Mark's Blog!

Rhode Island

2008-07-26T23:46:00.004-06:00

It's 2am, we're staying overnight at an extended stay place pretty cheap in West Warwick, RI. Just saw the new Batman movie (it rocked!), so just going to upload pics and crash.

Igor lent me his Apple Airport hub. This this is so handy! No wifi in the room, so just plug this thing in, and now my three laptops have internet. Sweet! Right now I'm in another hotel with wifi, but they charge 5 bucks per machine. I just plug this thing into my laptop and I can share the connection. =)

Picked up Bev at LGA at 2am on Friday

Amazing dim sum at Ocean Jewel in Flushing. This area of Queens is the "new" Chinatown in NY.

Almost 2000 year old boddisatva wood carving

What the heck is this???

2008-07-23T18:44:00.003-06:00

I've been a total slacker, and never got around to uploading the rest of the pics for my "Part2" of my last trip! Well, since that trip, I've been back to NY twice... I'm in NY right now in fact.

I'm actually at the Marriot blogging from my new laptop, waiting for my raid to form up. I've got some time, so figured I'd at least get some pics from this trip so far uploaded!

Drove from LGA to into Manhattan to meet some friends for dinner near sunset

This Indian place in the East Village was really funny. Two places, *right next door* to each other... the two guys in front are fighting for the customer as they come up the stairs.

Lots of lights!

Huge Wii Fit ad!

This hole-in-the-wall in Huntington had the best pizza I've ever had!

The pizza was pre-cooked and served by the slice. They heat it up in a pizza oven when you order it. But the add the toppings fresh. The tomato was fresh tomato, added to the pizza after it's already hot. The peppers were skillet cooked separately and added to the pizza at the end. It was amazing!

A Week in NY, Part 1

2008-05-24T18:42:00.004-06:00

New York is a great place to visit in the Spring! I checked the weather before I left, and the week was supposed to be from the low 40s to upper 60s. So good, I decided not to even take a jacket.

I'm still trying to pack as light as possible, so even though I really should have taken a jacket, I did manage to pack everything I was going to take in one small carry-on case. If it weren't for the work clothes (bulky and heavy), I could have fit everything in my gym bag.

I planned my trip so I would arrive in NY in time for dinner. Doing my homework ahead of time, I singled out what was supposed to be one of only a handful of great Chinese places on Long Island. Flushing, in Queens, is the new Chinatown where all the really great stuff is, but I just ran out of time on this trip.

The Orient was great. Tucked in a small strip-mall, it's very unassuming. On the inside, this place was packed. I went back for lunch two days in a row for their dim sum, it was always busy. I really wanted some good seafood my first night, so I had them prepare something that wasn't on the menu, fresh scallops on a bed of chow fun. The waiter picked a great sauce, it was fantastic.

Our headquarters in Melville:

Spring-time on Long Island, it was beautiful there.

Here is Huntington village, where House of India can be found. This was supposed to be one of the better Indian places near where I was staying. While one trip to Bangalore does not make me an expert on Indian food, I would have to say the saag paneer and nan that I ordered wasn't very authentic. The spiced tea was served with the milk on the side, rather than cooked in it. The nan was too fluffy, and the spices in the saag were quite tasty but I would say that it appealed more to an American palette. The homemade mango ice cream was great though. Although, I rarely come across bad ice cream. =)

haxx0red!

2008-05-07T10:15:00.003-06:00

I'll be in NY the week of the 18th, so if anyone knows of anything exciting to do while I'm out there, let me know! I'll be coming back on Friday, so I'll only have nights, but I'll be getting out to the City at least a couple of times. =)

And to fuel the fire of Google paranoia, my Google account got hacked a few days ago! I had a sinking feeling when I couldn't log into my Gmail account, because my password didn't work. For future reference, make sure you're secondary security email account works, because that's how they reset your password... they send a link to your other account.

My other account was my work account, and not being overly concerned about not getting to my Gmail account, I decided to wait until I got to work to deal with it. I soon came to notice that I couldn't get into my Calendar... I had forgotten that was related to Google. Couldn't update my blog. Had no news reader. Oh well, annoyances... but I decided to be computer free for the rest of the weekend.

When I finally did get my password reset at work, everything seemed normal. Even the piece of "phishing" email that I got asking me to confirm something-or-other that I had supposedly purchased. But it wasn't a fake, and I didn't realize it until a couple of days later.

What I didn't realize was that I had bought something using the new Google Checkout feature that some smaller online stores are using a couple of months back. Someone actually bought a computer through my Google account!

Luckily, they never received confirmation because I got my account back in time, so they cancelled the order without me having to do a thing, but it's a little scary having all those services tied to a single account.

marknbev.com officially dead!

2008-05-03T13:21:00.003-06:00

Well certainly an end of an era for me. With a touch of remorse, I turned off my server today. It had been parked behind my desk for the last three years, and when I powered it off, my head started to throb as it had to adjust to the missing fan noise.

I've been on the path of simplifying things for a few months now, mostly driven by the fact that we were moving. But even though we've decided to stay, I still recognize that it's well worth continuing the effort.

I hadn't been doing anything with the server for quite some time now, I moved my email off of the domain a few months ago, and I stopped doing software updates increase my own risk to vulnerabilities. It was time for it to go, and Igor letting me "borrow" his unused Netgear wireless router was just the excuse I needed.

The mess behind my desk... marknbev.com!

