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Everywhere I look on the Internet, I can unearth information that is 100 times more explicit and distracting than what I originally set out to find. Funny that. Perhaps that’s why i can get so lost in all the tabs I open? 
Today I started looking for fresh, useful and appealing POIs (points of interest) to upload to our GPS. From one simple search, I started finding information which spurred my most recent blog posting. Go figure. Lost in the ether of the Internet AGAIN.
Well, the original point to THIS post was to ask you what your favourite and most useful GPS POIs are. Mine for the USA, thus far, have been for these locations found at the POI Factory website:
I’m starting to think about future trips, and one place that we MUST VISIT whilst in the US are the Utah Parks. Here’s the POI for these: Utah National Parks POI.
For a complete listing of the POI Facory’s files for the USA and elsewhere, click here.
If you’ve never heard of POI files before, CONGRATULATIONS! This will extend your GPS (Global Positioning System) into a true Global Pleasure Service . For our GPS (a Garmin nuvi 765T), we needed to download this free application called POI Loader (available for the MAC as well, thankfully) in order to upload the POI files into our Garmin. Click here for the downloads: MAC and PC version.
Enjoy the new freedom that POIs offer. A MUST for us on the road in our Airstream!
Waking up to the sound of rain in our Airstream is one of the most beautiful sounds, the steady drone of heavy drops ~ like the rhythmic seductive beating of drum. But unlike most of our mornings on the road, I had an appointment to make! I promised to teach an early morning yoga class, and 5 friends showed uP! Fabulous. But after that, I had plenty of time on my hands. A perfect day to spend on the computer, searching and researching.
Google has always been a good place to start for me, and today I stumbled upon a goldmine! Did you know that Google offers more than 70 Google services — from 3D Warehouse to YouTube? I didn’t realize this fact until I installed a Google toolbar add-on in my Firefox browser. The Firefox toolbar rocks! I’ve always been a fan of the Google search engine and my Gmail account, but add an additional 68 features (and growing), you have a pretty behemoth workhorse of a company that is providing useful target services, pretty much for every individual on this planet who uses the Internet! Now that’s an impressive company.
For example, they have Google Transit … kind of like Google Maps but a planning / scheduling system for the transit systems of more than 446 cities. Now that’s impressive (and as we approach Earth Day, an eco-friendly resource that I want to promote).
Here’s an extensive (but not fully comprehensive) list. You be the judge!
Search
- Alerts Get email updates on the topics of your choice
- Blog Search Find blogs on your favorite topics
- Books Search the full text of books
- Checkout Complete online purchases more quickly and securely
- Google Chrome A browser built for speed, stability and security
- Custom Search Create a customized search experience for your community
- Desktop Search and personalize your computer
- Directory Search the web, organized by topic or category
- Earth Explore the world from your computer
- Finance Business info, news and interactive charts
- GOOG-411 Find and connect for free with businesses from your phone
- Google Health Organize your medical records online
- iGoogle Add news, games and more to your Google homepage
- Images Search for images on the web
- Maps View maps and directions
- News Search thousands of news stories
- Patent Search Search the full text of US Patents
- Product Search Search for stuff to buy
- Scholar Search scholarly papers
- Trends Explore past and present search trends
- Videos Search for videos on the web
- Web Search Search billions of web pages
- Web Search Features Find movies, music, stocks, books and more
Explore and innovate
- Code Developer tools, APIs and resources
- Labs Explore Google’s technology playground
Communicate, show & share
- Blogger Share your life online with a blog – it’s quick, easy and free
- Calendar Organize your schedule and share events with friends
- Docs Create and share your online documents, presentations and spreadsheets
- Google Mail Fast, search-able email with less spam
- Knol Share what you know
- Orkut Meet new people and stay in touch with friends
- Picasa Find, edit and share your photos
- Reader Get all your blogs and news feeds fast
- Sites Create websites and secure group wikis
- SketchUp Build 3D models quickly and easily
- Talk IM and call your friends through your computer
- Translate View web pages in other languages
- YouTube Watch, upload and share videos
Go mobile
Make your computer work better
- Pack A free collection of essential software
 How often do you find a couple named Sky and Slade in this world?? Seems like we’re not the only ones with a unique and memorable name.
