Lobster thermidor aux crevettes with truffle pate', brandy and spam.

Last evening I attended the 'Spamalot' show at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center after having been invited by a friend. When it first started I thought it was just a complete rehash of Monty Python's 'Search for the Holy Grail'. I was wondering why the audience was laughing so much when one of the famous scenes came up; bring out your dead, King Arthur arguing with mud peasant on the aspects of government, etc. It is like constantly laughing at the first word of a joke when you already know the punchline. Thankfully though, things changed around enough to allow some new things, but still remain in familiar territory.

It was an enjoyable show ad there were a few funny new bits, so I'm definitely glad to have been offered the opportunity to check it out. I did miss two of my favorite bits from the movie that were not in 'Spamalot', mainly the clapping prisoner in the dungeon during the Camelot scene of the singing of 'Knights of the Round Table' and the slaying of the narrator at the end. Other than that, it was quite enjoyable and I hope this encourages me to see even more productions in the future.

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? Lust has 20-20 vision!

Last night I was the hare for the 'Full Snow Moon' trail. Since it was also Tampa H3's #669 run, I decided to use it as the first of my '7 Deadly sins' trails. I got the idea (well more stole/borrowed) from Executive Spread when we were chatting while I was in Tucson a few weeks ago. Each trail will have a particular theme. Last night it was the 'lust'.

I found the most densely packed porn shop area of town and whenever we passed by one, there would at least be a 'porn check' instead of the normal checks where the pack has to search for where trail resumes within 360 degrees of that point. To add a little interest to it, I had at least three stops where the trail ended in front of a shop and the pack had to go inside to buy something before they were given a map that told them where the next portion of trail resumed. The clerks behind the counters all seemed willing to play along and I received several compliments regarding the different aspect of the trail. I'm still try to plan out the rest of the themed run, but it should be interesting, and fun!

A kick in the butt is a step forward.

We had the first kickball game of the season last night. For not having a single practice and even a Brit that had never played a game of baseball in his life, we ended up doing pretty well with a final score of 8-2. It was fun to play again and we all had a great time. we'll be playing every Tuesday for the next few months. Our previous team name 'Nads' was not allowed for whatever reason, but the captains decided that since we play every Tuesday that 'CU Next Tuesday' would work and apparently that was accepted by the league.

The only two things a pirate will run for is money and public office.

Today was the annual Tampa Gasparilla day parade. The hash has lucked out in that one of the members lives/lived right off of Bayshore Blvd and has allowed the group to use the place as a base of operations. several of us met in Temple Terrace and carpooled down to make parking a lot easier and arrive around 10:30. just before it was going to get crowded. The parade is a great excuse just to get silly, hang back and have a good time. A lot of people dress up, so I decided to play along and see how many beads I could get. Since I didn't use it for Halloween as I intended, I pulled out my old Burger King mask, threw on an eye patch, and waited as the parade drew near. I certainly wasn't expecting all the attention from the crowd, laughs, and picture requests that I received as well. For the past few years many of the guys have thrown on bras as a means to get more beads, so I figured, 'why not complete the ensemble'? Life is only as fun as you allow it it be and the day ended up being quite enjoyable. I had mentioned to a lot of friends where we would be and had several people drop by to visit. The beads, floats, and laughs were indeed plentiful and I even recognized several people in the parade itself, so that was always a treat (plus it being very beneficial in terms of the bead booty). After all, I'm pretty sure that even the invading pirates enjoyed seeing people out having a good time.

After the parade we retreated back to Finger's place to hang out and wait for some of the traffic to die off. The group eventually made its way to Tiny Tap and later to the VFW for the evening until we finally decided to check out Whiskey Park, a club I previously never had occasion to check out. We hung out and danced until midnight at which point I decided I had enough and needed some rest since I planned to go to the office the next day (yes, a Sunday). The weather outside for the parade was great and I had another great time. The Tampa Red Dress Run is the evening of the Gasparilla night parade, so hopefully it'll turn out to be an interesting time then as well.

The weekend pics can be found here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.4fidlhm7&x=0&y=re7rz

The cow ate bluegrass and mooed indigo.

It was a long week of trying to catch up on various projects, but I decided to go check out the 'Indigo Girls' in concert. I had been listening to them since high school and even got a chance to see them perform when I was in California last summer. I took a look at Craig's List and saw a few tickets for sale and sent an email. One person was selling a pair for $50 but indicated that they would sell a single if no one else was interested. Since the tickets originally went for $37 plus service charges I decided to jump on it. When we met up, however something had happened with the family, and so the seller could not even use the two tickets that they had for themselves. since she was give me a great deal, I offered to try to sell the extras.

The tickets they were going to use were even better than what was going to be sold to me, so it really worked out well. Just before getting inside, I was able to sell the two back tickets for $50 (the seller previously said that they would be happy with $15 for each one), though I wasn't able to sell the last single ticket that would have been next to me. as I said a few days ago, I think there can indeed be good indications that karma works.

Airplane: Lots of parts flying in close formation.

Since I came in a day early, I had to figure out what I was going to do. executive was still in bed recovering, so she graciously offered to let me use her car as I played the tourist bit. After reading a few stories and seeing some satellite pictures, I decided to check out the Pima Air and Space Museum near the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. I've loved learning about history, especially anything WWII related, so a chance to see so many planes in a single location was quite a treat. I signed up for the bus tour that would take us to the AFB where we could see planes actively being dismantled as well as a large selection of planes set along the bus route. The tour operator was a wealth of knowledge and was able to drew upon his many years experience in the Air force to provide a very informative as well as entertaining narration.

After the bus tour I jumped on the museum tram for another tour of the aircraft that they have on hand along with a narration of the history of many of them, including the actual Air Force One plane used by President Kennedy and Johnson. The highlight for me was actually getting a chance to get an ipclose look at a B-17 bomber, pretty much my favorite aircraft of all time. Several of the hatches were open and I even got a chance to check out the ball turret up close and spent nearly an hour and a half just walking around this particular craft.

The rest of the museum was just as interesting and I spent much of the rest of the day walking around around all the hundreds of craft that they have around including WWII planes, B-52s, B-29 (same kind of craft as the Enola Gay that dropped the first atomic bomb). MIGs, and all kinds of other specialty craft. There was even a small section for the space museum that have some interperative sections, including a display that house a small moon rock that was brought back on one of the Apollo missions.

I wanted to try to hit the Desert Museum after hearing so much about it, however after spending most of the day here I did not want to feel rushed and decided to just stay and enjoy the air museum. After finishing up I found a gas station that had a vacuum and cleaned out Executive's car and filled up the tank in token appreciation for the generosity for helping me out to such the degree that she did. When I got back she was feeling much better, so we decided to go out, grab a bit to eat, and then watch the University of Arizona ice hockey game. It had been quite a while since I'd seen the sport, so I really enjoyed watching and hanging out with her and another hasher that decided to show up. After getting home we played with the dogs for a while before I got packed up for the morning for when Executive would drop me off at the airport. I wanted to stay and check out more stuff, but I was finally ready to spend a night in a bed and get back to work.

Overall it was a great vacation. I'll have to see what else is going on, but I hope to attend again next year, though with that so close to my planned trip to Australia, I might have to do some penny pinching so I can make sure I'm able to do what I want over there. It was so nice to be able to hang out with my friends as well as meet so many great new people. as I've said before, I really enjoy the camaraderie among hashers and how they help each other out.

Special thanks to Executive Spread, Bonesucker, 3IY, Repeat Offender, GBAR, P. Colada, TNT, Wombie, Studmuffin, Harlot, Late Nite Drive Thru, Hose Handler, and so many others that made it a great trip.

Here are some of the pics I took at the Pime Air and Space Museum: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.cfs49j2n&x=0&y=uqf3jc

Past experience should be a guidepost, not a hitching post.

Last night it was a lot warmer than the previous in that it only got as cold as 26 degrees. Last night right before going to bed I happened to find a large puddle of water that I could use to help rehydrate, having long left the snow line. I was excited about using my UV water purifier (Steripen) though when it got only part of the way through the cycle before shutting off with the error light I got a bit worried. I tried it several times, yet it just wouldn't stay on long enough for me to feel comfortable. It took me a while to figure out, but I finally remembered stuff from chemistry in that decreased temperature really slows down chemical reactions, of which a battery depends to provide energy. I took them out and left them in my pocket as I did other things around camp and by the time I was ready to use the purifier again, they were warmed up enough to provide perfect operation.

I got a decent start this morning and was glad to realize that most of my hiking would be downhill. I was finally excited about seeing all the desert life and various species of cactus, especially the tall one for which the park gets its namesake. The trail is the main one used by area day hikers, so I wasn't surprised to see a few hikers heading up to Tanque Verde Peak from the main park entrance. The descent was uneventful though there was many points where I paused in order to take a closer look at the different plants. I almost wish I carried my macro photography extension tubes and lens, but I already thought I was carrying too much gear at the start and nearly left the camera in the car, though am certainly glad I decided to take it along anyway.

After about 6.6 miles of hiking I made it to the trailhead. Although I tried thumbing a ride, no one passing by, not even park ranger, would give me a ride to the park entrance, so I still had another mile and a half of paved road to make it to the park headquarters. I got back a full day earlier than I had planned, so no one was really around or able to come by and pick me up, so after going through the interperative displays for a bit, I started heading towards downtown Tuscon. About a quarter mile down the road a guy stopped by the roadside and gave me a ride the rest of the way into town as he was running some errands. I learned that he lived in the area most of his life as he actually resided at the foot of the mountains that I had just spent walking. It was actually nice to share a few stories and learn a bit about the history of the area and his experiences as we drove the next four miles to his stop. After parting ways I grabbed lunch at the Panda Express for some fresh food that I didn't have to rehydrate! since it was still relatively early and the weather was nice, I decided to just walk the last 4 miles to Executive's house. she was still a bit out of it from the surgery and drugs and her brother had the car anyway. I enjoyed just taking in the scenery and checking out the various shops and such along the way. I finally got back to her place and promptly crashed for a while on the couch.

Later when her brother brought back the car we went to meet some of the local hashers to watch a University of Arizona basketball game and enjoy a few local brews before finally heading back for some well needed rest. Executive was worried that I might be a little cold since they didn't use the heat too much, but I assured her I would be perfectly fine since it would unbdoubtedly be at least 45 degree warmer that the previous two nights. From the campsite to her place, I hiked just about 12 miles, though half of it was pretty much over flat terrain and rode about 4 while hitchhiking.

Might as well face it, you're addicted to spuds.

It definitely was a new experience to wake up to find that the water bottle that I left outside was completely frozen solid. Fortunately I still had the water bottle that was in my sleeping bag, so it didn't take long before I had water boiling for some peaches and cream oatmeal to get me going. I broke down camp, policed the area for any trash, and headed off along trail as the sun was peaking over the mountains. I decided to head to Reef Rock and try to keep to some of the back areas, but still close enough to the main trails until I decided what to do about where the crash for the night. Although it hadn't snowed in several days, it was still everywhere, however the trail was also quite easy to find just by paying attention to various signs in the woods and even following the main animal tracks. Pretty much every few feet there were various animal tracks large and small that were criss-crossing the trail. The meadows were very lovely and the view along a few spots quite incredible. When driving up the previous morning we saw some jack rabbits and coyote, however for the trip, I never really saw anything. Very near Mica Meadow and Reef Rock, I did see a 4-5 point young buck and was able to stay still and enjoy watching him for a while.

Reef Rock itself had pretty much the best view of the park since it was the leading edge of the mountain, those much higher than the surround area to the east by at least 1500 feet. After a leaving this spot I headed to Mica Mountain and then onto Spud Rock. Spud Rock was just off the trail and I didn't see any paths that lead up, so I had to do a bit of scrambling along the steep, very slippery rock to get to the top, though of course found an easier way down. After Spud Rock I had to decide if I would stay at Manning Camp or head towards the main section of the park. Originally I planned to to Ricon Peak and stay the first night at then Happy Valley site and then stay at Manning on the second, but since I was already nearby by mid-day, I figured I'd push on to where I had planned to stay the last night, Juniper Basin campground. I wasn't expecting the tough climb down and up through Cow Head Saddle on the way to Tanque Verde Peak. Overall it was a little under 13 miles between the two campgrounds.

