Category Archives: USA Trips

Iron Horse Bike Ride, August 2012

Posted on by
Reply

Iron Horse Bike Trail
Date: August 3, 2012
Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Distance: 40 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,000 feet
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Exit 32, I-90
Users Group: Hikers, Horses & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass Required
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking With: Rick Massie & Jim Darmiento

I usually hike over the weekend, but a good friend and co-worker Jim Darmiento suggested we bike the Iron Horse trail along I-90. I met up with Jim and Rick Massie at Starbucks in North Bend, Washington for a little java and trail discussion. The beginning of this trail is very close to North Bend, on exit 34 off of I-90. The official name of this trial is the John Wayne Pioneer Trail; it’s an old railway, so the trail grade is very constant and gradual with the maximum grade at 2.2%. The trail is lightly graveled and thicker in some spots, especially over the numerous trestles.

Our destination was the Snoqualmie Tunnel under the Snoqualmie Pass, so we had 20 miles uphill and 20 easier miles downhill on the ride back. You can actually take this trail all the way to Idaho. Within three miles from our start I had a flat tire; Jim was caring spare tubes so I was back riding in 10 minutes.

We had a casual ride up to the tunnel and stopped to have a snack before we entered the dark, damp, cool tunnel. I took my helmet off and put my headlamp on and turned on my light as I entered the darkness, but for some reason it was still very dark to me. I actually stopped and looked at my headlamp to make sure it was working…it was, so I put it back on my head and started off again. Same thing…couldn’t see, so I stopped again, but this time I found the problem…I still had my sunglasses on!

On the way back down to the starting trailhead, Jim completely blew out his back tire, not the tube but his sidewall on his tire. He was close to exit 47, so Rick and I quickly cruised back to Jim’s truck to drive back to pick up Jim at exit 47. We ended our day at our usual spot, North Bend Bar and Grill.

Nebraska Trip, July 2012

Posted on by
Reply

I had two main reasons for this trip, to see my sister Nova in Nebraska and to summit Mt. Elbert on my 52nd birthday in Colorado. I flew to Omaha via a Minneapolis connection by myself; Linna would join me later in the week in Denver. It was a smooth and sunny flight over to Minneapolis; the beautiful Cascades still had a lot of snow on top.

After flying into Omaha, I grabbed a rental car and drove over to my sister Alicia’s house in La Vista, Nebraska for a long overdue visit with her and her children Kason and Jolie. Later in the day I drove over to Lincoln to meet up with Brad Wilcher an old classmate of mine from high school. I lived with Brad and his family for a small stint my senior year in Cozad and we have maintained a worthy correspondence ever since. We ended up having a few beers at a local hot spot talking about old times, people and sharing a few laughs.

The next day was a leisurely drive to Kearney, Nebraska to meet up with my sister Nova where she was having some medical testing done. She was diagnosed with cancer about 1 1/2 years ago; she looked great for what she has endured. After her testing we met at the Alley Rose, about the only nice restaurant in this small college town of 30,000 people. I didn’t have any plans after dinner so I decided to call John Dorsey on a whim who lives in my hometown of Cozad. After a quick 45 minute drive I was sitting in John’s backyard enjoying a refreshing cold beverage with him and his son Mike Dorsey. Mike is a retired Marine and is living out to Johnson Lake for a few months before heading onto Alaska where he will guide big game hunts and fishing trips. John was nice enough to offer up a guest bedroom and a delicious brunch the next day. Before driving out to Johnson Lake for a swim I stopped by to chat with Deb Hunke, another old classmate of mine.

Later in the evening I met up with my ex-brother-n-law Brad Stallbaumer and his wife Gina Krysl Clyde at the local Elks Club. During dinner a woman came over to grab a spare chair from our table and to my surprise it was another classmate of mine Renee Rowe, it seems I run into her on every Cozad trip I make. After dinner we cruised around Cozad and to check out Brad’s house where he is adding another 2,200 square feet.

I left Cozad around 9:30 p.m. to head toward Denver; I thought I would stay at the Hampton Inn in North Platte about a 45 minute drive west. They were full, no biggie I said to myself…I will drive to the next town toward Denver. Well, the next town and the next town were all full too. I finally pulled over in a hotel parking lot and crawled in back of my rented Jeep and crashed about 1:30 a.m. After sleeping for about 6 hours I woke up in my same clothes I had on the day before and went into the Hampton Inn and had breakfast. I picked up my wife Linna at the Denver airport at 3:00 p.m. and headed for Mt. Elbert, my birthday hike.

Bend Trip, April 2012

Posted on by
Reply

Jim and Ione Darmiento was nice enough to invite Linna and I for a three day weekend in Bend, Oregon with their daughter and her husband. Bend is home to one of many microbreweries and to Mirror Pond which where our four bedroom rented house was located, right on the Deschutes river. We drove down on Thursday which was around 6 hours of driving from Seattle. They were barbecuing up chicken and hamburgers when we showed up.

