Sequoia National Park

So, to celebrate Jessie's graduation (and give her a much needed break), I took a long weekend from work last week and we headed up to Sequoia National Park for a little camping. We had originally planned on heading up Friday afternoon, but a little car trouble nixed that. No problem though, as we packed up everything Friday night for an early departure the following morning. We left the house bright and early on Saturday, and made it to the southern edge of the park by noon.

For our first day, we were in for quite a temperature shock! We had originally planned on staying at higher elevations, so we packed mostly cold weather clothes. Well, since plans got shuffled around a bit, we ended up camping around 1000' and boy was it hot! It was around 105 degrees when we got there, but luckily it dropped down to around 70 at night. We took a short hike to the nearby stream, ate a delicious pasta dinner, and went to a campfire and learned all about the local (and very active) bear population from one of the park rangers.

Sunday was our first full day in the park. We packed up camp early, and enjoyed a beautiful, slow, and twisty drive up the mountains. Nearly 2 hours later, we reached our first destination: Crystal Cave. Out of the miles of caves that are located within the park, Crystal Cave is the only one open to the public. We took a tour of the cave, which was quite interesting considering that the park generators were down for the day. So, we got a bit of a unique ,unlighted tour and got to do our cave exploring with flashlights!

Inside Crystal Cave. Good thing our flash worked!

After leaving the caves, we continued up another few thousand feet and finally saw our first sequoia grove. It was amazing! Seeing these enormous trees in person was quite an experience, and not one that we will soon forget.

General Sherman, the worlds biggest tree.
(next to Jessie Stuffel, the worlds littlest Lieutenant!)

The second night, we found an awesome campsite tucked away between some huge boulders and a pine grove. We got a nice fire going, and decided to experiment with some foil dinners. Dinner didn't exactly turn out how we planned, a little on the cajun side albeit edible, but the s'mores later on more than made up for it. =)

Campsite, day 2.

On day three, we took our time and enjoyed a great breakfast. Once everything was packed up, we were on the road again, and stopped at a few more sequoia groves to admire these majestic giants. We also made a little detour to hike up Moro Rock. Moro rock is an ancient volcanic dome which has a staircase cut into the side of it. After a healthy hike up approximately 400 stairs, you were rewarded with a fantastic 360 degree view. To the north an west were mountains that make up the continental divide, to the south was a breathtaking view of the valley, and to the west were more pine and sequoia groves.

Southern view from Moro Rock.

After that we had a nice leisurely drive down the mountain side, and made our way back home. Overall it was a fantastic trip, and we would highly recommend this destination as a must see! Natural wonders aside, the National Park Service has done an amazing job at preserving this wilderness while still making it accessible to the public. We were very impressed with the cleanliness of all the facilities, from the visitor centers to the campgrounds. Not an easy task for a park that sees thousands of visitors each year. So if you'd like the chance to see some of these national landmarks yourself, come out and visit before it's too late! (And if you liked these pictures, be sure to click our Shutterfly link on the sidebar where you can find many more!)

Space 100

Congratulations to Jessie for graduating Space 100 last Friday! After many long weeks of studying all about the U.S. Air Forces' space capabilities, she was awarded her diploma and even recognized as a Distinguished Graduate! In order to receive DG, one had to first have an academic average of at least 98%. Then you had to be nominated by your peers, and selected by your superiors by showing outstanding qualities in academics, attitude, leadership, officership, and servitude (among others).

Now today marks the first day of her official missile training, as she begins Missile IQT. Although I'm not exactly sure what that means, it sounds pretty cool. Jessie could tell you all about it though......but then unfortunately she'd probably have to kill you. Wish her luck!

Assignment Drop!

Today was Jessie's official assignment drop..........and she got assigned to F.E. Warren AFB! Her graduation date is September 23rd, so it looks like we will be moving to mountains and wide open country of Cheyenne, Wyoming this fall. The area of the country has some amazing wilderness, and we already have a few friends in the area, so needless to say we are quite excited. So come visit us on the California coast before it's too late!

Central Coast Adventure Challenge

The Rodeo's all loaded up and ready to go. Don't we look outdoorsy....

We did it! Last weekend held quite a bit of excitement for us, as we entered (and completed!) our first ever adventure race. We certainly weren't the best team out in the field, but we weren't the worst. Completing 3-4 miles of kayaking, 8 miles of mountain biking, and 5 miles of trekking we came in with an elapsed time of 5h 13m 18s. Here's a little run down of how it went:

Pre-race:
Before the race each team was given a topo map of the area, which you can see below. The hiking and biking sections were outlined on the map, but the kayaking portion was yet to be defined. Along with the map, we also received a "passport," which we had to punch at various checkpoints along the race. We then got all of our gear ready, staged our bikes in the transition area, packed up and got ready to run!

Blue is the mountain bike route, and red is the trekking route. The red square was the transition area, where we started and finished each event. WP's (waypoints) were areas with information, and had further instruction on where to go next. CP's (checkpoints) were the midpoints of each section where you got your passport punched. Click for a bigger image!

1st Leg: Kayaking
Overall, this was probably our strongest event. The start of the race began with a 100 yard dash to the launch ramp, where all of the teams scrambled to mount their 2-man kayaks without ending upside down (we did quite well at this, but not everyone was so successful). The first task was to paddle to a check point about a mile away. Here they had a map posted, with 5 additional locations spread around the lake. It was our job to collect 3 of the 5 check points, punch our passports, and head back to the launch ramp. We devised our strategy, figured out which of the 3 check points we were going to collect, and were off. We fell into a pretty good cadence early on, and even passed a few teams as we paddled along the lake. After collecting CP's 1, 4, and 3 we raced back to the transition area to grab our bikes.

Race start: Everyone make a run for the kayaks!

And they're off! The first few kayakers head out onto the lake.

Mini-challenge 1: A-frame Stilts

After we hit land, we had to perform a mini-challenge before the second leg. Working together, we had to cross about 15-feet using a large wooden a-frame. The frame was about 6-feet tall, with two ropes attached at the top. One person (Jessie) stood on the cross of the "A", and used the frame like a pair of stilts that were connected together. The other teammate (me), used the ropes to steady and balance the frame as the first person rocked it back and forth to move forward. No sweat!

2nd Leg: Mountain Biking
The mountain biking was probably our most challenging section, considering that Jessie had never really mountain biked before! It was easily the most hardcore mountain bike course that I had ever ridden (which I thought was awesome), but it was not the ideal way to start out for someone who was new to the sport. The fear of dying as we careened down the mountain aside, Jessie did really well throughout the entire course and we even held our position for quite some time. Until, that is, Mr. Murphy struck. At around mile 6, we heard the dreaded "pssssssstttt" that every biker fears. We moved off the course to asses the situation and found that not only did Jessie have a flat front tire, but also a 2-inch long gash in the sidewall . It's a good thing that Boy Scouts taught me to always Be Prepared, so I fished out a fresh inner tube and a roll of electrical tape from my pack. We performed a little trail-repair magic, and were good to go! And after two more miles of limping along with a band-aided tire and no front brakes, we finally made it through the second leg.....but lost quite a few positions while we were at it.

Mountain bike carnage:
Tire = 0, Big Pokey Rock = 1

3rd Leg: Trekking

The third and final section of the race was a 5 mile trek through the mountain, forest, ponds, and river beds that surround Santa Margarita Lake. The race organizers were particularly evil for this section, and included a few bushwacks straight up the side of the mountain that had several hundred feet of elevation gain. And luckily for me, the primary fauna in this region of the state appeared to be poison ivy. So here I sit a week later typing this, covered from head to toe in nice itchy red bumps and pink calamine lotion. Yes folks, I paid money for this. Woohoo. Anyway, the trekking was pretty grueling, but when we weren't on the uphill climbs it went pretty quickly. The sinister race organizers got their last laugh, though, once we got to our final checkpoint. The punch for the final CP, just happened to be tied to a float in the middle of the stinkiest, slimiest, mosquito-farm of a pond that you've ever seen.....and the water was COLD! I was the lucky candidate from our team that got to jump in to retrieve the last punch, which I thanked Jessie for very much. =) From this point we made pretty good time, until Mr. Murphy struck again about 1/2-mile from the finish. Right around this point, one of the trail markers had been knocked down. It also happened the the trekking trail intersected itself as well. We had a 50-50 shot at which way to go, and of course we chose the wrong way. After about a 30-min detour and a several more positions lost, we were back on track and headed to the finish line.

Mini-challange 2: The Cargo Net

The finish line was in sight....but not so fast! After kayaking, mountain biking, and trekking for over five hours, the only thing that stood between us and the finish line was a 20-foot tall cargo net. These guys never quit! So, we made a last-effort scramble over the net, gathered up all of our gear, and ran across the finish line hand in hand.

Post-race photo op: After all that and they're still smiling!

Needless to say, we had quite a bit of "adventure" for our first adventure race. All in all, we had a great time together, and would love to do it again. Hopefully next time though, Mr. Murphy decides to pick on someone else for a while and it goes a little bit smoother! =)

Overdue update

It's been a month since my last post, so I believe that it is time for a long overdue update!

Our trip back to Ohio was great, so thanks to all of you that we were able to visit. It was really nice to take a break from our daily routine and catch up with all of the family and friends that we haven't seen in so long. We ate so much food that week it was rediculous.....visiting Ro's, Panara, Swenson's, Papa Bears, Street Treets @ UA, Bennigans, Chipotle, Chef Jerry's and all of the other wonderful places that we don't have out here in California. Most importantly though, CONGRATS to Jason and Lisa on the official adoption of their new daughter! The adoption finalization was wonderful, and Jessie and I were very greatful to be home so that we could take part in it.

So after budgeting our mileage on the Saturn, and a lot of taking the bus....the Rodeo finally runs! It's been on the road for two full weeks now. A little behind schedule, but better late than never I suppose. I actually got everything together several weeks ago, but got burned by using some cheap after-market orings in the cooling system. Long story short: Orings failed, lots of coolant everywhere, and a few hours of disassembly (again) and a few choice words later I found the culprit. So, we spend yet another week waiting for the OEM rings to ship to our house, put everything back together the following weekend, and all was good. Check out the Rodeo rebuild link in the sidebar for some updated pictures . ----------------->

And now for the biggest new as of late, JESSIE STARTED TRAINING! After eight long months of "transitioning," she is finally getting to do what the Air Force has sent her here for. Yay! Now her schedule consists of classes from 7:30-5 everyday, lots of studying, and tests tests and more tests (sound familiar?). It's been tough so far, but she is adjusting well, and putting in a lot of effort to do the job she was sent here to perform. I'm so proud of her. =)

Last weekend we decided to take a little break, and head up to Montana de Oro State Park. It's about an hour and a half north of us, and has miles upon miles of beaches, seaside bluffs, eucalyptus forests, and mountains. It was a quite windy, overcast, and a little cold, but we made the best of it and got in a few miles of trail hiking. It was our first time up there, and hopefully we will get many more opportunities to explore before we leave. Here's a few pics from the day:

Here's the cove close to the ranger station. The wind funneled right into this area and there were lots of people flying kites.

Here's a shot of the bluffs. It's a little hard to tell from here, but it's about 90 feet straight down!

Here's our hikers.....it's getting windy!

Here's our little trail hike up one of the mountains. What a view!

Last but not least: Call us crazy, but we've entered into a team Adventure Race this weekend! For those of you who aren't familiar with the sport of adventure racing, it's a bit like a triathlon with a few variations. Swimming is replaced with kayaking, road biking with mountain biking, and the running portion is on a cross-country terrain complete with obstacle courses. They also throw it a few kinks such as not having defined routes, and requiring that you know how to use a map and compass to get to some of the check stations. So the best team may not necessarily be fastest, but might have just figured out the fastest route. This particular race has a 3-4 mile kayak, 8-10 mile bike, and 3-5 miles of running. A big portion of the race also relies on teamwork, because you both have to finish together! Check out the link here, and wish us luck!

Planet Isuzoo

For those of you who might be interested in following my Rodeo project, I have a nice little write up about it going on a website called Planet Isuzoo. They have a message board where fellow Isuzu owners can go to ask for help, or just share their experiences. Here is a link to the page. I'll also add a link in the side bar (under our picture). Enjoy!

See you soon!

I finally got the whole passport fiasco sorted out, and was able to take my business trip down to Brazil. I only stayed a week, but overall it was a pretty good trip. I finally got to see one of the completed aircraft that I have been working on, which was VERY cool. The country was quite different than the US, but I look forward to heading back later this summer. Chance are I will be staying a bit longer next time, so hopefully I will be able to take a weekend or two and travel the countryside a bit. I've made a few good friends down there, which helped out a lot during my stay. They were able to show me around to some of the more interesting places in their city that I would have never found on my own. I tried all sorts of new things, from Brazilian chocolate, coffee, and barbque.....to their cachaca, which is the national spirits distilled from sugar cane. All of it was delicious! I did pass on the grilled chicken hearts, though. (ick!)

Project Rodeo is moving right along. I replaced the oil valve I needed to in the bottom of the motor, so now I just have a LOT of cleaning and assembling to do. We're going to get plates for it when we're in Ohio, so the plan is to have it running when we get back so we can start driving it.........finally!

I think that's all for now....see you soon!