Short Ladder and Brews

Yes, I got a warm-up for the climbing of ladders tomorrow.

I walked out of the hotel around six to walk to head to the brewery and to my surprise, it was raining! I can't complain. This was the first rain I've encountered on my trip so far, plus, my car needed a good wash!

So I drove to the Main Street Brewery, a few blocks down. I sat at the bar and ordered a stout beer. It turns out that this brewery had many "blends", as mixture of beers to create other beers, including the stout. First, the beers and food, a cheese burger, were great. However, the bartender must have been overworked. After I ordered my food, she ignored me and the other bar guests. She also dropped and broke two glasses. It was the man who appeared to be the owner/manager who got me my second beer and check. Tomorrow I'll try another place for dinner.

Canyonlands National Park - Needles District

Once again, I got an early start to the day. I left the hotel before 7AM and stopped to eat breakfast at an advertised breakfast-only restaurant. My omelet would have been better without the BIG piece of broken hard-plastic inside! The staff apologized profusely and made me a new dish, even though I had eaten half the meal. They also compensated my meal, so I just left a tip for the waitress because it was not her fault. So if you eat at the Jailhouse Cafe in Moab, be careful of your food.

I headed south and followed the entrance to Canyonlands National Park. This was the Needles district. Before entering the park, there is a stop along the road where you can view an ancient petroglyphs on a rock.

I was the only one at the visitors center. The ranger said there were few people because of the heat. She highlighted the best places to see if a few hours. So I followed the map and stopped at each one. The trails were less than one mile at each site, which was good for my blister-ridden feet. The photo above is of a needle that this section of the park is named after.

The hike at Cave Springs was the best. The path led to this 1800s camping site underneath a large rock hangover. The trail then followed a path that required climbing two short ladders, nothing that required skill or had height issues.

To get to the best of the needles required a long hike or an off-road trail. I had done enough hiking and my car has four wheel drive, but it doesn't have the clearance or power that might have been required to traverse the dirt roads. So I zoomed in with my camera, that is why the features (on the second photo) look a little hazy.

I started to take another hike, but I was told by some hikers that it took two hours, and since it was starting to get very hot, I decided to cut the hike short and return to my car. I then drove out of the park and by 2 PM arrived at my hotel in Cortez, CO. My room wasn't ready yet, but by the time I put my clothes in the washer and read a brochure, my room was done. I've already found a brewery to dine at for dinner and will plan my day at Mesa Verde.

Eddie McStiff's

I guess the advertisements in the local newspaper work. For the second time in two nights I ate dinner at a restaurant I saw listed in the paper. Eddie McStiff's is another microbrewery in Moab. However, they had no dark beer. I give a thumbs up to the amber and ale, but the one non-fruity wheat was not that good. For dinner I had the Santa Fe pizza, which was one of the best pizzas I've had in a long time. It had chicken, jalapenos, cheese, tomatoes, olives and a spicy chili sauce, plus a crust that was neither too thin nor too thick.

Tomorrow I'll wake up early, hopefully, and make a quick trip into the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park before heading to Cortez, CO.

(Yes, Mark, I said "Stiffs").

Arches National Park

I woke up early to get to Arches National Park before it got too hot. In fact, I passed by many of the view points so I could get to Devils Garden Trailhead for some hiking. This looked like a good place to hike out to some arches, and it was. The trail led to five arches, including Landscape Arch, which you see in the photo above with me. This arch had a major chunk fall off in 1991 and you can no longer hike underneath it. For the return trip, it was suggested to take the primitive trail, so I did. The trail was both fun and strenuous. If it weren't for the trail makers along the way (stacked rocks), it would have been impossible to follow. There were a few points where I wasn't sure how to get across the sandstone surfaces, and at one point I had to climb down like an upside down crab. I actually ran out of water on this hike and was glad to see the main trail back to the parking lot.

While on my walk to view Delicate Arch, I snapped a photo of this landscape that had a blue color to it. I thought the red, yellow, green and blue made for a nice photo.

