water. On the “beach” in front of the lean-to was what was left of the bottom of a small boat.

It was starting to get late in the day so I figured I should get some firewood lined up. It had rained quite a bit over the last few days so everything was pretty wet but fortunately I'd brought along my hatchet so I could cut and split my own to get to the dry wood in the middle. I spent about an hour preparing some wood when suddenly the skies opened up again and I was left sitting under the shelter for another 20 minutes while I waited it out. By the time the rain had stopped it was dark and I hoped that I could get a good fire going.

The farther east I drive the earlier it gets dark at night. There isn't a whole lot to do in the woods after dark and I generally don't feel like going to sleep at 7:00 so a fire is always a good thing to have. Thankfully between the dry kindling in the shelter and the dry wood I was able to cut it only took one match to get a good warm blaze going. I ate a sandwich I'd packed before I'd started earlier that day and made myself some hot chocolate before going to bed for the night. It was a very calm, very quiet night. The only sound I heard was the mice running around the lean-to.

To be continued.....

An insurance update

2007-10-01T09:52:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of you are aware of my insurance woes, if not you can catch up on them here.

It was frustrating but I decided to play by the rules by sending in an application for appeal to hopefully get the knee covered. I talked to someone who had a similar operation (they had insurance) and they said their total bill came to about $45,000; definitely not something I wanted to pay out of pocket. I talked to my grandmother and got her involved in the case as well, seeing how I'm the worlds biggest procrastinator and I knew I'd never follow through with it on my own. She's great at this sort of thing and I knew she'd do everything in her power to get the job done-and document it. I receive periodic updates from her on how it's going and the occasional form to sign.

I've long since paid for all the testing/MRI costs out of pocket after they were rejected by BC/BS and knew the best I could hope for was for BC/BS to decide to cover my knee for future surgeries/injuries. I knew the chances of even that were between slim and none now that it had recently been injured. I couldn't imagine them stepping up to the plate to say they'd now cover my knee that was in need of surgery. Well, the other day just before leaving the library after checking my e-mail and updating my blog I got an e-mail from my grandmother. This is the letter she got from BC/BS-

We have received your request to remove the knee amendment on you. We are pleased to inform you that this amendment(s) will be removed for you effective October 1, 2007.

While future claims will be paid for the condition(s) in accordance with your current contract benefits, over the next several months, claims for services related to the condition(s) may be monitored. As stated in our certification letter, it is possible that additional medical records may be requested from the physician(s) at a later date.

Sweet! That rules! It sounds like they might be a little suspicious if I were to just show up at the hospital for surgery tomorrow but it sure is promising. It sounds like any future expenses on my knee will in fact be covered by BC/BS; but unfortunately it's not retroactive, which means I won't be re-imbursed for the expenses I've already paid for out of pocket. That's more then I expected though so I was pretty darn happy.

I was camping in the woods all weekend and when I found myself back in civilization in Montpelier, VT this morning I stopped by a coffee shop to check my e-mail (since the library here doesn't have free Wi-Fi!!). I found another e-mail from my grandmother titled “BC/BS Phase II”.

Expecting the worst I opened the e-mail and found she had now received this letter from them (readers digest version)-

This letter is in response to your July 25, 2007, and August 13, 2007, request for an appeal regarding your denied claims. The denials of these claims was based on the fact that we considered these procedures to possibly be in relation to the amended application you signed when obtaining coverage with our office.

A Wellmark Nurse reviewed the appeal and determined the claims for dates of service June 14, 2007, June 28, 2007, and July 5, 2007, are not related to the amended application on your policy. As a result of this review we have determined that these claims should be reopened and processed according to the terms and conditions of your benefit certificate. We have initiated the reprocessing of these claims and you will receive an updated Explanation of Benefits.

Holy smokes, you've got to be kidding me! Now I might actually get re-imbursed for the initial diagnostics on my knee, MRI included! This is just too much, it's money in the bank!

I'm trying not to get too excited because I still might not see a penny from it, but I'm hopeful.
Then to top all that off I then got an e-mail from my sister that someone had just bought my Saturn, which I'd left behind in Iowa hoping someone would come along and buy it. They dropped off a check and had the title. More money in the bank!

Man, this is just my day I guess. I was positively giddy after reading those e-mails. I went up and ordered myself a bagel breakfast sandwich instead of making my own food for lunch and followed it up with a hot chocolate and cinnamon roll. MMMmmm, delicious! The first food I've paid for (other then groceries) since I left Iowa a couple weeks ago.

If I was the type of person who believed it fate I'd have to think it was on my side right now. As it is I'll just take this as a reward for patience, hard work on my grandmother's part, and reaffirmation of my faith in humanity. Hopefully that won't be broken again when it comes time for surgery (whenever that may be).

Yippeee!!!

A long one

2007-09-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

After leaving Mark's place I continued through Ohio and into Pennsylvania. One thing different I've noticed from the east and west so far on my travels is that there appears to be a heck of a lot more people out east then west. In the west everyone is pretty much located right along the coast, but in the east people are spread out a lot more; making it tough to cover much ground on two lane black tops since you're constantly slowing down for residential areas. At least out east most of the towns don't appear to survive on tourism alone like many of the small west coast towns, making them much more interesting to me. A lot more people have been dying out here for a lot longer too because I've noticed a lot more cemeteries as well.

Just when I think it's going to stay populated for good I suddenly find myself all alone in the woods with no one else around; it's always a welcome change. That's where I found myself early Tuesday afternoon. I was in a state forest in Pennsylvania when I veered off down a dirt road to see what was at the end. I found what must have been a hunters camp but since it wasn't hunting season yet it was vacant. It was only a few miles off the blacktop I'd been traveling but it could have been 100 miles for all you could tell standing there. There was a nice porch around the house with lots of benches, chairs, and sofas so people could sit around and talk. Above were many deer racks hung to the wall, no doubt trophies from each year people had been coming. There was plenty of wood stacked up on the porch with a lot more in a wood shed in the side yard.

Leaning next to one of the trees in front of the house was what appeared to be a headstone. It was crooked and getting very worn, the only thing I could easily make out when I studied it was the very top line, “To a Tree”. I got out my wireless flash hoping some side light would create enough contrast to make it readable. It was a big help but I still can't make it out. I can see the first line looks to be “When God above” but after that I can't make it out. I'll study it more later and see what I can do.

A well out back had a steel cup hanging from a nail like you were just supposed to dip in and take a drink. One look into that water quenched my thirst though. The water didn't look all that clean and there was lots of junk floating on it, including a couple real big, real juicy bugs. I suppose someone skims those off before the groups show up for the season though.

The water ran from the well through a PVC pipe, into a wood box, and then out of that onto the ground where it flowed into the stream running in front of the house. I was curious what was in that wood box so I opened up a hinged lid on the top. What I found under the “roof” was a bathtub sunk in the ground, full of nice cool water. Sunk in the water were about 8 cans of soda. At first I was surprised there wasn't any beer, but then I realized it was probably all drank up long ago.

It was a really cool place and I imagine everyone but the deer have a great time there every fall. I pulled my chair out of the back of my house, set it up in the shade, and started reading my new book, Look me in the Eye. I quickly got lost in the book and was glad I chose to read it in the middle of the woods instead of the middle of the library. I couldn't help but laugh out loud, really loud, a few times. Before I knew it nearly 4 hours had passed by.

I hadn't eaten any dinner yet so I made myself a turkey sandwich and went for a hike. The dirt road continued past the house but it crossed a creek and soon became very steep and rocky. There's no way my house would have been able to make it. That's fine though since I needed the exercise anyway. It was a very peaceful walk late in the afternoon. Some of the trees were beginning to turn creating brilliant splashes of red here and there. I saw a few deer peacefully eating along side the road. I hope they enjoy the peace and quiet while they still can.

