Pepper Spray...it finally happened!

2008-11-16T20:10:58-08:00

Just before Happy Camperbus set sail, we purchased two tubes of Pepper Spray. I was joking that I might like to spray myself with it to see what it was like. Sadistic, I know.

All these months later, my sister came to Santa Fe to visit and we went on a camping trip. She was going to be sleeping by herself in a pretty isolated area where there is an unknown amount of wild animals and I offered her the spray. Before I could really get a grasp on what was going on, she was telling me she wanted to see what it was like and she poured some in her right eye. Similar to the pace in a slow-motion nightmare, I followed suit and man o’ man, was THAT a bad idea.

Immediately, I regretted it and felt like (I can’t say in what order, each was worse than the other simultaneously) my eye was being permanently damaged, my brain actually hurt, and that the pain was so unbearable I might not make it through. I didn’t have any options of course on the latter, but that’s what I kept thinking/feeling.

These photos (of me and my sister) were taken more than an hour after the self-imposed attacks.

One particularly curious thing happened, while I was screaming bloody murder and my sister was heaving in the fetal position, a man walked past our camp. Obviously, I didn’t get a look at him, but I heard him discussing with Smick how nice the moon was and what a cute dog we have. I was barley able to process this, but later I found it utterly appalling that he did not even inquire on our lack of well-being. Jeez.

The next day I became worried that my mother might crucify me for being such an irresponsible big sister. That didn’t go as bad as I thought, but when I spoke to her I felt completely idiotic…ah, that’s what mom’s are for.

alitude

2008-11-07T07:58:54-08:00

We were climbing up the side of this mountain when Brian notices a dead snake.
Brian said “You know Dave when the snakes start dying We are high enough”
baddog

Proud To Vote!

2008-11-01T12:37:22-07:00

The Happy Camperbus duo known as Smick & Ily voted today! Woo-hoo!
There was some hesitancy if all of this traveling and moving around we have been doing would effect our right to vote (i.e. not having a New Mexico ID nor ‘proof’ of residency, though we have a residency currently) but, we were able to partake, and it was wonderful.

Oh, New Mexico passes out honkin’ size stickers!

rain

2008-10-31T15:00:32-07:00

Down pour in the desert. Keep your stuff dry in a Pelican case.

Halloween

2008-10-31T14:49:39-07:00

Happy Halloween from a real ghost town.

pop quiz

2008-10-29T18:13:40-07:00

Can you determine the altitude of this pHoto? It was taken on Sonora Pass.

I opted for Day of the Dead...

2008-10-25T20:59:43-07:00

We went to the masquerade party with hand-painted day of the dead masks…it was a hit!

It is almost Halloween—Part Deux!

2008-10-23T19:21:53-07:00

I am going to a masquerade party on Saturday that benefits the local animal shelter here. I decided to dress up as fancy as I can muster, but to apply some scary face paint.

Here are some shots from the first trial run….what do you think, scary enough?

It is almost Halloween; A Montage

2008-10-19T17:29:03-07:00

Smick and I carved our pumpkins today. I opted for the pirate, Smick carved the ghost and we helped little Capone with his. Ah, just like the good ol’ days right? We even collected every last one of the seeds and baked them.

Quite fun.

Thinking of all you guys tonight….wishing you a very early and very spooky Halloween!

Snail Mail

2008-10-16T22:06:16-07:00

I took a writing aptitude test tonight at breakingintoprint.com

I was prompted to do so in part by boredom and in equal measure out of curiosity regarding what type of detailed (and hopefully objective) feedback I will receive.
The test took about an hour and when I submitted the form, I was told that I can expect my evaluation via first class mail in approximately 2-3 weeks time.
I am sure they want to send me a brochure on the program they are selling and that processing these tests takes time. Nonetheless, I felt like I was hit in he tummy with a bat when it was announced I wouldn’t have a somewhat swift response coming to me via email in the next 3-5 business days or so.

What have I become?

Zoe, I am reminded to check in with you on the progress of your novel. I KNOW you have been busy, but I hope to see it come together, even by small strides. Truly. You owe yourself one and people will want to read it.

