Moab RMOWP Conference

This past week, Shoppman and I went to the Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers and Photographers annual conference in Moab, UT.

We first met up with the group after sleeping on the side of the road the night before (hey we got in at 2 a.m., drank some beer and didn’t want to pay for a campsite) for a nature talk and walk through a wetlands preserve that was probably one of the driest wetlands I had ever been in. I think the group was a little apprehensive of the appearance of Shoppman and myself, because we definitely looked like a bunch of dirtballs. We were also significantly younger than the median age of the group members. They probably thought we were there to take their cameras… not pictures!

After we got our official ID badges and attended some more information sessions, including a great presentation by local resident and internationally known photographer Tom Till, we began to assimilate into the group. There were some interesting presentations related to migrating to digital photography and a good critique session which pointed out some of the do’s and don’ts of photography. We even got to take a jetboat ride on the Colorado river which was pretty sweet.  Shoppman is pretty experienced in the area of photography due to his background in graphics and multi-media, but I learned a lot from the conference. Not to mention the fact that we were in some pretty beautiful country in southeastern Utah. All in all, it was a great experience and we met a lot of interesting and friendly people.

Trip to the Twilight Zone

Well, one of the goals of our trip is to discover places and things around the world that not too many people many know about. In some cases, you don’t need to go that far to discover something that is not that well known and definitely on the random side of things. the Colorado Gator Farm is just one of those places. The Gator Farm is located just north of Alamosa Colorado, and being thousands of miles away from oceans and swamps, is one of the last places you would expect to see a bunch of alligators and crocs. The place started out as a Tilapia farm and when they needed to get rid of the dead ones, they decided to bring in some gators. The farm sits on a natural spring where the water temp is about 87 degrees and it just so happens that the gators liked the place. Soon, the facility turned into a gator rescue home of sorts and a place for people from New York to get rid of their reptiles once they realized the things get big and tend to have a temper from time to time. As word spread, other reptiles including giant albino pythons, lizards and turtles found refuge. Today, the farm still produces Tilapia and has also grown into a pretty sizeable gator breeding ground, supplying gators and even Nile crocs to zoos around the county. 

Our tour of the facility started out with meeting one of its residents up close and personal. Steve and a resident of the colorado Gator FarmI was presented with a gator, that although small, turned out to be pretty hefty. He was maybe three feet long and weighed about 40 pounds. According to our host, the little guy had jaws that could exert over 300 psi of pressure, enough to snap through the bones in my hand if it got too close. It was actually pretty cool. Gators have a hard coating on their backside, but their belly is covered with soft scales, much like a snake. After messing around with the little guy for a bit, Shoppman and I got a certificate of bravery and it was stamped and sealed in the jaws of the little guy himself. With that, we explored the rest of the reptile house which housed a wide assortment of orphaned and previously neglected snakes, turtles, lizards and iguanas and other reptiles that people though would make great pets.

Next stop were the outdoor containment ponds that were home to probably over a hundred medium sized gators. These things were all over the place and they seemed to enjoy lounging around on top of each other in the spring southern Colorado sun. This was indeed one of the most random places I had ever been, and I couldn’t help but feel like I was in an episode of the twilight zone. Passing the still functioning and booming Tilapia tanks, we ventured out back to were they keep the big boys. These were the gators that were over 10 feet long and were probably big enough and hungry enough that when placed with the smaller gators, would line up to eat like they were in a buffet line in Texas. Medium Sized Gator PenStarting at the end of May, for $50 one of the fearless hosts at the gator farm will teach you how to be fearless as well and allow you to get in and learn how to wrestle with one of these things. I for one was pretty keen on trying my hand at gator wrestling, but Shoppman said it was just plain wrong… although he said he would do it if someone else did it first.


As we walked around the outdoor ponds, big gators hissing at us as we approached their enclosures, we stumbled upon more and more random animals. The farm was also home to a pair of ostrich who were pecking around at the dirt in a pen outside the gator enclosure. I was not even going to get close to those things. I’ll wrestle a gator, but I won’t even get close enough to touch a bird. I have probably one of the biggest cases of orniphobia imaginable, so while Shoppman tried to intimidate them with his crazy hippy head bobbing, I filmed from a distance and then moved on. (I have a feeling this phobia of  mine will be exploited for the entertainment of our audience at future points in time.) We then stumbled across a pen with a wallaby in it. This place just kept getting weirder and weirder. What they hell were these guys doing with a wallaby? (for those of you who don’t know what a wallaby is, it is like a fuzzy, miniature kangaroo.) Were they going to feed it to the gators? Who knows, but it was just another item in a line of many things that just didn’t seem to fit in the San Luis valley.  After the final walk through the Nile croc ponds and running faster than I have run in any triathlon past the peacock who was allowed to roam free on the grounds, we said goodbye to the gator farm and the two donkeys that were hanging out by the parking lot. Definitely an interesting place and I can see why Ripley’s Believe It or Not did a piece on it… if you had told me something like this existed in Colorado I would have thought you were full of it.

Multi Sporting at its best.

We have finished our Scuba Certification and it was a really great time.  The blue hole is overcrowded, murky because of the overcrowding and cold, but all of that seems to fade away when you are breathing underwater.  We had the chance to go down to 65ft, which was a bit of an accident as somehow the group descent without a reference line ended up leading to mass chaos and missing fins.  Our instructors ended up reversing the groups follies and lack of experience and we triumphantly emrged as "Certified Open Water Scuba Divers."

Bouey had Monday off and we broke up the trip home into a couple of segments.  This included the Sand Dunes, a waterfall in a slot canyon and a tour of the thriving back roads and small towns of New Mexico (a whole other entry to come).  To top things off we went to a Gator Farm in the middle of the San Luis Valley.  For those of your that have never been to the San Luis, it is the dry side of a mountain range nicknamed the Wet Dry Range (The Sangre De Cristos) as one side of it has a ton of moisture and the other is a barren dusty desert where the sand dunes call home.  So to say the least Alligators and Crocodiles are a little out of place here.

Zapata Falls, ColoradoZapata Falls is an amazing place.  Here the falls are still frozen and blue inside the walls of this slot canyon at the base of Blance Peak.  It is only a short hike from the trailhead and well worth the 45min it takes to get up there.

The Sand Dunes are quite unusual, with a mountain drop in the background of giant sand dunes.  Deer and bear surround the campsites to only add to the diversity of this place.  If you ever have a chance to camp and watch the sun set over the Sand Dunes you will never forget it.  The dunes’ alien like appearance is mesmerizing as the contrast changes and the color of the sky sets the backdrop for the evening show.  With a campfire roaring and some food cooking it is truly easy to relax with a cold beer in your hand.  The Sand Dunes are a geographical wonder not to be missed.Sand Dunes, Colorado

We are going deep…

We are off to the Blue Hole in New Mexico tomorrow for our open water Scuba certification.  It should be very exciting.  This is the first time we will actually be diving in water deeper than a swimming pool.  Tomorrow afternoon we will hit the road and hopefully have a chance to film some more interviews for our promotional short that will be out in mid May.  We should have details in the next week or so about the upcoming launch party where we will premiere the short and also have all of our new t-shirts and gear available.

It is looking promising for the possibility of some plane ticket giveaways from Frontier, so get ready for a great party.

Also, if you are interested in learning more about getting certifications to SCUBA dive, definitely check out the A1 Scuba website.  They are a great dive shop and have a ton of excellent info about getting started with your training.

Great commercial


This is a great commercial that a friend in switzerland recently sent me.

In Other News

There has been a lot going on the last few weeks and I have had a lot on my plate. I am trying to juggle a "normal" job during the week, work on all of the necessary preparations for our expedition and in addition, I am also trying to fit in the training to compete in my 5th Iron-distance triathlon coming up this July in Roth, Germany.

Those of you who know me, know that pushing myself physically and mentally is part of who I am and I have come to love and be consumed by the challenges presented in the world of triathlon, and especially the Ironman: arguably the world’s toughest single-day endurance event. (In case you did not know it starts with a 2.4 mile open water swim followed by 112 miles of cycling and is capped off by a full 26.2 mile marathon) If there is anything that I do regret about participating in our expedition, it is that I will have to put my love of training and competing in triathlons on hold for a while. (Although undoubtedly I will have plenty of other things to challenge me physically and mentally throughout the course of our travels) Training for an Ironman is a huge commitment. Training can average anywhere from 10 to 15 hours per week for me personally and given that there are only 24 hours in a day, work, expedition planning and training all add up pretty quickly. The one invention that makes it more bearable and enjoyable to put in those long hours and hard miles of training, especially on the bike, is the MP3 player. Music can help keep you focused, help you to maintain intesity and cadence, can help to take your mind off the pain and can relax you. Recently, a company called Fitbeats has added another dimension to the usefulness of the MP3 player in fitness training. They have created training intervals for both running and cycling that are challenging and come in a wide variety of sets: from warm-ups and cool-downs to high intensity intervals and abdominal workouts. For the serious competitor or the novice looking for some additional motivation and coaching in an enjoyable package, Fitbeats is for you. They even have their own customized MP3 player that is perfect or running and cycling. Be sure to check them out when you get a chance, you may actually start to look forward to getting up at 5:30 a.m. to get in a run before you head off to work!

It is on our MySpace page, but now it is on the site.

I just noticed that we never put this photo up on the main site. We have had it on our MySpace page for a while, but here you go for those of you that have not checked out our Myspace yet. x-coaster-six-flags.jpg

Isolated America?

The main purpose of The World by Road Expedition is to try and educate others about our experiences and show people a view of the world that they may have not seen. This got me thinking, and thinking specifically about how many people travel in America and where they travel to. In my previous travels, I have always been amazed at the number of people I meet from other countries. The people I meet are also not just visiting for a week or two, they are actually traveling. Maybe it is related to the activities that I do, or the places Steve S. and I have been, but by and large, we really don’t seem to meet many other Americans who are out there traveling. So, exactly what percentage of Americans decide to leave the US and travel, and what does this say about us as a society?

According to the Economist’s publication The World in 2006, which was published in December, 2005, only about 20 percent of Americans have a valid U.S. passport. That seemed like a pretty small number, so I decided to do some further research. Currently, the U.S. population is estimated to be about 295 million people. Between 1994 and 2004 the U.S. State Department issued a total of 78.2 million passports. Given that some of these passports may have been issued for a 5 year period, expired, or issued as a result of name changes, etc. it is estimated that there are currently about 54 million individuals with valid U.S. passports. If we only consider the adult population in the U.S. (88.9%) that leaves us with a population of roughly 262.3 million adults over the age of 18. Therefore, the estimated percentage of adults in the U.S. who currently have a valid passport is, as the Economist pointed out, approximately 20 percent.

OK, so we now know how many people have a valid U.S. passport, but how many of these individuals actually use them? According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, roughly 24.5 million Americans traveled abroad in 2003. This does not include travel to Canada and Mexico, which for some Americans is readily accessible. Of those who traveled abroad, approximately 19.7 million traveled for leisure and/or visiting friends and relatives. Therefore, only about one third of the individuals with valid U.S. passports, or approximately 7.5 percent of adults in America, traveled overseas in 2003 and the vast majority of these individuals traveled to Western Europe and the Caribbean.

Obviously there are external factors that affect one’s ability to travel, with time and financial resources being two of the main barriers to international travel. Americans do, in comparison, enjoy less vacation time than citizens of other western nations. For example, Americans receive an average of 13 vacation days per year compared to 25 in Japan and Canada, 28 in the U.K., 35 in Germany and 42 in Italy. The number of valid passports as a percentage of overall population is also significantly higher in these countries, but this may be a result of the close proximity of neighboring countries in Europe, however, it is estimated that over 40 percent of Canadians have valid passports. Still, given that there are some barriers to international travel, I find it interesting that such a small percentage of Americans actually travel abroad.

