1274 Miles without a flat tire…

then BOOM …it finally happens along a busy stretch of Oracle Road.

So, I pull off the wheel, remove the blown tube and then do a finger check on the inside of the tire to make sure whatever popped it is not still sticking through. I don’t find anything and proceed to put in the new tube.

I am excited because it is the first time I get to use my new CO2 cartridge pump for a quick refill. As the tire fills, right in front of my face I start to see the reason why the first tube popped. The tires are old (1274 miles old) and I see a small slit in the tire getting larger. I quickly try to release the CO2 from the valve so I can relieve the pressure, but alas, I was too late. My new tube blew up right in my face.  Had I been able to stop it, I think I could have limped home using the old trick of putting a $1 bill inside the tire where the split occured to protect the tube.

I knew the rear tire was on its last legs and had honestly planned to go and buy a tire after work today, but I was just a little too late. Oh well, I am glad I was heading up hill and not down …that could have spelled disaster.

Four calls in a row and I wake up my wife who comes to pick me up. Thanks to her I didn’t have to walk 5 miles back to the house and still try to get to work on time.

I did buy a new tire and two spare tubes at lunch today.

The moral: Don’t put off till tomorrow that which you know you should do today!

DAA

Caffeine Roller Coaster

Me on caffeine:

• Don’t want to get out of bed
• Don’t feel good until I have some caffeine (mainly coffee)
• Drink coffee with breakfast rather than orange juice
• Dependent on caffeine to start the morning and keep me going through the afternoon
• Dependent on caffeine to think clearly and concentrate
• Snack more often
• Tired and groggy anytime I don’t get the caffeine fix
• Can be irritable until I get coffee in the morning
• Trouble sleeping soundly
• Less healthy eating habits
• Often feel dehydrated because I drink more coffee/tea than water
• Addicted.

Withdrawal:

• Tired and groggy
• No concentration
• No energy
• Lack of motivation
• Steady headache
• Feel like the day is incomplete without morning coffee

Me off caffeine:

• Ready to get up and start the day
• Orange juice with breakfast rather than coffee
• Drink water steadily through the day rather than coffee/tea
• Don’t feel tired, groggy and just waiting for the caffeine to kick in
• Don’t need caffeine to get me through the afternoon (don’t need it at all for that matter)
• No withdrawal when I miss a dose of caffeine
• Don’t feel dehydrated
• Less inclined or wanting to snack
• Free of an addiction

I feel better, eat better and generally live better when I am not using caffeine to fuel my body through the day even when I am going on little sleep due to the kids or a late night out. My body just feels more balanced , less stressed and I consistently feel better through every day. I have the will power to kick any habit or addiction, but caffeine seems to slowly creep back into my life one sip at a time and before I know it I am at the top of the hill again struggling to stay awake and focus when I don’t have my dose of caffeine …I don’t like it.

Everything happens for a reason…

It seems, in my life anyways, that things happen for a reason and good things can come from bad. Here are some examples from my life in the past couple months:

• My trip to Page, AZ in July was a good time, but I did get stuck in the sand on a road in the middle of a wilderness area (There is another story as to why I was stuck, but that is another blog someday). The nearest civilization of any sort (Paria Contact Station) was a mere 25 miles where the first 2 miles is a sandy single lane mountain road (When I say sandy,  I mean 6″ to 8″ deep sand) followed by about 20 miles on a poorly maintained dirt road and ending with 3 miles of paved highway. The nearest town is about 30 miles and the nearest cell phone service (Verizon doesn’t cover the middle of nowhere AZ) is about 40 miles in Page, AZ. So, here I am in the middle of the desert smoking my transmission trying to rock the car enough to gain traction. It didn’t happen, but I was in luck when one of the forest rangers showed up on a normal routine round …helped me dig out (I did have my own shovel!) and taught me to put sticks and debris under the tires for traction. I was pretty worried because the tranny was smoking a bit when I was trying to rock it out and I feared I had done some damage (yes, I know …not the smartest decision). A further part of the story …we had a new clutch installed in the car about 8 months earlier and it never really felt right. It always shimmied and ground a little on takeoff and it was quite annoying. Well, my burning the clutch fixed the issue. The car has been shifting well ever since, so something positive came from that bad experience (although I may have shortened the life of the clutch …oh well)

• My trip to Indiana this week: Typically I rent the mid range car for a reasonable price and I don’t need a large vehicle, but I asked the lady at the counter if they were running any good deals for an upgrade. She told me I could get a luxury SUV for a mere $18, so I accepted. It is a GMC Acadia (While I am not a big fan of GMC vehicles, this one is really really nice). So, I have way more vehicle than I need, but it is nice to drive and the cost was minimal. Turns out, it was a great decision. I got a phone call at 8:45pm that the person my brother-in-law was riding with was coming down a steep grade, hit a pot hole and went over the bars around 30MPH and has a banged up knee, shoulder and a concussion. I had to go pick them up. I would never have gotten two bikes and two passengers in a mid size car, so my last minute decision to get the SUV happened for a reason.

