Right now, I'm laying down, writing in our tent. I might add, I'm laying down on a very comfortable air mattress which we exchanged today. Ahhhh. It's supposed to be 12:10am, but it's actually only 10:10pm. Pacific time I think...
We started out the day from Socorro, New Mexico at around 9am after breakfast and a quick camp breakdown. We were looking for the VLA and found it! Actually you can't miss it driving on highway 60. Those dishes are HUGE!! We got out at different points around the compound and took a load of pics. I also went inside the visitor's center and got some pamphlets before we hit the road again, bound for Arizona.
It was weird , as SOON as we crossed the border, everything got sort of foggy, hazy.
Turns out, brush fires were running amuck everywhere. We never actually saw the fires, but the smoke and stench went on for 30 or 40 miles. This area, as well as a LOT of the southwest is under a really bad drought. In fact, we were told that Carlsbad, NM hasn't had any rain in over a year! Really bad fire conditions... After a while, the air finally cleared and things were looking up. We stopped of at the Petrified forest and Painted Desert national parks and took some pics. Good stuff.
Eventually we made it to Sedona. WOW. Absolutely stunning! Beautiful red rock cliffs everywhere. The sunset was amazing...
We learned a little something here: The best place to find out about campsites and places to go is from the local tour guide. That guy really filled us in. We ended up driving into the mountains and have witnessed some AMAZING scenery! Right out of a western... Gotta have a 4x4! Woohoo!!
We have a beautiful campsite overlooking Sedona. I plan on getting some night shots of the city later tonight.
So, we ended up getting to Carlsbad at around 4:30am. I was pretty tired so we just slept in the car for a bit until morning when we would decide what to do. The caverns were never really high up on the priority list and we wanted to get a little further down the road. Carlsbad just doesn't have a whole lot going on. We stopped off at the camp grounds where we WERE going to stay the night. After a shower it was back on the road again.
We headed north to Roswell. We didn't see any spaceships, but we DID get a few pics of an alien.
On to White Sands. Wow. What a cool place! It's basically a National Park desert area where the sand is made of basalt. It's very white and, even though the sun is blazing down, it's cool to the touch, and feels really good on bare feet. The military even does some sort of missile testing at another part of the desert. The wind, oh man, the wind was blowing so hard, there was a white dust cloud over the entire area that you could see from miles away. The ranger said it was always like that this time of year so no worries. Actually, the wind has been CRAZY for this entire trip. I don't think I've ever seen it like this...
From White Sands, we proceeded northwest to Socorro. A small town that ALSO didn't have very much going on. We finally found some information on a place called "Box Canyon". That's where we would stay the night. We had a lot of fun getting to it. You have to have a four wheel drive and rock crawl for several miles. Well, maybe you don't HAVE to do it, but that's what we did and it was a highlight! Fun!! That Lexus really handles well in four wheel drive and I suddenly don't see it as a girl's SUV anymore. Haha good times to come! We set up camp on a rocky hilltop and discovered that the new air mattress we JUST bought was missing the end cap. Luckily, we brought our smaller backpacking air mattresses too so we set those up and had a so-so sleep.
I want to break my mountain bike out and hit some of these hills... Soon enough. Maybe when we get to the Grand Canyon.
From White Sands, we proceeded northwest to Socorro. A small town that ALSO didn't have very much going on. We finally found some information on a place called "Box Canyon". That's where we would stay the night. We had a lot of fun getting to it. You have to have a four wheel drive and rock crawl for several miles. Well, maybe you don't HAVE to do it, but that's what we did and it was a highlight! Fun!! That Lexus really handles well in four wheel drive and I suddenly don't see it as a girl's SUV anymore. Haha good times to come! We set up camp on a rocky hilltop and discovered that they new air mattress we had JUST bought was missing the cap. Luckily, we brought our smaller backpacking air mattresses too so we set those up and had a so-so sleep.
