Miah's Travels

Quick update on trip

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:19:00 +0000

Wow, I have been home for almost two months now. I just wanted to get up a rundown of the parts of the trip that I never got around to blogging about. So my idea was to post a timeline and map of the trip.
Timeline:
January 5th - February 14th (blogged about) : Cleveland to San Diego
Feb. 14 - Feb. 20 : Continued in San Diego
Feb. 20 - Feb. 22 : Los Angeles
Feb. 22 - Feb. 24 : Route 1
Feb. 24 - Feb. 26 : San Francisco
Feb. 26 - March 1 : Lake Tahoe
March 1 - March 8 : San Francisco
March 9 - March 10 : Redwood Forest
March 10 - March 14 : Portland
March 14 - March 21 : Seattle
March 21 - March 23 : Moscow, ID
March 23 - March 24 : Boise
March 24 - March 26 : Salt Lake City
March 26 - March 27 : Zion National Park
March 27 - April 1 : Las Vegas
April 1 - April 7 : Grand Canyon National Park
April 7 - April 10 : Las Vegas
April 10 - April 11 : Grand Junction, CO
April 11 - April 13 : Boulder
April 13 - April 14 : Mount Rushmore & Rapid City, SD
April 14 - April 16 : Minneapolis
April 16 - April 18 : Milwaulkee
April 18 - April 20 : Chicago
April 20 : Back in Cleveland

A Grand week out

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 04:09:00 +0000

This coming week, I am going to be hiking the Grand Canyon with Mike D, Jill and her Dad. While there, I hope to spend some down time catching up on my posts with a pen and notebook. If this actually happens, I will then transfer it to the computer after we are back.

Two days that went unphotographed

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 04:08:00 +0000

Wednesday Feb. 14th-
I woke up at the hotel after Liz and Jamie had left... leaving me to check out of the room. Liz had conference stuff to do and Jamie was flying out that morning. I had made plans to meet up with Natasha to go run that morning. I made my way over to her place and she suggested running 6 miles down at/on Coronado. I said sure, actually thinking "man, I have only been running 5k each time I go out, I am going to embarrass myself out there". We got down there and parked near the Hotel del Coronado. We started running one way on the beach, got stopped by some guard as if the rest of the beach was military property and then we turned around and started running the other way on the beach until we hit a fence that stopped us from entering another part of the beach that belonged to the military. Our run was at a good pace and the scenery was awesome. We finished by running a bit on the street and by the time we were done my Nike+ said we ran near 4.5 miles, not bad and I did not have to embarrass myself. We got back to her place, showered and had some Wahoo's fish tacos for lunch.

Later that day I got ahold of Liz by cell and we attempted to make some plans for our Valentines day evening together. I realized that any place that might serve a nice dinner would probably be quite busy. So I suggested cheap fast food and a movie. Liz countered my suggestion with decent fast food and a movie. We eventually got cheap pizza and saw Pan's Labyrinth. The movie was quite strange and more gruesome than necessary, but I am not complaining.

I have got to say, Tuesday I started to feel a bit under the weather again. Another sore throat and sinus pain. It would continue through the weekend.

Thursday Feb. 15th-
Not feeling on top of my game, I just hung around Bob's through the afternoon. I got ahold of Liz later in the day. We made plans for me to pick her up after returning her car at the airport and then grab some dinner before picking up Kevin (Deuco) back at the airport. After picking up Liz, we drove around Point Loma looking for a place to get some grub. We eventually drove out a peninsula and found a few hotels with restaurants attached. Being that we were both dressed down, with hoodies and jeans, I was skeptical of our ability to get through the door of any of these restaurants. Through Liz's convincing, I stopped at a place I believe was called Humphrey's by the bay... we were seated there and the service was very good. We had some great food and shared a bottle of wine. It was our Valentines dinner a day late. Afterwards, we made our way back to the airport and picked up Deuco who drove us back to his parents house. After meeting his rents and chilling for a while talking with Liz, Kevin and his sister Megan I eventually drove the 45 minutes back to Bob's place.

Hangin' with Balboa

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 18:28:00 +0000

Monday Feb. 12th-
I had heard about a nice disc golf course from Wernet that I wanted to go check out. It was down in Balboa park, so I made the 30 minute drive down there. I had checked out their website and I knew that it was going to cost $2.50 to play, which is a reasonable fee for a decent course. When I got there, I was asked to pay $3... I asked if it was a holiday and the guy said that it was. I guess even though it was not Presidents Day, Lincoln's birthday is considered a holiday to them. The course was nice, each hole had 3 to 6 different pin positions. This is nice for people who play the course regularly as the difficulty and playability of the holes change weekly.

After disc golf I went back to Bob's. We met up with Dave that evening to have a going away dinner for him. He was heading out on ship for a while so we had some mexican food and chilled on the beach for a bit. We got back to Bob's and he got busy packing his stuff because he was going to be spending the rest of the week in the field at Camp Pendleton.

Tuesday Feb. 13th-
Bob had left for the field real early in the morning, he would not be back around until Friday. Sandra left for LA for a couple of days, so it was just me at the apartment for a while. One strange thing about that morning was that only one wall of outlets were working in the apartment with the one for the fridge not being one of them. I called Bob and left a message on his voicemail so he could let his landlord know.

Liz (from Texas) was in town for a conference and she brought her friend Jamie so that they would be able to take care of some wedding stuff while in town as well. We planned on meeting up at the San Diego Zoo later in the afternoon after they had taken care of their business for the day. So it was back to Balboa Park for me, being that the zoo was located there as well. I got there around 2pm, had some lunch and waited around for and hour until I met up with Liz and Jamie by the orangutans at 3pm. The park closed at 4pm but the grounds closed at 5pm... which means they don't allow anyone in after 4pm but the guests can stay until 5pm. So with that we had 2 hours to enjoy as much of the park as we could. For the first part there were a bunch of birds, but then we got to the bears and then the koalas. From there we saw the elephants and rhinoceroses. We walked up a hill and saw the giraffes which seemed to be an arms length away, with no fence in between them and the guests, but just a small ditch. The other exciting animals we saw were the hippopotamus, we were able to see them in their tank right against the glass. These animals are quite huge and graceful under water at the same time. By that time we needed to head for the exit. One thing I really enjoyed about the zoo is the wooded environment that it is located in. Where the Cleveland zoo seems very open and spacious, the SD Zoo was jungle like while still being rather large and providing plenty of space for the animals.

After the zoo, it was about time for sunset and the girls were interested in hitting a beach. with my little knowledge of the SD, I suggested going to sunset cliffs which we were not too far from. Unfortunately, that time of the day was not the best to be traveling across the city and by the time we got there, there was barely much of a sunset for us the view. After that we went up to La Jolla and got some thai food for dinner, it was yummy. After that we split ways with them going back to their hotel and me driving back to Bob's. Not having any plans I drove up the coast instead of the highway just to enjoy the drive. I went to the local coffee shop in Carlsbad and got some chai tea. When I got back to Bob's there was no electricity in the apartment complex at all. There was a note on the door that said the electricity would be back by 6pm, but the fact that it was 10pm did not make me fell good about those prospects. I called Liz and they said I should spend the night at the hotel with them. By the time I got the Liz was passed out and Jamie was nearly there as well.

Chillin' in SD

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 22:16:00 +0000

Friday, Bob went to get his friend Sandra from the airport after leaving me at Natasha's. A group of us were going to get some sushi and sake bombs at a place in Carlsbad. Emily was there with her boyfriend along with Frank and his roommate Aaron. A few others met up with us and it turned out to be a blast. The sake bombs were a first for me and they were not as bad as I had expected. Bob and Sandra eventually met up with us and went dancing shortly afterwards. We all had a great time that night.

Saturday Sandra, Bob and I drove out to the Wild Animal Park and met up with Frank. The four of us walked around the park checking out the gorillas, tigers, lions, flamingos, and elephants. All of the animals at the park seemed to have plenty of land to run around on... it seemed as though they were all pretty well taken care of. It was a good time hanging out with the animals. Afterwards we got some Chinese for lunch and went back to Bob's. Once there we hit the beach with a disc and threw around for a while. That evening we went to downtown SD with the plan of going to some fancy club... sports coat required type of places. I have got to say that I have never owned a blazer and never been to a place that required one. Bob's buddy Dave had a couple that Bob and I were going to borrow, we were meeting up with him at a hotel that he had gotten that evening so that we could just stay down there. As it turned out, we got going a bit latter that we had planned and ditched the idea of the fancy nightclub. Frank and Aaron met up with us and we made our way to a place in the gas lamp district that had an 80's band. We met some traveling nurses there, but no one managed to prosper from it. Dave, Bob, Sandra and myself stayed at the hotel that night while Frank and Aaron went home.

Sunday we went and drove around Point Loma and checked out Sunset Cliffs. From there we went to Pipes Cafe to pick up brunch, which we took back to Bob's. Later that day Bob went to get a haircut and while at the barbers I decided to join in on the fun and get my hairs cut as well. Up to that point I had been letting my hair go crazy for a while and had not shaved for about two months. All of the guys there were Marines and and they all were giving me some interesting looks, kinda like "who is this guy with his hippy style in our barbershop". From there we went to Target where I got some clippers to trim my facial hair and then went to Trader Joe's to get some stuff for dinner. Dave came over for dinner and I cooked some pad thai and overcooked some edamame.

Back on track (happy 311 day)

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 14:40:00 +0000

Thursday Feb 8th, I went down to Point Loma for a seafood lunch. It was fried and good. Afterwards I drove the three miles over to Sunset Cliffs to take some photos and enjoy the view of the Pacific. Bob and I met up after he was done with work and went climbing at the rock gym out near Vista, just a bit east of his place. The place was empty when we got there and the two guys working there were cleaning some of the holds and changing a few of the routes. I don't think it affected my enjoyment of climbing. I managed to find some easy routes and challenged myself on a few, It was quite a workout. Afterwards we went home for dinner before going over to Natasha's. She is a friend of Bob and Frank, who happened to be there as well along with her roommate Emily. So even though they told us they would have eaten by the time we showed up, they had not and even had a plate full of food waiting for us to share... how generous. We sat around and talked for a while and listened to Frand read aloud from some dude's blog. It was a hoot, with him doing voices for the different people. That night Bob drove the Prius home and it hit 5000 miles since leaving Cleveland. That was our Thursday.

