Bugs. . . and Philip!

Late Friday evening, I picked up my nephew Philip at the Colorado Springs airport. He's here for his week-long vacation in Colorado with his favorite aunt (OK, his only Aunt on this side of the family!). As a student at a private school back in Louisiana, he's required to do so many hours of community service. Since the USOC is a non-profit organization, and he loves sports, it make sense that he'd come hang out with me for a week and do some hours! Actually, this is his third summer of working-vacations!

Last summer when he wasn't helping our Performance Technology Dept. at work, he was helping me shovel rocks out of my back yard! To make it up to him this year, I promised that we'd do no work away from work! Since my VW Fox no longer is able to support long road trips, I rented a little compact car for the weekend and Philip and I did some sightseeing. That huge bug you see in the first picture is actually a replica of a giant Hercules beetle bigger than the VW Fox that marks the turnoff for the May Natural History Museum of the Tropics. Am I the only one who sees the irony of this?! A museum of TROPICAL natural history in Colorado Springs?! The place where you have to spend $200 a month on water to get a glimpse of green on your lawn?! The place where Philip's nose has bled every day because of such low humidity (as did mine the whole first year I lived here)?! The place where I got snowed in by several blizzards this year?! I could go on and on, but I won't go any further!!!

After passing this gigantic bug on several motorcycle rides over the last year, I finally took the time to stop and check it out. Much more acceptable with a 15-year old nephew than with a half-dozen bikers!!! We weren't sure what to expect from a museum that was part of a campground well outside of the city limits, but we ended up being pleasantly surprised with what we saw for the $6 entry fee! What awaited were over 8000 perfectly preserved invertebrates. Lots of beetles, butterflies, moths, stick insects, spiders and even a fruit bat- all clearly labeled and easily viewed.

The museum is part of the collection of James May. Mr. May was born in England in the late 1800s but grew up in Brazil. In 1929, James May and his son John starting touring the country with their exhibit of over 100,000 bugs. The collection found a permanent home in their ranch 9 miles southwest of Colorado Springs. The whole collection isn't on exhibit at one time, but rather makes appearances as the displays are rotated. I asked the lady manning the counter why house the collection in Colorado Springs of all places, and quite off the beaten path at that. She said that the dry, arid environment here makes it a perfect locale for preserving and displaying the collection!

Philip and I marvelled at how vivid the colors were in a lot of the specimens. The bugs were displayed in a very scientific way, just like I had seen in natural museums around the world. Push pins to minimize the damage to fragile wings and legs (there was even a mosquito held up by a pin!) with small handwritten labels identifying each specimen by its lay name, scientific name and where it had been captured. Most of the bugs seemed to be from the Amazon region of South America and from a few islands around the continent. There was one display with an amazingly diverse group of bugs, both crawling and flying kinds. Upon closer examination, we discovered that everything in that case had been collected right outside of a building in Florida!!

After debating whether or not I should include this picture of a tarantula eating a hummingbird, Philip convinced me that my nephew Gavin would think it was cool! So, I leave you with this disturbing sight of wildlife having dinner and hope that the last picture that my niece Julia looks at is the one of the Disney-colored butterfly!

Philip will be here until the end of the week, so stay tuned for more adventures!

Health check up

Nothing exciting has happened since the great vacation in South Dakota last weekend other than I get hailed on almost every afternoon riding home from work. We all know how I feel about the weather here in Colorado Springs, so there's no use in me beating a dead horse (although I still kick it every now and then!!!).

Though not very exciting (relatively speaking anyway!), I came across an interesting website on one of my professional list serves. In a collaborative effort between Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, this website was designed to help you assess your risk for chronic disease. Now I know you're probably thinking that there are a ton of these out there and you already know which diseases you have a higher risk of developing, but this one has a twist. You click on a chronic disease state (cancer, diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis or stroke) and it takes you through a series of questions specific to your genetics, environment and lifestyle. The twist is that at the end of all the questions, along with your risk assessment is a summary of the things you could change to decrease your chances of developing the disease and a summary of the positive things you are already doing that contribute to a lower risk. The risk factors are all based on solid scientific studies, so the evaluation of your risk and ways in which you can change that risk are legit. Nutrition contributes to quite a few of these chronic diseases (both good and bad), so of course I am excited about a website that helps folks identify exactly what they could be doing nutritionally to help themselves. Especially for the folks I care about and want to be around for a good long time!!!!

