Last Dives

Miles from Home - 3037.4 miles
Firsts / Highlights - Last day of diving, Dolphin Academy.
Activity - SCUBA diving, nitrogen purging
People - Just me.

This post if for August 23-24.

Over the course of 14 dives, I have undoubtedly accumulated a little nitrogen in my blood. That is not a problem unless it turns into bubbles when ascending or getting into an airplane. To be conservative, I decided it would be a good idea to skip diving on my last day to give myself a chance to purge some nitrogen, particularly since I have a very early flight out tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures from my last day of diving, wandering around the resort, say goodbyes and a trip to the Sea Aquarium.




Suzy & Mark - a couple of Brits making a go of operating a dive shop on Curacao.


Mark calls these "biguanas"


Dolphins getting big air:

Around Curacao

Miles from Home - 3037.4 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First days with a rental car. First independent shore dives.
Activity - SCUBA diving
People - Marco & Barbara (Austria)

This post if for August 21-22.

I broke down and rented a car for the first 2 days on my sabbatical. It was getting close to the point where I didn't want to rent one just to see if I could complete this entire adventure without a car, but I concluded that would be sacrificing part of my trip to Curacao just to make a point. To whom? I needed a car to see parts of the island on my day out of the water and to get to some good shore dives on the next day.

Curacao is an interesting place. It has no natural surface water, so the only source of fresh water is a very industrial-looking desalination plant along the waterfront. There is an even more industrial refinery on the interior. There seems to be a lot of angst among the locals over a deal where Shell Oil walked away from its environment remediation requirements by selling the refinery to the Curacao government for 1 Guilder. The deal was needed to preserve jobs, but apparently it caught everyone off guard when they learned that Venezuela would process the oil on the island, but require that any gasoline be re-imported at a very large markup. It's hard to tell how much of the story is supported by fact, but I don't sense a lot of warmth toward either Shell or Venezuela.

This is the industrial Curacao that you don't see in the brochures. It's interesting that this small island can have both a large oil refinery and a thriving diving / beach tourism-based economy. The two co-exist in close proximity, but are barely aware of the other.

The humidity is so high that I couldn't really take pictures as I drove around the island. As soon as I stepped out of the air-conditioned car, my camera (and sunglasses) fogged up. I could have driven around without air conditioning, but that just was not going to happen at 97 degrees and 80% humidity. A few images were worth waiting for the camera to warm up to the surrounding air temperature, but casual snapshots weren't practical.


Here is the image of Curacao that most people have if they have one at all. I arrived in Willemstad just as the sun was going down and the pontoon bridge was opening to allow an oil tanker to go through.


Suzy from the Dive Bus recommended that I go to a "Snack" for some local food, but I never worked up the nerve to shoulder my way through the locals and walk up to the barred windows to say, "So, what do you sell?".


After a day out of the water, I got together with Marco and Barbara from Austria for some shore diving on the west end of the island. They are both teachers living near Innsbruck - very close to where I was riding in Bormio earlier this summer. This was my first time diving without a dive master, but I felt like we did a good job of taking care of each other out in the big blue. We planned to do a night dive together the next night, but it had to be canceled due to strong currents.




Barbara was startled to see Neptune waiting for us in the depths.


Let's try a couple of movies. I don't know how well these will work. Give them a couple of minutes to start playing after you click on them. For people who receive e-mail notifications, you may need to go to the blog to view the videos (www.randyhowie.blogspot.com).

I believe these organisms are called Feather Duster Worms. Watch how quickly they retract when they sense that my swimming over disrupts the water current. I didn't touch anything around them. The only disruption I caused was the flow of water.



This one is of nothing in particular. I just turned the video on for a few seconds and captured what was going on in the reef. I started showing a soft coral flowing in the current, but when I panned away I saw a school of blue fish in the commuter lane. It is always busy down there.

Dive Re-Do

Miles from Home - 3037.4 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First day at Lions Dive Resort
Activity - SCUBA diving
People - Mark & Suzy Pinnell (owners of The Dive Bus), Marco & Barbara (Austria), Family of 4 (Netherlands)

This post is for August 20.



