Shifter Carts at Bon Durant Raceway  -  Feb 16th, 2012 5:08pm

I dig go-karts.  About 10 years ago they started these indoor go-kart tracks in phoenix that they seem to have all over now.  I'm not talking about the ones at the mini-golf place they had when we were kids which you kept floored all the time.  I'm talking about nimble little contraptions where you oscillate between the break and the accelerator in an effort to keep from spinning out as you zoom around the track for the best lap time.  They go just fast enough on the straight parts to make you pay attention, but not so fast you can really get hurt.  Enter The Bondurant Shifter Cart!

I had heard about Bondurant a while back - its a rather expensive driving school out by Firebird lake which has all sorts of tracks and cars and whatnot.  What I didn't know is that for around $300 you can get a whole afternoon to learn about and then race around their 125cc shifter carts.  5 gears, no seatbelt, and 0 to 100 in 3 seconds!

I tried to get a few more folks involved but only Vince and Dan were willing to put up the scratch this time - its pricey but what an experience.  They spend an hour or so getting you all firesuited up and educated, then another hour showing you when/where to shift (including a ride in a ghetto van at breakneck speeds around the kart course), then your off on your own to go as fast as you can handle before loading your pants.

I did this a while back, but I just ran across the pictures and whatnot so thought I'd use my newly rekindled powers of posting to write this up.  Hope to do it again sometime soon - anyone feel like a race :)

Hello Rockford!  -  Feb 15th, 2012 9:47pm

When you do as many silly things as I do, you have to have a very understanding woman in your life.  One who will let you fill the house with fog, not insult you while you do pushups at the airport, and be down with a tequila barrage on a random Tuesday night.  Fortunately I'm a very lucky man and have such a person in my world.  So when my attendance was requested at her step brothers wedding in Rockford IL I was in - even if it meant sending in Denny as my replacement for this years Idiotarod.

I've never been to Illinois, even less so to Rockford, which is just a few hours south of Chicago - so I didn't know what to expect beyond being cold.  No matter how many pictures I look at or who I talk to, it seems like my brain just won't create a real picture of a place until I've had a chance to breath the air and walk around for myself.

Rockford turned out to be a moderately sized town full of the standard afflictions of modern life (Wal-Mart, Target, Etc..)  It reminded me of Flagstaff only with more interesting housing.  Some of the buildings have been there for a hundred years or more.  This includes Tara's brother Jacob's house which came complete with the previous owners ashes buried in a wall in the basement (a feature they found themselves).

While we were there we went ice-skating, attended a wedding at night in the woods, and danced our feet off at the town hall where the reception was held.  It was a pot-luck style affair, and it seemed like half the town showed up.  Jacob is one of those people you can't help but be drawn to.  Hes a throwback to a time when people worked hard, said less, and wore denim head to toe.  In fact, everyone we met there was welcoming and it reminded me of why I loved Flagstaff so much.

If you ever go to Rockford there are 3 things I'd put on your todo list:

1. Get a vanilla creme ale at the Carlyle Brewing Co.  Its a locals joint that sells the perfect mix of creme soda and nut brown ale - to die for.
2. Eat in the basement of Der Rathskeller.  Fantastic German food at another local restaurant and bar.  They will stuff you to the gills and you'll ask for more.
3. Go see a Jacob Holmes concert.  We got to see him perform one night at a local coffee joint.  Hes a tremendous bluegrass singer and plays like he lives in 1930.

Congratulations to Jacob on your recent marital addition and thank you Ann for taking us on a culinary tour de force of Rockford.  This post is a bit late and its actually been a few months since we went to there - I kind of miss it... I guess that says a lot about the place and I hope I get to visit again soon.

The Spartan Project  -  Feb 12th, 2012 11:11pm

So apparently I took a few months off from blogging?  I never know when these bouts of web-posting-angst are going to show up or how long they are going to last.  In my absence I've traveled across the country for a chilly wedding in the middle of the night, survived my annual Halloween affair (something I hope to post about eventually) and celebrated one of my favorite new years eve's ever with a small but very very good group of friends.  Apparently though, whats driven me to post yet again is something I don't usually write about - a complete and total failure.  The spartan project.

