Head Out On The Highway...

Gund Barton Creek Bear Pia Flower Fairy Giveaway

2009-04-19T16:57:00.001-07:00

Head on over to the blog at Jovialstores to enter this great contest.

The winner will receive this great Pia flower fairy bear.

Pia Flower Fairy Bear from the Gund Barton Creek Collection

Artist Designed by Kelly Mayer. This is Pia Limited Edition. Starry-eyed lil' girl! She is a sparkly cream bear with fairy wings. Over height is 6" Standing. She is hand crafted. Fully disc jointed. French embroidery Thread. Suede paw pads. Simulated Mohair. Filled with pellets. Sits on a silk flower.

There are many great designs in the Barton Creek range which is now discontinued. All are limited edition artist designed bears and we are selling the last few at heavily discounted prices. These designs are aimed at Adult collectors so are Age 12 plus.

Jovialstores also has a large range of Gund designs and plush for children and babies. As well as carrying the full line of Jellycat, Folkmanis and many other designs.

To enter go HERE

African Safari. Texas Style.

2009-03-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in a while, largely because there hasn't been many trips.

A few weeks back, we took the kids on a day trip to the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, which bills itself as "African Safari. Texas Style", so we were half expecting the animals to wear cowboy hats or something equally horrific. Fortunately they weren't.

There is nothing like an getting an early start, and this was nothing like it. Despite only being an hour away, we got there early afternoon, with three extremely excited kids. A quick stop at the restrooms, and we set off for the first loop round the park, She Who Must Be Obeyed driving, me armed with assorted cameras and lenses, and the kids hanging out the window.

I took a 200-400mm zoom lens to try and get some decent shots of the animals, which turned out to be absolutely useless when the animals like sticking their heads in your car.

Also learnt that Zebras smell like sweaty horses, surprisingly enough.

First animals we came across were a herd of assorted deer, with a few buffalo and goats thrown in. Didn't have a video camera with me, but watching a buffalo toss a goat out of the way with a flick of its neck was a sight to see. It was trying to eat some food the buffalo wanted.

About half way round the loop, you meet some friendly two legged creatures who like to stick their heads in the car.

We thought it would be nice for the kids to have a bag of feed for the animals each, after warning them that they shouldn't eat it themselves, and hoping they'd listen. If an animal came within 20 yards, Alex would throw a hand-full of food and had run out half way round the first loop. Amy would get all excited as animals approached the car, then when they got too close panicked and backed away. Unbeknown to me however, Katie, being both the eldest and most mischievous, decided it would be humerus to line up food along the window, right underneath the camera lens as I was taking pictures. So I'm snapping away as this ostrich gets closer and closer, filling the viewfinder, then suddenly lunges at me (or rather, lunges at the food that I didn't know was there). Certainly got my attention, so thank you Katie, that will not be forgotten.

At the end of the loop, a trip to the petting zoo was in order.

And that went about as expected. Katie liked feeding the animals, since she had saved some food. Stopping Alex from chasing them was a full time job. Amy was a mixture of fear and excitement, but wouldn't get too close. Oh, and a goat adopted me and kept trying to eat my t-shirt every time I crouched down to take a picture. Every single time.

A couple more loops of the park followed, several hundred pictures for me to sort through, and that's probably the best behaved the kids have ever been on a trip.

Anyone know how to stop the car smelling of sweaty zebra?

Chatsworth House

2009-01-09T13:32:00.000-08:00

She Who Must Be Obeyed stole the Nikon D90 from me pretty much as soon as it arrived last fall. She'd never used a DSLR or SLR before that (The Nikon D200 was too big, too complicated etc).

Last October she went back to the UK to visit family, and took the D90 paired with a Nikon 18-200mm VR lens with her. While she was there, she went to the Beyond Limits 2008 Chatsworth and Sothebys sculpture exhibition at Chatsworth House. She took the D90.

This gallery shows the results of her first outing with her first DSLR, a Nikon D90, and is a great example of what this camera can do in the hands of a beginner.

Other than being cropped and resized, most images are posted as shot. A small number had color settings changed.

Full gallery is here at DentonImages.com.

Garden Visitor

2009-01-09T09:55:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas, heard a tapping noise walking out to the car. Turned out to be this little female Ladderback Woodpecker:

More pictures can be found on DentonImages.com

Nikon D3x

2008-12-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

Well, after months of speculation and lusting after the new high megapixel Nikon, the Nikon D3x, it's finally been announced. However it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

This video pretty much sums up my reaction:

More on the Nikon D3x at DentonImages.com.

DentonImages.com Update

2008-10-05T02:55:00.001-07:00

Major updates have been made to my main site, DentonImages.com. A travel section has been added, as has Compact Flash performance data for the Nikon D200 and Nikon D300, and first impressions of the Nikon D90, a review of the Nikon MB-D10, and news from Photokina 2008 (new CF Cards, new Leica system, new Hasselblad as well as updates from Canon & Nikon) .

You can see these updates at DentonImages.com.

Planning the next trip...

2008-09-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

Sometimes miracles happen. Last night, completely out of the blue, She Who Must Be Obeyed turned round and suggested that some time next year, I take a month off and go somewhere with my cameras. My initial response was to ask how much wine she'd had to drink, which was possibly not the best response, but heh.

Turns out she's thinking of inviting out my mother-in-law to come visit from England and spend some quality time with the grandkids. I'm told everyone will be happier if I go off on a trip for a month. I'm not going to object.

Anyway, she did put some conditions on the trip:

It's got to be something productive - so no sitting on a beach in Cancun. That means I've either got to take some more pictures I can sell, or it has to drive traffic to one or more of our web sites, or something...
I need internet access at least every few days so I can make sure bills etc are paid (so no backpacking through the Sahara or to one of the Poles I guess).
I'm not allowed to get captured by FARC rebels (so scratch the dirt-biking in the jungles of Columbia idea), and I'm not allowed to get arrested (or if I am, not jailed, I need to be back home by the end of the month). I'm not allowed to be eaten by a bear. She stressed it has to be something relatively safe. Why she had to emphasise this I have no clue.
It has to be during school time, I need to be at home for school holidays for the kids (actually, I'd make sure I was there for the kids regardless, they always come first).
I can't do the African safari, because she wants to come.

The fact she came straight out with these conditions shows that she'd been thinking about it for a while, and also shows to some extent what she thinks of me. Oh well.

Anyway, I'm looking for ideas.

A month isn't long enough to ride the Pan American Highway on a motorbike (it would take me a week to ride to the starting point in Anchorage alone from Austin).

Road trip to Alaska is a distinct possibility (although that's a trip she wants to do as well, so might get some resistance there - she'll possibly try to classify that one as an "African Safari" and exclude it).

Going to Europe is a distinct option - haven't been to a European F1 race in 16 years, and have never been to Spa, Monza or Monaco. Haven't been to Farnborough Air Show for 20 years, so renting a motorbike for a month and touring round Europe between events is very appealing.

I've also always wanted to go to China, but need to research that much better.

I'm interested primarily in Travel (not a city person though), wildlife, and motorsports. Suggestions welcome.

Rocky & Bullwinkle

2008-09-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

Finally getting round to going through my images from the trip - pictures from a rainy afternoon drive through the Rocky Mountain National Park on 7/1/2008 can be found here:

Rocky Mountain N.P. Gallery.

