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?