Anyway, I’m used to combining the strengths of different tools, and the work we do at Automatic Duck is a ten-year extension of this approach.

I don’t get to edit professionally anymore, but I like to dip my toes back in once in a while.  Recent projects have included a video promoting a local 50+ condo building plus visuals for a Helios house concert.  And since last year I have become the defacto video guy for my daughter’s dance studio, a mostly thankless job selling recital DVDs for way too cheap.

It is the recital videos that have presented some interesting challenges in balancing the Good-Fast-Cheap conundrum.  It has to be cheap, there’s no way around that.  I need to get it done fast, too, because I’m doing it in my spare time which I don’t have a lot of.  And it has to be good, that’s how I roll.  So I shot 720P60 using a Panasonic HPX-170 camera, sending HD-SDI out to a Kona 3 inside a Mac Pro.  Plus I have a consumery Canon HF20 that I used as a wide locked-down safety.  This year there were two shows, each well over two hours and between the two there are nearly 130 performances.  The goal: to finish with one DVD for each show, with DVD menus and chapters and lower third titles identifying each song, dance group/class as well as teacher and choreographer.

You can tell I love my daughter, there ain’t no other way a sane person would agree to do all this.

Enough preamble, let’s get down to it

Of the various tasks involved in producing a four hour DVD set, probably the most daunting was creation of 129 animated lower third titles.  These titles included a lot of information: the name of the performance, the name of the dance class or group, if it was a solo, duo or trio the names of the performers, and finally the name of the instructor.  This is a lot data, the typing alone would have taken me forever.

Lucky for me I was able to get the showcase program as a PDF, something I could get the text out of quite easily.  Ok, so I might not have to perform a bunch of data entry, but I’d still have to spend a day copy and pasting to create the titles, right?  Thankfully not.

I edited the Pacific West Performing Arts Spring Showcase 2010 in Final Cut Pro, and it turns out that Final Cut comes with an excellent titling and graphics application called Motion.  Motion is good for more than just titles, but when it comes to banging out a lot of lower thirds that share a look, Motion just can’t be beat.  And not just for FCP users, Motion can also be quite a good tool for you Avid users too.  I can hear a few of you in the back snickering because you think Motion is no match for After Effects.  I grant you that, you’re right, After Effects is the power tool, but in this particular situation even After Effects can not do what Motion makes possible.

You see, Motion’s project files are written as XML, meaning they are text files that can be read, edited and written by any application.  The ramifications of this are huge:  You can create a template Motion project file, open it in a text editor and make some changes and when you reopen the project in Motion– or better yet, switch back to your Final Cut Pro sequence containing that Motion project clip– your changes are reflected immediately.  See where this is going?  What if I could somehow combine the text from the PDFs with a template Motion project and make my title creation easy?

There’s an App for that

I could tell some of your eyes glazed over  during that last paragraph when I mentioned XML. It is like your creative antibodies started screaming, “I’m an artist, not a programmer!”

Lucky for you there’s a very user-friendly application called AutoMotion from Digital Heaven that leverages Motion’s openness and allows you to combine a Motion template with data you had your assistant type in– don’t worry I totally get you’re an artist and don’t do “data entry”– creating many many titles in just seconds.

AutoMotion’s interface is easy to use.  First you import your data into a simple column view, next import a Motion project file to be used as a template, then finally assign which of your data fields link to which of your text objects in the Motion project.  That’s all there is to it.

When you’re ready you tell it to do its thing and process through them all.  It takes no time at all to create many many animated titles.  Better yet you can update your design in the Motion template project then have AutoMotion update all of your titles, again in just seconds.

The Road Less Traveled

But I, I took another route.  I first faced this challenge of the avalanche of animated titles last year, when I produced the first DVD for my daughter’s recital.  I was aware of AutoMotion but I was also very curious in achieving a similar result DIY style.  Plus, I’m quite a closet nerd, so I decided if Motion was the key to the castle I could pick the lock using FileMaker Pro (that’s right, the database application).

A bit dramatic, maybe, but I embarked on some cool shit.  Turns out this cool shit was a lot easier in the spring of 2009 when I first tried it, at the time I had Motion 3 installed and it was more forgiving of the XML my scripts produced.  When I decided to reprise my FileMaker Pro/Motion “solution” I was now using Motion 4 and it was a lot harder to pull off because it required some elements to be present in the XML that Motion 3 didn’t care about. But I persevered.

Here’s a summary:

• Copy and pasted text from program PDF into text file
• Used some Find and Replace routines to convert line endings to tab markers so that in the end I had a tab delineated list of all of the performances and associated credits.
• Imported the text list into a FileMaker Pro database
• Created a Motion project that had the look I was after, then replaced the FPO text with unique placeholders
• In FileMaker pasted the .motn project XML into a global field then created a series of calculated fields that replaced the text from my template with the record fields of the database
• Created a script that would write the new calculated Motion project into a file
• Edited all my new Motion .motn titles into my Final Cut Pro sequence

Later realized I needed to tweak my title position and font size, so I adjusted the template then re-ran my FileMaker Pro script.  Switched back to Final Cut Pro and just like magic the sequence updated with the new look.

Doing it the hard way had some advantages, too, I was able to customize my solution to my exact needs.  Like: make the font size controlled by a calculated field that, based on a count of the characters in a line, would cause lines with more characters to slim down the font size to allow more characters on screen.  I could also populate the database with all of the data from the program but then choose which fields I would actually “publish”.  I also had more control over the file names of the generated .motn files.  My solution was far from elegant, far from general purpose, but it worked great.

Motion is XML, and also QuickTime

There’s another secret that Motion is hiding, another remarkable feature that may entice you to try using it even in conjunction with a non-FCP NLE.  A Motion project file may be just an XML file, but QuickTime can read those .motn files too.  In fact, if you change a motion project’s extension from .motn to .mov just about any QuickTime-savvy application is able to use the files too.  So you could import the .mov-named version of the .motn file into your Media Composer.  You could also drop a list of .motn files into Compressor and have it run a batch to render out proper QuickTimes with alpha channels.

I encourage you to play with it yourself.  Animate a video layer around in Motion in some fun way, then save the project and open it in a good text editor.  Search for <pathurl> to find where the media file is described.  Replace that file path with a similarly formatted path to another media file (note that spaces are represented by %20), save and open the project again in Motion.  Pretty cool, eh?

Maybe this will give you some thoughts the next time you find yourself needing a systematic approach to a motion graphics or titling problem, it could be that by building a template in Motion then running it through AutoMotion or your own processing system you could achieve this kind of nirvana.

If you’re not familiar with URL shortening services here’s a quick primer:  You enter into their system a long URL like http://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-PowerChill-40-Quart-Thermoelectric-Cooler-with-Power-Supply/4810828 and the service adds your URL to their database and creates a unique short URL that will redirect to the address you entered, like http://bit.ly/9IBCdN.

URL shorteners are super helpful, but are there downsides to their use?

Every time you use a URL shortening service you are in effect promoting that service.  While http://bit.ly/9IBCdN will direct readers to the travel cooler I had in mind, before they click all their eyes see is http://bit.ly.  I have never had a single bad association in my mind with regard to any URL shortening service, but there is certainly the possibility of someone out there not trusting a bit.ly link or having their own brand bias. The links you post do say something about you, even the short versions of them, therefore wouldn’t it be better if the short URL they saw helped promote me or my brand instead?

You’ll see examples of this in the wild, For example the NY Times uses the domain http://nyti.ms/ for its URL shortening.  Even if you don’t click the link just looking at the URL reinforces their brand in your mind.

I had been thinking about all of this so one morning I decided to see if I could improve the link shortening I do when Twitter posting to reinforce my own personal brand.  It was shockingly easy to do.

The real key to URL shortening is the length of the short URL you’re using.  People probably prefer bit.ly to tinyurl.com because bit.ly is so much shorter, but URL length cannot be your only consideration.  If the URL was a little longer but was more valuable, maybe the tradeoff would be worth it?

I realized that my domain plate.net is pretty short, shorter than tinyurl.com in fact.  But the domain wes.plate.net more completely identifies me and better reinforces my personal “Wes Plate” brand, and it is still pretty short.  I proceeded to install some URL shortening software into my wes.plate.net domain, I chose to put it into a subdirectory because I couldn’t have it conflict with WordPress, which is what you see at http://wes.plate.net.  There are at least a few options for installing your own URL shortening service, I ended up choosing YOURLS a free collection of PHP and MySQL that is super easy to use.  In addition, YOURLS can integrate into Twitter clients like TweetDeck, Tweetie and Twitter for iPhone, which makes putting your short URL into use that much easier.  In the end a short URL like http://wes.plate.net/~/G isn’t quite as short as http://bit.ly/cgbmxm but it is more valuable to me because my version reinforces my brand and not bit.ly’s.

So now every link I post on Twitter is both short and also reinforces my brand, whether the reader clicks the link or not.  A friend even noticed and complimented me on it, so to me it is already working.  If your domain name is short enough or you can obtain one that resembles your brand, it may be a worthwhile exercise for you too.

So when AT&T announced in April that they were going to start their nationwide rollout of their 3G MicroCell devices, I was ready to jump on board. If you have followed at all the news and discussion of this solution to AT&T customer woes, you’ll no doubt have read people’s anger and frustration about paying themselves to solve AT&T coverage problems.  I will not address this other than to say it was worth $150 to us to have our phones work reliably in our office.

AT&T’s horrid Flash-based MicroCell web page offers to take your email address and notify you when the devices are available in your area. I signed up with two email addresses but never received any news, indeed I read on AT&T’s customer forums that other users never received emails about MicroCells coming available either so I kept checking back from time to time. One day out of the blue the availability checker didn’t give its usual “sorry, not available” response, instead it said they were ready for purchase! Hooray!

AT&T 3G MicroCell box

I called my nearest AT&T store and they said they had the MicroCells in stock, so I went to pick one up. Purchasing a MicroCell is like purchasing a cell phone: it takes way longer than it should. And since the MicroCell is a new thing for them, it took even longer to go through the buying procedure.

There seemed to be some confusion between the two sales people and the store manager who were working on my order about the zip code and address the system was showing for where I was going to install the device, because our business’ mailing address is a PO box and not our physical address. But they said they got it worked out.

Eventually I was out of the store and I unboxed the pretty little thing at the office. Installation is easy: ethernet connection to our network, power and it must be installed near a window for GPS reception. AT&T warns that activation can take a couple of hours so after I completed the online activation steps and set everything up near a window I left to let it simmer. Eventually I received a text message from AT&T warning me that my activation had failed.

I searched the web for similar error messages and while I didn’t immediately find anyone with error 103, I did find people experiencing error 102 which apparently meant that the address provided on the activation web site didn’t match the physical location of the MicroCell. I did try calling AT&T but since it was a Saturday they were closed, real businesses don’t work weekends. Maybe errors 102 and 103 were related? I checked the address on my account for the MicroCell and sure enough, the three AT&T team members setting up my device at the store did indeed enter my PO Box, which has a different ZIP code than my physical location. I changed the address on the web to reflect where the MicroCell was installed and soon after I had an activated 3G MicroCell!

This was all well and good, my iPhone showed five bars and I could make calls from corners of the office never before possible. But I didn’t want this box sitting on my desk near the window, I wanted it hidden away in the server room. I tried moving it after it was activated but it didn’t work, when the MicroCell restarted it could not get a GPS signal so it didn’t enable itself. Time for some GPS antenna action.

Information on the web about using GPS attennae with the AT&T MicroCell is scarce, and the info I did find was rather inconclusive about what to get. People suggested that the antenna port on the MicroCell might be an MCX connector, and one post I found a guy reported getting an antenna meant for a Garmin, so I followed that reasoning in purchasing from Amazon…

• 1x Powerful External Remote Amplified GPS Antenna Receiver for Garmin Nuvi
• 2x NEW Garmin compatible GPS MCX Antenna Extension Cable (10 Feet) MCX Male to MCX Female for Garmin, Magellan or Lowrance GPS Receivers (MCXEXT10)

The nearly 30 feet total these three would span would be enough to put the GPS antenna on the roof of our building and meet the MicroCell in the server room. Fingers crossed!