As I am keeping rather busy while visiting people, I keep on slacking on the blog. I constantly am thinking to myself that if I could only work on the blog while driving, I would be able to get a bunch done while I have nothing else going on. Having driven the past two days from San Francisco to Portland, through the Red Wood Forest, I might have come up with a solution... I have the ability to record to my iPod. So, I have vocally expressed my thoughts through the end of San Diego and have them waiting on my iPod to get transcribed. Hopefully I can find the time while here in Portland to get those taken care of.

Forte

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 19:19:00 +0000

Well, it is not writing... I have to admit I was sick with a cough/sore throat twice while in San Diego. That on top of being busy doing stuff is what got me so behind on this blog. I wanted to start writing about the day after the Late Late Show, but I just can't recall what happened that day. I think I started feeling a bit better that day and I went for a 5k run. Bob came home from work, we ate some sort of dinner. Went to the coffee shop to play around on the internet and we made it home so I could watch Lost. Nothing too exciting.

For those interested, this past week I spent a few days with my cousin Lisa and her husband Conrad in Truckee, CA near Tahoe. I am now in San Fran hanging out with Lamarca.

More on SD soon.

Ferguson gets booted from Bunny party

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 04:17:00 +0000

Thats right, I have turned this ship around and this blog will from now on be a tabloid.

OK, not really. Feb 6th the Tuesday after the Super Bowl, I made a day trip up to Los Angeles. I had gotten a ticket online to see a taping of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. By the time I got up to LA, I had just under an hour to get to CBS studios. I found some parking at The Grove, a Legacy Village type of shopping center but a bit more upscale. The shopping center is adjacent to the studio property, so I felt as though I could get a nice Hollywood lunch... FYI the Chipotle tastes just the same in the City of Angels. I got to the studio and had to wait about 10 minutes outside of the gate until we were lined up and sorted between 6 benches, I got on the second. That would be the order we were paraded into the building. After 20 minutes of waiting on the benches, our warmup act showed up. He is a comedian that helps the near 100 of us get into the mood of clapping and laughing. He even told us that we were not audience members but "Show Enhancers". He also let us know that it is alright and almost required that we laugh at jokes even if they were not funny or even of questionable taste. I had easily been there for over an hour before we went inside. Once inside there was a bit more waiting and then we were finally seated, not that we could just sit anywhere we wanted... there was a lady putting groups of people where she felt they would best fit in the audience. Somehow I got seated directly in the front row! We sat around for a bit longer, maybe close to 2 hours had gone by since first arriving to CBS until Craig first came out. This was their first show back in LA since the Super Bowl. In his monologue, Craig mentioned that he made the headlines by getting in an argument at the Playboy party in Miami. On the cameras were off, he approached the audience and said that the headline was true. He said he had been really busy and people at Playboy kept on calling to try to get him to come to the party, he kept on telling them he was busy and then he finally gave in and made his way over to the party. Once there, Craig was stopped at the door and he was told that his name was not on the guest list. That was when he told them to "Fuck off". Those were the words (or close enough to) that came out of his mouth while I was sitting in the audience no less than 10 feet away from him. The guests on the show were:
Oscar Nominated Peter O'Toole, Mena Suvari, Author Lawrence Block, and The Naked Trucker and T-Bones
Looking at websites to confirm this, it appears as though on air Gloria Estefan replaced Peter O'Toole in the lineup that evening. Peter appears to have aired a week later, that seems interesting. I had a really great time participating in the taping. Once I finally left the studios, I had spent nearly 4 hours there.

I wanted to finish off my evening by going to a concert while up in the LA area. I had found a punk show at the House of Blues in Anaheim that evening. Pennywise being opened by the legendary group the Circle Jerks. The HOB was located on the Disney property and after half an hour of driving around not realizing that fact, I finally parked in the Disney lot and headed to the venue. Once there, the tickets had been sold out and I had not been smart enough to reserve mine online. So I quickly exited the Disney property.

By this time it was around 8pm and I had still not eaten dinner. I pulled out the good ol' $40 a Day book and looked for something nearby. I found a place in Laguna Beach which was not directly on the way home but would make for a lovely drive. I got to the Sundried Tomato Café right before the kitchen closed and had a fabulous dinner. I even got a white russian that was made with whipped cream and shaken instead of half & half. I asked the bartender about this variation on the drink and he said that he will do that if they don't have half & half on hand instead of milk to give the drink it's proper creaminess. I had a coffee before I left while talking to a couple of the staff while they were cleaning up for the evening. I finished my day by driving home along the ocean.

Bad Carl

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 02:43:00 +0000

So, again it has been a while since I have gotten around to updating this blog, I hope that people have been checking out my photographs on flicker... those seem to be keeping a more up to date account of my happenings. I feel lucky to have spent nearly two and a half weeks in the San Diego area, it is a very beautiful section of the country. Bob introduced me to a bunch of great people, and the good times had, were countless.

I arrived in Carlsbad on the Friday before the super bowl. It is a town in the North County section of San Diego, only Oceanside separates it and Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton to the north. My first thoughts were "why did I have to get stationed at Camp Lejeune in the middle of nowhere North Carolina?". Out here it is absolutely beautiful, with the beaches and the palm trees, the surfers in the bright blue water and the running women wearing hardly anything. In Cleveland these women have gone into hibernation until late May or even August. I met up with Bob at his place which is but a block and a half from the beach and just a bit more from "Downtown Carlsbad". His place was a decent one bedroom with absolutely no furniture except for his bed. That first evening we just walked to the downtown area and grabbed some cheap pizza. That evening we met up with Bob's friend Frank. He is also an officer at Camp Pendleton, they were just a year apart at the Naval Academy and shockingly they both went to the same high school. We went dancing at a place in Carlsbad and met up with two of Frank's roommates, a married couple. The next day (Saturday)... we went to Old Town area and purchased a convertible couch that I could sleep on. I would not arrive until Monday. From there we headed to the Gas Lamp District and just walked around. After a bit of a walk we decided to grab some lunch, but had a terrible time deciding where to eat. While trying to decide I stopped into a Volcom store and found nothing to purchase, but I did ask the people working there what they liked to eat in the area. They suggested a deli that appears to be nothing more than a liquor store. The sign on the out side just states:

MARKET
DELI
ATM

The sandwiches were nothing to write home about... Later Bob and I got some pretty good thai food in La Jolla and met up with Frank and two of his female friends at the Comedy Store. The comedians were quite funny & enjoyable. The next day, I got up early and went to get the ingredients to make a whole bunch of guacamole to take over Frank's where there would be ~15 people to watch the Super Bowl at 3:30pm. The guac was a hit and we all had a great time watching the game, to bad the commercials were not up to par this year. Bob got a haircut that evening while I just chilled back at his place. Monday I went running and did some laundry, waited for the couch to show up and went to go see Smokin' Aces while Bob continued to wait for the couch.

(I have slowly been working on this posting since Valentines Day.)

Yucca = Joshua

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 23:43:00 +0000

Happy V-Day.

The 1st of February, I had left Phoenix with a destination of the Joshua Tree National Park. Leaving Arizona, my clock got pushed back once again. But that did not help with getting to the park before the sun set. The moon was near full and quite bright with no clouds in the sky. Driving through the park at night always worries me sometimes with a fear of hitting an animal and doing severe damage to it or my car. The drive from the southern entrance to the campground I had chosen was nearly an hour. Along the way there were groupings of rocks sticking out of the ground right next to the street, with the moonlight they almost had an animal nature to them... they kind of freaked me out a bit. I got to my campground near the trail I was planing on hiking the next day. I set up my tent and didn't bother staking it down because without a mallet the stakes were not going anywhere. After getting the tent set up, it was time for dinner, another Backpackers Pantry meal with the help of my Jetboil. It was a bit chilly that evening so I had some hot coaco before bed. Once in bed it was a rough night I would wake up occasionally with a running nose and a bit colder than tolerable. I remembered that I had a sleeping bag liner in the trunk but there was no way I was going to get there to improve my comfort level without suffering even more so it went unused.

I woke up the next morning with the sun, but it was hidden behind the mountain that I was going to shortly conquer. That meant that it was still chilly and there was even frost on my tent and car. I packed up my stuff and my half frozen tent got thrown in the back seat of my car with plans on washing it out soon, frost + sand = bad news. I made my way over to the Ryan Mountain trail somewhere between 3-4 mile hike with a 1000+ foot elevation change. I had my trail mix with me for breakfast and I think my lack of real nutrition really hurt my climb. Once at the top it was a different story though, I was energized by the stunning views of the park, the deserts, the mountains. I could even hear the rings of artillery coming from the Marine Corps base 29 Palms just to the north. The only creatures I saw while on the trail were a couple of white tailed rabbits. The hike down was much easier. Once at my car I raced to get out of the park so to get some cell service to give my Pops a call for his birthday before he got to work since I had missed giving him a call the day before. There was even a Starbucks calling my name once out of the park. I made it into Carlsbad in time for a late lunch before meeting up with Kevin, who will be referred to as Bob for here on.

5 weeks & 5000 miles

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 01:42:00 +0000

I have been attempting to get this blog up to date. Today marks 5 weeks since I left Cleveland and while driving home last night I put 5000 miles on the Prius in that amount of time. Coming soon are updates on Joshua Tree National Forest and the past week in San Diego.

Phoenix rising

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:24:00 +0000

Monday was a slow day in Phoenix for me. I got some lunch at a thai place near Bailey's. I spent most of the day playing with Google Earth trying to figure out my route through California to maximize coverage. That evening Bailey, Erin and I met up with one of their climbing buddies Jason at On the Border for some yummy margaritas.

So, Tuesday I decided I would make my way to Taliesin West, the Arizona home of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I understand there was a period when he was not doing well getting work designing buildings and such, so by the suggestion of his wife he started a school out of his studio in Wisconsin. He bought some property "out west" and would transport his students to Arizona for the winters. They were the ones that helped design and build Taliesin West. The location became the schools winter studio and continues to serve that function. It is now also the home of the FLW Foundation.

That evening I met up with Bailey at the Phoenix Rock Gym. It had been almost six years since I had done this activity my only time. I was able to complete the training wall rather easily and then completed 90% of the next two more challenging climbs and finished with a completion on my final climb. I got a little exhausted belaying, I have this stupid bone growth on my shoulder bone which can bother my deltoid with extended use. Otherwise I had a really good time out climbing.

Wednesday was an overcast day in Phoenix. My plan was to go for a hike in the Superstition Mountains. I chose the Peralta Trail supposedly around a 7 mile trail if my memory serves correctly. The trail was well defined, being one of the most trekked in the state according to some random website. I assembled my pack by bringing my rain jacket and pants, I also brought the Jetboil and a pouch of Backpackers Pantry pad thai to prepare along the trail. I also brought some of my new favorite trail mix, stuff I had picked up at target. I forget the name of it but it has craisins, sunflower seeds, pepitas, and other yummy goodness, it was quite enjoyable. Along the trail I took the photo that is at the top of this post, it is now my desktop... feel free to do the same. Along the way it started to drizzle and I put on the jacket. About an hour and a half in it started to rain a bit heavier. I found some cover under a rather huge rock and pulled out my rain pants (one of my more expensive purchases at REI) I was glad to have them. I then cooked up my pad thai although it would have been returned if it was given to me at a thai restaurant. After eating I returned to the trail and went back the way I had come so to not get stuck in any worse weather. I returned to Bailey's and we hung out at home that evening.

Thursday I got lunch at Pita Jungle, I felt granola, it made me feel good. I then made my way to the University of Phoenix stadium where the NFL Arizona Cardinals play. It is a state of art stadium with a field that moves in and out of the stadium. When football is not being played the floor can be used for concerts, conventions and swap meets (if needed, I guess). My plan was to get a ticket to tour the stadium, well I got there too late for a ticket so I was able to take photos of the outside of the stadium and one of the inside from the store.

After being let down at the stadium I headed to California. My night would be spent at the Joshua Tree National Park.

The Festival of the New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 18:44:00 +0000

The drive to Phoenix was pleasantly uneventful. I finished listening to "The Life and Times of the Thunderblot Kid" by Bill Bryson, my third of his books since leaving Cleveland including "A Walk in the Woods" and "I'm a Stranger Here Myself". I must say I left Texas after two weeks in the state and I could not have been happier to finally be rid of it. The temperature stared getting better as well as my mpg. I had been getting ~42.6 and around the time I entered New Mexico I was getting no less that 50mpg on the freeway.

I stayed at Bailey's that night. She is staying with two other teachers, Erin and Tami who are in the same district as her. They also do a bunch of climbing together, from what I understand. Friday morning I was able to get some laundry done and Bailey called off work due to not felling too well. I boosted her up by getting some Bruegger's and we eventually made our way to my new favorite store REI, I picked up some Clif Shot drink mix for the tournament that coming weekend. I convinced her to throw the disc around with me a bit before she headed off for a doctors appointment. I went back to her place to pack. I stayed the weekend with Wernet's buddy Al who lives much closer to the fields. Bailey and Erin picked me up that evening for dinner and drinks at Casey Moore's We meet up with a few of their climbing buddies there, it seemed like quite a pleasant group, not too different from a bunch of ultimate players. They eventually dropped me off back at Al's so I could get some sleep for a big weekend of ultimate.

The tournament, New Year Fest was at a new location that I was unfamiliar with. The old location, Diablo fields has been turned into luscious green baseball diamonds. I guess MLB will be using them for spring training. Well our fileds were a pleasant brown dry grass, it was surprisingly full and handled cleats much better than turfs which just slid on the grass. I meet up with my team which consisted of a couple of guys from Philly, half a dozen from the Bay area and a few other stragglers such as myself from elsewhere across the country. A total of 13, we seemed to cover the mid to late 20 to early 30 age group. We also had some decent talent with a few players who had been to either college or mixed club nationals (that I knew of). We had been seeded 4th or 5th out of the seven top open teams at the tournament. Over the next two days we would play six games against those other teams, with the top two playing in a finals afterwards. We had four games on Saturday and only scored around 6 in each of our first three of the day, those would have been against Sprawl from Phoenix, UCSD and Arson from Tucson. Our fourth game we started gelling a bit more it was against a very lubricated One Degrees a team comprised of BAT, Machine & Ring players. They were drinking quite a bit more than we were and still scoring on ridiculous hammer and behind the back throws. We clamped down, stopped making stupid turnovers and got ahead to make it 12 vs. 10 in a game to 13. They found a few of their players who were less drunk and managed to pull out the victory.

I left the fields and got some Filiberto's before getting a shower at Al's. I took a short nap and then headed over to the tournament party. I hung out with Peine for a while before starting a marathon of shuffle board games with a few of my teammates. At one point I was playing against Will D and Jason from ZippO, I so rarely play the game but I have got to say the only reason I left the table was due to my teammates incompetence.

Sunday at the tournament we played Mamabird first, they were all college kids from U of Colorado. This is a very competitive college team full of players with a lot of athleticism most with varying levels of ultimate awareness. They were able to beat us deep pretty a couple of times, our zone confused them a bit and playing man I was able to grab a callahan off a dump/swing throw. We still lost only scoring 8. Our final game was against the number one seeded team at the tournament ZippO a bunch of guys from the UPA Club Championships semi-finalists Johnny Bravo along with a few older guys from Colorado and Phoenix. I have no idea what the final score was but I think we managed to score a few against them, I probably threw and caught at least one each (it would help if I weren't doing this write up two weeks later). Well, those two teams we played that day were the two that played in the finals against each other. I was able to get a few photos and finally figured out the setting on my camera that was making my photos blue.

After the tournament I showered at Al's again and packed up my stuff. I went back to Bailey's to spend a few more days in the valley.

Big Cold Bend

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:25:00 +0000

I got into Big Bend National Park late Tuesday afternoon and made my way to to the center of the park where I thought I would be camping... unfortunately, that turned out to be in the frozen mountains. So I took a few photos and made my way to a lower elevation at the far eastern side of the park. I figured I could camp here my fist night do some hiking and then set up camp on the western side (the direction I am heading) the next night. I set up camp and then cooked myself a bag of dehydrated dinner. It is amazing how being alone makes camping a lot less exciting, it got dark early and I eventually hit the hay around 9pm. It was a chilly night but I was able to sleep pretty well.

I woke up the next morning just after the sun and went for a hike near the campgrounds a trail called Rio Grande Village Nature Trail. It was a short .75 mile hike to get the blood flowing. I got back, packed up the car and made my way over to the Boquillas Canyon Trail a 1.4 mile hike to check out the Rio Grande. I then drove back into the frozen mountains for the hike of the day, a 4.8 mile roundtrip hike they call the The Lost Mine Trail. I have got to say that while the park is not empty it was rather quiet. The campgrounds that I stayed at were getting a bit of use, maybe 40% capacity. I got to The Lost Mine Trail around 11:30 and ran into a couple on their way out of the trail and then I only saw one other person on the entire trail also on his way down just after I started. The clouds were hanging heavily o the mountains only briefly at some point would I be able to see any views of the other nearby peaks. I climaxed at 12:30 and lit up my Jetboil to prepare my lunch and a cup of hot cocoa. As I made my descent, I was able to take a few more photos and I decided that instead of camping on the west end of the park I would just drive over there, check it out and make my way westward. It was probably a desire to sleep in a nice warm bed after spending the day freezing my tail off. I eventually got off the trail at 2pm.

I drove through the park along a lovely long and winding road and around 3:30 got to the end of the Ross Maxwell Scenic Drive. This was another location where I was able to check out the Rio Grand where it had carved a canyon in the cliffs along the US/Mexican border. I got out to check it out and noticed a trail that went across a stream and into the canyon. It was the 1.7 mile Santa Elena Canyon Trail. I decided to hop on it to get a few photos. Although I was not particularly interested in hiking much more I wound up doing around 75% of the trail. Walking along the Rio Grand was fairly intriguing to me because although I was in the US at the time I was just the rivers width away from a foreign country.

I eventually exited the park around 5pm and headed towards El Paso. It was quite a bit of driving after my already full day. Most of it was along straight two lane roads with a speed limit of 70mph. Except for the rare city the drive was rather dark, I was only able to see what my headlights were illuminating. There were a few altitude changes and a bit of snow on the fields lining the road. At one point I came upon a field on my left with an illuminated bright white aircraft of some sort. My imagination was racing and I started thinking that it could be an alien ship. It was in a fenced in military area and I was afraid for my life to stop and take a photo. I later found it on Google Earth, it appears to be a weather blimp, it's coordinates are:
30°26'4.15"N & 104°19'14.56"W
I got into El Paso around 10pm after crossing into the Mountain time zone. I had decided to pass up both Carlsbad Caverns & Guadalupe Mountains National Park due to the sever chill that was passing through that part of the country. I would instead be heading to Phoenix and get in a day earlier than I had planned. But that would have to wait until I got some sleep in El Paso.

On the Texas road

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 15:45:00 +0000

Man am I getting behind... I guess I have been real busy. I have actually made my way to San Diego and will be here at least through Presidents Day. I hope to get to that soon enough though.

That brings me back to Monday the 22nd. I left Austin for San Antonio. My first stop was the Alamo, it is a piece of Tex-Mex history surrounded by the city. I then made my way along the river-walk an almost Venice aspect of the city, with boat rides down a bar and shop laden river. I finished my day with a trip up the Tower of the Americas which resembles the Space Needle in Seattle. It was quite a windy day and the observation deck at the top is somewhat open to the elements. I had to stick my hat under my jacket to ensure it not blowing away.

That night I drove to Del Rio to shorten my drive to Big Bend the next day.

Tuesday I headed out of Del Rio ready to spend a few days in our nations parks. The drive along the southern border of Texas was quite pleasant, parts even reminded me of driving through the mountains of Pennsylvania just with different flora & fauna. Also the occasional border patrol stop is something one would not come across up north.

Austin City Limits

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 04:27:00 +0000

Friday in Austin I found a restaurant that had been reviewed by Rachael Ray called Cafe Josie which served food from the "American Tropics". I went for the soup of the day, a sweet corn & crab meat chowder and off the lunch menu:

PEPITA REDFISH WITH MANGO HABANERO BUTTER
Pepita and Spice Crusted and served on Poblano Rice and Cotija Black Beans with Tomatillo Chile, Ancho Chile, Spicy Pepitas and fresh Vegetable

I have got to say this was the best meal that I have had while on the road so far. The food was spiced and cooked perfectly and the ingredients seemed very fresh. The side of vegetables were steamed just the way I like them, leaving valuable nutrients and plenty of crunch.

With a full belly, I made my way to the Austin Museum of Art which had a show consisting of mid to late century NYC artists of the Abstract Expressionist era. There were a bunch of pieces that were outside of conventional theories of art at their time. I could see how a lot of these artists contributed to the type of work that my fellow art students had been doing.

I managed to waste time with some adventures in commerce before meeting up with Cindy, Reid and Amy at Chuy's for some excellent tex-mex. They all play ultimate in Austin and we all had meet in Hawaii a year earlier. The next day I was to meet up with them to play in their winter league, but when I got up it was 40° and raining. I did not feel adequately equipped for playing in that kind of weather... so I went back to sleep. That evening Patrick, Jamie and I Watched the Illusionist, a rather interesting movie about a magician.

Sunday my hosts were throwing a birthday party for their daughter at some party center. I went and got some Sonic and prepared to watch a couple of games of football. I was bummed that the Saints were not able to take care of the Bears and glad that New England is not going to Miami.

Wraping up Houston

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 01:13:00 +0000

Well here I am catching up a bit. So I last left off on Martin Luther King Jr.'s holiday. So I will pick up from there.

Tuesday was a slow day for me... I washed my car and went up to Houston to meet up with Liz & Kevin. We went to the Galleria (the largest mall in Texas) and had a creole dinner at a place called Woodrows.

Wednesday was to be my last full day in the Houston area so I determined that the Space Center Houston would be on my itinerary. I am sometimes skeptical of really touristy locations due to the high likelihood of lameness. Well in that aspect, I was not let down. With the small amount of people there it did not seem as though there was much to take away from the experience. Then I realized there was a tram that toured the base. It took us to the now out of use control room from the time of Apollo 13 and to a training area where the astronauts could familiarize themselves with the equipment they would be using in space. Later on, I meet up with Liz & Kevin for dinner in "LJ" and then went over to Ben's place for some video games before hitting the hay.

Thursday I packed up my car and headed to Houston to have lunch with Liz & Kevin. We had some rather good chinese food at a place that they seem to frequent occasionally. It was great to be able to spend a week with the two of them. Liz and I were practically roommates for three years and Kevin and I were teammates for even longer.

After parting ways, I went over to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston which had some pretty neat exhibits on a couple of artists from the area. From there I went to get my first oil change on the Prius and mad my way towards Austin where I would be staying the weekend with Liz's brother Patrick and his wife/ Liz's best friend Jamie and their two year old daughter "M" spelled Iym (I think, please correct me if I am wrong).

Quick update

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 15:48:00 +0000

I am apparently somewhere close to 10 days behind, I will try to get postings of that time up shortly. Of course my photos are pretty much up to date, for those interested.

As for now, I got into Phoenix yesterday and spent the night at Bailey's. I am going to be playing at New Year Fest this weekend. I plan on making my way to San Diego in time to watch the Super Bowl next weekend with Bob.

I would like to thank everyone who is supporting me along my journeys.

MLKJRBDNH

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 06:34:00 +0000

Liz and Kevin were off on Monday due to the holiday, but Liz was inclined to stay home and get some work done while Kevin and I ventured out to the island town of Galveston. This was to be the first of quite a few cold days in the not so sunny state of Texas. The downtown area of Galveston was unusually quiet for a national holiday. Kevin and I bundled up and made our way up the cold and breezy street. The place appeared to be gearing up for Mardi Gras celebrations with beads for sale in all of the stores including the military surplus store we spent nearly half an hour in. We eventually hopped back in the car and went to The Spot for burgers. After a breakfast of IHOP and then the burgers, it all settled rather heavy in both of our stomachs. We weren't quite ready to leave this chilly resort town yet so we headed to Moody Gardens which is comprised of three glass pyramids, one with an aquarium, the next with a rain forest and the third with a science exhibit. We forked out our cash to check out the rain forest. Besides the trees and plants, we were treated to views of exotic birds, humongous fish and bats with rather large testicles.

We eventually made our way back to "LJ" where Liz had some sort of mexican casserole waiting for us.

"The City of Enchantment" Pt. 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 06:28:00 +0000

Sunday was another day of watching NFL Divisional Championship games. In the morning Liz & Kevin went to church while I continued my running routine which I had been putting off until I reached a warmer climate. Liz directed me to a path in a nearby park, it was nice and wooded running next to a river. One thing that caught my attention was the regular signs to "watch out for alligators and snakes". I had a constant urge to both locate a gator and to get out as soon as possible.

Before Liz and Kevin got back, I managed to shower and make some guacamole for us to enjoy while watching football. After the first game, we went over Liz's brother Ben's house. I got to meet Ben, his wife Renee, and their two sons Mikey and Joey. We put off watching the second game to play a little tee ball with the boys.

