miles and miles

the truck was heavily weighted towards the rear as we steadily jetted off in to the mountains from denver for crested butte. a rough packing list:

2 laptops
2 cameras

metaphorically speaking, brad would be the ansel adams of the operation and i may fall somewhere in the area of being ansel's distant step-cousin. its not necessarily a bad thing at all really.

the other day we had the honor of taking photos at moab's local pumpkin chuckin' contest. this was clearly something of a moab tradition with all proceeds benefitting the community. see now, i thought of pumpkin chuckin' and i am thinking of moab's finest burly farming men with cutoff t-shirts lining up single file to have a go at launching the pumpkins from their arms.

ohhhhhhhhhhh no.

instead, we entered the festival (being held on the runway of the old moab airport) to an arsenal of automated pumpkin launchers rumoured to shoot the orange spheres up to nearly 1 mile.

well i was awestruck (and slightly hard of hearing) when PUFF the air compressor-induced robotic launcher (it was dressed up and painted to mimic puff the magic dragon) managed to shoot a pumpkin over 3,000 feet packing something in the neighborhood of 150 PSI behind its punch.

i about shit my pants as the thing shot off.

i was standing there, roughly 12 feet from PUFF, proper photographic stance assumed, lens cocked out and BANG!!!!!!!!! the damn cannon shot off and i nearly lost my footing and hearing all at the same time. the people of moab were clearly prepared for such an event. i could now see many were wearing earplugs, most were covering their ears and all were standing at a minimum of 20 feet from our friend PUFF the pumpkin launcher. lord knows what the hell i was doing so close to this concoction.

needless to say, i didnt get much of a photo.

2 ipods

the music selections of the road have wavered between older americana roots music (by this i am referring exclusively to hank williams and roger miller) to a more contemporary mix of tunes (caribou, jose gonzales, magnolia electric co, watson twins, wilco). no strife has been noted as a result of musical tastes (sorry omri).

i was sent an article (thanks omri) on the current state of rock and roll these days-- with particular focus on why indie rock is really throwing the genre for a spin (most likely a downward one). for those overly interested in grizzly bear, wilco, fiery furnaces and other indie brethren, this will prove to be a rather sobering read:

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2007/10/22/071022crmu_music_frerejones

i am going to hold-off on going too far in depth with my reaction to the article. overall, i thought the guy made some valid points (indie audiences and shows tend to be mildly uneventful) but i also thought he was blowing a lot of steam out of his ass (failing to draw some parrallels between african-american roots music in the "indie scene" today and using extremely convenient-- and obvious-- points to paint his picture). i walked away from the article more angry than i was pleased (for the love of god, dont pick on jeff tweedy on the whole "quality of lyrics these days" argument) but i think that anything exceptionally good gets a wholehearted reaction.

if you email me your thoughts on this article, i will give you more of a thoughtful response.

2 backpacks

its unfortunate... i still havent picked up on the fact that no matter how much i pack (and i can assure you it isnt that much), i will always wear the same couple of things over and over. i cant say this makes me sad or angry. so far its been the same jeans now for roughly 12 days in a row. i can say (perhaps with a smirk) that i have changed my britches. socks on the other hand, well, i try to keep them in some sort of rotation. these vans slip-ons of mine are going to be radioactive by the end of this sojourn.

2 pillows
an arsenal of food

well, the costco trip is worth elaborating on. the standards were of course pb&j, apples, wheat thins, beef jerky, canned chicken and tuna, green beans... but the highlight was the ramen bomb. this being the 48 pack of ramen (mix between chicken and beef flavored noodles) procured in aisle 8 that has honestly proven to be something of a jewel thus far.

and we aren't talking your polly plain jane ramen noodles--we throw a few green beans in there from time to time, keep things interesting. its as if emeril pops out of the woodwork every night and puts together a masterpiece for us.

it should be noted, however, that in an effort to cook that lovely ramen on the very first night we had our fair share of problems. see, we purchased a crock pot'esque water boiler that we deduced could be plugged in to the DC inverter via the dashboard 12 v auxiliary port. holy shit, we were wrong. the whole car went haywire when we fired that sonofabitch up. as soon as we hit the power button on the water boiler, a fuse was blown within about 3.2 seconds. after some reading-light induced research via the car manual and a look at the circuit board we deduced that the 1000 watt water boiler ripped through the 800 max watt inverter, blew the fuse and sent the car in to a state of electronic oblivion. turns out the lovely folks at ford attach a few replacement fuses to the fuse box and we were able to have the puppy up and running within about 5 or 10 minutes--- sans the much needed ramen that night in the sub zero weather that the great city of gunnison, co was dishing out.

