Cruisin the U.S.A. Wrap-up and Adventures Ahead

The past week in Ft. Myers, FL has been spent with my bros, Mike and Brian. They were kind enough to accommodate my restlessness and we packed a lot into the week, including: a road trip to Miami, kayaking through the mangroves off Sanibel island, hitting a few different beaches, world-class golf (without the world class scores), and more.

Mike and Bri, the great explorers

We had an awesome week and ended with a pledge to make it an annual affair.  Really the point is to hang out, catch up, and have fun, so in that respect it wouldn't matter much where in the world we go. It always strikes me how different we are, but that is what makes spending time together so great and I always appreciate the different perspectives Bri and Mike bring to the table.

After dropping the guys off at the airport, I was going to spend a quiet day cleaning the place but quickly aborted mission and took off to Sanibel to try paddleboarding for the first time.  It is exactly as the name suggests: stand up on a modified surfboard and paddle around with a long paddle.  It is one of the fastest growing sports and I can see why: it's a killer work out (particularly for those wanting to strengthen the core) and its quite relaxing.  I totally recommend trying it and there is no need for a lesson - I opted to watch a 2 minute intro Youtube video instead and that's all that was needed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WakICTRuWoI).

Taken just before the arm workout of the century

 

It turns out that the most dangerous part was not the paddleboarding itself, but getting the board to and from the rental place on a car that is not designed to transport one.  Driving back the rigged up strap slipped off and the board just about flew away, but I managed to grab it with one arm.  Three attempts pulling over to fix the rigging failed but damned if I was about to be late and pay for extra time.  So I did the only logical thing and drove as fast as I could holding the board down with one arm.  

This worked well and I had nearly made it off the causeway when a strong gust of wind caught the board, which acted effectively as a sail, and nearly ripped me out of the seat, leading to my last course of action: to hold the board down with both hands and steer with the wheel between my knees for the remainder of the drive.  Hands-free in the truest sense of the term. I have chosen this blog as the most effective medium to tell my Mom, the owner of the beloved family car that was passed down from my grandmother, about this episode - sorry Mom.

I recounted the story to the guy at the store who had rigged up the board, and he casually said 'Yeah I thought it was about 50/50 whether it would stay on".  This is why I don't go to casinos.

As for adventures ahead, stay tuned for a post from my next destination: the Rocky Mountains and kayaking off of Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island with my Dad, as well as some thoughts on Richard Branson and what he can teach us about life.

Cruisin the U.S.A. Part II - Washington, DC to Ft. Myers, FL

On Saturday April 28, I said farewell to my uncle and flew to Washington, D.C. to meet up with Amin Asadollahi and commence Part II of travelling in the U.S.A.  We spent a couple days in Washington checking out museums and preparing for the trip ahead to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with a final destination of Ft. Myers, Florida.

Washington is a fantastic place - it is easy to navigate (very logical street layout and has a metro) and there is alot to see and do.  We hit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, the National Museum of National History, and the Botanical Gardens (all of which are free!), with the requisite pictures around the White House, Capitol Hill, and the Pentagon.

(Capitol Hill on a glorious, sunny day)

On the topic of the Pentagon, Amin and I stood from the back corner of the furthest parking lot (a solid mile from the actual building) and took a casual picture with the Pentagon far in the distance.  No sooner did the flash go off when a Pentagon Security officier on a speaker demanded that we don't take pictures, giving us a stern reply when we asked why.  National security aside, I couldn't help but think "pretty sure everyone already knows the building is in the shape of a pentagon"..but hey, we all have a job to do.

We left Washington and headed to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the Tennessee-North Carolina border.  The route we chose to hike was only 20 miles, but with steep elevation changes along the Lakeshore Trail which hugs Lake Fontana in the South-West section of the park.  We took a boat up the lake then spent four days, almost entirely under tree canopy, hiking back to the marina.

(Cades Cove in western end of the Park)

(Amin and I on the boat en route to site 77, the start of the backpacking)

(The best part of camping, having a drink by the fire)

We fell into a pleasant routine of drinking tea and eating oatmeal really early in the morning, hiking through the morning, then setting up camp/purifying water/swimming and napping in the afternoon. Bugs/animals were hardly an issue (some ticks and giant milipedes being the exception) and for one of the most popular national parks in the country, we didn't see any other hikers until the last day.

A straight 16 hour drive from the Smokies brought us into the final destination, Fort Myers, Florida.  The past few weeks here have consisted of beach camping at Cayo Costa State Park, biking in the Everglades, finding awesome local hang outs to write blog entries from (like Bennett's Fresh Roast which has the best donuts ever!), helping to clean the beach on Sanibel Island (see separate blog post), and generally relaxing and having fun.

One of the best things about travelling is meeting great people along the way - everyone has a story to tell and travelling tends to bring out the best in people.

(Amin, Andrew, Pascal, Van, and Jeff.  Van and son Andrew played guitar for us on Cayo Costa)

 

(Us with brothers Brent and Aaron, who joined us at site 90 - where none of us had the required reservation)

 

Picking up trash for Sea Turtles on Sanibel Island

On May 12, Amin and I travelled to Sanibel Island to meet the nice folks at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (SSCF - http://www.sccf.org/), grab a few plastic bags, then hit Bowman's beach to clean up litter.

Our impetus was that it is currently sea turtle nesting season (the majority being loggerhead sea turtles) in South Florida.  Adults and hatchlings face a gaunlet of threats both natural and man-made (e.g. long-line fishing nets; predation on hatchlings from racoons, crabs, seabirds, etc; illegal poaching of turtles; motor boats hitting turtles, and so on) during this stage.  The commonly quoted statistic for the mortality rate is that only about 1 out of every 1,000 sea turtles makes it to adulthood and the evolutionary response of the loggerhead has been to lay a large number of eggs (counted in the hundreds) to counter this.

Like many species under threat, nature already throws enough challenges at them, and it is the additional antropocentric pressures that drive populations towards extinction.  The one in particular we wanted assist with, if only a little bit, is the pain and death caused by the ingestion of plastic trash, which to a turtle that naturally feeds on jellyfish, can often look like food.

We arrived at Bowman's Beach on Sanibel Island which by most standards is a relatively clean and remote beach.  At first glance there seemed to be very little to pick up, but a mere 2 hours of cruising the beach yeilded two very full bags of trash, ranging from cigarette butts to a cell phone.

Along the way we met Amanada who was in the process of re-locating a turtle nest.  We watched her recreate the nest the adult turtle had dug then carefully place the eggs inside, and add a little sand from the original nest.

Not only did we learn more about a particular issue by doing this, we met cool people along the way and discovered that most people are well intentioned and want to help (we even asked parents to ask their son who had built an impressive sand castle to fill in the hole when finished, and they said they would be happy to). This short activity greatly enhanced our experience at Sanbel Island and was alot more fun than laying around the beach...though we will do some of that too.

Cruisin the U.S.A. - Part I - Palm Springs, CA to Minneapolis, MN

Description: From April 21-28 I travelled with my uncle, Bob Phillips, over 3,000 km from Palm Springs, California to Minneapolis, Minnesota. 

Highlights

• staying with Brian and Joan on their beautiful ranch in Nemo, South Dakota, and seeing a mountain lion!
• hiking alone through the desert in Arches National Park, Utah.
• long chats along the way about life, career, the family company, balance sheets, and more!

After arriving in Palm Springs, we spent an easy day touring the city.  In the evening I met friends of UB's, Alan and Nielle, who were getting geared up to drive across the country in a convertible - very inspiring.

We left early the next day for destination #1 - Sedona, Arizona.  Passed through beautiful desert along the way.  Stayed at a great motel called the Skyway Inn. 

The next day we decided to see the Grand Caynon in style and took a fixed wing plane to the west part of the Caynon, where we then dropped in by helicopter and went on a boat on the Colorado river.  The view was spectacular. 

We drove on that night to Monument Valley, Utah, where we lucked out getting the last hotel room available (Johnny Depp was in town filming the 'Lone Ranger').

We then put lots of miles behind us and drove all the way up to Vail, Colorado - which looked like a bit of a ghost town since they hadn't had any snow for weeks and weeks. Found a great restaurant (the Terra Bistro which was essentially empty).

Onwards to Nemo, South Dakota. About 20 miles before arriving at the ranch, I saw a beautiful mountain lion off the side of the road. We pulled up at a great local burger joint and started jabbing with the locals - who were very impressed I saw the big cat. I think they were more interested from a hunting perspective, so I was intentionally vague about where exactly I had seen it!

We then stayed two nights with Brian and Joan at their beautiful ranch in a valley in the Black Hills (with their two horses and dog Kia) and during this time visited Deadwood, SD and Mt. Rushmore.

The last day driving was a marathon through wind and rain and we arrived late in Minneapolis, where I said goodbye.

All in all an amazing start to a year of adventure and I learned alot along the way.  I was especially impressed by my Uncle's ability to speak to ANYONE about pretty much anything.