Everything is going smoothly

Everything is going smoothly. It's just not going according to plan. I intended to do a lot of biking in the Fort Collins area. That was before I caught the plague. The plague consists of running a very slight temperature, a mildly scratchy throat, a light cough, and a general feeling of blahness.

I am still going to do some biking. I will be leaving in a half hour or so to pit myself against Rist Canyon Road.

The big thing that I did not plan is a flight back to Michigan on the 13th of May. I will be back home for a week. No, it's not because of a funeral or even a court date. Really it is more an effort to avoid a court date. What I have known for two whole days before you is that I am driving around the country on an expired drivers license. It took a highly trained security guard at Intel to discover that.

Thankfully Michigan gives out of state residents a six month extension in order to give them time to get home. Unfortunately, six months expired three days ago.

One would think that the State would have sent me a letter letting me know it was time to renew back in October. Well, they did. Trouble is the envelope looks exactly like the "Renew your license plate on your car" letter. I distinctly remember wondering why they sent two of them within a week of each other. Like a good absent minded professor with a touch of ADD, I was quite proud of myself for going into the secretary of state, in person and on time, to renew my plate. Mission accomplished and expelled from my memory.

So the car is good to go, but I am not. Should I get pulled over, they can let my car go on without me. I want to avoid this as my car really has no ambition and would probably just sit around without me there to push it's buttons. So I am going to drive somewhat carefully to San Diego so my sister can watch my vehicle whilst I fly home to take care of this little issue.

I know it sounds a bit extreme, but it's better than the rash a stickler like me would get sweating every second I am out on the road. In all truth it will be good to spend a week at home. I need my spine adjusted (Hi dad), I could use another round of prolotherapy treatments for my wrist (Hi again dad), and I really should catch one of Tim's baseball games, baby sit Ava (My niece), and give a certain Brit a big pat on the back for surviving both high school and the family household.

I do have reservations to stay at Phantom ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon next week. I am thus, not exactly rushing off. I have been a bit illegal for six months, whats another week? I will be quite happy to not have that to worry about though. I figure with the (hopefully free) medical treaments and weeks worth of home cooked meals (I miss you mom) this unplanned bit of smoothness will pay for it's self.

Now to find a way to board an airplane without a valid photo ID...

Sam's Summary

• Sam already knows all this
• However, there is some delightful word play here that was not in the phone converstation
• He would have to read the whole thing anyway to appreciate it
• I actually have already taken care of the ID for the plane problem
• I am pretty good at taking care of problems when I know what they are
• As this is my most embaressing post I am sure all of you will find it the most entertaining
• Meanies!
  

Here are the pictures that I promised so long ago. It is a bit of a mishmash.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Garden of the Gods and seen from above and northwest

At it's center is this little neat formation

It really is very garden like

There are many cool formations in the surrounding hills. These have fewer climbing restrictions.


I spent the afternoon at Pikes Peak. Here it is seen through a formation at the Garden.

This is the tree line. I personally know people who have never been above it.

The View to the west

The View to the east.

Sam's Summary

• I took a long while to post these pictures
• I was sick so lay off me
• It was not avian flu
• It was not bovine Tuberculosis
• It was not chicken pox
• or cow pox
• or horse tranquilizers
• or any other animal related sickness
• It was, however, similar in symptoms to swine flu, just not really swine flu.
• How's Ava?
  

Colorado Springs

This is going to be a long one. It amuses me how I will sit around for weeks with very little to write about, then in one day I do enough to justify a few more weeks of sitting around.

Thursday, April 23 2009 AD. I did it all today. At least I did all that could be hoped for, short of falling in love, and I am not sure I didn't do that as well. It all started with the most important part... sleeping in. I could not find a campground in the Colorado springs area so I got a cheap hotel. The Colorado welcome center even gave me a nice coupon for it. I am not complaining. I have not slept in a real bed since Virgina, nearly a month ago. Thus I slept in.

The next item on my agenda was to come to a screeching rubber laying halt at a stop light. I needed to test the break job I did before leaving home. What actually happened is that I was trying to find the Garden of the Gods. You try driving an unfamiliar road in the mountians while trying to filter out tourist trap signs. I can hardly be expected to see every red light with all that foolishness assaulting my senses.

Well the good news is that I did see every red light, if perhaps a bit late, and my breaks work splendidly. Highway 24 does have a nice new set of 40 ft matching black rubber marks now.

I did find the park. It was, and I presume still is, awesome. It is a big naturally formed play ground. It features endless Daniel sized climbing opportunities. That simply means rock formations that if fallen from would result in serious injury but remain short of death. It also sports numerous larger formations that are good for other, crazier people to climb, and me to look at.

The "Garden" is enclosed by three giant stone walls sticking sever hundred feet out of the ground. In the center there are perfect juniper trees (at least I think they were some sort of juniper) placed artfully about as it by some wild genious. It really does look like a garden. It just has a bit of a wild feel to it.

I hiked all about and around the park and played on all the rocks. I took every trail, a few things that were decidedly not trails, and a few other places that were not, strictly speaking, sanctioned visitor areas. I probably put 6-7 miles of hiking, wandering, and bouldering. I some times (not often) wonder what all the other genteel tourists think of the tall skinny guy skipping about like a mountain goat.

The afternoon found me driving up Pikes Peak. They charge $8.00 for the chance to test the first 2-3 gears on your car. The top of the mountain is over a mile and a half above the city. Quite the rock. At about 8,000 ft I stopped a turn off and noticed a horrible boiling sound from my hood area. A check revealed that coolant was bubbling into my resevoir and some was flowing out the over flow vent. A few calls to a coworker, my dad, and my mechanic verified that since my fluids were topped off at 600 ft they were over flowing at 8,000ft. Other than that one panic moment my little car performed beautifully. I did not even get blown off the mountain when the wind picked up. Man that was a bit freaky.

I had to stop a few miles short of the summit. They recently had 19ft of snow dump on the peak and were blasting through it with TNT. I did however get above the tree line. Which is more than some people I know can say. I am looking at you Mr. Otto. The trip down was quite exciting. Basically you just put your car in first gear and coast. Using the breaks too much will cause them to over heat and fail. I am sure the guy that found that out must have had a lovely trip.

Back in town I treated myself to dinner, watched an episode of Cold Case, and prepared for one mare adventure before the sun set. What I did not mention about the Garden of the Gods before is that they have a lovely road weaving in and about the park. That road has a ten foot wide bike lane.

I won't go into much detail, but suffice to say that I biked it... twice.. It was the first time that I had ridden since I burned my breaks on Roanoke mountian in VA. I noticed that my breaks had way too much play in them this time. I really did smoke them in the mountians. I used them liberally again this time. I really need to get some beefy breaks if I am going to continue on like this.

If you made it this far you are a champ. Thanks for reading. Next up, Fort Collins CO.

Sam's Summary

• I am really and truly out of Texas
• I left rubber on highway 24
• I had heap good time at Garden of the Gods yah!
• I drove my li'l car from 6,000 ft to 13,000 ft
  
• my coolent expanded
• I got above the treeline
  
• I feared for my life
  
• Gaurd rails are apparently for sissies
• I road my bike. Yeah!
• I have mixed feelings about continental breakfasts.
• Pictures to follow, since I have to check out now.
  

My Yesterday

How was your yesterday folks? Mine was borderline terrific. Kinda caught between fabulous and awesome. I Started out bright and early (10:00 AM), caught some breakfast at the trading post, and hit the trails. Here is a sample invintory of what you should pack along on your next 12 mile trek through the parched south west.

In the pack

• Roughly 1 gallon of fluids. Water/Gatorade.
• 1 protein bar
• 1 Beef stick
• 4 Rugged Bandaids (thanks mom)
• 1 Hunting knife with 5in blade
• Emergency pair of socks
• SPF 30

On the Utility belt

• 1 digital point and shoot camera
• 2 fox and 3 beaver pelts (ok maybe not)
  

0n the head:

• one industrial strength outdoorsman's hat (thanks Matt)

On the feet:

• One pair of rugged sandals. Not my first choice but I managed to make a mess of my normal sneakers the night before. Mud.
• Two Bandaids. Again thanks mom.
  

In the eye:

• Beauty

Now for the photo story.

The Path

The scenery

The Road Runner (sorry I only heard the cyote. I did, however, sign for a delivery of ACME products)



The Trail Again


Just some more Random scenery

All in all it was pretty good. I met a nice man at the campground that ranted about how he was off to see the country before it all went to the dogs... or the commies... I met another nice man on the trail who invited me to come peer at the heavens through his giant telescope. So I spent the evening oogling saturn's moons and rings and various nebulea and star clusters. The guy was amazing he would find objects in a few seconds and step back to let everyone else look. He had probably $20,000 worth of equipment set up. The images were amazingly clear. It all worked out. I got a chance to look and he got a chance to talk. Plainly a priority for him.

