You Go Hiking With The Shoes You Have

Donaldson Cave_1
Originally uploaded by Blackwyr.

...not the shoes you want.

The weather cleared up on Wednesday, and I got through at the customer site early enough that I was able to do a little sightseeing. Upon hearing that nearby Mitchell, IN had a memorial to native son Gus Grissom (an astronaut who died in the Apollo 1 fire), I headed that way.

It's located in Spring Lake State Park, and it was unfortunately already closed by the time I got there. I took the time to drive around the park for a little while, until I saw signs pointing to a trail to Davidson Cave; I parked the car and started walking. There's a well-maintained trail, with walkways and steps down into a ravine, at the bottom of which is a fast-flowing creek. Following the creek upstream leads you to the entrance of the cave, from which the creek flows. The temptation was strong to go exploring further, but office clothes and dress shoes (not to mention a lack of safety equipment) don't lend themselves well to delving in ice-coated caves. And that well-maintained trail down is remarkably steep on the way back up.

I headed west from there to French Lick, and drove through some surprisingly pretty terrain on the way there. Southern Indiana is hilly, not unlike western Kentucky, and both regions are full of caves. The area grew on me as I went along; granted, there's not much in the way of tourist appeal, but it can still surprise you. Looking to my right as I drove through Paoli, there was a hill completely covered in snow: it's Paoli Peaks, a small ski resort* in the last place you'd expect one.

Apparently there's a notable Amish population, judging from the road signs warning of horse-drawn buggies. I didn't get to see any, though.

And, of course, the gallery has been updated.

*(Resort? It's kind of small for a resort, but what else would you call it? It's got snow-makers, and folks ski there, so I guess it's a resort.)

In Transit: Scottsburg, IN

Update: Tragedy! The Detroit game is being shown online tomorrow night. No hockey for me!

I'm currently in Scottsburg, Indiana, and working on my calculus homework is going to be the most interesting part of my day. I can't complain too much, mind you; it is still true that a bad day on the road is still better than a good day at the office.

I drove, this trip. Air fare out of CHA was too much, and driving to any other airports to then fly out would ultimately have taken more time than just driving up here (about a 5.5-hour drive). It wasn't a great day for driving; overcast, and occasionally rainy. But it wasn't bad, either.

Best road sign of the trip: You know those road signs that list the restaurants, gas stations, etc. at a particular exit? At one of the signs in Kentucky, it proudly listed the "KY ACTION PARK". All you would have to do is hyphenate that first part to make the innuendo complete.

I don't want to go to that park.

There are, allegedly, Places Of Interest nearby, but I've looked at the list and there's not a lot going on. And even if there were, the weather would preclude seeing much. It's not even real rain; it's that mist that somehow makes everything wet without it actually seeming to rain at all, despite the clouds.*

So, here I am. On the plus side, the internet connection here at the hotel (Hampton Inn and Suites**) seems quite good, and I should be able to watch the Chicago/Detroit game online without it looking like a slideshow. In the mean time, I've got Shoutcast for tunes, study material to work on, an eBay auction to watch closely as it runs down***, and a small bottle of scotch.

Tomorrow, I visit a customer in Salem, IN, about 15-20 miles west of here; we'll see if the weather improves.

*(Most lakes and ponds still seem partially frozen-over, legacy of the very cold weather that the area has endured lately. But not now: highs in the 50s.)

**(I stay at Hamptons a lot, for two reasons: reward programs, and free hot breakfasts.)

***(Pentax K10D camera body. Never mind that I'll have to go out and get a lens for it. Drool.)

Strange Itineraries

Well, it's turning into a busy travel year for me, compared to last year's sedentary pace.

• February 20th-22nd: Salem, Indiana. Oh yeah, this'll be an exciting one. The most fun on this trip is going to be on the drive.
• Early-Mid March (TBA): Brooklyn, New York. To visit a prison. In Brooklyn. Sometimes I wonder if they're trying to get rid of me.
• Early April (TBA): Atlanta, Georgia. Yep, another prison: USP Atlanta. See? It's a plot.

And then probably out to the Midwest later in spring.

New Pictures Are Up

Climbing Back Up
Originally uploaded by Blackwyr.

And up and up and up; the new ones are from my trip to Detroit, and from hiking out at the Stone Door this past weekend.

And Here We Go Again

Yep, happy Horny Werewolf Day, everyone. More information on the charming origins of our commerically-mandated Day Of Romance can be found here. Werewolves, blood, and sex, all replaced by chocolates, roses, and cards; we're a diminished generation in some respects, I think...

Can't Sleep

Hopefully, posting to my blog will help; I bore the hell out of me sometimes.

Well, the good news is that the Red Wings beat the Coyotes on Wednesday, with a final score of 4-2. The Joe Louis Arena is one of the classic venues in the NHL, if by "classic" you mean "pretty old". The layout is distinctive, and the place as a whole has a small feel to it, though its actual size is quite large enough. The outer ring of the arena is absolutely covered with paraphernalia from seasons past: pictures, banners, displays, everything. And, of course, the obligatory souvenir stalls and food vendors.*

The marketing department for the Red Wings' organization desperately needs a copyeditor. Misspellings and bad grammar abound. On the damn Jumbotron, no less, a video clip that I don't doubt gets played before every game proudly displays the writer's incapacity to determine the difference between "your" and "you're".

The crowd started out quiet; not much point in cheering, I suppose, when there aren't any visiting team fans to appreciate it. Red Wings fans really are the same as fans everywhere else, though. Most fall into easily defined categories: The Expert, The Coach, The Bitch, The Screamer (inevitably right behind you), and the list goes on.

Music is a key part of every arena experience; the music at the Joe alternates between good stuff and the generic weak techno shit they play at every single other arena. Robert Lang scored, so they played "He's So Fine" (you know, with the chorus "ooh lang ooh lang ooh lang"). Zetterberg scored an insane goal, whereupon they showed a video clip from the Zorro trailer, with the Zorro silhouette cutting a flaming "Z" on the screen, and an audio clip, saying "I've seen a lot of things...but that was awesome."

If I never hear a Jumbotron exhorting me to "make some noise" ever again, it'll be too soon. I'm sick of it. I'm not a goddamn caged gibbon, there to shriek on cue. And then play starts, and all the noise vanishes, which makes you wonder what the point was anyways. You want me to cheer, then show me something awesome. Everyone cheered for that Zetterberg goal; everyone cheered when Hasek made some great saves. It's more genuine to hear a few voices in a section chanting "Let's go Red Wings!", than all of the blinky-light induced howling.

So yeah. Hockey at the Joe was quite an experience. Pictures shall follow. Oh, and Nashville Parking, all is forgiven.** Getting to the arena isn't too bad; there are road signs clearly guiding you to the ungodly-huge parking garage. Getting out is another matter, as the walkways are jam-packed with thousands of fans all leaving at once. It's literally shoulder-to-shoulder all the way back to the garage (insert cattle sound-effect of choice here), and then you get to sit in your car for about 45 minutes just to leave.

*(I didn't try the food there; things were massively crowded, and I just didn't feel like standing in the lines. I kind of wish I had tried it, just to get the full bowel-rumbly experience.)

**(Not you, Anaheim Parking: you still suck.)

In Transit, Detroit, MI

Well, I've arrived safely in Detroit. It's a balmy 19 degrees outside right now (apparently I missed the worst of the cold), with a wind chill making it feel like 8 degrees. It isn't as bad as it sounds, at least in the middle of the day. It's surprisingly dry right now, and clear; sunlight mitigates more of the cold than you'd think.

What that really means is that you don't notice how cold you really are until you come inside.

There's not much snow on the ground. When I say it's windy, I mean that they've got gusts of up to 20 miles per hour; that has slowed down, too. Given the way the snow is distributed on the hills--snow on one side but not on the other--I guess things just weren't still enough to have thick accumulation.

Finding the hotel is much easier with Google Maps, and with the benefit of daylight. The last time I stayed in this hotel was in November of 2004, and finding the damn place drove me into screaming fits. The roads aren't bad right now; they really know how to keep them clear here. And it's surprising how much of the general layout of the area I remember, even after a couple of years.

Driving a Kia Spectra and being charged way too much for it; still, not a bad little car.

Recommended reading, while I'm thinking about it: the Outremer series by Chaz Brenchley. It's a fantasy series based on the real-life Crusader kingdoms of the 11th-13th centuries. Brenchley is a British writer, most well-known for his horror and mystery writing, which informs his fantasy style a great deal as well. It's super good stuff, very low on genre cliches (which is a nice change). It was released in the UK in three novels: Tower of the King's Daughter, Feast of the King's Shadow, and Hand of the King's Evil. In the US, each of these books was divided in to two volumes, for no reason I can fathom other than to sell more books.

It's time to go get some lunch; I'll write more after the game tonight. Go Wings!

Molly Ivins, 1944-2007. RIP

"I have a grandly dramatic vision of myself stalking through the canyons of the Big Apple in the rain and cold, dreaming about driving with the soft night air of East Texas rushing on my face while Willie Nelson sings softly on the radio, or about blasting through the Panhandle under a fierce sun and pale blue sky....I’ll remember, I’ll remember....sunsets, rivers, hills, plains, the Gulf, woods, a thousand beers in a thousand joints, and sunshine and laughter. And people. Mostly I’ll remember people."

--Molly Ivins, 1976

Well, it's not like it wasn't expected, but it's still a damn shame. Not even the snow can cheer me up now.

More details here.