Thankfully it worked great. The AT&T 3G MicroCell is happily sitting in the server room, seeing its GPS stars in the sky and providing us with much more reliable phone service.

Apparently the three phone numbers on my AT&T account were automatically added to those granted access to our MicroCell, and I only needed to add one more phone number for a contractor who works here so he could also use our 5 bars.  Adding the additional number was easy to do through AT&T’s web site.  Up to ten numbers can be added to the permission list and up to four calls can be made at a time through it.  All in all a worthwhile endeavor for us.

Overall the show went very well. We had 50 guests attend the show, and we tied in a Haitian charity donation opportunity for our guests and we raised $415.

In this post I’ll talk about some of the logistics I had to tackle in order to bring the visual aspect to the show.

Several friends at the show asked what software I was using for playback of the visuals.  I tried a few different VJ applications and the one I settled on was Resolume Avenue.  Applications such as this are intended for live performance, with the ability to mix different source movies, even different sources such as live cameras, plus application of effects to the video streams in real time.  These apps typically accept MIDI input for the triggering and adjustment of clips and effects, so I got an inexpensive Korg nanoKONTROL device to give me some knobs to twirl and sliders to push along with buttons to press.

With the software and the hardware interface I set off to learn how I could be a “VJ”.  I’ve been making video for more than twenty years so it was fun to learn a way to deliver the results.  But it became clear to me pretty quickly that if I was going to combine multiple visual elements in real time it was going to a) be a lot of work, b) require a lot of concentration and as a result probably c) reduce my enjoyment of the show.  So I decided that I would instead largely pre-build my performance and use the VJ software to play back my videos in sequence.

I shot most of the elements I ended up using and I also sourced some stock footage elements, plus I had a friend send me some video he shot on his sailboat, I thought it might come in handy.

Production of elements was fun.  I used Final Cut Pro to arranged clips in time then treated everything in After Effects.  I loaded on and experimented with the effects and kept myself entertained late into the night.  Overall I spent about a month working on my clips, and before long the 2TB of drive space I set aside for this project became almost nothing and I had to add another disk.

The next major consideration was how I was going to project my show.  I knew where the “stage” was going to be in our house, but there wasn’t going to be room to put a screen behind the performer and have the projector somewhere in the room.

Since we were going to have Helios play in front of the large windows in our living room I thought it might be cool to project the video from the rear, meaning the projector would be outside shining into the house.  This way the audience would see the imagery behind the musician and it would all be very natural.

I built some screens using PVC pipe as a frame and spandex material from a local fabric shop stretched across, affixed with Velcro.  They were very lightweight and it was easy to hang them on the outside of the house with hooks and eye bolts.

I felt very makey-makey as I was building the screens.  I used two different kinds of velcro, one with adhesive backing and the other kind meant for fabric that ironed on.  So one night I cut PVC sections, attached velcro to the assembled frames and ironed the other side of the velco to the spandex fabric.  Only once did I leave the iron in one place for too long and I slightly burned/melted the fabric, but it was minor and didn’t have any real affect.

My next problem was where to put the projector outside so that it could cast its light onto, and through, my fancy screens.  The windows are on the second story as viewed from the back yard so I decided to build a platform for the projector to sit on.

I’m not much of a carpenter, and maybe because of that I managed to build something that was later described as a lifeguard tower, a trebuchet, even a guillotine. I was proud of it, though, especially the top platform that was able to tilt so that I would be able to adjust the up and down throw of the projector.

Finally I had to consider protecting the projector from the elements.  I knew that the chances of rain or other wetness on a February evening in the Pacific Northwest was pretty high so I needed a weatherproof box, and that box needed to be ventilated because projectors make a lot of heat.

I considered building a box from scratch but recognizing my limitations knew I was unlikely to build something waterproof and useful.  So I chose instead to use a Rubbermaid storage container as the basis for my projector housing and I modified it to become a projector protector.  I cut a window on one side, covered it with clear plexiglass then duct taped the heck out of it, adding some caulking for extra good measure.

I cut a hole in the bottom for cool air to enter the box (through a matching hole in the stand’s platform) and cut holes in the sides for air to be exhausted.  I mounted two 120v fans from Radio Shack against these holes and then for extra credit I attached vent covers on the outside of the box to protect the fans and projector from overly enthusiastic rain drops.

The entire thing was way over-thought but in the end it all worked very well.  The visuals shined through the windows behind Helios as he played and it felt incredibly natural.  And thankfully I was able to enjoy the show even as I had to pay attention just enough to the software to trigger a clip and to fade out at the end of a song.

It was a very fun experience and I look forward to hosting another show in the future.

I have posted the individual movies of my visuals over at wesplate.com.

Since the show I’ve found this writeup on the evening from The Stranger. The writer was so complimentary about the event I won’t make a big deal of his 20-person underestimation of the number of guests in attendance.

UPDATE: This performance is now available on DVD through the Unseen Music shop… http://www.unseen-music.com/live_snohomish.html

I will first credit the one who inspired me to even think it possible, what I’m about to describe. This man has actually influenced me a lot over the years, and my last blog post about Avid’s ScriptSync wouldn’t have happened had I not seen this guy give a presentation about ScriptSync some years back. Anyway, I first met Steve Audette in 1998 at one of Avid’s Master Editor Workshops. I was blown away by the work Steve showed at this presentation eleven years ago, and I’m very happy to say we became and are still good friends.

One of the things that Steve demoed back then was using Elastic Reality to morph between the clips in a jump cut, making what was two clips into one, hiding the cut.  This blew my mind. But I never used this particular idea until last week.

Original clip with jump cut

The project I was cutting I ended up with a jump cut that I couldn’t cover with b-roll. I thought about modifying the script so I could do away with one of the shots in the bad edit, but the words as they were were just too good. Since the interview subject didn’t move too much across the jump cut I was reminded of Steve Audette’s morphing maneuver.

I turned to RE:Vision Effects and their powerful RE:Flex plugin for After Effects to see if I could accomplish what I had in mind.  RE:Vision’s effects are powerful but do require some learning, so after I brought my clips into After Effects via Pro Import AE I sat myself down and read through the user guide and reviewed how the plug-in works.

Essentially you set up a series of mask pairs, a mask shape that follows the “from” geometry then directly beneath that a mask shape that follows the corresponding “to” geometry.  Clearly the more masks you create to control the morph the better results you will get, and I tried to walk that fine line of doing enough to make the effect work but do few enough that I could quickly move on to other editing tasks.

Series of alternating From and To masks

Thankfully it didn’t take all that long, and it wasn’t really all that hard.  In fact when I started previewing the morph I had to double-check that my eyes weren’t deceiving me because the morph was actually working.

Someone with real morphing and warping experience could give you better advice, but I found parts of the face and body that had easily defined areas and made my mask outlines there.  Like the eyes, the top of the blouse, the sides of the face, and of course the lips.  I previewed the effect to see where warping artifacts appeared or where the effect wasn’t seamless then added mask outlines in those areas.  If there were warping problems that I couldn’t see, well I didn’t consider those to be problems I needed to solve.

Another consideration for me was that this final video was going to be viewed primarily on the web, so a little bit of imperfection could be tolerated since it might end up masked my a compression artifact or a viewer might simply blame the defect on their internet connection.

Now with 100% more morphing

The end result was definitely worth the time I spent, which was probably only about an hour, I was able to keep my interviewee saying the phrase I needed, and on camera too.

A big thank you to RE:Vision Effects for hooking me up with their powerful plug-in and another big thank you to Steve Audette for providing the inspiration.

I’m working on a promotional video, or maybe series of videos, for a local condominium complex and it presented itself as the perfect opportunity to try something I’d heard great things about: Avid’s ScriptSync.

The video project is to promote a few available units in this 55 and older condo, and I decided it would be more interesting and believable if there were no voiceover or narration, if instead the “story” was told by some current residents. So I sat down with five residents and interviewed them on camera, asking them questions about why they like living there, hoping I’d be able to string together their responses into something that made sense.

Transcription

After the interviews were completed the next important thing to do was to transcribe the conversations. Each interview ended up being 30 minutes long, and I knew it would be just too hard to try to start editing right away, no matter how well I logged everything.

I had never myself dealt with transcription before so I was happy to be pointed to Steve Hullfish’s great transcription article on the Pro Video Coalition and it was very helpful in getting me started thinking about this process.

sell on the marble and gold Oh yes

Because I have (and love) After Effects, I also have Premiere Pro installed, so I tried its speech recognition feature. The results, frankly, were comical.

To do this right a proper transcription was in order. First off, I knew I didn’t have the time (or the inclination) to transcribe the interviews myself, but I was curious what the experience would be like. So I downloaded the excellent InqScribe and used it to transcribe a test interview I had shot. It was a valuable experience, I know that if I were in a pinch and needed to transcribe something myself, I could, and this application worked very well.

Armed with the knowledge that this job needed to be left to the pros, I asked on the Avid-L and FCP-L mailing lists as well as on Twitter for recommendations for transcription companies. I received five referrals, so I decided to hire all of the companies to each tackle one of my interviews. I like to give business to companies that friends recommend, and I encourage you to do the same. Here’s who I worked with and how much each charged to transcribe their approximately 30 minute one-on-one interview:

• Diane McCoy – kd1625@gmail.com – $60
• Diva Transcription Services – www.divatranscription.com – $42
• TypingPlus – typingplus@roadrunner.com – $47.25
• Wordwizards – www.wordwizardsinc.com – $56
• Take1 Transcription – www.take1.tv – $64.50

The costs added up, but considering the alternative of me doing a less good job much more slowly, it was definitely worth it.

If you’ve never done the transcription thing before, here’s how it went for me: I exported a QuickTime movie of each interview then compressed it to a small size suitable for sending over the web. Some of the companies provided me with a login to their own FTP server, others I just uploaded to my own site and provided them with a download link. When they were done they sent back a Microsoft Word document. It couldn’t be easier.

Non-linear editing

Paper Cut

I’ve never actually performed a paper cut before, but this situation called for it. I’m sure there are better approaches, but here’s what I did: I printed each of the transcribed interviews onto colored paper, a different color for each interviewee. Then using scissors I quickly went through and snipped out my questions and useless answers, then placed the remaining paragraphs into a theme-specific pile.

I had these large legal size pieces of paper on the counter, each with a heading written at the top… “Community”, “Security”, “Parking”, “Common area” and so on, each with various bits of paper containing a response that vaguely fit that category of conversation. If you stood back and squinted your eyes real tight it vaugely resembled the interface of an NLE– bins filled with clips.

My first paper cut, I'll have to save this for the museum.

Then I went through each category and refined my cuttings, paring them down to just the bit I was likely to use, then I arranged the responses on the 8.5×14 paper so the ideas kinda flowed, then I taped them down. The result was a rainbow colored script!

ScriptSync

So the first part of my editorial process was decidedly low tech, but the next was on the other end of the spectrum. I converted the transcript Word docs into text files, adjusted their formatting and then the real fun began.

Select the text in the script then drag the associated clip onto it.

In Media Composer (I’m using 4.02) you choose New Script… from the File menu. You’re prompted to select a text file, then a new window appears containing the transcribed text. Select all of the text in this window, or the part that corresponds with the clip you’re about to link with, then drag the master clip or subclip whose audio matches the script onto the the script.

Next comes the real magic sauce. Choose ScriptSync… from the Script menu and the Avid magically listens to your audio media and associates the words on the script to the words said onscreen. It is a fast process too, indexing one of my 30 minute interviews took just 50 seconds.

You can open source clips by double-clicking words in the script.

Now you’re able to search the script window for words or phrases, then once found you double click on the script and the clip opens in the source window with the position indicator parked right where the person is saying the words you clicked on. It is incredible.

So I just went through my taped together script searching the script for a key word in that section and I was very quickly able to create a rough sequence based on my paper cut. It really is amazing.

So that’s that. I’m now in editing mode, cleaning up the bites and covering with b-roll and figuring out what I need to go back and shoot. I couldn’t be this far along this quickly without this amazing feature of Media Composer, check it out for yourself!