After a little over a mile I reached a gravel road and continued down it until I reached another trail, Dead Horse Trail. I'll give the Pennsylvanians one thing; they sure are good at naming roads and trails. I saw quite a few good names while driving/walking through the woods, most of which I can't remember. Two others that I do remember though were Hick's Road and Bloody Skillet Trail. How do you come up with a name like Bloody Skillet Trail? Sure makes you wonder...or maybe it makes you not want to wonder.

I never did see any dead horses on Dead Horse Trail but it was pretty uneven ground with plenty of rocks and holes hiding under the laid down grass; maybe that's how it got the name. Who knows.

I managed to find my way back to camp a little before sunset and found myself a comfy place to sit on the porch to do a little more reading. It was a very peaceful evening with a woodpecker tap tap tapping in front of me and grouse noisily flying through the woods around me. The katydids starting up their little chorus just as the sun was setting and a little while later a Barred Owl started calling from down the road a ways. Not to mention all the other strange new bird sounds I'm not used to hearing back in Iowa.

I finally climbed into my house to catch some sleep for the night before waking up the next morning. I had a mission after all, I had to get to Campmor in New Jersey! Campmor is a company that specializes in camping gear (in case you couldn't figure it out from the name) . Not only camping gear, but cheap camping gear! It's good stuff too, it's just that it's usually last years models or discontinued colors or stuff like that. Since I don't care about having the latest stuff it suits my needs just fine. I've only shopped with them online or in their little catalog so I was excited to go to their one and only retail store.

To get there I had to finish driving through Pennsylvania and then through New Jersey to Paramus. I knew I didn't want to get there too late in the afternoon since it was an urban area and only about 30 miles from NYC. Figuring rush hour traffic would be pretty bad I broke down on hopped on I-80 to try and get there before by early/mid-afternoon.

The plan worked out fine and I arrived at Campmor around 2:30. It was great to just wander around the store and browse all the stuff. I found lots of things I wanted but I convinced myself I only needed a few of them. I ended up with a new sleeping bag (warmer then my other one for colder weather ahead), a new, bigger backpack (for when I want to spend multiple days out in the woods), a pair of glove/mitten liners and a nice wind block winter hat. I left an hour and a half later satisfied and ready to get away from civilization again. I headed north out of Paramus and was surprised how quickly the city was left behind and I was soon winding my way through the woods; passing small, quaint little towns.

I made it to the Catskills that night and found a nice little place to pull my house off the side of the road to catch some sleep. I slept well and found it still comfortably warm when I woke up in the morning. I wasn't ready to get up yet so I grabbed my book, knowing I only had about 45 minutes of reading to finish it. As soon as I started reading I could hear some distant rumbles of thunder which kept getting longer and louder. Pretty soon I could see the flashes of lightning and the wind started to pick up a little. It was getting darker and I had to turn on a light to keep reading. As the rain started falling I was very glad I had my house to sleep in while out traveling. It turned out to be much more fun going through a thunderstorm inside my house rather then huddled under a tarp on the prairies of South Dakota.

After a little while the rain quit and the thunder gradually got quieter and quieter until it was gone. I finished my book and got up for the day. When I got outside found a light fog all around and I could hear the rush of water nearby. Looking through the trees I could see there must be a creek nearby. I took a short stroll and found a gorgeous little rocky creek running it's way through the woods. I hopped my way out to the middle to admire the view and to take a few pictures. The only thing that could have made the fall morning any more perfect would have been if it wasn't so dang humid! Thankfully a cold front is coming through which should drop the temps (it was over 90 yesterday!) and the humidity.

The weekend is supposed to be magnificent weather and I'm planning on spending it in the Adirondacks in New York before heading the rest of the way to Maine. Unfortunately everyone and their brother will probably be out if the weather is real nice this weekend. Too bad it wasn't working out so I could spend a few days there in the middle of the week; I really like being able to do that; hitting the more popular spots while everyone else is working.

I guess it's a small price to pay though for getting great fall weather. Somehow I'm sure I'll manage to survive.

I don't know if I'll get another wi-fi connection before I disappear in the woods or not so you might not hear from me for a few days. Until then....

Look me in the Eye

2007-09-25T07:09:00.000-07:00

Anyone looking for a new book might want to check out “Look me in the Eye” by John Elder Robison. This is his first book and it was just released today. I just got out of Barnes and Noble in Altoona, PA to buy my copy.
John is a great guy who I've had the pleasure to get to know a little through iATN. He's just a regular guy who owns a high end auto repair shop on the east coast but he hasn't had what most would call a regular life. As an adult he was diagnosed with Asperger's disease, a form of autism, which explained much of his “strange” behavior growing up. From what I gather he was lousy dealing with people on a face to face basis but he has a real knack for all things mechanical or electrical.

After I posted on iATN that I was leaving the repair industry in search of other things John left this heartfelt response as well as posting it on his blog.

I'm sure none of you have ever heard of John but plenty of you have probably heard of his brother Augusten Burroughs; author of Running with Scissors, Dry, Sellevision, and Magical Thinking. John is the brother Augusten often talks about in his memoirs.

Enough of me talking about John and his book. If you want the real story you can check out these links-

You can read this book description

Or you can read John's bio

You could also jump right to his blog

Or just buy it right from Amazon

Best of luck John!

Gettin' Zippy with it

2007-09-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

It's been a slow and relaxing journey so far and I'm really digging it. Just after cross in the Iowa/Illinois border I swung by Galena to see my Great Aunt and Uncle Richard and Zelma. They're long time Galena residents and have a gorgeous house on a hill above main street. Going to their house is always a relaxing experience, spending time visiting on the porch and eating fantastic food. I spent most of my day there catching up on some work and visiting before hitting the road again that night. It was a nice first stop along the trip and it was good to see them again.

After that it was time a lot more windshield time passing through Illinois and Indiana. Just before I got through Illinois I was getting pretty hungry when I ran across a big street fair. I could smell the food from inside the van but decided to pass. I wasn't really in the mood for a big street fair full of people and instead I crossed the border into Indiana where I found a small town with a small park and a small grill where I could eat the last of my left over Chili I got from my mother when I left town.

The sun was setting when I got there and it was the perfect temperature. I found some sticks and twigs to make my fire with and enjoyed my meal while listening to the last few cicadas buzzing away that afternoon and watching the swifts flit around and eat up the mosquitoes. There was only one other family in the park who must have come down for a picnic but had already finished eating by the time I'd gotten there. They were just watching their kids run around and play. It was a great night and I'm sure I had more fun there then I would of at the street fair. I drove a little farther that night before finding a place to pull over and sleep in back of the van.

The weather had been incredibly nice but it got a little hot the following day with temps in the low 90's. I was plenty comfortable in my van with the AC on but I decided I wanted to get out and stretch my legs a little in the afternoon. I found a nice looking reservoir on the map and swung in to see if I could find a nice beach. I did manage to find a beach but it was in the middle of a state park. I wasn't about to spend $5 just to use the beach (heck, that's more then I usually spend on food in a day!) so I went looking for other options.

What I found was an empty picnic area on a hill over looking the reservoir. I parked my van in the shade to keep in cool, changed into my trunks, and headed down the hill to the water. It wasn't exactly “beachy” but it was good enough and it felt great to get in a little swim. It cooled me right down and made me a little sleepy too. I got back to my van and found the temperature very comfortable inside so I laid down on my cot to read a book for a while. I couldn't keep my eyes open very long though so I decided to take a nap. It felt great just to lay there with the windows and door open in the shade with a little breeze blowing through. Man I love my van!!

I don't know where I slept that night but the next morning after just a short drive I found myself in Ashland, OH where Mark Frazer lives. Mark and I met years ago on iATN where we found ourselves in the minority of sub-30 year old auto technicians. We got to know each other on-line and met a couple times at conventions. We haven't talked a whole lot over the last couple years but have stayed in touch enough to know what the other one is up to. Since we'd first met Mark has gotten married, had a couple kids, and bought himself a nice acreage and opened up his own repair shop.

