Not Backing Down

We pack up our stuffs and set the bags outside of the room to be taken to the bus and head down to breakfast. Barbara is interested in one of the sauces that is served on the breakfast buffet. I suggest she ask the guy tending the food. She smiles and replies with one of my favorite questions; "why not?" and heads off towards the guy. I watch as he smiles and calls up one of the chefs of the restaurant. They chat for a while and she comes back to the table. She got the ingredients for that sauce as well as telling him how much I enjoyed the chickpea curry from the day before. Seems he went back to the kitchen to see if they had any left for me. It's that good, my friends.

The distance is not very far from Delhi to Agra. But, the speed at which traffic travels keeps everything at a nice and slow pace (the speed limit for the bus is 40k/hr...roughly 25 mph). There do not seem to be any highways that are meant for high speed travel. There are scooters, tuk-tuks, buses, cars, people and cows on every street. I watched as buses stop near the median of an off ramp to let people off. Not in a 'breakdown lane' like we have; right in the lane itself.

Horns are a huge part of driving and the rules of the road here. They are not used for the same things we use them for. They are not 'watch it you almost hit me' horns. They are passing horns. They are get out of the way horns. Anytime a vehicle passes another vehicle, they honk the horn to let the guy they are passing know not to drift out of their current lane. Even though nobody actually uses lanes. I guess it's more like don't drift off of your current line. Our bus (who has the most pathetic sounding horn in India) uses the horn to tell slower traffic to get out of our way. Not many drivers seem to listen to us. Probably because our weak horn. Not manly at all.

For lunch we stop at, what I can only call a road-side tourist attraction. There's a restaurant with a couple of shops attached to it. Out front there is a guy dressed in traditional clothing with an old Indian instrument. As he plays it a small girl (also dressed in traditional clothing) dances and whirls around. I would post pictures of them, but taking pictures would require a tip to them. Across the parking lot a man plays a horn and lets loose his cobra. None of us approach as Shankar says that any interaction with him will also require a tip.

Speaking of tipping; It's pretty big here. Not much in the way of tips. But, it's everywhere. There is a bathroom attendant who will turn the faucet on and off for you, squeeze soap into your hands and provide you with something to dry your hands. For this, you pay him a tip of 10 rupees (about 20 cents). Those are the good bathrooms. The not so good bathrooms there is a guy who has pretty much claimed the bathroom as his own and will provide you napkins to dry your hands with (not a good material to use as it falls apart when making the attempt) and will provide you toilet paper if needed. Of course, this also costs you a tip of around 10 rupees. Tipping for meals is anywhere from eight to ten percent of the bill.

We stop off at a large tomb of Akbar, a Mohgul King. I believe it was the third mohgul king that is entombed here. His son, the fourth king, added to the tomb after his father passed away. A large, red sandstone tomb with walls, gardens and deer? Yes, a herd of deer live within the large gardens of the tomb.

Next stop, Agra itself. We begin discussing the plans for tomorrow and our visit to the Taj Mahal. Shankar tells the bus that it would be better to sleep in a little and to go at 8am instead of sunrise. He reasons that, in his experience, the Taj is beautiful no matter what time of day it is. In the morning the line to get in can be long....very long. It could take us over an hour and a half to get through security at that time of the day. Therefore, we should not try for a sunrise tour. Is that OK with everyone. Many of the people seem to agree with the idea. Many...not all. Barbara and I are not thrilled with this. A family of three begin putting up a small fuss about being there at sunrise. He quiets them down. Later I find out he was using circular illogic to make his point. Every time they said they wanted to be there at sunrise he would respond with, they don't open the gates until sunrise. So, it's no good to be there that early. Yes, we understand that we will miss the actual sunrise, but, we want to see the light change across the Taj as it makes its way up. Every guidebook ever written about the area says to be there at sunrise or sunset for the most amazing views. His response reverted back to they don't open the gate until sunrise. Then they have to go through security which could take some time. They would miss the sunrise. Yes, we understand that. OK, then we go later in the day. Round and round they went. They finally acquiesce.

However, he had only fought a battle. Not the war. He had yet to square off with a real opponent; my wife. She started in on him nicely. No point in being rude. Just as the police pulls his firearm as a last resort, my wife holds the platinum plated bitch card in reserve. She was not going to back down. I tried to compromise by saying that we would take a taxi over there by ourselves and meet them there when they got there. The fool did not see the potential cease fire and told us that we all have to go at the same time, due to some sort of tour restriction. I sat back in my seat and could see that Barbara had been polishing the shine on that bitch card of hers in those few moments. Several minutes later, he announces to the bus that we would be leaving the hotel before sunrise so that we could have a sunrise tour of the Taj. Exactly like the tour says, I thought to myself.

Combat takes it's toll upon the participants. Barbara was pretty upset when we arrived at the hotel. On top of squaring off with our tour guide, we were pretty sure we had upset some of the other travellers by having them be on the bus at 5:30am. We decided that we would just order room service. The hotel was a dump. I am sure that it was a nice place compared to many of the other establishments. But, it was not what I had in mind as a nice hotel. It was nowhere near what we had come to expect from Friendly Planet. Ordering room service was a bad idea. I think that the only decision we could have made to make it worse was to drink the local water...

We went to bed early (and a little hungry) but a bit excited to travel the the Taj Mahal tomorrow.

Delhi Living

We woke this morning to rain and excitement. Excitement diminished ever so slightly by the rain. Until we hit the breakfast buffet. I hit the meats and fruits and allowed Barbara to scope out the local foods. She's so much better at chatting up the chef/wait staff/locals in getting the low down on what is available. She comes back with a full plate of all kinds of food stuffs. Several tastes later, I now know what to get on my second pass. We each ordered a couple eggs made to order. I regret this decision almost as soon as my order is placed in front of me. A mushroom omelet that seems to be missing the mushrooms and doesn't look as thoroughly cooked as I would like. My second plate is filled with the gloriousness that Barbara has found in the local section of the buffet; A chickpea curry, several other sauces that I could not really identify (other than one had cilantro in it) and some flat breads. In the end we both roll our full selves to the bus for our first stop.

The bus pulls up in front of the Jama Mosque. It is a red sandstone number that seems to me to be pretty massive. Shankar tells us that we should wait in the bus for a bit for the bad weather to pass. It was lightly raining at the time. Barbara and I looked at each other figuring that a little light rain isn't going to hurt anyone. We have rain coats. She brought an umbrella. But, I don't think everyone else came as prepared for this type of weather. So in the bus we remained.