Homeward Bound

2008-07-28T20:02:00.000-07:00

Day 11: Littlefield, TX to Austin TX. Final Trip Total 3,942 miles.

Katie gets her swim as soon as the pool opens at 8:00am; we grab breakfast at the motel, and then head out back to Austin. Back on roads I know, the day goes pretty fast down through San Angelo and Brady, with assorted wolf impressions coming from the back seat throughout the day. It’s an uneventful day, and we get back home around 4:00pm.

Travel Tip #1: Don’t travel with a vegetarian unless you like Subway.

Despite being mocked before the trip, we used pretty much everything we took: the tool kit didn’t get used, but that would have been indispensable had we have broken down out of cell range. The self-inflating SwissGear mattresses didn’t get used, and we didn’t sleep in the back of the car, so the Coleman Twin-Sized Quickbed wasn’t used either. I did take more camera equipment than I needed – my Nikon 105mm f/2.8G Lens went unused, as did my Nikon 85mm f/1.4D Lens and Nikon SB-800 Speedlight. The Pelican cases (1510 Case & 1610 Case) were fantastic though, amazingly robust. And the Coleman 100 quart cooler worked extremely well for us. And I still haven’t got past the introduction on the SAS Survival Handbook.

The Nissan Armada held up okay – no major mechanical problems, however the hinged window on the back left corner of the vehicle worked loose – it looks like the hinge is no longer attached and is being held loosely in place by the plastic trim. The drivers electric window isn’t working properly – it’s jumped out of its track, so when it closes the glass scrapes against metal and both rubber pieces are inside the car. This is about the 6th time it’s done this – the dealer fixes it, and it usually lasts for about 2 weeks before doing this again – this time it had held up since being repaired last October, until my brother started opening the window every 15 minutes because of his flatulence problem. And the front passengers electric window doesn’t always close when you open it completely, which I also attribute excessive use due to my brothers problem.

Travel Tip #2: Don’t travel with my brother.

What would I take next time? A warm hat and warmer socks/boots for those cold mornings would be extremely useful. And possibly a more detailed map.

Overall a fantastic trip, especially for a 5 year old, who now knows that things she learns about on cartoons are actually real. Another couple of years and the twins will be old enough to come on a trip like this – that’ll be really interesting.

Now I just need to figure out how to convince her indoors that I need to do a road trip to Alaska…

I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque.

2008-07-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

"I knew I shoulda taken that left turn at Albuquerque." – Bugs Bunny.

Day 10: Mesa Verde National Park, CO to Littlefield, TX. Trip Total 3,530 miles.

The tent is packed away for the last time, my brother moisturizes, and we start the long haul back to Texas. The initial plan is to cut down to Albuquerque NM, then try and get as far as Lubbock, TX before nightfall, so the final day won’t be too long. Although shortly after leaving the park, my brother gets excited when he sees a Wal-Mart, and has to stop to buy more $6 t-shirts that apparently cost many times that back in England. Due to the sheer excitement, he then manages to drive 30 miles past the right turn we need to take for Albuquerque before we realize we’ve missed it completely. So instead of lunch in Albuquerque, we end up at a Subway (yet again) in Santa Fe. Fortunately, this subway serves Pizza, and they are actually quite good.

From there we head east towards Clovis, past the grave of Billy the Kid, and the land flattens and is dominated by trains and grain elevators for many miles. More of the same as we enter Texas, and we get to Best Western in a town called Littlefield before dark – possibly the nicest Best Western I’ve ever stayed in. Katie is thrilled, because she gets her bath, and there is a pool for the morning.

I ask for a good place to eat at the front desk (I’m asked what kind of food, my response is “anything but Subway”), and we are directed to a little Mexican Cantina. My brother is happy, because he likes his margaritas and doesn’t get them in the UK, until we try to order and find out they don’t sell alcohol…

Back to the motel, my brother moisturizes again, and we call it a day.

Trapping Bears and the Big Dipper

2008-07-28T18:38:00.000-07:00

Day 9: Ridgeway State Park, CO to Mesa Verde National Park, CO. Trip Total 3,028 miles.

Another night survived in a tent without a bear eating us, and for the second night in a row I manage to get my sleeping bag rolled up first try. My brother moisturizes, we manage to get everything into only two of the wheeled bins to get them back down the steep hill to the car, (which is a lot easier than going up) and Katie makes sure her name is clearly visible in the tent pad before we leave.

By lunchtime we are in Cortez, looking for somewhere for lunch that caters to vegetarians and that is not Subway. After driving the length of the town twice, we go to Subway.

After lunch we stop at a Native American gift shop, which apparently welcomes coaches according to the massive sign outside. Katie’s favorite color has now changed from purple to turquoise, so we go in looking for something turquoise for her, expecting to get fleeced. To my surprise, a very happy Katie leaves 10 minutes later with a little turquoise ring for only $4, and a huge grin on her face.

Then into the Mesa Verde National Park. This is somewhere I’ve wanted to come to for many years, but never quite got round it before. The park is pretty big, and we were pushed for time, but it was well worth the visit, and somewhere I’ll definitely go back to when I have more time.

The landscape:

We actually got to go down into some of the cliff dwellings:

Katie thought she was Dora the Explorer:

Since touring the park took much longer than expected, we decided to camp in the park overnight. More bear warnings as we register at the campsite, then just to reinforce the point, at the entrance to the campsite they park the trailer they use to transport caught bears:

The tent goes up, and Katie sees some kids and asks if she can go play with them. I tell her yes, but only if she stays where we can see her. When she’s offered s’mores, she comes back and asks permission. When the other kids get too close to the road, she stops them and moves them away from the road. I’ve never seen her so well behaved. She comes back as the sun goes down, and surprises me again: she locates the Big Dipper in the night sky. I asked her how on earth she knew about that – it was on a cartoon (either Dora or Franklin, I forget exactly what she said).

We are sitting there under a perfectly clear sky, having just seen a couple of shooting stars, when a very large deer wanders slowly into the middle of the road near the tent, and just stands there in the dark. It stands there for a couple of minutes, until a car comes round the corner. It bolts at full speed, straight towards us, missing my brother by mere feet – they are a lot bigger and more impressive close up.

This is the warmest night we’ve had, so just sat there watching the stars until it was time to sleep. Mesa Verde surprised and impressed all three of us, definately worth another visit.

Forget the map, who needs gas?

2008-07-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

Day 8: Routt National Forest, CO to Ridgeway State Park, CO via Aspen, CO. Trip Total 2,819 miles.

My forehead is peeling. My brother says it’s because I didn’t moisturize.

In the middle of the night the wind picked up, the flapping of the tent woke us up. It also woke up something else. I don’t know if it was wolves or coyotes, but it sounded like there were hundreds of them, all around us in all directions, some close, some far away, all howling at the moon. Eventually the wind dies down, as does the howling, and we get back to sleep.

It’s now 3:00am, and Katie is shaking me, and says exactly what you don’t want to hear at 3:00am in a tent – “Daddy, I had an accident in my sleeping bag”. Especially when the tent is on a slight hill, you're both laying on an inflatable mattress, and she’s slightly uphill from you. I get her clean clothes, move her sleeping bag into the “porch” area in the tent, then her, her elephant, and her bear squeeze into my sleeping bag with me. She goes straight off to sleep. I can’t get back to sleep.

