There (and there and there) and back again

Do you ever get to the end of a book and think, "Damn. I don't want this to end! There's a lot more to this story here, and I'd very much like to continue with it ... like a plate of good food that shouldn't end but for my belly bursting upon my buttons."

Sounds like something a Hobbit would say ... those lovers of a good story and good food. That's just how I felt when I read The Hobbit for the first time. And the Lord of the Rings. And a good many other books, I might say, but it is J.R.R. Tolkien who has held my interest the most and the longest. I've read The Hobbit several times, and the LOTR trilogy more times than I have fingers on a single hand.

When Peter Jackson took on the Lord of the Rings, I was spellbound. It's like he got the SPIRIT of the story. Of course he couldn't tell it straight like the book ... I get that. Embrace it, even. But he found the depth, the spirit, the tenor of those works, and he made them proud. I love every extended cut and extra he could give.

So to take The Hobbit on a similar journey should be a real treat ... not lembas bread to keep you going, but all the goods from Bilbo Baggins' larder. The beginning ... There and Back Again. And it is, for me. A treat upon which I can enjoy every morsel. To wit: I enjoyed every second of it.

Ah, but the liberties taken ... there are many.  They must be discussed, but it is 10:30 p.m. on a school night and this is a task best taken on like a true Hobbit would, with a pipe and an pint and a good friend of equal mind and timber. Instead, I have pixels.

It's like Peter Jackson didn't want the story to end, so he kept adding more and more to the beginning and the middle so it wouldn't come to an end so quickly.

Shall we start with the white orc Azog? Was he really needed? Why couldn't the Goblin king meet the need of an antagonist for this first of three chapters.

And what the hell with the Necromancer king? Obviously a set up for the next movie ... but don't the spiders and the elves of Mirkwood provide enough?

Did the dwarves storm in and attack the trolls? Maybe I'm mis-remembering that ... I thought they were picked up a one by one or many. Maybe that was the many. Though, all and all I have not beef with that scene.

Critcs called the movie bloated and lumbering, and I would not go that far because, as I said, I enjoyed every second of it. It was joyful and smart and scary and dark, all at once. Storm giants ... loved it! Goblin caves ... brilliant.

I thought Peter had done a wonderful job of boiling down LOTR to bring it to three movies ... excellent  character combinations and complex storylines to tell the flavor of the story. Boiling down a massive book into a comprehesible movie makes sense, and Peter was the pinnacle.

But you don't need to add to The Hobbit ... all the story-telling devices were right there to begin with. There was no need to invent new characters and storylines ... just tell the ones that Tolkien provided!

Enough complaining. It was still brilliant and I still loved every single minute of it, and I can't believe I have to wait 12 months for the next installment.

Chorizo breakfast bake

Patrick Fortner took this Sausage-Pomodoro Brunch Bake and turned it into a tasty Southwestern-style breakfast casserole with some brilliant substitutions.

I need to remember to take photos of the food spooned out
into a dish!

• 1/2 lb breakfast sausage
• 1/2 lb chorizo
• 1 can Pillsbury® refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
• 2 small cans green chilies
• 1 can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 1/2 cups shredded Monterrey Jack or Colby Jack cheese
• 12 large eggs

Cook the sausage in a skillet. Drain and set aside. Grease a 10-inch Dutch oven and line the bottom and sides with the crescent roll dough. Line the bottom with the sausage. Beat the eggs, then mix in the tomatoes and green chilies and about half the cheese, and then pour the mixture over the sausage. Cover with the rest of the cheese and bake.

Cook with 6-8 coals on the bottom and 12-14 coals on the top for 45 minutes or until set in the center.

Dutch Oven Macaroni and Cheese

Mac & Cheese, with small shell pasta.

First, this is a ripoff of a recipe from Bill Mohondro. Just sayin'.

• 1 16oz package elbow or shell macaroni
• 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese (a guess)
• 6 (ish) slices American cheese or Velveeta
• 1 cup (guess) milk

Cook the macaroni according to package directions. Don't overcook. This can be done in advance and brought out to camp to save time.

