Arches & the Four Corners

Today we got up early to beat the 100 degree temps in Arches National Park near Moab, UT. One of the first interesting features we saw was this bee-hive looking rock formation.


Here is the Courthouse Towers just after entering Arches National Park. These towers are majestic and awesome! Some of them resemble human figures, arms folded across chest, meditating to ???

We drove right to the Delicate Arch trail head and started hiking the 1.5 miles out to the arch. It was already hot!!! We climbed just under 500 feet and had to rest several times. I would not want to do this hike in the afternoon.


Once we got to the Delicate Arch it was very much worth the hike. The area just begs my heart and feet for a more lengthy playful exploration. Not today though. Another time for sure!

A man who did not speak much English snapped this shot of us! I tried to be clear when I said "please do not back up any further!". He was on the edge of the cliff behind him. He said something like, "yeah, that would be nice".....in broken English.

Here is a 360 view of the Delicate Arch area.

Afterwards, drove to Devils Garden to check out that area. Wow! This area pulls me into it. I want to break every "don't hike off the trail" rule I can here! To bad I have a great appreciation for the livelihood of Criptobiotic Bacteria that chooses to live on the desert ground. We hiked into see Sand Dune Arch and took some pictures. We did not go far because of the and the time, but it is a really awesome area. I've been here before in 1994, camping for a few days. I appreciated then, but I still want to come back. Maybe not in July though.

Then we drove to the Windows area and took some video. This area has several arches that I had explored on a previous trip. Just like the rest of the formations here, it is totally awesome! (The travel monkey we purchased in Tucumcari NM is getting much better riding on the roof top and taking video. We are not allowed to show him or name him because of the agreement we signed at the road-side flea market. "Fleas!"....yeah no kidding!)

I do have two geologic degrees. I better at least snap a picture of the Moab fault. Yeah, I used to be able to discuss this topic, but too many years working in remote sensing and GIS have fogged my memory. But, it is exciting and I know I could pick it back up if I had to. Geology Rocks!

Okay.....we stopped for a couple smoothies and a hot coffee. Yes! I needed to stay awake since we were driving 2.5 hours to the border or CO, NM, UT, and AZ. We needed to put some feet into AZ for the first time. So, we are off! We purchased some liquid gold before we headed out for a measly $4.29, "85 octane" mind you too! Is that legal? And before long we went through an area where we were earlier. I swear the gas had increased 20 cents during the day. I don't remember it being this much, $4.48. Did something happen while we were out?!

Here is the feet in AZ shot after the long drive!

The drive back to Durango. The views continue to be awesome!

Once we got back to our campsite and made some dinner, we drove out to a gravel road for a little star gazing. It is hard to take pictures of that, but it was crystal clear!

Gas mileage update:
Since I had the car service done in Albuquerque, our gas mileage has gone up 8 miles per gallon! Wow! What a difference.

Molas Lake, Silverton and Ouray, Colorado

We got up this morning and made coffee and breakfast at camp. Wow! Camp is a mess, who do you think has to clean all this up?

Me in my camp PJs.....has to clean this all up!

Checking email and stuff with our wireless internet access from camp.....and watching mama bird feed her babies in the near by tree.

Went in to Durango for some coffee. Then drove by Fort Lewis College. This is one of the students there. This deer really didn't mind us at all!

The view looking north up the Animas River Valley into the San Jaun Mountains. That is where we are going today!

Nice opportunity for a picture of the eager mountain travelers!

Then we headed for the mountains and the wonderful views from Molas Lake. Stopped off and Coal Bank Pass. The drive up Highway 550 includes the longest exposed stratigraphic section of rocks going from recent to pre-cambrian. The interesting thing is that you drive up in elevation but the rocks get older as you go up in elevation.

This is probably my favorite view on the planet Earth.

Does it show? The San Juan mountains make me smile! Work? Life? What?

A picture of us two hanging out at the view. Makes me want to go hiking into those mountains. Did that for 5 days back in 1998.

This is a great place to stop and think. What are you thinking about? I "think" this is what we enjoyed most. Just sitting here with the view and seemingly the entire world within eye site. This mountain views are big! Bigger than life and man!


