2356 miles so far

Teaser: the Sun Sets on a Beautiful Day

Friday, 14 DECEMBER
HUNTING ISLAND STATE PARK — SOUTH CAROLINA
TEMPS: LO 46F / HI 59F (8C / 15C)

We had a truly beautiful day today … and we made the most of it.

We walked miles and miles. We climbed up 167 steps. We climbed down 167 steps. We sat on the beach and sipped our Amarulas as the sun slowly bathed the beach in warm, golden light.

I’m much too tired to think — let alone write a post about our day — so I’ll leave you with this …

Sunset over Fripp Inlet

Movie Review: Captain Phillips

Rain once again changes our plans to Volksmarch. The remnants of a tropical Pacific cyclone have made their way to south Texas. It looks like Oregon in winter outside, gray, gloomy and rainy. Luckily it's still warm, but not what we want to walk six miles in.

Plan B: see "Captain Phillips" with Tom Hanks. Excellent decision. If you've been boondocking or out of touch with current movies, time to catch up.

"Captain Phillips" is the true story of the Maersk Alabama's harrowing experience with Somali pirates. Tom Hanks is superb in his role as Captain Phillips. He had his crew follow orders to hide on the ship and gave them clues via radio on how to cripple part of the pirate crew. The movie provides suspense, thrills, intensity, and also mayhem on the part of the pirates.

The four main Somali pirate actors were chosen from Minneapolis' large Somali population. Barkhad Abdi, who plays Muse, decided to audition with three of his friends: Faysal Ahmed, Barkhad Abdirahman, and Mahat M. Ali. None of them had ever acted before. The result of casting the young Somalis adds a degree of authenticity to the supporting cast.

Bob and I both give this movie five out of five stars. If you want a movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat, see this one.

After the movie, we went to 54th Street Grille for dinner. Bob had chicken fajitas and I had Coyote Chicken. Good stuff. Here are a few pics.

Decor of 54th St. Grille

Bob waiting for dinner.

Bob took a good photo, don't you think?

This evening after laundry, we watched "60 Minutes" and "Amazing Race." Bob is now watching the Cowboys vs. Redskins.

Have a great week everyone. Travel Bug out.

Cal Poly Poppies

Cal Poly Poppies, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

The California poppies are in full bloom on top of the Cal Poly "P" ridge. The "P" is a large monument-like letter engraved in the hillside above the Cal Poly campus. The ridge above the "P" is covered in wildflowers right now.

Tranquility Tire Tantrum

Saturday was (twice rescheduled) Tranquility Tire Tantrum mountain bike race. The race is a part of the Psycowpath Mountain Bike Series and was held in Tranquility Park in Omaha, Nebraska. Was a beautiful day for a bike race, though the wind could have dialed down a bit.

The photo shows some of the participants checking out the all-important race results.

Photos taken during Tranquility Tire Tantrum are posted. Think I only missed 2 riders in the first race. Did not stay for the end of the second race as it was about all my body could handle.
As usual, these are proofs for viewing and ordering purposes. If you wish to order a file, I will reprocess the file from the camera raw and e-mail the file to you.
Photos are located at: http://win-photo.photoreflect.com/

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Most of the time, I find poetry too hard to read. I know it's laziness on my part. I WANT to like poetry. So I've determined to stretch myself and read some poems. I have several books collected through the years; some left over from college English classes and some bought for the beauty of their covers.
This book falls into the latter category. Found in an antique shop a long time ago, I recently opened it to find the original giver's artwork decorating almost all the pages.
The inscription says, "To My Dear Roderick, Christmas 1935, From Jane.
Since it was a Christmas gift, she decorated quite a few pages with holly leaves and berries and underlined special words in red. I particularly love the sweet face she drew of Mrs. Browning, the author. Reginald must have been a pretty special fellow to warrant so much time and detail. Now I'm going to read a few. I don't think they'll take too much mental taxation.

