AAA: Monument Valley

Tara and I left the Grand Canyon the following day and witnessed a gorgeous sunrise. 

We drove down the canyon and saw some elk hanging out to eat some breakfast. Once we reached normal elevation for that area we began our drive to Monument Valley, Utah. Before we even entered Utah we encountered a crazy Subaru driver almost the whole way there. He finally left and went someplace, not that I really care because my road rage came out. We entered Utah and the scenery completely changed. It was gorgeous. Abbie decided it would be fun to sit on top of the luggage on this day. Of course there is a picture.

Strange dog. Monument Valley is part of the Navajo National Tribal Parks. The roads are not paved and there is dirt all over the place. However, out of this clay colored dirt comes the monuments. So impressive. It was probably my favorite place.

We didn’t really feel like hiking around the place so we took the car for an adventure down the dirt road. Steep, windy and not really made for a luxury car, but I was determined if a minivan could make it, my crossover could. The ride down the road was bumpy. The ride back up…. nerve-racking. Dirt going all over the place, cars coming down the switchbacks, crazy Native Americans speeding past you in pick up trucks, but we made it back to the top and went on our little way.

We finally entered Colorado and headed toward Durango because I have heard great things. It was awesome. We found a brewery to grab a bite to eat at and also grab a drink. Great beer in Durango. Leave it to me to find a fly fishing shop. I managed to get a few things. 

We kept on driving. I think this was the longest day. More excitement as we drove up a mountain, a huge mountain that had two tunnels! It was just a hairy day for driving.  We finally reached the town where we were going to stay and luckily it also had a hot tub!

The next day involves a lot of sand….

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Nothing New

Tonight not much has happened besides my dive master class getting underway. While I was thinking about something to blog about, I saw Surrounded by Imbeciles post about the categories that are listed on the side of the blog page. Since the creative juices are not flowing tonight, I am going to follow this and see what the first thing I can come up with might happen to be.

101 in 1001 – I really need to update this more often.

Adventure – I am flying back to Nashville on Thursday. Airports are always interesting.

Adventure Across America – Part II will begin at the end of October.

Beach – I have not been in two weeks. Pathetic.

Books – Currently reading some more Hemingway

Concerts – Old Crow Medicine Show on Saturday!

Dogs – Abbie is snoring

Dreams – Had another dream about clowns last night

Family – Seeing them at the end of this week!

Fashion – Pretty pumped about my new shoes, Blu Kicks.

Fiji – Soon close!

Fishing – Hemingway’s books also talks about fly fishing

Food – Can’t wait until sushi

History – Talked about maritime history in dive master class tonight

Kayaking – Need to go

Movies –  Haven’t been since Top Gun 3D

Museums – Tattoo exhibit possibility

Music – Daft Punk

Nashville – Thursday

Pictures – Sent the shark one to my grandpa

Quotes –  The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.

San Diego – Amazing

Savannah – Not so much

SCAD – No more school

Scuba – Master Diver!

Sea Life – Shark Week is soon

Shopping – This will be happening in Nashville

Spiritual – I am

Sports – Fall means football in the South

Technology – I am loving my new computer

The South – I miss it

Travel – Everyone should do it

Uncategorized – This post

 

Welcome 2013!

I welcomed the new year by flying back home to Nashville from Key Largo, FL. I will post on that trip later on! This post is dedicated to my 101 in 1001! I have done a horrible job on updating it, and I have also updated some of the things as I realized I will never be able to do some of the things due to my arthritis. Dang you!

2. Do a volunteer project with Historic Savannah Foundation (10/13/12)
I did this with the student preservation club at SCAD. We worked on revolving fund properties with HSF.

 

3. Go on an adventure, big or small, every month (7/22)
Between roaming around Savannah, random travel, the adventures keep coming!

4. Complete a couch to 5k training program (11/1/12)
I did this between walking and riding a bike since I cannot run.

12. Make my bed everyday for a month  (completed in October 2012)

15. Go out west (8/20/12)
Sun Valley, Idaho!

16. Go wreck diving (12/29/12)
This occurred this past week! More to come…

17. Attend a spin class (9/21/12)
YMCA. Kicked my butt

18. Go line dancing (10/13/12)

19. Have a gluten, dairy, and egg free Thanksgiving (11/22/12)
I didn’t even eat a thanksgiving meal since we went to Sperry’s. I had pork chops.

