Can you overdose on climbing?

Its kind of weird climbing here in Tennessee because it feels like we are back home. Overcast, breezy...with a sharp chill in the air, in the middle of the woods...not a desert, and the rock is similar to that back in the Northeast. The only difference is the accents... no one can understand me and we have a hard time understanding the locals. I guess not too many New Yorkers pass through here to climb since even the local climber who passes by and says hello is taken aback by our "hi, how's it going?".

There is so much to climb and so little time to climb in Little Rock City. Today was our second day climbing, albeit it cut short due to rain...well thats the excuse we used...I mean....we have climbed in snow and rain in the recent past....it was more like our bodies rejecting a dose of the rock, so we called it a day a little sooner than we normally would. It's hard to take pictures when there is only 2 of us (anyone want to come out and play photographer?) so we haven't been able to take that many shots of us climbing, but we're doing what we can. Many of the routes are low enough to the ground that we don't need a spotter unless there's a sketchy landing...well what used to be sketchy in the beginning of the trip has become the norm and our definition of sketchy and bad holds has evolved along this trip. Tomorrow is a rest day so we are going to check out the Jack Daniel's distillery in nearby Lynchburg, TN. After that we are shooting up to Nashville to catch a hockey game between the Predators and Coyotes

We are definitely looking forward to relaxing in Florida, although I am told it is currently "cold" in Florida. It'll be a much needed break from the rock, sleeping on crash pads, using public restrooms, and everything else that goes along with travelling across the country on the cheap.

Now for tunes:
Jimi Hendrix -Live at Woodstock
Megadeth - The System Has Failed

Quote of the Day:
.....unfortunately our brains are too fried from climbing to remember any quotes...if there were any....today was pretty uneventful in comparison to other days (quote-wise)....but the night is young...

Scenic shots of Little Rock City...

That's me at LRC...

Alex solving some problems at Little Rock City...

Back in the Eastern Time Zone...

Last time we spoke, we were heading to Chattanooga....well, we made it here late last night...around 3 AM or so....so tired.

Unfortunately, we messed up...The New York Rangers (I am a huge hockey fan if you weren't aware) were playing in Nashville last night...we didn't realize that until we were 3 hours out of Nashville with 1 hour until puck drop. Needless to say....I was flipping...certainly a bit of poor planning on our part. In order to try to ameliorate my fury, Alex suggested that we find a bar to watch the game in...after all, we were in Tennessee...and there were no other sports (that we knew of) on last night...hockey must be playing.

Well, we got to Buffalo Wild Wings about 15 minutes after puck drop. There were two college football games, a basketball game, a tennis game, and two TV's dedicated to an in house video poker game...Do the Predators have any fans?...pshh...not in Jackson, Tennessee. Alex saw that I was about to bug out, so he asked the waitress to put the game on for us instead of the Tennis game that nobody was watching. Well, it took them about 20 minutes to figure out what channel the game was on (it was the first time someone had asked for a hockey game at that Buffalo Wild Wings), but we got to watch the better part of a 2-1 Rangers shootout win (yea we did...). Even Alex was getting into it....kind of...

Now that I am done with my rant...back to climbing.

It's a pretty cool little spot called Little Rock City (one of the stops on Triple Crown Bouldering Competition). The boulder field is actually just off of a golf course. The owners allow climbers to use the boulders as long as they register, pay $3 each (not bad, considering our usual climbing spot in NY costs $15 each plus $5 parking...), and follow some pretty lenient rules. The boulders certainly aren't as high as in Bishop or Hueco, and the routes are definitely graded a bit easier out here. Nonetheless, the rock quality is good, there is a good mix of hold types, and the routes are pretty fun to climb. After going through some pains to find a guide book (the first two places we navigated to via GPS did not exist...pretty sweet), we got a couple hours of sick climbing in...all in all a successful day.

