Matthew Bafford’s Musings

We thank you for your support

A good friend of mine has an incredibly clever shirt from a fundraiser by the Pecos, NM EMTs.  It's a great conversation starter and usually people think he's an EMT until they see the back.   Judging by the list, I'm definitely a potential supporter of my EMT community. The back:

PET THE ELK. FEED THE BEARS. CLIMB ON THE ROCKS. PASS ON THE DOUBLE LINE. LOOK AT THE SCENERY, INSTEAD OF THE ROAD. WE THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT. PECOS, NM EMTs

And the front:

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The two bears, btw, are in front of an awesome coffee shop and cafe in the middle of nowhere, US, The Purple Fiddle.  Definitely worth checking out this large coffee shop with awesome food including a turkey dinner sandwich with all the fixings (turkey, gravey, cranberries, stuffing, mashed potatoes). The decoration is eclectic at best including advertisements on a safe:

For refreshments they offer coffee and a good beer selection. For entertainment they have live music every weekend night: And a bit of a geeky humor:

Adaptability is the key to survival...

...as well as an awesome weekend in a cabin in the woods. When life hands you a heart shaped hot-tub, missing champagne glasses, and a missing TV... Well, you adapt.

And how about a little mood lighting... What, should we have given up our episodes of Bones? At least now I have pictures to explain why I'm always carrying around computer speakers and a pair of coffee mugs.

Old memories through pictures

I was recently going through some backups I created back in early 2000, when I discovered some pictures I'd taken with my first digital camera. I have no idea what the model of the camera was, but it was very much first generation. My grandfather loved technology, and I would often get hand-me-downs from him, one of which was this camera. It's shocking how far the technology has come since that time.

The pictures below are not spectacular, and were at full resolution only 420x240 (.1008MP) pixels, 24bit color, and only about 30kB in size.

In comparison, my current phone takes pictures many times larger than that (5MP), with better color depth, and with a bigger lens. The pictures are all from, I think, Cypresss Gardens (SWAMP), a place my mom and I visited on one of our many trips to Folly Beach, SC. I have many fond memories of going to the beach with her, and it's a shame these are the only pictures that I know of. Neither of us is actually pictured, as I think we both felt about the same way about cameras. I'm pretty sure the location where these were all taken is somewhere around here:

Cypress Gardens Information

View Larger Map

 

I've included all of the pictures at full original resolution purely as an illustration of how far technology has come.

 

Obviously slow shutter speeds and sensors - my foot is a ghost despite the bright lights.

Look, a lizard!  I don't think the camera had any sort of zoom, either.

 

 

I think that might actually be a snake going across the path.

 

 

Turtles?

 

 

There was an old cemetery on the grounds.

I think we hoped to actually read this again.  Information about the graveyard.

 

Éire go brách!

I recently had another opportunity to visit Ireland for business and again (due mostly to the price of tickets over the weekend) I was able to spend the weekend in Dublin. This is my third visit that included a weekend, so I decided this time to roam outside the city. Ideally, I would have liked to rent a vehicle and travel the countryside myself, but this time I didn't think I had the time and/or resources to do such. Instead, I turned to the professionals to show me the sights.

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The tour I opted for is operated by Rail Tours Ireland and promised to take me to "The Cliffs of Moher, Bunratty Castle, The Burren and Galway Bay". Being a big fan of rocks (it comes with having a fascination with rock climbing), this sounded like a good place to start. The tour started off with a two hour train ride to Limerick, on the western coast of Ireland. There we switched to the bus that drove us around for the majority of the day. The dark red light is our path for the day, with the trip starting off going the southern route and then returning by the northern route. The first stop on the bus tour was at Bunratty Castle, which wasn't really what I had previously thought of when I heard the word castle. It's an impressive building, sure, but just not what I was expecting.

Although it's not very big, it was complete with a dungeon, turrets, and beautiful stained glass windows. The majority of the adornments are authentic from the same time as the castle, but actually came from other castles. This includes the furniture and glass windows. Outside the castle is a folk park designed to mimic the style of the time when the castle was in active use.

This features reconstructions of historical cottages and buildings, recreating the general feel of the 19th century with a period style village main street. Old tools, furniture and artefacts are displayed, with the village kept alive by some inhabited shops, an old home bakery and peat fires in cottages. --Wikipedia

This included thatched roofs, waterwheels, and a church.

