Return to Greensburg & Thanksgiving '08

Kicking off the 2008 festive season with Thanksgiving, Sarah and I decided to drive back to Oklahoma to visit friends and family. On Wednesday afternoon we got organized and headed out along I-70 east all the way into Kansas, with some fun traffic dodging through Denver and then averaging 90mph to the border and avoiding the highway police ;) Sarah had booked a Comfort Inn at Colby, which we arrived at way too early and realised we should have avoided booking and covered as many miles through the plains in the dark as possible. Still, after a good sleep and getting up in the dark, we watched an awesome Kansas sunrise across the flat expanse of crops.

Detouring through back country Kansas we went south from Hays to get to Greensburg. For those who haven't read my earlier post about Greensburg, the town was completely destroyed by the first official EF5 rated tornado under the new enhanced fujita scale in May 2007, a mile and a half wide specimen of the most destructive winds on earth that stripped bark from trees, removed houses from their foundations and changed forever the lives of the people in its way. I went there to volunteer aid and made friends with a local fellow named Gary and helped him load what was left of his family belongings out of his sodden basement to a trailer.

Gary wasn't in the area unfortunately for me; he was in Kansas City visiting his son, so I called his cell as I came into town and spoke to him as he directed me to where his house was; now one of several bulldozed blocks apparently re-zoned to commercial where they intend to relocate the main road through town. The old lady's house across the road from Gary has been restored with a new shell, as she's 97 or something and her family & the community want her to live there the rest of her days. Looking around, a sense of devastation still prevails over the rebuilding, both from the presence of the original, the damaged, but also the absence, particularly in streets intersecting brown blocks of bulldozed dirt. Some destroyed trees remain, a few bent lightpoles, and Gary has bought one of two surviving main street buildings for an authentic angle to his antiques business. Small but encouraging, new development is centered around main street, with a new store and service station and other bits and pieces. I'm sure eventually a good number of original residents will rebuild and move back, and the town will be lush and vibrant again, but the road to recovery will be a while.

Thanksgiving was great, with two meals at two houses for both sides of Sarah's family, we ate until we were sore, and I still didn't put on any weight. The Bedlam Game was on saturday, OU vs OSU (Oklahoma University vs Oklahoma State University) in college football, and the stakes were high. If OU beat OSU, there would be a 3-way tie for who represents the south in the Big 12 conference between Texas, Texas Tech and OU. Then the various polls would decide who gets to play Missouri, winner of the north Big 12. After an epic game and some soon-to-be-immortalized acrobatics by OU's quarterback Sam Bradford, OU whooped OSU by 20 points for the 6th 60+ point total running. The next day around midday when Sarah and I were driving back to Colorado via New Mexico, text messages and calls started coming in about news that OU had made it to the championships, Texas and Texas Tech missing out. This was sweet justice as Texas had flown a plane over the OSU stadium with a banner showing the score when they beat OU, and the lobbying Texas Coach kept going on about how they beat OU blah blah how they should win, while the OU coach and quarterback spoke along the lines of we did our best, we'll keep doing our best and whatever the polls decide is what they decide. Texas' bad sportsmanship before the polls was matched after the polls, everyone wanted to interview the sore loser Texas coach, and it's sweet revenge for OU. No doubt it will just stoke the fire more for next year's game in one of the nation's biggest rivalries.

The drive back was going smoothly until we pulled into a gas station at Texline on the New Mexico border and saw cars coming from the opposite direction coated in snow and ice. After pulling a half dozen tumbleweeds from the front grill, I chatted to some people who came from that direction and they said it was a white out. Sure enough, the hundreds of tumbleweeds we'd been dodging changed to horizontal snow in winds that were probably 50mph in places. Then a couple of dozen miles into NM the road disappeared under a sheet of ice and blowing snow, and we began passing car wrecks, sedans in the ditch with bumpers torn off, trucks on their roofs with cabins totally crushed. We were still cruising at 30-40mph till we hit traffic which slowed us to a crawl, and it took us 2 hours to get through the last dozen miles. One car had even slid off the road, down the banks, 8m across a flat and through a barbed wire fence into a paddock! There were also no ploughing vehicles to be seen, NM doesn't care as much as CO about their highway road conditions (makes sense if they don't even bother to signpost some of their roads).

Colorado ended up being worse; I took this route to have a view instead of flat, straight Kansas, and we ended up with no view and a foot of snowfall, stuck again before Monument for 2.5 hours. I nearly wrecked when a slower car in the right lane with an ignorant retarded driver tried to overtake another car just as I was about to pass and I slid for several seconds, ABS vibrating, towards his bumper before he accelerated enough to pull away. After dinner, Sarah was falling asleep at the wheel in stopped traffic, so we skidded around the car to switch after I had an hour's rest. We finally got past Monument (all the hold ups were caused by a simple hill; no wrecks or anything, just a combination of retarded drivers and incapable vehicles), and we got to I-70 just before midnight. Fortunately the traffic delays of the day (up to 5 hours for some I heard later) had gone, and I cruised at 40mph all the way, through the worst road conditions I'd ever seen. The tunnel is a strange sanctuary in bad weather, you relax but try to prepare for the other side, and then emerge into awesome blowing snow, the road was totally buried and was just a large white surface which I just drove down the center of. Seconds after exiting the tunnel I saw a snow tornado whirling across the highway and I hit it straight on and for a couple of seconds couldn't see anything but white. But the AWD Subaru held it together and got us home safely, even without snow tyres!

Next day at work I found the following stats from the weekend:
A-basin 35" in 3 days
Vail 25" in 2 days
Beaver Creek 11' in 2 days
Copper 28' in 3 days

As well as an avalanche warning from weather.gov:

...AVALANCHE WARNING ISSUED FOR THE FRONT RANGE AND CONTINENTAL DIVIDE FROM THE WYOMING BORDER TO HOOSIER PASS IN SUMMIT COUNTY...

A POWERFUL WINTER STORM SYSTEM BROUGHT SNOWFALL IN EXCESS OF FOUR FEET PLUS VERY STRONG WINDS TO THE WARNING AREA SINCE THANKSGIVING DAY. STRONG WINDS GUSTS UP TO 100 MPH HELPED CREATE DANGEROUS AVALANCHE CONDITIONS.

A NUMBER OF AVALANCHES HAVE BEEN TRIGGERED OVER THE LAST 12 HOURS. SOME OF THESE SLIDES WERE RUNNING TO THE GROUND, TAKING OUT THE WINTER SNOWPACK TO DATE.

So that was my eventful Thanksgiving!

Saw a rainbow by moonlight

Just a quick one I have to write about a most extraordinary thing that I saw a couple of nights ago. Some weather was passing through town one night as part of an early season winter storm, and Sarah & I headed out of the house to pick up dominos pizza in Avon. It was raining lightly and a near full moon was out in the east, and driving away from the moon we suddenly saw this weird line in an arch across the sky, and it took a few seconds before I realized it was a rainbow! I wish I had my camera, it was a full rainbow clear as anything, but with no colour, just a light shade of grey against the night. I could see it was in front of the mountains near me so it was very close coz we were still in the light rain. It must be a super rare, impossible to see from a distance outside the shower like normal rainbows because the light is too faint. I think we only saw it because it was a full moon, lower in the sky with light drizzling rain all around us.