Shankar is like a weatherman. Several minutes later the rain started coming down in sheets. Pouring down rain. Yeah, that would have sucked. There would be no way for me to be able to pull my camera out and use it in that weather. We looked out the windows of the bus and entertained ourselves for about a quarter hour when the rain lightened again.

After the security check and metal detector scan (that nobody seemed to pay attention to), we are told we must take our shoes off to enter the mosque. I'm not really a barefoot kind of fellow. The majority of the mosque is outdoors. After the heavy rain we just had and the continual light rain, there's no way I can walk around in socks. Who would ever have thought that, of all the places, I would kick off my shoes and wander around barefoot in India. Barbara was asked to wear a gown (as were all of the ladies and those men who had shorts on) to be able to enter the mosque. We wandered around and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

For those of you who have been reading for a while, the next stop should be a pub. That's how these travels are supposed to go; Religion and then beer. Looks like I'm not going to be able to follow that on this trip :(. After this place of worship we were treated to a rickshaw ride through the very narrow streets and alley in the area. Motorcycles, rickshaws, bicycles and, at times, cars vied for the right of way on these sometimes one lane alleys. Our rickshaw driver seemed to be able to navigate through jedi powers. Dodging and weaving left and right around the people and other vehicles. It was pretty damned cool. He drove us around for about 20 minutes and we ended up back at our tour bus.

Our next stop would be the location that Gandhi was cremated. In the Hindu culture, the body is cremated and the ashes returned to the nearest river. Gandhi's place of cremation was turned into a large park and monument. However, due to the rains, all of the entrances were completely flooded. In some locations we would have to wade through water halfway up to our knees. Some of the members of our tour were not very keen on that. Shankar said we would try another entrance to the park. It had the same situation. He told us not to worry, he has a backup plan.

We were taken to the house that Gandhi had lived out his last 144 days. In the back of the house where he was living was where he was assassinated. The house and grounds have been turned into a museum to his life and death. We spent some time wandering the grounds and house. Not too bad of a backup plan. Especially for a last minute game change.

The India Gate was our next stop for today. Yes, lots of things to do and see on these tours most days. The India Gate was built in the same style as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It was placed there as a war memorial to honor the Indian soldiers that had lost their lives fighting in World War I. It holds the Indian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

For lunch (or light snack, as it turns out) we stop by what we will call an Artisan Education Facility. These locations are on all of these types of tours. From what I have read, they actually help to keep the costs down. They figure they will kick back some money to the tour operator for expenses because they know they will have a steady stream of potential customers constantly walking through the door.

This facility is a Cashmere crafts institution where rugs are made. We are treated to a demonstration of how these rugs are made, their history and then shown various rugs of different sizes and shapes. Of course, all of these rugs are for sale. I believe that the rug dealer had said "We will not pressure you to buy a rug you do not want, but, if you fall in love with a rug, we will not stop". I have always wanted to buy a rug in a place like this. It's an experience I was looking for if/when we ever get to Istanbul. I had no idea that I would get that experience here.

We sat down and gave the dealer something to start with. We told him we are looking for a round rug and an approximate size. Men started pulling rugs and showing them to us. We told them that we didn't like this color or that type of pattern and away those carpets would go to be replaced with carpets a bit more to our taste. Each time he asked us about a carpet that did not match our taste, he would look at one of the many assistants and would tell them to take that carpet away. However, he would say it in a way that sounded like the carpet offended us, and therefore offended him. Eventually, my dear readers, he found a carpet that Barbara and I could not leave without. With free freight and insurance I filled out the forms and forked over some cash. Our carpet arrives in about 3 weeks.

After the rug merchant, we headed out to the Qutab Minar. This is the largest free standing minaret in the world at 238 feet. It was pretty impressive. I took a boat load of pictures of it (me? Take pictures of something? Nah). Some things, I find, just want to have their photos taken. This is one of those things. At the same site is the Iron Pillar. From what we were told, this is an old border/boundary marker from the 5th century made from...you guessed it...iron. The interesting thing about it is that, although it is iron and completely open to the elements, it has never rusted. Nobody has been able to explain why this is.

The last stop for the day is the Lakshmi Narayan Temple. We are given a blessing of the temple and Tilak (the red dot). Shankar explains the different gods of the temple and we are given some time to wander around to explore on our own. By the way, this being a temple, we are shoeless again. At the end of our free time we meet back towards the main part of the temple when one of the two religious ceremonies for the day begins. One ceremony in the morning and one in the evening. Each lasts about eight to ten minutes. I guess we could count ourselves lucky to be able to experience one of the ceremonies on my first (and possibly only) trip to the temple.

Back to the hotel for some dinner and rest. I would like to say the food was passable. It was GLORIOUS! No secret that both Barbara and I love Indian food. This meal served it up right. A lamb kebab, a chicken curry dish with naan and some local wine; Awesome. I even got to try a specific type of coffee that is made here during the monsoon season. Very strong coffee. I loved it! Barbara's creme brule was missing the hard sugar crust on top....so more of a custard then a creme brule. But apparently still tasty.

Tomorrow we have a long bus ride to Agra; near seven hours.

Everything's OK

Sorry we have been out of touch for the past several days. Seems that getting connections was not as ubiquitous as I had thought. Let me get one thing out right off; We were not affected by the earthquake where we were. We couldn't even feel it. If it weren't for a couple of the other members of the tour watching the television every night, we probably wouldn't even have known about it until we got to this hotel tonight (when we could get internet connectivity again).

I have been writing posts and they will follow shortly. Within minutes, really. I just need to copy and past the text into new posts, run spell check and hit the magic post button. Please stand by.

Attention family members: If you have no idea about any earthquakes in this part of the world, ignore this post. Having a great time and can't wait to see you.

Arrival Blessings

Hard to say that 14 hours on a plane is uneventful. But, that's pretty much what it was. I had read that Air India was on the same "level" as Air China. This was not good news to me when I read it. Barbara and I had mentally prepared ourselves for another horrendous flight. Not so. The seat backs had a personal entertainment system (if you can call any system that has the Wolverine movie and the travesty of Hollywood, Clash of the Titans entertaining). We could control our own air (as you can on every other plane in the universe...minus Air China). The food was so-so with the exception of dinner. The chicken curry was pretty fantastic for airline food. The only downside to the flight was the duration. 14 hours on a decent airline is still 14 hours on a plane.

We arrive into the Indira Gandhi airport a little ahead of schedule. This is pretty surprising as we've now had to circle the airport a couple times due to heavy rain. So much rain that we leave rooster tails of water with the landing gear on the runway. We pull up to the jet way and we are parked in at least a foot of water. Yeah, a lot of water.