In search of the next great adventure, and looking for an alternative to the sleep deprivation joyride that is the Ragnar - I stumbled upon the Spartan Race.  An 8 mile obstacle run that occurs every February in Chandler at Rawhide.  Its a full 8 miles of running interspersed with things like javelin throwing, carrying cement bags for hundreds of yards, swimming across rivers and climbing up ropes - very cool stuff.  This was sometime around October.

Over the next several months I started trying to get back into running shape, but things just weren't taking hold.  I skipped the phoenix 10k in November because I wasn't ready.  Then over-trained and gave myself a world class case of shin-splints and missed the PF Changs half marathon.  I took up biking to fill the void of running, but that wasn't really cutting it.  My luck started to turn a bit when my friend Kellie very gratuitously loaned me her elliptical machine and I was given a pair of compression socks and instructions from the foot doc that got me back running occasionally, only to be thwarted a few days ago by a cold (and a fever... and a little tonsillitis)

So this Saturday I did the only thing I could.  Put on my running shoes, my rattiest shirt and some sunblock and cheered my friends on from the sidelines while they took up the gauntlet that I threw down for everyone a few months back.  The race was brutal - that 8 miles took nearly 2 hours and everyone paid a physical toll, but all crossed with a smile... ok maybe not Nemo - he kinda stumbled across then threw up... but he was smiling a few minutes later.

Brian, Alek, Nemo - you guys are my freakin heros for being willing to do this crazy sh*t with me, for going it alone when I couldn't join up and for keeping me training no matter the mishap.  McCoy - you and I still need our badge of honor or ribbon of idiocy?  Theres more where this came from - so maybe we'll get our soon :) Heres some pics and whatnot from the day.

Halloween 2011  -  Oct 31st, 2011 7:59pm

Its hard to overstate just how much time we spent getting ready for Burning Man and recovering once we got back.  The affair was mentally vetting - yet time moves on and the annual Halloween party needed to happen.

I always try to have some new absurdity each year and decided what the party really needed was some graveyard fog to float around outside while folks hung out.  I did a little research and it turns out this is done with something called a fog chiller - basically a big cooler you shunt the results of a fog machine through.  With a little experimenting I got that working, found a place that sells 2 lb marshmallows for the best costume  prize and all that was left was to build a costume!

Tara joined me in the build process this year - she put together a fantastic paper doll outfit while I did my best to complete this kind of lizard, monster thing I had seen a picture of someone wearing a blizzcon earlier in the year and that just made me chortle everytime I thought about it.  It took some effort but I am just blown away by both the paper-doll and lizard outfits.  Going to be hard to beat next year.

The day of the party came - the guests arrived.  Slowly at first, then in groups.  The booze flowed, the costumes were nothing short of amazing - I'm always overwhelmed at the creativity and ingenuity of my friends.  Yet what I really remember from the party was Tara the small group of close friends who hung around after the main shindig was long over and talked, breathed in peppermint tobacco, drank the last of the good beer with me and generally reminded me of why having good friends is such an awesome thing.

Burning Man 2011  -  Sep 7th, 2011 10:33am

Let me get this out of the way first: Nothing I am capable of writing or taking a picture of is going to adequately illustrate just how surreal, beautiful, or harsh an experience Burning Man was.  Its a place so wholly different from the norm, that since my return to the real world, things seem bland and devoid of character - like taking off a pair of colored glasses or leaving out the salt from your food.  It was a wonderful and unique experience, and though I can't do it justice - I hope that my description may at least inspire you to consider the journey yourself.

Officially, the trip to Burning Man should take about 15 hours from Phoenix.  In reality though - it takes much longer than that.  No one seems to get to the Playa (the dry lake-bed in the desert where the festival is held) without a number of random disasters.  We changed no less than 3 tires, and had to grind off 2 locks just to get half way there.  Then you have to pick up all the items you forgot or lost along the way, and finally once you arrive there is a long line of vehicles like overstuffed sausages waiting to get in.  Every vehicle is searched for free-loaders (those without a ticket)and if your unlucky enough to get pulled over by the local PD - contraband as well.

Fortunately we were able to bypass most of that fiasco thanks to some early entry passes our friend Jessica floated us.  We waited about an hour or so, rolled around in the dirt (as is the custom for first timers), banged a gong, and we had officially arrived at Burning Man!

