Checksum Arcanius

We are in L.A. – or actaully in Simi Valley, just outside of L.A. We drove through L.A. during rush hour, a process which took a couple of hours, not because the traffic was so slow – it actually moved pretty well msot of the time – but because L.A. is so big. The Lakers lost, this is good. Scott’s computer is off, so you’re not getting the “official” log today. But here’s the general idea: Gas here in Cali is expensive, there are lots of wind generators, the smog over L.A. is pretty gross, and Venice beach is quite interesting. We saw Brennan again, and Jim and Pat Chatterly are great hosts and fun to talk to. We will be going to San Fran tomrrow via the Coastal highway. Thats all for now folks!

Today was a rest from driving day. We had a lazy morning while Jeana took a final, then we went on a hike of Squaw Peak, overlooking the entire Phoenix area. After that we returned to GCU and played some Frisbee and had Mac and Cheese for lunch. It burned a little bit, but it still tsted alright. Next, we refilled waters and washed dishes, then Jeana went off to work at the Suns game while Scott and I went to Scottsdale to see art galleries and get postcards. We got the postcards and saw lots of interesting art. We also met a photogrpaher whom we talked to for a good half hour about all sorts of things – from Ansel Adams and large format photography to modern digital techniques and everything in between. We returned to GCU and had dinner, then Jeana got back and we hung out for a while until she needed to go to bed, so we said out goodbyes since we are planning on leaving early tomorrow for L.A. and now we are getting ready to sleep.

Bringing along my Senao 200mW PCMCIA 802.11b Wireless LAN card paid off big time today – I fired it up today and quickly found an open access point with a broadband connection. New pictures are uploaded, Click Here to access them. They are sorted by the date on which they were shot and each photo has a name that describes, somewhat, what the photo is and where it was taken.

Here’s our most recent activity – and here’s to more frequent updates! I’m disappointed at GCU’s lack of ethernet in its residence halls, but I will search dilligently for fast internet tomorrow. You all deserve pictures.

Day 10 (Wednesday, December 10, 2003)

11:48 am — 0.0 miles: After showering, reorganizing, and breaking camp, we leave Catalina state park for the Biosphere — the same biosphere that we visited last night and were told by the security guards that we couldn’t even look at the thing from the outside. When I asked for any information, the security guard told me he had none. Way to be useful, foolio. On the way out, the other security guard was at least useful enough to tell us what hours they were open. We pull into Bashas, a grocery store, to get some more food for the rest of the trip.

2:45 pm -19.7 miles: Scott is good enough with the stick shift, and bad enough at logging (I even called him a “lag slocker” — I was trying to say “log slacker,” but that’s not what came out) that he is driving in Tucson while I log. The Biosphere 2 is a grand project still waiting to be made great. Admission was only $6, less that the $13-23 we were expecting, so we were quite pleased and entered without much debate. The entire place felt like it was past its prime, although some construction was ongoing. The Biosphere was built in 1987 with the money of a single man (this is why it is good to have rich people in a society). The original intent of the Biosphere was to seal humans inside to see how they could live within an ecosystem using recycling and so-forth. These experiments ended in 1992, but the information and the guides didn’t seem to care to elaborate as to why. I suspect that it has something to do with a story I heard on NPR a long time ago — that the biosphere was not as self-sustaining as was planned, and that there had been clandestine insertions of materiel from the outside to ensure the viability of the project. When this was discovered, the project came to a dismal end. In 1996, Columbia University took over the management of the Biosphere 2 facility with great plans on turning it into the focal point for environmental research in the world. Recently, Columbia retreated from its plans to buy the center and vastly scaled back its research activities at the site. Financial reasons may be involved, but I personally suspect that the results being produced by the Biosphere were not what the closed-minded liberal environmental research scientists wanted. Most of the “educational” displays on the walking tour were designed to scare people about the dangers of global warming, the drastic effects of human activity on the planet, and all sorts of other unproven or disproved liberal ballyhoo. There was a clear political intent to Columbia University’s involvement at the Biosphere, and I believe that the data the Biosphere produced didn’t fit the wants of those in charge of the University’s involvement.

5:04 pm — 71.7 miles: We stop at a Phillips 66 outside of Saguaro National Park to refuel, having just witnessed a dumb cop make life dangerous for ourselves and several other drivers. We think we’ll be in Phoenix around 7:00. This day seems really short, but I guess that’s what happens when you don’t get going until noon.

