Rio de Janeiro, Brasil - April 2011

In April of 2011 I made a trip to Rio de Janeiro, Brasil - a business trip to give some software training to one of our customers down there.  Rio is one of the most beautiful cities in the world (IMHO) and I really didn't think twice about going down there, even though training is not something I usually do.

Our clients, Odebrecht, put me up in a nice hotel in Niteroi - just across the bay from Rio. I was initially expecting to work in their office but there were rumors that one of their rigs was in port. When I walked out the back of my hotel I was very surprised to see the rig sitting a few hundred yards offshore. The rig was new, having just been built in Abu Dhabi and it was undergoing final fitting out before going to work offshore Brasil.

The Norbe VI Rig as seen from my Hotel

The Rig at Night - Corcavado in background

I had not visited a rig in years - it has become so difficult these days to get on board a rig without having all the required safety training and certifications - so this was a real treat.   On the first morning I was taken by boat out to the rig and then I was winched up onto the rig in a basket on the end of a crane. The basket device is actually something called a 'Billy Pugh Transfer Net' - named after its inventor.  It's biggest claim to fame outside the oil industry was when it was used to pluck various Apollo astronauts out of the ocean after completing their mission.  It was certainly an interesting and exciting way to go to work, particularly with the view of Sugar Loaf, Corcovado and downtown Rio in the background.

Hoisting aboard the Rig

The actual work was fine though it morphed from a training session to a software redesign session. I came back with a long list of things that they needed adding or changing.  More work for us which is a good thing I suppose.

The Norbe VI

After my stint on the rig, I did get to check out a few tourist type things.  I was staying in Niteroi.  Niteroi is just across the bay from Rio and it is linked to Rio by ferries and by a bridge. It is not as affluent as Rio and it is the more industrial port area. Nevertheless it is a nice area, with great views across the bay towards big city.

Street scene in Niteroi

On one of my morning runs (actually my only morning run), I stumbled across this wonderful building - more like a space ship than a building. It was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and houses a contemporary art museum. By all accounts the building is much more impressive than its contents.

Contemporary Art Museum - Niteroi

Niemeyer's Contemporary Art Museum

Something I wanted to do while I was here was visit one of the favelas in Rio so I signed up for a tour on the Saturday afternoon.  Just wandering around the favela as a tourist is not quite what you want to do as a tourist - it might not be too safe to say the least.

It was an interesting look at a different side of life in Rio. I was worried about it being a little too voyeuristic but these tours are becoming fairly common now and they are promoted as being run by Favela residents and allegedly they do give some money back to the community. Whether that is true or not I don't know.

The Rocinha Favelea

I was picked up in front of the Copacabana Palace Hotel (one of the best hotels in Rio and a striking contrast to where we were actually going) and whisked off up the hill to Rocinha where the housing changes from super expensive to extremely poor in the matter of a few meters.

Typical multi level construction

According to the guides, the slum areas are governed by a mafia-like organization of drug dealers and crooks and even the police don't venture inside. They said that these mafia types at least organized things in the community and got a few things done, while the local government did precious little for the residents. The houses are a chaotic jumble climbing up the hillsides. Hardly anyone has a proper address as the streets and buildings are somewhat free-form, electricity is just stolen by tapping into the power lines, and when you need a new house or a room, you just build it on top of an existing one (4 or 5 levels high sometimes).

If you need electricity, just take it!

That being said there were parts of the Favela that were quite attractive - very colorful, some quite modern, and some with great views of Rio and the Ocean.  Obviously some money is being put into their development.

A more colorful and modern section

Everyone was quite friendly and I didn't sense any hostility or lack of safety.  As can be seen by the photo to follow with a bunch of kids and families.

Yours Truly and some kids in Rocinha

On the following day, Sunday, I did the more standard tourist things - the downtown area, Corcovado, Sugar Loaf, Copacabana, etc. It was a nice day out with lots of wonderful sights. I took lots of pictures. Then on my return to the hotel prior to going out to the airport, I was taking a taxi and I realized that I needed some more money to pay for the ride. I asked the driver to stop at an ATM, and then foolishly got out of the taxi, leaving my day pack in the cab. When I completed my transaction and turned around from the ATM, the taxi had disappeared along with my pack. I guess he figured that whatever was in the backpack it was more valuable than his $20 fare. He was right - 2 cameras, an iPhone, lots of miscellaneous bits and pieces. I am up to over $2,000 on the insurance claim.

