Rick and Kathy Ryan, and their daughter Summer were good friends of our family when I was growing up in Hammond, Louisiana. My Dad took them out canoeing for the first time, and we did a lot of bicycle rides with them.

Shortly after I joined the Navy in 1980 Rick and Kathy moved to Durango, Colorado. The last time I saw them was during a road trip in 1986. Rick was working at 4 Corners Marine and took me rafting down the Animas River. We had a lot of fun.

Between then and now Rick had a full career with the U.S. Ranger service, yes he is Ranger Rick, and then they bought a beautiful little home in Cortez, Colorado just 50 miles away from Durango.

I really enjoyed visiting them today. This will be one of the highlights of this summer’s trip.

The best coffee in Durango is at Durango Joe’s. It’s also a laid back eclectically decorated place with plenty of seating. I’m sitting in the back room on a nice upholstered chair listening to two meetings going on. One meeting is discussing how to get school kids to do better in their classes, and the other is focused on how to help the men and boys of a local indian tribe do better in their lives.

The individuals discussing these things are very passionate about finding solutions to help the people in their community. One of the most exciting things about these conversations is that the people are trying to figure out solutions that work without looking to someone from the outside to do it for them.

If you’re in Durango looking for some good coffee, come to Durango Joe’s

Life was good. Just over a month ago I purchased an awesome van, and outfitted it for this summer’s road tri. After having my mechanic in Bend check it out we did about $1400 worth of work to make sure it was ready for the road. We fixed a leak in the intake manifold, replaced old disintegrating brake lines, serviced the transmission, differential, and did a tune up. Everything was good, and the van runs just fine so I headed down the road to Reno, NV, Yosemite National Park, and my cousin Monique’s home in Camarillo, Ca.

Over the mountains and far away the boof bus rocked! It climbed up the mountains into Reno, over Tioga Pass into Yosemite, and down to Camarillo. It just wouldn’t climb the (small) hill to Monique’s house. Well it did get to Mo’s, but just barely. The transmission completely failed so I had to call a tow truck. Monique recommended a transmission shop, and the bad news was true. The transmission was completely shot.

It took a couple of days, but they dropped in a new transmission for a clean $1600, and I was on the road again. Thank you so much to Monique and her Mother Madeleine for all their support and help while this was going on.

So the moral of the story is: Don’t buy a 24 year old vehicle and expect the transmission to keep up with a road trip over the mountains and far away.

Out on the road things happen. Sometimes they just happen because they do, other times it’s because we’ve done something stupid. Last night I did something really stupid. I got myself stuck down by the edge of the Carson River.

Dirt roads and camping turnouts crisscross the BLM land along the Carson River, and I picked one looking for a place to park for the night. Driving down to a likely spot I put myself into a place where I couldn’t turn the van around. I couldn’t turn around, and I couldn’t back out because I got stuck in some soft sand. If the ground had been level I would have been all right. There was just enough tilt to the ground, and I was in it.

If I had called for help at this point things would have been very easy, very simple. A good pickup truck could’ve pulled me out from this. Instead I thought that if I moved forward I could get on some level ground where I could turn around. As I moved forward there was room behind me to back up, and I could turn around to drive out. It looked like a good plan except it didn’t work. I was stuck, again. Surely I should call for help, but if I just moved forward a little bit more the ground was level, and I was sure that I could drive forward over the bank and onto firmer ground.

The ground ahead was level, and it was a bit firm, but the bank ahead was to steep to go over without a running start, and I didn’t have room to make a running start. I was boxed in with a giant log directly in front of me. Muddy ground behind me, the river on the left and a steep embankment on the right. I was good and truly stuck. I called for help.

USAA has an excellent roadside assistance program, and they were sympathetic. More importantly they were able to get a tow truck out to my location.

Cory from Valley Towing in Carson City had this night’s work cut out for him. He rigged up his tow straps and pulleys, and managed to winch my van to the rear to get a better angle for the nose to come up over the bank, and then he winched me up over the embankment through sage, mesquite, and who knows what else.

It was rough going. We tore up a lot of bushes and scared up the embankment a bit, and if I had called for help when all of this first happened none of this would have happened. But I didn’t call for help. I kept moving forward making a bad situation worse with each move forward. Moving forward doesn’t always make things better. Sometimes moving forward can make things a lot worse.

Lets recap last summer’s road trip. What began as a simple trip out to Arkansas for our tri annual family reunion turned into an incredibly awesome summer full of new kayaking adventures across the United States. Here’s the blow by blow!

1. Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. Paddled in the down river sprint on Gore Creek and met Kayaking legend Eric Jackson.
2. Lyons Outdoor Games: Lyons, Colorado. Learned some basic play boating.
3. Evanston, Illinois. Visit my cousins, Film makers Roger Brown and Gaylon Emerzian.
4. Sparta, Tennessee. Toured the Jackson Kayak factory and went out to Rock Island.
5. Erwin, Tennessee. Paddled the Nolichucky Gorge.
6. Nantahala Outdoor Center, North Carolina. Paddled the Nanty and traded my Liquid Logic Remix for a Jackson Villian.
7. Ducktown, Tennessee. Paddled the Olympic Section and middle section of the Ocoee.
8. Charlotte, North Carolina. Paddled at the United States National Whitewater center.
9. Raleigh, North Carolina. Visiting my big sister Nancy.
10. Back to Ducktown. Paddled the upper section of the Ocoee.
11. Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas. Our tri-annual family reunion. Spent three days with the most awesome family ever!
12. Hammond, Louisiana. Home, had to come down to visit Mama.
13. Houston, Texas. Stopped over to visit my friend Jody. Got to meet her newest child Dylan! Cute lil bugger he is too.
14. Athens and Dallas, Texas. Ok this should’ve been two stops. Visited my cousin Stephen and his family in Athens and my cousin Sarah and her family in Dallas.
15. Drumright, Oklahoma. Visiting my cousin Edward and his family. Spent one nice afternoon riding horses with Edwards daughter Katie.
16. Salida, Colorado. Spent a wonderful week playing in Salida’s awesome white water park.
17. Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Had to stop for a day at this great wave.
18. Cascade, Idaho. Spent about a week playing at Kelly’s White Water Park.
19. Riggins, Idaho. Paddled the Main Salmon with Dave and Kat Levitt.
20. Maupin, Oregon. Last day on the road. Paddled the lower Deschutes with my buddy Dave Eveland.

Ok, that was last year. Check back as this summer heats up for this years incredible kayaking adventure. It all starts next week.

Here are some of the videos I’ve been doing.

This first one is my favorite. It’s a spot for a local clothing store in Bend. Local Joe is a great place for Jeans, and it was fun putting this one together.

This next video is one in a series that we’re doing with the Blacksmith one of Bend’s great restaurants. The Bar Manager at Blacksmith is Columbine Quillen, and every month or so we get together to do a little cocktail how to.

The Portland Museum opened a great exhibit last month and Go-Go was there getting ready for Roll35. The exhibit “China Design Now” showcases the amazing things going on in China design wise. Footage was shot by Matthew Bowler one of Roll35′s partners with Susanne Orton of course Roll35′s founding partner. I edited the sequence and animated the Roll35 logo.

Last Week we went up to Mt Bachelor to get some comments from Alex Kaufmann the marketing director for Mt Bachelor. Note the Roll35 logo animation sound change. We’re trying to find a trademark sound to put with this. The logo will evolve.

Mt Bachelor’s opening is exciting news for Central Oregon. The way the snow’s been flying we’re looking forward to an excellent ski season. I’m particularly excited because it’s been 10 years since I’ve been skiing. Last time was in Japan in 2000. Yay for skiing.

As you can see I’ve been pretty busy shooting and editing videos for On the Go-Go and Roll 35. My Canon GL1 has been a workhorse, but I’m seeing some limitations. The biggest is that it doesn’t shoot HD video. My goal is to acquire a camera that can shoot good quality HD video by February 1st 2010. Here’s the camera I’ve decided upon.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 DSLR

This little camera shoots some AWESOME HD video with the added bonus of interchangeable lenses. Used to be when I was working at the Apple Store in Northridge, Ca when someone would ask me about the video capabilities of a still camera I would ask them if they really wanted a video camera. Back then you needed to buy the tool for the kind of work you were doing. Now, since Nikon introduced the D90, all that has changed. A new class of digital single lens reflex cameras has emerged. Cameras such as the Nikon D90, The Canon 5d Mk II, or the Canon 7D, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 have the capability of shooting very good HD video. Now I can buy one camera that will serve for shooting still images or shooting High Definition video.

The Charles
Schulz Philosophy

The
following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz,
the creator of the ‘Peanuts’ comic
strip.

You don’t
have to actually answer the questions. Just
ponder on them. Just read the post straight
through, and you’ll get the
point.

1. Name the
five wealthiest people in the
world.

2. Name the
last five Heisman trophy
winners.

3. Name the
last five winners of the Miss America
pageant.

4. Name ten
people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer
Prize.

5. Name the
last half dozen Academy Award winners for best
actor and actress…

6. Name the
last decade’s worth of World Series
winners.

How did you
do?

The point
is, none of us remember the headliners of
yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers.
They are the best in their fields. But the
applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are
forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried
with their owners.

Here’s
another quiz. See how you do on this
one:

1. List a
few teachers who aided your journey through
school.

2. Name
three friends who have helped you through a
difficult time.

3. Name
five people who have taught you something
worthwhile.

4. Think of
a few people who have made you feel appreciated
and special!

5. Think of
five people you enjoy spending time
with.

Easier?

The
lesson:

The people
who make a difference in your life are not the
ones with the most credentials.. the most
money… or the most awards. They simply are the
ones who care the most!

Pass this
on to those people who have made a difference in
your life, like I did.

“Don’t
worry about the world coming to an end today.
It’s already tomorrow in Australia
!”

“Be
Yourself, Everyone Else Is
Taken!”

Tuesday September 11th broke with a typhoon heading towards Tokyo Bay so our daily task was to secure the ship for the storm. Around noon someone made a decision to send everyone home except for the duty section. It was a quiet lazy afternoon at home waiting for the typhoon.

The naval station in Yokosuka is a tight harbor. It’s securely protected from Tokyo bay by two pennisulas, and Tokyo bay is protected from the Pacific Ocean by the Chiba pennisula.

Typhoons almost never hit Yokosuka, and this one wasn’t any different. We make all the preparations though for the excepting. It’s better to be ready for a typhoon that never hits than not be ready for the typhoon that does hit.

That evening at 6pm we got the all clear. The typhoon had passed, and everything was safe. No of new about the typhoon that was about to change our world forever. It was 5am in New York.

At 10pm I checked my email on yahoo before going to bed, and there was a news report that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. Scanning the report I had the impression that some silly idiot in a Cessna had accidentally flown into one of the towers. I shut my computer down and went to bed.

The Officer of the Deck called my home about 4:30am the next morning. It was the Chief Gunner’s Mate, and he told me that I should take the train into work because they weren’t letting cars on the base. I asked him if they were running a security exercise on the base. He said “yeah, you could say that.” I went back to sleep until 6am.

As I checked my email before going to the ship I was shocked by the headline on yahoo. “Twin Towers Destroyed. 10,000 Dead.” What had happened? I thought some hacker had made a bad joke. A quick check of the New York Time’s webpage confirmed that the World Trade Center’s twin towers had collapsed after two passenger jets had flown into them.

Work on the ship was almost at a standstill that day. We spent a lot of time watching the news reports and the endless clips of the towers collapse. The Chiefs all got together under the direction of Command Master Chief Joe Campa and began reworking duty sections, beefing up security on the ship and the pier, and making preparations for the unscheduled deployment that we all knew was coming. We were forward deployed just for this reason. Because of the USS Cole we had heard of Al Queda, and the Taliban. We knew that we were headed for the Indian Ocean and Afghanistan. The only question was when would we weigh anchor? When would the battle group deploy?

For me September 11th was about securing my ship for a typhoon one minute and preparing to go to war the next.

Summer time in Bend has been wonderful. This little spot nestled in the western slope of the Cascades is truly a small slice of Heaven on earth. There are so many fun events it’s difficult to choose between them. Kayaking has been the priority, although there was one weekend that I should have ditched work to go kayaking. Except that I had already committed to the work. As it turned out we didn’t need to get more video that day, and I could have gone kayaking instead? See ditching the video gig would’ve been ok, and I should have gone kayaking with my friends. No that’s not really true. It was only a couple of hours before the shoot that we decided we didn’t need any more footage so I wasn’t really off the hook for the day. Skipping the kayaking was the right thing to do.

The Deschutes River winds lazily through Bend, and during the summer it’s a popular tubing run. These days though it’s mostly queen size inflatable mattresses that people are using instead of inner tubes. Actually I don’t think I saw a single black rubber car inner tube on the river at all. They’re all fancy these days with cloth coverings, cup holders, and handles. Makes me think of the girl on the San Marcos River last summer “It’s got a gps” she said with a heavy Texas twang. The tube run on the Deschutes is much more serene than the San Marcos or Comal Rivers in Texas. The current moves quickly, but there aren’t any rapids or tube chutes for excitement. Hopefully we’ll get permits and funding to rebuild the Colorado Street dam into a little white water park. It can happen, all we need is 1.2 million dollars. Send donations to the Bend Paddle Trail Alliance BPTA.

The white water park won’t have as much power as the man made wave in Glennwood Springs, Colorado, but it’ll be lots of fun anyway. Besides our little white water park will replace the dangerous man eating dam at Colorado street.

Summer’s days are growing shorter and the throngs on the river dwindle down, and soon Alder Creek will have its end of the season sale. Autumn’s coming.

Dave spent 9 months wrestling with United Airlines over the damage to his $3500 Taylor Guitar with United stalling and blocking all his attempts. Finally Dave told the final United representative that he was going to write and distribute three songs worldwide about his experience.

Here’s the first video:

This is really a pretty sad commentary on the level of customer service at United Airlines. In Dave’s version of the story he tried to talk to three United employees on the ground in Chicago when the incident happened. Their response was to duck their responsibilities and avoid listening to the complaint.

Dave’s video is fun. It takes a great poke at United Airlines, and they’ve apparently apologized for the incident. Better yet Dave’s music has now come to the attention of a much larger audience with his youtube video going viral in a matter of only 3 days.

As I’ve recently come to appreciate Acoustic Guitars can be highly personal. Musicians take great care of their instruments. The more they play them, the more worn they become, the more they’re cared for. To have one damaged in this manner with complete disregard by a company such as United is a travesty.

Maybe Dave will buy a new (or used) Taylor guitar online. He probably won’t fly United again for a long time.