More pics

• Gulf Coast
  
• Blue Ridge Parkway
• Point Pelee National Park of Canada

The Gulf Coast is the final set of pics from the West Coast Road Trip. New Orleans was discussed here. Both of my grandfathers served in the Navy Seabees in WWII. The Seabee museum in Gulfport, MS had a marker for one of their battalions, the 62nd. The construction battalions (CBs) were responsible for building and defending military installations during the island hopping campaign in the Pacific. The beach shots are from Pensacola, FL and the abbey is in Charlotte, NC.

I spent some time on the Blue Ridge Parkway as I went through Asheville, NC on my way up to Ohio a few weeks ago. The leaves are just beginning to turn.

I visited Ju-Hui in Ontario and we decided to take a day trip to Point Pelee National Park of Canada. I just couldn't resist the urge to get one more national park under my belt and we were hoping to see some fall foliage. Apparently Lake Erie has a warming affect in the fall, though, and the leaves were still green.

Whiteout at Burning Man

Thursday morning was fairly pleasant. A thick layer of clouds provided a welcome reprieve from the baking sun. A few hours later the clouds had yet to burn off. Something was up.

Around two in the afternoon Mother Nature let us in on her surprise. The wind started getting stronger and stronger with gusts that strained the sturdiest structures and collapsed the weaker ones. We watched a solid wall of dust sweep silently toward us from several miles away. It didn't take long. I can only compare the mixture of nervousness, fear and anticipation to those last moments before a first kiss.

After some last minute battening of hatches, we took refuge with our neighbors Dav, Tonya, and Nick. We couldn't have asked for better neighbors than these three. Ju-Hui and I benefited from their hospitality all week. Dav was a Burning Man veteran several times over and had things down to a science. We zipped ourselves inside his portable carport as the bright afternoon light muted to barely a glow as the leading edge of the dust storm poured over us. We hunkered down with our goggles and breathing masks, unsure of how long the storm would last. Suddenly Dav dropped to his belly and rolled out the bottom of the carport! What are you doing?!

Dav came back a short time later with an account of how things were going in the neighborhood. Though it seemed preposterous at the time, walking around in a whiteout isn't bad at all if you have well-fitting goggles and a mask. There is some sand blowing around, but primarily the cloud is just very fine alkaline dust. I took my own trip outside the carport to discover that things were business as usual in Black Rock City. People were walking around, riding bikes, and playing frisbee.

Vision was limited but my hearing easily led me to the Deep End, an elaborate Wild West style open-air club. The main plaza was boxed in by buildings on each side including a functioning (and free!) saloon, a water tower, a two story stage/DJ stand and a lounge. And It was packed! People were dancing on the water tower scaffolding and any other surface that seemed likely to support them. I really like techno music but usually feel a bit out of place around the club kids for whom partying is a way of life. The fact that everyone was filthy and anonymized behind goggles and masks allowed me to just relax and enjoy dancing in a dust storm.

After a few hours the storm passed and those who didn't properly erect their tents and shade structures set about trying to do better the second time around. Ju-Hui and I were relieved to find that our tent survived unscathed. Everything inside the tent, however, was covered in a layer of dust even though we secured bedsheets over the mesh windows. Just 100 feet away from our tent, a car was crushed by a flying geodesic dome while its owner took a nap inside. The dome had flown in from two streets over, a tarp apparently acting like a kite. Try explaining that to your insurance agent!

Boo!

Happy Halloween! For the past week my fellow Raleigh Jaycees and I have been trying to contain a highly contagious Outbreak at Possum Creek. I've been told I bear a striking resemblance to Nurse Daisy who has been creeping out hospital patrons in a frilly dress that seems much too short to be a regulation uniform. The fact that the line of patrons at times extended outside into the brisk October night made her choice of wardrobe even more questionable. There are two more chances for any Raleigh area folks to come pay us a visit at the Creek before Dick Cheney napalms the entire area in the name of national security. (I'm sure this has nothing to do with a recent oil discovery in the area.) Stop by and say 'hi'.

I hope to have a pic of Nurse Daisy to post soon. In the meantime here's one of my brother Brett and his girlfriend Jude. I'm not sure which is which. Those Connell boys!

Trying to be a bit less of a slacker

I'm back in Cary after three weeks in Asheville, NC, Toledo, Ohio and Windsor, Ontario. I never did make it to New England...maybe in the Spring. Combined with the West Coast Road Trip, I've been completely useless to society for over three months. I've decided it is time to start being productive again, though my first day of it was only mildly successful. Here's some things I'd like to work on:

• Blog


• Finish up Burning Man nrrative
• Wrap up road trip in general
• Post more regularly to maintain readership (Hi, Gramma!)
  
• Post stuff on topics other than travel


• Programming projects


• Learn Python
• Deep dive into Lisp
• Determine some Open Source projects to contribute to
  
• Facebook or Google Gadget application
• Get in a regular X hours per day routine


• Reading


• 10 issues of The Economist in backlog
• Finish Ishmael
• Oodles of economics/science/policy books


• Raleigh Jaycee Haunted House


• Housekeeping


• Help Ju-Hui sell her house in Cary


• Expand my social circle - meetup.com


• Ron Paul 2008
• Independent films
• Nintendo Wii


• Get SCUBA certified


• Reconnect with people after three months away

A steaming pile of pics

• Hoover Dam
• Lake Mead National Recreation Area
• Grand Canyon National Park
• Sedona, AZ
• Casa Grande National Monument
• AMARG at Davis-Monthan AFB (satellite pic)
  
• Pima Air and Space Museum
• Saguaro National Park
• Chiracahua National Monument
• White Sands National Monument
• Guadalupe National Park
• Carlsbad Caverns National Park
• Austin, TX

For some of the back story, you can check out my previous posts. (1, 2, 3, 4)

Yet more Utah pics

• Glen Canyon/Capital Reef/Grand Staircase
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Parkway Motel, Orderville, UT
• Zion National Park

Parkway Motel was this random place we stayed at on the way to Zion. We got the last room in the place which turned out to be a very elaborate Indiana Jones "theme room". For $60, you can't beat it. Tell them Ed sent ya!

As always, you can check out the full gallery of my road trip pics.

Acceptance and Rejection at Burning Man

Needless to say, Wednesday morning was a bit rough for me. I swore off alcohol for the rest of my life or until that Saturday; whichever came first. Once we finally got moving we decided to go say 'hi' to Watermelon and Cherubic. On the way who should we run into but the Petting Zoo crew on an art car clear over on our end of town.

I went up to greet them but they didn't seem to recognize me standing upright. One by one, they figured it out. "Oh my god - He's alive!" We had a brief but hearty reunion and they invited us to stop by the bar again later. Later that day was the one and only time I used my laptop. My friend Pepper (formerly of SAS) and Sarah were going to arrive from San Francisco on Friday night and I emailed to ask him to bring some vodka. Lots.

We did stop by the Zoo later that day. It felt great to have a place where people were genuinely happy to have you around. Ju-Hui had a couple beers while I nursed a water.

That night I was full of anticipation for the Great Canadian Beaver Eating Contest. Where else but Burning Man can one experience competition in its truest form? The thrill of victory - the agony of defeat! I knew the organizers didn't allow spectators, only contestants and cheerers. Since Ju-Hui declined to be my co-contestant and no other volunteers seemed to be forthcoming, I was resigned to cheering on others. When Ju-Hui and I got to the front of the queue, the bouncer demanded to know what our cheer was. Huh? He wanted some rehearsed, junior high "Two, four, six, eight..." kind of cheer. When we didn't have one he booted us out of line (fine I suppose...his event) but in a very snotty, condescending way that made me want to punch him in the face. Not cool. The next three groups of people got booted as well.

Oh well, there were a thousand other things to see and do that night and every night at BM.