Halloween, Do you believe?

2008-10-16T19:03:06-07:00

I believe that some geographical locations have for lack of a better term have “bad juju” A place having such a pervasive feeling of pure evil that the very atmosphere is saturated with bad feeling.
Look at the photo it would seem to be a patch of ordinary desert. As I walked closer to the tree, a feeling of dread came over me. My heart rate increased,my breathing became deeper and faster and the hair on the the back of my neck litterally stood on end. I tried to reason the feeling away but the closer I got to that tree the stronger the feeling of terror got. The feeling of panic would not go away, I could not force my self to stay near the tree. After I moved where the photo was taken the terror subsided. Several times I approached the tree and each time the feeling of intense dread was there.
I have never been to this location before nor has anyone I know. This spot is 25 miles from the closest water and 30 from a paved road. It is about 4 miles from any trail. I took the time to carefully look around with the aide of 10×50 bicculars there was absolutelty no one else around. I have no idea of this locations history. I have experienced this phenomenon only twice before at different locations. Do you care to offer any opinions?
Baddog

To dread, or not to dread? Big Sigh.

2008-10-15T14:17:39-07:00

So, some seven months or so ago, I decided to dread my hair. With the help of some very dedicated friends and 72 hours of nearly constant backcombing (which is VERY painful) I came away with a very nice set of dreadies! Whew!

Now, these months later, they have gotten somewhat ratty, unruly and when washed (every couple of days) they shrink up a bit, which is good because it means the hair is locking up even tighter, but the result is I had far less ‘styling’ options than I expected.

A dash of impulse and a rash decision prompted me to ask Smick to dedicate another 3 full days of pulling and combing…only this time it was to undo the knots that had settled quite nicely by now. My hope was to take out the dreads (yes, I was told this could be done without shaving my head, or cutting it way short…with the right amount of patience, time, help and tolerance for pain) and then make a decision on whether or not I wanted to repeat the dreading process, with some experience under our belts, to produce a neater (but still funky) set of locks. He agreed and we literally hunkered down for 3 strait days, pulling and combing those babies out. It was in a word, madding.
I was told I would lose alot of hair in the process (an understatement) but would be left with healthy hair that had actually grown longer, even though the dreads were shrinking. Hmmm.

Well, I did emerge dread free. I did lose alot of hair. It had grown quite long, but needed severe trimming and it is now shorter than when we began. I am sad. Torn. Undecided. Unwilling at this point to start over because I feel like my head and hair and psyche have been traumatized enough. But I miss ‘em.

Any thoughts or opinions are welcome…I am at a loss. To dread, or not to dread?

Lost: One monarch caterpillar

2008-10-10T13:57:53-07:00

Yesterday at work my co-worker kept rapping her scissors on the side of the green waste barrel and saying, “Get back in there!” I, myself, was busy dividing mints and spanish tarragon and took little interest in her trash can talk. After repeated episodes of her antics I finally decided to take a look at what she was fussing about. I casually walked over to her work area and took a peek in the barrel. Instantly my casual attitude turned to excitement as I saw the caterpillar crawling up out of the rosemary cuttings. It was a monarch caterpillar!

Suddenly I was transported to Santa Cruz, California where, at Natural Bridges State Beach, something like 100,000 monarch butterflies spend the winter in a Eucalyptus grove. Now, mid October, is the time of year when they will be arriving. The magical orange and black butterflies flutter about or cluster together on the Eucalyptus trees. I myself have spent many hours on the wooden deck below the trees in awe of these delicate creatures that migrate thousands of miles! Amazing!

So, here I am at Pearson’s Gardens nearly 500 miles from Santa Cruz and I get a pleasant reminder of some wonderful memories. I immediately let the little caterpillar climb onto my hand, dug through the discarded plant material, found another beautiful striped caterpillar and then went to get a milkweed plant for them to feed on. The milkweed plant is the ONLY plant the monarch larva can eat! There are over 30 varieties of milkweed. The one we are growing is Scarlet Milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, a plant with brilliant red and orange flowers.