Music...o boy...there is a lot (not listed chronologically):

The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

Billy Idol - Greatest Hits

Black Sabbath - Technical Ecstasy

Collective Soul - 2005-From the Ground Up

Creed - My Own Prison

Disturbed - Believe

Faith No More - The Best Of
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape

Korn - Korn

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti (also the name of a cool multi-pitch route that we will be climbing next time we are in Red Rocks)

Metallica - Load

No-Man - Dry Cleaning Ray

Pearl Jam - Ten

Rage Against The Machine - Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk

The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger

System of a Down - Mezmerize

Talking Heads - Little Creatures

Tool - Undertow

Yes - The Yes Album (this was a request from Joe Cas...didn't think Alex would oblige, but he surprised me...)

That's it....for music...told you it was a lot (Tennessee is really far from Vegas)...

Quote of the day...o boy...:

Let me preface this by saying that we had just woken up in the back of the truck, in the middle of a very crowded rest stop...the window of the truck was cracked to prevent condensation:

Alex - "I put icy hot on the inside of one of your articles of clothing last night...you have to tell me which one." (he did not really do this...we both knew that prior to the events which follow...)

Larry - "does being a dick come naturally to you?...you just open your mouth and out spurts dickery..."

Alex - "O yea?.... (at the top of his lungs....) RAAAAPE....RAAAAAPE...RAAAPE...I saw it in your eyes...HE'S IN HERE...WITH THE RED HAT ON!!!...Good luck going outside now...."

Larry - (curled up in a ball and hidden in his sleeping bag laughing uncontrollably)..."What just happened?"

I must really hate myself to spend as much time as I do with him...nah....he's not that bad...

Well, I am exhausted and I need to figure out how to stop my fingers from bleeding so I can climb again tomorrow....

Pictures to follow tomorrow...when we have some...

Talk to you soon...if Alex doesn't get me arrested for rape...

Headed Back East

It wasn't surprising that many places are closed on Thanksgiving, making it that much harder to find a place to eat. I know many of you are asking, "Well why didn't you just cook?" We didn't cook because we were in the middle of nowhere and it was 4 degrees out. We ended up finding a Cracker Barrel open just outside Albuquerque, NM. Not a bad option at all when you're on the road.

There weren't many rest stops along the way so we ended up staying in the dreaded Walmart parking lot on the night/ morning of Black Friday. The inside of the Walmart was interesting, everything was saran wrapped and had a sign on it saying not for sale until 3am and others had 5am. Needless to say, I heard Larry tossing and turning at some unknown hour so I rolled over and asked him if we were going shopping. He replied with a half grumble half laugh, which I took as a no. I asked him what time it was and he said he didn't know so I checked and it was 3:30am. It sounded like rush hour in Grand Central Station...Never doing that again. Although, we were warned by Lisa and Leslie but we had no other option.

I'm pretty sure our fingers are just as happy as we are to have a bit of a rest. When you get to the point that you need to use Krazy Glue and tape to close and pad cuts and flappers on fingers and palms it's time to take a break. We are targeted to reach Knoxville, TN sometime tomorrow. The cliffs we were looking to climb are actually closed for a couple weeks due to the hunting season in that area. So we changed our plans and are looking to tackle a different area in TN.

Now the Tunes:
The Who- Tommy
Alice in Chains- Jar of Flies
Nirvana- In Utero
Marilyn Manson- Best Of
Rob Zombie- Past, Present, Future
Nine Inch Nails- Year Zero
A Perfect Circle- eMotive
Megadeth- Youthanasia
Metallica- Black Album
Pink Floyd- The Wall
(We broke out the good stuff since we are well into our trip)

Quote of the Day:
Larry:"Tiger Bomb" (After Larry bought Tiger Balm he's been saying Tiga Bomb like the guido in the Jager Bomb youtube video. As I type this he's said it probably a dozen times...hope it doesn't last the remainder of the trip.If you read this and have his number you should text him TIGER BOMB)

Hopefully next time we blog it`ll be much warmer. Talk to you soon.

Vegas....again...

Well we got up early this morning (after a late night), broke camp, and drove back out to Vegas...exhausted.....

We had hopes of climbing at Red Rock again, but the storm clouds hanging over the crags kept us at bay. We drove through the canyon (there is a 13 mile one way loop) so that the girls could see the amazing rock even though they didn't get to climb on it. After they had their fill of the sights, we shot over to a local climbing gym to pass some time. It was a light climb day, since we were all fairly physically spent, but a good time none the less.

There is not a whole lot left to be said. We will be dropping the girls off at the Las Vegas airport shortly so they can catch their flight back to reality. We enjoyed their company, and we think they had a pretty good time too.

After that, we will do (hopefully quickly) a revamp of our living quarters (i.e. the vehicle... ) so that we can spend another night sleeping in a Walmart parking lot (it has come to be our home away from home...).

After that the details of our trip get a little bit blurry as Alex alluded to in yesterday's blog....We are definitely taking an Easterly tack, but don't know what are next stop will be as of yet. We have talked about possibly going back to Hueco Tanks for a bit (because it was pretty much the sickest place I have ever been...and it is warm there...) and/or stopping in Tennessee to check out the climbing scene there. This is partially dependent on whether or not we can get reservations to climb at the Tanks on such short notice...we will keep you posted...Either way, I think we are building a few days of relative rest into the trip, because we are pretty well exhausted at this stage of the game.

Music:

Puscifer - V Is for Vagina

Puscifer - Don't Shoot the Messenger (EP)

Audioslave - Audioslave

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine

Blackfield -Blackfield

Coldplay - Parachutes

Stone Temple Pilots - No. 4

Quote of the day:

"My fingers hurt" - everyone...

Well....we'll get back to you when we know what we are doing...hopefully tomorrow...

Happy Thanksgiving everybody...enjoy the day.

I am thankful for being able to sleep tomorrow...what are you thankful for?

The girls climbing in the cold...the cold caught up with them at the end of the day...

Me and Al sending some routes despite the cold / precipitation...

Some scenic/group shots at the Sads...

Shenanigans at the Sad Boulders...

Last day in Bishop...Sad climbing

So last night the girls went through our food bin and pulled out the pasta, canned chicken breast (tastes better than you think), cloves of garlic, and the cream of potato soup. I dont know if you would call it cooking...they pretty much threw everything into a pot of water and brought it to a boil...then a simmer. It actually wasn't bad at all, after eating pasta with just olive oil and seasoning for a few dinners during this trip.....it was a welcomed change.

In the warm bathroom in the campground, the only place to escape the bone chilling wind, Larry and I decided to look at our game plan after we drop the girls off at the Las Vegas Airport (Yes, Larry has gotten much better multitasking while sitting in a public restroom toilet stall). Our closest destination would be Red Rock Canyon just outside Vegas, its expected to be 60 degrees. Flagstaff, Az- Low of 3 degrees....yea thats off the list. Our expected next destination would have been Fort Collins, Co but its expected to have a high of 30 degrees. Hueco Tanks in El Paso is a nice 70 degrees so thats looking promising. Then there are the Tennessee Walls in Chattanooga- 65 degrees. So we have a very loose itinerary but we'll be heading back east after tomorrow. We'll definitely be stopping down in Florida to visit a bunch of my friends from college, it'll be a great place to relax...if we are capable of just relaxing....

Once again, early this morning, a warm RV'er greeted me while running his dog to tell me how impressed everyone was that we stayed in the tents overnight as the temperature dropped into the teens. Of course I shrugged it off and told him we had good sleeping bags and warm clothes. Later on in the day we ran into a couple that was leaving the "Sad Bouldering Area" and they asked if we were the group sleeping n the tents in the middle of the campground. After confirming their suspicion the lady went on to tell us that her husband told her one morning that we were up 'til 10pm laughing and having a good time, to his surprise (Climbers usually pass out after getting a warm meal in them....unless there are drinks to be had).

