GoPro!

Just hoping I don't crash off the start!!

Fly-fishing, dog long jump, running races, bike races, various kayak competitions, whitewater stand-up paddle boarding, bouldering, free-style slack-lining, and on and on all squeezed into the small (and posh) mountain town of Vail over one weekend. Welcome to the GoPro Games. Both The Girl and I were competing in multiple events; we were both racing the Vail Pass half marathon, she was running the 10k mountain running race, and I was riding the time trial bike race. We arrived Friday evening in time for dinner then quickly collapsed into bed.

There is one highlight to this night. In the middle of the night, I woke up from one of my most classic dreams. In the dream, The Girl was sitting, staring with complete focus down on her bare feet. I walked up to her. Without looking up or breaking any focus on her feet, she said in an intense, confident tone, “These are The Blade,” pointing with both arms to her feet, “when I run, they slice up the ground.” If I was not impressed (and a little intimidated) by her running ability before, The Blades erased all doubt.

Saturday morning, The Girl (aka The Blades) and I woke up early to run in the Vail Pass half marathon. We were told the race goes from the town of Vail up to Vail Pass (aptly named), but the true consequences of this race never really sunk in, we just knew it would include a lot of climbing. Also, while named a “half marathon,” the race was actually 13.7 miles, instead of the true half marathon of 13.1. Just a minor difference, right?

We started off the run around 8,200 ft and the first several miles were relatively flat as we worked our way to the edge of town. I was just trying to keep with The Girl, as we went through these miles at around 7:15 min/mile pace. Then slowly the road started to climb. My ignorance was soon crushed as I realized the road was never going to level. In fact, it was just going to slowly become steeper. It was a bad sign when around the five-mile mark I was seriously questioning if I would finish the race. Also around that time, The Girl slowly pulled away as my legs ached for flat ground; I only saw her in the distance the rest of the race (but I DID keep her kind of in sight the whole time). At mile seven, the course switched from road to bike trail. I walked through this aid station to make sure I actually got some water down; instead, I had to fight back from puking. Fortunately, I got moving again. There isn’t much more to say. It kept getting steeper and I kept getting slower. The last several miles I felt like I was barely moving (I was barely moving), but I kept “running.” To rub salt in the wound, the final 100 meters were one of the steepest parts of the race. After a brutal “race” (more like a slog) that finished at the pass at about 10,500 ft, the warm welcoming we got upon crossing was simply a volunteer saying “good job,” no music, nothing. The Girl and I looked at each other with a look of “What the heck did we just do?!”, got on the bus, and headed back to Vail. We were just happy to be done with that thing!

Because of our next races were the following morning, we wisely took measured to rest and recover so we were primed the next day; we spent the entire day walking around on a warm, really sunny day, watching other events going on – exhausting, but fun! We saw all the vendors, slack-lining, kayaking (seeing Eric Jackson doing flips was pretty awesome), some mountain biking, some dog jumping, and bouldering. Needless to say, we were both completely exhausted that evening. Again we crashed into bed, hoping we would have some energy for the next day.

The Girl’s race started at 8AM and mine at 9AM, which afforded me the opportunity to see her go off at the start. Her 10k started in the middle of town, then quickly headed to the ski hill where it abruptly went straight up. It was amazing to see the line of races working up the hill, pretty rough. I then headed over to my start to figure out when I was going off. It was a time trial, so each racer was staggered by 30-seconds. I guess I should have looked at the schedule earlier, because I discovered I was one of the last to go, leaving a little after 11AM!! Well, at least I would get to see The Girl finish. I made it back over to her finish line to see the first couple racers come in. Not long after the winners came in, I saw two women racing for a sprint finish. In fact, one was REALLY sprinting! Who could have that much energy left? But shortly before the finish line, the slower racer drifted into the other women. It is unclear if an elbow was thrown or not, but it was all in good competition and the racer who worked the hardest reached the line first. I then realized it was The Girl! Not only does she have blades, but she is not adverse to throwing some ‘bows to protect herself! Look out!

After killing some time, we made our way over to my race. I will admit, I was nervous about my start; I really did not want to be the guy who crashed off the starting block! Fortunately, the start went smoothly! The course was similar to the previous days run, but ended about 4 miles shorter. Early into the race, I realized the legs were pretty heavy and it would not be a strong performance. Then I started getting passed. Considering we were staggered by 30-seconds, it was really impressive to see how strong those guys were. I would be putting it modestly to say I got crushed! But, it was motivating to see how strong those guys were. I will remember that during trainer sessions!

