First Camping Trip in the Behemoth

This past week Ryan and I took the first camping trip in my new car. I have taken to calling the car the Behemoth because it is so much larger than the VW that I was used to driving. We drove down to the Eugene, OR area so that Ryan could climb a 250 ft. Douglas Fir for his birthday. www.pacifictreeclimbing.com

We camped at an area called Fall Creek near Lowell, OR. It is about a 6 hour drive from Seattle and a lovely part of the Willamette National Forest. We had a campsite next to a babbling little creek and on Sunday night, we had the campground to ourselves.
The next day bright and early, we met with the guys from the Pacific Tree Climbing Institute so that Ryan could begin his climb. I was originally going to go in search of internet access or look for some local letterboxes. But the Tree Climbing guys convinced me to come along and I ended up suiting up in harness and ropes and climbing up the 250 ft. Douglas Fir right behind Ryan! We hiked a few feet into the forest to a group of three trees that the climbers have nicknamed "The Three Musketeers". We would be climbing Aramis.

Another lady joined us and there were two guides to help us up the tree. We were outfitted with climbing harnesses, gloves and helmets. Then it was a matter of inching our way up the tree. It took us about 2 1/2 hours to climb up to about 200-210 feet. I was certainly the slow one.Ryan was a natural. At about the 100 ft. mark, they have hammocks or "boats" secured in the branches of the tree for when they have people spending the night! It is at this point that you can see that the Porthos tree has lost it's top.




We had a lunch at the top of sandwiches, apples and cookies. The views were terrific. The ropes we are climbing on are secured at the top of the tree. We asked how they get the ropes up there and found out that when they first climb a tree, they shoot the ropes up with a bow and arrow. They will climb up, checking along the way to make sure that the tree is sound and not diseased or rotted in any way. It was a breezy day when we were climbing, which was nice because it kept away the bugs. But at the top, you could feel the tree sway with the wind. Then it was a simple thing to rappel down to the bottom again.
You just had to be careful about not hitting the branches on the way down. When I reached the ground, my legs were like spaghetti. I definitely used muscles that I was not used to using! You used your quads in your thighs and your upper body the most to get up the tree. My hands were also sore the next day. I didn't even know that I had muscles in my fingers. I must have really had a tight grip on that rope. :-)

From Lowell, OR we went into Eugene to spend the night. I had plans for Tuesday to visit the University of Oregon at Eugene. In their library, they have some boxes of papers from the Stratemeyer Syndicate. Edward Stratemeyer was the creator of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and countless other children's book series. In the papers, they have a manuscript of a Nancy Drew book and fan letters written to the Syndicate authors from 1928 and 1929. Fascinating stuff. While in Eugene, we met up with a bunch of local letterboxers and had a wonderful night of Pizza and Margaritas!


On Tuesday, after spending time in the University Library, we drove out towards Sisters, OR. There, we met with some letterboxing friends at a campground on Suttle Lake. We spent two nights there on the lake, camping, hiking, letterboxing and telling stories around the campfire. All in all, I was very pleased with the performance of the Behemoth.

As a reminder, for those of you who have not already, you can pledge to my Washington Trails Association Hike-a-thon directly on their website this year. WTA Hike-a-thon I am already almost halfway towards my goal of $1,000 and August has not even started yet! That is very encouraging. I have gotten a lot of small pledges from flight attendants who did not pledge in previous years, so that is great -- Thank You! And Doublesaj and Old Blue have put out a challenge to letterboxers: They'll increase their pledge by $10 for each letterboxer (up to 4) who pledges $25 or more who've never made a pledge before. So far, no one has taken them up on that challenge.

Plans for Hike-a-thon 2008

It's that time of year again and I am getting excited about the WTA Hike-a-thon 2008. This year the group at WTA has created an individual webpage for me to keep track of my pledges which is really terrific. It lets you guys donate your money directly to WTA with your credit card. Of course, I will still have the blog for updates on my hiking mileage etc. And you can still send pledges to me, I will be collecting cash and checks to turn in at the end of August.
My WTA Hike-a-thon Fundraising Page


My sister is going to come to visit Seattle and we have a camping trip planned to the Olympic Peninsula, always one of my favorite places to hike. I also want to challenge myself to use more public transportation to get to hiking trails this year! I know I said last year that carless hiking was not for me, but with the price of gas in Seattle creeping towards the $5 a gallon mark, I think I might need to rethink that attitude. And it is certainly possible to take the city bus to hiking areas around urban Seattle. That will be a bit of a challenge and should add some local color to my adventures this year.