As I mentioned earlier our targeted area was the "Sad Boulders"....Why is it called that? Probably because the rock is sharp and the routes are tricky. If the route isn't obvious, then the holds are reachy, if the holds aren't reachy then the holds feel like climbing on broken glass....a Sad day... We warmed up on a high slab route, holds were tiny...it was more of a friction climb. As you get higher you just hope the rock has enough bite to keep your feet on the rock. After the slab we wove our way through the canyon full of boulders trying not to get lost while trying to match the boulders ahead of us to the photos in the guide book. After a few more climbs the sky grew dark and the wind picked up....yea this isn't the sunny California with the dancing raisins or people in roller blades skating along the beach. We did get hit with some light snow and sleet while climbing. But we didn't let the freezing winds and numb fingers stop us from climbing...we climbed a few more routes and then called it a day. Apparently, the rock feels sharper when your hands are freezing...and its not fun spotting.

So here we are warming up in Starbucks, the blog didnt allow us to post the photos yet and Larry is going stir crazy since I am the one typing the blog tonight. Its our last day here in Cali tomorrow morning we head back to Vegas to drop the girls off for their flight and for some more climbing in Red Rock Canyon.

Now for the tunes:
Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow (The climbing area is only 5 minutes from the campground)

Quote of the Day:

Lisa: "Its going to be soooo Epic!"
(In response to the wind and snow while still out climbing....probably not in the girls best interest. But as Larry explained to the girls a lot of the things we do are only fun after we look back on it...but we try to enjoy ourselves in the present as much as possible.)

Ok we need to get out of here...Larry is starting to lose his mind...could it be the long hours, cold weather, the company....probably a combination of everything. For now we're all thinking warm thoughts.

Rest day at the Keough's Hot Springs and climbing at the Happy Boulders

Well we woke up to a bit of snow and ice Sunday morning...thankfully not too much at our elevation, but there was quite a bit on the mountains around us (where some of the climbing is). Due to the weather conditions and the conditions of our fingers / muscles, we made Sunday another rest day...

We decided to check out the Keough's Hot Springs which were only 10 minutes or so from our campsite. They run an outdoor pool year round which is fed by natural hot springs. Pretty freakin sickk....We spent a good 3-4 hours in the water there. I did some swimming (laps I mean), but we mostly just bummed around in the 92 degree water (the hot tub was 104 degrees...spent some time there too).

Most of the people at our campground are in RV's and Campers...apparently, they are all pretty impressed by the fact that we are sleeping out in tents with the temperatures getting into the mid teens every night...ehh....we all have good sleeping bags (well, the girls have our 0 degree sleeping bags, and we are using our summer bags...but we have a lot of warm clothes...) and we are all doing all right...

We also met a bit of a hippie (he is a professional traveler...with a dog and a few cats) in the campground...He stopped by to talk to us yesterday morning...yea...we all got high fives...I think for staying in tents. He offered for us to drop by his RV some time and watch Bonanza (what the hell is Bonanza?...is that like a game show or something?)...we have not taken him up on his offer as of yet....as tempting as it may be....Alex says he has seen that movie before (he sees a lot of freakin movies....).

Today we checked out another bouldering area in Bishop. The Happy Boulders are comprised of a bunch of volcanic rock that fill a canyon. You couldn't walk more than a few feet without finding something to climb. We got to do some cool (more skin-friendly) climbing. We also got to do our first highball at Bishop on a 20 ft V0 called The Pursuit of Wow. It was a pretty easy/fun climb, but it got a little scary towards the top...especially when Leslie was climbing...

It was pretty cool, because we ran into a bunch of people that we had met over at Hueco Tanks and had moved on to Bishop as well...a pretty cool climber named Dan (he came out to East Mountain with us in Hueco) and a bunch of Austrian climbers who are here in the states for climbing (they didn't talk much....here or at Hueco...).

Ok....music:

Boston - Boston (not too much time in the car...but we made it count...)

Quote of the day:

Lisa - "you jumping back on it or what?" (in regards to the route we were climbing)

Alex - "Nah....I am saving myself for the right one...."

Well....I am tired and hungry....and the girls are going to try and make a real dinner out of what we have in our food bin....so....talk to you later....

Me and Al squeezing water out of the rocks...kind of...

The gals throwing down on some boulders...

Some non-climbing climbing pictures...at the "Happy Boulders"

Rest day at the Keough's Hot Springs...yup...it's 35 degrees out...and yea, we are swimming outside...