Friday was mainly checking out the city starting with breakfast at a local cafe. I stopped at REI to get some local hiking maps and get the inside scoop on snowshoe trails and where dogs are allowed. After spending money at REI we headed for the local Safeway, Linna wanted to cook a huge pot of chicken thighs and vegetables that night for everyone. After Linna marinated the chicken, we decided to adventure out some and check out the snowshoe trailheads and determine if there was enough quality snow or not. After checking out three snow-parks, I was leaning toward this summer trail next to a snow-park which was directly across the highway from Mt. Bachelor. It had good snow and elevation, but it didn’t allow dogs. Jim and family went skiing as Linna and I were exploring, but we both made it back about the same time. Jim and I checked out the neighborhood micro-brewery before dinner, 10 Barrel Brewing www.10barrel.com that had outdoor seating…we didn’t have much time but we able to down two powerful pilsners before dinner was served.

Next day was snowshoe day and I decided to snowshoe up the summer trail on Tumalo Mountain even though dogs were not allowed. As we were getting our equipment on, a sheriff in a large Dodge Ram pick-up pulled in and parked for about 10 minutes, by the time we were ready to go he took off. We quickly got Macho out of the kennel and headed up. The climb was steady and straight up….almost perfect conditions for snowshoeing. The higher we got, the less trees there were to take cover from the warm sun. The whole weekend was in the mid-seventies and sunny, so waterproof sunscreen was a must. We made it to the top in about 1 1/2 hours and spent about a hour on top having our peanut-butter sandwich and taking pictures. That night we all went out to Chris’s Grill www.gregsgrill.com for dinner.

San Francisco Trip, January 2012

Posted on by
Reply

Linna and I got lucky this weekend in San Francisco with the weather and had a chance to soak up some sun for a couple of days. This was a short trip down South for a little shopping and of course some wining and dining. We flew late afternoon on Thursday and both of us were upgraded to First Class on Alaska Airlines; no dinner was served, but we did munch down the cheese plate with a couple of glasses of wine. Since we flew into Oakland due to lower cost flights, I booked our hotel in Concord, which was ½ hour East of Oakland. On our way to the hotel, we decided to have dinner at this Italian restaurant that I found on OpenTable during our flight from Seattle using the airline internet GOGO. Ottavio www.ottavio.com, is a local favorite in Walnut Greek and the place is so cozy…the Chef would come out to check on you.

Friday was pretty much a shopping day in San Francisco followed by dinner at a hip Japanese restaurant in Oakland. Ozumo www.ozumo.com is a lively young cool place serving authentic Japanese dishes along with premium sashimi. I would recommend using the valet, parking in the area was a challenge. Saturday was sleep in day followed by a visit to the Golden Gate bridge. Of all the visits to the Bay area, I have never actually walked on the bridge; actually you get more of a sense of the size, age and discoloration of the bridge. We flew out late Saturday afternoon to make it home to see a little snow in Seattle.

Georgia Trip, November 2011

Posted on by
Reply

Linna and I flew down to Atlanta to visit AJ Hudgins and Colleen Favinger, old friends of mine that moved to Hartwell, Georgia about six months ago. I use to work with AJ and Colleen back in Cozad, Nebraska at Tenneco Automotive in the eighties. This was only a three day trip, but…the drive from Atlanta to Hartwell was warm with beautiful fall colors.

We arrived Friday afternoon and later had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant. After dinner AJ and I stayed up late getting caught up on gossip, life, and work. Linna and I slept in on Saturday and eventually woke up to AJ’s homemade breakfast. For dinner, AJ wanted to check out a new restaurant that was being featured in the “Food & Wine” magazine, “Five and Ten” located in Athens Georgia. Before we headed to Athens, we drove around Hartwell, AJ and Colleen’s new home for many years to come. It’s a quaint little town, but…bigger than Cozad, Nebraska where we all lived for many years. We stopped in at a local art gallery; you never know when you might find a piece of art that you might like. The owner and artist, Diane Geiger moved from Atlanta a few years ago to open her own studio “Hang it up Gallery and Studios”. I bought a small piece from Diane that I knew would be managable to travel back to Seattle with. It’s a small world, Diane’s sister lives in Bellevue, just a few miles from Linna and I.

