(c) 2008 Erik Gauger http://www.notesfromtheroad.com Rough roads, bottles of rum, sleezy golf course developers, strange animals and funny humans. Should travel writing be anything else? en-us http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/files/monkeys.jpghttp://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/fb_pwrd.gif http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/325250076/index.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:57:04 GMT I've just updated the site with a new design; this is part of the slow-process towards a more organized, controllable website. Let me know your thoughts on the updated logo and design. http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/index.html http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/325502401/lake_tahoe.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:57:04 GMT A one page micro-update on the Lake Tahoe Area. http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/sierrarange/lake_tahoe.html http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/325502402/coast.html Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:57:04 GMT When I lived in Los Angeles, I spent considerable time on the water in a kayak, and taking photographs along the coast. These photos didn't quite fit into my article on the city, so I thought I'd share them here, with short captions on each image. http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/desertsouthwest/coast.html http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/311253797/columbia01.html Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:57:04 GMT The Oregon Hotel - it's old, rickety and delightful - and in the geographic center of Oregon, in the smallish town of Mitchell. Weather has me holed up here - snowstorms east, rain west - a good night's sleep eludes me. The reason, some drunk hunter in 2C is blaring his television, his violent snores wafting between pauses in the television sound. http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/pacificnorthwest/columbia01.html http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/309824148/bakers_bay13.htm Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:57:04 GMT The year is 2006. Dr. James Cervino is a coral pathologist and physiologist. He slips on his mask, puts his regulator to his mouth. Along with his assistant from Pace University, and Save Guana Cay Reef President Troy Albury, he descends to the shallow bottom of Baker's Bay. http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/WestIndies/bakers_bay13.htm http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/282519358/bakers_bay09.htm Fri, 02 May 2008 18:57:04 GMT A few days ago, I was with my family on mainland Abaco, driving to Crown Point, the northernmost town in the Abacos. We stopped in Coopers Town, which happens to be the hometown of the Prime Minister. Coopers Town is a lovely place of about 900; it is small, it is colorful, it is clean and it hangs along a beachless stretch of the Abaco sea. We stopped the car when I saw something strange. http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/WestIndies/bakers_bay09.htm http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/270971440/bakers_bay05.htm Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:57:04 GMT To put myself in Martin Sheen's Apocolypse Now character would be absurd. But I'll tell you this much - as we head up the coast of Great Guana Cay, things are going to get a lot weirder, and already, I can't help but imagine Martin Sheen as Army Captain Benjamin Willard, heading upriver, into the depths of human madness. When I lived in Western Malibu, sometimes I would see Martin Sheen at the grocery store, or at the post office. One night, it was 3:30 AM, I was buying No-Doz. Sheen was buying orange juice and vodka. To each his own. That was when pictures of Heidi Fleiss and his son were on every tabloid. I wasn't thinking about Apocolypse Now. I was thinking, being a part of Hollywood must really suck bad. ... http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/WestIndies/bakers_bay05.htm http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/265127574/bakers_bay.htm Sat, 05 Apr 2008 12:57:04 GMT I am on a boat, tied to a dock in a bay on the tiny island of Great Guana Cay in the Northern Bahamas. Troy Albury is untying lines and points out a Caribbean reef squid taking shelter under the dock. These animals, hued in purple and electric orange, can be difficult to spot during the day - their bodies are brilliant but translucent... http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/WestIndies/bakers_bay.htm http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/242413209/glen_canyon5.htm Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:57:04 GMT I drove north from Hanksville, past the entrance to the remote Mars Desert Research Station, to the Goblin Valley, a little known public landscape in Southern Utah. Goblin Valley is three miles of sandstone hoodoos, oddly shaped, like ten foot mushrooms, or an army of smurfs. I walk out into the hoodoos, looking for life... http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/greatbasin/glen_canyon5.htm http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/236688441/guana.htm Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:57:04 GMT Three Years Later, Part I of the Rise Up Sweet Island Special Report. Corals and mangroves work together. Destroy one, you destroy the other. A Look at Baker's Bay and mangroves. http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/guana.htm#mangrovesandreefs http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/236688442/guana.htm Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:57:04 GMT Three years later, a Notes from the Road special series on Guana Cay looks at every issue facing Guana Cay during the Baker's Bay Club controversy. First, we look at the mangroves and their relationship to coral. http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/guana.htm#threeyears http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/231096389/guana.htm Thu, 7 Feb 2008 12:57:04 GMT Turtles can't read. But they sure know then they are not wanted! The crackle and glow of continual fires, month after month as coppice and mangroves burn; the rumble of bulldozers and cranes reshaping the islands contours; the penetrating growl of chain saws and back-hoes removing Casuarinas along the dunes; the cloudy, sand filled waters choked from a year of dredging...these events speak to the turtles. http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/guana.htm#tragedyturtle http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/228638269/glen_canyon.htm Sun, 3 Feb 2008 12:57:04 GMT "Part I of the Glen Canyon series on rewilding, the canyon in the 21st century, and more..." http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/greatbasin/glen_canyon.htm http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/228638270/guana.htm http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/guana.htm#addendum Sun, 3 Feb 2008 12:57:04 GMT "I want to share this addendum to the Baker's Bay EIA with you. Three years later, this addendum is even more unbelievable to read than when it was originally discovered. I am leaving it in its original format with the University of Miami logo on it..." http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/guana.htm#addendum http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/222092806/guana.htm http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/guana.htm#desertgolf Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:57:04 GMT "The February issue of National Geographic has an amazing article on water management in the Western United States. The article includes a photograph of a golf course peculiarly placed in the Mojave Desert. The caption reads, "Golf courses in nearby Southern Nevada still use 8 percent of the region's water..." http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/guana.htm#desertgolf http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/nftr/~3/220072268/guana.htm http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/guana.htm#fool Sun, 20 Jan 2008 12:57:04 GMT "After Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham held a private, secret meeting with the Baker's Bay Club late in 2007, he announced that 75% of the Bahamians on Great Guana Cay were terrorists..." http://www.notesfromtheroad.com/guana.htm#fool