1 video camera
2 road bicycles

lord jesus.

brad tends to be on the more active side of the table. god was handing out energy and gave our dear friend brad a few too many nods.

the kid never stops moving.

never.

ever.

he wakes up nearly every morning and has gone for a run by the time i do so much as work out the kinks from the evening workout (this typically consists of a soccer match).

by early afternoon, after i have gotten out of the cafe to have a cup of coffee and do some reading, brad typically wants to climb a mountain or go for a bike ride.

a bike ride is typically the route i choose to take.

well, that was something of an interesting ride on friday 26 october. when brad talked about going on a little bike ride i didnt realize we were talking 31 miles.

THIRTY ONE MILES.

we are in utah people-- 4,000 some feet up, the air is dry.

i was of course dressed in nothing other than my cutoff jean shorts, t shirt and my vans slip ons for the monster ride. i am ready to go waiting outside while brad is in the bathroom changing.

i about had a stroke when brad walked out. this is no joke now-- he has on his butt-padded uber- tight biking shorts, a clif-bar cycling jersey, leather gloves, cycling shoes and an arsenal of powerbars stuffed in the rear pocket of his italian knit jersey along with some minor tools in case we run in to problems along the way.

"uhh brad? which trail are we going on?"

"the easy one that the bike shop told me about."

"ok.... well thats quite the get up you have on."

we are about halfway through the first climb and my lungs feel as if they may implode and my thighs feel as if a steel vice grip roughly the size of tokyo is squeezing them in to a pancake. i ride a single speed road bike (no gears) so climbing those hills is something of a challenge.

now given all of my incessant complaining and poking at brad the ride turned out to be very enjoyable. and i mean that. i was quite surprised at having made it through this bruiser. i was certainly a bit winded, but once i got acclimated to everything i felt ok (by "acclimated" i mean once i figured out that i could ride roughly 6 inches to a 1 foot behind brad's rear wheel and pedal 30-40% less, i was ok).

1 air pump
brad's lifetime collection of cycling gear
a whole box full of reading material

speaking of, i just cracked a book that should be mentioned. its called "blood and thunder" by hampton sides. i got the book from my parents as a gift last christmas (i know, its taken me a bit to actually get to this one) after hearing a review of it on NPR sometime before last christmas. i have to say, depending on one's penchant for history books, it is extremely well-written and particularly interesting given the fact that a lot of territories discussed are geographies we are traversing.

1 two-man pup tent
1 atlas

this atlas by the way, despite its date of 2003 has proven quite useful.

some interesting stretches of road it has taken us on thus far would include the great kyber pass out of mt crested butte in to a town called delta (en route to grand junction).

i get skirmish when i hear the word "pass" because this typically involves all of the following:

1) steep mountains
2) narrow roads
3) cars on the road that are infinitely more powerful with all wheel drive and diesel powered thunderstroke engines
4) low visibility
5) high altitude

now, the lovely kyber pass had all of the above with something of a twist. the roads were narrow--- and made of dirt.

i am very pleased that the still unnamed 1998 ford ranger that we call our homestead made it through with flying colors.

we were so pleased that we stopped at the local dairy queen for an ice cream.

2 low temperature sleeping bags
3 wool blankets

these little puppies came in real handy on night one of sleeping in the truck. we slept halfway between gunnnison and crested butte amidst the below freezing temperatures. i am very pleased to say we both made it through just fine very comfortably. once you get past the whole sleeping-on-a-carpet-covered-piece-of-plywood-in-the-back-of-a-pickup-truck thing (this process took approximately 10 seconds. i am somewhat amused and slightly perplexed trying to figure out why these things dont bother me), the temperature is nothing to worry about.

montana? wyoming? well, ill keep my fingers crossed.

1 all-purpose emergency car kit
1 travel coffee mug

getting used to enjoying folger's instant coffee crystals in the morning is kind of like trying to get used to having a bumble bee sting you every hour on the hour at time duration intervals that are unknown to you. see, similar to our stinging bumble bee, folgers is something you could potentially get used to if you tried extremely hard, but it is likely that you will never ever ever become accustomed to such madness. nevertheless, carrying a stockpile of coffee equipment isnt the most convenient thing in the world, so i will continue to endure the daily sting of that shit as i try to force it down my throat.

2 LED headband lights
2 lawn chairs

we have become accustomed to-- and found it very convenient-- making our base camp near the community library in the towns we reside. this has benefits threefold: first, typically we are able to steal a wifi signal at all hours of the day from the convenience of our lawn chairs. second, there is typically some sort of park nearby where we can play soccer. three, there is always a clean bathroom inside.

2 notepads
1 leather bound journal

"make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood"

daniel burnham