Put about half the macaroni in a 10-inch Dutch oven. Cover with 1.5 cups of shredded cheddar, or whatever it takes to make a good layer of cheese. Top that with slices of American or Velvetta cheese to cover.

Put in the rest of the macaroni, and then top with another layer of cheddar cheese.

Pour in enough milk to fill the Dutch oven 1/3 to 1/2 way.

Cover and put 8 coals on the bottom and 14 coals on top. Cook 40 minutes or until the top is browned. If you need to keep it warm, just leave a couple of coals on the lid.

Goes great with smoked sausage or just about anything!

Sean helps Eoin Colfer read Artemis Fowl in 8 Minutes

Sean had the distinct pleasure not only to meet and get a book signed by Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer, he helped him with a reading of Artemis Fowl in 8 Minutes. Fantastic.

The United flight from hell

THURSDAY, JULY 19, 7 P.M.

DAYTON -- I have to write about this work-related trip because it is just too bizarre to be true. But, unfortunately, it isn't, as I'm still living it.

I was to do a business trip to Dayton, Ohio, leaving Austin on Sunday and returning on Wednesday night, late., all on United Airlines. I was worried about that return flight, but heh ... it couldn't be that bad.

I left Austin on Sunday on at 8:03 a.m., with a connection in Denver and arrival in Dayton at 2:44 p.m. I was worried about flying out West before going East, but figured at least I wouldn't get snowed in at Denver in July. Right?

The Austin flight was the only one on time. Once I arrived in Denver and went to our gate, I noticed our flight was not listed on the board. Checking ... checking ... checking ... the arriving aircraft was two airports away. We changed gates six times. (No lie, no exaggeration. Except that supposedly there were four changes before I got there, but I'm not counting those.) Once on the plane and seated, only two or so hours behind, they asked for seven volunteers to deplane for a $500 travel voucher, as the plane was overweight. There were already empty seats, yet they were overweight? They got their seven, and then announced they needed two more volunteers, or they would pull 12 bags from the belly of the plane. They needed more fuel to skirt storms on the way. (My colleagues said sun was shining in Dayton.) They got three volunteers.

I got to Dayton only three hours late. I can live with that.

As I readied to depart on Wednesday, I was watching United's iPhone app like a hawk, watching my inbound flights get delayed as storms wracked the Northeast. As I arrived, I look out on the tarmac and there are NO planes anywhere. I wait in the airport for a couple of hours as my flight is already delayed and as I walk to the gate, I see a plane! Unfortunately (now 7 p.m. for my 4:30ish flight) I find out the plane is really the 2:45p flight, combined with a 7p flight, but not to my destination. As I'm talking to the attendant about my soon-to-be-missed connection in Chicago, they cancel my flight altogether. She books me for the first flight out in the morning, at 5:50 a.m. I shoulda known better ... no flight in tonight means no plane to fly out on tomorrow.

I go rebook at my hotel (on my company's dime and not United, as it's weather-related) and set up a morning cab ride to the airport as the shuttle won't start early enough. I set my alarm for 4 a.m. to catch my 4:15 a.m. cab.

One minute after four, my cabbie calls me to say he is waiting downstairs. I rush to dress and go down, throw my stuff in the back and dream of coffee. Because my tickets are in the back, I can't check the United app for my flight. Unbeknownst to me, there is an e-mail in my inbox from about 2 a.m. explaining that my 5:50a flight to Dulles is cancelled and I'm booked for a 4:40 p.m. flight to Denver (again!) for arrival in Austin just before midnight, a full 24-hours after my first ETA. I dread the afternoon flight bump all day. I go back to the Dayton paper, and check United.com every hour for updates. My arriving plane makes it to Chicago, but is already showing an hour-plus delay into Dayton. I can still make my connection. One hour turns into 1.5 hours. Can still make it. I get to the gate for my delayed departure and a plane IS AT THE GATE! I can still make my connection in Denver!

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not sure how to break this news, so I'm just going to tell it to you straight."

Groan. The captain is out of flight hours and can't fly. The next captain is at least 1.5 hours late on another plane. I will miss my connection in Denver, and there are no more. I will not make it to Austin tonight.

As of this minute (7 p.m. in Dayton, two hours after scheduled departure) I am still booked to Denver tonight, arriving before 10 p.m., with no connection. They will give me a hotel, they say, and fly me to Austin in the morning. They have booked me on a backup flight to Dallas at 9:50 p.m.

Get me the hell out of Dayton, please.

UPDATE FRIDAY, JULY 20, 9:00 A.M.

DENVER -- Well, the DAY > DEN flight took off at 8:30 p.m. Eastern with estimated arrival in Denver at 9 p.m. Mountain. Before I left Dayton, the time of my DEN > AUS flight was delayed until 9:20 something, so there was hope.

The plane from Dayton was a small one that required us to gate-check our bags, so when we landed I was pretty antsy to get my stuff and try to run from B60something to B85, which was a long haul with two flights of stairs and a very crowded terminal. Of course, the gate was changed, and when I did finally find it, I discovered that I missed it by a long shot as it took off around 9 p.m.

So it was to customer service next, where I waited more than an hour to reach an agent. There were only two, but in that hour-plus one agent spent the whole time with another family of five. The whole time. They were at the agent when I got in line, and I was that agent's next customer about an hour and a half later.

Of course, the airline did not have any more reserved rooms, but they gave me a voucher on how to file for reimbursement, and I had to find my own hotel. They booked me on a direct flight to Austin at 10:00 a.m. (I skipped the 5:50 a.m. flight to Houston with a connection to Austin. No way I was getting another connection, or starting that early again since I had been up almost 20 hours already. While in line, I helped a nice lawyer Liz from Cincinnati who was in a cast and couldn't stand.  She had requested a wheelchair twice, but I finally just flagged one down and commandeered it for her. This came in handy later, as she had the hotel she reached save another room for me, and I helped her get us to the shuttle, which was theoretically waiting for us outside.

We reach the hotel shuttle lane about 10:45, and there is no Sleep Inn shuttle. We called after a while and they said it was doing rounds and was on it's way back. It arrived about 11:15, but there were so many people waiting that I was bumped, along with another man in a wheelchair and his buddy. Liz begged her way on the shuttle, as she had a 5 a.m. flight for a job interview in Oregon.

I heard all other hotels were booked and I knew that Liz had not left my name with Sleep Inn, so I called to make sure I had a room. The shuttle finally made it back and midnight for his last run, and we got to the hotel about 12:20 a.m., checked in and to my room about 12:45. Asleep by 12:47. I planned to make the 8 a.m. shuttle to the airport.

I woke up around 6:30 a.m. and checked my phone to find news of the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, which happend to be where I was. I couldn't see helicopters outside or anything, but I figured I better take the 7:15 a.m. shuttle and get to the airport.

So that is where I am now, after using a meal voucher from United (thanks for that). It looks like my plane is here, but now they are talking about weight restrictions, so no stand-by passengers will be allowed. If this is anything like Sunday, they may ask for volunteers. Who knows. That turned out to be an earlier flight to Columbus.

UPDATE FRIDAY, JULY 20, 4 P.M.

Well, I've been home for about an hour now, and I'm clean and refreshed. My flight from Denver to Austin was fairly uneventful, and I was happy to use United's last meal voucher at Salt Lick. Too much bread and too little meat, but who's to complain ;-).

In all, it took me over 40 hours from my first scheduled departure in Dayton until we reached the gate in Austin. I can say the folks I worked with at United were nice and truly tried to help me. I do wonder if I should've done more to find a different flight on Thursday to get out of Dayton to expand my options, but I know that morning there couldn't have been many options with so many cancelled flights.

Sean's Eagle Scout Project

Donations

If you would like to donate to Sean McDonald's Eagle Scout project to benefit the Austin Bat Cave, please use the PayPal donate button below. Sean is looking to raise about $500 for this project, and any funds he receives in excess of what is used for the project will be given to Austin Bat Cave.

