The Grass is Always Greener

This is just a quick post to share what someone emailed me recently that they had found. This passage resonated with me because I experienced some of these thoughts while traveling and tried to write about in on here a few times. Thanks for sharing, Nancy.


"I pulled On The Road off the shelf and found myself reading it between classes, and at that time in my life it was exactly what I craved, exactly what I needed to hear. I thought, “That’s the way, that’s the ideal life, that’s great. You get in a car and you drive and you see your friends and you end up in a city for a night and you go out drinking and you catch up and you share these really intense experiences. And then you’re on the road and you’re doing it again.” The romance of the road, particularly from Kerouac’s work, encapsulated how I wanted to live. I found a way to do it by being a musician, which is what I always wanted to be. The traveling and the being on tour and being away from home set a precedent for me where I thought, “Oh yeah, this is how it works.”

But then in reading Big Sur, it’s the end of the road. You end up with a series of failed relationships and you end up being an alcoholic and in your late 30s, and not having any kind of real grip on the lives of the people around you. That’s the potential other end of the spectrum when you’re never tied to anybody or anything. I run the risk of losing touch with the people in my life that mean the most to me because I have made the decision to live like this."

-Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie) in Paste magazine (10 April 2008).

The Pup, part 2

Sabah burrito.


Watching for rabbits at KLS' house.


Cooling off in Moab.


Checking out the local wildlife in Boulder.

The Pup

Looking out the window for rabbits at KLS' place.


Cooling off in a water run off drain along the Boulder Creek about three miles out of Boulder.


Sabah's new ride.


Probably about to pounce on something . . .


The leftovers after scoop/drinking some water in the Boulder Creek.

Moab, UT

Sunrise on the flatirons in Boulder, CO. This was the view on Sabah and mine morning walk everyday . . .


Unless there was fresh snow on the flatirons in Boulder, CO
This is really a post to just share some photos. The first couple are from when I was living in Boulder. The next set are from Moab. I have been there as a hiker, but never as a mountain biker. It is a mountain biking mecca. Before I went, I had heard a lot about two trails: Slickrock and Porcupine Rim.


Moab sunset from our first campsite.


Sabah is basking in the morning light.


A view from Slickrock trail.


The Slickrock trail is basically petrified sand dunes.


Sabah tries to cool off after chasing a rabbit for a half mile.
The first ride we did was Slickrock. It is basically petrified sand dunes. There is no dust to spin out on. There aren't very many technical rocky sections. If you struggle or have to get off the bike, it will be because you are going up some huge hills. I loved this ride. It was a 10-12 mile lollipop. It ended up taking quite a while. Sabah decided to tucker herself out early by sprinting after a bunny for a half a mile. Then, on the way back we were battling the wind. Note for later: The trail surface is basically sandpaper on dog's feet. Sabah didn't know it, but she should have been really happy to have her doggy shoes.

The other trail that we did was Porcupine Rim. The top part of the trail is why I think this trail is famous. You are 5-10 feet from a ledge that drops hundreds of feet straight down. Also, the view is incredible. After the top part, it was fire road and a lot of fun, dusty single track. Ignoring the view, I thought it was pretty similar to a lot of Colorado rides. At the end of the ride, you descend back to the road. However, the view is amazing as you get you closer and closer to the Colorado River. Great stuff. Fun pictures.


The view from Porcupine Ridge trail.


A view of the Colorado River from Porcupine Rim trail.


A technical section on Porcupine Rim.

Antarctica videos

Some random Antarctica videos from the past many months. I like the first one because it features people I worked with and maybe places I've been. It definitely features more places I'd love to go. The second video is of someone putting on all of their ECW gear to wear on the flight down. I think watching someone put it on is more educational than the lists I would always make before.


Dry Valleys, Antarctica.


Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear.

Colorado in the Winter

Zeppelin is so excited about tearing up Sabah's football at my Boulder place.


Sabah is proud of tearing up her zebra.
Colorado was interesting this winter. I have lost my passion for snowboarding. I used to be willing to go up all the time solo, but now I don't want to waste the gas. I'll happily carpool, but great snow won't even get me to go up solo. I think I am little over the resorts. Some are charging to park. Vail is charging $20. You can almost always get free parking with a shuttle ride or if you are clever, but I don't like it. A-Basin has walk to free parking. Copper has a short shuttle ride. Breck has a long one. Keystone is walkable and free. I think Winter Park is still free.