The Many Sides of Love

"...no two children, even within the same family, have identically the same parents.
That is because the personality and gender of each child
brings out different things in the same parents." ~ recently quoted by Shari Howerton, author of Breaking the ChainsI was so glad to find the above statement, because it states a truth I've been trying to convey to some of my children. We don't treat our children exactly alike. If someone does, then I want to meet that perfect person!
Just as we respond differently to other people outside the family, so we do within the family also. I act differently around different friends, because they each bring out a different aspect of my personality.
Within the last month of so, two of my children have called me out about favoring my oldest son. After giving it a lot of thought and talking extensively about it with them, I have to admit that they're right. At least I can see why they think that. Of course I don't love him more, but I do treat him differently. He just makes me happy, because he's crazy and funny. He knows no boundaries (which sometimes gets him in trouble). He's a big nut. He also drains me of energy. I can only take him in small doses. But I love him for his craziness and how he makes me feel.
I love the uniqueness of all our children. I love Laurel for so many things I can't even begin to list them. She's my best friend. I just said why I love Garrett. I love Tyler for his sincerity and gentleness. I love Dylan's thoughtfulness and courtly manners. I love Darcie because she's my baby and always will be. And I'm not forgetting my two children-in-law, Matt and Leigh Anne. Our family has been greatly enriched by having added them. I love Leigh Anne's forthrightness, truthfulness, and willingness to work to put Dylan through school and Matt's willingness to talk about anything and everything at any time. Also, he's the best salesman on the planet.
I'll admit that I need to be more sensitive to my children's feelings and watch that I don't act like I love one more than another. I'm very thankful for children who love ME enough to exhort me; painful though it may be.

Races

The above shot may look familiar to you, it's the Q1 in Surfers Paradise being struck by lightning in a storm a few weeks back. I'm re-posting it in celebration of the fact a sponsor somewhere has decided that in spite (or perhaps because) of the building being struck eight times in that storm, it's still worth putting up a prize of $10,000 for a foot race to the top level. I'm thinking of trying to negotiate a special dispensation allowing me to compete on two wheels rather than two legs (maybe if I only took $5,000 upon winning?). Given that I'm approaching 150km of climbing for the year, I don't see how 80 storeys is going to slow me down that much.
Meanwhile, in Melbourne today, another race proved what those of us who regularly ride in urban traffic already knew (apart from providing some insight into what Red Symons is doing these days). My only question is just how many cars a cyclists is allowed to pass in traffic before they are legally compelled to call out "Suckers!" in the most arrogant voice they can muster. I'd say I must be getting pretty close to that milestone with all those commutes on Bundall Road.

Gaging the Wind

Needed to get out to ride Friday. Wind was kicking up from the Southsoutheast. Was a bit strong heading into the wind on the Lake Manawa Trail along Mosquito Creek.
The spur from the Lake Manawa Trail to E. Manawa Drive had been shouldered and seeded. I have found out the that "spur" will continue along E. Manawa Drive North to Hyway 92 where it will connect to the Veteran's Memorial Trail. That will cut the distance from the Wabash Trace to the "Bob Bridge" via bicycle trails.
Had fun (and a little scary) pedaling with the wind up Indian Creek. with a 15+ mph wind on my back, I pushed the road bike up to 27.4 mph on the flat! Fastest i have ridden on the flats. And with the wind, it was a little scary - so I brought it on down.
On the Veterans Memorial Trail, they have paved the section. Looking good, though still needs to be shouldered. The long section from S. 24th to the Trails Center had not been paved - yet.

Made my normal stop at the Western Historic Trails Center and on up the trail. With the wind, I was not looking forward to riding into the wind on N. 8th, St, I decided to ride city streets from the Bob Bridge to Xtreme Wheels.
The riding on city streets were much more sheltered. Had a pretty good ride, and got in my 20+ miles. BTW, the "short cut" that Zach told me about (South St) sure makes the ride from the shop to the car (at the trail head) sure made a difference. Love not having to cling Harry Langdon!