Those caterpillars started munching that milkweed so fast I became anxious for the safety of the plant! I was informed that they would also eat fennel, so spotting a fennel patch on the way home from work I stopped and picked a few branches. Those caterpillars didn’t even glance fennels way. Last night I left the two crawlies outside with some milkweed and fennel (just in case) and in the morning they were still there sucking the sap from the milkweed. Hopefully the one milkweed plant that I have will be enough for them to get enough nourishment for the two weeks of feeding they need to do before they turn into a chrysalis. They really aren’t eating the fennel.

I returned from work today with a few extra milkweed leaves only to find that the caterpillars were gone! They ate all the milkweed and took off, not even leaving a thank you note! After a bit of looking, I managed to find one of them about ready to go through the “time warp” door, which is really a spinning darkroom door that is the only piece remaining of a once fully functioning dark room on our back patio. Still fearing he would eat all of the milkweed in a hurry, but not wanting him to wander off again, I brought the entire plant out for his chewing pleasure. He is now contentedly eating, stripping the plant bare of leaves in a rather timely fashion. If his buddy returns I fully expect to wake up tomorrow with nothing more than milkweed roots and some forlorn looking caterpillars searching for a place to get their next meal!

Raccoon Madness!

2008-10-06T10:48:20-07:00

We bought this toy for Capone Dog and I have to say, I don’t remember the last time I have been so incredibly entertained for $4.99.

I don’t know that this toy looks exactly like a Raccoon, but it does resemble a small, wild animal from a short distance away or from the corner of your eye. It has managed to scare me at least half a dozen times and every person that has come to visit in the last two weeks has jumped, squealed or stepped back when it came into their line of sight.

Capone has a habit of ripping all the fuzz out of his new toys. He hasn’t completely deflated this one yet, but the spots that he licks and chews, looks like a successful wound with the ‘fur’ matted down from his saliva. It causes quite the fright when it is spotted laying on the floor, or in the yard, broken and wounded looking.

What fun!

What Song Pumps You Up?

2008-10-02T12:43:24-07:00

So this is completely unrelated to being the UK Case Lady- but I wanted to ask everyone on here for suggestions. I am getting ready to head to Baltimore next weekend for the Baltimore Marathon and I would love for people to “give” me songs that get them going or inspire them. In the past, I have really jazzed up my marathon mix by asking people what they like to listen to. Does anyone on here have a really good song that I shouldn’t run without? Eye of the Tiger, Break My Stride, and Jukebox Hero have been some of my favorite suggestions.

Case Lady

PS: Lest you think I have strayed too far from my original purpose here, I have a blog coming soon (with pictures and video) of a drop test we did on one of our cases here for a company that wants to use it for some really cool stuff…

pop quiz

2008-09-30T14:33:45-07:00

Hint: These petroglyphs are in California.

pop quiz

2008-09-29T14:46:09-07:00

Ok, Class: 1. What style of rock art?
2. How Old?
3. Where is it located?
4. What type of rock?
5. What is the dark surface called?
Ten point quiz, The score will go on your permanent record.
bad dog

pop quiz

2008-09-28T15:33:35-07:00

What and where is this?

Our Winter home; Santa Fe, New Mexico

2008-09-27T13:16:43-07:00

After finishing up our work for rent trade at the beautiful Sierra Azul home, we were offered a second opportunity for a similar arrangement.

This home was offered to us for the duration of the Fall and Winter months in exchange for some TLC and old fashioned elbow grease! Our new place is magnificent and trumps any expectation we could have imagined. It is a guesthouse, but it is much larger in actuality than any place I have ever adorned and it sits on it’s own 1 acre, separate and fenced away from the main house.

This house is in need of a lot of work but we relish in the idea of watching it come back to life…it stuns us that is has been vacant and neglected. It is beyond beautiful.
The house has a very unique design and every room seems to be capable of serving many different purposes. There are two very large, open rooms full of windows and both equipped with humongous fireplaces (unfortunately the previous tenants painted them a hideous shade of mauve and will be one of our first things to change here). These rooms are separated by a hallway where the bathroom rests and a kitchen, however they are mirror images of one another.
Off to the side of the kitchen area is a sun room. It was carpeted sometime ago, but we were told that underneath it has brick floors (like the rest of the house) with a drain in the middle so it can be used as an indoor greenhouse or plant sanctuary.
It has a beautiful wooden staircase which leads to the bedroom or office. That room is the only indoor portion of the second story, the rest of the space was used for a beautiful and very spacious deck.
Both the front and the back yards are incredibly spacious and serve as a wonderful place of retreat, a picnic area or a place to soak in the unique skies of New Mexico.
There is a dog run, a basketball hoop and unending potential.

We work one weekend day a week in exchange for rent and have been given the courtesy to have more than ample time to finish the projects needed here so there is alot of room to participate in other ventures!

I am overwhelmed with gratitude and good luck. In fact, above reporting some of the specifics, I find myself somewhat at a loss to express what is going on with me. I am sure I just need sometime to process everything, it has been a whirlwind of activity for quite some time now.

More soon…

Moonbeam & Brainpan!

2008-09-24T19:31:41-07:00

This one goes out to my fellow ‘Lost’ fans.

I have just now received regular Internet acess and one of the first things on my list is getting caught up on ‘Lost’. I fear I am 2 seasons behind or so. Another priority is not only catching up on my blog, but re-reading and responding to all of the glorious posts here on cotradeco.com that have caught my attention. There is a ton! You guys are awesome.

I digress. So, ABC launched a new Sawyer nick-name generator http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=nickname
where he doles out one of his witty pet names to anyone interested. Though the outcome was a trifle under-whelming, I was fraught with excitement over finding our nicknames (to trump our already in existence nicknames) out. He is quite funny with them, if you are a fan.

Smick & Ily = Moonbeam & Brainpan.

What fun.

POP Quiz

2008-09-24T14:26:19-07:00

This is a picture of a ghost cat in a ghost town. The house and town were almost entirely owned by the same family. That family tried for years and years to give the ghost town to the State of California. Grudgingly around 1960 the State took it over. It is now very popular with tourists and is a money maker for the State.
1. What is the name of the town?
2. What is the name of the Family?
Dave

Death Valley

2008-09-22T15:12:42-07:00

THis time of year thru November is a great time to visit Death Valley.
closed is a phot of Scotty’s castle.

Our first home in Santa Fe, New Mexico

2008-09-20T21:34:34-07:00

Some other recent news involves us moving this week.

After leaving the ‘Solar Ark’, quite hastily at that, we were somewhat at a loss of what direction to travel next. We came into the town of Santa Fe with the intent of eating at a good bakery and finding some odd jobs to work so we could save money for gas.

We put an ad on Craigslist offering house/yard clean up for $15.00 an hour and much to our surprise, we were soon overwhelmed with jobs. We were working most days and sleeping in a Big Lots parking lot. It would have been Wal Mart, except that two weeks before we rolled into town, a couple in an RV emptied their sewage tank in the Wal Mart parking lot and Wal Mart was sited a very hefty ticket, therefore, they are now forced to refuse campers.

We met a lady named Kitty who hired us to help her clean and prepare her house and yard for sale. She is a wonderful woman and after a few weekends of working unbelievably hard for her, she offered us a place to stay. She is a Property Manager (and an attorney, dog sitter extraordinare, mother, gentle human and a barter master) and she told us she had this place that was not being rented at the time and if we were interested she would speak with the owner and see if we could stay there in exchange for working around the place.

Well, this sounded like a really welcomed idea and we went to see the place. Oh man, this day was the moment that I really began to fall in love with Santa Fe. This place is 5 miles away from the main part of the city. It turned out to be an outrageously beautiful home on 2.5 acres. We agreed to the work and were able to stay there that night. Our agreement spanned six weeks or so and really gave us an opportunity to soak in this place and decide that we were game for staying a while.

We completed several projects at the ‘Sierra Azul’ house (that is what we most commonly refer to it as) and had a lot of fun too. We dug a fire pit in the backyard and celebrated our one year anniversary by the fire pit under a meteor shower, played music and had international and fellow travelers as guests.