Replaced ending "s"

Update

Some of these interviewees just aren’t phrasing things as I need. ScriptSync is magic here too, because for example I’m able to search for “s.” to find a sentence that ends with a proper idea-ending “sss” sound.

Original bite as spoken by subject:  

I searched for the characters “s.” and quickly found other places in the interview where apparently my interviewee ended a sentence using a word ending in “s”. A quick edit and I have something that sounds much better.

Imagine doing this without ScriptSync, well I know you don’t have to imagine, you’ve done it.  So have I.  This way is definitely a nice alternative.

Cluttery and distracting

I’ve been using Media Composer since version 5 point something, which will confuse you new kids who think Media Composer 4.0 just came out. So I’ll put it this way, I started using Media Composer in 1995. I’ve used a lot of versions, and have always preferred using it on a Mac, even though Avid tools feel less stable on the Mac than they do running on Windows. I hate using Windows that much. But stability aside there was has been one big thing that has bugged me about Media Composer since it came to OS X, and I think I’ve found one way to lessen the annoyance this causes me.

Since going to OS X, Media Composer on the Mac did away with the nice grey background of the application that would shield your eyes from temptations beckoning from behind your bins.  This feature still exists on Windows, but somehow it was decided Mac users couldn’t benefit from what we were enjoying in OS 9 and before.

You’re saying, “Dude, just quit the other apps!  If Facebook and your email are distracting you, quit them and only run Media Composer.”

To that I respond, “What are you, some kind of monster??!”

Even ONLY MC running, visual vomit remains

There ain’t no way I’m completely disconnecting from the world while I’m editing, that ain’t the way I roll.  Hell, you probably know I’ve been posting on the Avid-L since, what, 1996? 1997?  And to the Avid First Class BBS before Avid-L came along.  I had my Mac-based Media Composers connected to the internet back when some of your mommies were telling you that was a no-no.

You can’t NOT have other apps running, you need your Photoshop and After Effects running, but my complaint here is not that your eyes– sorry, I should be talking about me– my eyes are distracted not only by non-work-related Facebook, Twitter and email overload, my eyes are distracted by just the visual mess that you see here to my right.  I’ve been saying for a long while now that when you’re in the Media Composer you should not see your Desktop image behind you, no, there should be grey there!  At least give me the option.

There’s still a whole ‘nother problem with bringing the Media Composer back to the forward app by simply clicking one of its windows, you wind up with bins remaining hidden behind other app’s windows.  Why on earth would I want my Composer window to remain behind my web browser when I click on my Timeline window?  Sorry for the aside, I’ll get back on topic.

That's what I'm talking about!

Ok, so what I’m proposing is something that looks like the image you see to the right of this very text I’m typing right here.  It is visually appealing.  And as an added bonus, when you accidentally miss a bin and click on the grey background you don’t switch out of Media Composer.  Get out your award nomination forms, I’m about to tell you how I pulled off this coup.

1. Head over to Many Tricks’ web site and download Desktop Curtain.
2. Next, download my suggestion for your grey backround.
3. Launch Desktop Curtain and drag my grey PSD into the image well.
4. If when you launch Desktop Curtain all you see is your desktop covered with the default OS X space picture, launch Desktop Curtain a second time.  This will bring up the settings window.  That is the weird thing about the app, it is faceless and doesn’t really give you any indication it is running but if you “launch” it and it is already running you’ll get the settings window.
5. The settings window, btw, is where you quit Desktop Curtain when you’re done with it.

Yes, I did donate.

I set my “Curtain Level” to “In front of the items on the desktop”, which means I’m not actually hiding any apps with this satisfying greyness, I’m hiding the Desktop.  And when I’m done posting an update on Facebook I just remember to Hide the web browser (Command-H) then all I see is Media Composer and Grey.

Anyway, I’ve used Desktop Curtain many times in the past for what it is intended for, but using it to make my life better in this way made me very very happy indeed.

Saucy indeed.

My good friend Dawnelle works with Marination Mobile, a fantastic “food truck” in  the Seattle-area that was featured on November 21st’s Good Morning America Weekend.  GMAW is hosting a contest called the Best Food Cart Challenge and Marination Mobile was one of the four finalists chosen from around the US.

In anticipation of the TV crew’s visit to Ballard to try out Marination Mobile’s cuisine, Dawnelle asked me if my new screen printing hobby/business would make her a shirt that said “Saucy”, just in case a shot of her made it into the piece.  And Woot!  You can see Dawnelle in the segment, apparently performing crowd control, wearing her custom Saucy shirt for all America to see.

UPDATE:  Marination Mobile won Good Morning America Weekend’s Best Food Cart Challenge!  http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerindex?id=9147915 Congratulations!

My daughter Sarah Michael was interested in doing this new hobby with me, and we talked about designs we could make together.

But I didn’t end up with that much free time needing to be filled, I seemed to be pretty busy. We also had a nightmare home remodel that started in the winter of 2008 and so it took a while for the t-shirt shop idea to actually become a reality.

Finally this summer I started to put the T-shirt shop together and make sure we had all the stuff we needed. But what I really needed was something to motivate me to actually produce a design and make a shirt, and that something was a trip to San Francisco for a three-day outdoor music festival called Outside Lands. I thought it would be fun to screen print my own Outside Lands shirt design to wear to the shows, and it ended up being quite fun indeed!

I stayed up very late a few of nights before I left for my trip watching DVDs on the shirt-making process, then printing my design, exposing and washing out the the screen then finally printing onto some shirts.  There was a lot to learn and do, but it was a lot of fun.

And I even had people comment to me on my shirts!  Two different people came up to me and said “I didn’t see that shirt at the merchandise table.”  I felt proud!  I told them I designed and printed the shirt myself, but I didn’t bore them with the long drawn-out history.

Now I just need to keep making shirts, and start charging money for them too, cause if I don’t these Outside Lands shirts will be the most expensive pieces of clothing I have ever worn.

I used some thick plywood as the platform, then mounted inline skate wheels to aluminum angles, then attached those assemblies to the bottom of the platform. To take the thing to the next level I affixed some indoor/outdoor carpeting to it. The entire project was pretty easy and the results are fantastic.

Here is the finished edit of the video I did for PacWest, there are a few dolly shots in there: http://www.vimeo.com/6299207

I found these excellent Westinghouse solar garden lights in the Home and Garden section of our local Fred Meyer. The label on the underside of the box calls them “WH Gladiator 1PC Pewter”, the packaging also calls them “Item #474005-41″ from International Development Corp. and Westinghouse. I’ve searched Google for all of these keywords and can’t find these lights anywhere, so I just bought a bunch from Fred Meyer. These lights are perfect because they fit perfectly into the lid of the jar so you don’t need to dismantle the light like the Lifehacker post instructs.

Commenters on the Lifehacker page reported problems finding jars for this project. I found quite a few at local stores (Fred Meyer and McDaniel’s Do it Center), and McDaniel’s happily ordered me more when I exhausted their stock. Amazon lists them as in stock, so they’re out there.

[UPDATE] it rained recently and we were dismayed to find that the Fred Meyer jars actually filled with water! The “Fido” jars I got from McDaniel’s, however, did not have this problem. So I definitely recommend getting “ermetic” jars.

Let’s go!

• 

  First, dismantle your jar, removing the lid and the wire latch. Keep the pieces, especially the small wire loop that keeps it all together.

• 

  Paint the outside of the jar with your Frosted Glass paint. You don’t need lots of coats, just one will probably do just fine. You do want even coverage, however, so spray lightly and don’t get too close to avoid pooling the paint on the surface.

• 

  While the paint dries let’s work on the lid.

  Remove the light from the stick/reflector part, just rotate it and it will come apart. Discard the stick/reflector part unless you can find another use for it as an olympic torch or magic wand or something. Mix your epoxy and apply it to the top of the light assembly as shown in the picture. You should first place your light into the lid of the jar to a) make sure it fits and b) get a sense of what surfaces of the light come into contact with the glass lid. To me it felt like the contact was around the ring of the light, not just the top face, so I applied my epoxy to the edge as well as the top.

  After the epoxy is on the light, set it into the lid and allow the two to bond.

• 

  When your paint is dry and epoxy completely set you’re ready to reassemble the jar.

• 
  If you haven’t already done so, pull the plastic tab from the light assembly, this engages the rechargable battery.
• 
  That’s it! You’re done.
  Put in the sun to charge and when it gets dark enjoy your new Sun Jar.

The night’s sleep in the Walmart parking lot was uneventful, though Jessie said she heard a horn honk shortly before we left.  Maybe the horn contributed to my waking, probably more I was just excited to get home.

The sun rose as we were in eastern Washington, west of Spokane.  The Palouse is so beautiful, especially when bathed in the light of dawn.

But later we drove through an area where a massive wildfire that has been burning for the last few days.  A thousand fire fighters are fighting the blaze that has so far consumed more than 19,000 acres.  The smell of smoke still hangs in the air and it looks like another planet, so desolate is the landscape.

At Coulee City Jessie got behind the wheel and I slept until Leavenworth.  Then we gassed up for the final push over Stevens Pass and home.

So here we are, home a day earlier than planned, but glad to be back to our familiar surroundings.  The trip was wonderful and we certainly have many great memories.

I’ve been playfully threatening Jessie that we were going to stay in WalMart parking lots during the trip and she has not very playfully said “No Way!”

Well, here we are on what may be our final night in the RV, Jessie is a asleep and I’m driving, and I see a Walmart beside the freeway.  Oh, we gotta do it!

Expect a report from Jessie in the morning.

But there is no longer a John’s here. If you look closely at the pic you may be able to make out the outline of the old sign.

The dude behind the counter of the new restaurant recognized my Rothbury shirt, though, he was there too! That’s cool.

While fueling up the RV in Billings this morning I saw this ad placed above the pump that caught my attention.  The ad is from ZeeCreative a company that offers web design, hosting and other consulting services.

Are there a lot of folks in Billings, MT who are filling up their tanks and thinking, “Who can help me sort out an SSL certificate for my web site?”

Just struck me as funny.

Here is a closeup of the ad.

Our plan was to spend the night in Billings, Montana and on the way there we stopped at the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn.

On this hill Custer and his men fought against the indians but lost and were killed.  There is no way to know how authentic the placements are, but one thing that is neat about the monument is they have gravestones placed where Cavalry soldiers fell.  This gives the place more emotion.  I was expecting to find just a hill, and a hill indistiguishable from nearby hills would have had much less impact.

Deadwood is a neat old town that was incorporated in 1876 following the discovery of gold in the area.  Many of the old buildings still line Main Street and newer buildings are built to fit in, so it really feels like a step back in time.

Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are both buried in Deadwood so our first stop was the cemetery where they lie.

After visiting the graves we went down to Main Street to have lunch.  I asked the parking garage guy for a restaurant recommendation and he suggested we go to the Midnight Star, owned by Kevin Costner.  The Kevin Costner thing kind of went right by me until we got into the restaurant.  The walls are covered with photos from his films as well as cases housing customes worn in the films.  There were customes from The Untouchables, Robin Hood, Dances with Wolves, and many many more.  We joked that there probably wasn’t a display for Waterworld, but our waiter told us that there was.  But we didn’t seek it out.

Lunch was good and we hit the road.  Deadwood was a neat old town, some day we’ll have to come back and tour around some more.

The woman who stopped us at the intersection told me they were from Iowa and were going to visit Hill City then were going to Mt. Rushmore.  There were 42 tractors, all driven by smiling waving grandpas, they were so cute!

We spent our last day at the Mt. Rushmore KOA enjoying their facitilities and relaxing.  Sarah Michael and I went on the water slide, went swimming in the pool and played mini golf.

Jessie went on a ride on a horse and she loved it, though she complained about butt and leg soreness later.

At dinner time we weren’t really hungry but at about 8:30pm we decided to use up the last of our firewood and cook over a fire a few hot dogs.  It was a lot of fun and got us as close to roughing it as we would get on this trip.