Three years of uptime, it was seriously sad to turn it off.

I managed to replace all of this...

...with this.

Sometime in the future, I plan on replacing our desktops with laptops. I'll also buy a raid 1 disk enclosure with print server, so I can have central storage and move my printer into the garage. That'll let me get rid of two desks, which are only around to stick a computer next to!

Finances

2008-04-30T15:58:00.002-06:00

So first all, just an update on the camp seat experiment: It worked great!

It got down to well below freezing, it was a bit windy (although very buffered due to the fence), and I managed to keep warm and sleep okay in the hammock. AND now I own a nifty little pad that I can use for all sorts of things.

Secondly, I decided to keep the blog around. I find it convenient to reference and share things.

So I've been doing a bit of thinking lately on personal finances, and I thought I'd share some of the ideas that I've had around saving for the future.

First off, inflation. Annual inflation rate is somewhere around 3% right now. When the $1.00 you put away today is only worth $0.97 tomorrow, it puts a new spin on the idea of saving. By just saving, you're really losing. In fact, you have to beat 3% just to break even. An annual raise of income could compensate for that, but you would actually have to save 3% more, rather than just spend 3% more. I know which side of the fence I'm on. =P

At 3% inflation, the .8% interest I'm earning with my savings account is worthless. Even my bank's money market account is only yielding 1.1%. My Dad pointed out to me the savings bank that he uses, and I was shocked to learn that they are paying 2.75%! EmigrantDirect is a "virtual bank", it's online only. They are FDIC insured up to $100k, and my Dad has used them for years without problems. A little more searching on the net, and I found this site. Apparently there are several online banks, that are paying upwards around 4%! I'll be moving my savings account soon.

Retirement accounts are also something I haven't given much thought to. 401k is a must, nothing beats employer matching. The contributions are tax deductible, and are pre-tax. Which means you have more to work with to gain returns on. Also each individual can contribute $5000 dollars (this year, as it differs by year) to an IRA. Also tax deductible. Deductions can really add up, it was the difference between me paying a few hundred dollars and breaking even this year. Retirement accounts are said to yield around 8% (with the caveat that it *is* still investing, you can still lose).

The last thing is whether to pay off your mortgage or not. The scenario for me was, if given a windfall of cash that would mean paying a good chunck of my principal at once, then doubling my mortgage payments for 5 years to pay off the remainder, should I?

For me, it would have meant that I would be putting every spare penny I had into making this happen, but the prospect of being 100% debt free in 5 years was extremely attractive. I ultimately decided against it. While it would have meant savings tens of thousands of dollars in interest over the long term, I would still be extremely cash poor for the next five years. If your house is your only investment, and you put all of your money into it, you may have tons of equity but you need to sell your house or take out another loan if you want to tap into it. What good is paying off your loan, if you just have to take out another loan if you need that money?

The best bet is to balance cash investments with home equity. Pay off the loan as fast as you can to reduce the interest paid to the mortgage company over the long term, but put as much or more into cash investments along the way. If they are yielding 9% or 10%, that's better than sinking the money into the home loan. That money is still relatively liquid, you can pull it out for emergencies or for home improvements that might actually raise the value of the property.

Mortgage interest is also tax deductible. 6% interest on a mortgage can effectively be looked at as around 4.5% when considering the money you get back on taxes. That's a really cheap loan. Debt is still bad, but when you have limited resources, you have to pick and choose your battles.

Camp Seat!

2008-04-16T23:02:00.002-06:00

The real reason that I've spent all night finishing up going through my pictures of the trip, is that I'm actually procrastinating. But what better way to procrastinate, than to be getting something *else* done!

I managed to get buy a camp seat, to help with the problems that I encountered at the Great Sand Dunes. I ended up buying the Thermarest Lite Seat. The idea, is that it will provide me with the insulation needed for my feet/legs. And instead of buying the longer length sleeping pad, I'll have a nice multi-purpose inflatable pad.

But now I need to test it. And it's in the 20s outside right now, and snowing. So I've really got nothing better to do than blog... because otherwise, I need to go outside and go to sleep.

I only have one tree in my backyard that will support my hammock, but luckily I have fence post near by.
Hammock setup with snow tarp.

Long road home

2008-04-16T22:35:00.004-06:00

Here's the completed route. The trip home took two days, we overnighted somewhere in Utah. By the time we had done all that we were going to do in California, home sounded like a good place to be, it was an awesome trip!

Vegas, it's still growing like crazy. Tons of cranes.

For some reason, I feel compelled to stay at the Mirage.

The rest of Nevada looks like this. There, I just saved you a trip.

Utah, your choice: White rocks, or red rocks.

Peaks of the Rockies, Brrr

This house has an observatory! /jealous

Home!

Experiences, Part 3

2008-04-16T22:24:00.000-06:00

Cold camp. Fires are nice, hot food is nice. But do you need them? If you bring a stove, you need to bring fuel. If you bring a stove, well you need to bring food to cook. Canned food, dehydrated food, eggs, meat. By simply eliminating your stove, you eliminate lots of stuff. No stove, no pots and pans, and don’t need oil. Not keeping perishables that need to be on ice before they are cooked, like meat? Don’t need a cooler or ice. What to eat? Granola is a good source of carbs. It’s dense, thereby compact. Hard cheeses and nuts are good sources of fat and protein. Dried fruits are vitamin and mineral rich. Hard dark chocolate has a higher melting point and makes for a good snack. My kefir experiment has gone really well, so provides all the goodness of milk without needing to keep it cold, and it’s a good source of bacterial slime! Anyhow, there is food without fire if you’re willing to sacrifice a bit. Incidentally, I do still carry a nice portable stainless steel pot with a latching lid and collapsible handle. It makes a good container and wash pot. If I did make a fire, I could cook something if needed, or heat some water up.

