July/August Recap

Hello Loyal Follower,

Forgive me for I have neglected the blog for way to long. There is a lot to write. I will channel my inner Hemingway – brevity be my guide…

Jackson Hole and Yellowstone: I went on my first week long vacation since my honeymoon, and it was to NATURE. Mary and I flew into Jackson Hole. It is a quaint, touristy town. Since our flight arrived late, we didn’t get a chance to do much but drink wine and eat snacks with the in-laws. The next day, the fun began.

The fun started by testing bear spray and accidentally spraying my wife… whoops. I guess the downwind breeze was more of a cross breeze. In my defense, my father-in-law, Paul, was probably the main culprit. I was an unwitting accomplice. Mary was ok, after a couple of eye washes.

Mary and I went on a trail ride that afternoon. It was very scenic, as to be expected. The trail guide liked to call himself a cowboy and recant cowboy-esque tales. The one about bouncing a knife off a rock to kill a bunny behind another rock while on horseback – sure thing boss, you are definitely a cowboy. He did have a cowboy hat, with “over a million miles on it.” Later that day Mary started to feel the altitude and laid low. Altitude sickness es no bueno. It hit me the next day – lethargy, headachy, general poopiness. I was hit with some of the altitude sickness in Yellowstone. It ate up half a day, but i recovered like a champ.

Speaking of the next day, we started out the day by checking out some marmots. Cute little buggers. There was a pair of adolescents playing in the grass. Really adorable. Took more pictures. Then we started the drive to Yellowstone. We stopped to go for a hike in Teton National Park. It was a nice hike. Saw some birds and lakes and trees. Regular hiking sights and scenes. Throughout the park, there are ranger led hikes. These are free and worth every penny. You learn a lot with rangers’ right there. We went on 4 or 5 ranger lead hikes. After the two hour hike, we continued on to Yellowstone.

The first few days we stayed in Canyon and the last few in Old Faithful. Highlights of Yellowstone animals:

• Bison are everywhere. There were tons of calves too. There was even a bison in the campground. I named him “Mr. Bison”, even wrote a song about him. If you are lucky, one day, I will sing it to you.
• Bison is delicious.
• Also, despite what some people will tell you, you CANNOT ride the bison. Not even Mr. Bison.
• Seeing grizzly bears and wolves are like being on the Price Is Right finals and winning both showcase showdowns. Everybody wants it to happen but it is very rare. In fact, it is probably a little scary if you are out hiking and run into either.
• Prong horned antelopes are really cute. The males stay in trotting distance to the females and if something, like a bison, come strolling by, the males’ spring into action. Until, the males see how big the bison is and are like, “Oh crap”, and then try to shoo the females along.
• Elk are pretty cool. Big animals. Saw a few of them with the big antlers and all.
• Mule deer are alright.

Highlights of Yellowstone geological formations:
• There are a lot of great hiking trails. You could spend years hiking the park and not see it all. Especially since, depending on time of day and season, everything constantly changes.
• Yellowstone boasts Grand Canyon junior. They don’t call it that, but it fits. It is still quite impressive in distance across and deep. There are some pretty waterfalls that form the canyon.
• The thermal features are impressive. For those that don’t know Yellowstone is on top of a GIANT ACTIVE VOLCANO. Yes, active and yes giant – 30 by 45 miles. Craziness. Luckily, the experts don’t expect an eruption for 3000 – 10000 years. It is important you know this because the volcano is the reason for the thermal features and how it can sustain the wildlife year round.

• Thermal features – there are four kinds: geysers (think old faithful), hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles. The cool thing about these features is that a thermal feature can become another given the right conditions, like an earthquake. OH! There are thousands of earthquakes a day there. Most are too small to feel. The joy of being on an active volcano.

    o Geysers – there are bunch of different types. Some erupt at regular intervals, some at irregular intervals, and some constantly. These can range from quite impressive to super lame.
• Need to digress to talk about thermophiles. These are heat loving microorganisms. They account for the different colors and smells in the next three features. Mary loves the thermophiles. I think they were her favorite. They are really sensitive, so when insensitive pricks throw things in the thermal features, messing with the pH balance and temperature, the thermophiles can die. Tragic.
• The thermophiles also result in a sulfur smell. Downside, the thermal features stink. Upside, you can break wind and no one is the wiser.
     o Hot springs – these bad boys can feel like a warm bath or a hot bath or like a witch is cooking you in a stew. Mary, my lovely wife, had a great idea. I wish I thought of it and then acted on it. A prank of sorts – dress up like I am going to go swimming with snorkel and flipper and all. Then go on a ranger led tour, ask a lot of “normal” questions about the temperature and whether people try to swim in the hot springs, but don’t bring up the outfit. I think it would be hilarious. Well done Mary.
    o Mud pots – these are dirty, bubbly messes. Pretty sure these are where the term “hot mess” comes from. They are hot and muddy and bubble. The bubbling is gas escaping. The thermophiles here release sulfur oxide which breaks down rocks and clay into mud. And there you have it, mud pots.
    o Fumaroles – If you cannot see them, you can smell them. This feature fumes, a lot. There is not water or mud or geysering, just steam. Smelly sulfur laden steam.

