Houston: Home Sweet Home

Sorry for the delay in posting a new update. My little sister has been berating me nonstop to post something new and since I didn't get her anything for Christmas, I thought this could suffice.

We left Phoenix last Friday and booked it to El Paso where we stayed with Paige's Uncle Frank, Grandpa Derf (Fred spelled backwards...don't ask) and cousin Marie. Saturday we got up early and pushed all the way to Houston.

Highlights from the drive included eating at a pizza hut buffet in New Mexico, reviewing an "entrance exam" on Smyth family history given to the new fiance of one of Paige's cousins, and driving for 18 hours on I-10. My favorite question from the quiz was from the essay portion: "Explain in 1000 words why you want to be a part of the Smyth family. Because I'm in love with a member of the family does not count. Please be specific."

We've spent the last few days in Houston wrapping up Christmas shopping, hanging out with friends and family and getting settled into our new home with Justin. My best friend Justin recently bought a house in Houston and has graciously offered to let us bunk down with him until we get our own place. We are going to use his place as home base during the rest of our time off. Then we'll live with him for a few more months after we settle into Houston while we save some money to get our own place.

We're spending Christmas with Paige's family then heading to Dallas to spend some time with my family next week. We will probably spend New Years in Houston.

It has been a nice change of pace to settle a bit in Houston. When we initially packed the car for the roadtrip we also had to pack our whole house at the same time. With everything going on, we ended up with more crap in our car than we would have liked. After three weeks on the road, we've figured out exactly what we need and what we don't and we're glad to have the opportunity to trim the fat. I think Emma has also enjoyed having a bit more stability. Between being on the road and not being able to exercise because of her hurt paw, she was starting to get a bit antsy. I think Paige has also enjoyed the stability as well. The simple act of getting settled in with Justin and knowing where all of our stuff is has been a surprising relief. I've had a lot of fun exploring Houston (as opposed to Houston's suburbs) for the first time and I think we're going to end up surprised at how much we enjoy the city. Houston is wildly different from Portland, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. At first pass, there seems to be a lot of things to enjoy. That being said, we're still looking forward to getting back on the road and seeing the country.

Here're a few pictures from the last leg of our trip (Las Vegas to Houston):

Paige in front of the Hoover Dam

View from the top of CamelBack Mountain in Phoenix

Nephew Jaxson with Paige

Phoenix

Alas, I have not yet convinced my sister to name her unborn child after me. Why does she have to be so selfish all the time? Other than that, Arizona has been great.

On the way to Phoenix we stopped at the Hoover Dam and at the Beaver Street Brewery in Flagstaff. Paige and I were pretty impressed with the Hoover Dam; its pretty damn big. Due to the overwhelming number of recommendations to stop and take the tour at the dam, we really had no choice but to stop. We were told by everyone to pay the extra money and take the "deluxe" tour. In the end we couldn't let go of the $60 for the fancy tour and just did the regular tour. I think we should have ponied up the dough though. The basic tour was just an elevator ride down to the bottom where we saw a big pipe and a walk to see the generators. We had a better time watching the videos in the exhibit hall than riding an elevator with 60 other people. Oh well-live and learn. In the end, just walking around the dam was the most impressive part. As my buddy Jackson from Portland told me, "the Hoover dam changed the whole west." Seeing the dam makes you understand how.

We cruised into Phoenix with our one headlight (still working on replacing that darn thing) and spent the night with my sister Summer. The next day we hung out with her and my nephew Jaxson at their house. Today we went on a hike in Phoenix up Camelback Mountain. The hike was nice except for the fact that I had to stare longingly at the walls all afternoon and wish I had a climbing partner around.

Tomorrow we're starting the two day trek out to Houston and basically skipping most of Arizona and New Mexico. It has been hard to skip so much of the southwest, but we've been consoled by knowing we'll be back here next summer to explore it more thoroughly.