That made for a sour end to the trip and a lack of photos of from that day. I can't believe I was so stupid as to do that, usually I am very careful, but I had been getting along fine with the taxi driver and I trusted him. Oh well - there's a lesson learned there. And it could have been a lot worse - I did not lose my passport or my credit cards so I was still able to fly home.

The Land Cruiser Purchase

Well, as you may well know, I have fallen in with a bad crowd - the Land Cruiser Off-Road crowd. Both of the last two years I have taken a trip as a passenger with my friend Alvaro to Southern Utah to do some off-highway traveling. I have thoroughly enjoyed these trips and so I figured it was about time that I got my own vehicle.

The choice of vehicle was not a question - everyone in this "group" drives a Toyota Land Cruiser. Specifically an 80 Series Land Cruiser which was produced between the years of 1995 and 1997 in the US. There was no point in buying something different when there was so much expertise around to fix this type of vehicle. Had I bought something else, I would have been on my own for repairs and advice. Not a good place to be.

So I have been looking for a vehicle for some time now on Craigslist and other car sites. Nothing quite caught my eye until I found a Lexus LX50 (the same as an 80 Series with plusher interior) in Reno. My friend Dan who lives in Reno did a quick check of the vehicle and then one Saturday Alvaro and I drove over the hill to Reno to inspect it.

Alas the vehicle did not live up to expectations and we were getting ready to come back to Sacramento when Dan said that his friend Jack had been trying to sell his Land Cruiser. A quick call and yes it was still available. We drove to the house and behold - a relatively good condition Land Cruiser equipped with every piece of off road equipment that I could ever need - 4" lift, Skid Plates, Front and Rear Bumpers, Sliders, Winch, Air Compressor, Second Battery, Second Fuel Tank, Auxilliary Fan, PIAA Headlights, 2 Meter Radio. Fully loaded. Alas 186,000 miles on the clock - a little high but you can't have everything.

So without much hesitation I closed the deal and became the proud owner of a fine Land Cruiser. Here are some pictures.




If you want the details of the vehicle - here they are:

1996 Toyota Landcruiser

Factory Lockers
Factory Toyota Hand Throttle

Upgrades:

Full Slee 4 inch Lift Kit:
Slee 4 inch springs (HD rear springs)
OME L shocks
Castor Plates
Stainless Brake Lines
Weld-In adjusters for upper rear control arms and both Panhards
OME bushings in Upper rear control arms
OME steering stabilizer
Bump stop extensions
Sway bar drop down brackets
Tacoma rear DC shaft re-tubed and installed in the front
Slee Washer Bottle relocation bracket to allow for second battery tray
4.88 gears (solid spacer on front third).
Nitto Terra Grapplers, 315/75R16’s (approximately 60% tread)
Mark’s Speedometer correction box
Slee Step Sliders
Slee AC dryer skid plate (attached to ARB bumper).
Iron Pig Offroad Full Skid plate/crossmember.
Landtank performance MAF with new Toyota sensor
Safari Snorkel
Air-Lift air bags in rear springs.
ARB front bumper
Winch
York Air Compressor with air lines to Front and Read Bumpers
2M Radio
PIAA 525 (Dual Beam) lights are wired with an on/off switch that allows the headlight switch to actually turn them on or not. The low-beam activates the "Fog" lights and the highbeam position activates the "Spot" lights in the PIAA’s.
Auxiliary Fan (90’s 4runner) wired so that it can be turned on full-time or the AC will activate it via the pressure switch.
4X4 Labs Rear bumper Kit, dual swing arms, with my uppers (spare tire, fuel/water can mount, Hi-lift mount). Toyota 4runner License Plate mount with light wired into factory wiring.
Man-A-Fre/Long Ranger 24 gallon Auxiliary Fuel Tank (mounts in place of stock spare) with Dual Filler neck (Unleaded restricted for smog reasons) pump and fuel transfer switch/gauge combination.
Dual batteries with brand new Sears Platinum Gel batteries
National Luna Dual Battery controller/charge system.
2 "always hot" 12v outlets in center console
1 "always hot" 12v outlet in rear compartment area
Auxiliary wiring for extras is wired separate from the main electrical system on it own fuse blocks and relays to keep everything as reliable as possible
GT Covers seat covers (stock seats are not ripped or torn)
LED in Dome light
Door lights replaced with LED’s also (rear hatch/tailgate can stay open without draining the battery).
Kenwood Ipod controlling head unit
Pioneer replacement speakers in the doors
Viper Alarm with Remote Start feature