Orbitz, etc. If you are going to stay in a motel, reserve the room online using one of those travel services. You often get automatic discounts, compared to whatever rate you get by walking in. It’s pretty easy to park in front of a motel with wifi, and do this. We would often find a motel with wifi in their parking lot, I would find the best food in town and the nearest Starbucks while Bev would book a room from her own laptop. Not to mention being able to compare prices and read user reviews about where you might be staying.

The camp seat. I came across this while in an outdoor outfitters place in Dallas. I was looking to buy a longer/larger sleeping pad than the shoulder-to-hips Thermarest pad that I currently have. This pad is great, but my legs and especially my feet were freezing when sleeping in sub-freezing temperatures in my hammock. The camp seat is just like a Thermarest pad, but for your butt. It’s thick, and much softer than a regular sleeping pad, but it’s still inflatable and rolls up. This reminded me of my friend Igor telling me about the insulating foam pads they would wear strapped to their backs while hiking in Russia. The foam pads would be strapped with elastic cords to their lower lower backs to add extra cushion against the weight of their packs. But when they sat down, they would simply slide the pad under their butt. Genius!!! The camp seat is not quite the genius foam pad, but it’s quite a bit more comfortable, and it rolls up out of the way. Ever since I passed up buying the camp seat, there were countless times that I wished I had it. Sitting on cold ground, hard rocks, or wet marsh. It would make a nice pillow. I could also slide it under my feet to get my legs off of the floor of my hammock and insulate my feet from the cold. This way I wouldn’t have to buy a bigger bulkier sleeping pad, and I would have a multi-purpose “chair”.

Los Angeles

2008-04-16T21:47:00.005-06:00

We stayed in LA for three nights with Bev's grandmother. Had a great visit with her, visited my brother Steve and his wife Lisa as well. Also had time to spend relaxing at the beach, and exploring the town! It was great weather, a heat wave in the 80s and 90s.

Bev's Grandmother

Skyline of downtown LA

Venice Beach, I can't get enough of the ocean.

My theory that sand will work as sunscreen.

Sunset Strip

Hollywood Blvd

New Mexico to California

2008-04-16T21:23:00.004-06:00

This wasn't according to plan, but that's the nice thing about not really having any plans. The first idea was to drive through Tuscon to visit a friend of mine, then up to Snowflake, AZ to visit Aaron and Christi. This all fell through to various circumstances, so ended up just making for California. It's a long drive, we broke it into two long days, overnighting in Tucson.

If you find your self in Las Crusas, NM... this is place for Mexican food!

When you have so much nothing, wind is a bad thing. This dust storm closed the highway for over an hour, making us stop in Tucson rather than Phoenix.

Sunset at Tucson

This was an awesome Italian place, a good local place if your in Tucson.

Phoenix, lots of palm trees there.

Haze... windmill farms... is it CA?

YES!!!

Chaparral, NM

2008-04-16T20:50:00.003-06:00

Just a couple hours outside of Carlsbad is El Paso, and near it, just over the New Mexican border, is Chaparral. There's not much to say about Chaparral, but my Aunt and Grandmother live there, so we stayed two nights. Had a great visit with them, I so rarely get to see them.

Grandma and Aunt Carol

Sweetie

A GIANT plant!

Lucky!

Wilbur =)

Experiences, Part 2

2008-04-14T13:30:00.002-06:00

Pack light. Then pack lighter. On this trip, I took two sets of clothes. The clothes that I normally wear, and the clothes that I wear when I'm washing them. You might notice that I'm always wearing the same clothes in my pics. Nothing cotton. It's all wicking, quick drying, and light weight. I can wash my clothes in a sink, or in a pot. They dry overnight in a hotel room, or in the car. I use Dr. Bronners soap to wash my clothes, myself, my hair, and my dishes. Convenient. I also took a light pullover, a wind breaker, and silk long underwear. That's it for clothes. I may look the same all the time, but I don't have a suitcase of clothes for a three week trip, and I'm good for all weather conditions. Clothes/toiletries/computer stuff all fit into a small gym bag. All my backpacking stuff fits into my backpack. Aside from food, that's really all I have with me. The less stuff you have, the less worry/hassle it is to pack/unpack it, move it, and carry it with you.

In the same vein as packing light, don't take books with you. When I was preping my pack for my trip, and weighing things, I found the four or five small books that I wanted to take with me to be one of the heaviest things I had. I took them anyway. I didn't read any of them. During the day, I'm driving or hiking. At night I'm sleeping. If I did want to read before going to sleep, reading takes light. Light sources are heavy and bulky to pack. I've got a great headlamp, super small, super light, but I'm not going to waste its battery on reading. I've found audiobooks on my iPod superior in every practical way for fun reading. I can "read" while driving, I can "read" in the dark, I carry hours and hours of books with no weight, my iPod's battery is non-essential... if it goes dead, I don't care. I have a tendency to carry reference books as fun reading, though. It's lacking there.

