The Camera Trip as i am now calling it; or The Picture Trip depending on the circumstances.
Between the four of us i am certain we took over 1,000 pictures easy. And if my pictures are any indication, about 40 to 50 good ones; well, ones worth showing to people. Why is it that a tree or mountain or flower looks cool in person but then the picture it just looks boring? i am, of course, being a little facetious but of the 250+ pictures i would say 50 of mine are really good.
The Rocky Mountains were amazing. We saw a coyote (a 'beggar' coyote we think). It looked like a big white/grey fox; some elk including a few walking around the town and across the street right in front of us; more elk grazing about 20-30 yards away; an elk herd chillin' by the RMNP (Rocky Mountain National Park) Visitor Center; no snakes; no mountain lions - Thank God; and no bears - Thanks Al.
Al was our official bear-scarer. Al made sure we had no morsel, no crumb of food in our rented Jeep Commander so as not to invite any 'just-finished hibernating' hungry bears to us. When we hiked, which was seldom, Al brought up the rear thinking this to be the safest place in a line of hikers but not realizing it is actually the position most likely to get mauled. We, of course, neglected to tell Al this tiny morsel of information.
During one of our longest hikes around a pond-lake (about 1.4 miles around it), we nearly lost Kevin to a snow drift. With one leg knee deep in snow about 3-feet from the edge of the lake, Kevin good-naturedly 'posed' for pictures before we extricated him from his predicament.
We let Jason drive briefly on Friday night to drop Al off for his massage/moon-lit bath and then to the movies (to see Speed Racer b/c i am a huge 'Speed' fan and wanted to see this movie on the weekend it opened - it did not disappoint, but then again it also did not live up to its potential). And we quickly realized why he was not driving more often. In the matter of about 15 minutes of driving, Jason nearly ran a stop sign, BLEW through another stop sign w/o even hesitating, and almost turned up the wrong (left) side of the street. He nearly gave back all five of his points he earned w/ the group the previous night when he noticed as someone else, whose name will remain anonymous...but it was NOT me...nor Al...nor Jason, was driving that the gas gauge was on E which sent a shock-wave through the car. The gauge was, in fact, below E. Regardless despite the worry from some, the likelihood of us running out of gas was remote; still there particularly given that we were somewhere b/n Denver and Santa Fe in the New Mexico desert w/ nothing but the blackest death of night surrounding us for miles and miles and miles.
Speaking of driving, i drove the majority of our tours to RMNP/Boulder, Pike's Peek - or at least to the COG Railway that took us up to Pike's Peak, 2/3 of the way to Santa Fe, and to Alberquerque. This may not seem like much but those that have driven with me previously know that this is sometimes more nerve-wrecking than facing a mama bear who is looking for her cubs...or a hungry mountain lion as i can...sometimes drive beyond the legal, posted speed so-called 'limit.' The drive after RMNP through Denver during rush-hour on toward Santa Fe was, i would hazard a guess, the most...'interesting' for my passengers. The only likely exception to this was Al who particularly liked my actually driving below the speed limit through the meandering hills and mountains of RMNP. I did try to warn my passengers early on, though, by informing them that i am very, very good at getting from point A to point B in a minimal amount of time and suggested they not, i repeat, NOT look out the front window while i am driving. But, not everyone headed my warning.
All in all, it was a fantastic trip. i half expected to experience those 'Arggghhh' moments when personalities rub the wrong way after traveling together for 7 days but...was pleasantly surprised to find that there were none (at least not for me save a few times when i nearly dumped a bucket of freezing cold water on Al b/c he woke me up w/ his incessant snoring). Now if you asked my travel companions you might get a completely different response but i enjoyed a very relaxing and fun-filled trip w/ very little, if any, aggravations. We, of course, had our moments that all travel will present to travelers but none were travel companion(s) related.
i think we set the tone of our trip when during our very first venture we were in search of our hotel. Following the direcdtions of Kevin's "Magic Phone" (that would be an i-Phone w/ Internet access), we found ourselves first behind a biker's gang then driving through Denver's projects which was located precisely where the "Magic Phone" said our hotel should be. As we passed a few more questionable characters, the command came from the captain's chair to, "Lock'em UP!!"
