Southern Hospitality Tour

Friends& strangers-

This summer, during some couple week period when I have spare time, I will be cycling across the US, from Jacksonville, FL to San Diego, CA or something farther north if its later in the year. I may be roughly following the ACA Southern Tier route. While plans are not finalized yet, I plan on riding 90-110 miles per day with a load of about 27 pounds. I'll be photographing, blogging, and learning along the way.

If you'd like to follow my journey, just tune into this blog here, my twitter (potentially) @BenErCo, or shoot me an email at benxcski@yahoo.com.

All I still need are some awesome supporters. Tent, clif bars, and bike are all ordered, and final assembly and testing will be taking place soon.

Winter 12 cycling. Gritty.

I'd rather be skiing or riding on real snow, but today's freak snow storm put a stop to a perfectly good ride through Pownal. 1.5" of ice coating everything, a line of dirt everywhere.

Random photo walk through J Tree

This is an experiment: randomly uploading 5 pictures. Here they are:

The parking lot near trashcan rock. A gorgeous day, not too crowded. A few brave souls soloing 4s, 6s, and easy 10s.

Site 29: The best site in Hidden Valley, if you enjoy partying and loud campfires. Toejam right out the tent door, and an overhanging v6 a few feet further.

Extraterrestrial wandering in the wonderland of rocks. Lookin for nomad dome.

J tree with hint of snow. Enough said.

Joshua Tree Post 1

I had the opportunity to head to Joshua Tree National Park for a bit of climbing during Spring Break as part of a joint WOC/ Felix Ventures Trip. Snow greeted us the first dat, coating all the joshua trees. A temporary barrier to climbing, but also a replenishment of desert life. In a week there will be blooms of cacti and small wildflowers everywhere

Our NW Winter

Having lived in Seattle for 10+ years, I know what it is like to go between sleet, snow, and cold rain every day, with some nice, cold days added in. And I know that if I'm in Seattle, an hour away there will be good skiing and fresh powder most days. Now I know that there is nowhere in New England with altitude to speak of. If I said I came out east for snow, sorry for lying. Maybe next year.

That said, snow isn't everything. Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts, has been snow-free recently and the road is still closed to cars. This means epic bike rides, fast descents down both lanes, and extra gels stuffed into the seat bag.

Opening- American Landscape History

Installment 1. Please support Sheafe's continued involvement in the Williams community: http://sheafesatterthwaitewilliams.blogspot.com/2011/01/letter-from-aaron-reibel.html
To Whom It May Concern:
This book is an edited compilation of weekly papers composed for Art History 201- American Landscape History. Though this is my first college term paper and ideally not my last, it will be one of the last Art History 201 papers written for Sheafe Satterthwaite’s American Landscape History Course. Following in the footsteps of the presumably several thousand S.S. alumni, I participated in three weekly 10’ o clock lectures and discussions for one semester. Perhaps more notable, however, were the Tuesday afternoon field sessions, Forced March in the Troy area, and countless lunch and snack bar discussions with S.S. himself. The time and classes spent with S.S. has introduced me to an incredibly brilliant person, who can remember most details about students now approaching retirement, and who has an innate ability to connect ideas and places in ways unfathomable by most humans. I’m not completely sure what memory S.S. will have of this paper, but such a matter is trivial, and this paper is not written for S.S. inasmuch as it is written for anyone with the time and interest in reading such a work.
Throughout your reading experience, you may be slightly confused about the juxtaposition of seemingly disconnected ideas, or by the apparently random addition of topic content, class context, field sessions, and readings. Feel free to be confused; this is a somewhat natural response. About this paper, S.S. wrote in the 2011 Syllabus, “little book = subject (you have chosen to research) + course context” or “landscape = man + habitat”.

Custom glassware

I'm working on a better etching mix. Ideas wanted for new projects or techniques.