I got to Mark's around noon on Saturday in what turned out to be the most relaxing weekend I'd had in a long time. I got there just in time for dinner and Mark cooked me a gourmet meal of microwave hot dogs with ketchup. They were by far the tastiest hot dogs anyone has cooked me on my trip so far. I asked if he had any buns to go with them and he handed me a couple slices of bread and mumbled something about all bread just being bread. It got the job done though.

I had grand plans of getting in some hiking and exploring while in the area but instead I just wound up hanging out with Mark and Heather at the acreage most of the weekend. It was tough to leave since it was just perfect with the weather, pond, and zip line. We had a couple nice fires at night and I made myself a new best buddy, Mark's three year old son Simon. Mark says everyone is Simon's new best buddy, I think he's just jealous.

We didn't stay around the house for the entire weekend though. Mark got us lined up to go to his friend Gary's house for a little trap shooting where we were also joined with Daniel. This was my first time shooting trap since I was a kid but it was pretty fun, I did better then I expected to do and broke my first 5 out of 6 birds. Mark was bragging how good he did last time he shot trap (which was his first time ever) but after a good start he apparently got a little cocky and started to fade at the end of the day. Gary and Daniel were the stand outs of the day, hardly missing a bird and picking up some doubles.

I broke the flash and camera out soon after we started and Daniel being your typical in shape 19 year old was more the happy to have his picture taken. He wanted a few more shots of himself at the end and took our joking suggestions of taking off his shirt and doing some push ups first seriously. We found the whole thing pretty entertaining but it didn't seem to affect his shooting at all and the pictures didn't turn out too bad either.

That night Mark and Heather took me out for some good mexican food, which I ate way too much of. To try and burn some of it off we went for a hike around sundown in the woods near Mark's house. Mark had the newborn with him so it was my job to carry Simon when he decide he “couldn't walk anymore”, which took about 1/4 mile. I wasn't ready to lug his dead weight around just yet so I challenged him to a race to the top of the hill, then I'd carry him.

He liked the racing idea so much that he managed to race most of another mile or so before he decided he couldn't walk anymore and I had to carry him. Thankfully by then we were heading back to the house so it wasn't bad at all; after all that running he deserved to be tired out. It wasn't much more then a fast walk for me but he was really hoofing it.

We got back after dark and I decided I wanted to ride the zip line one more time. It was getting pretty chilly and I was contemplating the wisdom of my decision as I climbed the cold metal ladder. The water still felt warm though and it felt great getting a little swim with the pond beginning t cover with mist. Thankfully by the time I got done Mark and Simon had a nice campfire going to warm me up.

We sat around the fire talking a while before finally retiring for bed. When I woke this morning I walked over to Marks shop to watch him slave away for a while. He just couldn't accept the fact that I wasn't going to fix cars anymore and finally talked me into pulling the tire off a rim so he could get some pictures of me working again. I've never worked at a shop that did any tire work so he had to show me how to do it. It was fun for the 5 minutes that I was doing it and that was plenty for me; I didn't like getting dirty again.

I went back to the van to get all my things packed up and said my good byes before heading back out on the road. I really enjoyed my time there and had more fun then I could have thought not doing a darn thing al weekend. A lot of times I find just sitting around and relaxing to be a lot more enjoyable then running around doing all the tourist stuff.

Thanks again Mark and Heather.

As always you can see more pics that aren't posted on my blog by visiting my Flickr account

My New House!!

2007-09-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

I just couldn't help myself. Society says, "thou must own lodging".

Some time with Stinky

2007-09-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

As you all probably know my Springer Spaniel Rudy has been staying with Sarah and her parents while I've been traveling this summer. I get periodic updates of his well being and when I was back home visiting I picked him up so we could hang out together for a couple weeks. For those of you that don't know Rudy he's a fat dog; he looks like a stuffed sausage.

Sarah took matters into her own hands though and got him his very own personal vet while he was staying in Northfield; and together they put him on a starvation diet. The result was that he lost about 12 pounds over the summer!! He looks like a totally different dog (kind of, he still looks dumb). He's got a lot more spring in his step now though and can actually jump high enough to do some good if need be.

The first day I got him back we went for a hike in our old stomping grounds, Fort Defiance state park. Of course Rudy just couldn't stay out of the water and he managed to find every burr in the park; just like old times! He was a disgusting mess by the time we got back to the car and it looked like that haircut he was due for would come sooner rather then later.

The first step in giving Rudy a haircut is to stop by the vet and get him some sleepy pills. Rudy is actually pretty good about getting shaved but he gets real twitchy when you get around his butt, and for both of our good it's usually better that he be a little sedated. Plus I really get a kick out of getting him all drugged up. His droopy eyes get even droopier and instead of constantly being in motion he finds it uncomfortable to stand for more then a few minutes so he lays down a lot. I imagine it's much what he'll be like when he's 15 years old...I can't wait! I can't imagine anything much uglier then Rudy all doped up on sleepy pills; I love it! I'm thinking of incorporating them directly into his diet.

I hid the pills in some small pieces of bread and coupled with the starvation diet that Sarah has him on he wasn't about to question what those hard things were in the bread like he normally does. He just wolfed them down and in about 45 minutes was really starting to feel the effects.

The trimming went without incident and after the hair cut he really did look like a totally different dog from the one I'd left that spring; his weight loss was much more apparent now. With a fresh hair cut I think he can almost pass for intelligent...almost....

On the road again....

2007-09-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

Well, after a couple weeks of being a bum at home it's time to get back on the road and be a bum somewhere else. Wednesday I loaded everything back up, rubbed my St. Christopher (the patron saint of travelers) medallion that Barb from the theatre gave me before I left this spring, and started heading east.

I had a lot of things I wanted to do while I was home but I ended up not really getting many of them done. I was pretty unmotivated and the weather didn't cooperate real well either. It was either rainy, cold, windy, hot, humid, or some combination of those. The day I left was the nicest day by far and the type of weather I was hoping to have while back home. That late summer/early fall weather in the midwest when the humidity drops to bearable levels, the wind is calm, the sun is shining, and the temps are in the mid/upper 70's. Hmm, kind of sounds like the middle of summer in the Pacific northwest.....

Anyway, it was nice driving weather too and I got to see a lot of rural Iowa driving the back roads to the east. The crops are drying in the fields and waiting to be harvested; in my opinion the prettiest time of year in Iowa.

As I'm sure you've noticed I've been falling behind on my blog as well so I'll try to play catchup over the next couple days; so you can expect quite a few short ones to catch you up on some of the things that happened while I was back home.

The New Plan

2007-09-12T20:02:00.000-07:00

One of the big reasons I decided to leave on this trip was because I wasn't enjoying fixing cars anymore. For those of you outside the automotive community who don't know me this used to be my passion. Electrical and computer problems were my specialty and for about 5 years that's what I lived and breathed. I spent all my free time either on-line studying, watching training videos, attending training classes around the country, or in the shop playing around and experimenting. I loved it and couldn't wait to get to work in the morning. Unfortunately I think I was a little too passionate about it and didn't leave enough time in my life for other things. The result was that my passion began to fade and I started to feel burned out.

I took a break from training classes and the on-line forums I was active in. I'd hoped that it would be a temporary setback and that after taking a little break that I'd eventually get back into it. I waited and waited but it never happened. I didn't hate my job but it was turning into just a job. I didn't look forward to getting up and going to work in the morning anymore and it wasn't getting any better. Months and years started to pass and it started to become apparent that this passion wasn't going to come back.