We then used the 'old-fashioned' means of directions: we called them w/ a cell phone to get directions directly from them. A short time later, after breaking out of Denver's down-side, we arrived at our hotel which turned out to be out all by itself sitting just outside the parking lot of Denver's new football stadium.
In the end we all chipped in, Jason w/ pre-planning-hotel reservations-directions; Kevin with pre-planning-directions-on-the-spot directions w/ the Magic Phone; and Al with Jennifer and the Rockies game and inviting me in the first place; and my driving and planning the Jeep Tour.
All-in-all i think the highlights of our trip were up front and at the end; meeting Al's friend Jennifer in Denver and the Jeep Tour with our guides Roch (pron. Rock) and Jerry south of Santa Fe where the Rocky Mountains begin at Valle Caldera - the result of an old volcano. i will post the best of my pictures soon - as soon as i can figure out how to upload them.
(Let me know what you think of this post or what questions you have.)
ALL MY BEST!
Brian
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Adventure Vacation 2008: Rocky Mtn-Santa Fe Trip
Aftering running my first half-marathon on Sunday, May 4th, i left on Monday, May 5th, for a vacation w/ my friends Al, Kevin, and Jason B. We were West-bound to Denver first then down to Santa Fe/Albuquerque.
This was a photographic journey as Jason B. is a semi-professional photographer (he makes enough to pay for a very nice/expensive camera - NIKON, of course), Kevin also has a very nice digital SLR camera (Nikon, of course), and Al recently purchased a digital SLR camera (Nikon, of course); while i went old school using my 20-year old 35-mm FILM camera (also Nikon, of course) along with my new digital Coolpix camera (yep, Nikon, of course).
The four of us, particularly those three, were funny to watch walking around w/ our nine.....NINE cameras: 3 - digital SLR's, 1 - old-school 35mm, 1 new digital, and four camera-phones. One of the best scenes was watching Kevin juggle the three SLR's while taking pictures of Jason, Al, and I up in an Indian cave dwelling with each of the three SLR cameras. i actually snapped a good picture of him holding all three cameras trying to take our picture.
The flights on Frontier, our bankruptancy protected airline, were...well, interesting. Having flown often in my life, i liken flying to a huge thrill ride at an amusement park. i even sometimes hold my hands up like one would when going down a major hill on one of those rides - but that could scare those behind me so i did it 'quietly'.
Anyway, on each lift-off and landing i got the feeling the pilots were told to either conserve gas or give the passengers a real thrill! My father worked on jet engines for his entire 25-year career at GE Aircraft Engines. That, coupled w/ my own experience told me that these pilots were not exactly using the entire engines particularly during lift off (or they were Piggly-Wiggly engines - that would be Pratt & Whitney engines for those not familiar w/ the airline engine industry).
The take-offs were slow to the point of my wondering if we were going to actually lift off. Then, the pilots tried to take (particularly the lift-off from Dayton to Denver) a Rocky Mountain slope of a climb to cruising altitude. At one point i simply thought the plane would slide backward we we going so slow. And keep in mind, this is all from someone who LIKES to fly!
Then the touch-downs were like those thrill ride drops and embankments. It was more like being flown by a fighter-pilot than an airline pilot. Fun...but exhausting. At one point on the flight back (from Albuquerue to Denver), during our rapid descent the EXIT lights came on as if we were all going to have to jump out of the plane. In all of my airline travels i have never experienced a plane in a near nose-dive when the lights and EXIT lights come on like that during our descent. Whew! What (now that my feet are squarely on the ground in Cincy) fun!
And that was merely the flights out and back!
Ready to hear about the actual trip?
This was a photographic journey as Jason B. is a semi-professional photographer (he makes enough to pay for a very nice/expensive camera - NIKON, of course), Kevin also has a very nice digital SLR camera (Nikon, of course), and Al recently purchased a digital SLR camera (Nikon, of course); while i went old school using my 20-year old 35-mm FILM camera (also Nikon, of course) along with my new digital Coolpix camera (yep, Nikon, of course).
The four of us, particularly those three, were funny to watch walking around w/ our nine.....NINE cameras: 3 - digital SLR's, 1 - old-school 35mm, 1 new digital, and four camera-phones. One of the best scenes was watching Kevin juggle the three SLR's while taking pictures of Jason, Al, and I up in an Indian cave dwelling with each of the three SLR cameras. i actually snapped a good picture of him holding all three cameras trying to take our picture.