I suppose that's all for now. As always, if anyone is interested in meeting up with us, give us a call and we'll come meet you. I would love to have a climbing partner I knew for once. El Potrero Chico over the winter anyone? Paige would love to see anyone other than me pretty much. I think I might be driving her crazy.

Pictures from Death Valley

Mosaic Canyon

Who knew they had sand dunes in Death Valley?

Who's the best dog ever? Emma finally learned to settle down while on a dog run.

They have a golf course in Death Valley?!?! This seemed too absurd not to take a picture of. Where do they get the water to water the grass?

The lowest point in North America

Paige and I underneath the natural bridge in one of the canyons at Death Valley

Vegas Baby, Vegas

Ahhhh Vegas. What an interesting city. It is the epitome of commercialism and somehow still wildly irresistible.

We arrived in Vegas by way of Death Valley where we spent the better part of a day and a half. We scooted out of Bishop, CA early on Friday with hopes (my hopes) of climbing south of there where hopefully the weather was a bit warmer. Alas, the climbing locale known as the Alabama Hills was not as warm as its namesake would have you believe. It was a brisk morning and I could not convince Paige to climb with me. I will say, the climbing looked extremely promising and I hope to come back sometime when there are other climbers around and/or the weather is warmer.

From there we hopped into Death Valley and went for a few hikes. Our first stop was Mosaic Canyon, a very cool slot canyon that narrowed to just a few feet in some places. We followed up the canyon hike with a stroll along the sand dunes right before sunset and settled into our campsite just after dusk. The next morning we went for a run around the campsite and down around the visitor center. We stopped in at the lowest golf course on earth in the heart of death valley and headed back to our tent for breakfast and to get packed up. On the way out we made sure to stop in at the salt flat (the lowest point in north america) and for another short hike through yet another canyon.

Once we were back in cell phone range we called Marc Moore, Paige's friend from high school and met him at his house in Las Vegas. While we killed time before we headed down to the strip, Marc introduced us to the hilarious show that is "It's Always Funny in Philadelphia." I had no idea what I'd been missing out on. This show is hilarious.

Once we deemed it late enough to head downtown, we went on a tour of the strip that was not to be forgotten. After the statutory visits to Caesar's Palace, the Bellagio, and all the rest, we ended up at Marc s favorite spot, O'Shea's. If memory serves, we had a good time. You'll have to check with Paige for all the details, but I think we won like a million dollars. I don't remember exactly. I'm pretty sure it happened though.

There's not much to say for Sunday. It was a day of rest. It was much needed.

After Sunday's recovery, today I actually got out for a real day of climbing. While Paige tended to the home-front and to Emma's wounded paw, I went out and made some new climbing friends at Red Rock Canyon. In true Zach fashion, I found several groups of climbers and forced myself on them. By the end of the day I'd racked up almost a dozen pitches and managed to find a half dozen new belay partners that were willing to catch me (a kind gesture on their part considering I was generally twice their size).

Tomorrow we are going to head to Phoenix to stay with my sister Summer and my brother-in-law Matt. While there I will try to convince Summer to name her unborn child after one of her favorite brothers. I think Zachary Boyd has a nice ring to it. It sounds almost as nice as Zacharina Boyd in case the child is a girl. I'll let you know how it turns out. If I can't convince her to name her kid after me, we might go for a hike or something instead. Who knows.

Thats all for now.

P.S. I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow from death valley.

Quick Post from Vegas

I'll update later about our time in Death Valley, but I just wanted to make a quick note. We just got into Vegas and are staying with Paige's friend from high school, Mark Moore. I just want to say, its AMAZING! Holy frijoles, I love being back in a bachelor pad.

Recap of his tour of the place:
"We're moving, you can't mess anything up"
"put anything anywhere you want"
"this is the shower. It works how every other shower you've ever used works."

While he was running an errand, I unloaded a few things into the fridge. Here's a quick inventory of items in the kitchen:

1. BB Gun (why won't paige let me have one of these?)
2. Box of hamburger helper. I miss the helper. Again, Paige, why can't we buy this?
   
