Photo of the Week - February 16-22, 2015

Photo of the Week - February 16-22, 2015|

Sunset on River Road, San Manuel, Arizona

This day would see us (Eric Peffer and I) spending quality photo time in Oracle State Park (Oracle, Arizona) and then along River Road in San Manuel, Arizona.  Our journey along the trail system and then the Kannally Ranch House in Oracle State Park was good, but lighting for photography was sketchy at best.  After the stop at the historic ranch house we headed toward the Galiuro Mountains and San Manuel.  No clear destination, just back roads and an exceptional and very inaccessible mountain range.  

As we rolled along River Road the sun began its final dip into the Arizona landscape.  Eric parked in a area that was only a couple miles from the last time we were in this area.  That trip was especially remarkable as we watched the sun vanish behind thick cloud cover near sunset.  The Galiuro Mountains behind us, suddenly began showing a beautiful golden stream of light across the range.
We were surprised at the changing scene and were able to capture some epic photos.

The photo above is from our recent trip.  The Arizona sunsets continue to amaze me.

Photo of the Week - February 9-15

Photo of the Week - February 9-15

This photo was taken on Sunday, February 15th from my parent's back porch near Tucson, Arizona.  Not much of a story behind the photo.  Simply a walk out the back door with the camera.  If only photography was always that easy. 

Photo of the Week - February 2-8, 2015- Arizona BASE Boogie

Peralta Cliffs Base Jump

My photo of the week draws a pretty good portrayal of life in the desert southwest.  An outstanding sunset, stately saguaro's, serious lack of clouds, jumbled array of rock & mountain topography and yes, a base jumper.  

I can fairly easily include all of that list on almost any day of the year taking photos, except for that elusive jumper.  This jumper is tied to the popular Arizona BASE Boogie, and my boogie connection is through a good, base jumping friend of mine, Gauge Score.

I get a small bundle of credit for ushering Gauge into adventure sports.  I introduced him to bungee jumping, and he has taken adventure to new heights (and cliffs, antenna's, bridges, etc.).  Sporting only a couple of sky dives and a single base jump (tandem), I am a long leap from real base jumping and livin' the life, but I am still jazzed to have been at the event.   My friend, Eric Peffer and I did our best to capture the amazing jumps, the stunning scenery, and the fun moments that a crowd of crazy people will bestow.

After taking over 800 photos (whew!), I chose the photo up top as my favorite. We had shot at Saguaro Lake early in the day and ended up at the Peralta Cliffs.  This is the only photo that I snapped that had a base jumper and the sunset.  There were only a few that came down that late in the day and it took one to go a little off course to sneak in the disappearing orb in the sky.  I was lucky to get a few saguaro's  into the frame and to get the reflection of the sun on the canopy.

Oh, and one last note.  This jumper happened to be the only naked jumper of the day.  You get to witness the 'G' version of of his clothes-less flight. 

The real photo of the day award goes to Eric for taking the shot of me, below.  The landing area had around 70 people and he did a great job of framing it, sans people, with a glorious backdrop.

The Unleaded / Diesel Sign

The Unleaded / Diesel Sign

We were on our way back to Tucson, Arizona, after putting on the Viva Bike Vegas cycling event in Las Vegas, aboard a very large, and a sluggishly slow Penske Truck.  A full tank had gotten us to Kingman, AZ and it was now time to feed the beast.

a slow mode of transportation

Marco and I were in the Penske and Richard was driving near us in a rental SUV.  Thankfully, Marco had taken on the duty of driving because that was the last thing I wanted to do.  My past experience driving one of these beasts was very shaky and involved two large California cities and driving aimlessly around trying to find overnight parking in the congestion of downtown San Francisco. Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled about getting behind the wheel of a large truck again. 

Abandoned store/gas station in Kingman, AZ

Before filling the beast, Richard handed me the keys to the SUV and said I was free to take off if I wanted to.  So we switched vehicles, but I decided to wait and follow them to Phoenix where I would take a different road that would route me home north of Tucson. 

But we never got that far.  As they pulled out of the gas station and rolled about even with where I was parked near the highway entrance, the Penske sputtered to a stop in the middle of the road.  

Apparently, someone (and I am not naming any names here...) fed the beast with regular gasoline instead of diesel.  Science experiment #1 would tell us that they had just enough diesel gas in the line to make it to the highway entrance, not an inch closer.  

It was going to be a long night.

So we huddled up around how were going to handle our dilemma.  Eventually phone calls were made and we were told salvation would be parked behind us in 45 minutes.  Exactly 45 minutes our salvation stepped out of his wrecker and greeted us.  We knew that the evil gasoline would need to be sucked out of the tank and diesel put in its proper place.  We also knew that this was and going to be a costly mistake.  Little did we realize, that there is a safety mechanism that prevents gas to be siphoned from a Penske Truck.  The roughly 50? gallons would have to be extracted by a basic straw. 

As you can imagine this took awhile.  So I decided to use my free time to see what I could do with my camera.  I was surprised at the results.  With nothing better to do I found and conquered: 

1.  An abandoned store/gas station that was well hidden (and probably why it went out of business).  Interesting graffiti and the perfect Unleaded/Diesel sign that perfectly portrayed our journey's adventure.  The main building was accessible and led to an interesting exploration.

2.  Cool rustic fence line that caught the last rays of the sun.
3.  A dirt road that led to some beautiful sights.

4.  One last patch of sun as it moved into darkness

An unusual photo opportunity, but was kind of glad that it opened up.  