DAA

Don’t put your camera away

How do you expect to take more photos if the camera is in the bag?

That’s the question I asked myself the other day. I find that as I have fallen further and further into photography as an art, I have lost the art of the snapshot. I find myself looking for the best light and the best angle and composition which is not necessarily a bad thing, but when the stars don’t align for perfect photos around the house I tend to leave the camera in the bag. Lately, I started to realize I am missing a lot of opportunities to capture family memories. It doesn’t have to be perfect conditions to capture a quick shot of your kids being goofy or showing you their latest project. Capturing the moment is what is important.

So, about a week ago I decided to leave my DSLR out of the bag and out of harms way, but easy for me to access when a great moment presents itself. I have not taken many photos, but this has proven a fruitful effort for me. I encourage all of you to keep your camera at the ready with a charged battery to capture those fleeting moments that are often lost in the shuffle to get the camera out of the bag and ready to shoot.

Here are a some snapshots I would not have had the camera been in the bag.

DAA

How sweet it is …to ride Brown County single track!

I am visiting my parents in Indiana for a long weekend and my brother-in-law loaned me a bike so we could go for an MTB ride at Brown County State Park. Thanks Mom and Dad for watching the kids!

It’s August. Typically the hottest and dryest month of the year and the trail is dusty and hot. Not this year. I could not have picked a better weekend for a visit. The mercury was hanging right around 70 degrees and it has been a wet summer, so the trails were tacky, cool and just awesome to ride.

I have not been on the trails since last fall and I have to say the HMBA builds some sweet trails. I rode Pine Loop and Schooner for the first time.

While Pine Loop is a beginner trail, it is still a lot of fun to ride.

Schooner is the expert trail with a lot of technical sections that require quite a bit of skill to pass. It was my first time. I consider myself a pretty good rider on technical trails and I got through about 80% of it. Of the remaining 20%, I attribute 12% to this being my first ride on the trail, 5% to some incredibly difficult sections and 3% to the fact I was not riding my own bike which I run in the 1×9 configuration so I have more ground clearance. I know, it’s all excuses, but that’s my story… Schooner is short of completion by about 5% and it is one hell of a technical trail to ride. It’s a lot of fun, but pretty darn hard.

Most of my riding lately is on the roads around Tucson or on the 50 Year Trail at the base of the Catalina Mountains and I have to say I really miss the Brown County Single Track and prefer it to the dry and rocky desert riding.

You just can’t beat trails built by mountain bikers for mountain bikers.

DAA

The man in the tree.

Do you ever take a photo and when you look at it later you do a double take of what you captured? I took the image below several years ago. The gray cloud in the background is from a large forest fire on the east side of Los Angeles, CA. My wife and I went out for a drive and I really liked this old tree against the blue sky, so we stopped for some photos. Later, when I was looking at this image I had to do a double take because it looks like a man is sitting in the hole at the base of this tree.

I have always wanted to get back to this location and check it out again because of how real it looks to me. I was there at just the right time to catch the shadows on this tree so it looks like a man is sitting in the trunk …it’s interesting what can be captured without even knowing it.

The man in the tree

The man in the tree - close up

I hate running …short distances

I don’t think I am alone on this. Anything less than 3 or 4 miles is just miserable. But, after I pass the 3 mile mark, my legs are stretched out and I feel like I could run forever. I curse myself the first few miles on every run and wonder why on earth I like this sport and why I am out for a run until I hit that mark and I am reminded why I like to run.

I ran a trail marathon last year and I have to say my favorite run was a 12 mile trail run in Brown County State Park. The distance just seemed right …not too long and not too short. It was a tough run from the North Parking Lot to Hesitation Point and back. After the initial cursing there was still 9 miles of beautiful trail to take in. It also helped that I was doing those runs in the Autumn …the prettiest time of year to be in Brown County. I miss those trails. Trails just aren’t the same in the desert. Everything here bites, stings, pokes or is venemous. The desert is beautiful and not much beats a run in the desert after the rain when the air so fresh and full of that desert creosote scent, but it just doesn’t hold up for me compared to the peaceful runs on the trails in Indiana.