3. A book called "getting it on"
4. 4 varieties of pepper/steak seasoning
5. Log cabin syrup (I buy this, but Paige would prefer if I didn't)
6. 3 jars of peanut butter
7. An amazing looking store bought apple pie
8. A framed picture of the Backstreet Boys. Ironic? Hilarious.

Oh lordy, I miss living with men.

Snow Shoeing, Adventure, and Bishop

Hallo there, friends. Sorry about the delay in posting, we've had a pretty interesting, some might say, painful, couple of days -- but more on that later.

After our awesome day in Napa (thanks, Alex), we felt like doing, well, nothing. Yes, I know all of you out there are groaning -- but really, people, even when you're unemployed and traveling, you sometimes need a day to do nothing. We stayed in, played with the kitties, watched Apocalypto (or something like that), napped, and went for a run. Yep. That's it.

A big THANK YOU goes out to Meredith, Alex, Dumpy, and Izzy for opening up their home to us and letting us crash for a few days. A special message to Dumps and Izz -- sorry about the fact that you may or may not have almost died. You're fluffy, and we like you, even if Emma doesn't.

We left Sacramento after dropping Mer at work and making a quick stop at the grocery store and Trader Joes (yay Vegetarian Chili and Joe Joes!) and headed to Lake Tahoe. The region has been getting a lot of snow lately, so several of the roads around the Lake were closed off. We decided that driving all the way around the lake wasn't worth the risk of getting stuck somewhere, so we took the most direct route on the 50.

What I can say about Lake Tahoe -- it is definitely not ugly. Seems like you just round this corner and then there it is...this crystal blue lake surrounded by mountains. Breathtaking.

I wish we had pictures, but well, we were busy gawking and then busy trying to locate the visitor center to find out where to snow shoe that we missed the view points to pull off the road. Sorry folks!!

We got a recommendation from a very lovely man that ran a shop full of mounted fish and animal heads (turns out his "winter sports" were a little more hunting and fishing oriented than snow-showing) we headed to Spooner Lake for a little sunshine, snow, and exercise.

As we were getting ready to head out, we ran into an older couple that had just finished up. Apparently folks had been ice skating on the lake a few days before, so it was pretty solid. Walking across a frozen lake...that sounded cool!

Me walking out towards the lake:

I was having a blast watching Emma run around:

Zach was having a blast making faces at me:

And as it turns out, Zach and I are both scaredy cats -- we only got a little ways out on the lake before I started "hearing water." It's very likely I was hearing the water sloshing in the water bladder in my backpack -- but really, I'm risk averse. So the only one who got more than 5 feet from the shoreline was Emma (risk-loving).

The slight bump in the snow on the right side of the picture is the shoreline:

Feeling thoroughly tired (when we weren't on the lake we were shoeing through at least 2.5 - 3 feet of snow) we wrapped up the hike and headed back to the trail head. It was there we discovered that Emma had split her paw pretty badly. Good thing the bears are hibernating (or at least this is what we said to comfort ourselves).

Don't worry, though, we're making sure to clean and dress her wound a few times a day and she seems to be no worse for the wear.

After leaving Spooner Lake, we began the 180 mile drive to Bishop, California. This is where stuff got interesting.

We had noticed as the sun started to set that one of our headlights was out -- as we were driving through a very sparsely populated route, we couldn't exactly stop to fix the headlight, so we just drove on -- we could see just fine with our brights on, and since there weren't that many cars on the highway that wasn't a problem. So we're driving along, and a state trooper passes us, slows, then pulls behind us. Great. We're getting pulled over. We stop and the officer asks for my license and registration and all that jazz. He said he was only stopping us for the headlight, so I figure we'll get a warning and that will be that (I mean, even he can understand that there isn't exactly a Pep Boys in Mammoth Lakes, CA).

But. Wow. He was taking a really long time. I look to Zach suspiciously and ask -- is there anything on your record (because we're both listed on the insurance) that I should know about? -- because clearly my record is clear. He protests that there's nothing -- and we continue to wait. Officer returns:

"Ma'am, can you step out of the car?"

