Way Too Many Miles Driven

I have depleted all my green karma that was built up in St Louis. To live in Idaho is to drive a car. A lot. There is no other way around this fact unless you stay put and do nothing, because everywhere you may need/want to go is very far away. The sad fact seems to be that to live lightly it is necessary to live in a large city with a public transport system.

I imagine I put close to 800 miles on my car between Friday and Monday getting to Boise and back for Owen's climbing competition. Of course it was not necessary we go. But we went to this one and will go to others, in Bozeman, Salt Lake, Vail, Pocatello and Cody. If we had a team to go with we could carpool but Owen's team days he left back in the big city with the good public transportation system and lots of amenities, like a climbing team.

We did have fun. We always do. We got in our first night of camping for 2009 under clear, star-filled skies and single digits temperatures. We found the perfect, completely empty campground (not many people are crazy enough to camp in the cold...but we love it) less than 10 miles outside of downtown Boise. It is situated right next to Lucky Peak Resevoir on the road that heads to Sun Valley from Boise.


The competition was held close to downtown at Boise Peak Fitness. Owen agreed with me that it is the best indoor climbing facility that we have ever been to. There were lots of kids competing, with the biggest team coming from Monument Gym in Sandy, UT.

Owen rocked. He climbed as well as I have ever seen him. I know I am a bit biased, but even the coach of the kids who placed higher than he said he was an amazing climber. If he were just, say, 4 inches taller I don't think there was a route he would not have been able to complete. The drawback of indoor competitions is that you have to use only the designated holds. If a hold is out of reach you are out of luck. In outdoor climbing you can use any and everything to get to the top.

I did not get many good photos because I kept forgetting to use my camera.











After the competition was over we cooked up a hot lunch on a picnic table outside an office building downtown. I have to laugh because Ben was, from an early age, mortified that we could not just go eat lunch at a restaurant like "normal people". Owen, on the other hand, requested this lunch and even picked the location. Then we went and hung out for a while at my favorite coffee house at the corner of 5th and Idaho St. before heading back into the car for the long stretch back to Idaho Falls.

BTW, thanks to Tony for uploading the Harry Potter movie, REM and John Denver onto Owen's MP3 player. It made the drive bearable for Owen.

Pictorial Vignettes: Backwards through time.

It is difficult to get to passionate about life in St. Louis. It is always interesting but never stirs any deeper emotion. It does not have the sort of landscape that motivates me to wax poetic nor go off on a detailed narrative of any one event or place. It has the capacity to overload the senses (and the pocketbook) w/ its abundance or urban offerings. I do not complain (too often), mind you. There are much worse alternatives to "interesting".

I tend to derive a certain sense of self from my geographic surroundings. Landscape is ever-so-important to me. In New Hampshire I was never happier than on those solitary Sunday mornings in January that I would set fresh tracks on century old carriage roads. In Idaho my favorite place to be is heading south up Taylor Creek trail at either dusk or dawn. More likely to happen upon a moose or mountain lion.. hee hee..at those hours.

Try as I may, I am unable to compose a respectable blog-length piece on any one St Louis event thus far. So what follows is a series of descriptive photos on a handful of the exploits that have occupied our time since arriving in the Show Me State.

These are the Arch Rival Roller Girls flying by my camera. This is St. Louis' All Female Flat Track Roller Derby and yes, we attended a "bout". These events attract an eclectic crowd w/ a decided goth overtone. Owen did not enjoy it so much. The humor was adult (e.g. spanking booth for charity) and went over his head...oh the innocence.

Nellie in a state of repose.

Tony finds a handy new use for his rack.

Owen competing in the Halloween Pull Down in Kansas City. It is hard to tell in the close-up photo, but he is coming out from under an overhang. He placed 3rd in the recreational division beating out most of a field who was 2 or more yrs older. The kid is a sight to behold....if I do say so myself.



Red River Gorge, Kentucky. This is the best place I've been so far. It is truly a geologic wonder with over 100 natural land arches. It was the venue location for the Petzl RocTrip Climbing Festival. My parents and brother's family met us there. We had a blast! Owen won a lot of climbing shwag and rubbed elbows with some of his sporting heroes.





Who said you can't bring a baby camping?
Owen's favorite climb of the weekend? Up the pole of the big top tent. Hey, there were no signs saying "no climbing".
Hanging around at the Loop.

Sushi Festival downtown. The featured event was a sushi eating contest. Winner ate about 70 pieces in 10 minutes. Think you can eat more? So did they. Most predicted eating over 100 pieces.



An afternoon at the beloved CITY MUSEUM!! .....for Tony, Owen and friends. An afternoon of Harry Potter for Wendy!!! Thanks Tony.

Views from a bike ride home from Illinois.

Dining at our favorite restaurant. Perched along the bluffs of the Missouri River and with an ever- changing menu, each dining experience is unique from the previous. This time I ordered sauteed trout topped with a root vegetable lyonnaise served on a bed of italian parsley puree and crispy cabbage au gratin. Tony had a grilled strip steak with crayfish lobster butter, rosemary grits, beer-braised greens and smoked paparika dusted fried leeks. How do they come up with these culinary combinations?

Although Nellie definitely preferred last year's daily runs along the Chubb Trail, a 12 mile drive away, this year she is making-do with the off-leash dog park just a short walk from our back door. The Puppy Pool Party, held the final day of the season at University City public pool is a fund raiser that benefits the park.

Weekend Trip: Driggs/Victor, ID

July 13-16, 2007
This is a standard destination for my family and I on the weekend. This was my third time this summer in the Teton Valley. Once to Driggs on my road bike. Once to Jackson ,WY to Mountain bike the Cache Creek Trail with the family and intern. Out west any trip under 100 miles is a treat. When I was living in New Hampshire, an 80 mile drive would get us well into Vermont or Massachusetts and to the Maine state line. Often, I would opt for a closer destination because I would consider that an was awfully far drive. Its all relative, eh?

The drive via Swan Valley and Pine Creek pass is the most scenic way to arrive in the Teton Valley. Much of the way is along the Snake River or Pine Creek and Targhee National Forest. Victor is the last town before enter Wyoming and is situated at the base of Teton Pass. It and Driggs are currently being ruined by short-sighted developed with seemingly no other purpose that to put as many mini-mansion as possible on every acre of land. The development is certainly keeping up with the pace of greed. Since this is "progress", I have recently decided that when we do ever manage to live IN the mountains I will choose a non-progressive locale if we are going to stay in Idaho.

We met some friends to camp for a couple of nights and go to the Music Festival at Targhee Resort. We camped off Ski Hill Rd. We did some climbing and playing in the creek building dams.

Afters Sunday's venue at the music festival we spent the night at a friend's house in Driggs. The next morning Tony rode his mountain bike back to Idaho Falls via the Big Hole Mounatains, something he has wanted to do for years. I took Owen over to Jackson Hole to play in the Snake River with his kayak before heading back home.