I moved from the Marriott (see above) to Lions Dive Resort today. There was nothing wrong with the Marriott, but today was the first day that Lions Dive had availability. Lions Dive is not quite as luxurious, but I prefer the island atmosphere. It doesn’t feel like an American fortress in a foreign land. There are a series of resorts linked together here, so the choice of restaurants on the beach is great.

Due to strong currents caused by the hurricane brewing in the east, we dove the same sites as yesterday. Here are a couple pictures from today’s dive.

Fish explosion:


Squid:


Spotted Eel:

Wreck Diving

Miles from Home - 3013.0 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First wreck dives
Activity - SCUBA diving
People - Mark & Suzy Pinnell (owners of The Dive Bus), Alex & Kimberly (D.C.)

This post is for August 18-19.



In the past 2 days, I have completed dive numbers 22, 23, 24 and 25. Until now, I had never done a wreck dive of any kind. Now I have done 4. They all have interesting names like “Car Pile”, “Superior Producer”, “Tug Boat” and “James Bond Pier”. They also have interesting stories. Superior Producer, for example, was a large freighter that sank right off shore in 1977 (see picture of me in the cargo hold and someone else’s video below). It was carrying whiskey and blue jeans, both of which were scavenged by divers within hours. It sits in 80 – 110 feet of water, so it was right at the advisable limit for my new nitrox certification.





Yes, I completed my educational objective for my trip to Curacao yesterday by passing my final exam for nitrox certification. While traditional SCUBA tanks contain 21% oxygen (the same as ambient air), enriched air (a.k.a., nitrox) contains a higher percentage, typically 32% or 36%. The higher O2 percentage means that you absorb less nitrogen, which means that you can stay underwater longer without requiring decompression. The official benefit is the greater bottom time. The unofficial benefit is that you get less fatigued by repetitive dives because of the reduced nitrogen accumulation.



You couldn’t have proved the reduced fatigue benefit by me yesterday. After two 100-foot dives and a ripping-strong current on the Superior Producer, I was ready for some power-sleeping. I went out for 11 hours! The current we ran into on the Superior Producer was the only affect we have seen of the hurricanes brewing further north in the Caribbean. We are too far south to be directly impacted.



Here is a picture of my reflection in a chrome bumper in the Car Pile dive site.



Yesterday was an exceptional treat. Although I have not had to dive with any big groups on this trip, both my dives yesterday were just me with the dive master, Mark. With only two of us, Mark was able to take me on some deeper, more advanced dives. There is plenty of good diving around here at shallower depths, but it was good to get those dives in when Mark didn’t need to be concerned about divers who he didn’t think were ready for them.

Here is an unsually bold Scopion Fish. They usually sit motionless on rocks where they blend in so well that you can very easily miss them. This one was laying out in plain view on a sponge. He was still sitting motionless, so I assume that he thought he looked like a sponge.



The James Bond Pier, whose name does not appear any any guide book other than Mark’s head, was pretty cool. It is an old commercial pier where the pilings are fully encrusted in coral. We saw the BAB (big-ass barracuda) there. Mark figured it was about 4 ½ feet long and “gurthy”. Unfortunately, he swam off before I could get close enough for a decent picture. I’m not sure who got away. Maybe it was me.

Getting Wet

Miles from Home - 3013.0 miles
Firsts / Highlights - First time diving Curacao
Activity - SCUBA diving
People - Mark & Suzy (owners of The Dive Bus), Bas (divemaster), Chip, Janette & Jarett (New York), Mike & Bruce (NW Connecticut).

This post is from August 15-17.

Greetings from 12 degrees north latitude.



I have been successfully and safely reintroduced to SCUBA diving. I spent the first day at the Marriott’s dive operation just getting my feet (and the rest of me) wet. I snorkeled in the morning and went for a boat dive in the afternoon. It was a good dive, but I never intended to dive with the Marriott (Caribbean Sea Sports) operation throughout my stay.