Thanks for reading. I am off to Colorado Springs next. So the pictures should keep coming.

Sam's Summary

• It's Pictures Sam. Lots of pictures
• You don't need no stinking summary today
• I did, however, see a badger (picture did not turn out too well) you do need one of those.
  

While you are working

I thought that it might be good of me to let you know where I will be while you jockey with your desk this morning.

Palo Duro Canyon that's where. A friend of mine recommended that I stop here and hike. That is precisely what I am doing as you hit the dregs of this morning's coffee. Hopefully I will have enough energy to ride the canyon road this evening. It is awesome. I will be here another night before heading up to the Colorado Springs area.

At any rate, this should be good. I got delightfully muddy climbing a peak overlooking my campsite. Who put that slimy creek there anyway.

Sam's Summary

• I am at Palo Duro Canyon State park near Amarillo, TX

• I climbed a little peak

• I got muddy

• I am braving miles of beautiful hiking trails while you watch for five o'clock

• I wish you were here.... Whoever you are.

When it rain, it floods

It rained yesterday. It was not a heavy rain; just a normal rain. Texas, however, was designed to concentrate and focus all runoff such that the water does not actually run off. It does not soak into the ground either. It simply piles up. How a little spring shower leaves four inches of water on the roads is beyond me.

Luckily, Texan have spent a inordinate amount of time preparing for the occasional rain. They build runoff features into everything. The neighborhoods have nice attractive concrete spillways built through them. They are dry 95% of the time. When it rains they become raging torrents that could sweep away unwary children and pickup trucks.

One the other hand it is fun to make a wake with my car. I was throwing out eight foot high waves to either side on my way to see a friend. Great fun if you are an averaged kid like myself.

In other news, I wrote this company offering to work for free. No bite so far.

Sam's Summary

• It rained
• The flood drains filled up
• No reports of missing people or objects... so far.
• I got to splash through the puddles they call roads.
• I am the Dallas king of 21 tip-in. After 5 games.
  

Dallas News Issue 1

Does anyone out there know how to clean a shoe soaked through with blood? Feel free to comment if you do. This question is not so random as one might think. I do in fact have a bloody shoe. I will now pause for a few moments to let you conjure images of horrible accidents and draft dodging...

Ok, is your imagination quite finished? Now I can tell you how lame the real story is. I was playing basket ball, and someone (I won't mention any names) stepped upon my previously traumatized big toe. I looked down and noticed that blood was seeping out of that area of my shoe. Did I stop? Oh no not I. I played through the pain. This was a fairly easy accomplishment as there was no pain. Shaquille O'Neal take note. It is possible to play basketball for free with a bloody toe, much less while getting paid millions.

Really it was just blood from the last time I hurt it. It was trapped under my toenail. Now it is not. I think I may have a fighting chance now of keeping my nail. Vanity I know. Anyway, paultryness of the injury aside I still need to clean my shoe. Anyone with crime scene cover up experience feel free to contact me.

Sam's Summary

• I have a bloody shoe
• It's not my blood
• It was my blood but I have no use for it now
• I want it out of my shoe and out of my life
• I am tougher than Shaquille O'Neal
• Apparently the only point of interest in Dallas is the spot on the road where Kennedy was shot.

The goat is dead!!

I have been waiting till after the big Easter meal to relate this story. I wanted to make sure that I had it in it's entirety.

The story begins, like so many other stories, with My friend Doug asking me "Do you want to help slaughter the goat on Friday?" I am sorry if you are not familiar with this time honored Easter tradition (I wasn't either). I am not sure why this seemed to anyone to be a normal thing to do. I did not even know that there was a live goat out there somewhere.

Such an opportunity does not come up every day, so naturally I exclaimed that I most certainly did not desire to take part in their barbaric rituals. I did however end up digging the pit the day before.

It turns out that it was to be a pit roast..... In the middle of town.... on rented property. When in Texas as they say..... They dig a 2-3 ft deep hole, start a fire at the bottom, then when it burns down to coals they throw in the carcass with some seasoning and bury the whole affair for half a day. I did the digging the hole part. The good news is that the ground was not entirely solid clay; only the bottom foot or so was. At the end of my labors we had the six foot by two foot hole and two and a half feet deep.

