Photo of the Day (6/03/08)

by Jamie Rhein on

There are some items you can look at and pinpoint exactly where the picture was taken. JasonBechtel snapped this in Sante Fe, New Mexico, capturing one item for sale in the Southwest that gives a nod to the desert/ranch scene and a little Georgia O’Keefe. I found a cow skull once when I was hiking in New Mexico and thought my brother might like it. Since there was still some grizzle on it, (it wasn’t as gross at it sounds,) I soaked it in bleach for a mighty, mighty, mighty long time.

If you click here, you’ll see another one of Jason’s shots that captures another aspect of New Mexico. Oh, how I miss those sunsets.

If you have a photo that captures somewhere you’ve been, add it to the Gadling Flickr photo pool.

Gun-friendly national parks possibly coming soon

by Jamie Rhein on

I’ve been in national parks from Acadia in Maine to Glacier in Montana to Zion in Utah to the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. (You can start humming “This Land is Your Land” if you like.) I’ve always felt safe–aggravated sometimes by over-sized RVs, but safe.

I even felt safe when I was hiking in Glacier with my husband, then boyfriend, when we saw a mother grizzly bear and her cub in the distance. We were far enough away from them that they looked like dogs. Even when my husband, then boyfriend, said, “All I have to do is out run you if they come for us,” I felt safe.

Evidently, I may not have been as safe as I thought. If I had had a gun, I’d feel safer. That’s the general idea of the proposal that is on the table to allow guns in the national park system. The people who think this is a good idea must have seen the “The River Wild’ several times over. That’s the flick when Meryl Streep‘s character takes on Kevin Bacon’s character–the bad guy, during a family raft trip down a river in some western state. It was filmed in Montana and Oregon.

There are people that think this idea is about as dumb as they come. According the this article in The New York Times, The national parks are supposed to be family-friendly. Family-friendly places don’t have guns. Look at this picture taken in Yosemite by James Gordon. Is there any place that looks more family-friendly than that? Plus, there is a chance someone feeling threatened might kill an animal when there isn’t a threat at all.

Personally, I’m on the side of folks who aren’t happy with the idea of guns in national parks. I’m a fairly calm person, but I know what it feels like to not find a parking space because some large vehicle pulling another large vehicle is taking up more than one space–or what it’s like to not be able to get around a large vehicle pulling another large vehicle on a windy road. Add summer heat, limited vacation time and you have to pee, but can’t stop because there’s no room to pull over, and you’ve got trouble. “Road Rage at the Grand Canyon” coming to a theater near you.

Gas pump woes: More than just the price

by Jamie Rhein on

I just read in this New York Times article that the increasing gas prices in the United States are creating problems at some gas pumps–actually all gas pumps. It’s not because people are throwing themselves on the hood of their cars weeping as the total bill climbs.

I just had a flash of a movie scene. Ben Stiller in the persona of his Something About Mary character–the high school prom guy, cleaning the windshield of his car, weeping–his tears are falling in streams, mixing in with the cleaning solution from the gas station squeegee. Those weird serenaders are in the background singing a gas pump price tag lament.

No, this is not what is happening at the pump. What is happening is that some pumps have pump computers too old to handle the $4 plus a gallon amount. They are stuck at $3.99. As a temporary solution until the new computers arrive, gas station owners are charging half the dollar amount at the pump and doubling the total at the cash register. They have official permission to do so, (There is an application process.) I bet that’s a psychological jolt when someone goes to pay. If you happen to come across an old gas station pump in your travels, this is one situation you might come across.

Another interesting point the article makes is that the modern, computerized machines are breaking down more often because of the speed the pump’s mechanism needs to turn to get higher and higher numbers. The higher the numbers, the faster the numbers turn, so the faster there is a breakdown. This is my understanding.

What is the limit of the new pump computers you may wonder? Just how pricey could gas get if one uses them to project ahead? $9.99. This is like Y-2K, but this time there is a problem. It will take about five months for all the pumps to be updated because of the back log with filling orders.

Canopy tour of Ysterhout Gorge

by Jamie Rhein on

Here’s another version of canopy tours, much different than the ones in Hocking Hills, Ohio and near Kuala Lumpur. At the Ysterhout Gorge in Magaliesberg, South Africa, trees are sparse, but the gorge is mighty. This is a well-done edited version that shows each step of the experience. The scenery is gorgeous. The family in this video consists of a young girl as well. You really know how much you trust a tour guide when you send your child flying along a cable, feet dangling high above the rocky ground. There’s a point where my heart would jump. Part with fright, part with their excitment–and I’m the one who once took my 3 month-old on long boat rides in Thailand, passing him above the water while he was strapped in a car seat carrier. Here is a resource to find canopy tours in South Africa, plus a Gadling post from former blogger Erik Olsen that presents options in other places.

Canopy Tours: Ohio and Malaysia

by Jamie Rhein on

People give me tips on where to travel whenever they have been some where they think I would like. A friend of mine jumped out of her chair in the middle of a sentence, remembering a place she went this past weekend. She fetched a certificate from the Hocking Hills Canopy Tours, saying, “This was great.”

From the description of the tour, and from what my friend said, it proves that outdoor adventure and thrill can be found in Ohio, a state where a lot of it is flat as a pancake. The scenery of Hocking Hills thrills me from the ground. It’s perfect for hiking, biking, and roaming around in glorious woods. Being hooked onto a zip line for a tour that soars through trees at treetop level sounds awesome. This is the stuff of the Amazing Race. There are skybridges, rock cliffs and rappelling. There is a two for one deal. My friend said I should take my daughter. I think I might.

There is another canopy tour I have been on that’s a far cry from Ohio. At the Forest Research Institute in Malaysia in Bukit Lagong Forest Reserve not far from Kuala Lumpur, you don’t travel through the trees on a zip line, but by hiking on a series of suspension bridges set high in the leaves and branches. There are many trails to explore with your feet firmly on the ground as well. I went here with a friend of mine. How much I perspired has been erased from my memory–kind of. What I do remember is the lushness and beauty.