Trying Times - But fun! Weekly Udate 1-21-13

I left Moab, Utah on the 8th of January with predictions of -25 degree weather, some people have suggested that my winter plans and location were not the best choice and I would have to agree. I spent over two weeks in Moab suffering through below zero weather, dealing with frozen water pipes in the camper, frozen waste tanks and downright cold weather. I can report that the little oil filled electric heater in the camper kept me pretty warm even on the coldest night, so that was good. But I can also report that a camper is not the most comfortable place in weather like that, outside was pretty much off limits and just dealing with the frozen waste tanks was a huge ordeal which required some creative thinking on getting them thawed out so they could be emptied.

I also discovered what happens when the grey water tank is frozen and full. The lowest "drain" in the grey water system is the shower and once the tank is full everything drains into the shower...the shower will hold quite a bit of water and had I not been using it for storage, it would not have been a big deal, but when I discovered it was full of water and removed what had been stored there. A bag full of external hard drives for my computer was a loss. I managed to recover a few of them, but lost two large ones. Happily they were "empty", I had purchased a very large external drive and had emptied all the smaller drives onto it. But a couple hundred dollars worth of hard drives were ruined and made their way to the trash.

So when I saw the prediction of negative 25 degrees it was time to head further South. As it turns out my choice of Kingman AZ was a good one, although when I arrived the weather which was going to affect Moab also arrived in Kingman, being further South it wasn't nearly as bad, but I did experience sub-zero weather, but warmer sunny days to deal with frozen waste tanks and frozen water supply line etc. Much more manageable.

The primary reason I chose Kingman was a wonderful in-expensive campground and it was close to an upcoming Balloon Festival in Lake Havasu City this past weekend, but there was one more trauma to deal with before that!

I live with my computer, it is as much a part of my life as my cameras. I use it in my photography, for work for the Lodge, ever important email, accounting software and online banking and bill paying. It is probably the top asset in my humble abode.

Tuesday Morning January 15th, I awoke and put the water on for coffee and as always opened up the laptop to retrieve email and read the news. Well the computer would start up and run, but nothing could be seen - not the Blue Screen of Death, but rather the black screen of nothing. So I set about to try and solve the problem. Quickly realized the hard drive was operating but the visual part was not working. For those who are familiar with laptops the visual part if built in to the motherboard. So packed up the computer and found a repair place in Kingman, there is really only one, but good people. Bits & Bytes! They ran the usual checks and sure enough the motherboard wad "fried" and I proceeded to shop for a new laptop. The choices in Kingman were not that abundant...Wal-Mart, Staples and the place I took my computer to be analyzed. They had the best offering albeit a touch more than I wanted to spend, but manageable. So on Thursday morning after two days without a computer, getting money transferred etc...I picked up a bright and shiny new laptop. Then the trials of getting everything transferred to the new computer from the old.

I was fortunate here in that I store 90% of my crap on an external drive and I am fairly religious about backing up and copying files to the external drive, but not everything. But, you might remember that the hard drive was functioning, so I removed the hard drive from the old laptop and just so happened to have an external USB case which would hold the drive...remember the flooded shower, it was one of those drive cases. Put the drive in the case and magically everything from my old computer was available to transfer to the new one. I was happy again!

So I spent all day Thursday, well into the evening, digging through an office box I had stored in the front of he trailer with all my software etc. and proceeded to get everything installed and files transferred. I was operational with email and accounting by the end of the day.

My original plans of going to the Balloon Festival on Friday the 18th was still a reality, so off I went for the 1.5 hour drive to Lake Havasu. I arrived and found it to be little more than a glorified County Fair - with rides, food court, dog show, old hot rods and a huge field with 10 or 15 little trailers with balloon stuff, but no balloons up and inflated. Seems it was too windy...disappointed I spent the day wandering aimlessly waiting for the scheduled 3:30 launch. I mingled with the Balloon folks and they all said it was still too windy and they would not be dragging the balloons out to only not be able to fly. But I had a recovery plan, so I headed back to the truck and made plans to drive to an old Ghost Town / Tourist Trap called Oatman, AZ. So off I went, filled the gas tank and took off for the hour long drive, it was a slight detour from a direct path back to the campground, but "on the way" in a circuitous sort of way.

I know most people come here to see my photography and not read a book of all my trials and tribulations, so here are some pictures.

How windy was it...when i returned to the campground, it was my plan to enjoy a very nice Rib-Eye steak on the grill...but the grill refused to stay lit due to the wind, but I seared it, then finished it on the stove in the camper. It was very good!



Now for some pics around the Balloon Festival!

















Now off towards Oatman!

















Needless to say, Oatman was a worthy side trip and I will return again when I have more time to explore. By the time I got there, many of the stores were closing and so I didn't get to browse much.

Upon my return I went to process my photos only to discover that my version of Adobe Creative Suite had run out of installs and could not be used. I had neglected to upgrade over the years, I was on CS3 and they are now on version CS6, I missed 4 and 5. So I downloaded from Adobe the trial version of 6 - took almost 11 hours, then installed it, took another 2 hours. All during this time, Windows 7 needed 154 updates to be current, as well as Quickbooks 2008, and Microsoft Office etc. So most of Saturday and Sunday was spent getting the computer totally up to date. Restarted the computer a zillion times.

I would have to say that my winter since Pat and I's vacation has been trying to say the least. But all is well now and have great plans for the rest of the winter and next summer.

Good News:

Pat has flight reservations to fly in to Las Vegas for Spring Break and will join me here to explore the area, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon and Fire Valley State Park are on the agenda!

She has also planned a trip to Alaska and Denali where I will be this summer, so all that is very good news.

Still making plans for the huge adventure of driving the truck and trailer to Cantwell Alaska in late April! Should have some great photo ops on that trip.

Thanks everyone for following along and enjoying my mobile life!

One other bit of good news - an interior designer called the other day and has a client he is working with who wants 6 of my pictures of Antelope Canyon. So those have been processed and sized properly for 16 X 20 prints. Now to get this deal done and finalized...it will more than pay for the new computer!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

January 11 - Photo Recap

I have been asked to create a slide show of some of my better photos from my travels in my RV. I also plan on doing one for my Alaska Years, stay tuned for that in the next few days or so

So Sit back and watch a slide show of some of my better images.



This same slide show a larger version is available on my website!

Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

Wednesday January 9th - Brief Update

Day before yesterday in Moab I heard on the radio a weekend weather forecast and they were predicitng 20-25 degrees below zero for this coming weekend. I had already endured 12 below a couple nights and frozen pipes and holding tanks and I was determined to not go through that any more. So Monday I spent the day researching where to go and getting the trailer ready to travel, anytime it sits for a while, it takes a couple hours to get things stowed away or it ends up all over the place while underway.

So yesterday first thing in the morning I gassed up the truck and hitched up and motored South out of Moab heading towards Kingman Arizona where I found a very nice campground for a reasonable monthly rate, in fact buy two months the third is free! With nothing else really planned for the winter, I figured why not! Plus it is warmer than Moab by about 40 degrees.

It was about a 600 mile drive so a long day. South down through Monument Valley then South and west towards Flagstaff then straight West to near Kingman. The RV Resort is right before Kingman off Rt 40. Old Rt 66 passes right by here and I am told there are some interesting old motels and diners, so I am going to take a drive today!

I didn't arrive until after dark but the office was open and they directed me to my site. Backed in, didn't even unhitch - hooked up electric and cable TV and had a snack and hit the sack.

This morning I unhitched, filled my water tank and also hooked up to water and dumped my once frozen waste tanks, thankfully they thawed out on the drive down and overnight. Went and took a long pleasant shower in some of the cleanest and nicest RV Showers I have ever been in. 10 foot by 10 foot with a sink, toilet and nice stall shower, just like home!What a nice surprise. The campground is about half full with a nice assortment of rigs, some big ones and some small ones. Grounds are immaculate! So far I am very happy with my choice.

Got some good news before I left Moab yesterday. Pat, my girlfriend has booked her airline ticket for Spring Break. She will be flying in to Las Vegas and we will do some sightseeing around here! Made me very happy, Pat and I get along well and she loves to travel and doesn't mind the cramped quarters in my little RV. We will see Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon and Fire Valley while she is here, all day trips. Plus we will probably explore Rt 66. She will be here for a week in late March, right before I head North to Alaska! That will be another adventure since I am driving the RV up.

I couldn't make the drive yesterday without taking a couple pictures. More of the campground later today and maybe a few from my drive around. Oh did I mention my favorite place is right outside the gate - Dunkin Donuts!! Going for a nice coffee for lunch!

Here are the pics:





Stay tuned for more details of my new found spot. Going to the Balloon Festival in Lake Havasu City next weekend.



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

Changes in the winds - warmer climate for one thing!

It is amazing what a difference a few days can make. This past week has been very frustrating, constant weather issues with the trailer and I have NOT been a Happy Camper!

However a few things changed on Friday and it made being here a little more palatable! One my next summers location in Alaska has been finalized! I will be working in Cantwell, Alaska right outside of Denali. I will be running a tour boat up the river there! Sounds like a blast and something totally different. I will be working with this company. www.denaliparkadventures.com

Check out the video on the Jet boat page!

So anyway that made my cold weekend much more exciting. I am really looking forward to doing something different this summer, I will miss the daily fishing but will be able to some some good fishing on my days off, which I am looking forward to.

Fast forward to this week. Still cold and predicted to get even colder by the end of this week, they are talking minus 20! Time to get out of here, so today I am spending getting the trailer ready to travel, buttoning things up and heading south to a place near Kingman Arizona, plan on spending next weekend at the Balloon Festival in Lake Havasu! Should be fun and a great photo opportunity so stay tuned.

Here are a few pictures from the cold arctic weather in Moab, Utah.











Cactus Pictures and sunshine in a couple days!!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

Update - December 28th - Moab, Utah

Well, I am not always the smartest individual in the world and last week was a perfect example. Plenty of snow in Salt Lake City, but I was anxious to get to Moab, so Thursday after the winter storms subsided, I headed South. No trouble on the drive down, roads were clear, but it was cold! And I mean cold.

I arrived in Moab early in the evening, got in a campground, unhitched and turned up the heat and took it easy. That night it went down to 12 below zero...well my little camper is not prepared for that cold of weather and in the morning I discovered my fresh water pipes were frozen, so I spent all day Friday and Saturday opening up access areas to the plumbing and blowing warm air in there with a fan. By the end of the day Saturday I had water running and hot water from the water heater, so all was well.

I have left the access areas open and a small fan running so no further problems although I am pretty sure my waste tanks are frozen, not quite sure how I am going to deal with that in the short term, but a long term solution will be tank heaters and permanent small fans for the access panels to the water pipes...that will be the project over the next few weeks...

I am tentatively planning on remaining in Moab for most of the winter, we'll see how that goes, I hope it gets warmer.

But the past couple days after some pretty serious snow, I have managed a few pictures.















And now a little holiday cheer!





Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

Update December 18th - Snow Delay

I arrived back in Salt lake City from Ohio last Wednesday and the plan was to stay here through the weekend and head down to Moab yesterday or today, however...we are under a "Winter Weather Advisory" and I am not real keen on towing a trailer in bad winter weather, so I am staying put for another day or so. It looks as though I should be able to get underway on Thursday or at the latest Friday.

I figured I would continue to get the trailer squared away and I had a few minor corrections to my website to do and I have finished an email blast for Yes Bay.

Winter Plans - Right now I will be heading down to Moab, Utah and plan on spending the remainder of most of the winter there. I have negotiated a deal do do some work for a tour company down there - NAVTEC. They are the people that I went rafting with in late October / November. They need a little help on some web marketing and a computerized reservation system and other office procedures, so I will spend the few months or so helping them. Moab is one of my favorite places and I am looking forward to spending some time there and doing some more exploring and taking pictures.

More about NAVTEC here:http://www.navtec.com/

Summer 2013 Plans - Right now this is a little more up in the air. I am currently in negotiations with a couple different operations in Alaska and also have a few in the lower 48 I am talking to. No decision will be made until around mid-January, that is when I expect to hear from my first choice in Alaska which will be something totally new a different for me, which has me quite excited about the opportunity. It is with Denali Park Advenutures - Where I would be running a jet boat up the river with a boat load of tours on a 3 hour tour! Sounds like Gilligan's Island to me, but would get to explore an entirely different area of Alaska and photograph some outstanding wildlife and scenery. So this is my first choice and would more than likely have me driving to Alaska and either taking the ferry with the trailer, driving the entire distance or shipping the trailer up by barge and me driving or utilizing the ferry. All options I will be considering once I hear whether I have the job or not.

The two other opportunities in Alaska are different locations but back to fishing. Which will be fine, but I may more seriously consider several options in the lower 48.

Stay Tuned for details as they happen!

In the meantime enjoy a few pictures I have taken the past couple days in snowy Salt Lake City!













Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

Just Trying to Make Sense of Yesterdays Tragedy!

I am not one to use this medium for political ramblings or soapbox speeches, however this morning as I sit quietly enjoying my coffee I can't help but be reminded of the sorrow that so many families are facing today in the little village of Sandy Hook Connecticut. And I wonder, what has happened to our society and young people that would allow this type of behavior to grow.

My childhood was remarkably different from what our children today must endure. Family values and core values were an integral part of my growing up. We knew right from wrong and were reminded of it everyday. Our parents instilled these values at every opportunity, along with our church, our teachers, our Scout leaders and our neighbors. Doing something wrong away from home generally resulted in a phone call to my father or mother by a neighbor, teacher or acquaintance. And I had to deal with the consequences when I got home which could be quite severe by today's standards, which is part of the problem.

So what is different today than from when I grew up, where and what caused us to loose those values that defined our society?

1. Parenting - Parenting skills have been lost. Parents so intent on making money and providing all the latest gizmos for their kids have left behind teaching the basic core values of right and wrong, respect for others, trust, integrity, faith and more. There are a zillion sub-headings that could go under this category alone. But today I think I will focus on just the main topic.

2. Corporal Punishment - In the schools, at home, at church, at Scout Camp in your neighborhood. It was all a reality in my childhood. Now parents, teachers, neighbors, Scout leaders everyone are restricted from any kind of punishment of a violent nature.