On the way back out, I stopped at the places I passed by earlier, including the trail to Delicate Arch. I wish I hadn't been so tired from hiking, because this is the most famous arch in the park. The trail to the arch was 1.6 miles and I didn't think I could make it. So I opted for an easier hike that had a view of the arch. I had too zoom in to get this photo, but you get an idea of how big the arch is with the man standing underneath it.

I tried to take photos of each arch so that you can see what is on the other side. This is one of the better pictures I took. I used Photoshop to equalize the light and dark parts to enhance the image, but that's about how it looked to me.

I arrived at 8AM and left the park close to 3 PM. I think I got my monies worth and saw all I wanted to see. There are over 2000 arches in the park, and I saw almost 20 of them. Back at the visitors center, I watched the 15 minute orientation movie, which was filmed by the Discovery Channel. It explained the history of the park and how the arches form, plus the theatre was cool and the seats soft. After a short rest at the hotel, and this blog post, I'm ready for another big dinner.

Moab, UT

I was watching some program on Discovery HD about national parks in Utah, and someone said that the state of Utah should be declared a national park, and I agree. As I was driving east on I70, I felt like I had entered a national park. The views on both sides of the freeway were amazing! There were many view points along the way. I wanted to stop and take a photo, but you know how it goes. If I stop, I loose time, and then when I get back on the freeway, I have to pass all the same trucks and motor homes again. But I had to stop at this view point. The red rock formations were picture-worthy. This is a view of a valley that was carved in the 60s to make way for the freeway.

I just got back from dinner. My hotel is on the far south side of town and nothing but Denny's is within walking distance. So I drove to the Moab Brewery to try their food and beer. I ordered the special of the night, salmon covered in a jerk sauce with vegatables and rice. I tried three beers. The first was the Black Raven Stout. It was as good as any stout beer I've had. Then I drank a pint of Scorpion Ale. Like the name implies, it had a good bite (or sting). The last was the Park City Steamer, an amber beer. It was nothing special. I was still hungry, so I got a brownie with ice cream and whipped cream. Very tasty. A good meal after two days of camping.

Now it is almost 8PM, the sun is still up and it is 95 degrees outside. I feel like I need to be out doing something, but I have a full day ahead at Arches National Park. I hope it isn't too busy with cars. Moab is quite busy, with people from all over the country driving motorcycles, Jeeps with bicycles on the back and families driving vans. I hope to drive to all the stops and hike one trail. I'll take my time and lots of photos.

Camping at Great Basin National Park

I left Lake Tahoe bright and early Thursday morning. I had to drive east all the way across Nevada. I felt like I was running away from the smoke coming from California fires. Even 150 miles east of Carson City there was smoke in the air! I arrived at Great Basin National Park around 5 PM and drove up to the Wheeler Peak campground, which sits at 10,000 feet. I set up camp near the entrance in a small spot near a creak. Unfortunately, I was next to a group of 20 or so teenagers with a few adults, all of which assumed the opposite of "quite time" was "loud time". Luckily, they were only loud during dinner time.

I work up at 6 AM the next morning and proceeded to get ready for the big hike. This was my third attempt to hike Wheeler Peak. The first time, in 1995, the snow level was down to the trailhead, so I didn't get very far. Last year I got sick and never even made it to the park. This year I made it! It took me 3 1/2 hours to hike from 9800 feet to 13063 feet. It was a very hard hike. I felt like I was out of shape and had to stop frequently to rest. I may have been slightly sick, plus the high altitude and my sore leg from the fall down the stairs in Tahoe didn't help.

The hike begin in the shady pine trees, but soon the trail was above the tree line and the trail consisted of ankle-twisting rocks. The trail got steeper near the top, as you can see by this photo. You follow the ridge all the way up. At the top, I didn't realize where the peak was and kept on walking to the end, where the mountain drops off. Then I went back to the summit, had one of the "loud" boys take my photo, and signed the registry. The view from the top was not all that impressive, at least compared to Mt. Whitney. The view was of the surrounding desert and it was quite hazy.