I hope that you will click on the link in the post and educate yourself on what you could be doing to ensure that you not only live longer, but have a better quality of life during that long life!

Cabins & Highways

Deb and Sam did a great job of arranging everything for our trip. All I had to do was show up and be ready to ride! It's not easy organizing a dozen people for a four-day outing across state lines, but everything went smoothly with only a few minor hickups. We staged out of two cabins at a campground in Custer, SD. Paul, the owner, was super-friendly and didn't mind having 9 rumbling bikes on his property. As you can see, the cabins and grounds were beautiful and more than adequate. They were equipped with linen and kitchen supplies, all we had to do was grocery shop. We actually got three grocery carts full of groceries into the bags of half a dozen bikes!

Before heading out each morning, we made breakfast at the cabins. On the second morning, Kelly made the best biscuits and gravy I think I've ever eaten! Needless to say, I was off-duty as a nutritionist for the weekend!! One evening we BBQed and the other we made spaghetti and garlic bread. We defintely didn't go hungry on this trip!

With temps in the 90s and 100s, we stopped pretty often on the journey home. This was my first large group ride for an extended time. Everyone in our group rides together back in the Springs, so we were all pretty comfortable with each others' riding styles and levels. I'm happy to report that over the course of 1300 miles, there were no dropped bikes, crashes, run-ins or speeding tickets! There were the occasional inattentive and rude motorists who would cut one of us off in our formation, but other than that, no real hazardous situations!

Now that I know my residency in Colorado has an end date, I'm trying to enjoy as much of the Western territory as I can before I make the move to southern California. There's lots of good riding up here and I'm trying to fit in as much as I can before relocating. I've reconciled myself with my poorly manicured and mostly dead lawn by deciding that I won't remember a perfectly landscaped lawn 10 years from now, but I will remember the rides and friends I spend time with on the road. There's nothing like the feel of the wind in your hair and the sight of friends on bikes in front of you and in your rearview mirror!

I'm not sure what adventures await me next, but I'll be sure to post anything exciting, and maybe even not so exciting, that happens over the next few weeks.

Sturgis!

OK, so we were over a month too early for the bike rally, but we made the pilgrimage to Sturgis anyway! A few folks in our group have been to the Sturgis bike rally in the past and agreed that the riding is much better when there aren't thousands of bikers in town! Sturgis itself is a sleepy little town without much going on. Other than a few biker bars and leather shops, it was pretty much a nondescript town. Since I was the only one out of the obligatory all-black riding outfit (I'm the one in pink!), I bought a t-shirt (or two) at the Sturgis Harley Davidson shop!

Before riding up to Sturgis, we rode a really cool stretch of road called Needles Highway. If you click on the map, you'll get a larger version so you can see where we rode. Needles Hwy is just above the lightly shaded area of Custer State Park at the bottom center of the map. This map is from one of the Black Hills Harley shops and rates each ride by level of difficulty (Black Hills & Badlands maps). Needles lived up to its difficulty rating of 5 with lots of hairpin turns on roads without guardrails and one lane tunnels. It was hard to pay enough attention to the road with such beautiful scenery all around. I thought the road was named Needles because of all the pine trees. After lots of laughter at my expense, I was informed that it's name came from all the needle-looking rock formations along the route. Hey, if you can't laugh at yourself. . . !

The road through Custer State Park called the Wildlife Loop afforded us lots of opportunities to see animals in their native surroundings. This picture is of a heard of buffalo right off the side of the road. You can see some buffalo dung in the road which Kerby plowed through later down the road while he was busy checking out other wildlife! We also got up-close and personal with a rattlesnake in the road. I was thankful for the thick boots I was wearing as I passed within a foot of the reptile slithering across the road.