While we ate our campfire dinner we started to see lightning over the hills.  The clouds moved closer as did the lightning.  The wind was really coming up too so we put up the awning and put everything away.  It started to rain while we were in the RV and the lightning continued.  Sarah Michael pulled out her new digital camera and made a video of the lightning.

It was a good end to our visit in the Black Hills and the KOA.  We hope to come back!

One of the many attractions near Mt. Rushmore is Old MacDonald’s Petting Farm, a petting zoo just outside Rapid City.  We learned about it from brochures in the KOA park.  Sarah Michael wanted to check it out with one stipulation:  She did not want to go anywhere near the turkeys.

The farm is great for kids.  In addition to all the animals to see and pet they have a train ride, pig races, opportunities to bottle feed young animals, pony rides and lots more.  The goats are funny, they have a high bridge they can climb up to and walk across.

My friend Mike, who recommend the KOA RV park we’re at, also recommended that we make time to ride the Presidents Alpine Slide in Keystone.

When I saw pictures of the slide I was in.  I have vague memories of seeing a place like this when I was a kid and wanting to do it, but I never got to.  Now was my chance.

Sarah Michael didn’t share my enthusiasm.  She didn’t want to go down the slide, no way.  Jessie was also not-so interested but when she learned the little carts you ride have brakes so you can control your speed and go slow, she convinced SM to go.  They could go slow, I could go fast.

You ride a chair lift up to the top of this little mountain, then you sit on a cart in the track and down you go.  I got down first and watched SM and Jessie as they arrived at the bottom.  Sarah Michael announced as she got off “That was fun!  I want to do it again!”

How could I say no to that?  We paid for another run and went back up.  This time SM wanted to ride with me so she could go down the slide faster.  Jessie went first and Sarah Michael and I went in the next track and tried to catch up to her.  We just about did too.  SM loved it, I loved it and Jessie enjoyed it too (she probably didn’t love it).

Mt. Rushmore is not the only massive sculture to see here in the Black Hills, the memorial to the Indian leader Crazy Horse is underway just north of the town of Custer.

The Crazy Horse Memorial is spectacular.  The size and scope of it, the history behind it, it is very cool.

The first blast on the mountain was in 1948 and sixty years later work continues.  The project is entirely funded by entry fees, donations and gift shop sales, no government money has been accepted by those behind the project.  So it actually felt really good to pay our $20 to get in (you can give too!).  The visitor center experience begins with a film about the history of the project, the sculptor who designed it and his legacy.  Then there are lots of artifacts of both Native American life as well as the actual blasting/carving process.  The visitor center is beautiful and huge and even includes the home the sculptor built for himself and later his family.

It feels like history in action to see it not yet complete.  Some day I can visit again and hopefully see that progress has been made.  Some day further on Sarah Michael can return with her children and she’ll see an even greater change.

We’ve decided to stay an extra day here in the Mt. Rushmore area and forgo Yellowstone on the way home.  Not only are there a million things to do in the area, this Mt. Rushmore KOA is great (thanks again, Mike, for the suggestion)!  There is a water slide, two pools, mini golf, a big trampoline-type thing, Sarah Michael absolutely loves it.

There are a ton of kids here too.  They’re all having a blast.  Sarah Michael has already announced we’re coming here every year.  It would be fun for her to come with a friend, we would probably never see them!

The internet connection here isn’t great (I had to drive into Custer to use the library’s network to upload our pics to Flickr) and our phones display No Service most of the time, but maybe that’s a good thing when you’re supposed to be on vacation.

We drove along the Wildfife Loop which goes down and around the southern end of the park.  For a while we didn’t see anything but the first animal we enjoyed was a white tailed deer.  He was curious for the length of his tail.

We were bummed we hadn’t seen any buffalo since last night we saw two of them beside the road, but then we noticed several cars stopped up ahead.  They were stopped to see a herd of buffalo grazing right next to the roadway.  A couple buffalo wandered into the street and walked right past us, which freaked out Sarah Michael, but they weren’t interested in us at all and didn’t bother us.

There were some young ones in the herd and they were very cute.

We continued on and enjoyed the scenery and more animals.  We saw lots more deer and also more donkeys.

Then we followed the same path out of the park that I’d driven the night before with the RV.  It was great to see the route in the daytime.  We also learned the tight winding bridges are called the Pigtail Bridges and it was cool to actually see them, since last night I had no visual context.

We were also able to see Mt. Rushmore from the mountain road, another thing I couldn’t know at night.

So we made our way down the mountain and onto proper-size roads and then made our way to Mt. Rushmore.

Mt. Rushmore is quite a sight.  It is exactly what I thought it would be, but it was still neat to see it in person.  We didn’t stay long at the monument, we took a few pictures and visited the gift shop.  In the gift shop I spoke to a woman who was sitting at a table signing books.  She was coauthor of a book about the mountain’s history, so I asked her a few questions then had her sign a copy for us.  I look forward to reading up.  For example did you know that there were nine major design changes to the mountain during construction?  Neither did I, but I don’t know the details yet.  I have to read the book.

But not before seeing wildlife.  As we drove through the park towards the campground we saw some deer near the road but even better we saw two buffalo.  The first one we saw freaked us out, it was walking just next to a curve in the road and we both only realized what it was just after we’d passed its dark shape.  Jessie was thrilled, she may just get to see some wildlife on this trip.

Shortly before we got to the park Jessie realized that we had not booked a campsite with full hookups, instead it was electricity only.  That’s just not the way we roll.  So we pulled up an email from my friend Mike that recommend a good KOA resort near Mt. Rushmore.  I ran around and confirmed that the entire campground was in fact only had electric hookups, but we had to decide, should we stay here tonight and move in the morning?  I was still plenty awake from all the energy drinks I’d consumed during the drive so I decided to drive to the KOA and figured we could park in their lot until they opened in the morning.

The road suggested by the GPS navigation device took us out of the park to the north, not the way we had just come in.  As we turned out of the park a sign warned that the road ahead was narrow and steep and came with one-lane bridges and tunnels, the shortest clearance only 12 foot 4 inches.  I asked Jessie, “How tall is this RV, didn’t the guy tell us it was 12 foot-something?”  She pulled out the RV information sheet from the rental place and it said “Most of our RVs are 12 feet high…”  Uh oh.

We pressed on.  I figured I’d stop at the tunnel entrance when we found it and climb the ladder to the roof to see if we’d make it in.  I was definitely nervous.

The road itself came through on the narrow and steep promise.  I traveled slowly up the mountain road and was thankful it was middle of the night and no other cars were there to compete for passage.  We saw scores more deer and even encountered two donkeys on the road at one point.  Jessie was tired and decided to go to sleep, and I assured her I’d wake her up if I needed her help to turn around should this gamble go the wrong way.

After what seemed like forever I finally found the first tunnel.  This was the shortest, the 12 foot 4 inch one.  I maneuvered to get a straight shot into the hole and stopped just as the nose was about to enter.  I climbed the ladder and peered over the air conditioning unit, trying to gauge its relative height and see if I could safely proceed.  Even though I felt like I didn’t have any definitive evidence of any kind, I decided to chance it and go on.

Very slowly I drove into the tunnel and I listened for the possibility of anything on the roof hitting rock.  No sound.  I continued.  No sound.  Then I was safely out.

I continued, confident that I’d passed through the lowest of the tunnels and that I’d be fine the rest of the way.  The road got even windier, the switchback turns very tight indeed, but eventually I stopped climbing and began to descend on the other side of whatever mountain this was.  I had to remain alert, though, because the going down was just as steep as the going up and I didn’t want to lose my brakes.  I got through it and just before 2am I was on real highways again, just miles from our new KOA destination.

One feature of this night was the moon was quite full and bright.  This provided me a nice reward for the last hour’s scary trip, because I actually drove past Mt. Rushmore on the way to the resort.  In the moonlight the faces of the presidents were visible and it was a pretty sight.  A nice way to see the monument for the first time.

I pulled into KOA at 2:00 and parked.  As expected the office was closed so I locked up and laid down and slept.  In the morning I’ll register and get us our site.

On the way north through Wyoming we stopped to see some artifacts from the migration west in the late 1800s.  Just outside the town of Guernsey, Wyoming the Oregon Trail once passed, and as the wagons drove across the sandstone ground their wheels cut ruts into the rock that are still quite visible today.

It is simply unimaginable the hardships faced by the early settlers.  As Sarah Michael and I walked along the trail I told her how easy our lives are compared to the olden-days cowboys who came across with their wagons.  I know she couldn’t fully comprehend what I was telling her, but it was cute when I told her that they didn’t have all that we have today, including TVs.  She replied that she thought maybe they had old fashioned radios.

A couple miles from the park established around the wagon ruts is Register Cliff.  Into the rock face settlers carved their names and the year of their travel.  Some very old inscriptions can still be found, but the wall is mostly filled in by modern visitors’ carving and scratching.

Just a little while earlier SM and I were walking between the Oregon Trail ruts discussing how rude it was of previous park visitors to engrave their names or initials into the rock between the ruts.  Vandalism like that diminishes the experience for those who come later.  Now here we are visiting a monument to exactly the same kind of vandalism, but it is historical and therefore acceptable.

Next we stopped to visit the historic Fort Laramie.  Jessie was excited to tour these grounds, she said she had learned a lot about this very place in school.  If I did, I don’t remember anything about it.

The park service has done a wonderful job restoring some of the buildings and you can walk in some of the buildings and look into some of the rooms that are done up like they would have been 150 years ago.  Glass prevents you from entering the rooms, but you can look in.  It is really cool.

Other structures are in ruins, but the way they stand juxtaposed against the restored buildings reminds you that this place is quite old while still giving a sense of what it might have been like long ago.

First we drove past the church where I went to preschool.  Then we went by my old elementary school.  The building looked so small!  The building looked exactly as I remembered it, except that what used to be seem large is now obviously designed for very small people.  We drove past the swimming pool I would play in during the summer, the SCCA, a place I had totally forgotten about.

We drove the route I used to walk to and from school and the distance was a lot shorter than I remember.  But the neighborhood didn’t seem to have changed at all.  I showed Jessie and Sarah Michael where my friend Kyle lived, and where the neighbor Lola lived.

Then we got to our old house at 205 Darmouth Trail. The house is just as I remember, though I’m sure the shutters are a different color, and the trees are now much larger.

Less than a block away from our old house was the park where I would play as a boy.  I showed SM the lake I used to fish in, the creek I used to pull crawdads from, I even remembered one of the trees that stood beside the creek.  I walked up the hill I used to sled down and took in the view, the park is so beautiful.  Sarah Michael played on the playground, and she and I went on the swings together.  It was a lot of fun.

We were so lucky to live in such a cute little neighborhood with a wonderful park practically across the street.

I-70 is impressive, as it moves into the mountains the east and west-bound lanes are for long stretches elevated on bridges, allowing them to be wider than they could be if the road had been build on the actual ground.  It looks cool, too.  Well done highway designers.

We made our way along, and it was fun to see the landscape change.  The rocky cliffs remained for a while, but green trees started to appear and the hillsides grew greener and greener.

We got hungry and asked the Garmin which restaurants were nearby, and lucky for Sarah Michael her favorite kind of food was just few miles ahead.  Sato Sushi was the place in Edwards, CO.  The food was good and town is cute.  It should be, it is quite near Vail and affluence clearly infects this place too.  If I could afford it it seemed like a nice place to live.

As we climbed the mountain pass higher, it began to rain.  This was a nice change.  We haven’t seen proper rain for quite a while and I missed it!  Then we climbed even higher and the rain started to change to snow!  The highest we got was just over 11,000 feet, there was more mountain still ahead of us but thankfully we were spared more climbing, the long Eisenhower-Johnson tunnel allowed us to start going back down.  This was good, the RV was really laboring to pull itself and the jeep up the steep grade and we were not able to maintain any speed at all.  By the time we reached the entrance to the tunnel we were down to 25 miles an hour.

As we neared the bottom of the mountain near Denver, we saw a couple of great freeway signs.  They came and went too quickly for us to get pictures, but RockyMountainRoads has pictures here and here.

