April 19th, 2008 admin
Prior to getting the call to head to Russia, I had already committed to heading to Arkansas for the KC Climbing Club trip to Sam’s Throne and HCR. So once back in the states I frantically re-adjusted my mental state and threw everything I could think of into the back of the Sequoia.
The weather was looking pretty iffy for the weekend – but it was worth a shot. I drove down with Rick Friday night and met Mike at our campsite. He already had a roaring fire waiting for us along with some tasty home brew. It had been over a year since Rick had been out climbing with us and it was really great catching up with him and hearing about his first year at being a father. Once the sun had set, the Scotch and Cigars found their way to the campfire and the rest of the night was spent talking about nothing in particular, but I’m sure at some point in time we touched on work, life, Mike’s dating situation, marriage and other topics not appropriate to be typed in ANY public forum.
Slowly I began to close my eyes, but wait, why do I feel like I’m spinning. CRAP! I only had two cigars and one scotch – surely that isn’t enough to give me the spins. They soon passed as I frantically inhaled the cold air to clear my head. We all eventually made our way to our tents to get some rest.
The next morning I got up early and headed down to the bluffs to take some pictures. The light was perfect!
Sam’s Throne is a pretty special place for a lot of Kansas City Climbers, me included. It was the first “real” place that I climbed outside. And prior to HCR becoming a reality it is really the only place I climbed for the first 5-years. It was good to be back and standing on the bluff looking out over the valley.
After breakfast we headed to one of our favorite spots to climb at Sam’s. I wanted to get some practice hanging from a rope and taking pictures of people climbing. Mike “the talent” in this case agreed to let me shoot him while he lead a climb. I can tell already, I’m going to need a lot of practice. While I’m happy with a couple images, shooting while above a climber produces some very funky composition. Sometimes I lost track of which way was up.
We then moved on to the “throne”. Back in the day when Mike & I first started going to Sam’s there was this climb that we would always try but could never finish. It’s called “Tandem Slide – aka Last Waltz (5.9)”…we decided to set up a toprope and see if perhaps over the years we have improved enough to actually climb the route. The first 1/3 of the route is fairly easy on good holds, after that it pitches back past vertical and really only offers you fingertip edges the rest of the way. Needless to say for both Mike and I this is a very sustained pumpy climb. In the end we both found our way to top with only having to hang once from the rope about 10-feet from the top. Not complete success but we know with a little more conditioning in the gym we should be able to climb it by fall.
Rick
Friday night the Club grilled up some burgers with all the fixin’s. It was really great to see so many new people out on this trip. A BIG thanks to Natalie, Jesse and all those that helped make this happen.
Sunday morning we packed up our stuff and headed over to HCR for a little sport climbing. We noticed by the time we got there the temps had dropped. Oh well! We grabbed our rope and a set of draws and hiked up to the north forty. Even with cold temps you can always find good “juggy” routes to climb…or so we thought. As we walked along the bluff we noticed most of the routes had water on them. Oh yeah – Arkansas has been getting alot of ran lately. We eventually found a route that we hadn’t been on. I roped up and about halfway up I noticed a few flakes landing on my shoulder – not rock flakes but SNOW flakes. CRAP! By the time we each had our turn on the route we were cold and were ready to eat some Mexican food – so we packed up and headed home.
Posted in climbing | 2 Comments »
April 8th, 2008 admin
The only way to fly…
Well we made it back to Kansas City on Sunday.
There are so many little stories to be told about our first trip. Rather than take an organized approach to posting everything in some sort of chronological order, I’m going to tackle this in a more stream on consciousness sort of way – since my brain is incapable of logic at this point in time.
As you have read, things got off to a rocky (aka – stressful) start. This put into motion a travel pace that certainly put Caroline and I to the test. The challenges never seem to let up even on our flight back.
