Quite Memorable Memorial Day Hiking

It was a gorgeous Memorial Day Weekend here, high 80s, deep blue skies, unending sunshine. Perfect conditions for a hike.

I headed to the east side of Saguaro National Park at David's suggestion. It was quite different from the west side of the park, which I saw in March. Fewer saguaros, but more vegetation. And LOTS of hiking trails. Spoke with a Ranger who recommended a few good options, then did the scenic drive to the Mica View Trail.

A lovely walk on a glorious day. The saguaro are starting to flower, which is very pretty. There were lots of birds, little lizards or salamanders or whatever those things are, just lovely.


A saguaro that's starting to flower, see the flowers on the ends of the, um, arms? This saguaro reminds me of a menorah.



Close up of flowers:

Think this is some sort of cholla cactus:

A flowering barrel cactus. It kind of reminds me of Cousin Itt from Addams Family.

Lovely.

Pretty.

Halfway through the hike, I came to a trail head. Posted at that trail head - but not posted where I started - was this little number:

Click on it to enlarge. Go ahead, I'll wait.

To say that I was freaked out would be an understatement. Shouldn't the Ranger have told me about the cougars?! Rule #1 to avoiding cougar attacks: don't hike alone. He knew I was hiking alone. Gah!! I turned around and hightailed it back to the car, being sure not to run in case a cougar was nearby, wouldn't want to arouse its chase instinct. Picked up a few rocks in case I needed to fling objects at an approaching cougar. Started noticing feces from a large animal on the trail, tried to not hyperventilate, made it back to the car before I really started to unwind.

So, today I joined the YMCA. I'm done with exercising in the nature until I find a hiking partner.

I should have been an Astrophysicist

Last night in Ventana Canyon was great. One of the engineers on the Mars Mission gave a great presentation on the project. He also answered many stupid questions, with great patience and grace. Such as, "which Universe is Mars in?" I wish I were kidding. He earned his paycheck, for sure.

There were also several telescopes set up. I got to see Mars (of course), and Saturn. When one of the grad students said the sky constantly changes, and Saturn looks different from week to week, I got to Nerd name-drop with, "Yeah, I was at the Lowell a few weeks ago and it looked very different". I think I may have pushed my glasses up while I was saying it.

Today was the big event. I headed to the University to find huge crowds waiting to get into the presentations. Before I got in line, I took a look through a telescope fitted with a solar lens and pointed at the sun. The sun...looks like a plain white ball, no flames, no shimmering. I guess it was a boring day to view it, no sunspots or solar bursts. But, it was nice to look at the sun without worrying about searing my retinas.

The Space Imagery Center was open for visitors, and we had an all access pass. "Sure, pull open those drawers, the photos from Apollo 13 are in there." A half million images, literally at our fingertips. Another time I can't believe they let the public access this stuff. It was pretty neat. A lot is viewable on line, here.

I then took a seat in the auditorium to watch a bit of the NASA Channel. That's right, I said NASA Channel. Apparently you can watch NASA if you have the right cable provider. AWE-some.

The auditorium was standing room only when Bill Boynton started his presentation. He's one of the big guys on the project, I was amazed he agreed to be with the public instead of with his teams for the big event. He didn't have a presentation prepared ("I've been a little busy"), so he spent 30 minutes answering questions. Then, we all watched together as the clock hit 4:38, and the lander theoretically landed on Mars.

Because Mars is 422,000,000 miles away, it takes some 15 minutes for data to travel to Earth. While the landing happened at 4:38, it wouldn't be until 4:53 that they would receive confirmation it was a successful landing. I only learned about the Mars Mission on Friday night; I was on the edge of my seat with knots in my stomach for those 15 minutes. I can't imagine what those who've been involved from the beginning were feeling. With each passing milestone (heat shield separation, parachute deployment), the crowd cheered. And then there'd be silence until the next piece of data came in.