I’m up at first light, go find some more firewood and get the fire going, and wait for everyone else to wake up.

After breakfast we pack up camp and a miracle occurs – for the first time ever I manage to get my sleeping bag rolled up tight enough to fit in its bag on the first attempt! I check in with the wife, and instead of saying anything when she picked up the phone, she just simply holds the phone to her computer and plays the dueling banjos from Deliverance. This is what I have to put up with.

While driving through Steamboat (three times) the previous day, nothing jumped out at us as, so we decided to skip the 30-mile drive back to go look around. After my brother has finished moisturizing, we head south towards Aspen.

It’s a scenic drive, and by this point we are both sick with each other’s iPods, so the radio is on. The only decent channel we can find is actually playing good music – Rolling Stones, followed by the Eagles and then Steppenwolf – until my brother points out everything this station has played so far is also on my iPod. Didn’t bother me.

When we left the campsite, we had about 3/8ths of a tank of gas, so started looking for a gas station straight away. We didn’t find one, and soon we lose cell signal again. By the time we are 12 miles away from I-70, the gauge is showing empty and still no cell signal. Driving carefully, we manage to get the car to the Interstate on fumes – to a small town called Wolcott. We don’t see a gas station, so my brother runs into a small restaurant to ask where the nearest gas station is. It’s in the next town west – in Eagle. 12 miles on the Interstate, or 10 on the back road. We take the back road, hoping it’s mostly down hill. The back road runs alongside a river with numerous people white-water rafting down it, but few other cars on the road – if we run out of gas, we’ll be trying to hitch a ride on a raft.

We make it to Eagle, get gas, and a Subway for lunch for the third day in a row.

From there, heading west on I-70 is spectacular. There is a river, train track, and two sides of the interstate winding through a deep valley, crisscrossing, and going through tunnels (which Katie loves).

Once we pull off the interstate, first stop is a Wal-Mart – my brother stocks up on more t-shirts and underwear, and we get a new sleeping bag for Katie, before driving down to Aspen. A couple of hours are spent in Aspen – I unsuccessfully attempt to get an internet connection (laptop problems) while Katie and my brother look around some nice, but somewhat overpriced shops.

After getting Katie an ice-cream (and my brother moisturizes again), we double back, and then head south again until we hit Ridgeway State Park a couple of hours before sunset. It’s not until we’ve paid and pulled into the parking lot, that we realize the camp site is across a narrow bridge spanning the river, past the big bear warning sign, then half a mile up a very steep incline. They provide big-wheeled bins to haul your stuff up to the campsite, but we are still at almost 7,000 ft and it takes us 3 bin loads to get our gear to the campsite – after getting up there my resting pulse feels about 300. It’s then we realize our 13’ by 17’ tent won’t fit on the 12’ by 12’ raised pad at the site. Moving the big, heavy, metal picnic bench out of the way, we manage to squeeze the tent on the ground in front of the raised pad, with the door opening right next to where the fire is supposed to be - no fire tonight then.

Katie writes her name in giant letters in the empty raised tent pad using the heel of her shoe, we eat, and call it a night.

Who needs a good map anyway?

2008-07-28T02:20:00.000-07:00

Day 7: Jackson Hole, WY to Routt National Forest, CO. Trip Total 2,499 miles.

First thing Katie does when she wakes up, is want to go to the pool. The first thing my brother does, is moisturize. I can’t feel what little sunburn I had anymore. It’s not warm, but the pool at the Motel is heated, so we go down there, and my brother gets in and helps her swim while I go hunting for coffee.

Today is another big driving day – over 400 miles – the plan is to head down into Colorado, and camp somewhere near Steamboat Springs. Then the next day we’ll spend the morning in Steamboat before heading on further south.

The drive south through Wyoming is uneventful; we get down to I-80 by lunchtime, and stop at another Subway for lunch. While standing in line, my brother notices two rather large white patches on his t-shirt – it’s moisturizer. He’s basically got two giant forearm prints across his t-shirt from where he folded his arms - he moisturized again before he got out of the car. I’m beginning to get concerned - can you overdose on the stuff?

After lunch, we continue south, and get into Steamboat around 5:00pm, and start looking for a campsite. We drive all the way through the town – no luck. The map we have shows a road at the north end of the town that leads to a couple of campsites, so we double back to try and find it – no luck. So we head south through town again, and stop at the Visitor Information Center. It’s shut, but there is a free guidebook. It lists campsites. We try calling the first one – the lines been disconnected. Looking at the map again, it looks like there are a couple of camp sites about 20 miles south if we keep on this road, so we decide to head south and get to one of those. By the time we find the first one, it’s almost 7:00pm. And the campsite is closed. We drive on, and get to the Rabbit Ears Pass. Looking at our map (I should probably mention the map is over 10 years old and has one page per state, so is somewhat lacking in detail). This means we’ve missed the second campsite, and there is nothing else for another hour or more, so we have to double back. Eventually we spot the missed campsite – we see some RV’s set about a mile back from the road, and a trail (marked for snowmobiles) heading back to it. This campsite has about 20 places, spread over a very large area – we find one of the few remaining empty ones, and pitch the tent, among the worst mosquito’s we’ve endured all trip. This is also the highest camp site, at about 9,500 ft.

There is a hand pump for water that fascinates Katie, so we have to go check that out.

Amazingly, despite being 30 miles from civilization, we actually have a cell signal for once. I check in with She Who Must Be Obeyed, Katie talks to her, and then I check in with my mother, who’s following our progress on a map. I inform her that her other son has just wondered off into the bear infested woods to get firewood, armed with nothing but a small axe. She starts panicking and tells me to go get him straight away.

We get the fire going, eat, and Katie recaps all the things she’s seen for real now, that she learnt about on cartoons – snow, fishing, beavers etc.

This is the first campsite that had made me nervous – part of it is the remoteness, and part is the other people. The previous camp site all had families staying there – this one Katie appears to be the only kid, and I just can’t get the dueling banjo’s from Deliverance out of my head. Some people even have Canoe’s with them. This is the first time on the trip that I would have felt safer bringing a gun with us. My brother feels similar.

Things don’t improve, when right as the sun sets, we hear a bugle being played out of nowhere – as soon as it finishes whoever played it yells something. My brother asks what was yelled – I offered it sounded like “Charge!” to me, and that the cavalry was probably charging up the hill as we speak, while they load the canons and the infantry will appear over the rise on our left flank. Both my brother and me recognized the bugle call, but couldn’t put a name to it. However the Katie claims it the “Last Post”. That sounds right – how on earth does she know that at 5? Upon returning home, we find out it was actually Taps (which is basically the American version – it was the British Army that used Last Post to signal the end of the day). What we didn't figure out is who played it, or why exactly.

Once we are sure the cavalry isn’t coming, it's off to bed to get out of the mosquitos.

Mmmm, Buffalo.

2008-07-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

Day 6: Yellowstone National Park, WY to Jackson Hole, WY, via Cody, WY and Grand Teton National Park. Trip Total 2,067 miles.

We survive another night in the tent, and are up early in the cold, packing up camp and trying to cram everything back in the car.

I’ve got sunburned arms and forehead, Katie is fine, but my brother is worse. Or at least he's whingeing more. The plan for today is to head out of the east exit of the park and go to Cody (about an hour outside the park), then head back into Yellowstone then out the South entrance and into Grand Teton National Park. Depending on how the day goes, we may camp in the park, or given we’ve now been in a tent for 4 nights straight and Katie really wants a bath, we may make it down to Jackson Hole.

Again, we refuse to stop for buffalo, but just before we get to the park exit, there are a couple of moose grazing by the road.

We stop and take a few pictures, until they run off across the river, then we continue on towards Cody. The mountains get more rugged, and in one valley we drive through there is what looks like a Bofors gun up on a hillside. My brother doesn’t believe me when I tell him that’s most likely used to trigger avalanches in the valley, as is common practice in a number of areas in the Rockies. Either that or it’s just for display. Or hunting buffalo.

The drive to Cody is scenic, crossing a dam, going through a couple of tunnels (Katie loves going through tunnels), through valleys, with the occasional unusual piece of architecture:

Then into the historic town in Cody, whish is basically a bunch of decaying wagons, and a number of period buildings. Some are famous (like a Hole In The Wall Gang hideout), some with bullet holes, which have been relocated there from the surrounding areas to be preserved. Plus the obligatory pile of antlers.

From there we head a little deeper into Cody, and find a Super Wal-Mart. Still no cell phone signal, but they have a Super Wal-Mart. My brother gets excited because he finds some cheap T-Shirts & underwear, and goes off to find some after-sun for the sunburn.

We grab a Subway for lunch, and meet back at the car. The first thing my brother does is address his sunburn – pulling out this big jar of moisturizer. Instantly from the back seat we get “That’s a girls one! It’s got a purple lid and smells nice, so that means it’s for girls!” All illusions of a macho camping trip in bear country fly out the window. Things get worse about half an hour later, as we are driving back towards Yellowstone: My arms are hurting a little, so I decide to use a little moisturizer as a precaution. At the same time, my brother decides to apply a 3rd, or is it 4th, layer of moisturizer to his arms and face. And while this is happening Elton John comes on the radio, and my brother comments this would be a very bad time to be pulled over for speeding.

Moving on rapidly, back into Yellowstone and the buffalo, drive straight through and out the south exit, into the Tetons. The weather is a little too hazy, not a particularly good day for taking photographs of distant mountain ranges, but we make numerous stops anyway. Our first stop somewhat limits our access to the lake:

A bit further south and the road runs along the edge of the lake. It’s still too hazy but we take some pictures anyway.

A little further south and we see a bunch of cars stopped by the road, so we pull over to see if it’s another bear. It’s not:

The cell phone signal finally returns, as we keep heading south, we stop every few miles, trying to get more pictures as we pass through.

Then late in the day, we pull into Jackson Hole, and find a room at the Virginian Inn – a place I stayed on my first visit to Yellowstone seventeen years earlier. It hadn’t changed much, possibly busier due to the fact they were hosting a gun show that weekend.

By this point we are all hungry, and after several days surrounded by big animals I’m desperately craving a mixed game grill, so look for the meatiest looking place to take my veggie brother, who is still moisturizing every 30 minutes. We end up in the Silver Dollar Grill, which doesn’t have a mixed game grill, but I eventually choose the buffalo over the elk. My brother has some kind of fish, and Katie gets adventurous and goes for Mac & Cheese.

After a good dinner, we take a look around town – past the stacks of antlers in the town square, and most of the shops are still open. For a mere $19,500 you can purchase a stuffed grizzly bear. For a much more reasonable $699, you can purchase a stuffed rabbit, wearing a hat and paddling an 18 inch long wooden canoe. For $599 you can get a stuffed hare wearing a Denver Bronco’s football helmet. I am not joking. Perfect for any mantelpiece. And just about every animal (or just their heads) in between is available for a price. My brother questions who on earth would want these in their house. I tend to agree. Unless it’s a giraffe head/neck, that would be kinda entertaining with a high enough ceiling. We go in more tourist-trap shops selling overpriced souvenirs, local artwork and stuffed animals, and eventually head back to the motel, where Katie goes off for half an hour for the bath she’d been asking for all day.

Then after my brother had moisturized again, off to bed, a real bed for the first time in five nights. Wasn’t as comfortable as my sleeping bag.

Great White Stump Hunters

2008-07-25T09:20:00.000-07:00

Day 5: Yellowstone National Park, WY – South Loop. Trip Total 1,803 miles.

We wake up early and it’s cold again, low 40’s, and after breakfast head to the nearest showers (a 4 mile drive away). Here Katie finds more unmelted snow, and makes her first snowballs.

With that out of the way, we do the obligatory gift shop stop, where Katie wants to buy everything, but settles on a small baby black bear (because she saw one the day before) and wolf, a bigger carved wooden bear with Yellowstone written on it, a plush black bear, a mug with her name on (which she later explains that they didn’t even know she was coming!) and a few smaller items. And a bag of colored rocks – she’s collected polished rocks for about a year, and although her younger brother and sister were too young to come, they both wanted to be involved. Alex kept saying he wanted to come to Yellowstone, while his sister Amy kept telling people that she is going to Pinkstone! (her favorite color – when She Who Must Be Obeyed picked her up from pre-school a couple of weeks ago, there was a tray of ladybugs the kids had made drying… about 20 red ones with black spots, and one bright pink, so she instantly knew which one was Amy’s). Katie made sure she had a pink stone for Amy and a yellow stone for Alex in her bag.

Then the three Great White Stump Hunters set off to drive the south loop of the park, this time refusing to stop to take pictures of Buffalo. Without the Buffalo, the first couple of hours were largely uneventful, since we’d driven this part of the loop before, just the occasional hot spring or animal.

For lunch, we head out the west entrance of the park into Montana, and stop by the animal refuge just out side the gate. We get there just as they let out 3 of their Grizzly’s to feed.

We also finally see real wolves, although the were all asleep up against the fence. Then as we leave, Katie has to play on their playscape, and exiting through the gift shop she adds more toy bears and deer to her collection.

Then after having to go to one restaurant to feed myself and Katie, and another for the Veggie, we head back into the park and continue on the south loop. There were plenty of stumps, but very few animals in this part of the park – we saw a wolf running down by the side of the road, but by the time we stopped we lost it. There were a bunch of cars and Rangers stopped at one point looking out into a field – apparently two more wolves hiding in the tall grass, but we never saw them. However this side of the park does have some spectacular scenery:

Then on down to Old Faithful, managing to arrive shortly after it had erupted, so sat and ate ice-cream while we waited an hour for the next one. We also had a cell phone connection for the first time in a couple of days, so checked in with family, while me & my brother got sunburned (Katie sat in my shadow out of the sun to be safe)

Then back round to the campsite, by late afternoon, for the shortest driving day of the trip – a mere 120 miles. Scavenging for firewood just outside the campsite (probably 75 yards from the tent), we came across what looked to me like bear prints – big round print about the size of my hand with 5 toes – somewhat unnerving. Despite this we had a relaxing evening, played more blackjack, then retiring to the tent for our final night in the park. Katie got in her sleeping bag happy with her new plush bear joining her elephant.

