San Diego

Hello! Can't be bothered to write for ages about our long weekend in California, so I'll just post these pictures. Basically we rented a car and hit the open road (I love that feeling). We stayed for one night in Palm Springs (meh) and two in San Diego. Saturday was spent almost entirely at the beach. We drove back to Flagstaff on Sunday (ten hours drive!). I've never been able to build a sand castle and then a snowman in the same day!

Anyway, some pictures (click to embiggen)

Me and the Pacific Ocean

This one's for Beryl!

The pier at Coronado Beach

He was indeed....

Postcards are on the way!

8 days building a fence in the middle of nowhere

So we're back from Lake Mead. Project One was a rather interesting affair. We were continuing the building of a fence encompassing Lake Mead in order to keep cattle out of the recreational park. The fence was started last year and is so far 10 miles long. Aour first full day of working involved stretching three lengths of wire (one smooth, two barbed) between braces and clipping them to 'T' posts (already existing). Here's Dan's lovely and helpful diagram of the whole thing:

Typically the distance between each section is 400m. For this we have to carry some f**king heavy spools of wire over long distances and really, really difficult ground! The next day we carried our equipment for over a mile to our start point. Here we had to pound posts in place - this involves having one person holding the 'T' post, another to line it up with the rest of the fenceline (wonky fencelines are tricky to wire!) and one more to pound the post into the ground. Where the ground is too hard or rocky we had to use the Pionjar - a Swedish pneumatic drill which was lots fun to use!

Pounding posts

The next day we had a much smaller hike to a closer location. We spent the day installing the braces - digging massive, deep holes for them and encasing them in concrete. Mixing concrete in a bucket is in no way easy. I also spent much of that day also clearing the path of the fence of plants with a pickaxe.

The next day (forgive me - The days have all rolled into one now) we were back There pounding in posts again. Myself and Dan had To re-pound a whole line of posts because the sighting post was completely out of line with the next brace-annoying. The day after was quite tough - we had to carry all our equipment out to where we were on the second day again in order to stretch the wire in two of those sections. This took ages because it was so windy - communication over several small hills and 400m ain't easy.

And so day 7. We were given a treat by the Project Partner (basically the guy in charge) took us For a walk through a large canyon next to the Colorado River to some hot springs - small pools of water that flow through the rock and heated by magma. What a treat it was! I can't remember the last time I felt so relaxed! Here's a photo of us all: (photo pending)


It's one of those the-least-people-know-about-it-the-better sort of things; otherwise it would be packed with people. We were lucky to have it to ourselves

Later that day after doing a little bit of work (picking up debris from previous work on the fence) we convinced our awesome supervisor John to take us to Hoover Dam:

The Hoover Dam is on the Colorado River, which acts as a border between Arizona and Nevada

The moon from our campsite - the light on the mountains is Las Vegas

Sunset from our campsite

Day 8 involved picking up our tools from the work site and driving home to Flagstaff. We had to fully clean out the van, trailer and equipment 3 solid hours of cleaning! So we're back on Flagstaff now in our lovely and cramped flat. We're planning on Going to San Diego tomorrow but plans may change. More updates soon...

Going away on project...

We're going away on our first project this morning, so I will be out of contact for 8 days....

Arrived in Phoenix....

Hello Everyone.... I arrived in Phoenix, AZ at around 6PM last night (about 1am UK time!). It took nearly an hour to get through the customs (massive queues, plus a sniffer dog got rather interested in the bags of the woman in front of me...). As soon as I checked in to the hotel, I dumped my bags and headed straight into Phoenix. First impressions are good, although it was completely dead. Hardly anyone round, and those that were were all packed into Hooters (I didn't go in, it was too packed). I got back to the hotel at around 10pm and slept till 9 in the morning. Heading into Phoenix again now to explore properly, then being picked up from the airport at 6 to go to Flagstaff.

UPDATED - - - 11.25pm

I'm in Flagstaff!

Better update soon, but here's a few pics from today (click to embiggen)

Traditional Ian arrival - everything out of the bag and thrown everywhere. Works for me.

Outside Historic City Hall in Phoenix

Entrance to Historic City Hall

Historic City Hall

Building in downtown Phoenix, reflecting other buildings

Chase Building in Phoenix

The view from the airport in Phoenix