On the WTA website, I listed my goals as raising $1,000 and hiking 50 miles. I accomplished both of these goals last year so I am pretty confident that I can do it again this year, despite economic troubles and my couch potato tendencies. I hope I can count on everyone who contributed last year and I hope that we can convince some new folks to help out this year for a successful August hike-a-thon. And no car troubles and no black eyes. :-)

-Amanda from Seattle

It's Better in Bermuda

Ryan and I just got back from a Letterboxing Cruise to Bermuda. We had a terrific time. We started out from Seattle flying to New York City via Phoenix. Since we travel standby on USAirways, we were not quite sure when we would arrive in New York. Nor were we sure WHERE we would arrive. We had lots of options. Laguardia Airport, Newark, NJ or JFK would all put us close enough to the cruise ship terminal. We just wanted to go on the airplane that had some seats. We got to Phoenix and the airport was packed with people. Many of the flights are oversold and we watched paying passengers get bumped when they did not arrive at the gate in time. A word to the wise, don't loiter in the airport bar, you are better off hanging around your gate area. The best part about spending time sitting around the Phoenix airport is free wifi!

Finally we got on a plane to JFK. The last time I was at JFK, we were parked right next to the British Airways Concorde. So it was a few years ago. Bright and early on the morning of the cruise, we took a Super Shuttle van from JFK to the Cruise Ship Terminal in Manhattan. It cost about $30 for the two of us. Super Shuttle is a shared van service, so we were in a full van with people who were going to hotels in Manhattan. We basically got a tour of downtown NYC. The van criss-crossed back and forth around Times Square and the downtown area as the driver dropped off the passengers. We saw the Empire State Building, The New York Public Library, The Chrysler Building and the United Nations Building. At last we came to the Cruise Ship Terminal almost 2 hours after we had left JFK!!

We were at the Cruise Ship terminal at 11am. We knew we were here earlier than most of the other folks who were coming from Connecticut. But NCL was already checking people in for the cruise, so we got in line. We turned in our Cruise documents and tickets and they took our pictures and gave us our key cards which would be our room keys and "credit cards" for any purchases on the Norwegian Dawn. The key cards were also used every time we got off and got on the ship to keep track of all the passengers. Now we had to wait to board the ship. The Dawn had arrived this morning at 8am from Bermuda and was still being cleaned and serviced for the return trip this afternoon. In fact, some passengers from the previous cruise were just now getting off!

They started letting us onboard and we got on and waited a few more minutes in the main atrium area for our rooms to be ready. Our room was on deck 5 very near to the stairs and elevators which made it quite convenient for moving around the ship. We didn't have to go traipsing down long corridors every time we went back to the room. This made the mandatory lifeboat drill a breeze as well.

Once the ship was underway, we sat on the starboard side to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Another ship, The Norwegian Spirit was right behind us as we left the river and entered the ocean.


All the letterboxers gathered in one of the Night Clubs onboard the ship for a Bon Voyage cocktail party the first night out from New York City. Immediately, there were clues distributed for boxes hidden onboard the ship and the CSI game began!

Finding Letterboxes hidden all over the ship actually helped us to get to know our way around. The Norwegian Dawn is quite large with decks 4-14 open to the public and it was easy to get turned around, especially when some elevators did not go to all the floors. We spent two days at sea on the way to Bermuda. The weather was somewhat dreary and the seas were pretty rough for both days. Our cabin on Deck 5 had a window and the waves would crash against the side of the hull and splash our window. It was fascinating to watch. Deck 7 had a promenade all the way around for walking. It was so rough and windy, the cruise ship personnel had blocked off the starboard side of the ship.