Much to the dismay of my friends, the temps stayed well into the 90s and low 100s most of the trip. The only reprieve from the smoldering temperature was when we hit a rain shower while riding in Spearfish Canyon. It's amazing how cold rain is out west! I tried not to gloat, but I was ecstatic over the hot temps. Finally, after being cold and shivering while riding for the majority of the year, I was comfortable on the bike. I think my friends finally understood how I felt riding in winter after riding in temps they found very uncomfortable. Even I will admit, 102 degrees on a motorcycle is hot, but I was only slightly uncomfortable while everyone else was wilting. I'm happy to report, however that we still thoroughly enjoyed riding the Black Hills even if it was a little warmer than most of the group would've preferred.

I'll do one more post tomorrow summing up the trip. Stay tuned. . .

Mount Rushmore & Crazy Horse

My vacation started Friday morning at 5:00 a.m. when a group of us met up for the journey through three states to Custer, South Dakota. After months of planning, twelve of us rode our Harelys about 10 hours where we spent the next few days riding the famed Black Hills. Actually, 10 of us rode and two drove a truck pulling a trailer with extra gear and space for any broken down bikes! The sightseeing ride the day after we arrived took us to Mount Rushmore.

It took about 400 men 14 years to sculpt the 60 foot busts of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt & Lincoln. This picture of me in front of Mount Rushmore should give you some perspective of how massive this thing is. Each head is six stories tall and each nose is 20 feet long. If the heads were actually attached to bodies, they would stand 465 feet tall!

Since work started on the monument in 1927, a lot of the modern day conveniences were not around yet. I read that the workmen had to climb over 500 steps everyday to work on the liknesses of the four presidents meant to represent the first 150 years of U.S. history.

This group shot was taken at the foot of Mount Rushmore. Standing are Sam, Deb, Kerby, Suzanne, David, Nate, Kim & Don. Kneeling in the front is me, Jerry, Kelly, and Tiffany. I don't know what everyone in this picture does for a living because when your knees are in the wind, riding experience carries a whole lot more weight than income potential! But just to give you a flavor of the diversity of this riding group, in this picture you will find a salesman, a mechanic, a couple with 8 kids, a soldier, a childcare provider and the 2007 Mrs. Colorado! You have to guess who's who!

Not far from Mount Rushmore is another impressive mountain sculpture- Crazy Horse. In 1948, a memorial to honor the traditions and culture of native Americans was started. It was decided that the likness of the legendary Lakota leader Crazy Horse would be a fitting tribute to the living heritage of North American Indians. The completed Crazy Horse sculpture will depict the Chief riding on a horse and will be 651 feet long and 563 feet high. The only thing completed thus far is Crazy Horse's head which stands 87 feet high (27 feet taller than the presidential busts at Mount Rushmore). We found it more than slightly ironic that the federally funded Mount Rushmore did not give military discounts to Armed Forces members, but the non-profit, donation funded Crazy Horse Memorial did.

So, what does a rowdy gang of bikers do at the end of a long day of hard riding? Have some ice cream and play Putt-putt golf!!! Unbelievably, a member of our group had never played putt-putt (Don't worry, I won't mention any names Kelly!). We had a blast up until the 15th hole, but by then we were all so tired, we just wanted to finish the game and fall into our beds. We got back to the cabins somewhere around mid-night and started another full day of touring the next morning. I'll keep yall in suspense until tomorrow on where we went!

Curling in Milwaukee

Last weekend, I went to Milwaukee with a group of colleagues to work with curling. For most of my friends and family reading this, I'm sure you have no idea what the sport of curling is about. That's because it's a winter sport and involves being in an ice rink!!! Check out this very thorough description of curling on wikipedia. This group picture is of USOC and Curling staff in the Petit National Ice Center in Milwaukee.

In a nutshell, curling involves "throwing" a 40 pound stone down a 146 foot sheet of ice. Throwing styles have changed over the years so that it's less of a throw and more of a slide. The ice isn't like ice you skate on. Water dropplets are sprayed over the ice to produce pebbles once they are frozen. The pebbles cause the rock to "curl" in one direction or another as it approaches the "house". The direction and speed of the curl can be controlled by sweeping the ice in front of the stone as it travels toward the house. The house is comprised of 12 foot concentric rings similar to a bulls eye. The two black spots on the ice in the picture is called the hack. The hack provides traction for the curler to push off of in order to throw the stone. It doesn't take a really hard throw to get the stone down to the house, but it does take a hard throw to get the stone down to the house to knock one or two 40 pound stones out of play.

This picture is of an elite curler throwing a stone with excellent form. After pushing off from the hack, the curler slides down the ice for a ways with the stone before releasing the stone to continue its journey down to the house. To the uninitiated, this isn't the easiest position to get into, especially while trying to balance yourself as you slide while concentrating on giving the stone just the right amount of speed and ensuring it's heading in the right direction.

As you can see from my miserable form, I don't have a chance of making the National Curling Team!!! The "bunny slope" of curling is to get pulled across the ice while trying to maintain correct throwing form. Compare my form to that of the elite curler in the previous picture and it becomes painfully obvious that my balance and coordination are not exactly at the elite level!! I got a pretty good basic understanding of the game during the 3 days we were there, but to truly grasp the tactics, strategy and nuances of curling would take a year.

Usually on these business trips, I try to stay an extra day to check out the city in which I'm working, especially if I haven't been there before or if I have friends in the area. I had been traveling so much lately that I didn't think about staying an extra day until after the tickets were booked. As it turns out, Milwaukee isn't so far from Chicago where Jim & Karla are stationed. Now you know you've got good friends when they are willing to drive an hour to have dinner with you during a two hour break in work! I hadn't seen them since Dave's retirement in Oklahoma back in January, so it was great to get to spend a little time at dinner with them.

So, with my winter weekend behind me, I'm preparing for a mini vacation this weekend. Friday morning, me and 10 friends on bikes will meet at 5:00 a.m. to start our ride up to Custer, South Dakota. We have a cabin rented and will be riding around Custer National Park, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil's Tower and the town of Sturgis. It's a little over 400 miles from here and will be the longest ride yet for me. I'm with a group of very experienced riders though (and a couple of bike mechanics), so I'm much more excited than nervous about the ride! I won't have access to a computer while on this trip, but I'll post some pics upon our return. Thanks for checking in!

Back on the bayou

The day before I left, a couple of friends and colleagues accompanied me to Houma to see something of Louisiana other than just New Orleans. I'm so lucky to have a family that enjoys introducing "outsiders" to our way of living. My dad and brother boiled over 100 pounds of crawfish, crabs and shrimp for Nanna and April to sample! They were both great sports and dug right in. Peelings flying and juice dripping down your arms to the elbows- now that's eatin!

Along with eating boiled seafood, April and Nanna got to see a couple of gators in our back bayou. They didn't understand why I took them in a truck and on a four-wheeler instead of walking until April encountered a big fat snake on the ride back to the front! I think all was forgiven once they got to experience "visiting" Southern style!

I picked up a magazine titled Louisiana Life at the airport that had a cool article about the history of crawfish. I know, I know, I'm such a foodie geek! I love learning about the origins of different foods and some of the history surrounding them. Anyway, I learned that it wasn't until the mid-20th century before crawfish were elevated from a striclty peasant-food only consumed in times of food scarcity to the icon of Cajun food that it is today. This picture was taken along the front bayou at my parents' house and is of a crawfish hole. Here's an excerpt from the article that explains this interesting architecture:

Crawfish are aquatic crustaceans with gills that allow them to live outside water for exteded periods, so long as their gills remain moist. In order to survive [rising and falling water levels], crawfish burrow into the ground in search of moisture and to escape predators. As crawfish excavate their burrows, they bring balls of mud to the surface and build chimneys to protect and seal their homes. Crawfish mate in open water before entering their burrows to wait out the dry season, but females lay their eggs in the burrows and many are hatched there.

Wow, now I feel really bad about kicking over all those chimneys when I was a kid! I hope you enjoyed this food lesson and the other posts on my Louisiana trip. My next scheduled travel is to Milwaukee in a couple of weeks. I don't think there will be time for much besides work, but I'll try to find something interesting from the trip to post about!!!