I want to break my mountain bike out and hit some of these hills... Soon enough. Maybe when we get to the Grand Canyon.
5-29-11 Well, Amy and I are officially on our 2011 Adventure Trip. We left from Houston around 12:30, almost a full hour later than anticipated. It sort of set the standard really, this first day hasn't exactly gone according to plan. That's the thing though, there really is no plan. We were going to stay the night in Fredericksburg, but then decided that it's a little hot there for camping out, AND the faster we get to New Mexico, the sooner our trip REALLY starts. Somewhere along the way, we learned that the GPS is not completely reliable. Actually, I think the first time we got lost, it was our fault. We were talking or singing nursery rhymes or something and passed a turn. Instead of going West, we were headed due north for about 60 miles before we realized we were going the wrong direction. Never a dull moment. Once we corrected our course and got down the road a bit, Amy started talking about visiting an uncle of her's that she hadn't seen in twenty years or so. He's a really good horse trainer, and I've always heard about him, but had never met him so I was down. Also, this was the zig to our previous zag. We were NOT making a lot of headway... We called her uncle and he gave us his address which we punched into the GPS. The GPS didn't find the EXACT address, but something that looked good enough to me. They live in the country outside of San Saba. The GPS sent us about 30 miles in the opposite direction of their home before we realized we had been duped. I'm in a love/hate relationship with the GPS at this point. Anyway, we finally made it to their house where he showed us around to the horses and stables, which were beautiful by the way. He's a real "horse whisperer" sort of trainer. Very gentle. He walked us into the pen with the horses and told us about how he trains. He explained that it's a trust relationship, and that these horses didn't bite, or kick, or act crazy. It was pretty cool when four of the horses came to check us out. They sniffed and nuzzled at us, and acted like they wanted us to pet and love on them. Very cool, like a bunch of Boxers really (best dog on the planet). We stayed there for about two hours, before we said goodbye. It's already dark and we still have over 400 miles to drive. We've decided to push all the way to Carlsbad, New Mexico before stopping tonight. Tomorrow, we'll see the caverns there, then move on to Roswell, White Sands, and Sorocco. It'll be a fun day, just gotta get this big drive out of the way.
Last night as I lay in bed, our boxer Layla climbed up and was nuzzling me, trying to get me to let her under the covers. This is typical of her, and I usually let her in depending on whether it's too hot or not. I didn't let her under, so she lay down and put her head right next to mine, breathing right in my ear. It struck me as a little weird, but it wasn't until Amy climbed into bed about an hour later that I knew something was wrong. Amy shook me awake and in a worried voice told me to get up and turn on the light. Layla's face was swollen badly. Her eyes were swollen almost completely shut. We examined her muzzle and finally found the tell-tale signs of a snake bite. This is Copperhead country. This is the THIRD time she's been snake bit! We called the vet, and he said as long as her breathing isn't labored or cut off, she should be ok with some Benadryl. This morning, she's still pretty swollen, but seems to be better. She's country strong. ha!
Planning for our roadtrip is still underway. We've made some pretty big changes today, but that's the beauty of it: No Firm Agenda. Plans will probably change even more along the way. It's going to be fun!
So we got up this morning with the AC still not working. HOWEVER, luckily, I had bought a very small window unit to cool a small part of the house last year. It's tiny, but it managed to keep that room cool, so that's where we slept.
After Amy did some research on the Internet, we figured that the problem was either the outside fan motor, or the capacitor. I bought a capacitor for $40, and installed it. It worked... better, but the motor was still having trouble. I can get a motor for $200, and install it as well. I probably saved myself a couple of hundred bucks by doing it myself, and I feel like a hero. ::ahem::
We're off in the country for my Father in Law's birthday so I'm going to go check out the starry sky now. Cya.