I read about a small operation called The Dive Bus on www.undercurrent.org, and decided to spend most of my time with them. They use a bus (van actually) rather than a boat to get to their dive sites. Their approach allowed me to take advantage of the great shore diving on this island while still having a dive master along as a security blanket. With an experienced “buddy”, you could easily do all of your dives right from shore and not really need a dive operation except for tank rental. Since I am alone and fairly inexperienced, I feel better diving with a pro.





The owners of The Dive Bus are Mark and Suzy. They moved to Curacao from England about 6 years ago and are working hard to make the business work. Very nice people. Mark drives the bus and leads the dives along with a staff divemaster from the Netherlands named Bas. Mark is the guy diving with the rubber chicken. Suzy runs the hut at their house reef and was my contact as I set things up by e-mail. She got me started on a specialty diving course to learn how to dive on Enriched Air (nitrox) yesterday.



One of the keys to an enjoyable dive is to keep the group to a reasonable size. With The Dive Bus, I have never been in a group of more than 5 people, and tomorrow it looks like it will only be me for both dives (along with Mark as the divemaster). Until now, the dives have been fairly shallow (mostly less than 50 feet). Tomorrow, weather permitting, we are going to dive the “Superior Producer” and “Car Pile” sites. Both of these are going to be in the 80-100 foot range.



I’ll explain more about “nitrox” tomorrow when I will hopefully be certified.

Traveling Again

Miles from Home - In transit
Firsts / Highlights - Traveling to the Southern Caribbean
Activity - None
People - Just me.

This post is from August 14, 2009.

It has been a while since my last blog post. I have been in Steamboat recharging my batteries before deciding what to do next and continuing the adventure. I considered a few options ranging from flying lessons, home repair work, bike touring, road trip and SCUBA diving.

After a good deal of thought, here is what I decided.

1) Although I would love to fly an airplane, the initial and ongoing costs of getting licensed were a bad match for my current no-income status. That one will need to wait.

2) My original plan was to do a self-supported bike tour from Canada to Mexico along the Pacific Coast. After staying in Europe a little longer than planned, I wasn't anxious to simply touch-down in Steamboat and head right back out. I needed a little time to live my routine life in Steamboat so I could be ready to absorb more new experiences. Those two factors left me a little short on time to ride the Pacific Coast at a fun pace.

3) Home repair - well... that will always be there. It would probably be a good learning experience and needs to be done, but not the way I want to spend my (perhaps) once-in-a-lifetime sabbatical.

So that covers what I am not going to do. Here is what I AM planning to do.


View Curacao in a larger map

1) I am currently on a plane heading to Curacao in the southern Caribbean. It is part of the A-B-C Islands (Aruba, Bonaire & Curacao) just off the coast of Venezuela. From the earliest days of planning this sabbatical, I was disappointed that I had not been able to figure out how to incorporate SCUBA diving into my itinerary. I earned my certification last April, and have been anxious to do it again ever since.

There is no practical way to carry both a bicycle and SCUBA equipment on any trip (add the big camera and it would be like a full-blown expedition). Either sport makes for heavy travel, and combining them just wasn’t possible. By returning to Steamboat and making Curacao a separate trip, I should have better quality diving than I would have found in the Mediterranean and avoid having an anchor around my neck while cycling in Italy. Curacao appears to be a prime destination for diving just like Italy was prime for cycling.

I am making use of the flight time to review my SCUBA certification training materials. Most of it is still pretty fresh, but a little review can’t hurt. I would rather be reminded of something I forgot at 35,000 above sea level in the plane than 60 feet below sea level in a panic.

I will be in Curacao from August 14-25.

2) From Curacao, I will return to Steamboat for a couple of days, and then head out on a national park road trip. I visited my first park last week on a bike trip over Trail Ridge Road and a hike to Mills Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park. That was a quick 2-day intro to the national parks that I hope will be just the beginning.

Kristen Lodge was the instigator who organized the Trail Ridge ride along with a friend of hers named George. Trail Ridge road is the highest continuous paved road in North America. It tops out at a little under 12,200 feet. We originally wanted to ride up from Grand Lake, up and over to Estes Park and return back over the pass to Grand Lake in one day. I think we could have done it, but the weather turned nasty at 12,000 feet. The wind blew so hard that I had to angle the bike into the cross-wind in order to track a (more or less) straight line down the road. It was an adrenaline rush, but literally being blown off the road was a distinct possibility. Combine the wind with a bit of cold rain, and we made the rational decision to turn around at the summit rather than dropping down to Estes Park. Although a disappointment for a goal-oriented cyclist, it was a great ride. I will post pictures when I return.

When I get back from Curacao, I plan to load up the car with cycling, camping and photographic gear and head north. I am a bit conflicted about how much driving I want to do, but here is the full loop that will most likely be cut short at some point when I’m tired of driving or the calendar says I need to get back to work.

a) Steamboat
b) Teton National Park
c) Yellowstone National Park
d) Glacier National Park
e) Banff
f) Lake Louise
g) Jasper
h) Vancouver
i) Olympic National Park (at Eric Weaver’s cabin)
j) Oregon Coast
k) Redwoods National Park
l) San Francisco
m) Yosemite National Park
n) Zion National Park
o) Arches National Park
p) Canyonlands
q) Steamboat

Next post should have some underwater pictures.

Back in the USA

Miles from Home - 1734.7
Firsts / Highlights - Hearing English, driving a car for the first time in 2 ½ months
Miles Ridden - 0 miles
Vertical Feet - 0 ft.
Route - No route today
People - Just me.

This post is from July 12-16, 2009.


View Falls Village in a larger map

I assumed that a plane ride across the Atlantic would solve all of my challenges with being a mono-linguist. I forgot to consider that my first stop would be New York City where one language is barely adequate.

Getting back to U.S. soil was a long process, but fairly uneventful. I took a train from Lausanne to the Milan, a bus from the train station to the airport, a plane from Milan to JFK, a bus from JFK to Grand Central, a train from Grand Central to Wassaic and was picked up in Wassaic by my sister to go to Falls Village by car. This was my 8th and final time passing through Milano Centrale train station on this trip. Although I did not spend much time in the city, it was certainly the hub for all of my travels.



I will be spending 4 days visiting my Mom, sister and niece in Falls Village, CT before heading back to Steamboat. Since I planned to spend one day in NYC and one day visiting a college friend in a nearby town, I decided not to assemble my bike. In retrospect, I think that was a mistake to miss the exceptional riding in this part of New England, but this stop was more about catching up with people than riding.

I tabulated my bike stats for my time in Europe. My miles per day decreased a bit after the first month, but my climbing per mile increased. The totals for my 2 ½ months were:

Miles ridden – 1,974.44 (3,178 km)
Elevation gained – 155,257 feet (47,322 meters)
Time in the saddle – 160 Hours, 30 Minutes
Calories expended – 120,288 (software over-estimates this a bit)
Riding days – 46
Travel / Rest / Tourist days – 20
Days driving a car - 0
Rain days – 0
Flat tires – 1
Mechanical failures – 1 (broken chain link)



Of all that information, the one I have the most difficulty wrapping my head around is the vertical feet (elevation gained). I tried to put that number in context by visualizing a single hill that climbed to 155,000 feet. Of course, no such hill exists, but if it did, it would climb through the Troposphere and Stratosphere, pass the ozone layer and begin to enter the Mesosphere (the atmospheric layers where meteors burn up). It is a little over half the elevation required to achieve low earth orbit and is 1/6 of the way to the International Space Station. I’ve always wanted to travel into space, but Italy may be the closest I will ever get.

I will be flying from Connecticut to Steamboat on Friday where I will decide how I will spend the remainder of my sabbatical.

Thank you to everyone who has followed along and participated on my adventure so far. I will make a blog post when I decide what is next.

Switzerlandy

Miles from Home - 5242.7
Firsts / Highlights - Gruyeres, Gruyere & ham sandwich at XXX, a last visit to the Montreux Jazz Festival.
Miles Ridden - Fri – 21.06, Sat - 64.06 miles
Vertical Feet - Fri – 1,685, Sat - 4,828 ft.
Route - View Friday’s Route Here, View Saturday’s Route Here
People - Just me.

This post is from July 10-11, 2009.



Yesterday, I took a short ride back through the steep Lavaux vineyards between Lausanne and Montreux. The vineyards are inspiring, but it was a fairly light day for riding. I have posted a couple of additional pictures of the vineyards, but this post is really about Saturday, July 11.



I waited until my last day of riding in Europe to discover a brand new beautiful area. I had ridden in the direction of Gruyeres twice before, but never gone all the way there. Today, I did. Since I had ridden the farm country leading up to it before, I did not expect it to be as pretty as it was. It is located right at the foot of the Alps.



I discovered along the way that one of the roads I selected for my route is going to be part of the Tour de France a week from tomorrow. You can bet the tour organizers would not include a road in Switzerland unless it was plenty Switzerlandy. Since that’s my word, it can mean whatever I want it to. It had a castle, mountains, green fields. You know, Switzerlandy.



If I had my Lausanne stay to do over again, I would use the train to get up to that area and start a ride from Gruyeres rather than use it as a turnaround point. For future reference, the road that will be on the Tour de France looked very inviting. You can see a little stub on my GPS data where I rode out and turned around. I suspect it lead to a substantial climb. It’s going to have to wait for next time. Watch next Sunday’s stage and find out what I missed.







In the town of Gruyeres, I thought it was appropriate to try a little cheese. I couldn’t buy a pound to carry back on my bike, so I found a place where I could order a sandwich. This was the strangest bar I have ever seen. The town itself is typically quaint Switzerland, but right in the middle is the HR Giger Museum. Giger was the Visual Effects artist for the movie Alien and created the creatures in those movies. Actually, Giger used some of the money he won from his Oscar and bought the Chateau St. Germain in Gruyeres. He now uses it as his museum and bar. He has a scary imagination. Across the road from the museum is the bar that he designed. It was a little like walking onto the set for Alien and ordering a grilled cheese sandwich. A bit surreal - partially mechanical, partially biologic. The pictures don’t really show it very well, but you can tell it isn’t your normal corner bar. The sculpture to the left is called “Birth Machine” and the other must have been one of the prototypes for the Alien creature.



After leaving Gruyeres, I had a surplus of elevation that I had built up from the earlier climbs. That made for an enjoyable ride back to Montreux where I was able to carry some speed, but still enjoy the spectacular day.



I decided to make Montreux my final stop so that I could take one more pass through the festival and get some economical food like this enormous vat of paella.

With about five miles to go on the ride today, I started checking off my European “lasts”. Finished my last water bottle. Descended my last hill. Rounded my last traffic circle. Turned my last pedal stroke. It was over. Given such an invigorating 65-mile ride, I was sad for it to end, but thankful that it ended on a perfect day and a great ride.

I will be leaving tomorrow wanting more. Just as I had hoped.

Coming Home

I mentioned in a previous post that I thought my time in Europe was coming to an end within the next 7-10 days. Jeff Daniels was able to find me a return flight that was a little earlier than I had planned, but I decided to jump on it while it was available. Like Jeff and I discussed, it is better to leave wanting to stay a few days more than to be be here a few days too long.

I will be heading back to New York on July 13 and will stay there until July 17 visiting my mom, sister and neice. After that, I will head back to Colorado for some R&R from my R&R. Once I have a few breaths in my own house, I will decide what comes next on the sabbatical adventure.

I feel a little sad that tomorrow will be my last ride in Euope, but I'm looking forward to deciding what comes next.

What’s in a Name?

Miles from Home - 5242.7
Firsts / Highlights - Saw Geneva
Miles Ridden - 45.93 miles
Vertical Feet - 1,521 ft.
Route - View Today’s Route Here
People - Just me.

This post is from July 9, 2009.



The destination of my ride today was a city called Geneva (in English). It sits on a lake called Lake Geneva (in English). Seems logical. In French, the city is called Geneve. So wouldn’t you think the lake would be called Lac Geneve? No, It’s called Lac Leman. Come on! Someone is just trying to make this difficult.

Consider this. A city in Italy is called Genoa (in English). The Italian spelling is Genova. If you thought the status sign was in English (they sometimes are) and got one letter wrong, you could board a train thinking that you were going to Geneva and get off in Italy. One letter and a language shift would put you in the wrong country.

