Test blog

Testing out the email function of my blog. It seems that I can post a
blog from any email address. I guess I could use my iPhone to send off
a quick blog if I really needed to, buy typing on this iPhone isn't
exactly easy sometimes.

8 days....

I thought the short timers was bad before, well it's even worse now! 8 days and counting!

A friend of mine here at work just sent me an email saying, "I want to hear more about your trip preparations.". Well, right now there isn't a whole lot of preparation work to be done. Since I like to go camping a couple times a year, I already have most of my camping equipment. It's just a matter of throwing it in the car and hitting the road.

I did pick up a new sleeping bag and portable gas grill/stove at Costco the other day. The cool thing about the sleeping bag is that there are zippers on the sides to open up vents for warmer climates, or just keep them zipped up for the colder weather. I figured that would come in handy. Sure the weather is most likely going to be warmer, but you never know.

Another preparation for my Colombia trip is Salsa dance lessons. :) Yep, I've been learning how to dance.... It's actually a lot of fun plus it can't hurt to know some basic moves. You never know when it might come in handy. ;)

Well, that's all for now. Need to try to get my mind back on work and finish what needs to be done before I take off.

Time seems to be standing still

So, you know how I said in my last post that the days were flying by? Well that went out the window this week. I guess I must be having short timers 'cause I'm quickly going insane sitting at my work desk. At least it's a 3 day weekend so I have some time off.

There's a small update to the road trip itinerary. A buddy of mine from back in Hood River, OR now lives in Las Vegas. Since it looks like I'll be driving though, I figured I'd stop by and say "hi". I haven't seen him in a couple of years, so that's going to be cool. Maybe I'll get a bit of gambling in while I'm there, who knows.

I'm also adding another camping trip to the schedule of activities when I get back from Colombia. No big road trip or anything, just a week or so of camping and fishing up by Mt. Adams with some friends. I can't think of any better way to recover from being on the road for a month and a half then a relaxing week camping next to a high mountain lake fishing every morning. Here's a picture I took last year of the lake we're planning to camp at.



Well that's all for now. Just a couple more weeks and it all starts!

19 days and counting!

My sabbatical is quickly coming upon me. I thought that the days would drag by, but lately I’ve been so busy at work I hardly think about it. I’m sure the closer it gets, the longer the days will seem.

So, the big question everyone has been asking me is, “What are you going to do with all that time off?”. That question is easy enough to answer, I’m going on a photography expedition! As my good friends know, I love photography and traveling. As for deciding where to go on this expedition has been, to say the least, difficult. First I wanted to go to Australia and New Zealand, then I changed my mind and was planning to go to Tibet. After that, I thought about back packing through Europe. But in the end, I figured I’d stay for most of it here in the States and a short side trip to South America.

I know what you’re thinking, why stay in the States? Well, I’ve been fortunate to have a job which has sent me all over the world. I’ve been to China, Puerto Rico, Ireland, UK, Brazil, Hong Kong and Malaysia. All of these countries have been great and I would love to see more of the world, but there is SOO much of the U.S. that I haven’t seen. This is the perfect chance for me to see some of the great national parks of the U.S.

So, I don’t have an agenda set in stone, I like to have a loose schedule with general targets of areas I want explore. I plan to pack up the car with a tent, sleeping bag, camping supplies and of course my camera/netbook and just drive. With that said, here’s some places that I’d like to see:

• Crater Lake Sure, It’s close to home but it’s on the way.
• Northern California Redwoods I haven’t been here since I was in middle school.
• Yosemite National Park I’ve been told you can’t go to Cali without seeing Yosemite.
• Sequoia and King Canyon
• Death Valley It’s on the way to Southern Utah / Northern Arizona so I might as well drive through.
• Zion It seems not a lot of people have heard of this park in South Eastern Utah but I’ve been told it’s well worth the trip.
• Bryce Canyon I’m drooling over the sunrise / sunset photo possibilities here.
• Grand Canyon It’s big, enough said.

It’s a lot to see in around 4 weeks, hopefully I’ll have enough time!

After my big road trip, it’s off to Bogota Colombia for my good friends, Sylvia and Hernan’s wedding. This will be my first trip to Colombia and I’m really excited about it. There is a group of us gringos going and we’re planning to share an apartment while we’re there. The cool thing is that I used airline miles to purchase my tickets. 75 bucks to fly to Bogota is pretty darn good if you ask me.

Anyways, thanks for checking out my blog and I hope you stick around for this great adventure of mine. I’m planning to blog as much as possible, but considering I’ll be camping for most of the trip, the posts will come in bunches whenever I find an internet connection.