10:43 pm — 236.1 miles: We are in Phoenix. Since Jeana wasn’t going to be available until after 10 pm, we decided, on the advice of Suzanne who lived in Phoenix for a year, to go to downtown Tempe, the site of Arizona State University. Tempe earns Arizona massive points — it is a beautiful, colorful, lively city that is great to walk around in. It is well decorated for the season, has nice parks, and is full of beautiful young people. Tempe is good. After we got tired of walking around Tempe, we went to the International Airport to recreate the scene from Wayne’s World and other movies of watching the planes land nearby. Our spot wasn’t quite as good as in the movies, but it was still fun. On our way back to Phoenix and Grand Canyon University, we stopped to help a motorist of the side of the road. He had a flat and couldn’t find the jack in his car, which he had just bought. We dug out our jack (in the trunk, under all our junk) and let him use it, then raced against time to get everything back together in the trunk as a street sweeper bore down on us. We returned to Phoenix proper, got in touch with Jeana, and now we await her arrival at the Applebee’s here in Phoenix.

2:13 am: Jeana took her time getting to the Applebee’s, but she finally showed up and we had a joyous reunion. It turns out that we were kind of crashing one of her friends’ birthday party — but they didn’t seem to mind that much, at least not after the Jagermeister shots the four girls shared. Scott and I split chicken wings and each ordered an entre on top of that — I got a mediocre but filling chicken parm and scott had chicken fingers and fries. After Applebee’s we moved to an Irish bar down the street where Scott, Jeana and I caught up while the others enjoyed some more alcoholic beverages. I feel really in my element at bars, let me tell you. Finally, about one o’clock, we headed to Grand Canyon University. Jeana set us up our very own room with mattresses and box springs, a toilet — but no Internet access! We are shocked! It looks like my phone will get to use some more nighttime minutes to upload this.

Day 9 (Tuesday, December 09, 2003)

7:56 am — 0.0 mile: I, Ryan, wake up during the last moments of golden hour. I quickly get more clothes on, since it is bitter cold, and snap a few pictures of the mountains and a wandering deer. The deer around here are plentiful. Scott gets up too and we have to granola and milk for breakfast before breaking camp. While I journal, Scott is using his large format view camera to take a picture of the mountains. It has been a while since I updated the ‘blog; I’ve got to get on that.

9:20 am — 0.8 miles: We leave the visitor’s center, headed back to the campsite where we are supposed to pay our $8 fee — on a self-serve basis. After paying, we set out on US Hwy 62/180 toward another Highway into El Paso.

11:34 am — 110.5 miles: In El Paso, we decide to take a look at the US/Mexico border. We see it, but the wait looks too long and we don’t know all the procedures to get back and forth, so we decide we’ll just continue on to Phoenix.

12:05 pm — 136 miles: We cross into New Mexico for the second time, and once again only briefly, as I-10 jogs North before turning west again towards Phoenix.

12:01 pm — 201 miles: We change our clocks back an hour, so no, we didn’t just time warp. We are headed west on I-10, trying to figure out the rest of the day.

4:57 pm — 399.7 miles: We stopped at the Chiricahau (don’t worry, we can’t pronounce it either) National Monument, about an hour and twenty minutes out of our way, and spent a couple of hours admiring the scenery and taking photographs. Among the regular pillars of rock are some very unique ones: The Totem Pole is 137 feet tall and only a yard thick, and the Pinnacle Balanced rock weighs over 1000 tons and rests on a base only 4 feet wide. On our way to the monument, we had the opportunity of driving on a dirt and gravel roadway. Because of this stop, we won’t be able to make it to the Biosphere II in Oracle, Arizona, which I think would have been a pretty awesome thing to see. Its two hours away from Phoenix, though, so we probably won’t be returning to see it this trip.

6:57 pm — 523.1 miles: We missed our turnoff to Hwy-77, so we had to do a little bit of backtracking, on W Tangerine Rd, which is only significant because the road insisted on bobbing up and down, over and over again, similar to a kiddy rollercoaster.

8:11 pm — 565.7 miles: AAA’s campground guidebook sends us to a “free” site in the middle of nowhere down dirt roads. The signage for the campground is handwritten on cardboard. And after all that we find out that the campground actually has a ten dollar per night fee. I am very perturbed, I am very perturbed indeed.