State parks are actually cheap motels. Not having "camped" at many park campgrounds, I hadn't really realized this before now. But from anywhere from $8 to $18 dollars a night, you can sleep at the park. Many have running water, electrical outlets, bathrooms, and showers. It's hard to find decent motels for less than $80 a night. Decent meaning you won't feel worse in the morning for having stayed there overnight. If the weather's right, sleeping outdoors with fresh air and quiet can be far more restful than sleeping on a bad bed, or having noisy neighbors, or staying someplace that reeks or smoke/cleaning chemicals. One of our "camp" spots even had wifi, can’t ask for more than that.

Carlsbad Caverns

2008-04-11T20:48:00.004-06:00

Carlsbad Caverns was pretty awesome. If you're ever in the area, it's a must see. They have two "trails" through the caverns that are self-guided, as well as several guided tours. The guided tours range from walks to semi-difficult crawls with headlights, etc. These tours need to be arranged ahead of time, for anyone that might want to go, so call ahead!

We only had the afternoon, and didn't call ahead, so we just did one of the trails. But we were not dissapointed! The trail we did started with an elevator ride down to the bottom (we took the easy way). 75 stories straight down.

One of the interesting facts about the elevator is that it was constructed in the 1930s. They blasted simultaneously through the rock from the top and bottom, and when they met in the middle, they were almost perfectly connected. I have no clue how they would accomplish that in the 30s.

Carlsbad Caverns is located in Carlsbad State Park, which doesn't look much different from the rest of New Mexico:

Just kidding. The State Park actually looks like this... which is practically a forest for New Mexico:

Nice view of what must be the entire state of New Mexico and West Texas.

Here are some of the better pics that I took in the caverns. It really was quite impressive. The trail we were on was only a mile and a half, but it was packed full of some of the most amazing cave structures I've ever seen.

This was some crazy ladder that was made with wood slats threaded through rope, going down into what looked like a bottomless pit.

One thing that I couldn't really capture was the sheer immensity of the cave. In all directions, floor to ceiling and wall to wall. The vastness was dizzying, and played tricks on the eyes. What would look like a "big" rock, would turn out to be three times the height of a man. When it's set in the middle of a such a gigantic room, it's difficult to tell. 75 stories underground. I tried to take a picture that might offer some perspective... I circled a couple of people that stood against the light in the distance.

Experiences, Part 1

2008-04-11T10:04:00.002-06:00

While I've got a minuted, I thought I'd post some things I've learned along the way.

Sleeping bag clothes. I've found when wearing my camp clothes in my sleeping bag, I drag thorns and things that have caught on my clothes into my bag. This leads to punctures. Plus it's uncomfortable. I've also found that skin against my bag is uncomfortable as well. Humidity/condensation/sweat sticks to the material. The best thing I've found is to change into or strip down to your baselayer. I've got a set of silk long underwear. It's stretchy material that fits against the skin, not loose. Super light, super compact when not worn. They are great at retaining heat, and are extremely breathable. Not too hot when its warm, great when its cold, not sticky in humidity.

Roadside motels for Wifi. While Starbucks works great for me since I can access T-Mobile hotspots for free, they don't like to put Starbucks next to the highway. Instead they put them in the trendy areas of town, which can be hard to locate when you don't have the internet at your finger tips. However, even when so many of the larger chain hotels still do not provide free wifi, just about all run-down cheap motels have it. It's so convenient to just drive up to their rooms and get on the net from the car.

Don't settle for business loop / highway food. Once you find internet, it's trivial to find the best restaurants in town. Surprisingly even in the smaller towns. Food is important, especially if you're on the road for a long time. Why eat a gut-bomb burger when you can actually enjoy your meal, not to mention the need to stay healthy when traveling long distances?

From Louisiana, back to New Mexico

2008-04-10T10:51:00.003-06:00

I am *really* far behind in my blogging! Conveniently, I can sum up this three day drive in one picture.

East of Dallas is beautiful. The highways are extremely broad with rolling green grass on both sides, and a gigantic swath in between Eastbound and Westbound lanes. Springtime is especially beautiful due to the wildflowers painting them also in blue and red.

West of Dallas looks like this:

We still kept the drive times down to around five or six hours. Took it easy, ate fairly well. If you're ever in Columbus, Texas... or anywhere near it, you should definitely go to Shobels' Restaurant. Easily the best American dinner buffet I've ever had. Green beans, mashed potatoes, etc. But incredibly good, everything seemed home cooked.

After overnighting in Columbus, we stayed the night at San Angelo state park. Great campground, nobody in sight, right by the lake. Clear nights out in the middle of nowhere give a great view of the stars.

Lake Brantley State Park is the closest place to Carlsbad Caverns to camp overnight. It's just outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico. Great primitive camp grounds, well sheltered from the wind and a stones throw from the lake itself.

While the scenery out here is dull and desolate, it makes for great weather. It's nice to get out of the humidity of the South, and enjoy balmy breezy days in the 80s and nights in the 40s and 50s. Really ideal outdoor camping weather for this time of year.

Jean Lafitte National Park

2008-04-09T12:17:00.005-06:00

Just outside of New Orleans, right on the coast, is Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. There aren't any beaches here, it's all swamp land created by the Mississippi delta. After staying two nights at a nice hotel, we camped for two nights at a campground near the preserve, as there's no camping in the preserve itself.

Having learned our lesson the last time we camped in the car, we bought a $30 Walmart tent. No bugs, nice breeze, pretty small/light. Probably the best $30 dollars spent this whole trip!