Baja Motorcycle Trip - December 2010

The week before Christmas I set off on a motorcycle trip to Baja. It was supposed to be the final ride on the motorcycle before I sold it. I haven’t been riding the motorcycle much this year and it seemed like a bit of a luxury to keep it around. Not to mention the fact that if you don’t ride frequently then your skills get rusty – and that’s not a good thing on a big motorcycle - on any motorcycle.

At the tip of Baja California with the BMW

A ride from Sacramento to Cabo San Lucas, on the tip of Baja, seemed like a good destination and the timing was right, so I packed my bags and set off south on Saturday 11th December.

Day 1 - Sacramento to San Juan Capistrano
Interstate 5 south to LA is not a particularly inspiring ride on any mode of transport. On a motorcycle it is similarly uninspiring but it has smells – a lot of nasty smells (the worst of which is the Harris Feeding Company’s lot near Coalinga – so many cattle they are visible on Google) and the smell is just disgusting. Riding through LA is always fun - heavy traffic, high speeds, very scary indeed.

I made it to San Juan Capistrano by late evening of the first day and did my final preparation for crossing the border. This included buying motorcycle insurance, arranging cell phone coverage and an e-mail data plan while I am there – all of which can be done very quickly from a web browser these days - how spoiled we are.

Day 2 - San Juan Capistrano to Vicente Guerrero
The next morning, Sunday, I headed for San Diego and the border.  Going across the border into Mexico at the Tijuana crossing was not a big deal. I made it more of one by actively seeking out the purchase of a travel permit, which all the books say you need, though no one actually checked it while I was in Mexico. The permit involved queuing several times, filling out a form, paying over some money and dealing with a surly Immigration Man.

One wrong turn after the border led me into the chaos of downtown Tijuana. Not what I wanted to do before I got my foreign driving skills honed but I soon backtracked and got on the Toll Road that runs down the coast from Tijuana to Ensenada. That road was a much easier introduction to the traffic and roads of Mexico, though it is not very typical and you could still be in Southern California except not so much traffic.

The Pacific Coast south of Tijuana

After lunch in Ensenada, I headed south on Highway 1 or the Trans-Peninsular as they call it. By this time I had figured out a few things about driving in Mexico, namely:

• watch out for the speed bumps or topes as they call them – they are large and they should not be taken at speed.
• be extra careful to watch out for these speed bumps as you leave town as well as when you enter town – they are there too and just when you think you are in the clear they have one last one to surprise you.
• keep a sharp eye out for the Stop signs - “ALTA” – they are not always conspicuous, they are not consistently placed on the left or right or even close to the road, and they don’t always need to be located at an intersection.
• all the gas stations are PEMEX and only PEMEX and they don’t take credit cards. It is cash only.
• outside of the towns themselves you don’t appear to have to worry about the speed limit. Everyone speeds, often quite excessively. Rule of thumb - use the same number MPH as the posted KPH and add 10 or 20 MPH.

The road south was in pretty good condition. Much better than I expected. But that first afternoon there were a lot of rough sections of dirt where the road was being rebuilt. On a motorcycle that meant the ingestion of a lot of dust.

I had planned to be in a hotel long before dark, but nothing looked good until, well after dark, I pulled into Vicente Guerrero and found a nice motel with a courtyard. I figured with a motorcycle, the last thing I wanted to do was to leave the bike unattended on the street at night so my choice of motel was usually dictated by the security of the overnight parking.

Day 3 - Vicente Guerrero to Mulege
The road south on Monday morning led just inland of the coast through a lot of industrial scale farms. I was quite surprised at the scale of the farming operations but I suppose it makes sense – a good climate, proximity to market, cheap labor, apparently good soil and availability of water. It looks like they grow a lot of berries for the US market here.

Cirios

After passing through El Rosario, the road traverses inland across a sparsely populated desert landscape. The Saguaro cacti are spectacular but what is really amazing are the Cirios. These strange plants are only found here in Baja and in a small area of the Sonoran desert and they are the weirdest things as you can see. The English name is the boojum (named after a Lewis Carrol character in the Hunting of the Snark).

This section of road was the longest section between gas stations - 196 miles by my clock. That’s pretty convenient as I was averaging about 200 miles per tank. I was running on empty when I came into the gas station in Villa Jesus Maria. Of course I had bottles of gasoline in my bags so I had a little extra gas for a few more miles but still 196 miles is a long way.

The next major town was Guerrero Negro where I had a late lunch. Guerrero Negro is the jumping off point for whale watching tours in the Bay. No whales quite yet, and anyway, in the town itself you are a long way from the ocean so I don’t think you can see much without going out on a boat trip.

One of many roadside shrines/memorials

From Guerrero Negro the road crossed to the other side of the peninsula, and dropped down into Santa Rosalia on the Sea of Cortez. Santa Rosalia is an interesting and atypical town - an industrial copper mining and smelting town. Built by the European Boleo Mining Company (a Rothschild company), it’s architecture is more European than Mexican and it is a lot more industrial. It has an interesting church manufactured by Gustav Eiffel for the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris and later shipped over to Mexico in the late 1800’s. Of course the mine and the associated smelting is long gone now so the town is a shadow of its former self, but it still has a nice atmosphere despite all the crumbling industrial sites around it.

Gustav Eiffel's Church in Santa Rosalia

I pushed on that evening into Mulege reaching there just after dark. The Hotel Mulege was in the center of town with a nice protected area for the bike so that was my home for the night. In the next room to mine were Ernie and Jerry - two contractors from the Bay Area driving to their coastal plot of land with a load of lumber and tools to continue construction of their vacation home. We had a nice evening sipping peach and vodka cocktails outside the hotel, followed by beer and tequila at the restaurant across the road from the hotel. Thankfully the tequila shots didn’t get too out of hand.

Day 4 - Mulege to Cabo San Lucas
The next day was an early start on the final leg down to Cabo San Lucas. Some nice riding across the peninsula to Ciudad Insurgentes. Such a long straight road - a chance to get the motorcycle up to speed. No one seems to worry about speed limits - they are so ridiculously low that just about all the time you are speeding - often significantly.

Somewhere south of Mulege

From Insurgentes it was a short hop down to Ciudad Constitucion where legend has it the police shake down tourists for on the spot fines for missing stop signs or the slightest of speed infractions (check out the last paragraph in the Wikipedia entry). I was especially careful and had no trouble. Actually a gringo in the local coffee shop said that the Mayor had been aware of his town’s reputation and had told to police to lay off - the dismal state of the tourism in Baja means that they can’t afford to annoy any brave tourists that do venture that way. One thing about the tourists - there just didn’t seem to be many of them. All the bad press about the crime and drug related violence near the border means that no one is coming here and all the locals are suffering from lack of business - lots of empty restaurants, bars, hotels, campsites and the like.

From Constitucion it was over to the Baja side of the peninsula to La Paz. La Paz is a nice town but I had visited it before on my kayaking trip in 2002 so I just filled up with gas and continued south. I took the dual carriageway down the westerly route to Todos Santos - a very nice and very underutilized road.

Todos Santos was a nice place too, but again it seemed to be suffering from a lack of tourists - and the town did not seem to have much else going on except tourism. I made the obligatory stop outside the Hotel California - rumoured to be the inspiration for The Eagles song of the same name (alas its just a rumour) and took the obligatory photograph of the motorbike parked outside.

Hotel California in Todos Santos

From there it was a short hop over to Cabo San Lucas on the most southerly tip of the peninsula. I wasn’t impressed by the Cabo - arriving late to the chaos of rush hour traffic didn’t put me in a good frame of mind and the town has just made too many concessions to the tourist industry and to the particularly bad side of the tourist industry - the Spring Break crowd and the Cruise Ship crowd.