We finally arrived our destination, St. Vrain State Park, after 10pm, though we would have been there sooner had the Garmin actually known where the place was.  I had preloaded the GPS system with our destinations based on addresses or other info we got when booking our stays, and we were sent about three miles off course.  Not a great distance, but when you’re driving a vehicle with a 100-yard turning radius that can’t back up because of its towed vehicle it makes correcting navagational mistakes more of a challenge.

Good night!

Arches is beautiful.  It is similar to Monument Valley, but different enough to make it worth the visit.  One difference is that since Arches is a National Park visitors have much more access to the rocks.  At Monument Valley we weren’t allowed to go off the beaten path, but at Arches we could park the car then walk up close and climb on the rocks.  Certainly this could be at someone’s peril, as there are plenty of dangerous places to go, but that’s part of the fun.

Arches is also inexpensive to visit, $10 for our carload.

Arches is also in Moab, which appears to be a paradise for anyone with desires for Jeeping, mountain biking or river rafting.  It is a beautiful area.

Oh, another difference betwen Arches National Park and Monument Valley is that while Monument Valley is viewed from a dusty dirt road, Arches is nicely paved.

There are, of course, arches.

We stopped at Double Arch and walked over to climb into it.

As we walked on the trail, Sarah Michael noticed that her voice echoed off the rock walls, this amused her.  So we make loud noises to hear them come back to us, I’m not sure the foreign tourists appreciated this.

Climbing on the rocks isn’t especially difficult, but you must pay attention.  It is steepish but there are plenty of bits to put your toes and fingers onto.  The last bit of the climb to get up into the smaller archway was the most difficult so I basically held Sarah Michael up as she found footholds to use.  It was fun, though, and made me wish for more time in Arches so we could explore and climb more.

Alas we didn’t visit very much of the park, it was already 11am and we knew we had a long drive ahead to get us to our next campground in Longmont, Colorado.

So off we went.  Southern Utah is really something, I look forward to returning to see more.

So a big Hooray!  Jessie saw a deer!

After going through Mexican Hat, UT which is named for a rock formation that looks sombrero-ish, the red rock whose dust we’ve been breathing for the last few hours is gone and the geology has been replaced by something entirely different.

Then you’ll go up a canyon and then down into another that looks different again.  The topology, geology, geography or whatever is constantly changing and is good fun to look at.  The rocks some in some pretty neat shapes too, and right next to the highway!

We passed a lot we wished we could have seen, Needles, Natural Bridges, Valley of the Gods.  Plus I see all kinds of roads with Jeeping potential.  We are definitely coming back.

We decided to bail on Four Corners, we’ll save that for a future visit when we can see southwest Colorado and a time when Sarah Michael finds all this stuff more interesting.

We were about to drop down a steep grade on the highway when we were stopped by the Highway Patrol.  They were closing north-bound traffic while they let south-bound traffic use our lane on the grade to get past a slow-moving wide load.  We only had to wait about ten minutes but we were sure curious what the fuss was about.  I don’t know what that truck was hauling, but it was enormous.

About 30 minutes south of Moab we drove up on Wilson Arch and stopped to have a closer look.  How can stuff this amazing be so accessible?

You can climb right up into the hole in the rock, which we did. It is so beautiful!

We finally arrived into Moab at 7:30 and got into our RV park.  This is a beauitful area, I’m sad we can’t spend more time here this trip, but knowing we’ll come back and we have so much to look forward to is quite a comfort.

The plan today was to drive to Four Corners, then go north to Moab, UT where we’re going to stay the night.  As we headed east we entered the town of Kayenta, AZ to gas up and from there saw this huge dark monolith in the distance.

We checked the map and saw that north of Kayenta was Monument Valley, a name that think I’ve heard before.  Monument Valley is actually several miles north, but the rocks we could see from Kayenta told us we needed to detour north and check out this action.

Monument Valley is amazing.  I loved it.  To visit costs a whopping $5 per adult (hear that Skywalk people?).  Then you can park and go to the Visitor Center (they’re in the middle of building a new one) or travel the 17-mile dirt road loop through the valley.  Oh yes, that’s what the Jeep is for.

Everywhere you look there are incredible rock formations.  A bummer is that you’re quite limited in where you can go, secondary roads that might lead from the main loop are forbidden, but that’s ok, the views from the main road are great.

Many of the formations have names.  There’s the Elephant, the Camel, Three Sisters, Totem Poles and lots more.  There are huge boulders that have fallen off the cliffs, and some of them sit atop much smaller rocks, making for fun and precarious photo opportunites.

I took a lot of pictures, way more than are necessary to make the point, but it is hard not to.  Everywhere you look you’re like, “Whoa!” and “Check that out!” and on and on.

Monument Valley is a must-do.  I recommend it highly.  It is cheap and you don’t actually need a 4×4 vehicle to make the loop.  Most people were driving their rental minivans and sedans and they all did fine.  We did see three rented RVs on the loop, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that.

Today we left Arizona, the Grand Canyon is now just a memory.

One thing that really struck me about the area surrounding the Grand Canyon was how green it was.  The area is hot but it must get a lot of precipitation because the hills and valleys are just covered with greenery.  There are some times when driving on the park roads where if I didn’t know I was at the Grand Canyon I could easily believe I was somewhere along the Oregon Coast.

The night we arrived into the park we did see lightning as we drove in, and yesterday we saw clouds dropping rain somewhere, but we never got wet ourselves.

We left early-ish, at 7:20 and started making our way towards a one-night stay in Moab, Utah on our way eventually to Mt. Rushmore.

Much of the drive once we left the National Park was through the Navajo Indian Reservation, and there were some interesting geological features that we didn’t think to photograph. There are these huge mounds, for example, that look like gravel piles, but there’s nothing to suggest they are actually piles of gravel moved from somewhere else. They stand in stark contrast to the pervasive red rock that is just about everywhere else.

Just before Tuba City, AZ we came across signs advertising Dinosaur Tracks. We couldn’t pass it by without stopping.

We were guided by a local Navajo girl who explained the tracks were made by Raptors, Allosaurus, Pteradactyls and a fourth one I can’t remember.

There were also fossilized bones, a claw and lots of dino droppings.

In addition to offering tours of the footprints there were also women selling locally-made jewelry and other trinkets.  The place had the kind of grim sadness of a lot of the roadside Indian merchants.  The stands are rickety and quite spare, you can sense the desperation of the people.  We gave the tourguide a “donation” and also bought some bracelets.

It was a worthwhile stop, very fun to see dinosaur artifacts out in the wild.

I plead with the people who put up the signs that say, watch for deer/Elk, watch for mt. goats or the signs that were all through Yosemite ” speeding kills bears”.  Today we saw a sign we had never seen before, cougar next ten miles.  Do we ever see any of these animals…NO….so please take these signs down.  The are only teasing us and making people like me sad that there are never any animals to see.  And who’s to say that they will be in those specified miles?  They might actually be roaming outside their boundaries.  They are after all wild animals.

This morning, before we left our RV spot we were relaxing outside when Sarah Michael saw a little groundhog-type animal poking his head out of a hole.  We watched as it pushed dirt up from his tunnel out onto a pile.  And he didn’t seem the least bit afraid of us.  We got closer and closer and he just went about his business.

Then we headed off to see the canyon.  We headed off to one of the historic sites in the park and on the way stopped at one of the many roadside view points.  I imagine it is hard to find a bad spot to view the canyon, as everywhere you go and the views are spectacular.

Sarah Michael thought the this rock formation looked like WALL•E in his crouched position…

Next we went to the Watchtower, built in 1932.  It is three stories high and has great views.

We stopped at a couple of other viewpoints and the view was always great.  But it didn’t take me long to get tired and want to get back to the RV.  The Grand Canyon is beautiful, but it all kinda looks the same after a while.

So we’re back in camp now, relaxing (this is what vacations are for!).  We leave tomorrow for a couple days of long driving so I’m going to luxuriate in nothingness for as long as I can!

Thanks to the movie Cars, even little Sarah Michael is familiar with Route 66.  If you remember the song, one of the stops along the highway was Kingman, Arizona.  Good thing our path to the Grand Canyon went through Kingman, it meant a photo opportunity.  Another good thing, it was dinner time which meant a visit to a roadside diner.

The place was 1950s through and through, and I had to smile at the family from England who walked in with wide eyes and wider smiles.  They sat in the booth beside us and they all took pictures of each other using their phones.

The food was great!  Jessie and I both had burgers, Sarah Michael enjoyed a hot dog and afterward a root beer float.

After a nice dinner we hit the road to continue to the Grand Canyon.  We still had many miles to go, but it was a good day and we were all happy.

Jessie and I had heard about this thing called the Skywalk, a glass walkway that extends past the edge of the Grand Canyon so we wanted to check it out.  We didn’t know where it was, though, and we made no actual plans to see it.  We had the thought to see it, then the thought left as easily as it arrived.

We were driving along the freeway towards our camp at the Grand Canyon when out in the middle of nowhere near a town called Dolan Springs Jessie saw a billboard instructing us to turn now for the Grand Canyon Skywalk.  “Hey, did we want to see that?”  “Yeah!”  So we turned around and began the 49 mile drive from US 93 to Grand Canyon West.

We stopped along the way and took pictures of some of the cactus tree things that are all over the place.   They are really interesting, you can see from the dead branches on the ground that these plants are kind of hollow, with a honeycomb of holes throughout.  The wood is also kind of soft.  I wonder if the wood is useful for anything?

Eventually we got to the turnoff for Grand Canyon West (21 miles left to go).  The road was dirt so we parked the RV, had a little lunch, then drove on in the Jeep.  14 miles later we got a reprieve from the dust, the road became paved again!  Hooray!

Finally we arrived.  The area was quite a buzz of activity.  There’s a small airport there and planes and helicopters where buzzing in and out to take visitors on sightseeing trips around this west side of the Grand Canyon.  We got to the entrance and paid our $20 parking fee and received our first hint of trouble.  We can’t drive our own vehicle to the edge, “everything is done with buses”.  That’s fine, I can understand that, but then the woman said something about a “tour”.

“Tour?”  I asked, “We’re just here to see the Skywalk.”

She explained some more and a little worried I drove in to park.

We went to find the buses, but first one must navigate through the gift shop.  The first building before the gift shop was actually where all the helicopter companies had their desks and people were waiting there for their flights.  You wouldn’t believe how many people were in this room, it was packed!  Eventually I found the Ticketing line and paid up.  $29 per person for the tour, $29 a person to enter the Skywalk.

At long last we boarded a coach for the ride to the first stop, the Skywalk (plus other attractions including a little ampitheatre where a couple Native Americans were performing songs to a crowd of about six people).

The tour bus driver gave us some information about the place.  The Hualapai Indian Tribe comprises approximately 1500 members, most of whom live in the reservation capital Peach Springs.  The reservation has a lot of wildlife, including tarantulas, scorpions, snakes, coyote, bobcat, quail, and lots more that I don’t remember.  Of course the reservation sits on the west side of the Grand Canyon and boasts wonderful canyon scenery.

Just before we arrived at the Skywalk complex the bus climbed a rise and suddenly out the window we were able to see the as-yet unseen canyon.

Now you cannot bring any personal belongings onto the Skywalk.  What if you dropped your camera and it scratched the glass?  What if you dropped your camera over the edge and it littered the canyon floor below?  But don’t worry, professional photographers on the Skywalk are available to capture your visit.

So to protect your camera, before you walk on the Skywalk you enter a building with lockers.  You exchange your ticket for a wristband and all personal belongings are secured for you.  Next through a metal detector to help remind you in case you forgot something that you might drop, like a camera.

Up a ramp, and now the Skywalk is so close!  But first put little booties on over your shoes, they don’t explain but obviously the idea is to protect the glass.  So much build-up, this had better be good. 

Now I got a little scared.  Not because I’d be walking on a glass-floored deck, my fear was that Sarah Michael would herself freak out and wouldn’t step foot on it.  But she was fine, she even thought it was cool.

And it is cool.  The view is great, and looking straight down to see the canyon walls and floor below is a neat gimmick.  We checked out the views and took several pictures with the three photographers.