It took me 2:15 to hike back down. On the way up, I encountered about five people who peaked ahead of me. At the top the group of people camping next to me began to arrive, and yell loudly. On the way down there were a few more people headed up. I noticed a small, white "puffy" cloud forming above the mountain. The cloud got bigger and darker, however, it never rained. Closer to my camp site, I ran into this deer who was not it a hurry to run away. I snapped this photo with the zoom, but he/she was still quite close.

After the hike, I ate lunch and relaxed. I didn't feel like taking the cave tour, which I did in 1995. So I killed time by driving around and walking on a short walk around the camp site. I was in bed by 8 PM.

Last Day In Lake Tahoe

The smoke cleared up enough for some outdoor activity, so we went to Zephyr Cove for one last day on the beach. Fun was had in the raft that was bought yesterday.

Relaxing in a chair on the beach while drinking beer and there is a game of horseshoes being played in the background. Now I'm waiting for pizza for dinner and have pre-packed my car for tomorrow's drive across the loneliest highway in the US.

Truckee River

A nice view of the Truckee River with the bike path along side that I rode on yesterday. The sky, as you can see, is not blue because it is filled with smoke. The smoke got worse last night. Visibility got down to one mile near our house. Today it is still smoky, but not so bad that we couldn't open the windows to cool off the house. We were going to the beach, but might end up in a movie theatre where the air is better.

When I leave tomorrow morning I'll be out of Internet and cell phone range for two days. I'll be back in a town with coverage on Saturday.

Biking and Rafting along the Truckee River

I had an opportunity to float down the Truckee River along the "lazy river" section, but opted for a bike ride. Lee joined me on the 10 mile ride. It was a nice ride except for the smoke in the air from all fires in Northern California.

The rest of the crew bought rafts, rather than renting them, and had several disasters along the way. The first accident caused a bag with a cell phone, wallet and camera to sink into the river. Then one of the rafts sprang a leak. Then Matt fell out of the raft. And finally ...

Upon arrival of the finish, Jon jumped out to pull the boat in and didn't realize how deep the water was. Luckily, his cigarettes survived. The whole adventure took almost the entire day but was worth the time and effort.

Body Painting at Club Blu 2008

We made it to Club Blu for dollar drink night. Once again, there was body painting. The first girl left too quickly for me to take a photo. The club was boring so we left, but later came back in time to see this girl get painted. I snapped this photo as we were leaving.

2008 Tahoe Bike Ride

Today was the day of the traditional bike ride. I almost didn't go due to an injury the night before. As I was walking downstairs to go to bed, Carry yelled "Hey Keith!". Just then my left foot slipped on the stair and I fell on my right leg, causing it to twist in a position that it is not designed to. I was able to get up and walk to bed, but this morning my right leg really hurt. After breakfast and a strong painkiller, I felt better and decided to join the others. So we made our bike ride and ice cream afterwords, where I got a butterscotch milkshake. Now it is time to rest to get ready for dancing tonight at Club Blu. I'll have to dance without moving my feet, but that's normal.

Nevada State Railroad Museum

I ended up going to the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City. We intended to spend 30 minutes but stayed for 90 minutes. The price of admission included a "ride" on the railroad cart. The kids loved it and the adults had fun once the "conductor" convinced us to give it a try. After the ride, my back hurt. I am old.

This train was part of the "golden spike" ceremony in Utah. I no longer runs but an engine next to it runs a few times a year, including the 4th of July.

Between Games

A spot on the second floor provided good cell phone reception and photograph views from above.

The player's children are always around to cheer on the team.

2008 Softball Tournament

Saturday was the softball tournament in the far northeast corner of Reno/Sparks, NV. First game at 10AM we lost. The next game we won. Then after a four hour break, we won the third game 2 to 1, and the last game at 7:30 we lost and that ended the tournament for us. Four games in one day isn't bad, plus now we have all Sunday free to do whatever we want. Now, by "we", I was the 11th player and never played - just took photos. There were a couple of injuries, but they were able to play through the pain.


I got the photo of the team posing for the "real" team photo. We decided to take the team picture after a win so everyone would be smiling. Coco felt it necessary to climb the the top of the softball.


Like I said, the fields were out in the middle of nowhere, in a new development behind a golf course. It was very hot most of the day, and the wind blew hard for a few hours. The 25% chance of rain never materialized, but it did cool down for the last game. We got back to the house at 11:30 PM. Some people went out to the casinos and other went to bed. I stayed up long enough to drink a few beer and then crashed in my bed until 7:30. Now we are deciding what to do as four of the guests just left to fly back home already.

Horseshoes at Zephyr Cove

After a morning walk down to the beach and back, we packed for an afternoon at Zephyr Cove. The beach wasn't too crowded and the weather was perfect for a game of horseshoes. I  didn't play very well and lost quick. After a jump in the cold Lake Tahoe water, it was time to leave. Back at the house, we're waiting for the rest of the team to show up for this weekend's softball tournament in Reno.

Mono Lake and My Car

I stopped to take a few photos between Bishop and Lake Tahoe. There is a view point above the lake which looked like a good place to photograph my blue bike on my blue car with a blue lake and a very blue sky. Blue is my favorite color, if you haven't figured out. I was going to pick John up in Reno, but he took a shuttle from the airport to South Lake Tahoe so I arrived early with two other families. After unpacking the next goal was to get connected to the Internet. We were able to connect once but then the connection failed. So after a few reboots of the cable modem and router, we re-gained our connection to the outside world.

Rodeo In Bishop

It is hard to see, but behind the cows are people in a grandstand watching horses run around to the Darth Vader's theme. Quite an experience. Add to that manure-smelling dust in the air. Yes, I took a shower upon returning to the hotel. My friends still haven't called, so I'm going to dinner soon if they don't get here. I hope everything it fine with them. I called and left a message on a cell phone, but service along the 395 is not that good.

Creek in Bishop

A quick bike ride felt good. I ended up going on the same ride I took three years ago, except this time I had the tail wind on the way back. It was not only hot, but 5% humidity! I circled by a rodeo on the way back. I think there is a rodeo every day in this town.

Flowing Water

I have taken a photo of this waterfall before and still don't know if it has a name. I now have the password to access my hotel's wireless, which is faster than the other one. I'm thinking of going for a short bike ride, but it is 95 degrees out!

Made it to Bishop

I left home at 9:15 and since I was ahead of schedule, I made a quick detour to Whitney Portal. What a perfect day for those hikers lucky enough to be on the trail today. No clouds to be seen. It was kind of hot, but I'm sure above 12,000 feet it felt better. There was a fire further south, but the smoke was blowing east. I hope the fire doesn't burn too much.

My first photo of the store at Whitney Portal. Not much going on there. I think I saw Doug Sr. talking to someone about something. A few more photos and it was time to continue on. I arrived at Bishop at 4:30 and checked in to my hotel. The hotel offers free wireless, but it was prompting for a password, so it was easier to borrow the connection from the hotel next door. I'm waiting for a call from another Tahoe-bound family who are staying in town tonight at a different hotel. They have two young sons, so who knows when they'll arrive and if they'll want to join me for dinner at Whiskey Creek.

Early Start to My Vacation

I decided to not work at all tomorrow, so my vacation has officially started! I finished all the work I could do today, so if I went in tomorrow, all I would be doing is killing time. So I'll burn 5 more hours of time off and get an earlier start on my journey. Now I can sleep in, pack the rest of my stuff in my car and take my time driving to Bishop. I might even take a side trip up to Whitney Portal, just for old-time-sakes.

Another Sunday, Another Bike Ride

My weekend is complete. I took my final bike ride before my vacation. After watching "exciting" golf all afternoon, when Tiger Woods birdied the 18th hole to force a playoff game tomorrow, I quickly changed into my biking clothes and made another trek around Miramar Lake. There were no concerts today. In fact, the streets were void of cars, probably because everybody is spending time at home with their families, as this is Father's Day. Not being a father or having one, it was just another Sunday for me. So, who watches golf on Monday? What about all those people who flew in from cities across the country and even the world who have flights back home tomorrow? Will they stay one more day? Do the feel like they just saw a tie? I guess if I didn't have to work tomorrow I'd look into getting tickets for the match. Poor Tiger, the last thing he wanted to do is play another 18 holes with the pain he is obviously having in his left knee. I have never had surgery, but I know about knee pain.

