Los Angeles/ 29 Palms

After landing at LAX and being picked up by my boss "Mook" in his extra loud Chevy truck, we were immediately greeted by the infamous LA traffic

After some delicious and much needed Mexican food and a good nights rest Hua and I headed out to 29 Palms

A California sized mountain at the edges of the desert, still covered in snow and green:

Hundreds of windmills surrounded us at the transition point between the mountains and the desert.

And the desert. The past three pictures all took place in about a 2 mile stretch of highway. It was a very drastic and stark difference:

A very interesting and reassuring sign on the 29 palms base.

Hua's methlab looking house, but probably the cheapest three bedroom rental rate I've ever heard of.

The next day we got our lazy butts up and went for a hike up Mt. Ryan, I believe it was called, and did some bouldering in Joshua Tree National Park:

Interesting fact, apparently Joshua Trees (as seen below) only grow in two places on Earth, in Joshua Tree/29 Palms area, and Jerusalem. In the Bible, according to Hua, it says that Joshua Trees only grow at the entrances to Heaven and Hell. So since Jerusalem is tied to Heaven, Hua's Marines are convinced they are stationed at the gates of Hell.

The next day we made a trek to Big Bear Mountain and went skiing for the day. This is probably one of the few times I'll be able to say that I skiied in just jeans and a shirt because it was probably over 40 degrees out and it was a gorgeous day for skiing.

View of the desert coming down out of the mountains.

That night we were treated to dinner by Laura Scotto, who is married to a Marine stationed at the same base as Hua, and her little sister Stephanie Jones. Seen here is a genius idea I had to make homemade ice cream since we didnt have any for brownies. Followed up by an equally genius idea to use oven mitts to shake it.

 

 

Thus ended another adventure. Now back to work for another two weeks.

 

Stay tuned for my next adventure to Cotulla, TX for an annual tradition with good friends.



Migration

Like the great masses of birds i have joined the migration South for my week off. Los Angeles and the beach for a night then out to 29 Palms to see a good friend before he ships out for Afghanistan. Stay tuned for pics

They call me the wanderer

Well folks, its been awhile since my last update and I have a lot to catch everyone up on. For one, I finally moved into the realm of new technology and got myself the new iPhone 5 which I am currently using to write this post because the San Antonio wireless is no bueno por caca. Hopefully this thing will help me stay more up to date with everything and everyone.

Secondly, I am currently, and for the forseeable future, homeless. I moved out of my apartment and into my truck/ storage unit and now use all that money to travel somewhere new every turnaround.

On that note, for those who are behind, I have been sent to Northern Alberta, Canada to build an oil sand refinery. I work 14 days on and then get a week off. While I'm up there I work from about 0430 to 2000 every day (that includes the travel to the site from the camp I stay in). 'Turnaround' is my week off that I use for traveling.

Fox has gone to live with my parents and has been good for their dog Kira. However, after taking it upon himself to mark their freshly cleaned carpets I agreed with them to have him fixed. Hopefully he keeps his personality but chills out with the desire to pee on everything.

I have been on a couple adventures already and have a lot more planned. I hope to update this thing more regularly now that I can do it on the go so keep checking in for that.

I got rid of Facebook so this is everyone's best bet of keeping up with me. So until next time remember, the most wasted of all days is one without laughter.

This Saturday I participated in the Spartan race. For those of you who don't know what that is:

http://www.spartanrace.com/

They can explain it better than I can but basically its a 3 mile run with lots of obstacles. If you fail one you have to do 25 burpees (pushups with jumping). I took out a lot of the boring running, but here is the video:

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_upload?feature=vm-menu

Wicked Whitewater Rafting

FINALLY!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBQPrI-IVGk

*This is going to be a running edit because I have a ton of feed to go through and edit because we had three Go Pros going*

So last weekend, July 28, some of us cool kids from work went on a WICKED whitewater rafting trip in Golden, BC. I have decided that BC is probably one of the most beautiful places in North America and I was only there three days. Anyways, we went rafting on the Kicking Horse River with Alpine Rafting tours and it was bomb.
The rapids seriously looked like that scene in LOTR where the water looks like horses (total nerd moment I know).

On this trip we were supposed to do the upper, middle and lower canyon. However the river was too high so we just did the upper and middle canyon twice. The first time I rode on the front row so I could film forward, the second time I rode hanging on to the front of the boat, looking backwards so I could film backwards. The following pictures are of a section of class 4 rapids ( it only goes to class 5). I was supposed to be filming but I pressed a button one too many times so I got delayed pics. I was kind of disappointed but I still got some good ones to show off:

The view from our campground

Jules protecting herself from the "mozzys" with her wicked stockings

Dylan, the mastermind behing this trip getting into his wetsuit

Pual and Shalia showing off their wetsuits

The first three are from the first run taken by a pro.

I'm the goofy one on the front left with the Go Pro on my head

Awesome.

Colton checking to see if my camera was on

Powering into the entry "line" of the class 4

Most of our group (starting at the front left and working clockwise): TD, Nicole, Jules, Simon (the guide), Jessica, Nicole, and Colton. The three others of our group were in another boat with another Go Pro. The one on Simon's head was pretty much filming the whole time so he got both trips from the back of the boat so standby for that.

The start of the rapids

Here we go class 4. Keep in mind that this river is glacier fed, meaning we had to wear wetsuits because the water was so cold. I opted out of my rain jacket the second time around like a crazy american so I took most of the waves head on.

One of my favorites. Simon just looks so epic.

Halfway through the class 4

Another favorite, that crazy smile on the guide is wicked.

We made it through the class 4

But that doesn't mean the rapids are done.

Another boat wasn't so lucky.

Remember that water is freezing cold.

Meet Ryan, the guide in the boat. This was the guy who gave us the safety briefing before we started and mentioned how flipping boats do happen, but not very often. This was his second time flipping on this trip. He flipped on the first run as well. However, to his credit, he is the best guide with that troupe, he was just opting to use a single oar, where you will see that simon has the two giant oars to guide with. This is a lot more difficult and it showed today.

The one regret of not filming this section was I missed the 1st person view of me pulling a guy in. So here is the aftermath, hopefully Simon got some good footage.

Everyone was ok, no major injuries, just some very cold folks.

Dinner at the campground after the trip.

Chillin out after dinner

Fox begging for food like a brat

And say goodnight.

All in all it was a primo trip, everyone had a wicked time. Like I said stand by for vids.

My apologies all for the delay in the updates. Its been a crazy couple weeks. I have recently moved into a new apartment (future post pending on that) and I've been running around trying to get settled in there. I also don't have internet so I'm eating delicious leftovers and updating at work for my faithful followers.

Two weekends ago, July 21, Fox and I went and explored the beautiful Lake Louise. If anyone ever visits Alberta, that should be a number one stop on your trip. My Go Pro battery was low, so I saved it for the following vids. The pictures don't do it justice because they were from my terrible little phone camera.

Lake Louise everybody:

View from the Chateau side of the lake.

View from the opposite side of the lake

Fox cooling off

 Rapids that feed the lake

Waterfall from snow run off

Another of the same thing

Fox loved all the water, and got very muddy as a result

View from a lookout point

Avalanches could be heard from far away as huge CRACKS followed by a huge BOOM

And now for the videos. The first is from a teahouse thats pretty much just a rest area, the second is from the lookout point. Enjoy: