RIP Little Hamster

When I got back from the Y today my niece informed me that the hamster had died.  She was very pragmatic about it.  I told her we could go bury it in the woods and she told me that it's illegal in North Carolina to bury animals in the woods.  I don't know if that's true, and to be honest I don't really care, but she didn't seem overly grief-stricken anyway so I dropped it.  Little hamster has now been laid to rest in a green biodegradable dog poo bag in the garbage can.

Sick Hamsters and Eastern Veterinarian Medicine

My niece has two very adorable dwarf hamsters who, although they are both female, look like two little old bearded men.  Unfortunately one of them is very ill (I really think it has little hamster CHF) so I was searching online for a vet when I found this crazy place, right around the corner!  You know, I love animals as much as the next person, but in a country where so many people have such a limited access to health care this strikes me as gratuitous and disgusting.  I think Seth and Amy need to do an "Oh Really" segment right about now...

Memphis Blues

Today we had a long day of driving so we didn't get to stop in Memphis.  I love Memphis.  Charlie Poole LOVED Memphis -

Now the seven wonders of this world I've seen.
There's many other different places I have been.
Take my advice folks, please see Beale Street first,
It's in Memphis, Tennessee.

We just couldn't fit it into our overstuffed itinerary this time around but Memphis still gave us some love in the form of WEVL, a terrific blues station, as we were passing through.  Wow.  And we heard this song, and it was amazing. Oh please listen to it. 

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Canoe Fail 2.0

Canoeing the Spring River is sort of tradition for Sergei and I.  We used to float the river pretty frequently when we lived here and were always proud to say that we had never flipped (except that one time when I was drinking whiskey.  That was the time I woke up in Missouri.  It's a long story but I take full responsibility for capsizing the canoe.  I also learning my lesson.  Drinking is fun and canoeing is fun, but I don't think they are fun together). Anyway, we can no longer say we haven't flipped a canoe.

NOAA said 30% chance of rain but there was hardly a cloud in the sky.  What an absolutely gorgeous day.  Save for a few fly fishers we had the river to ourselves.  We saw two bald eagles and that was a first for me in Arkansas. 

I think the canoe had a slight leftward list although Sergei denies it.  We were going over the first section of baby rapids and flipped.  Flipped to the left mind you and went right into the 58F water.  I'm telling you it was the canoe.  After that I was able to compensate by leaning to the right and then we were fine the rest of the day.  Even down dead man's curve.  

But it was so much fun, even that small set back was just part of our adventure.

"He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk" -- Benjamin Franklin

Before the flip.

Solitude.

 

Home Sweet Away From Home

We're in Batesville, Arkansas, home of my alma mater Lyon College, and the place where Sergei and I met.  We're staying with Connie, Sergei's host mom, and it feels like our second home.

Today we went to see our tree, where we carved our initials 13 years ago, and where Sergei proposed.

It's still there, though today the initials and date are gone.  All that remains is the heart.

We stopped by Bryan Lake.

The bench where we spent many a sleepless night, sitting and talking till the sun came up.

And the porch swing in the freshman quad.

Another good time waster.

We also toured the new and improved Edwards Commons, since the old one burned down. 

What a tragedy, but the new one is really a step up from the old Ed's, though old Ed's will always have a place in my heart.  The ribbon cutting ceremony and rededication is scheduled for October 19th, just a few weeks from now, but it is already operational. 

The new one has a giant rec room with foosball, ping pong, pool, board games that can be checked out, flat screen TVs ready to be plugged into your gaming console, a larger cafe and of course a fire place.  Wow. 

And while we touring the building we found this little bugger hanging out -

Jiminy Cricket!  He's huge!

Lyon also has a new outdoor program called LEAP - Lyon Education and Adventure Program.

Very cool.  There is a new hiking trail behind the campus, camping trips, frequent clinics (there's one on technical tree climbing!!!), and an awesome bike repair station among other things.

Of course we visited the pipe band too (well, the couple remaining people we still know)...

I couldn't be more proud of my school, so I have decided to make it my mission this year to convince my little sis that she needs to come here next year...  So wonderful to see that Lyon is still such a unique and amazing place with so much heart.

King Spa and Sauna

Yeah, it's that classy.

Today Alex took us to King Spa and Sauna in Dallas.  It's a Korean style spa that is unlike any spa I've ever visited.

For you are assigned a "uniform."  The uniforms are orange for women (just like prisoners...), grey for men, yellow for children, and pink is reserved for, um,  plus-sized people.  Oh, and did I mention, the uniforms are ugly?  They look like high school gym clothes.

And don't loose your towel.  It is customary to roll up both ends and wear it on your head to recreate the Princess Leia look.

Anyway, there were about a dozen or so different sauna rooms including one that looked like a giant tagine (and at 210F it felt like one too), one that shaped like a pyramid and lined with gold, and one made of salt.  It reminded me of a buffet of saunas, or possibly a casino.  I'm not sure.

The spas were separate for men and women, and swimsuits were not optional.  No, it was au naturel all the way.  Birthday suits only.  And, in the women's sauna the dividers had Bart and Homer Simpson etched on the glass.  Kinda weird.  There were four different hot soaking tubs, a steam room and a cold plunge pool.  That was divine.

The massage therapists in the spa wear only a bra and panties.

It's open 24 hours a day and they encourage people to spend the night and heck, why not?  It's a lot cheaper than a motel.  There's even a restaurant.  And free wifi.

We Gangnam Style dance walked all over the spa. 



Okay, not really.

But seriously, it was pretty nice, different but nice, and if there was one near me I would be a regular.  Here's a great review by D Magazine.

Thanks Alex - another instant classic.

Future Shorts

I love Future Shorts.

A Walk Down Heritage Lane

It is so nice to be back in Dallas with an old friend who I hadn't seen in over two years.  Alex was the best man at our wedding.

It's an Al sandwich!

And of course Alex always has the most surprising and unconventional things planned for us to do. 

Today we visited the Dallas Heritage Village which is located in Dallas' first city park, pretty close to the heart of the city.  It is a collection of 19th century buildings, from pioneer homesteads to Victorian houses to an old brick bank, and each is decorated with period furniture and objects.  On the weekends a group of musicians gets together to play Old Time music (the big brother to Blue Grass). 

Nip and Tuck, resident donkeys

Sergei playing the Limber Jack with the band

Dagnabit, I wanted a sarsaparilla!

What the ef is vim??

After Heritage Village we stopped by the Dallas' Famers' Market.  It wasn't that interesting but I mention it because there were these enormous carrots for sale (cheap too!).  I generally like my veggies small and sweet rather than hoary and bitter.  But I'll be darned if these weren't the sweetest carrots I've ever eaten.  Hey, it must be true what they say about Texas...

Om nom nom

Southern Hospitality

We received a warm welcome!

The Meaning of Serendipity

On our drive from Austin to Dallas I was channel surfing through my Sirius satellite radio when I stumbled across Vinyl Cafe on the CBC.  It's hands down the greatest thing I've heard since This American Life, although it's probably more similar to A Prairie Home Companion.

Do yourself a favor and follow this link to hear Stuart McLean tell his story "Teeth."  Oh, and thank you Grooveshark for that audio clip!

Ah, Austin

When we checked out of the hotel this morning the weather was undecided, but we had only one day in Austin and we were determined to make the most of it.  We decided to check out Zilker Park while it was still dry. 

We started at Barton Springs Pool.  Man oh man do I wish I had known about that pool because I would have come prepared to swim laps! 

Basically, Barton Springs Pool is the result of dams and cement banks with the resulting pool being fed by Barton Springs.  So, it has cement sides, stairs, ladders, even a diving board, and depths of up to 18 feet with a bottom of natural rock and sand.  The water averages 68F year round.  It is enough to make me consider relocating.  You can read more about it here.

Just downstream from the pool

It started drizzling after the pool.  We walked along Barton Creek till it emptied into Lady Bird Lake. 