The Garden Cafe was the buffet area of the ship and where we would end up eating most of our meals. I was very disappointed that the soft serve ice cream machine was broken. It would not be fixed the entire cruise. But they did have hard ice cream and Ryan and I would enjoy a scoop of ice cream for dessert every night. The entrees were just so-so but the variety of fruit was terrific. I would often end up eating items from the kids section of the cafe. Macaroni and Cheese was one of my favorites from that station. There were a couple of sit down fancy restaurants that took reservations. The smart folks made their reservations the minute they got on the ship. If you did not have a reservation, the waits were often an hour or more. Ryan and I finally got a reservation at the Tex-Mex restaurant and had dinner there one of the nights we were in port at Bermuda. We also drank a lot of milk and iced tea. Sodas were an extra charge, but milk was free! There was another area called the Blue Lagoon that was run like a diner or hamburger stand. They served a very limited menu of Burgers and Fries, Fish and Chips and Chicken Fingers, but it was a quick and easy way to get lunch during the day. The tomato soup there was quite good.

Ryan had decided that he wanted to Through-Hike Bermuda. The island is only about 22 miles long from end to end and there is a wonderful trail, The Railway Trail, that runs the length from Somerset to St. George. I would hike with him from the Royal Naval Dockyard where the Norwegian Dawn was docked to Church Bay, about 8 miles. The first 2 miles were not on the trail. We set out from the Dockyard walking with another of our letterboxing friends. We had to walk along the roads for the first two miles. This is quite daunting. The roads are narrow and curvy and the cars drive on the left, like in England. The cars, buses and motor scooters zip along at an alarming pace. It was still enjoyable. There are flowers everywhere. They grow wild along the road and fill every yard and garden along the way. The views of the coastline, rocky crags and clear blue water, were so beautiful. At Mangrove Bay in Somerset, we stopped at a little shop to pick up some water and postcards and we also stopped at the post office for some stamps. That is when we discovered that the post offices have a free internet kiosk. We would be back to make use of the kiosk another time! We reached the beginning of the Railway Trail and were able to finally get off the dangerous roads.

Our next stop was at Fort Scaur. It is directly on the railway trail and is a National Park here in Bermuda. The Fort was built just after the Civil War. Britain had backed the Confederacy and was afraid of the North invading Bermuda in retaliation. We stopped, not for the history or the views, but for a letterbox. Onward on the trail to the Somerset Drawbridge. The Drawbridge is famous because it is the smallest drawbridge in the world. It only opens 18 inches for a sailboat mast.


By the time we got to Church Bay, I was done hiking. We had done about 8 miles. I would be taking the bus back to the Royal Naval Dockyard with my letterboxing friend, while Ryan continued on to the town of Hamilton and would take the ferry back to the Royal Naval Dockyard. The first thing we had done before we had started our hike was to buy a bus/ferry pass for the three days that we would be on the island. It is a great bargain and allows you to just jump on and off the buses and ferryboats to all points around Bermuda.

Church Bay is supposed to be one of the best snorkeling beaches on the island along with Tobacco Bay. It was a nice beach, with the sand full of coral that gives the sand that pink tint that Bermuda is famous for! Unfortunately, the rough weather that we had encountered on the way to Bermuda was still causing the water to be very rough and the churning of the sand and such made the visibility almost nil. Ryan did some snorkeling, but I did not even bother. We had a lovely time laying around the beach at Church Bay and frolicking in the water.


The next day we both took the ferry to Hamilton and Ryan continued on his hike to St. George. I would be touring around and then taking the bus to meet Ryan in St. George. Hamilton is the capital of Bermuda and it's biggest city. Fort Hamilton was my objective, it sits on a hill above the waterfront and has a wonderful moat around it that has been turned into a garden.

After touring Hamilton, I took the bus across to St. George stopping for letterboxes along the way. I also stopped at the Railway Museum just north of the Bermuda Aquarium in Flatts Village. Next stop St. George.


I had been to St. George one other time. I once worked a trip to Bermuda that had a 3 hour layover. During the layover, the entire flight crew left the airport and took a taxi into St. George to eat lunch at the White Horse Tavern. It is on the main square in St. George. The square also sports a pillory and stocks as well as a ducking stool. During colonial times, these were the instruments of punishment for the citizens. Women accused of gossip or other petty offenses were forced to endure the humiliation of being dunked into the harbor and the men could be put into the stocks for such offenses as excessive drinking or disorderly behavior. They have actors who reenact these scenes on Wednesdays (for the cruise ship crowds)


I also walked up the hill to see the Unfinished Church. The Church was meant to replace St. Peter's Church in St. George, but there was bickering between the parishioners between some who supported the new church and others who favored restoring the original church and the construction came to a halt in the 1890's. The Church was never finished and now is more of an attraction than if it had been completed.