One of the projects rings particularly noteworthy. We were tasked with painting the exterior of the house and unfortunately, Smick lost a bet and had to complete the entire coat of primer with a 1.5 inch roller! Muawah, behold the evil ily!

As of last week we finished our work there and somehow managed to score an even sweeter deal at a sweeter pad. I really couldn’t have imagined that being possible one month ago, but I have to tell you that once things started rolling, we remained so happy and grateful that it seems there has been no stopping the gifts we have been given here.

Deep.

Zozobra or Old Man Gloom

2008-09-20T18:02:47-07:00

The following excerpt was taken from Wikipedia:

“Zozobra (“Old Man Gloom”) is the name of a giant marionette effigy which is built and burned every autumn during Fiestas de Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico, usually during the second week of September. As his name suggests, he embodies gloom; by burning him, people destroy the worries and troubles of the previous year in the flames. Anyone with gloom that they need to get rid of can come by the offices of the Santa Fe Reporter in the weeks leading up to the burn to drop off slips of paper with personal gloom written on them. Many people put legal papers in the gloom box as well. At the festival the papers from the gloom box are placed at Zozobra’s feet to be burned alongside him.

Fiestas de Santa Fe has been held since 1712 to celebrate the Spanish retaking of the city in 1692 by Don Diego de Vargas from the Pueblo tribes who had occupied the city since the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The burning of Zozobra dates from 1924. William Howard Shuster, Jr. came up with the idea of creating the effigy, also called Old Man Gloom, and ritual burning.

Today more than 40,000 people go to watch Zozobra, who stands fifty feet tall. His burning marks the start of three days of celebration that includes traditional mass at St. Francis Cathedral; a reenactment of the Entrada, when de Vargas returned to the city; a Children’s Pet Parade; and the Historical/Hysterical Parade. The Kiwanis Club of Santa Fe builds Zozobra and burns the effigy at Fort Marcy Park.”

I do have a couple of curious and personal observations I made after having experienced the burning of ‘Old Man Gloom’.

I absolutely adore the idea of a ceremonious way to release angst, especially when it happens to involve burning stuff, and would love to host a similar event amongst willing friends and neighbors.

There seemed to be one major hitch though….I was hearing an overwhelming amount of accounts that people were being reunited with folks they haven’t seen in years and experiencing a sense of community and release of troubles….however, this day is somewhat like St. Paddy’s day in that it is absurdly and completely acceptable to get wasted and because of that, a tremendous amount of fights broke out! Kinda puts a damper on the whole notion of togetherness.

The Guinness Book of World Records was in attendance to measure if Zozobra would serve as the largest known marionette. I have yet to confirm if it cut the mustard, but will update you all when I hear the official word.

Happy Camperbus' most recent close encounter of the first kind!

2008-09-20T17:36:38-07:00

So, I mentioned yesterday that I was going to begin getting Happy Camperbus caught up by writing about the current news and working my way backwards. Well, today I was given a perfect prod on how and where to start.

Directly after the Forth of July holiday, Smick and I set out to visit a place in New Mexico called the ‘Solar Ark’. It is a fully sustainable complex that is located in New Mexico’s Northern Central mountains….it is about 100 miles North of Santa Fe. This was a seemingly wonderfully welcomed change that we were beyond excited about. We had just finished a stint in Roswell, NM followed by a brief stay in the hospital for me. (Much more on both of these items to come).

We were enticed by the idea of being able to live, work and gain hands on experience in an environment that was dedicated to the environment. The fellow, Arvo Thompson, who build the complex boasted a heavenly retreat (that just happened to take a lot of work to operate) and the graciousness to offer his services as a brilliant and patient teacher.

Here are a few examples of what we were told we would be going over:

site evaluation and sustainable house design
affordable alternative building methods (mud stone straw pumice pallets glass tires)
different types of insulation and their proper uses
greenhouse design and operation
active and passive heating and cooling
harvesting all needed electricity from solar panels, wind generators and hydro turbines; efficient appliances and lighting
simple solar hot water systems for domestic needs as well as hydronic heating
efficient and clean wood burning (masonry stove; rocket stove)
solar and wind powered water pumping; rain water harvesting, filtration and storage
greywater irrigation systems
methane digesters, biodiesel and hydrogen
geothermal heat (really just an excuse to go to the ‘secret’ chama river hot springs] and heat pumps for hydronic (radiant floor) heating

Cool, right?