Back On Track

Silliness aside, I'm just about finished with my trip preparation. I bought some biking shorts and blister pads, tested my bike rack by taking my bike with me to REI and completed a few important computer-related tasks. I wanted to make sure my Garmin GPS was updated with the maps I need, but when I searched for Moab, UT, it couldn't find that city. So I loaded the maps I had downloaded to the unit and realized I didn't go far enough east. When updating the GPS with new maps, you can't just add more, you need to reload the entire map file. So I created and uploaded a 200 MB map file which included detailed maps of all of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, California and Arizona. Then I was looking at my planned route using Street Atlas on my PC and realized that I needed to get that route to the copy running on my Apple under Parallels. So I had to find where the route file was stored. Then copy it to the folder shared with my MAC. Then on the MAC I copied it to the folder shared with Parallels. Then I started Parallels, started Street Atlas and imported the route file. The whole task was not too difficult, but required too many steps.

I also made a list of items to bring with me, each listed under categories such as biking, camping, hiking, driving and computing. I also began to gather all these items and put them together in bags and boxes. I should have my car preloaded by Tuesday evening so that when I come home from work on Wednesday I can throw in a few last-minute items such as my cooler and head off to my first stop - Bishop, CA.

I Am the "5th" Cylon!

Yes, it all makes so much since now. First I heard this song in my head as we passed through the nebula. Then when we reached Earth, I knew! Unfortunately, thanks to the network executives, you humans might have to wait until 2009 to find out the truth during the broadcast of the final 10 episodes of BSG!

Now With Pictures!

Kooooooooz! The Padres win with a grand slam by Kevin Kouzmanoff! Tiger Woods putts for an eagle on the 18th to take the lead at the US Open! And just to clarify a few recent blog posts, the above animation is what I'm talking about. The photo below of me is kind of scary - but gets the point across.

My Aberration

I search the spelling and meaning of most "big" words that I use on my blog. Aberration was the best word I could find to describe what I was trying to convey.

Not The Weekend I had Planned

The original plan for the weekend was a camping trip out at the Colorado River near Yuma. However, this trip was planned around someone who was going to bring his boat. But when he found out that the campsite was down a dirt road, he didn't want to bring his motor home, so he flaked-out and the trip was canceled. That, and the temperature was going to be 111 degrees! The new plan was to spend the weekend at a friend's house in Desert Hot Springs (been there many times), where everyone went but me. No, I stayed home to relax and get ready for my vacation. A hike after work Friday felt good. Then two hours of housework this morning ensured I'd come home to a clean house, which is always nice. After shopping for a fire-proof safe, a nap and watching Tiger play not-so-good golf, I headed to the gym for my last workout until I return from my roadtrip. So what am I doing now? Drinking beer - alone, instead of with my friends, who are sitting around a pool having fun without me. But don't feel bad for me, I'll be spending a week in a house in Lake Tahoe with lots of friends (and their children), so perhaps some alone time is not all that bad. Tomorrow I still plan to buy a few more items for my trip, test out my bike rack and maybe sweep my garage and/or wash my Mustang. We'll see how motivated I am in the morning. This will be a tough week at work. Even though I'm only working 2 1/2 days, my brain took off on vacation last week without my body. So I will not actually be at work next week, just my mind-less aberration, sitting in front of a computer typing away, much like it is doing now.

Chicago and Doobie Brothers in Concert

Just got a photo, and then video, of a Chicago/Doobie Brothers concert in Denver from the Big W. Same friend who got us great tickets for The Who concert in SD in 1989. Long live the 70s!