Ryan and I took the ferry back to the ship together. We could see where our room was located on the side of the ship. I had noticed that the paint outside our window was pink, so we deduced that our window was the one at the pink swoosh on the side of the ship! We also had finally gotten a reservation at the Tex-Mex restaurant on the ship. The Restaurant had a wonderful stained glass ceiling as seen in the picture.



Our last day in Bermuda, Ryan and I had a couple of letterboxes that we needed to hide on the island and we went back into Somerset to hide them along the beginning of the Railway Trail. We also stopped at the post office to use the internet kiosk.

Afterwards, I took the opportunity to for a last minute snorkel at the Snorkel Park at the Royal Naval Dockyard. Supposedly there was a charge to use the beach at the snorkel park, but the gentleman at the desk let me in for free. I think because he knew that the cruise ship was leaving in a few hours and I wouldn't be there for very long. I was hoping that the visiblity had improved in the last couple of days, but no luck. Still nothing to see under the water.

We left Bermuda and made our way back to New York City. It is a much quicker trip back, only one day at sea. It was rough again once we were out into the ocean. Our last night onboard, the entire letterboxing group got together for a farewell dinner at one of the fancy restaurants. Ryan and I got our first and only towel animal at our cabin turndown service. We don't even know what animal it is....could be a toad?

Back in New York, Ryan and I chose to walk off the ship with our luggage to speed our disembarkation. We needed to get to Laguardia Airport as soon as we could to increase our chances of getting back to Seattle. We got very lucky with a cab to the airport. We decided to take a taxi, especially since we had such a loooong ride on the Super Shuttle coming to the ship. I had been told that taxis to Laguardia would cost us about $45 or $50 dollars. It turned out that we had the fastest taxi driver in Manhattan. It was a nerve-racking trip, but we got to the airport in record time and it only cost us $35 including the tip! We made the first flight we tried to stand-by for out of town and got home to Seattle that night. Thank Goodness Ryan was wearing his lucky Wallace and Gromit tie.

London Calling

Last month I had a layover in London. One of my Flight Attendant friends was on the trip with me and although she had been to England before, she had never toured London. So we planned to see the city together with me acting as tour guide. The airline provides us with free train tickets to get into town because we stay out at Gatwick. So the first thing we did was pick up our free train tickets for the trip into Victoria Station. Victoria Station is a lot of fun. There is tons of shopping and restaurants just around the station. There is even a Krispee Kreme Donut shop!

I like to visit the charity shops (that is about all I can afford with the pound being so much stronger than the dollar right now) I have a list of all the charity shops around Victoria Station and we stopped into a couple of them on our way towards Buckingham Palace. Here is a website that lists all the Charity Shops in London with the Closest Tube station: London Charity Shops


We got to see Buckingham Palace. It was a gorgeous day and there were a ton of people out and about. We walked through St. James Park on our way to Westminister Abbey and the Houses of Parliment. From Westminister, I had planned that we would take a boat down the Thames to the Tower Bridge. This is my favorite way to see London, from the water. Roundtrip tickets were only 7 pounds or about $14 dollars. We left West Minister Pier and the cruise operators give you a commentary about all that you are seeing along the way. We passed the London Eye and the Aquarium. We also could see the new Shakespeare's Globe theater. We also passed underneath the new London Bridge (the original is now in Lake Havasu, AZ!!) and finally came to a stop at the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.


I had visited the Tower several times before, most recently with Ryan two years ago.
Ryan's Website
So I had no desire to tour the Tower. But my friend is a crafty, artistic person and I had convinced her to go to the Little Church by the Tower for some Brass Rubbing.

Brass Rubbing is alot like Tombstone rubbing....if you are familiar with that. The British churches usually have a lot of brass commerative plaques in them and it is "the thing to do" to do rubbings of them! Ryan and I did rubbings in Stratford upon Avon when we were there in 2006.


We went to the All Hallows Church by the Tower to do our Brass Rubbing. The All Hallows Church is the oldest church in the city of London. Full of history and an interesting place to visit even if you aren't going to do a rubbing. For only 5 pounds (about $10) we got to make our own piece of artwork to take home. All the paper and waxes are provided for you. Another place to do rubbings in London is at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church near Trafalgar Square.