Wow. It was one of those most profound experiences in life. Helping others achieve their goals and dreams... The night before, I could hardly go to sleep even though I knew the next day's schedule would be grueling. I must have woken up every 15 minutes between 11pm and 2:45am, but I was full of energy and sprang right out of bed. When we got to the area where we would be doing our body marking, it was 4am and other volunteers were starting to show up. The team captain was kind of a goof ball lady that looked exactly like I thought she would. I'm all about having a good time while I work and everything, but through emails, she had expressed how she wanted everyone to dress up in 70's attire, disco clothes and all that. She was dressed in a head to toe, tight, but you wished it wasn't, tie-dyed, body suit. She looked kind of like a clown. Of the 25 or so body marking volunteers, only about 4 dressed to the hilt. Everyone else was there in "normal" clothing ready to work. My friends and I knew we were going to be there all day since we had volunteered for so many other departments, no way were we going to costume out. It was HIGHLY unorganized. there was no rhyme or reason to how the athletes should come to us, but all 2,200 of them HAD to. Somehow, we got the job done. Bodymarking
Off to the race start! AS soon as we were finished, I made my way to the bridge which crossed the lake directly above the start line. I climbed up on the rail of the bridge and wobbled there for 20 minutes so I could video the start. The energy was AMAZING! The music was jamming and the athletes were making their way into the water. 2,200 swimmers treading water, waiting, pumped, psyched, scared, ready to get the show on the road. We knew the time was near when the droning guitar riff for Black Sabbath's "Ironman" came on. The crowd and athletes went nuts. At the end of the song, the gun went off and the racers took off. Crazy!
We made our way to the next part of our day: Wetsuit stripping. When the athletes complete the 2.4 mile swim, they come out of the water, lay on the ground, and we rip the wetsuits off. EXCEPT, the captain saw me and my friends and decided to put us on the rail. The rail was a group of stairs the athletes climb to exit the water. They were steep, and the athletes were exhausted so we would give them a hand and help them out. I gotta tell ya, it was incredible, like being a midwife or something helping someone give birth. It was almost spiritual. Probably my favorite part of the day.
There is a time cutoff for each part of the race. For the swim it is 2 hours and 20 minutes. That's a lifetime in the water, but some people unfortunately don't make it in time. One of the most energetic moments during the swim was when that clock was ticking down and the LAST person to make it was coming around the corner. Everyone was going nuts! Some Journey song was blaring, "Don't stop believing". He made it by about 15 seconds. Unfortunately, the guy behind him MISSED the cutoff by about 20 seconds. At that point, they take your timechip and you are done. You don't get to compete in any of the rest of the race. Bummer. Very sad... I found a Youtube video of the action. I'm in the middle somewhere...
After this, we had a little downtime, so we got something to eat and decided what to do next. This is transition before the athletes get in from the swim:
And after:
We were on our way to our assigned run course water station, when an Ironman official asked us to man an uncontrolled intersection just before the bike finish. It was cool for a while because we got to see Chris Lieto, the number one cyclist in triathlon finish a full 8 minutes ahead of ALL the other pro athletes. Later, during the run, he had to drop from the race with an Achilles injury. We manned that intersection for about two scorching hours before we finally moved on to an ice cream store for a break. haha
We decided to head to the finish line early to sign in and get our volunteer tee shirts. In restricted areas like that, the tee shirts were color coded and you had to have them on to get in. Kinda cool, I got two shirts out of the deal. IRON TEAM haha
After registering, we hung out with some friends who were the family of a racer. I know this racer from a race we did together a couple of years earlier. Before, this guy was a runner. I remember back then he has so nervous about that 300 yard swim. haha He KILLED the Ironman in under 12 hours. Awesome for a first timer.
When we finally saw him pass on the run course, we took a break for dinner. Mexican food.
