The End

So, it has come to the end of my blog. Perhaps I will start another, if I have lots of new adventures. The flickr photos will likely continue to get updates now and then. But the walkabout is truly over now. And to my great surprise, it is a happy ending. I truly felt when I left Colorado last October that this was all that was left, a wandering, homeless soul, for the rest of my days - no more happy endings for me.

But I guess I was not quite done yet, and maybe there is something else in store for me on this very unpredictable path. Thanks to all for reading and your comments, it was nice to have them to look forward to, and I often felt motivation and purpose in my actions, because I wanted to share them here. For a while, you can find me in Camas, WA, working at LightFleet Corporation. Please do stop by and stay awhile if you find yourself nearby.

Now then, as for that unpredictable path: Out here, there is a lot of forest and often is cloudy, but right now, I'm standing on the rocks on the bank of the stream, and I see a break in the trees down past that cascade. It looks like maybe a sunny clearing where the path becomes grassy and flat, and there could be some ripe blackberries on the side. Yeah, that looks good - let's see what's over there...

The Final Push

Whoooeee - we made it! Landfall into a temporary residence hotel May, 3. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, just several long days of driving.

There were a few surprises, like stopping to have dinner at an Indian restaurant in downtown Boise, ID, where blocks away, we saw a bar having a "No pants day", complete with three pant-less coeds out front yelling at people to come in. I found it pretty interesting that in ID, liquor seemed to be pretty ubiquitous, in contrast to the scene in neighboring Utah...

The weather was great most of the way, and I got a great look at Multnomah Falls from the highway. It was pretty much straight to work once I got here, but all has fallen into place. I have rented a townhouse within biking distance to work, the scenery is beautiful, and I'm ready to start the next chapter...

Bryce Canyon National Park

After leaving Moab, we headed to Bryce Canyon National Park. I'd been plotting for some time staying in the fancy lodge somewhere to celebrate Heather's birthday. First, the goal was snowshoeing in Glacier NP, then it moved south to Yellowstone, and finally, it wound up as Bryce Canyon. This is another relatively small park, but a welcome change from the desert we'd been in for weeks. Most of the best sights are very easily accessible from the road, which follows the canyon rim for 20 miles. Hiking the entire 23-mile "under-the-rim" trail seems like it would be an awesome 3-4 day backpacking trip. We sort of took it easy here - no terribly strenuous hikes, but we did wind up marching out into the cold mornings for two sunrises (the best lighting time of day here), and took a madcap, speeding drive to survey all the viewpoints at sunset the evening we got there.


The most adventurous event here might have been the hike down into the canyon to the "Queen's Garden". There we stopped for a snack, and found the most aggressive chipmunks and ground squirrels I've ever seen! They would fearlessly approach to within kicking distance, and if you shooed them away, they'd just dart around behind you or under the log you are sitting on. I was really expecting one of them to run up my back, snatch the M&M's from my hand with a high-pitched "thank you", and leap off into the bushes!

It was pretty clear we were both pretty travel weary by the time we got here. Some downtime in the lodge was good for us, but the remaining 1000 miles to Portland still seemed like a long way to go...

Arches National Park

A couple weeks back, I went to Arches National Park. We took a ludicrous number of panoramas - which I am not done stitching together yet (will I ever be?) Anyway, I wanted to put up a link to the photoset on Flickr:


Arches was way neat, and it is a smaller park than I realized. Lots of dazzling scenery, but mostly at sunrise and sunset. I between - it's kind of a barren desert. There is not even a great deal of hiking to be done, on account of the "crypto-biological crust" on the soil. A very slow growing crust of bacteria, lichens, algae, and fungi grow on the sandy soil over the course of hundreds of years. It ends up looking like tiny black nodules, when one can actually see it, after 250 years of growth!

I highly recommend the Fiery Furnace ranger-guided hike. It was probably the best part of the whole trip. Bushwhacking and rock hopping down dry washes and up little slots to Surprise Arch, Skull arch, and other neat features was very fun, and well-worth the $10 fee. Also, the hike up to delicate arch was steep, but not overly long, and the view at the end is quite nice. I found the crowd of photographers poised in one spot, all waiting to take the same photo kind of comical. Finally, beware of Sand Arch. We walked in there on a windy day and wound up getting a serious sand-blasting. The kind where you are walking with eyes closed, or sometimes not walking at all - just covering your face with your jacket. It stung.

All in all, I was glad to get to see the place. Well worth the time to visit, should you ever be nearby. Still no personal sightings of the elusive Bighorn Sheep, though!

Big wheels keep on turning

I'm on the move again! We left Bryce Canyon today and are headed for Portland, as fast as the vehicles, speed limits, and driving stamina will allow. Tonight, the stopping point is Clearfield, UT.

I'm alternately excited and apprehensive about the move. Last night the weight of leaving this happy-go-lucky tramp lifestyle in exchange for the salaried professional was dragging me down - it felt heavy and the path ahead of me suddenly looked difficult. Right now, I am excited again, eager for the new adventures and challenges that await. Perhaps I am getting too old for this, perhaps I have made the stakes in my mind higher this time, and maybe it was just a simple case of nerves and feeling overwhelmed. I just try to remember that all I can do is my best, have fun, and that nothing ever has been quite as big a deal as I make it out to be, when I take a long/big enough view of things. Long day on the road tomorrow, I'm hoping to make it across Idaho and into Oregon...

My best to all my friends and family - I hope I'll have more time to communicate and put up pictures when I reach the end of the road!

Birds are not to be trusted

The owners of Pack Creek Campground have a few birds, and I got to meet two of them - a cockatoo and some green parrot bird. Jolly and smart little birds with their "parents", they would climb on their shoulders, laugh at jokes, dance and do other tricks.

So, at one point, we were left alone with them and I saw the cockatoo reach out of the cage and grab Heather's finger. He was a bit reluctant to let her go, but I was curious and wanted to try also. I approached the cage and help out my finger for the bird, and she reached out and grabbed my finger. How neat! I'd has been a while since I'm been around large, smart birds. Then the bird pulled in, and I let my finger go along for the ride. Just before I was going to pull back and extricate my finger, the bird lunged at it and delivered a serious bite to my finger! I was left with a 1/2 gash on top of my finger, and it broke the skin on the other side too. As I recoiled in pain, the bird across the room, started laughing! "Ha-ha, Ha-ha. Bye-bye!, bye-bye! Hahaha."