23. Find a church (9/2012)

26. Go kayaking at least once a month, weather permitting (7/22)

28. Take a random road trip (12/21/21)
I went to Birmingham, Alabama to visit two of my friends.

29. Re-read Catcher in the Rye (11/27/12)

36. Try 10 new restaurants (10/10)
1. Molly McGuire
2. AJ Dockside Grill
3. Clary’s Cafe
4. Alligator Soul
5. Green Truck Pub
6. Sugar Wagon food truck
7. Just Like Nannie Fixed It food truck
8. Locos
9. Bar Food
10.  The Well

40. Read 50 new books (12/50)
1. Explorers of the Infinite
2. Love Does
3. Girl Meets God
4. Good Life Wasted
5. Dances with Trout
6. Another Lousy Day in Paradise
7. In the Name of Jesus
8. Sea Hunters II
9. A River Runs through It
10. Kisses from Katie
11. Girls in White Dresses
12. Perfectly Unique 

46. Learn to stand up paddle board (7/30/12)

49. Play the banjo (11/22/12)

50. Go fly fishing (6/24/12)

56. Wear my glasses for one week (10/1-7/12)

58. Vote in 2012 (10/9/12)
Absentee ballot!

61. Learn how to use photoshop (7/24/12)

65. Get a professional massage (8/2012)

72. Watch the Wonder Years from start to finish on Netflix (7/25/12)

77. Go mountain biking (8/20/12)

78. Swim everyday for a week (8/2012)

79. Donate clothes to Goodwill (11/13/12)

82. Shuck oysters (11/17/12)

83. Bike to the bank for one month (7/2012)

84. Go to a concert without planning (11/24/12)
Saw some bluegrass at the Station Inn

85. Ride a horse (8/20/12)
Stanley, Idaho

91. Watch the summer ’12 Olympics (8/2012)

96. Swim in a tide pool (7/20/12)

98. Visit a National Park (8/2012)
Sawtooth National Park, Idaho

99. Go rafting (8/2012)

100. Stop chewing gum for one month (7/2012)

Protecting the Waters of the World

This past Saturday, I attended the Gray’s Reef Ocean Film Festival. I really did not know what to expect, but the event being free helped out a bit! I went to the event with two of my friends here in Savannah. Yes, that is right people I am meeting other people! High five! After a tasty little lunch we headed over to the Trustees theater. We made a pit stop so I could buy a book called My Father, the Captain by Jean-Michel-Cousteau, the son of the great Jacques Cousteau. I was just a little bit excited to be meeting such a great person who has done so much for the waters of the world.

Feel the excitement

We met Mr. Cousteau. Very nice man. He would be an awesome person to work for! So if you are reading this, remember me down the road.

Emily and I!

Eric and I!

The films were very short, but very interesting. The evening session started at 7 with Jean-Michel introducing each of his film clips.

Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary put on this event. It is about 20 miles from Savannah and a great diving spot. I have this on my to do list now. I learned so many different things from this festival.

One thing I took away is this: We must protect our oceans. We must protect them for the future of the fish and little tiny organisms that make it work. We must protect it for human enjoyment and recreation. The amount of trash and debris that is showing up on some marine sanctuary beaches is horrible and disgusting. Clean up after yourselves. Don’t take animals from their natural habitat. Now would be a good time to remember all those things we learned in middle school science. Everything has a reaction, and messing with the oceans and bodies of water will cause a huge one.

Okay, enough of my rant today! Make it a great one!

 

Mama Cow vs. Fly Fisher

 

 

 

 

Yes, there is a story behind this. I will get to that later on in this post.

Wednesday I attended the Fly Girls fly fishing class with Morgan Buckert, a local fly fishing pro in the area. We started off with with some fishing early in the morning on the Big Wood River. There was little action to be had. The one fish I got decided to jump out of the net as I was getting my camera ready. The smoke also started rolling in, so we called it a bad day of fishing around noon and headed to eat some lunch. After eating, the class portion started. I learned how to tie a few different knots. I also understand why dad wears those goofy looking glasses when he ties on a new fly.  It takes patience! We also learned all about the different flies around the area and their hatches. Thats cool and all, but I’ll stick to the fake flies.

Big Wood River

Thursday I took another drive up to Stanley. That also meant driving the crazy roads again. The second time around was not so bad. I left 30 minutes before I needed to so I could stop and be a history nerd and look at the historical markers along the way.

Alexander Ross

He came across this summit searching for beaver on September 18, 1824.

He traveled along this road, not paved of course.

Gold!

Levi Smiley found gold on Smiley Creek in 1878. Vienna was s thriving mining town with a $200,000 twenty stamp mill to crush gold. There were 14 saloons, 3 stores, 2 meat markets, a bank, hotel, sawmill and 6 places to eat. More than 200 buildings vanished when this city became a ghost town after 1900.

What it looks like today.

I am sure there were other professions in the town too….

Sawtooth City

Gold was discovered here in 1879. By 1882, there were 3 saloons, two places to eat, a meat market, store, a Chinese laundry, blacksmith shop, mills, and about 90 people building their town. Four more years went by before miners worked out a system to process their gold. 200 miners were employed in 1886. One disaster after another led to suspension of work in 1892.

