There is no place like ..er... where do I live again?

Yeah, I've been away a bit, hence the complete lack of blogs since early July. This has been another trip of superlatives and I have been able to see and experience so much. Hopefully I'll be adding a couple of blogs a days until I catch up to the present time. So for right now, I'll just crunch some numbers from the trips I've taken since early July.

States visited on mid-west trip (8): Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico
States visited in August (4): North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia [well just drove through]
Miles drive on mid-west trip: 4200+
Emails downloaded when I got home from mid-west: 1200 [after spam and worm filtering]
Miles hiked: ~100
Friends missed: all of them

I love the way your red dress matches your eyes.

This was my third annual New Orleans Red Dress run. I've decided that I want to visit this place at least once a year and so far have also hit Mardi Gras. I had a great weekend, though am still trying to figure out where all my money went. I think someone mugged me and stuffed $60 of Fat Tuesdays receipts into my pocket! I got to hang out with some good friends; AP, Ginger, Little Fin, Pic, Fill Me Up, etc, hit a couple of caches, a few national park stamps. and explore the city. The biggest dislike was the sheer number of people in the pub crawl. There were just too many people involved with probably more than 1500 in attendance. That is jsut a little too much as it gets so crowded that it is very difficult to get a drink. This year someone had an inflatable pool being driving on a trailer in which hashers would jump in on occasion to cool off, however after a while the water had been splashed out. Fortunately a pumper truck from the fire department just happened to be passing down and they actually stopped and filled up the pool!

Getting flipped off the mechanical bull.

"I'm in UR Bourbon Street drinkin' UR daquaris"

Crikey!!

Weddings rarely go off without a hitch.

Angie and I traveled to Wilmington NC to attend my friend Tara's (Porcelina) wedding. She and Dan (F'em Dano) had met whet group of use went to the DC RDR a few years ago. On the way up and back I hit a few geocaches as well as a few other stops along the way. when we got there Friday evening we got there we attended a hash that the locals had set up for us with a trail hared by someone I knew from one of the previous hash cruises. On Saturday morning Angie and I went to the maritime museum of the 'USS North Carolina'. I've been on other naval ships, however this was the first real battleship, so I had a grand time running around the various areas of the ship and felt like I was a kid again running around the aircraft carrier 'Yorktown' back in Charleston. The wedding in the afternoon was lovely with it be set on the beach followed by a reception. I was sad to see one of my friends permanently moving away, but I know she'll be very happy. After all the wedding guests had left most of us, including the newlyweds, went across the street to a hole-in-the-wall bar to relax for the rest of the evening and had a great time sharing stories.

On the way back out on Sunday I hit the battleship again so I could check out a few more places and then went on to Charleston. I stopped my my grandparents graves in Paxsville for a short while and then checked on my pond and other family property in St. George for a little while. My friend Jason graciously allowed us to crash at his house for the evening. I stopped by Edisto Beach to deal with some business regarding the beach property before finally heading for home.

Veni, Vidi, Vegas...I came, I saw, I lost some money and saw some great shows.

After nearly three weeks, I am nearing the end of the trip. On the way back to Vegas after leaving Zion, I stopped by Hoover Dam, though I had been here once before since I was already nearby. I just walked around a bit before heading to Henderson so I could do some laundry and catch up on messages. After finishing errands I headed into Las Vegas to spend my last days. I spent the day walking around the strip around MGM Grand, Luxor, etc just taking in the sites. I was walking around Mandalay Bay in the even as I heard there was a 'Tear for Fears' concert. I was just hanging outside when I was approach by the very lovely lady named Rebecca that explained that her friends could not make it to the show, so she offered me a ticket before she left for home. I accepted and was able to convince her to stay as well and spent the concert in the outside area by the pool listening to the music and chatting for a long time as I was still pumped about the trip and wanted to share stories. After the concert was over, which was quite enjoyable in itself, we chatted for a while before she headed home while I explored some of the hotels before heading over to my friend's place to crash for the evening. I was fortunate enough to spend some time with her the next evening and had a very memorable time hanging out. The next morning I drove over to Red Rock Canyon to do some exploring, climbing, and hiking. The first time I was here I was with someone that wasn't into hiking, so I really didn't have a chance to explore. I spent a few hours here crawling around the rocks and checking out the different crevices and alcoves before heading back into town. I made it out to the Las Vegas H3 run, however I was only able to do part of the trail before I had to rush back into town to MGM to see the Cirque du Soleil show 'Ka'. I absolutely loved this show and was really impressed and have it as my favorite so far. The whole theater was used for the show, however the most impressive part was the stage. I was impressed when the whole thing lifted up, kind of amazed when it tilted at incredibly sharp angles, and was simply astounded when it started spinning.

