On Habits (or the lack thereof)

For those of you just joining the show you haven't missed much. Over the last few years I have posted approximately 30-35 times, with no pattern other than a stint of commitment last year during my excursion across this lovely country. Even that was mildly broken and trailed off after a promise to complete the details of my trip met with my eventual return home, resulting in my musings once again relegated to collecting cobwebs in the far reaches of my mental archives.

I'm not sure why I seem to have trouble with this form of exposition, I enjoy talking to people, I like having conversations about topics which interest me. I enjoy thinking about things and I enjoy writing. Why would I falter when combining the previous two concepts? Possibly it's the idea that a blog is not usually a conversation, at least when someone as non-famous as myself or some other mere mortal is at the helm. For the most part a blog post is a broadcast of a certain point of view, with no response from "the other side", whatever side that may be. Perhaps someone comments and from there a thread is born but on the whole most paragraphs and pages stand alone as a testament to nothing more than the opinion of an individual.

While considering this however, another side is revealed, where when a conversation isn't started, when outside engagement is not established, another purpose is served. The purpose I speak of is memory; that years from now I could return to this place and see what my thoughts were on subjects which, by then, will be far enough in the past that they have faded or been cast in a wildly different light than the glare of the present. In this way, this place, when failing to achieve it's desired purpose of mutual enlightenment, can still serve a purpose for myself, reminding me in future times of what was important to me now.

In conclusion I wish, in the coming months, to create a new habit for me where I put thought to paper(or electron as it were) regardless of my initial misgivings of, to adapt a phrase, merely typing to hear the click of the keys. I want to put things here that are important to me, regardless of origin or genre. I want to create a digital place that I can return to in my next life and say "That is who I used to be and part of who I am still". To those who may read this, feel free to chime in wherever you like, conversation is still a primary goal of this environment.

Let the new habit begin here and now.

p.s. the newer posts will be more cohesive and purposeful, I needed this to order my thoughts on the subject prior to setting off on this particular journey. TTFN

Day 21 and 22 ~ Friends and the driving to get to them

Today was fun. It started kinda rough, as today really started yesterday in flagstaff, AZ. After seeing the petrified forest and the white sand dunes of new mexico we drove a grand total of 24 hours to get to Austin, TX. I have not slept in 41 hours, not counting the hour nap I took today.

The highlight of the driving day for me was in the white sand dunes, where we saw a sunset, albeit obscured by cloud cover, and were completely surrounded by thunder and lightning storms. As we looked up we saw blue skies but all around us were strikes of lightning, almost black clouds and pillars of rain. Again our luck with the weather held and we were back in the car by the time the rains hit, and barely got rained on anyway. The drive was rough, I did an 8 hour shift to a little before white sands, then alex took another 8 hour shift to a rest stop somewhere and I took the last 6 into austin. I'm sure our adventures that preceded this contributed to the difficulty staying awake held but I would call it a stamina test no matter how you slice it.

Arriving here to smiles and warm greetings I took a shower and then my nap, waking up for the 1pm pregame show for the USA vs. Ghana World Cup game. Expecting a few people over turned into about 25 excited voices cheering and crying out in despair along with the thousands of fans actually in the stadium. Unfortunately we lost but it was a good game and much fun was had. A group of us went to dinner and then on a bit of a walk, the main event of which was a spur of the moment run across the soccer fields with our shirts off through the sprinklers that were going off. The full moon shone down on us as we jumped through the streams of water like any 5 year old would do at home, a spontaneous decision that was well rewarded. I rode back here in the bed of a truck as seats had become a mildly scarce commodity, and am now in the most relaxing bean bag chair I have ever experienced. I am considering just sleeping here, rather than on the ouch next to me. Decisions, decisions. I'll write more tomorrow but for tonight I just want to emphasize how welcome I feel here. These people are great and they are all pretty darn funny.

Sleep well world, we'll be home soon.

Day 20 ~ In which the grand canyon was blitzed

Wow. Words can only go so far to describe some things, actually talking to the person is needed to see the light in their eyes as they search for a word that is so much more than "huge" or "mind blowing". Watching them smile and gesture randomly as they remember what it was like to first experience whatever it was is the only way we can catch on to the fact that the event was something More. So consider this my wild gesticulation, my stammering relation of what we saw today.

We drove from Phoenix to the canyon this morning, arriving around noon. We walked around a bit and got the info we needed (where is the longest trail we probably shouldn't attempt to do in one day?) and proceeded to the trailhead. I tell you these mundane things because they set up the juxtaposition that I felt as I went from walking on asphalt like any other along a path that seemed no different from the ones in other parks, to my first view of the canyon. From the normal to the incredible in three steps, I froze for a moment as my brain tried, and failed, to process the vast expanse before me. To be honest it was several moments and it marks the second time I have teared up on this trip, unable to control the raw emotion the sheer majesty and beauty the landscape pulled from me. The feeling of the land speaking to me came again as it did in the other parks saying "tread carefully here young one, you are not the master in this realm".

As we marvelled from the embankment my eyes immediately, after returning to my control, went to the farthest point of land connected, by my estimation, to where we were headed, and my mind said "I want to go there, the view must be incredible" I had no idea how far it was or what trail it connected to but as soon as I saw the thin line of what I thought could be a path I wanted to be on it. Turns out that's where we were headed. Now to be honest most people, on a day hike, cut out the last part, the part that I had seen, but we decided that 6.5 miles was about the same as 4.5 and we went for it. The views were amazing the entire time, my biggest complaint being that I couldn't look up the whole time because I would have tripped and died. Plateau point was well worth the extra trip and yielded great views of the mighty Colorado river and the surrounding canyon, which continued as far as anyone could see. Most of my 194 pictures I took on the way down and at the bottom, because the way back up was...fun. Probably some of the most, top three, intense switchback climbing I've ever done. The sun was setting on the way out so the views shifted into different colors, morphing the canyon walls into something still more breath taking.

We made it down in 2:45 and back up in 3:15. Six hours to do the eight hour trail. We are proud and tired. With only one day to see such a huge and gorgeous place I think we did alright with our decision to hike that particular trail.

An hour and a half puts me here in flagstaff, with a 24 hour drive starting tomorrow at 8am, destination Austin, Texas. Sleep time.

Day 16 - 19 ~ In which Michael plays catch up

So been kinda behind lately. Sorry :(

Vegas - tons of fun, made mostly so by the cirque show we saw; Love, at the Love Theater in the Mirage hotel, a theater made specifically for the show. Now without going into a huge gushing, rambling, torrent about how much fun it was, it was amazing. The whole show was set to the Beatles music and, as Alex tells me, it was different than most of their shows in that it was more dance based, and had a storyline throughout the show, with less stunt work. Regardless of the difference I'm now addicted to it and will be making every effort to see more of their shows whenever possible. I cannot recommend seeing them enough. It is a great experience and it is true art, I think everyone needs to see them at least once. We walked the strip a decent amount and went in and out of a few casinos, we both lost 2 dollars to the casinos, neither of us have enough money to gamble seriously but it was a good time regardless. Also open container law is great. :)

We drove from vegas to Tempe, Arizona, a little east of Phoenix, where Alex's brother and wife live and we've been there till now. We've been relaxing and not doing much, hanging out with his brother and another of his friends, going to the yankees/diamondbacks game last night, which was a good game until about the 7th inning where the bases were loaded, the pitcher had thrown 6 balls in a row and there were no outs. Final score was 9-2, but I forgot how much I love watching a game and this was actually the first one where I was able to drink a beer legally! Lots of fun and yelling to be had :) We then retired to a pool bar closer to the home and played, and drank, a few rounds. Can I say that I really enjoy Car Bombs? Cuz I do. And pool. Combined? Sweet.

Tonight we look forward to a night at the pool with margaritas made with 40 freshly squeezed limes, half a blended up watermelon, and a mildly large amount of inebriating materials. It's been great resting up and just hanging out, but tomorrow we head out to the Grand Canyon for probably the most intense hike of our travels, followed by the longest drive, approximately 22 hours broken up by a few stops for pictures and stretching. Next update from Austin Tx, or maybe the campsite next to the canyon if we have an opportunity.

Day 15 ~ Vegas

So Vegas. Crazy place. We'll get to it.

We started today following he advice of the ranger who told us the story last night and traveling a little off the beaten path to find a tree not on any of the maps and that, I would imagine, few people ever see. I am so greatful for tha ranger, frank, not because the things he added to our map were absolutely mind blowing but because they were something he was passionate about and he wanted to share that passion with us. I could easily see myself retiring to be a park ranger some day :).

From there we saw a few other trees and one huge stump that you could walk on, the mark twain tree if you wanna look it up. We then got comfortable and started our drive south to the city of sin. Our hotel, yes I'm skipping the drive, it was uneventful, is quite nice, and I look forward to a dip in the pool tomorrow as well as some wandering about playing the penny slots and seeing how much I can get out of these places :). Basically did a lap of the lower strip and saw a few things before turning in, but we have a whole day tomorrow and cirque at night. I'm excited. A more in depth, or more expository I suppose, entry will be entered at some point but not tonight.

