Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Nine Inch Nails
On Wednesday I went down to DC with Tim to see the Nine Inch Nails concert. Just outside the venue we bumped into Laurel who was waiting for Kevin to show up, but they had seats and Tim and I were on the floor. We got in, and the opening band kindof sucked. They weren't horrible, but the vocals were annoying. Then, Queens of the Stone Age came out and did a good set. The crowd was still fairly calm at this point; mosh pit here or here, someone jumping up and down like an idiot over there, but nothing big. Then, Nine Inch Nails came on, and the crowd rushed towards the stage like iron filings towards some kind of huge music playing magnet. Than analogy sucked. NIN was great (btw, why isn't there a backwards N key? or is it upside down? I need to know these things.) My only complaints for their set is that they didn't play The Perfect Drug, and they didn't do an encore (ooh ooh, I know what song they could have played.) My complaints for the crowd I was surrounded by run more numerous than that. For starters, everybody was undulating forward and backward like a spring every 10 seconds or so. Since we were all packed up front, this meant that you ran the risk of falling over, which would be bad. My guess is that when everybody rushed to the stage the people in the front just bounced off, sparking the recoil, and that people near the back were resisting being pushed further back, causing the wave to propagate back and forth. I love fluid dynamics, which brings me to my next complaint: fluids. Some kind soul from further up decided that a cup containing some fluid (smelled like beer, had a lime, so I'm going to guess Corona) would do more good to the people further from the stage, so (s)he threw it, and it hit me and the girl who was standing next to me. Nice. Also, on the topic of fluids, there were some really sweaty guys who kept accidentally bumping into people (read, me and those around me,) then continuing to shove people around like some drunk frat-boy version of Chris Farley (RIP) and getting more sweatty. I'm not saying I expect the environment to be entirely sterrile, but if you're going to sweat like a pig, wear something that will soak it up, and try to avoid smearing your sweaty back against people who are only facing your way because you're standing between them and good music. Okay, rant's over, the concert was great.
Salt Lake City
We got to Salt Lake City Thursday evening and went out to dinner with our hosts: Will's friends from college, Suzanne and Anne, and Anne's friend from West Virginia, Zelly (I'm not sure how to spell her name.) Later we hit up an office supply store and I failed to find those massage chairs they sometimes sell and have out on display and you can sit on and get a free massage and it's really relaxing. But they didn't have one. They did have lots of electronics, though. We got back, hung out some, then went to bed.
Friday we went to the Tracy Aviary in SLC, where Suzanne works. It was raining, which sucked, but there were random large birds wondering about in the open, which was nice. We got lunch at a soup kitchen, and eventually made it to the grocery store to pick up food, and the movie rental place to pick up Shawn of the Dead. Anne and Zelly made brownies, but the came out soft (they seemed to think this was bad, but they were good soft.) We ordered Pizza and watched the movie, then went to bed again.
Saturday Anne, Zelly, Will and I drove out west to the Bonneville Salt Flats where they have all sorts of racing and what not. As the name would suggest, the salt flats are made of salt, and impressively flat. This time of year, however, they are covered in an inch or so of water. I took off my shoes and started wondering out. Here's the problem with this: the salt flats were covered with water, and water softens skin. The salt we were walking on, while being smooth enough to drive on, had some pretty large and sharp salt crystals that you would step on. Once your feet are torn raw by the surface, they're soaking in salt water, which isn't the most pleasant of feelings. Still, it was an amazing sight. Since the water was so shallow it was very still, and would reflect the sky and mountains in the distance, which made it feel like we were floating around in the sky. Very serene. We then wrecked the serenity by taking a car out on the flats. Since there's nothing for miles, you can speed up, slam on the brakes and skid, do donuts and various other slides, and not have to worry about hitting anything. You do need to worry about the salt, though. We got to land and all the salt water that had been kicked up by the wheels had dried, leaving a thin layer of salt covering the car. We took it to a car wash and all's well, other than the engine block, which is probably still coated in salt. Arter all that we headed breifly into Nevada to try to find a post card, but failed to. Part of that search brought us to a casino. Casinos are creepy. No natural sunlight so you never know what time it is, lots of neon lights to anger up the blood, so many people wasting their time on this planet putting metal disks into machines and pulling levers.
