The Strange Attractor

A few months ago, Jen and I managed to catch Britney Spears’ latest tour for her Circus album. I’m not the kind of person who normally would go to a Britney show, but I figured that she was one of those acts that you had to see at least once, just for the experience, and I was not disappointed.

The crowd as mostly teens, it seemed, and all were willing to scream at the top of their lungs the whole time. It was a shame that I had forgotten to grab my earplugs, which were in the car’s glove compartment! But really, the acoustics were fine (especially for the Tacoma Dome).

In any case, the show was a pleasant surprise. I only have about 6 Britney songs in my collection, and she played them all, which made me happy. Her new stuff was just ok and her old stuff was fun to hear again. The stage was elaborate. It reminded me of Peter Gabriel’s 2001(-ish) Growing Up tour – a round stage in the middle of the arena which would drop props & stage elements down from the ceiling. Of course, this was 2009, so the technology had advanced considerably – how about multiple, moving, wrap-around hi-def video displays? And it wasn’t just one stage, it was 3: a main circle with two side circles. Britney and her dancers would run around all over the stage, from number to number, so they really got quite a workout. The band itself (which I didn’t notice at first; for the first song or two I thought it was all pre-recorded) were actually off the stage, next to the ramps that joined the side stages to the main one. In the pictures below you may be able to see the drummer, guitarist, and keyboardist in the lower left of the pictures.

Overall, I thought they used the theater-in-the-round stage a little too much – for most songs they’d face one direction, do a dance move, turn 90 degrees, repeat the move, turn 90 degrees, etc. So basically for any song they only had to learn 1/4 the dance steps because they just repeated everything 4 times.

That said there were some impressive moments, like when Britney (and some other girls) rode the giant art frames around the stage, or the myriad of ways & places that people could pop up and out of the stage, or near the end when the giant ring of fire surrounded the entertainers.

I snapped a few pictures on my crappy old cell phone, none of which do the show justice, but do give you a taste for what it was like. One note: they allowed cameras at this show (we just didn’t know that ahead of time), so I’m disappointed I didn’t have a real camera with me. I would’ve taken many more pictures if I could.

In this shot you can see a giant umbrella. Britney is sitting in the hook of the handle, and it was either about to lift her up into the air, or had just set her down (I don’t remember if I took this shot at the beginning or end of the song):

These last 3 shots show you the show at different times; at first glance there may not appear to be much variety in what was going on on stage, but really, there was. Like I said, a real camera might have done the show justice.

Along the top you can see the moving, wrap-around HD screen (it would raise & lower as necessary at times as well). You certainly do get a sense of the power & amount of lighting that was available for the show.

Overall, it was a fine show, a good time, and I’m glad I went. I can’t say that I’m dying to see the next Britney show, but if the price is right, I may very well give it another shot – but this time with a good camera.

Jen and I went to the game at Qwest Field this past Wednesday for the matchup between the Sounders FC & DC United. Well actually, we always go to the home games, we have season tickets after all.

But we had recently bought a new camera, and decided to go early to check out the stadium before it gets filled with fans, watch the teams warm up, and take some pictures.

Here’s Jen at the stadium, about an hour before game time:

It wasn’t long before the teams took the field to warm up. This shot shows the Sounders FC doing after they first took the field, before they started doing their early warm-up drills. Freddie Ljungberg is juggling a ball at the center circle.

Here’s Kasey Keller, taking warm-up shots.

Eventually they started doing team-wide drills: stretches, running, etc., to get warmed up for the game. Here are a few shots of the SFC players warming up.

And then, out of nowhere, Mike Holmgren (our former Seahawks Coach) was at the sideline, talking to the team & coaching staff. It’s clear from this picture that I’m still getting used to this camera, as I never got a shot of Holmgren cleanly in focus.

And then it was time for the pre-game scrimmage, with the team split into two groups, each trying to keep the ball from the other. This shot as the two Freddie’s in action.

Across the field, the hated(?) DC United was also going through its warm-up routine.

Eventually the players cleared the field and it was time for the pre-game routine: the Golden Scarf ceremony, the precession, the National Anthem, etc.