Sawtooth City today

I arrived to my destination at Sawtooth Adventure Company. I found to be one of the few girls on this trip. Go figure. There was a boarding school there to go on a trip with about 30 boys. Fun… They made it their mission to try and ram my kayak and flip me over. Their mission failed. Ha! I made it through with only one little mishap. I got stuck on a rock, dead center. After paddling and moving back a forth something finally gave and I was off. I was paddled to catch up, a fly fisher nearby yelled, “Gnarly dude! Look yourself up on YouTube!” I haven’t. Hopefully there will be some pictures from the trip since I did not want to pay for a whole CD.

After we returned I headed off to the Sawtooth Museum. Very, very, very tiny. Here’s what the inside looked like.

Mini wagon

“They just couldn’t make a living up here.”

Indians

On the way back to Sun Valley, I stopped at Red Fish Lake. The picture will explain.

Mountain lake.

I stopped at the fish hatchery next. I had no idea what I was looking at, but it looked cool.

Oh boy!

Trout

Hatch away

On the drive down I noticed the smoke coming in. The wind changed. I also passed a dozen firetrucks headed up to the area affected. From what I have been told the fire is huge and still spreading. The news said it might keep going until the first snow occurs.

Smokey the Bear isn’t too happy.

Today was my last day of fly fishing. I had the very good looking Argentinean guide today, Carlos. We headed to Lost River on the other side of the mountain to get away from the smoke. We drove through Sawtooth National Forest and Challis National Forest. The road = scary. Gravel and only one way down. Very high. Glad he was driving. We passed cattle, roaming cattle. Then I learned that there’s farms up there. People live up there, hardcore cowboys. We got to the river and hiked a mile or so through bushes and got to the spot. No fish.

We headed to go upstream, when two other fishermen said not to cross where we wanted to because there was a mama cow and calves behind the bush. We turned around, went back down and crossed at another point. No sign of cows. Good. Carlos was messing with something and told me to go on. I turned the corner and theres a baby cow and it starting mooing. I froze. Carlos froze, and then we hear it. Mama cow comes charging. Carlos yelled run, and I ran. Mind you, wearing wading boots and waders does not make it easy to run. I just had to make it across the crossing and over the fence. Splat. Wading boots stuck in the mud, feet aren’t moving. Mama cow is closing in. Carlos grabbed me, I hit the bank. Lost a boot, but somehow flipped over the fence without hurting my fly rod, or me.

Carlos then tells me that the same mama cow probably, chased him last week. What a day. Only 3 fish. No pictures since I landed on mine when I hit the ground.

The Lost River

Once the smoke started to roll in we called it a day. An exciting day for sure. Tomorrow is going to be relaxing since I can’t really move my body as of now.

 

 

Technology Hates Me

It has been about 3 weeks since I got my new computer. I can finally say  that I am now done transferring everything over. Technology hates me. I tried to transfer everything over wirelessly, but that didn’t work. So I manually transferred everything over. Good grief I have a lot of pictures. That is what this post is dedicated to, my life though some of my favorite pictures. Here we go.

My brother and I. I have no idea how old I am here.

Here’s another one!

18th birthday. Still short and so much skinnier.

First semester in AOII. Fall Fest at Cumberland

Saying goodbye to the Land Yacht

Little Jimmy D.

Eric Church… there will be a reoccurring theme here…

Jimmy Buffett Concert, or the night the rain poured down

Spring break with some of the best guys ever!

Mexico…

BVI’s

Heli Pad. Nootka, Island, BC

Sunset in Green Hills

Hot air balloon ride in Tuscany, Italy

Fishing in the Keys

Climbing at Bandalier National Monument, New Mexico

Graduation with Professor Bell

Precious Abbie

This concludes the enormous amount of pictures post. That is all.

America

Happy birthday America, a day late. Sorry for the belated wish, but I was out celebrating on the water yesterday. It was a very relaxing day and also very nice to get out on the water. They held fireworks here on Tuesday.

Dad came into town about two weeks ago. He was here for a short time, but it was great to see him. We went fly fishing the day after he got here. 6:30 am. Whew, early day. Very early. It was fun, the guide, adorable. We went fishing for redfish. 

They all stay together and when they move they create small waves. It’s really neat to see them move about. They also get spooked real easy. Dad plans on coming back in the fall since we will have become expert casters by then. Hah. Totally different than fishing for trout out west. Casting 10 feet v 30 feet. HUGE difference. I am going to get a lesson from extremely good looking guide this coming Sunday.

Also, while dad was here, I got a new computer. Woo! I also got a GA stop at school! Woo! This is not much of a post. Sorry about that!