I remember the snap of my fathers fingers would bring me to a complete stop of whatever I was doing and I knew if I continued there would be hell to pay. Fear breeds respect and it begins as a toddler being taught what "Good Behavior" is and what is acceptable and what type of behavior is not. An out of control child at 3 will be even more out of control at 14 or 17.

I remember distinctly being asked by a friend to get involved in something I knew was wrong, my answer was simple - Not Me, My Dad will KILL me!

I am in no way condoning any form of abuse, it sickens me to even think of that, must be my core values shining through, however a warm ass from a good whipping did me no harm. A paddling at school always brought on another when I got home!

Observation - My parents knew exactly where I was every minute of the day and what I was doing. Of course this was long before computers and the internet, but today you can be assured my folks would have monitored every key stroke, every site visited and there would be restrictions.

Desensitization of Violence - This is rampant now in our society. And I ask how can that be, since we have regulated it to death, seems it hasn't worked. The Road Runner can no longer drop a piano on the poor coyote. Heckle and Jeckle can no longer poke and punch each other. Droopy Dog can no longer punish the cat for tormenting his "Little Buddy". And so on, and on...

BUT - Violent video games are an ever present part of our young peoples lives today and it has removed the value of life to a quick shot on the computer and instant death offering the user no consequences or sense of real death. I think you would find that many of those who go on a rampage such as the one yesterday have ingrained themselves into thinking they are actually part of a game.

I guess it really all boils down to caring. The most basic value we were taught from the age of nothing to adulthood. Our parents, grandparents, preachers, Scout Leaders, neighbors all instilled this most basic value in our lives and somehow our society today has lost that. We took prayer out of schools for fear of offending someone, we stopped the pledge of Allegiance, for fear of offending someone, we have taken away punishment by our schools and parents with fear of lawsuits, our politically correctness has removed our core values and the result is another tragedy perpetrated on innocent children by another child.

I am by no means an expert of raising children, but I know I raised one and led many others as a Scout Leader and I did it the way my parents did it. So far my son has turned out to be a fine adult and I know he knows right from wrong and he is not permanently scarred by an occasional ass whipping and I hope when he has children he is not afraid to watch his children with a close eye, love them, care for them and teach them the difference between right and wrong.

Forgive me for my ramblings, I just needed to try and understand why these type of rampages continue in our society today. And just so you know, more restrictions on guns will have no affect on our lack of parenting and observation of our children. If they have no idea of the difference between right and wrong, they will find a weapon to use to do their damage and drag our society even further down the drain.

I can still recite the Scout Law - A Scout is Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent. If more of our kids had this instilled in their life, maybe they would better understand right from wrong!

As an update - I am currently shoveling snow in Salt Lake City and when the weather cooperates on Tuesday or Wednesday I am heading South to Moab, Utah where I will spend most of the remainder of winter. I will be doing some web design work and helping a tour company - NAVTEC develop some better office procedures and reservation software. And of course I will be taking some pictures of the beautiful country down there and get this blog back to featuring those photographs rather than a vehicle for my ramblings. Stay tuned for next summers Adventure, it looks like I will be heading up to Alaska, more to the North and spending time around Denali. I will more than likely be driving up there with the camper either behind me or shipped up or on the ferry...plans are in the works and I should have my plans finalized by mid-January, so Stay Tuned!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

A little Work - Bathroom Remodel

It is amazing how I get roped into projects! While on the vacation with Pat, she discussed her frustration with her outdated downstairs half bath. She had removed ugly wallpaper which according to her was glued on with a vengeance. Needless to say a good portion of the wallboard paper was also removed and a fair amount of scaper gouges in the walls.

I had planned on coming to Ohio to visit my family and I told her I would take a look at the walls and bathroom and see what I could do.

The project grew into a total rebuild of the bathroom, toilet didn't work properly, so a full rebuild of that was in order with all new innards and seat! Removed the existing sink and built in counter which was even uglier than the light above it, although that may be hard to imagine. Dressed all the walls with wallboard mud, smoothed out the rough spots, filled the holes, sanded, filled again and sanded some more. Walls will never be perfect again, but managed to get them paintable.

A couple trips to Home Depot and Lowe's for some ideas and fixtures. Pats checkbook shrank a little, but we found something she really liked, picked some colors of pain, new flooring, faucet sink and vanity.

Here is the before - after old sink removal and wall patching!



Here is her favorite light fixture - by far the ugliest I have ever seen!



After paint and sink install!!



If shes happy I'm happy!



In the middle of all this we made a trip to Cleveland and the West Side Market!









All in all a great project which turned out very nice and Pat loves it so we are all happy! I head back to Salt Lake City to rendezvous with my camper on the 12th of December. Then head somewhere into the desert Southwest for further adventures.

Stay Tuned!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest