Romancing the Stone (Special Edition)

Strix had never seen this, so it ended up on our Netflix list.  What a silly, campy little movie this is, very much a product of the 80's (1984, to be exact).  Still, it's a fun little movie, and the plot makes more sense to me now that I'm no longer 12.  And hey, Kathleen Turner actually looked good, even though even then she had that voice that made her sound like she really enjoyed cigars and whiskey.

Completely off topic, but it was snowing like mad here earlier.  It was hard to even get home from rehearsal... near white-out conditions.

Come to New Mexico, they said.  It's beautiful and tropical, they said.  Lovely.

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Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest [Blu-ray]

We watched this tonight while eating a wonderful spaghetti pomodoro that Strix made with a home-grown tomato given to her by one of her co-workers.  The food has nothing to do with the movie; I just thought I'd mention it.

Anyway, Dead Man's Chest is full of some incredible Rube Goldberg-like fight and chase scenes.  The plot makes very little sense, of course, but it's not really meant to.  Now we have to see the third movie.

Also, I need to work on my Jack Sparrow impression.

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I worked early this morning, and when I got home we went out geocaching.  We only got two accomplished, but they were both multi-caches, which are usually a lot of fun.

For the first cache, we parked on the wrong side of the highway and ended up going under it in a storm culvert.  It's not something I recommend, but hey, life is an adventure.  We found the first cache, which was just coordinates to the second cache, and had a nice little hike on BLM land when we got there.

Any Questions

Do we always regret the path not taken?

The next cache was actually at San Juan College, and it was very interesting.  The cache page actually gives several different coordinates, where you are supposed to gather clues to be used in conjunction with a decoder on the cache page to figure out the coordinates of the actual cache.  Unfortunately, this led us to the middle of a sand lot in the back end of the college campus.  The cache hasn't been found by anyone since May, and I think it may have been moved and/or destroyed during construction.

Haven't got a clue what I'm talking about, Muggle?  Follow the link:

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The Scarlet Pimpernel

This is the original Scarlet Pimpernel, 1934.  The sound quality was rather poor, but it was still fun to watch.  It's a masked avenger adventure along the same lines of Zorro, if you aren't familiar with the story.  Set during the time of the French Reign of Terror, this is a story about an upper-class British peer who in his spare time sneaks into France and helps smuggle noble families out before they can be marched to the guillotine.

The Reign of Terror was a horrifically bloody time, in which about 40,000 people were executed in France.  It makes you wonder why more fiction hasn't been based on this time period.

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On our way to Las Vegas, we took the route that takes you through the southern edge of Zion National Park.  I was unprepared for exactly how beautiful this drive would be, and we will definitely be going back to Zion for a longer visit sometime in the future.

I actually found myself feeling fortunate that we hit the park on a rainy day.  I don't think the clouds would have been as dramatically low as they were, otherwise, shrowding the mountain tops.

Zion

The park as seen from space in Google Earth.  The red lines are hiking trails.  Oh, the places I'll go!

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What happened in Vegas isn't going to stay in Vegas, because I'm going to blog about it!

First of all, I hate playing catch-up, but the crappy Riviera Hotel wanted to charge an extra $10/night for Internet access and I refused on principal to pay for something that most "lesser" hotels give away for free.  Besides, we were too busy to blog.

Hey, Buck

Damsel

These two deer saw us off on the way out of town.  We frequently see deer right outside our house.  I managed to snap these with my camera phone.

We expected to take a lot of pictures on this trip, but I didn't expect to be taking them less than a block from our house!

We went west into Arizona, through the Navajo Nation, and hit some heavy snow just a couple hours into it as we climbed into higher elevations.  The snow completely disappeared by the time we got to Glen Canyon.

Glen Canyon is gorgeous.  (Or gorge-us, if you don't mind the pun.)  The pic on the right is the Glen Canyon Dam, which creates Lake Powell north of it.

Strix and Rock Formations

Strix taking pictures of the odd rock formations here at the edge of Glen Canyon.  We noticed that the rock was very different in texture throughout Arizona and Utah than it is in New Mexico.  It's less worn and more jagged.  I'm no geologist, but I would guess that to mean that the formations are younger here.

Watch Your Step

There's a railing here to help you down the steep walkway to the lookout area.

Watch Your Step 2

I think it's amazing that these steps just naturally formed like this through geological forces!  Isn't that proof enough of intelligent design?!

Glen Canyon Lizard

This little guy was our tour guide for a short time.

Glen Canyon Rock Formations

Just another shot of the interesting rock formations here.

