It felt like we had the place to ourselves at times. The end of December is the off season so the weather was just ok by Aruba standards (high 80s with low humidity) but felt perfect compared to Detroit winter. I guess most people stay over in the high rise area of island in one of the big hotels. We stopped over there for an hour and hated it. It was filled with chain restaurants like you would find in the US near a shopping mall. The Eagle Beach area was much nicer in our opinion.

Like other parts of the Caribbean, Aruba has a lot of jewelry stores including Little Switzerland which is one of my clients. It was really helpful to see the stores in person. I now have a better understanding of the brand. Little Switzerland seems to be the leader in Caribbean jewelry stores and I am proud to be associated with them.

Technorati Tags: aruba, beach, Manchebo Beach, Ocean, paradise, travel, vacation

My bike in the foreground at the Hazel Park Fair

The group getting ready to leave from the Mobil station on Woodward.

Fat family at the Hazel Park Fair

Captain Jack dude at the Hazel Park Fair

Check out more on Flickr

Yesterday a friend of a friend of mine played at an outdoor concert in Mott Park up in Flint. I used it as an opportunity to practice taking photos of live performers. I need some work getting the flash to work right as well as some other things but I think it was good experience.

Check out more on Flickr

Technorati Tags: beach, flint, lake michigan, michigan, road trip, summer vacation, up north

I attended a rally in DC on the 26th. It was about the Military Commissions Act that congress passed last year. It is a really bad and unconstitutional law. If you do not know about it you should really find out immediately. The law makes a mockery of our bill of rights. For one thing it gives the President the right to declare someone an enemy combatant and place them in a prison cell for ever with no trial. It denies the right of habeas corpus which is really a cornerstone of our freedom and dates back to the Magna Carta.

In order to get to the rally I spent about 12 hours on a bus from Detroit. It left around midnight and I presumed we would sleep during the ride. The sleep did not happen as the bus was cramped and my seat did not recline. Not to mention the foul smell from the chemical toilet in the back of the bus. But we made it there and arrived just as the rally started.

During the rally I took these photos:

I missed Senator Leahy’s speech though I did see him in the hallway outside his office. He has been one of the biggest critics of the Military Commisions Act. I might have spoken to him but he was moving pretty fast and his entourage would have probably tackled me anyway. I heard most of the other speakers including some who were survivors of torture. I got these shots of Kucinich and Dodd who were the only presidential candidates who attended.

Later we spoke with Senator Carl Levin and Stabenow as well as an underling of Sander Levin. I was only really impressed by Carl Levin. He seemed to be the most genuinely concerned about the problem. It was disappointing though to hear him talk about the strategy to get a bill through Congress. I think that I can tell his heart is in the right place. But it is clear that, even if you are well intentioned and even if you are dealing with matters of great import like people’s lives and our basic freedom’s, getting things done in government is really treated like a game.

The whole trip was pretty arduous. A long sweaty uncomfortable ride there. Then rushing from the rally to the offices of the Congressman. And then a long sweaty uncomfortable ride home. At least I was able to snag a seat that reclined on the way home. The ACLU people were very nice and the ACLU leadership thanked us for our time and assured us we made a difference. At least I tried.

Technorati Tags: ACLU, Carl Levin, Day of Action, Dodd, Habeas Corpus, Kucinich, Protest, Senator Leahy, Stabenow, Washington DC

On the 21st day we visited the Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. It was a good

choice in my opinion. We toured the cliff dwellings and imagined what

it would be like to live in them.

This guy was annoying. He kept getting into every picture I was taking.

Him and his life partner were on the same tour as us. He kept calling

his tripod his “pod” and obsessing on whether or not to use his flash.

Every national park we visited had a few of these guys, wearing their

photo journalist/fly fishing vests, thinking they were Ansel Fricking

Adams.

On the tour we learned how the natives used the Yukka plant for a

million uses like rope and sandals,etc. Here Jen desecrates one of the national

park’s plants. Not really.

At this view point we heard what we thought was the cry of an eagle. It

sounded just like in the movies. Jen thought it might have been a hawk

or something.

We toured the Balcony House Dwelling. The ranger talked about how the natives lived.

We had to climb a 32 foot ladder and crawl through some small passages.

They made a big deal about saying how strenuous it was but it was

nothing like the hiking and climbing we have been doing on our trip.

This is a narrow passage we climbed through.

Jen in the passage to show the scale.

This is a shot of one of the dwellings from a distance.

This room was described as one in which ceremonies would take place.

Apparently the indians would climb down in this room and there would be

a fire in the center. We saw several of these rooms and they each had a

system to allow the smoke to escape.

The tour guide described the small hole next to the fire pit as a

“spirit hole”. She said the natives believed their life came from a

level below the earth and the spirit passed through this hole. iWith

all due respect to our Native American brothers and sisters, I surmised

they were real high when they thought that up.

The other dwelling we toured still had the roof on the spirit hole room. This ladder allowed us to climb into it.

A wider shot of the dwelling.

I took a lot of photos. I wasn’t sure which to post.

The area was very pretty although a lot of the trees were burned in a big fire a few years ago.

Technorati Tags: camper Van, camping, cliff dwelling, Colorado, cross country, mesa verde, road trip, travel

this time in the trip I was getting sick of hiking and I couldn’t

remember why I wanted to go to the Zion park although it may have been

I liked the name.

On the road to Zion I saw this roadside attraction. In addition to the

Virgin Jail they also had a Virgin Trading post. The gift shop had many

“humourous” virgin related items like lotions (use your imagination).

The owner was talking to another redneck guy, this one a tourist,

explaining to him indian legends like kokopelli and how they were

changed and confused by the white man. This is also the only store I

have found canes with swords in them like the one in A Clockwork

Orange. Though I didn’t buy one because the handles were all dragons

and other goofy crap.

Our campsite was just off the Virgin River.

Dixie kept jumping in it but refused to pose for a decent picture.

We saw this little guy on the river bank.

And this guy in the a nearby campsite. 70s bass player man was jamming

by himself and without an amp. If I had my guitar with him I would have

asked to jam with him. “Hey man, do you know Taking Care of Business?

one, two, one two three four…”

As I mentioned I was sick of hiking at this point. And I couldn’t

remember why I wanted to go to the Zion park. You have to take a

shuttle bus into the canyon, which would leave the pets alone for a

long time, and the sites seemed similar to those we had seen already so

we skipped it and drove past it toward Mesa Verde. Here is a shot we

took as I drove through.

Somewhere by the side of the road Jen saw this liquor store and took a

picture of it. Obviously, we thought the name was funny. Like a lot of

the things we saw, this place was in the absolute middle of nowhere.

Technorati Tags: camper Van, camping, cross country, red rocks, road trip, travel, Utah, Zion, Zion National Park

Vining, CA. It was a pretty decent place. It did have pay showers which

we thought was a little strange. I did not realize anybody still did

that. It had clean bathrooms and a nice dog walk area.

In the morning we drove to Mono Lake which was just down the street. I had read about the lake in <a href=“http://wbcci12.org/LATrip/mono2.html“>another persons travel journal</a>

which I had read while planning our trip. She described the strange

tufa formations that are present because of the lakes high saline

content. Apparently they were only visable because the water was being

diverted to Los Angeles. Unfortunately for me I learned the night

before that the water diversion had recently been stopped or at least

slowed down and that the water level of the lake was now much higher so

the formations are barely visable. It was still an extremely beatiful

area just not what I came to see.

Next we went down the road a bit further to the town of Bodie, CA. It

was apparently a boom town in the gold rush era and then slowly faded.

It apparently had some residents for at least half of the twentieth

century. The road leading up to Bodie included a three mile stretch of

the bumpiest dirt road I have ever driven on. It was basically not

navigable, at least not in the van, but we had already drove about 40

minutes and I wasn’t going to turn around.