That along with the changing colours of the trees in the fall and the snow we had on the weekend to cover the tops of the hills white again are all the reminder I need to know I'm living in one of the more beautiful places of the world. Bring on the winter.

TEVA Mountain Games

2008 Summer Season, Colorado

The TEVA Mountain Games were held in Vail during the first week of June and I got to the games on the 7th and 8th to see some of the events. The games are timed to coincide with the peak of the melt season, when snowmelt has swollen all the rivers making for the perfect venue for the world's best kayakers to throw down in a variety of river events. In addition to the kayaking, other extreme sports enjoy the spotlight, including mountain biking, bouldering, fly fishing, rafting, paragliding and trail running.

Starting off with the kayak pro rodeo event, the finals were on saturday afternoon in the heart of Vail Village. The Gore Creek flows through the Vail Valley, and the river has a significant 'feature' (to use the river jargon) where the two pedestrian bridges span the river. The feature is a hole, which is caused when a relatively shallow section of river upstream flows over a ridge and plunges downwards, causing a standing wave of churning water that experienced kayakers can surf. Furthermore, the town of Vail invested in some mechanised flaps on the edges of the river upstream of the hole, and when raised the flaps increase the volume and size of the feature significantly.

Vail village brought a great festival ambience in the warm afternoon sun, as the crowd gathered all around the shores, balconies, bridges and stands, young couples, dogs, families and kids, the scene was set for the finals. Soon the female competitors begun warming up, and I'd never imagined such things were possible on a kayak. On either side of the hole downstream by the shore, eddies formed where water sucked back towards the feature. One at a time, the girls would paddle up the eddy and into the hole, bouncing around and then dipping forward and launching into a front flip, or swirling around in a 180 and rolling, appearing to be out of control until they suddenly popped back upright. Sometimes they lost their balance and flipped, but they expertly would flip back upright and paddle for the eddy before being swept too far downstream. The girls each competed to perform as many tricks earning points against the clock. The young girl in the pink boat, who was the daughter of the previous year's male winner, won the event, and then the male competitors entered for warmup. Some of the guys floated downstream and busted straight into the hole doing trick after trick. One guy was particularly impressive, easily dominating the aerial moves, able to get his entire kayak completely out of the water for the entire rotation. Another competitor was a 15 year old kid! He had a huge grin on his face the entire time, knowing he was competing against the same guys he probably idolises. After a couple of rounds of competition, the intensity of the sessions were ramping up with awesome displays of power and control, however the father of the female champ, who had won 2 years in a row, had to give up the title to Justin from Buena Vista, who my friend Mike knows.







After the kayaking freestyle finals we headed over to Golden Peak where the first ever international bouldering competitions were about to take place. Bouldering is like rock climbing but without ropes, so padded mats are placed under the walls, which are tall, but not so tall to cause serious injury when falling. Patches of snow still lay on the slopes behind the crowd as the field of American, Austrian, British and French competitors came out to survey the four sets of problems laid out on the walls. Combinations of overhangs, tiny moulds, big moulds and wall edges made for incredibly challenging climbs. The competitors collectively had a few minutes to discuss and plan their climbing strategy, which looked kind of funny as they all stood there waving arms over their head, pointing or mentally going through the grips and positions they'd use. For all their planning though, when it came to their turn, I think the plans mostly went out the window as they struggled for grip on each mould. Sometimes, particularly with the males, when they lost grip, the tension in their body flung them spinning away from the wall, while the girls weren't too shabby looking and still had more strength than the average guy. The crowd favourite was the second wall for the guys, where they would start out under about a 40 degree overhang, and have to jump sideways and reach around the overhang edge, grabbing for a big circular mould, resulting in their whole body swinging almost horizontal into the air, legs flailing drawing cheers from the crowd and praise from the announcer.

The final day held the kayak 8 ball competition, a crowd favourite, and one of the more dangerous events of the games. A few years earlier a kayak competitor had dreamed the event up; a team of competitors start upstream of the feature, just where the river bends and goes out of sight. They race downstream against the clock, however lying in wait to thwart their progress, are the 8 balls, kayakers in black vests ready to ambush from eddies and with tactics of ramming, blocking and basically whatever goes, to slow the competitors down. Bumpers are hung from the bridge to tangle and knock the heads of those who aren't watching out, and finally the hole provides one last opportunity for carnage before the finish line. Competitors from the other kayaking events, including the females, served as 8 ballers, and seemed unfazed by the roughness.



After the first round of 8 ball, the rafting finals were on, with two guys each with a paddle in rafts custom designed for this event. They had to go around a series of 3 gates that were located on the edges of eddies, meaning they had to go downstream, behind the gate, back up the eddy and around the gate back into the mainstream. The greatest moment of the day, was when first place came down to the last gate behind the hole but went wide and had to paddle furiously to stop going downstream. Then second place came in and bumped in ahead of first, taking the lead, but also losing their momentum. Then last place came in on a perfect approach, and snuck infront ramming the two struggling rafts, rounding the gate to come from behind and take first place as the crowd went crazy.

The 8 ball finals were epic, every round had eight 8 ballers, meaning two to one on the competitors, and they always had two 8 ballers stationed down at the hole. Every round, four competitors and up to six 8 ballers would come racing down river, and two 8 ballers would head straight into them as they plunged through the hole, ramming boats, clashing paddles, sometimes going over the top of one another. I saw several competitors and 8 ballers cop a kayak bow in the ribs, getting their paddle caught in the bumpers which then hits them in the face, and even another guy took a kayak bow to the face. Amazingly there were no serious injuries.



Hope you enjoyed the photos and video!

2008 Summer Season, Colorado

Road Trip with Andy Part I

Colorado Utah Arizona (10 - 17 March 2007)

When I moved to Colorado, I told my brother Andrew how awesome the place was and that he just had to come over & visit while I was here, as there was no better time with the exchange rate, the epic winter & having a place to stay. So just days after the 1 year mark had passed since my arrival in the States, Andy jumped on the same Qantas BNE-LAX-DEN flight, at the expense of nearly 3 grand for a return trip!

Ahead of his arrival, I worked up some overtime to take leave, managed to arrange 6 days without pay, and spent hours researching, asking around & planning a mad road trip. Finally, all preparations were made; food bought, good ol Google Maps printouts of key towns etc, timeline and main destinations planned. I'd managed to keep everything secret from Andy, a total surprise, and on a snowy saturday afternoon I headed down to Denver.

Andy hadn't even arrived when the drama started for me, got the low fuel light on the highway approaching the airport, with no servos in sight. Coming into the west-side arrivals (new to me) looking for American Airlines, I finally saw it & took the first left entry to the carpark. I quickly realised I'd turned into a police-only parking bay from the 20 or so cop cars, so hastily did a u-ie, then had to take the next & last parking entry before the arrivals exit. But this was Valet parking! I hate Valet parking, and try to avoid it as much as possible (just don't like not knowing where my car is, or having someone else park it), but I was worried I'd run out of fuel if I had to drive the long loop around again. So Valet parking it was, for the first time in my life. A half hour later after going crazy scanning the crowd of arrivals for a familiar face, I spotted Andy on the escalators. It was so great to see him, same old, he hadn't slept at all aside from a quick nap on the LAX-DEN flight, so he was pretty flogged. He didn't take well to the mild stress of looking for a gas station before running out of fuel :) but I found one. Then we headed to my new favourite store, Big 5 sports, to buy him a bunch of gear for the snow. All expenses were on me for his 13 day stay, and I hooked him up with snowboard pants, socks, goggles, beanie, base layer shirt, some other stuff I can't remember, all at least 40% off. And I scored for myself new snowboard boots & jacket, shoes and best of all, a $280 Wilson K-Six-One tennis racket for $80, BARGAIN! In Oz all this gear prob would have cost a grand, I paid somewhere around $350 gotta love the USA.