Glen Canyon Greenery

The pictures don't do it justice, and it's also hard to see it when you haven't been living in a dry area for a while, but right after a rain what greenery we have looks extremely green, almost blue in their intensity.

Actual pics of the canyon, with the Colorado River flowing down at the bottom, making this an up-stream preview of the Grand Canyon.  I didn't take these pictures from the viewing area.  Much to Strix's consternation, I climbed a little higher and took them from a sheer dropoff with no railing.  Great pics, though, don't you think?  I think good photography is worth a little risk to life and limb.

Another thing pics don't do justice to - shots straight down a several hundred foot drop.

The Glen Canyon Dam.  See the little white dot at the bottom right?

This is that little dot on 10x optical zoom.  Looks like fun, doesn't it?

Suckers

These people had to see the dam from a much lower vantage point, owing to their fear of falling to their water grave.  Suckers.  You'll notice the guy on the left decided to walk out past the railing, but he still didn't get a good a view as I did.  Ha!

Nestea Plunge Pax

See, look at the fun I'm having.

Rock View

A view from a little bit lower allowed me to get a shot further downstream, although with the cliffside in the way.

Glen Canyon Dam 4

A pic of the dam from the "official" viewing point.  How boring.

Stairway to Highway

Strix contemplating the long walk back to the highway, up the stairs that were predestined for us to climb.

Geo Marker

After getting back to the car (and panting for breath for a moment), we headed on to the bridge that crosses the gorge just downstream of the dam.  This is a picture from the bridge of a geo marker that was placed here, on a little concrete platform, overlooking the dam.  Why they decided to put it there, I do not know.

Glen Canyon Dam 5

A view from the bridge down to the bottom of the dam.  At first, I thought the green stuff was shallow river water, but on closer inspection it appears to be grass.  Why?  I don't know.

Glen Canyon Bridge

A view down the very long bridge crossing Glen Canyon.

Views of the canyon from the bridge.

Boat Launch

A boat launch seen from the bridge.  I'm definitely going to have to go back and do this.

Glen Canyon Dam 6

A view of the dam from the bridge.  The structure to the left is the visitor's center, which we went into briefly.  This is the only time I've ever had to go through a metal detector to get into a visitor's center.  Yes, I know it's a dam, but what difference does it make?  If I can take out the Glen Canyon dam with my 3" pocket knife, I think we ought to just pack it up and go home.

Dinosaur Tracks

A display of fossilized dinosaur tracks outside the visitor's center.

Glen Canyon Bridge 2

A view of the bridge from inside the visitor's center.  It is 700 feet above the river and 1,028 feet long.

Glen Canyon Dam 7

A view of the bottom of the dam from the visitor's center.

Upstream

A view of the marina, upstream from the dam, as seen from the visitor's center.

Model

A model of the lake and dam found inside the visitor's center.

Power Plant

A view of the power plant from farther beyond the bridge.

More views of Lake Powell.

Rain out west of our location, where we were going.

And now, some images from Google Earth, so you can see where we were:

GE Lake Powell

GE Glen Canyon Dam

Okay, this one is actually kind of funny.  If you look at the dam from an angle in Google Earth, it looks like the bridge goes down into the river and comes back up.  Doh.

GE Marina

The marina upstream from the dam.

GE Visitor's Center

The visitor's center, outline in read in the bottom left of the frame.

Okay, this concludes the first post from our trip.  Watch for more!

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Originally posted on my old blog on February 24th, 2006:

We went back to the White Sands National Monument to take the Sunset Stroll, a ranger-guided tour that didn't start until about an hour before sunset.  Before the tour started, we got some more shots of the dunes.

WS Pedestal

A sand pedestal.

WS Mountains over the Dune

Picnic benches in a sea of white sand.

Shadows on the sand.

WS Sunset

Sunset itself was somewhat ruined by the clouds.  But I liked the way the sun looked behind the clouds here.

Mountains to the north at sunset.

The clouds finally cleared a little after the sun had gone down, making the mountains look like their on fire.  [Edit: I had the pic on the right blown up to poster size and framed it as a Christmas present to my grandmother.]

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Originally posted on my old blog on February 24th, 2006:

After breakfast, we headed toward Cloudcroft and up an extremely curvey set of roads to the solar observatory at Sunspot, New Mexico.  We were disappointed to see that the museum at the observatory was only open on Saturdays and Sundays, but we did get some good pictures of the outside.
 
On the way, we stopped for some great pictures.