Sunset Arch

When we were done hiking Coyote Gulch we headed for our next planned adventure of the day, which was a sunset hike to Sunset Arch! We had read about and seen photos of Sunset Arch in the guide book that we had and knew it was something we didn't want to miss. The hike was described as easy but without any marked trail so we were hoping this would mean we might have it to ourselves. Sure enough, we did! We ended up not see a single other soul in our time to and fromthe arch. It was wonderful!


As we left the Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch trailhead we turned left and continued down Hole in the Rock road until we reached 40 Mile Ridge Road, then we followed this road about 4 miles to a marked trailhead on the left. This trailhead was for a different hike, and our book recommended hiking from there to Sunset Arch, which was in the opposite direction from the trailhead. We instead opted to backtrack along 40 Mile Ridge Road to a spot we had seen on the way in that looked like it would make a good campsite (you can camp pretty much anywhere as long as it is an area that has already been disturbed by humans). We found our spot and it was indeed a terrific place to camp. After setting up our camp and relaxing for a few minutes we got our gear ready, plugged the coordinates for the arch into our GPS unit (the coordinates were provided in our guide book), and off we went across the open desert right from our campsite.



We couldn't see the arch from our campsite, but we knew which way to go thanks to the GPS. After walking about 3/4 of a mile across the desert we got our first glimpse of the arch, still over a quarter of a mile away. It was fascinating to see from a distance, and we wondered just how big it would be once we got up close to it. We kept walking towards the arch and reached the base of it a few minutes later, 1.15 miles from our campsite. Indeed, it was much bigger than we thought it would be when viewing it from a quarter mile away! The arch was mind-boggling, just standing there all by itself surrounded by nothing but relatively flat desert. We spent about an hour admiring and photographing the arch, then just after sunset we headed back to our campsite, arriving just as it was starting to get really dark. Jessica prepared a delicious meal over the camp stove then we washed up and crawled into the tent to get some much-needed rest before the next adventure which awaited us the following morning: Willow Gulch and Broken Bow Arch!

Some free time at last!

Yes, it's been a while, with Christmas and so on, since I actually had a day to myself, to do whatever the heck I damn well liked. Of course, there was nothing for it but to ride an imperial century was there? Some people may disagree on that, but I just had to get away from all the chaos of the post-christmas "sales" -- 1,000 people all pushing and shoving, trying to get the one bargain, when there really is, only, the one bargain!

The early morning headwind down the Tweed Coast was pretty intense, as it often is in those parts. There would be no complaint from me, for 'twas a southerly, meaning cooler conditions. The temperature was a relatively "freezing" 23 degrees C as I cruised through the coastal scenery -- even discovering an undeveloped beach -- how long will that last I wonder?





Inland near Billinudgel, and stopping in the absolute wrong place to apply sunscreen. Being swarmed by mosquitoes isn't much fun, but, incredibly, the sunscreen seemed to deter them. Strange, because the insect repellent doesn't. Then it was on to the short, but steep climb of Mt Jerusalem, and beautiful greenery in the process.









The ride home covered Uki (where the cafe was closed), Murwillumbah (a pleasant detour on Baker's Road), Urliup (of course), Bilambil (where the bakery was open) followed by the last 35km of suburbia. 174km total distance for the day all told. In the time between Urliup and Miami (Gold Coast suburb close to home) the temperature rose from 24-30 degrees C. I hate summer.

I'm off to help a family member move house for a couple of days. It's not really the way I want to spend my holiday, but I promised I'd do it, and she'd be struggling without me there. I might even try to get some riding done in Brisbane in some idle early morning moments, but it's doubtful. I don't think there's much there to see. Oh well, roll on 2005. I'm thinking about 25,000km for the year in 2005. Not sure if I'm up to it mentally, but I'll find out one way or another.

