Obama announced his running mate this morning and held a kickoff rally at the Old State Capital building in downtown Springfield.

It was about 88 degrees outside the crowd, and I’m sure well into the 90s in the crowd.  Folks were dropping like flies from the heat.  But plenty of paramedics were standing by.

The speeches were powerful and motivating, Biden turned out to be well spoken in front of a crowd.  Obama was, as he has been, inspirational and refined in his words.   Both candidates seemed to sing in unison when railing against what sounds like the Bush/McCain ticket.  That’s clever marketing boys.

Leslie, Sach and I got our full compliment of sun for the weekend, and certainly more than our share of heat.

1. Brake Light Switch

2. Moon Roof Pinch Sensor (twice)

3. Moon Roof Air Spoiler (it just went missing one day)

4. Seat Heater Computer

5. Seat Heating Element

6. Fuel Lines, Heat Plates

7. Right Rear Window Gears (stripped)

8. Mystery Fuse For Rear 12V Socket

Car age: 4 years.  All repairs were done at the dealership under warranty.  To VW’s credit service has steadily improved since I’ve owned the car.

Four years have passed since we all were here.  It seems that Moab changed a bit more than we did.

We arrived in Moab on Sunday and went almost immediately to our old camp site.  Unfortunately a fire within the last four years kinda decimated all the folliage, leaving the camp site very exposed and quite unappealing.

These guys may look like a new alternative band, but they’re really just sad campers.  We asked the camp host about the fire, he was pretty stoned and didn’t yield any useful information except to say that it was from natural causes.

We ended up choosing a site nearby which had some good coverage and a lot of company from the camp hosts mostly homeless friends.  They did enjoy the whiskey and cigars and offered us as much firewood as we wanted.  Sleep was at a premium that night and I awoke in less that stellar shape.

Coffee was the first order of business, followed by a bagel and some more coffee.

Top Of The World

We rented a Jeep on Monday and hit the trails ever so gently.  We were heading out on a trail called Top Of The World which by most accounts was too rough for Adam’s 4Runner.

The Jeep and Falke’s motorcycle fared pretty well on the trail.  At the end of the trail are great views and lots of bugs.  Day 1 was complete, injury count 0!  Good start to our trip!

The Whole Enchilada

After returning the Jeep we checked into our beloved Super 8.  The plan was to hit a 30 mile trail on our bicycles on Tuesday and we needed to store our gear at the hotel.  Our ride would start at Burro Pass, right about 10,500 feet up.

Climbing up to the pass was not easy.  It was uphill terrain and very tough on my lungs and heart.  I had to stop several times to catch my breath and let my heart slow down.

Once on top we all thought it was going to be a nice ride through the forest until we got to the next segment of our ride.  Unfortunately we were met with a trail half covered with remnants of winter.

At first it was fun to ride a bit and then hit the snow bank at full speed, letting our bikes crunch into the snow before coming to a standstill, upright as if we were riding still.  This got old and the snow exacerbated the fatigue that already plagued us.  Well, Falke was okay.  I was doggin’ it.  Adam was still mostly okay.

By the end of Burro Pass I had a pounding headache.  We spent four hours going four miles, we had 26 miles to go and not all of them were pretty.

But some of them were pretty.  This is Hazard Trail.  It’s a moderate climb up at first and then a long desent down to La Sal Loop Road where we took Kokopelli to continue the ride.  Before beginning that next segment we reloaded on water and pain pills from some locals in a blue Honda Fit.  They passed us on the trail and were nice enough to wait at the bottom to deliver much needed supplies.

It was at this point that Adam and I decided to cut our trail riding short after the next segment.  We rode down Kokopelli Trail, which was a wide, truck rutted trail with some artificial ramps and nice views.

We reached the bottom of the trail and started down Sand Flats Road, with my headache diminishing I thought we’d be okay.  But Adam had started to show signs he was not doing well with the heat.  Although the road was mostly downhill it had already been too much for him and we had to stop and wait for some assistance from a passerby.

Suddenly Wayne came by on his motorcycle and we procured Adam a ride to the facilities at Slick Rock.  We didn’t know Wayne but we figured if he decided to steal Adam at least we’d have a spare bicycle on hand.  Long story short (yeah, I’m actually saying that now after telling you a long story) we managed to get everyone back to the hotel and cooled off.  Later Falke and Adam went back up to Burro Pass to retrieve the 4Runner while I fell asleep at the hotel.  Day 2, injuries 0.5.

White Rim

White Rim is a 100 mile off-road vehicle trail that navigates around the Colorado and Green Rivers in the Canyonlands area.  Apparently you can bike this trail if you have a support vehicle and three or four days.  We used motorized vehicles and managed to do it in two days.

See how the background in this photo isn’t clear?  That’s because it’s really, really far away.  One of the toughest things about taking pictures in this area is capturing the sense of scale.  Everything here is really massive.  The above photo was taken near our campsite.

Before we set up camp we took a lot of photos and videos.  Our subjects included: canyons, Falkes, Adams, hummingbirds, ants, a lizard, Mark and a blackbird who loved apples.

The next day we played around on some rocks.  That’s a major passtime for residents of Moab.

Days 3 and 4 yeilded some injuries to Falke.  He managed to crash his bike into the soft sand, tearing off his windshield and applying some nice road rash to the right side of his body.  Leslie’s first aid kit proved its worth in cleaning him up.  Day 4, injuries 1.5.

Porcupine Rim

My nemesis, my beloved.  I have never enjoyed a trail so much as this one.  Four years ago, the first time I rode it, I hurt myself.  I flipped my bicycle and strained my arm from my finger tips to the middle of my back.

It’s a 14 mile trail if you cut out a little chunk of uphill stuff at the beginning.  We learned this the last time we were up here.  As I rode I kept an eye out for the place where I hurt my arm the last time.  After several misleading similar spot I ended up finding the place.  At that point I slowed to a stop and fell over scraping up my other arm on the rocks.  From hell’s heart I stab at thee!

The injury was minor and we all carried on without too much pain from the trail beyond.  Toward the end of the trail you get into the area that looks more dangerious on film.

So at the end of Day 5 I’ll give our injury total 2.0.  So ultimately that’s 1 injury every 2.5 days.  That’s not too bad.  No broken bones and Falke managed to not run over himself this time.

Our last night in Moab was spent in the Arches taking some night photos.  Adam was employing an old technique called light painting to bring out the arches in the stars.  He’ll probably have the photos up on his website.  More of my photos are here.

A view of the castle from the South Side, I’ll get a good shot of it from the West which offers the most striking view.  !! Updated !! Still working on the shot from the West, but here’s one from the Northeast.

This is the War Memorial dedicated to those who have fallen.  No photos are to be taken inside  It’s a must see when you visit the castle, a most remarkable interior filled with ledgers of names not to be forgotten and a monument to those who only God can remember.

We landed in Scotland on Sunday.  Leslie managed to sleep a bit on the plane while I caught up on all the movies I had missed from the last six months.  Having not slept, or not much anyway, we decided to hit the town immediately.

Hamish and Heather picked us up from the airport, we promptly dropped off our luggage at their ‘flat’ and went shopping.  One of the most striking things that differentiates a European trip to the UK from that of almost any other country is that everyone seems to speak English.

This was not my first rumbler.  In 1993 I was similarly jolted out of bed by a more violent quake.  This one was only a dozen miles away did more bouncing than shaking.  The ‘93 quake condemned the main building of my high school and extended my spring break by a few days.  I was too shocked to take in the entire experience of this event.

The Illinois quake had extensive aftershocks, one in particular stands out because I was in the office.  My office is on the fifth floor of and old masonry building.  It started at 10:14 and lasted what seemed like minutes.

During these quakes I was careful to pay attention to everything I could, the noise, the movement of the ground beneath my feet and of the rattling of the buildings.

Another dive, another sea turtle. He’s probably thinking something similar about me. I spotted this one near the Playancar Deep reef off the shore of Cozumel, Mexico.

I synced my contacts and calendar from Outlook, that’s represented by the orange i assume. In blue, most of my playlists are on there, but the entire collection of music, currently 23 GB, will not fit. My photos, in yellow, scaled down to iPhone resolution and sit there without any trouble. The video is probably just a few podcasts.

iPhone doesn’t play well with existing docking stations, there’s a scraggly noise every now and again as it checks in with the cell tower. I’ve heard of new ones filtering this out.

This is a Gerbera Daisy and it was suffering from mold on the leaves. I did some research online to figure out if there was a spray or something I could put on it. Sure enough there was, but what I also found intriguing was the suggestion of figuring out why the leaves are getting moldy in the first place.

I noticed that the soil was usually very moist on top, this allow the mold to really take hold in the soil. It was easily transferring to the leaves and the most likely cause of my mold epidemic.

I tried letting the dirt dry out a bit, but even minimal watering left the top of the soil moist. So I added some dirt that didn’t stay moist very well. This dirt is probably not good for regular potting, but it worked perfectly in this situation. This photo details all that is left of my mold problem. The rest of the leaves are clean.