When we were done we walked back to the buildings where we had the opportunity to purchase prints of the photos they snapped, approximately $30 a piece.  Or, to help preserve all of your memories, for $99 you get four prints displayed in commemorative folders, a USB key containing all of the photos taken of you plus a commemorative poster or ashtray.  Sign me up!  The only trick was choosing which four portraits I wanted printed.  Oh I nearly forgot, we also each received a certificate signed by an actual Hualapai tribe member, saying something about how we walked on the Skywalk.  Then you leave (via a gift shop) to either visit the live music, tour the example teepees and mud huts on display, or catch the bus to stop number two.

We got on the bus but decided not to disembark at the next stop, the charmingly named “Guano Point“.  We’d been at this wonderland for two hours and we really wanted to get the RV to bed in its camp spot.

I drove as fast as I could on the way back, the Jeep set in four-wheel-drive to help maneuver the dirt and gravel road.  Other vehicles weren’t as desperate to leave so I had a pass them when I could.

We’ve had a running joke this trip about Wild Cows.  Back in Oregon we were driving through an area the signs said had elk.  “Hooray!  Look at the Elk!  Oh wait, that’s a cow.”  I tried to help so I suggested at least it was a wild cow.  Luckily the road to Grand Canyon West is in a free range area, so the cows were not only near the road, they were sometimes on the road.

While is was annoying, and believe me I didn’t even detail all the complex rediculous annoyances, we had a good attitude about it, just going with the flow.

The Skywalk is certainly neat, but it if you go remember that it is like going to the fair and expect your wallet to come out empty.  Dusty and empty.

At one point I saw a sign saying something about a mine being not far away, and with that I couldn’t take it any more.  We pulled over and it became time for Jeepin’.

We drove along a rocky road and across washes that probably get pretty wet from time to time and eventually we came to the mine.

It didn’t look like much as we approached, there weren’t many tailings piled up, least not much to my untrained eye.  There was a metal gate preventing access, but it was neat to peer into nonetheless.

Up the hill from the mine entrance was a large boulder with a chain link fence around it.  I wondered why that was set up, so curiosity led me to climb the rocky hillside and check it out.

Inside the fence was a kind of carved out bit, which at first glance didn’t seem to do anything special.  But I walked around the fence and saw a hole that appeared to go down into a passageway.  What intrigued me was I saw light on the wall through the hole, and that light was clearly not coming through the hole I was trying to peer down.

As I started climbing down I happened upon a second entrance to the mine, and it was the source of the light that could be seen from above.  In fact, crouching down I could see the hole up above.

This second, higher entrance was only guarded by a small chain link fence, so entering would be easy.  I stood there for a few minutes before I was tempted to go in.  It was terrifying.  What if it caved in?  Would it cave in?  This hole has been here for how many decades and it is still here, so why would it fall today?  And look, there’s a beer can just down a little ways, so other people have obviously explored successfully.

So I decided if I walked with my feet along the edges of the tunnel and stepped on solid surfaces I wouldn’t make any noise and so I would be less likely to trigger a fatal cave-in.  I took a step, then another, I could barely breathe I was so nervous.

Look at this picture and also this picture.  See that wire rope?  It isn’t very long, one end rests against the fence support and the other ends among the rocks on the tunnel floor.  Just past the end of that cable is where it happened.

There were enough rocks on the ground that my plan for stepping only on solid ground didn’t work.  I stepped on the rocks and I felt them shift and crackle under my weight when suddenly a sound came from the area beneath my feet.  I thought it sounded like the hiss of air escaping a pressurized hose.  It freaked me out and leaped back to the entrance.

My heart was in my throat.  What was that sound?  A booby trap?  Seriously, I had the thought that it could be a booby trap or warning system of some kind.  I’m dumb.  Then I realized it was probably a rattlesnake.

Quite exciting!  And I realize I’m quite lucky.  I climbed back down the hill and the three of us got back in the Jeep and drove back to the waiting RV.

Today we left Las Vegas for the Grand Canyon, which means a built-in trip to the Hoover Dam.

The dam is amazing, but right now the new bridge for Hwy 93 is being built over the gorge and it is something to see as well.  The old highway winds up and down the canyon to cross over the top of the dam, and this is a real problem for large vehicles such as trucks.  The new highway and bridge will make this trip much faster, easier and safer.

I hope someone is going to make a documentary about the construction of the bridge, it would be fascinating to see.

Security has really tightened since the last time I visited the dam in April of 2001.  All vehicles that cross over the bridge and stopped and inspected.  We had two security guys look us over, one checked the RV’s storage compartments and the other checked inside the RV.

Other than that it was uneventful.

So now we’re in Arizona!

So my rule is: coming here for a show is fine, but no walking the strip.  She’s too young for me to have to explain all the nastiness.

We had a great day today.  A few errands were run, a lot of relaxing was done.  Quite a bit of swimming too.  I swear today was warmer than yesterday.

For dinner we had sushi, Sarah Michael’s favorite meal, and it was very tasty.  Then we headed over to Treasure Island to see Cirque du Soleil’s performance of Mystère.  It was a fun show.  The music was excellent, the characters made us laugh, the dancers were great and the acrobats were stunning.

The show was wonderful, I’m very glad we made it.  Next we’ll come back to see O and Love.

On the way back to Henderson we stopped by McCarren International Airport, they have a place beside the runways where people can watch planes take off and land.  I wanted to share this spot with Jessie and Sarah Michael.  It was a fun thing to do before heading home to hit the hay.

I took the soft top of the Jeep down and took the doors off to try to cool things down, but driving provides no relief, it simply moves the hot air all around us.

Well, maybe that wording is a bit strong.

I travel to Las Vegas every spring for a trade show, and every year I’m horrified by all the parents who bring their kids there, especially those carting their exhausted kids around the casino floor at 10pm and later.

So here we are, taking Sarah Michael to dinner at the Mexican restaurant inside New York New York that Jessie and I both like, then walking to see the fountain show at the Bellagio, then walking to see the lions in MGM, me carrying SM because she’s tired from walking so far.

I have some mixed feelings about this.

Today as we drove through Yosemite and saw the devastation of the recent wildfires I sat in awe.  It is truly amazing to see what fire can do to a forest.  I have seen the after effects of wildfires but none so shortly after they have happened.  As I sat watching out the window you could see where the airplanes had dropped their “red-water” it was still on the dirt.  You could see where the fire crews had shoveled trenches to make their fire lines.  In some cases you could actually see where it worked and where it did not.  Through the burnt trees you could see where those same fire crews had chopped down various trees to try and stop the fire from spreading.  I tell you what between those aircrews and the ground crews they saved a whole lot of that park.

Another thing I find absolutely amazing is what the fire itself does.  I saw trees that were blacked on the front side and brown on the the back side.  There were complete chunks of forest that were scorched along the bottom so all the undergrowth and the bottoms of the trees were gone but the tops of the trees were fine.  Then just a ways down you would see patches where one tree would be completely gone but the trees next to it were fine.  Then you would get to really steep rocky terrain areas where it must of been torture to fight the fires because everything was burnt and the trees looked like burnt out Cuban cigars poking out of the ground.

I looked desperately for animals through all of this.  Because there may be portions of forest missing but there is still lots of forest still there.  I saw none.  I mean there were these beautiful rock cliffs that were just begging for a mountain goat… but nothing.  Gorgeous Rivers running through meadows that needed Elk or Bear or something… but nothing.  So I came to the conclusion that I was either looking and wanting it too much or they are still WAY to traumatized and in therapy somewhere way back in the woods.

So Thank you to those whose souls are called to wood and fire for saving a most awe inspiring place such as Yosemite.

The answer is as simple as it is obvious:  Gambling

Actually, the answer is Cirque du Soleil.

Back in May Jessie, Sarah Michael and I went and saw Corteo performed in Redmond and Sarah Michael loved it.  At the time we were putting together ideas for this trip, so we decided come to Las Vegas and see Mystere.  We wanted to see O but they’re off this week.

We spent today trying to stay cool.  The thermometer in the backyard of our friends’ Henderson house says 104 degrees, so we played in the pool and relaxed in the air conditioned house.

Thank you so much Eric and Chrissy for letting us stay, this is wonderful!

I remember when I was a boy taking long trips in the car and my parents taking turns to drive all night.  This way us kids would awake to find ourselves already at the destination.  While taxing, I’m sure it saved my parents from hours of “When are we going to be there?!”

So in an effort to pay homage to my parents’ sacrifice, as well as to take my turn continuing the proud tradition, I drove into the night.

In another homage to olden times, Jessie and I consulted our atlas and debated the various possible routes to Vegas.  No matter which way we went it was too late to stop into a town for dinner, Sarah Michael was about to go to bed anyway, so we agreed to just follow the instructions from the GPS navigation system:  US 395 south to Hwy 168 to Hwy 266 to US 95.

This was going fine, but I was a little bit concerned when Hwy 168 turned off from US 395 and was only two lanes, I worried it might be an old route, perhaps windy and slow.  But the GPS said this was the fastest route, and the GPS knows, right?

Check this out:

1. You have Google Earth installed, right?  If you don’t, download it from here.
2. Next, download this GPS track, it is essentially the trip from San Francisco to Las Vegas.  Open this file in Google Earth.
3. Now that the track is visible, download and open this file, it will orient the camera to look into the ancient winding narrow mountain pass I was about to enjoy.
4. Explore the route with Google Earth, you can even click to see photos other people have taken on the road to give you more of the experience.

Can’t be bothered?  Here’s a boring static view.

I crawled over slowly up the pass and watched as my Henderson ETA went from 2am towards 2:30 and finally past 3am.  Why is this so slow I kept asking?  Why is the GPS so wrong?

“Oh well” was all I could say to myself in reply.

At one point I needed to stop for a scherdling when I was on a very straight, very flat, very dark section.  I got out of the car, didn’t turn off the engine just in case it wouldn’t restart (not that it wouldn’t start, but this was one of those places on earth where you wouldn’t want to take the chance) but did turn off the lights.  The valley was slightly illuminated by the moon and it was beautiful.  There were so many stars in the sky.  It was neat.  View the approximate spot by opening this file in Google Earth, rotate around so you can see all sides of the valley.  Then pee.  That’s the experience.

As I approached the right turn onto Hwy 266 I saw emergency lights traveling south on 266.  A few miles later, around midnight, I caught up with the emergency vehicles.  The highway was essentially closed by a serious accident.  Apparently the driver of a south-bound car fell asleep and crossed the center line running into the trailer wheels of a north-bound semi truck.

The driver was alive, though I don’t know how injured she was.  They used the jaws of life to open the vehicle up and they brought her out on a rigid board then put her in an ambulance.

Turns out this section of road had a very side shoulder so we were able to get by the accident and proceed.  Though I didn’t go on much further.  Perhaps partly because of seeing such dramatic evidence of what driving tired can lead to, but also I know because I was getting bored, I found a good spot beside the highway to pull over and go to sleep.

I awoke about the same time as the sun and took the picture to the right.  The desert is beautiful in the morning.  The sky has pretty colors, it is quiet, the sun has not yet heated to air to become lethal.

Speaking of lethal, one of the things we passed was Creech Air Force Base, one of the places where pilots command drone aircraft that fly over Iraq and Afghanistan.  I had the thought to stop and ask the guard at the gate if we could come have a tour, but I imagined he would not have taken kindly to the offer.

I wanted to give the Garmin GPS device a chance to redeem itself, so I when we arrived in Las Vegas asked it if there were any attractions in the area and it suggested the Neon Museum.

Turns out the Neon Museum doesn’t actually exist yet, but the boneyard is there.  I peered through the fencing surrounding the old signs and snapped a few pictures.

Then we finished the drive to our friends Eric and Chrissy’s house in Henderson where we will spend the next two nights.

The drive from out to Yosemite wasn’t very interesting, so I was glad to see a sign saying “Come and See how Cheese is Made” at the Oakdale Cheese company.  Unfortunately they only make cheese on Monday and Tuesday so we were only able to look through the window into the aging room.