I have to write a little bit about Old Faithful. It is pretty cool. It goes every 90 minutes give or take 10 minutes. One of those things you have to see. I saw it go off about a dozen times and it didn’t lose its luster. The Old Faithful Inn was equally impressive. The Inn was like a giant log cabin. High ceilings, giant fireplace. The concept was that the Inn just sprung out of the ground, and it accomplishes that goal. So, that was Yellowstone. There are a lot more details. Interactions with different animals, amazing hikes, delicious bison burgers, and a lot pictures I will need to crop and clean up.

NEXT: I finished constructing and planting my garden. Not as exciting as Yellowstone, but still kind of cool. I made a square-foot garden and plants a bunch of herbs – rosemary, thyme, basil, mint, parsley, sage, and chives. Also planted some stupid annuals that bloomed for like a day. Grrrrrr. The herbs are all still alive.

Also, making some Limón cello. This would not be post worthy except it is a three month process. Between zesting the lemons and mixing with grain alcohol, wait 45 days, then making the simple syrup, adding it to the lemon alcohol, wait 45 days. Then strain. It is lengthy process. I did try the drink 30 days before it is “ready” and it is pretty good!

PUPPY PUPPY PUPPY Our new edition to the family, Catch. Catch is an Australian shepherd mixed with a monster. Not like a Monsters Inc. monster or a Where the Wild Things are Monster, he is a legit Gremlin. That is not nice to say, he is getting better. He is still a baby. We got him at 10 weeks and he is going on 13 weeks. He still needs a little work potty training. His bite inhibition can be on the ouchy side. He doesn’t sleep through the night. Still he is getting better. He has plenty of sweet moments. And piercing brown eyes.

Scooter and Catch just started playing last week. Those two are a riot. They will zoom and play bow and zoom some more. Catch with jump onto Scooter’s face and then Scoots will pin him down. Then let him free and gear up for some more. I know it wears out Scooter. Catch seems to have a lot of energy, but we can always tell when he is getting tired. He starts to get a little more bitty and then it is time for a nap. Mary takes Catch to puppy training classes where Catch is such a little show-off. He sits, he heels, he has a little prance in his steps – like “oh, you want me walk, that’s easy, here we go” prance, prance, prance. I think he will make a fine dog in few months. Just got to get through the puppy phase.

Warrior Dash
Last update, I promise. This past week, I participated in the warrior dash. It was a 3 mile mud run with obstacles. I completed the run and all the obstacles. Most were not too bad – some were tough. Couple of things I learned.

You will not win the race. It is too muddy to run fast and even that doesn’t matter because you will bottle neck at the obstacles. You should run in a group. I did not and felt like I was the only one there without a team. It was team Drew. Don’t feel too bad, team drew is pretty awesome. You will get mud everywhere. If you complete all obstacles, this is a guarantee.

Now that we have established the course is super muddy and you can only muster light jogging in some areas, let’s talk about the obstacles. Most obstacles are made exponentially more difficult down to the slippery mud. First was the hay barrels. Some people did not get it and jumped right into the hay. Just need to keep your legs moving. Then came the balance beams – up and then down and then across a mud pit, then up and back down. Not too bad if you have basic balance skills.

Mud mounds came next. These were three mounds of mud with mud pits in between. Not all mud pits are created equal. The first mud pit was the worse. A lot of people lost their shoes here. You jump in and sink 3 feet into the mud. Once in the mud, shoes have a tendency to be sucked off. I had to reach down, take off my shoe and toss it to the sidelines. People get stuck here. I had to push some guy up by the tush… really I think he just wanted me to touch his tush. I also helped two girls up once I got to the top of the first mound. The next two mud pits were mostly muddy water and not shoe eating pits.

After this came the hardest obstacle – the wall. It was about 20-25 feet high with slates every 5 feet. There was a rope with a knot at the bottom. Some people from earlier waves must have tied some knots towards the top, but only two of the ten ropes had additional knots. Also the ropes were uber slippery. So I tried one of the ropes with only one knot and I went hand over hand and down I went. So I went to one of the longer lines where the ropes had two knots. Watching some people’s technique on the rope, I decided to give it another go. Turns out you need to continually wrap the rope around your hand and use that as leverage. I did make it up to the top. Twenty feet looks higher when you are at the top. Still getting down wasn’t too bad once I found my footing. More mud running and then the cargo net. This wasn’t too bad. In fact, I really like climbing cargo nets.

Then came the angled wall. It was similar to the vertical wall, except on an incline. This wasn’t bad at all. After jogging/walking up a particularly muddy, steep hill, I came to the barbed wire covered trenches. Hands and knees and through that obstacle. After there was a vertical cargo net. Instead of climbing up, you had to climb across. It wasn’t too bad. The trick was to climb to the top where the cargo net was attached and more stable. From there it was easier to climb across.

Nearing the finish, there were two more obstacles. First, the classic jumping over fire. Didn’t even singe my leg hairs. Truthfully the fire wasn’t even that hot, and since your legs are covered in mud, odds are you won’t get burned.

Final obstacle, the barbed wire mud pit. This one is designed to get you muddy. You cannot run across because of the barbed wire, you have to almost swim through the mud. Once you get through you are done… almost. Final, unofficial, obstacle is cleaning off. I feel like I was cleaning the mud off longer than I was racing. You really do have mud everywhere! I did bring a change of clothes and a towel. Glad I did. It was a really fun race. Next time I will drag some friend along.

There is an urban race in Cincinnati in October. Count me in!