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After the castle we started the part of the tour I really was interested in - seeing the Cliffs of Moher and then the countryside. The first stop was at a O' Connor's pub in Doolin, where I had an unexpected surprise:

Yes, that sticker is from the very pub I mentioned in a previous post - one of my favorite Irish pubs in the DC area! The view outside the pub was awesome, even despite the bad weather: The Cliffs of Moher were incredibly crowded, but were very impressive to see. Careful examination leads me to believe these would be very climbable, except for the lack of somewhere to stand at the bottom. With some proper traditional gear and a little gumption, these would prove to be an enjoyable climb. The Irish, apparently, do not always follow directions. The paths past the "do not cross" signs were very well trampled. The guards also seemed to ignore the trespass.

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After the cliffs the bus proceeded down some very narrow and very twisty roads. Quite a few times we had issues passing other traffic, including one very close incident with a huge excavator that prompted the entire bus to applaud when the driver made it through without incident.

After a little while on these roads we arrived at The Burren, a very barren part of the west coast of Ireland where large limestone fields dominate the landscape. We got a chance to see some of these, and they proved to be quite photogenic: Our guide told us that a large variety of species end up growing in the cracks between the limestone, likely due to deposits left by the various birds. Plants that wouldn't be normally found in Ireland can be found here, including some very nice flowers. Our bus is off in the distance in this picture: I spy rock climbers!

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After that, it was more coastline driving and a few more scenic shots.

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All in all, the rail tour was a lot of fun, but I probably won't go for that sort of thing again. Rail Tours Ireland was nothing but professional, but I'm just not really suited for that type of adventure. I'm too independent when it comes to travel, and I'd rather not be directed everywhere. Schedules don't belong on vacations, either, and we were definitely constrained by time the entire tour. I ended up leaving my hotel at about 0600 on Saturday morning and didn't return until 2200. I was lucky that the hotel was right beside the train station where the tour started and stopped, or my day would have been even longer. Next time I'll rent a vehicle or get a cheap flight to somewhere else in Europe.

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On Sunday I took a quick bus and walking tour of the city where I took a few more interesting pictures. A busker making sand sculptures

Christmas decorations in May The top of a double-decker tour bus Sunday had awesome weather I posed for the camera

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As usual, the full set of pictures are available in my album for the trip.

Backpacking in Matthew's Arm, Shenandoah National Park

This weekend a friend of mine (Vivian) and I went on a backpacking trip. This was her first backpacking trip (although she'd been on long hiking trips many times before), and we got off to a bit of a late start on Saturday morning. Since we were a little pressed for time and not quite sure how much actual hiking she would be up for we decided to pick somewhere fairly easy and close. In the Northern Virginia area that pretty much always means a trip out to the Shenandoah National Park. There are plenty of other places to hike, but not quite so many that allow overnight camping. Located less than two hours away from most of the Washington, D.C. area, the Shenandoah National Park is a very popular destination for people wanting to get a taste of the outdoors. Luckily, the weather was a bit on the chilly side (mid 40s-mid 30s over the weekend), so we didn't encounter the usual horde of weekend warriors decked out in the latest in fashionable gear from The North Face. The park makes its money off of these people, sure, but it's still nice when they stay home. For this weekend's trip we decided to go down to the Matthew's Arm area (and not just because of the similarity to my name). This area boasts a great waterfall view (off of the Tuscarora Trail), some good elevation change, and a decent chance of finding a good camping spot. There are also plenty of trails in the area allowing us to tailor the length of our trip as we went. The day started out with absolutely perfect weather and temperature, with just a splattering of clouds in the sky and just warm enough that we didn't really need more than a layer or two to stay warm. Considering the forecast when we planned this trip was calling for cold and rainy the entire weekend, we couldn't have asked for nicer conditions. From the beginning of the trip it was readily apparent who would be carrying the majority of the load (my pack is on the right, and holds a full 50L more than hers). Of course, the bag looks just right when she's wearing it, so mine must be ridiculously over-sized: The last time I was on this trail the water was in fairly short supply, but thankfully that wasn't an issue this time. The waterfalls were all very active, and the river by our campsite was flowing quite nicely. This did mean a couple of water crossings, of course, but none that we couldn't manage with a bit of careful stepping. Spring is definitely just around the corner, and the trees and flowers are all starting to leaf and bloom. These little flowers were everywhere along the trail, and while I don't know what they are called, they are very photogenic. We managed to find a good place to camp somewhere in the middle of the land of a million rocks (the trail was filled with large rocks). This entire area was obviously within a flood area at one point in time (due to the rocks and general shape of the terrain), but that wasn't a concern for this weekend. As usual, my whisperlight handled the task of heating water for food. As per NPS rules for wilderness camping (and as is just general good sense), our food was stored in a "bear bag" high above the ground in case any such creatures decided to come sniffing around. Being in the middle of the woods doesn't mean you can ignore proper hygiene! Being in the middle of the woods also doesn't mean you have to give up some comforts. The weekend ended quite a bit colder and cloudier than it started, with the smell of wetness (rain? snow?) in the air. We were quite happy to make it back to the car when we did and as warm as we did. A cloudy sky might have made the views a little darker, but this part of the country is still beautiful. While a short trip, it was a lot of fun, and I think Vivian's gotten bitten by the backpacking bug, so I imagine there will be more trips in the future. The rest of the pictures are available in my photo gallery.