I'd driven through snow on the east side of the divide on the way over... sure enough, now in the dark, we went back into the snowfall. Like me, Andy had never seen real falling snow in his life before coming here, and I was stoked to be there to see it. I found it funny how he reacted to being driven by me on the opposite side of the road in increasingly heavy snow, he was stressing a fair bit. I assured him it was still quite safe, the snow was melting on contact with the road; the only accumulation was right near the top of the pass and nothing to worry about. We talked the whole way home even though I expected him to sleep. At one point I asked him if I sounded the same...when he said "yeah you do" I was SO glad. Survived one year without any American accent! When we got home I offered him my bed and I slept on the couch to give him the best chance to recover from his flights and jet lag.

Next day was a glorious day for snowboarding, fine blue skies, as I helped Andy get organized to hit the Beav. Remembering my own snowboard learning curve back in January, I was curious to see how he'd go getting back to where he left off in Thredbo 2½ years ago. On the chairlift rides to the top, we heard sirens and saw an army of over a dozen grooming machines heading out below us. In a tactic I hadn't seen before or since, they were all staggered side-by-side & grooming the entire run in a single pass. On our first green run, we encountered them again coming uphill & in their wake was pristine groomed snow. One snowboarder came cruising past a minute later, spinning consecutive 180's & 360's on the tips of his board without jumping or slowing down, almost like he was dancing, clearly enjoying the perfect snow surface, pretty amazing to see. Andy & I eventually met up with my neighbour Blair Gorski (I call her Blairski), and we headed for Bachelor Gulch. Andy took the stack of the day on a particularly bad catwalk (Primrose) and I saw it all, as he slid sideways, caught his heel edge, and flew through the air to land full on his butt. I came up to him gasping and moaning, he was hurting haha it was great, took a minute to get going again.

Down at the base of Bachelor's Gulch is the 5 star Ritz Carlton, where Blair's roomie Garret works behind the bar at the Spargo restaurant. Blair, Andy & I rocked up to the luxury engraved stainless steel bar & he hooked us up with tall glasses of a great pale ale beer. After 2 glasses, and what Blair couldn't finish, I was feeling some effect on an empty stomach so we went outside to soak up some sunshine. I think Andy agreed with me that the Ritz courtyard is the best place in all of Colorado to hang out in the winter, with the music, the scent of wood, the slopes & procession of skiiers at the lift, kids on the bunny hill learning to ski, wealthy guests walking around with their dogs...everyone is so obviously enjoying life, it's infectious.

Got a few more runs in before lift close, Andy taking his time down the middle while I scooted into the trees and hit small jumps, then we took "Leav the Beav" exploring the run to ski out all the way down to the carpark. Then Blair & I introduced Andy to Moe's for a very late lunch, and since it was a beautiful afternoon I drove us all across town & up to a cul de sac in Wild Ridge where you can walk out along a ridge to the end where there's 360 degree views of Avon, Beaver Creek, Edwards, Wild Ridge and the mountains. Blair & I were laughing at Andy, because he wasn't yet acclimatized to altitude; he was heaving & puffing & lagging behind while we walked up the gentle slope.

We packed the Jeep that night for the next 8 days, heading out at dawn for a big day on the road to Arches National Park, and Moab, Utah. First point of interest is the Glen Canyon heading west towards Glenwood Springs, it was Andy's first taste of canyons & the highway takes an impressive elevated route westbound on a winding bridge. We listened a bit to the radio to the country songs which we both find ridiculous, one song about some guy who 'fell into the ring of fire' had us laughing, playing it full volume so we didn't miss any of the thick country accent.

Had to pull into Palisade on the way out to Grand Junction for fuel, came up behind some white van covered in dirt, and someone had written 'This car is a piece of s$%!' and I got a good pic of the owner having to put air in the tyres. Andy was in good form with his camera at the border, completely missing the Leaving Colourful Colorado sign, and shooting the Welcome To Utah sign as we were almost level with it. Useless, but I still managed to get them both, always got the camera ready for a quick snap on the road.

Soon we turned onto the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway that heads south, skirting the east border of Arches National Park, and fairly suddenly we entered an awesome canyon. I don't know its name but the highway follows the Colorado River and the further you go the more impressive the canyon gets, starting down a narrow arm, joinging a wide delta, then the road is squeezed between the sheer red cliffs & the river. All through the canyon there is cycling tracks and signs for hiking, mountainbiking & rafting. We didn't stop anywhere for long because our next stop was Arches National Park & I wanted to do two hikes that afternoon.

Arches entrance is just past the turnoff to Moab. Once past the visitor center (which we skipped hoping to catch it later) the road winds up a steep climb onto a plateau covered in sandstone hills. The first major spectacle is the Courthouse Towers, two massive sandstone columns of vertical sides at least 500ft high. Then the Balancing Rock is fairly impressive, but not as good as the Balancing Rock on the Pyramids of Girraween National Park back home. What was impressive though is the Fiery Furnace, a maze of parallel fins of sandstone that really defies description, but is a great example of how arches form, where the bridge of a fin is left after its weaker center erodes away. The Devil's Garden is like the Fiery Furnace, and in it is where the incredible Landscape Arch exists, the widest arch in the park at 306ft and to the eye, appears to be really fragile! A sign has a tourist's photo of the last 180 ton chunk of rock to break away under the arch in 1991.

Then it was on towards Delicate Arch, the icon of Utah, and our second hike of the day. On the way up the slickrock towards the rock mountain & canyons that hide the Arch, I was reminded about walking up the bare surface of Bald Rock in Australia. What it lacked in steepness it made up for in the last hundred yards with a walk along a 2m wide shelf that seemed unnaturally convenient, a flat path at the base of a vertical cliff, above a drop into a canyon arm. I was walking along this narrow stretch listening to the quiet, looking at the canyon formations and watching black ravens soar effortlessly along the cliffs, when quite suddenly, you round a corner, and there's the Arch. Incomparable to the other features in the park, my reaction was to grin, nod & say "wow". Positioned on the far edge of a big bowl-shaped concavity in the rock, on the brink of an edge that drops away out of sight, against a distant backdrop of canyons and snow capped mountains, is the awesome Delicate Arch. The many parallel layers of rock up the arch show strong & weak points; Delicate is a very fitting description for it. And what an extraordinary position it was in! Straight away I wanted to scoot over there & get a photo standing under the arch, while Andy argued that it might ruin the view of the 5 other guys who were there. I guess we just think differently, I'm sure they wouldn't mind waiting while I ran over to the arch which I came a long way to see, for a quick photo there and back in a minute. Soon two other guys did that very thing so we all agreed to swap & get a turn under the arch. We spent a while up there, it was a very exotic environment to be in, with the warm sun, the blue sky & scattered clouds, the red rock & crazy formations, distant mountains of snow, the noise of wind in the canyons and watching those ravens soar in enviable freedom and ease around the cliffs.