Day 5 - Cabo San Lucas to Mulege
On the road by sun rise the next day, a quick look around the now quieter streets of Cabo before heading east towards San Jose del Cabo.

San Jose is altogether a nicer town than its neighbouring Cabo San Lucas - a lot quieter, a bit more artsy with a nice old town area. I liked the town. I didn’t stick around too long and from San Jose, it was back north again to La Paz. There was some nice countryside north from San Jose on the east side of the Peninsula. Much more attractive than the westerly road I came down the day before. Again no stopping in La Paz, a short coffee break in Ciudad Constitucion, and then on to Loreto where I took a break and looked around town. A nice seaside town with an interesting old town area and a wonderful mission. I pressed on tthe last 80 or so miles to Mulege, arriving just before nightfall.

Day 6 - Mulege to El Rosario

Another early start and I was on the road north to have breakfast in Santa Rosalia. This is the Boleo Mining town, and I had heard of a French bakery there that was supposed to be quite good. The Panaderia El Boleo was now more a Mexican-French bakery since all the French miners left, but it was still well worthy of a stop. I took time to wander around the mining company artifacts scattered around Santa Rosalia. Lots of old steam locomotives, old smelting plants, office buildings from the late 1800’s. Definitely one of the more interesting spots on the peninsula.

The Mission in San Ignacio

Next stop was San Ignacio. A delighthful oasis in the middle of the peninsula with a beautiful mission.

Guerrero Negro was next where I spent time chatting to 3 cyclists (on human powered bicycles that is) who were riding from San Diego to Panama. That is a tough road through Baja at least and I have a lot of respect for those guys. 60 miles or so a day, stopping by the side of the road and camping when it was nightfall. The 186 miles between gas stations, for me a 2-1/2 hour ride, would be 3 days of gruelling riding for them. Hats off to them.

Fish Tacos for lunch in Jesus Maria and then on with a full tank of gas to El Rosario where I spent the night at the Baja Cactus Motel - a fine place - cheap and surprisingly good quality.

Day 7 - El Rosario to Mission Viejo
The last day in Mexico. I had been told that the border in Tecate was an easier one to cross than the one in Tijuana where the backup of traffic can take 3 or 4 hours to get through, so I took the scenic rout from Ensenada through the wine country to Tecate. Tecate was a typical unattractive border town, and the line of cars waiting to cross the border was relatively short - probably less than an hour if you were in a car. That being said, on the motorcycle I just passed everyone and went to the front of the queue, so perhaps Tijuana would have been fine too.

The border crossing was straightforward, no baggage searches, just a scan of the passport and I was in. For the next 10 or so miles north of the border there was an amazing amount of law enforcement traffic of all kinds - Sherrif’s officers, Highway Patrol, Customs Patrol. That’s probably par for the course around our Mexican border these days.

Now I was back in California again, all I had to do was get home. Straightforward you would think - alas no - the rain started just north of San Diego. Not being dressed for the wet weather, I stopped at a hotel thinking the shower would pass quickly. When I checked the weather channel, this turned out to be quite a serious storm and the next break was forecast for some 6 days later. That’s too long to wait in a Motel 6, so I suited up with rain gear and continued on. I spent the night with my old friend Lynn in Mission Viejo.

Day 8 - Mission Viejo to Sacramento

The last leg home was nothing but a wet slog up I-5 to Sacramento. It was a major storm system and traffic through LA was mess - lots of accidents, lots of stop and go. I tagged on to a bunch of riders from the Sons of El Shaddai Motorcycle Ministry going through LA up to the Grapevine. There was me on my BMW purring along and there they were roaring along on their Harleys looking as mean as could be. What an unusual pairing - but the weather was fowl and we were fellow motorcyclists - you have to respect that.

The John Muir Trail - August 2010

I finally got to go on a short backpack trip in the Sierras. We (my friends Brian, George and Paul) decided to do a small (37 mile) portion of the John Muir Trail from Red’s Meadow to Tuolumne Meadows. I haven’t been backpacking other than overnighters for nearly 10 years now and with my ankle/foot problems of the last year I hadn’t been hiking in well over a year, so I was looking forward to seeing how it all felt.

Paul R, George T, Brian S.

We couldn’t get a permit in advance, so we decided to show up at the Ranger Station at Mono Lake and try and get one of the "next day" permits. Apparently they reserve 40% of the permits for walk-ins like us. Since we didn’t really have a backup plan, other than sitting in a bar in Mammoth for a few days, we were quite pleased when we were successful in getting the permits. Of course the permits were never checked on the trail, and one wonders what they would do if they encountered you deep in the Sierras without one.

We left one car at the North end (Tuolumne Meadows) and then drove down to the other end (Mammoth Lakes) where we stayed overnight. Next morning we caught the shuttle bus from Mammoth Lakes over the hill and down to Red’s Meadow, the start of our trip.

In the first few miles of the hike we passed by Devil’s Postpile National Monument – a magnificent example of a columnar basalt. Add to that the glacially polished hexagonal cross section and you have two interesting geological phenomena in the same place.

Columnar Basalt at Devil's Postpile

Further on up the trail we crossed the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River. Seeing the San Joaquin River at this point is a bit disturbing as the San Joaquin flows into the San Joaquin Valley and out into San Francisco Bay. At this particular spot you definitely feel like you are on the East side of the Sierras and water should not be ending up in San Francisco. But check the map - it does.

Onward and upward, we pushed ahead under the weight of our no longer so light packs (mine was around 35lbs - not an insignificant weight on an uphill climb). Fortunately the scenery was spectacular and that made the effort all worthwhile. On that first day we did around 9 miles before setting camp by Gladys Lake - as nice a spot as you could wish for. I was really really exhausted after the day's efforts and so it was early to bed that night - we were all in our tents before nightfall. I had a great night's sleep, thanks to the new Thermorest NeoAir mattress - sheer luxury.

Next day it was on towards a series of lakes - Shadow Lake, Garnet Lake, Thousand Island Lake…. It was cooler and there were threatening clouds hanging over the mountains to the west. We met a couple of folks who said there was bad weather ahead and this started the rumblings of concern within the group. On the hike up to Garnet Lake, we met the hiking grannies – 5 or 6 women – the oldest of which was 79 – who were turning back because the weather was bad. They were older and turning back is understandable, but we were young(er) guys and the weather was not that bad. Alas, my friend’s decided to call it off and hike back to an exit point on the trail (Agnew Meadows).

Thousand Island Lake (possibly)

So this left me alone on the trail with perhaps inclement weather ahead. Fortunately after cresting the pass into Garnet Lake basin, I could see the clouds and snow (yes there was some very fine snow drifting down) were keeping around the summit and the western side, and were dissipating before they reached me. I pushed on, and being solo, I had nothing to stop for. I walked on past Thousand Island Lake, to Island Pass and then on until I set camp just before dark (around 6:30). When you are hiking solo, there's not much distraction and no campfire chats to keep you up. All there is to do is to go to bed - it's quite efficient.

In the morning before sun up, I poked out of the tent to find snow on the ground. There wasn't much and the skies overhead were clear but it had me worried about trail finding higher up the trail – surely there would be more snow over Donahue Summit, the high point of the day at 10,500 ft.


Fortunately, the snow was just around the meadow in which I was camping, elsewhere there was no sign of it - quite strange. I was on the trail by 7:00 am (again hiking solo is so efficient when breaking camp). I crested Donahue Summit at 9:00 am amid almost perfect conditions. That left me a straight downhill shot of some 12 or more miles down Lyell Canyon to Tuolumne Meadows - good progress indeed. I was at my intended camp ground for the night before midday and so I made the decision to hike out to Tuolumne that same day.

Lyell Canyon

Lyell Canyon is long, but it is an easy mostly downhill hike and by 5:00 pm I was at Tuolumne Meadows. A bit extra was tacked on by accepting a ride on the Shuttle Bus at Tuolumne which took me a mile out of the way from my car, but other than that all was well.