A little ride down the Blue Ridge Parkway

At the time of writing this, I had only been riding for about 4 months, and, until that weekend, I hadn't done any trips longer than a single day. I wanted to make a longer trip, and the Blue Ridge Parkway seemed like the perfect choice. It's filled with long stretches of well maintained roads, lots of curves, and some beautiful scenery. The weather turned out to be absolutely awesome, so I packed up the bike and off I went. This doesn't really qualify as "adventure" compared to a lot of the other reports, but it was still a lot of fun. I don't have much to say, and the pictures are the best part of most ride reports. Hopefully someone's work day is a little less boring because of this. :) The plan was a two day trip from Washington, DC to... wherever I felt like stopping and back again. I ended up making it to about 50 miles south of Roanoke, VA. All loaded up and ready to go. She's not "adventure", but she tries. She might be ugly, but the beauty's on the inside (even though some of it's leaking out in various places). The Nelson Rigg bags worked wonderfully.

Mr. Garcia watched me pack and blessed the trip. It helped.

And I'm off!

I thought omniscient would mean you don't need guidance? I'll stick with my Garmin.

Finally, scenery. Looking far over the VA countryside. The parkway gets a lot twistier and has more elevation further south, but the view in VA is always beautiful.

Pictures never capture the real spirit of the experience ... still, you can't see these and not want to be there.

The clouds were absolutely beautiful The bugs didn't want me to see them.

No pants? Signs like these are usually reactionary. I wonder what the story is. Depending on gender, I'm not sure these rules need to be enforced.

Night time... Time to find a hotel. Unfortunately, everything was sold out where I ended up. I finally found something... and it definitely qualified as adventure!

Next time I'm taking the stuff I need to camp.

The night clerk gave me a discount and gave me a room where I could park "my scooter" outside the window. Thanks!

Sunday On Sunday I took some back roads for a bit instead of getting back on the parkway right away. The fun stuff (to see) is definitely on the back roads, but so is the gravel on the roads. The clouds were out again.

Deer suck, but imagine one of THESE running across your path.

I FOUND IT!

Built by ancients? Magical powers? Whatever, it's punny, and I like it. I'd almost consider going to see it...

Guess not. Maybe it's wrong of me, but I laughed for a bit.

I followed this stream up for a while...

... and the pavement disappeared. Single-sport? So? I'm not afraid of gravel!

This was going to be a self-portrait, but the grass got in the way, so I gave up. This turned out to be a cool shot anyway.

I found the parkway. Gravel roads end sometimes... Sometimes they end right where you want to be. (Proper attitude means they always end where you want to be, I guess.)

The sky is visible again.

If you don't give the road equal attention it will throw gravel at you.

If you look closely, you'll see the inner beauty leaking out, just like I said.

Adventure riders! I had to stop. The first I saw of the weekend, and then suddenly they were everywhere. This couple happened to be from close to where I grew up. We spoke of gravel, the mid-west, and the rumours about a F800GS... They didn't have an ADV sticker, but, then, neither do I.

Kissin' Counsins He barely paid us any attention. Probably didn't recognize mine for what she is without the makeup on. Poor girl.

And I'm home... Too tired to take any other pictures. It's all boring from there on out. Lots of traffic and lots of interstate. All in all, a really fun trip. No incidents, great weather, and fun roads.