Bigtime Funtimes with Pals

I have been sooooooo lucky to meet some of the pawsome bloggers in the flesh, as well as in the blosgosphere! A couple of days ago, I was fortunate enough to meet Cabana (http://oursforayear.blogspot.com), who lives pretty nearby. We met at a furry cool park about 8 miles north of us and had a funderbul time! Check it out!

Sierra and I did end up getting major bathies - mine took about an hour arghhhhh - but I got a great massage in the process hehee! Yesterday, Sierra and I went up to the mountains for some snow fun and I'll be posting that when I get back. We will be taking a mini vacay for about five days and will be return next week. Have a wonderful weekend pals!

Big Hugs xo

Bosque del Apache

From the "Friends of the Bosque" website (http://www.friendsofthebosque.org/):
"The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico is an important wintering home for Sandhill Cranes and hosts as many as 14,000 cranes during the winter months. The Bosque is located along the Rio Grande River south of Albuquerque and provides critical habitat for cranes and other migratory birds such as over 32,000 Snow Geese, dozens of Bald Eagles, Avocets and many other birds. The beautiful refuge is also home to small herds of Mule Deer and families of Coyotes. Seeing the sunset "fly-in" and the sunrise "fly-out" is an experience you will never forget!"

Above: "Blue morning at Bosque" - An overcast, snowy, predawn morning makes for a dramatic image of these Sandhill Cranes.
After leaving Yosemite the next stop on my trip was to be Bosque del Apache in New Mexico. The plan was to meet back up with my friend Roger (http:www.rogernordstromphoto.com) in Socorro then head to the refuge the next morning. For those of you that have been following along with my blog, Roger and I started off my trip together with a visit to the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota. After that portion of the trip Roger had to head back home, but I continued on my journey and here we are meeting back up again near the end of my trip! Roger was visiting his family in California for Christmas, so he stopped in New Mexico to meet up with me on his way back home.
I arrived in Socorro with enough time to head to the refuge for sunset (Roger wouldn't be arriving for several more hours). Not long after arriving at the refuge I was a little disappointed at the lack of birds. I had visited Bosque back in 2004 during this same week, and remembered seeing LOTS of cranes, and LOTS of snow geese. This time, there were only a few. Oh well, I figured... maybe it was just an "off" night, and more would be around tomorrow.

Above: "Red-Winged Rush" - While driving the roads of the refuge, we spotted this large group of Red-Winged Blackbirds that was flying around one of the fields... they would fly around a bit, then land for a moment, then fly around again. I've never seen so many Red-Winged Blackbirds at one time before. Luckily I had my camera and telephoto lens ready to capture this rush of birds!
The next morning we rose bright and early so we could take advantage of the nice breakfast that was offered at our motel. If you're ever looking for a place to stay in Socorro, I highly recommend the EconoLodge... VERY reasonable rate, the room was spacious and very comfortable, the staff was friendly and they had one of the best breakfasts of any motel I've ever stayed in. Coffee, juice, bagels, waffles, cereal, fresh fruit.... it was a great way to start the day!

Above: "Coyotes on the prowl" - A pair of coyotes working their way along the edge of one of the fields. There was a group of snow geese out in the middle of this field, several hundred yards away from these coyotes. The coyotes had their eyes on the birds... not sure if they got any or not, as they ducked into the brush and I never saw them again.

Above: "Safe Zone" - A group of Canada Geese along with a few Sandhill Cranes rests in a field. The fields provide food and a modicum of protection from coyotes, their main predator at the refuge. The birds are usually clustered in the middle of these fields, so they can see the coyotes coming in time to take off and avoid being caught by one.
After breakfast we hit the road for the refuge, which is about a 25 minute drive from Socorro. It started snowing not long after we got on the freeway. Hmmmm.... probably not going to be much of a sunrise, we thought. We were right about that... no sunrise, it was too cloudy. The snow kept coming down, and at times quite heavily. It ended up being a wonderful morning, with the fresh snow providing a perspective on the refuge that not many people are able to enjoy. Being that this is a desert, they don't get much rain or snow. It was a rare treat. Throughout the morning we saw many small groups of birds but as the day progressed we would see more and more. We spent several days at the refuge, and by the time we left we were quite happy with the birds we had seen.