However, while in the Moscow Airport we decided to purchase Vodka at the “Duty Free” shop. We had already cleared security and decided to put it in our carry-on luggage. BAD IDEA! For some reason when we landed in Frankfurt for our connection to Chicago they have you go through security again! You guessed it…”I’m sorry you cannot take that through security since it is more than three ounces”. At that time my bag was being screened for explosives and I looked backed to see the security guard holding the sealed bag with the Vodka and the sad look on Caroline’s face. I knew exactly what was going on. Caroline stated the security guy actually asked her if she wanted to open the bottle and take a drink before he threw it away…
We both fumed about this for the next hour. Neither one of us have ever had to clear security a second time when transferring planes. At no point had we entered an unsecured area – or so we thought. We went from our flight onto a bus that then drove us to our arrival gate we then walked to the next terminal (all within secured hallways). So why the need the be screened yet again. Oh well, it was par for the course on this trip and there was nothing we could do about it.
We arrived at our gate 2-hours before departure and settled into the waiting area. About an hour before departure we noticed the ticket counter starting to get VERY busy. You could see the stress build on the ticket agents faces as they frantically typed on there computers. It was obvious there was some overbooking going on and they were doing their best to deal with the situation.
At one point one of the ticketing agents walked over to the waiting area and approached Caroline and I. She asked to see our tickets and then walked back to her computer and started typing again. Caroline and I had made last minute changes in order to catch an earlier flight back to the states. We were both thinking we were about to get bumped from this flight. The agent walkes over to us and hands us new tickets and informs us we have been bumped up to “BUSINESS CLASS”…SCORE!!!
In my mind that simply meant more leg room, which was great since this was to be a 9.5 hour flight. I was pleasantly surprised when we walked on to the plane to discover that business class means 1st CLASS! My cheeks started to cramp due to the perma-grin that was on my face. The seats were amazing, I’m not so sure “seats” accurately describe what I was about to sit on…it was more of a comfort machine – here is a link to the manufactures site http://www.recaro-as.com/ras/product-range/full-flat/cl-6510/index.html?L=1
Then the stewardess approached us with a tray of assorted juices and Champagne! OH YES! I think we know what I selected. I then proceded to grab the instruction manual for our seats. Yes these seats have an instruction manual. They have massage settings and will actually recline to a full horizontal position for sleeping. I then reviewed the movie selection for the flight back…which you have full control of which movies you watch and can even pause, just in-case you need time to enjoy the fabulous meal or perhaps order another glass of wine. FYI – it is very hard to drink wine with a Perma-Grin.
About an hour into the flight they brought around the dinner menu. WHAT!?! you mean I have a choice? I selected the veal with a creamy caper sauce as my appetizer, this was followed by a salad and Tilapia and for dessert Tiramisu. All of these items were served on china with silverware.
At some point I turned to Caroline and said this experience is going to spoil us to the point that we will be purchasing first class tickets for our return flight on our second trip. It will certainly make traveling with a 2-year old more enjoyable. Besides, our new son most certainly deserves it!
This certainly was a pleasant ending to our trip…I should note that all of the luxuries in first class pale in comparison to the feel of that first hug from Alex when we arrived in Kansas City. It was good to be home.
Posted in Adoption | 1 Comment »
April 3rd, 2008 admin
Well the last two days have been quite an experience. At this point I will cut to the chase…we have accepted our referral.
The first day that we met him was quite stressful. He was very frightened when they brought him into the room. Slowly he began to get comfortable with Caroline. Unfortunately on this first visit he didn’t want to have anything to do with me.
Our visit with him today went much better. By the time it was time to leave he was sitting on my lap and we actually got a smile out of him. The best thing about today was that we were able to watch him play with his group. This cleared up alot of concerns Caroline and I had regarding his behavior and interaction with others. Once he was in a familiar setting he showed his true colors. He sang to himself and interacted with the caregivers.
I will post more once we are back in the states. Tomorrow we will file some documents, tour the city, visit the orphanage one more time, then board our train back to Moscow.
Posted in Adoption | 4 Comments »