If you would rather mail payment to Sean, you can do so at:

Sean McDonald
(Eagle Scout Project)
9301 Donner Ln
Austin, TX 78749

The Project

My eagle project will be about helping students with sensory writing. I will be building a lesson plan that will use tools that we build to prompt students to do sensory writing. This will be for the benefit of Austin Bat Cave, a non-profit writing tutoring organization.  I will design these things, and then pass them on to Austin Bat Cave, which they will use from then on.  Austin Bat Cave is located at 1807 West 11th Street, Austin, Texas, 78703

This is on the front page of their website:  

Austin Bat Cave is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides children and teenagers (ages 6-18) with opportunities to develop their creative and expository writing skills. We connect a diverse population of young writers and learners with a vibrant community of adult volunteers in Austin. All of our programs are free. 

One reason I am passionate about this project is because Austin Bat Cave helped me as a writer. I have visited a couple of their workshops, and they helped my with my writing, so now I have the chance to give back to them. The representative from Austin Bat Cave is Manuel Gonzales. When we met, I had the original idea of building an outdoor classroom.  But when he mentioned sensory boxes, we both built on that idea until we had the current idea for my project. ABC specializes on teaching kids in creative writing.  They travel to schools and have a separate office in central Austin.

A group of scouts and I will be developing a lesson plan to use sensory boxes which we will build based off of our designs. We will be working with Manuel Gonzales, the representative from Austin Bat Cave. One of the important aspects about the project would be that all the objects in the boxes would have something to do with nature and the natural world.  This is important to me because it ties into Boy Scouts and out outdoor program.  Sensory boxes would be a box where you focus on one of the five senses to interact with an object. For example, you might have a box with a hole cut in it, where you can put your hand through and feel what’s inside, but you can’t see what is in it. Another would be where you can only see a sliver of an object, and not know what the whole object is. The best part about these boxes would be the fact that you can go anywhere and put almost anything in these boxes, so that you could have many different lessons.

 

You could build these boxes out of wood or possibly cardboard, and have a locked top, so you could put something large in the box. For some of them, you could have an object loose in there, but for others, like sight, you would need to have the object locked into place so that it is exactly where you want it. I found three possible boxes and their prices at Michael’s. A Medium plain box for $14.99, a box the looks like a book for $3.99, and a medium trunk/chest box for $19.99.  These boxes could be modified and painted for our purposes.  But buying boxes is an option, as is making them ourselves, the project helpers and I will decide on that.

The lesson plan would be that you would write about how you felt about what you touched or saw or smelled etc., or you could draw about it. This would teach the kids about imagery and sensory writing, but they would just think about having fun. After we have all the boxes built, and the lesson plan is finished, I will teach the scouts how to use them. Then I would have the scouts teach the people at Austin Bat Cave. I would lead the first workshop, and then pass it to the Austin Bat Cave People.  At the end, we will have given Austin Bat Cave a useful tool that they can use to help teach kids about writing.

Florida Sea Base

The boys and I had the most awesome experience this summer at Florida Sea Base, a Boy Scout high adventure base in the Florida Keys. We were among eight boys and four adults from Team 448 to sail for six days, learning about the bays and Atlantic through sea kayaking, snorkeling, sailing and other adventures. We were split into two 41-foot Morgan boats, captained by a husband and wife team, Harold and Margie Ochstein, the owners of Island Dreamer Sailing.

We flew from Austin to Ft. Laudedale and stayed at the Days Inn and Bahia Cabana. The boys were introduced to the Atlantic, while we prepared the next day for our bus ride using Davis Tours for our trip to Seea Base on Islamorada. (After a great and amusing breakfast at Bahia Cabana. Thanks, Doney, for the fun time!)

We missed our lunch stop, so once we arrived at Sea Base we went across the street to Habana, a Cuban restaurant. We were anxious to finish the meal and get on with our adventure. We finally checked in, met our mate, Bryce. He worked through our swim checks and provisioning of our two boats, before we set off in the sunset for our first night aboard our craft, Island Dreamer for us, and Morning Dance for our sister crew.

Our first adventure on day two was a kayak trip through the mangrove jungle of a key, traveling up a channel between the bay and the Atlantic. There was quite a bit of paddling involved and I would've liked to explore more, but it was also hot and lunch awaited us. Now days after the trip, I'm trying to remember our first snorkel of that afternoon on Saturday ... I think we just dived off the boat on anchor. This was after our first bout of sailing, as we were blessed with good wind on our trip.