To get the passion back, I think I might start skiing again. Someone else suggested renting a place in the mountains so I would not have to drive back and forth. Maybe next season, I'll try both of those out. Snowshoeing and hiking have not lost its appeal, but the drive up the mountains is never fun. It always comes back to the drive.

In a few years, I'm going to have a hard time telling people what I did this winter. I redesigned the Sabah webpage. I sorted photos. I got back in tough with friends. I think the biggest thing I did was sort and get back in touch with myself. After being in a state of flux for so long, I needed it. I'm actually still in flux, but getting closer to nailing that down all the time.


Rocky Mountain high!


Sabah while snoeshoeing.


Zeppelin on a hike.


Peru Gulch, Colorado.


Sabah gets buried in the snow.


Sabah escapes from the snow.



Karen also get buried in the snow. I'm not sure if she got out.

Leftover photos from coming home

These photos are some that just slipped through the cracks. I don't really have anything to post. Being home has been great. Spending time with Sabah has been great. Spending time with a lady as head strong as me has been great. Watching En Sabah Nur play has been great. I love pretending to be in one place.

Since I got back, I really wanted to be in one place. I made it one month in Boulder before going to Ecuador. Then, another month in Boulder. Then two months in Denver before my roommates decided that I was around too much even though I was unemployed. Basically, the engaged couple wanted money from someone, but not a roommate. Oh well. The best part about is that I moved out just before I went on almost 6 weeks of traveling around the USA to Moab, UT and the East Coast. I ended up saving a ton of money.

Now, I'm back in Colorado again and I'm finally running out of stuff to do, stuff to give me a purpose. The new Pitt ultimate webpage has launched. I've thrown out more stuff. I'm ready to work again. I'm ready to have a rhythm again. Of course, I'm also planning a few summer outings.


Sunset over America


Lake Michigan on the left and Chicago at sunset.


O'Hare airport with Christmas decorations.


The plane that would take me back home from Ecuador.

Bike Trip By the Numbers

In 2010, I biked and slept on all 7 continents: Antarctica (McMurdo Station), Australia (Sydney), North America (Colorado), Europe (Austria->Greece), Asia (Turkey->Jordan), Africa (Egypt), and, finally, South America (Ecuador). It was life changing and exhausting. One of my friends from the Ice astutely said, 'it sounded like you were out too long.' I suspect he was right. There were times where I was just worn thin. However, I knew at the start of the trip that I was already worn a little thin.

I had lots of ideas about a summation blog about my trip. However, I've been busy being present and trying to get settled down instead of writing about the past. Also, I'm not done reflecting on the experience. I'm still learning how it has changed me. Instead, you get a data dump from my notebook. The day is the day number of my trip. The visited column is just the places that I stopped at during that day's riding except in row 1 where I started in Salzburg. All my other start, and therefore stop, points are listed in the Slept column. Mileage is how many kilometers I went per day.

The one trend I did quickly notice is that the number of camping and quality biking days dropped dramatically in the Middle East. Some of this was due to the exhaustion of the long trip. Some of it was the quality of riding. Some was probably cultural barriers of just throwing a tent into a field in more populated places.