I started to wonder if maybe I was just burned out on where I worked instead of what I worked on and that perhaps a change of shop/scenery would re-spark my interest. I'd thought of traveling the country and working at different shops about 6 months earlier but never thought of seriously doing it. After getting back from a 2 week driving trip to Arizona in March of this year though I realized just how much I liked doing that sort of thing. I decided to give it a shot and hit the road for the west coast a month later.

Thankfully all that time spent talking and meeting other shop owners/techs a few years earlier paid off since I was able to line up more work then I could take before I even left. This made it way easier then just showing up in a strange town at a strange shop and asking for a place to work.

“Yeah, my name is Alan and I'm sleeping in my car down by the park. Can I work here for a couple weeks? I'm real smart about cars...honest!”

I'm sure that would have gotten me real far.

Anyway, I worked at a handful of shops this summer and met some great people. I was lucky and I couldn't have asked for any more from the shops that I worked at. Traveling to new shops and meeting new techs/shop owners should have really gotten me enthused and excited. I should have been full of questions and tried to learn as much as I could from all of them. That's not how I felt though.

No matter how much I tried it still just felt like a job; something I was doing to make some money while I was out of the road. By the end of July I realized this wasn't the profession for me anymore; it was time to try something else. Unfortunately I have no idea what that may be though!

As some of you already know I was planning on traveling to Antarctica to work for Raytheon over the winter (their summer) but I've decided not to pursue that any farther, at least not for now. As much as I'd love to travel there it involved fixing cars (well, trucks ) and I figure if I'm going to quit I'm going to do it cold turkey.

I plan to continue traveling but part of my plan will have to change; the part that involved working for different shops long the way to raise some money. There are many of you keeping up with this blog that I'd hoped to work with this fall and unfortunately I'm not going to be able to do that now. I still hope to be able to stop by and meet as many of you as I can though.

So, that leads to the question of just what in the world am I going to do this fall/winter.

Heck if I know!

I'll still be traveling but I won't really have any source of income so I'll be trying to do it cheaper then ever (if it's possible to travel cheaper then I have been). I also want to devote more time to photography; something I've been meaning to do the last few years but never get around to. I'll be taking more lighting gear with me on my trek out east and hope to improve my photography quite a bit. I've also really enjoyed keeping this blog and writing in my personal journal. Writing is something I've also been wanting to do more of the last couple years but never take the time for. I'm going to try and take the time this fall/winter though.

With no other commitments to take up my time I'm hoping I can concentrate and focus on these two things in particular. I don't expect to make any money off either of them but they're something I want to work on for me personally and I think later in my life I'll look back and be glad I took the time to improve my writing and photography skills.

And I guess if money gets too tight I can always take the advice of someone I met while traveling this summer and just start a mobile meth lab.

Just wanted to say...

2007-09-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to send out a heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped me out on the first leg of my journey; I had a blast on my summer trip and I really owe it to all the people who helped out in one way or another. From old and new friends who gave me a place to stay for the night or even a couple weeks to the shop owners that gave me a place to work and pick up some extra money along the way. To the people who were kind enough to donate money through the Donation link on my blog and to my mom for allowing me to store my stuff at her house, receive my mail, and for getting my house ready to sell after I was gone. And thanks to all the people I met who were kind enough to give me directions, tell me the best places in the area to eat or hike, and to those of you who simply gave me some company and took me out for a meal (or eight). You all made the trip so much more enjoyable then it otherwise would have been.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to meet up with all the people out west that I'd wanted to. I thought I'd have plenty of time to see everyone that I wanted to see but I was amazed how fast the time went by. Next time I find myself out that way I'll try to catch up with some more of you.

And thanks to everyone who followed along on the journey by reading my blog. I didn't know if I'd be able to keep enthusiasm for the blog and keep it updated through out the trip or not but it turned out that I loved it and really enjoyed keeping everyone up date that way. I can't tell you how good it made me feel when I'd get a comment or e-mail from someone that I'd never met or talked to before who said they loved the blog and were following me along on my travels.

But don't think it's over yet. The first leg of the trip may be over but in a week or so I'll be packing everything back up again and hitting the road; heading to the east coast this time. Plenty of new people to meet and adventures to be had, so stay tuned!

And of course, THANK YOU!

Home Again

2007-09-07T19:12:00.000-07:00

After leaving the Badlands Wednesday morning the rest of the day was pretty much filled up with driving. We made a short stop in Sioux Falls to look for some good pants at Scheel's and to troll through the used car lots (I'm looking for a cheap mini-van) but we didn't waste much time before getting back on the road again. Once we hit Sioux Falls it was all pretty much over. I don't know how many times I'd driven that stretch of road, it was like being on auto pilot.

It was early evening by the time we got to Lakefield, MN where I'd drop Sarah off and I decided I didn't want to go back home that night. Not like I was dreading it or anything, it just seemed like an odd time of day to get back. Instead I decided to let Sarah take me out for dinner and slept on her living room floor. I had a tough time falling asleep and I was awake very early the next morning. I guess I was kinda excited about getting back home again.

I got up when Sarah did and we had breakfast before saying goodbye at the car, just like we did a little over 3 months earlier. She went to work and I hopped in my car; only I had a much shorter drive ahead of me this time.

The drive home from Lakefield through Jackson was just as I remembered it. The same curves, the same houses, the same corn. I approached Estherville and noticed they'd put up a new sign on the edge of town. It was strange as I pulled into Estherville to see people and vehicles that I knew and recognized. If I spaced off for a second I'd catch myself jumping at the sight of an Iowa license plate as I looked to see what county it was from, just like I'd done all summer, forgetting that I was now in Iowa.

The town and the people all looked the same, not much had changed. I saw the old Lincoln school had apparently lost its battle for survival as it was half way torn down when I drove by. I pulled onto a side street for a couple pictures before it was all gone. That found me pointed down the road that led to my old house so I decided to drive by. The house and the neighborhood looked just like they had when I lived there....except the grass was shorter. I noticed the hostas were in full bloom that I'd planted a couple years ago.

Driving past my house found my on a path I'd driven over a thousand times before. Two blocks south to clear the hospital and two blocks east to reach highway 9 running through town. Nine blocks south to reach Central Ave (Hwy. 4) and then eight more blocks east to reach the shop. The same route I took nearly every morning and lunch hour for the nearly 8 years I lived at that house. I saw Les driving the parts delivery truck on my way there. I waved but he didn't see me; he never did. Always looking straight ahead.

I pulled into the shop and it all looked the same. The parking lot was pretty empty but that's normal for early in the day. I walked in the front door and found Audrey working at her desk. It was good to see my sister again. We hugged and I gave her a case of her favorite beer from Colorado (don't tell her I actually bought it in Wyoming). It was good to see my sister again. I saw my dad working down in the shop, in my old bay. He didn't notice me and I stayed in the office a little longer to talk to Audrey before going down into the shop to see my dad again. It was good to see him and I've enjoyed hanging out with him a bit over the last couple days. I'm looking forward to spending more time with him over the next couple weeks that I'm home; the trip was definitely a success so far in that regard.

I hung out at the shop for a bit and then headed to my mom's house. She was at work but I found a note on the fridge welcoming me home and telling me there was leftover steak and sweet corn in the fridge. I was getting pretty hungry so I made a sandwich out of the steak and threw the corn away. Corn on the cob isn't meant to be a leftover and I wanted my first Iowa sweet corn of the year to be fresh...if I could find it.

I wanted to catch up on some things on-line and organize some photos that had been neglected over the last week or two of traveling with sparse internet connections. I sat my laptop on the table and when I went to plug it in found a three prong adapter already plugged into the wall so I could plug in my charger. Was this always there or did my mom anticipate me working at the table and plug it in for me? I also found a pile of my mail on the table, all of which had been forwarded to my mom's house. Thankfully there was only one bill to pay and it was a small one, the rest was garbage.