OMG….jeez….I know it sounded SO cool and it really could have been except for some MAJOR problems.

One, Arvo is an absolute maniac. I am not kidding, or exaggerating I can easily and most appropriately compare him to the Grizzly Man….we were like his fox….he screamed and cursed us in a most unusually emotional way nearly the entire time we were there.
It was insane. You know how I mentioned he stated he was an accomplished teacher? Well, they are not-a-one-class currently going on, nor have they been for some time now…he can not handle it. He is a hermit for sure, with serious emotional problems.

Second has gotta be the filth. He has been living in extreme filth for some time. Oh…it was bad, never seen anything like it myself. He has this Raven living part-time indoors and it looks like he has never once cleaned the shit up in years. But that is a mild complaint compared to how gross the kitchen and living quarters were. This girl Brie who rode up with us, we picked her up in Santa Fe, and I cleaned the kitchen as soon as we got there and we got THE biggest ass-chewing from him ever. He lectured us girls for an hour about wasting water and resources and on his strange perspective on how and why his system works and is not unhealthy or dangerous. It was such bullshit….his ‘system’ was just not right.

My other major complaint is that while his place is mostly self-sustaining (if you are a weird mountain man, it works I suppose) it does not function as a normal house. For example, he has flushing toilet but we were told not to flush them or clean them. His obsession with conserving resources was not admirable, it was extreme to the max, and we were not allowed to use anything at all. Even simple cooking and cleaning procedures were forbidden. It was so not cool.

I know I sound pretty negative about it, but seriously, this doesn’t even cover the half of it.

Amidst the trauma endured by all visiting ‘The Ark’ I was able to extract some knowledge of sustainable living, both the do’s and don’ts. The trip was not entirely wasted. The good thing ~~- something I learned alot about –~~ is that NOTHING in his house goes to waste. I mean nothing. It was kinda a big deal to practice that, even for a matter of days. That in itself has made an impact on me and is something I can practice. Oh, and the indoor greenhouse was something to marvel at; though the favored veggie growing there was Swiss Chard….I can not say I would be compelled to sustain myself on that.

Me, Brie (the girl we picked up along the way) and Smick took off after Day 4, though we were planning on staying for a month or so. We three camped in the Bus and split ways shortly there after. Brie is a true traveler, been at it for 7 years now, and had a flight to catch to El Salvador. However, before she left due South, she forwarded this email to me that Arvo sent to her, it boggles the mind should you be on the receiving end of such a thing. We three were nothing short of kind, hard-working, thirsty guests. Here goes:

“i just want you to know that within an hour of your departure the raven returned, and in the afternoon it rained gently for hours. it was as if a curse had been lifted with your departure.

please know that i have run an open house for many years; i have had foreigners from all kinds of countries, men and women, young and old, vegans and heroin addicts. there have been, in all these years, only a handful of people i ended up regretting that i let them into my house. you are one of them. you are dishonest and have no regard for your host. i hope bad things will happen to you, to remind you that you brought bad things into my life. good riddance!!!”

—Arvo at his best.

Why I bring this up as a current event folks is this. Unfortunately Arvo Thompson tattooed our brains and has been a really hard person to forgive and forget. He comes up in conversation more often that I woulds care to acknowledge and it is always followed by at least an hour of stewing in resentment and ill feelings.

Today happens to be my 33rd Birthday and a dear girl that we have come to know and love in Santa Fe treated me to breakfast to celebrate the occasion and who pops up at the cafe? Yep. Arvo.
Smick and I have talked at long length about what might happen should we ever run into this man again (which seemed beyond unlikely mind you) and when we were within 50 yards of this man, we became completely convinced that should we even attempt conversation, our lives would be the worse for it. He scares us, bottom line.

Makes for a curious travelin’ story though, I must say.

Happy Camperbus halts! Whhhat?