We got back to SLC and had dinner with some of Suzanne's coworkers, one of which was leaving and being the cause for this dinner get-together. We got home, I made sure all my stuff was ready to go, and we went to bed. Sunday morning Will drove me to the airport. While there, and bored, I picked up a couple books at the book store. One, which was being read by one of our hosts, and was suggested to me by Will, and sofar is quite the good book is A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers. It's kindof reminiscent of David Sedaris. Anyway, I eventually boarded the plane. I had a window seat this time, and whilst sitting a woman came up to me and asked if I would mind switching with her so that she could sit with whatever man I was sitting next to. She didn't ask it like that; I'm sure she knew him; maybe they were married. Anyway, I moved a couple rows ahead to her window seat. Eventually my neighboring seats were filled by a few girls visiting Maryland coming from California. After a week of hiking around and only using the biodegradable camp soap that doesn't clean that well I smelled like skunk. I'm not just saying that I smelled bad, which I did, but I smelled like a skunk, literally. It was bad, and I felt sorry for those girls. Eventually the plane landed and my parents picked me up. After a shower and dinner at their place I took my car back from Jeremy, dropped him off at school, and headed home.
Friday we went to the Tracy Aviary in SLC, where Suzanne works. It was raining, which sucked, but there were random large birds wondering about in the open, which was nice. We got lunch at a soup kitchen, and eventually made it to the grocery store to pick up food, and the movie rental place to pick up Shawn of the Dead. Anne and Zelly made brownies, but the came out soft (they seemed to think this was bad, but they were good soft.) We ordered Pizza and watched the movie, then went to bed again.
Saturday Anne, Zelly, Will and I drove out west to the Bonneville Salt Flats where they have all sorts of racing and what not. As the name would suggest, the salt flats are made of salt, and impressively flat. This time of year, however, they are covered in an inch or so of water. I took off my shoes and started wondering out. Here's the problem with this: the salt flats were covered with water, and water softens skin. The salt we were walking on, while being smooth enough to drive on, had some pretty large and sharp salt crystals that you would step on. Once your feet are torn raw by the surface, they're soaking in salt water, which isn't the most pleasant of feelings. Still, it was an amazing sight. Since the water was so shallow it was very still, and would reflect the sky and mountains in the distance, which made it feel like we were floating around in the sky. Very serene. We then wrecked the serenity by taking a car out on the flats. Since there's nothing for miles, you can speed up, slam on the brakes and skid, do donuts and various other slides, and not have to worry about hitting anything. You do need to worry about the salt, though. We got to land and all the salt water that had been kicked up by the wheels had dried, leaving a thin layer of salt covering the car. We took it to a car wash and all's well, other than the engine block, which is probably still coated in salt. Arter all that we headed breifly into Nevada to try to find a post card, but failed to. Part of that search brought us to a casino. Casinos are creepy. No natural sunlight so you never know what time it is, lots of neon lights to anger up the blood, so many people wasting their time on this planet putting metal disks into machines and pulling levers.
We got back to SLC and had dinner with some of Suzanne's coworkers, one of which was leaving and being the cause for this dinner get-together. We got home, I made sure all my stuff was ready to go, and we went to bed. Sunday morning Will drove me to the airport. While there, and bored, I picked up a couple books at the book store. One, which was being read by one of our hosts, and was suggested to me by Will, and sofar is quite the good book is A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers. It's kindof reminiscent of David Sedaris. Anyway, I eventually boarded the plane. I had a window seat this time, and whilst sitting a woman came up to me and asked if I would mind switching with her so that she could sit with whatever man I was sitting next to. She didn't ask it like that; I'm sure she knew him; maybe they were married. Anyway, I moved a couple rows ahead to her window seat. Eventually my neighboring seats were filled by a few girls visiting Maryland coming from California. After a week of hiking around and only using the biodegradable camp soap that doesn't clean that well I smelled like skunk. I'm not just saying that I smelled bad, which I did, but I smelled like a skunk, literally. It was bad, and I felt sorry for those girls. Eventually the plane landed and my parents picked me up. After a shower and dinner at their place I took my car back from Jeremy, dropped him off at school, and headed home.
Canyonland, Arches
We got to Canyonland on Wednesday and setup camp, then went for a hike. It's interesting to see the range of variation from park to park considering that they're all pretty close to each other. Canyonland looked more muddy, which is just to say that the rocks were more rounded with fewer sharp cracks. The hike took us past some interesting formations and once I get my shit together and get my film developed I will post pictures. Our campsite was near this huge rock wall, so that evening Will and I did some climbing around. Once it started to get dark I followed Will's lead and climbed back down to the campsite.
The next morning we got up, made breakfast, and headed out to Arches. Arches was the last national park we went to, and did a short day hike to Delicate Arch and had lunch, came back past some petroglyphs, then continued on back to SLC.
The next morning we got up, made breakfast, and headed out to Arches. Arches was the last national park we went to, and did a short day hike to Delicate Arch and had lunch, came back past some petroglyphs, then continued on back to SLC.
