Travel

Año Nuevo State Reserve

Chris Jefferies — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 23:46:00 GMT

On Sunday, Aurora and I connected with our friends Nancy, Lydia, Jeanette, and John. It was a spectacular day full of the low winter sun in a clear, cloudless sky.

Nancy had organized a day to visit to Año Nuevo State Reserve to see the annual gathering of elephant seals. We got to the reserve at around 10:30 and arranged for tickets for the 12:15 walk with the docents. Before we left, Nancy treated us to a wonderful lunch with drinks provided by Jeanette and John.

At 12:15 we walked out to a staging area where we met up with our docent guide. Her name was Liz and she is a geologist by trade, but she's been guiding elephant seal tours for about 10 years and knew her subjects well.

We were able to see elephant seals in various social strata, from the young lonely guys, to female harems and their pups, to the highly Territorial bulls who weigh in at up to 5000 pounds. We stood sometimes as close as 25 feet from the seals.

After the elephant seal tour we drove further down Highway 1 to a winery, Bonny Doon. We tasted a variety of the wines, mostly very sweet, which is not my style, but it was fun anyway.

We drove home at sunset time and the countryside was beautiful.

Heading to Texas - Day Two

Chris Jefferies — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 23:37:00 GMT

Drove from Indeo, Ca to El Paso, TX.

On the way we got a call from our neighbor and she said that there was a bad storm with thunder and lightning and that power had gone out in our neighborhood. Of course the computers went of and back on when power was restored, but when she was checking out our house, she found that one of my computers was sounding a load alarm; the data server for the blogs, forums, portals, etc. I asked her to re-boot the computer and that seemed to fix the problem. So far so good.

We stopped Quartzite, AZ which is a snowbird town. It is a town of people who travel and live in RVs and travel south, to a town like Quartzite, for the winter. These folks mostly travel around and collect things to sell in the flea markets of Quartzite. One of the main things you see in Quartzite are rocks; lots of rocks. Here's a picture of a rock, that just wouldn't fit in the car.

Some Quartzite links:
http://www.desertusa.com/Cities/az/quartzite.html
http://www.ci.quartzsite.az.us/community_profile.htm

We ate at a cafe called La Casa and met Rain Golden Bear, the waitress, who said her family called her “Face that rains a lot“. I suppose she cried a lot as a child. She had tattooed rain clouds on her temples and she let me take a picture. Click on the image to see a close up of her tattoo.

We drove on to Phoenix and stopped for gas and that's when I realized that I had lost my cell phone. We called to the La Casa cafe and Rain said she had my cell phone and would send it to me in Houston and would let me know how much it cost to mail it. So we She is an angel.

We drove on, knowing the cell phone was safe and stopped at the Congress Hotel and ate dinner at the Cup Cafe. Excellent.

Now we're at the La Quinta, but first we tried a cheap hotel called the Lone Star Inn. I had seen it on the Internet for $40/night. When we checked into the room, we found roaches crawling on the toilet and that set off Aurora. We were out and back in the car in a flash and here we are at La Quinta. $70 and free Internet.

What a day.

Heading to Texas - Day One

Chris Jefferies — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 09:24:00 GMT

Cold rain started out the day, so packing the car in the rain was no fun. Rain lasted the entire length of the San Joachin valley but the Grapevine was open and dry. Staying here in Indio (about 80 miles short of Blythe) with free DVD rental and wireless connection in the rooms. Thus this post. On to Quartzite, Tucson and El Paso.

Hurricane Rita

Chris Jefferies — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 22:30:00 GMT

I went to Houston last week. While many families were trying to leave town but instead were stuck in traffic on one of the freeways, I was flying into the path of, at the time, a category 5 hurricane. Felt like Major Kong riding the bomb down...

Me as weatherman at the Museum of Natural Science

I had agonized over going to Houston for a day or so and by Wednesday I was sure I should go. I had spoken to Mother a few times that day and she was adamant about not leaving her home and was discouraging me from coming to “rescue“ her. Annalee was in Hartford performing in a play so she was unable to get away without disrupting the show.