We collect our bags from the carousel and move towards the exit. Barbara and I are a little taken aback when we see bare footed guys with squeegee brooms in their hands pushing water out of the arrival area of the terminal. We make our way outside to meet up with our guide to find the roads are covered in water...almost a foot deep of water. According to Shankar, our guide, about a half hour before we landed, the arrival terminal was swimming in over a foot of water as well. Seems that the end of monsoon season has not quite arrived this year. Most everyone was walking around barefoot, carrying their shoes with their pant legs rolled up. It took quite some time to collect everyone together with their luggage and get to the tour bus.

Shankar told us that it could take quite some time to get to the hotel due to the water on the road. We should all feel free to relax and take a nap while we made our way there. I spent quite a bit of the trip watching the traffic patterns. All this time, I thought China was crazy, traffic wise. That's nothing. The road that we were travelling on had 3 lanes painted on it. Depending upon what 30 foot section of the road you were currently on, there could be anywhere from 4 to 6 lanes of traffic in those 3 lanes. If you can fit your vehicle into a slot, it's a lane. At one point I watched cars turn around and go back the way they came. Yeah, on the wrong side of the road. Imagine that! The I-5 is backed up due to some sort of traffic collision. Instead of waiting until the next exit to turn around, you just pull a u-turn right there in the middle of the free way and drive back to the exit you want. It's crazy! Crazy insane!

Tired from the flight, I finally doze off on the way to the hotel. Barbara has been out now for some time. We are abruptly woken by the lights coming on and Shankar announcing we have arrived at our hotel. We are to leave our baggage with him and the bellhops will bring it up to our rooms. Just bring your 'carry on' bags with you. Those bags go through xray machines like airport security before they are allowed to be taken into the hotel. We are given necklaces of marigolds and told that in India, the guest is as a god. Someone is waiting on the other side of the metal detectors (they apparently take security very seriously) to apply a red dot the each of our foreheads. The red dot is called Tilak and from what I understand, this is a blessing.

The room is pretty awesome. The hotel is likewise. There is a large window between the bathroom and the rest of the room that can be shuttered closed, or left open as a shower viewing area. Not quite sure what that's used for, in all honesty. Barbara and I figure that it's just part two of the monkey love rooms that we get while on these trips.

Dedicated to staying up as late as we possibly can in order to combat jet lag, we order room service and unpack a bit. Once the food arrives, we are in heaven. Too late we thought of taking pictures of what the food looked like when it arrived.

Tomorrow begins the tour proper.

Honeymoon Adventure Prologue

Thank you to everyone who came to the wedding. We both had an amazing time! There will be a boat load of pictures to share...eventually.

With so much time spent working on the wedding we didn't really take much time to actually give the honeymoon trip any love. So, Monday saw us driving around town taking care of last minute details, purchasing the remaining items needed and really just wrapping things up before leaving the country.

Things still didn't really set into our minds as we were walking into the airport terminal for our flight to JFK. Barbara and I laughed at ourselves over the fact that we were preparing to fly across the country and leave it tomorrow and it hadn't really sunk in. I still have a little bit of detachment from the grandeur of the trip at the moment.

However, we have arrived in New York after an uneventful flight and are safely ensconced in our hotel room for the night. With us arriving at almost 9pm we really don't have much time to do any sight seeing this evening. Then we have to be at the airport by 2pm at the latest to catch our flight to Delhi. Not much tourism time there either. Looks like Barbara and I will have to come back in the future. We were going to have to anyway. I still have Albany on the list of capitols to visit and there are several NYC goals that Barbara has (Time Square at Christmas time, for example).

Tomorrow we leave the country...

It Lives!!

Saturday afternoon I took the Porsche out for a long spin. Mostly to burn off some of the old fuel in her before taking her in for the smog test. But also to make sure that she was in good shape all around. She drove great for the hour long drive and passed the smog test. Got the registration taken care of this morning and life is good. Other than the weather...After almost two years of not driving her around I get her out on the road. It's raining today. What a glorious day to bring the convertible out, eh? Let's see how long I can stave off Kevin's Rule of Three.

Raising the Porche, Part II

The tires that I ordered finally arrived on Friday. Seeing as I had Monday off for Presidents Day, I made an appointment to take the Porsche in on that day. Because one of the tires was completely flat, I had to have her towed. I am so thankful for my AAA membership. After the tires were put onto the car, I had to get her home again. So, with Barb following close behind, I jumped in and headed out onto the roads. Technically, I'm not really supposed to be driving the car on city streets. I still need the smog check for the registration to be valid. However, this gave me a chance to make sure everything was still in working order while burning off some of that old gas that is still in the tank (3/4 of a tank). I forgot how much I enjoy driving that car.

I picked up some octane booster that I will add to the tank and see if I can help her out. The next tank of gas I will add a fuel injector cleaner as well. Now, I just need the smog check and she'll be a legal machine again.

Raising the Porsche, Part I

First step break into the car. Yes, you read that correctly. The Porsche Boxster has a mechanical piece to its security system. When the security system is turned on, the latches for both trucks are mechanically disabled. This is great! Until you leave your car long enough to let the battery drain. You can unlock the car, but, there is no power to the security system to enable the truck latches. I need to change out the battery...which, of course, is in the front trunk.

So, I fashioned a couple electrical leads to the fuse panel for the security system. Pumped 12v with a 9v and a couple AA batteries wired in series (gave me 12.58v...close enough). Positive leads to the fuse and negative wired to the door frame. I crossed my fingers, locked and unlocked the doors. Wouldn't you know it, there was a audible click of the latches being enabled. Hurrah!!!

Clever, eh? Well, as much as I would like to take credit for thinking this all through, I can't. Porsche realized the problem quite some time ago and released a Technical Service Bulletin on how to do this. Although the 9v and 2xAA batteries were my idea. I saw no need to go get the car battery to open the trunk, just to turn around and go back for the core charge.

After I got the new battery hooked up, I did a little praying and tried turning the car over. It sputtered and started right up. As I said in an earlier post, it's been a loooong time since it's been driven. That means whatever fuel that was sitting in the car could have gone bad. Turn to gel, varnish, or other fuel system wrecking liquid. I am thrilled that she started up. I would like to get that old fuel out without having to burn it, but, I'm not sure I will be able to. I can't siphon it out. The Porsche has an anti-siphon system in place (of course). I read an idea of redirecting the 'out' line from the fuel pump to a container and then applying power directly to the fuel pump. Great idea! But, the Porsche has it's fuel pump inside the gas tank. I would have to drop the tank for that. Not going to happen. I guess burning the gas is the only way without going to a mechanic and hoping I don't get charged too much for it.