Day	Visited	Slept	Mileage
1	Salzburg	Obernberg	100
2	Passau	Untermuhl	100
3	Linz	Grein	109
4	Castles and Melk	Ruin and Krems	97
5		Tulln	63.5
6		Vienna	81.5
7		Vienna	0
8	Petronell-Carnuntum	Bratislava	85
9	Masonmagyarovar	Gyor	101
10	Koromon	Esztergom	126
11		Esztergom	0
12		Budapest	73
13		Budapest	0
14		Budapest	0
15		Dudince	126
16	Banska Stiavnica	Banska Bystrica	97
17	Lower Tatras	Pribylina	98
18	Strbske Pleso - Mt Rysy	High Tatras	44
19	Poland	Krakow	140
20		Krakow	0
21		Krakow	0
22	train	Budapest	0
23		Pakozd	64
24	Lake Balaton	Tihany	111
25	Lake Balaton - Heviz	Bak	115
26	Redics-Turnisce	Ptuj	102
27	Celje	Kranj	153
28	Lake Bled	Lake Bohinj	70
29	Triglav NP, Vintgar Gorge	Lake Bled	63
30	Kranska Gora	Podkoren	44
31	Vrsic Pass-Soca Valley	Nova Gorica	126
32	Muggia, Italy	Pirand	126
33	Škocjan Caves	Postojna	97
34		Ljubljana	58
35	plane	Northampton, MA	0
36		Northampton, MA	0
37		Northampton, MA	0
38		Northampton, MA	0
39		NYC	0
40		NYC	0
41		NYC	0
42	plane	Ljubljana	0
43	Ljubljana	Croatia	133
44		Pletvice Lakes	96
45	Gacoc	Knin	144
46	Krka Falls	Troger	101
47	Split	Mostar	13
48	ferry	Hvar Island	105
49	ferry	Korcula Island	106
50	ferry	Miljet Island	100
51	ferry	Dubrovnik	43
52		Dubrovnik	0
53		Kotor	97
54		Podogorica	83
55		Bog	102
56		Tirana	149
57		Tirana	0
58		Berat	117
59		Berat	0
60	Pogradec	Bitola	103
61		Greyena	200
62	Meteora	Delfi	85
63	Thebes	Dafmoula	122
64		Athens	53
65	Piraeus	Santorini	12
66	Santorini	ferry	74
67	Rhodes	Marmaris	9
68		Dalya	94
69		Fethiye	95
70		Fethiye	11
71		Blue Cruise	0
72		Blue Cruise	0
73		Blue Cruise	0
74		Olympos	0
75	Kemer-bus	Pamukkale	31
76	bus	Ephesus	10
77	highway	Istanbul	15
78		Istanbul	0
79	Istanbul	Asia bridge	30
80		Cappadoccia	10
81		Cappadoccia	0
82		Cappadoccia	25
83		Antakya	0
84		Aleppo	144
85		Aleppo	52
86		Aleppo	2
87		Serjillah	88
88	Afamra-bus-Hama	Palmyra	82
89	Home	Crac	10
90		Tripoli	86
91		Cedars	65
92	Ballbek - bus	Beirut	94
93		Beirut	0
94		Damascus	10
95		Damascus	0
96	Sweida-Orange Market	Bosra	137
97		Jerash	94
98		Amman	2
99		Amman	0
100		Amman	0
101		Israel	102
102		Kazrin	78
103		Hula	99
104		Rosh Hanikra	108
105	Akko-cab	Tel Aviv	10
106		Jerusalem	75
107		Jerusalem	0
108		Jerusalem	0
109	Jericho	Dead Sea	80
110		Madaba	40
111		Wadi Mujib	68
112		Dana	0
113		Petra	0
114		Petra	0
115		Wadi Rum	108
116		Eliat	108
117	Nuweiba	Dahab	157
118		Dahab	0
119	Blue Hole	Dahab	0
120	Sharm-Thistlegorm	Dahab	0
121		St. Catherines	0
122		Cairo	12
123		Luxor	5
124		Luxor	49
125		Aswan	13
126		Aswan	0
127	Abu Simbel	Aswan	18
128	Cairo	Valley of Agabat	0
129		White Desert	0
130		Cairo	0
131		Cario	0

Total 6934km
Days Biking 88
Average biking 78.79545455 km/day
Rest Days 43
Average with Rest 52.93129771 km/day
Camping Days 35

Odds and ends:

• Slovenia was the unexpected treat of the trip. I knew nothing and was pleasantly surprised.
• If you need a bike shop in Cairo, google Bescletta. I think Ibrahim Ossama was the guy who took such good care of us.
• My original plan had me biking around 8000 kilometers. I dropped 1000 in Turkey when I bused while I recovered my energy and enthusiasm.
• I would not recommend independently traveling in Egypt if you don't have a ton of patience for people trying to scam you.
• Petra is better than anyone tells you.
• I think the only sites I didn't get over were nature's beauty and people's beauty.
• Austria, Germany, and Switzerland are the kings of bike touring. They have more signs than probably all of North America combined, but we are working on that over here.
• Montenegro deserves a longer visit than you think.
  

Things I'd like to go back and see/do:

• Petrin Tower, Socialist Statue Bar park, the tower with babies, Prague, Czech Repuclib
• Cesky Kreminov, Czech Republic
• Alps, Austria
• The castle that Disney based their castle on, Germany
• Spissy Hrad, Presov, food, Tatras caves, Ginger Money hostel in Zridar, Sklene Teplice, Slovakia
• Budapest citadel, Hungary, #2 tram where Matty L (sabah alumni) did this video. Full jam here.
• Salt National Park, Dantes Cave, Honey wine, Slovenia
• Brac, Croatia
• Durmotir and Tara Canyon, Montenegro
• Theth, Albania
• Lake Ohrid, Macedonia
• Southern part of Greece
• Nehrut, Ararat, Davidya, Turkey
• Mar Musa, Honeycombs, Latakia, visit Rami, Euphrates, Syria
• The Negev, Israel
• More desert in Egypt
  

Quito, Ecudaor

Panecillo Hill topped with a state of Quito's Winged Virgin.
Quito. The capital of Ecuador at 9,200 ft. It's full name is San Francisco de Quito. Tina and I had two short visits there. While deciding how much time to spend there, I went through a struggle that I always have when visiting a country. Lots of people say that you have to visit this city to see this cultural thing or that. However, I usually prefer the rural and undeveloped areas. In the end, through the necessity of flying out of Quito, we spent a morning, an afternoon, and two nights there.


Parque La Alameda (Alameda Park).


The Basilica Church from the Secret Garden hostel balcony.
When we first arrived, we immediately went to the hotel and didn't explore. The next morning we walked from New Town to the hostel, Secret Garden Quito, to catch a ride to Cotopaxi. On the way, we cut across a couple beautiful parks that I almost got stuck in. I just wanted to roll in the grass on a beautiful day, but we had places to be. The hostel's balcony had the best view of the city that we saw. We had to wait for our ride, so we took a quick stroll around Old Town. Old Town was filled with the hustle and bustle of commerce and government. We dodged cars on narrow streets and narrower sidewalks while taking in the wonderful scenery. Say what you want about colonialism, but they left behind some beautiful buildings.


Typical colonial buildings in Old Town Quito.


Old Town, Quito.


To get on the public buses, you pay to enter these little enclosed sidewalk stops. Then, the bus will stop in front of them and let you on. This would have been a good stop to wait at because there was a band playing in front of the blue building and you could buy ice cream from out of that guy's bucket backpack.
On our second visit to Quito, we strolled around Old Town again trying to find a specific flea market. It gave a little purpose to our wandering as we asked person after person about where to go. We definitely had a more thorough wander around on the second try. We passed more old buildings. We found a couple schools and churches. We even found a mall.


The 500 year old Cathedral Church of Quito.


The Government Palace.


More old buildings and an Indian (Asian-Indian) boutique.
I'm not really sure what my impressions of Quito were. I liked walking around. The colonial governmental buildings didn't seem to fit with everything we had see in the rural areas. I'm sure the exact same could be said about the marble buildings in Washington DC compared to rural Virginia. They sold motorcycles in their appliance shops. Traffic was often horrendous. The roads were narrow and one way so if one truck stopped for a delivery, everyone else waited and honked. The buses seemed like a good way to go. They often had their own lanes and I wouldn't want to be the pedestrian who got to close to one of those lanes. Take a step off the sidewalk and you would have been close enough to get knocked down by a mirror.


A number of appliance shops were selling TV, stereos, washing machines, and motorcycles.


The Monastery of San Francisco.


El Panecillo towering over Old Town.
On our last night, we headed back to New Town to eat. We saw a side of it that we completely missed in our previous visit. There were cool hostels, hip bars, dance clubs, and higher end restaurants. This stuff might have been in Old Town too, but we didn't see it. Old Town didn't seem to be as trendy. If you were looking for a big night out, I think New Town is where you'd go. After a great meal, a super weird desert of tree tomato in something gooey, and a long night's sleep, it was time to leave Ecuador.


Quail and chicken eggs at the grocery store.


New Town, Quito.
I had a great time in Ecuador. I was surprised to see and enjoy so much in such a short time. On the other hand, there was a number of times that I was wishing that I was traveling on my bicycle and moving slower. I'd definitely like to go back to visit the Galapagos Islands. I didn't go this time because it was pretty expensive. I've been spending for months without a job lined up, but now that I really close to being in one place, I am reluctant to spend a lot without an income.


A small statue of a lion in Old Town.


I love that the Ecuadorian take on Catholicism doesn't need to be represented with expensive materials (though their churches are pretty ornate). They were happy to create this nativity creche with rubber duckies and other things that could easily be children's toys.


The world's game, soccer, can be played anywhere. I can't imagine how far downhill the ball goes if you miss the goal.
Originally, the idea to visit South America was to round out my 7th continent of the year. I was pretty sure when I threw the idea up on Facebook that it was a shallow goal and that I would only go if it was cheap. However, Tina took the bait and decided we should head to Ecuador. She was super excited about it so we were off. As it turned out when I got here, there was no moment of elation over the hard work that went into completing a goal. It had never really been the goal of my travels. It was just a tag on at the end of a year of adventures. Even though I was not overjoyed about the 7th continent, I was still excited about being in Ecuador. On the other hand, I recently realized that I biked on all 7 continents while I was traveling this year and that did make me smile.

Otavalo and Cuicocha Lake, Ecuador

Another volcano in Ecuador. I'm sure this isn't the case, but every mountain seemed like it was an extinct volcano.
After our educational visit to the Equator, we were off to the town of Otavalo. Otavalo is famous for holding onto its indigenous roots even though a lot of money has swept into the town thanks to the success of exporting their hand made goods. Almost anyone who got presents from me got them from this town's central market. The market was a maze of jewelry, llama and alpaca clothes, blankets, paintings, wood carvings, and who knows what else. The big market is on the weekend. We were there on a weekday and it was still huge. When I was not getting lost in the market trying to buy presents, we strolled around town.


Central market.


Mountain towering over town.


San Pablo Lake just outside of Otavalo.


View from out hotel.
In town, most of the women wore traditional garb. The men, less so. The most modern were the teenagers. The town itself didn't seem that traditional even if the people were. I am coming up short on details about what else we did. I remember walking and walking to find a restaurant that was traditional and had something vegetarian before ending up back at our hotel's restaurant. It had great food. It wasn't fancy. It was down to Earth. There was lots of wood and an open air courtyard that let us hear rain fall all evening and night.


Del Jordan Church.


The Dona Esther hotel, our hotel, courtyard and rooms in Otavalo


This dog is playing it smart and hanging out at the food market.
The next morning, we caught an early ride up to Cuicocha (Guinea Pig Lake), a 3km wide volcanic crater lake. It reminded me a lot of Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, but Oregon had a lot more snow. We had wet. I don't think it was raining, but it was still pretty overcast while we hiked. We had heard numerous times to beware of bandits in the area. However, lots of locals said it was safe. We didn't have any problems.


Countryside.


Cuicocha Lake.
We did have a great four hour hike though. We got dropped off at the visitor's center and went around anticlockwise. First, we climbed a ridge to the highest point on the lake. There was a little gazebo there, but we didn't stop to rest because we had to keep moving to make sure we met our ride on time. At two-thirds of the way, we left the rim and started on switchbacks off the ridge and back up the other side. In the valleys, there was puddles. We got wet feet and clothes that were definitely not drying off anytime soon. Eventually, we found ourselves back on the ridge among pine trees that Tina couldn't stop sniffing. Then, we hit private property and finished the hike on a road without the lake in sight. I kept wondering if we had missed a turn to get back over to the lake, but there wasn't one. By the time we got back, our ride back had been waiting for 30 minutes. I felt guilty, but he didn't seem to care. Life moves at a different speed there.


The two islands, Yerov and Teodoro Wolf, in Cuicocha Lake.


For Betty . . .
When we got back to the hostel, we walked up to the bus station and finally traveled the way locals do. I loved getting back in touch with my slow travel ways. Instead of paying $40 or more dollars, we paid $4 to get pack to Quito plus an extra $6 to get grab a cab to our hotel instead of walking in the pouring rain. I loved it. I also think I slept through a lot of it.


I thought it funny that policeman with 'Driver education' written on their uniforms had batons.