After exploring Hartwell, we took the back highways to Athens. As we were getting close to our destination, we noticed it was college game day for the Georgia Bulldogs; our restaurant “five and ten” was walking distance from the stadium. After locating the restuarant, we decided to cruise the campus area which happened to be an eye opener. I haven’t been to a campus before that allowed open containers on campus, not only on campus…but walking on the street, sidewalks and all over. The campus reminded me of the movie “Animal House” with all the empty containers all over. After the campus fun, we headed to our dinner spot www.fiveandten.com, it was definitely a five star dinner. We got stuck in the football traffic after dinner, which was a total drag. Sunday was another sleep in, but eventually got on the road back to Atlanta after lunch; we wanted to stop at the Aquarium, but our departure was to close. It was a great to see AJ and Colleen again.

Seattle, Live Painting, August 2011

Posted on by
Reply

My wife Linna and I had the distinct pleasure of hosting a live painting in our back garden area by artist Sayoko Hirano from Kyoto, Japan. She was visiting Seattle and New York with other artists, Bosshiko, Gan-Ghan and Chiaki. I met Sayoko through an Japanese Art Auction on Facebook.

My friend Allan Leal was posting the artist website on his Facebook page and I thought it was the least I could do was to purchase a piece of art; all the donations were for the Japanese disaster relief campaign that generated from the tsunami devastation. The piece of art I bought “lovers” is placed above our Buddha in the landing with a beautiful frame around it. I befriended Sayoko on Facebook and found out that she was going to be in Seattle for a few days before she went on to New York for her own art exhibit. So I asked if her group would be up for a barbeque and fire-pit party at my house, her reply was “yes, could we do live a painting?”, and of course I am like “oh hell yes!”

Linna and I invited twenty-five guests over to enjoy the festivities in our backyard garden, we had it catered by Duos Catering www.duoscatering.com, which I highly recommend. Even though we started the fun around 6:00 p.m., the live art didn’t happen until 9:00 p.m. which actually gave the event more drama with the spot light on the live 30 minute drawing.

After the drawing, Gan-Ghan provided a story telling event with prizes; he spoke in Japanese…but with his facial and body expressions you could still follow the story. Chiaki performed a 5 minute dance that incorporated hip-hop and martial arts. This was a perfect evening and to top it off, Sayoko Hirano gave me her live painting!

Lake Oahe Trip, July 2011

Posted on by
Reply

It has been three years since I have been to Lake Oahe, South Dakota. This is an annual fishing trip that I started going on with a few of my Nebraska buddies; the first year I made the trip to Lake Oahe was in 1995. I went year after year and then took a 3 year break after the 2007 fishing trip. The early years, it was a trio that consisted of John Dorsey, AJ Hudjins and myself. AJ and John live in Cozad, Nebraska (my hometown) and the last few times Scott Diehl has been joining us, he lives in Brady, Nebraska about 30 miles from Cozad. This year, AJ didn’t make the trip due to his moving from Cozad to Hartwell, Georgia to start a new job.

My wife Linna had the pleasure of waking up at 4:30 a.m. to give me a ride to the airport. I flew from Seattle to Minneapolis and then back to Pierre, South Dakota. The flight from Minneapolis to Pierre was on a small turbo-prop plane….which was loud and slow. John and Scott were waiting for me at the Pierre airport with a cold beer. John picked up Scott in Brady about the same time my flight took off from Seattle. John and Scott pretty much just had to drive due North, a 5 hour drive to Pierre. As usual we headed to Dakota Mart to pick-up a few items, a store that carries guns, fishing equipment, liquor, clothing and groceries. We stayed at the West Prairie Resort www.westprairieresort.com, a place we have been doing business with for the last 4 fishing trips. The owners Terry and Tammy Nelson are some of the nicest people you will ever meet; Terry is considered to be the best guide on Lake Oahe by his peers and customers.

Each morning consisted of breakfast at the lodge and out on the lake by 9:00 a.m. We usually had our limit by early afternoon, which was a good time to get off the lake. Fishing in mid-summer on Lake Oahe, temperatures can reach over 100 degrees, which must have reached each day for us! When we got back to our air conditioned cabin, it felt like you walked out of an oven into a refrigerator. Seattle hadn’t had a full day over 80 degrees yet and my body was acclimated for the low 70’s. After each day of fishing, Terry would clean, pack and put our fish in our cabin freezer. He treats you like a king on the boat and makes sure you are having a great time. He will even bait your hook and take your fish off….as he did for Scott all three days; of course John and I were making fun of it! This resort goes beyond the usual customer service, since my flight was in the late afternoon and my Nebraska buddies wanted to take off in the morning, Terry gave me a car to drive to the airport. So I stuck around the resort and used the wireless until I needed to catch my flight.

San Francisco Trip, July 2011

Posted on by
Reply
It has been a while since I have been to San Francisco and after spending a three day weekend….it was a good reminder why I love this city. Linna and I flew Alaska Airlines down to Oakland airport which is just a 20 minute hop over to San Francisco. We stayed at the Hilton hotel in the Union district; this area is close to highend shopping and walking distance to plenty of sightseeing. We had dinner the first night at Jardiniere’s restaurant, this is a neighborhood hotspot and the dinner reviews were spot on, the place excelled.

Next day we met up with a friend at the Butterfly located in Embarcadero, this was more of a business casual dining….but, I would definitley hit this spot again if I come back to this area again. That night I had a craving for Italian food, so I picked Palio d’ Asti which was a little more than a mile from our hotel. I wanted to walk so we could do a little shopping along the way. After living in Seattle for 15 years, the shopping is a little stale and every shop seems to offer the same things. Palio d’ Asti dishes were delicious, but the service was a little weird….our server would never look at you when he spoke. After dinner we hit a Chinese massage place to relax our feet after a long day of walking. The foot massage was okay, but….I would be looking for something better next time in San Francisco.

The last day was more shopping and we finished the day off at Scala’s Bistro in the heart of some major shopping. I ended up with a couple of cool shoes and three new jeans and Linna ended up with three full bags of expensive apparel. Our flight was delayed from Oakland to Seattle, so I wrote this blog up during three cold Stella’s.

Nebraska Trip, April 2011

Posted on by
Reply

I haven’t been back to my hometown (Cozad, Nebraska) since my class reunion in September 2009.  The main purpose was to spend Easter with my sister Nova Walker, she was diagnosed with cancer 6 months ago.  Linna and I flew direct from Seattle to Denver on Alaska Airlines, just a little over 2 hours.  Cozad is located on Interstate 80 halfway between Denver and Omaha; taking a direct flight from Seattle is much easier than flying into Omaha with a connection and still driving 4 hours.  The Eastern side of Colorado is not much to look at and all it does is encourages you to drive as fast as you can through it.  Speed limit is 75 and I usually drive 85 to 95 to make sure I get to Cozad for dinner…..well this time I had Mr. State Trooper stop me to say hi. 

After we settled in with my good friend AJ Hudgins and his girlfriend of 27 years, Colleen Favinger in Cozad we headed out to Bella Italia for dinner.  There isn’t much in Cozad, but I have to admit I am totally impressed with this Italian restaurant located in my small hometown.  After dinner, AJ and I sat up until 4 a.m. gossiping about the 4,000 residents in Cozad.  The next two days AJ and I spent driving around Cozad seeing old friends and neighbors.  We stopped in to visit with Mark McKeone, Scott Diehl, Eric Seaman, Marty Munster, Verna Story, Ardi Wilcher, Heidi Bazata, John Dorsey, Scott Hergenrader, Sherry Armagost and even dropped off a dozen tulips to Ardi Wilcher.

Linna and I spent Easter Sunday with my sisters Nova and Alicia and their families.  We started the day off with church service at the Nazarene; I haven’t been to a church service for 9 years or so…..and it might be another 9 before I go back.  After church we drove over to Gothenburg, ten miles west of Cozad for brunch at Walker’s Steakhouse.  After munching down the Midwest buffet, we headed back to Nova’s house for pictures and an Easter egg hunt for the kids. 

Most all small towns in the Midwest, especially Nebraska….the towns are pretty much closed down on Sundays….which means there is no place to dine.  The nearest town for a decent dinner on a Sunday is Kearney, a college town 50 miles East of Cozad.  We first stopped at Hunan’s, a Chinese restaurant that Linna rejected after taking one look at the menu.  After another late night, we got up Monday morning and headed back to Denver.  I took a small detour to Sidney, Nebraska and stopped in at Cabelas to pick up a new shotgun case for my over/under Browning Citori 12 guage shotgun that I was flying back to Seattle with me.

Turtlehead Peak Hike, March 2011

Posted on by
Reply

Turtlehead Peak
Date: March 27, 2011
Difficulty: 6 out of 10
Distance: 5 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,000 ft.
Time: 2 to 3 hours
Location: 20 Minutes From Las Vegas
Users Group: Hikers Only
Permits: $7.00 Park Fee
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking with: Linna Freeman

Linna and I had some extra time in Las Vegas during the day and a sunny hike was in order.  I did a quick search for hikes near Las Vegas and Turtlehead Peak had the most elevation gain with a 360 view on top.  This hike is located in the Red Rock Canyon area with numerous other hikes located along the one-way 12 mile route that loops through the canyon.   The trailhead parking was overflowing with cars so we had to park along the road, which I suppose is normal during a weekend. 

We got started on the gravel trail with the sun beaming down overhead.  The trail starts off fairly easy on a river bed and soon picking up some elevation.  Once you get to the gully, it;s a scramble until you get to the ridge.  Once on the ridge, pretty much just follow a couple of trails to the summit.  The 360 view on top was worth the steep scramble in the gully.  Las Vegas was off to the East and the surrounding mountains were glowing red from the sun.