We walked around the Tower of London (there is a piece of the original Roman Wall on the side away from the river) and visited some of the touristy gift shops there. I bought a cute postcard of London for framing.

One of the things I do on my vacations is try to find postcards of original artwork that are suitable for framing. This is a really inexpensive way to have a wonderful souvenir of your trip. In London, I found these terrific postcards of art by Andrew Murray. As an example of what I will do with them is this picture of postcards I have of Mont-Saint-Michel, that I got on a trip to France many years ago. I had them framed and they are above my computer desk today.

By now we were pretty worn out and we headed back to Westminister on the boat. We had a terrific day in London.

May begins the Casual Flight Attendant

Hurrah, the time to wear our new uniforms is finally here. Although, I am not too happy with all the purchases I made. Here is a photo of the sweater set. I think it looks like I am ready to go jogging! A little too casual for me.
As many of you know, the airlines carry alot of the mail. This next uniform option looks like something the girls at the Postal Service or FedEx would wear....just make it brown and I could be working for UPS. Is this package for you?


We will be able to wear our shirts untucked....


And of course I had to try out the scarf in my hair! Especially since I won't be able to do that for real on the airplane...but doesn't it look cute:



I think I will end up wearing this last option the most. It is my favorite and it is more like the uniforms that we have been wearing all along...am I resistant to change do ya think?



I just think it looks more neat and professional than all the other choices. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture of the SKORTS in...they had to be altered and are still not back yet.

Death Valley Days

For my sister's birthday, she was going to participate in a Century. If you are unfamiliar with the term, it is a 100 mile bike ride. They were having this bike ride down in Death Valley, CA. I had never been to Death Valley before and she invited me to go with her and hang out while she was doing this bike thing. (the Century would take all day) We would make a road trip out of it and spend several days in the area with days spent driving down there and back from Sacramento, CA. It sounded like fun. As long as I didn't have to ride 100 miles on a bike too.
http://www.adventurecorps.com/dvspring/index.html

So the other day we set off from Sacramento bound for the desert.My sister had rented a huge SUV for the drive. This was so she could take her fancy bicycle down for the Century. She would never mount it on the top or back of the car. It could get damaged. Also this way, she wouldn't be putting miles on her new car. The drive down was really scenic, we took I-395 on the East side of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. In the higher elevations, there was a lot of snow. I had wanted to get a bunch of drive-by letterboxes on the way down, but several feet of snow made this pretty difficult. We stopped for a couple of them, but found them so buried, I gave up until we got back down towards sea level again.

My sister's husband splurged and got us a room at the Furnace Creek Ranch right inside the National Park that is Death Valley. After all it was her birthday and the Furnace Creek Ranch was the beginning and end of the 100 mile bike ride, so it would be very convenient to just wake up and roll out of bed to start that grueling ride. The Century is very popular and people come from all over the country and all over the world to participate in it. There was also a DOUBLE Century going on at the same time, 200 miles. These folks are hard core bicyclist. So we were lucky that he made the reservations early. The Ranch was all sold out the weekend we were there and many of the cyclist had to drive in from Independence, CA more than 60 miles away or they had to camp at one of the campgrounds in the park and the campgrounds near Furnace Creek were also sold out.Not to mention that this is also the best time of year to visit Death Valley. In the summer the temperatures can hover in the 110's, so a balmy 80 degrees was to be the high the weekend we were there.