As I rolled back in, the weather worsened. As we left the rain had started, perfect timing. All in all, it was a pretty exhausting and exciting weekend. It was amazing how many activities were going on and motivating to see so many great athletes! It is on the calendar for next year, and I will get revenge on that half marathon!

5 Random Things I Did This Past Weekend

To begin with, I cannot take any credit for the “5 Random Things I Did This Past Weekend” theme. This has long been a quality of dcrainmaker’s blog (even if you are not into sport tech gear, you should definitely follow him. He is one of the best bloggers I read). With more adventures, less time, and an innate laziness, I have been failing at keeping up to date. So this will be a good way to get a “shotgun” approach of sharing my latest adventures. It is also a little self-serving in that is helps me remember all the important, albeit sometimes minor, adventures I go on. For the sake of catching up on the blog, this post will combine two weekends (May 9-11 and 16-18). Onward…

Simply put, these weekends were amazing. On Friday (May 9) evening The Girl (another rip-off from dcrainmaker, deal with it) and I headed up to Pagosa Springs, Colorado for a quick adventure. Fortunately, The Girl is a bit of an expert on the region, so she has many great adventure ideas. But more importantly, neither of us had ever been to Pagosa Springs.

1. HOT SPRINGS AT PAGOSA SPRINGS RESORT AT NIGHT

We were incredibly fortunate to stay at Pagosa Springs Resort. Some strings were pulled, but we also lucked into a rare weekend when they were not booked months in advance. After checking in, we headed over to Pagosa Brewing. Here, we were hosted by the brew master and GM, who gave us a tour of the brewing processes and future adventures for the brewery. We also enjoyed dinner and a sampling of every one of their beers on tap (18 in total, I think, oof!). My personal highlight was their green chile beer, The Girl’s was their Poor Richard’s Ale. We really liked all but one of their beers, which is pretty impressive. I highly recommend checking them out. Anyway, dinner and beer sampling went longer than we expected. Despite being pretty tuckered out, we figured we should at least check out the hot springs before bed.

The town of Pagosa is located about 35 miles north of the NM border. It is nestled close to Wolf Creek ski area, the San Juan flows right through downtown, and about 3 million acres of San Juan National forest with miles and miles of trails highlighted by waterfalls surrounds the town. But the biggest highlight is that Pagosa Springs is home of the world’s deepest geothermal hot spring (more than 1,000 ft).

Pagosa Springs Resort has created a number of small soaking pools each ranging in temperature and all fed by the “mother” hot spring. The pools are located along the bank of the San Juan, allowing an amazingly serene experience. It was late when we headed down, which meant we nearly had the whole place to ourselves. Our favorite pool was located right on the bank of the river, spilling out directly into the river. Once you get use to the sulfur smell of the hot spring, it doesn’t get much more peaceful than that!

Post trail run celebration, "FOOD!"

2. TRAIL RUN AT PIEDRA RIVER TRAIL IN PAGOSA
After a night of a lot of food, beer, and hot spring soaking, The Girl and I headed for the wilderness to get in a good trail run. It really was pretty overwhelming how many great trails there are in and around Pagosa. We headed out to the Piedra River trail, which afforded us a good opportunity to drive through the surrounding countryside; there are some really big houses around Pagosa!

The trail follows the Piedra River (I wonder how they came up with the name for the trail); it quickly drops into a narrow canyon, which hosts a number of rock climbing routes. Eventually you climb out of the canyon an end up running along the terrace above the river. Early into the run, The Girl managed to step on a baby snake, but that was the only casualty and wildlife siting during the run.

What you should appreciate is that The Girl is definitely in her element running along trails. I have never seen someone beaming with joy while running fast along trail; I think she would have run all day if I wasn’t there to drag her back to the car. I should note, however, I did beat her in a race up a hill to the car after we finished (maybe I got a head start, but that doesn’t matter).

3. DRIVING

You can appreciate from reading the blog that I have driven many miles over my life and have had many road trips. I’ve driven cross-country multiple times, all over the Northeast and Midwest many times, and now beginning to explore the West. In undergrad, I use to leave Saratoga Springs after my last final in the afternoon, drive straight through the night and make it home around sunrise. A far majority of these miles have been solo, which I don’t mind; driving is meditational for me. In fact, I cannot remember the last time I made a 5+ hr drive with another person in the car, until this weekend. It may seem insignificant, but I really enjoyed making the drive up to Pagosa Springs with The Girl. It is such a great drive; it was nice to finally share it with someone.

4. SANTA FE RUN AROUND
Fast forward one week (May 17) and back in Santa Fe, this weekend was the inaugural Bike and Brew hosted by Outside Magazine. As the name suggests, this entailed many biking and beer related activities, but also coincided with the Santa Fe Run Around. This was amazingly the 36th year of the race, which includes both 5k and 10k events. The 10k was simply two laps of the 5k, which starts/finishes at the 400+ year old Santa Fe Plaza and constantly climbs at increasing inclines for 2.5k, then drops back down for the rest of the loop.

When The Girl and I toed the line, I was looking to just keep up with her and she was looking to crush the competition. But she wasn’t the only one with her game face on. We were surrounded by several dozen little kids, decked out in team race gear, compressions socks, and doing striders up and down the road up to the start of the race. I can’t say I have even been intimidated by a 12 year old, but I was a little worried I might get beat by a 12 year old at that moment. Fortunately they were all doing the 5k (it doesn’t count if they beat me in 5k when I am doing the 10k….right?).

Staying true to my “thorough” race preparation, I had no clue what the course included. To my defense, had I known I would be climbing up an increasing grade for half of each loop, I would have maybe “accidently” forgot the race was taking place that day. I should point out the passion for trail running has helped The Girl become quite good at running hills. This means the first 2.5k of the race were sufficiently painful. I have successfully fooled her into thinking I am a better runner than I am, so at the top of the climb she told me I can go. I managed to mumble between gasping for air, “No, I can’t!”

At the end of the first lap, we discovered another woman had caught up close to us. The competitor inside of The Girl drove her to sprint the start of the second lap, with me struggling to keep up. We maintained a hard effort through the entire climb in this final lap. We managed to drop all runners; she even managed to drop me right before the top (but, don’t worry, I quickly caught back up when it leveled off). I am not sure what The Girl was thinking during the final 2.5k, but I know I was hoping no other girl would get close to us because I wasn’t sure if I could handle another sprint. Near the end I was just hoping The Girl did not have a final kick left in her. Unfortunately, she did and managed to narrowly edge me out at the finish line. Officially she beat me by 1-second. I contend they generously rounded up. Plus the finishing chute was only one-person wide, so being the perfect gentleman that I am, I let ladies go first…..

5. EXPLORING SANTA FE
After losing to The Girl by technicality, we hung around the finish for the awards. I guess this is what happens when you win a race. Did I mention The Girl won the women’s race? It was a beautiful day, so we hung out and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. It turns out that there was a screw up with the 10k results, so it ended up taking a couple hours to get the results. It was humorous since everyone who was left at that point had won an award of some type (overall or top age-group winner). But it was not so bad because hanging out in the Plaza on a beautiful Saturday morning is a good place to be. We were just kicking ourselves for not brining any money for coffee or ice cream.

Finally, the results got (kind of) sorted out and The Girl received her awesome handmade platter. I also managed to get a mug for a 3rd place age group finish (I think there were only 3 people in my age group). From there, we headed for food at our favorite spot, Tune Up. I got a real breakfast (burrito) and The Girl got her traditional non-breakfast (yogurt, boring!!). After refueling, Bike and Brew activities were still kind of going on and we caught a unique interpretation of modern circus show. The rest of the day was spent wondering around Santa Fe, including shopping, ice cream, shopping, food, and food. Highlights included Double Take, a big consignment shop with a really eclectic and sometimes high-end collection of Southwest clothing, furniture, odds-and-ends, cowboy boots, cowboy hats. Here, I had my first win of the day; I talked The Girl into buying a cowgirl hat. It looks awesome!

The day continued with many more wins for me, all largely including me talking The Girl into new clothing items (including a Lulu running skirt which she had previously admonished, but secretly liked). She really needs to learn to not be so easily swayed by me. Of course, we also enjoyed ice cream in the plaza (we finally found some decent ice cream in New Mexico). The Plaza on a nice weekend afternoon hosts some awesome people watching!


So that makes 5 topics. I could easily ramble on about more highlights, but I have rambled long enough and need to get to bed to start another adventure tomorrow. Ciao!!