After that we we were able to watch a bit of the game before grabbing dinner with Liz's dad and Ben's family. After dinner we went back to Ben's to play some video games on his projection screen and then moved to his Wii in another room. Kevin and I had a blast fooling around with the video games before heading home for bed.

"The City of Enchantment"

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 22:50:00 +0000

Friday I got into Houston around 3:30. I meet up with Liz at Rice and she showed me around the campus while we waited for Kevin to to get off work. Around 5pm we made our way to the other side of campus where Kevin works and then continued on to a tapas restaurant just around the corner. Both Liz and Kevin are working at Rice University in Houston but they both live in Lake Jackson which is about an hour south of the city. So after dinner we made our way down to "LJ" where I would be staying with Kevin. We had a quiet evening with plans to wake up early and play ultimate league back in the city in the morning.

We all managed to roll out of bed early (well, early for me) and got up to Houston just in time for the first of two games. Their team was missing a few of their better players and I was introduced as the temporary replacement for all of them. Unfortunately I did not live up to the hype, be it being out of shape or my unfamiliarity with the other players. We did not manage to win either of the games. I think we all had a good time though. For some reason Kevin felt the need to curse the entire country of Canada.

After ultimate we made our way back to "LJ" and I was introduced to the gas/wash/dine-omatic mega store that is Buc-ee's. We followed our stop at the gas station with an evening of watching the two NFL Divisional Championships games. We had dinner at a local sandwich shop called "The Local" it was quite tasty.

It's getting hot in here...

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 05:10:00 +0000

From KJ's I made my way down into Arkansas. I headed towards the city of Hot Springs where the Hot Springs National Park is located. I got into the city just after dark and navigated to the campgrounds in the park. There were around 30 sites and only 5 or 6 were taken. I found a site next to a creek and paid my $10 at the check-in cabin. I was able to set up my tent under a dim street lamp and then I moved it to a clearing closer to the creek. After I had thrown all of my sleeping stuff into the tent, I started boiling some water to prepare one of my camping dinners. After eating, it was an early night to bed.

In the morning at the campgrounds, I woke up early and got everything packed away. I headed out from there to go and find the actual hot springs that the town and park are named after. On the main street of the town there are a number of bath houses that are actually located within the park. The bath houses regulate the temperature of the water so that people are not cooking themselves in the springs. Just down the street from the houses is a fountain where the hot water is collected. This was about all I was able to locate as far as springs go, but it lent itself for some good photos.

Shortly after checking out the springs, I headed out of town to meet up with Liz and Kevin down in Houston.

Travels so far

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:01:00 +0000

October

November

December

January

Missouri loves company

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 14:25:00 +0000

Tuesday I left Cincinnati for St. Louis. The drive was rather uneventful. I got into the Gateway city and had the urge to be much higher. So I found a parking spot and made my way over to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Gateway Arch. The structure is pretty awe inspiring, and as I made my way towards it I started to get amusement park excited. The entrance to the arch is underneath, so the museum and gift shop are under the ground directly below the arch. With my national parks pass I was able to save $3 off of the $10 ticket cost for the ride to the top of the arch. I approached the elevator with excitement only to find 8 separate cars. The cars are an egg shaped pod that remind me of a tea cup ride out of 2001: A Space Odyssey, each only sit 5 adults (rather tightly). Luckily, it was a slow day and my ride up was with only one other guy. The ride actually reminded me of a ferris wheel. Once at the top and at 630 feet there was a hallway with a few windows on the east and west side of the arch. The west side looks over the city of St. Louis and the east looks over the Mississippi river. I understand that on a clear day the visibility is around 30 miles. Being up there was quite amazing. My cell phone had perfect service up there and I was even able to make two phone calls. My trip down was all by myself, which was nice. From there I made my way over to my friend KJ's house.

I spent the rest of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursady morning with KJ, her husband Rodney, their ~two year old son Trey, and their baby daughter Caroline. Wednesday, KJ drove me and Caroline around town to show me some of the exciting stuff about town. One of the things we drove past was the City Museum, I wish that I had the opportunity to get inside and outside of it to check it out. We had lunch at Blueberry Hill with Rodney, we all had burgers and the food was quite good. Wednesday after breakfast I said goodbye, on my way to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Sin-cinnati

noreply@blogger.com (Jeremiah Boncha) — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 06:33:00 +0000

I left Cleveland this past Friday, January 5th on my way westward. My first stop was Cincinnati. I spent the weekend at Roy's. He and his wife Tiffany were wonderful hosts. Their 1 year old daughter, Hazel was a sweetie too.

Roy and I went to the Contemporary Arts Museum where they had an exhibition that included graphic designer Malcolm Grear. It was pretty exciting to have stumbled across this show. Grear's work that was on display included logos for the Veterans Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services and Vanderbilt University. It was also exciting to see the work he did for the '96 Olympics (check out his site to see his contributions).

The rest of Saturday and Sunday was devoted to watching football. Monday I managed to get downtown again and took some photos of the city. Later that evening Roy took me out to play some indoor ultimate. We played 6 on 6, all of the guys were competitive and for the most part we were playing savage. It was great to be out playing ultimate, I look forward to more of it soon.