It was dark when we first drove into the park and we couldn't see much, but we could smell the flowers. I had been told that the wildflowers would be in bloom and I had imagined a bunch of cacti with those funky blooms on top of their spines. I was totally surprised to wake up the next morning and see fields of yellow flowers. They were quite beautiful and not at all what I expected in the desert. In fact, we saw very few cactus. Death Valley is the hottest and driest place in the United States. A temperature of 134 Degrees was recorded at Badwater in 1913. And in July, the average temperature is 116 degrees! I was happy to be here in the winter.
Our first day there we had to go to the lowest point. It is called Badwater and is 282 feet below sea level. Driving down to Badwater was also the road my sister's bike ride would take, so it was an opportunity for her to check out the route of her 100 mile ride. We stood there and looked up at the cliff behind the parking area. There is a sign way, way up on the side of the cliff that says, "Sea Level". Wow. We also drove out to see The Devil's Golf Course, it is a section of the salt flats where the crystals are all clumped up on the desert floor.It looks like a coral reef run amok. We also stopped at the Golden Canyon for a short hike. It is a lovely slot canyon that winds up at a rock formation called the Red Cathedral. The whole area is a geologist's dream. Another section of the drive to Badwater is called The Artist's Palette. I thought that it might be called that because that is where Artist's go to paint or take pictures. I suppose they do that too, but it is called the Artist's Palette because the hills are dotted with all sorts of different colors from the different rocks and minerals that make up the composition of the area. We came back to Furnace Creek and visited the Borax Mining Museum. It is in the oldest building still standing in Death Valley and has some really great exhibits on the mining that went on in Death Valley over the years. Borax is not as glamorous as gold, but it was probably one of the most profitable items to be mined here in Death Valley. The famous 20 Mule Teams would haul the Borax out of Death Valley to the railroad at Mojave.


The next day was the day of my sister's bike ride. I should mention that they do not call it a bike race. But they do put numbers on them (like marathon runners wear) and they do time them.My sister was number 52, and she came in 85 out of 145 finishers. Somebody has to come in first and somebody has to come in last. So it looks like a race to me. But if you call it that, there will be someone there to correct you! "It's not a race, it's a ride"
I stand corrected. We got up bright and early and I walked out to take photos and see my sister off. I would spend the day visiting a ghost town and other sights and come back to check on her progress after several hours. The folks participating in the 200 mile ride left first. Then it was time for the folks doing the measly little 100 miles to start. They space the riders out to keep things safer on the roads. My sis was in the third wave of Century riders to leave the Furnace Creek Ranch. After she was on her way, I drove out to the town of Rhyolite.





http://www.rhyolitesite.com/



It is the biggest ghost town around. It once had more than 10,000 inhabitants during its hey day. There were 2 churches, 50 saloons, a stock exchange and an opera! Many ruins remain today. There is also a very interesting sculpture garden there. Well worth a visit. I also took the opportunity to buy gasoline. Since Rhyolite was over the border in Nevada, the gas was cheaper than it was in California. It was also more than a dollar cheaper than the gas in the National Park. So I filled up the tank! I drove back to Furnace Creek and waited for my sister to come in from her ride. Unfortunately, there were strong headwinds that slowed all the cyclist down. She finished in nine and a half hours. Not nearly her best time. (and they usually don't even count you as finishing, if you don't make it in 10 hours) We had a celebratory dinner at the fancy restaurant at the Ranch and went to bed early.

The following day, we had the whole day to sightsee in the park. One of the things that we wanted to see is called The Racetrack. It is an area of the desert where rocks move by themselves. It is a mystery. No one sees them move, but you can see their tracks. Scientists have many theories about how and why the rocks move, but no one is really sure. It is a very remote area of the park and required several miles of off road driving, so we were glad we had the huge SUV with the high clearance and 4 wheel drive. On the way to The Racetrack, we stopped first at Scotty's Castle. This is a mansion that was built by a Chicago Millionaire, Albert Johnson. But it took it's name from "Death Valley Scotty," a local eccentric who was a friend of Albert Johnson.



After touring the grounds of Scotty's Castle we started down the gravel roads towards the Racetrack. Our first stop was Teakettle Junction. This is a little crossroads in the middle of nowhere and folks have brought tea kettles to hang on the signpost. It is very cute and a definite photo opportunity. From Tea Kettle Junction we still had about 10 miles to go to get to Racetrack. It was slow going because the roads are in pretty rough shape. We got down to Racetrack and took a bunch of pictures. There is a huge rock formation that is in the center of this flat dry lake bed. It looks out of place rising up out of the flat earth around it. It is called The Grandstand. Lots of rocks are sprinkled around, but we didn't see any that moved. We did see their tracks and it is easy to imagine that they could slip around on this lake bed when it is wet, just like how your water glass will slide around on a slick tabletop when there is condensation on it.