So I'm pretty annoyed. It's 13 degrees outside, and I think we've devoted enough time to my hatred of temperatures lower than 39 degrees. I get out of the car -- maybe I was swerving? It was kind of windy. Then this --

"Ma'am, seems you have a warrant out for your arrest in Oregon for an unpaid towing ticket on a Honda Civic, I'm going to have to take you down to county and book you until we can get this sorted out."

A little back story for those of you before I tell you how awesome County jail is --

About a year and a half ago, in between theft one and theft two of my Honda Civic, I came home from vacation to find my car marked as an abandoned vehicle in front of my house (since you know, it had been there for a week or two because I don't drive often and then went out of town). I try to call the number on the thingy, but no one answers so I take the tag off and then move the car, figuring this is okay.

The next day I return from work to find my car missing. At first I thought maybe it had been stolen again (foreshadowing, perhaps?) but a few hours later I located it at a tow yard. I picked it up, paid the tow fee, and figured I was done with it.

Six weeks later I got a letter in the mail addressed to my father from the County. Seems that on top of the towing fee, I was supposed to pay a fee for my "alleged" abandoned vehicle. Apparently there was a ticket on the car (there wasn't, just a sticker from the towing company). I call, try and sort it out, to no avail. The County won't let my father (me) protest the charges until I pay the fine, and since it's been six weeks, the fine is now $500. I call Dad to ask if he's gotten any similar letter (the title was in his name at this time) and he insists that I do not pay the ticket. I mean, he went as far as saying, "PAIGE, I WILL BE VERY ANGRY IF YOU PAY THIS TICKET." And I could just imagine him stamping his feet and turning that very red color that he turns when he's very angry. So I told him, hey, it's in your name -- I don't care. He took down the number to call the place and that was that.

Skip forward to yesterday. Upon arriving at the Inyo County Jail, they explain that when the title was transferred into my name, the ticket also transferred. Because I failed to pay the ticket they issued a warrant. And then it was official. I was arrested.

Now, this isn't exactly the type of adventure I thought I would be having on this trip -- I mean, if I was going to be arrested, at least I would have liked to have done something -- and since I'm risk averse (as aforementioned) this was pretty unlikely. And normally I would think I'd be reacting pretty badly. I mean, I cry when I'm cold or when I miss my friends (I MISS YOU!). You'd think I would cry, but no! The whole thing just seemed absurdly funny to me.

I guess the good news was, since it was relatively early, I didn't have but one cell mate. We'll call her Hettie. Hettie had but 3 teeth and smelled of malt liquor, but Hettie was nice enough. She didn't so much talk to me as talk around me (something about it being too late, too cold, and her dinner was burning), so I just sat there, hoping that all that saving that both Zach and I had been doing for this roadtrip would cover my bail/lawyer if needed.

Long story short -- once Zach paid the man the ticket price and some paperwork was passed back and forth, I was free to go.

We got back on the road to Bishop, and pulled into our motel a few hours later than expected, but still early enough to catch some horrendous movie on FX that Zach made me watch.

Today we spent the day climbing (more accurately, Zach bouldered. I read a Tale of Two Cities and walked around with the camera). I am including a few photos that I took that are not quite as sucky as my normal photos.

Zach on a bouldering problem at the Happy Boulders.

Getting ready for his next climb:

Walking with the dog at the foot of the hill:

Emma running and having fun:

Trying to catch the Sierras as they looked -- I'm not good enough with the camera to do them justice:

Well that's it yall, at least for today. Tomorrow we head south toward Death Valley.

And yea, just kidding, we really only got a warning for the headlight, but it did take a REALLY long time for that cop to get back to the car -- long enough for me to worry about Dad's OR warrant coming back to haunt me. :)

Race Results

FYI-for anyone interested, we placed 13th in the Open Coed Relay out of 249 teams in the California International Relay Challenge.