There is one other run that sticks in my mind. I ran 18 miles in the Smoky Mountains last fall while training. Aside from the marathon, it has to be the single hardest run I have ever done. 5400 feet of elevation gain in the first 9 miles followed by a 9 mile 6600 foot descent which can be just as hard. It was a cold and wet day and I was in the mountains running alone with no choice but to finish the 18 miles if I wanted a ride home! It was hard, extremely hard, but when I finished, I felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.

I really do enjoy running. I like the simplicity of it. There is no special equipment, no chains to break and no tires to go flat. I put on my shoes and I run …it’s just that simple. It can get even more simple if running barefoot …but I find that is not quite my style.

DAA

50 Year Trail MTB Ride

Ever have those days where it just all seems to come together and you are hitting all the right lines on the trail …what an awesome feeling. Well, that wasn’t me today! I went down on my butt in some deep sand …first time I have wrecked in a long time. I came close to a couple collisions with some Joshua trees and some other gnarly, prickly bushes (what isn’t gnarly and prickly in the desert!). I cut a corner too close and slammed my right shin into a prickly pear and had to pull out as many thorns as I could on the trail. I was being a good citizen and picked up some trash left on the trail, part of which was a smashed aluminum can, and cut my thumb open shoving the can into my Camelback. On the final long rock strewn climb back to Catalina State Park I lost it on two corners where the bike slid out from under me on some rocks. It just didn’t come together today.

Look at the bright side, I was out on my MTB without a care else in the world for 28 miles …a rather painful 28 miles today, but 28 miles on the MTB none-the-less!

DAA

Overrated Tourist Attractions

This Article – Overrated Tourist Attractions lists The Alamo as one of its locations to skip. I visited The Alamo earlier this year and I have to agree with the article. Only a small portion of The Alamo is still standing and it is extremely crowded to visit. Parking is very limited and you have to pay and then walk to The Alamo. I was looking for photo opportunities and left pretty well empty handed except for a few snapshots I later deleted.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is a long history of war and death that goes along with The Alamo, but that is really of very little interest to me. This would be a great location for a war history buff that wants to see where the battle took place. These days it is all pristinely landscaped and doesn’t give you the sense it was ever a blood bath in history.

And, for those of you begging to ask the question …No, The Alamo does not have a basement!

DON’T skip the entire Mission Trail just because The Alamo is a dud. The remainder of the missions offer excellent photo opportunities and the crowds were minimal when I visited. They are also in better condition with more of the original buildings and walls standing and much prettier. I was there early morning and late evening to catch the best light. All of the missions are locked up after visiting hours, of course, but you can still walk the grounds where you will find plenty of photo opportunities during the magic evening light. These missions were much more interesting than The Alamo and definitely worth the visit.

Another great thing, they are all free to visit.

Here are a few photos from my trip. If you like the photos here, I have a lot of other photography on my site: Douglas Adams Photography

Thanks,

Douglas Adams

Mission Concepcion

Mission San Juan

Mission San Jose

Mission San Espada

Coming soon to a sky near you.

The Perseid Meteor shower peaks next week on August 12th & 13th. This is a great opportunity for some nighttime photography.

The Perseids is a great meteor showers to observe, producing up to 60 meteors per hour at their peak. This year’s peak occurs on the morning of August 12, but you may be able to see some meteors any time from July 23 – August 22. The moon will provide some interference in the early morning, so the best viewing will be in the evening before it rises. The radiant point for this shower will be in the constellation Perseus. Look to the northeast after midnight.

Here are a few pointers for capturing the night sky:

1. Camera: Any digital camera will do that you can set some manual options. You will need to be able to turn the flash OFF. One reason is to respect the other observers and another reason is your flash is useless when shooting the night sky. You will also need to be able to set at least a 10 second shutter speed and adjust the ISO.
2. Stay away from light pollution: I plan to shoot somewhere from the top of Mt. Lemon in Tucson, AZ. Any city, big or small, will put light pollution into the sky. The further you can get from any type of light pollution the better. Any stray light will find its way to your sensor (or film if that is your preference) and tend to cloud or haze your image a little.