Bikes can also be ridden outside

It had been probably over a month since I had ridden my bike outside. That isn't to say I haven't been riding, I have been riding about four days per week, I have just been living on the trainer. Today, I figured it was time to venture into the great outdoors. I set out on a route that I have long been eyeing, but had not gotten around to actually doing. The picture doesn't begin to give it justice.

The ride started off interesting. While bombing down a hill, I was stopped by a massive cow standing in the road. Despite lacking horns, considering its massive size (we are talking small car sized), the way it was starring me in a rather intimidating manner, and the fact it had what did not exactly look like an utter, I am pretty sure it was a bull. While I was considering how fast I could ride back up the hill if it decided to charge, it fortunately decided to wander back down the road. Welcome to New Mexico.

Continuing the ride and after a long climb, I ended up on a huge messa and I was immediately amazed. The view down the valley was awesome, but the feeling up on the messa was incredible. Other than the dirt road, I felt completely alone up there. It is amazing to be places that seem like they look exactly as they did hundreds of years ago. There were pinyon trees, ponderosas, and grass, yes GRASS! In fact, there were sections with fields of grass. Part of the messa had be burned in the last fire; the the grass growing through the ashes was proof that life goes on. Other than gunshots off in the distance (again, welcome to New Mexico), there was not a single person the several hours I was up there and there where miles and miles of road that I did not have time to cover.

I found my new favorite place out here. I wish I could describe it better. You will just have to ride out there with me sometime.

We might be older, but it doesn't mean we act that way.

The amazing Indian Springs

My first running photoshoot thanks
to Tai. Wade proves who needs
gloves when you have socks.....?

Without a doubt one of the things that makes me the luckiest person is the my group of Dayton and beyond friends, The Crew. This group of 15+ guys (yes, of course its all dudes; we learned at a young age, "Girls on one side, guys on the other!"), most of whom I have known for well over 20 years (some since I was 6), are honestly like brothers to me. Unfortunately, we only get to see each other a couple of times a year now. But one of the reasons why I know I am so lucky to have these friends is that no matter how long it has been since we have seen each other, it feels like no time has passed at all....for better or worse.

Another shot from the run, showing
the amazing Adam house in
the background.

Fortunately, this past weekend I was able to see a part of The Crew in Crested Butte, Colorado... ahh, the sunshine state. For the avid AoaNM followers, you might remember a similar trip took place 5 years ago (Crested Butte). This trip had some returning characters, several missing, and one new one. Living in New Mexico, I had the pleasure of driving up to western Colorado. I really love that drive, especially southern Colorado. Of course, I left work late, so most of the drive was in the dark. Driving through northern NM in the dark is pretty surreal. You pass another car maybe every 30 minutes or so. You drive along a perfectly straight road and the world dissolves into black at the limit of your headlights. Those 30 minutes feel like hours. If not for the dashes on the road, I would have no way of knowing if I am actually moving. Then in southern Colorado, you begin to drive through these amazing little towns. Each seem like isolated islands of civilization, knowing nothing of the others. But each town has this strange feeling, almost drawing me to pull over and settle down in this completely foreign town. I managed to resist the urge of relocating my life to some random small Colorado town and pulled into CB late that night, with just a couple hairy moments narrowly avoiding the hundreds of deer and elk hanging out along the road the last 20 miles of the drive.

The money shot! Thanks Tai for making me feel famous.

When a normal person thinks of a group of guys in their young 30's hanging out at a top ski destinations, with an amazing base of snow, there are certain activities that come to mind, namely skiing. Other than my half-day spent cross country skiing, nobody went skiing. In our defense, several of the guys went snowmobiling. I did not because I prefer human-powered activities (that excuse was met with groans from the other guys and "I knew you would say that.") No, we spent the weekend playing King of Tokyo board game, cooking ridiculous meals, playing capture the flag/snow ball fight (which soon devolved into our typical fight about someone somehow cheating), building the most epic sledding route known to man (at least in our opinion), and of course making fun of Ross and Blake as often as we could.

This is how most of the weekend
looked, us playing Kings of Tokyo

Again, taking the normal person's perspective, this weekend sounds like something 12-year olds would do. Considering our behavior while doing all of these activities, 12-year olds is probably about right, if not generous. For the benefit of everyone, I won't go into details of this behavior, you will just have to take my word for it. I will say, as a follow-up to the last CB trip, we repeated the food challenge with Blake. We may have been a little ambitious on the spice, but needless to say he lost again. This time, the punishment involved a midnight, full nude trip down the sledding route. How I wish we had a video! He set a record time, nailing each of the sharp turns perfectly. Although, stopping the sled in the deep snow may have been a little cold for him. Without a doubt, it was a fantastic weekend. I don't regret not skiing; any time spent skiing would have meant less time I could have spent with these guys (well, I could have done with less Blake time.....just kidding....kind of).