These gorgeous Siberian Huskies are in need of a family. They reside in the Northern suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. And hey, they’re even cuter than we are  .
Okay I might be over-generalizing here in a rather grandiose manner, but looking at the big picture, it seems that our Society and the planet that we live on is in a constant flux, leaving us: either chasing our tails in search of the magic solution to all that ails us (think money / bureaucracy / health / God / war vs. peace) or, at the beck and call of Nature’s wrath (think massive life-altering earthquakes / eruptions and the edge of tornado season). Just thinking of such conditions leaves me in a tizzy, feeling rather nauseous and helpless. Thankfully, living our RV dream has helped me to escape from worrying about such deficiencies / quandaries, searching for alternatives in a nonconformist life-path, looking at solutions and alternatives, where the power of choice is strong and most necessary. For example, especially as of late, I’ve been inspired to think twice about the future of air travel, and what it means to me. Here are some of those random thoughts:
- Spirit Airlines is perhaps setting a standard (precedence at least) for charging passengers up to $45 for carry-on bags. As of August 1, 2010, any carry-on luggage that does not fit under the seat (and trust me, they will measure every piece of luggage that looks over-sized) will be assessed a per-bag service charge ($30 if paid online or $20 for Fare Club Members). All this in the name of ‘free market competition’. I wonder if they’ll start limiting how much clothing can be worn on the plane? Just wait and see … come summer, you may notice some Spirit Airlines customers wearing a good portion of their trip’s wardrobe on flights in an effort to avoid the carry-on fee. Think the ‘Stay Puft Marshmallow Man‘.
- With the eruption of an ash spewing Icelandic Volcano (Eyjafjallajokull glacier), air traffic within Europe has pretty much come to a grinding halt, on an even more grandiose and chaotic scale than of 9-11. “The air traffic agency Eurocontrol said almost two-thirds of Europe’s flights were canceled Friday, as air space remained largely closed in Britain and across large chunks of north and central Europe.” What does one do in a world without airline travel? RVing may very well be one of the best options (in my own opinion) of course! And when it comes to crossing the vast oceans separating the continents, think modern day Christopher Columbus. Find thyself a speedy boat, and navigate accordingly.
- I am getting rather grumpy around the fact that I need to carry less than 100ml sized containers (amounting to less than 1 litre total) in my carry-on baggage. Truly, terrorism and violence is a reality in today’s society, but frankly, is my Tom’s of Maine toothpaste an honest to goodness threat to homeland security??
- Full body scans at airports: SIGHHHHHH. What next?? How do countries such as Israel manage to escape the aviation limitations imposed upon us here in North America? Maybe we need to look here for answers?
- Most importantly, a pure and joyous reason to skip flying this week and adopting an RV home to travel our stunning continent: National Parks Week offers free admission to 392 National Parks starting today, from April 17-25, 2010> breath it all in and enjoy the beauty of our Mother Earth’s treasures.
In the end, I adore aviation in all it’s forms, whether it be jumping out of an aircraft or travelling to far off destinations 1/2 way around the world. When I can’t get my fix for flight into the ether, in the interim, long hail RV Living! Exercise your freedom and find your power to enjoy life without the limitations set by the world we live in. ‘Live it, love it, kick it, RV it’!
Oh crap! Our fridge door in our beautiful Airstream trailer just came unhinged, quite literally. How does one react when things don’t go quite as planned or expected? Do you become unhinged and broken? Or do you just breath deeply, hope for the best and give it what you’ve got to fix it in the ways that you know how? Or do you seek the help of others when you just aren’t quite sure on what or how to tackle the task?
I have a tendency to ask for help first with many things, but when it comes to the geeky side of me, I’ll stick my nose in to whatever I can find and dig deep to find the answers.
 What started out as beautiful weather on waking resulted in an intermittent flux of rain throughout the day. But once the winds moved in, many of the clouds moved out, much to the appreciation of the anxious grounded skydivers and awaiting tandem customers. Didn’t really matter too much to me … slaDE and I had specifically drove here to Skydive Houston in Waller Texas so that we could participate in Brian Germain canopy clinic course. And much of our day was spent in the classroom. The time available that we had to jump as a group was beyond my wind comfort zone for a lot of the afternoon. But once the wind had calmed and settled, I was ready to have lots of hang time playing under my canopy rehearsing a few of the practical exercises Brian had given us.
There were a few students in the weekend clinic who needed to have a coach exit with them for them to participate in the high altitude hop and pops (part of the AFF student progression training). And being a USPA certified Coach, I was happy to off my coaching services to Jodi on her Level 13 jump. The main objective on our jump for the weekend was to pull high and practice our canopy skills. But for her to proceed in the program, we had to combine a working jump from full altitude with our canopy hang time. We had a fabulously successful jump, and when I opened under canopy, everything looked swell until I went to release my brake toggles …. dang it if my slider wasn’t hung up on my brakes! No amount of maneuvering / breathing / yanking / pushing and wishful persuasion would release the right toggle with the slider grommet firmly stuck on top. For over 3000 feet, I battled with my ‘malfunction’ and at 2000 feet I made the decision to keep the canopy and land it as it was. I looked around trying to grasp my bearings, having no clue as to where the airport was. Finding the windline, I sussed out a nice safe landing area — a just-plowed farmer’s field. With one final yank on the slider, I managed to pull it past the toggle stow and safely released my brakes, giving me more control over my flare. Phew! I wasn’t that familiar and comfortable with flaring my canopy on rear risers. Better start practicing . Having kept my wits about me, I was grateful to have breathed slowly through the whole process and learning a few things with the unexpected. Luckily for my student, she had found the dz up high (thank goodness for super high openings when that far away from the airport!). also landing safely … it was only her 15th jump, and I felt responsible for her being her coach; as it happened, we were the last to exit from the Otter, and I was her only guide for canopy direction.
An eventful fantastic jump with a positive outcome. A brilliant lesson in the fallibility of a well-thought-out plan. Sometimes the future is out of our control. But breathing through any dilemmas that may come my way, success is a good probability, with a whole lot of skill and a little bit of luck thrown in for good measure.
 Having arrived late last night in Waller Texas, it was only this morning that upon stepping out of our Airstream into the warm glistening sunlight that I realized our return to Skydive Houston was feeling much like a return to home for me. This morning slaDE extended all the awnings and set up shop for our weeks stay on the drop zone. I absolutely ADORED staying at Skydive Elsinore for the length of time that we did, but the only thing it was lacking was the greenery and lush grass surrounding us like it does this very moment. No arid desert conditions with wandering dust devils and runway remnants to spit, blanket and taunt us. The covered packing area / hangar lacking the tell-tale desert remnants (which age both my skin and canopy) is a welcome reprieve. Add on top of this our old new-found friends and we have a whopping successful cocktail of fun and frolic.
Continue reading “Feeling Like Home” »
“We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams.”
~ Anonymous
 Life is a dance … a frivolous frolic through the chaos of the moments which we are blessed to breath in. At times we may lead the pack, and at others, follow like a lemming, learning along the way. Whatever the dance, inspiration of our journey stems from our dreams and the dance we see interwoven between the depth and breadth of our choices.
With this in mind, today, I opted to be the co-cre8tor of our dance out of Burner’s hot-air balloon. With grace, trepidation and fear at the edge, my husband and I embraced in a dance, whilst holding on to the metal railing of the burner, literally. And with a deep breath and a ‘one, two, three, JUMP’, we held each other tight, and danced off the edge. It was awe-inspiring, thrilling, a mutually satisfying joyride that we’ll share again and again and again, in whatever form it takes. A dance of sorts, into the unknown. Wicked fuN! And that’s what life is supposed to be all about …. enjoying our time on this earth, making the most of every moment, when we can and with all that we have. Live it, love it, kick it! Breath it all in.
Continue reading “The Dance” »
  The luxurious life of travelling on the road like nomads following our bliss has been exceptionally exciting. Today would be no different, with waking to the sounds of the whistling wind tunnel vibrations as the sun was rising out of bed. This was our cue, parked in our Airstream at the edge of the landing area — our room with a view. We could hear the familiar sound of Gary ‘Burner’ Born — High But Dry Balloons — rumbling his way across the airport, with diesel truck and balloon trailer in tow, arriving to anxious passengers and skydivers waiting to make the sunrise airship flight to 5000 feet over the blossoming desert. Wanting to greet Burner with a big hug and a kiss after 4 years, slaDE and I wandered over to the launch point, happy to be back in our familiar zone of crewing, skydiving and in the company of our desert friends.  Wanting to watch the balloon lift off and help to inflate the 220 cubic feet beautiful dirigible, I was ecstatic to hear that Burner had a space left for a lone skydiver if I was up for the free jump, giving the second round of passengers a show for their money.  Without a second thought, I ran to the truck and grabbed my rig, somewhat sad to think that I’d make my first balloon jump alone and without my husband. but Burner, never one to disappoint, called down to his crew, and said that if slaDE was wanting, he come jump on board as well! Literally jumping for joy, we were up for the challenge and in the truck, ready to go as quick as you could blink your eye. Yippee! A winter spent crewing for Burner had paid off, and we were on our way waiting to meet the landing balloon after the first set of skydivers landed back at the drop zone (not often that the winds up top allow for the jumpers to make it back).  With light winds, the balloon set down and in we climbed along with 4 new passengers, aloft just as quick as he had set down. The climb to altitude was breathtaking. Green pastures of desert spattering filled our view, from the Arizona vastness to the mountains in front of us. I’ve never seen it so lush! Obviously, the recent rains had sprung new life to the desert below. Approaching 4000 feet, Burner suggested that I climb around the basket rim to my husband at the other side of our compartment. Being afraid of heights, laughingly I scurried over to his side, without looking down. There is something about being completely motionless in a balloon up high, even with a parachute on my back knowing that i was just about to jump out, that had me frightened to climb up and move around the edge of the basket. Hard to describe, but nonetheless, I stood on the edge with my husband holding my hand, pointing out a suggested area to land below. And with a ‘Three, Two, One’, we stepped off at 5000 feet AGL. Talk about the sensation of falling!  There was no opportunity to scream, with stomach in my throat. The sensation of pure quiet to a screaming sound of freefall building was unmistakable and unbelievably surreal. Nothing in my 1300 jumps has come close to the blissfulness of jumping from a balloon. With a kiss pass at 3500, I deployed my parachute and landed a few minutes later with no wind on a beautiful flat hard-packed desert runway. Thankfully I was able to touch down in a run. If I had biffed in, I’m certain that I would have hurt some appendage on my body. Despite the recent rain, the desert was as hard as asphalt for the sprinklings of thorny bushes everywhere. Been there, done that, have the thorn-buried scars to prove it.
 Helping to back up the balloon was a pleasure. I think this high of jump # 1301 will have me riding in cloud 9 all day long. WOW. Déjà vu of many crew clean ups had us out of there in record time, and for old times sake, slaDE, myself and Bruce rode in the basket, now secured tightly on the trailer, with Brian blazing trails of dust into the morning light, ready for a day of jumping ahead of uS.
 We managed to fit in a few more jumps today, one organized by a Skydive Chicago old-time friend and the second as a four way, launching a real cool steep exit out of the tailgate of the Skyvan. Yippee! All my jumps today had me blazing in screaming hot on landing (jumping a Spectre 135, no less). With no wind (unusual in a thermally bumpy Arizona afternoon) and fixed landing paths in the 2 different landing areas, I was extremely cautious of the mass exodus of canopies landing around me. With much luck and perhaps a little skill, I managed to run out each of my landings with no harm but dust covered canopy and jumpsuit. Not so lucky was our friend Tim on our final jump of the day. He skidded and tripped on a desert mound and slid in on previously injured left shoulder, re-dislocating it. Oh gosh, accidents such as this leave me painfully aware of the dangers of our sport — I could so feel his pain, with images of my own shoulder injury coming back to haunt and remind me of the high speeds we are generating in this sport, both in the air and over the ground. A good lesson in humble gratitude for the privileges we have in jumping out of airplanes. Amen!
 Leaving Lake Elsinore was somewhat nostalgic in that we’ve had such an incredible and monumentally eventful stay there. 6 weeks of pure frivolous enjoyment driven by our daily needs and desires. During this time, it was truly opportune to discover a yoga studio so close to the dz, let alone have a Twin Otter as the backdrop to our daily living. When out for my daily walk, I was always tickled by the closeup vantage point of the plane’s underbelly on takeoff and landing. There are not many places where one can go walking so close to a runway and see the skydivers on approach directly above.  I love living on an airport, truly!
So off we sped, in our silver bullet tin can (I think we should get sponsored by Red Bull … living the skydiving and yogaFLIGHT lifestyle that we do), driving south around San Diego and heading east on Highway 8. The climb across the southern Rocky Pass was quite the slow and heavy duty slog, but the view from the top and winding down through the valley was gorgeous. Imagine large red and grey boulders interspersed with pockets of desert brush. And rolling on through to Yuma, one could see RVs stretched across the desert for miles, boondocking in the vast open plains and burning sun. What’s the draw you might think? The free camping amongst the sand dunes opens up to vast playground …. EVERYONE seems to come out to the desert with their quads and dune buggys, riding the waves of sand, like porpoises ducking and diving amidst the ridges of desert mounds. It was a cool sight to behold, especially with the backdrop of Mexico’s borders tightly lined with triple wired fences standing guard of the US border.
Once crossing the Arizona border, we made our way to a small town called Dateland. Uncertain as to whether any stores would be open (it being Good Friday and all), I was extremely excited at finding a place to pick up a healthy supply of Medjool dates. They are my favourite dried fruit to sweeten raw treats and smoothies with, so of course, I had to stock up. Wonder if we’ll make this an annual run? If not, I do know that they ship anywhere within the continent. Yippppeeee!
Thinking that we had just enough fuel to get us to Eloy, we opted to stick with our 1/4 tank to steer us to our next skydiving home. Unfortunately, we had a bit more climbing to do and underestimated the amount needed. Not such a great idea on a Good Friday evening when stations were closed left right and center. Ack! Never before have we run down our tank to ’0 miles, Distance To Empty’. With sweaty palms and the fumes of our empty tank, we slithered into Casa Grande and found a station with diesel (about 2 in every 3 gas stations here in the US stocks diesel fuel). Vowing to never run below 1/4 tank again without refueling, we have hopefully learned a valuable lesson in fuel management.
It was quite late when we pulled in to Eloy. A much longer than we anticipated, but with numerous stops along the way, we were happy to settle in for the next few days. It being Easter and all, we could count on there being a holiday Boogie, with lots of friends and fun aircraft to jump. Perhaps we’ll get some wind tunnel flying time in? And of course, I’ve already booked a Sunday morning balloon jump with Burner for uS, and our friends Tim & Kari. I’ve been waiting 4 long years to jump Burner’s balloon (this is when slaDE~ & I were here last, crewing balloons in the desert, and me with my injured wing at the time couldn’t get in any free balloon jumpS!). There is no way I’m going to miss out making a balloon jump on this trip, even if I have to pay for it! Stay tuned
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