On Wednesday afternoon around 4 PM I decided I must go and help Mother evacuate, if it came to that, and all indications were that it would be necessary. By 7:30 that evening I was at the airport checking in a big duffel bag full of rescue things I've collected from my days with a search and rescue group, the Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit ("a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff...")

I called Derek and Lisa from Las Vegas and arranged to catch up with them early in the morning for some good coffee. I also called Bob Webb to let him know I would be in town and he admonished me for coming into town in the face of a dangerous hurricane. I suppose I didn't really get a sense of danger and Katrina "panic" until, as my airplane flew over the north bound highway 45, I saw the endless trail of red tail lights heading out of town for as far as I could see. I called it the trail of tears.

I landed about 3:30 in the morning and picked up a rent car that Aurora had arranged for me and then headed south to Bellaire where Mother lives and nearby, Derek and Lisa live. On the way I stopped at a Walmart, the only store I could find that was open, and bought some supplies. They were rationing bottled water and only 2 cases per person were allowed. I wanted to buy some wine to calm our nerves, but in Houston you can't buy alcohol before 7 AM. Had to put that back. In general, the food shelves were trashed and mostly empty.

When I arrived at Derek and Lisa's house, Beth was in her truck getting ready to head farther North and Derek met me with a great cup of coffee. Beth was in a state of despair as her house is in Galveston about 6 blocks from the gulf. She had, in her truck, some of her prized art pieces and 4 cats. The rest of her treasure was left behind and it's fate was now in the hands/winds of Rita. I gave her a hug and she pulled out of the driveway and off into the dark, muggy, Houston morning.

Derek, boarding up the windows

How to weather a storm

As daybreak approached, Derek and Lisa proceeded to prepare their house for the worst. I helped Derek put some plywood up on the front windows while Lisa gathered plants into the garage and collected important papers in case the house and all belongings were lost in the storm. Around 8:30 AM the phone rang and I answered because Derek and Lisa were busy. It was Beth calling in a panic and even though she had taken a path out of Houston that should have been relatively clear, she was at a standstill in traffic near Sugarland. The weight of everything she was experiencing had caught up with her and she was in an awful state of mind. I talked to her for a while and she seemed to calm down. A little later, after I left, she returned and decided to stay and weather the oncoming storm at Derek and Lisa's house.

By 9 AM I called Mother and announced that I was in town for a “visit“ and while she was happy to hear my voice, I could sense tension in her voice. I waited a little while and then went over to “visit“ her. We talked for a while and I told her of my overnight adventure and then I started discussing the possibility of a necessary evacuation. She finally, although reluctantly, admitted that she would be willing but doubted that it would be required. At that point, Thursday morning, Rita was still a category 5 hurricane and still projected to come ashore somewhere near Galveston with winds of 165 miles an hour.

This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no foolin' around...

I spent Thursday afternoon, prepping Mother's house. Gathering potted plants, removing items that might become projectiles in a high wind. I also went to some of the neighbors who were not leaving and checked on their status and collected their information. One of the neighbors mentioned a nearby church which was going to act as a backup shelter and I took note about that; just in case.

My general approach was to hold until we could no longer stay safe and to make sure that at any point, we might have enough lead time to evacuate. The storm was due on Saturday morning and on the news programs we heard story after story of people trying to leave, getting nowhere only to finally turn around and head back home (one of the “jokes“ about the evacuations was to wonder about the asshole at the beginning of the line that was slowing everybody down). Ben and Judy Rice took back roads to Austin and it took them, I think he said, about 9 or 10 hours (update: 14-15 hours). Gasoline was also a huge problem and I had an almost full tank of gas (maybe 250 miles worth) but with delays that was doubtful. Those that persisted seemed to average about 12 to 15 hours to get out of harms way. I figured we should watch the news and leave no later than Friday, mid-day.

Friday morning's “cone of uncertainty”, which was what they called the range of possible trajectories that the hurricane might take, revealed a slight drift to the East and a weakening of the storm's eye and that trend continued throughout the day, so we never had to make the decision to leave, but it was always a tenuous situation.