Here is a 360 degree view from Molas Lake near Molas Pass just south of Silverton, CO.



The scenery reminded me of the Sound of Music. So I had to do my imitation of that scene in the movie. Need to add some music.

Some ice cream in Silverton, CO. How many layers of mountain fudge is in the Sunday?

Box Canyon in Ouray. Lots of fun here. Wow! Test your fear of heights and your caving skills.


Check out this video I took along the Million Dollar Highway. Back when this was built (1920s?) it cost $1M per mile to build it. There is the white line and then there is the drop off. No place for mistakes here. Got to pay attention. The last thing you'd want to do is try to record a video while driving!

Okay. Tomorrow we are thinking Utah and Arches National Park. Lets see what happens!

Durango

Got up today and skipped out on the free pancakes at the KOA. Instead we took my CRV to the local Honda shop to have the engine light checked out. The result was a valve adjustment, a distributor cap and rotors and I was set. The CRV is running great now!

While waiting on the CRV repair we walked about a 1/2 mile to the nearest Starbucks and had a good time there. We always seem to have our techo-gadgetry with us.....phones, computer, camera and GPS.

We headed out of Albuquerque and made out way into northern NM. The terrain was changing and we got up into some great highway outcrops along Highway 550 on our way to Durango. The drive became long and somewhat drowsy. But, we hit a road side shop for some ice cream and peppered beef jerky. We were set.


Finally made it into Durango and headed straight for our campsite. We set up camp and have our little tent home for the next few days.

Then, we decided to visit Durango for dinner. This is the road from our campground back to Durango. I'd like to ride this on a bike!

We ended up at Farquahrts Pizza Mia for dinner. It was good! Had a tomato and chicken pizza. We had some left overs too. So, we had to have the to-go box decorated.

Bernilillo, NM

After breaking our overnight fast at Denny's we hit the road for TX and NM. One of the first things we noticed was how far away the horizon appeared to be. You could see for miles....seemed like hundreds of miles before the horizon dropped off. Seemingly the Earth was flat again! What causes this illusion?

Since the engine light was still on....and it was even blinking at one point this morning as we were leaving Oklahoma City, I decided to save some gas and draft a semi truck for about 40 to 50 miles. We picked the Good Hope Transportation truck. We sat in its draft for a long time to see if it would help out our gas mileage a bit. We've been keeping a spreadsheet on how many miles we are driving and how many gallons of gasoline we are consuming. After we plugged in the data we assessed that drafting the semi-truck did not do that much for our gas mileage. Will try again later if we get another opportunity.

Here are some windmills in Oklahoma. These things are HUGE! And there are a lot of them. It seemed like we were on an alien planet seeing a new landscape. Or, maybe I've been watching too many Star Wars movies lately. Emily has been watching Star Wars II and III on our trip.

We arrived in Bernilillo, NM early this evening. We set up camp at the local KOA. I had camped here back in 1994 and 95 for geologic field camp. Our site was very sandy. We broke out the new tent and set it up. There was plenty of room for us.

Then, we went to get something to eat. Friends back home recommended the Range Cafe! It was good! Emily tried the bean burrito and I had mine with veggies and chicken. We also tried some chips and queso. Yummy! Then, we had some of their home made ice cream and of course that was a hit with Emily. Back to the campsite for some much needed sleep. It looked like it was going to rain. Did it?

In the morning, we are going to take the CRV to the local Honda repair to check out the engine light situation. Hopefully it won't be too lengthy process.

Durango tomorrow! Look out!

Memphis & Oklahoma City

We departed from Asheville on Saturday morning and made it to our first stop-over, Memphis. We thought it would be nice to visit Memphis. We visited America's Incredible Pizza Company for dinner and it was a fricken ZOO! I've never had such an experience. Totally rude, totally loud and totally a waste of money!!!! Never again!

So, we are driving around in downtown Memphis on Sunday morning looking for coffee and a breakfast. We were searching for Cafe Francisco! We found it, but it was shut down and for sale! Darn! We then headed for another place and click, my engine light came on! I freaked out a bit because we had only driven 500 miles of our 4,000+ mile journey. I was not about to be stranded in Memphis! Surely I realized that the CRV had been running just fine and I had just put about $2800 of maintenance and repair into. A phone call to my mechanic assured me that everything should be okay. We drove on! ....headed down the highway....lookin for adventure....