I ate my lunch and got some work done before my mom came home for lunch. She was really happy to see me and it felt good to hug her again. I almost teared up a little when she started to tear up and wouldn't let go. Maybe it was just the couple glasses of wine I had with my lunch. We talked a bit while she ate her lunch, it was good to see her again and to just hang out at her house. She took a longer then normal lunch and I went back to work to finish a couple things up.

I had nothing to do and nowhere to go...perfect! I drove around town a little and then drove to the neighboring towns to look for used vans, I didn't find much. I got back to Estherville and went to the farmers market to look for sweet corn. They were all out for the season but they gave me the name of a guy in Graettinger and they said they thought he'd still have some. I hope so, I ate sweet corn a few times out west but it was never very good, even though people tried to tell me that it was.

I was amazed how little time it took to feel like being back home was perfectly normal; it doesn't really feel like I've even left. I guess that's because everything is still pretty much just like I remember it. I'm glad to be home for a visit and the next couple weeks should be fun. No work and no commitments, just time to reacquaint myself with the town and area that I know so well.

Second verse, same as the first

2007-09-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the lack of updates in the last week. I've mostly been in the middle of nowhere with no cell service and very few opportunities for Wi-Fi connections.

Sarah arrived late on Wednesday just as I was wrapping up at the library in Silverthorne. We hadn't seen each other in over 3 months (I hadn't seen anyone I'd known in over 3 months) and it was great to hang out with her again. She drove out with a couple friends and we didn't know where we were staying other then it was at the ranch that her friends uncle works for. It turned out to be about a 50 minute drive NW from Silverthorne down a gravel road to a 8000 acre ranch in the middle of the mountains. We all pitched some tents in the yard that we'd call home the next few days.

Since this was Sarah's first venture into the mountains it was time to switch into full tourist mode. Hitting the sights and seeing all we could see in the short time we had before she had to be back home for work (in less then a week). We had a great time packing it all in. Heading to Rocky Mountain National Park on a weekday to beat the crowd and then a Class III rafting trip the day after that. Saturday we headed to Denver for a wedding of one of her friends (her reason for coming out). We all had a blast dancing at the reception before calling it a night at the hotel. The next morning we got up and while Sarah got caught up on some reading I met a fellow member of nelsonfoto.com for a quick lunch before we packed up our things again and headed north to Ft. Collins.

We did a little shopping around Ft. Collins before calling up Randy Bernklau, who I know from iATN and worked with shortly about 5 years ago, to see what he was up to. Turns out they were just firing up the grill so we headed out to his acreage on the west side of town for a great meal, great company, and a great view of the mountains at sunset. He was kind enough to offer us a place to stay for the night so we could wake up refreshed in the morning for a trip up the Poudre Canyon as we began our journey back to the midwest.

It was a gorgeous drive up through the canyon, even if we did have to dodge a few rain showers. We only had a few days left and were trying to plan our return trip when we heard the weather report saying the temps in Wyoming and South Dakota were supposed to be around 100 degrees the next couple days. When we heard that we knew we wouldn't be doing anything in the middle of the day so we made a hard push to drive through Wyoming and into the Black Hills of South Dakota before we fell asleep that night. We woke up in the morning when it was still nice and cool for a good hike around the Black Hills. A little after lunch time we hopped back in the car, turned on the air conditioning and started towards the badlands. We stopped for a while in Rapid City to kill some time and to do some shopping during the heat of the day, arriving in the badlands a little before sunset; giving us the best views of the day arriving from the west.

I noticed that my return trip to Iowa was taking a nearly identical route with the same destinations I'd hit on my way from Iowa. It was more fun doing them all a second time though with someone else along. This time I decided I'd admire the buffalo from the safety of my car instead of stumbling across them in the middle of the night on the prairie. It wasn't quite as exciting, but it wasn't near as scary either. I couldn't convince Sarah to get out and pet one even though they did look tame. Where's her sense of adventure?

We found a place to cook some food and sleep for the night and when we woke up to another cool morning again we got a nice hike in before it started to get real hot. We got back to the car, pulled it in the shade, and made some pancakes for breakfast before hitting the road for one last big push to the east; which would get us back home again that evening.

While I was looking forward to getting back home for a visit I was also getting pretty excited about heading east this fall. Definitely not ready to be done with this trip yet.

If you want to see some more pictures of our trip back check out the most recent pics on my main Flickr page. If you're viewing this poster at a later time and date you'll have to dig through some sets to find them. Or maybe if I'm nice I'll remember to come back and update the links.

Waiting...

2007-08-31T11:26:00.000-07:00

Well, there was some whining and crying from my dad about being beat out of his prize the other day but I think we eventually came to a mutual understanding. This is my blog and my rules, so he can like it or lump it. I will say that his prize (or what would have been his prize) tasted fantastic! Thanks for treating, dad.

It was a long few days spent driving through the Nevada and Utah deserts. The roads were long, hot, and didn't provide a whole lot of scenery to look at while driving. I try to stay off the interstates when I drive and there were a couple spots on the drive with about 200 miles in between towns. Just me, the highway, the wind, the sun the blowing dust, and sage. I'm sure there are some beautiful parts to the desert and if I wasn't in such a hurry driving to Colorado I would have spent some time trying to find them. But as it was I can't say I was all that impressed with what I saw from the highway.

The first town I hit in Nevada was Winnemucca and for whatever reason I guess I just expected most of the towns in Nevada to be small, dusty, poor, mining towns. As I pulled into town at 10:00pm on a Friday night I was proved wrong there. Turns out gambling is just as big in the rest of Nevada as it is in Reno and Vegas. Apparently you couldn't own a business in town unless you had lots of flashing lights on your sign. It didn't matter if it was a casino, bar, restaurant or hotel.

I was thankful to reach central Utah where the landscape started to change a little with a lot of color in the rocks and lots of bluffs and canyons. I even got to see some corn fields in a couple of the towns I drove through. I didn't have time to stop to check out any of the scenery though so I just had to admire it from the road. It was a much more interesting drive then the previous couple days.

I finally reached central Colorado and felt like I could relax again. I found a place to sleep a couple hours west of Denver and when I woke up in the morning bought a nice trail map and headed out to do some hiking. By the time I got to the trailhead I was pretty sleepy so I took an hour or so long nap in my car; waking up refreshed and ready to tackle the mountains. The nap worked out perfect since it was getting late in the afternoon and nearly everyone else had already left.

The hike was wonderful, following a creek back up the mountains as it would through it's own little canyon it had created over thousands of years. After a few miles it opened up into a nice meadow with a couple real nice mountain lakes. By the time I got there the sun had just set behind the mountains; which rose up all around the lake. It was dead calm with no wind and their were small trout rising in the lake to feed on the insects. I sat on a small rock point for a while to admire the view before heading back to the car in the fading light.

It felt great to be back on the trail again and now all I had to do was wait another day for Sarah to arrive.

It's good to be on top

2007-08-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

I pulled into Great Basin National Park and after looking at the map I knew that I had to climb Wheeler Peak. It topped out at 13,063', which was about 4000 feet higher then I'd ever hiked. There was a trail to the top and after talking to a ranger found that although it was a strenuous hike there was no actual “mountain climbing” involved. I set out early the next morning for the summit.

The trailhead started at 10,000 feet and was only 4 miles long, which would make for a semi-steep hike. Unfortunately the first mile was flat as a pancake and the second wasn't much steeper; meaning that most of the elevation gain would take place in the last two miles up the mountain. Great, the toughest hike will be in the thinnest air.

As promised the hike started easy and gradually got steeper. Once I got out of the trees I was walking on a ridge directly exposed to the wind. It wouldn't have been very cold at all if it hadn't been for the wind. Thankfully the trail turned around to the calm side of the mountain about 1/2 mile from the top so it was calm after that.

At what I'd guess was around the 2.5 mile mark I passed a family who had stopped for a snack. After them I couldn't see anyone else ahead of me. Looking back I could see one man in a green jacket following me. I was pretty sure I'd be the first to reach the peak that morning.