Where the Buffalos Roam

2008-07-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

Day 4: Yellowstone National Park, WY - North Loop. Trip Total 1,683 miles.

We survive the night, and wake up to another cold morning: 41F. It’s a lot more relaxed not having to pack up the tent and attempt to get my sleeping bag back in it’s back (yesterday took 3 attempts to roll it tight enough, much to my brothers amusement). We eat, and plan to have the easiest day of the trip so far – just drive the north loop of the park today - around 150 miles. Katie is excited, can’t wait to see her first Buffalo, and really wants to see a bear and a wolf.

Almost immediately after leaving the campsite, we stop to look at a river running along the road, turns out this river runs through the Hudson Valley, and we’ll be driving alongside it for much of the morning.

Back in the car, and within another mile we are stopped again with a bunch of other cars – this time it’s Elk crossing the road, with dozens of tourists taking pictures, so we join in.

Then a couple more miles, and we are at the spectacular Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and get out for a walk around, surrounded by many more tourists with cameras.

Back on the road, and straight into an area containing numerous hot springs, where we see our first Buffalo. And second. And third. And forth…. Walking on the road in front of cars, walking through the parking lots, sitting next to the wooden walkways preventing people from going up, or down the hill.

Then on through the valley, the rolling countryside filled with herd after herd of buffalo.

After a while, having stopped about 4 times a mile, and taken several thousand pictures, you realize you are basically looking at a herd of cows. Big, scary looking cows with horns that weigh half a ton and can run at 30mph, but still cows. I comment to my brother that whenever I look at big game, my first thought is about what they taste like, or what they might taste like if I’ve never eaten them. Being a veggie, he couldn’t relate.

We decide to skip further buffalo’s, and look for other animals instead. We take turns driving, while the other person and Katie scans the woods for animals. It’s amazing how many stumps look like animals at first glance, but we do find the occasional animal.

And then there is my brother:

“Per-aps if I sell more onions, I’ll be able to buy a real beret!”

A little further round there are lots of parked cars, and a warden directing traffic – we stop, turns out we’ve just missed a black bear that just headed off into the woods. Katie is disappointed – I explain again that this is my third time there and I’ve never seen a bear in the park, so don’t get disappointed but we’ll keep looking. We drive a little further round the corner and park, since the bear is heading roughly this way, and get up on the roof of the car to see if we can see it. Pretty much every car that passes stops and asks us if we can see the bear. After about 10 minutes we give up, and go back to searching for stumps. We make several other stops, mainly for stumps, before having lunch at the Roosevelt Lodge. People are talking about the bear we missed, and a Grizzly that was fishing in the river earlier in the day, very close to our campsite. Wonderful.

Then shortly after lunch, we hit the jackpot. Numerous cars parked by the side of the road, a couple of wardens directing traffic, and a black bear down in a field below the road. And an extremely excited Katie. I get out my Nikon D300, put on the Nikon 200-400mm Lens with 1.7x teleconverter, and spend the next half hour watching the bear walk across the field, cross a ditch, climb a hillside and disappear into the trees, then re-emerge right below us. Katie is ecstatic, and extremely patient just sitting there with us watching the bear.

Eventually the bear wanders off, and we head on round to the impressive Mammoth Hot Springs. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

By the time we walk all the way to the top up, the altitude is really getting to me, Katie is complaining her legs ache and she can’t walk any further, and we find a second parking lot at the very top. With great amusement, my brother volunteers to go get the car and bring it up for us, while reminding me that I’ll be 40 soon and he understands I’m getting old. He walks back the way we came, laughing. Git.

We continue round the north loop, the terrain gets rockier and steeper, searching for more animals, finding mostly stumps, and lots of Buffalo. And then in the final part of the drive back we make two sudden stops:

The first one, a coyote runs across the road in front of us, and up to the right of us – I grab the camera my brother is using and take pictures out of the car window. Katie is thrilled, and goes back to her wolf impressions - that is until we reminder her, that according to the paperwork they gave us when we arrived, it is actually illegal to make animal calls in the park.

Then as I’m driving the final stretch, my brother gets excited saying there is something big down there drinking out of the river. We stop the car quickly, I grab the Nikon D300 and the big Nikon 200-400mm Lens, and focus on the animal. My brother is standing behind me, asking excitedly “what is it?”. I take a picture and let him have the camera to see for himself. He laughs - yet another stump:

We head on back to the camp, finding more stumps, and get back with plenty of time to get a fire going and eat before sundown. I spend most of the evening transferring over 2,000 photos to my laptop then backing up to a couple of external drives, while my brother entertains Katie (or is that the other way round) by the campfire. I notice my brother has a significant number of pictures of animal’s rears, so I ask him if there is anything he’s not telling me.

For the past couple of nights, Katie and my brother have been regularly tripping over the tent pegs much to my amusement. So they find it rather funny when shortly after dark a tent peg sends me flying and nearly brings the tent down.

By about 11:00pm the fire has dies down, it’s got cold, Katie is so happy she’s seen her bear and a coyote (almost a wolf), and time for another night in the tent.

Yellowstone or bust...

2008-07-23T19:36:00.000-07:00

Day 3: Rocky Mountain National Park, CO. to Yellowstone National Park, WY. Trip Total: 1,511 miles.

I’m the first awake when the birds start singing just before the sun comes up. It’s very warm in my sleeping bag, but my face is cold. As are my clothes when I finally decide to get up. According to the car it’s 37F, so I find out a fleece, and then my thick winter coat and gloves, and I’m still cold. We didn’t make it nearly as far yesterday as we planned, so today is going to be a long driving day – not as long as the first day, but around 500 miles if we are going to get to Yellowstone where we have reserved a campsite for 3 nights.

I feed myself, try to arrange the car better so I can get to my camera gear more easily, and eventually around 6:00am the farting noises come from the tent – my brother is awake. He emerges from the tent in shorts, and finds the sight of me in thick winter clothes, gloves and cradling a hot drink hilarious. He’s used to living in a cold climate, I’ve been living in Texas for the past dozen years and have acclimatized. The she-wolf emerges shortly afterwards, looking for warm clothes and food.

We eat, pack up camp, and hit the road early. About 500 miles today, but we don’t know what the roads are like. Coming out of the west entrance to the park we are in the Rockies well away from the Interstate, aiming to have camp set up in Yellowstone well before dark.

The roads north out of Colorado are impressive, winding slowly through the valleys, next to rivers and surrounded by tall pine trees. Wouldn’t want to cross this country in a wagon train. The land flattens as we go into Wyoming. Shortly after crossing the border we are greeted with a huge sign that simply says “Eat Beef” much to my amusement and my veggie brothers dismay. We encounter numerous other similar signs before we finally pick up Interstate 80 and head west to Rawlins for lunch. Rawlins isn’t the biggest city in America - let’s just say the choice for lunch was somewhat limited, especially with a veggie on board. After lunch, we head northwest towards Yellowstone under the huge Wyoming sky.

Small chipmunk sized creatures keep running across the road in front of us – at one point one runs out, sees the car coming, stands on it’s hind legs looking at us – my brother swerves left, and nails it with the right tire. I tell him good shot, but it turns out he was swerving to avoid it, and now feels guilty. Katie sleeps through this, having surrounded herself with pillows, and actually looks quite comfortable.

By this time my iPod has played all the way through, so my brother plugs his in. After several tracks I ask him if he's trying to recreate the atmosphere of a French Bistro and Mexican Cantina in a car in the middle of Colorado - so far everything has sounded like French or Spanish elevator music, and neither of us speak either of those languages. We don't speak Portuguese either, which apparently is what some of the tracks were, from the Life Aquatic sound track, a film I’ve not seen. I’m not sure exactly how many songs his iPod holds, I recognized one Eagles song, another he claimed to be Bowie, and I think there were maybe 3 or 4 more in assorted languages, but it was hard to tell to my uncultured ear. Call me strange, but I actually like to be able to tell what the song is about. Oh well.

A couple of hours later, I see flashing lights behind me so I pull over. Bollocks. Two men traveling with a little girl may seem suspicious to some, so I have my license and insurance out, and I’m ready to answer questions. The officer informs me I was doing 82 in a 65, takes my documents, checks the car stickers, asks where we are going, and then disappears to call in my info. He comes back a couple of minutes later, a lot friendlier, to my surprise just gives me a written warning and hopes we enjoy our trip.

Through Colorado we had a cell phone signal pretty much all the time we were near an Interstate, and the rest of the time it was intermittent at best. Now in Wyoming it’s nonexistent. As we get further north the landscape starts to get rockier, Katie gets extremely excited and takes pictures when she sees purple rocks.

Then as we get closer to the Grand Tetons, the scenery changes dramatically – almost Alpine, with steep valleys and tall trees, with plenty of un-melted snow wherever there is shade. Three times on this stretch of road we get stopped for construction work – either road repairs or clearing fallen trees. On one occasion we are front in line, the cute brunette holding the stop sign explains it’ll only be a few minutes, they are clearing rocks from the road etc. When she finally tells us it’s clear to go, my recently single brother hits the gas peddle a little too hard, the car lurches forward, the map book flies off the dashboard into my lap, there is a clatter from the back as all the cooking stuff falls over, and we burst out laughing – real smooth.

Finally enter the Grand Teton National Park, head north and then into Yellowstone National Park. Driving up the south entrance, surrounded by burnt trees and a sheer drop into a deep canyon a couple off feet off the side of the road.

We make it to the campsite around 5:00pm, I go to the registration hut, and get the standard lecture about bear safety, the massive fines if any foods, food packets etc are left laying around the campsite etc., and then get told a bear has been seen in the area. We lost the cell phone signal two hours drive to the south. Great. This is my third time to Yellowstone, I’ve yet to see a bear, could be an interesting way to see one.

We let Katie put up the tent:

Everywhere in the campsite there are signs about staying away from Buffalo that wander into the camp. What happens if you are in a tent and they are outside? As we are setting up the tent, there are deer wandering around the campsite. My brother flicks through the newspaper they gave us on the way in, it says the best place to see large animals is in the Hudson Valley. We look at the map. We are at the south end of the valley – no wonder this was the only campsite we could get a reservation at with such short notice.

I take Katie for a walk to the store, where she buys a pack of Yellowstone playing cards. We get a fire going, and try to teach Katie how to play poker (figured since she could already play Yatzee, 5 card draw wouldn’t be too much of a stretch). That proves a little too challenging for a 5 year old, so we teach her Blackjack instead, which she loves.

As darkness falls we retreat to the tent. My brother is obviously feeling a little nervous about the wildlife, he sleeps with my buck knife (to cut his way out of the tent) and Maglite (for self defense against bears – good luck with that), just in case. Having said that, I’m sleeping with my survival knife next to me. And a 5 year old with a stuffed elephant snuggled up in a sleeping bag to me on the other side.

The campsite is at 7,800 ft, so this time I have warm clothes in the tent ready for the morning, and after a long day, I’m asleep as soon as it gets dark, bears in the area or not. Besides, I’m now on my second night in a tent, despite everyone doubting me.

Dora the Explorer

2008-07-23T08:32:00.000-07:00

Day 2: Raton, NM to Rocky Mountain National Park, CO. Trip Total: 1,032 miles.

Hit the road early, got straight on the Interstate heading north, winding through the valleys and entered Colorado in less than an hour. We continued north with the Rockies on our left, up through Pueblo, Colorado Springs, past the Air Force Academy where Katie saw a skydiver and several small planes in the air (not always the best of combinations). Then on through Denver, past the stadiums where we departed Interstate 25 and headed for one of my favorite cities: Boulder.

Katie takes a self portrait with the Nikon S7c I lend her for the trip

We found somewhere to park on Pearl Street as a thunderstorm rolled in, and set out to look for somewhere for an early lunch. Katie chose the Cheesecake Factory, where she offered to pay (have money, must spend). So we set the ground rules - she'd brought several months of pocket money with her, she can spend on whatever she wants, providing (a) she doesn't buy stuff that she could get back home, and (b) she buys things that will remind her of the trip when she gets older. After lunch spent an hour or so walking up and down Pearl Street, Katie running through the fountain getting soaked (it was raining anyway), looking in the occasional shop (Katie buys a purple rock for a couple of dollars, her favorite color), and playing on the rocks & sculptures – she’s easily amused.

From there we drove north, towards Rocky Mountain National Park, planning to drive through the park and get as close to Wyoming as we could before dark. Katie is now very exited, this is the first time she has seen snow and mountains, and at every stop she wants to get out and explore. Something else starts to become apparent – everything new she sees she references back to a cartoon – mountains and snow she’s seen on Dora the Explorer. Someone fishing she’s seen on Little Bear. Some animal she’s seen on Franklin. The list goes on… Guess they are more educational than I thought. Guess I should take her, and her younger brother/sister on more trips: there is an amazing country here to explore.

We stop off at a lake, get out and walk around it. Katie instantly finds a bank of snow shaded by some tree’s, and within about 2 seconds she learns snow is both slippery and very cold, but that doesn’t stop her or dampen the level of excitement.

The walk around the lake is only just over a mile, but the altitude hits me harder than anyone else, and that stays true for the rest of the trip. My Nikon D300 feels a lot heavier than usual.

Katie’s excitement only increases half way round, when she comes across her first chipmunk sitting on a rock (I forget which cartoon she knows about chipmunks from), and of course this starts off another round of animal noises from her, mainly the wolf.

At one of the higher altitude stops in the park, above the tree line, she sees her first Marmot (a new animal for her apparently, she’d never seen it in a cartoon before), which fascinates for about 15 minutes.

It becomes obvious we aren’t going to make it to Wyoming, and with the sun low in the sky, the temperature dropping, and a 5-year-old wolf howling in the back, we decide to head towards the west exit of the park and look for somewhere to camp. That is until we came across our first big animals of the trip – several Elk, followed by a Moose with two babies in the long grass next to a river just off the road. Yep, she’s seen moose in a cartoon.

After about 20 minutes, back to the car to look for a campsite. Within about a mile we find one, fairly secluded, less than half full, complete with store and restrooms/showers, and a generous sized campsite, right next to a paddock of horses. And big signs warning about bears.