We had a long slow drive back to Furnace Creek Ranch. Luckily the SUV had Satellite Radio and we had been enjoying music and comedy channels out here in the middle of nowhere. We hit a particularly sharp rock and then I heard this whistling noise. Hmmm what could that be? My sister was driving, and I asked her, do you hear a high pitched whistling? Could we have messed up a tire hitting that rock? Could we be getting a flat? The high-tech SUV had all the fancy onboard computer stuff and I dialed up our tire pressure. Opps, sure enough, the right front tire was at 38, 37, 36...how far can we go on it we wondered! 35, 34, and falling. It hit 25 and then started flashing. I guess we should stop the car now. We were still 20-30 miles away from the nearest paved road. But there had been a lot of traffic on this gravel road, so we were sure that help would arrive. We had left several cars back at the Racetrack parking area and they had to come out sometime. A car coming in towards the Racetrack stopped to see if we needed help. Yes, this rental car did not have an owners manual and we had no idea where the jack was located. We knew where the spare tire was and luckily it was a full size spare. Also, we were not sure where to place the jack even if we found it. There did not seem to be any indication on the underbelly of the SUV in the vicinity of the flat tire.
The car stopped to help us. It contained UFO watchers! I had read that some folks think the Racetrack is a landing strip for UFO's. The UFO folks were having a sort of gathering here in Death Valley this weekend and soon another car stopped to help as well. As they were helping, we noticed that the tire on one of their cars was also looking a little low...they had a flat tire as well! How eerie!

The next morning, we left Death Valley and started the drive back to Sacramento. Our first stop was the Manzanar Internment Camp Monument.



http://www.nps.gov/manz/

I had been fascinated with the Japanese Internment camps ever since I read a book about some Seattle families that had been sent to the internment camps. There was a wonderful museum and information center at the site it is well worth a stop if you are in the area. We also stopped at the Film museum at Lone Pine, CA. It appears that a ton of movies were filmed in this area and they have a terrific museum at Lone Pine again, well worth a stop!

http://www.lonepinefilmhistorymuseum.org/museum.htm

All in all, we had a terrific trip and we got back to Sacramento with no other incidents.

-Amanda

More than just a Trail Angel

Being part of the support team of a thru-hiker is a demanding job. It requires lots of patience and the ability to think on your feet. The role of the support team is more than just providing trail magic. Not everyone is cut out to be a support member. I have supported Ryan for a couple of long distance hikes: The Appalachian Trail in 2003 and the Wonderland Trail in 2006. And now, the Florida Trail in 2008. I am going to share with you the top 5 things I have learned about how to support a thru-hiker.

Number One: Have a flexible schedule. The Thru-hiker has cleared his (or her) calendar and is devoting a sizable chunk of time to hiking the trail of their dreams. In order to lend support, you need to also devote a lot of time to hanging around trail towns and meeting with your hiker at remote trailheads. You will have to reinterpret trail maps to correspond with road maps in order to find these trailheads (not as easy as you might imagine.) You might not have to devote the same amount of time as the thru-hiker, but be prepared to spend a good deal of time near, if not actually on the trail.

Number Two: Have a cooler in your car. Whether you are supporting someone close to where you live or you have rented a car in a far flung locale, have a cooler full of ice available. Stock this cooler with soda (no need for diet items) and other perishable items that the hiker will crave. Candy bars are always a good choice (chocolate tends to melt on the trail and is a definite luxury item) Fruit that they cannot carry easily is also popular. Watermelon! Bananas (they bruise so easily)! They have been drinking water from a Platypus, sometimes yucky water that they have had to filter and purify. They will love an ice cold soda (or beer if it is the end of the day and they are of age)

Number Three: Have comfy accommodations lined up. I made the mistake when I first met Ryan on the AT of booking a room at a Bed and Breakfast. This may sound like a fancy and luxurious choice to many of you. But to the thru-hiker, a B&B without television and with many stairs is not the ideal night spent off the trail. They want what they have been doing without for the past week. They want electricity, hot running water and television, air-conditioning (or heat depending on the season) and ice machines, large king-size beds with multiple pillows and all the rooms on a single floor (or at least an elevator available)! Basically, they want your standard Motel. No need to fancy it up. First Floor accommodations are preferred.

Number Four: Clean Clothes. Thru-hikers have a uniform. They wear it every day and they only have one spare (dry in case they get wet). They have been wearing the same clothes for a week. A week without showers. So they are pretty rank. Everything they have needs to be cleaned and they will need something to wear while that is happening. I always bring Ryan a "nice" outfit that he can wear in public and not look like a homeless person. And I bring him something else he can hike in if he wants to slack-pack. He wore a nice polo shirt and slacks for stealth hiking recently. I also bring along a measurement of detergent and some dryer sheets in zip lock bags. You would not believe the number of Laundromats or Hotel laundry rooms that do not have those nifty vending machines with mini packs of detergent. And don't forget the quarters!

Number Five: Patience. You will spend a lot of time waiting around, either waiting at a trailhead for the thru-hiker to appear, or waiting at home for your thru-hiker to decide where they need to see you next. If you are supporting a thru-hiker by allowing them to "slack-pack," you will need to amuse yourself while they are hiking all day. Letterboxing is a terrific way to fill up your time while your thru-hiker goes from point A to point B. Doing the thru-hiker's laundry is also another great time killer. Have a good book available or maybe a crafty project that you can do in the car, like knitting, cross-stitch or stamp carving. Research the area where you are traveling and see what other tourist sights are available to enjoy while your hiker is hiking. It makes the thru-hiker happy to know that you are enjoying yourself along the trail as much as they are.

These are the top 5 things that make the life of a thru-hiker a little easier. And you have the added bonus of participating in a milestone event in the life of your hiker. Whether you are supporting someone on a 10k walk or a 2000 mile odyssey, it makes you part of the process and you can share in the glory of their accomplishment.

Just call me Business Casual!

Exciting things were happening at my apartment this week. Hours of watching "America's Next Top Model" and "Project Runway" had prepared me well for the evening that I just spent! I got a HUGE box of new uniform pieces for USAirways. I had to try everything on, mixing and matching to make sure that everything fit. I had ordered 32 pieces and only two were missing. (this is actually better odds than most flight attendants that I had talked to!) I am missing a red scarf and a raincoat, but everything else was there. Lots of washing and hemming and trying different knots with the scarves rounded out the week!

This is a new "business casual" uniform. (I ordered 3 Skorts! :-) We have sweater sets and casual jackets and vests that look like what the postal workers wear. Since every time I go to work, there is someone in the crewroom who is about to "go postal," I guess this is appropriate. I think my favorite piece is going to be the "tailored top." If any of you knew me back in my days when I was based in Charlotte, just after the Piedmont/USAirways merger, one of my favorite old uniforms was a beige dress that we had that was actually two pieces: a top and matching skirt. When worn together, they looked like a single piece. The tailored top works this way and you can wear it with the skirt, pants or the skort!

The sweaters aren't so great. The shells are nice, short sleeved or a mock turtle long sleeved, but the outer sweater is yucky. It makes you look like you are wearing a track suit. I got one of each color, (we have a dark blue and a light blue) but I don't like them so much. I will need to wear them for warmth, but I think they look silly. But all in all, there are a lot more "girly" items than the old USAirways stuff. Scarves! Hurrah --although I really really really want to put one in my hair! Which is a big NO NO....It's the CLT F/A in me. I just want to have a pretty bow in my hair. :-) I wonder how long it will take til someone breaks the "scarf in the hair" barrier? And could it be me? Am I brave enough??

Originally, I was very excited about the skorts, but now I am not too sure about them. They have an almost gaucho thing going on about them that might not work too well with my increasingly stout figure. And I wonder how they are going to hold up to washing!

I will need to get pants hemmed, but otherwise, I was very lucky. My items fit me. Lots of flight attendants that I talked to had to send stuff back because the sizes were all wrong. One of the controversial things about the new uniform was the apron. The "America West" way of doing things is to have your name embroidered on the apron. I personally have no problem with this. But lots of flight attendants get a bee in their bonnet about people knowing their name. They think they are going to be the target of stalkers or that it will make people a little too familiar with them. I don't know. Anyway, they have their reasons. When we ordered the uniform, you were required to put something down to be embroidered on your apron. Several flight attendants took this opportunity to send a message to the company. And it wasn't "good job". Many of the things put down on the form were a little "blue"!! I actually saw an America West flight attendant the other day with "Inflight" on her apron. I thought this was very clever. Especially if you don't want your name on the apron. But USAirways was adamant about a name on the apron and if you put something off-color/or even silly on the order form or even left it blank, they are going to default to the first name that is on your employee badge.

We are supposed to start wearing our new uniform pieces on March 3rd! I hope to get some pictures out to everyone with ME in my new uniform soon.