Mexico Canyon Trestle

The Mexican Canyon Trestle, an abandoned railroad trestle.

Mexico Canyon Trestle Sign

A sign posted at the roadway, unnecessarily stating that the trestle is closed.  This was in case the missing rails and the absent sections didn't clue you in.

White Sands View

A view of the White Sands from an overlook in the mountains.

Stina

Stina taking pictures from the overlook.

It got considerably colder as we continued up the mountain.  The observatory is at about 9,200 feet, according to our GPS, so the air was a little thin, too.

SO Sundial

A sundial mural on the outside wall of the Solar Observatory museum.

SO Sundial 2

A sundial outside the museum that would tell us exactly what day of the year and time of day it is... if the sun weren't hidden by clouds.

SO Antarctic Sunscope

A solar observatory first used in the Antarctic.  Moved here for display.

SO Big Dome

There were several different observatories on the grounds.  This one had a sign that dubbed it "The Big Dome."  I realize these are astrophysicists, not geometry teachers, but shouldn't it be called the Big Cone?

SO Big Dome Scope

There was a small visitors' observation room where we could see the scope inside the Big Dome.  It wasn't in operation, of course, but here it is through the dirty glass of the observation room.

The Tower Observatory, up the hill from the Big Dome.

Views off of the mountain from behind the Tower Observatory.

SO Stina

A pic of Stina.  She took a pic of me, too, but I looked cold and panting from thin oxygen, which is probably because I was.

SO Hilltop Dome

A smaller observatory at the top of the hill.  For some reason, they named it "Hilltop Dome."

SO Crossroads

An intersection of two roads on the Observatory grounds.  It's the intersection of Coronal Loop and Solar Physics Drive.

We stopped at the side of the road to let our brakes cool for a while, and saw this.  The sign is actually pointing to a much nicer buidling up the road, but I liked the image.

Hostel Car

A very old car next to the Hostel.  In the enlarged view, you can see that they have decorated it with Christmas lights.  I like people who make the best out of what they have!

A view down Karr Canyon from another roadside overlook.

Karr Canyon Stina

Stina about to be crushed by giant boulders.

Images from another overlook.

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Yesterday: Blue Mesa

This continues the documentation of our recent trip to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

Geo-Tepees

This is a pull-off north of the Blue Mesa area in the park called Tepees.  There are no actual tepees here, but I guess someone thought that the badland formations here looked like tepees.  They are somewhat pyramid-like.  This is also a virtual geocache, so I took a pic of Strix standing in the foreground holding our GPS to prove we were there.

Puerco Sign

Our next stop was Puerco Pueblo, which is a small ruins area in the park.  No, I don't know why it's called Pig Village, though there is a Rio Puerco that runs through New Mexico and joins into the Colorado River, which of course runs through Arizona.  But then the question is why is the river called Pig River?  There are some questions we are not meant to answer.

The ruins site is not much to see after you've been to Chaco Canyon, but it's still interesting.

Petroglyphs found at the Puerco Pueblo site.

Puerco Petroglyphs 3 detail

This is a detail of one of the pics above.  This has to be the most humorous petroglyph I've ever seen.  Strix calls this one, "I said put me down!"  Did the "artist" mean for it to be funny?  Was it a horror story about a thirty-foot tall bird that ate humans?  Is, in fact, this an attempt at perspective, and the man is actually supposed to be in the background?  We'll never know.

Tomorrow: Route 66 Monument

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Yesterday: Crystal Forest

This continues the documentation of our recent trip to the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

Probably the most beautiful area of the park that we saw was the Blue Mesa area, which is a looped drive that you have to leave the main road for, and has a couple of trails in it.  Of course, all this beautiful scenary around us, and I decided to take a picture of my shadow first.

Shadow

Blue Mesa Area 1

Much cooler than my shadow, admittedly.

In this area, erosion has created badland-like features, but at the same time it has uncovered large pieces of petrified wood.  The petrified wood is harder than the sedimentary rock beneath it, so it remains even as the mountain is washed away beneath it.  Eventually, this petrified logs will roll down the side of the formations and crash into pieces at the bottom.

Area Closed

Just in case you were thinking of taking a step off a five hundred foot drop.

Raven

There are signs in the area commanding visitors not to feed the wildlife, but it I think it's clear that someone has been feeding these birds.  Two ravens adopted us and followed us from pull-off to pull-off, showing very little fear of humans.  Of course, they looked about thirty pounds and had little cause to fear anything.  Or maybe they just liked the PT Cruiser.