The tent goes up easy enough without too much comedy value, inflate the queen size mattress, unroll the sleeping bags, start a fire and eat – first night ever of camping for me and Katie, first night ever of camping with bears for my brother, who seems somewhat nervous about the wildlife with sharp teeth and claws. The sleeping bag/mattress combination proves amazingly comfortable, everyone is tired and goes straight to sleep. That is until in the early hours when Katie needs to go to the bathroom. The view of the night sky was absolutely spectacular, like I’ve never seen before – perfectly clear, no light pollution, for a full 3 seconds until my glasses steamed up in the extreme cold - we are at 7,500 ft and not in Texas anymore.

Miles and Miles of Texas.

2008-07-17T11:27:00.000-07:00

"I saw miles and miles of Texas, all the stars up in the sky; I saw miles and miles of Texas, gonna live here 'til I die." - Miles & Miles of Texas, Wills Bob.

Day 1: Austin, TX to Raton, NM - 702 miles.

It all fits! With the Baja Bags and Ozark Trail bags on the roof rack, and the trunk of the Armada full to the roof, an extremely sleepy Katie in her booster seat with her bag on the seat next to her, off we went to pick up my brother at a little after 6:00am. We pull up with Steppenwolf blaring on the stereo (always a good way to keep in with the neighbors first thing on a Monday morning). My brother manages to squeeze in stuff (Once he figured out we’d be sleeping at 8,000 ft surrounded by snow capped mountains, he decided a SwissGear sleeping bag rated down to 0F might be somewhat appropriate after mocking mine). His stuff barely fits on the empty seat in the back – the only room that was left. And true to form, our mother has put together a food parcel, including items such as home-cooked brownies - I'm 37 and my brother is 28. Just like when I was in college, every time I’d get there and unpack my cases, for every two items of clothing I’d remove, there would be a food item hidden away in my case. My brother tells the same story. Not that either of us were complaining.

The goal for the first day is to get out of Texas and into Oklahoma. And with the help of my brother’s superior driving/navigational skills, we indeed made it to New Mexico. We expected a long, mostly boring day, and weren’t disappointed. On the road by 6:20am, and by 6:30am we are in lightening storm & driving rain. The first four hours to Abilene are miserable, slick roads, poor visibility, very heavy rain, while wondering if the Baja bags and Ozark Trail bags on the roof actually work, otherwise me & Katie wouldn't have any dry clothes for the rest of the trip. Also hoping the weather wouldn’t be like this the entire trip.

And my brothers’ flatulence problems immediately emerge, I’d forgotten about that. A few years ago when he went vegetarian, his methane production increased significantly to offset and gains in his carbon footprint from eliminating meat from his diet. Personally I’m verging on carnivore, so between us we eat a complete meal. His box of food contained mostly seeds, berries, dried fruits, and assorted other bear foods, just perfect for camping trip amonst Grizzlies.

The rain clears up after Abilene, we drive on through Texas, as we head northwest towards Amarillo the trees get smaller and turn into scrub, then fields. At 70mph this occurs at about the same speed and level of excitement that paint dries. We drive through small town after small town, and see nothing but cornfields, oil fields, and windmills. This is interesting at first, but you rapidly get over how big the windmills are, and at the end of the day a nodding donkey is just a nodding donkey. We also learn that a 5 year old needs to stop at a gas station for a bathroom break significantly more requently than the Armada needs gas.

Katie is angelic, happily watching DVD’s (despite competing for volume with the iPod) or looking out the window when she’s not sleeping. Around mid afternoon, she starts doing non-stop animal impressions of the animals she thinks she will see – about 15 minutes per animal gets a tad tedious, until she stopped on the wolf. An hour of non-stop wolf howling is somewhat more than a tad tedious, despite the fact she’s enjoying herself. It’s not until about 11 hours in that she finally politely asks if it’s going to be much longer before we reach a motel and can get out, because her seat is getting uncomfortable (she’s been warned about constantly asking “are we there yet?”)

We end the day with over 13 hours of driving, covering a mere 702 miles, in a Best Western in Raton, New Mexico after more rain. Because Katie has been so good, we let her choose where we eat - our first mistake: McDonalds, because she wants to go on the playscape. So, we get her a milkshake, and let her play for a bit, then make the second mistake. We find a small, local Mexican restaurant because my brother hasn’t had Mexican since he was last here a couple of years ago. Horrible place, mediocre food, horrible service - I order fajita’s – I think that’s the first time ever that I've had the check arrived before the tortillas. Then back to the motel for a good nights sleep, with an incredibly excited & bouncy 5 year old. She was too excited to even get upset by the fact the pool was shut for maintenance. Fortunately the bags on the roof worked, all clothes were bone dry.

Katie Bouncing Video (4Mb download)

Overall a reasonable first day, and almost half way to Yellowstone already, despite missing Oklahoma.

Ready to Rock.

2008-07-16T14:04:00.000-07:00

Will it all fit?

Earlier today I went through backing up the laptop (and lost a bunch of data moving it to a Western Digital network drive, which didn’t start the day well), then packing, and getting the vehicle ready – oil & filter change, tire pressures, fluids etc.

The trip is tomorrow, and I currently have everything I plan to take on the living room floor. And coffee table. And fireplace. And both couches. I’ll make it fit.

I’m still being mocked. I have the monster Coleman Cooler, loaded with coke, sprite, juice, and assorted other items. Just read that they recommend 0.75lbs of ice for every rated quart. That’s a mere 75lbs of ice!

I have 3 cases of bottled water. Then another 2 cases of Gatorade. A bag of clothes for me, and another for my daughter (12 sets of clothes for an 11 day trip so we don’t have to mess with laundry). A big plastic tub of food. A box of 50 packets of Chips. And 2 more bags of food that the Ball & Chain went out and bought from the local store just to make sure we had food for our daughter Katie. And a big orange Gatorade container full of water, just in case. You never know.

Then there are two tents – the big SwissGear 9 person, and the 2 person Cabela’s tent just in case. Two Coleman inflatable mattresses – a Queen Size for me and my daughter to put our sleeping bags on in the tent, and a Twin Size that will fit in the back of the car, just in case that’s an option at some point in bear country - with the back seats folded down, there is about 7 foot by 4 foot of space in the back of the Nissan Armada. Guess we could put the rest of the stuff in the tent if we do that? Then there is the two roll-up, self inflating SwissGear mattresses just in case. Two pillows (I'd like to make it clear that the Tiger one is not mine). Then the two giant sleeping bags, and the tarp to put under the tent. And a small toolbox of accessories (knifes, axe, mallet, spare tent pegs, hammer, duct tape etc). Mustn’t forget the fold up shovel/axe that cost a whopping $5 (and will probably break on the first use – bought that more as a joke than anything).

In addition to that, there is another plastic container of cooking gear – propane burners, lighters, pots, pans etc. Two big pelican cases (1510 Case & 1610 Case) containing my cameras and computer. 3 fold up chairs and an aluminum table. A very comprehensive tool kit, socket set, and “power station” – basically a big battery with built in jump leads, lights, 12V power outlets, small air compressor etc., also just in case.

Bought a couple of 55 liter Sealline Baja Dry Bag to put stuff in on the roofrack, then another couple of Ozark Trail bags as well to hopefully keep stuff dry – if the rain doesn’t ease, we’ll need them.

Then there is the miscellaneous stuff – mosquito net, oil, sunblock, mosquito repellent, WD-40, spare fuses/bulbs etc for the car, towels, swimming costumes, iPod (over the past couple of weeks I’ve loaded my entire CD collection into iTunes, so I have almost 18 hours of music lined up for the trip to annoy my brother with) – the list goes on. And on and on. Don’t know why I’m being mocked.

Oh, and one very, very excited 5 year old, complete with a in-car DVD System, about a dozen DVD’s, her LeapPad & Leapster, books, princess blanket, and stuffed Elephant.

The plan was to load up tonight, but the pouring rain means I have to set my alarm for 4:45am tomorrow, so I can load up, get my daughter ready, pick up my brother and head out on the highway by about 6:00am or a close approximation to it (like 11:00am?). Hope my brother is packing light.

My 576 page SAS Survival Handbook arrived a couple of days ago (yet another source of amusement for friends & family), and I’ve only had time to get to page 14 (i.e. I’ve finished the introduction). I now know not to eat a polar bears liver because it could kill me, but I'm not sure if that’ll help in Yellowstone… Besides, I doubt I'd actually survive long enough against a live Polar Bear to get anywhere near it's liver, surely it's claws or teeth are much more likely to kill me first.

T minus 1 day and counting.

Ready or not, here we go...

Communication Breakdown.

2008-07-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

"What we have here, is a failure to communicate..." - Cool Hand Luke.

Due to a minor laptop wireless networking problem (it didn't work), not to mention the distinct lack of cell phone signal for most of the trip, I was unable to post blog entries from the road. This situation will be corrected over the next few days.

Normal service will resume shortly. Probably.

A Quick Clarification.

2008-06-25T18:44:00.001-07:00

I would like to make it clear, that the choice of name for this blog wasn't mine. She Who Must Be Obeyed set it up for me, and voila! - I'm stuck with "MegaSteve".

Shouldn't have let her read the first post before posting it.

Get Your Motor Running...

2008-06-25T18:31:00.000-07:00

“Get your motor running, Head out on the highway, Lookin' for adventure, In whatever comes our way” – Born to be Wild, Steppenwolf.

I’m being mocked. By my wife. By my brother. By my mother. My brother arrives tomorrow from England, haven’t seen him in a couple of years, then on Monday, me, him and my 5 year old daughter head out on a road trip – Austin to Colorado to Yellowstone. And preferably back again.

This is not our first road trip (well, for the 5-year old it is) – nine years ago, myself, my brother, and my then girlfriend (now wife) set out west from Austin. The trip started well, when on the first day she was pulled over for speeding. The second day brought us to the Grand Canyon, then we developed a brake problem with the Dodge Ram on our way to spend the night in Vegas. The next morning we managed to let the Dodge fall off the jack not once, but twice (fortunately no-one lost their fingers), while examining the back brake drum try to locate the problem, which turned out to be a warped front disk.

Day 3 saw us drive through Death Valley to LA, day 4 up the Pacific Coast Highway and across the Golden Gate. Day 5 was spent in Ansel Adams Yosemite. Day 6 saw a long drive, past Area 51 on the Extraterrestrial Highway – no UFO sightings unfortunately, but not sure about some of the locals – and into Utah (to a Motel that hadn’t updated it’s décor, or it’s rates, or it’s bedding, since the 50’s). Day 7 saw Bryce & Zion. Day 8, Arches National Park as the sun set. Day 9, Rocky Mountain National Park before turning south back towards Texas, and day 10 was the long burn back to Austin. 10 days, just over 5,000 miles, one set of severely warped front rotors, and some memories that will last a lifetime.

This time is going to be different. About 10 days again, but only about 3,500 miles planned. She Who Must Be Obeyed is not coming this time, she’s staying behind looking after the twins, but instead a 5 year old girl who I’ve never seen so excited is coming. We are not cramming into a pickup truck, this time a big Nissan Armada. However the biggest change, is somewhere along the line, I had the bright idea that camping might be fun, and may even save money.

My brother loves camping. He’s more than happy to go out hiking carrying everything he needs in a backpack and enjoy the weekend. Personally, I like the penthouse suite at the Rio in Vegas (nothing like having a two-floor suite with a 60 foot by 25 foot window with a view of the strip all to yourself). Don’t get me wrong, I like nature. Despite it’s distinct lack of air-conditioning. And bugs. I’ve managed to survive a full 37 years so far, without once spending a night in a tent. In a car, yes, but the thought of spending an un-air-conditioned night with just a thin sheet of material between me and a bear or buffalo is a little unnerving.

I have first hand experience of what a buffalo can do to a rental car during rutting season (which starts about the time we get to Yellowstone), and it wasn’t pretty. Although it was quiet amusing to turn and look at the wife in the passenger seat, with the car being rocked side to side by the buffalo, sitting there with her hands covering her tightly shut eyes, and asking her if that helped. My later efforts to locate a pair of “Peril Sensitive Sunglasses” that turn black at the first sign of danger (from the excellent The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the less informed) was fruitless.

This is the same woman that, upon being woken from a deep sleep by a screaming smoke detector at 3:00am, proceeded to search the bedroom for a gun in a sleepy daze, which may have taken a while, since the room didn’t contain one.

This is the same woman that, upon being awaken by the big earthquake in Hawaii a couple of years ago, feeling the building sway and hearing what sounded like hail against a window (turned out to be the glass TV stand flexing), and questioning whether we were about to be hit by a tornado, went to the window to look out and investigate.

So much for evolutionary survival traits.

This is the woman that is currently mocking me. It started with my first camping purchase – a rather comfortable looking SleepCell sleeping bag, rated down to 18F, with a one-inch thick memory foam layer, and inflatable pillow (with additional memory foam). I thought it looked comfortable. She thought it look excessive. Especially when the memory foam expanded and I couldn’t roll it up and get it back in its rather large bag. It got worse when I got the SwissGear self-inflating mattress to put under it, which wasn’t quite long enough. The mocking continued when I tried to fit a 96” long sleeping bag in my 84” long Cabela’s tent that I bought as a joke for a previous mother-in-law visit. Then for her further amusement, returning home with a 13’ by 17’ SwissGear tent less than two hours later. But the mocking didn’t stop there – given the much bigger tent (complete with screened in porch), there was room for an inflatable Coleman Queen-Sized Quickbed and monster mosquito net. I’ve been told if Scott of the Antarctic was this well prepared, he’d still be alive.

I guess other items, like the Coleman 100-Quart Xtreme Wheeled Cooler, and supposedly can keep 132 cans cold in 90 degree weather for 5 days may have been slightly overkill. And possibly other items like the fan/nightlight for the tent may not be strictly necessary. My brother carries all his gear in a single backpack. I’d need Sherpa’s and packhorses. Of course I didn’t help myself, when out of concern about the sheer volume of stuff we would be taking, I bought and installed a Yakima MegaWarrior Cargo Rack, complete with Yakima Megawarrior Extension, to the top of the Armada.

Bets are currently being taken about if I’ll last more than a single night in a tent. Not betting on how many nights – just betting if I’ll last one. It’ll be more than one. Can’t let my little girl down.

T minus 5 days and counting…