With nothing better to do, we decided to go early to our post at the Finish Line. Let me tell you: another AMAZING, spiritual experience. Almost every athlete that came through was staggering and in a state of total exhaustion. We had a routine for escoting the athletes as they came through the line, give them a water bottle, guide them to the a person that would put the Ironman Finisher medal around their neck, guid them to get their picture taken, guide them to the Time Chip retriever, then escort them out of the area while explaining where the massage area was, medical, and athlete refreshments were. It was a little bit assembly line... I would rather have been able to spend more time with each athlete, but there were more that 2,200 of them finishing throughout the night. We had to keep it moving. For those that needed medical attention, and let me tell you, there were a LOT, wheelchairs were waiting to take them to the medical area pronto. There were also medical personnel at the line to asses each athlete. It was quick paced, but they took care of everyone. Here are some pics:
Medals
FINAL finisher before the cutoff.
We escorted this guy to medical. At one point towards the end of the race, my friend and I escorted a very dehydrated athlete to medical. It was the first time I had been. WOW. It was something of a triage with hospital beds spread throughout a warehouse area, maybe over 3000 or 4000 square feet. There was not a single empty bed. It looked like something out of a movie...
Back at the finish line, it was a HUGE party until midnight, the official cutoff time. 17 yours some of these racers had taken. 17 hours! That's a long time to exert yourself... This guy made it with less thn 5 minutes to spare:
http://youtu.be/anc1P-A9s2A
There were a few racers that didn't make the cutoff, but they still made there way through the finish line. The officials that were calling the names of each athlete as they crossed the line were saying that this Ironman Texas was the biggest crowd they had seen since Kona, Hawii '99. Apparently, and this makes me proud, Texans like their triathletes! It makes me happy, because I just KNOW that with this sort of exposure, and acceptance, Ironman will pronbably be here much longer than the slated 5 year contract.
One can hope!
Sunday, my friends and I went back to the Woodlands with our volunteer tee shirts and signed up for Ironman Texas 2012. It sucked to drop $656, but it's on! One year from now, I will be an Ironman.
I AM going to write about the Ironman experience. Right now. I'm going to write it right now. Don't get up from this computer until you have written, Philip.
Dang. So busy planning this road trip, I forgot to write. Here's a little montage of iPhone pics. I WILL write about it today. That's me at the bottom left actin' a fool. Haha
Tomorrow, rather, very early tomorrow morning, 2:30am, I'll be getting up to head out to the first ever Ironman Texas 2011! It's going to be a LOOOOONG day:
2:30am wakeup 3:15am meet up with the guys and head to The Woodlands. 4:15am volunteer meeting. 5:00am to 6:30am opens athlete entrance and begins body marking. 7:00am race begins. 8:00am first Elite racers should be coming out of the water, wetsuit strippers in place. I think we work that station until 10:00am.
After that, I dunno, lunch, nap, nap, hang out, nap.
5pm until? Work the finish line. There are different departments of that. The earliest Elite athletes will start crossing the finish line around 3pm. I just hope to see the two friends I know that are racing cross the finish line. That will probably be no earlier than 7pm.
Today, Amy and I are going to meet up with a fellow photographer, her cousin actually.
She is taking a hiatus from the business of photography and so has offered to sell us a lot of her studio equipment very cheap.
Non-Strobed lights, backdrops, and props. Awesome. I love getting new toys.
I went for a ride yesterday afternoon. It. Was. Hard. Note to self, no more afternoon rides. The wind is up at that time. 17 mph head winds are just no fun. I rode 25 miles, but it felt like 50. That being said, if I want to get a grueling workout in, afternoon is the PERFECT time of day. The great news is that my knee didn't bother me at all. I think I can say: my IT band is finally healed. Now, take it easy and build back up slow. No 100 mile rides for a while.
This Saturday is the Texas Ironman Race which I am volunteering for. As a volunteer, I'll have the opportunity to early register for the 2012 IM. Cost: $625 Ouch.
If I look at it as a once in a lifetime, bucketlist sort of thing, I can swallow it, but man, that's a lot of dough to throw down for a single day of pain, and suffering, and fun... one YEAR from now. Oh well. This is how these things are done. It's the carrot on the stick that will keep me going hard for another year.