Photo of the Week - January 26 - February 1, 2015 - 'Rain in the Desert'

Photo of the Week - January 26-February 1, 2015
'Rain in the Desert'

Record rain fall pounded the Tucson area this week.  Much needed, but the search for stellar photos was horribly hampered.  Records fell as a Pacific storm unleashed 1.39 inches on Friday(January 30), and another 1.41 inches drenched the city on Saturday(as of 6pm). These 2 days would contribute about 1/4 of our yearly total. A drop in the bucket, for my previous residence in the rain forest of Sitka, Alaska.
U.S. Weather Data working overtime reveals Sitka with 87+ inches of rain a year with 33 inches of snow fall.  

Mt. Lemmon, rising above the city, would receive 5.4 inches of liquid sunshine (term borrowed from Washington).

This rare occurrence must be a sorry sight for those seeking the desert during Superbowl week, 2+ hours of pavement from Tucson.  

A unique, missed photo, of a coyote out my window, was my flash of nearly good fortune amongst dreary weather and a week of blood sugars that were not among my best, and were keeping me somewhat caged indoors.  I fired the camera 3 or 4 times as the coyote passed my point of view.  It would have been classic stuff since Canis latrans had some interesting behavior.  

Guess my camera settings had been 'nudged' as the photos were total black.   The setting might have worked had a lightening strike hit at the exact time as I had taken the photos. 

The rain began to fall on Friday and I watched it rain.  And rain.  And rain some more.  The water began to spill onto the deck and seep toward the house.  When water begins to create an H2O imprint in the desert then it is photo time.  I grabbed the camera and caught many photos including the one at the top of the page. 

Photo of the Week - Lion lookout over San Xavier del bac Mission, Grotto Hill, January 19-25

Photo of the Week -  Lion lookout over San Xavier del bac Mission, Grotto Hill,  January 19-25

This week I was on a requested photo shoot at the San Xavier del bac Mission (completed in 1797) in Tucson, Arizona.  The request was unique as I was asked to use a 35mm camera and take slide photos.  An artist in Kansas will use the slides to transpose onto a pot, so he can work on the intricate details of the mission's front facade, onto the pot.  

After I shot the mission with both the 35mm and digital camera (for myself), Eric Peffer and I strolled over to Grotto Hill, next to the mission, to get a few photos from a different location.  It was an interesting find to come across 2 lion statues, situated 1/2 way up the hill.  These two cast iron lions, patented in 1875 and installed in 1908, sit atop pillars at an entrance path to a religious grotto.  

Our timing on Grotto Hill was more luck than planned, but it was perfect.  We had arrived at the mission to catch sunrise for best lighting, and the best situation to improve our possibility of photos of the mission, sans people.  We had, somewhat, succeeded.  
We watched the sunrise teasingly wrap around Grotto Hill and inch toward the iron cast lions.  Once the rays reached one of the lions, our cameras fired away.  The magic moment came and quickly dissipated and we were off to capture Tubac, Arizona and San Jose de Tumacocari.  

Let's Do It! (Part 1)

Let's Do It!  (Part 1)

Roger back in his home state, via spandex

I had met Roger Burke many years ago and the early days of friendship included cycling, learning about the fine art of coffee (our biggest sponsor on our bicycle tour was a coffee company!) and spilling stories of our lives and the goals and dreams for the future.  Being linked via the velocipede,  I had even shared my aspiration to pedal across the country.  

Ready to roll, Tucson, Arizona 

I only knew a couple of key facts about the energetic and good humored guy.  Mainly, that he was a bicycle racer, who was not showing any discernible interest in loading a touring bicycle with 30+ pounds of stuff and moving at speeds that would be terrifyingly slow for a racer.

3 days after the  cycle America conversation, I  crossed paths with Rog and all I remember him uttering was 'Let's Do It'.
Whaaaaa?????   Is it time to go get more coffee?  My observation and analysis of this bicycle racer was 100% wrong.  We were going on a little road trip.  

Our first night was spent with the Woodridges in Willcox, AZ.  Their daughter got on her bicycle the next morning to join us. 

The summer was square upon us and we would have to fly out the door asap. The calendar allowed us about 11/2 months  to prepare for this rather detailed adventure. With a departure date of August 31st, we were asking for rather cold weather and extremely short days by the time we grinded up the Appalachians, but we were game, and we had already turned in our escape to adventure slips at work. 

A rather difficult camping spot on the cement-hard soil in a pecan orchard in Garfield, NM

As I write out this story, I am aware of the fact that I really should not be writing about bicycle tales from the back roads of America.  2 weeks before the journey, I had seriously injured my back at work.  Somewhere lost in the stubborn zone and sketchy optimism that it would all work out, I continued to plan and pack.  Training had stopped, abruptly.  Come August 31st I was planning on mounting my trusty 2 wheeled steed.    

Albuquerque, NM

It was about a week before the trip, amidst daily visits to the chiropracter and/or physical therapy sessions from hell,  I spilled the news of my disintegrating health, mixed with my resolve to buck up to my calendar plans.  At this point, I had not even ridden my bicycle with any of my substantial piles of bicycle gear, clothing, food, diabetes supplies, toiletries.  I did lighten the load in one area.  My wallet would be shockingly empty.  

A great sign in Oklahoma

August 27, 28, 29, 30........no riding.  Still in pain.......

August 31st, I got on my bicycle.  81+ miles to Willcox, Arizona. 

Part 2, coming. 

We had approximately 10 miles of dirt road (in Kansas).  Appropriate time to have bicycle issues.