Deep Zoom Photo Map

I decided to try out the Deep Zoom Composer and create a Deep Zoom Image of our trip using Microsoft Silverlight. The results are posted in the top box in the right pane. If you don't have Silverlight installed, it is about a 2 minute download and installation process, and well worth the effort.

Silverlight is Microsoft's new web technology that does everything Flash does and a lot more. In the Deep Zoom map, I've laid out some of my favorite photos from the trip in the vicinity in which they were taken. To explore the Deep Zoom image, you can grab the map and move it within the frame, and when you hover over one of the small pictures you can click to zoom in. The arrows will take you backward and forward to spots you've already 'visited'.

You can't really appreciate the full capability within the small space available in Blogger; a larger version would show the high resolution the photos are stored in, within the high resolution map.

Deep Zoom Composer is available as a free download from Microsoft, and the image itself is hosted for free at http://www.deepzoompix.com/. It was very easy to import my photos and lay them out on the picture of the map. Give it a try with your own pictures! I chose to lay mine out on a map, but you can layer and organize yours in any way your creativity inspires you.

The Best of the May Walkabout

Now that we are back home, we thought we'd capture the 'bests' from our trip. Here they are, in no particular order...

The best place we didn't stop, and would like to return to see: Lake Coeur D'Alene, in Idaho. We drove by it on the way home, and thought it was one of the most beautiful places we had seen:

Best souvenirs: Deb's charm bracelet from Carmel, and Steve's Mount Rushmore mug, which matches his favorite Lake Powell mug.

Food...

Best home cooked meal: ham cooked in Coke at Sally's. Best brew pub: Bend Brewing Company in Oregon, where we had a beer sampler, calamari for an appetizer and salmon pizza. Best pizza at Campisi's, in Dallas:

We had pizza with Sally and Art at the original Campisi, known as the Egyptian Lounge when Jack Ruby ate there the night before shooting Lee Harvey Oswald:

In a typical Internet "walkabout", I ended up reading 50 pages of the deposition Joe Campisi gave about his association with Ruby - and all I was trying to do was get a picture of the restaurant back in 1963, when Ruby ate there. So easy to go off on a tangent, on the Internet....

Best hotel: The Driskill, in Austin.

Best chain hotel: Fairfield Inn. After saying in an earlier post that our plan to stay at Marriott hotels wasn't working for us, we stayed at Fairfields in Bend, Seattle, Bozeman, Rapid City and Rockford IL - basically, the whole end of the trip with the exception of Portland, where we stayed at the Mark Spencer. We found the Fairfields to be a good value, plus their consistency was a welcome comfort on the long trip home.

We received our best insight on the final day of the trip, from a nice man working breakfast at the Rockford hotel. It had opened only weeks before, and was lightly booked. They had upgraded us to a suite, and were taking good care of their relatively sparse clientele. When I was getting breakfast, I told one exceptionally helpful gentleman that I was well acquainted with their breakfast setup, since we had stayed at so many Fairfields in the last month. He asked about our trip and why we were traveling so long. I explained that we were investigating possible places to relocate to and he asked me what we had learned from our walkabout. I said 'that no place is perfect', and he replied 'yes -- not until you make it so'.

It was an insight worth driving 7500 miles for.

The Drive Home: The Corn Palace

The other big event of Day Three was stopping by Mitchell SD to see the Corn Palace. We learned about the Corn Palace from our friend, Rick, who said it was a 'must see'.

The Corn Palace is an entertainment venue whose front is decorated each year with corn cobs specially grown to adorn the Corn Palace. This is how it looks in 2009:

We were fortunate to see the Corn Palace completely decorated, in its full glory, because we may have arrived while they were busy redoing it for the new year.

The corn cobs are cut in half, longwise, and stapled to the front to create the intricate designs. I've built a little montage of the five main panels currently gracing the Corn Palace exterior:


The designs were very topical, since we had just come from Mount Rushmore, had seen the Space Needle in Seattle, and the space shuttle was landing while we were there.