I have to admit that the demanded dimensions were indistinguishable from any number of shallow graves dug in the heyday of wild west lawlessness. Even though I did not know the people with whom I was working at all, I was not at all worried. You see the hole was six feet long and I am 6'4". Nothing to worry about at all.

After this point, and a tall glass of the foulest civic water I have consumed in a long while, I went back to my friend's. I did not return the next day for the killing, skinning, or marinating. I did not return the day after that for the cooking. I did, however, return for the Sunday Easter feast and declined any and all polite offers to try the innocent fury creature. Instead I ate brownies, lots of brownies.

Sam's Summary

• I dug a shallow grave
• Some Texans cooked a poor li'l goat in it.
• I was not party to the slaughter.
• I did however go to a party.
• I did not eat the under cooked goat flesh.
• I indulged in deserts instead.
• I am now in the Dallas area
  

Happy Easter

Dare to hope, dare believe, gamble on love, and venture to dream.

Making life sound good

The great thing about a blog is that I get to make all the decisions about how you will see my life. Really I am just killing time at my friend's place in Texas and lazily planning my next move. But it has been fun. I went swing dancing. They all do Lindy out here, but the girls who begged to dance with me had to settle for some smooth east coast. East coast is a little more playful anyway.

On Saturday we traveled to Austin to visit our friend who has made something of his life. He is married, has a nice house, an Xbox 360, a job he loves, a cute daughter, and a huge TV; but he still lives in Texas. Anyway we spent two days there doing horribly boring things. Things such as grilling delicious shishkabobs, disc golfing, playing rock band, playing darts, playing board games, and most importantly reliving all the memories in which I humiliated him during college.

The biggest event of this week is that I went to the Texas A&M Rec center for some pick-up basketball. I have never seen a larger sports facility. The place was amazing. They had 30 or so racquetball and squash courts. They had 8 basketball floors. It was, and I presume still is, quite huge.

I did not play particularly well. I tend to eat very little when I travel and low blood sugar levels do not facilitate great game play. This is without even mentioning proper hydration. I held my own on defense but could not make a lay-up to save... well insert your own trite expression here. It will probably hold true. People always end-up stepping on my feet in pick-up games and I think that I am probably going to lose my left big toe-nail as a result. Darn kids. They are all so young now.

Was I ever that young? Or, ever that hot headed. Luckily I only had one meat head swear on his honor as a neanderthal that he would hurt me.... in retaliation for boxing him out. It all worked out in the end as his goal of running me over clouded his memory that the point was to WIN the game.

I will probably be here through easter. I have will be able to attend all the various rites and rituals that way. Did I ever mention that I love easter. Best holiday ever.

Sam's Summary

• I am still in Texas
• I visited a long lost college chum over the weekend
• I am derilict in my duty to take pictures of everything I see
• I danced
• I danced well
• I always dance well
• I played basketball poorly
• It was good enough because we kept winning
• There are a lot of bullet points here
  

Chilling in Texas

I the somewhat dubious case that anyone wonders what has become of me the past few days.. I am in college station Texas chilling with a couple college chums. They are brothers. Not much is happening. Just a few philosophical discussions of earth shattering import and more than a few episodes of Far Scape, an incredibly improbable and scientifically insulting bit of sci-fi drivel. However, it is quite entertaining. Sometimes that is all that I ask.

Some observations on Texas so far. My apologies to anyone who has been here themselves or, lacking that, has acquaintances who have. Texas is huge. No really it is huge. If you can distinguish two places as separate points on a map; plan at least a day for the travel. The other thing that I can say for Texas is that they have 70 mph speed limits on fairly normal country roads. Without that the above mentioned travel day would easily become two.

As for everything in Texas being bigger and/or better? Rubbish. Absolute rubbish. The trees are stunted, the apartments small (at least all the ones I have stayed in), and compensation by pick-up truck is a disease. (To a particular family member in a somewhat eastern state: You go right ahead and get that truck)

I think that the Ford F-150 must be the state animal or something. Of course the pick-ups are no bigger here than anywhere else, just less necessary. I could head out across the fields in my escort and never fear I would hit anything bigger than a long horn laid mud pie. Although I must admit my ability to intimidate pedestrians is somewhat lacking.

On the other hand they don't have a state income tax here (I suppose a dollar per acre property tax would pay off the national debt)

So that's it so far. Admittedly I have not seen much of Texas; just a six hour stretch of it anyway. I may have may be gushing about it before the end and I do like those shiny belt buckles. You know. The really big ones.

Sam's Summary

• Texas is Huge