Got the car registration paid for, but, it needs a smog check. I am not going to take her in for a smog check without getting some new gas into her. So, I need to drive her around and take care of that first. But, tires would have to come before that. I ordered the tires from Discount Tires. The tires I want are available ::cheer::. The front tires are on international back order. But, they had a pair in Northern California that are being delivered. The closest pair of back tires (of course they are different sizes) are in Dallas. As you may be aware, most of that area is having a small cold front...Looks like it'll take a week or more to get them out here. Stupid snow.

So, I wait for these tires. Then it's just down to getting her used to driving again. Yeah, it seems that the control system needs to be driven for about an hour to 'relearn' how I drive and adjust itself to me. An oil change, smog check and then we're good to go. Oh, and the new window for the soft-top. But, I will be happy with getting her driving around.

Honeymoon Redirect

Most of you already know that Barbara and I have been planning our honeymoon to be a trip to Egypt and Jordan. With the recent turmoil in Egypt we came to the conclusion that maybe it might be wise to redirect this trip elsewhere. We'll circle around to Egypt another time. Not like the pyramids are going anywhere, right?

After some debating back and forth and looking at the choices that were available to us via Friendly Planet, we came down to four or five choices and went through each of them. All of these trips have been on our radar for future trips. We went back and forth on these choices over the past week. We finally threw all these options into the ring and let them fight it out, Battle Royale style! It was a long and hard fight between the combatants. In the end, the Taj Mahal Express trip with a Nepal extension won out.

So, earlier today, after getting some questions answered by one of the reps at Friendly Planet, deposits were made and travel insurance was purchased. We leave a few days after the wedding; September 14th.

Silent Blogs

So, I was reading through the various blog entries on my feed this morning, I realized that I had not heard a peep from a couple of my friends' blogs. I began to compose a message to the tune of 'Why aren't you posting any new entries, you lazy bastages!?!?'. Before I could finish the first full sentence, it dawned on me that I have been remiss in doing any postings myself (June was the last post that I actually completed...I have half a dozen posts that were never actually finished). So, in order to get around that little hypocritical problem, I figured I should post an update or two before mounting my high horse.

What's been going on in the life of me? Well, since the last post;

I went to a dance club to listen to a DJ. I enjoyed myself. I had not really expected to. Dance clubs are not my scene (shocker, I know). However, I was standing at the bar watching the people stand on the dance floor playing with their phones, texting, and facebooking and I felt sad for them. All these people showed up to this club and they felt that they needed to spend all that time being somewhere else with a small device. Why couldn't they just be here. Live in the moment? I got that 'physician, heal thyself' moment and realized that I should take a dose of my own medicine. I finished my drink and vowed to have a good night while I was there. Yes, we got out on the dance floor and danced. Quite a bit, I might add. Happiness achieved.

I released a new product for the company. I don't really want to go into work details. But, the new product is on a mobile platform that I don't normally program for (this is actually my first mobile application). Yup, that means that I am not currently programming for my beloved iSeries. Sad, yes. But, I'm thrilled to learn something new. The new platform has a new set of...challenges, shall we say, that I have had to deal with.

I went camping in Ojai. Only a weekend trip. Packed into camp late at night and spent the weekend swimming in the various water holes around the site. Note to self: Self, you are out of shape. You need to exercise more. I lost my sunglasses while sliding down a rock slide into a pool. The water was refreshing. The loss of my shades, not so much.

I developed another product for the company. This time, a mapping product. Another new set of APIs that I was unfamiliar with. More new stuff to learn = more new challenges to face. Challenges make me happy. I don't like to be bored with my programming tasks.

I went backpacking in the Sierras. A small group of us went hiking into King's Canyon. What a great trip. I did mess up my knee and had a tough time of it during most of the hike. Also did not help that I am out of shape. Another note to self: Self, do something about your fitness level; It currently sucks. Due to a small fire going on in King's Canyon, many of the spectacular views were obscured by smoke. That did not detract from the glorious-ness of the place. I do not get to play up in the Sierras very much. But, when I do, I sure do enjoy it. The scenery. The serenity. The solitude. Natural beauty abounds there.

I barricaded myself indoors for most of the holiday season. Not sure why, but, I pretty much cut myself off from all outside communication during my Christmas holidays. My phone was off for most of that time and I didn't check email. Looking back, I'm not even sure what it is that I did during that time. I guess I just needed to recharge.

I failed miserably in my 2010 goals. It would really help if I looked at those goals at sometime during the year instead of checking on them at the end of the year. It makes it hard to accomplish things when you do not actually work on them. Fail!

I watched Barb get recruited to a new company. A position opened up at a friend's company and he thought Barb would be perfect for it. The boss met with Barb and the only logical thing that could have happened, did; He offered her the job. She's sad to be leaving the people that she works with now. She's grown close to them. But, the new job is a huge step up for her career.

Began the Porsche resurrection. Because of Barb's new job, the carpool that we have been using is coming to an end. So, we need to start driving separately again. I have not driven my Porsche in a long time (October, I believe...2009). Yeah, I know it's pretty disgusting. I own a Porsche. I don't drive it. It sits in our parking space and collects dust. I had actually planned on selling it this last year (one of my 2010 goals that I failed in...good thing I failed, in retrospect). The Porsche represents a lot of things to me. For one, it represents a childhood dream (of owning a Porsche). But, also represents a failure. I had made a change from wanting to spend my money on stuff to spending it on experiences. That brought much more joy into my life; Getting my dive certification, going to Mexico with family, going to China with Barb, learning to rock climb, going backpacking again. All of those things required the purchase of stuff, yes. However, it wasn't just the accumulation of those things. Those things allowed me to expand my experiences.

My life's goals had changed. However, there was still that kid in me wanting his dream car. I needed a vehicle. So, I bought the Porsche. Talk about one giant, expensive piece of stuff. The happiness I got from the car waned over time. I came to the realization that I had made a mistake in that purchase. With Barb and I working so close to each other, we just started carpooling. Well, never fear, gentle readers. I have made peace with that mistake. There is no going back, and regret for the past is a waste of spirit. So, the zombie Porsche is being resurrected and being reinstated to full, active duty. Of course, that means a new battery, new tires (ones that wont "help" me spin out this time), a new window for the soft-top, a smog check, and various other minor things. Ack! Resurrection *is* expensive.

Finally I made new goals for 2011. This year, I have them printed out and will post them near my desk at home. This will be a constant reminder to work on these goals.