As I climbed higher the oxygen got thinner and I got slower. The trail turned into loose rocks and gradually got steeper and steeper. I was taking my time, stopping to catch my breath now and again and stopping to take some pictures as well. All the while the man in the green jacket kept getting closer. I can be a pretty competitive person but I wasn't feeling all that competitive this morning. I figured I wasn't going to kill myself trying to race him up the mountain. After all, I had a knee to think about and after growing up in Iowa and spending the last couple months in the Portland and Seattle areas I wasn't real used to high altitudes. I didn't exactly pick up my pace but I did try to walk a little more efficiently and I quit taking so many breaks. After all, I couldn't just give it to him!

The man in the green jacket was relentless, never resting. Just slowly and steadily gaining on me. I thought of just stopping to let him catch up and pass me so I wouldn't have to think about it anymore, but I couldn't do it. My lungs and legs both burned and screamed at me to rest but I kept on my slow and steady pace. The trail got steeper and the rocks got looser; I tried to pick a pace I thought I could maintain to the top without stopping. If he caught me at this pace then there was nothing I could do about it; I just couldn't go much faster. Another check over my shoulder found the green jacket a little closer. I knew he was back there thinking how he wanted to pass me and be the first to the top.

It looked like the trail had a ways to go as it wound its way up the mountain and I didn't know how much more I had in me. I was just about ready to give up and let him by when I noticed the trail made an unexpected turn straight up the mountain. This meant it was going to be shorter then I'd thought; but steeper as well. My competitiveness kicked in and I knew the first summit of the day was mine to loose right then. So I made one final hard push for the top and was easily able to hold off the man in the green jacket for victory.

I got to the top, hunkered down behind a rock pile to escape the wind, and reveled in the glory of knowing I was the first to reach the summit that hazy morning. I celebrated with an apple and some trail mix as I relaxed and enjoyed the view. The man in the green jacket sulked at another rock pile, obviously disappointed in himself. He tucked his tail between his legs and started back down the mountain as I continued to bask in my own glory.

It's good to be on top.

I shot a couple videos while up on top too; one that know my mom will appreciate. As usual the camera doesn't do the view (or the drop) justice. That was a long, steep, drop.

And the Answers are....

2007-08-27T10:58:00.000-07:00

In case you missed the first part of the quiz read it first here

Thank you all so much for playing along in our little game about Battle Mountain, Nevada. Here are the correct answers-

A: It's named after a battle between settlers and indians that never actually happened.

It seems there was no Captain Pierson, no settlers and no attacking indians...ooops

C: The letters “BM” written in huge letters on a nearby hill.

This is my favorite and was my tip off of just where I was as I drove into town. It really made my day.

C: They decided to hold an annual Arm Pit festival

Apparently it's held in a pit mine, sponsored by old spice deodorant, and includes “most talented arm pit” contest. I mean really, you can't make this stuff up!

Unfortunately I apparently don't have the brightest blog readers in the world since no one that posted in the comments section was able to come up with all the correct answers. Such a shame since I had such a lovely prize in mind if someone happened to guess all three correctly. I did post a link to this quiz on a couple websites that I belong to and two people who responded to those posts did get all three answers correct though. Unfortunately one was as a result of blatant cheating, but hey, at least he admitted it.

The only person to come up with all three correct answers legitimately was my dad in his response to my post on iATN. Way to go Dad, I knew you had it in you!

Unfortunately for him though he seems to have a reading comprehension problem. You see, in my original blog post I specifically said that people were welcome to play along by posting a response in the comments section on my blog; NOT simply by responding to my post on iATN.

I think we all remember the time my dad ran an ad/contest in the local paper for everyone to correct his grammar and punctuation in said ad. He said to clip out the ad and make your corrections in red. One lady, and english teacher, came up with way more mistakes then anyone else but my dad saw fit to disqualify her since she didn't make her corrections in red. He reasoned that since everyone else had done it in red and she was an english teacher it was no ones fault but her own.

So, since my dad should be well aware to play by the rules or suffer the consequences I hereby disqualify him from the contest! That means I don't have to give out any prizes and instead will treat myself to lunch today. Yippee!

Thanks for playing everyone! Although you may not be the brightest bunch it's obvious that you're not a bunch of cheaters (except for Ole); and that's way more important in my book!

Now to be fair I must say that from the little that I saw of Battle Mountain it didn't look like too bad of a town and from outward appearances didn't deserve it's title of “Arm Pit of America” (though BM on the hill is really funny). I've driven through much worse looking places then this on my travels. And hey, you can't say the town doesn't have a sense of humor!

For anyone who wants to listen to the original segment on Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me you can download it from their website.

A Dubious Honor

2007-08-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Battle Mountain, Nevada. The arm pit of America!

Yesterday I realized that it was getting pretty late in the week and I needed to start covering some ground if I wanted to get to Colorado on time; so I've just been buzzing right on down the road. As I drive through Nevada I certainly don't feel like I'm missing much. Eastern Colorado looks like a hotbed of activity compared to South Central Oregon and Nevada! Just miles and miles of desert. I was just mindlessly driving along as I entered Battle Mountain and suddenly I realized where I was...I was in the arm pit of America!!

You see, one of my favorite shows on NPR is Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me (you know, NPR's weekly news quiz) and every week they bring on some special guest, for a section called, “Not my Job”. It's usually a well known celebrity, some big shot in the media or something like that and they ask them three questions about a topic they don't know anything about. The questions are multiple choice and all of the answers seem preposterous, but one of them is true.

Anyway, I remember one episode earlier this year and the questions were about Battle Mountain. You see, 5 years ago the Washington Post had named the 5 worst places in the US and Battle Mountain Nevada was the winner! And I now I found myself in this very town; how exciting!

It actually was really exciting; it had been a boring day driving and I was screaming and hollering with delight in the car (it doesn't take much to entertain me).

Anyway, I thought maybe all of you would like to play the game so I found the old episode on-line and here are the questions about Battle Mountain. One answer is correct for each question. Either play by yourself or post your answers in the comments section for a little friendly competition. Can you do better then special guests Jill St. John and Robert Wagner did on the show?

And NO cheating! If you've already heard the show then you're disqualified.

So here we go-

#1: Battle Mountain as a deep dark secret about it's founding, what is it?

A: It's named after a battle between settlers and indians that never actually happened.
B: The mountain of the towns name is actually a huge pile of mining waste
C: It was created out of whole cloth in 1956 entirely as a tax shelter for an oil company

#2: You know you've arrived in Battle Mountain when you see what famous landmark?

A: The worlds largest EPA Super Fund toxic waste dump
B: The nations second tallest dedicated cell tower
C: The letters “BM” written in huge letters on a nearby hill

#3: The town was surprised to be drug out of obscurity and into the lime light by being named Arm Pit of America by the Washington Post. How did they react?

A: They sued the Post for defamation and after 3 years of litigation won their suit and damages of $10
B: They convinced the Gillette company to film a lady's razor commercial there
C: They decided to hold an annual Arm Pit festival

Best of luck. And remember, you're on your honor!

I'll post the answers tomorrow of the following day depending on when/if I find internet access.

Get the answers

Bye Bye PNW

2007-08-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe how the time has flown on this trip! It's been just over 3 months now since I've left Iowa and I've driven 10,000 miles. The little Saturn has performed like a champ though and hasn't given me a bit of trouble. After spending the entire summer in the PNW it's finally time to say goodbye and begin my trek back east where I'll meet up with Sarah for a few days in Denver (where she's attending a wedding) before driving back to Iowa together.