Most of the cheese Oakdale makes is Gouda, and they had a lot of flavors.  Smoked, Jalepeno, Cumin, Garlic, Mustand, and lots more.

Eventually we arrived at Yosemite.

The roads through the park is narrow, windy and hilly.  I tried really hard to not abuse the brakes, because not only was I driving a large heavy vehicle, I was also towing the Jeep.  But nonetheless, after several miles the brakes became very soft, smelly and just a little smoky.  At a stop sign I had to say a tiny prayer (and clench my cheeks) in order to stop and not rear-end the vehicle ahead of us.

So I pulled us over at the first opportunity and while we let the brakes cool down we did the same for our feet as we waded into the river.

Yosemite is pretty, and there are many great views from the road, however it seems that Yosemite is really a hiker’s paradise.  There are trails all over and lots of people park their vehicles to take off on foot.  We’re not really the hiking type, so we kept mostly to the roads.  There was a neat spot, however, with a great view of Half Dome and a short trail to an overlook, so we did get some exercise and walked out to take some family pictures.

This place is also custom-made for rock climbers.  One of the last domes we drove past had a couple of people at the top I could see from the road.  Look closely, they’re way up there.

We left ourselves unbooked from any RV parks or resorts, we knew we wanted to get close to Las Vegas, but we didn’t know how close we’d be able to get.  Upon leaving Yosemite, the GPS predicted a 2am arrival into Henderson, LV (where we were going to next stay), I decided to make a go for it and drive as long as I could.

A lot of our family flew in for the occasion and it is always a lot of fun when the Plates get together.  All the cousins and aunts and uncles were staying at the same hotel in downtown San Francisco, so we booked in as well, getting us a reprieve from RV life.

So we left Pacfica and headed into the city.  Jessie and I have laughed a few times at how the Jeep kinda sticks out here.  I just don’t see a lot of Jeeps in San Francisco, and ours with months of dirt and dust and mud encasing it doesn’t entirely fit in with the typical California status cars.

After some showering, shaving and dressing, we met up with the family in the lobby so we could all head to the wedding together.

My dad’s stroke of genius in this affair was to rent two stretch limos for us all.  It was quite an occasion, Plates don’t normally travel in such style.

As you can imagine Sarah Michael really enjoyed this.  The 18 of us split in to the two cars and off we went to Treasure Island for the wedding.  The island lies between San Fransisco and Oakland off the Bay Bridge and has an interesting history.  Today many people visit the island for its fantastic view of San Francisco, and we were there for a wedding.

This was unlike any wedding I’ve been to.  My cousin’s new bride’s family has Mexican background and this was celebrated in the ceremony by having a marichi band participate in the music-playing.  One thing that was fun was when the bride walked down the aisle the organ played the march and the mariachi band played along.  The two musical styles were not in tune with each other, so there was some dischord, but it also sounded neat.

The ceremony was nice and the reception was fun.  Sarah Michael danced a lot and loved it.

The views of the Bay Bridge, San Francisco, Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge from the island were stunning.  The reception hall had large windows that looked over the water, so everyone was able to enjoy the sights.

We had a wonderful time and it was great to celebrate with family.

Congratulations Erica and Shawn!

If you don’t yet have QuickTime installed on your computer, you can download it free from here.

It gave Jessie and I a good laugh.

One of the San Francisco landmarks you can easily see from the Fisherman’s Wharf area is Coit Tower which site atop Telegraph Hill.  I’ve often seen this tower and wondered what it was, and I’ve also previously wonderered where Telegraph Hill was, so going up to see both was good for me.

In fact the way it went today was Sarah Michael asked us about the tower as we were driving on the waterfront, because it reminded her of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  I didn’t know what it was, or what the hill or park was called, so I used Google Maps on my iPhone to determine that it was probably Pioneer Park.  Then a Google search informed us the name of the tower and the name of the hill.  Jessie and I got excited when we learned this was Telegraph Hill.

We were excited about Telegraph Hill because of the docmentary we’d seen, The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, the subject about which I wager you can guess.  Jessie and I enjoyed the film (and we suggest you add it to your Netflix queue) and so to see the area in person would be special.

We drove up the windy roads to get to the summit, then waited in a line of cars for a parking spot, then enjoyed the views from the park.  We didn’t go up Coit Tower, but from the park you can see the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge, and Treasure Island (where we’ll be tomorrow night), Alcatraz and more.

The weather also cooperated.  While the morning had been foggy and cold, by this time in the afternoon the clouds had broke, the blue sky revealed and the sun warmed us up.

After walking around the parking circle in the park we found a path that went down into the neighborhood just blow the park, as I hoped that we just might get lucky and see the parrots.  I wasn’t hopeful, though, I really had no idea where the on the hill the parrots like to visit.

But we were lucky.  As we descended some steps we heard the sound of the parrots and saw a group of them fly into a tree just in front of us.  Before I could snap any shot, though, they flew away!  But they didn’t go far, I could hear their squaking just a few houses away.  Then one flew back to the tree in front of and I was able to get a shot of it (click here for large size).

Before we left I saw in the distance more of the birds flying around, and of course we could hear them, but no more landed close to us.

I was so pleased we were able to see the parrots, it really made my day.

After Telegraph Hill we headed to the nearby and famous Lombard Street.

Everyone has seen this street in commercials, television shows and films, and we thought it would be fun to drive down it.

I was worried there might be a long wait, but thankfully there wasn’t.  There was certainly a lot of tourists both driving, walking and looking at the hill, but there wasn’t any major jam-up.  There was traffic, of course, so there was a lot of stopping on the hill, but it was something to do and it wasn’t a problem.

You’ll see in the movie the two yellow three-wheeled vehicles in front of us.  We saw these little rental vehicles all over the place, they look like a fun thing to rent.

The sub is the USS Pampanito which served during World War II.  Sarah Michael was quite anxious to see it, and wanted to go inside– until she got inside.  We climbed the ladder down into the aft torpedo room to begin the tour and she seemed fine, but once we had to walk through one of the narrow doorways to visit the rest of the ship, she grew scared.  We finally convinced her to go on, but she still wanted to get out.  Every time we’d enter a new room she would pull on my arm and say “Let’s go!!”

It was a fun unexpected tour to take, though Jessie and I would have liked to have spent more time taking it in.

Today was touristy-stuff-in-San Francisco day for us.  We started off going down to Fisherman’s Wharf to see the sea lions and have lunch.

The sea lions are entertaining, a lot noisier and active than those we saw in the caves.  These San Francisco sea lions are quite noisy as they battle each other for positions on the floating docks.  Some of the sea lions lay on the docks quite mellow, but others refuse to let another onto their dock and are happy to fight it out.

Mapleton

Pacifica

Of course having the Pacific Ocean right beside us is a nice plus.

We have arrived in San Francisco.  We’re actually making Pacifica our home base for the next few days.  The RV park Resort we’re at is called the San Francisco RV Resort, and it is right on the ocean.  Our spot is one of those on the ocean-side, so we get to hear the waves while we sleep.

The tour starts with a video that explains the history of the company, which is interesting.  The company started on Mrs. Grossman’s dining room table in 1979 with a heart sticker design and now they have a 110,000 sq. foot facility that produces over 15,000 miles of stickers each year.

Then we toured the production floor.  Unfortunatly we were forbidden from taking pictures of the factory so I can’t share that love with you.  We saw machines making a variety of stickers and labels, and it was fascinating.

Next we were given little packets containing stickers and a blank postcard so we could design our own postcard, maybe to send to a friend who couldn’t come with us on the tour.

We learned other neat things, like how they give factory seconds away to charities, how they recycle the waste from the sticker-making process into pellets that are used for heat and energy, how they filter the water used to clean ink from machinery so it leaves the factory cleaner than when it entered…

This was a fun thing to do, thank you Joanie for the recommendation!

Jessie drove some yesterday, and though she was apprehensive when she started out I thought she did great.

Jessie received another Elk wish on the road, a herd was actually crossing the highway in front of us and we had to stop for a moment.  I didn’t have the camera out, but it was more exciting the two we saw yesterday.

As you’ll learn in a later post, we had a plan for this afternoon, so I plugged the destination into our Garmin Nuvi and its estimated time of arrival meant we had some time to kill.  That’s always good news when you’d like to find something interesting.  So a little ways north of Eureka I asked Mr. Garmin if there were any landmark attractions nearby and we were directed to the Carson Mansion. This place is amazing!  You can’t go in, but looking at it was really something.

Then we moved on and Mr. Garmin next suggested the Avenue of the Giants, a scenic alternative to Hwy 101 that drives between more of the stunningly large trees.  It was beautiful.

During the drive through the forest we saw a river not too far away so I got it in my head to check it out.  We navigated a road that seemed to head toward the river and then we came upon a one-lane bridge.

We crossed the first section of the bridge then parked on the rocks and disconnected the Jeep.  It was fun to drive on the beach and through the water, and Sarah Michael loved it.  In fact, Sarah Michael had been wathing videos on the iPod on the RV and decided she didn’t want to stop yet, so despite my counsel to the contrary she brought the iPod into the Jeep.

We were cruising down the rocks and sand and I decided it would be fun to splash into the shallow water.  As we hit the water it splashed high all around us and covered the windshield, I couldn’t see a thing!  But my hands couldn’t find the wiper controls quickly so I didn’t see the larger rocks coming.

The rocks we had been driving on ranged in size from sand to golf balls, like you can see in the picture above, but the rocks we found ourselves on after the soaking were probably more like melon or canteloupe-sized.  They didn’t break anything but they were a surprise!

We continued on a little ways down the river then turned back, we had places to be.

First thing we did when we got into the park area was find the Mystic Forest RV Park and get the RV settled so we could take the Jeep out and about.  Pretty close to where we were staying was the Trees of Mystery park, where they have huge statues of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe, trails through the woods to see amazing trees, plus a gondola that takes you high above it all.  Oh, and Paul Bunyon talks.

The Brotherhood Tree is one of the most impressive trees in the park, it is 19 feet in diameter and 297 feet tall.  It is incredible to look up and see that its diameter remains nearly the same.  This isn’t just a tree trunk, this is the tree trunk.

The picture to the right is of just the tree, click here to see Jessie and Sarah Michael standing in front of it.

There were lots of other amazing trees to see as well, the Elephant Tree, the Cathedral Tree, the Candleabra Tree, the Lightning Tree, and many more.

The gondola ride was fun, but it was cloudy up above the trees so  we couldn’t see anything once we got up top.  If it were a clear sunny day the view would be amazing.

After the Trees of Mystery we went and drove through the Tour Thru Tree.  And it was only $4 to drive through it!  Compared to the other tours we’ve been doing, this is a steal.

Next we went and found the Corkscrew Tree, south of our campsite.  We didn’t know what it was going to look like, though we figured twisting was involved, but it was cooler than I would have thought.  The tree is huge and it is very hard to capture in a photo what the thing is all about.  You need to see it to appreciate it.  In my opinion of course.

We keep seeing signs warning of Elk that could be on the road but to Jessie’s disappointment we also keep not seeing any Elk.  On the way out of the park Jessie finally got her Elk wish.  There were only two of them, but it was fun to see some wildlife.

The Redwoods were neat, better than I expected.  Thank you Mr. Bunyon!

Located south of Port Orfard, it is definitely a blast from the past, but like from the 60s or 70s.  It is so not a modern place, I mean it is kept up, but the whole vibe is very retro.  I’m sure the guy who started it did it out of care and love, with honestly and hard work (all virtues from the magical past).

You can see in the image to the right how our caravan, Jessie and Sarah Michael are dwarfed by the T-rex that greets you to The Prehistoric Gardens.  This wasn’t the only large creature we were going to see.  So check out our pics on Flickr for more.

Sarah Michael was the leader, she held the map in her hands as we walked along the path and was quite excited as she anticipated the next dinosaur we’d see around the bend.

It was really a fun little stop along the way.  Three thumbs up!

We’d packed up last night so all I had to do this morning was disconnect the hoses and electric, connect the Jeep and pull away.