Here are the teams walking out onto the pitch as part of the precession. If you look back at the pictures, you can see how the crowd is slowly filling in the stands. During the game the announcer declared that there were 29,104 people in attendance (great crowd!). Even a little rain during the game couldn’t dampen the crowd’s spirits.

And then the game was on! This picture was taken during the first half, after the first Sounders FC goal. You can tell because of all the metallic confetti in the air- they have big confetti cannons that fire confetti every time the Sounders FC score. In the second shot (after another Sounders FC goal) you can really see the confetti on the pitch.

Sadly, the Sounders FC tied the game 3-3. It’s frustrating to, yet again, be the best team on the pitch and not be able to come away with a win. Hopefully they’ll turn things around with their game this weekend against the lowly New York Red Bulls. Go Sounders FC!

PS – I’ll give a shout out to my friends at http://soundersboard.blogspot.com/, if you’re a Sounders FC fan and want to read up on the Sounders from a female perspective, go check it out!

Curious how I got here? Read up on the days before.

Having arrived at the Grand Canyon in near-total darkness, it was a pleasant surprise to see what awaited me when I woke up. I woke up very early that morning; partly due to excitement, partly because I never sleep well when camping, and partly because I had failed to tie down one flap on my tent which was blown around by the wind during the night, keeping me from getting deep sleep.

Anyway, the next morning, there was no storm – just beautiful blue sky. According to the timestamp on my camera, it was around 7am when I took this shot of my car in the parking lot; I was the only car there. At 7am you have the Canyon to yourself; by 11am it’s a zoo.

I’m glad I take ‘You are here’ pictures, because they help get your bearings when you’re looking back at your pictures, say 3 years later (I was on the east end of the South Rim).

This picture represents my very first view of the Canyon, as the sun was coming up. I wasn’t at the rim yet, I was still in the parking lot, but I felt that it was important to capture the first time I’d actually seen part of the Grand Canyon.

Yes, the Grand Canyon is every bit as amazing as they say it is. You can see that there was some haze that morning; it wasn’t cloudy or stormy, just hazy. Here are a variety of shots of the Canyon, taken from my first vantage point, near the ‘you are here’ sign.

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I was right next to an old watchtower along the Canyon’s rim. It was build in the early 1930’s and, at the hour I was there, it was closed. I didn’t get to go in, but I did get a few pictures of it:

It’s hard to get the true scope & size of the Grand Canyon to come across in a picture, but I tried. Notice how far even the closest cliffs are – the the ones past it are miles behind.

After a while along the South Rim near the Watchtower, I drove west towards the main visitor’s center. This view from the South Rim shows the Colorado River; the little bit of the river that you can see is part of a mile-long rapid. It’s hard, from this distance, to get a sense of the power of the water. Early explorers reportedly ported their boats around this rapid, but I’m sure modern-day thrill-seekers look forward to traversing the river at this point.

I decided to try and get a few pictures of my car at one point; I figured that it was as picturesque a setting as I was going to find. I don’t think they turned out very well, but they’re not bad…

Nearby there was a short walk you could take to see some of the local ruins. I hadn’t really thought about the indigenous people of the area, but it was interesting to see the remnants of some of their buildings.

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I won’t bore you with more pictures of the Canyon, but trust me, I have many, many more. If you are ever over at my house and are curious, ask to see all my Grand Canyon pictures. It’ll be one of those slideshows that people always joke about (“Let us show you our pictures from our vacation…”) Most I took just in case I was able to capture a ‘perfect’ shot, which I don’t think I ever got, but even now it’s amazing to see what it’s like. The Grand Canyon really is mind-bogglingly big, and beautiful. It’s not all arid, as this shot of one edge of the Canyon shows.

Around 9am (so the timestamp on the picture claims), I took pictures of the growing throngs of people. The crowds would get much, much worse as the day went on.

Taking pictures from the edge really made me want to go down into the Canyon. In this picture, you’ll see a light line near mid-frame that stretches across one of the plateaus. That’s a road/trail you can take. However, it’s not as easy as just walking down into the Grand Canyon for day hike, as I soon found out…

Oh… first, here’s a picture of me at the rim:

Anyway, first of all, anyone can in fact go down into the Grand Canyon, you just can’t stay the night without a permit. Permits are given out (in a lottery?) a season or two ahead of time; if you want to go into the Canyon for a camping trip, you have to plan about 9 months or a year in advance. Groups larger than 6 or 8 are restricted to certain areas & campsites. Only small groups can ‘wander freely’ throughout the Canyon.

Further, it’s already hot there; it was near 100 degrees when I was there in the middle of summer (remember, it was July 30th 2006 when I was there). At the top of every trailhead that descends into the canyon, they have a sign posted about the dangers below. For one, it gets warmer the further you go down. If it’s 100 at the rim, it’s probably 110 or 120 at the bottom. They also say it takes twice as long to get out as it does in (since it’s easier to head down than up). Many people misjudge that, and discover they’re not ready for a 2 hour climb after a 1 hour descent. The signs talk about the dangers of dehydration in the heat too. They had one particularly sad story about a young woman (in her mid-20’s) who’d died in the Canyon in 2004: she had gotten sunstroke & died of dehydration and the key point was that she had run the New York Marathon a few months before, so all you overweight non-athletic types who think the GC is gonna be easy, be prepared. Her family had generously donated some pictures & information about the young woman as a warning to others who might think they might try the same thing. In general, 99% of the tourists at the GC were dressed, well, like tourists. They had no water and shoes unfit for a hike.

Personally, I ended up taking a 6-mile hike along the rim. A few other people tried it too, but I think most people gave up partway through. The trail was at times very close to the edge, and I could see why they don’t allow people to camp just anywhere near the Canyon; it’s a long way down and they’d probably lose a camper a night because they just couldn’t see how close it was, and how far it was to fall.

Looking at my notes from the trip, I made a point that I had taken ~200 pictures by noon. I also noted that good music seemed to be following me: they were playing New Order’s “Low-Life” album in the General Store, and Bowie’s “Golden Years” was playing when I went to the local cafeteria.

Around mid-day I was getting tired of all the people. Gone were the unobstructed views of the Canyon, there were people everywhere now. Lots of unhappy kids, their moods made worse by the hot weather. As a result, I decided to head to the North Rim. It was a few hour’s drive away, reportedly was much cooler, and didn’t draw as many tourists. Sounded perfect.

Here’s one final picture: a stitched-together panoramic shot I took while near the east end of the South Rim (warning: it’s big)

[edit- Ok well, it was supposed to be a big image, but Spaces made it this tiny little thing instead, and refuses to let me upload a full-size picture. Oh, well.]

Part 2 will show my experience in getting to and exploring the North Rim.

Don’t forget to read up on the previous days of my 2006 road trip, if you haven’t already.

The morning started in an interesting way: a shower. Yes, this was one of the places I’d stopped on with actual shower services, so after a few days of dusty and hot driving, it was time to get clean. I only talk about this because this was the morning that I got to shower with frogs. As I made my way into the men’s shower, I realized that the floor was covered in tiny little frogs. I’m talking about those frogs that aren’t much bigger than a quarter. I think they liked the shower area because it was cool and occasionally wet. I like frogs, and I had no problem showering with them, but I can imagine anyone who doesn’t like frogs might just have turned around and left. However they did make it a challenge to shower, because every time I moved my feet I had to make sure that I didn’t step on any of them. I also had made a note in my journal that the showerhead in the shower was the worst design I’d ever seen: it sprayed water out 360 degrees, but none actually forward/down. It took a while to get clean but it was worth it due to the company. For what it’s worth, frogs don’t like to have water sprayed on them directly.

After getting clean and packing up I had one goal in mind: get to the Grand Canyon. As I’d mentioned the day before, I was going to swing through Roswell NM and since I was already near Texas, I wanted to get at least a feel for the state.

So, I hit the road (early; about 9am) and started driving. I didn’t get far before I had a showdown with a cow:

I will say that I saw the most wildlife this day: (the afore-mentioned) frogs, snakes, a road runner, this and other cows, some sort of red headed/breasted hawk, a coyote, rabbits, and a fox. I should also mention that Arizona has a lot of cops on the roads: I saw more cops in the first 15 minutes in AZ than all of KS & OK combined (pig joke implied).

Here is a view of the western panhandle of OK, a short distance down the road from my campsite the night before:

I thought the countryside here was amazing & beautiful.

Anyway, while in Texas, I headed south to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, near Amarillo. Here’s my blurry shot of the ‘Welcome to Texas’ sign, which was remarkably understated – and with no bullet holes! I love the “Drive friendly – the Texas way” underprint. Also note that Texas is the “Proud home of President George W. Bush.”

However, it’s the sign for Amarillo that really made me feel like I was in Texas. Nowhere else would they use cowboy boots for the ‘L’s in their sign:

Palo Duro Canyon State Park is just what it sounds like – a big canyon that’s a park. It’s really big. Texas-sized big. I was glad I got to see Palo Duro before I saw the Grand Canyon too – because the Grand Canyon made Palo Duro look tiny, which it wasn’t.

Here are a few shots looking into Palo Duro from the rim:

And here’s one of those “what you’re looking at” maps, with matching photograph.

Once inside, there were a lot of things to see. One thing I didn’t expect were constant flash-flood warning signs. They even had metered flood signs so you could tell how deep the water was (to prevent you from driving through it, perhaps). And, there were quite a few of them.

Fortunately, as you can see, there were no floods that day. Just sunny skies and open roads.

Driving in those conditions makes me happy.

You know that picture of the TT in a parking lot in my intro post? That was taken here in Palo Duro. But Palo Duro was just a side excursion: I had a long way to go to get into AZ on schedule. So that was it for Texas. I drove west into NM.

Somehow I missed the ‘welcome to New Mexico’ sign, bummer. It didn’t take long to get to Roswell. Look how commercialized the whole alien phenomenon has become:

(Notice the big alien head under the Wal Mart sign). As it turns out, Roswell is a really ugly town with nothing going for it. It made me think of a less-interesting version of Renton. I think that all those movies you see where Roswell looks like some dusty western town are all fabrications because the real Roswell is too depressing. I didn’t stay long. I did see one beautiful thing in Roswell: their town hall (I think that’s what it is) was nice:

I don’t dwell on some of the mundane details of my trips; where I stopped for gas, what I ate or where I ate it, etc., but I’m pretty sure I did none of these things in Roswell. I just left immediately.

That’s when it hit me: I had a long way to go to get to the Grand Canyon that day. A looong way. So most of the rest of my day was just me behind the wheel, cruising down side highways and taking pictures on the fly.

Here’s the first ‘on the road’ picture I took, heading west from Roswell towards AZ.

Here are a series of pictures from this part of the drive. I like them because most of them show amazing landscapes and interesting storms clouds, and they also convey the fact that there really isn’t much out here. There’s a definite feeling of isolation out on the plains. You’ll notice that the sky got darker and darker throughout the day (and no, smartass, it wasn’t because the sun was going down).

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Suddenly, the clouds broke, and it was blue skies again!

But eventually the sun would go down…

… but not before I made it to Arizona. This was about 6 hours after I had left Roswell. And I still had a few hours ahead of me.

Ultimately, I made the last bit of the trip by headlights. At this point I just drove along Highway 40 (because it was direct, and fast). I ended up arriving at the Grand Canyon at night, during a dry lightning storm. I have to tell you, it’s a pretty amazing way to see the Grand Canyon for the first time – just in flashes, for a second, you could see the countryside around you – then it was gone. The storms probably lastly 45 minutes, and were gone by the time I turned north into the Canyon from Flagstaff.

When I arrived at the park entrance, the rangers were gone – it was 11:30pm. I found an open campsite and set up my camp by headlamp. From what I could see around me, the place was fairly full.

I was able to sleep peacefully, and thankfully woke up early that morning, which allowed me to get to see sunrise at the Grand Canyon! But those pictures are for the next day…

My wife has been running a cat sitting business for a few months now, but it’s really started to take off lately. If you have cats and need a sitter, or know someone with cats, check out her web site: http://www.TheCatsWillPlay.com.

The site has information about her rates, services, locations served, even a store to buy cat care products!

Don’t forget to read up on Day 4 if you haven’t already.

Day 5 marked the day I would have to turn around in order to make the conference on time, so I knew I’d want to make an effort to get into Kansas just so I could say I did :) I wasn’t expecting to either a) see anything interesting in Kansas, or b) go too far into the state – I just wanted to cross the state line.

Looking at my map, I figured I could cruise out of SE Colorado into SW Kansas, go as far east as possible, then turn south to Oklahoma’s panhandle. You have to remember that mid-western states are large, so this would mean I’d have to cover a lot of distance in one day. I looked for points of interest, but there really weren’t any. So I resigned to making Day 5 just a travel day for me – to see how far I could make it, and enjoy the views along the way.

Because I don’t have a lot of stories from this day, I guess I’ll cover Day 5 in more of a photo diary format.

First, I quickly left the Rocky Mountains behind. This picture is the last picture I took that shows any mountainous terrains. I may also have taken it because of the trailer at the bottom. I noticed that more and more people were living in mobile homes/trailers in this part of the country.

SE Colorado soon flattened out considerably. Gone are the windy mountain roads. This shot shows the flatlands that I’d soon be spending the day in.

I love this picture. This is along the road, near the Colorado / Kansas border.

Then… welcome to Kansas!

This picture shows the grain-producing farmlands along the way. Although the skies were blue, they would soon turn for the worse. In fact you can see the long shadows start to cover the ground to the right of this picture.

These next 3 pictures, taken over the next hour, show how the skies threatened rain. The rain never came, not while I was driving through. In the 3rd picture, I was on a dirt road again. Fortunately this journey on gravel was short-lived, and there were no fires or problems.

It was mid-day when I hit the eastern-most point of my trip: Moscow, Kansas. You can see from these two pictures as I entered town that it was windy. I wondered if a tornado was brewing. Moscow is proud of their 1978 state football championship team. Of course, I was in Kansas, and they love themselves some football.

I stopped at the local gas station to fill up and plan out the next stage of my trip. I knew I had to turn back west towards Nevada, but I didn’t want to retrace my steps, so I planned a route that headed south into OK. But first, I got a drink, fueled my car, and took some pictures of beautiful downtown Moscow. I wanted to take a shot of the bugs on my car and, apparently, the cost of gas.

My destination was Black Mesa State park in western Oklahoma. It was, as it turns out, the only state park in western OK. It was also a considerable distance west.

I headed out under clouded skies. I like this picture of the road in Kansas – great lighting from the sky.

And shortly afterwards, Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma!!

Unbelievably, somehow, my path took me through Sturgis, OK, the site of the annual Harley-Davidson gathering. I was of course not there for that event (or I probably wouldn’t have been able to find a clear road). As it turns out, I have absolutely no pictures or memory of anything in Sturgis. I think I must have driven through it in a daze, and simply forgot I was going to get out and take pictures. Whatever, other than a few random pictures of the threatening sky, I have no pictures of most of Oklahoma until I was near the state park later that day.

I found myself on dirt roads again for a short while, but this was by choice: I wanted to get off the local roads and explore the country a little bit. These pictures show the area fairly well, and I was also happy to see that the weather was once again dry and warm here. Note: it was somewhere in here that I got my TT up to its 137MPH (limited) maximum speed.

By late afternoon, I’d made it to the state park. It had some rough campsites available, one of which I quickly grabbed, then I set out for a hike through the park. Turns out there was a lot to see. Spot the cattle, deer, rabbit, petrified wood and teepee!

I found it ironic that you couldn’t actually see any of the famed black mesas from the state park campground. I captured a few more pictures of the wilderness that evening:

These two final pictures (which are actually from the next morning) show both my TT parked under a tree, and my campsite.

While I was sitting out enjoying the evening, I had a few people wander over to talk about my car. I remember one boy in particular was particularly excited about the car, and while the kid checked it out, his dad and I discussed some of the local roads & areas of interest. It was fun spending time with the locals – most of the people at the campground were somewhat local and all were friendly and more than happy to spend some time chatting.

As was my usual custom, I spent part of the evening figuring out my route for the next day. I decided to head down into Texas, then head over to Roswell, NM. Obviously, everyone’s heard a lot about Roswell, so I figured I’d check the town out while I was in that part of the country. I figured after that I’d spend a day or two at the Grand Canyon, then Lake Havasu, then hit Vegas for the conference.