The next morning I first visited the 'Star Trek Experience' at the Las Vegas Hilton. It was not quite what I had expected in that one purchased two tickets that gave access to two different live action shows. though they were small in scale, it was fairly interesting enough. I really wasn;t that interested in the memorbelia, but overall it was entertaining. After leaving the Hilton, I did a little geocaching on the way to the Pinball Hall of Fame. One of the really neat caches was true Vegas style as it was in a drive-thru wedding chapel. One just had to drive to the window, ask for the cache, and sign the log. After a few hours of gaming, spending much more time there than I had expected, I explored more of the Bellagio, Circus Circus, Cesar's Palace, Paris, and the Venetian along the strip and watched the Treasure Island pirate show. After a few hours of walking around I headed inside to take my seat for the Cirque show 'O'. This would now be my second favorite show just behind 'Ka'. The scenes and acrobatics were very impressive and I again thoroughly enjoyed myself. I walked around more and enjoyed a couple of the fountain shows before having to finally head back to my friend's place as I had to get all my stuff together. I had to wash the car to get ride of all the grime that had built up over the weeks of dusty driving before heading to the airport. The rental attendant was somewhat shocked when they checked the records and realized that I had put on 4200 miles on the vehicle in the three weeks I was gone. I hit 8 different states (Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico), met a few really nice people, slept in a hotel 0 nights, almost ran out of gas twice, showered in countless truck stops, and had some very amazing experiences.

Drive slower than your guardian angel can fly.

Today saw an early start to do another well known hike in Zion National Park, Angel's Landing. this is a fairly tough hike that takes much of the day to do and has a few precarious spots. On knife edge, the path is about 4 feet wide and has a 800 foot drop on one side with a 1200 foot drop on the other. At least once every few years someone takes a fatal trip with another person (the 6th since 1983) having died there in June of this year. It was a tough walk up, but the views once reaching the end were spectacular. After finishing the hike, I headed up to the Virgin Narrows. I was originally scheduled to hike from the top of the narrows downriver over a couple of days, however my plans had to be changed when the area was shut down due to a forest fire. So all I could do at this point was hike up-river and back, which still ended up being a lot of fun. Hiking poles and wet-wear shoes made all the difference. It was all slow going since the water was absolutely opaque due to runoff from the scorched areas. I just went a couple of miles up before I decided to turn around and come back. Overall, it was a great day and I was quite fortunate to see such beautiful things.

Dope on a rope.

Today I did some more canyoning by doing a well known hike in Zion National Park called The Subway. When I was picking up my permit, which I had to reserve three months prior, at the office, I started talking to a few others that were getting their paperwork, including a scouting group. I was able to convince them to give me a ride from the parking are at the exit to the entrance trail and I would then help them after the hike was over. Apparently this scout group, as I would find out later, really had no idea what to expect. The top-down approach to the Subway is a technical approach such that it requires the use of ropes and a harness. I had already purchased rope earlier in the trip and had borrowed other gear from my local friend Jon, so I was ready. There are three main spots where rope is needed which are also places where people have attempted to manually down-climb without any support whom subsequently fell, got severely injured, and had to be evacuated. Something as simple as an ankle sprain would require one to be carried out through some tough terrain and uphill at the end. I knew there were anchors there and were able to use them to easily repel myself wherever needed.

It was a great hike and somewhat fun talking to the scouts about hiking and camping, but at the first technical spot it was obvious how they had nothing. I ended up having to spend most of my time at each spot helping them by belaying everyone as they climbed down each spot. Outside of that, the experience was great. The water was cold, but it was fun to do the trail and experience these slot canyons. At the parking lot, once finished, there were park rangers waiting checking permits. I gave them mine and even though the group was quite a ways behind me, they waited. apparently the scout leader had taken an additional person than the permit allowed and ended up getting a citation for over a hundred dollars. I gave them my contact info and was promised they wound forward some pictures, but I never heard anything. After the hike I spent the rest of the daylight hours walking some of the highlights around the park that are relatively close to the shuttle buses. I attended one of the evening ranger presentations before parking in Springfield overnight just outside the park. After these experiences, I'd someday like to come back to the area just to do some canyoneering.