Ryan and Debi & Toren

Author: rcragun

  • crank mail

    I think you’ve officially arrived when you begin receiving “crank mail” (i.e., incomprehensible ramblings from crazy people). Well, I just received my first piece of crank mail today. And, of course, for it to be authentic, it has to be paper mail and include something in addition to the letter (no idea what it is;…

  • Road Trip – day 29 (the long drive east)

    There isn’t much to report for the last day of our nearly month-long vacation. We left Dallas around 8:30 and drove almost straight through to our house (we stopped for food and gas).  We could have broken this up as we had time, but there wasn’t anything we wanted to see more than we wanted…

  • Road Trip – day 28 (Texas)

    From where we spent the night (in West Texas), we drove to Dallas, crossing a big chunk of Texas on the way.  I’ve flown into Texas and driven through parts of it (East, North, and far West Texas), but this was the first time I’d driven through oil country.  It was… Interesting.  It smelled like…

  • Road Trip – day 27 (NM; VLA, and Carlsbad)

    While in Moab, Debi’s brother-in-law and brother suggested that we add a stop on our itinerary, the Very Large Array, which is a radio observatory in New Mexico.  It is the inspiration for the radio observatory featured in the movie Contact.  It wasn’t too far out of our way and seemed suitably geeky for us,…

  • Road Trip – day 26 (AZ and NM)

    We didn’t have too far to go this day.  We picked up some supplies in Flagstaff, then headed east toward Albuquerque.  We stopped on the way at the Barringer Crater, which I visited in 2007. The Crater was formed by a meteorite and is pretty impressive.  Toren seemed interested in the museum that is there,…

  • Road Trip – day 25 (Powell and Grand Canyon)

    We got up early this morning and began getting everything ready to go.  Our timing for Lake Powell was off a bit and we ended right at the end of the week.  This was the day everyone was leaving, and that means a lot of work.  We were ready to help get everything cleaned up,…

  • Road Trip – day 24 (Lake Powell)

    We spent all of this day at Lake Powell as well.  I got up early to go skiing with some of my nieces and nephews.  I got some skiing in.  It’s amazing how well muscle-memory works.  I can still slalom, though I’m sure I’ve lost some of my form from when I was younger.  And…

  • Road Trip – day 23 (Lake Powell)

    We got a fairly early start from Moab, leaving Debi’s family, and headed for Lake Powell.  This was the second time I’d approached Lake Powell from the south (Hall’s Crossing); the first was in high school on a work trip with Tyler McConville (good times).  It took about 4 hours from Moab and we had…

  • Road Trip – day 22 (Arches)

    Our second day in Moab took us to Delicate Arch.  The hiking party was something of a motley crew: Here’s a clip of some of the kids climbing through a water drainage tunnel along the trail: Debi, Toren and I all went, as did her sister, brother-in-law, and their two kids.  Also accompanying us were…

  • Road Trip – day 21 (Arches and Canyonlands)

    In the morning we went hiking in Arches.  Okay, it was more like walking, since we didn’t do many big hikes. We had a picnic in the park as well. When we got home in the afternoon, we went swimming, then Toren took a nap.  After dinner we went to Canyonlands to enjoy the sunset.…