I had no such problem on my ride today. I made it to Geneve without incident.

The route I selected was unfortunately uninspired. There was very little rural land anywhere along the lake in that direction and the scenery was nothing special except for several views of the lake. I know I am getting spoiled by the great roads I have ridden, but I hope to continue to be spoiled throughout the rest of my stay.



When I arrived in Geneve, I found a lively post-work gathering down by the lake. It was 7:30 pm on a Thursday, so I don’t think it was anything special. My sense is that this goes on every day after work. All of the young professionals were sitting on small lawns having drinks and smoking cigarettes. I wonder what happens on Fridays. A trio of 2 clarinets and an oboe provided improvised music as they roamed the lakefront (I was most interested in photographing the oboe player).



Due to the late hour when I arrived, I took the train back most of the way to Lausanne, then got off and rode the final 6-7 miles.

Jeff Daniels is doing research now to determine when I can get a return flight to the U.S.. I think I am getting close to the time to wrap up this chapter of the adventure. I’ll continue to ride and explore until I know when I need to start working toward an airport. I expect that I will be here another 7 to 10 days. I have to keep reminding myself that 7 to 10 days is usually called a vacation. I still have plenty of time to see new things.

Wine & Cheese Ride

Miles from Home - 5242.7
Firsts / Highlights - First flat tire (in my hotel room), first ride in Switzerland, walked my bike down a 22% grade cobblestone street, rode to tiny ski area Les Paccots.
Miles Ridden - 49 miles
Vertical Feet - 3,800 ft.
Route - Lost by Garmin again.
People - Just me.

This post is from July 8, 2009.



I got back on the bike today for the first time after 11 days off. It felt great, but it was noticeable that I had lost a bit of fitness over that time.

I started the day riding along the shore of Lake Geneva. I actually saw my GPS read 0% grade for a couple of miles. That has not happened much on this trip. The lakeshore was flat, but to my left, an 800-year-old terraced vineyards climbed steeply up a hillside. This wine region is called Lavaux, and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The monks who built these vineyards did not have a thought of maintaining the vines with mechanized equipment. With such a steep slopes, a lot of labor must go into every bottle of wine.



After a nice warm-up along the lakeshore, I decided to head inland to see what this part of Switzerland looks like. Immediately, the GPS went from 0% to 14% and stayed there for a while. The views quickly got better with each switchback.

At one point during the ride, there was a closed road due to construction and the alternate route took me up the steepest paved road I have ever seen, much less ridden. It was 27% according to the GPS. Not very long, but it was a battle for each pedal stroke. The interesting thing about climbing a hill that steep is that you have to decide whether you can make it before you start. If you get bogged down half way up, you may or may not be able to get your foot down to stop yourself. I now know that I can ride 27% for a little while, but there has to be a limit to what they will pave around here. I also encountered a 22% descent on cobblestones. I lost my nerve on that one and walked down. That was a first.



The first part of the ride was dedicated to winemaking, but once I got away from the lake, I was in cheese country. I headed up in the direction of the town of Gruyeres, but didn’t get that far today. Obviously with that town as a seat, you know the region produces a good amount of cheese. I saw some dairy cows and production plants, but I suspect that if I get deeper into that region tomorrow I will see more.

A funny thing about Gruyere cheese. Swiss Gruyere is a solid cheese, while the same style in France must have holes. What we commonly call “Swiss Cheese” is actually French. I have not seen any type of cheese in Switzerland that has holes.



I ended today’s ride by going over to Montreux to see what the Jazz Festival scene looked like during the day. It was a fun festival atmosphere and the town was beautiful, but not as electric as my first visit at night. I think Montreux is best seen at night during the weeks of Jazz Festival.



I started to ride back to Lausanne along the lake, but some really ominous clouds rolled in. The great thing about riding along the lake is that the rail line also follows the lake. I just went to the next town with a stop and caught a train back to Lausanne before the rain started. That train saved me an hour of bike cleaning when I got back. It was nice of them to place it there for me.

Here is another addition to the WYLTBRTR collection.