To make things even more perfect, I was able to get this shot of Steve with 'Mr. Corn':

I may be joking around a little, but it was actually a fun stop, and yet another reminder that all of America does not live on the coasts and we are a diverse and interesting country. It is worth noting that a performer coming soon to the Corn Palace was David Cook, the winner of last year's American Idol. He is a great and contemporary performer, I voted for him myself, so the Corn Palace gets some pretty good acts...

The Drive Home: Mount Rushmore

The drive home was a long one -- five days. We planned it so we would get a break on day three, which would be a short day of driving (350 miles) combined with a little sightseeing. Our biggest treat was Mount Rushmore, our first stop on Day Three, just miles from our Fairfield Inn in Rapid City, SD.

We had absolutely beautiful weather, as we did most days of our walkabout, with the exception of severe weather on the drive to Dallas. It was a picture perfect day, as you can see from this traditional shot of Mount Rushmore:


What you can't see in the classic view that we are all used to seeing are the new facilities that have been built-up around this national monument. When I first visited with my family, about 40 years ago, there was nothing much more than a parking lot and a trail through the woods. Now there are multiple buildings designed to frame the monument view, as well as house the gift shop, eating areas, theaters running films on the making of the monument, and an ampitheater. The ampitheater is the viewing area for the evening light show, which we were not able to see. You approach these facilities through this walkway full of pillars and flags:

Gutzon Borglum was the artist who planned and executed Mount Rushmore, and there are numerous homages to him, including this bust sculpted by his son:

I am very glad we took the time to visit Mount Rushmore, even though I was eager to get home. It was a beautiful work of art in a lovely setting, and it gave me energy to continue our long drive to Hudson.

The Drive Home: Devil's Tower

Our journey home is five days long. The first day was the hardest - a very long stretch to arrive late in Bozeman Montana. The second day was also pretty long, but it ended with short side trip to view the United States' first national monument: Devil's Tower in Wyoming.

Steve has wanted to see Devil's Tower since he first watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Apparently, this is the rock that Richard Dreyfuss sculpted out of mashed potatoes. Seeing it in real life, I tried to remember if he simulated the striations on the side using his fork... American Indians had stories that attributed the marks to the claws of a giant bear trying to reach some Indian maidens seeking refuge on the top of the giant rock:

Devil's Tower is about 30 miles off the interstate, and we forgot to check the gas gauge before heading towards it. Without the Garmin telling us the closest gas station, we may have run out of gas. We stopped at a small place with a sign claiming to have gas, but the old pump outside probably hadn't worked for many years. At least we met this friendly dog there:

He watched with interest as I shot pictures of the monument standing on a picnic table, trying to get a view over their fence. They had a 'viewing tower' there, but I would have had to pay them to use it, and I wasn't about to do that. We could have driven closer and probably found a better viewing area (a free one), but we were too worried about running out of gas before we made it back to the interstate and the gas stations the Garmin told us would be there. Next time we will check the gas gauge before heading out onto the backroads!

Seattle: University of Washington

University of Washington is just north of downtown Seattle, on Lake Washington. It is the most beautiful university we've seen on this trip, and perhaps the most beautiful I have ever seen. It is full of coordinated pink granite buildings, all in pristine condition. Below are the Art and Music buildings, sitting across from one another at one end of the quad:


The campus is oriented to frame views of Mount Ranier over the Drumheller fountain:

The Suzzallo graduate library is one of many of the pink granite buildings, and one of the most spectacular:

There is a statue of the university's namesake, George Washington, in the Central Plaza:

Miller Hall, built in 1922, has 44 'gargoyles' that are very contemporary in their look. Here are closeups of two of them:

We were very impressed with the campus, and think having this university in our 'neighborhood' would be a real plus for living in Seattle.

Seattle: Model Evaluation

The final city on this trip that we are considering as a future home is Seattle.

Seattle scores well on four out of five dimensions: accessibility (good hospitals and airport), quality of life (great university, great views, cultural diversity), climate (despite the rain in winter) and job opportunities. In fact, Seattle has the best job options we've seen.