Day time temperature got to the upper 80s, while at night it cooled down to the 40s. If this were Denver, it'd be really comfortable sleeping weather. But I've got a lot to learn about camping in high humidity. Waking up to chilly weather with everything wet is pretty unpleasant. Pillows are soaked. My sleeping bag is a nylon material... which feels like sleeping in a wet, cold, plastic garbage bag. But I'll take it over the steam-room environment of a closed up car any day.

The park is thousands of acres of wild swamp land, which made for amazing hiking. There are a couple of boardwalks built right over the swamp water to get to the deeper areas, while there are trails cleared on the areas that have more land. Wild life was abundant. The morning was breezy enough to keep the bugs down, and the afternoon was hot and sunny enough to keep them away as well.

Much of the area is thick jungle.

Turtle! You have to be really stealthy, they scare easily.

These flooded areas were unreal, picture book beauty.

There was a canal cleared out for logging a hundred years ago, and later widened for oil machinery. Made for a great home for wildlife and alligators!

Grrr!

Baby gator!

Oh! Godzirra!

Looking for gators in my $7 Walmart hat. Black leather is no good down here.

Condescending lizard. Stop looking down at me!

Hugging a log. =)

This one was actually pretty fair sized, big enough to bite a foot off pretty easily I'm sure. I managed to walk about three feet from him, and just hang out with him for a while while he got some sun. Their leathery skin and dead eyes make them look unreal, even at this close distance. They change from absolute stillness to unnatural speed in the blink of an eye. They possess an economy of movement that had me captivated for quite some time as I watched them. They almost look clumsy on land, but it's a false impression. Perhaps it's because they are so dramatically fluid in water, but they move much faster than you think they could on land.

They have no fear, but will suffer your presence as long as you don't bother them. Most efficient predators, they are the top of their food chain.

These snakes were everywhere as well. I sat for a while next to the canal, unmoving for several minutes as I studied the land and the water. These snakes were so prevalent that after a few minutes of stillness they came out from all directions. In minutes, I was surrounded by four of them crisscrossing the area around me. They crossed back and forth, closer and closer, until they were slithering through my bag and around my feet.

The trail I was following was completely flooded out. I cut myself a walking stick and navigated by map and compass through the semi-flooded land. Picking and choosing my through the swamp, crossing over fallen logs, and sometimes having to clear paths through impassible bramble.

Lake Charles to New Orleans

2008-04-05T17:03:00.006-06:00

It's really difficult to keep this blog updated! My days have been pretty packed full of driving, doing, hiking, sight-seeing, etc. I'm forcing myself to hang out at this Starbucks just to take the time to get another entry posted. Starbucks... it's torture. =P Actually, I've become addicted to a second item at Starbucks now, they have milk chocolate covered graham crackers they sell at the register that I now purchase with every breve chai. I keep telling myself that I need the calories anyhow. =P

As we get closer to the port towns in Louisiana, more and more I see advertising for the cajun and creole food that is famous here. There is a difference between cajun and creole, you know. Anyhow, I see signs for crawfish-xyz (where xyz is about anything you can think of like boiled, fried, omlettes, salads, sandwiches, soups, etc etc). Also, poboys, something called boudin, jambalaya, gumbo, etc. So being excited about new food, and being hungry, we stop off at a road side diner. Thus begins my streak of bad food exp

That is boudin. Along with a crawfish McPoboy, and a massive lump of potato salad, scooped by what must have been a giant of an ice cream scooper. It's hard to go wrong with balls of spiced sausage and rice. But they did.

My stomach was about back to normal by the time we got to New Orleans proper. We had just enough time to locate the nearest Starbucks, and find lodgings at dusk. The room we found was located in the French Quarter, and was quite nice.
This would be home for two nights as we did all the touristy stuff there was to do around town.

The old buildings, dating back to the 1700s were really quite amazing. Some really looked that old, while others were remodeled, but still retained the shape/feel.

There are many of these little outdoor courtyards between the buildings. All beautifully landscaped. Many with hanging gardens, or fountains. Some with little outdoor shops. The French Quarter seems to be divided between art shops, souvenir shops, bars, gentlemen's clubs, and bad food.

Bourbon Street is home to the bars and gentlemen's clubs.

Canal Street, where the Mardi Gras parade happens.

So I thought I found a place to eat, that looked really old and legit. I soon found out that all of these are tourist traps. Beyond that, they are over priced, all serve the same food, and comprise most of the restaraunts as you walk around.

Jamabalaya... it was horrible.

Mardi Gras masks are huge here, and are available at all the souvenir places. Coincidentally, all stores sell the same merchandise. Just as all the bad restaraunts serve the same bad food. I think the New Orleans mob must run it all.
Tug boat on the mighty Mississippi.

Really amazing crypts. There are a few of these unique cemeteries in the French Quarter. I guess they don't bury their dead in this city, because they are so close to the water table. Makes for very intersting tombs. They happen to be shooting a film on Canal Street while were there. Doomed to be a huge flop, I'm sure. Wrestler John Cena stars as a cop in 12 Rounds.

It does look to feature a pretty sweet El Camino though. Maybe it'll be worth seeing.

The absolute high point of the visit for me was Mr. B's Bistro. After a day of being disappointed with food, I scoured the internet for a decent place to eat. Mr. B's was awesome, from appetizer to desert, everything was amazing in quality and flavor.