2008-09-18T16:12:45-07:00

I have gotten so far behind on tracking the Adventures of Happy Camperbus that for at least the last month, that minuscule detail alone has kept me from writing. After a very long series of events and tons of life changing experiences that have not been told yet here (but they will!) Happy Camperbus has settled for a bit in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

We have so far, found this place an enriching place to visit for more that a pit stop of few days and since our arrive here we have been overwhelmed with good fortune and opportunity.

I will forgo my attempts to keep our blog a stream of linear experiences that read in the order of which they happend and begin to get caught up starting with the present (or very recent past) and then working backwards.

I so look forward to sharing and caring with you all once again!

rock art

2008-09-17T12:58:14-07:00

I took this picture of this rock art in a cave using a pelican 7060 Led LAPD flashlight as the light source.

Type of cat

2008-09-11T16:09:50-07:00

Is this a Bob Cat, or a realy BIG domestic cat?
Dave

Porpoise in Carlsbad, CA

2008-09-06T12:56:11-07:00

I’ve been going through some old photos and came across these porpoise pics I took in 2002 at the beach in Carslbad, CA. At least I think they are porpoise, but if they are dolphin I didn’t mislabel them on porpoise (ha ha sorry).

Never in my life would I have thought I would capture a porpoise jumping out of the ocean in the wild. It was an amazing moment. Just seeing dolphins, porpoise, and seals on the coastline where you live and play is amazing enough but I still can’t get over that jumping shot. I just wish I had a better camera at the time. Though the color shifts really played up the sunset as well.

Anyway, I thought to share because I saw a Dolphin pick that Dave or Nancy had posted elsewhere on the site.

UK Cases on Vacation!

2008-09-02T13:39:18-07:00

So, like most other people I spent my Labor Day weekend on vacation and not doing very much laboring at all. My parents have a lovely second house up in Utah and I headed up there to visit them along with my cousin and his girlfriend, my other cousin and her husband, and my cousin’s husband’s brother (got that?), who was already up there filming a movie because he’s a big shot actor. Anyway, my dad, who is the original Survivor Man, really enjoys that one of the perks of my job is that he gets lots of UK product to test out in the field. And of course, the UK cases were up in Utah with us and accompanied us on all our adventures.

I have to say, in writing about UK cases I generally spend a lot of time talking about all the impressive features like how tough, waterproof, dust proof, etc. they are, and I forget what is, to me, the number one selling point: the things are practical and great to have around in any situation. My parents threw both of them in the bed of their truck to go up to Utah and during the entire drive from San Diego they didn’t have to worry about rain or anything else they drove through affecting the contents. We took them fly fishing with us and they held all the gear and kept it dry on shore. And on Labor Day, when we all headed up to the Uinta Mountains to go hiking and got hit with an unexpected snowstorm, my dad’s various survival tools stayed safe and dry (speaking of which, after that snow experience I will never again question his need to bring a sleeping bag, water purification system, and flare on a 3 mile hike ever again). I guess I tend to think of UK cases as being the thing you need when you are about to go on a safari, or ice fishing, or out on the high seas, but the truth is they are pretty nice to have around on a family vacation as well.

Anyway, thought I would post some pictures up here of the cases in action, among them my cousin Laura and I in our fly fishing waders, and the case in a blizzard!

What did everyone else do over the holiday weekend?

Top Sports Bets - recent posts from Outdoor Adventure community

Pepper Spray...it finally happened!

alitude

Proud To Vote!

rain

Halloween

pop quiz

I opted for Day of the Dead...

It is almost Halloween—Part Deux!

It is almost Halloween; A Montage

Snail Mail

Halloween, Do you believe?

To dread, or not to dread? Big Sigh.

Lost: One monarch caterpillar

Raccoon Madness!

What Song Pumps You Up?

pop quiz

pop quiz

pop quiz

Our Winter home; Santa Fe, New Mexico

Moonbeam & Brainpan!

POP Quiz

Death Valley

Our first home in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Zozobra or Old Man Gloom

Happy Camperbus' most recent close encounter of the first kind!

Happy Camperbus halts! Whhhat?

rock art

Type of cat

Porpoise in Carlsbad, CA

UK Cases on Vacation!