Ahh, I am hilarious

But, that wasn't the end of my weekend. After leaving CB, I drove west, heading over to Utah. Again, this was an awesome drive. Western Colorado is pretty awesome to drive through, however, efficient driving it is not. I fortunately was not in a hurry because the winding roads and hairpin turns with hundreds of feet drop-offs is not conducive to making good time. The craziest part of the drive is crossing the Colorado-Utah border. Leaving Colorado you work your way through mountain passes then all of a sudden you hit a martian landscape, aka Utah. Colorado has a ton of sharp, jagged peaks, Utah has rounded blobs of red rock.

Kevin climbing hard and looking badass while
doing it, as usual.

I was heading to Indian Springs to meet up with Kevin and Becky. Kevin is known from many earlier posts (e.g. NH nICE, Ol' Man Wilson, you are a grumpy SOB, and many more, including the slideshow from our eastern Sierras trip). I got into Indian Springs late, so this part of the excursion only included half of a day of climbing. While I only went up two routes, it was awesome to see Kevin and Becky and to see Kevin climb (while he was quite unhappy with his climbing, I was of course pretty impressed). Indian Springs is also very impressive. Considering the surrounding martial landscape, Indian Springs feels like another world.

So then the long drive back home. I won't go into details here. Like I feel now, I was quite tired at this point in the trip and just wanted to go to bed.

Sorry for the long-winded rambling post, but let's be honest, that is kind of my M.O. Until next time....

Tai's snowmobiling attire.

Umm, no idea and no comment. It is Blake....

Wouldn't be a proper weekend without male on male "wrestling"

Pretty standard scene, I am the first one to fall asleep.

Hard to beat this view from the porch

Just a couple normal 32-year olds

Ross pouring a beer in Tony's mouth while caressing his head? Again, no clue and no comment. 

A little FIFA action before I got pissed that we got scored on and they wouldn't skip the celebration, resulting in me turning off the system. I have outgrown most of competitiveness, I promise!

P.S. Photo credit for all Colorado pictures goes to the fantastic Tai-Jen X Chen!

February + Snowing feet out East = Let's go paddling!

Trying to look tough at the end of a successful day!

With forecasts in the mid-60s and water levels pretty decent, Garrett and I decided to explore the mighty Rio Grande. You might be saying, "I didn't realize the Normal Man kayaked!" Well, it depends on how you define what it takes to be kayaker. If most of your paddling haven taken place in a pool, several extremely mellow floats down small streams in Ohio, and having not been in the boat in about 6 years still constitutes being a kayaker, then that's me!

In this case, maybe smaller is better

In the days prior, anyone to whom we mentioned our upcoming plans generally looked at us in confusion, asking if we realized how cold the water would be. We would be putting in shortly below Taos and the river would be fed by snowmelt in the mountain. But we figured, how bad could it be... Garrett did all the research on the area and I kept myself blissfully ignorant. My biggest concern was that I would severely slow him down on the flat water since my boat is considerably shorter than his (see the picture!). Well, as we soon learned, the little man was the better equipped on the day.  By "soon" I mean the first rapid (see the pictures). 

Garrett cruising the first rapids...then "decides" to take a drink

By the end of the day, we had each taken a swim at least once; swimming through rather large standing waves is pretty exciting. We both learned class III/IV is certainly enough rapids for us! There were many times going into the the white water I thought I would definitely be taking a drink, but somehow found my way through it; I definitely credit it all to luck -- there was no skill to be found. But most importantly, we had a fun, exciting day on a beautiful river -- and we had it all to ourselves.

Beautiful day on the Rio Grande

Relieved to be on solid ground after a somewhat hairy section

A search for a good (non-radioactive) dirt road

Ever since getting out to NM I have been on a quest for a good dirt road. Sure, this sounds lame, but it wasn't until after I left State College that I realized how anomalous it is for the seemingly endless miles of quality crushed gravel roads for running and cross-riding. So, aboard my trusty, Wilier stead I have been scouting all the promising routes based on satellite images. Before today, I have had moderate success and multiple failures. But, that was before today.

It has been a long time since I have had a ride where a smile was plastered to my face. We commonly make fun of my mom...let me re-phrase, one of the times when we make fun of my mom is when she sees impressive landscapes, she typically continually repeats, "Oh my god!" Well today, I admit, I was continually repeating, "Holy sh*t!" and "This is #$@#$ing amazing!" I have finally found exactly what I was looking for, as as you would know it, it is right next to my current residence; well, 500 ft below to be more exact.

The road/trail begins in a somewhat narrow canyon, lined with big rock walls (climbing potential?!?), follows a stream with hoodoos and boulders (bouldering potential?!?). As I continue on, it eventually opens up to a big valley, WITH TREES!!! The trail/road is in amazing condition, and while having a gradual, constant slope to it, it is still quite enjoyable in both directions.

Well, not much more needs to be said, just that I am a happy man, my Wilier is a happy bike, and I even scouted at semi-flat stretches to do 200 and 400m repeats (don't ask, I will just sounds lame)! Enjoy the pictures. Be warned, anybody that comes to visit me, we are definitely going for a ride along my new favorite route!!!!!

Bayo Canyon Road (formerly TA-10, very rich and radioactive history!!)

Update: One of the roads I traveled along (Bayo Canyon Road) had one odd section. It appeared to have been paved at one point and includes 4 large asphalt pads. There was also a very old and faded sign reading: "Temporary Use Road Only By Order of US Dept of Energy." I found all of this very odd, but had no clue. Well, I found out the history. This use to be one of the sites for the lab. I found a report on the area and described it as a facility used to support the development of nuclear weapons. For nearly 20 years (ending in the early 60's) it was used as a firing site to test high explosives, included uranium. In the early 60's it was decontaminated and decommissioned. It is still under the DOE (US Dept of Energy). Here is an excerpt from one report (linked from this site):

The Los Alamos National Laboratory [...] conducted 254 radioactive lanthanum implosion experiments from September 1944 through March 1962. The purpose of these experiments was to test implosion designs for nuclear weapons. Conventional high explosives surrounding common metals (used as surrogates for plutonium) and a radioactive source, as small as one-eighth inch in diameter and containing up to several thousand curies of radioactive lanthanum, were involved in each experiment detonated. (Dummer, Tascher, Courtright 1996)

An expert on the area describes the area as:

...Bayo Canyon, New Mexico is simply unmissable for any hardcore nuclear tourist. there’s the historical dimension:  the radiolanthanum experiments that commenced here in 1944 provided crucial insight into the implosion weapon design validated in 1945 by the Trinity test (and embodied later by “Fat Man” and virtually all successive bombs). But what makes Bayo so special is that the history here is tangible, collectable, and detectable provided you come with a Geiger counter.

YIKES! Just in case you ever forget the history of this place. The best part, if you look at the posting from the expert (http://carlwillis.wordpress.com/tag/los-alamos/), he talks about how it is such a great place to go with a geiger counter to search for radioactive relics from the explosions!!!! But, don't worry, a 2008 report found the radiation levels below New Mexico limits and is safe for recreation, although I guess it is technically closed until year 2142. I am DEFINITELY not in Ohio anymore! It is a beautiful area, see the picture of Bayo Canyon Road above.

He's Back!

Looking down on Los Alamos. Santa Fe Mountains in the background.

Wow, last post: January 2012. I have clearly fallen off the horse, but now I will try to get back on! A lot has happened since my last post. The quick highlights:

1. I finished my PhD work at Penn State (hence why I disappeared from the blog-o-sphere for several years) and,
2. I have moved to Los Alamos, NM to do a post-doc (coincidently, several of my last posts are from when I was last in this neck of the woods: Greatest Day Of My Life and Lubbock I Kind Of Hate You.

There are a couple blanks left in that recap, but I imagine the essentials will fall into place as time goes on. Right now, I feel like a proud Ohioan trying to learn to like the Southwest; so far, I miss humidity, green, and corn/soy fields (and family, of course).

One philosophical change I will make to posts is to shift from rambling, nonsensical stories to concise recaps that just provides enough context for the pictures. While I know I am hilarious, I am not arrogant enough to really think you read what I write instead of skimming and looking at the pictures. Granted if something hilarious happens, like I am chased by a mountain lion, I will likely include more rambling (partly because it might be hard to get a good picture from that adventure), otherwise, less text.

Onward!