Cactus - An overgrown pin cushion

Since Executive Spread was scheduled for surgery in the morning, we had to get an early star. the drive ended up being a bit longer than I anticipated, so I really owe her for the kindness. everyone in the area was great in offering their assistance if things didn't work out and were very willing to offer advice and information. I tend to prefer through hikes instead of going out and back, so I planned this trip to allow me to traverse the entire park. The road to the Miller Creek trail head was in decent condition though it did take longer than expected. I was still filled with a bit of trepidation when we got to a small creek crossing that was frozen over, but I decided to continue on. We finally got to the trailhead and after getting layered and geared up, I started my climb without reserve.

The sun coming up through the mountains was a great sight. The trail followed Miller Creek for a long while and was decently easy to follow, however at some point the path cut across without my noticing and it took me a while to realize that I was following an animal trail and tracks instead of the hiking trail. It took me about an hour and a half to finally find the path again after having to back track over a half mile of rough terrain and search again, but I finally found the signs that I had missed (which are generally just three rocks piled on top of each other) and continue along the trail. I soon made it to the boundary of Saguaro East National Park, signed the registry and continued on.

When I got to the Ricon Peak trail I had to make a decision. It wasn't until that point that I even realized that the days were much shorter with it not only being winter, but all a lot of the late afternoon light would dim quickly because of the surround mountains. I was planning on setting up camp in Happy Valley, hiking to the peak, and then coming back for my first night's sleep, however with the temperature already decently low and the wind having picked up considerably, with my no longer being protected by the mountain, I made the decision to head towards the Spud Rock camping site so I can explore some of the back areas of the park. After heading up the trail for a little while I stopped for a quick warm lunch of Ramen noodles before dropping off the pack for quick hike to the Happy Valley Lookout.

I took the Heartbreak Ridge Trail to the Spud Rock Campground with just enough time to set up the new tent before dark. The trail would have been about 6.8 miles, but with the detour and extra hike to the lookout, I figure it was just about 8 miles of walking from the trailhead. After setting up the tent and looking for a tree in which to hang my pack for the night I found the camp site bear box and then began to cook dinner. That evening's meal consisted of some rehydrated Thai and ended up being quite good. Boiling and cooking ended up taking longer due to the cold and elevation, but since I had nothing else to do, I really didn't mind. After cleaning up and storing the gear in the box, I started to settle in just as ambient light was dimming. I learned a trick a while back on how to stay warm. I had a 20F bag, but with temperatures getting lower than that I knew I'd need more and so used my silk long johns and some extra thermal wear. I set up my stove with some water in it just next to the tent so that if I woke up cold I could quickly boil it and pour it into a water bottle to bring into the bag with me. I did wake up later at night, however one thing I didn't anticipate was the water already having frozen in the cup. Fortunately my cub is designed to fit with the stove, so I just had to light it and wait a bit longer. That trick really did end up working out rather well, so I was abl to stay decently warm, even though I estimate the temperature getting to at least 19F (-7.2C) in the evening. Although I got chilled a couple of times, I never got to the point of shivering.

Pictures of the hike itself can be found here: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.as7ieirz&x=0&y=2f130i

My parents used to rock me to sleep. The rocks were as big as my head.

After sleeping in, we packed up and got ready to head back to Arizona. We had a hangover hash about a hundred yards to the restaurant/bar for some last drinks and general socializing. These kinds of things tend to be my favorite experiences with everyone hanging around socializing and telling stories. I seem to have the best laughs of the weekend during these times. There was a good bit of confusion with a lot of flights since several airports were iced in due to bad weather. GBAR was dropped off at the airport, only to have to be picked up again since her flight was canceled. We ended up kidnapping her from El Paso in the RV and taking her to Tuscon where she'd have a better chance at finding another flight. The airline was eventually about to get her a new flight, so everything worked out. The ride back was pretty uneventful and quiet since I had found a book to read and was about to get through the 300 or so pages by the time we got to the end.

Just as we got into Tuscon we were met by some local hashers that would take us back the the cars. I made my goodbyes with the Phoenix friends and went to crash at Executive Spread's place for the evening after a bunch of us went to dinner with some of the locals. I had to pick up a couple of last minute items at the store and repack my gear to prepare for the trail in Saguaro National Park over the next couple of days. The weather report was fair, however it would be this night in which Tuscon had record its lowest ever temperature. Being that I would be about 3-4 thousand feet higher, I was a bit nervous, but I knew I had enough gear and food that I could handle whetever might come up. At least I had hoped so!