This went well until after hitching up the Jeep I went back to check the tail lights that they were working, and they weren’t.  ARGH!  I spend 30 minutes testing connections with my voltmeter and basically decided I was not going to be able to fix it myself.  So we hit the road.

Two hours later we arrived in Coos Bay, Oregon and found Bayshore Auto RV Repair.  These guys were really friendly, got us in right away with a mechanic who quickly got us up and running and back on the road.

Apparently something went wrong with the wires in the connector for the magnetic lights that caused them to disconnect and then short, breaking the fuse for the trailer tail lights.

I was just so pleased that they were able to get us going so fast.

She was excited, that is, until she got there.

When you buy your admission you are also offered food to feed the animals that wander freely around the pathways.  The animals aren’t dumb, they know that when people come through the entrance gate they probably have goodies so the deer and pygmy goats and mountain goats and llamas mob you.

This is fun for grownups and some kids, but this is terrifying for Sarah Michael.

We quickly rid ourselves of treats then the animals moved on and SM calmed down.  Only then were we able to wander around and see all the animals.  In addition to the aforementioned free-roamers, the park also has lions and tigers and elk and peacocks and bears and and emus and “rare” four-horned sheep and a lot more.  The sheep are crazy looking, I am certain they’re evil.

They also offer the opportunity to hold and pet a baby tiger and baby leopard and other animals that if they were adults would rip you to shreds.

It was a fun trip and we had a good time.  Sarah Michael is still traumatized from the free-roaming animals, she just got done telling me how she didn’t have a good time today.  That only means that by tomorrow the Game Park will be her favorite part of the trip.

Today as we were driving south to Bandon, OR to see the West Coast Game Park I spied a forest service-type road so we embarked on a little detour.

The road was pretty civilized, wide and gravel-paved, so as is my preference I bailed off onto the first non-gated single track road I saw.  It was fun to explore, and the path went on for quite a while, though it ended at a large power pole, so it must have been an electric company maintenance road we were on.

On the way back down towards the main gravel road something exciting happened, though sadly I was only one who bore witness.  About 50 yards ahead of us I saw a black bear run across the road!  When we got to the point where it crossed, we looked for it, but it was pretty area was dense with stumps and trees and vines and bushes and flowers and vegetation.  I was thrilled, though I wish we could grabbed a picture of it.

The next brush with wildlife came a few minutes later on the main road.  We rounded a corner and startled a deer.  He took off down the road so I engaged in pursuit.  I’m sure the deer was frightened, but it would take comfort in knowing that I enjoyed watching it do that nifty bounding thing that deer do, where all four legs seem to be in unison and it leaps more than runs.  Of this we tried to take pictures, but they didn’t turn out very good.

We followed the road for about six miles before we decided to turn around.  We found a little off-shoot road that climbed up to the summit of one of the hills, and there I stopped to watch some loggers work across the valley.  The area was experiencing a lot of tree removal, the results of which are not pretty, but the dudes have a job to do and people need wood, and the hills will be replanted, so I harbored no resentment.

It was fun to take the Jeep offroad, I look forward to doing more of it during our trip.

One thing we have in common is that when we were kids, Jessie and I both visited the Sea Lion Caves just north of Florence, Oregon.  Jessie and I also have Sarah Michael in common, so the only thing left to do to complete our lives is bring together Sarah Michael and the Sea Lion Caves.

Done!

But first, let’s back up to this morning.

We slept well last night, and we probably could have slept in a little more except that our next-door neighbor Mr. Maple Lane RV Park and Marina Weekender fired up his Harley at 8am to go to work.  Ahhh, that nearly-trademarked Harley Davidson sound.

Once we were up and about we were able to see what this RV Park actually looks like.  This place is really nice!  Our spot next to the river really is the best spot on campus and I’m glad we’re here.  Yes we are 15 miles east of Florence so it is a drive to get anywhere, but having such a beautiful and peaceful home base for a few days is excellent.

While SM and I decorated, Jessie did laundry. We needed to do laundry after only two nights on the road? Well, no, not really, but we discovered the laundry here is free so Jessie decided to start making her $28 a night camping fee really work for us.  I also have this feeling that Jessie secretly enjoys doing laundry.

Now, let’s talk Sea Lion Caves.

In order to understand this place you have to know two things:

• there are Sea Lions
• they are in a cave

To get to the caves you pay your admission then walk down to an elevator which takes you 208 feet straight down into the rocky cliff.  The elevator doors open and you are greeted to a smell that is, well, strong.

You walk down a tunnel to a viewing area where you get to witness many Sea Lions hanging out on rocks, fighting each other for a better spot on the rocks, and otherwise doing whatever they do to create stench.

Not that any of this is bad, it is just that until your nostrils become accustomed to a new way of life you are quite aware that something really stinks.

The Sea Lion Caves are really neat, actually, so when you do your trip along the Oregon Coast be sure you make the stop.  Check out the pics.

After the cave visit we were going to go back up to Newport to see the aquarium, but the highway was blocked by an accident so instead we turned around to go back and chill at the RV.

On the way back we stopped at the beach and walked and ran and enjoyed the sand.  It was really windy on the beach and the sand felt good on our toes.

Eventually we returned to our little river paradise and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

Ahhhhhh.

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

We went to the beach and walked down to Haystack Rock.  The beach of Cannon Beach is always fun to walk on and since the tide was out we got to look at beautiful starfish in the tide pools.  I took several pictures of some of the life attached to the rocks, so be sure to see our pics up at Flickr.

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

Unfortunately as we we were starting south down 101 out of Cannon Beach we had a bit of a mishap.  Sarah Michael was sitting behind the passenger seat in the chair beneath where I have the wireless internet router gear setup when I took one of the windy turns a little too fast and all the stuff fell down right onto SM’s head!  She started bawling and we quickly pulled over to fix her up and better-secure the equipment.  Later we got some velcro from Fred Meyer to hold things down and that worked well the rest of the day.

In Tillamook we stopped at the Tillamook Air Museum which is cool.  It is housed in an old Navy hangar that was built during WWII for K-class airships- blimps.  The building is enormous and is impressive to stand inside.  They have many different aircraft there including an F-14 Tomcat and a Mini Guppy.  This was really a fun place to visit.

Traveling even on the windy roads was fine, I really like driving.  Our jobs today were that I drove, Jessie passengered and Sarah Michael alternated between playing and singing along with her iPod.  She loves the songs she learned at Vacation Bible School a couple weeks ago and so we loaded the CD onto the iPod. Jessie and I got quite a laugh out of hearing her mis-sing the God of Wonders song, instead of singing “You are Holy” she would belt out “You are Hoe-y”.

When it was dinner time we were driving through Newport, so we decided to find a place to eat.  We parked the RV and drove the Jeep down to the historic bayfront area to find some seafood.  Parking was a bit of a problem, we saw lots and lots of restaurants, with lots and lots of cars filling every spot.  So we kept driving until we were nearly at the end of the strip when parking started coming available.  At that same time we spied a restaurant called Local Ocean Seafoods that had that level of busy-ness that suggested we were at the right place.  Jessie and SM shared some crab, I had fish tacos.  The food was great.

More driving after dinner and then we finally we ended up in our new location.  We’ll reveal all tomorrow.

Well wes is getting out of the shower now so I think we are going to go to the beach.  It is weird being here and not being on the ocean.  You  would never know you were we were in cannon beach except after dinner last night I asked Wes to drive down Hemlock and we caught site of Haystack.

Bye for now

I woke this morning at 6:30 filled with excitement.  We were up late last night packing the RV, pretty much all we had to do this morning was shower and pack our toiletries, most of our stuff was waiting for us in our 25-foot 2005 Ambient.  My excitement was mixed with a little bit of worry, because yesterday’s test connection of the Jeep to the RV for brake lights and turn signals revealed it didn’t work right.  This was totally not my fault, but still not good to learn at 6pm when the wiring place closed at 5:30.

The original plan was to try to leave between 8 and 9 so we could get to Portland to enjoy the Red Bull Flugtag Event, but now we had to detour to Advanced Trucks for Toys in South Everett to get the wiring sorted out.  We arrived there at about 9:15.  Doug, the only employee working Saturday morning, was super helpful and tested the connections many ways and basically determined the wiring inside the Jeep is messed up and for some reason their tech didn’t fix this when they had my Jeep weeks back and instead performed an unsuccessful workaround.  This wasn’t what I wanted to learn.  If we hurried we could still make the Flugtag!

10am When it became apparent that the Jeep’s wiring was just messed up, I suggested to Doug that we’d best call it off and go with one of them nice magnetic tail light things I’d seen before, like what tow truck drivers use.  We could solve the Jeep’s wiring when I got back from this trip.  Doug helped me locate a set of lights nearby and I went to sort it out.

Meanwhile Jessie and Sarah Michael were so great.  While I was playing auto shop with Doug they waited in the RV, and when I went to update them on my mess, I found them playing Go Fish.  I thanked them profusely for being so patient.

11am Nothing is easy.  The place that had the magnetic lights didn’t have in stock any wiring adapters or pieces that could get the lights’ connector to the wiring of the RV.  So I had to run to another store to buy the wiring connector and a tiny screwdriver to put everything together with.  But it was ok, I wasn’t stressed, I remained pleasantly calm.  But we did get going, somewhere around 11am.  This picture was taken at 11:47 in SeaTac as I was filling up.

Hey, this reminds me.  I’m trying to geotag our photos, so when you see them on Flickr you can further immerse yourself in the experience by clicking on the map link next to each picture to see where it was taken.  Also check out the link on the right side of this page, it goes to a nice map on Flickr where you can see all of the photos from our trip identified on a map.

Once we were on the road it was smooth.  The RV handles fine.  I can’t even see the Jeep when I’m towing it unless I’m taking a fairly sharp turn, enough to move the Jeep into the view of the side view mirrors.  You can hear plenty of rattling of our dishes and whatever else is packed into our home on wheels as we plow along, but it is comfortable.  Sarah Michael kept busy playing and listening to and singing along with music on an iPod.  Jessie relaxed, played with SM, tried to sleep, hung out.  I drove and drove and drank energy drinks.

It all went well, but it became clear we weren’t going to make it to the Flugtag.  So we decided to head straight toward Cannon Beach.

We stopped at a viewpoint-pullout-beside-the-road-thing just over the Oregon border to survey the Columbia River, that was nice.

We weren’t in Oregon long before we stopped again.  As we drove thought the community of Clatskanie OR Jessie noticed out her window a Bluegrass Festival.  That was all the motivation I needed.  We parked the RV and went to see what was going on.  You can imagine our delight to find that there wasn’t just music being played, there was a quilt show going on too!

[See post to watch QuickTime movie]

The music we heard was actually quite lovely.  We only stayed for a few songs from the band you see you see in the short video and this picture, but I did enjoy them.  They had about zero stage presence though, they looked nearly bored as they played, and their costumes made them look like regular heavy-set country folk.  Maybe they weren’t costumes?  A true mystery.

Anyway, it was a worthy stop.  SM had a hot dog and Jessie made friends with old men in the concessions line.  I just smiled, I was happy.

Just before Astoria we stopped by a roadside glass blowing studio that we’ve passed many times before and I’d always wanted to stop at.  Well, we’re in no hurry today!  We watched the artist work on a wine goblet.  Even SM enjoyed it.

We checked in to the RV Resort in Cannon Beach at around 5:30pm, and it was easy to get everything connected.  It is kinda fun to see all of the other RVs and how people had their gear set up.  The bigger RVs have fancy hydraulic leveling systems, there are ingenious sewer pipe supports and all kinds of other goodies.  I see a trip to the RV supply store in our future.

Dinner, SM and Jessie went swimming, then relaxing, me working for hours on this post, that’s how we spent the evening.

Tomorrow we’ll visit the beach, go shopping, maybe find something to explore in the Jeep.

Until tomorrow…

The plan is this:

• Drive south down 101 along the west coast of Oregon and California eventually hitting San Francisco
• East from SF toward Yosemite
• Las Vegas for a Cirque du Soleil show
• South to the Grand Canyon
• Up through Colorado to South Dakota to Mt. Rushmore
• West to Yellowstone