Getting High in New Mexico, Saturday, June 21, 2008

[marvins_dad]

Getting High in New Mexico, Saturday, June 21, 2008

Marvins_dad(Antoine)and Beetlemania(Jacob)

Here is a link to my pics...anyone feel free to post pics from here, don't have internet at the house right now so I am not going to be quick at getting these pics up.

Getting High in New Mexico Photos

(just don't ask what is under the crayon tin...we watched SuperBad while at the Earthship...it might have influenced a few photos that aren't uploaded.)

[marvins_dad]

Jacob eating his "Shrooms".
Marvin and Paul at Sol Ship earthship - where we stayed in Taos.
Then us getting all hyped to go to the Eartship learning center...to find out that it was closed for a session.

[jdesigns]

I gotta say it looked like fun.

Jacob, love the shirt!

[marvins_dad]

Friday night we went up Ski Valley to the Bavarian.
No one warned me that it was "4x4 Only" dirt roads that were vertical at some times.
Michael (my brother-in-law) and I made it up first and hung out at a condo (owned by a structural engineer that our office works with). I parked Marvin up on a hill infront of the condo so Jacob could see us and drive on in. The condo was literally 300 yds from the Bavarian.
Jacob shows up and stops infront of the condo on the road and sat there for about 3-5 minutes. We wondered why he didn't come on over...but then he started to move and headed up the road to the Bavarian.
It took us about 10 minutes to say goodbye and head up the road.
Jacob jumped out of the bathroom to scare us on the way into the restaurant (he had seen us).
Apparently his car had been overheating the entire way up. To the point that some times he stopped and raised the hood for it to cool off before venturing on.
Once in the Restaurant it was apparent that Jacob would be a celebrity all weekend. We sat down and immediately to our left the table express that they are glad that he made it up the hill because they had stopped to check on him on the way up.

Much tasty beers and food was had.
Jacob tried to stay away from pig and ended up eating a baby cow shoved into some sort of casing instead, but crying as he did. Jacob could tell you more about the Eliminator or whatever the beer was called...but it was good.

The fellow diners were fun to chat up with as well.

[marvins_dad]

Ahhh - forgot to mention that the first picture might be as a result of Jacob hiking 11 miles to the highest point in Oklahoma on Friday morning...that's a whole story that he needs to tell.

[Herbie3Rivers]

Great pictures. Especially that desert shot. All I can say is...... You wanna get high???

[marvins_dad]

Saturday - as stated before Paul decided that he didn't want to go to upper Ski Valley. So Marvin made the climb by himself and we had to do the steep climb instead.

The first one is where we are going...well the route, the Peak is to the right (not shown).
The rest of the pics are the trip through the woods, snow and rocks up to Williams Lake.
We were partaking of our first snowball of the trip...well maybe not...DUCK AND COVER!!!

[marvins_dad]

This is the ascent to the top of Wheeler...looks like we took few pics, because we were all trying to keep from tumbling down the mountain.
Introductions:
Jacob
Michael (antoine's brother in law)
Antoine

The last 500-700ft were the most steep as well as very gravelly, hard for footing. Unless you have on "magic shoes" - photo on the next post.
Once on top you can see how thick the snow is on the north side of the mountain - for reference, Michael is 5'4.
That is the second peak, not Wheeler pictured as the last image.

[marvins_dad]

At the Peak!

This is what the monkey wore that blew past us on the way up.

We signed the log and I left a new beetle in the tube.

Marmots and Chipmunks galore!


YouTube video of Jacob at the Peak after the adrenalin wore out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQZnQi4hbPs

[marvins_dad]

Here are a couple more videos...

Marmot love...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ofh2zDz2q8

Panorama of Williams Lake...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K9A6iAbR90

[75shot]

Awesome. Looks like you all had fun. What are the furry brown animals(not Antoine or Jacob) ? Are they viscious? Look alot like a beaver in the face.

[PhoenixRising]

Looks keen. Now they need a path up there for karts, and it would be good for all!

[marvins_dad]

Originally Posted by 75shot

Awesome. Looks like you all had fun. What are the furry brown animals(not Antoine or Jacob) ? Are they viscious? Look alot like a beaver in the face.

Marmots...they look the size and face of a beaver, but long tail.
We had a few close calls, but they are more curious than vicious.
One came up and sniffed my pants, a slow and polite use of my walking stick got him to back off. They were all over the higher elevations, accompanied by their poo.
There is a video that I linked to them froliking...or trying to mate.

[marvins_dad]

Originally Posted by PhoenixRising

Looks keen. Now they need a path up there for karts, and it would be good for all!

Fraid not....but it wasn't too bad to the Lake level. The last 700ft would have probably done you in. Since we didn't get to go the long gradual way I don't know if that would have worked for you or not.

[Beetlemania]

Got a couple more pictures for you!

These are some of the digitals I took (which wasn't many) starting with Marvin on the Rio Grande Gorge bridge with Wheeler Peak in the distance. Yeah, we climbed that!

Next is Marvin with a cool MicroBus that we were behind for a few miles on the way to our stop in Colorado.

Speaking of Colorado, look at those next pictures with more mountains and then sand dunes!

[Beetlemania]

I suppose I'll brag a little bit, too, but not for long.

Check out how many miles I made it with almost a quarter of a tank left!!!!! That tank was like 35.4 MPG! Booyah!

Unfortunately the next shots are of my detour in Elmwood, OK, where Paul had worse altitude sickness than I'd had. First is a shot of Paul all freaked out in the lot of a shut down auto parts store, across the street from a gas station with no pumps attached to a motel that had been destroyed by a tornado. There was also a house in the town. That may have been the extent of it. But this was where I sat for like 3 hours waiting for the engine to cool down (as much as it can in 95 degree weather!) so I could remove the thermostat.

Along those lines, it looked like Paul bled to death out there, but I guess he was okay with a water transfusion for a little while. I'll aplogize now for poisoning everyone's food with my coolant! :shrug:

Since I learned how to pull the thermostat, I decided to learn how to put in the new one after I got home! But I didn't take any pictures of that, since it would just show a dirty Bug in my driveway.

[Beetlemania]

To end on a happy note (for now!) I'll show a shot of Oklahoma's attempt at eco-friendly energy. I know of 1 other farm of this sort in the state, which I pass on the way to Roswell.

Hooray for wind power!

[marvins_dad]

Poor Paul!
Bleeding on the pavement.

[callisto9]

You guys crack me up! I always love seeing pics of Jacob. He makes the faces in photos I make. We're photos twins.

Thanks for sharing the pics!

[Ikkin]

GGRRReat Shots!
What a GTG! the Views, the bugs, looks like fun!

yes, thanks for sharing!