Our timing was great coz walking back we passed about 2 bus loads of people, individual shots under the arch would have been impossible with that crowd! We went & checked out Balancing Rock a second time close up & then tried to make the visitor center before close time but just missed it by 15 mins! So we headed back to Moab to search for accommodation, as my plan this first night was to wing it. We also found souvenir shops to make up for the closed visitor center...after 10 mins we were walking back the car & I saw a cop double parked in the street, walking over to look at my car! I quickened my pace as he pulled out his book while Andy showed his support by turning into the nearest shop. I got to the officer & asked if there was a problem; he said I was parked illegally. Sure enough in my sudden discovery of a spare bit of curb I missed the red paint on the gutter marking a fire hydrant. I explained how I hadn't seen it & after thinking a while, the cop asked where I was from since I didn't have Utah plates, & how long I was staying. He let me off the hook after asking whether I was going to park in front of a fire hydrant again, to which I said of course not, and he left, while I took the recently vacated parking spot in front. Lucky I came back in time! I initially thought he was stinging me coz I had plates with a March expiry and it was March :) I thought as I walked back to find Andy, how given my track record, I fully expected drama on my holidays, & couldn't help but laugh to myself that it was only Day 1. After more hunting around we settled on a great new Super 8 Motel with spas, hot breakfast & wireless internet. We headed straight for the spa & spent the rest of the afternoon talking about jobs, property, travel & other deep conversations until the sun's rays set on the ridge that defines Moab's skyline.

The famous Moab Brewery was our stop for dinner... the place is awesome, furnished with jeeps, kayaks, rafts, mountain bikes, climbing gear and tables spread throughout. We tried a couple of their brews, my favourite was the Dead Horse Pale Ale with the funny logo of an native-style painting of a horse on its back with its legs in the air, with the slogan 'you can't beat a dead horse!' I ended up buying the glass.

After a good sleep we got up for Day 2, checked out, & stopped by an outdoors shop looking for a shovel, as I expected to do four wheel driving of unknown difficulty that day & didn't have anything for digging myself out of trouble. You'd think that there would be loads of shovels in Moab, the offroading capital of America, but no, had to go to 3 stores before I found a small (but not travel-designed) shovel. Haven't used it yet, I might just go & shovel some snow around the garden tomorrow to try & make the purchase seem worthwhile, just annoys me for some reason, that I have this stupid shiny new bulky useless shovel.

We headed for Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands is an enormous national park with three districts that are completely separated from each other by the Colorado and Green Rivers. These are the Island In The Sky, the Maze and the Needles; we were headed for the Needles as it was on our way towards Lake Powell. After driving west we wound our way downhill & discovered that we had entered the end of an arm of a canyon. As we drove on, we began rounding new turns that beheld sights that got more and more awesome. Soon we were driving around the flat valley floor of a massive canyon system, more rubbly and weathered looking than the other canyons we'd seen, but far more vast. After driving for a while, we crossed the national park boundary, & stopped by the visitor center for info. The staff convinced me to change my plans I'd researched on the Internet, as the Confluence Overlook drive (where the Colorado and Green rivers meet) is a fairly technical drive. We drove to the Needles viewpoint, which was similar to the fiery furnace but less spectacular from this distance. I was beginning to think Canyonlands might be a bit of a let down.

On our way back to the visitors center we found a spot that looked like a quick hike. Andy & I set out on the slickrock trail, following cairns of rock piles around some hill that converged with several canyons. The short hike turned into a trail that felt like it went on forever, & as flustered as I got with the time, it did ram home the realization that this place would be near impossible to navigate. Any wonder the Mormon pioneers on the Hole In The Rock expedition took forever to get across the barren maze of a landscape, it's a true wonder they didn't all perish. After missing a couple of rock cairns and having to backtrack, we finally hustled out of there, glad to get out & only then finding a sign saying it was a 3+ mile trail!

Back on the road, we headed back to the Colorado River Overlook road, passing the sign that warned it was for 'Four Wheel Drive Only'. After cruising out on the sand roads & crossing a couple of dry creek beds, we started hitting patches of rock, & soon it was time for 4Hi, & then 4Lo. Andy was concerned about the knocks & clatters coming out of my car (that have since been fixed) and I told him not to worry while silently willing my car to keep it together :) coz it would really suck to break down in such a place; we passed two cyclists & one car the whole time! Soon I was driving down rock steps over a foot high & over bumpy, cragged slickrock. Towards the rough end of the last mile & a half, barely getting over a walking pace, the scale of the place was really setting in. When the trail didn't require close attention, I looked out across the bare vegetation, out past the cliff edge we were following perhaps 50ft to our right, gazing at the endless lines of canyon walls far as the eye could see. When we finally reached our destination, the Overlook to the mighty Colorado River far surpassed my expectations, as cliffs dropped away 800 to 1000ft below us to the river, & we were on an intersecting point with another canyon, the Little Spring Canyon.

I found a photo opportunity sure to please mum & dad, kneeling out on the edge of an overhanging rock above the cliff, ignoring Andy's shouts and demands to get away from the edge haha. Despite his stress he got some good vertigo-inducing shots :)
Taking in the incredible scenery there in the very heart of Canyonlands, along with the absolute total silence, really gave you a profound sense of remoteness in that harsh land. Seeing the terrain on the ground & remembering the satellite images I'd seen on Google Maps, it's awesome and fearsome at the same time. Navigating without these established trails or GPS technology just seems like it would be an insurmountable challenge.

We'd planned tinned spaghetti & baked beans for lunch, but I didn't bring a can opener. While Andy siezed the opportunity to step up his efforts in rubbishing me non-stop, I realised my multitool I got for xmas has an old-school can opener on it. So Andy decided to make an amusing film ridiculing me while I figured out how to use the can opener. Here's the vid:
Instead of filming & ridiculing he should have paid more attention to watching & learning; when his turn came around, I enjoyed filming HIM completely failing in his can opening attempt:
And my spaghetti looked & tasted better than his baked beans, so sweet justice.

The Jeep survived a slightly faster & bumpier return trip & then we had to move it as we'd spent a good deal longer in Canyonlands than intended, plus we still had to get all the way south west to Halls Crossing at Lake Powell. It was pretty obvious we would be arriving late, and given the trouble I'd had communicating with the remote community a few weeks beforehand, I started trying to call ahead to find out where our accommodation was. No answers, no voicemail. Finally I'd had enough and stopping for gas in the last town before the expanse of nothing, I enlisted the staff to help get in contact with someone. After a few phone calls, I finally got hold of a lady in Bullfrog (the town across the lake's ferry route from Halls Crossing), who told me where I'd need to go.

