March 31st, 2008 admin
Well we missed our connection to Munich. Fortunately there is another leaving 3-hours after our original flight.
With this change we will be arriving in Moscow at 4:10 PM on Tuesday. Based on what we have heard the train to Cheboksary leaves at 8:30 PM, so I imagine it will be a mad dash from the airport in Moscow to the train station.
For some strange reason, the theme music from Amazing Race keeps playing in my head.
Our spirits are still high. We had one minor frustrating moment with a ticketing agent…but we decided to walk away and regroup.
This might be my last post for a couple of days.
Peace!
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March 31st, 2008 admin
We arrived at the airport 2-hours early, boarded the plane on time and were then told we will be taking off an hour late due to thunderstorms in the Chicago area. If it is truly only and hour delay we should make our connection to Munich if it is any longer than that we need to hope our connecting flight is delayed as well.
We have our travel agent on notice and she has already identifed alternatives for us. The main thing is we need to make our train in Moscow which departs at 8:00 PM on Tuesday the 1st.
For those keeping track of time, Moscow is 8-hours ahead of KC time.
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March 29th, 2008 admin
The visas were delivered yesterday morning. So now we have everything we need to get on the plane.
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March 28th, 2008 admin
Right now in my mind I AM the center of the universe.
So why is it I can’t seem to get the immediate attention of my doctors office.
Yesterday I left a very detailed message with the nurse explaining my situation and that I need two scripts filled before I leave the country. I had to call back today only to be disconnected once and then sit on hold for 10-minutes hoping the nurse will pick up the phone. In the end the nice lady that I did talk to said she would pass a message on to the nurse.
ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!
Rant OFF.
Rant ON!
4:30 PM – still no word – so I call the doctors office again. This time I’m smart enough to ask if the nurse for our Dr had left. The answer was YES! Deep breath…don’t go postal on the nice lady who just happened to answer the phone…serenity now.
I politely explain the whole story and asked if there is anyway she can PERSONALLY take care of my request. “Sure” she replies (blood pressure drops back to normal). I will transfer you to the Office Manager.
FINALLY! Someone like myself at the center of the universe deserves to talk to the Office Manager. But wait…VOICEMAIL!
Where’s my gun!
Breath slooooowly…inhale………….exhale……….
OK…I leave another polite yet stern message for the manager. I then hang-up and call right back and explain once again to the lady on the other end of the line that I had to leave a message and is there anyway she can actually locate the Manager and have her take my call. Again a very polite “sure”…
SUCCESS! A very professionally concerned voice on the other end of the line says “How can I help you Mr. Braley”. I once again spin the tale of what my needs are, hoping this will be the last time. She indicates to me that while the nurse is gone for the day, she will take care of it and call me back.
tick tick tick tick tick RING!
“Mr. Braley your script has been called in” I wanted to reach through that phone and give her a big hug.
Little did I know it would be easier to get visas than it would be to get a prescription filled.
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March 26th, 2008 admin
Well we have survived the initial two-day crazyfest. We have booked our flights and we have applied for our visa’s. If all goes as planned we should have our passports w/ visas by Friday – Saturday at the latest. If we don’t get them by Saturday…we most likely won’t be getting on our plane Monday morning and will have to push everything back a day.
But we are not having negative thoughts. They will be here and we will be getting on that plane.
For those curious as to the travel itinerary her ya go…
KC to Chicago
Chicago to Munich
Munich to Moscow
(total flight time around 13 hours)
oh but were aren’t there yet
catch overnight train to Cheboksary (13-hours)
We will spend three days and two nights in Cheboksary meeting the child and taking care of preliminary paperwork. Then we will retrace our travels back home.
Our focus now is making sure we have everything covered for my parents to watch Alex while we are out of the country and assemble all the necessary items for our trip. Luckliy for us Caroline took scrupulous notes when we adopted Alex and are bringing a few items that we wish we would have had back then. For example, Kleenex!
Both us managed to get sick while we were in Russia 4-years ago. We purchased some tissue from the local store and let me tell you…our American noses were not up to the rough texture of the local Kleenex. In addition we are stocking up on various cold medicines just in case.
Well that’s about all I have for now…
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March 25th, 2008 admin
My wife and I have been in the process of adopting our second child from Russia. To this point it has been a lot of paperwork and a loooooong wait.
Yesterday we received the call that they have a referral for us and want us on a plane to Russia next Monday. That’s right…in SEVEN days. Can it be done?
Apparently it can – and we will! The major obstacle is getting the visas in time, which like anything if you want it in a hurry it’s gonna cost you more.
Anyway, the next six days will no doubt be frantic as we pack and work through the long list of “to-dos”.
Stay tuned as this will no doubt be a great Adventure.
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March 18th, 2008 admin
The Photography Post
Now that I have my new toy, I have been trying to get out as much as possible to shoot images. And it certainly was one of the missions of our family trip. Having seen Andy Chasteen’s images of the Wichita Mountains I felt there would be plenty of scenery to shoot. While this certainly was the case, the weather and overcast skies provided many challenges.
It has been a very long time since I focused on taking more than just the casual snapshot. The switch from film to digital has been pretty painless and actually the learning curve has definitely been accelerated due to the fact that you get to see the image you took right after you shoot it and make the appropriate adjustments. This was definitely not possible with film.
I have to say I’m surprised how quickly my thought process came back to me as far as constantly noticing the light at different times of day and making mental notes of locations that need to be revisited as we drove past them on our way to various parts of the park. However, I find that I still have the “snapshot” mentally at times when taking a shot and not taking the time to fine tune the camera settings or the composition. This is something that my professor in college recognized as one of my weaknesses and therefore sent me out one weekend with a 5×7 view camera. If you have used a large format camera then you will understand why this was a good exercise – and if you’re not familiar then let me just say it took on average about 10-minutes for me to set-up, compose, meter, adjust, double check and then finally shoot one sheet of film.
Fortunately for me there is Photoshop to help correct some of the errors made in the field. And to further enhance this ability I have actually signed up for an on-line Photoshop CS3 for Photographers class offered through our local community college.
You are probably wondering if I shot anything in color and the answer is yes. I did get some really nice color images and made time to experiment a little with some night time tent shots.
I know I have a long way to go to get back to where I want to be, so hopefully over time my faithful readers (which at this point in time might be approaching 
will be rewarded with great images.
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March 18th, 2008 admin
Westylivin passed through town on his way to visit some family in SE Missouri. He dropped his wife and girls off at The Great Wolf Lodge then headed to Clinton Lake to spend some time with his ol‘ pals. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it there Saturday night, but made a point to head out early Sunday morning to have breakfast with the fellas – Keith, Lorne & Eric
After breakfast we headed over to the River Trail to see if it was dry enough to ride. I didn’t bring my bike, but decided to head over to see them off, but in the back of my mind I knew they would be too wet. It only took a short walk on the trail to come up with our answer….TOO WET.
Not to worry, Lorne and Eric broke out the instruments while Keith set off to find something to jump off of…
It was really great catching up with everyone and discussing what “balance” means to each of us in our life.
It’s funny because while we really haven’t talked all that much about it, we were all pretty much on the same page when it came to where we wanted to head…be more environmentally aware, be more community conscious, and make more time to do the things we love. Pretty simple stuff to say – but we we are finding it is very difficult to execute.
Thanks guys for a morning that definitely moved me more towards balance…
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March 6th, 2008 admin
Dashed off to Arkansas this past weekend with the family. I had been traveling a lot lately and was in need of quality time with Alex and Caroline. Our friends Daron and Lori would be joining us on Friday along with their sons Duncan and Andrew.
We arrived late on Thursday night and spent most of Friday hiking near the Buffalo River. We made it back to HCR just in time to get a climb in before the sun went down. After that we hit our favorite spot in Jasper for dinner and then it was back to the cabin to meet up with some friends.
Saturday was a beautiful day, but not without its challenges…mainly with Alex having a bad day and not wanting to listen. Nothing like being at the crux of a climb only to hear your son screaming at the top of his lungs because he is not getting his way. In hindsight it really wasn’t that bad…can’t fault the kid for wanting to climb all the boulders in sight…at least I can’t.
We really only had one mishap when Alex fell off a small boulder onto his back. While this might seem cruel of me to say, I’m sorta glad he fell. We had been telling him all morning that he needed to tell an adult when he was going to climb and they needed to spot him, otherwise he could fall and hurt himself. (I should note he was wearing his helmet and the boulder was only three feet tall) Anyway, I think this fall got his attention and he was much better about making sure someone spotted him.
While my original intent was to take some climbing photos this weekend it just didn’t work out. I did however take some time to shoot some landscapes as well as family and friends enjoying the weekend. It feels great to get back to something that I enjoy so much. I have great memories from when I was taking photography classes in college. It offered a great balance to the course work in business school.
To see more images go here…
http://s270.photobucket.com/albums/jj117/Ranski/HCR%20March%2008/?albumview=slideshow
Posted in HCR, Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, climbing | No Comments »
