Balloon Festival

This is a great shot of the Balloon Festival here in Lake Havasu City earlier this month.  It was taken about 8 AM.  There were about 80 balloons this year, the 3rd year of the event.

I didn't take this picture; it was forwarded to me.  Trish and I were in Puerto Vallarta at the time.

Puerto Vallarta II

Marina and Croc

We spotted Mr (Ms?) Croc taking a siesta when we were strolling around the marina.  Resuming our walk, we bumped into a gringo lady, told her about the crocodile.  She commented, "It's not supposed to be there."  Odd thing to say, I thought.  Sounded like Croc was her pet and she'd trained it to stay away from the marina.  Trish and I thought her comment was hilarious.  I should have asked her, "Where is it supposed to be?"

The view from our restaurant, above and below.

PV is situated in a coastal plain surrounded by rugged mountains, the Sierra Madre (mother mountains) Occidental range.  Condo complexes, homes and boutique hotels cling to steep slopes at the south edge of town, taking advantage of the fantastic views.  We had dinner at an elegant restaurant at one of the boutique hotels, a feast for both eyes and tummies, above pix were taken there.

Nov-May is the dry season and the tourist season.  Heavy rains occur July-Sept.  PV averages 52" precipitation per year; for comparison, Portland, OR averages 36".  Lush, subtropical vegetation abounds in PV, lots of palm trees (none of them native), bougainvillea, scores of other colorful plants I can't name.

Puerto Vallarta

We're here for 7 days, staying with John and Molly, old friends from OR, who rent a condo here for 3-4 months each winter.  Great weather, highs in low 80s, lows in high 60s.  Mucho gringos come here in winter.

The Millennia Statue

The Malecon is a wide, mile-long pedestrian walkway with the ocean on one side, 100s of retail stores and restaurants on the other.  There are several bronze sculptures along the way, including the Millennia Statue at the north end; it represents the evolution of mankind.

The Sail

The Sail marks the south end of the Malecon.  It's all lit up with colored lights at night.

Looking north, towards downtown with Malecon on right.

Another bronze sculpture, the Puerto Vallarta Dancers.

Trish and I had lunch here.

Can you find her in the picture?

Climbing

Before going digital in 2003, all of my pictures were in slide format.  I had a slide projector, collapsible tripod screen and a 1000+ slides in Kodak Carousel trays.  Several years ago, I purged the slide collection, keeping only about 130.  I just finished digitizing the keepers and will post some here on slow news days.

For several years, I was big into hiking, climbing and backpacking.  I joined the Mazamas, a mountaineering club in Portland, OR, and trained with them: belaying, roping up, rappelling, learning how to use climbing harness/ice ax/crampons/pitons/carabiners, etc.  Seriously technical (rock) climbing, with all the hardware and gizmos, wasn't my thing.  However, sitting on the summit of a glaciated peak at sunrise was definitely worth the many hours of arduous climbing it took to get there.  
In 1988, I climbed Mt Hood with a small group of (mostly) experienced climbers.  Here are the pix.

The man.  The mountain. The ice ax.

Standing in the parking lot of Timberline Lodge after the Mt Hood climb.

Roping up to cross The Hogsback.

If not roped up, a slip here would be fatal.  You'd slide several hundred feet

and get splattered against jagged rock or drop into a fumarole and get cooked.

Summit!

The climb started at 2 AM and took 7 hours.  It's safer to climb in the wee hours

because later in the day, the heat of the sun melts enough snow and ice to loosen rocks.

Getting whacked by a softball-sized rock hurtling downward at 50 MPH

 causes a severe headache.  On the plus side, it would be your last headache. 

Eeeeeeeeeeeee-ha!

The descent.

Once past the dangerous parts, it's quick and fun.  You sit down on a large trash bag

and slide (glissade) about 2000' down the mountain, using your ice ax as rudder and brake.

You can slide darn near all the way to the parking lot.

You need to stay away from skiers, though; it really pisses them off when you zip

across their path, plowing grooves into the nicely-groomed ski slope.

Oops!  Ice axes aren't very precise steering mechanisms.

Totally Nuts VI

Scene I
It's a large dump truck with a bright yellow cab.  I'm driving it on a narrow, gravel road which happens to be the long driveway leading away from the family farm in MN.  And get this: I'm all spiffed up, wearing a nice business suit, white shirt, tie, polished black dress shoes.  Best dressed dump truck driver ever.

My right-side tires are on the edge of the steeply-banked road, driver-side tires are nearly at the bottom of the ditch and the truck is at a crazy angle.  I fear it's about to roll over.  The steering is messed up, won't allow me to veer right, up and onto the level road.  Finally, I stop fighting it and steer the truck down the bank to the left and straddle the ditch so the truck is level.



Scene II
I arrive in a city, which is in a foreign country of the Asian persuasion.  How I managed to drive a gravel truck from MN to Asia in the blink of an eye will forever remain a mystery.  After parking the truck on a side street, I start looking for access to the main drag and the business office which is my final destination.  But, there's no passage to main street, no connecting avenues or alleys.  I open a large door that looks promising, only to discover it's a huge coal storage building.  A guy comes out of a door to my left, the back door to a long, narrow restaurant; he says I can walk through the restaurant to the street, and I do so.

Scene III
The business office houses a dozen worker bees, all scurrying around doing whatever they do.  I have no idea what kind of business is conducted there.  The boss is a bright young woman who is delighted to see me because she wants me to be the lead on a new project in some backwater country, a place they've never done business before.  I have the knowledge and experience but have no interest in the assignment.  Smiling and nodding but never saying a word, I leave the office and head back to my truck.

Scene IV
Can't find the truck.  Did somebody steal it?

Dream over, gotta get up and pee.

I know what inspired part of that dream: shortly before I 'retired' from corporate management, I was included in a proposal for an engineering project in Mogadishu, Somalia.  The project did not come to fruition and even if it had, I would not have accepted the assignment.  Somalia is one hell of a mess, a mess of corruption, violence, religious fanatics and pirates.  No way, Jose.

Snow?

Yep, snow, right here in Lake Havasu City.  Never thought I'd see it, and indeed, it is a rarity.

Mid-morning, yesterday.

Pancho is tough, keeps playing his squeeze box no matter what.

That pup tent on the left is covering the pygmy date palm.

It was just planted 4 days ago.  Great timing, huh?