Rafting the Kings River

Last weekend I had the pleasure of doing some white water rafting. This is actually my second year doing this. I should have written about this last year when I went. But, I never actually got around to finishing the entry until it was so long after it would have been a bit embarassing to post it.

The price of admission is about the cheapest you can find; damned near free. You have to supply your own camping gear, one meal provided and cooked by you (your "group" actually) for about 20 people and extra beer to share. In return, the raft, life jacket, oar and professional-quality guiding are provided. Seems like a deal to me. It's all due to the fact that the owner of the rafting gear, Colin, loves the activity. He owns the stuff, he just needs bodies to fill the boat. So, he invites friends (and friends of friends) to come up on one of the four or five trips he does a year. Last year Trent and I were fortunate enough to get included on the invite.

This year Trent, Barbara and I were going to be making the trip up to King's River (outside of Fresno). We left work on Thursday night and headed up the to SLO to crash at Marc & Holly's place. Then an early departure from there got us to the camp around 11:30 Friday morning. We were quickly followed by Jeff and Skip about a half hour later. Most people, however, trickle into the camp anywhere from 5pm to after midnight. We try to get up there early just to secure the camp spots that the group seems to like. I realized as we were driving through the back roads outside of Fresno that I had forgot my camera. Fail!

Saturday morning found the camp pretty full of people; Colin, Janice, Tim, Billy, Melissa, Skip, Jeff, Steve (along with Maggie), Chris, Han, Marc, Holly, Rich, Cheri, Trent, Barbara and I. What a group!!!

It was cold up there; About 60 degrees. That, in and of itself, is not that bad. But, when you are rafting in water that is in the low 50's and the wind whips along the river, it gets cold out there quick. It was suggested we bring wetsuits for this years outing. Well, I'm sure not going to bring my thick diving wetsuit...I'd never be able to paddle. Luckily, Barbara and I got to borrow a couple wetsuits on site. They helped a ton. It was still cold...just a bit more bearable for the couple hours on the trip.

This year there were a couple of boats. Billy brought his boat, and I got to ride in it this year. He used to guide for Zephyr on the same stretch of river, so he's pretty familiar with all of the rapids here. We had seven in the BillyBoat; Marc, Skip, Myself, Barbara, Melissa, Jeff and Billy (most of the time). Billy jumped out of the boat on one occasion and told us we were on our own. We only had one close call and almost lost Skip and Barbara to a rapid.

Barbara was a bit apprehensive about the trip (as was I last year). But, all fears were allayed after about 10 minutes on the river. Yes, the rapids were wet, and cold...but, they were exhilerating! I was given the Barbara seal of approval for this activity (with the fine print of "hates the frigid cold").

After the Saturday trip down the river we got a small group together and played a quick game of Settlers of Catan on an unoccupied picnic table. We had to put a time limit as Trent, Barbara and I had dinner duty. It was Chris, Trent and Barbara's first Settlers game. I had only ever played the game online. I am not quite sure why it doesn't exist in our pile of games at home...

The Mac & Cheese seemed to be a hit again. We three cooks gathered around and reviewed the recipie for next year. What changes need to be done? What went right? What went wrong? They will have to wait until next year until they find out.

There was to be another trip on Sunday; Our team bowed out. Trent said he didn't want to get back tired from the rafting trip just to turn around and drive 7 hours. I can understand that. Barbara and I were not really sure we wanted to battle the cold (which looked to be colder than yesterday). So, we waved to the Sunday boaters and headed out for home.

The Fall of Fenninkainen

Most of the people that read this blog already know this. However, I felt that I needed to write about it anyway. Recently, I lost a very dear friend. I have been friends with Shawn for just around 20 years of my life. He was a member of 'the gang'. Probably considered one of the founding 'members'. Much like most of the rest of 'the gang', I really consider Shawn more family than friend. To say that his death hit us all pretty hard would be an understatement.

He could tell me a truly unbelievable tale and I, somehow, would fall for it...every time. Some of these stories I may never live down :). I think it was just his delivery. He had a natural gift for storytelling. From searching a haunted house in Call of Cthulhu by candlelight to trying to speak with his character who only spoke Japanese (even though Shawn didn't), you couldn't help but get so into the scene that you forgot that you were not actually there.

He also had a gift for planning and strategy. Many a DM's plan was foiled by the twinkle in Shawn's eye. It didn't matter what the genre. Magic problems? Give him an ice bucket...he'll have a solution. Futuristic tech getting you down? No problem! Where's that old fashioned projector? Evil wizard in the party too powerful for you to take out? A little Trap the Soul will have the good guys back on track in no time.

His plans were never expected. As long as they didn't rely on the luck of a die roll, they seemed custom made for the situation at hand. But, dice hated his plans. If Shawn had a gaming tag line it would be "Great Strategist, Lousy Die Roller". He even had the shirt to match.

His games (Deadlands, Call of Cthulhu, Vampire, Boot Hill) were universally enjoyed and well attended. His characters (Fenninkainen the True, Simon Q Hawke, Akira, Pavilon Hexagonal, Flash) became iconic characters to us.

Obviously, the majority of the time I spent with Shawn was around a game table. The majority of the time I spent with most people for those 20ish years was around a game table. Board games, role playing games, even card games. That is what we did. But, I also spent hours with him on the paintball field. Sang along to The Bobs while driving around. Saw countless movies (even one that we all agreed no longer exists in our reality). I even hiked up to Tahquitz Peak in the San Jacinto mountains with him once.

He always had a witty comeback or a sarcastic remark to make you smile. So many stories and memories. I am glad to have been able to call him a friend. Shawn will be missed, but, never forgotten.

Moses and Mickey Mouse

Up early today for our trip to The Great Wall!!! We stop along the way for a visit of the Sacred Way (Or the Spirit Way) of the Ming Dynasty Tombs. We did not get to go to the tombs themselves. Only walk the Spirit Way lined with statues shaded by willow trees. It was a good walk. I would have liked to go onto the tombs and see them as well. But, we had a long day ahead of us. After walking along the Spirit Way we were told that we had to cross one of the most dangerous streets of China, and like Moses parting the Red Sea, Peter walked right out into traffic, which he must have used The Force to stop, so that we could cross the street like his brave little ducklings.

We stopped at a jade factory where we were educated on the matters of jade. It was fascinating to see how they could carve a ball with multiple, individual, moving balls within it, all from a single piece of jade. Like many other revered arts in China, there are only a small handful of people in the world that are considered to be true masters in their craft. After the small bit of education we were shown to...wait for it...yup, you guessed it the jade shopping center. After Barb had made eye contact with one of the "helpers" there, she was stalked the entire visit. If any interest was shown in an item, the helper would then pull out the item for you to see, talk about the price, possible upgrades or other alternatives like the item you happened to glance at. We discovered that there is no such thing as "just looking" in China. The prices were actually pretty good and we picked up a couple things that we wanted.