Futurama Series Three - Bender and Kif

When the doorbell rang, I assumed it was another salesman from AT&T. They are now at the top of my "hate" list, jumping ahead of the Union Tribune guys. So far four AT&T people have been to my house trying to sell me their new fiber optic TV/phone/Internet. I was nice to the first one. The second guy gave up on me quick. The third person got an earful and said he would take my name off the list. So when the 4th man came to my door I almost lost control. Luckily, there was no body at my door this time, just a nice, brown box with two Futurama action figures in it. Yes, series 3 with Bender and Kif have arrived.




Bender seems to have come with three eye options: angry, surprised (or sad?) and "be careful about what you're going to say next", if that is an emotion that can be expressed with eyes. Kif seems to be Cowboy Kif. This is the first Kif action figure I've bought, or perhaps ever produced. He was a secondary character, Zapp Brannigan's side-kick/first mate, who ended up in a relationship with Amy. Now that I have all six figures, I could open them up and build the Robot Devil. Or not.

Getting Ready for Vacation

My plan this weekend was to get ready for my vacation that starts on the 18th of June. Since I'm going camping next weekend, this is the last weekend I'll be home. I accomplished almost all my goals, and the rest I can do during the week. On my to-do list was buy a new cell phone. Partly because mine was getting old but mostly because I needed one with bluetooth due to the new law that takes effect July 1st in California that prohibits talking on a cell phone while driving that isn't hands-free. Now, I rarely talk on my cell phone while driving. In fact, I don't use my phone much at all. But this gave me an excuse to buy a new phone with more features. I got the cool Motorola Razr V9m. It is slimmer that my old phone, but slightly bigger, which is nice because it has bigger screens. The phone has a camera that takes 2 megapixel photos and it also can take movies. The bluetooth allows me to be one of those people who walk around talking to themselves. I was able to get my Apple MacBook Pro to connect to the phone and transfer a photo from the phone to my computer. The phone also came with a 256 MB micro SD card, which can be used to save photos and (kind of) easily transfer them by placing the micro SD card into an SD card adapter. However, to get to card, you have to power off the phone, remove the battery and then remove the card. I'll probably upgrade to a 2 GB card so I have lots of memory. I'll also try to find out if there is an easy way to transfer phone numbers and e-mail addresses from my PC to the phone so I don't have to type them in using the small keypad. One more feature of this phone is it has a faster connection to the Internet at no extra cost!

I tested the new phone camera today during my bike ride to and around Miramar Lake. The first photo I took after completing my ride around the lake. Last time I mentioned that the water level was down, but today it was back up. I also learned that if I want to take a normal photo, I'll need to turn the phone 90 degrees in order to get a "landscape" view. The second photo is of a band playing in a park near my house. On the way to the lake I passed by the park using my new short-cut, and heard the band playing, but there were only a few people in the park. On the way back, cars were parked everywhere and the park was filling up with people. I don't know who the band is, but they were playing a combination of classic songs and their own music. I only watched long enough to take a couple of photos and then left. There are lots of events like this in Scripps Ranch and even after ten years of living here I never attend any of them. In fact, I tried to find out the name of this park and it isn't listed on Google Maps/Earth, but I can see that there is a park there, sitting in the shade of the many eucalyptus trees. So, go Padres!

No More Firkin

Karl Strauss no longer has Firkin Fridays. Now they serve a special cask beer for $3.50. Our waitress was very nice and gave us a small sample of the special brew. It was one of those grapefruit-tasting beers. Not very good. However, we both liked the 10th tap beer, which was a Belgium triple ale. It is served in a cool glass and is 9% alcohol. Much better than the other new beer we tired, the Altbeer.

A Few More Lake Poway Photos

I didn't realize that there was a Lake Poway Campground until last year when I went on this same hike. It is hard to see, but there is a building in the middle of the photo that used to be showers/bathroom. Now its just some brick surrounded by a chain-link fence.

You can see the homes above Lake Poway. Most of the houses in the area survived the fire, but I saw a few lots with just chimneys left standing. LaDainian Tomlinson's house sits above the reserve and I saw on the news that the fire only burnt a few bushes in his back yard.

My attempt to photograph flowers blooming on Mt. Woodson. There were red, yellow, white, green, purple and blue flowers blooming all over the hills.