The flights on Frontier, our bankruptancy protected airline, were...well, interesting. Having flown often in my life, i liken flying to a huge thrill ride at an amusement park. i even sometimes hold my hands up like one would when going down a major hill on one of those rides - but that could scare those behind me so i did it 'quietly'.
Anyway, on each lift-off and landing i got the feeling the pilots were told to either conserve gas or give the passengers a real thrill! My father worked on jet engines for his entire 25-year career at GE Aircraft Engines. That, coupled w/ my own experience told me that these pilots were not exactly using the entire engines particularly during lift off (or they were Piggly-Wiggly engines - that would be Pratt & Whitney engines for those not familiar w/ the airline engine industry).
The take-offs were slow to the point of my wondering if we were going to actually lift off. Then, the pilots tried to take (particularly the lift-off from Dayton to Denver) a Rocky Mountain slope of a climb to cruising altitude. At one point i simply thought the plane would slide backward we we going so slow. And keep in mind, this is all from someone who LIKES to fly!
Then the touch-downs were like those thrill ride drops and embankments. It was more like being flown by a fighter-pilot than an airline pilot. Fun...but exhausting. At one point on the flight back (from Albuquerue to Denver), during our rapid descent the EXIT lights came on as if we were all going to have to jump out of the plane. In all of my airline travels i have never experienced a plane in a near nose-dive when the lights and EXIT lights come on like that during our descent. Whew! What (now that my feet are squarely on the ground in Cincy) fun!
And that was merely the flights out and back!
Ready to hear about the actual trip?
My First 1/2
I DID IT! 13.2 Miles! In under 3 hours (2.45 to be exact)!
It was very difficult, painful, and challenging but i did it. And now, i have to do it again in two weeks in Vermont for the Covered Bridge 1/2 Marathon on June 1st.
The Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati on May 4th is one of the seemingly impossible but simultaneously most fun and most difficult 1/2M and Marathons. The hills make it one of the most difficult and the city and people make it one of the most fun runs (according to Runner's Magazine).
i ran once while on vacation - 4.5 miles in Santa Fe while sick (i think running really, really helped me get over/through the cold i acquired while visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park when the temperature/weather bounced back and forth b/n sunny and sixty to rain and forty to sleet to snowy and thirty-degrees at least three different times. It was still beautiful, though. (More on that trip in my next post - above.) )
Two of my running 'coaches' and Al were their at the very end cheering my triumph. The four of us walked along the loud and boisterous finish 'line' which was more of a corridor of people cheering everyone on to a proud finish for both the 1/2M and Marathon. The run was much, much more emotional than i ever imagined. i nearly broke down in the corridor of people shouting for me despite not knowing any (or few of them). Then it occurred to me...
Why can't people with cancer...ALS...etc... receive this same awe-inspiring, heart-filling, soul-enriching feeling? What if we could create a "Marathon Finish" for people battling cancer-ALS-type diseases? How empowering would that be?
It was very difficult, painful, and challenging but i did it. And now, i have to do it again in two weeks in Vermont for the Covered Bridge 1/2 Marathon on June 1st.
The Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati on May 4th is one of the seemingly impossible but simultaneously most fun and most difficult 1/2M and Marathons. The hills make it one of the most difficult and the city and people make it one of the most fun runs (according to Runner's Magazine).
i ran once while on vacation - 4.5 miles in Santa Fe while sick (i think running really, really helped me get over/through the cold i acquired while visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park when the temperature/weather bounced back and forth b/n sunny and sixty to rain and forty to sleet to snowy and thirty-degrees at least three different times. It was still beautiful, though. (More on that trip in my next post - above.) )
Two of my running 'coaches' and Al were their at the very end cheering my triumph. The four of us walked along the loud and boisterous finish 'line' which was more of a corridor of people cheering everyone on to a proud finish for both the 1/2M and Marathon. The run was much, much more emotional than i ever imagined. i nearly broke down in the corridor of people shouting for me despite not knowing any (or few of them). Then it occurred to me...
Why can't people with cancer...ALS...etc... receive this same awe-inspiring, heart-filling, soul-enriching feeling? What if we could create a "Marathon Finish" for people battling cancer-ALS-type diseases? How empowering would that be?
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