I couldn’t get many good shots of the interiors of the buildings

because of the glare from the windows. I did take this shot of a saloon

through a hole in the door.

Several rusted shells of cars and machinery littered the town.

After we left Bodie the alternator light came on in the van and the

battery gauge was really low. I assumed the alternator had died since I

had been using it to charge the staring battery and a bank of RV

batteries as well. It took me a while to realize the rough roads had

knocked some of the wiring loose from my dual battery isolator. I

finally got all the connections tightened up not after a couple tries.

This car trouble happened just before we were set to drive through

Death Valley. We were a bit scared since I wasn’t 100 percent sure I

had found the problem. It was a little intimidating driving through

what seemed like infinite desert without being confident the van would

make it. We almost stayed at this hole in the wall Casino/RV park in

the middle of nowhere but decided to press on to the KOA behind Circus

Circus in Las Vegas.

Technorati Tags: Bodie Ghost Town, camper Van, camping, cross country, Mono Lake, road trip, travel

to stop a couple hours from the park and drive the rest of the way in

the morning since it was already late afternoon when we left. Somehow

the campground was not where our GPS said it should be and apparently

we drove past it. Rather than backtrack, which I never do willingly, I

decided to keep on driving and hope we found something closer. Like

most places we have traveled on this trip there was hundreds of miles

of nothing between where we were and Yosemite. To make things worse we

were set on a course over more narrow twisting county roads through the

mountains. I had heard that Yosemite was filled with tourists so I

assumed it would have many places to camp in the surrounding area. We

drove and drove and found nothing. We almost pulled over and camped by

the side of the road we were so tired. After a long drive we found a

campground . I don’t remember the name. It was around midnight and they

had no late check-in directions so we found an empty spot and setup

camp. I figured we could find the office in the morning. I was glad to

be able to rest finally. A few minutes later Jen came back from the

bathroom and told me a bat had flew in there with her and chased her

out. She was none too pleased. In the morning we looked around and

still didn’t find any instructions for paying so we just continued on

to the park.

I didn’t have that great a time in Yosemite. We found it to be filled

with rude tourists. The national park guidebook I purchased to plan our

trip failed us again. It directed us to spend most our time in the

valley area of the park. I guess everyone bought the same book because

you couldn’t go anywhere in the valley without being neck deep in

jackasses. And this is suppossed to be the off season. There was no parking whatsoever and I almost drove over an old man who was saving a spot for his friends by standing in it. I was the first car to get there and as I was pulling in this old man walked in front of the van. I couldn’t decide who would be the bigger jerk so I eventually decided to let him have it even though his friends were nowhere to be found and at least ten other people were waiting for the spot. It is also

difficult to see as many things as I have planned to see on this trip

iin such a short time.

One sight we enjoyed seeing was the Bridalveil Falls We climbed up the slippery rocks to get a closer look.

Here I am sporting a senior photo pose.

Later we hiked in the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias. Here I am next

to the Grizzly Giant which I think is the oldest one they have at the

park. It was something like 2000 years old. I liked the Sequoias a bit

more than the Redwoods. They seemed more rare to me and the red color

of the bark was more appealing to me.

Jenny with the giant cone we found next to the tree. We saw some other

people also use it as a prop in there photos after we left.

The parts of Yosemite we saw were not as pretty as a lot of the areas

we have been to. It looked as though many areas had been damaged by

fire. We also saw a lot of signs related to the planned burning of some

of the trees to let light in for the Sequoias.

We saw this fearless deer and several others on the trail. She walked right up to us.

This is one of the giants who had died.

On the way out we traveled along the north side of the park. I found it

more appealing. I think becuase we have a lot of wooded areas in

Michigan I am a little bored by some of the areas we have visited. Even

though the trees were huge they were not that interesting to look at. I

prefer the ones that look more unusual.

Technorati Tags: Bridalveil Falls, camper Van, camping, cross country, giant sequoias., Mariposa Grove, Monterrey, road trip, travel, Yosemite