A small stop for lunch at a cloisonne factory (with some education, shopping and of course stalking) gave us a sampling of some fantastic local Chinese food. We even had the opportunity to sample a local liquor that they consider very strong (about 53%) and some of the local beer (Jinling and Tsingtao). Both of the beers were very...uh...light. Fizzy yellow beer, anyone?

After lunch we get to a major attraction of the trip; The Great Wall at Badaling. I will tell you now that Barb and I are going back. We only had a couple hours on the wall. Neither of us thought we had enough time to walk as much as we wanted. We were given the option of the easy way to the right, or the steeper way to the left. The right side has better photo opportunities, but, the left side would have fewer people. Well, on a day where it seemed that all 1.4 billion Chinese people were on the wall, we took the 'fewer people' route. There were still a lot of people on our side. But, you could look across the valley to the other side and see the people parking lot that was there. Others of the group went that way and said that it was just that; a parking lot.

The weather was fantastic. The views were spectacular. And we were standing on the Great Wall of China. We tried to get a bunch of good photos. Speaking of photos, something about Barb and Brett (another guy in our group) had the locals in a tizzy. These two were constantly getting asked to be in photos with the locals. For me it was like walking around Disneyland with Mickey Mouse. I keep getting stopped so visitors could take photos with my companion. Must be some sort of Rock-star quality about those two...

I was happy that we made it to the first major watchtower, where we were afforded some spectacular views, and the wind was so strong it nearly took our breath away.

Now, you may have heard it referred to as the Great Wall of China, but let me tell you my friends...it was the Great Wall of Stairs. And crazy stairs at that. The first step in a series might be four inches in height, the next three steps might be nine inches, then one step that is two inches, and so on, making for a somewhat scary, uncertain footing. At times, I wouldn't have minded having my climbing gear. On the way back down, which was truly dizzying if you looked straight down, Barb and I were holding on to the handrail for dear life, as we watched a young guy bound down the stairs carrying a child, followed shortly by several girls in heels. Barb stared in awe, and I found myself feeling like such a sissy. Apparently, the people of that region have been imparted with a sense of innate fearlessness, or unbelievable stupidity.

With a touch of sadness at not getting to spend another day and a half hiking The Wall, but our heads filled with plans for our next trip out there, we boarded the bus and made our way back to the hotel. We did make a quick detour and drove by the Olympic Village. Got to see The Nest and the Water Cube.

Stopped into the same hotel restaurant and ordered more Chinese food. Once again we were told that they were out of those particular dishes. How the hell can they be out? Hell, Panda Express makes food all damned day..and it tastes better than the dog food we were fed yesterday. Today was better. The food was just this side of OK. We told each other we would not be back to this restaurant. We would head over to the pizza hut across the street if we needed to in order to not eat here.

Flight of The Foot

So, the trip has already started off...interesting. We got to LAX for our 1:40am flight in plenty of time to make the 9:30pm deadline. However, it seems that this was the time that the Air China counter opened. Not the time it closed. We got checked in and, with almost nobody ahead of us in line, security was a breeze.

When we arrived to claim our seats on the plane, a Chinese man of indeterminate age was seated smack dab in the middle, which was to be my seat, having kindly offered the window seat to Barb. After a few awkward moments he consented to move over to the end. A center seat, on an international flight? Does it get any better than this, you ask. Indeed it does. The aforementioned gentlemen had no concept of personal space whatsoever, which, quite frankly, I had been expecting. What I had not been expecting was the overwhelming odor that emanated from this guy. When we first started smelling it, Barb exclaimed at the unpleasantness (as Barb is wont to do), and puzzled at the rancid putrescence, I told her that it must be the general accumulated foot stink of weary travelers. It wasn't until we'd been on the flight for a while that I realized that it wasn't the stink of many, so much as it was the unbelievably concentrated stink of the single guy next to me. I don't think he has ever washed his feet...ever. Like his mother bought him socks when he was five and he was celebrating fifty years of never taking them off. The air conditioner on the plane didn't work. So, it was warm and stale on the plane...with that foot funk. We have dubbed this gentleman The Foot. The Foot seemed a kind fellow however. He did share his hot tea with me. I just really wish that A) I was awake at that time and B) he would have shared it in a cup instead of my lap.

Not one to scoff at other culture's customs for sharing drink, I managed to restrain myself from cursing outright in the guy's face. Interestingly enough, once perfunctory apologies had been made, The Foot evinced no further concern for what might have been severe burns on my "groinal" region.

The flight had no real in-flight entertainment. The movie that was played during the flight proper was in Chinese on an old projector screen that you couldn't really see unless you were in the middle of the plane and within six rows of the screen. Besides the fact that neither Barb nor I speak Mandarin, our headphone jacks didn't work. At least we had The Foot; the traveling squirrel of Air China. Besides bringing his odor and sharing skills to the table, he also brought everything he owned. He had no less than four pieces of carry on luggage. Not little bag type of carry-ons either. Barely legal sized roll-ons. He proceeded to bring them down between meals and repack them. He had squirreled them all over the cabin.

I know that I keep describing the antics of The Foot. It was our only real entertainment. He apparently liked the plastic dishes that we were served the in flight food on so much that he cleaned them with the handy wipe and packed them away in one of his many bags. He had plenty of dishes to choose from. When the flight attendant would ask which dish we wanted to have for dinner (Pork Rice or Sheep Noodles...what? Sheep Noodles. I had to order them to try them...turned out to be Shrimp Noodles), The Foot talked his way into getting both; for every meal. That odor requires a lot of energy to keep going.

We have finally landed. Unfortunately it's not in Beijing. They have told us why we couldn't land in Beijing. I think the announcements are made in both Mandarin and some sort of English/Mandarin/Greek/Klingon mash-up. We have no idea where we are why we are here. At least we get to sit on the tarmac in the warm, stuffy stink of this plane. Huzzah!!

We finally find someone who speaks Mandarin and English. We have landed in Tianjin, near the coast. We are waiting until the fog lifts from the Beijing airport. It's about a half hour flight once we get the go ahead. All of this information Barb had to know, as if knowing would make the plane less stuffy or would get us there faster. I was wondering if, after finding out what prohibited us from landing in Beijing, Barb might not take it upon herself to remedy the situation. Whereas I was irritated at the situation, Barb was, as usual, totally stirred up about it. After a couple of hours of this torture we land in Beijing airport. We stand there and breathe the fresh air of the exhaust filled tarmac. Anything after The Foot will be fresh for the rest of our lives.

Our temperature is taken and we are scrutinized at immigration. However, I found it easier getting into China my first time than getting into England. Strange. Finding Peter (our national guide) was really very easy. He was holding a flag with the travel agency's logo on it. Then it dawns on me; we are going to be those kinds of tourists. Following a guide with a flag. Oh, the shame. All we needed to complete the look were Hawaiian shirts and cameras. Barb wouldn't let me bring Hawaiian shirts, so with the camera I was halfway there. Well, such is life.

We are told that our schedule has really been shuffled around due to the day we landed. October 1st is China's 4th of July. It's their founding day. They call it National Day. Seems we have arrived on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China. A huge celebration is being planned in Tienanmen Square today and unless you have papers from the Chinese government, you can't get near the place. I was, quite frankly, a little peeved that we were sold a tour package that we can't go on. However, I was assured that we will get to see everything, just on different days.

On the way to our hotel Peter explains that National Day is actually an 8 day celebration for the country. Beijing is being visited by many, many, many people from all over China as well as the rest of the world. We are going to have to share our China time with other people. I had no idea at the time how many people we were talking about...

Traffic...wow. Many of you know that I am usually willing to drive in any country. On the wrong side of the road, manual, automatic, it doesn't bother me. After being driven around on a huge bus and seeing the roads (can't call them rules of the roads, because there are none, which Barb finally clarified with Peter later), I will state now that I have no interest in driving in Beijing. The cars have the right of way, not people. Bicycles and motor scooters are everywhere weaving in and around cars as they make turns. People wander out in to the street and stop knowing (or hoping really) that the car will go careening within inches of their person but not actually hit them. I swear the bus drove so close to some waiting pedestrians that we sheared off nipples. Amazingly enough, no one seems to find any of this out of the ordinary, and people drive like they are on the most important mission of their lives. Having seen the way our driver maneuvered that bus, I'm fairly certain that he's had some form of combat driving training. The bus mirrors are not on the sides of the bus, but rather on the front, which enables them to scoot by within mere inches of each other. Several times, myself and other passengers unconsciously leaned away from the window as if that might prevent our vehicle from parking itself halfway in the other one.

We got to the hotel (a Courtyard by Marriott) that was very central to everything we would want to see and got checked in. The optional tour that day was a trip to the gardens of the Summer Palace and a trip to the Panda House at the Zoo. I had to skip this tour as something I ate or was exposed to (The Foot) had made me pretty ill. Barb and I got into the room and I napped off the sick feeling. The hotel wasn't the one we were supposed to be booked in, as that one was undergoing renovations. It wasn't the best place I've stayed in, but certainly not the worst. The shower was hot and forceful, and the bed was...hard...rock hard...to the point that Barb and I debated whether or not there was a real mattress on the bed. Apparently mattresses come in firm, extra firm, and stone slab.

When I finally awoke, Barb was *ready* for some food. I was apparently starving the poor woman. We wandered down to the hotel restaurant. We were both drawn to the Tandoori Chicken and Curry Lamb, but, decided that it was our first day in China; we ordered Chinese food. The waitress came back several minutes later to inform us that they were out. Out of Chinese food...in China. Huh? So, she suggested a dish to me that was not on the menu. I jumped at the opportunity. Sweet! Something that the cook was going to create special. I wish I would have ordered the hamburger. The dish was not good at all.

Luckily, I was distracted from the horrible food by the amazing fireworks show that was happening for National Day. Let me start by saying WOW! You may already be aware of my apathy towards fireworks. Individual firework shots are really not impressive to me. But the Chinese...imagine a 4th of July finale on steroids. Now imagine that every 20ish minutes. They had fireworks in the shame of doves firing from hotel rooftops down the street symbolizing the dove flying over the city. Huge displays of innumerable fireworks. Just awesome. I couldn't believe the show. We spent the remainder of the evening in the hotel room watching the fireworks on TV and from our window.

Chinese Prologue

What the H, E, double hockey sticks, I hear you asking. I know. I was supposed to keep everyone updated on the trip *during* the trip. Well, Wi-Fi is not so ubiquitous over in China. Data roaming charges would have cost me the same as a round trip flight to China and I didn't have much free time to locate an internet cafe in each city. So, I will post the updates now that we're home. I will back date the postings so that they match to the proper day. This way they will make sense to me later if I need to go back to them.


Note: All posts from the trip to China are written by both The Barb and I. I write them and then she goes over them to add in stuff I've forgotten already :). Occasionally, she changes some of the copy that she finds too silly.

And we're off

So, Barbara and I are officially on our way to China (really, we are
in the car driving up to LAX as this is posted). Any blog postings
done during that time will be done from my iPhone. No, we are not
bring a computer. So, please forgive any typing/spelling/gramatical
erors made on this infernal device. If the content is not to your
liking, I blame that on the iPhone as well. The writing was so much
better in my head. Seriously. I am talking Pulitzer prize winning
stuff here.

There will be plenty of pictures to be had...eventually. I have 10Gb
worth of space to fill. Those of you who have been around my camera
and I know that I can fill that up ;). But, it should give us space
for about 2400 pictures. There will not be a mandatory slide show at
the end of the trip. We will try to get a good smattering of photos posted to the Photo Site when we get back. Hopefully, I coded that link correctly. If not the link is available on the right sidebar.

I can't describe how excited we are.

Edited photo link

Asia Bound

Barbara and I have been looking into taking a vacation. I'm getting paid out on my vacation and we figured that we would go somewhere and have a good time. At first it looked like we were going to Jamaica. But, the agent we were dealing with moved the price up and up. In the end, it became more than we really wanted to spend.

After that, I had her convinced to head down to Mexico to the Barcelo Maya resort. I spent 11 days down there diving and having fun in the sun a couple years ago. I would go back there in a heartbeat. However, then the swine flu hit. Bah! I figured that we could get a heck of a deal on the resort if everyone else is pulling out of their vacation. Well, many of the vacation packages were canceling their flights. So, back to the drawing board.

I spent a bit of time looking at various places in Europe. Italy, Spain or France were all on the list. However, while reading through the many different blogs that I read, I ran across an interesting offer. I found a trip to China that was within our vacation budget. Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai. I forwarded the link to Barbara just to get an initial reaction from her. Needless to say, it was positive.

So, after discussing it with her over dinner, the decision was made. The next day the deal was struck. So, at the end of September, Barbara and I fly to China to visit the Great Wall!!

All Seven Continents

Progress 4/7

• Africa


• Antarctica


• Asia


• Australia


• Europe


• North America


• South America

We all have at least one continent complete. North America was an easy one for me. The second one, Australia, was taken care of back in 1999 while I worked for SalePoint. Last year, Ashworth sent me to the UK giving me my third, Europe. The plan as it currently is will pick up Africa (Egypt) and Asia (Turkey and China) sometime late 2011. That leaves South America (World Cup games in 2014 hopefully) and Antarctica (no real date pending).

Although, if Barbara has this on her list (and I know she will) we will be hitting Europe and Australia to clear those for her. Shouldn't be too hard while taking care of other goals :). Can't really dive the Great Barrier Reef if you don't go down to Australia. I won't even give an example of the Europe requirement.

Edit 2010-Feb-11: Added list of continents and scratched off Asia

Edit 2010-Feb-23: Updated to 4/7

New Phone Plan

I broke down and did it. Never thought I would really. I had planned on getting a pair of Blackberry phones for Barbara and I. We are now on a shared phone plan. But, that was the plan. It wasn't what was unexpected. What was unexpected was the two of us walking out with iPhones. Yeah. iPhones. We both played with the Blackberries. We also played around with the iPhones. I started messing around with them just because. I had no real intention of actually getting them. However, the ease of use and the flexibility of the device won me over. Same price as well. The Blackberry Curve was $199...with $100 mail in rebate, which I would probably end up either never sending in or getting screwed out of for some reason. The iPhones were also $199. No rebate. The data service price was the same for either device. Barb loved the iPhone and didn't have many nice things to say about the Blackberry. I like the Blackberry, however, and carried one for almost a year. Did everything I needed at the time. But, I felt that the iPhone had more flexibility and expandability. It seemed more like a small application platform that just happens to have a phone app on it.

I'm still getting used to typing messages on the infernal device though...

Snow Camping on the PCT

Several weeks ago I got invited on a hiking trip with Jacob, a friend of Barb's...Yes, I know that I should have posted earlier. Bite me! I've been busy. I was told that we were going to summit San Jacinto. It's been too long since I've been out and I was free that weekend so, what the hell! I'm in. I was later updated that the itinerary had changed and that we'd actually be hiking part of the PCT north of Lake Arrowhead. I had never been up there, so again, what the hell! I'm in. I went and picked up a couple items from REI that I would need. The biggest piece being a decent topo map...which I have still yet to find. I'm going to have to breakdown and buy the National Geographic topography software so I can print my own maps when nobody provides them.

Pat was decent enough to lend me the use of his JetBoil system so that I could eat. That's one piece of gear that I have yet to pick up. The other crews have that covered. Both Pat and Trent have JetBoils. Rich has a stove (don't quite remember which one). I've never really needed to get one. It would be redundant. I supply the water purification. At any rate...I borrowed Pat's stove.

This was going to be winter backpacking; snow and cold. I got some snowshoes rented from NomadVentures here in Escondido that Barb was good enough to pick up for me. REI was sold out of snow shovels. But, I figured that someone on this crew would have one (Sure enough, there were 3 shovels among the 6 of us). I went through my pile of gear and chose items that would keep me warm and comfortable. Got everything into the pack and then pulled everything back out. Filled the water containers and reviewed everything. If I couldn't convince myself that any piece was *required* to be in the pack, it went back into the storage container.

Saturday Morning, Jacob picks me up and we head off to rendezvous with the rest of the crew. Six in all; Myself, Jacob, Chad, Shawn, Matt & John. Good guys, all of them. There are some strong friendships in that group. They seem to have been together for quite some time. We transfer Chad into Jacob's Jeep and we start the 2 car caravan to the trail head.

We stop at a service station at the base of the mountain to make one final "rest stop" with ready facilities ("Facilities be damned, I gotta use the bathroom" -Max). There are signs posed on each pump stating that they are out of gas and diesel. Jacob, Chad and I go into the store to pick up some energy drinks and find out that they are out of change...not much service to be had in this service station. No gas, no diesel, no change. We don't need gas and a couple of the guys get good deals on their tasty beverages because the lady behind the counter has no change. With that done we head up the mountain.

We get to the point of the road in which "normal" vehicles are encouraged to stay out of. It's a mile drive from here to the trail head parking. We figured that we have a jeep that we can ferry the six of us and gear down the hill and park the jeep there. That way the hike doesn't end with a grueling uphill, ice/snow covered death march. I'm in the first shuttle down. I'm white knuckled the entire way down as we're slipping and sliding all over the place. Seems that Jacob wasn't especially thrilled with the experience either, as the second shuttle never arrived. Instead, the remaining members geared up and hiked down to us. Looks like the death march awaits me at the end.

I enjoy hiking. I really do. I do not, however, enjoy snow hiking. It's a pain in the legs (thought I was going to say something else, huh?) to constantly sink down in the snow. We hiked for several miles this way...with snowshoes strapped to our packs. I know what your thinking. No need to call me an idiot. I know all about that fact. You see, I guess most of us, being novice snow-shoe'ers, were waiting for the lead hiker to put *his* shoes on. So, when we finally complained about sinking into the snow during this hike, we said screw it and put on the shoes. At that point we also agreed to hike back a bit to a nice flat area between two streams that would make a decent campground.

There was a fire that had ravaged the area some time ago. So, with the white snowy ground everywhere and the black, limbless trees, the area that we were hiking through reminded me of an Ansel Adams portrait. It was still fairly beautiful. The open outdoors. As long as you didn't look back in one specific direction (towards some sort of resort), there was nothing man made around us.

In the middle of the night I found that my Thermarest pad gave up the ghost. So, I lost the small amount of cushion-like comfort that it provided. Eh, I can deal with that. However, I also lost it's insulation value. That made me sleeping almost straight onto the snow. That, my friends, sucked. I spent the restless night sleeping rotisserie style. I slept on my side until that got too cold. Then I switched to my back until it got to cold. Then to my other side. And so on and so on.

I did learn several things on this hike. The big one was that water resistant is not waterproof. I had thought that my boots were the later. Apparently not. They are good boots. I've gone all over with them. However, never again will they go into the snow with me.

On the way out we came upon a guy in a brand new Ford Explorer (just down the road that encouraged "normal" vehicles to stay out) who was stuck in the snow. We helped (OK, the other guys helped. They were almost done by the time I got there) him get dug out and pushed back some to get grip for his tires. I think he now knows that he has one of those "normal" vehicles that shouldn't leave asphalt and concrete.

We grabbed some Mexican food in Lake Arrowhead Village and headed off for home. All in all, a good trip.