I spent all last week in Portland working and neglecting my blog; but thankfully the neglect was a result of having fun. I'd already worked at this shop for a few days in the end of June so it was nice going into it knowing what to expect and things went smoothly. Terica, a service writer at the shop, decided she'd show me Portland and I got the whirl wind tour through out the week and it was a blast! Everything from an airplane ride over the Columbia Gorge to fondue to drag shows to Voo Doo Donuts and to flaming drinks and deserts. Although I've stayed with some great people during my trip and had a lot of fun with them it was great to be able to hang out with someone my own age. It's really the first time since I've left Iowa that I've had a real friend to hang out with and to spend time with; it was really nice. I got to see a lot of things in Portland that I never would have gotten to see on my own.

I even got invited to her roommates wedding in Cannon Beach, which was actually held right on the beach. After helping set up the chairs I hung around and made sure no one messed with the stuff while everyone else got all fancied up. As I sat there reading my book the violinist came down and started warming up so I had my own private violin player right there on the beach, which was very cool. The wedding was nice but the reception afterwards was even more fun since it included free food, booze, and dancing. Since it was a Sunday afternoon and everyone needed to drive back to Portland the reception was over about mid-afternoon. After it was over Terica and I drove up to Astoria to explore the area a little bit more. Despite the fact that I dropped on of my new cameras into the water it was a pretty fun little trip. We got to see a bunch of Sea Lions and climb Astoria tower for an amazing view of the area. It was pretty late by the time we got back to Cannon Beach to pick up my car but thankfully I didn't have to be to work in the morning so when I got tired on the way back to Portland I just pulled over the car and went to sleep. I ended up staying in Portland through Monday so I could talk to Jim and Liz a bit before I left (the people I was staying with) and I headed out of town Tuesday morning.

I started heading towards central Oregon and it seemed that as I crested a hill I'd found that I'd suddenly left the woods and entered the high desert. I stopped next to a small river last night and woke up just as the sun was lighting the top rim of the small canyon I was in. I looked at it for a minute and then went back to sleep for another hour before continuing on my way. As I passed Prineville reservoir I couldn't resist slipping the kayak in the water and going for a nice paddle. The sun was shining, it was warm, and the lake was calm as could be, absolutely perfect weather for a paddle. The lake was nearly deserted and I found a nice little beach to do some swimming, exploring, and napping before heading back to the car. Tonight finds me just east of Bend, Oregon in the badlands.

Tomorrow I'll likely be out of Oregon, not to return until at least next summer. I just wanted to thank everyone who made my little PNW tour possible and very enjoyable. The people and climate are tough to beat. Let me let everyone one else in on a little secret here. You know how the northwest is really rainy and dreary?

Well it's not!!

At least not in the summer it isn't. Rain is an oddity during the summer months, the sun shines a lot, it's not humid, and they think 85 degrees is pretty hot! Most days the temperatures stayed in the 70's; though there was one week the temps did get well into the 90's but that seems to be the exception. Everyone that I met seemed to be pretty proud of their weather and they told me how nice it was during the summer. This was always followed up by, “don't tell anyone though”. Apparently that's a little secret they don't want to get out, so don't tell anyone I told you.

Thank Goodness for Health Insurance!

2007-08-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness for heath insurance, that's all I can say. As soon as I turned 19 I was no longer covered under my fathers health insurance coverage so we had to switch it over to my name. So for the last 10 years I've been paying my health insurance dues like a good boy knowing that some day it could save my bacon. I generally only showed up to the doctor once every 2 or 3 years for something pretty minor, I don't think I ever had a bill over a couple hundred bucks. At times I felt foolish for spending all that money on health insurance but I kept reminding myself I didn't have it for the little minor stuff; it's for the larger, unexpected stuff.

So early into my big trip this summer (www.alangage.blogspot.com) when I dislocated my knee in the mountains I was relieved to know that I'd have health insurance to help me out. Seeing as I was no where near home and had no income that was really a load off my mind. I stopped by the local hospital for a check over and some x-rays and the doc said he couldn't see anything in the X-rays but recommended I see a specialist and get an MRI done to check for ligament damage. In the meantime I'd be OK on the knee if I just took it easy.

I got a recommendation from Albin on a great bone and joint doctor in Bellevue, WA so a couple weeks later when I found myself up that way I made an appointment and stopped in. The doctor looked at the X-rays from the hospital I'd already had done, poked around, gave me some options, and we decided to have an MRI done to see if any damage had occured or if anything needed to be fixed. An MRI is a pretty spendy procedure but thankfully I had health insurance to take care of that.

I got the results back from the MRI a little while later and it turns out I had a partially torn medial meniscus and a partially torn ACL; both of which would require surgery to repair. Without surgery my knee wouldn't be as strong as it should be and it would be easier for it to pop out of place again the future, likely doing more damage. Since I'm an active guy and I don't like the thought of having that happen in the mountains EVER again surgery sounds like the way to go. Thankfully the medial meniscus is pretty straight forward with a quick recovery time. The ACL on the other hand is a lot more involved and will require a loooong recovery time and will probably include rehab too. Phew, health insurance to the rescue!

I was trying to decide just when and where I'd get the surgery done when a few days later I find out that my health insurance company, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, denied the claims they'd gotten from the hospital in Baker City where I'd first gotten my knee checked out. Hmm, I didn't like that at all. Did that mean they were going to deny the claims from the specialist and for the MRI as well?

Yup, it sure did.

After getting ahold of the insurance company to find out what's going on it appears they're denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition. You see, when I was 16 or 17 I hurt this same knee. At the time I was covered under my dads Blue Cross/Blue Shield and they covered the bills from the local hospital which included a few x-rays and advice to take it easy and the knee would heal on its own. When I turned 19 however and the plan was put into my name (same insurance company) I was suddenly a “new customer” and that knee problem I'd had a couple years ago was now a “pre-existing condition”. I remember sitting in the office and having them tell me that BC/BS wouldn't cover any injuries to that knee for a period of two years. I thought that was pretty crappy but it didn't seem there was a whole lot I could do so I just went with it and hoped I wouldn't re-injur my knee in the next couple years; which I thankfully didn't.

Now what I didn't hear them tell me, or what I don't remember hearing them tell me at that time was that after those two years were up I'd have to have submit some paper work and be re-evaluated to see if they'd decide to cover my knee. I honestly don't know if they just didn't tell me, didn't make it clear, or if I just totally forgot but for the last 8 years I've been under the assumption that once those first 2 years were up my knee was covered...ooops, guess not.

I can submit that paper work and have it re-evaluated now, but even if it's accepted it's not retroactive so there's no way they're going to pay for the current bills on my knee. And what do you think the chances are of them re-evaluating the situation and saying, “sure, we'd be happy to cover your knee that we already know is going to require surgery to repair”. I don't think I'll hold my breath on that one.

So here I am looking at some pretty steep doctors bills, which I can pay out of pocket thankfully, but that I'm not really happy about having to pay and that will put a pretty good dent in my bank account. And that still doesn't do anything to address my knee, which is still going to require surgery to be back to 100% reliable, I highly doubt I'll be able to pay for that out of pocket.

Gee, what a fantastic system this is. They really seem to be looking out for what's best for their customers. I'm more then willing to admit my share of the blame for not paying more attention to my health insurance policy and for not realizing that little catch. But honestly, how many people out there are really going to take the time to figure all that stuff out on their own? How many people are assuming they're covered and will later get a very unpleasant surprise.

No matter what you think of Michael Moore I highly recommend that everyone watch his newest movie, “Sicko”. It's all about health insurance industry and it's a real eye opener. Some of the stuff in there is just plain astounding. I felt he did a pretty good job of staying neutral in the politics on this one, though there are of course some jabs at the president and other conservatives. Democrats didn't get off with a free ride on this one though either. In fact I think we all got slammed pretty hard in this movie, I took it as more of a wake up call to everyone living in the US to wake up and look what's really going on. The only reason stuff like this continues to happen is because we let it happen; just assuming everyone out there really has our best interests in mind and wants what's best for us.