A quick stop at the Tioga Gas Mart (perhaps the most interesting Mobil Gas Station and convenience store you will find anywhere) and I was on the road back to Mammoth to swagger boastfully around my wimpish friends who made the wrong weather decision. Those guys who had bailed the previous day had only that afternoon made it back to the hotel in Mammoth, and they had encountered rain – myself I was blessed with good weather all the way.

Here is a link to some more photos.

A French Wedding and a few Days in Paris - Jue 2010

Back in June I was lucky enough to attend a wedding in France. My friend Bill's son Nick was getting wed to a young lady from Orleans.

Of course I tied everything into a trip to the UK to visit my mother in Chesterfield. The trip from Chesterfield to France couldn't have been easier - the train from Chesterfield goes to St Pancras in London, which is now the new and very fine terminal for the Eurostar train to Paris (catching a train to go south to France from a station on the north side of London doesn't seem logical, but that's the way they built it).

The short trip across Paris on the Metro and another train to Montargis was not quite as stress free. Paris Metro and the train station did not (on that day) appear to have any human ticket vendors, just hundreds of machines taking the dreaded chip and pin credit cards which we Americans do not have. I purchased a highly inflated Metro ticket from a dubious character on the Gare Du Nord, and then gave up completely on the train ticket to Montargis and just got on the train sans ticket (not that I would encourage this behavior, but no one collected the fare, and I just walked out the station at the end of the line in Montargis).

Montargis is a delightful little town - home of the praline (first made in the time of Louis XIII) and once visited by Joan of Arc. On top of that, if Chinese history is to be believed, it was also instrumental in the formation of the Chinese Communist Party - who would have expected that? It will soon be visited by the Tour De France, it being the finish and start of stages in this year's Tour (the course was decorated with these nice little cycling jersey flags).


The wedding was quite wonderful - a bilingual ceremony in a little Catholic Church, a long reception in a nearby Chateau, and a lunch there the next day. I had heard the wedding reception could be long, but I didn't imagine it to be quite so long - we started at the church around 2:30 and we left the reception around 1:00 am after the cake came out. Apparently the younger guests saw the dawn come up.


Interestingly outside the church a Frenchman approached me and asked if I was American (yes was the simplest answer). He then went on to relate the story of Americans passing through the town in their tanks during the liberation of the Second World War. He was 4 at the time and he remembers the Americans distributing sweets and chewing gum to the children.

Axelle, the bride, being a cabaret dancer, had many cabaret dancer friends which provided wonderful entertainment for the wedding (this was after the hors d' ouvres and champaigne and a 6 course meal, just before the elaborate cake and sugar sculptures).



After the wedding, we (Bill, Cathy, Brian, Allison, and Nigel) met up in Paris to enjoy a few days in the city. We did a few things I hadn't done before like climbing to the top of the Eiffel Tower (see aboove), and riding on a river boat on the Seine. I finished up sipping a Pernod at a cafe outside the Gare Du Nord before stepping aboard the oh-so-fast Eurostar to London, and the not-quite-as-fast Midland Mainline to Chesterfield.

Amgen Tour of California

The Tour of California rolled into town today - Sacramento was the finish of the first stage of the race. My friend John and I had what we thought was the perfect spot for watching and photographing the riders as they made a turn around mid-town. All was well until just before the riders arrived, when a couple of chaps with big red flags showed up and stood right in front of us waving the flags to point out the very obvious fact that their was a turn - of course there was a turn - there was a barrier and a crowd of people where else where they going to go.

Anyway the lads with flags thwarted my attempts to take any decent pictures.


Here are a couple of HTC folks - one of them couldn't be Mark Cavendish - the cheeky chap from the Isle of Man who won the sprint to take the stage? They all look the same to me.


Here is the peloton going round the corner at high speed - how do they manage to stay upright? Of course the answer to that is - they don't - poor old Tom Boonen and George Hincapie both had accidents shortly after this photo.

Utah Off Road Trip - April 2010

I did my second annual off road trip in Southern Utah at the end of April - the same people as last year, more or less, the same vehicles, more or less (except this time we were not encumbered by Land Rovers, we were all in Toyotas and all bar one was a Toyota Land Cruiser).

It was another fine trip to this spectacular part of the country. I am really taken by this remote part of the US and I can't get enough of it. It is probably viciously hot in the middle of summer but in the spring it is just absolutely wonderful.

