eDoug » Travels

Heading West to find fame and fortune…mostly fortune

admin — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:21:46 +0000

It’s getting close to Mud season here in Vail when the mountain is melting and the locals ‘evacuate’ to Moab and other destinations. It’s a quiet and creepy place to live. So in that vain I am heading out early with a friend out to some western destinations that I have been wanting to see for the first time as well as some favorites. Some notable locations:

Moab (Arches National Park)
Mesa Verde (Pueblo Ruins)
Las Vegas (Financial Ruins…)
Grand Canyon
Bryce Canyon
San Diego
San Francisco
Whatever else looks cool

I’ll be heading out of Vail from April 13-22 so if I know you and you want to get some late season skiing in you are welcome to stay at my apartment. I’ll be posting pictures as the vacation proceeds. I am also going to be meeting my friend Mary in Vegas on April 15th for her birthday.

Run Saicho, Run!

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:55:12 +0000

I was watching a great new movie called “The Distance of Truth” featuring Ferg Hawkes epic story of trying to win the Badwater Ultramarathon held each year at Death Valley. While watching it they made reference to a sect of Monks that run 1000 marathons. After a few googles I found out they are Japanese Monks are from the Tendai sect of Buddhism. They run enormous distances every day for 100′s of days straight. The first year they run 18 miles a day for 100 days. I think I could do that. Well maybe for a few weeks. hmmm…

Check out this documentary.

Among the trees

admin — Fri, 28 May 2010 06:57:30 +0000

I was in California recently and while I travelled and stayed at a Hostel for the first week at the H&H hostel on Hollywood blvd, I found the really good stuff way up north. My friend Courtney (who blogs here) and I (oh…and Isabel the dog) took a 2 day road trip to go see some seals and more importantly the Sequioa national forest which is truly one of the greatest places I have ever been.

To the point. Here are my photos from California.

I also made some cool HDR Photos from my travels. Check these out:

Getting "High" at Vail.

admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:26:50 +0000

Well, Not literally but at 8300′ everything is a little harder.

If you haven’t figured out yet I have been living at Vail since early January.

Upon arrival I really didn’t know anyone. I rented a room from my friend Denise who lived in East Vail. Getting my internet working and trying to finish projects was tricky with the unreliable internet.

I settled in finally and skied every other day or so. High altitude drinking was a problem because I wasn’t yet acclimated and I was having the worst hangovers of my life.

I was lacking friends. Denise was cool but we have quite different personalities. She had a volleyball team that played every wednesday so I joined in on that. We lost every game but the good thing was that I was able to recruit enough players to start a soccer team in Edwards.

The facility in Edwards at the WECMRD building is amazing. Probably the nicest facility I have ever played upon.

We were a rag-tag band of Lift operators at Beavercreek and some professionals here and there. Again, the Volleyball curse was still intact and we lost every game. It’s a building season I tell them.

Well, my time was coming up with my current roommate. I rented it for 1 month and she had another person coming in after me. So I had to move. Luckily scanning the Vail Daily I was able to find a cheap, simple apartment at the Vail Racquet Club. They have an amazing fitness facility. Heated lap pool, 2 hot tubs and a full fitness center. All inclusive. They also have tennis courts which I’ll check out in the summer.
So I signed a lease until May.

I also started a Meetup.com group called Vail Adventurers. We have 26 members now. As the temps get higher we’ll be doing some cool stuff.

So I had no furniture and an empty apartment. So… I had to start rebuilding. Internet and Cable installed. No TV yet but my laptop has Netflix so that’s solved. I bought a nice air mattress at Walmart and got some basic living necessities. I needed some furniture. I bought a nice sectional at American Furniture Warehouse (the Ikea of the Valley) and got a decent TV at Costco.

Amazon Prime is something everyone should have. I ordered so much stuff on Amazon with Free shipping that I must have cost them a fortune in shipping. 150lb bed frame, bar chairs, etc. I finally have a nice bachelor pad. Here are some photos.

Now it’s april. Beavercreek closed on the 11th and all my soccer team save 1 or 2 people are gone to whatever miserable state they live now.

Oh. Lindsey Vonn of Olympic fame calls Vail home too. Her homecoming was a big deal.

Soccer season over. I have wednesday Karaoke nights now that I go to which is a blast. Talking with a guy named Sandman who runs them about setting up a comedy night. He want’s to do Improv comedy. Not my bag but we’ll see how it goes.

Now that all of the friends that I have made are now gone I have to restart again. I am putting together a new team soon. I have a few friends that I have made at Karaoke. I guess it’s the nature of the transient seasonal nature of the place.

I am also training for a 10k soon which is marketed as the “Hardest 10k” in the country. This fact because it occurs mostly above 9000′. Running here is much much harder than sea-level. I can barely crank out a 5k without some suffering.

More updates coming soon. Here are some flickr photos to check out.

Go West young man

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 05:06:31 +0000

I am heading out West. Taking time to visit friends in Ohio & Wisconsin. I am driving my heavily modified Discovery II (Lovingly known as Clive) and I am still getting around 11mpg which is brutal on the budget.

I still think there is something wrong with the truck. I thought the Fuel pump was going bad but I don’t have classic fuel pump failure issues such as issues with cold starts, etc… The culprit may be that the Induction service was done after my new plugs were installed which would pretty much ruin the new plugs. I hope the mechanics are not that stupid but you never know.

I have some engine weakness when climing hills. Not a good thing when I am going to be driving through the rockies. Given that Clive has made this trip before in much worse shape I have confidence I’ll make it to Colorado where I can afford to have it sitting in the shop for a week or two getting fixed.

Wish this post had more “dreaming of the west” quality instead of the mechanical shop talk. More to come!

The vail bus system is large and removes the need for personal transportation.

I am at my friend Chris and Anjali’s home where they have kindly put me up for the night.