So I did next to nothing yesterday, and I slept a LOT, but today I feel GREAT! I wasn't sleepy this morning when I got Tristan up for school, and I'm about to go on a bikeride.
I guess I needed a day of doing nothing, not that I've been all that busy lately, but I think my body has been overly tired, like it's not recovering. My one very little workout since the race seemed to take it all out of me. Actually, I didn't even finish the workout. Ok, body, I'm listening. Let's see how we do today.
I did almost NOTHING today. Amy was at her parent's so I just hung out all day watching Ancient Aliens, playing on Instagram, and NOT writing. I also helped Tristan with his homework. Lazy much?
I'm at my In Law's right now. We came here to see a new horse that my Father in Law just bought. His name is "Sticks", and he's a paint. A cool thing about him is that his birthday is the same as my son's, Feb 5th.
Its after midnight right now and I just came in from doing some more night photography. I hooked the camera unto my computer so I could do remote shooting which makes for a steadier shot. The problem tonight is that the moon is pretty bright. Exposures over 5 minutes start getting washed out. Oh well. I'll try again during a new moon. Tired. Night.
After rehearsal tonight, I took my camera and a tripod out to the lake to get some night shots. It was all just experimental really. I've been meaning to do that for a long time. The limited light gives a very surreal look to the photos when you set up for a 30 second exposure.
They looked good on the display anyway. I'll upload them to the computer for a better look tomorrow. I'm beat. Night.
I had a little hiccup with my "short term disability" a few weeks ago that has FINALLY been ironed out. My doc's visit from several weeks ago had the doc telling me I was not ready to be released for another 6 weeks. This didn't jibe well with the Disability office because the doc's clinical notes were not included in their update. THIS caused them to stop my pay for about 3 weeks. Not good. Not fun.
Ultimately, I had to go back in for another doc's visit just so I could explain to the doc that he needed to send detailed clinical notes and x-rays to the Disability office or I wouldn't be getting paid. He was very understanding and got everything handled. I am now approved until June 15th. I have to admit, I'm shocked that it's taking this long for this injury to heal. I realize I COULD be causing that myself... which is why I'm taking it easy from now until then. The doc says it's not me, it's just the nature of this type of break:Low blood flow means slow healing. Gotta get this thing right. At least now I won't be in the poor house while that happens.
True to my word, I did almost nothing today... except watch old season episodes of Survivor. Gotta love the internet for all the retro tv shows. Endless hours of brainless fun. Tomorrow I'm going back to the gym.
Today I'm a little sore from the race. Even the front of my neck is sore like I've been singing at the top of my lungs for hours. I know I drank about three gallons of dirty pond water yesterday, so I'm a little bit afraid that I may have ingested something nasty. I've been watching too much House. Haha
My foot, rather, my ankle is sore too. Big surprise. Now that the race is over, I'm going to take every step to let it rest and heal. More swimming, moderate bike, moderate elliptical, just to stay in shape. I may lift a little more too.
Overall, the race went ok. I really was in it just for fun because of my foot. I knew there was no way I was going to break any personal records or anything. It WAS fun. The swim was absolutely terrible. The second worst swim race I've ever done. My pre-race nutrition was just all wrong. I ate way too much, I drank coffee, and I had 800mg (4 tablets) of ibuprofen to block any foot or knee pain. This concoction, along with the cold water, and lack of ANY warm up exercises caused me to cramp up right away, I got kind of panicked and basically slogged through the entire swim course. In used to waking up early, eat a banana and my pre-workout drink and then swim 2.4 miles. I can do this non-stop. This morning, it was all about the timing mistakes, I guess. I was up at 4:30am, but the race didn't start until 7:05. I wanted to eat, but not be hungry by the time the race started. Coffee- big no no. Ugh. Very irritating. I should have just waited until 30 minutes before the race to do my normal thing. Note taken.