As Rita drew near it's path turned more and more to the East and finally came ashore about 3 AM around Port Arthur. At about 2 AM we started feeling the winds and around 3 AM the power went out in our neighborhood. I sipped whiskey, watched the trees get thrashed by huge gusts of wind. Finally around 3:30 I settled into a restless sleep in a house in Houston, Texas with no power AND no air-conditioning...

Saturday morning I woke up to the sound of a house alarm going off because the power was out and the batteries were dying. One of the neighbors had contacted us the day before from out of town and had asked that I disarm it if it started up; gave me detailed instructions and codes and hints about how to disconnect the batteries. I'd had perhaps a bit too much bourbon the night before so the alarm was a bit painful; my face was greasy from the lack of air-conditioning and my eyes were puffy from dog allergies so with a startled heart, I got up and dressed quickly to do my part and save the neighbors from this intrusion. As I approached the front door, the alarm went off and I was in a state of confusion... windblown and confused. We finally got power back on after about 28 hours in the post hurricane Texas heat. What a pleasure to get air-conditioning back on in Houston.

The next 3 days were spent cleaning up the debris from around the house and replacing all the things I had put away. I also took the opportunity to fix up some things in Mother's house and to visit friends. One afternoon I spent with Elena and Tyler, Leila and Carter at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. After the normal tour through the main museum, we went through the Cockrel Butterfly Exhibit, and saw an IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon. What fun.

Elena, Tyler, Leila, Carter at the Museum of Natural Science

Mother and I had a lot of time to reminisce about our family adventures in Laredo and Australia and she told many stories about her childhood memories.

A few nights I had dinner with friends. Derek was “frying chickens in the barnyard!“ or was it turkey burgers? Derek and I played some music to fend off the hurricane spirits and one night we watched the first episode of Martin Scorsese's Dylan documentary.

On Sunday night I visited Bob Webb and saw how he was going to weather the storm. He had created a sheltered zone in the middle of his house and because plywood was in short supply he had to use piece of art he had painted onto a sheet of plywood.

Bob and his art shelter.

On Tuesday evening I flew back to the cool of the Bay Area, glad to be back and glad that the hurricane was not as devastating to Houston as it might have been. My heart goes out to those in and around Port Arthur as Rita was indeed still at category 3 when it made landfall there.

The way I hear it, there are perhaps more hurricanes due this season... I suspect "We'll Meet Again".

Wackydoodle...

Montana 3

Chris Jefferies — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 00:47:00 GMT

So the days in Montana were mostly cloudy. The image of the dome shows what it looked like. The temperatures rarely got out of the 60s in the daytime and dropped as low as the 30s at night. Usually we're trying to stay cool in 80 degree days.

As a result we fished a lot. Here are some fish we caught in the front pond. Most we threw back, but we decided to keep a couple of the big ones for dinner. They were good tasting.

The last night was good for stargazing through the telescope so Dan and I stayed up until about midnight and saw about a dozen Messier objects (The Messier objects are a set of astronomical objects cataloged by Charles Messier in his catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters first published in 1774. The original motivation behind the catalog was that Messier was a comet hunter, and was frustrated by objects which resembled but were not comets. He therefore compiled a list of these objects).

On the last day, our departure day, Dan had an 8am flight so we got up at 5am and drove to Bozeman. Dan got to his flight in good time and I had time to kill while I waited for my 1pm flight. I decided to check out the Museum of the Rockies at the University in Bozemen (Home of the Bobcats). It is an excellent museum. I recommend it if anyone gets up there.

Triceratops as big as an elephant.

Montana 2

Chris Jefferies — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 22:39:00 GMT

Today we woke up to heavily overcast skies. It started raining about mid-day and let up around 8. Dan and I decided to drive down to Yellowstone.

We headed South to Mammoth Hot Springs and then headed east to Tower Falls, and then up to the highest place we could drive which was the Mount Washburn trail head. We hiked up the trail a bit and decided that being on top of an exposed mountain top was probably not the best idea in a rain storm. So we hiked back down and stopped at Tower Falls and the Calcite Springs overlook and headed back to Dennis'. The cloud cover was too heavy so there was no opportunity for stargazing or even watching foe Perseid meteors so we called it an early evening. Hopefully this weather will blow through and tomorrow will be a better day for fishing and stargazing.