Back on the road, I'd planned to see the Natural Bridges Monument on the way to Lake Powell. After arguing with Andy that we were already late and it was unlikely we'd ever come by this way again, Andy was overruled (coz I was driving and I'm older) and we checked out Natural Bridges right on dusk. Turned out to be pretty ordinary though haha & I got splinters in my feet when I tried to walk barefoot to take photos in a hurry (coz I like driving barefoot). Damned desert vegetation sided with Andrew and I drove with splinters in my feet all the way to Lake Powell, which we arrived at in the darkness around 8:30pm. Halls Crossing is seriously in the middle of nowhere, there is nothing there apart from some trailers, a store, a gas pump & the road to the marina. Apparently a sheet of paper was supposed to be on the store window for late arrivals with names and trailer numbers, the keys inside the unlocked trailer. I couldn't find my name, so called the lady from Bullfrog again, who checked the accommodation system from over there and couldn't find a reservation for me! I couldn't believe it. She called the lady who runs the store who 10 minutes later came down the road to open the shop & get us a trailer to stay in. While trying to figure out what'd happened to my booking, checking my bank account to ensure they hadn't already charged me, the lady (who was very nice) confessed that the year before they had several bookings disappear on them. Just my luck; I wish I took a confirmation number down on the first phone call. Andy's mood improved a lot when he could finally get indoors, shower & go to bed, no doubt wondering what more drama could possibly happen now that day 2 was over...

This will do for part 1! I've finished photos and will soon finish the story for the rest of the trip. :)

Living in Edwards, CO. Elev 7220 ft

Life In Colorado, USA	2008 Winter Season, Colorado

Right, onto the post I've been waiting to write about for a month now!
I've been here living in Edwards since driving out on Jan 2, and it's been the most insanely awesome month of my life! I knew without really knowing that it'd be incredible when I got the job, but it has so completely surpassed my expectations, I'll just do my best to write about it.

My excitment was mounting when I woke on Jan 2 to a stunning view from Stacey's apartment in Aurora of snowy sidewalks, snowy rooftops and beyond, the gleaming white Front Range under a clear blue sky. See, when I drove into Denver, it was dark, the day I flew to Oregon it was cloudy, and when I flew back it was dark, so the mountains had remained hidden until that moment, and I knew that in the afternoon, I'd drive out into them finally, and probably not come out of them for a while.

It was great getting behind the wheel again after nearly a fortnight away from my Jeep (I missed it), all my gear still sitting in the back, I headed for Sapphire Technologies with my google map printouts ready. On my way into the office I walked over the snow covered median strip and sunk past my ankles, managing to get snow in my shoes and on my suit pants. Off to a great start. After I met the face behind the voice who got me the job at RTP, Todd escorted me around town to get my errands done and have lunch. I got an oil change, bought an ice scraper, snow shovel and tyre chains, then managed to make a huge mess of my sleeves doing a test run of the chains. Finally, in the afternoon running a bit late, I headed out onto highway 470 that skirts south of Denver, then north along the foothills to intersect I-70, the gateway to the mountains. I-70 is a piece of work, electronic signs report weather conditions ahead with expected travel time, & as the road weaves up into the mountains, I drove with mingled excitement, awe and caution. At the height of the pass at an elevation of 11 158 feet (3401 m), the 1.7 mile long Eisenhower Tunnel punches through the Continental Divide, becoming the longest tunnel in the US Interstate System and the highest vehicular tunnel in the world. On the other side, despite good road conditions (wet but no snow cover) I still passed three wrecks on my way to Avon, one sedan had slid under the back of a semi which had half ripped the roof off, another car was in a ditch, and an SUV had run off the road, hit a snow embankment and flipped to lay on its roof.

I arrived in Avon close to 5pm which concerned me, as I had nowhere to stay, and was relying on using the phones & internet at the office to arrange something. Upon my arrival, I met the HR manager & after quick introductions, I explained my situation and we begun looking for accommodation. Todd back in Denver was helping as well, but after 20mins of calling & searching, there was NO accommodation whatsoever in town. Holidaymakers were still here from New Years; the nearest room was in Gypsum, 30 minutes west and $200 a night! Carol sent out an email to the staff saying a contractor had arrived in town & could not find lodging, and fortunately for me, a guy named Andrew had just vacated his guest room at his house and, without having even met me, offered to come back to work to escort me up & stay. Needless to say, he's an absolute champion and we're now good friends, I even got to watch Oklahoma play in the Fiesta Bowl (a respected college football event) while I begun my research for somewhere to live.

I started work the next day, learning loads about life in the mountains, places in town, stuff about work, soaking it all up the best I could, & canvassing what little accommodation I could find, with roommates.com, craigslist.org & the Vail Daily. I didn't get much sleep again that night (2nd night running) from anxiety over my lodging, next day I teed up an interview with 2 people looking for a third in a 3bed duplex in Homestead Meadows. Another 3rd night of bugger all sleep & in the morning the only new ad was titled 'Mountain Bare' and was a 4brm house with at least 2 other guys living there looking for room mates. They were massage therapists, who enjoy the odd meditation session, and quote "setting is clothing optional, so if you are affronted by nudity, stop here now"! I can't believe I was so desperate I was even thinking about it, but later at work by chance, I was having a conversation with my boss Steve about the crap accommodation situation when this guy happens to walk up & say 'well I'm looking for a room mate.' His name was Nate Sutterer & he was in fact the CFO of the company! I was all to happy to look at another place as I hadn't heard from the pair the prev night, so we checked out his 2bed apartment in River Pines in Edwards he was renting by himself, which is just down the road 10min from work. He has a dog Gusto, awesome dog, the place was great & we had lunch at E-town, the restaurant/bar which is a stroll away from the units, got along really well, agreed on a price & that was that :) Less than 48 hours from my arrival I had accommodation squared away in one of the toughest times for it, and the relief was almost physical. I can handle just about anything with this traveling business, provided I have somewhere to sleep when it's below freezing outside!

So I spent the night moving in, saying goodbye to Andrew's family (wife 2 kids dog & cats) and saturday getting organised, & then sunday Nate & his girlfriend Emily (who lives in Denver) took me out onto the slopes of Beaver Creek, the ski resort 10 mins down the road next to work :) I was hooked up with spare board & boots, Nate used one of his half price passes on me & we spent the afternoon at Bachelor Gulch, an area of the Beav which is centered around the stunning Ritz Carlton 5 star resort. In the afternoon it snowed steadily & I was boarding through a couple of inches of powder until lift close, unable to grasp the reality that I lived only a couple miles away.

Just about every day since has held something new & amazing, just like my arrival to the states in Norman Oklahoma. The river innocently flows through the valley past work & home, my bedroom window looks out onto the Riverwalk shops, & the winding snowy path that follows the river. White bumps in the river are snow covered rocks, which meet with the snowy river banks, & in places sheets of snow covered ice completely hide the flowing water from view. It takes a song or two on the CD player to warm the car in the mornings, often I spend a couple of those minutes sweeping snow off the windows and bonnet with my gloves. Four wheel drive comes in handy for snowy uphill road entries, a committed run-up is sometimes needed for everyone else. Days that I wear business gear to work are fun, when I cross the car park in my work boots, the slick soles cause me to slide, stumble & skate across the ice & snowpack while i'm trying to appreciate the icicles hanging from the rooftops. One morning I saw the air glinting with thousands of fine particles when I looked towards the sun, like sparkling dust, and I was completely mystified. Found out later that it was frozen fog.

Dad wrote me in chat one night responding to my news of getting a job in the mountains of Colorado, and he said "there's temperatures there you haven't even dreamed of." haha! Well that's for sure, my coldest morning I've seen evidence of so far has been -4F, which is -20C. When it gets like that, outside exercise is impossible as your throat can freeze, exposed skin (ear lobes, fingers) are at risk, and the river which is made of snowmelt and can only be a fraction above freezing, actually steams.

The craziness doesn't end there. Water up here boils around 92C, the weather can go from sunny to snow showers in minutes, and post does not get delivered to your door in these mountain towns. Everyone has to rent a PO box, and there is a queue, first come first served. Pretty dodgy actually, they stuffed up my application to share Nate's PO box & my pay checks bounced back to Massechusets, took me a full month to get them. The driving is always interesting too. Most of the main roads are treated with sand/gravel and magnesium sulphate, which turns everything to a lovely brown slush, but is supposed to be better for your car than salt. When it snows, the formidable local fleet of trucks with ploughs get out & you don't want to be driving next to them when they start ploughing snow 10 feet to the side.

I haven't told anyone from home this story yet (sorry mum, dad, but I know how you worry). In my second week here, Greg & I were planning to hit Vail, which would be my first visit to the largest ski resort in the United States, and I was going to pick him up from his place down the road at 7:30 AM. So there was no snow on the roads, & 1 week is the perfect period of time to become blaz-e about driving, and well there's a bump on a gentle left turn not far from my apartments. I believe a combination of black ice and acceleration caused the rear wheels to break traction, and the car veered left into the oncoming lane (no traffic thankfully). I tried to correct steering to the right, but the roads were so slick it went past straight and I started spinning to the right, so somehow I had the presence of mind to whip steering hard right and throw the brakes on so I slid in a straight line up the road, coming to a stop in the middle of my lane facing the wrong way, and the 3 cars that were following me. Probably slid 25m all up, I put it back in gear, got in the other lane, did a u-turn and went on my merry way. After taking stock of what happened, I started laughing at myself for how ridiculously calm I remained throughout it all, I was even pretty stoked. A few mins later I saw a Bachelor Gulch staff truck getting towed out of the snow banks after sliding on the ice, and even upon my return at 3:30 PM that afternoon, there were 2 cars in the snow banks on opposite sides of the road in the same place I spun out. Evidence of several other impacts were in the snow banks from that day, and I know that I was very fortunate. When I called Todd, starting the conversation with 'hey guess what happened to me this morning' his reaction was 'what already? you've only been there a week and a half.' haha But DON'T WORRY MUM, DAD, I can see trouble spots now and am getting better every day at knowing how to drive real winter conditions :)

Besides, everywhere is so close, I only have to get petrol every couple weeks, and so much stuff is just walking distance from home. A grocery store, a cinema, a restaurant/bar, a liquor store, the riverwalk for strolls and exercise, coffee shop, book store and of course Moe's ;) What more can you ask? Well, apart from more warm clothes. Walking Gusto is funny, in cold weather (single digit F) after 10 mins his paws get cold and he tries to avoid walking on them, so he walks on 3 legs with a hind leg stuck in the air, alternating every 10m or so, stopping to bend over sniffing another dogs markings, leg still in the air. You can't stop laughing. Nate says if you're too far from home he will stop walking & you have to pick him up & carry him back!

So I'm learning an awful lot about snow. I've seen dry, fine champagne powder snow, wet clingy snow, large fluffy light snow, heavy dense snow, wind scoured snow, even cold snow as opposed to 'warm' snow. Many areas of the mountains have seen the best January snowfall in a decade, and there has been high avalanche danger. When I was in Oregon one snowboarder crashed into a well of quicksand-like powder and suffocated, and separate avalanches killed a couple of back country skiiers. The locals I work with know a great deal about back country snow conditions, and even they say they don't know enough to risk doing it with so much snow. One of the deadly back country avalanches had a 12ft crown (the crown is the top of the avalanche where the snow breaks away) That means there was already 12ft of snow at the beginning let alone what got churned up further down. One avalanche buried 2 cars on a highway a few nights ago, authorities said there was more volume in that single avalanche than in all of the avalanches in that area for the past few years combined.

But it's all good, avalanches will always happen to back country skiiers who can't resist the lure of fresh powder, I'll stick to getting up early to catch first chair and blaze new tracks at the resorts after evening snowfall. It's such an awesome thing, speed is key & the bumpy grooms & packed snow gives way to a soft cushion where you feel as if you're floating, a wake of snow splashes around your knees & over your trailing hand, & you leave a cloud of powder 10 feet long. Steering is totally different, instead of sliding through turns you go exactly where you lean & point the board, like surfing with fins as opposed to without fins. Days like that, people are whooping and laughing, smiles all around, and your only problem is deciding which run to tackle next, or which line to take through the trees. As Nate says, 'What nice problems to have'.

I'm working on convincing Nate to buy a waterproof camera like mine so he can take some action shots of me too. He could have got a good photo this past weekend, I spent half the day finally getting into the tree glades at Vail, and when I stopped to have lunch in Mid Vail and took my helmet off, there was a great big twig sticking out of it :) With world class ski resorts only minutes away, and my 5 mountain pass permanently hanging off the chest pocket of my parka which I negotiated into the deal for my job, I'll be making sure I'm out there every weekend for the rest of the season.

Life In Colorado, USA	Vail Resorts, Colorado

Moving to CO and Xmas in Oregon

Boardman, Oregon (21 December 2007 - 1 January 2008)

As much as I knew I was going to miss Oklahoma and my friends, the impact of leaving was dulled because of a non-stop schedule for an exciting end to 2007. I was going to be visiting the Callows in Oregon, whom I met in New Zealand a year before, and then moving to the Rocky Mountains for a new job with Resort Technology Partners.

Two nights before I left, Todd Sarah and I had an early christmas opening presents, and I got out my box that my family shipped to me from Australia, that'd been sitting on my floor for about 3 weeks. Todd was stoked with his genuine Australian boardshorts picked by Andy from home, black quicksilver and perfect for the ol dirtybird. Sarah had a new outfit and lotions & I was spoiled with leather gloves, a navy blue business shirt & a black scarf. BUT, out of the box from home came an Aussie beanie & scarf (green & gold), Aussie beer cooler, a giant Australian flag windshield thing for the car, even four little Aussie flags! Todd's loungeroom was covered in Aussie gear and I was convinced Mum & Dad had robbed a souvenir shop.

But it was great, soon after arriving in the US I realized I didn't have much Australian stuff to show with pride, only really had my Aussie boxer shorts, which doesn't really count you know? :) So now i'm set, gave Todd a spare flag & took the stick out of another & tied it to my suitcase handle so I can spot my typical black suitcase apart from the other dozen ones like it on the airport baggage carousel. I then got to packing everything I have in the back of my car to move to Colorado. The plan was to finish work with Metavante on December 14, giving me almost a week to hang out with my mate Paul who was my first visitor from home (champion!), pack everything up and drive up to Denver. My friend Stacey, being the awesome girl that she is, let me stay overnight (again) at her place in Aurora and offered her car port to stow the Jeep & all my stuff, while I flew out to Oregon for Xmas and New Years. I would return on the 1st. Stacey was even kind enough to drop me off at the airport before work in the morning, so I hung out and had an awesome breakfast burrito in the terminal at a mexican joint.