Even though we were a little bit early, it wasn't that easy to find a spot to camp in.  Lots of areas were already roped off or reserved, and even the area we finally settled in turned into a bit of a land dispute at one point.  We made our camp just past 6:45 and Graduation.  The city is set up like a clock where the spokes are numbered from about 2:00 to 10:00 and the streets are alphabetical from the innermost "A" to the outermost ring "L".  The alphabetical streets do have names, but people constantly replace them so "Engagement" quickly became "Enlightenment" which turned into "Ecstasy" etc...  The system is easy to follow and we were just down the way from our friends at Radio Electra who were camped at 7:00 and "A".

That first day was a little rough - it took most of the night to finish setting up our camp and it was sunrise before I finally got to crash out in the structure I had worked so hard to build.  The Yurts worked brilliantly - they were dust-proof, warm at night and cool during the day.  They weren't as sound proof as one might think, but the further you are from the center "A" the quieter it is in general so noise wasn't that big an issue.  I had rigged a heavy duty exhaust vent to go along with the solar power system so the swamp cooler only got turned on a couple of times, but it too worked amazingly well and kept me cool during a 24 hour recovery period I required after a long night out.

So we had arrived, setup our camp, and finally gotten a little rest - thus began a series of strange adventures and rest periods that made up my burning man experience.  The festival seems split into several different phases - the daytime events, the nightly burn, and then the after-party which goes on till the sun rises.  At any point in that daily cycle you can also venture out onto the playa and check out the surreal art-pieces, go participate in some random occurrence (ie. march of the Waldo's - the unicorn stampede, or the gathering of bunnies), or just hang out at camp and watch the random shit parade which is constantly roaming by.

I can't say I was too successful at making many of the events.  As fun and as crazy as many of them were (Jamaican accent party, unicycling tutorial, flamethrowers 101, etc..) I either couldn't find the right place or when I got there the party was over.  I did have a great time though wandering around the playa checking out the art and just wandering around in general until I found something that sparked my interest.  I spent one whole night doing that until I ended up at this place called the "Avant Yard".  They were putting on a storytelling night kind of like The Moth that I missed in NY.  I had such a wonderful time there.  I even got up and told a story of my own.  It was probably my favorite night of the festival... at least until I drank too much, threw up, and had to be dragged off the desert into a random dome to sleep it off.  Special thanks to the kind souls who did that for me... whoever you are :)

Most of our camp spent the daytime napping and trying to keep cool.  Occasionally folks would venture out to center-camp to check out a concert or do some acro-yoga.  I think I spent most of days though out on the playa just sort of awe-stricken by the sculptures.  The pyramid containing the man was pretty impressive, but what really took my breath away was the temple.

I don't think I knew what to expect when it came to the temple.  I had donated towards that project as it seemed like such an important part of Burning Man, but I had no idea that it would be such a powerful place.  People write things on the temple walls they want to let go of or put objects of loved ones in there to burn along with the temple on the last day.  There are pictures, shoes, poems - I saw a wedding dress someone had hung up and written on it the words "I will love myself first".  Every time I went in the temple without fail I found myself crying.  Even just entering the main room made me choked up... it was weird and very moving.

When I was done sobbing and missing events, the nights usually began with some major object being lit on fire.  I've been to a bonfire or three but nothing close to watching a 4 story wooden horse packed with fireworks and kerosene go up in flames from about 50 feet away.  That night in-particular was pretty amazing as the person crying and laughing behind me turned out to be "Ohio" - the progenitor of the Trojan Horse Project (or so said his wife).

The nights usually ended after I was done gawking at the myriad of kinetic light sculptures that are fondly termed art-cars.  Light up party barges or psychotic neon death-traps would be more accurate descriptions in my humble opinion.  There were hundreds of them at a time on the playa - turning the horizon into a sort of state-fair midway on crack.  The lights, the dub-step music, even the dust they kick up are all ingrained in a picture in my head I can't seem to loose.  Every evening was a crazy parade of light, sound, and flame.

Thus went our days and nights until it was time to leave.  There were epic fireworks displays, the man burned (from which a giant ember fell out of the sky searing my neck) and eventually we found ourselves on the last day of the festival trying to start our vehicles for the first time in a week.  Stephanie was the unlucky winner of the dead battery contest.  This was followed up by her winning the stalled vehicle race and finally the overheating engine competition... basically her truck was loosing the battle.  After getting things running again though, Stef and Denny were anxious to get on the road so we joined them and made the long trek back to reality just before the burning of the temple.