I should know better - never give any animal a single finger, cause they'll take it - even alpacas. Always a fist or palm. Ah well, it's not a serious wound, so what can you do but laugh - and don't trust those birds!

The Three R's of travel

Every now and then, one has to make a longer stop to rest, repair, and re-supply - the three R's of travel. We seem to have hit that point here in Moab. Heather's tire had a blow-out about 20 miles outside of town, and it turned into a 5 day stay for us. This was made easier by the fact that we scored free accommodations at a local campground run by a friend of a friend of Heather's. I'm very aware at this point that I will soon have to get to Portland and dig-in for my new job - I start only two weeks from now and I'm still over 1000 miles away. It will be a big push to finish the drive and busy times to get set up there, so some rest before that is a good idea. Also, it's far enough north now that it is freezing at night again, so we not really keen to be camping much further up.

BTW - that reminds me to plug a couple local businesses: Pack Creek Campground - where we stayed, and Ye Ol Geezer Meat Shop. Check them out if you ever find yourself in Moab, or want to mail order really good jerky.

It has been a very interesting stay - we explored in Arches National Park, got a far-ranging tour of ancient rock art and local sights from the campground owners, saw a local hot-rod/old car show, and slept-in quite a few times. There is much more to do in Moab than I realized - it's not just mountain biking!

Anyway, today we move onward to Bryce Canyon for a couple days..

Carlsbad Caverns and the Worst Campground Yet

Arrg, man - I am so far behind - I keep taking too many panoramas! Well, I'm going to mostly punt on this one. We went to Carlsbad Caverns, and it was really beautiful. I spent 5 hours underground (up to 800 ft down!). Perhaps even cooler was the bat flight. Hundreds of thousands of bats live in the cave in the spring/summer, and at sundown, they come flying out. We were lucky to witness one of the larger bat flights, estimated at 100,000 bats! They exhibit funny flocking behavior that was fascinating to watch. Here are the pics:


Also - don't stay at White's City campground, unless you have an RV or are ready for pretty much a primitive camping experience. The pool was locked, the bathrooms trashed, and for some reason, there was old underwear in the men's shower. I think I would have rather had a pit toilet than be tip-toeing in that pig sty. Oh yeah, and get your stuff out of the way! - they water the pitiful grass field beginning at 8am! Terrible.

Big Bend National Park

Well, well, what to say about Big Bend. It's a little bit like climbing Long's Peak. It was good to go see, I'm glad I did it, but I'll not be in a rush to go back again. Don't get me wrong, Big Bend was a very impressive place - for the effort of getting there though, the ROI might not be high enough. Perhaps a little earlier in the year when it is cooler would be a bit better, with some more wildflowers.

Over 3 days, we explored around three of the major areas of Big Bend. The Rio Grande on the east and west sides, and the central Chisos mountains. We took a moonlit hike down to the Rio Grande, a long hike in the mountains, followed by a dip in the natural hot springs, and explored inside the Santa Elena Canyon on the west side of the park. On the east side, we got to see a great sunrise, and a neat pond on the side of the river. Things are pretty green in the river basin. The mountain hike was a good long one (8.5 miles) and the scenery was pretty good. At one point though, Heather and I were noticing that the mountainside flora was very reminiscent of other places we'd been - spurring her to jokingly say: "We came all this way to go hiking in Southern California?!"

I think the west side was the highlight of the experience for me. Santa Elena canyon is a 1500 ft high narrow canyon carved by the Rio Grande river. With enough pre-planning, people can get permits to raft/kayak down the canyon, including some nasty looking rapids (this might be one of the only things to bring me back here...) It's really neat and spurred a lot of picture-taking. The river was shallow enough that we waded across and I gave "Mi Tierra" a hug on the other side. Soon afterward we saw the mystery river-monster of the Rio Grande, otherwise known as a large fish/eel like thing we saw slowly wiggling through the shallows, which then suddenly thrashed noisily away in a 10ft long ribbon of a splash. One the way out, we also saw a beaver! Other personal first-ever sightings during the visit included a gray fox, a vermillion fly-catcher, and a yellow-necked woodpecker.

The other thing that struck me during the visit was how laughably easy it is to cross the Rio Grande down there. The river is little more than a creek, and we saw several places where Mexicans hang out in ramshakle shelters across the river to sell souveniers to the tourists. One fellow ever regularly crosses the river to sit by a trail and serenade passing hikers. There is nothing clandestine about it - I even saw an inflatable raft sitting 10 yds from the river in plain view. Now, I don't mind all this, and my prevailing thought about the whole thing was that it is kind of silly, that this little stream, which really represents an idea of an obstacle more than anything, can be such a significant division between peoples. Across 20ft and 2 ft of slow moving water, and all of a sudden, the language and money is different, the water is non-potable, and everybody looks at you like you are an invader/alien? What an artificial and absurd situation it is.

Enough blathering - we had great fun, and I'll be chewing on the pictures I took for some time - here's some that are presentable now...

Texas is a b@%*& of a drive

After leaving Mountain View, it was a hard-charging four-day trip to Big Bend National Park. Along the way, we made stops in Bob Sandlin State Park, Austin, TX, and Ozona, TX. The former was a neat park on a lake, but we did little more than crash there for the night.

Austin was more interesting. We got there, unfortunately, right at rush hour. This was a jarring experience, after a solid week of wide open highway and rural roads. Rush hour in Austin is BAAAD! I think rivalling SoCal kind of stuff for density, it's just not as widespread or long-lived. Anyway, after finding a motel and getting some dinner and clean clothes, we headed downtown to sightsee and enjoy the nightlife. I did not notice much of the famed "wierdness" of Austin, but it seems a pretty cool city. An impressive looking capital building, nice skyline, and creative bar scene all mix together in a clean and vibant feeling few blocks. All the bars have a theme, like the surfing bar (The Wave), or the pirate bar, and "The Aquarium", and so on and so forth. Plus lots of live music. After some delicious desserts, is was time to get ready for the next day, which would turn out to be a long one...

Before heading out of town, we wanted to stop at the Cabela's. I needed stove fuel, and Heather was curious. Now, this is one crazy store. They have a two story artifical mountain in the middle with trophy deer, goats, bear, etc.. One the sides, there are "museums" of other exotic animals (zebra, antelope, etc.). A talking deer head upstairs goads people into the laser shooting range, where Heather more than doubled my score, I admit with a red face (I think I had a crooked sight!). All this, and no large canisters of stove fuel! So I walked out after an hour with a good deal on a folding camp chair and a 4 oz canister of fuel - good enough.

We drove uneventfully to Sonora. By this time, I'm getting really hot - no A/C in my truck, so in the midday sun it climbs up to 100+ degrees in there. Just outside town are the Caverns of Sonora. That is a spectacular cave, so I'm going to make that the subject of a separate blog entry. After a tour through the cave, we made dinner and recuperated a little before saddling up to try to make it to Marathon, TX before the end of the day (at this point it is around 5:30) We only made it as far as Ozona, as Heather's car started acting up. A disconcertingly loud clicking/rattle was coming from her car, and she had lost a lot of power. So we limped into Ozona and another motel for the night. The next morning, of course, her car is working well again! We did talk a local mechanic into having a look, but he could not tell anything was wrong. Okay then, on to Ft. Stockton, TX! So, long story short, we wind up getting oil changes after 4 stops looking for a mechanic to diagnose what turned out to be a low-oil level! I had looked at the stick the night before, but it looked full, though very dark. I forgot that if the engine is running, the oil level always looks full. Arrg.

But it all worked out, and that afternoon of April 17, we finally! drove into Big Bend National Park...

The Caverns of Sonora

These caverns were very different from others I had been in, and they are spectacular! It is a small cave, only 7 miles or so in length. But the cave is not as deep underground, and still active. The novel thing about these caverns is that the density of formations is very high - non-stop almost immediately after entry, and it is a tight cave. All the passageways are narrow and just covered in "popcorn", stagmites/tites, and other formations. In places, the ceiling gets a bit higher, and it feels like walking in a slot canyon that is covered in limestone christmas trees and crystals. In one section of the tour, the path leads through what was a geode the size of a dorm room (~8'X10')!

The speed of the tour, lighting and tight spaces made pictures difficult, but I think I got a few good ones to share:

Link to caverns website

Caverns and folk music

After leaving Tennessee, we are generally headed toward Big Bend National Park in Texas. However, Heather recommended a detour to Mountain View, AR. What a neat place! It is a little town in the Ozark mountains, where a whole community of country folk musicians live. The town square is set up with multiple jam spots, where the local artists can come an practice, entertain, and market themselves to what I expect is a substantials crowd of tourists in the warmer months. We took in a local "Hoedown" show , and a night of free music at Jimmy Driftwood's Barn. Sunday was a bit chilly, so we killed a couple hours playing scrabble in one of the only open shops - the Candy Factory! (great fudge!)

The other highlight of this place is Blanchard Caverns. Wow! This is the most visually impressive cave I have seen. The tour led up through two very large rooms (1000ft long, 700ft long) with towering columns, stalagmites, soda straws, curtains, etc. There are water formations almost everywhere you look. We were both taking pictures almost non-stop. This cave has color, too - Really pure, sparkling calcite, rust-stained orange walls, and streaks of gray and yellow in the transitions. The 1.5 hour tour was not nearly long enough. The lighting was a challenge, as always, but I've put up a few of my more pleasing pictures...

Cumberland Caverns

Pretty neat cave with a big chandelier and cool light show. 'Nuff said.

www.flickr.com

The End (technically)

So, technically, I have to say that my Walkabout is over. On a walkabout, one leaves one's home to wander aimlessly(?) and in solitude. I no longer satisfy either of those conditions. Two things have happened:

For one, I heard back from LightFleet, and they offered me the job! Furthermore, I accepted! So, as of May 12, I will be the new Senior Optical Design engineer at LightFleet, in Camas, WA. This means I have a new job, a new home, as well as a definite direction and schedule to my travels now. That takes care of the first condition.

The other thing that has happened this week, well, it's been developing for a while, but the first event above has really brought it home - is that I have a girlfriend! Long story short Heather makes me smile. We enjoy each other's company enough that she has agreed to be a travel companion for the big trip to the Portland area. So, I'm no longer alone on my trip, either.

I'll keep posting blog entries here, even thought the title doesn't fit so well anymore, as I expect to have some good stories to tell. 4000 miles and 4 (or more) national parks to go!

Fall Creek Falls

After returning from Portland, Heather and I decided to go spend a few days camping in Fall Creek Falls State Park. A travel guide she found calls the park "one of the best camping places in the Southeast", and I agree! Impressive and beautiful scenery abounds, and we were lucky enough to be there after some good Spring rains. There are multiple waterfalls and cascades in the park, and all were near peak flow. This park has tons to do - we played some tennis, went for a couple bike rides, and generally spent lots more time getting to know each other. An especially neat thing in the park is the suspension bridges set up over several stream crossings. Wooden plank floors on steel cables and field fence "railings" make for a safe, but very wobbly bridge. We had great fun stomping, running, and jumping across these bridges (don't try this at home, kids...). It's been quite a different camping experience for me - a cooler with ice in it, showers every day, usually a nap in the afternoon, and we even crashed the heated pool at the park Inn one evening - talk about luxury!

Heather and I are getting along fabulously! Though coming from very different backgrounds and professions, we have a lot in common, not the least of which is a playfulness that keeps the other on their toes. On one bike ride in particular, a "Beware of Hikers" sign on the bike path spawned an ongoing joke about the mutant zombie hikers, their "hive" at the Inn, and different reasons why we weren't getting eaten. Definitely, this will be a lasting friendship.

Portland, OR

Greetings from Portland, Oregon!

I have very much enjoyed my stay here. Temperate rain forest is my favorite climate. Yesterday I had a free day to explore around the area. I went to downtown Portland and roamed around, exploring an country outdoor clothing store and the farmer's market. I was pleased to find a good deal on some new Carthartt work jeans, since my last pair gave up during my recent trip to CO. It's a strange city - for as hard as parking is to find, the streets were not crowded with people. The Farmer's market was typical, but nice. A live folk-signer in the middle, honey, goat cheese, farm-fresh vegetables, and of course at least one candy stand. The whole thing was set up on a green area on the Portland State University campus, so under the canopy of 50ft high hardwood trees, and above a vibrant green carpet of grass.