On Sunday, we started the traveling to and anchoring offshore of the Dolphin Research Center. This was an unexpected surprise as this was the first time the Evo-Adventure cruise included DRC. We kayaked into the center and watched the dolphins play and work for the the adoration of the visitors. They really do enjoy and relish the attention of humans. This was a special treat for me as I remember watching a Jack Hanna video about the place with my boys when they were younger. We finished the day with a snorkel along a channel in the bay where we could follow a wall, seeing lobster and all matter of fish.

On Monday we made our first trip out to the Atlantic, crossing under the 7-mile bridge to Sombrero Reef. What an excellent first dive in the Atlantic. Seas were just a little rough at 3- to 5-feet, but not enough to spoil our fun. We finished the night in a port at Marathon, docking at Pancho's and dining at Burdine's, where the boys enjoyed fried Key lime pie, among other good food.

Tuesday brought us two great dives, the first at Marker 48, where a couple coral outcroppings awaited us. The second was at Coffin Patch, but in between was a gorgeous motor sail into 100+ depths and varying shades of brilliant blue. The sail set up a fantastic, if crowded, dive, before we headed toward the bay for our anchorage. The fun didn't stop, because we also had a night dive at Jewfish Hole, we're we saw huge lobster and unfortunately some jellyfish that cut our fun short, just a bit. Everyone was OK in the end.

Wednesday we had to turn toward our final port at Sea Base, but not before one last dive on the bay side at a place called the Quarry, where workers mined limestone for the Keys railroad, back in the day. After our dive, we began cleaning up the boat before our arrival back at Sea Base, out final Luau and sleep in the dorms before heading back to Ft. Lauderdale on Thusday.

All in all, what a wonderful trip! There were many, many roses and few thorns (we didn't catch any fish) and Dad got to spend some very quality time with his boys before Father's Day. Thank you, sons!

Port Aransas

The family went to Port Aransas over the Easter weekend. We had a great stay at the Laughing Horse Lodge, a dog-friendly collection of cottages just a couple of blocks off the beach. It was great being able to take the pups with us.

Big Bend Ultra 25k

I wrote this very long race report for Gilbert's Gazelle's and figured I should go ahead and post here, too.

First, it's a long damn way to Big Bend no matter how you do it, but we knew that going in. You don't sign up for this race for the amenities, the crowds or the expo. You sign up to support a good cause (Friends of Big Bend) and a gorgeous view.

The race is held on MLK weekend each year to take advantage of the 3-day holiday, if you are lucky enough to have it. I was, but also took Friday to get ready for travel. Knowing we would be hoteling it for three days, I pre-cooked our Saturday dinner and backed lunch supplies for the road. Since we had to get our packet on Saturday (no race-day pickup,) we left Austin on Friday after school and drove to Ozona, about a four-hour drive. Stayed at Holiday Inn Express. Free breakfast and worth every penny. It is what it is.

Drove to Panther Junction for packet pickup and got there around 1 p.m Saturday. There is no expo ... we got a free Marmot shirt, though they didn't have normal Men's sizes, so my wife got a nice new tech shirt . The race T is a long sleeve technical shirt ... very nice, plenty of sizes and swapping was no issue. Other than that: chip clip, hand warmers, $10 at Whole Earth.

We didn't sign up early enough to get into Chisos Basin, and didn't want to risk January weather tent camping, so we opted for a hotel in Terlingua, which is about 75 mins from the race headquarters at Rio Grande Village. After our packet pickup, we went for a short hike at Santa Elena Canyon (out of the way) to our hotel, Big Bend Resorts (read motor lodge and RV park). No free breakfast. It is what it is. We heated up our spaghetti on our camp stove at the picnic tables in the parking lot. It was yummy .