Half a billion dollars, 7 years of work, a 250 ton rocket to launch it into space, and a nine-month 422 million mile journey at 74,000 miles per hour. At 4:53, confirmation of landing. The crowd erupted. There may have been some spontaneous precipitation in my ocular area. It was an amazing moment.

It's really hard to believe that something that was built in California is now sitting near the north pole of Mars. 50% of the missions to Mars have failed, so it is a real accomplishment. And, not only did it land intact, it was pretty much a perfect landing. They programmed this machine to do some stuff, launched it into space, then waited for 9 months, and it worked perfectly. Perfectly. Astounding.

The first images from the lander are up on the website. The first experiments start next week. I have no doubt that throughout Tucson, there are many drunk engineers celebrating their achievement.

Nerd Weekend: Mission to Mars, GPS Art, and Nerd Music

The University of Arizona has participated in almost every American planetary mission for a half-century and has received more NASA grants for space exploration than any other university in the nation.

The current mission to Mars is the Phoenix Mars Mission (super website, do check it out). The Phoenix lander is set to touch down on the Red Planet this Sunday at 4:38 pm Tucson time. After the landing NASA will turn over mission control to the University. This is a big deal. Huge deal.

In anticipation of the landing, Mars Mania has swept the city. I'm heading to an event tonight in Ventana Canyon to celebrate with other nerds. Tomorrow the University has several events planned to mark the milestone, including watching the landing with the scientists running the program. Very cool.

* * *

The Biggest Drawing in the World has been created by a guy in Sweden, a GPS in a briefcase, and several dozen DHL employees. Such a fantastic idea, creative and technical, with an impressive end result. The Making the Drawing video is great.

* * *

Lastly, this week I learned of a new collection of music for nerds. Old Nerdy Bastard is a collection of remix compilations, some great, some odd, some referencing Dumbledore. I particularly recommend track 17: Nerd Lust, which will exhort you to "shake your inhaler, baby!"

Finally, my timing is great!!

I arrived in Tucson late last night, exhausted from 19 hours of driving this weekend. It's lovely to be back, even if it was 102 today. Really, a dry heat is nothing like humid heat, so it wasn't unbearable. I don't even have the A/C on. No, I'm not lying.

As happy as I already was to be here, my happiness only grew when I read:

Of the cities surveyed, the cheapest price was in Tucson, Ariz., where a gallon of regular cost $3.48 on average.

Ooooh, yeah!! Given my car demands plus/premium gasoline or it doth protest with engine knocking, this pleases me greatly. Yes, my Japanese econo box has a taste for the good stuff. I shouldn't be surprised, I guess she takes after me.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

"A picture is worth a thousand words, but an experience is worth a thousand pictures."

Ranger Barry

At some point in grade school, I did a report on the cave system at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. That really stuck with me, as going to Carlsbad is something that's been on the list. It did not disappoint. The cave system is huge, really massive. They're still discovering parts of the cave, which is astonishing since they've been exploring it for 85+ years.

I did the self-guided tour through the Big Room, which was pretty amazing. I can't really believe they let the public in there on their own, wandering about as they please. The first rule of these tours is to touch nothing, as just a single touch can destroy tens of thousands of years of growth. Given how good people are with following directions, I can't believe they actually let people into the caves unchaperoned. And, I'm astounded they let small children into the cave, as toddlers are so good at the 'no touching' thing.

After the Big Room tour, I did the guided Kings Palace tour. Ranger Barry was great, full of stories and lots of information. He kept reminding us to take it all in, to not just take pictures. And yet, though we were 950 feet underground without a signal to be had, a woman kept checking her cell phone for messages. Oh, my fellow man, I will never not be amazed by you.

At one point, they sat us down in the Queen's Room, and then turned out the lights. Talk about eerie. Couldn't see anything, and I mean anything. I had my hands right in front of my face and couldn't sense they were there. With the lights out, Ranger Barry started talking about the bugs that live in the cave. When the guy next to me bumped me, I nearly screamed. It was great though; it's probably the first (and last?) time I'll ever be in absolute darkness.

