in Monument Valley

Gorgeous.

I’d been to Monument Valley before. But the Valley itself was closed for the (very cool) Red Bull Air Race: Photo by Timothy K. Hamilton

This time I did the only independent hike allowed in the Park, the Wildcat Trail (3.2mi). I had low expectations, but it turned out to be superb. I felt like a Mormon trailblazer.

At dusk I tried finding a mountain bike trail just outside the Park. That was a FAIL.

It’s amazing how all this flat desert is mostly impassable.

… moseying off in the general direction of the Grand Canyon.

freezing in Utah

Kelley Durbin told me …

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving.” — Lao Tzu

LauTzy is right.

That’s why I’m holed up in a “camping cabin” at The Thousand Lakes RV Park, Torrey, Utah. Instead of being huddled up in my tent. (As I was the night before.)

Forecast tonight is for 29° F, 60% chance of precipitation (rain or snow). Actually it was the howling wind that finally drove me indoors.

Hmm. … May is considered the best hiking month here.

Tomorrow hiking Navajo Knobs. And driving on to the Muley Twist Canyon tomorrow night. Wish me luck.

… now, where did I pack my snowshoes?

from St. George, Utah

I’m here pretending to be a competitor at their first annual IRONMAN race. (Of the 2,500 people on the 2.4mi swim, I’d be the only one to drown.)

Will run/bike some of the course today, just for fun.

And camp up near Snow Canyon. And, what the heck, try the Snow Canyon trail too, while I’m here.

from University of Florida, Gainesville

I’ve been here nearly a week.

The Women’s NCAA Gymnastics Championships brought me to Gainesville. An awesome competition this year. Florida did not win.

It’s an honour to finally get to such a prestigious centre of sporting excellence, though.

… The University of Florida’s intercollegiate sports teams, known as the “Florida Gators,” compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). …

Florida’s athletic program has ranked among the top five in the nation in twelve of the past seventeen years, and it is the only Division I program that has ranked among the top ten athletic programs in the country in each of the last twenty-three years.

Florida is one of only two Division I FBS universities to win multiple national championships in each of the two most popular NCAA sports: football (1996, 2006, 2008) and men’s basketball (2006, 2007). …

University of Florida Gators

… The university is also the sixth largest single-campus university in the United States by student population …

Great Spring weather. Plenty of pretty Florida girls. A beautiful campus …

The most memorable part of my week, though, was wandering the backstreets of historic downtown Gainesville. Dilapidated old shacks. Lovely buildings a century old. Folks playing gospel and the Blues in their yards. …

I stayed right across the street from the Hippodrome Theatre (1911).

Shout out to the zen center and Gainesville Florida hostel. One of the most unique I’ve ever seen. I recommend it highly.

Departing Tuesday for Lost Wages.

DOH – bumbling through Nevada

I rushed out of the fantasy world of Vegas to search out the best hikes in Southern Nevada for my hiking site.

Of the first 4 I tried to hike this weekend, something went wrong on ALL.

1) snowed in …
2) access road now “NO trespassing”
3) needed an odometer to find the unmarked parking lot. (My Honda has a broken odometer.)
4) part way down the remote 30mi washboard access road I realized I had left behind my oil cap. Merde!

Still, I’m loving driving around the sunny S.W. equipped with a mountain bike!

Here I’m being challenged by a desert tortoise.

driving Mojave National Reserve

tortoise - driving Mojave National Reserve

I carefully, slowly lifted him well off the highway in the direction I thought he was trying to go. … Unfortunately he seemed to be walking the yellow line when I found him.

why I bought carrot sticks …

Christmas day I weighed a svelte 160lbs. I had just gotten back from a 17-day hike around Mt. Everest.

By March I was feeling about as svelte as the Baron Harkonnen.

I blame this guy.

Do you know Jack?

The “founder, CEO, and ad spokesman, … a savvy, no-nonsense businessman”.

Though I’d likely never entered any of his fast food joints in my life, on a one month driving trip in March, my parents and I were in them constantly.

Jack in the Box is the best of the McDonalds clones, in my opinion.

For one thing, the newer franchises list the caloric content of each item prominently. It could not be more transparent.

My go to meal there is the Chicken Teriyaki Bowl, not the combo. That’s less than $5 and a satisfying lunch or dinner.

I know what you’re thinking: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

I’ve never worried much about nutrition in my lifetime. What I eat seems to make very little difference. But, perhaps, getting older, I’ll experiment with nutrition.

Instead of eating Werther’s (100cal for 3 candies) while driving, I’ll snack on baby carrots. Or Craisens. (Can you buy craisens without added sugar?)

Instead of the tasty, fairly nutritious, fast, inexpensive Chicken Teriyaki Bowl, I’ll shop for unprocessed goods at Whole Foods Market.

Leave a comment if you’ve healthy fast food to recommend. Thanks.

Their business model is to buy the same stuff as Costco, repackaged with old fashioned green labels. And, conspicuously, the catch word “Organic”.

That way they can charge twice the price.

I’d avoided grocery stores like Whole Foods in the past. But picked up some Organic granola. (Is it really any better than regular granola?)

By the way, If you’re ever looking for pretentious California superwomen, look for them at Whole Foods. By the pained expression on their faces, you know they’re disappointed by everything in the Universe.

Ryanair now charging for AIR

That discount airline sucks so bad, even I won’t fly them.

They’re not charging for air, … yet.

When Ryanair Airlines announced plans to begin charging to use the airline’s in-flight lavatory, the response was immediate. …

Ryanair has come under criticism for its new bathroom policy.

“The whole idea of making people pay for a bodily function is crazy. There are easier ways to make an extra Euro.”
…

He was shocked when Ryanair announced its partnership with Boeing to reduce the number of bathrooms from three to one, and plans to investigate coin-operated locks in their planes’ bathroom doors. …

Weird News – Potty Policy Has Air Travelers Holding It In

related post – worst airline in the world – RyanAir

Parksville, B.C. at low tide

My parents live in Parksville.

On my most recent visit I captured some pics of the famous tidal flats, what I remember best about the town from when we vacationed here in the 1970s.

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There were tens of thousands of birds here at this time of year, end of March.

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more of my photos tagged Parksville

8,920km Baja road trip

Mom, Dad, Pete and myself arrived safely back in Parksville, B.C. after a month. No major problems. How about that?

It was our first time driving to Baja, California, an epic adventure.

We toured the peninsula right to Cabo. Then crossed to the mainland via the surprisingly good La Paz to Los Mochis ferry.

ferry at La Paz, Baja

ferry at La Paz, Baja

Returning via Needles, California, we visited my Uncle Bob Moore and his wife Lydia.

Uncle Bob Moore, Needles, California

… note that his Flames flag is not yet at half mast. Incidentally, Needles is like many parts of California, an economic disaster. You could buy a mobile home in Bob’s river front park for $10,000. Pay $300/month rent. Play golf year round outside your door for $600/year.

map of Needles, CA

Prices have dropped to almost zero. Yet nothing sells in Needles, CA. If you cross the river into Arizona, fuel prices drop from $3.60/gallon to $2.60/gallon.

The most beautiful sections of our driving tour, I thought, were the stark deserts of northern Baja and Nevada.

Driving to Baja is one of those epic trips that we’ll look back at fondly, while doggedly insisting that we’d never do it again.

Actually, I’ll be headed back to La Paz by air later this Spring for final installation of 3 new dental bridges. I’ve got temporaries now.

Mexican truck