Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Travel

National Parks Web Cameras

Every once in a while, when I’m at my desk working, I get a twinge of wanderlust. When the great outdoors calls me, I go to the National Park Service Web Cameras page. From there, I can navigate to some of our favorite places in near real time.

I made this mosaic from several of the images I looked at during my lunch break.

NPS mosaic

Available webcams on the NPS Page:

NPS Cams

Even though the mission of the webpage is to raise awareness of air quality, I like the instant gratification of seeing what the conditions are like in several different parks across the country.

Disclaimer: Some sites are in maintenance mode and the Hawaiian volcano site does not have a camera. Bookmark the site and when you get wanderlust, you can get a peek into the great outdoors.

From the page:

The National Park Service operates digital cameras at many parks to help educate the public on air quality issues. These cameras often show the effects of air pollution such as visibility impairment. Because these cameras are typically located near air quality monitoring sites, the camera web pages display other information along with the photo such as current levels of ozone, particulate matter, or sulfur dioxide air pollutants, visual range, and weather conditions.

02 Jun 2009 by Environment Travel

Flashback to Grand Canyon Snow

I take a lot of pictures of the scenery when we travel. I consider only a few of my pictures to have that special quality that I want to share with others. Because I take so many when we’re out and about, there are some photos that I want to share that I can’t in real time. So that’s why this December photo is finally getting published in June. I think it’s a pretty view of Grand Canyon in it’s winter coating. Click on the image to enlarge.

canyon-snow.jpg

01 Jun 2009 by Photography Travel

Arizona Sunset

sunset-camping.jpgWe sure enjoyed our trip to the NRA and our little mini-vacation this month. We drove a rented motorhome from our home in southwestern Los Angeles County to Blythe, California and camped there the first night out. The next day, we drove to Phoenix and checked into the Desert’s Edge RV Park, near Deer Valley.

While the Phoenix RV Park may have been at the ‘Desert’s Edge’ at one time, the sprawling development puts it more in suburbia than at the edge of the wilderness. The campground sits a quarter mile from Interstate 17 and is in the heart of an industrial area.

Regardless of it’s suburban location, the Phoenix campground was nicely equipped and fairly quiet. The people were nice and we enjoyed staying there.

We camped in Wickenburg, Arizona, after three nights in Phoenix. The “Horsepitality” RV campground sits in a little hollow; the grounds are set up like a little western town and the mood is rustic and serene. There are stables set up for itinerant equine campers, too. The evening we were there, Damsel stepped out of the RV to capture these colors of a Wickenburg Sunset. Click on the image to enlarge.

After Wickenburg, it was time to head back to California, but we planned a stay in Twentynine Palms and a tour of Joshua Tree National Park before heading back home.

It was a great trip.

26 May 2009 by Arizona Travel

RV Camping in Phoenix and the Blog Bash

We decided to rent an RV and camp in Phoenix last week while attending the NRA Convention because we wanted to bring our dog, Bear. She’s eleven years old and we’re quite attached to her. Besides, Damsel and I had such a wonderful time camping out last December for our Winter RV Cruise, that we knew this would be fun.

One problem we had because the dog with us, was a logistical balance between getting her in a doggie day care center near the campground and getting transportation to the Convention. We wanted to go to the exhibits on Friday and did OK with that, but we had traffic, parking and proximity to the Center problems because of the overwhelming attendance. By the time we finished with the exhibit hall, it was time to head back to doggie day care and thence back to the RV.

One thing that needs to be said is that without Bitter and the 2A Bash groundwork, we would have waited in the two-hour lines to even get into the place. We got our stuff in the media room and headed into the exhibits. Thanks again to the organizers and to the NRA staff.

We’re sorry we didn’t have the chance to attend the Bash meetings and mingle in the media room. I actively looked at people in the exhibit hall hoping to spot another blogger and say hello, but that seemed to be a needle in the haystack proposition. Plus the guns and exhibits were there to distract us, naturally.

Eventually, we will be able to hook up with some of the other bloggers. We especially would like to meet Bitter and Sebastian to personally thank them for their help this year. I’m going to be retired next year and I assume we will have more time to get involved.

It was fun – I composed this panorama while we were parked in the campground – we’re the Cruise America rig in the middle. Several of the other rigs in this row were also there with NRA folks. Click the panorama for full size.

desert-edge-pan.jpg

21 May 2009 by Blogosphere Firearms Travel

View of the San Andreas Fault

During our visit to Joshua Tree National Park yesterday, we took the short drive from the main road to a place called Keys View. From that point, you can see the Coachella Valley and the Palm Springs area five thousand feet (1525 meters) below. You can also see the San Andreas Fault (underlined in red) which has been the cause of many Earthquakes in California, including the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Click on the image to enlarge.

san-andreas.jpg

In the distance behind the ridge of hills thrust up by fault motion, you can see desert communities including Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Cathedral City, Indian Wells, Palm Desert, Indio and La Quinta. All of these places will have a front row seat for the next major San Andreas movement in this area.

Speaking of quakes, the ground here at home is still shaking from aftershocks form the earthquake that happened in this area last Sunday. That was on the Inglewood-Newport fault, not the San Andreas. We missed the main shock since we were in Wickenburg, AZ when it hit. No damage here at home, thank goodness.

20 May 2009 by California Travel

Back to California

Joshua Tree

We’re back in California (for the time being) and planning to spend our last day on vacation visiting Joshua Tree National Park. We drove through the park from the south entrance today, so we have our preview of tomorrow’s tour. We’re camped in Twentynine Palms, CA, tonight, and plan to head back to the park in the morning. After the visit to the park, we’re headed back to the grind at home – for now.

We enjoyed our trip and look forward to our upcoming retirement and eventual return to Arizona when we get our affairs in order. While in Arizona, we both enjoyed our 2nd amendment rights to carry in a place that gets it. We can hardly wait to get the freak out of liberal California.

18 May 2009 by Curmudgeon Rants Second Amendment Travel

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