The problem with Seattle is cost of living. Housing is still very expensive, even with the recent declines in prices. Overall, cost of living is 25% higher than Hudson. If you back out the housing differences, it is still more expensive. Taxes are a mixed bag: there is no state income tax, but sales tax is up to 9.9% - living here without a job would be very expensive.

Overall, the model looks like this:

Seatle WA (Decision)

• ●Seattle WA is a good choice for our next home.
• ●AND [1 of 5] : Seattle WA has a good climate.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Seattle WA has moderate winters.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : The number of days each year at or below freezing should be 10 or less.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : The average winter temperature should be at least 10 degrees warmer than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Seattle WA has a good balance of sunshine and summer heat.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Seattle WA has moderate summers in exchange for lots of sunshine.
• ●True
• ○OR [2 of 2] : Seattle WA has lots of sunshine but hot summers.
• ●AND [2 of 5] : Seattle WA has an affordable cost of living.
• ●AND [1 of 4] : Seattle WA has health insurance available for less than $1500 a month.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 4] : Seattle WA has lower taxes than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 4] : Seattle WA has a lower cost of living index than Hudson OH.
• ●False
• ●AND [4 of 4] : Seattle WA has good housing for less than $750,000.
• ●False
• ●AND [3 of 5] : Seattle WA has good work opportunities.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Seattle WA has good fulltime work opportunities.
• ●True
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Seattle WA has good freelance work opportunities.
• ●True
• ●AND [4 of 5] : Seattle WA provides a good quality of life.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Seattle WA can provide a healthy lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Seattle WA has neighborhoods that provide a walkable urban lifestyle.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Seattle WA has at least one neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : The neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90 has a crime rate no greater than 125% of the national average.
• ●True
• ●OR [2 of 2] : Seattle WA has areas with affordable nature 'compounds'.
• ●False
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Seattle WA can provide an inspirational lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 3] : Seattle WA has a high quality university.
• ●True
• ●OR [2 of 3] : Seattle WA has cultural diversity.
• ●True
• ●OR [3 of 3] : Seattle WA has beautiful scenery and views.
• ●True
• ●AND [5 of 5] : Seattle WA has good accessibility.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Seattle WA is within 2 hours of a major airport.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Seattle WA is within 30 minutes of high quality hospitals.
• ●True

We have not ruled Seattle out, mostly based on the work opportunities, but we both agree that the city would mostly make sense if one of us had a job offer before we came. We've looked at real estate, and so far we have not found a house that we like that is within our budget.

Portland to Seattle

When we left Portland for our drive to Seattle, we decided to go via the Oregon coast. We drove west, and in about one and a half hours we were in Cannon Beach. It was chilly and windy, but sunny. The Oregon beaches are really spectacular, with fine white sand, whitewater, and dramatic rock formations. This one, at Cannon Beach, is called Haystack Rock:


Even the 'plain' stretches of beach are beautiful:

We didn't have much time, so we settled for having lunch (salmon sandwiches) and vowing to return if we move to Portland.

Then we headed north into Washington and stopped by to visit an old school friend of Steve's, Tom, who lives in Longview. Tom lives in a pretty little valley where he's created his own small tree farm. This is the kind of view he sees every day:

With our side trips, it took us most of the day to reach Seattle, a trip that with good weather and traffic can take only two to three hours.

Japanese Garden - Portland

The Japanese Garden is just one of the many beautiful gardens and parks in Portland, City of Roses. This garden is located in Washington Park, as is the Rose Test Garden. There is a small fee to enter the Japanese Garden, but it is well worth it. It is a work of art, in every detail. This, combined with its setting amid giant fir trees, makes it a welcome oasis close-in to an urban area.

The hardest thing to capture in these pictures is the quality of the light. Since it is filtering through the large trees above, even on a sunny day everything is bathed in a green glow.

There is a path through the garden, and every bend has another pond, a waterfall, a pathway made of carefully laid stone, a bridge. There are also many places to sit and rest, or meditate on the beauty.