By the time I got out of the water, I was home free and really didn't care about transition times, I jus wanted to do well on the bike, and finish the run on two feet. I averaged 21mph on the bike, which is good, and 10:20 min miles on the run just to get through it. About halfway through the run, I kept telling myself: "just take it easy, Phil. Nice and slow. You've got an injured foot and ankle. Easy."
That's when the guy with only one leg passed me.
I'm such a wuss. Hahaha! It'll all come back.
It was a good race and I'm ready to volunteer for the Ironman on May 21st.
Pre-race jitters? Not really. I was just talking to Amy, reminiscing about my first triathlon in Athens, Tx a few years ago. Man, I couldn't sleep, and I must have gone over my gear a hundred times. I even practiced tying my shoes and strapping on my helmet. Funny. I've got all my gear together right now, packed away and sitting in the Jeep. I know what time I need to get up, and what I need to do when I get there. I'm ready. My wave goes into the water at 7:05am. I'll be waking up at 4:30.
Amy will be there taking pictures as always. It's going to be a good day.
Two days until the race. I'm getting excited. I think the water is going to be a little cold. I'm kind of a pansy with cold water. Messes up the breathing. It's been in the 50s in the mornings this week. I have two different weather apps on my phone. One says it'll be 64 degrees at 7am on Saturday morning, the other says 72. I dunno. I'm going to bring my wetsuit, but it is a hinderance that could easily add 5 minutes to my overall time. If at ALL possible, I'm going in without it.
Man. I may have made a wee little mistake. I went to the gym yesterday afternoon and worked out arms. Those darn skull-crushers have my triceps really sore. I think it affected my swim... at least the way I FELT. The swim itself went very well. I'm trying to figure out the best warm up before the race. Go hard and fast for 300 meters or so, then get the heart rate back down before the 500 meter all-out swim, Or Go nice and easy for 400-500meters before going all out on the swim? I think the latter is the way to go. I've done the fast warm up, and my 500meter race tine was 8:28, which is AWESOME... except for one thing: I miscounted my laps. I only swam 450 meters... That HAS to be the case because today I did the slow warm up and made SURE I got the full 500 meters in for a time of 8:52. Now, that may seem slower than my other time, but it is, in fact, faster. It means I added 50 meters, but only added 34 seconds. That is VERY good. I compared my time to race times from last year and it looks like 8:52 would fall somewhere around the top 10%. I'd be happy with that. Heck, I might improve if this soreness goes away. Fingers crossed...
I have a car that I haven't driven in a while. A long while.
It's still a nice car, an Infiniti I30t, but it has a lot of miles so we drive the Jeep and our SUV.
I decided to run it for a bit today since it had been almost a month since I last started it. No joy. The battery was completely dead. So I got the jumper cables and used the SUV to jump it. Worked like a charm, so I drove it to the gas station near the Walmart to fuel it up. My plan was to leave it running while I pumped, but for some reason, it stalled and absolutely would not crank again. Soooo I call Amy to bring the SUV and cables so I can jump it again. She can't find her keys... because I have her keys... AND my keys. So I tell her to get the spare Jeep key out of my backpack. No problem, except the SUV is blocking the Jeep in the garage. There are no spare SUV keys. So, I walk to the Walmart an buy some jumper cables, walk back to the gas station and start asking people for a jump. No luck until a wrecker pulls up and helps me out. STILL no luck, it still doesn't have enough power to crank. After looking at the battery, I see that it has a three year warranty and that doesn't run out until August. Great!! I borrow a crescent wrench, take out the battery, put it in a shopping cart, and make my way back to the Walmart. They exchange the battery without a receipt, almost without question. That's pretty cool because it's a $100 battery. I wheel the new battery back to the car, drop it in, hand tighten the cables and I was off.
It seemed like everything was working against me, but in the end, everything worked out fine, AND I got a free battery out of it.
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