Katrina damage was all around the city still, especially in the residential areas.

Houston to Lake Charles

2008-04-01T12:49:00.005-06:00

Leaving late in the day, we managed to get to Sam Houston Jones State Park just as the sun was setting.

Where Houston was lush, Louisiana this far south is swampy jungle. The first thing noticeable even at night, is that the area was teeming with life. This was no quite forest, it was a symphony of sound from all direction. Animals, birds, insects, things that moved the ground. Even the cooling breeze, helping to ebb the humid heat of the night, carried with it the heavy, earthy, smells of soil and the must of decomposing plant matter. The presence of life was inescapable, and being present in it, made you keenly aware that you were also part of it.

It also made you really hot. And sweaty. Being too dark to find a place outside of the car camping area, there were no trees for my hammock. Putting two people in a car, with the windows rolled up to avoid mosquitoes, is something like a hot steam room when it's 70's at night at 90% humidity, and no air. This must have been where they invented tents.

Anyhow, had a great a hike come day break. Wildlife was everywhere.

Tasty Mr. Squirrel!

Wild Swamp Geese

A really ugly cross between vulture or turkey duck.

Tasty Mr. Turtle!

Mama duck and babies.

Creepy ghost-eyed turtles. Do not eat.

Two days in Houston

2008-04-01T12:07:00.004-06:00

After leaving Levi's place, we showed up on Jan's doorstep at 2am. She graciously let us crash in her bedroom for the next two nights. We had a great time with Bev's Mother, had good visiting time with Liz, Bev's Grandmother in the nursing home. Bev's Aunt Judy flew in as well. Had the best Texmex Houston had to offer, enjoyed it quite well. =)

It's crazy how humid Houston is compared to Dallas/Fort Worth. It's still early Spring, and it's 70s to 80s with high humidity. It goes between quite comfortable and way too hot... I'd hate to be here in July. I've also taken to carrying a sweater anytime we stop anywhere... it can be an oven with air that's stifling with humidity, but as soon as you walk into a restaurant, it's bone chilling cold with A/C. Everyone says you get used to it. =P

Anyhow, did have a chance to go hiking at Sam Houston State Park. It's fun to see as we go further South, how much greener everything is. Fort Worth was just starting to green up, Houston is lush... I'm sure it's jungle by Summer.

My camera broke! It was fritzing in Fort Worth, but thought it'd fixed itself. Now it seems to be really broke.

I also got a chance to meet up with Barton! He's going to school in Prairie View, so he and his girlfriend Channae met me half way at a park to work out. Fun times, Channae is quite the skater, besting the park locals at tricks. =)

Fort Worth to Houston

2008-03-28T20:08:00.002-06:00

Downtown Fort Worth is about like downtown Denver. This is Sundance Square, it's something like a cross between 16th Steet Mall and LoDo.

Some pretty neat buildings like this one... This was the performing arts building I think.

One good thing about the trip so far, is that we're getting some good practice at packing the car. The original plan was to take so little that we'd be able to throw everything in the back of the SUV into the front two seats, and sleep in the back of the car. We didn't quite get there... luckily everywhere we've slept in the car, we've been able to safely move enough things outside of the car to make room.

In Fort Worth, we managed to ship two giant trashbags full of extra stuff back to Denver. Hopefully we're a little leaner now.

Breakfast at Wafflehouse. Fried eggs on waffles, with syrup. Only in Texas.

The Houston is about four hours South of Fort Worth. Plenty of time to kill, we decided to shop for a replacement windbreaker... but the only place that was selling Patagonia clothing didn't have it. =(

Spent the evening with my friend Levi and his lovely wife A. Levi lives in Arlington, on the way out to Houston. Coincidentally, Levi is also into odd things like Kombucha, so I gave him some of my kefir grains to have fun with. Which is working out great by the way!

Glen Rose

2008-03-28T16:39:00.006-06:00

Wednesday Aaron took me out to Glen Rose. Who knew that just South and West of Fort Worth was Dinosaur Valley! This state park has lots of dinosaur tracks, but it also has great walking trails along a shallow lazy river. Weather was fantastic, after spending time below freezing in Colorado, it was great to hike in 80 degree weather.

The blue bonnets are starting to bloom along the highways, and the trees are starting to bud. It's actually starting to look like Spring in Texas. =)

Santa Fe to Ft. Worth

2008-03-26T10:16:00.002-06:00

A long couple of days of driving, but we needed to get to Ft. Worth from Santa Fe in two days. Stopped off in Big Spring, Texas overnight on Monday, and got to Ft. Worth Tuesday afternoon.

I can't believe I paid this much for gas!!!

We passed through Roswell, New Mexico on the way out there. It was funny to see all the UFO museums and the restaruants playing up on the theme. Otherwise, was a pretty small town. We mainly came this way just to get further South. It had been so cold! Anyhow, it was around 40 degrees at night at this latitude and elevation. Much nicer.

Got to Aaron's house on Tuesdays afternoon, plenty of time to have lunch and meet up with Quinn at Razzoo's. This place had really great food! Had some crawfish and fried pickles. Definitely worth going to for cajun food. These are the fried pickles.

Quinn and Aaron... I think Aaron just got told to take a hike.

Pueblo to Santa Fe

2008-03-24T09:57:00.003-06:00

I've never used Google Maps to keep track of anything, but it's pretty handy! I'm higlighting my route as I go on my map. From Pueblo we drove to San Isabel national forest, and spent the night at the Great Sand Dunes. Then drove down to Santa Fe to spend the night there.