I am also quite taken by this mode of transportation. I didn't actually ever expect to be doing this kind of trip, committed environmentalist as I am (was), but in my defense, I must say that we were all quite respectful of the environment, we packed out everything that we packed in, and these vehicles do allow you to see places that you wouldn't normally get to see with more environmentally conscious means of transportation. Of course, to top it all, it was a whole lot of fun. I notice that on my return I keep scanning the Land Cruiser for sale ads on Craigslist but so far it is just scanning.

San Rafael Swell

We started off in an area called the San Rafael Swell. The first day's trail was something called the Devil's Racetrack.

Day two was in the same San Rafael Swell area where we ended up on the Behind the Reef trail and spent a few hours rebuilding the road by hand so that we could squeeze by.

On day 3 we drove up to the Bears Ears (9000 ft elevation) where the heavy Land Cruisers bogged down in the snow forcing a retreat to more temperate climes. We finished the day on the Arch Trail which required some 59 (yes we counted them) stream crossings (some more eventful than others) to our campsite at the end of the canyon.

The Arch Trail

Day 4 we exited the canyon with another 59 stream crossings followed by a roadside radiator repair for a few hours before retreating to a hotel in Moab.

The Doll's House

On the fifth day we entered Canyonlands National Park and passing by an area called The Maze to the most beautiful of campsites you can imagine at a place called the Doll's House.

The Maze Overlook

Day 6 was in the same area Canyonlands area and a campsite at The Maze Overlook. Each night the campsites kept getting better and better.

The Maze Overlook Campsite

The switchbacks on the way out

Nothing in particular

I haven't been posting much lately, perhaps nothing much has been happening. But wait, it has been a great time for music - there was a solo Elvis Costello concert last week in Davis, then a not quite solo Mark Knopfler concert on Tuesday in Oakland. Both of which were excellent and great opportunities to see folks I had admired but had never seen live before. To top if off the Mark Knopfler concert was at the Paramount in Oakland - a truly remarkable art-deco theatre dating from the 1930's. Why can't we build places like that any more? OK, I know the answer, or one of the answers - because we all want to sit at home watching things on our home theater systems - but I am afraid that is our loss and it's worse for me - I don't even have a home theater system.

Anyway, I though I would also point out a couple of blogs I have been enjoying lately. The first is Bike Snob NYC - a very funny guy that writes about all things bicycle related and a whole lot more. Then there is The Inexplicable World of Outa Space Man, a blogger from the old country, whose post today was quite moving. Enjoy.

A day in the life of a Software Salesman

Today, I was playing around with Xtranormal's web app to convert written text into a movie. It is quite a fun little product that allows you to create characters, assign them dialog and gestures and convert it all to an animated movie.

I created the video below as an homage to our illustrious Sales Department here at Infostat and while a little tedious to most, it will probably raise a smile in anyone who has attempted to sell software.



The Xtranormal Text to Movie product is an interesting product and a lot of fun.

Choctaw Bingo

I have been listening to a lot of James McMurtry lately. Yes that's James McMurtry of James McMurtry and the Heartless Bastards fame, and son of author Larry McMurtry. Well he has this song that I really like called Choctaw Bingo - well worth a listen.



As a frequent visitor to Texas and Oklahoma and a onetime resident of Texas, I think this song paints a fairly realistic picture of one aspect life in that part of the U.S.A. - that part in the middle away from the coasts. But before anyone complains, note I said one aspect, not all you folks in the middle are cooking meth and shooting guns, not to mention getting on good terms with your second cousins.

I also went to see Ray Wylie Hubbard last weekend and what did he end up playing - the very same Choctaw Bingo.

To top it all today, I ran across this article in Slate suggesting that Choctaw Bingo become the new anthem of the United States. OK it's tongue in cheek, its too long for a start, but look on the plus side it doesn't have that same extreme vocal range that The Star Spangled Banner does - hey even I could attempt it!

As the Slate article says the song is "new-national-anthem-level genius" and is "a song that more truly represents the America of today: post-crash, pre-apocalypse, meth- and money-addicted, heading down the highway to self-destruction." Worth a read.