In general - I'd love to say that Burning man changed my life.  I think for the last few years I've been on various excursions hoping to have some cathartic experience out there in the world that would mortar the gaps in my being or show me some new way of looking at things.  I guess I'm a little saddened to return with the message that it didn't... at least not wholeheartedly.  It did however brighten my world and spark my imagination.  I've never been quite as inspired by a place or heard myself say as often "next time I'll...".

To all the amazing friends I made out there, to the radicals at the Avant Yard, to Ohio, to my camp-mates, to Jessica and Chris, all the people who put so much work into making that a special place, and to my girlfriend who put up with my madness while getting ready for this thing - Thank you.  I can't way to see you all there next year.  I might even be done washing the dust off of all my stuff by then ;)

The Hexayurt Project  -  Jul 24th, 2011 10:44am

Part of the fun of Burning Man seems to be the build up before hand.  There is no end to the amount of time, money, and creativity people pour into this event and I think that is part of what makes it so special.

In the spirit of this - a group of us decided to build Hexayurts.  Geodesic dome like structures made out of insulation panels and tape that provide a cool and spacious living space that if done right is dust free and protected from the wind and sun exactly like a tent isn't.

Originally, these structures started out as an attempt to find a better and cheaper alternative to the kind of make-shift homes that crop up during mass evacuations and natural disasters.  Of course cheap, strong and element proof is a magic formula for Burning Man and thus the Burning Man Hexayurt was born!

We are actually making three yurts this year.  Cupp and Denny are both going to stay in the 6 foot stretch variety and I'm building the 8 foot Camp Danger Model both to sleep in, and provide a communal place to get out of the wind, dust, and sun during the heat of the day.

This has turned out to be a really fun project so far and I'll keep attaching photos to this post as we make progress on our builds.

Headed to Burning Man  -  Jul 18th, 2011 8:56am

Well its official - 2011 is the year I'm going to Burning Man!

For those not in the know, Burning Man is a week long event that takes place in salt flats (aka Playa) of Nevada.  Its a no holds bar art festival, a test of self reliance and desert endurance, a place to practice conservation and green living, a giant raving party 40,000 strong, and a spiritual event where people come to find themselves and share their dreams... or at least that's how I see it.  If I'm lucky it will be much more than that.  If not, then at least I get to go camping with my friends for a week.

Along with Jessica - who is our resident Burner and living Playa FAQ - I'll be joining Denny, Stef, Amy, Roig, and Cupp on this adventure.  Unfortunately McCoy, who originally signed on, had to bail on this one as he couldn't swing the 9 or 10 days it takes to make the trip.  His endless energy and unstoppable spirit are going to be missed, but he is pursuing his own dreams - something I think we are all happy to see.

So over the next 6 weeks I've got so many projects to finish!
- Build a Hexayurt
- Build a Swamp Cooler
- Create a giant shade system
- Light up my clothes and a Bike
- Make at least 1 crazy burner costume
- Outfit myself for a 10 day self-sufficient stay in the desert
- Sleep (optional)

Another year - another great adventure.  Here's hoping this will be one epic ride.

Yosemite National Park  -  Jun 6th, 2011 8:19am

I was just a few weeks away from going to Catalina for my birthday this year.  At the last minute though (which is about 4 weeks in airline reservation terms) I changed my mind and decided to visit some place new.  So the day before my 36th birthday with Tara at my side, I boarded a plane for Yosemite!

In truth we were headed for Fresno.  Turns out that's the closest place you can fly to the park without getting a 2nd mortgage.  We then drove from Fresno to Oakhurst and stayed at a place just south of the park entrance called The Queens Inn.  A funky little winery and renovated hotel from the 50's, it's a fantastic deal at less than $100 a night and only about a half hour away from the park entrance.

We left on Thursday and were returning on Sunday so we only had 2 full days to see what we could see.  Fortunately this site/page turned out to be a wonderful primer on where things were and what there was to do in that short a time.

We didn't follow that guide outright, but we did use it as a general game plan - spending the first day hiking through the giant Mariposa Forest, seeing all the lodges, and driving up to Glacer Point, then using the next day to go horseback riding and get drenched at the various waterfalls that litter the valley floor.

As you'll see in the pictures it was cloudy, wet, cold, and absolutely gorgeous.  I couldn't imagine a better time to see one of the most amazing places I've ever been.