The first half of the movie I thought was particularly powerful, the second half seemed a little more like entertainment then enlightenment but still had some really good stuff in it. I'm sure not going to take everything he says in the movie as gospel and there's always another side to every story; but this side needs to be heard.

Hopefully someday I'll be able to say "Thank goodness for health insurance" and actually mean it! In the mean time, anyone in Canada looking for a good mechanic?

Just Browsing

2007-08-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

There are some pretty interesting things going on in the world of web browsers and I figured I'd bring it up since it's something a lot of people don't think about. I'm definitely no expert on browsers but I've got some I like and I try to keep semi up-to-date on what's going on.

I use Google Analytics to watch the traffic that my blogs receive and it really shows you just how much big brother is watching. It will tell me all sorts of information about the visitors to my sites; such as what pages were viewed the most, time spent on the site, whether the visit was direct (as in you typed the URL yourself) or if they were directed from another site, etc, etc...

Don't worry though, it's not like it tells me anything real specific like that John Smith from Friarville is sitting around in his underwear and that the previous site he was on before coming to mine was www.nakednation.com.

Another thing it tells me is what web browsers people are using who view my site; and I happen to know that 65.68% are using Internet Explorer. Of course that's to be expected since it's the de-facto browser supplied with about every PC on the planet; but there's many more out there that are faster, more secure, more powerful, and are still free!

Firefox is by far the closest competition to Internet Explorer, in fact 24.76% of you that visit my sites use it. In the last few years it's been much more innovative then Explorer and many of the features Explorer 7.0 touted were things Firefox had already had for years. Not to mention Firefox (and pretty much all other browsers out there) is more secure then Internet Explorer and does a better job getting rid of pop-ups and the like.

I've used Firefox for the last 4 years or so and have gotten along great with it. It's available for both Mac and PC and has done pretty much everything I need it to do. I've recently switched though and started using Safari. Safari has always been a Mac only browser (just like Explorer is PC only) but that's changed now as their newest beta release is supposed to work with Windows XP and Vista; I can't vouch for how well though since I'm using a Mac.

Anyway, my reason for switching to Safari is because they're one of only a handful of browsers to recognize ICC profiles. An ICC profile is the color information stored with most images that tell whatever program that's opening the image exactly how to display the colors. So that way when I edit a photo on my laptop in Photoshop and save it either to post on-line or to give to someone else there's a little ICC profile embedded that will hopefully ensure that what someone else sees on their screen is very close to what I saw on my screen when I created the image.

Unfortunately none of the most popular web browsers recognize ICC profiles. This means they just take a stab at exactly what the colors should look like and it usually results in inaccurate and lackluster results. I'd always noticed that my photos uploaded to Flickr never looked as good as they did when I had the image opened in Photoshop; and that's why. That also means that everyone else who views my photos on-line is seeing a duller, less accurate version of my pictures.

When I found out that Safari does recognize ICC profiles I gave it another shot and was amazed what a difference it made. We've been discussing it a little on one of the photography forums I belong to and one of the guys loaded the same image in 5 separate browsers, took a screen shot, and posted the results on Flickr. The results are pretty apparent even if you're currently using a browser that doesn't recognize ICC profiles (and only 6.76% of you are). It's even more obvious looking at the image with Safari.

If you click on the image posted it will link you to the Flickr page where you can tell which image is from which browser by scrolling the mouse over it. Quite eye opening!

Safari doesn't have quite the same interface as Firefox but it's pretty close and I'm getting used to it. It's well worth it though to be looking at accurate color in on-line images though and I'm quite happy.

I'd highly recommend to anyone to explore some different web browsers; they're pretty much all better then Internet Explorer and let you do some really cool things while being more secure. For the most part they're all free and all very easy to use. The interface is basically identical from one to the other for basic usage; it's only as you did deeper that you find the real differences, so it's not like it's hard to learn to use a new browser.

Here are some links to websites for the more popular browsers-

Firefox

Safari

Camino (from the creators of Firefox but for Mac only)

Opera

Out of those Safari is the only one to recognize ICC profiles. Firefox would probably be your best bet though if you want to try another browser for the first time. It's really gaining in popularity and works with nearly every website out there without problem. You can run into issues with some sites not working properly with certain browsers. For instance this is the first blog post I've done since downloading the new Safari beta and it seems to have a problem when I try to post links; so I just switched over to Firefox and everything works dandy. Still though, I heartily recommend you give Safari a try just to see how different the colors are between browsers.

And let's see that percentage of Explorer users start to drop!! :)

Ahhhhhhh......

2007-08-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

And now for something a little different. I've been keeping a personal journal along with my blog and instead of just retyping much of the same thing; I figured I'd just paste my latest entry as a blog update.

I've been kind of down on myself the last few days, looking back over the nearly 3 months that I've spent on the road so far. All the wondrous things that I've seen but haven't really appreciated. Things that I thought were going to be spectacular that it turns out I thought were just so-so, even though other people raved about them. I was really beginning to think that I didn't appreciate things enough and that maybe I was totally wasting my time on this trip. But I'm starting to change my thinking today.

The last two days I've covered the shortest amount of territory on what I'd consider “travel days” since I left Iowa. I always mean to just take my time and stop where ever I feel like but I never actually do it. The last couple days I have though. I found a place to sleep early last night which gave me plenty of time to collect fire wood before dark and sit in my chair and read my book until dark; when I started a fire and had a couple glasses of hot chocolate. Today I probably covered less then 100 miles stopping to take a short 4 mile hike in the middle of the day that turned into a decent amount of time after I spent quite a while just sitting back and relaxing at the falls. I meandered my way a little farther north on Rock Creek Road where at the last second I swung into the Rock Creek Fish Hatchery where I got to spend 50 cents for a couple handfuls of food to feed the trout and tour the facilities a little bit; I was the only one around. I love feeding the trout in the pools at the fish hatcheries out here, it's a blast! There are tons of them and they go crazy for those little pellets. Throw one in and watch them all race for it or throw in a bunch and watch the swirling twisting mass of fish as they swarm the area and swipe up every last little bit.

I took a little walk down the trail at the hatchery to the creek and found the black berries were finally ripe so I stopped and spent about 20 minutes just picking and eating the berries. I've been eating them for the last few weeks when I've found them but they've never been fully ripe until now. I was having a fantastic time and realized that I really do appreciate things, it's just the small things. I remembered back to all the small discoveries that I'd made while driving or on hikes that might not have been that incredible but they were surprises and they absolutely delighted me at the time. And I thought, you know what, I'll take appreciating the small things over the big things any day.

Just a few miles north of the fish hatchery I was following a road that followed Rock Creek and I started looking for a place along the creek to stop for the night. It only took about a mile to find a little pull off on a rocky beach right next to a large, deep, quiet pool with little rapids on either end of it. Just a perfect spot and I'm sitting in my camping chair, watching the fingerling trout feed and drinking a glass of wine as I type this.

After seeing the redwoods I finally feel like I can relax up here. Since I've decided not to see Glacier Lake on this trip there really isn't anything that I feel the need to see anymore. So far on this trip I've constantly been trying to plan out what I'm going to see next and how I'm going to work it all together in the schedule. The Redwoods were really the last thing on that list and I feel so relaxed now. I've had about 4 days to make it back to Portland after leaving Redwood National Park and I've made good use of all of them. I've already been to Portland, already met Jim and his family, and already worked at his shop. I feel no pressure or rush to get back and I'm really enjoying it. When I'm in Portland I hope the feeling will continue. I hope I'll finally just be able to relax and just take what comes. Not to say I haven't enjoyed myself so far, I have immensely, but this is different.

I can't believe it's been almost 3 months already since I've left Iowa and I can't believe I only have a couple weeks before I'll be leaving the PNW and heading back to the midwest (for a visit). But you know what? I think these last couple weeks have a good chance of being the best couple weeks of the trip so far. Time will tell.