Unlike Kartchner Caverns, you can take photos in the caves. Unfortunately I still haven't figured out the night settings on the camera, so a lot of the photos turned out like this:



But, I did get a few good ones:

This is the entrance to the Big Room, you can see how some formations are right there on the path, just begging to be touched. Even I found myself wanting to touch the pretty, shiny objects. I kept hearing "my preeeciousss" in the back of my head. I did giggle when I heard someone actually say "my precious" aloud.










This formation is called the Lion Tails as it, well, looks like the tails of two lions:

This one is the Shy Elephant. Can you see the back of the baby elephant on the right?

Sadly, I could not stick around to watch the bats emerge from the cave at sunset. It's supposed to be an amazing sight. Hundreds of thousands of bats take hours to get out of the cave, and then they go eat their body weight in bugs. I was disappointed to miss it, but I had a 7 hour drive to Tucson ahead of me. I'll just have to go back, and take some of the more intense cave tours, which involve helmets and knee pads.

Roswell..."The Dairy Capital of the Southwest"

Who knew? 1.5 cows for every person. Although, I think this is a bit much:

"surely, of all the things that have ever occurred...in and around Roswell, certainly nothing could be more likely to lure visitors, more likely to boost the local economy, or more full of fun and intrigue than the local dairy industry."

Intrigue at the dairy? What could that possibly be - alien cows?

I am quite disappointed to report my trip to Roswell was entirely alien and alien-nut-job free. I watched X-Files, I've seen Close Encounters and Contact, and I was expecting conspiracy theorists aplenty. Nothin'. The most unusual thing I saw was a rainbow. It was super, and natural, but hardly supernatural.

Rock star parking at the UFO Museum, which was surprisingly crowed at 9 am on a Sunday morning. It really is the only UFO-centric destination in Roswell, so that makes sense. Click the photo to enlarge to see the alien street lamp on the right.

I was kind of surprised to see Wal-Mart embrace the myth:

Perhaps aliens offer better terms than more terrestrial lenders:

I don't have any idea what this is, but wonder where Zone One HQ is...perhaps Chiron Beta Prime? (that's for Liz and Eric)

Cover-Up Cafe...is out of business. Or is it? Highly suspicious.

These little green footprints led to a t-shirt shop. Pretty clever.

Last Night in Breckenridge

If *finally* stopped snowing, mercifully. To celebrate, I headed to a local wine bar. I know you are all shocked I would head to a wine bar. If you're ever in Breckenridge, I highly recommend The Cellar, and not just because it's one of the few restaurants actually open right now. It was great. The short ribs in particular are fabulous.

A few women came in while I was enjoying my Gloria Ferrer sparkling Blanc de Noirs, and we got to talking. Turns out they were from New Jersey. I'm not exaggerating when I say that 90% of the people I've met on this trip are from either New Jersey or Chicago. Most densely populated state, third biggest city in the country, it makes sense. But, never fails to crack me up.

Tomorrow I leave snowy Colorado for the warmer temperatures of SE New Mexico. I plan to get to Roswell by tomorrow night, see the UFO Museum on Sunday morning, then spend time at Carlsbad Caverns before heading to Tucson. Tucson has been in the mid 90s/high 80s, but next week looks like triple digits. It is a dry heat, and as much as I'm looking forward to warmer temps, I'm a little nervous. A 60 degree temp change in 48 hours; as Mike Rowe says, I can't see what could possibly go wrong.

Still Snowing

Since I've seen nothing but snow and gray skies for the last three days, I need a quick reminder that this is only temporary. Saturday morning I head back to:

Not a moment too soon. I'll have to give Colorado another shot when it's not snowing. Maybe in August?

You Win, Colorado

Uncle.

Colorado Explorations

So, I've been in Colorado for 6 days. It snowed on two of them, I had three busy days of work, and I'm rockin' a serious head cold. Compromised respiratory system at 10k feet, it's not nearly as fun as it sounds.

