Wide Open Spaces

A couple of weekends ago, my brother-in-law and I went camping at Joshua Tree National Park. It was pretty great to get away from the concrete jungle for a little while. I think the last time I went camping was probably over 10 years ago.

We were planning to go for two nights, but the desert night + early March = DAMN COLD! So we ended up going a long way for only one night. But it was still worth it. We did some sweet rock scrambling (half way between hiking/hill walking and rock climbing). Check here for more info.

      Scott climbing to the top of a mountain                                                        This is me on my way up

                      Scott heading back down                                                             Panoramic view of the mountains

The view from the top was amazing, but the best part - complete quiet. I mean nothing. Not only no city noise (obviously) but I mean *no* noise whatsoever. No people noise, no wildlife noise, and even no noise from the wind. It was kind of weird, yet tranquil and welcome. I guess you don't realize all the sounds that are around you until they're not there anymore.

Here are some more random pictures of the trip and the hikes we did:

        The campsite (we had a good location!)                                              Relaxing by the campfire at night

 I thought this picture would make a good screen saver                                                    Skull Rock

                       Me near some Joshua Trees                                                                          Some native rock paintings

                          An abandoned building                                                              I guess we parked in the wrong spot!

Overall, it was pretty fun to be out of the city and in the fresh air for a while. Hopefully I'll get to do this again soon!

Random D&D Type Stuff

I was rummaging through the garage today doing a bit of cleaning and I found this map from an old Intellivision video game from the 80's called Swords & Serpents by a company called Imagic.

Swords & Serpents map of the first dungeon level

                       Swords & Serpents Box                                                                                    Screen shot

I remember playing this game for hours and hours at my friends house back in the day. On the last level of the dungeon there was a huge dragon that would never die no matter what we did to it. To this day we joke about how that game never had an ending (at least that we could figure out).     Good times....