Off to Oklahoma City on Sunday. Made it without any problems. We stopped in downtown Little Rock and visited a starbucks and a BOA ATM. I haven't taken any pictures. My camera batteries were dead and my batteries were buried in my car some place. Will have picts soon!

My Garmin nuvi 350 has taken us to a number of incorrect locations for Starbucks and our hotel tonight. But luckily I prepared for that and printed up some maps. We arrived safe and sound. Saturday night it took us to a residential area where there was supposed to be a gas station.

Off to Bernilillo tomorrow. We are going to camp tomorrow and then the rest of the week. Will have picts soon! Stay tuned!

Team Velosports: Photo Shoot at the Wedge Brewery

We scheduled our monthly team meeting and a photo shoot tonight at the Wedge Brewery in the River Arts District of Asheville, NC. The main item on the meeting agenda was some Community Porter and IPA......pitchers of them.

Here is the Wedge Studios logo on the building. Okay, lets take some pictures.




Bottoms Up! See you on the road, trail, and track.

One: Guess who? Two: Lots going on!

Driving up and down Interstate 75. Can't remember how much money I've spent on gas lately. It has been a lot. But guess who came to town? And, it was the day before Fathers Day! Luck me!

What else would I want for Father's Day other than my daughter and the rest of the summer with her! What a shot over looking the Cataloochee Valley in the eastern portion of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park......amazingly I have never been to Cataloochee before! Need to come back in the early AM or late afternoon to chill down with the Elks!

Do you see any Elk? How about some Turkey?

Lots going on! I have been on a bike maybe 3 times in the last 3 weeks. And it has to do with WORK! I at least have some cool projects right now.

New techno toys include the Garmin nuvi 350 and a Dell laptop. It is going to get us there! Stay tuned!

Somebody Save me! .....from the work stress! ....from the rush of life's mess! ....put me in the woods! ....give me coffee!

BONUS:
One of the things my daughter and I like to do together is to play "Restaurant". Here is the menu she made. We seat the customer, take their order, make their food, give them the bill, pay for our meal, leave a tip and check out! It is fun!

Here is a pict of Father's Day Sushi! We had a lot of food!

Sesame Street 1972

The good old days when life was simple!

Why stereotype?

Big truck. Not parked correctly. Taking up too much space. Hmmmm? I am not perfect either, but.....I'd be willing to bet the owner of vehicle comes out of the store with a case of Budweiser. Yeah?

Trippin on I-75 and Recitaling in Ohio

Here we are again, time for another dance recital. Been doing the dance recital scene for 8 years now. I still have the flowers from the very first one my daughter was in when she was very young. Aren't they pretty?!


Here is that familiar shot in the I-40 gorge that I always seem to remember to take.

The drive to Ohio included a 3 hour stretch where I averaged about 4 mph.......no, I wasn't on my bike either. This was a diversion of all interstate traffic from I-75 into the little town of Jellico, TN and then on up to Williamsburg, KY. It was an 11 mile stretch of Interstate that we diverted from onto a 13 miles stretch of road.

Folks were out walking their dogs, peeing in the woods (I had to get out and do that too) and talking to their newly found vehicular neighbors. I wish I had one of those Garmin GPS devices so that I could navigate around this detour. We were in a tight spot and there were not many road options around, but I later learned that there were a few other roads. But, at the time of me being diverted from the interstate, I had no way of knowing that it was going to last 3 hours.

Ohio! What else can I say, other than the flat farmlands recalled from my college youth. Yeah, I used to live in NW Ohio for about 10 years. It is flat!

Okay....finally here! Aint we purdy! I missed her so much! Happy to be here!

On the stage. I snuck in a few shots with my phone camera. Not too clear, but it is not appropriate for flash cameras while they are performing.

There are not too many Starbucks on a road trip in NW Ohio. So, we found a local shop called Morey's. Their roasters are in Michigan somewhere. When visiting new coffee shops, I usually ask "where do you roast your beans?". I prefer "in-shop" roasting at my favorite coffee shops.....at least locally when I am not on a road trip.

On the boat in the pond in the back yard.