Thanks to Phil Hawkins for providing exactly the information we needed to plan out our trip and to Tara for being a wonderful travel companion and a great adventurer.

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros  -  May 8th, 2011 7:24pm

Tara and I missed seeing Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros a few weeks ago when they came to town with Mumford and Sons.  So when we heard they were going to play the McDowell Mountain Music Fest in Scottsdale, she picked up tickets and we drove up to the land of shiny cars.

The McDowell Mountain Music fest is a strange affair.  Its a weekend long series of moderately popular bands tied loosely together by the terms "folk" and "blues" held in a parking lot made into a park by sacrificial sod that gives its life in the service of Scottsdale's finest hipster families and local hippie wannabes.  Now maybe that's a little harsh... or maybe I'm just disappointed that we can't seem to do a music fest proper so as to attract the kind of true hippiedom that inspires people to tiedie their business suits?  Either way, its was still a pretty fun deal and a great place to enjoy a cool breeze on a Sunday afternoon.

We got there in time to catch Black Joe Lewis and The Honeybears.  The best way to describe them would be to say just go watch The Blues Brothers.  Trumpets blared, people danced, and folks rolled around on stage like their souls were bound to the music.  It was weird, fun, and a great setup for Edward Sharpe who found their way to the stage just after dark.

If you haven't heard of Edward Sharpe - then go listen to Home and come back... all done?  Fun, folky, though not really life changing in any way.  They are what seems to be the next breed of Dave Mathews/Phish/Umphrees McGee like bands born from the hemp seeds left around the country by the Greatful Dead.  Like all those other band they are also really really great in concert -- finding whatever magic their studio attempts lack.  They have a wonderfully fun and inspiring stage presence, and are quite the big ensem - I think they had 9 people on stage at one point including piano, banjo, accordion and horn players.  Not sure how a band that size survives these days... guessing they moonlight as a yard crew?

Anyway - like most everyone - Tara and I started out just lounging in beach chairs on the "grass", but found ourselves drawn up to the stage.  They band sang just softly enough too lure you in, and acted just silly enough to keep you there.  What really sold us on the night though, was watching them pull a couple of fans up on stage to sing Home with them.  This not only made their day/week/life? but it really made mine too.  Its a rare thing to see a band to treat their fans with that much love/respect/trust and I think I'll forever be a fan of Edward Sharpe for that.

I don't think these guys will ever warrant the kind of patchouli fueled devotion that made Dead Heads live out of vans, sleep in fields, and subsist off a diet of grilled cheese sandwiches, but I'll certainly see them again anytime they are in town.

Snowed In  -  Apr 12th, 2011 8:34pm

Was fortunate enough to get snowed in this last weekend.  Given that its April and I live in Phoenix this is somewhat of a miracle...

Tara and I were invited a few weeks back by her friends Gabe and Amy to come up to Gabe's family cabin.  I'm still not exactly sure where it was due to a combination of Four Loko and Oreos, but its somewhere between Strawberry and Flagstaff a few hours west of Payson.

After escaping town on Friday afternoon - we all met up in Payson and grabbed dinner at Cardo's.  This is the kind of place that could only exist in a small town.  While we consumed pizza and beer, everyone in town took their turn singing or playing tambourine with the local guitarista on a makeshift stage.  Kind of like communal karaoke which we escaped from just in time to beat the snow up to the cabin.

The cabin itself was really nice.  A 3 story affair, it was more like a home complete with cozy couches, a stocked fridge, a big kitchen, and even a pool table downstairs.  This wasn't roughing it by any means.  We spent the first night drinking, snacking and poking fun at one of my new favorite movies - Superman 2.  Kneel before Zod!

When we'd had enough of that we all crashed out.  While we slept, 2 things occurred. First, the heater died.  Second, it started to snow.  We all woke up the next morning in a frozen house to a frozen world.  Tara and I crawled out of bed to the window sill like kids on a white Christmas morning and watched the snow pile up.  I had nearly forgotten how quiet the world gets when it snows like that.

The rest of the weekend was filled with all sorts of silliness. Snow shoveling, bad beer, good wine, rock band, pictionary, oatmeal cream pie cookies, and the eventual repair of the heater after it became so cold that fixing it was our only good option.  Thank you Amy and Gabe for letting us come up and play in the snow with you, and thank you Tara for being so much fun to get snowed in with.