Even though the ground here has been constantly wet from off and on showers, it has not felt dreary to me. Flowering trees, 50-100ft high evergreen trees, climbing ivy, moss, and bright green, soft wonderful carpets of grass are everywhere. So it does not feel dark and gloomy to me. I next explored Washington Park, which is a large green area on the hill above downtown, housing the zoo, a 200-acre arboretum, Japanese gardens, and other recreational attractions. It is gorgeous! A couple hours walking around in there and I was ready to head back to the hotel and watch the Final Four games. First, though, I drove into the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. Beautiful! I only went far enough to get an overlook down into the Columbia River basin, but it's enough to get me hooked! I could see towering waterfalls across the river, at least two miles away, probably more like 5. The river looked like a dark sheet of glass down at the bottom, surrounded on both sides by a shag carpet of deep green tree. Just what I could see from that point could probably occupy a person for weeks to explore it all. I recommend a visit to this place to any outdoor enthusiast out there - I will find a way back here to spend more time, one way or another...

Bankhead National Forest

Earlier this week I spent 2.5 days in Bankhead National Forest in northern Alabama. Now, believe it or not, there is some really pretty country up there! Great, old-growth forest with lots of lakes, ponds, and streams. I met my friend Heather (who I first met at the hostel in Florida City) there, and we spent the days exploring around the campground and the Sipsey Wilderness.


Camping is sooo much more fun with some company! We went for a bike ride, an easy hike in the woods, skipping rocks, bouncing and climbing on fallen logs, taking pictures and sharing lots of stories. Heather is another traveler, and has been "on-the-road" for over a year. She has seen so many of the places I would yet like to visit, and met a far more diverse range of people than I have on my trip so far. I was very glad for the company, and the chance to learn from and share with her. Extra bonus was that we were the only campers in the campground, so we had the woods all to ourselves - no annoying boy scouts, or radio-playin', beer-cooler totin' good-ol boys in sight!

We treated ourselves to a good dinner in town Wednesday night, and the next morning I packed up and drove to Nashville, to fly to Portland, OR, for a job interview in Camas, WA on Friday.

Side note - the furthest west I have ever seen a Bojangles is now in Athens, AL (exit 354).

Chapter 2 begins

This is the beginning of Chapter 2. Tomorrow morning I head out for Bankhead National Forest in Alabama. I'm re-provisioned, repaired, and re-packed. I hope to head back south, then drift west, ending up in SoCal by mid-May. There's a couple things that could change that idea, but I'll write about those in due course.

I'd better finish up the last storyline, though, eh? I pulled several 10-12 hour days all week while in Boulder, but was able to finish most of what needed doing. The weeds are cut, fences repaired, pasture leased, and the optics are aligned. I left on Saturday, gambling the shop would be done with the car by the time I got to Colby, KS, since the last update was that they were still working on it. They called when I was halfway there - "we've hit a problem". Turns out the timing belt was too old and slack, and jumped a cog while the transmission was going in, and nobody in town had a replacement part. Could I buy one along the way? Well, I'd give it a shot, but there was only one town of significance between me and Colby, at that point. This made me nervous, but it worked out very well in the end. 15 minutes later I saw a NAPA in Flager, CO. Turns out they had one belt in stock! Perfect! They guys at the shop stayed until 7:30, on a Saturday - to finish the job. One advantage of doing business in a small town - everybody lives close to work, and they own the business, so they can work whenever they want to! Woo-hoo! After leaving a enough tip to get those fellows smashed a couple times over, I headed down the road. I didn't quite make it in one shot, stopped for some rest at one point, but pulled up to my parents house at 7:30 this morning!

So there you have it! It's another busy week coming up - I expect at least two good adventures to write about - stay tuned!

Busy days

Woooo-eee.! I am tired, but wired at the same time. What a busy week this is shaping up to be! Why's that, you say? Well, okay, I'll tell you:

After two weeks of luxurious high life with my parents (good food, desserts-a-plenty, all the sleep you want and almost unlimited projects for entertainment) I set out for CO. It is springtime, and with the season comes chores - lots and lots of chores, and they usually involve digging, pushing, pulling, and/or lot's of walking. More on that in a minute.

I decided to come to CO for a week, to do work on my property; preparing the field and fencing for lease, and, as it turns out, a fews days of stuff for my former company. Great! And swapping cars with my parents meant I'd cut the fuel costs in half! Everything was going great - I was even going to make the Monday racquetball game, until I reached the western edge of Kansas. There, at mile marker 1 on I-70W, the transmission gave out. Poof, gone - no gear grip whatsoever! Fortunately, my parents subscribe to a roadside assistance plan, so I was able to get that # and call for a tow-truck. I had some fun taking pictures of trucks driving by the stranded car from my waiting spot down in the ditch next to the interstate.

After 30 mintues on the phone (it seems the roadside assistance people don't have many registered repair shops in west Kansas/east Colorado), and 60 miles back the other way, I would up in Colby Kansas. Turns out the car shop owner has a buddy who is in the business of used car sales and rental, so I got a rental car, and drove the rest of the way to Boulder that night. ON the good side, the delay made it so my drive was timed just right to have the sun setting directly in front of me. I got a decent picture of the scene through the windshield:

BTW - it turns out the tranny came apart - requiring complete replacement!

No rest for weary - today I got up and dove out to my place for a full day of farm work. Dig out those culvert junctions, string up that hot-wire, mow down the half acre of waist-high grass with a push mower! I capped the day off with a phone interview for a Senior Optical Design Engineer position with a company near Portland, OR, from a side street, on the cell phone, in a rental car, in dirty farm work clothes, after eating sinner from Sonic in about 10 minutes. All in a day's work!

Finally, I am camping out in a nearby State Park ($24/night! - outrageous!, but there is Wi-Fi here!), tired, sleepy, a little hungry, but still there is a smile on my face, go figure!

Spring is life (and death)

I do so enjoy Springtime - especially the very start of it. I like seeing the new buds on the trees and plants, the grass coming back to life, the birds and animals coming out of woodwork singing and dancing, essentially. But I was reminded today of how Spring is life, but as is always the case with nature, also death.

I was mowing down the weeds and a pasture area I had left overgrown last year, to try and give the grass seed underneath a better chance of getting established. It worked! As I mowed down the weeds, a beautiful green carpet of fine blades of new grass was left. I was feeling so happy with myself, when I noticed a strange, reddish spot in that new grass. It did not look like trash...Now, last year, a fox had made here den in the culvert (drainpipe - for you city-slickers) under my driveway. When the kits came out last summer, they were super-cute, and not afraid! They would even pose for pictures! Eventually, the foxes moved out, but it turns out one of those kits never made it past my north pasture. I found it curled up in some of the softest grass there was out there. I thought for a second that maybe it was still asleep (even though I had just run a lawnmower 3 feet away). It had not decomposed yet, or been found by anything that would eat it. It looks like the poor little fox just went to sleep there, tired, cold, hungry, and alone. And it stayed down for good. I wanted to protect the fox from being scavenged, so I stopped mowing and dug a grave for it in one of the remaining barren patches of the field. There I laid the fox to rest, with a little prayer that it rest easy now, and that it's body will help the new life that will cover the bare earth above it.

I've dug a lot of graves at this place, I hope maybe this will be the last, but I say that every time...

Cast the nets!

I feel like a fisherman who took the boat out scouting for some new spots, because his normal catch had dwindled to small numbers. But he didn't find any good new fishing grounds on the voyage, and nor can he return to port empty-handed - his creditors will be waiting. And so, he sails back to the familiar places he knows there will be some fish. But as the sun sinks low into the sky, these waters too, look unfamiliar and uncertain. And in some ways, this gives him hope - maybe the change he sees will signal a change in his catch as well. It also creates worry, as the change might not be for the better. I untangle my old net - it's frayed and thin now, but it will hold, and I cast it, with hope, into the water.

Let's see what's out there. . .

GPS gee-whiz

I am now in Washington, DC - visiting friends and waiting for my interview on Monday. Rainy and cold outside, so I'm doing some inside stuff today...

This has been a while in the works, but I have it working now! I can take my GPS tracks, plot them overlaid on a Google Map, and post them here on my blog. It takes a combination of two software tools, independent website, and a google account! For kicks , here is the track from my summer ascent of Long's Peak in Colorado (thanks to Matt Tucker for showing me the way!) - the only 14'er under my belt, and the highest ground I've ever stood on.

A new day in Colorado

So, if you live on the front range in Colorado, the weather forecasting system is not taken for granted, because without it, you go to bed after a sunny 70 degree day, and when it is snowing an 30 the next morning - it would be a surprise! Check out the picture and weather observations for this new day in Colorado....

A good day in Colorado

It was a good day to be in Colorado. Sunny, 70 degrees, all around beautiful! I got my new tenants checked in, my good neighbors agreed to lease the pasture, I took a hike, a bike ride, and the cool panorama you see above. Don't be jealous - tomorrow's high is 35, with snow and wind most of the day. Almost done here - leaving for MO and DC Monday or Tuesday!

I'd tell the story of the last minute countertop and sink install, but it's not that great - suffice to say, it went about par for the course. A couple unexpected turns involving the plumbing (it's ALWAYS the plumbing!), but I finished it just in time.

Cheers!

And now, for my next magical trick...

Hooray! I found the rabbit! I was reaching down into that hat for a long time, and the audience was looking skeptical, when I finally found those ears and yanked it out! All of which means I found renters for my house! Lease signed this evening. It's all not quiiiite done yet, as I still have to cash the verified check and install the new countertops (which also got done today), but I'm very close now. Almost bubblegum time...

What's the next magical trick? Why, to earn a highly competitive fellowship position in Washington, DC, of course...

Thanks for all the good luck vibes from you guys out there! It seems it might be working....

Even more thievery!

The good news - a sudden flurry of interest in my house for rent yesterday, including a couple parties keen on moving in ASAP! The bad news: on my last trip to the supermarket to use the Wi-Fi, I'm pretty sure I left my cell phone on the table. An hour later, it was gone! Nobody turned it in, I don't ave that much stuff to sift through, so I can only conclude that it was stolen. Grrrrrrr. So now I have almost no ability to communicate, and the potential renters can't reach me.

Jennie bailed me out by lending me her extra phone, and also drove up late last night to call the phone and try and help me locate it. That was generous and nice of her to do.

Bugger, man. Well, off to try and figure out how to restore my communications, so I can hopefully close the deal on a rental....

Trip wrap-up

Well, I can tell most of you have little faith in my butt-kicking capability by the lack of comments. My work here in Colorado is almost done, all that remains now is installing new countertop when it arrives (and sink), finishing the taxes, and finding a tenant. It seems my adventure will be on a hiatus for a while, as I need to buckle down and work a bit, as well as tend to an interview in Washington, DC. As such, I've decided to wrap it up and call this the end of the first chapter of my walkabout. I went and selected one picture (I think) from each stop -soon the tracker map at the bottom will show a little line graphic of the approximate path I took. Thanks for keeping me company on the ride!

I'm coming to chew bubblegum and kick ass

Winter clothes . . . check
Big stick . . . check
Steel-toed boots . . . check
Bubblegum . . . I'm alll out of gum.

Anybody recognize this delivery of the line?

Time to pay the piper

Well, this has all been great fun, but it has come time to pay the piper. I will be leaving New Orleans on Sunday to return to Boulder, where I will be for an indeterminate period of time. I have to try to get a new tenant, and get collection proceedings going, and do my taxes, and some work on the house... you get the idea. And then, unless something changes, I will have to look for work - of the high-paying, soul-battering kind. I sure hope I am feeling better by driving time - last night was an unpleasant, fever-soaked experience.

Maybe I'll get some notice about my fellowship application, maybe the collection agency will actually be able to come up with some $$, but I'm not counting on any of that. So, stay tuned, but it may be that this is the end of my travels - it seems the bungee 1) held, and 2) was shorter than I expected. At least, I would be able to say I went out on a high note. ;)

A side note: New Orleans certainly made an impression on me, and even on Papa Smurf, too. When climbing into the truck from the passenger side, I hit the rearview mirror, which came off, along with a chunk of the windshield! It was pointed out that - "Hey, that looks kind of like Louisiana!". Sure enough, the missing glass perimeter is fairly close to the outline of the state!

Mardi Gras!!!

Whooooeeee! That was some party. I am pretty exhausted, and my cold has made a comeback - I'll be recovering the rest of the week, I think, but it was worth it. I would be writing all night to tell the whole story. Suffice to say, Carnival in New Orleans has something for everybody - live music, colorful parades, dances, dancing, food, drink, smokes, costumed crazies - almost any party/fun you want to have, you can over here during Carnival.

I'll just tell you how it all ended. It turns out that Bourbon Street gets shut down at midnight on Mardi Gras - fitting, since Wed is Ash Wednesday. It's he only day of the year they have to close. I didn't know this, and so I wound up in section just outside the French Quarter, where the bars were still open, and a couple bands were playing. A DJ was set up outside one, and was jamming all kinds of latin music, and everybody was dancing in the street. I joined in and stayed out there until 2:30 in the morning. The street was not closed -passing cars just had to run the gauntlet of gyrating people, who would rock the cars, dance in front of them, and generally be silly, but let them pass. It started raining, but the party kept going. Me too - ditching my shoes to splash in the puddles. Finally, fatigue and the rain thinned the group enough that it was clear it was time to go home, so I hailed a cab and that was it.

You can see all the photos I've put up in the Parades Galore blog - the photo gadget there automatically updated to include the new uploads.

Blackout

Electronic blackout due to excessive party time coming up. Don't expect to hear from me again until after the 5th. I thought I would start today, but business kept me grounded just a little longer. Not that I'll be totally out of it, but probably only taking the time to deal with things that are unavoidable/necessary. Happy Mardi Gras everybody!

Audubon zoo

Part of my birthday activities was to go visit the zoo. It is pretty good! Not as good as San Diego, but I thought the exhibits were well-designed, and since it was cool winter morning, and a parade day, there were very few people there. If you like zoos, I recommend a visit here, next time you are in town.

I also learned here of the Loup-Garou (werewolf)and the Honey Island swamp monster. Scary fellows, they are...

Parades galore!

So, what's all the fuss about Mardi Gras, Carnival, parades, and the like? Okay, well, Carnival starts immediately after the 12th night of Christmas, and fills the gap until the start of Lent, which is itself determined by the timing of Easter, which is set by both the Spring Equinox and the lunar cycle. Confused yet? Look here, it explains it all.

Starting about 2 weeks before Mardi Gras (literally translated to Fat Tuesday), there are parades. Krewes make floats and costumes and march a several mile parade route. Over the two weeks and around the city, there are dozens of these parades. To join a Krewe is a several hundred to several thousand dollar investment, often involving waiting lists and such. See the schedule to get an idea of the scale of this. Now, if I've piqued your interest and you want to read more, this is a good website to get all your questions answered.

Now then, enough lecturing - here's the pictures! I saw three parades last Saturday - it was quite fun, and they pass just two blocks away from my room.

Finally, here is a short video I took that encapsulates the experience. A large float drives by, one of the costumed people tosses me some beads, and before you know it, the next act is right behind.

These floats are crazy to see coming. The crowd rushes up to the sides, clamoring for cheap trinkets, and you can see them launching rapid-fire at all angles from the float. The crowd does pretty well, and catches probably 70-80% of the stuff, which must add up to tons of material. Sadly, it seems to be kind of taboo to pick up stuff that lands on the ground, which means... well, better not to think of it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy birthday to me.
Happy birthday to me.
Haaaappppy birrthday, deeeaaaarrr SanchoTramp.
Happy birthday to me.

And so ends what, if I'm lucky, I'll look back on as the worst year of my life (how fitting that it would be a prime number - I've never particularly liked those). But don't worry about that Noah (see Bill Cosby's "Noah and the Ark"), the past is done, and time keeps on slippin', slippin' into the future (see Steve Miller Band).

Heartfelt thanks to all my family and friends for all the good times, phone calls and messages, gifts, food, shelter, companionship, advice, perspective, patience and encouragement. I am a fortunate and privileged person, indeed, to have so many "peeps".

Now, then -it's getting late, and I still have 3/4 a bottle of wine to drink....

Burning the candle at both ends...OUCH!

This week has gone so quickly! As Mardi Gras ramps up, I feel like I'm getting swept into a vortex, and time is going by faster and faster. Today, though I have decided to take a break and recuperate a little bit. The decision was made easier by the 20 minute coughing fit at 3am...Don't worry! It's still just a cold.

I've been pushing myself a bit this week because my friend Sara has been in town for the American Meteorological Society conference, so still getting up to go to work, but also staying out a bit late to hang-out w/ her whenever we had the chance. I learned this week, BTW, that the AMS conference is cursed with bad weather. Ice-storms in Santa Fe, this week, and they had other examples too. If you are ever going on a vacation in January - make sure you don't overlap w/ the AMS! Because of the inclement weather, I've been taking the streetcar - or at least intending too, but I've missed it more often than not, so hoofing the couple miles to Canal Street.

Oh yes, by way of proof, here are the weather observations from the last week:

Don't get me wrong - It's all been very much worthwhile, and very cool to get to hang out with Sara. It'd been three months since I last saw her, but it has felt like longer. We had a good time exploring around, and she graciously bought me a couple really good dinners. Thanks Sara! The food highlight was a rum, carmel soaked and pecan covered bread-pudding dessert. Delicious!

Yesterday was also my first Habitat for Humanity build day! Obviously, the weather was unpleasant, but it was a very satisfying day. For the most part, the group was painting and installing siding on the house. Here we all are at the beginning of the day -Sara was being bashful ;)The neighborhood around this house is alive, but even now, more houses than not are gutted wrecks. It felt very good to see the difference in the house at the end of the day. Maybe I'll get to go back next weekend and see even more progress.

Back in action

The cold lingers, but I've feeling much better and could not sit around anymore. So, I've some stories and pictures to share with you.

I went to see the Krewe de Vieux, on Saturday night, which kicks off the Mardi Gras parades. Starting next weekend, there will be at least one a day until Feb. 5. It was a pretty impressive sight. Several thousand people crowded the parade route on either side - dancing, yelling and watching. The parade itself was small floats, pulled by mules, and followed by several dozen costumed, dancing Krewe members, and each contingent backed up by a 6-piece brass percussion band. At one point, the music was good enough I actually found myself wishing I still had my old instrument and former skill at playing it. I saw the parade three times, because it makes a loop in the French Quarter, and the last time I was perched on a 4 ft. tall window ledge. It was fun to see people's reactions on the sidewalk as they passed by and realized those happy feet on at their neck height belonged to me (generally surprise, then concern, or "right on!"). A picture of me at the end of the night with my "flair".

On Sunday, I wen to the Audubon aquarium, which I thought was really good - surpassed in my experience only by the Shed Aquarium in Chicago. They've all kinds of cool animals and exhibits, including jellyfish, seahorses, penguins, sharks, turtles, and other stuff. I got to touch a ray in a "petting" tank. Yep - they feel the same on you hands as they do on your feet. No fear of getting stung here though, the barbs have been removed. Mostly, I'll let the photos I took speak for the experience...



Then, I went to play ultimate frisbee, with a group I saw playing last week. Dude, I am very far out of shape! But, I hung with them, and it's a mellow crowd, so all was good. I am sore all over today from the running.

Today, I went to Bayou Senette State Park. Not a very impressive looking place, but it was relatively quiet and got me a little bit of a nature fix after two weeks in the city. I'm having fun with the Flickr badges, here's another one!

www.flickr.com

A lost week

Hello out there? What's going on with everybody? Lemme know how you are spending the three-day weekend, eh? It's been a pretty quiet week. I've been doing not much of anything, as I've been going to work, and trying not to be sick the rest of the time. A pesky, nagging cold fought back last Monday or so, and I've been trying to get over it all week. I think I'm on the upswing again, though. So, all-in-all, I think this has been one of my most boring weeks yet on my trip. The two-a-week soccer games fell through, since one was rained out, and another a scheduling conflict got us booted off the field. :(

I'm getting the hang of New Orleans, though. It really is not that big - smaller than I thought it was. Smaller than San Diego. Hopefully I'll be up to a lot this weekend. Aquarium, zoo, soccer, ultimate frisbee, a day at a state park, maybe some fishing... I went to a NO Hornets basketball game tonight. It was disappointing - college ball is much better, except possibly, for the cheerleaders. It's too bad the Bobcats got blown-out. I wanted them to take the Hornets down a peg for leaving Charlotte several years ago.

It's rainy and dreary out -I think I will pack it in early one more night, do some reading (Wow, that's a novel thought!) and figure out the rest tomorrow....

Socccer! soccersoccersoccer

soccersoccersoccersoccer!

Can you tell the highlight of my day was finding a soccer game to play in? Actually, it's a congenial group of guys that play a couple times a week, and they invited me to join their practices - so I really found about as much soccer as this old body can take on a regular basis. It's a middle-aged soccer team, mostly Irish, there aren't big egos out there, and they know what they are doing so it's skillful play. Just what I was hoping to find! I like to think they know a player when they see one, as they also invited me to join them in league play, even though I did not do a heck of a lot in the 20 minutes I had.

Oooooh man, am I out of shape. After the game I was hacking like a smoker, tasted blood in my throat, and my lungs were burning. That's hundreds of alveoli, being forced to stretch further than they have in a while. Kind of like putting cold hands under warm water, except in your lungs. Doesn't help that I'm just getting over a cold - Wed-Friday nights were pretty much spent sleeping as much as possible. Still, it was a short session so afterwards, I took a jog around the adjacent Audubon Park, which I estimate at a 2.5 mile loop. Now I will be a slug the rest of the day..

I saw a swan in the park while on my jog. They are bigger than I remember! It was neat to watch the interaction - I think the bird was curious about the kid throwing bread at it. It glided in very close, as if to get a really good look, but did not bother to eat the bread thrown right in front of it's face. When it circled back out a little further away, it started eating again.

My job is good, will be easy to do and will pay the bills - hopefully I'll be able to find something a little extra I can do for the charity. They run three free health clinics for the poor here in the NO area, and are funded by an order of Cathlolic nuns.

Saturday I spent volunteering at the Habitat ReStore. Oh man, that warehouse is only barely separated from a junkyard. There is a roof overhead, and volunteers line up the junk in rows every weekend... I exaggerate somewhat, but I think there is a lot more that could be done there, with some vision and a little extra labor.

I guess a lot actually happened this week - what a disjointed brain dump that was! Finally, here's a few new pictures I took in the French Quarter.

www.flickr.com SanchoTramp's New Orleans photoset

Back to Work

Well, the big news is that I have found some work for the next few weeks to pay the bills. I've also signed up for several volunteering days, but that won't happen for a couple weeks yet. I'll be doing admin stuff for The Daughters of Charity. Pay is not great, but it should cover my expenses while I am here, which is all it needs to do. I am happy that the outlet for my work will be a charitable institution. Is it still charity if you are working for $10/hr, but are trained for work that pays $30+/hr? Man, just yesterday I saw a job solicitation that fits my experience very closely, and pays $110K! I gotta admit, the $$ had me tempted for a little bit...

Anyway, time also catchup on some back story also:
I took lots of photos out of my window while driving into New Orleans, and made a collage from some of them. I left the angles all skewed, cause I think it reflects the haphazard and slightly disorienting nature of my experience, trying to take it all while steering straight. It's all so clearly money-driven. The casinos and hotels and tourist attractions are all fine, but sooo many homes and outlying neighborhoods still languish is a state of neglect. It seems to me that most of the surface problems here are simple to solve, but there is just not the money to make it happen. It's pretty clear the city doesn't have the funds either. Just two examples from yesterday - I saw a City Hall Annex condemned, and a huge city golf course that used to compose the northern half of City Park just utterly abandoned.

Now, I am tired and will go get some rest. Maybe it's the 25 miles I've biked over the past couple days, maybe all the mental effort of all the setup operations I've been doing here, maybe still leftover from Monday night/Tuesday morning. Doesn't matter - gotta be at work at 8am tomorrow!

P.S - you may notice ads on my blog page now. Just an experiment - I'll get a kickback from Google when people click on them. If they get too obnoxious, I'll get rid of them. If you have the time, stick it to the man and click on them...

Championship night

whoooee! What a full day yesterday! Agenda items included finding a place to live for the next month, watching the Sugar Bowl, and partying with 50,000 of my "friends" in the French Quarter.

The day began simply enough, taking a jog and shower in the state park, after calling and mapping all the listing in the Sunday paper of rooms for rent. I scheduled a few showings, ate lunch, and headed into town.

3 hours later, I wimped out a little bit on the housing part. I decided to rent a place that is not the cheapest I found, but is in a safer and more convenient neighborhood. Now I'm on the hook for $175/week. But it's an easy bike or trolley ride to downtown - even walking it is not bad. Big room with a private bath - it should be a good home base where I don't have to drive all the time. The alternatives where in neighborhoods where I and my truck would really stick out and I did not feel very safe, and I would necessarily have to drive or take cabs everywhere.

Having finished that, including moving in my stuff and getting a certified check to pay in advance. I turned my attention to the big game, now only 2 hours away. Nothing fancy here - I just rode the trolley to Canal Street. After watching the first half with some friendly Buckeyes, the game was starting to look bad, so I walked over to the Superdome. Now, it took me most of half-time and the third quarter to get over there and find an opportunity, but I was successful in finding some security personell getting slack and a gap in the fence of the smoker's corral. In I went to watch the 4th quarter! Wow, what an impressive sight and sound! It's the noise that is impossible to convey. Exciting stuff, and OSU had a chance to make a game of it, but alas - it was not to be..

After the game, I walked with the crowd and the bands back to the French Quarter, where I took in the spectacle for another three hours. Crazy, crazy, huge crowd. Police on horseback, beads and drinks everywhere, all kinds of music blasting from every bar and restaurant. All good fun to people-watch, drink, and enjoy the music. But around 2am, my night ended when I either did not drink enough, or drank too much, and let my guard down. It really hit me that everybody out there was there with somebody. Their friends (at least, they started out that way..), couples, classmates, etc. And this made me feel very lonely, amidst all these people. And that was it, once that feeling gets in, I can't break out of it on my own. The choices for guys like me become drink to numbness, strip clubs, or go home. I'm not really a person for the first two choices, so I walked home.

I suppose I could have lasted longer, had I really gotten into the party, and been super-outgoing and trying to pick up women, or something. I guess my heart's not really in being that way. It does not help that I don't really fit in very well with the people that are out there. All the people my age are at home with the kids, or dancing with their beau, or just tending the bar. So I meet college students, or older people of means that are here on vacation - but it's hard to connect more than superficially with them, and like I said before -they're all here with some other group. I saw some of my contemporaries on the way home, drinking quietly in bars, playing video poker, having discontented "conversations" into cell-phones.

Ah well, such is life. I can't be too hard on myself, since I'd only been in NO for 36 hours. And I had 6 hours of fun, to only 1 hour of crappiness. So it was a good night!

Now to get on with finding a way to pay for these luxurious digs, and finding some fun people to hang out with a month from now at Mardi Gras!

The Big Easy . . .

What an oxymoron - because it looks hard to me.

I got to New Orleans today, and I'll have lots to write about here, it seems - I bet I could fill two pages just from the afternoon. My head is swimming with all the learning that comes with a new town. Here's the short version: Tomorrow, I'll be looking for a room to rent, storage for my things, a job, volunteering, and joining the party after the big game. For the record, I'm rooting for Ohio State, but won't mind tooo much if LSU wins, because that will be a better party. Tonight, I'm resting up at Fontainebleau State Park, across Lake Ponchartrain from the city.

Man, this town is crazy. The French Quarter is party/tourist central, complete with street performers, open containers, party buses, etc. But just blocks away, everything is falling apart, and practically screaming at me to watch my back and my step. I can't recall seeing anything equivalent before in this country. Around dusk, I had one older woman kindly greet me on the street, followed by "be careful".

Virtually everything west of Biloxi, MS is new, under construction, damaged, destroyed, or vacant. It looks like everything was touched by that hurricane. Piles of rubble are not uncommon outside the city center. Even within 1/2 mile of the French Quarter, I saw houses still tarped and marked w/ the red "X"s from the search and rescue aftermath. I'll write more about the destruction and this dichotomy later on, and add pictures.

Anyway, it's a lot to take in for this country mouse - I expect it will take a little while to find my feet here. Let the learning begin!

On the road again, . . .

. . . on my own again. I woke up this morning with "butterflies" in my stomach. That same feeling you get before the start of a big game or jumping off a cliff (yes, I really have done that). That feeling you get when you're about to do something you've never done before and you don't know how it will turn out. If you've done it, you know what I'm talking about.

Wish me luck!

Now for the hard part

Props to my immediate family, Tias, Columbian cousins, and my Tio Frank - I haven't seen many of them for 10+ years, but I was welcomed like a prodigal son. I had a great time getting to meet them (again) and just hanging out. It's hard to have a bad time with such generous, fun-loving people. E.g. - the New's Year's Eve party lasted until 4am. It was a super Spanish refresher also - my language skills have atrophied greatly over the last 10-15 years. It was a great couple weeks!

So far, this has been a pretty fun trip, but really, I've been mostly coasting. So, now comes the hard part. Since Mid-October, I've only spent 3-4 weeks truly out on my own. Time enough to be significant, but also a lot of time essentially mooching off friends and family. I plan to head now into territory where I don't know anybody and really see how sustainable this lifestyle can be.

I am currently on a train back to NC*, where I will recoup my truck and possessions from Dan and Andie's house, and head to New Orleans, post-haste. I hope to make it there in time to join the celebrations surrounding the BCS championship game (Jan. 7). Then, I'll be looking for work and volunteering opportunities. I am curious to see what it looks like now, and I have an idea that there is still a need for old-fashioned sweat and muscle there.

Let's go see, eh?

*An aside here to answer some comments- I got to Florida by hitching a ride w/ Dan Hartmann, who was taking a cruise from Ft. Lauderdale. I left my truck at his house. He lent me his car while he was on the ship - that is the car w/ the canoe on top.

This year is starting off with a bang! In other news:

My deadbeat tenants were evicted yesterday! From what I hear, it could have been worse, but mostly they left behind trash and filth (including a dead goat carcass in the garage), not damage.

Congratulations to my friends Phil and Danielle, who are new parents as of yesterday! Danielle delivered a beautiful baby girl.

Congratulations to my friend Dan, who just accepted a job offer, and will be moving to Boston!