Sitting in the gate lounge early for the flight, I was fooling around with the laptop and the dodgy airport wireless, when I suddenly realised, I was surrounded by beautiful women. There were 5 in the seats around me, all stunners, reading books, listening to music or on the laptop, and I thought mmm, I love Colorado... to the point I was inspired to message Todd about it. His reply was that he was stuck at work, in his fishbowl office with his co-worker/subordinate who can't understand english. I probably found it funnier than him. On the flight, I was in the middle seat again, had a good run of window seats there at the start, now it's like a curse and I never get it, always peering past people who don't care about the view outside and would rather sleep. But I sat next to a girl who I chatted to, she'd been all around the world and stuff and was only 18 (lucky with parents) and she was born & bred in Salt Lake City. She told me some interesting stuff about the place, how the Mormon pioneers followed their prophet across the uninhabited countryside in the late 1800's until he saw a great lake, decided that would be the spot to build their city (saw it in a vision apparently). Too bad the lake turned out to be a gigantic useless salt marsh that often puts off an odour that reaches all the way to the mountains :) Pretty funny hearing it come from her, as she's one of the few people from the area that isn't Mormon. Still, out the window, the calm Great Salt Lake reflected the patchy cloud cover against a backdrop of snowed mountains that encircled the city. Known as the crossroads of the west, it was an impressive sight.

After a delayed flight to Pasco Tri-Cities in Washington, I finally landed and met up with Clay, who came to pick me up. He was on xmas break from his studies at the University Of Idaho in Moscow (no joke that's the name of the town). Down across the border to Oregon, I was introduced to the quiet little town of Boardman, and met up again with Dawn and Shannon, and met for the first time Dawn's partner Robyn Graff and his son Trevor, who had recently moved into the house. Dawn and Robyn work as teachers at Riverside High School, where Shannon and Trevor go to school and Clay graduated the year before.

I have so many highlights of my stay there, starting with going quad biking with Clay on the vacant land next to the house; Graff owns the bike and they had ridden a bunch of trails into the brush, complete with little jumps, steep drops and sudden hairpin turns. We went out in freezing conditions and when our hands were going red with cold we decided to head back for gloves, and for me to grab the camera. I'd only just begun filming on our cruise back down the road to the trails when it begun sleeting on us! We had no goggles so that was that, sleet in the eyes sucks a lot more than rain.

Another day we all got up early to make a road trip out to the Bull Prairie Lake in a mountainous national forest area to the south. Graf loaded the quad bike on the trailer and a couple hours later we turned off the main road onto the access road buried in over a foot of snow. I was paying keen attention to Graff's impressive driving, sliding around corners a bit with a trailer in tow and going maybe a tiny bit faster than I would have thought to be 'safe family driving' :) Upon arrival, I first saw the open flat white expanse which I knew to be the lake, but was shocked to see two groups of people out there! I hadn't expected that, and sure enough the lake was frozen enough to walk on, though a huge fracture and tyre marks at the boat ramp showed that the ice wasn't thick enough for vehicles. We piled out of the car and began a snowfight, I quickly put on a pair of snow shoes & pants as the snow was up to knee deep. Graff got the bike off the trailer & got out the rope and truck tube for some 'snow tubing'! Both the driver and the person being towed were perfect targets for snowballs and the bumpy snow made for some good tubing and crashes (though not as hard core as on the lake with Todd behind the wheel).

I also went off and explored, since it was only the third time I'd seen snow, and never so soft, fresh and deep. Out in the forest, some drifts were waist deep, and Flare the golden lab would stumble as he walked when his paws broke through some of the icy layers. What was so stunning, was it was absolutely quiet (when the quad bike went away up the road), and every 5 seconds or so clumps of snow would fall from a tree branch, knocking off other clumps and leaving a stream of falling powder and sound of a soft thud. I checked out one of the jettys for some photos, and saw Shannon and her boyfriend Cory walking clear across the middle of the lake. So I looked over the end of the jetty, very tentatively tested my weight, and stepped off the end onto the ice, onto the lake! It was such a profound experience, walking on a lake, haha stepping off a jetty for crying out loud. Nuts. Graf and Dawn were setting up chairs and fishing poles and the esky/cooler out on the ice & I helped him cut out a few holes in the ice with the axe. There were two main layers of ice, probably 4 or 5 inches thick all up. He had corn for bait? I guess that's normal, but yeah haha, slim pickings in that ice fishing business, people who know me know that fishing aint really my thang. Graf and Trevor set up a fire on the ice and began cooking lunch, while I stood to the side trying to figure out what happens when you build a fire on ice. I mean, I had never thought about that before :) and after a little concern, I reasoned to myself that a fire couldn't melt through the ice because it'd just go out when it hit the water. Which is exactly what happened, after a while a puddle forms, and eventually burning sticks will fall in the water and go out, and there is no chance of us hearing a big crack and all disappearing into the frigid water :) Although there was one problem, a male problem, see when one guy cuts a hole with the axe, every other guy there has to try to see if he can cut a better hole, soon there are holes everywhere. Ambling about the fire I walked backwards half into a hole, lucky the lower layer of ice held my weight, but Trevor was not so fortunate, he fell up to the knee into one of his holes :)

There was more excitement at the end of the day when Graf decided to take Dawn and Shannon each for a spin out on the ice on the quad bike. I could tell he'd done it before, the trick was to keep the throttle flat and maintain speed, with gentle turns going in wide controlled sliding turns across the ice. To slow down would put too much pressure on an area of ice, and there's a strong chance of breaking through. On Shannon's turn, Graf twice broke ice, probably that top layer, and he confessed after he came back that it scared the hell out of him. Pretty gutsy driving at 30mph straight down the boat ramp to the side of the big hole someone's truck made earlier. Oh don't forget, with your girlfriend on the back first time, and her daughter the next. He certainly had my attention, I didn't even want to think about what a sinking quad bike and flying / sinking riders would be like. And some people think that I'M crazy.
But all was good and nobody died and they lived happily ever after...moving on, Clay Trevor & I went to Anthony Lakes ski resort another day, where I tried skiing for the first time, and Trevor's first time snowboarding. The valley of the town of North Powder was in sunshine and clear skies, but clouds hung over the mountains where the ski resort was, and it snowed the entire time we were there, first time I had finally seen *real* falling snow! I rented blades, which are half-size skis and are easier to learn on apparently, and within 2 hours I was going down blue runs with Clay. Trevor did a good job of being 'one of those snowboarders' who fall spectacularly every few minutes for the amusement of people on the lifts. Anthony Lakes was quiet, even though Clay said it was busy, he's been spoiled, it wasn't hard to get on a run all by yourself. It was cold, Fahrenheit in the teens, I lost feeling in my toes and fingers more than once. Towards the end of the day it begun snowing harder, and I'd been crashing a few times; on my last blue run, the altitude and strain on my quads caused me to weaken at a few critical moments, and instead of turning left, I'd go right, off the packed groom and onto the powder, the nose of my skis buried and I did a forward flip to land on my back. I did it three times ay, can still feel the snow falling down my neck and back against the skin!