Tower Falls

Calcite Springs

Montana

Chris Jefferies — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 01:18:00 GMT

Dan Fishing in 6 Mile Creek behind the main house.

Yesterday I flew to Montana to stay at Dennis'. I woke up late at 5am (after a 3 hour nap) and raced through the house gathering all the items I thought I had together and tried to make the 6am flight. Aurora and I finally made it to the airport at 5:45, but the lady at the ticket counter said, "Too Late". So she fixed me up with a 7:15 flight that made my connection in Seattle and all was well so I went and got in line at the security check and got over my heart attack.

Arrived in Bozeman and met up with Dan and we drove to Livingston and shopped for liquor, groceries, and fishing flies. Drove on out to Dennis' and by then it was cocktail hour. After a couple of stout Martinis we prepped up some seafood (crab legs) and brocoli and as we were finishing dinner the "day" caught up with me and I went to lay down for a rest.

At midnight I woke up in total darkness wondering where the hell I was. After a few moments I realized that I was in bed in Montana with all my clothes on. So I stumbled downstairs and made my way outside to see a few early Persied meteors then went back to bed.

This morning, after breakfast, Dan and I went fishing in the creek behind the cabin and I had a few stikes and had not caught anything. Dan and I were leapfrogging each other up the creek and as I moved up about 30 yards beyong the main house, I saw a bear in the brush across the creek. It was black and had the biggest square head I've ever seen on a bear. Based on its color I suppose it was a black bear, but because this is Grizzly country, I decided not to take any chances and backed down the creek.

This bear sighting shook me up, so I want over to the front lake and fished there, in the open, where I could see any approaching bear. Caught 2 nice cutthroat trout.

This eveing Dan and I looked out for Persieds, but didn't see very many. The sky is fairly hazy and seeing isn't very good. It is about 2am Friday morning and sky looks like it is closing in...

Ah well, we'll try again tomorrow.

One of the Cutthroat trout I caught today.

Who's Looking Down On You?

Chris Jefferies — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 14:55:00 GMT

My friend, Ray Lear, sent me an image of Berkeley from space and I recalled that there is a web server called www.terraserver-usa.com. Click on the image to see an image I downloaded from the web of our house on Stanford Avenue in Kensington just North of Berkeley. You can zoom out and see the surrounding area on this page.

Here are some other locations you might want to visit. See if you can guess where they are.

Location	Longitude (E/W)	Latitude (N/S)
Bellaire	-95.46322	29.71955
California	-122.88421	38.47927
Brenham	-96.46366	30.14890
An Observatory	-110.77179	45.27747
Sixmile Creek	-110.74392	45.23781
Big Mesquite	-102.83257	29.40853
New Jersey	-74.30104	40.70246
Houston	-95.53934	29.78756
La Posada Hotel (more...)	-110.69637	35.02268
Soldier Meadow Hot Springs	-119.22488	41.36079
Black Rock Mystery	-119.19528	40.76147
Lake Catherine & Banner Peak (m ore...)	-119.19128	37.69640

Palmdale, Ca

Chris Jefferies — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 00:55:00 GMT

On January 3rd we had breakfast at the Congress Hotel and hit the road hoping to make it back to our home near Berkeley by midnight. The day was full of desert storms, flash flooding and road spray kicked up by 18 wheelers. As we approached the Grapevine on Interstate 5 north of LA we were stopped by snow in the mountains. The only road left open to us was 14 to Palmdale and it was bumper to bumper through a mountain pass. After fighting the snow we got tired and decided to stop in a motel and found a Holiday Inn.

Of course it has a shower head:

Next morning we drove through Tehachapi pass and made it home around sunset.

Tucson Arizona at the Congress Hotel

Chris Jefferies — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 02:01:00 GMT

On our return trip from Texas we stayed at the Congress Hotel. We've stopped and eaten there before, but this was the 1st time to stay over night. It's an old hotel, smells a bit moldy and has some historic connection to the notorious gangster John Dillinger who was caught in Tucson. No TVs in the rooms and NO INTERNET connections. They do have a worksation in the hallway so you can check your webmail from there.

Here's what the shower head looks like at the Congress: