Moab, mid May.

Met up with old friends from Idaho in Moab last weekend. We found a campsite just north of the White Rim section of Canyonlands Natl Park. The view sucked.

They were rocking the "Brown Palace", we had the fortress of solitude (van). The previous evening, we had crashed the "Synchro Solstice" vanagon rally held at the Lone Cone group campground out on 313, Northwest of Moab. The FOS is an AWD Chevy Express cargo van, and we were shunned as Far-ners. I even tried to tell my joke about the FOS actually being our old 21-window Type-II microbus, but no love here for the air-cooled oldies. The punch line ran - "She'll never be a van again". Ho Ho! This was met with scorn. At one point, I needed to warm up, and went over to the group fire. The talk was of transmissions. I fled quickly. Fun in the Sun!

I think he liked it!!

IDAHO! - Payette River Float!

A quick run up to Idao to visit old friends for Erica's birthday! We managed a repeat of last year's epic float on the north fork of the mighty Payette river.

LO! and BEHOLD! BIG WATER!

another? why not!?!

Yaaayyyyy!

Master of the technique.

Better let Jayme drive~!

maxin' and relaxin'

Oregon & Idaho Road Trip

Wow! We just got back from the best road trip we have had in a long time! The pacific northwest is one of my favorite places in the country, and it certainly delivered on this trip. We started by burning rubber from D-town to somewhere in the Udaho area (South of Pocatello) last Wednesday night after work, and we're on to the beach past Portland by Thursday afternoon. Erica claims that the water was warm enough to swim in. Yeah - and so was the Monterrey Bay - Aye!

We stayed on the coast Thursday night and watched the sunset over dinner. Friday, we headed into the coastal hills for a pre-game safety meeting in the woods of the coastal range. It was the perfect place to gather up some forest energy and get our minds set to descend into the Horning's campground. The van was super happy up there, and this is it crouching like a Puma in the old growth forest.

Much of the magick that we recalled from the previous visits to this place was still here. Oregon has the finest freaks around, and they were here in force. Funny, the Full Moon Dream Dance and the String Cheese shows all happened 8-9 years ago, and there were a BUNCH of 8 & 9 yr olds running around. Hmmmmm. This is Greensky Bluegrass tuning up and preparing to kick some ass.

The show was AWESOME - complete with a Space Station Fly-By at 10:57pm on Saturday, well in to the second set of Yonder. The band freaked! It was super cool. After Sunday's sets we bailed and camped over north of Hood River. This is Mt. Hood looking good in the morning sunshine!

This guy feels good about hood!

After that it was on to Donneley, ID, and a birthday party for Erica. The cake had huckleberry filling. It was fantastic. Jayme & Colin have a sweeeeet place up there. Donneley / Macall is one of the few aeras I have seen that can throw down with Durango. Idaho may just wail on Colorado in terms of beauty augmented by lack of people. We're definitely headed back, so I'll keep you posted.

Colin recently picked up this sweet Van. I always knew they were van-people! He's got a Suby 2.2L in the back with custom wheels and a slew of other sweet upgrades. This thing is sick. I can't wait to hit the road with them! We had so much fun up there. We hit the North Fork of the Payette for a day of rafting, ate a bunch of good food, drank beer from the new Salmon River Brewery, and generally had a blast. Woooooo - hooooooo! Summer !!!!