OK .. finally to the race:

We (Brian, my 15-year-old son who also ran the race) woke up at 5:00a to leave at 5:30a to make it to Rio Grande Village by 6:45. You see, they bus all the runners from Rio Grande Village to the start at Glenn Springs Road about 15 miles away, and race officials said they wanted to start moving folks at 7:15. We got there early and hung out with the 50k runners in the only warm building, the laundry room, until they kicked everyone out at 7 a.m. for cleaning. (50k shuttles started leaving at 6:30a for 7:30a start) That was our cue to fill up water bottles and get on our shuttle. We arrived at the start about 8:10 for our 8:30 start. Luckily it was about 10 degrees warmer for a nice 45 degree start. We stripped off the sweats and put them in our drop bags, which were shuttled to the very remote finish line.

There’s no chip timing, so the nice park ranger had us lined up by 8:30 and we just started on his signal. We were warned that the first three miles were uphill and to save some for the rest of the course, which was generally downhill.

From a rise along the race route.

Indeed, the elevation climbs about 500 ft in 3 miles, then down 1500 ft to the finish at 15.7ish miles. My 15-year-old, who had planned to run with me for a while, left me about half way up that hill, which was fine with me. No need for me to hold him back. I chugged up the hill, telling myself this is what I’m made for … that I like uphill better than down. That was a premonition.

Everyone spread out on the uphill so once we crested I was running mostly alone or in a pair for short distances. Talked with the cross country coach from Presidio for a while, and leapfrogged with another runner who never stopped at the aid stations.

There were three aid stations every five miles or so. Water and HEED, along with Nutter Butters and pretzels for the first couple, and some kind of gels at the last stop. I brought my own (a Vespa pre-race, and a Clif Shot at the hour marks.) I carried a 20 oz water bottle in a old single-bottle belt, but drank rarely from it as the weather stayed cool and I utilized the aid stations when they were available.

The view was fantastic. Chisos Basin on the right and Chilicotal Mountain on the left. I really wanted to sight-see, but I had to concentrate on the jeep road. The road was not bad as far as double-track goes, but it still required concentration on foot placement. The elevation drop got me more and more as time went on and I got heavier on my feet, stopping my legs instead of gliding the grade. I’m not the only one to complain of very, very sore quads at the end of this one.

After the third aid station, the road leveled out and we could see the finish line almost two miles out. By this time, I was all by my lonesome, my son probably finished. Talking afterward, we agreed seeing the finish from so far out made those last miles that much harder.

The finish is very remote, at the confluence of Glenn Spring Road and River Road East. Spectators aren’t really allowed at the end (and not really the start either, as there is no place to park) so my cheering section stayed in Terlingua. The folks at the aid stations and at the finish were very cheerful and encouraging, but you aren’t feeding off the crowds because there aren’t any.

Once finished, you have your drop bag and can put on dry clothes, but there isn’t any food at the finish. You have to take a 45-minute van ride down a very, very bumpy road with 10 of your new closest friends in order to get to a very good closing meal, but if I do this again I’ll make sure to have food in my drop bag to have at the finish line. A changing tent would’ve been nice, too, to get out of wet clothes.

Once back at Rio Grande Village there was quite a feast, with jambalaya, grilled chicken, sweet potato fries, green beans, baklava, brownies and such. I saw beer, but it may have been BYOB.

How’d we do? My son Brian did great … 2:20 to take 20th place out of 148 and 8th among the 17 non-master non-senior men. That was his first distance over 10 miles, so I’m proud of his effort. But best of all, he said it was beautiful and he enjoyed the run. Mostly. He can’t walk today, either.

I finished in 2:38, which was 17th among the 31 masters men. I went into this thinking of my road time, and my ½ marathon split was WAY over my Decker time, so I was kinda sad, but everyone is telling me that the trail will add a minute a mile or more to road times, so maybe I did OK. In the end, I’m happy because it was a great place to run.

A couple of last words (why stop now!) The remote finish and the remote race location in general make it hard to take care of your body once you are done racing. The 45-minute van ride after the finish was not good. Nor was the hour or more back to the hotel. Nor was the next day with 8 hours driving back to Austin. I didn’t roll until Monday or ice bath until Tuesday, so I’ve torn up my quads on the worst possible week with the 22-miler on the Austin Marathon schedule for this weekend.

But damn it was fun and beautiful. Here are some photos from our mini vacation.