Day 14 ~ Wherein a bear proves you can't outrun it

Two weeks. In two weeks we have travelled all the way across the country, down the coast of California, and are starting our trip back tomorrow morning.

Today was pretty darn great. We saw five bears yesterday, and I saw two on the drive to our morning hike. We headed down to walk the congress trail, several groups of trees named the house and senate with one named the president. We also saw the largest living thing on the planet, the general Sherman. It's flipping huge. No joke.

But you've already heard about big trees. The top story today was while we were walking the congress trail, and it involves bear number three.

This doesn't need that much setup, only that we were walking on a trail looking at trees just kinda hanging out. I heard a noise that was far enough off the path and loud enough that I immediately thought bear. Sure enough I look over and maybe 25 yards away I see a black bears head pop up for a second, and then drop back down. It looked kind of odd until I realized that the sounds were continuing and growing louder, and then I saw the bear literally vault over a fallen tree probably five or six feet in diameter on a straight line path towards my face. Luckily it saw us and turned slightly so instead or running us over, which it would have (or eaten us), it merely ran across the path in front of us by about twenty feet. This is the part of the show where I actually start observing things again. Up to that point I was in full survival mode, ready to yell or fight, in retrospect probably not a good idea, but frozen until the bear decided where it was really going.

It was then I realized exactly how fast it was moving. There is no possible way on earth I or anyone of us could have gotten away from that creature had it decided it wanted to play with us. If I had a ten second head start on it and I was running for my life I have little doubt I would be very unhappy about twenty seconds in. Now most of you know me and know that I have a slightly different view of risk and the probability of me living through something than most people, but I will fully admit that there is no way I could have made it out of there if that bear wasn't running from ANOTHER BEAR. Apparently a large brown bear was chasing this little (and by little I mean like holy crap big) black bear into our path. We survived and heard no screams thereafter so I assume no one was injured. Ridiculous.

The third coolest thing happened next, when we decided to come back to the campsite early and just hang out. I found a nice log in the middle of a brilliant green marsh where I sat in the sun and read my book until the sun started to set.

Here the other contender for first coolest part comes into play. I hear random music from the other side of the marsh and I follow my log bridge in it's direction and I end up in an ampitheater. Long story short there's a ranger there who tells the life of John Muir, one of the people who spearheaded the nationalizing of the parks myself and Alex have been perusing. The cool thing about was he did it in first person in a decent Scottish accent. The story was funny and interesting and I don't remember the last time I heard a tale told verbally like that. It made me smile and was a great end to the day.

Tomorrow we start our trek back with a weekend in Vegas. Wish us luck and pray for our souls :)

Day 12 and 13

Back in the tent :) we are currently in the sequoia national forest and have been since sometime this afternoon. We started out in passedena where we stayed with a friend of alex after driving from Santa Rosa, around nine hours. Unfortunately Alex had some trouble with his eyes and allergies so I ended up doing the whole thing but by now nine hours isn't too bad, especially when it's along the pacific coast highway. I had never seen the pacific before yesterday and I was not let down in my expectations. The pch was a gorgeous cliff drive on windy (long i) roads for hours on end. Vista after vista and it didn't get old. Went to a bar when we got there and then crashed shortly thereafter.

This morning we slept in a bit, and then headed out. I ended up reading a few chapters in my book which I hadn't done yet so that was nice.

We hiked today in two places. One was a loop around a glen, which may have been the greenest thing I have ever seen, and the other was up to a peak that has a 360 view of the area for the sunset. Now both were gorgeous but the ending story still needs a little setup.

On the glen loop we saw 4 bears. Both Alex and I had been hoping for a (singular) sighting, so this was pretty cool. The fifth bear we saw was not quite as cool because it was on the path we were on, the others having been a mild distance away, close enough for some pictures but far enough away not to be too scary. This bear was ripping apart a tree, yes a tree, to get some food and, long story short, ended up running away when it heard us. We made it to the overlook and there was a lovely sunset after some 400 stairs. This is the part where it gets interesting. See, neither Alex or I hoguht about what happens after sunset. In most cases it means it gets dark, as the sun is no longer visible. What this meant for us was that our planned walk back to the car, some 1.7 miles on the road, was now a death march through legit bear country. We whistled and clapped the whole way, hoping to scare away anything large and small, and made it back alive, but rest assured that our lesson has been learned and we will not be caught so unaware next time.

An hour drive put us in our campsite, and the sound of frogs and owls will be my lullaby tonight. Tomorrow will be more hiking through these massive trees, and I'm excited for another forest, this bigger and older than he last.