There are traditional Japanese gardens, such as this flat garden, or the rock and sand garden. A brochure provided at the entry explains each major section of the garden, or you can take one of several guided tours conducted each day.

If we move to Portland, and there is a house we've found that we are seriously considering, I plan on buying an annual pass to the Japanese Garden. I could see spending many hours here.

Portland: Model Evaluation

It's time to get back to the real reason for this trip, and that is to find a new place to live (and to develop the software that helps people evaluate good places to live). We've seen lots of good scenery, but it's been a long time since we were in a truly viable location for us. Now we have one to consider - Portland.

The model for Portland has some missing data. First let's start with what we know: accessibility is great -- good airport, good hospitals; quality of life is great -- walkable neighborhoods, affordable housing, great views and scenery; climate is good -- mild winters, nice summers, and only 1% less sunshine than Hudson, despite the rumors to the contrary. Work opportunities is a mixed picture: high unemployment and not many fulltime work opportunities, but a great Microsoft network here and good freelance opportunities, so that works for us. The unresolved issue is affordability.

We've looked at housing and we know that now, with the reduction in prices taking place, that we can afford a nice place to live within our budget. The published COL numbers say Portland is 2% higher than Hudson, but that is largely driven by the (old) housing prices. Back those out, and it is no more expensive than Hudson. There is no sales tax here, and property taxes, while high, are not as high as Hudson (which is unfortunately almost in a class by itself - 2% of appraised value). The unknown is availability and cost of health insurance. Oregon is a complicated state on health insurance and you can't get quotes over the internet. I have calls out to people to get some answers, but they've all gone for Memorial Day weekend, I guess.

So, the current model looks like this:

Portland OR (Decision)

• ○This town is a good choice for our next home.
• ●AND [1 of 5] : This town has a good climate.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town has moderate winters.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : The number of days each year at or below freezing should be 10 or less.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : The average winter temperature should be at least 10 degrees warmer than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : This town has a good balance of sunshine and summer heat.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : This town has moderate summers in exchange for lots of sunshine.
• ●True
• ○OR [2 of 2] : This town has lots of sunshine but hot summers.
• ○AND [2 of 5] : This town has an affordable cost of living.
• ○AND [1 of 4] : This town has health insurance available for less than $1500 a month.
• ●AND [2 of 4] : This town has lower taxes than my current home town.
• ●True
• ○AND [3 of 4] : This town has a lower cost of living index than my current home town.
• ○Undecided
• ●AND [4 of 4] : This town has good housing for less than my maximum house budget.
• ●True
• ●AND [3 of 5] : This town has good work opportunities.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : This town has good fulltime work opportunities.
• ●False
• ●OR [2 of 2] : This town has good freelance work opportunities.
• ●True
• ●AND [4 of 5] : This town provides a good quality of life.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town can provide a healthy lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : This town has neighborhoods that provide a walkable urban lifestyle.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town has at least one neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : The neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90 has a crime rate no greater than 125% of the national average.
• ●True
• ●OR [2 of 2] : This town has areas with affordable nature 'compounds'.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : This town can provide an inspirational lifestyle.
• ○OR [1 of 3] : This town has a high quality university.
• ●OR [2 of 3] : This town has cultural diversity.
• ●True
• ●OR [3 of 3] : This town has beautiful scenery and views.
• ●True
• ●AND [5 of 5] : This town has good accessibility.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : This town is within 2 hours of a major airport.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : This town is within 30 minutes of high quality hospitals.
• ●True

Hopefully, I will learn that health insurance is available and affordable. If so, Portland will be our strongest candidate so far.

Hood River and Columbia River Gorge

One of the advantages of going through Bend instead of driving up I-5 is that it let us approach Portland by driving west through the Columbia River Gorge. This has spectacular scenery, much of which is difficult to photograph since there are relatively few places to pull off the road. I hear driving on the Washington side works better, but we were on the Oregon side and had limited photo opportunities. Here's one shot of the rock cliffs, though:


A great place to stop and spend some time is the town of Hood River. Hood River is an outdoor enthusiast's paradise, with both river and mountain sports. This shot is from the park by the river - the gorge walls aren't very high here, but then that's why they could build a town in this spot...

One of the favorite water sports is parasailing because the wind coming up the gorge is always strong. You can find people out here every day, parasailing and partying...

The town is yet another picturesque slice of America. We've run into a lot of these pretty little towns, but then again, we've planned our route to hit as many of them as possible!

Hood River has also been hurt by the recession. The real estate market seems to be strong, but the retail in town clearly shows the impact, with many open store fronts and 'for lease' signs. We asked about the Columbia Gorge Hotel (http://columbiagorgehotel.com/), an historic inn that Steve knew about and was told that it was closed, a casualty of the recession. It was in the process of being sold to a new owner when credit tightened and the deal fell through. We drove by and the grounds were still meticulously maintained, waiting for a new owner I guess...

Bend Highlights

Bend was a great stopover for our trip, even though we never considered it as a place to resettle - not enough work opportunities. It is a popular place for people from Portland to have second homes, and it is easy to see why. The town is named for being a bend in the Deschutes River, which runs right next to the downtown.


There is a wonderful city park along the town side of the river, and the night we were there it was full of families walking and playing. The weather in Bend is much sunnier than Portland, though we have had sunshine our whole visit in the Northwest - veeerrrry deceptive! We used to live in Seattle, so we know what it really like here (it's been known to rain occasionally). But inland, past the Cascades, it is dry and sunny, and Bend is a friendly town set in that nice climate. This is another shot of the Deschutes River:

The downtown is cute and has good restaurants and shops. We went to a brew pub and I was able to get a beer sampler, one of my favorite things to do.

Bend has been especially hard hit by the recession, which is not unusual for towns populated with second homes. All of Oregon is hard hit; the unemployment rate is second only to Michigan, or so we hear. Something to consider as we weigh the possibility of moving here.

On the Road

In a land full of beautiful images, this is perhaps my favorite picture. We stopped off the road at a totally desolate place between Bend and Hood River. This is truly high desert, with very few trees and scrubby gray sage bushes. But the sky is incredible and the silence is broken only by birds singing -- the birds sounded like they came off one of those nature cds, too good to be real. I'm planning on getting this picture printed large scale; it's the only way to really appreciate it.


Mount Jackson was the next mountain we saw in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It is between Mount Jefferson and Mount Hood.

This is a shot I took at a rest stop on the way into Bend. I'm really missing my cats, in particular my red tabby Sage, so somewhere between Austin and Mesa I bought a 'fake Sage' at a rest stop. It's one of those stuffed animals that breathes and purrs. This is Steve with Fake Sage:

And here's a closeup of Fake Sage:

She rides in container we keep right behind the front seats, next to the sunglasses, bottles of water and computer power supply. Good for a laugh, but no substitute for my real furry friends!

Mountains from California to Bend

The drive to Bend is punctuated with one snowcapped peak after another. The first major mountain is Mount Shasta in northern California. Mount Shasta, or the "White Mountain" in English, a 14,179-foot stratovolcano, is the second-highest peak in the Cascade Range and the fifth highest peak in California. It is a member in the Cascade Volcanic Arc:

Just to the west of Bend are the Three Sisters, three volcanic peaks, each of which exceed 10,000 feet in elevation. They are the third, fourth, and fifth highest peaks in the state of Oregon:

Just to the north of the Three Sisters is Mount Jefferson. Mount Jefferson is the second highest mountain in Oregon:

Bend is a place where homes with spectacular views are available for reasonable prices. It also has a great downtown area. We would consider looking at real estate here, but it is too far from a major airport and has limited work opportunities.

Tomorrow morning we head to Portland...

Carmel Highlights

We really enjoyed our stay in Carmel. The motel where we stayed, the Dolphin Inn, is close to downtown with its shops and great restaurants. The motel is homey, with beautiful flower boxes - all of Carmel By The Sea is covered with greenery and flowers.


The Inn is also within walking distance of the Carmel Beach, my favorite beach for sitting, thinking and digging in the sand. To the south of the beach is Point Lobos:

To the north of the beach is 17 Mile Drive and Pebble Beach:

The beach is not good for swimming, however, having dangerous surf and riptides. For the most part, only the surfers are willing to brave the water.

We enjoyed our visit, but we didn't see any houses we could afford, so we moved on to Oregon. Our first stop is Bend, in the high desert.

Carmel CA: Model Evaluation

Finally, here in Carmel, the limitations of our current decision model become clear. The current approach, which uses only 'black and white' assessments (or green and red), does not give us enough flexibility to address a complex decision like the one we are facing. It works fine for Legal Apprentice, where ultimately a defendant must be found guilty or not guilty, but not for the tradeoffs of picking a new home.

My brother Vern had suggested to me earlier that I could build this model using the 7 point scales we use for assertions in Legal Apprentice, and that would indeed have given us more variability than the current model. The problem with this is that eventually the 7 point scales get rolled up into a yes/no, black/white, red/green decision. What we really need for this exercise is a scoring algorithm that rolls up into a 'so many points out of 100' type of conclusion. The Carmel example makes this very clear.

Here is what the current model looks like for Carmel:

Carmel By The Sea (Decision)

• ●Carmel is a good choice for our next home.
• ●AND [1 of 5] : Carmel has a good climate.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Carmel has moderate winters.
• ○OR [1 of 2] : The number of days each year at or below freezing should be 10 or less.
• ●OR [2 of 2] : The average winter temperature should be at least 10 degrees warmer than Hudson OH.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Carmel has a good balance of sunshine and summer heat.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Carmel has moderate summers in exchange for lots of sunshine.
• ●True
• ○OR [2 of 2] : Carmel has lots of sunshine but hot summers.
• ●AND [2 of 5] : Carmel has an affordable cost of living.
• ●AND [1 of 4] : Carmel has health insurance available for less than $1500 a month.
• ●True
• ○AND [2 of 4] : Carmel has lower taxes than Hudson OH.
• ●AND [3 of 4] : Carmel has a lower cost of living index than Hudson OH.
• ●False
• ●AND [4 of 4] : Carmel has good housing for less than $800,000.
• ●False
• ○AND [3 of 5] : Carmel has good work opportunities.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Carmel has good fulltime work opportunities.
• ●False
• ○OR [2 of 2] : Carmel has good freelance work opportunities.
• ●AND [4 of 5] : Carmel provides a good quality of life.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Carmel can provide a healthy lifestyle.
• ●OR [1 of 2] : Carmel has neighborhoods that provide a walkable urban lifestyle.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Carmel has at least one neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : The neighborhood with a walkscore greater than 90 has a crime rate no greater than 125% of the national average.
• ●True
• ○OR [2 of 2] : Carmel has areas with affordable nature 'compounds'.
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Carmel can provide an inspirational lifestyle.
• ○OR [1 of 3] : Carmel has a high quality university.
• ○OR [2 of 3] : Carmel has cultural diversity.
• ●OR [3 of 3] : Carmel has beautiful scenery and views.
• ●True
• ●AND [5 of 5] : Carmel has good accessibility.
• ●AND [1 of 2] : Carmel is within 2 hours of a major airport.
• ●True
• ●AND [2 of 2] : Carmel is within 30 minutes of high quality hospitals.
• ●True

It says that Carmel does not pass our test, yet we have looked at a couple of houses here and are seriously considering making an offer on one. Why? Because every town is a set of tradeoffs, and sometimes outstanding strengths on one criterion outweigh the drawbacks on another. A scoring model could account for this.

Example: Carmel obviously does not pass the current test for affordable cost of living, but it scores so highly on quality of life, we are willing to consider that tradeoff. If we allowed scores for each of the subcomponents of the model, when we added them together or created a weighted average, or whatever the rollup scoring method is, it would be possible for Carmel to outscore locations like Austin and Dallas, which 'passed' the decision test. We need to enhance the model to allow this level of sophistication, and we are brainstorming now ways of doing this.

What's Working and What's Not

I promised when writing the planning posts at the beginning of this process to provide an assessment later of what worked and what didn't work. We've been on the road for two weeks now, roughly half of our trip, and I think it's time to pass along some of what we've learned.

First, getting the Garmin Nuvi was the single smartest decision we made. While it has led us astray a few times -- remember, trust but verify! -- it has been an invaluable tool on this trip. We get pretty much anywhere we want to go with confidence and efficiency. It is helpful moving from town to town, and it is helpful moving around town once we are staying there. Its database of restaurants, gas stations and lodging is not perfect but it is very useful. My observations: there are a lot more gas stations than the Nuvi knows and hotels/motels change names and affiliations a lot (e.g. moving from a Best Western to America's Best Value).

Our restaurant gift cards are working great because everywhere we go there are Chili's, Applebees, and Olive Gardens. But my plan to consolidate stays with one or two hotel Rewards Programs is not working AT ALL. The high end chains are rarely where you need them to be -- only the budget chains are in the kind of small towns you find enroute -- and the budget chains don't have many deals. AAA membership does help us get good rates, though often you can negotiate a better rate than AAA by checking online for promotional rates. Look into http://www.tripadvisor.com/, which has links to multiple travel sites like Expedia for pricing.

So now our strategy now is to delay the hotel choice to the last minute, call around and make the best deal we can as we drive into town. Only in very special places, like here in Carmel, do we plan more than one day ahead.

Speaking of Carmel, we are staying at a place called the Dolphin Inn, part of the 'Inns by the Sea', and we are really enjoying it. Good rates, nice people, great location!

Yosemite National Park

What can you say about Yosemite? It is simply one gorgeous view after another. We arrived at the park around noon, coming in the southern entrance. We left at 5 pm, many winding miles and beautiful pictures later. It is hard to choose which to post here.

This is the classic Yosemite Valley picture, with Bridal Veil Falls to the right:

Yosemite Falls has three separate drops, and there are hiking paths that lead to the very top. A bridge crosses close to the base of the falls, and walking across the bridge is so bracing it takes your breath away even in 70 degree weather.

Half Dome is one of the famous granite cliffs that border the valley. Here is a shot of it through the trees and over the Merced river, in an area where we stopped for our picnic:

Close to the southern entrance is the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. I took many amazing pictures of the giant trees, but one of my favorites is this fallen tree with Steve in the foreground - it gives perspective to the scene.

I also got many shots for my Photoshop collection - textures, plants, water, rocks. The light was so beautiful, everything looked good! Here is an example of flowing water with a pinecone floating by....

We are staying tonight in a small town called Mariposa, 30 miles outside the western gate. Tomorrow we head to Carmel...

From Texas, Through New Mexico, To Arizona

It took us two days to drive from Austin to Mesa, where we stopped for three days to visit family. We left Austin on Thursday, May 7, driving out through Hill Country on back roads till we hit the 10. The drive through Hill Country was pretty, as we passed ranch after ranch. Most had impressive gates with large limestone pillars, but some entrances were modest and quirky, like this 'wreath' on a gate where we stopped to walk around a bit:

The road we were traveling at the time looked like this:

We stopped overnight, still inside Texas, at a small town called Van Horn. The next morning we crossed the border into New Mexico, passing sign after sign for possible dust storms. New Mexico landscape has some interesting rock formations, like this one...

...but mostly it is just boring.

By afternoon, we were in Arizona. We stopped at the welcome center just across the border, and saw this friendly warning:


We saw a rattlesnack once when we were hiking in Sedona, so I really didn't need much encouragement to stay on the pavement and out of the brush.

Just east of Tucson, we saw a large brushfire in the distance. We drove towards it and by the time we reached it, it had jumped the eastbound lanes and was burning in the median only feet from where we had to drive through. This is the closest I've ever been to such a large fire. The police were just arriving as we drove past; there was no firefighting equipment on the scene yet.

We arrived in Mesa/Phoenix by 5pm Friday, after two very long days. We spent three days and nights, resting and visiting with family, and then headed on to California.