The fact that only about 7.5 percent of the population actually leaves in any given year may be an indicator of some larger cultural issues. True, America is a geographically large and diverse country and one could spend a lifetime just traveling and experiencing the diversity our own country has to offer. Additionally, some may argue that there is really no need to leave America given the media coverage of other parts of the world, the congregation of many other world cultures in major cities throughout the U.S., and the feeling that “we have all we could ever want” right here in the good old USA, but the world still has such a tremendous amount to offer us.

I am not going to draw conclusions and say that people who do not travel are more ignorant than those who do. The mere fact of traveling to another country does not necessarily make one any less ignorant about what is going on in the world around them. However, traveling with the right purpose can enrich us and increase our understanding of people with whom we share the world with, ultimately leading to greater peace. This type of traveling involves venturing out without preconceived ideas of what a certain country or a culture may hold. If we allow ourselves to be open-minded and stick to the premise that the world has something to teach us, we can each take away certain things from all cultures that appeal to us personally. This just might help us to better understand that people are different and other customs, beliefs and ways of life should be embraced and respected.

This is one of the main goals of The World by Road Expedition and one that we hope to spread as we travel. In the end though, we will be sharing our experiences and hopefully they will inspire others to create experiences of their own. The view we all receive of the outside world is filtered by numerous different individuals and organizations, each with their own individual agendas and opinions. The only way to truly gain a greater understanding in any situation is through personal experience. Lonely Planet is continuing to promote the importance of travel and the life-changing effect it can have on people, our nation and the world through its National Passport Month Campaign. As the campaign slogan states: “Do something great for your country. Leave.” This is a truly worthwhile initiative, especially given the position of America in the world today and our foreign policy influence.

Denver International Auto Show

Steve S. and I went to the Denver International Auto Show this afternoon to hand out some flyers, check out some cool new cars and hopefully maybe even make a few additional contacts with some representatives from various auto manufacturers that we are contemplating sponsorship with. Well, unfortunately the auto show was a HUGE disappointment. The show was basically one giant car sales lot. None of the manufacturers seemed to have any of their products presented in a way that made me want to stop and check it out (although Toyota did have an old-school Land Cruiser on display similar to the one that Steve and Al drove around the world in 1965). Porsche didn’t even have a 911 Turbo to look at. I felt like I was walking around a car lot with people trying to convince me why the new Crown Victoria P.O.S. is better than last year. No cool displays, very few concept or exotic cars, and no booths about travel, racing or any other auto related stuff, just tired models standing on a rotating platform trying to convince you that the new Chevy whatever is great because it has 45 airbags in it. There seemed to be very few manufacturer reps in attendance as well… just someone who was paid to memorize the stat sheet on the car but not really provide you with any meaningful information. The audience was not really our target either… the place was filled with people who thought it was cool to take pictures of the hood emblem on the Bentley with their camera phones so they could show off to their friends who wisely chose not to pay the $10 to get in. At least I could have worked on my tan walking around the lot at John Elway Autonation and had a better time… all for free. 

Welcome to the World

I recently returned from a lunch with a friend of Steve B’s and it was great.

I always appreciate people helping us out with our endeavor.

One thing that always blows me away when we talk to others about this adventure is the constant concern with an angle, as was our friends concern. Sometimes I start to believe that I am crazy. I guess that Steve and I may be the only ones that think a road trip around the world through 3rd world countries, warzones, and generally extreme environments and situations is angle enough. But I guess that is just part of our culture in the United States…for the most part there is always an angle.

At some point during lunch our friend got the message about the “angle” of the trip, and at that point really started to get excited. I assume that is why many times it is difficult to get through to possible funds for the expedition…no one sees the inherent value in an interactive website following a journey around the world. Conversely, this is the main point of our journey-we want more people to find a real interest in the rest of the world, without an angle.

Can anyone say paradox?

And can anyone tell me what our angle should be?