Above and below: These cranes were out for a morning walk on one of the frozen ponds. After watching them for about a half hour, they began to take off one by one from the ice.

Bosque del Apache was my first exposure to Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese. Before my visit in late 2004, I had never seen either of these birds. Since then, I have been to Nebraska several times to witness the massive gathering that occurs there every spring. Sandhill Cranes are amazing birds, and I don't think I will ever tire of seeing them. Sandhill Cranes have one of the longest fossil histories of any existing bird. The oldest Sandhill Crane fossil is about 2.5 million years old, over one and a half times older than the earliest remains of most living species of birds!
If you'd like to see some more images of Sandhill Cranes, please visit my blog entries from Nebraska in March of :
http://travisnovitsky.blogspot.com//04/sandhill-cranes-on-platte-river.html
and from March of :
http://travisnovitsky.blogspot.com//03/gathering-on-platte-river.html


Above and below: Experimenting with some slower shutter speeds, trying to "blur" the wings of snow geese as they flew into the refuge at sunset.


Above: Two cranes out for an evening walk.

Above: "Flight Training" - This trio of snow geese flew over us several times as they looped around the farm deck field. Most of the time it seemed as though the two geese behind were chasing the one in the front. I joked with my friend Roger that the one in front was probably the "flight instructor", and was teaching the two behind him how to follow and stay in formation :-)

Above: A typical "blast-off" of Snow Geese at the refuge. When the geese fly out from the refuge, they usually do so in one large group. When an entire field full of these birds decides to take flight all at the same time, it is quite a sight to see. Its also really something to hear the birds when they all take flight. The whole experience is unforgettable. To see a short video of one of the morning "blast-off" events, click this link to my main website:
http://www.travisnovitsky.com/Video-Clips/Misc-Videos/4207197_KrddQ/1/756102917_Wdjg4/Medium
Below: Sunset over one of the irrigation canals at the refuge (the two lights are the headlights of a vehicle approaching on one of the refuge roads). The staff at the refuge use these canals to divert water from the Rio Grande into the fields at the refuge, creating prime habitat for the birds. If you're into wildlife, you should put a visit to Bosque del Apache at the top of your list!

Why the new Cycling Camera

A short time ago, I reported that I had purchased a new Point & Shoot for use while cycling. Here's why.
The photo above is the standard photo taken by the new camera. Notice that the exposure of the trail tread is about right. Sections of the rear bike tire and the background in the distance are over exposed (blown). Yet the stump on the right side of the trail is barely visible.
A camera cannot capture the full dynamic range of the lighting in the photo. So, I set up the camera to take 3 bracketed exposures. One, is the normal exposure (photo above), one under exposed by 2EV (Exposure Value), and one over exposed by -2EV.
Those 3 exposures were combined by HDR Photo Pro. The result was a tone mapped photo representing the full dynamic range of the photo. (lower photo)
BTW, this photo was taken on the Patsy Lake Trail, one of the CAMBA trails.

Waiting for the next trip

The passenger ferry "Voyageur II" waits patiently for its next voyage to Isle Royale National Park from its dock in Grand Portage, MN. This image was taken in late September of this year as the Isle Royale boating season was winding down. The Voyageur II is a 60' aluminum-hulled ferry that has been providing mail and passenger service to Isle Royale National Park since the early 1970's. It is the only ferry that circumnavigates the entire island, making several stops along the way so hikers and paddlers can have options for hiking or canoeing/kayaking different portions of the island.