I haven't had a ton of time to do much, but I've seen some lovely places. I've traveled around Summit County seeing Silverthorne, Dillon, Frisco, Keystone, and Breckenridge. Friday afternoon I tooled around Denver for a bit.

Today, the sun was shining so I plugged in the TomTom and hit the road while the weather was good. I started in Vail. Vail became popular as ski destination in the 60s after the highway was extended further west. It is modeled after European ski towns. I've not been to any European ski towns, but it reminded me of Epcot's Alps exhibit, so it must be spot on, right? I imagine it must be packed with skiers and apres-skiers during the season. You can park you car when you get there, then ski, walk to dinner, walk back to your ski rental. Very convenient.




Does AE have a connection to Vail??

I then headed to Glenwood Springs. It was a gorgeous drive through the Glenwood Canyon. No scenic stops on the highway for photos, unfortunately, but here are some good ones. It was really amazing. Glenwood Springs is a really cute (seriously, need to get to thesaurus.com) town. It's famous due to its hot springs. I had planned to spend the afternoon at the hot springs, but it was bedlam there, totally packed with people. As I was feeling crappy, my tolerance for crowds was pretty low. Another time.

Since it was still early, I decided to head to Aspen. Passed many lovely towns on the way. I think this was in Carbondale. Quite a bit different than Carbondale, Illinois.

Why do they put the scenic stops on the wrong side of the power lines?

Aspen is great. It was much bigger than I thought it would be, based on other towns I've seen. I totally get why it's so popular with the rich and famous. For 10 seconds I was convinced I was looking at Sharon Stone, but not so. I'd live there in a minute, once I find that sugar daddy.

I then planned to continue heading back east to Leadville, then a short drive back to Breckenridge, making a nice loop. Imagine my surprise when I discovered the highway to Leadville was closed due snow. Snow closing roads in May. Ugh. There are no parallel roads in that area, so I had to back track my entire route. The upside was I got to see Glenwood Canyon again, and the lovely mountains and valleys. But an extra two hours in the car, ooftah.

Breckenridge

On Saturday morning I woke to find 4 inches of snow had already fallen, with several more to follow. Pretty, but, come on!



In mid afternoon the sun made an appearance so I made a break for it. Packed up the car, bid adieu to lovely Silverthorne, and headed southwest to Breckenridge. Breckenridge is really charming. Adorable sounds pejorative, but it really is adorable. Look forward to walking around, hopefully I'll get some good weather this week.

I'm in Breckenridge at a condo that sleeps 12. Ludicrous, but it's super cheap since it's Mud Season (under all the snow, I suppose there is mud):

More technology, please

At Suzie's urging, I finally gave in and got a GPS system today. I love maps, but it's hard to navigate and drive simultaneously, while watching for bighorn sheep, rocks, snow, and fellow drivers.

For more funnies, go here

The TomTom is a bit more helpful than that, I already love it. It speaks to me in a British accent, which just makes me love it more.

Words Fail Me

You can't really tell from the photo, but it is snowing here. HARD. Several inches already. More snow over the weekend. I did not time my trip to Colorado well.

Hello Colorado. Also, Mapquest is dead to me

I flew from Chicago to Albuquerque Sunday night, and stayed in a hotel that got good ratings at hotels.com. My experience was not like the commercials where the valet accidentally spills money at the guests' feet because they'd be writing a review about the property. No, not at all. If I hadn't already paid for it, and would only be there for 7 hours total, I would have left.

Not that I believe in omens.

I hit the road Monday at 7 am, heading toward Colorado. The iPod stopped working, but as Mapquest said this was a 6.5 hour drive, not that big a deal. The first 6 hours were gorgeous, the desert gave way to spectacular mountains and valleys out of a fairy tale. Just stunning, see for yourself:



Around hour 4 a hippie driving a camper truck nearly ran me off the road. Around hour 6, Mapquest did me wrong and told me to make a right instead of continuing as I was. An hour later, I thought, gee, Route 91 should be coming up...right? I checked the map and then realized how far off the path I'd gotten. So far that a new route looked like a better idea than back tracking. A series of additional poor decisions landed me on the interstate at rush hour.

As I was driving along I-70, something caught my eye on the side of the road. It was finally happening - falling rocks were going to crush the car!! I couldn't believe it. Then I noticed, that big rock had horns. WTF? Not a rock at all - it was a big horn sheep that had hopped down the mountain. Right next to the car. Feet away while I was going 70. Holy poop. While I was pondering this, I drove past a herd of tiny deer just hanging out on the interstate, two feet from the lane. Jeeeeeeeeez.

Then I saw a road sign new to me: "Avalanche Area - no stopping!"

Then I hit a patch of ice and skidded a bit.

The nerves, they were a bit shot.

In hour 11 I finally arrived in lovely Silverthorne. What little I've seen is adorable. Suzie would love it here - the first thing you see off the interstate is the Coach outlet. I'm staying at a friend's family vacation home, so no photos this time. I will share the view from the front door:



And the back door:

I had no idea it was still so snowy here. Plows are just starting to clear some of the roads in the more remote areas. Yeeeaah. Did I mention I'm going back to Arizona after this?

That Toddlin' Town

I spent this last weekend in Chicago. I was greeted by a humid gray rainy day. Ah, the midwest. So glad to be back.

The weekend was a whirlwind of activities. I had great visits with a number of friends across the city and suburbs. Saw the temporary Chicago office, or I should say, got acquainted with a windowless conference room during a four hour conference room. I nearly vomited in Scott's new sports car as he showed me how fast it could go in moderate traffic. Chicagoans, keep your eyes peeled for a madman in a silver car. OY.

The reason for the trip was to see a concert by the amazing Jonathan Coulton. A sample of his most popular songs is here, give them a whirl.

If you ever have the chance to see him, just go. I can't imagine anyone not having a good time at his concert. My face literally hurt I was laughing so much, and I nearly hyperventilated twice. Seriously, you have to see him (and Paul and Storm) live. I mean, when was the last time your face hurt because you had so much fun?

Adios, Santa Fe

Two weeks in Santa Fe flew by quickly. I had a wonderful time visiting with Dan and meeting Maggie the Super Dog, so nice to spend time with them. I'm hoping they'll visit me in Tucson.

My last day in town I crossed the final few things off the list of "must sees":

Loretto Chapel:



The altar is not marble, it's concrete. Pretty convincing, though:

The reason Loretto Chapel is famous is this staircase:

The story goes that the nuns couldn't figure out a way to build a staircase to the choir loft in this tiny space. They said novenas for days, and on day 9, a carpenter showed up. He spent months building this staircase - a spiral staircase with no supports. It's a bit of an architectural miracle as no one can figure out how it stays up. After the staircase was finished, the carpenter disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived. A carpenter performing miracles? Interesting.

Pretty window in the choir loft:

Next, off to San Miguel Mission, the oldest church in America. It's nearly 400 years old.

Right around the corner is the oldest house in America. Other than a sign pointing toward the house, no other information is given about this place. In fact, I'm not really sure this is the oldest house. But it looks pretty old.

And lastly, the New Mexico state capitol. A pretty unassuming building. I was surprised to see it didn't have a dome; it might be the first dome-less capitol I've seen.

While the building is pretty simple, it houses a $5 million art collection, showcasing works of New Mexican artists. The entire building is open to the public so everyone can see the art. I hung around in the Governor's Office, literally loitering outside his office door, but Governor Richardson was apparently not available to entertain me.

As much as I enjoyed Old Town Santa Fe, Canyon Road, and the uber-mod loft (side note: I did not spill on any of the white furniture!), I think I enjoyed the area around Santa Fe more. Bandolier, Los Alamos, Taos, just gorgeous.