What I Read -- Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon

I don't think I ever posted when I started reading Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon.  It was right before I headed off for my trip to the titular natural wonder last spring, and my internet access was already limited.

This book was loaned to me by my friend J, who is part Native American and has spent a fair amount of time in the southwest.  It perhaps wasn't the best idea to start reading it prior to going there myself, but I did it nonetheless.

The book is divided into chapters based on the type of death -- falls, dehydration/starvation, drowning, suicide, and murder, among others.  The chapter on drownings did not come along until after the completion of our trip, and I'm glad it worked out that way, not so much because it would have made me think twice about it, but because I was much better able to picture the situation described in the book having since become familiar with the rapids myself.

This book isn't as long as it appears; each chapter concludes with a chart summarizing the deaths of the particular type which are described in that particular section.  It did begin to drag a bit in the middle, but really picked up again at the end with the chapter on murders.  If you're getting stuck trying to plow through it, just skip to the end for the juicy bits.

If you're just curious about the map and statistics but don't want to bother with the book, and interactive map based on the book is available here.

What I Watched -- The Safe Side of the Fence

I can't remember where I heard about The Safe Side of the Fence.  It was at SLIFF a year or two ago, but I missed it then.  I was able to find a copy at the St. Louis Public Library.

This movie is a bit horrifying.  It tells the story of the workers at the Mallinckrodt employees who worked at the various sites around St. Louis during the thirty or so years beginning in the middle of World War II.  Their jobs covered the spectrum of everything that was needed to develop and build an atomic bomb, including research into creating a sustained nuclear reaction and processing uranium for use in the bombs themselves.

What happened to the workers is bad news.  There were little to no protections in place to shield them from the radioactive mess that they were creating.  But what amazed me so much is that it's still going on!  There were three big dump sites in St. Louis where radioactive waste is still leeching into the groundwater, despite being actively monitored.  One is out in St. Charles near Weldon Springs; one is in Bridgeton near Creve Coeur Lake, and one is immediately north of the airport and adjacent to the Boeing campus and with Coldwater Creek running right through the middle of it.

The movie doesn't draw many conclusions except to say that the problem isn't over, but that was enough for me.

Bottom line: a must-see for anyone who lives in St. Louis, or is interested in it.

Exploring the Great Southwest

Back in November, S and I headed off into the wide open of the southwestern United States for some R&R and outdoor activities.

We started out in Colorado, where we spent a day learning how to work the camper, repacking our gear, and getting situated.  It had been raining for a day and a half when we got there, and we awoke to a dense fog on the morning we set out.

We headed off to the Grand Canyon as our first stop.  Along the way, we stopped at Four Corners National Monument.  That is a place that it is not necessary to stop again.  There's not much to see.

From there we kept on towards the Grand Canyon, where we spent two and a half days.  The first half-day, we stopped at the Desert View Watchtower and some of the scenic pullouts, then headed off into the National Forest to find our campsite.  The second day we tootled around the South Rim - went to the Visitor's Center, stopped in the shop, nearly ran over some giant deer who didn't care to move, and talked to some of the rangers at the backcountry office about our plans for the last day.

On the last day, we rose in the pre-dawn hours and set off for the South Kaibab trailhead.  We hiked all the way down into the Canyon, took a break at Phantom Ranch, and hiked back up the Bright Angel Trail.  It was a long day, and it took about a week for the muscles in my legs to fully recover (which might be why they strongly, strongly recommend against doing this hike), but every step was beautiful, and it was so great to be back in the Canyon again!

[Aside: some of you may be wondering where the pics are from my first trip to the Grand Canyon back in May of last year.  All my pictures are on a non-cell phone camera, so I'll update those when I finally put them onto a computer.]

We drove most of the way to Las Vegas the evening after our big hike, but were too tired to make it the whole way.  We did the most RV of things and stopped to sleep in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  There are several things to recommend that course of action: it's flat, it's actually pretty quiet until all the diesels start roaring to life in the morning, and you're just a hundred yards from all the supplies you could ever need.  We did stop in for a few groceries, then headed off to Las Vegas for our one big splurge of the trip: brunch at Caesar's Palace. 

There was every kind of food you could imagine, and everything I tried was good at least, some of it was better.  I was done in, however, by the bottomless mimosas, and spent most of the afternoon sleeping it off.

That evening, we drove out towards Red Rocks for two days, where we stayed at our only paid campground of the trip (and the worst of the campgrounds, I will add).  We had fun in that area though.  Our first day, we rented a tandem bike and rode the scenic loop, which is 13 miles, the first part of which is almost entirely uphill.  If you've never ridden a tandem bike, let me tell you: it's not easy.  Getting uphill on that thing took every bit of energy we both had, and we still walked a couple of them. But the downhills -- holy cow, you go fast!

S and I discussed riding a tandem bike before we rented one, and I insisted that I go in front.  Otherwise I don't get to see anything.  And if he's behind me, he can see right over my head.  Going down that hill, I think he may have come to regret his decision.

We found a different (and better) campsite that night, which would have been perfect had it not been for the other folks who decided to pull up right next to us in the middle of the night and set up camp.  There was nothing else around - go find your own site!

The next day we attempted some rock climbing, but seeing as I hadn't climbed in about six months, and S had only climbed a few times during that same period, it didn't go terribly well.  After the first pitch, we packed it in and opted instead to have a picnic on top of the camper.  Good choice.

We rented mountain bikes on our last day and tried to follow the world's least helpful map while simultaneously not wrecking our bikes at every turn.  Eventually we met up with three other bikers who knew their way around the trails and let us tag along. The scenery was very rocky and dusty, with a lot of scrubby plants everywhere.  Everything was tan and brown.

Our next stop was St. George, Utah.  After breakfast, we rented mountain bikes again and headed off into the moonscape to see what kind of damage we could do.  I'll tell you what: if I lived in St. George, I would be a killer mountain biker.  The terrain is perfect for it, and the trails just criss-cross all over the place.  You can go anywhere you want!  (I was a bit concerned about finding our way back to the camper, but we managed.)

We found a great campsite outside of St. George, along a little-used forest road, with a rock wall on one side and trees on the other.  It was a very quiet night.

We made a brief stop at Bryce Canyon right at sunset before heading off to camp for the night on our way to Arches National Park.

The following day we made our way into the park to see the - you guessed it - arches!  We drove the roads, took a few short hikes, and then another "not recommended" long hike out to Delicate Arch at sunset.  The view was beautiful, and the hike back in the dark wouldn't have been that bad except for all the dummies who shine their head lamps right in your face.

We camped one last night out in the great wide open, then headed back to Colorado to return the camper and get back to real life.

Looking back on it, that last part was a mistake!

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has an un-spooky day!

Biking the Bourbon Trail, Day 2

Our second day on the Bourbon Trail involved no biking.  We started with a breakfast of a muffin, fruit, sausage, and homemade egg McMuffins.  Every bit of it was delicious!

Before leaving town, we headed back to the liquor store to pick up another bottle of Blanton's to take home as a souvenir for S's dad, then headed off to Town Branch Brewery and Distillery for our first tour of the day.

Town Branch is the new kid in town, as distilleries go, but it was a fun tour. It's very high tech, and as a consequence of being the new kid, it's willing to show that (whereas some of the older, "traditional" distilleries, though they may be every bit as advanced, don't put it on display quite as much.)

The tour was made especially fun by the fact that it was our tour guide's last tour before he went on to another job.  He was making the best of it for himself and for us, and we got several extra tastes just for kicks.  What were they going to do, fire him?

From there we headed off to Buffalo Trace, which we did not tour, but did partake in the two-sample (plus a chocolate) tasting.  S was correct in his prediction that they would not have any Blanton's for purchase, which made us especially glad that we had purchased ours at the drive-through liquor store the afternoon before.

For his birthday, S wanted a sushi meal, so we had that before getting back on the road to St. Louis.

Biking the Bourbon Trail, Day 1

For S's birthday this year, we headed down to Kentucky to ride bikes on the Bourbon Trail (his idea, and a great one)!

We found a cute little B&B outside of Versailles, Kentucky.  Driving the road to it was every bit as lovely and adorably Kentuckian as one could have hoped.

We arrived Friday night, and headed into town for dinner at Ricardo's Grill & Pub.  We had some tasty local beers, and made sure to eat our vegetables!

Fried green tomatoes (better than the ones at Juniper) and fried banana peppers!

We awoke Saturday morning to a hearty breakfast consisting of a cinnamon roll, fruit, eggs smothered with cheese, and homestyle potatoes.

Then we set off on our bicycles headed for the Four Roses distillery.  Along the way, we crossed the new bridge over the Kentucky River, just next to the old Young's High Bridge, which is now used as a bungee jumping location.

After struggling up the river valley on the other side of the bridge, we finally made it to Four Roses, just in time for a lovely outdoor tasting of three of their bourbons:

We turned our bikes around and headed right back the way we'd come, only this time we stopped at Wild Turkey, which we had ridden past on the way to Four Roses.  Their setup is a tour/tasting combo, so of course we did that.  We had a new tour guide, so the tour needed a little bit of work, but it was neat to go into one of the huge warehouses where they store the booze as it's aging.

At both Four Roses and Wild Turkey, we were offered glasses to take with us, but since we were on bikes, we gave them to other tasters so they could have a set of four glasses on their bar at home.

Back on our bikes, we stopped to commune with the local wildlife, headed back past the B&B,  and climbed one last big hill to get up to Woodford.

Woodford did an outdoor tasting, which was lovely.  We tucked ourselves away at the back of the group and enjoyed our two samples and delicious chocolate.  There is a local candy maker who makes chocolate truffles for all the distilleries using their own product, and the little snack was a lovely compliment to the samples.

Of all the distilleries we went to, Woodford was the only one that had any food.  By law, the distilleries are only allowed to serve you a small amount to drink on site; it's an ounce or an ounce and a half, if I'm remembering correctly.  As a consequence, there isn't a lot of reason to linger.  People tend to do a tour, have their samples, and dash off to the next place.  It's a very different experience than going to the wineries here in Missouri, where you pick one or two and sit all day as you sip on their product and visit the cafe for snacks.

Speaking of wine, we ended our afternoon back at the B&B, with a dip in the pool and a bottle of wine that they just happened to have chilled, which was generously offered to us when we mentioned we were thinking about heading into town to look for a bottle.

As the sun went down, we did make it to town -- but instead of wine, we found Blanton's!  It was funny to think that we went all the way to Kentucky, had visited three distilleries that day, and found what S really wanted at a drive-through liquor store on the commercial strip in town.  Ha!  We took our new-found treasure back to the B&B to sip a bit before bed.

Fairfield

My good friend L was married to her long-time beau J in Fairfield over Labor Day weekend last September.  Congratulations to them both!

S and I both attended. Despite my being a bridesmaid, we had a lot of time to wander around town, and even went out for a few short bike rides.

Fairfield is a mix of hippies and farmers, lots of international folks, and everything you can think of in between.  If you can get over the cult-ish sensibility of the transcendental meditation movement as it exists there, it's actually a pretty cool place.

Nothing cultish about invincibility, is there?

S was patient all weekend as I headed off for girls-only wedding-related activities.  It was an outdoor wedding, and thankfully there was sunshine on the afternoon of the wedding.  The reception was outdoors as well, and the setting of the sun brought some much-anticipated cooler temperatures.

All in all, the weekend was a huge success!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Goals 2017 -- January Edition

I am, yet again, revisiting how I set goals for myself this year.  Two years ago (and prior), it got to be a bit much having a goal each week that I needed to meet.  Last year, I gave myself a bit too much slack and managed to make less progress than I probably should have.

This year, I will attempt to split the difference with monthly goals.  Some of them may be carryovers that never got finished (or started) last year, others may be new.  I don't have them all planned out yet, so we'll just have to see what comes along.

For January, I will finish the notions cabinet.  S helped me get a head start (and gave me a birthday surprise) by sanding much of the cabinet.  The drawers still need to be sanded, and then I have to pick a paint color and get it painted and usable again.  I have so many things to put it in, though, that I really need to get moving on it!

I am open to suggestions for colors.  For now, I'm not sure what its final location will be, so I don't know what other furniture will be nearby.  Perhaps white is the way to go?  It's easy enough to paint over later if it needs to be re-done.  Or I could go the other direction and make it bright red so that it's going to be the centerpiece of whatever room it's in, no matter what else is there.  Other ideas?

Happy New Year!