12:18 am — 678.4 miles: Scott left some things out. The reason we are looking for a campground instead of staying in Phoenix with Jeana is twofold. First, we spent so much time getting up this morning, looking at the border to Mexico in El Paso, and photographizing at the Chiricahau National Monument that we got way behind schedule. Second, I still want to see the Biosphere, which is four hours out of the way if we were to go to Phoenix tonight. So, we decided to camp somewhere near Tucson so we could take things at a more leisurely pace. The first campground we attempted to go to, called Peppersauce, is the closest to the Biosphere, which itself is near a town called Oracle. Peppersauce turned out to be a pay site, as described above. Since the last place the AAA campbook told us was free was actually free (in Canton, Kansas), we thought that this Peppersauce deal was just a fluke and thought we’d try another one of the free campsites. On the way to where the other free campsites are supposed to be, we passed Catalina State Park — it, however, costs $12 a night. We pressed onward, but we were getting delirious from the lack of food and the fitful rest we had last night. So we decided to stop at a Subway for a break and some food. We headed out again, entering the same national forest that the Peppersauce campground is in, but from the other side, only to find out that the other two “Free” campsites are also pay sites. By this point, we didn’t care, and the cost was only five bucks, so we figured it’ll be alright. Well, upon arriving at the first campsite we discovered that it has been shut down for renovation. So we decided to press on to the second campsite, a mere 14 miles up a steep and twisty mountain road. About 10 miles on our way, we are informed that the road is closed in 2000 feet. Sure enough, it is blocked off. We cursed, and turned around, trying to figure out what to do next. We decided that it would be alright if we set up camp in the under construction campsite, for just one short night. However, upon driving into the site, a domesticated dog began to bark at us, warning us that there were indeed people manning the site. He got out of there, cursing again, and headed back to town. Now we have finally settled in at Catalina State Park — the one we rejected earlier — after a series of campground fiascos beyond belief.

Here’s to adventure!

Day 8 (Monday, December 08, 2003)

Ryan and I got up and ate some breakfast, bacon and egg, which Susie had kindly prepared for us. We packed up and headed out. On the way out, we stopped in Fort Worth to see the Water Gardens. The park allowed you to walk down to the bottom of the water display, something Ryan and I decided would never be allowed in Seattle due to public safety concerns.

After seeing the Water Gardens, we headed west on I-20. We are trying to figure out how toward Carlsbad Caverns, where we will camp the night.

1:41 pm — 8 miles: Ryan forgot to reset the trip odometer this morning, so about 150 miles into the trip at Abilene Scott resets the odometer and we continue on.

3:28 pm — 31.2 miles: After stopping for lunch at a Texas Grill where we had somewhat overcooked but still very good peppered ribeye steaks served by a brand new but pretty waitress (Ryan gives her a “9”) for $28.18 plus a $4.26 (14.7% – she was hot, but the steaks were overcooked), we hit the road again.

4:25 pm — 99.9 miles: I call my dad for information on camping place because ehe has internet access. He calls back with some good information: Carlsbad Caverns NP discourages camping, Guadalupe encourages it. We will be staying at Pine Springs camp ground at the Guadalupe Mountains national park.

8:30 pm — 348.1 miles: We arrive at the campground. We don’t know where to pay the $8, so we decide we’ll figure it out later and proceed to set up camp for the night. The wind is strong and gusty, giving us trouble while setting up the tent. We place a few rocks inside the tent and on the tarp to try to keep things in place, and then we start working on dinner. While we are waiting for the water to boil, a big gust of wind picks up the tent and, along with the rocks and sleeping bags in it, moves it about ten feet from the tarp, until it snags on some brush. The wind proceeds to get the tarp out from under three of the four rocks we placed on top. Finally, the water is boiling and we add the pasta and sauce, only to have the camp stove die on us. We refill the camp stove fuel bottle from the extra fuel bottle we have with us, and finish cooking the pasta. It is alright, it pales in comparison to the mac and cheese and the chicken and rice we cooked before, and it can’t compare to the steaks of earlier in the day. By 10:30, we get into bed for some needed rest.

And more…

Day 7 (Sunday, December 07, 2003)

Today we sleep in a bit, didn’t get on the road until about 9:25.

11:30 am — 128 miles: After stopping for another refueling, Scott takes over driving. We turn North on I-49 and are now paralleling the Louisiana-Texas border until we get to I-20 and head towards Dallas. We are out of the Swamplands, so no more crazy, high-cost freeway systems, and things are beginning to dry out. By the time we get to Texas it seems no humidity will be left. I’m not sure if I should look forward to the higher temperatures or not.

2:29 pm — 338 miles: We get onto I-20 West towards Dallas. The sky is blue, the sun is brilliant and warms us. Scott is pissed off at the slow speed limits in “construction zones” with no workers. We haven’t had lunch yet.

2:39 pm — 350 miles: We cross the Louisiana-Texas Border and stop at a rest stop for lunch.

We are getting a little lax on the log, or I am (Scott), my bad.

We got into the Arlington area around 6:15 pm and settled in with our host, Daniel and Susie McElroy who were very gracious and hospitable. We ate some pizza with Daniel and Susie and figured out some sites to see in Dallas. Ryan and I were very impressed with downtown Dallas. We stopped to take some pictures of the City Hall, a very architecturally intriguing building. We also went to Thank-Giving Square in the heart of downtown Dallas. Ryan and I were both impressed with the colorful skyline.