San Isabel was gorgeous. It was at elevation, so snow covered pines. We didn't know this was here, but there was this wacky castle right off the road! Interesting story behind it.

The idea was to continue North and West through through San Isabel, then South into the Dunes, but when we stopped to take pictures of the castle, we realized that my windbreaker must have fallen out of the car at the last Starbucks!! =( This was an amazing windbreaker, and was my only jacket for the trip. So we turn around, get into cell phone range, and call the Starbucks... no luck. Oh well. I bought a used jacket, heavier than my old one, at a thrift store in Walsenburg.

Here are the dunes... snow capped peaks behind it are nice contrast to the sand.

Here's my hammock! You can see the bug netting across the top, and wind/rain tarp.
I managed to just get this setup before sundown. There's no indication in these pics, but it's blowing like crazy. And cold. About 5 min after I took these pics, I tore the tarp down, and re-pitched it like a tent directly over my hammock, sheltering both sides from the wind.

This was a great test. The car was parked a few feet from me, so if I couldn't handle sleeping in the hammock, I knew I could sleep in the car. It got down to the low teens that night, and the wind was gusting up to 20mph. 20mph winds at that temp really sucks. Really really sucks.

I was quite impressed though. I listened to the wind howl like mad all around me, but wasn't really touched because of the tarp. Instead I was gently rocked, which was quite pleasant. I had my sleeping bag, and a sleeping pad. The Thermarest ProLite3 is great. However, I bought the small size. The small size is big enough for shoulder to hips. Your head and legs aren't protected.

This turned out to be a huge mistake. The sleeping bag is compressed to nothing when lying on it in a hammock. Your top is warm, but backside is unprotected. The sleeping pad works great, but my head and legs were freezing.

After that night, we headed South to Santa Fe. New Mexico is really pretty right outside the Colorado border.

Bev and I snacking on something Igor sent with us... which is basically a giant Kit-Kat like wafer, about an inch thick.

A quick stop at Ojo Caliente, Bev's mother told us about their mud baths... which sounded really cool. But they weren't doing it that day, and wanted $22 a person for their mineral pools. So we moved on.

The road to Santa Fe. Had dinner at Maria's. This is a great place, amazing green chili and great rellanos. Decided to camp at the Marriot for showers and a warm bed.

Castlewood Canyon and Pueblo!

2008-03-22T11:23:00.004-06:00

One of the perks of my data plan with T-Mobile is that I get "free" wi-fi at Starbucks and other T-Mobile hotspots! So I'm using that excuse to pop into Starbucks along the way (it has nothing to do with my chai addiction.. no really!)

The last couple of weeks have been super busy with getting the house ready to sold, but we finally made it! We got the paper work all signed yesterday, thanks Rita!

So Thursday I checked my pack by hiking around Castlewood Canyon. 25 pounds, while light for backpacking, still sucks. But it's manageable.

Here's my friend Roger and his furry companion Pippy. We had a great hike that day, weather was awesome!

Yesterday we made it to Pueblo, had fun with my cousin Vance, his finace Lisa and her daughter Davin, and her niece Destiny. Bev and I tested out car camping about 20 minutes from them at the Pueblo Reservoir. It got below freezing, and my +15F sleeping bag was too hot. So far so good. =)

My fresh milk experiment... I'm keeping it drinkable at room temperature by turning it into keifer. This way I'll have fresh milk when I'm backpacking... at least that's the theory!

Fun times...

2008-03-18T17:36:00.006-06:00

Saturday was amazing weather again, some pics of Mark, Aubrey, and myself doing doing push hands.

My new backpack...

2008-03-15T10:04:00.000-06:00

Bought my backpack today! It's the REI Quick UL 45. It's not quite big enough to pack all of my gear on the inside, but sleeping pad and hammock/tarp are tied easily enough outside the pack. I'm able to put my sleeping bag inside the pack! Which is nice, since it's really expensive, and I'd hate to snag it on a bush or something.

By itself, it weight just over 2 pounds. I've packed it full with what I'm anticipating to bring with me. My estimated pack weight will be around 20 to 25 pounds with food/water for three nights. I'd like to trim it down some more, but this is a pretty good start!

Cost was $100 dollars at REI, which brings my bill up to $529 dollars. OUCH! On the plus side, I hope to use this gear a lot in the years to come.

Shuffle Adapter

2008-03-14T08:51:00.000-06:00

So one of the cool things about the iPod Shuffle is that you're supposed to be able to use them as USB storage pretty easily. In fact, it was one of the reasons that I decided to buy it, I was looking at buying a larger jumpdrive anyhow.

The problem is, it ships with this awkward docking station thing... you can see it in the cradled in it on the pic. The dock comes with a three foot cord that plugs into USB. It's not something that you really want to carry around with you, which immediately makes this thing a bad jumpdrive replacement. Luckily I found the IncipioBud, which is about the smallest adapter that I think can be made, and for a great price. $10 dollars after shipping. Up to $429 in sabbatical costs.

Bluetooth Headset

2008-03-11T13:58:00.004-06:00

According to my friend Igor, whom I trust implicitly about these things, the Plantronics 510 headset is the best headset for price/quality. The rest of the internet seems to agree. But that was so last season. If the 510 was that great, the 520 should be even better! It's pretty new, most of the reviews on Amazon seem to be favorable, and I've been using it for about a week now and have no complaints. =)

This should be really handy on the road... trying to squeeze a Motorola RAZR between your head and shoulder while driving is just not good for your neck! Cost: $48 including shipping on Amazon. Which brings my budget sabbatical up to $419.

Cell Internet!

2008-03-11T13:50:00.003-06:00

Woot! I'm can now connect to the internet anywhere I have T-Mobile coverage, this should be really handy. Unfortunately, with T-Mobile GPRS/EDGE, I'm connected at 12Mbps, that's about twice as fast as dial-up. I suppose I should be more optimistic... SWEET! *TWICE* as fast as dial-up!!

Anyhow, thanks to Ginger for hooking me up!!!

Sleeping bag!

2008-03-11T13:32:00.004-06:00

So my most recent, and most expensive purchase... a new sleeping bag. I looked pretty hard at the ultralight sleeping bags out there, and this is supposed to be one of the best all-around bags. I plan on mostly hiking, so weight is my primary concern. After reading some other people's experiences, I'm sold on the idea that you should be as comfortable as possible when hiking so you can actually enjoy your time outdoors. This means comfortable clothes, light pack, and enough warmth to get by. Unfortunately, it comes at a cost unless you start engineering your own gear.

So here it is, my new Marmot Helium. It weighs just over 1 pound, and stuffs into a bag that's a little larger than a loaf of bread. It's down, feather light, and I still haven't gotten over how the thing feels in your hands. Cost? $292.00 after taxes. I got this at 25% off, which brings my sabbatical costs up to $371.

Snow Day!

2008-03-06T10:17:00.002-07:00

I haven't posted in a couple of days, but I wanted to put up this pic because the weather had turned so quickly! It was almost 70F on Saturday, and this is what it looked like the next day!

Oh well, it gave me time to finish babysitting iTunes so it wouldn't crash while loading the rest of my mp3s. I've also started ripping the audiobooks that I've started getting from the library.

I was disapointed that iTunes has a section in its library for Audiobooks, but you can't tell it to put things there. This guide was pretty handy for describing how to get around this, although what I ended up doing was a little simpler than what is described.

I found that it was too hard to leave all the tracks separated, and it cluttered up iTunes too much. I also didn't like having one GIANT mp3 for the entire book. So I use iTunes "Join Tracks" feature, but I don't bother joining all the discs together, as is described in the guide. I end up with one mp3 per disk, and it shows up under Audiobooks. Perfect.

Nice Day!

2008-03-02T08:45:00.005-07:00

What an incredible day it was on Saturday, a high of 76! I missed my morning and afternoon bagua classes, but still got some good training in and got to enjoy the weather too.

Aubrey and I working out in the morning...

And then Bev and I got out to Castlewood Canyon, still a lot of snow and ice, but it was great weather!

Some Goals

2008-03-01T09:54:00.005-07:00

While it's on my mind, I've got a couple of goals while I'm not sitting at a desk all day.

Don't wear my contacts unless I'm driving at night, or staring at a screen for long amounts of time.
Meditate Daily
Train Daily

More Audiobooks!

2008-02-28T16:44:00.003-07:00

I can't believe I paid $5.00 for an audio book. =( I think that brings my sabbatical expenses up to $79.00 so far. Not going to make it on the cheap at this rate. Oh well, 1984 is on it's way from the library.

And Ginger is going to help me turn my cell into a GPRS modem! I psyched, it'll save me $50 to $100 dollars.. which is a lot to spend considering I'm only going to pay for data on my cell plan for two months. Thanks Ginger!

Some points of interest....

2008-02-27T16:17:00.006-07:00

I haven't come up with a plan yet, but starting to map out some places that I might hit.

If anyone has any suggestions, or interesting things near any of these places, let me know!

Travel Map!

AudioBooks

2008-02-27T15:36:00.002-07:00

The iPod shuffle is working out really great for podcasts and music! Can't really do much with it except play stuff... either in order or random. So I've got podcasts at the start of my playlist when I want to listen to them in the car.

I'm also in the process of loading 20 gigs of music into iTunes to manage, which is a pain, I hope I don't regret it later.

So, in preparation for a road trip, I'm ripping books on CD from the library to take with me... so far have these coming:

Dune, Ender's Game, and Foundation.

I've also got to get 1984 apparently. Any suggestions, let me know!

iPod Shuffle!

2008-02-25T15:28:00.001-07:00

My new Shuffle! I plan on listening to audio-books/music on the road, and it'll also replace my 128mb jumpdrive. I'm hoping to keep the cost of the everything down, but I think $74.00 (after taxes) is a good investment here. It's not quite as cool as Bev's Nano, but I think I can live without the screen.

What is sabbatical?

2008-02-25T14:29:00.001-07:00

For any that are curious, sabbatical is related to the word sabbath. Many Christians call Sunday the Sabbath, however the word sabbath comes from the Hebrew word shabbat, which means "rest". Shabbat is also the Hebrew word for Saturday, and Shabbat services begin Friday night. The related word shabbetai is Hebrew for the planet Saturn. The word Saturday, comes from the Roman god Saturn, for which his day is named "Saturn's Day". Just a bit of word trivia... oh, and Sunday isn't the Sabbath.

Sabbatical also happens to be a benefit that my company gives. Every seven years, we are given six weeks off to take, which we must contribute between two and four weeks of our own vacation to. So we get between eight and ten weeks off.