I think Austin's waterfront is easily as beautiful as Portland's

Even with the inclement weather there were so many people out on the trail and active.  We continued along Lady Bird Trail until it we reached a large grassy part of the park.     

If you're happy and you know it jump for joy!

After exploring the outdoors we went to the Bob Bolluck Texas State History Museum and learned a lot about the lone star state.  For example. the lone star motif may have come from old French coin used in Texas that had Louis XIV's trademark sun emblazoned on them.  The museum traces the history of Texas from before the Spanish arrived until the present day.  There was so much information we spent 4 hours there, hurried ourselves through some of the exhibits, and still ran out of time and were kicked out.  What I liked best about the museum was that it told the story of Texas, and Texas has such a great American story. 

Long Live Texas!

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Last night we camped in the Guadalupe Mountains, and just as we finished packing up camp this morning the rain started coming down hard.  Lucky thing we were up so early! 

We spent the whole day driving to Austin through the pouring, pouring, pouring rain and when we got here we broke down and decided to get ourselves a hotel room.  It feels super luxurious after all the camping and eating of dehydrated food and drinking of instant espresso and powdered milk...  So we went to the Whole Foods downtown tonight and picked up some chips and salsa, and some frozen meals to cook in our microwave.  Livin' large I tell you. 

Thunder and Lightning and Bats, Oh My!

Today we visited Carlsbad Caverns. We wanted to do the Lower Cave Wild Tour, however it was sold out so we ended up exploring the Big Room ourselves, then doing a lantern lit tour through the Natural Entrance with a Ranger guide.  Below are some of the photos from the Big Room.  We used a long exposure so we wouldn't have to use the flash.

A ladder left by the National Geographic's 1924 Expedition of the caves.

This, too, was a long exposure and we had to stand still for like 20 seconds to get it.

It was neat to experience the cave by candle light, much the way that Jim White, the first non-Native American Indian to find and explore the cave, did. If you've never been there the natural entrance is a little over a mile deep and descends 800 feet, about half that at the very mouth of the cave. Now there is a paved path and handrails, but before that it was just a steep drop off. So Jim White built himself a make shift ladder and a lantern made out of a coffee can and kerosene and went in, alone. “What a nut job!” I thought, and then our guide told us he was 16 years old at the time, and then I thought, “well, that explains quite a lot.”

Jim White was working as a rancher near the caves and noticed each evening a black cloud off in the distance. He decided one night to follow the "smoke" and discovered the natural entrance of the cavern.

"I thought it was a volcano," Jim mused, "but, then, I'd never seen a volcano-nor never before had I seen bats swarm, for that matter. During my life on the range I'd seen plenty of prairie whirlwinds-but, this thing didn't move: it remained in one spot, spinning its way upward. I watched it for perhaps a half-hour-until my curiosity got the better of me. Then I began investigating."  Thus the explorer began the most romantic tale of adventure this chronicler has ever heard.

"That is, until this particular day. I had sat for perhaps an hour watching bats fly out. I couldn't estimate the number, but I knew that it must run into millions. The more I thought of it the more I realized that any hole in the ground which could house such a gigantic army of bats must be a whale of a big cave. I crept between cactus until I lay on the brink of the chasm, and looked down. During all the years I'd known of the place, I'd never taken the trouble to do this. There was no bottom in sight! I shall never forget the feeling of aweness it gave me."

"I piled up some dead cactus and built a bonfire. When it was burning good, I took a flaming stalk and pushed it off into the hole. Down, down, down it went until at last the flame went out. Finally I saw the glowing embers strike and sprinkle on the rocks below. As nearly as I could estimate, the drop must have been two hundred feet. I kicked the remainder of the bonfire into the hole, and watched it fall. This seemed to frighten the bats, and for several minutes they ceased their flight. However, as soon as the embers died out, the bats swarmed forth as before."

From Jim White's Own Story

We picnicked and saw a beautiful rainbow above the park:

The calm before the storm...

 
 We stayed around to the watch the bats exit the cave too, but had to evacuate about 15 minutes into the flight because of lightning in the area.  I guess they didn't want an encore performance... (Okay, I like the NOAA data at the end of the article).

This time of year there are about half a million bats in the cave because in addition to the colony that lives there all summer there are migrating bats who stop at Carlsbad on their way South. The bats fly up out of the natural entrance clockwise, and when they reach the mouth of the cave they all head South.  It's a pretty amazing phenomenon.  I've never seen so many bats. Unfortunately, they don't allow any type of recording devices so I have no photos of my own to show but here is one I shamelessly lifted:

 

What Does the Raccoon Say?

Last night we were enjoying a bottle of wine when we heard snorting sounds coming from the darkness. I know there are javalinas here, and I've heard that wild pigs are very aggressive, so of course we decided to check it out. It turned out to be to be our little friend from the night before and a few of his friends. I can't remember ever having heard raccoons snort like that. They'd found a cantaloupe peel in the camp site next to ours and were apparently enjoying it immensely. We inadvertently frightened them off but before long they were back at the campsite on the other side of us, digging through the trash cans there. Earlier in the day I had thrown away an apple that's core was rotten, and the leader of the pack found my apple and was greedily eating it. We took some pictures of him, and although he was obviously scared, he would not abandon that apple but continued to eat it, alternating between snorting and hissing at me. Photos coming soon!

In the Mouth of Madness

In the Mouth of Roswell

We didn't arrive last night until well after midnight, and what a clear black starry night it was. Almost creepy. We didn't have a detailed map of Roswell, only a state map, and so all we had was a vague idea of where the campground was. We turned off the highway on to the road leading to Bottomless Lakes and saw the signs for the park, and followed them, winding through the pitch blackness for a few miles, then ended up back at the highway we had just left. It was like the scene from the film In the Mouth of Madness where the they are driving down that dark road and they keep passing the same creepy bike... I was just a little terrified. 

However, Sergei was able to figure out where the park was and we made camp quickly and then were out like lights....  Until I was roused by a precocious raccoon who was desperately trying to get into our tent. He was a pretty cute little guy so I woke Sergei to show him, and Sergei frightened the raccoon off with his pillow. We slept the rest of the night without further interruption. 

This morning we got to see the park at last, and Lea Lake is beautiful. It was created when a salt and gypsum flat collapsed and is very deep (though not apparently bottomless). The lakes here got their name when the 19th century cowboys tried to determine the depth of the lakes by tying their lariats together and couldn't find the bottom. The depth actually ranges from 17 to 90 feet, and the steep drop off is visible through the pristine water.  We swam for a bit, and I saw a large turtle also swimming. 

You can see how it drops off like a crater

Here we are with Lea Lake behind us

Here we are - Roswell!! 

...and UFO Capital of the World...

After that we went to the International UFO Museum and Research Center. If you ever find yourself in the Roswell area I highly recommend you visit. I am a "UFOskeptic", as per the terminology used by "UFOlogists" to describe people who don't believe, but it was a weird little place that presented a plethora of information (and misinformation...) in a very disjointed way, and succeeded in piquing my curiosity (although, to be fair, a Gallup Poll stating that 87% of Americans believe in UFOs is NOT evidence that UFOs exist - museum curator, I'm talking to you).

I thought the museum had a lot of potential to be thoroughly entertaining, and with a little organization, streamlining of material and some interactive exhibits it would have been excellent. But even mediocre as it was, it was worth the trip. 

Which reminds me that last spring I heard Annie Jacobsen speak about her book Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top-Secret Military Base.  In it she posits that the Roswell incident was not a UFO, but a Soviet craft manned by surgically and genetically altered children intended to look like a UFO filled with aliens in order to cause hysteria in the USA (a la War of the Worlds).  I think this is poppycock and I am not alone.  Here is a review by Skeptic Donald Prothero.  Although the rest of her book cites an abundance of sources and seems well researched, the Roswell section rests on a single source that she doesn't reveal. She says it's because her source is still under obligation to keep what he knows top secret et cetera, et certera, but it's still a far fetched story to throw out there without much evidence... As Carl Sagan says, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."  Anyway, you know the best part of that lecture was that all the UFO people showed up, and they were mad too.  That was pretty funny.

But back to the museum.  Here is what it makes clear: something happened in Roswell, and based on the response of the government and military, it wasn't just a weather balloon. Could it have been a top secret American craft? Sure, but it did take the authorities a long time to respond. It wasn't until a few days after the incident occurred and the rancher who found the crash site reported it to the authorities that they responded.  So, who knows what sort of top secret thing crashed in the New Mexican desert but perhaps sometime during our lifetimes it will be de-classified and we can find out.

I ❤ Cactus

The week before we left for our road trip I took a paramedic refresher class and in one of the Powerpoint the teacher showed a photo of a large cactus (much like the one I am hugging) that had fallen on a car and flattened it. She tied it into the class by talking about how such an event would complicate scene safety and then she mentioned that the cactus probably fell over because tarantulas had eaten away at the bottom. Ewww! Now, I have nothing against cacti, but tarantulas?? Really?! That's just too much ickyness. I needed some answers pronto so of course I turned to Google (everything on the internet is true, right?) and discovered a Snopes entry regarding a similar claim (FALSE by the way...)

No spiders here, I checked!

Tucson, AZ to Roswell, NM

We finally made camp at Catalina State Park just outside of Tucson. We were tempted to leave the rainfly off so we could have an unobstructed view of the stars but for some reason didn't. Later that same night we were awoken by the sound of a torrential downpour and claps of thunder. The rain fly kept us dry and we went back to sleep, snug as a bug in a rug. This morning the weather is again clear and beautiful, and we're drying the tarp and bottom of the tent while we eat breakfast (and blog). We'll spend most of today driving to Bottomless Lakes, just outside of Roswell, NM.

Road Trip Day 1: Water Parks and Sand Storms

Today we embarked on our trip, first stop: Knott's Soak City Palm Springs.

I have a strange aversion to water slides generally, but if they aren't too "aggressively thrilling" (the description sported by many of ride signs in the park), and I get to go down on a raft I usually do okay. I had a fabulous time today, even on the scary rides! Their signature attraction is the Pacific Spin slide, which reminds me a lot of the Marble Works game I had as a child. There was one particular piece of that game that was like a half pipe for marbles, flinging them way up the sides until they finally ran out of steam and dropped through the little hole at the bottom. That is pretty much this ride. But I'm not going to lie, it was really fun. I think we did it like seven times.

Sergei, brave man that he is - or masochist - I'm not really sure which, rode the seven story Tidal Wave Tower a few times. I know, crazy right?  I will try to post a video soon...

We also splashed around the kiddie's Kahuna Beach House, relaxed in the Sunset River, and caught a few waves in Riptide Reef with the desert as a strangely juxtaposed backdrop.

We left a bright and sunny Palm Springs and headed East and somewhere around Blythe as the sun was just sinking down into the horizon behind us we hit a wall of sand. It was so bizarre because it went from clear and barely dusky to really dark and creepy in an instant. It didn't last too long, and luckily it seemed all the weird weather was headed West.

In Phoenix we stopped at a Supermercado de Walmart. That's a new one for me.

 We are now looking for tent camping and hopefully will find something soon. More tomorrow as the adventure continues...

ROAD TRIP!

On Monday Sergei's mom is flying from Moscow to Charlotte to stay with Sergei's sister for a bit, and that means it's road trip time!  We will we get to spend some time with his family, I'll get to meet my nephew James for the first time, and we'll also get to see some dear old friends along the way.  We both desperately need a break, and this seems like the perfect opportunity to unwind and explore, so for the next three or four weeks we will be on the road, criss-crossing the United States of America, just road trippin'.

Here is a tentative route, subject to change and void where prohibited by law:


View Larger Map
We leave tomorrow so adios!

The World in Black and White

Here is a really neat collection of old National Geographic photos...