The Callows have a cool Xmas tradition with a hand-knit quilt made by Dawn's mother like an advent calendar. Each day, it was someone's turn to choose from a selection of remaining decorations to hang on the appropriate day on the quilt, and everyone else had to guess which decoration would be picked. Shannon won, I can't remember the prize, but it was the morning ritual for all of December to get everyone together. After Xmas, the Callows were going to take me to Washington to Dawn's father's place a third of the way between Portland and Seattle. Early in the morning we set off West along I-84, which follows the awesome Colombia River, a very windy place. The westerly wind was pushing a near 2ft swell down the river in places, and I realized with a shock that I hadn't seen white horses (wind waves) since leaving Australia. We drove through the area of the river known as the Gorges, which is famous in Kiteboarding circles as the consistent wind funnels through a narrow gorge creating epic kiting conditions. When we started the drive, it was overcast, but a short way along the river it fined up for a while to sunny blue skies, and then past the Gorges and the Dalles Dam, it fairly suddenly turns to rain, then a mix of rain & snow. We came to the Multnomah Falls, a famous Oregon waterfall, and stopped to walk over and have a look. As far as lofty waterfalls go, it was the most impressive I'd ever seen, falling in two sections 542ft and 69ft high, and this cool arch bridge spans the lower falls. It's the second highest year-round waterfall in the United States after Yosemite Falls. The whole area is so constantly wet from high rainfall that it's declared as rainforest, one of the most northern latitude rainforests in the world, the trees are covered in moss inches thick. Dawn went to take a photo of me and accidentally shot a drop of water falling infront of the camera so it covered my face!

We drove near to Mt Hood which is a beautiful mountain, and past Mt St Helens, and I could see nothing for rain and snow! I was really bummed, but Washington is everything that I've heard; beautiful, but wet. Green and lush, and really wet. Went exploring the neighbourhood where Don (Dawn's father) lives and there is an old train track bridge that had been disassembled and the bridge span left sitting on the ground by the river. Weird to see a big old chunk of bridge lying around, sitting off the ground at one end!

I got a lot of reading done at Don's and we played card games that night, Dawn, Clay, Shaz & I were quoting movies, messing around & laughing so much I really felt like part of the family, which meant a lot, I made the right decision in spending Xmas with them. It was only the next day we headed back as Shannon had more basketball practice. Clay & I hung out a couple more days, some of the cool things we did was go for a night session of snowboarding/skiing to Meadows at Mt Hood. Once again Clay didn't crash at all (he wasn't going hard enough) and I had a good crash at speed right in front of him, dug a heel edge and went down hard on my back, goggles flew off, the works, Clay barely missed me & saw the whole thing. Meadows was pretty cool, bit more fun than Anthony Lakes, couple of guys on the lift in front were playing Marco Polo with other guys below, who called us fish out of the water. Also from the lift we saw a skiier line up for a jump, he wedged his right ski into the snow on the side of the jump, boot popped cleanly out, & he did a huge sprawling forwards face-plant, 'winding down the windows' flailing his arms around in circles the whole way. He was ok, it was soft snow, I could hear him laughing along with everyone else.

The Callows loved Carl Barron, I played both his DVDs for them and they were even quoting him by the time I left. We also played Monopoly, a college edition, and I neglected to tell them that my family won't play with me anymore because I win too much :) So after many threats of flipping the board and giving property away they declared me the winner, and we also played Game Of Life, although it was very different to the Australian version my parents have, has pros and cons, you don't sell your kids off at the end in the US version, and you can land on spaces that let you steal someone else's income, permanently! Until someone else steals yours. That was a bit funny, I was an athlete on a doctor's wage one sec, then a teacher's wage the next.

One last highlight was when Clay took me to the wildlife reserve in Boardman, and after cruising around he took me to a lookout on a hill. Unbeknownst to me until he told me as we drove up to it, that it was named Callow's Overlook, after his father who was the Reserve Manager and Biologist. Dawn had told me that it was only a few months after the family moved to Boardman when the accident occurred, a light aircraft plane crash during a waterfowl observation flight. Callow's Overlook is, in my opinion, probably the most peaceful location with the best view in Boardman, and a very fitting tribute to the work Mr Callow did for the refuge. Clay pointed out the area where the family lived in a trailer for the first month or so, until they found their current home, and I can't begin to imagine how hard it must have been, and how strong Dawn and the kids are to have pulled together as a family and made it through. They are all so awesome and they know how much I appreciated their hospitality and company, and I love them like my own family.

So on the 1st, my flight back to Colorado departed in the early afternoon, and for the second year running I was flying out on New Years Day bound for unknown adventures. As I said to Dawn, back in NZ when we all had met a year before and became friends, it was one of those things where you'd like to stay in touch, or see one another again, but on opposite ends of the world, you don't know if it will ever happen. But I made it happen and not for the last time, that's for sure!

2007 was good to me, that's very much an understatement, and I'm just so incredibly fortunate to have an even more exciting outlook for 2008.

Boardman, Oregon (21 December 2007 - 1 January 2008)

The best of Okla

Life In Oklahoma, USA

My stay in Norman Oklahoma is now over, just a few days short of 9 months since I arrived in the USA on March 3, I drove out of Norman back on the road for Colorado, and it was sad to leave. There are too many amazing things about the place to mention them all, it was great for Paul to come & visit in my last week so I had someone from home to show all the cool stuff. Like Moe's, tex-mex food and makers of the best burritos in the world! I swear I should open one up back home on Orchid Ave in Surfers Paradise by the nightclubs and make millions. Paul got some sense of the vibe of a college town, but he didn't see OU college sports, the football, the tailgating parties and the crimson frenzy of the crowd. I miss going for my runs on warm summer evenings through my neighbourhood and parks; bright orange flashes from lightning bugs and the sound of crickets made the place feel surreal. The old neighbourhoods and streets lined with enormous trees and lush grass and American flags flying from the front porches of the huge houses. And in spring, I'd come out of work at lunchtime, spin in a circle to see storm upon storm after storms building in every direction, between patches of blue sky, white billowing clouds, dark grey rains and distant giant storms. The threat of severe weather was more exciting than fearsome, lightning was crazy and the thunder crackled in the air instead of booming like back home, the supercells of tornado alley are an awesome thing. My favourite of all; afternoons on the lake after work. Blazing in 95 degree heat, kickin back in Todd's Ski Nautique with a beer and music pumping with friends, watching Nate wakeboard, attempting back rolls and stacking spectacularly every time. The sunsets there go on forever because the land is so flat. And yeah I'll miss that apartment complex where the college girls all hang out by the pool, studying, sunbaking or playing water volleyball.

Almost everytime I meet someone, I get the same question in the same ludicrous tone... why Oklahoma, how on earth did you end up in Oklahoma? There's actually loads of fun stuff there if you look for it. I was especially fortunate to have met such fantastic people who had similar interests and introduced me to so much new stuff. For a single guy to go alone to another country and not know anyone and have such a great time, the real credit goes to all of my friends in Oklahoma, you know who you are.

Life takes such a different pace in that part of the world, with different priorities, it's not uncommon to find people who go to college, get married, and then start their careers. I can see the appeal; a wife, a house, a truck, a yard and a dog, the American dream. The living is so affordable, all of my friends were in their mid to late 20's, most had a house, a car or cars, a motorbike, or a boat, some were getting married.

I absolutely love the place. Never met such friendly people. Thinking of just how random were the circumstances that led to my stay in Norman, when I could have ended up anywhere in the US, makes me feel incredibly fortunate that the chance I took paid off. It was a great place to live for the most exciting 9 months of my life so far, and I've made friends for life too. But I'll always call the Gold Coast home, with the sun, the surf and the beaches.