Thursday, November 03, 2005
Bryce
When we got to Bryce, Monday, and got a campsite we went for a short walk along this ridge near the campsite. It was starting to get late and the orange from the sun helped make the canyons (which were mostly orange rock) really stand out. We made dinner over a fire and went to sleep. It got really cold that night. Tuesday we went on a fairly strenuous hike around the canyon. There were these things called "hoodoos" which are towers of rock remaining after eons of errosion. When we were hiking the trail started to look familiar to Will, (not to me, though) and it started to cloud up and drizzle. Getting stuck in the rain would have sucked. We turned around and quickly found the spot where we should have turned to go back to the entrance to the park, and got out of the canyon before the rain hit. The rain was kept mostly to the valley that the canyon opened up to so we just watched the storm clouds drift by and soak the nearby land. We went back to the campsite and rather than stay another night we decided to get going and drive to Canyonland. Every time I hear Canyonland I think Candyland, and start imagining a huge national park made out of rock candy.
The drive to Canyonland is a long one, and we stop along the way for food at a restaurant/inn called the Devils Backbone Inn or something like that. The food was great. Probably the best thing we'd eaten all week. After dinner, and more driving, we got out on the side of the highway, in the middle of nowhere, to see the stars. It gets real dark out there between the lack of major nearby cities, high altitude (less air to scatter light) and relatively dry air (less moisture to form clouds.) I can't remember the last time I saw the Milky Way, or that many stars in general. We finally make the last turn to get to the park and I notice that we have a quarter tank of gass and still a while to go. I mention this to Will but we decide that we should be fine, and that they probably have a gas station near the park. We get to the park, and not only are there no gas stations, there are no available campsites, and it's around midnight. Now I start to get nervous. Little gas, nowhere to sleep, our situation looks grim. We figure the best idea is to head to the nearest town and get gas and go to a motel for the night. I set cruise control to 55 to conserve gas and head out of the park. At this point we don't know how far we're going to have to drive, but it's at least 30 miles on less than an eigth of a tank of gas. As we're heading toward the highway, through open grazing land for cows, at 55 miles an hour, one appears just barely off the side of the road. When you can't see much in the dark, and all of a sudden an animal the size of a small car shows its head and looks at you, approaching at nearly a mile a minute, one can feel less than safe. We get to the highway and go toward the closest town, and on the way the "Low Fuel" message appears and we still don't have much of a clue how far we have to go. We roll into town and stop at the first gas station we see, and fuel up. The gas tank is a 12 gallon tank, and we put in around 12.06 gallons, which leads me to believe that we were moments from running out of gas in the middle of night, in the middle of Utah. We find a motel, each take a shower, and go to sleep. Wednesday morning we hit up a convenience store and head back to Canyonland.
The drive to Canyonland is a long one, and we stop along the way for food at a restaurant/inn called the Devils Backbone Inn or something like that. The food was great. Probably the best thing we'd eaten all week. After dinner, and more driving, we got out on the side of the highway, in the middle of nowhere, to see the stars. It gets real dark out there between the lack of major nearby cities, high altitude (less air to scatter light) and relatively dry air (less moisture to form clouds.) I can't remember the last time I saw the Milky Way, or that many stars in general. We finally make the last turn to get to the park and I notice that we have a quarter tank of gass and still a while to go. I mention this to Will but we decide that we should be fine, and that they probably have a gas station near the park. We get to the park, and not only are there no gas stations, there are no available campsites, and it's around midnight. Now I start to get nervous. Little gas, nowhere to sleep, our situation looks grim. We figure the best idea is to head to the nearest town and get gas and go to a motel for the night. I set cruise control to 55 to conserve gas and head out of the park. At this point we don't know how far we're going to have to drive, but it's at least 30 miles on less than an eigth of a tank of gas. As we're heading toward the highway, through open grazing land for cows, at 55 miles an hour, one appears just barely off the side of the road. When you can't see much in the dark, and all of a sudden an animal the size of a small car shows its head and looks at you, approaching at nearly a mile a minute, one can feel less than safe. We get to the highway and go toward the closest town, and on the way the "Low Fuel" message appears and we still don't have much of a clue how far we have to go. We roll into town and stop at the first gas station we see, and fuel up. The gas tank is a 12 gallon tank, and we put in around 12.06 gallons, which leads me to believe that we were moments from running out of gas in the middle of night, in the middle of Utah. We find a motel, each take a shower, and go to sleep. Wednesday morning we hit up a convenience store and head back to Canyonland.
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